Comic Review: Tank Girl (vol. 1) By Hewlett and Martin

Title- Tank Girl (vol. 1)

Author(s)- Hewlett and Martin 

Genre- Comic - Adventure, Comic - Humor, Comic - Dystopia 

Tank Girl is hard to describe. She is utterly insane and lives in a post-apocalyptic world consisting of talking kangaroos, villains, and yes, her giant tank. The good thing about Tank Girl is, number one, she doesn’t care what people think. Number two she is fearless. Number three? Well, her fashion sense in amazing. The back describes Tank Girl as “an ignorant, beer-swilling, bestial skinhead [who becomes] an ignorant, beer-swilling, bestial blonde in a tank.” What’s more to love? 

Volume 1 of Tank Girl encompasses 15 issues ranging from October 1988 to February 1990. The comics are utterly, but purposefully, non Sequitur and it’s beautiful. I read through many panels thinking, “I don’t know what is going on but I love it.”

A woman like tank girl naturally has a lot of enemies. Or makes enemies along the way. Besides Booga, a trusted Kangaroo companion. Things don’t always come out the way Tank Girl plans, but she always comes out the insane victor at the end. It’s hard to defeat a woman who is, as I said, utterly insane and possesses a tank.

There are some really good features to the anthology. I particularly liked the cut out Tank Girl paper doll. It comes complete with uni-cycle and flask of coffee. The end also features a few pages of the original color covers of a few issues. I love it when anthologies include the covers—it gives a greater sense of what the comic looked like when it came out and it feels you are truly reading the comics as pieces and not as one whole massive storyline.

Comic Review: Zombie Tramp (vol. 1) by Dan Mendoza

Name- Zombie Tramp, vol. 1 

Author- Dan Mendoza 

Genre- Comic - Mature, Comic - Horror 

Janey Belle is just a high priced Hollywood call girl who makes the wrong decision when she chooses to help out her Madame, George. When George is arrested, Janey is asked to spend a night with Sheriff Rudolph in exchange for George's freedom. Except the sheriff wants more than to spend a night with Janey; he also wants to feed her to his zombie son, Jason. Janey wakes up from the encounter a zombie herself, and bent on getting revenge against the people who caused her to die... and become reanimated. Aided by the Voodoo Queen Xula, Janey visits her old madame and then the sheriff, each one in turn satisfying the rage of betrayal and abuse in Janey. She possesses some interesting abilities, too, which I very much liked about the story. For example, Janey, if she loses a part of her body, can replace it with someone else's part. It was amusing to see her tear an arm off and stick it on her own body. And, it seems that each night Janey must sleep in the ground, and once she awakens she is regenerated. The book art is a gorgeous scheme of bold black, white, red and grey. I love the style of art that Mendoza is gifted with because it is sexy and yet still grotesque. Highly recommended to people who like horror comics, or just zombies in general.

Book Review: Bioshock Infinite- Mind in Revolt by Joe Fielder

Name- BioShock Infinite- Mind in Revolt 

Author- Joe Fielder with Ken Levine 

Genre- Fiction -Video Game, Fiction - Dystopia

When you play Bioshock Infinite, you encounter an anarchist group called the Vox Populi (Voice of the People), led by former house slave to the Columbian royal family, the Comstock's, Daisy Fitzroy. According to the game, Daisy killed lady Comstock and went on a mad rampage since, inciting revolt and rebellion. Of course, you know from the tone of the game that Daisy is innocent, was set up, but a lot of the backstory relies on reading between the lines and intuning.

Mind in Revolt is "based" on a scientific piece called The Psychology of Dissent Interviews with The Anarchist Daisy Fitzroy by Dr. Francis Pinchot. Dr. Pinchot is a member of the Columbian Founding clan. When anarchist and murderer Daisy Fitzroy is captured, he is allowed to take her for psychological evaluation. The game storyline has already established that Daisy is very charismatic, intelligent, and savvy. She's a hard woman to trick, and doesn't fall easily for people's attempts at dishonesty or misdirection. Naturally, a psychological evaluation would be difficult. Mind in Revolt gives us a greater sense of who and what Daisy Fitzroy is. She is even able to persuade a founder, a Doctor, to aid her in her rebellion. That is the nature of charisma and intellect-- she just inspires people through her rhetoric and knowledge. For anyone into the Bioshock series, this short read is well worth it. You learn a little more about Daisy, but also about Columbia and Comstock.

Book Review: Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

Title: Pope Joan 

Author: Donna Woolfolk Cross 

Genre: Fiction- Historical 

Rating: 3 Stars

Pope Joan (John) is a figure of religious and historical controversy, most notably since Jan Hus used her supposed tenure as pope to delegitimize the succession of popes to his time. In context, this was the beginning of the Protestant Reformations, and Hus was himself one of the early reformers, dying almost 100 years before Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses.  Before Hus, Pope Joan lived in legend and in a scattering of chronicles of the 13^th century, which, by virtue of the separation of four hundred years, makes these poor sources for facts of the 9^th century. And any careful historian knows to take with a grain of salt the stories told in myth and legend because unless we can accurately pinpoint their origin, it is arbitrary and often false to assume without careful examination (after all, conclusion needs to come from somewhere) of a multitude of trustworthy sources.

There is a lot to the argument that Pope Joan has been removed from the historical record by her predecessors who felt her short-lived time on the throne of St. Peter, in typical misogynist fashion, was a smear on the history of the church. God knows (no pun intended) that there have been plenty of such things attempted in the past, though historians are fortunate to have sources other than official church records to flesh out the past. Unfortunately, with Pope Joan, all we have are later accounts, four hundred years or later.  Can we trust the words of people who did not witness the event? Can we trust a footnote added to a papal record that has been dated to almost eight hundred years later?

Can we assume that later church historians moved the death of Leo IV forward by two years to leave no gaps between him and his successor (Benedict III)  Again, a no, then a pause with a maybe, and then another no.  Because we do have letters written, scant and few, that speak of the direct succession of Benedict III after Leo IV, and I doubt these simple letters were written in an attempt to further a conspiracy since they would have had no reason to (it was a simple petition matter).

Because we fact based as we like to insist we are, we do know that everything originates somewhere.  Often times, this is in legend or in an oral history, which is part of the transmission of history and legend. So simply put: did Pope Joan really live?  The answer is, no one knows and with the material in place, no one can legitimately say she did. Yet, no one can legitimately say that she did not.

But let us get on to the meat of the book.

Pope Joan is a book of historical fiction situated in real life historical events.  Many of the characters did, in fact exist, and many of the events that take place did, in fact, happen.  I always love reading historical fiction that is well grounded in historical fact because it makes the story come alive in a way that I can, at least for that moment, pretend that the events are real.  It is impossible for Cross to know anything about Joan's life, sadly, so much of it is made up.  Yet Cross clearly did her research because she is able to capture the time, in spirit and in culture, very nicely.  One of the problems with historical writers is that they want to prove they are scholars and overwhelm the reader with historical fact.  Cross, thankfully, knows where to stop. If anything, the book wonderfully captures contemporary ideas about women, the female body, and women's place not only in the world, but also in heaven.  Feminist historians and people interested in women's history should read this book to understand the woman in the Medieval world.

The story follows the life of Joan, first as a young and intelligent girl whose education is stunted by a father who sees no value in teaching a girl.  Culture, custom, and even religious belief rejected the education of the female.  It was a tough uphill battle for little Joan who overcomes the patriarchal world that she lived in to first become a monk, using the name of her dead brother, then a friend and friend and physician to the Pope, and then finally becoming Pope herself.  There is, of course, also a love story, which is as far as I know an invention entirely of Cross.  Though there is some precedent for the romance since even in the legends of Joan, she supposedly was discovered to be a woman when she gave birth.

However, one thing I wish, and this is just a personal preference, is that there was not so much untranslated Latin.  Your average reader isn't going to know what is being said, and even if they were to Google translate the phrase, it isn't likely to be accurate enough to help understanding. This is not always important for the plot, of course, but sometimes it would help reader comprehension, especially because sometimes Joan comments on the spoken Latin to emphasize the lack of education epidemic amongst the priesthood, and a reader who does not know Latin will not know the error made.  It would just make the novel more accessible to the average reader.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and was happy to read that Joan, at least in this version, came to a more noble end than the Joan that has persisted in Medieval and Renaissance myth (some say she was stoned to death, others that she was tied to the back of a horse and drug to her dead).  If anything, Pope Joan as a novel will stand next to the other works of fiction and myth that have existed though the ages as yet another great telling of a legend that some people love and other people hate.

Blog Tour & Book Review: Deep Kiss of Winter (Immortals After Dark, #8) by Kresley Cole & Gena Showalter

Title: Deep Kiss of Winter

Series: Immortals After Dark

Book Number: 8

Author(s): Kresley Cole & Gena Showalter

Genre: Fiction- Paranormal Romance 

Finished: December 21, 2009

Comprised of two novels, Deep Kiss of Winter combines the talents of Kresley Cole and Gena Showalter in to a compelling, riveting two story novel full of romance and drama. In Cole's Untouchable, Murdoch Wroth will stop at nothing to claim Daniela the Ice Maiden -- the delicate Valkyrie who makes his heart beat for the first time in three hundred years. Yet the exquisite Danii is part ice fey, and her freezing skin can't be touched by anyone but her own kind without inflicting pain beyond measure. Soon desperate for closeness, in an agony of frustration, Murdoch and Danii will do anything to have each other. Together, can they find the key that will finally allow them to slake the overwhelming desire burning between them? In Showalter's Tempt Me Eternally, Aleaha Love can be anyone -- literally. With only skin-to-skin contact, she can change her appearance, assume any identity. Her newest identity switch has made her an AIR (alien investigation and removal) agent and sends her on a mission to capture a group of otherworldly warriors. Only she becomes the captured. Breean, a golden-skinned commander known for his iron will who is at once dangerous and soul-shatteringly seductive, threatens her new life. Because for the first time, Aleaha only wants to be herself.

Untouchable was my first experience with Kresley Cole. I am always a little hesitant, too, when authors add a lexicon or a glossary to their books when the book isn't a series. Yet, I dove into Untouchable with an open mind and a significant amount of interest in this world Cole had created. I rather liked the idea of there being a 'Lore' full of strange creatures and magical beings. Though, I have to say that I wish the book were a fantasy series, and not paranormal romance. I think the world, the creatures, and the premise was excellent, but the overdone romance elements takes away from the pure fantasy creativity behind it. Or maybe that is just my biased dislike of romance in general talking. Let me not make it seem as if I did not like the story, because I did! I thought it was excellent. The characters were great, the plot was amazing, and I just fell in love with the world Cole created, which is why I totally plan to read more of the Immortals After Dark series that the book is a part of. Cole's world seems complicated, but it breaks down into a few easy things. You have the Lore, which are these creatures. Within it are creatures such as Valkyrie, Vampires, Demons, and Icere. Vampires are on an eternal search for a Bride (I guess there are no female vampires out there looking for Grooms?), who will once again make his heart beat and his passion boil. Once he meets his bride, he is blooded to her. His longing for her is almost unbearable. 

Well, Murdoch the Sexy becomes blooded to a half ice fey, half Valkyrie woman he cannot touch because touch burns her cold skin. They can't do it, naturally, since his touching her would cause her a lot of pain and possible death. So, not only must they work together to overcome other preternatural creatures, but also learn how to surmount their difficult romance. I admit, I did get a little annoyed with how the storyline just moved from one thing to the next. There was this great build up about wars and vampire rivalries and then, out of nowhere, the book just moves on past them and says, "oh well, everything was fixed" and introduces all new plots. It was very disappointing and made me wonder why all the build up for a resolution we don't even get to experience? Showalter's story Tempt Me Eternally is part of her Alien Huntress series, though I have never read any of the other books in the series and walked into it sort of clueless as to Showalter at all. I have heard the name before since a few of my friends are fans of her other series', but I was a Showalter novice until this point. In the novel, Aleaha Love is a shapeshifter of sorts, but she cannot let anyone know for fear of her own life. This is romance, though, so a hot, hunky guy has to come in somewhere. And that guy is Breean, a Rakan, who imprisons Aleaha in the hope of using her for ransom in order to be allowed to live on Earth since they cannot return to their own home planet. It is only natural in the course of a romance plotline for the Rakan Breean and Aleaha to decide they like each other complete with the banter of two people who are opposites but eventually discover they are perfect for each other. Okay, so the endings of romance novels are very predictable. How often do the couple decide not to be together? Or that their differences are too insurmountable? Or hey, someone dies? Not often, and only in a series when there is lots of time to work everything out by the end to wrap up a happy ending. I like happy endings, I do. Which is why books like Deep Kiss of Winter are so fulfilling. You get what you want! No anti-climactic endings to make you walk away numb and disappointed. Though, of course, the nature of predictability gives very little in surprises. Which is why, of course, authors have to ultimately make up for this shortfall by creating good plots, great characters, and amazing stories. Cole and Showalter did. Excellent book!

Blog Tour: A Blue and Gray Christmas (Ladies of Covington, #9) by Joan Medlicott

Title: A Blue and Gray Christmas 

Series: Ladies of Covington

Book Number: 9

Author: Joan Medlicott 

Genre: Fiction- Historical 

Finished: December 15, 2009

When a rusty old tin box is unearthed at the Covington Homestead, longtime housemates Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover that it contains letters and diaries written by two Civil War soldiers, one Union and one Confederate. The friends are captivated by the drama revealed. The soldiers were found dying on a nearby battlefield by an old woman. She nursed them back to health, hiding them from bounty hunters seeking deserters. At the end of the war the men chose to stay in Covington, caring for their rescuer as she grew frail. But while their lives were rich, they still felt homesick and guilty for never contacting the families they'd left behind. Christmas is coming, and the letters inspire Amelia with a generous impulse. What if she and her friends were to find the two soldiers' descendants and invite them to Covington to meet? What better holiday gift could there be than the truth about these two heroic men and their dramatic shared fate? With little time left, the ladies spring into action to track down the men's families in Connecticut and the Carolinas, and to make preparations in Covington for their most memorable, most historic Christmas yet.

Three friends, Grace, Amelia, and Hannah, come across a box once buried full of the letters and diaries of two Civil War soliders: Tom from the South and John from the North. Both soldiers were injured during the war and ended up abandoning together, hiding deep in the Appalachian mountains that they made their home. Tom felt he had nothing to go back to and John chose to leave his wife and daughter to begin a new life. The letters the three women read and share with others express friendships, fears, loves, and the dramatic after-effects of war. John is left with severe post-traumatic stress, so he has to completely rebuild himself after the horrors of war he experienced. When Tom and John decided to stay in the mountains, they took on a new last name to begin their lives anew. When Grace, Amelia, and Hannah find the letters and learn about the break up of families, they decide together that it would be the perfect Christmas treat to reunite the families and share with them the letters and diaries of their long lost ancestors, believed to have been killed in the war. It is not an easy thing for the women to do, and they search through records and graveyards to find and connect people together. A lucky break happens when they meet a relative of John's, Milo, who came from the line descended from John's second marriage. The threads start coming together for the women, and it seems all too soon that they are going to get the Christmas they want. The best part of the book is the Civil War letters. Reading about the experiences and lives of Tom and John was very emotional for me. I chose to participate in the book's blog tour because I am a student of history and absolutely love a good historical fiction novel. The Civil War is in itself a very emotional war, so being able to read about it in such a personal way was very tender, sometimes sweet, sometimes painful. I felt especially bad for John who had such a hard time forgetting everything he'd seen and done. The intimacy of the letters really made me feel like I had connected with the two men on some level. Unfortunately, I felt that I connected very little with the story apart from the letters. While I enjoyed very much the progression of Tom and John's lives, I found some other aspects of the novel quite not to my liking. The story line moves along in a way that is not only too quick but entirely unbelievable. Everything just seems to fall into place and the initial roadblocks are obligatory. Something about the dialogue put me off, too. But what I disliked the most was that the book is full of unnecessary detail and lacks where there should be detail. We are given a paragraph about baking and the ingredients that go in and in what order, but the actual plot itself is rushed along. I would have liked a little less unnecessary dialogue and action and a little more that had actual substance or contributed to the plot. Nevertheless, it is a very sweet book. One of those quick rainy or snowy day reads that will leave you feeling warm inside at the end of it all.

Blog Tour & Book Review: Sins of the Flesh (Sin Hunters, #1) by Caridad Pi'eiro

Title: Sins of the Flesh

Series: Sin Hunters

Book Number: 1

Author: Caridad Pi'eiro

Genre: Fiction - Paranormal Romance 

Finished: November 19, 2009 

Catarina (Cat) Shaw is a famous and talented musician, her love of the cello as much a part of her as her body. When she finds out that she has a brain tumor that will kill her, she elects to take part in a radical gene therapy treatment. The results are not what she has expected. Cat has found that she possesses strange powers such as to be able to chameleon herself against her surroundings. She is stronger, faster, quicker to heal, and also has iridescent blood. When she escapes the medical facility that she is being kept in, private detective forces are hot on her tail with the order to collect her for the violent murder of one of the lab's doctors. Enter Mick Carrera, who has been hired to find Cat and bring her back. At first, he is startled to find out that she is not quite human. However, he has a sense of decency that transcends the rather rough job he does. Mick finds himself taking care of her, always cautious, yet at the same time wondering if Cat is really capable of what she is accused of. There is no mistake, though, that Cat is in danger. And if she is not guilty of the murder, why would they be accusing her? What is their goal? What else may they be engineering? And who really did kill the doctor and why? So much mystery begins to swirl around the two that we are pushed into a complex and layered plotline that moves fast and hard, with the action intense, the mystery solid, and the characters defined. Naturally, as a romance novel, this book has its fair share of hot and botheredness. I am always a bit annoyed when characters come to attraction so early. While I don't mean to negate the idea of love at sight, but I prefer that romance and passion come as part of a long running evolution of emotion rather than, "is this her in the picture? Hot. I want her intensely and with all of my being." See what I mean? So, I was kind of put off by that when it happened in this book, yet the author slowed it down from there and let it happen in due time. There was no rush. The romance was redeemed! And, naturally, as soon as the romance began, it was good. The scenes are smoking hot, guys, I mean it. This was my first taste of the paranormal of this brand. Usually the paranormal is about vampires or witches or some other sort of were/shifting creature. While Cat is part animal(s) and human, she is no shifter. This book is therefore more scientific, sort of "man playing God and this is what we get." I really enjoyed that this book had a scientific lean while not being too science fiction based, as that is not a genre I particularly like. All in all: good book, hot romance, non-standard characters that actually seem real and with depth, and an all around great mystery with tons of adventure.

Blog Tour: To Desire a Devil (Legend of the Four Soldiers, #4) by Elizabeth Hoyt

To Desire a Devil

About Elizabeth Hoyt Elizabeth Hoyt is a USA Today bestselling author of historical romance. She also writes deliciously fun contemporary romance under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in central Illinois with three untrained dogs, two angelic but bickering children, and one long-suffering husband. Please visit her websites for chapter excerpts, book extras, and author appearances: www.elizabethhoyt.com and www.juliaharper.com.

Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl's heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago? Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle's home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh-and luring her into his bed. Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud's savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice's love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title-even if it means sacrificing her innocence? To read an excerpt go here.

Title: To Desire a Devil

Series: Legend of the Four Devils

Book Number: 4

Genre: Fiction - Historical Romance 

Finished: November 10, 2009

The year is 1765, and the place England. The son of an earl and heir to the title Earl of Blanchard, Reynaud St. Aubyn, once a carefree youth, went to war where he was reportedly murdered by Indians in the American Colonies. After the death of his father and without Reynaud there to inherit, the title passed on to the Uncle of Beatrice Corning. Beatrice, protective of her kind and not-too-healthy uncle, as well as a great deal many others, are shocked when a haggard and sick looking Reynaud burst through the doors at tea demanding his father. It was almost too much to tell him of his father's death. With the heir of the title returned, Beatrice has no idea what will happen to her and her uncle. Beatrice's feelings are further complicated by her infatuation with a man she has only seen in a painting. This painting she is so fond of looking at is of Reynaud before he went off to fight. She cannot consolidate her feelings for the handsome young man in the picture to the disheveled and brutish rogue who now wants to reclaim his title and estate. Reynaud has a great many wounds that need healing. He suffered a great deal of horror while in captivity and suffers from trauma and flashbacks that put him always on his guard. As such, he is not an easy one to get close to and Beatrice, despite his threatening of her very livelihood, tries to help him. She wants to see him return to the smiling youth she is so familiar with via his painting. Others feel that Reynaud needs to be reaccelerated to aristocratic society. Feelings soon begin to grow between Beatrice and Reynaud. It seems she could be just what he needs to return to his old self. Of course, not everyone hopes for the best for them. There are others with invested interests in keeping Reynaud from regaining his title, which sweeps the pair up into political intrigue and danger. I generally liked the story, especially Reynaud and his dramatic story. I always like a man with a bit of a complex, I suppose. Beatrice is likable as far as female romance leads go, as they can all too often exhibit a cookie-cutter vapidity that I find puts me off of the romance genre as a whole. Though honestly, I feel that the romance aspect moved a little too fast and in a manner that wasn’t very realistic. It was just too easy and too forced. And when Reynaud proposed, the dialogue between the two was unbelievable and simple. I like things to be drawn out. There was something about the moment that rang as unbelievable to me. All in all, though, it was a fun read. The passion is hot and the romance is sweet. Ladies, Reynaud is one passionate man who knows how to work the body of a woman-- Beatrice, what a lucky woman! Dangerous and romantic at the same time, Reynaud can be as rough and demanding as gentle and smooth. And fortunately, there is a happy ending to be found, and I do so love happily ever after.

Book Review: Jack Wakes up by Seth Harwood

Title: Jack Wakes Up 

Author(s): Seth Harwood 

Genre: Fiction - Action 

Finished: July 11, 2009 

Jack Palms is down on his luck-- after some bad tabloid press, his acting career bottomed out after only one action film. During his time of fame, he developed a heroin addiction and an abusive relationship. These are the two major reasons that his one film remains just one film. Now he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and pay his piling bills. When his friend Ralph offers him a couple thousand to help him show a few Czech visitors a good time and help them with their Colombian cocaine deal, Jack does not turn him down. Unfortunately, Ralph ends up dead and Jack wants to know who did it and why. The Czechs know nothing, but someone does and Jack doesn't want to be the next one on that hit list. Pretty soon Jack is dealing with a couple of crazy ex-KGB Czech's, a Colombian drug dealer's crew, a blood thirsty club owner named Tony, and a cop who wants information about the drug dealers in the area or else Jack is going to take a fall for the carnage that is following him everywhere he goes. Not to mention that Jack has also met a woman, a desperately sexy woman named Maxine who nurses the wounds he inevitably incurs during his harrowing adventures through the dangerous San Francisco underworld. One would think that this would be enough to send anyone in to the nuthouse. But not Jack. No. This is the first time he has felt alive in a long, long time. After such a long period of inaction, it feels good to Jack to be in the midst of things again. Like a movie... but real. So real that you end up with broken ribs, knife wounds, machine guns going off around you, and people really out to kill you. This book is crazy like an action movie. I can actually imagine the guy from The Transporter running around in this book ducking sprays of bullets (though yes he is a bit too skinny to be Jack, but still, you get what I am saying). Standing up to big time drug lords and doing major drug deals seems to come naturally to Jack, which is a bit strange because if you put most normal people in a situation like that, they would run around like their heads are cut off or cower somewhere. I guess being an action hero comes naturally to some people, because it comes naturally to Jack. Even if it means getting arrested, killed, or maimed, Jack is determined to see things through to the end. It was all very exciting-- action packed, I think the correct phrase would be. The Czechs are great, too. Coked up, waving guns, speaking broken English, and listening to techno music is their profile. If not for the whole you might get shot and 'they bring danger and Russian terrorists' elements, they would be great to hang around with. They were really a lot of fun to read about. The best scenes are with one of the Czechs, Al, flipping out and wanting to kill someone. Though I will admit that I was surprised none of them turned on Jack. Not knowing how the story would turn out, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Czech's would make their escape and let Jack handle the mess, but they were with him to the end. This is a man's man kind of book-- the men are masculine and immune to the fears of life threatening danger and the women are unnaturally hot, things men admire and women usually scoff at. Of course women can be in to this kind of stuff, too, but the genre belongs to men. I did enjoy the book, though, girly-girl though I am. Harwood wrote a very riveting and intense book with Jack Wakes Up, so you get caught up in it and can't put it down. I mean, you have to know who the one at the head of the plot is. You have to know if Jack will get the girl in the end. You have to know if Jack is going to end up getting himself blown away. No, no, I won't spoil it by answering all of those questions. You will just have to read the book for yourself.

Interview with Seth Harwood

Q: What do you do to prepare to write?

A: I wake up every morning and try to write first thing. The less tasks/things I add to the mix before I start writing, the harder it is to get down to work. When I'm in a drafting mode, I'll make sure to shut down my email and web browsers at night so that I can go straight to the word processor (Scrivener) first thing.

Writing takes a lot of practice and it's like exercise: if you can do it every day, you stay "in shape" and can keep doing it. When I stop writing for a while, it'll take me a few days to get back into the swing.

Q: What is the process that gets you ready to sit down a lay out a story?

A: I write by feeling my way through the story and its events. When I start out, I often don't know where the story is going-- this is how I've worked for my crime novels. I try to write one good, true sentence at a time and then follow that one with what's next and on and on.

Writing a novel can be like paddling a boat across an ocean. When you're out there on the water, you might not know which way it is to the opposite shore; you can't do anything but paddle. But if you keep paddling, good things will eventually happen. And then in revision, you can straighten out the bumps.

I also make sure to end off each day at a place where I know for sure what happens next. That makes the next day's work easier to start.

Q: How much of yourself do you put in your characters? Are they extensions of you, or are they independent creations that take on a life of their own after coming from your imagination?

A: They're definitely creations that take on a life of their own. Some of them might come from amalgamations of people I know or characters I've read or seen in movies, but then when I start writing, I get to know them more and more and they become individuals. I really like that part of it: getting to know my characters and finding out what they'll do in certain situations.

In my short stories, I knew all the characters ahead of time and there was a lot of me in them. Now that I'm writing crime fiction, I get to make it all up.

Q: What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you've picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?

A: Ow. That's a tough one. I guess I d say that I wish I'd known from the start how to start building my own audience. I mean, I knew the web was there, but I always thought if I waited long enough and kept doing the traditional things, I'd get lucky. Now I know that even if that came true, I'd still need to build an audience to get my book to sell. That's just become a key part of it in today's world.

And then I guess I wish I'd have known about podcasting. To me, connecting blogging/RSS and audiobooks has been the most important part of getting my work known and, ultimately, published.

Q: What is one thing you've never done but would love to do?

A: Fly a plane. Jump out of a plane.

Q: Finally, could you share with all of us a quote that you love?

A: "She opened a mouth like a firebucket and laughed. That terminated my interest in her. I couldn't hear the laugh but the hole in her face when she unzippered her teeth was all I needed.“ Raymond Chandler The Long Goodbye

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Book Review: Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Kitty Norville, #1) by Carrie Vaughn

Title: Kitty and the Midnight Hour

Series: Kitty Norville

Book Number: 1

Author(s): Carrie Vaughn

Genre: Fiction - Paranormal

Finished: July 11, 2009

In Carrie Vaughn's Kitty and the Midnight Hour, book one in the Kitty Norville series, main character Kitty Norville works as a late night radio DJ and has great taste in music. These late nights fit well into her new nature as a werewolf. One night in between songs, a caller phones in and begins a discussion about the paranormal. Since this is something that Kitty understands very well, she answers. More people begin to call in claiming to be vampires or werewolves, or humans with vampire/werewolf concerns. Pretty soon Kitty is running her own late night talk and advice show for the paranormal called The Midnight Hour. Her pack leader, the Alpha Male Carl, is upset by this exposure of their kind. Upset even more is local Vampire Family leader Arturo who feels that she will upset the balance of his power by giving out advice to vampires. Both leaders want Kitty to stop the show, but Carl is begrudgingly willing to let Kitty go ahead with it for a cut of the profits. Though she is a weak werewolf, she is a strong talk show host and for the first time since she became a werewolf, Kitty is feeling independent and happy. But if good times were made to last, the book wouldn't be nearly as exciting as it is. First a werewolf hunter is sent to kill her, exposing her for what she is live on air. Second, there is a rash of killings that were obviously done by a werewolf. As the resident paranormal expert, Kitty is brought in by the police to scope out the crime scenes, but Kitty does not recognize the scent of this werewolf and knows he is not one of her pack-- he is a rouge in their territory mutilating young human women. Third, a church is claiming to "cure" paranormal creatures and everyone who goes there for help seems to disappear. Fourth, things within the pack itself have become a bit tense. Carl is making moves and suggesting she try to take the place of the Alpha Female Meg, her own maker Zan is becoming aggressive, and someone is working against her to get her killed by the hot werewolf hunter. How can a women so consumed by problems possibly give advice to others? Kitty is certainly not infallible. She is definitely not a tough girl capable of beating up men twice her size complete with roundhouse kicks like so many paranormal heroines. Sure, she is stronger than even a powerful human male, but she doesn't go around flaunting it. Kitty just wants to be normal. Even as a wolf she is submissive and uncertain, deferring to Carl as the Alpha Male as any wolf would do by instinct. Vaughn seems to have a good understanding of the hierarchical dynamics of wolf packs, which makes the book more realistic in terms of how werewolves as creatures would behave. I think too many authors are afraid to make submissive female characters for fear of playing into the stereotypes of women, and therefore realism suffers. Vaughn found a way to make Kitty real but also strong in her own way. There are many different plots and conflicts going on at once. Vaughn balances all of the issues very well, putting together a story that is fluid and easy to follow without becoming a tangled mess. Kitty is dealing with a lot of complicated stuff, but you don't feel overwhelmed by everything while reading. It all comes together in the end in a very intense scene, but the resolution is left open in certain ways to allow for the rest of the series to proceed. I have to admit that I like books that come in a series much better than stand alone novels. Usually, when given the choice of vampire or werewolf, I always choose vampire. Most werewolf characters are too animalistic and it is hard to relate to them. Yet Vaughn makes Kitty someone easy to understand and find commonalities with. So now I can say that there is at least one werewolf book that honestly enjoy. I enjoyed it most of all because of the flowing way Vaughn made her wolves human but wolf at the same time, never too much of either and certainly not just the best of both worlds. I am definitely excited to read the rest of the series.

Book Review: Definitely Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, #6) by Charlaine Harris

Title: Definitely Dead

Series: Southern Vampire Mysteries

Book Number: 6

Author(s): Charlaine Harris 

Genre: Fiction - Paranormal 

Finished: May 21, 2009

Definitely Dead is book 6 in the Southern Vampire Mysteries. Sookie, weary and battle scarred, once again has high hopes that her life can return to normal. She has enough stress as it is between her brother's personal life, rebuilding her kitchen, Debbie Pelt's family's meddling, her broken heart, the dead demon left on her lawn, and the murder of her cousin Hadley. As it turns out, Hadley was a vampire and a favorite of the Queen of Louisiana. Sookie must go to New Orleans to clean out her cousin's old apartment, which means entering the paranormal world of the vampires once more. On the bright side, she has a new boyfriend. Her new boyfriend is a were-tiger named Quinn. Quinn is tall, bald, patient, and seemingly without drama. Unfortunately for them, they are attacked by crazed bitten weres on their first date. It is all downhill for Sookie from there. Weres and vampires attacking from all angles, oh my. Additionally, not only does Sookie want to clean out Hadley's apartment, but she wants to find out what truly happened to her cousin. That opens up its own can of worms to add to the already smoldering pot of problems simmering.

I'll be honest with you guys. If this had been the first or second book that I read in the series, I wouldn't have continued. Though it was good, I gave it a lot more credit because I already know and love the characters. If Definitely Dead were my introduction to the Sookie Stackhouse world, I wouldn't have thought twice about not picking up the next book. Don't get me wrong, Definitely Dead is a good book, it just isn't the type of book that would capture my attention and make want to read again. A lot of the book just seemed to be out of character. Sookie is slowly exiting the world of being your average every day telepathic waitress who is cutely modest to being a supervixen special something who has all the guys stare when she flips her hair. And Bill did a total 180. Only Eric was the same, which was a relief because I would take it too hard if he changed at all. It is disappointing that there is such an influx of new characters because the old characters, the ones I enjoy, are being pushed to the wayside. I don't need a whole new league of witches and boyfriends and vampire buddies to enjoy The Southern Vampire Mysteries. I just want to read about the world of Sookie and her close companions. Adding too many characters makes things overly complex and complicated. Of course, fresh blood is necessary to keep a book active, and new people are always coming and going in life, but within the limited confines of a book they only end up pushing out other characters since only so many can be in focus at a time. Also, a word of warning. If you've ONLY read the books, you will be confused

If this book is to make sense to you from the start, I suggest you read the short story One Word Answer from Bite. The events of that story come to fruition in Definitely Dead and are unfortunately never mentioned anywhere else. So, if you haven't read One Word Answer, you are going to be very confused about Hadley and the Queen and the Queen's request. It doesn't make sense that the story wasn't included as a prelude or a first chapter, but I suppose it makes more money selling in parts. I have high hopes for the next one and can only cross my fingers that Sookie and her world will return to how it was when I fell in love with it. I want Sookie to go back to being a normal girl with a special gift, not some half-supernatural creature like everyone else. How can I relate to her that way? And I want more of the old characters, more Eric and Bill and Sam.

Book Review: One Deadly Sin by Annie Solomon

Title: One Deadly Sin

Author(s): Annie Solomon

Genre: Fiction - Thriller

Finished: April 26, 2009

Edie Swan has returned to her home town of Redbud for revenge. Armed with a list of names and a bag of tiny black angel figurines, a mimic of the black angel that stands over the grave her of her father, she is ready to make the men she feels are responsible for the death of her father pay for their crime. Her father, Charles Swanford, was reported as having committed suicide after being caught extorting money, but Edie feels it was really murder and the charge was made up to protect the still living men involved. Coinciding with her arrival is a streak of murders-- the murders of the very men she has on her list and has been leaving black angels for. She finds herself the prime suspect in the murders after her small roll in their lives is revealed. This cuts short her budding romance with chief of police Holt Drennen, who must arrest her despite his growing doubt of her guilt. Not only faced with a life in prison for murders she did not commit, someone is out to scare or kill her.

I always worry when I read books like this because I fear your typical "kick ass female" character. And by fear I mean that they just annoy me-- they are unrealistic, loud mouthed, and suspiciously Mary Sue. When Edie waltzes in with her tight clothes, her messy dark hair, her dark black eyeliner, her aptitude for working behind a bar and making ANY drink, and her suped-up Harley, I worried for this book. But, joy of joys, I found Edie to be a great character full of flaws and limitations, but still strong and independent. She isn't perfect-- gorgeous yes, but prone to her own personal issues and troubles, and certainly not infallible in any sense. And no, she would not be able to punch out a biker four times her size as some characters like her can. Comparing her to some of the awful female characters I've read, she is a great female lead character. From when the murders started to when the culprit was revealed, I thought I knew who was committing the crimes. In fact, I was almost absolutely certain that I had the ending of the book pegged. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found out that I was not only wrong, but completely unsuspecting of who it truly is. When a book can catch me by surprise and prove me wrong, I automatically reward it with extra credit.

This book is definitely not for someone younger than 18. There is violence, death, and a few steamy love scenes. It's not gratuitous, though, so you might not be offended if you have an aversion to something listed above. Given the title of the book, the plot, and the main character, it is to be expected that some uninhibited sexy things are going to happen. If erotica isn't your thing, no worries. The scenes are few and not very lengthy. They are just enough but not too much. The only thing that bothered me while reading wass the occasional choppy passage here and there. There are times in the book that new sentences are started that are awkward and unfinished. I guess that's what Word likes to call Sentence Fragment when you grammar check? I don't know. I am a major culprit of them myself, at least according to Word. It isn't awful by any means, and it certainly isn't indicative of a poor writing style. Indeed, Solomon is a wonderful writer-- her book is an engaging page turner. Just now and then I sort of had to pause and connect things because there was a period there that didn't feel right. So what is One Deadly Sin? It is thrilling, unsuspecting, and well written. The characters are realistic and well rounded, full of personality and individuality. The pace of the book is great because it never lags or staggers, it never lingers or drags on too long. The book has enough edge to keep it exciting, but not enough to over-do it.

Book Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Title: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Author: Katherine Howe

Genre: Historical Fiction / Thriller

Finished: April 18, 2009

Connie Goodwin is a Harvard Graduate student working on her doctoral dissertation. Her advisor, Manning Chilton, suggests that she find a unique and undiscovered primary source to focus her research on. Unfortunately for Connie and her academic progress, not a lot of work is getting done on the dissertation, not since Connie's earthly and eccentric mother Grace called to ask her to go up to Marblehead, Massachusetts and help get her grandmother's house ready for selling. While going through her Grandmother's house, Connie chances along an old bible and a key that contains a scroll with the name Deliverance Dane. Her curiosity is peaked. Uncovering the past through scattered documents and records, Connie soon enough learns that Deliverance Dane was accused and killed as a witch during the famous Salem Witch Trials, leaving behind a book of receipts, or what we would refer to as recipes. Connie passionately searches this book out, tracing the lives of mother to daughter until she comes to see her own family connection in this all. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane weaves reality, history, and magic together as logical and realistic Connie faces the possibility that there may be something more to this world than can be explained by reason alone, especially when her own safety begins to be threatened by something faceless and nameless.

This is a page turner. I just couldn't put this book down and loved the flashbacks to Deliverance's time the most. The late 1600s were hard for women, especially Puritan women who had to be steely and reserved at all times. I came to respect Deliverance for her steadfast nature and her want to help those very people who condemned her. It is certainly hard to be strong when faced with conflict, especially that of the life threatening brand. The mother-daughter dynamic is important in the book, and each mother and daughter carries on their family legacy of spells and healing while adapting to the times. Just as mothers and daughters tend to be, each daughter is both like and unlike her mother. Sometimes it seems as though Howe, a historian herself, uses the plot and Connie as an excuse to let us know just how much she personally knows about history. While this isn't a bad thing, quite the opposite in the opinion of this historian, it does make the dialogue sound forced at times. There was one thing I did take issue with, but not enough to put me off of the book. I was sort of disappointed that this book turned from historical fiction / thriller to thriller / fantasy. I would have liked it better had the author not chosen to make the "magic" aspect of what Deliverance and her kin did actual reality. When the characters began to do real magic, I gave a sigh. Part of the appeal of the book was that it spoke to me as an historian and a realist. What I wanted to see and get from the book was the story of a woman, a natural woman capable of using the earth as anyone could, being marked as evil for her skill with healing. That hope was cut short when the characters began actually speaking spells and shooting light from the tips of their fingers. To be honest, I could see the ending coming a mile away. It was quite obvious from the get-go who the bad guy is. I was surprised that it took super-intelligent Connie so long to figure it out for herself. Then again, maybe I just have a distrustful nature. My suspicion as to the end of the book didn't ruin the plot for me, though, and I absolutely devoured the book.

Book Review: Sway by Zachary Lazar

Title: Sway

Author(s): Zachary Lazar

Genre: Fiction - General

Finished: March 26, 2009

I honestly don't know what to make of Sway by Zachary Lazar. On one hand it is a somewhat fictional telling of the early The Rolling Stones and the Charles Manson murders, based on real life and about real people. On the other hand, it's a dreamlike sort of novel where every human emotion and action is given a significance that isn't typically true to real life. Purposefully, I think, Lazar wove his words into chaotic (almost) anti-poetry- beautiful because it is raw and aggressive- in order to put this special significance to things. The entire book has a surreal quality that makes it even more difficult to accept the reality of what is happening. Now, none of this is bad. I quite like a book that reads like a fractured and distorted fairytale. I said I didn't know what to make of the book, not that I did not like it. Sway, as I've said, takes two different stories and winds them together. Lazar recounts the rise of The Rolling Stones, some of his information falsified but some of it quite true (I've seen the picture of Mick in the Uncle Sam top hat and the Omega t-shirt), and the Charles Manson murders. These two isolated groups and the events included are connected by a thin thread that goes by the name Kenneth Anger. Anger is a struggling filmmaker whose avant-garde styles of imagery and symbolism make him less than ideal for the mainstream, which is just where he seems satisfied to be.

From the way the book describes itself, I was thinking that the two stories would intertwine on a deeper level then they did, and this was a bit disappointing. I guess it was meant to be this way. I gave me to see how things, even great things that seem so grand and therefore isolated within their own distinct worlds, can touch and brush and never impact. How sometimes you just manage to miss something larger than simple life allows without even knowing it. There are moments, though, that the book is starkly real and you no longer feel the invader of a dream. The characters cease to be actors or players on a grand stage and become actual people, no longer characters but objects of existence just as we all are. Flawed, confused, prone to mistakes, and sometimes empty. Sometimes acting without excuse or reason. Sometimes just inflicting. Brian Jones is an abusive mess who is so out of touch with his own needs that he is self-destructive, Bobby just ambles along and thoughtlessly does whatever he decides to do for no good reason, and Anger doesn't seem to fight for anything and only exists to make his films. The anger and escalating chaos of the 60s and 70s are depicted nicely in Sway. Vietnam, militaristic groups, disenchantment with the government and society, and the rejection of the early 60s Summer of Love ideals brought about a new society and destroyed the former not with a whimper but a bang. In fact, many of them. There is a sense, even when reading nonfiction of the time, that America was ready to explode. Indeed, much of the world was. The Rolling Stones and Charles Manson both, in their own ways, embody this feeling. The Rolling Stones is the passion, the rebellion, the new face of youth and expression while Manson is just how bad it can get. Though if Sway did anything, it made me like The Rolling Stones just a little more.

Book Review: Roman Blood (Roma Sub Rosa, #1) By Steven Saylor

Title: Roman Blood

Series: Roma Sub Rosa

Book Number: 1

Author: Steven Saylor

Genre: Fiction - Historical, Fiction - Mystery

Finished: March 20, 2009

Roman Blood (book one of the Roma Sub Rosa series) by Steven Saylor centers around the real life patricide trial of a country farmer by the name of Sextus Roscius. The advocate of Sextus Roscius, the well known Marcus Tullius Cicero, employs the help of a man named Gordianus to dig up information about the murder in order to prove his client innocent. Gordianus is known as "the finder," a man well experienced in finding facts no matter how well hidden or obscure. Of course, such facts don't come easy. There is much lying, much danger, and tons of characters only out for their own benefit that all together paint a picture of a corrupt Roman aristocracy. It is a very perilous time in Rome, after all, which has only just caught its breath from the proscription of Sulla and his restoration of the aristocracy over the common people. In order to prove Sextus Roscius innocent, Cicero and Gordianus must attack those very aristocrats that now hold Rome in a powerful grip.

I avoided reading this book for a while because I didn't want it to disappoint me. And it didn't. Saylor is clearly a historian. If it's not obvious in his reader's notes, it's apparent in his clear delivery of accurate and compelling historical detail. You can almost see the dark dilapidation of the Roman Subura that is as hazardous as it is teeming with life, or see the immaculate scene of Carthage on the Rostra, or imagine the men in togas sitting around the Senate. What Saylor does is bring Rome to life, but not without insult and credit where credit is due. He doesn't present a Rome that is glorious and magnificent as some are prone to do, but neither does it portray it as a place irredeemably corrupt as others would have it. Saylor gives his readers Rome in all her shameless glory without falling into some one of the most common traps of those who attempt to write historical fiction. A tendency of most historical writers is to accentuate what is "abnormal" by today's standards because they imagine it will help people understand the time period more, or respect it for how different it is, but this often backfires. I like how Saylor did not give excuses for Rome, but also did not gloss over its many faults. Details are presented in an easy and matter of fact way, which I found helped me get into the time period more simply because it was all given so casually.

Roman Blood is not a "great men of Rome" sort of book, though it does feature many of the people we know: Cicero and Sulla to name a few. They all play their roles, as great men do, but without stealing the spotlight. Gordianus is a great character because he is likable, realistic and humble. And very Roman. I also quite like the portrayal of Cicero in Roman Blood because I think it captured his peculiarities perfectly while still redeeming him at the end when it was shown to Gordianus the Doubter that Cicero is more than just a picky nag and really is one of the greatest statesmen Rome will ever have.

Roman Blood is as much mystery as it is historical fiction. It's full of murder, perversion, ruthlessness, and doubt. There are enough twists and turns to make the plot interesting while not so many that you lose the sense of the thing. In the end, you come to understand that everyone is guilty of something in some way and even an "innocent" man has committed plenty of crimes of his own.

Book Review: Dirt: An American Campaign by Mark LaFlamme

Title: Dirt: An American Campaign

Author: Mark LaFlamme

Genre: Fiction - Suspense

Finished: March 13, 2009

Dirt: An American Campaign is a high energy, fast-paced novel about grief, personal connection, and political corruption. Governor and Presidential candidate Frank Cotton (no relation to the Frank Cotton in Hellraiser, of course) is in a peculiar situation just at the dawn of his potential election as the Republican candidate for the Presidential office. Mr. Cotton is not quite topping the polls and is having trouble with his son Calvin, whose wife just recently passed away. You see, Calvin stole the corpse of his wife and took off with it. What a scandal that would make for the Presidential hopeful. Enter Thomas Cashman, an ex-military man and CIA agent who is sent on a mission by the Cotton administration to stop Calvin before the press and public get wind of the Cotton family grave robbery. Cashman is just the kind of guy I like-- humorous and down to earth, but without pretense and willing to do what needs in order to be done to be successful at his job. To help get into the mind of Calvin, to better understand and predict him, Cashman employs the help of an alcoholic ex-writer named Billy Baylor. Baylor is somewhat of an expert in what would make a seemingly normal man do something so grotesque because that was the sort of thing that he wrote about before losing his wife and daughter in a car accident. There is, in fact, a large list of characters: a small-time reporter, an environmentalist lawyer, a cemetery attendant, numerous Presidential hopefuls, whole political administrative teams, two news reporters hot on the trail of Calvin, and roadside scoundrels. What connects them is politics, protecting and exposing people, or just the need to seek self-gain. There is little difference between the politicians who take joy in destroying their rival's life and the bullying bikers in the grocery store parking lot. Every chapter is short, giving a sense of immediacy to the novel. Though the chapters are short in length, I do not feel as if the book is lacking in detail or story. LaFlamme manages to say it all and say it wonderfully within his tightly packed sections. The way that the book flips from one person to the next gives the story a fast pace that made it even harder for me to put the book down at the end of the night. It was difficult for me to find a "good guy" in this novel, but it was likewise just as hard for me to find a "bad guy". The characters in Dirt are simply people, each trying to get by, neither good nor evil. Everyone has a secret, something dirty in their past. When all of the dirt starts to come out, no one can stop it. No one is left unexposed. I can almost guarantee with total certainty that you will not see the ending of Dirt coming. LaFlamme throws one twist at you before delivering the final dizzying punch.

Book Review: Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Title: Sag Harbor

Author: Colson Whitehead

Genre: Fiction - Drama

Finished: February 28, 2009

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead is the semi-autobiographical story of a young boy named Benji and his summers spent in the New York summer town of Sag Harbor. Benji is a young African American struggling to fit into a world that he straddles varied sides of. As an African American, he doesn’t fit into the white prep school world that populates the school he attends, but he also defies African American expectations that confront him as he spends his summers in Sag Harbor. Benji is an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons, loves Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and reads Fangoria magazine. In short, Benji has GREAT taste. I found a kindred spirit in Benji because of his interests… I love horror movies and The Smiths. Yet, where I saw a similarity between us, I also found a great and important difference. No one ever looked at me strangely for my interests, whereas Benji's were atypical for a young African American male of the time. 

Sag Harbor is also a coming of age story, the tale of a boy becoming a man and how he copes with all of the new expectations placed upon him and disappointed when he doesn't simply ease into the mold of how a man is supposed to be when he becomes a man. His braces make him feel childish, his skinny frame makes him appear young, and he is not that successful with the ladies. Benji is surrounded by Sag Harbor friends, each with their own distinct personality. To just give a sampling of a few, there's NP, for whom life is a joke and an elaborate story; Randy, who is the top man for a while when he gets his car and lords it over everyone; and Clive, who is that one "cool" one, the can-do-no-wrong one. The adventures and misadventures of this group of boys are chronicled in the book. We're taken through a series of moments in their lives: when they all went gun fighting and Benji wound up wounded, the group trying to sneak into a concert, and the eventual teenage meeting of girls and getting girlfriends for the first time. These group adventures stand apart from Benji's own singular moments, his own personal experiences that shape him into an awkward but compelling figure. He is the product of a strict father, a bad afro, and one hand holding that was to be his only contact with the opposite sex for a long, long time. I really enjoyed this book because it was a slice-of-life piece. Whitehead put such a humorous spin on the trials and tribulations of being a teenager that I couldn't help but be charmed by the bad and the good. You really can feel Benji's pain, even as you laugh about the unfortunate nature of his life. I think it is also inspirational the way that Benji doesn't become disheartened by all of it. Despite all that has happened to him, all of the flaws he finds in his person, he never retreats.

What else is great about Sag Harbor? I like the insight the book gives into race relations in the 80s era in which it is set. The youngsters of Sag Harbor express a mild dislike for the rich white Hamptonites that border their summer areas, more for what they represent than anything related to skin color. The boys watch the whites tour Sag Harbor as reluctant visitors with views as misguided as the views the white's may too hold. This difference shows how a person is the culmination of their environment and experiences, of their influences as much as their own inherent personality. I really did enjoy reading this book and recommend it to anyone looking for a book that isn't overwhelming with adventure, but remains interesting and captivating throughout. You'll laugh, you'll get angry, and you might even get sad from time to time. But you'll definitely never get bored.

Book Review: Legs Talk by D.E. Boone

Title: Legs Talk: A Modern Girl's Dating Tale

Author: D.E. Boone

Genre: Fiction- Humor

Finished: February 22, 2009

Legs Talk: A Modern Girl's Dating Tale by D.E. Boone is a small book, about 112 pages with full page black and white photographs. It takes the reader through the story of a woman in a relationship with a man who has a special interest in her legs and her legs only. It begins as most of these type stories do: girl meets boy, boy comes on very strong, girl consents, boy turns out to be a big jerk, girl walks away, girl goes back, boy is still a jerk, the end.

The book is a short read, though; I read it in about 10 minutes. Each turn of a page brings a blank page with writing and a black and white photograph featuring below the waist leg shots. There are a lot of shoes and stockings, every now and then sprinkled with casual jeans and boots. The point isn't to show the faces of the two characters, only their legs. Legs are the focus, after all! If you could see the rest of the body, it would distract from the imagery of the legs. Since legs are the topic, they should be thrust into the photographic spotlight. Legs Talk takes a humorous look at dating. It's a great book for anyone who has ever broken up, or has gone back to the same man over and over again. True to the nature of relationships, the book is not cut and dry about how they do or don't work out. Within the short phrases and sentiment, you can see how confused the woman is about the relationship she is presently in with her leg fetishist boyfriend. She gives in to him against her better judgment, makes concessions to the man, and wavers in her decision to quit seeing him. I especially like the small piece of their post breakup phone conversation when the women replies to a "have you missed me?" type question with, "How can I miss you if you won't go away?".

The words are short and simple, but effective if not terribly sexist and problematic when it comes to issues of feminism, male masculinity, toxic relationships, and emotional abuse.  Knowing that Legs Talk  undermines important issues of feminism and abuse makes this book a not so charming read.  Rather, it is cringeworthy in its essence.

Book Review: Matrimony by Joshua Henkin

Title: Matrimony

Author: Joshua Henkin

Genre: Fiction - General

Finished: February 19, 2009

Matrimony by Joshua Henkin is a novel about people, relationships, and life. The book follows the life of Julian Wainwright, his wife Mia, and a select few of their friends. We first meet the characters in college and follow along as they grow, mature, and face the new challenges of life that inevitably come their way. There’s betrayal, love, friendship, and just simply growing up. This book was different from what I normally read, though. It was not a nonfiction book about some historical event or person. There were no vampires, no supernatural forces doing battle, and no complex theories of magic and mysticism. Matrimony is quite simply about people. When I got the book and looked at the quaint and relatively unadorned cover, I gave an audible, "Hm." I wondered if this sort of book would be the right fit for me. Julian begins the story in college, studying to be a writer. He wants to write that great American novel and escape the corporate expectations of his rich family. He and his friend Carter are the stars of the class. The two of them develop a strong friendship and bond even after they meet the women of their dreams. Julian falls in love with a young woman named Mia. After graduating college, the two of them marry, propelled to push their life together forward faster when Mia's mother comes down with breast cancer. Life takes over and people move apart-- Carter moves away to California and Julian and Mia are left to decide what to do with their future. Julian begins his novel and finds it a harder task than he imaged. Mia has to cope with the death of her mother while getting her graduate degree, her interest in psychiatry peaked after she goes to therapy herself. After this, it's just life. Couples talk of kids, divorce, and what middle age means. Friendships are severed and people grow apart, but in the end the characters find that they are in the very same place as they have always been, only stronger for what they have been through. 

Most of what we see comes through the eyes and experiences of Julian and he becomes an easy to relate to figure because of this. I found that because he was the most central character, he was the one I sympathized with the most. When bad things happened, I was on Julian's side. When he was betrayed by Carter and Mia, I felt wounded in my stomach as if I were him. One thing that I especially liked about the book is how it approached the nature of friendship and how we form and keep strong bonds with other people. For example, Julian and Carter were great friends, but not entirely loyal to one another. People are not perfect and even good people who sincerely care about each other are capable of doing things that are hurtful. Matrimony shows how people cope with betrayal and how friendships can survive very devastating obstacles. No matter how good or fun a friend Carter is, he is always kept back by the fact that he envies Julian. To Carter, everything Julian has is somehow better than what he has; Mia experiences this too through the eyes of her sister Olivia, who fails to see or find her own self worth because she is hung up on how much better Mia supposedly has always had it. Whether Carter or Olivia both have cause for feeling as they do, they do. Henkin doesn't make her characters perfect. I get annoyed very quickly by characters that are created just to be infallible and without any fault whatsoever. Julian is never quite sure enough of himself, Mia has a coldness about her that is hard to accept, and Carter is envious by nature and compensates for what he sees as imperfections in himself. 

Of course, there are moments of long contemplation, especially from Mia, that sort of drag on. In reality, I doubt many people are so introspective. It isn't insincere or unrealistic, though, for Mia to be this way; I've spent enough time within the walls and atmosphere of a university to know that graduate students really ARE that long winded and pseudo-philosophical-- sometimes exhaustibly so. Mi's transcendent self-speeches were a bit haughty and pretentious like she is trying too hard and doesn't even realize it, but that is just the way that some people are. I guess there was really no way for her not to be since her parents were strong liberal advocates. They probably had protest signs stored in their closet for the next opportunity to protest inequality or unfairness of some sort. That brings me to another point. Even though Mia's parents were liberal and modern minded, it was odd and almost hypocritical that her mother had to give her up her dreams and her career to be a mother. Wouldn't that sort of thing be the very thing her parents would reject for being part of the norm? The traditional way of doing things that kept people down? You see? Matrimony doesn't try to create perfect people and situations. People are just who they are. By the end of the book, you will feel as if you "know" the characters intimately. You've been through all of their trials and tribulations and survived them, too. It is really impressive the way that Henkin delivers such a character driven book that doesn't need exaggerated drama or passion to keep it interesting. Henkin has an admirable ability to describe people's thoughts and actions in a relatable way. He certainly has a way with words and description. This is a great book. If you like the 'slice of life' type of book, you'll enjoy this one. And hey, even if you're like me and have only just begun to explore this sort of story, you may still enjoy it. I certainly did. In case you haven't noticed, I am currently holding a contest to win a copy of Joshua Henkin's Matrimony.