The Magicians by Lev Grossman

My friend Steve is one of the best handsellers I know and particularly great with written descriptions of books. (I could probably be coerced into reading the dictionary if he gave it a good review.) That being said, I'm stealing this pitch for The Magicians because it's brilliant and accurate (also, not as obscure as some of his other references).

Ender's Battle School has relocated to Hogwarts and a Narnia-obsessed Holden Caulfield is one of the new star pupils.

Quentin Coldwater is unquestionably brilliant but has always felt out of place, taking refuge in a series of children's books about the magical land of Fillory, he has always played sidekick to the cohorts of his elite private education who he perceives as being better than him. When a critical college interview goes awry, he suddenly finds himself testing into Brakebills, a prestigious school dedicated to the arduous training of magicians. Although he's suddenly become a part of everything he was looking for, Quentin's naturally negative disposition hasn't shifted, and he is left trying to figure out what to do with the real world and struggle towards happiness.

This is Harry Potter all grown up and unapologetically dark. It looks at what happens when the separation of a Muggle and Magical world doesn't really exist, so years of training and memorization send you out into society with the equivalent of a philosophy degree (useful if you can explain to someone what exactly it is). With no ultimate evil afoot, what do the exceptional, brilliant, and talented people do when they're faced with the bitter realities of idle hands. There is drug use, drinking, sex and depression on the search to figure out where to go with their lives, which, in several cases devolve into insanity.

Though some of the ideas are derivative of fantasy classics, rather than shying away from this fact, Grossman embraces it and hearkens back to them with with jokes about passwords of "friend" in Elvish, and sending messages by owl. This is a new take on a much loved concept that explores a totally different society of magic and the realities that life will ultimately be what you make it.

Retail Therapy

I'll be spending three and a half weeks on an archaeological dig in Israel, and had the terrifying revelation this morning that I'm leaving in A WEEK AND A HALF. Because I was at work and couldn't just start crying in the middle of the store, I took a deep breath and started in on some retail therapy before I left. This, of course, meant stocking up on new books.


I've been excited about this one since a customer told me about it last week. An insiders guide to the moonshine making business and a history of the trade along with tips and tricks that I can't imagine ever using.


In my unprepared, guilt-ridden freak out, this seemed like a good choice to try and amend my procrastinating ways. A (somewhat) concise history of the country of Israel for the person looking for a basic overview. Tada! But I'm not sure that just buying the book gives me too many bonus points. Time to jump in!


I'm finally bringing my autographed copy of these Native American Trickster Tales in graphic novel form home. Can't wait to delve in even deeper, and the guys I got to meet were so great!


And a galley (Advanced Reader Copy) of this book about two guys who take a road trip with spray pain and white out to correct grammer, spelling and punctuation accross the country. It should be out about the time I'm getting home. This sounds like the group that Lynne Truss of Eats Shoots and Leaves talked hoping to join in her introduction.

What's especially wonderful, is that by bringing all of these home I have successfully delayed preparing for the trip even more drastically. When you don't deal with problems they go away, right? Firmly grasping this line of thinking with both hands, I plan on actually getting back into this blogging madness a little more consistently again. I'll try and keep info about the books and the trip flowing freely.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This book could save your life. It already has for a lot of young readers, along with raising awareness of how individual actions, even the ones that seem relatively small, can have a huge impact on other people.

Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it waiting for him on the porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. When he puts the first tape in to start listening he is surprised to hear her voice saying, "if you are receiving these tapes in the mail, one of the sides is dedicated to you, and these are the thirteen reasons why I killed myself." There are only two rules attached to the set: you have to listen, and then you have to pass them on. The novel alternates between Hannah's dictation (which is italicized) and Clay's response as he listens, having no idea where he falls in the progression, or why.

Yes, this is a suicide book, but it's so much more than that because through the back and forth narration between Clay and Hannah, we see not only how she made her choices, but how it effects the people she left behind.

My mother has a young adult book club through her store (see, I'm not the only one) that's actually made up of teenagers, and after discovering this book, they decided that it was a requirement to read it in order to become a member. I can see why they would do that. (Check out Kats post about it! She's a YA YA book blogger from my mom's group. So cool!) Similarly, my adult book club members read this one month and all talked about how well constructed it was. While the book admittedly deals with dark concepts--no, it's not one of those sweet and fluffy suicide novels you hear so much about--it does so in a way that lets you see not only how the character arrived at that decision, but also where she had other options.

This moving, creative, touching, confusing, poignant FIRST novel is written like nothing else I've ever read. Jay Asher is one of those authors that makes me want to abandon all hope of ever becoming a writer because his entirely original manuscript is a standard to which I will perpetually aspire, but never achieve.

P.S. Check out the audio too. If there ever was a book that was tailored to that format, this is it.

A Wealth of Book Blogging Links

I am constantly amazed at how many book bloggers there are out in the ether. I follow a lot of them but am discover more all the time. I understand that there are tons of authors with blogs who are trying to promote their books and connect with readers. But there are also a plethora of bookstores, booksellers, and just avid readers who have blogs about the book industry. Far too many to list. It's a little overwhelming. In the most wonderful way possible. (I have links to some different blogs, one for each color/letter. Just know, this doesn't even begin to cover them. And there are a lot of blogs that fall into multiple categories.)

Now I have discovered that there's a Book Bloggers Appreciation Week. Who knew? Not me. Until recently. And I stumbled across Weekly Geeks (I prefer the term nerd because I think geeks are more tech savvy, but tomato/tomahto) which is a blog dedicated to setting forth weekly themes for book blog posts, and at the end of the week they provide a cluster of links to some of the responses they particularly enjoy. Blogs dedicated to book blogging. It's amazing!

In honor of the amazing promotions for literacy and book blogging, I figured I try some of these resources out:










Shannon Hale wrote a post about rating and reviewing books that was featured for the Weekly Geeks most recent theme. I think it's an interesting idea, so the following is my response to her questions.

"At the end of her post, Ms. Hale posed six questions for those who review books on their blogs or other sites. Write a letter to Ms. Hale explaining your position on each of these questions, then return to her post and leave a comment with a link to your post. And remember her request to speak freely, but kindly and respectfully!"

• Do you find that the anticipation of reviewing the book has changed your reading experience? No, because I don't read books in order to review them. Although, there are a couple of books recently that I've found frustrating because I noticed something that would limit their audience. For example, Julie and Julia, which was wonderful, had too much "language," so I couldn't send it to my grandmother, who would have loved it otherwise. But that has more to do with being a bookseller than blogger. So far, the books that I've reviewed aren't ones that I had just read, so I've had more time to ruminate before writing about them.
  
• Are you rating the book even as you read? Or do you wait until the end to sum it all up?   That definitely depends on the book. Because I don't approach the books I'm reading with my thoughts on how I'll be reviewing them, it's much more about how I perceive the book as I'm reading it. I used to be compulsive about having to finish any book that I started, even if it meant picking it up and putting it down several times. This has actually been really valuable, because there are books that I love now that I just didn't take enough time to get into before. (I only got through the first couple chapters of The Book Thief the first time picked it up.) However, I also feel like a big part of the book is the journey, so I can't really think of a book that I hated, that was then suddenly redeemed by the ending. Fight Club isn't only good because of the twist at the finale. And there are books that aren't going to change as you read. I pretty much knew where Gossip Girl was going within the first couple of paragraphs. Every book is different, and that's why they're so great. I try to give them each a fair chance.
• Does knowing you'll be reviewing it (or rating it) publicly affect which books you pick up in the first place?   Which books I pick up in the first place? No. Which books I choose to review? Maybe... I mean, does the world need to know that Nerd In Shining Armor has graced my nightstand? I guess they do now anyway. I just don't think there's as much to discuss about it either. I like nerds. Sue me.
• Does the process of writing the review itself change how you felt about the book?   Sometimes taking extra time to consider books alters my perception of them, in the same way that talking about them in a book club can open them up through discussion. In my first reading of a book, I'm really just trying to enjoy it and take it in, not analyze and critique it, so there is always more to find as you start to dissect it more carefully. Or almost always.
  
• What is your motivation to assign a rating to a book and declare it to the world?  Ah, I don't rate the books in my reviews.
• If you review a book but don't rate, why not? What do you feel is your role as reviewer?  Well, of the many reviews that I read, everyone seems to have a different approach. There are people who will just tell you what their opinion was, reviewers who break down the book analytically, and those who simply summarize the plot, or any combination of these. As a bookseller, my goal, ultimately, is just to get everyone reading and finding the right books, so I try to employ all three of these tactics in a concise way. I feel like a rating doesn't say much about the book, aside from whether or not I liked it. What I want my posts to do (although, whether or not I am successful is a different matter) is to give a sense of what the book is about, how I felt about it, entertain people, and make them want to read it, as opposed to feeling like they already have. I don't think that there's a right or wrong type of review, only different things you're trying to accomplish.
  

The Legal Limit by Martin Clark

Let's talk the South, and I'm talking South where sweet tea is just "tea" and has so much sugar that a spoon will stand up in your glass and leftovers could be used as syrup if need be, where you notice yourself speaking with a twang as soon as you get into town even though you're visiting from California, where the churches outnumber the people and if there isn't some gossip still circulating about your great-grandparents you're considered "new to the area." This is not The South where I live, even though I'm holding it down in the former Capital of the Confederacy, but there are places not far from here that would certainly qualify.

In a nod to one of the most under appreciated genres in the book world, I think it's a good idea to look at some of the authors and books of Southern Fiction, starting with...

"Martin Clark is not only the thinking man's John Grisham but, maybe better, the drinking man's John Grisham."
-The New York Times Magazine

I could stop there because after reading that quote you should be ordering all of his books immediately, (or, in the case of my father, running over to your bookshelf to start the unopened, signed copy you received for Christmas) but even that statement doesn't do him justice.

Martin Clark is a circuit court judge in Stuart, VA who writes legal thrillers that capture the spirit of southern communities, have genuine human characters, will get you laughing out loud, and make you think about and question what the purpose of the legal system really is.

The Legal Limit is the story of two brothers who are involved a crime when they are young and decide to cover it up. Years later, Mason has gone on to finish law school, start a family, and become and upstanding member of society while the other, Gates, ends up a convicted felon in prison on unrelated charges, for which he blames everyone but himself. In an effort to force his influential brother into getting him out of jail, Gates begins to try and blackmail Mason with the ghosts of their past.

The book is so well crafted, that I really wasn't sure how it was going to wind up, especially because there are unexpected turns throughout. I particularly appreciate it when authors write about an area I know accurately, because otherwise it takes me out of the story. The scenes that happen in Richmond involve real places, including a certain independent bookstore on Shockoe Slip. Overall, it's a very genuine, thought provoking, and unpredictable story.

Gripping and moving, The Legal Limit draws into question what happens when the law and justice may not be the same thing. Also, I am in love with Martin Clark and his characters.

The Best Science and Nature Writing of 2008 edited by Jerome Groopman M.D.

One of the best things about being a bookseller, is that you end up discovering treasure troves that you would have completely overlooked if you weren't worried about being able to talk about at least one book in each section.

This collection is wonderful because it's accessible and interesting even to people who know absolutely nothing (and this is the group into which I fall) about any of the topics they cover. It's a series of short scientific essays (written by journalists, rather than scientists) that will make you feel smart, even if you've never heard of a Zonkey (ligers exist!), and laugh at how ridiculous the world can be. It's littered with pop culture references (CSI anyone?), and articles with so many historical and and diverse tie-ins, that it's hard to imagine how scientists thought to look for the connections in the first place.

Really, we think we may have found the key to Incan writing (once thought to be non-existent), that works the same way that google sorts web pages, except using knots, that is being decoded with the techniques used for genetic mapping!? Tell me more!

I never would have thought that this would be a title I'd be head-over-heels for. I suppose the (book) world never ceases to amaze.

Perfumes The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez

I don't wear perfumes and I never have because, unfortunately, I'm allergic, however, reading the reviews of French olfactory scholar Luca Turin and American perfume reviewer Tania Sanchez in Perfumes The Guide have got to be at least as good if not better than smelling them. They review a huge number of scents on the market for both men and women, describing each and giving them a rating between one and five stars. The perfumes that they like read like love letters, while the ones they don't are brutally scathing and just very, well...French.

My favorite review by far is:

Just Me (Paris Hilton) One Star barf-bag floral
I defer to the fragrantbodyoilz Web site: "The top presents and ethereal halo with delicious notes of frozen Apple and juicy Peach Nectar wrapped with dewy Muguet and a Splash of wet Ozone. A luminous bouquet of sensual floralcy is at the heart of this fragrance. Delicate Mimosa Blossoms entwined with sheer Freesia and Night-Blooming Jasmine petals, while heady, rich Tuberose provides depth and texture. At it's base, creamy Sandalwood is infused with Oakmoss and laced with feminine Ylang-Ylang blossoms. Musk rounds and softens the scent while a touch of Pheromones creates a sensual energy and undeniable allure that makes this fragrance the perfect signature for Paris Hilton. Celebrity . . . Trend Setter . . . Model . . . Beauty . . . Socialite . . . Star." All true, unquestionably, hideously true. LT

This would be great book to have around for a girls night spent seeing how each person's favorite scents stack up. I'm telling you, it is absolutely delicious!