snugglekitty

Title: Boston Noir
Author: Dennis Lehane
Series: Akashic Noir (The series is based in geography.)
Genre: Anthology, mystery, noir, Boston. Was that obvious or what?
Reason for Reading: When I heard about this series I wanted to read the installment about my own city. Alas, it hadn't been published yet! But now it has.
Setting: Boston, from the distant past to the present. No future noir in this collection, alas.
Pages: 236
Copyright Date: 2009
Cover: A green-tinted black and white of a bridge in winter.
First line: "No matter what you may hear to the contrary, noir is not a genre defined by fedoras, silver streams of cigarette smoke, vampy femme fatales, huge whitewall tires, mournful jazz playing in the gloomy background, and lots and lots of shadows."
Favorite story: "Animal Rescue" by the editor (I don't think the editor's story has ever been my favorite before.)
Downside: I think I may have learned from this that I don't really like noir, at least as defined by this editor as working-class tragedy. I don't go in much for tragedies.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day
Grade: C-, but someone who actually enjoyed the genre would probably love it.
Recommended for: Bostonians and noir fans. Don't you want to read about your city? Come on. :)
Related Reads: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas.

Title: Beat the Reaper
Author: Josh Bazell
Genre: Thriller
Setting: New York City, present day
Reason for Reading: I saw this on a "new mystery" newsletter I subscribe to via your friend and mine, the local library.
Pages: 336
Copyright Date: 2009
Cover: No picture, just red letters and some abstractly exciting blue lines.
First line: "So I'm on my way to work and I stop to watch a rat fight a pigeon in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me!" (When I tried to transcribe this line, my mind automatically and amusingly substituted "this guy" for "some fuckhead.")
Best part: It was wacky and funny.
Worst part: On the other hand, the view of human nature presented is pretty bleak.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Don't Fear the Reaper", which came into my head whenever I picked it up.
Grade: C+
Recommended for: Folks who like a thriller with some hard edges and belly laughs too.
Related Reads: Fatal February by Sheila Katzinger, The Genius by Jesse Kellerman, LA Outlaws by TJ Parker.

Ninety-nine problems? In describing the life of Dr. Peter Brown, the famous song would fall a few problems short. It's bad enough to be a retired hitman who is now trying to save lives. Bad enough to get mugged on your way to work. Bad enough to know that the cute girl in the hospital bed is about to get her leg chopped off. But when an old mob enemy of yours who isn't supposed to know you're alive shows up as a patient? Maybe you just shouldn't have gotten out of bed.

This book will keep you wincing, keep you laughing, keep you guessing, and keep you turning pages. It flew by. It would make a good airport read.

Title: Quatrain
Author: Sharon Shinn
Genre: Romantic fantasy, anthology.
Reason for Reading: I love Sharon Shinn and I read all her books. In fact, I generally put her books on hold at the library before they even come out.
Pages: 384
Copyright Date: 2009
Cover: A woman appears to be floating in a forest. That's it, that's all I've got for this one.
First line: I accidentally lent it to my beloved trouble4hire without writing down the first line. Sorry about that.
Best part: I really enjoyed the stories Gold and Flame.
Worst part: I felt like I had read the first two stories before, Flight and Fire, even though I hadn't.
Imaginary Theme Song: Starry, Starry Night - it has kind of a melancholic feel.
Grade: B
Recommended for: Fans of Shinn and folks who've never heard of her. Featuring as it does four of her different worlds, this would be a good introduction to her work.
Related Reads: Heart of Gold, Summers at Castle Auburn, and Mystic and Rider by the same author. To Weave a Web of Magic, a romantic fantasy anthology by four different authors.

Title: The River King
Author: Alice Hoffman
Genre: Magical realism
Reason for Reading: I like this author a lot.
Pages: 344
Copyright Date: 2000
Cover: A blue-toned painting. Pillars, fish, blue hands holding a white rose.
First line: "The Haddan School was built in 1858 on the sloping banks of the Haddan River, a muddy and precarious location that had proven disastrous from the start."
Best part: I really liked the beginning, the description of the school's founding and the introduction of all the characters.
Worst part: It felt like it stopped rather than ending, if you know what I mean.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, because much of the book is about a class divide between the "school people" and the "town people."
Grade: C
Recommended for: Anyone who can't stop reading Alice Hoffman.
Related Reads: Property Of and Practical Magic by the same author. Garden Spells by Sarah Allen Addison. Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar.

Title: Street Magic
Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Series: Black London #1
Genre: Urban fantasy. It bears some similarity to the sexy pentacle tattoo genre, but there wasn't any sex.
Reason for Reading: It was 99 cents at Goodwill. Need I say more?
Pages: 335, including a sneak preview of book 2
Copyright Date: 2009
Cover: A dark-haired woman in an unbuttoned black dress shirt stares at a man next to her. He is blond with spiked hair and a surly expression. He wears a studded bracelet and belt and has a wallet chain and a bunch of tattoos. He looks like a bruiser, and there is blue energy crackling around his raised right fist. A London cityscape is behind them.
First line: "Michaelmas daisies bloomed around Pete Caldecott's feet the day she met Jack Winter, just as they had twelve years ago on the day he died."
Best part: I enjoyed the portrayal of the denizens of the magical community - the good, the bad, and the posers.
Worst part: Everything Pete (the female main character) did wrong was held over her forever. Everything Jack (the male main character) did was forgiven, even though his crimes against her were pretty egregious.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Lullaby" by the Cure
Grade: C-
Recommended for: Urban fantasy fans who don't mind a certain feeling of unfairness in the books they read.
Related Reads: Night Life by Rob Thurman, Dead to Me by Anton Stout

Title: Ooku: The Inner Chambers
Author: Fumi Yoshinaga
Series: Ooku, Volume 1
Genre: Manga, fantasy, gender.
Reason for Reading: This is the other manga trouble4hire was sweet enough to bring back for me from her SF vacation.
Pages: 198 plus endnotes
Copyright Date: 2005
Cover: A serious-looking androgynous figure wearing black Japanese robes. The coloring is simple - black, white, and red, plus some flesh tones for the guy's face. The word Ooku has a horizontal line over the first letter, which I am unsure how to replicate using my keyboard.
First frame: Black and white, showing a tiny village. No text.
Best part: I really liked the premise.
Worst part: It seemed as though the character we got to know through this volume would not be appearing in the next.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Master and Servant" by Depeche Mode
Grade: B
Recommended for: Anyone who is into reading about men kept in harems. (The book is not graphically explicit, though - adult concepts only, no adult images.) Fans of the Edo period.
Related Reads: A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer is not a manga, but the premise is almost identical and it's also an excellent book.

In the Edo period, a mysterious plague strikes Japan. It kills only boys, and now the island is three-quarters female. What men that remain are divided into three categories. Many are kept in brothels where average women go to try to conceive. Some are married off to rich merchants and lords. But for the most beautiful, talented, and graceful men, there is another possibility - they can take a position in the Inner Chambers, the private harem of the Shogun, said to contain the unimaginable luxury of 3,000 men who never see the outside world again...

This is a beautiful manga and I recommend it for anyone who likes a little spice.

Title: The Surrogates
Author: Robert Venditti (writer) and Brett Weldele (illustrator)
Genre: Graphic novel, sci fit
Reason for Reading: I saw this movie with mrpet last week. We both enjoyed it though we had a lot of nit-picking comments afterwards.
Pages: 158, plus the traditional gallery of covers at the back.
Copyright Date: 2006-2008
Cover: A robot standing on top of a building. Electricity is glowing between its hands. The skyscrape behind it is red.
First frame: A rainy night in blue tones. It shows two people, apparently young and attractive, walking down the street. The sign for Hogan's Tavern is the chief illumination.
Best part: Really an interesting idea.
Worst part: Some of the same issues that mrpet and I had with the movie. This idea of driving another body with your mind only really works if you can see the body as inessential. Fact is, our bodies have their own needs - for food, water, exercise, sunlight, sex, and rest. I don't think we could leave those needs behind so easily.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Shiny Happy People" by REM
Grade: B-
Recommended for: Folks interested in the mind/body split in Western culture.
Related Reads: No related reads I can think of, but there are definite similarities with The Matrix, especially the first movie.

A surrogate is a robot you drive with your brain. It looks like you, only better. It moves like you, only more gracefully. It can eat and take drugs for you, only more safely. In the year 2054, 92% of Americans are using surrogates. No downside has been found. But that is about to change.

I liked this graphic novel a lot. I thought it left the movie version in the dust. It was delightfully gritty.

Title: Does My Head Look Big In This?
Author: Randa Abdel-Fattah
Genre: YA fiction, spirituality
Reason for Reading: It was well-reviewed on some YA booklists.
Pages: 360
Copyright Date: 2005
Cover: A girl looks up at the red veil on her head. The rest of the cover is white with polka dots.
First line: "It hit me when I was power walking on the treadmill at home, watching a Friends rerun for about the nintieth time." (Interestingly, this is the book's only mention of the home treadmill.)
Best part: I felt that Amal is a well-articulated character.
Worst part: Her parents alternate between saying incredibly wise things and telling her to respect her elders. They didn't feel like real people to me.
Imaginary Theme Song: Something from Greatest Hits of Jerusalem, an album amusingly referenced in the book which may or may not exist.
Grade: C+
Recommended for: Those who are curious about the experience of Muslim teens.
Related Reads: Parrotfish, the story of a trans teenager coming out, actually had a lot of similarities with this book. Persepolis and Lipstick Jihad would make nice companion books around female identity and Middle Eastern culture.

( A quote from the book, and a little personal relevance. )

Amal has just made what she feels is the biggest decision of her young life. Rather than wearing a hijab part-time - to mosque, to her private Islamic school, and on bad hair days - she has decided to "go full-time." She will cover her entire body except her face and hands whenever she is with people who are not members of her immediate family. But how will her parents react? What about the administration of her new snooty private school? And what about The Boy, Adam, object of her first-ever crush?

This book is funny and touching. The author sure does get what it's like to be in high school, no doubt about that. I find it charming that she writes on this topic but that the picture on her website shows her hair uncovered. It made it seem even less like one-true-way-ism than it already did. I liked it and it would be a good read for anyone interested in multicultural issues for teenagers.

Title: The Perfect Poison
Author: Amanda Quick (pen name for Jayne Krentz)
Series: Arcane Society (third of the historical part of that series)
Genre: Romantic fantasy
Reason for Reading: Amanda Quick is my favorite romantic writer, and I think the Arcane Society novels are among her best books.
Pages: 340
Copyright Date: 2009
Cover: Blooming purple flowers. Ferns in front, with drops of blood on them.
First line: "Lucinda stepped a few feet away from the dead man, trying to ignore the fierce undercurrents of tension that raged through the elegant library."
Best part: I felt the relationship between the heroine and her love interest had some unique qualities.
Worst part: These books are (tragically!) starting to seem just a bit alike.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Teardrop" by Massive Attack
Grade: C+
Recommended for: Those who, like me, are a bit addicted to this series.
Related Reads: Second Sight is the first book in this part of the series, and I recommend it. I also suggest Glass Books of the Dream-Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist.

Title: Have His Carcase
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
Series: Lord Peter Wimsey, #7
Genre: Classic mystery
Reason for Reading: I enjoyed Strong Poison though not its immediate sequel. I wanted to give Sayers another chance.
Pages: 440
Copyright Date: 1960
Cover: A small woodcut on a white background. A woman capering on a beach stops to stare at a body on a rock. You might think the man was sleeping but for the blood seeping below.
First line: "The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose on a manly bosom."
Best part: The banter between LPW and Harriet Vane, who is my favorite character in the series.
Worst part: There were about fifteen pages on the two of them trying to break a cipher. Please, I don't need all the details! Just tell me what it said once you broke the code! (I would have found it much more interesting if there was an appendix explaining how to create or break a cipher of that kind.)
Imaginary Theme Song: "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" by Annie Lennox - a good song for Ms. Vane, I believe.
Grade: C+
Recommended for: People who want to explore the roots of manners mystery.
Related Reads: Strong Poison by the same author, Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross.