Books I've Finished

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

12/01/05: I finished this a couple of nights ago and I agree with the Random House rep: this is the book for spring 2006. It's literary but not boring, philosophical without being preachy, and vividly imagined. I don't know if it will be a popular hit because it has too much to say about climate change and its take on the afterlife definitely doesn't synch with the masses.

11/23/05: I started really reading this tonight and so far it lives up to the hype. Futuristic with a similarly creative take on the afterlife as Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zavin.

This came wrapped in a translucent paper tied with twine. A cheap trick, but it caught my eye nonetheless. It also passed the first paragraph test. I don't know much more about it, but when the Random House representative visited the store a few weeks ago, she said this was her favorite pick for the spring. To be published in February 2006.

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Sharp North by Patrick Cave

To be released in April 2006

Although written for young adults, Sharp North is both written well enough and has a story interesting enough to keep adult readers engaged. Set about two centuries in the future in Great Britain, global warming has wreaked havoc on the environment of the British Isles by eliminating the Gulf Stream current. A Glacial age has settled on Scotland and most of England is flooded. Society is ruled by the Great Families, who maintain their power by keeping illegal "spares" of themselves secluded around Europe.

There are lots of great chase scenes, intelligent characters and a lot to say about the state of society, the environment and the consequences of sciene misused. As an added bonus, there's a great twist at the end!

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Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

Sequel to Inkheart. Although written for the middle school crowd, I love this series (ultimately a trilogy). It's set firmly enough in the "real" world to appeal to readers like me who aren't huge fans of dragons, witches or wizards.

Meggie and her father Mo have the ability to read aloud so well that they read characters out of fictional stories and into our world. Long ago, Mo read his wife into a story called Inkheart. Her place in this world was taken by nasty villains. It took ten years to find the author of Inkheart to read Meggie's mother back out of the story.

In the sequel to Inkheart, Meggie has listened to her mother's stories about the Inkworld so much that she has the uncontrollable urge to visit the Inkworld herself. Not only does Meggie have the ability to read characters out of stories, she discovers that she can rewrite the story to read non-characters in at will. Of course, as a precocious 12 year old, she promptly reads herself in to Inkheart without a good plan as to how she'll leave.

***

I absolutely love the Inkheart series. Cornelia Funke was right when she said it had to be a trilogy because her readers would never forgive her for how Inkspell ends. After reading Inkspell, I've come to the conclusion that Funke has written The Princess Bride for a new generation. The imagery is amazing and the story is epic. They're written for middle-schoolers, but adults will enjoy it just as much.

There's a movie in the works.

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Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

I finished this Young Adult novel last night and I'm still pondering whether I liked it or not.

At fifteen, Liz is hit by a car on the way to the mall and dies. She wakes up on the SS Nile. When the Nile docks in Elsewhere, Liz is met by her long-dead grandmother.

In Elsewhere, time doesn't stand still, it moves backwards. If you die at fifteen, in fifteen years, you become a baby again and are sent back to earth to be born as a new baby. This is the most Western take on reincarnation I've ever heard of, but I always enjoy a book with a new perspective. I also like that it might make young adults rethink or just think about the way the world and death work.

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The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde has written a multi-volume series based on Thursday Next, a female literary detective who originally has to track down a missing Jane Eyre. I read that first mystery and enjoyed its creativity. But I never got interested enough to continue through the next 3 or 4 books.

Fforde begins a new series starring Jack Spratt this July. The jacket copy from the advance edition reads in short: Humpty Dumpty fell of a wall; his wife is the primary suspect, but she's inconveniently killed herself. Detective Inspector Jack Spratt must convince Nursery Crime Division of the Reading Police Department, still reeling after its inability to convict the Three Pigs of Mr. Wolff's murder, to help.

You know me and creative fiction. This new Fforde series looks like it will be even better than the first.

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The Big Over Easy was even better than I expected. Fforde has woven in so many nursery rhyme references and puns, each page was a chuckle or outright laugh. All these references give the book so much depth because the backstory behind each nursery rhyme character, while not really explained in the story, helps flesh out the plot. As in The Eyre Affair, you don't have to have read the stories Fforde references, but you get a lot more out of his books if you have. Brush up on your nursery rhymes before you read The Big Over Easy and the story will really come to life.

I enjoyed Jasper Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, but not nearly as much as The Big Over Easy. This is one of the books to be read this summer. It's light, it's fun, it's a really good murder mystery with lots of twists and turns, and it's like nothing I've ever read. I love discovering the next great book and I think The Big Over Easy will be a huge hit.

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Fallen by David Maine

Almost two years ago, David Maine wrote a book called The Preservationist that told the story of Noah and the flood in a much more interesting manner than most of us learned in Sunday School. We hear the story from all the members of Noah's family - most of whom think Noah is more than a bit off his rocker. The Preservationist is a wonderful book that I recommend for almost anyone.

This September, Maine will release his newest novel, Fallen. In the tradition of The Preservationist, Fallen tells a biblical story from a new point of view. Fallen deals with Cain and Abel. I haven't read it yet; in fact, I just got the advance copy 15 minutes ago from a staff member who just finished it. I'm going on her word here. It's all Eve's fault and it starts when Cain kills Abel at Chapter 40 and goes backward to Chapter 1. Sounds like good David Maine creativity to me.

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Having finished Fallen about 15 minutes ago, I'm not completely sold on the success of this story. I enjoyed the creative structure - the backwards movement of chapters and chronology - but if it weren't for this fun gimmick, I don't know if the story would have held my attention. I suppose it doesn't matter if it would have or not; the story progresses backwards and such structure adds depth to Maine's tale.

I need to ponder this a bit more before I reach my final conclusions.

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Freakonomics by Steven Levitt

I finished this book a few days ago. Levitt isn't trying to teach economics as such; his main goal seems to be asking creative questions and encouraging the consumer to think for themselves. He has a healthy distrust of experts and points out the agendas "experts" often have. The one thing this country might lack more than anything else right now is a healthy skepticism. Too many American citizens on both sides of the political spectrum swallow whole everything they are told by government officials, church leaders and the media. We are still allowed to think for ourselves. It is by no means unpatriotic to question authority and make sure we understand exactly what is being done on our behalf.