Books

A Universe From Nothing, Lawrence Krauss (M, 30s, short hair, stubble, black and white plaid shirt, khakis, L train) http://bit.ly/11I9pk9

It all went on harmoniously, that is, until they hired the other typist. - from The Other Typist - It is Prohibition and Rose Baker is working as a typist in the New York City Police Department. Each day she carefully records confessions, then returns to her gloomy boarding house where she shares a room with a woman she dislikes. The times are changing – gone are the Victorian standards women have become accustomed to, and behind the closed doors of Speakeasy’s, women with bobbed hair are drinking and dancing on tables. Rose, who is rather traditional, views all these changes as an outsider…until the Police Department hires a new typist, a woman with shiny bobbed hair and a charismatic personality named Odalie. Rose is smitten, and as she and Odalie become friends, everything Rose has come to depend upon begins to change. The Other Typist is Suzanne Rindell’s debut novel and it is a wonderfully plotted page-turner. Early on, the reader begins to suspect that Rose, as well as Odalie, are not who they first appear. Rose narrates the tale after the fact, hinting that things go terribly wrong, but keeping the reader on the edge of her seat as she unspools the story. A horrible disaster was looming on my horizon, so to speak, but from the very moment I met Odalie I was rendered utterly powerless to do anything other than watch it hurtle toward me. But, of course, if I am to tell it all in order, as I keep promising to do, there are other things I must tell first. – from The Other Typist - Rose is a fascinating, unreliable character and throughout this novel I was never sure whether the “facts” she was relating were true, embellished, or simply false. Rindell spins her story deftly with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing…and the ending was perfect. Rindell captures the mood and feel of the mid-1920s spectacularly with wonderful descriptions of New York Speakeasy’s. The police characters and the suspects they interview reminded me of the hard boiled detective novels that have been so popular. I could almost see this as a black and white noir film. I cannot reveal more about this novel without spoiling it, so all I will say is: Pick up a copy and read it for yourself. I guarantee that readers are going to be talking about this book and book clubs will be choosing it to discuss. It is hard to believe this is a first novel. Readers who love unreliable narrators, twisty tales, and stories set during Prohibition, will want to read The Other Typist. Highly recommended. FTC Disclosure: Many thanks to Amy Einhorn Books for sending me a copy of this novel for review on my blog.

I seem to have run out of steam on the story, which is unusual these days. Didn't write at all yesterday, for the first time in a long time on a day off. My son Todd was home so that was somewhat distracting, but not really an excuse.Anyway, I'm finding it very hard to write the "Cold" and "Starving" chapters.Hey, they're hungry. Hey, they're cold. Hey, have I mentioned theyre hungry and cold?I thought I could just have a narrative, but it may be that I'll have to concoct some incidents and scenes. Which points up the fact that this is the first book in a long time where I've allowed myself straight narrative, without detailing individual scenes every time. There is something very liberating and hypnotic about a few pages of Then they did This -- Then they did That. Kind of a purposeful breaking of the rule, Show don't Tell.Well, I have to whole day to myself, so I'm going to see if my sub-conscious can come up with anything. Can't believe it's been letting me down for a few days...

I am still not a big fan of colour blocking when it comes to arranging my bookshelves (I prefer a more functional approach), but I also can’t deny that it is a striking look, especially in an otherwise neutral room.

Book: The Summer Prince Author: Alaya Dawn Johnson Published: 2013 Source: ARC borrowed from a friend In the future Brazilian city of Palmares Tres, they have a tradition. Every five years, they elect a king, who lives and revels for a year before he is sacrificed on the altar, and in his sacrifice, he selects the queen who will rule the city. This has been the tradition for hundreds of years, and nobody questions it anymore. June isn't concerned with politics, even though her stepmother is an Auntie, a powerful political figure. She isn't concerned with anything except her best friend, Gil, and making art. She may be a waka, disdained and overlooked because she's under thirty, but she knows that her work can force people to sit up and take notice. But when Gil falls in love with Enki, the new Summer King, June finds herself dragged along. Because Enki wants people to sit up and take notice, particularly of the injustices in their city, and June's art is fast becoming his favorite way to do it. The copy I got had no summary or teaser on the back, so all I had to go on was the cover. When I picked this up, I vaguely thought I was in for another cookie-cutter dystopia, or possibly a faerie-world romance, and I prepared to put it down in 50 pages. (Cynical much?) By the time fifty pages rolled around, you couldn't've pried it out of my hands with dynamite. Yes, some of the same elements are here. Palmares Tres definitely counts as a dystopia. There is a star-crossed romance, albeit one which includes a number of gutsy choices. There's sparkly tech and glittery parties. But make no mistake, this book is unique. I'll start with the sexaulity. Not just the characters who have sex, but the sexual orientation. Bisexuality seems to be the norm - June's mother remarried a woman after her father died, June divested herself of her virginity with her friend Gil and flirts with other female characters, and Enki, well, Enki sleeps with everybody. And it ain't no thang. I loved this. I loved it a lot, especially since Enki falls in love with both Gil and June and both are treated as valid and equally powerful at the same time. That's refreshing in the "one boy for-evah!!" culture that we seem have to going in YA right now. Then there's the setting. How often do you see a South American setting in YA sci-fi? Or for that matter, any setting that's not basically Western European? I'll tell you: hardly ever. And while the book mentions that climate change has made the Tropic of Cancer just about the only livable portion of the planet, Palmares Tres is not a Western European city transplanted into the jungle. It has deep and flourishing roots in Brazilian culture. I got the sense of enormous richness in this setting, as if I could go digging around for several more books and still find new and interesting things. Most of the elements I'm gushing about here fall into the "Wow! That's new and fresh and very cool!" category. But I want to emphasize that these are all backed up with crackerjack writing. The book is not a romance, even though it seems to be and will probably be sold as such. It's about politics and corruption and ageism and oppression and art and love (yes, even though it's not a romance). It's about a young woman beginning to understand that if she wants to affect the world, it's going to affect her right back. According to the author's website, this is a standalone, so I am pouting to myself and hoping to see more YA from Johnson in the near future.

BOOKISH NEWS Hi, and welcome to our news feature, in which we highlight and discuss some of the news that has been big in the bookish world this week. Vampire Academy Casting Complete For fans eagerly awaiting the release of the Vampire Academy movie, the knowledge that the casting has finished will no doubt come as something of a relief. Although the characters of Rose and her best friend Lissa have been cast for a while, the process was still waiting for more of the peripheral characters to finish off the ensemble. The newest members are Gabriel Byrne, who will play Viktor – one of the leaders of the academy – and Sarah Hyland, who will play his daughter. Now that the casting is finished filming is set to start next week, ready for a release date of February 14th 2014. For those of you who haven’t read the story, this is the synopsis of the movie: Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story. I personally loved the Vampire Academy series (another one that I have to get round to rereading sometime), but that makes me a little wary about how I’ll feel about the film. Source: Deadline.com Amazon US To Sell Fanfiction Fan-fiction is becoming a larger and larger phenomenon as people use it to fill in the spaces between books in their favourite series’, or series of their favourite TV programme. Although many authors are wary of the effect fan-fiction has, it has become difficult to avoid. J.R. Ward, for one, quite candidly talked about her dislike of fan-fiction and did what she could to get it stopped, although most authors seem to have realised that it will be impossible to stop people using their work as inspiration. Perhaps this is why Amazon US have decided to cash in on fan-fiction by striking a deal with a division of Warner Brothers which focuses on TV and will allow fanfic of three of its popular shows to be self-published on the Amazon site. So far the programmes are Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries – three series based on books which have caught the eyes of millions. A new platform – Kindle Worlds – will be introduced, through which the authors can upload their work and have it for sale. The authors of the books will received royalties from every sale – the amount will depend on the lengths of the derivative works. I am very unsure about this as a concept. One reason is because I already have access to millions of works of fan-fiction for free, so there seems very little need for me to pay for it. Even should I want to particularly read about one of the series’ that I have mentioned above, the fact is that there are bound to be thousands of ready-written fan-fics out there in the world. The fact that authors received royalties for the works will appease them in once sense, but I think that someone who has created a world would be a little miffed to know that they are getting money from other people utilising that creation. It’s all a little confusing to be honest, and I think we will have to wait until it is introduced (and then a while after) for the concept to be completely ironed out and making sense. However, despite those grievances, I find myself annoyed that yet again Kindle users in the US are getting features that others aren’t. Source: BBC News Technology Sotheby’s Sells Harry Potter for £150,000 Among many other books, a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was sold at the famous auction house to raise money for the English Pen writer’s association. It contained notes about the writing process and facts about the world that Rowling created, as well as doodles by the author. It was won by an anonymous bidder who took part via phone. The authors were asked to personalise first-e

“Dr. Kristin M. Barton is seeking proposals for an edited volume … which will explore Arrested Development from a scholarly perspective,” reads a call for submissions on H-Net. I can see the titles of these essays now. Can’t you? “Desperation Economics: There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand” or “I Don’t Know What I Was Expecting: An Exploration of Dead Doves and Tragicomedy.” Related posts: Arrested Development: Leigh Stein’s The Fallback Plan I’ve been thinking lately about adulthood. When it begins, what... The Story Problem: 10 Thoughts on Academia’s Novel Crisis The rhythm of school is conducive to the writing of... Saunders Meets DFW Sometime Millions writer Frank Kovarik plumbs the connections between George...

... Words of Advice From the Formerly Blocked. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

... Issa's Untidy Hut: Constance Brewer and Chen-ou Liu: Wednesday Haiku, #116.

Publisher: HarperTeenRelease Date: 5 June 2012Format: ARCSeries: Hereafter #2Source: ALA 2012 (Dallas)New Orleans Saint Louis Number One CemeteryA night there can change a life . . . or a death.Increasingly worried that dark spirits will carry out their threats and hurt the people she cares for most, Amelia is ready to try anything to protect them. And for his own very different reasons, Joshua has come to this cemetery at midnight to join her in a powerful ritual.Both know that once Amelia steps inside the Voodoo circle and the beautiful girl from the Conjure CafE begins the cere-mony, everything will change.Tara Hudson's enthralling sequel to "Hereafter" escalates the danger and excitement, bringing a new dimension to her already mesmerizing story of a haunted love.I fell in love with Amelia when I read Hereafter. Her story was heartbreaking and tragic, and she didn't let her afterlife (or being a ghost) get in the way of her trying to find what little happiness she could. Joshua was definitely a part of that happiness. He was the definition of Knight in Shining Armor. Also, the covers? Amazing. They are two of the most beautiful covers I have ever seen. I love them!Now, on to the juicy bits... Arise didn't completely captivate me like I thought it would. I had trouble getting back in to the story, and found myself confused a lot. I also felt like I had to read for an eternity until the content got interesting. I kept putting the book down and picking it back up trying to spark some more interest from myself, but I couldn't really get into it until after Amelia had been in New Orleans for a bit. I also felt like "the bad guy" was too obvious. He radiated creepy.I liked certain aspects of the story, like the unexpected twist to Amelia's afterlife, but overall I couldn't make myself care about the characters like I had before. I wanted to, and believe me I tried, but there was just something missing for me this time. Hopefully, book three will remedy that.