Books

May 24, 2013 photo - mw Nothing Funnier Than Unhappiness: A Necessarily Ill-Informed Argument for Flann O’Brien’s The Poor Mouth as the Funniest Book Ever Written Mark O'connellThe Millions I would dearly love to be able to start this piece by saying that The Poor Mouth is the funniest book ever written. It’d be a real lapel-grabber, for one thing, an opening gambit the casual Millions reader would find it hard to walk away from. And for all I know, it might well be true to say such a thing. Because here’s how funny it is: It’s funnier than A Confederacy of Dunces. It’s funnier than Money or Lucky Jim. It’s funnier than any of the product that any of your modern literary LOL-traffickers (your Lipsytes, your Shteyngarts) have put on the street. It beats Shalom Auslander to a bloody, chuckling pulp with his own funny-bone. And it is, let me tell you, immeasurably funnier than however funny you insist on finding Fifty Shades of Grey. The reason I can’t confidently say that it’s the funniest book ever written is that I haven’t read every book ever written. What I can confidently say is that The Poor Mouth is the funniest book by Flann O’Brien (or Myles na gCopaleen, or any other joker in the shuffling deck of pseudonyms Brian O’Nolan wrote under). And if this makes it, by default, the funniest book ever written, then all well and good; but it is certainly the funniest book I’ve ever read. ... There’s something about the improbable combination of sober causality and delirious wretchedness (“As a result of the never-ending flailing of misfortune”; “a case of going from bad to worse”) that comes on like an outright petition for heartless juvenile ridicule. “Nothing is funnier than unhappiness,” as Nell puts it in Beckett’s Endgame. We should take this point seriously, coming as it does from an old woman who has no legs and lives in a dustbin. Beckett’s contemporary Flann O’Brien understood this, too: unhappiness is the comic goldmine from which he extracts The Poor Mouth’s raw material. He is parodying Irish language books like Peig and, in particular, Tom?s Ó Criomhthain’s memoir An t-Oile?nach (The Islander); but in a broader sense, he’s ridiculing the forces of cultural nationalism that promoted these books as exemplars of an idealized and essentialized form of Irishness: rural, uneducated, poor, priest-fearing, and truly, superbly Gaelic. O’Brien’s narrator, Bonaparte O’Coonassa, is not so much a person as a humanoid suffering-receptacle, a cruel reductio ad absurdium of the “noble savage” ideal of rural Irishness promoted by Yeats and the largely Anglo-Irish and Dublin-based literary revival movement. A lot of the book’s funniness comes from its absurdly stiff language (which reflects an equally stiff original Irish), but that language is a perfect means of conveying a drastically overdetermined determinism – a sort of hysterical stoicism which seems characteristically and paradoxically Irish. The book’s comedic logic is roughly as follows: to be Irish is to be poor and miserable, and so anything but the most extreme poverty and misery falls short of authentic Irish experience. The hardship into which Bonaparte is born, out on the desperate western edge of Europe, is seen as neither more nor less than the regrettable but unavoidable condition of Irishness, an accepted fate of boiled potatoes and perpetual rainfall. “It has,” as he puts it, “always been the destiny of the true Gaels (if the books be credible) to live in a small, lime-white house in the corner of the glen as you go eastwards along the road and that must be the explanation that when I reached this life there was no good habitation for me but the reverse in all truth.” EggNessJudith Crispin The Moral Status of Rocks Justin E. H. Smith A student in rural Iceland, of sheep-farming stock, had her guard down, or didn't yet have a guard. She didn't know how to talk to foreigners, or perhaps felt there was something she had to get across to fo

Inspired by Ginger at GReads, I'm sharing my work in progress...here's the first page. I have a few more detail to work out before it's complete...but what do you think?Chapter One: 21 days until Christmas (Saturday)The two boys run past Kate, almost knocking her over. Instead of telling them to slow down, she watches their mother run off after them. Turning away from the family, Kate notices a car pulling into the lot. She grimaces as she recognizes Lila’s car. She has no desire to get into a tussle with her arch enemy, especially in front of her mother. Neither does she wish to act as if Lila hadn’t just tried, unsuccessfully of course, to seal her boyfriend. Plus under her mother’s eye, she’ll have to behave perfectly. Kate looks around and spies a family coming off the farm with their chosen tree. Kate hurries forward eager to help them. As she moves, her foot catches a piece of ice. Kate tries to balance herself, but before she can, her feet slide out from under her. She lands hard on her butt, dazed for a moment. She glances up to see Lila smirking down at her.“Do you think you can help me, if you’re not too busy attempting to ice skate?”Kate grits her teeth and smiles, “Of course.” She hauls herself up, taking care to brush off her butt, wincing at a tender spot. “What sort of tree are you looking for?” “The perfect one, of course.” “Of course you are. Now, what shape are you looking for?” “Did I not just say the perfect tree? Maybe I need someone else to help me.” Lila looks around. Kate catches her mother’s eye who looks at her questionly. Kate can’t afford another customer mishap. She holds in a sigh and recovers, “I meant, how tall and how wide of a tree are you looking for?” Lila nods and thinks for a moment. “Well it has to be the focal point of the room.” Kate nods in understanding. “I’m having a party, you see, and everything must be perfect.” Kate nods again. “What room will you be placing the tree?” “The parlor of course.” Lila looks at Kate as if she’s stupid. Kate fights the urge to roll her eyes. Only Lila would call their living room a parlor. “What about needles, do you want short or long?” Lila shrugs, “Whatever’s best really.” “Do you want to look in our lot or would you like to see our selection of pre-cut trees?” Lila gives me a look, “I don’t think you really understand. I want you to find me the perfect tree. God is that so hard? I’ll be in my car. Don’t take too long either.” Dumbfounded, I watch as she flounces towards her car. Rooted to the spot, my mom startles me, “What was that about?” “That was Lila, I’m supposed to find her the perfect tree while she waits in the car.” Not surprisingly, my mother doesn’t comment on the rudeness of Lila’s behavior or commiserate that picking out trees is not in my job description. Instead, she mutters, “We get all kinds. Your Dad just brought down some fresh cut trees and put them in barn. Why don’t you start there?”

NOW THAT HE HAD THE BICYCLE OF HIS DREAMS, BEN LUKIN LOVED GOING TO SCHOOL. WITH HIS GLEAMING NEW MACHINE, HE COULD TAKE THE LONG WAY, OR PERHAPS THE VERY LONG WAY.At last Ben Lukin has wheels and his first ride to school is a bit of extreme biking which encourages a trip through a drainage tunnel and an exuberant Evel Knievel jump over five school buses!But Ben's new wheels catch the eye of the wrong guy, the official class bully:SADLY, ADRIAN UNDERBITE, PERHAPS THE WORLD'S LARGEST THIRD GRADER, DIDN'T SEEM TO LIKE BEN VERY MUCH.With a evil, gleeful look that dares Ben to do anything about it, the enormous Underbite appropriates Ben's new bike and rides off on it gleefully, leaving the crestfallen Ben to hoof it home, with only a pesky crow for company.But as Ben trudges along, he hears a loud WWWGGRRAAWWWWWWW!Following the wretched cry, Ben peers over the edge of a cliff and sees his bike bent and broken at the bottom and a terrified Adrian Underbite clinging precariously to the limb of a tiny tree growing not far below the edge of the precipice."HOW EXTRAORDINARILY TERRIBLE!" grins Ben in mock horror.Satisfied that Adrian Underbite has gotten his just desserts, Ben walks away.But after few steps Ben's conscience kicks in and he reconsiders the situation.JUST WHEN ADRIAN THOUGHT HE COULD NOT HOLD ON ANY LONGER, A VERY FAMILIAR GREEN-AND-WHITE HOODIE APPEARED. ADRIAN REACHED UP AND GRABBED FOR DEAR LIFE.HAULING THE BIG GALOOT PROVED TO BE TO BE A CHALLENGE, BUT BEN PULLED ADRIAN TO SAFETY.Does the rescued Underbite have a change of heart? Does he beg for forgiveness from his rescuer? Are the two set to be best friends forever? Well, no. He grabs Ben's beat-up bike and lumbers off on his size 10 feet with it. Sadly, Ben slogs homeward, believing that indeedm, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.But there's a and unforeseen and redeeming ending to Matt Davies' delightful little morality tale, the just published Ben Rides On (Roaring Brook, 2013). Pulitizer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Davies makes his debut with this engaging picture book that offers literal cliff-hanging suspense and scratchy-lined, comic illustrations, with its hero Ben all attenuated long limbs and large head, the hulking bully Underbite, loutish and lumpen, and even a nosy, crabby crow who pitches in to help Ben haul Adrian over the cliff's edge. While Davies' drawings are highly stylized, his body language and funny facial expressions add to the humor that permeates this book which surprisingly ends on an upbeat note, promising many pedaling adventures ahead for Ben."Facial expressions, gestures, postures, perspectives: all conspire, with a ragged, raucous elegance, to make Ben Rides On an exceptional, and exceptionally likable, tale," says School Library Journal.

Nicole Baart is one of my favorite writers of fiction. I'm not sure blog or a blog tour, but however it was, I started right reading at the very beginning, when After the Leaves Fall was published. I fell in love with those characters and have purchased every single book she's written since, on pub day, and opened the cover that very day. Each book has become more complex and I've finished each one thinking she couldn't get any better. I'm always wrong. Sleeping in Eden is her best book to date. how I first found Nicole online, it may have been herPublisher's description:She knew what he wrote . . . One little word that made her feel both cheated and beloved.One word that changed everything.MINE.On a chilly morning in the Northwest Iowa town of Blackhawk, Dr. Lucas Hudson is filling in for the vacationing coroner on a seemingly open-and-shut suicide case. His own life is crumbling around him, but when he unearths the body of a woman buried in the barn floor beneath the hanging corpse, he realizes this terrible discovery could change everything. . . . Years before Lucas ever set foot in Blackhawk, Meg Painter met Dylan Reid. It was the summer before high school and the two quickly became inseparable. Although Meg’s older neighbor, Jess, was the safe choice, she couldn’t let go of Dylan no matter how hard she tried.Caught in a web of jealousy and deceit that spiraled out of control, Meg’s choices in the past ultimately collide with Lucas’s discovery in the present,weaving together a taut story of unspoken secrets and the raw, complex passions of innocence lostMysterious and haunting, beautifully written prose, and incredibly complex characters make up a great read. It made me totally uncomfortable exactly where it should (if that makes any sense at all) and I wanted to strangle more than one of the characters on occasion.I flew through this in a day, though the words are really meant to be savored. Nicole Baart's writing and her way with language will be stuck with you for days after finishing the story and you'll want another book right away. Write faster, Nicole Baart! If you'd like a copy of Sleeping in Eden sent to your door for YOU to devour, leave a comment on this post, telling the author who writes books you always buy. Leave the comment by Tuesday night at midnight and I'll let Random.org pick a winner Wednesday morning. U.S. only please!Thanks to AuthorsOnTheWeb for the review copy!

Rating: 4/5 Publisher: CreateSpace Publish Date: October 29, 2012 Origins: From Blog Tour for Review Format: Trade Paperback Order Links: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kindle / Nook / iTunes Synopsis: Archaeologist Dr. Angela Hunter discovers an ancient codex at a Mississippian Indian dig site in the St. Louis area. Knowing the Mississippians, or Mound Builders, had no written language, she is determined to solve the mystery of the 700-year-old, perfectly preserved codex.In the early 1300’s, an Aztec family is torn apart. A judge rebelling against the Aztec tradition of human sacrifice is cursed and escapes his enemies with his 12-year-old son. They travel from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River to settle in the thriving community of Migaduha, modern-day Cahokia Mounds, Illinois.Angela recognizes the symbols as Aztec pictograms and begins to translate the story. However, other forces also want the codex and will do anything to get it. Can she learn the secrets of the chronicle before the tragic events of the past are repeated today? Review: Angela Hunter is an archaeologist working on a dig in the Cahokia Mounds. When a beautiful jar with a birdman etched on it is found, Angela is given the jar to date and open. When she and her father, fellow archaeologist Peter Hunter, open the jar they find a codex. The codex, as Angela learns when she is translating it, is the story of an Aztec family who had to endure much to stop an evil so great it decimated an entire civilization. Yet, there are forces at work which strive to stop Angela as she gets ever closer to the truth… ‘Chronicle of the Mound Builders’ was a fascinating story told fully in two times – the present, with Angela and Joseph, and the past, with Tototl and Chipahua. I felt the details we learned through Tototl and Chipahua’s struggle against an evil nahualli (or priest), Ichtaca, gave enormous depth and realism to the story. I think if we only had the story as told through the codex as Angela translated it, we wouldn’t have as rich an understanding of the evil which threatens the present day. As the past and present collide, the action picks up and you’re waiting breathlessly to see what happens next! I was instantly caught up in the story which is a testament to the astounding amount of research the author did. ‘Chronicle of the Mound Builders’ is a spellbinding tale! Author Website

Friday's Child. Georgette Heyer. 1944/2008. Sourcebooks. 425 pages.When we first meet Lord Sherington* he is proposing to Miss Isabella Milborne. He marries a few chapters later, but, his wife is NOT Miss Milborne. After a brutal rejection, he decides to marry the first woman he sees. He happens across an old friend from childhood days, a Miss Hero Wantage. She is much younger than he is--just seventeen! But she's willing, more than willing, to be his wife. How did these two happen to meet? Well, she's running away from home! So Sherry and Hero set off together to London to arrange their marriage. He settles her into a hotel room, and, then begins to go about the necessary details of arranging a super-quick wedding!Sherry wanted to marry so he could inherit now instead of later. At first he thinks his marriage won't really change anything at all in his daily life. But, of course, he was mistaken! Hero is completely clueless about how a proper young wife should behave, what things are socially acceptable and socially encouraged, and what things are NOT to be done. Hero absorbs everything, she's very observant but not exactly discerning. She's impulsive too! So if she wants to try something, she does! Hero's closest friends are her husband's closest friends: Gil, Ferdy, and George. And they all adore "Kitten." In fact, sometimes they understand her better than her own husband. They are quicker to perceive things! They can "read" her better and sometimes they interfere in the marriage to help things run smoother. They often explain things to Sherry in such a way that he finally gets it. Sherry, however, feels that they interfere too much!While Hero is aware of her feelings for Sherry, will her husband ever realize how he truly feels about his young wife?!I enjoyed Friday's Child. It is not my absolute favorite Georgette Heyer regency, but, it is quite enjoyable!!! *Throughout the novel, he's simply "Viscount" or "Sherry" or "Anthony"© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book ReviewsIf you're reading this on a site (other than Becky's Book Reviews or Becky's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Seven Footprints to Satan Merrit 1928 (original copyright) 1950 (reprint) Another fabulous cover for your consideration. James Kirkam, an intrepid explorer, is in New York City. Unfortunately, he senses he is being watched. Suddenly he finds himself face to face with a criminal mastermind who calls himself Satan. The life of the beautiful debutante, Eve, is also on the line. The seven footprints is a cruel game where the victim either saves himself or ends up in Satan’s clutches forever. A. Merrit was a big seller back in the day and was known for fantasy/crime pulp novels. Project Gutenburg Australia has the complete ebook on line at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601971h.html. Read, if you dare! Mary

by Janet Evanovichages: adultFirst sentence: "There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever."Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!While I've been aware of the powerhouse that Janet Evanovich is (that woman puts out a least a book a year!), I've never really had that desire to read her. Perhaps it's because of my NY Times-best seller aversion, or perhaps it's because I rarely do mysteries. But whatever the reason, I only picked one up because a nice woman in my (now-defunct) in-person book group insisted she was a lot of fluffy fun.So, for those under the rock (I don't know how many of you are there): Stephanie Plum is an out-of work, divorced, nearly 30-something woman in Trenton, New Jersey. She's not been able to find a new job, and she's run out of things to hock for rent money, so she turns to her cousin Vinnie, who runs a bail bond company. She takes on the biggest case she could: apprehending former cop Joe Morelli, who's been accused of murder. Of course he's innocent -- we can't have the sexy cop be guilty, now, can we? -- and Stephanie gets herself in some deep trouble -- rapists and murderers, oh my -- as she tries to bring Morelli in.The woman was right: this is fluff. I don't think I felt my IQ falling while reading it, but I didn't find much redeeming about it, either. Except maybe her portrait of Trenton in the mid-90s? I also didn't find that I was enthralled by it, either. I would read a few chapters, put it down and read a few books before looking at it and thinking, "Yeah, I probably ought to read a bit more." Maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea. But, honestly: I don't see the appeal of this series (Eighteen books? Really?). One is more than enough for me.

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead Release Date: June 4, 2013 Publisher: Dutton Adult Pages: 464 Series: Age of X #1 Review Source: Edelweiss Synopsis: (from Goodreads) In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills. When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board. Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.My Thoughts: ‘Gameboard of the Gods’ is Richelle Mead’s latest adult release, but I’ve also seen it categorized as New Adult. It’s definitely an adult novel, but it does have appeal factors of New Adult and even YA. Justin is thirty-something, Mae is a bit younger, and then there’s also a focus on 16 year old Tessa. I think if you can handle mature YA with some adult content (read: sex between consenting adults), then it definitely works for all of those age categories. Personally I was fascinated by all the little details that Mead snuck into this book, and how she world-built. It was super interesting to see genetic mixing and bi-racialism as the ideal, and to be in a world where genetic improvements and implants were commonplace for the elite soldiers. On the one hand you have these huge technological improvements and a highly tech based society, and yet there were also the “backwards” nations with low tech and lots of crime. Interestingly the “backwards” nations were the ones who hadn’t eradicated religion, whereas in RUNA (Republic of United North America) traditional religion is outlawed, and other types of religion are regulated. I was completely enthralled with all of these concepts coming up in the book; they’re all quite controversial subjects, and are related to things being talked about today (e.g. chipping people, messing with DNA, etc). ‘Gameboard of the Gods’ features interesting characters that got my attention right away. Justin is a playboy and an addict; he’s also charming and extremely intelligent. Mae is a super badass fighter who’s also vulnerable; she never wants to feel like someone's possession. Let me say that there is a hugeeee amount of chemistry between Justin and Mae. Justin can’t be with Mae because of a prophecy of sorts (so spoilers, it's talked about pretty upfront), which means the book has lots and lots of delicious UST. Tessa, the previously mentioned teenager, is Justin's ward and is trying to settle in to a school where most everyone sees her as backwards. I’m sure you can tell from my thoughts that this book is very detailed with technology and how things work in every part of the country. I’m not the kind of person who normally enjoys this, but in this book it kept my attention well. Richelle Mead seems to be good at providing lots of information without making it seem too infodump-y. I also loved the contrast of the story: it takes place in a country that disparages religion, and yet the book is full of mysticism and gods/goddesses. There’s a great murder mystery aspect to the story with Justin trying to debunk real supernatural involvement, but this turns out to be difficult. The way it was

You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but it doesn't mean the cover can't be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say "wow," or simply announce to my coworkers, "Hey, check out this cover!" Main Street Rag's new cover features a hallway, and at the end, there is an exit sign, pointing left and a sign below indicating poetry is to the right (