I've read a lot in the last 2 weeks, so instead of posting for everyone, I thought I'd do a recap in one blog with a short summary of each. I'll try to keep it short and sweet.
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Christopher Moore- By far one of my favorite writers! Moore books are not for the faint of heart or for the easily offended, or even for the hard to offend. If it is a curse word, he will use it, and as creatively as possible, if it can be shagged, it will be, and again as creatively as possible, and if it can be blasphemed against it will be, again as, well see above you get my point. Nothing is off limits. He is creative, warped, out there, hilarious, and comes up with things that most of us think but would never dare to say.
Fool-Moore's take on Shakespeare's King Lear. The mad royal, his devious daughters, rhyming ghosts and a castle full of hot intrigue-all told by Pocket the King's Fool. It was ok. Typical Moore. Probably my least favorite Moore book. Why? Because it's not really his material.
Bite Me: A Love Story-Third in a Trilogy. A great trilogy. Probably my favorite out of the trilogy. Can't say too much about it as it's the third without out giving away 1 & 2. It's about vampires, and minions, and a cat named Chet-that eats people, and gets humanly smarter, and larger from it. Yep that's about all I can say. Check out Bloodsucking Fiends (1), You Suck (2) for the first two of the trilogy and also The Stupidest Angel, Practical Demon Keeping, and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal (favorite), and A Dirty Job.
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Don DeLillo-Mark Jaggers recommended this author to me. I am also currently working on Underworld and Whitenoise, which are written in quite a different tone and have been much easier and enjoyable to read.
The Body Artist-Again, it's one of those books that I don't want to say a lot about. To one reader it could be one thing, to someone else another. I would love for someone else to read this book so I could discuss it with them, but I don't want what I say to influence anyone's thinking while reading it. It is a haunting book. Ethereal, strange, uncomfortable, and heartbreaking.
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Christine Warren-I was really into her books for a while, and then my attention wandered, picked her back up for the summer reading challenge. Have been reading The Others series. A great fantasy series that deals with shapeshifters, vampires, and witches. Again, a series, so really no review, other than-great series!
Walk on the Wild Side: The Others Book 5
One Bite with a Stranger: The Others Book 6
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Wench: A Novel-Dolen Perkins-Valdez
A fictional story with some historical truth behind it of the 1850s and the lives of four slave women and their lives as their master's mistresses. The story covers a span of 3 years and starts when the women meet in the free state of Ohio at a resort that the women have accompanied their masters to. Throughout the novel the lives of the women are revealed as well as their relationship with their masters. The question of freedom and running is always in the background as Ohio is a free state and many slaves risk their lives to cross the river into Ohio, while these women are brought over every year. The final summer brings everything to a head leaving each woman to make her own choice.
A well written book that had me hooked a few pages in. The complexity of the master/mistress/slave relationship was amazing to see especially since it was different for every couple. Interestingly the resort mentioned in the book later became the first black college, Wilberforce University.
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Wanted: Correspondence: Women's letters to a Union solider-Nancy L. Rhoades and Lucy E. Bailey
An amazingly cool book and a must read for History buffs. Especially American History buffs. It was funny, and sad, and mundane, and insightful.
During the Civil war a lonely Union Solider by the name of Lewis Lybarger wrote an advertisement for wanted correspondence in Ohio. During the war it was considered part of a woman's war work to respond to such advertisements to keep morale up. Lewis kept the letters through his enlistment, and preserved them, where they were later found in an old trunk. Some of the letters talk about the war, some talk about the mundane life around the farm. And some were more on the romantic side. Almost all of the letters were written by single women.
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