Angels, Demons, Aliens, Zombies -- and America.

30. (10) The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson 4/21

Pick:
I think this one was an LBS book (Library Book Sale) that just looked interesting. "An unsparing and hilarious account of one man's rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town." Funny, biting non-fiction? I'm in.

Thoughts:
I did like it quite a lot; it wasn't often laugh-out-loud funny (What the kids these days call "lol"), but Bryson has a great eye and a truly scathing wit. If I had any trouble with it, it was that it was a bit out of date for me; the America that Bryson is looking to recapture was not one that I ever knew, either chronologically or geographically. I was an East Coaster growing up in the 70's and 80's; he was a Midwesterner growing up in the 50's and 60's. But I like the way he sees America: as a wonderful place that has basically been horribly fucked up by the people, who are generally ignorant, shallow, short-sighted goobers. On the other hand: some of those idiots are incredibly nice people, and there are people who aren't idiots, who care about their country and their town and their community, and who do a wonderful job, as long as they can survive the slow encroachment of the idiots.

Bill Bryson grew up in Iowa, the son of a sportswriter who took his family on annual driving tours of the country every summer. Bryson grew up and followed his father into journalism, though not into life in the American Midwest: Bryson lived for almost twenty years. And then he decided to come back and see if he could rediscover the country his father had shown him in his childhood, by taking the family car -- a Chevette, god help him -- and touring around the US. He is looking, he says, for the perfect small town, the one that politicians and local-color writers like Garrison Keillor are always going on about. Bryson calls his Amalgam, as he expects that he will only be able to find a piece of it here, a piece of it there.

He tours through 38 of the 50 states, over the course of two months in 1989. He stops at battlefields, at national monuments and state parks, at small museums and shopping malls. He gets lost in the Ozarks, looking for the Melungeon people. He is horrified inside a K-Mart (Only because Wal-Mart had not yet metastasized across the country) by the people there, while he is simultaneously tempted by the bargains -- this guy, by the way, is more than a little cheap. He sneaks into Colonial Williamsburg and sees a once-in-a-lifetime geyser erupt in Yellowstone. And finally, he comes on home to Iowa -- though it's interesting to note that one of his best experiences, in terms of nice people and beautiful, unspoiled countryside, is in New Hampshire -- which is where the author settled with his family after this book's publication. He never finds his Amalgam, but he finds a lot of nice things, mixed in with all the horror.

It's a smarmy book, it is at time a supercilious book, it is a slightly sappy nostalgic book. But it's a very good book.


31. (Vine) Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks by Cara Lockwood 4/27

Pick:
A woman has a half-demon child because she didn't know her husband was possessed? Angels and demons are now hunting down her recently-vanished demonic husband? Sounds good to me.

Thoughts:
I thought this was a very fun book. I probably missed some of the enjoyment because I hadn't read the first one; it seems, from comments made about several of the characters, that the first book deals with a similar theme, and the main players in it reappear in this, but are no longer the protagonists -- there are several characters who know about the existence of angels and demons, and their presence on Earth and how humans must deal with them, but the main character, Rachel Farnsworth, is a total innocent when the story begins.

There's a decent romance, though it is a little hard to swallow; the male lead is Sam, a fallen Wrath angel turned demonic bounty hunter. His character's main concept is a loner, an independent who refuses to knuckle under to anyone else's attempts to tell him what to do; he is cold and distant and hard-boiled because of it. And of course, that kind of man always ends up falling in love with the woman with a heart of gold and a tongue of razor-sharp steel, who can break through his tough exterior and make his gooey insides melt, in books like this, and Sam is no exception -- but I didn't feel like enough of the story dealt with making that happen. It just sort of -- happened. There are reasons given, but it didn't feel like enough, to me.

I loved the parts dealing with the fallen angels and demons; I liked the two watcher angels and the ancient Babylonian goddess, and the half-demon toddler was great. I was a little annoyed by the bad guys, but I did like the big surprise concerning the identities of a few of them, and their unexpected intentions. The ending was excellent, both for the adventure story and the romance. Overall a nice book.

32. (New This Year) Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton 4/29

Pick:
I have so many new books to read, so much on the shelf; I just wanted something from my top picks group (the ones I prefer reading, rather than the ones I'm merely interested in) that would be a quick read. So that was Flirt. (By the way: we had this one because Toni and I are both enormous fans of the series, so this was Toni's birthday present. One of them. Or maybe it was the Bookiversary present -- I forget. )

Thoughts:
It wasn't bad, though I thought it focused on the wrong thing. It would have been okay for the story to really hone in on the concept that inspired Hamilton to write it, which was the flirting scene in the restaurant; it would have been better for her to focus on the stuff she actually does well, which would be the zombie parts. I loved the idea of the two clients who demanded Anita's services, why they wanted their loved ones raised and why she wouldn't do it; I liked the end result of that fairly well.

But since the book went from the zombie story, to the flirting scene, back to the zombie story, the flirting scene felt added in, a complete distraction, and it took some of the focus off of where it should have been. And then Hamilton's author's note, when she told the same goddamned flirting story two more times, in almost identical language -- first narrating what actually happened, and then including the webcomics her friend drew based on the story (Which recapitulated the story for the third time for me, again without changing hardly a word), not only made the zombie stuff seem like the part that was off-topic, but it made the original concept story boring. A flustered waiter and a hot friend are just not that riveting, Ms. Hamilton. Sorry.

I'm waiting on the actual novel.


33. (Vine) Boom! by Mark Haddon 5/1

Pick:
I loved A Curious Incident . . . and this was a children's book by the same guy. About the teacher's lounge and alien languages and mischievous kids. I'm in.

Story:
When you were a kid, did you ever wonder what really goes on in the teacher's lounge? I did. So I became a teacher, and I found out: nothing.

Nothing that you need to know about, that is. Nothing that I can tell you and still allow you to roam around free, with both your memory and your tongue.

But I've said too much.

Mark Haddon's novel "Boom!" covers this same vital question, and unfortunately for Mr. Haddon -- an excellent author with a fantastic imagination, the kind of person who can dream up things that are so close to real life that they seem most genuine, yet are different enough to open our eyes and minds and show us the wonder that hides behind our perceptions and assumptions (witness his most famous and brilliant novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) -- he knows what he's talking about. His two heroes, the schoolboys Jim and Charlie, decide to plant a hidden microphone in their teachers' lounge, in order to find out whether the rumor of Jim's impending expulsion is true or not. They hear more than they ever bargained for. They hear what we teachers really say when there is nobody else around.

The results are terrifying, fascinating, and of course, utterly hilarious. The characters are picture perfect, three-dimensional and real without being overly complex. The story tells not only of a thrilling and intergalactic adventure, but also of a family that comes close to falling apart but manages to hold on and rediscover what is truly important. It makes the book not only fun to read, but good to read. Anyone who wants to read this book will be able to follow it, and anyone who reads this book will enjoy it.

And then you had better forget all about it, if you know what's good for you.

Gridzbi Spudvetch!

34. (11) Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L.A. Meyer 5/4

Pick:
I wanted something rollicking and fun, and I wanted to see if this second book held up with the first.

Thoughts:
Hell, it was even better! As much as I enjoyed the story of Mary "Bloody Jack" Faber finding her way from the rough streets of London at the turn of the 19th Century to life in His Majesty's Royal Navy, I liked this story even better. In this one, Jacky, having been discovered masquerading as a boy and thus removed from the HMS Dolphin, has been enrolled (largely against her will) in the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston. She quickly finds that while life as a proper young lady in Boston is much less physically strenuous than life in an orphan gang or life on a ship of the line, it is no less dangerous. She is still surrounded by enemies -- though she finds friends, as well, just as close as those she had on ship -- and she must still maintain a masquerade. This one gives her much more trouble, however. On board the Dolphin, she simply had to pretend to be a boy; here she must pretend to have an entirely different personality and upbringing, and priorities and morals that run completely counter to those she actually has. This is a life that her previous lives have most definitely not prepared her for.

Fortunately for Jacky, and for those of us who love her and wish her only the best, her talent and intelligence, her kindness and sense of justice and fairplay, and her intelligence and toughness and love of adventure carry her through most of her trials -- and into several of the worst ones. She goes from proper young student -- and almost universally disdained and treated cruelly by the meanest set of snippety little bitches I personally have ever read about -- to jailed strumpet in danger of a flogging, to chambermaid to the very girls who treated her so poorly before. Then she becomes a singing sensation, once again a proper young lady, for a few brief spans she is again a boy -- and she ends up both saving the day and coming within inches of death. It was amazing how many adventures she had, and also how well written they all were.

That was the coolest part of the book for me. As much as I loved reading about Jacky -- and I did, all the way up to the ending, which is quite sad (though it set up the next book and got me all excited about reading that one, too) -- the best part of this was how well the author managed to recapture so many disparate elements of early American life. I mean, Jacky goes everywhere and does everything in these books; this one is absolutely the story of a young girl who doesn't fit in to an upperclass environment, but who also makes her mark on high society; whereas the last one was a nautical yarn about life on a ship, with a secret. Totally different, yet both equally good. Very impressive -- and these are highly recommended.