Bloody Jack to Towers of Midnight, with pirates in between

67. (Vine) The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer 8/24

Pick:
Not only did I get this off the Vine because it's a Bloody Jack book, but I bought the two books before this in the series just so I could read this one in sequence. That's right.

Thoughts:
One of the happiest things for an avid reader like myself is to discover a new series to enjoy. It means that you have not only one good book to read, but several! It allows you to space out the books, interspersing others as necessary, and still be able to come back to the books you're enjoying so much, and yet have each story break fresh and new and unexpected.

This is what I have been able to experience with the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer. I am a huge fan of pirates, both fictional and historical (because ninjas suck); I find the lifestyle, the concepts, and the characters hugely enjoyable. My wife pointed out this series on the shelf of our local bookstore because of that attraction, and we decided to give it a try. Now, eight months later, I have the bittersweet experience of having caught up with the series, and so now I must wait for the next book to be published, rather than simply being able to go buy it when I feel a craving for the adventures of Jacky Faber.

And that craving will come. These books are, without a doubt, the best things I have read this year, and are certainly now one of my favorite series of books, not least because they are not like anything else I usually read. There are certain parallels to Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, largely because the two authors have set their work in the same general time and place, but where those are fantasy, L.A. Meyer's books are historical fiction at its best. Not only do you get a rollicking good story, but you get to learn things about the past, and relive some of the golden days of yore.

This latest installment (But not the last, since it ends, as these books often do, in a cliffhanger) is just as good as all the rest; a remarkable achievement, since it is the eighth book in this outstanding series, which has not had a single drop in quality, either of the writing or the storytelling. This book was as hard to put down as every other one.

The Wake of the Lorelei Lee does follow the general pattern of the other books, which is: our beloved hero, Mary "Jacky" Faber, former street urchin and wayward waif, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Belle of the Golden West, Fine Young Lady, head of Faber Shipping Worldwide, Mermaid, Performer, Adventuress, and Pirate, has her life looking up, being exactly where she wants to be: captain of her own ship, the Lorelei Lee, on her way to England to reunite with her long-suffering fiance, James Emerson Fletcher. And as happens in pretty much every book so far, things all fall apart in the worst way, at the worst moment, and Jacky is, once more, arrested by His Majesty's Government. I don't want to give too much away, so suffice to say that Jacky finds herself on the way to Australia, a captive in her own ship, the Lorelei Lee. I knew that much going in, so I hope I haven't spoiled anything for those who haven't yet had the pleasure of reading the book.

I could never have predicted what comes in this book, either the immediate circumstances and how Jacky makes them work for her -- though I was not surprised by the trouble Jacky gets herself into, as that seems to be her greatest skill, other than getting herself out of that same trouble -- or the remarkable whirlwind of events that come in the last several chapters, after things take a sharp turn for the worse. But I loved every minute of it. Jaimy plays a larger role in this book, acting as narrator for his own chapters as he did in the fifth book, "Mississippi Jack," and he did very well, both as main character and as adventurer on the high seas.

These books, each and every one of them, are now my strongest recommendations to those who haven't found them yet. They are treasures, they are wonderful stories. They are, I think, a little too adult to be considered children's books, as there is quite a lot of death and horror in them, and a few risque elements, but I would definitely put them as young adult books, and certainly something that anyone would enjoy who likes a good adventure yarn. Especially young girls, as for all of her faults, Jacky is an incredible character, strong and endearing and wonderful, and, in her context, I think an excellent role model.

But even if she's not that, she's a heck of a lot of fun to read about.


68. Under the Dome by Stephen King 9/3

Pick:
I was heading into back-to-school time, knowing I was going to lose a lot of my reading momentum; I figured there was no better time to get through this thousand-plus-page tome. Plus, what better way to finish off a book-filled summer than with a little of the master?

Thoughts:
Wow. That's one evil book. It was disturbing how plausible the situation was, which made it remarkably disturbing how horrible everything turned out under the dome.

If you don't know (And I have no idea who I'm writing these for any more), the novel is about a small town in Maine (Just like 95% of King's books) that wakes up one October morning to find that an invisible forcefield has appeared (Actually, it happens around 10:00 am) that completely surrounds their town, following the contours of the town line exactly. The Dome goes up 30,000 feet or so before it arcs to create a roof; it goes down into the ground, presumably the same distance. It is entirely impenetrable, and very nearly impermeable; a very small amount of air and water can flow through, but nothing larger than particulate matter. A number of people crash into it, in cars and one airplane, and are killed immediately.

Everyone else has to wait for a little while before they are horribly slaughtered.

The novel is really about a Lord of the Flies situation (a parallel that the characters make), in which several hundred people are suddenly cut off from the outside world, and have to build their own society; just like in the book about the boys on the island, there is one leader who is both popular and influential, and despicably evil -- though Jack wasn't nearly as scummy as this guy is. Big Jim Rennie. He was so bad that when I went to school, near the end of this book, and looked at my class lists, I had a moment of revulsion when I saw that I have a student whose last name is Rennie. (She's actually very nice. So far . . .)

The town turns on itself, loses all sense of morality and propriety, and self-destructs, all while the entire world is watching from the other side of the transparent dome, all within about a week. Everything goes wrong, and everyone suffers. And the sad part for me was not how many people turned nasty; that was no surprise at all. The sad part for me was how many people believed Big Jim's bullshit. It seemed so obvious that he was lying through his teeth for the entire book -- and since these people had lived with him all their lives, they also should have known that he was lying through his teeth for much, much longer -- and yet they took his side and believed his nonsense. That was the most disturbing thing: how readily a good demogogue can sway a crowd, even though good, smart, capable people oppose him. Big Jim's ending, while gruesome, just couldn't be bad enough unless he got the full Mussolini.

Great book, very depressing.


69. (Vine) Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg 9/12

Pick:
I was most intrigued by the concept of a memoir by a prison librarian, neve having considered that such things exist. But of course they do. Then I looked at the product page and saw that it was endorsed by AJ. Jacobs, my very favorite know-it-all and one of my favorite memoirists, and I was sold.

Review:
This was not the book I expected.

I'm not totally sure what I expected, but I think it was something funny: something about a librarian hanging out with pimps and drug dealers, scattering literature across the infertile soil of a prison's worth of undereducated, life-hardened, embittered minds. I was looking for some uplift, here, something about how books can save even the toughest cases.

What I got instead was reality. Avi Steinberg, who falls into prison librarianhood mainly because he is avoiding the expectations of his strict Orthodox Jewish upbringing (Doctor or lawyer or rabbi, oh my!) but not making enough money as a freelance obituary writer (Another career I never really thought existed, though of course it does), does indeed hang out with pimps and drug dealers, but it isn't really funny. These are not the cartoonish pimps that floated through my mind, a cornucopia of platform shoes and ostrich feather hats and 70's jive lingo; these are actual hustlers, men who make their living off of the exploitation of women, men who are cold and calculating and violent no matter how charming they appear. And because they are human beings, they are also emotionally stunted victims themselves, sufferers of abuse and neglect and generational poverty; their less savory characteristics are simply their best defense against the world that surrounds them.

Although there is very little about the saving grace of literature and words and books, Steinberg does paint a vivid and touching portrait of the criminals he dealt with every day for the years he worked in Boston's South Bay prison, as well as a harsh and unflinching one. These people are complex, despite society's desire to affix simplistic labels and shove them into an appropriate drawer labeled "criminal" or "convict" or "scum." Some of them -- many of them -- are cruel and violent and dangerous, as evidenced by the encounters Steinberg has with them on the outside, once they have been released; two that he recounts in the book are a mugging, and a depressing encounter with a pimp and a hooker, both of whom he knew from the prison; Steinberg plays up to the pimp's ego before he realizes that by doing so he is encouraging the violent exploitation of the drug-addicted woman whom he knew and had friendly feelings towards. But there is also incredible sadness in these devastated lives; though there are no instances of the kind of violence usually depicted in Hollywood movies about prison life (another shallow prejudice broken by this book), there is certainly violence and turmoil, and many of the people Steinberg meets are dead before the book's last page.

What was most clear from reading this book is that Steinberg is an outstanding memoirist; he gives some wonderful background, on himself, his acquaintances within the prison, and prison itself, both the system and the specific institution he worked in. He has remarkable insight, leading me to pause frequently to consider a particular passage or idea; one of the most telling for me was the simple observation that American prison spending has multiplied even while spending on education, and on libraries, has fallen to almost nothing -- a trend that continues and accelerates in today's economy. And he is a great storyteller, able to bring the people and places to life. This was a great book, one that I think anyone would enjoy who had an interest in books or prison -- and I would wager that pretty much everyone has an interest in one or the other, if not both.

A small personal note: as a sometimes reluctant high school teacher, it was fascinating to me personally to read about Steinberg's experiences trying to teach a creative writing course as part of his librarian's duties, because the things he struggled with, and the mistakes that he made and the successes that he had, are very similar to my own experience. Not that I would compare high school students to criminals . . . but the reverse is actually a reasonable comparison; these criminals are in many ways like high school students, and it was very interesting to see.


70. (Vine) Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada and Jamar Nicholas 9/14

Pick:
I like graphic novels, I am interested in the roots and causes and results of violence and its place in our society. So I went for it.

Review:
I worry a little that some people will be disappointed by this book. Because of the title, which is both clever and brutally blunt (Or perhaps bluntly brutal), and the cover picture of a young boy with his fists raised ready to strike, I would guess some will see this as a story of a fighter, proud and aggressive, who is reveling in his past exploits and bloody victories.

But that's not what this is. This is a story of how violence can enter into one's life and one's world uninvited, unwanted, unsought for, and once in, can creep throughout until it affects almost every waking moment. Geoffrey Canada, who is clearly a remarkable man, managed to stop the spread of violence through his own self, to tear it out by the roots and look at it in the harsh light of day, like some malign parasitic worm. This story is his careful dissection and illustration of that worm of violence.

He grew up in a tough town, in a tough time; luckily for him it was not yet the age of handguns on the streets, or he very likely would not have survived. As it was, this man had to learn to fight as a young boy, and then learn to fight more, to hit harder, strike faster, suffer more pain and humiliation, and then still more -- it never stopped, really, until he left the neighborhood where he grew up. Even after he went to college, whenever he would return, the presence of violence, and his own tendencies to respond in kind, arose once more. He never seems glad to be involved in violence, but he learned not to shy away from it, by the simple expedient of being taught that turning away from violence only invited more violence. When he watched the boys in the neighborhood stretch a peaceful child, a boy who didn't want to fight, across the trunk of a car and beat him black and blue, he learned that lesson. When his friend, at the urging of an older boy, turned on him and threatened to beat him up just for the sake of proving that he could -- when his friend's face turned savage and enraged, for no good reason other than another's incitement to be violent -- he learned that lesson. There was no escape from the violence in his life as long as he lived in a world that centered around it.

The illustrations, by Jamar Nicholas, show that world and especially the feelings of those trapped in it wonderfully. They are raw and stark, black and white with a heavy line and blocky, almost golem-like figures; they are perfect for showing how a boy can become a brute, and the anguish and anger of living in a world that turns boys into brutes.

The book ends with a final plea from the adult Canada, founder and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone and a tireless activist for the elimination of violent worlds such as he lived through himself. It is a plea for the only thing that he believes can end this violence: hope. He says that we need to create hope for the children who live in worlds like this, the children of abuse and poverty and the inner cities, that we must show them that there is some way to survive and thrive other than through violence and crime. I think the man himself, and this story in this form, does a nice job of beginning that process. I would hope that people who read it will be inspired to try and do something to help move it along.

But even if you don't, still: read the book. It's a fascinating story, if a desperate and bleak one, and it's beautifully told.


71. Pirates! by Celia Rees. Finished on Pirate Day, damn yer liver and lights, the 19th day of Septembarrrrrr.

Pick:
Looked like a nice pirate book. I grabbed it now with the full intention of reading something piratey for Talk Like a Pirate Day, even if I did forget exactly what day said holiday fell on. I was going to read Empire of Blue Water, but I just finished a heapin' helpin' of non-fiction, and I wanted a novel.

Thoughts:
I liked it a lot; very piratey indeed, with a strong theme of freedom from oppression and equality on the open seas, both unavailable on land. The writing was good, especially around life on the West Indies as a plantation owner, as a slave on a sugar plantation, and as a maroon. The bad guys were especially gruesome and awful, which you have to have to make a pirate seem like a good guy; it was a nice touch that the bad guys were the capitalist oppressors (Come to think of it, there has been a very strong subcurrent of proletarian revolution in my reading of late. I wonder if it's me or the books themselves that lean that way. I wonder, if it is the books themselves, if it is meaningful that we seem to have more and more literature based on the idea of sticking it to the man, or has it always been that way?), the Brazilian, the slavedriver, the main character Nancy's brother and father, who toss her to the wolves, pretty literally, in order to keep their position secure.

I did think the first half of the book dragged on too long, since it starts back in England when Nancy is a young girl living in an upper-class household; much is made of her stepmother's attempts to tame this wild tomboy and marry her off to someone of quality. It was written well, and interesting, but it wasn't the story I was after. Then when Nancy's father is ruined, he decides to trade Nancy for money to the richest and most unscrupulous man he knows, the Brazilian, a former pirate, privateer, and now plantation owner. But then Daddy Kingston croaks, and her drunk of a brother moves to Jamaica to take over the family sugar plantation, and renews the deal to sell Nancy off; though now it is because the plantation is, in fact, in Nancy's name, and the drunk needs to get rid of her before he can get title. But Nancy befriends her slaves Minerva and Phillis , and finally ends up killing the man who was trying to rape Minerva, and so runs off to be a pirate.

That was the story I was looking for. And it was pretty damn good.


72. Empire of Blue Water by Stephan Talty 9/28

Pick:
It came up on my Amazon recommendations, because I likes me some pirates, so I found the pirate shelf at Powell's and picked this one up -- it got the highest ratings for its accuracy, and it was about a pirate that I knew almost nothing about, Captain Henry Morgan. I wanted a Blackbeard book, naturally, but it turns out there are almost no facts known about Blackbeard, just a shitload of rumors and a few details that any good pirate devotee already knows. So, Captain Morgan it was. I had to read this now because it was Talk Like a Pirate day when I finished the Pirates! novel, so what am I going to read, poetry? Narrrr!

Thoughts:
This was a great book, fascinating and informative both. It's the story of how the British moved in on the New World despite the rigid control and overwhelming power of the Spanish empire of the 1600's. It tells of how the British, under command of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (And there's another story I need to find out more about, the Puritan overthrow of the British monarchy), took Jamaica away from the Spanish, mostly because the Spanish didn't really want it, but also because the Spanish empire was not well run.

That's putting it lightly. The Spanish had everything, and they fucked it up from top to bottom. The book described the Spanish monarch at the time, Philip, and his obsession with creating a male heir -- sounds a lot like Henry VIII, except Philip believed it was God's curse because he had been a renowned philanderer throughout his youth; in fact he believed that every trouble that beset the Spanish empire was his fault, directly, that all of it was God's punishment for the misdeeds of the king. Philip spends more time worrying about the male heir rather than the British invasion, as he thinks that if God lets him have a son, it will show that God has forgiven him, and thus everything will turn out right afterwards. He does end up making a son, but the boy is so severely inbred and deformed and sickly that he can barely survive, let alone rule a massive kingdom that is a pure autocracy, with no authority or decision-making responsibility resting on anyone but the king himself.

The Spanish did try, over the years, to throw the British out of the New World and protect the massive wealth being stripped from America, but they failed -- largely because of the pirates. And the greatest pirate of the time was Henry Morgan.

This book tells the whole story, of how Port Royal came to be the capital of the British New World and also the home of the pirates; how Henry Morgan and other pirates set the Spanish back on their heels and then eventually drove them to ruin; how most of our images of pirates didn't fit the originals terribly well (Morgan was a brilliant tactician and a masterful leader of men. He was an unquestionably shitty sailor. Ran his boats onto coral reefs all the damn time. It's just embarrassing.) but the real thing was perhaps even more fascinating. And, of course, how it all fell apart, partly because the pirate lifestyle was pretty untenable, but mainly because Morgan himself turned away from pirating and became a pirate hunter, a plantation owner, and the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. It's one hell of a yarn, and a great piece of history, with a disturbing parallel to today. Really glad I read it.


73. Faefever by Karen Marie Moning 10/6

Pick:
I needed something light and fictiony.

Thoughts:
I got it. Loved this book, though it took me a while to read it. I hated the ending with a burning passion, especially since my current Vine commitments and slow reading pace -- and Towers of Midnight coming out in TWO WEEKS! -- mean I won't be getting to the next book for a while, most likely. At least I won't have to wait for the next book to be published, like Toni did; I'm more glad than ever that I bought that one for her (Or did I talk her into buying it?) before the paperback came out, because that much of a wait over this much of a cliffhanger would just be unforgivable.

Honestly, there isn't much to say apart from talking about the ending, because the ending was so overwhelming. I did like the way she seems to be handling her new set of alliances, especially with the Garda detective and the Sidhe-Seers; I'm interested in the druids, but don't know where that's going. It pisses me off that Mac needs protection, because the two "men" protecting her are such chauvinist dickheads, but she can't just tell them to fuck off and die, because she needs their damn protection -- and even thinking it, I can see their smug little faces. Totally annoying. If I were her, I would spend all of my time learning to defend myself better, so I could finally reach the Fuck-you point with both Barrons and V'Lane.

Good book.

74. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy edited by Gregory Bassham 10/16

Pick:
I love Harry Potter, I love philosophy. Tough call.

Review:
I liked this book. I've only read one other pop culture and philosophy book, on the Simpsons, and that one was more enjoyable for me because the authors managed to find intriguing aspects of the Simpsons to pull apart and recombine, like Dr. Moreau on his island, themes from a cartoon with philosophical concepts. This book did the same thing, but because there are some obvious and important themes in the Harry Potter books, I felt like the essays in this book were less of a surprise.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy them. The ideas were interesting and well-presented; it was fun to read about love and death and redemption, to hear philosophy couched in terms of a fantasy series that I've loved for years. I especially enjoyed Gregory Bassham's essays; the editor of the collection, he had three essays in it and collaborated on a fourth, in addition to the introduction to the collection. I thought he had the deepest and most original insights into the books, and his areas of interest just happened to coincide with mine.

The book was certainly not too heavy, and the references were not overly obscure or esoteric. I think anyone with a good knowledge of the Potter books and an interest in philosophy would enjoy the book, even if you lack prior philosophical knowledge; my own limited background in philosophy was no hindrance to my reading.


75. Animal Farm by George Orwell 10/17

Pick:
I was thinking about teaching it to my Honors classes, so I thought I should read it again -- for the first time since either eighth grade or Cabrillo, I can't remember if I read it when I read 1984 last time.

Thoughts:
It's a good book, and I'm going to teach it -- partly because it's really damn short, mainly because it is the PERFECT transition between the folktale unit I've been teaching and the next big thing I want to teach, which is Fahrenheit 451 -- but I wish I didn't know about the connection to the Russian Revolution. Because I knew the story was based on the Communist takeover of Russia, and Stalin's rise to power and then descent into tyranny, I kept looking for the correlations: Napoleon is Stalin and Snowball is Trotsky with a little Lenin; so who is Mollie, the foolish mare who betrays the farm for ribbons and sugar? Who is Boxer, the mighty carthorse? Who exactly are the neighboring farmers supposed to represent? I was interested to find out that the windmill is based on a real set of events, that Lenin and Stalin pushed for the electrification of the Soviet Union in order to modernize the country and show everyone that Communism was the bestest. But I think I will teach the book without telling them about the Russian Revolution aspect, and then tell them about it afterwards and have them examine the book for correlations. I just love that there is a book that takes me from folktales and myths and legends, to totalitarian dystopia, in one step. Thanks, Mr. Orwell.


76. The Book of the Dead by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson 10/25

Pick:
I love trivia, I liked the concept of the book.

Review:
This book was just what I expected when I was intrigued by the cover and the description. It was full of trivia, well-written, and interesting. It gave me insight into a good number of people I had never heard of before, but now want to hear much more about -- and I can't think of a better endorsement for a trivia book. It might have been a little Euro-centric, a little heavy on the Brits, since both authors are British and the main audience is, presumably, the same, but that just meant there were more people I had never heard of but should have (Edward Jenner is the name that stands out in my memory, though I was also fascinated to read about the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa). Now when I go to a cocktail party, I'll have something to talk about other than baseball.

(**Confessional Postscript: I've never been to a cocktail party and don't expect I will do so anytime soon. I also never talk about baseball. The truth is that I will cherish these trivial nuggets until I find an opportunity to lob them, at random, into conversations that have little if anything to do with the people I have learned about, thus discombobulating as many people as possible at once. I recommend both the activity and the book as a resource for same.)


77. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 10/31

Pick:
I had to read this again, because TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT IS COMING OUT, BABY!

Thoughts:
I loved this one, again. I totally lost my awareness of Sanderson's different writing style, other than the shorter chapters, which weren't a problem. I remembered just how much fun it is to re-read a book you truly enjoy; it's a lot of fun.

Now I can't wait for the new one to get here. Let's hope it comes today!


78. The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 11/11

Pick:
Yeah. Like there's any other book I'd read first. Well, maybe the lost fourth book of Lord of the Rings, but otherwise -- not gonna happen.

Thoughts:
First thing I should say: I miss Robert Jordan. There were some parts of this book that just weren't as well-written as they could have been, and part of me wants to say they should have been. The most egregious for me was Rand's confrontation with Egwene in the White Tower. He comes in, talks to her for a minute or so -- not more than a few pages -- and then tells her his plan. She thinks it's nuts. Then he leaves. And that's it: she doesn't try to talk him out of it, which she certainly should have, and he doesn't let her try, which he would have with his old fondness for her and his newfound inner peace. And after she made the strongest attempt she could, she should have contacted her allies in controlling Rand, namely Elayne and Nynaeve and the Wise Ones, to see if anyone else had a handle on his situation. Only AFTER she tried all of that should she have turned to her Amyrlin authority and decided to try to line up the countries against him, only AFTER trying to reach him personally and deciding it couldn't be done, and only after trying desperately to come up with another plan. Robert Jordan would have written it that way. With Sanderson, Rand walks out, and Egwene says, "He's nuts. I'll have to line up all the other nations to oppose him." This pissed me off, because Rand is the Dragon Reborn; what the hell makes Egwene think she has a better grasp on what can be done and what should be done about the Dark One? Ridiculous. I can accept that she would make the move she does, because she is Amyrlin and she has a duty, but it should have been harder for her to make herself do it, and it should have been a last resort. I think Gawyn was mishandled as well, and in fact, there was a real tendency in this book for characters to come to sudden realizations that changed their whole outlook, often without a whole lot of buildup. And this is because the author is trying to finish the books, and working off of notes only; Jordan would have had more to say in these matters. I would have liked to read Jordan's version.

On the other hand, this book did make me cry. Because I'm a big sap sometimes, and when Rand reunited with Tam after his epiphany, it made me tear up a little bit. And the struggle in Tel'aran'rhiod over the White Tower, and Egwene's fight with Mesaana, were epic, as were the assassins in the Tower itself -- but not as epic as Mat and Thom's assault on the Tower of Ghenjei, which was everything I was waiting for and more. And Perrin's struggle with the Whitecloaks and his own role and destiny were beautifully done, and most pleasant -- and I loved the outcome with Berelain. I liked everything that happened to move the plot forward, and I am now psyched for the last book. And it made me a little sad for Robert Jordan's death, again, because I would love to read more books in this world after the Last Battle. But it's not going to happen, because Sanderson has too much respect for Jordan's work, as does anyone else who would be capable of writing a sequel, I would hope (and I'm sure his widow would never license it out to anyone), and so do I, so I wouldn't want to read it. But I wish Jordan was around to write it, I surely do.


79. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris 11/11

Pick:
I actually went for this one because I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait for Towers of Midnight, and this was a series of essays I figured I could put down whenever THE BOOK arrived. And that's exactly what I did, until after I finished the epic tome; then I went back and read the last few essays in this one the same day.

Thoughts:
Sedaris is a good writer and a wonderful observer; he had some hilarious moments in here and some really poignant ones -- the two most noticeable for me in the first category were the time he and his siblings made their youngest sister lie down in the street so she would get run over by a car so they could force their mother to unlock the door and let them in, and the essay "Six to Eight Black Men," about the version of Santa in the Netherlands, which was hilarious; the most memorable poignant moment, if not the sister in the street one, was probably when he sat in front of his eldest sister's parrot, trying to get it to mimic him saying, "Forgive me." The other candidate, because it is something I would do myself, was his father's immobility when being accosted by the angry renter while they were trying to cut up the tree the man had felled for no good reason; I can see myself standing and being yelled at in just the same way, and it makes me glad I don't have children I need to defend and serve as role model too, because I don't think I'd do a very good job.

On the other hand, the book was damned depressing. Sedaris's family are deeply screwed up, and none more so than the author himself; at least, since his own psyche is the most fertile and open source of inspiration, that's the screwed-up family member we get the best look at. But if I want to read about screwed up people leading screwed up lives, I'll read Augusten Burroughs, who's a better writer than Sedaris and screwed up in a more interesting way.


80. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar 11/13

Pick:
I've been leaning towards this one, and I wanted some fiction after Sedaris's essays, and something light before my next non-fiction read, on the Wall Street collapse and who's responsible. Yikes.

Thoughts:
I liked it, though it was much the same as other British comic authors for me: interesting but not really hilarious and riveting. I'm not sure where the difference lies, that made me enjoy Douglas Adams so much more than this novel and Tom Holt's and Robert Rankin's; Holt and Rankin have a stronger narrative, like Douglas Adams, and this one was more fragmented and yet all came together in the end, which I liked -- but still, Adams is the king of funny novels, in my view. After Christopher Moore, of course, who blows them all away.

I did like this book. I liked the fairies and the female human heroine, Kerry. I liked the crazy bag lady and the various side stories, like the ghostly New York Dolls guitarist and the much-traveled triple-bloomed Welsh Poppy; I loved the Marxist revolutionaries against the industrialized fairy tyrant in Cornwall. Actually, the biggest problem I had with the book was probably all about the romances, which annoyed me from start to finish: I didn't care for the flirtatiousness of the main fairies, though that wasn't terrible; the primary love story, when the two fairies try to fix up Kerry and Dinnie, was annoying because Dinnie is a jackass and Kerry is very sweet, and I don't like the idea of a man putting on a facade in order to appeal to a woman with the hopes that somehow the facade will make him a better man, because that's nonsense. And especially in New York, there should be a decent guy that a nice girl like Kerry can find. But I liked the way that story wrapped up, especially what the fairies did for the girl. And the puppy love between the lead rebel and the king's stepdaughter was just annoying.

But overall, it was very nice, very enjoyable, had some great moments. I may try another of Millar's books, especially with a rousing endorsement from the great Neil Gaiman.