Chick Lit from a Cool Chick

I will be the first to admit that I am not a reader of Chick Lit. I am more a mystery and fantasy gal. I have read part of a series by Shanna Swendson which I consider "supernatural chick lit" and I enjoyed them but I haven't tried anything else yet. So I consulted my pal Kristin,the Chick Lit guru and got buckets of good suggestions for you. Her favorites are Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes, Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, and In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. She also recommended some newer ones: Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck, Dirty Girls on Top (the newest by Valdes-Rodriguez), and The Ex-Debutante by Linda Francis Lee. So hats off to Kristin--the coolest chick I know! Oh and don't forget my only contribution to the list:

Enchanted, Inc.

Once Upon Stilettos

Damsel Under Stress

Don't Hex with Texas (2008)

If you want more Chick Lit suggestions try our Good Reads page on our website at www.wclibrary.info.

Books I Love: Alabaster

Alabaster by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Commanded by an angel no one else can see, an albino girl named Dancy Flammarion travels the scorched backroads of Georgia in search of otherworldly prey: the Children of Cain. Nightwalkers. Monsters that for ages have hidden themselves in the dark places of our world. Monsters that feed on us. Dancy--homeless, motherless, and utterly alone--was first introduced in Kiernan's Threshold, and she is the heroine of this short story collection. Unlike many of the cookie-cutter protagonists populating today's dark fantasy and paranormal fiction, Dancy isn't drop-dead gorgeous and she has neither a blackbelt in karate nor any sort of law-enforcement or combat training. Really, she's just a teenager armed with only an old carving knife and the ability--or curse--to see monsters that others cannot, and that's all she needs to get the job done. If you're looking for romance, look elsewhere: Dancy doesn't date the monsters, she kills them. Alabaster is one of my favorite collections by one of my favorite authors, so if you're a fan of dark fantasy and looking for something a little different from the norm, give it a shot.

September 10, 2008: The End Of The World?

Probably not, but who doesn't love a big juicy headline like that? For those of you who aren't nerds, the world's most powerful nuclear particle accelerator, lovingly referred to as the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), is set to go online September 10, 2008, and concerned naysayers are predicting the end of all life as we know it. Relax, experts say, but we all know what happens when scientists start goofing around with things best left alone--well, in fiction we do. Can anyone say Arrowhead Project? Yep, in Stephen King's The Mist our government geniuses wound up punching a hole into another dimension and letting loose all manner of tentacled and winged vermin. Think you're having a bad day? Look at the pic above and think again. And let's not forget Douglas Preston's Blasphemy, in which a "giant superconducting supercollider particle accelerator" named Isabella connects scientists to a higher power that may be God--or the devil, depending on your perspective--inciting mayhem of Armageddon-like proportions. Hmmmm....I guess I'd prefer a raging bloodthirsty mob over giant bloodthirsty monsters, and I'd take either over an earth-sucking miniature black hole. Anyway, read the books, then kiss your loved ones goodbye. (Kidding!)

22 days and counting....

Southern Gothic

I recently read a fascinating novel by Cherie Priest called Four and Twenty Blackbirds. I thoroughly enjoyed the supernatural aspects and her writing style which is considered Southern Gothic. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Southern Gothic is "a style of writing practiced by many writers of the American South whose stories set in that region are characterized by grotesque, macabre, or fantastical incidents." Some classics include The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Wise Blood, Bastard Out of Carolina, No Country for Old Men, and most anything by William Faulkner.

These are a few newer examples of this style:

The River Wife by Jonis Agee

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Hunting the King by Peter Clenott

Deep in the Shade of Paradise by John Dufresne

Women of Magdalene by Rosemary Poole-Carter

2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominees

The ten finalists for the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize have been released. The 2006 inaugural prize was created to recognize the power of writing to promote peace. One winner in both categories of Fiction and Non-Fiction will be awarded a $10,000 prize. This is "the only international literary peace prize award in the U. S." Try the following titles in both categories and I hope you will gain a better understanding of other cultures and their points of view.

Fiction

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead

Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon

The Ocean in the Closet by Yoko Taniguchi

Song for Night by Chris Albani

Non-Fiction

Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel

Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy

Break Through by Michael Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus

Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat

Fragile Edge by Julia Whitty

Please let me know if you can think of any other titles that promote the cause of peace.

Writers Under Siege

"The freedom to write is under threat today, with more than 1,000 writers, journalists, and publishers known to be imprisoned or persecuted in more than 100 countries. Some have been tortured, some have been killed. All understand the cost of speaking up and speaking out." And so goes the description of a fantastic PEN anthology titled Writers Under Siege. I read this back in March and I was reminded of it again when I heard about another Chinese author being thrown in jail this week, and this on the eve of the Olympics. I cannot express how lucky I feel everytime I read a book that I have the freedoms I do. The essays in this book are inspiring, touching, even funny, and so, so brave. So read it and experience it and thank these writers and others like them for sharing their words and sacrificing so much of themselves to make the world a better place.

Orhan Pamuk--2006 Nobel Prize winner from Turkey

Anna Politkovskaya--murdered October 7, 2006 in Russia

In the Queue

Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and
How We Can Renew America
by Thomas Friedman
According to this author, green is the new red, white and blue and a
necessary national strategy to reduce global warming and make
America healthier, richer and more productive.

The 19th Wife
by David Ebershoff
Think you have marital problems? Anna Eliza Young is the 19th
wife of Mormon leader Brigham Young and she has had enough.
She has separated from him, been expelled from her church, and is
now embarking on a crusade to end polygamy.

Leather Maiden
by Joe R. Lansdale
Journalist Cason Statler returns to Camp Rapture, Texas where he
drinks too much, stalks his ex-girlfriend and envies his happily
married older brother.

Danielle Steel Cranks Out 75th Book, Thanks Kids (Again)

Say what you will about Danielle Steel, you can't deny she's prolific. Her 75th book, Rogue, hit bookstores in June to the glee of romance-novel readers everywhere. Despite Steel's huge success--she has over 570 million books in print and 16 of her novels have been bestsellers--she still deals with the nagging insecurities that plague most struggling writers: "I still never finish a book without being terrified I can't write another one. I never start one without being terrified I can't finish it." Oh, but we needn't fear waking up to a world without a new Danielle Steel novel--she has no plans of stopping anytime soon. "I'm driven from inside," she said in a recent interview. "A story will come to mind and it has to come out, like a frog with a bubble. I want to work forever. And try to get better forever."

You heard right, folks. Forever.