Bow Grip by Ivan E. Coyote

Genre: Fiction

It's rare, lately, that I purchase a book and read the entire thing the same day. Bow Grip was a great read. So great, in fact, that I did not once get up off of the couch for food, drink, or to urinate. That's how engrossed in the novel I was. (Plus the fact it's a short 219 pages). I initially went to Border's this morning for a non-fiction book for a class I'm taking (which I did purchase, by the way) and stumbled across this author's first novel. I'm quite glad I picked it up.

Perhaps the fact I, like Joey, am moving on and making changes in my life made the novel an enticing read. I'm not making huge changes in my life, mind you — it's all about baby steps — but I've made enough small ones that life is different (and better) than in the recent past. It's all about moving forward and making the most out of what life has dealt you. And remember that it's the small things (like the ability to relax and read an entire book in one sitting) that often provide the most happiness. 

  (out of 5) 

 
From Booklist
*Starred Review* When Joey Cooper, a small-town mechanic, trades a beat-up old car for a brand new cello, he thinks he's in the market for a new hobby; for a man trying to pull himself back together after his wife left him (for another woman), music might be just what he needs. What he finds, though, is a lot more than he counted on, and a search for a cello instructor becomes, in a laid-back sort of way, a quest for personal fulfillment. Coyote's first novel — she has published three short-story collections to considerable acclaim in Canada — is gently written, with a leisurely pace that allows us plenty of time to get to know Joey like a friend. His journey, to come to terms with his past and to find something worthwhile in his future, becomes our journey. In this story of an Everyman rediscovering that life is special, Coyote is telling all our stories, and it's impossible to read the novel without feeling like the author has been sneaking around behind us, observing the way we live and the way we think. Not too many novels make a reader feel like that--almost invaded but in a good kind of way. Keep your eyes on this Canadian writer; with a little luck and some word of mouth, she could make quite a splash sometime soon.
David Pitt Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Posted by MCoenen in Fiction (General)
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Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon

Genre: Fiction (Gay)

This is the second novel by Robin Reardon I have read; the first was A Secret Edge. Again, an excellent book and an excellent read that only took me a few days (and some long sessions) to finish. One drawback? The oddly-placed IM speak throughout the book. The inclusion of multiple acronyms (ROFL, GorS, for example) along with their meanings added nothing to the text and, in my opinion (IMO?) was not necessary. It's a given that adolescents (and many adults) frequently use IM speak when texting or (shudder) speaking; the in-text lessons were not necessary.

 (out of 5) 

From Publishers Weekly
Reardon's stirring novel grapples with homosexuality and born-again Christianity. When Taylor Adams comes out, his parents ship him off to Straight to God, a camp for those who have gone astray. The nightmarish camp seeks to exorcise the satanic influence from its charges, some of whom are gay, and some of whom are petty criminals or drug addicts. The camp's strict guidelines include no speaking for newbies (who wear yellow stickers on their clothing), the writing of Moral Inventories to be shared with group leaders, and prayer meetings. Taylor is furious about his incarceration, but through his intellect and open nature, he discovers leadership qualities in himself and learns that not everyone is the religious automaton they appear to be. Reardon's first novel (A Secret Edge) was geared to young adults; this new book, which includes frank language and sexual encounters, tries to reach out to older readers, albeit sometimes awkwardly (the explanation of text message–like acronyms, for instance, is clunky). While the extremes of the evangelical movement are harshly depicted, Reardon does a decent job overall of staying off a soapbox. The result is thoughtful and convincing.

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Posted by MCoenen in Fiction (GLB)
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We Disappear by Scott Heim

Genre: Fiction

Scott Heim is the author of Mysterious Skin — an amazing book in its own right. He delivers again with We Disappear. Wow. What a great read. Kudos, Scott, for writing such a riveting novel. Not much more I can say other than I'm glad I purchased the book.

I even e-mailed the author regarding this book. Something I try to do when a book is a "great read", but most authors don't publish their personal e-mail online for the masses to discover. Thanks, Scott Heim, for being human. (Like he'll ever stumble across this site. Ha!) 

From Publishers Weekly
Strange and luminous, this fascinating psychological thriller from Heim (In Awe) tackles questions of identity, illness and trauma. Scott, a writer and drug addict, travels back to Kansas from New York City at the request of his ill mother, Donna, who's become obsessed with missing children. Scott soon finds out that Donna believes she was kidnapped in her youth by an elderly couple who eventually returned her unharmed. This experience has led her to an odd alliance with a boy who leaves candy on Donna's front porch. When Donna becomes too ill to continue research for a supposed book on disappeared children, Scott, with help from a friend of Donna's, goes on the road for answers. Taut and beautifully clear, the writing at times recalls that of Paul Auster, but the plot ends in a place less interesting than where it began. The reader may feel that revealing the mundane truth behind Donna's childhood experiences betrays the essential mystery of all the lost boys and girls described in the novel.

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When You Don't See Me by Timothy James Beck

Genre: Gay Fiction

A good book. That's all. 

It seems more gay fiction authors are moving away from books in which being gay is THE story line and in which sex takes place, in detail, every other chapter. Yes, being gay is important to the plot and sex occurs (though it's glossed over and not at all detailed), but the store involves much more than those two things.

An okay read.  

Book Description
Being Invisible Is Nick Dunill's M.O.

or nineteen years, he's been "the one who disappears" to his disapproving, Midwestern family. And now in New York City, a metropolis of anonymity built on not making eye contact, he feels right at home. Walking the streets of the Village, sneaking into dive bars, cleaning apartments, and trying to co-exist in a cramped apartment with his three roommates, Nick's trying to find his way without doing anything to put his wounded heart at risk, all the while wondering, "Does anything last?"

But Nick's vanishing act is about to be challenged in ways he never dreamed. Little by little, he's being forced into the land of the living--into relationships and opportunities, love and sex, truth and acceptance, into the heartbreaking secrets of his past and the hopeful chances of his future. And the more visible Nick becomes, the more he realizes that in life and love, disappearing is not an option...

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Posted by MCoenen in Fiction (GLB)
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First Person Plural by Andrew W. M. Beierle

When read: March, 2008
Genre: Gay Fiction

Not a huge fan of the gay/lesbian section at the local Border's. It used to be an entire run of, for the most part, good literature and recently has turned into a gay/lesbian erotica section. Rarely do I find a good book to read just by browsing; usually I have a title in mind before I even hit the store.

First Person Plural, though, was a browsing purchase and is not at all erotic (in the sense that every other word is cock, ass, or cum). In fact, it's probably one of the better pieces of gay fiction I have read in quite a while.

Book Description
In this stunning novel, Andrew W.M. Beierle brings to life characters at once unthinkably foreign and utterly real. Frank and fearless, sexy and witty, First Person Plural is a masterfully rendered, powerfully imaginative work, as complex and as extraordinary as the bonds of love.

Owen and Porter Jamison are conjoined twins inhabiting one body with two heads, one torso, and two very different hearts. As children, they're seen as a single entity — Owenandporter, or more often, Porterandowen. As they grow to adulthood, their differences become more pronounced: Porter is outgoing and charismatic while Owen is cerebral and artistic. When Porter becomes a high school jock hero, complete with cheerleader girlfriend, a greater distinction emerges, as Owen gradually comes to realize that he's gay.

Owen, a reluctant romantic, is content at first to settle for unrequited crushes. Porter's unease with his brother's sexuality leaves Owen feeling increasingly alienated from his twin, especially when Porter falls in love with Faith, and Owen becomes the unwilling third side of a complicated love triangle. When Owen finally begins to explore his own desires, the rift grows deeper.

As Porter and Owen's carefully balanced arrangement of give-and-take, sacrifice and selfishness, is irrevocably shattered, each twin is left fighting for his relationship--and his future — in a battle of wills where winning seems impossible, and losing unthinkable...

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Posted by MCoenen in Fiction (GLB)
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City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

When read: March, 2008
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

Admittedly, the cover made the book jump out at me. (Come on... A nicely toned chest, tattoos, and longer curly blond hair? Maybe that'll be what my next "boyfriend" looks like...) Anyway. I've mentioned before how, often, juvenile fiction is better than adult fiction. When I finished drooling over the cover (ha! Just kidding), I did actually read the back of the book. It looked good even though it ultimately offered nothing new in terms of story or plot. (It seems the fantasy genre, especially in juvenile fiction, has exploded since the introduction of Harry Potter. Which equates to years of fantasy books and series with little, really, being worthwhile reading. Too few authors offer much that is new or exciting; City of Bones is no exception, but it's still an OK book.)

So I bought it. Read it rather quickly. And plan to purchase the next book in the series.

No, it's not the best fantasy ever written, but it held my interest. The fact that a few of the characters were not strangers to the art of sarcasm helped. 

From School Library Journal
When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires. Amid motorcycles powered by demon energies, a telepathic brotherhood of archivists, and other moments of great urban fantasy, the story gets sidetracked by cutesy touches, like the toasted bat sandwich on the menu of an otherworldly restaurant. The characters are sporadically characterized and tend toward behavior that is both predictable and slightly repellent–Clary finds out who her real father is about 200 pages after readers will have it figured out. Despite the narrative flaws, this version of New York, full of Buffyesque teens who are trying to save the world, is entertaining and will have fantasy readers anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.–Heather M. Campbell, Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

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Posted by MCoenen in Fiction (Juvenile)
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The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954 by Charles M. Schulz

When read: February, 2008
Genre: Comic

I'm currently reading and collecting the entire series. 1953-1954 is book 2 of a proposed 28 book collection, and I own the volumes through 1966 (volumes start with the year 1950).

Yes, I'm a Snoopy/Peanuts fan, and I have been since I was little. Now find me good copies of Charlie Brown's Complete Books of Questions and Answers, and I'll be your best friend.

From Publishers Weekly:
This second thick volume in The Complete Peanuts makes for a delicious wallow in a nostalgic world that has a lot more bite than readers may recall. Although some feel that Schulz's later work assumed a certain predictability, his early strips are undeniably crackling. Schulz portrays a children's world that's anything but idyllic, complete with fusspots, tortured artists, exclusive clubs, insecurities and kites that refuse to fly. One strip shows Lucy destroying Charlie Brown's puzzle, kicking Schroeder's piano and stomping on Linus's cookies; the final panel shows her fleeing, pursued, moaning, "I'm frustrated and inhibited and nobody understands me." Another strip depicts the harsh reality of unpopularity; the illustration shows section after section of fence scrawled with graffiti that reads "Linus loves Violet. Shermy loves Patty. Lucy loves Schroeder. Charlie Brown loves Charlie Brown." It's said Schulz's work draws on his own experiences, and this becomes especially clear when Charlie Brown himself decides to draw a comic strip and doesn't get the public response he'd hoped for. (His work is about a man who decides to ride across the country on a lawn mower.) The Peanuts landscape is the familiar neighborhood, with trees, sidewalks, sandboxes, ball fields and remarkably generic interiors. As always, the illustrations are a marvel of simplicity and the insights are haunting.

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Posted by MCoenen in Comics
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The Baby by Al Sarrantonio

When read: February, 2008
Genre: Horror

Book #3 in Cemetery Dance's Signature Novella Series. Not the best book I've ever read — it was short enough I read it in under an hour in one sitting — but only because the illustrations made the bad guy look like a slimmed-down version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading through to the last page...

Best of all, I have #452/500 and it's signed by both the author and illustrator. Ah, the joys of specialty-press printing. 

Product Description:
Detective Bill Grant has seen it all in Orangefield — and always around Halloween. For that is when Samhain, the Celtic Lord of the Dead who has made this pumpkin-growing upstate New York town his home, plies his trade. But this year when Autumn rolls around, Grant is confronted with something brand new — and even more horrifying than anything he has seen before. For when Marianne Carlin finally gets the gift she has been waiting for, a child from her husband Jack, it turns out that the baby was conceived after Jack's sudden death in an automobile accident. Which means the child may not belong to this world at all....

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Posted by MCoenen in Horror/Thriller
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Duma Key by Stephen King

When read: February, 2008
Genre: Horror

King was supposed to retire years ago, and I, for one, am glad he didn't. While his current novels are more psychologically thrilling than terrifying, they all contain an element of shit-your-pants horror. Classic King (think Carrie, Salem's Lot, Cujo).  I read this book over a period of days and never really wanted to put it down. 

Book Description:

No more than a dark pencil line on a blank page. A horizon line, maybe. But also a slot for blackness to pour through...

A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else.

"Edgar, does anything make you happy?"

"I used to sketch."

"Take it up again. You need hedges... hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural — Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.

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Posted by MCoenen in Horror/Thriller
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The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1952 by Charles Shulz

When read: February, 2008
Genre: Comics

From Amazon.com:
Good grief! The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 launches the most ambitious and most important project in the comics and cartooning genre: over a period of 12 years, Fantagraphics Books will release every daily and Sunday strip of Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts," the best-known and best-loved series in the world. Most everyone with an interest in its history has seen the very first strip ("Good ol' Charlie Brown... How I hate him!" ), but this first volume follows it up with 287 pages (three daily strips or one Sunday per page) of vintage material in chronological order. "Peanuts" was unique at the time for portraying kids who seemed like real kids, but they also had a wisdom beyond their years, embodied especially by the lovable loser, Charlie Brown, who even in these early years has lost 4000 checker games in a row. We see him don his familiar jagged-stripe shirt for the first time (December 1950) and, at the age of 4, at his peak as a babe magnet. Shermy is the other significant boy, and the girls in their lives are Patty (not to be confused with Peppermint Patty) and Violet. Schroeder is an infant who has learned to sit up in order to play Beethoven on his toy piano. Snoopy is an anthropomorphic dog who plays baseball (April 1952) and has his own thoughts (October 1952). In March 1952 we meet a bug-eyed Lucy, who by November has been designated "Miss Fuss-Budget of 1952" and is pulling the football away from Charlie Brown (Violet had done it a year earlier). Her baby brother Linus arrives in July 1952. The book itself is beautifully packaged, the strips printed large and clear on high-quality paper and accompanied by an in-depth essay by David Michaelis, a 1987 interview with Schulz, an introduction by Garrison Keillor, and even an index of characters and subjects. It's so well-done that any reader will be impatient for the rest of the series, but in the meantime this is a book to savor. --David Horiuchi

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