World of Trouble

I was having a difficult time sleeping last week, and on this particular night, as it was a weekend, I decided to stop just lying there tossing,  turning, and twitching, so I finished this book.  I was close to doing so, but had decided to hold off until the next day and give it my complete attention ( I was getting pretty tired...).  So I did, I stayed up and read on until it was finished.  Guess what I dreamt of when I finally went to sleep that night?
Which brings me to my next thought.  While I read these books, every now and then mild curiosity would graze my consciousness about what I would do if I were in the same situation?  I tried not to spend any thought on it at all... I am the kind of person who prefers to deal with it if it comes, and not imagine desperate scenarios.  Why waste time on something that may not ever happen? While I do not live as if every day is my last, I sure as heck don't like to waste time, so I live my life doing what I love doing best.  My dream showed me what I would do.  I was in a room (with loved ones supposedly, but as it is with dreams, there is not really anyone specific), but I knew I was with people I loved, and I was getting annoyed, because as the time grew closer to the inevitable, these shadows would keep on closing the curtains, and I would struggle to open them again, because I wanted to see!   In lots of my dreams there are bizarre obstacles to overcome, and I struggled through each one to make sure that I could see what was happening...kind of like a Robert Munsch book, where I repeated actions over and over again to get to the end result.  Finally, after pulling down curtains, breaking blinds, and ripping apart with my bloody hand's storm shutters, I saw.  I saw an eclipse, then some spectacular aurora borealis, and then a rapidly brightening light in the sky...which was when I woke up. 
Wow!  How's that for a book that made a powerful impact? (and I totally did not mean for that to be a double entendre, but clever me anyway har har!).  I wish I could speak to Ben H. Winters in person and thank him for such an amazing tale.  An adventure that had me fan-girling Hank, thinking in ways that had me reaching conclusions and seeing things that I have never considered before.  
So if you are looking for an apocalyptic crime fiction which will lead you through to the end of the world with lots of adventure and food for thought along the way, a story that feels real, this is the biscuit!  I mean it.  I can't wait to see what Winters does next as you know I will be first in line to buy it!

Countdown City

The second installment of The Last Policeman trilogy, it does not disappoint.  I have sometimes found that when a trilogy is planned, the middle book is mostly stuffing, a little bit of filler before the exciting stuff happens in the last book, not so with Countdown City.  The protagonist Hank Palace is to me, a very 'Harry Dresdenesque' character (the kind my best friend and I fan girl about).  He fights the good fight no matter what, he cares beyond the reason of his peers, and he suffers for his attempts to do the right thing.  Enmeshed in the drama of this amazing policeman's life is the other drama surrounding him, of the world about to end.  This book packed a powerful punch and in all the right places, and I'm looking forward to and dreading at the same time what happens next in World of Trouble.

The Last Policeman

                                    

I first read this two years ago and them promptly forgot it.  Why? Because it was  going to be a trilogy and I was not going to think about it again until I had the complete set beside my reading chair.  And it worked!  I actually did forget most of what happened (though really, after reading at least four hundred books between then and now, I guess it wasn't something I had to put too much effort into...).
I have, since the first time, developed a strong fondness for Ben H. Winters (well...Quirk Publishing in general).  Okay, I can even go as far as saying that I love this guy!  Since my first reading of The Last Policeman I have also read, Bedbugs, and Android Karenin (which was no small feat of adaptation!).  So I feel that I have come to know the author a little better.  Coming back to The Last Policeman was a treat (and considering that I had just finished Farewell, My Lovely by the great Raymond Chandler that's really saying something!).  I really paid attention to all the details, noticed more than I had forgotten, really got to know the protagonist Hank Palace. 
Now that the other two are published Countdown City and World of Trouble, I freely recommend this pre-apocalyptic, police detective series, it's a different spin on chaos, on humanity in a crisis, with a plot that is engrossing, and not too hard to follow.  Getting close to the end of Policeman I really felt the excitement, the build up to the finale which was not disappointing and it left, naturally, questions which I look forward to getting the answers to in the next two installments.

Bedbugs!

                         
Devoured in one day.  Why? Because it was just so enthralling!   The ultimate in  psychological thrillers.  Bedbugs.  The very idea is uncomfortable, but add to it black illustrations of bedbugs along the spine of the book at certain stages in their life cycle that make the book creepier still.  The story brought strongly to mind one of Alfred Hitchcock's thrillers,  Vertigo.  I couldn't put it down until I knew how it would all work out, so I recommend putting aside a day for reading this.  I also recommend not reading it in bed!

Verily, A New Hope...

Okay, I will admit it.  I am a hopeless fan of the fiction sections of Quirk Publishing.  So when they come out with something as crazy as this, I am a sucker for it and will grab it off the shelf with an ‘Ooh’ of appreciation and a twinkle in my eye.  I never suspected this of myself, it was a surprise to me when I first spotted Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in the book store, and I admit that I did resist for a while, until Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters showed up under my Christmas tree, and that was it, I was hooked.
So this new book is not only something different again from the usual but has the usual quirky spin to it.  The inclusion of certain familiar dialogues had me falling out of my chair with laughter, because it was so unexpectedly surprising.  I have always enjoyed the use of those lines and passages that are so familiar to me in an interesting and often funny way, I don’t view this as disrespect of the original work but as a loving homage to what has come before, and also an opportunity to introduce such old works to a new audience, because after all, why would someone want to stop at just the one thing when there is so much more out there to enjoy?
I love the asides, so beloved of the original Shakespeare, and used to maximum comedic effect here.
So if you love Star Wars and Shakespeare this is a lot of fun, and if you are a high school English teacher I heartily encourage you to get the gratis study guide online at quirkbooks.com/ShakespeareStarWars  your students will love it!

Android Karenina

I love a good mash-up.   I didn't always feel that way, I resisted Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and it wasn't until DH had given me Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters for Christmas one year that I finally had a look and found it to be quite funny.  There was no stopping me then!  It isn't as I had feared, the original books were treated with respect, not contempt.  There is however one mash-up that did not turn out well... The Meowmorphosis.  I have too much love for the original (I always passionately defend the ones that make me cry), and this treatment was not meant to be, perhaps because the original already had a fantastic storyline and changing it from a cockroach to a kitten, didn't end up being very funny or even very cute.    
 Reading as I have recently The Elegance of the Hedgehog where scenes from the original Anna Karenin was mentioned quite often it was funny to see the Ben Winters version and appreciate the thought and humour that he had put into such a monumental book.  It was sweet because there was so much of Leo Tolstoy there, but with some humour as well thanks to Ben.  I want to go back now and re-read the original, but that won't be a good idea for a year or so yet.  Don't miss the questions at the end... they are hilarious!

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Do you know those things that you encounter during your life that are very interesting or challenging in some way and you make a mental note "I'll have to do that sometime" and yet you never do?    There are many things in my life that I have a mental list for; quilts I have to make, places I have to travel to, foods I have to try, experiences I have yet to have, books, music, movies... the list has grown to immense proportions over the years to a point where I despair of ever doing any of it (especially when there are obstacles in the way like not enough time or money).  But to counterract this despair today I am pleased to announce that I am going to do one thing.  I am going to read the top ten list of "Whats Hot" on Library Thing.  Small potatoes, I know, compared to other things I want to do, but you have to start somewhere right?  And I have been bugging myself to do this for over a year (every time I go on to LibraryThing and see the list).  I have already read two:  Inheritance by Christopher Paolini and now Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

You have to look closely at the picture to see what is peculiar about it.  I didn't notice at first, but I was drawn to this story anyway just by the charm of the little girl in the picture and the title (plus this is a Title from Quirk Books which has become one of my favourite new publishers). This unusual title appealed to me and this book has been on my 'to read' list ever since I first spotted it last year.  It doesn't hurt that one of the categories for my reading challenge this year is Intriguingly Titled Books (the wierder the better!).

I liked this story, and was only mildly annoyed that it will be a series (or that there will be a sequel at least).  These days it has been a practice of mine not to even bother with series until they are finished.  It is too much work after a while... since I read so many books, I cannot retain every story line, so like I just did with The Inheritance Cycle, I have to re-read previous stories so that I can keep up (which explains my annoyance at Christopher Paolini when he switched from a trilogy to the four book set because I had to re-read everything first). 

This is a neat idea for this book.  The photos throughout were the inspiration for the story...

...and it adds to the strangeness.  There's nothing like some real life to add to the authenticity and creepiness of the tale.  There is this strange feeling that I experience when I look at photos like this, and not just the ones that are doctored to be unusual.  There is a mystery to the past, which is slightly unsettling because I cannot relate to the person in the photograph with the old fashioned clothes and hair.  What were they like, how did they live, how could they have lived without the conveniences that I take for granted today?  These are foreigners... people who did not live like I do.  While I know that they had the same feelings, goals, and dreams of people today, it is still a mystery and one that I will never know the answer to.  The label 'creepy nostalgia' seems to fit this novel. 

 I hope I don't have to wait too long to find out what happens next.