Between the Covers - Book Review #3

The book gods smiled on me this week. I have three books to share with you and no bad reviews.

1) Emma Bull's Finder is a wonderful YA novel set in Bordertown, the land originally created by Terri Windling. (Bordertown is the town between Fairy and our world where humans, elves, and half-bloods exist.) Orient is a finder with a secret. He came to Bordertown after committing a terrible crime in our world. Now he's been commissioned with his friend, Tinker, to find the person who is selling a dangerous drug to humans. The drug "supposedly" will turn a human into a TrueBlood so they can cross the border into Fairy, but in reality, people are dying terrible deaths. This book is filled with wonderful, quirky characters and moves fast. I recommend it.

2) Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner promises to entertain young adults and adults alike. Her take on the world of the Fae and the war between humans and faeries is original and creative. In the town where Liza lives, humans fear magic after The War. Plants and trees left behind by the Fae attack and kill without warning, but in another town, humans have learned that magic is a gift that can be controlled. When Liza's magical talents begin to manifest, she knows she must run away from home before her father kills her like her baby sister. She discovers an entire town filled with people with magical abilities and the secret of what really happened to her mother, a dark secret that will lead her to St. Louis, Missouri and through The Arch into the destroyed world of Faerie. It's been a long time since I've read such an inventive book about Faerie. You will not be disappointed with this one.

3) Tom Piccirilli's The Deceased is brilliantly written. Where other authors use gore simply for shock value, Piccirilli weaves a visceral tale of the gothic and supernatural. It's a whole new animal. Author Jacob Maelstrom returns to his childhood home where ten years ago his sister beheaded his entire family with an axe. Jacob hid in his closet for three days before anyone found him, but he doesn't consider himself a survivor. Haunted by the memories of that night and wondering what happened to his family's heads, as they were never found, Jacob returns to the scene of the grisly murders in hopes of coming to grips with his violent past, but will he cope with the secrets he uncovers? I cannot say enough good things about this novel. It's a must-read for any horror fan. Beautifully written and very emotionally gripping, you have to get this book.

Bookin' It Reviews - #1

Master Houdini couldn't resist putting in his two whiskers worth of opinions for my latest book review. As you can see, he highly approves of my reading selections as a headrest for scholarly cats with creative leanings.

I also changed my book review post title. I got bored. It happens. *grins*

Here are three fantastic selections for all you bookworms out there.

1) A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli. The book is riveting. I read it so fast I couldn't believe it. This is a southern gothic novel -- very twisted. In the town of Kingdom Come, a backwards southern swampland with a habit towards floods of biblical proportions, live Thomas and his brothers, three conjoined triplets fond of deviant behavior with no qualms about hiding a dark family secret from Thomas. The cast of characters is as bizarre as the ones from the 90s hit T.V. drama, Twin Peaks. If you love weird, this one is for you. Superbly written and darkly damning, you can't miss it.

2) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness is the perfect way to celebrate the beginning of fall and the Halloween season. This novel is the first book in the All Souls Trilogy. The next is expected out in 2012. Deborah Harkness combines historical fact with fantastical fiction in this tale of a witch with an exceptional family lineage -- the Bishops of Salem witch trial fame. Diana Bishop is a scholar studying alchemy manuscripts at Oxford in England, when she meets a mysterious vampire, Matthew Clairmont. After researching an intriguing and long-lost alchemy manuscript with a spell attached to it, Diana alerts all the demons and vampires to its location. The manuscript supposedly holds the key to the origin of vampires and demons. Matthew Clairmont falls in love with the beautiful and bewitching Diana Bishop while protecting her from the supernatural forces hell-bent on getting the manuscript's location, but there is an ancient covenant the two have broken. Two different kinds of supernatural beings cannot be romantically involved. Now, fighting for their lives and the precious alchemical book, Diana and Matthew must face even greater supernatural forces than expected. This book is a delight and I cannot wait for the second. And never fear -- this is nothing like an Anne Rice novel. It's waaaay better.

3) Welcome to Bordertown: New Stories and Poems of the Borderlands, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner, returns Bordertown fans to the urban fantasy setting they love. Carrying on the Bordertown tradition, authors such as Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen, and Emma Bull give you a whole new set of tales set in the city bordering our world and the world of the Fae. This book will not disappoint. It is as lovely as the original Bordertown tales and a real treat for urban fantasy lovers. All of the stories are great. It is hard for me to pick a favorite to mention here, but let's just say that there are spell-boxed motorcycles, talented Celtic musicians, Green Men, and more in  this collection guaranteed to satisfy. I highly recommend it.

As always, happy writing and happy reading!


Support Your Fellow Writer

I'm on Facebook networking with other writers, one of which is Tom Piccirilli. Recently, Mr. Piccirillii started asking people to review at least one book a week and support other writers. He also gives writers a platform on his Facebook page each week to ask questions and to discuss books and promote their own writing, which is a great idea.

In that spirit, I am urging you, writer, whether, small press, large press, no press and just for fun, all bloggers, writers everywhere, to promote someone else's work this week besides your own.

There are a number of ways you can do this:

1) If you have a blog like mine, it's really simple. Write a book review or an article about a particular author's life. Post a blogroll. Add someone new to an existing blogroll. Invite another author to do some guest blogging; cross-promotion can be beneficial to them and you. The possibilities abound! You could even start your own blog today, if you've been procrastinating.

2) Join a book review site. There are plenty out there to choose. I am a member of Goodreads. I keep track of all the books I read and review them on there. There are also lots of reading groups and forum discussions where you can promote a writer on these sites.

3) Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also great ways to share your favorite authors with your friends.

4) If someone's birthday or another important gift-giving day is coming up, consider purchasing them something thoughtful that will last. Buy a book to celebrate their day. If you love book shopping as much as I do, then you have my permission to book til you drop! Buy a new book for yourself this week, whether in paper, audio, or digital format.

6) Another way to support your fellow writer is to check out books from your local library. Many people may not be aware of this, but if a book sits for too long on the shelf, it eventually makes it way to the book sales and out of circulation. Libraries have limited space and cannot afford to keep books around that aren't checked out year after year after year. So save your favorite author's place at the library and make sure you check out their books!

7) Attend a local poetry reading or a book signing in your area. There's nothing worse than reading at an empty coffee shop.

8) If you are a t-shirt geek like me, you can find lots of book related shirts on Cafepress. My two favorite writing shirts in my dresser are from Hamlet and Edgar Allan Poe. While Shakespeare and Poe are both six feet under, I'm still a fan and support their work! There are other items book related. Perhaps, a little gift shopping is in order. You can also check out your favorite author's site and see if they have merchandise for sale. (I'm a big fan of the Kim Harrison's burning bunny pins.)

In the spirit of this article, I posted a list of writing/book blogs yesterday.

If you have other suggestions you would like included, please feel free to either post them in Comments or email me and I will add them here.

As always, happy writing and happy reading to all!