Xpress Reviews-First Look at New Books
-- Library Journal, 10/23/2009
The week of Oct. 23, 2009
Fiction | Nonfiction | Graphic Novels
Fiction
By Blood We Live. Night Shade. Oct. 2009. c.491p. ed. by John Joseph Adams. ISBN 978-1-59780-156-0. pap. $15.95.
The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published. Vintage: Random. Oct. 2009. c.704p. ed. by Otto Penzler. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-307-47389-9. pap. $25. HORROR
Literary interest in vampires never dies. Adams, assistant editor at the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and anthologist (Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse), has assembled a superb mixture of modern vampire tales that range from humor to horror, from poignant to romantic. Neil Gaiman begins the volume with a macabre retelling of the Snow White fairy tale, "Snow, Glass, Apples." Barbara Hambly’s "Sunrise on Running Water" is the hilarious story of a vampire who chooses to sail on the unsinkable Titanic. And in the chilling "One for the Road," Stephen King revisits Salem’s Lot. Other authors include Kelley Armstrong, Lilith Saintcrow, Carrie Vaughn, Joe Hill, and Brian Stableford.
Unfortunately, editor Penzler’s compilation disappoints. Owner of New York City’s popular Mysterious Bookshop and editor of The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, Penzler gathered 84 stories in a volume of more than 1000 unwieldy pages. Present are well-known, nicely wrought stories like Sheridan Le Fanu’s "Carmilla" and Bram Stoker’s "Dracula’s Guest," but missing are significant tales like Suzy McKee Charnas's "The Unicorn Tapestry" and the Saint-Germain stories by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Included is an extensive bibliography of vampire novels and short stories.
Verdict Highly recommended for all vampire fiction fans. Only libraries with large horror collections should consider purchase of The Vampire Archives.—Patricia Altner, BiblioInfo.com, Columbia, MD
Harris, Charlaine. Grave Secret. Berkley Prime Crime. (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Bk. 4). Oct. 2009. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-425-23015-2. $24.95. M
Thanks to being struck by lightning, Harper Connelly can see dead people. In her fourth outing (after An Ice Cold Grave), Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver are back in Texas, meeting with clients and visiting their baby stepsisters. Tolliver’s father, Matthew, reappears, too, this time clean of drugs. As if family tensions aren’t tough enough, they must dodge mysterious bullets. Could the shooting be related to Harper’s Texas clients?
Verdict While Harris’s tightly paced mystery is a good series entry, newbies should read the first three books because the story line and characters develop chronologically. Some readers may also be offended by the romantic relationship between stepsiblings Harper and Tolliver. This title will be most appreciated by Harris fans and readers who enjoy paranormal mysteries. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/09.]—Crystal Renfro, Georgia Inst. of Technology Lib., Atlanta
Patton, Lisa. Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'Easter. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Oct. 2009. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-312-55660-0. $23.99. F
Southern belle Leelee Satterfield moves to Vermont from Memphis to follow her husband’s dream of managing an inn. It doesn’t take long before realizing that following someone else’s dream isn’t working for her—she hates the cold and finds life different in the North, in a bad way. When her husband leaves her for another woman, Leelee is forced to run the inn alone. But when her Southern girlfriends pay a visit, they help transform the inn into a place of Southern charm. Leelee’s life starts to look up even more when a sexy sous chef, Peter, comes into the picture.
Verdict This debut by a Southern author who, like Leelee, spent three years as an innkeeper in Vermont, is sure to please Adriana Trigiani and Fannie Flagg fans. Filled with colorful characters who prove the South has nothing on the North when it comes to eccentrics, and with the ambiguous ending regarding Leelee’s romance with Peter, this will have readers eagerly awaiting the sequel. [75,000-copy first printing; library marketing campaign.]—Karen Core, Detroit P.L.
Pratchett, Terry. Unseen Academicals. HarperCollins. Oct. 2009. c.400p. ISBN 978-0-06-116170-4. $25.99. FANTASY
The 37th novel (after Making Money) in Pratchett’s wildly popular "Discworld" series is set in the bustling metropolis of Ankh-Morpork and boasts the return of the wizards of Unseen University. Lord Vetinari, Ankh-Morpork’s patrician, is responsible, as usual, for setting into motion the novel’s two main story lines: the assimilation of a member of an ancient, and heretofore shunned race, into the city, and the regulation of "foot-the-ball," a game that leaves the streets littered with bodies of players and spectators alike.
Verdict While having more than its fair share of laugh-out-loud lines, this title is far from Pratchett’s best. Pratchett's great wisdom about, and fondness for, the human condition and his humorous observations about its absurdity are both in evidence, but aren't integrated as seemlessly as usual. However, it is still a well-written crowd pleaser. For serious fans, but newcomers might prefer to start with an earlier title, Sourcery, which focuses on the Unseen University and its denizens.—Amy Watts, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens
Nonfiction
Bonomo, Joe. Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found. Continuum. Nov. 2009. c.224p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-0-8264-2966-7. $19.95. MUSIC
Way back in the early 1960s, Hunter S. Thompson established what came to be known as gonzo journalism. Popular music journalists such as Lester Bangs and Nick Tosches adapted the form to fit their needs. Bonomo (English, Northern Illinois Univ.; Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band) channels their styles in this three-part study about rock and ’n’ roll star Jerry Lee Lewis’s fall from grace owing to his marriage with a teenage second cousin; his return to artistic and commercial viability in 1964 when, in Hamburg, Germany, he recorded one of the greatest live rock ’n’ roll albums; and, finally, his turn toward country music in the late 1960s. Writing in a no-holds-barred style, Bonomo is at times vulgar, intriguing, controversial, insightful, and inciting. However, the many passages detailing Bonomo’s own experiences, particularly his attendance at various and sundry rock concerts, are distracting.
Verdict Those willing to take a chance on this nonstandard biography, complete with graphic sexual illusions, musings on commercialism, and shots of raw emotion, is recommended for pop culture hounds.—James E. Perone, Mount Union Coll., Alliance, OH
Burns, Jennifer. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. Oxford Univ. 2009. c.400p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-19-532487-7. $27.95. POL SCI
Twenty-five years after her death, Ayn Rand, novelist and creator of objectivist theory, is as revered and mocked a public intellectual as any of the 20th century. As the nation is caught in polarizing libertarian versus government debates, Rand is even more influential now than at the height of her popularity in the early 1960s. Here, Burns (history, Univ. of Virginia) produces a rigorously intellectual biography devoid of both condescension and deference. While Burns points out the inconsistency between Rand’s belief in individualism and her demands for devout allegiance from like-minded fans, Burns gives credit to Rand’s compelling rejection of state expansion when set against New Deal and Great Society currents. An early Goldwater enthusiast generally despised by the mainstream Right for her radical secularism, Rand had a fervor that was linked to her experience with Bolsheviks from whom she fled in the 1920s.
Verdict Although dedicated Rand adherents and detractors will value Burns’s depth, contextualization, and insightful interpretations, serious historians of American culture are the main audience for this excellent monograph.—Scott H. Silverman, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN
Fertig, Beth. Why cant U teach me 2 read?: Three Students and a Mayor Put Our Schools to the Test. Farrar. 2009. c.368p. illus. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-374-29905-7. $27. ED
In her first offering, radio journalist Fertig attempts to explain "what it takes to teach every child to read, at a time when literacy is essential." Here, readers are given a crash course on the history of special education; the effect of the No Child Left Behind legislation in New York schools under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg; the challenges faced by struggling readers; and various reading-instruction techniques. Fertig also relates the stories of Alejandro, Yamilka, and Antonio, all children of Dominican immigrants, who successfully sued the New York public school system for failing to teach them to read. Fertig’s assertion that the debate about reading is "really about the best ways to help children overcome poverty and the best ways to help children overcome [the] legacy of racism" is sure to spark debate.
Verdict This is an ambitious exploration of the myriad cultural and socioeconomic issues influencing learning. Readers looking for an inspirational happily-ever-after resolution are sure to be mildly disappointed.—Tamela Chambers, Chicago P.L.
Little, Amanda. Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—A Ride to Our Renewable Future. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2009. c.464p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-06-135325-3. $25.99. SCI
After witnessing 9/11 and experiencing the 2003 Northeast blackout, environmental journalist Little (Salon.com, New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair) took a cross-country "power trip" to examine how and why we became dependent on fossil fuel. Interweaving the history of American energy use with personal observations, Little interviewed Chevron oil rig workers, NASCAR drivers, Pentagon officials, plastic surgeons, and Midwestern farmers. Seeking innovative solutions to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, Little traveled to Google headquarters, where founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are designing Smart Grid software; to a Colorado Wal-Mart, where executives have goals to transition all stores to run on 100-percent renewable energy; to a zero-energy home built by Habitat for Humanity and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Verdict More cogent and enjoyable than Lisa Margonelli’s Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline, Little’s book argues that ingenuity got us into this energy-dependent mess and ingenuity will get us out of it. (Let’s hope she’s right.) For concerned citizens everywhere.—Eva Lautemann, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Clarkston, GA
Rogers, Douglas. The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe. Harmony: Crown. 2009. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-307-40797-9. $24.99. AUTOBIOG
Although Rogers’s home may be exotic—his family owns a backpackers’ lodge in the African bush named Drifters—his story is the all-too-familiar tale of a son’s midlife journey back to his roots. After leaving Zimbabwe to pursue a career as a journalist, Rogers comes back amid the violent land reclamation campaign of the 2000s. Despite arriving to protect his parents from Mugabe’s corrupt war veterans, Rogers discovers his parents need no caretaking. Their passion for the country where their ancestors had lived for 350 years compels them to stay despite the government’s efforts to evict all white citizens. At its heart, this is the story of Rogers’s reacquaintance with his parents, two people he greatly misunderstood and underestimated for much of his life.
Verdict Forreaders who have parents they struggle to understand; Rogers’s journey of discovery will cause an acute twinge of love and pain in their hearts.—Veronica Arellano, Univ. of Houston Libs., TX
Thompson, Dave. Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell: The Dangerous Glitter of David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed. Backbeat: Hal Leonard. Nov. 2009. c.306p. photogs. discog. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-87930-985-5. pap. $19.99. MUSIC
Back in 1971, no one knew how just much music history would change when the lives of three musicians intersected. Rock journalist Thompson (Never Fade Away) brings forth a brilliantly written book that traces the careers of three of the most influential musicians of the last few decades: Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. Within a few years of their meeting, the three turned the music world upside down by recording seminal masterpieces, adopting outrageous personas, and creating chaos wherever they went. With quick wit and a relaxed, conversational style, Thompson uncovers the friendship, talent, and influence of each musician and guides readers through the underground music scene of the 1960s and 1970s. From Ann Arbor, MI, to New York, London, and beyond, Thompson introduces us to the major players in punk music and the underground.
Verdict An essential book on the early history of Bowie, Pop, and Reed that fans and music buffs will devour.—Troy Reed, Southeast Regional Lib., Gilbert, AZ
Zwolinski, Richard M. & C.R. Zwolinski. Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On Without Wasting Time or Money. Health Communications. Nov. 2009. c.288p. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-7573-1418-6. pap. $14.95. PSYCH
Aiming to empower patients, mental health counselor Zwolinksi and coauthor Zwolinski offer practical information to individuals considering psychotherapy. Readers are guided through the process—from choosing a therapist and attending the first appointment, to developing a treatment plan, measuring progress, and finally ending therapy. Zwolinski pays special attention to ethical concerns, including a discussion of "red flag violations." Medical jargon is used sparingly, and the authors incorporate humor throughout the text. Readers will appreciate the numerous patient interviews, questionnaires, and checklists. A list of useful organizations, along with their web sites, is included at the end.
Verdict This informative book is a recommended addition for consumer health and public library collections.—John Siegel, Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock
Mizukami, Wataru. Four-Eyed Prince. Vol. 1. Del Rey: Ballantine. 2009. c.192p. ISBN 978-0-345-51624-4. pap. $10.99. GRAPHIC NOVELS
Fifteen-year-old Sachiko Ohashi is off to live with her mother, whom she’s never met. From there, the plot thickens: after being introduced to her mother’s ex-husband’s son, Akihito Masuda, an upperclassman and slick bartender-by-night, Sachiko spends her days daydreaming of him, despite his cold rejections of her growing love. Mizukami paints a rather harsh reality for his heroine, whom Akihito abuses verbally and physically, once slapping Sachiko to calm her down. Rather annoyingly, Sachiko overlooks his actions, because to her, "his words are harsh but underneath it all, her prince is kind."
Verdict The appealing artwork is similar to that found in Natsumi Ando’s Kitchen Princess. However, readers will become irritated by Sachiko and Akihito’s behavior. Recommended instead are Kitchen Princess and Park SoHee’s manhwa Goong: The Royal Palace, also rated 13+ for teens, which feature a likable, resourceful heroine and better spins on themes of royalty.—June Shimonishi, Torrance P.L., CA
Simon, Joe & Jack Kirby. The Sandman. DC Comics. 2009. c.304p. ISBN 978-1-4012-2299-4. $39.99. GRAPHIC NOVELS
These 23 ten-page stories of the 1940s present a radically different character than the well-known Lord of Dreams hero made famous by Neil Gaiman in the 1990s. This set presents Wesley Dodds, a wealthy New Yorker, and young sidekick Sandy Hawkins, two normal citizens who also happen to fight crime as gold-spandex-clad superheroes. They brandish "wirepoon" guns while swooping through town, battling conmen, hypnotists, underworld criminals, and other thugs. Bringing "nightmares to the evil," Sandman and Sandy are clearly modeled after another dynamic duo. They even drive a "sandmobile." Whereas Gaiman spun finely crafted tales exploring all kinds of subjects, these vignettes stick to a basic, traditional formula. Each episode features the same premise: the heroes stumble upon crime and fall into dire predicaments. Sandy rescues them, and they employ fisticuffs and brainpower to vanquish the evildoers.
Verdict Kirby’s artwork may have been innovative at the time, with its combination of round and square panels, but now these tales are dated. Simon’s writing follows established clichés of the era, and the dialog and characterization here pales in comparison to graphic novels of the 21st century. Fans thirsting for a sampling from the golden age of comics might be interested in this collection, but today’s readers are likely to be disappointed.—Jeff Hunter, Royal Oak, MI
Starr, Jason (text) & Mick Bertilorenzi (illus.). The Chill. Vertigo: DC Comics. Jan. 2010. c.192p. ISBN 978-1-4012-1286-5. $19.99. GRAPHIC NOVELS
Best-selling author Starr tries his hand at graphic novels with this supernatural murder mystery steeped in sex and violence. Heroine Arlana has the power to freeze young men whilst in the throes of passion. Her magical ability has its roots in ritualistic sacrifice, which her abusive father continues to exploit, forcing her to lure young men to their deaths so that he may feast on their remains and retain eternal vigor. The true suspense in this book isn’t whether the stock characters—a grizzled NYPD detective, a shady FBI agent, a mentally unsound old timer—will catch the killers, but how and when. The bold, atmospheric artwork of Mick Bertiorenzi steals the show, bringing gritty city streets, dirty back alleys, and foreboding industrial spaces to life with detail and personality.
Verdict For readers accustomed to hard-edged crime dramas, this is a quick, uncomplicated read. It's not a cozy mystery, however. Copious nudity, graphic sex, and unsettling murder scenes comprise the bulk, so YA librarians take note.—M. Brandon Robbins, Wayne Cty. P.L., Goldsboro, NC
Taplansky, Nick (text) & Alex Eckman-Lawn (illus.). Awakening. Archaia Studios Pr. 2009. c.144p. ISBN 978-1-932386-48-6. $19.95. GRAPHIC NOVELS
A series of grisly murders plague the town of Park Falls: victims turn up in alleyways covered in horrific wounds and bite marks. As Detective Derrick Peters delves deeper into the case, the body count rises, and fear envelops the residents. Derrick wrestles with shadowy organizations and sinister individuals, including his own haunted past, in order to discover the reason behind these gruesome deaths: could it be zombies? Deftly written by newcomer Tapalansky, this has been nominated for several British Eagle Awards and is a refreshing read in an oversaturated genre. The plot proceeds at a slow burn, taking time to cultivate suspense and terror. The lack of predictable archetypes and a careful construction enhance the experience. Eckman-Lawn’s art is a fantastic complement to the prose, with a loose, photorealistic style and harsh tones and thick black inks akin to Alex Maleev’s Daredevil treatments. The panels evoke a building, palatable sense of unease, and by the last turn of the page, the reader is immersed in the terror of Awakening.
Verdict Highly recommended for horror and crime noir fans.—George Sun, NYC
