9
Mar
2010
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
It’s really no wonder that this was shortlisted for the National Book Award (Young People’s category) and won the Printz award. It’s one of those highly literary stories that trancscends the young adult or genre or the graphic novel genre. In fact, I think it may be enhanced by them.
7
Feb
2010
Spike: After the Fall by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru
Poor, poor Spike. He gets a made a vampire, gets dumped by his sire after more than 100 years of love and mayhem, falls in love with a slayer, gets a chip put in his brain by the government, gets a soul, gets the chip out, dies in the Hellmouth, gets brought back to Wolfram & Hart but is incorporeal, gets all corporealized, saves the world (again), and lands, with the rest of L.A., in Hell.
26
Jan
2010
The Game On Diet by Krista Vernoff and Az Ferguson
This is a DNF–a did not finish–for me. Not a did not finish the book, but a did not finish the diet.
8
Oct
2009
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams
The fourth installment of Douglas Adam’s Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, So Long and Thanks for all the fish, gets its name from the long debate of who is smarter, humans or dolphins. Humans believe they are smarter because they came out of the sea and onto land and don’t spend all of their time swimming and mucking about. Dolphins believe they are superior for just the opposite.
30
Sep
2009
Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman
The grass isn’t greener on the otherside. But that never stops people from hopping the fence. Hannah Friedman grew up with a monkey for a sister. Literally. How cool is that? Apparently not so cool when you are known as “monkey girl” for ever and ever and step on monkey shit and are outdone by a creature that eats spaghetti with her toes.
11
Sep
2009
Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams
Readers of books one and two of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series know the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. What they don’t know, is the question.
31
Aug
2009
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Literally. The eponymous restaurant is at the end of the Universe. But not in the way you might think. It doesn’t back up against some sort of brick wall or worm hole out in space. It is at the end, as in when the Universe ceases to be. Kablooey. Nada. No more. The End.
28
Aug
2009
Fool by Christopher Moore
I was shocked and horrified recently when discussing Christopher Moore with a friend on Twitter, who said that she liked all of his books except for two. Which ones? I asked. Lamb and Fool, she said. WHAT?? Those are my two favorites, says I. She said that she didn’t think that he did parody well. And then we got into a discussion about what is and is not parody, because I wouldn’t say that either of those books are actually parody. And then we started talking about something else, I forget what.
18
Aug
2009
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
This book, the whole series, in fact, but particularly this book, is very near and dear to me. I spent months lying on library floors, contemplating how its genre, vision, and style hold up a mirror to the time in which it was written. When most people chose classics for our A.P. English term-paper, I chose H2G2.
14
Aug
2009
Words to the Wise by Michael J. Sheehan
The subtitle on this book is “A Lighthearted Look at the English Language”. Certainly that’s apt. While most books on language (usage, etymology, etc.) take a serious approach, this is more of a jaunty romp through the wackiness of our words.
