Melissa Marr's Latest: "Radiant Shadows"

When I started working at Borders, Melissa Marr had just released her first young adult novel, “Wicked Lovely.” Since 2007, she’s released one a year. Her latest came out this spring, “Radiant Shadows,” and I have yet to really be disappointed by the series.

Marr keeps the storyline and fantasy world fresh by having each story focus on a different character. A character that may be present only in a chapter or two in one of the earlier books becomes the main character in the next.



Such is the case in “Radiant Shadows.” The Unchanging Queen’s brother, Devon, is also her Bloody Hand -- he does all her dirty week, serving as the eyes and ears of the high court outside of Fairie.

Ani is Gabriel’s daughter, half fey and half mortal. Both characters were introduced earlier in the series, but in “Radiant Shadows” they come together when readers learn that Ani is only alive because of Devon’s interference.

Don’t get me wrong: it is still just another young adult fantasy series. But it can be rather challenging to find one that is actually written with some skill. Most are so badly written they jar you out of the plot with the awkward transitions and poor diction (House of Night, anyone?). That is not the case with the “Wicked Lovely” series. Marr does an excellent job of keeping all of the threads of each character up in each new installment - e.g. a character doesn’t just drop off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again.

Personally, I find faeries more interesting than vampires (probably because they’re generally witty and quick, rather than just blood-sucking), and will keep watching for Marr’s take on the world of faerie. The final book of the Wicked Lovely series is slated for publication February 2011.

An Abundance of Katherines

Continuing down the line of John Green works, I finished “An Abundance of Katherines” a few weeks ago. Though vastly different from Green’s debut, “Looking for Alaska,” "Katherines” is another coming of age novel centering on learning how to survive in one’s skin. The age old teen struggle of learning to like yourself and like yourself enough to show other people who you really are - not shirk away from your perceived flaws. Learn to be OK with how people see you, because it is often only a reflection of how you see yourself.



In “An Abundance of Katherines,” the narrator -- a washed up child prodigy named Colin -- has dated a lot of girls for his 17 years -- all of them named Katherine. 19 of them, in fact. And Colin has been dumped by every one of them.

After Katherine XIX dumps him -- inevitably, in Colin’s mind -- he can’t shake the stupor. His best friend (e.g. his only friend) cajoles him into taking a road trip: destination anywhere.

They are lured to Gutshot, Tennessee, the final resting place of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and find jobs to keep them there for the duration of the summer.

OK, so I've only read the first two of Green's books, but even simply going off of the first two I would recommend him to anyone who appreciates a well-written, quick read. I cannot put them down. It is rare to find an author who can actually write good, believable characters and a good story, but Green does it. Character-driven and still an interesting plot.

Amazing.

Wings, Spells and two more

My mom happens to work for a pretty impressive school district, especially when compared to today's typical state of slashed budgets where kids no longer have physical education, let alone music, art or foreign language. But at the middle school where she works, they actually still get to go above and beyond and have authors, artists and speakers visit. Amazing, eh? One of them that visited this spring was Aprilynne Pike. And being the awesome person that she is, my mom gave me copies of her books.

Pike debuted in May 2009 with "Wings," the first in a series of four (tetralogy?) centering on Laurel, a girl who discovers she's a fairy at 15. The storyline should be familiar to anyone who has read any YA fantasy book published in the last 3-4 years. However, I have to give Pike some credit because she at least *tried* to make her plot slightly different, combining a few of the traditional tales to give the typical Avalon/fantasy/fey line a bit of a face lift.

Yep, fairies in Avalon. And trolls. And plants that look like humans, and all kinds of stuff.

"Spells" is the second installment and gets a little more into the dramatic/romance oh how do I choose between two boys crap (or ... a wolf and a vampire/human boy or fairy), but you know: that's what happens when you're friends with Stephenie Meyer. But don't worry: she doesn't wallow nearly as much as Meyer, nor does she show the same sappy attachment to her characters. For me, that is what ruined the Twilight series. Meyer so fell in love with her own characters, and she refused to let them make harsh choices or have partially tragic endings. So far, Pike seems to be avoiding the trap that her well-known friend fell into.

Worth checking out, if you're looking for a quick fantasy read.

What I miss about bookstores

The store had only been open for a few weeks, if that. There were people everywhere; the shelves were overflowing with books, music, movies. There were even displays of books outside the store, greeting you before you even entered (this was the first time I had ever seen that). There were stacks of books at the ends of shelves. There were books above the shelves they had so many books. There were employees at every register, a line at the information desk, a line at the music desk, a line at the cafe.

This was back when the Information Desk was still, indeed, an information desk. Employees stood behind the desk, with the computers facing them. They happily told you where to find what you needed, or took you there themselves.

This was back when James (for the purpose of this article, let’s call him James) still worked at Borders. Back before things “went corporate,” as he used to say ... though technically, it was already Borders Group, Inc. Over time, James grew to recognize me when I came into the store. He would find me kneeling in front of the Science Fiction section, to see if Gaiman had released anything new (Neverwhere!!), or replenished the third book in the Fionavar Tapestry, and he would thrust a stack of books into my hands.

“Did you know that Douglas Adams did some nonfiction? Have you seen this?” he would say excitedly. And I always loved every book he introduced me to - from Sidhartha and Last Chance to See to Good Omens and The Things They Carried.

And he would tell me about how virtually every paycheck he made at Borders went right back into the company. He told me about the amazing monthly book credits employees received, how he had crates of books instead of furniture in his apartment, and he made me fall in love with the company -- moreso, as I loved just about any bookstore that carried, well, books.

Fast forward nearly 10 years, to where bookstores are today. Where Borders no longer carries obscure music, and it’s been years since I’ve heard anything playing overhead that I have wanted to buy. Where Amazon is changing the landscape of the book industry, and e-book readers with it.

Where I go into that same store, and James is gone, and Ben, Kristen, and the rest of them.

Where Borders Cafe is now a Seattles Best, and Paperchase is more successful than the backbone of the business -- books. Where you got into a store and have to ask for a book that has been out for a four days -- only to find that it hasn’t been shelved yet, because the employees don’t have enough hours to keep up with 20,000 sq.-ft space. The shelves are in disarray, and you find roleplaying in the middle of Sci-Fi, or a romance book in Young Adult.

What happened to my bookstore?
When they sold books -- not candies, stuffed animals and bags. This was back when the average employee was anything but average. They were passionate, smart people who read just as much as the customers. They would find you browsing Phillip Pullman and ask if you had read Amelia Atwater Rhodes. They didn’t greet you at the door with a coupon and ask if you needed help finding something, rather they thought it was a short visit if you had to leave after 45 minutes of browsing and managed to limit your purchase to three books, not six or seven.

This was back when the average customer spent at least an hour in the store -- they didn’t come in asking for the latest NYT bookseller or Oprah book, but went beyond the bestseller fixture at the front of the store.

What happened to employing people who read?
Now, when I ask for a book, I get blank stares. When I asked the general manager at a store in Michigan what his favorite book was, he shrugged and said he didn’t read, but liked movies.

Shouldn’t it be a prerequisite to like books, to be able to work there? Am I being old fashioned? I don’t think so ...

In my hometown, I grew up going to Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers. I think as a kid, and even as a teenager, I would have been hard-pressed to tell you the difference between any of the brands. They were bookstores, so I loved them. Sure, maybe some of them had dark-wood shelves, and others lighter birch or something, but a bookstore of any kind is a good thing. I connected with people who read, and I found some of the people at each place.

I miss going into a bookstore on a weekly basis, and having the employees recognize me, sometimes running up to me with a book I have to read.

I miss even recognizing the employees, myself, to be honest. Nowadays, I rarely see the same employees twice at the local Borders I go too.

I love Borders, and will fight for the survival of bricks and mortar bookstores in every way that I can (mainly just from continuing to buy from them), but my heart aches for what was.

I know I am generalizing a lot, here. Of course there are still smart people at Borders, in the stores and elsewhere. And I know that people still go in there and waste an afternoon exploring and reading. But there just seems to be such an air of defeat, at the very least indifference, to the place.

And I miss my Borders.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I'm way late too the bandwagon on this one.

Can't even remember why I bought this book - if I did. Maybe I picked it up in the free book room from work, maybe it was a gift ... Regardless, I'm not really one to read "diet" books, which I thought this was. It's not.

It's awesome. And I rather fanatical about this book - so much so that I can't really write anything concrete about it, except ...

I think every person on the planet should read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food." It is the only book about diet/nutrition/food that I have ever read that is actually readable, interesting, and makes sense. (OK, not that I've ever read many. I think it I'm up to two, with this one.)

If you want to know why America has higher rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes than anywhere else on the planet, read this book.

It gives you fantastic advice, like ...

• Eat meals
• Don't get your fuel from the same place you car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Cook, and if you can, plant a garden
• Eat slowly

Simple stuff: it doesn't tell you that you to avoid certain food groups that make no sense (cough Atkins cough cough), but yes, it does tell you to lay off the Pringles, white bread (e.g. bleached/processed flour + sugar = bread devoid of nutrients), Cheetos any other fake/ridiculously processed foods.

Even if you can't stomach being preached at, the book covers a decent amount of history on the food industry - from the advent of margarine and a history of Kellogg's to the lipid hypothesis.

If you don't want to know the why behind the what, just pick up "Food Rules," which is basically an expansion of the past part of "In Defense of Food."

Discovering John Green

Nothing makes me appreciate opportunity cost more than the realization of what amazing literature I missed while attending college. Really. It's the only possible excuse I could have for not knowing an author like John Green for the first half-decade of his career. Sadly, I didn't have much time for pleasure reading while I was in school - probably because most of my classes involved journalism, English or German.

But anyway, an MLS friend of mine finally told me to read "Looking for Alaska." Well, anything by John Green, but I like to start with the debut work first, if I can.

And John Green is Stephen Chomsky meets Salinger meets Gabriel Zevin meets John Knowles. I'm not kidding, it is that good.



I can't remember the last time a book made me cry, laugh out loud, and ponder the meaning of life before I was halfway through it. Particularly in young adult.

"An Abundance of Katherines" is next.

Tiger! Tiger! (Or, the Stars My Destination)

Everyone has read, or at least heard of Huxley's "A Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984." From there, the list of dystopian, futuristic novels goes on: Ayn Rand's "We the Living," Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451."

So why are those considered classic literature when Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" is not? The stigma of science fiction is a funny thing.

Originally published as "Tiger! Tiger!" in the U.K., the first title is much more fitting than the U.S. title "The Stars my Destination." The American title is much too soft, inviting for a novel centering on Gully Foyle, the most ruthless, single-minded criminal of the future.



Gully Foyle is so inhumane, truly a tiger, that it is impossible to sympathize with him. He is transformed so completely a mere few chapters in that you no longer recognize the man behind the mask.

With such a cruel main character, I was skeptical about getting through the book, but Bester's reputation did not disappoint. It is such a detached, clinical read that one can easily look beyond the horrors the characters endure to focus on the plot. Even the characters who are "normal" (e.g. not on a suicide mission of revenge) are easy to dismiss. The characters are not meant to mimic people, they are just vessels to get the point of the plot across - not flushed out or wholly developed personalities, but one-dimensional creations that Gully Foyle can easily and thoughtlessly destroy.

It was a much faster read than I expected, too. Highly recommend it for anyone into dystopian novels or science fiction.