Vampyres of Hollywood

Vampyres of Hollywood
by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott

Hollywood, California: three gruesome deaths within two weeks and every one of them a major star - an Oscar winner, an ingenue, and an action hero. A serial killer is working through the Hollywood A-list and celebrities are running scared.
Each crime scene is worthy of a classic horror movie, and all three victims share a connection to the powerful scream queen, Ovsanna Moore. The stunning and formidable Moore is the legendary head of a Hollywood studio, as well as the writer and star of seventeen blockbuster horror films (and a few that went straight to DVD).
She's also a 500 year old vampyre... but this is Hollywood after all, and no one ever looks their age.
Beverly Hills Police Detective Peter King knows a lot about the City of Angels, but he certainly doesn't know that most of the famous actors in town are actually an established network of vampires. Or that secretive and seductive Ovsanna Moore happens to be their CEO.
Moore and King may be from opposite sides of the Hollywood Hills, but both have something to gain by stopping the killer who the tabloids have dubbed the Cinema Slayer. Ovsanna must protect her vampire legacy and her production schedule, while King just wants to keep his Beverly Hills beat as blood-free as possible. But when the horror queen and the cop with the movie star looks form an unholy alliance, sparks fly and so do the creatures of the night.

Vampyres of Hollywood showed up this week courtesy of BookMooch, a book trading site. Because its a "light" book, it got read right away (like most of the "light" or "fluffy" books that have come through our door lately).

A paranormal mystery set in the glamorous and tawdry world of Hollywood, Vampyres of Hollywood is both funny and gory. I'm not sure the authors' take on vampires is particularly novel (different types of vampires with different kinds of skills, vampires that change as they age, a society full of rules and complex power structures), but I enjoyed the idea of real vampires as the creators of vampire mythology and how the authors made connections with famous and historical personages (though there may be a bit too much name-dropping).

The narrative flip-flops between Ovsanna and Detective King and that change of perspective with each chapter is what propels the narrative along. That being said, Vampyres of Hollywood isn't so much of a page-turner that I had to stay up late to finish it. I didn't find the novel compelling. The writing isn't that great, it's finale tied things up too quickly, and the romance seemed tacked on at the end. Lackluster, in a word.

weekly reading report

Books finished this week:

• The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly (this one wasn't what I expected)
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (see post)

Reading now:

• The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (audio for car)
• Exodus by Leon Uris (since I'm making Russell read The Handmaid's Tale it seemed only fair for me to read one of the books he's been wanting me to read)

The Historian

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian, Kostova's debut novel, was published to much acclaim in 2005. The novel is full of archival research (what I mean here is that the characters spend lots of time in archives, not that Kostova did archival research for the novel though maybe she did) so it's been on my must-read list. It's just taken me years to get around to it.

I started reading the 642-page novel last weekend. I didn't mind that it was long and mired in historical detail (like others have), I was just a bit disappointed in the ending. With all the build-up, the final encounter was a bit anticlimactic. Not to mention the fact that the climax, short-term tie-up, and epilogue are all accomplished in 25 pages. After reading 600+ pages of build-up, I felt a bit robbed.

There were a number of things I liked about the novel: the prominence of archives,* the fact that main characters were sympathetic (and many of the secondary characters full-bodied and interesting), pondering the meaning of the title (who is the historian), and the epigraphs. I enjoyed the interplay of the two storylines, but while I was following Helen and Paul I was wondering what the narrator was up to (and vice versa). That tension, wanting to know what was going to happen (especially wanting to find out what became of the narrator's mother) is what kept me reading, but based on my general dissatisfaction with the ending I don't think I'd recommend The Historian.

* One thing that I just have to share -
Dracula: "I will put many archivists at your disposal--the finest of them--and you shall bring more under our power" (577). Yes! who wouldn't want to serve evil if they were promised an army of archivists.

Friday Find #12

I'd heard about this book last month, but was reminded about it again today.

After reading all the dire predictions* of Taiga (courtesy of a thread on the ExLibris listserv), I was cheered to see How Librarians Can Save The World (an an NPR review of This Book is Overdue) shared by one of my friends on FaceBook.

Below is the publisher's blurb, but there's also an excerpt from This Book is Overdue available on the NPR site underneath Heller McAlpin's review.

This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
by Marilyn Johnson

Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper and discs, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make way for the librarians They want to help. They're not selling a thing. And librarians know best how to beat a path through the googolplex sources of information available to us, writes Marilyn Johnson, whose previous book, The Dead Beat, breathed merry life into the obituary-writing profession.
This Book is Overdue is a romp through the ranks of information professionals and a revelation for readers burned out on the cliches and stereotyping of librarians. Blunt and obscenely funny bloggers spill their stories in these pages, as do a tattooed, hard-partying children's librarian; a fresh-scrubbed Catholic couple who teach missionaries to use computers; a blue-haired radical who uses her smartphone to help guide street protestors; a plethora of voluptuous avatars and cybrarians; the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI; and a boxing archivist. These are just a few of the visionaries Johnson captures here, pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.
Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us--neither the experts nor the hopelessly baffled--can get along without human help. And not just any help--we need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they save us from being buried by the digital age?

* Taiga Forum Provocative Statements (2006) and Taiga 4 Forum Provocative Statements (2009)

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood was on campus on Wednesday as part of the University's Distinguished Speakers Series.

I went to hear her speak and I have to say that it really wasn't what I expected. Atwood herself was funnier than I imagined. Her talk was on the short side and its topic was "questions people have asked me and their answers" so the whole program ended up being like one huge question-and-answer session.

What she chose to include in her talk was interesting, particularly her discussion of how the questions she's usually asked have changed over the years. She touched on her hair, feminism, speculative fiction, and hope. Her answer to the question of which of her characters is most like her is Zenia from The Robber Bride because she's a pathological liar who's able to spin tales appropriate to her audience.

The audience questions covered a variety of topics. Atwood was asked about her arctic vacations and whether she had any advice for graduate students. Individuals requested that she comment about one character or another and share her feelings about the film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale (she wishes they'd release an original cut because the voice-over bits were cut out and, while she understood that they had to change the ending, she didn't think what they decided to do was logical).

When Atwood was asked which genre she prefers to write she answered that if she really and truly enjoyed one more than the others that'd be the only genre in which she'd write. She continued that the bit of writing that she finds most difficult is the book review. As a result she reviews infrequently and only books that she likes. She mentioned reviewing E.O. Wilson's first novel Anthill.

She was also asked which authors she always snaps up: Alice Munro and Hilary Mantel. She also threw in a plug for Yann Martel's new book, Beatrice and Virgil (forthcoming in April).

When asked about the impending death of the book (in the wake of e-readers), Atwood mentioned that she'd written a post on her blog detailing three reasons to keep paper books: solar storms, energy shortages, and internet overload.

Books that were mentioned in the program (ordered, more or less, from most-mentioned to least) were The Handmaid's Tale, The Year of the Flood (which we'd expected her to talk more about than she did), Oryx and Crake, The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace. Atwood mentioned her poetry, but generally.

Of course I can't mention everything here, but that was a taste of it.

word: alack

Who doesn't like a good interjection? I know I do.

The word alack popped up in a book I'm reading (The Historian I think, though it could have been in The Blue Girl) and it seemed like a good word to feature. The phrase "alas and alack" comes to mind, but in the novel, alack was used on its own.

Alack is used to express sorrow, regret, or alarm

The OED adds:

Especially in phrases alack the day! alack-a-day! originally ‘Shame or reproach to the day! Woe worth the day!’ but in later usage of mere surprise, and aphetized* lack-a-day!

* aphetize, another good word. A linguistic term: having undergone aphesis (the removal of an unstressed initial vowel).

Weekly Reading Report

Books finished this week:

• Abhorsen by Garth Nix (3rd in the Abhorsen Trilogy; see post)
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  one of my favorite books. I've convinced Russell to give it a try and will post about his reaction and our discussions after he's done
• Lirael by Garth Nix (2nd in the Abhorsen Trilogy)
• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood
  our February book club selection; see post

The two books that I'm actively reading now are The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Abhorsen Trilogy

Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix

Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) is set in a world that in some ways is very much like our own. The norther border of Ancelstierre (an England-like country), however, is heavily fortified because beyond its wall is the Old Kingdom, a land where magic is both commonplace and dangerous.

While Charter Magic is a force that unites and stabilizes the Old Kingdom, Free Magic (and those who wield it unscrupulously) has the potential to tear it apart. A guardian of the Charter, the Abhorsen's powers blend both Free and Charter Magic. A special kind of necromancer, the Abhorsen doesn't bring the dead to life, but banishes them further and finally into Death.

I really enjoyed the Abhorsen books. They are engaging and fast-paced. The books' target audience is young adult and their protagonists are all teens (well, Lirael's protagonists appear as adult secondary characters in the other two books). The world that Nix creates is what makes the series stand out. Not only does Nix imagine the Old Kingdom and all of its mythos, but the texture of Death itself.

One of the things that was most interesting to me is that while Lirael and Abhorsen are clearly part of a series (Lirael ends with a horrible cliff-hanger), Sabriel (the 1st book) reads like a stand-alone novel. I wonder whether Nix wrote Sabriel as a stand-alone and then wrote the other two when the first was well received.

book clubbing in Feburary

Margaret Atwood is going to be speaking on campus on March 3rd, so we decided that we should read one of her books for February. Our selection was Moral Disorder, her most recent collection of short stories (2006).

Moral Disorder and other stories by Margaret Atwood

Moral Disorder is for the most part a series of interconnected stories featuring the same set of characters, but there are some notable exceptions.

The group had mixed feeling (tending toward ambivalence and annoyance) about Moral Disorder. The biggest complaint was the fact that Atwood didn't fully commit. Moral Disorder is neither a traditional collection of short stories nor a novel masquerading as a set of short stories. The fact that only a small portion of the prose was not interconnected made Atwood's choices all the more perplexing.

While I am a fan of Atwood, I had a hard time with Moral Disorder. I do think, however, the most of my difficulties came from the fact that I was listening to an audio version. Now, I love audio books, but the way this one was presented made it a real challenge to read. Many of the stories in Moral Disorder don't really come to an obvious conclusion (we assume this is because the overarching story is going to continue) and the reader of the audio version did nothing to signal to the listener that story A was done. The title of story B would be said in the same exact tone as the rest of the narration so unless the listener was paying close attention, the stories just merged into one. In other collections this would be less of a problem, but in Moral Disorder with the majority of the characters appearing in multiple stories, it was horribly confusing. The only time I was really able to appreciate Moral Disorder properly was when I set aside a huge chunk of time and devoted myself to it completely, allowing no other distractions.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

With Olympic events to watch, I have to admit that I didn't do a lot of reading this week. I only finished one book: Sabriel by Garth Nix (post to come).

The two books that I'm actively reading now are Lirael by Garth Nix (the sequel to Sabriel) and Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection).

Case Histories

A few years ago I reviewed the sequel to Case Histories, One Good Turn (see post). At that time I'd really wanted to read Case Histories so when I was trying to figure out what book to highlight on the student services blog in February (a fiction month) Case Histories came to mind as the perfect choice.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

A unique and engaging mystery novel, Case Histories focuses on three cold cases: a beloved child disappears from her backyard without a trace (1970), a 20-something is brutally murdered by a mysterious man who barges into her father's law office on her first day of work there (1994), and a young mother essentially orphaned her daughter when she attacked her husband with an ax in a fit of rage (1979).

One way or another police inspector-turned-private investigator Jackson Brodie becomes involved in the cases, forgotten by all but the people personally affected by the traumatic events, and endeavors to find ways of bringing closure to those same individuals.

While the storylines in Case Histories are myriad, they are balanced in such a way that the reader never becomes overwhelmed. All of the characters in are multilayered and Atkinson's understanding of the psyche is what makes this novel stand out.

a new book club

My friend Lizzie is organizing an online book club. We just settled on the schedule of books to discuss and I'm really excited about it.

March: Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

April: Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman

May: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

June: March by Geraldine Brooks

July: You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier

August: Wings of the Dove by Henry James

September: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

October: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath, Chip Heath

November: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (which will be February's book of the month; I'd planned on posting about this book last week, but I didn't get around to it)
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser seems like it'll be on indefinite hold as a New York Public Library on-demand audio books are currently MIA. This is the error I get when trying to access them: this eAudiobook is not included in your library's collection and is unavailable for download.

I'm in a bit of a rut, it seems. This week I started and then put down a whole host of books because I wasn't in the mood for them. The majority of them I'll probably pick up again at a later date. Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J. V. Hart and Brett Helquist I'm sure that I won't as I read quite a bit of it before I decided to stop.

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection)
• Sabriel by Garth Nix

Handke's Don Juan

I reviewed this book in November, but waited until it's on sale to share it with you.

Don Juan: His Own Version by Peter Handke

Austrian Handke's latest to be translated into English is narrated not by Don Juan as its title would suggest, but by a lonely French innkeeper into whose garden the protagonist tumbles one day. The innkeeper becomes Don Juan's confidant and during his stay Don Juan recounts his previous week's adventures. Over the course of that "womanweek" Don Juan travels as far as Damascus and Norway encountering a new woman each day. At first Don Juan is like a mythological character. The narrator describes him as a veritable St. Francis, nourished by sorrow (he was orphaned by the loss of his only child), with the ability to magic rare and wonderful foodstuffs. The narrator's impression of Don Juan, however, changes after the week of storytelling has concluded. Whatever was awe-inspiring seems to dissipate and Don Juan becomes just a regular man with irritating quirks.

Don't come to Don Juan expecting tales of excitement and seduction or detailed accounts of the lothario's encounters or you'll be disappointed. The novel is literary and philosophical rather than sensational.

Read the official review at Library Journal...

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger (see post)
• The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert (see post)
• Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck (see post)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (which will be February's book of the month)
• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection)
• Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser (a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Still Waters

Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck

I received Still Waters on cassette from a friend who was clearing out all of her audio books. Apparently Still Waters picks up after Blackbird, Lauck's earlier memoir. Normally I'd want to read Blackbird before starting Still Waters, but I needed an audio for a car trip so I decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Still Waters begins with a University of Oklahoma police report detailing the disappearance and subsequent death of a Bryan Lauck. The book will end many years after that report was written when Lauck looks into her brother's death and comes to terms with it.

The memoir's narrative opens with 12-year-old Jenny arriving at her maternal grandparents, where she expects to stay for good (both her parents have died and she's been abandoned by her stepmother, her brother sent off to live with another relative). Jenny is then shunted off to live with her father's youngest sister and her husband and young daughter. Although Aunt Georgia and Uncle Dick adopt Jenny, she feels profoundly unwanted and has to earn her keep. Still Waters follows Jenny as she grows up in this unloving home and sets out on her own. It unflinchingly chronicles her failures and disappointments. But, ultimately, Still Waters is an affirming book. Readers to follow Jenny past her tumultuous early adulthood as she comes to peace with her past and is able to trust herself enough to become a mother.

The version I listened to was read (and abridged) by Lauck. I really think Lauck being the reader added to the experience because the book is a memoir. I found it very compelling.

Friday Find #11

Here's another interesting-sounding book I've discovered through the Powell's Review a Day mailings:

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

"He was going to lose the house and everything in it.
The rare pleasure of a bath, the copper pots hanging above the kitchen island, his family-again he would lose his family. He stood inside the house and took stock. Everything in it had been taken for granted. How had that happened again? He had promised himself not to take anything for granted and now he couldn't recall the moment that promise had given way to the everyday."

Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife Jane still loves him, and for all its quiet trials, their marriage is still stronger than most. Despite long hours at the office, he remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important. And, even as his daughter Becka retreats behind her guitar, her dreadlocks and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father's honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world.

He loves his wife, his family, his work, his home. He loves his kitchen. And then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking.

The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.

The Professor’s Daughter

The Professor’s Daughter
by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert

Set in Victorian London, The Professor’s Daughter is the story of a 3,000 year-old mummy who falls in love with the daughter of the academic who’s studying him. The affair between Lillian Bowell and Imhotep IV seems ill-fated, not because Imhotep IV is a mummy, but because he falls on the wrong side of the law… among other things.

The Professor’s Daughter is a comedic romp that’s at times quite serious. A joy to read; its artwork is truly lovely, the sepia tones giving the story a real period feel.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers — with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including — perhaps — their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife (see post) so I'd been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Her Fearful Symmetry.

Unfortunately, though, I can't write about Her Fearful Symmetry properly without including spoilers so I'm just going to have to be vague. Overall I really enjoyed the book, but I have to say that at one point I absolutely hated it. It has some fantastic/horrific twists, but its story was always compelling and its ending, at least to my mind, was satisfying.

The strongest part of Her Fearful Symmetry really is the way that the characters (and our perception of the characters) change throughout the course of the novel.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin (see post)
• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith (the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series)

I also finished up a review of Archives Power by Rand Jimerson for Archival Issues. I'll probably post some observations to the blog later this week.

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)