Book Buzz

LAURIE SANDELL

This graphic memoir deals with a completely dysfunctional family and one daughter’s search for truth, understanding and meaning.  Laurie grew up worshiping her father. The dad was a great storyteller. They were all about what a great warrior and savior he was. Saving General Westmoreland in Vietnam and befriending the Pope were among his anecdotes.  But as she grew older she realized that these great narratives could not all be true. Then she found out that he had photocopied her diary. When she applied for a credit card she was refused by because other cards in her name had been in arrears.

Heal was a long and painful process. An interesting theme to find in graphic format.

I enjoy graphic books for their brief and concise story telling.

PATRICK NESS

The New World is a harsh and dangerous place. We don’t know why people left the old world but the first settlers were religious people seeking a simple life. They came to create a utopian society but what they formed if far from perfect. On the New World men’s thoughts are open and broadcast for all to see. They call it Noise. But women’s thoughts are quiet. It makes for interesting and bizarre sexual politics.

“The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say ” is the first sentence. Highly engaging. The narrator comes from an isolated town where there is no women. They all perished in a plague. He  is the youngest in the community, soon to become an adult. But his “parents” tell him he has to flee days before his adulthood.  They can’t tell him why because then his noise would draw too much attention.

KNIFE is an excellent book; it’s a page turner. But is does have a couple of drawbacks. Length: it did not have to be 500 pages. Ending: books need a definitive ending rather than setting up for the next book in the series.

Vikas Swarup

This is the book that the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based on. And the book is completely different than the movie except for the basic theme and structure. Ram Mohammad Thomas is a contestant for a billion rupees. The book highlights an excerpt from his life that explains how he knew the answer. And what a life! Poverty, desertion, murder, prostitution, abuse, it is all in his life. But there was always some fascit that mattered most. I find it astounding, and if it’s typical of the things she’s asked, no wte of his life that he remembered thas that mattered most. I find it astounding, and if it’s typical of the things she’s asked, no ws that mattered most. I find it astounding, and if it’s typical of the things she’s asked, no wt provided an answer. The neighbour naming the pet Pluto because the kitten is tiny and Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system. Despite the torture and abuse it is aThis is the book that the movie Slumdog Millionaire was based on. And the book is completely different than the movie except for the basic theme and structure. Ram Mohammad Thomas is a contestant for a billion rupees. The book highlights an excerpt from his life that explains how he knew the answer. And what a life! Poverty, desertion, murder, prostitution, abuse, it is all in his life. But there was always some fascite of his life that he remembered that provided an answer. The neighbour naming the pet Pluto because the kitten is tiny and Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system. Despite the torture and abuse it is actually a light read. Fun. Now I would like to revisit the DVD.ctually a light read. Fun. Now I would like to revisit the DVD.

DOUGLAS COUPLAND

I ‘m sorry another dud. What is happening to Can Lit? I usually laugh out aloud reading Coupland.

A is speculative fiction in the near future where bees have gone extinct. Today a frightening possibility. But after several years of extinction five people are stung around the world. As soon as they are stung they are seized by officials and studied by computers. After they are released they are drawn together. At this point all is well. But this is what looses me. The five characters are taken to Canada’s most remote archipelago, Haida Gwaii. There they are told to tell each other stories. So a third of the book is pithy, little allegorical tales.

Maybe you will get more from it than I. Doug write us a book for heaven’s sake!

GEORGE D SHUMAN

Blind psychic Sherry Moore   can “visualize the last memories of dead people,” is exposed to radioactive cesium 137 while trying to discern what caused an outbreak of possible hantavirus in New Mexico. Back in Philadelphia for tests and treatment, with trusted Dr. Salix, she touches the body of mental patient Thomas J. Monahan, an army private during the Korean War who was used in a government mind-control experiment in 1950. Thomas’s residual memories concern Area 17, a secret base in Mount Tamathy, N.Y., where a weapon was developed by Nobel Prize–winner Edward Case. Puzzelled, Sherry is helped in her investigations by her neighbour and good friend retired admiral Brigham. Of course not having had sight since she was five, Sherry can neither read nor drive. To be honest she would likely have had more problems adjusting to sight than the book suggests. Case’s handsome sociopath stepson, Troy Weir, sets out to dispose of Sherry and anyone else who might know anything about Area 17. While Sherry investigates Thomas’s past, she becomes attracted to Troy, much to the dismay of her Navy SEAL fiancé, Brian.

An alright thriller. After I finished reading it I found out that it is the fourth book about Sherry. The series started with Lost Girls. I won’t read any more.

STEIG LARSSON

A rousing read. Quite a page turner. GIRL is a continuation of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Set in Sweden, Michael Blomkvist ,the journalist, writer and publisher, is trying to help his friend and one time lover Lisbeth Salander.  Salander is wanted for three counts of murder. No one beside Blomkvist is looking for other leads. The murdered couple had researched and written an expose of human trafficking and prostitution. Some powerful people will be named when the book is published by Blomkvist. Salander was severly abused as a child. She trusts no one. Not even a friend.

Again a horrible cover in Canada. I borrowed this pic from Culture Witch.