Haul of Books

I have received two really amazing gifts from authors in the last few weeks. I’m not going to tell you what the other one is just yet, because there is a really cool story that goes along with it (involving some of my “fiction,” as it were), but I will tell you about this gift from one of my favorite young adult writers…ever. The following image contains an audiobook that author Susan Beth Pfeffer gave away some time ago, but it also contains some stuff that I didn’t ask for and that makes me giddy inside. Here’s the image (after the fold):And here are the descriptions of what’s in the image, from left to right (taken from Amazon or made up by me): 1. Audiobook Wrapper (in the form of an edited manuscript page from one of Ms. Pfeffer’s post-apocalyptic novels from the same series as the audiobook–page 119, to be exact) There isn’t much I can say about this that the title doesn’t already give away. I initially thought that it was nothing more than random paper used to wrap the audiobook, but when I saw that it was actually a page from one of her books, it made me feel like those Harry Potter fans feel when they get an autograph in an HP book. 2. The Year Without Michael by Susan Beth Pfeffer (signed and personalized) Bad things aren’t supposed to happen to good people. But somewhere between home and the softball field, 16-year-old Jody Chapman’s younger brother disappeared, and now the family is falling apart. Her parents hardly speak to each other, her younger sister is angry and bitter, and Jody’s friends, always so important to her, are slowly slipping away. It seems that all anyone can do is wait. Wait—for Michael to walk in the door. Wait—to stop missing him. Wait—to stop waiting. When a private detective can’t uncover a single clue about Michael’s disappearance, Jody’s urgent need to find him drives her to make a last desperate attempt to hold her family together. 3. This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer (audiobook) It’s been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth’s climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda’s father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda’s complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever. How cool is that, eh? Have you discovered anything in bookstores or what not recently? Let me know about them in the comments!

Not too long ago The Dalkey Archive was having a large sale for books and I decided to partake (because what else was I going to do? Let the books sit there, un-bought by me? Yeah right!). I’m fairly new to The Dalkey Archive, but they have published work by some very interesting international authors (who play with genre, by the way), and that’s definitely something that is right up my alley. So, the follow books were the result of my browsing at The Dalkey Archive (after the fold):And here are the descriptions, from left to right, top to bottom (taken from The Dalkey Archive): 1. Thank You For Not Reading by Dubravka Ugresic In this collection of acerbic essays, Ugresic dissects the nature of the contemporary book industry, which she argues is so infected with the need to create and promote literature that will appeal to the masses—literally to everyone—that if Thomas Mann were writing nowadays, his books wouldn’t even be published in the U.S. because they’re not sexy enough. A playful and biting critique, Ugresic’s essays hit on all of the major aspects of publishing: agents, subagents, and scouts, supermarket-like bookstores, Joan Collins, book fairs that have little to do with books, authors promoted because of sex appeal instead of merit, and editors trying to look like writers by having their photograph taken against a background of bookshelves. Thanks to cultural influences such as Oprah, The Today Show, and Kelly Ripa, best-seller lists have become just a modern form of socialist realism, a manifestation of a society that generally ignores literature in favor of the next big thing. 2. The Terrible Twos by Ishmael Reed The Terrible Twos is a wickedly funny, sharp-edged fictional assault on all those sulky, spoiled naysayers needing instant gratification—Americans. Ishmael Reed’s sixth novel depicts a zany, bizarre, and all-too believable future where mankind’s fate depends upon St. Nicholas and a Risto rasta dwarf named Black Peter, who together wreak mischievous havoc on Wall Street and in the Oval Office. This offbeat, on-target social critique makes marvelous fun of everything that is American, from commercialism to Congress, Santa Claus to religions cults. 3. The Terrible Threes by Ishmael Reed With offbeat humor and on-target social criticism, Ishmael Reed presents in The Terrible Threes a vision of America in the not-too-distant future, a portrait of a fairy tale gone awry. Opening on Thanksgiving Day in the late 1990s—three years after the former fashion-model president was laughed out of office for admitting that Saint Nicholas knew more about the workings of the executive branch than he did—the White House is implicated in a plot to rid America of its surplus people and the Third World of its nuclear weapons. 4. Our Circus Presents by Luscian Dan Teodorovici Every day, the Birdman performs the same ritual: he climbs out onto his window ledge to see if he can manage to kill himself—and never does. The Birdman is a member of a loose-knit group of failed suicides, each pursuing absurd ways to end their lives: one saving up lost-dog reward money to buy enough good whiskey to drink himself to death, another hoping to contract a fatal disease by sleeping with as many women as possible. When it seems these routines will continue indefinitely, the Birdman meets a “professional” suicide: the dangerous and inscrutable “man with orange suspenders,” who makes a living by trying to hang himself whenever he sees a potential rescuer approaching. This chance encounter, which leads at last to a real death, will force the Birdman to confront the roots of his desire to escape from life, and to see first-hand that dying is more than just a rehearsal. 5. Christopher Unborn by Carlos Fuentes Conceived exactly nine months before the five-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the New World, the narrator of Christopher Unborn spends the novel waiting to be born. But what kind of world will he be delivered into? “Makesicko City,” as the punning narrator calls it, is not doing well in this alternate, worst-case-scenario 1992. Politicians are selling pieces of their country to the United States. Black acid rain falls relentlessly, forewarning of the even worse ecological catastrophes to come. Gangs of children, confined to the slums, terrorize their wealthy neighbors. A great novel of ideas and a work of aesthetic boldness, Christopher Unborn is a unique, and quite funny, work from one of the twentieth century’s most respected authors. 6. In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser Winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize After the success of his first novels (Edwin Mullhouse and Portrait of a Romantic), Steven Millhauser went on to enchant critics and readers with two short story collections that captured the magic and beauty of his longer works in vivid miniature. The seven stories of In the Penny Arcade blend the real and the fantastic in a seductive mix that illuminates the full range of the author’s gifts, from the story of “August Eschenburg,” the clockmaker’s son whose extraordinary talent for creating animated figures is lost on a world whose taste for the perverse and crude supercedes that of the refined and beautiful, to “Cathay,” a kingdom whose wonders include elaborate landscape paintings executed on the eyelids and nipples of court ladies. 7. The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist Made speechless by her eccentric father, the beautiful Etheria is traded for a piece of precious jade. Memory, her sister, tells her story, that of a childhood enlivened by Lewis Carroll and an orangutan named Dr. Johnson, and envenomed by the pernicious courtship of Radulph Tubbs, Queen Victoria’s own Dragon of Industry. The Jade Cabinet, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, is both a riveting novel and a reflection on the nature of memory and desire, language and power. 8. Storytown by Susan Daitch The distinctions between art and life are blurred in this unsettling and tantalizing first collection of short fiction by novelist Susan Daitch (The Colorist,

Some more oldies! I bought this a while back when Tobias S. Buckell was offering up first edition, signed copies of his books. So, these are the last two from that group. Here’s the picture (after the fold): And the descriptions, from left to right (taken from Amazon): 1. Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias S. Buckell (signed) In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems. Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble–and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived. News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best—an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality . . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path. 2. Halo: Evolutions (Essential Tales of the Halo Universe) by Various (signed) When humanity expanded beyond the safety of Earth to new stars and horizons, they never dreamed what dangers they would encounter there. When the alien juggernaut known as the Covenant declared holy war upon the fragile human empire, millions of lives were lost—but, millions of heroes rose to the challenge. In such a far-reaching conflict, not many of the stories of these heroes, both human and alien, have a chance to become legend. This collection holds eleven stories that dive into the depths of the vast Halo universe, not only from the perspective of those who fought and died to save humanity, but also those who vowed to wipe humanity out of existence. I’ll admit that I’m not a Halo fan, but I love Buckell’s work, so I might read these at some point in the near future. If anyone can make that universe interesting to me, it would be him. Have you heard of these before? Have you read them? What did you think? Feel free to leave a comment!

The journals/movies below actually came into my possession some time ago, but I didn’t have a chance to post them here. Not much else to say other than, here’s the picture (after the fold):And now the descriptions, from left to right, top to bottom (taken from Amazon, or made up by me): 1. The Journal of Popular Culture, April 2010, Vol. 3, Number 2 (subscribed) This issue contains essays on Dawn of the Dead, The Incredible Hulk, cyberspace, chick-lit, Michael Moore, and much more. It looks interesting and some of the articles seem to be much more up my alley than in the previous issue I talked about. 2. PMLA, March 2010, Vol. 125, Number 2 (subscribed) The PMLA is really impossible to describe. This issue has stuff on Beowulf, Milton, eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (who I’ve never heard of), Leo Bersani (ditto), and one really intriguing article called “The Humanities and HIV/AIDS: Where Do We Go From Here?” I’ll probably read the last article, but the rest doesn’t seem to be of interest to me. 3. Dark City (Director’s Cut)(DVD) The critically-acclaimed triumph from visionary director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, The Crow) is back with a brand new directors cut featuring enhanced picture and sound, never-before-seen footage and three commentary tracks that take you deeper than ever before into the world of one of sci-fis most exciting and revered tales. When John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes with no memory at the scene of a grisly murder, he soon finds himself hunted by the police, a woman claiming to be his wife and a mysterious group of pale men who seem to control everything and everyone in the city. Starring Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), William Hurt (A History of Violence) and Kiefer Sutherland (TVs 24). 4. Sunshine (DVD) The crew of the Icarus II is sent into deep space to reignite the sun, after the failure of the first mission… (a terribly short synopsis, no?) And that’s it for this edition. Not as book heavy as previous editions, but so be it. So, anything sound interesting to you up there? What have you bought or received recently?

It’s been a while since I last posted a Haul of Books. The following books are pretty much the last ones I have for an independent study I’m doing on Caribbean science fiction. Some of them are probably not actually SF, but I’m going with a fairly loose definition on purpose (otherwise I’d have nothing to talk about, because most Caribbean “SF” isn’t actually SF, but more like science fantasy). Still, the books are interesting, the class should be enlightening, and I might produce a publishable paper and Master’s thesis out of this. So, here’s the picture, followed by the descriptions (after the fold):And now for the descriptions, from left to right, top to bottom (taken from Amazon): 1. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson The Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint celebrates Carnival in traditional fashion, and Tan-Tan, a young reveler, is masked as the Midnight Robber, Trinidads answer to Robin Hood. But after her father commits a deadly crime, he flees with her to the brutal New Half Way Tree, a planet inhabited by violent human outcasts and monstrous creatures known only through folklore. Here, Tan-Tan is forced to reach into the heart of myth and become the legendary heroine herself, for only the Robber Queens powers can save Tan-Tan from such a savage world. 2. Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including “Greedy Choke Puppy,” which Africana.com called “a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf),””Ganger (Ball Lightning),” praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in “prose [that] is vivid & immediate,” this collection reveals Hopkinson’s breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller. 3. Whispers From the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction edited by Nalo Hopkinson The lushness of language and the landscape, wild contrasts, and pure storytelling magic abound in this anthology of Caribbean writing. Steeped in the tradition of fabulism, where the irrational and inexplicable coexist with the realities of daily life, the stories in this collection are infused with a vitality and freshness that most writing traditions have long ago lost. From spectral slaving ships to women who shed their skin at night to become owls, stories from writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, Marcia Douglas, Ian MacDonald, and Kamau Brathwaite pulse with rhythms, visions, and the tortured history of this spiritually rich region of the world. 4. The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson THE NEW MOON’S ARMS is a mainstream magical realism novel set in the Caribbean on the fictional island of Dolorosse. Calamity, born Chastity, has renamed herself in a way she feels is most fitting. She’s a 50-something grandmother whose mother disappeared when she was a teenager and whose father has just passed away as she begins menopause. With this physical change of life comes a return of a special power for finding lost things, something she hasn’t been able to do since childhood. A little tingling in the hands then a massive hotflash, and suddenly objects, even whole buildings, lost to her since childhood begin showing up around Calamity. One of the lost things Calamity recovers is a small boy who washes up on the shore outside her house after a rainstorm. She takes this bruised but cheerful 3-year-old under her wing and grows attached to him, a process that awakens all the old memories, frustrations and mysteries around her own mother and father. She’ll learn that this young boy’s family is the most unusual group she’s ever encountered and they want their son back. 5. The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson Multiple award-winning author Nalo Hopkinson delivers a triumphant novel in the bestselling tradition of such literary greats as Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. When three Caribbean slave women gather one night to bury a stillborn baby, their collected mournings braid into a powerful calling, and a deity is born. So begins the epic journey of a spirit who, in a desperate bid to discover her ownnature and identity, defies the limitations of time and place to inhabit the minds of living women throughout history. From Jeanne Duval, the seductive black mistress of 19th-century bohemian poet Charles Baudelaire, to a Nubian prostitute on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 300 A.D., the spirit gathers the power and the wisdom of the ages, only to come full circle on the island of St. Domingue. There, she is reunited with the very women who gave her life, and who still struggle to survive under the tyranny of brutal masters. And that’s that. So, have you read any of these before? I haven’t, hence my curiosity. Do any of them sound of interest to you? Let me know in the comments.