Sharing the wheel of sentient cars

And this is where Joe Hill embraces his inheritance and doesn't worry about what we'll think of his writing as compared to his dad's.

But of course I'm going to write about that anyway, because it's all over this book and not in a bad way but in an interesting sort of evolution of style.

 First the general plot: there are certain people who find these sort of totem things that let them access different planes of senses and existence, and one dude uses his snazzy old car to steal children and take them to one of those planes in his own mind called Christmasland, theoretically so they'll be safe from whatever their parents are going to do to them in life. But whatever good intentions the dude started out with have twisted into a relentless search for kid essence to keep him young and he's this soul vampire who picks up companions to help him and there's a girl he wants because she can use her bike to find a bridge that takes her to whatever's missing. Long road-trip story short, evil dude grabs grownup Bike Girl's son and she rescues him from Christmasland with the help of a librarian from Iowa who can see things in her Scrabble tiles and the fat guy on a motorcycle who rescued her when Evil Dude came for her the first time.

 So! This is a pretty lean plot that doesn't skimp on the details but doesn't add anything superfluous, and I think this is where Joe Hill might be, technically speaking, a better writer than Stephen King. Joe gets us through characterization and plot without any repetition or hysterical side notes, which is impressive.

 ...but the hysterical tangents of the villains going secretly crazy are my favorite things about Stephen King books, and I enjoy his ride a little better for its ragged shoulders. So, Stephen King might be a little better at storytelling.

 But that doesn't mean Joe Hill isn't excellent there, too. It's all relative, man, and he's SO MUCH BETTER at how teenagers actually talk and interact with pop culture than his dad is (Cell and Under the Dome high fives - NEVER FORGET), which is a major part of this story because it follows Bike Girl as she grows up, forgets about her ability, and then finds it again in an epic quest that stays reluctant until she learns her son has been kidnapped. Then it is SO ON.

 And while the ladies here are painted with a somewhat rough brush and are used a lot by the men in their lives - so are the men, man. So are the men. I appreciate the use of an anti-heroine, especially since her corruption arc makes sense from her childhood experiences that nudge her just enough off the pathway to get her in the real trouble that was close the whole time and she manages to get herself out of it. Sort of. And the fat motorcycle guy who helps her and she ends up marrying - did we mention he's fat? Because he is, and it's mentioned more than is necessary, more than anyone else's normal bits of body (less than the new hook-teeth the children grow, though, which is understandable) - he's just trying to do the right thing with what little he's got with her and the world.

 This whole thing seemed a little muted until the end when the kid comes back BUT WAIT IS HE REALLY BACK-BACK? Because he's still acting weird, which I love because of course destroying Christmasland is not as easy as just blowing it up, come on. It lives in the mind, so of course you're going to have to destroy that token too.

 How? READ TO FIND OUT. No, seriously, take a gander at this and see how Joe Hill's learned how to stretch out since Heart-Shaped Box. It's good. Also going back to the library, so if you're a resident of ye olde Richland County, ye shall have access right snappish.

Bonus: a New York Times article about the Amazing Writing King Family. It's adorable and makes me wish I wasn't too old to be adopted.

We're on the edge of...something...computers? Yes! That's it!

Book: Bleeding Edge
Author: Thomas Pynchon
Published: 2013 (Penguin)
Pages: 477

Not quite entirely 100% sure of what I read here, but Pynchon does have a way of melding neo-noir smartassery with modern pop culture references that illuminates both without getting too stylized in either direction.

 Basic plot: a PI who's had to go private because of various shenanigans in the past that got her license pulled takes a job of investigating the shady dealings of some tech company that's either right on the brink of the next big thing or about to steal it.

 I'll be honest. I don't know which side won. I couldn't distinguish between the sides very well not because the digital morality stayed slippery and changed with every new piece of information learned - that was the good part. I enjoyed that. - but because most of her human sources were indistinguishable from each other since they were shady tech dudes who always knew more than they should and were always meeting her in cafes (how many meals can one eat out in one day? The answer in New York seems to be 5,984, plus brunch on the weekends). I lost track because she already seemed to know everyone and everything enough to not need a whole lot of distinguishing details, even on first time.

 But somehow that didn't make my reading experience any less enjoyable. I don't want to call this a purely stylistic enjoyment, because that makes the style seems more unusual and the story seem more shallow than either actually are, but something was  making me miss the full narrative implications without taking anything away.

 And there were a lot of details that I did pick up on and that were distinctly, clearly important and ran through the threads of the characters - like the P.I. is a mom who's dealing with letting her two boys become independent while also fighting her own heightened paranoia about how much extra danger her job puts them in. And her friend is the wife of one of the guys she's investigating, and the friend is an ex-hippie who's still trying to square her ideals with what her husband has turned into a business. And the P.I.'s ex husband is still hanging around for no real reason and she resents him for being able to take her boys to more fun than she can show them but also appreciates the extra help and doesn't really mind having her ex around but... it's complicated, you guys, okay? so she just shrugs and lets him eat their Ben & Jerry's until he says he has to be getting back.

 The main character is practical and easy-going until what she loves is threatened, and then she tries to keep the same calm and carry on so nobody freaks out while she's trying to fix things. It's a very human combination and a good way to ride through somebody's head for 400+ pages.

 This one's going back to the library, and I have to say that it hasn't done its job because I wanted to use it to decide whether to tackle Gravity's Rainbow and I still don't know. I SHALL JUST HAVE TO READ MORE TO DECIDE. OH DARN.

 What I baked and ate during this: I got a massive craving for something mint chocolate and so put together this pan of Cousin of Swamp Thing mint chocolate swirl cheesecake brownie and hacked massive hunks off of it for about a week or so. It was okay but a little too cream-cheesey for my taste. But I totally still ate all of it.

Reading is truth; truth, reading

Book: Kingyo Used Books, volumes 3 and 4
Author/illustrator: Seimu Yoshizaki
Published: Viz Signature
Pages: NOT ENOUGH

"So how many volumes are in this series?"
"I believe these are the last two translated into English."
"Not quite what I asked."
"...there are like twelve more in Japanese."

This is a series that gets exponentially more engaging as it goes along, adding defter details about how manga touches people's lives and also fleshing out the life of the manga troll in the bookstore's basement.

My favorite story here is the one where a dude is crushing on this girl who's a big "manga freak" (their words, not mine - you guys're all wonderful little weirdos to me) but he's nervous to ask her out because he's afraid he won't have enough in common to keep her interest.

 But then when he finally blurts that out, she's all, "Maybe it's not about having everything in common but about being able to share our joys!"

ALL OF THE FEELS. IT'S SO TRUE.

So and then there's this great one about a tutor who wants to find something - anything - his professionally scornfully bored student will like. Nothing doing until he gives him this horror manga that scares a profound appreciation into the little bugger, and the manga clerk goes, "You know, sometimes the ugly stuff in life gives the beautiful stuff more meaning."

 MORE TRUTH.

And then there's the story about a herd of Pointlessly Beautiful guys (again, their words, but the way they're drawn I can't argue) who are geeking out in the store and eventually make the homely dude spaz out about how they couldn't possibly be real geeks because they were too pretty. And the manga troll (who is actually one of the pretties - they just call him a troll because he camps out in their manga basement) follows him home and discovers the homely dude's huge collection of shojo and then gives him THE BEST SHOPPING BAG EVER specially reinforced with packing tape and cloth over the handles and the message is something like anybody can geek out over whatever they want but by the end I was way focused on that bag and how maybe I need a DIY project that will actually make my life more useful instead of just sticky around the edges.

 And there's another story about a collection of men who have been waiting every day at the zoo to see a special wolf come out, and another story about a girl who draws a crowd of makeup enthusiasts to bond over the transformative powers of Sailor Moon, and guys, just read this series already.

 Back to the library, and until I learn how to read Japanese or Viz relents and translates the rest of them for all the English-speaking used book nerds over here, this is it. But the power of books lives on!

Out of the family, into the cooking fire

Book: Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir
Author: Eddie Huang
Published: 2013 (Spiegel and Grau)
Pages: 272

So this is really fun. It's a memoir about a kid who was born in America to parents who immigrated from Taiwan and how he fought as hard as he could to distance himself from their culture growing up, only to discover it was waiting dormant all the time until he discovered he actually sort of loved it. See the kid in the cover photo?

It's reading that kid's thought as shaped by his quasi-gangster older ego. Lots of devious but righteous goofing off that meanders into full-blown rap-listening basketball-loving schoolyard fights-taken-to-the-streets rebellion. 

 His prose bounces around and snags slang into its rhythm like a good progressing hook, although it flattens out once he actually grows up and starts getting his stuff together. Success is boring, especially when he preaches about it a little too much, but I forgive him because he talks about food and flavor really well once his restaurant takes off.

 That's a running theme throughout, although not snobby at any point. He makes his best cultural connections through food because it's an international language that he can make his own and use as communication. That is something I so understand and I so appreciate someone being completely genuine about in a funny way that I don't *really* want to give this back to the library but I guess I have to.

 

Running in place

Book: I Want to Show You More
Author: Jamie Quatro
Published: 2013 (Grove Press)
Pages: 204

This has been on my holds list for a bajillion years and I got excited when it was finally my turn because CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES YAY. And when I got to the one about how people have to run marathons with these weird symbolic statues tied to their backs, I was all, CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES WITH THE OCCASIONAL TOUCH OF MAGICAL REALISM ABSURDITY, IT'S A PARTY NOW!

But then... the rest kind of fell flat.

Most of these stories center on extra marital affairs as slow burns of aching yearning that are withering or being strangled at one end or the other, and as much as I can feel the agony between the forced whimsy of the exchanges...guys, I'm tired.

I'm tired of all popular culture telling us that romantic passion conquers all. I'm distinguishing that from love, okay, because true love is a weedy wildflower, this tough, kind of prickly thing that holds together through a combination of rather helpless stubbornness and hard work, and still manages to push out unexpected beauty through the concrete, and it might be in the way but its root system turns out to be what's been holding the sidewalk together for so long.

Romantic passion is awesome and fun but I'm goddam sick of pretending it's the only thing that matters.

And the thing with this book is that I get glimpses of other parts of life like the author understands that, like the running story - I love that one. It's an amazingly absurdist tale about taking on unnecessary sacrifices to feel like you've accomplished anything, and the ending shows you in a very literal way how people won't let that work, and it's great.

 But the other stories get repetitive and a little self-defeating fairly quickly. I was hoping for far more whimsy.

Back to the library, where my holds list has been cleared until I finish the library cart shelf pile (ONE MORE BOOK, y'all!).

Shining in a post-Overlook world

Book: Doctor Sleep
Author: Stephen King
Published: 2013 (Scribner)
Pages: 528

My willpower is getting better by almost-imperceptible increments, y'all. Which means I waited a whole seven months before I bought and read Stephen King's new book. I mean it's still in hardback, so you can't REALLY tell I waited, and this brings up a slightly personal tangent that I would like to explore.

So I do have what I call a reading "schedule," the second word of which I'm putting in quotes because it's fairly loose within its own confines. Meaning I've made lists of what I want to read and the completest part of my brain insists on finishing these lists before moving on but doesn't care in what order I read these 200+ books. The books I've stacked up from bookstore credit count in this too.

But I go off-list so much - "Oh, it's Friday," "Oh, THAT was a terrible day," "Oh, man, I am walkin' on sunshine!" "Ugh, but this one is SO DULL" -  that I'm wondering if I wouldn't be happier just chucking the whole thing. There are always going to be way too many good books to catch up with all of them, and to be completely weird and honest and the tiniest bit of OCD, that stresses me out. I stress out about a lot of unnecessary shit like that and sometimes it makes me freak out and I'm learning how to not worry so goddamn much about the future and just focus on being cool with the happiness I'm getting from the moment and such and really, some of my best reads I've found spontaneously.

But I also really like making lists, especially about things I like to anticipate (food and books being the primary two).

It's a struggle to find which approach keeps me from making reading a chore, because if reading ever doesn't make me happy I will have nothing.

Right now, I still get a lot of joy and only a tinge of guilt at paying $32 to read Uncle Stevie and continue my tradition of buying a book from each new city I visit (hi, San Antonio!). And this is a good one, guys. This is worth it.

 

Have you read The Shining? If not, shame on you and go do it, but you won't be confused reading this one first. Which is really my one major problem with this book - we don't need the prologue. Chop it off and you still have more than plenty enough allusions and flashbacks within the story to know what motivates Danny Torrence through his drunken spiral, rediscovery of his shining, and teaming up with a powerful girl to defeat a cult of old people who are torturing the shining out of kids to drink it and stay young. Plus without the prologue, we don't need to hear about Dick Halloran's creepy-ass grandpa. If that was supposed to be foreshadowing, it wasn't hooked up right.

But there's lots of good here! The story is the clearest I can remember of any of King's later works, and the villains ooze just the right amount of menace mixed with an interesting dollop of human uncertainty. The leader lady has this top hat that is maybe the source of her leadership powers? But it's alluring and details like that lend a mysteriousness that hints at a chaotic universe that leans toward evil rather than beating one over the head with it.

And even before he manages to clean up his act as a grownup, Danny finds the perfect job: he's a hospice worker who helps patients die. His shining ushers them out into this deep peaceful sleep, and every time he described that I wanted to find a signup list and secure a spot for 50 or 60 years down the road because that's exactly how I want to go out.

So he and this fellow psychic girl find each other and can do this thing where they get into each other's heads to misdirect the bad guys' radar, so she's the one with better shining (mostly because she's younger - it fades) but she gets to knock that lady out (why's it gotta be a bad BITCH, Uncle Stevie? Huh?) while Danny's the one who's actually there and in bodily danger. The planning, buildup, and final fight were all practical (as practical as you can get when based on psychic powers, anyway) and not based on wild leaps of logic, and I appreciated that a lot because it made the conclusion well-earned.

It made sense, and it made me happy, and it's staying on my bookshelf.

Geek bait taken!

Book: Good Omens

Authors: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Published: 1990 (HarperCollins)

Pages: 369

Y’all, I finally reached this amazing nugget in the sifting piles of my unread books, and of course it was great and of course I enjoyed reading about how an angel and a demon who have been persnickety good friends for a couple millennia screw up their only real job - bringing about Armageddon – for the sake of humanity by going with a mistake that was made when the anti-Christ was switched at birth.

Gaiman and Pratchett have both separately mastered the art of injecting just enough levity into fantasy to make it reveal the absurdity of the real world and the genre’s own self-seriousness while keeping some real substance and profundity buried underneath all the duck jokes. Here is no different.

And my favorite part is subtle but I love that they don’t focus nearly as much on the Everyman character or even make him a hero. They’re necessary in the sci fi and fantasy worlds to give us a very amusingly befuddled tour of alien worlds, but here the dude’s just another weirded-out human who gets caught up in it and still gets to splutter adorably without having to climb unrealistic story arcs of redemption and such.

The angel and demon have become more human than either would like to admit, anyway, and they show this best when they find true morality hiding on the fringes of each other’s realms, manage to think for themselves when they realize that neither side is actually concerned with what they were told they were supposed to fight for, and stop the world from ended by pointing out how dumb war is to Beezlebub and the Voice of God (who basically just want an excuse to stomp all over each other).

I can’t do this book justice here. The closest I can come is to say that it’s funny and smart and manages to say something important about free will and not killing people when you can help it. I took it with me on a recent business trip where I got to go to the San Antonio public library’s main branch and read a chapter of it before I had to go back for dinner, and it was a great companion. And apparently I’m late to this particular book party because when I posted this photo on Facebook everybody’s like, “I LOVE THAT BOOK.” One of my friends even called me just to say that. And nobody calls anybody anymore, so I can only conclude that GOOD BOOKS ARE WINNING, PEOPLE, and my job here is not nearly done but is chugging along quite nicely.

 

 

Bookshelf! (What, I should take a library book onto two planes and a hotel room in which I’m pretty sure I left my last good hairband? Psht. That shit stays within ten miles of my nearest branch, thank you.)