2006/12/08

Books 2006 81 - 85

81. Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman - I liked everything in the book, (including the introduction with bits of background on the writing of each story) but the tale that will stick with me is October In The Chair, one of the best ghost stories I've ever read, even if it is only fifteen pages long.

82. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - I can't come up with a short description of this novel, so I'll borrow something from the flap. This book "...illuminates the consequences of colonialism and global conflicts of religion, race, and nationalism." There's a great deal more going on than all that, there are loves found and lost, families made and broken, and everyone goes on some sort of journey .
83.Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire by William J Mann, Michael Thomas Ford, Sean Wolfe, and Jeff Mann - Four novellas about gay vampires that are almost as much romance novels as they are erotica. The writers do come up with some original canon for their vampires, but in the end, each story is about the noble vampire willing to give it all up for the man they love.

84.The Secret River by Kate Grenville - An engrossing historical novel about a man that leads his family to become one of the early group of colonists in Australia and their experiences with the Aborigines that tried to hold their land against the homesteaders. The story is deep in characters and details throughout, and on top of that, has one of the best final chapters I've read this year.

85.Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre - A very dark comedy about the fallout from a high school massacre in a small town in Texas. The narrator, a witness and the only friend of the shooter, ends up on trial for the murders, is a natural born cynic who occasionally is very funny. But he's repetitive in his view of the world, and if it weren't for the caricatures of small town life and the media that fill out the story, it would have been a boring story.

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