Over at the new issue of Bookslut I have not read everybody else's contributions yet, (other than Jessa's insightful consideration of what makes McSweeney's better - the content or the design), but I can point you in the direction of what I've been working on:
In the column it is all about surviving high school. I have six books to recommend in that vein, three with male narrators and three with female narrators. I managed to include one former jock longing to get back in the game, one nonjock struggling to stay sane and a group of girls who are thinking knitting might be the answer. I also have a teen off to math camp who learns how to free climb, a boy who hates Holden Caulfield (you know who I'm talking about) and a football playing, dairy cow milking sweetheart who proves to more enlightened then most adults I know.
Yeah - it really is that great of a column!
Also see my review of Cathi Unsworth's The Not Knowing - a fantastic noir mystery set in London and if you don't believe me go see how much Jenny D loved it. And the book I would recommend to beachgoers everywhere, Carol Goodman's The Ghost Orchid was great (and creepy) fun from start to finish.
Finally, I had the opportunity to interview an author who has meant the world to me over the years, Charles de Lint. If you have not read any of de Lint's short stories or novels then you really are missing something special. He has created a mix of fantasy and urban life that has resulted in pretty much a whole new genre classfication but none of that really matters when compared to his stories. If you don't know where to begin then give my article a read and send me an email. I can recommend a de Lint story in a heartbeat. He's wonderful, and his stories always make me think that maybe, inspite of it all, we just might end up okay. (And after reading Big Coal, I really need to believe that right now.)
June 6
2006
04:53 AM
Just that brief mention of Dairy Queen made me want to read it again. It's SO GOOD!