There's an article in the January issue of Vanity Fair on the Pitcarin Island rape trials which included a lot of underage girls who were apparently ushered into the island's highly sexed society by men of all ages. Colleen McCullough, who is married to an Islander, offered up this gem during the trials:

It's Polynesian to break your girls in at 12.

And so ends any warm lingering feelings I had for her books.

The same issue also has an article on the double suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. (It's all online.) It doesn't offer much new, other than some quotes from Blake's family gathered at his memorial service. Duncan is due to speak from the grave yet again on New Year's Eve.

Vanity Fair also has an article by Sebastian Junger on the war in Afghanistan (you remember that one, right?) and a look at TE Lawrence's map of the Middle East - illuminating in many ways. It's all good this go-round; check it out.

The Summer/Fall issue of Salmagundi has an excerpt from Joyce Carol Oates's upcoming Wild Nights! About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway. "Papa at Ketchum, 1961" is amazing. It digs into the mind of a great man facing a long lingering death in a way that makes it impossible for me not to believe that Oates has seen someone die in a way they did not want to - a death they were terrified of being trapped in. So raw, so intense, so so good. I'm all over that book in April.

Maureen Johnson fans take note of Suite Scarlett, due out in May and a product of the author's deep love affair with New York. "This is about the city, theater, writing and being tormented by insane adults and idiot boys." Teen girls everyone are rejoicing, I'm sure.

Also from Scholastic, the twentieth anniversary of Walter Dean Myers's Fallen Angels is in 2008 and brings with it a special edition of the book. Myers has written about the current war in Iraq with Sunrise Over Fallujah. Here's hoping it is read by many many teenage boys and girls who might otherwise know little about the ongoing nightmare.

Interestingly, while I was reading "Papa" I was also immersed in Mike Resnick's upcoming alt history collection, The Other Teddy Roosevelts. This is pure brain candy for historians but also has a deep undercurrent of Roosevelt's battle against invisibility - against disappearing from relevance. He and Hemingway were a lot alike in many respects. If you are a fan at all of Roosevelt you shouldn't pass this up when it appears in February.

Orson Scott Card fans take note that he is writing the four issue mini series Ultimate Iron Man II. It's an origin story; the first issue was released last week.

Lots of people have been saying favorable things about Martin Millar's Good Fairies of New York since Soft Skull issued it. He has a new book, Lonely Werewolf Girl, that he has self-published. The book's genesis comes from the demise of everyone' favorite vampire slayer:

I was in despair when Buffy ended. I'm an obsessive Buffy fan so I wanted to write something in a similar tone. I didn't take any characters or storylines from Buffy, and I don't know why I picked a werewolf of all things.

The book's other influences are The Runaways, Clueless and Emma. Soft Skull is set to publish it in May; you can read an excerpt online.

Fans of medical oddities take note: The Mutter Museum in hardcover.

I've updated my 4th Day of Christmas posting on graphic novels to include the wonderful new Courtney Crumrin one-shot, Courtney Crumrin and the Fire Thief's Tale (perfect choice for the Harry Potter crowd) and also to point readers over to girlamatic, where the road to god knows... tells the story of a 13 year old girl dealing with her mother's schizophrenia. (Lots of good stuff at girlamatic.) My post has more info on both.

Back tomorrow with NIcholas Christopher and his favorite reads from 2007.