I'm always fascinated by the secret history of cities - not in a fairy tale kind of way but completely in a New York Underground kind of way. (And don't even get me started on Kiki Strike...) Jenny D. points to Ed Parks' review of Ekaterina Sedia's new novel, The Secret History of Moscow which sounds quite impressive (and even a bit Samantha Hunt-like:

Sedia's realm of lost souls is a repository of cultural memory -- or more accurately an amnesiac's dustbin, filled with the things she wants to forget. The territory itself is perfectly obscure, every surface containing a trace of oblivion: a "palimpsest of a path," buildings "like the skeletons of distant shipwrecks." A mythical boatman takes, for his fee, a memory from his passengers, and Yakov willingly lets one go. Sedia is downright lavish in her description of his deliberately ill-lighted memory palace and perversely never tells us exactly what it is he gave away. The breakdown of his marriage is rendered in a kind of rhapsody of amnesia, the metaphors overlapping and each clause adding to the mental texture:

"[P]erhaps it was she who had left him; he couldn't remember anymore, not through the cobwebs of lies and rationalizations and retellings of the same story over and over to himself, until the details took on the shape of his words, and the words themselves became the truth and the substance, their underlying memory forever lost, like the wax mold of a death mask."

That is some lovely writing!

Jenny D. also raved recently about Dry Store Room No 1 which I am so looking forward to and she has recently read. She loved it for lots of reasons - here's a bit:

Some altogether magical straight science bits, and some scientific stuff appealingly interwoven with personal reminiscence ("My father had fishing-tackle shops, and sold maggots to fishermen; they were known by the euphemism of 'gentles' and came plain or colored" and were "supplied to the trade by a farmer known simply as Wormy").

(And how can you resist a book whose author reveals, during a discussion of recent changes in the understanding of the ancestry of termites and cockroaches, that it has been "one of my life's unfulfilled ambitions to eat the giant mushroom Termitomyces that grows deep inside the termite mounds in Africa--it is reputed to be delicious"?!?)

I don't understand why I haven't heard of this sooner, but thanks to Kelly for pointing it out. (I thought Lyra's Oxford was charming and hope Pullman continues with these glimpses of his alternate world.)

This is some interesting reading - more to follow in the next few days. (I have no idea why Diane Arbus fascinates me so much but the combination of Arbus, American social history and the discovery of lost "treasure" made this irresistible.)

Valerie (Pres of Friends of Lulu) had an interesting post last week about online marketing for the comics book industry and Gwenda pointed just the other day to Kassia's post on how pubs might be missing the boat when it comes to online marketing for teens. Both of these posts made me think about how best to get the word out on the Summer (and Winter) Blog Blast Tour and Guys Lit Wire. I believe very strongly that the internet is the greatest place to find things out - especially about books. As we get closer and closer to the launch date of GLW (June 1st) I'll be contacting lots of folks to let them know what we're doing. If you have any ideas in that direction, please let me know. (At colleenatchasingraydotcom of course!)

The longlist is out for the Orange Prize and Scarlett Thomas is on it! Yea!

As the LBC fades away and everyone squabbles over the rooster at TMN, commenters here and there have weighed in on the value of long posts on a single topic versus posts with lots of links. I don't understand either side of this argument - I don't understand why anyone is even bothering to express a pro or con opinion on this. I'm always struck by how when you get people together they have to find ways to feel superior to each other. First it is people who read books versus those who do not. Then it is readers of literary fiction vs those who read genre (and of course the nonfic people think everyone is stupid). And now it's how you express your love of reading - the long form folks vs the short form folks.

And we wonder why it's so hard to bring peace to the Middle East? Please. Expect long and short posts here, some with lots of links (today) and some with none. I like to call that the Colleen Mondor method - you can use it if you like.

Don't forget that Wednesday is Canada Day. Write about your favorite Canadian author (or authors) and send me an email or drop a note in the comments with the url and I'll be sure to link to you here at the master list. (I've been all over the place with this one; lately I'm leaning towards Pierre Berton because he pretty much changed my life. Seems a worthy reason to highlight his work!)