RIP II Wrap-Up

So it's time to bring Carl's RIP II Challenge to an end and I have to thank him for once again putting together such an incredible challenge and being such an incredible host. This challenge certainly added to my enjoyment of this Halloween season and I've read a few books that I'm sure will become a Halloween tradition. Here's what I read:

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker
2. Renfield: Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly
3. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
5. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
6. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
7. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
8. The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
9. Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
10. Edgar & Ellen: Rare Beasts by Charles Ogden
11. Edgar & Ellen: Tourist Trap by Charles Ogden
12. Wizards: Magical Tales From The Masters of Modern Fantasy
13. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Click on any of the above highlighted in blue for my review. I'm sure you'll see a few repeats from the above list on my top books of 2007 list. So it's time for this one to come to a close. I'll spend the rest of my Halloween in bed watching the Halloween marathon on AMC. I've enjoyed reading through this challenge with everyone! Happy Halloween!!

Tomorrow I'll be posting my picks for a new challenge hosted by none other than Annie! It's a great one!

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

I decided to close the RIP II challenge with The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury after having it recommended to me by so many people. Like Debi, I can definitely see this one becoming a Halloween tradition. This is my third Bradbury for the RIP challenge and if there was more than just 6 hours left to the challenge I'd read more! There's a certain honesty to Bradbury's writing. The Halloween Tree exudes memories of Halloween as a child. I fell back into my childhood when reading this one and that chill in the air on Halloween night came alive. He did the same thing with Something Wicked This Way Comes. He truly has a gift for capturing the spirit of the fantastic.

The Halloween Tree is the tale of 9 boys and their adventure through the history of Halloween throughout the world. A group of friends gather on Halloween night, dressed in their costumes, to meet their friend Pipkin for trick-or-treating. Pipkin isn't looking right but sends his friends on their way and tells them to meet him at a house at the end of town...he'll be there soon dressed in his costume. They arrive at a house that's shroud in mystery and after knocking on the door things get strange. They discover a tree...a Halloween Tree that is lit up with hundreds of jackolanterns. A man rises from the leaves surrounding the tree...he's the owner of the house, named Mr. Moundshroud.

Pipkin finally comes running to catch up with his friends when he's swept up by a dark cloud and disappears. Mr. Moundshroud leads the remaining 8 friends on a chase through Halloween traditions celebrated the world over. There journey starts in Ancient Egypt where they witness the traditions associated with Osiris and continues all the way through Mexico's Day of the Dead. In between they visit the gargoyles of Notre Dame and the Druid god, Samhain to name a couple. They travel through all these places to find their friend, Pip, while learning about the traditions associated with their costumes along the way.

There's also a wonderful theme of friendship throughout this book and that's a theme that is seen in everything I've read of Bradbury's. He writes such heartwarming stories in the midst of such creepy stories. The ending to this book is quite endearing and well worth the read just for that.

A favorite line: "When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die." I thought that was just beautiful. A bit morbid that it should be my favorite line, but the words are just perfect.

Last but not least, the cover of this book is fantastic! May be my favorite cover of the year. If you enbiggen (stole that word from bookfool ;) the picture, the skull is actually made up of the halloween tree and the 8 boys in the book in their costumes! Genius!

I also finished Wizards, which I'm not going to do a full review on because I'm lazy :p I wasn't overly impressed with it. I loved Neil Gaiman's story, The Witch's Headstone and Orson Scott Card's story, Stonefather, was amazing, but aside from that there were 2 or 3 others that I really enjoyed but nothing else really stood out. My problem with reading anthologies is that I'm thrown off by all of the different styles of writing. If I'm reading one author's anthology, that's fine because I can grow accustomed to their style. But with these anthologies, the style changes from story to story and I lose interest and the stories aren't long enough for me to really gain interest. Unless they're really good, which a few were. With Gaiman and Card, I was familiar with their styles, so those I enjoyed.

Anyway, The Halloween Tree...Read it!

A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

I've been waiting patiently for two years for this book to come out and I must say that it far surpassed my expectations. Many Orson Scott Card fans were disappointed that we weren't getting our "Christmas at Battle School" story last year for Christmas, but it was well worth the wait and Uncle Orson has given all of his readers a wonderful gift indeed with this new addition to the Ender saga.

A War of Gifts is much more than just the story of Christmas at battle school. It is a story of human connections, the spirit of a child, and a story of facing that moment where the spirit of a child begins to awaken into an adult. The story takes place at battle school during the events of Card's novel Ender's Game. A new child by the name of Zeck has been drafted into the army. Zeck is the child of a minister who claims to be somewhat of a vessel through which God speaks to his congregation. Zeck has been raised in a home where he has been brainwashed against any form of popular culture and is often beaten by his father as a way to cleanse his soul. Zeck's father preaches that Santa Claus is the creation of Satan and is nothing but a false idol paraded to children. Zeck also has a very special gift of being able to memorize anything he hears and is highly intelligent. He's recruited by battle school and is taken against his will...for battle school does not allow the expression of religion for the sake of uniformity.

On Sinterklaas Eve, a young boy in battle school leaves his shoes out in the hope that Sinterklaas will leave him a present and another child soldier in battle school notices the gesture and tries to fulfill the boys wish. Zeck sees this and reports it to the commanders as expression of religion in the hopes that others will turn against him and he can be sent home where he can once again practice his religion. But what escalates is beyond what he had planned for.

This book was just perfect and fans of the Ender series will love it. If you've never read a single book in the Ender series, you'll love this book. You don't have to have read any of the other books to enjoy this one. It's a short one at just 126 pages and I'd recommend it to be on anyone's holiday list. Of course, I'm just a bit partial to Orson Scott Card ;) But it's a great book!

You'd All Be So Proud...

I went to Barnes and Noble after work today with the intention of buying the new Orson Scott Card book that came out today, War of Gifts, and guess what...I bought it and it was the only book I bought! For those who have read my blog for awhile, you will know that it's a rare occasion that I walk out of a bookstore with only the book that I intended to leave with. It's usually at least a $50 bill. But today, it was only $10.14 with my member discount :)

Oh sure, there were plenty of distractions along the way. As soon as I walked in I was greeted by the beautiful new edition of War and Peace that Dark Orpheus made me aware of. So I drooled over that one for a little while and then put it back on the display slightly more damp than it was before. But I will be buying that one next year. I want to read some more Tolstoy and that edition is just to nice to pass up!

Then I pass the huge dark fantasy/horror display...now how I managed to get past this one without taking any home is beyond me...I just kept saying "no!" Of course now they have a bajillion copies of The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury now that I've gone and ordered it off of Amazon since I couldn't find it there the other night. So if it doesn't arrive from Amazon by tomorrow, I now know that I can go buy the $5.50 copy at B&N for my Halloween night reading pleasure.

So basically, I found a bunch of books that I'll be buying eventually anyway, but the important thing is that I didn't blow my whole paycheck today! Maybe the kid is finally learning how to control spending habits...er, yeah, that's it....

I was very happy to find War of Gifts though! I was preparing myself for disappointment. My poor favorite author never gets the attention he deserves on the day his books are released. So I went to the Sci-Fi section and sure enough there were none there...I kept looking and as I was about to give up I saw a huge pile of the books by the front door! I'm guessing this one actually got some promotion because it's an Ender story. It's a cool little book and I'm sure I'll read all of it's 126 pages tonight. It's what all of us Ender fans have been referring to as "Christmas in Battle School" for the last 2 or 3 years. And that's what it is. It's the story of Christmas (which is banned) during the events of Ender's Game.

In other news, I'm waiting to the very last minute to post my RIP wrap-up because I want to squeeze in The Halloween Tree tomorrow night. I'm also reading Rebecca right now, which is amazing, but I'm only about 200 pages in, so I doubt I'll finish that by tomorrow with the new Orson Scott Card and The Halloween Tree to read. So that one will count as a November read. But I have completed the RIP Challenge and have read 11 books so far. I have one more short story in the Wizards anthology which I'll probably read tonight which will bring me up to 12. That's all my book news for the day!

F@#%ing SPAMers

I can't stand SPAM...it aggravates me more than anything. Not so much in my email, because I can just delete it, but now they're attacking my blog posts. I have comments all over the place that say "Qbo2il Great Bl4G!" from "Finance House" and such...Get the bleep off my blog. So, unfortunately I had to add the word verification thing to my comments. Sorry guys. It's the only way to keep the spammers out. I was thinking of just changing my blog address to a Wordpress blog because I had been thinking of doing that lately, but when I was checking it out I decided I like good old Blogger and I'm just going to stay here. I'll just have to moderate comments more. Seriously though, SPAMers need to get a life. Like anyone's going to click on that shit and say "oh, this looks like a great company that's totally legit, let me finance my house through them!" Get a life...

In other news, I made it through week three of the job and things are still going great! I've actually started seeing a few clients and a few parents and more importantly than anything, the first paycheck arrived today :) Migraines have been worse than ever this month for some reason (guessing it's new job stress) and today's just about wiped me out! I'm on serious dosages of pain meds right now and can still feel the headache sitting their underneath it all. Hopefully it goes away soon. I have an appointment with my neurologist in a couple of weeks, so I'll talk to her about it.

I won a book from Eva!! She gave away 4 books to people who had commented during her participation in the 24 hour read-a-thon and I won the 4th book! So I'll be getting a copy of Marked soon which I've been wanting to read ever since Stephanie's review way back when. In the tradition of good karma, I'll be doing a giveaway too soon...I like to keep things balanced, so when I when a book, I like to give a book! I just have to think of something cool....until then, peace!

And The Days Roll On....

God I hope work picks up...So far I have no referrals...zero, zilch, nada. Today was my second day at the school and I literally spent the entire 7 hour day checking my email over and over and over again. Oh wait, I went to Wendy's for a half an hour for lunch. Now keep in mind, I'm at an alternative school, so all of these kids most certainly have behavioral problems...I'm just not getting the referrals. If they haven't come by tomorrow morning, I'm going to ask my supervisor if I can send a memo out to all the teachers letting them know what I do instead of just waiting for referrals from the social worker. That way, if the teachers notice kids who are struggling, they can make referrals to me themselves. Until I get referrals, I have nothing to do and no clients to see.

One good thing that came out of today was that I started brainstorming for NaNoWriMo and I now have a plot, characters, and even a title!! So I started outlining a little bit and I'm really excited about my story now. Looking forward to starting it. It's a fantasy and the title will be A Sunrise in Nowhere. The story was inspired by a quote I read while I was bored and, well...reading quotes online. Here it is:

"No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed." -Sigmund Freud (From Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, 1905.)

Update: Look who arrived at their new home today!!!

Time For Another Week & Challenge Completed

Here it is, another weekend over. Tomorrow I actually start at my new school so I have those first day nerves all over again. Training is officially over. But I'm sure things will be fine, I'm really not too worried. I know I'll start the day in good spirits seeing as both LSU and The Saints came away victorious this weekend!! We also have another cool front coming through and we've been warned that we may actually need light jackets for this one in the afternoon! How cool (literally :p)

This weekend was tons of fun. It was such a blast following everyone's progress for Dewey's 24 hour reading challenge. Congratulations to all of the participants! Everyone blew me away with the amount of time spent reading and the amount of blogging that they did! I'm definitely in next year. I decided to have my own little readathon and got 3 books read this weekend. I read Because of Winn Dixie and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane for the Four Legged Friends Challenge and started Bud, Not Buddy for the Newbery Challenge yesterday. I finished Bud, Not Buddy today which officially ends the Newbery Challenge for me!

Bud, Not Buddy was a great little book. It's the story of a young boy who's in foster care after his mother's death. All of his belongings fit into a suitcase wrapped in twine and include a picture of his mother, some rocks with dates written on them, a blanket, and a photo of a jazz band with a man that he believes to be his father in it. After having horrible luck in his new foster home, Bud runs away in the hopes of finding his father, hoping to finally find acceptance. It was a very endearing story and I was reminded of many of the kids that I've worked with while reading this one. A nice ending to the challenge.

I went hunting all over the place today for a copy of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree after Debi suggested it during the 24 hour Challenge last night but came up empty handed. I'd really like to read that one on Halloween night. So I ordered it on Amazon today in the hopes that it will get here on time. I also got Kate DiCamillo's new picture book, Great Joy and Jan Siegel's Prospero's Children. So I have a new package of books to look forward to sometime soon ;)

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

So now I'm all caught up with Kate DiCamillo's novels and I have to say that The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is probably my favorite. It's a beautiful story and like all of her books, it's presented beautifully with amazing illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Edward Tulane is a porcelain rabbit doll that was specially commissioned by Abilene Tulane's grandmother. He's a wonderful doll that has real rabbit fur ears, a gold pocket watch and a whole wardrobe of clothes. Edward admires himself and is quite conceited thinking only of himself. He is loved by Abilene but does not reciprocate that love.

When Abilene's family goes on a cruise Edward is tossed overboard and falls to the bottom of the ocean where he experiences his first emotion aside from selfishness - fear. After spending nearly a year on the ocean floor he is swept into the nets of a fisherman which eventually leads him into the unlikely arms of an elderly woman where he begins to learn the emotion of love. From there, Edward continues his miraculous journey, discovering what love is and learning to cherish the meaning and fragility of human relationships.

Another stellar work by DiCamillo! I'm so happy to have this book in my collection. What I love about DiCamillo's work is that they speak to such a wide audience. There's something in each of her books for everyone and I truly enjoyed this one.

Update: Here are a couple of other great reviews of this book. Becky has a very thorough review that I enjoyed reading, and Carl also has a review of this one that I read some time ago that made me instantly want to pick this one up. I'm glad I finally did!

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Well it was no surprise that I enjoyed this little story by Kate DiCamillo. She's become one of my favorite children's authors this year and I'm kind of sad that all I have left to read by her is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which is up next. But I have no doubt that she has a long career ahead of her.

Because of Winn-Dixie is a story of friendship. India Opal Buloni has just moved to a new town. Her father is a preacher and while she loves him, she sometimes feels that she's second to his job as "the preacher." Her mother left her and her father at a young age and she doesn't know much about her. She misses her mother and often wonders about her. Suffice it to say that Opal feels quite lonely.

One day Opal goes to the local Winn-Dixie to pick up some groceries for her father and comes across a dog that is causing a raucous in the produce department. When she hears that the produce manager is going to call the pound, she claims the dog as her own. Her father allows her to keep the stray dog who is in need of some care and a beautiful bond forms between Opal and this wonderful dog. Opal begins to meet others in the town through their encounters with Winn-Dixie and she and the dog begin forming bonds and friendships with some wonderful, unlikely friends. Along the way, Opal learns that nearly everyone has ghosts in their pasts; something that they have lost or something that haunts them.

I was so pleased with this book and look forward to finally seeing the movie. I have to admit that I thought the movie looked stupid when I originally saw the previews and I didn't have any desire to see it. But now that I've discovered DiCamillo's writing, I'll most definitely see the movie based on the book. We used to show this movie at the children's psychiatric hospital that I interned at last semester and I can see why. It's a great book, and I'm sure a great movie, for kids who have gone through some kind of loss or troubled time to relate too. DiCamillo is certainly an asset to children's literature.

Sticking With It

It is such a beautiful day in New Orleans today. This cool front is finally coming through and it's knocked all humidity out of the city...thank God! According to ForecastFox, it's 77 degrees and Sunny right now and it's just perfect. The whole weekend is supposed to be pretty. Then Monday morning we're supposed to get lots of rain and the highs are only supposed to be in the low 70's! Yay, Autumn's finally here :)

So, Sticking with it...the title of the post. Refers to NaNoWriMo. I was considering dropping out of participating. First of all, I had assumed that the new job would consume all of my time, which it will, but I'll make time. Second of all, I don't know if I'm liking my original plot and story line, but I may go with it anyway. But last night I stared and stared at my reminder email from NaNo and thought of how great of a feeling it would be to write a novel and decided to go ahead and register...and I did. Plus, Dark Orpheus is putting the pressure on, so I have to join her :p Is anyone else joining in? If so, here's my profile, add me as a friend!

I also think that I'm going to do my own little read-a-thon today. Everyone's participating in Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon and it sounds like so much fun! I'm not up for a full 24 hours since Saturday has become "catch up on sleep day", but it would be nice to knock out some of these challenge books that have been stressing me out. So I think I'm going to sit outside and enjoy this weather and read my 2 DiCamillo's for the Four-Legged Friends Challenge, my last Newbery Challenge book, and if there's time, one of my Classics Challenge books. Of course this all has to be done before the 8:00 LSU vs. Auburn game tonight!!! We're also electing a new governor here in Louisiana today so I most certainly have to vote. We've never needed a new governor like we do now!

Alright, I'm Back

I'm ready to come back. The funeral was really nice today. It was so touching to see the amount of people who showed up and the whole ceremony was just a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. I mentioned the other day that we shared a love of music, me and my uncle. He had one of the most eclectic tastes in music that I knew of and he passed that on to me. He would go from The Sex Pistols to Frank Sinatra and it was common knowledge that Frank Sinatra was his all time favorite singer. So at the end of his funeral as they were bringing the casket out of the chapel they played "My Way" through the speakers and it was just the perfect way to send him off. I'll miss you Uncle Rob.

In the meantime, I haven't gotten much reading done, but the couple of little short books that I've read I enjoyed. Very light reading here :p The first is the second Edgar and Ellen book by Charles Ogden called Tourist Trap and while not great literature by any means, it's a fun little book that was better than the first in the series and can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. The second was Ray Bradbury's short story The Homecoming which is beautifully illustrated by Dave McKean. I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book if you come across it. I've really grown fond of Bradbury's writing this past year and of course McKean is one of my favorite artists if you can't tell by my header. The Homecoming is a perfect tale for Halloween about an ordinary boy in an anything but ordinary family who just wants to fit in during their Homecoming gathering on All Hallow's Eve.

I'm throwing in an unplanned book next because what the hell, it's time to spice things up! I have Alan Campbell's Scar Night sitting on my shelf and I keep eyeing it up. It wasn't originally on my RIP bonus list, but it's going to be now! I've ordered the prequel, Lye Street, that Subterranean Press is publishing in January 2008 so I'd like to read this one first anyway. Lye Street has a great Dave McKean cover which I can't wait to see in person.

So I'm glad to be back and I'll be making the blog rounds soon. Back to work tomorrow!

Toraware by Robert W. Norris

I wrote this review Sunday night for Curledup.com with the intentions of posting it yesterday morning...so I'm a day late, but here it is. I loved this book and chances are you won't be able to find it in the bookstore as it was published by a fairly independent press. It is available on Amazon though and I highly recommend it if it sounds like something you'd be interested in. It's a haunting look at a slice of lives set in Japan.

Everything else is settling into place. The funeral is set for Thursday and I'll be off of work for that. Unfortunately I haven't accrued any vacation time yet so it will be an unpaid day off, but I don't mind. I'll be finished training after this week and I'll actually start seeing clients on Monday!

So here's the review:

Human emotions, dark pasts, trials & tribulation, and complicated relationships are nothing new in literature. These are all common themes in countless novels and we’ve seen the same scenario play out time and time again. Every now and then, an author comes along and makes these themes special though and strikes the right notes with his or her readers. Robert W. Norris has done this with his novel Toraware.

Toraware is the story of three people living in Japan trying to find their place in the world. Harlan is a writer and a Vietnam War veteran in his early thirties who is unsure what he wants exactly out of life. He has come to Japan to teach English and to experience a new culture. While there he’s met two women who are also trying to find themselves and each has become connected to Harlan. Sachiko has fallen for Harlan and his writing but her feelings are not reciprocated. Sachiko has her own dark past and her own issues to work through and has a hard time dealing with rejection. Yoshiko and Harlan have a much closer relationship, but Harlan will not open up to her. Yoshiko is also fairly promiscuous, has an alcohol problem and also has a dark past stemming from psychological issues.

Toraware is the tale of a universal need for acceptance. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen these themes in other works, but they are presented beautifully here. Norris’ words match the beauty of the Japanese landscapes that he describes. You can tell that Norris has spent quite a bit of time in Japan as reading the novel is somewhat of a study in the culture of Japan. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the novel as Japan has always had a fascinating culture to me. Norris relates to his audience that through language barriers, culture barriers, and gender barriers, we can all relate at the core of what it is to be human.

This book was a great surprise and I look forward to getting to know Norris’ work a little bit better. He’s published a few other books, one of which is actually used to teach English to Japanese students. It’s title is The Many Roads to Japan. Toraware was a book that could be extremely tedious if written by the wrong person seeing as there’s not much action in the book. The book’s main aesthetic is very voyeuristic. The reader is simply a fly on the wall as we experience the characters sorting out their lives. In Norris’ hands, the book is a huge success and a pleasure to read. 4.5/5

(copyright 2007 by Chris Howard for Curled Up With A Good Book)

Bad Morning

My uncle passed away this morning. He's had a bad heart for awhile now. He was only 46 years old. He had his first heart attack at 36 years old and had a procedure done that gave him 5 years max to live and he lived for 10. He was one of those guys that had his idiosyncrasies but was such a great guy. He had something that he could relate to with everyone. For me it was music. We would talk music all the time. He has an amazing vinyl collection with unopened copies of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles' White Album just to name a couple.

He lived across the street from me with my dad and my grandma and this morning was really rough. I went over there at 7:30 as soon as I heard and it was a rough sight, but we're hanging in there as a family and we'll get through it. I know this is really hard on my grandma...he did so much for her and that was her baby. Same goes for my dad...they had their fair share of fights, but that's what brothers do and in the end, they were best friends.

Work sent me home with stuff to "do at home" and told me they'd pay me for the day. I really lucked out with this job. I know that it's a good one and I couldn't ask for a better supervisor. So I may be a stranger for a couple of days and wanted to explain why I may disappear. I owe a couple of book reviews and they'll come in due time.

Remembering What A Weekend Is

It's been so long since a weekend actually meant something. For the longest time, the weekends have been the time when I would actually work while I went to school during the week, so I found myself extra excited this morning when I woke up to realize that it was indeed Friday! Add to that this beautiful cool front that came through and it was indeed a good day. It actually feels somewhat like Fall down here for the first time this season with temperatures in the 70's all day and in the 60's now tonight!

My first week proved to be a good one and grown up life hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be so far :p The biggest downer has been the cutting into my reading time...but that's how life goes. I've read all of about 50 pages this week, but that's one thing that I plan on doing this weekend - catching up on reading! I'm also very excited about football this weekend - mostly because of the weather. Football goes with this kind of weather for me. There's nothing that quite matches a nice autumn day, football, and a barbecue. Tomorrow's the LSU game which I'm very excited about as my alma mater is having an amazing, undefeated, #1 ranking season, and then Sunday night is the less than hopeful Saints game...enough said about that one...

Also up for tomorrow is a little goodbye party that the family that I've worked for for the past 6 years is throwing for me. It will be bittersweet, but as I've said before will not be a true goodbye...just a goodbye in the sense that I'll no longer be an employee, but I'll continue to be a friend of the family.

The thing I love most about Fridays is that I'm writing this post at midnight! I'm such a night person...me and daylight don't get along too well, so it makes me happy that I can stay up later than 10:30 for a couple of nights. Of course, by doing this, I'm totally throwing off the sleep schedule that I'm finally getting used to, but oh well! So back to reading, back to TV, back to blog hopping...have a great weekend everyone!

Slipping Into A Radiohead Coma

How did I manage to not know that my favorite band had a new album coming out today????? Radiohead has never been big on advertising of course and I've been a horrible fan lately and haven't been going on their website, so that may explain it. So here's a weird story of how I came to learn that Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, came out today. I got an email from LibraryThing announcing that they have a new Wikipedia type program where you can edit book and author info and at the bottom of the email it says something about "you can pay whatever you want for Radiohead's new album and you can do the same for a membership to our site." So of course I ran over to Radiohead's site all giddy and excited. I knew that they had been working on an album for a long time but had no idea that it was finished and was released as a download only today!!! You can download it at www.inrainbows.com and I highly recommend that you do! And yes, you really can pay whatever you want for the album, but please support the guys!

So now I've been listening to it for awhile and I am loving it! For those who are fans, I'm sure you can understand why they're my favorite band. There's no one else like them. There are others that are as talented and as inventive, but they are so unique and have constantly re-invented themselves while keeping an essence to their music that still defines them. I get lost in each in every one of their songs and listening to their music is truly an experience. I've had the chance to see them live only once and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen and I'll never forget it. This album is a wonderful progression in Radiohead's career and combines everything that they've done in the past and then delivers a new spacey, reverb quality that's always been there but is even more pronounced. Ah, I'm loving it. Bands haven't been stopping in New Orleans too much since Katrina, but when Radiohead tours again, I'm hoping that they come visit us. If they don't, I'll just have to visit them. I'd love to hear some of Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, performed live as well. If you're looking for some amazing new music at a great price (you name it), check Radiohead's new album out. Each song is unique and there's something for everyone. And of course, long time fans will adore it.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

I love the feeling of picking up a book, getting lost in its pages, and actually being transported into it's world; smelling it's smells, feeling the weather, seeing the sights, feeling the goosebumps. I felt like a child again when I was reading Something Wicked This Way Comes. Remember the creepiness of October as a child? Can you recall the strange attraction to a house of mirrors? There aren't many freak shows around these days, but as a child the unknown and the bizarre was always a little scary because it was new...We still weren't convinced that monsters didn't exist. And while we grow out of that as we grow older, we remember those feelings which allows for the pleasure of October and allows for a little bit of fear to become fun as an adult. Something Wicked This Way Comes was fun!

This is Ray Bradbury's telling of the tale of two young boys who are the best of friends, Jim and Will. Jim and Will have always done everything together and have shared a wonderful friendship. They are next door neighbors and are known to sneak out together to go on adventures. Will's father is another character that we get to know throughout the book. Will's father is a janitor at the local library and fathered Will at an older age and is bothered by that now that he is an older parent.

One night in October, Jim, Will, and Will's father hear carnival music playing. Carnivals usually come in the summer and it's odd that one should be coming now. But there are pieces of paper that are found that advertise that a carnival is in fact arriving. Jim and Will sneak out to investigate and discover one of the oddest and creepiest carnivals they have seen and it's proprietor is a man called Mr. Dark aka The Illustrated Man, who is covered in tattoos. Jim and Will first witness something strange in the carnival when one of their teachers goes through a bizarre hall of mirrors and comes out of it in a different state. Things really take a turn for the worst when they witness the calliope in the center of the carnival...the source of the strange music that beckoned them to the carnival. What they witness is a horrific scene that catapults them into a game of cat and mouse against the sinister Mr. Dark and his band of carnival freaks.

This was a perfect October read, perfect for the RIP challenge, and my first read for the Seconds Challenge! My first Bradbury was Fahrenheit 451, which I loved, but this one was so much better! There will definitely be a third Bradbury reading for me...thinking about Dandelion Wine as I've heard great things about that one. Bradbury's writing was just beautiful in this book. I thought to myself, you could just turn to any page in this book and find a perfect passage, so I did just that...flipped to a random page and found the first sentence. Here it is: "The night was sweet with the dust of autumn leaves that smelled as if the fine sands of ancient Egypt were drifting to dunes beyond the town." Now come on...how many books can you open to a random page and find a quote like that!

Day The First! & The Cholera Epidemic

Today was the oh so exciting first day at the new job and thank God I like to read! I was greeted this morning with three 200 page manuals...my reaction (in my head of course) was a very un-enthused "yay" as the coffee had not yet done it's job. The manuals actually aren't all that bad though because they lay out the three different therapeutic programs that we offer kids.

Here's a quick recap on what I'll be doing. I'll be place at a school that's only 5 minutes away from my house which is great news! The original place I was going to be at was about 40 minutes away from my house. I'm an employee of the state though, not an employee of the school system. The school I'm working at is a middle school for kids who have been expelled from other schools. My job is to assess and diagnose kids who the teachers and social workers think may "have a problem." If they do indeed "have a problem" I'll do a 12 week counseling program with them. The program is very structured and we have a program for kids with depression, behavioral disorders, and just this year, we added anxiety disorders.

My supervisor is really cool which made me happy. Life's so much easier when you like the people you're working with. The atmosphere is laid back and all of my nervousness that has built up over the last month has gone out the window. In fact, reading through the anxiety counseling manual today actually helped me! Go figure! So I'm really excited to be there and it will really be nice when that first check comes in!

Back to books tonight. Should have a Something Wicked This Way Comes review up soon...hopefully tonight.

Oh! And did you see that Oprah picked Love in the Time of Cholera as her new book club selection? I'm so happy that I bought my copy before they put her damn name on the cover! I have mixed feelings about it. I'm happy that so many people will read the book now, because it's an absolutely amazing book, but at the same time it bugs me and I don't know why...we've talked about this before on here. What is it about the "Oprah's Book Club Selection" sticker that irks people (like me). For instance, I still haven't bought a copy of The Road or Middlesex because I can't find a copy without her name on it! It's especially aggravating when there's no mention of the Pulitzer prize on the cover, but Oprah's name is on the cover. Oh well...it's spilled milk. I really don't have a problem with Oprah...she does some great things for the world and even has some great shows occasionally, but there is just something about Oprah and all of these books that doesn't work for me and I don't even know what it is! It's like she's taking over the world. Another very cool piece of Love in the Time of Cholera news...I saw a poster for the theatrical version in the movie theaters the other night! How cool!

Two More Books And A Movie

I actually feel accomplished today! I signed up for all of my benefits for the new job, read 3 books (though one was a picture book and one was a short little 111 pg, fun book) and saw a movie. I guess it's my last hurrah before heading off into the real world on Monday. So here are a few more reviews.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival may be the most beautiful book I've ever seen. Tan is an illustrator/author that I learned of through Carl. Carl highly recommends The Red Tree and I haven't picked it up yet because I haven't been able to find it. Eventually I'll pick up a copy through Amazon. The Arrival is a 128 page picture book that tells the story of an immigrant. It could be the story of any immigrant going to any new land, but it happens to be the story of a man heading off to a bizarre yet beautiful world that is so unfamiliar to anything that we know of today to set up a home for his wife and child. The food, the creatures, the jobs, the way of life, the way of travel...it's all new and bizarre and told beautifully through Tan's haunting, sepia toned artwork. Each villager that he meets has their own story of how they came to the land and what they left behind. What Tan presents is an homage to every migrant that's ever traveled to a new world and set up a new life for themselves. The story is told through pictures only - no words, and no words are needed. This is a beautiful book and I can't help but feel that every family should have a copy on their bookshelf.

The next book is the first in a series. It's the Edgar & Ellen series by Charles Ogden, written for young adults/children and the first book is Rare Beasts. This book was such a delight to read :) It's like A Series of Unfortunate Events (which I never really got into) meets Tim Burton. Edgar & Ellen are mischievous twins who live in a town called Nod's Limbs in a dreary, towering house. All of Nod's Limbs is considered the "good side of town" except for the block that Edgar & Ellen live on...that would be the "bad side of town" thanks to them. Their parents left on "vacation" a while ago and never returned and they are now left to themselves with the only adult around being the creepy groundskeeper. Edgar and Ellen both have pasty white skin and black hair plastered to their heads and where their red and white striped footie pajamas all the time. Their favorite past time is basically torturing each other, but when Ellen is about to slice her brother open with a pendulum after finding him in a game of hide and seek, they decide that they are bored with their normal games. So of course, they go to aggravate their one eyed hairball of a pet named, well...."pet". Pet is watching his favorite TV show that's talking about exotic animals and the twins get a wonderful idea. If they could find their own exotic animals to sell, they could make tons of money to buy things to wreak havoc on the town with! So they kidnap all of the town's pets and do a little altering of them and try to resell them as....Rare Beasts. This looks to be a great series and very light but fun reading. There are 4 books out in the series so far and I'll be picking the others up. Edgar and Ellen are also Target's Halloween mascots this year! So I'll probably go out tomorrow and buy the halloween DVD special that's for sale there as well as the pop-up book (I love pop-up books!)

And finally, I saw an absolutely amazing movie tonight! Finally, Across the Universe was released here. For those who don't know, it's a musical focusing on the Vietnam war era and features over 33 Beatles songs sung by the actors throughout the movie. This movie was just phenomenal, and if it's playing near you...go see it! I've never gotten goosebumps so many times in 2 hours. It's beautifully done with so much emotion, power and meaning put into it and I was just amazed at the genius put into this movie. It was visually stunning and one of those movies that you just get lost in. I could see this movie 10 more times in the theater and I'm sure it would still bring waves of emotion over me each time. Check it!

Surrender by Sonya Hartnett

Ok...it was bound to happen after the string of 5 star reviews I've had. Let's talk about Surrender. I've had this book sitting patiently on my shelf for awhile and I've been anxiously awaiting it. It's won numerous awards and I'm not saying that it's not deserving of them. The book is absolutely beautifully written. Hartnett certainly has a gift when it comes to writing, and her story is a smart one. Here's my problem...I can't remember the time that I've read a more depressing story! I don't mind depressing novels at all. In fact, as messed up as it may sound, I usually prefer them. But this is the most dreary, without hope, not a single ray of light novel that I have read in a while.

The book begins with our main character Anwell, who later takes on the name Gabriel (after the archangel), on his deathbed at the age of 20. To show the beauty of her words, I give you the opening passage:

"I am dying: it's a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it."

And from this point, the novel gets progressively MORE dreary as Anwell tells the story of his short 20 years and what led up to his current state. Anwell comes from an abusive home and there is something that he has done in his past that is a constant haunt to him...something that is normally construed as evil, but was done in a moment of panic by a boy who is a good natured soul. Anwell meets a boy named Finnigan one day and forms a friendship based on a pact: Anwell will do only good, Finnigan will do only evil. This is Anwell's chance at redemption for his past. Soon, a string of arson attacks plagues the town that Anwell lives in and he realizes how dangerous his new friend is. Anwell's only other friend is his dog, Surrender, and I have to leave the rest of the plot synopsis here as the tale would be given away to say more.

You can see why I was drawn to this story. I still maintain that it's a well written novel, a powerful and memorable story, a heartbreaking story, and deserving of it's praise. But it left me feeling so down and there was never really a moment in the book where there was any ray of light for this character. As you can probably tell, this novel deals with mental illness and of course I have a special place for characters whose lives are deeply affected by that. I think that's what was most disturbing for me...no redemption was offered. I understand that many people with mental illness do indeed suffer every day, but this was just such a bleak scenario where things just got worse and worse. As a counselor, I'd like to look towards a ray of light and trying to find hope.

So there it is...has anyone else read this one? I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on it.

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

What's left to say about Neil Gaiman? There won't be any surprises here. Fragile Things is another masterpiece by the master of modern fantasy. For those who don't know, Fragile Things is another collection of Neil Gaiman's short fiction and poetry. This is my second journey into his short stories this year. My first was with his book, Smoke and Mirrors which I adored. In fact, I'd place Smoke and Mirrors higher on my list of favorite Gaiman books than Fragile Things. This isn't to say that the stories in Fragile Things weren't superb, I just enjoyed the ones in Smoke and Mirrors even more.

But this review is focusing on Fragile Things! Once again, he starts off the book with a wonderful introduction in which he gives some background on each one of the stories and poems in the book which I think is so cool. It adds a special little touch to each story to know why it was written or the inspiration for it..."lagniappe" as we call it in New Orleans. For Smoke and Mirrors I gave detailed descriptions for each story that I enjoyed, and I'm not going to do that for this one, because this review would be ridiculously long. But I really did enjoy every story in this book! Not all of them were favorites, but each one was an enjoyable read.

Gaiman's main gift is that his stories are so unique. They aren't something that you've heard before. Even his retelling of classic tales become brand new. He's a writer who can have the month of October tell a story, can personify an albums worth of Tori Amos songs, can perfectly describe the atmosphere of New Orleans on a muggy night, can create a beautiful poem that you want stenciled onto your walls, tell countless stories that all haunt and remain vivid, and best of all they're all packaged neatly into one beautiful book with a novella at the end that revisits Shadow from my favorite novel of his, American Gods.

I don't do well with short stories usually, but Gaiman makes anything work. I just love reading his short stories and hope that we have more collections to see from him in the future...though of course some more novels would be nice too. I'm anxiously awaiting the Graveyard Book now! So guess what...this actually concludes the RIP challenge for me! Well, it concludes my official reads. I signed up for 6 official reads, so I'm done my obligation. Now, I'm reading just for fun and will continue to read nothing but bonus RIP reads for the rest of the month of October!

I Wait All Year For This

Happy October Everyone! Yes, it's a holiday in my little world. October has always been my favorite month and just the name of the month itself is beautiful. It brings to mind warm colors and a chill in the air, pumpkin spice lattes and old tattered books, Tim Burton movies and Tori Amos. Everything in it's right place. This year has been made extra special by two new additions to the usual mix. The first is the RIP Challenge which I'm truly loving. Not only has my reading been focused on the eerie and gothic, but I've also penned a couple of tiny stories in the horror vein. Secondly, Lisa Snellings-Clark has kicked off her Play In The Dark sale and.....WOW! It's just amazing. Go see for yourself. Keep checking as she has said on her blog that she will continue to add things over the next few days. I definitely won't be able to afford everything that I want, but I did manage to pick up a skeleton poppet already!

So for the rest of the month, I will continue my October traditions of surrounding myself with as many gaudy Halloween decorations as I can find, watching as many cheesy horror movies as I can, being outdoors as much as possible to enjoy the Fall weather (whenever it gets here), drowning in Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and of course...reading as many "October books" as possible. And after this comes Thanksgiving and Christmas! The end of the year is always my favorite...geesh, it's the end of the year!