Books That Deserve Buzz.

I'm always searching for the unknown, barely publishable (due to market) authors and love to plug them every chance I get. As I stumble across great recommendations, I'll publish them here! And PLEASE email me with your great finds too. I too am victim to the Oprah list, the New York Times best seller list, anything with the word Daughter in it,,, so they're going to be mentioned here too, but only as also rans.





TIMELY BOOK OF THE DECADE:

We Need to Talk about Kevin
by Lionel Shriver
http://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-About-Kevin/dp/006112429X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217807511&sr=8-1

I read this book last year, and it haunts me to date. It's about a Columbine type masacre, but the shooter lives and is in prison. His mother faithfully visits him, and writes to his father (where is he, anyway?) about her visits, and where she thinks it all went wrong. With unbelievable twists and believable characters, this book begs the question to be asked: are monsters born, or made?



http://www.amazon.com/Towelhead-Novel-Alicia-Erian/dp/0743285123/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220980870&sr=8-2

Book about a teen Iraqi girl, first generation, being raised in redneck racisist TX. More than social comentary on ugly Americanism, it is a frightening story about how easily a smart girl can be taken advantage of sexually. This girl's experience will ring true to, unfortunately, many women. The good news is, the girl's strong sense of self prevails and don't worry, it ends happy.


Geek Love
by Katherine Dunn
http://www.amazon.com/Geek-Love-Novel-Katherine-Dunn/dp/0375713344/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220981487&sr=1-1



I am not sure why I recommend this book so often.
It's about a strange couple who run a traveling circus, and the human oddities on display are refered to as geeks. The couple admire the geeks, and intentionally reproduce more; they drug the wife to have malformed children to put in their show. Sick, yes, but somehow the exquisite writing shows a family with all the normal disfunctions of say, us middle class white folks. You yearn to save the protagonist, the poor daughter with only a hump back that is teased in her family for being too normal. The son with only flappers for limbs rises to first family then world fame. OK, it's a psychotic book (like Chuck Palahniuk books aren't? IE Snuff, Fight Club, I am Ginny's contrition) , but it for some reason jolted me.


Parasites Like Us
Emporium



http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=parasites+like+us

The two above books were penned by my brother in law, Stanford prof Adam Johnson. My husband and I admit to often not being literate enough for this guy, but if you knew what a cool dude Adam is, you'd read his stuff just to get to know him.

See here his recently published graphic novel:


http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2008/julaug/show/graphic.html



Keeping up this kind of work assures me more visits from the Johnsons for the annual San Diego Comic Con every July!(What the frack is up with BSG?)


The Inimitable Stephanie Harrell, Phd

Not to be outdone by her hubby Adam, my sister-in-law Aunt Stephie has her own style of written self expression, one that delves into the super hero world, the vampire world, the other dimension world. James and I LOVE her fast paced stories and witty dialogue, much more our level of literary prose! Look for her new novel coming out soon, but for now here's a sample of her work:


http://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=story&story_id=60
(hit read the whole story)

A Brief History of the Dead

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Dead-Kevin-Brockmeier/dp/1400095956/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229491791&sr=8-1

What a great read. My husband has this new theory of parallel universes and human's ability to be conscience in only one at a time, but if we could master the ability to transport ourselves.....
But I digress (as does he). THIS book does take place in two parallel universes, one being here, one being... purgatory is the only word I can think of to describe it. After you die, you live in purgatory (which looks remarkably like New York City! Wait, that's my heaven.) only until everyone on earth who has even so much as glanced your way also ceases to exist... in this universe. So what happens if someone puts a lethal chemical in Coke which is transported worldwide? If this universe ends, what happens in "New York City"? It's an amazing look at our spiritual options (do we have any?) with none of the sappy love story garbage that threatens to mess this up. The movie version surely would, star crossed lovers in different universes and all. I see Will Smith or better, Tom Cruise destroying this intellectual concept.


Sammy's Hill

http://www.amazon.com/Sammys-Hill-Kristin-Gore/dp/1401360297/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229492917&sr=8-1

Step aside Bridget Jones and all the chick lit copy cats. This is laugh out loud funny, great insight in a 20 something woman's mind, and actually teaches you some "How does a bill become a law" stuff. Fluff AND educational? This book is admirable, because it never once uses the words democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, yet remarkably tells a story of Washington DC politics without being political. From a young staff assistant's point of view, a humble US Senator tries to make a difference, while his assistant, Sammy, tries to keep her laurels and pants on. I tried to get my staunchly Republican mother in law, Rep. Gayle Harrell of Florida to give it a try, but with the name Gore, I doubt she picked it up! Yes, it's written by Al Gore's amazing daughter, who once wrote for Saturday Night Live (now she's living TWO of my fantasies) but as I mentioned, it is amazingly apolitical. She does a fantastic job of weaving a story about policy without party bashing.
And hurrah! The follow up, Sammy's House, arrived this summer! I can't wait to dive into more of Sammy's crazy life!

One Thousand White Women
by Jim Fergus

http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-White-Women-Journals/dp/0312199430/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229576406&sr=8-1

POINTS ON PARENTING. Feel free to add your own observances of the absurd.

There is an often misunderstood quote regarding SAHM's (stay at home moms) which refers to the lack of adult conversation. I speak with adults PLENTY. All day even. It's the topics that are lacking. Moms are so consumed with parenting, that's the only thing talked about. Here are some examples:

Exhibit A
Last Spring a mother of a deaf child in Nicki's class was complaining to me about how hard it was to get her insurance company to realize her daughter needed special things, a new hearing aid, special therapies. My response: "Think what you will about her, but Hilary would certainly take care of those kind of issues if she wins." This was met with a blank stare which wordlessly stated "Hillary who?" I shouldn't be surprised, when my husband and I got our simply put "Obama" bumper stickers women at the playground asked what it stood for.

Exhibit B
This was a CLASSIC at LaJolla Shores recently. A fellow mom yelled at a surfer with a skim board that almost ran into our kids. Mind you, we were definitely IN the surf zone of the beach, play at your peril. He pretty much told her as much, to which she informed me "I should sue his A*$, he's just lucky I didn't go freakin' MOM on his
A@*" to which I felt obliged to then go Bill Mahr (known child foil) on hers, but refrained because we were, afterall, at a child's birthday party.

Exhibit C:
A fellow mom friend left me a perky voice mail saying she wanted to catch up! I called her back and was immediately asked "Hey, watchya doing tomorrow night from 5:50- 7:45pm?" Naively, I'm seeing Happy Hour pedicures they give at that bar in LaJolla in my future, and exclaim "Nothing!" to which I'm asked "Great, can you watch my kids? We have passes to a new restaurant opening." This is the mom version of a tactic learned in our twenties:
Caller A: Whatchya doing this weekend?
Caller B: Nothing.
Caller A: Great, can you help me move?
Nervy.


Conversation with four year old Nick in the car:
Nicki: You know what I want? I wish I had a make up table like Sofia. With a mirror and a chair. And you know what I want? I wish I had a sparkly purple lipstick like Jupiter.

Mommy Ginny: That's great Nicki, and I guess when you're young everything seems so magnificent, and grand, and you just want every cool thing you see, don't you?

Nicki: No.(Insert silent rethink here.) Yeah.

Ginny: That's understandable, but I want you to think about something when you see something you want. Think to yourself, "I sure do like Sofia's makeup table, and I sure do like the sound of that lipstick Jupiter said she has, but I do like my own makeup box and lip gloss so I sure am appreciative that I have them." The sooner you learn that lesson Nicki, the HAPPIER you're going to be.

Nicki: I do do that. It's just that I'm even HAPPIER when I see new things to HAVE! Anyway, the more things I ask for, the more I get.

Philosophy of an insatiable only child...

Mommy Ginny sighs.

NICKI'S VIEW ON PRE-K:
"School's great mom, want to know why? Because now you have time to plan surprise birthday parties for me without me getting in your way.