Genre Fiction

When came time to pick out a new book to read after finishing Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams, it was a no-brainer: I had to finally start Tracy Chevalier’s newest novel Burning Bright.

The second I opened the book, I caught myself letting out a small sigh of happiness. I was in reader heaven. I do apparently really love Chevalier’s historical fiction more than other authors and books.

Burning Bright follows a family made up of a chair-making artisian, his prim and proper wife, their two youngest children, and the memory of the son they recently lost. After meeting a traveling circus man, the family moves from the small town countryside to the city of London. Home becomes a quaint apartment with a strict and bitter landlady, a garden that is reserved for looking only, and diverse, quirky neighbors - including real-life poet William Blake.

Every sentence is a good one, and I never have to reread anything. I understand and love the writing the first time around, even if that’s at midnight, in bed, as I am falling asleep. Tracy Chevalier wins my award for most captivating writing style.

My 9 to 5 hustle is spent making and editing crossword, word search, and cryptogram puzzles. It’s can be fun because I get to spend my time researching and learning about any topics that I chose (with in reason, of course … I don’t think my boss or readers would appreciate a puzzle theme about bondage).

Here’s a Word-Find puzzle to print out and enjoy solving about one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. Click on the picture of it here to get a full-size view.

I also have one copy of the book in which this puzzle is featured to give away. The issue is the November Quality Find the Word, published by Kappa Publishing. In addition to containing this puzzle (and its answer), you’ll find themed puzzles about George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Robert Frost’s poems, book reviews in general, A Beautiful Mindby Sylvia Nasar, and lots of other non-reading related topics such as cooking, fashion, geography, and more.

Want me to send you the copy? Leave me a comment and at the end of the week I will send it out to one lucky person.

It’s been awhile since I’ve checked in with the New York Times to see what books and authors are topping the bestsellers list. Plus, my usual book store is under construction - so I am thoroughly out of the loop.

The Times tracks bestsellers in a number of categories, three of which are fiction-related. Here are, as of Tuesday, August 26, the top five in each.

HARDCOVER FICTION:

1. Smoke Screen by Sandra Brown
2. The Bourne Sanction by Eric Van Lustbader
3. Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva

PAPERBACK TRADE FICTION:

1. The Shack by William P. Young
2. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand
3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
4. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

PAPERBACK MASS-MARKET FICTION:

1. Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
2. You’ve Been Warned by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
3. Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
4. Into the Flame by Christina Dodd
5. Play Dirty by Sandra Brown

As for the difference between mass-market and trade fiction books - something I’ve always wondered about, you can read detailed comparisons and contrasts of the two types at New York Times online. But, in short, trade books have artsy cover designs, higher prices, and a true book-loving fan base; whereas mass-market ones might have a cover resembling the movie version, and are targeted at impulse buyers and cramped book sections in larger stores. The first is often larger in size, and the latter might fit in your back pocket.

The two cover pictures shown here are an example of the two: The first is The Kite Runner for trade, and the second, for mass-market.

Everyone must have heard that I am on the lookout for people reading in public so that I can be nosy. I just saw four more people spreading the fiction love.

* Woman on Bus: Crystelle Mourning (2007) by Eisa Nefertari Ulen. I am having a hard time getting past the title. Is it about a gothic stripper? A new age porn star? Well, apparently it isn’t so scandalous … or realistic; it’s about a woman who tries to escape her childhood in Philadelphia by marrying a well-to-do man and moving to New York City. Unfortunately, the ghost that’s been haunting her - who happens to be that of her high school sweetheart - follows her to NYC.

* Young Female Working Alone at Starbucks: 13 Little Blue Envelopes (2006) by Maureen Johnson. This one sounds intriguing, and has good potential for a movie. The story is about a 17-year-old girl as she follows messages - that come one at a time, in little blue envelopes - on a scavenger hunt around Europe that her now-deceased aunt set up for her.

* Co-worker in the Lunchroom: To Have and To Hold (2005) by Jane Green. When I asked what she was reading, my co-worker made sure to point out that Jemima J (2001) was by far her favorite book by Jane Green. She also added that it follows Green’s typical storyline: shy and quiet woman gets taken advantage of by a man, but comes back stronger and with a vengeance.

* Girl on Bus: Addicted (2001) by Zane. Yes, just Zane, who’s other titles include The Sex Chronicles, Purple Panties, The Heat Seekers, and Gettin’ Buck Wild. So based on that, I am afraid to ask what this girl was reading in public. I’ll just leave you with the first line of the book: “The first time I ever laid eyes on Jason, I thought he was a junior-mack-daddy-wannabe that probably sat around on a Commodore 64 computer drinking grape Kool-Aid out of a peanut butter jar while watching Good Times.”

And that’s what the people around me are reading right now.

I have read two books by Barbara Kingsolver recently: I just finished Animal Dreams (1990), and two books before that, Prodigal Summer (2001).

I would still call Kingsolver one of my favorite storytellers; however, I have come to notice a few things about her style that irk me, with the main annoyance being her soapbox. In each novel, a little more than half way through, one character suddenly lectures another one for a good three or four pages about how something is working against nature.

Now I’m all for having strong opinions and sharing them in hopes of educating people. But I also feel that there is a time and a place. Stopping the story’s flow to instill a brief lesson creates a disjointed, stand out section that breaks apart from the rest of the novel.

That being said, I still highly recommend both Animal Dreams and Prodigal Summer. Both are great reads; both follow Kingsolver’s formula: Girl sets out to live life her way. Girl meets boy and falls hard. Girl tries to leave boy, as he does not fit in with her master plan. Girl suffers tragedy and reevaluates relationship with boy.

The first, tells Codi Noline’s tale of returning home to a small town in Arizona surrounded by land, Native American reservations, and memories of her childhood. Things begin changing with her atypical family upon her return: her overprotective father is beginning to see signs of Alzheimer’s; her sister Hallie, who is also a good friend, is headed to Nicaragua, during a war, to lend her agricultural expertise; her mother, who died after giving birth to Hallie, remains a mystery that Codi wants to figure out.

The latter, follows wildlife biologist Deanna Wolfe as she spends her time living amongst the coyote, in a shack in the woods, to observe and protect them.

The first is calm and reassuring; the latter, inspirational and passionate. Both are excellent; both are books you should read.

Harry Potter fans will have to wait almost another year before they can see the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Originally scheduled for a theater release date of November 21, 2008, the film was pushed back by Warner Bros. to next summer, July 17, 2009. Officially, there are no production delays, this is just a business decision.

Okay, so the film is being delayed; however, not all Time Warner companies (parent company to Warner Bros. and Entertainment Weekly, among others) got the Harry Potter memo. Magazine Entertainment Weekly (EW) will be featuring Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of its August 22-29 fall-preview issue with a six-page spread on the inside to start the buzz about his fall release.

Oops. But, hey, I guess this just gets the buzz and excitement started early.

EW is taking it all in stride, with a laugh no less. Warner Bros. did alert EW to the date changes, but not in time for the print version to change. Online, there is a note about the release date being moved. There are also comical statements about the error on EW’s Hollywood Insider blog, joking that this issue will be a collectible.

The original date, the weekend before Thanskgiving, is annually of the best-selling dates for movie releases. As Harry Potter ducked back to accommodate a later time, Twilight stepped up. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling vampire series of the same name, Twilight was set to debut December 12, but with Harry out of the way as competition, will now be released on the popular money-making November 21.

I hate spending money on hardback books: they are twice the price as paperbacks and take up more room on my shelves. Unfortunately, publishers have got in the habit of only releasing a hard copy for the first year of a new bestseller’s shelf life. This usually means that I wait in dire anticipation until the soft version comes out. But on vacation last year, my aunt bought me a hardback copy of The Friday Night Knitting Club (2007) by Kate Jacobs when it was still a brand new release.

This would be the best gift regardless of how the book turned out, but on top of it Knitting Club was fabulous! You don’t have to be a knitter to enjoy this book about both mother-daughter and women’s relationships. Any one can enjoy seeing such different personalities come together under a common bond and supporting each other through highs and lows.

Jacobs’s first read is now available in paperback - and her second one is here, too! (Albeit only in hardback, of course).

Comfort Foods (May, 2008) tells a similar tale of womanly strength and comraderie. This time, the setting is cooking show and the mother is a widow with two adult daughters.

Think you might be intrigued? Read the first chapter of Comfort Foods on Kate Jacobs’s Web site. A paperback edition of Comfort Foods is set to go on sale in April, 2009 … unless you’re lucky enough to stumble upon an aunt who splurges on you and buys you a newly released hard cover copy.

Whenever I see someone reading, I get nosy and try to see the cover and title of their book. Yesterday, on my commute home, I had a field day snooping on my fellow bus riders and their activity of choice, reading included.

Next to me, a young girl listened to an MP3 player while playing games on hercell phone. Two people at the front of the bus read the free daily newspaper; further back, two people solved the crossword and sudoku puzzles from this same paper. Two high school girls taught each other clapping and stomping rhythms. Finally, I noted two people - one man and one woman - reading books. It took some careful spying, but I determined what novel they each held.

The woman was reading one with an interesting cover: it had three women in bikinis, draping themselves sexily about in water. The name of this tempting gem? Sistergirls.com. After looking it up online, I am even less inclined to give this one a try. There are no fewer than eight authors credited for the five books in this series about the intrigue and danger of meeting someone online. It follows the (apparently) in demand Blackgentlemen.com series.

To the left of me, was a boy-man that made it difficult for me to be nosy - the nerve of him getting antsy upon noticing me staring! But I was finally successful; he was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner Azkaban (1999) by J. K. Rowling, the third of seven in the Harry Potter series.

And that’s what people around me are reading. Keep your eyes open - it’s fun to spy on reading people!

It’s a chicken or the egg question (as in which came first): Are people reading vampire fiction like crazy because that’s what authors are turning out, or are authors focusing in on the batty bloodsuckers because that’s what people want to read?

If you need even more of the supernatural, here are a few that are hot off the press and chasing each other up the charts (exclusive of Stephenie Meyer who we know is the queen of teen vampire lit):

* The Secret Circle: The Initiation and The Captive Part I (July 2008) by L. J. Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries series (2007): This new venture for Smith began a trek down a related, but slightly different road; now, it’s about witches. And, as the name suggests, Smith fully intends to make a series out of this one, too.

* Vamps (July 2008) by Nancy A. Collins: It’s Harry Potter meets Gossip Girls when female, teen vampires live an elitist life in New York.

* Spirit (July 2008) by J. P. Hightman: It’s a supernatural epic love tale where ghosts and witches run ramped.

* House of Night series (newest installment to be released September, 2008) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast: It’s another vampire read with a Harry Potter edge to it. This series follows a teen girl transitioning into adult vampire-hood through her attendance at House of Night - a school for change.

* The Saga of Darren Shan series by Darren Shan: Two main differences in Darren’s vampire series - the main character is male, and not a vampire, just a human who gets coaxed into the vampire lifestyle.

Vampires seem to be the hot theme of the moment in the fiction world. With Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga being all the rage amongst the young adult readers, and now Colleen Gleason is creating a stir with adult vampire reads.

Gleason combines historical fiction, romance, horror, and the paranormal to create books in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. Like Meyer, Gleason is pumping the series out rather quickly: The first, The Rest Falls Away (2007), was released the same year that second, Rises the Night (2007) was completed. Less than one year later, The Bleeding Dusk (2008) was published as the third in the series. Now, the fourth - but not final - installment is out.

When Twilight Burns (2008) has just hit shelves. To celebrate (and advertise) in a “green,” money-saving manner, Gleason has set up a virtual book tour with Mediasite. The live web cast has passed: it was held on Tuesday, August 5. However, fans and interested readers can still view the video for the rest of the month.

Book press today consists of bestseller lists, authors recommending other authors, reviewer opinions, and release day events and sales. Back in the ’60s, we saw more author pictures, advertisements, and gimmicks (aparently, I mean I wasn’t around to remember).

The New York Times has compiled some of these ads and articles onto one page, including the one seen here for Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This ad ran on February 18, 1962. Look closely and you can see an approving quote from Jack Kerouac, and a hardcover, new release sale price of $4.95. Autographed copies today sell for upwards of $18,000.

Browse the entire collection at the Times online. You’ll find photographs of authors smoking, claims to be better than sex, prices one-tenth of today’s, and blurbs of rememberance by Times editors. Don’t miss the ad asking legendary writers William Faulkner and Truman Capote to move over for the now virtually unknown Harry Crews.

Did you go to a Stephenie Meyer’s book release, vampire themed party this weekend at Borders or Waldenbooks? I did not, but apparently over 225,000 people did! The two stores proudly announce the huge success of the Breaking Dawn events, with a total of about 250,000 books being sold within the first few hours of the book hitting the market, including online sales.

Approximately 1,000 stores nationwide hosted a “From Twilight til Dawn: A Night with a Bite” party. The highly anticipated teen read came in second only to Harry Potter for number of pre-orders.

The photo shown here is a snapshot of a New York City party for Meyer this Friday evening. For everything Stephenie Meyer and the Twiglight Saga, head over to the ultimate and official fan page at TwilightLexicon.com.