The Book of Awesome

Based on www.1000awesomethings.com, Neil Pasricha started the blog to celebrate the little things in life. While this is theoretically a great idea — everyone needs to think positive and take joy in the little things — it just doesn’t work as a book. To start, even though the blog touts over 10 million hits, Neil hasn’t even reached #1 of his “awesome” list; the blog counts down from 1000 and (as the time of this review) is on #452.

And the book… I picked it up during a gathering of bookish folks for Books on the Radio. Yes, we may have ridiculed the book more than necessary, but it still isn’t all that “awesome”. I started flipping through it and reading the chapter titles out, and AnnMarie would declare “awesome” or “stupid” or “gross” and we’d move onto the next one. I have to say it was great for a laugh and a conversation starter, but I wouldn’t have ever paid $28.50 for this book.

• “When someone offers to toss your dirty clothes in with their load of laundry” — No, that’s just gross, unless you’re dating. I wouldn’t even touch a roommates laundry, much less let someone touch mine!
• “Sneaking under someone else’s umbrella” — If someone did that to me, I’d elbow them in the face. Is a black eye awesome?
• “Blowing out all the candles on your first try” — Maybe if you’re 3 years old.
• “Old folks who sit on their porch and wave at you when you walk by” — No, that’s creepy. There is this guy that sits at my bus stop all day and when the sun gets too high, he transfers to the other side of the street and sits on the wall of someone else’s garden.
• “Wearing sandals when you shouldn’t be wearing sandals” — Who the hell gets to say what you should wear? If you wanna freeze your toes off, go for it.
• “The pushoff” — This is actually is talking about learning to ride your bike alone for the first time. I thought we were taking joy in simple pleasures in life, not reliving childhood memories.
• “Really, really old Tupperware” — This one describes the ‘burping seal’, but did you know that after a certain period of time plastics start leeching harsh chemicals into your food.
• “Scraping all the lint off an overflowing lint trap” — No, that’s just good housekeeping, and safe so it doesn’t catch on fire.

I don’t often give a book this bad a review. If you see it in the bookstore, have a flip through and see if you find it “awesome”, “heart-warming” or leave you “looking for new joys”. [quotes from reviews].

Now, I mentioned book-to-blog stories and blog merch. Here is some of the stuff out there:

• Sh*it My Dad Says (Twitter first, book is actually funny)
• I Can Haz Cheezburger (blog first, first book 2008, second book 2009, third book 2009. The books are more humour books written in LOLspeak)
• Cake Wrecks (blog first, book and calendar)
• Stuff on my Cat (blog first, merch rocks, first book in 2006, second book in 2008). Second blog: Stuff on my Mutt
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks (blog first, book out July 2010 from Chronicle Books… the same people as Stuff on my Cat.)

Soon we’re going to look at some books and think, “What came first? The Book or the Blog?”

Having loved both A Dirty Job and Fool, I was a little disappointed by Bloodsucking Fiends. It wasn’t just the fact that it needed another proofread (I found some simple errors such as ‘too’ vs. ‘to’ and missing ‘a‘s and ‘the‘s). I think the problem I had was the narrative. In both A Dirty Job and Fool, it is narrated by one character, where Bloodsucking Fiends jumps around as a third-person omniscient narrator.

That being said, I still really enjoyed the story. It was a bit of action, a bit mystery, a little love story (although far-fetched), and humourous. I didn’t laugh out loud, but there were a couple good smirks and a few bits I shared with others. I think the difference between Bloodsucking Fiends‘ humour and Fool‘s or A Dirty Job‘s humour is that the characters in Bloodsucking Fiends were less exaggerated but still out-of-the-ordinary.

Looking at Christopher Moore’s biography, it appears that Bloodsucking Fiends was only his third novel (1995), whereas I’d previously read two of his more recent releases (A Dirty Job was from 2006 and Fool in 2009). Obviously Christopher Moore is improving! I’m looking forward to reading You Suck: A Love Story , the second book in the vampire love story… and then Bite Me, the third and latest book.

• Visit Chris Moore’s blog
• Follow Christopher Moore on Twitter
• Read my review of A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
• Read my review of Fool by Christopher Moore
• Watch a video about Bite Me (Narrated by Christopher Moore via HarperCollins)
• Browse inside You Suck: A Love Story
• Browse inside Bite Me: A Love Story

Christopher is 15 and lives in Swindon with his father. He has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. He is obsessed with maths, science and Sherlock Holmes but finds it hard to understand other people. When he discovers a dead dog on a neighbour’s lawn he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it. As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery gets – for both Christopher and the rest of his family.

From the publisher, Random House UK
[Note: Cover image shown is the Canadian/US paperback]

Overall, I agree with the praise. It certainly was an original, captivating story. The novel, being narrated in first-person by Christopher, gives the reader incredible insight into the way his mind works. It really illuminates the way Christopher thinks, feels, and reacts in certain situations. For example, the chapter numbers are only prime numbers because he likes prime numbers. There are extensive diagrams when Christopher wants to illustrate something, and images when he is trying to explain something but can’t find the right words.

At the core of the book is Christopher trying to find out who killed Wellington, Mrs. Shear’s dog. Christopher is a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and often uses terms that he’s learned when reading detective thrillers. Through the course of his ‘investigation’ Christopher discovers a secret his father has been hiding from him. Because Christopher always tells the truth and knows that it is wrong to lie, he becomes scared of his father and decides to run away.

While the language is very simple, I think that it allows for the book to be honest and moving. Christopher’s syndrome is never explicitly discussed in the book, and I think this was smart. Not only would it not work in the first-person narrative, but also, it would make the story more technical and less about the emotions. You can really relate to the pain and suffering Christopher experiences in social situations and when life gets overwhelming for him. It was really enlightening for me to read, as I think others have found too. I can certainly see why Mark Haddon received so much praise for the book.

• Listen to the book read by Ben Tibbard courtesy of Random House UK
• View an excerpt in GoogleBooks
• Author Website: MarkHaddon.com
• Wikipedia article about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden’s sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival.

[From Publisher's Weekly]

One of the things that I noticed more in this book compared to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was translation. I’m not sure if it was the word choices by the author, Stieg Larsson, or translated terms as determined by Reg Keeland. One of the things that bugged me the most was reference to “All the Evil” which is what happened to Lisbeth when she was twelve and sent to a psychiatric hospital. The term “All the Evil” was used by Lisbeth, Blomkvist, and other characters in reference to these past events. I think something must have been lost in translation, perhaps a colloquial term that roughly translates to “all the evil”.

I don’t think the story grabbed me as much, because I already know there is a third book about Lisbeth. However, I definitely wanted to keep reading and see how the story concluded. Some reviews have criticized certain mystery novel methods as clunky and suggested that Larsson would have revised them if he’d been alive. I only noticed a couple things, where it seemed too convenient or coincidental, but obviously real life isn’t as exciting as a thriller/mystery novel.

Overall it was a great story and I can’t wait to read The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. I’m hoping we’ll learn more about Lisbeth’s sister Camilla, who was only mentioned in the first book, and sparingly talked about in this book.

In 1903 a mysterious young woman flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow—and her husband’s killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother’s death. Responding to little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness—and into the wilds of her own mind—encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way.

Overall I think the book was well-written. It’s a very unique point of view. Although for the majority of the book we followed Mary, the widow, she was consistently referred to as ‘the widow’. I think this really drove home the reason for her story: she has lost her husband, by her own hand, and is running from her brothers-in-law. The author never wants the reader to forget why our main character is a widow.

The prose is almost poetic, which makes sense considering the novel was inspired by a poem that Gil Adamson wrote years prior. I liked how we mainly stayed with Mary as she traversed the Canadian wilderness. It was interesting to see how she grew and developed as a person. She was raised to be a woman of society: needlepoint, darning socks, cooking dinner. She fell into a marriage she soon grew to resent and eventually quit. We meet Mary after she’s snapped and verynearly crazy. As she battled the elements, the forest, and the mountains… she came to discover herself. She had likes, dislikes, preferences. Previously she was always told what she was supposed to like, how she was supposed to act, and what was proper and improper. It really is satisfying for the reader to follow a character as they grow, develop, and come out the other side.

Although, the character journey was not the whole book. I think if it had been, it would have become easily boring. While there was a constant need for survival, there was also the agonizing knowledge that Mary was being tracked and hunted by ruthless brothers seeking revenge for her husband’s murder. The fact that her brothers-in-law want to kill her becomes driving force behind Mary’s survival choices; she discovers she wants to live.

At times I felt the story dragged a little (running through the forest, passing out, running more), and at one point (what I thought was going to be gripping) it was a little too drawn out for my preferences. However, I like the choices the author made and I like how, although it was a bit open-ended, it didn’t leave me feeling unfulfilled. I put the novel down with satisfaction and will be passing it on to my mom to read.

• Listen to Gil Adamson read Chapter 1 of The Outlander (MP3 via House of Anansi Press)
• Read expert (Chapter 1) of The Outlander (from Gil Adamson’s website)
• YouTube video of Gil Adamson reading an excerpt from The Outlander
• Quill & Quire Author Profile of Gil Adamson
• Read a message from Gil Adamson to readers of The Outlander
• Conversation with Gil Adamson and David Wroblewski (author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle )

In February 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a Valentine’s Day storm. All eighty-four men aboard died. February is the story of Helen O’Mara, one of those left behind when her husband, Cal, drowns. It begins in the present-day, but spirals back again and again to the “February” that persists in Helen’s mind and heart.

From the publisher, House of Anansi Press

The story centers around a Newfoundland disaster in 1982: the collapse of the oil rig, Ocean Ranger. Being born in 1988 and from the opposite end of Canada (learning BC history in school as well as general Canadian history), I wasn’t familiar with this horrific accident.

Lisa Moore, who is from St. John’s, Newfoundland was quoted in a 2009 article in the Toronto Star saying that, “Even though it was 27 years ago, it is still close to the surface for people. … In Newfoundland, it is a sacred topic. And it’s still very raw.”

Helen is an astonishing character who has lived through the most horrible thing imaginable to me: the loss of your life partner. The book is very striking without being a sob-fest. You really feel Helen’s pain, see her emotional distance after the disaster, and heal with her through her life. The story is a very personal journey for Helen and her family, and it isn’t a particularly plot-driven or linear story. February is all about the characters and their struggle through the disaster of the Ocean Ranger and their life following it.

Extras for February by Lisa Moore:

• Watch a 1982 newscast reporting on the Ocean Ranger
• Review in The Globe and Mail
• Review by National Post‘s blog “The Afterword”
• Review in Quill & Quire
• Selected by Globe and Mail for Top 100 Books of the Year (2009)
• Selected for Quill & Quire’s 2009 Books of the Year
• Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean) — Best Book 2010
• Selected as Editors’ Choice (2009) by the New York Times

The writing was poetic at times and often led to insights for Al that I never would have anticipated. It was an enjoyable book and I would be interested to read more of June Hutton’s work, but I’m not crazyexcited about Underground. I think the reason I’m not crazyexcited about the novel is because Al Fraser’s life is almost unbelieveable.

Sixteen-year-old Albert Fraser believes that enlisting in the First World War will make him a man. But a shell blast that buries him alive in a trench shatters his identity, instead.

Al emerges from the war with a driving need to act. Back home in Vancouver — with rising shrapnel in his flesh and nightmare images in his head — he works to keep busy. When the Great Depression hits, he rides the rails and scrabbles for jobs. After an accidental act of violence, he hides below the streets of Chinatown, and then heads north. With no place to call home he seems destined to wander aimlessly. But when the Spanish Civil War erupts, he seeks out Picasso’s Guernica and sees in the painting a reflection of what had been done to him, and what his life has become. Now, under a new name, he travels to Spain, a soldier once more, to reclaim all he has lost — or to die trying.

Both love story and social commentary, Underground examines the timeless human conditions of passion, conflict and hope. In its depiction of labour, from swinging picks on a Canadian mountainside to wielding scythes in a Spanish rye field, it is also a celebration of work and of the camaraderie of workers.

from JuneHutton.com | About Underground

June Hutton is one of the members of Vancouver’s SPiN Writing Group. The group was formed by June Hutton, Mary Novik and Jen Sookfong Lee to support each other while they were all writing their books. I am interested in reading The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee as I have already read and reviewed Conceit by Mary Novik.

• Read what inspired June Hutton to write Underground
• Read an excerpt (or download a PDF excerpt) from the publisher, Cormorant Books
• Read about Underground on the Cormorant Books blog
• Watch the Underground book trailer on Cormorant Book’s YouTube channel

[Beatrice & Virgil] begins with a successful writer, Henry, attempting to publish his latest book, made up of a novel and an essay. Henry plans for it to be a “flip book” that the reader can start at either end, reading the novel or the essay first, because both pieces are equally concerned with representations of the Holocaust. His aim is to give the most horrifying of tragedies “a new choice of stories,” in order that it be remembered anew and in more than one way.

But no one is sympathetic to his provocative idea. To [his editors], Henry’s book is an unpublishable disaster. Faced with severe and categorical rejection, Henry gives up hope. He abandons writing, moves with his wife to a foreign city, joins a community theatre, becomes a waiter in a chocolatería. But then he receives a package containing a scene from a play, photocopies from a short story by Flaubert – about a man who hunts animals down relentlessly – and a short note: “I need your help.”

Intrigued, Henry tracks down his correspondent, and finds himself in a strange part of the city, walking past a stuffed okapi into a taxidermist’s workshop. The taxidermist – also named Henry – says he has been working on his play, “A 20th-Century Shirt”, for most of his life, but now he needs Henry’s help to describe his characters: the play’s protagonists are a stuffed donkey and a howler monkey named Beatrice and Virgil, respectively, and Henry’s successful book was in part about animals. He wants help to finish his play and, we may suspect, free himself from it. And though his new acquaintance is austere, abrupt and almost unearthly, Henry the writer is drawn more and more deeply into Henry the taxidermist’s uncompromising world.

from the publisher, Random House Canada

Beatrice & Virgil has a tough standard (the success of The Life of Pi) to live up to, and many reviewers have drawn parallels between Henry the writer and Yann Martel himself. However, I prefer to separate the author and the book a little when I read and take the novel all on it’s own.

My first impression of Beatrice & Virgil was average. The writing is okay but Henry’s observations bothered me. It felt like he (as a character) was always trying to describe every minute detail — from the colour of the carpet to the way a picture hung on the wall. I found it overwhelming and unneccesary.However, because the first few chapters are always difficult (capture the reader, keep the reader, engage the reader) I gave the book a chance and carried on reading. Once Henry met the taxidermist, the writing style changed and became a little more relaxed and fluid.

It took me a while to get into it, but once I did I wanted to know more. The story does stick with you in a similar way that Life of Pi did as Martel leaves you with unanswered questions. Martel’s allegory of the Holocaust through a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil is chilling. The taxidermist is a unique character that you can’t quite put your finger on. With themes of humanity, psychology, and ‘darkness’, Beatrice & Virgil (and particularly the taxidermist himself) is chilling, haunting, yet intriguing. Overall I enjoyed the book despite the slow start, but I think I liked Life of Pi more.

**SPOILER ALERT**

I meantioned that Martel leaves the reader with unanswered questions. Here are some questions I want answered:

• What happened in the taxidermist’s past (exactly)?
• What was Henry’s fictional Holocaust story?
• Why wasn’t Virgil locked up like Beatrice?
• Why were donkeys (like Beatrice) “outlawed” in Shirt?

Against the stark and haunting landscape of Canada’s Far North, fifteen-year-old Trista chronicles the events of her life from her room in the Polar Girls’ Prison. Caught in the decline of sexual abuse, drunkenness, and failed motherhood, Trista tries to make sense of her past, especially the events that led her to jail. With heartfelt compassion and rare insight, the stunning new voice of debut novelist Cathleen With lends light to the hardships and suffering of the teenage girls and clash of cultures in this remote region that has never before been represented in literature.

From the publisher, Penguin Group Canada

Having Faith is quite an emotional story that sticks with you. Trista, and many of the other Polar Girls, have encountered molestation, rape, drugs, alcohol-abuse, and both physical and mental abuse in their young lives. This is something that I can barely fathom and Trista tells her story with such honesty that, despite her confusions, you become very sympathetic and connected with her, her daughter Faith, and the other Polar Girls.

“The title of the novel refers to Trista’s daughter, Faith, born the same night Trista commits a horrific crime and is taken into custody. Her profound attachment to Faith and her desire to give her a better life than she has had is a mantra repeated throughout the novel — at least partially because she cannot face the fact that Faith will inevitably be removed from her care.”

From a National Post book review

I had the pleasure of working with Cathleen With at the BC Book Prizes. Last Sunday was the Gala and hearing Cathleen With’s acceptance speech for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize was amazing. She was so flattered and a bit shocked, she even said she felt like she was “crashing a party” to be in a room with so many from the BC publishing community. She dedicated her win to all the kids of the Mackenzie River delta and (if I understand correctly) she plans to donate some of her award money to them.

I had a chance after the Gala to congratulate Cathleen and tell me how much Trista stuck with me. She was so happy and ecstatic, she mentioned that she couldn’t wait to tell Jolene, a girl from up north that had inspired the book. Cathleen worked as a teacher in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories and it was her experiences up North that inspired Having Faith.

• Read the first chapter (PDF) of Having Faith in the Polar Girls’ Prison
• Listen to CBC’s North By Northwest (mp3 podcast) which includes Cathleen winning the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
• Read a book review from Quill & Quire
• Read a National Post book review

After Hazen Wood kidnaps twelve-year-old Gemma Sullivan, the two embark upon a cross-country journey that tests the limits of Gemma’s endurance. In graphic scenes of physical and sexual violence, Hazen tries to destroy the young girl’s will. Gemma’s childlike resilience and fertile imagination protects her from the worst of the trauma she suffers. It is only the healing power of unconditional love that gives Gemma the courage to speak out against her abuser at last.

Alternating between the voices of Gemma and Hazen Wood, Meg Tilly has brilliantly brought to life powerful and unforgettable characters that will leave you thinking about them long after you turn the last page.

From the publisher, St. Martin’s Press

This book was extremely difficult to read at times. As a young woman I wanted to shout and shake Gemma — to tell her she is worth more than she’s been raised to believe, to tell her she deserves better. Gemma’s voice came off very authentic, and as difficult as it was to read, I’m really glad I did.

It was also difficult to read Hazen’s thoughts about Gemma and his view of the world. He is so self-obsessed and a dirty pedophile. His part is written in what seems like third-person omniscient, but at times it felt like it was first person and he just liked to hear his own name instead of thinking “I” or “me”. I don’t know but it just came off extra creepy. Even Meg Tilly, has said how difficult it was to write: “I got to page fifteen and I thought that’s it, that’s it, that’s all I can do! I hate being in this guy’s skin! I don’t want to write a book from here, I just don’t.”

I love watching the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit which is about sexually-based offenses… but reading this book from the point of view of the victim while being abused was something entirely new. Gemma has been likened to Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, but in truth, Meg Tilly wrote from a place she knew, as a victim of rape and physical abuse. When I learned this I was so proud of her for writing this book and so outraged at the same time. It’s really difficult for me to imagine and fathom. After I finished the book, I felt two things: I was overwhelmingly happy that Gemma came out the other side and also I realized was how fortunate I was not to have to go through anything like that.

Meg Tilly and her agent had a very difficult time finding a publisher for Gemma. Fortunately, the book has been picked up by St. Martin’s Press (an imprint of MacMillan in the states). Meg Tilly has said that everyone who read it felt that it was an important book to publish but many publishers didn’t think they could market it effectively.

NOTE: This book is not appropriate for anyone under the age of 15.

Read an excerpt that features the voices of both Gemma and Hazen.
Read an interview with Meg Tilly about Gemma on Bookslut.com

I received this book for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers.