Here goes:

1. There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it.

2. Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events; the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.

3. He said the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly.

4. 124 was spiteful. Full of baby’s venom.

5. In a hole in the ground there lived a [redacted]. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a [redacted]-hole, and that means comfort.

6. One day when he was out walking, he came to an open place in the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak-tree, and from the top of the tree, there came a loud buzzing-noise.

Time to check your work? Here are the answers.

Blume has “zero -interest” in penning more YA—a genre that didn’t exist when she was writing it. “I don’t consider myself a young-adult writer,” she says firmly.

Is it just me or is that sort of a sick burn by Judy Blume?

____________________________

And I have a real problem with this idea that only what is “good” deserves financial success, or that something is off when what is “not good” sells eleventy billion copies.  Because I think there is a judgment implied there that carries over to the reader – like, we can dismiss the thoughts of Twilightfans, because we’ve already decided we can dismiss Twilight.

This, I like.

____________________________

But the movie’s excess is okay. Think about how great it would be if there were a major new Walt Disney World ride dedicated to jazz age underground New York City, and then think about the fact that Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby really is a long and excellent Walt Disney World ride through jazz-age underground New York City. What’s not to like about this?

Nothing, that’s what’s not to like about that.

Besides the ridiculousness of this statement (I mean, why would secret material about the Dark Arts even BE on the web?), it makes me legitimately sad to think that a kid wouldn’t understand why a library is a valuable place. Besides, J.K. Rowling loves libraries!

-from A Librarian’s Response to “What’s a LIbrary?” by Rita Meade

______________________

Gone with the Wind was to be called:

Sounds…. 50-Shades naughty.

-from 5 Books with Awful Original Titles by Johann Thorrson

______________________

I read it because I finally talked myself into the idea (maybe call it the “Downtown Abbey Effect”) that I could be interested in this story, as British and soapy as it may be. And I’m here to tell you (even without stupid zombies), if you’re a dude, and you’ve rejected this novel out of hand (despite its canonical status) because it’s “only for women,” you’re wrong. It IS a good story, and despite your own pride and prejudices about this novel (did you see what I did there?), there’s plenty of fun to be had.

-from Five Reasons Dudes Should Read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Greg Zimmerman

______________________

Book staircase by Thatcher Wine. Photo from Juniper Books

It may look like this staircase, in the Juniper Books warehouse, is stacked with books. But those are actually guillotined spines from leftover bestsellers glued to the risers, giving impressions of both depth and bookish abundance.

-from Awesome Bookish Staircases by Derek Attig

______________________

And the most popular post from Food Riot this week was…

I have been told I have the sexiest fridge in the world. I cannot disagree. It’s a three-quarter sized sexy silver beast.

-from What’s In Your Fridge: Bringing Sexy Back by Liberty Hardy

______________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

___________________________
Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

Well, I was wrong. Or, at least, the high number of incorrect answers on my answer sheet suggested that someone or something was wrong.

Of course she didn’t do well.  She was taught how to think, not how to take a test.

_______________________

Qworty has destructively edited the pages of other writers. He has made numerous edits to his own page while obsessively hiding his true identity. And yet there have never been any significant consequences for his actions. For those of us who love Wikipedia, the ramifications of the Qworty saga are not comforting: If Qworty has been allowed to run free for so long — sabotaging the “truth” however he sees fit, writing his own postmodern novel — how many others are also creating spiteful havoc under the hood, where no one is watching? 

And this is why English teachers everywhere tell their students that Wikipedia is not a valid source for their research papers.

_______________________

Do women writers get asked this more than male ones? Bet your buttons they do. The snaps and snails and puppy-dog’s tails are great for boys. The sugar and spice is still expected for girls. Up to a point.

No one is better than Atwood at a snappy comeback.

_______________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

The Book Riot Podcast, Episode #2: Pillow Talk with Robert Langdon

Jeff and Rebecca talk about The Great Gatsby movie reactions and box office, along with discussions on the new Dan Brown novel, ebook market share, a tool to randomly browse the Amazon bookstore, the trailer for James Franco’s As I Lay Dying, and Judy Blume’s disavowal of the label “YA writer.” This week’s episode is sponsored by Nolet’s Silver Dry Gin and Start Here, Volume 2.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (click here) or via RSS (link here).

Links discussed in the show:

The Great Gatsby on Rotten Tomatoes

Dan Brown’s phone sex song

www.bookbookgoose.com

Ebooks made up 20% of US consumer book industry in 2012

As I Lay Dying trailer

Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes film, not thinking she’s a YA writer

Browse previous episodes of The Book Riot Podcast.

First up: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo (Reagan Arthur, May 21^st). The premise of this book really intrigued me: a young girl, Darling, leaves Zimbabwe in search of a better life in America. Bulawayo uses her own life experiences to flesh out Darling’s character, and in turn the reader is able to get an actual sense of how this must feel. Bulawayo’s main goal is to leave the reader with a feeling that no matter what country Darling is from, “she is from anywhere else where people live and hope and dream and live.” The feelings and emotions in We Need New Names are so raw. After moving to America, Darling has no idea what happened to her friends back in Zimbabwe. Did they get out as well? She is tied to her homeland, but lives an almost parallel universe kind of existence. As she is at the mall with her new friends, her old friends Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho, and Stina are sneaking off to Budapest, eating guavas, and carrying on as usual. Or are they? Not knowing is part of what makes the second half of the book so amazing. Bulawayo includes a touching and almost poetic chapter called “How They Lived” that is more of a “this is how immigrants feel in America” and takes Darling totally out of it. It’s a very quick read and easy to follow, which makes it a perfect introduction to African literature if you haven’t introduced yourself already.

And then, there was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf). I already had Half of a Yellow Sun flagged after so many of you guys suggested it, and I was really excited to sneak a peek at her new novel. So… I don’t run out of words much and I’m the girl you roll your eyes at because I start talking to you in the middle of the bagged salad fridge at the grocery store, but… I’m really having a hard time saying what I want to say about Americanah. I can say with every fiber of my being that people NEED to read it. It has the same theme as We Need New Names: Ifemelu comes to America from Nigeria in search of a better life. She leaves her boyfriend Obinze behind, she cuts off contact with him, and he tries to make a life in England. He is deported, moves back to Nigeria, and becomes an extremely successful businessman with a perfect wife and daughter. Ifemelu has no issues remaining in the United States after college and later starts a blog about what race means to her as a non-American black. After she becomes a citizen, she moves back to Nigeria, gets back in touch with Obinze, and BOOM! The great love story is told. It has more than enough plot to keep the narrative going, and covers enough social and political issues to make you think the top of your head off. I rarely mark up books, and my poor little Americanah ARC has more ink than Book Riot contributors. What got me thinking the most? When Ifemelu received her first piece of junk mail with her name on it, she was overcome with emotion. Someone in America knew who she was. She was a person. I don’t even give mail coupons a passing glance.

Americanah is probably more mainstream than We Need New Names, although I know buzz is seriously building for it. So when you finish your new Dan Brown book, consider trying one of these quiet diamonds.

Inbox (Books Acquired)

Inferno by Dan Brown

Handsome Symbologist Robert Langdon is back, and he’s being handsomer and more symbology-solving than ever. Or at least as much as you expect him to be. Brown’s latest blockbuster is set in Florence, where Langdon unravels a series of clues related to Dante’s Inferno and a modern-day madman with a bad, bad plan for how to solve overpopulation. There’s obsessively detailed obscure art history. There are capers. There’s awkward flirting (I think it’s flirting?) There’s Handsome Symbologist Robert Langdon’s coveted Mickey Mouse watch. And there’s a boat called The Mendacium. (I’ll give you a dollar if you can guess whether the owner is a good guy or a bad guy.) These are all the things I want from a Dan Brown book–it’s a fun, entertaining read, and it’s not pretending to be anything else. Also, it’s not nearly as ridiculous as The Lost Symbol, so if you thought that shiz put you off Brown forever, it might be worth giving him another shot.

Outbox (Books Finished)

She by H. Rider Haggard

Okay, so there’s this woman who lives in a cave in Egypt and has supposedly been alive for thousands of years, and the local tribal people (it’s the mid-1800s, by the way) fear her, and she’s maybe descended from Greek gods (I think? The details get a little fuzzy.) and thinks that one of the human men in this story is the reincarnation of her thousands-of-years-ago lover, and the whole thing is bananas. Oh, and they call her She-who-must-be-obeyed. How’s that for a nickname? Our intrepid narrator journeys to Africa with his adopted son to try to find out if she’s real (spoiler: she is…kind of), and shit gets real. Cannibals and slaves who are mute so they can’t spill secrets and hallucinations and secret messages carved onto clay pots real. I can’t say I loved reading this book, but I have certainly loved talking about it (the whole reason I’m reading it is for the quarterly book club edition of the Bookrageous podcast), and that’s valuable in its own way.

If you dig Victorian fiction and want to have a look at a book that Margaret Atwood says was hugely influential in shaping her as a reader and writer, you might give this one a shot.

In the Queue

The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes

As I, along with most of the reading world, devoured Gone Girl and then Gillian Flynn’s backlist last summer, I fell wicked hard for her mix of thriller and feminist/social commentary. A smart friend recommended that I go back to one of the originators of that trend, so then I fell even harder for Dorothy B. Hughes’ In a Lonely Place. It is so, so good, and I’m looking forward to getting to know more of Hughes’ work. Shake up your summer with some way-back backlist goodness and join me, why don’t ya?

That’s my reading week. How was yours?

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

Image source: Kate Gabrielle of Flapper Doodle

People think I’m ridiculous when I tell them I have certain relationships with books, and that those relationships dictate how I read those books.

Why don’t you just finish one book before you pick up another?

That book was terrible, how could you finish that one and not this one? And how could you LIKE it?

And so on. I can’t finish a book until I’m in a relationship with it. If I’m not feeling a connection to the book, one of the characters/the setting/something about the plot, I’m going to put it into rotation (and eventually back on the shelf if it doesn’t step up). However, if I find one thing, one thing, about a book that bonds me to it – I won’t let it go. But this happens so rarely that it seems to those around me that I am constantly not committing to one book… and this would be the truth.

So, I’m left to wonder. Are our relationships with books similar to relationships with people? I look around and can’t help but think there might be something to this…

Surfacey Relationship People

These are the people who know a LOT of other people and are “great” friends with them all. Ask them something deep or quite personal about one of those dear friends and they will often not have the answer. These people don’t tend to have a lot of time for reading, they are too busy socializing (and by socializing I mean hanging out with Honey Boo Boo and Kim Kardashian too). Ask them who David Foster Wallace is and they probably won’t have the answer either… Sophie Kinsella and Dan Brown? Probably…. they’re reading one of their books over the summer. The entire summer.

Serial Monogamists

These are the people who jump from long-term romantic relationship to long-term romantic relationship. They also jump from one long book to the next. The book they are reading is usually a project, usually on their nightstands for some time, and usually something “important.” They don’t give up (they wouldn’t dream of it), and when they know it’s coming close to the ending, they’ve already researched and planned which book will be next on the nightstand. No empty nightstands (or beds) for these people.

Committed People

These are the people who are in committed long-term relationships and probably have a few kids. They’ve settled down, they’ve got their groove. They know which books they like and they stick with them, why change? And if something new is introduced to their palate, they’ll eventually (when they have time) try to juggle it in and then feel ecstatic that they have something new and fresh in their lives. Did you know about this?! They’ll exclaim to their friends who have more time on their hands than they do. Yes, those friends will answer, it came out eight months ago and the entire Internet/Night Show Circuit/Bestseller Lists was blowing up about it. (Rinse and repeat eight months later.)

Commitment Phobic People

These are the people who don’t tend to like everyone they meet. They date sporadically because most people don’t entice them, but they have a series of crushes to get them through day-to-day life. Then, randomly they’ll meet someone and be hooked. Same goes for books, these are the people who start books and stop them like other people use chewing gum. Sometimes they come back to try them again – see if they’re a better fit, and then move on again. Then one day they find something that hooks them and doesn’t let them go and they can’t-stop-reading. Once that book is done they look wildly around for another to make them feel as wonderful as the last, but we all know they’ll get back into the cycle of reading a few pages of one, then a few pages of another…

Because these statements are statistically tested, there is no reason to argue with them. They are black and white and as solid of assessments as can be in the book reading world. Of course, there are no other types of readers (or relationships) and every single person fits precisely into one of the above categories. However, if we were to imagine that these previous statements weren’t true, and/or that this piece is entirely sarcastic, what types of readers and relationships have I missed exploring? Write your own Type of Relationship and synopsis below…

Literary fiction is my wheelhouse, and my adventures in sci-fi/fantasy and speculative fiction have been mostly successful thanks to the recent trend of literary writers playing with genre. Authors like Colson Whitehead, Justin Cronin, Margaret Atwood, Karen Russell, and Nick Harkaway made it easy for me–they write beautifully and build worlds that are similar enough to ours that I can see them as I read (which doesn’t always happen for this language-driven reader). Ditto for thrillers, thanks to Gillian Flynn, Natsuo Kirino, and Sarah Waters, among others. Pageturner stories AND skillful writing? What’s not to love about that?!

(Yes, it was something of a revelation to me when I began this project that genre fiction wasn’t *just* about the plot.)

Once I’d tested the waters of sci-fi and thrillers and found that (gasp!) I enjoyed them and knew how to talk about them (good writing is good writing), I decided to approach my final frontier: romance. I had all kinds of stereotypes about romance novels (heaving bosoms and throbbing members and damsels in distress) and less than zero actual knowledge of the genre, so I asked a friend (Sarah Wendell of the uber-awesome Smart Bitches, Trashy Books) to recommend a good starting point. And then I spent a weekend with Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie. It was fun and non-threatening, and the female lead wasn’t a virgin who magically had seven orgasms the first time she had sex (that’s a trope I can’t abide), so I chalked it up as a win. But it took THREE HUNDRED WHOLE PAGES to even get to the sex, and I am not that patient. So then Sarah recommended that I try some erotica. Mission accomplished.

Ever since that experiment, I’ve been dipping into romance and erotica (and erotic romance, which is also a thing–I’m pretty sure no genre has more subgenres than romance does), and it’s been fun. It’s been exactly what I want reading dirty books to be. Thanks to a suggestion from fellow Rioter Jenn, I fell ass over teakettle in love with Sarah MacLean’s Rules of Scoundrels series (you guys, there’s a sex scene in One Good Earl Deserves a Lover that doesn’t even have any touching, and it’s so hot the pages sizzle). On a whim, I picked up The Siren by Tiffany Reisz and found myself devouring her stories about a dominatrix-turned-erotica-writer who still visits the dungeon. I’m getting pretty good at knowing what I like and don’t like in romance books, and that makes me happy.

But here’s where I get stuck: I’m still a total noob with the genre, and I’m not nearly familiar enough with it to recognize all the conventions and tropes (and there are A LOT of conventions and tropes), much less evaluate how well a book fits them. I can say, “I liked this, and here’s why,” but I can’t really tell if a romance book is GOOD or not. Readerly enjoyment and literary quality are separate dimensions of judgment, and right now I can only use one of them (unless the book is very obviously baaaaaaad). So I’m stressed!

What if it turns out that the romance books I’ve been enjoying are considered not-so-great by romance readers who, like, actually know things? Why do I even care what other readers think about a book, as long as I’m enjoying it? (Answer: because I am, for better or worse, somewhat invested in my identity as a Discerning Reader.) It seems to me that readerly enjoyment is a primary goal of romance writing anyway….so maybe I don’t need to think about the “is this a quote-unquote good book” issue at all and just go with what I enjoy? Is this an “If you build it, they will come” (hah! come!) kind of thing, and I just have to read more dirty books before I can answer these questions for myself? And if that’s the case, how will I learn how to make good romance recommendations for other readers? Sex and sexytimes writing preferences are so personal! Perhaps this is why community has become so important for romance readers, particularly online–you’ve gotta get to know other readers and their preferences well before you can successfully recommend the right romance books for them? I have SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Help me, readers. How do you select romance and erotica? How do you evaluate it? Should I loosen up, let my mind wander, and stop worrying about what’s good versus not good?

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

Like the first book in our START HERE series, START HERE, Vol. 2 will have 25 chapters, and each will provide a 3- or 4-book sequence for discovering a different author’s work. It’s important to us to cover a wide range of authors and meet as many readers’ requests as we can. Authors we know will be covered include: Jennifer Egan, William Faulkner, Anne Carson, Ursula K. LeGuin, David Mitchell, Toni Morrison, Alan Moore, John Green, and Philip Roth.

START HERE, Vol. 2 backers and Book Riot editors will determine how to fill most of the remaining spots, but you readers have total control over one. Vote in the poll below for the one author you most want to see covered in START HERE. The poll is open through 11:59 pm Eastern next Friday, May 24, 2013.

And remember–START HERE, Vol. 2 won’t happen unless we hit our $2oK funding goal on Kickstarter. So back it, share it, and shout it out. We can’t do it without you!

Love true stories about fascinating people? So do the folks at Biographile, a website dedicated to helping readers discover a rich mix of real lives through author interviews, news updates, reviews, essays, contests, and more. One of their latest Q&As is an exclusive interview with the hilarious comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan, whose explosively funny memoir recounting the joys and horrors of raising five kids (in a two-bedroom apartment) is just out from Crown.

_________________________

at The Hairpin, 10 Things That Happened While Reading THE WOMAN IN WHITE

at Terrible Minds, 25 Things You Should Know About Outlining

at Flavorwire, 10 Disappointing Film Adaptations of Classic American Novels

at The Guardian, Top 10 Books About Burma

at USA Today’s Pop Candy, 25 Favorite Books from the Last 25 Years

at PWxyz, 10 Biggest Book Adaptation Flops

at Flavorwire, 15 Books You Should Definitely Not Read in Your 20s

at The AV Club, 13 Surprising Celebrity Novels

But the movie’s excess is okay. Think about how great it would be if there were a major new Walt Disney World ride dedicated to jazz age underground New York City, and then think about the fact that Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby really is a long and excellent Walt Disney World ride through jazz-age underground New York City. What’s not to like about this?

Nothing, that’s what’s not to like about that.

____________________________

The Guardian made the Naipaul Test in 2011, with a collection of excerpts presented as a gender quiz. I thought it would be fun to create one myself, skimming well-known books for a flash that caught my eye, a silver fish darting in a sentence that seemed to give away the sensibility of its author, often one dealing with the body or the mind, violence, love.

Good luck.

____________________________

I’m a self-help queen, dedicated to continuous improvement. I read books about problems I don’t have, just in case I develop obsessive-compulsive disorder or crippling phobias. Of course there’s nothing I recommend. If I ever found anything useful, I’d keep it to myself, to steal a mean advantage.

Hilary Mantel is just the coolest.

But this was how I felt inside:

I mean, why should it matter to me either way, right? I’ve moved on.

However, I recently heard that his book actually is getting published soon.
My new internal reaction was a bit like this.

And maybe a little bit like this:

Now, I know I should just be cool about the whole thing.

But I’m actually sort of dreading the book’s release.

It’s not that I don’t wish him well.

It’s just that I kiiinda don’t want to hear or see anything about it.

Especially because my own writing experience is feeling a bit like this:

Like, I don’t think I can handle it if he wins a Pulitzer or something.

I’m sure I’ll take the high road, though. Maybe I’ll even give him a call to congratulate him.

And we’ll get a celebratory drink.

Because I’m not bitter! I swear!

But…I might make myself feel better by giving his book one star on Goodreads.

Just kidding!

No, really, it’s aaaaall good.

THE END
______________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

—

Marisa: A Questionable Shape was more a philosophical treatise on the ethics of living with and controlling the undead than it was a novel. That said, it was totally working.

Casey: Yeah, I was explaining it to someone as a road/quest/survival story, but with undead. To call it a zombie novel, which is the easy descriptor, is selling it short. A Questionable Shape isn’t an action movie with zombie headshots. It’s much more W.G. Sebald than George A. Romero. And I loved it. Really.

Marisa: Can we talk about the absolutely stunning writing? I probably overuse the phrase “brilliant writing” but Bennett Sims: you are a brilliant writer. Did you have any favorite passages?

Casey: There are so many. I was really swept up in Sims’s writing. I think one of my favorites was in a footnote. Yep, this book has footnotes. I had wondered to what end, and then Sims told me why… in a footnote:

Since the outbreak, I have often reflected that the footnote is the typographic mark most emblematic of undeath. By opening up a subjacent space on the page, the footnote digs a grave in the text, an underworld in the text. The words that are banished there are like thoughts that the text has repressed, pushed down into its unconscious. But they go on disturbing it from beneath, such that if the text were ever infected, they are words that would guide it. Footnotes are a text’s phantom feet.

Fantastic! I’ll never view footnotes in the same way again. There are a lot of footnotes in this book, often adding to the text, or offering up an anecdote to Michael’s (the narrator) present narration.

Marisa: Oh, that was such a good one. No surprise here, but my favorite passage actually had nothing to do with zombies and had everything to do with Michael’s obsession with books:

For the most part reading was just a joyless war of attrition with my to-read list. . . . For every book I disposed of I acquired three. . . . How to commit myself to one line of texts when there was so much else to read, when time lavished on Russian Formalism was time lost in phenomenology, philosophy of language, critical theory? And so my to-read list layered itself in this way, with upper and lower crusts of priority, undergoing the most volatile upheavals and displacements. . . . I would carry Shlovsky in my backpack . . . and then suddenly other authors–because I had read an interesting London Review of Books article about them, because I had otherwise been made to feel remiss for not having read them (as if the mere mention of an unread author’s name were some cloud of dust I’d been left behind in, kicked up by a competitor I was compelled to catch up with)–would become my number-one priority . . . each promoted to the top of my reading program and abandoned in turn with equal fitfulness and inattention.

I realize this is an isolated snippet that doesn’t give the best example of the book’s subject matter or plot, but check out that fine-tuned detailing and turn of phrase! So pithy and delicious.

Casey: No, that’s a great quote! Sims equates a reading list with the undead horde! It doesn’t matter how many books you read (zombies you put down/quarantine) there will always be more. And they will come at you faster than you can read (put down/quarantine) them. Let’s go back to the footnotes for a moment. I really enjoyed them. They enriched the text, and I didn’t find them tedious (which footnotes can be). What was your opinion?

Marisa: This is going to make you so mad, but I didn’t read all of them! There were quite a few I skimmed, because they pulled me out of the narrative too much. I saw the point in some of them (the footnote you quote above is a great use of footnotes), but other times the main plot won out.

Casey: What?! You did yourself a disservice. The footnotes really served as backstory to Michael, Rachel (Michael’s girlfriend), and Mazoch (Matt’s friend), but they also deepened what we knew of the undead epidemic. The footnotes were an integral part of the story! Its phantom feet!

Marisa: When they helped advance the plot or give backdrop to the epidemic they were useful, but sometimes the beauty of fiction is that you don’t know (and shouldn’t know) absolutely every angle of the story.

Casey: Maybe I’m less upset about your skipping some footnotes, and more concerned with your commitment to Sparkle Motion. I need to know you’re reading these books (my picks)! If I’m going to push through [name/title redacted], you should be doing the same. Plus, like with this book, you enjoyed it.

Marisa: In my defense, I didn’t skip, I skimmed, and I only skimmed on occasion. And mostly just the bits heavy with theory and philosophy that referenced academics that I’d never heard of before. Sometimes I felt the footnotes the footnotes were just layering Michael’s personality. So once I got the point: skimmed. And OMG SPARKLES.

Casey: So much of the narration was the conversations I’ve had with myself, and others, about a world in which there are undead. Reading this book was sort of like having my thoughts told back to me, with a plot. The book is broken into days, (Monday, Tuesday, etc), and I think some of my favorite pieces of zombie philosophy came on Thursday and Friday. Sims really dives into the problem of having to disassociate yourself from a loved one who has reanimated. And that’s a huge conundrum. That loved one, once turned, is no longer your loved one. But how do you, how can you put down your undead brother/mother/friend/lover? And I think Sims captured (100 percent captured. “Capital C” Captured) the essence of loneliness that comes from an undead epidemic. Relationships are a liability. Everyone is a liability.

Marisa: So this leads us to the book’s ultimate ethical conundrum (SPOILERS, PEOPLE!): What was Mazoch’s endgame? Do you think he was planning to kill his (undead) father if he ever found him?

Casey: Chiefly, I think Mazoch wanted to know that his father was no longer among the living. That sense of not truly knowing someone’s fate, particularly in a disaster scenario, is its own form of torture. What Sims is doing here feels like commentary (subtle, though) on a post-Katrina New Orleans. The search for the missing must have drove people mad, and that’s what we have with Mazoch.

Marisa: I definitely agree that this was in many ways a post-Katrina commentary. I don’t think it was all that subtle.

Casey: But to answer your question, I do think Mazoch was going to kill his undead father. For closure. And because that what you do with the undead. Not that it was going to be easy, which is the point Michael makes throughout the entire novel.

Casey: So, what Sims has done here is crafted a novel that deals with loss: things already lost, things found, and things that might someday be lost. It’s a novel about fear and friendship, and it just happens to be set against a backdrop of moaning, undead hordes. A Questionable Shape was a huge success for me. It’s easily one of the best books I’ll read this year.

Marisa: I loved it, too. And I can almost guarantee I wouldn’t have picked this one up on my own. So thanks, Casey! I’ll return the favor next month with J. Courtney Sullivan’s The Engagements. Get ready…!

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

For your voyeuristic pleasure, here’s a grainy shot of my copy lurking in a shadowy corner of my bookshelf.

Lolita is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read, and it made the list of Book Riot Readers’ Top 50 Favorite Novels, so I know that a lot of people agree with me about that. But it’s also one of the most disturbing, and not just for its subject matter, but because the beauty is what you emerge from its pages remembering. It’s unsettling when an author has that kind of power over his or her readers, and Nabokov certainly does, from the opening line onward: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.” Did you get chills? I did.

When I began thinking of what I should suggest reading next, I considered books I knew had similar old man/young girl relationships but also beautiful language and/or engaging writing.

These recommendations might come in handy for those days when it seems that feeling psychologically well is the enemy.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass* by Lewis Carroll
These two books (almost always presented in one volume) comprise probably the best-known and most-discussed account of old man/young girl fascination in literature. Often, such a reading comes as a shock for those who hold the Disney version dear. There are good arguments for both sides: some think Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, was merely young at heart and found children, specifically Alice Liddell, to be kindred spirits; others believe that he was a pedophile and that his interest in children, particularly Alice, was not at all benign. (And it’s pretty widely known that he proposed marriage before she came of age and promised to wait on her.) (And the photos he took of her were also questionable.) Whether you believe Dodgson/Carroll’s intentions were innocent, a little skeevy, or totally creeptastic, it’s difficult to read his Alice tales the same way after reading Lolita. The parallels are all too clear.

Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso
(Trigger warning for survivors of sexual violence. I can’t stress this enough.)
Fragoso’s memoir is a haunting and extremely disturbing glimpse into the life of a young woman who spent her childhood under the spell of an manipulative but charismatic abuser who taught her (through the process of grooming) to be his perfect victim. Tiger, Tiger is scary and sad and awful to hear account in the victim’s voice (some reviews even called it Lolita’s side of the story), but there is power and catharsis in telling the tale as she recalls it, and in doing so graphically and unflinchingly. The title’s reference to Blake is something of a “why?”; it also interestingly mirrors Humbert Humbert’s repetitive name. A difficult but worthwhile, well-written read.

Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam
This novel is as compulsively readable as it is repulsive. David Lamb, under the assumed name of “Gary,” convinces eleven-year-old Tommie to travel west with him, attempting also to convince himself that he has not abducted her; that, rather, he has taken her away from a miserable life to give her adventure instead. Tommie acquiesces but we see it’s because Lamb (through his calculated language) becomes increasingly manipulative and leading. We wonder how Tommie will remember the trip and Gary’s affections, which he believes to be benign on all counts. Nadzam offers glimpses of the future at infrequent but crucial points throughout the narrative, and these glimpses guide our feelings about Tommie’s experience, an entirely different one from Lamb’s.

*totally count as one, not two

(And yes, I left out Reading Lolita in Tehran, but you should totally read that one, too.)

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

After the massive success of Cards Against Humanity post-Kickstarter (and their subsequent projects), it’s no surprise that a whole bunch of tabletop card games are hitting the popular crowdfunding platform.

There are a bunch of the usual in terms of tabletop games. Lots of fantasy games, Dungeons & Dragons style adventures with beautiful artwork. And zombies. A whole bunch of zombies. But a number of them have a fantastic literary slant, and I can’t stop myself from pledging to these campaigns.

And these three? I want them. Right now.

MOBY DICK, OR, THE CARD GAME: Currently seeking funding (and surpassing their goal by a lot), Moby Dick, or, The Card Game by New York’s King Post transforms Melville’s literary classic into an interactive game. Complete with beautiful illustrations and found art that draws from the era that inspired Melville, the game places you on the Pequod, and has you travel the sea collecting whale oil and recruiting crew members.

You’ve got until the end of the month to pledge $30 so you can get the deck of cards, but if you kick up your pledge to $50 you can get the gorgeous tote bag they’re offering up. Or hey, go crazy and get yourself an actual boat. That’s  at the $10,000 tier.

STORY WAR: THE STORYTELLING GAME: Created by Catnip Games in Astoria, NY, Story War isn’t about scoring the most points. It’s about the actual story you’re creating. Players create unique stories using the artwork and descriptions given to them by the cards, and weave their own narrative.

The Kickstarter campaign blew up to the point where they’ve got a number of new game modes, promised expansions, online multiplayer components, and more.  The game saw support from YA author John Green and a number of celebrated webcomic artists, some of whom ended up being in the game.

Sadly, the special Kickstarter exclusive cards, which included adorable pieces from Anthony Clark, Pendleton Ward, and Dinosaur Comics won’t be available outside of the campaign… but maybe one day! Hold on to hope, dear readers. Because Party Cat is awesome.

You can pre-order the game via Catnip’s official website, $25 for the regular set, $40 for the game with the expansion.

THE CARD GAME OF OZ: Have you always wanted to spin your own story in Frank L. Baum’s classic work? I mean, why should Sam Raimi have all the fun? This Kickstarted tabletop game let’s you populate the world of Oz, working together with other ‘authors’ (players) to tell the story.

The game is currently available for pre-order via Springboard, who apparently crowdfund a lot of cool stuff.  I mean seriously, look at all of this.

—

There are plenty of other games getting crowdfunded every day! Did I miss one that you love? Add it in the comments! And don’t forget to check out Book Riot’s own Kickstarter running right now, to publish START HERE, Vol. 2: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors.

___________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

The World’s Strongest Librarian

Josh Hanagarne is a librarian and a lapsed Mormon, which made me feel like we were destined to be spirit-animals right off the bat. But the similarities dwindle from there. Josh suffers from Tourette Syndrome so severe that, in its darkest moments, has caused him to punch himself repeatedly in his own face. In The World’s Strongest Librarian, Josh writes about turning to books and strength training to cope with his crushing challenges. This is a moving and enjoyable read, and Hanagarne is a totally lovable bookworm — consider: his adorable childhood crush on Fern from Charlotte’s Web, his adolescent binge reading sessions of Sweet Valley High, and his enduring obsession with the non-Mormon-approved Stephen King. Books were Josh’s friends when friends were tough to come by, and that love shines through in a bubbly and heartfelt way throughout all his struggles and soul-searching. The World’s Strongest Librarian is also a fascinating read about faith — what it means to have it, question it, lose it, reclaim it, and ultimately make peace with it.

Verdict: BUY, because as a book-lover, you’re going to want this AMAZING book about loving books. And probably give away a few copies as gifts.

Lost At Sea by Jon Ronson

There are two kinds of readers: those who are devoted Jon Ronson fangirls-and-boys, and those who haven’t heard of Jon Ronson yet. Friends, I present Jon Ronson: a bespectacled British journalist who writes thoughtful long-form journalism about quirky fringe phenomena like telepathy, aliens, and psychopaths. He was first introduced to an American audience on the radio show This American Life, and he’s got a knack for the sort of stuff that makes fans of that show swoon — sniffing out the peculiar in everyday life, getting to the heart with equal parts empathy and wit, and drawing wry conclusions about modern life. Lost at Sea is his collection of haunting and hilarious shorter pieces from the past decade, including stories about Insane Clown Posse, James Bond, Stanley Kubrick, robots, and too many other bizarre and wonderful things to name. Ronson is a fabulous narrator of his own work, and my like for Lost at Sea blossomed into full-blown love when I switched from the print to the audio.

Verdict: BORROW, because you’re going to want the audiobook and that @#&$% is pricey! Save your cash to splurge on his earlier books The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Psychopath Test instead.

The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner

I was excited to read The Sugar Frosted Nutsack mainly because it has a naughty title, and secondly because I read a giddy mainstream review that described it as “gun-to-the-head comedy delivered with a stratospheric I.Q.” But after giving it the old college try, I’m afraid I can only partly agree (… get it?). The Sugar Frosted Nutsack is a Greek epic / pop culture mashup that follows unemployed butcher Ike Karton on his misadventures with mischievous gods who’ve just gotten back from a cray-cray spring break à la Jersey Shore. I think the target audience for this book is probably edgy classics scholars in tweed jackets (love you guys!) who are like “Shut UP oh no he DIDN’T!” when Leyner jams a pop-culture reference right up against something more erudite. For me, this exuberant geekery and word play eclipsed the other things I tend to like about books.

Verdict: BYPASS, unless you are a special snowflake who likes arcane classical references more than anything else in the whole world.

Rontel by Sam Pink

Sam Pink first caught my attention when his publisher launched an unusual promotion for his book Rontel this Valentine’s Day: “Order Sam Pink’s new eBook and he’ll sext you on February 14!” I’m not saying whether Sam Pink sexted me or not, but I will say that I totally loved this book. Its meandering narrative follows a 28-year-old protagonist as he wanders the streets of Chicago desperately trying to hate everything, only to be thwarted by cute things like cats and dancing babies. It’s a tiny little novel that yearns to uncover what it means to be a “real man” in 2013, and I imagine it’s what Charles Bukowski and Albert Camus would’ve written had they teamed up and been like, “Hey, let’s write a comedy together!” Sam Pink also has an incredible eye and ear for the streets of Chicago, and he knows how to turn out a damned funny product review, too: “We all know paper towels are a whiz in the kitchen. But did you ever think they’d be so great to dry yourself off? I say — beep beep — go ahead.”

Verdict: BUY, because you don’t know where that copy you’re about to borrow has been.
______________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

Others, though, took their frustrations in more productive direction. Rosenblum’s article prompted a wide-ranging discussion on blogs and Twitter and comment threads—and probably out there in the fleshy real world, too—about what libraries are for and why they matter. Book Riot’s own Rita Meade wrote a beautiful, funny response, as did the Magpie Librarian, Ingrid Henny Abrams. Here’s a snippet from Abrams’s Twittertastic debate with Rosenblum, to give you some of the flavor of the whole fracas:

Hint: go follow @MagpieLibrarian. You’re welcome.

A disproportionate number of voices raised in horror at Rosenblum’s nonsense were, unsurprisingly, librarians’ voices. That’s incredible and important—but it isn’t enough. Patrons, whose access to information resources is threatened by the misinformation spread by commentators like Rosenblum, aren’t heard nearly enough. That’s why Abrams and Natalie Binder got together and decided to start a Tumblr. Libraries Changed My Life (like My Library Story, which launched late last year and is still running) is designed to give patrons a platform to share stories about how libraries have affected them.

It went up on Tuesday, and already the range of posts is amazing. Adventure and job-seeking resources, internet access and comfort—that’s what a library is. I don’t agree with every single thing a patron has written, but that’s the beauty, right? That libraries offer resources to a diverse array of people who probably don’t entirely agree with one another but who all think libraries are an important part of their lives.

I thought to celebrate the site’s launch, I’d pull some highlights from the posts so far. Though, really, I encourage you to go read them all.

From “I Traveled Everywhere When I Read Books”:

I’ve had asthma and severe allergies to everything with fur or pollen since I was 5 years old. Because I was born and raised in Iowa, this meant that I couldn’t go outside and play like the other kids at recess, and it also meant that I couldn’t travel very often … [W]hen I was 5, my mother took me to the Mt Pleasant Library where I read every book in the children’s section in a little less than 3 years. The wonderful librarian…allowed me “behind the rope” into the regular stacks of the library when I was 8 years old, and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life! All these classic authors awaited to share their views of the world with me! I read Travels With Charley and thrilled with Steinbeck and Charley the poodle as they crossed the country in search of good times and good stories. I was not limited by where my body couldn’t go, I could travel anywhere in my mind, and have adventures unbound by time and space in books!

From “Libraries Helped Me Rebuild My Life”:

I don’t know what I’d do if libraries never existed. As a kid, I was a voracious reader, and if not for the free books in libraries, my parents might have gone broke trying to keep me in fresh literature. But as a young adult, when I got sick and lost my job (due to my illness), and had no safety net of family or money, libraries gave me free access to the internet so I could find out about resources, new jobs, ways to take care of myself – and still plenty of free books as entertainment for someone who couldn’t afford TV and was stuck spending time in bed recuperating. I am now a contributing member of society, healthy and have a job, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have access to my local library.

From “Free wifi changed my life!”:

I was visiting my soon-to-be home across the country when my wife landed a new job at a university. I didn’t have connections there, so I knew I’d have to find some part-time work or something before I could apply to graduate school. We had no friends there, no way to use anyone’s home network, and neither of us brought our laptop, so we couldn’t get online at Starbucks. We walked to the public library, where I got a 2-hour guest pass to use their computers, where I managed to fill out three job applications…. We were only in town for a weekend, but I had a job offer before we left.

From “The wonder of libraries and librarians”:

Libraries have always been one of the cornerstones of civilization. You can be rich/poor/black/white/male/female/old/young/etc. and still be afforded the same opportunity to learn. Books can nourish the soul, feed the brain and/or take the reader on a fantastic journey. Whenever I am in the library and see a mom or dad with a child checking out books it gives me a smile. I always try to tell them how incredible it is that they are reading and that I know their parents are proud of them. And our librarians are the incredible stewards of the libraries. I have never met a librarian that couldn’t answer a question or find the answer. Our world would be a much sadder place without libraries.

Do you have a good library story? Consider writing it up for a comment here at Book Riot, and then you could pop over to Libraries Changed My Life to submit it there. We’d love to hear it!

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.

Beluga Bookends:  That prized collection of Moby-Dick editions getting a bit too unwieldy? Straighten and decorate with a smiling set of bookends.

Bookish Font: A page-turning design for getting your point across, designed by Byggstudio.

Reader Mud Flap Girl: An intellectual argument to the traditional mud flap girl, this decal shouts, “Smart is sexy!”

DIY Pages Table Runner: Though the natural use for this table runner is for a bookish wedding, a bookish birthday or other party would also invite this unique decoration.

_________________________

Sign up for our newsletter to have the best of Book Riot delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks. No spam. We promise.

To keep up with Book Riot on a daily basis, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, , and subscribe to the Book Riot podcast in iTunes or via RSS. So much bookish goodness–all day, every day.