Dead Ever After, by Charlaine Harris

(hb; 2013: fourteenth/"final" entry in the Sookie Stackhouse series)


From the inside flap:

"After the terrible events of the past weeks, both Sookie and Sam are finding it hard to concentrate on Merlotte's - and the bar is suffering for it.  But Sookie finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back.  After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed.

"Sookie's relationship with Eric Northman is in limbo.  He and his vampires are keeping their distance. . . and a cold silence.  And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.

"Then Arlene is found murdered, and Sookie is arrested for the crime.

"But the evidence against her is weak, and Sookie makes bail.  Helped by her assortment of friends, living and undead, she must discover the truth about Arlene's death to clear herself of suspicion.  All she knows is that two mysterious men were somehow involved.  As to whom they might be - Sookie will soon learn that she has more than one enemy waiting to get vengeance for the past.

"Nothing is ever clear-cut in Bon Temps.  What passes for truth is only a convenient lie.  What passes for justice is more spilled blood.  And what passes for love is never enough."


Review:

Fun, blast-through, series-overview read - not a murder mystery, but, rather, an effective (if brisk) character and story wrap-up of Harris's Sookieverse that occasionally dips into Sookie-based melodrama, but otherwise made this reader chuckle and sometimes feel warm and fuzzy.

My expectations were relatively low for Harris's books (in comparison to those of many Sookie fans), so I was appreciative that Dead Ever After [DEA] is a solid read. Is it great? No, because the series has been hit-and-miss since All Together Dead, the seventh book, published in 2007. (That said, I've found something to enjoy in each of the books, no matter how much or little I recommended them.)

Borrow DEA from the library before buying it; this caveat goes for especially passionate fans of the Sookie novels. 

NOS4A2, by Joe Hill

(hb; 2013)


From the inside flap:

"Victoria McQueen has an uncanny knack for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions.  When she rides her bicycle over the rickety old covered bridge in the woods near her house, she always emerges in the places she needs to be.  Vic doesn't tell anyone about her unusual ability, because she knows no one will believe her.  She has trouble understanding it herself.

"Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own.  He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Roll-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2.  In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland.  Mile by mile, the journey across the highway of Charlie's twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.

"And then comes the day when Vic goes looking for trouble. . . and finds her way, inevitably, to Charlie. 

"That was a lifetime ago.  Now, the only kid ever to escape Charlie's unmitigated evil is all grown up and desperate to forget.

"But Charlie Manx hasn't stopped thinking about the exceptional Victoria McQueen.  On the road again, he won't slow down until he's taken his revenge.  He's after something very special - something Vic can never replace.

"As a life-and-death battle of wills builds - her magic pitted against his - Vic McQueen prepares to destroy Charlie once and for all. . . or die trying."


Review

Excellent, fantastical and fun horror novel that gripped this reader from the get-go, and didn't let go until the last page.  The characters and the plot are engaging, the villains are fun and Ray Bradburyesque, the pacing is flawless and NOS4A2's tone is miniseries epic in its genre-based timeline. Yes, it's a long-ish book (700 pages), but it's a fast 700 pages.

Worth owning, this - one of the best horror/rural fantasy books I've read this year.

Best Sex Writing 2013: The State of Today's Sexual Culture, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel

(pb; 2013: sex essay/nonfiction anthology.  Foreword by Carol Queen, PhD)


Overall review:

Best Sex Writing 2013 is a choice anthology of essays centered around the current vibe of our Western culture, carnal and (sometimes) beyond it.  This is one of my favorite anthologies Bussel has edited, as well as one of my all-time favorite sexual anthologies, for its scope and (mostly) bullstuff-free take on what's going on in our world.

Only one of the essays didn't grab me because it was long-winded (Jonathan Lethem's "Live Nude Models").  Lethem's verbiage was occasionally clever, but ultimately not worthy of his essay's supposed pay-offs.

Lethem's work aside, this is an exceptional collection of works  - one worth owning.



Standout essays:

1.)  "Sex By Numbers" - Rachel Swan:  Excellent piece about polyamorous relationships.


2.)  "Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement" - Alex Morris:  The title says it all.  Especially good read.


3.)  "Notes From a Unicorn" - Seth Fischer:  A bisexual man details his evolution as a person and a sexual being.  Emotionally engaging, exceptional essay.


4.)  "Rest Stop Confidential" - Conner Habib:  The mindset of rest stop cruising is explored.


5.)  "When on Fire Island. . . A Polyamorous Disaster" - Nicholas Garnett:  The joys and pitfalls of polyamory play out in affecting and tragic fashion.  One of the best entries in this collection.


6.)  "Cherry Picking" - Julia Serano:  Wonderful, thoughtful piece about a transgender woman and her series of sexualized "firsts".


7.)  "Baby Talk" - Rachel Kramer Bussel:  A lover's predilection for 'age play' leads the author to consider her own predilections, carnal and otherwise.


8.)  "Dear John" - Lori Selke:  A woman parts ways with the traditional power dynamics of leather culture.


9.)  "Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom" - Rob Boston:  The author outlines the history of birth control and religious/political interference; more importantly, he tells why we, as advanced cultures, must fight to defend our reproductive rights.  Excellent, a must-read entry.


10.)  "Porn Defends the Money Shot" - Dennis Romero:  Another exemplary essay.  In a shifting world, porndom finds itself having to change - or else face a tumbledown in their revenue streams.


11.)  "Lost Boys" - Kristen Hinman:  Overblown governmental budgets, social denial, corruption and other factors - some of them surprising - contribute to the misreporting and exacerbation of underage prostitution across the United States.  Illuminating call-to-action, this - and easily one of the best entries in this anthology.


Other essays:

"The Original Blonde" - Neal Gabler;  "Happy Hookers" - Melissa Gira Grant;  "Ghosts: All My Men are Dead" - Carol Queen;  "Enhancing Masochism: How to Expand Limits and Increase Desire" - Patrick Califia;  "Sex By Any Other Name" - Insiya Ansari;  "Holy F**k: The Fourth-and-Long Virgin" - Jon Pressick;  "Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex?" - Andy Isaacson;  "Submissive: A Personal Manifesto" - Madison Young

Black Friday Coming Down, by David Hunter

(pb; 1990, 1992: true crime)


From the back cover:

"Every day, cops encounter a world more bizarre, more dangerous and more outrageous than most people ever imagine.  In Black Friday Coming Down, David Hunter blasts away at the stereotypes - and exposes the real experience of being a cop. . . as only a real cop could tell it."


Review:

Hunter has a natural flair for telling level-headed, reads-like-real-life yet entertaining stories about what it's like to be a cop.  Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes scary and always interesting, this is one of the best true crime books I've read in a long while.

Worth owning, this.

Flesh, by Richard Laymon

(pb; 1987)


From the back cover:

"No one in town has ever seen anything like it before: a slimy, mobile tube of glistening yellow flesh with dull, staring eyes and an obscene, probing mouth.  But the real horror is not what it looks like, or even what it does to you when it invades your flesh - but what it makes you do to others. . ."


Review:

Solid, fun horror read, with plenty of cheesy sex, grue and violence.  While Laymon didn't provide a lot of information about the strange yellow creature's past, he provided enough for me to enjoy Flesh as a short, sharp and sometimes nasty genre work.

Worth checking out, this.

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson & Learned to Love Being Hated, by Alison Arngrim

(hb; 2010: autobiography)


From the inside flap:

"For seven years, Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming selfish, lying, manipulative brat on one of TV history's most beloved series.  Though millions of  Little House on the Prairie viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love her character - and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.

"In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch, Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents: Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost.  She recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the scenes of Little House:  Michael Landon's 'unsaintly' habit of not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor (who played Nellie's mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.

"Arngrim relays all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her life's challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse, depression, and paralyzing shyness; the 'secret' her father kept from her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her "Little House husband" and best friend Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her second career in social and political activism.  Arngrim describes how Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring and determined, and how she is eternally grateful to have had the biggest bitch on the prairie show her the way."

Review:

Interesting, solid, heartfelt book.  Arngrim's humor lightens some of the heavier, non-graphic parts relating to her emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her brother, and adds a welcome zing to her account of her curious life.

Good read from an admirable, funny woman.  Check it out.

A Bite of the Apple: A Collection of Romantic Erotica, by Robert Buckley

(hb; 2002: erotica anthology)


From the inside flap:

"If you're hungry for great erotic stories with a twist of the romantic, you'll love A Bite of the Apple.  Each of the 24 short stories in this sensual collection is a lush, romantic gem, sure to spur you on to your own sensuous adventures. . ."



Overall review:

This is one of the best erotic-romantic (or, if you prefer, romantica) anthologies I've ever read.  Buckley's works are perfused with an innate Frank Capra-esque humanity and warmth that most writers - myself included - (probably) wish they possessed, as well the talent to mix and match it with a variety of moods (in this anthology it's romantic, though I've read his edgier works, as well). 

This humane quality, as shown by this stylistically diverse collection, is especially all-too-rare in the erotica genre, where too many authors confuse the human tangle of limbs, torsos and 'wet' orifices for emotional connection, but forget about the smaller (and just as important) actions that express love that lends itself to deeper, longer-lasting connections.

I wish I had written this anthology - something I say not with envy, but with the utmost admiration.  (That's one of the highest praises I can give a book, especially one where every story 'nails it'.)

Worth owning, of course.


Standout stories:


1.)  "A Bite of the Apple":  An apple grove owner (Lainey Allen) makes key decisions about her career, and a possible lover.


2.)  "Forgive Me Father":  Witty, world-wise trio of Catholic confessions.  Still chuckling over this one.


3.)  "Eating Out at Annie's":  Flirty tale about a diner and two lusty-at-heart lovers.


4.)  "Convenience Store":  A graveyard shift minimart employee encounters some truly strange stuff in this surreal, hilarious piece.


5.)  "Chance Encounter": Passionate, sweet-humored entry about a lonely librarian (Lorna Delaney) and a mourner (Alec) at a nearby grave.


6.)  "Rules of Engagement":  The Honeymooners meets carnal hilarity in this piece, about a loud, semi-public argument between a wife (Dannie) and her husband (Matt), which goes over-the-top in a loving, bawdy way.


7.)  "Twitch":  An ambush of a blind date leads to a contentious and delightfully lively coupling.


8.)  "The Magic Lesbian":  A bar owner (Joe Canarski) fends off an aggressive buy-out offer from a business rival.  Instantly immersive, feels-like-you're-there work.


9.)  "Fortune's Fool":  This is an especially good, laugh-out-loud karmic tale about a hospitalized sports writer, a celebrity football player and fickle sports fans.


10.)  "Portrait":  A painter's portrait subject reveals more than artistic longing.


11.)  "A Fare of the Heart":  One of the best tales in this bunch.  A cabbie (James) and his fare ( a neglected wife named Ann) have an empathetic conversation about their circumstances and her marriage.


12.)  "Invisible":  Gut wrench-effective story about a couple whose marriage has hit some particular damaging rocks.


13.)  "The Night the Stars Fell":  A sexually neglected husband wrestles with the possibility of cheating on his otherwise occupied wife.  Another emotionally effective story, with some joy thrown in, as well.


Other stories:

"Making Her Late For Work"; "Crazy"; "Stuck"; "Imparting Wisdom"; "Mrs. Godiva"; "Corner Booth"; "The Battle of Twin Peaks"; "The Other Man"; " 'O' No"; "Infidelity"; "Backrub"

Sacrifice by John Everson

(pb; 2007: second book in The Curburide Chronicles)


From the back cover:

"They are coming.  They are a race of sadistic spirits known as the Curburide, and they are about to arrive in our world, bringing with them horrors beyond imagination.  The secret to summoning - and controlling - them has fallen into the hands of a beautiful, sexy and dangerously insane woman.

"Ariana has dedicated her life to unleashing the demons in our realm through a series of human sacrifices, erotic rituals of seduction and slaughter.  As she crosses the country, getting ever closer to completing her blood-drenched mission, only three figures stand in her way: an unwilling hero who has seen the horrors of the Curburide before, a burgeoning witch. . . and a spiteful demon with plans of his own."



Review:

I love reading sequels like this - follow-up tales that not only show the further adventures of characters I've grown fond of (or am fascinated by), but up the ante of the plot proceedings, while reworking the structure of the previous tale(s) into new storyline configurations.

Sacrifice accomplishes this, with seeming ease.  Like Covenant, it's a burn-through-that-sucker read, one with an ending that deftly avoids leave-room-for-a-sequel horror clichés (though he could easily continue this series if he wanted to).

Great, genre-veracious read.  Worth owning, this.

Followed by Redemption.

The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life, by Eugene Mirman

(pb; 2009: humor book)


From the back cover:

"No one understands the complexities of modern life better than Eugene Mirman - claims Eugene Mirman - and anyone seeking guidance from the man who has lived through everything (except for the Great Depression, the Spanish-American War, and Jerry Lee Lewis's sex scandal) won't resist this charmingly hysterical guidebook.

" • Become Ultrapopular in High School (Without 'Putting Out' - Whatever That Is)

" • Discover Somewhere Between Four and Two Thousand Ways to Overcome Social Anxiety (Closer to Four)

" • Start a Band, Become an Artist, or Disappoint Your Parents By Getting a Reality Television Show"


Review:

Will is an offbeat, sometimes bizarre and dark, and consistently funny book - just like Mirman's stand-up comedy routines and his work on television (e.g., as "Gene" on the animated show Bob's Burgers). 

If you're not a fan of Mirman's output, know that he regularly riffs on subjects like politics, pop culture, religion and sex with fearless abandon - while he's nowhere near as focused and raw as Doug Stanhope, Bill Hicks or comedians of that ilk, he is still willing to go beyond the norm-pale for a (sometimes) dark punchline. 

For example:

• "There's even a common belief in many countries (mostly Japan and Nigeria) that cats write love poems to each other.  Silly foreigners - no they don't."

•"If you want to go on the street in your torn leather pants and hand a flyer to a slut, you go right ahead - that's metal.  Hiring a girl (even if it's Sigourney Weaver) to send e-mails to random people that mimic the marketing strategy of ringtone companies is not metal, and your band should be put to death (the obvious punishment for betraying the Devil-God of Metal - which on earth is manifested in the physical form of Scott Ian's goatee)."

•"Nobody likes it when a farmer punches a chicken (though punched chickens taste the best), but to insist that chickens have the right to avoid self-incrimination in court?  That's too much, Mr. Hippie.  Plus, drug-dealing chickens shouldn't have an easy way out - they f**ked up; they do the time.  If some chicken molests a little boy (even a bully), you're telling me it should have a fair trial?  F**k that.  Prison, Mr. Chicken."

Worth checking out, this.

The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie with B.K. Evenson

(hb; 2013)


From the inside flap:

"Heidi Hawthorne is a thirty-seven-year-old FM radio DJ and a recovering drug addict.  Struggling with her newfound sobriety and creeping depression, Heidi suddenly receives an anonymous gift at the station - a mysteriously shaped wooden box branded with a strange symbol.  Inside the box is a promotional record for a band that identifies themselves as The Lords.  There is no other information.

"She decides to play it on the radio show as a joke, and the moment she does, horrible things begin to happen.  The strange music unleashes something evil in the town.  Soon enough, terrifying murders begin to happen all around Heidi.  Who are The Lords?  What do they want?

"Now, as old bloodlines are awakened and the bodies start to pile up, only one thing seems certain - all hell is about to break loose."


Review:

Lords is a compelling, entertaining read, with its engaging characters and its graphic, jubilant and orgiastic bloodshed.  While it's not the grimmest horror novel I've read, its unrepentant and unflinching unveiling of viscous, carnal violence makes many other like-genre books pale in comparison.

Zombie and Evenson weave elements of humor, Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby and the Norwegian black metal genre into this feels-like-a-Seventies-horror-flick novel, making it even more fun.

Worth owning, this.

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The film version is scheduled for theatrical release on April 19, 2013.  Co-author Rob Zombie scripted and directed the film.

Sheri Moon Zombie played Heidi Hawthorne.  Bruce Davison played Francis Matthias.  Jeff Daniel Phillips, billed as Jeffrey Daniel Phillips, played Herman Whitey Salvador.  Ken Foree played Herman Jackson.   Ernest Thomas played Chip Freakshow McDonald. 

Michael Berryman played Virgil Magnus.  Sid Haig played Dean Magnus.   Maria Conchita Alonso played Alice Matthias.  Dustin Quick played Masie Mather. 

Judy Geeson played Lacy Doyle. Patricia Quinn played Megan.  Dee Wallace played Sonny.  Meg Foster played Margaret Morgan.  Brandon Cruz played Ted Delta.  Torsten Voges played Count Gorgann.  Niko Posey played Cerina Hooten.  Lisa Marie played Priscilla Reed.

Maria Olsen played a "Dream Sequence Woman".  Diana Hart played another "Dream Sequence Woman".  Flo Lawrence played a "Witch".  Silvia Moore played another "Witch".

Barbara Crampton, in deleted scenes, played Virginia Cable.  Udo Kier, in deleted scenes, played Matthew Hopkins.  Camille Keaton, in deleted scenes, played Doris Von Fux.  Clint Howard, in deleted scenes, played Carlo Caravaggio. Richard Lynch, in deleted scenes, played Reverend John Hawthorne. 

Daniel Roebuck, in deleted scenes, played The Frankenstein Monster.  Christopher Knight, in deleted scenes, played Keith 'Lobster Joe' Williams.  

The Owl by Alvin G. Burstein

(pb; 2012: novelette)


Review:

When college professor Lou Meade is accosted by a talking owl - a familiar of the Greek deity Athena, "goddess of wisdom, the practical arts, and warfare, and the protectress of cities"* - it's the first moment in his new life phase, an era that will lead him further into the works of author C.S. Lewis and intellectual warfare against Eris, the wily Greek goddess of discord.

Burstein's writing is straightforward, episodic, smart and exciting in a dry-humored way, which serves this atypical, Lewisesque work well. 

Readers of Lewis and gentler, clean cut-to-it readers of fantasy would do well to own this 70-page "neo-Pagan Fantasy" (as Burstein subtitles this intriguing work).  Don't expect the epic bombast and graphic grimness of George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, but do expect to be entertained in a cerebral, sometimes phantasmagorical manner.

Worth owning, this.  You can purchase it here.

[*The Free Dictionary.com]

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Burstein's earlier, much-shorter work  - The crawfish boil - graced the Microstory A Week site on January 11, 2012.  If you haven't read this story, check it out!