New Releases 7/15

Some new titles out this week are:

Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich - espionage tale that is set off when a husband discovers that he really knows nothing about his wife of 8 years.

Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer - amazing debut mystery starring a sassy reporter who stirs things up looking into a case no one believes exists. 

Nox Dormienda by Kelli Stanley - first in a new historical mystery series.

Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner - the only one on my list that I didn't have time for! Gardner always writes gripping page-turners and this one sees the return of Kimberly Quincy.

The Likeness by Tana French - sequel to Edgar winning In the Woods.

New out on DVD:

Shutter, remake of a Thai film about two students who begin to see strange images in photos of their friends

Penelope

The Bank Job

New reviews at bookbitch.com this week:

Rules of Deception, Nox Dormienda, Stalking Susan

Driven by Eve Kenin

Lazy Days

I am beat! I ran around town today shopping at little gourmet stores and food shops and the Saturday farmer's markets. It was fun. I thought I would come home with supper, but instead have more condiments to add to my collection! Yeah, they're fun. Condiments make the meal. I am all about the extras.

Anyway. I love lazy days. Days when you really don't have to worry about anything and you can just relax and be. I bathed our dog the other day - she desperately needed it. This involved looping her leash around a post on our porch and spraying her down with the hose. She hates it. As much as I understand that she would rather smell like dog funk, I prefer her oatmeal vanilla (i.e. expensive and supposed to be good for dogs with dry skin - hey, I can sympathize with her, my skin didn't fare any better moving over here) dog shampoo. It was nice outside and I was waiting for my other to get home from work so I hooked the dog to a tree and brought my book out to read.

I've been working my way through the ITW (see post) debut author's list and Nox Dormienda was next in my stack. Kelli Stanley was at LCC this spring and I already had some promo stuff that was available then. I also heard her premise and thought it sounded pretty interesting. Fortunately, she's a BB fan and I had a chance to review the book for the site (it'll be up next week). For now, I'll just tell you a little bit about this historical mystery "Roman Noir" debut:

Arcturus, official physician to Governor Agricola, and sometime problem solver, is approached by a gorgeous woman in trouble. Her fiancé is rumored to be carrying a letter to Londinium that could mean the end of the governor. She appeals to Arcturus’s loyal nature and urges him to alert Agricola of the matter. Arcturus takes it one step further and has the woman followed. His man Bilicho eventually tracks the woman to an inn and whorehouse where the fiancé is staying. Later, Bilicho hears noises and follows a cart to an underground temple. The priests of the temple call for Arcturus and the physician discovers that the body of the woman’s fiancé has been left mounted on an alter, his throat brutally slashed. It is also discovered that the man may indeed be an official messenger from Emperor Domitian. If Arcturus can’t find out who killed the man and why, before the Emperor receives news of the death, Britannia could be facing dire political consequences.

It was a fun new mystery, entertaining and wholly captivating. I read half of it lounging in the yard with our dog and finished it later that night. First in a new series and maybe even the first in a new subgenre, Roman Noir. The title, Nox Dormienda, roughly translated is a play on The Big Sleep! Stanley's in-depth research into the time period (1st century Roman England) is apparent in reading her debut. It's going to be one hell of series, I can tell you that much!

You can see the rest of the review under latest reviews at bookbitch.com next week. And now, I am going to take my orange mint tea and go read another ITW debut, The Last Vampire by Marc Paoletti and Patricia Rosemoor. I'll let you know how it is in a few days.

The High Altitude Baking Challenge!

I guess I haven't really done much baking since we moved here. Well, that's not totally true. The truth is that I haven't had to deal with any high altitude issues since moving here.

I am notorious for forgetting to make the suggested adjustments on the box (when I use boxes - hey, I have the Cake Mix Doctor books and they're wonderful!). Anywho, for my birthday, my other bought me a cookbook called Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski, yep, I was already planning on buying some at the bakery and here I was feigning for them early!

When we got home that night, we invited our friends over to eat gumbo (using our frozen cajun items procured while on vacation!). I chose to make Black Forest Cupcakes. Really they weren't that hard, a Devil's Food base with a chocolate glaze and a kirsch infused whipped cream with fresh cherries. The only problem is this, my cupcakes suffered from altitude sickness. My very first time.

The book doesn't have any suggested adjustments for this. My cupcakes rose too quickly causing this disc of batter to bake on the pan around the cupcake itself and then the center of the cupcakes fell creating this pit that actually fit the cherries nicely. They just weren't very pretty. So, I dragged out our High Altitude Baking Book and fortunately they do have a table of suggested adjustments. The only problem is that our baker friend says even the weather here can affect how much of an adjustment you need to make. This means that your baked goods, even with careful attention to baking soda ratios, may still fail. And, the HABB says you can't even assume that you'll need to make the adjustment. Ugh! How do bakers do it out here?

I've not given up, though. Once we're all over the sugar rush induced by Tee & Cakes' wonderful goodies, I will be trying again. I have my eye on the Tres Leches cupcakes and the Salted Caramel ones!

Oh, the horror!

I love horror. I'm usually first in line to buy the new Stephen King (and usually reading it asap). I'm dreadfully far behind this go-around, however. I've had Duma Key sitting in a stack of To Be Reads for quite some time now. In fact, I almost bought the unabridged audio for our trip home last month. I just couldn't justify spending another $60 when I already bought the hardcover!

I sometimes think that if in the literary world romance is the red-headed step child, horror is the kid locked in the basement. It's true. Very few authors in the field get the respect that they deserve in my opinion. King alone should be recognized as one of the greatest authors of our time (again, my opinion). Most recently his son Joe Hill burst onto the scene with an award winning short story collection, Twentieth Century Ghosts, and his Stoker winning Heart Shaped Box. The question among many readers minds, though, is what else is there?

So often people name King, Koontz, and even Saul as their first three picks in the genre. There are so many more out there, though. Dorchester publishes at least two new horror paperbacks a month. Their site is a great place to find new authors. The Horror Writers Association is another great place to find new authors, just look at their yearly Stoker nominations.

I've recently been going back to some of the 80s authors - horror was a different style then than it is now. I love old James Herbert and Clive Barker. I've got all of the Books of Blood sitting on my shelf now in hopes that I'll at least read "Midnight Meat Train" before the movie comes out next month.

Horror today is a crap shoot. I understand why so many people shy away from it. Some of the ones that I've read and enjoyed in recent years include:

The brilliantly fabulous James A. Moore. Moore doesn't pop one out every year, though, and most of his previous ones are out of print. His Serenity Falls trilogy is the most fun I've had in years!

Doug Clegg can be an acquired taste for some. He has some quiet novels, but most are in-your-face gore and lots of shock factor action - something I really don't mind.

Tamara Thorne is fun in a B-movie way. I especially love Moonfall.

Most recently I read Gary Braunbeck's Coffin County and really enjoyed it. I also just finished Sarah Pinborough's Tower Hill. There's an odd trend in the horror titles that I've read lately and I'm not sure exactly why there's such a surge in these titles. It's an almost Needful Things type trend. Pinborough's latest and Braunbeck's title, to an extent, both fall into this category as do Sarah Langan's debut and Stoker nominated The Keeper and Nate Kenyon's Bloodstone. In fact, I found Kenyon and Langan's titles oddly similar and both were nominated for Stokers in the same year.

Some other "new" titles that have been garnering attention are:

Infected by Scott Sigler (gory and fun!)

The Terror by Dan Simmons (historical horror)

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (a ghost story with a twist)

Monster Island and 13 Bullets by David Wellington (zombies and vamps, respectively)

Interestingly enough, Wellington and Sigler both gained recognition thanks to their massive online following and both deservedly so.

Of course, there's one other to mention here and that's the upcoming title The Passage by Jordan Ainsley (aka Justin Cronin). Still rumored to be published sometime next year, it's a vamp trilogy that earned Cronin a six-figure deal. I sincerely hope it's worth it.

Anyway, my point is that there is so much out there and like all genres it's hit or miss depending on your own personal taste. Hopefully if you're a horror enthusiast, you'll have found a new author here to try. And, if you're curious, maybe you'll check out one of these authors even if you don't normally read horror.

I Spy

Sometimes you just have to be in the mood to read something. I know this just as well as any other binge reader out there. There are times when I will sit in front of my bookshelves, staring blankly ahead, hoping that something will jump out as my NEXT READ. Now that I do reviews, it's a little harder to let my moods take over. I have to stick to a schedule, you know?

I started reading one book yesterday and after multiple attempts to get totally immersed, I just wasn't having it. I'd read two pages and get up to do something else, I even fell asleep. So, I decided to tackle a different book (still on my review schedule) rather than lose time.

Well, I made the mistake of waiting until after watching disc 5 of season 1 of Bones to pick up Christopher Reich's Rules of Deception. Not smart! I was up until 3 am and still didn't finish it. I was totally engrossed.

This is my first title by Reich. It starts out with Dr. Jonathan Ransom and his wife, Emma, trekking up a mountain when a snowstorm hits. They rapidly descend and Emma is injured. Jonathan leaves for help, but she's gone when he gets there. Mourning his loss, he returns to his hotel only to find a message waiting for his dead wife - an envelope containing two baggage claim tickets for the Swiss rail line. He sets off to collect the items and is attacked by Swiss police.

Meanwhile, there are assassinations and people with questionable identities floating around - and I'm only 100 pages in!

Normally, I shy away from espionage books. Not because I don't like them, but because they usually confuse me. I like spy movies, I just can't handle heavy political undertones - they make my head go a little swimmy and I can't concentrate because I am trying too hard to understand what's going on. Not so with Rules of Deception. Like I said, I was completely and totally immersed in this book. It makes me hopeful in terms of some other titles that I have been holding off on, Stella Remmington for example.

Ah well, I have about 2/3 of the book left at this point and will let you guys know how it is when I am done. For now, it's looking pretty good for me becoming a new Christopher Reich fan!

Abso-freakin-lutely Amazing!

We went to see Wanted on Sunday, but I figured you needed a few days in between all the movie posts (sorry about the maudlin one from last night, though!). 

Anyway, Wanted was fantastic! Amazing! Spectacular! And THANK GOD! I don't think I could have handled it if it were anything less than it was. 

First off, the director, Timur Bekmambetov, who brought filmwatchers the brilliance that is Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) did a great job, obviously. I hope that this means that he has a huge future in directing here cause I hate having to wait for his Russian movies to hit DVD. Oh, but he freaking killed Anton! That made me sad. You probably won't have any idea what I am talking about unless you happen to have seen Night Watch, and don't worry, I'm not giving anything away about Wanted.

Actors: You all know that I am madly in love with James McAvoy. He plays a great loser who basically embraces his utter coolness! Even Angelina Jolie was great (and I've never been a big fan). Morgan Freeman can do no wrong in my eyes and I gotta tell you, his character is excellent. Others in the film are: Thomas Kretschman (Cross) who you may recognize from movies like The Pianist and King Kong, David O'Hara (Mr. X) who was seen most recently in Doomsday, and my favorite Russian, Konstantin Khabensky. 

Story: Wanted is based on a graphic novel series by Mark Millar. The previews that you've seen online don't really tell you anything about the movie, and that's probably one of the best things about this movie. If you haven't read the comic, you really are in for a great flick. So often lately trailers can totally ruin a movie, giving away key plot lines or just telling you way too much about the movie. They take all the surprise and fun out of it. What you've seen is essentially about the first 20 minutes of the movie. You may figure out where it is going, but the element of surprise is still there.

The effects are awesome. The final fight scene is one of the best I've ever seen. 

Music: Score is by Danny Elfman. There are two songs that you'll hear throughout, they are"Every Day is Exactly the Same" by Nine Inch Nails from their 2005 album With Teeth. The other song is sung by Danny Elfman himself and is called "The Little Things" - didn't even know Danny Elfman could sing now did we? 

So, make it your next must see, you won't regret it!

And a reminder, The Ruins is out on DVD today. I picked up the unrated version with the alternate ending, haven't watched that just yet, I'll be making my other watch it with me this time since I saw it at theaters alone. 

I am 27 years old

I am 2 Hacienda Colorado frozen house maragaritas, 1 Bacardi 151, and 1 bottle of Smirnoff Grape, in the hole.

I am wasted enough to admit that my fear at this point in life is that I am an obsolete commodity in a dying industry - a person who knows her shit about books in the publishing biz. Please tell me I am wrong. 

Overall, I am hopeful about the book business. Others are not. It is my opinion that people who no longer see the positive about this industry have no business being in it anymore. 

There are a ton of bleak opinions out there about the future of publishing. I personally believe none of them. I truly fear, however, that I may be wrong. It is my belief that although current surveys and such show that less than half of the population reads, that the market is ripe for change. I believe that people are thirsting for more and that if the big box stores (where the average person shops) offered more, consumers would eat it up. I believe that if BN and Borders would invest in knowledgeable staff, i.e. paying employees what they are worth and offering incentives to long-term staff that would cause them to want to stay, that they would have the potential of earning more money than they have previously seen. 

I believe that copping out and hiring staff that don't read merely to save a few bucks on salary is a bad move. Borders has been struggling lately, and I believe that this is part of the reason. Why would a business minded person who knows nothing about the book industry care about the things that I am saying? The wouldn't. Only a reader would understand that books in particular lend themselves more to recommendations than any other industry out there. 

It's true. If you read regularly (and even if you don't), then you are probably always on the lookout for something new. If you walk into a bookstore where the staff seems to understand your likes and dislikes and can make a personalized rec based on your taste, aren't you likely to buy the rec? Aren't you then more likely to return in hopes that they can recommend more? 

In current store trends, this will never happen and never will again. Indy stores, where you are more likely to see this, are being forced out of business by big box stores. That is reality. Big box stores are cutting costs in the most asinine places - their long-term employees. BN is phasing out leads (the people who are supposed to be experts on each section) and why? Probably in an attempt to limit the number of full-time staff on the payroll. What will this accomplish? In the short-term, it will accomplish accounts payable savings. In the long-term, it will effect ultimate profits. CEOs will see smaller and smaller profits and their bonuses will decrease. Then, they'll let go of more staff. This will continue until it is much too late and they are too far in the hole to get out. 

What can they do now to change it? In my personal opinion, hang on to and cherish those knowledgeable employees who know what they are doing. Hire staff who read. In the long-run you may see a small dip in profits in the beginning, but ultimately, I believe that the profits would be worth it.

I am in the minority. Most people seem to believe that the American public is too dumb for this to work. That people will continue to buy the NYT top 10 and only that and that booksellers don't need any knowledge base as long as they can run a register. I hope that they are wrong. Otherwise, I will continue to struggle for all of my remaining years just as much as I have struggled since I graduated from college. 

This is what I fear on the eve of my 27th birthday, that I will fail and that there will be nothing that I can do to change it.