Category — Books

Books 1-3: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas, and Club Dead.

Harris certainly knows how to write a fun female protagonist. Sookie Stackhouse is waitress. She’s unschooled, doesn’t have a typical education, but has a lot of people smarts. Why? Sookie is a rare human telepath in a world filled with vampires who’ve come out of the coffin, were-people (who have not) and other supernatural creatures/goddesses, etc.

It’s a world that’s cock-eyed, but what saves it is Sookie’s point of view, … READ MORE

Whatever you do, DON’T read this while on a layover at JFK. del Toro and Hogan successfully point out the intrinsic creepiness of airports, planes, and subway tunnels in the beginning of their Strain trilogy. The prose is creepy and at times unsettlingly funny, and the images described linger on in your mind’s eye in a way that is eep!-worthy when actually on a plane.

This story has two beginnings — for Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor, this is very much … READ MORE

Vliet’s introduction to the various issues women face when their hormones are out of whack is actually pretty interesting and very accessible. Also, bonus points for not focusing on fertility, which is something books of this type often do.

I found it INCREDIBLY accessible. Vliet’s indictment of a medical industry that often ignores the needs of female patients is both passionate and terse. She offers her patient anecdotes and data analysis in a way that suggests she respects her audience’s intelligence … READ MORE

Lace Makers focuses on the trials and tribulations of Kate, a fashion designer, who’s fled to Ireland to escape the memories of a doomed relationship, her mother’s death from cancer, and the debacle of her most recent fashion show. She bounces around the country, finally finding herself in Glenmara. By chance, she befriends the ladies of the lace-making society — a set of married middle-aged women who get together once a week to make lace to sell at different local … READ MORE

Queen of Angels is about lonliness, murder, and the kind of mental trickeries you need to survive. It’s also about a world where therapy has become mandatory. The untherapied live in the shade of the combs, outside the luxurious world of the privileged and the mentally fit. However, murder has struck inside the combs. Emmanuel Goldsmith, the acclaimed poet, has killed several of his protegees, and has now disappeared.

This is not a whodunit. Mary Choy, the principal investigator of this … READ MORE

This is an amazingly fun book. Basically, Arqual is a bully of a land. They’ve conquested all the neighboring kingdoms around them and have pretty much reached an uneasy standstill with Mzithrin, the other major world power. The nations who’ve managed to resist domination have banded together into a federation based on their ability to tip the power struggle between the two biggies one way or the other. Ormael, Pazel Pathkendle’s homeland, was recently conquered. He was sold into slavery, … READ MORE

The last few weeks, I have had the unparalleled privilege of exchanging emails with Leia Weathington, the diva behind Bold Riley. Never heard of it? Better get on that.

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1. What are some of your artistic influences?
In terms of comics and who I admire for storytelling and composition my holy trinity is Carla Speed McNeil, Mike Migniola and Ted Niafeh. But a lot of my personal style is inspired by the works of illustrators like 18th century Russian … READ MORE

Geez Louise. The humor and good sense of Shanker’s The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life is a marked contrast to the neuroticism of Carol Lay’s The Big Skinny. Seriously? They both talk about bananas – Shanker’s all like, “Isn’t it messed up that one banana is two servings? Who only eats half a banana at a time?” Well. Carol Lay.

This graphic novel focuses on Lay’s weight management techniques. While it’s helpful in terms of really making clear the benefits of … READ MORE

Shanker is a diva on a mission. She wants to talk about the politics of fat and the politics weight loss. Her hilarious, honest take on one faboo woman’s body politics challenges conventional wisdom about weight, fashion, and the economic forces of the weight loss industry. Plus, she’s suggesting something wicked radical — part of what enrages folks about a fat woman’s body is that they’re rejecting the Contract. You know — the Contract? The one that says women work … READ MORE

C’mon-admit. Everyone likes a break now and then from those hot-and-heavy, sex-laden, deadly-serious Urban Fantasy books, right?

Here’s your perfect relax on the beach or escape the office series. Erroneously labeled as chick lit when it was marketed, this series features Katie Chandler, a small town Texan transplant to the Big City of New York.

All her life, Katie has noticed odd things happening around her. But, because they could be ignored (more or less) in her small town, she thinks that … READ MORE