Book Review: House of Leaves

I think everyone has a small number of great finds in books or movies - titles that are not only great themselves but were a unique find for the reader or viewer in question. I love these titles, sometimes I'll come across a great horror film I wasn't expecting to be that good (Frailty for example - and yes, it will get its own post some day), and sometimes I'll find a book that grabs onto me with its premise and never lets go - like today's book, House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski.

The story itself is strangely compelling and drew me in in unexpected ways. First of all it's layered, we start reading a story about a tattoo artist called Johnny, who himself is learning of another man who made a career out of following a specific incident involving another man and his family. The book gets pretty creepy pretty fast and I found myself being drawn into it way before it started to get really freaky.

Of course the most engrossing part of the novel is when it stops behaving like a novel and starts getting stranger and stranger in its format and style. I loved the fact that even though certain passages were no longer making sense on their own, they all added up to a cohesive whole.

The author, Mark Z. Danielewski (pictured right) has written four books to date, and although I've only read House of Leaves, his other books are definitely in my list of books to be read. The book will wrinkle your brain a little, and it might not be the best thing to read late at night - but I can honestly say it is one of my favourite finds of the last ten years.

Things I've Noticed: Putting awy an unfinished book can be hard

On Tuesday I returned the novel "The Hallowed Hunt" by Lois McMaster Bujold to my local library. I was about a hundred and fifty pages in, but not really enjoying it. This was the third in a series of books that had won Locus and Hugo awards, and although it took me a while to get into the first two books in the series, I finished both quite happily.

When it comes to books I'm reading recreationally - they have about a hundred pages to grab me. If I'm not invested after a hundred pages I start having an inner battle with myself that goes someting like this:

Bookmonkey: This book just isn't working out for me, I should move onto something else.

Inner-Bookmonkey: Yes, but first you must put on the hat of failure (pictured right)- as you can't even manage to read a 378 page Fantasy novel.

Bookmonkey: HEY! I'm just saying that although I love a lot of this authors other stuff (I've even devoted a blog post to one of her characters) this book just isn't doing it for me.

Inner-Bookmonkey: Sure thing "Genre-Loving guy," Hey remember back in Junior High and High School when you could knock out a couple of Dragonlance books a week? I guess that's when were at the top of your game - I guess your glory days are long behind you now.

And so on and so forth.

Like most people, I enjoy finishing things I've started, but I think its important to remember that unless there is a big reason for reading the title (something school-related or maybe it's your book club book of the month, or it's the last book between you and having read all of the Hugos (Vernor Vinge is waiting for you Mike)), It is okay to give a title a rest and move on to something else.

Will I get back to The Hallowed Hunt? Probably - but not for a good couple of years. Should I let my inner-Bookmonkey beat myself up about it? No. Will he - a little, he's a bit of a jerk.

Genre Character of the Week has gone to the dogs

Last weekend I finally got around to watching the Pixar film Up. Like many people I pretty much fell in love with the character Dug immediately. I think it was when he said:

"I hid under your porch because I love you." that I started thinking about the kind of dog I wish I could have.

As a kid who was extremely allergic to dogs growing up, I could never have one (the one time we tried worked out very badly), I've always wished that I could own one. As a grown-up blogger who focuses on genre fiction, film and television, my dream dog would have to be one of the following.

Bookmonkey's top five genre dogs he wishes he could have:

5. Frank the pug, from Men in Black 1 and 2

Although a criminal informant, and technically an alien (called a Remoolian) I have to admit that I just love pugs. They are cute, tiny and if I could have one with Frank's fashion sense (pictured left) and ability to speak English I would be pretty happy.

4. Nanook, from The Lost Boys

Dude, this dog killed a vampire. 'nuff said.

3. Dug, from Up (pictured right)

He's really brave, extremely loyal, and again, can speak English. As someone who gets nervous around animals, this is a big selling feature to me.

2. Gaspode, from the Discworld novels

Featuring in at least half a dozen Discworld novels, Gaspode originally appeared in the book Moving Pictures as a sort of wisecracking street smart character. Like Frank and Dug he can speak, but his speech is due to magic. He is very clever, a mutt and I smile every time he shows up in whichever Discworld book I'm reading.

1. Digby, from Pushing Daisies

One of the only two dogs on this list who doesn't speak English, Digby (pictured left) has one huge selling feature - he's effectively immortal. The facts were these, living well past the life-expectancy of a dog and still in good health, Digby owes his current state to having died and been brought back to life by a young pie-maker to be.

My top picks for hooking your kids on genre fiction

With the overwhelming amount of Fantasy, Horror, and SF out there for children and Young Adults, it can be tricky to know where to start with your own kids. My daughters are currently 17 and 12 and both are HUGE readers of genre fiction right now - their tastes may change as they grow, but I think it's important to give kids a good foundation in genre.

These five books don't represent all of the great Genre books aimed for kids out there (I could dedicate myself to only reading good kids genre books and probably wouldn't run out of them before I die), but they are personal favourite of mine.

Bookmonkeys Top Five books for hooking your kids on Genre Fiction:

The 13 Clocks, by James Thurber

I can't really think of a better place to start seriously looking into the Fantasy Genre than The 13 Clocks. The premise is quite simple, in a castle lived a Duke and his niece, the princess Saralinda, and thirteen clocks which wouldn't go, for the duke had killed time. If you haven't read it, check it out, if you have, check it out again. A real gem.

The Girl who owned a City, by O. T. Nelson

With my huge love of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre it is probably no surprise I've slipped this cool little story in here. The premise is not unlike the television series Jeremiah, wherein all people over the age of puberty are struck by a super-virus and killed. Unlike Jeremiah, which takes place 15 years later - The Girl who owned a city focuses on the events immediately following the pandemic and the actions of one girl in particular.

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

This wonderful little book, basically Neil Gaiman's take on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle book, but for a new ghost-enthused fan base was a little paint-by-numbers, but a lot of fun. I read in one go and although there weren't really any major plot twists (I love a good twist), it was a satisfying book beginning to end, as well as an interesting way to introduce young readers to the concept of death.

The Thief of Always, by Clive Barker

The thing about this book, which was one of my first Clive Barker books, is that it took the idea of the haunted house and went entirely in its own direction. Imagine a house where every morning is Christmas, every afternoon is summer and every night is Halloween, imagine how much fun that would be, then imagine you couldn't escape.

Wait Till Helen Comes, by Mary Downing Hahn

A surprisingly insightful story about blended families, the premise is that Molly (our twelve-year-old narrator) and her brother Michael have just moved into an old church with their mother, new step-father and step-sister. Unfortunately for the them, the house is haunted and the ghost has taken a big interest in the step-sister, five-year-old Heather. Creepy stuff, but very fun.

Things I've Noticed: Friends can be an awesome resource

Last year I did a review of the Guillermo Del Toro book The Strain, and in that review I mentioned how I came across the book in a grocery store, and had in fact never even knew it existed before that.

Earlier this week my wife suggested to me that I might like to check out a show on the Discovery Channel called, The Colony (Pictured above). Here's the basic premise - 10 people are put through one of the ultimate "What if?" scenarios. What if a massive virus had swept the world and using only your own skills, you had to survive?

Wow. They might as well have called it "Hey Bookmonkey! Look over here! Awesome Post-Apocalyptic concept going on!" Anyway, I'll give a review of the series after I've watched it all.

Today I want to take a moment and thank my friends and family for the books and shows I now love that I probably wouldn't have checked out if it wasn't for them. Whether it was a book I would have dismissed as too girly (The Girl Who Owned a City), or a remake of a TV show I wasn't a big fan of in the first place (Battlestar Galactica), my friends have helped me find all sorts of great stuff over the years and I just wanted to acknowledge their help.

Thanks guys!

RIP Robert B. Parker

I am a huge fan of genre fiction. Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction fill my bookshelves at home and I am always on the lookout for new genre fiction at the libraries and in the stores. So keeping that in mind, a non-genre author has to be really REALLY good to keep my attention. One of the best was Robert B. Parker (pictured left) who died on Monday at age 77.

A couple years back I got into reading author biographies and blogs and started to notice that all sorts of my favourite authors (Stephen King and Peter David for example), talked about how they were always looking forward to the new Robert B. Parker book.

Doing some quick research I found that his books were detective novels, not normally my thing, but hey, I was up for something new. So back in 2004 I picked up his first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, and I was hooked. His books are fast-paced, action-packed and in many places laugh-out-loud funny.

My personal favourite is Early Autumn (pictured right), where Spenser becomes a sort of father figure to a boy called Paul, simply suggesting that every problem can be worked at, and every situation can be made better.

At the rate of one book a month I had just caught up with his current book last month. There are still a couple works to be published, but it's a shame to know that soon I'll have read the last of the books written by this incredible writer.

If you haven't tried his books yet, I envy you, reading them is a real treat.

Movie Review: The Book of Eli

Today, after a great used-book store shopping trip (4 used-book stores, 1 magazine store and two restaurants) I checked out the new film The Book of Eli.

First impressions - the film was very fun, it had all the stuff I like in post-apocalyptic films (blasted landscapes, intriguing characters, and an epic tone), the fight scenes were violent but not too violent, and most importantly, it had a sense of hope. Far too often I find that post-apocalyptic films are entirely devoid of anything positive (The Day After is my personal least favourite of these kind of films - yes, we get it - Nuclear was is bad and radiation is too, now how about some story?), so the hopeful aspects of this film made me smile.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers here, but I can say that I'd like to watch it again and I enjoyed all of the main characters - Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman gave me exactly what I've come to expect from them, and I was pleasantly surprised by Mila Kunis (pictured with Washing above and who I've only seen in comedy before). I also loved seeing Rome's Ray Stevenson and The L Word's Jennifer Beals in strong supporting roles.

In the end, a good post apocalyptic film, an original screenplay (which is becoming increasing rare these days) and I loved the visuals. I recommend it without hesitation.