Everything Everything Box

Sometimes, if you're very lucky, a book that you had no idea you wanted finds its way to you. Way back in 2009, that book was Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim. The advance reader copy showed up on my desk and I picked it up because the cover intrigued me. I was hooked from the very first sentence ("I wake up in a pile of smoldering garbage and leaves in the old Hollywood Forever cemetery behind the Paramount Studio lot on Melrose...")  

I wrote this review for Indie Next:

How a book this dark can be this much fun to read is just one of many things that will amaze you about Sandman Slim.  After surviving eleven years in Hell - literally - Stark is ready for vengeance on the magicians who killed his girlfriend and sent him there.  If he happens to avert the Apocalypse while he's doing it, that will be icing on the cake.  Good Omens meets Raymond Chandler! 

And then I wrote it out on a shelf talker, and we sold 117 copies of the Sandman Slim mass market. Yes, I am bragging. (Okay, a few other people, like William Gibson, Charlaine Harris, Holly Black, and Kim Harrison loved it too.)

The Sandman Slim series continued: Kill the Dead, Aloha From Hell, Devil Said Bang, Kill City Blues, The Getaway God, Killing Pretty. All great. #8, The Perdition Score, is due out June 28 of this year.
 

Just in case that wasn't enough, Kadrey has also written a fantastic stand-alone, The Everything Box, that's the first in a new series, and it comes out tomorrow, April 16, 2016. It's a must for anyone who enjoys action-adventure with a humorous edge. It's been compared to Christopher Moore, Donald Westlake, and Matt Ruff, all of which are apt if you need to contextualize it; but Kadrey's wild imagination and unique voice make The Everything Box completely new and thoroughly entertaining. Here's what I wrote for Indie Next:

The Everything Box

Richard Kadrey

Voyager

Coop is a thief whose immunity to magic lets him specialize in stealing magical objects - until he steals a box that could trigger the Apocalypse. Now fallen angels, supernatural law enforcement officials, rival doomsday cult leaders and just plain criminals all want the box, and expect Coop to get it for them. Can Coop keep himself and his friends alive - and will there still be a world left for them to live in if he does? Kadrey is a master of edgy humor, complex plotting, and nonstop action with a paranormal edge, and The Everything Box is an engagingly dark delight to read!
 
Note: I have now tried approximately 75 times to give this post a consistent font all the way through, and I've given up. 

 

The View From the Cheap Seats

This book doesn't come out until May 31, 2016, but the author just posted on Twitter that he's very nervous about it, so I'm posting my Indie Next review here now. 

Neil Gaiman is an unparalleled storyteller, and his nonfiction writing is every bit as compelling and thought-provoking as his fiction. His curiosity and enthusiasm keep the reader interested, whether he's writing about his cultural influences - books, bookstores, writers, artists, musicians - or his friends, or issues of social justice. His attitude of inclusion and encouragement and his championing of those he admires leave the reader feeling positive. I loved The View From the Cheap Seats!

(Note: I originally typed this title as The View from the Cheap Sheets.  Nothing Freudian about that. )

Jane Steele

If you know me, you've probably heard me raving about The Gods of Gotham, as well as the two other volumes in Lyndsay Faye's Timothy Wilde series, Seven for a Secret and The Fatal Flame. I was sad to see that series come to an end, so I was very excited when I learned she had a new book coming out.
I was even more excited after I got to read it. Damn, this book is good!
Gus, my husband, doesn't read nearly as much as I do (let's face it, hardly anyone reads as much as I do), and he also read and enjoyed it.
Here's what I wrote for Indie Next:

Jane Steele

Lyndsay Faye

G. P. Putnam's Sons

Steel is heavier than air, and Jane Steele is considerably more solid, spunky and self-determined a heroine than Jane Eyre. Lyndsay Faye's orphan-turned-governess narrator outmaneuvers - okay, kills - various predatory men she encounters, in a lively, gripping story full of action and rich with historical detail. Faye's writing, particularly her ear for language, is a delight, and Jane Steele is a freshly forged heroine for the ages.

Out today, 3/22/16.

Save the Bees! The Bee-Friendly Garden

Despite (or maybe because of) the recent snow here in Michigan, I've been thinking about spring, with the help of this gorgeously illustrated, informative volume from Ten Speed Press, The Bee-Friendly Garden. It features loads of interesting facts about bees, great information about which plants are best for them, and plenty of tips on what we can do to create and maintain the best possible habitat for these essential pollinators. I highly recommend this helpful, beautiful and affordable book!
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Two amazing novels!

As a bookseller, one of the great perks of my job is that I often have access to my favorite writers' books before they are released. The down side of that is having to wait to be able to discuss - and more importantly, sell - the books I really love. So I am thrilled that today is the release date for two of the best novels I read in 2015, Lovecraft Country and The Opposite of Everyone.
Reviews written just after I read the books:

Lovecraft Country

Matt Ruff

Harper

Matt Ruff is one of our most imaginative living writers, and Lovecraft Country is simply amazing. It's the story of two African-American families in the Jim Crow era, dealing with terrors both supernatural and man-made. Ruff is a master at creating clever, sympathetic underdog characters who triumph - mostly - over their enemies, and his sharp wit and brilliant world-building make his books delightful to read while leaving you with plenty of food for thought. I highly recommend Lovecraft Country!

The Opposite of Everyone

Joshilyn Jackson

William Morrow

Have you ever loved a book so much that you finished it and immediately went back to the beginning and read it over again? That's exactly what I did with The Opposite of Everyone. Jackson gives us wonderful characters, with fully human qualities and flaws; her ear for language and dialogue is first-rate; her plots manage to be both surprising and satisfying. The Opposite of Everyone centers around Paula, a self-determined, overachieving divorce attorney who appeared in Someone Else's Love Story. The carefully constructed edifice of Paula's life begins to crumble when she learns that her estranged mother is dying, and the events that unfold - surprising, hilarious, terrifying, and delightful - will keep the reader biting their nails until the last page.

Five Days at Memorial

I just finished reading Five Days at Memorial, a stunning, exhaustive work of investigative journalism by Sheri Fink. If you like nonfiction that grips you like a thriller, this book is for you! Fink chronicles the harrowing experiences of staff, patients and visitors at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina, where patients were found to have been given life-ending drug overdoses and medical personnel were accused of murder. Fink does a terrific job of presenting a balanced story and multiple points of view. This is a work that definitely deserves all the accolades it has received. And it's now out in paperback!
More about the author here.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

All the Birds in the Sky

I am the first to admit that as a reader, I am incredibly spoiled. Since I work as a book buyer, I have lots of contact with publisher reps. Since I write a lot of reviews, I get access to lots of books before they are published. One of the only down sides to reading books before the release date is that by the time they are available to the public, they're no longer in the front of my consciousness. This doesn't stop me from recommending them, but I do tend to talk about whatever I've recently finished reading.
In this case, though, I just finished a book that came out on Tuesday, January 26. That's late for indie-review purposes, but pretty much ideal for hand selling. The book is All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, published by Tor (MacMillan). Our lovely MacMillan sales rep sent me a box of advance reader copies, and I grabbed that one because I'd seen a mention that intrigued me on social media. I then set it aside, since I try to prioritize titles that are far enough from the release date to review. Then last week, a friend of mine asked me about it - thanks, Ted! - so I made it a priority and dove right in - and stayed up until midnight to finish it.

All the Birds in the Sky is a stunning, fantastic - in both senses of the word - novel. Anders draws you into a world where magic and science coexist, on a planet that's close to being destroyed by human shortsightedness. Two misfit kids - Patricia, a magician, and Laurence, a scientist - cross paths, sometimes as friends, more often at odds with each other - as they struggle with technology and forces that may save them, if they aren't destroyed first. Brilliant, compelling and slyly humorous, this is an un-put-downable read! 

Interestingly, while I'm not, in general, a science fiction / fantasy fan, many of my favorite authors (William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Matt Ruff) write in those genres. It's always fun to find a new, fantastic writer!