geekyBecause every group is essentially a sociological tide pool, shifting slightly whenever the tide comes in but still cross-contaminating itself at a remarkable rate, we also tend to have a somewhat distorted view of "everybody." I bet if you polled a sample size of, say, the readership of this journal, you'd discover that Rosemary and Rue was one of the best-known books of 2009. Why? Because I wrote it, and talk about it constantly, and you read this journal, hence exposing you to it on a constant basis. I'm a literary pathogen!
On a more localized scale, we loan books to our friends, talk books up to our friends, and constantly infect each other with our literary passions. In the last year, I have caused my friends to read I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Shivers, A Madness of Angels, the complete works of Kelley Armstrong, The Mermaid's Madness, The Enchantment Emporium, and Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded. These aren't the only good books I've read in the last year; they're just the ones new enough to still be available, and to have excited me with their sudden existence.
So here is today's challenge: Infect us with books we may not have heard of, but which are so damn AWESOME that it verges on a crime that more people don't know about them. Go for out-of-print things (that's why libraries and used bookstores exist), or the first books in series that started eight years ago. Bring enlightenment to the heathen, in the form of literary smallpox.
I'll start with five of my favorites, books I honestly think everyone should read (whether you enjoy them is up to you):
Hellspark, by Janet Kagen.
Mermaid's Song, by Alida Van Gorres.
Emergence, by David Palmer.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, by Tim Pratt.
Paper Moon, by Joe David Brown.
Authors, feel free to pimp your own work here; just get the word out, and let's see what we're not reading!
May 22 2010, 17:20:06 UTC 7 years ago
I know this book won a Printz honor last year, and I'm glad that it did, but I don't know anybody else who has read it, save Biker Mama Rose, my AV lady superstar. So please, people, find John Barnes's Tales of the Madman Underground: A Historical Romance 1973 and read it. It's YA, but it is very much YA geared to ages 16 and up due to subject matter and complexity, and could very easily have made the crossover flip to adult literature. Read it because: 1) It's funnier than almost any book I've ever read -- it made me have to stop reading and put my head on my desk because the tears of laughter were blurring my eyes; 2) it deals with heartbreaking, realistic situations with optimism and heart; 3) its hero, Karl 'Psycho' Shoemaker, has edged Junior Spirit from Part-Time Indian AND Gen from the Queen's Thief books as my all-time favorite YA hero, and his friends in the Madman Underground as my favorite YA fictional friends above even My Most Excellent Year; and 4) Have I mentioned that it seems nobody has read this thing and it's genius?
Speaking of funny books, everybody should go read My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, particularly Seanan, because Gerry Durrell was a Steve Irwin before there was a Steve Irwin, and that's his memoir of growing up obsessed with poking the natural world while living on a Greek island in the 1940s with his madcap family. It's two parts 'and then the centipedes leapt out on the dinner table, isn't that GREAT!' to one part 'my family is lovably certifiable'.
...I know there are more, too. Those two, though! They come first and foremost.
May 23 2010, 12:56:56 UTC 7 years ago