this...



...plus this...
...and some of this...

























...is going to be pure heaven.

also, dension has 30 songs available to downloading to celebrate his 30th birthday. i would recommend little flowers and los angeles.

Reader's Advisory

last night, over bacon, mike, jason, joel and I were having a conversation about why teen novels are great and how it's hard to find adult novels with that degree of looseness and fantasy (at least that's what I got from it). So I'd like to recommend some adult novels with fantasy elements that aren't sci-fi. You may have heard of them already, and if so, I apologize.


1. Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
This is pretty much Harry Potter for adults. I loved it and thought that it was very subtly done. It's set in the 19th century, which I also dig. My sister hated it for some reason. I think it was too slow for her. But I disagree. And I have a copy for borrowing.

2. Anything by Steve Erickson

I met Steve Erickson's books by chance at my local library when I was in 9th grade. All of them except for his political memoir/fantasy reportage (American Nomad & Leap Year) are set in the same world, which is an alternate America--actually, two Americas. They're sort of apocalyptic and definitely have pretentious narration. The most imaginative and least pretentiously narrated are Arc D'X and Rubicon Beach, I think. My favorite is Days Between Stations. I also have these for borrowing but you'd probably have to sign a contract in blood to ensure that I got them back.

3. Notable American Women by Ben Marcus

This is more on the modern literary side than the fantasy side, but it is a book about a cult of neo-Puritanical women who invade a boy named Ben Marcus' home in the midwest and try to use him as their inseminator. And they bury his father in the ground and use the wind of language to kill him.

4. The History of Danish Dreams by Peter Hoeg

I like most of Peter Hoeg's work very much, but this novel in particular is one of those false histories that goes from story to story and covers lots of years and is nicely surreal. He wrote Smilla's Sense of Snow, which was turned into an ok movie.

5. Little, Big by John Crowley

I almost forgot about this. It's a classic, insofar as a good number of people are totally obsessed/enchanted with it. And does involve fairies.

Bloor

Emily told you about Tangerine already. That is his best. But not by far. Crusader is his second book and it's his second best. I don't feel like talking about it, nor about anything these days (see blog for evidence), but I recommend it. And I just finished, as in a couple of hours ago, his third book - Story Time. Definitely read in the order I have and you will be glad you did. Now if only that jerk who has Bloor's 4th book checked out from the library would return it, I could start that one. Maybe Tessa could get the Carnegie Library GOON to track this person down. Make some threats. It's called London Calling and that's my second favorite Clash album, preceded by Combat Rock. London Calling, the song, may be my favorite. I don't know though.

Speaking of Andrew Carnegie, there are some funny things happening to him in Story Time. Read it and find out. It's in the Teen Adult section under B for Bloor.