Books

1. Sorry for the scant content around these parts this week. I haven’t had real, serious sleep in three days or so and am swamped. I owe you email. I know. I know.

2. The science fiction and fantasy issue of Publishers Weekly comes out next Monday. It will feature a feature by yours truly on the recent spate of literary novels featuring fantasy or supernatural elements, and also touches on literary genre fiction being published within the SF field. I interviewed Kevin Brockmeier, Ed Kastenmeier (Brockmeier’s editor), Juliet Ulman, Tina Pohlman, etcetera, and was pleased with how the piece turned out. I’ve no idea whether it will be online; if it is, I’ll link it. It’s here.

"It’s Funny How What You’re Saying Relates To My Novel":

Your mother wants you to go back to him, says weathering the storm is the solution. Where have I seen that before? Oh yes, on page 64 of my manuscript. Anyhow, I could see maybe staying if he only hit you in the arm, but this is serious. You sure don’t want to be Marsha Ewell. (That’s the wife in my novel. The Ewell family is totally dysfunctional, but no one does anything about it. They all just act like it’s okay, especially her mother. Which is sort of like your mom. Wow, uncanny how I nailed that, months before all this.)

Ha. (Via Bookninja.)

Updated: And don’t miss this one either.

Just who does the New York Times think it is writing a story about zombies with nary a mention of or consultation with Ms. Kelly Link, Bard of the Zombies or Zombie Bard?  I submit the following as evidence that this is unforgivable (along with her fabulous zombie stories):

From Strange Horizons interview: "One is about someone who steals a painting, and the other doesn’t really have a plot at all. It’s just about zombies and zombie contingency plans. I don’t know how it hangs together, though. I’d like Sleeping Beauty to end up in there too, but I’m not sure yet how she fits into any sort of zombie contingency plan."

From the One Story interview: "For the last few years, I’ve been obsessively watching zombie movies, and also writing stories about the ways that the dead haunt the living."

Another from the Strange Horizons interview: "Maybe I’ll retell Sleeping Beauty and make it about narcolepsy and zombies, because presently I’m obsessed with zombies. But it hasn’t gotten thick enough yet."

From the Return of the Reluctant interview: "In all situations, I like to ask myself: What would Jackie Chan do? Not because I have any sort of Jackie Chan skills, but because it’s soothing to contemplate an imaginary Jackie Chan in imaginary action, kicking imaginary ass, zombie or otherwise. More usefully, what Jackie Chan does is improvise, using objects at hand. So we have a pantry with a lot of different kinds of jam, and some Lyle’s Golden Syrup, as well as a lot of heavy, tall bookshelves, and several interesting fireworks, such as The Titanic, and The Naughty Elephant. There’s also a lawnmower in the garage, and I’ve seen Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive at least five or six times."

See also, this fabulous set of photos of and information about that zombie cake up at the left there and similarly delightful desserts prepared for a zombie cake party. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, the NYTimes’ oversight will be reported to the Zombie Oversight Authority. Don’t you worry.

In light of the revelation that Mister Ass Chin’s wife helps him write those blockbusters, the Guardian has a story looking at the history of famous writers whose wives assisted with composition. I’m probably the only person in the world who didn’t know this part already, but:

Without a doubt the most extreme example of this sort of arrangement, however, is that of Henry Gauthier-Villars. He was a hugely famous French critic in the early part of the 20th century. His most famous work was probably the Claudine series, which he published under his pseudonym, Willy. These turned out to have actually been written by his young wife, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who Gauthier-Villars would lock in a room until she had written the requisite number of pages. Somewhat understandably, Sidonie-Gabrielle soon divorced her husband and became a celebrated author in her own right of books which she published under her surname, Colette.

Henceforth, you shall be called Mister Ass Chin.

(My apologies to your delicate sensibilities.)

It hardly seems fair that Bernice McFadden has The Dead to help write her books:

Yes, I believe the dead talk to me, or through me — whichever claim makes you less uncomfortable.

I see more than I hear. For me the experience of communicating with the dead is more like watching a movie. Technicolor images, dialogue, voiceover narration. I have to admit, it’s quite impressive.

But more interesting than your run-of-the-mill The Writing Life column. Anyone read her?

Also noted: Deborah Tannen on her favorite books on "women’s issues."

My dear friend Justine Larbalestier‘s second YA novel, Magic Lessons, debuts today and I’m going to gush about it a bit, if you’ll indulge me.

When Justine first told me about the trilogy she’d sold, I thought it sounded pretty wonderful. A girl goes through a door in Sydney and steps out into New York, where she’s instantly freezing and experiencing snow for the first time in her life. A world in which those who have the ability to use magic can choose between going mad or dying early. A grandmother who might be evil or might be good, a mother who appears good but might be evil, and a host of other options far more complicated.

I’d read and enjoyed a couple of Justine’s short stories (including one we published in Say… ) before she started on the trilogy. The concept itself seemed the perfect one for her to write, the perfect opportunity to capture her extensive knowledge of Australia (particularly Sydney) and New York. But I wasn’t prepared for how much I loved Magic or Madness. It was even better than I’d hoped. It captured Justine’s voice and (to some extent — write a wholly funny book!) sense of humor and the writing was exquisitely pointed. I was particularly impressed by some of the decisions she’d made about point of view — alternating chapters between Reason Cansino in the first person and her friends Jay-Tee and Tom in limited third; a strategy which works beautifully though it would seem full of possibilities to fragment the narrative or make it not seem as cohesive. Justine had clearly come into her own as a writer.

Or so I thought before I read Magic Lessons. Because as good as Magic or Madness is, Magic Lessons is even better. Justine’s writing has become even more delicate, even more finely pointed, even funnier and scarier. It’s rare for a sequel to really build on the first book in a satisfying way, but Magic Lessons accomplishes that. It reminds me, in a way, of Holly Black‘s work — I adored Tithe, but found Valiant to be just jaw-droppingly great.

It’s hard to do what Justine’s doing in these books, and make it look so easy. And it’s hard to be so surprising as a writer — and these books are full of surprising scenes and moments that catch you off guard in the best kind of way. So if you’re in the market for an engrossing fantasy series with a very real real world with characters you care about, you’ll really love these books. Ditto for the teenagers in your life. I don’t want to get into the plot, because as a reader I loathe knowing what happens before I go into a book. I like to experience it as clean as possible. I’m not going to spoil anything for you. Just read them already.

See also:

The praise of others
Photographer extraordinaire Scott Westerfeld’s entry from today

storySouth has released its notable short stories of 2005. Tons of great stories on that list and a bunch I’m interested to check out. I was especially cheered by these notices of awards, based on the jury’s selections and outside nominations:

Million Writers Award for best online publication

    * Strange Horizons wins this award for having seven of their stories selected as notable stories of the year (more than seven stories, actually, since the "Tales of the Chinese Zodiac" by Jenn Reese is 12 individual stories published over 12 months).

-SNIP-

Finally, SCIFICTION is awarded an honorary "can’t believe the bastards shut you down" award because, well, it is still hard to believe that the penny-pinchers at the Sci-Fi Channel shut down the top online market for quality speculative fiction.

Hurray for Strange Horizons getting some love and for the recognition of SciFiction. And yay for Ms. McCarron, Ms. Wolf Bowen, Mr. Samphire, Ms. Goss, Ms. Reese, Mr. Bowes and the rest!

Check out the competition. According to the site: "The top ten stories of the year will be released on April 1, with the public vote for the top story also beginning then."

(Via Ed.)

Last week, I went to see Kevin Brockmeier do a reading and Q&A for The Brief History of the Dead (highly recommended) sponsored by the local newspaper book club. Brockmeier is a lovely, soft-spoken reader, but he really shines at answering questions. He has that thing people who’ve done a lot of teaching have, where he can answer even the dullest questions in a really interesting way and without being condescending. Like most writers on the road with a book, he’s constantly asked for recommendations. Unlike most other writers on the road with a book, he likes to make lists. So he made one of his fifty favorite novels, with asterisks next to the top 10. He updates it regularly and hands it out at events to recommendation seekers.

By the way, KB reads more than you do. (Unless you’re Jenny D or Colleen or Kelly.) He said the last time he totaled up the number of books he read in a year, it was something like 170. And he has great wide-ranging taste. Many of these that I haven’t read, I’ll definitely be picking up.

Behind the cut, I’ll reproduce the 50 books list in its entirety.

…

Brockmeier’s 50 Favorite BooksRead More »

In this week’s NYTBR, Naomi Wolf doesn’t like what she’s seeing in certain kinds of YA:

Yet if that parent opened one, he or she might be in for a surprise. The "Gossip Girl," "A-List" and "Clique" series — the most successful in a crowded field of Au Pairs, It Girls and other copycat series — represent a new kind of young adult fiction, and feature a different kind of heroine. In these novels, which have dominated the field of popular girls’ fiction in recent years, Carol Gilligan’s question about whether girls can have "a different voice" has been answered — in a scary way.

I haven’t actually had time to read her piece yet; I’ll update this post when I do (assuming it provokes some sort of response). I’m hoping it’s more than the standard "oh, these teenagers, they grow up so quickly and just look at what they’re reading!" piece. In the meantime, opinions? Anyone else looked at it? Off to do taxes.

Updated:

Okay, so I finally got a chance to read it. (Hell weekend.) And mostly, I echo what y’all are saying below. Much ado about what? The literature of the shallow? It seems to me the vast majority of girls reading these books are reading them as pure escapist or pleasure literature; just because you want to look at what’s on Paris Hilton’s Trio every once in awhile doesn’t mean you want to be Paris Hilton. Or that your life or value system is similar to hers in any way.

Having read very little of this stuff myself (I’m with Scott, the brand-dropping just GRATES), it seems to me that Wolf is making an argument I have seen played out in real life in pretty tame ways. In my experience, it usually involves magazines.

My parents, for instance, never told me what to read or not read. They were glad I did it and helped me have greater access to books however they could. The only time, in fact, that my mother ever expressed concern over something I was reading involved an issue of Sassy magazine (purchased from the local Convenience store), which contained a detailed diagram of the male form with information about various things (some sexual). Years and years later, I was in a household with similar permissiveness in reading material where a teenage girl was forbidden from reading (my) Jane magazine because of sexy content. Now. I don’t believe the parents in either case thought that saying "You can’t read that" would stop us from finding out this stuff (or even keep us from reading it), but it was their impulse, so they did it anyway. I think Benjamin Rosenbaum’s right on the money that it’s not an unusual or even wholly bad thing for parents to react with concern about things like this sometimes. (When they go over the top with it, that’s something else.) They wouldn’t be parents if they didn’t. Naomi’s reacting like a mom and her reaction is lame — it’s also a little sweet if you look at it sideways (but still lame).

It seems to me that these novels — the It Girls and Slut Queens or whatever — are Cosmopolitan and Jane packaged as narratives. That’s why they’re so full of brand names. That’s why they’re so full of shallowness. And that’s okay. Just like flipping through a magazine and reading sex tips for adults didn’t transform my teenage mind, burning out all feminist ideals and turning me into a docile Prada wearer or a high-priced call girl, so I don’t believe that’s a real danger to the girls reading these books.

It’s just for fun. Leave it alone.

See also:

Scott Westerfeld’s response (and yay! on the listyness)
Colleen Mondor’s response

p.s. I’m bumping this post up since there’s some interesting discussion going on in the comments.