"Go With Me" by Castle Freeman Jr.

The plot of this little book isn't all that complex. Terrified woman who stood up to the big bully is now truly being threatened by said bully. She goes to the local lawman but he can't do anything. He sends her to some people who can help her, as they are not part of the law. The guy the sheriff tells her to ask for isn't available, so she's sent out with two other guys instead, one a much older man and the other a strapping young hulk of muscle (but not overly bright). She's asked time and time again why she doesn't just leave, and she informs the men that she shouldn't have to. Her ex-boyfriend, a local, ran when the bully went after him, but she's not like that. She just wants this guy to leave her alone, and she'll take the help that's offered, even though she's not too sure about it. But as she will soon find out, "you got to be ready to go all the way through."

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? But in a mere 160 pages, Freeman manages to make all sorts of little social commentaries and creates some very memorable characters. Lillian, our damsel in distress, is quite a pistol according to the men of Whizzer's almost-defunct lumber mill. In fact, several times they mention that Blackway (the bully) might have picked on the wrong woman. The guys that sit around Whizzer's place act almost like a Greek chorus of sorts; they fill in needed background information, give opinions, and generally help set the scenes. Oh, and they drink a lot of beer during the day. Blackway is no stranger to them, either - he used to work for the sheriff. Seems he was into some illegal things and was trying to get Kevin, Lillian's ex-boyfriend, nailed for the activities (yeah, it was pot). Kevin was willing to take the fall, but Lillian was having none of it. Her response was to call the state boys, and thus, Blackway's bullying and terrorizing of her. The man kills her cat!

The majority of the story is Lillian, Nate and Lester looking for Blackway. You learn a little bit about each of these three characters, enough to get a feel for them, but not enough to make you glad you finished the book. I wish I could have spent more time with them. Blackway is really a mystery; you only learn of him pretty much through the eyes of others. As things draw to a head, you have to wonder if Lillian really is willing to "go all the way through". Yes, the phrase pretty much means what you might think - be willing to do whatever it takes to get done what you want done.

I read another one of Freeman's later works, and while I enjoyed it too, I thought this was much better. I'll be keeping my eyes open for another of his short stories about the people of Vermont.

"Blood Lite" edited by Kevin J. Anderson

You have to watch out for the back of the book, dear readers. This one actually starts out with a warning. No kidding! "Warning: This anthology contains works of fiction that are gruesome, disturbing, horrifying, and drop dead hilarious!" Sigh. But I have read and do enjoy some of the authors that contributed, so I figured why not. To say they are "drop dead hilarious" is only right on a few counts. Some are a bit humorous, and others? Well, I'm not entirely sure why they've been included. Oh well. Most anthologies are uneven at best, so I shouldn't really be surprised.

We start off with a pretty good little number, "The Ungrateful Dead" by Kelley Armstrong. Necromancer Jamie Vegas is plagued by ghosts, and boy does she have her hands full in this story. Seems that she is going to be haunted by the spirit of a late-teen guy if she doesn't do what he says. He just won't take "no" for an answer.

There are the usual suspects here: F. Paul Wilson, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jim Butcher. Most of those stories are pretty good, but reading the Butcher entry was weird, as the action takes place before the last book in the Dresden series. Sort of like working backwards. The Harris story is pretty darn good, too, but I thought the Wilson tale was a bit flat. Could be because he was writing with another author, J. A. Konrath; could just be I didn't care for it. Whatever.

Before you think I'm going to totally dis this work, there is a little jewel in here that totally made the book worthwhile. And I do mean little, as in super-short - the story runs all of three, count 'em, three pages. "Old School" by Mark Onspaugh was exactly what the "warning" promised - drop-dead hilarious. And I love an author that can do a fabulous story in only those three little pages; not a word is wasted, you get a good feel for the characters, and you'll love the twist. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!!!

What to watch for next week

OK, there isn't a whole lot coming out next week, so this should be short, sweet, and to the point!

"The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks. Sigh. Yet another tear-jerker by one of today's hottest writers. And as if the book wasn't bad enough, I guess the movie is already being filmed, and yes, it's supposed to be a vehicle for Miley Cyrus. I just don't have anything good to say about this one, so I'll quit here.

"Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin" by Kathy Griffin. If you haven't caught her show on cable, you're missing out. I don't see it on a regular basis, but it's always funny. She considers herself a "D-List" celebrity, although I'm guessing that's changed a bit by now. I love her talking about her gays, about Gaykin (aka Clay Akin), and just generally anyone else she's snarking about. The woman has had way too much plastic surgery for my taste, but at least she hasn't gotten to the Joan Rivers look yet.

"Dexter by Design" by Jeff Lindsay. YES! Dexter is back!! I have loved this guy from the beginning, but I gotta tell ya - it's not easy to sell people on the idea of a great book written from the perspective of a serial killer. Just kinda throws them off when you tell them that Dexter's a bit dark. But hey - he only kills the bad ones! I'm hoping this one is better than the last entry; in the third book, Dexter loses touch with his "dark passenger" and basically has no idea how to handle his life. It was a bit strange, and overall, a bit dull. I definitely prefer Dexter when his "dark passenger" is with him. I love the dry humor, and the character development is awesome, too. The Showtime series based on these books isn't bad, either.

The NEW "Novel News"!

I promised more news and less reviews, so let's just get down to it, shall we?

RELEASE DATE 9/1/09

"Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins. This is the second book of her Hunger Games series, and again, it's considered YA fiction. However, the first book definitely had an adult following as well, so consider this a cross-over a la Twilight. Haven't read Collins myself, but know several who read "Hunger Games" and really enjoyed it. Sadly, I just saw a review for CF in the latest edition of EW, and it was less than stellar. Here's hoping they were just a in a bad mood that day!

"Dark Slayer" by Christine Feehan. Lord, this woman has a following of faithful fans, doesn't she? And this is the umpteenth book in her Carpathian series, although this time the lead character is female (not sure she's done that before). I've tried one full-length book in this series and a novella, and I just don't get the fascination. Oh well, not everything is for everyone, right?

"Homer & Langley" by E. L. Doctorow. One of those authors that looks a bit too high-brow for me. Probably good, but I want entertainment when I read, not serious in-depth drama.

"Walking Dead" by C. E. Murphy. Murphy is going back to her Urban Shaman character, so this is actually Book 4 in the Walker Papers series. This was an up-and-down sort of read, if I remember correctly. I really enjoyed the first book, slogged thru the second, then raced through the third. Hopefully this installment will be a good one.

And on just a fun note, there's a non-fiction book coming out this Friday, 9/4/09, that I saw on Amazon that just looks too cute to miss. It's called "Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong" by Jen Yates. Looks to be the sort of thing that would be good for a laugh and won't take much time to read. Wish we'd get it here at the library, but we're watching every penny here, and this isn't really a good use of the tax-payer money we're funded with. Oh well!

OK, that's it for today. That takes you up to next week's new items, which I hope to get to tomorrow, provided I have the time. Hope you enjoy the "news" - but don't worry, I still have reviews planned for this blog, too!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My apologies to David Bowie, but it worked perfectly for the title of this entry. Yes, readers, I've decided to make a few changes to "Novel News". Fear not! There will still be reviews for you to read, and of course, said reviews will still be written by yours truly. However, after doing this for over 2 1/2 years, I realize that it's not really novel news - it's just been reviews. No word about new books, nothing about publishing houses, no author-related tidbits, etc. Hmm..... why on earth, then, did I call this thing "Novel News"?

So I've decided to help you out, dear readers, and give you news of the book world. Sure, you could hit Amazon and probably find out a lot of the same info, but all they're going to give you is the facts. And they won't mention if a new book is something to be excited about, or if it's in a series (OK, they might tell you that!) - basically, they won't give you the personal touch that I'm going to start giving you. Stop reading like that - personal touch is not a bad thing! LOL!

Check back here tomorrow, and I promise to keep you up-to-date on all things literary. Really, I promise!!

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules" by Jeff Kinney

OK, I promised to stick with the wimpy kid, see if the second book was any better than the first, see if I could understand why all the kids like this series so much, etc. And yes, the second book is better than the first, although I still didn't think it was laugh-out-loud material.

Greg has survived the summer and is back in school. He still hangs out with his best friend Rowley and is still being tormented by his big brother, Roderick. Worse yet, he can't get Roderick in any sort of trouble because Roderick knows of a horrifying incident that occurred over the summer, something that Greg doesn't want anyone to know about. It would ruin what little reputation he has at school. It pretty much means that Greg is Roderick's slave until the secret is revealed or Greg can find some dirt on his big brother.

The book doesn't really have anything new in it. There's a party when the parents are away, which of course won't remain a secret forever. Greg tries to continue his torment of his baby brother, Manny, but everyone still thinks that everything Manny does is just super-cute. Rowley continues to be a bit on the dim side, but he's basically a good guy. And Greg? Well, Greg is still not what I would call a very nice kid. For example, one of the kids from the first book was supposed to move away during the summer. For reasons unknown, that never happened, so the kid is back at school this year. Greg decides to play a joke on him by acting as if the kid isn't there, asking if his friends heard anything when the kid speaks, acting as if he runs into an imaginary wall when he runs into the kid, etc. At first it's a bit funny, but Greg really does take it too far, encouraging his friends to keep up the joke (and practically the whole school gets into the act) for almost a week, by which time the kid is frantic and very angry. DUH! How would you feel if everyone acted like you weren't there? He gets to the point where he's screaming at his classmates that he IS there and he IS a human being, etc, leading to a visit to the Principal's office and an apology in front of the kid's parents. What's weird to me is that after all that, Greg and the kid are friends. WTF? I mean, I know it's been a long time since I've been in middle school (a long, long time.....) but I can't see just buddying up to someone who's been dissing me that much. Sigh.

Anyway, the cartoons are still kinda cute, and the story is OK. The ending was pretty good, as Roderick and his band, Loded Diper, perform in the school talent show with some surprisingly hysterical reactions. Overall, I guess I see why the kids like it. The adults aren't written to be very smart, which might be the big attraction. And yes, kids that age are cruel to each other, so maybe they enjoy reading about someone else getting theirs. Who knows?

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal" by Jeff Kinney

Yes, this is a kid's book. I finally got the chance to snag this and take it home, interested in mining the depths of the thing for what made it so damn irresistible to the youngsters coming in here to the library. Seriously - we cannot keep this series on the shelf. All the kids want one of the "Wimpy Kid" books (there are 3 in the series thus far, with a fourth to be released this fall), and we've been placing reserves on them almost as often as we have the "Twilight" books. I wanted to know what the fascination was, and I wanted to know if I should be recommending them to the kids that hadn't seemed to fall under their spell yet, too.

For an adult, this isn't a bad little book. Funny at times, with cute stick-figure-type illustrations, and Greg's deadpan smart-ass remarks made it an easy hour or two read. Did I see what the kids love? Not really, not for myself. However, I think I see why the kids like it. Greg is a nerd, and he's just entered middle school. He thinks that school should be set up by size, rather than by age, because there are some kids in his school that are way bigger than him. And those kids like to taunt and torment him and his best friend Rowley. Not to mention he's not entirely sure he should be friends with Rowley anymore - the goof might be holding him back. But he needs Rowley when he's grounded from playing video games at his own house, so he'll keep hanging out with him.

Greg has two brothers, Roderick, who's older, and the baby brother, who Greg tries to pull Roderick's stunts on. His mom and dad seem pretty oblivious to a lot of the boys activities, unless they do something right under Dad's nose. There's a very cute illustration of when it's OK to screw up and when it's not - the one showing Dad is the "not" moment. The book pretty much follows Greg during his first year of middle school, with the usual youth angst.

Overall, the story was OK. Again, I wasn't overwhelmed by it, but I can see why the kids like it. Greg is searching for his place in middle school, trying to figure out who he should be. He's questioning his friends, his parents, pretty much everything. And I guess the kids might also enjoy the fact that Greg isn't very sympathetic; I found it a turn-off. He ignores the wishes and feelings of his family and friends, which is weird. Oh well, maybe it's just me.

I've got my reserve in for the second book, wondering if it's better and if I'll fall in love with the Wimpy Kid like my small patrons. I doubt it, but then again, first dates don't always show someone in the best light, do they?