"Waiting on" Wednesday (8)

This meme is hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine.

Since I just finished BITE ME! by Melissa Francis, I want to read the sequel, LOVE SUCKS! which will be available in Spring 2010 from HarperTeen. No cover or blurb yet . . . of course, BITE ME! won't be available until August.

AJ Ashe isn't a typical seventeen-year-old vampire (as if there is such a thing as `typical!') Her ex-boyfriend is now her stepbrother. Her two BFFs are in a huge fight and AJ's caught in the middle. She's totally framed for cheating on a Lit test. And now, apparently, the fate of humankind lies in her little undead hands. Like that's fair. What ever happened to the good old days when all a vampire girl had to worry about was the occasional zit and hiding her fetish for necks?

I have two contests that end Memorial Day, but first I need to make some notices about old ones.

Cecilia, Diana Dang, Valorie, and Polo.Pony - ya'll should get your prizes soon since I now have packaging for them. Sorry for the wait.

The blogiversary winners of CAMILEON and JANE IN BLOOM never reached me and I couldn't reach them by e-mail, so I selected new winners.

CAMILEON goes to Fatalis Fortuna and JANE IN BLOOM goes to Briana. Please e-mail me your addresses so that I can forward them to the authors.

Also, the Body Image Week winner never contacted me. The new winner of that copy of JANE IN BLOOM is vvb32 reads. Please e-mail me your address so that I can forward it to the ladies at MFA.

Review and Contest: Enemies & Allies

By Kevin J. Anderson



ENEMIES & ALLIES takes us back to the Cold War, a setting the Batman and Superman will always feel natural in. Thankfully, this book contains nothing about the reverse course (aka what I was studying while I read the book). The focus is on Gotham, Metropolis, a gulag, and a Caribbean island. What connects these places? The machinations of Lex Luthor.

Since Lex is the big bad, most of the focus is on Superman. This makes me a little sad as the Batman and his rogues' gallery own my heart, but it worked for me because Kevin J. Anderson's characterization of Superman is stronger than his of the Batman. (I should note that there are many valid characterizations of both men, but as a fan of the Batman I have a characterization I am partial to, which is not the one Anderson chose to write.

Anyway, Bruce Wayne is pretending to be an uninterested playboy and Clark Kent is still trying to prove himself to Perry White and to Lois Lane. (Wonderfully, this ends up with him trying to write a column to the lovelorn. The subplot lasts just long enough to be entertaining without being annoying.) It's early in the mythos, so don't expect Robin or Power Girl to show up, though there are cameos by figures like Catwoman and the Penguin. (People not familiar with the comics won't feel lost. They serve their purpose and move on, whether you know their identity or not.)

To me, the story felt a little bare. Anderson wrote the characters competently but didn't explore anything new about the friendship of the Batman and Superman. I also feel like there could be some more play with the fact ENEMIES & ALLIES is a novel rather than a graphic novel. What can a novel do better? One of the great things about things like the DCAU is they explore what you can do artistically when you move the characters into a different medium. I think fans will enjoy ENEMIES & ALLIES, but it has the potential to be more.

It is fun to go back to a world where Kryptonite is rare, instead of available on every street corner, in every corner you want. (I'm looking at you Smallville.) And, as I said before, the Cold War will always be a good time for these two to strut their stuff. There's detection, action, corporate struggles, and the American Way. It's an enjoyable story, but I'd recommend waiting for the paperback. At the hardcover price you could buy a trade of some of the best issues.

Kevin J. Anderson is also the author of THE LAST SON OF KRYPTON, as well as THE SEVEN SUNS SAGA, and the co-author of many DUNE prequels/sequels. (I first read several of his STAR WARS books.) His newest novel, THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, will be released soon. You can find out more on his MySpace and website.

One commenter will receive the 2008 FCBD edition of All Star Superman #1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Contest ends Memorial Day. (As does this one.)

Review: Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger

By Brent Hartinger



We're on the home stretch to summer, so here's a book about summer. More specifically, how fifteen year old Dave, Curtis, and Spencer work all summer so that they don't have to get jobs. I've read and enjoyed many of Brent Hartinger's previous books, but the first two chapters had me wary. First I had to get over the premise - their dads want them to work, they don't want to. Dave and friends act like at fifteen its optional to work in the summer, but at sixteen it's required. (Yes, once you start working you will be expected to keep it up, but there's no set date to start.) It just weirded me out how much these upper middle class kids considered summer jobs necessary even beyond what their parents thought about it. My friends and I lived in households with less income and didn't feel the pressure as much as these kids. Plenty of sixteen year olds, seventeen year olds, and so on don't get summer jobs.

Then, the second chapter is their first plan to get out of working: they'll sell their valuable personal belongings and use the money to fake an income. The flaw they don't acknowledge: they'd get to spend the rest of the summer palling around without possessions. After the sale they realize there's no longer any comfort in their hideaway, but before it's oddly a non-issue.

After that point their plans to get rich quick became more surreal and the book became more enjoyable as it detached from reality. For those who hate plots fueled by coincidence, PROJECT SWEET LIFE is not the book to pick up. For me, the device worked. The outlandishness and neatness kept me from picking too much at the premise.

Hartinger also uses the city's geography to good effect. I enjoyed the note at the end about the actual history of Tacoma as I was wondering what was real and what was made up. He weaved it in well, so that I didn't feel lost even though I've never been anywhere near Tacoma or to a city with similar infrastructure.

I enjoyed watching things fall together, as what seemed to be one-shot episodes pulled together into a cohesive whole. Dave, Curtis, and Victor all had fun personalities and it was interesting to see what each of them proposed as a way to earn money. (My favorite was using math for a jelly beans in a jar contest - I did that as a kid and won a couple of times, for a much smaller prize.) There are two love interests for Curtis and Victor, Haleigh and Lani, but they don't show up enough for actual relationships to be developed or for their characters to be explored. The most interesting side character is the Chinese restaurant waitress. I wish I knew where she got her information.

Overall, PROJECT SWEET LIFE was a fun book for summer. The contents may inspire you to go outside and do something with friends rather than stay in and read. (Not that you can't read with friends. This is especially fun if you go to a store and sit together, reading the same book for the first time.) It is available now from HarperTeen, as are Hartinger's previous books, including THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO and the oft-banned GEOGRAPHY CLUB. You can find out more at Hartinger's website, el jay and MySpace. He also runs The Torch Online.

Bait and Switch

Today was a bait and switch day. I woke up expecting it to be excellent - I finished classes yesterday, so all I have left is two finals. Tonight is my formal and I bought a truly awesome Betsey Johnson cupcake dress on extreme sale at the outlet last weekend. So far the day has sucked. The main reason is I lost my sunglasses.



My dad gave them to me for Christmas a couple of years ago and I wear them everyday. I know when and where I lost them, since I had them when I went into the cafeteria and didn't have them when I finished my food. But my friend and I couldn't find them looking around and no one has turned them in. (The staff cleans after lunch, so they weren't found that way.) Apparently I'm not allowed to hang a lost sign on the bulletin board outside the cafeteria. So my favorite sunglasses are gone unless someone decided to delay in returning them for some reason.

I'm no longer excited about my cupcake dress. I've been excited for a week and now I just want the day to be over.

This reminds me of bait and switch books: the blurb and cover tell you it's one thing, you open it to discover another. It pisses me off. I know I usually enjoy Carolyn Mackler, but GUYAHOLIC wasn't what I expected and I couldn't enjoy it as much as her others. I expected a road trip story, when that's an extremely short part of the novel.

V Valentine is the queen of meaningless hookups. Ever since her mom dumped her with her grandparents, she has bounced from guy to guy. But in the spring of senior year, a fateful hockey puck lands her in the lap of Sam Almond. Right from the start, things with Sam are different. V is terrified to admit it, but this might be meaningful after all. On the afternoon of graduation, V receives some shocking news. Later, at a party, she makes an irreversible mistake and risks losing Sam forever. When her mom invites her to Texas, V embarks on a cross-country road trip with the hopes of putting two thousand miles between herself, Sam, and the wreckage of that night. With her trademark blend of humor and compassion, Carolyn Mackler takes readers on an unforgettable ride of missed exits, misadventures, and the kind of epiphanies that come only when you’re on a route you’ve never taken before.

Sometimes it takes getting hit with a hockey puck to help you see what’s good for you! Carolyn Mackler is back -- and V is off on a solo road trip -- in this funny, poignant follow-up to VEGAN VIRGIN VALENTINE.

I know romance readers have been recently annoyed by Lori Foster's MY MAN MICHAEL. The latest in a contemporary romance series, it involves time travel. No clues about this on the cover or blurb, so readers thought it would also be contemporary.



To you, what are the worst bait and switch offenders?

Books Read in 2009 (Week Eighteen)

I really hope I'm not forgetting one. I bought a ton of books last week but haven't read them yet.

Week Eighteen



Skip Beat (vols 14-20) by Nakamura Yoshiki (read in store and online)

I can't believe I fell so far behind on this series. The art has some problems (small heads), but it's an excellent, funny story. SKIP BEAT is not typical shojo. Most feminists would find Kyoko, Moko, and the other girls reasonable role models.