A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss

This was sitting on the "Get 3 for 2" table at Borders when I decided I needed to pick up a copy of The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead as a gift for the Gentleman Friend, so I figured what the hell - I ended up with this and a copy of In Cold Blood that I'm sure I'll never get around to reading. Anyway.

A Spectacle of Corruption is the sequel to the Edgar Award-winning A Conspiracy of Paper, and it follows the further violent and convoluted adventures of hunky Jewish boxer-turned-thief-catcher Benjamin Weaver through the seamy underbelly of 18th-century London.

While CoP focuses on the murder of Weaver's stock jobber father (I am so twelve, but the word jobber cracks my shit up) and the South Sea Bubble, SoC takes a look at the, er, corruption of the 18th-century political machine. Boatloads of whores (without a heart of gold, thank god), gambling, drinking to excess, fistfights, and various scalliwags abound. Delightful. It's like James Ellroy without the use of wacky lingo.

The reaction to these books is weird - people either love them or hate them - and I fell on the side of love (for once in my coldhearted life). The wrybrarian was reading his other book, The Coffee Trader, and was less than thrilled. I started reading SoC and couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of CoP. My only complaint is the sort of abrupt ending to SoC, but it definitely leaves Liss open for another sequel, and since Weaver is a hilarious and entirely entertaining character, Liss would be completely insane to not use him in another book or twelve.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

I was insanely excited to read Anansi Boys - so much so that I overcame my natural cheapness and purchased a hardcover copy. Sadly, there's not a whole lot I can say about this book, other than that it is very Neil Gaiman-y, and that it was a bit of a disappointment.

Anansi Boys is a sequel to American Gods, which I read quite a while ago and don't really remember... (something about gods being brought to America and losing their power as the people who believed in them died off or lost interest, and the gods are pissed, and there's a big battle or some such - I remember enjoying it enough to buy it for my little brother for xmas a few years ago, but, alas, the details are gone - it can perhaps go in the re-read pile).

Anyway, Anansi Boys follows the drama of Fat Charlie (who, by the way, isn't fat, and is a typical Gaiman protagonist - very much like the guy in Neverwhere - kind of dull and boring until something supernaturally weird happens and he discovers his hidden depths and realizes he's shockingly handsome, has a crazy adventure, and then ends up with a cool special lady friend) through his discovery of a missing brother named Spider, some future mother-in-law drama, some drinking and hijinks, a murder, a big fight, and an eventual jolly ending.

I'm not quite sure what was missing - I mean, I enjoyed the book and I usually love Neil Gaiman - an old coworker of mine pretty much summed it up for me: "oooh, he's dreamy AND he can write..." indeed. It just didn't quite do it for me this time. Dammit, Neil, don't make me stop loving you.

yeehaw.

Well, finally.
After much yammering about and wrestling with what exactly I wanted to do with this site, I've decided to just screw it and use blogger to post book reviews for the time being. (I'm eventually going to con my ever-lovely pal, Pete, into fixing this thing up all fancy-like with a database for book reviews so I can subdivide and organize everything into categories like a good little newly-minted librarian.) Until that magic day when I finally get my act in gear, ye olde generic blog format is going to have to suffice, or I'll never get anything done and will continue to feel pangs of guilt while I sit on the couch and watch 97 hours of tv.

So, when I'm not enjoying the many fine offerings of network television, I read. A lot. I'm that girl with the brown hair sitting on the couch at the Empty Bottle with my nose in a book during shows. Hi. I can also walk and read at the same time, which is shocking given my propensity for injuring myself and general clumsy behavior. Anyway, I started crankybooks because in 2005 I began keeping track of every book I read in a little calendar I received from my Gentleman Friend’s mom for xmas and ranking them based on a vague, semi-incomprehensible rating system. It just seemed like a good idea to start writing some book reviews so I can really remember what I liked and hated and maybe offer up some book suggestions at the same time. We’ll see how this goes.

As to what I like: I’ll read pretty much anything, but a book only gets about 50 pages or so to suck me in or it ends up in the reject batch – there are way too many fantastic books out there to waste my time reading some pile of crap just because it won an award or is in some way supposed to be special or popular - for instance, that fucking DaVinci Code book - I cannot even begin to describe the loathing I have for it other than to call it poorly-written tripe with a terrible plot and retarded characters, especially Sophie, the "brilliant young cryptologist" who can't manage to decode a secret message that is written backwards. aaagh. And people get so defensive about that book with the "what?!? you didn't like it?!?" - it's crazy. Anyway. For the record: No. I did not like The DaVinci Code. Feh.

I think that’s just about enough intro nonsense for now – I just needed to post something. Time to watch an episode of The Shield and then read for a bit so I can create a proper post the next time.

The current reads:

• Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman


• The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle