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This post written by Clarissa Mistress of Spices
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
[cover name=mistressofspices]
I really enjoyed this book, but it’s hard to describe. It’s by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, formerly a community college creative writing instructor at Foothill in Los Altos, and it’s set in Oakland (not the expensive, yuppie side of Oakland, but the more interesting and sometimes dangerous areas). It’s usually just listed as fiction, literature, or magical realism, but I disagree. It’s fantasy start to finish. I would even say, given the role the San Francisco and Oakland play in it, with the immigrants’ and locals’ hopes and dreams and crimes, urban fantasy. Yes, it’s fantasy based in on cultures that have been continuously alive (India) rather than the more common urban fantasy that’s loosely based on what we know about ancient Celtic cultures, but there’s also plenty of Catholic- and Haitian Vodou- and other continuous-living-tradition-derived-based urban fantasy out there, so I hope nobody from the Indian subcontinent will be upset if I label this as urban fantasy of a kind. (Anyway, my impression is that the details of the magic in the book were totally made up by the author, besides the traditional elements of Ayurvedic medicine and whatnot, but please let me know if I’m wrong.)
The main character is Tilo, a “Spice Mistress” who can use power-infused spices from around the world to solve the problems of the customers who step through the doors of her little shop in Oakland. To wield such magic, she has had to pay a high price. She’s a young woman trapped in an old woman’s body, trapped in the store, but because she chose this life, she doesn’t view it as a trap. Until she meets someone who’s different …
One of the things I thought was interesting about this book was that it doesn’t shy away from racial issues–Tilo is aware of her ethnicity, her customers’ ethnicity, and so on. That’s not the main focus of the book, but it comes into play. There is a movie, but from everything I’ve heard, it removes all of the most interesting parts of the book, including Tilo’s fascinating back story before she becomes a Mistress of Spices (AWESOME). And speaking of ethnicity, as far as I understand, they actually change one of the most important characters’ backgrounds to be completely white, which is totally obnoxious because that character’s background is really important to the story. The movie might be interesting if you really like Aishwarya Rai, the famously beautiful Indian actress, but I don’t have any interest in seeing it, because it turns a complex, multilayered fantasy that includes a love story into a fluffy romance.
Be warned that the writing style is unusual and sometimes almost poetry-like. One reason for this is that the author is trying to convey the different patterns of the characters’ voices, I think, so that you will notice the way characters from different regions of India have different ways of speaking English. (English is one of various native languages for many people in India and Pakistan, and one of the reasons this is so, even after the end of colonialism, is that there are multiple language families in that part of the world that are not related to each other at all. There is no “Indian language” or single “Indian accent.” Many of the languages within India are mutually unintelligible, being far more different from each other than French and Spanish–since those come from a single language family.) Other times there’s unusual punctuation or sentence structure just to convey a sense of dreaminess, I think. Just go with it! It’s definitely not for everyone, but give it a few chapters and see if you can get into it.
This book is a great demonstration of the American literature market’s weirdness about “genre fiction,” which includes fantasy, science fiction, mysteries, romance, horror, and other things that book critics, some so-called intellectuals, and many literature and creative writing professors look down on. (Not all of them–I have a master’s degree in English myself.) This book is usually referred to as literary fiction, but as far as I’m concerned, it and similar things like Chocolat are fantasy. There seem to be some unspoken rules that most critics and professors would apply to books like this, like If It Addresses Real Issues Such As the Immigrant Experience It Cannot Be Genre Fiction, and If It Has Interesting Punctuation or Other Fancy Writing Tricks It Cannot Be Genre Fiction, and If There Are Parts Where You Can’t Tell Metaphor from Reality It Cannot Be Genre Fiction, and Basically If Reviewers Liked It It Cannot Be Genre Fiction, Because They Have Never Actually Read Any. So in order for a book critic, etc., to speak positively about a genre book, they can’t admit that it’s a genre book (unless it’s “for kids,” like Harry Potter). They have to pretend that despite the blatant use of magic (Chocolat, Mistress of Spices, Practical Magic, etc.), being set in the future (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Sparrow, etc.) and so on that something isn’t fantasy or science fiction. (Actually, I think that’s part of how the term “magical realism” got invented, to be totally honest.) It’s pretty funny in some ways, but it also backfires when students, writers, and others can’t get taken seriously because their books got labeled one way while some very similar book got labeled another way.
But this is genre fiction. And if you read widely within genre fiction, you will encounter all of these concepts and everything else that literary fiction does well, because just like all other things in life, genre fiction has a wide range from “complete crud” to “utterly excellent.”
Anyway, although this book is definitely not for everyone, I recommend it if you think you might enjoy a fantastic journey into a dreamland of spices, magic, and love, firmly grounded right here in the Bay Area. But be warned that you’ll be craving an aromatic cup of masala chai afterwards!
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This post written by Clint Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Terry Pratchett (UK website here) and Neil Gaiman
[cover name=goodomens]
Do you like stories about the apocalypse, complete with evil nuns, prophecies, angels, demons, and the Antichrist? Well, either way, you might like Good Omens. It’s a spoof of these kinds of stories – sort of like End of Days, except deliberately funny. And with no Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s also like Dogma, but without Chris Rock or Jason Mewes.
The End Times are near, but there’s a little problem. There was a little accident at the hospital when the Antichrist was born, and he was accidentally switched with a normal baby. Eventually, the forces of good and evil figure out that the guy they think is the Antichrist is just some kid, while somewhere out there the real Antichrist is living a normal life. Several different groups are out to find him. Unfortunately, figuring out which ordinary eleven-year-old boy is actually the Spawn of Satan and Prince of Lies is kind of difficult. In fact, the only person who had any clue about all this died 300 years ago. Her name was Agnes Nutter, and before she died, she wrote down her prophecies in a book called The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. Agnes didn’t really understand the 20th century, though, so she had a lot of trouble explaining what she saw. As a result, her prophecies are almost useless – you’ll only understand one after it’s too late.
The cast of characters includes Elvis, evil nuns, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (who now ride motorcycles), the elite Witch-Finder Army (two people), a demonic Hell-hound, an unlikely team of the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley (who happen to be good friends), and quite a few other strange and amusing people.
If you take Christianity so seriously that you can’t laugh at it, you’ll probably hate this book. Also, if you don’t like sly humor, you’ll probably dislike this book. Otherwise, give it a try. How often is the end of the world a laughing matter?
To get the most from Good Omens, you need to be pretty familiar with the history of Christianity. The book is still very funny even if you know next to nothing about religion, but if you want to get every little joke and reference, there are a couple of sites that you might want to check out. One is http://goodomenslexicon.org, and another is http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/good-omens.html.
You can read a chapter online at the publisher’s website. There are funnier parts to the book, though. Also, for some strange reason, the people at HarperCollins couldn’t be bothered to proofread the excerpt. Basically, the book is way better than this excerpt would lead you to believe.
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This post written by Clint Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
by Julie Kenner
[cover name=carpedemon]
Kate Connors never went to high school or college, but she had a job she loved and was good at. Then she married a co-worker and settled down to raise a family, and she never even thought about going back to work. She used to be a demon hunter, and that’s not really something you can do while also raising kids.
Kate has been a full-time mother and a full-time wife for the past fifteen years. Her husband doesn’t know about her past, and she’d like to keep it that way. She really wants her husband to see her as a wife and not an unstoppable killing machine. Her daughter doesn’t know about her past, although Kate might tell her one of these days. Her son doesn’t know and wouldn’t care if she told him, since he’s only two years old. Kate doesn’t really like keeping secrets, but since she’s not longer fighting demons, nobody really needs to know.
Her husband is running for a political office and has to win important people over, and one day he calls her to ask if she can put together a dinner party for that evening. Then an old demon jumps through her window and tries to kill her. Now she has to clean up the glass, hide the demon corpse, and make the dinner party happen.
This is where Kate’s life gets fun. Some big, bad demons are moving in on her town, and due to budget cuts and recruiting trouble, she’s the only demon hunter around. She does eventually get the help of an alimentatore, an advisor who is the brain while Kate is the brawn. Unfortunately, her alimentatore has a day job, so he makes Kate dig through records. She also gets the help of another retired hunter. Unfortunately, he’s currently in a nursing home. She also finds a sidekick. Unfortunately, when danger threatens, her sidekick plans to scream and run. Then, of course, she’s got to deal with her husband, teenage daughter, and two-year-old son. With help like this, how can she lose? Oh, and she’s a little out of shape, too. Not a lot, but enough to make fighting demons dangerous.
You can read some of it online at Google Books.
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This post written by Clint Wake
by Lisa McMann
[cover name=wake]
Janie Hannagan has a special power, or maybe a curse: whenever someone nearby falls asleep and starts to dream, Janie is sucked into the dream. She gets tag along while somebody flies around, shows up to work naked, or falls and falls and falls. Sounds fun, right? Janie is in high school, so she gets pulled in every time somebody falls asleep in class. She works at a nursing home, so she gets pulled in every time a resident dozes off.
She learns a lot about other people this way. She knows who who has a secret crush on her best friend, for example. She knows that somebody who lives on Waverly Road is really messed up. She knows that Cable, the class slacker, has dreams about her. Then she finds herself in one of Cable’s a really messed up nightmares, and she decides to stop watching and try to fix things.
You should know a few things about this novel before you start. First, a lot of it takes place in the dreams of teenagers. You know what that means. Second, there is a lot of swearing. Third, some people are put off by the writing style. You might want to preview it at Google Books.
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This post written by Clint Dead is the New Black
by Marlene Perez
[cover name=deadisthenewblack]
The women in Daisy Giordano’s family have special powers. Her mom can see bits of the future. One sister can read minds, and the other is telekinetic. Somehow, though, Daisy missed out. She’s normal, or as near as you can get when your family runs a psychic detective agency. A lot of strange things happen in her hometown of Nightshade, California, but Daisy’s life really gets interesting when the most popular girl in her high school comes back from vacation looking kind of dead. Undead, actually, and she’s popular enough to make pale skin and custom-made coffins stylish.
Then one of Daisy’s fellow high school students is murdered. Death doesn’t seem to stop this student, though, and she shows up to a pep rally. It’s up to Daisy and the police chief’s son Ryan (the guy she’s got a crush on) to figure out what’s going on.
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This post written by Clint Life Sucks
by Jessica Abel, Gabriel Soria, and Warren Pleece
[cover name=lifesucks]
Dave has one of the worst jobs on earth. He’s the night manager at the Last Stop convenience store, but that’s not why his job is so awful. The real problem is his boss Radu, who happens to be a vampire. Radu is big into things like team spirit, so to make Dave a better employee, Radu made him a vampire, too.
Rosa, the woman Dave has a crush on, thinks that being a vampire must be wonderful – eternal life, vampiric sex appeal, the charming company of other vampires, money, power, and other fine things like that. Unfortunately, Dave gets nothing of this. He’s got no money. He rides a bicycle to and from his dead-end job, and he’ll probably work at the Last Stop for all eternity. Also, Dave has a thing about blood. Plus, even though he’s a real vampire, the goth women he interacts with seem more interested in goth guys with expensive capes and boots rather than real vampires with name tags that say “Shift Manager.”
Another thing that makes Dave’s life miserable is that he has to interact with Wes, a psychotic surfer vampire who is also a servant of Radu. When Wes finds out Dave is interested in Rosa, he decides to be interested in her, too. This is bad, since when I said Wes is psychotic, I mean he likes killing or enslaving people. Thus, Dave has to try to save Rosa, but keep in mind that Dave is a big old loser.
You can read the first eleven pages at MySpace or read a different thirteen pages at New York Magazine’s website.
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This post written by Clint The Night Birds
by Thomas Maltman
[cover name=thenightbirds]
The year is 1876, and Asa Senger lives on his family’s farm in Minnesota. Asa’s parents generally avoid talking about family history, but Asa learns far more than he expected when Aunt Hazel comes home from an asylum where she was held for many years.
The Sengers are unwilling to talk about the past because their family has been right in the middle of some really ugly events. They had to flee Missouri because of an argument about the abolition of slavery. Life in Minnesota was very challenging: nature was not nice to settlers, but then, settlers weren’t really nice to nature, either. The Senger family, especially Hazel, made connections with the local Dakota Sioux tribe, and they were involved with the Dakota uprising of 1862. All of this is news to poor Asa, who has never thought about his family like this before.
The story bounces back and forth between Hazel’s past and Asa and Hazel’s present. Part of it is family history, part is Asa’s life in 1876, and part is Asa’s coming to terms with his family’s turbulent past.
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This post written by Clint Sharp Teeth
by Toby Barlow
[cover name=sharpteeth]
Anthony Silvo has just gotten a job as a dogcatcher in East L.A. He doesn’t really want to send the dogs to the pound, but he needs the money. Then he meets a mysterious woman who gets him caught in the middle of a big supernatural mess.
Werewolves are alive and well in East L.A. Well, not exactly werewolves. More weredogs, who can shift back and forth between human and dog whenever they want. There are a number of things going on in the story. Lark, the leader of one pack, is betrayed by one of his followers. He decides to hide out in an animal shelter and is eventually adopted. When his owners are out, he organizes a new pack, but he slowly realizes that he likes the quiet life. Meanwhile, Anthony’s mysterious girlfriend is killing off certain weredogs. A couple of people from Lark’s pack end up playing in a bridge (not poker!) tournament that may have a connection to the L.A. drug trade. Finally, a detective named Peabody (probably a reference to Mister Peabody) is investigating a series of murders that relate to the weredog packs.
This is a werewolf story, so you can expect a fair amount of violence. The author also sneaks in a lot of dog-related humor, as you can see from the bridge-playing dogs and Peabody. The unusual thing is that this story is told in verse, sort of. Why? I’m not sure, but a couple of recent authors have tried it, so I guess it must be trendy. The book looks like a giant poem, but once you start reading, it’s basically a novel with very short lines.
If you want to give the book a try, you can browse it for free at the publisher’s website.
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This post written by Clarissa Magic Bites
by Ilona Andrews
[cover name=magicbites]
Kate Daniels is a kind of soldier-for-hire in an imaginary version of Atlanta, carrying a sword, some words of power, and no tolerance for fools. In this world, sometimes magic flares up and the electricity goes out, and sometimes magic goes down and the spells that she has protecting her house from bad things fail, and creeping vampires get in. (Vampires are incredibly disturbing and unnatural in this series–not sexy at all! Shapeshifters–people who can turn into animals, etc.–on the other hand, can be dangerously attractive.) In Kate’s world, there are rules about magic, about vampires, about shapeshifters, and about how all of these things interact. Kate’s not really fond of rules, though, which is one reason she’s a mercenary and not part of any organization. But in order to avenge the death of someone important to her, she agrees to work with an organization. That makes life complicated. There are a lot of complications coming her way–plenty of danger, a little romance, yikes! Kate is the kind of person who kicks butt first and asks questions later, but she’ll figure it all out eventually. Assuming she can get a handle on her drinking problem …
One of the best things about the book is that you can tell the author has really thought through the setting. A lot of recent supernatural investigation/urban fantasy novels focus on either romance or sex and don’t spend a lot of time creating a cool, detailed world, but this author has really put a lot of thought into how things work. That’s appreciated. (There’s some romance, but it’s definitely not the main feature.)
This is Ilona Andrews’ first book, and English is not her first language. If you’re really sensitive to grammar, you might notice a couple of awkward spots, but overall, the writing is fine. People who have read the second and third books say that they get better and better. (Plus, it’s great to see more published authors whose first language isn’t English! Andrews’ first language is Russian, and you’ll see some references to Russian culture and language in the story, which is cool.)
You can read an excerpt online at the author’s website.
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This post written by Clint Bleach
by Kubo Tite
[cover name=bleach]
Bleach is a series about high school students who can see spirits. One day the main character, Ichigo, encounters a soul reaper (kind of like a grim reaper, but younger) who is responsible for dealing with troubled spirits. The soul reaper is injured in a fight with a dangerous spirit and temporarily gives Ichigo her powers. After defeating the spirit, Ichigo finds that he cannot give the power back. Instead, he has to become a part-time soul reaper.
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
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The [library id=richmond] public library has some volumes, but I don’t think they have volume 1 yet.
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