Dandy Books

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Here are this weeks picks:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God's instrument; he is.
This is John Irving's most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving's most heartbreaking character.
"Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite stunning and very ambitious."
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"John Irving is an abundantly and even joyfully talented storyteller."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKR EVIEW

I read John Irving's The Cider House Rules two years ago, it's still one of my absolute favorite books. This one sounds just as great. :)

Echo by Francesca Lia Block
Acclaimed author Francesca Lia Block weaves pure magic into this deftly constructed tale—a novel told in the form of linked stories. Echo is caught at the crossroads of a physical world full of hope and despair and the realm of the supernatural, where young men have wings and skeletons speak. On the way, she is graced by angels and gairies and haunted by ghosts, psychopomps, and vampires. But as Echo falls under the spell of demons who threaten to destroy her, she must finally look within to find the strength to survive.

Read some great things about this one. I have quite a number of Block's books but have yet to read them. I'm VERY interested in this one. :)

The Ultimate Rush by Joe Quirk
As the sole rollerblading courier at a San Francisco delivery service, Chet Griffin is the fastest messenger in town. Every day, he delivers critically confidential packages, but when he hands over an already-opened envelope containing a floppy disk with billion-dollar information, a deadly serious customer demands satisfaction. On a routine run, one of Chet's co-workers gets murdered, the finger's pointed at Chet, and he finds himself on a rush job to save his own life. Driven by family ghosts and a little-guy rage against the big-guy machine, Chet enlists the help of his skateboarder-chick best buddy and his superhacker roommate, and takes off across the city to track down the evidence he needs to clear his name - and put away the bad boys who want him dead.

Sounds quite interesting.

Suck It Up by Brian Meehl
“A refreshing take on the vampire romance.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred

Are you up to your neck in bloodsucking vampire stories?

Tired of those tales about dentally enhanced dark lords?

Before I wrote this book I thought all vampires were night-stalking, fangpopping, bloodsucking fiends. Then I met Morning McCobb. He’s a vegan vampire who drinks a soy-blood substitute called Blood Lite. He believes staking should be a hate crime. And someday he hopes to march in a Vampire Pride Parade. He was also the first vampire to out himself and try to show people of mortality, like you and me, that vampires are just another minority with special needs. Trust me—this is like no other vampire book you’ll ever feed on.

So, as my buddy Morning says, “Pop the lid, and suck it up.”

“Appealing characters and an original vampire world. Delightful for those who like their romance vaguely paranormal, their adventure romantic and their vampires defanged.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A flawed and affable protagonist . . . snarky humor, outsider-looking-in perspective, and fresh new takes on the familiar.”—School Library Journal

Nifty.

Headlong by Kathe Koja
What sets Vaughn apart is the quality of our girls. We do draw from all over, girls from every kind of background, girls for whom Vaughn is a major life experience. And not every girl is the right girl for Vaughn. You can often tell, early on, who these girls are. The Vaughn School. Home of domed ceilings, gleaming checkerboard floors, and the Vaughn Virgins: the upper stratum of girls who have perfect grades, perfect lives, and perfect friends. Lily Noble is a lifer – she knows all the rules. Then sophomore year, Hazel Tobias arrives as a scholarship student, with her model’s looks and unconventional family, and shows Lily everything she’s been missing. Can you ever fit in someplace you don’t want to be? As Lily befriends Hazel, both girls discover what it means to dive deep beneath the surface – of friendship, of commitment – and to live life with all their hearts, with all they are, headlong.

Read this one already but I liked it so much because of the feeling it gives after reading it. The writing was just...something. Read my review here.


If you've read any of these let me know what you think.

Comments? Thoughts?