Each year, we here at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves put together a list of books that stood out to us over the last twelve months as particularly full of awesome.
You can find previous installments linked in our Reading Lists section right over here.
All tagged Chuck Wendig
Gift Guide: 7 Books to Give This Year
A couple years ago, I created a series of gift guides that are still pretty popular--check them out here. I thought it would be fun to add to those guides with at least one new list for this holiday season. (I will try to do another one that I have sketched out--stay tuned!)
Buying books for other people can be a bit of a challenge. I always want to be sensitive to not imposing my taste and preferences on other people--just because I like something, doesn't mean that they'll love it too. But at the same time, I love putting good books in people's hands, so I strive for recommendations that will appeal to a broader audience.
Recommendation Roundup: July 2014
Better late than never, right? I had a staggeringly good reading month, which included a couple of much-anticipated surprise sequels: Just Call My Name and Sinner.
I also finally read Chuck Wendig's Under the Empyrean and and am retroactively mad that I waited so long to get to it--I'm currently listening to the audio of the sequel and it's even better, if you can believe that. I've been hitting my local library (have I ever mentioned that my house is on the same street as the library?) pretty hard and discovered a fun older Meg Cabot novel that's a great example of the epistolary format, if that's your jam, Boy Meets Girl.
In other news, Sandra finally fixed her enormous oversight in never having read A Northern Light, and has rave after rave for the new Michael Koryta novel, Those Who Wish Me dead. And, Laura listened to the fabulous audio edition of The Coldest Girl in Coldtown--be sure to snag that if you're an audiobooker.
Onward to the recommendations!
Recommendation Tuesday: Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig
Recommendation Tuesday started as a joke and is now an official thing. Basically, this is my way of making Tuesday a little more awesome. If you've got a book to recommend on this or any Tuesday, tweet me at @FullShelves and I'll help spread the word.
View all of the past recommendations over here.
This week, I'm excited to recommend the cornpunk dystopian adventure Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig, the first in his Heartland Trilogy.
Think you're burned out on dystopian stories because they are all kind of the same? Well this one is completely different and unforgettable.
List-O-Rama: Embracing the Weird
I have a soft spot for bizarro stories. You know what I mean, the weird, but captivating, tale that you never fully understand but like nonetheless. Here are a few of our recommendations for the next time you want to embrace the weird.
Coaltown Jesus by Ron Koertge (Candlewick, Oct. 8, 2013)
“‘Oh dear,’ said Jesus.Walker was able to ask ‘What?’ They’d stopped in front of a Balk’s Hardware. A sign in the window said,
ALL KINDS OF NAILS
Jesus stared at his hands. ‘I mean nails are a miracle and God is in them, but they still give me the shivers.’”
Ron Koertge specializes in strange stories and he's an author whose books reliably work for me. Koertge's known for his verse novels, but this is more of a fractured prose (my term) style that works for this odd little story of a boy who seeks, and receives, divine intervention in coping with his brother's death. This is an irreverent little story with one of the more unusual doses of magical realism I've read. It's a short book at 128 pages, so if you're looking for something completely outside your normal wheelhouse that'll make you laugh, check out Coaltown Jesus.
I also recommended Koertge's Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses, a collection of fairytales retold in poetry, if you're looking for more Koertge weirdness.
Links & Things: September 20th
Hi y'all! How was your week? Mine was... exhausting. I really don't understand why life doesn't stop so I can curl up with a good book and drink a cup of tea. That doesn't seem unreasonable, does it?
Here's some interestingness--an abbreviated version, that is--I spotted on the web this week that you may have missed.
Recommended Reading
- CEFS favorite Lisa Schroeder has a new novel for teens coming out next summer. It's called The Bridge from Me to You and is half verse, half proseand sounds like it has a Friday Night Lights vibe:
The Bridge from Me to You is a YA novel that is part verse, part prose. It is told alternately by a 17-year-old girl who is new to a small town with a family secret, and the star football player she meets who is having a tough year and has big dreams beyond the field. Publication is planned for summer 2014.
- If you read Jenn Bennett's fantastic Arcadia Bell series, you're going to have to wait an extra month to get your hands on it--it won't be released until May 2014.
- VQR has a great discussion of the problematic nature of Jonathan Franzen's latest rant.
- Goodreads has yet another policy change.
Links + Things: Can't Think of a Clever Post Title Edition
I'm back with another abbreviated Links + Things (we'll be back to our regular posting next week).
Required Reading
The Vulcan and the Other (Phoebe North)
And JJ Abrams has approached xenobiology and xenoanthropology in a very Star Wars way in his reboot. Background puppets abound, used to illustrate the diversity of the universe, but this is still a universe where the actions of the humans are those that matter. Scotty has a non-verbal alien friend who plays an almost identical role to Chewbacca in Star Wars; he’s a silent cipher whose words must be surmised only through the pauses of the more plot relevant human. Kirk bags a space babe, but she’s mostly just a sight gag. And there are Romulans and Klingons, but they’re villains–obstacles to overcome, really. But still not people, not fully, not yet.
I meant to share this outstanding, thought-provoking post from author Phoebe North (Starglass) last week and somehow omitted it. She dissects diversity and otherness in the context of the new Star Trek movie, and points to J.J. Abrams' frequently problematic treatment of alien characters in his work. This is a companion to her earlier post about Star Trek: Into the Darkness, which (warning) contains spoilers, but is an important read.
Why Men Should Speak Up About Sexism, Mysogyny and Rape Culture (Chuck Wendig)
We don’t want the behaviors of this septic culture to become or seem normalized. If we’re quiet about it, we contribute to the normalization of misogyny or any of the other cultural poisons.
Like I said the other day, this isn’t about playing the hero — we aren’t going to fix it with our magical man-hammers, and women are not our Death Star Princesses to rescue. But we can signal boost. We can support. We can be on the side of the angels instead of the side of the diseased dick-bags (they don’t rate being devils, honestly) who want to trumpet their hate and rampant shittiness. We can try to do better and ask that others do the same.
This week author Chuck Wendig (Blackbirds) wrote an unintentional three-part series about sexism as a result of the mess of misogyny from the SFWA (which I mentioned last week). I recommend reading each post, but the last one about why men should speak up about this type of behavior struck a chord with me.
{Review} Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
The only thing I truly know about my future is the inevitability of my death. Like everyone else, I’d prefer that the time and manner of my death be peaceful, painless… and postponed for as long as possible. But perhaps that’s not to be. I don’t know the future.
But what if we could know the future?
In the case of a fluid future, in which our decisions could change the outcome, we’d all like to think that we’d act in a noble, self-sacrificing manner (see: Kyle Chandler, Early Edition).
Why yes, we do use any and all excuse to include a gratuitous photo of Coach Eric Taylor on this blog. Whereas a lot of us would more likely act in a self-serving manner (see: Biff, Back to the Future Part II).