Christchurch City Libraries Blog

There’s an excellent new novel by Joshua Henkin, a youngish American writer, called Matrimony. It is only his second novel (his first “Swimming across the Hudson” is about two brothers, adopted by a radical Jewish couple, who escape life in New York and the expectations of their parents.

His new one is about three young people who come together as friends in a college in Massachusetts in the late 1980s. The two young men are firm friends despite being from different backgrounds – one from old money New York, the other with a chip on his shoulder from his underprivileged background. The third person in the novel is a gorgeous Jewish girl, daughter of a physics professor. How they cope with life, expectations of their own and their family and finally rivalry (the eternal triangle sticks its oar in here) is well told and very readable.

Being an American novel, the characters take themselves pretty seriously and the routine blows of every life hit them harder than most and I wanted to jump into the story and tell them to pull themselves together.

So…it’s a good novel, not a great one, but turn to the back cover of the book and you’d swear this was The Great American Novel. We have novelists praising the book to the skies and beyond:  Michael Cunningham says it’s “a devastating novel…a beautiful book” and it’s “in the tradition of John Cheever and Richard Yates” (it’s not!) and Dani Shapiro says it’s “an elegant excavation of the human spirit” (whaaaaaaaat?) while Stacey D’Erasmo tell us that “Henkin’s portrait of a marriage is a portrait of us all.”  So why is this unhelpful, and in many cases unfathomable, over so many books these days. Are these people all from the same publishing house? Are they all friends? Have they all got the same agent?

And another thing (this is beginning to sound like the taxi driver from hell, I know), why do American writers have such longwinded gushing acknowledgements. They seem to be on intimate terms with so many people it is hard to work out when they get the time to actually write. British and New Zealand writers are much more circumspect and make do with a dedication but Americans tend to launch into an Oscar speech.

I’ve got a nomination for the best first line of 2008. It’s from a short story; Bad Things by Libba Bray in The Restless Dead edited by Deborah Noyes.

It was Brian’s idea to go devil worshipping

Irresistible.

Another one I’ve read this year, though it was published in 2006, is from On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.

My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted. It happened on the Jellicoe Road.

I listened to this on CD and it was great.

January.  Post-Christmas sales.  Post-Christmas waistlines.  Post-Christmas credit card bills.  Never is our own overindulgence more in evidence than when that first Visa bill after the big December blowout, arrives in the mail.  If you’re feeling like you might need to do a little consumer penance then What would Jesus buy? might be just the book for you.

Several years ago Bill Talen (or Reverend Billy) set up the Church of Stop Shopping.  Their mission is to fight globalisation, to highlight the sometimes dodgy practises of big-chain stores like Walmart and Starbucks, and to just encourage people to stop buying so much…stuff.  Their goal is to stop the ”shopocalypse”.

sho-po-ca-lypse [shah PAW kuh lips] n.
The end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption
and the fires of eternal debt! (more…)

… not that it’s over – heck it is punching on 30 degrees today! Holla! But here is my Sampler box of holiday reading. Like the biscuit combo of Krispies, pink wafers and Chit Chats it’s pretty yummy in its variety.

The Crime book: Homicide by David Simon – Back in 1988, writer Simon followed the Baltimore Homicide squad. Fans of the best tv series ever (ever) The Wire will know the name as he is one of the creators of that benchmark show.  The book is dense, absorbing, and (astonishingly) it uses the real names of the cops and detectives.

The Graphic Novel: Top 10 49ers by Alan Moore and Gene Han. I love the Top 10 series – this volume goes right back to the start – when the city of superheroes Neopolis is being settled, post WWII.

The Blockbuster: Testimony by Anita Shreve. This novel about a sex scandal in an American college takes the perspective of various participants. Instead of muddying the waters, each exposition adds to the layer of the stoy. It’s honest, and surprisingly sad.

 The Quirky non-fiction read: In search of the English Eccentric by Henry Hemming. Author Hemming meets various characters – the Gnome Lady, The Marquess of Bath, the reincarnation of King Arthur, even Pete Doherty and Vivienne Westwood, in his quest to explore the meaning and significance of eccentricity.

The Horror (the horror): Just after sunset by Stephen King. Hats off to Mr King. This collection of short stories is the bomb, with enough scary spook factor to chill any hot summer day. Except for the story of the evil cat. It’s just silly.

The Music biography: Wild boy – My life in Duran Duran by Andy Taylor. Come on, you know any story about Duran Duran is going to have lashings of supermodels, yachts, suavity and cocaine.  Transport yourself to all the exotic locales of their music videos. And to Birmingham.

Personal taste – there’s no accounting for it. And when you combine it with self-imposed expectations and outside pressures, it’s quite a steamy little brew. Let me explain: I really want to love graphic novels. I love the idea of them, and I like the idea of liking something that most other people either hate or don’t ‘get’. Pathetic, I know, but hey – personal taste …

So far, though, it’s been an uphill battle. I tried the worthy ones, and the pretty ones, and the edgy ones, and the foreign ones (both European and Asian), and the ones by my favourite author, and the ones by the cute little singer, and the just plain weird ones; and while there were one or two that I liked facets of (writing/storyline/illustrations), none really won me over wholeheartedly, although the Fables series came close. I began to realise that, far more even than with regular novels, the balance and mix had to be just right.

I even sought professional help (thanks, Malc, and Bek too), but alas for all my seeking, none truly filled that graphic-novel-shaped hole in my heart.

Until now. Now I’m in love. And not with just one, but two! Never rains but, etc …
Problem is, both of my new loves are beginnings of series, just released. And I’m kind of impatient. As Freddie says, “I want it all, and I want it now!” (Actually, there’s one about him here too …).
If I confess my new crushes to you, will you ‘fess up to me? And maybe support me in my waiting?

New Love Number One: Hatter M, by Frank Beddor and Ben Templesmith – a dark twist on the Alice in Wonderland tale.
New Love Number Two: Locke & Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. Mmm, yummy.

Or am I the only one who wants to want something? Doesn’t necessarily have to be graphic novels, even (we do blab on about them a bit here); could be Russian literature, or ancient mobster classics, or massive art history tomes …

Search Engine Optimization Bible

Google is the most popular search engine, even being promoted to verb status, but which search engine is number 2? According to Comscore, it’s YouTube with Yahoo! coming in third by .2 million hits. According to a study by Ellacoya Networks, YouTube videos now makeup 10 percent of all Internet traffic!

Interested in getting your content onto the 2nd most popular search engine? The library has an electronic subscription to the Search Engine Optimization Bible by Jerri Ledford, choose “View Online” to start reading. You just need your library card and pin number to access this, you can get a Pin by contacting us, and yes we do IM.