Two individualistic narrators; two good stories

The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Quirky little novel that delves into the meaning, form, and function of poetry in an almost absent-minded manner. Interspersed with tidbits of the narrator's life and habits, the story of writing an introduction to a poetry anthology sort of hitches along throwing facts and opinions right and left.
If you don't mind stories that sputter around and if you like poetry--well, actually even if you think you don't like poetry, this may be the book for you. (If you don't like poetry it may be because you got ahold of the wrong end of the poetry stick early in your life. Let it go and start fresh. This book will give you a whole 'nother view of iambic pentameter.)


< The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The voice of Victorian Susan Rose is just right if you like good gossipy novels with lots of detail.
Susan is a wet nurse for women above her in the social scale. She remains cheerful even while expecting (and often getting) the worst.
This is an enjoyable read if you like historical fiction.

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Fantasy short stories

Firebirds: An Anthology of Original Fantasy and Science Fiction by Sharyn November


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Short stories by a number of really great award-winning authors, writing about magic, faerie, unreality in the face of the normal.
Although written for a YA audience, these stories will entertain and amuse adults.
My favorites were The Baby in the Night Deposit Boox by Megan Whalen Turner and Little Dot by Diana Wynne Jones, but others were fascinating too.

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Step into my garden, Maude

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well, this book is enough to make you paranoid about any plant you see! It makes me glad that I manage to kill plants at 20 paces. Stewart writes lovingly of plants that stun, paralyze, and/or kill animals and humans. Makes you wonder what Mary, Mary Quite Contrary was up to.


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A rural way of life is not necessarily an innocent way of life

Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At the beginning of the book adult three sisters are back home on a farm in Missouri visiting their parents. We gradually get to know them, and the fourth sister. Remembered events in one chapter turn up in another, only with a different spin.
The action starts in the early 1950s and goes back mostly into the 1920s and 30s. It is a different way of life with no running water or electricity and a rather insular outlook on life.
Written just on the cusp of Women's Lib, The Moonflower Vine apparently was as shocker. Now it doesn't shock so much as speak to the emotions.

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Let me plug my favorite blog-turned-into-book

Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong by Jen Yates


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love the Cake Wrecks blog--the silliness, the ridiculousness, the very weirdness of it all. And now it's in my favorite medium--a book.


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Couple of Good ones

Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence by Joseph D'Agnese



Two to five page summaries of the lives of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. A combination of setting the record straight (who were some of these guys?), debunking of popular myths, and some good old-fashioned gossip.
This would be a good bathroom book.

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Velva Jean Learns to Drive: A Novel by Jennifer Niven


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Growing up in 1930s Appalachia Velva Jean dreams of being a big-time singer in Nashville, even as she is bounded by a life restricted by the mountains of home.
But Velva Jean clings to her Momma's dying words to "live out ther in the great wide world" and uses them as a touchstone for discovery. Growing up is not always easy or straight forward, but it can and does make an interesting story.
Parts of this book reminded me a little of To Kill a Mockingbird.

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