"Interview with a Jewish Vampire" - Erica Manfred

This was one I got over a year ago (I believe Amazon had this one available for free, and since I liked the title…), but it took me until now to get around to reading it.

Erica Manfred is a self-professed lover of Anne Rice's vampire books, and clearly some of that comes through in "Interview with a Jewish Vampire."  Mostly because she references it (and Dracula and Twilight…).

I really wanted to like this book, but I just had too many problems with it.  The lead character Rhoda, a divorced, middle-aged, zaftig freelance writer, had so few redeeming qualities that it was hard to root for her.  She is selfish, whiny, paranoid, and childish.  I spent most of the book hoping that the Jewish vampire, Sheldon (a rabbi who was turned into a vampire by Dracula) would run away with one of the other more agreeable characters (Rhoda's best friend or one of the group of granny vampires they meet in Florida).  Anyone but Rhoda.  And the though of her being turned into an immortal.  Oy vey!  An eternity of kvetching and tsouris.

After reading the book, I assumed that Manfred had self-published.  That would explain the pacing problems (the book could have been half the length without losing any of the story), the occasionally ham-handed plot issues (at one point Rhoda finds a book on how to date a vampire and decides to follow "The Rules," as she calls them.  They make no sense, and really only serve to kill time while other plot issues come to a head with Rhoda's mother), and some huge continuity problems (more on those in a moment).

However, revisiting the book's intro, Manfred thanks her editor.  Given that the book shows almost no signs of an editor's hand, I was blown away by that.

Two obvious examples (and ones that really annoyed me) concerned important bits of information for the plot.  The first is that vampires have the power to "glamour" a human into doing something - basically overpower their will and have them do the vampire's bidding.  This is established early in the book when Sheldon uses the power to get to a table at a deli for a date with Rhoda.  And he goes on to explain to Rhoda what the glamour is and how it works.

Later in the book, the glamour is reintroduced by another character, and Rhoda has never heard of it, and Sheldon claims to have never used it for ethical reasons.

Similarly, early on Sheldon confesses to Rhoda that his brother is also a vampire, and that Sheldon turned him into one because the brother was dying.  Later in the book, the brother is mentioned again, with Rhoda never having heard of him, and Sheldon relating the entire story again.

I can't believe that an editor, or even a proofreader would miss something that obvious.

Overall, the book had some good points - decent humor, some well-written characters, a generally strong overall plot - and with a strong editor (and a couple of red pens), this could be a tight funny novella.  In fact, with a little work, I could see this turning into a series (some of the side characters could carry their own books).

But as it is, if I hadn't gotten it for free, I would have been annoyed.

"Sara" by Greg Herren

I've read and enjoyed a number of Greg Herren's novels, mostly his Chanse McLeod and Scotty Bradley mysteries (and some of his pseudonymous ones), but this is the first of his YA novels I've tried.  I really enjoyed it because he did such a masterful job of setting up my expectations, and then knocking them completely apart.

Having not read the description of the book, I was prepared for it to be a typical story about the changes to a high school's social dynamic caused when one of the popular jocks comes out of the closet over the summer.

And that was basically how the book started.  "Sara" seemed to be  a fairly typical coming out story about Tony, a high school football player, and his best friend Glenn, the one who comes out of the closet after he starts dating a lifeguard over the summer.  It has the requisite bullying by some of the less evolved, and more religious jocks (and of course, some people turn out to be supportive).

All in all, fairly standard.  Then Sara, a mysterious stranger, comes into the picture and immediately sets her sights on Glenn.

Okay, so at this point it looked like the book was going to turn out to be a little more like "Fatal Attraction," and Sara was going to try out to be someone who wouldn't take no for an answer, despite Glenn's being gay.  Maybe she was going to be a psycho that Tony would have to save Glenn from, and boom, Glenn and Tony would be together happily ever after.

But that wasn't where the story was going either.

Glenn seems just a smitten with Sara, which is of course surprising, and somewhat disturbing to his friends, because he's just come out.  Then the people who were bullying Glenn start dying.  And the book takes a supernatural turn.

Just who or what is Sara really?  That is the question that Tony has to answer before Sara decides he's a threat to Glenn, too.

I really enjoyed all the twists and turns, and constantly being surprised when Herren would suddenly mix things up and throw in some huge surprises.  I was also not prepared for the ending to be as dark as it was.  Usually these types of books have much happier endings, and while this one was appropriate for a horror/mystery type novel, it was a surprise for a YA one.

The characters were well written, and I think Herren was especially adept with Tony's desire to be supportive for Glenn, while still being taken aback by his best friend's sexuality (and what it could imply about his sexuality as well).  While Tony clearly loves Glenn like a brother, this new side of Glenn does pose a problem for him, one that he feels very guilty about.

My one complaint about "Sara" is that Herren tips his hand about which character Tony will end up dating (I won't give it away here).  When the final confrontation happened, it was fairly clear which love interest would survive (and therefore, which one would die).  But there were enough surprises left in that final confrontation that I didn't mind.

I'm looking forward to reading some of Herren's other YA novels in the future (and I hope there is more coming up in his other series as well).

"Young and Horny: 10 Gay Erotic Short Stories" by Matthew Rettenmund

I read and really enjoyed Matthew Rettenmund's novels "Boy Culture" and "Blind Items: A (Love) Story."  I also follow his blog, BoyCulture.  So when he mentioned that he had put together a book of gay erotica, "Young and Horny: 10 Gay Erotic Short Stories," and was selling it on Amazon for under $1, I decided to check it out.

All but one of the stories are male/male pairings (the final one is female/female).  They are stories that Rettenmund wrote (and in many cases, published in gay magazines and anthologies) in the '90s.

The stories are pretty much what you want from erotica - hot, sexy, short - though Rettenmund is a better writer than many who are currently publishing erotica on Amazon, and he has a really good sense of humor that shines through in some of the stories.

If your tastes run more toward the written word than the downloaded movie clip, "Young and Horny" has a good collection of stories for you.  I will admit that it probably wasn't the best choice for subway reading, but when you only have a limited number of minutes a day when you can read, you do what you have to.

If you've read Rettenmund's blog or previous novels (or have seen Q. Allan Brocka's film adaptation of "Boy Culture"), I suggest checking out this book.  Plus, it's kind of interesting to peek inside an author's head and see what he thinks is hot.










And here's a link to the Boy Culture movie.

New purchase - "Bitter Eden" by Tatamkhulu Afrika

I just read a couple of reviews of "Bitter Eden," a novel about an Allied soldier captured in North Africa and his experiences in the Italian and German POW camps.  It focuses on the relationships and bonding that occurs between the men, in what is, of course, and all-male environment.  The book was published in England, and is just now making it to the US.

Sounds like an interesting novel, though some reviewers find it over-wrought and melodramatic.

We'll see.  Personally, I don't really mind a little melodrama, as long as it is well written.  And while I'm not a fan of over-wrought emotion in plays, I don't mind it as much in books.

"Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison

"It's people!  Soylent green is made out of people."

Well, not in the original novel.

Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" may be the basis of "Soylent Green," but it has a number of significant differences.  Soylent is just a high protein meat substitute.  Det. Rusch's elderly roommate isn't euthanized in a death room while classical music plays and bucolic nature scenes are projected on the walls.  An evil corporation isn't trying to keep itself rich at the expense of the poor.

In Harrison's book, it's 1999. The population of NYC has grown to 35 million, most of it poor and unemployed.  People live in squalor.  There is little or no infrastructure left - no subways, iffy water supply - and most of America has been poisoned or swallowed by a dust bowl caused by global warming.

The main plot deals with a murder of a rich criminal, Det. Rusch's investigation of his death, and his relationship with Shirl, the criminal's girlfriend.  But the really interesting part of the book is the dystopian future and the fact that this book is so blatantly pro-abortion (it was written in '66, 7 years before Roe v. Wade).

This was an amazingly good read, one that I nearly passed up because I was expecting, well, Charlton Heston.  It's a more nuanced book than I expected, and from what I've read, a real departure from Harrison's normal writing (darker, less humorous). Now I want to go read the Stainless Steel Rat books and see what they're like.

I'm also glad I read this while living in New York.  I love reading books set here (especially Lawrence Block's various series), because I like to see how many of the places I know and how true the story seems to be to the location.  Harrison's book was great, because it was so easy to picture.  Spend a couple of hours in Times Square and it's easy to pretend that we live in a city of 35 million people (and half of them are dressed like Elmo).

The book was bleak and the ending was pretty much what I expected.  Not a bang, but a whimper.  And one that Harrison was hoping to warn us away from.

John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?"

I love a good monster story, and John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" is a really good monster story.  The novella is the basis for the movies "The Thing from Another World" (1957), "The Thing" (1982) and "The Thing" (2011).

I loved the 1982 version.  Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley (back before his dia-beet-us days), and Donald Moffatt (who had one of the best lines in the movie).

The book was surprisingly good, especially considering it was written in 1938.

"Who Goes There?" tells the story of a group of scientists at a remote Antarctic station who discover a disabled spaceship frozen in the ice and recover a vicious-looking, red-eyed alien from the crash site.

Over the dire warnings of one of the scientists, they decide to thaw it out.  Well, you can pretty much guess what happens next.  Lots of blood and death.

The alien can dissolve living tissue and absorb it, then become a new version of the person or animal that it absorbed.  And as it accumulates more mass, it can become more things - sled dogs, cows, people.  Left unchecked, it could replace all life on Earth.

The scientists defeat the creature in the end, just as it was about to use its advanced technology to escape the base.

I really enjoyed this one.  Clever, well-written, and just the right length.  The pacing was fast and suspenseful.  Just a really good read.

When doing some background research on the book, I came across a short story written by Peter Watts that takes Campbell's premise, and retells it from the monster's point of view.  Very clever, and a remarkably good read itself.  I suggest reading both.  Watt's story, "The Things," is available online at the Clarkesworld Magazine site.

I checked out Peter Watts' website, and am very impressed.  First, it's a cool design.  And even better, many of his novels and short stories are available to download for free.  I love authors (and musicians and artists…) who do that.  Getting to know them and their writing through free downloads makes me more likely to purchase their work.  Once I'm hooked, I'm hooked.

Found books - "The Power of Now," "Juicing for Life," and "Emotional Cuisine"

In the lobby of my building, there is a small table that has become, much to our landlord's dismay, ground zero in a building-wide swap meet.  Anytime someone has an item that they no longer want, it gets put on that table.  Sure it can look a little junky at times - recently one of our neighbors put four bags of clothes and one bag of shoes - but it's a great way to get rid of stuff that you no longer need, but still has some life left in it.

I've gotten some great scores there - some lovely scarves that I'm going to give to my niece for her birthday, some kitchen utensils, and a few hundred dollars worth of Waterford crystal wine glasses (seriously, who throws those away!?).

But mostly, I get books.

The latest ones are "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, "Juicing for Life" by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane, and "Emotional Cuisine" a book and accompanying CD by Marriott Marquis chefs Armando Monterroso and Steve Evetts (the book is signed by both chefs and features stunning photos of their creations).

The goal for the books that I get from the swap table is to read them, then pass them on (though I'll keep the signed one).  "The Power of Now" will probably go to my mom, who is really into these kinds of books right now, for whatever reason.  "Juicing for Life" will go to my trainer, who collects any kind of nutrition books that he can.

All in all, not a bad haul.  I'm especially looking forward to the Eckhart Tolle book.  I've never read any of his books, but good Lord, you can't help but see tons of his quotes on Facebook.






There is no Amazon link for "Emotional Cuisine," but here is  a great article on the travel site LandLopers that talks about the book and has a few of the amazing recipes.