File this one under “GOOD GRIEF.”

People Magazine is reporting that 16-year-old Justin Beiber’s cover art for his upcoming memoir is out.  The book is called First Step 2 Forever: My Story and will hit book stores in October.

There’s even a little flirty note on the cover that reads “Lots of exclusive photos just for you.  Love Justin xxx.”

Does this 16-year-old have enough life experiences to fill a book?

Bad Marie, the latest offering from the talented author Marcy Dermansky, is a quick and fantastic read.

The main character Marie is so very, very awful that you can’t help but love her. She is a modern-day Scarlett O’Hara, self-centered, opportunistic, and completely incapable of making safe or sensible choices for herself. If you can imagine a french film noir perched atop the wreckage of a fresh auto accident that you can’t look away from, then you might be reading Bad Marie.

Fabulous and hard to put down, this page turner found me talking to the book “Don’t do it Marie…don’t…ahhh…she did it. Now I must turn the page to see how the carnage plays out. Oh No! She just made it even worse! No Marie!”

Loved to Hate This Drunken Kidnapping Hedonistic Ex-con Bad Girl

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061914711
• ISBN-13: 978-0061914713

In The House of Tomorrow by Peter Boganni, Sebastian Pendergrass is less than social.  He’s home schooled and lives with his kooky grandmother in a dome.  And when Sebastian’s grandmother has a stroke, circumstance leads Peter to a new form of music: punk rock.

Nothing about this story is glamorous.  In fact, every character has a nasty flaw.  Just like real life, the teen boys swear, the mothers have secrets, the grandmothers are eccentric and the teen girls are awkward around boys.

Like most novels I enjoy, The House of Tomorrow does contain profanity and references to sex.  It has a Catcher In The Rye or Chuck Palahniuk feel to the pacing and sex/drugs/rock & roll references.

Quirky and dirty, just how I remember my teenage years.

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam (March 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399156097
• ISBN-13: 978-0399156090

With a little bit of mystery, a touch of romance, and spine-chilling eerieness, Katie Alender’s Bad Girls Don’t Die is a great summer read!

Alexis has a little sister Kasey who’ll be starting high school soon.  During Alexis’ senior year Kasey starts to act really weird by appearing randomly and whispering to her dolls all the time.  At first it just seemed like a collection of dolls but as time goes by the obsession begins to get out of hand.  Alexis meets a new guy that gets under her skin; but can she confide in him that her sister might be psychotic?

Katie Alender does a great job creating twists that keep you on the edge of your seat. You won’t notice how quickly the pages are turning when you get wrapped up in the story of helping Kasey stop from being psycho.  Alender also brings her characters to life with the contrasts between their personalities.  A book that will bring back your own teenage memories, and give you a new one.

If the hunter isn’t careful they will become the hunted.

Stuck in the doctor’s office for 4 hours last week, I finally cracked the cover of Bonk.  I’ve had this book checked out for 3 weeks, and have been meaning to read it for a year or so, but there’s something about non-fiction that makes my eyes glaze over and reach for the nearest fluff book on the shelf.  But, with no other choice than staring at the sterile white walls, I began to read.

What attracted me to Bonk initially was an NPR interview with the author when she first published Stiff: the Curious Life of Human Cadavers.  I was intrigued, and am still on hold for Stiff from the library…it’s always checked out when I want it!  So, in a quest to expand my non-fiction repertoire, I happened upon Bonk…it has a cute cover.

An entire book about the science of sex?  I had no idea what to expect.  At least with romances you know what you’re in for, the cover tells you everything!

Within the first chapter of Bonk I was hooked!  Mary Roach successfully takes an incredibly intimate and almost taboo topic and fearlessly explores how science has gained knowledge of the physiology of sex.  With amazing (and amusing) research, great dialogue, and wonderful footnotes (DO NOT SKIP THE FOOTNOTES!!) Bonk is a great discussion starter, and a great book to read aloud with your spouse.  You have to read it aloud, otherwise said spouse will be asking you every 5 minutes why you’re chortling away…coming from personal experience, anyway.

Bonk is an wonderful, open look at human behavior, and how society reacts & responds to that behavior.  Enjoy Bonk with an open mind and a sense of the ridiculous – because, really, how seriously can we take ourselves?

Surprisingly fun & informative, best when enjoyed with friends/spouse

This book sat on my shelf for a month because of my judgmental habits. It seemed boring to me but a friend of mine got it for me. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and I wish to share it with many. The main character Mack is a father of a girl who was murdered. As he lives his life he has a personal encounter with God.  The scenes this author paints are majestic and make your imagination go wild. You have to read this book with an open mind and leave all judgments until the very end and to remember it is only fiction. There is symbolism all throughout the book so I urge you to pay attention to the details as you read. Unification is the theme of this book and I can’t see why you wouldn’t buy this.  I understand it is a little religious but it has a great moral to it which is hard to find these days. Take the time and buy this book! You will not regret it.

Fantasy’s way of turning tragedy into healing with others.

Your Neighborhood Gives Me The Creeps tells about the wayward adventures of Adam Selzer, self proclaimed nerd, Ghost Hunter, Paranormal investigator, and skeptic. Adam’s scientific approach and healthy skepticism, along with his good hearted ability to keep quiet and not spoil anyone’s fun (Dude. That picture you just took that you think is a ghost? That’s actually a reflection of your ear) make this an interesting read. If you are at all worried about ghosts, reading this book will make you feel a thousand times better.

Original Spooky Amusing Historical schadenfreude.

We experience our world through our senses – be it a noisy evening rush hour, or a serene walk in the forest. Watching a movie (say, Last of the Mohicans) is a visual and phonic delight; while exploring a yarn store is a tactile & optical adventure that never ceases to amaze me. Tasting chocolate always stops me in my tracks, and the light, sweet decadence of tiramisu pushes me right over into a PG-13 rating.

But scent. Smell is one of those senses that we just take for granted. Sure, it’s great to walk by a bakery in the morning, or wince at those unfortunate elevator smells you come across occasionally. But to actually think about smell, and how you are inundated with scents throughout the day…and most of the time, you never even notice it.

German author Patrick Suskind wrote Das Perfume (Perfume) in 1985; an exploration of scent and how it connects to our emotions and ultimately, our humanity. But, in spite of the potential murkiness of deep thought – Perfume is an engaging read. Learning about making perfume was fascinating – the various methods of capturing and preserving the scents and the science behind building harmonic essences was eye opening to say the least. And, it’s a ripping good, although disquieting, tale of a murderer. (Think Dexter, but without the redeeming qualities.)

This book has also been incorporated into American mainstream – most recently in the form of a movie starring Alan Rickman & Dustin Hoffman (Don’t go there…that way lies disaster. At least read the book first!) I’ve recommended this book to many friends, and I have to say, it’s a love-hate thing. But even those who didn’t care for Suskind’s Perfume, all agree that the imagery and writing is phenomenal.

A delight to the senses, disturbing serial killer, must read!

Elizabeth Moon is one of my all time favorite authors – her Deed of Paksenarrion is one of the best high fantasy novels out there (I’ve read it at least 15 times, and love it more each time I crack it open).  She’s also written a couple of great space-opera series, and a marvelous stand alone novel entitled Remnant Population.  I love her details & plotlines; I adore how her characters grow, suffer, learn, & triumph.  Moon just writes a golly-gosh-darn good story!

The Speed of Dark is a bit of a departure from Moon’s usual Science Fiction/Fantasy fare.  Although it is most definitely in the Science Fiction genre, it is more introspective & thoughtful than her other works – less adventure, more character depth.

Lou, the main character, is a high functioning autistic man who works in a sophisticated technical job with other autistic employees.  There’s something about the way the autistic mind sees patterns & solutions that makes Lou & his colleagues ideal for this job.  Lou is happy with his job, happy with his schedule, content to be who he is.

Then a new manager arrives on the scene and begins questioning the purpose of the autistic staff.  In an effort to cut costs and “cure” their autism, the workers are STRONGLY encouraged to undergo an experimental treatment; with their jobs and housing at risk should they decline treatment. 

Moon does an amazing job of putting herself in the autistic mind – painting a perspective of life that is so hard for us “normals” (to quote the book) to conceive.  Ultimately, Lou has to decide what makes him him.  Is he defined by his autism?  Were his autism to be cured, would he be a different person?  Would he love the same woman after the treatment as before?  Will he be able to see & create the patterns that are so important to his career after the surgery?

Winner of the 2003 Nebula Award and the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Speed of Dark merits at least a second, if not a third read!

Great, page-turning read, even if you don’t like SciFi!

Stitches is a beautifully illustrated autobiographical graphic novel that tells the story of David Small’s illness and how his dysfunctional family dealt with it. As a child and teen growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, he lives in a silent, angry family that represses all emotions. From an early age he has “sinus problems” that his dad, a doctor, regularly X-rays to monitor. His mother is a pinched woman who takes her rage out on the pots and pans she washes. When he has an operation to remove a “cyst” growing on the side of his neck, one of his vocal cords is removed, leaving him mute. Only later does he find out that he had actually had throat cancer, and that nobody had thought to tell him about it.

Blending dream, imagination, and reality, this book is perfectly illustrated, with surreal excursions into his mind. Small has an innovative way of portraying what his younger self feels and thinks in stark, lovely black-and-white. One of my favorite panels is the one where David sees the stitches all along his throat for the first time. It is also a brilliant portrait of the ’60s. Truthful without being resentful, sad and slightly satirical, it’s a very quick and interesting read. The only thing is that I wish Small had gone more into his life after he left his family, as it seems to wrap things up quickly after age 16. That’s probably because the focus is on his life growing up with his family, but I feel it departs from the tone and style of the previous story a little.