THOR'S WEDDING DAY -- Bruce Coville

full title:
Thor's Wedding Day: by Thialfi, the Goat Boy, as told to and translated by Bruce Coville
Harcourt, Inc -- hc
Orlando, FL -- ©2005 -- 137pp
ISBN-10: 0-15-201455-1
Illustrations by Matthew Cogswell

Thor's magical hammer, Mjolnir, has been stolen by the giants of Jotunheim, and Thor, his brother Loki, and Thialfi (the human) must use trickery to get it back.

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Bruce Coville is an incredibly talented writer, and one of my favorite authors. He writes for kids, which is good for kids, but not so great for adults who are missing out on his works.

This book can easily be read in an afternoon, but that doesn't mean it isn't good -- just brief. Because of it's shorter nature, there are some questions I have -- mainly, what was Loki's purpose in the story. He is set up as being quite the trickster, we are set to wondering why he insists on attending Thor on his journey, we learn that the dwarfs who actually stole the hammer have a grudge against Loki ... and that's the end of it. Ir definitely had the feel as if something more important was intended to happen, but never did.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed this read. Perhaps it's just "kismet" that I happen to be reading other Scandinavian tales (Saga of the Volsung) at this time as well, but the setting, characters, and mood sit very well with me.

A highly recommended read.

NOISY OUTLAWS, UNFRIENDLY BLOBS, AND ... -- Ted Thompson, ed

full title:
NOISY OUTLAWS, UNFRIENDLY BLOBS, AND SOME OTHER THINGS THAT AREN"T AS SCARY, MAYBE, DEPENDING ON HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT LOST LANDS, STRAY CELLPHONES, CREATURES FROM THE SKY, PARENTS WHO DISAPPEAR IN PERU, A MAN NAMED LARS FARF, AND ONE OTHER STORY WE COULDN'T QUITE FINISH, SO MAYBE YOU COULD HELP US OUT
edited by Ted Thompson, with Eli Horowitz
McSweeney's Books -- hc
San Francisco -- ©2005 -- 207pp
ISBN: 1-932416-35-8

An odd collection of stories, maybe aimed at younger readers, and then again, maybe not.

Introduction -- Lemony Snicket
-- Illustrated by Brett Helquist
"Small Country" -- Nick Hornby
-- Illustrated by David Heatley
"Lars Farf, Excessively Fearful Father and Husband" -- George Saunders
-- Illustrated by Juliette Borda
"Monster" -- Kelly Link
-- Illustrated by Shelley Dick
"The Contest at Cowlick" -- Richard Kennedy
-- Illustrated by Jan Van Der Veken
"Each Sold Separately" -- Jon Scieszka
-- Illustrated by Lane Smith
"Seymour's Last Wish" -- Sam Swope
-- Illustrated by Heinrich Drescher
"Grimble" -- Clement Freud
-- Illustrated by Marcel Dzama
"Spoony-E & Spandy-3 vs. The Purple Hordes" -- James Kochalka
"Sunbird" -- Neil Gaiman
-- Illustrated by Peter de Seve
"The ACES Phone" -- Jeanne DuPrau
-- Illustrated by Rachell Sumpter
"The Sixth Borough" -- Jonathan Safran Foer
-- Illustrated by Barry Blitt
Crossword Puzzle -- David Levinson Wilk
dust jacket story starter -- Lemony Snicket

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This is how a book should be put together! The actual, physical property of this book is beautiful. The binding is strong and firmer than most hardcovers. The cover (not the dust jacket) itself is an illustrated work. Lavishly illustrated in full color! All books should aspire to this kind of quality.

The stories themselves are rather uneven. As one might suspect, the stories by Nick Hornby and Neil Gaiman are among the best, but the others vary in quality. "Spoony-E & Spandy-3..." is a cartoon/comic which is so strange that I get the feeling that I'm not part of the inside joke. The Scieszka "story" feels as though it was a little something he had hanging around that he couldn't sell anywhere else.

"The ACES Phone" was quite interesting and unlike anything I'd ever read, and "Grimble" was interesting as well.

I'd like to support McSweeney's Books based solely on the physical properties of this book, but it wouldn't hurt if the inside contents were a tad more consistent.

ARTHUR & GEORGE -- Julian Barnes

Alfred A. Knopf -- hc
New York -- ©2005 -- 388pp
ISBN: 0-307-26310-x

Arthur Conan Doyle puts his Sherlock Holmes hat on, and works to overturn a miscarriage of justice against barrister, George Edalji.

This book was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize (which was won by John Banville's The Sea). It is, in my opinion, a much better and more readable book than Banville's winner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, always anxious about what was going to happen next. I often thought that it read like a Sherlock Holmes story, with more information provided.

I will grumble a bit over the ending (**WARNING** Possible Spoiler Alert In This Paragraph!!), which concluded the story -- sort of -- with an almost notation, rather than a revelation. And even at that, we have no knowledge of the culprit.

Still, this is most definitely a recommended book.

THE EVIL B.B. CHOW AND OTHER STORIES -- Steve Almond

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill -- hc
Chapel Hill, NC -- ©2005 -- 233pp
ISBN-10: 1-56512-422-7

A collection of short stories.

"The Evil B.B. Chow"
"The Soul Molecule"
"Appropriate Sex"
"I Am As I Am"
"A Happy Dream"
"Lincoln, Arisen"
"The Idea Of Michael Jackson's Dick"
"The Problem Of Human Consumption"
"Wired For Life"
"Summer, As In Love"
"Larsen's Novel"
"Skull"

Ah...another Steve Almond collection.

I really do enjoy this man's writing, though I don't think this collection was a strong as his earlier, My Life In Heavy Metal, collection. Still, it was nice to read some short stories that were intelligently written, and not ponderous.

It's hard to pick a favorite, though the title story is quite good. "Summer, As In Love" was good, but I wanted more resolution.

"Lincoln, Arisen," did not work for me. Frankly, I didn't understand what Almond was going for here.

I will continue to look for new works by Mr. Steve Almond.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: 1599 -- James Shapiro

Harper Collins -- hc
New York -- ©2005 -- 394pp
ISBN-10: 0-06-008873-7

In 1599, William Shakespeare wrote four of his most popular and best-received plays: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and Hamlet. This book examines the society and events of the time which most certainly influenced the master playwright.

This is an absolutely fascinating read! It is NOT a biography of Shakespeare -- those are abundant, despite the meager information available about the man -- but rather a study of the significant events which most certainly influenced the writer.

While some of the information grew a little tedious for me (specifically the long chapter on Essex's battle with Tyrone of Ireland), I found much of the examination quite remarkable.

Most certainly I learned some things about Shakespeare and about his writing. I learned about why some things might have been much more interesting or humorous to the play-goer of 1599 but is lost on today's audiences.

Not exactly a "light" read, but not a work targeted solely to scholars, either.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in history, theatre, and/or Shakespeare.

THE ULTIMATE X-MEN VOLUME 11: THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME -- Brian K. Vaughn

Graphic Novel
Pencils: Stuart Immonen Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Marvel Comics -- tpb
New York -- ©2005
ISBN: 0-7851-1659-1

On a privately owned island, a reality television show is being filmed in which mutants are hunted and killed.

Although it's been awhile since I've visited the world of mutants and X-Men, and there are a few new characters gracing the pages of this book, I really enjoyed this story. There are definitely some interesting relationships going on among the X-Men, and not just personal. This definitely made me want to read a little more (although the price on a graphic novel just seems outrageous to me [yes, I know that it's probably cheaper than the price of the individual comics, but then those seem even more outrageous]).

I really appreciated the story-line, which was NOT a "bigger, badder, more powerful than anything we've seen before"-foe kind of story, but story of ethics, justice, and international cooperation, mixed in with superheroes. Very cool.

The art was good, and had me wrapped up in the story.

A recommended graphic novel.

THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2004 -- Lorrie Moore, editor

Houghton Mifflin Company -- tpb
Boston -- ©2004 -- 462pp
ISBN: 0-618-19735-4
Series Editor: Katrina Kenison

A collection of short stories.

Foreward
Introduction -- Lorrie Moore
"What you Pawn I Will Redeem" -- Sherman Alexie
"Tooth and Claw" -- T. Coraghessan Boyle
"Written in Stone" -- Catherine Brady
"Accomplice" -- Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum
"Screenwriter" -- Charles D'Ambrosio
"Breasts" -- Stuart Dybek
"Some Other, Better Otto" -- Deborah Eisenberg
"Grace" -- Paula Fox
"The Tutor" -- Nell Freudenberger
"A Rich Man" -- Edward P. Jones
"Limestone Diner" -- Trudy Lewis
"Intervention" -- Jill McCorkle
"Gallatin Canyon" -- Thomas McGuane
"Runaway" -- Alice Munro
"All Saints Day" -- Angela Pneuman
"What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?" -- Annie Proulx
"Docent" -- R.T. Smith
"The Walk With Elizanne" -- John Updike
"Mirror Studies" -- Mary Yukari Waters
"What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence" -- John Edgar Wideman
Contributor's Notes
100 Other Distinguished Stories of 2003
Editorial Addresses of American and Canadian Magazines Publishing Short Stories

I enjoyed this collection moreso than the collection of essays of the same year. Some of these stories I even enjoyed quite a bit. However, even in this, none of the stories sits with me as I reflect back a month or more to when I read them. Once or twice I tried to take note of the author's name because I liked a piece, but I haven't yet found myself interested enough to seek out new works by any of these writers.

In one or two cases, I found the works to be rather pretentious -- writing more to a style for the age, rather than crafting an interesting story.

This was a good book to have on hand for the occassion when I was looking for a short work that I could read in one sitting, but not one that I will refer to time and again.

My local library will enjoy the donation.