swingbeat: 6/26 Coraline by Neil Gaiman

This is a book for young adults, and it reads pretty easily (like Harry Potter). It's a bit creepy and dark, but it's not a horror by any means.

Coraline is a girl who moves into a new apartment in the middle of nowhere. She's pretty bored and wants to find things to do. Her parents ignore her, and she has no friends. Coraline meets some old folks

in the building, but they're too weird for her (but they help her for part of the rest of the story). And then she discovers a locked door in that house. She enters that door and discovers a dark parodied

version of her current world, with an "other mother" and "other father" who try to get her to stay in that world.

The story is about her discovery of the evil in that other world, and how she escapes and stops the adversary.

This is a good book - I intend to see the movie now :).

swingbeat: 5/26 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

This book takes place in the world of American Gods, also by Neil Gaiman. It starts with the tale of Fat Charley. Fat Charley has a father who has torturingly embarrassed him all his life, and then dies.
In the aftermath of his father's death, Fat Charley discovers that his father was Anansi the Spider God, and he has a brother named Spider (unbeknownst to him). He accidentally calls on his brother, and all
sorts of havoc ensues.
This is a lighthearted tale written in a style reminiscent of Douglas Adams, though the author doesn't try to be Douglas Adams. Anansi is a fun Spider God (look him up on Wikipedia) who has many tales that
remind me of Aesop's fables, and this aloofness carries over into the writing.
I recomme

swingbeat: 4.2/26 The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch by Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli

Another hardcover graphic novel. A somewhat fantastical tale based on a short story by Gaiman.

Basic plot summary - man meets friends, who introduces him to Miss Finch. All four go to the circus. Except it's a weird circus that is somewhat dark, but still within the realm of possibility. Then at some point, Miss Finch departs (I won't explain how).

I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was OK, but I feel like I'm missing something here. If someone wants to pick it up and ping me, I'd like to talk about it. Couldn't find any deconstruction of it on the web, including Wikipedia.

swingbeat: 4.1/26 Violent Cases by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

OK, this is a ".1" because it's really a short graphic novel. It's a tale of a young boy's experiences with Al Capone's osteopath. I know, kinda random, but pretty good. The artwork was grey and dreary, somewhat dreamlike/foggy (it's supposed to be a man's memories of his experiences as a kid), and for some reason it made an impression on me, since when I woke up in the middle of the night, I felt fearful, as if I were in the graphic novel itself. I know, scary huh? :)

BTW the title is a kid's recollection of "violin cases" - that is, what Capone's men used to hold their tommy guns.

swingbeat: 4/26 Dreamsongs II by George R. R. Martin

Back on my GRRM kick… This book is a mostly enjoyable set of short stories. I've read some of them before, in various books I've reviewed here. However, they were enjoyable to read a second time (especially because I forgot the stories :) ).

That said, the highlight of this book was "The Hedge Knight" for me.. This was is a prequel to his current series "A Song of Ice and Fire", and I feel that in this genre he really shines. It got me nerded out and I started re-reading all the info on the series that I've forgotten on Wikipedia :)