Trigger Warning

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

HarperCollins: 2/3/2015
eBook review copy, 352 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062330260
http://www.neilgaiman.com/

From one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved storytellers of our time comes a major new collection of stories and verse

"We each have our little triggers . . . things that wait for us in the dark corridors of our lives." So says Neil Gaiman in his introduction to Trigger Warning, a remarkable compendium of twenty-five stories and poems that explore the transformative power of imagination.

In "Adventure Story" - a thematic companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Gaiman ponders death and the ways in which people take their stories with them when they die. "A Calendar of Tales" is comprised of short pieces about the months of the year - stories of pirates and March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey." Also included is "Nothing O'Clock," a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the beloved series in 2013, as well as the never-before-published "Black Dog," a haunting new tale that revisits the world of American Gods as Shadow Moon stops in at a village pub on his way back to America.

Gaiman, a sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, entrances with his literary alchemy and transports us deep into an undiscovered country where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday is incandescent. Replete with wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of literary delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul.

My Thoughts:
 
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman is a diverse, very highly recommended collection of short stories.

Gaiman says, "We are all wearing masks. That is what makes us interesting. These are stories about those masks, and the people we are underneath them."

The diversity and wide range of genres represented in these extremely well written short stories is what compels me to give Trigger Warning my highest recommendation. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and have to say that I wanted more when it was done. Gaiman stories include such a wide variety of stories in various lengths that most readers should find several that appeal to them. I really thought this whole collection was extraordinary. The selections include stories about Sherlock Holmes, a Dr. Who story written for the 50th anniversary of the series in 2013, and an original tale that revisits the world of American Gods. In the introduction Gaiman includes a little back ground information on each story, if the reader is interested.

 He tells us about his stories:
"There are things that upset us. That's not quite what we're talking about here, though. I'm thinking about those images or words or ideas that drop like trapdoors beneath us, throwing us out of our safe, sane world into a place much more dark and less welcoming. Our hearts skip a ratatat drumbeat in our chests, and we fight for breath. Blood retreats from our faces and our fingers, leaving us pale and gasping and shocked. And what we learn about ourselves in those moments, where the trigger has been squeezed, is this: the past is not dead. There are things that wait for us, patiently, in the dark corridors of our lives. We think we have moved on, put them out of mind, left them to desiccate and shrivel and blow away; but we are wrong. They have been waiting there in the darkness, working out, practicing their most vicious blows, their sharp hard thoughtless punches into the gut, killing time until we came back that way. The monsters in our cupboards and our minds."

CONTENTS
Introduction
Making a Chair
A Lunar Labyrinth
The Thing About Cassandra
Down to a Sunless Sea
The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains...
My Last Landlady
Adventure Story
ORANGE
A Calendar of Tales
The Case of Death and Honey
The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury
Jerusalem
Click-Clack the Rattlebag
An Invocation of Incuriosity
"And Weep, Like Alexander"
Nothing O'Clock
Pearls: A Fairy Tale
Kether to Malkuth
Feminine Endings
Observing the Formalities
The Sleeper and the Spindle
Witch Work
In Relig Odhrain
Black Dog

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.

I Am Not a Slut

I Am Not a Slut by Leora Tanenbaum

HarperCollins: 2/3/2015
eBook review copy, 416 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062282590
http://www.leoratanenbaum.com/

Young women today are encouraged to express themselves sexually. Yet when they do, they are derided as "sluts." Caught in a double bind of mixed sexual messages, they're confused. To fulfill the contradictory roles of being sexy but not slutty, they create an "experienced" identity on social media—even if they are not sexually active—while ironically referring to themselves and their friends as "sluts."

But this strategy can become a weapon used against young women in the hands of peers who circulate rumors and innuendo—elevating age-old slut-shaming to deadly levels, with suicide among bullied teenage girls becoming increasingly common. Now, Leora Tanenbaum—senior writer and editor for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, author of the groundbreaking work Slut!, and the writer who coined the term slut-bashing—revisits her influential work on sexual stereotyping to offer fresh insight into the digital and face-to-face worlds contemporary young women inhabit. She shares her new research, involving the experiences of a wide range of teenage girls and young women from a variety of backgrounds as well as parents, educators, and academics. Tanenbaum analyzes the coping mechanisms young women currently use and points them in a new direction to eradicate slut-shaming for good.

My Thoughts:

 I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet by Leora Tanenbaum is a highly recommended examination of the meaning of "slut" for young women today.

Young women today face a contradictory landscape. While they can be encourage to explore their sexuality they can also be humiliated and disgraced based on the same actions or no actions at all but simply at the discretion of others. Currently the word “slut” has a dual meaning and can either be used as a positive, creating a sense of esprit de corps between friends or it is a negative, harmful label that can cause pain well into adulthood. Tanenbaum explores the meaning of "slut" in adolescent and college-age women and why the usage of the word is increasing.

Tanenbaum's book includes interviews with many young women. Their stories and experiences are the examples used to document her points. She also examines and distinguishes between the negative acts of slut-bashing and slut-shaming. Slut-bashing is verbal harassment where "a girl is intentionally targeted because she does not adhere to feminine norms. Slut-shaming, on the other hand, is a casual and often indirect form of judgment." Adding to this already volatile mix is the wide variety of social media outlets that can be used to harass and  bully, often anonymously.

Women face the ongoing problem that "female body parts are regarded as offensive, female sexual activity is mocked as a competitive sport for guys or preyed upon as an opportunity for coercion, and even young girls are reduced to sexual playthings." It's easy to understand why young women might internalize their own objectification. Tanenbaum makes an argument that, "'Slut' is best regarded as a toxic four-letter word that should be quarantined if not buried." She makes it clear that "we can sharpen awareness that 'slut' is a violent label; when females are called sluts, sexual assault and self-assault all too often lurk nearby. But first there is an important distinction to make here: it’s not female sexuality that is dangerous, but the sexual double standard." I think most women have seen many examples over their lifetime where men  have become accustomed to treating women as sexual objects and worthless “sluts.”

This is an empowering examination of what the problem is behind the increased use of the word "slut" and how we can address the societal issues while helping and encouraging young women today. Clearly, anyone who currently has any contact with teenage or college-age women knows that the all-too-common use of the word "slut" needs to be addressed and some encouragement to reassess the use of the word would be beneficial. Since these young women use social media constantly Tanenbaum points out that it could be used as a tool for positive change in contrast to the negative we so often hear about.

Tanenbaum does an excellent job explaining the problem with many examples, and offers some suggested solutions. The book includes  in the appendices Do's and Don'ts for Parents of Teenagers and College-Age Children; The Slut-Shaming Self Defense Toolkit; and a list of Resources

Table of Contents:
Introduction
What’s the Same, What’s Different
Are You a “Good Slut” or a “Bad Slut”?
Slut--Bashing: Face--to--Face and in Cyberspace
Reciprocal Slut--Shaming: Sexual Identity in an Online World
“Good Slut” Containment Strategies
“Bad Slut” Coping Mechanisms
The Rape of a “Slut” Is Rape
Can “Slut” Be Reclaimed?
Creative Solutions to Eliminate “Slut”
Appendix A: Do's and Don'ts for Parents of Teenagers and College-Age Children
Appendix B: The Slut-Shaming Self Defense Toolkit
Appendix C: Resources
Acknowledgments, notes

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of HarperCollins for review purposes.

The Great Zoo of China

The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly

Gallery Books: 1/27/2015
eBook, 416 pages
ASIN: B00J69Y52K
www.matthewreilly.com

It is a secret the Chinese government has been keeping for forty years. They have found a species of animal no one believed even existed. It will amaze the world. Now the Chinese are ready to unveil their astonishing discovery within the greatest zoo ever constructed.
A small group of VIPs and journalists has been brought to the zoo deep within China to see its fabulous creatures for the first time. Among them is Dr. Cassandra Jane “CJ” Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles. The visitors are assured by their Chinese hosts that they will be struck with wonder at these beasts, that the dragons are perfectly safe, and that nothing can go wrong. Of course it can’t…

My Thoughts:


The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly is a very highly recommended thriller for action/adventure junkies. In The Great Zoo of China Reilly opens with a scene that immediately lets you know that you are in for an action packed ride of the large scale creature variety.

Dr. Cassandra Jane “CJ” Cameron, a herpetologist and expert on crocodiles who is also a writer for National Geographic, along with her brother Hamish, a photographer, are invited to China to see The Great Zoo of China before it is opened to the public. Chinese officials have kept the existence of the zoo secret for years while building and planning it. Their goal was to create the greatest tourist attraction in the world. Along with a small group of VIPs, CJ and Hamish are flown to a secret valley without cages or enclosures. The Chinese have established electromagnetic domes to keep the zoo animals in while giving guests ultrasonic personal shields to keep the enclosed creatures at bay. We all learn quickly what animals are in the zoo.

CJ and the other guests learn that in November 1979, miners in a nickel mine broke through to a most unusual underground passageway and cavern. Inside was a large cache of eggs. In July 1981 one of the eggs hatched and a dragon emerged. The dragons are archosaurs, similar to pterodactyls. Suddenly mythical creatures from the collective historical past are real, alive, and thriving. We know from the opening that this visit will likely not end well and the guests will all be in danger.

Reilly fully  admits the fact that he loves Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and wanted to write a novel in the same vein in homage to Crichton.  He goes on to inform the reader that making a novel "fast and easy to read is not easy at all. It takes time and lots and lots of constant revising. If anyone says The Great Zoo of China is easy to read and only takes a few days to get through, then I will take that as a big compliment, because I worked hard to make it that way!" Reilly certainly succeeded in keeping the action moving non-stop and there are maps and diagrams throughout the novel to help you follow the action. I found myself compulsively stealing time throughout the day trying to find out what on earth happened next.

While I will concede that there  isn't a lot of character development, I wasn't really looking for that in The Great Zoo of China. Reilly delivered exactly what I wanted. I was hoping for a totally engrossing thrill-ride of escapism and non-stop action. This is a fantastic "stuck overnight at the airport book." That makes it very highly recommended for an action/adventure thriller. There is a lot of violence and bloodshed, but, ahem, here there be dragons...

In the past I have enjoyed Reilly's novels, but always noted that he went too over board in the use of exclamation points. I'm actually pleased to note that he was much stingier with them in The Great Zoo of China. Yes, of course they are there (real, live dragons are running amok!), but certainly their usage was much more restrained.


Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Gallery Books for review purposes.

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca M. Herzig

New York University Press: 1/16/2015
eBook Review copy, 280 pages
ISBN-13: 9781479840823

From the clamshell razors and homemade lye depilatories used in colonial America to the diode lasers and prescription pharmaceuticals available today, Americans have used a staggering array of tools to remove hair deemed unsightly, unnatural, or excessive. This is true especially for women and girls; conservative estimates indicate that 99% of American women have tried hair removal, and at least 85% regularly remove hair from their faces, armpits, legs, and bikini lines. How and when does hair become a problem—what makes some growth “excessive”? Who or what separates the necessary from the superfluous?

In Plucked, historian Rebecca Herzig addresses these questions about hair removal. She shows how, over time, dominant American beliefs about visible hair changed: where once elective hair removal was considered a “mutilation” practiced primarily by “savage” men, by the turn of the twentieth century, hair-free faces and limbs were expected for women. Visible hair growth—particularly on young, white women—came to be perceived as a sign of political extremism, sexual deviance, or mental illness. By the turn of the twenty-first century, more and more Americans were waxing, threading, shaving, or lasering themselves smooth. Herzig’s extraordinary account also reveals some of the collateral damages of the intensifying pursuit of hair-free skin. Moving beyond the experiences of particular patients or clients, Herzig describes the surprising histories of race, science, industry, and medicine behind today's hair-removing tools. Plucked is an unsettling, gripping, and original tale of the lengths to which Americans will go to remove hair.

My Thoughts:

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca M. Herzig is a highly recommended, fascinating look at the history of hair removal in the United States.

I am so glad a Rebecca Herzig didn't listen to her detractors and that she pursued writing this compelling history of hair removal. Plucked covers the various ways people have removed unwanted body hair, with the main focus on the U. S. In the U. S. today the deliberate removal of body hair is a widespread practice that is taken for granted, but the now seemingly conventional and commonplace act of removing body hair to obtain smooth skin is not even a century old. At the same time forced hair removal has been called torture and abuse (like for the detainees at Guantánamo) throughout history. Plucked also covers the changing social and cultural aspects of hair removal.
 
Plucked is well researched and well written. While it is not a complete, thorough examination of every aspect of the history of hair removal, it is short, concise and entertaining enough to appeal to a wide audience as well as those who enjoy history texts.  

Contents:
Introduction: Necessary Suffering
The Hairless Indian: Savagery and Civility before the Civil War
“Chemicals of the Toilette”: From Homemade Remedies to a New Industrial Order
Bearded Women and Dog-Faced Men: Darwin’s Great Denudation
“Smooth, White, Velvety Skin”: X-Ray Salons and Social Mobility
Glandular Trouble: Sex Hormones and Deviant Hair Growth
Unshaven: “Arm-Pit Feminists” and Women’s Liberation
“Cleaning the Basement”: Labor, Pornography, and Brazilian Waxing
Magic Bullets: Laser Regulation and Elective Medicine
“The Next Frontier”: Genetic Enhancement and the End of Hair
Conclusion: We Are All Plucked
Acknowledgments, Notes, Index

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of New York University Press for review purposes.

Baltimore Blues

Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman

HarperCollins: 11/29/2011 (reissue)
eBook, 304 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0062384065
Tess Monaghan Series #1
http://lauralippman.com/

In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz’s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer’s notoriety—and his taste for illicit midday trysts—make the case front-page news in every local paper except the Star, which crashed and burned before Abramowitz did. A former Star reporter who knows every inch of this town—from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill—now unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan also knows the guy the cops like for the killing: cuckolded fiancé Darryl “Rock” Paxton. The time is ripe for a career move, so when rowing buddy Rock wants to hire her to do some unorthodox snooping to help clear his name, Tess agrees. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the Charm City shadows. And Tess’ own name could end up on that ever-expanding list of Baltimore dead.

My Thoughts:
 

Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman is the highly recommended first book in the mystery series featuring Tess Monaghan. This is a great time to acquaint or reacquaint yourself with Tess in anticipation of the release of the twelfth book in the series, Hush Hush, on February 24th.

Set in Baltimore in the 90's, Tess is a 29 year old young woman at loose ends. She is an ex-newspaper reporter who has been downsized due to the closing of the Star, the paper she wrote for. Now she has to make due with two part time jobs that she has based more on the benevolence of her extended family than anything else. She is working at and living above her Aunt Kitty's bookstore while she keeps busy following a physically demanding schedule of her own design. "This was Tess’s routine, her only routine since the Star had been shuttered. Six days a week she rowed in the morning and ran in the evening. Three times a week she lifted weights in an old-fashioned boxing gym in East Baltimore. On the seventh day, she rested..."(page 4)

When her friend and rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton, asked her to follow his girlfriend, Ava, for a price, she acquiesces and begins watching the disagreeable young lawyer. She discovers that Ava is likely involved in several questionable activities and brings her discoveries to Rock. Right after this, Michael Abramowitz, a high profile lawyer at Ava's firm, is found dead and Rock is the suspect. Tess knows he is innocent, because Rock says so, but are Ava's constantly changing stories indicative of her role in the murder or is there some clue everyone is missing?

Tess is hired as a part of the defense team as a glorified gopher but she starts to look into the life of Abramowitz in order to discover who really murdered the lawyer. Soon things become more heated as more questions are raised and leads followed.

Originally published in 1997, Baltimore Blues is not only the first Tess Monaghan novel, is also Lippman's impressive debut novel. While I thought it got off to a slow, but pleasant start, it really takes about half way through and the pages just flew by. I liked the twisty revelations and the surprises the plot contained. Tess is a mouthy, feisty, likeable protagonist, one you will cheer on, even when you know she is making poor choices. The city of Baltimore is also a major character in Baltimore Blues.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes. 

 
Since her debut in 1997, Laura Lippman has been heralded for her thoughtful, timely crime novels set in her beloved hometown of Baltimore. She is the author of twenty works of fiction, including eleven Tess Monaghan mysteries. She lives in Baltimore, New Orleans, and New York City with her family.

 

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Five Fires

Five Fires by Laura Lippman

Byliner: 10/21/2014
eBook, 28 pages
ASIN: B00ODFRFAG

Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know, The Most Dangerous Thing, and most recently, After I'm Gone, delivers a suspenseful short story with an unexpected twist in her Byliner Original, Five Fires.
Everyone in small-town Bellville is talking about a series of mysterious fires disrupting the typically tranquil summer. The authorities attribute them to heat lightning, but some Belleville residents are not so sure…
High-school student Beth, like everyone else in Belleville, has been following the fires – she has plenty of time between her monotonous day job at the deli and solitary nights at home while her mom works late. The fires aren’t the only unusual occurrence – Beth’s old friend Tara, who left town the year before after a mysterious incident, returns with no real explanation. Circumstances only get stranger when Beth unwittingly discovers clues as to what – or who – is the cause of the fires.

My Thoughts:

Five Fires by Laura Lippman is a highly recommended short story of suspense being offered as a single.

It's summer and high school student Beth is working at the deli during the day and spending nights alone as her mom works a late shift. The town of Belleville has been experiencing a series of fires that Beth, who is interested in a career in criminal justice, is following.  As Beth narrates the story, we quickly deduce that she suspects that Tara, who recently came back to town, is setting the fires. Tara isn't really her friend, so why is she always bothering Beth?

Obviously, there is a lot more to the story than meets the eye in Five Fires. This is a very satisfying short story full of character development and slowly building suspense. Lippman manages to get you right inside her character's thoughts and includes a nice twist at the end.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Byliner via Netgalley for review purposes.

Watch Me Go

Watch Me Go by Mark Wisniewski

Penguin Group: 1/22/2015
eBook, 320 pages
ISBN-13: 9780399172120
markwisniewski.net

Douglas “Deesh” Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayal—and the prime suspect in the murders of three white men. 
When Jan, a young jockey from the gritty underworld of the Finger Lakes racetrack breaks her silence about gambling and organized crime, Deesh learns how the story of her past might, against all odds, free him from a life behind bars.
Interweaving Deesh’s and Jan’s gripping narratives, Watch Me Go is a wonderfully insightful work that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive for justice. At once compulsively readable, thought-provoking, and complex, it is a suspenseful, compassionate meditation on the power of love and the injustices of hate. 

My Thoughts:
 
Watch Me Go by Mark Wisniewski is a highly recommended novel that intertwines the hard facts of a crime novel with literary character studies.

Jan Price, comes to visit Douglas "Deesh" Sharp in prison. Deesh is an African-American who has been charged with the murders of three men. Jan says she can provide proof that will exonerate him of the murder of jockey Tom Corcoran, but first she needs to know that he didn't kill the other two men. At this point Wisniewski alternates chapters between the perspective of the two main characters as they look at their past and the choices they have made that resulted in their meeting.

The first chapter is Deesh's story about riding along with two old basketball buddies, Bark and James, hoping to earn a little cash. When the three are paid a grand to dispose of a sealed barrel that, though it is never said, everyone knew contained a body. The three dumped the barrel in a wooded area and then hit the race track taking a gamble that they can win even more betting on the horses and then they can make a break for it. Things quickly begin to spiral out of control for Deesh.

Jan's chapters recount her dealings with the Corcoran family. Jan and her mother moved from Arkansas to stay with friends Tom and Colleen Corcoran, on their son Tug's horse farm, As Jan  hopes to become a jockey like her father, she also starts to realize she has feelings for Tug. There is a lot of information about horse racing and gambling included in Watch Me Go.

Wisniewski skillfully handles the nuances in developing the personalities of each of his characters. Although both characters make bad choices, I think you will come to understand why they made the choices they did and how they were both reacting to the actions of others around them. They were both desperate and afraid. Good people can have bad things happen to them, and tragically it can leave them lost and searching.

I thought the writing was brilliant, especially in how the characters were developed and in the clarity of their separate, distinct voices. I care very little for gambling or horse racing, which are very prevalent, but the information you need can easily be assimilated enough to allow you to appreciate the larger story without trying to bog yourself down in remembering detailed racing facts. Wisniewski also does an admirable job describing the setting.

There were a few minor glitches in Watch Me Go, but, as a whole this is a fine literary suspense novel in contrast to a boiler plate crime novel. 

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Penguin Group for review purposes.