The Wikkeling by Steven Arnston

The Wikkeling is a creepy, well-written children's book by a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop named Steven Arnston. The main character is Henrietta Gad-Fly, unliked by her fellow classmates and parents, terrible in school, and quite unattractive with a "blockish figure," she makes a great heroine. The world is made of plastic and old things are regarded with disgust. There is a strange creature stalking the main characters, giving them headaches. The entire story was set up with such care that it was a pretty big disappointment when Arntson completely drops the ball and doesn't explain anything in the end. I figured the Wikkeling would be some awesome metaphor for the way people were living but it turns out it's not really anything except maybe a computer program? And it was created to fight something that never gets explained. Pretty disappointing. Anyway, I'd still recommend this book. Just don't expect it to end as well as it began.

4.5/5

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

Kind of a pump-up for the entrepreneur. A call-to-arms if you will to gather your tribe, provide them with a place to communicate, and do your "duty." Pretty good while you're reading it, silly when you're not.

4/5

The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

Reading now

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Killer Unicorns!

Need I say more?

The focus was a little too boy-obsessed for my liking. Then again, I'm not a teenager anymore. Peterfreund pulled it off well. It's too bad more attention (and by attention I mean money) wasn't paid to this book. It could have been edited a little better. Some sentences were a little less than coherent. Also, there REALLY should have been at least 4 illustrations. Those four illustrations should have been of the 4 unicorn species in the world.

Not to worry, I'm illustrating them for you.

4/5

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje is a series of poems, prose, and occasional photograph meant to depict a fictional account of Billy the Kid's life. It's fast-paced, descriptive, and beautifully written. I really liked this book.

5/5

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

The Cover
It is beautiful. It says five things.
1. 1Q84
2. Haruki Murakami
3. A Novel
4. International Best Seller
5. "Murakami is a genius." Chicago Tribune

The Pages
Heavy press cream colored paper. Beautiful inside cover of two moons, one glowing white, the other clouded and dark against a black sky. Really the design of this book is superb. The page numbers are normal on the left and backwards on the right. 1Q84 is inscribed on the side of each page near the page number, also backwards on the right side.

By page 40
We have met two characters. One has traveled down the "rabbit hole," in this case, an expressway stairwell. So far it is expertly written- each scene a performance piece, set to silent music, with invisible cues. It's his best work yet, I'm already convinced.

The Entire Book
Haruki Murakami is a master. He kept the tension equal the whole time. The final outcome didn't hit until the last ten pages. And the whole time I was biting my nails, thinking, will he end it happily? I didn't know. I am immesely pleased with this book. I will carry it in my heart always. Also, I'm going to get a new tattoo on Friday. It's going to be from Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World.

This book gets 6/5

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

I didn't finish either of these books. They were both very intriguing. Fiction For Lyfe!