Quotations Weblog

Third in the series, Always by Nicola Griffith continues the story of Aud Torvingen:

• Unshelved comic strip – Always by Nicola Griffith

At the start of Griffith’s intense third thriller to star Aud Torvingen (after The Blue Place and Stay), the stylish half-American, half-Norwegian lesbian ex-cop and self-defense teacher is still grieving over the shooting death of her lover, Julia, a year earlier. Also distraught over a recent violent incident involving one of her self-defense students, Aud welcomes the chance to leave Atlanta, accompanied by her friend, Matthew Dornan, to visit her ambassador mother, Else, in Seattle. There sabotage of a TV pilot in production that’s been receiving OSHA and EPA complaints disrupts their vacation. Adding romantic tension is Victoria “Kick” Kuiper, a caterer and former stuntwoman, to whom both Aud and Matthew are attracted. Aud’s ace investigation reveals political and environmental chicanery, but more importantly, leads to a surprising lesson about love. Lucid prose and great self-defense lessons are a plus.

Sounds like girl power on overtime, but if you want a story about girls who kick a**, then you’ve got it here. You might want to start at the beginning of the series, however:

• The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith

If you’ve ever had a conversation with an imaginary friend, you’ll be charmed by Slam by Nick Hornby:

• Unshelved comic strip – Slam by Nick Hornby

Sam is a disarmingly ordinary 15-year-old kid who loves to skate (that’s skateboarding, to you and me). But then he is blindsided: his girlfriend gets pregnant, and he lands in the middle of his mum’s nightmare (she had Sam when she was 16). This may sound like an old-fashioned realistic YA problem novel, but it’s a whole lot more. Sam, you see, has a sort-of-imaginary friend: the world’s greatest skater, Tony Hawk, whose poster Sam talks to when he has problems. And the poster talks back, maybe, or maybe Sam is just reciting quotes from Tony’s autobiography. And is it really Tony who is “whizzing” Sam into the future for glimpses of what is to come? With or without Tony’s help, Sam gives us the facts about his very eventful couple of years, but as he reminds us, “there comes a point where the facts don’t matter anymore . . . because you don’t know what anything felt like.”

From the author of About a Boy and Hi Fidelity, Nick Hornby tells the story of Sam.

Can you create an equation to explain why you date who you date? An Abundance of Katherines by John Green tries to answer that question:

• Unshelved comic strip – An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Green’s eccentric narrative follows the exploits of Colin Singleton, a fading prodigy whose hobbies include making anagrams, dating girls whose names are Katherine, and coming up with mathematical equations that explain why said Katherines have dumped him. After “Katherine the Nineteenth” breaks his heart, Colin and his best friend go on a road trip that lands them in Gutshot, Tennessee. Jeff Woodman delivers a solid narrative voice brimming with enthusiasm and energy. He embodies Colin by vocalizing his frustration and aimlessness while also executing great personalities and accents for the various characters Colin encounters. Woodman’s smooth, animated tone produces an engaging atmosphere for this amusing novel.

Don’t you think you’d start avoiding girls who are named Katherine after the eighteen one dumps you?

In time for Halloween, how about 13 Bullets by David Wellington:

• Unshelved comic strip – 13 Bullets by David Wellington

It’s a vampire thriller with a twist:

Special deputy Jameson Arkeley stopped a vampire rampage 20 years earlier, during which he whittled down all known bloodsuckers to a single survivor, Justinia Malvern. Kept alive at a sanitarium in rural Pennsylvania by minimal life support and bizarre laws preventing her extermination, wispy Justinia seems a threat to no one—until a series of vampire killings in the area suggest that she has found a secret way to spread her taint. Convinced that Justinia’s minions plan to spring her and revive her to full power, Arkeley commandeers state trooper Laura Caxton to help him find their lair and wipe them out before they can get their vampire queen the blood she needs.

As described by Unshelved:

This isn’t the movies. Crosses don’t work, blood makes vampires virtually unstoppable, and their undead servants have taken a personal interest in Caxton and her girlfriend.

Sounds like a great read for the season!

It’s the sixth book in a series, but it’s a great title for Halloween: Bride and Doom by Deborah Donnelly:

• Unshelved comic strip – Bride and Doom (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 6) by Deborah Donnelly

If anyone can make a bride happy, it’s wedding planner Carnegie Kincaid. There’s only one problem: this time she’s the planner and the bride. The nightmare begins at a party for Carnegie’s client, a sexy Goth rocker marrying a Seattle home run king. When murder strikes and Boris the Mad Russian Florist is charged with the crime, Carnegie steps up to the plate to clear him—despite the objections of fiancé Aaron Gold, who has suddenly become a full-time sports nut. With baseball, bimbos, and one explosive secret threatening Carnegie’s safety, this wedding planner needs a new plan. Or else the bride could be next up—to die.

An amateur sleuth series that follows Carnegie Kincaid, a wedding planner. If you would like to start at the beginning of the series, read this one first:

• Veiled Threats (Carnegie Kincaid, Book 1) by Deborah Donnelly