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Archive for April, 2010

Nobody Move by Denis Johnson

Apr 8

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | No Comments

Nobody Move by Denis Johnson

From 1999 through 2003 I lived in a rural town in central Pennsylvania. Having grown up in sunny and metropolitan San Diego you can probably imagine how different life was for me when I moved. If I remember correctly, we had three bars, a couple of pizza places, two or three restaurants, a Dunkin’ Dounts and a Wal-Mart not too far away. For the first time in my life I was privy to true seasons. In Fall the leaves would all turn a beautiful hue before the dark, cold, snowy Winter stripped all those leaves away. In the Spring, flowers would being to bloom, the grass would turn green leading into the hot and humid Summer months.

There were many things that struck me about this part of the country, but one of the most distinguished was the people who permanently called this place home. I wouldn’t quite compare them to the banjo playing characters in Deliverance, a more realistic likeness would be to the characters in the book which I am reviewing here, Nobody Move. You see they aren’t quite backwards but they also aren’t quite forwards (yeah, that doesn’t mean much to me either).

The similarities between the two, central PA and the book, really struck home in the way in which the title character, Jimmy Lutz, was portrayed. Here’s this naive, somewhat ignorant guy that isn’t quite a criminal but is on the verge of it. A guy who is dictated by circumstance as opposed to dictating circumstances. I’m really not trying to be mean here and stereotype people from central PA, cause I’m not. What I’m trying to convey is that Mr. Lutz, the rest of the cast from the book and all the scenes in the story could have very easily occurred where I was living. (What’s really scary is that the book actually takes place in California, where I grew up and live now).

Stop! Hammer time.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Apr 6

Posted by The Valet in Fiction | 1 Comment

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

I doubt there is anyway for me to say this without sounding like an ass, so I’ll just go ahead and say it. When I was putting up all my notices of “Now Reading: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” on twitter, facebook and this blog I was little confused. I looked at the cover of the book and saw the title followed by “Wells Tower.” I thought to myself, “I know this is a book of short stories, perhaps Wells Towers is a group of editors or maybe a publisher, surely it’s not the name of the author.” Well, as luck would have it, of course Wells Tower is the authors name and here I am looking like an ass for thinking otherwise and even more of an ass for deciding to tell you this story. It is indeed a book of short stories, only they have all been written by Mr. Tower. I think I actually decided to tell you this so that you wouldn’t make the same mistake and make an ass of yourself. Wells is not only the author of this book but it turns out he is a highly respected journalist who has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine and Mcsweeney’s amongst others.

Like I said this is a collection of short stories. What they’re about on a macro level is pretty much impossible to say due to how different each of them are. In true Valet fashion I will go ahead and give you a brief synopsis of each one without giving anything away.

I apologize if none of my synopsis make any sense. The book made very little sense to me and therefore that is reflected below.

Nonsense ahead…

This Weeks Book Events, SF (week of 4/5)

Apr 5

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

San Francisco, I probably already miss you. Not in the “I want to be there instead of here” kind of way. More like in the I miss talking to my friends, drinking a few beers in the sun and reading in the park kind of way. But the more I think about it, the more I realize I’ll probably be doing just the same all the while eating some exotic fruits and pig parts (even if it’s not kosher), hanging out with new friends and being surrounded by lush verdant trees instead of concrete.

I am however feeling good that J is occupying my apartment. I’ve been on a good kick recently of helping friends out. Except for the one flub (beach house) I made the week before I left (if you’re reading this, you know who you are) for which I am still feeling like shit. Anyways, J has just returned to San Francisco from Berlin and is apartment hopping and I figured “hell, my place will be empty otherwise, just water the plants.” I’m sure he’s taking good care of it, after all, I do believe he is the cleanest most ocd of all my friends, and I mean that in the best way imaginable.

Monday, April 5th & Tuesday, April 6th
@ 730pm & 7pm
- Hugh Raffles, author, professor and insectologist will be at Kepler’s Books in Berkley (on Monday) and at The Book Shop West Portal (on Tuesday) reading from his latest book Insectopedia. I’m not huge on insects, they don’t really bother me but would I want to be around them all day everyday, no. This book on the other hand looks pretty rad. It’s a series of vignettes that depict “a mesmerizing exploration of history and science, anthropology and travel, economics, philosophy, and popular culture that shows how insects have triggered our obsessions, stirred our passions, and beguiled our imaginations.” Sorry, didn’t feel like summarizing or restating, quotes work better anyways.

Thursday, April 8th & Saturday April 10th
@ 730pm & 7pm
- D.W. Lichtenberg, author & student, will be at Pegasus Books in Berkeley (on Thursday) and The Make-Out Room (on Saturday) signing and discussing his book The Ancient Book of Hip. His book is a bunch of poems he wrote while living in New York. Think of something that’s “hip” and he probably wrote about it. What’s most interesting to me is that this man is actually a young man, being only 24. I gotta admit, his age kind of makes me want to question his street cred. Has he really been around long enough to know what’s “hip?” I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but I thought it important that you not go to Pegasus or Make-Out Room expecting an aged gentleman.

Friday, April 9th
@ 6pm
- Lisa Lutz, author, will be signing copies of her latest book The Spellmans Strike Again at Book Passage in San Francisco. I think Ms. Lutz is kind of like Ms. Jodi Picoult, but I’m not really sure. That’s all I really know. Oh and I think that a movie for the Spellman Files in the works. Either you know her and her work or you don’t.

Sunday, April 11th
@ 4pm
- Logan and Noah Miller, brothers and authors, will be signing copies of and discussing their book Either You’re In or You’re In the Way: Two Brothers, Twelve Months, and One Filmmaking Hell-Ride to Keep a Promise to Their Father. Yes, it is a long title.

This Weeks Book Events, LA (week of 4/5)

Apr 5

Posted by The Valet in Events | No Comments

It’s pretty hard for me to think of anything witty to say at this point. By the time you read this I will have been in Colombia for a whopping two days and most likely, or hopefully, will not have had a chance to really go online. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I guess what I will say is that I hope the weather I’m having is better than yours. I know, it’s not that nice of me to say, but come on, I’m on vacation, that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. Anyways, here’s the cool junk happening in your neck of the woods this week.

Monday, April 5th
@ 7pm
- Don Lattia, author, will be at Skylight Books talking about signing copies of his latest book Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge. Cults have always perplexed me. Especially since I grew up in Southern California and was a ripe age when the Heaven’s Gate cult committed suicide in my fair town. I don’t know much of anything about the story Lattia tells about in his book but I guess it’s about an event that took place in the 70′s. Sounds like an eye-opener to me.

Tuesday, April 6th, Friday, April 9th & Sunday, April 11th
@ 7pm, 7pm & 3pm
- Christopher Moore, author, will be at Book Soup (Tuesday), Vroman’s (Friday) and Barnes & Nobel (Huntington) signing copies of his latest funny concoction of a book, Bite Me! To date I have reviewed two of Mr. Moore’s books Lamb and Bloodsucking Fiends and enjoyed both but definitely prefer Lamb. This latest book is actually connected to or is in the same series as Bloodsucking and because of that I cannot be so sure I’ll read it. That’s not to say that it won’t be ridiculously funny, but I’m entitled to my opinion right? Honestly, I almost want to call these books “Lady-Books” but I don’t know if I can.

Wednesday, April 7th
@ 12pm
- Eric Garcia, author, can be seen at Book Soup talking about his, recently converted to movie, book Repo Men. I gotta tell you I had the pleasure of seeing this movie the weekend it came out and it was pretty rad. I was pretty shocked. Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker pretty much kicked some ass. If you don’t like gore, I suggest you not see it but seriously the twist is pretty remarkable. As for the book, I just don’t know, but I may be more inclined to read it now after seeing the film.

Thursday, April 8th
@ 1130 am
- Greg Mortenson, author, will be at the Millenium Biltmore hotel discussing his book Three Cups of Tea. But don’t think this one is for those of you out there on a budget, tickets for this bad boy are $85! I haven’t read his book but I know it’s pretty highly acclaimed. I think I’m putting it on here so that more people may come across my blog when they type in ‘Greg Mortenson & Three Cups of Tea’ in a google search. I think it’s a pretty good strategy.

Saturday, April 10th
@ 2pm
Dan Wells, author, who’s recent book is I am Not a Serial Killer will be at Dark Delicacies signing copies of his book. First off, Dark Delicacies is an amazing bookstore name, dig it. As for Wells book, it’s a thriller about a man working in a mortuary who is afraid of becoming a serial killer. Clearly there’s more to it than that but for me, that’s a good enough start.

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The Books I Carry

Apr 2

Posted by The Valet in Other | No Comments

Yep, unicorns, sea monkeys and FARC

You and I both know that it’s incredibly uncommon for me to plant a rogue post into my blog. In fact, I think this very well may be my first one. It comes though at or on an important day. The day which I depart, to Colombia for three weeks away from my blog for the first time since I started posting to it. Ok, I know for a fact that ,while I’m away my blog will be worked on and once I return you will surely hear all about my trip as I continue to review books and tell you what’s happening during the week. But, regardless, I will still be away. I will not be able to religiously track my traffic, work on my reviews daily, do advanced research on events or peruse news sources for information. I will be “off the grid.” Thank f’ing God. It’s about time.

At approximately 230 pm, I will be boarding an airplane headed first for Houston, Texas. From, after several hours of waiting, I will board another plane and take off for Bogota, Colombia where I will land at 456am.

Packing for this trip was no easy task. What do you bring to a country you know very little about. In the end I decided not to bring much at all. After all, the cowboy boots and leather jacket I plan on getting there should get me through the trip right? I’m pretty sure I’ll look sexy as hell wearing only the boots and jacket, kind of porn star esque, no?

The packing actually wasn’t so hard. What was hard for me though was deciding what books to carry with me. In the end, what I decided to do was bring the three longest books I have on my shelves right now. I figured, why lug 8 smaller books around with me when I can just take 3 that equal in length (or are most likely longer) than the alternative of dealing with many titles. The books I’ve chosen to bring with me are David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance and George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.

To give you a sneak peak I will provide you with completely unbiased and completely bullshit remarks about each book before I even open the first page. I will tell you that I know absolutely nothing about these books (ok, very very little) so this should be entertaining.

There’s more and it’s good…

Stitches by David Small

Apr 1

Posted by The Valet in Graphic Novel | 4 Comments

Stitches by David Small

If someone had asked me yesterday if I read graphic novels my answer would have been “no.” I like to think I’m open to all sorts of books no matter what genre they fall into. For the most part I am, but I’ve never really considered a graphic novel to be a “book” per se. I’ve always managed to put them in the comic book category (please don’t yell at me), until now.

My family is lucky. My mother used to own a bookstore and my sister is now a librarian. Thanks to both of them we have access to books galore. Thanks to my sister, my whole family was able to get their hands on Stitches due to the fact that her library branch didn’t have the proper plastic cover for it. I would not have read it had it not been for this fortunate circumstance.

Even though it may have only taken me an hour to read the book, I was thoroughly moved and impressed. What takes some authors 300 pages of text to impress on a reader, Small has accomplished using illustrations and very little text. But I will forewarn anyone who chooses to read this upon reading what I have to say, it is difficult and the images stay with you long after you have finished reading it.

Keep reading…

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