Happy April Fool’s Day! Despite today’s date, I swear that this huge, long list of books is no joke.

Attending library conventions has already proven dangerous to my bookshelves, but it’s even worse when I drive there and don’t have to figure out how to fit my new acquisitions into my suitcase. Fifteen new books came home with me. That number doesn’t include those that came home with Rudi, nor those that stayed with Sam and Alexis as gifts.

Before we talk about new additions, let’s start with what got read:

• The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde

My take:A February birthday acquisition from Rudi, this book lived up to the Fforde legacy of clever literary references, characters, and plot devices. More interesting, I thought, was the fact that these are the characters that appear in The Well of Lost Plots where Thursday Next retires to during her pregnancy. Fforde said this was the first novel he’d ever written; clearly he did some rewriting following his success. A clever mystery for anyone who enjoys a fun story.

• The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

From the book jacket: “Joan Didion explores na intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage — and a life, in good times and bad — that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. … This powerful book is Didion’s attempt to make sense of the ‘weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness … about marriage and children and memory … about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.'”
Why this book? The day we left England last fall, we picked up a copy of The Guardian to take with us. They chose that day to excerpt Didion’s book and I was reading it as the plane took off. As we soared over Bristol and Wales, tears streamed down my face, and Rudi comfortingly patted my arm. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back soon.” I snuffled and pointed to the newspaper. I think he managed not to chuckle.
My take: I borrowed the book from the library, but it refused to lend itself to quick reading. I found that The Guardian had excerpted the most moving portions, which come toward the beginning, when Didion’s husband dies and a bit later at his memorial service.

I’m sure Didion is accurate in her characterization of grief, something we talk about too little in our culture of moving on. It seemed consistent with my sadness when my grandfather died, but magnified by the fact that it was Didion’s husband (the love of her life and her writing partner) who died as opposed to a relative two generations older.

Perhaps the book suffered from too much hype; it’s been nominated for nearly every major nonfiction award here and in the UK. But it just wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.

• Halfway House, by Katharine Noel

Why this book? I pulled this book from the shelf where it had resided since I got back from San Antonio after both the Washington Post and RJ Julia Bookstore gave it rave reviews.
My take: When you suffer from depression (even a mild one, as I do), it can be tough to read a book that focuses on how mental illness affects not just the person, but also everyone else in the person’s life. It’s discomforting. You don’t want to know (for certain) that your own misery is just as bad for your loved ones as it is for you.

But back to the book: Noel does a great job in offering a peek behind a dark curtain. Angie, the main character, walks the fine line between light and dark with care, periodically falling off on one side or the other. Her family is well-rounded; they aren’t always likeable or reasonable, but neither is anyone dealing with a loved one’s major illness. I’d recommend it for anyone who is looking to understand how hard it is to live with a mental illness (both first- or second-hand); my one caveat would be to not read it while you are in the midst of a tough episode if you suffer from mental illness yourself.

Next up, we have a few books that were such strong contenders that they didn’t even have time to get acquainted with their new neighbors before they were swept into my bag for some reading adventures:

• Ex Machina, Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days and Ex Machina, Vol. 2: Tag, by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris

From the book jacket: “When a strange accident gives civil engineer Mitchell Hundred amazing powers, he becomes America’s first living, breathing super-hero. Eventually tiring of risking his life merely to help maintain the status quo, Mitch retires from masked crimefighting and runs for Mayor of New York City, winning by a landslide. And that’s when his real adventure begins…”
Why this book? Sam gave me this graphic novel and its sequel for my birthday. He’s followed the series from the beginning (or close enough) in its comic book form and is a huge fan. Each graphic novel contains five comic books.
My take: I liked the first volume and I’m glad the sequel is at hand (and that the third book comes out next week). The characters in it seem reasonable and realistic, if it’s ever possible for superhero comics to seem that way. And the backstory is interspersed as flashbacks, which keeps you reading to find out what happened in Mitch’s past that makes him so want to save humanity.

• Take Big Bites, by Linda Ellerbee

From the book jacket: “[Ellerbee] takes us both farther afield and closer to home, in a memoir of food, travel, and personal (mis)adventure that brims with warmth, wit, uncommon honesty, and inspired storytelling … and a few recipes as well.
Why this book? I don’t really know. I had a vague inkling I knew who Ellerbee was, and I’m always a sucker for travelogues or food writing.
My take: A pleasant read interspersed with interesting-sounding recipes. I don’t know if it’s just Ellerbee’s reporter personality that leads her to have such big adventures and to get to know people from such different backgrounds, but she clearly enjoys what she’s doing and wants you to enjoy it with her. She points out flaws in logic and is perfectly willing to point that flashlight into some of her own dark corners. A beach read, but not if you’re hungry. By the time you’ll have finished with the first chapter, you’ll be starving!

• Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke

From the book jacket: “One cruel night, Meggie’s father reads aloud from Inkheart, and an evil ruler named Capricorn escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Somehow, Meggie must learn to harnass the magic that has conjured this nightmare. Only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever. This is Inkheart, a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life.”
Why this book? During my jury duty stint, I left the book I was reading at home one day. Because I couldn’t imagine a whole lunch hour spent without a book, I ran over to Olsson’s at Penn Quarter, bought a book I’d been eyeing for a while, and plunked myself down in their café to start reading. (It is worth noting that this book is the first in a trilogy. The second, Inkspell, was published this fall, and Funke’s website suggests she is hard at work on the third.
My take: Wow. I can see why this was translated from its original German. And why it’s been optioned for a movie.

Meggie, raised by a single father, is a typical 8-year-old bookworm until the night when a character from her father’s past, Dustfinger, reappears. And from then on her world is turned upside down. Her father is coerced to go see the gangster-like Capricorn and Meggie and her great-aunt follow with Dustfinger to try to rescue him. They, too, are betrayed and taken prisoner and then the nightmare truly begins.

The characters — both light and dark — are thoroughly drawn. The story draws on a history of fantasy novels and acknowledges that with an epigraph from other well-known works at the start of each chapter. And the action was so riveting that I kept having to put the book down, as the good guys found themselves in dangerous situation after dangerous situation.

You know a book is good when you refuse to pick it up because you don’t have enough time to read to get your character safely through their latest tribulation.

I suspect this will make my best of 2006 list.

The rest of the books were all freebies, acquired at the Public Library Association meeting last week:

• How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life, by Mameve Medwed

From the book jacket: “What do a chamber pot, a famous poet, a family feud, and a long-ago suitor all have in common? In this delicious laugh-out-loud new novel of love and loss, rivalry and reconciliation, treasure and trash, by acclaimed author Memeve Medwed, we see what happens when past and present collide.”
Why this book? This was another book recommended by the folks at RJ Julia’s and I happened to remember the title when I came across it at Random House.

• Queen of the Oddballs (And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan), by Hillary Carlip (due out May 1)

From the book jacket: “In Queen of the Oddballs Hillary Carlip recounts a life spent habitually strayin from roads more traveled. Along the way we see her as a wise-cracking third-grader suspended from elementary school for smoking (an attempt to imitate Holly Golightly), a headline-making teen activist, a juggler and fire eater, a friend (NOT ‘fan’) of Carly Simon and Carole King, a grand prize-winner on The Gong Show, a cult rock star, and a seeker of spiritual-romantic truths that defy expectations.”
Why this book? Because it sounds quirky enough to be interesting. And even if Carlip isn’t, her adventures sound like they should be.

• The Pursuit of Happyness, by Chris Gardner (due out in June)

From the book jacket: “At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Yet he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. But no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him homeless with his toddler son. Instead of giving in to despair, the two sent almost a year moving among shelters, ‘HO-tels,’ and soup lines, even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station — ultimately making an astonishing transformation from the bathroom to the boardroom.”
Why this book? Random House was really pushing this book, which is due to be made into a movie starring Will Smith. And it sounds like a fresh take on a rags-to-riches tale. And I’d like to see if he has any lessons-learned that can be applied to helping raise the lowest classes.

• Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way, by Bryan Charles (due out in June)

From the book jacket: “It’s 1992, and as Vim Sweeney deals with the recent end of his high school career and the uncertainty of his future, America shares his angst. … In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Vim is trying to put off adulthood and all that comes with it, whatever that is, for as long as he can. He is already juggling guitars, girls, and a long-absent biological father who suddenly starts making noises about Wanting to Be Involved. And he still can’t convince his friends why local schoolboy Derek Jeter is bound for obscurity. [The book] traces Vim’s stumble toward adulthood as he learns to accept that the things he thought would last forever probably won’t.”
Why this book? Because I graduated from high school in 1992. Because I feel a bit lost. Because it mentions a future Hall of Fame baseball player in the blurb.

• Between Mom and Jo, by Julie Anne Peters (due out in May)

From the book jacket: “Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two moms who think he’s the greatest kid ever. And he happens to think he has the greatest Moms ever, but everything changes when his birth mom and her wife Jo start to have marital problems. Suddenly, Nick is in the middle, and instead of having two Moms to turn to for advice, he has no one. Nick’s emotional struggle to redefine his relationships with his parents will remind readers that a family’s love can survive even the most difficult of hardships.”
Why this book? I like reading about how families — and people — are more similar than different, despite initial appearances.

• The Death of Achilles, by Boris Akunin (due out later this month)

From the book jacket: “In 1882, after six years of adventures abroad, the renowned diplomat and detective Erast Fandorin returns to his beloved Moscow — but his homecoming is anything but peaceful. In the hotel where Fandorin is staying, his old war-hero friend General Michel Sobolev (aka ‘Achilles’) has been foudn dead in his armchair, felled by an apparent heart attack. Fandorin suspects foul play, and his instincts lead him to the boudoir of a beautiful German chanteuse in whose bed Achilles actually may have breathed his last.”
Why this book? I really have no idea. Rudi might have picked it up for me, knowing I like mysteries. He might have picked it up for himself because one of the cover blurb likens the author to Ian Fleming. I might have picked it up for Mum. But, really, I have no idea. A mystery mystery.

• Fly By Night, by Frances Hardinge (due out April 25)

From the book jacket: “The breathtaking tale of a runaway orphan, her heroic and vicious goose companion, and their adventures in a cut-throat world of spies and smugglers, secret societies and floating coffeehouses, crazed dukes and double-crossing racketeers, a dworld, where her one true love — words — may be the death of her.”
Why this book? Rudi took one look at the cover and immediately thought I’d like it. I took one look at the blurb and agreed. I mean, really — “her heroic and vicious goose companion!”

• V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

From the book jacket: “A frightening and powerful story of the loss of freedom and identity in a totalitarian world. [This] is the chronicle of a world of despair and oppressive tyrrany. A work of sterling clarity and intelligence, [the book] is everything comics weren’t supposed to be. England Prevails.
Why this book? I had dinner with a bunch of comics folks the first night of the show and two of them were from DC Comics. I stopped by their booth the next day and after we talked about Ex Machina, they asked if I’d read V for Vendetta. I hadn’t, and they handed me the book.

• Hungry? Boston: The Lowdown on Where the Real People Eat!, edited by Esti Iturralde and Kaya Stone

From the book jacket: “Bostonians call their home the Hub of the Universe — and once you eat your way through Beantown with Hungry?, you’ll know why. From the Pilgrims to the Irish to the thousands of students and newcomers who flock here each year, Boston’s food scene is a rich mix of heritage and innovation, where you can eat well and heartily, without breaking the bank.”
Why this book? I’m a sucker for guidebooks, particularly for cities that I know I’ll return to. Since this was my fourth trip to Boston in two years, I’m guessing I’ll be back again, and it’s nice to have a guidebook to offer up suggestions.

• Half Moon Investigations, by Eoin Colfer

From the book jacket: “Fletcher Moon has never been like other kids. For one thing, he has had to suffer the humiliating nickname ‘Half Moon’ because of his short stature. But the real reason Fletcher is different is becaue ever since he was a baby, he’s had a nose for sniffing out mysteries. And let’s just say it’s not a skill that has been appreciated by many people — including his own family.”
Why this book? I really enjoyed the Artemis Fowl series of books by the same author and am eager to see whether Colfer just got lucky with those characters or if he really has the chops.

• Night, by Elie Wiesel

From the book jacket: “Night [is Wiesel’s] penetrating and profound account of the Nazi death camps. Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, he was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of [his] memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.”
Why this book? Wiesel gave a talk at the conference and I think I got swept up in the emotion of those who’d just returned from his speech. It’s not the sort of book I read, for better or for worse. But maybe I will — someday — just because I should.

• But Enough About Me: How a Suburban Jersey Girl Got Behind the Velvet Rope Through Shameless Flattery, Disturbingly Meticulous Research, and a Few Other Tricks, by Jancee Dunn (due out in June)

From the book jacket: “When the girl next door lands a dream job interviewing celebrities and rock stars at Rolling Stone, the result is Almost Famous meets Working Girl: a hip and funny true story of the pleasures and perils of the red carpet.”
Why this book? The “suburban girl making it big and then coming home” story had some appeal, I admit, from a personal standpoint.

• Billy Goat Hill, by Mark Stanleigh Morris (due out later this month)

From the book jacket: “Dorothy’s cyclone had nothin’ on Scar. Los Angeles, 1958. Elvis is in the army. Eisenhower’s in the White House. And eight-year-old Wade Parker heads out for Billy Goat Hill to run the Crippler in the dark — just like Gooey dared him to. But Wade and his kid brother, Luke, run into Scar, the most fearsome character they’ve ever had the misfortune to meet at four in the morning. They won’t realize it for years to come, but knowing him will change their lives forever. Wade’s family is already disintegrating over the loss of a child. If there’s no place like home, what happens when home is falling apart? Wade begins a decades-long journey, searching for answers. But when your life has been shaped by loss, murder, alcoholism, and betrayal, how do you find forgiveness?”
Why this book? I admit to having been sucked in by the cover. If I’d realized it was a Christian book publisher, I probably would have skipped taking it. But maybe the saying — and my stereotyping gut-instincts — will be wrong, and you can judge a book by its cover, and the story will live up to this one.

• Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person: A Memoir in Comics, by Miriam Engelberg (due out May 1)

From the book jacket: “[The book] puts Engelberg’s life in focus the best way she knows how — with cartoons. Her graphic approach to a very serious subject follows in the tradition of Art Spiegelman’s award-winning Maus, but in her own offbeat, on-taget, and darkly, devastatingly humorous style. From sex and wigs to nausea and causes — Was it overzealous cheese consumption or not enough multivitamins? — Engelberg leaves no aspect of cancer unexamined. In this remarkable ‘memoir in comics,’ she takes a cler-eyed deliciously sardonic look at caring friends and relatives, doctors, treatments, and support groups while never losing her guarded optimism and, most important, her sense of humor.”
Why this book? While I suspect that comparing the book to Maus is way overshooting its mark, it seemed like an offbeat way of approaching a touchy subject. Plus the drawings look like a cross between a New Yorker cartoon and Rymes with Orange.

Well, that’s it. I wouldn’t expect many new purchases in April as I try to read my way through some of this month’s acquisitions and through the rest of the ones I picked up in January. Plus, I need to hit the library…