(#36) Book Review: The Cellar by A.J. Whitten

When the mysterious Adrien moves in next door, everyone is immediately taken with him.  He’s cute and charming, and he seems to have nearly everyone under some sort of spell.  Everyone except Meredith, his next door neighbor, who feels that something is off about him.  Things get worse when she sees something in the cellar of his house that makes her think that Adrien’s not just a creepster.  When he starts dating her sister Heather, Meredith realizes the situation might be dire.  Can she save her sister without ending up in the cellar?

A.J. Whitten is a pen name for romance novelist Shirley Jump and her teenage daughter Amanda.  The two have written one other book together–The Well, a modern take on Hamlet.  With their second offering, the story of Romeo + Juliet is given a modern sheen and thrown into the YA Horror genre.  A fast, quick read, fans of horror-lite will probably enjoy this story of forbidden love, tragedy, and zombies.

There are several things that Whitten does well.  The first of these things is the construction of a fast-paced story.  Whitten doesn’t waste time and doesn’t mince words, and Meredith and Heather’s story gets started right away, with Adrien showing up and casting a sort of spell over most of the town.  Things progress quickly, and it isn’t long before Heather is smitten and Meredith is suspicious.  The reader is treated to insights into Adrien’s plan, as well, helping to build suspense and create some terror as he tortures and eats victims in his cellar.

Which brings me to the other thing that Whitten excels at.  The descriptions meant to convey horror and gore are done particularly well.  When describing the hunt for prey and the slow process of eating said captured prey, the author(s) is clearly within her element: the scenes are gross and yet oddly fascinating.  It’s clear that the mother-daughter team has a true passion for the horror genre, and they don’t shy away from a spot of violence.

However, there were things about the book that didn’t work for me as a reader.  I never got a sense for any of the characters because they didn’t feel developed enough.  Heather was annoying, Meredith was way too Mary Sue-ish for my liking, and everyone else felt like a bland stock character.   Adrien wasn’t appealing, and while I realize that most people in the town were supposed to be under some sort of spell, the reader is supposed to believe that Heather’s love for him was true.  There wasn’t enough of a personality there for me to see it.  While I realize that the story is based on Romeo + Juliet, and that the basis of that story is a love-at-first-sight sort of thing, it still didn’t work for me here.  Not believing in the love story, and not really caring about the love story made this a less exciting read.

Recommended for fans of YA horror and zombies.

The Cellar hits bookshelves on May 2, 2011.

The Cellar by A.J. Whitten: Graphia, 2011. Electronic galley from publisher.

(#35) Book Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Jacob Jankowski is in his 90s and is living out the last of his days in a nursing home.  His body is fragile but his mind is still pretty sharp, and when a circus comes to town, he is flooded with memories of his own experience working on the Benzini Brothers Circus in the 1930s.  After his parents were killed in a car accident, Jacob left his Ivy-league veterinary education behind and found himself on board a train with the circus.  Once there, he adapted to circus life and its own rules.  He fell in love with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, who just happened to be married to August, the circus boss with a terrible temper.  As the two of them try to come to grips with their feelings, they also have to work together in order to survive.

Sara Gruen’s novel about circus life in the 1930s is richly imagined.  The attention to detail regarding vernacular, the rigid caste system, and the daily minutiae of circus life indicate a devotion to the story.  There is an author’s note about Gruen having studied elephant body language, and this makes sense: the scenes with Rosie, the lemonade-stealing elephant are the most compelling and heartbreaking.

There’s quite a bit going on beneath the surface, too.  While the rest of the United States is suffering the worst depression in history, August is having a new headdress made for Rosie and is giving Marlena a lavish diamond necklace.  While people starve across the country, the circus workers make sure the menagerie animals are well-fed.  After a while, the reader begins to realize that August’s paranoid schizophrenia might be a result from his faked emotions after all the years on the circuit, trying to make ends meet.

When Gruen is at her best, the world is richly imagined and the story is weird and entertaining.  However, Gruen’s prose often feels rushed, especially when dealing with action sequences: although there’s a stampede and two murders, these scenes pass too quickly and yet feel a little overwrought.  Additionally, the heated love affair between Jacob and Marlena never quite gels, and their passion never quite smolders.

That being said, this is an entertaining novel.  It’s steeped in history about a particular time in the history of the United States, and it offers a unique perspective on circus life.  Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Algonquin: 2006. Purchased copy.

(#34) Book Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

All Evie wants to be is a normal teenager.  She’s obsessed with a TV show that depicts what she believes are normal high school kids, and she pines for a world in which she could have a locker and go to the prom like a normal girl.  Evie isn’t normal, though.  She works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency (IPCA), her ex-boyfriend is a faerie (whose intentions are dubious at best), she’s crushing on a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person she knows who can see through paranormal’s glamours.  When paranormals start dying in record numbers, Evie starts to realize that not only is NOT normal, but that she might be the key to a mysterious prophecy that could alter the world forever.

Although I’m generally not the demographic for supernatural fiction, something about Kiersten White’s debut novel grabbed my attention.  It garnered a lot of attention on the blogosphere when it was published last summer, and while I didn’t race out and read it, the idea of it settled in the back of my mind.  I’ve been in a bit of a reading funk lately, and so I decided to branch out and try new things.  Paranormalcy was one of the new things I tried.  Readers, I’m glad I did, because this was a really fun book.

Although the book is supernatural in theme and content, it’s also grounded in reality.  The character of Evie demonstrates this particularly well.  Even though she is at least a little supernatural, Evie’s desire to be a part of the “normal” world is palpable, made all the more real by White’s clear, competent writing.  Little details, like Evie’s geeking-out over the concept of a locker or her obsession with a popular TV show featuring beautiful teenagers, help add to the credibility of Evie’s character.  White’s ability to create an authentic voice for Evie helps carry the story along.  It’s clear that the author knows these characters well, and it’s equally clear that she loves them.

What sets this book apart from other supernatural-themed YA novels is the humor and self-awareness that White brings to the genre.  Evie’s snark and her persnickety attitude create for some truly funny passages.  Also notable is the fact that White gently subverts the sexy-vampire cliche by having Evie point out (several times) that vampires are corpses.  Little details like this make the book stand out.  In a sea of books that feature dull, lifeless heroines whose sole purpose is to be saved by their male love interest, White’s debut features a strong heroine who can take care of herself, make out with a cute boy, AND save the world in the process.

Despite a little meandering of the plot about halfway through, White’s novel is fast-paced, fun, and funny.  The first in a planned trilogy (with the second title due out at the end of July), this book will leave readers wanting more.  Highly recommended for fans of fantasy (especially urban fantasy), but also recommended for fans of YA in general.  A surprisingly good read.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.  Harper Teen: 2010.  Library copy.

TV Series Review: Felicity (1998-2002)

Felicity was a teen drama that ran on the WB fro 1998 to 2002.  It centered on a young girl named Felicity who follows her high school crush Ben to New York for college.  After establishing herself there, the drama focused on the lives of Felicity, Ben, and their group of friends as they came of age in college at the turn of the millennium.

Felicity Porter (Keri Russell) is a shy, geeky girl living in California.  At her high school graduation, she gets up the nerve to ask her crush-to-end-all-crushes, Ben Covington (Scott Speedman) to sign her yearbook.  She’s so moved by what he writes that she dashes all her college plans (pre-med at Stanford) to follow him to the University of New York.  Her parents are not okay with this, obviously, and try to get her to reconsider, but after some waffling, she decides to stay in New York.

Once established in New York, she realizes that Ben is not interested in her so much as her friend Julie Emrick (Amy Jo Johnson).  She strikes up a sweet, awkward romance with her resident advisor Noel Crane (Scott Foley).  Over the course of her first year, she also becomes friends with a competitive pre-med student named Elena Tyler (Tangi Miller), struggles with a strange, combative roommate named Meghan Rotundi (Amanda Foreman), and deals with a flamboyant but lovable boss named Javier (Ian Gomez) at Dean & Deluca.

Over the course of her four years at the university, Felicity deals with many of the normal college issues.  Although her love triangle with Ben and Noel forms the basis for the dramatic tension in the series, the supporting characters are given their own story arcs and add a richness to the show.  Issues such as drug use, date rape, unwanted pregnancy, plagiarism, and alcoholism were covered over the show’s four seasons, and for the most part, they were covered without being too heavy-handed.

Thanks to a largely talented cast and strong writing, the show remained interesting and engaging throughout its run.  Although it faltered in the ratings during the second season (some blame Russell’s dramatic haircut while others point to the show’s move to Sunday nights) and veered into the strange in the last third of its final season, the show was one of the smartest, most realistic shows on the WB in the late 90s.

Problems with the show included Felicity’s complete inability to choose between Ben and Noel (she wanted them both, I think, which was completely unfair, not to mention impractical).  As the end of the series neared, the characters were uttering “I want to be with ____” so often that one could have created a drinking game out of that statement alone.  At some point, viewers wanted Felicity to just choose already, and it started to go on a little long.  The waffling between the two male love interests and the ill-advised time-travel arc near the end of the fourth season are the show’s major flaws, though.

The show was an entertaining look at coming-of-age in college in the late nineties.  It was a show that my mom and I bonded over when I was in middle school and early high school, and it will remain one of the seminal shows of the 90s for me.  Revisiting this show over the past two months has not only been a trip down memory lane, but it was also in many ways cathartic (it helped me get over a pretty awful breakup).  Smart, funny, and often heartbreaking, this is a show that I absolutely recommend.

Be on the lookout for a Felicity: Where Are They Now? post within the next week.  Until then, happy viewing, folks.

P.S.–I am now, and always will be Team Ben.  Sorry, Noel.

(#33) Book Review: The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

A love story told entirely through dictionary entries with unusual definitions, this book follows the relationship between an unnamed narrator and his partner.  Told out of sequence, the dictionary entries capture moments and snippets of conversations between these two people as they navigate the joys and pitfalls of falling in love, as well as dealing with issues of infidelity and alcoholism.  The book aims to answer (or at least explore) the question of how we talk about love.

Levithan’s first foray into adult fiction is a successful one.  He’s taken a common story: two people meet and fall in love and given it a fresh, intriguing spin.  Told out of sequence and entirely through dictionary entries, Levithan’s novel manages to capture perfectly the feelings and emotions that result from falling in and out of love with a person.

The narrator is a solid, functional man who comes from a loving familial background.  His partner–a woman (although the book is remarkably gender-neutral there is one reference to her making a joke about being pregnant near the beginning of the book)–is much more charismatic, but she’s also wild, an alcoholic, and unfaithful.  Her dysfunctional family background makes her weary of love and dubious of its ability to last.  These characters are created through snippets of dialogue and interaction in each of the entries, and because Levithan is such a talented writer, they’re fully realized.

Although I’ve had mixed feelings about Levithan’s work with Rachel Cohn, this book has made me a convert to his writing.  I worship at the altar of Levithan, Readers.  It’s clear that Levithan not only respects words but loves them.  His prose is sparse, lyrical, and gorgeous.  He manages to capture the thoughts and emotions of love and make it a universal experience for the reader.  Even though Levithan makes ample use of negative space, this is a book to be read slowly, and I encourage readers not to rush through it but to pause and think about every entry, letting it sink in.

The broken-up sequencing of the novel works extremely well.  Entries about the elation and excitement of falling in love brush up against entries describing the crushing blow that a confession of indiscretion can bring.  This jumping around, this up-and-down, back-and-forth dance plays out much like they way we actually think about our own relationships, skipping around to the great moments you wish you could live in forever while also parsing through the bad moments that tug at your heartstrings.  It’s very smart, what Levithan has done here, and it’s also very compelling stuff.

Highly, highly recommended, readers.  This is a book that you should be reading, if you haven’t done so already.

The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan, Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 2011.  Library copy.

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  The purpose of the meme is to discuss books we are reading this week, as well as books we completed the previous week.

Books I Completed Last Week:
Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen: It took me an embarrassingly long time to read this book, but I finally finished it.  Review to come.
13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: I finally read this pretty cute book.  It makes me want to travel to Europe really, really badly.  Review to come.
Skinny: A Novel by Diana Spechler: I really liked this quirky novel about weight and family and guilt.  Review to come.
Like Mandarin by Kristin Hubbard: This novel had some really stuff happening, but I didn’t love it.  Review to–you guessed it–come.

Books I’m Reading This Week:
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell: This novel has been gaining acclaim.  It’s denser than most of the stuff I’ve been reading lately, so we’ll see.
Endless Summer by Jennifer Echols: This book is a compilation of Echols’s The Boys Next Door and Endless Summer.  Jury’s still out.

So, what are you reading this week?

In My Mailbox (5)

In My Mailbox (IMM) is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  This meme allows bloggers to share the books they’ve received over the course of the week.  I’m trying to participate in part because I think it’s fun, and in part because I want to keep track of what I’m getting (and how that differs from what I’m reading).

From the Library:
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler
Forget You by Jennifer Echols
She’s So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott

From NetGalley:
Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish
Sister Mischief by Laura Goode

Top Ten Picks: Books to Movies

Top Ten Picks is a meme started by Jillian at Random Ramblings.  I’ve been jumping around, and I certainly haven’t been posting these every week, but I thought that today I’d tackle my favorite book-to-movie adaptations.  Creating this list was difficult because there are actually a lot of movies that I love that are based on books.  When selecting for this list, I tried to pick the movies that I felt best encapsulated the book’s overall message and theme.  I chose only titles that I have both read and viewed, so it narrowed down some of the possibilities.  It was still hard, though.  Ready?  Here we go!

1. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Ann Brashares’ first novel in the really excellent Sisterhood quartet was brought to film in 2005.  It tracked the summers of the book’s four heroines fairly well, remaining close to the original story lines presented in the book.  Although at least one of the stories was pretty watered down (I’m looking at you, Lena) in order to lessen the emotional roller coaster that viewers would have to experience, the movie was well-written and mostly well-cast (jury’s still out on you, Blake Lively).  I re-read the books every year or so, and I always follow it up with a viewing of this movie, which never fails to make me cry (that scene where Carmen calls her father and they both cry?  COME ON!)

2. Matilda by Roald Dahl

Danny Devito directed the movie-adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s novel about a young girl with telekinetic powers and a terrible family.  Released in 1996, the movie was a mix of quirky humor, slapstick comedy, and a few dark moments (in the true spirit of Dahl).  While I know at least one person who loves the book and hates the movie adaptation, this is one movie that I will always watch when I see it on cable.  I truly enjoy watching the characters (and they are characters) come to life on the screen.

3. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

John Cusack stars in the 2000 adaptation of Nick Hornby’s funny and insightful novel about a music-store owner who counts down the most painful breakups of his life.  While I really enjoyed the book, this is one where I believe the film surpasses its source material.  Something about the film’s structure combined with the script and an extremely talented cast (Tim Robbins as a new-age douche?  I’m sold.) works perfectly.  This is one of my favorite movies of all-time, and I revisit it at least once a year.  If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?

4. The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that this movie isn’t necessarily of the same caliber of some of the other titles on this list.  Is it nostalgia that allows this movie to make this list?  Probably.  However, I still think that it fulfills my requirement of encapsulating the general ideas and feel of the book(s) its based on.  It’s hokey and overly-sentimental, but it was surprisingly well-cast (except for maybe Luca, who was an ill-advised character to begin with) and really, really fun for those of us who grew up with the books.  Okay, maybe I just really like Larissa Oleynik.

5. Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

Emma Thompson wrote the script and Ang Lee directed this beautiful, charming movie based on Austen’s second-most famous book.  It debuted in 1995 and remains, to this day, my favorite Austen adaptation.  While I love the BBC mini-series version of Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth) version, I believe that this movie has all the charm, heart, and wit of Austen’s quiet story about sisters who are very different but love each other very much.  With an unbelievable cast, this movie is worth seeing, even if you’re not much of an Austen fan.  Seriously.  Get your hands on a copy.

6. The Shining by Stephen King

I read the book the summer between eighth and ninth grade when I was staying at a friend’s cabin.  I remember sitting on the couch in the middle of the day and still being terrified by what I was reading.  Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of the Stephen King novel was no different: terrifying, magnetic, and absolutely haunting.  If you haven’t seen the movie, do so.  If you haven’t read the book, read it, and then watch the movie.  It’s so worth it.

7. Room with a View by E.M. Forster

The movie was released in 1985, which is the year of my birth.  I remember watching the  movie when I was pretty young and loving it even then, despite not understanding all of it.  I read the book a few years ago and found it delightful.  The film remains nostalgic for me in that it’s a piece of my (unique) childhood, a happy memory that includes my mom and my sister.  Love it.

8. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien

Released in 1982, the movie is one of my favorite cartoons of all time.  This is saying something, because I’m not much of an animated movie fan.  The book is also good, but for me, the movie is tied to my childhood (are we sensing a theme with this list?) and remains a favorite of mine even in adulthood.  The fact that I had a crush on Jonathan the rat is something that I try to downplay (he was a rat, but his voice was super-attractive, people.  You know I’m right!), but it goes along with my romantic personality.  I’ve been boy-crazy (and rat, apparently) for as long as I can remember.

9. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Release in 1999, this film by Sofia Coppola was both beautiful and really, really depressing, just like its source material.  There was something about seeing the Lisbon sisters come to life on the screen in all their ethereal beauty.  It’s a haunting tale, and something about reading the book and then seeing the movie makes the story stay that much longer with you.  It’s worth seeing, even if you’re not much of a Kirsten Dunst fan.

10. The Witches by Roald Dahl

Yes, another Roald Dahl book and movie adaptation makes the list.  Released in 1990 (man the 90s were good to me), this movie was both completely entertaining and really, really scary.  Starring Angelica Huston as the head witch, Dahl’s book came to life on the big screen and has stayed with me all of these years.  It was a movie that I watched with my sister and one of our childhood friends over and over again, and we were always fascinated by the girl in the painting, the witches’ eyes, and the fact that they had no toes.  Am I remembering this right?  It might be time to watch it again.  “GRANDMAAAAAA!”

All right, Readers, what did I miss?  Am I totally off-base with this list?  Does anyone else want to spend the next few days reading books and watching their movie adaptations?  Just me?

(#32) Book Review: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

In the not-too-distant future, a virus has made everyone over the age of eighteen infertile.  People pay teenage girls to get pregnant and give birth as Surrogettes, and this has made teens quite the hot commodity.  The better one’s genes are, the more money a girl can potentially earn with each pregnancy.  Going professional means entering the highest echelon of society, and that is exactly where Melody’s parents want her.  They’ve groomed her for it, and she’s days away from bumping with an equally-desirable boy.

When Melody meets her long-lost identical twin sister Harmony, the two girls realize that each of them has been living a life in complete opposition to the other.  While Melody has spent her life preparing for her role as a Surrogette, Harmony has been living a quiet, chaste life in religious Goodside.  The two girls could not be more different, but as they get to know each other, they start to feel a sort of affection for one another.  The entrance of Jondoe, a professional sperm donor, complicates things, and both girls will have to make some hard choices.

Hailed as McCafferty’s first official YA novel, Bumped is not the next Jessica Darling novel.  Fans of McCafferty’s awesome and hilarious series should know that going into this one.  Where the Jessica Darling novels were grounded in reality and humor, Bumped is an incredibly satirical look at the present state of our culture and the sexploitation of young girls.

McCafferty is at her best when allowing her natural humor to show through.  She’s a sharp, funny writer, and her observations about culture are astute and spot-on.  Although the jargon starts to wear a little thin as one reads through the story, the underlying purpose is clear and it never feels completely gratuitous.  There isn’t a ton of world-building, which will frustrate some readers, but there’s enough so that one never feels too lost.

Told in alternating perspectives between Melody and Harmony, it was sometimes difficult to remember who was who, even though the girls have very different personalities.  Both girls are smart and articulate and driven in their own ways.  One wouldn’t expect anything less than some strong female characters from McCafferty, though.  Unafraid to tackle sex straight-on, this book deals with teen pregnancy and teen sex in a real way while also keeping its satirical edge.

Although it starts off slow, readers who can get past the first 50 pages or so will be rewarded.  It’s a fun read on the surface with some deeper meaning hidden below.  An examination and critique of pop culture are present here, and McCafferty is sure to delve even deeper into those issues with the follow-up, which she is writing  now (yes, there is a little bit of a cliff-hanger).

Bumped hits shelves on April 26, 2011.

Bumped by Megan McCafferty, Balzer + Bray, 2011. Electronic galley accepted for review.

(#31) Book Review: We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

A few years have passed since Conrad ditched Belly and told Jeremiah to basically go for it.  Belly’s done with her first year of college, and she and Jeremiah are still together.  Their relationship isn’t perfect, though, and when Jeremiah proposes to her, she decides to dive in, despite some reservations.  What should be the happiest time of their lives is complicated by the fact that not everyone seems to be all that thrilled with the impending nuptials.  Belly’s mom won’t speak to her, and then Conrad shows up and complicates things further.  It’s time for Belly to make up her mind about the Fisher boys once and for all, but how will she know it’s the right choice?

Getting my hands on an electronic galley of this book a few months before the release date was pretty exciting.  I devoured the first two books in  Han’s Summer Trilogy, and the wait for this third and final book was a little bit painful.  Reading the last chapter of Belly and Conrad and Jeremiah’s story was bittersweet, to say the least.

The good news is that Han is still a really good writer.  She tends to shine the brightest when writing about Conrad, Jeremiah, and Belly’s shared past as children.  These anecdotes were few and far between in this novel, and they were missed.  However, Han’s prose is always pretty, and her descriptions of the beach and the summer house made me ache for summers long past.

Also well done is Han’s consistent characterizations, almost to a fault.  Conrad is still brooding and stoic.  Jeremiah is still charismatic and a little happy-go-lucky.  Taylor is still a shameless flirt.  Belly is still mostly sweet and unbelievably naive, and that’s where the characterization becomes hard for me to swallow.

(MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.)  Belly has finished a year of college and has been with Jeremiah for two years.  She has lived away from home, has made new friends, has gained new experiences, and yet she’s still almost blindingly ignorant about the way the world works.  Her childlike innocence about everything is underscored by the fact that she is still a virgin.  This little tidbit of information was so shocking to me that I had to reread the passage several times.

I realize that Belly’s withholding of her body to Jeremiah is supposed to be indicative of larger problems within their relationship, but I still think it’s weird and unrealistic.  She’s known this boy her whole life and we’re supposed to believe it’s never happened?  No wonder he cheated on her.*

The other problem with Han’s novel is that the love triangle starts to wear thin.  Belly’s drama with Conrad and Jeremiah starts to feel played out, and much of the suspense was killed by the fact that I just wanted her to pick one of them and stick to it.  Belly is still torn between two brothers who are both in love with her (even though she’s not that awesome), and her waffling between the two of them for a third book is a little irritating.

Even though the concept of getting married so young made me uncomfortable (which I think is Han’s intent) Belly’s consistent ability to get between Jeremiah and Conrad was more unsettling for me this time around.  Being caught in a love triangle has its appeal (in theory, at least, although the reality is decidedly less glamorous), but being in a love triangle with two brothers has an ick factor.  Something about it didn’t work for me this time, and it wasn’t as romantic as I would have liked.

Fans of Han’s series will be divided about the ending, because that’s how it goes with love triangles.  To me, it felt like a natural progession, and I don’t think it will shock anyone.  The last few lines (the entire epilogue, actually) are especially beautiful, and they evoke that ache within readers for summer for the ocean, and for youth.

*This was a joke, people.  No one who decides to wait for sex deserves to be cheated on.

We’ll Always Have Summer hit shelves on April 26, 2011.  (Or May 3, depending on the source you consult.)

We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han.  Simon Pulse, 2011. Electronic Galley accepted for review from publisher