Saturday, August 13, 2011

On My Wishlist (1)


On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

by Maggie Stiefvater

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen


by Mark Z. Danielewski

Can a book be a labyrinth? Or, to follow the premise of Mark Z. Danielewski's genre-bending debut, can a book about a book about a film be anything else? House of Leaves is both vast and claustrophobic, crammed with minutiae (footnotes, appendices, poems and letters, and layout trickery) yet cored by a deep, absorbing emptiness, a deliberate void that accommodates, even incorporates, each character's—perhaps even each reader's—expectations, quirks, and fears.

At the novel's heart is "The Navidson Record," a documentary collage made by Will Navidson, prizewinning photographer, of his attempts to explore the impossible. A bizarre hallway—dark, cold, and haunted by a menacing growl—has suddenly appeared in his new home, and within its darkness lies an ominous architecture that mutates, viruslike, with every trip inside, offering a deadly threat to Navidson's wife, Karen, and their young children; to his brother Tom, whose loyalty Navidson abuses; to his friends who become involved in the quest; and finally and most directly, to himself. For Navidson cannot stop his explorations; he can't stop wanting to see.

House of Leaves is also the "book," painstakingly compiled by a strange old man named Zampan, acquired after his death by Johnny Truant, an apathetic slacker mired in drugs and sad sex. Johnny's obsessive immersion in the manuscript echoes the black-hole threat of the hallway to Navidson; both are caught then consumed by the need to go deeper than safety, or sanity, can support; both will risk their lives in pursuit of the secret of the hallway, and both will be damaged by the experience in ways they cannot anticipate or escape

6 comments:

  1. Great picks! Scorpio Races is on my wishlist too. I love Maggie and I heard this is her best yet!
    New follower. :)

    Dea
    Teen Readers' Diary

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  2. Wow, nice job on the books. You have great taste, I added you to my goodreads too. How exciting is this. I am learning this blogger thing, how did you get the background and header to be the same? I am learning shabbyblogs and changing mine - today is day two. http://therealtruthaboutbeingachristianwoman.blogspot.com/

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  3. Looking forward to House of leaves now...

    Came in through 'Book Blogs', Following you, hoping to see you will pay a visit at: http://freefictions.blogspot.com/

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  4. Nice blog! I'm a new follower.
    http://lupdilup-hotlistens.blogspot.com/

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  5. House of leaves sounds amazing.
    I'm a new follower please check out my blog
    http://marchhousebookscom.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete