Thursday, January 15, 2009

Book Talk, Baby

There is a party going on in the House of Snarf.

That would be my house, in case you couldn't figure it out.

Yes, my car is literally frozen in the driveway. Yes, we missed the school bus this morning and had to throw ourselves upon the mercy of our kind neighbors to get the Batboy to school. These things are true, but I don't freaking care.

I finished No Pain, No Brain.

Can I just tell you that I rock the casbah? I mean, really. I'm not egotistical or anything.

It needs to sit for a few days and hopefully receive a little bit of critiquey love from my peeps, and then it shall go out into the big wide world, and hopefully there shall be much snarfage.

Speaking of the peeps, I owe some serious thanks to my critiquers. I hereby offer the title of Disciple of Snarf to the following people: Ami, Bryan, Ellen, Laura, and Ray. When I'm famous, I'll still remember you. Faintly.

I'm just kidding. Seriously, the book would suck if it wasn't for your feedback, so thanks. Hopefully it doesn't suck now, though, because then that wouldn't be much of a compliment, would it? Anyway, I'm mucho happy about that.

You may have noticed that I'm also listing the books I've read for the Read 50 Books in 2009 Challenge in the sidebar. And damn it, I've already got another must read.

Book numero 3 was Wolf Songs, edited by M.H. Bonham and featuring the fabulous Cate. The best part about reading this is that I can honestly say that her story "The Graveyard of Dead Vehicles" was one of my favorites, along with "To Love Loki" by Gerri Leen. I'm all about the mythology.

Book numero 4 was Unwind by Neil Shusterman. Let me get this off my chest: I hate Neil Shusterman with the fire of a thousand suns. He is so darned good that he makes me cry. I shall never be that good, except that I just finished No Pain No Brain, so maybe I am. But seriously, Unwind takes a really difficult subject and makes a good book out of it, and it doesn't come off as preachy. That's awesome. This one gets a star from me; if you haven't read it, you need to.

Book numero 5 was The Ninja Burger Honorable Employee Handbook. I know enough ninjas, and I was considering starting a franchise except that they'd have to disembowel themselves if they made a late delivery. That's a really good way not to have any friends any more. I giggled through this one a snowy afternoon when the kids were playing hide-and-seek.

And last for this week, book numero 6 for 2009 was Geek Love. It's not the sort of book I'd usually read, although the premise is sure interesting. It's about a family of carnival freaks and has lots of people with missing limbs and some cool piano playing Siamese twins. But it's all about the issues. Slayer and I used to watch movies about issues when we were first dating and trying to impress each other. Now, we watch movies with lots of car chases and snappy dialogue.

So, if you combine all of those titles together, you get Unwind the Geeky Ninja Wolves. And people say I have no talent for titles...

24 comments:

Marcia said...

Congrats on the finish! And I completely agree with you on UNWIND. It's so inventive and riveting that ALONE is scary.

Bryan B. said...

I really enjoyed Geek Love.

I'm doing the 50 books thing too, keeping up with it on the side of my blog.

Blog, you say?

Oh, yes - I blog.

Well, is it interesting?

Very much.

I should check it out!

Definitely.

Is there a link?

Oh, sure: www.jedininjahomeboy.com

:))

K.C. Shaw said...

Congrats on finishing! I'm sure it's completely perfect and hardly a word will need to be changed. :)

You have me beat on the reading 50 books, and I thought I was doing so well. I've only read four so far. Note to self: read faster.

Tiny T said...

Congrats Carrie!! :)

Jamie Eyberg said...

Way to go Carrie! On all literary fronts. You shall soon conquer the world!

Kelly Polark said...

You finished No Pain plus read six books already in 2009?!
The only thing I finished was a donut this morning! Okay, I'm kidding it was a chocolate chip cookie...but I've only accomplished a few writing assignments and read a few picture books in the new year. You are my inspiration, Miss Snarf! I'm off to finish another cookie! Oh, and a few poems!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

You have a snarftastic talent for snarfy titles that make me snarfy. See, you're so much better at this than I am.

PJ Hoover said...

You have a nice list going on in the sidebar!
I haven't read Unwind yet, but maybe I'll add it to the list for the year!

Cate Gardner said...

Congratulations on finishing No Pain, No Brain. I am sure it is snarfilicious (is that a word?).

Thanks for mentioning WolfSongs. I'm still stuck in book no.1 of 2009.

Anne Spollen said...

You finished your book!
That's great. Really great. Congratulations!

Mary said...

So I popped over here feeling a bit tired and nursing a mild headache. But now I’m laughing: Unwind the Geeky Ninja Wolves is one helluva a title. Someone has to write that book!

And congrats on finishing No Pain, No Brain. That title’s not half bad, either! ;)

Carrie Harris said...

Marcia: Yeah, I've liked everything else of his that I've read too.

Bryan: You are shameless, man. Shameless. I linked you in the post, you idiot. And I mean that in the most loving way possible.

KC: Um... may I point out that I've read some pretty short books? I think four is a mighty good record for a couple of weeks.

Oh, and thanks for lying to me about not needing to edit. Snarf.

Tiny T: Thanks, sunshine.

Jamie: Smart. Very smart. Suck up to me just in case I conquer the world later. Okay, you can have Canada. ;)

Kelly: Mmmm. Chocolate chip cookie. I've given up sweets (and caffeine, and alcohol, and red meat... pretty much everything good) for the first couple of months of the year. So have a cookie for me, will you?

Glamis: Hey, I just think it illustrates the versatility of the word. :)

PJ: Unwind is well worth the read. Especially as a parent, which is odd because I'm talking about a YA book, but still.

Cate: I pretty much make up a new form of snarfishness every time I want, so sure, snarfalicious is a word. :) And seriously, I loved your story. It's always a little nervewracking reading something by someone you kinda sorta know, but I honestly enjoyed it and the book too.

Anne: Thank you, thank you. I'll take all the praise I can get. :)

Mary: If you want to write a book with that title, I promise I'll read it. Heh. Hope your day goes better.

Ray Veen said...

Congratulations again.

(typing succintly cuz busy reading)

Fox Lee said...

Unwind them, indeed!

Caryn Caldwell said...

Congratulations on finishing the book! What an accomplishment! I hope when you reread it you find it even better than you think.

The fifty books challenge sounds like a good one. Makes me wonder where I am so far.

Jim Danielson said...

Brrrrrrr....
Yep, it's parka weather in Chicago too! (That's parka your car in the garage/driveway and stay home -- too bad I had to go to work)

sruble said...

Congratulations on finishing!!!

K. M. Walton said...

I watch the news and can NOT believe the temperatures. It's crazy.

Congrats on finishing. Whoo Hoo!!!

Jim Danielson said...

My brain must be frozen....I forgot to say congrats on finishing writing your book!!!!!!!

Brenda said...

Congrats on finishing!

Carrie Harris said...

Thanks, everybody!

Vikki said...

Yay, Carrie! You're done! You do totally rock the casbah!

Just curious, do you tie up your children? Can't figure out how you're fitting all this stuff into your daily routine.

Stephanie Perkins said...

Congratulations, Carrie!

That's GREAT news for all here in blogland, anxious to read your novel.

LauraBlue said...

Esh, I still need to read UNWIND. Jen recommended it to me a while back because the author is one of the agency's clients, and also because it's apparently wonderful, but I totally forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder. And Extra thanks for the link. I really liked critiquing No Pain. :)