Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace (2011)

Jason Priestley (not that Jason Priestley) is a little lost. He's writing for a free newspaper, living with a friend above a shop and dealing with his ex getting on with her life. He helps a girl on the street with her packages and ends up with her disposable camera and tries to solve the mystery of who she is through the pictures. 

The word stalking is used in the description but it's not quite like that.  The plot itself is quite lovely and complex and it has vivid characters--even the most minor characters are fully drawn and memorable.  This book is also filled with great self-deprecating humor like this:

"The girl with the quiff and the bottle of something blue was standing before us, staring. She had a burly friend in a denim miniskirt either side. Oh, God, I thought. There are three of them. And three of us. What if they bully us into relationships?"  (p. 118)

Priestley also spends a fair amount of time contemplating the I Saw You columns in newspapers.  I loved this lovely line: "These small moments, never said out loud, as formed and perfect as sweet little haikus, romance and longing carved out in the dust of a grubby city." (p. 144)

If you loved the quirky humor, the romance from a man's POV, and the vivid London setting of One Day by David Nicholls, you'll love this book as well. 

The Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale (2012)

Prepare for massive gushing ahead ...

First, the plot summary:

Trying to escape her worthless life leads to unexpected and disastrous consequences when Sue Ellen steals money and a raft and embarks on a journey to dig up her best friend's body, burn it, and sprinkle the ashes in Hollywood.

You can see how this is not an easy sell plotwise, but let me tell you that I loved this book. LOVED it. LOVE Joe R. Lansdale.

His writing about East Texas (see also The Bottoms), so evocative and filled with dark insight about the area always reminds me of Harper Lee. His writing about Texas is incredibly vivid and almost affectionate (despite the darkness of the events that occur.)

He writes amazingly realistic but unusual characters and the dialogue is perfect--I'd love to see him write a play. The characters in this book--Sue Ellen, her friends Terry and Jinx and her alcoholic mother-- are as vivid to me now as when I read the book months ago--I loved spending time with them and the very dark journey that they are on.

Their trip down the river reminded me so much of the river trip that the children take in Night of the Hunter. It's as if that trippy, black and white journey was transformed into an entire book, in full color with fully fleshed out characters, and it sustains that eerie, unsettling atmosphere through the whole book.

Trust me on this one--it's MARVELOUS.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2012)

Endearing, quirky novel that flips back and forth through time and continents and several different narrators. 

From a development girl in present-day Hollywood to a tiny Italian village on the sea and its young hotelier and his actress guest to the producer who connects them both, this is an awfully fun and well-written novel. 

What other novel includes the Donner Party, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cleopatra, Italian wiseguys and Richard Burton? 

Full of interesting insights into Hollywood new and old, theater, music and, of course, love!

Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer (1988)

Shirley Jackson is one of my Adored Authors.  She was a fascinating writer and was an even more fascinating person.

Her short stories and novels are uncanny and unsettling, while also being dryly humorous. Her domestic, humorous stories are completely delightful as well and give no indication of her being anything more than an ordinary, frazzled housewife--certainly not the well-regarded writer that she was. 

This book about her life tells her story vividly. She was incredibly complex psychologically, and lived her life to the fullest in some ways (drinking, smoking, socializing, eating) and not to others (borderline agoraphobia).  Plus, her relationships with her husband and her children--fascinating.  I loved reading about her life as an author, particularly the response to The Lottery when it was printed in the New Yorker.  To this day, it generated more mail than any other story before or since (at least in 1988 it did).

I loved these quotes that, for me, sum up why Jackson's work is so compelling to me:

"It was Shirley's genius to be able to paint homey, familiar scenes like this, and then imbue them with evil--or, more correctly, allow a reader to see the evil that had been obvious to her all along, even in sunny Burlingame. One felt the presence of a grinning skull behind the cover of surface gentility, homemade biscuits, shining floors, and this is what made the tales to disturbing. Shirley never had to search for exotic locales or strange characters. You see, her stories seemed to nudge lightly, insistently at the reader, it was right here, right in front of you all the time." (p. 101)

And:

"That feeling Shirley could give readers--that the earth had suddenly slipped out from under them--worked just as well for hilarity as for terror, it turned out.)  (p. 120)

"King [Stephen, of course], in fact, dedicated one of his books, Firestarter, 'to Shirley Jackson, who never had to raise her voice.'"

Beautifully said, Steve!

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (2011)

  

I picked up this zombie romantic comedy purely because they made a movie of it and the trailer looked cute.  By the way, isn't that cover great?

This is a very endearing zombie romantic comedy--yes, zombie romantic comedy--that tells the story of R, a zombie wandering around in a zombie vs. survivalist humans world.  The story is told from R's point of view, and there are many laugh out loud moments.  When he eats the brain of a young human and falls for his girlfriend Julie, it gets a bit more serious.

But throughout, it still has lovely touches of humor. Marion does a beautiful job of getting inside R's head and still showing what he looks and sounds like from the outside.  It's thoughtful and philosophical about the end of the world in a way that most zombie, post-apocalyptic novels don't bother with--certainly not zombie movies anyway. R, Julie and her friend Nora are very endearing characters as are the complex leaders of the humans.

Really a great book and rather gentle and sweet for a book about zombies. The book was blurbed by Josh Bazell, which is an excellent readalike in tone and humor.  Interestingly, Isaac Marion is publishing The New Hunger, the prequel to Warm Bodies only as an e-book right now. 

To the Moon and Back by Jill Mansell (2011)

Oh, I just adore Jill Mansell. She's my favorite writer of the moment. I love her complex, realistic characters, her complicated family and romantic relationships, and her light and dry humor. And I adore the British setting--with just enough realistic details to make me all nostalgic for London. Sigh!

Oh, did you want to know what this book was about? Here you go: 

Ellie lost her husband tragically and suddenly a year ago. Tony, her handsome, actor father-in-law convinces her to move into his lovely flat in Primrose Hill. Ellie makes friends with her kooky neighbor Roo, and gets a job as an assistant to the handsome investor Zack. She starts to date her late husband's best friend and things ensue. With Mansell, though, it's really about the charm of the writing and the characters more than any plot details. Plus, I think Jill Mansell writes people falling in love better than anyone else I've ever read. Lovely!