| Here are some books for these cold, snowed-in nights.
· Bad Bridesmaid: Bachelorette Brawls and Taffeta Tantrums – What We Go Through For Her Big Day by Siri Agrell (HarperCollins Canada, 208 pp.) – I myself questioned why I sat and read Siri Agrell’s Bad Bridesmaid in an afternoon, so don’t bother to ask why.
Agrell is a self-confessed "bad bridesmaid," who was kicked out of her friend’s wedding party for writing an article on the stresses of being a bridesmaid. When her friend saw it, she got angry and got rid of her.
What people will put up with in order to observe "tradition" I’ll never cease to be amazed by. I can’t imagine being trapped in a disgusting, ruffled dress, drinking white wine with people named "Madison" and "Summer." I have next to no wedding experience, but after reading this, I feel truly sorry for women forced to endure the bridesmaid gauntlet. Sitting around drinking wine spritzers and jawing about love and commitment? Yuck. Getting married is stressful on its own – wearing costumes, blowing a year’s salary on a party where everyone gets trashed and dances around like wounded animals, swearing to God that you’ll stay and sleep with only this one person till one of you dies – yeah, hard.
Agrell constructs the book as a series of confessions from past bridesmaids, particularly those dubbed "bad." It’s a subculture many are aware of and enjoy but, if Agrell is to be believed, brings out the worst catty, backstabbing and shallow behaviour in almost everyone involved.
You can be cool and married, and I’m sure that not all marriages and wedding showers are bank-busting exercises in pain. Still, for those dreaming of a lavish wedding and the maids-in-waiting called upon to provide dutiful service, Bad Bridesmaid is a must-read.
· Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of Ann Coulter by Joe Maguire (HarperCollins Canada, 204 pp.) – Wow, but if that Ann Coulter isn’t crazy. Joe Maguire’s takedown of the blathering neo-con is a timely, reasoned account of Coulter’s inane remarks and shoddy research. It’s hard to take the ol’ Coultergeist at her word, but with readers pushing her books to the top of the bestseller lists, exposing her "journalism" for what it is – awful – is important.
"She uses our societal attention deficit disorder to her advantage," says Maguire. While Maguire doesn’t begrudge Coulter’s right to free speech, he is unsettled (as we all should be) that a lot of people do take her seriously, unaware of her tendency to plagiarize and distort facts. Although of more value to those familiar with Coulter, Brainless still provides a thrifty, sharp attack on insane media pundits.
· Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster (Henry Holt, 160 pp.) – A welcome return to form after his last novel, the misfire The Brooklyn Follies. Travels reads like Auster’s New York Trilogy crossed with Oldboy and a dash of Beckett, as it follows the story of Mr. Blank, who awakes in a locked room with a strange manuscript mirroring his own confinement. Terse, smart and scary.
· Exit A by Anthony Swofford (Scribner, 304 pp.) – Swofford’s first novel, following the excellent memoir Jarhead. Exit A is a punkish novel of a young man living on a military base in Japan who becomes entagled with a general’s daughter. Early reviews have been pretty harsh – Swofford is mining well-worn territory here – but it’s an entertaining debut, if fumbling.
· An Orgy of Playboy’s Eldon Dedini by Eldon Dedini (Fantagraphics Books, 220 pp.) – Fantagraphics has done a great job with this gorgeous collection of the cartoonist’s (who died last year) best. Dedini was a fixed staple of Playboy for 45 years, adding an old-school charm to the magazine. Some of the jokes haven’t aged well, but the best resemble New Yorker cartoons with nudity – and all feature his characteristic brushwork and rich colours. The book also comes with a revealing documentary on his life and art.
· The Terror by Dan Simmons (Little, Brown and Company, 784 pp.) – Based on the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, Simmons’s new novel opens with the crew hopelessly stuck in the ice, succumbing to hypothermia and scurvy. And to make it worse, there’s a monster somewhere in the frozen wasteland picking them off. The Terror is a mammoth page-turner, scary and gory – perfect for a cold, dark night.
· Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (HarperCollins, 928 pp.) – Chandra’s new magnum opus is a serious undertaking (clocking in at almost 1000 pages), but is well worth it. The intricate crime drama (full of noir, Bollywood and politics) follows a cop in India who descends into a criminal underworld in search of a ferocious gangster.
· Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean (Oxford University Press, 288 pp.) – Billed as the "official sequel" after McCaughrean won a competition put on by the Great Ormond Street Hospital, a charity organization that J.M. Barrie, author of the original Peter Pan, left the rights to after his death. The question for a lot of readers was whether McCaughrean – indeed anyone – could pull it off. And she has, paying homage to Barrie’s creation and imbuing Neverland with a new, esthetic sense of wonder and wordplay. Reread the original and then treat yourself to this new classic.
· Hydrogen Steel by K.A. Bedford (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 384 pp.) – Following his excellent Eclipse, the Australian sci-fi author has penned another cult classic.
Bedford’s tale of a retired detective on the hunt for clues behind the death of an android friend is packed with just about every trope of the genre – strange planets, murderous machines and pulp philosophy. Highly recommended for genre fans.
· In the Name of Honor by Mukhtar Mai (Atria, 192 pp.) – A terse and devastating memoir. In 2002, Mai, a Pakistani woman, was accused of infidelity and brutally gang raped on order by a group of local leaders.
Journalists jumped on the story, leading to an outcry for justice . The memoir describes the fallout of the rape and prosecution of her attackers, leading to Mai creating schools for children. Both uplifting and, curiously, a look at media machination and the varieties of justice. |
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