The Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs.

The Mercy Thompson books are an urban fantasy series set in Washington State, specifically in the Tri Cities area of Washington state. Since this series is five books long and growing, I'm not going to do a series of entries dedicated to each book. I'll hit on some minor plot points here and described the characters.
It was a little weird for me to start reading this... I'm usually not a fan of "This Kind" of book. I don't read Laurell K. Hamilton (though I have in the past) and I haven't even finished the Sookie Stackhouse books of TrueBlood fame. I don't like chick lit or supernatural romance or lots of gore and sex. I actually rarely read anything that describes much sex at all, if you're gonna be picky. But this series is different. I can relate to the characters more and I really like the way the first couple are written. I've had issues with the second to last book, Bone Crossed, because it struck me as a the most chick lit-y of the series, but Silver Borne made up for it, in my eyes. This series isn't about showing off how well-versed in literature I am or anything but just enjoying a well-crafted storyline and characters you can really get care about, as much as you can for fictional characters. And for me... that's a lot. The names of the books in order are:
Moon Called
Blood Bound
Iron Kissed
Bone Crossed
Silver Borne

Mercedes Thompson, known as Mercy, went to college to study history and literature. Natrually, she's now a Volkswagon mechanic with her own shop. She's sarcastic, kind, fair, logical, open-minded, snarky, poised, responsible and a score of other adjectives that sound like lip service when you make a list like this. She's also a Native American shapeshifter, meaning she can turn into a coyote at will. This kind of shapeshifter is known as a Walker, and differs from werewolves in several important ways: her transformation is painless, voluntary and is not affected by the moon's cycle. She's also presumably not sterile, which is how she catches the eye of Samuel, one of the sons of  Bran, the leader of the North American werewolves. Mercy was raised by werewolves when her mother, who gave birth at the age of sixteen, came home to find a coyote pup in her daughter's crib. Bran agreed to take in her and raise her, giving her protection under the name of The Marrok, which is his title as leader. It's taken from the name of one of King Arthur's knights who was apparently a werewolf. As of the first novel, the werewolves have not yet come forward and revealed their existence although it isn't too far into the series before they feel the need to take that step, as the Fae did before them.

You see, in Mercy's world, the supernatural is fairly commonplace, even if it's not widely accepted. The Fae population of the world came out of hiding sometime in the not-so-distant past, a decision made by the Gray Lords (a sort of Fae ruling class). The term fae is a broad one used to describe a variety of pleasant and unpleasant supernatural creatures of myth, legend and fairy tale that are European in origin--everything from selkies, brownies and actual fairies to ogres, child-eating monsters and  other uncomfortably powerful creatures. It was deemed that the Time of Hiding was at an end when it appeared that the science of DNA and forensics threatened to reveal the supernatural creatures in hiding, whether they wanted to be revealed or not. Mercy actually purchased her garage from Ziebold Adelbertsmiter, known as Zee, a kind of fae known as a metalzauber or metalsmith because he knew that it would be impossible to continue running it once he was revealed to be fae. He's also fairly famous in the myth sense and one of the few fae that can stand iron.
 Most of the fae were driven from Europe by a combination of newly forged iron and in the wake of Christianity. They moved to the new world to escape, slaughtered a whole host of indigenous supernatural creatures on this continent and then iron and Christianity followed them over here anyway.

Since purchasing the garage, Mercy fixes a number of cars free of charge for the local vampire seethe, as she can't afford to pay them the protection fees they usually receive. It's sort of like paying the mob, because what they protect you from is mostly themselves; incidently, the vampires also haven't come out of hiding... there's really no way to put a positive spin on the fact that they drink human blood. Her contact within in the seethe is Stefan, a very pleasant, honorable, chivalrious vampire who almost painted his van black because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He ended up painting it to match The Mystery Machine because "even the Slayer is no match for Scooby-Doo." He reports directly to the Mistress of the Seethe, Marsilia, who has it in for Mercy for a variety of reasons. (SPOILER ALERT: the vampires are a big part of the reason Mercy is one of or possibly the only remaining Walker left in the United States.)

At the start of the story, Mercy was living a quiet unassuming life, mostly free of interaction with werewolves and any fae or creature who would cause her trouble until a very young werewolf named Mac showed up, ignorant of how to live as a wolf, half starved with a sad story that helped reveal a lot of corruption across the United States. Pack law is naturally brutal and not something to be ignored, so Mercy took it upon herself to help Mac, as her closest neighbor is the local pack Alpha, Adam Hauptman. After Mac is murdered and left dead on her porch, Mercy ends up reconnecting with Bran, Samuel and forming closer bonds with Warren, the only gay werewolf in Adam's pack, his boyfriend Kyle and Jessie, Adam's daughter. Meaning only to help Mac, Mercy ends up becoming more and more involved in the magic, rules and dangers of the world of the Fae, wolves and vampires. As of the fifth book, it's pretty much fair game as to who wants her dead the most.  She's killed or caused the death of both wolves and vampires, been raped, kidnapped, learned too much about the Fae, and eventually even becomes part of the werewolf pack. Like the coyote with the trickster spirit and too much bravado for such a little body, Mercy just can't seem to stay out of trouble.

Like I said, especially during Bone Crossed, the romantic aspect of this got to be a little too much for me. I like the actiony parts of the story much more than I like any of the parts concerning her attraction to Adam. It doesn't ever get explicit or explore the boundaries of sexuality or really even get beyond just general quasi romantic and intensity. It's never overtly Anita Blake-esque. I just don't really much care for mush or sex in my science fiction. It also is awesome but sucky at the same time that Patricia Briggs has gained such notoriety. This guarantees more books, but also means her books now come out in hardcover first, which equals 'spensive. I also fear the possiblity of a Mercy Thompson movie... which would be absolutely awful unless handled perfectly. Yeah. Like THAT happens.

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers

This is the adult novelisation of the movie version of the children's book Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Take a moment. Read that twice. Think, oh, ok. And proceed.

The movie Where The Wild Things Are had its screenplay co-written by Spike Jonze (geeeeenius) and Dave Eggers (uber hipster writerman). In as much as the store penned by Sendak all those years ago is about himself.... and so the Spike Jonze movie is kind of about his version of being Max. And Eggers' version is his side of the story of being Max.

Now, I'm gonna post SOME of my thoughts here, but not all of them, as I've yet to see the movie. I promise I'll post a part two to this update as soon as I get a chance.

I loved this book. I mean, I do loves me some Eggers. He created the Haggis-on-Whey books (http://www.amazon.com/Giraffes-HOW-Doris-Haggis-Whey/dp/1932416978/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262992030&sr=8-6), such as I enjoyed what I've read of his stuff and like everyone with even an ounce of hipster street cred, I was both amused and touched by A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. But I have to say, seeing him take a tiny children's story and place so much more into it made me smile a little more than I have at him in years.

For those who aren't familiar, WTWA (sendak's version) is about a little boy named Max who gets sent to his room without supper one night. Since his mother punished him, he decides to take a boat to an island where the (can you guess) the wild things live. He is fierce and wearing a wolf suit, so he is made their king. And the Wild Rumpus ensues, which involves tons of dancing and romping about. Eventually, though, he decides to return home... to find that his mother has laid a tray of supper for him in his room.

Well, the book is this, only moreso. It deals more with the loneliness and the issues surrounding his family. His sister is growing up and doesn't have time for him. His mother is dating someone, of whom he isn't a huge fan. He drenches his sister's room in water as revenge for her not defending him against her friends during a snowball fight. I don't want to go into too much detail, so as not to ruin this for anyone who is still planning on seeing the movie, so I'll just leave it at that and say that so far, this franchise (yes, it's a franchise now) did not disappoint.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

Let me just say, I hated this book for years. I read it when it was not available in paperback, when it was not a musical or a pop culture phenomenon. I read it and inspite of my dear love for The Wizard of Oz, I was not a fan.

I used to (and occasionally still do) have a big problem with adaptations, reimaginings or retellings of stories that I enjoy. I don't even typically enjoy remakes of movies or covers of songs. But maybe six, seven years later, I've reread Wicked and I've gotta say, it's not half bad.

It's the life of Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West. You can get that much just from reading the full title, I'm aware, but it's really how it is. There is so much you can say about this book and honestly, there's forty thousand other blogs, blurbs and a whole musical to say the rest and summarise, so I'm going to focus on the part that appealed to me most of all.

So, without further ado or dithering, here's a quote:
"This is why you shouldn't fall in love. It blinds you. Love is wicked distraction."

My basic reaction to this entire book was that Elphaba was betrayed by love, over and over again. The love her parents denied because of her appearance, the love of her real father, the love she felt for Fiyero was strong enough to make her try to confess to his wife, his sisters, anyone and in the end even that instinct ended up working to her detriment. If she had been treated with dignity, if she had been allowed to develop normal feelings towards herself instead of being forced to look at her life through the filter of the prejudices of those around her, maybe she would not have been in so much trouble. Maybe she never would have been the kind of person people felt they needed to defend Dorothy against. Maybe she could've been happy, and not so concerned with her lack of a soul and the need to try to correct some of the wrongs in the world. But then, really, compared to who she was, she would've been nobody.

The issue of love in relation to Elphaba's development was fairly dense. Ain't it always, though, folks? Her appearance, the questionable parentage, her mother's distance, her sister's religious leanings and the 'political' mood of Oz leave you with the feeling that it's really no surprise that the life of this heartbreakingly human character ends up being lost in the legend, propaganda and conjecture of the 'greater' (or simply more aesthetically appealing?) story of Dorothy Gale.

Elphaba was ostracized and marginalised even from birth. The obvious differences such as her green skin, uncertain gender and baby teeth lead her father to either parade her around to potential converts to display the "wrongness" of her existence or deny her as being any part of him, emotionally or biologically. And in spite of her devotion to her sister, Nessarose, the obvious preference shown as well as the issue of faith serves to futher isolate her from her family. Elphaba's disbelief in her own soul and her impatience with fantacism seems to me the only logical reaction to a system of belief that states she is either horribly wrong down to her very soul or is somehow lesser than her non-green, non-deformed counterparts. This also makes her devotion to Animal rights seem the only path her life could take.

I mean, come on. She is reviled for being less than human. So, in a very personal and real way, she understands the difficulty, humiliation and pain that comes from being told over and over, your life is worth less than others' lives. Her love for Fiyero, although immoral by the standards of the day, also seems to me the most realistic option. She does not compromise, does not change her beliefs or behaviour. It seems that a person so devoted to reason, whose personal philosophy is rooted so firmly in logic, could only fall passionately and irrevocably in love, even with someone who is taken. That being said, after his death and what she feels is her hand in it, it is only understandable that she would try to tell his wife, try to do what is right according to her worldview. Like I said before, maybe she would've cherished her son more if love hadn't betrayed her this one last time and led her to think it only leads to pain? I dunno. Maybe I'm missing the point. But this was my whirling point of view when I read this book.

I guess I don't have some great overwhelmingly intellectual response to this novel. It hit me in the gut and the heart. I can't really analyse it very well yet. I can only react to it. So forgive me if this isn't the best reaction I've ever written.