Lately I've been catching up with all the things that had lost their buzz for me...maybe because I'd been tired or a little less passionate than I'm used to being about books. Anyway, the important thing is that I'm loving books more than ever and lucking out in finding some great ones.

The great thing about short story collections and non-fiction is that I can read them and still fit in a novel...all three types of books in different rooms of my place ready for me to pick up where I left off.

The problem with the zombie ones and Lost Girls and Love Hotels is that I can't put them down. Lost Girls is so quirky and funny and dark and mysterious plus (this is shallow!) the cover is very eye-catching!:)

As you may be able to tell from the cover Margaret is not the best role model in the world, but she's been through a lot and is trying to escape her painful past (and less than thrilling job at Air-Pro Stewardess Training Institute) by losing herself in drugs and sex in Tokyo's exotic night life.

Those scenes can be pretty explicit, but the sadness and genuine pain she's in when she's trying to forget is unbelievably barren and almost strangely familiar to anyone hoping for a little oblivion.

Lost Girls is unlike anything I've read in a while;I have a feeling I'm going to be staying up late tonight reading this all the way through...having putting zombies aside....temporarily, of course!:)

p.s.

I just found out that the book is being made into a movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0920462/

You've got to hear "Hey Now" by Augustana; it's just so so beautiful and raw and makes me think of something Jeff Bridges said in an article I read in Filter magazine:


"Be kinder than necessary 'cause everyone you meet is facing some kind of battle."


Sometimes when "Hey Now" shows up unexpectedly on my MP3 shuffle I catch my breath at how gorgeous and sad and comforting it is...and I think it's also talking about being kind to yourself, too! We all go through dark and lonely times (some people definitely have it worse than others and a very small number somehow manage to skate through life with very few problems) but giving into the pain in a permanent way is not the answer, is never the answer...somehow Augustana doesn't make all this sound trite and that's why I love the song with all my heart...

Oh how I love this book! I may have already blogged about this before...don't think I have, but IF I have, I apologize. It's THAT good, though. Earnest, sweet, funny, very engaging, sad and chock full of great characters, wacky adventures and unique story lines.

When it comes to the supernatural I've always thought if a writer were going to somehow tie in eating disorders it would be connected to zombies. But in Lonely Werewolf Girl the title character battles depression (among other things) after being thrown out of her house when she lashes out at her father because he and her mother hound her about not eating.

Sounds a bit odd, maybe, and even a bit over the top, but it's not. Martin Millar knows the heart and mind of a teenage girl...and perhaps that's one of the best things about this wonderful book...

I've often had dreams about foxes. Dream dictionaries state that this means there is an enemy hiding among your friends, but I don't buy this theory at all. In my dream, the foxes are always beautiful and friendly and I can see the burnished red color and texture of their fur as if they really are in front of me.

Dream symbolism is nothing more than an attempt by someone else to confine people's imaginations and lives into little square boxes where there is no room for anything but pat little cliches to thrive. I say let your dreams mean what you want them to...or even better....maybe just realize they don't have to mean anything at all!!:)

There is a point in many people's lives when they have been so hungry they have almost felt savage, a throwback to caveman times when you do whatever it took to get food.

Maybe that's why when I read zombie fiction or remember episodes of X-Files like "Hunger" (from the seventh season back in 1999) I think of disordered eating and a base kind of hunger that is more primal than anything else in life, including sexual desire. The kind of hunger that is more powerful than shame or dignity...that is so overwhelming the morning after you feel like you woke up with a stranger you did unspeakable things with...

If you're a serious X-Files fan you might remember the "Hunger" episode with Chad E. Donella playing a troubled young man with serious food issues. http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Hungry In one scene he is talking in a support group and he speaks of his hunger as something he can't control. Even though he does despicable things (in a nutshell: he eats people's brains) the viewer almost feels sorry for him....

Obviously they're not real and not nearly as animated or attractive as vampires, but I've always sort of felt bad for zombies for this same reason. In a recently released anthology called The Best of All Flesh James Lowder brings together some of the best talent in zombie fiction.

more on this later!