The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This book is fantastic! I first became interested in Bod, short for Nobody, when I read his short story in a collection of stories by Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things. While I wasn't exactly dying to read more, I was intrigued enough to order a copy of the newly published expanded book from the library. This was an excellent choice. I am a huge fan of Mr. Gaiman's books. His sense of the absurd and fantastic really meshes well with my life-view. A book about a boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard, watched over by a guardian vampire and substitute-guardian werewolf is just one of the best ideas I've heard in a long time! Qualifier: the inclusion of a mummy to the team of guardians was a little too much. You have to draw the line somewhere.

I would definitely recommend this book to any Neil Gaiman fans and would probably recommend it to someone unfamiliar with his work. The flow of the storyline is a little choppy, most likely because of its origins as a couple of short stories. All in all, I consider the two hours I spent reading this book to have been time well-spent! Sure, I could have been trying to solve world hunger, but reading about how to defeat a ghoul will probably prove useful at some point in my life, right?

Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

This book was intended for inclusion in my companion blog: Books to Brag About. Unfortunately, after reading the book and digesting the message, I have had to reassign the placement of my review into Books I'm Ashamed to be Seen With. Ouch.

I culled this book from one of those, "Best Business Books of All Times" lists published by BNET. The method has gotten great reviews and has been used by IBM and other luminaries of the public and private sector. The author's career was made following the publication of this book, and he has been able to support himself on consulting and speaking engagements regarding the 6 Hats for the last twenty years.

All of that said, I was excited to read the book and to learn about this analytical tool and thinking guideline that I was ashamed to admit I had never heard of. Hmm. This method is currently being taught in elementary school as the way to think. I am sincerely sceptical regarding the quality of cognition that will be developed through the use of the 6 Hat method.

Basically, different patterns of thinking are developed: organizational; factual; positive; critical; creative; and emotional, and are assigned a color. The individual or the group is then supposed to regulate their thought patterns to follow the designated type of thought allowed during a period of time. To that end, either an agenda is set during a "blue hat" moment (organizational) regarding which thinking hat will follow the other; or, a facilitator will ask members of a group to "put on their yellow hats for a few minutes", etc. etc.

This is ridiculously juvenile. The basic concept, that a human being is capable of controlling his/her thoughts and is not at the mercy of his/her thought processes, is one that I heartily concur with. I am astounded that more people haven't realized that the brain can be forced from an unproductive emotional train of thought and disciplined into following a more rational mindset. However, the synthetic, overly structured nature of setting a thinking style agenda in advance as well as the ridiculous, overly jolly image of the silly hats is ridiculous.

I don't know if the concept of controlling your thought patterns can only be attractive through a simple and visually appealing message or if the author actually had the moment of epiphany through the visualization of six different hats, but I wish that Mr. de Bono had stuck to more scholarly theory and skipped the whole hat metaphor.

Bravo for the underlying message of rationalism - even the emotional thinking pattern serves to recognize and identify emotional subtexts to bring them to the open and hopefully to bring to light the self-serving and ignoble nature of most people's innermost thoughts. However, a trip to the embarrassing book list was earned by being so doggone silly!

Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris

I picked up my first Sookie Stackhouse mystery novel for light reading on my honeymoon. Really, you can't spend all your time with your new husband, can you? :)

The one that I happened to read first was Definitely Dead, number 6 in the series. Now, normally, I would never read a series out of order, since the development of the characters and the change in the author's style over time is one of the most interesting parts of reading a series; however, this book's cover had a glittery image of a blonde girl riding a tiger through the air with a vampire reaching for the tiger's tail. It just doesn't get any better than that. Also, ever since reading The Life of Pi, I've had a fondness for books with tigers.

Anyhoo, I read the book during a couple of down hours on my luna de miel and absolutely loved it! The storyline was not difficult to pick up and Sookie is absolutely adorable as a cocktail waitress/mind reader from Northern Louisiana. The vampires were approached from a new angle, I love the whole Kings and Queens thing, and the whole tone of the writing is just light and downhome and fun! This actually came as something of a surprise to me, as I have seen these books in Borders for years and have dismissed them as yet another cynical attempt by a mainstream author to capitalize on the recent popularity of paranormal fiction. Instead, this really is a fresh new series with a series joie de vivre and an evolving story line.

The romance thread throughout the series is a lot of fun, though I for one am hoping that Sookie does not end up with Sam. He's cute, but just not exciting enough. The other players in Sookie's love life are: Vampire Bill; vampire Sheriff Eric; werepanther Calvin; Were Alcide; weretiger Quinn, and a little Christmas gift from her grandpa, a fairy disguised as a werewolf! After all, Sookie's chances with a human are hurt by her ability to read the minds of human beings.

The gradual introduction of new characters and new aspects of the paranormal world keep each book fresh and interesting. Sookie's evolution from quirky and naive to even quirkier but much less naive is good, but I'm still hoping for good things to come to her, especially now that we know that she is 1/8 fairy!

The books might be a little embarrassing to be seen with, but at eight books and counting, I'd say that they are worth a little pink in your cheek. Go forth and read!

1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone (to be released May 5, 2009)