Day 22 or The World Series, The Real Round 1

Criteria

#of books in series

#times I've reread

intellectually entertaining

humourously entertaining

recommendable

discussable at water cooler/pub

scroll down if you just want to skip the play-by-play and look at the lovely bloody bracket

ON THE LEFT SIDE!
In the first match-up, Harry Potter versus the Dark Elf Trilogy, Harry Potter delivered a KO! Seven books to three, along with seven movies and the eighth one due out this summer. Plus, each HP book has been reread at least three times compared to the once for each of the Dark Elf books. Sorry Drizzt Do'Urden, but I gotta go with the lumos on this one.

In the third bout, the Dark Tower versus the Hunger Games... there was an epic struggle of minimal proportions. The scope of the Dark Tower series is so much greater than that of the Hunger Games. However, I greatly prefer the Hunger Games...because King writes books that are sans hope. Hunger Games FTW!

Then there's the Chronicles of Narnia's allegories throttling the Baroque Cycle. The Baroque Cycle counters with the intricacy of time manipulating story lines. The Baroque Cycle prevails!

The Saga of Recluce battles Marian Keyes' stories about the Walsh sisters. The Walsh sisters limp away with multiple fractures and two black eyes.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, with it's measly three tomes, triumphantly plants a flag in the apocalyptic and imbecilic Left Behind series. Frodo tosses my Christmas 2000 back into my life.

Sherlock Holmes, that classy lad, tried his best to coin the pithy phrase of the 20th century...AND FAILED! 'Elementary, my dear Watson' WAS NEVER IN THE BOOKS!  So, DON'T PANIC and you live and learn.  At any rate, you live. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gives you great tips for when the world ends anyway. So it wins that round.

Alvin Maker, brainchild of Orson Scott Card, is quite the man...er, Maker. The alternative reality historical fiction series is brilliant. Jack Ryan is one of two beloved characters imagined by Tom Clancy. My grandfather likes Tom Clancy. Jack Ryan wins.

Two made up worlds, only one will win! The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett consistently makes me laugh out loud. I lol'd superhardgood pretty much at all of them there books. L. Frank Baum's allegorical The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first of FOURTEEN titles, was lots of fun to analyze in honors History in high school, but it never made me laugh. Boot to the head to Oz, no ruby slippers for you! Especially since they were SILVER SLIPPERS! UP YOURS HOLLYWOOD!  Discworld pwnd you!

ON THE RIGHT!
Next up, A Song of Ice & Fire contending with the Inheritance trilogy...this'd be of the Eragon, Eldest, and Awakening. Oh Christopher Paolini, your utter reliance on archetypes reminiscent of Star Wars is just absolutely no comparison to George R. R. Martin's saga of everything. Yes, you have a movie, but Ice & Fire has a new series out on HBO and it has been so nice watching how closely the adapters are keeping Game of Thrones from being crap.  Your movie, even with the lovely Jeremy Irons...nah. I was tired of the second book even before I finished the first one. Sorry...you lose.

Jason Bourne is the new hotness thanks to Matt Damon...but I love historical fiction. I love historical fiction that is in an alternate reality. I love historical fiction that is in an alternate reality with...DRAGONS. Temeraire and Laurence, I heart you hardbig.

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality are formulaic. So is James Patterson's Alex Cross series. Cross always (SPOILER ALERT) catches the bad guy. Even if he is Morgan Freeman. But Morgan Freeman is not God. Le sigh. This is the worst one so far. Yeah, the Incarnation win because nursery rhymes are not perverted into book titles and Piers Anthony doesn't like to mow his lawn. True story.

The next contenders are children. Well, one behaves like a child, the other has his childhood taken away from him so he can save the world. My nostalgia can not save you, Laura Ingalls Wilder. The enemy's gate is down and Ender wins the round. Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Ender's Shadow, Xenocide... etc etc.... I want to have another snow day and cocoa just to go through them again.

Robert Jordan died without finishing his Wheel of Time series. But that's not a mark against him. Sanderson is doing a fine ass job finishing it up for him. Philip Pullman pretends to be all in your face about your religion, but it (His Dark Materials) still is a good story, but sucky movie. WoT has 13 published books, one more coming out later this year (I think) and several companion books and a prequel. Sheer number of pages cause multiple paper cuts and Pullman has to forfeit the round to nurse his wounds.

Hmmm....Sookie Stackhouse versus Father Tim. Father Tim, definitely. He's a comforting light. And he gets the girl next door just by being frumpy and cute. MY HERO!

Mists of Avalon versus Twilight... Because I don't want to get beat down by my Twihard BIF and because you gotta know that at least one game is always thrown in a tournament (statistics, yo) Twilight wins. Just don't hold your breath for Final Four.

Do you remember Encyclopedia Brown? He was a cool kid. But he has to battle dragons. DRAGONS, I tell you! No contest, even if the dragons won't eat humans. Encyclopedia Brown was cool because he could figure out crimes and stuff from the vaguest clues. He was a 12 year old Sherlock Holmes living in the 1960s-1980s. Heck, even The Onion did a parody newsstory on him. Nevertheless, I heart DRAGONS and I haven't picked up an Encyclopedia Brown book since 1990...so BOO YA.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, where I skip the Elite Eight and bully on the Final Four... I'm having tons of fun with this!

Day 22 or The World Series, Round 1

Day 22- Favorite Series

THE LINEUP:
2. A Song of Ice and Fire
3. Wheel of Time
1. Harry Potter
19. Sookie Stackhouse
17.Hunger Games
18. Temeraire
4. Lord of the Rings
24. Baroque Cycle
5. Discworld
16. Dark Tower
20. Hitchhiker's Guide Series
21. Hunt for Present Danger with Fear of Sum Patriotic Games
15. Bourne Identity/Supremacy.Ultimatum
25. Marian Keyes Irish Sisters
26. Little House on the Prairie
22. Twilight
14. Mitford House
6. Dragonriders of Pern
23. Alex Cross
7. Ender series
12. Alvin Maker
13. Sherlock Holmes
27. Encyclopedia Brown
8. The Saga of Recluce
28. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
9. Chronicles of Narnia
29. Left Behind
30. His Dark Materials
31. Inheritance (Eragon)
11. Avalon
32. The Dark Elf Trilogy
10. Incarnations of Immortality

Criteria
#of books in series
#times I've reread
intellectually entertaining
humourously entertaining
recommendable
discussable at water cooler/pub

#CUE PATRIOTIC MUSIC, FANS STANDING UP....HANDS OVER HEARTS, BOYS OF SUMMER BLAH BLAH BLAH

Okay... here's the opening line-up... leave your predictions for Sweet 16... who knows what you could win.

Day 21 or More Flaunting of the Rules

Day 21- A guilty pleasure book

After considerable discussion with The Man about this one, all of five minutes, I say periodicals rather than books for this criterion.

Mainly because of the time nature of the criterion. Guilty pleasure is something you want to indulge in with intermittent frequency.

So...then... yeah, I like People Magazine.

Remember the picture of the Cathedral's bell tower? Yeah, this is the view from the top.

Still at the top of the bell tower. That's the Castle. Students can live in the Castle you know?

There's a castle adjacent to Durham Cathedral because Durham Cathedral was the seat of the Prince Bishops.

Again, I have very few pictures from the interior of the castle, also due to the injunction against cameras and other recording devices inside. However...

I was able to sneak off a couple of pictures (four) before the docent wised up to me. She was nice about it though.

Day 20 or Why I love Barney Stinson

Have you noticed that there's a couple of books out there, dealing with race relations, that have the word 'kill' in the title?

A Time to Kill
To Kill a Mockingbird

Is this on purpose? Is there a greater conspiracy at hand?

Day 20- A book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/close-minded person

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Only 10 more days of this crap to go. I'm ecstatic.  Why do I keep doing this? Because it's a CHALLENGE and this is how I feel when there's a challenge before me:

Day 19 or How I Learned the Socratic Method from a Gorilla

On the way home from Kiddo's school, we stopped in at Durham Cathedral. The boys' choir was practicing... I believe that the official name is Choristers.  The boys were wearing long purple robes and were led by what I imagine is a priest.

It was beautiful and I now totally get the whole obsession with building cathedrals. ACOUSTICS. I'd build one if I had the money and 1000 years. Really. Durham Cathedral has been around since 1093. Really. They told me.

And then we saw a guy in a long black robe start pulling on two chords that went all the way up the tower. Yes, yes he was tolling the bells. And the walls of the Cathedral are so dang thick that you can just barely make out the peals; just so you know, you can hear them quite clearly from the inside of my house, four miles away.

We talked to him a bit, found out he's a burgess. He then, very nicely and generously we thought, let Natalie pull on a chord. Yup...Kiddo got to toll the bells of Durham Cathedral on this day in history. Poor thing couldn't hear it.

Wanna know why there ain't no picture of this melodic, harmonic event?  Because they don't allow cameras in this dagnabbited cathedral.

So I'll include the ones I snuck from our home-finding trip here last year

See the Gothic arches with the roundels in the upper middle? That's where the Choristers were singing today. This picture was taken 4/21/10. Aren't the columns gorgeous? MOORISH INFLUENCE IN CATHOLIC CENTRE! DEETS AT 10!

The bell tower as seen from the cloisters' walkway

But at least now we know for whom the bell tolls without having to ask.



Day 19- A book that changed your mind about a particular subject

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I was assigned this as a textbook in one of my required upper level major courses... I'm so effin glad I enrolled in that class. I think it influenced how I interacted with students... it, at the very least, induced a minor bias that was included thematically in most, if not all of my lessons.

It also, even though it is fiction, helped me realize that much of the systems created by humanity are unsustainable. It's economics and anthropology combined in an approachable medium. 

It's another book I like to give as a gift...but with this one, if the givee doesn't agree with the precepts posited by the author...then that's fine with me. I just want to have a discussion about the hypothesis that human supremacy is a myth and that modern civilization (starting around 10,000 years ago) enacts that myth. 

There's also others in this "series", if you like. My Ishmael and The Story of B. My Ishmael takes place at the same time as Ishmael, but the student in the book is a 12 year old girl... PERFECT FOR YOUR PRE-TEENS! The Story of B is a prequel to Ishmael.

Have you come across any of them in your book browsings?

Day 18

Day 18- A book you love but can't find on the shelves anymore

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Really, I can't find this one or any of the others in the series on the shelves of the bookstores or library here in sunny Durham.

If we're talking about books that one once had, then I no longer have my grandfather's elementary primer. I loved reading about Tommy and his 'doggies'. I wish I knew where it ended up.

I wish I knew where a lot of my grandparents' belongings ended up. I have some lovely things that aren't here with me (who wants to move and pay to move a set of antique dressers overseas? not I said the little red hen)  but I do have one thing... a picture, taken in 1945, of my grandma with her best friend, Sheila. 

I just realized. My aunt, my grandma's first-born, is named after a dear friend. I did that too. Kiddo's named after a girl I knew in elementary and was friends with until college caused our paths to diverge ...completely, but amicably. 

I don't know if Aunt Sheila ever met Friend Sheila... but I think it'd be mint if Kiddo met my old friend, just once.

Remember this day? I was ever so enamoured of the Pimms No. 1 Cup that I had to make one of my own when I got home. Thank you Royal Wedding!

Pimm's, peeled orange slices, strawberry slices, and mint...not shown: bubbly additive a la Sprite or Sparkling Water

Combine half or more of Pimm's can with equal or lesser of Sprite or Sparkling Water. Add the freshness of the sliced fruit. DRINK!

Yes, that's a paper towel as my backdrop. I'm minty class.

Serve over ice and read some English literature.

Hey don't forget to go vote for me!





Please, vote for me or any of the other great blogs ... because you know, like whatever. I mean, I don't need popularity contest validation... Yes, YES YES I DO!

I've been nominated for Blog of the Month at FTLOB

Well, it's happened. And I'm very happy to be nominated. Please, please feel free to vote for me or any of the other great blogs ... a couple of which I follow..
Dweej/Dwija at House Unseen--- she's great! It's a pisser that I'm competing with her because she's just minty awesome. I think her two different names are like the clean shaven/bearded Star Trek crew...one's her light, funny, and fluffy persona; the other's her serious and introspective self. 
Chicken Noodle Gravy -- really, truly a fantastic writer. Always good value, but not in a WalMart sort of way. Like in a Slate kind of way.
ArtsyNina-- just started following her this week actually; I think her sense of style is charming....her blog is a safe place.
I'm looking forward to being introduced to the others: a happy girl and goldfinch anchor (how evocative is that name?)
Click here to vote

I want to have a Geordie makeover & Day 17

Geordie Shore was everything I wanted it to be. Dirty and nutty, filthy and slutty. These kids are crazy.



I thought I wouldn't like Vicki, but I just might... if she keeps up the levelheadedstreetness she exhibited in the first episode. And yet, Charlotte-Letitia will most likely stay my fave.

I care nothing for the gym bunnies, ahem...boys. The old guy is cool(ish) though.

After watching Geordie Shore last night, I've decided I need another go at a night out with the lads in Newcastle. We attempted it, sort of, with the Christmas Curry Dinner...but because we hadn't completely shed our Sensible Ladies' persona, it was a bit tame.

I think, that if I were to go full out using fake eyelashes, hair extensions and some spray tan along with a short dress and high heels, then I can get a "native" experience. I'm thinking of calling it "Midsummer's Night Out"... whatchoo think? Missy, you up for it?

Day 17- Book turned movie and completely desecrated.

I mentioned it earlier this week... but Michael Ende's The NeverEnding Story ain't what you see on celluloid, kids.

FOR INSTANCE, raise your hand if you know the Child-like Empress' name? Ah...just a couple of you. Well, the movie ends basically a scene or two after the Empress gets a new name and Bastian goes nuts with Falkor.

But in the book, it's only the middle. The story's just getting started... remember? The NeverEnding Story?

source

Here's a nice list of the differences:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NeverEnding_Story_(film)#Differences_from_the_novel  because I can't be bothered to elucidate, as I feel it'd be akin to plagiarism

Apparently, there's a new adaptation in the works, thanks to Leonardo diCaprio. He's such a child of the 80s.  Probably why. Look for it in 2014!

Bon Anniversaire!

It's been one full year since we arrived here. And it is frickin cold. I have no words of wisdom to pass on to future Mollie. And I could slap past Mollie in the face for overtrying to be Sunshine & Lollipops...but will also give her credit for trying. Went out last night and had a pint in remembrance.

Actually... I hadn't remembered until my friend was talking about luggage problems from their move to Oz.

Would you like to know more?
May 27, 2010 http://mollieisokinuk.blogspot.com/2010/05/up-to-speed-part-i.html

Anyway. It's all kittens and fluff, because I wanted people back home to not worry... but some of our luggage was lost...this would be the luggage that had some household items that make life comfortable... like sheets. And the shipped boxes didn't arrive until several days later. And we couldn't figure out the boiler. So we were sleeping in a cold house with towels for blankets...because, you know, we went out and bought some. Because, you know, we were stinky. 22 hours on planes will do that to you.

I think I owe it to myself to write a more realistic version of events.

Day 15- Favorite book dealing with foreign culture


Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Mainly, the biggest reason for this choice is because the copy I have now is the one Mom gave me right before we left last year. It was the only book I had when we got here.

(psst!)

(what?)

(you forgot about Sarum!)

(oh yeah... that's a good book too, but not the appropriate choice.)

(bitch, don't front with me. I'm just keeping you honest!)

(better you than someone else, jackass.)

(you wanna fight? c'mere you poser)

Really, I had no idea myself is so confrontational with myself. Okay, okay. So I had Sarum, by Edward Rutherfurd but that doesn't really "deal" with foreign culture. So, it was technically the second book I had. And she's very positive in that book so I imagine that that positivity rubbed off since I was in a foreign country too. I just had no idea how foreign.

Day 16- Favorite book turned movie

Eh, they're all pretty good. 101 Dalmatians is pretty close to the novel. I've really been enjoying Game of Thrones (technically not a movie) because it's staying pretty true to the book. Pride and Prejudice is great also... all three versions are nice. IMDB says that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in development. That should be fun... if only they keep the time period to early 19th century and not mid-late 19th century as is evidenced by the illustrations.

But I'll go with Much Ado About Nothing.

I banish thee to the depths of my bookshelf, until further notice- Day 14

Day 14- A Book that should be on a highschool/college required reading list.

Banned books, all of them. Like Captain Underpants and the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It's comprehensive, sssshhhh, don't tell.

Here's a list of banned "classics" from the American Library Association. Books that have been read by yours truly are highlighted boldly.
1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck 
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce 
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison 
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 
9. 1984, by George Orwell 

11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov 
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck 

15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller 
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell 
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway 
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner 
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway 

23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston 
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison 
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison 
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell 
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright 
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey *I've got a great story about this one!!!
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut 
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway 

33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London 

36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin 

38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren 

40. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien 

45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair 

48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence 
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess *Saw the movie, but haven't read yet.
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin 

53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote 

55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie 

57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron 

64. Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence 

66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut 
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 

73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs 
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh 
75. Women in Love, by D.H. Lawrence 

80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer 

84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller 

88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser 

97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike 



See the missing spots? Those were books that were on this list of "classics" but were not banned. Books like Charlotte's Web and Winnie-ther-Pooh. It's a list of the 20th century's 100 top novels... you can see it here if you like.


Here's a list of books that might surprise you that they are banned: (link) (also are bolded)
Lord of the Rings
Fahrenheit 451
Harry Potter series
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
James and the Giant Peach (LOOOOOVE IT!)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
American Heritage Dictionary *But I have read most of it.




Really, I should read Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses... because that's the book that got the death threat/fatwa/jihad on his ass since 1989...AND HE'S STILL GOING STRONG! 


What banned books have you read or want to?

The Sophie's Choice of Childhood Literature

Too soon? Dang. I can't choose really...

Day 13- Favorite Childhood Book

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or 

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Which would you have picked? Please tell me you've read Hound and Bear.

I like Hound and Bear for the story but I like the Berenstain Bears books for the illustrations. I'm good at illustrations. But Tomie dePaola has to have a nod. And the Steven Kellogg.

See my illustration? I call it "People of the Northeast"

Caricatures of archetypical customers who came in last week.

I'm so damn proud of myself. 

Anyway, Hound and Bear is about Hound and Bear. They're friends who live with each other. Friends that is, until Hound plays one too many pranks and gets kicked out of the house by Bear.

Oh the joie de vivre of Hound! Oh the hirsute steadfastness of Bear! Ages 4-8 is the recommended range, but the prank-loving adolescent in you will love it, especially the black paint episode.

And the illustrations! Ooooh! Simple line drawings! The use of one bright color amidst the greys! Steven Spielberg was inspired and hijacked that idea!

Okay, so Hound and Bear wins and the Berenstain Bears have to get on the train. At least there's more than one of them, so they'll have company.

Happy Sunday all y'all.

Days 11 & 12, including Fun Video Friday

CHEESY LYRIC ALERT- C-c-c-c-combo! 1UP!

Days go by and still I think of you
Given in the lines, written in the pages
Days when I couldn't live my life without you

Day 11- The Book that made you fall in love with reading

Ah, reading. Blessing and curse. I've already read the two books I checked out this week. Reading is like heroin, I guess. My own personal brand of heroin (GAG!)

I have always been in love with reading since day one of my life... so no one particular book gets this honor.

Day 12- A book so emotionally draining you couldn't complete it or had to set aside for a bit
Yeah, this day is one that I hate to admit ... that I couldn't power through, but the book was called "Damage" and I have no real inclination to say more about it. I couldn't even tell you who it's by.

Rented The Neverending Story and watched it with kiddo. That child, she's a hardcore little girl. I used to get scared by G'mork... not her. And in the Swamps of Sadness, she's shouting at Atreyu, "Don't be afraid! It's just a turtle!"

Hell, I was tearing up whenever the Ivory Tower was on the screen... Kiddo's contemplating her navel. She liked it though, but I don't think it beats My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in her mind.

And the following is for all you Bon Jovi lovers (I'm looking at you TexaG!) and appreciators of the great years of Techno... I submit the sublime Orbital for Fun Video Friday

I can't tell him to stop because I'm ashamed

Once upon a time, there was a pushover for manual labor services. She would do just about anything to get out of cleaning most things, windows included. A day came when a knocking on the door didn't mean it was a charity asking for bank details; it was the neighbor's friend who had a business cleaning outside windows, upstairs and downstairs.

She was ecstatic to solve the issue for such a low price, figuring it was a one off. And she was glad to help a blue collar man in this economy. But he came back the next month to clean the windows...and the next. Each time, she was caught off guard by the sound of the wet soapy brush attacking the upstairs window; he always started from the top. Each time, she scrambled through the change jar for the £4 to pay for the session. It hadn't been her understanding that he'd wash the windows every month but, she mused, this was the price you pay when you speak the same language but have a different accent. Plus it was nice to be on good terms with your neighbors, otherwise he might throw meat on top of the roof.

She never had cash in the house on the days he came. After a couple of months of embarrassed scrambling through the change jar's dwindling contents (really, she could've paid in 2p's but that would've been silly; 50p's and pound coins were more sophisticated) he handed her his bank details so she could pay him online. She took the half-slip of paper, glanced over it as he responded to her inquiry of how much she owed him. It was only £8. She'd thought it was closer to £21. And then she noticed his name at the bottom. Graeme. Inwardly, she high-fived herself, thinking "finally! I couldn't remember his name."

He paused, checking her face to see if he had overstepped society's line of service relationships. She grinned back, reassuring him that she'd take care of it that day. After he left, she sat and looked at the paper, wondering if she should pay the bill. After all, if you don't pay for services, do you continue to receive them?

Day 10- The First Novel You Remember Reading

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• Gone With the Wind- not the typical Babysitters' Club chapter book loved by the age group...don't get me wrong, I liked those book superhard.

•  I was in 5th grade and I needed another reason to set me apart from all the other girls. The beige horn-rimmed glasses, frizzy perm, and general pudge just weren't cutting the mustard.

• It was my Grandma's favorite movie.

• Just another way to connect to her. And remember her. She sure did like that Clark Gable. Don't think she knew about his halitosis.

The book that could make you wish you had a Mormon neighbor

...or even make you wish you were Mormon. A year's worth of peanut butter is MINT!

Day 9- A Book You've Read More Than Once

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ANOTHER post-apocalyptic book in this list-o of mine. What makes this one different is I think, at least I hope, that this is a closer, more accurate portrayal of how humans might behave in such a situation...mainly because there's not a whole lot of the crazy hoodoo voodoo you can find in other apocalyptic novels. No mystical black woman, no savior child, no vampires, thank God.

Randy is a sorta, kinda lawyer who lives in Florida. He and his brother, a military intelligence and security high muckety-muck, have a code phrase for when the shit's about to hit the fan. Derived from the Book of Revelations, it kind of says it all... Alas, Babylon. Just so happens to be the title of the book too. Just so.  He's fun to read about because he's like Noah (of the Ark?) but without the hubristic, Deliverence-esque "It gonna rain, you gonna die unless you TWO BY TWO!"

Okay, that part's just a little fudged. Nah, Randy's likable because when his bro tells him that there's trouble a-coming, Randy goes out to the store and buys a shitload of steaks and whiskey. He puts the steak in the freezer. Shortly after he does this, the (SPOILER ALERT) bomb goes off and the electricity goes out. 

All that meat defrosts and it makes him sad. Not the fact that his life as he knew is over...no, he's sad about the steaks. He rallies though, with a massive cookout. I like that about him.

So, yeah. Just so you know, I usually reread books. 

A quick YouTube search revealed that high school students were/are reading this book still. They're making movie trailer and newscasts for their English classes. Well done, I say. My mom had this book on hand one day. I think she held out for a day when my 15 or 16 year old self was shuffling around the house, walking into walls, thumbing books I'd read and reread too recently to have held my interest. Really, I was an odd duck, hating summer the way I did. Possibly irritated beyond her capacity for teenage shenanigans for the day, she handed it over to me. I think she said she read it when she was around my age. 

Pat Frank and I became quite close that summer as I lay outside on the wooden patio table, reading his tale of sociological and political breakdown. It's one of those books I use as a litmus test of someone's aptitude to be my friend. If they've read it, then they KNOW and need no further vetting. If they haven't, then they have to be willing to read it when I shove in their faces. Right then. No waiting. 

I think my ex-Mormon friends've read it... so they already KNOW. Do you? Or do you need some Harper Perennial pages shoved in your face ninja-style?