Book and Literature Recommendations

Since this (atop) is where I spend my off hours, I need to dump this here:

Anne Rice / The wolf gift
(release Feb 14)

Anne Rice seems to have released a new book. I have read her religiously for years, then she dried up, so did I. Hmmm. will be back with a report

Amazon says:
A daring new departure from the inspired creator of The Vampire Chronicles (“unrelentingly erotic . . . unforgettable”—The Washington Post), Lives of the Mayfair Witches (“Anne Rice will live on through the ages of literature”—San Francisco Chronicle), and the angels of The Songs of the Seraphim (“remarkable”—Associated Press). A whole new world—modern, sleek, high-tech—and at its center, a story as old and compelling as history: the making of a werewolf, reimagined and reinvented as only Anne Rice, teller of mesmerizing tales, conjurer extraordinaire of other realms, could create.

The time is the present.

The place, the rugged coast of Northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer . . . An older woman welcoming him into her magnificent family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency . . . A chance encounter between two unlikely people . . . An idyllic night—shattered by horrific unimaginable violence, the young man inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness . . . A violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation, as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing what he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.

As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf” by authorities, the media, and scientists (evidence of DNA threatens to reveal his dual existence) . . . As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there may be others like him who are watching—guardian creatures who have existed throughout time who possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge. And throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations, and the fraught, exhilarating journey, still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.

Don't know if anyone else here was a fan, but I'm not ashamed to admit I shed a tear this morning when I learned of the passing of Ray Bradbury. Everyone's talking about Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, both amazing books, but he wrote so much that I loved.

The Illustrated Man, The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes, A Medicine for Melancholy, I Sing The Body Electric ...

How many lonely hours as a kid were less lonely because this man lived?

I saw these words written in the comment section, of all places, on a blog about Bradbury's death and wanted to share them somewhere:

Somewhere in America, a boy tap-dances a on a tuned segment of discarded wooden sidewalk, calling his friends to run over the hills by moonlight...

Out on the Veldt, the animals pause for a moment, as though something unseen had passed through their midst...

Somewhere on Mars, a new silver fire is burning to welcome him...

By the river, a Book stops it's recitation for the day, to remember a fine man who wrote such fine, fine things.

Thanks be, for Ray Bradbury, who taught me that there could be poetry in prose.

Just finished that myself. It was evocative and I especially appreciated the description and experiences of the fans of the circus; the touches of red, the following of the circus, the way they became friends and passed on information. As a matter of fact, I read part of it to some of the Atlanta party attendees because I knew they would recognize ourselves in the prose.

Very good book.

I'm reading 'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel. It took awhile to get into but now I can't put it down. I would like to see the movie but think the animals dying scenes would be to graphic for me.

Has anyone seen the movie?