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10. The Surrender of Persephone by Selena Kitt (2009; Phaze Books) retells the Classical Greek myth of the virgin goddess of spring, Persephone, and her abduction by the god of the Underworld, Hades. In myth, Persephone grows into her role as queen of the Underworld to become a powerful and mysterious goddess. In Kitt’s uncensored version, Persephone chafes at her mother Demeter’s restrictiveness and dim view of males, both humane and divine.

Up from the depths of the world comes Hades, also known as Aidon. He lifts Persephone into his chariot and takes her to the eerily lovely splendor of his Underworld kingdom, the land of the dead. In his mind, this is a perfectly satisfactory arranged marriage, a deal among Aidon and Persephone’s father Zeus. Persephone feels a mixture of fear and attraction to the handsome, amber-eyed god. A exhaustively progressed spun on an ancient fable.

9. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris. Many things take place in this book (including Alcide’s ascension to leader of the Shreveport pack and the aspect of a new fairy), but the entire venture is rather disjointed. Sookie is at her most fickle (she’s all of a sudden keen on Calvin Norris and Eric, not so much Alcide and Quinn), and there is a remarkable lack of romance. Interesting, but not the best of the Southern Vampire series. On the other hand, Bill seems to want Sookie back…could the long-awaited reconciliation be in the works?

8. Dead After Dark by Sherrilyn Kenyon, J. R. Ward, Susan Squires and Dianne Love. The four stories in this collection are all highly entertaining. The best of the best is J.R. Ward’s “The Story of Son.” It’s not part of her Black Dagger Brotherhood storyline, but it’s excellent, with a genuinely engaging heroine and a darkly romantic, tragic hero, a bit like Z in the Brotherhood. (And he’s my favorite.) This is the initial I’ve read from the other authors, but I’ll surely be wanting more in the future thanks to this introduction. All of the stories could be themed “They came from dissimilar worlds.” Very spicy, very diverse tales, all very good.

7. Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez. Ever since the days of Scoobie Doo, teens have wondered whether adults were conspiring to get them. And you know what? Sometimes they’re right. Daisy Giordano is not only a resident of the quirky town of Nightshade, but likewise the only “norm” in a family of psychics. When girls at her high school commence turning up undead, she and her hunky best friend Ryan will have to get to the bottom of this mystery. Is a vampire on the loose? Could it be Nurse Phillips, or perchance Miss Foster, the head cheerleading coach? Daisy may not be gifted with her mother’s and sisters’ particular powers, but she is smart, curious, and above all determined. If any individual may get to the bottom of this, Daisy can.

6. Hell’s Belles by Jackie Kessler. There are numerous reasons to love Hell’s Belles by Jackie Kessler (Zebra Books, 2007). One is it is heroine, Jezebel, who is in a literal sense a cloven-footed demon spawned in the depths of Hell. When Hell undergoes a modify in management, succubus Jezebel is forced to give up her career of seducing the souls from mortal men and become a nightmare. Jezebel doesn’t adjust well to the change, fleeing the Lake of Fire to become a mortal. And, since mortals have to remunerate the rent, she becomes a stripper.

Lacking a soul, Jezebel surely isn’t planning on falling in love. Still, when she meets Paul Hamilton, she’s more mesmerized by him than an ex-demon must be. Paul is beautiful, to be sure, but with his “poet’s eyes” and boxer’s broken nose, he’s also a sweet and sensible soul.

Other characters in this book are likewise well-written and interesting. There’s Daun, the incubus. He gets his own book, Hotter Than Hell, two more volumes into Kessler’s Hell on Earth series. Then there’s Lucifer himself, who’s given perhaps the most sympathetic and romantic portrayal since Milton’s Paradise Lost. I was delightfully astonished by Kessler’s reinterpretation of Lucifer.

Another wondrous surprise awaiting readers of Hell’s Belles is the music. Kessler animates Jezebel’s strip club with with classic Melissa Etheridge, new INXS (“Pretty Vegas,” with JD Fortune as lead singer), The Bloodhound Gang and, best of all, a U2 medley with “Desire” and “Mysterious Ways.” I wanted to stick a five dollar bill into the paperback to tip the dj.

A fellow reviewer of Hell’s Belles found the ending “a bit pat,” but I disagree. The ending made me cry, with it is poignant blend of sadness and hope. I highly commend Hell’s Belles to all lovers of paranormal and fantasy romance.

5. The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl by Marc Schuster. First rule of parenting: you don’t use drugs in front of your kids. Especially if you’re the one fellow member of the parent-teacher association charged with running the school’s Just-Say-No program.

Audrey Corcoran is blindsided when her husband of ten years leaves her for a much-younger, thinner woman named Chloe. Desperate not to lose her young daughters the way she lost Roger, Audrey decides to get in touch with her fun side. Her adventures lead to her try cocaine, versus her better judgement. In this tragicomic novel, Audrey copes with life on and off drugs.

I’m always a little amazed when a male author paints such a touching and realistic portrait of a woman’s life. Scott Simon did it for 17-year-old Irena Zaric in Pretty Birds, and Marc Schuster does it for 30-something Audrey Corcoran. Thanks to Desperate Housewives, the suburban mom secretly on drugs may be something of a cliche, but Schuster never allows Audrey’s life to become a caricature or a morality play. He merely gives her 292 pages to be her Wonder Mom & Party Girl self, and readers will be thankful for that.

4. Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta. Thoroughly enjoyable. In this witty novel, Acosta gives rise to a wondrous heroine in Milagro de los Santos. Mil, as she is known to friends, wants what each girl wants: to be taken seriously as a writer, live in rat-free apartment, and possibly find a extremely pleasing guy she may get severe with. That guy is unquestionably not her ex, Sebastian, the hot writer du jour (del dia?) who is sitting on top of a pile of dark secrets. Along comes Oswald, who may be a vampire, and whose mysteries may or may not be of the dark variety. Wonderfully written, amusive and romantic, this one is a real winner.

3. CrowWoman and MudGirl by Victoria Selene Skye Deme. The author is, I believe, the illegitimate love child of Sylvia Plath, Barbara G. Walker (who wrote the terrifi Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets) and American Indian writer Louise Erdrich. CrowWoman and Mudgirl is an all-too-brief collection of poems steeped in myth and folklore. The theme, generally, is the reconciliation of the age-old dichotomy of effeminate archetypes: is a woman a sweet-faced angel, or a raging bitch-goddess? In Skye Deme’s poems, she is daughter, lover, monster, and more. These are big poems for such a tiny book, and deeply satisfying. My personal bestloved is “Dreary Summer Day.” What sounds like something utterly routine is actually a beautifully spun vampire tale.

2. The Prestige by Christopher Priest. First, you have to see the movie, which stars Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as a pair of warring stage magicians. It’s sort of a steampunk-ish thing, where turn-of-the-nineteenth century technology meets the late Victorian/Edwardian era. AFTER you’ve seen the movie (and drooled over your choice of Jackman, Bale, Scarlett Johannson or David Bowie), read Chris Priest’s astounding book, which stunned me by being even weirder than the film.

1. GoneAway Into the Land by Jeffrey B. Allen. With it is fantastic, edible fairy-tale landscape, weird descriptions, and heartfelt emotion, this is plainly a outstanding read for older children, teens and adult lovers of fantasy novels. Full of magic and adventure.

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009

Review

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 Image

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 Picture

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 Picture

Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009 Image

Most helpful client reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
This is the best of the “Best American” anthologies
By David M. Giltinan
This year’s volume confirms the status of this collection as my perennial favored in the whole “Best American” series of anthologies. Whatever you might think of Dave Eggers, he redeems himself on an annual basis with this collection (this year, IMO, he has doubly redeemed himself, with the publication of the extraordinary “Zeitoun”, but that’s material for a whole ‘nother review).

This collection is hard to sum up in a single sentence – one might think of it as an edgier – and more agreeably diverting – version of the “Best American Essays”. But a far better collection, because Eggers (and this year’s guest editor, Marjane Satrapi) are savvy sufficient to cast a far broader net. So, for instance, in addition to standbys like “best craigslist ads”, “best police blotter items”, “best kids’ letters to Obama”, “best book titles published in 2008 (Baboon Metaphysics? Excrement in the late Middle Ages? anyone?), “best poem titles of 2008″ (A Plea for the Cessation of Fruit Metaphors, I need more Cowbell, What your Dad’s Underpants have to do with Space Travel, If my Life were a Radio, lately I would Prefer another Station, Why not Oysters?…), there are such fine contributions as Phillip Connors’s “Diary of a Fire Lookout”, Anne Gisleson’s “Your exhausted Heart” (about the Saturn Bar in new Orleans), Denis Johnson’s “Boomtown Iraq”, Jonathan Franzen’s tribute to David Foster Wallace, splendid pieces by Rivka Galchen, Rebekah Bliss, Eula Biss, and Susan Breen.

This partial list doesn’t include the three or four charming picture essays, nor the five or six other evenly good pieces by writers like Nick Flynn, David Grann and Amelia Kahaney.

I may do no better than to paraphrase what I wrote regarding the 2008 volume – this is writing that informs me in regards to stuff that I would other than as supposed or expected not encounter, brilliantly executed by writers whose worldview extends – praise the Lord – beyond their own navels. Like a bunch of exotically flavored Dove bars – unfamiliar at first, but reliably delicious. Material that takes you outside of your ease zone, in the best possible way.

4.5 stars, which I think is worthy of to be rounded up to 5, because the part of dross in this collection is very low indeed. As always, if you find yourself in the bookstore, faced with the entire gamut of the “Best American XXX 2009″ series, and you have only $14 to spend, there’s no question in regards to it – this is the one you will have to pick. (Or you could order it here on Amazon, of course)

I don’t know what it is we have versus Dave Eggers anyway. With this series alone, he has surely exonerated himself from any residuary blame that might result from the youthful indiscretion that was – well, you recognise the one I’m talking about. That staggering book …

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Expect the very best! As always!
By Roger D. Hall
If you’re employed to buying books and just skipping the introduction to get to the “meat” of the story then you’re going to miss something. Even the introduction is great stuff with the “Best American” series. I realize that with the Nonrequired reader alot of folks are going to like numerous things and frown on others because it’s designed NOT to bore. Me I like the whole thing.

This year I actually liked “Diary of a fire lookout” by Connors. It starts out alot like Kerouac’s “Desolation Angels” but you’d better read to the end. It’s a heartbreaker. Connor runs throughout a baby deer with no mom.
Jonathan Franzen’s piece with regards to David Foster Wallace is suitable and piercing. It’s ok to miss someone and still be bitter for what they’ve taken away even if you perceive why.
Missisipi drift is great. It’s a innovative day Huck Finn in a way but boy has the world changed. For that reason this is a ought to read story.
The comics are great too. If you think they’re wasted pages I’m sorry, for me they’re a nice break while still showcasing a poignant subject.
All of these stories are applicable and the subjects are recognizable but they are chosen to be a little off the beaten path. If you’ve ever been to amazon looking for something unique, you’ve read your books and each thing on the new release page looks dull then buy this one right now, you’re going to read it at least twice.

7 of 8 persons found the following review helpful.
missing a heap of of the “joy” from former editions
By Cheese Hater
Having loved former editions of this book, I was a bit disappointed by the 2009 edition. After re-reading a few pieces in the 2008 and 2007 editions, I realized what the problem is: there’s a sure amount of “joy” missing from the 2009 installment. Not just in the written pieces themselves, also in the introduction and the short bits at the beginning of the book. Maybe it’s a literary reflectiveness of the low-level depression every one seems to be sentiment these days, or perhaps because Mr. Eggers is too busy with his other projects to write an agreeably diverting foreword in which he gives us colorful descriptions of the high school students on the selection committee. Also, there are a couple of bizarre comics in the book that made no sense — or at least, I didn’t feel that they enriched my life or showed me something I’d never seen before. That’s how I many times felt reading former editions of the book, and I just didn’t get that this time around.

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