STACKED

books

One cover through time

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You’ve seen a few of my cover features where I’ll talk you on a path down different covers from an author’s career. This time, I wanted to take one cover of a book that’s been around for 31 years and show the different iterations.

Most readers know this book, but I don’t know how many have actually read it. I read this book when I was in 7th grade, which I probably wouldn’t recommend. Although the cover’s changed a lot and now is actually marketed at teens, I’m still not entirely sure on the teen appeal of it. You be the judge:

This is the first cover of the first edition from 1979. This is the exact cover my copy had, and the other three books in this series had similar stylings, too.


This is another early cover, and I think it captures a bit of the feeling of the movie’s poster.


This is the original movie poster. It’s been made a little more contemporary over time, too.

The DVD cover still gives off the creepiness, but to me, the oldest kids look way older than I ever imagined. The mother looks perfectly evil.


This is another movie cover, and I think this one might be my favorite. It really captures the mood of the book, though the oldest kids still look a little old to me.

This cover looks a bit like a combination of the first and second ones above. I’m a fan of the use of color in this one, as I think the color actually makes it a little bit creepier.

I hope someone can provide a little expertise for me. While looking up some covers, I stumbled across this one. Can we just say this one is totally not at all indicative of the story? This is too much like a romance and too little like a horror novel. And the color seems way inappropriate. I think this is a recent Canadian cover, but can anyone verify?

Speaking of foreign covers, here’s an older UK cover. This one leaves no mystery as to the book’s genre. Oh, to be a pale girl coming out of a flower.

And one in Spanish. Doesn’t this cover kind of remind you a bit of Independence Day?


What would we do if this book didn’t just have a girl on the cover? The wind and the coloring of the sky behind give this a nice spooky touch, even if the girl tells us nothing. Notice, too, she’s Virginia Andrews here and not V.C.?

I know nothing about this one, but it gets to the point, too. A shadowy face and the large haunted house.

This is today’s cover, and it’s sold in a two-volume collection. You can find this sold in the teen sections of your local bookstore, too. While it’s got teen appeal, the cover’s the same as a few others (check back soon for that feature) and I’m not sure how today’s teens will feel about the story. Is it still horror? I would love to know what they think. All I can tell is that hipsters are using a key movie promotion image for clothing, which bothers me just a bit.

I know I’m interested in picking it up again and reliving the story that haunted me for years.

Which cover appeals most or captures the book the most for you? Do you know of other covers (US or foreign)? Share them in the comments!

Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern

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I’ve been in the mood for a funny book lately, something that won’t make me feel the need to set the book aside to take a breather and tell myself “It’s just a story, it’s not real, things aren’t really that terrible.” (See my Monsters of Men review, which I’ll post a little closer to the publication date, and you’ll know what I mean.) Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern fit the bill perfectly.

Many of you may already be familiar with Halpern’s Twitter feed, (twitter.com/shitmydadsays) where he began chronicling the rude, bizarre, and hilarious things his father said. After a mention by Rob Corddry, his Twitter feed saw a meteoric rise in popularity (as of this week, he has over 1.6 million followers). A book deal wasn’t far away, and neither was a tv show, which stars William Shatner as the profane father. (I have a whole other set of opinions about the television show, but I’m reserving judgment until I see it.)

The audience for Shit My Dad Says can really be summed up with one question: Do you like bathroom humor? If your answer is yes (mine is), this book will likely leave you in stitches.

Here’s an example of the elder Halpern’s wit: “Son, you’re complaining to the wrong man. I can shit anywhere, anytime. It’s one of my finer qualities. Some might say my finest.”

And then there’s the sterling dating advice: “That woman was sexy…Out of your league? Son. Let women figure out why they won’t screw you, don’t do it for them.”

As you can see, it’s also for those of us who like a healthy dose of profanity with our humor (the two selections above are a couple of the tamer ones), so be warned. (Can you see why I’m wary about a television show?)

Shit My Dad Says is a short little book made up of brief vignettes featuring Halpern’s interactions with his father, from childhood through adulthood. Each vignette is preceded by a smattering of (usually) 140 characters or fewer witticisms from his dad, most of them centering around defecation and tough love (and often both at once). I’d hazard a guess that most of these one-liners are merely repeats of the Twitter feed, but there are a few new ones thrown in, and the old ones are so funny they’re worth reading again.

While humor is definitely the book’s main aim, Halpern also aims for sentimental and touching, and he mostly succeeds. His writing makes it clear that the two men love each other, and this is spelled out in the last chapter, a pretty affecting few pages where Halpern’s dad tells his son what he hopes we readers take away from the book.

Some of the vignettes are forgettable (I’m having trouble remembering details of more than a few), but on the whole, Shit My Dad Says succeeds in its purpose: to make us laugh and to remind us that a parent’s love can be shown in some unconventional ways, but it’s love nonetheless. This last point is something many people can relate to.

Ripley’s Enter if you Dare

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I’m in Las Vegas this week — the second time I’ve been to the land of the unique and strange and downright fantastic. So, I thought I’d leave you with some field notes on Ripley’s newest addition to their family of books: Ripley’s Enter if You Dare. I was able to give a length review last year here, so check that out if you want a little more about the Ripley’s titles.

Full color photos are of stand out note in this book that is filled to the brim with facts and figures covering everything from the amazing human body to incredible feats to weather to animals. This is a book that begs you to browse and browse and browse again. But not only that, this is a book that will have some reading every word straight through, as it is that interesting and engaging.

Did you know the world’s heaviest cat weighs in at 22 pounds? I kind of find that lower that I’d imagine, seeing one of my cats is himself 15 pounds. Check out this photo:

Doesn’t he look a heck of a lot bigger than just 22 pounds? Yikes! Don’t worry, the book says he was told to be put on a kitty diet.

What I like about the Ripley’s books is that they celebrate, rather than lampoon, oddities. Back in the day, people with long fingernails, bigger girths, or very strange hairy spots were circus freaks. In these books, they’re celebrated: they are unique and interesting to learn about, choosing to put themselves out there (for the most part — some are nameless statistics, which I find as respectful since it provides anonymity). I quite enjoyed digging through the parts about the circus in this volume because I live in the 19th Century Circus Capital of the World (complete with buried elephant under one of our lakes). Readers will be enthralled with the double page spread, too, about vampires, the shortest teenager around, and more.

The use of the double page spread is effective and exciting. Again, can I emphasize that when I was a kid, these books weren’t in full color like this?

How cool is that?

Ripley’s Enter If You Dare has wide appeal, and it will have special appeal to tween and teen boys, who love non-fiction. These books fly off the shelf at my library, and I suspect that this addition will do the same. The facts are new and fresh, not rehashed information with new pictures. These are the sorts of books that are not only fascinating, but they are appealing across generations. This is the kind of book parents can sit down with their kids and browse through and talk about.

If you haven’t read one of these titles in a while, I urge you to pick one up. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how readable, browsable, and bright they have become. And yes, I totally have seen some of these people in my trip, thank you very much city of lights!

Riffs on the tale

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Classic mashups have been hot for a little over a year now. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was the first to come out, back in early 2009, but now you can get your classics in about any flavor you want them.

I haven’t read any, so I can’t make a statement for how I feel about them. I’ve been asked a few times, but really, all I can say is that I think that now, they might be over done. Little Vampire Women, put out very recently by HarperTeen, is the first of many that the publisher wants to aim at teens, who have latched on to popular adult titles like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.

What’s your take on the trend? Does it do a good thing by exposing people to classics in a new way or is it destroying timeless work?

I guess the real question is this: what’s the one you would most like to read? I’d love to read a mashup of Moby Dick. Oh, or maybe Leaves of Grass (what would be possible?). It’s one of my all-time favorite books, and I’d love to see how it could be mashed. But what goes well with a white whale?

Greyhound by Steffan Piper

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Whenever I listen to Simon and Garfunkel — which is fairly often — I begin to reminisce about simpler times. I’ve only ever owned their music on CD, and I remember when I purchased their greatest hits album on a road trip to visit Michigan State University my junior year of high school. Reading Steffan Piper’s Greyhound took me back to that memory because of how classic musicians play such a large role in the story. Bonus: the role is through cassette tapes.

Greyhound starts when Sebastien Ranes’s mother drops him off at the Stockton, California, Greyhound station with a ticket to Altoona, Pennsylvania and about $30. She’s getting married to a new guy, and Sebastien’s 11-year-old self is just too much baggage to take on. Besides, the soon-to-be husband doesn’t like him, so it makes sense to ship him off to grandma and grandpa’s. Along with the cash, all she tells him is to sit at the front of the bus, don’t talk to strangers, and don’t miss the bus when it leaves the station. No I love yours or I’ll miss yous for Ms. Ranes.

The year is 1981, and Sebastien is lonely. He’s being sent to live with people he doesn’t know all that well, and while he’s a bit apprehensive about traveling by bus across the US alone with very little money, he’s also going to use this as an opportunity to forget about his crappy home life and his worthless mother. When he boards his first bus in Stockton, he aims right to the back of the bus, where he will soon meet Marcus. Marcus, the African American ex-con, will soon become one of the few people in his life he can trust and rely on, and together they make a heck of a pair as they traverse the country by bus. Along the way, Sebastien will learn about loving life, making friends, how to appreciate music, and even how to appreciate literature. There is a happy splattering of literary and musical references, ranging from Catcher in the Rye to Cat Stevens. We’re steeped deep into 1981, but we’re also steeped into something completely modern and timeless.

Grayhound was a moving book, and it carries a lot more to it than what the description and the cover might suggest. In the story, all of our characters learn important lessons, as well as discover who they are and who others are via the vehicle of a road trip on one of America’s former strongholds of transportation. The Greyhound was the perfect vehicle for this story. We’ll also have highs and lows on the trip, from a hostage attempt to a broke down bus, that couldn’t happen realistically in another vehicle.

Although there are certainly depressing moments in the story, it is ultimately hopeful, and Sebastien is a character who is worth loving. This is a point Marcus will make, as well, but it’s one we as readers figure out far before either Marcus or Sebastien do. Piper’s characters are fully fleshed and dynamic and most importantly, believable. I loved their flaws and their moments of realization and connections to one another. I loved that Sebastien has preferences even down to who is driving the bus.

Piper’s story is well-paced, moving and jerking about in the same manner that the trip experienced by Sebastien does: there are times when it zips along and times when it is slow, methodical, and worth taking notes at. Although this could become gimmicky, I never felt it became that way. It just worked.

Although this title is marketed for adults, it is one that has incredible cross-over appeal to young adult readers. Fans of Stephen Chobsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower will eat this title up, as, I suspect, will fans of Joe Nemo’s Hairstyles of the Damned and Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mixtape. Though our main character is 11 and quite younger than the characters in the prior two titles, it’s the music, the culture, and the actual writing that will likely appeal. Oh, and it would, without doubt, appeal to fans of Catcher in the Rye.

Although we may feel our lot is at times crummy, we see the sparks of the good and latch onto those moments. I have a feeling Greyhound will stick with me for quite a long time in the same way some of these other titles have.