August
- You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
- Bloodsucking Fiends was one of my favourite Moore novels, so I was really looking forward to reading this sequel. Luckily, he didn’t disappoint, as this book was every bit as funny as the first, probably even funnier. The diary entries he wrote for the character Abby Normal, a 16 year old goth girl turned vampire minion, were pure genius. I also loved how he weaved the plot of this in with the plot of A Dirty Job.
The ending wasn’t the best, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
- JPod by Douglas Coupland
- The main character, and his coworkers, are a team of software developers working on a large game that is doomed to fail due to terrible management. It’s a quirky commentary on corporate life and pop culture, as well as just being a bizarre story, and there’s certainly a lot to relate to for those of us who have spent time wasting away in offices.
At first, I had a bit of a hard time getting into the book, as the characters acted and responded to events in ways that aren’t very believable, but it didn’t take long for me to get sucked in. This was my first Coupland book, and I’ll definitely be buying his others.
July
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- A novella about a young girl who finds another world behind a locked door, or rather another copy of her own world. It’s aimed at young readers, but it’s certainly suitable for anyone. Very dark and surreal, you can’t really go wrong with Gaiman.
Soon to be made into a animated stop-motion movie, which could be very good.
- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton
- I picked this up on a whim in a comic store while visiting a friend in Vancouver, and I’m glad I did. It’s a collection of strange poems written and illustrated by Tim Burton. It was short, but a lot of fun.