Bookseller Taste Exchange: Rebecca & Barb (Part 1)

We (Rebecca and Barb) were so inspired by Josh and Sarah's grand book recommendation experiment a few weeks ago that we decided to do one of our own!

Barb Suggests: The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell. 5th in the Kay Scarpetta crime fiction novels, this was the first one that I read.  After reading this, I had to read the others in the series, as well.  Kay, the protagonist, is the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia. She is a strong, smart, beautiful woman.  You get to know her well as she takes you on a journey through the investigation of an 11 year old girl in rural North Carolina.  The murder has the same handiwork of a wanted serial killer.  The investigation brings us to a clandestine research facility, the body farm, where cadavers are experimented on to determine different stages of decay and decomposition.  The forensics are what I found so compelling.  The twists and turns make the book a page turner! There is a wonderful cast of characters, including her niece, who works at the FBI bureau in Quantico and assists Scarpetta in the research on this case.  Wesley, her co-worker, romantic interest and her gruff partner, Marino, also working on the case. The Body Farm is an easy to read, fast paced novel full of believable forensic activity.

Rebecca Suggests: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I was about to suggest The Miseducation of Cameron Post (emily m. danforth) (also a great book, go read it). But then I learned that not only had Barb never read anything by Neil Gaiman, she'd never even heard of Neil Gaiman! What a travesty, as I'm sure you'll all agree. This being the case, I immediately shoved The Graveyard Book into Barb's hands. The Graveyard Book is a deliciously creepy reimagining of The Jungle Book in which the requisite orphan boy, Bod, is being raised by a graveyard full of ghosts. Featuring Gaiman's signature weirdness, not to mention his lovely prose, The Graveyard Book is not your typical middle grade read. Perfect for readers who enjoy being (just a little) scared at the hands of a master storyteller.

Check back to see what we thought of each other's recommendations!

Bookseller Taste Exchange: Josh & Sarah Part 1

We have a pretty wide range of taste in books here at Porter Square Books. None of us intentionally restrict ourselves to one genre or another, but, as with all things, we settle into patterns and fall into ruts. So Sarah had an idea to help expand our horizons a little bit; she’ll read a work of experimental fiction Josh suggests, and Josh’ll read a work of romance Sarah suggests. Then we’ll share our reactions to our trips to unfamiliar reading territory.

Josh Suggests: The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell. There are lots of different ways to experiment with storytelling and, admittedly, some are more obtuse than others, requiring some prior knowledge, or at least some experience in cracking your brain open in different ways. In a way, though, you have to learn how to read every book you read. Experimental (innovative, post-modernist, weird, whatever you want to call it) literature just brings that process to the foreground. The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell is a “novel” entirely of questions. It feels a little gimmicky, but there is real substance in the questions. The book took a powerful turn for me when I started trying to answer some of the questions. Like the Proust Questionnaire on steroids you can learn a lot about yourself by answering Powell’s questions.

Sarah Suggests: Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison. Stay with me here. Yes, it was published for teen readers, and yes, the pursuit of romance is at its core. But it also plays around with structure: It's epistolary, almost -- but not quite. And Rennison has some fun with language, too, letting her narrator develop a vocabulary that's almost as outlandish as what Kevin Barry does in City of Bohane. (Okay, not quite that level, but the odds that you're going to pick up some of Georgia's catchphrases are pretty good.) And also -- it's incredibly funny. And sometimes that's what you need from a book.

Check back to see what they think of the other’s suggestion.