Read On, Genevieve!

I tried playing Reader's Advisor with Genevieve last Friday. For those of you non-librarian geeks, this is a big to do in library circles--imagine, back in days of yore the librarian would actually talk to you and tell you what you might like to read! Librarians are trying to revive this practice. I took a workshop on it last summer. Anyway, back before she moved I made a list of NY authors for Genevieve that I never gave her because I am lame. So here it is: (Incidently Genevieve, I really urge you to go over to the Brooklyn Public Library and ask a librarian. I think you'll get better recommendations than my list below. And librarians really like it when clean and polite people talk to them.)

• Damon Runyon--I read the collected works of Damon Runyon as a kid and loved the slangy language and humor. Plus, NY setting. Lots of references to gambling and booze. Probably dated, and you might not like it.
• Dorothy Parker--The first modern, dark, angsty girl. And funny. The Vintage collection has a awesome new cover, and consists of her short stories, reviews and poems--just the thing for an elliptical workout.
• S.J. Rozan--How much do I miss the Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series? Tons, tons, tons. For those of you who haven't heard of her work, Rozan wrote a great series of NY based detective novels (currently on extended hiatus) featuring these two detectives. Here's the setup--Lydia Chin is a first generation Chinese-American, living in Chinatown with her widowed mom and trying really hard not to bring shame on the family since being an unmarried 20-something female PI is not something her community looks upon favorably. She is trouble, but a necessary trouble, as she points out in the first novel Chinese people will not consult a non-Chinese for help. Bill Smith is more of a classic noir detective, older with a tragic history (military service, divorced, dead daughter). They work independently, but pull each other in on cases for help. The series is narrated by both detectives, each taking a turn for a novel. The snark is good, there's tinge of romance, and the mysteries themselves are compelling. So grab a copy of the first novel, China Trade and see if you like it.
• Bill Willingham--Fables: Legends In Exile: How much do I love Fables? Willingham Wednesday is practically a holiday for me. This comic book takes the premise that the famous characters from classic myths and fairy tales are real, and have been living in NYC. They've all escaped from their homelands, fleeing an invasion by The Adversary. They've set up a government and hide among the Mundy. The series starts with Bigby Wolf and Snow White investigating the presumed death of Snow's sister Rose Red in a noir homage. The books are funny, the characters well-fleshed out, the society real, and Willingham loves to torture his character and the reader. The cover art by James Jean is fabulous. And Willingham is expertly spinning out his story--he plants clues in the first issue that get picked out 20 issues later, and you smack yourself and say, "Of course! How could I not notice!" The second book (Animal Farm) takes place at The Farm, the upstate hideaway community of non-human Fables, where there's a bit of an insurrection brewing. We then get more revelations and complications in Storybook Love followed by an invasion in The March of the Wooden Soldiers. We then follow Snow's new life in The Mean Seasons, other characters return to The Homelands and new people come to town in Arabian Days (And Nights).