Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture: What Becomes a Legend Most by William Patrick Day

This book looks at the role of vampires in American culture. After a short introduction to the topic (bringing vampires out of folklore and into fiction, and from there into the twentieth century), this book focuses on twentieth century materials, ranging from film to television to novels, and focusing most (but not exclusively) on American works. Day suggests that three main modes of vampire stories exist: liberation stories, in which vampires have been sexualized and turned into the protagonist; horror stories, in which vampires are no longer the boogeymen of the past, but harbingers of a terrifying future; and slayer stories, which turn the focus back to the vampire slayers. The book gives good readings, and offers a basic theoretical framework--it wasn't bad, but nothing to knock your socks off, either.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

This book does an excellent job juggling several different plots at the same time. First, there's Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, the two lone survivors of a terrorist hijacking of a plane over London, who are transformed into an angel and a devil during their fall back to earth. Then there are the Satanic Verses themselves--Mahound, the prophet, struggles with the decision of whether to acknowledge the goddesses Allat, Uzza, and Manat. Ayesha's pilgrimage on foot to Mecca was also striking. The book is also very well embedded in a world literary scene: references to other works abound. I look forward to re-reading this book, as it is the kind of book that richly repays the attention put into it. Booker shortlisted, 1988

The Spiderwick Chronicles in Five Volumes by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

I read this book because I had seen it recommended as an after Harry Potter book, and because I kept seeing the trailer for the movie. It's got some neat ideas (I like the hidden library that they find through the dumbwaiter), but it doesn't have the same cross-generational appeal as Harry Potter. Also, the first book felt like hardly any story was told at all--I imagine that all five books in the story fit into one arc, and the story is divided into five books in order to make them into manageable sizes for younger readers. At any rate, it was a very quick read.

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I finished reading this series because it was a quick and easy read. It's one story split across five books to make it easier for younger readers or to make more money for the publishers (take your pick). It wasn't bad as far as it went, but I didn't find it incredibly compelling.

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

In this bleak book, Joan Didion sketches the portrait of Maria Wyeth's increasingly empty and meaningless life. Set in and around Hollywood, we watch both Maria's self-destruction and her observation of the lives crumbling around her. Coming from the author of Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, though, this novel's perspective is not exactly a surprise. Didion's prose is crisp, and her instinct as to which scenes to include is sharp.