>On Aug 22, 2009, at 7:10 PM, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>> torrid dirty novels would be good. whatever!
It's not torrid or dirty, but I just finished Farai Chideya's "Kiss The Sky" and I enjoyed it a great deal. It's a summer read.
Slightly more torrid (but not very) was Elizabeth Bear's "New Amsterdam" and its small follow-up "Seven for a Secret"--much better than your average vampire book.
With no vampires at all is Poppy Z. Brite's "Liquor: A Novel", which could be classified as a foodie book, but I enjoyed it as a novel about restaurant work. Of the sequels in order, "Prime" isn't quite as good, "Soul Kitchen" is maybe better but darker, and "D*U*C*K" is slight but fun. There are prequel stories in "The Value of X", along with some pretty good horror (not my thing, but well done). I really hope she finishes "Dead Shrimp Blues"--New Orleans deserves as many good Katrina novels as it can possibly get.
Catherine Valente's "Palimpsest" is promising, in a Dhalgren-lite way. I love novels about cities, and have just started this one.
Thanks,
John A
http://www.arkansawyer.com/wordpress/