Photoshop Friday Favorites

It's Friday, and I don't know about y'all, but it's been a long week for me. For most of you this is your last day of work before your weekend (lucky bastards), so instead of discussing the world of bookselling, let's discuss books.

Our favorite books.

Now don't get all scrambly-panicked because "Oh Dear GAWD! How can I pick just one!" because this isn't a test, nor is it a one time deal. This is just to get some titles out there for others to read and enjoy this weekend (if they have the time), or to keep in mind the next time they are at their local bookstore. They don't have to be "intellectual" or "literature." We don't judge. They just have to be books you enjoyed for some reason and that you would like others to enjoy too. If enough of you participate and if I have time, I'll compile the list on Sunday when I plan to do some updating on this site anyway.

Ready?

Here we go:

Diary of a Wombat is one of my all-time favorite books. Yes, it's a children's book. Yes, it is about a wombat and written in incomplete sentences. Yes, I give it to children and adults alike, from newborns to cancer patients. The sweet, cuddly illustrations by Bruce Whatley and the simple, yet cheeky statements by Jackie French's wombat get me every time (and fast becomes a favorite of anyone I had this to).

The Tales of the Otori, of which Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book, is one of those series that my store stumbled on by accident. We saw the cover in the magazine and ordered it in because all things Asian were proving to be popular with our readers. When we got it in we put it on the table and promptly forgot about it...until we realized we'd sold out.

In less than two weeks (which is fast for us, especially when we aren't actively handselling).

So we ordered more in. And sold out. Suddenly we had people asking for the next book, rabid to know what was happening next, so of course we had to read this book everyone was so crazy about.

I finished it in four hours, and rushed to work the next day so I could have someone to talk with about it. Lian Hearn has created a lyrical world based upon the Warlord/feudal (please ignore my spelling mistakes) world of Japan, and added an otherworldly element to his fighters. Never is the fantasy so heavy-handed that you see it as that, fantasy, but instead you just accept. Of course these people can magically split themselves while fighting, or throw their image. Duh. They're ninjas!

If you're looking for a book that combines battle, honor, love, and a boy just trying to discover who he is and what he believes in, this is the series for you. Written for adults, it was awarded the "Best Adult Novel for Teens" title by the American Library Association (I believe).

I read The Eight when I was eighteen and in England for the first (but hopefully not last) time. I don't remember where I picked it up, some bookstore in London probably, in between seeing the sights, but I do remember that I became so immersed in Neville's world that I don't remember anything between London and York. Neville wrote her twin stories (one taking place in the present and the other during the Napoleonic War if I remember correctly) in the early seventies, but the action and the adventure remained relevant. Based around the search for Charlemagne's chess set (I know, it sounds mundane, but it's not), this fast-paced story makes its predecessors like the Da Vinci Code look like drabble. Not to mention that kick-ass female characters abound and the fate of the world is to be decided.

Chess is war, after all, people.

I would continue to babble on about all three of these books, but I must go to work (where I do not have an internet connection, but I do have a lot of returns to box up), so let's hear yours.

(I'll come back and fill in all the links for these books later, but they are quite easy to find on Amazon)