This month's book: Godless by Pete Hautman

What Pete Hautman has to say about Godless:

"A FEW THOUGHTS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER...
What sort of book is Godless? It's a coming-of-age story, a comedy, a tragedy, a drama, an adventure. I've been told that the title makes it sound like a scary, violent tale about someone or something evil. It is not. My intention was never to equate godlessness with evil. They are not the same thing at all. I was thinking of the temporary godlessness that descends upon a person who is actively searching for his or her faith. Maybe I should have called it "Churchless."
Godless is neither pro- nor anti-religion. The main character, Jason Bock, is Roman Catholic, but he could as easily be Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim.
Godless is not about God. It doesn't weigh in on the existence or nature of a Supreme Being. It is not about which religion is the truest, or the best. It's about how people--teenagers in particular--deal with the questions that arise when their faith has been shaken.
If you strip away the whole religion thing, Godless is about a big fat nerdy kid named Jason Bock who has an excess of smarts and imagination, and his relationship with his even nerdier snail-collecting best friend Shin.
Godless is about the power of ideas--Jason conceives the Chutengodian religion, he sets it in motion, but he is unprepared for the consequences. This is a latch-key teenage moment--our first conscious realization that the expression of our own beliefs can have a huge impact on the beliefs of others--especially our friends. It's about discovering personal power, and the heady experience of plying it.*

The Closer and Burn Notice

I am so happy that the new season has started for my 2 favorite TV shows, The Closer (TNT Mondays at 9), and Burn Notice (USA Thursdays at 10). The Closer is a police show starring Kyra Sedgwick as LAPD Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson. I like pretty much everything about this show: the characters are great (Brenda Leigh is from the South, and she has the funniest way of saying, "Thank you, thank you very much," when she's told people to do things they don't want to do); the cases are interesting and exciting (there's plenty of blowing things up and smacking people around); and the ongoing plot line involving Brenda's romance with Fritz, an FBI agent, is alway entertaining. If you haven't watched this show before, and you get hooked on it, you might want to check out the DVD sets of the first three seasons from the library.

Burn Notice is another adventure show, but instead of police, the main character, Michael, is an ex-FBI agent who was "burned" by the agency, dumped in Miami with his bank accounts frozen and no chance of ever working for the government again. What he does have are a lot of skills as a spy, and an ex-IRA agent who loves to blow things up as an ex-girlfriend, and a best friend who is a washed-up ex-military intelligence operative who started out keeping an eye on Michael for the feds. Does it sound complicated? It is. Each episode involves a case that Michael takes on to earn money and help out some poor unfortunate who's being taken advantage of by the mob or some other criminals, and also the progress Michael makes in trying to find out who "burned" him and why. The cast is excellent, and includes Sharon Gless as his cigarette-smoking, wise-cracking mother. Take a look at Ask a Spy: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/video/spytips/index.html

Who's the scariest character you've encounted in a book ?

The scariest character I have ever encountered from a story is either Saint Dane from the Pendragon series or Voldemort. Noah O.

Who's the scariest character you've encountered in a book?

In Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline everyone in the other world has button eyes. The fake mother (the copy of Coraline’s real mother) wants to make Coraline have button eyes. I think she’s really scary. Sara

Who's the scariest character you've encountered in a book?

I think Carrion is much scarier than Shape because of the weird snake things in his case around his head. Also his mouth got sewed shut. That is so freaky~ Mark M.

Do you believe in destiny?

I don’t believe in fate because we can change our lives if we want to. Everyone has always told me that I can be what I want to be if I try hard enough and work. Mark M.

Why are there seashells on the ground?

Obviously sea shells are only found in the ocean, so someone might have scattered them there as a clue for Candy. Maybe if you looked above them the seashells would spell out a secret message or direct her to a new location. Maybe they’re special seashells only found in a certain sea and Candy needs to go there. Sara