Book Marks Selection:
"Children of the Night" by Dan Simmons
Response Deadline: July. 26, 2009
To Order in Canada: Here
To Order in the US: Here
'Children of the Night' is an attempt to hit a new genre for Book Marks. This book is a Vampire novel, and boy is it a great one. The book is by Dan Simmons who is, in my opinion, a genius as a writer. We read another book by Dan Simmons 'A Winter Haunting' several years ago, and it was likely the least well received book that I have selected for the club. I think reader responses were about 60/40 in support of the book, but a lot of readers did not enjoy that selection.
This was entirely my fault, because I selected that book without reading it first. I liked 'A Winter Haunting' but it was a very strange and unique book, that in hind sight I am not surprised was not universally enjoyed. At the time I had read 2 or 3 other Dan Simmons books, which I absolutely loved, so when Dan recommended 'A Winter Haunting' I agreed without hesitation.
This book I have read and, apart from his Joe Kurtz series, it is quite possibly my favourite Dan Simmons book. Dan writes in virtually every genre and has won awards in all of them and because of this I want to give you guys another go at his work. "Children of the Night' is a very believable Vampire novel, which I absolutely loved and I have no doubt will be well received.
Good Reading everybody,
Lance
Book Marks Update:
I am restructuring the Book Marks book club. I've been considering this for a while, and I've just gotten to the point where I have to reduce my work load and Book Marks is a lot of work. I am keeping the club running, I've just got to revamp the way I do things to reduce my work load.
I think my biggest time saver will be not limiting myself to books I can get author participation for. I know this is one of the cooler elements of the club, but constantly researching and reaching out to new authors has becoming far too time consuming.
The one upside to this is I will be more open to recommendations from you because I won't have to worry about whether or not I can get the recommended author involved.
I hope everyone understand my need to reduce my online work load and continues to be a part of Book Marks.
Lance
Here's how Book Marks works:
We read a book every 2 to 3 months. The current selection and time frame is always shown on this page. All you have to do is pick up a copy of the book and read it in the time allotted. When you've finished the book, e-mail me your thoughts on the novel. I'm not looking for a book report here, just a paragraph or three on what you thought of the book. (Please don't tell me what happened in the book. I've read it too) Be sure to put the Book Title as the e-mail subject line, so I can find it easily.
I respond to every response I get, and compile them along with my own thoughts and post them in "The Books" section, of this site. That's pretty much it for the work load of the club. It's also a good idea to include a return mailing address, as I do occasional give stuff away. If you are still unsure, why don't you check out a few of our past books to get a feel for what we do. I hope you decide to join us, and if you are already a Book Mark, thank you, I hope you stick with us.
Good Reading everyone,
Lance
