Friday, February 12, 2010

Recommend Me (3)

Recommend Me is hosted by Kate @ The Neverending Shelf

Recommend Me is a weekly event in which you pick one of your all time favorite reads to share. This could be a book that you read as a child or even finished yesterday.


To play along, grab a favorite read and tell us about it. You can include

-- your thoughts about the novel
-- its summary,
-- your favorite memory related to the novel... the possibilities are limitless.
-- If you are up for a challenge, you can also include: your review of the novel, links to others' reviews of the novel or you can recommend the book to a general group of readers or if you want to be extra daring, to specific reader friends

Read more about this meme at http://www.theneverendingshelf.com/


This week I recommend:

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld (Sleuth RazorBill, August 2005)

Summary from GoodreadsOne year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying in New York City than in attending his biology classes. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.
Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan—and all have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. And it's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create even more of their kind. . . .

This past week, I posted a review of The Silver Kiss and started a small discussion about vampire books.  I am a fan of vampires (yes, I admit to reading and enjoying Twilight).  I remember reading Interview with the Vampire in high school and all of my friends thinking I was odd.  So, I think its great that there is a renewed interest in them.  But, I've been noticing that quite a few recently published books have the same exact premises and often very similar plots.  That got me to thinking about the vampire books I have enjoyed reading and realized that they all add something to the mythology or present vampirism in a unique way.  So, when I was looking for a book for this week's Recommend Me, I thought why not a book about vampires? 

I chose Peeps by Scott Westerfeld because it is a very different sort of vampire book.  Vampires aren't glamorous or objects of lust or love.  In fact, they aren't even called vampires: they are parasite positives or peeps.  This is how Westerfeld describes Peeps on his website: "Maybe there are too many vampire novels, I thought. But that was part of the challenge, to see if I could do something that felt new and interesting, while still being full of bitey goodness. (Unsurprising confession: I am a Buffy fan.) So the book had to be original, but also icky, scary, funny, tragic, and (ahem) not sucky." Westerfeld did a great deal of research and it is very evident, every other chapter contains information about real parasites and he even includes a list of sources. 


Want more interesting vampire books?  Check out:





Morganville Vampires Series by Rachel Caine












Tantalize and










 Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith







What do you recommend this week?

11 comments:

  1. I thought that Peeps was brilliant! I read it awhile ago but still recall how creepy all those descriptions of parasites were (they began each chapter). I also loved Tantalize and Eternal. Great recommendations.

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  2. Yes, Peeps was great. You make me want to read it again :)

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  3. I liked Peeps. I read a lot of books about vampires. I haven't yet read anything by Cynthia Leitich Smith but it looks like she should go on my TBR pile. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  4. I won Peeps in a contest & it arrived this week. I was already looking forward to reading it but I'm even more excited about it now :o)

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  5. yeah, you are absolutely right. back then i only watch movies or books vampires are monstrous and up to no good or even romance.but now, everything is against the odd.we loves vamps either because they are handsome or the love conflict between human.all in all, maybe we just love the twist. =p

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  6. Morganville is a awesome book series :)

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  7. In highschool I too was completely in love with Interview with a Vampire and pretty much anything by Anne Rice.

    And wow! Peeps sounds amazing! I love your review! I'm so sick of the typical everyday vampire books that keep popping up and this sounds like the exception. Thanks for the recommendation! By the way, I really like your site, glad I stumbled upon it!

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  8. Cool post!!!

    I read The Silver Kiss and like it!!!
    Have you read Blood and Chocolate by the same author. I love the book and hate the movie!!

    I also read Tantalize and enjoyed that one.

    But I didnt like Eternal.... it was kinda slow and dragged a little.... I dont think I finished it!

    Morganville Vampires is on my TBR list.


    As for Peeps, I am wondering.... is there any love interests? I am big on romance and love to have that element.


    Thanks for commenting on my blog. I appreciate it very much especially since I am a newbie blogger=)

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  9. btw, I am following you on twitter!!=) chasNkai!!

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  10. Here form The Saturday Network.

    Those all sound like great books. I keep hearing great things about the Morganville series so I'll have to check it out some time.
    I'm going to follow since I really like your blog.

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  11. This sounds a little like Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Yes, the movie is supposed to be based on it, but they don't have much other than the name in common. It was written a long time ago, but it's still really creepy. I recommend it.

    Thanks for recommending this one! I'll have to check it out!

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