Sidekick Showcase [55] National Homeless Youth Awareness Month

Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic
• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for November are Soldier (November 10 is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps), Children (National Homeless Youth Awareness Month) or bearded folk (No Shave November).

My sidekick pick this month is Julie from the world of Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews. We first meet Julie in Magic Burns. She's a tough street kid you could accuse of being broken, but the girl never quits. Despite the total crapfest that is her life, she lights up ever scene because she is just that kind of person. I guess she's like Kate, just not beat down in the same way. I'm not sure what would have happened to Kate if she hadn't met Julie, but my guess is that Kate would have continued on the path of no attachments. She would have run from love or even the chance of love. She would have died somewhere around book 3 and then we wouldn't be biting our nails for book 8! Go Julie!

If I were to cast Julie, I'd choose Shailene Woodley (think her angsty role in The Descendants). 

"By Nick Step (Shailene Woodley) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons"

Sidekick Showcase [54] Best Friend

Sidekick Showcase is a monthly bookish meme, hosted here by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! I will post my Sidekicks on the first Saturday of the month, then whichever day during the month that you would like to post yours, you can put your link in on my page. Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in the week's topic

• Share a picture (if you can) and information about the character

• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in

• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick

• The day of your post, click the 'Sidekicks' link in my header and enter the link for your post. Here, you can also see anyone else that posted during the month to visit their Sidekick Showcase's as well.

Topic ideas for September:

Best Friend, Fun, Ball of Energy, Humorous

There are so many stories with best friends I've adopted as my book best friends. Pick any of the quartet from Morganville, or Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy, or Jinx from The Hollows, but I've listed all of them before in my sidekick posts (more than once). So I'm going with Cookie Kowalski from Darynda Jones' Charlie Davidson series. Cookie is Charlie's receptionist, best friend, neighbor, partner in snark. I love Cookie. She's a single mom in her thirties with the most obvious crush on a guy who has a balance of hero moments and total asshat moments. Actress Melissa McCarthy would be the perfect Cookie.

“Make it quick," I said when I picked up.
"Okay. Two men from the FBI are here." Cookie said. Quickly.
Crap. "Men in black are at the office?"
"Well, yes, but they're actually in more of a navy."
Crapola. I so don't have time for men. In any color. "Okay, two questions. Do they look mad, and are they hot?"
After a long, long, pause, Cookie said, "One, not really. Two, no comment at this time. And three, you're on speakerphone."
After another long, long pause, I said, "Okie dokie then. Be there in a jiff.”
― Darynda Jones, Second Grave on the Left

I asked my own sidekicks who'd they choose. My sister's pick is Molly from Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series. Molly is a powerful witch with even more powerful witchy kids. She has every reason to steer clear of Jane, but those two will do anything for each other.

My mom is going with Henry Pitts from Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone detective series. I love Henry. He's a retired commercial baker who spends his golden years baking, creating crossword puzzles, and offering Kinsey a safe refuge from her isolating, dangerous world of detective work. He's plain cool.

How about you all? Any best friend sidekicks you can't live without in a story or wish were your best friends?

Sidekick Showcase [53] Awesome Father Types! I'm tapping Odd Thomas for this one.

Sidekick Showcase is a weekly meme created by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven to celebrate those awesome side characters who deserve a bit of the limelight too! Each week or sometimes month, Jaclyn offers up a topic/challenge and it's up to us to cast our favorite side character. You can get nutty with it, find an actor who fits the image you have in your head, post quotes, make your own drawing. So snag the graphic, share your pick, and link up on the Linky Link. Happy reading, folks!

I'm diving into a read that was way outside the norm for me, Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. Odd is an amazing character. From the beginning he slipped into my heart and he's still there. Thing is, he shouldn't be so cool, so kind or caring because his life is crazy. He sees stuff that would make anyone run for the hills screaming and bawling their eyes out. But he was graced with a set of people equally amazing. One of them being Chief Porter. Since Odd's real dad is a total asshole and his mom is perhaps the worst mother in any book I've ever read, Chief takes on a father role in Odd's life. The two trust and respect each other. They believe in fighting for the innocents of the world. There are times Chief seems like he would love nothing more than to adopt Odd and offer him sanctuary from all the ugly in the world that won't leave Odd alone. My favorite thing about Chief is that he always believes in Odd. My version of Chief Porter is more like some aging cowboy, you know with the large barrel chest, long legs, and deep wrinkles that speak of equal parts joy and anguish. The movie version cast Willem Dafoe, a skinny, sharp faced man who plays the devil better than anyone, at least in my mind he does because I don't know that I've seen a movie where he plays the devil. I'm sure Mr. Dafoe can convince me he's the mega cool fatherly Chief Porter. 

"By Seanglass (http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanglass/134627575/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons"