On Stranger Tides
July 17, 2008
Author: Tim Powers
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Started: 7/17/08
Completed:
All I can say is that this looks like a goofy pirate tale with some supernatural overtones. In a word: Escapism. It also has, in common with Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse, a theme of an outsider having to adapt to a harsh new world. But still…. escapism!
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
July 14, 2008
Author: Victor Gischler
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Touchstone
Started: 7/14/08
Completed: 7/17/08
It has a title that kind of catches your eye. The author is described as “part Christopher Moore [who I like], part Quentin Trantino” and “a raving, badass genius.”
It seemed worth a look and it was. The book is set in the near-future. The main character has sat-out the first nine-years of the dissolution of America into anarchy. He comes down from his mountain hide-out and has to learn to make his way in a chaotic remnant of a nation. Action, blood, gore, sick dark humor, and fun.
The Steep Approach to Garbadale
July 4, 2008
Author: Iain Banks
Copyright: 2007
Publisher: Macadam/Cage
Started: 7/4/08
Completed: 7/12/08
Members of the fourth generation of a wealthy family deal with the potential of a sale of the family firm to a multinational. This is a family drama set in and around Scotland and the north of England. It has some humor, decent drama, and nice descriptive writing. A very enjoyable little mystery too!
Away
June 30, 2008
Author: Amy Bloom
Copyright: 2007
Publisher: Random House
Started: 6/30/08
Completed: 7/3/2008
This is an immigrant’s story set in 1920’s New York City at its start. A young Russian woman, Jewish, survives a pogrom that kills her whole family. She ends up in New York,rebuilding her life before learning that her child may have survived. She heads out across the US to try to get to Alaska and across to Siberia. An interesting, well-written book.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
June 24, 2008
Author: David Sedaris
Copyright: 2008
Publisher:Little, Brown and Company
Started: 6/23/08
Completed: 6/29/08
It’s David Sedaris! This was a Father’s Day gift from The Lovely Karen. She knows I am a Sedaris fan and was kind enough to present this volume to me on Father’s Day. A few of these essays have appeared in The New Yorker, but I find them just as enjoyable on a second reading.
Harry, Revised
June 17, 2008
Author: Mark Sarvas
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Started: 6/17/08
Completed: 6/22/08
I didn’t know much about this one as I started it, but I did know that the author is a blogger. It advertises itself as “moving and darkly comedic” and I think meets that test. NOt a bad little book.
Terra Incognita
June 11, 2008
Author: Ruth Downie
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Started: 6/11/08
Completed: 6/16/08
This is a follow-up to a neat little historical novel/mystery that I read last year (maybe earlier?). That one, Medicus, featured a Roman doctor, stationed in Britain who reluctantly solves a murder. It featured great descriptions of life in Roman Britain, strong characters, and a decent mystery.
This book is a worthy successor. It finds the good Doctor headed off to the borderlands and getting more deeply involved with the locals. Good read. Ms. Downie? Write more, please.
Skid
June 7, 2008
Author: Rene Gutteridge
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Started: 6/7/08
Completed: 6/10/08
This novel presented itself as something of a screwball comedy, set on an airliner, with many different characters. And a pig. That’s right: another pig.
What I missed when I scanned the cover information was that this is a “christian-themed” novel. It is a basic light-reading story but one in which most of the characters either draw on their strong christian faith to get through difficult situations or discover the lost faith of their youth as they work through the situations in the novel.
It strikes me as contrived. Otherwise, a light read.
The Pig Did It
June 3, 2008
Author: Joseph Caldwell
Copyright: 2008
Publisher: Delphinium Books
Started: 6/3/08
Completed: 6/7/08
I didn’t see how I could pass up a book called “The Pig Did It.” Especially one set in Ireland. It was a cute book; almost a novelette. It had less of a scope than I had expected, focusing very closely on just four characters (and the pig). And it didn’t have as much Ireland in it as I would have liked. But worth a read.
The Somnambulist
May 26, 2008
Author: Jonathan Barnes
Copyright: 2007
Publisher: William Morrow
Started: 5/26/08
Completed: 6/2/08
A mystery, set in Victorian England, and featuring a magician. An interesting novel with some elements of magic and fantasy. Not a bad little book. Odd, but fun.
