'The Stranger' by Max Frei

Okay, I give in. I can't do it. Max Frei, you have beaten me, and not in a good way. I was hoping not to come across a book I couldn't finish so soon after starting this blog, but I've been slogging away at this one for over two weeks now, and with a stack of other books waiting for me, I have to cry uncle. Want to know why The Stranger didn't hold water? Read on...

screw fitzgerald; i like exclamation marks

In the absence of recommendations from my friends or other blogs I read, I tend to head to the bookstore or the library and use my inner divining rod to lead me in the direction of stuff I'll like. This works well sometimes (I discovered Sarah Rees Brennan and the Kushiel series this way) and not so well other times. Like now, when I'm slogging through a book I'm not in love with, but don't hate enough to abandon. I should've known better than to try an experiment in reading during the week before Christmas when I work in retail...

At any rate, I bring you an updated schedule. Please note that I post these mostly for self-accountability; I don't really expect most of you to care what I plan to read and when. But if I tell you all when something will be posted, there's a much higher likelihood that it will actually get written on time. :)

• The Stranger by Max Frei - December 22
• Treasure Island!!! by Sara Levine - December 26 (library)
• Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore - December 31 (optimistically; might be rearranged depending on the effects of too much holiday punch on my ability to read before bed)
• Sweetly by Jackson Pearce - January 3 (library)
• Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel - January 6 (library)
• The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett - January 10
• Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar - January 13

I hope that those of you celebrating holidays over the next weeks celebrate them in good spirits. And as always, if you're reading anything interesting, drop me a comment and let me know. Especially heading into 2012; there are only so many books I can read before the end of the world. I want to make sure I prioritize. 

--emily

scheduling

Well, we're coming up on the end of the year here, and I'm going to try like the dickens to make sure I finish this list in time. This schedule thing is working out; I can't remember the last time I read six books in a month, unless you count the month I was reading the Lemony Snicket books. Anyway : a schedule.

• Green by Jay Lake   11/16


• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest   11/21


• ⇒ Crossed by Ally Condie - 11/26


• Embassytown by China Miéville   12/1


• ⇒ Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce - 12/3


• The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett   12/7


• The Stranger by Max Frei - 12/19


• Goliath by Scott Westerfeld - 12/31

Then, heading into the new year, I'm picking up a few more urban fantasies, as well as a straight mystery, because I'm obsessed with Burdett's Bangkok Detective series and I can't not snap that up as soon as I see it.

• Bloodsucking Fiends : A Love Story by Christopher Moore - 1/5


• The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett - 1/10


• Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar - 1/17

I'd love some recommendations for what to add to the list, if any of you have read anything interesting lately and want to pass it along. Til next time! --emily

"The Company Man" by Robert Jackson Bennett

If you've ever sat down with a Philip Marlowe novel and thought, 'Hm, you know what would make this book even more awesome? Airships and mind-readers!' then you'll probably enjoy The Company Man as much as I did. Which, you know, not that I ever had actually had that thought before, but damn if I won't be having it about stuff pretty regularly from now on...

'Sisters Red' by Jackson Pearce

'Sisters Red' first caught my eye in the bookstore because of the awesome cover. I love YA, I love adapted fairy tales, and I love the growing population of badass teenage girls in YA fiction these days. This modernization of the Little Red Riding Hood story has all of these elements, plus a certain something to it that made me really enjoy it despite its flaws.

'Boneshaker' news

Hey all,

While you're waiting for my next review, dig this : FemPop tells us that 'Boneshaker' has been optioned for a movie! It's going to be written by John Hilary Shepherd, a staff writer for the show "Nurse Jackie", who is (as FemPop points out) a pretty badass mom herself, just like Briar. Pretty exciting stuff. There aren't enough good steampunk movies out there, and I am already wincing in anticipation of what the rotters will look like onscreen.

I'm about a third of the way into The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett and liking it a lot so far. But then, I do love noir almost without exception, so it's definitely not a struggle for me to get behind. I also forgot to bring it to work one day, so I started and subsequently blew through Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, which had been sitting on my Nook for awhile. The review for that will be up by Saturday.

Until next time...
--emily

'Embassytown' by China Mieville

If you're a big enough geek to think about the ethics of the Prime Directive outside of the times they actually discuss it on Star Trek, AND to wonder how that principle relates to breaching the language barrier once you have actually made contact with an alien species, you might come close to understanding how China Miéville came up with the premise of Embassytown.

Others (including the inimitable Ursula K. LeGuin) have already written detailed and thought-provoking reviews of this book, so I'll try not to reinvent the wheel here. But I will say that for me, I loved this book in spite of its flaws, because it's a spectacular piece of genre fiction that is no less literature for its being housed in the construct of sci-fi. Miéville has become known for sampling classic genres and giving them his own New Weird spin, and he's done it again here. This reads like a classic piece of science fiction writing, recognizable in form, yet entirely Miéville's own. And, fitting to the running message of the book, it is the language of it that makes it not only a brilliant meld of the classic and the modern, but a truly compelling and emotive story.

'Crossed' by Ally Condie

I finished Embassytown and am working on my review. But in the meanwhile I read Crossed and wanted to toss up a quick review of it while you wait for what will undoubtedly be a longer and more detailed review of a longer and more interesting book. :)

In reviewing Matched, the first in Ally Condie's young adult trilogy about a futuristic version of America tightly controlled by the ruling Society, a friend of mine on her Goodreads page said it felt like Condie was running through a checklist of things to include in a YA book in order for it to be popular. I agree with her. But it didn't stop my friend from liking the book, nor did it stop me, and in reading the sequel I found myself with the same mixed feelings.