End-of-the-year reading
I slacked off for a bit, so I didn't make my 50 books for the year I don't think. (Nope, 45 noted here since January. Awfully close, but not quite.) In no particular order, here's the last batch, so far as I can remember:
- Hammered, Elizabeth Bear. I picked this up largely because she's a friend of friends, and at least one of those friends had recommended it highly. He wasn't wrong. It took a little bit for me to get into the story, but once I did, I tore through it quickly and have tossed Scardown and Worldwired onto my "to buy" list. I admit to generally (but not exclusively) preferring to read fantasy, but this is good stuff.
- Time Management for System Administrators, Tom Limoncelli. For what it's worth, I read this when it showed up in my Safari subscription, but I still intend to go buy a hard copy to keep on hand; I found it that useful. Most of the advice is fairly common-sense if you stop to think about it, but I never really had and time management and prioritization is something I've gotten dinged on (and rightly so) in my annual reviews. I took to coming in to the office in the morning and writing out a prioritized list of projects that I needed to work on for the day, and just that one simple suggestion has made me incredibly (and noticeably) more productive. Two thumbs up.
- The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles. A "classic work of psychological terror", the blurb on the back calls it. Y'know, I read this in two evenings, and I kept thinking "I'm missing something, I must be". I didn't seem to appreciate it nearly as much as I apparently ought. Perhaps I'll try again some other time, when I'm less in the mindset of reading for the simple pleasure of hearing a story and more inclined to go back and try to figure out exactly what the author is trying to Say[tm].
- A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin. Curse all y'all who introduced me to this series. Luckily, I started late enough that I have several books yet to read rather than having to endure the endless wait before the next installment. I would pick it up in the evening, and suddenly I'd be 250 pages further in, it would be 4 AM and I'd be looking at 4 hours of sleep before having to get up for work. I specifically have not yet picked up the next book because I absolutely have to get some sleep this month. ;)
- Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman. Life can get interesting (in every sense of the word) when your dad happens to be the trickster god. "Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age -- complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime." If you enjoyed American Gods, you'll likely enjoy this as well.
- Burning Chrome, William Gibson. Skip the movies, just go ahead and read "Johnny Mnemonic" and "New Rose Hotel". And "Burning Chrome".
- The Southern Cook's Handbook, Courtney Taylor. One of the things I regret is never getting my Mamaw's recipe for buttermilk biscuits. Even if I had, though, it would naturally be imprecise; making good biscuits is an art and simply writing down the basics wouldn't give you the complete picture. Obviously this book doesn't have her recipe specifically, but there are tips that might help me get close. I guess I'll have to practice. Oh, woe. ;)
- The Mistress: Histories, Myths and Interpretations of the "Other Woman", Victoria Griffen. A historical overview of the mistress in history, with random bits of personal experience thrown in. Wanted to like this more than I did; some of the history was interesting and new to me, but overall it read more like someone's college undergrad term paper than a potentially fascinating bit of research. I may try hunting down some of the references to see if they can hold my interest longer than this one did.
- Rednecks and Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music, Chris Willman. Found this while walking out of Tower the other day and picked it up. Not quite finished with it yet, but will be soon. There's not really anything groundbreaking to be found I don't think (unless you happen to think that absolutely all country musicians are uniformly GOP-leaning conservatives), but I do love the author's irreverent style and snark. Oh, I love the snark. And chapter titles like "Steve Earle's Mouth Is Gonna Rise Again - Alt Country and the Loyal Opposition" and "Plucked - The Dixie Chicks on the Path to Slaughter", and subheadings like "Travis Tritt Bogarts the Peace Pipe". By the way: Rodney Crowell's new album "The Outsider"? Excellent.