Friday Reading Roundup
At the gym this morning, I listened to Neil Gaiman's "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". First, I have to confess, I somehow missed the fact that he's British and, er, he's fabulous and now I'm sad that I've never gone to hear him read in person. Second, it's a charming story and Kate recommends. I should check out what else is up for a Hugo - I read a story on Fictionwise called "Walpurgis Night" that is up for a Nebula and it too was fabulous, as was that Mike Resnick story from Baen's Universe. Story!
Speaking of Baen... I forgot to mention about International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. I haven't gotten around to reading anything by anyone I hadn't already read, but I will. Lots of folks my friends read participated, including Steven Brust, Charles Stross, and Ryk E. Spoor. Actually, in honor of IPSTD, I re-read Digital Knight, which I highly recommended last time I read it.
Got an email from Amazon recommending a book and let's just say they are confused about John Ringo's appeal
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Unto the Breach (Paladin of Shadows, Book 4) by John Ringo have also ordered The Rope Walk: A Novel by Carrie Brown. For this reason, you might like to know that Carrie Brown's The Rope Walk: A Novel will be released on May 1, 2007. You can pre-order your copy at a savings of $7.68 by following the link below.
From Publishers Weekly
Like Brown's first novel, Rose's Garden, her sixth sets themes of tolerance and understanding in a picture-postcard setting. In a Vermont town where a description of the local library racks up a dozen adjectives (including "tall," "bracing," "rippling," "silvery" and "delicious"), children collect butterflies and recite "Hiawatha." When Kenneth Fitzgerald, the artist who sponsored the library's transformation from dreary to spectacular, returns to his childhood home dying of AIDS, he asks 10-year-old Alice MacCauley and her neighbors' manic visiting mixed-race grandson, Thelonious Swann- "a tawny little lion cub"-to come by and read to him in the afternoons. Alice's mother died young; her father teaches Shakespeare and ...
Alrighty.
Speaking of John Ringo, I nearly snarfed my drink when in his latest blog entry, he mentions FroliCon. *gulp* I have to say, if the organizers of that event had him as a GoH, I'd probably drop any pre-existing plans and go. That would r0x0rs. Oh, and the advice he gives to con organizers is probably good for event organizers as well. Just sayin'
I feel sorry for anyone who has been running behind me in the park for the past two months, bc Moneyball made me snort, heh, and by the end, cheer aloud as I read it. Nick Hornby's pithy review was:
I understood about one in four words of Moneyball, and it's still the best and most engrossing sports book I've read for years. If you know anything about baseball, you will enjoy it four times as much as I did, which means you might explode.
My addition to that would be, if market inefficiencies get you hot and bothered, this is porn. Best book I've read in a really, really, really long time.
Last qotd is from Alan Moore, talking about the new LOXG graphic novel: It's George Orwell's 1984, told as an 8-page tale in a Tijuana Bible pornographic comic strip.
Speaking of Baen... I forgot to mention about International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day. I haven't gotten around to reading anything by anyone I hadn't already read, but I will. Lots of folks my friends read participated, including Steven Brust, Charles Stross, and Ryk E. Spoor. Actually, in honor of IPSTD, I re-read Digital Knight, which I highly recommended last time I read it.
Got an email from Amazon recommending a book and let's just say they are confused about John Ringo's appeal
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Unto the Breach (Paladin of Shadows, Book 4) by John Ringo have also ordered The Rope Walk: A Novel by Carrie Brown. For this reason, you might like to know that Carrie Brown's The Rope Walk: A Novel will be released on May 1, 2007. You can pre-order your copy at a savings of $7.68 by following the link below.
From Publishers Weekly
Like Brown's first novel, Rose's Garden, her sixth sets themes of tolerance and understanding in a picture-postcard setting. In a Vermont town where a description of the local library racks up a dozen adjectives (including "tall," "bracing," "rippling," "silvery" and "delicious"), children collect butterflies and recite "Hiawatha." When Kenneth Fitzgerald, the artist who sponsored the library's transformation from dreary to spectacular, returns to his childhood home dying of AIDS, he asks 10-year-old Alice MacCauley and her neighbors' manic visiting mixed-race grandson, Thelonious Swann- "a tawny little lion cub"-to come by and read to him in the afternoons. Alice's mother died young; her father teaches Shakespeare and ...
Alrighty.
Speaking of John Ringo, I nearly snarfed my drink when in his latest blog entry, he mentions FroliCon. *gulp* I have to say, if the organizers of that event had him as a GoH, I'd probably drop any pre-existing plans and go. That would r0x0rs. Oh, and the advice he gives to con organizers is probably good for event organizers as well. Just sayin'
I feel sorry for anyone who has been running behind me in the park for the past two months, bc Moneyball made me snort, heh, and by the end, cheer aloud as I read it. Nick Hornby's pithy review was:
I understood about one in four words of Moneyball, and it's still the best and most engrossing sports book I've read for years. If you know anything about baseball, you will enjoy it four times as much as I did, which means you might explode.
My addition to that would be, if market inefficiencies get you hot and bothered, this is porn. Best book I've read in a really, really, really long time.
Last qotd is from Alan Moore, talking about the new LOXG graphic novel: It's George Orwell's 1984, told as an 8-page tale in a Tijuana Bible pornographic comic strip.