bookses
Here are the books I've read so far this year, mostly posting so I don't forget (some of the titles were pretty hard to remember at this point). They are not in order.
1. Only You can Save Mankind, by Terry Pratchett
(Johnny's real life and his gaming life have intersected in a Redshirts/Ender's Game kind of way, and Sir Terry Pratchett refuses to say what's real. This was a very fun story and the audiobook was *fantastic,* with the voice actor doing all of the sound effects that Pratchett wrote in. I cackled through the entirety of the long bus rides to and from work. I've just downloaded the next one from the library, too.)
2. The Prophet, by Michael Koryta
(A crime thriller that is also about high school football in NE Ohio. Since I'm from a major football high school in NE Ohio, this was pretty fun. My only disappointment was that I felt he tried but failed to capture the geography and weather that comes with living on the coast of a Great Lake. And also, he made up town names, what's up with that.)
3. So Cold the River, by Michael Koryta
(My first Koryta book. Basically a supernatural thriller about haunted mineral water, taking place in a town that's too fantastic to believe, but it is in fact real, as is much of its history as told in the book. The main character is a prat who reveals himself to be even more of a prat at the end of the book, but he's likeable and his actions are true to his character. I don't require my protagonists to be intelligent or particularly good people, so it worked out ok.)
4. Kraken, by China Mieville
(I...loved this book. SO. MUCH. It's a bit hard to describe, but it's a straight-faced mockery of the urban fantasy genre that is quite hilarious if you are familiar with urban fantasy. Because it takes place in London, the book has many similarities to the works of Neil Gaiman--especially Neverwhere-- and Pratchett, but it's really quite different in the end. Lots of themes, lots of layers (or so I thought, anyway). It's not funny haha, but more funny "I see what you did there.")
5. World War Z by Max Brooks
(I'd heard this was dry, but it wasn't at all. I think anyone who likes intelligent science fiction or survival stuff will have no trouble reading this. It is not much like the movie; the movie goes for the flavor of the book rather than the plot. The best part was when this book critiqued the first book, The Zombie Survival Guide and accused that book of being written for rich white people in the US.)
6. Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
(Lots of action and sword fights and well developed characters and good historical stuff. I read the whole thing with a strong Scottish accent, even though apparently the one guy barely had a Scottish accent--the author kept saying so, but I kept ignoring her--but my goodness, there was a lot of sex. This was a really awkward book to read on the bus. I wasn't sure which parts I could skip and I was always having to cover the pages.)
7. Red Heads
(A murder mystery thriller thing that takes place in Honolulu and abroad, and is written by lawyer from Honolulu. The main character is also a lawyer in Honolulu. The story would have been better without the gratuitous sex scene in which the main character hooks up with a girl who looks just like his dead wife. The romance is fake and destroys the credibility the author was trying to build. At first I was like, "Hey, Honolulu is so small! I'll probably meet this guy some day!" but now I would just be embarrassed for him.)
8. Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo, by Miyuki Miyabe
(I love Japanese ghost stories, especially from the Edo period. These, instead, take place during the Edo period but are written recently, and by the same author as Brave Story. The stories were fantastic and some were quite creepy. The book has a nice Hitchcock flavor to it.)
9. The Painted Girls, by Catherine Fisher
(I don't know what to say about this book. It was one of those dramatic books about relationships between sisters and not dying of starvation, and it was very emotionally draining. Well written and very informative--the author based the characters on the real life subjects of a particular french artist during the 1800s, and pondered what effect the newspaper reviews of his work would have on the lives of those girls. So it's historical fiction, but the author plays fast and loose with the storyline to address her own speculations, rather than trying to be faithful to history. So it's more of a psychological work in a historical setting)
10. The Great Trouble, by Deborah Hopkinson
(This is a YA book about the worst cholera epidemic to ever hit London. It's a historical fiction about public health! I think that's pretty great.)
A bunch of these books were audio books that I downloaded for free from the library. Most public libraries are plugged into the Overdrive system, and it's really handy! If you haven't checked it out, I heartily recommend it. I like that I can listen and work on costumes and things at the same time.
I'm also working on another audio book that's dragging a bit, plus three books of short stories. It's like they've reproduced or something, I dunno.