If you really want to know...

[mistymassey]

It's summer Hallelujah! so I have more time to write and to read. Believe me, working in a library doesn't automatically mean I have whole days to do nothing but read. I wish.... anyway, for the duration of the summer, I'll be posting some titles I've read every Monday.

Let's begin with Head Games by Craig McDonald. Hard drinking crime writer Hector Lassiter has acquired the stolen head of Pancho Villa. Suddenly bullets are flying and Hector's on the run from government agents and vicious members of Yale's Skull & Bones Society. Imagine Tim Powers' Expiration Date had a hard collision with Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, then they fell off a cliff and ended up scattered together at the bottom. No, really, try. Then, if you're not thinking I'm a lunatic, go read this book.

And since we're on the subject of weird, I also read The Man Who Turned Into Himself, by David Ambrose. Rick Hamilton has a sudden vision of his wife Anne in a fatal car accident, and the shock of it forces his consciousness to leap into a parallel universe. He finds himself trapped in his parallel body with the parallel Rick's awareness. This was an easy read, though far too short for the story it set up to be finished as well as I'd have liked. I'm interested in trying some of Ambrose's other work.

And at last, there's The Cipher, by Diana Pharaoh Francis. Lucy Trenton, law-abiding customs inspector, thought her hobby of collecting illegal magic items known as true ciphers was a victimless crime, until the day a cipher attached itself to her and changed her entire world. This was a great book! I read it in the sun on the beach, and nearly ended up burnt because I didn't want to put it down and slap on more sunscreen. I loved Marten - 'course, I'm a sucker for the rogue in need of redemption. This is an excellent summer read.

So what are y'all reading? (she asks as if there wasn't a knee-high stack of books next to her bed already.)

Comments

[cellymcfae.livejournal.com]

Suggestion: I recently downloaded the "Audible Book of the Year." It's a mystery/thriller written by 15(?) different authors and read by Alfred Molina. It's not in a readable format, as far as I know. However, if you need a "book-on-tape" for a trip, I highly recommend this. I really enjoyed it!

OOPS!!! Just realized I never told you the name of the book! (DOH!) It's The Chopin Manuscript.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You know, I thought "Audible Book of the Year" was a somewhat unusual title... thanks for the tip! I'm headed south to help my sister move soon, so I'll need something to listen to.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading Deep Ancestry by Spencer Wells. It's an overview of the Genographic Project (and an early review copy I snagged from LibraryThing), which is quite interesting, especially as one of my family members has already taken part in the project.

Freelance, I'm working on The Flaxen Femme Fatale by John Zakour, the newest Zachary Nixon Johnson book. I so love this series.

But since I'm nearly done with the Wells, I've got to figure out what to read next!

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't read Zakour. Sounds like something I'd like! The Beetle dragged me out of the house this afternoon for an impromptu trip to Barnes & Noble, where I scored the newest Garrett P.I. novel by Glen Cook. Yay! I'll have to go get The Plutonium Blonde now, too.

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

I think the omnibus of the first two books should be out by now. But yes, you should read them.

[strangertides.livejournal.com]

My most recent recommendation would be Michael Gruber's The Forgery of Venus. He's one of my favorite new authors due to his excellent modern fantasy series that starts with Tropic of Night. This one is not quite in the same vein - more of a psychological study - the reader is never completely sure if there is anything supernatural going on. It's about an artist whose memories become confused with those of the famous painter Velazquez - in any case it's a fascinating read.

Other than that I seem to be on a hard SF kick, first having re-read Alan Dean Foster's Midworld (inspired by your posting of a "neglected classics" list). Then I read Fleet of Worlds (Niven/Lerner), a somewhat interesting prequel to Ringworld, and The Songs of Distant Earth (Clarke), about a starship fleeing Earth's destruction that encounters a human society from an earlier colonization attempt. Now I've just started Bova's Mars, which seems familiar, but I'm not sure whether I've actually read it before.

The next writing project I've been kicking around seems like it's going to be SF, which is probably why I'm reading this genre recently, but I'm also close to the end of a re-read of Powers' The Stress of Her Regard. You can never have too many Powers re-reads. Also I was given the latest Iain M. Banks book, Matter for Fathers' Day, so I'm looking forward to starting that one next.

By the way, both Head Games and The Cipher sound interesting - thanks for bringing them to my attention! Regarding the Ambrose book, I had a similar reaction, though I haven't ever gotten around to finding anything else by him.

[madkestrel.livejournal.com]

You can never have too many Powers re-reads.

Truer words were never spoken!

Gruber sounds intriguing - I'll have to get my hands on some of his work. Thanks! And hey, I'm not planning on keeping Head Games, so if you'd like it, email me your address and I'll send it to you.