greygirlbeast mentioned today that "most readers do not want to read books that are . . . smarter than they are". I love books that are smarter than I. One of my pet peeves in fiction is when I know where the story's going, or how it will unfold, too early. When reading nonfiction, I not only want interesting information, but I want it synthesized and ( Read more... )

Dog saves man's life by eating his toe. A touching story of human idiocy and canine loyalty. Or was it? Did the dog eat the toe because it started smelling good, or in an altruistic attempt to rid the guy of the infection?

45. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2006-2010) by John Jackson Miller et al. -- This is just a mess. To begin with, it's odd to title a book Knights of the Old Republic and then not actually feature any Knights of the Republic. There's one recurring character who's a knight, but he's in a cabal doing his own thing and not really ( Read more... )

Has there ever been an alternate history novel set in the twentieth- or twenty-first century of a world in which Queen Isabella persisted in her rejection of Christopher Columbus's plans?

44. Madeleine Is Sleeping (2004) by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum [Amazon]
43. The Specific Gravity of Grief (2010) by Jay Lake [Fairwood Press]
42. Memory's Tailor (1998) by Lawrence Rudner [University Press of Mississippi | Amazon]
41. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (2009) by Wells Tower [Amazon]
40. Through the Drowsy Dark: Short Fiction and ( Read more... )

So. Baiting the Unicorn: and Other Tails of Under-Dogs and Under-Bitches by Liza Granville. Published, apparently, by Bastard Books in 2001. It never shows up used at any of the usual spots -- Amazons, Abebooks, eBay, Powell's, Alibris and so forth. I've never seen a scan of its cover. And yet it's always mentioned in interviews with Granville and ( Read more... )

Amazon reviews are forthcoming for most of these:

38. Simple Goalkeeping Made Spectacular (2009) by Graham Joyce [Amazon]
37. Best Served Cold (2009) by Joe Abercrombie [Amazon]
36. Narrative Power: Encounters, Celebrations, Struggles (2010) edited by L. Timmel Duchamp [Amazon]
35. Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an ( Read more... )

Since it sounds like we'll be well into hurricane season before the leak is contained, let alone the slick cleaned up . . . what happens if a hurricane comes in on top of an oil slick the size of a small state? Does it just stir things up, spread things out and let us pretend the oil has disappeared for a little while, or does it carry tremendous ( Read more... )

On target to complete the 50 Book Challenge this year. . .

29. Moonshine (2010) by Alaya Johnson [Amazon]
28. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (1998, revised 2003) by Muhammad Yunus with Alan Jolis [Amazon]
27. Ship Breaker (2010) by Paolo Bacigalupi [Amazon]
26. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection ( ( Read more... )

Just a shout-out to anyone who enjoys good fiction or knows anyone who enjoys good fiction: please purchase a copy of Polyphony 7.

Polyphony is a fantastic series of non-themed anthologies; unfortunately, if at least 225 copies of this seventh volume are not pre-ordered by March 1, fewer than three weeks from today, this anthology will have to be ( Read more... )