I've knocked out three more books - 5 more to go but I'm in the middle of a couple so I may hit 26 just under the wire. We'll see. But first, here are the three I finished in the last month or so:
.JPG)
Book #19: Slow River by Nicola Griffith
"Don't you see? Everything works in layers: jungles, cities, people. Each layer has its predator and prey, its network of ally and foe, safe place and trap. Its own ecosystem. You have to get to know the land."
Lore is the daughter of an extremely wealth and high profile family, but our story begins as she is dropped off in a city, naked and wounded, after having been kept captive for ransom. Afraid to go home, she is rescued by a con artist that becomes her teacher and lover. Lore struggles to find out who she is on her own, and what happened to her.
Earlier this year I bought a big batch of books that were nominated or won Lambda Literary awards, because finding good LGBT literature seems much harder than it should be. This book was sitting on my shelf looking at me for months before I finally picked it up, and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I saw the big twist coming a mile off, and it just rang false when it was finally revealed. But I enjoyed turning the pages, and reading a story where the character's sexuality wasn't what the story revolved around but instead was just one aspect of her personality. The other thing I found particularly interesting was the incredibly detailed description of how a futuristic wastewater treatment facility might work. The author clearly did her research. I'm not an engineer but I've done work related to wastewater treatment in the past, and from what I know her descriptions were pretty darn close to how things actually work. A large portion of the book takes place in a wastewater treatment plant - something you don't see too often in novels. I always appreciate works that look at where our waste materials go and how it's disposed of. We often don't think about that at all, since it's out of sight out of mind.
I'll definitely pick up some of her other books in the future.
Book #20 Yes Please by Amy Poehler
"Authors pretend their stories were always shiny and perfect and just waiting to be written. The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not. Even I have lied about writing. I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing away dirt from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver."
I was on the waitlist to get this book from the library for a long time, so when they finally notified me that the e-book was ready for me, I dropped everything else I was reading and started reading this instead.
My favorite part of the entire book is the first chapter, because it's a chapter about writing. That's what I quoted from above. I loved this chapter so much, as an aspiring writer, because it gives me permission to write crappy stuff sometimes, and concurs that writing is not this beautiful arty thing that just flows (I'm talking to you, Finding Forrester).
But this isn't a book about writing. It's one of a number of memoirs that have come out in the past few years by comedians, like Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, all of which seem to follow the same basic formula. They are incredibly funny in parts, and trace their beginnings from childhood through beginning improv, and their eventual success. They have great moments of humor and many more moments of banality. Probably much like a comedian's life. They all also seem to spend some time bemoaning having to read the book they are writing, something that was a little funny back in Ellen Degeneres's first book, but has gotten a little old, especially when we all know they get paid large sums to write these books that are about everything and nothing at once. It's obvious that the publishers go to them and ask for a book, any book, about whatever, because they know the name behind it will sell it.
That's not to say this isn't a good book. It's got some great, funny parts, and it shows that to be successful it takes incredible drive and commitment, not just some nascent talent. For that alone, I think it's a good lesson in a world where we think success comes overnight from some natural ability that doesn't need to be refined. She talks a lot about success, and she also talks about Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo being her first big movie part. So it's all relative, really.
Book #21 Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
“Respectfully, sir, the asteroid did not make you leave her. The asteroid is not making anyone do anything. It's just a big piece of rock floating through space. Anything anyone does remains their own decision.”
This is book two of a trilogy, which makes it a little hard to review until I finish the third one, which is ready and waiting at home for me to crack it open. Mild spoilers below if you haven't read the first book.
...
When we left our hero, Detective Hank Palace, he had been let go from the police force. Now he has a new mystery to solve. His childhood babysitter has enlisted him to find her missing husband, who from all evidence has left of his own accord, something that has become very common as the asteroid coming destroy the earth gets closer. So while society is falling apart, Hank will follow clues to track down this man and try to convince him to come back to his wife.
Hank has to turn to his sister Nico for assistance. Nico, who believes she is part of an underground network dedicated to combating a secret government conspiracy, carrying out a plan she believes could stop the asteroid. Hank has no time to worry about conspiracies, or ridiculously implausible plans to divert the end of the world. The asteroid is coming. It's unavoidable. But he has to find the missing man anyway. Even Hank knows it's pointless, but he can't help himself, he needs that small amount of order in a world that is falling apart around him.
I'll let you know if the ending of this trilogy is satisfying. It's hard to say where it's all going, but I look forward to finding out.
I have half a month to finish 5 more books (well, 4, because there's one I finished that I didn't include here). So I better get to it. See you soon.
