Miss Literacy swats her own hand
Sorry for the paucity of updates lately - a promotion at work is leaving me much less blogging time. The reading at least is proceeding apace, and I'll give a nod to the following top picks from the last few months:
Passage, by Connie Willis. Probably one of the few books worthy of the new appellation "speculative fiction," as it's not really sci-fi or fantasy but isn't realism either. Unbelievably well-written and an engrossing story about what it might be like to discover what death is like.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson. Wonderfully humorous with a quiet mystery at the core. Atkinson's got a flair for telling a straightforward story while presenting it all out of time. Normally I find flashbacks and flashfowards nothing more than a pretension at style, but Atkinson, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, "make[s] it work." Besides, who doesn't love a good tale of a train-wreck family that calls to mind the past histories of Loveline callers?
The Game, by Laurie R. King. King blew the rest of her own (already spectacularly good) series out of the water with this entry. Not many mysteries, or even books for that matter, leave me almost breathless at the author's skill, but this one did. The rare book that rises to the level of true art.
Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gibb. Not only fascinating for the education in Ethiopian history and the role of Islam in it, but Gibb also puts forth one of the best explorations of loss and displacement I've read in a long time. Emotionally fraught and hopeful all at once.
American Prometheus, by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin. An excellent biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer that only gains strength for being read in light of the current political situation here in the U.S. Just goes to show that FBI wiretaps, personal vendettas made political, and pillorying dissenters to militarism are hardly new unAmerican activities.
Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. I don't read a lot of chicklit as I tend to find the genre lacking in creativity, but Crusie's above the rest. She's got enough humor to put the comedy back in romantic comedy, right where it should be. I never thought I'd laugh so hard at a book where the heroine is an actuary.
Passage, by Connie Willis. Probably one of the few books worthy of the new appellation "speculative fiction," as it's not really sci-fi or fantasy but isn't realism either. Unbelievably well-written and an engrossing story about what it might be like to discover what death is like.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, by Kate Atkinson. Wonderfully humorous with a quiet mystery at the core. Atkinson's got a flair for telling a straightforward story while presenting it all out of time. Normally I find flashbacks and flashfowards nothing more than a pretension at style, but Atkinson, in the immortal words of Tim Gunn, "make[s] it work." Besides, who doesn't love a good tale of a train-wreck family that calls to mind the past histories of Loveline callers?
The Game, by Laurie R. King. King blew the rest of her own (already spectacularly good) series out of the water with this entry. Not many mysteries, or even books for that matter, leave me almost breathless at the author's skill, but this one did. The rare book that rises to the level of true art.
Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gibb. Not only fascinating for the education in Ethiopian history and the role of Islam in it, but Gibb also puts forth one of the best explorations of loss and displacement I've read in a long time. Emotionally fraught and hopeful all at once.
American Prometheus, by Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin. An excellent biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer that only gains strength for being read in light of the current political situation here in the U.S. Just goes to show that FBI wiretaps, personal vendettas made political, and pillorying dissenters to militarism are hardly new unAmerican activities.
Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. I don't read a lot of chicklit as I tend to find the genre lacking in creativity, but Crusie's above the rest. She's got enough humor to put the comedy back in romantic comedy, right where it should be. I never thought I'd laugh so hard at a book where the heroine is an actuary.
