Apr 1st, 10
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So I just finished Christopher Moore’s novel, Practical Demonkeeping. I really liked it, it had some humor, action, a little sex, a murderous demon, and a shriveled prune of a Djinni. All in all it was fun, there was the overt religious theme to it, but honestly nothing screams demons in the Western world like the Roman Catholic Church.
Next is another change of pace, the first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. I am a huge fan of “British Inspector” shows from the venerable Morse and his former sergeant Lewis, to the haughty prim and properness of Inspector Alleyn and the modern day Lynley. So I figured the first place to look is for my favorite, Inspector Morse. Unfortunately, Colin Dexter was no where to be found, so I settled for Mr. Rankin instead.
Mar 14th, 10
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So I just finished the excellent Night Angel trilogy from Brent Weeks. This story is great and, unlike Abercrombie’s First Law series, they actually ended great!. This started out as cookie-cutter fantasy, but Mr. Weeks was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat with the complex plot lines that were introduced in the second novel, deserves a gracious pat on the back for pulling off just a remarkable suspenseful, unexpected ending. (I’m sure some would disagree but I thought it was wonderful.) 
It took a bit longer than expected to finish these books, however, and therefore I think I might be behind on the reading list. Next up will be A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller.
Feb 12th, 10
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So with new baby Addison in house and doing well, I don’t think that I have read more than 40 pages of The Burrowers Beneath. Nothing against the book at all, I rather like it, but I might have to change titles to get my reading steady again, well novels at least.
The funny thing is that I have read no fewer than eight short stories over the last week and a half. I have found that I really don’t have the time to put in to reading a continued story line, but a story that is short and can be killed in a single sitting or two is prime. This is especially true with a newborn in house and a rather unexpected feeding schedule.
I will have to ponder which book to replace Titus Crowe with and possibly finish it later in the year.
On a separate note, I have been trying out Google Buzz and am actually liking it. It allows me to easily let friends know what is happening, ala Twitter, from GMail, which is perpetually open anyway. It also lacks a lot of the other ridiculous features found in Facebook that do nothing more than annoy me to no ends.
Anyway, More later…
Jan 30th, 10
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On a strange whim, I read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde this morning. I adore that play and wouldn’t mind the opportunity to see it live one day.
This is book 3 of the 45. Still reading the Atrocity Archives as well. Also, there is likely to be a new addition to the family in the next couple of days.
Jan 28th, 10
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So I read this little gem of a story by Cory Doctorow this morning and I really liked it. And while I don’t explicitly believe in his “experiment” or his views on copyright, you cannot doubt that his short stories are great.
This story follows Felix and Van two system administrators who are trying to keep the major Canadian backbone of the Net online after a series of catastrophes have brought about a worldwide apocalypse. It’s a good story, and to prove it (only if awards are your thing I suppose) it won the 2007 Locus award for best novelette.
On a completely different note I need to figure out if and how short stories will add into my overall total for the 45 books in 2010. I’m thinking 2-1 if they are novellas, or 3 or 4-1 for novelettes. Hell I might not even care.
Jan 26th, 10
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So I blew through Poison Sleep in two days. What a fun book! And so much more satisfying than the first one was. I will be after the rest of this series this year for certain. This novel follows Marla Mason, lead sorcerer for the fictional city of Felsport, actually battling it out within her own city. (The first novel had her fighting some foe in San Francisco, something I always thought annoying. I mean why create a fictional city and then not even use it in your debut novel?)
The character development is more involved here and there is a feeling that the characters are not cardboard cutouts like I sometimes felt in the first novel. Either way a very enjoyable read.
For the next read I am going to do something that I don’t normally do, I’m going to re-read a book I read about a year ago. Some of you you just “whoopty-dooo’d” me into next week, but honestly I do re-reads very rarely and usually only after several years.
But with the possible release of a third book in the fantastic Laundry series, I thought I should make the effort to re-read on of the funniest and funnest books that I have read, ever. The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. And this has me ahead of the game for the week starting book 3 inside week 2 is always a good thing.
Jan 25th, 10
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On Saturday I finished the vastly popular Pride Prejudice and Zombies from Quirk Press. The basic premise is that of a Victorian England story of misunderstood love that everyone is familiar with thanks to the forced reading of the novel in high school and from the excellent BBC productions that have been produced over the years. There is one major difference however, the addition of a strange plague that has afflicted England’s corpses reanimating them into the “unmentionables” (zombies) “denizens of Satan” with a penchant for brains.
At first, I wasn’t too sure about this book and therefore left it alone for the better part of a year, but my resolve and curiosity finally gave way and it was added to the Queue. This was a really fun book to read and honestly was hard to put down. It was fun and funny and really kept me interested even though I knew the main plotline almost as well as the back of my right hand. 
It is campy with lots of innuendos about England’s “balls” and I was happy to see Mr. and Mrs. Bennett still are the primary humor for the story. I won’t go into the prime differences as they are far too numerous to list. But just know that if you LOVE the original you likely won’t enjoy this version. But, for those of us that are casual fans or totally unfamiliar with the story it will be a really funny read. I can say that reading this has actually made me want to read the original because you realize how very good it really is. So I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Now for the next on the reading list is Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt, book 2 of the Marla Mason series, I’m already about half-way through so another post on it should follow this week.
This means that I am still on tract for the 45 books this year. Yippee to me, prematurely at least.
So I just finished Christopher Moore’s novel, Practical Demonkeeping. I really liked it, it had some humor, action, a little sex, a murderous demon, and a shriveled prune of a Djinni. All in all it was fun, there was the overt religious theme to it, but honestly nothing screams demons in the Western world like the Roman Catholic Church. 
Next is another change of pace, the first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin. I am a huge fan of “British Inspector” shows from the venerable Morse and his former sergeant Lewis, to the haughty prim and properness of Inspector Alleyn and the modern day Lynley. So I figured the first place to look is for my favorite, Inspector Morse. Unfortunately, Colin Dexter was no where to be found, so I settled for Mr. Rankin instead.
