Six books to post about. I've been reading while finishing up final projects for the quarter (last one turned in yesterday!) but haven't been getting around to posting about them.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Brothers in Arms is just what I expected it to be. A quick, fun read. I'd actually read the series a bit out of order, so I knew a bit of the outcome of this one already, but had fun getting to the end. Her series is still basically the only military science fiction I've ever enjoyed.

Kurt Vonnegut's A Man without a Country is a book of light essays, many on his opinion of the current state of America. He's got a few great quotes in there on libraries and librarians.

Tim Powers' Forsake the Sky is one of his early books, and wasn't horrible, but definitely wasn't great. If you haven't read him, try The Anubis Gates instead.

I picked up Eric Wagners' An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson when I was working on the paper on the history of the Principia Discordia and finally got around to doing more than skimming it. Parts were good, parts were mediocre. The writing quality was a bit inconsistant. Unless you've read all of RAW's stuff, I probably wouldn't bother.

Bruce Sterling's The Zenith Angle was far more of a thriller than SF. Some nifty ideas, but the main character gave me the creeps in a way, which made it occasionally painful to read.

Alexa Albert's Brothel takes place primarily in a legal brothel in Nevada. The author went there to conduct a public health survey on the prostitutes' condom usage and STDs but ended up returning again and again to study the place on more of a sociological/cultural level. It's a fascinating read.
posted by Kristin Buxton at 11:35 AM