Last night I went to see Christopher Moore at the University Bookstore. His talks are always entertaining and this one was no exception. What was weird, however, was seeing him in Seattle rather than at Powells in Portland. In time it's likely that I'll start recognizing people at readings in Seattle as well, but Christopher Moore readings in particular in Portland were ones that I'd gotten to know a few people.
After I came home last night, I read the book in its entirety. This time he makes Death funny. Definitely recommended.
posted by kristin at 10:47 AM
The only book I finished while I was out of town was Lucius Shepard's
Green Eyes, which is unusual in that it's a zombie book that's SF not horror. Set in Louisiana, one of the main characters is a man who was dead and was brought back to life via scientific means. The book takes voodoo as a starting point, but approaching it from as something scientifically feasible. It's also a love story. Ok, but not great.
posted by kristin at 10:42 AM
Rafi Zabor's
The Bear Comes Home is the story of a saxophone-playing talking bear. It's part love story, part buddy story, and part a look at what it's like to play jazz. In some ways I liked it a lot, but it dragged in the middle, and for some reason I kept feeling a need to put it down and read other things. I finally finished it last night though, and may need to recommend it to a few jazz fans I know.
posted by kristin at 1:00 PM
Chomsky for Beginners by David Cogswell is a book in the series of comic books about philosophers,scientists and others. This one deals with Noam Chomsky and discusses both his contributions to linguistics and politics.
posted by kristin at 12:59 PM
Gaza Blues is a book containing short stories by Etgar Keret (an Israeli) and a novella by Samir El-youssef (a Palestinian). I liked the short stories better, and will be seeking out more of Keret's work.
posted by kristin at 12:58 PM
After reading
Chasm City for class, I felt a need to polish off Reynolds' series. I started carrying around
Redemption Ark as my away-from-home book, but ended up finishing it at home one evening instead of spreading it out. Then I picked up and finished
Absolution Gap which finishes the loose series. Each book could generally stand alone in the sense that things are pretty well wrapped up at the end, but in general it would be better to read them in order so things make a bit more sense, especially toward the end. If you like space opera with lots of storylines that eventually come together, and weird twists on humanity, read them.
Yesterday I picked up
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days which is a volume containing two novellas set in the same universe as
Revelation Space and the others. It seems likely that I'll read it soon.
posted by kristin at 12:53 PM
Joyce G. Saricks
Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library was the textbook for my Readers' Advisory class last quarter, but we only read about half of it for class. I polished off the rest of it towards the end of the quarter. There are quite a few parts of the book that I need to go back and re-read and try to follow. She has good suggestions for things to keep track of about books as you read them, if you want to remember enough about them to help you when recommending them to people. I haven't started following any of those recommendations yet though, mostly due to laziness. I haven't quite made the leap to think of all of my leisure reading as something job-related yet. Hopefully I never entirely will.
posted by kristin at 12:51 PM
Carlos Maria Dominguez's
The House of Paper is a short book recommended for people who like books. It's a mystery of sorts, but really more of an homage to Borges and readers in general.
posted by kristin at 12:50 PM
Audrey Niffenegger's
Three Incestuous Sisters is an art book more than a story book, but the art tells a story. After listening to her talk about the book on a book podcast (I think the authors on tour one run by Denver's Tattered Cover) I checked it out of the library and read it. Unfortunately, at times I definitely like words more than art, so it was pretty but not as moving as
The Timetraveller's Wife.
posted by kristin at 12:47 PM 
