Now, the idea is to only choose books that were published in 2009, regardless of what country you live in. If a book was released in the US in 2008, but released in your country in 2009, that's okay. I know there is still a month in a half left of 2009, but if you know there is a book coming out between now and Dec. 31st, then it's still eligible.

This year, I am also asking for something a little more specific. When you submit your novels, you must include the genre it is from as well. Last year, when I was trying to categorize everything, I had to guess on a lot of novels and I know there were some people who disagreed with my choice. If there are any contradictions in genres (say if a book was selected for two genres), then the Weekly Geek Staff will vote on where it goes (please?).

If you see a Top 10 list somewhere else, add it to the Mr. Linky, even if they aren't a part of Weekly Geeks. We're trying to gather as many lists as we can, so we can come up with a nice comprehensive list. You'll have two weeks to come up with your list before I begin compiling the voting booths. Then we'll put it to a vote. Last year, we ended up with over 1300 individual voters and I know we can make it just as big this year.

I know as I'm posting my list I'll be getting some eye rolling and some "mehs" but let me explain. I picked my ten favorites. I'm a fairly eclectic when it comes to entertainment. So yes, Dan Brown and "Richard Castle" are rubbing elbows with Neil Gaiman and Anita Shreve. Most of my recommendations I haven't had time to review yet and probably won't get to them until 2010.

My 10 Best (Favorite) Books of 2009:

1. Heat Wave by Richard Castle (mystery)
2. A Change in Latitude by Anita Shreve (fiction)
3. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (mystery)
4. The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder (science fiction)
5. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (fantasy)
6. Zombie Queen of Newberry High by Amanda Ashby (paranormal romance)
7. Like Twin Stars edited by Cecilia Tan (erotic science fiction short stories)
8. I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears by Jag Bhalla (non fiction)
9. Enemies & Allies by Kevin J. Anderson (science fiction) *
10. Fiction by Ara 13 (meta fiction) *

* Received for review

What about you? What are your top ten reads from books published this year?

weekly geeks

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> weekly geeks webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:54:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/wg_best_of_2009.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/wg_best_of_2009.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/bkiwRFE9c0Y/frozen_tears.html I ended up seeing connections between Kale's life and a friend of mine who has had a similar journey even though the exact details of her journey are different. Frozen Tears is about Kale Weaver and how the events of her life help her change and grow as a person. Throughout the novel she's a hydrologist living and working in a typically rural Alaskan town near Denali National Park. There exactly isn't important. It's near an Innuit (or Ennuit as it's spelled in the novel) village. What does matter is that Kale's life is forever intertwined with the village after she meets Elliot, an Ennuit who helps her after she kills a moose with her truck.

It takes a couple chapters for Frozen Tears to hit its stride. When it starts, Kale is written as a too perfect environmentalist. She's in tune with nature and loves all animals. She has come to save the pristine Alaskan wilderness. Elliot is handsome, charming and the typical blend of educated savage that shows up in fiction so often. Kale's boyfriend is likewise the typical redneck, racist, hunter and otherwise alpha male just there for everyone to boo and hiss at.

Thankfully though Frozen Tears gets the worst of all of this out of its system quickly leaving Kale widowed with a son and ties to the Ennuit village through her son that no one is quite sure what do with. She also has a new found appreciation for the wildlife, deciding to give sanctuary to wolves who have been injured.

Even the wolf sanctuary and her roll as a single mother of a boy who is struggling to find acceptance in both communities aren't exactly the point of the story. They are all just parts of Kale's journey through life. The writing is a little rough in places and the pacing is a little off but it's still worth reading. I'd like to see a second edition with tighter editing.

I ended up seeing connections between Kale's life and a friend of mine who has had a similar journey even though the exact details of her journey are different.

I got the book for review from the author. I have since released it through BookCrossing.

Other posts and reviews:

• Bibliofreak
  
• Dan's Journal
• The Deepening World of Fiction
  
• Dragonflowers and Books
  
• Miss Remmer's Reviews
  
• Notes from Camp Swampy
• The Reading Journey
  

books | fiction | Mary Ann MacAfee | 2009

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books fiction Mary Ann MacAfee 2009 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:13:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/frozen_tears.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/frozen_tears.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/LLAiLFBr1-E/arrowsmith.html Martin Arrowsmith, the title character, is a high spirited medical student, and later doctor. He's in constant fear of selling out while the women in his life wish for him to be a rich and famous doctor. Or at least successful. It's been a decade or more since the last Sinclair Lewis book I read. I went through a spate in school reading everyone I could get my hands on. Arrowsmith wasn't one of them but my local library had a copy and feeling nostalgic for an old favorite author, I snatched it up.

Martin Arrowsmith, the title character, is a high spirited medical student, and later doctor. He's in constant fear of selling out while the women in his life wish for him to be a rich and famous doctor. Or at least successful.

The book covers his entire career from medical student, to resident, to country doctor, to researcher and his work down in Jamaica. My favorite part of the book by far was his time in college because Lewis managed to capture what college life is like in the sciences. Having been with my husband through his entire college education I saw a bunch of points of similarity between Arrowsmith's education (the lack of free time, the juggling of different papers, the research, the oddball advisors) that I was often laughing as I read through this section.

What fascinated me most though was how Arrowsmith compartmentalizes the different aspects of his life. There's Dr. Arrowsmith, world famous doctor, Sandy Arrowsmith husband, Martin the student and so forth. Throughout the book the plot pauses for Arrowsmith to have dialogues with the different aspects of his life and personality.

Like a typical Lewis novel, Arrowsmith ends without a pat resolution. Martin's life goes through good parts and bad parts as does his career and even when he finally has a huge success, becoming a household name, Martin Arrowsmith still isn't satisfied with himself or his skills. Thus the book ends with him just about to start another internal dialogue.

Other posts and reviews:

• The Book Review
• Roger Kraemer's Blog
• My Year in Litzs
• WestView
  
• Wikipedia
  

books | scifi | Sinclair Lewis | 1925

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books fiction Sinclair Lewis 1925 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:50:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/arrowsmith.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/arrowsmith.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/WzcK8fKUfV4/within_a_budding_grove_02.html Despite being completely useless everyone seemed to like the two and M. de Norpois and Marcel's father seem to also be popular for no apparent reason. Now being French gentry, I doubt they're drinking the same cheep beer as Cliff and Norm but their conversations are just as off base. Next week here in the United States it will be Thanksgiving weekend. As I will be too preoccupied with driving down to South Pasadena, eating turkey and basically enjoying spending time with my relatives, I won't be reading or posting about Proust next week.

I'm now through page 60 of the second volume of In Search of Lost Time, Within a Budding Grove (A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs) and this section has me thinking of Cheers, that old NBC sitcom that ran 11 years (1982-1993). I basically grew up watching it, being in elementary school when it started and in college when it ended.

Marcel now has gone from wanting to write but suffering from writer's block to just not wanting to write at all. So he spends his time listening to his parents shooting the breeze. Mostly he records his thoughts on the bullshitting sessions between M. de Norpois and his father. The escalating claims by M. de Norpois and the father's occasional tangential replies reminds me of Cliff and Norm who would spend nearly every episode of Cheers talking about stuff that had no practical use for whatever was going on in the bar or with the patrons or employees of the bar while drinking their beers. Despite being completely useless everyone seemed to like the two and M. de Norpois and Marcel's father seem to also be popular for no apparent reason. Now being French gentry, I doubt they're drinking the same cheep beer as Cliff and Norm but their conversations are just as off base.

Slipped into the middle of "Cliff" and "Norm's" bar talk, there are also more thoughts on the new Madame Swann. After much debate, the general consensus is that the marriage must be a joke. No one can take the Swann pairing seriously (apparently not even Odette as some gossipers speculate).

See you back in two weeks for my thoughts on pages 61-90.

Swann's Way posts:

Lisa's First Word, Baby Mine, I Sing the Body Electric, The Lady in Pink, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Caturday, Cherry Blossoms, Marge Simpson, Liana Telfer, Bender in Love, Margaret Dumont, Hyacinth Bucket, Rose, Mildred Krebs, Pepé Le Pew, Jack Harness, Cordelia Chase, Saffron.

Within a Budding Grove posts:

Nanowrimo, Cheers.

books | fiction | Marcel Proust | 1919

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> books fiction Marcel Proust 1919 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:22:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/within_a_budding_grove_02.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/within_a_budding_grove_02.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/mkwkFzy7MjI/btt_posterity.html On the popular front I'll hazard a guess that the vastly popular ones who have had success with more than one title will have at least one title still in print in a hundred years. Below are some of my guesses: Today’s question was suggested by Barbara:

Do you think any current author is of the same caliber as Dickens, Austen, the Brontës, or any of the classic authors? If so, who, and why do you think so? If not, why not? What books from this era might be read 100 years from now?

Let's take this question apart piece by piece. Are Dickens, Austen and the sisters Brontë writers of a higher caliber than other authors? What is their caliber? Dickens wrote pulp fiction that was published in serial form in magazines and pamphlets. His stories were readily accessible, full of cliff hangers and memorable but oft times outlandish characters with silly names. Jane Austen's novels were published because she had a relative in the business. Personally, her novels do nothing for me. I've tried many times (and with many different novels) and failed to enjoy them (or finish them). The Brontë sisters had their own publishing woes too and are probably more popular now than they were in their life times.

Which books stay in print depends on a number of factors. Some win awards or end up in school curricula. Some are huge successes and continue to be popular with the general public. On the awards side of things I would venture that a large portion of the Newberry, Caldecott, Pulitzer, Orange and all the other big name award winners will remain in print.

On the popular front I'll hazard a guess that the vastly popular ones who have had success with more than one title will have at least one title still in print in a hundred years. Below are some of my guesses:

• Dan Brown: probably Da Vinci Code and maybe others from that series
• Anita Shreve: Testimony for it's controversy and probably some of her more popular titles.
• Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book will probably stick around because of its awards. Sandman too on the graphic novel front.
• Tony Hillerman: His mysteries are used in some colleges.
• Lois Lowry: Her books have one awards, have been used in schools, have been banned from other schools. The Giver and Number the Stars will probably still be in print. I hope she'll have a large range of her books remain in print.
• J. K. Rowling: Although I'm not a Harry Potter fan I can't deny the huge influence the books have had on children's literature. The series probably isn't going away just like the equally wacky and uneven Wizard of Oz series hasn't.
• Stephen King: A few of his books will survive into the next century.
  

What about you? When you look onto the bookshelves of future libraries and book stores, which modern day authors do you see represented?

booking through thursday

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> booking through thursday webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:34:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/btt_posterity.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/btt_posterity.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/bdNcmwToXqg/resonance.html If your suspension of disbelief is more flexible than mine, you'll find it a fun and sometimes creepy disaster novel. Resonance by A.J. Scudiere is a disaster novel wrapped up in some speculative science fiction. As with any disaster book, the novel has an ensemble cast: Drs. Jordan Abellard and Jillian Brookwood of the CDC who are seeing people with weakened immune systems dying at unexpectedly high rates; Dr. Becky Sorenson is following strange biological phenomena like mutated frogs, confused birds and bees making hikes in unusual formations and Dr. David Carter who can see changes in the geology of the rocks he studying. All of these things end up pointing to the magnetic drift of the Earth's magnetic field.

These books typically have three acts: the portents of the disaster, the disaster itself and the aftermath. For Resonance the best part comes in the portents. When the focus is on the strange biological phenomena the book is a fascinating page turner.

Unfortunately during the disaster when the hotspots start getting big and dangerous the science behind them falls apart. Sometimes less is more. I would been willing to give the book more latitude if the focus had been on the creepy side affects and the danger getting larger instead of on the "hard" but wrong science.

If your suspension of disbelief is more flexible than mine, you'll find it a fun and sometimes creepy disaster novel.

Other books and stories you might enjoy:

• Condominium by John D. MacDonald
  
• Tsunami by Gordon Gumpertz
  
• The short story: Adaptogenia by Wayne Wightman

Other posts and reviews:

• Biblio Phoenix
  
• Blogger News Network
• Duffbert's Random Musings
• Genre Go Round Reviews
  
• A Hook, A Line and a Girl
• Jeanne's Ramblings
• Planet of Rock
• True Science Fiction
• Wikipedia
  

books | scifi | A.J. Scudiere | 2008

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books scifi A J Scudiere 2008 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:44:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/resonance.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/resonance.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/8fADMY7gDvI/nd_bungalow_mystery.html The Syndicate series included The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Edward Stratemeyer founded the Syndicate to publish mystery series aimed at children and teens. The author of each series was a made up person and the books were ghost written. The Syndicate series included The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

As my Mom grew up with The Hardy Boys and my grandmother grew up with The Bobbsey Twins, those are the series I read in elementary school. Mom had one Nancy Drew which I made a very lame attempt at reading. I don't remember which book it was. All I remember is that I didn't finish it.

As an adult I am challenging myself to read authors I missed as a kid or genres I don't normally select. I am also reading books my children recommend to likewise encourage them to read things outside their comfort zones. So when Harriet handed me a copy of The Bungalow Mystery I sucked it up and checked out the book.

Nancy and her best friend are rescued by a young woman when a wild storm blows in quickly and threatens to sink their boat. As it turns out, the girl is recently orphaned and has been sent to live with her long lost relatives. Unfortunately, they don't act thrilled to see her. Meanwhile her father is dealing with a case of his own involving forgeries and other financial crimes. As Nancy and Carson put their heads together they realize the cases might be related.

Nancy Drew has been through numerous revisions over the years. In the 1950s the series was white washed and Nancy was aged from 16 to 18. In recent years I think un-edited versions of the pre-1950s books were re-released. The 1991 reprint I read seemed to be firmly set in the 1930s: the Depression is hinted at, though not mentioned directly, there is at least one black servant. Nancy in this story is less perfect and more masculine than in the book I didn't finish. My guess is that the did not finish was one of the 1950s editions.

Over all I enjoyed the book even though I managed to figure out the basics of the plot before Nancy or her father did. It was good enough that I plan to read more of the early books in the series. I'm curious now to see Nancy evolve (devolve?) as a character as the 1950s approach.

Other posts and reviews:

• Bookshelves of Doom
• The Thrillionth Page
  

books | mystery | Carolyn Keene | 1930

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books mystery Carolyn Keene 1930 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:01:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/nd_bungalow_mystery.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/nd_bungalow_mystery.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/8UAG6BLex-s/you_suck.html You Suck captures the feel of San Francisco better than the original. Moore has since relocated to the City and it shows in how he captures the nuances of the different neighborhoods. You Suck is the sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends bringing Moore back to San Francisco. Tommy Flood has been elevated from minion to vampire by Jody. It's time to find a new minion and what better place to look than Craigslist?

You Suck captures the feel of San Francisco better than the original. Moore has since relocated to the City and it shows in how he captures the nuances of the different neighborhoods.

While most of the characters are repeats from the original, there are a few new memorable ones. My favorite two are Abby (their new Goth styled minion) and William and his huge cat, Chet.

Mostly though it's a further exploration of what it means to be a vampire: perfect skin, no more scars, and heightened senses. On the flipside: sleeping like the dead during the day, burning to ash in the sunlight and an insatiable appetite for blood.

You Suck was everything I was hoping Fool would be but wasn't.

More Christopher Moore books reviewed here:

• Coyote Blue
  
• A Dirty Job
  
• Fool
  
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
  
• The Stupidest Angel

Other posts and reviews:

• Beyond Understanding
• Byzantium's Shores
  
• Karissa Books
  
• In the Shadow of Mt. TBR
  
• Meet the Pixie

books | fantasy | Christopher Moore | 2007

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review Christopher Moore 2007 fantasy books webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:02:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/you_suck.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/you_suck.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/nm3xKjfUjrY/thats_not_my_dinosaur.html Each page features a different kind of dinosaur drawn in a cute cartoony fashion. In terms of plot, its repetitive like Have You Seen My Cat by Eric Carle. That's Not My Dinosaur is a "Touch-Feely" Usborne book. It uses different tactile pieces to teach textures as a mouse tries to find his dinosaur.

Each page features a different kind of dinosaur drawn in a cute cartoony fashion. In terms of plot, its repetitive like Have You Seen My Cat by Eric Carle.

While this is a short board book, it's one that usually ends up being read multiple times. First I will read it to Harriet and then she will "read" it to herself. Then she will "read" it to me and let me touch all the different textures.

Other posts and reviews:

• The Lansek Family Adventure
  
• Maw Books Blog
  
• Unified Review Theory

books | childrens | Fionna Watt | 2002

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review childrens Fionna Watt 2002 books webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:22:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/thats_not_my_dinosaur.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/thats_not_my_dinosaur.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/xVzP-HKOYIM/glbt_challenge_2010.html The basic idea of this challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors. The basic idea of this challenge is to read books about GLBT topics and/or by GLBT authors.

The challenge runs year-round, and there will be three levels of participation:

• Lambda Level: Read 4 books.
• Pink Triangle Level: Read 8 books.
  
• Rainbow Level: Read 12 or more books.

You don't need to choose your books right away, and they can change at any time. Overlaps with other challenges are fine.

In January, I will put up a post for you to leave links to your reviews, if you like. Those links can help serve as a reference for others. That will also be how I track participants for prize drawings.

Prizes! There will be prizes, both for this main challenge and for various mini-challenges throughout the year. Keep an eye on the blog for details.

I'm not going to post a list. Lists on challenges stress me out and I rarely end up following my original plan. I have a number of books in my to be read pile that qualify. I could easily do the Pink Triangle level but being within site of San Francisco (if I stand at the top of my street), I'm going for the Rainbow!

Below I'm including books I have already read that qualify for the challenge to give you some ideas on what you could read. Come on and join me!

books | challenge | glbt

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> books challenge lgbt webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:34:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/glbt_challenge_2010.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/glbt_challenge_2010.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/ff2bl-UneOE/the_cave.html Odysseus goes into Hades to bring back a fallen member of his crew. For young Ian in The Cave by Steve McGill, he will experience a similar journey into a cave and into the past to learn about many MIA service men from WWI. Homer described Hades as have entrances from the world of the living through special caves. Odysseus goes into Hades to bring back a fallen member of his crew. For young Ian in The Cave by Steve McGill, he will experience a similar journey into a cave and into the past to learn about many MIA service men from WWI.

Starting with the first chapter and then peppered throughout the rest of the book are chapters set during WWI from the point of view of a soldier at the point of his death. They stand in for the stories that Ian is hearing from Gramps (his great-grandfather) who had lost his father at the age of five in WWI.

If the novel is set in contemporary times, that would make Gramps around 97. Frankly though there's not much in the way of clues to set when present day is for Ian. I can't recall any specific technologies being mentioned that would say for sure when the book takes place.

Ian likes to ride his bike, write in his journal and listen to stories of WWI. Near his home, but still enough of a distance away to make for a good adventure is an old cave. Ian would love to explore it but is scared to do so. A ghostly visitor first to his home and then to an abandoned ranch near the cave will give him the courage to enter the cave.

I've read other reviews that describe the book as a horror because of the ghosts. It strikes me more as an adventure with elements of classic mythology. Yes, it's a ghost story, but it's not an especially frightening one.

The Cave is a short and easy read. I ended up reading it in about three hours' time. Although tweens and teens will probably enjoy the ghost story elements of it, I'd recommend backing up the story with a quick jaunt through Edith Hamilton's Mythology or the relevant chapter from The Odyssey by Homer.

Other posts and reviews:

• Andi's Kids Books
• Bookvisions
• Flamingnet Young Adult Book Blog
• Maymay's Memos
• Musings of a Book Addict
• My Blog 2.0
• The Neverending Shelf
• The Odyssey of Homer (trip into Hades)
• Plato's Cave
• Readaholic Review
  
• A Reader's Adventures
  

books | fiction | Steve McGill | 2009

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books fiction Steve McGill 2009 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:32:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/the_cave.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/the_cave.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/BdC-DVW-SAA/hurricane.html It has an interesting pair of lead characters with believable families and plausible back stories. Likewise Florida feels like Florida; it is both a setting and a supporting character. Hurricane: 11/15/09
Hurricane uses the end of the Mayan calendar as a backdrop for a disaster thriller. Daniel Mayhew has a theory for bringing tropical depressions under control before they become hurricanes. Meanwhile Kelly Delany has a theory that global warming will create the need for a new class of hurricane: category six. Kelly and Daniel if they work together along with the navy might be able save lives and prevent devastation. Unfortunately for them, General Lowe is standing in their way as a member of the "Lucky Thirteen."

Hurricane is an odd book. It has an interesting pair of lead characters with believable families and plausible back stories. Likewise Florida feels like Florida; it is both a setting and a supporting character.

What it lacks though is a firm footing in the disaster genre. It reads like a hybrid of a speculative fiction, a disaster story and spy novel (Cussler, Clancy, Flemming). The typical book has three parts : introduction of the characters and the possible disaster, the disaster itself and the fall out from it. Things are exacerbated by human nature: officials slow to move, so-called experts cutting corners, and so forth.

In Hurricane the human nature aspect is replaced by the "Lucky Thirteen" acting for reasons never fully established. They act like the villains who Dirk Pitt or James Bond go after novel without the heroes to come and take them down in a one on one fire fight. With the focus turned from the danger of the storm to the "Lucky Thirteen" the category six storm ends up being an empty threat.

My final reaction to Hurricane is mixed. I like the main characters and off the wall solution to the hurricane threat. I don't think "Lucky Thirteen" were fleshed out enough to be a successful foil to Daniel and Kelly. Instead they end up taking away precious plot development time from the novel. It would have been more interesting and more thrilling if Daniel and Kelly fail early on to call into doubt their solution when the huge storm is barreling down on Florida.

I received the book from the author to review. I have since released it via BookCrossing.

Other posts and reviews:

• Dan's Journal
• Sci-Fi Talk
  

books | scifi | Arnaldo Ricciulli | 2009

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books scifi Arnaldo Ricciulli 2009 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:05:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/hurricane.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/hurricane.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/aMmsZ5oP13M/if_i_ran_the_zoo.html The book is written in Seuss's typical anapestic tetrameter which makes it easy to read aloud with comedic flare. Gerald McGrew in If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss explains to the zoo keeper how he would do things differently if he were in charge. The regular "exotic" animals would be out and a host of outlandish animals would take their place.

The book is written in Seuss's typical anapestic tetrameter which makes it easy to read aloud with comedic flare.

My son who is an avid inventor of monsters loves this book for all the unusual animals. I personally thought most of Seuss's imaginary animals were a bit overwhelming as a kid but Sean loves them.

As a bit of trivia, If I Ran the Zoo is the first book to use the word 'nerd' though not in its modern connotation. The line is "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo and bring back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, a Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" (Fun Trivia)

The book was a Caldecott Honor book in 1951.

books | childrens | Dr. Seuss | 1950

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review childrens Dr. Seuss books 1950 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:55:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/if_i_ran_the_zoo.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/if_i_ran_the_zoo.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/ELDcX43SsuQ/through_the_looking_glass.html In college Lewis Carroll's Alice took on new importance for me. My boyfriend (now husband) adored the books and the poems from them. Growing up my best friend was Alice. Not the Alice created by Lewis Carroll or Alice Liddell, his inspiration, of course. But my friend Alice was a dead-ringer for Carroll's Alice and often dressed as her for Halloween. Her older sister took it as her business to make sure she and I knew who the fictional Alice was, as character beyond the Disney film version. I honestly can't remember when I first read both Alice novels: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Saw There (1871). What I do remember is that I read the books back to back in the course of an almost all-nighter.

In college Lewis Carroll's Alice took on new importance for me. My boyfriend (now husband) adored the books and the poems from them. Our first year of exchanging gifts we gave each other books. Ian gave me a leather bound omnibus of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and I tracked down two beautiful used copies of the Alice books with the John Tenniel illustrations. This was before the ease of searching online for books; it meant a day long trip to Hillcrest (the place to buy used books in San Diego). It is his copies that we kept when we married and that I'm now reviewing.

Since my husband's passion for Alice is the poetry, I tend to think now of the books in terms of their poems. The introduction to the edition we have says that everyone remembers "Jabberwocky", "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" and "The Walrus and Carpenter" is part of the "Alice book" not which one. They are all in Through the Looking Glass (and mashed into most of the film adaptations of Alice in Wonderland).

Through the Looking Glass takes the apparent chaos of Wonderland and maps it logically (more or less) against the grid of a chessboard. The moves of the game are outlined at the start of the book, right after the table of contents.

Like many a modern fantasy novel, humble Alice finds herself crowned. Now her coronation is part of chess game. I can't call Alice the first fantasy protagonist to go from nobody to nobility; let's not forget Sancho Panza who in the second book of Don Quixote ends up the lord of an island.

If you plan on reading Lewis Carroll's Alice, please get both books. Get them with the John Tenniel illustrations. Read them together. Read the poems out loud. Memorize them! They are quoted and paraphrased almost as often as much as Shakespeare's sonnets and plays are.

Other posts and reviews:

• I Read
• My Fluttering Heart
• The Neverending Shelf
  

books | fantasy | Lewis Carroll | 1871

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review Lewis Carroll fantasy 1871 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:11:11 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/through_the_looking_glass.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/through_the_looking_glass.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/kt-iZMfYEk8/within_a_budding_grove_01.html Here I am nearly halfway through this year's Nanowrimo and I've cracked open the second volume of In Search of Lost Time, Within a Budding Grove (A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs) and I am laughing at the way the two big projects in my life come together. Here I am nearly halfway through this year's Nanowrimo and I've cracked open the second volume of In Search of Lost Time, Within a Budding Grove (A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs) and I am laughing at the way the two big projects in my life come together.

Marcel (the protagonist) is back to narrate the first section of Within a Budding Grove and he is focusing on his own life. The Swanns may have returned to Combray but he is most concerned with his romance with Gilberte, his love of the theater and his desire to write a great novel. He, though, is failing miserably at writing his novel. He finds any number of things to do other than write. Mostly he woos Gilberte and he goes to the theater. His theater love ends up becoming an obsession and his parents begin to worry about his health. They are told to keep him from going. I doubt, though, that will work.

As with Swann's Way, I plan on taking the book thirty pages a week. I'll post my thoughts on the book weekly and see where the book takes me. At that rate it will take me well into 2010. I will probably finish this volume around the start of spring.

Swann's Way posts:

Lisa's First Word, Baby Mine, I Sing the Body Electric, The Lady in Pink, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Caturday, Cherry Blossoms, Marge Simpson, Liana Telfer, Bender in Love, Margaret Dumont, Hyacinth Bucket, Rose, Mildred Krebs, Pepé Le Pew, Jack Harness, Cordelia Chase, Saffron.

Within a Budding Grove posts:

Nanowrimo.

books | fiction | Marcel Proust | 1919

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> books fiction 1919 Marcel Proust webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:45:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/within_a_budding_grove_01.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/within_a_budding_grove_01.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/dg1JPhB_0Uo/dewey_small_town_cat.html Along with Dewey's biography, Vicki Myron includes a history of Spencer as it suffered through the collapse of the American family run farm in the mid 1980s. As families were losing their farms and homes and businesses were closing the residents of Spencer needed a morale boost. Dewey Readmore Books as he was dubbed by the town was just the pick up they needed. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is a biography of a well-lived library cat and a memoir of the librarian who cared for him. Even if you haven't read the book you're probably aware of the start of Dewey's career; he was dumped down the book return slot in the middle of winter as an eight week old kitten. Except for a brief time when he explored the outside of the library and got lost, Dewey spent the bulk of his almost twenty year life living in the Spencer Public Library.

Along with Dewey's biography, Vicki Myron includes a history of Spencer as it suffered through the collapse of the American family run farm in the mid 1980s. As families were losing their farms and homes and businesses were closing the residents of Spencer needed a morale boost. Dewey Readmore Books as he was dubbed by the town was just the pick up they needed.

There is a lot of padding in the book in the form of Myron's own memoir of her failed marriage, raising her child and other dramatic points in her life. These moments should be the glue that holds the events in Spencer to the events in Dewey's life, they didn't work for me. They disrupted the flow of the biography and I ended up skimming or skipping through them.

Most of my local BookCrossing friends had already read Dewey but the time my mother gave me a copy. The one comment I had heard from all of them was: "the ending is so sad!" The book covers Dewey's entire life from the moment he first arrives at the library until the very end of his life. A two decade life, though, for a cat is a remarkable one. The ending isn't what I would call sad; it's truthful.

In case you're wondering, that's really Dewey on the cover. He looks very different in the black and white snapshots peppered throughout the book. The cover was done by a professional and Dewey was a bit of a ham for the camera.

Other posts and reviews:

• Book Review Blog
• Library Nook
• Lindy's Book Blog
• Lou Reads
• Max the Quilt Cat
• Just Books
• Where I Read Books
  

books | nonfiction | Vicki Myron | 2008

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> review books nonfiction Vicki Myron 2008 webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:34:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/dewey_small_town_cat.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/dewey_small_town_cat.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pussreboots/~3/t1_s8L_-Wu8/btt_too_short.html Unless I'm reading the book for school (which hasn't been for a long time!) or some other important reason, I always give myself the option to stop. : 11/12/09

"Life is too short to read bad books." I'd always heard that, but I still read books through until the end no matter how bad they were because I had this sense of obligation. That is, until this week when I tried (really tried) to read a book that is utterly boring and unrealistic. I had to stop reading. Do you read everything all the way through or do you feel life really is too short to read bad books?

Unless I'm reading the book for school (which hasn't been for a long time!) or some other important reason, I always give myself the option to stop.

The recent "guidelines" from the FTC has made me rethink how I read books sent for review. Even though they've back tracked on saying they're going after "personal blogs" such as this one I have become more critical of the books I'm reviewing. Since many of the of the books I review are self published or published by small independent publishers and aren't big name authors or publishing houses, I used to give these review copies until the last page before I made up my mind. Now, though, I have given up on being so generous and if I'm not clicking with the book, I will stop and note that in my review.

For books I read for fun I can stop anywhere from the first chapter, to the more typical "fifty page rule" to even as late as a few chapters from the end. My reasons for stopping aren't always because the book is "bad." It could be that they are too long (I'm not much of a chunkster reader), or I can predict the ending and don't feel the need to actually read it, or the plot doesn't seem plausible.

booking through thursday

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© 2009 Sarah Sammis. This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. ]]> booking through thursday webmaster@pussreboots.pair.com (Sarah Sammis) Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:04:00 PST http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/btt_too_short.html http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2009/comments_11/btt_too_short.html