Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur, November 2016
Attention conservation notice: I have no taste.
- Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914--1949
- An absorbing history, emphasizing politics and social change. (Overlap
with
Kershaw's two-volume
biography of Hitler is appropriate, but surprisingly limited.) Beginning it
the day before the election was... not conducive to optimism.
- ObLinkage: Interview with Kershaw about his career as a historian.
- Miyuki Miyabe, Crossfire
- Mind candy, at the police procedural / psychic vigilante / shadowy
nefarious conspiracy triple point.
- Bruce Sterling, Pirate Utopia
- In which Chairman Bruce takes one of the weirdly consequential episodes of
the 20th century, the occupation of Fiume by Italian paramilitaries under the
leadership of a decadent poet, and spins off an entertaining little alternative
history. You have to step back a bit from immediate engagement with the
characters and the story to appreciate just how sinister his scenario is, which
I'm sure is deliberate. §
- Laura Lippman, Baltimore Blues, Charm City and Butchers Hill
- Mind candy mysteries. I read these back in 2001, and was prompted to
revisit them by Lippman's
excellent Wilde Lake.
They're still fun, but she's gotten better.
- Walter Jon Williams, Investments and Impersonations
- Mind candy science fiction: two short novels, following characters from
Williams's excellent Praxis series. These can probably
be read separately, especially Impersonations, which is billed as
the first of three. They are not quite as good as the old trilogy, but since
those are some of Williams's best books, that would be a very high bar.
- Peter Straub, Magic Terror: 7 Tales
- Mostly horror, though some of them (e.g., "Isn't It Romantic?") have no
supernatural elements at all. They're very good.
- David Wong, John Dies at the End
- Mind candy comic horror. Wong writes
for Cracked, and if that sort of humor appeals
to you, you will probably enjoy this. (I confess it's a guilty pleasure.)
Books to Read While the Algae Grow in Your Fur;
Scientifiction and Fantastica;
Pleasures of Detection, Portraits of Crime;
Writing for Antiquity
Posted at November 30, 2016 23:59 | permanent link