Perdido Street Station

11. Perdido Street Station (623 pp.) by China Miéville. (Feb. 16). This is an intense book set in a dark, squalid world with corrupt government officials, sketchy scientists, criminals ranging from the petty to the druglord type and strange creatures. A creature who has had his ability to fly taken from him approaches a scientist for help. This sets off a series of horrific events and bizarre revelations. I liked it a lot but wanted to love it. There were parts where I sat on the bus reading with my mouth open, but other parts felt like a slog. Definitely recommended for those who like dark inventive fiction.

but enough about me

10. but enough about me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet (279 p) (aside: apparently there's more than one subtitle) by Jancee Dunn. (Feb. 13). I can't remember where I first heard about this book but I sent the info to Hannah because she's a rock-n-roll girl. She gave me the book for my birthday probably because she knew I'd say, "Oh, it's on my list," for the next 10 years if someone didn't put it into my hands. There are worse crimes than not getting around to reading everything you intend to read.

This is a wonderful book purely on the charms of its writer/heroine. It's sort of like an episode of Behind the Music only in this case hitting rock bottom is barely skimming her butt on the floor. Small town girl has big dreams, gets unbelievable break and starts working for Rolling Stone magazine. Success follows success. She begins VJ-ing for MTV2 and profiling huge celebrities. After awhile friends settle down and she realizes her age. Unwisely picks up with crummy boyfriend and spends too much time drinking and carrying on and not enough time sleeping or hanging out with loved ones leading to hurt feelings and sort-of alienation. Bad drug experience leads to getting her act together. Friend introduces her to shy nerd who is not an artist or musician. Love. The End.

Fun book. Recommended.

Jumper

9. Jumper (344 pp.) by Steven Gould. (Feb. 10). This is the original Jumper book from 1992 and it was just re-released last week in a new mass market paperback with the movie on the cover. Normally I will go out of my way not to buy a movie cover but didn't have the same feeling about this one. I powered through it this weekend so I could read it before the movie. It's very good, but I think Griffin's Story is better. This one felt a tad long and I thought the protagonist was slightly less lovable. Also, if you did an exercise where you outlined some of the key moments in the book and did the same thing with Griffin's story, you'd find they were mighty similar.

It's about a kid, Davy, who can teleport and bad things happen to him and his family unrelated to this power but he uses the power for revenge and in the process government officials want to find him. Recommended.

Jumper: Griffin's Story

8. Jumper: Griffin's Story (286 pp.) by Steven Gould. (Jan?) There's a movie coming out called Jumper and the book has been on my list for awhile so I asked for it for Xmas. This is the book I got and I inhaled it — it's really good and if you had a 15 year old boy who you wanted to find a book for, I'd recommend this. However, this isn't the original Jumper that's the movie. This is a companion book published in 07. I never found a straight explanation but the original book was written in 1992 and when they adapted it into a movie (3 screenwriting credits, gulp) I guess they changed some stuff and this book would fill in some of the gaps and also be fresh material for readers. For some reason I forgot to add it to my finished list so I'm not sure when I read it. In fact, I've spent an unreasonable amount of time here trying to figure it out, as if the book reading officials are watching.

It's about a kid, Griffin, who can teleport and very bad people are trying to find him. He has to figure out all sorts of clever things to evade them. Highly recommended.

Slam

7. Slam (309 pp.) by Nick Hornby. You have no idea how much it pains me to pan a Nick Hornby book. I've been a fan since High Fidelity. I even read Fever Pitch all the way to the end and that's a lot of soccer even for me.

The book is about a teen pregnancy from the boy's point of view. It suffers a bit because I saw Juno less than a month ago and filled my quota of teen pregnancy stories for the time being.

But beyond that, I don't think it's a very good book. Sure, the dialogue and characterization are wonderful classic Hornby, but it felt like a book written on a deadline. He uses a couple of gimmicks that grew tiresome and I don't think the story holds together and by the end it felt long. Sorry, can't recommend.

Did you know the Atlantic Monthly is no longer behind a pay wall? You can read an interview with Hornby on this book here.

Sign of the Unicorn

6. Sign of the Unicorn (192 pp.) by Roger Zelazny (Jan. 25). Check it out, already 6 books this year. At this rate I could challenge my record of 82 books in one year. Note: I did not have TV that year. The books I've read so far haven't been long and they've all been good. I've got a bunch of fatties on the shelf so my completion rate will probably slow down and also, it's not a contest.

This is the third book in the Amber series. They were written in the 70's and super easy to find used so I need to track down the rest. It's about this huge family who rule Amber and everybody is up to something and nobody can trust anybody. Really uncomfortable Christmas dinners in this household, if they celebrated Christmas in Amber. Somebody got killed, two people got stabbed, a unicorn appeared, then everyone started pointing fingers and guilty people ran off to rebuild their forces. Excellent.

The Memory of Running

5. The Memory of Running (358 pp.) by Ron McLarty (Jan. 24). Several years ago I subscribed to Entertainment Weekly. I was never so happy to see a subscription lapse. I could write three screens on this but let's just boil it down to: it took way too much time. However, I remember the Stephen King column that talked about this book and I put it on my list. I read it now because someone at my office told me it was good and brought me his copy. It is a wonderful book but also sad. It's about a guy hitting 43 and stumbling through a series of family tragedies which launch him on this journey where he meets a lot of people who also have sad stories. But everyone is plodding along through life with a great deal of dignity. Recommend.

The Guns of Avalon

4. The Guns of Avalon (223 pp.) by Roger Zelazny. Book 2 of the Amber Chronicles. Fabulous. Loved it. Corwin keeps fixing one problem and causing another one 10 times worse. Book 3 is ready for the bus trip on Monday.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (230 pp.) by Sherman Alexie (Jan 13). I've had a hard time figuring out what to say about this book. Definitely highly recommended. I really liked it but I had some problems with it that are difficult to articulate. I'm very cautious, some might say cowardly, about the controversial so I will decline to discuss further here.

Postcards

2. Postcards (309 pp.) by Annie Proulx (Jan 10). As always, fabulous writing, grim story. Its about the decline of a farm family. If you like Proulx, highly recommended.

His Majesty's Dragon

1. His Majesty's Dragon Temeraire: Book 1 (356 pp.) by Naomi Novik (Jan 6). This is dragon nerd porn. I LOVED this book. But as I thought about it, it *is* kinda silly. It's the Napoleonic Wars with dragons. And turns out dragons are like big dogs that need a lot of attention and love, AND are warlike killing machines. I know. And there are at least three more written.