Posted in Adventure, Bluesocks' Picks, Books, Characters, Coming of Age, Literary fiction, Neil's Picks, Quick read, Sense of place, Sports, Subculture on June 16, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s a sign of a good book when an author can take subject matter that is completely alien and render it in a way that immerses you, fascinates you, moves you. The Australian Tim Winton did that for me with Breath, a coming-of-age tale about surfing and other extreme adventures.
In Breath, two boys in their early teens [...]
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There’s probably a reason why screwball comedy has more history as a film genre than it does as a subset of fiction. All that witty repartee is more fun to hear than it is to read, and the behavioral hijinks that work on the screen can come off as just a little too precious on [...]
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I’ve been gulping down The Complete Peanuts reprints as they’ve been released for the last few years. Like most of those in my generation, I grew up in a world where Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, and company were everpresent. I’ve always related to Charles Schulz’s depressed, anxious, yet whimsical children and their attempts to [...]
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I have seen the near future, and it isn’t pretty. It is, however, a lot of fun.
Set in 2018, in a Scotland that has recently joined the EU, Charles Stross’s Halting State is the story of a police woman, an auditor, and a gaming expert who are brought on the case when a bank is [...]
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According to Pete Hautman’s young adult novel Rash life in the future will be much more safe, and that, in turn, could be very dangerous. In the late 21st century Safer States of America, alcohol, littering, being overweight, even saying something mildly rude is illegal. Minor offenses result in sentencing to work for the country’s [...]
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What goes together better than reading and chess? Actually, this unlikely combination has led to several interesting nonfiction books such as Searching for Bobby Fischer or The King’s Gambit that are accessible and interesting to all readers, whether or not they appreciate the game. Subtitled A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make [...]
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Remember when science fiction used to be fun?
I’m starting to sound like my golden age fan friends. In all honesty, science fiction only recently made it into my reading priorities. But since I’ve passed from the occasional “sci-fi” dabbler into a full-blown SF reader, I can’t help but notice that the adventure, optimism, and fun [...]
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Posted in Neil's Picks on April 4, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Look, reader, look.
With Hemingway-esque prose this classic captivated me from page one in its genre-blending spell. Mixing elements of literary fiction, action/adventure, humor, suspense fiction, historical fiction, chick lit and the graphic novel, the exploits of the title characters provide compelling reading for literary thrill seekers everywhere.
Literary readers will be entranced, as the novel opens with its famous Godot pre-figuring segment “Look [...]
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I’m probably not ever going to make it to Thailand. The majority of you who read this will never get there either. That’s what makes a book like Bangkok 8 so exciting to find.
Yes, it’s an exciting mystery with a good puzzle: Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep must solve the murder of an American marine by drug-crazed [...]
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Kathleen Ann Goonan is a science fiction writer who has taken herself to a new level by tapping into her own family history.
In War Times is the story of Sam Dance, a young American soldier who at the start of WWII is training to work on scientific projects. His physics instructor, the mysterious Eliani Hadntz, [...]
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