22. Barrel Fever, by David Sedaris.

Short Story/Essay Collection.

The stories in Barrel Fever range from everyday people to celebrities, caught up in situations beyond their control, or in the essays, recounting times from his own life.

I have to admit something here. Having already read Santaland Diaries, one of the essays, I found the remainder of the book sadly lacking in actual comedic value, which is kind of what I was reading the book for. The stories aren't really funny, more tragic and depressing, and the story or two that I DID enjoy (even if they weren't funny) were written in a horrible style to imitate someone else's letter-writing, with hundreds of exclamation marks!!!! That gets old real fast. With the exception of Santaland Diaries (which is funny for any retail slave), the rest of the book was average and not at all what I was hoping for.

21. Pandemonium, by Daryl Gregory

Pandemonium is set in a world where demonic possessions are commonplace, but no one knows how to prevent them. Demons personifying archetypes of history, like Smokestack Johnny (the railroad pioneer), the Little Angel (only possesses young girls, sends them into hospitals, and kills dying folk with a touch or kiss), and the Hellion (possesses young boys, causing them to run amok in a disastrously mischevious way) possess whoever they want, whenever they want. Del was possessed as a child, and has had recurring trouble since, which is escalating into serious problems on a nightly basis.

I'm a big fan of this book. It's an awesome concept, and the possessions (in the book) are dealt with in a realistic way - people fear them, but others want to be possessed for assorted reasons, and yet others pretend to be possessed in order to commit crimes, cause mayhem, and get away scot-free. Del is a likable character, and it's easy to sympathise with the issues he faces as he tries to rid himself of the lingering traces of something that won't get out of his mind. Definitely a book I'd recommend, and I'll be on the lookout by more books by Daryl Gregory, too.

20. Notes From The Midnight Driver, by Jordan Sonnenblick

 Notes from the Midnight Driver is about a young boy that gets drunk, crashes his mother's car into a gnome, and ends up sentenced to 100 hours of community service at a rest home to avoid more serious legal consequences. The usual life lesson is learned in a humorous way.

This book was a good read - funny a lot of the time, but sad at appropriate moments. The language used really portrays the emotions of the characters, even if the moral of the story comes through a bit strong at times (you have more in common with other people than you think, and don't judge em before you know em). It's definitely easy to relate to as well, so a good read for young teenagers.

19. The Dragon Done It - edited by Eric Flint and Mike Resnick.

Collection of short stories. These stories are very noir crime/mystery stories...set in fantasy land. Ranging from a man that folds himself into his filing cabinet to reach the Search Engine, to several Sherlock Holmes stories, to Hansel and Gretel trying to one-up the witch again. These were a very good read. Filled with classy dames and down-and-out PI's, there was a good blend of fantasy worlds and well-known characters in with the mystery, and it's always fun trying to guess whodunnit. Only disappointment was there weren't enough dragons, but there rarely are, so I won't hold it against the book. 

18. Blaze, by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman).

Blaze involves Clayton Blaisdell, a powerfully built but mentally damaged (due to traumatic head injuries as a child) man, carrying out the one big crime to stay out of prison that his partner in crime, George, was planning. After George dies, Blaze does what he can to continue the plot, while also reliving key events in his past as he moves around the location that he grew up.

Blaze is one of the few Stephen King books I hadn't read yet (I'm a big fan), and this one was very much in character of his writing, Richard Bachman or no Richard Bachman. Blaze is an interesting character with a good deal of depth, and the slowness that his injury causes is explored as a story event as well as a characteristic.

17. Ape and Essence, by Aldous Huxley

Ape and Essence is a script picked up off the roadside and saved by a screenwriter, who tries and fails to meet its recently deceased author before publishing the script as the remainder of the book. A small force of explorers travels from New Zealand to the rest of the world post-nuclear war, where they come upon groups of apes living out parodies of human life.

This book is rather bizarre and surreal, but there are elements of believability throughout - robbing graves for supplies, and poor crop yields, as well as the new religion that springs up when things continue to deteriorate. I found it intruiging, but not amazing.

16. Geektastic, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci.

Short Story Collection.

Geektastic has stories based on nerds and/or geeks fitting in (or not), in and out of our world, in various levels and types of geekiness, and in positive and negative lights. It's an interesting look into geekdom, and is a good mix of stories and light-hearted comics between each one.

I kind of wish I'd come across this book about eight years ago, but it did bring up a lot of fond memories. Anyone with a little bit of geek in their nature will relate to at least one of the stories in here, and it's worth a read anyway, just for the amusement factor.

15. Billy Thunder and the Night Gate, by Isobelle Carmody.

Book 1 of the Gateway Trilogy.

Rage is on her way to visit her mother in hospital, accompanied by her four dogs and a goat, when they are tricked through a bramble gate into Valley, a world that is frozen out of time. But magic in Valley is dying, and Rage's quest to find the wizard in order to help her mother coincides with Valley's quest to find the wizard to save their land.

This book was good, with a mixture of childish and adult themes throughout. While the idea of a magical gate and the transformation of her friends is younger, the theme that sometimes you have to cause harm to do good was set out clearly in the book, leading to some interesting story developments.

14. Brian's Hunt, by Gary Paulsen.

Book 5 of the Brian Robeson Series.

This is the last Brian book, and involves Brian discovering a hurt malamute on the shores of a lake while he's canoeing around adventuring before planning on visiting the Smallhorns later in the summer. When he discovers the dog has travelled south to find him, he becomes uneasy and worried about his friends (who are north), and makes his way to their summer camp to assuage his fears.

I liked this book the most of all the books in this series. It combines the tension of Hatchet and The River with the knowledge he gains in Brian's Return and Brian's Winter, in order to tell an involving story. Gary Paulsen's understanding of animal and human nature is superb, and it really shows in his writing.

13. Brian's Return, by Gary Paulsen.

Book 4 of the Brian Robeson Series.

In Brian's Return, Brian gets into a fight and ends up being sent to a counsellor, who understands that Brian's fine - he just doesn't fit in well with people. Brian comes to understand, as he talks to his new friend, that he just wants to go back to the woods and live like he's now used to, and starts planning a new journey to visit the family he met in Brian's Winter.

Something like what Brian's Return is described as sounds like my cup of tea. Paddling a canoe along rivers and lakes, fishing for dinner, camping at night. It's an attractive proposition...preferably sans the bear attacks, but you get the good with the bad.

12. Brian's Winter, by Gary Paulsen

Book 3 of the Brian Robeson series.

Brian's Winter is an alternate ending for Hatchet, where he doesn't get rescued in summer and ends up spending a winter in the wilderness, surviving bear attacks, and hunting large animals to stay alive and survive the cold.

Brian's Winter was a more satisfying ending to Hatchet in my mind, although I'm not sure if that's just because I prefer reading longer books and the most annoying thing about the Hatchet series is that they're too short. It shows more depth of character, and can probably be read before The River, while not breaking too much in the way of continuity.

11. The River, by Gary Paulsen

Book 2 of the Brian Robeson Series.
In this book, Brian takes a psychologist into the wilderness to show him how he survived, in order to benefit survival programs. After abandoning most of their gear, things get tough after a brutal storm shorts their radio.

This one was in a very similar vein to the first book, and made me feel very similar things. Brian's character develops more, and you can see him further adjusting to life as a creature of the forest and less as a creature of humanity. I'm not sure whether you can say either one is a 'better' way to live.

10. Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen

Book 1 of the Brian Robeson Series.
Hatchet (which a lot of people get set for English class) is about a boy who gets stranded in the Canadian wilderness when the pilot flying his plane dies suddenly in the air, and his battle to survive.

This book was enjoyable for its nostalgia value, as well as for the imagery and descriptive style of writing. It made me think about life as we live it, surrounded by gadgets and guns and meat packaged at the supermarket ready to pick up and eat, and how much more in tune with nature Brian's life in the wilderness is. I'd like to live like he has, for a while at least.

9. Forever Free, by Joe W. Haldeman.

Book 2 of the Forever War Series.
This book follows William and his partner Marygay- a fellow soldier who survived the war with him - as they adjust to post-war life on the Middle Finger, a planet set aside for humans that are not Man (genetic group-mind clones) as a reservoir of DNA in case of problems. Sick of being treated as dysfunctional curios, William and Marygay decide to use the time-dilating effects of space travel to take a ten-year journey that will return them 40,000 years in the future.

This one was not quite as good as the first Forever War book, but it does show more human development. The end seemed a little bit...contrived...to me, because it fits awfully neatly without actually explaining much, but it was still well worth the read.

8. The Forever War, by Joe W. Haldeman.

Book 1 of the Forever War Series.
William is one of one hundred intelligent, physically capable, elite soldiers drafted from high ranking universities and institutes to fight the Taurans, who appear to be blowing up interstellar colony ships and exploration vessels travelling through collapsar gates (wormholes) to new planets. They are the first team to be trained and sent to guard a  base on a planet of not much significance. Due to relativity of space travel, their tour is two years perceived time, but centuries of elapsed time on Earth, and they return at the end of their mission to find their planet radically different to what they were expecting.

I really liked this book. It starts off with a bang, as William and his group are sent to train and learn how to use their suits in a world that is only very slightly above absolute zero. The mechanics of their suits are thought out well (even the uncomfortable question of plumbing is discussed with clinical efficiency) and real dangers like heating fins contacting frozen gas make even their training grounds exciting. The book balances engineering with sociology well, and presents a good mix of mechanics with humanity. This shows up particularly well when they return to Earth through the years, as overpopulation becomes an increasing concern, and the soldiers find themselves more and more behind the times.

7. Tails of Wonder and Imagination, edited by Ellen Datlow.

Short Story Collection.
This book is filled with short stories about cats. Good cats, mostly, and happy cats, mostly, but a few wild cats and a few less nice cats thrown in for good measure.

My favourite stories from this book were two: One by Neil Gaiman, where a stray cat defends a cat-friendly family against the Devil. This one made me sad, because the cat gets rather badly hurt in these fights, but if he doesn't fight, then the house is troubled by all sorts of mischief. I wish that cat good luck and swift healing, wherever it may be. The other is A. R. Morlan's story, which talks about an elderly gentleman who spent his life painting tobacco ads on barns, personalising each with cats. A photographer who records these signs (despite their poor condition, being painted on barns and all, they're considered Art) runs into the painter, and learns that the cats aren't just any old cats, each is an individual that the painter met and loved, at some stage in his life. It's a bit heartwrenching to read about how this man has had the thing that caused him the most joy and happiness in his life put out of reach by old age and bodily frailty.

6. Bloody Bones, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Book 5 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series.
Anita is offered a zombie job raising some old zombies in order to settle a disputed land claim, but ends up embroiled in a suspected vampire killing, dealing with cops that resent her intrusion and don't give her necessary information. As a result, Anita ends up having to call in Jean-Claude to cut to the heart of the matter, while simultaneously dealing with fairy people that are determined not to let her raise the zombies her client demands.

While the last book focused on Richard more than Jean-Claude, this one has a lot of character development between Anita and Jean-Claude, after she realized in the last book that Richard really isn't much more human than Jean-Claude is. Developments in this book show her getting to know more about Jean-Claude on a personal level, as opposed to seeing him simply as someone to avoid wherever possible. The storyline is a little confusing, but all the characters are fluid and relatively believable, although there seems to be a bit of a trend forming with the mindsets that the enemies display, vis-a-vis arrogance, pettiness, and a fondness for causing pain and mental distress.

5. The Lunatic Cafe, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Book 4 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series. Anita gets tangled up with the local were-animal packs, as shapeshifters are going missing. She tries to help figure out the culprit, but is hampered by the werewolves viewing her as an ordinary citizen - aka easy to threaten - and ends up making things rather tense in the effort to prove that she won't back down.                      This one's pretty focused on the werewolves, and it gives us a good view into their pack dynamics, and hierarchy. Anita shows off her no-bullshit side, but the romance rears its head again, embroiling her into a bit of a controversy, as Jean-Claude seems determined to woo her, but Richard offers her security, and seems more human than the vampire. After choosing Richard, she's forced to reveal this to Jean-Claude, who is furious (after all, the only reason she won't date him is that he isn't human) and extracts a promise that she'll give him a fair opportunity to prove himself.

4. Circus of the Damned, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Book 3 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series.
Anita is torn between fighting the pull of the Master of the City (Determined to convince her that she must be his human servant) and battling newcomers to the scene, who intend to undermine Jean-Claude's power and take over the city. Their political views are radically different, and in Anita's desire to escape Jean-Claude's power, she makes a few big mistakes.

This one further fleshes out Anita's and Jean-Claude's characters, but also introduces a few other long-term characters into the equation. There ends up being a large battle in front of a lot of ordinary citizens, but it's cleverly disguised, and Jean-Claude's business decisions start making a lot of sense - his businesses cater to the strengths of his vampires without being illegal. It's a nice glimpse into his side of the story, but still with a strong focus on Anita.

3. The Laughing Corpse, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Book 2 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series.
Anita - who also works as an animator, raising zombies to clarify points in their wills, or to farewell loved ones, is asked to raise a zombie nearly three hundred years old, which would require a human death to do so. She refuses, and ends up running around the city trying to find a monster that pulverises families and leaves mincemeat instead of bodies, whilst avoiding the personal dislike of a powerful voodoo witch.

This one was also a good read - the major characters in the series are fleshed out, and the suspense of the crime aspect of the novel is kept at a fast clip throughout. The romantic aspect is still very low-key, but there are developments in a well-paced long term plotline that start showing up, and continue through the next few books that I've read so far, as well. Interactions between Anita and Jean-Claude (the new Master of the City) develop, and I found it interesting to see both characters develop in relation to each other.

2. Guilty Pleasures, by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Book 2 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series.
Anita hunts vampires and raises zombies for a living in a city where vampires are legally 'alive' and can only be killed with a warrant. She's the resident police expert on the supernatural, but it all starts going south when vampires are being murdered, and she gets threatened into helping discover the killer by the city's Master vampire, Nikolaos.

I've read one of the later books in this series, and this was a pleasant surprise - better written and with much less emphasis on sex than the one I stumbled on (these are probably not a good series to start if you mind graphic descriptions). I got a good impression of the main characters, and the romantic content is limited to veiled hints. The storyline flowed well, and the vampires were 'proper' vampires, in the sense that they burn in sunlight, sleep in coffins, have moderate powers of mind control, and look dead unless they're powerful enough to hide it. Since this is the depiction of vampires I favour, I enjoyed reading this book.

1. Airframe, by Michael Crichton.

A plane experiences severe turbulence due to an unknown fault, and the company that designed it must prove that their airframe is safe and efficient to close a deal with China that will prevent their company from going bankrupt.

I enjoyed this book, but it ramps up reasonably slowly, and has a few rather contrived scenes, where people seem to act a certain way because it adds suspense, not because it's vital to the story. The dramatic finale seems a bit too scripted, and the main character is pretty flat, but nevertheless, it was a decent enough read.

Books are the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Books have been my best friends for as long as I can remember, which is ever since I've been able to read. I craved books as a child, and fitted in reading time around other activities - an early arrival to school meant fifteen more pages of the latest book could be enjoyed, brief snatches of different worlds and different circumstances filling my days and brightening my nights with a little extra light. 


In between the pages, there's always a new world to discover. I've come to realize, as I grow up, that I can't read ALL the books - there simply isn't enough time to read all the best stories, let alone the middling books and the low-grade trash. Who really needs to learn the seven habits of highly effective people, or how to lose that last five pounds with three easy workouts of fifteen minutes or less? I'll take my sci-fi straight, thanks, and serve it up with a buffet of fantasy, mystery, comedy, and adventure (to name a few). 


I've recently acquired an ereader, a gift from my lovely but rather un-literary boyfriend. This has made reading on the go even easier for me, since it's compact, has a battery life comfortably measured in weeks, and best of all, I can carry round just over a thousand books with room left over in a small bag. It's especially good for those pesky kid's series, where each novel is a hundred pages of large print, which can be inhaled in a few hours. All the same, I miss print books just as much as I expected I was going to, and given the choice, I'd opt to have paper versions of all my books, practicality be damned. 


The general point of this blog is to have a place to put my literary rambles. I've been recording books I've finished in 2012 in a notebook, and they will be transferred onto this blog in the coming weeks, with brief notes about the ones I found memorable. I also have a notebook listing the best reads I've had in the last year or two, and I may transpose those here also - both to keep them safe, and to share them with anyone who ends up reading this.