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What I'm reading now:
Bloodchildren This is my kindle book, an anthology of stories by the writers of color who received Octavia Butler scholarships to Clarion, plus one story by Butler and a couple of reminiscences about her. It's one story per writer, so a very mixed bag of style and theme, and some of them worked better (for me) than others. (It goes slowly now that I'm back in Seattle, because I'm not comfortable reading on buses.)
What I've read recently:
Robert B. Parker's Lullaby: A Spenser novel, by Ace Atkins. Someone recommended this as a plausible continuation of Parker's Spenser books in terms of tone, etc. It is. But I'm reminded of one of the reasons I stopped reading these: the implied ethical special pleading gets to be a bit much. Sure, Spenser can probably justify every time he has killed someone (as self-defense or legitimate defense of someone else), but Hawk? And Susan manages to settle for worrying about their safety. Yes, people really are like that--he may be a hitman, but he's my friend, so he can't be a bad person--but I'm tired of hearing that in first person, since these are all from Spenser's viewpoint, not third person narrator. (There are other repetitive aspects, but that can be a feature as well as a bug.) If you liked all of Parker's Spenser books, you might well like this one.
[I got about halfway through A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski, before I had to give it back to the library. I will probably request it again in a while, and see about finishing it. I don't normally list books I haven't finished here, but this feels like a special case.]
What I'm likely to read next:
The Cambrian Explosion, by Douglas H. Erwin and James W. Valentine
Bloodchildren This is my kindle book, an anthology of stories by the writers of color who received Octavia Butler scholarships to Clarion, plus one story by Butler and a couple of reminiscences about her. It's one story per writer, so a very mixed bag of style and theme, and some of them worked better (for me) than others. (It goes slowly now that I'm back in Seattle, because I'm not comfortable reading on buses.)
What I've read recently:
Robert B. Parker's Lullaby: A Spenser novel, by Ace Atkins. Someone recommended this as a plausible continuation of Parker's Spenser books in terms of tone, etc. It is. But I'm reminded of one of the reasons I stopped reading these: the implied ethical special pleading gets to be a bit much. Sure, Spenser can probably justify every time he has killed someone (as self-defense or legitimate defense of someone else), but Hawk? And Susan manages to settle for worrying about their safety. Yes, people really are like that--he may be a hitman, but he's my friend, so he can't be a bad person--but I'm tired of hearing that in first person, since these are all from Spenser's viewpoint, not third person narrator. (There are other repetitive aspects, but that can be a feature as well as a bug.) If you liked all of Parker's Spenser books, you might well like this one.
[I got about halfway through A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski, before I had to give it back to the library. I will probably request it again in a while, and see about finishing it. I don't normally list books I haven't finished here, but this feels like a special case.]
What I'm likely to read next:
The Cambrian Explosion, by Douglas H. Erwin and James W. Valentine
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