I know it's like all Gibson all the time around here lately.  But hey, makes me happy so I'm good with it.  I had to re-read this after reading Spook Country, as it's in the same universe. Timmy Mac says PR is better than SC. I'[m not sure I agree.  I maybe love Cayce Pollard, the lead in PR more.  I recall not being completely satisfied with the ending of PR the first time I read it.  I didn't feel that way on this go round.  And yes this book was wildly enjoyable on the second read, but I really loved SC.  Jet lag is a continuous theme through this book and read it while traveling, in airports, on planes and stranded in Detroit.  I found myself dreaming myself into the story, way over identifying with Cayce's jet lag. Desert island and only one author, fuck yes it would be Gibson.

And man, 9 books in 34 days?  I need to go shopping for some seriously short fiction.

Nice bit of SF.  Future world in which corporations have become nearly nations.  Ostracized from her corporation a girl must rebuild her own life after spending years inside solitary confinement. Not spectacular, but Eskridge builds worlds well and the book is very engrossing.  Definitely enjoyable for an afternoon's read.

Based on the title I was expecting something light-hearted and funny. I did not expect and intense examination of suicide.  It was pretty well written, starting with the suicide and working back toward explaining what led up to it, revealing the story to us as the girl's family beginning to understand. Very good, not as depressing as it sounds and definitely owrth reading.

This was 26 of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short stories in chronological order of their original publication originally in Eyes of a Blue Dog, Big Mama's Funeral, and The Incredible and Sad Tale of lnnocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother.  I kept this by my bed for a while reading one or two a night before I slept.  Because apparently I didn't think me dreams were weird enough already?  I don't know, but the book seriously gave me some crazy dreams.  The stories as Marquez's trademark magical realism, though many are more surreal and out there than others.  Especially the earlier ones.  The book as a whole is very dark, filled with death and suffering and loneliness.  Certainly what one expects from Marquez, though here it seemed quite amplified.  Like he packed the same despair into a single short story as he usually does into a book.  Despite the sadness and darkness or it, I loved this collection.  The translation was good, I rarely found myself guessing if that word was the one the author intended.  And the stories were certainly worth it for the spark to my imagination if nothing else.

I have been waiting to read this book for a while.  It's been on the "to read' shelf for months.  I wonder if the drown out nature of waiting to read it raised my expectations too much.  I love Moore's comic work, I expected great things from a novel.  Although this wasn't so much a novel as  collection of short stories, with entwined elements that all took place in the same location.  Most weren't that engaging or interesting as character developing short stories.  Indeed, I often found myself wishing the story was a comic, so as to have the pictures to go with it.  Overall pretty disappointing.  I only finished it because I didn't have anything else to read at the time.

The Dangerous Angels series by Miss Block are some of my all time favorite books.  I even have a tattoo of the line the series is named after.  These books really spoke to me in my late teens and early 20s.  Describing a fantasy life that was exactly what I'd like.  Even the later books as the main characters grew up and the stories were about their own teenagers rang true and sweet.  The universe of the stories is magical realism, set in LA, with a bunch of misfit kids making lives for themselves that are outside the usual societal confines.  Adventures are had and love is found with a healthy does of genie lamp wishing and other magical bits. So imagine my surprise when I'm in a bookstore in Philadelphia and I find a Block book I haven't before seen, and it's int he Dangerous Angels universe!  Indeed it's story for grown up women like me, the main character Weetzie Bat as she navigates her way into middle age!  Hurrah.

The book was exactly what I've come to expect from Block in this series, funny, lightly and simply written, with a healthy does of fantasy and reality mixed.  The themes are deeper than their treatment, but in this universe it works well.  I'm so glad I found this and really, I hope the series goes on with Weetzie's children again and more fully resolving her relationship with her man.  Happiness is unexpectedly finding a book you'd didn't know you wished was written until it appears.

This was great urban fantasy dealio.  Fairies and elves etc. exist and come plague a rock chick in Minneapolis. It was fun and all to read, but i have to admit pretty dated.  The descriptions of the clothes were all Cyndi Lauper and Prince circa 1983.  So, yeah, I enjoyed the story, but I also learned a lesson from it.  Keep the descriptions in your own stories as timeless as possible, lest th readers of the future get their hand son it and think, "She's wearing what?!?!??" If you like the fairy magics and the madern urband fantasy bits, I rec this highly, though, despite the clothing.

I don't think I can ever say enough good things about Connie Willis.  She achieves hilarious, easily readable science fiction with social commentary that is high-handed or over bearing.  This book is about Oxford university in an alternate timeline where time travel is possible.  History PhD students travel back to research and live in the times they study. There's very real, genuinely likable characters here, telling two parallel stories, one in the middle ages and one in the near future where viral plagues have decimated the population and are still popping up. A good introduction to Willis if you haven't read her before, though To Say Nothing of the Dog which takes place in the same universe is also excellent.

Damn, it's already August.  Am I going to manage 21 more books before the end of the year? ACK!  Maybe I should change my own rules and start including comic books, then I'll surely make it.

A novella in Baker's tales of The Company.  Probably best read if you're already familiar with the series, but it does stand on its own.  Company operative Lewis and Joseph are in 1930s Hollywood and mired in comedy of errors trying to get a script and a diamond and meeting all sorts of real life players from the era.  Baker's usual good work but it really left me wanting more Company stories to read but luckily there's tons of those.

The story of a sci-fi writer who moves his family from a funky, urban neighborhood to the suburbs for their safety and then gets caught up in real estate and murder scandal.  It's fairly hilarious mostly because the main character just keeps making the worst choices possible and getting himself in deeper and deeper, but he does it in this way where it's just really human, and really male and still totally absurd.  It's a book for reading on an airplane or a day at the beach, amusing enough but fairly forgettable.

Probably the twentieth time I've read this story.  I first read it four or five years ago, as part of the collection it was originally published in.  The movie was great and I loved it, but the story as written just shakes me to my core. Here it's not just the actual story for me but the storytelling and the way Proulx uses language.  I'm not a huge fan of hers, but this story is so spare and yet so utterly vivid.  You should read this if you haven't yet.  You should read this if you're a fan of the movie.  You should read this if you've never seen the movie and have no intention of ever doing so. It's a beautiful bit of writing, I think.

Absolutely abysmal, schlocky romance.  Terrible.  Cheestastic.  I read the whole thing.  *sigh*

This a collection of stories all taking place in Ms. Baker's universe built around The Company.  I think you could pick up this book and get into it even if you haven't read any of The Company novels.  Most of these stories have appeared elsewhere, in collections or monthly publications and are sort of introduced for those who don't know the details of her elaborate universe.  These stories focus more on the beloved side characters, or on possible historical events involving Company operatives.

I hesitate to describe this universe as amazing as I fear retribution from Timmy Mac, as he hates the overuse of that word, but man, it is awe inducing what Baker has produced over the last decade.  The characters, the research the world building and all.  I highly, highly recommend her series and as I mentioned, you could use this book of short stories as good jumping point, although the novels really should be read in published order.

Oh Tony Bourdain, how are you not my husband? Seriously, I know it'd end in a firey trainwreck, but I'm all ready to be your next ex-wife.  What more could I ask for than a chain-smoking, hard-drinking guy who will eat anything and can cook just about everything, loves to travel, obviously reads fiction, is sarcastic, writes well, has a huge collection of old punk t-shirts, tattoos and just GAH!  WANT.  Seriously, I want to grab his skinny hips and…uh, wait, what was this about? Oh, book, right.  This a collection of his magazine articles and other short writings.  Presumably put out to tide the slavering masses over until he writes his next travel book, or what ever he's going to be writing.  I, for one, am glad to have as many words of Tony's on paper as possible.  Though I'm not sure this is good introduction to him, if you haven't read either of his previous non-fiction books you should probably start with one of those.  This one was great though.  I keep finding myself thinking about anecdotes from it when I'm at work (at the restaurant) and I love the way he broke it up by the five basic tastes: bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami.  I like Tony.  Did you get that from reading this?  I may not be able to be objective about him at all.  But I suspect my blind devotion comes from the fact that he he is really, genuinely great, so, go on, get a book of his, watch a show, get sucked in.  It's worth it, I swear.

What to say about this?  I don't think I'm going to compel you to read it, with anything I can say about it.  It's sort of the kind of thing you'd be inclined to read or not.  I read it several years ago, but it mention in Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife  brought it back to mind so I dug it out and re-read it.  I can't really remember my initial response on my first reading, but here I found it made me very melancholy and reflective.  Rilke's depression is very visible here and affecting, at least to me.  His calls to angels and queries about them are very much in line with my own thinking.  For me it isn't just poetry but rather I find my response it is so visceral that it's hard to talk about, hard to recommend.  I do wish my German was better. I read the English and then fought my way through the German, armed with the translator's interpretation, which was good, but I always feel like maybe I'm missing some subtle but necessary part. In conclusion, you'll like Rilke or you won't.  You won't know until you try.  I hope you do.

Enjoyable, very fast read.  Much better than Gabaldon's totally over blown Outlander series.  Lord John is side character in that series, appearing here as the lead.  He sets out to solve a mystery does. It's, eh, there's not much to say about it.  He's gay, the book is somewhat about that and somewhat about the whole murder mystery.  None of it done too well, but overall, as I said, a good afternoon at the beach read.  Could have done with more sex, although I suppose it's better that Gabaldon didn't try, since she generally writes heterosexual stuff and could have easily totally screwed this up.  I see when looking this up that there's actually other Lord John books out now.  If I found one laying around somewhere I would probably read it.  Don't think I'd buy it though.