Space Station Mir

40. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss The Name of the Wind had been recommended to me with exceptionally high praise. I looked forward to it, but I also feared that my expectations were raised too high. They were-and they weren't. The Name of the Wind is no Lord of the Rings. It is no Harry Potter. It has entirely its own magic, or should I say sympathy? Kvothe (prounounced like "quothe," now isn't that just lovely to say?) is our protagonist, our orphan underdog hero. Rothfuss opens the book with a silent inn, "a silence of three parts," in a small provincial town apparently on the edge of a large, dark crisis involving demonic forces. There is more than there seems to the quiet innkeeper "Kote" and when he encounters the traveling scribe Chronicler, he is convinced to tell our main character's story, his story. I have not read much epic fantasy told in the first person, so Rothfuss gets originality points here. His chapters ...

I have acquired a couple of books in the past two weeks, both at independent bookstores, I am proud to say, which makes me feel a little less guilty about giving into temptation. The first I bought at Busboys & Poets in D.C. It was my first time there and I will definitely be going back. While the restaurant is larger than the bookstore (and boasts plenty of vegetarian and environmentally sustainable options), the selection is quite specialized and charming. I noticed almost no recent bestsellers, instead the largest sections were on Poetry and Food Politics, with plenty of History, Social Justice, and a Literature section with focus on more obscure and international writers. I picked up an interesting-looking novel by Nigerian author Ngugl wa Thiong’o. Wizard of the Crow takes place in a fictional African country under a dystopian dictatorship. From glancing through it, I can tell that it has elements of magical realism and intrusive narration that I will love. I picked ...

Question: What are five books from your "to be read" stack. What makes you select a book for your “to be read” stack? My Answer: I feel like I have more books on the TBR pile right now than I have in a long time. Partly, this is because it was recently my birthday and partly it's because I've recently been indulging in book-buying much more than I should because it's one of the few things that makes me feel better in the midst of a current personal crisis. So, five books... American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen, Elizabeth I by Margaret George, Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares, and Reading Women by Stephanie Staal. These days, my TBR pile grows largely from reviews on other book blogs, but also from newspaper reviews, recommendations from friends and colleagues, and plain old browsing. In the future, I may start taking LibraryThing recommendations into account and at least once I did order a book j...

38. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin 39. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin * WARNING: SPOLIERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT FINISHED A GAME OF THRONES * I've been obsessively reading these sequels to A Game of Thrones , but after looking back at that review, I have to say my comments overall are rather similar. A Clash of Kings introduces us to a few new point-of-view characters. We have Davos, also known as the Onion Knight, who is sworn to serve Stannis Baratheon, brother to the late King Robert. If the accusations of incest between Robert's wife Cersei Lannister and her twin Jaime are true (and we readers know they are), Stannis is the rightful heir to the throne. This doesn't stop younger and more charming brother Renly Baratheon from claiming the crown nor does it stop Cersei crowning her son Joffrey in the name of his alleged father. With Eddard Stark dead, his son Robb becomes the King in the North, a move that none of the claimants to the Seven King...

37. Eon by Greg Bear Eon is a quirky book of epic proportion. On the cover, the Washington Post is quoted, " Eon may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet." While I'm not sure I can agree with Dune in mind, Eon is definitely hard SF that still remains likable, understandable, relatable to us non-math/tech/science people who still enjoy sci fi. In its scope and weirdness, it reminded me of Neuromancer , a book I tried to read a year and a half or so ago, but it was just too immersed in its own strange reality for me to get into. Like many SF writers, Bear uses short, direct, and sometimes clunky sentences to describe his characters and his world. Few of the characters are fully fleshed out, even the main characters seemed stock-ish to me. Brilliant young woman, hardened administrator, disaffected Russian, etc. However, what makes this book crackle is the plot and the ideas behind it. Bear's imagined futuristic human society is also fascinating and creativ...

36. Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman I'm back from vacation, where I managed to get a lot of reading done, of which this is the first. Although there are two authors, the book is written in O'Conner's voice and I will refer to her as the author. This systematic breakdown of contemporary (and primarily American) English usage declares the true history of popular language faux pas in an attempt to establish the legitimacy or illegitimacy of rules such as "No prepositions at the end of a sentence," and "No split infinitives," as well as words like the ever-bastardized "ain't", and the true origins of words and phrases, including how bad bad words really are and why. Interestingly, O'Conner comes out against some of the best-known "rules" of the English language, both "No prepositions at the end of a sentence" and "No sp...

Question: Who is the most annoying character ever? My Answer: Holden Caulfield is whiny for sure, but he never haunted me like Lee Fiora from Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep . Lee is simultaneously the most annoying and the most terrifying character I have ever encountered. She reminds me of all the worst parts of myself, plus things that I never imagined all those quiet girls might be thinking behind my back. Lee is aggressively passive, so compliant and impressionable she makes me want to scream. Her real personality, the one she submerges in her thoughts, is judgmental and outright cruel. It's clear that Lee hates herself, but she projects that hate on everyone around her and her prep school world is a nightmare. The only "good" thing is when she finally gets together with her longtime crush, but that turns out to be the most corrupt, tainted thing of all, as she allows him to take advantage of her body and leave her nothing in return. By the first time I finished t...

I'm late (by US Eastern Standard Time), but I'm back for Mailbox Monday. Last week was my birthday. I received the following book in the mail as a gift; My boyfriend knows the author, and it looks really interesting. I've been meaning to read more about Prague for a while now, since I went there last year. Much to my surprise, the copy of Atlas Shrugged I thought I had gotten from Bookmooch turned out to be a set of cassette tapes of Atlas Shrugged. Fortunately, I do have a cassette player, but I've never listened to books on tape before, aside from a couple during family car trips. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with them. Happy Monday!