Space Station Mir

How many books read in 2013? 34, as of December 29th. How many fiction and non-fiction? Officially, 3 non-fiction and the rest fiction. However, that's not counting the vast amounts of literary criticism I read this year. Male/Female author ratio? 21 female and 9 male authors (some were repeats). It's funny, I've gone from slightly slanting toward male authors to strongly slanting towards female authors! Favorite book of 2013? The Best of All Possible Worlds , Wanderlust , and Woman on the Edge of Time . Least favorite? I mostly DNF'ed books I didn't like this year...so of those I did finish, Patternmaster by Octavia Butler. Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Having other priorities this year really freed me up to just say "no" to books for pleasure that I wasn't getting into. That would include London Falling and The Wet and the Dry . The former was just not my style, the latter was interesting in terms of content, bu...

I have still been reading short stories as per my goal this year (especially on Tor.com), but I've neglected to record a few of them. So, here goes: Short Story #8 Brimstone and Marmalade by Aaron Corwin Publisher: Tor.com Summary: A little girl wants a pony for her birthday. Instead, she gets a demon. Favorite Quotes: "Mathilde knew what 'we'll see' meant. It was one of those special lies only grownups were allowed to tell. When a grownup said, 'we'll see,' it really meant 'never'." Short Story #9 In the Greenwood by Mari Ness Publisher: Tor.com Summary: "Robin Hood" from Maid Marian's point of view is not so cheery, at least in Ness' rendition. Apparently, I don't like to have my fairy, folk,and mythical tales messed with, as will be evident coming up... Short Story #10 Psyche's Dark Night by Francesca Lia Block Anthology: My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me Ed. Kate Bernheimer ...

My friend was in town for the weekend, and we traveled to Second Story Books . I'd been there before, but not in many years. Second Story Books almost feels more like a warehouse than a bookstore. This feeling was exacerbated as, while we were there, a loading dock at the front of the store was open, letting in air. This was more than an aesthetic choice, as we found ourselves (and other customers) continually sneezing in the midst of the rather musty collection. Mustiness aside, however, the selection was quite impressive and reasonably well organized. I did come across a few grab-bag boxes in the sci-fi section, but they rather added to the sense of adventure and exploration that often accompanies used bookstores (for me, at least). In addition to generous fiction selections, Second Story Books really shined in the non-fiction, references, and antiques sections. Unfortunately, the latter means many of their wares are more expensive than in your average used bookstore, but extra...

34. MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood Stories are what makes us human. But which stories? The stories that we tell to ourselves, the stories that we tell to our confidants, or the stories that we tell to our children? The final book in Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy suggests that it is the last that is most important, and which will have the most lasting and unpredictable effects. It reminds me of Atwood's comment at the National Book Festival about new technologies having "a good use, a bad use, and a use that no one expects." In a trilogy that has opened against an immense background of advanced science and technology, which has both theoretically ruined and potentially saved the world, here is a return to the true building blocks of civilization-and surprise! the most dangerous, powerful, and potent tool of all is the Word, written and spoken. Toby, the primary point-of-view character, teaches a Craker child how to write, and then thinks, "How soon bef...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2013 1. Karen Lord I've been raving about The Best of All Possible Worlds all year, and I know it's only a matter of time before I read Redemption in Indigo . Lord has a voice that's both fresh and familiar, and while her writing is simple, she asks questions about the nature of humanity that force the reader to think. 2. Marge Piercy Although she's not new on the literary scene by any means, Piercy was new to me this year, and while Woman on the Edge of Time was hard-hitting, I definitely intend to pursue more of her work in the future. 3. Joanna Russ Russ, like Piercy, a feminist extraordinaire, was also new to me this year. I really admire the thoughts behind her writing, even though it is written in a style that I generally find difficult. 4. Elisabeth Eaves Wanderlust is a book that I just related to so much and will return to again and again. I don't know if I will read her other m...

33. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness Vampire porn, exquisitely written, starring witch.

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! I love Top Ten Tuesdays and all the beautiful aspirations, but I'm not one to set myself up for failure, so let's just see if I can finish the books I set out to read in 2013... Top Ten Books on My Winter TBR List From My Fall TBR List: 1. MadAddam by Margaret Atwood 2. Short Stories in Spanish: New Penguin Parallel Text 3. Box Office Poison by Philippa Bornikova From My Summer TBR List: 4. The Wet and the Dry by Lawrence Osborne 5. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel 6. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 7. Night Film by Marisha Pessl From My 2013 TBR List: 8. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 9. The Seeress of Kell by David Eddings 10. The Sorceress of Darshiva by David Eddings

WARNING: Use of the n-word below, in a socio-literary context. Please do not read if this will offend you. 32. The Good Lord Bird by James McBride Everyone seems to be comparing The Good Lord Bird to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , and I will confess, when I first heard the voice of Onion Shackleford, I heard the echo of the earlier charmingly uneducated picaresque. But Onion is not just an uneducated young boy, nor just a young boy pretending to be a girl (who remembers that scene from Huck Finn ?!?), he is a young boy performing both as a girl and as a Negro. And this brings something new to the performance of the novel. McBride brings home an observation that seems like an aside in Twain. In Twain's day, he probably couldn't do more than allude to it obliquely, but McBride can spell it out to those to whom it may not occur. There is a scene in Huck Finn where Huck makes up a story about a boat accident and a concerned lady asks if anyone has been killed. ...

31. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood I didn't realize Oryx & Crake was meant to be a trilogy (and had resigned myself to never knowing what happened after Jimmy went to find the fire), until Year of the Flood came out and I was so excited! I started reading it right away...and then for some reason stopped, and well, I kind of forgot about it. But then MadAddam came out, and so I have finally finished reading Year of the Flood . Flood is a more expansive and immersive novel than Oryx & Crake , even if it is nominally about two women trapped in separate hiding places after an apocalypse. Toby, trapped in the AnooYoo Spa, has a storyline that demonstrates the evolution of the CorpSeCorps, the corporations that run the world. Ren, younger than Toby and trapped in an upscale sex club,has a storyline that emerges more slowly, but demonstrates the nearer past of the CorpSeCorps and resistance movements. Her storyline also crosses with that of Snowman the Jimmy, fro...