Category Archives: Recommendations

National Science Fiction Day 2016

So yesterday was National Science Fiction Day for 2016. It’s not exactly a major holiday… yet… but it’s fun to celebrate nonetheless. An hey – if enough blog posts start mentioning it and the right publishers get behind it we could have us a real holiday one day. Though January 2nd would be a tough sell I have to admit. It’s just a little too close to the Christmas & New Year’s Eve to be of any fun.

But it’s the day that the grand poobah of the galaxy Isaac Asimov was born back in 1920. So it’s probably as good of a day as any to celebrate science fiction writing.

So in honor of Asimov’s awesome encyclopedic legacy, I’d like to share my three favorite science fiction books I read last year. I have to admit that it’s getting harder to figure out what is “science fiction” these days. So many books have elements of the future, time travel, dragons, etc. that science fiction is teetering on becoming mainstream. But that’s a post for another day.

If you’re looking for a good sci-fi read to kick off 2016, then check these out:

TimeSalvagerTime Salvager by Wesley Chu I thought this book was great fun. It does fall in the time travel category. It has a couple of common sense and unique solutions for dealing with many of the common issues with time travel, which I thought clever. Also, it’s the first in a series so it’s a great time to jump on board.

 

 

BoneClocksThe Bone Clocks by David Mitchell I finally got around to reading this and so glad I did. While I’m not one for “psychic powers” stuff, the writing is incredible and the way Mitchell loops everything together is almost a superpower. It’s a big book. So if you want to dip your toes then I’d recommend reading Slade House. It’s set in the Bone Clocks universe, but no necessarily a sequel. I think you’ll enjoy Slade House more if you read it second, but no harm in using it as an appetizer to see if it’s for you.

SevenevesSeveneves by Neal Stephensen – this book might very well be the most epic science fiction book I’ve ever read. It is Asimov-like in scope and skill. So very good. There definitely falls in the hard sci-fi column. So expect pages of scientists and engineers debating orbits, trajectories, etc. but you can skim that stuff if your eyes start to gloss over. The story is huge. It tracks humanity thousands of years into the future after the Earth is made uninhabitable.

That’s it! I am a huge fan of science fiction and speculative fiction. So please let me know of any fantastic reads that you’ve found. I’ll add them to my list.

Happy belated National Science Fiction Day!

Five Upcoming Books I’m Excited About

The upcoming year is proving to be chock full of good books. Below is my short list of five upcoming books I can’t wait to read and it begins with a bit of breaking news. . .

Just last night, on his blog, author Nicholas Carr revealed Utopia is Creepy:

UtopiaIsCreepy

Nothing else is given or known, but it’s one I can’t wait to read. His last book The Glass Cage was fantastic and I highly recommend it to every adult with a functioning brain. Carr has written other best sellers, but Glass Cage really makes you think and reconsider the technology that is about to infect your world. I can only anticipate more of the same. Utopia Is Creepy by Nicholas Carr is out sometime in 2016.

LostTimeAccidentsThe Lost Time Accidents: A Novel by John Wray
Release date: February 9, 2016

Coming in at 512 pages, Wray’s upcoming book won’t be the fastest read of the year, but read the first paragraph of the promo copy:

“In his ambitious and fiercely inventive new novel, The Lost Time Accidents, John Wray takes us from turn-of-the-century Viennese salons buzzing with rumors about Einstein’s radical new theory to the death camps of World War Two, from the golden age of postwar pulp science fiction to a startling discovery in a Manhattan apartment packed to the ceiling with artifacts of modern life.”

How can that not be a fun book? I hear the story spans three generations and all the war, old-school mysteries and love affairs that three lifetimes demand.The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray hits bookstore shelves on February 9, 2016.

BadAssLibrariansThe Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer
Release date: April 19, 2016

This one wins for best title and for the fact that it’s a true story! It tells the tale of some super-brave librarians in 2012 Timbuktu who hid ancient manuscripts from Al Qaeda as the terrorists were ransacking museums and libraries. The Bad-Ass Librarians hit the streets on April 19, 2016.

HourOfLandThe Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
Release date: June 7, 2016

Here is the other non-fiction on my short list of awesome upcoming books. The U.S. National Park System turns 100 this year. The Hour of Land contains 12 stories showing us why the parks and the great outdoors are important today in this increasingly facebook-centered world. You can pick it up from your local book shop on June 7, 2016.

TimeSiegeTime Siege by Wesley Chu
Release date: July 12, 2016

This is the second book in Chu’s newest series. The first book Time Salvager came out last year and wound up being one of my favorite sci-fi books of 2015. If you like time travel tales, this series is a good one so far. The Chronomen are back in business July 12, 2016.

Nonfiction November – Week Four

I’ve been participating in Nonfiction November this month and it’s been great. So many new-to-me bloggers in my RSS reader now plus plenty of new titles added to Mount TBR and to my wish list. Which brings us to the week four’s topic being hosted by Katie over on Doing Dewey:

New to My TBR: It’s been a week full of amazing nonfiction books! Which ones have made it onto your TBR? Be sure to link back to the original blogger who posted about that book!

So here it goes. It’s a list of all the books and sites that piqued my interest enough that I am now officially “on the lookout” for these books. Thank you to each blogger that participated and surfaced these books for me. There is so much noise out there these days and Nonfiction November turned out to be a great way to cut through that and find some wonderful recommendations.

  1. Story of Ain’t found on Feminist Texan Reads
  2. Mao’s Great Famine found on The Relentless Reader
  3. The Life of I found on Brona’s Books
  4. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer found on Savvy Working Gal
  5. Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer found on Book Addicted Blonde
  6. The Unpersuadables by Richard Storr found on Bibliophilopolis
  7. The Age of Wonder found on The Emerald City Book Review
  8. The Creators by Daniel Boostin found on Bibliophilopolis
  9. Bottled and Sold found on Ardent Reader
  10. Fluent Forever found on A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
  11. The Bilingual Edge found on A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall
  12. Men We Reaped found on Books Speak Volumes
nonficnov_hooverlibrary
I saw this banner in my local library this past weekend.

Nonfiction November (#nonficnov) was a blast this year. So many great books and book bloggers I had not heard of. Thank you to everyone who helped organize it and host all of the recap posts. So many great book blogs to scroll through.

Be the Expert: in Book Covers

Week One of Nonfiction November was fun and is responsible for adding nine books to my wish list this holiday season. This week’s topic is being hosted by Leslie and is listed as “Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert” where we are supposed to highlight some books we’ve read (or want to read) around a topic.

So for Week Two I would like to offer up the following books which will help you to Become the Expert in Book Covers. Please notice I did not say Book Cover Design or the History of Book Covers or Book Cover Production Engineer, but simply book covers. Some of the stories behind a few famous titles and covers are amazing and humorous. Also, how do you know if a book cover nailed it? What works? What doesn’t? Why? Should the designer have tried something a little riskier?

Here are three books that I recommend reading if you are at all interested in book covers/book jackets and the thought process/discussions behind the winners and losers.

First up is Chip Kidd’s Book OneKidd is as close to a rock star as you get in the book design world (he was asked to play himself in a soap opera for crying out loud) and this book doesn’t disappoint. It’s very large, colorful and gorgeous. Plus, it’s filled with all kinds of tid-bits and insights into the publishing world as Kidd shares hate mail from readers who dislike his covers, letters from authors as they flip/flop on whether a concept will work and rough drafts that lay at the bottom of the trash can. Many iconic covers, from the past 20 years, appear in Book One as Kidd shares how they came to be. Including the Jurassic Park dinosaur logo, Donna Tartt’s covers and dust jackets for Haruki Murakami.

ChipKidd_BookOne_01 ChipKidd_BookOne_02 ChipKidd_BookOne_03 ChipKidd_BookOne_04 ChipKidd_BookOne_05

 

Another book worth reading is Wendell Minor’s Wendell Minor: Art for the Written Word. Minor has produced many iconic covers himself, but his are all painted and watercolor (as opposed to Kidd’s graphic designs). But this book does a great job sharing notes, letters and thoughts behind the composition of some of Minor’s more famous covers for authors like David McCullough and Pat Conroy.

Wendell_Minor_01 Wendell_Minor_02

I have to admit to feeling a little teacher-ish about this last one, but to appreciate all of today’s book covers and to see how all the rules are being broken (I mean we are trying to be experts this week, right?) – it helps to gain a little historical perspective. That’s why I’d recommend Alan Bartram’s Five Hundred Years of Book Design. Yes, it sounds dry and boring. But if you like words… if you like books… if you’ve ever considered buying  a throw pillow because it has words typed all over it, then you will appreciate this book. The book is an odd tall narrow shape and features page after page after page of wonderful photos of (mostly) type-only book pages from Roman-times to modern-times. Once you get a feel how type and text is best stacked and what works and what doesn’t you’ll really start to notice jackets at the bookstore when the author’s name is too big or the title is just too off-center.

500_years_of_book_design01 500_years_of_book_design02

Anyway, those are three books I’d recommend you check out if you’d like to become an Expert in Book Covers. I promise they are each filled with big colorful photos of books, words and dust jackets. Everything you need to get excited about book cover design and chat about them over a beer.

So catch up on all of the other bloggers posting this week for Nonfiction November over on Regular Rumination and by following the #nonficnov hashtag on Twitter.