I think Elisabeth Vonarburg is my new hero. Well, not exactly new; I realised that I had read the English translation of her novel Silent City when I was 11 or 12 (way too young for the content. I'm actually not sure how I got my hands on it) and loved it.

On paper I'm reading Flirt by Laurell K. Hamilton. I've read the rest of the Anita Blake series, through its ups and downs; the good first bits and then through the tough ones that had little story to speak of; and then later when we started to get the story back.

This is a shorter book, maybe even a novella. So far, it's not that good. It's not horrible but I find it to be very poorly edited. The language is weak and clumsy. There is one line of dialogue that, after reading it a dozen times, I have no clue what it means. The words just don't make sense together.

I know she has this and the Faerie series (which I can't read at all - it has all of the slowest bits that bogged down the Vampire Hunter series for awhile) and all sorts of other stuff going on, but come on. Is it just a money maker now and she doesn't care about quality? And where is the editor? A lot of the problems are line edits that should have been easily caught.

Read the 7th 39 Clues book (series for middle-grade readers written by different middle-grade authors.) Good, but nothing amazing. Liked this author's style. Find it interesting how each book is a little different based on authorial style, even though clearly they are following some "rules" (e.g., 3rd limited but roving POV, feels omni sometimes, certain plot details are known/clearly supposed to be revealed in particular titles, etc.)

Read THE MAGIC THIEF: FOUND - can't recommend this book highly enough. It's the third in a series, the author's name is Sarah Prineas. I just plain love Magic Thief, so much so that we are re-reading the original book on audio. These are middle-grade books about a boy and a different kind of magic system. The boy is plucky and determined, has a great voice. I love the way the author uses language to communicate what kind of person the mc is. Great book.

Currently reading THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan, which is basically an offshoot of his Percy Jackson novels but featuring Egyptian gods/mythology. Interesting, but I do find the breakneck pace of this kind of book a little tiring after a while (very similar in pace to the 39 Clues books, so I'm feeling a little pacing burnout.)

I finished "The Time Traveler's Wife", and was pleasantly surprised. Of course it is not hard core Sci-Fi, more of a light fantasy, but it kept me engaged. GOOD.

Also finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo". This was one that had a quite good story line, but a combination of the translation and tendency to lean towards the tell-side of the show-vs-tell scale really sort of made the story feel flat much of the time. BETTER-THAN-AVERAGE

I got talked into readin the first of the Twilight Series, and despite my general disinterest in the romantic machinations of teenage girls, there was a lot to be said for Meyer's work. Deaspite a penchant for a bit of melodrama and occasionally explaining too much, the character of Bella is actually rather engaging. Quite well done for a first novel. GOOD.

The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939 - 1949, Jim Babbott. At first I thought I wouldn't like it, but by the second chapter it had sucked me in and held me. It tells the story of the making of the atomic bomb---not just the oft-told tale of the so-called "Manhattan Project," but what went on in Germany and Russia, too. Readable even if you're not up on the technical stuff.

7 Events That Made America America (And Proved That the Founding Fathers Were Right All Along), Larry Schweikart. Essentially a collection of seven historical essays. Whatever your political viewpoint, I think you'll find some impressive stuff here, particularly the chapter "A Steel Guitar Rocks the Iron Curtain," making the case that rock-and-roll brought down the Soviet Union.

10 Books Every Conservative Must Read (Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor. Benjamin Wiker, Ph. D. This is hit-or-miss, depending (again) on your politics---but I bring it up here because of its sections on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (the "imposter") and Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," particularly the latter---for one thing, it clarifies for me something I had thought about, that the movies truly botched the character of Aragorn.

Then, since my current WIP is a YA fantasy, I read THE BLUE SWORD by Robin McKinley. Took a little getting into. I don't really like her use of flashbacks. But the story was good, once I got into it, although I felt she summarized the end a little too much.

Now I'm reading SPINDLE'S END, also by Robin McKinley. Once again, it took some getting into. Past the 100 page-mark and I just now feel like the story is getting started. Everything else was set up.

As usual, my reading is split across genres - 5 SF, 3 non.

Her use of flash back in this one is really annoying--and unnecessary. In THE BLUE SWORD, it was mostly part of the set-up for the premise and once the story got started, it stopped. Not in this one. It's all the way through and at some of the most inopportune times. Especially since she's flashing back to things that happened within the timeline of the story. She could just as easily have told it in the right order--and she should have.

Recommended, High Fantasy.

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The what out of you???

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Two I finished:

Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger. The Liz-and-Dick saga was the stuff of tabloid headlines in my younger days...this books gives a good feel of what it was like to have been on the inside of the saga. Reading it was like visiting with old friends.

Helluva Town: The Story of New York City During World War II, Richard Goldstein. This is an episodic account of...well, you can get just what from the title. I enjoyed it...and found, on one page, something that gave me a revelation about something utterly different in the memoirs of Isaac Asimov. (Asimov is not mentioned in the text.)

And the one I didn't:

Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954 - 1965, Mark Moyar. This is a very dense and very important book---it is not for the casual reading I excel in. I still hope to finish it someday---and I recommend it to everyone. Essentially, much of what you know about the Vietnam War is wrong. (A "Volume 2" is promised---this book is several years old.)

Science fiction? Well, I bought some "collected works" books by Lester Del Rey and by Fritz Leiber..."visiting old friends," though some of the stories are brand new to me.

And, sometime in the next month, I fervently hope to pick up Volume One of a biography of Robert A. Heinlein.

[Somewhere a word dropped out, so I'm putting it in again now.]

"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch": RECOMMEND. The single most bizarre "I don't know what the heck is going on right now but my head is spinning and I love it" book I've ever read.

"Counter-Clock World": RECOMMEND. Took a concept that's been done a few times before (people age backwards, start old and get younger), and made it something completely new.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep": RECOMMEND. Just when you thought this was just another "evil androids among us disguised as humans" story, BAM! We're going freaking metaphysical on you.

We've read the third, fourth, and are now listening to the fifth book from the Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. They are excellent books. While it's also due to an excellent voice talent, the character voice of each character is so unique, I know how hard this is to do, so I stand in awe. Highly recommend.

We also listened to Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones. It, too, was excellent. Very interesting very weird story - lots of fun. Not your standard fantasy, though it feels a little "normalish" at the beginning, it goes in many different directions.

I tried to read And Another Thing, which is Eoin Colfer's extension of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe series. It's been ages since I've read Hitchhiker's Guide, but I remember at least a little forward plot momentum. This story is so bogged down in non-sequitors and tangents that I literally can't do it anymore. I'm moving on.

So as to demonstrate it's not personal to the author, I'm reading Artemis Fowl, which is Colfer's YA contemporary fantasy series. It's cute and it actually is moving, so so far so good.

I liked it...it's a lot to digest, but I liked it.

One odd revelation. Early on, it mentions Heinlein making a visit to see the Liberty Bell as a child, when it was on tour and visiting Kansas City.

Highly, highly recommended. Just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Harry Niles (a protag that bears more than a passing resemblance to Greene's Harry Lime) tries to stay one step ahead of EVERYONE so he can get out of Tokyo before war actually starts.

I enjoyed MISTBORN, but this one strikes me as several characters in search of a plot. There's not one driving conflict moving the story forward, just a bunch of little conflicts annoying the characters who are actually probably more than capable of dealing with them.

Maybe it's just the curse of the second book in a series. Very few of them live up to the first and many of them are just plain bad.

I'm one of those annoying people that actually sneaks a peak at the ending. I know where this is going and I know what the conflict should be to support that ending for this book. It's not the seige.

No, in fact the seige of the three armies doesn't feel like a driving conflict. It feels pretty much like. . . well, like a seige. Long and drawn out with brief moments of excitement.

Here's five other books I also read this month:

Selected Stories, Fritz Leiber. edited by Jonathan Strahan and Charles N. Brown. I mentioned it last month. Reading and rereading these stories was an enlightening experience, and a useful recommend to anyone who wants to know how it's done. I particularly recommend "A Pail of Air" and "The Girl With the Hungry Eyes." But read them all if you can get a copy---or if you have other Leiber books. (Charles N. Brown, longtime power behind Locus, died before the volume could come out.)

Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century, Michael Hiltzik. Delves more into the politics of Hoover Dam than any other volume I've seen---but doesn't neglect the details of construction, either.

The Fog of Gettysburg: The Myths and Mysteries of the Battle, Ken Allers, Jr. Of course there's a lot written about the Battle of Gettysburg---but a lot of "facts," stated as such, repeated from volume to volume, are utter nonsense. This volume disspells a lot of them.

The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation, Thomas Kessner. This account of the flight of the Spirit of St. Louis is maybe less compelling than some (say, for example, Lindbergh's own, or the account in A. Scott Berg's biography of Lindbergh a decade ago), but it's a good introduction, and adds detail to the events not present elsewhere.

It's oftentimes clunky, but that may be because of the translation. However, as a story it's great. Again, not the most awe-inspiring of prose, and this'll never be confused with "literature", but if you're looking for a good mystery...

Which again reminds me that you don't have to be the best writer in the world to tell your story. Just tell your story, and if it's a good story, people will read it.

The writing's a little stronger in this sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it's still clunky. There's also a spot where the main character literally disappears from the story for 200 pages (it's over 700 pages total), but...though the main character isn't on the screen (so to speak) everyone talks about her and we find out more about her background.

I don't know that I'd try that stunt at home, but it works for this book. Also, I was surprised at my own reaction while reading it...turning pages because I had to find out what was happening. Credit to Stieg Larsson for tightening the screws and building the anticipation.

I'm really disappointed that Sanderson couldn't be content with a strong female character, too. No. Not good enough that Vin could do things no other mistborn could. Or that Elend was emotionally stronger AND emperor. No. Have to make Elend a stronger allomancer, too. Pfft.

And I'm tired of reading what should be Vin's story either filtered through Elend's POV or through Vin thinking about Elend when she should be trying to figure out what she needs to do as the Hero of the Ages.

I realized this afternoon that I only really care about two characters any more--Spook and TenSoon. That's not enough to keep me reading.

On to something lighter for a while.

I had to remember to bring one book into the computer room--I needed the book to spell the title correctly.

So "Necropath" by Eric Brown.

I bought it because it sounded intriguing but about 80 percent through and it's not my favorite book. First it had a slow start, second it had a lot of info that the reader needed before it got to the main story.

Anyone want to guess what the title means? It took Brown at least half way through the book to explain.

Another reason I'm not crazy about it is because it's another one that deals with the dark side of humanity. I mean everyone is the story is poor-one character was a teen who was a street urchin and lived with a bunch of others. Another one is a hooker who worked out of a cheap bar. The main character seems more of a anti-hero who is very cynical and hides his past.

Next book is "In The Stormy Sky" By David Drake.

Part of the RCN or Lt. Leery series. Interesting universe Drake came up with, it's based on Roman society, I believe. Many of the plots are based, sometimes very loosely, I think, on real happenings in world history.

He is an excellent writer and engages me even when I'm not too sure about this society. I read these books too quickly and yet I'm not totally sure if I like one of the two main characters. Partly from her upbringing she is a bit fast on taking offense from someone below her ranking. The high ranking of her family that is, even though all of them but her are dead. And it gets a little tedious when she is always thinking about not minding if she died. She doesn't try to get killed but at the same she has to much emotional baggage to care that much either.

I need to finish "At All Costs" by David Weber. I think I know the logical ending and who may end up getting killed but I still need to find out.

Can't wait 'till I get to "An Artificial Night" by Seanan McGuire. Kinda dark UF series but still very good.

Dittos for "Face Off " by Mark Del Franco . Second one in a series and I was wondering if he was going to do the next one. He's got a different and a little strange web site and it's hard to tell when his next book is coming out.

And I got a long wait for "Changes" by Jim Butcher. Paperback version. But That is one I'm going to be reading way too quickly.

For a non fiction I'm reading "Liberty and Tyranny" By Mark Levin. Short and easy to read.

Love his style of writing. The imagery and emotion he is able to get across with his short, sharp sentences is amazing. So simple, so effective.

UGLIES by Scott Westerfield Not Impressed

Interesting concept behind it but boring. The actual story seemed to lack substance - won't be continuing with the rest of the series.

MAXIMUM RIDE: THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT by James Patterson Not Impressed

Again, interesting concept but the actual story didn't grab me - probably won't continue with the rest of the series.

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Okay, I can finally list what I'm reading right now.

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Forgot one.

"A Flash Of Hex" by Jes Battis

Second in a series that sounded interesting. Fey CSI.

Actually, I'm not sure if reading it is the right word though. As far as I can recall it's the first book I've put down because I didn't like the Main Character.

The dark universe Jes invented sounds very much like the one in Seanan McGuire's books. It's like they used the same model. But the MCs are completely different as are the plots.

I may finish it some day because the plot has me intrigued.

Actually, it seemed like I didn't read much last month. Some rereading...just one book caught my interest, and my reaction to that one is, well, kind of odd.

Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II, A. N. Wilson. This purports to be, essentially, a history of post-war Britain, roughly from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II down to 2008. (I gather it was published in Britain first and has only now made it to America.) I'm interested...I've picked up bits of the history here and there and have always wanted to learn more. It proved an interesting read and held my interest to the end.

But here's the thing. Every time I ran across the writer's commentary on something I knew about---or thought I knew about---he's wrong. For instance, at the beginning of Chapter One there's a commentary on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, stating essentially, that the work was about "a world wrecked, gone forever, destroyed." That's not the message I took away from The Lord of the Rings, and I doubt very much that was its appeal to the millions who bought and read it.

It's hardly the only example. A discussion of the Beatles misses the point---and adds that the Rolling Stones were the Voice of Britain---without naming a single song as an example. A discussion of Germaine Greer and feminism states there are "forty-eight chromosomes"---the correct number is forty-six. The point of the space race and the American space program is grossly misstated.

Yet some of the other parts of the work are still interesting---but can I trust them?

Still, SOULLES, CHANGELESS, and BLAMELESS are all very fun reads when you want something not too serious.