Posts made in December, 2009

Yesterday, I made a list of my top books of 2009, but the problem is that I read a lot of books this year that were really good, but were not actually published this year. So, here’s a list of some of my favorite books I read this year from 2008 or earlier: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key by Kage  Baker Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison The Ant King and Other Stories by Benjamin Rosenbaum Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell Dead Meat by Sue Coe Eifelheim by Michael Flynn Horses Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories by Richard Butner Chiggers by Hope Larson The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hajdu Candy Girl: A Year in the Life on an...

It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2009, but before we do, I thought I would take the time to list some of my best books of 2009. As I went through the list of books I read this year, I found that some of the best books I read this year were actually published last year, or even years before so they technically wouldn’t qualify for a best of 2009 list. So, I’m going to do this in two parts. Today’s list is my picks for the best books from this year. Tomorrow, I’ll be posting another list with some other really good books that I read this year, that just happened to have been published in years past. Without further ado here are my top books for 2009 listed in the order that I read them: The Scavenger’s Manifesto by Anneli Rufus...

I learned the other day that small publisher From the Asylum Books and Press is closing up shop. They were a publisher of speculative fiction anthologies, which is a tough market even for big publishers, and must be especially tough for little publishers trying to compete in the big bad book selling world. I had a story accepted for their anthology Things Aren’t What They Seem, which was supposed to be out this fall, and I had a feeling that there might have been some problems, when the publication was delayed, and I didn’t hear anything. I received an email the other day letting me know the sad news. I often wondered if e-books and the internet will put an end to new fiction anthologies and short fiction magazines and zines. I’m still not taken...

It’s Monday What Are You Reading? is a group blog hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog. You can link your blog by clicking here. Well, I read a grand total of one book last week, thanks to the holiday and all the craziness cutting into my reading time, but thankfully it was an entertaining book, though not exactly the escapist sort of fare that I really could have used last week. Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession by Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume I love science books. I love history books. So, when a book manages to masterfully combine science and history, I am hooked. That was the case with Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession by Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume. Also, I am thinking that some sort of law should be passed that only the British are...

This year’s Christmas gifts were more on the practical side than the flashy side. A new set of tires may not be especially exciting, but they were very much needed. I did manage to score two of the five books I had on my Christmas list this year. The Devil’s Eye by Jack McDevitt and The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett were waiting for me under the tree. The other books I had on my list were titles the local independent book store was unable to track down, even though I didn’t ask for anything especially obscure. Looks like I’ll have to do some post Christmas shopping. Did Santa bring you any good books this...