Books I've Read
Recent Books
Behind The Curtin
Echo Falls, #2. Ingrid learns about anabolic steroids. Very enjoyable read!
Quote:
Spangled: Ingrid loved the word. Maybe it didn't make sense, but that was America to her, summed up.Quote:
Ingrid leaned her bike--Univega, bright red--against the window. -- Is that her 31 speed bike from the first book?Quote:
"This country has way too much history," Stacy said. "If we lived in 1770, we wouldn't have to study the Continental Congress."Read:
4/2024
Mrs. Plansky's Revenge: A Novel
Spencer Quinn is a pseudonym of Peter Abrahams! A widow gets all her money ripped off over the telephone (one of those scams) so she travels to Romania to get it back. I enjoyed it very much!
I chatted on the internet with a girl in Romania once, you don't suppose...
Quote:
"This may sound harebrained," she began.
He interrupted. "That's one expression I've never understood."
"H-A-R-E," said Mrs. Plansky. "Like bunny rabbit."
Max smacked his forehead... "What an idiot!" he said...Read:
4/2024
The Riptide Ultra-Glide
Segre Storms, #16. Recently unemployed teachers Pat and Bar McDougal go to Florida for a vacation, while Coleman finds he is famous.
I feel like I might have read this before, but it's not on the list!
Quote:
"That's wrong," said Coleman.
Serge resumed work on his Spanish fort. "I knew I should have bought those cannons ahead of time."Quote:
A two-stroke engine gunned.
...
"He's on a motorcycle," said Coleman.
...
"[...]...Now he's offering a ride[...]."
...
"He's gunning the engine again."
...
A final fuel injection of the V-twin. -- A two-stroke V-twin?Quote:
Serge examined the gift. "That is cool. I'm jealous." -- I never figured out what the cool gift was.Quote:
The trio nodded. "I think we got it."
"Repeat it back," said Coleman.
"Use sunscreen; don't do heroin."
Coleman nodded. "Carry on."Quote:
"I didn't invent coffee; I just do what it tells me."Read:
4/2024
Orange Crush
Serge Storms, #3. Political race in Florida. Where is Serge?
Words I Had To Look Up:
Morpheme -- A morpheme is the smallest unit of language that contains meaning. Quote:
...was embossed with von Zeppelin's HO-gauge vision.Quote:
"But he's different in other ways," said Escrow. "Acting erratic, bizarre."
"Like how?" asked Perry.
"He's started reading."
Dempsey nodded with concern. "Keep an eye on that."Quote:
"Thanks," said Tanya.
"M-m-m-my treat," said Jenny.Quote:
"What's this whole Parrot Head phenomenon about, anyway?" asked Crease.
"It's kind of like AA in reverse."Quote:
A shaken Jimmy Carter appeared on CNN outside a post office in Palm Beach, flames in the background. "I've never seen anything like this!"Read:
4/2024
No Sunscreen For The Dead
Serge Storms, #22. Serge and Coleman help out some senior citizens, and get involved in some Cold War spy residue. Great stuff, I love these books!
Quote:
"Will I be okay?"
"As long as you stay under your deks, you'll be fine," his father lied.Quote:
Then Ted would turn on his tape recorder at the appointed time and hope his correspondence would be read on the air. -- It happened to me, once! Quote:
A good-looking hooker had been first on the scene and called in the explosion over her police radio.Read:
4/2024
Tropic Of Stupid
Serge Storms, #24. A bit of touching and inspirational religious stuff that made me tear up a bit, amongst the usual shenanigans of Serge and Coleman.
Quote:
"That was just wrong," said Sparrow. He didn't mean immoral. He meant tactically short-sighted.Quote:
"Naw." Serge flicked his wrist. "The nearest serial killer is probably a million miles away..." Quote:
"What's that?" Asked Serge.
"Nettle's baseball card...So he can smell my ass!"Read:
4/2024
The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year, Volume Twelve
Contents:
“The Mocking Tower”, Daniel Abraham
“Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue”, Charlie Jane Anders
“Probably Still the Chosen One”, Kelly Barnhill
“My English Name”, R. S. Benedict
“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance”, Tobias Buckell
“Though She Be But Little”, C.S.E. Cooney
“The Moon is Not a Battlefield”, Indrapramit Das
“The Hermit of Houston”, Samuel R. Delany
“The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine”, Greg Egan
“Crispin’s Model”, Max Gladstone
“Come See the Living Dryad”, Theodora Goss
“Bring Your Own Spoon”, Saad Z. Hossain
“Babylon”, Dave Hutchison
“The Faerie Tree”, Kathleen Kayembe
“Fairy Tale of Wood Street”, Caitlin R Kiernan
“The Worshipful Society of Glovers”, Mary Robinette Kowal
“An Evening with Severyn Grimes”, Rich Larson
“The Chameleon’s Gloves”, Yoon Ha Lee
“The Smoke of Gold is Glory”, Scott Lynch
“Sidewalks”, Maureen McHugh
“Concessions”, Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
“The Martian Obelisk”, Linda Nagata
“The Secret Life of Bots”, Suzanne Palmer
“A Series of Steaks”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad
“Belladonna Nights”, Alastair Reynolds
“Eminence”, Karl Schroeder
“The Lamentation of their Women”, Kai Ashante Wilson
“Confessions of a Con Girl”, Nick Wolven
“Carnival Nine”, Caroline M. Yoachim
Quote:
"Well then," Corrina said. -- Probably Still The Chosen OneQuote:
Zero-gravity puke was a truly terrible thing. -- The Secret Life Of BotsQuote:
Magic does from time to time so boil one's piss. -- The Smoke Of Gold Is GloryQuote:
"God, this is a good way to die," he said. -- Bring Your Own SpoonRead:
4/2024
The Magnificent Nine
Firefly, #2. Jayne is asked by a former lover to help her town repel a gang of thugs.
Quote:
Temperance hit the transmit button on the shortwave communicator in her hand. -- "Shortwave"??Quote:
Some were on motorcycles. Some were on quad bikes. One had a dune buggy. -- I found this not science fiction-ish.Quote:
... tethered to a stunted Joshua tree. -- Really? A Joshua tree on a planet a zillion miles from Earth?Read:
4/2024
The Strange
Teen girl living on Mars, rough Western-type life, with weird sci-fiction and steam punk-type stuff going on. Kinda liked the Engine.
Quote:
"Ease off, can opener. I let her go."Read:
4/2024
Interlibrary Loan
Interesting story, but the ending ties nothing up for me, just left me confused. Too literary for this feeble old brain. Hah, like my younger brain was any better!
Quote:
We went over to a table, where I held her chair until she sat. I took the one next to hers.
"You do know how to operate these four-legged chair things. I was beginning to wonder."Quote:
"It's not much of a life, being a library resource."Read:
3/2024