Category Archives: book news

January 2011 Round Up

Instead of sidling up seductively with promises of Valentines to come, February has arrived in the embrace of her wintry sister January. With icy streets covered by a thin layer of snow and predictions of End of Days snowfall to come, I find myself on the receiving end of that rarest of rare things: an actual Snow Day. My company generally laughs in the face of Old Man Winter, but today they chose not to tempt fate and issued orders for warm blankets, hot cocoa, and a good book. Or at least that is the way I heard it. 😉

Though January 2011 plagued us with heavy snowfall and temperatures worthy of comparison to a witch’s bosom, it was also filled with 31 days of mostly great reading, wherein I found warmth and comfort in the cold environs of space, on alien worlds, and in the past and future of good ol’ Terra Firma. Not to mention the incredible imagination of authors and artists whose work found fertile ground in my heart and mind.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful literary month. Here is where my journeys took me:

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How Do You Rate?


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I have never professed to be a critic. I am one tree in a forest of individuals who choose to exercise the right of free speech online to discuss books. What I strive to do, and what I believe other book bloggers strive to do, is to communicate my experience with a given book in such a manner that anyone reading one of my reviews can assess whether or not they want to try it out for themselves. I try to do so with passion and creativity, but in the end what I do is every bit as subjective as you would expect the opinion of an enthusiastic book lover to be. In the end you, as a unique individual, are rolling the dice anytime you pick up a book on the recommendation of another reader.

I also acknowledge the fact that I often write lengthy reviews and not everyone has the time, or wants to take the time, to read every word. Understanding that, I generally give books a star rating so a person can see at a glance what I thought of the book. I use a 5 star rating system and I have become increasingly unhappy with it because I don’t feel like that gives me enough range to rate books that are worth reading. I also have a habit of rating in .25 increments in order to force a greater range within that 5 point scale, but it feels a bit false. So, I’ve decided to adopt the 10 point rating system of the Classic Science Fiction Book Club that I have recently joined online.

Their rating system is:

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The Best: 2010 in Review


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“For those of us who take pleasure in the art of reading, a new year opens up endless possibilities. Where will our reading journeys take us? I, for one, positively quiver with excitement thinking about it. As I start a new year, I have all sorts of ideas and plans about what I am going to try to read, which new authors I may finally sample, which books I have planned to read year after year that I might just get to this year. I make all manner of secret reading promises to myself, some that I keep, others that get usurped by wild whims and literary desires. In the end it is just one more reason that reading is one of the best things about being alive.”

The new year began with those words…then I blinked, and 2010 was over. Well, in many ways it certainly feels like that, in other ways it was a long year. Economic woes, employment challenges, health issues and an uncertain political climate, among other things, either touched us directly in our personal lives or indirectly in the lives of family and friends. In the midst of both chaos and contentment I took comfort and pleasure in the written word.

And with that thought in mind I will join the others who like to look back on a literary year with my 2010 Year In Review.

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An Embarrassment of Riches


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I owe many people ‘thanks’, and need to confess my sins.

It should come as no secret that book bloggers love to discuss books. One of the things that has come into fashion over the past few years (once affectionately known as ‘book pron’) is to share the swag that comes to us via mail order, gifts, review copies, or moments where we succumb to temptation in new and used book shops. In my experience this ritual is not done to boast, but simply to share our love of reading and also give a shout out to say, “Hey, you might want to pick this up too!”. Book, music and film companies have to love us–Free Advertising! 🙂

I preface this post with that explanation/disclaimer because from my November 21st birthday up through Christmas (and post-Christmas shopping), I have come into an embarrassment of riches in the way of books, music, dvds and games. Having opened the door on my willingness to get used and discounted items, especially from my wife for Christmas, I find myself being very blessed indeed. Add to that a bunch of bookstore gift cards from lovely people, gift cards that I got from bookstores because of purchasing gift cards for others, and for signing up for Membership cards, and money from my parents and in a short span of time, it feels like I have acquired more than I had all year up to this point. I also want to do this by way of additional thanks to everyone who was so generous this year.

And now, THE LOOT!!!

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Looking forward: The Bookshelves will be Bulging

Joe Sherry recently posted a list of the books he was looking forward to in the first quarter of the new year, including a link to Locus magazine’s forthcoming books list. This prompted me to do a little looking of my own and what follows is a mostly, but not entirely, genre-filled list of books coming out over the next several months that are already on my TBR list.

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