Tuesday, January 08, 2008

house chaos, kitchen chaos, more lame book reviews

We've slowly been settling into the house. Hampered in large part by our decision to remodel the kitchen. So far, so good. It has stayed on schedule, and is turning out well.

A little over one more week of no kitchen sink or appliances to go, then we'll be able to stop living off of the kindness of friends and family, the mini-fridge and microwave, and waaaaaaay too many take-away and fast food dinners.

Further lame book reviews accumulated during the move and holidays. To further distill my always lame, and always blessedly brief reviews, they will be presented in list form.

First the Good:
  • Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman. Interesting alien(s).
  • They Call me Naughty Lola, edited by David Rose. A collection of personals from the London Review of Books. Bizarre and very funny.
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (aka Bladerunner), Philip K. Dick.
  • Also decided to pick up some science fiction classics I had never read. All pretty fun. A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge. Also, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Gripping Hand, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Next, the mediocre:
  • Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
  • The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road -- by Guy Gavriel Kay. Re-read these. I remember picking them up years ago because I'd heard such good reviews. I remembered not liking them much. I thought I'd give them another go since my tastes have changed quite a bit since then. Still found them very annoying. Stilted dialogue, and the whole college-kids transported into alternate medieval reality thing kept making me think Ren Faire.