I haven't been keeping up with my book reviews here although I do add them to librarything and should probably just write myself an export script so it's easier for me. But whatever, that's not done yet, and I finished a book this afternoon while I was waiting for my experiment to run, so here it is.


Under Wraps (The Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles)
by Hannah Jayne

I liked the characters and the world of this funny urban fantasy, but they seemed almost out of sync with the murder that Sophie is supposed to be solving: the serial murder case seemed to take a back seat to the banter and internal monologuing of our somewhat hapless heroine. If you're looking for serious urban fantasy give this a miss, but it's fun in a first season Buffy sort of way. I'm not sure if it really grabbed me enough to read the next one, but who knows, maybe it'll grow into something more as the series expands?

It's a sad, sad statement about the tropes of urban fantasy that Seanan McGuire's "No, I will not rape my characters. Ever." statement makes me want to Read All The Books. I mean, I was a casual fan before, but knowing that they'll be staying rape-free? This is actually a huge selling point for me.

I don't suppose anyone else wants to recommend any other good rape-free modern fantasy?

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
Ken Segall

When the thesis of your book is that simple is important and the best way to do many things, you really should try saying so in a simple way. I find verbiage to be a flaw of many pop non-fiction books, but it *really* stood out badly here because the wordiness and repetitive padding of some sections was so out of sync with the message.

That said, I enjoyed the book, though I disagreed with lots of it. It weaves a compelling tale out of anecdotes about Steve Jobs and the author's work at Dell and Intel (for examples of complexity, by and large). The stories are well-told, but sometimes the justification for why simplicity works ranged from dubious to outright scientifically wrong from my knowledge. But I liked the flow of ideas, and it kept me thinking, and even where the justifications were wrong it doesn't mean the conclusions necessarily are.

It *did* irk me considerably that I felt like I'd gotten more out of this book than out of Schneier's Liars and Outliers, but I think I liked this book partially because I disagreed with it and it forced me to think critically. Plus, I can't get my Age of Persuasion marketing story fix anymore, so this fit a similar niche for me.

Insanely Simple is worth reading for the stories alone, and it'd be possible to just skim to them and have a good time. But the weave of simplicity-as-solution as a way to tie the stories together is worth a look too, just be careful to leave your critical thinking caps on.

I've been reading as normal (a book or two a week + graphic novels) but it's been a while since I posted here, so here's a couple of the most interesting books I've read that you might want to know about:


The Man Who Crossed Worlds
by Chris Strange

Fans of the Dresden Files are going to find a lot of similarities between Miles Franco and Harry Dresden: personality, economic status, penchant for one-liners at inopportune moments, inability to deal with women (which I think is an incredibly ridiculous character trait, but there you have it). If you can get over the frequent sense of deja vu, you'll find an engaging story that isn't just a Dresden knockoff. Interesting world, interesting problems, interesting mystery and the start of some interesting characters. It all adds up to a story that's hard to put down, and leaves you eager for more from that world. And it's nice to see more urban fantasy that doesn't rely on werewolves, vampires or faeries!

Chris Strange is definitely an author worth watching in the future: I have this sense that it won't be long before he blows past more urban fantasy tropes and into something fantastically new.

[Disclosure: I received this book free as part of a Member Giveaway in exchange for a review.]


Peeps
by Scott Westerfeld

This brilliant blend of parasitology, biology and mythology makes for the most novel interpretation of vampires I've read in forever. Plus, it's a book that's hard to put down with ideas that linger with you. I don't want to say any more for fear of spoilers; you should just go read it yourself! This is now my favourite vampire book ever, probably because it's so different from most.

(Note: I also read the sequel, which is good, but not AMAZING the way I thought Peeps was.)



Chasing Yesterday Series: Awakening, Betrayal, and Truth
by Robin Wasserman

A teenaged girl wakes up with no memory of who she is and is told she was the only survivor of a huge building collapse. So what does it mean when her nightmares tell her that she was the one who can destroy buildings with her mind? This series follows the mystery of who she is, both to herself and to those who seek to control her. I read the first two books in single sittings, caught up in the story of a girl who seems to have telekinetic powers... but isn't sure that she isn't just mentally damaged, as the adults around her seem to think. The third book slows down some, but I definitely don't regret reading through 'till the end.



The Nose Knows: A Spunky Mystery
by Holly L. Lewitas

This mystery is told from the point of view of Spunky, a terrier mix who despite her advancing age, lives up to her name. I was initially worried this would be too cheesy, but Spunky's unique point of view complements the story in a delightful way. The big mystery doesn't really start 'till halfway through the book, but the lead up as Spunky and the cats of the family do their best to meddle in their Mom's life and practice as a psychologist in a benevolent way is utterly charming. Lots of thoughts about animal and human minds. This is a fun read for pet lovers, a decent mystery, and a book I'll definitely be recommending to friends.

[Note: This book was received as part of a members giveaway in exchange for a review.]

I don't normally review craft books, but since I've started getting them from the library and need some way to keep track of the ones I've seen and might want to get out again for projects, I figured book reviews was a good solution.



Knit Your Own Royal Wedding
by Fiona Goble

Instructions for very cute and slightly kitschy William & Kate royal wedding dolls. Lots of pictures and details in the clothing, so it's fun even if you haven't got time to knit and just want to look at the little doll dioramas. I think my favourite are the little corgis.



Last-Minute Knitted Gifts
by Joelle Hoverson, Anna Williams

As a newbie knitter, I definitely appreciate patterns for things that are small and have estimated times attached. Unfortunately, the books are starting to all blur together since most contain variations on the same hats, socks, scarves, small bags, etc. The thing that makes this particular volume stand out is actually the photography and the careful use of colour (there's even a whole section about it!)



Positively Crochet!: 50 Fashionable Projects and Inspirational Tips
by Mary Jane Hall

I loved many of the patterns, many of which are nicely modern (surprisingly hard to find in a crochet book!) though I found the "positive" sidebars totally insipid. If, like me, you find that's not your thing, at least it's easy enough to ignore. I liked the mix of small and large projects, and the couple of patterns I've tried from this book have been clear and well-written. Looking forwards to trying a few more in the future!



Simply Crochet: 22 Stylish Designs for Everyday
by Robyn Chachula

A beautifully photographed collection of nicely modern crochet designs. I haven't tried any of the patterns yet, but it looks like the instructions are very clear, and many projects are photographed from a variety of angles so that you can see the detail of the pattern and the places where joining might be tricky by instruction alone. I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to buy my own copy rather than constantly renewing the library one before I start any patterns, which is the reason I haven't done any yet.

Remember me mentioning this appalling-sounding novel about Vampire Shakespeare? well curiousity got the better of me, and I did click "Request it!" and they actually chose to send me a review copy. Here's the review I provided:

This book is like a B-movie inspired by the anachronistic touches of Moulin Rouge, only the sex scenes are outright un-sexy. It's a cheesy mish-mash of modern pop culture and Shakespearean English. It's both totally appallingly bad and yet sometimes brilliant, often funny and probably the strangest adaptation of The Tempest ever.

If you wanted anything remotely serious or delicate, this is not the book for you. (And what were you doing buying a book about Vampire Shakespeare fighting zombies with his Dark Lady anyhow?) I think it has the worst romance I've read in years (and I have a project with friends where we read terrible romance novels out loud) but if you read it all with the pacing and imagine the wooden acting of a low-budget film, it's worth a laugh. Recommended only if you like bad movies, silliness, and dubious mashups of pop culture and literature, since this rests on the knife edge of "bad" and "so bad it's good." I enjoyed it, but your mileage may vary.

I'll be keeping my copy for The Project, but I'm quite happy to lend it out to anyone else who foolishly thinks that Vampire Shakespeare and his Dark Lady battling zombies during The Tempest sounds like a good idea. I'm not sure if this is warning or endorsement, but it's only a few velociraptors or beagles shy of sounding like it could have been written by beable. Now you know.

I'm not even sure what to say about this, so I'm just going to put it out there:

From USA Today and New York Times bestselling author of Shakespeare Undead, comes the gripping follow-up story about vampire William Shakespeare and his Dark Lady who are stranded on a mystical island.

Fresh from a triumphant battle over the zombie horde that invaded London, Will concocts a plot to rid the love of his life from the encumbrance of her husband. Will plans to give his “dark lady,” Katherine Dymond, a potion that will make her sleep the sleep of the dead. Once she is entombed, Will can sneak in, wait for her to awaken, then spirit her away. After her husband returns to his plantation in America, Kate can return to London under a different name and assume a new identity. No one will believe that the dead Katherine and the live Kate are the same woman. Of course, as is often the case with true love, all does not go as smoothly as planned. When the two of them are shipwrecked on an island ruled by a wizard and a nymph, as well as infested by zombies, Will and Kate must stop an even larger plot afoot—one that leads all the way to the royal palaces of Queen Elizabeth.

That's the blurb for Zombie Island: A Shakespeare Undead Novel.

There's review copies up for requests at librarything, and I can't decide if I should click that "request it!" button or stay far, far away.

I was debating going to barcampabq today, but my head decided it had other ideas, so I've been trying to relax and not aggravate the headache today. So I went to fill in my LibraryThing list, and discovered that it's been so long since I looked at my "recently returned" list from the Ottawa Library that my old stuff has expired. Or maybe it's just that they changed the interface. At any rate, I think I've lost a bunch of books I should have recorded. On the bright side, though, that means I had a perfectly manageable list of books left so here's some reviews from the past month or so.

If you only read one of these, make it the first one. If you read a few more, I recommend The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld (even though I wasn't as impressed with the 3rd book the 4th made up for it) and Level Up by Gene Luen Yang, which is something special.


Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Gatto

A scathing description of the problems of our current educational system. A good read for any parent, and also for many students, to better understand why some illogical educational decisions only make sense in the context of building compliant workers rather than free thinkers. My only complaint is that Gatto offers homeschooling as a panacea without much deeper discussion into how difficult it can be to produce a great homeschooling environment.

I spent a *lot* of time in school bored out of my tree, a fact which I relayed repeatedly to my poor parents. But I've also had some not-so-great experiences with other people's homeschooling, and lots of experience teaching now... all very interesting put into the perspective of this book. I immediately lent it to my mother and we had some great conversations about it, and what we thought a better solution might look like.


Animal Academy, Vol. 1-2

Cute but not too memorable story of a girl who accidentally winds up enrolled in a school... for animals.


White Cat (Curse Workers) by Holly Black

An interesting world, where some people possess the ability to curse others by touching them, an ability they have been banned from using by the government. Cassel isn't a curse worker, but the rest of his family is, and to fit in he's become an adept con-man. But slowly, he's realizing that the biggest con in his life isn't one he's running...


Red Glove (Curse Workers, Book 2)

Continuing on from where White Cat left off, this book actually focuses some on the politics of being a curse worker. Basically, it comes off as a metaphor for racism, much like mutant abilities are viewed within the x-men. Within the backdrop of political change, Cassel is finding that knowing he is a curse worker has opened a lot of doors for him... opportunities he's not sure he wants and doesn't know how to refuse.



Goblin War by Jim C. Hines

The third (and probably final?) instalment in Jim Hines' books about Jig the Goblin. If you enjoyed the others, you'll enjoy this one, so I won't risk spoiling anything by saying more!


Specials (The Uglies) by Scott Westerfeld

I've been really enjoying the series, but Specials felt at times a bit like it was repeating the other books: how many times is Tally going to have to recreate herself in nearly the same ways? It felt a little less creative than the previous books, but they set the bar high enough that it's still well worth reading!


Skim by Mariko Tamaki

A bittersweet story of a young girl trying to find out who she is, set with a backdrop of a school coping with suicide, the friends learning about wicca, and a budding romance... weightier issues than you see in many teen novels, but treated in a heartfelt way that lets the light shine through and doesn't let it get depressing even when sad.



Extras (The Uglies) by Scott Westerfeld

Extras starts off in a different city from those we saw in previous books, and correspondingly shows a very different societal structure (and totally avoids the problem of the last book, Specials, which felt a little too familiar). This foreign city is strangely familiar to anyone who's used Facebook or other modern social media: a city based on the economy of how many people are tuning in to your feeds. So why are a group of girls with low rankings so darned fascinating?


Level Up by Gene Luen Yang


An excellent story of parental expectations, medical school, and video games. Not to mention some pesky little angels... I highly recommend this one and don't want to say too much lest I spoil anything!



Someday's Dreamers Volume 1 by Norie Yamada

Cute and bittersweet stories of a witch whose job it is to help people with their dreams.


Princess in Love (The Princess Diaries, Vol. 3) by Meg Cabot

Fun and fluffy, and Anne Hathaway's reading does add something to the audiobook. Sure, it's horrifically stereotypical teen problems and longing set to the backdrop of being a princess in new york, but... if you didn't want that, why are you reading volume 3 of the princess diaries?



Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life's Work by Kevin Carroll

I find after a while that all these "do what you love!" inspirational books blur into one meaningless message of "go get it! don't let anyone stop you!" but this one stands out because it manages to convey the same message concisely, and the graphic design and layout of the book make it match the playful message of the red rubber ball. If you want a cute little bit of inspiration that you can tuck into your pocket and will smile at over and over, this is exactly the book you need.


Ultimate X-Men Vol. 4: Hellfire & Brimstone

More of what I'd expect from the series. I didn't like the art as much in this one, though.


Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller

Great, clear instructions for a variety of stitches, pattern reading, and techniques, combined with a set of fun patterns to use them. A good beginner guide or reference manual for the more advanced who want to try some new techniques.

I actually liked this enough that I'll consider buying a copy for my own reference (as usual, this was the library copy)... It's very easy to look up stitches on the internet, but I prefer diagrams to video a lot of the time, and knowing I have a book would be nice.


How to Wash a Cat

Perhaps because I read this while sick, I found it a little overly descriptive and sometimes hard to follow as things bounce from recollections of her uncle to present day. I felt early on that it was clearly meant for people who love cats a lot more than I do. That said, even in my illness I pressed on and enjoyed the sometimes ridiculous characters and gold rush mystery in spite of my confusion with the prose.


Ultimate X-Men Vol. 5: Ultimate War by Mark Millar

I read x-men primarily for the character-driven stories, which made this volume, heavy on the action, a bit of a disappointment.

Also... this marks the last of the volumes that my library has, aside from, inexplicably, vol 10. So now I'm torn: do I buy the other ones and either keep or donate them to my library, or do I find some other way to get my x-men fix? Still looking for a good digital buy/borrow mechanism for this.

I got an audiobook to play on my MP3 player today, and it was a chore and a half with around 5 hours worth of upgrades. I could write a post about the procedure, but that's been done.

Brad Colbow's comic pretty much sums up the DRM problem best, I think. Getting DRM-protected content sucks, but libraries often have such systems in place to allow lending. I hate DRM, but I like my library, and I really like the idea of libraries being able to lend electronic content in a way that makes sense.

What I want to know is "what we are doing about it?" I know plenty of folk interested in open technology/culture... do any of you know of alternative software available to libraries? Resources they could use that would be more awesome and still enable lending?

(Related reading: Across the Digital Divide talks about why the whole "print is dead" thing leaves a lot of people in the dust. If you think about it in that context, making it easier to lend electronic resources in the future could be a bigger deal than you'd think.)

Usually I see people recommend you donate to the EFF or somesuch. And that's a good idea in general, but... I mean, I know I'd like to just have a world that was DRM-free. But apparently this is not a solution that works for my library, or more to the point it's not a solution that works for the places where my library obtains content. I want DRM to be dead, but I also would like to be able to borrow electronic resources a little sooner than never, thanks. Surely there are folk out there who are willing to sideline the ideology for now and just try to make something that's actually good?

So... what *are* we doing to make it easier for libraries to lend us electronic stuff?

I have a huge number of book reviews written for the past month or so of books, but I doubt anyone wants a giant book-review-spam, so I'm parcelling them out in related bits. This is two fantasy novels taken from unusual points of view.


Except the Queen By Jane Yolen

Two faerie sisters wind up banished to the modern world after seeing something they shouldn't have seen. Excellent urban fantasy that'll appeal to people who enjoy Charles de Lint. Unlike much urban fantasy, which is often told from the point of view of a younger (and hotter, love-interest-cup-overfloweth) woman, the characters through whose eyes we see in Except the Queen are older women. Although I'd commented on the age thing before, I'd not much thought about how much of a difference that would make, but it really does add a different perspective and depth to the story.


Goblinquest By Jim C. Hines

Basically this novel is dungeons and dragons told from the point of view of one of the cannon-fodder goblins, but Jim Hines' excellent sense of humour and the absurd make this an amazingly fun tale, and one I'd be happy to recommend to many of my roleplaying friends. Or, you know, any fantasy fans, but the d&d set will find it especially apt. (Unlike the cover of the book... having looked up it up for this post, now, I have to say that I don't think it fits the feel of the book very well!) If you haven't read Jim Hines' retellings of princess stories, you should read those too. They do a similar turn-the-tale-on-its-head thing from a much more feminist perspective.