dad: you've got to read this book

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish.
So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal.
Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, its quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, hes going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.

A few weeks ago I was at my parents' place watching television with my mom when my dad came down the stairs brandishing a paperback, which he'd clearly just finished reading.  The book in question was Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi.  He clarified his initial exclamation (see post title) by saying "all of you [which I took to mean Russell, my mom, and I] have got to read this book."  Rather than leave it at that, Dad expounded on the merits of Agent to the Stars and of Scalzi in general, who he classically referred to as having become famous for writing "science fiction for old people" (too true, see Old Man's War novels).

My mom called dibs on Agent to the Stars. She read the novel fairly quickly and when I asked her what she thought of it, she was decidedly less enthusiastic (the word "silly" was used). Now my mother is a woman who has absolutely no qualms about giving up on a book (even one enthusiastically recommended by her discriminating daughter) so the fact that she finished Agent to the Stars belies her damnation by faint praise.

I started Agent to the Stars last night and finished it this afternoon and I have to say that I loved it. Agent to the Stars is silly (which is apparent from the synopsis), but it is also smart and very approachable, definitely one I'd recommend for people who [think they] don't like science fiction. Parts were laugh-out-loud funny and I particularly liked the character of Joshua.

One other thing makes Agent to the Stars particularly noteworthy: it was Scalzi's first novel. I admit that I often skip right through books' frontmatter in my rush to get to the story, but Agent to the Stars' "Author's Note and Acknowledgments" (in my dad's 2008 Tor edition) is definitely worth a read as it describes the strange publication history of Scalzi's "practice novel."

series (re)reading

Series reading and rereading has been a bit of a theme for me lately. I suppose that it's because in the wake of busyness and stress, I long for the comfort of the expected.

I'm loaning one of my new coworkers the Hunger Games Trilogy (I gave her book one yesterday after a harefooted read-through on Friday) so I'm on a binging on them in anticipation of not having ready access. Oh, how I love these books! I finished Catching Fire just now and am forcing myself not to jump right into Mockingjay
A Hunger Games movie is forthcoming, but I have no desire to see it. What I dislike most about film versions of books is how they manage to completely override our own images of how things, people, and places in the book look. That's not so much a problem with books like Pride and Prejudice that are constantly remade, but for others there's often only one film version and that version overshadows the originals.

Last year I read Old Man's War by John Scalzi over the Thanksgiving holiday when I ran out of reading material. It's not a book that I'd normally pick up (see post), but my dad recommended it. I was pleasantly surprised by it and have subsequently picked up the follow-up books (again from my dad): The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, and Zoe's Tale.
I read The Ghost Brigades recently and will likely be tackling the other two books in short order.
I usually find science fiction to be somewhat inaccessible (it's a bit curious to me that science fiction films and television shows are so accessible when their written counterparts are so often not), which is why I tend to steer clear of it, but this series is really an exception. I recommend it for science fiction lovers as well as for people like me who don't normal read scifi.

I've been in a book spiral for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. What's a book spiral?, you ask. It's a way of circulating all the books in a series to a set of dispersed readers. Person A reads book 1 then sends it to B, who sends it to C, who send it to D, ..., who sends it back to A. While 1 is circulating, A reads book 2 and then starts to send it on its way. In this was all the books in the series are shared (one at a time) with each participant and then sent back to the originator. How long it takes to receive each book depends on the number of people before you in the queue, how quickly each reads, how far the books have to travel, and the efficiency of the postal service(s) involved.
I read The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters in December and The Titan's Curse in February. The Battle of the Labyrinth arrived this month.
I've really enjoyed this series. I like how Riordan incorporates Greek mythology (including many lesser known creatures) into his stories. One of the things I've appreciated most is how Riordan made things that are usually considered negative (dyslexia and ADHD) into indicators of superhuman gifts because I hope that kids who suffer for one or both of these things might feel a bit better about themselves after reading this series.

I had to admit that while I've collected all the books in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunately Events series, I've never managed to read it all the way through (I even have The Tragic Treasury, but I forbid Russell to play in my presence because the songs are such earworms). I've read so many other books since the last time I picked up a Snicket title that I wanted to start from the beginning, The Bad Beginning. So far I've read that, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, and The Miserable Mill. Four down, nine to go!

21 december

People who love to read tend to gravitate to the same kinds of books. It's not that they aren't open to trying out something different, it's just that they know what they like.

If you are still looking for a gift for someone that you know loves to read, I'd suggest getting them a book that they wouldn't pick out for themselves. It doesn't need to be something drastically different than what they'd choose. Don't get a Regency romance for your Adrian Goldsworthy fan, but maybe something from Bernard Cornwell.

The most important thing is that the book you give should be one that you've enjoyed yourself or that has been given a good review by someone whose taste you trust. Why? Because if your bookish giftee receives a book in which they can see no redeeming value, they'll never trust your recommendation again.

Not sold on this idea yet? Think about your favorite books and authors, I bet you were introduced to at least one of them by a friend, family member, or colleague. No? well, bah humbug to you. Here's my final attempt at proof of concept: When I was visiting my parents for the Thanksgiving holiday I ran out of the reading material I brought from home. My parents' house is full of books so I had plenty of options, but I ended up starting a book that my father had set aside for me: Old Man's War by John Scalzi. He was reading one of the sequels and assured me that it was a great series. I would have never picked up this book on my own being as it was mass market scifi with an unappealing (to me) title. I liked it!