What a lovely bunch! We had quite a few coming through yesterday and all of them were so nice.
Going to be a busy weekend there's the TW reunion tour Saturday morning - hopefully we can get the group back on track and start having meetings again. Sunday is writing with Donna so taking a page from our blogs The Rose and Cactus society! Also because its good to learn something new I'm adding Brazilian Dancing and Hoop Dancing to my day not just because they are fun to learn but I find that I'm much more creative after that kind of workout and don't laugh - no please don't - I was having a problem with ending a conversation between two characters - for months it's just had 'finish this' in caps at the end of it. I was thinking about it just before I went to sleep and with my brain in that loosened state the words I needed just jumped into my head and they stayed there until I got them down on the page the next day. Yay!
Jan 30, 2009
Jan 29, 2009
Among the Mad - Jacqueline Winspear
Christmas 1931. Maisie Dobbs witnesses a suicide on a London street close to her office. One man is holding London to account and he mentions Maisie by name in his first communiqué to the British Government. As his attacks escalate Special Branch co-opts Maisie as an advisor. Soon the capable Miss Dobbs is dealing with Union agitators, followers of Oswald Moseley, Military Intelligence Section Five and a string of medical men and women in a race against time to track down a broken genius. She is also trying to her help her assistant Billy Beale whose family is still reeling from a recent tragedy and may have worse to come.
The Alexander Cipher
Finished the Alexander arc and it's good. Comes out in March so I'll post the full review then but I have to say as I was reading it I was casting characters in my head. I don't know if Will Adams intended it to read like a movie but it does and I loved the sly wink at the character of Yusuf Abbas. Adams clearly has as much respect for the SCA head as I do! More rewrites yesterday had to go back and read the whole thing again just to be sure it still holds together. Tomorrow I'm going to take version 3.5 to my lovely colleague Jennifer for her professional opinion. I'll be looking for some more arcs to read but might not get the chance as Winter Institute has started so we're going to get swamped with booksellers my shift should fly by.
Jan 24, 2009
Daemon - Daniel Suarez
We've had the arc of this for ages but we just got the book in so I took the arc home and it pushed the Alexander arc to the sidelines
This is a fast-paced tech thriller in the vein of William Gibson, Tom Clancy etc if you want a book for the video gamer in your household then this is it.
Computer genius Matthew Sobol is dead and on the day his obituary hits the internet it triggers events that will change the world. Two of Sobol's employees die within hours of each other and no one knows what they were working on. Detective Seebeck will take his last case, Anji Anderson will be fired from her TV fluff spot and Jon Ross will fix a server problem that could cost him his liberty and even his life. Something is controlling their destinies something created by a dead man.
I came away from this book with a what if vibe. Suarez' vision of a new world order is chilling but highly plausible and if you want happy endings this isn't the book for you!
This is a fast-paced tech thriller in the vein of William Gibson, Tom Clancy etc if you want a book for the video gamer in your household then this is it.
Computer genius Matthew Sobol is dead and on the day his obituary hits the internet it triggers events that will change the world. Two of Sobol's employees die within hours of each other and no one knows what they were working on. Detective Seebeck will take his last case, Anji Anderson will be fired from her TV fluff spot and Jon Ross will fix a server problem that could cost him his liberty and even his life. Something is controlling their destinies something created by a dead man.
I came away from this book with a what if vibe. Suarez' vision of a new world order is chilling but highly plausible and if you want happy endings this isn't the book for you!
Jan 20, 2009
Angel Maker review
The Angel Maker – Stefan Brijs
Country Doctor Karl Hoppe’s son Victor arrives back in his home village of Wolfheim to restart his father’s shuttered practice. With him come his three infant sons. He soon gains the villagers’ trust despite his abrupt manner and on the surface everything is normal. But underneath….
The villagers start asking questions. Where is the triplets’ mother? Why don’t any of the villagers see or hear the boys. Why did Dr Hoppe give up a massive genetic research grant at the University of Aachen to become a simple country Doctor.
Victor has a terrible secret, one forged by the fire and brimstone religion of his upbringing. He believes that Jesus is good and that God is full of wrath and vengeance and therefore evil.
And Victor wants to beat God at his own game.
Brijs instills just the right amount of creepy unease into this modern day horror story.
Country Doctor Karl Hoppe’s son Victor arrives back in his home village of Wolfheim to restart his father’s shuttered practice. With him come his three infant sons. He soon gains the villagers’ trust despite his abrupt manner and on the surface everything is normal. But underneath….
The villagers start asking questions. Where is the triplets’ mother? Why don’t any of the villagers see or hear the boys. Why did Dr Hoppe give up a massive genetic research grant at the University of Aachen to become a simple country Doctor.
Victor has a terrible secret, one forged by the fire and brimstone religion of his upbringing. He believes that Jesus is good and that God is full of wrath and vengeance and therefore evil.
And Victor wants to beat God at his own game.
Brijs instills just the right amount of creepy unease into this modern day horror story.
New week, new, president, new arc
When we arrived here in March of 2001 it wasn't a good year to be coming to America but how was anyone to know that. Even amidst these eight years when the US's reputation was flushed down the toilet by Bush and his cronies we've been made to feel welcome and we have some very good friends here. That's why it's a good day today, a shiny new president, a man with vision. I'd love to be in DC right now but I'll have to settle for watching the swearing in on TV.
Finally the arcs are flowing again - picked up one yesterday by Will Adams called the Alexander Cipher and it hooked me from the prologue!
Finally the arcs are flowing again - picked up one yesterday by Will Adams called the Alexander Cipher and it hooked me from the prologue!
Jan 18, 2009
Sundance and Winter Institute
Busy couple of weeks at the store - Sundance always brings new visitors to the bookstore and this week is no different and the following week it's Winter Institute. This is a program of lectures and information that the american booksellers association has been holding for the last few years and this year it's in down town SLC. So 500 booksellers will be hitting Salt Lake, if you are one of them come and see us.
No arcs this week - but I did put some of my hard earned bonus into the new Christopher Fowler "The Victoria Vanishes" and I visited his website to see if this was the last peculiar crimes mystery and it's not!
No arcs this week - but I did put some of my hard earned bonus into the new Christopher Fowler "The Victoria Vanishes" and I visited his website to see if this was the last peculiar crimes mystery and it's not!
Jan 11, 2009
Revenge of the Spellmans
Izzy Spellman is back I just finished the arc and I'm blurbing it right now. Comes out in March and as usual I'll post my full review then. Also got some more feedback on Friday (good feedback!) so this morning I reread and did some more rewrites and fleshed out one of my characters a bit more. When to stop tinkering? - not yet!
Jan 3, 2009
Happy 2009
I've only read two arcs so far this year. One is already out and the other comes out in February. First, The Book of Unholy Mischief by Elle Newmark - this just came out.
Luciano is a street urchin surviving on his wits until he is plucked from the street and deposited into the kitchen of the Doge of Venice. Apprenticed to the Doge's chef Amato Ferrero, Luciano learns of the unlikely Guardians and in the Doge's court and in the streets rumours abound of a book that contains some things called Gnostic Gospels and more importantly how to turn lead into gold and the secrets of eternal life. This thriller set in Venice has some of the most delicious descriptions, I could almost taste the words the emphasis on food being a powerful tool as well as just very satisfying is a clue to the Guardians identity but Luciano's misplaced sense of loyalty to his former street friends and his obsession with novice nun Francesca could prove his undoing.
I just finished the sixth Maisie Dobbs novel - Among the Mad - it's very good comes out in February and I'll post the review for it then. Tomorrow it's back to writing. I can't believe I haven't written anything for two whole weeks!
Luciano is a street urchin surviving on his wits until he is plucked from the street and deposited into the kitchen of the Doge of Venice. Apprenticed to the Doge's chef Amato Ferrero, Luciano learns of the unlikely Guardians and in the Doge's court and in the streets rumours abound of a book that contains some things called Gnostic Gospels and more importantly how to turn lead into gold and the secrets of eternal life. This thriller set in Venice has some of the most delicious descriptions, I could almost taste the words the emphasis on food being a powerful tool as well as just very satisfying is a clue to the Guardians identity but Luciano's misplaced sense of loyalty to his former street friends and his obsession with novice nun Francesca could prove his undoing.
I just finished the sixth Maisie Dobbs novel - Among the Mad - it's very good comes out in February and I'll post the review for it then. Tomorrow it's back to writing. I can't believe I haven't written anything for two whole weeks!
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