SFist Reads
It's feast or famine, as we either have a huge pile of books we reserved online, or we have nothing but a Lands' End catalog to keep us occupied on the N. But we know that as soon as we break down and buy something at one of our fine local independent bookstores, a whole bunch of our awaited books will arrive. Is there a "law" (like "Murphy's") for this?
SFist Derrick is reading The Botanist and the Vintner, the story of how phylloxera wiped out many of Europe's -- and virtually all of France's -- vineyards in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
SFist Jackson is in all kinds of transit, so he's been hoarding books like a literate bear might before going into hibernation. They go so fast! Case in point: Gone Fishin', which is the sixth book in the Easy Rawlins mysteries, but diegetically falls before the first, Devil in a Blue Dress. It does a lot to explain the roots of Easy's thirst for facts, his ability to stay cool under fire, and his tense friendship with Mouse. Our biggest gripe was with the hardbound edition's presentation -- the publisher printed it in, like, sixteen point sans-serif type on a smaller than normal jacket footprint. Unless we got it mixed up with the special "Old People" edition, we think they were trying to stretch a novela into something that looks like it's worth the hardback cover price.
SFist Eve just finished Drama City, by George P. Pelecanos. Our end-to-end trip on the N whipped right by as we read this taut and genuine novel about a reformed thug turned D.C. animal cop. Oh, to be a huge bad-ass guy saving abused animals! The female characters are poorly rendered and cartoonish, but the main character rings true enough to (almost) make us forgive this.