I have a soft spot for librarian fiction, but a distaste for Gale Cengage Learning, which in addition to the crime of being a library conglomerate responsible for some overpriced electronic resources with crappy interfaces, has published at least one other librarian penned title in its Five Star genre fiction imprint.
The heroine of Before I Fall is loathsome for the first 350 or so pages of the 470 page novel, and she dies about a half dozen times. Even so, it's a diverting read, and more nuanced than you think it's going to be.
I read this book. It is the autobiography of a pioneering distance runner who broke down barriers for women athletes. It is very good. I am sick right now and can't offer more than that.
The second book in Mira Grant's Newsflesh series is just as compelling as the first, though I don't like the narrative voice quite as much. (It's a boy.) This time the focus is less on media (though of course blogging and fancy tech are still major elements) and more on medicine, medical ethics in particular.
It's 2039. Scientists have cured cancer and the common cold. Unfortunately in so doing, they have also created a virus that turns all of the dead or infected into zombies. Good thing there are some blogjournalists on the scene to find out who's weaponizing the zombies and training them on a presidential campaign.
See, Berkeley has always drawn the nuts and flakes of the academic world. That's what happens when you have a university that offers degrees in both computer science and parapsychology. It was a city primed to believe any weird thing that came across the wire, and when all those arguably crazy people started hearing rumors about the dead rising from their graves, they didn't dismiss them. They began gathering weapons, watching the streets for strange behavior and signs of sickness, and generally behaving like folks who'd actually seen a George Romero movie.
It's always neat to see a zinester or minicomics artist publish a book.
I almost put The Mockingbirds down after the first clumsy page or two, but I stuck with it, and am glad I did. It's the story of date rape and students taking the law into their own hands because the school administration is too impressed with itself to acknowledge and address the school's imperfections. The rapist is a water polo player, for dog's sake!
Even though I don't generally like them, I can handle an unreliable narrator. What I don't like is a manipulative author. Liar is an enjoyable read, but you end up irritated with it in the end. Therefore, I don't know whether to recommend it or not.
The Southern California psychic from Shattered Moon is working with the post-Rodney King beating LAPD to find a missing child. Published in 1993, this installment isn't quite as New Agey as the first in the series. There are still a lot of protective white lights being imagined around people's hearts, and Theresa Fortunato is still attracted to boorish men, so things haven't changed too much.
If you remember my gushing review of Emily's Parfait zine, you know I'm a fan. Basil Is Dying, about the passing of her beloved tabby will not disappoint you, but it will probably make you cry.
