Iron Man (novelization)

By Peter David

As soon as I saw this was by Peter David, I had to get it. And when a "mistake" made by myself at Amazon.com sent a copy winging to me as well as to the friend I was originally ordering it for, well, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? Right? Bending my rule on buying new books is ok when it's in the pursuit of fangirling, right? Right?

Eh, screw it. I can break my own self-imposed rules.

The novelization is a blast. I knew from the first few pages, where David describes Tony's POV in present-tense during the mortar attack, that I was going to love it, and I was right. David nails Tony's self-destructive and self-deluding nature perfectly (there's a great moment when Tony is considering a friend from college who was a druggie and wonders to himself why anybody would pollute their body with chemicals like that -- and then he takes a sip of his scotch. Heh.). The story of Tony's transformation into Iron Man is handled really well, and there are all kinds of little extra bits of information that are a hoot and a half. This was written from an earlier version of the script and is thus missing a lot of the banter and interplay that were added during shooting, but it's still a lot of fun. Probably only a must-read for fans of Peter David or of the movie, though.

Book 11 in 2008.

Science Fiction Omnibus

Edited by Groff Conklin

Wow, this was an amazing anthology. Everything from Lovecraft to Bradbury. Conklin is an amazing editor with fantastic taste. Plus, there's something kind of awesome about reading a book that is physically older than I am by a significant amount. Two thumbs up!

Book 10 in 2008, go me! Only 19 books to go til I can buy more.

Agents of Light and Darkness

By Simon R. Green

This is a fun book! I'm becoming more and more of a fan of urban fantasy, and this is a prime sample of it. A little pulpy in spots (both in the literary and the literal senses), but generally good. I am annoyed to discover it's not the first book in the series, but I'll track down the others at some point.

Book 9 in 2008.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Vol 1

By These Guys

Man, I love Dr. McNinja. Having the comics in hardcopy was an added bonus, but when I saw that the graphic novel had bonus features and preserved the alt-text commentary from the site (plus added commentary for the first adventure), I had to have it. I'm glad I made the investment, and will be picking up Vol. 2 as soon as I can.

If you don't already read Dr. McNinja, I can't really do it justice here. Short version: He's a doctor who is also a ninja. He fights zombies, boys who have turned into giant lumberjacks, pirates, and banditos on dinosaurs. If that sounds like your cup of tea, it almost certainly is and you should go read.

Book 8 in 2008! Unread books: 201 (21 to go til I can buy new books)

Rain Fall

By Barry Eisler

I really enjoyed this somewhat pulpy thriller. Set in Tokyo, it follows the adventures of John Rain, half-American, half-Japanese assassin, as he deals with the aftermath of what had seemed like a routine assassination. There's a beautiful girl -- the daughter of the man Rain killed -- and plenty of thugs, both politicians and gangsters. Rain is surprisingly sympathetic, considering that he's an amoral killer-for-hire haunted by memories of the atrocities he committed as a soldier in Vietnam. Eisler gets points from me for describing martial arts accurately (he even has some Aikido thrown into the mix, woo!).

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Book 7 in 2008

Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend!

by Rosalind Joffe and Joan Friedlander

I got this book through the LibraryThing early reviewer program.

This is a must-read for women with autoimmune disease, especially if they are interested in being/staying employed. The text is a little too self-consciously sassy in places for my taste, and I wish they went a bit more into what they mean by being a warrior and having warrior spirit (I know what I think that means, but they didn't talk much about what they think it means, which I would have liked), but there is walth of good information in this book. The authors cover interviewing when you have a chronic illness, "coming out" to coworkers, considering self-employment as an option, and plenty of other material as well. The book is filled with stories from women the authors interviewed and from the authors' own lives, which makes the ideas and suggestions seem a lot more realistic. Good stuff!

Book 6 in 2008.

Healing the Child Within

By Charles L. Whitfield M.D.

I wasn't terribly impressed with this book, but it did give me some food for thought. It's very compact, written concisely, and in a dry, non-engaging style. It was written 20 years ago and feels kind of dated.

Book 5 in 2008.

Reading stats: 203 unread books; 23 books to read until I can buy more books.

Library Stats!

I have finished entering allll my books into my LibraryThing Catalog!! YAY! A few stats:

202 unread books (can buy more when that's down to 180)
956 read books (nearly all of these are available for loan!)

Of the read books:
536 are fiction
252 are nonfiction

Pretty neat, eh? I'm psyched. I wish I had a widget that would dynamically show how many unread books I have so I could put it in the left column, but Oh Well.

Deja Dead

By Kathy Reichs

I was unimpressed with this book for two reasons, one of which is admittedly unreasonable.

Firstly, I read the book because I love the TV show based on it, "Bones." Every single thing I loved about the show was missing here -- the geeky secondary characters, the socially awkward but strong and brilliant (and childfree!) female lead, the relationship between her and her FBI partner... all gone. Replaced with a frequently stupid, emotionally-driven, alcoholic divorced Mom. Tempe of the book is a reasonably well-crafted character, but nothing like the Brennan I love in the show. Unreasonable, I know, but it bugged me. A lot.

The real reason I will not only not give this book a good rating but not even bother keeping it in my library is that it's full of female victims. Tempe is strong in that she refuses to give in to her alcoholism even when stressed but she is driven by her heart instead of her head and repeatedly makes bad judgments that make her look stupid and put her in danger. I know this is a first novel and I should probably give it a break, but it annoyed the crap out of me.

(Book 4 in 2008)

The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre FINALLY FINISHED

by Stephen Youngkin

Short, irritated review at the original post.

(Book 3 in 2008)