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Books of February
Feb. 28th, 2011 09:12 pmNot as many books as in January, but it was a hectic sort of month.
#9 Phill Jupitus, "Good Morning Nantwich" - Mr Jupitus' adventures in modern breakfast radio. He was the first DJ on the BBC 6 Music breakfast show, and this book relates everything that led up to it and how his stint on that show ended. What I particularly like are the notes of music tracks appended to each chapter, so if you youtube the songs, you get a Phill Jupitus mixtape in the bargain.
#10 Elizabeth Bear, "All the Windwracked Stars" - I was in the mood for some Science Fiction (I still am). This is an intriguing sideways end-of-the-world tale steeped in Norse mythology. There are valkyries, powerful swords and the wolf that swallowed the sun, but there are also Technomancers and animal/human hybrids called "Moreaux". It starts like a fantasy, turns into a murder mystery, and ends in recognition. I liked the story with all its twists and turns and beautiful imagery. Well written, too, and I was sad to see it end.
#11 Richard Reynolds, "On Guerilla Gardening" - This one jumped out at me on the "returned non-fiction"-section in the library. Guerilla Gardening is a great concept, one that should be practiced more often. Also, since I've read this, I have become aware of empty spaces and the multitudes of litter strewn around the streets. It makes me want to take a plastic bag everywhere I go just to pick up stuff.
#12 Chris Beckett, "The Holy Machine" - Some more Science Fiction, this time in a world where the Reaction has turned most of the world into religion-led states, and anything scientific is banned (there are some rather graphic descriptions of how in America scientists were made to recant and confess their sins, reminiscent of Galileo et al). Scientists have fled to an Utopian state where everything religious is banned and science flourishes, where cheap labour is provided by human-like robots (up to and including the very human-like sex robots), and people spend time in a virtual world much like Second Life, only with all senses involved.
The novel tells the story of one man who falls in love with a sex robot and flees with her to the Outside (being the fanatically religious states), but it is mainly concerned with the conflict between science and religion (and religion with religion), and with what happens when either of the two rule by excluding the other, and journeys of self-discovery, with hints of Asimov.
#9 Phill Jupitus, "Good Morning Nantwich" - Mr Jupitus' adventures in modern breakfast radio. He was the first DJ on the BBC 6 Music breakfast show, and this book relates everything that led up to it and how his stint on that show ended. What I particularly like are the notes of music tracks appended to each chapter, so if you youtube the songs, you get a Phill Jupitus mixtape in the bargain.
#10 Elizabeth Bear, "All the Windwracked Stars" - I was in the mood for some Science Fiction (I still am). This is an intriguing sideways end-of-the-world tale steeped in Norse mythology. There are valkyries, powerful swords and the wolf that swallowed the sun, but there are also Technomancers and animal/human hybrids called "Moreaux". It starts like a fantasy, turns into a murder mystery, and ends in recognition. I liked the story with all its twists and turns and beautiful imagery. Well written, too, and I was sad to see it end.
#11 Richard Reynolds, "On Guerilla Gardening" - This one jumped out at me on the "returned non-fiction"-section in the library. Guerilla Gardening is a great concept, one that should be practiced more often. Also, since I've read this, I have become aware of empty spaces and the multitudes of litter strewn around the streets. It makes me want to take a plastic bag everywhere I go just to pick up stuff.
#12 Chris Beckett, "The Holy Machine" - Some more Science Fiction, this time in a world where the Reaction has turned most of the world into religion-led states, and anything scientific is banned (there are some rather graphic descriptions of how in America scientists were made to recant and confess their sins, reminiscent of Galileo et al). Scientists have fled to an Utopian state where everything religious is banned and science flourishes, where cheap labour is provided by human-like robots (up to and including the very human-like sex robots), and people spend time in a virtual world much like Second Life, only with all senses involved.
The novel tells the story of one man who falls in love with a sex robot and flees with her to the Outside (being the fanatically religious states), but it is mainly concerned with the conflict between science and religion (and religion with religion), and with what happens when either of the two rule by excluding the other, and journeys of self-discovery, with hints of Asimov.
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