{"id":2236,"date":"2013-05-18T12:41:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-18T17:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/?p=2236"},"modified":"2013-05-20T13:36:10","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T18:36:10","slug":"your-saturday-book-review-tbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/?p=2236","title":{"rendered":"Your Saturday Book Review — TBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another week that I didn’t read a book. But I pledged to write a book review every week, so what to do? I could do what I’ve been doing and pick a book I read at some point in the past, but that’s gotten old, so instead I’m going to be completely self-indulgent because it’s not like anyone I don’t know actually reads this blog, and I’ll discuss some of my to-be-read-books because not knowing anything about a topic has never stopped me before. I will not, however, be really funny, like that lady <\/a>who’d never seen an episode of Lost<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance <\/em><\/a>\u2013 This is a DTB that the better-half insists I read. He keeps saying stuff like, \u201cYou haven’t read it yet, have you?\u201d I get the feeling that his dream girl<\/em> has read it already, and they have lots of great imaginary discussions about it in their bed of roses. I can see why it appeals to him. Per the blurb, it’s short stories about \u201cordinary people\u201d set in many different parts of the world. Per the review excerpts, the stories are \u201cdarkly funny\u201d and \u201chighly entertaining.\u201d I get the impression they have edge, so if you like edge, this may be for you. If you like brands, it’s published by Picador, an imprint of Macmillan aimed at the international high-brow market.<\/p>\n

There are also several \u201cindie\u201d books waiting to be read on my kindle. I here and now pledge to get through the indies before moving on to \u201creal\u201d books. Just kidding. Geez<\/em>, you guys are so sensitive.<\/p>\n

The three at the top of the list are:<\/p>\n

A Naked Singularity<\/em> <\/a>\u2013 This was indie (as in self) published, but then got picked up by a university press. I heard about it on a forum discussing quality indies and bought it because Dan Holloway<\/a> said it was a great book, and that’s good enough for me. Just peeking at the first couple of pages, it’s got a distinctive voice that is not dumbed down. It reminded me for some reason of the opening of The Invisible Man<\/em>, though I’d have to read more of it to tell you why. I have a feeling it’s going to be a somewhat difficult but worthwhile endeavor.<\/p>\n

Will You Love Me Tomorrow <\/em><\/a>\u2013 This short story collection by Danny Gillan, caught my eye because it was a free download, which it no longer is. The good news is it’s still cheap! Gillan is one of those indie-writers that people often mention in those threads about indies worth reading.<\/p>\n

The Steel Deal<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Is a detective story by James Blakley.\u00a0 I’ve seen his comments on Amazon customer forums where he comes across as smart and discerning. (Yes, that does mean he’s liked some stuff I’ve written.) This made me curious, so I checked out his book and bio, which includes professional journalism credits. The novel takes place on the mean streets of Santa Fe, and I’m kind of curious about whether or not there are any mean streets in Santa Fe. The protagonist is a 55 year-old private investigator, and God knows we need more aging detectives. (I got this before I realized that Easy Rawlins<\/a> had actually survived<\/em> that car crash.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another week that I didn’t read a book. But I pledged to write a book review every week, so what to do? I could do what I’ve been doing and pick a book I read at some point in the past, but that’s gotten old, so instead I’m going to be completely self-indulgent because it’s … Continue reading Your Saturday Book Review — TBR<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marioninnyc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}