Today at lunchtime I finished W.E.B. Griffin's Black Ops.  I have this idea I might like to write a thriller, and considered it research.  I'm still baffled about his popularity.  While the characters were mildly interesting, the only real action in the book was the attempted assassination of a Secret Service agent in the first chapter.  The rest is characters schlepping around from Vienna to Buenos Aires to Cozumel to Texas and so on, and sitting around chatting like characters in a late Heinlein novel.  The prose was pedestrian but serviceable.  I don't see what makes this a best seller.  Maybe I'll stick with fantasy, since I can sell that.

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5. Black Ops, W.E.B. Griffin
4. Goodnight Keith Moon, Bruce Worden and Clare Cross
3. Revenge of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz
2. Julian Comstock.  Robert Charles Wilson
1. Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm.  Jeff Smith

This morning I read Goodnight Keith Moon by Bruce Worden and Clare Cross.  It's a dead-on parody of Goodnight Moon, the 1947 classic by by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd.  I wasn't sure a 16-page illustrated "children's" book counted, but what the heck, let's call it a graphic novel about the notorious death of legendary Who drummer Keith Moon. 

Hilarious.  Take five minutes, click the link and laugh out loud.

-- 4. Goodnight Keith Moon, Bruce Worden and Clare Cross 3. Revenge of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz 2. Julian Comstock.  Robert Charles Wilson 1. Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm.  Jeff Smith

Book Three was Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz.  This caught my eye on the new book shelf at the library, and I noticed it was the third in a series.  Normally I like to start series at the beginning, so I looked for the first one, and even though the computer claimed the library had copies,  and that there was one checked in to my local branch, I couldn't find it.  Oh well, I'll read this one. 

Isabelle "Izzy" Spellman is the daughter of PI parents, who has adventures in and out of the family business.  The best way to describe her is sort of a San Francisco version of Janet Evanovich's heroine Stephanie Plum, only funnier.  Lutz also uses footnotes to good effect.  It seems to be a trend: first Pratchett, then Fforde, now Wilson and Lutz.
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3. Revenge of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz
2. Julian Comstock.  Robert Charles Wilson
1. Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm.  Jeff Smith

Just had an earthquake here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  According to the USGS Earthquake Siteit was a 4.2 magnitude at on the Calaveras Fault at the Calaveras Reservoir.

It was interesting.  Since it was close the S and P waves arrived close together but could be easily distinguished.  I love it when real life things work just like they say in the textbooks.  Science: it works.  Deal with it.

Book two was Julian Comstock by Robert Charles Wilson.  Adam Hazzard, an Athabaskan lease-boy befriends Aristo Julian Comstock and has adventures with him in 22nd century America, after the Fall of the Cities that was comcomitant with the end of the Efflorescence of Oil, and after the Northern States (like Quebec) have been annexed.  Without spoilers I can't say much about the plot, except that there are brave men, beautiful women, railroads, steamships, battles, fights, intrigue, religion and politics galore.

I liked the slightly archaic tone of the writing, though I'm not sure anything set in 2172 can count as "steampunk".  Especially nice were the myriad witty footnotes, which serve in part to establish that Adam, our first person narrator, is an "unreliable observer".  There are untranslated passages in Dutch and French, and the educated reader will be able to tell that what Adam *thinks* they say, (or is told what they say) is far from correct.

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2. Julian Comstock.  Robert Charles Wilson
1. Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm.  Jeff Smith

So I haven't been posting much for one reason or another, so this year I'll try posting a bit about every book I read.  This will include fiction or graphic novels I finish, including rereads, and non-fiction I read at least half of.  This means that if I read the chapter on floats in the CSS reference book I have at work, or three recipes in a random cook book you don't have to know about it.

Fair warning -- I have quite eclectic tastes.

First book finished in 2010 is Bone Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith.  We learn about the aftermath of the Great Cow Race in Volume two, and quite a bit about Thorn's family.  I like the contrast between the realistically-drawn humans (and other critters) and the simplicity of the Bones, which makes Fone Bone easy to identify with, in accordance with Scott McCloud's observation that the simpler the drawing, the more generic and universal it becomes.
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1. Bone, Volume 3: Eyes of the Storm.  Jeff Smith

Tags: books

You ever read up on entomology for the sole reason of being able to have this conversation:

Normal person (NP): Ack! A  cockroach!  I hate bugs.
Nerdy You (Y): Cockroaches aren't bugs?
NP: Huh?  What are they, then?
Y: Blattariae.  Bugs are Hemipterae.
NP: What's the difference?
Y: Bugs like aphids and cicadas have mouthparts adapted to piercing and sucking.  Roaches have generalised mouthparts and their first pair pf wings form a hardened protective shield.

The problem is, nerds like you and me expect the conversation to continue like this:

NP: Wow!  I am in awe of your learning!  I am not worthy!

But what really happens is this:

NP: Fuck that!  I hate bugs!  *SQUISH*.

Finally got it.  See y'all there.

Saturday 4:00 PM:  Diversity 2.0

If half the 'Verse was settled from Asia, where were the Asians in
Firefly? Is media casting changing to better reflect global diversity
or has progress effectively stalled since the original Star Trek? Does
Hollywood need some sort of "affirmative casting" plan?

Andrew Clark (M)
Rob Caves
Berry Kercheval
Justin Lloyd
Carlos Pedraza

Sunday 5:30 PM  The Happiest Place Off Earth

What might Disney: Mars look like? What can we do if we build an
amusement park at L5? And how will the changes in local gravity and
atmosphere modify the technological requirements?

Chris Doyle (M)
Berry Kercheval
Justin Jackson
Tim Kirk
Mia Molvray

Monday 1:00 PM  "Pop Goes the Culture"

"There's no place like home." "I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit
hole." Some fantasy and sci-fi classics have permeated popular culture
to the point that people get the reference without even knowing the
original source material. Is this a good thing or has popular culture
finally jumped the shark?

Arabella Benson (M)
Tim Crowley
Berry Kercheval
Kate Morgenstern
Martin Young

I saw Smetana's opera "The Bartered Bride" last night at San Francisco State University. It was pretty darn good, and the costumes were FABULOUS.

My daughter was assistant costume designer. Here's the press photo shoot on flickr.

From a craigslist posting seeking a freelance writer: