Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week the list is Top Ten Books I’d Want On A Desert Island. Here are mine in no particular order:
1. Desert Island Survival for Dummies – I’m sure there is one of these or something like it out there. And I’d need it to survive long enough to read the rest of my books!
2. The Sibley Field Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley – I love birds and on a desert island I’ll have plenty of time to watch and identify them.
3. The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov – A science fiction classic.
4. A collection of stories by P.K.Dick – A favorite author of mine even though most of his stories are dark or surreal.
5. Replay by Ken Grimswald – My favorite time travel book.
6. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe – It’s been sitting on my bookshelf now for quite a few years. It’s over 800 pages and I’d have lots of time to finally get through it.
7. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – Another one of those huge books I’ve been wanting to read.
8. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – Another lengthy book that I’ve been meaning to tackle.
9. The Seasons of the Robin by Don Grussing – The life story of the North American Robin written as fiction. Coming up soon in my to-be-read pile and I wouldn’t want to miss it while stuck on an island!
10. P is for Peril by Sue Grafton – I love this series of books. And just for fun I’d sneak in a few of the other alphabet books while no one was looking.
Play along at The Broke and the Bookish
My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
Genre: Romance
Published: June 2010 by Riverhead Hardcover
Rating: 4½ of 5 stars
Daniel Gray has an old soul. He knows this because he remembers all of his past lives over a thousand years. Throughout time he has been pursuing one woman, Sophia, whom he has loved as long as he can remember. Sophia does not have the memory of past lives and each time her soul returns she begins anew. But perhaps it is possible to remember some of a former life through dreams, hypnosis and feelings of déjà vu; perhaps those memories are still there and just need to be unlocked.
The novel alternates chapters between Daniel’s life in the past and the story in the present as he pursues Sophia, now known as Lucy. I especially like the non-chronological style of alternating between the past and the present and Daniel’s descriptions of his previous lives and the people he knew then. Many of these souls have been reborn and are now inhabiting the present. Daniel not only has the ability to remember his own past lives but also to recognize other souls in their new lives. As Daniel explains, souls tend to stay together through the years.
Daniel is hesitant to contact Sophia/Lucy and while he longs for her he does little to approach her. About halfway through the book we see Daniel realize that one of the problems with living so long is that at some point you fear doing things wrong and, as a result, stop living. Once Daniel stops worrying and approaches Sophia/Lucy, the plot accelerated and the book sped along and I couldn’t put it down. I love the premise that our souls return time after time, and that some folks can remember those past lives.
The book was easy to read and I finished it in only a few sittings. That’s fast for me because it means I left other things neglected to finish a book because I wanted to get to the end. And the ending was my only problem with the book. There really wasn’t one. The reader is left wanting for more with many issues unresolved. A little poking around on google and I found out that this is book one in a trilogy, which explains the cliffhanger ending.
Even though I was not thrilled to be left hanging with the ending, I very much enjoyed the book, the writing style and the story. Now I’m waiting for the sequel.
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Source: Public Library
I just started a new book today, and my teaser comes from 
W W W : W A T C H by Robert J. Sawyer
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: April 2010
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is book two of a three part series. We first met Caitlin Decter in book one of the trilogy, W W W : W A K E.
Caitlin isn’t an ordinary teenager. Blind from birth she excelled in school as a math wiz and was able to surf the web by visualizing it’s complex pathways in her mind. Now Caitlin is the recipient of newly developed signal-processing implant that restores her sight in one eye. In the process she also finds she can communicate with something else that is emerging on the web; something sentient which begins learning and evolving. She calls the emerging intelligence Webmind. WATCH, a secret government agency that monitors the internet for security and terrorist threats, becomes aware that something is evolving on the web and it becomes their goal to hunt it down and find whoever created it.
You don’t to have read book one of the trilogy to enjoy this story but I highly recommend starting at the beginning. Several subplots were introduced which are woven together nicely in book two. In book one I found the introduction of these story lines, with no apparent way to tie them together and then having to wait a year for book two, to be frustrating. Another reason to read book one first is for the background on Caitlin, her friends, family and the development of the eye implant in the first novel.
I liked this book even better than the first one. Webmind grows and develops as a character and the subplots first introduced in book one begin to tie together. There are thought provoking issues about artificial intelligence and morality. We see the development of Webmind’s character when he witnesses a suicide on the internet. The book has enough scientific detail to be thought-provoking but not tedious and some interesting passages on game theory. There is believable science in this novel with characters that could be real people. Caitlin loves music, writes a blog, communicates with her friends and Webmind through instant messaging and updates her social networking page; she could almost be the kid next door. The setting of the story is in Canada and the author, being Canadian, tossed in lots of little factoids about our neighbors to the north.
Overall I found this to be an enjoyable read. Science fiction fans as well as anyone who enjoys contemporary or young adult fiction should find this an engaging story.
Book three, W W W : W O N D E R will be available in April, 2011.
Excerpts from the book, a synopsis of book one, WAKE, and more information about the author can be found on his web page.
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Source: Public Library
I’m The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
by Robert Heinlein
A freethinker, you are willing to go well outside the bounds of societal expectations in expressing what you believe. You yearn for simpler times out on the frontier when men were men and could take multiple wives or do whatever they wanted to without fear of the law. This recollection may be idealized and even nonsensical, but it doesn’t keep you from advocating revolution against rules, wherever they may exist. While you really like the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you always thought HAL should have been the hero. Your favorite Canadian coin is the Loonie.
Well that’s kind of eerie that it picked a science fiction book. I’m probably more 2001: A Space Odyssey or Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy than a Heinlein book but, hey, it’s in the ballpark. Science fiction is my favorite genre and usually these quizzes aren’t that accurate. Anyone else try it and get a book that’s a good match?
Take the Book Quiz II
at the Blue Pyramid.
61 Hours by Lee Child
Genre: Thriller
Published: May 2010 by Delacorte Press
Rating: 4½ of 5 stars
61 Hours is a fast-paced thrill ride providing an entertaining, escapist read.
Jack Reacher is hitching a ride on a tourist bus when it crashes in a snow storm in South Dakota. Forced to wait out the storm in a nearby small town he soon discovers that this is not your ordinary quiet little town. A gang of bikers are cooking meth, dead bodies are turning up, a jail-break is rumored to be eminent and a witness is being threatened by an unknown assassin. Reacher, a ex-military man, an MP, is drawn into the affair and agrees to help out risking his own life in the process.
Jack Reacher is the kind of guy you want to have around when trouble is brewing. He sees things the local police don’t pick up, his army experience and connections give him an advantage and at times his knowledge seems too good to be true. And that’s what I liked about him, he gets things done whatever it takes.
I enjoyed this book. The writing was crisp and clean, the dialog snappy and the story line easy to follow. The suspense builds as the plot unfolds. It’s one of those books that make you stay up too late because you want to know what is going to happen next.
This is the 14th novel in the Reacher series but it is the first one I have read. While having read previous novels would probably have helped me understand Reacher a little better, it wasn’t necessary for me to enjoy this book. You can read the books in any order. The author provided enough background detail for me to easily follow along. That said, I now want to read the rest of them if they are as good as this one.
One additional point to mention: Although I would consider this a stand alone story there are several unanswered questions at the end of this novel that presumably will be continued in the next book, Worth Dying For, which will be published later this year.
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Excerpts and more reviews on the official Jack Reacher page.
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Source: Review Copy provided by the publisher.
Last week the Nebula Award winners were announced and I realized I had already read one of the nominees and one winner; the Novella winner, The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker, and a nominated novel, The Love We Share Without Knowing, by Christopher Barzak.
I read both of these last year before I started the book blog so I didn’t write up a review for them at the time. These were both very good and worth taking a few minutes for a closer look.
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: November 2008
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a difficult book to describe. Each chapter is a seemingly separate story. When taken as a whole, they are interconnecting stories of love, loss and renew linking the lives of strangers in Japan and how fate affects each of their lives. Eventually the stories make their way full circle.
The book is written in a haunting and beautiful way. Each of the stories are told in the first person giving you their perspective. When I picked this book up I was intrigued by the description on the back cover. I never thought of it as science fiction and frankly was surprised, yet pleased, to see it nominated for a Nebula. I would describe it as psychological stories in a world of illusion.
Some of these stories were quite dark and depressing but overall I liked the book and would recommend it even for those who are not fans of science fiction.
The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: June 2009
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nell Gwynne’s is an underground establishment, a brothel, which is working for Scotland Yard. And Lady Beatrice is no ordinary lady of the evening. When a member of the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society is missing the women of Nell Gwynne’s are called upon for assistance.
This is steampunk, a sub-genre of science fiction. As defined by Wiki, the term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Kage Baker. No reason, I just never got around to picking one up. When I saw this novelette I thought good, I’ve got time to read a shorter story. I probably should have started with one of the earlier novels of The Company. While I enjoyed the story I really couldn’t get into it and felt I was missing some background. I would recommend it, but only to those that are already familiar with some of her earlier books.
Under My Apple Tree 