Review: Cat Out of Hell

Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you love cats?  Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss is for you.

Do you hate cats?  Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss is for you.

I didn't think it was possible for a book to appeal to lovers and haters of cats, but I believe this one does.  Told through a variety of means (transcriptions of audio recordings, descriptions of images, emails, emeows, etc.), Cat Out of Hell is a mystery and a story about dealing with grief.   It is also incredibly funny.  I realize these things probably sound like they don't go together and yet, they do!  If you've ever wondered why cats do what they do, this book offers an explanation.  I'll leave it at that because you really should be reading this book right meow.

Bonus points for the dogs, especially Watson, the incredible cats, especially Roger, and Sherlock Holmes.  

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Review: The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading about time travel always messes with my head, in a good way.  My brain gets wrapped up in the science it would take to make it happen.  And ever since I took a physics class that posited time travel to the past (but not the future) is technically possible, I look to books like The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz for suggestions on how that might work.  If you like the science (especially geology) part of science fiction a lot, Newitz has got you covered.  

Now what if human rights depended on all this time travel?  Would you do whatever it takes to preserve your rights or even change history to create them?  What would you sacrifice for them?  The story is told from two perspectives along different timelines.  Trust me, it is not as tough to read as it sounds.  I especially enjoyed that the main characters are near my age and the music that speaks to them growing up is similar to the music I love.  I could see a lot of myself in them.  No spoilers here...Anthony Comstock and his ilk are villains.  That's just truth.  Read this book.

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Review: Truly Like Lightning

Truly Like Lightning by David Duchovny
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had planned to read Truly Like Lightning by David Duchovny anyway, so when Farrar, Straus, and Giroux sent me an advance copy via NetGalley I was thrilled.  

I'll be the first to admit that I am not a big reader of westerns, so a book about a cowboy is not something that usually makes my list.  But a polygamist, Mormon cowboy?  You've got my attention.  Plus, I enjoyed Holy Cow and was looking forward to what this might turn out to be.  

There's a lot more than just a cowboy and his family going on in this book.  So much at times that it felt like you could have more than one book to follow all the tangential storylines.  Duchovny hits all the big themes: religion, politics, race, sex...I'm not sure how he managed to do it in under 500 pages.  I'm also not sure how he managed not to send me into a pit of despair about the world around us.  The writing is surprisingly light (but not frivolous) given all the heavy topics and that helped propel me forward rather than getting mired down.  

In the end, I felt the real lesson was to beware the perils of dogmatic thinking.  When we get so bound up in our own narrative that we don't allow for any counterpoints, we are headed down a dangerous path.

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Review: We Sold Our Souls

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I devoured We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix in two sittings.   It would have been one sitting, but a woman needs her sleep.  I am not a die-hard metalhead, but I do appreciate metal and the outlet it provides.  Hendrix's writing is so great that it probably wouldn't matter what musical genre he was writing about I would read that book.  But if you are going to tell a horror story about fighting evil with music, metal seems a good choice.  That Hendrix chose a woman to lead the battle makes me love the book even more.  Bring a strong stomach because there is no skimping on gore here.    

I look forward to the release of the companion album, Troglodyte, because you can't tell us a weapon against Black Iron Mountain is out there and not give it to us.        

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Review: Robot Uprisings

Robot Uprisings by Daniel H. Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robot Uprisings is a collection of short stories from various authors edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams.  No surprises that the stories all revolve around robot uprisings of some sort.  I was especially pleased that many of my favorite science fiction and fantasy writers contributed and lived up to my expectations.  There were new-to-me authors as well.  The great thing about a book like this is it gives you that opportunity to try someone new.  If you don't like it, move on to the next story.  If you do like them, you've opened up a whole new world of books.  But for the most part, I enjoyed the stories even if they made me want to become a hard-core Luddite.  

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