One of the best things about reviewing books is that you get to tell the world about really cool titles that no one may have heard about. When I read Donna Seamon's Writers on the Air she mentioned in her introduction that she hated it when she told a friend about a great writer only to hear in response, "I've never heard of him (or her)." Sometimes I almost want to stop people on the street and tell them "read this book - it could change your life!" Of course that is kind of stalker-like behavior so I don't do it, but it is tempting! I've been buying books for the past couple of weeks for my family and friends for Christmas (they are all also getting many other things, but books are a given in my family), and it has been fun to finally be able to pass on some of the books I have really loved this year. That got me to thinking about how I choose books to review and also about this blog. I thought it might be fun to help spread the word on some books that you might not have heard about before Christmas hits. So I'm going to do my own version of the Twelve Days of Christmas and give some suggestions from the 1st - 12th of December on different books for different genres. I'll try to cover a bunch of different topics so if you're looking for a book for Uncle Joe or Cousin Suzy or your best friend Bobby, there will be something here that might help. And I'll get to spread the word on books that rock, which is really what I love doing anyway.

I finished reading The Aquanauts last night and it has to be on of the better young adult science fiction books I've read in a long time. The science, in this case about black holes and time travel, was deep enough to fully explain what was happening but not too intense for the reader (I got through it just fine). But what was really cool was the very real threat that hung over the characters - bad things happened in this book (not crazy bad, but the kind of bad that will happen when you mess around with black holes), and there was an urgent need to get their act together in order to survive. I liked that aspect a lot as all too often authors seem to shy away or pull back from the darkness inherent in a story like this - they set everything up but bail when things get serious. Honestly there is not a lot of good YA Sci Fi out there, at least not that I have seen. In the wake of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, fantasy has been more of the fad in publishing, which is fine, but please - it gets a little boring sometimes. The Aquanauts comes from a Canadian publisher (easily available in the US though) and I reviewed another of their books, From Charlie's Point of View, in Bookslut in September. That was one of the more unique YA mysteries I have read in a long time. Clearly, Tundra Books is willing to take a chance or two with their titles which is great - we don't get enough of that in the US I think, sometimes.

I'm doing a lot of writing today hopefully, lots of figuring things out for the next issues of Bookslut and Eclectica and also some figuring out in the world of dragons (now that has you wondering, doesn't it?! ha!) And some arctic exploration on the side - although that is just wandering around a few books to nail down some ideas. That is fun research! I start new reading tonight which is always exciting and I write my review of Rocket Science so this book can go off to my brother. He's going to love it, it's exactly the kind of adventure he would have had if he could.

Listening to Glenn Fry right now, and probably some Beth Hart. Today is a rock day!