One of the reasons I so enjoy Jenny Davidson's blog is that she delightfully exhorts the idea of light reading. Her site is as likely to endorse the words of Dick Francis as it is to include recent research discoveries from her much more serious work on the 18th century. (She has a book due out from Columbia Univ Press this winter). I also like how effectively she blended all of her interests into the wonderful YA alt history title, The Explosionist (My review can be found here.) Jenny and I have a lot of interests in common and through her I have read many wonderful books (most recently Roger Deakin's Waterlog; we also enjoy Jo Walton and Martin Millar a great deal).
I write here often about books I am reviewing (it's a more informal way to discuss them) but I can't discuss the titles for Booklist until those reviews are published. This is especially difficult when I read a book that appeals so directly to my light reading sensibilities and want to share information about it with the world. That happened most recently with the Iran title I read (yes, Iran and light reading combined - a book that was informative in the truest sense but also highly readable) (all I'm going to add is that apparently Bridezillas are not a solely western creature) and the nature title I just submitted my review for. The latter book I'm sure Jenny will enjoy a great deal - if she has not obtained a copy of its British version already. (It included discussion of both jaguars - as in cars - and John Nash which I think is really quite unprecedented.)
YA also has light reading and Joan Aiken's delightful fantasy collection, The Serial Garden, is a perfect example of this. Small Beer Press (Gavin Grant and Kelly Link) could not have initiated their new YA press, Big Mouth House, with a better title in my opinion. Aiken's stories are very smart and absolutely hilarious and not in the least bit dated (a rather impressive achievement). In Aiken's world the main characters (Mark and Harriet Armitage) are as likely to getting over whooping cough or going to school as they are to be rescuing a unicorn or dealing with battling druids in the garden. They are the Cassons blended with Harry Potter - and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. (Not the overwriting bits of Harry Potter nor Voldemort, but parts like qwiddich and Hogsmeade.) Aiken is perfect reading for the winter months as you can not help but be cheered by her stories; I'm really looking forward to reviewing this book.
I am also working on a large piece on fantasy collections for the next issue of Eclectica and in that vein I've been reading The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Ellen Datlow. It has its disturbing stories (Margo Lanagan, as usual, packs a powerful punch), but I do think that SFF short stories are some of the most creative writing found in literature today. This is not to suggest that creativity is not alive and well elsewhere, but here you find a story about vulcanologists that takes a turn off the predictable path or a monster story not about the monster or a boxing story in which Sonny Liston is the hero as quite honestly, I always thought he was.
Sonny Liston in a SFF collection; how cool is that?
When I review collections I'm always frustrated because there is never enough room to write all the reasons why I like certain stories - there is only a line or two for several of them and then a few paragraphs about the collection as a whole. This is usually because the collections are part of my column (although the Del Rey collection will not be as it is an adult collection that I think would largely appeal to that readership) or because I review several at once (my own choice admittedly but it does make reviewing a little tougher). So I thought I should use my blog to comment on several specific stories in each of the collections that I particularly liked. It's more light reading I can share with readers here and also a way for some short stories that might be overlooked otherwise by non SFF readers to gain a bit more exposure.
Thus "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall" by Elizabeth Bear will be written about here shortly.
[Post pic of Sonny Liston from the December 1963 cover of Esquire.]
