Although I have been reading everyday it still seems odd to be writing about books instead of obsessing about Obama's Cabinet appointments (Robert Kennedy Jr to head the EPA! Colin Powell as Sec of Education! Bill Richardson as Sec of State! Chuck Hagel as NSA! or Sec of Defense! or Asst Sec of Defense!). I think we all need some kind of decompression plan to wean ourselves off of the campaign. Who ever thought this would become the national addiction of choice?

Sigh. Must write about books!

I've been a big fan of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Retrieval Artist series for awhile and last week finished Consequences (this is not the most recent title but the one I'm up to). This is really a perfect blend of SF and police procedural. You have the awesome setting (Armstrong Dome, one of several domed cities on the Moon) a great back story of interstellar alliances (basically Star Trek's Federation) which involves humans agreeing to honor alien laws and thus becoming guilty of offenses they did not know were offensive and a need for humans to occasionally "disappear" and thus later need to be found by the aforementioned Retrieval Artists. Our hero is Miles Flint, the R.A. with a conscience who in Consequences has a customer who ends up dead. There is also a situation involving a planet just coming out of a Civil War and many people on both sides who aren't ready to stop fighting. There's politics, revenge, an explosion or two. You'll be guessing until the end who did what and why. It's really good stuff and a perfect genre blend.

Am I the only one who is both thrilled and worried about Tim Burton's take on Alice? (If this is bad it's going to be really really bad......)

Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? has just gone into a second printing with a new cover (which is not yet up on the book's page at publisher Chin Music Press). This anthology of stories, first published months after Katrina ,includes my own essay about Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong and my father (among many other things), "Listen for the Second Line". This is one of the finer projects I've ever been part of; if you know someone who is a fan of the city I heartily recommend it.

Sarah Vowell alert. From last week at CNN:

For the last nine years, she has lived in New York City, where she does most of the research for her books from her apartment.

Vowell contends the United States is still haunted by the Puritans' vision of themselves "as God's chosen people, as a beacon of righteousness that all others are to admire." This world view, she writes, has shaped key events in American history, including the invasion of Vietnam and the war in Iraq.

Richard Farr's Emperors of the Ice is a YA title for those interested in the Apsley Cherry-Garrard's Worst Journey in the World - a classic of polar literature. As Farr explains in the Preface, he thinks "Cherry's" book was excellent but understands how it might be too long for the general reader (particularly teens). So he wrote Emperors as an alternative and introduction - a book that gives readers a look into just what went on during Scott's doomed 1910 Antarctica expedition (and especially the "Winter Journey" Cherry was part of) and will serve as an excellent starting point for readers who want to learn more. I'm going to review this one for December and think adventure-curious kids (of the 12 and up variety) will really enjoy it. It's full of maps and black and white photos from the Scott expedition. Farr also made the unorthodox decision to write the book from Cherry's POV (he explains why in the Preface) which draws readers in much more than the typical NF perspective.

And oh look - yet another discussion about what is YA. Disagreements ensue in the comments and yet again I am puzzled by how people keep asking this question, how many feel compelled to weigh in self-righteously with answers and how many people insist upon telling the world that they read The Hobbit when they were four and no one should suggest that teens shouldn't be reading adult titles. (Okay, four might be young but you get the drift.)

I did not involve myself in this discussion, in fact one of my resolutions toward a simpler life means I will never argue the YA/Not YA subject again.

It is a new day for all of us, after all.