Onward with some fiction! Both of these books are written by John Scalzi, the shiny-new president of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. I was altogether unfamiliar with Scalzi, until Wil Wheaton posted a blog post with a ghastly, horrifying, magically awesome painting, inviting readers to head over to Scalzi’s blog to find out the deets. So scoot over I did, and found John Scalzi to be an intriguing writer.

Since he’s friends with Wil Wheaton, and other friends of Wil Wheaton whom we’ve met have turned out to be really hoopy froods, I scampered over to the library Web site and put a couple of his books on hold.

Agent to the Stars arrived first, and was a great introduction to John Scalzi’s humorous sci-fi writing. A benevolent alien species wants to approach humankind in peace, but they’re smelly. And look like slime. One look at The Blob lets them know that it may not go over well, which leads the aliens to get a Hollywood agent to make the introductions.

I ripped through this book, because I didn’t want to put it down. The characters were fun, the situations clever, and the writing very witty. There were a couple of really glaring typos (which was also the case with the other Scalzi book I read), which is always distressing. And three female characters in the first part whose names start with M, which got a tad bit confusing. But considering that this was Scalzi’s first novel, written partially just to see if he could indeed write, it’s an amazing effort. A load of fun, and 8 out of 10.

The second Scalzi book I received was The Android’s Dream. On a future Earth where alien races are welcomed, a political incident arises when the Nidu species requires a specific genetically created sheep for a ceremony — the Android’s Dream sheep. (A nice nod to Philip K. Dick there.) The only problem is that someone’s killing off any and all of the sheep. Enter Harry Creek, a state department employee with a past both in the army and as a hacker. The perfect combination to find and protect Robin Baker, the only woman with a connection to the sheep needed to prevent interstellar war.

Again, the mix of humor and sci-fi was excellent. And again, I sped through this book in one day, in order to find out what happens. It tickled the same sci-fi funnybone as Douglas Adams — a nice, dry wit. 9 out of 10.

I’ve put my next Scalzi book on hold — The Old Man’s War, which is apparently the first in a set of four (the next are Ghost Brigades, Last Colony, and Zoe’s Tale) more serious books. I hope he still has some of his humor, even if the material is a bit heavier. We’ll have to see if they strike me the same way his lighthearted books have.

I got a number of library books in a very short period of time, so I’ve been reading my face off lately. Our library system delivers requested books right to your doorstep, so it was a surprising few days as my stack grew.

First up: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Actually, what I received is what I’ve linked to: the young reader’s edition. Which I kind of like, because it was written with a fun tone that’s easy to understand. Not thick and wordy like that pesky Good Calories, Bad Calories. Anyhoo, in this book Michael Pollan takes us through four meals: one from conventionally available foods, one from organically grown foods, one from a local sustainable farm, and one from foods he hunted and gathered himself. It’s a very nice look at how our foods make it to our local supermarkets, and how foods labeled as “organic” aren’t necessarily any better as far as health OR saving the environment.

The book was a quick read, and would make an excellent companion piece to the documentary Food, Inc. (which also involves Michael Pollan). And even the young reader’s edition contains tons of great information about healthy foods. It made me want to plant a garden. And to visit Polyface Farms (Food, Inc. also made me want to visit Polyface). 8 out of 10.

Next: Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. I have to admit, I heard about this book and thought it was going to be great. Ettlinger takes apart the ingredients list of a Twinkie, then finds out how each of those ingredients is grown, processed, or mined. Sadly, the book was a long slog of a read. There wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped there would be, and it was almost too much information in some ways. The chapters all felt 30% longer than they needed to be.

It was interesting to learn how certain ingredients are created; I was surprised at how many of them were made from petroleum, through cracking and solvents and chemical interactions. Many of the others were made from corn by-products, which are also treated with solvents and chemicals. And in that vein, I think my biggest issue with the book is the fact that the author points out things (Hey, did you know that soy oil is treated with toxic hexane to create shortening?) without a lot of questioning of if these things are good. I guess I wanted a little less here’s-how-it-is, and a little more here’s-what-I-think-about-that. Does Ettlinger think that creating chemical food additives out of petroleum is healthy? Or smart? We don’t really know. He lays out the facts, and not much more. 6 out of 10.

On Scott’s recommendation, I just read two books by Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom™.

Daemon is the first in the set; it was originally self-published, and was then bought up and republished by Dutton, a branch of Penguin books. The sequel, Freedom™, was also put out by Dutton. And thank goodness these books got picked up by a big publisher, so they’re available to all of us. Because you guys, everyone should read these books.

They’re billed as “high-tech thrillers” and “technothrillers”, which is both accurate and not. The thing is, these books cover many different genres. Daemon starts out as a murder mystery and police procedural, but as the book moves on and the world of the book opens up, the scope of the novel grows. And Freedom™ grows even larger in scope, touching on diverse subjects from Chinese manufacturing to corn subsidies while still remaining tense and exciting.

At its most basic, Daemon is about the investigation around a pair of murders linked to a recently-deceased software developer, and the rogue computer program (daemon) triggered after his death. As the daemon grows and takes over systems, it also recruits humans to join its network and become operatives. The ensemble cast of characters is split between those working with the daemon and those set on destroying it. The book ends in a somewhat abrupt cliffhangery manner, with Freedom™ picking up immediately and increasing the scale and number of the groups working with and against the daemon.

I had issues with Daemon overexplaining things at the beginning; the first few chapters seem to all start with overly-detailed descriptions of characters, and a few technological things are described in too much detail as well. But after the first few chapters, the overexplaining is done, and the story gets cooking. And I suppose for people not as familiar with technology, some of the description is helpful. My library copy (a first-edition Dutton hardback) also had a number of glaring typos and punctuation errors, which have hopefully been corrected in later printings. Probably not a big issue for most people, but they popped me right out of the immersive reading experience. My other big issue with Daemon was a sudden romantic relationship out of nowhere. But those things aside, it was a fantastic book. Well-paced, exciting, with a great number of twists and turns.

I then dug straight into Freedom™ — the library had perfect timing, delivering it the same day I finished Daemon. No glaring errors like in the first book, hooray. And again: a swift pace, twists and turns galore, and at least one event that had Scott watching me as I read, so he could laugh at my shocked gasp (I didn’t disappoint). There was at least one character from the first book who wasn’t followed in the second, but the ensemble was a whole was great; as opposed to a lot of ensemble pieces, there wasn’t that one story that just wasn’t interesting (that is to say, there was no Nikki & Paulo story, or even a Michael & Walt).

I’ll be thinking about these books for a LONG time to come. And I’m glad that Scott has read them as well; we’re sure to have some great conversations about them. The movie rights for both books have been purchased, and sites like IMDB are showing a preliminary 2012 release for Daemon. Which is probably highly inaccurate, but it’s enough to wet my whistle. I agree with Scott’s casting choices for a couple of characters, and I’m sure we’ll do even more sky-pie casting in the future.

Daemon: 9 out of 10
Freedom™: 9 out of 10

Here are a couple more books from the past month: one I just finished yesterday, and one I forgot to include in yesterday’s post. I think this catches me up; the library says a book is on its way, but I’ve read everything on hand. I’ve also just discovered that our library lends e-books, although the DRM on the books (issued from Overdrive) means I can’t read them on my phone, nor can Scott read them on his iDoodad. I’ll have to read them on my computer, which isn’t terrible, but it’s hell to read from a desktop in bed.

Eoin Colfer – And Another Thing…: If you haven’t heard of this book, it’s the new sixth book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Of course, the first five books were written by Douglas Adams, may he rest in peace. I’m not entirely sure of the reasons why the Adams estate authorised Colfer (author of the Artemis Fowl books, none of which I’ve read) to write this additional sequel, and it certainly doens’t add much to the series.

The Guide series already went downhill with the last Adams installment, Mostly Harmless. In my opinion, the series should have ended with So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish — especially with Arthur Dent in a happy place. Mostly Harmless just screwed everything up, depressed the hell out of me, and introduced at least one loathsome new character (Random). So where does Colfer have to go from there?

On the one hand, I wished that Colfer branched out into new territory more. He frequently makes reference to established persons/places/things, like Squornshellous Zeta, Eccentrica Gallumbits, Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, Vogons galore, and the cows who beg to be eaten. I yearned for more creativity; more unique and never-before-seen people and places. But in the spots where Colfer does develop new ground, it just feels awkward and out-of-place (see the entire interaction with Chulthu). He also has clearly watched the 2005 movie for inspiration, because Zaphod is now described as having curling blond hair, and Trillian is clearly written as that icky Zooey Deschanel.

The one thing Colfer could have done to make me happy was to give a little bit of Arthur’s happiness back. But alas; he hints at it for a brief moment near the end (for a whole half-page), then gives Arthur an even more depressing fate. Colfer could have righted many of the wrongs of Mostly Harmless, but instead wrote a plodding-in-places and not-clever-enough volume that leaves many characters in even worse places, and has others act in ways that five previous books prove to be completely wrong. 4 out of 10.

Richard Castle – Heat Wave: Of course, this book isn’t really written by Richard Castle; it’s a lightweight (208 pages) ghostwritten novel from the folks at ABC and Beacon Pictures. It’s a brilliant tie-in — if you have a hit TV show about a writer, why not actually release the book that’s released in the show? I can only imagine how many Murder, She Wrote books would have sold back in the 80s with this same concept.

Anyhoo, the book is light and fluffy, corny and cheesy. It actually reads like a well-written piece of Castle fanfiction with the names changed. Which I think is the feeling they were shooting for. The crime in the novel has plenty of twists and turns, especially the second half when the clues start rolling in and things come together. The first half of the book was a little slow at times as far as the crime, and weirdly fast and jarring as far as the attraction between Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook — the initial spark seems to come out of nowhere. It almost feels like the writer(s) finally hit their stride and go comfortable midway through the novel, then forgot to go back and spruce up the first half with the appropriate groove.

Still, it was a fun little romp. And when the characters in the show make eyebrow-wiggling reference to “page 105″, now I know what they’re talking about. I’ll definitely be checking out Naked Heat when it hits the shelves in September. 7 out of 10.

I’ve been reading my face off lately. Seems like every time I finish a book, I hear about two others I’d like to read, and the library is being exceptionally speedy about sending the book couriers to my front door.

Orson Scott Card – Treason: All right, I know, chastise me now. A sci-fi geek who’d never read any Orson Scott Card. And I probably wouldn’t have read his stuff anytime soon, if not for someone looking for a book over at AskMetafilter. Go ahead, read how the describes it. It sounded amazingly weird to me, so I thought, “What the hell,” and ordered it up from the library.

I expected the novel to take place at least partially in space. And the cover of the book led me to continue that belief. But no, the whole thing takes place on the surface of one planet. But putting that perplexion aside, this novel was surprisingly good. Weird and strange, very imaginative, and really like nothing I’d ever read before. Card did a lovely job of developing the main character throughout his journey, and the universe he created is one I’d love to experience. 7 out of 10. And then the book led me to …

Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game: I didn’t know anything about this book at all — I just ordered it from the library because Card intrigued me, and this was what looked to be his most famous novel. Reading the introduction to the “author’s definitive edition”, I was perplexed again. Gifted children being taught to go to war against a race of bugs? So it’s Harry Potter in Starship Troopers? But once again, I got sucked into the book and couldn’t stop reading. Ender was an amazing character. And even though I was getting near the end of the book and thought, “They better start getting to the heavy action soon,” I totally didn’t see the twist ending coming. Amazing. 8 out of 10, and I’ve put in a request for the sequel, Speaker for the Dead. It looks like there are eight or nine books total in the Ender series, so I’ll be nibbling at these for quite a while.

Gail Carriger – Changeless: In a previous book post, I scored the first book in this series, Soulless, an 8 out of 10. And I thought this book, second in the series, would get a similar score. Certainly, the story started out clever and witty and interesting, but there were also problems for me. I’m not sure if we, the readers, were supposed to figure out so early on what the big dramatic reveal was. If not, it was handled in a pretty ham-handed manner; throughout the entire book, when certain situations happened, I thought to myself, “Well, it’s because of [big dramatic spoiler], duh.”

But even worse was the ending, after the big dramatic spoiler has been revealed. Carriger sadly uses a classic romance novel trope that drives me crazy — the Big Angry Misunderstanding. In a couple who supposedly love and trust each other, I’ve never understood how one party can suddenly explode in an angry rage, with jealousy and mistrust and fiery venom, without even being willing to listen to their loved one or attempt to see reason. And this angry rage is exceptionally explosive; it felt completely out of character for the rage-filled person. So yay Carriger for the mystery and adventure (although it wasn’t as good as the first book), but a big fat BOO for the relationship, especially the tired trope at the end. 5 out of 10. Although I’ll still read the third in the series, Blameless, when it comes out in September.

Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme – My Life in France: After watching the movie Julie & Julia, I dropped this book onto my library request list. On the flip side, I refuse to read any of the original Julie/Julia Project blog, because I’ve heard that in it, Julie Powell comes across as a not-very-pleasant person. I also didn’t care for her in any of the interview footage in the DVD featurettes, so there you go. But Julia Child, on the other hand, seems like a delightful woman. This autobiography is a meaty book, and it’s entertaining the entire way through. It covers not only the Childs’ years in France, but also the post-France years with books and TV shows and fame. Throughout it all, Julia Child reads as a charming, inquisitive, fascinating woman who I’d love to have known. 8 out of 10.

The New Atkins for a New You: Written by three doctors who’ve clearly done their homework, this new book updates the Atkins program (the last book from the good doctor himself was published well before his untimely 2003 head-injury death). It takes into account the ten-plus years of new scientific research about low-carb diets and human physiology. If you’re looking into trying the low-carb way of eating, you could do much worse than this for your first book. It does get a little self-indulgent in places, constantly referring to the “Atkins Edge” and other things that aren’t necessarily Atkins-specific, but overall it covers a lot of good territory and updates the Atkins diet in a way that continues to make it easy for anyone and everyone to enjoy. There are even guidelines for vegetarian and vegan versions of Atkins, crazy as that may sound (but then again, I find anything vegan to be crazy; at least with these guidelines, veganism might border on something sort of healthy). 8 out of 10.

Mark Sisson – The Primal Blueprint: The new rage in healthy eating is primal. Or paleo. Or caveman, or whatever else you want to call it. Eating foods that our hunter/gatherer ancestors ate, and exercising the way that they would have, instead of breaking our bodies with too much cardio or running. Primal shares a lot of common ground with low-carb: avoiding grains, eating meat and natural fats (especially animal fats). In his book, Sisson (who writes the great blog Mark’s Daily Apple) outlines his ten commandments of primal living, ranging from eating habits to exercise to playing in the sun.

Sisson doesn’t cover a lot of the scientific evidence to support his plan in the book, but he does make many, many references back to his site/blog, where more information can be found. I think this book is also self-published, which may explain the multitude of typos and grammatical errors. Still, if you’re sick and miserable and unhappy while eating a low-fat diet and exercising to exhaustion, this might be an eye-opening book. Nothing much was new to me, since I already read Mark’s blog (and a dozen other paleo/primal blogs as well), but it was nice to have so much of Mark’s wisdom in one easy-to-reference volume. 7 out of 10.

Thank goodness for the Orange County Public Library. Back in Seattle, you requested books and they were delivered to your nearest branch for pickup. Here in Florida, you request books and they’re delivered by courier to your front door. It’s like magic!

I’ve been keeping my library couriers busy; quite a few books have been delivered to my door the last couple of months. And when I stayed home sick for a couple of days recently, it was even more of a boon, since I had two books waiting to be read. I tackled a book a day.

First up is Gail Carriger’s Soulless, a book I first read about on one of the many literary agent blogs I read. In fact, Kristin over at Pub Rants posted Carriger’s original query letter for her readers.

Even though I’d read the description, I was intrigued to see how Victorian steampunk, romance, adventure, mystery, vampires and werewolves all blended together. And I’m happy to say, it was a pretty good romp. I’m not saying this book is high literature, but it’s a hearty step above a Harlequin novel. The heroine is witty and clever, and the supporting characters around her are, for the most part, drawn in good detail. The book moves along and develops at a good pace, and Carriger’s universe is crafted well enough that it pulls you in and never abruptly shoves you out. 8 out of 10.

I’ve already put the sequel, Changless, on my request list at the library. I’m third in line for one of the county’s six copies, so I should see it on my doorstep within the month. As opposed to Soulless, I don’t know anything about the plot of the sequel. All I know is that the heroine married the werewolf of her dreams at the end of the first, and I’m sure more adventure awaits them both.

There’s a third novel in the works in this series. Even though Amazon doesn’t list a release date, I know to look forward to Blameless because of this awesome video of the making of the cover. It tickles the book geek in me, as well as the graphic design geek.

Next up on the sickday reading list was The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson. On the surface, it looks like a book I’d love — young adult, thriller, and it takes place in Disney World. And it was all right, but I definitely didn’t love it.

There were problems throughout the book that were so blatant, they took you right out of the universe Pearson was trying to create. The biggest one that comes to mind is his repeated reference to “Fantasmics” as the nighttime show at (what was then called) Disney-MGM Studios. Despite his copious research, the show is never referred to by its proper name, Fantasmic! (Exclamation mark and all). Other attractions also have not-quite-right names, but most of them are named correctly, so I have to assume it’s writer error.

The writing is frequently confusing — characters suddenly in new places, things that obviously need to be explained aren’t — and rambled into boring territory in a couple of spots. And it ended in a weirdly abrupt manner. There are two sequel books, so perhaps number two takes up right where number one leaves off. I’ll probably check out the second book sometime in the future, but it’s not on my request list right now. 5 out of 10.

It’s nice to see articles like this: End the War on Fat: It could be making us sicker. Slowly but surely, mainstream media is starting to let people know that dietary fat is not the enemy. If Slate can be considered mainstream media.

I’m recapping the short series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution over at The Disney Blog. (ABC falls under the Disney umbrella.) Two episodes in, four to go. Fingers crossed that Jamie can make some significant changes.

I just got a couple of books from Amazon: New Atkins for a New You and The Primal Blueprint (and yes, those are affiliate links). I’m starting with the Atkins book first. So far, there aren’t a ton of changes from the 2002 New Diet Revolution; it’s mostly some tweaks and hints, as well as guidance on how to do Atkins as a vegetarian or vegan. (Inconceivable!)

This week’s homemade ice cream is maple pecan again. I got some coconut flour, which should hopefully open up new avenues of experimental cooking and baking. We’ll see how I do with this one package before I go balls-out and buy a 4-pack from Amazon. There are recipes galore out there, from using it to bread fish to making muffins and cakes.

For the past few days, I’ve had some mystery malaise. Fatigue, a weird lack of equilibrium, raw but dry sinuses, headaches, pressure behind the eyes, a smidgen of sore throat. Of course, me being me, I looked up the symptom list of Swine Flu. Doesn’t sound like what I have. Finally today everything clicked together, and I realized it’s totally a sinus infection. I’ve had them before, and it’s always the same — dry but achy sinuses, headache, and the feeling that something’s pushing on my eyeballs from the inside. I toodled over to my doctor’s office (which is in the parking lot of my workplace, handy handy) and had a nice young man peer up my nostrils. He sent me away with amoxicillin and a nasal spray. Good times!

I’m currently reading Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories — it’s a massive book, and very dense, but it’s full of a ton of amazing information about how a few key players turned the US government toward a recommended diet that’s proven to make people fatter and give them diabetes and heart disease. And now that the government is pot-committed to what they’ve pushed for 30 years, there’s little chance to get people on an actual healthy diet, full of beneficial saturated fats and low on fattening sugars. My next book, sitting here on my desk, is Lierre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth, where the former 20-year vegan tells us all about how agriculture not only is destroying the earth, but also kills a vast number of living creatures. Good times!

I’m watching lots of TV lately, and the pile is about to get bigger. V starts in a couple of weeks, as does the miniseries remake of The Prisoner. One of my regular shows right now is Castle, a kind of fun-and-frolic police procedural. You wouldn’t think those things would go together, but Nathan Fillion makes it work. On this Monday’s episode, the Halloween ep, it looks like he’ll be wearing a captain Mal Reynolds costume. Classic. One thing I love about this show is that part of it is the family dynamic back in the lead character’s home, and I actually don’t hate the lead’s family. So often, they’re given a sibling or child (the Bionic Woman remake, for example) and the home-life stuff is so gratingly awful that I lose the love for the show. For some reason, the daughter and mother on Castle are not just tolerable, they’re great.

Reality TV continues on — DwtS, ANTM, SYTYCD; all of the classics that are acronymable. This week’s Survivor was great, except I thought everyone should have been given the pizza at the end. The Amazing Race no longer has my favorite team (Justin & Zev), but they also don’t have anyone for me to actively hate anymore, now that the Boston lawyers are gone. Maybe someone else will stand out this week as someone to loathe. Project Runway is decent this season, but nobody’s really knocking my socks off with their designs. I do like Irina’s negative attitude and snarky comments about her fellow contestants, but she’s hardly a Santino or Wendy Pepper-grade villain.

Movies: I just watched Stranger than Fiction the other day, and it was surprisingly sweet and lovely. I’d only ever seen Will Ferrell in stuff like Zoolander, so it was nice to see that he can really ACT act. The rest of the cast was excellent as well.

Books: I started reading Soon I Will Be Invincible yesterday. I got it for Scott, so it was only right that I let him read it first. Good so far — I like bad-guy protagonists. In upcoming book news, just over a fortnight until Harry Potter 7. It comes out on a Saturday, so I can sit down and read it that whole day.

Music: Since my old ukulele was cheap and one of the tuning pegs broke, talk has once again turned to getting me a new one. I have to decide whether I want a soprano or a baritone. Right now I’m leaning soprano, but that may change. I’ll have to hit the local Guitar Center and see what they have that I can put my hands on.

Games: Did you know that Mercenaries is now on the backward-compatible list for the Xbox 360? Yes indeedy it is! Sadly, it does have some freezing problems. But so far it’s still fairly playable, as long as you don’t spend too much time in Pyongyang. And come this holiday season, we may have to pay full price for Mercenaries 2 when it comes out, instead of waiting for it to drop in price.