Geek: Fantasy Novel by E. Archer It was the cover that really caught me on this book: A big medieval helmet, the face inside wearing taped-together glasses. And on the back, a hole made by an exploding bunny rabbit. Call me an easy sell – I took the book home. Our main character, Ralph, leads a boring and geeky computer-programming life in America. The one thing his parents have always insisted on is that he never, ever make a wish. But when his previously unknown Aunt Gertie offers him free tickets to spend the summer with her and his three cousins in their castle in Britain, he jumps at the chance. Then he learns the big family secret: all children are traditionally supposed to make a wish, which is usually granted in a way that proves disastrous to the wisher. There seems to be some inconsistency in the internal narrative here, as the early examples were all of poorly phrased and instantly granted wishes. Now, though, children making a wish are whisked away to a fantasy world inspired by their wish. There they are the heroes of their own narratives, but with the distinct likelihood that they will perish both in their fantasy world and in real life trying to make their wish come true. It’s an interesting idea which was spoiled somewhat for me by the heavy and not-too-skillful interference by the narrator, whose frequent intrusions into the story make him a character in his own right. The humor tended towards the black as well, with our hero rather frequently dying and coming back to life again. Still, for those interested in the geeky intersection of metafiction, computers and fantasy gaming, this book could be just the ticket.
Originally posted at http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org .
Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing This is a cookbook of the kind filled with glossy, full-page photos of delicious-looking food. Reusing is the chef at Lantern, a local foods restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her focus in this book is easy but delicious food from seasonal ingredients, something between a foodie’s complicated recipes and someone who cooks primarily from cans and boxes and thinks that real cooking is too complicated. (As an aside: she uses foodie the way I’d use gourmet. I’d consider foodie to be the middle ground between a gourmet and someone who eats only from necessity, someone who appreciates good food but keeps it simple. What do you think?) Refreshingly for the local-cooking effort, the recipes are arranged by season and month, starting with late March. Of course, North Carolina’s spring starts a good deal earlier than Michigan’s, but plants still come up in the same order, so that’s easy to adjust for. She also uses a lot of seafood,all varieties that she considers sustainable enough to eat. While not exactly coastal, Chapel Hill is still a whole lot closer to the ocean than we are. We can get some lake fish, and maybe even treat it the same way, but “local” and “seafood” just don’t go together in my neck of the woods. While my web research showed Lantern listed as an Asian fusion restaurant, I didn’t get that so much from the book. Yes, quite a few Asian-inspired dishes, but also a lot of Mexican and European-American traditional. The treatments are generally very straightforward, designed for simplicity and relying on good, fresh food for flavor. My foodie husband says that he would see himself looking at it for inspiration and then using his own usual methods to put things together rather than actually following the recipe. I would leave out the chilies, cayenne, and/or red pepper flakes that are present in abundance in nearly every recipe. I really appreciated her discussions of what to do with the mountains of hearty greens like kale that tend to arrive with a farm share. There are also little essays with experiences for every season – what’s in at the farmer’s market, making fresh strawberry ice cream with her children to celebrate the last day of school, heirloom apple varieties and the efforts to classify and preserve them. This, too, is a kind of primer on finding your local food experts. All in all, this is a beautiful and drool-worthy book. 
The Finder Library. Volume 1. by Carla Speed McNeil I’ve had friends from quite different circles recommend this to me before, but I just couldn’t quite get into it. This time I tried the new super-big version, and found that between the introduction and having more of the story together, I was able to understand the world well enough to be sucked in. This is science fiction with a strong grounding in human nature as well as feeling rooted in real traditions, and the nature of the graphic novel lets these things go by without much explanation, though the extensive endnotes go into both these and the many references to literature and film in the stories. McNeil calls it aboriginal science fiction.
Crafternoon by Maura Madden Madden has an idea: More people should be crafting. Crafting with friends is fun. She’s been having monthly crafting afternoons, or Crafternoons, for a few years now and shares her expertise in this book. She has general guidelines on making your Crafternoon a success. She has a year’s worth of crafting ideas with instructions for crafts that can be completed in an afternoon – Valentines and paper crafts, paper dolls, knitting, embroidery, knots and more. She leans towards the less precise in her crafting, and her instructions reflect this, probably a good approach for those trying to finish in an afternoon. Madden’s events seem to be populated mostly by single friends her age plus her mother, but she urges readers to make their events multigenerational affairs that are friendly for kids, which is surely the only way something like this would work for me. Madden’s humor sometimes felt like it was verging on padding the word count, but the book is otherwise fun and inspiring. Who wants to do Crafternoons with me?
Koko Be Good by Jen Wang Jon is a new grad student and musician who desperately misses his long-distance girlfriend. While trying to be social at the bar with his new classmates, he meets the explosive and rebellious Koko. She has no regular income and seems to float from one friend’s house to another, trying to find as much adventure as possible. Somehow, these two opposites strike up a friendship. Koko is inspired by Jon, who plans to join his girlfriend in working with disadvantaged children in Peru, to try to be good. What is good, though, and is it good for her to try to be good if being good is antithetical to her nature? Meanwhile, her initial poking fun at Jon’s efforts makes him reconsider: is this really what he wants to do? Would he be more true to himself rejoining his old band or taking his experimental music further? Wang’s shaded artwork transitions seamlessly from calm and beautiful to crazy and comical along with Koko’s mercurial moods. This is a tale full of the adventure and searching of young adulthood.
Polly and the Pirates by Ted Naifeh Our story opens with the young Polly Pringle at boarding school. She is regarded by her peers as sweet but much too willing to abide by the rules. That very night, her bed is hoisted out of her bedroom onto a pirate ship. She refuses to believe the awful truth at first: she is the only daughter of the famous Pirate Queen, taken as her crew’s last chance to find the Pirate Queen’s Hoard. The Pirate Prince, a handsome and untrustworthy-looking young man, is also after the treasure, and the Navy is after the lot of them. Polly rises to the occasion in a glorious way, proving in a manner quite unsettling to herself that she has inherited large amounts of her mother’s talent at nefarious business. Naifeh’s whimsical art, where the ships look like buildings, suits the story perfectly and is quite different from the moody shaded work he produced for Holly Black’s The Good Neighbors. This is rated for 7 and up, and I think it could go even younger if the child in question can sit still for an exciting story. The book says “Volume 1”, but I regret to say that my visit to 
The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell. Narrated by Christian Rummel. The Lost Fleet is a science-fiction series based on two interesting ideas: What if a long-lost hero of legend, one whom people always said would come back at the hour of greatest need, really did come back? And what if what he came back to was not an immediate stunning victory, but just trying to rescue the shattered remains of a battle fleet from the middle of enemy territory? John Geary was in suspended animation in his escape pod for a hundred years before he was picked up by another Alliance vessel. While he slept, the war with the Syndics or Syndicate Worlds that was just beginning when he was last conscious built into a constant way of life. And, his final actions grew into the legend of Black Jack Geary, the best commander ever, whom the Living Stars would send back to help the Alliance some day. Soon after he awakened, the Alliance Fleet suffered a crushing defeat near the Syndicate home world. The Syndic CEO murdered the Alliance leaders in full view of their troops, unwittingly putting Captain Geary back in command of the fleet. He then vows, against all odds, to get the fleet back home again. The book has a lot going for it – an intruiging premise, interesting reflections on the cultural changes that might happen with a culture at war for a century and Captain Geary’s clashes with that culture. There are the politics of Captain Geary both not wanting to believe in himself as a legend and needing to use that reputation to lead the fleet, much of which is inclined to distrust him. Campbell has a good theory of space movement and, as a former Navy man himself, a good command of tactics which he is able to translate well into three-dimensional space. This is plot-driven fiction with a good setting and decent if not terribly nuanced characters. Christian Rummel’s narration sounds somewhat harsh to me, but suits the military nature of the book well. If closely-fought space battles with some politics float your boat, this series is for you. 
The Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters If you’re looking for some bright and cheerful music to match the spring weather (or maybe make it feel like spring even if the weather isn’t cooperating), look no further than the Andrews Sisters. Their two most famous hits are “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”, both great songs. The tight, three-part harmony and the swingin’ style carries through the whole album, though a hint of old-fashioned racial attitudes are unfortunately apparent in “Rum and Coca Cola.” This particular album could also be improved with some liner notes – I had to go to 
Cleaning Nabokov’s House by Leslie Daniels Barb has left her controlling husband. Now she’s stranded in upstate New York in a town where everyone knows and loves her experson and could care less about her. She’s lost custody of her children. She’s jobless and homeless and holding on to sanity with a very tenuous grip. This could be the beginning of a serious work of Women’s Fiction, the kind that Oprah would want to talk about and which would require boxes of tissues. Instead, Barb’s journey to pulling her life together and getting her children back is hilarious. It’s still women’s fiction, just not the depressing kind. Barb’s first step towards getting her footing back is selling her reliable car (keeping the unreliable one) to make a down payment on a small house which turns out to have belonged to Nabokov. In this house, wedged behind a drawer, she finds a manuscript which might or might not have been written by Nabokov. Her efforts to get this published start pushing her back towards sanity, making her friends in the process. She also comes up with a scheme to make enough money to win her children back, a scheme that I totally did not see coming and which gives the book both its silliest and most serious moments, a scheme to make more of the women of the small town where she now lives happy. It’s sexy without being explicit, and Barb’s feelings run true even as the plot runs towards the unbelievable comedic. It made for excellent hospital reading for me, as we were once again stuck there, but I’m hoping that you, dear reader, can enjoy it under more pleasant circumstances.
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