Friday, January 04, 2008

christmas bounty, and stuff

Sure, it's a week or so late, but I got some great books for Christmas this year and would like to share.

Run - Ann Patchett: I've loved her earlier work (A Patron Saint of Liars and Bel Canto especially) and this was a great opportunity to read her newest novel.

Bowerman and the Men of Oregon - Kenny Moore: A biography of Bill Bowerman, legendary Oregon track and cross country coach. He coached Steve Prefontaine, among others. Oh, yeah, and he helped design the shoes that would eventually form the foundation of a little company called Nike.

Schulz and Peanuts - David Michaelis: I'm still enamored with the Peanuts comics after all these years, and I read a Schulz bio when I was in high school. Supposedly this is a much more in depth bio and paints Schulz is a partly unfavorable light (read: human light, warts and all).

Fledgling - Octavia Butler: Butler is one of my favorite authors and I am starting to collect her work. This vampire novel is her final novel.

Parable of the Sower
- Octavia Butler: This first of a two book post-apocalyptic series. Apparently writer's block kept her from writing a third. I would love a collection of Butler's notes, if they were detailed and available (or if they existed), but I don't think it would sell well enough to be published.

Not too shabby, huh? And I have $20 in Barnes and Nobles gift cards, which might allow me to pick up a small stack of Elizabeth Bear mass market pb's, if they are all in stock at the same time.

2 comments:

Robert said...

Joe, hey, just wanted to let you know that I finally linked your blog. I'm sorry it took so long because you have a great thing going on and I really enjoyed catching up :) Keep up the excellent work and Happy New Year!

Btw, "Fledgling" is a great novel and it's a real shame about Ms. Butler...

Joe said...

Why, thank you!

I've read everything Butler has published and Fledgling is right up there near the top (with Kindred, the Bloodchild collection, and the two Parable novels).

We could potentially have been gifted with 10-20 more years of her work, which could have been another 3-5 novels. I can only imagine what else she would have written.