more of what I've been reading recently

33. Kushiel's Justice, Jacqueline Carey. Betimes I thought I could drop the woman on her head because she just would not stop with the "betimes" in every other sentence. I refrained from throwing the book across the room in annoyance though. (The fact that it belongs to the library helped, I admit.) Honestly, I think Phèdre and Joscelin are much more interesting characters overall than Imriel is, but I liked this installment of the story better than I did the previous one; at some point Imriel has to grow up, and he's pretty much forced to in this book.
    


34. Fifty Degrees Below, Kim Stanley Robinson. The second installment in his global warming trilogy which started with Forty Signs of Rain. Melting of the polar ice caps has caused the Gulf Stream to stall, causing massive upheaval to weather around the world; the title refers to the low measured in Washington, DC at one point during the winter. Scientists, in particular the NSF, have to find some way to reverse the collapse. Even more pointed digs at the current occupants of the White House and many of the federal agencies (although the president is never named, it's pretty clear that the inspiration is our current Buffoon in Chief), and a subplot involving domestic spying and an attempt by the party in power to rig the upcoming presidential election. As an aside, I found it kind of odd that while he clearly knows enough about the DC area to make references to street names, restaurants, etc., he'd say that ( cut for a spoiler about one of the plot points )
    So yeah, that's really, really, REALLY minor, but I noticed it.


35. The Book of Fate, Brad Meltzer. Had to pick it up when I saw a stack at the library, since it references one of my favorite wingnut conspiracy theories. I read the whole thing in about 14 hours, including time to sleep; it's a quick read. While I wanted to keep reading to see what happened next, I have to say that I found a lot of the characters annoying and the requisite plot twists predictable and boring; the most interesting "surprise" to me was the one that they actually mention on the dust jacket. I don't regret reading it, but I also don't regret that I checked it out from the library.
    


36. The Personality Code, Travis Bradberry. If you've ever had a DISC personality profile done, you'll be familiar with pretty much everything in this book. If you haven't, buying a copy will give you a code that lets you take an online IDISC test. Having worked with DISC as part of an office workshop, I didn't see much here that I hadn't already heard discussed elsewhere but it was not a bad refresher.
    

(no subject)

Substitute "Montgomery County Agricultural Fair" for "circus". Thinking about going on Sunday; they have pig races and a Cheese Booth and fried food on sticks and a demolition derby sponsored by the local Chevy dealer. *snerk*