Jenny's Books Added August 2014

The Future for Curious People by Gregory Sherl
Soulless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #1)
Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
Babel-17 / Empire Star by Samuel Delany
American Pastoral by Phillip Roth
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

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The Future for Curious People by Gregory Sherl
I came across this book mentioned in Publishers Weekly, and the description was enough to send me begging for a review copy in audio.  It comes out officially September 2.  I will just now get to it, since I've been swamped listening to Hillary Clinton's most recent book.  All I remember is something vague about a librarian character. And time travel. And cheese.

Soulless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #1)
I listened to this book a while back, but decided to choose it for my League of Extraordinary Dorks book club.  I had brought the audiobook with me on my trip to Oregon but didn't end up with a lot of listening time.  Found the book in a used bookstore for $3 and decided it made sense to have on hand.  The book club was fun, full of people dressed as werewolves and in full Victorian garb with parasols.   Some went on to read future books in the series, and I have book #2 on the way!

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
This was the selection for the same book club, for July, so I missed that conversation.  I still wanted to read it, as it is outside my usual genres - from what I understand it is ahistorical detective novel set in Venice.  It is the first in a series as well.  The person who picked it is a great music lover, so I shouldn't be surprised that the central story is " a world-renowned conductor who died painfully from cyanide poisoning during an intermission at La Fenice"

Babel-17 / Empire Star by Samuel Delany
In my reading goals for 2014, I said I wanted to read more Delany.  I've been looking for him in every used bookstore, and while I haven't yet found a good used copy of the mighty tome I want to read most (Dhalgren), I did find a copy of Babel-17.   I feel like this novella (novel?) has come up in conversations on SFF Audio on multiple occasions, one of those books I felt like I needed to read to fill in all the holes.  Well now I can.

American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Another author on my reading goals for 2014 is Philip Roth.  I was going to just read the books I had on hand, but when I posted a review for Deception, one of my reading friends got upset that I was reading novels that weren't as representative of his greatness.  He said this was one of the best, so yesterday when I found a used copy of it at a obscure used book store, I decided to go ahead and purchase it for my shelf.  It looks to be book #1 of a trilogy, but I'm not sure this one can't be understood and appreciated on its own.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
This was one of the books I read as a child, before I knew who Kesey was or had read Kerouac or Tom Wolfe.  Now that I know a lot more, I'd like to go back and re-read it. But that's not why I got this book.  This is one of the Penguin Classics Editions with the pretty covers, and I'm a sucker.