All about books...

Emotional Weirdness by Kate Atkinson. The literary device of telling a story within a story has always intrigued me. It sort of gives you a two-fer (in this case, more like a four-fer) and gives the author a place to explore a theme or sub-text that might not stand on its own. In this book, the stories are both flashbacks and fictional support for the main plot. More words I should have looked up (but didn’t) than any other book I’ve read in a long time.

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. Set in the fictional California central coast town of Pine Cove, this story of a Christmas angel who is dumb as a doorstop is entertaining, with Moore’s usual quotient of strange characters (many of which have appeared in his other novels). The dedication of this book says it all. Which cannot be said here because Amazon didn’t include that page in its “search inside this book” selection, and the actual book is upstairs and I’m downstairs.

R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton. Only 8 more letters to go. Will Kinsey Millhone ever get out of the 1980s and own a cellphone? Will we move on to the special characters on the keyboard? * is for *hole?



Number of books on Amazon’s Best Books of 2004: Top 50 Editors' Picks list that I’ve read - 1 (Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay)

Number of books on Amazon’s Best Books of 2004: Top 50 Editors' Picks list that I own but have not yet read - 2 (Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson; Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke)

Definition of “Best” in Amazon’s Best Books of 2004: Top 50 Editors' Picks list – none