24. The Men’s Guide to the Women’s Bathroom by Jo Barrett – Funny, surprising, entertaining fluff. I liked the book overall, although I didn’t appreciate the author’s (and therefore all the major female characters’) point of view that all women in their 30s and 40s want a man above all other things. Or that women in this decade are ashamed of being divorced. Those two things made parts of the book feel like they were written in the early 1980s, rather than in the present. Anachronistic… unless the women in Barrett’s world really are primarily preoccupied with finding a man. In my world, they are far more balanced and well-rounded, with a partner being a wonderful thing, but not an end unto himself. (finished 5/2)
25. Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson – It seems that’s I’ve already read this, the first in a trilogy about global climate change. But I haven’t read the other two (I think), so I reread this one and will be reading no. 2 immediately. It’s a good book, written for intelligent and educated people, with vocabulary and concepts that the general public might not grasp and/or appreciate. Give it a shot! (finished 5/7)
26. Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson – The second in Robinson’s trilogy on abrupt global climate change, this book is based around the implications of the stall of the Gulf Stream and scientific attempts to restart it. The story picks up in the months immediately after Forty Signs of Rain, with all subplots further developed and the characters lives explored in more depth. There’s perhaps too much jargon (with much of the science/math coming across as extraneous and unnecessary to the plot) and Robinson is a bit too fond of some of his verbal “tics” (for example, the main character’s repeated and repeated and repeated use of the expression “Ooooooop, ooooooooooooooop!”), but I’m glad I stuck through it. And, yes, it appears I have read this book, too, but I didn’t remember how it would turn out. And no, I have no idea if I read book 3 in the past, either. (finished 5/14)
27. Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson – The final in the trilogy, this book is an optimistic wrap-up to the various conflicts and subplots of the other two novels. Robinson finds hope and potential solutions to some of the worst environmental problems facing us. (finished 5/22)
28. Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer – This novel is definitely chick lit, and it touched, amused and annoyed me. The “touched” and “amused” reactions would please the author, as they were the desired reactions, but the annoyance would not. I grew irritated with the protagonist’s constant need to fill the aching void that is her life without a man and at her obsession with her own physical flaws. Is that really all women in their mid-20s think about, as suggested by the novel?? Maybe I’m just too old to remember, but these things don’t mesh with my memory of myself at that age… or of my close friends then. If it is a case of selective memory on my part, I can only be grateful that I’ve left that kind of insecurity far, far behind. (finished 5/26)
29. The Gunseller by Hugh Laurie – Yes, that Hugh Laurie! In 1996, before House, while building his acting career in England, Hugh Laurie published a novel that’s a sendup of the classic spy novel. Set in the 1990s, it confronts the military-industrial complex and its codependent relationship with terrorism in the modern world… and manages to be genuinely funny at the same time. I’m eager to read his next book, The Paper Soldier (due out Sept 27 2009, according to Amazon.com), and hope he’ll keep writing for many more years. (finished 5/29)
