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What I read -- April 2014



“Arctic Rising” by Tobias S. Buckell. When I saw Ed had gotten it out of the library, I asked if I could read it too. It was on my list because Twitter often sends links to commentary TSB has written, and also I have part of a near-future SF set in the Arctic, so I was curious what he did with it. If I was a copy editor, I’d have a very hard time with this book because his writing is stylistically so different from mine. I use past perfect way more than he does, and tend to comma things together rather than using sentence fragments. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining thriller with a strong female lead and I had no trouble getting through it.

“War Reporting for Cowards” by Chris Ayres. Ed bought this at a book fair and loved it, and forced it on me. The humor was a little too British for my taste (like it was trying too hard, and I’m not sure Wodehouse is a good role model for everyone) but the story itself, of how a guy finds himself an embed in Iraq was pretty entertaining.

“Abandon” by Meg Cabot. The main character was really annoying, and the author was a little too coy in revealing the backstory.
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