I missed one!

FIRST THING'S FIRST.  I missed a book, you guys!  Number 63 on this list is currently Life of Pi by Yann Martel - it SHOULD be Deadline, by Mira Grant.  I don't know how I forgot that, since I definitely logged it on Shelfari!  Anyway, Deadline was fun, you should definitely read the Newsflesh books (they are must-reads for zombie/horror fans, and recommended for fans of action/adventure/smart writing).

Which means that we're actually on...

70.  Redshirts, John Scalzi
Scalzi CLEARLY knows what he's talking about vis a vis science fiction television.  Redshirts is clever, witty, and the most genre savvy thing I think I've ever read.  It's the story of the apocryphal redshirts, a reference to those poor bastards on Star Trek that never make it to the commercial breaks - and what happens when one ensign starts to question what, exactly, is going on on his ship.  The twist is unexpected (at least it was for me, based on what I'd heard about the book I thought it was going to go in an entirely different direction) and the ending is satisfying, even while Scalzi is rubbing the goofy and ridiculous tropes we've all gotten used to right in our faces.  I don't believe this story would have come off half as well from someone who didn't a.) know the genre inside and out and b.) have the sentimentality required to treat these plot devices with fondness and respect.

71.  The Luxe, Anna Godbersen
Gossip Girl set in 1899, which works - it's a little less frivolous, because you get the sense that, even though the characters are all young, beautiful, and narcissistic, they are dealing with choices that matter and effect other people.  Frothy and fun while still handling some serious issues (marriage, bankruptcy, suicide, etc.).  A good palette cleanser.

The next four books on my docket are:
The White Road, John Connolly
City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
My Lobotomy, Howard Dully with Charles Flemming
and hopefully, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan (I'm waiting for this one on inter-library loan)

If I can get through those before January 1, I will have read 75 books this year that I've never read before, and I think that's pretty awesome.

Holiday Break Reading

66.  Snuff, Terry Pratchett
Sam Vimes is my favorite character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, so I was excited to find one of his books I hadn't read yet.  There's a bit of a template for the books featuring Vimes: he investigates a crime with vigor, typically because no one else will touch it, causing lots of political upheaval because he's Vimes and he has no fucks to give about class hierarchy.  Vimes is Pratchett's mouthpiece for exploring classism, racism, and cultural collision, and Snuff is no different from Feet of Clay, The Fifth Elephant, or Thud! in this respect.  Instead of golems, dwarves, or trolls, we have goblins, treated like vermin by the rest of the sentient creatures on the Discworld - until Vimes investigates a murder.  It's a template book, but Pratchett's writing is so damn good and his characters are so damn fantastic (this one in particular has the chance to develop Vimes' son, who is a typical six-year-old - obsessed with bodily functions and adorably empathetic) that it really doesn't matter.  It's a lovely cap to the adventures of Vimes.

67.  The Whisperers, John Connolly
Another template author, Connolly's books about Charlie Parker are all pretty similarly mapped out.  Like Pratchett, Connolly escapes a lot of criticism because of the strength of his writing and his characters; I particularly loved the way The Whisperers played with perspective and tense.  Much of it is told from the first-person perspective of Parker, but Connolly hardly lets this restrict the story, feeling free to bounce between narrators, third-person perspective, and back and forth in the story's timeline.  It never loses coherency and provides a neat way of telling the story, wherein the reader has more pieces than Parker but in a way that doesn't spoil the final confrontation.

68.  Blackout, Mira Grant
This was a satisfying way to end her zombie trilogy, but I do think that Blackout ends up being the weakest of the three.  One of the biggest conflicts in the novel is an existential dilemma that never really convinced me; it might be genre-jadedness, since it's a question that pops up in a lot of science fiction books I've read, but (without spoiling anything) Grant doesn't push it hard enough for it to be effective.  Other than that, Blackout is exciting and satisfying, if a little rushed at the conclusion; the final scene seems a bit too easily tied up.  I think the problem is that Feed, the first book, was SO strong and SO compelling that, even though Deadline and Blackout are really good reads, they don't quite measure up to the power of the first book.  You'll want to finish the story, though, because it's a hell of a ride (and I'd rather read Grant's worst book than the best book from SOME authors, just sayin').