While in Portland, I was able to visit Powell’s Books, which claims to be the world’s largest independent used and new bookstore. I can’t verify this, but I can verify that it is huge, and, without a doubt, the coolest bookstore I have ever been in. To get an idea of the organizational structure of the store, check out this diagram.

It has loads of books lots of different floors and rooms in which the books are displayed. Fortunately there are maps available at the information desks, and the books are well catagroized. Thus, despite the fact that there are thousands of books to choose from, it was relatively simple for me to wander into the Fantasy & Science Fiction area and spend the better part of an hour browsing books.

The big problem was trying to decide what books not to buy. I got out of there buying only four books. However, there were many more that I wanted. Further, they had Cory Doctorow‘s Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town on sale and I did not pick it up. I am still kicking myself over that. Although I love Little Brother, Someone Comes to Town is my favorite Doctorow book. Yet I do not yet own it.

Other than that, my visit to Powells was wonderful. If you like books and you are ever in Portland, you must visit this bookstore.

I managed to get my hands on an ARC of Fuzzy Navel, J.A. Konrath’s new novel coming out in July 2008. I read it in fewer than 24 hours, coincidentally about the same amount of time that the book covers. In this latest installment of the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series, the action is packed into about eight hours. The last chapter occurs about 24 hours after the book starts.

Konrath packs plenty of action into those eight hours. Also, like his earlier works, the action is spiced up by plenty of humor.

This book features the return of Alexandra Kork (from Whisky Sour) and pulls together all of the characters we have come to know in Jack’s world: Her partner Herb, her mother Mary, her former partner Harry, he boyfriend Latham, and her friend Phineas Troutt.

I want to pause here to make two observations. First, I feel really sorry for Latham. The poor guy is wonderful to Jack’s mother and he seems like a great boyfriend. Nevertheless, the poor always ends up in terrible situations, facing grave injury or death. I just feel bad for him.

The second observation is that Phin is my favorite character in these books. In fact, I found Konrath and his books through a Phin story “Epitaph” that appeared in an anthology called Thriller. Epitaph is one of my favorite short stories ever and provides a great look at Phin.

Ok, back to our story. Not only does Kork return seeking revenge, but Jack is also involved in the investigation of three simultaneous sniper attacks. Her initial investigation of those attacks quickly leads to a horrific intersection of both the snipers and Kork.

I don’t want to say more to avoid giving away any spoilers. I will say, however, that the scenes in the snipers heads are absolutely hilarious. Additionally, because the events in the book occur over such a short period of time, the action is non stop.

If you like this series, you much pick this book up and read it. Konrath has also already announced that the next book in the series “Cherry Bomb” will be out a year from now. Fortunately, it is supposed to pick up right where Fuzzy Navel left off. After you read Fuzzy Navel, you will figure out why this is a good thing.

In sum, Fuzzy Navel is typical Konrath. And that is a good thing. It is faced paced, full of action, fear, and humor. If you enjoy the series, definitely read it. If you have not read any of the series before, read Rusty Nail and then read this book.

Are you concerned about the new surveillance methods being implemented in New York City? Do you believe that it is stupid that we have to take our shoes off while going through airport security? Do you think it is stupid even after hearing the head of TSA explain the reason for it? Does security theater, for theater’s sake annoy you? If so, you need to read Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.

I know that this book is being marketed as a YA book. However, just because teens can read it doesn’t mean that adults shouldn’t. Further, I think that the fact that it is marketed as a YA book makes Little Brother much more accessible than his previous books. For example, I loved Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. However, I would not suggest the book to just anyone.

If you don’t know who Cory is, he describes himself as “an activist, a writer, a blogger, a public speaker, and a technology person.” He used to be the Director of European Affairs for EFF and he is the co-editor of Boing Boing.

Little Brother resolves around Marcus, a teenage computer geek, who along with his three friends gets picked up by the Department of Homeland Security because they happen to be at the wrong place when terrorists attack the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

After being held incommunicado for several days, some but not all of the group is released. After being released, Marcus realizes that DHS has essentially suspended civil rights in San Francisco and is treating everyone like a suspected terrorist.

Marcus spends the rest of the book fighting against DHS and trying to expose the things that they have done. One of the good aspects of this book is that Doctorow explains, in accessible language, how the various security systems work and why some systems provide effective security and why other systems provide only security theater.

The only knock I have on the book is the most of the “bad guys” are one dimensional. However, the individual bad guys appear to be intended to be stand ins for DHS rather than individual characters in themselves. Given this, I really didn’t have a problem with their single dimensionality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. In addition to picking it up at a your favorite bookstore (brick and mortar or online), you can also snag a copy from Cory’s website, where he has released it under a Creative Commons attribution, noncommerical, share alike license.

While you are there, check out his other novels as well, including Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which I think provides an interesting foreshadowing of Web 2.0 and social networking.

I am a true crime junkie. Thus, I jumped on the chance to read Defending Gary, a book about the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, written by one of his attorneys, Mark Prothero.

This is not your typical true crime book. If you want the details of the investigation or how forensic evidence finally solved the case, this is not the book for you. Fortunately, there are plenty of other books on the Green River Killer for you to choose from.

Instead, this book focuses on the legal aspect of the case, including how to best represent the most prolific serial killer in America. The first part of the book details the relationship between Ridgway and his attorneys and how they planned to defend him at trial. The second part, details the plea negotiations between the defense and the prosecutors for Ridgway to exchange information on the killings in exchange for not being sentenced to death. The second half also details the extreme difficulty faced by the investigators in trying to get all of the information from Ridgway.

This is not a suspenseful book, nor is it intended to be so. However, it is a fascinating look into the entire process of defending a serial killer. In a nice twist, the book also points out the public relations risks that Norm Maleng, the prosecutor, took in accepting a plea and not pursuing the death penalty against someone who has pleaded guilty to killing 48 people.

If you enjoy true crime books, and want to get a behind the scenes look at the legal machinations rather than the investigative portion, then I would recommend this book.

I just finished Infected by Scott Sigler. It is a classic horror novel that gave me chills like I haven’t had since I read Misery, Thinner, Cujo, and the Shining. Infected is horror does in the classic King mold that is designed to scare you and mess with your mind.

One of the interesting twists is that Sigler approaches horror from a scientific point of view. Thus, when his characters start to itch when they become infected, you know the itch is real and that it is being cause by something natural, rather than supernatural. In one sense, that almost makes it scarier than supernatural horror.

Despite the fact that I kept wondering about every itch that I got, I loved this book and read it in about three days, because I really wanted to find out what was going on. Like a great horror book, this one has a definite well done ending, but it is certainly not an ending in which everyone lives happily ever after.

If you like horror. Check out this book.

If you want to hear Sigler talk about the book, you can download a couple of interviews here and here.

I just finished Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. This Grisham novel is one of his few that does not include a disenchanted attorney hiding from or fleeing from the law. Instead, it is a feel good book about a third string quarterback who ends up playing football for the Parma Panthers in the Italian football league.

I enjoyed how the book touched on the Italian culture, especially the dining and opera. I also liked the perspective of how unimportant American style football is to the Italians. However, I felt that, except for the football parts, I had seen much of the Italian culture parts in his novel The Broker.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book. It is a quick read and does not require consideration of heavy themes or consequences. Instead, it’s a simple story of a third string NFL quarterback and his experiences playing football in Italy.

If you are looking for an uncomplicated enjoyable book, Playing for Pizza would be a good choice.

Recently I talked about how much I enjoyed The Kite Runner. I just finished Hosseini’s second novel: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Upon my initial reflection, I liked this book even better than The Kite Runner. Once again, Hosseini brings alive the culture in Afghanistan and sheds a light on the plight of the people there over the last three decades. The story focuses on two women Mariam and Laila and much of the book reveals the terrible conditions under which women have live in Afghanistan for decades. Through their eyes, however, you can see the toll that the constant warring has taken on the people as well as the country as a whole.

A single line from the book stands out to me. The line comes from Chapter 36, which occurs in 1994. By this time, the Soviets have been out of Afghanistan for approximately 5 years and Afghanistan is embroiled in a civil war. Plus it is still a couple of years before the Taliban has taken control of the country (and Kabul). Thus, this scene occurs before the draconian rule imposed by the Taliban. In this chapter Laila says, “The freedoms and opportunities that women had enjoyed between 1978 and 1992 were a thing of the past . . . .”

Think about that. Even under the warlords who ruled Afghanistan after the Soviets and before the Taliban, the laws were so strict and oppressive that Afghan women looked upon the Soviet occupation as providing “freedom and opportunities.” That single sentence speaks volumes about the conditions under which Afghan women have suffered for decades.

The other refrain that I saw throughout this novel is the same one that I saw in The Jungle. i will admit up front that my views of The Jungle may not be conventional. I understand why people condemned the meat packing industry because of this book, however, that I not the most important theme that I got from the book. Further, I certainly was not convinced by the socialism themes that Sinclair was pushing in the book. Instead, the main thing that I took from the book was that trying to live your lives by what other people expect you to do, often results in people making poor decisions.

For example, in The Jungle, the characters are unable to get married because they cannot pay for the type of party that is expected in their culture. While I was reading The Jungle and the characters were struggling with this problem, I kept thinking to myself that many of their economic problems could be alleviated, if not solved, if the simply stopped caring about whether their neighbors thought they were “doing the right thing” and instead, used the wedding money to improve their situation rather than throw a party for the neighborhood.

I saw that same theme repeated in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Time after time, the characters would explain, as a justification for oppression, that things had to be this way in order to keep the neighbors from talking, or to ensure that the women were respected by others.

Now I certainly don’t advocate anarchy. Further, I believe that cultural customs can be a great way to unite a community of people. However, the worst excuse I have ever heard for doing something is “Because we have always done it that way.” The second worse is “Because [someone important or in authority] said we should do it this way.” Unfortunately it appears that these two reasons seem to form the backbone of most of the oppressive and atrocious acts that happen.

Anyway, if you are looking for a good book, check out A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini can tell a great story and he does so here with a rich backdrop of Afghanistan.

For Christmas, my sister gave me a copy of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Had she not given it to me, I likely would never have picked the book up. I have have too many unsatisfactory results from reading books that I “should” read to read a book simply because it is popular.

In this case, I am quite grateful that my sister gave me this book. I absolutely loved it. Hosseini does a wonderful job of describing Afghanistan, Kabul, and the rule of the Taliban. I found the description of Afghan culture particularly interesting and enjoyable. Hosseini masters what many others never seem to be able to. He can richly describe something without allowing the description to slow down or interfere with the story. In short, Hosseini tells a great story and tells it in an engaging and interesting manner.

Hosseini also creates real life characters with depth. The story, which I would describe as being about friendship and redemption, provides you with plenty of opportunities to like, dislike, and empathize with the characters.

If you are looking for a well-told, engaging story. I recommend The Kite Runner.