Top 3 books I'm reading this month (ostensibly for book club but really just because)

“What's the point of having a book club if you don't get to eat brownies and drink wine?”
― Jami Attenberg, The Middlesteins

So, I left my last job, did a bit of contract work, found out I had chronic fatigue and depression and cataracts (yes, I'll be blogging about those, too, at some point), slept for 5 months, got bored, decided to see if I still had much love for libraries, and found I did. At least until the next big adventure beckons. Which means what, for you? Basically, that I'm back blogging and invading all of your online spaces. Who could ask for anything more? (Rhetorical question. Don't answer). Here on the blog, I'll be posting lists in threes about things geeky, fangirlish, bookish, etc, for two reasons: 1) at the heart of everything I love lists and 2) because I can. Basically.

I'm back in libraries on the front desk recommending books like a fiend and, for the first time in a long time, one of the things I have time for is joining a book club. To be specific, Manukau Library's Book Chat (more info here). And these are the top 3 books I'm reading for our next get-together. Comments, as always, are more than welcome. Let's get to it!



Saga. Volume 3 [graphic novel] by Brian K. Vaughan ; artist, Fiona Staples
Author quote: “I wanted to do something that was way too expensive to be TV and too dirty and grown-up to be a four-quadrant blockbuster." (Vaughan to to Hollywood Reporter.

Winner of the 2013 Hugo award for Best Graphic Story. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. From New York Times bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) and critically acclaimed artist Fiona Staples (Mystery Society, North 40), Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults. In volume 3, as new parents Marko and Alana travel to an alien world to visit their hero, the family's pursuers finally close in on their targets.

Tosca's comment: I'll give you 3 reasons to read this graphic novel: 1) IF YOU'RE NOT READING THIS THEN YOU'RE NOT LIVING! (And who wants to merely exist?) 2) It's insane. In a good way. There's Marko and Alana and their baby, a Lying Cat who can tell when people are lying, there's an assassin named The Will, who has an unusual relationship with a female who has lots of eyes and legs, a spaceship made of wood, and a teenaged ghost babysitter. That's just to start with 3) It is sweetly romantic on you one minute, and then turns around and becomes strangely perverse the next. AND YOU LIKE IT. That's the big kicker.  You like it, and then you start to look forward to the being always caught slightly offguard. You like it ALL because it is that good. Okay? Okay.
[image: Amazon.com]

 
The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
Character quote: "...it was better to be wrong with beer than just wrong." - Walt Longmire

In this outstanding first novel, Craig Johnson draws on his background in law enforcement and his deep attachment to the American West to produce a literary mystery of stunning authenticity, and full of memorable characters. Walt Longmire, sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, knows he's got trouble when Cody Pritchard is found dead. Two years earlier, Cody and three accomplices had been given suspended sentences for raping a Northern Cheyenne girl. Is someone seeking vengeance? Longmire faces the most volatile and challenging case in his twenty-four years as sheriff and means to see that revenge, a dish that is best served cold, is never served at all.

Tosca's comment: As a child, I grew up raiding mum and dad's bookshelves, and there were always plenty of western novels. As a result, I have much love for Louis L'Amour in particular, and Walt Longmire puts me in mind of a lot of L'Amour's men - good, hard-working folk who were always short on words, long on action, and with a strong sense of justice. He is, really, an old fashioned kind of hero. I have never been the marrying kind, but if I were, it'd be Walt Longmire from Johnson's Longmire series and/or Charlie Bradbury from Supernatural.
[image: Amazon.com]

True West (magazine)
True West captures the spirit of the west with authenticity, personality and humour by providing a necessary link from our history to our past.

Excerpt from article The Hat Rules: "Cowboy Hat Rule #1: The hero cannot change hat styles in the middle of a film. Kilmer's Billy the Kid got caught in this trap after Gore Vidal's crew attempted to duplicate the only-known-photograph hat. So Kilmer's Kid wore this hat in several scenes, but in later scenes he was back wearing the wider brim sombrero. This scenario is not impossible in the real world, as most cowboys wear different hats for different occasions, but it looks wrong in a movie. We want to see the hero stick with the same hat throughout the production."

Tosca's comment: Recommended to me by a colleague. This. Gah *flails* (fangirl speak for "ZOMG you haz to read this. Like, totally). Seriously, though, well worth the read, and available as a Zinnio e-Magazine, which means you get to keep an eBook copy of it afterward. w00t!
[image: Zinio eMagazines]