All postings for the books of the month
August 2, 2010 Rating: 
The Science-Fiction book of the month for July 2010 is “The Caves of Steel” by Isaac Asimov (first published in 1954).
Detective Elijah Baley invesitgates the murder of an offworlder in Spacetown. In the opinion of the Spacers, the murder is tied up with recent attempts to sabotage the Spacer-sponsored project of converting Earth to an integrated human/robot society on the model of the Outer Worlds. read on…
June 7, 2010 Rating:
The Fantasy book of the month for June 2010 is “Griffin’s Castle” by Jenny Nimmo (first published in 1994).
Dinah hopes the new home provided by Gomer Gwynne will be a fresh start for her and her mother. She dreams it is a castle, imagines bedrooms with four poster beds, a drawing room with a glittering chandelier, exquisitely decorated for Christmas. read on…
May 6, 2010 Rating:
The Science-Fiction book of the month for May 2010 is “Crooked Little Vein” by Warren Ellis (first published in 2007).
Michael McGill, a burned-out private eye, is hired by a corrupt White House Chief of Staff to find a second “secret” United States Constitution, which had been lost in a whorehouse by Richard Nixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its seedier side along the way. read on…
April 8, 2010 Rating:
The Fantasy book of the month for April 2010 is “Black Juice” by Margo Lanagan (first published in 2004).
“Black Juice” contains ten independent fantasy short stories. read on…
March 21, 2010 Rating:
The Science-Fiction book of the month for March 2010 is “River of Gods” by Ian McDonald (first published in 2004).
August 15th, 2047. Happy Hundredth Birthday, India… On the eve of Mother India’s hundredth birthday, ten people are doing ten very different things. In the next few weeks, all these people will be swept together to decide the fate of the nation. read on…
February 5, 2010 Rating:
The Fantasy book of the month for February 2010 is “The Minotaur Takes A Cigarette Break” by Steven Sherrill (first published in 2000).
Five thousand years on… and the Minotaur, or M as he is known to his colleagues, is working as a line chef at Grub’s Rib in Carolina, keeping to himself, keeping his horns down, trying in vain to put his past behind him. read on…
January 30, 2010 Rating:
The Science-Fiction book of the month for January 2010 is “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin (first published in 1969).
Winter is an Earth-like planet with two major differences: conditions are semi-arctic even at the warmest time of the year, and the inhabitants are all of the same sex. Tucked away in a remote corner of the universe, they have no knowledge of space travel or of life beyond their own world. read on…
It’s December, so we’re reading a classic: The book of the month for December 2009 is “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells (first published in 1898).
The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. read on…
November 7, 2009 Rating:
The Fantasy book of the month for November 2009 is “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova (first published in 2005).
Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to “My dear and unfortunate successor”. read on…
October 14, 2009 Rating:
The Science-Fiction book of the month for October 2009 is “The Holy Machine” by Chris Beckett (first published in 2004).
Illyria is a scientific utopia, an enclave of logic and reason founded off the Greek coast in the mid-twentyfirst century as a refuge from the Reaction, a wave of religious fundamentalism sweeping the planet. read on…
The Science-Fiction book of the month for July 2010 is “The Caves of Steel” by Isaac Asimov (first published in 1954).
Detective Elijah Baley invesitgates the murder of an offworlder in Spacetown. In the opinion of the Spacers, the murder is tied up with recent attempts to sabotage the Spacer-sponsored project of converting Earth to an integrated human/robot society on the model of the Outer Worlds. read on…
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