I’m going a tad bonkers on books…

FIRST I got a few books from my long suffering wish list:

“Sheep: The Remarkable Story of the Humble Animal That Built the Modern World.” - that one is pure curiosity

The Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (Pantheon, $30, hardcover, 766 pages) - from Locus: “Set in an imaginary African country, The Wizard of the Crow features a dictator intent on building the highest tower in the world — one that reaches beyond Earth’s atmosphere — and a cabinet of ministers who outdo each other in surgical modifications. For example, the Minister of State, responsible for spying on citizens, has his ears enlarged. The opening sequence, with its summary of proposed theories for why the dictator has fallen ill, is classic. I’ve rarely read a novel so entertaining and yet so essential.”

Passarola Rising (Viking), by Azhar Abidi - from Locus: “For his debut novel, Azhar Abidi combines two archetypal SF subgenres, the alternate history and the fantastic voyage. The premise: what if, in eighteenth-century Portugal, Bartolomeu Lourenço had been permitted to build and fly the airship he had designed? Abidi concocts a rousing adventure novel in which the eighteenth century comes alive as a truly alien world and in which the profound bond between two brothers (Lourenço’s brother Alexandre narrates the tale) is explored with depth and sensitivity.”

Patrick O’Leary, The Impossible Bird from Locus: “The borders between SF and fantasy become blurred in this novel of two estranged brothers whose lives take weird turns and force them to seek each other - and the alien hummingbirds who are meddling in human lives.”

Gregory Benford, Eater - from Locus: “An intelligent black hole visits Earth in this thriller of astrophysics, first contact, politics, and apocalyptic showdown - a fascinating mix of hard SF, disaster novel, and space opera, full not only of original scientific speculation, but also engaging characters”

In Babylon - Marcel Möring, (Independent: It’s been a while since a Continental star of fiction shone over here in the Kundera or Eco style. Möring stakes a strong claim to that role with this quite magnificent novel. In the snowbound Dutch countryside, Uncle Nathan tells the fabulous tale of his eccentric clan: Jewish clockmakers-turned-thinkers, who drifted westwards from Lithuania to New York. Rich, Dickensian storytelling, warm and wise humour, a sweeping sense of history: a world-class performance from the new Dutch master. )

THEN I got some recent books:

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