Books Blog: English Literature & Linguistics

I have to repost these three photos of Bar Refaeli–israeli model–nude and scribbled on in Esquire magazine:

This is a promo for Stephen King’s new novella Morality, which will appear in the July 2009 Esquire. It’s probably going to be well worth reading!

I’m really enjoying a new Author, Charles Stross. He writes hard-scifi and Lovecraftian fantasy. I highly recommend the following books as introduction to Charlie Stross–all available on the Amazon Kindle:

Stross turns in another bravura performance with a fanciful glimpse at life in the twenty-seventh century. In an era of virtual immortality, where computer backups of human consciousness have become as routine as unlimited body modification, Robin is a patient in a rehab clinic for convalescents of voluntary memory erasure.

Reviews of the novel vary wildly, which may suggest as much about the tastes of particular SF readers as it does about the specific case. The combination of sex and violence clashes a bit with some deep philosophizing on identity and purpose, though Stross?s sense of humor and Freya?s rollicking adventure transcend what SF Reviews deems “some bizarre cross-genre hybrid.”

Lovecraft’s Cthulhu meets Len Deighton’s spies in Stross’s latest, as the Scottish author explains in his afterword to this offbeat book offering two related long novellas, “The Atrocity Archive” and “The Concrete Jungle” (the latter previously unpublished). With often hilarious results, the author mixes the occult and the mundane, the truly weird and the petty.

Most of his books have Kindle editions, which is great!! However, the last two novels in The Merchant Family series are missing. I wrote Charlie about it, and he says to bug Amazon. I’ve already hit the “request this edition on the kindle” button they have. So, cross your fingers. You can check out Charles Stross’ blog for the latest updates.

I’ve posted about 6 word short stories before, but now it’s time to celebrate the genre with new dedicated blog Six Word Stories:

My current favorite is this one:

“Hello Son,” it said, tentacles waving. — G. Sulea