The Authorities by Scott Meyer [Amazon, Kindle]

From the author of the webcomic Basic Instructions and the delightful Magic 2.0 series of books comes a fine… detective novel? It follows a police officer hired by a wealthy philanthropist who is assembling a private sector crime solving task force.

This was a fine novel, and like all of Scott Meyer’s stuff, it’s very witty and readable. It’s not my favorite of his, though. I feel like he’s setting up a series here, and there’s more to be developed. I guess I’ll wait to see how it continues, if it does.

You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost): A Memoir by Felicia Day [Kindle, Amazon]

I am powerless to resist these autobiographies by funny women who are not really old enough to be writing autobiographies. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling… funny stuff. Are they autobiographies? Or just stand-up routines where they riff on their life so far in book form? Perhaps they’re old enough for the latter.

Anyway, Felicia Day is pretty funny. We knew she could act funny from Buffy and Doctor Horrible, and we knew she could write funny from The Guild. So, no surprise there. She had an eccentric childhood of homeschooling, going to college at 16, and other outside-the-standard upbringings.

She writes a lot about The Guild and later works, not so much about Buffy and Doctor Horrible. But Joss Whedon writes a very nice introduction regardless.

Bum Rap by Paul Levine [Kindle, Amazon (free)]

I have no idea how this book ended up on my Kindle. According to Amazon, it was “purchased” for $0.00 on June 15, 2015. Maybe it came up as a free book offer in an ad, and I clicked “sure”?

At any rate, I didn’t research it significantly, because this book is… not… good? That seems harsh to say, since I read it anyway. But throughout the book I’m screaming in my head at the author “show don’t tell! SHOW DON’T TELL! YOU ARE BEING LAZY AND INSULTING MY INTELLIGENCE!”

But I kept reading.

This is a crime/lawyer book, akin to Grisham (I’ve never read a Grisham, don’t know how well he writes, but that type of story). The writing bounces around from first to third person and back, where the first person is a ex-football player/lawyer named Lassiter whose voice is that of a wry-humored, film-noir gumshoe. In essence, something one might make fun of in an improv scene.

Even in the third person, you ran into narration like “X was the kind of character who liked to punch first and ask questions later” instead of showing us a scene where he punches first and asks questions later. The latter is certainly much harder, and I feel for an author who has to do it, but… gosh darnit, I paid $0.00 for this book! Put in some effort!

But I read it anyway. All the way through. I feel like there’s a lesson I need to learn here, either I’m not as demanding of my literature as I think I should be, or I need to know when to call it quits and not hold out hope that a book is going to deliver despite evidence to the contrary.

Not sure which yet.

If nothing else, I’m 3.5 weeks into 2016, and 6 books under my belt. Looking good so far for 52 this year.

Colors Insulting to Nature by Cintra Wilson [Kindle, Amazon]

This book was recommended a long time back by my son’s 3rd grade teacher, it sat on my Amazon Wish List for a couple years until I took the plunge.

It’s a rollicking coming-of-age tale of dysfunction in a young girl’s family, growing up in California with a desire for Fame. It has hints of the flavor of A Confederacy of Dunces, filled with eccentric characters and odd life choices. I enjoyed the story even if the characters were only marginally relatable to me.

The writing was engaging, though, and this was odd, there were an unusual number of typ-os in the Kindle version. Not misspellings, but random character errors that any spellchecker would have flagged. (e.g., “tbe” instead of “the”). Was this an amateurishly produced book, or was there corruption in the digital copy? I’ve never run across that before.

Regardless, I recommend the book if you’re into… I dunno. Dunces, maybe. It sort of reminds me of The Good People of New York by Thisbe Nissen a bit. Maybe the Moon? Bits and pieces of those, I guess.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin [Kindle, Amazon]

Three short tales of a Hedge Night and his squire in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, taking place 100 years before the events in Game of Thrones.

This has the same high quality of writing you find in Game of Thrones, but not as epic in scale. Well worth a read, and Mr. Martin promises further exploits of Ser Duncan the Tall in future works, which I would welcome, but I guess everyone would really like him to get back to the main storyline. We’ll see how it goes.