more light summer reading

At the library before my vacation with mrpet, I picked up Tanner on Ice by Lawrence Block. I love Lawrence Block, except for his Matthew Scudder mysteries, which I find bleak and nihilistic - I like his funny stuff. Anyway, Evan Tanner is my favorite character of his - writes term papers for a living and does some conspiracy on the side. He also falls into bed with a lot of leggy blondes, and I can relate to that. So far, Tanner's Twelve Swingers has been my favorite in this series, because it was hilarious. This one - well, you find out on the cover that Tanner was frozen by an enemy agent for twenty-five years, so now, he's in the nineties. The account of him trying to figure out what has changed since the ice is probably the best part of the book. Still, it was good. I don't think there are any more (besides one or two in between Swingers and Ice which are out of print).

Anyway, here's another shoutout to harlequinade for turning me on to Block shortly after I moved to Boston.

In the same library trip, I asked my friend Karen the librarian for another light reading suggestion. She pointed me towards Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor. She said the first book was an important setup but she liked the others better. It transpires that starkeymonster has read these as well, and she liked the first book better than the others. I will have to read at least one or two more just to find out which of them I agree with. :)

Does anyone have any other suggestions of good light summer reading? I'm taking September off from my job, mostly, so I'll have some time to catch up.

sci-fi award winners

So apparently Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell won the Hugo this year.

It was deserved. If you haven't read it, and you like any of the following thematic elements, you should. Snark, comedy of manners, the occult, the fey, folklore.

This year's Lambda sci-fi award was won by The Ordinary by Jim Grimsley.

I haven't read that. Apparently it's set in the same world as Kirith Kirin, which I had out from the library for several months, but didn't read. Time to try it again.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold won the Nebula. I haven't even started the series, and I'm very ashamed. I just wasn't sure she'd do well with fantasy, and I didn't want that to diminish my love of her sci fi, if applicable.

I intend to remedy my errors. Anyway, I thought that those who, like me, had lost track of who was winning what, might find this useful.

Edit: As per woodwardiocom, the first book is actually not Victoriana, but still has the comedy-of-manners quality I like in Victorian literature and its descendents in the sci fi/fantasy world.