- Smoke and mirrors : short fictions and illusions, Neil Gaiman. i'd never read any Gaiman, save Good Omens. this is a collection of short stories and poems, that i (mostly) liked. some of them were rather disturbing, some were merely odd and a couple i just couldn't get through. it was good bus reading. i think i want to read more Gaiman, just not right away.
- Bet your life, Richard Dooling. at first this reads like Snowcrash meets... yon standard fluffy paperback mystery novel. a couple of insurance investigators meet fraud and murder in the form of a complicated insurance scam. it tries a little too hard to get all the computer stuff right while trying to be as cool as possible, and diverges into lengthy passages about Catholicism. interesting for the discussions on how to pull off insurance fraud. not exactly lightweight reading but not heavy either.
- Almost French, Sarah Turnball. an Australian falls in love with an Frenchman and moves to Paris, and learns (mostly the hard way) how to get along living in France. this is a memoir, not fiction. i learned more about France than i ever wanted to know, and this is one of the several food/travel related books i've been consuming lately. it's sweet to watch Sarah develop into her life in France and her relationship. it's a quick read, too.
- Enterprise, The First Adventure, Vonda N McIntyre. Jeff has suggested that i try the Star Trek books, and i started with this. it was a much more substational read and better writing than i expected - i was expecting (please, Star Trek fans, don't kill me) cheesy fluff. i was put in my place.
- Funny Money, James Swain. This is the second book featuring Tony Valentine, an ex-cop running a consulting business to bust folks cheating casinos. unlike the Star Trek book, this is pure fluff, though like Bet Your Life, it's fun to learn about how to cheat casinos. i will eventually read the next book in the serious, when i want some brain candy.
- A year in Provence, Peter Mayle. more France, more ramblings about food. an English author and his wife buy a house in France; life ensues, he writes a memoir. i killed this one in about three days of bus reading. i like Almost French better, but they're rather different books. reading about the food was fun, though, and descriptions of trying to get anything done in France were amusing.
i'm currently reading Consuming Passions, Michael Lee West (a memoir about Southern food and family), The Man Who Ate Everything (i think this diet thing is showing up in my book choices) (i think
rhiannonstone read this awhile back?) and The Ashes of Eden, William Shatner.