I’ve read one and a half books since I last updated this, but I want to talk about the one—Jo Walton’s The King’s Peace—along with its sequel, which I’m planning to read next. So instead I’ll mention the half, Daniel Pinkwater’s The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death.
Why is this a half? Yesterday we were in the Book Barn, a local (to Schenectady, that is) used bookstore; while the cashier was ringing up my half-dozen Brother Cadfael novels (each about a buck fifty; I like that place), I happened to spot the audio book of The Snarkout Boys. Since Chad’s read and liked it, less than five bucks to hear the author read it seemed like a good deal.
We listened to the first quarter in the car, but I dozed off during the second back at the apartment. Taking this as a sign that I’m not cut out for audiobooks unless I’m in a car, I read the other half of the book over lunch today.
What a weird book. (As though you couldn’t guess from the title.) There are some great bits in here—listening to Pinkwater read the three different speeches in Blueberry Park was very funny, and I enjoyed the pure deadpan narrative voice—but overall, it wasn’t quite my flavor of weird, I think because I prefer my plots at least a little coherent.