Light Reading for the Apocalypse

I started a new project today.  Here's a hint:

In addition to that, there are about a million other things going on. (Actually, there are only about four. I'm not that busy.) We're going to Texas for Christmas and we're driving. With the cat. I doubt that I'll do any more reviews before the new year/until after the apocalypse. I'm just re-reading Harry Potter now anyway. Nothing new to report.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
By Cathrynne M. Valente

This is one of those books that I heard about, bought the same day, and finished the next day. (Alsn, did you finish it yet?) I forgot to ask for the sequel for Christmas, so if you're trying to think of something to get me, that's it.

I'm not entirely sure if this is supposed to be YA or just Y, but I'm pretty sure I would have loved it at any age. It's a fairy tale. Imagine Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and The Chronicles of Narnia all rolled up into one fabulous little package (I hate descriptions like that, but it's true). The main character is September, a little girl from Nebraska, who is whisked away from her home one day on the back of the Leopard of Little Breezes to Fairyland. There, she meets a Wyverary: a beast that is half Wyvern half Library, among about a billion other wonderful and intriguing characters (a soap golem! a soap golem!).

This book is fantastical, playful, smart, and totally, totally embedded in my heart.

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
By Phillip K. Dick

A famous actor wakes up one day and discovers that his identity has been fully and totally erased. No one knows him, there is no official record of his existence. Plus, he happens to live in a police state where being off-the-record can lead to life in a forced labor camp.

This is a very philosophical bit of science fiction. I'll admit freely that I didn't love it, though there were moments that inspired some introspection. If you're a fan of thought-provoking (read: rather depressing) science fiction, read it, and let me know what you think of the end. I'd love to know someone else's opinion.

I Am Not Myself These Days
by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

Where to start? This is a memoir and a love story. A very unconventional one. A rather NSFW sort of one.

Eighty percent of me loved this book, in which Kilmer-Purcell relates the story of his first year in New York City, where he is a mild-mannered advertising exec by day and an alcoholic drag queen by night. Actually, he's an alcoholic both day and night, but that's neither here nor there. One night, he meets Jack, a very upscale male escort who lives in a beautiful penthouse apartment and is always on call. This is exactly the sort of real love story I wish would flood the market. There are all sorts of imaginative books about love between vampires and werewolves and other non-existant creatures. There are not enough stories about real humans who love other real humans who don't fit neatly into boxes.

Here's the 20% I didn't enjoy:
1. This is supposed to be a humorous memoir. I did not find the characters struggles with drugs and alcohol remotely funny. In fact, I was sort of furious at them. I am, however, a professional stick in the mud.
2. I get the impression through the writing that the author watches a lot of television. In many, many places, the characters do and say things that only happen in sitcoms. Fine for fiction, a little weird in a memoir. Drag queens I believe. Drugs I believe. Male escorts I believe. The witty straight friend who always has a snappy comeback? Please.
3. Here's a good test of whether or not you'll like this book:
Have you ever been to Bourbon Street?
Did you like it a lot? Great! Read on.
Did you find it horrifying? Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

The Tao of Pooh
by Benjamin Hoff

Audio book! Do you have two and half spare hours? Do you like Winnie the Pooh? How about the Tao? How about the Tao explained through Winnie the Pooh (and Piglet too)?

Here's the deal. I loved this book. I have no idea why I hadn't read it sooner. I'm honestly not all that sure I learned anything about Taoism listening to it. Not really. I mean, I learned about things like the "Vinegar Tasters" and the "uncarved block," but I doubt I could apply that to my life. I just loved, loved listening to the narrator do all the voices for the characters. Listening to it while walking around town simply made me cheerful and content. Which is maybe more Tao than not.