Libromancer's Apprentice

Confessions of a Librarian : A Memoir of Loves / Barbara Foster In the spirit of such classic female erotic adventurers as Anais Nin, Erica Jong and Toni Bentley, Barbara Foster shares the story of four women who meet to tell the lurid details of their worldly romantic encounters in Confessions of a Librarian: A Memoir of Loves. From Istanbul, Buenos Aries, Israel and back to New York, featuring young women to women of a certain age, with threesomes and everything in between, these inter-connected tales of love and lust are sure to keep you rapidly turning the pages. So... I was expecting a whole lot more from this one.  Even the intro made it sound like this would be a somewhat salacious collection of tales, stories of an intelligent, worldly woman's sexual adventures across the globe.  What I got felt a bit too grounded in the mundane, in the depression and weight of life, the cattiness between the women of the writing group.  The stories are solely told b...

Golden Son / Pierce Brown ( Powell's Books ) Coming soon, to a bookshelf near you... ROMANS IN SPAAAAAACE! (Actually, it's already out.  My bad) If you read Red Rising , Golden Son follows in its predecessor's expected footsteps  A book that draws influence from bestsellers like The Hunger Games , Ender's Game , Game of Thrones and probably some other book with the word "game" in its title.  A bit more Gladiator than Spartacus this time around, more plots within plots, and more untimely yet inevitable betrayal.  Don't get me wrong, if you really liked Red Rising , I highly recommend Golden Son .  It's a rollicking near-space opera with dastardly villains, stalwart companions, and traitorous friends.  We have painful revelations and machinations within machinations. Darrow's work for the Sons of Ares has run afoul due to political power-plays and a disregard for lower-caste life.  Disgraced, Darrow must forge an alliance with a once en...

50 Ways to Ruin a Rake / Jade Lee Mellie Smithson and Trevor Anaedsley both have problems.  One is a woman with a brilliant intellect too far from society to have any suitors on the horizon.  At least, except for her overly dramatic and poetic cousin.  Trevor Anaedsley is the grandson of a duke, one who has cut off all of his funds until Trevor finds a bride.  When Trevor goes to visit his mentor seeking at least temporary residence, if not aid, he realizes that another option exists, one that benefits both himself and Mellie in the short term, and allows them both to go their own ways later without any messy emotional entanglements.  Of course, as they come closer they learn maybe there's more to their relationship than fighting like cats and dogs. Overall, a fun and naughty historical romance.  Mellie is intelligent, Trevor isn't a complete domineering asshat (actually, he's really not your usual historical romance duke at all), and things get hot a...

Blindsight / Peter Watts Available to read online or download here: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm "Two months have past since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since—until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who should we send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn’t want to meet? Send a linguist with multiple-personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can’t feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his mind gone since childhood. Send them to the edge of the solar system, praying you can trust such freaks and monsters with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find—but you’d give anything for that to be true, if you knew what was waiting for th...

A Teenager’s View on Social Media (Written by an actual teen) As someone who regularly ends up in the position of active contribution (if not managing) my work's social media, in addition to someone who's interested in going into teen library services, definitely of interest to me. BBC Radio 4: Sir Terry Pratchett A selection of Terry Pratchett programs. Sir Terry Pratchett: Shaking Hands with Death Sir Terry Pratchett is a favorite author of my mother and myself.  We were both incredibly saddened by his Alzheimer's diagnosis several years ago.  I don't know if she ever came across this talk, but she was a strong advocate for death with dignity, the ability to chose to die on your own terms. Government The Internet Your Rights Online FCC Posts Its 400-Page Net Neutrality Order Worth taking a look at if you're interested in such things. Rakuten buying eBook firm OverDrive for $410 million in U.S. push So, that's interesting. Windows 10 will be...