Book Jam

I’m stuck for a new good, witty, engaging yarn. None of my favorite authors have anything new out right at the moment. All the potentially appealing mystery and sci fi books I've found on Libby are also tagged as romance. Christ almighty. I don’t mind a little love with my spaceships, aliens and murder investigations but—SHEESH—I do NOT need detailed, steamy bodice ripping scenes threaded throughout.

It’s impossible to tell, before I dive in to read, whether a tale will be 85% meet-cute, hearts, roses and sexy action versus science, dead bodies and witty repartee. Well, a general rule of thumb is that, if the cover art shows a shirtless dude sporting washboard abs and B cup sized pecs, I should take a hard pass. Without  that obvious tip off, it's hard to know.

I know I’ve bitched about this before so I’ll stop now. Maybe I should just plug Alien: Resurrection into my moviola and watch that? Surely, while I’m lost in Ripley-clone’s world, one of my go-to distraction authors will come out with a new offering. Right?!

Meanwhile, here are a couple of snippets from Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera (which is, mega ultra sadly, not available from either of the libraries I frequent):

As far as quality housemates to be found on Planet Earth, it goes: dolphins, elephants, orangutans, octopi, then every single spider, then Joan of Arc, the Dalai Lama, Mr. Rogers, Freddie Mercury, my nan, all the scorpions, German measles, a dented recycling bin, and then maybe some of the rest of us.
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Are you kind enough, on your little planet, not to shut that rhythm down? Not to crush underfoot the singers of songs and tellers of tales and wearers of silk? Because it's monsters who do that. Who extinguish art. Who burn books. Who ban music. Who yell at anyone with ears to turn off that racket. Who cannot see outside themselves clearly enough to sing their truth to the heavens. Do you have enough goodness in your world to let the music play?

Do you have soul?