FF: Making Choices

This week, choices ��� especially on how to live ��� seems to be a theme.

Just in case you don���t know��� The Friday Fragments feature lists of what I���ve read over the past week. ��Most of the time I don���t include either short fiction or magazine articles.

Awash in Options

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.�� If you���re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.�� It���s just a list with, maybe, a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Deep Secrets by Diana Wynne Jones.�� The parts set at the SF convention were fun, but what made this novel work for me were how the various characters thought they knew exactly who they were, where they were going and why.�� Yet, by the end, most of them had changed radically.

CryoBurn by Lois McMaster Bujold.�� Audiobook.�� A good mixture of SF speculation and intrigue, salted with humor.�� Is life just about avoiding dying?�� And how much life would be ���enough���?�� Speculation on these and related points gives the novel nice depth.

The Sculptor by Scott McCloud.�� Graphic novel.�� Talented sculptor David Smith wants to be more than just another ���David Smith.����� Haunted by his family���s history of unrealized potential, he fights so hard to keep from being a failure that he����� Well, read it yourself and see what you think!

In Progress:

Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man by Wendelin Van Draanen.�� Mystery interwoven with over-the-top junior high politics.

The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones.�� Audiobook.�� The Pinhoes have kept a secret for a long time.�� Can they keep it hidden from Chrestomanci?

Also:

Beginning research for a future project.