Red Shirts

As you know, this is not a blog where I review books, but if you’ve been following very long you also know that I just can’t help but share the news if I find I book I totally dig.

I just finished reading “Red Shirts,” by John Scalzi, and it was awesome. I laughed out loud. A lot. Without giving anything away, I’ll tell you it’s a play on the Star Trek series. The title is a shout out to the lowest ranking crew members – the ones who wear red shirts and always get killed off first thing. That’s all I’ll say except this – if you liked Star Trek, or any sci-fi TV show for that matter, you should read this book.

And now I’m desperately trying to finish “If on a Winters Night a Traveler,” which is kind of the opposite of “Red Shirts.” The book club I am excited to say I am now a part of is meeting this Saturday night to discuss it. It is clearly a very clever novel, told by a real master (Italo Calvino), but it is not an easy read. He jumps from first person to second to third in the course of one paragraph, and it totally works, which I bow down too, but the plot is a little convoluted. I will do my best to wrap it up in the next few days, but the task would be a lot easier if I hadn’t just downloaded “Wool” on my Kindle.

“Wool” is not a difficult read. It sucks you in and whisks you along on a strange, futuristic sci-fi tale. And it calls to me. As I’m getting into bed and I look at Calvino’s book laying next to my Kindle and I think “I need to finish this before Saturday, but…” and then I pick up the Kindle.