Friday Reads: A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

From Amazon.com:

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Friday Reads: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

From Amazon.com:

At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.

In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.

But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies.

And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

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Friday Reads: Transformations by Mike Ashley

From Amazon.com:
When we think of science fiction, we think primarily of movies and television shows, but this assumption belies the fact that the genre’s initial rise to prominence came in pulp magazines. With lurid covers and titles like Galaxy, If, and Thrilling Wonder Stories, the science fiction pulp magazines created the visual and thematic vocabulary that continues to animate today’s science fiction blockbusters.

In Transformations, the second volume in his acclaimed three-volume history of science fiction magazines, science fiction historian Mike Ashley brings his unparalleled knowledge to bear on the period from the beginning of the Cold War through the end of the 1960s, an era of tremendous change in the writing of and the marketplace for science fiction.

Ashley begins his story with the decline of the pulp magazines at the end of the 1940s and their replacement by new digest-sized and glossy magazines. That switch, and the increased respectability that came with it, coincided with a true golden age of science fiction writing in the early 1950s, with such giants of the genre as Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, and Harlan Ellison all publishing regularly in a wide range of such magazines.

As Ashley shows, by the end of the decade, sales had slumped, all but six of the science fiction magazines had folded, and the future looked bleak—until the surprising rebirth of the genre through the work of British writers Michael Moorcock and J. G. Ballard. Ashley also considers how the popularity of Star Trek and the movie version of 2001: A Space Odyssey influenced the future of the science fiction magazine.

For fans of science fiction seeking to understand how their favorite genre evolved from Amazing Stories to Babylon 5, Transformations will be essential reading.

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Friday Reads: The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

From Centipede Press:
One of the greatest science fiction/fantasy novels ever published, The Anubis Gates takes literary history, lycanthropy, the Knights Templar, and a bizarre cast of characters into one of the most original and memorable time travel stories ever published. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award for best original science fiction paperback.
Tim Powers is also one of the most collectible of all genre authors. Many consider this novel to be his masterpiece. But it has never been published in a deluxe state; not like this. Get ready. With a publication date of October 2013, it’s just down the road. You won’t believe your eyes.
This new edition features 10 full page, full color illustrations by David Palumbo. These are exceptional paintings and perfectly compliment the text. Palumbo wrote: I was new to Powers’ work when approached about this edition, but became instantly hooked. There was so much rich visual material to choose from it was actually difficult to narrow down the scenes that I wanted to paint. I think I easily had ideas for twice as many as I could use. In the end, many choices were made based on the narrative flow and overall story which the images would make as a whole. The chosen scenes tended to be mostly night or otherwise dark, often torchlit, which seemed to be the setting for most of the key moments and I love the mood which it communicates. Doyle’s adventure is full of mystery and shadows and there’s certainly never a dull moment.
The book is designed by Jacob McMurray, and he also created a fold-out map of London and an infographic regarding the exploits of Dog-Faced Joe. These inserts are simply astonishing and will complement the text and book design in Each copy is signed by Powers, Palumbo, and McMurray in a handsome four-page signature insert. The book is bound in imported cloth and housed in a slipcase that can only be called unique. Indeed, we hope that the standard signed The Anubis Gates will be so amazing that you will swear you have your hands on the deluxe.
The book is typeset in Monotype Bulmer, designed in London by William Martin in the early 1790s. It is a period typeface that perfectly captures the time and setting of the novel. It is printed in two colors throughout. The book is bound in Suedeluxe with a lenticular image on the front board. Other extras include a top-edge stain, printed endpapers, ribbon markers, reinforced binding, and a gorgeous, heavy paper. The slipcase is unlike anything you have ever seen.

EDITION INFORMATION

• Limited to 500 copies, each signed by Tim Powers, David Palumbo, and Jacob McMurray.
• New afterword by Tim Powers.
• An appendix of deleted scenes from the original manuscript.
• Ten full page, full color paintings by David Palumbo.
• Four page fold-out map of London with key settings highlighted.
• Two-page fold-out infographic on the exploits of Dog-Faced Joe.
• Full cloth binding with lenticular image on front board.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, top-edge stain, reinforced binding.

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Friday Reads: Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

From Amazon.com:

From award winning tech-journalist and io9 founder Annalee Newitz comes a highly anticipated science fiction debut!

Autonomous will pull listeners into a dark and dirty world that feels, at times, a bit too familiar.

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.

Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack’s drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.

And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?

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Friday Reads: The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido by David Friend

From Amazon.com:

A sexual history of the 1990s when the Baby Boomers took over Washington, Hollywood, and Madison Avenue. A definitive look at the captains of the culture wars — and an indispensable road map for understanding how we got to the Trump Teens.

THE NAUGHTY NINETIES: The Triumph of the American Libido examines the scandal-strafed decade when our public and private lives began to blur due to the rise of the web, reality television, and the wholesale tabloidization of pop culture.

In this comprehensive and often hilarious time capsule, David Friend combines detailed reporting with first-person accounts from many of the decade’s singular personalities, from Anita Hill to Monica Lewinsky, Lorena Bobbitt to Heidi Fleiss, Alan Cumming to Joan Rivers, Jesse Jackson to key members of the Clinton, Dole, and Bush teams.

THE NAUGHTY NINETIES also uncovers unsung sexual pioneers, from the enterprising sisters who dreamed up the Brazilian bikini wax to the scientists who, quite by accident, discovered Viagra.

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Friday Reads: The Process (is a Process All Its Own) by Peter Straub

From Subterranean Press:

Dust jacket by Michael Fusco Straub.

In The Process (is a Process All its Own), Peter Straub brings back Tillman Hayward, a latter day Jack the Ripper familiar to readers of The Skylark and A Special Place. Tilly, known for good reasons as The Ladykiller, stands at the dark heart of this astonishing novella.

Tilly is a classic serial killer, and we watch him go about his “work” in the American Midwest of the 1950s. His story is one of madness and bloodlust artfully concealed beneath a thin, civilized veneer. In keeping with his nickname, he leaves a trail of mutilated female corpses behind him wherever he goes.

Straub tells Tilly’s story in a clear, unflinching voice that is at once enthralling and disturbing. At the same time, Straub sets that story against the larger story of a world filled with enigmatic occurrences and impossible encounters. It is a world in which the dead reappear, in which language carries its own peculiar properties, and “a hateful and discordant music” surrounds everything. It is a world which only Peter Straub could have evoked with such clarity and power.

Moving from the American Heartland to the stately homes of England, and from the arid worldview of Tilly to the fevered sensibility of Henry James, this nexus of connected stories is one of the strangest, most unsettling creations of a long, distinguished career. The Process (is a Process All its Own) is the clear product of a modern master. Expect it to haunt you for a very long time to come.

Limited: 750 signed numbered hardcover copies

Posted in Books Tagged with: #fridayreads, horror

Friday Reads: Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey

From Amazon.com:

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Friday Reads: No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need by Naomi Klein

Via Amazon.com:
In No Is Not Enough, Naomi Klein explains that Trump is not an aberration but a logical extension of the worst and most dangerous trends of the past half-century.

A road map to resistance in the Trump era from internationally acclaimed journalist, activist, and bestselling author Naomi Klein.

”This book is a toolkit to help understand how we arrived at this surreal political moment, how to keep it from getting a lot worse, and how, if we keep our heads, we can flip the script and seize the opportunity to make things a whole lot better in a time of urgent need. A toolkit for shock-resistance.” –Naomi Klein, from the Preface

The election of Donald Trump is a dangerous escalation in a world of cascading crises. Trump’s vision — a radical deregulation of the U.S. economy in the interest of corporations, an all-out war on ”radical Islamic terrorism”, and sweeping aside climate science to unleash a domestic fossil fuel frenzy — will generate wave after wave of crises and shocks, to the economy, to national security, to the environment.

In No Is Not Enough, Naomi Klein explains that Trump, extreme as he is, is not an aberration but a logical extension of the worst and most dangerous trends of the past half-century. In exposing the malignant forces behind Trump’s rise, she puts forward a bold vision for a mass movement to counter rising militarism, racism, and corporatism in the United States and around the world.

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Brave by Rose McGowan

From Amazon.com:

“My life, as you will read, has taken me from one cult to another. BRAVE is the story of how I fought my way out of these cults and reclaimed my life. I want to help you do the same.” -Rose McGowan

A revealing memoir and empowering manifesto – A voice for generations

Rose McGowan was born in one cult and came of age in another, more visible cult: Hollywood.

In a strange world where she was continually on display, stardom soon became a personal nightmare of constant exposure and sexualization. Rose escaped into the world of her mind, something she had done as a child, and into high-profile relationships. Every detail of her personal life became public, and the realities of an inherently sexist industry emerged with every script, role, public appearance, and magazine cover. The Hollywood machine packaged her as a sexualized bombshell, hijacking her image and identity and marketing them for profit.

Hollywood expected Rose to be silent and cooperative and to stay the path. Instead, she rebelled and asserted her true identity and voice. She reemerged unscripted, courageous, victorious, angry, smart, fierce, unapologetic, controversial, and real as f*ck.

BRAVE is her raw, honest, and poignant memoir/manifesto—a no-holds-barred, pull-no-punches account of the rise of a millennial icon, fearless activist, and unstoppable force for change who is determined to expose the truth about the entertainment industry, dismantle the concept of fame, shine a light on a multibillion-dollar business built on systemic misogyny, and empower people everywhere to wake up and be BRAVE.

Posted in Books Tagged with: #fridayreads