My reading journal - July 2008

Fearless - Robin Parrish - A well done thriller, second chapter in the author's Dominion trilogy. Keeps the suspense and characters involving, and sets things up for an intriguing finale.

Stuff White People Like - Christian Lander - Funny stuff, poking fun at an insular overeducated class of people that take themselves way too seriously and thinks they are much cooler than they really are. Christian Lander is like Jeff Foxworthy for the NPR crowd. You could do each of those entries in the Jeff Foxworthy style. Except substitute urban hipster for redneck. "If you don't have a television, but have ten copies of the New Yorker on your coffee table, you might be an urban hipster. As a bonus, this book also serves a handy guide for impressing girls at an Arcade Fire concert.

Scarlet - Steven Lawhead - Good historical fiction, based on a reimagining of the Robin Hood myth based on the actual historical events of the period. Second book of a trilogy, and it is written from the perspective of Will Scarlet, an outsider who is drawn into the band of Hood's merry men. I didn't find Scarlet as interesting a character as King Raven (Robin Hood) himself (which was the basis of the first book of the series, Hood), but the story of this group of Welshmen fighting the injustice of the seizure of their lands by the English King known as William the Red, is engrossing, and the religious sensibilities of a church torn between competing Popes is well done, showing the upheaval of the church and the divided loyalties within the Crown itself. I'm looking forward to the concluding chapter of the trilogy to come out next year.