I am Spock by Leonard Nimoy

I am Spock
Leonard Nimoy
1995, 1996, Arrow Books, London
0099647419
347p.

Auto-biography written by Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in the original series of Star Trek, as well as a number of motion pictures. This is written after the Star Trek: Generations movie.

Leonard Nimoy is a talented writer. And the stories he tell in this are very interesting, there's not too much boring stuff in there as some auto-biographies have. I like the way he talks to Spock throughout the book.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

For Rouenna by Sigrid Nunez

For Rouenna
Sigrid Nunez
2001, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
0374254303
230p.

A writer living in New York starts a friendship with a woman, Rouenna, who wrote to her after reading her novel. Rouenna was a nurse in the Vietnam conflict and tells of her experiences.

I enjoyed this. It was disjointed and odd, but I like it like that. The characters were all brought to life gradually and the stories of the conflict and of life in the Project were heartbreaking.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan

Apathy and Other Small Victories
Paul Neilan
2006, St. Martins, New York
0312351747
231p.

Shane's dental hygienist is found murdered and he's a suspect. Or something. A description of this book's plot is not going to give any real sort of indication as to what sort of book this is.

This was a hilarious read. The sort of book that makes you laugh out loud, then when someone asks what you're laughing at, you mumble incoherently because it's just so wrong. I loved the narrator's insights and cynical view of the modern world. You know you're reading a good book when every single character is stark raving loony and yet the whole things makes perfect sense.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson

So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading
Sara Nelson
2003, 2004, Hodder, Sydney
07336187502
232p.

Sara Nelson is a writer living in New York City who decides to read at least one book a week for a year and chronicle her reads in a journal.

I don't know why I thought I wouldn't enjoy this. It's a book about books for goodness sakes! And I loved it! I loved reading about another book obsessed person and her theories on readers. I've come to many of her conclusions myself.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Seth and the Strangers by Jenny Nimmo

Seth and the Strangers
Jenny Nimmo
1997, Mammoth, London
0749728841
73p.

Seth and his foster sister Anne-Marie watch a swirling mass of lights come down out of a mysterious dark cloud over the moor. Seth then feels a presence in his house.

A beautiful little book - I was sad at the end. I thought the characters were very well written, and the issues dealt with in a delicate but upfront manner.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Automated Alice by Jeff Noon

Automated Alice
Jeff Noon
1996, 1997, Corgi, London
0552144789
252p.

The 'third' Alice in Wonderland book - this novel sees Alice transported into the future (1998) through a grandfather clock. There she has to find her way back by collecting 12 missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle she had started in 1860.

What a weird and wonderful crazy book! Noon has captured Carroll's style perfectly ... this just reads like a Carroll novel except for the 'future-nods' such as cars, helicopters and Jimi Hendrix. This book is for adults who adored Alice as a child. I wish there was more.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor

Red Dwarf
Grant Naylor
1989, Penguin, London
0140124372
298p.

Lister gets drunk one evening and when he wakes up he finds himself stranded on one of Saturn's moons. In order to get back home, he enlists in the Space Corps and ends up on an ill-fated vessel called the Red Dwarf.

I never really watched much of the TV show, I only had pictures of the characters in mind and not much else. So I went into this book without much expectation and was totally surprised. This is an excellent stand-alone science fiction novel. It has a few hard sf concepts, a few lessons for humanity, and so much poignancy it makes you smile. It's always nice when a books blows you away like that.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Armageddon 2419 AD: The Seminal Buck Rogers Novel by Philip Francis Nowlan

Armageddon 2419AD: The Seminal Buck Rogers Novel
Philip Francis Nowlan
1962, 1978, Ace Books, New York
0441029396
195p.

This is an edited novel which integrates two original novellas published by Nowlan in the late 1920s in the Amazing Stories magazine. Buck Rogers is a chemical engineer living in the early twentieth century who becomes trapped in an underground cavern which leaves him in a state of suspended animation due to the cold and various gasses (rather dubious, actually!). He awakes in the 25th century to find America in a state of decay - the native Americans hunted by another dominate race, the Hans.

I would love to read this in it's original form, as this edition was changed to suit the 'modern' (1960s) reader. It's like a cross between a hard science fiction novel, boy's own adventure, and war drama. I found some of the science fascinating, such as inertron and the ultron universe, which is similar to matter/antimatter theories.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo

Midnight for Charlie Bone
Jenny Nimmo
2002, Egmont, London
0749748885
345p.

Charlie Bone discovers he can hear people talking in photographs. This special gift means that he is sent to a school for 'endowed' children - children who are descendants of the 'Red King', an ancient magician. There he has to fight to reunite a young girl with her family.

I enjoyed this book - it has a wonderful premise. The characters are well-rounded, although they jump to conclusions too quickly, and the overall pace of the book is a bit fast. Still, that means that there's a lot of neat characters and magical plotlines crammed in.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Vertigo by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac

Vertigo
Pierre Boileau
Thomas Narcejac
1956, 1997, Bloomsbury, London
0747531870
170p.

Set in France, Vertigo revolves around two men and a woman. Gevigne hires Flavieres to follow his wife Madeline who he feels is in danger of committing suicide after her great-great-grandmother committed suicide at the same age.

A real psychological story - a bit of a slow-burn thriller which really picks up the pace in the last few pages. And a twist I, for once, didn't see coming.

Link to journal at bookcrossing

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov
Vintage International, New York, 1962
10679723420
315p.

This book is written as a poem and commentary. The poem's author, John Shade, is neighbours with Charles Kinbote, a rather eccentric academic man from somewhere in Eastern Europe. It is Kinbote who writes the whacky commentary.

I love the wry humour of the author. The character Charlie Kinbote is highly entertaining and I never knew where he was going with it (his commentary on the poem) next.

The randomness of this book is engaging.

Link to journal at bookcrossing