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[coyotegoth]

The Stand- Stephen King

Shatterday- Harlan Ellison

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH- Robert C. O’Brien

The Short-Timers- Gustav Hasford

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series- Douglas Adams

Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf- David Madsen One of the most singular first-person narrative voices in fiction. Gabriel, thank you again for introducing me to this.

(I’m going to simply give Theodore Sturgeon his own entry, as it’s hard to pick one collection of his right now.)

Playground/N-Space- Larry Niven Two paired collections by my favorite science fiction author; a matchless imagination.

Dragon’s Egg- Robert L. Forward Probably the best hard-science first contact novel I’ve ever read. It’s about life on a neutron star: they’re the size of a mustard seed, and mass as much as a human being. What’s more, they live a million times faster than we do.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly- Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat- Oliver Sacks

Flowers for Algernon- Daniel Keyes

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- JK Rowling This is the book that finally dragged me, kicking and screaming, into a state of obsession with regard to the series. Upon rereading, I have even more of a bitter appreciation of just how much the soufflé fell in its adaptation to film. Am awaiting the Deathly Hallows movies with breath unbated.

The Hucksters- Frederic Wakeman. A prescient novel about the ad industry; includes a returning war veteran lead character who reminds me more than a little of Holden Caulfield, without being so irritating about it. Made into an uninspired Gable vehicle by Jack Conway; it really needed the Ace in the Hole- era Billy Wilder.

Glimpses- Lewis Shiner A man is given the ability to create alternate versions of his favorite albums... by interacting with the musicians, at the time of the music's recording. What if the Doors had got “Celebration of the Lizard” together? More to the point, what if Brian Wilson had completed Smile... in 1966? Hits the same sad sweet spot as Jack Finney’s “Marion’s Wall,” with music, rather than film.