Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

This is the second novel in the Parasol Protectorate series featuring Alexia Tarabotti. It is set in a Victorian England with touches of steampunk. The first was Soulless. Alexia is now Lady Maccon. She is married to Conall Maccon who is a werewolf. She is the lady of a house of werewolves.

In this novel, paranormals are mysteriously losing their powers. This is bad for England because so much of their military power lies in regiments of vampires and werewolves. It is a mystery for Lady Maccon to solve. She travels between England and Scotland by dirigible, she hobnobs with werewolves, vampires, and nobility. At the same time she takes tea, wears fashionable dress, and reads the society papers.

The novel is lighthearted entertainment. The writing breaks boundaries by moving between a variety of genres from gaslight to romance to steampunk to adventure. The writing is more comic adventure than scary. She wards off the villains with her trustry umbrella and dangerous hatpins.

The backstory is one of an eccentric, intelligent lady with a difficult family and quirky friends both normal and paranormal (ghosts, vampires, and werewolves). Her friend Ivy is entranced by terrible hats and her sister must travel with her to Scotland to avoid scandal.

The third book in the series coming out in September 2010, Blameless, should be as entertaining as the first two.

Daily Thoughts 6/10/2010

Exlibris of the Załuski Library showing the library's interior, mid-18th century,Etching by Jan Józef Filipowicz, National Library in Warsaw

Daily Thoughts 6/10/2010

I am reading Changeless by Gail Carriger. I very much like the humor and style in this steampunk series with supernatural twist. It mixes, humor, adventure and romance very well. I am already looking forward to Blameless coming out in september 2010.

I looked through the Locus Magazine new arrivals list and put The Affinity Bridge by George Mann on hold. It is a steampunk mystery. I also read throught the New York Times Bestseller list for Business and put Switch How To Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath on hold. I do look at a variety of bestseller lists.

I finished reading Changeless. It was quite entertaining. I will write some more about it later this week. So far, I have finished reading three books this week.

This is a link to the speech by Ron Hogan on Professionalism and Ethics in Blogging presented by Ron Hogan at the Book Blogger Convention.
http://beatrice.com/wordpress/2010/05/30/professionalism-ethics-blogging/

Daily Thoughts 5/19/2010

Bust of Honoré de Balzac by Auguste Rodin, bronze (1891 – 1892), in the Victoria and Albert Museum., Taken by Andrew Dunn, 3, December 2004, Public Domain

Daily Thoughts 5/19/2010

An excellent article from Harvard Magazine on the changing role of libraries in the digital world. http://harvardmag.com/pdf/2010/05-pdfs/0510-36.pdf

Did my graphic novels club today. It did decently. We have a regular group of teenagers who come every Wednesday to play trading card games who usually take some of the material being presented. They also come to the anime club later in the week. One of our attendees mentioned a self publishing service for comics called http://www.ka-blam.com I also checked out the movie, Coraline which is also a book and graphic novel.

One of our clerks is working on a web page for a bestsellers, awards, and staff picks page using Bookletters widgets. It is coming together.

I focused on getting my ordering together before I go to Book Expo America next week. I read Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist.

Several books came in for me to read, Changeless, An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger, Steamed A Steampunk Romance by Kate McAlister, and Ship Breaker A Novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. I am looking forward to reading all three of them.