Happy Holiday of Your Choice

The Wizard of London, by Mercedes Lackey. This is supposed to be the last of a series (see my previous 2 posts, among others), but they don't actually rely on each other. They deal with a similar subject, but the knowledge doesn't build over the series, so you can read them out of order if you want. Of the five books, characters from the first and third are mentioned in this last one, and one mentioned in passing in the first book is one of the main characters in this, but you certainly don't need to read them; the needed information is resupplied, and, in some cases, inconsistent. Undead and Unwed, by Mary Janice Davidson. I can't say that these books are really great, but they are quick, fun, and easy to read. The writing style is very informal, just how the main character thinks and talks, but it works. Fragments, normally a big hang-up for me, are few and far between, and consistent with spoken English and the writing style, so I'll let it pass. Two things of note: 1) The author uses an n-dash instead of an m-dash, so words that are meant to be little asides, like parenthetical phrases, look like weird new word combinations. It's unexpected and distracting. 2) The author describes each character upon their enterence in terms of appearance and outfit. I normally hate this and think it's something reserved for very crappy writers, but the main character is pretty shallow and appearance and wardrobe are big considerations for her, so it kind of fits. Undead and Unemployed, by Mary Janice Davidson. More of the same. The Book of Totally Useless Information: Over Two Hundred Explanations for the Not-So-Important Questions in Life, by Don Voorhees. This was a present, and these random fact books are fun. This one is a little old, a 1993 publication, but it's ok since most of the questions are historical. Don't tell the gift-giver, but, while the questions are fun and funny, the writing is slightly sub-par and some of the answers (like 3) are actually wrong. The author is confused about comma and colon use and is inconsistent in said use; this makes for a lot of run-ons and fragments. He also way overuses the exclamation point and makes terrible puns. I preferred the two Why Do Men... by Leyner and Goldman.