People keep trying to get me to inject flu into my blood so it must be November. I need a post for November or else the archives page will get screwed up (don't ask -- it's a homegrown blog tool), so yay, here ars some books I've read this month:

• Reamde by Neal Stephenson: I enjoyed this book but I never expected it from Neal Stephenson. Even his trilogy of enormous historical novels was less surprising than this for some reason. Basically it's a thriller, and there's not much more to say about it. But what were the odds that both Stephenson and Cory Doctorow would write books about virtual gold farming at the same time?
• The January Dancer by Michael Flynn: This one started great, especially the second chapter which had a nice tall tale vibe to it; I almost felt like I was reading a modern Washington Irving. But then oh no! it got dragged down and down into tedium, and I got bored with it. Sigh.
• What's The Worst That Could Happen by Donald Westlake: a fun caper novel by the master of the genre. A classic.
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman: a fantasy about a boy who goes to a wizard school! Yes. But it was billed as "adult" and sophisticated or something. I didn't hate it but the protagonist was a twonk and I enjoyed seeing bad things happen to him. The book is about how he learns that the things he most desperately wants are delusions intended to mask his deep dissatisfaction with himself. Or something. I will skip the sequel.
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King: I got about a third into this before it got too boring to continue. Maybe I'll go back but I doubt it. Stephen King is not what he once was.
• Aloha from Hell by Richard Kadrey: this is the third book in the Sandman Slim series, which is in that newish Fantasy/Horror Noir sub-genre popularized by Jim Butcher. I guess it's a bit edgier than Butcher's Harry Dresden books