Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded

Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
by John Scalzi [817 Sca]

John Scalzi is an accomplished science fiction author, with both hard SF (Old Man's War) and humorous SF (Redshirts, Agent to the Stars) to his credit. He's also well-known in the science fiction online community for his excellent blog, Whatever, which he launched in September 1998. This book, the winner of a Hugo Award for best Non-Fiction dealing with science fiction, collects many of the most popular, and most controversial, of his blog entries from the first 10 years of Whatever. Though he's a science fiction writer, Whatever addresses whatever happens to be on Scalzi's mind at the time. That can include subjects of interest to scifi fans, but can also dip into politics, popular culture, history, the writing life, family, etc. Scalzi uses sarcasm like a surgical instrument, poking fun at topics that may be highly charged. He also receives a lot of feedback, often of a complaining nature (hence the title), from his followers, and this collection definitely highlights many of the blog entries that inspired both positive and negative reactions. Depending on your position on various political and/or social issues, you may find yourself fist-pumping in agreement or gnashing your teeth in frustration at some of Scalzi's essays. But you won't be disappointed. [I'm surprised to see this in the 817 "humor" section, instead of the 814 "essays" section -- some of these are very humorous, but others are extremely serious as well.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library [Subscribe to Scott's monthly booklist newsletter It's All Geek to Me! - on the Books, Movies & More newsletter sign-up page].
 
[ official Whatever blog by John Scalzi ]

 
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