Recommended Reading
Books by Friends and Family

Looking for something else to read? I highly recommend Archangel Protocol, Fallen Host, Messiah Node, and Apocalypse Array by Lyda Morehouse. I like to tell people that Archangel Protocol is kind of like Left Behind for Unitarians. It's gripping and darkly funny, and it gets funnier and darker as it goes along. Viewpoint characters include Satan, a rogue priest, and a Muslim AI. These are great books. Everyone should read them. And no, the fact that Lyda is one of my best friends does not influence my opinion one bit.

Not that he needs me to promote his books, but John Scalzi's SF novel Old Man's War is excellent. I read it for the first time when it was (briefly) up on the Internet; I read it again after buying it when it came out. I highly recommend the book. (I do not, however, recommend pursuing that particular path to getting a book contract. Posting a book on the Internet and e-mailing a Tor editor worked for John but it will probably never work for anyone else ever again.)

My friend Kelly McCullough recently sold his novel Webmage. I've read the short story set in that world, and it's a blast -- I think Kelly is channelling Zelazney, so if you're a Zelazney fan you should check out his work.

Anne Harris's latest book, Inventing Memory, is fascinating, creepy, and fun. It weaves together Sumerian goddess worship, modern investigations into primordial matriarchies, computer gaming, identity theft, academic politics, and the likeable if infuriating characters of Shula, Wendy, and Ray.

For fans of retold fairy tales—and even for those who never read retold fairy tales because so many are dreadful—I highly recommend The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr. Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale is retold twice—once set in Puritan America, and once at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. As weird as this might sound, the stories mesh well. It's a beautifully told, moving book.

Laurel Winter's young adult novel, Growing Wings, is worth reading even if you're not a young adult. The protagonist, Linnet, is a girl who finds herself growing wings. Her mother, as it turns out, also grew wings when she hit puberty—and her own mother cut them off. The wings served in some ways as a metaphor for difference, independence, and the startling changes one's body makes on the cusp of adolescence—but in this book, they were also tangibly, inconveniently real. Wings have a lot of surface area and are hard to keep warm in the winter; they get cramped under a big sweater. And unless you're very small for your age, you may never be able to use them to fly. Highly recommended.

Looking for a book that will tell you all about out-of-court settlements of lawsuits? Well, pick up Let's Make a Deal: Understanding the Negotiation Process in Ordinary Litigation by my father, Herbert Kritzer. And if your kids have ever pestered you with questions about the judicial systems of Pakistan, Taiwan, or Belgium, why not surprise them with a copy of Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia (edited by Herbert Kritzer and available now on Amazon.com)?

Or perhaps you've always wanted to know more about plays written by women in the late 18th century. Well, look no further: my mother, Amelia Kritzer, edited an anthology, Plays by Early American Women, 1775-1850. (If you yourself are a Theater History or Women's Studies professor, you might consider assigning this book to your students; it's affordably priced to facilitate its use in the classroom environment!)

Write to Me
...but don't send me spam. Social e-mail (even from strangers) is always welcome at naomi.kritzer<at>alumni.carleton.edu.