I love a surprise.

As I settle into grad school, I'm getting introduced to more and more librarian/book blogs and websites. Here are a few of my favorites, if you haven't seen them:

http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/
http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/bookshelves_of_doom/

Ok, so "few" may be misleading, as I just realized all the other blogs I look at often are cooking blogs or hilarious life stories (seriously, www.hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com) and Overheard in New York, but give me time and I will deliver.

This past month I've been plodding away at the third George R.R. Martin, so I didn't really think it needed another update, despite my unfulfilled ambitions to update every week. Ha. Ha. Ha.

However, I was surprised and pleased (re: hopping up and down with glee) to find that Connie Willis has written another novel, split into two, revisiting some of the characters from one of my favorite books of hers. Doomsday Book has everything I love. Strong women. Time travel. The Middle Ages. PLAGUE! RAPINE! UNDERCOOKED YET HEAVILY SPICED MEATS! Well, not the last two, but they *are* a part of the Middle Ages. So go read Doomsday Book first. Go go go. Why aren't you going yet? You'll love it, I promise, just do it.

THEN.

Read this one: Blackout. If you don't like the Middle Ages (and honestly if you don't have at least a small affinity for it, why are you here. why.), maybe you like World War II. Hmm? Blitzkrieg, tanks, tuberculosis, etc. etc. Fantastic! So I'm only a few pages in because I was interrupted by Gail Carriger's next installment in her Alexia Tarabotti novels, but so far it's just as fantastic as I knew it would be. The main action hasn't yet become apparent, but it takes place under the premise that by 2060, we have discovered time travel, and it is (probably among other things) being used by historians at the University of Oxford for research.
For very scientific reasons, people traveling to the past are physically unable to change important events with their presence, so everyone can almost go tripping about to study without a care. Implants allow for instant linguistic capabilities, Oxford's Wardrobe Department takes care of outfitting the intrepid historians, and it all seems fairly simple. Except that the past is dangerous, the historians know too much and often run the risk of becoming attached to their subjects, and besides all this it's nearly impossible to integrate yourself into the behavioral patterns of someone from over one hundred years ago or more. Then there's the little trick of actually getting back to the transportation points without being seen. If you're seen, the system automatically doesn't open and take you back to 2060, and you're definitely stuck in 1388 and about to be beheaded during the Peasant's Revolt (for example) and there's nothing anyone can do.
So say goodbye to history as a boring, safe thing to study, and take the plunge with Connie Willis into Blackout. All Clear, the second half, is due out later this fall; I know I'll be in line!

(credit to Publishers Weekly for the image)