Get your passport stamped on another plane this summer (with science fiction!)

I just finished Changing planes by Ursula K. Le Guin and it got me thinking about all the traveling one can do with science fiction without ever leaving the couch or spending a dime (unless you bring your books back late, then it's a dime--still the best deal in town).  I'm also looking for something to get my mind off the creepy invasion of monster underground insects about to happen any day now.  You won't believe how many cicadas are about to envelop the East Coast.  What better distraction than say, reading about creepy invasions of monster insects from other worlds. Am I right?!  So where am I going and where have I just returned from?  Some new places, some old favorites:


Changing Planes: Using Cincinnatian Sita Dulip's method of utilizing the extreme discomfort of traveling through airports to slip off to other planes, one woman visits 15 other worlds and describes interplanary life and leisure.  This book is well worth a visit, in my humble opinion.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick
Originally published in 1968, this novel served as the inspiration for Blade Runner (1982), which is also an awesome movie.  How often does that happen?

Just go there with him: it's a fantastic journey. I just (finally) read this one and that's all I'm going to say about it.

The Long Earth and The Long War (due out in June) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Another story of interplanary travel, this time from Discworld creator Terry Pratchett.  This was recommended to me by my go-to-sci-fi-librarian-friend so I have high hopes although so far the review from the other side of the sofa is kind of "meh" but we'll see how it turns out.  I have the ebook on my phone.


MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (COMING SOON!)
I can't say enough for this series.  Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood are two of my favorite books.  I'm so excited for the final book this fall, and I am aware that I have posted about these before thank you.  That's just how good they are.
The new film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is hitting cinemas soon so I need to hurry up and finally read that (Oh shh! I was getting to it!)


The Cave by Jose Saramago.  Not exactly sci-fi though his books often take on supernatural themes and he does such a marvelous job of unsettling the reader by taking them someplace real, but not quite real.   The Double had such a satisfyingly disturbing ending that I can hardly wait to explore The Cave.  


Also making me pause to pick it up every time I walk past it, over and over until I finally break down and check it out, (and geez I already have a lot of books checked out) is Pure, the first book in a trilogy of the same name by Julianna Baggott.  I just spied Fuse, which is book two, on the new books shelf.  Here we go again...

Let me just say that I am a fan of the idea of downer vacations: traveling to places far worse than home to make going home feel like a vacation.  Why not travel to a dystopian alternate reality to make us appreciate how few actual zombies we have to deal with in Virginia in 2013?