The Sunday night "Holy crap, I'm sunburned yet again!" book review link dump.

Finished Blood and Iron for the second time (and it's still just as wonderful on the second reading), and started the Tiptree biography by Julie Phillips, which has already sucked me in. Unfortunately, I did all this reading outside on my front stoop, armed with iced coffee and a [now] noticeable lack of high-enough SPF sunscreen. (Idjit.) The result? I are pink. Very very pink. Ouch. Even more pink than my solar-challenged Celtic heritage would normally suggest. And I do believe that I could fry an egg on my right forearm. So, in honor of La Gringa's stupidity, I bring you today's random assortment of genre book reviews:

At the Baltimore Sun, Victoria A. Brownworth has a thoughtful review of Doris Lessing's The Cleft, and Kelley Eskridge's new collection of short stories Dangerous Space.

Speaking of Dangerous Space, over at Bookslut, Colleen Mondor also reviews Eskridge's collection. She also talks about Territory by Emma Bull, and Interfictions, edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

And speaking of Doris Lessing, at the Boston Globe, Harvey Blume has a great interview with Lessing.

At the Contra Costa Times, Clay Kallam packs an awful lot of books into his column, including (ready?) Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell, The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks, The Alton Gift by Deborah J. Ross and [the amazingly prolific for a dead person] Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Precious Dragon by Liz Williams.

At the Philadelphia Inquirer, Elizabeth Fox reviews Jasper Fforde's First Among Sequels.

At the Seattle Times, Michael Upchurch looks at debut novelist Lucy Eyre's If Minds Had Toes. (Seriously, this one looks like loads of fun - check it out!) Also at the Seattle Times, Nisi Shawl reviews William Gibson's Spook Country.

I'm sure I've missed something important, but it'll need to wait until tomorrow. Two things I do want to mention, however:

First, this month I'll be holding yet another Swivet Book Giveaway, this time for Christopher Barzak's lovely debut novel One for Sorrow. I'll also be interviewing Chris about the book (the first Swivet Interview!), so keep an eye out!

Secondly, I'm working on a review of the best new fantasy novel you've never heard of: Auralia's Colors by another debut novelist, Jeffrey Overstreet. You've never heard of it because it's published - oddly enough - by a Christian publisher; however, this isn't a Christian book. Anyway, the review should be up by the end of the week.

Okay, off to do the dishes, kids!