The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman
Category: Connect Stories Grade: B
This is not one of Hoffman's better outings. While pitched as a novel (the actual title is The Third Angel: A Novel), the book is actually three connected novellas or long short stories. The stories are connected so they need to be read together. They're chronologically backwards. The first story takes place today while the next two each take characters from the prior story, jump back 20-30 years and tell a new story. This artifact means that some of the references made in the first story don't make much sense until you reach the end of the book when things snap in to place. I guess that's an interesting technique to use but the net result is that the first story wasn't terribly interesting as you read it. With the "snap", things get better - I'd have probably given the book at best a "C" after the first story - but never quite make it to the level of some of her past efforts, especially Practical Magic.
If she has to use the title to tell us the book's a novel, it's probably got a problem.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Child 44
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Category: Novel Grade: A-
It's usually tough to try to mix genres in a single book. Smith isn't quite sure what he wants this book to be - political commentary on 1950s USSR? murder mystery? love story? the next Silence of the Lambs? Surprisingly, for reasons I can't quite figure out, the mishmash works. Smith has produced a real page-turner.
Ultimately, this book is mostly about life under a totalitarian regime - the Soviet Union of the 1950s. It's really pretty terrifying to watch people try to live a normal life when every utterance could be a crime against the state; when to be accused was to be convicted. With power given to some of the worst elements of society, arbitrariness and personal vendettas are played out in scenes of torture and roundups. Our hero is a secret police agent who is slapped in the face by the fact that his latest arrest is so clearly innocent of the crimes with which he is charged. This makes him question all of the people he has sent to their deaths or the Gulags in his career. Once he loses the view that the state is infallible, his life slowly crumbles.
The framework that we're given around which the action pivots is a string of murders of children. Each individual murder is "solved" by pinning the blame on a convenient "degenerate" chosen from the ranks of local homosexuals and, occasionally, mentally ill, but usually harmless folks. Officially, of course, the Communist regime has solved societies problems so crimes, other than crimes against the state, no longer exist. To look for patterns that might point to brutal murder is to question the effectiveness of the state and is, therefore, a crime itself. So this long, horrible string of murders (look to the book's title to see how bad) continues.
The book definitely has some weaknesses as you'd expect from a first novel. The ending is pretty weak being dependent on pretty silly coincidences. The author also has a tendency to switch perspective between paragraphs which can get annoying at times. These flaws aside, the book holds up well. I'll definitely give Smith a second chance when his next book comes out.
Category: Novel Grade: A-
It's usually tough to try to mix genres in a single book. Smith isn't quite sure what he wants this book to be - political commentary on 1950s USSR? murder mystery? love story? the next Silence of the Lambs? Surprisingly, for reasons I can't quite figure out, the mishmash works. Smith has produced a real page-turner.
Ultimately, this book is mostly about life under a totalitarian regime - the Soviet Union of the 1950s. It's really pretty terrifying to watch people try to live a normal life when every utterance could be a crime against the state; when to be accused was to be convicted. With power given to some of the worst elements of society, arbitrariness and personal vendettas are played out in scenes of torture and roundups. Our hero is a secret police agent who is slapped in the face by the fact that his latest arrest is so clearly innocent of the crimes with which he is charged. This makes him question all of the people he has sent to their deaths or the Gulags in his career. Once he loses the view that the state is infallible, his life slowly crumbles.
The framework that we're given around which the action pivots is a string of murders of children. Each individual murder is "solved" by pinning the blame on a convenient "degenerate" chosen from the ranks of local homosexuals and, occasionally, mentally ill, but usually harmless folks. Officially, of course, the Communist regime has solved societies problems so crimes, other than crimes against the state, no longer exist. To look for patterns that might point to brutal murder is to question the effectiveness of the state and is, therefore, a crime itself. So this long, horrible string of murders (look to the book's title to see how bad) continues.
The book definitely has some weaknesses as you'd expect from a first novel. The ending is pretty weak being dependent on pretty silly coincidences. The author also has a tendency to switch perspective between paragraphs which can get annoying at times. These flaws aside, the book holds up well. I'll definitely give Smith a second chance when his next book comes out.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Kindle - a new way to read
I've recently joined a book club and have decided not to review the books that we'll read for the club discussions. So, I'll skip the review for the last book I read - The Open Road by Pico Iyer. Instead, I'm going to talk a little about my new toy.
I've seen a lot of talk about "eBook readers" -- hand-held electronic devices for reading books -- over the last few years and, since last fall, some pretty positive reviews of Amazon's new device called the Kindle. The device was so wildly popular since it's launch that they've been impossible to get. So, when I got an email from Amazon a few weeks ago saying that they were finally caught up and had immediate availability, I decided to take the plunge. I've never been much of a fan of reading things on my computer screen. As much of a techie as I am, I still have a tendency to print documents and read them on paper. Even so - a new toy is a new toy and, after a few clicks and waiting a few days, my new Kindle arrived on my doorstep.
The first thing you notice, even before you open the package, is that the Kindle weighs almost nothing. The device, on the surface, is about the size of a trade paperback book and just over a half inch thick. The display takes up about two thirds of the device leaving room for a full keyboard. The second thing you notice is that, obviously, somebody who actually reads books has been deeply involved in designing not only the device, but the experience. When I powered up the device, the screen was already labeled "Marc's Kindle" and one of the documents on it was a letter labeled "Welcome Marc" from Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. While these seem like just cute touches, the implication was refreshing -- no long registration process to go through; no details to supply - since I bought the device from Amazon and they already know me, my Kindle was already my Kindle and was synced with my Amazon account.
OK - so no registration, but how hard was it to actually get something to read on to this device. The first pleasant surprise was that I didn't have to hook the Kindle to my computer or even to my Internet access. The device uses cellular service so it's all set to go - no communications subscription required. Even at the lake where cellular service is weak, I had no problem getting started. It came up on a screen that let me search for available books (there are about 150,000 so far). I typed the author's name using the small but usable keyboard, and up popped a list of the author's books, including the one I wanted. One more click (using a clever, scroll wheel, sidebar cursor - trust me on this one) and I had purchased the book. Within 2-3 minutes the entire book had been delivered and was ready to read. (Note - you can also shop on Amazon with your computer and just tell it you want the Kindle edition. By the time, you get back to your Kindle, the book will be there.) While you can add memory cards to get more capacity, as it ships, the Kindle will hold roughly 200 books.
Great so it's easy to use. Still, ultimately, the only value for a book reader is, well, to actually be able to read books. So now I had my first book and was ready to give it a shot. I selected the book and up popped the first page. On first glance, the display technology is amazing. The device uses what's called eInk - a very high contrast display. On second, third and 50th glance, still amazing. I'm halfway through my second book and reading the display is like reading paper - none of the typical computer screen eye strain. There's no back light which makes it easier on the eyes - though, of course, it means you can't read in the dark. The contrast is strong enough that regardless of the ambient light (including in sun light), I've got no issues with the display quality. It's a little annoying when you move to the next page because there's a sort of flash as the previous page is erased. Surprisingly, I stopped noticing this very quickly. One great side affect of using a display is that it's trivial to change the size of the print. While this is terrific for folks who are starting to need "big print" books, it's good even for the rest of us. I've found myself, after a long day staring at a computer screen, picking up my Kindle and bumping the font size to make it easier to read.
How about the reading "mechanics". Turning a page is easy - there are big "next page" buttons on both sides of the screen, tapered downward to make them feel more natural. If anything, it's a little too easy to flip pages and, once in a while, I find myself flipping forward at the wrong time. On the left side of the screen, there's a big "prev page" button to go backwards so it's not a big deal and a problem that seems to be diminishing with familiarity. The size and shape of the Kindle adds some unexpected advantages - since there's only one screen (where a book has two at a time), one handed reading is far easier, especially given the extremely light weight. The single screen also makes "awkward position" reading - like lying on your side - far easier.
One great feature, especially if you're reading for a purpose - work, a book club, learning - it's trivial to annotate. It was hammered in to me growing up to have respect for books - not just what was in them, but the physical book itself. For that reason, I've always had problems with highlighting, writing notes in the margin or, most painfully, dog-earing. With the Kindle, it's easy to do all these things without damaging the book. You then get a separate area you can go to that'll let you see your highlights and notes and jump directly to the spot in the book that you wanted to remember. Another advantage -- once you have highlighted a section of text, with a couple of clicks, you can bring up the definitions of all the words in the section using the built in dictionary.
The device also has a moderately featured web-browser and an mp3 player built-in, along with the ability to subscribe to various newspapers, magazines and blogs. In addition, there is a very simple way that you can take documents of certain types from your computer and have them moved to your Kindle - a great way to keep lots of documents you need for work or travel. I haven't played with these features yet.
So far, the battery life has been a non-issue. Most of the time, you can leave the wireless access off - a simple, easy to access switch - and increase the time between charges. With wireless mostly off, I'm halfway through my second book with only a single recharge - i.e. it'll give you at least a full book on a single charge.
As always, no device - especially a first release - is perfect and this one is no exception. The few minor quibbles I've got with the device itself include (1) as mentioned above, there's a sort of flash when you change pages, (2) the button arrangement is a little funny with different size buttons on each side, (3) the buttons aren't configurable - it'd be nice to make a few harder to use, (4) the fake leather cover that ships with the Kindle is terrible, but I've ordered a better one.
The one big downside of the Kindle is, of course, price. The device currently sells for $400. That may come down but it's more likely that the price will stay up there for a while as they add features. If you read a lot and buy a lot of books, the price shouldn't be a barrier at all for a simple reason -- the cost of the books that you buy are dramatically lower. Current best-sellers that, in hardback, would sell for $25-30 are $10. I have yet to pay more than $14 for a book and lots of older titles are available for as little as $3-4. For a reader like me, that means the device will pay for itself in less than a year.
As you can tell, I'm really high on the Kindle. It's the first eBook reader I've seen that actually appears viable. That said, however, there are downsides to the whole eBook experience. I made my first post-Kindle trip to a bookstore a few days ago and was kind of lost. I kept seeing books I was interested in but didn't want to buy so that I could get the Kindle edition. For the first time in ages, I walked out of a book store without a purchase. In addition, since there's no physical book, you can't pass on your latest discovery to a friend. Finally, while there are already a whole lot of Kindle compatible books out there, not every book is available.
I obviously highly recommend this device - especially to a few groups of folks - those who read a lot; those who buy books as soon as they're released; those who need a little larger font size; those who carry their books around with them. Amazon's stated design goal for the Kindle was that it should "disappear" after a few uses - it should just be a book - surprisingly, they seem to have largely succeeded.
Ask me for a demo next time you see me. I love showing off new toys.
I've seen a lot of talk about "eBook readers" -- hand-held electronic devices for reading books -- over the last few years and, since last fall, some pretty positive reviews of Amazon's new device called the Kindle. The device was so wildly popular since it's launch that they've been impossible to get. So, when I got an email from Amazon a few weeks ago saying that they were finally caught up and had immediate availability, I decided to take the plunge. I've never been much of a fan of reading things on my computer screen. As much of a techie as I am, I still have a tendency to print documents and read them on paper. Even so - a new toy is a new toy and, after a few clicks and waiting a few days, my new Kindle arrived on my doorstep.
The first thing you notice, even before you open the package, is that the Kindle weighs almost nothing. The device, on the surface, is about the size of a trade paperback book and just over a half inch thick. The display takes up about two thirds of the device leaving room for a full keyboard. The second thing you notice is that, obviously, somebody who actually reads books has been deeply involved in designing not only the device, but the experience. When I powered up the device, the screen was already labeled "Marc's Kindle" and one of the documents on it was a letter labeled "Welcome Marc" from Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon. While these seem like just cute touches, the implication was refreshing -- no long registration process to go through; no details to supply - since I bought the device from Amazon and they already know me, my Kindle was already my Kindle and was synced with my Amazon account.
OK - so no registration, but how hard was it to actually get something to read on to this device. The first pleasant surprise was that I didn't have to hook the Kindle to my computer or even to my Internet access. The device uses cellular service so it's all set to go - no communications subscription required. Even at the lake where cellular service is weak, I had no problem getting started. It came up on a screen that let me search for available books (there are about 150,000 so far). I typed the author's name using the small but usable keyboard, and up popped a list of the author's books, including the one I wanted. One more click (using a clever, scroll wheel, sidebar cursor - trust me on this one) and I had purchased the book. Within 2-3 minutes the entire book had been delivered and was ready to read. (Note - you can also shop on Amazon with your computer and just tell it you want the Kindle edition. By the time, you get back to your Kindle, the book will be there.) While you can add memory cards to get more capacity, as it ships, the Kindle will hold roughly 200 books.
Great so it's easy to use. Still, ultimately, the only value for a book reader is, well, to actually be able to read books. So now I had my first book and was ready to give it a shot. I selected the book and up popped the first page. On first glance, the display technology is amazing. The device uses what's called eInk - a very high contrast display. On second, third and 50th glance, still amazing. I'm halfway through my second book and reading the display is like reading paper - none of the typical computer screen eye strain. There's no back light which makes it easier on the eyes - though, of course, it means you can't read in the dark. The contrast is strong enough that regardless of the ambient light (including in sun light), I've got no issues with the display quality. It's a little annoying when you move to the next page because there's a sort of flash as the previous page is erased. Surprisingly, I stopped noticing this very quickly. One great side affect of using a display is that it's trivial to change the size of the print. While this is terrific for folks who are starting to need "big print" books, it's good even for the rest of us. I've found myself, after a long day staring at a computer screen, picking up my Kindle and bumping the font size to make it easier to read.
How about the reading "mechanics". Turning a page is easy - there are big "next page" buttons on both sides of the screen, tapered downward to make them feel more natural. If anything, it's a little too easy to flip pages and, once in a while, I find myself flipping forward at the wrong time. On the left side of the screen, there's a big "prev page" button to go backwards so it's not a big deal and a problem that seems to be diminishing with familiarity. The size and shape of the Kindle adds some unexpected advantages - since there's only one screen (where a book has two at a time), one handed reading is far easier, especially given the extremely light weight. The single screen also makes "awkward position" reading - like lying on your side - far easier.
One great feature, especially if you're reading for a purpose - work, a book club, learning - it's trivial to annotate. It was hammered in to me growing up to have respect for books - not just what was in them, but the physical book itself. For that reason, I've always had problems with highlighting, writing notes in the margin or, most painfully, dog-earing. With the Kindle, it's easy to do all these things without damaging the book. You then get a separate area you can go to that'll let you see your highlights and notes and jump directly to the spot in the book that you wanted to remember. Another advantage -- once you have highlighted a section of text, with a couple of clicks, you can bring up the definitions of all the words in the section using the built in dictionary.
The device also has a moderately featured web-browser and an mp3 player built-in, along with the ability to subscribe to various newspapers, magazines and blogs. In addition, there is a very simple way that you can take documents of certain types from your computer and have them moved to your Kindle - a great way to keep lots of documents you need for work or travel. I haven't played with these features yet.
So far, the battery life has been a non-issue. Most of the time, you can leave the wireless access off - a simple, easy to access switch - and increase the time between charges. With wireless mostly off, I'm halfway through my second book with only a single recharge - i.e. it'll give you at least a full book on a single charge.
As always, no device - especially a first release - is perfect and this one is no exception. The few minor quibbles I've got with the device itself include (1) as mentioned above, there's a sort of flash when you change pages, (2) the button arrangement is a little funny with different size buttons on each side, (3) the buttons aren't configurable - it'd be nice to make a few harder to use, (4) the fake leather cover that ships with the Kindle is terrible, but I've ordered a better one.
The one big downside of the Kindle is, of course, price. The device currently sells for $400. That may come down but it's more likely that the price will stay up there for a while as they add features. If you read a lot and buy a lot of books, the price shouldn't be a barrier at all for a simple reason -- the cost of the books that you buy are dramatically lower. Current best-sellers that, in hardback, would sell for $25-30 are $10. I have yet to pay more than $14 for a book and lots of older titles are available for as little as $3-4. For a reader like me, that means the device will pay for itself in less than a year.
As you can tell, I'm really high on the Kindle. It's the first eBook reader I've seen that actually appears viable. That said, however, there are downsides to the whole eBook experience. I made my first post-Kindle trip to a bookstore a few days ago and was kind of lost. I kept seeing books I was interested in but didn't want to buy so that I could get the Kindle edition. For the first time in ages, I walked out of a book store without a purchase. In addition, since there's no physical book, you can't pass on your latest discovery to a friend. Finally, while there are already a whole lot of Kindle compatible books out there, not every book is available.
I obviously highly recommend this device - especially to a few groups of folks - those who read a lot; those who buy books as soon as they're released; those who need a little larger font size; those who carry their books around with them. Amazon's stated design goal for the Kindle was that it should "disappear" after a few uses - it should just be a book - surprisingly, they seem to have largely succeeded.
Ask me for a demo next time you see me. I love showing off new toys.
The Man Who Made Lists
The Man Who Made Lists by Joshua Kendall
Category: Biography/history Grade: A-
There are very few books or category of books that are identifiable solely by some one's name. If I tell you to go look up a word in your Johnson's, you'll probably give me a blank stare. On the other hand, if you have more than a 4th grade education and I give you the same instruction, but tell you to look up the word in your Roget's, you immediately know what I'm talking about. Not sure many of us would have made it through school without using the same few words over and over without this handy catalog of synonyms. That said, it hadn't ever really occurred to me that I know absolutely nothing about the man who created this reference.
Kendall, in his first book, sets out to correct that and ends up writing a thoroughly entertaining story. The sub-title of the book sums it up pretty well -- Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus. The story takes place in the late 18th century. In the description, Peter Mark Roget grew up as a fairly typical nerd. He's the kind of kid that would never get off the computer today. Even though his masterwork didn't get published until he was elderly, the seeds are there as we see the classification phobia of a boy who's organizing of words, and then plants and animals, was a tool he used to fight off depression and loneliness. There's a strong history of insanity in the boy's family - several suicides and a mother and sister who were, for long periods, clinically insane.
Surprisingly, for someone so known for his literary impact, Roget turns out to have been a medical man and, unusual for the time, actually an educated, trained medical man. He spent years in a medical practice until, for lack of modern tools, he was unable to save the life of an uncle who was, for all practical purposes, Roget's father. After that, he retreated in to academia and became one of the more successful lecturers and authors of the day. It was only in retirement, probably once again to stave off madness, that he completed the project for which he became famous.
Kendall has done a great job of making this man's life interesting and entertaining. Roget is probably one of the more subtly influential people of the last 3 or 4 centuries. Kendall brings him to life.
Category: Biography/history Grade: A-
There are very few books or category of books that are identifiable solely by some one's name. If I tell you to go look up a word in your Johnson's, you'll probably give me a blank stare. On the other hand, if you have more than a 4th grade education and I give you the same instruction, but tell you to look up the word in your Roget's, you immediately know what I'm talking about. Not sure many of us would have made it through school without using the same few words over and over without this handy catalog of synonyms. That said, it hadn't ever really occurred to me that I know absolutely nothing about the man who created this reference.
Kendall, in his first book, sets out to correct that and ends up writing a thoroughly entertaining story. The sub-title of the book sums it up pretty well -- Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus. The story takes place in the late 18th century. In the description, Peter Mark Roget grew up as a fairly typical nerd. He's the kind of kid that would never get off the computer today. Even though his masterwork didn't get published until he was elderly, the seeds are there as we see the classification phobia of a boy who's organizing of words, and then plants and animals, was a tool he used to fight off depression and loneliness. There's a strong history of insanity in the boy's family - several suicides and a mother and sister who were, for long periods, clinically insane.
Surprisingly, for someone so known for his literary impact, Roget turns out to have been a medical man and, unusual for the time, actually an educated, trained medical man. He spent years in a medical practice until, for lack of modern tools, he was unable to save the life of an uncle who was, for all practical purposes, Roget's father. After that, he retreated in to academia and became one of the more successful lecturers and authors of the day. It was only in retirement, probably once again to stave off madness, that he completed the project for which he became famous.
Kendall has done a great job of making this man's life interesting and entertaining. Roget is probably one of the more subtly influential people of the last 3 or 4 centuries. Kendall brings him to life.
The Good Rat
The Good Rat: A True Story by Jimmy Breslin
Category: True Crime Grade: C
We can make this one quick. This is the true story of the testimony of Burton Caplan, a "canary" that sings about some crooked cops in Brooklyn who did murder and other work for a hire for the mob. Breslin's point seems to be that the Mafia just isn't terribly exciting or interesting any more. He's right - the book is proof.
Category: True Crime Grade: C
We can make this one quick. This is the true story of the testimony of Burton Caplan, a "canary" that sings about some crooked cops in Brooklyn who did murder and other work for a hire for the mob. Breslin's point seems to be that the Mafia just isn't terribly exciting or interesting any more. He's right - the book is proof.
The Philosopher's Apprentice
The Philosopher's Apprentice by James Morrow
Category: Satire Grade: A
This novel is pretty close to a masterpiece but, unfortunately, one that I can't recommend to too many people. If you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember that I started reading Morrow with a book called Towing Jehovah - in which a group finds God's body in the Pacific and tows it back to Florida to turn it in to a theme park. Much like that one, you've got to have a tolerance for a high level of sacrilege and plain old weirdness to appreciate most of Morrow's books. He seemed to signal a shift in genre to historical fiction with his last book, The Last Witchfinder, that, with a few exceptions, played it pretty straight. Given the title of this book, that's kind of what I was expecting - less satire, more "serious literature".
The book starts out headed in that direction when the lead character storms out of his dissertation defense and gives up the chance of earning his PhD in philosophy. A few hours later, while drowning his problems in a pitcher, he's approached by a stranger who offers him what sounds like a dream job -- high salary, living on a tropical island, tutoring a single student. He's told that his student, a 15 year old girl, was in an accident and has a form of amnesia that leaves her with no moral sensibility. So far, it sounds like a great set up for a serious foray in to the works of all kinds of philosophers. There's plenty of that, but very quickly we're flying off on all kinds of tangents.
I try to avoid putting a lot of plot detail in to these reviews so that the books isn't ruined for everybody, but - spoiler alert - I'm going to give a quick overview of some the directions we go since, frankly, I think it's a good idea to scare most of you off from reading this one. OK, so, not surprisingly, our 15 year old is not an amnesiac. Soon after arriving on the island the hero meets the girl's "mother", a brilliant geneticist. The woman has a terminal disease but wants to have a broad ranging motherhood experience. So she and a colleague have invented a machine that can take a cloned embryo and grow it in a vat to any desired age while, at the same time, pumping the child full of encyclopedic knowledge. At various places on the island, the woman has a 6 year old daughter, an 11 year old and a 15 year old - well, not daughters really; sisters?
The oldest girl, thanks to our tutor hero, gains a fully, maybe over- developed moral sense and becomes the brilliant head of a massive feminist cult. Our hero comes in and out of her life as she does one outrageous thing after the other. Inevitably, there's a right-wing counter-conspiracy that, having stolen the cloning vat, engineers the wildest and most effective social protest ever. We also have a long story arch about the hijacking of an exact replica of the Titanic during which all the first class swells are sent to do the ship's scut work and the maids and butlers are moved to the first class quarters.
Hopefully, this is enough to convince most of you not to go looking for this book. For those few I haven't scared off, I really recommend this book. It's fast-paced, well-written, hilarious in places and definitely makes you think -- all the makings of a classic satire. If you can just get past the weirdness...
Category: Satire Grade: A
This novel is pretty close to a masterpiece but, unfortunately, one that I can't recommend to too many people. If you've been following this blog for a while, you may remember that I started reading Morrow with a book called Towing Jehovah - in which a group finds God's body in the Pacific and tows it back to Florida to turn it in to a theme park. Much like that one, you've got to have a tolerance for a high level of sacrilege and plain old weirdness to appreciate most of Morrow's books. He seemed to signal a shift in genre to historical fiction with his last book, The Last Witchfinder, that, with a few exceptions, played it pretty straight. Given the title of this book, that's kind of what I was expecting - less satire, more "serious literature".
The book starts out headed in that direction when the lead character storms out of his dissertation defense and gives up the chance of earning his PhD in philosophy. A few hours later, while drowning his problems in a pitcher, he's approached by a stranger who offers him what sounds like a dream job -- high salary, living on a tropical island, tutoring a single student. He's told that his student, a 15 year old girl, was in an accident and has a form of amnesia that leaves her with no moral sensibility. So far, it sounds like a great set up for a serious foray in to the works of all kinds of philosophers. There's plenty of that, but very quickly we're flying off on all kinds of tangents.
I try to avoid putting a lot of plot detail in to these reviews so that the books isn't ruined for everybody, but - spoiler alert - I'm going to give a quick overview of some the directions we go since, frankly, I think it's a good idea to scare most of you off from reading this one. OK, so, not surprisingly, our 15 year old is not an amnesiac. Soon after arriving on the island the hero meets the girl's "mother", a brilliant geneticist. The woman has a terminal disease but wants to have a broad ranging motherhood experience. So she and a colleague have invented a machine that can take a cloned embryo and grow it in a vat to any desired age while, at the same time, pumping the child full of encyclopedic knowledge. At various places on the island, the woman has a 6 year old daughter, an 11 year old and a 15 year old - well, not daughters really; sisters?
The oldest girl, thanks to our tutor hero, gains a fully, maybe over- developed moral sense and becomes the brilliant head of a massive feminist cult. Our hero comes in and out of her life as she does one outrageous thing after the other. Inevitably, there's a right-wing counter-conspiracy that, having stolen the cloning vat, engineers the wildest and most effective social protest ever. We also have a long story arch about the hijacking of an exact replica of the Titanic during which all the first class swells are sent to do the ship's scut work and the maids and butlers are moved to the first class quarters.
Hopefully, this is enough to convince most of you not to go looking for this book. For those few I haven't scared off, I really recommend this book. It's fast-paced, well-written, hilarious in places and definitely makes you think -- all the makings of a classic satire. If you can just get past the weirdness...
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Physics of the Impossible
Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Category: Science Grade: B
I'd like to speak to the inner nerd in each of you. If you don't have an inner nerd, go do something else -- you won't like this book. If you think you might, ask yourself some of these questions. When you first saw Star Trek, did you get interested when Kirk said "Shields up!" or "Beam me up, Scotty."? When you watched Star Wars (the good ones), did you jump up and down when Yoda levitated the cruiser in the swamp? When a Jedi Knight turned on his light saber, did you say "I want one of those!". If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should give this book a shot.
Kaku is a serious scientist. He's in the theoretical physics department at City University of New York where he's searched for years for the "theory of everything", the grand unifying theory that, with one set of equations, would tie all the forces of nature together. On the side, he writes popular science books. This could be one of the more difficult genres to write. You have to oversimplify things a tremendous amount to interest the lay reader while not squeezing the reality out of your descriptions (or embarrassing yourself among your peers).
Kaku starts from the premise, proven true over and over again, that "impossible" is not an absolute description. Things we take for granted -- air travel, global communication and others -- were, at one time, thought impossible by reputable scientists. Here, he looks at lots of things that are science fiction staples -- force fields, invisibility, teleportation, starships, time travel and others -- and tries to describe how they might be accomplished at some point in the future. He carefully analyzes each subject and tries to slot that subject as one of his three classes of "impossible" -- 1) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the next century, 2) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the distant future and 3) violates the laws of physics. The results are sometimes surprising and always interesting.
As he gets farther in to the class 3 impossibilities, I have to admit that he frequently lost me. No matter how many times I read a lay explanation of quantum physics, it still doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, if you're bored by this point of the review, the book will put you to sleep. If your interest has been tweaked, give it a shot.
He uses quotes at the beginning of each chapter and he had me at chapter one when he used my favorite quote - Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws. I'll only give you the third here since it sums up why cutting edge science can be so interesting -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."!
Category: Science Grade: B
I'd like to speak to the inner nerd in each of you. If you don't have an inner nerd, go do something else -- you won't like this book. If you think you might, ask yourself some of these questions. When you first saw Star Trek, did you get interested when Kirk said "Shields up!" or "Beam me up, Scotty."? When you watched Star Wars (the good ones), did you jump up and down when Yoda levitated the cruiser in the swamp? When a Jedi Knight turned on his light saber, did you say "I want one of those!". If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should give this book a shot.
Kaku is a serious scientist. He's in the theoretical physics department at City University of New York where he's searched for years for the "theory of everything", the grand unifying theory that, with one set of equations, would tie all the forces of nature together. On the side, he writes popular science books. This could be one of the more difficult genres to write. You have to oversimplify things a tremendous amount to interest the lay reader while not squeezing the reality out of your descriptions (or embarrassing yourself among your peers).
Kaku starts from the premise, proven true over and over again, that "impossible" is not an absolute description. Things we take for granted -- air travel, global communication and others -- were, at one time, thought impossible by reputable scientists. Here, he looks at lots of things that are science fiction staples -- force fields, invisibility, teleportation, starships, time travel and others -- and tries to describe how they might be accomplished at some point in the future. He carefully analyzes each subject and tries to slot that subject as one of his three classes of "impossible" -- 1) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the next century, 2) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the distant future and 3) violates the laws of physics. The results are sometimes surprising and always interesting.
As he gets farther in to the class 3 impossibilities, I have to admit that he frequently lost me. No matter how many times I read a lay explanation of quantum physics, it still doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, if you're bored by this point of the review, the book will put you to sleep. If your interest has been tweaked, give it a shot.
He uses quotes at the beginning of each chapter and he had me at chapter one when he used my favorite quote - Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws. I'll only give you the third here since it sums up why cutting edge science can be so interesting -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Compulsion
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman
Category: Mystery Grade: B+
I really love Taco Bell. It's the best of fast food. You know you're never going to get a gourmet meal, but you know you're always going to enjoy what you get for what it is. It's also dirt cheap. My favorite is the double-decker taco - a crispy taco smeared with refried beans and wrapped in a flour tortilla. Sometimes there's not enough meat; sometimes the taco shell isn't quite crispy; sometimes, for me, there's not enough tomato, but it always fills me up and tastes good and costs $1.29.
Kellerman (and his wife Faye, but, to me, not his son Jesse) writes fast food fiction. The investment is low - they're fast reads that don't require a lot of thought - no big words and lots of dialogue. You know you're never going to get lasting literature. Sometimes the plot is a little thin; sometimes the conclusion is a little silly, but it's always a fun read with great characters and an interesting story.
Enough said.
Category: Mystery Grade: B+
I really love Taco Bell. It's the best of fast food. You know you're never going to get a gourmet meal, but you know you're always going to enjoy what you get for what it is. It's also dirt cheap. My favorite is the double-decker taco - a crispy taco smeared with refried beans and wrapped in a flour tortilla. Sometimes there's not enough meat; sometimes the taco shell isn't quite crispy; sometimes, for me, there's not enough tomato, but it always fills me up and tastes good and costs $1.29.
Kellerman (and his wife Faye, but, to me, not his son Jesse) writes fast food fiction. The investment is low - they're fast reads that don't require a lot of thought - no big words and lots of dialogue. You know you're never going to get lasting literature. Sometimes the plot is a little thin; sometimes the conclusion is a little silly, but it's always a fun read with great characters and an interesting story.
Enough said.
Gertude Bell
Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
Category: Biography Grade: A
I consider myself well-educated and well-read so, after reading this book, it's pretty mind-boggling to me that I had never actually heard of Gertrude Bell. In my unscientific poll of friends and family, essentially no one had ever heard of her other than a few who had recently seen this book on the shelves. In the first half of the 20th century, especially between the World Wars, Bell was one of the most interesting, most adventurous, most influential and probably most important women alive. In the Middle East, she was probably the one person, per this book, responsible for the decisions made in how the imperial powers would treat this area of the world. Certainly far more important to history than T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who has gotten all the good press and, of course, the Oscar winning movie. Hopefully, this book will kick off a resurgence in interest in Bell. Her life would make an incredible movie!
Born in the late 19th century, Bell, from the beginning, discarded the roll assigned to women of the time. What she wanted to do, she did. She became a traveler and adventurer - visiting all over the world and becoming one of the foremost mountain climbers, certainly the foremost female mountain climber, of the day. When she decided she was interested in the Middle East, she learned from the bottom up - by repeatedly hiring a small party of guides and heading in to the desert for months and even years at a time. In an era (still the norm today), when the sheikhs of the region were absolute rulers of their tiny area and when women were not accepted anywhere except the harem, Bell became an unveiled, intellectual friend to the male leaders. When, after World War I, the time came to decide the political future of the area, Bell was the strongest proponent for the independence of Middle Eastern countries. And yet, first hand, she understood the difficulties that would arise from the inherent tribalism as a competitor to nationalism. She drew the borders of modern Iraq. She was largely responsible for elevating King Faisel to the initial throne of Iraq. She was a major advisor to Churchill and others at the time.
Not surprisingly, this story is extremely relevant to the world today. The political lessons that Bell learned the hard way - the dominance of tribalism and religious sects over national identity - seem to have been, once again, forgotten by Western powers. The seeds of our current inability to bring coherence to the region are definitely visible in Bell's story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in history, current affairs or even just good story telling.
Category: Biography Grade: A
I consider myself well-educated and well-read so, after reading this book, it's pretty mind-boggling to me that I had never actually heard of Gertrude Bell. In my unscientific poll of friends and family, essentially no one had ever heard of her other than a few who had recently seen this book on the shelves. In the first half of the 20th century, especially between the World Wars, Bell was one of the most interesting, most adventurous, most influential and probably most important women alive. In the Middle East, she was probably the one person, per this book, responsible for the decisions made in how the imperial powers would treat this area of the world. Certainly far more important to history than T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who has gotten all the good press and, of course, the Oscar winning movie. Hopefully, this book will kick off a resurgence in interest in Bell. Her life would make an incredible movie!
Born in the late 19th century, Bell, from the beginning, discarded the roll assigned to women of the time. What she wanted to do, she did. She became a traveler and adventurer - visiting all over the world and becoming one of the foremost mountain climbers, certainly the foremost female mountain climber, of the day. When she decided she was interested in the Middle East, she learned from the bottom up - by repeatedly hiring a small party of guides and heading in to the desert for months and even years at a time. In an era (still the norm today), when the sheikhs of the region were absolute rulers of their tiny area and when women were not accepted anywhere except the harem, Bell became an unveiled, intellectual friend to the male leaders. When, after World War I, the time came to decide the political future of the area, Bell was the strongest proponent for the independence of Middle Eastern countries. And yet, first hand, she understood the difficulties that would arise from the inherent tribalism as a competitor to nationalism. She drew the borders of modern Iraq. She was largely responsible for elevating King Faisel to the initial throne of Iraq. She was a major advisor to Churchill and others at the time.
Not surprisingly, this story is extremely relevant to the world today. The political lessons that Bell learned the hard way - the dominance of tribalism and religious sects over national identity - seem to have been, once again, forgotten by Western powers. The seeds of our current inability to bring coherence to the region are definitely visible in Bell's story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in history, current affairs or even just good story telling.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday Next - First Among Sequels
Thursday Next - First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Category: Fiction Grade: A
In keeping with the new series review policy, this review will be a short one.
As with all the Thursday Next books, this was terrific. The premise is that Next is a detective working for the Literary Crimes division of the police. She is able to cross between the real world and the fictional world. In other words, don't bother to pick up any book in the series unless you're a fantasy fan who can suspend belief. If you do, you're reward with a fun romp filled with literary references and characters along with extremely clever (and often silly) word play. My favorite in this book -- two detectives have jumped in to a story and have been warned that somebody is actually, at that time reading the book. Of course, it'll just confuse the reader if he notices two unexpected, anachronistic characters hanging around so the pair has to hide since, as anybody knows, detectives are better off "Dead than Read".
I hope that Fforde has as much fun writing these books as I do reading them.
A small warning -- this is a series that you definitely want to read in order so, if it sounds appealing, go back and pick up The Eyre Affair.
Category: Fiction Grade: A
In keeping with the new series review policy, this review will be a short one.
As with all the Thursday Next books, this was terrific. The premise is that Next is a detective working for the Literary Crimes division of the police. She is able to cross between the real world and the fictional world. In other words, don't bother to pick up any book in the series unless you're a fantasy fan who can suspend belief. If you do, you're reward with a fun romp filled with literary references and characters along with extremely clever (and often silly) word play. My favorite in this book -- two detectives have jumped in to a story and have been warned that somebody is actually, at that time reading the book. Of course, it'll just confuse the reader if he notices two unexpected, anachronistic characters hanging around so the pair has to hide since, as anybody knows, detectives are better off "Dead than Read".
I hope that Fforde has as much fun writing these books as I do reading them.
A small warning -- this is a series that you definitely want to read in order so, if it sounds appealing, go back and pick up The Eyre Affair.
Tales from Q School
Tales from Q School by John Feinstein
Category: Sports Grade: C+
Like a lot of non-golfers, Tiger has made me an avid golf spectator. Between that and my often reported belief that Feinstein is the best sports writer out there, I decided to pick up his latest, Tales from Q School. Q School is the shorthand name that golfers use to describe the three round qualifying tournament that gets golfers on to the PGA tour. You don't hear much about it unless you watch the Golf Channel in the late fall. This is because most of the golfers whose names are familiar are exempted out of the qualifying tournament for things like being one of the top money winners in the previous year. Tiger, for example, has never had to go to Q School.
That makes Q School one of the tensest events that a golf pro can enter. For most events on tour, whether the "big league" PGA tour or other circuits for less known players, if you don't do well, you typically just have to wait for the following weekend when another tournament will start fresh with everybody at even par. In Q School, though, if you have a bad weekend (or even a particularly bad day), you won't get another shot at the big time for a full year until the next Q School. I.e. this tournament (a series of three tournaments) determines whether a golfer can actually make a living playing golf for the upcoming year. Because of all the exemptions, Q School is populated mostly by either young players trying to break in to the sport or older players trying to hang on for one more year. All of this keeps the tension level high.
Feinstein uses his standard technique of embedding himself in the sport for the duration -- in this case three consecutive weekends -- and really getting to know the players involved. The book is all anecdotes and interviews. Most of the stories revolve around drives that find the rough or four foot putts that go an inch wide. These, in this book, typically cause the golfer to miss the cut by a stroke - missing the ability to make a living by the tiniest of margins.
Unfortunately, this is also what makes the book less than Feinstein's best work. While he gives a view to dozens of golfers (almost all of which you've never heard of), the stories get to the point where they all look alike. The book is highly repetitive and, ultimately, pretty boring. It's only worth picking up if you're a hardcore golf fan.
Category: Sports Grade: C+
Like a lot of non-golfers, Tiger has made me an avid golf spectator. Between that and my often reported belief that Feinstein is the best sports writer out there, I decided to pick up his latest, Tales from Q School. Q School is the shorthand name that golfers use to describe the three round qualifying tournament that gets golfers on to the PGA tour. You don't hear much about it unless you watch the Golf Channel in the late fall. This is because most of the golfers whose names are familiar are exempted out of the qualifying tournament for things like being one of the top money winners in the previous year. Tiger, for example, has never had to go to Q School.
That makes Q School one of the tensest events that a golf pro can enter. For most events on tour, whether the "big league" PGA tour or other circuits for less known players, if you don't do well, you typically just have to wait for the following weekend when another tournament will start fresh with everybody at even par. In Q School, though, if you have a bad weekend (or even a particularly bad day), you won't get another shot at the big time for a full year until the next Q School. I.e. this tournament (a series of three tournaments) determines whether a golfer can actually make a living playing golf for the upcoming year. Because of all the exemptions, Q School is populated mostly by either young players trying to break in to the sport or older players trying to hang on for one more year. All of this keeps the tension level high.
Feinstein uses his standard technique of embedding himself in the sport for the duration -- in this case three consecutive weekends -- and really getting to know the players involved. The book is all anecdotes and interviews. Most of the stories revolve around drives that find the rough or four foot putts that go an inch wide. These, in this book, typically cause the golfer to miss the cut by a stroke - missing the ability to make a living by the tiniest of margins.
Unfortunately, this is also what makes the book less than Feinstein's best work. While he gives a view to dozens of golfers (almost all of which you've never heard of), the stories get to the point where they all look alike. The book is highly repetitive and, ultimately, pretty boring. It's only worth picking up if you're a hardcore golf fan.
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Last Chinese Chef
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
Category: Novel Grade: A
As most of you know, Carolyn and I don't have the same taste in books at all. We tend to like different subject matter and different writing styles. Because of that, of course, even as much as we both read, we seldom recommend books to each other. Most of the time, when I recommend something to her, it's either about 19th century New York or 14th century England. Most of the time, when she recommends something to me, it's got something to do with food. Of the few books I recommend to her, she likes some of them. Of the few books she recommends to me, I almost always like them. As you've probably figured out by now, The Last Chinese Chef is Carolyn's latest crossover recommendation and her record is intact -- it's about food and I really enjoyed it.
OK, it's not really about food. The novel is the story of woman who learns of a paternity suit filed against her dead husband's estate by a Chinese woman. When she learns that the paternity claim is at least possible, she heads to China to try to clear things up. She happens to be a food columnist for a "Gourmet"-like magazine and the magazine gives her the assignment to interview a American/Chinese/Jewish chef who comes from a long line of Imperial chefs in China, including the mid-twentieth century author of a book called The Last Chinese Chef.
Mones, who spent several decades in business in China, has used true Chinese cooking (not American-Chinese which is completely different) as the framework to enclose her story. The chef is competing in a contest that involves the top chefs of China. He is a traditionalist who has studied the cuisine of China. He has come to understand that cooking is about not only about the chef and the food, but also about the gourmet, the ambiance of the meal and, most importantly, about the community that forms around the sharing of food. The concept of eating a meal alone is completely foreign to the Chinese culture.
There's a lot in the book about the various dishes that the chef prepares -- trying to combine the flavors, the textures, the visual qualities, the misdirection - that makes a Chinese banquet something extraordinary. Anybody who knows us well knows that food and shared meals are an important of our lives. This book plays in to that feeling. It makes you want to eat; it makes you want to share a quality meal; it even makes you want to cook!
Chinese cooking is actually the perfect metaphor for this book. The parts are OK - the story is decent; the writing is pretty good; the characterizations are interesting. It's a lot like the ingredients of a good meal - garlic is OK; ginger is pretty good; pork and fish can be interesting. But put everything together in just the right way and, like this book, you end up with something memorable.
Does anybody know an Austin restaurant that cooks authentic Chinese food?
Category: Novel Grade: A
As most of you know, Carolyn and I don't have the same taste in books at all. We tend to like different subject matter and different writing styles. Because of that, of course, even as much as we both read, we seldom recommend books to each other. Most of the time, when I recommend something to her, it's either about 19th century New York or 14th century England. Most of the time, when she recommends something to me, it's got something to do with food. Of the few books I recommend to her, she likes some of them. Of the few books she recommends to me, I almost always like them. As you've probably figured out by now, The Last Chinese Chef is Carolyn's latest crossover recommendation and her record is intact -- it's about food and I really enjoyed it.
OK, it's not really about food. The novel is the story of woman who learns of a paternity suit filed against her dead husband's estate by a Chinese woman. When she learns that the paternity claim is at least possible, she heads to China to try to clear things up. She happens to be a food columnist for a "Gourmet"-like magazine and the magazine gives her the assignment to interview a American/Chinese/Jewish chef who comes from a long line of Imperial chefs in China, including the mid-twentieth century author of a book called The Last Chinese Chef.
Mones, who spent several decades in business in China, has used true Chinese cooking (not American-Chinese which is completely different) as the framework to enclose her story. The chef is competing in a contest that involves the top chefs of China. He is a traditionalist who has studied the cuisine of China. He has come to understand that cooking is about not only about the chef and the food, but also about the gourmet, the ambiance of the meal and, most importantly, about the community that forms around the sharing of food. The concept of eating a meal alone is completely foreign to the Chinese culture.
There's a lot in the book about the various dishes that the chef prepares -- trying to combine the flavors, the textures, the visual qualities, the misdirection - that makes a Chinese banquet something extraordinary. Anybody who knows us well knows that food and shared meals are an important of our lives. This book plays in to that feeling. It makes you want to eat; it makes you want to share a quality meal; it even makes you want to cook!
Chinese cooking is actually the perfect metaphor for this book. The parts are OK - the story is decent; the writing is pretty good; the characterizations are interesting. It's a lot like the ingredients of a good meal - garlic is OK; ginger is pretty good; pork and fish can be interesting. But put everything together in just the right way and, like this book, you end up with something memorable.
Does anybody know an Austin restaurant that cooks authentic Chinese food?
The Tenderness of Wolves
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Category: Novel Grade: B
This debut novel by Penney isn't bad. It's a murder mystery of sorts that takes place in the Canadian wilderness of the 19th century. That's part of the problem for me - I don't usually enjoy wilderness fiction. My guess is that, if you normally enjoy reading this kind of book, you'll probably like this one.
It's a fairly complex story that gets kicked off by the murder of a trapper in a small Canadian town in 1867. A seventeen year old boy disappears at the same time as the murder and the assumption is made that he's the culprit, although a half-breed is accused in the meantime. The representatives of the Hudson Bay Company come to town to try to arrest the murderer. There are so many angles at this point that the book gets fairly confusing. The boy's mother takes off with the escaped half breed to try to find the boy. There's a storyline about a couple of village girls who disappeared decades before; a Utopian village of Norwegians; a viscious ex company man and a stash of missing furs.
All in all, it did hold my interest to the end, but barely.
Category: Novel Grade: B
This debut novel by Penney isn't bad. It's a murder mystery of sorts that takes place in the Canadian wilderness of the 19th century. That's part of the problem for me - I don't usually enjoy wilderness fiction. My guess is that, if you normally enjoy reading this kind of book, you'll probably like this one.
It's a fairly complex story that gets kicked off by the murder of a trapper in a small Canadian town in 1867. A seventeen year old boy disappears at the same time as the murder and the assumption is made that he's the culprit, although a half-breed is accused in the meantime. The representatives of the Hudson Bay Company come to town to try to arrest the murderer. There are so many angles at this point that the book gets fairly confusing. The boy's mother takes off with the escaped half breed to try to find the boy. There's a storyline about a couple of village girls who disappeared decades before; a Utopian village of Norwegians; a viscious ex company man and a stash of missing furs.
All in all, it did hold my interest to the end, but barely.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Satan's Circus
Satan's Circus by Mike Dash
Category: History Grade: B
No, it's not what you think. There are no demons, pitchforks or hellfire in the book. It's not the latest from Steven King. It turns out that the "vice" area of Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th century was called, that's right, Satan's Circus. In some parts of this area there were as many as twenty brothels to a city block. In an area about 25 blocks by 5 blocks you could service just about any bad happen you had - drinking, gambling or just about any kind of sex.
I've really gotten to like reading about this era in New York history. Of course, there's a lot about Tammany Hall. Boss Tweed is long gone by the 1880s - the Tammany leader through most of the book is Big Tim Sullivan. This is the heyday of some legendary New York gangsters - especially, the Jewish gangs led by Arnold Rothstein. There are almost no honest cops in Manhattan although there are a lot of cops (and politicians and judges) who take great care to distinguish between "clean graft" and "dirty graft" which, of course, makes the lines hard to draw.
The focal point of Dash's (non-fiction) book is a very famous murder trial that took place right at the dawn of the 20th century. A local gambler who has tried and failed to start his own club several times, is now heavily in debt to Big Tim. The gambler, Herman Rosenthal, decides to raise some money by selling his story to the press - a story that features a corrupt cop named Charley Becker. Rosenthal provides some basic information that results in sensationalized stories. Rosenthal is supposed to meet with a reporter to lay out the details and the proof and, surprise, surprise, ends up dead instead. The book details the murder and Becker's trials.
The book got a slightly lower grade than it actually deserves because Dash spends a lot of time talking about what's going on in New York during the 19th century, a period that I've already read a lot about. So, if you don't know much about Tammany Hall and the ethnic gangs of New York, you'll probably enjoy the book even more.
Category: History Grade: B
No, it's not what you think. There are no demons, pitchforks or hellfire in the book. It's not the latest from Steven King. It turns out that the "vice" area of Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th century was called, that's right, Satan's Circus. In some parts of this area there were as many as twenty brothels to a city block. In an area about 25 blocks by 5 blocks you could service just about any bad happen you had - drinking, gambling or just about any kind of sex.
I've really gotten to like reading about this era in New York history. Of course, there's a lot about Tammany Hall. Boss Tweed is long gone by the 1880s - the Tammany leader through most of the book is Big Tim Sullivan. This is the heyday of some legendary New York gangsters - especially, the Jewish gangs led by Arnold Rothstein. There are almost no honest cops in Manhattan although there are a lot of cops (and politicians and judges) who take great care to distinguish between "clean graft" and "dirty graft" which, of course, makes the lines hard to draw.
The focal point of Dash's (non-fiction) book is a very famous murder trial that took place right at the dawn of the 20th century. A local gambler who has tried and failed to start his own club several times, is now heavily in debt to Big Tim. The gambler, Herman Rosenthal, decides to raise some money by selling his story to the press - a story that features a corrupt cop named Charley Becker. Rosenthal provides some basic information that results in sensationalized stories. Rosenthal is supposed to meet with a reporter to lay out the details and the proof and, surprise, surprise, ends up dead instead. The book details the murder and Becker's trials.
The book got a slightly lower grade than it actually deserves because Dash spends a lot of time talking about what's going on in New York during the 19th century, a period that I've already read a lot about. So, if you don't know much about Tammany Hall and the ethnic gangs of New York, you'll probably enjoy the book even more.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The Book of Lost Things
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Category: Fantasy Grade: B-
This is pretty standard post-Potter, coming-of-age fantasy novel. It's well written and it got of to a terrific start with a wrenching, emotional portrait of a young boy who believes that his obsessive-compulsive routines might keep his dying mother alive. The closing of the book is also a beautiful contrast to the usual "happily ever after". While I picked this one up thinking this was a book aimed at the Potter crowd, it's definitely a far more adult story that it seemed from the book jacket.
The rest of the book isn't bad. If you'd never read any other fantasy novels or seen other fantasy movies, it would have been perfectly enjoyable. The problem with it is that Connolly has borrowed plot devices from so many other sources that, after a while, it just gets both distracting and annoying. Maybe he was going for homage, but it comes across as just derivative. The basic crossing to another world comes from the Narnia series. The first character the boy comes across in the new world is the Woodsman -- an over sized man with an isolated cabin who is more comfortable in the world of trees and animals than people - can everybody say Hagrid? There are talking animals a la the Pullman series (if you don't know Pullman's work you will when the first of the movies "The Golden Compass" comes out in the fall). Most blatantly, Connolly takes major chunks from the Wizard of Oz -- the Woodsman is much like the Tin Man, there's a "white stone road" that will take the hero to the "king" who will know how to get him home - there's even a gang of harpies who behave exactly like the flying monkeys!
Very unoriginal.
Category: Fantasy Grade: B-
This is pretty standard post-Potter, coming-of-age fantasy novel. It's well written and it got of to a terrific start with a wrenching, emotional portrait of a young boy who believes that his obsessive-compulsive routines might keep his dying mother alive. The closing of the book is also a beautiful contrast to the usual "happily ever after". While I picked this one up thinking this was a book aimed at the Potter crowd, it's definitely a far more adult story that it seemed from the book jacket.
The rest of the book isn't bad. If you'd never read any other fantasy novels or seen other fantasy movies, it would have been perfectly enjoyable. The problem with it is that Connolly has borrowed plot devices from so many other sources that, after a while, it just gets both distracting and annoying. Maybe he was going for homage, but it comes across as just derivative. The basic crossing to another world comes from the Narnia series. The first character the boy comes across in the new world is the Woodsman -- an over sized man with an isolated cabin who is more comfortable in the world of trees and animals than people - can everybody say Hagrid? There are talking animals a la the Pullman series (if you don't know Pullman's work you will when the first of the movies "The Golden Compass" comes out in the fall). Most blatantly, Connolly takes major chunks from the Wizard of Oz -- the Woodsman is much like the Tin Man, there's a "white stone road" that will take the hero to the "king" who will know how to get him home - there's even a gang of harpies who behave exactly like the flying monkeys!
Very unoriginal.
Boomsday
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Category: Novel Grade: A
Buckley is definitely the best political satirist writing today. In the past, however, he's tackled fairly safe topics. His most well known book that was made in to a movie a few years ago was Thank You for Smoking. In that book, Buckley made hilarious fun of the so-called death lobbyists - the folks who work the Washington power structure looking out for the best interests of the tobacco, alcohol and gun industries. In Boomsday, with equally funny results, he tackles a much touchier topic - the cost of government benefits for the Boomer generation. He illustrates the big fallacy of Social Security - that its an insurance program. I.e. that the money that a worker contributes during his life somehow pays for the benefits that worker will draw after retirement. The reality is a lot scarier and, in some ways, more sinister. It's today's workers that actually pay for the benefits of today's retirees. With the retirement of the Boomer generation, the largest in history, a rapidly increasing chunk of today's wages will have to be used to pay retirement and health care benefits.
What Buckley postulates in this book is effectively a potential tax payer rebellion. He's a satirist so he comes up with lots of new benefits that are being approved by the federal government mostly because of the power of the Boomer lobbyists (a theme?) - e.g. a new Social Security benefit to support the latest Boomer trend -- designer mausoleums! A blog written by the book's heroine (?) stirs up the young to, among other things, attack Florida golf courses as a form of protest.
What makes the book hysterical and more than a little uncomfortable, is the blogger's proposed solution to the problem - tax incentives for "voluntary transition" at age 70. I.e. government funded suicide. A taxpayer would get benefits like elimination of all estate taxes just by agreeing to "transit" to a better place. The blogger proposes the solution as merely a way to bring attention to the issues, never expecting or really wanting the solution to become law. What makes the book scary and, at the same time, funny, is that (a) of course, the financial analysis proves beyond a doubt that the scheme would make Social Security solvent forever and (b) not surprisingly, an opportunistic politician decides that he can ride the issue to the White House. Again, the numbers work -- if you can get all the "U30s" (the under 30 crowd) to get mad and vote, you can safely ignore everybody else.
Buckley then pulls out the whole bag of tricks for a Washington satirist -- a spin doctor who gets caught organizing a golf tournament in North Korea to encourage good will, an LBJ-like cynical President, a hypocritical tele-evangelist (whose downfall is the funniest part of the book) and even a Larry Ellison like ego-entrepreneur.
The book is an easy entertaining read - a good beach book, even if its a little late in the season. If you don't mind being a little ashamed of the fact that you think this stuff is funny, give it a shot.
Category: Novel Grade: A
Buckley is definitely the best political satirist writing today. In the past, however, he's tackled fairly safe topics. His most well known book that was made in to a movie a few years ago was Thank You for Smoking. In that book, Buckley made hilarious fun of the so-called death lobbyists - the folks who work the Washington power structure looking out for the best interests of the tobacco, alcohol and gun industries. In Boomsday, with equally funny results, he tackles a much touchier topic - the cost of government benefits for the Boomer generation. He illustrates the big fallacy of Social Security - that its an insurance program. I.e. that the money that a worker contributes during his life somehow pays for the benefits that worker will draw after retirement. The reality is a lot scarier and, in some ways, more sinister. It's today's workers that actually pay for the benefits of today's retirees. With the retirement of the Boomer generation, the largest in history, a rapidly increasing chunk of today's wages will have to be used to pay retirement and health care benefits.
What Buckley postulates in this book is effectively a potential tax payer rebellion. He's a satirist so he comes up with lots of new benefits that are being approved by the federal government mostly because of the power of the Boomer lobbyists (a theme?) - e.g. a new Social Security benefit to support the latest Boomer trend -- designer mausoleums! A blog written by the book's heroine (?) stirs up the young to, among other things, attack Florida golf courses as a form of protest.
What makes the book hysterical and more than a little uncomfortable, is the blogger's proposed solution to the problem - tax incentives for "voluntary transition" at age 70. I.e. government funded suicide. A taxpayer would get benefits like elimination of all estate taxes just by agreeing to "transit" to a better place. The blogger proposes the solution as merely a way to bring attention to the issues, never expecting or really wanting the solution to become law. What makes the book scary and, at the same time, funny, is that (a) of course, the financial analysis proves beyond a doubt that the scheme would make Social Security solvent forever and (b) not surprisingly, an opportunistic politician decides that he can ride the issue to the White House. Again, the numbers work -- if you can get all the "U30s" (the under 30 crowd) to get mad and vote, you can safely ignore everybody else.
Buckley then pulls out the whole bag of tricks for a Washington satirist -- a spin doctor who gets caught organizing a golf tournament in North Korea to encourage good will, an LBJ-like cynical President, a hypocritical tele-evangelist (whose downfall is the funniest part of the book) and even a Larry Ellison like ego-entrepreneur.
The book is an easy entertaining read - a good beach book, even if its a little late in the season. If you don't mind being a little ashamed of the fact that you think this stuff is funny, give it a shot.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles
The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
Category: Novel Grade: B+
That's two by Murakami this summer and I think I'm becoming a fan. His books are definitely not for everybody - he's sort of a magical-realist. The two books I've read so far, this one and the much shorter After Dark, both blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Chronicles is probably the author's best known and definitely his longest book. It winds together a bunch of different plots lines - something I'm not usually in to. Here, the focus of the book is the narrator's disintegrating marriage, but there's also strange story lines about a teenage girl up the street, a very weird "psychic treatment", a charismatic Japanese politician and an involved story about violence during both of Japan's mid-centuries wars - with China and then with the Soviet Union. In spite of the book's 600 page length, Murakami, at least in this book, is amazingly efficient with his prose. The tiniest details come back to be wound in to the story later in the book. Ultimately, all of the story lines tie together in what, finally, is a beautiful, but disturbing book.
The writing is lyrical, even in translation. Most of the book is told in first person - it's the kind of book where you can hear the narrator telling you the story in a quiet voice. The translator, Jay Rubin, has apparently done most of Murakami's books and it's hard to imagine the talent required to take prose like this and make it poetic in another language. Reading Chronicles really made me wish I could read Japanese to see what this writing is like in the original.
This book isn't nearly as dense as the masterpiece of magical realism - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. If you liked Solitude, or if you always wanted to read something like it, but weren't willing to invest the effort to get through, you might like Chronicles. It's definitely enough to keep me moving through the Murakami library.
Category: Novel Grade: B+
That's two by Murakami this summer and I think I'm becoming a fan. His books are definitely not for everybody - he's sort of a magical-realist. The two books I've read so far, this one and the much shorter After Dark, both blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Chronicles is probably the author's best known and definitely his longest book. It winds together a bunch of different plots lines - something I'm not usually in to. Here, the focus of the book is the narrator's disintegrating marriage, but there's also strange story lines about a teenage girl up the street, a very weird "psychic treatment", a charismatic Japanese politician and an involved story about violence during both of Japan's mid-centuries wars - with China and then with the Soviet Union. In spite of the book's 600 page length, Murakami, at least in this book, is amazingly efficient with his prose. The tiniest details come back to be wound in to the story later in the book. Ultimately, all of the story lines tie together in what, finally, is a beautiful, but disturbing book.
The writing is lyrical, even in translation. Most of the book is told in first person - it's the kind of book where you can hear the narrator telling you the story in a quiet voice. The translator, Jay Rubin, has apparently done most of Murakami's books and it's hard to imagine the talent required to take prose like this and make it poetic in another language. Reading Chronicles really made me wish I could read Japanese to see what this writing is like in the original.
This book isn't nearly as dense as the masterpiece of magical realism - One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. If you liked Solitude, or if you always wanted to read something like it, but weren't willing to invest the effort to get through, you might like Chronicles. It's definitely enough to keep me moving through the Murakami library.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
The Double Agents
The Double Agents by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV
Category: Military Fiction Grade: A
OK - new rule. I read a fair amount of serial fiction. Griffin is probably the best example. As I've said in the past, I've probably read more books by him than any other author (39 and counting). In general, a series is either good or bad without a lot of variation from book to book. So from now on, series fiction will get really short reviews - it's just getting hard to think of something clever to say about what's essentially one long book.
This one is the sixth book in the Men at War series about the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. It takes place during World War II. Griffin always throws in some element of soap opera - there's always at least a few heaving breasts - but is books are uniformly entertaining and action packed. This one is too. Enough said.
(Actually, there is one thing out of the ordinary about this one -- David Niven, Peter Ustinov and Ian Fleming are all a major part of one of the story lines.)
Category: Military Fiction Grade: A
OK - new rule. I read a fair amount of serial fiction. Griffin is probably the best example. As I've said in the past, I've probably read more books by him than any other author (39 and counting). In general, a series is either good or bad without a lot of variation from book to book. So from now on, series fiction will get really short reviews - it's just getting hard to think of something clever to say about what's essentially one long book.
This one is the sixth book in the Men at War series about the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA. It takes place during World War II. Griffin always throws in some element of soap opera - there's always at least a few heaving breasts - but is books are uniformly entertaining and action packed. This one is too. Enough said.
(Actually, there is one thing out of the ordinary about this one -- David Niven, Peter Ustinov and Ian Fleming are all a major part of one of the story lines.)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Blood and Thunder
Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
Category: History Grade: B+
For some reason this period of history - mid 19th century - is not one I've been terribly interested in or read a lot about. The American westward expansion more than doubled the size of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. It also involved the virtual destruction of almost all Native American tribes in the Southwest. Maybe its because the stories of this period have been so sensationalized over the years, but I don't know that I've ever gotten all the way through a history book about this era.
While, in a lot of ways, Sides has really overwritten this book, with way too much flowery language, the primary hook he decided to use is pretty engaging. The focal point of the book is the life of Kit Carson -- the real life of Kit Carson, not the mostly fictitious stories that were made up and published about him in "blood and thunders", the nickname for the adventure stories told about the west. According to Sides, Carson was actually a pretty mild-mannered man who was only rarely the vicious Indian fighter of legend. He was a quiet mountain man - a trapper in his early days who preferred the isolation of the trail to life in a city. He became a renowned scout and, later, a military leader. He was, most of the time, a friend to the Indians and was married to a Hispanic woman. His home, famously, was in Taos, New Mexico, but he spent much of his life on the trails from coast to coast. In his day, he was, reluctantly, the symbol of westward expansion.
While the book roams all over the country, it geographic focus is Santa Fe. Not surprisingly, given that the timeline runs from the 1830s to the 1870s, much of the story is about the subjugation of the Native Americans. As with most histories of this period, Americans don't particularly come across as the good guys, but Sides is balanced enough to show why the Anglos moving west considered the Indians their enemies. Ultimately, he makes it pretty clear that the aggressive, city-oriented, hierarchical society of the whites could never have coexisted with the nomadic, leaderless tribes, especially like the Navajos. In the end, Sides doesn't make what happened to the Indians acceptable, but he does go a long way to making it understandable.
This is really the story of frontier warfare. The period, though dominated, by the constant skirmishes with the Indians, also includes the war with Mexico and the Civil War. I had never really thought much about how the Civil War played out in the Southwest but there were some pretty major battles there. The Civil War became largely an excuse for the Texas-dominated branch of the Rebel army to attempt to annex the western areas of New Mexico that they had coveted for so long.
This turns out to be a good general introduction to the history of the Southwest. Sides' focus on the people of the era, particularly Carson, make for a very readable overview.
Category: History Grade: B+
For some reason this period of history - mid 19th century - is not one I've been terribly interested in or read a lot about. The American westward expansion more than doubled the size of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. It also involved the virtual destruction of almost all Native American tribes in the Southwest. Maybe its because the stories of this period have been so sensationalized over the years, but I don't know that I've ever gotten all the way through a history book about this era.
While, in a lot of ways, Sides has really overwritten this book, with way too much flowery language, the primary hook he decided to use is pretty engaging. The focal point of the book is the life of Kit Carson -- the real life of Kit Carson, not the mostly fictitious stories that were made up and published about him in "blood and thunders", the nickname for the adventure stories told about the west. According to Sides, Carson was actually a pretty mild-mannered man who was only rarely the vicious Indian fighter of legend. He was a quiet mountain man - a trapper in his early days who preferred the isolation of the trail to life in a city. He became a renowned scout and, later, a military leader. He was, most of the time, a friend to the Indians and was married to a Hispanic woman. His home, famously, was in Taos, New Mexico, but he spent much of his life on the trails from coast to coast. In his day, he was, reluctantly, the symbol of westward expansion.
While the book roams all over the country, it geographic focus is Santa Fe. Not surprisingly, given that the timeline runs from the 1830s to the 1870s, much of the story is about the subjugation of the Native Americans. As with most histories of this period, Americans don't particularly come across as the good guys, but Sides is balanced enough to show why the Anglos moving west considered the Indians their enemies. Ultimately, he makes it pretty clear that the aggressive, city-oriented, hierarchical society of the whites could never have coexisted with the nomadic, leaderless tribes, especially like the Navajos. In the end, Sides doesn't make what happened to the Indians acceptable, but he does go a long way to making it understandable.
This is really the story of frontier warfare. The period, though dominated, by the constant skirmishes with the Indians, also includes the war with Mexico and the Civil War. I had never really thought much about how the Civil War played out in the Southwest but there were some pretty major battles there. The Civil War became largely an excuse for the Texas-dominated branch of the Rebel army to attempt to annex the western areas of New Mexico that they had coveted for so long.
This turns out to be a good general introduction to the history of the Southwest. Sides' focus on the people of the era, particularly Carson, make for a very readable overview.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Category: Fantasy Grade: A+
Well, I did manage to get a few hours sleep last night but, other than that, I read this one straight through. I might be one of the older ones to do this, but definitely not the only one.
Every generation needs some work of art that makes a parent want to pass it down to his children. For most of the second half of the 20th century, that art was probably in the form of a movie. For me, it was the Wizard of Oz. It's my first memory of a going to the movies - Aunt Mina took me. I couldn't have been more than six or seven but that afternoon, sitting in the Paramount, is one I'll never forget. That movie was magic - the change from black-and-white Kansas to full color Oz, the cleverness of the yellow brick road and the lollipop guild, the terror of the flying monkeys (that I watched while cowering behind the seat in front of me) - these are the images that I couldn't wait to share with my kids when they were old enough. For those younger than me, it might be E.T. or Star Wars, but those moments were probably captured in movies.
For that group of high school kids that was hanging around bookstores Friday night waiting for midnight (who read the first Potter when they were 8), that feeling is unquestionably tied up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Because of this attachment that will be passed on to the children ten years from now, I'll happily nominate Rowlings as the most influential writer of the last hundred years. She could easily be considered this because she's written the best, most approachable, not to mention longest, at almost 5000 pages, fantasy series ever - far outstripping, in my humble view, authors like Tolkien or Lewis. Much more importantly, she has single-handedly created millions on millions of kids who find magic between the covers of a book. She's extended the life of the book, in the face of 21st century technology, not to mention being the savior of the small, independent book store.
Think about so-called children's literature before Harry. The books that come to mind - Charlotte's Web, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys - were just plain juvenile. Children's authors really believed that kids couldn't handle a challenge -- big words, complex plots, well developed characters and, most obviously, thick books. Rowlings has changed all that by asking her readers to raise their ability to handle her stories instead of lowering her style to match their ability. In today's world of TAKS testing, grade inflation and six-year college degrees, it's a lesson that our educators should take to heart - making kids reach makes them smarter.
I'm not actually going to say a lot about Deadly Hallows - if you're not a fan, you probably think I'm nuts. If you are a fan, you've probably already started it or plan to so and you'd kill me if I gave away the story points. Suffice it to say that, to me this was the perfect topper to this series. It's a great book on its own with enough complexity and action to keep you glued, but it also gives a solid dose of closure to the series. While I'm a little sad to see the series end, it does end with this book -- I hope the Rowlings has more stories in her, but she should definitely let go of Potter.
Category: Fantasy Grade: A+
Well, I did manage to get a few hours sleep last night but, other than that, I read this one straight through. I might be one of the older ones to do this, but definitely not the only one.
Every generation needs some work of art that makes a parent want to pass it down to his children. For most of the second half of the 20th century, that art was probably in the form of a movie. For me, it was the Wizard of Oz. It's my first memory of a going to the movies - Aunt Mina took me. I couldn't have been more than six or seven but that afternoon, sitting in the Paramount, is one I'll never forget. That movie was magic - the change from black-and-white Kansas to full color Oz, the cleverness of the yellow brick road and the lollipop guild, the terror of the flying monkeys (that I watched while cowering behind the seat in front of me) - these are the images that I couldn't wait to share with my kids when they were old enough. For those younger than me, it might be E.T. or Star Wars, but those moments were probably captured in movies.
For that group of high school kids that was hanging around bookstores Friday night waiting for midnight (who read the first Potter when they were 8), that feeling is unquestionably tied up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. Because of this attachment that will be passed on to the children ten years from now, I'll happily nominate Rowlings as the most influential writer of the last hundred years. She could easily be considered this because she's written the best, most approachable, not to mention longest, at almost 5000 pages, fantasy series ever - far outstripping, in my humble view, authors like Tolkien or Lewis. Much more importantly, she has single-handedly created millions on millions of kids who find magic between the covers of a book. She's extended the life of the book, in the face of 21st century technology, not to mention being the savior of the small, independent book store.
Think about so-called children's literature before Harry. The books that come to mind - Charlotte's Web, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys - were just plain juvenile. Children's authors really believed that kids couldn't handle a challenge -- big words, complex plots, well developed characters and, most obviously, thick books. Rowlings has changed all that by asking her readers to raise their ability to handle her stories instead of lowering her style to match their ability. In today's world of TAKS testing, grade inflation and six-year college degrees, it's a lesson that our educators should take to heart - making kids reach makes them smarter.
I'm not actually going to say a lot about Deadly Hallows - if you're not a fan, you probably think I'm nuts. If you are a fan, you've probably already started it or plan to so and you'd kill me if I gave away the story points. Suffice it to say that, to me this was the perfect topper to this series. It's a great book on its own with enough complexity and action to keep you glued, but it also gives a solid dose of closure to the series. While I'm a little sad to see the series end, it does end with this book -- I hope the Rowlings has more stories in her, but she should definitely let go of Potter.
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