67. (Vine) The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by L.A. Meyer 8/24
Pick:
Not only did I get this off the Vine because it's a Bloody Jack book, but I bought the two books before this in the series just so I could read this one in sequence. That's right.
Thoughts:
One of the happiest things for an avid reader like myself is to discover a new series to enjoy. It means that you have not only one good book to read, but several! It allows you to space out the books, interspersing others as necessary, and still be able to come back to the books you're enjoying so much, and yet have each story break fresh and new and unexpected.
This is what I have been able to experience with the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer. I am a huge fan of pirates, both fictional and historical (because ninjas suck); I find the lifestyle, the concepts, and the characters hugely enjoyable. My wife pointed out this series on the shelf of our local bookstore because of that attraction, and we decided to give it a try. Now, eight months later, I have the bittersweet experience of having caught up with the series, and so now I must wait for the next book to be published, rather than simply being able to go buy it when I feel a craving for the adventures of Jacky Faber.
And that craving will come. These books are, without a doubt, the best things I have read this year, and are certainly now one of my favorite series of books, not least because they are not like anything else I usually read. There are certain parallels to Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, largely because the two authors have set their work in the same general time and place, but where those are fantasy, L.A. Meyer's books are historical fiction at its best. Not only do you get a rollicking good story, but you get to learn things about the past, and relive some of the golden days of yore.
This latest installment (But not the last, since it ends, as these books often do, in a cliffhanger) is just as good as all the rest; a remarkable achievement, since it is the eighth book in this outstanding series, which has not had a single drop in quality, either of the writing or the storytelling. This book was as hard to put down as every other one.
The Wake of the Lorelei Lee does follow the general pattern of the other books, which is: our beloved hero, Mary "Jacky" Faber, former street urchin and wayward waif, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Belle of the Golden West, Fine Young Lady, head of Faber Shipping Worldwide, Mermaid, Performer, Adventuress, and Pirate, has her life looking up, being exactly where she wants to be: captain of her own ship, the Lorelei Lee, on her way to England to reunite with her long-suffering fiance, James Emerson Fletcher. And as happens in pretty much every book so far, things all fall apart in the worst way, at the worst moment, and Jacky is, once more, arrested by His Majesty's Government. I don't want to give too much away, so suffice to say that Jacky finds herself on the way to Australia, a captive in her own ship, the Lorelei Lee. I knew that much going in, so I hope I haven't spoiled anything for those who haven't yet had the pleasure of reading the book.
I could never have predicted what comes in this book, either the immediate circumstances and how Jacky makes them work for her -- though I was not surprised by the trouble Jacky gets herself into, as that seems to be her greatest skill, other than getting herself out of that same trouble -- or the remarkable whirlwind of events that come in the last several chapters, after things take a sharp turn for the worse. But I loved every minute of it. Jaimy plays a larger role in this book, acting as narrator for his own chapters as he did in the fifth book, "Mississippi Jack," and he did very well, both as main character and as adventurer on the high seas.
These books, each and every one of them, are now my strongest recommendations to those who haven't found them yet. They are treasures, they are wonderful stories. They are, I think, a little too adult to be considered children's books, as there is quite a lot of death and horror in them, and a few risque elements, but I would definitely put them as young adult books, and certainly something that anyone would enjoy who likes a good adventure yarn. Especially young girls, as for all of her faults, Jacky is an incredible character, strong and endearing and wonderful, and, in her context, I think an excellent role model.
But even if she's not that, she's a heck of a lot of fun to read about.
68. Under the Dome by Stephen King 9/3
Pick:
I was heading into back-to-school time, knowing I was going to lose a lot of my reading momentum; I figured there was no better time to get through this thousand-plus-page tome. Plus, what better way to finish off a book-filled summer than with a little of the master?
Thoughts:
Wow. That's one evil book. It was disturbing how plausible the situation was, which made it remarkably disturbing how horrible everything turned out under the dome.
If you don't know (And I have no idea who I'm writing these for any more), the novel is about a small town in Maine (Just like 95% of King's books) that wakes up one October morning to find that an invisible forcefield has appeared (Actually, it happens around 10:00 am) that completely surrounds their town, following the contours of the town line exactly. The Dome goes up 30,000 feet or so before it arcs to create a roof; it goes down into the ground, presumably the same distance. It is entirely impenetrable, and very nearly impermeable; a very small amount of air and water can flow through, but nothing larger than particulate matter. A number of people crash into it, in cars and one airplane, and are killed immediately.
Everyone else has to wait for a little while before they are horribly slaughtered.
The novel is really about a Lord of the Flies situation (a parallel that the characters make), in which several hundred people are suddenly cut off from the outside world, and have to build their own society; just like in the book about the boys on the island, there is one leader who is both popular and influential, and despicably evil -- though Jack wasn't nearly as scummy as this guy is. Big Jim Rennie. He was so bad that when I went to school, near the end of this book, and looked at my class lists, I had a moment of revulsion when I saw that I have a student whose last name is Rennie. (She's actually very nice. So far . . .)
The town turns on itself, loses all sense of morality and propriety, and self-destructs, all while the entire world is watching from the other side of the transparent dome, all within about a week. Everything goes wrong, and everyone suffers. And the sad part for me was not how many people turned nasty; that was no surprise at all. The sad part for me was how many people believed Big Jim's bullshit. It seemed so obvious that he was lying through his teeth for the entire book -- and since these people had lived with him all their lives, they also should have known that he was lying through his teeth for much, much longer -- and yet they took his side and believed his nonsense. That was the most disturbing thing: how readily a good demogogue can sway a crowd, even though good, smart, capable people oppose him. Big Jim's ending, while gruesome, just couldn't be bad enough unless he got the full Mussolini.
Great book, very depressing.
69. (Vine) Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg 9/12
Pick:
I was most intrigued by the concept of a memoir by a prison librarian, neve having considered that such things exist. But of course they do. Then I looked at the product page and saw that it was endorsed by AJ. Jacobs, my very favorite know-it-all and one of my favorite memoirists, and I was sold.
Review:
This was not the book I expected.
I'm not totally sure what I expected, but I think it was something funny: something about a librarian hanging out with pimps and drug dealers, scattering literature across the infertile soil of a prison's worth of undereducated, life-hardened, embittered minds. I was looking for some uplift, here, something about how books can save even the toughest cases.
What I got instead was reality. Avi Steinberg, who falls into prison librarianhood mainly because he is avoiding the expectations of his strict Orthodox Jewish upbringing (Doctor or lawyer or rabbi, oh my!) but not making enough money as a freelance obituary writer (Another career I never really thought existed, though of course it does), does indeed hang out with pimps and drug dealers, but it isn't really funny. These are not the cartoonish pimps that floated through my mind, a cornucopia of platform shoes and ostrich feather hats and 70's jive lingo; these are actual hustlers, men who make their living off of the exploitation of women, men who are cold and calculating and violent no matter how charming they appear. And because they are human beings, they are also emotionally stunted victims themselves, sufferers of abuse and neglect and generational poverty; their less savory characteristics are simply their best defense against the world that surrounds them.
Although there is very little about the saving grace of literature and words and books, Steinberg does paint a vivid and touching portrait of the criminals he dealt with every day for the years he worked in Boston's South Bay prison, as well as a harsh and unflinching one. These people are complex, despite society's desire to affix simplistic labels and shove them into an appropriate drawer labeled "criminal" or "convict" or "scum." Some of them -- many of them -- are cruel and violent and dangerous, as evidenced by the encounters Steinberg has with them on the outside, once they have been released; two that he recounts in the book are a mugging, and a depressing encounter with a pimp and a hooker, both of whom he knew from the prison; Steinberg plays up to the pimp's ego before he realizes that by doing so he is encouraging the violent exploitation of the drug-addicted woman whom he knew and had friendly feelings towards. But there is also incredible sadness in these devastated lives; though there are no instances of the kind of violence usually depicted in Hollywood movies about prison life (another shallow prejudice broken by this book), there is certainly violence and turmoil, and many of the people Steinberg meets are dead before the book's last page.
What was most clear from reading this book is that Steinberg is an outstanding memoirist; he gives some wonderful background, on himself, his acquaintances within the prison, and prison itself, both the system and the specific institution he worked in. He has remarkable insight, leading me to pause frequently to consider a particular passage or idea; one of the most telling for me was the simple observation that American prison spending has multiplied even while spending on education, and on libraries, has fallen to almost nothing -- a trend that continues and accelerates in today's economy. And he is a great storyteller, able to bring the people and places to life. This was a great book, one that I think anyone would enjoy who had an interest in books or prison -- and I would wager that pretty much everyone has an interest in one or the other, if not both.
A small personal note: as a sometimes reluctant high school teacher, it was fascinating to me personally to read about Steinberg's experiences trying to teach a creative writing course as part of his librarian's duties, because the things he struggled with, and the mistakes that he made and the successes that he had, are very similar to my own experience. Not that I would compare high school students to criminals . . . but the reverse is actually a reasonable comparison; these criminals are in many ways like high school students, and it was very interesting to see.
70. (Vine) Fist Stick Knife Gun by Geoffrey Canada and Jamar Nicholas 9/14
Pick:
I like graphic novels, I am interested in the roots and causes and results of violence and its place in our society. So I went for it.
Review:
I worry a little that some people will be disappointed by this book. Because of the title, which is both clever and brutally blunt (Or perhaps bluntly brutal), and the cover picture of a young boy with his fists raised ready to strike, I would guess some will see this as a story of a fighter, proud and aggressive, who is reveling in his past exploits and bloody victories.
But that's not what this is. This is a story of how violence can enter into one's life and one's world uninvited, unwanted, unsought for, and once in, can creep throughout until it affects almost every waking moment. Geoffrey Canada, who is clearly a remarkable man, managed to stop the spread of violence through his own self, to tear it out by the roots and look at it in the harsh light of day, like some malign parasitic worm. This story is his careful dissection and illustration of that worm of violence.
He grew up in a tough town, in a tough time; luckily for him it was not yet the age of handguns on the streets, or he very likely would not have survived. As it was, this man had to learn to fight as a young boy, and then learn to fight more, to hit harder, strike faster, suffer more pain and humiliation, and then still more -- it never stopped, really, until he left the neighborhood where he grew up. Even after he went to college, whenever he would return, the presence of violence, and his own tendencies to respond in kind, arose once more. He never seems glad to be involved in violence, but he learned not to shy away from it, by the simple expedient of being taught that turning away from violence only invited more violence. When he watched the boys in the neighborhood stretch a peaceful child, a boy who didn't want to fight, across the trunk of a car and beat him black and blue, he learned that lesson. When his friend, at the urging of an older boy, turned on him and threatened to beat him up just for the sake of proving that he could -- when his friend's face turned savage and enraged, for no good reason other than another's incitement to be violent -- he learned that lesson. There was no escape from the violence in his life as long as he lived in a world that centered around it.
The illustrations, by Jamar Nicholas, show that world and especially the feelings of those trapped in it wonderfully. They are raw and stark, black and white with a heavy line and blocky, almost golem-like figures; they are perfect for showing how a boy can become a brute, and the anguish and anger of living in a world that turns boys into brutes.
The book ends with a final plea from the adult Canada, founder and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone and a tireless activist for the elimination of violent worlds such as he lived through himself. It is a plea for the only thing that he believes can end this violence: hope. He says that we need to create hope for the children who live in worlds like this, the children of abuse and poverty and the inner cities, that we must show them that there is some way to survive and thrive other than through violence and crime. I think the man himself, and this story in this form, does a nice job of beginning that process. I would hope that people who read it will be inspired to try and do something to help move it along.
But even if you don't, still: read the book. It's a fascinating story, if a desperate and bleak one, and it's beautifully told.
71. Pirates! by Celia Rees. Finished on Pirate Day, damn yer liver and lights, the 19th day of Septembarrrrrr.
Pick:
Looked like a nice pirate book. I grabbed it now with the full intention of reading something piratey for Talk Like a Pirate Day, even if I did forget exactly what day said holiday fell on. I was going to read Empire of Blue Water, but I just finished a heapin' helpin' of non-fiction, and I wanted a novel.
Thoughts:
I liked it a lot; very piratey indeed, with a strong theme of freedom from oppression and equality on the open seas, both unavailable on land. The writing was good, especially around life on the West Indies as a plantation owner, as a slave on a sugar plantation, and as a maroon. The bad guys were especially gruesome and awful, which you have to have to make a pirate seem like a good guy; it was a nice touch that the bad guys were the capitalist oppressors (Come to think of it, there has been a very strong subcurrent of proletarian revolution in my reading of late. I wonder if it's me or the books themselves that lean that way. I wonder, if it is the books themselves, if it is meaningful that we seem to have more and more literature based on the idea of sticking it to the man, or has it always been that way?), the Brazilian, the slavedriver, the main character Nancy's brother and father, who toss her to the wolves, pretty literally, in order to keep their position secure.
I did think the first half of the book dragged on too long, since it starts back in England when Nancy is a young girl living in an upper-class household; much is made of her stepmother's attempts to tame this wild tomboy and marry her off to someone of quality. It was written well, and interesting, but it wasn't the story I was after. Then when Nancy's father is ruined, he decides to trade Nancy for money to the richest and most unscrupulous man he knows, the Brazilian, a former pirate, privateer, and now plantation owner. But then Daddy Kingston croaks, and her drunk of a brother moves to Jamaica to take over the family sugar plantation, and renews the deal to sell Nancy off; though now it is because the plantation is, in fact, in Nancy's name, and the drunk needs to get rid of her before he can get title. But Nancy befriends her slaves Minerva and Phillis , and finally ends up killing the man who was trying to rape Minerva, and so runs off to be a pirate.
That was the story I was looking for. And it was pretty damn good.
72. Empire of Blue Water by Stephan Talty 9/28
Pick:
It came up on my Amazon recommendations, because I likes me some pirates, so I found the pirate shelf at Powell's and picked this one up -- it got the highest ratings for its accuracy, and it was about a pirate that I knew almost nothing about, Captain Henry Morgan. I wanted a Blackbeard book, naturally, but it turns out there are almost no facts known about Blackbeard, just a shitload of rumors and a few details that any good pirate devotee already knows. So, Captain Morgan it was. I had to read this now because it was Talk Like a Pirate day when I finished the Pirates! novel, so what am I going to read, poetry? Narrrr!
Thoughts:
This was a great book, fascinating and informative both. It's the story of how the British moved in on the New World despite the rigid control and overwhelming power of the Spanish empire of the 1600's. It tells of how the British, under command of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell (And there's another story I need to find out more about, the Puritan overthrow of the British monarchy), took Jamaica away from the Spanish, mostly because the Spanish didn't really want it, but also because the Spanish empire was not well run.
That's putting it lightly. The Spanish had everything, and they fucked it up from top to bottom. The book described the Spanish monarch at the time, Philip, and his obsession with creating a male heir -- sounds a lot like Henry VIII, except Philip believed it was God's curse because he had been a renowned philanderer throughout his youth; in fact he believed that every trouble that beset the Spanish empire was his fault, directly, that all of it was God's punishment for the misdeeds of the king. Philip spends more time worrying about the male heir rather than the British invasion, as he thinks that if God lets him have a son, it will show that God has forgiven him, and thus everything will turn out right afterwards. He does end up making a son, but the boy is so severely inbred and deformed and sickly that he can barely survive, let alone rule a massive kingdom that is a pure autocracy, with no authority or decision-making responsibility resting on anyone but the king himself.
The Spanish did try, over the years, to throw the British out of the New World and protect the massive wealth being stripped from America, but they failed -- largely because of the pirates. And the greatest pirate of the time was Henry Morgan.
This book tells the whole story, of how Port Royal came to be the capital of the British New World and also the home of the pirates; how Henry Morgan and other pirates set the Spanish back on their heels and then eventually drove them to ruin; how most of our images of pirates didn't fit the originals terribly well (Morgan was a brilliant tactician and a masterful leader of men. He was an unquestionably shitty sailor. Ran his boats onto coral reefs all the damn time. It's just embarrassing.) but the real thing was perhaps even more fascinating. And, of course, how it all fell apart, partly because the pirate lifestyle was pretty untenable, but mainly because Morgan himself turned away from pirating and became a pirate hunter, a plantation owner, and the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. It's one hell of a yarn, and a great piece of history, with a disturbing parallel to today. Really glad I read it.
73. Faefever by Karen Marie Moning 10/6
Pick:
I needed something light and fictiony.
Thoughts:
I got it. Loved this book, though it took me a while to read it. I hated the ending with a burning passion, especially since my current Vine commitments and slow reading pace -- and Towers of Midnight coming out in TWO WEEKS! -- mean I won't be getting to the next book for a while, most likely. At least I won't have to wait for the next book to be published, like Toni did; I'm more glad than ever that I bought that one for her (Or did I talk her into buying it?) before the paperback came out, because that much of a wait over this much of a cliffhanger would just be unforgivable.
Honestly, there isn't much to say apart from talking about the ending, because the ending was so overwhelming. I did like the way she seems to be handling her new set of alliances, especially with the Garda detective and the Sidhe-Seers; I'm interested in the druids, but don't know where that's going. It pisses me off that Mac needs protection, because the two "men" protecting her are such chauvinist dickheads, but she can't just tell them to fuck off and die, because she needs their damn protection -- and even thinking it, I can see their smug little faces. Totally annoying. If I were her, I would spend all of my time learning to defend myself better, so I could finally reach the Fuck-you point with both Barrons and V'Lane.
Good book.
74. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy edited by Gregory Bassham 10/16
Pick:
I love Harry Potter, I love philosophy. Tough call.
Review:
I liked this book. I've only read one other pop culture and philosophy book, on the Simpsons, and that one was more enjoyable for me because the authors managed to find intriguing aspects of the Simpsons to pull apart and recombine, like Dr. Moreau on his island, themes from a cartoon with philosophical concepts. This book did the same thing, but because there are some obvious and important themes in the Harry Potter books, I felt like the essays in this book were less of a surprise.
That's not to say I didn't enjoy them. The ideas were interesting and well-presented; it was fun to read about love and death and redemption, to hear philosophy couched in terms of a fantasy series that I've loved for years. I especially enjoyed Gregory Bassham's essays; the editor of the collection, he had three essays in it and collaborated on a fourth, in addition to the introduction to the collection. I thought he had the deepest and most original insights into the books, and his areas of interest just happened to coincide with mine.
The book was certainly not too heavy, and the references were not overly obscure or esoteric. I think anyone with a good knowledge of the Potter books and an interest in philosophy would enjoy the book, even if you lack prior philosophical knowledge; my own limited background in philosophy was no hindrance to my reading.
75. Animal Farm by George Orwell 10/17
Pick:
I was thinking about teaching it to my Honors classes, so I thought I should read it again -- for the first time since either eighth grade or Cabrillo, I can't remember if I read it when I read 1984 last time.
Thoughts:
It's a good book, and I'm going to teach it -- partly because it's really damn short, mainly because it is the PERFECT transition between the folktale unit I've been teaching and the next big thing I want to teach, which is Fahrenheit 451 -- but I wish I didn't know about the connection to the Russian Revolution. Because I knew the story was based on the Communist takeover of Russia, and Stalin's rise to power and then descent into tyranny, I kept looking for the correlations: Napoleon is Stalin and Snowball is Trotsky with a little Lenin; so who is Mollie, the foolish mare who betrays the farm for ribbons and sugar? Who is Boxer, the mighty carthorse? Who exactly are the neighboring farmers supposed to represent? I was interested to find out that the windmill is based on a real set of events, that Lenin and Stalin pushed for the electrification of the Soviet Union in order to modernize the country and show everyone that Communism was the bestest. But I think I will teach the book without telling them about the Russian Revolution aspect, and then tell them about it afterwards and have them examine the book for correlations. I just love that there is a book that takes me from folktales and myths and legends, to totalitarian dystopia, in one step. Thanks, Mr. Orwell.
76. The Book of the Dead by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson 10/25
Pick:
I love trivia, I liked the concept of the book.
Review:
This book was just what I expected when I was intrigued by the cover and the description. It was full of trivia, well-written, and interesting. It gave me insight into a good number of people I had never heard of before, but now want to hear much more about -- and I can't think of a better endorsement for a trivia book. It might have been a little Euro-centric, a little heavy on the Brits, since both authors are British and the main audience is, presumably, the same, but that just meant there were more people I had never heard of but should have (Edward Jenner is the name that stands out in my memory, though I was also fascinated to read about the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa). Now when I go to a cocktail party, I'll have something to talk about other than baseball.
(**Confessional Postscript: I've never been to a cocktail party and don't expect I will do so anytime soon. I also never talk about baseball. The truth is that I will cherish these trivial nuggets until I find an opportunity to lob them, at random, into conversations that have little if anything to do with the people I have learned about, thus discombobulating as many people as possible at once. I recommend both the activity and the book as a resource for same.)
77. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 10/31
Pick:
I had to read this again, because TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT IS COMING OUT, BABY!
Thoughts:
I loved this one, again. I totally lost my awareness of Sanderson's different writing style, other than the shorter chapters, which weren't a problem. I remembered just how much fun it is to re-read a book you truly enjoy; it's a lot of fun.
Now I can't wait for the new one to get here. Let's hope it comes today!
78. The Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson 11/11
Pick:
Yeah. Like there's any other book I'd read first. Well, maybe the lost fourth book of Lord of the Rings, but otherwise -- not gonna happen.
Thoughts:
First thing I should say: I miss Robert Jordan. There were some parts of this book that just weren't as well-written as they could have been, and part of me wants to say they should have been. The most egregious for me was Rand's confrontation with Egwene in the White Tower. He comes in, talks to her for a minute or so -- not more than a few pages -- and then tells her his plan. She thinks it's nuts. Then he leaves. And that's it: she doesn't try to talk him out of it, which she certainly should have, and he doesn't let her try, which he would have with his old fondness for her and his newfound inner peace. And after she made the strongest attempt she could, she should have contacted her allies in controlling Rand, namely Elayne and Nynaeve and the Wise Ones, to see if anyone else had a handle on his situation. Only AFTER she tried all of that should she have turned to her Amyrlin authority and decided to try to line up the countries against him, only AFTER trying to reach him personally and deciding it couldn't be done, and only after trying desperately to come up with another plan. Robert Jordan would have written it that way. With Sanderson, Rand walks out, and Egwene says, "He's nuts. I'll have to line up all the other nations to oppose him." This pissed me off, because Rand is the Dragon Reborn; what the hell makes Egwene think she has a better grasp on what can be done and what should be done about the Dark One? Ridiculous. I can accept that she would make the move she does, because she is Amyrlin and she has a duty, but it should have been harder for her to make herself do it, and it should have been a last resort. I think Gawyn was mishandled as well, and in fact, there was a real tendency in this book for characters to come to sudden realizations that changed their whole outlook, often without a whole lot of buildup. And this is because the author is trying to finish the books, and working off of notes only; Jordan would have had more to say in these matters. I would have liked to read Jordan's version.
On the other hand, this book did make me cry. Because I'm a big sap sometimes, and when Rand reunited with Tam after his epiphany, it made me tear up a little bit. And the struggle in Tel'aran'rhiod over the White Tower, and Egwene's fight with Mesaana, were epic, as were the assassins in the Tower itself -- but not as epic as Mat and Thom's assault on the Tower of Ghenjei, which was everything I was waiting for and more. And Perrin's struggle with the Whitecloaks and his own role and destiny were beautifully done, and most pleasant -- and I loved the outcome with Berelain. I liked everything that happened to move the plot forward, and I am now psyched for the last book. And it made me a little sad for Robert Jordan's death, again, because I would love to read more books in this world after the Last Battle. But it's not going to happen, because Sanderson has too much respect for Jordan's work, as does anyone else who would be capable of writing a sequel, I would hope (and I'm sure his widow would never license it out to anyone), and so do I, so I wouldn't want to read it. But I wish Jordan was around to write it, I surely do.
79. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris 11/11
Pick:
I actually went for this one because I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait for Towers of Midnight, and this was a series of essays I figured I could put down whenever THE BOOK arrived. And that's exactly what I did, until after I finished the epic tome; then I went back and read the last few essays in this one the same day.
Thoughts:
Sedaris is a good writer and a wonderful observer; he had some hilarious moments in here and some really poignant ones -- the two most noticeable for me in the first category were the time he and his siblings made their youngest sister lie down in the street so she would get run over by a car so they could force their mother to unlock the door and let them in, and the essay "Six to Eight Black Men," about the version of Santa in the Netherlands, which was hilarious; the most memorable poignant moment, if not the sister in the street one, was probably when he sat in front of his eldest sister's parrot, trying to get it to mimic him saying, "Forgive me." The other candidate, because it is something I would do myself, was his father's immobility when being accosted by the angry renter while they were trying to cut up the tree the man had felled for no good reason; I can see myself standing and being yelled at in just the same way, and it makes me glad I don't have children I need to defend and serve as role model too, because I don't think I'd do a very good job.
On the other hand, the book was damned depressing. Sedaris's family are deeply screwed up, and none more so than the author himself; at least, since his own psyche is the most fertile and open source of inspiration, that's the screwed-up family member we get the best look at. But if I want to read about screwed up people leading screwed up lives, I'll read Augusten Burroughs, who's a better writer than Sedaris and screwed up in a more interesting way.
80. The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar 11/13
Pick:
I've been leaning towards this one, and I wanted some fiction after Sedaris's essays, and something light before my next non-fiction read, on the Wall Street collapse and who's responsible. Yikes.
Thoughts:
I liked it, though it was much the same as other British comic authors for me: interesting but not really hilarious and riveting. I'm not sure where the difference lies, that made me enjoy Douglas Adams so much more than this novel and Tom Holt's and Robert Rankin's; Holt and Rankin have a stronger narrative, like Douglas Adams, and this one was more fragmented and yet all came together in the end, which I liked -- but still, Adams is the king of funny novels, in my view. After Christopher Moore, of course, who blows them all away.
I did like this book. I liked the fairies and the female human heroine, Kerry. I liked the crazy bag lady and the various side stories, like the ghostly New York Dolls guitarist and the much-traveled triple-bloomed Welsh Poppy; I loved the Marxist revolutionaries against the industrialized fairy tyrant in Cornwall. Actually, the biggest problem I had with the book was probably all about the romances, which annoyed me from start to finish: I didn't care for the flirtatiousness of the main fairies, though that wasn't terrible; the primary love story, when the two fairies try to fix up Kerry and Dinnie, was annoying because Dinnie is a jackass and Kerry is very sweet, and I don't like the idea of a man putting on a facade in order to appeal to a woman with the hopes that somehow the facade will make him a better man, because that's nonsense. And especially in New York, there should be a decent guy that a nice girl like Kerry can find. But I liked the way that story wrapped up, especially what the fairies did for the girl. And the puppy love between the lead rebel and the king's stepdaughter was just annoying.
But overall, it was very nice, very enjoyable, had some great moments. I may try another of Millar's books, especially with a rousing endorsement from the great Neil Gaiman.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Vampires, chocolate bunnies, OCD, pretentious anti-consumerists, and a whole lotta Bloody Jack!
57. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin (Sometime in July)
Pick:
I've been curious about Robert Rankin for a while; I noticed him at Powell's, mainly because of the titles. This one was a good price, and how could I pass this title up, I ask you? Since it's humor, it seemed a good idea after getting stuck on bad Russian history.
Thoughts:
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't everything I wanted it to be. The basic concept was great: a young man travels to the big city to seek his fortune (with a bizarre and wacky stop in the first chapter, to establish the mood of the book), and when he gets there, he discovers that it is, in fact, Toy City, which is full of -- yup, living toys; and second, that things are not right in Toy City: the human inhabitants -- Little Boy Blue, Miss Muffett, Peter Piper, and so on -- who are all rich and famous due to the royalties from their nursery rhymes, are being gruesomely murdered, one by one, starting with Humpty Dumpty.
After being robbed, he falls in with a teddy bear who used to be the assistant to Toy City's resident private investigator, who is looking into the murders but needs someone to drive the car. The boy (whose name is Jack, of course) agrees to help, and they begin working the case. The culprit turns out to be someone completely unexpected, with a plan that is even more unexpected, with an interesting twist at the end. Unfortunately, that twist at the end was a bit too much, coming on top of the other revelations about the villain and the victims and everything, and it made me dislike the book a bit. Which was too bad, because apart from being a little too long and a little too slow, it really was pretty good.
I was honestly disappointed that the chocolate bunnies were nothing more than props. Especially once we've established that we're in a fantasy world with talking toys. Teasing me with hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse was just mean.
So in the end, Robert Rankin lines up with Tom Holt and most of the other humorous novelists I've encountered: pretty good, but just not as funny as Douglas Adams. Clearly the man was a true genius.
**Unfinished: The Vampire Diaries, Book Two by L.J. Smith
I actually liked the first book. Not a whole lot, and for once I liked the TV version more than the book, but it wasn't bad. This one got bad. The drama between the characters is just annoying, as are the clunky attempts to add tension and surprises to a humdrum story that's basically a jumped-up Sweet Valley High: Elena is the queen of the school, though really she's a sweet and troubled girl inside. And she's in love with two boys! But if she chooses either one, it could cost her her status as queen! What is Elena to do? Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a teenager in love!
Whatever. We let that one go pretty quickly.
58. Bullet by Laurel K. Hamilton (Still July)
Pick:
Read crappy vampires, so I wanted to read good vampires.
Thoughts:
It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Hamilton is definitely going the wrong way with these books: she's digging the rut deeper instead of pulling out of it. I thought we were making progress in the last book when MOAD got whacked -- but no! She's not dead! She's inside the Council, and she starts the book by trying to take control of Anita. Just like every one of the last -- what, five books? Six? I don't know any more, and I'm starting not to care. And just like every one, the only defense is to touch people, everyone she can reach, because that calms down the animal that is walking up the long jungle road inside her and clawing her apart from the inside. Just like every other time this happens. And again, just like every other time this happens, they conclude with an orgy. And then the rest of the book, which sadly does not cover very much action or progress, is them trying to deal with the aftermath of the opening assault by shoring up their defenses. And dealing with their unbelievably twisted and convoluted web of relationships.
I'm also at the point where I'm just getting tired of certain phrases that keep popping up: this time it's the use of the term "puppy pile," which Anita uses every single time she refers to lycanthrope sleeping arrangements, and this book pissed me off when Anita uses it in the middle of the crisis as a direction -- sort of a general's tactical command: "Puppy pile! Do it now, soldier!" which irritates me way more than it deserves -- which tells me these books are losing my interest.
Too bad. We will definitely try the next one, and hope very much that something happens to change the storyline. Hamilton's got a good start with this one, because Jean-Claude is planning to build an American Council, with himself at head, to stop the European Council under MOAD, and that could be really good. But if all it is is the heads of other cities coming to St. Louis, falling under Anita's spell and fucking everyone, while the MOAD pops up in her head smelling of jasmine and bringing the sparkly puce tiger up the jungle path inside her, I'm done with these.
59. Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer (Just starting August now)
Pick:
Gotta move forward with Jacky Faber, here. Though honestly, it's been long enough since I read these that I don't really remember what order I read these books in. But I read Mississippi Jack, and it needs to be written up, so here we are.
Thoughts:
I had a wee bit of trouble with this one -- the first one that hasn't been fantastic for me from cover to cover. Though in retrospect, I'm not totally sure why I didn't love this one as much as the others; Toni has since read it, and she did love it, and in trying to tell her why I didn't, I couldn't really come up with anything.
Part of it was that the frontier stuff didn't particularly interest me. I was marginally annoyed that Meyer used Mike Fink as a real character, but over the course of the book I really liked the way that played out. I was irritated in the beginning because Jacky stole Fink's boat, and there was no way that was going to turn out well, and that's what got her in trouble with the British and caused her so many problems over the last two books, but she just thinks she'll talk her way out of it and blink her big eyes at him and everything will be fine. That bugged me. So the first third of the book bored me a little, and was a touch hard to get through.
Then it really picked up. Once Jacky got going on the Mighty Mississip, with her crew and her show and the open water, the book started singing like they always do. I got pissed at her again when she develops a damaging crush on yet another pretty arrogant asshole, but I guess you can't fight human nature. I got pissed at Jaimy this time, too, though it was really great to read his segments, since he was actually having adventures instead of doing naval duty and pining for Jacky. Actually, that might have been part of the trouble, too; I wanted to hear a bit more about Jaimy. Though he's a jackass for the whole thing with Clementine. Stupid boys.
The ending, particularly the section in New Orleans, were outstanding, right back up to the top of my favorite Jacky books and scenes. The part with the slave hunters was one of the most disturbing things in these books, probably back to the pirate LeFievre in the first book. Makes me want to catch up with the series, so I can't be so confident that Jacky will live through these things just because I know there's another book coming out; with these books as realistic as they are, and the author as good as he is at plotting, I wouldn't be completely surprised if he really did have Jacky die at the climax of one of these scenes. Though I would be very very sad. Well, he probably won't kill her -- but anything else is possible, because the Jacky Faber that can do these things, can do anything.
60. (Amazon Vine) Unexpectedly Milo by Matthew Dicks 8/8
Pick:
I like the concept of a novel about a man with OCD; the author got rave reviews from the people who read this and the other book. I thought I should get something serious I could read and give a real review to, since my other book was JACKY FABER!
Review:
You know those annoying little habits that you have, that you don't want anyone else to know about? Your little rituals, the way you have to carry your keys in your right pocket and your phone in your left, and check them every time you walk out your door?
Do you hide those habits from others, embarrassed that they might raise an eyebrow, or roll their eyes, or even -- horror of horrors -- laugh at you?
If you do any of these things (and who doesn't?), then Milo Slade has you beat all to heck.
This is a man who has arranged his life, including his employment, his marriage, where he lives and who he spends time with, around his habits. His demanding habits. His obsessive-compulsive habits, one could say, though Milo doesn't think he has OCD. He thinks he has a German submarine captain in his head who gives him orders, and then begins tightening valves and increasing pressure inside Milo's mind until the orders are carried out. He doesn't think this is literally true, but it is how he pictures the mysterious source of these strange demands that control nearly everything he does.
Demands like: opening jars of Smuckers grape jelly, just to hear the pop! as the vacuum seal releases. Bowling a strike. Singing "99 Luftballoons," by Nena, in the original German, karaoke style. Cracking the cubes out of an ice cube tray. Letting the air out of his car tires and replacing it with fresh air. Perhaps the most difficult are the words that arise in Milo's mind -- placebo, or loquacious -- and which repeat over and over again, becoming louder and more insistent until he can think of nothing else, can do nothing else, and is overwhelmed with pain, until: he can hear somebody use the word. Of course, the use must be in natural conversation; he cannot simply ask someone to repeat the word, oh no -- the submarine captain wouldn't be satisfied with that.
Milo has built his world around these demands -- and then he has, somehow, managed to hide them completely from everyone around him. Including his wife. Doing so has not been easy, has probably ruined his marriage, as the two go through a trial separation that seems fairly permanent, and it has certainly increased the power of the demands on Milo, making them arise more often, making them more powerful. Keeping a secret is hard.
Of course, Milo's secret is not all that bad compared to the secret he hears when he discovers a stranger's video diary, and begins watching it, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of a desire to discover the owner's identity. Because Freckles, the girl on the videotape, has killed her best friend.
And only Milo can help.
Just as soon as he watches Star Wars: Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) one more time. Just in case the ending has changed since the last time he watched it.
This book is wonderfully written, fantastic characters, great interactions, really fascinating exploration of Milo's condition. It gets a bit tiresome in the beginning, watching Milo flail around trying to juggle his work life, his marriage, and his demands, and not doing very well; but that's the point: if it gets tiring to read about it, just imagine what it's like to live with it. But the book really picks up when Milo begins his quest, and the ending was fantastic, and nicely unexpected. Definitely recommended.
61. Angel: After the Fall, Volume I by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru 8/8
Pick:
If we're buying Buffy comics, we have to buy Angel comics. I grabbed this because I had to spend a long time reading the last one, and I'm expecting Jacky Faber in the mail. Plus I have to know who survives the big fight at the end of the show!
Thoughts:
This one was pretty good, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the Buffy book. This one wasn't actually written by Joss Whedon (Or David Greenwalt or the regular writers or anyone from Angel), so it wasn't quite as good or as true to the characters and their established personalities. It did have some great surprises, and I really like the setup: after the big ending of the show, all of Los Angeles was sucked into Hell. Now it is divided up into fiefdoms ruled by various demons, and Angel is fighting against them, fighting to help the poor human refugees that are trapped in Hell through no fault of their own.
I definitely want to keep reading -- though first I want to read Spike's individual comic, which the author's bio on this one said actually comes first, chronologically. I'd love to get some definite answers out of that one that would help me understand this one. I did like it a lot, though. Pretty much love these characters.
62. The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson 8/9
Pick:
LBS book. Looked cute. I thought it would be quick, since the Jacky books haven't arrived yet -- but they will soon!
Thoughts:
The only problem I had with this was that I knew the surprise ending from the very beginning. And not because I'm brilliant (though I am, of course): because the author totally gave it away.
Okay: the plot here is this is the story of Avalon, the magical island where all the Fae live now that they have been driven out of England by muggles, etc. Their secret kingdom. The only way between Avalon and England is a magical tunnel which opens once every nine years, on Platform 13 in King's Cross Railway Station (Though it was confusing because the author makes much of Avalon's ability to hide itself in mist, and so remain undiscovered by planes and ships moving across the Atlantic -- but doesn't that mean you could sail there if you knew where it was? And you could easily sail away if you were just looking to get to the regular world from Avalon?). At the beginning of the book, the infant prince of Avalon is brought through the tunnel by his nurses, who grew up as normal folk and find themselves longing for the fish and chips they used to eat in their youth. While they are over here, a particularly horrible woman, a rich society lady who wants to have a child but hasn't gotten pregnant yet and is getting impatient, decides to steal the prince, and does so -- which the nurses don't discover until they are back in Avalon and the tunnel has closed. So they can't go get him for nine years. (Because you can't sail a ship out of the mist . . .?)
Anyway, when the tunnel opens a group of Avalon volunteers goes to get the prince back. They arrive at the horrible woman's house, and they encounter a young man, handsome, polite and hardworking. He looks vaguely familiar, and he instantly warms to them despite their strangeness (One of them is an ogre, who is invisible, all except for his eye, which appears to float about ten feet off the ground), and we also hear that he is able to see and speak to ghosts. But wait! (Big shock coming. . .) that's not the prince. The prince is the grossly fat, horribly spoiled boy screeching in the upstairs bedroom; this fine young lad is just Ben, the kitchen boy. The prince, who strangely looks just like the horrible woman who kidnapped him, is a royal pain in the ass.
Is there anyone in the world who doesn't realize already that Ben is the real prince, and the fat boy is actually the bad woman's son? Yeah, didn't think so. So over the course of the book, which is spent almost entirely on trying to convince the fat yutz that he should go to Avalon even though he doesn't appreciate any of the magic and wonder they have to offer and only wants food and money and television and not to go to school, it got terribly annoying, especially with each subsequent hint that Ben was the real deal, and every moment that ticked closer to the end of the window, when the tunnel to Avalon would close once more and they would be unable to get back there (Because you can't sail a boat into the mist . . . ?), just got on my nerves. They didn't do the reveal until the last few pages, of course, and then the wrapup chapter was also kind of annoying for its own reasons.
But the writing wasn't bad, and the ideas for the magical people and their personalities were fantastic. It makes me want to try another one of this author's books, and hope the next one doesn't have such a predictable twist. I bet kids would like it, though.
63. My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer 8/11
Pick:
Do I even have to explain? This is fast becoming my new favoritest series since Harry Dresden. It's moving up there with WoT and Harry Potter -- and this one's still going! I still have two books after this one, and the guy's still writing! Woot!
Thoughts:
Well, if I thought the last one was a tad boring, I sure as hell didn't think that about this one. This is the one when the doom we have been dreading for three books -- when Jacky gets caught by the British -- actually happens. Though it isn't as simple as all that, of course; first she has to deal with Bliffil, the bully midshipman from the first book; and then she has to be captured by the French, and run into Jaimy while in prison.
Then she gets to become an agent for British Intelligence, spying on Napoleon and trying to disrupt the Grand Armee's conquest of all the known world. And that story is fantastic: how Jacky deals with her assignment, which completely misuses her talents (though she is talented enough to make it work anyway) and reveals how completely the government misjudges her, and even better, how Jacky reinterprets the assignment to fit her better, and how successful she is after that -- though maybe not in the way we expected. The historical aspects were fascinating, and yet again, the author managed to find another aspect of world history around 1800 to throw Jacky into -- this time into Napoleon's army, which she joins and marches with to battle. The characters she meets were cool, though they did feel a little bit cookie-cutter, a little too similar to others Jacky has met; but since she's the star anyway, it wasn't a problem. And not all of the characters were that way -- Napoleon, for one, was totally cool. And a great ending, with some actual hope that the next book will see our hero happy at last in the arms of her love.
Eh, who am I kidding? I'm betting the Kraken comes up and sinks the ship, and Jacky goes to live with mermaids and Aquaman and Davy Jones.
And I can't wait to read about it.
64. Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine 8/17
Pick:
I got this from Powell's a few trips ago, looking in the Non-Fiction/Pop Culture section for Chuck Klosterman and whatever else I could find. I liked the idea of fighting the consumer culture, and it was cheaper than the other interesting-looking book. So I got it. I read it now because I wanted to take care of some of the non-fiction that I sometimes pile up and then never read.
Thoughts:
It was definitely interesting, but it lost a lot of the attraction once I realized how very different the author was from me. The concept is simple: during the Christmas shopping season of 2003, Judith Levine was having a horrible time walking the streets of New York and shopping for all of her friends and relatives, and she realized: is this really what I should be doing with my time? Maybe there's a better way to live, without all this stress and bother, all this debt and accumulation of essentially useless things which then take over our lives, and force us to buy bigger homes, with more storage, and then finally buy extra storage at rental facilities -- in order to have a place for all of our stuff. So she and her husband decided to spend 2004 without buying anything at all, except for necessities -- things they needed for work, particularly internet access since both work freelance from home, and food, toiletries, gas, and medicine for their diabetic cat.
So they do it. And they immediately discover some pretty interesting things. Like the fact that buying is wrapped up in the social fabric of our culture: to have friends, you really need to be able to spend money, shopping and eating out and exchanging gifts and paying for movies and concert tickets and the like. By refusing to spend money on these things, they isolate themselves pretty well. The author also suffered because she felt cut off from the cutting edge of the artistic side of our culture, unable to buy the newest books or see the newest movies, and so unable to take part in the conversations that everyone else was having. They discovered that they suddenly had copious free time, along with extra money; they found that the few times they allowed themselves to shop were suddenly euphoric, rather than trying.
All that was interesting. The problem I had with these folks is, first of all, I live like that all the time; I never see the newest movies or read the hottest books, and Toni and I don't shop or eat out or exchange gifts with people, and therefore we are indeed cut off from the social networks all around us. And these guys still had two homes, for no reason other than they liked living that way, part of the year in Vermont and part of the year in New York City. Judith also went a bit mad jonesing for new clothes, and I couldn't fathom that. But my biggest problem with it was how much she missed reading a book about a woman caring for her dying mother and trying to write a contemporary film adaptation of Madame Bovary. Seriously. That's a real book, and she was excited about reading it. And then when her husband, who was chairman of the zoning commission for their town in Vermont, was in charge of a very important and divisive case about an application to build a new cellphone tower in their small rural town, and she opposed the tower, she kept pestering him about the case even though she knew he wouldn't tell her what he thought. She still kept bugging him and trying to get him to agree with her openly. What the hell is that? And then she used French phrases when there was no reason for it, like the phrase rite de passage, which so clearly means rite of passage that she didn't even need to provide translation -- so what the fuck is the point of using the French? I'll tell you: none, except you're one of those obnoxious fucking people who believe that peppering your speech with French phrases and wearing zany, clunky $300 designer eyeglasses and reading books about dying mothers and Madame Bovary scripts somehow makes you cooler and more sophisticated. And that kind of shallow mindless bullshit was not miraculously wiped away by a year spent buying nothing. Too bad: I'd like to see someone spend a year not being pretentious and see how that comes out.
I liked the concept, I didn't like the author, so the book was so-so. Made me feel real good about myself, though. I feel almost like Thoreau.
65. Rapture of the Deep by L.A. Meyer 8/20
Pick:Jacky! Woot!
Thoughts:
Excellent again, of course. I got pissed at the beginning, because Meyer takes Jacky and Jaimy to the church for their marriage, and then has the British Intelligence Service kidnap Jacky in order to force her to work for them again, and they make them swear not to have sex. Now I sort of accept the idea that they want their agent functioning in the field rather than married and pregnant, but it felt a little too contrived, like Meyer was just looking desperately for any way to maintain the status quo of this relationship, which allows Jacky to screw around with any hot guy she meets just so long as she doesn't actually have intercourse with him (It seems pretty clear she's touched all the other bases, so to speak) and yet still come off as good and faithful to her true love. I love Jacky and Jaimy and their love for each other, but at some point, I just want them to have sex. I don't see how it would change the rest of the available plot lines, since Jacky could still be separated from him and could still make out with hot guys, and still be faithful to him; I think it would make even more sense. But so it goes.
The plot was great; I liked the environment and the main storyline, which was simple and believable, and yet gave us another world to explore -- though one pretty closely tied to the third book, Under the Jolly Roger, since Jacky's back on the water, in charge of a ship, at least somewhat allied with the British government, and dealing with pirates. I didn't like the part with El Gringo Furioso at first, since I feel differently about cock fighting than Jacky does, but I loved the way that wrapped up -- absolutely loved it. That was brilliant.
The ending was great, and I hope Jacky's ploy works -- I want to move on from this Intelligence Service blackmail crap. I am very glad that the one bad guy appears to be dead, and I really hope he doesn't pop back up again; there are plenty of other bad guys who could.
Now they just need to get married.
66. Prey by Michael Crichton 8/22
Pick:
So my intention this summer was to read a lot of my shelf books, but I didn't; in fact, the shelf is more full now than when I started, largely because of buying and reading the whole Jacky series. So I had to read something that I've had sitting on the shelf for a long time, and this book goes way back -- pretty much to the first LBS, I think. Thereabouts, anyway. So I read it.
Thoughts:
You know, I believe that nanotechnology could take a giant leap forward and start to do things that we would never believe possible. I really do. But I don't believe that nanobots programmed to act as a collective camera could evolve into intelligent bodysnatching people-killing death clouds in a matter of weeks, no matter how amazing emergent programming is. The basic plotline of the book was just too far-fetched, and while Crichton obviously did a lot of research into the basic material, he couldn't make the impossible seem plausible, not this time. So without that, the book didn't work. I also didn't believe that this enormously risky and valuable operation could be run by so few people, even though that was necessary for the thriller elements; nor that so many of those people could have been the hero's former co-workers; that was just done so he could have relationships with them without having to spend pages on it. Which was only necessary because SO MUCH of the book was spent on this guy being a househusband and thinking his wife was having an affair. Which apparently she wasn't, even though the timeline really doesn't match up.
Basically, too much happens in way too short a time, and it made the book hard to believe and thus pretty annoying. This could have been a lot better.
Pick:
I've been curious about Robert Rankin for a while; I noticed him at Powell's, mainly because of the titles. This one was a good price, and how could I pass this title up, I ask you? Since it's humor, it seemed a good idea after getting stuck on bad Russian history.
Thoughts:
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't everything I wanted it to be. The basic concept was great: a young man travels to the big city to seek his fortune (with a bizarre and wacky stop in the first chapter, to establish the mood of the book), and when he gets there, he discovers that it is, in fact, Toy City, which is full of -- yup, living toys; and second, that things are not right in Toy City: the human inhabitants -- Little Boy Blue, Miss Muffett, Peter Piper, and so on -- who are all rich and famous due to the royalties from their nursery rhymes, are being gruesomely murdered, one by one, starting with Humpty Dumpty.
After being robbed, he falls in with a teddy bear who used to be the assistant to Toy City's resident private investigator, who is looking into the murders but needs someone to drive the car. The boy (whose name is Jack, of course) agrees to help, and they begin working the case. The culprit turns out to be someone completely unexpected, with a plan that is even more unexpected, with an interesting twist at the end. Unfortunately, that twist at the end was a bit too much, coming on top of the other revelations about the villain and the victims and everything, and it made me dislike the book a bit. Which was too bad, because apart from being a little too long and a little too slow, it really was pretty good.
I was honestly disappointed that the chocolate bunnies were nothing more than props. Especially once we've established that we're in a fantasy world with talking toys. Teasing me with hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse was just mean.
So in the end, Robert Rankin lines up with Tom Holt and most of the other humorous novelists I've encountered: pretty good, but just not as funny as Douglas Adams. Clearly the man was a true genius.
**Unfinished: The Vampire Diaries, Book Two by L.J. Smith
I actually liked the first book. Not a whole lot, and for once I liked the TV version more than the book, but it wasn't bad. This one got bad. The drama between the characters is just annoying, as are the clunky attempts to add tension and surprises to a humdrum story that's basically a jumped-up Sweet Valley High: Elena is the queen of the school, though really she's a sweet and troubled girl inside. And she's in love with two boys! But if she chooses either one, it could cost her her status as queen! What is Elena to do? Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a teenager in love!
Whatever. We let that one go pretty quickly.
58. Bullet by Laurel K. Hamilton (Still July)
Pick:
Read crappy vampires, so I wanted to read good vampires.
Thoughts:
It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Hamilton is definitely going the wrong way with these books: she's digging the rut deeper instead of pulling out of it. I thought we were making progress in the last book when MOAD got whacked -- but no! She's not dead! She's inside the Council, and she starts the book by trying to take control of Anita. Just like every one of the last -- what, five books? Six? I don't know any more, and I'm starting not to care. And just like every one, the only defense is to touch people, everyone she can reach, because that calms down the animal that is walking up the long jungle road inside her and clawing her apart from the inside. Just like every other time this happens. And again, just like every other time this happens, they conclude with an orgy. And then the rest of the book, which sadly does not cover very much action or progress, is them trying to deal with the aftermath of the opening assault by shoring up their defenses. And dealing with their unbelievably twisted and convoluted web of relationships.
I'm also at the point where I'm just getting tired of certain phrases that keep popping up: this time it's the use of the term "puppy pile," which Anita uses every single time she refers to lycanthrope sleeping arrangements, and this book pissed me off when Anita uses it in the middle of the crisis as a direction -- sort of a general's tactical command: "Puppy pile! Do it now, soldier!" which irritates me way more than it deserves -- which tells me these books are losing my interest.
Too bad. We will definitely try the next one, and hope very much that something happens to change the storyline. Hamilton's got a good start with this one, because Jean-Claude is planning to build an American Council, with himself at head, to stop the European Council under MOAD, and that could be really good. But if all it is is the heads of other cities coming to St. Louis, falling under Anita's spell and fucking everyone, while the MOAD pops up in her head smelling of jasmine and bringing the sparkly puce tiger up the jungle path inside her, I'm done with these.
59. Mississippi Jack by L.A. Meyer (Just starting August now)
Pick:
Gotta move forward with Jacky Faber, here. Though honestly, it's been long enough since I read these that I don't really remember what order I read these books in. But I read Mississippi Jack, and it needs to be written up, so here we are.
Thoughts:
I had a wee bit of trouble with this one -- the first one that hasn't been fantastic for me from cover to cover. Though in retrospect, I'm not totally sure why I didn't love this one as much as the others; Toni has since read it, and she did love it, and in trying to tell her why I didn't, I couldn't really come up with anything.
Part of it was that the frontier stuff didn't particularly interest me. I was marginally annoyed that Meyer used Mike Fink as a real character, but over the course of the book I really liked the way that played out. I was irritated in the beginning because Jacky stole Fink's boat, and there was no way that was going to turn out well, and that's what got her in trouble with the British and caused her so many problems over the last two books, but she just thinks she'll talk her way out of it and blink her big eyes at him and everything will be fine. That bugged me. So the first third of the book bored me a little, and was a touch hard to get through.
Then it really picked up. Once Jacky got going on the Mighty Mississip, with her crew and her show and the open water, the book started singing like they always do. I got pissed at her again when she develops a damaging crush on yet another pretty arrogant asshole, but I guess you can't fight human nature. I got pissed at Jaimy this time, too, though it was really great to read his segments, since he was actually having adventures instead of doing naval duty and pining for Jacky. Actually, that might have been part of the trouble, too; I wanted to hear a bit more about Jaimy. Though he's a jackass for the whole thing with Clementine. Stupid boys.
The ending, particularly the section in New Orleans, were outstanding, right back up to the top of my favorite Jacky books and scenes. The part with the slave hunters was one of the most disturbing things in these books, probably back to the pirate LeFievre in the first book. Makes me want to catch up with the series, so I can't be so confident that Jacky will live through these things just because I know there's another book coming out; with these books as realistic as they are, and the author as good as he is at plotting, I wouldn't be completely surprised if he really did have Jacky die at the climax of one of these scenes. Though I would be very very sad. Well, he probably won't kill her -- but anything else is possible, because the Jacky Faber that can do these things, can do anything.
60. (Amazon Vine) Unexpectedly Milo by Matthew Dicks 8/8
Pick:
I like the concept of a novel about a man with OCD; the author got rave reviews from the people who read this and the other book. I thought I should get something serious I could read and give a real review to, since my other book was JACKY FABER!
Review:
You know those annoying little habits that you have, that you don't want anyone else to know about? Your little rituals, the way you have to carry your keys in your right pocket and your phone in your left, and check them every time you walk out your door?
Do you hide those habits from others, embarrassed that they might raise an eyebrow, or roll their eyes, or even -- horror of horrors -- laugh at you?
If you do any of these things (and who doesn't?), then Milo Slade has you beat all to heck.
This is a man who has arranged his life, including his employment, his marriage, where he lives and who he spends time with, around his habits. His demanding habits. His obsessive-compulsive habits, one could say, though Milo doesn't think he has OCD. He thinks he has a German submarine captain in his head who gives him orders, and then begins tightening valves and increasing pressure inside Milo's mind until the orders are carried out. He doesn't think this is literally true, but it is how he pictures the mysterious source of these strange demands that control nearly everything he does.
Demands like: opening jars of Smuckers grape jelly, just to hear the pop! as the vacuum seal releases. Bowling a strike. Singing "99 Luftballoons," by Nena, in the original German, karaoke style. Cracking the cubes out of an ice cube tray. Letting the air out of his car tires and replacing it with fresh air. Perhaps the most difficult are the words that arise in Milo's mind -- placebo, or loquacious -- and which repeat over and over again, becoming louder and more insistent until he can think of nothing else, can do nothing else, and is overwhelmed with pain, until: he can hear somebody use the word. Of course, the use must be in natural conversation; he cannot simply ask someone to repeat the word, oh no -- the submarine captain wouldn't be satisfied with that.
Milo has built his world around these demands -- and then he has, somehow, managed to hide them completely from everyone around him. Including his wife. Doing so has not been easy, has probably ruined his marriage, as the two go through a trial separation that seems fairly permanent, and it has certainly increased the power of the demands on Milo, making them arise more often, making them more powerful. Keeping a secret is hard.
Of course, Milo's secret is not all that bad compared to the secret he hears when he discovers a stranger's video diary, and begins watching it, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of a desire to discover the owner's identity. Because Freckles, the girl on the videotape, has killed her best friend.
And only Milo can help.
Just as soon as he watches Star Wars: Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) one more time. Just in case the ending has changed since the last time he watched it.
This book is wonderfully written, fantastic characters, great interactions, really fascinating exploration of Milo's condition. It gets a bit tiresome in the beginning, watching Milo flail around trying to juggle his work life, his marriage, and his demands, and not doing very well; but that's the point: if it gets tiring to read about it, just imagine what it's like to live with it. But the book really picks up when Milo begins his quest, and the ending was fantastic, and nicely unexpected. Definitely recommended.
61. Angel: After the Fall, Volume I by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru 8/8
Pick:
If we're buying Buffy comics, we have to buy Angel comics. I grabbed this because I had to spend a long time reading the last one, and I'm expecting Jacky Faber in the mail. Plus I have to know who survives the big fight at the end of the show!
Thoughts:
This one was pretty good, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the Buffy book. This one wasn't actually written by Joss Whedon (Or David Greenwalt or the regular writers or anyone from Angel), so it wasn't quite as good or as true to the characters and their established personalities. It did have some great surprises, and I really like the setup: after the big ending of the show, all of Los Angeles was sucked into Hell. Now it is divided up into fiefdoms ruled by various demons, and Angel is fighting against them, fighting to help the poor human refugees that are trapped in Hell through no fault of their own.
I definitely want to keep reading -- though first I want to read Spike's individual comic, which the author's bio on this one said actually comes first, chronologically. I'd love to get some definite answers out of that one that would help me understand this one. I did like it a lot, though. Pretty much love these characters.
62. The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson 8/9
Pick:
LBS book. Looked cute. I thought it would be quick, since the Jacky books haven't arrived yet -- but they will soon!
Thoughts:
The only problem I had with this was that I knew the surprise ending from the very beginning. And not because I'm brilliant (though I am, of course): because the author totally gave it away.
Okay: the plot here is this is the story of Avalon, the magical island where all the Fae live now that they have been driven out of England by muggles, etc. Their secret kingdom. The only way between Avalon and England is a magical tunnel which opens once every nine years, on Platform 13 in King's Cross Railway Station (Though it was confusing because the author makes much of Avalon's ability to hide itself in mist, and so remain undiscovered by planes and ships moving across the Atlantic -- but doesn't that mean you could sail there if you knew where it was? And you could easily sail away if you were just looking to get to the regular world from Avalon?). At the beginning of the book, the infant prince of Avalon is brought through the tunnel by his nurses, who grew up as normal folk and find themselves longing for the fish and chips they used to eat in their youth. While they are over here, a particularly horrible woman, a rich society lady who wants to have a child but hasn't gotten pregnant yet and is getting impatient, decides to steal the prince, and does so -- which the nurses don't discover until they are back in Avalon and the tunnel has closed. So they can't go get him for nine years. (Because you can't sail a ship out of the mist . . .?)
Anyway, when the tunnel opens a group of Avalon volunteers goes to get the prince back. They arrive at the horrible woman's house, and they encounter a young man, handsome, polite and hardworking. He looks vaguely familiar, and he instantly warms to them despite their strangeness (One of them is an ogre, who is invisible, all except for his eye, which appears to float about ten feet off the ground), and we also hear that he is able to see and speak to ghosts. But wait! (Big shock coming. . .) that's not the prince. The prince is the grossly fat, horribly spoiled boy screeching in the upstairs bedroom; this fine young lad is just Ben, the kitchen boy. The prince, who strangely looks just like the horrible woman who kidnapped him, is a royal pain in the ass.
Is there anyone in the world who doesn't realize already that Ben is the real prince, and the fat boy is actually the bad woman's son? Yeah, didn't think so. So over the course of the book, which is spent almost entirely on trying to convince the fat yutz that he should go to Avalon even though he doesn't appreciate any of the magic and wonder they have to offer and only wants food and money and television and not to go to school, it got terribly annoying, especially with each subsequent hint that Ben was the real deal, and every moment that ticked closer to the end of the window, when the tunnel to Avalon would close once more and they would be unable to get back there (Because you can't sail a boat into the mist . . . ?), just got on my nerves. They didn't do the reveal until the last few pages, of course, and then the wrapup chapter was also kind of annoying for its own reasons.
But the writing wasn't bad, and the ideas for the magical people and their personalities were fantastic. It makes me want to try another one of this author's books, and hope the next one doesn't have such a predictable twist. I bet kids would like it, though.
63. My Bonny Light Horseman by L.A. Meyer 8/11
Pick:
Do I even have to explain? This is fast becoming my new favoritest series since Harry Dresden. It's moving up there with WoT and Harry Potter -- and this one's still going! I still have two books after this one, and the guy's still writing! Woot!
Thoughts:
Well, if I thought the last one was a tad boring, I sure as hell didn't think that about this one. This is the one when the doom we have been dreading for three books -- when Jacky gets caught by the British -- actually happens. Though it isn't as simple as all that, of course; first she has to deal with Bliffil, the bully midshipman from the first book; and then she has to be captured by the French, and run into Jaimy while in prison.
Then she gets to become an agent for British Intelligence, spying on Napoleon and trying to disrupt the Grand Armee's conquest of all the known world. And that story is fantastic: how Jacky deals with her assignment, which completely misuses her talents (though she is talented enough to make it work anyway) and reveals how completely the government misjudges her, and even better, how Jacky reinterprets the assignment to fit her better, and how successful she is after that -- though maybe not in the way we expected. The historical aspects were fascinating, and yet again, the author managed to find another aspect of world history around 1800 to throw Jacky into -- this time into Napoleon's army, which she joins and marches with to battle. The characters she meets were cool, though they did feel a little bit cookie-cutter, a little too similar to others Jacky has met; but since she's the star anyway, it wasn't a problem. And not all of the characters were that way -- Napoleon, for one, was totally cool. And a great ending, with some actual hope that the next book will see our hero happy at last in the arms of her love.
Eh, who am I kidding? I'm betting the Kraken comes up and sinks the ship, and Jacky goes to live with mermaids and Aquaman and Davy Jones.
And I can't wait to read about it.
64. Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine 8/17
Pick:
I got this from Powell's a few trips ago, looking in the Non-Fiction/Pop Culture section for Chuck Klosterman and whatever else I could find. I liked the idea of fighting the consumer culture, and it was cheaper than the other interesting-looking book. So I got it. I read it now because I wanted to take care of some of the non-fiction that I sometimes pile up and then never read.
Thoughts:
It was definitely interesting, but it lost a lot of the attraction once I realized how very different the author was from me. The concept is simple: during the Christmas shopping season of 2003, Judith Levine was having a horrible time walking the streets of New York and shopping for all of her friends and relatives, and she realized: is this really what I should be doing with my time? Maybe there's a better way to live, without all this stress and bother, all this debt and accumulation of essentially useless things which then take over our lives, and force us to buy bigger homes, with more storage, and then finally buy extra storage at rental facilities -- in order to have a place for all of our stuff. So she and her husband decided to spend 2004 without buying anything at all, except for necessities -- things they needed for work, particularly internet access since both work freelance from home, and food, toiletries, gas, and medicine for their diabetic cat.
So they do it. And they immediately discover some pretty interesting things. Like the fact that buying is wrapped up in the social fabric of our culture: to have friends, you really need to be able to spend money, shopping and eating out and exchanging gifts and paying for movies and concert tickets and the like. By refusing to spend money on these things, they isolate themselves pretty well. The author also suffered because she felt cut off from the cutting edge of the artistic side of our culture, unable to buy the newest books or see the newest movies, and so unable to take part in the conversations that everyone else was having. They discovered that they suddenly had copious free time, along with extra money; they found that the few times they allowed themselves to shop were suddenly euphoric, rather than trying.
All that was interesting. The problem I had with these folks is, first of all, I live like that all the time; I never see the newest movies or read the hottest books, and Toni and I don't shop or eat out or exchange gifts with people, and therefore we are indeed cut off from the social networks all around us. And these guys still had two homes, for no reason other than they liked living that way, part of the year in Vermont and part of the year in New York City. Judith also went a bit mad jonesing for new clothes, and I couldn't fathom that. But my biggest problem with it was how much she missed reading a book about a woman caring for her dying mother and trying to write a contemporary film adaptation of Madame Bovary. Seriously. That's a real book, and she was excited about reading it. And then when her husband, who was chairman of the zoning commission for their town in Vermont, was in charge of a very important and divisive case about an application to build a new cellphone tower in their small rural town, and she opposed the tower, she kept pestering him about the case even though she knew he wouldn't tell her what he thought. She still kept bugging him and trying to get him to agree with her openly. What the hell is that? And then she used French phrases when there was no reason for it, like the phrase rite de passage, which so clearly means rite of passage that she didn't even need to provide translation -- so what the fuck is the point of using the French? I'll tell you: none, except you're one of those obnoxious fucking people who believe that peppering your speech with French phrases and wearing zany, clunky $300 designer eyeglasses and reading books about dying mothers and Madame Bovary scripts somehow makes you cooler and more sophisticated. And that kind of shallow mindless bullshit was not miraculously wiped away by a year spent buying nothing. Too bad: I'd like to see someone spend a year not being pretentious and see how that comes out.
I liked the concept, I didn't like the author, so the book was so-so. Made me feel real good about myself, though. I feel almost like Thoreau.
65. Rapture of the Deep by L.A. Meyer 8/20
Pick:Jacky! Woot!
Thoughts:
Excellent again, of course. I got pissed at the beginning, because Meyer takes Jacky and Jaimy to the church for their marriage, and then has the British Intelligence Service kidnap Jacky in order to force her to work for them again, and they make them swear not to have sex. Now I sort of accept the idea that they want their agent functioning in the field rather than married and pregnant, but it felt a little too contrived, like Meyer was just looking desperately for any way to maintain the status quo of this relationship, which allows Jacky to screw around with any hot guy she meets just so long as she doesn't actually have intercourse with him (It seems pretty clear she's touched all the other bases, so to speak) and yet still come off as good and faithful to her true love. I love Jacky and Jaimy and their love for each other, but at some point, I just want them to have sex. I don't see how it would change the rest of the available plot lines, since Jacky could still be separated from him and could still make out with hot guys, and still be faithful to him; I think it would make even more sense. But so it goes.
The plot was great; I liked the environment and the main storyline, which was simple and believable, and yet gave us another world to explore -- though one pretty closely tied to the third book, Under the Jolly Roger, since Jacky's back on the water, in charge of a ship, at least somewhat allied with the British government, and dealing with pirates. I didn't like the part with El Gringo Furioso at first, since I feel differently about cock fighting than Jacky does, but I loved the way that wrapped up -- absolutely loved it. That was brilliant.
The ending was great, and I hope Jacky's ploy works -- I want to move on from this Intelligence Service blackmail crap. I am very glad that the one bad guy appears to be dead, and I really hope he doesn't pop back up again; there are plenty of other bad guys who could.
Now they just need to get married.
66. Prey by Michael Crichton 8/22
Pick:
So my intention this summer was to read a lot of my shelf books, but I didn't; in fact, the shelf is more full now than when I started, largely because of buying and reading the whole Jacky series. So I had to read something that I've had sitting on the shelf for a long time, and this book goes way back -- pretty much to the first LBS, I think. Thereabouts, anyway. So I read it.
Thoughts:
You know, I believe that nanotechnology could take a giant leap forward and start to do things that we would never believe possible. I really do. But I don't believe that nanobots programmed to act as a collective camera could evolve into intelligent bodysnatching people-killing death clouds in a matter of weeks, no matter how amazing emergent programming is. The basic plotline of the book was just too far-fetched, and while Crichton obviously did a lot of research into the basic material, he couldn't make the impossible seem plausible, not this time. So without that, the book didn't work. I also didn't believe that this enormously risky and valuable operation could be run by so few people, even though that was necessary for the thriller elements; nor that so many of those people could have been the hero's former co-workers; that was just done so he could have relationships with them without having to spend pages on it. Which was only necessary because SO MUCH of the book was spent on this guy being a househusband and thinking his wife was having an affair. Which apparently she wasn't, even though the timeline really doesn't match up.
Basically, too much happens in way too short a time, and it made the book hard to believe and thus pretty annoying. This could have been a lot better.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Some of these were so good, they made the others look like puke on a page.
52. Dog On It by Spencer Quinn 7/9 (Woot! 52!)
Pick:
We wanted to give this book to my mother-in-law, so I had to read it first to make sure it was acceptable. Since it was my pick for her Book of the Month Club and all.
Thoughts:
This was very cute. The story is that Bernie Small is a private eye, and his best friend and partner, Chet, is a dog. Chet is the narrator, and the hero, of course. It was interesting because Chet is not a superdog; this is not The Unscratchables, with its anthropomorphic animal hero. Chet's just a dog. He's a good dog, strong and capable and fiercely loyal to his person, but no more and no less.
It's an interesting mystery because Chet finds out what's going on much sooner than Bernie does, and the course of the book is Bernie trying to figure out what Chet already knows but can't tell him; we the readers are curious because while Chet knows who's behind all of it, we have no idea why -- human motivations not being Chet's forte. I liked Bernie a lot, because I have trouble accepting that there are still such things as private eyes and they still get work in this day and age, but he seemed realistic to me, and it was fun to read it from the perspective of a dog who was also a partner in a PI firm and loved his job. It was great reading Chet: he barked, he sniffed, he ate anything he could and chewed up everything else; he was not cognizant of his own injuries and such, which I thought was realistic, since my own dog doesn't seem to feel pain, much of the time. So in a scene when Chet is stuck without water for a day or more, he describes simply that his tongue swells up and he feels tired; he doesn't do the human thing of pining for water and wailing about his impending death. Just his tongue swells up and he wants to sleep. I liked that, too: the urge to sleep came on him all of a sudden, in the middle of whatever he was doing, and he was likely to just lie down and snooze. I think it's a good system.
It was a very nice book, and well done. I plan to read the next one.
53. Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer 7/12
Pick:
Yarrrr! Bloody Jack Faber turns pirate! I had to read this one to get to my birthday present, which is the next book in this series.
Thoughts:
This one was great, though since I'm coming to expect that from Jacky Faber, it was less surprisingly great than the last one -- which was also more impressive because it was not in any way nautical. In this book, Jacky heads back to England, having been betrayed, she thinks, by her best friend at school, Amy Trevelyne. Jacky goes straight to Jaimy's house, where she is entirely spurned by Jaimy's mother, who definitely does not feel this little guttersnipe-turned-ship's-boy-turned-charm-school-dropout is good enough for her son -- a feeling that is only increased by the new book that has become all the rage, which tells the story of Bloody Jack Mary Faber -- the first novel in the series, having been written by Amy Trevelyne based on Jacky's stories during their school days together. It was a nice conceit, to have the books actually coming out during the story. Anyway, Jacky takes it too hard, and goes home to Cheapside; she eventually learns of an opportunity to catch Jaimy and she goes for it -- but sees him kissing another girl and runs away.
Where she runs into a press gang, and being dressed as a boy at the time (in order to sneak up on Jaimy), she gets pressed and dragged off to a Royal Navy ship on duty on the blockade of Napoleon's France. She announces she's a girl -- at which point the captain, who is a remarkably appalling scumbag, decides he's been given a golden opportunity for some depraved ravishing on his own ship, and decides to keep her on board. Though at her request, he does give her the midshipman's rank she earned before, in the first book.
From there, a series of events (All quite realistic, by the way, which was impressive), Jacky ends up taking command of the ship and capturing several smugglers as prizes. One of these she keeps for herself, and turns into a privateer on her own, as the startup of Faber Shipping, Worldwide, her only dream now that she thinks Jaimy is lost to her. Things go well for a while -- until she finds out that the British government has found out that she kept a ship she captured while commanding a British naval vessel, which therefore belonged to the Crown, and she is named a pirate for real, since they retroactively revoke her permission to capture enemy ships. Which sucks. She gets caught, and goes to the Battle of Trafalgar, and takes part in that -- and is then released by her captors in gratitude for her brave assistance during the battle, and their prior admiration for her.
It was a great plot, and a rollicking good pirate story, and Bloody Jack. I loved it.
54. Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger 7/13
Pick:
I loved the title, and the concept. I actually started reading this before I got the Vine books, Temeraire and Darren Shan; I put it down to read those, and then got caught up in others, like the dog mystery for Jo and my new Bloody Jack book. But I figured hey, why not finish it?
Thoughts:
The main insight here was not terribly insightful. Here's the best part of the book: if you draw an arc of simplicity to complexity, with one end being the most simple possible system and the other end being the most complex possible system, the best system is generally in the middle, halfway between simple and complex. There you go. Now you know everything there is to know about simplexity.
The book touted the new science of studying simplicity and complexity, which sounds real interesting, but the science is, I think, a bit too new to have really reached any major breakthroughs, so there isn't that much to say about it. Basically each chapter talked about a specific artifact of our culture -- modern medicine, how babies learn to speak, economic meltdowns like the Great Depression -- and tried to go through how the causes and forces that run through this thing are either simple, complex, or both, and it isn't always what you'd expect. It was interesting, but the problem is, without some large concept to tie it together, it just seemed like a long list of "Isn't that neato?" kind of observations. Look! The mind of a baby learning to speak is incredibly complex; isn't that neato? Look: the forces that control Wall Street are actually quite simple, largely based on the wisdom, or the madness, of crowds (Which I already read a MUCH better book on); isn't that neato? There wasn't a whole lot of there, there.
But there were some interesting parts, and I liked the analysis of some of his subjects, so it was worth reading. A businessperson might find it more useful, since that was largely his goal, to show how your business plan should try to identify the simple and the complex parts of your intended industry, and treat them both appropriately. For me, for instance, that simplexity arc comes down to this: since I am a writer, the complex side is to do with different offerings I could create and send out, different fields I could try to break into. The shotgun approach, then, at the complex side of the arc. On the simple side of the arc is my single strongest writing approach; I could focus only on that and just keep honing it until I have it just right. The advantage of the complex side is that it gives me the most chances to be noticed, the most opportunities to reach potential readers, who have different tastes and needs; the simple side limits my opportunities to reach my audience, since only the people who want to read modern dark fantasy novels will be within my grasp. On the other hand, if I branch out into short stories and editorials and blogs and reviews and greeting cards and graphic novels and everything else under the sun, I won't be able to hone my craft very much, and my work, while it will reach more people, will not be as good, and won't inspire the ones I reach -- or is less likely to, at least. So the best situation for me would be halfway in between: focusing on a single novel, which gets most of my energy, but also doing several small writing projects in between and around the novel writing, in order to get my words out there and catch people's attention.
But see, I already knew that without knowing it. And that's the problem with this book, and why I say it lacks insight. But it wasn't bad.
55. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon & Georges Jeanty 7/14
Pick:
We had to get this because it's Buffy! By Joss Whedon! And we love graphic novels, too! I read it now because Toni pointed out that I should, so we could know whether this series is something we want to pursue, before we head back to Powell's where we could buy more -- or not.
Thoughts:
We'll buy more. This is the show, all the best parts of it, in comic book form. The art is great, excellent demons and nice combat, and the characters look like themselves without being parodies or caricatures. The coolest part was that it sounded like them -- naturally, since it was written by the same guy. That was great fun, though it could sometimes be hard to follow; there are some Buffy-esque conversational tidbits that you really don't get the first time around, which I had forgotten from the show since we've now watched the whole series three or four times.
The tough part about this is that Buffy tends toward the cliffhanger. Whedon always has several story lines going on at the same time, and one of his favorite things to do with a new season is drop us into the middle of them -- look at the third season of Buffy, when we come upon Buffy in the middle of her life as an LA waitress, and the guys back home have been slaying without her, and Willow has been learning to become a witch; and then in short order, Angel comes back from Hell and Faith appears, and then we find out the Mayor is actually a bad guy and has been for more than a century -- all things that were working behind the scenes without us knowing about them. That's Joss Whedon, and that's this comic. But the solution here is to do what we did with the TV show: now that we have cleverly waited until the entire run is out, we just have to get the whole thing and read it all several times, so that we can understand all of the stories and not have to wait anxiously for our answers. Simple. Perfect.
56. In the Belly of the Bloodhound by L. A. Meyer 7/16
Pick:
My birthday book! Bloody Jack! Yay!
Thoughts:
So in this one, Jacky goes back to school in Boston, since she is now wanted in England as a pirate. The story takes a BIG twist when the girls head out on a field trip for the day, to one of the many small islands out in Boston harbor (And reading these books makes me want to go back to Boston and really explore, like I never did while I lived there. Sigh. Stupid missed opportunities. Stupid childhood stupidity.), and they get kidnapped by slavers, who intend to sell them as harem girls in Egypt -- that's the title, because The Bloodhound is the ship that carries them. The story is the girls trying to effect an escape before they reach their destination. It's a hell of a book, again, with a very different plot line and emphasis from the past ones -- and yet, it is still Jacky being resourceful and determined and brave and figuring out how to handle the seemingly impossible situation she finds herself in. And I loved this book, too. I want to read more -- but now I fear the end of the series! Or at least the end of the currently published books. Man, I hate when I hit that wall.
Fantastic birthday book. Loved it.
Unfinished: A Traveler's History of Russia, Third Edition by Peter Neville
Pick & Thoughts:
I got this from the public library, because I'm thinking of doing a unit next school year based on Communist Russia and I don't know jack about it. Besides, Toni wanted to do photo research, and I went along for the ride. I like riding in the car.
I had to put this book down, after getting a little more than halfway through it, because: the author treated the history of the country as a history of the rulers, which was okay but not a great perspective; he seemed to assume that I already knew much of the rest of European history, which I don't -- he'd make passing reference to something that I know nothing about like I had already done my dissertation on the Franco-Prussian war -- and it was getting boring and repetitive. Okay, Russia had a lot of fucked-up rulers; I got it. Can I hear something about how the peasants, the regular folk lived, since that came to play such a major role in the course of Russia's evolution? Guess not.
And then there were the typos, of which there were many -- and normally I don't care too much about typos, except this was a third edition. Shouldn't those have been weeded out by now? And then the biggest problem came when the author made a snide reference to Lincoln freeing the slaves -- pointing out that Lincoln wasn't so very abolitiony, since he only freed the slaves in the Southern states, which people forget (snide snide). Fine and good, except he said that Lincoln freed the slaves with the Gettysburg Address.
Which made me lose faith in his expertise as an historian. So: away with the dull book from the stupid man, and we'll look for something a little more to the point.
Pick:
We wanted to give this book to my mother-in-law, so I had to read it first to make sure it was acceptable. Since it was my pick for her Book of the Month Club and all.
Thoughts:
This was very cute. The story is that Bernie Small is a private eye, and his best friend and partner, Chet, is a dog. Chet is the narrator, and the hero, of course. It was interesting because Chet is not a superdog; this is not The Unscratchables, with its anthropomorphic animal hero. Chet's just a dog. He's a good dog, strong and capable and fiercely loyal to his person, but no more and no less.
It's an interesting mystery because Chet finds out what's going on much sooner than Bernie does, and the course of the book is Bernie trying to figure out what Chet already knows but can't tell him; we the readers are curious because while Chet knows who's behind all of it, we have no idea why -- human motivations not being Chet's forte. I liked Bernie a lot, because I have trouble accepting that there are still such things as private eyes and they still get work in this day and age, but he seemed realistic to me, and it was fun to read it from the perspective of a dog who was also a partner in a PI firm and loved his job. It was great reading Chet: he barked, he sniffed, he ate anything he could and chewed up everything else; he was not cognizant of his own injuries and such, which I thought was realistic, since my own dog doesn't seem to feel pain, much of the time. So in a scene when Chet is stuck without water for a day or more, he describes simply that his tongue swells up and he feels tired; he doesn't do the human thing of pining for water and wailing about his impending death. Just his tongue swells up and he wants to sleep. I liked that, too: the urge to sleep came on him all of a sudden, in the middle of whatever he was doing, and he was likely to just lie down and snooze. I think it's a good system.
It was a very nice book, and well done. I plan to read the next one.
53. Under the Jolly Roger by L.A. Meyer 7/12
Pick:
Yarrrr! Bloody Jack Faber turns pirate! I had to read this one to get to my birthday present, which is the next book in this series.
Thoughts:
This one was great, though since I'm coming to expect that from Jacky Faber, it was less surprisingly great than the last one -- which was also more impressive because it was not in any way nautical. In this book, Jacky heads back to England, having been betrayed, she thinks, by her best friend at school, Amy Trevelyne. Jacky goes straight to Jaimy's house, where she is entirely spurned by Jaimy's mother, who definitely does not feel this little guttersnipe-turned-ship's-boy-turned-charm-school-dropout is good enough for her son -- a feeling that is only increased by the new book that has become all the rage, which tells the story of Bloody Jack Mary Faber -- the first novel in the series, having been written by Amy Trevelyne based on Jacky's stories during their school days together. It was a nice conceit, to have the books actually coming out during the story. Anyway, Jacky takes it too hard, and goes home to Cheapside; she eventually learns of an opportunity to catch Jaimy and she goes for it -- but sees him kissing another girl and runs away.
Where she runs into a press gang, and being dressed as a boy at the time (in order to sneak up on Jaimy), she gets pressed and dragged off to a Royal Navy ship on duty on the blockade of Napoleon's France. She announces she's a girl -- at which point the captain, who is a remarkably appalling scumbag, decides he's been given a golden opportunity for some depraved ravishing on his own ship, and decides to keep her on board. Though at her request, he does give her the midshipman's rank she earned before, in the first book.
From there, a series of events (All quite realistic, by the way, which was impressive), Jacky ends up taking command of the ship and capturing several smugglers as prizes. One of these she keeps for herself, and turns into a privateer on her own, as the startup of Faber Shipping, Worldwide, her only dream now that she thinks Jaimy is lost to her. Things go well for a while -- until she finds out that the British government has found out that she kept a ship she captured while commanding a British naval vessel, which therefore belonged to the Crown, and she is named a pirate for real, since they retroactively revoke her permission to capture enemy ships. Which sucks. She gets caught, and goes to the Battle of Trafalgar, and takes part in that -- and is then released by her captors in gratitude for her brave assistance during the battle, and their prior admiration for her.
It was a great plot, and a rollicking good pirate story, and Bloody Jack. I loved it.
54. Simplexity by Jeffrey Kluger 7/13
Pick:
I loved the title, and the concept. I actually started reading this before I got the Vine books, Temeraire and Darren Shan; I put it down to read those, and then got caught up in others, like the dog mystery for Jo and my new Bloody Jack book. But I figured hey, why not finish it?
Thoughts:
The main insight here was not terribly insightful. Here's the best part of the book: if you draw an arc of simplicity to complexity, with one end being the most simple possible system and the other end being the most complex possible system, the best system is generally in the middle, halfway between simple and complex. There you go. Now you know everything there is to know about simplexity.
The book touted the new science of studying simplicity and complexity, which sounds real interesting, but the science is, I think, a bit too new to have really reached any major breakthroughs, so there isn't that much to say about it. Basically each chapter talked about a specific artifact of our culture -- modern medicine, how babies learn to speak, economic meltdowns like the Great Depression -- and tried to go through how the causes and forces that run through this thing are either simple, complex, or both, and it isn't always what you'd expect. It was interesting, but the problem is, without some large concept to tie it together, it just seemed like a long list of "Isn't that neato?" kind of observations. Look! The mind of a baby learning to speak is incredibly complex; isn't that neato? Look: the forces that control Wall Street are actually quite simple, largely based on the wisdom, or the madness, of crowds (Which I already read a MUCH better book on); isn't that neato? There wasn't a whole lot of there, there.
But there were some interesting parts, and I liked the analysis of some of his subjects, so it was worth reading. A businessperson might find it more useful, since that was largely his goal, to show how your business plan should try to identify the simple and the complex parts of your intended industry, and treat them both appropriately. For me, for instance, that simplexity arc comes down to this: since I am a writer, the complex side is to do with different offerings I could create and send out, different fields I could try to break into. The shotgun approach, then, at the complex side of the arc. On the simple side of the arc is my single strongest writing approach; I could focus only on that and just keep honing it until I have it just right. The advantage of the complex side is that it gives me the most chances to be noticed, the most opportunities to reach potential readers, who have different tastes and needs; the simple side limits my opportunities to reach my audience, since only the people who want to read modern dark fantasy novels will be within my grasp. On the other hand, if I branch out into short stories and editorials and blogs and reviews and greeting cards and graphic novels and everything else under the sun, I won't be able to hone my craft very much, and my work, while it will reach more people, will not be as good, and won't inspire the ones I reach -- or is less likely to, at least. So the best situation for me would be halfway in between: focusing on a single novel, which gets most of my energy, but also doing several small writing projects in between and around the novel writing, in order to get my words out there and catch people's attention.
But see, I already knew that without knowing it. And that's the problem with this book, and why I say it lacks insight. But it wasn't bad.
55. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon & Georges Jeanty 7/14
Pick:
We had to get this because it's Buffy! By Joss Whedon! And we love graphic novels, too! I read it now because Toni pointed out that I should, so we could know whether this series is something we want to pursue, before we head back to Powell's where we could buy more -- or not.
Thoughts:
We'll buy more. This is the show, all the best parts of it, in comic book form. The art is great, excellent demons and nice combat, and the characters look like themselves without being parodies or caricatures. The coolest part was that it sounded like them -- naturally, since it was written by the same guy. That was great fun, though it could sometimes be hard to follow; there are some Buffy-esque conversational tidbits that you really don't get the first time around, which I had forgotten from the show since we've now watched the whole series three or four times.
The tough part about this is that Buffy tends toward the cliffhanger. Whedon always has several story lines going on at the same time, and one of his favorite things to do with a new season is drop us into the middle of them -- look at the third season of Buffy, when we come upon Buffy in the middle of her life as an LA waitress, and the guys back home have been slaying without her, and Willow has been learning to become a witch; and then in short order, Angel comes back from Hell and Faith appears, and then we find out the Mayor is actually a bad guy and has been for more than a century -- all things that were working behind the scenes without us knowing about them. That's Joss Whedon, and that's this comic. But the solution here is to do what we did with the TV show: now that we have cleverly waited until the entire run is out, we just have to get the whole thing and read it all several times, so that we can understand all of the stories and not have to wait anxiously for our answers. Simple. Perfect.
56. In the Belly of the Bloodhound by L. A. Meyer 7/16
Pick:
My birthday book! Bloody Jack! Yay!
Thoughts:
So in this one, Jacky goes back to school in Boston, since she is now wanted in England as a pirate. The story takes a BIG twist when the girls head out on a field trip for the day, to one of the many small islands out in Boston harbor (And reading these books makes me want to go back to Boston and really explore, like I never did while I lived there. Sigh. Stupid missed opportunities. Stupid childhood stupidity.), and they get kidnapped by slavers, who intend to sell them as harem girls in Egypt -- that's the title, because The Bloodhound is the ship that carries them. The story is the girls trying to effect an escape before they reach their destination. It's a hell of a book, again, with a very different plot line and emphasis from the past ones -- and yet, it is still Jacky being resourceful and determined and brave and figuring out how to handle the seemingly impossible situation she finds herself in. And I loved this book, too. I want to read more -- but now I fear the end of the series! Or at least the end of the currently published books. Man, I hate when I hit that wall.
Fantastic birthday book. Loved it.
Unfinished: A Traveler's History of Russia, Third Edition by Peter Neville
Pick & Thoughts:
I got this from the public library, because I'm thinking of doing a unit next school year based on Communist Russia and I don't know jack about it. Besides, Toni wanted to do photo research, and I went along for the ride. I like riding in the car.
I had to put this book down, after getting a little more than halfway through it, because: the author treated the history of the country as a history of the rulers, which was okay but not a great perspective; he seemed to assume that I already knew much of the rest of European history, which I don't -- he'd make passing reference to something that I know nothing about like I had already done my dissertation on the Franco-Prussian war -- and it was getting boring and repetitive. Okay, Russia had a lot of fucked-up rulers; I got it. Can I hear something about how the peasants, the regular folk lived, since that came to play such a major role in the course of Russia's evolution? Guess not.
And then there were the typos, of which there were many -- and normally I don't care too much about typos, except this was a third edition. Shouldn't those have been weeded out by now? And then the biggest problem came when the author made a snide reference to Lincoln freeing the slaves -- pointing out that Lincoln wasn't so very abolitiony, since he only freed the slaves in the Southern states, which people forget (snide snide). Fine and good, except he said that Lincoln freed the slaves with the Gettysburg Address.
Which made me lose faith in his expertise as an historian. So: away with the dull book from the stupid man, and we'll look for something a little more to the point.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
So I let them pile up. It was my birthday last week.
44. (NTY) Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison 6/12
Pick:
Utterly bleak depression, followed by utterly depressing stupidity and shallow egotism -- can I read something nice now?
Thoughts:
This book reiterated why I like the Hollows books, but not as much as I like all of our other paranormal favorites. This one had a little bit less of the good stuff, because there weren't really any new creations in the mystical world, which is Harrison's strongest point -- she has fantastic ideas about demons and witches and elves and gargoyles and pixies, and the world they inhabit, and those are great fun to read about -- but there were some great parts with our favorite characters, which made up for much of the bad parts. The bad parts: I hate many of Rachel's habits and proclivities. I hate her whining and attempts to avoid trouble, all the way up until it crosses her personal moral line, and then she makes a stand even if it kills her and everyone around her -- which I admire, I suppose, but I can't help thinking that she could have prevented the problem from getting that bad if she had handled it better in the first place. I don't know, maybe this is my own self-criticism coming out through Rachel, but it seems like she takes that whole enjoying-danger thing so far that she lets problems come to a head before she tries to deal with them. I don't like that.
Let me be specific. In this one Rachel has to deal with her shunning by the witch world, which happened at the beginning of the last book and which Rachel didn't do anything to try to fix, just resented it and tried to live with it (Yup, sounds like me.), which I could accept if there wasn't a clear path to fix it -- but there is, because this book introduces (It's been mentioned before, but now we meet them) the Coven, the governing body of the witch world and their ultimate police force. Now granted, these people suck, but the worst part is having them come after you, which they do, because Rachel has tried to ignore the problem. And then there's Nick, who she can't trust and shouldn't trust -- but keeps fucking trusting, because she used to have feelings for him and she can't resolve the problem. And then, of course, there's her absolute refusal to cross the line into what she considers black magic -- which again, would be admirable, if she would take enough action in the first place to avoid being pushed into a corner and forced to cross the line. This time when she doesn't cross that line, Matalina dies. Now we were expecting that, but man, it was hard to read.
I liked the witch prison on Alcatraz, I liked the exploration inside Jenks's stump, I actually liked the fairies and I hope they turn into regular characters. Al and Jenks were the best, of course; Trent was interesting but frustrating, as was Rachel; the book started slow and didn't need Ivy really at all. But the ending was great, and hopefully things are looking up in the Hollows world.
45. (15) Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville 6/13
Pick:
I needed something off the shelf, but not too much thinking, please -- school's almost over.
Thoughts:
This book was very sweet.
What's that, you say? You question how a book about a Millennial cult trying to escape Armageddon, and dragging two unwilling teenagers (whose parents are willing cult members) along with them into the wilderness, where they struggle with truth and faith and self-doubt until it all ends in a massacre can be sweet?
That's the interesting part. It's sweet because it's a romance, and the romantic parts are very sweet; I thought Marina fell in love with Jed a little quickly, but I suppose that's par for the course when you're talking fourteen-year-old girls without much experience of boys. I really enjoyed Jed's chapters (the point of view switches between them) because I liked his struggle between trying to do the right thing, and thinking everyone around him is a jackass and a religious nut -- and often being right. I liked the way the preacher/cult leader came off as a reasonable man who just happened to have some unreasonable beliefs, and the way both Jed's father and Marina's mother came off as dangerous crackpots who are trying to escape some larger problem by believing in this hooey about the end of the world, and are obviously wrong to drag their kids into this rather than dealing with their problems (which seems to be a theme in the reading, of late. Heh.). The action at the end is great, though brutal and very surprising. You see, the cult believes the end of the world is at hand, and God will wipe everyone out with a rain of fire, except for his 144 Chosen, who will be preserved on their mountaintop. So the faithful gather until they reach exactly 144 (With a nice bit of theater when the preacher's long-lost son wanders in to be their final member -- staged, maybe?) and then they blockade the road in and string an electric fence around the perimeter. And then a few more members of the church show up, which is a problem because they want to be saved, too; and the father of a kid who is in the compound with her mother shows up, and isn't allowed in to see his daughter, which is a bigger problem, since he calls the police. The book ends when the people outside the gate break in, and the people inside the gate use guns to defend themselves -- thereby proving, once more, that the right to bear arms is the single most useful and civilized and reasonable right, regardless of the changes in society and reality since the Constitution was penned -- and it all goes to shit. Which is funny, because the only place that gets washed in blood and cleansed in fire? The mountaintop where the Chosen were waiting to be saved. And if that isn't a non-subtle message about exclusivist religious extremism, I don't know what is.
Sweet book.
46. (NTY) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman 6/17
Pick:
I was looking for some sociology, a little non-fiction at Powell's, and I remembered this guy because a student I actually liked read this book, thought it was hilarious, and said I should read it. I picked it up now because -- essays. Short reading good. End of year, brain numb.
Thoughts:
That kid didn't know the half of it, because some of these things would have gone totally over her head. Like the argument Klosterman makes (And this was only one essay in a whole book full of interesting essays) comparing Pamela Anderson to Marilyn Monroe -- not because both were bombshell blondes, and not saying that the plastic Anderson was as attractive as the human Monroe (Though to be honest, if you've seen the pre-surgery Anderson, she was really lovely; and since her post-surgery face and figure simply reflect what Americans men seem to prefer in their women, with her absurdly disproportionate breasts and lips, there's a case to be made that Anderson is indeed just as attractive as Monroe, within her paradigm. Klosterman makes that argument.), but because both had similar acting abilities, with Monroe becoming overrated posthumously because of her attractiveness and her early death, and, more importantly, because both of them represented the sexual ideal of their time, both as individuals and because of who they had sex with. Monroe was unattainable, and so even though she married or slept with the greatest men of her generation (DiMaggio, Miller, Kennedy), she was still too miserable to live; it gives the feeling that nothing on Earth could have kept Marilyn happy, and since she was so overly sexual, it made it seem like no man on Earth could satisfy her, and this was the ideal of sex in the 1950's -- fabulous and unattainable. And Anderson, with her inhuman proportions lathered over a really attractive young woman, and her -- how do I put it -- in your face sexuality considering her sex tape with Tommy Lee (whom Klosterman uses to represent the cult of celebrity in our era, which is entirely fitting because Tommy Lee is famous for -- what? Not really the Crue any more, since they weren't any more than a mediocre hair metal band; no, Tommy is famous for being famous, for being Tommy Lee -- and led to the wonderful statement that Pam Anderson fucked celebrity itself, confirming this with her move from Tommy Lee to Kid Rock), is just as much the epitome of sexuality in the 90's: unrealistic expectations that sex could look like porn, but feel like love. The point Klosterman should have made, but didn't, was that much of this desire to have non-genuine or at least non-emotional sex with plastic people with unrealistic proportions -- and I include Tommy Lee's schlong in that description -- was directly related to fear of AIDS. Seems to me that people were combining the sexual freedom of the 70's with the sexual repression of the 80's and AIDS, and coming up with this: the desire to have appallingly vigorous sex with someone who didn't even seem human, to release all of that pent-up desire in a single encounter, and then leave that person behind entirely so as not to risk a real relationship, which maybe felt too dangerous.
Anyway. I loved the book, which made me bust out laughing several times ("I mean come on -- you just know Rodney Rogers is sitting in the locker room before every game reading Nietzsche, and he's totally thinking to himself, 'If Ron Artest tries to step to me one more time, I'm gonna slap jack his brisket, Philly style.'") and gave me much to think about other times. It's a little sad that Klosterman knows so much more than I do and writes good essays because of it, because once again it makes me feel too much like a generalist and an ignorant duffer to write really well, even though I don't think that's actually true, but I loved the book and I want to read more.
47. (Re-read) Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris 6/19
Pick:
Toni finished reading the Sookie books, and I felt like reading something fun.
Thoughts:
I forgot that this one was a bit less fun than most of the Sookie books. This is the one with the fairy war that spills over into Sookie's life, between her great-grandfather Niall and the fairies led by his son. This one features several bad things, death and torture and sadness. Still great books, though, and fun to read. I'm glad for the end, in a way, because it seems to wrap this fairy storyline up, and I don't like it as much as the vamps or weres.
48. (NTY) Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 6/23
Pick:
Had to catch up with the series, didn't I? That was the point of reading the last one, so I could read this one. We got this book because my friend Amber Horn very kindly bought it for us as repayment, since I loaned her every book leading up to this one. Which I thought was a good deal.
Thoughts:
This book was not any lighter than the last one; not that I expected it to be, considering where the last one left off. It did have more to do with Sookie's life and less to do with the supernatural struggles, which I thought was good; not that there are no supernatural parts, because of course there are. We are starting to see more conflict over the shifters' public announcement, which comes home for Merlotte's a little; Bill is still trying to recover from the silver poisoning he suffered in the last book -- and Sookie may regret what she did to help with that, but I'm glad for it; I want Sookie's love life to move on, not get stuck on the revolving hamster wheel of past boyfriends and current boyfriends going round and round and round; Claude moves in with Sookie, which is amusing; and Eric's sire shows up with his crazy vampire child. Those two were annoying, but interesting, like most of the powerful vampires we have seen. There is less fighting, and only a little bit of sex (Unlike freaking True Blood -- good lord, that show turned these books into violent vampire porn, which they bloody well aren't, and these books are so much better than that), but Sookie has changed in ways I think I like, and that I would certainly expect considering the trials and travails of the last few books of this series. I am curious about where this book leaves the fairy elements, and I definitely sense a change in Sookie's love life a-coming. I just hope she doesn't go for Sam.
49. (NTY) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik 6/29
Pick:
I had to get this one so I could read the next one, which I got for Vine.
Thoughts:
I love these books, I loved this book, but it was kinda hard to read; Temeraire and Lawrence are suffering because they did the right thing in a time of war, which of course makes them low-down dirty traitors. That pissed me off. Though I was very impressed that Novik managed to make me see both sides of the issue; sure, their choice to prevent the plague that the English would have unleashed on the French dragons was the right thing, because using germ warfare to wipe out potentially every dragon in Europe and beyond would be the most hideous of crimes, and of course Lawrence and Temeraire had to prevent that -- but then again, maybe they could have done it differently. And more to the point, because they prevented it, Napoleon invades England successfully, and now the entire country has to suffer because of that, which makes it harder to turn up the nose at the accusation of treason. Their country really is worse off because of what Lawrence and Temeraire did.
I really liked the Inglorious Basterds sort of plot element -- or maybe I should reference The Patriot, since I haven't actually seen the Basterds movie yet -- when Lawrence and Temeraire fight dirty for their country, and though I liked the big battle at the end, the final result of that was a total let-down, since the victory was not complete. Though I suppose that's historically accurate. Still an anti-climax. Good book, though, as all of these are.
50. (Vine) Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik 7/2
Pick:
I got all titillated when I saw this one on the Vine, because I LOVE these books -- I love the dragons, I love the alternate history, I love the war and the world that Novik has created. I even went so far as to buy the book before this one, which I had never read, so that I could order this from Vine and read it for free. I love the Vine.
Vine Review:
Assuming that nobody is looking into this book that hasn't yet read the entire series (Which, by the way, is outstanding and I highly recommend -- it starts with "His Majesty's Dragon," then "Throne of Jade," "Black Powder War," "Empire of Ivory," "Victory of Eagles," and then this one), I'll just skip the background. This one came as a bit of a surprise after the last, because this book has nothing to do with the Napoleonic Wars -- well, there is a connection, but it is very tenuous; something to do with the possibility of the French trying to disrupt English trade in Asia.
The series seems to be following this pattern: war book; exploration book; war book; exploration book. First the beginning of the war story, with Temeraire and Lawrence learning to fly and becoming part of the Corps; then we explore China. Then back to the war, with the battles over mainland Europe; then we explore Africa. Then back to the war, with the invasion of England; now we move to Australia. This one is not quite as interesting as the other two exploring books, but it's still good; the journey through the Australian outback tends to drag on, since there's just so much outback to cross, and the traveling companions that Temeraire and Lawrence are stuck with are just unfortunate -- though I am very interested in the new dragons who appear in this, especially the hatchlings -- but the plot twists and the new type of dragon, the Australian natives, are excellent, as always. The book ends with Lawrence and Temeraire seeming to settle into new roles on this new continent, and so I wonder if we are moving away from the final years of the Napoleonic empire; which would be fine, since that would probably be a little anti-climactic. The book has less combat than many of the other books, though there is an outstanding fight scene at the end; frankly, I found the lack of fighting appropriate, since Lawrence and Temeraire have had to suffer so much for the war. I expect them to be tired of it, and to be ready for some peace. Which they probably won't find here, because it probably couldn't be found anywhere in that world at war.
The book reconnects to China, and the next book will probably continue in that vein, simply because of the proximity of Australia and the new plot line that opens here; personally, I'm just bummed that Temeraire and Lawrence didn't go for the whole pirate idea in this book -- but maybe they will in future. I hope so. Because dragon pirates would be sweet.
51. (Vine) The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan 7/6
Pick:
I'm curious about Darren Shan, who wrote the Cirque du Freak books, and this one sounded very interesting -- both the idea of a quest to become the executioner, and the connection to Huck Finn.
Vine Review:
This book was certainly an interesting journey. I picked it because I was curious about Darren Shan, since I have heard much about the Cirque du Freak books but have never read them, and because the description said it was inspired by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- and since I'm a high school English teacher, I have taught that book to my classes, and it is one of my all-time favorites among the classics.
But it arrived while I was deep in another book, and so by the time I got started reading this one, I had forgotten it was connected to Huck Finn. That turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me to enjoy the beginning: the main character, Jebel Rum, is a young boy who desperately wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but unfortunately he has two older brothers who are much more likely to do so -- and since their father holds the honored place of Executioner for their city, only one of the three can take his place when he retires. The father shames Jebel, leaving him out when speaking in public about which of his sons will take his place as Executioner, so Jebel decides he will take on an impossible quest in the hopes of eliminating the shame of his father's dismissal.
The quest is an interesting idea, and Shan has built a very interesting world, full of disparate groups and varied philosophies and worldviews and ways of living: there are the slavers, the slaves, the Spartan warrior race; there are the people who live deep in a swamp and worship the alligators who surround them, and another race that do the same with vampire bats. There are peaceful people and violent people, religious people and earthy people. Jebel Rum is fairly annoying at first, but he is supposed to be. I didn't think as much of the other main character, Tel Hasani, but he isn't too bad.
The problem came around the middle of the book: first of all, it is too long. Jebel gets sidetracked from his quest and held up by circumstance, which is fine, but the sidetracks take almost as long as the quest itself, and not all of them are interesting. With all of the detail that Shan puts into the various groups that Jebel meets, it feels like the book meanders too much. The second problem was that I happened to remember the connection to Huck Finn. Once I remembered it, I couldn't help but compare the two -- and of course, since I love the original, this book just didn't measure up. I didn't like the way Shan re-created some of my favorite characters and scenes from Huck Finn (The Duke and King were a mistake, especially the names - this is not a political satire, and so they didn't fit at all); I particularly didn't like that he changed the most important elements of the plot, only keeping the idea of a long journey with a young boy and the older slave who takes care of him and misses his family back home. It's not that this book is bad, it's just that any book is going to pale in comparison to a classic that I happen to love.
But then I got to the end, and it was fantastic: there was a great twist, a really great twist, and the message was sound and well-done, since we got to watch Jebel's entire experience along the way. I really loved the way the book played out.
So in the end, the story may drag some in the middle, but the imagination that went into it, and the excellent ending, make it worthwhile. But don't get this book if you loved Huckleberry Finn and you can't forget about the comparison: because this is a good book, but Darren Shan is no Mark Twain.
Pick:
Utterly bleak depression, followed by utterly depressing stupidity and shallow egotism -- can I read something nice now?
Thoughts:
This book reiterated why I like the Hollows books, but not as much as I like all of our other paranormal favorites. This one had a little bit less of the good stuff, because there weren't really any new creations in the mystical world, which is Harrison's strongest point -- she has fantastic ideas about demons and witches and elves and gargoyles and pixies, and the world they inhabit, and those are great fun to read about -- but there were some great parts with our favorite characters, which made up for much of the bad parts. The bad parts: I hate many of Rachel's habits and proclivities. I hate her whining and attempts to avoid trouble, all the way up until it crosses her personal moral line, and then she makes a stand even if it kills her and everyone around her -- which I admire, I suppose, but I can't help thinking that she could have prevented the problem from getting that bad if she had handled it better in the first place. I don't know, maybe this is my own self-criticism coming out through Rachel, but it seems like she takes that whole enjoying-danger thing so far that she lets problems come to a head before she tries to deal with them. I don't like that.
Let me be specific. In this one Rachel has to deal with her shunning by the witch world, which happened at the beginning of the last book and which Rachel didn't do anything to try to fix, just resented it and tried to live with it (Yup, sounds like me.), which I could accept if there wasn't a clear path to fix it -- but there is, because this book introduces (It's been mentioned before, but now we meet them) the Coven, the governing body of the witch world and their ultimate police force. Now granted, these people suck, but the worst part is having them come after you, which they do, because Rachel has tried to ignore the problem. And then there's Nick, who she can't trust and shouldn't trust -- but keeps fucking trusting, because she used to have feelings for him and she can't resolve the problem. And then, of course, there's her absolute refusal to cross the line into what she considers black magic -- which again, would be admirable, if she would take enough action in the first place to avoid being pushed into a corner and forced to cross the line. This time when she doesn't cross that line, Matalina dies. Now we were expecting that, but man, it was hard to read.
I liked the witch prison on Alcatraz, I liked the exploration inside Jenks's stump, I actually liked the fairies and I hope they turn into regular characters. Al and Jenks were the best, of course; Trent was interesting but frustrating, as was Rachel; the book started slow and didn't need Ivy really at all. But the ending was great, and hopefully things are looking up in the Hollows world.
45. (15) Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville 6/13
Pick:
I needed something off the shelf, but not too much thinking, please -- school's almost over.
Thoughts:
This book was very sweet.
What's that, you say? You question how a book about a Millennial cult trying to escape Armageddon, and dragging two unwilling teenagers (whose parents are willing cult members) along with them into the wilderness, where they struggle with truth and faith and self-doubt until it all ends in a massacre can be sweet?
That's the interesting part. It's sweet because it's a romance, and the romantic parts are very sweet; I thought Marina fell in love with Jed a little quickly, but I suppose that's par for the course when you're talking fourteen-year-old girls without much experience of boys. I really enjoyed Jed's chapters (the point of view switches between them) because I liked his struggle between trying to do the right thing, and thinking everyone around him is a jackass and a religious nut -- and often being right. I liked the way the preacher/cult leader came off as a reasonable man who just happened to have some unreasonable beliefs, and the way both Jed's father and Marina's mother came off as dangerous crackpots who are trying to escape some larger problem by believing in this hooey about the end of the world, and are obviously wrong to drag their kids into this rather than dealing with their problems (which seems to be a theme in the reading, of late. Heh.). The action at the end is great, though brutal and very surprising. You see, the cult believes the end of the world is at hand, and God will wipe everyone out with a rain of fire, except for his 144 Chosen, who will be preserved on their mountaintop. So the faithful gather until they reach exactly 144 (With a nice bit of theater when the preacher's long-lost son wanders in to be their final member -- staged, maybe?) and then they blockade the road in and string an electric fence around the perimeter. And then a few more members of the church show up, which is a problem because they want to be saved, too; and the father of a kid who is in the compound with her mother shows up, and isn't allowed in to see his daughter, which is a bigger problem, since he calls the police. The book ends when the people outside the gate break in, and the people inside the gate use guns to defend themselves -- thereby proving, once more, that the right to bear arms is the single most useful and civilized and reasonable right, regardless of the changes in society and reality since the Constitution was penned -- and it all goes to shit. Which is funny, because the only place that gets washed in blood and cleansed in fire? The mountaintop where the Chosen were waiting to be saved. And if that isn't a non-subtle message about exclusivist religious extremism, I don't know what is.
Sweet book.
46. (NTY) Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman 6/17
Pick:
I was looking for some sociology, a little non-fiction at Powell's, and I remembered this guy because a student I actually liked read this book, thought it was hilarious, and said I should read it. I picked it up now because -- essays. Short reading good. End of year, brain numb.
Thoughts:
That kid didn't know the half of it, because some of these things would have gone totally over her head. Like the argument Klosterman makes (And this was only one essay in a whole book full of interesting essays) comparing Pamela Anderson to Marilyn Monroe -- not because both were bombshell blondes, and not saying that the plastic Anderson was as attractive as the human Monroe (Though to be honest, if you've seen the pre-surgery Anderson, she was really lovely; and since her post-surgery face and figure simply reflect what Americans men seem to prefer in their women, with her absurdly disproportionate breasts and lips, there's a case to be made that Anderson is indeed just as attractive as Monroe, within her paradigm. Klosterman makes that argument.), but because both had similar acting abilities, with Monroe becoming overrated posthumously because of her attractiveness and her early death, and, more importantly, because both of them represented the sexual ideal of their time, both as individuals and because of who they had sex with. Monroe was unattainable, and so even though she married or slept with the greatest men of her generation (DiMaggio, Miller, Kennedy), she was still too miserable to live; it gives the feeling that nothing on Earth could have kept Marilyn happy, and since she was so overly sexual, it made it seem like no man on Earth could satisfy her, and this was the ideal of sex in the 1950's -- fabulous and unattainable. And Anderson, with her inhuman proportions lathered over a really attractive young woman, and her -- how do I put it -- in your face sexuality considering her sex tape with Tommy Lee (whom Klosterman uses to represent the cult of celebrity in our era, which is entirely fitting because Tommy Lee is famous for -- what? Not really the Crue any more, since they weren't any more than a mediocre hair metal band; no, Tommy is famous for being famous, for being Tommy Lee -- and led to the wonderful statement that Pam Anderson fucked celebrity itself, confirming this with her move from Tommy Lee to Kid Rock), is just as much the epitome of sexuality in the 90's: unrealistic expectations that sex could look like porn, but feel like love. The point Klosterman should have made, but didn't, was that much of this desire to have non-genuine or at least non-emotional sex with plastic people with unrealistic proportions -- and I include Tommy Lee's schlong in that description -- was directly related to fear of AIDS. Seems to me that people were combining the sexual freedom of the 70's with the sexual repression of the 80's and AIDS, and coming up with this: the desire to have appallingly vigorous sex with someone who didn't even seem human, to release all of that pent-up desire in a single encounter, and then leave that person behind entirely so as not to risk a real relationship, which maybe felt too dangerous.
Anyway. I loved the book, which made me bust out laughing several times ("I mean come on -- you just know Rodney Rogers is sitting in the locker room before every game reading Nietzsche, and he's totally thinking to himself, 'If Ron Artest tries to step to me one more time, I'm gonna slap jack his brisket, Philly style.'") and gave me much to think about other times. It's a little sad that Klosterman knows so much more than I do and writes good essays because of it, because once again it makes me feel too much like a generalist and an ignorant duffer to write really well, even though I don't think that's actually true, but I loved the book and I want to read more.
47. (Re-read) Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris 6/19
Pick:
Toni finished reading the Sookie books, and I felt like reading something fun.
Thoughts:
I forgot that this one was a bit less fun than most of the Sookie books. This is the one with the fairy war that spills over into Sookie's life, between her great-grandfather Niall and the fairies led by his son. This one features several bad things, death and torture and sadness. Still great books, though, and fun to read. I'm glad for the end, in a way, because it seems to wrap this fairy storyline up, and I don't like it as much as the vamps or weres.
48. (NTY) Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris 6/23
Pick:
Had to catch up with the series, didn't I? That was the point of reading the last one, so I could read this one. We got this book because my friend Amber Horn very kindly bought it for us as repayment, since I loaned her every book leading up to this one. Which I thought was a good deal.
Thoughts:
This book was not any lighter than the last one; not that I expected it to be, considering where the last one left off. It did have more to do with Sookie's life and less to do with the supernatural struggles, which I thought was good; not that there are no supernatural parts, because of course there are. We are starting to see more conflict over the shifters' public announcement, which comes home for Merlotte's a little; Bill is still trying to recover from the silver poisoning he suffered in the last book -- and Sookie may regret what she did to help with that, but I'm glad for it; I want Sookie's love life to move on, not get stuck on the revolving hamster wheel of past boyfriends and current boyfriends going round and round and round; Claude moves in with Sookie, which is amusing; and Eric's sire shows up with his crazy vampire child. Those two were annoying, but interesting, like most of the powerful vampires we have seen. There is less fighting, and only a little bit of sex (Unlike freaking True Blood -- good lord, that show turned these books into violent vampire porn, which they bloody well aren't, and these books are so much better than that), but Sookie has changed in ways I think I like, and that I would certainly expect considering the trials and travails of the last few books of this series. I am curious about where this book leaves the fairy elements, and I definitely sense a change in Sookie's love life a-coming. I just hope she doesn't go for Sam.
49. (NTY) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik 6/29
Pick:
I had to get this one so I could read the next one, which I got for Vine.
Thoughts:
I love these books, I loved this book, but it was kinda hard to read; Temeraire and Lawrence are suffering because they did the right thing in a time of war, which of course makes them low-down dirty traitors. That pissed me off. Though I was very impressed that Novik managed to make me see both sides of the issue; sure, their choice to prevent the plague that the English would have unleashed on the French dragons was the right thing, because using germ warfare to wipe out potentially every dragon in Europe and beyond would be the most hideous of crimes, and of course Lawrence and Temeraire had to prevent that -- but then again, maybe they could have done it differently. And more to the point, because they prevented it, Napoleon invades England successfully, and now the entire country has to suffer because of that, which makes it harder to turn up the nose at the accusation of treason. Their country really is worse off because of what Lawrence and Temeraire did.
I really liked the Inglorious Basterds sort of plot element -- or maybe I should reference The Patriot, since I haven't actually seen the Basterds movie yet -- when Lawrence and Temeraire fight dirty for their country, and though I liked the big battle at the end, the final result of that was a total let-down, since the victory was not complete. Though I suppose that's historically accurate. Still an anti-climax. Good book, though, as all of these are.
50. (Vine) Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik 7/2
Pick:
I got all titillated when I saw this one on the Vine, because I LOVE these books -- I love the dragons, I love the alternate history, I love the war and the world that Novik has created. I even went so far as to buy the book before this one, which I had never read, so that I could order this from Vine and read it for free. I love the Vine.
Vine Review:
Assuming that nobody is looking into this book that hasn't yet read the entire series (Which, by the way, is outstanding and I highly recommend -- it starts with "His Majesty's Dragon," then "Throne of Jade," "Black Powder War," "Empire of Ivory," "Victory of Eagles," and then this one), I'll just skip the background. This one came as a bit of a surprise after the last, because this book has nothing to do with the Napoleonic Wars -- well, there is a connection, but it is very tenuous; something to do with the possibility of the French trying to disrupt English trade in Asia.
The series seems to be following this pattern: war book; exploration book; war book; exploration book. First the beginning of the war story, with Temeraire and Lawrence learning to fly and becoming part of the Corps; then we explore China. Then back to the war, with the battles over mainland Europe; then we explore Africa. Then back to the war, with the invasion of England; now we move to Australia. This one is not quite as interesting as the other two exploring books, but it's still good; the journey through the Australian outback tends to drag on, since there's just so much outback to cross, and the traveling companions that Temeraire and Lawrence are stuck with are just unfortunate -- though I am very interested in the new dragons who appear in this, especially the hatchlings -- but the plot twists and the new type of dragon, the Australian natives, are excellent, as always. The book ends with Lawrence and Temeraire seeming to settle into new roles on this new continent, and so I wonder if we are moving away from the final years of the Napoleonic empire; which would be fine, since that would probably be a little anti-climactic. The book has less combat than many of the other books, though there is an outstanding fight scene at the end; frankly, I found the lack of fighting appropriate, since Lawrence and Temeraire have had to suffer so much for the war. I expect them to be tired of it, and to be ready for some peace. Which they probably won't find here, because it probably couldn't be found anywhere in that world at war.
The book reconnects to China, and the next book will probably continue in that vein, simply because of the proximity of Australia and the new plot line that opens here; personally, I'm just bummed that Temeraire and Lawrence didn't go for the whole pirate idea in this book -- but maybe they will in future. I hope so. Because dragon pirates would be sweet.
51. (Vine) The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan 7/6
Pick:
I'm curious about Darren Shan, who wrote the Cirque du Freak books, and this one sounded very interesting -- both the idea of a quest to become the executioner, and the connection to Huck Finn.
Vine Review:
This book was certainly an interesting journey. I picked it because I was curious about Darren Shan, since I have heard much about the Cirque du Freak books but have never read them, and because the description said it was inspired by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- and since I'm a high school English teacher, I have taught that book to my classes, and it is one of my all-time favorites among the classics.
But it arrived while I was deep in another book, and so by the time I got started reading this one, I had forgotten it was connected to Huck Finn. That turned out to be a good thing, because it helped me to enjoy the beginning: the main character, Jebel Rum, is a young boy who desperately wants to follow in his father's footsteps, but unfortunately he has two older brothers who are much more likely to do so -- and since their father holds the honored place of Executioner for their city, only one of the three can take his place when he retires. The father shames Jebel, leaving him out when speaking in public about which of his sons will take his place as Executioner, so Jebel decides he will take on an impossible quest in the hopes of eliminating the shame of his father's dismissal.
The quest is an interesting idea, and Shan has built a very interesting world, full of disparate groups and varied philosophies and worldviews and ways of living: there are the slavers, the slaves, the Spartan warrior race; there are the people who live deep in a swamp and worship the alligators who surround them, and another race that do the same with vampire bats. There are peaceful people and violent people, religious people and earthy people. Jebel Rum is fairly annoying at first, but he is supposed to be. I didn't think as much of the other main character, Tel Hasani, but he isn't too bad.
The problem came around the middle of the book: first of all, it is too long. Jebel gets sidetracked from his quest and held up by circumstance, which is fine, but the sidetracks take almost as long as the quest itself, and not all of them are interesting. With all of the detail that Shan puts into the various groups that Jebel meets, it feels like the book meanders too much. The second problem was that I happened to remember the connection to Huck Finn. Once I remembered it, I couldn't help but compare the two -- and of course, since I love the original, this book just didn't measure up. I didn't like the way Shan re-created some of my favorite characters and scenes from Huck Finn (The Duke and King were a mistake, especially the names - this is not a political satire, and so they didn't fit at all); I particularly didn't like that he changed the most important elements of the plot, only keeping the idea of a long journey with a young boy and the older slave who takes care of him and misses his family back home. It's not that this book is bad, it's just that any book is going to pale in comparison to a classic that I happen to love.
But then I got to the end, and it was fantastic: there was a great twist, a really great twist, and the message was sound and well-done, since we got to watch Jebel's entire experience along the way. I really loved the way the book played out.
So in the end, the story may drag some in the middle, but the imagination that went into it, and the excellent ending, make it worthwhile. But don't get this book if you loved Huckleberry Finn and you can't forget about the comparison: because this is a good book, but Darren Shan is no Mark Twain.
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