Bragan's Tenth Thingaversary Reading, Part 3

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Bragan's Tenth Thingaversary Reading, Part 3

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1bragan
Modifié : Juil 8, 2017, 11:27 am

OK, here's my new thread for the third quarter of 2017. A little belatedly, because my first book of the month took me a while to get through. But here we go!

70. The Twelve by Justin Cronin



This is book two in Cronin's Passage trilogy, in which the world (or at the very least the United States) has been overrun by vampiric creatures created from an extremely ill-advised piece of military research.

And my opinion of this series hasn't changed from the first book. I still think the idea and the basic setup are good. I like a sprawling post-apocalyptic epic, after all, and the monsters are decently scary and fairly original, as vampiric creatures go. But the execution just isn't living up to that potential. The story is readable enough, but it drags. It drags a lot. I feel like I perhaps shouldn't say this until I've read the entire series, because for all I know book three might be something else altogether, but I'm going to go out on a limb anyway and say that I believe the story would be much, much improved if it were whittled down from three thick volumes to one medium-longish one.

I'm also not impressed by Cronin's supposedly rather "literary" writing. His style is all right, but it's not what I'd call beautiful, and it sometimes flirts with either pretentiousness or cliche. And I'll repeat what I think I said about the first volume: giving characters long, melodramatic backstories isn't actually the same thing as making them interesting.

I will say that this one was at least a somewhat faster read than the first one, probably mostly by virtue of not being quite as long. And there were one or two decent action scenes. On the other hand, the monsters, which I find far and away the most interesting thing about these books, are much less of a presence throughout most of this one than they were in the first book. So it's probably kind of a wash.

Since I already have book three, I'm sure I'll continue on with it eventually, but, as was the case with this one, I'm not going to be in any burning hurry to get to it.

Rating: a slightly generous 3/5

2bragan
Juil 9, 2017, 10:32 am

71. Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years by Geoffrey Nunberg



You might not necessarily think that a discussion of the word "asshole" (as applied to people, not anatomy) and the concept behind it would be enough to fill an entire book, even a short-ish one like this. But, if so, you'd be wrong! Nunberg covers a lot of really interesting ground here: The nature of swearing in general and how people think about it versus how we actually use it. The question of what it is that makes someone an asshole, and the difference between how we use that word and how previous generations might have used a word like "scoundrel" or "cad." The changes in social attitudes that seem to have contributed to this particular word becoming part of our vocabulary, used in the way that it is. The attraction the figure of the asshole can sometimes have. The question of whether society in general is becoming less civil and more assholic. And, of course, the prominence of assholery in politics and political discussion and the capacity of both the right and the left to behave like assholes, albeit often in different ways. (On that last point, it's worth noting that this book was originally published in 2012, but if anything its social and political commentary feels even more relevant now, and not just because Donald Trump is Nunberg's go-to example of an asshole extraordinaire. Although it does end on a somewhat optimistic political note that I find it a little difficult to sustain these days.)

The book does get a little rambly in places, and sometimes re-covers the same ground a bit, but overall it's engaging, readable, entertaining and interesting. And, in places, surprisingly insightful. If I take nothing else at all from it, I am very much going to keep in my mind Nunberg's description of the "anti-asshole" principle, which describes how, once you've labelled someone as an asshole, you then often feel completely justified in being an asshole back to them, because the asshole has it coming. (Plus, it's so satisfying!) This is a familiar phenomenon, but not one I'd ever spent much time pondering or put a name to, and now that I think about it, I believe it explains a lot about modern American political discourse, and, indeed, modern American politics.

Rating: I'm going to give this one 4.5/5. A little generous, maybe, but I figure the 4 stars are for being interesting and entertaining, and the extra half-star is for actually saying sane and sensible things about politics, which seems rare enough these days that it deserves acknowledgment.

3bragan
Juil 10, 2017, 11:19 am

72. The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith



Book number nine in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and if you've read the first eight, you know exactly what you're getting here. Which is fine by me! I've long since stopped expecting this series' sameness to start wearing on me and instead embraced it as the consistently pleasant, warm comfort food for the soul that it is.

Although I will say, the things Precious Ramotswe and company are investigating this time -- a woman looking for her birth family, and some harassing notes left at the detectives' office -- were more interesting to me in themselves than they usually are. There's still nothing really exciting or plotty there, but excitement and plot are never the point of these books. Both investigations, after a few misunderstandings, end on a very heart-warming note, and that is the point, or at least one of the most important points, and it's one Alexander McCall Smith does a surprisingly good job of hitting in a satisfying way, time after time.

Rating: 4/5

4bragan
Modifié : Juil 13, 2017, 7:24 pm

73. Mastodonia by Clifford D. Simak



In this 1978 SF novel, archeologist Asa Steele discovers an alien creature living on the farmland he recently purchased, and learns that the alien has the ability to create time travel "roads" into earlier eras. So, naturally, he and his girlfriend immediately set up a company to take people on safaris to hunt dinosaurs. As one would.

It's a fairly entertaining novel, one that, as seems typical of Simak, is rather low-key and doesn't really do what you might expect most SF writers to do with a premise like this. There's some lip service paid to worries about changing the past, but mostly the story is not focused on questions about how time travel works and what its dangers are and so forth, but more on weird little questions like: if you set your corporate headquarters up in a time before the United States existed, can you get out of paying US taxes? Of course, with questions like that, my brain kept wanting to read some sort of political allegory into it all. I mean, I can't imagine this being written today and not being presented as a sharply pointed satire about capitalism or government regulations, or something. But, as it is, its main stance on politics seems to be that there's an awful lot of complicated silliness in it, which I don't think anybody could argue with. Mostly it's just a fun little story, with dinosaurs and mastodons. And, despite a fudging of the distinction between archeologists and paleontologists, I believe the science is pretty accurate to what was known about dinosaurs in the 1970s, including mentioning some of the scientific controversies of the time. It also does a refreshingly good job with its female main character. I kept bracing myself because I thought I saw an annoying bit of sexism inbound, but it never showed up.

Rating: I'm going to be a bit generous and call this 4/5.

5bragan
Juil 14, 2017, 7:40 pm

74. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel



One day, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight abandoned his car and walked off into the woods of Maine. He didn't come out for 27 years, and during that time he effectively did not talk to or interact with another human being, but survived by breaking into nearby vacation cabins while their owners were away to steal food and supplies. By the time he was finally caught in the act, he was something of a local legend: the elusive Hermit of North Pond.

I find Knight and his story fascinating. He is, unsurprisingly, not much of a talker, but the things he does say are interesting, as are the details of his camp and how he survived there. (In Maine! Through the winters! I cannot even imagine doing that.)

Unfortunately, Michael Finkel, the journalist who pursued his story and the author of this book, rubs me the wrong way a little, somehow. Maybe it's the uncomfortable feeling at times that he's imposing himself on a man who would rather be left alone. Maybe it's the sense that he projects onto Knight a little too much in his attempts to understand him. Maybe it's partly the chapter he devotes to basically talking about how freakish the desire to be solitary is, which, as an introvert, I cannot help but take exception to. Probably a lot of it is just him getting off on the wrong foot with me by opening the book with a couple of chapters dramatizing Knight's apprehension in the style of a bad novel, a journalistic gimmick I am coming to dislike intensely.

Whatever the source of my feelings, I found I liked his writing just fine when he was organizing and conveying Knight's own words or describing the facts of his situation, but less so when he let his own personality intrude a little more. And I think the book could have easily done without the sections about the history of hermits and the psychology of solitude and so forth. In theory, I would think all of that could be interesting, but in practice, I don't think Finkel's treatment of these subjects is nearly as profound as he believes it is, and a lot of it ends up feeling like padding. Which maybe it is. Knight is, in the end, still largely a mysterious figure and there really is a limited amount to be said about him. Maybe not enough to completely support a 200-page book.

All of which sounds a little more negative than I maybe quite mean to be. Honestly, I did find Knight's story very much worth reading, I just wish I felt a little less lukewarm about the execution.

Rating: 3.5/5

6ChocolateMuse
Juil 15, 2017, 8:23 am

That's a really thoughtful review. For someone who so clearly wanted to escape the world, there really is a sense of imposition in Finkel even writing the biography in the first place.

7bragan
Juil 15, 2017, 3:55 pm

>6 ChocolateMuse: There really is. And the way he describes his interactions with Knight, it's hard to know exactly how to read their relationship. Finkel will cite details he interprets as meaning that, despite Knight's discomfort, or even being told flat-out to stay away, that Knight really did want to talk to him, or needed his help, or whatever, but it's hard not to wonder how much of that is just Finkel reading the situation in a way that makes him feel better.

8bragan
Juil 15, 2017, 11:18 pm

75. Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich



This is one of the "between-the-numbers" books in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. These are part of the series' continuity (to the extent that that actually matters), but are distinct from the regular series installments in that they're shorter, are set around a holiday (in this case, St. Patrick's Day), involve some supernatural elements, and feature a character with the ridiculous name of Diesel, who I believe is a crossover character from a different Evanovich series.

The other thing they usually have in common is that I find them annoying. The supernatural stuff feels badly out of place to me, the plots are usually dumb in a bad way (as opposed to the silly, fun sort of way one hopes for from this series), and Diesel is hideously skeevy even by Evanovich standards.

So I was happy to discover that this one actually didn't annoy me. I still don't like Diesel, but I found myself at least able to tolerate him. And the main guest character, a guy with a less-useful-than-it-sounds gift of supernatural luck who believes he's a leprechaun, is actually surprisingly fun.

Mind you, the end result is ridiculous, forgettable, mildly amusing fluff, but that's pretty much what I'm looking for from this series. I don't think it's quite as good at being mildly amusing fluff as some of the regular installments, but I'm just relieved that it mostly worked for me.

Rating: 3/5

9bragan
Modifié : Juil 16, 2017, 12:14 am

76. Star Trek Cats by Jenny Parks



This book features illustrations of scenes from the original Star Trek, except that all the characters are cats. This is a ridiculous idea, and it ought to make for kind of a dumb, gimmicky book. And yet, I found it utterly, comprehensively delightful. I don't quite understand why. Is it because the cats somehow look amazingly like the characters they're portraying? (Seriously, that is the Kirkest cat that ever Kirked. And OMG, Scotty is a Scottish fold!) Is it because the illustrations are beautifully, lovingly done, with lots of fun detail? (You can just tell Bones-kitty does not like the transporter!) Is it because the artist is clearly a huge Trek fan and has chosen to illustrate some really specific moments from the series, complete with snippets of dialog, in a way that invites a fun game of name-the-episode? Is it the inclusion of the green Orion slave-cat?

I don't know. I don't know what it is. But I'm grinning like an idiot over this thing. My only complaint about it is that it's tiny, and I want more. I wonder if Jenny Parks could be persuaded to do a TNG version?

Rating: 4.5/5. Yes, really.

10mabith
Juil 17, 2017, 8:46 am

I've been seeing the assholes book about and wondered if I'd like it. I'll put it on the "need a break but not too much of a break" list. We all need some fluff sometimes! I was sad when they changed the audio reader of the regular Stephanie Plum books. The first reader was so perfect and the later options just didn't do it for me (and I didn't care enough to continue reading in print).

Nevermind the winters in Maine, what about black fly season? My mom's tales of it are horrific, but presumably he could steal some 100% deet from those cabins.

11bragan
Juil 17, 2017, 5:45 pm

>10 mabith: I do recommend Ascent of the A-Word if it sounds interesting to you. It is a fairly easy read, and I think a worthwhile one. After reading a couple of his books, I've decided I like Nunberg a lot.

I can't quite imagine doing the Stephanie Plum books in audio. Well, I don't really do audiobooks, anyway, but I'd think it'd be a little too easy to let my mind wander during those books, in particular, if I did. Then again, maybe the right reader would make the dialog zing nicely. It does seem a pity if the narrator changed for the worse.

And "How did you deal with the bugs?" is one of the very first questions Finkel asked the guy. He did, indeed, steal lots of insect repellent.

12mabith
Juil 18, 2017, 9:41 am

The one Stephanie Plum reader was really great with the character voices and accents. I'm always doing something that doesn't require much concentration while I listen (knitting, embroidery, cleaning, watering garden, etc...), so my mind doesn't really wander as long as my hands are busy.

13dchaikin
Juil 18, 2017, 12:53 pm

Is society becoming more assholic? (And is Finkel an example of this, or was he just struggling to make a book out of Knight?)

Enjoying your new thread.

14bragan
Juil 18, 2017, 2:21 pm

>13 dchaikin: I think the answer to both is... maybe? :)

And thanks!

15OscarWilde87
Juil 18, 2017, 2:46 pm

It's been a while and I needed some time to catch up on your last thread and this one. Quite a different bunch of books you've read with some very interesting reviews. I especially liked the one of Into the Wild as that is a book I am actively considering to read in the not too distant future (whatever that means...).

16dchaikin
Juil 18, 2017, 3:29 pm

>15 OscarWilde87: i'll 2nd Into the Wild. I really took in how Krakauer looks into himself and his own climbing experiences.

17dchaikin
Juil 18, 2017, 3:30 pm

18bragan
Juil 18, 2017, 4:27 pm

>15 OscarWilde87: I try to keep up my reputation for eclectic reading!

And, you know, after reading The Stranger in the Woods, it's been very hard not to compare it to Into the Wild. I think Krakauer comes out much, much better for the comparison.

19bragan
Juil 18, 2017, 4:47 pm

77. The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett



My re-read through the City Watch sub-series of Pratchett's Discworld novels continues. This one sends Commander Vimes on a diplomatic mission to the land of Uberwald, where he deals with dwarf politics, bloodthirsty werewolves, a scheming vampire, and a potentially disastrous theft.

I think this one feels a bit slower than the last few Discworld books I've read, despite some action scenes involving werewolves or assassins, and the details of the plot are apparently not terribly memorable, based on the fact that I'm not sure I could have actually told you what it was about before I started re-reading. It's also not laugh-out-loud funny the way some of these books are. But it was nevertheless a satisfying read, and one that left me with a smile on my face at the end.

Mostly, I think, because it goes a great job with the character stuff. Casting Sam Vimes in the role of diplomat is pretty much guaranteed to be entertaining, and Prachett definitely lives up to expectations there. Vimes is simultaneously terrible and brilliant at it, and it is glorious. I'm also pleased that his wife Sybil gets some moments to really shine, after mostly just being a vague, supportive figure in the background for the last couple of books. Angua gets some development and backstory, too, although I have to admit I didn't find that quite as interesting as I would have liked. Oh, and I had apparently utterly forgotten what an appealing character the Low King of the Dwarfs is. Actually, this is a great novel for dwarfs in general, as it features some surprisingly interesting world-building involving dwarf history and culture. Pratchett being Pratchett, the political and cultural issues here have strong and deliberate echoes of our own world, but they also feel like they work on their own terms, too.

Rating: I guess I'm going to call this 4/5, being as it's a solid Discworld novel, but not one of the real standouts. Although I'm very tempted to bump it up a half-star just for Vimes being so... Vimes.

20ChocolateMuse
Juil 18, 2017, 10:50 pm

Hah it's years since I read a Pratchett, and I always loved Vimes! I think Guards! Guards is almost my favourite of all Discworld, though Wyrd Sisters about equals it. I have a sudden hankering to read about Discworld dwarfs again... should it be dwarfs or dwarves? Wikipedia seems to show that it depends on who you are reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf

21bragan
Juil 19, 2017, 12:05 am

>20 ChocolateMuse: It definitely depends. I'm pretty sure Tolkien uses dwarves, but Pratchett goes with dwarfs, so that's what I used in the review.

I think the Death books are still my favorites of the Discworld series, but, really, it's so hard to choose.

22mabith
Juil 20, 2017, 2:17 pm

The Fifth Elephant is definitely my least favorite of the Watch books. Just feels more like a side jaunt somehow than a key part of evolution of Vimes? I don't know. It's also when the audio readers switch from Nigel Planer to Stephen Briggs and it really takes Briggs a few books to settle in as the reader, so sometimes it's hard for me to separate dissatisfaction over an audio change and the text. I was SO attached to Planer, and while I think Briggs ends up being the better narrator for the Watch characters it just takes time.

23dchaikin
Juil 20, 2017, 3:13 pm

I remember really enjoying the 5th Elephant, but that was a long time ago (never read Guards! Guards! so it might have been my first Vimes).

>22 mabith: my first try with audiobooks was with Pratchett. It's was so hard to follow as his sentences go everywhere and you need to get it all in. It's is the reason I switched to mainly nonfiction with audio. : )

24bragan
Juil 20, 2017, 3:45 pm

>22 mabith: I think it doesn't so much evolve Vimes as it does just put him in a different setting and let us watch him do what he does there. Which is fine by me; I could watch Vimes doing what he does all day. Plot-wise, I do think it's the weakest of the Watch books, or at least of the ones I've re-read so far. But that's setting a really high bar.

I've heard good things about both Discworld narrators, but I can certainly imagine the transition between them being jarring. I do think that's one advantage of in doing all my reading in print. There are still zillions of extraneous factors affecting how I feel about a book, but at least that's not one of them.

>23 dchaikin: While I think you could probably do worse than The Fifth Elephant as a first look at Vimes, Guards! Guards! is not one to miss.

Come to think of it, there are probably a fair number of Pratchett's sentences I enjoy reading twice, because the humor of them surprises me somewhere in the middle. So I can see that as another possible advantage to print.

25bragan
Modifié : Juil 22, 2017, 12:52 pm

78. A Word for Love by Emily Robbins



Bea, an American college student, goes to a country which is unnamed, but clearly meant to be Syria, to study Arabic. There, she says with a local family whose members include a man involved in resistance against the government and a maid who who, during the course of Bea's stay, begins a romance with a policeman.

I have such mixed feelings about this one. It's got a lot going for it. The setting is interesting, and there's a fair amount of thematic stuff about language, which always appeals to me. And the writing is nice. Not flowery, and not full of vivid metaphor or imagery, really, but with a flow and a rhythm that's just really pretty. The thing is, though, that for much of the novel the very prettiness of the writing was oddly alienating to me, like a constant barrier of artificiality between me and the characters that kept me from being able to think of them as real people talking about real things, rather than as constructs being used by the author purely to say the right things at the right time to give the prose that nice flow.

The novel is also basically an extended meditation on the subject of love, and I must confess, I do not have nearly enough romance in my soul for that to move me the way the author clearly intends. Indeed, my reaction to the lovers here, at least for quite a while, was what it often is with love stories of this kind: a desire to roll my eyes at them and tell them, "You're not in love. You barely know each other."

So for quite a while, my main thought about the book was that while I appreciated some of what it was doing, and while I was certain it would be the perfect read for someone, someone more on the author's wavelength, it was just kind of leaving me cold.

But then I realized, as I read on, that it was starting to work for me more and more. The characters were starting to feel more like real people, and I started to care about them. The romance began to seem interestingly nuanced and to feel less idealized and more human. It still wasn't exactly gripping me, but it was doing a lot more for me, and I started revising my opinion of it steadily upwards.

...and then it culminated in an event so contrived, so cliche, and so casually tossed-off that it all kind of fell apart for me in the last few pages. Sigh.

Rating: I really don't know. Call it 3.5/5, maybe.

26VivienneR
Juil 22, 2017, 2:12 pm

Your reading taste is certainly wide-ranging: from Ascent of the A-Word to A Word for Love! I love your review for Star Trek Cats. Definitely a book to watch for.

27bragan
Juil 22, 2017, 3:28 pm

>26 VivienneR: I like to describe my reading tastes as "eclectic," mainly because it sounds better than "indiscriminate." But I like "wide-ranging," too. :)

28bragan
Juil 24, 2017, 10:39 pm

79. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan



Susannah Cahalan's problems started with an exaggerated worry about bedbugs in her apartment, a tingling in her arm, an embarrassingly bad day at the newspaper office where she worked, and a touch of what seemed like it might have been the flu. Before long, she was experiencing terrible insomnia, erratic behavior, seizures, and psychosis. And then things really got bad. Ultimately, she spent a month in the hospital growing increasingly closer to a catatonic state before her doctors were finally able to recognize her rare, poorly understood, tragically under-diagnosed disease and get her onto the road to recovery.

Cahalan writes well about her experiences of what it was like coming down with this illness, living through it, and trying to understand who she was when she was sick and who she'd become afterward. She also does a frankly impressive job of using her journalistic skills to to piece together the story of that month of hospitalization, as she personally remembered almost nothing of it, and what little she did remember was mostly hallucinatory. The result is thoughtful, engaging, clear, and fascinating, both medically and personally. Of course, it's also terrifying. I probably really didn't need another reason to worry that something horrifying is happening to my body or brain every time I feel a tingle or suffer a random memory lapse. Still, I can't remotely regret reading it because of that.

Rating: 4.5/5

29bragan
Modifié : Juil 26, 2017, 11:40 am

80. You Can Fly: A Sequel to the Peter Pan Tales by Chuck Rosenthal



Thomas P. Pandora is the son of a grown-up Peter Pan and one of his Wendys -- not the original Wendy, but a descendant of the original. They don't tell him where he came from, but he finds out on the eve of his thirteenth birthday when Tinkerbell arrives to take him to Never Never Land, where he's expected to help fight Captain Hook and prevent him from destroying magic on the island and taking it over forever.

Man... What even to say about this one? I do think there are some interesting approaches to the Peter Pan story in it. In particular, the idea that Lost Boys themselves become the pirates when they lose enough of their innocence and begin to grow up is a really intriguing one with a lot of potential. But ultimately nothing particularly satisfying is done with it, or with any other elements that might have been promising.

Mostly, my first impression of this book was that it was just... bad. It's full of clunky backstory explanations, strange-sounding dialog, and attempts at addressing the kinds of themes you might expect in a Peter Pan story -- innocence, adolescence, good and evil, imagination -- that sometimes feel like they're starting to get at something worthwhile, but just never quite work.

After a while, though, I started thinking, maybe it's not the book. Maybe it's me. I am seeing little glimpses of something that could be pretty cool in all this, so maybe there are deliberate writing choices here that I don't fully understand, and just because what it's doing isn't clicking with me doesn't mean it's inherently bad.

I'd almost come close to maybe convincing myself that perhaps this might possibly be sort of true, and then this weird, out-of-the-blue plot thing happened that had me turning pages backward to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and with it came even more clunky backstory explanations and a bunch of action sequences that were maybe trying to say something profound about fighting and growing up, but were mostly a bit incoherent. And at that point, I just gave up trying to convince myself that I might like it better if I were a better reader and accepted that it's just kind of a mess. It is, in places, something of an interesting mess. It's a mess that might have something worthwhile buried inside it, peeking out. But mostly, it's a mess.

Rating: 2/5. Which, if I'm honest, is probably still me trying to be generous to it.

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book. Although they may now be wishing they hadn't sent it to me...)

30dchaikin
Juil 26, 2017, 7:55 am

>28 bragan: interesting

>29 bragan: definitely not interesting, but entertaining internal struggle (that would sound offensive out of context). I got through this with a lot of books that I later convince myself were just bad.

31kidzdoc
Juil 26, 2017, 10:32 am

Nice review of Brain on Fire, Betty. I've taken care of two patients with that condition in the hospital in the past five years, and in both cases it was horrifying to watch them go through it. I've agreed to give a talk about it to the family practice residents at Atlanta Medical Center next month, since it is a rare condition that can be easily mistaken for a psychiatric illness, and one that can be devastating if it isn't correctly diagnosed in a reasonable amount of time.

32bragan
Juil 26, 2017, 11:37 am

>30 dchaikin: Heh. In retrospect, my own internal struggle amuses me a little. It was mostly just annoying while I was actually reading, though. I guess I just really wanted it not to be bad, but... It was kind of bad. Well, at least it was mercifully short.

>31 kidzdoc: Ooh, interesting to hear from someone with experience of it from the doctors' side. Cahalan does say it's being diagnosed a lot more often, now that doctors are more aware of it, which is heartening, but it seems both understandable and terrifying to me that something hideous but treatable like that can be so easily mistaken for something else and missed. I'm glad to know you're helping to spread understanding of it.

By the way, since the book came out several years ago, I've been wondering: did anybody ever give the condition a less unwieldy name? I haven't even wanted to try typing the whole thing out. :)

33bragan
Juil 28, 2017, 9:51 pm

81. The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez



This is a fun combination of a sort of comic book-y retro-future setting, featuring robots, mutants, and flying cars, and a hard-boiled detective story complete with seedy jazz clubs, trench coats and fedoras, and a buxom dame. (For the record, the buxom dame also happens to be an engineering genius, which I thoroughly approve of.)

I like this kind of genre-blending when it's done well, and Martinez does it very well. The world-building is great; it manages to be amusingly playful with both its detective and SF tropes, while still feeling like the world it depicts takes itself seriously. The plot's fun, too, with the robot detective (or, rather, robot killing machine-turned cab driver-turned detective) of the title investigating the disappearance of his neighbors only to find himself in the middle of something much, much bigger. By the end, there are alien conspiracies and action-packed robot fights, and all kind of entertaining things.

The one thing I'm unhappy with about this one is that, barring one short story, there don't seem to be any sequels. It ends in a way that seems like a great setup for an ongoing series, but apparently that never happened. Pity. I'd definitely be on board for it.

Rating: 4/5

34wandering_star
Juil 28, 2017, 11:55 pm

>33 bragan: Sounds excellent! Unfortunately doesn't seem to be available in the UK at the moment...

35bragan
Juil 29, 2017, 12:10 am

>34 wandering_star: Oh, that's a pity! It was published in the US in 2008. Maybe it went out of print, or just never made it over there.

36kidzdoc
Juil 31, 2017, 5:36 am

>31 kidzdoc: Thanks, Betty. That condition is still referred to as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, and it can mimic, to some degree, acute psychosis, which can be seen in older children and young adults (one of the patients I'm currently treating in the hospital is acutely psychotic). There are features of the illness that the author (and the two patients I saw) had that can distinguish it from acute psychosis or other mental illnesses, particularly mania, the manic phase of severe bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.

37mabith
Juil 31, 2017, 10:08 am

>23 dchaikin: Ah, see, the Discworld readers are one of the places where audio is so much better for me. They bring lots of extra life and depth to the books, especially Planer with the Rincewind and Witches books. I grew up with a professional storyteller though, and always listened to some audiobooks, so the format comes very naturally to me. Even in print I don't notice the same fun line or wordplay every read, things I didn't notice as much before suddenly stick out, and it's the same with audio. It's what makes Pratchett so re-readable and re-listenable!

>24 bragan: It's true, The Fifth Elephant is still a good book, but there have to be a few that are a bit less-than when compared with my Discworld favorites. I love both the narrators for different things, and I re-listen to the books all the time (I'm sure I've read Hogfather at least 20 times). If reading more in print were an option for me I'd certainly take it, for one thing it's generally faster, but I'd still listen to most of Discworld. I do re-read the first two witches books in print, as Celia Imrie reads those and I think she was a terrible choice (though I love her as an actor).

I also really loved Brain on Fire, though I kept thinking "Why were you working for a tabloid!"

38bragan
Juil 31, 2017, 4:41 pm

>36 kidzdoc: Good to know there are ways of telling it apart, and that doctors are being educated in those. These kinds of conditions are scary enough even without the possibility that they'll be misdiagnosed entirely.

>37 mabith: I have a friend who's new to Discworld who's mostly listening to them in audio, and she swears by them, too. I think probably it's all a bit different strokes for different folks. I am glad that the narrators for those are so good, though. (And I have listened to a snippet or two, and was impressed.) It'd be terrible if Pratchett had narrators who couldn't' do him justice.

As for Brain on Fire, I'm not really that familiar with the New York Post, so I wasn't sure what to think of it, but I will admit that I kept being a little confused between the approval and loyalty and apparent sense of journalistic integrity the author had about her job and the very tabloidy-seeming glimpses we got of the paper's actual contents.

39bragan
Modifié : Juil 31, 2017, 5:21 pm

82. Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday Life by Colin Ellard



Neuroscientist Colin Ellard explores the ways in which the human mind responds to the various environments we move through in our lives, from forests to urban streets to the insides of buildings.

It's a potentially fascinating topic, but I'm afraid the book itself didn't engage me quite as much as I'd hoped. It's a little dry, and in places somewhat repetitive. It didn't help, I don't think, that I was expecting more of an examination of specific environments, how they're designed, how we respond to those designs, and how human psychology can or should be taken into account by architects or urban planners. There is some of that, certainly, but on the whole the subject matter is much more abstract, and much more focused on brains than on places. Also, the author places a little too much emphasis on his own research using VR to simulate environments like the interior of houses, and I don't think the details of that are quite as interesting as he thinks they are.

Still, it's not bad, even if it's not quite what I was hoping for. I did appreciate Ellard's thoughtful discussion, towards the end of the book, of the ways in which modern technology, such as smartphones and the emerging Internet of Things, can affect our experiences of the physical world around us in both positive and negative ways.

Rating: 3.5/5

40bragan
Août 3, 2017, 5:16 am

83. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer



Matt is the clone of an evil and powerful man, a drug lord who controls a huge chunk of land along what used to be the border between the United States and Mexico. As a clone, Matt is considered less than human and treated accordingly, but fortunately not everybody is on board with this.

This book has apparently won a bunch of awards, including the Newbery, and I can see why. The SF tropes it features are pretty familiar by now, maybe even over-familiar, but Farmer handles them really well, in a way that made me almost forget I'd seen them so often before. She does a good job with the world-building, too, letting us gradually come to understand the world Matt was born into, in all its horrors, as he slowly comes to understand it himself. And it is pretty horrible. I'm not sure exactly what age group this is primarily aimed at -- by the writing style and the age of the protagonist by the end of the book, I'd guess middle school and up -- but it strikes me as surprisingly dark for a kids' book. But it's effectively so, and the story, the world, and the characters are engaging and real-feeling. Heck, even the over-the-top evil of the drug lord character somehow feels believable and human.

Rating: 4/5, although if this wasn't adult me rating a book whose writing is aimed at kids, I suspect I'd be giving it a half star more.

41dchaikin
Août 3, 2017, 6:57 am

>39 bragan: bummer.

>37 mabith:, >38 bragan: interesting about the different experiences of Pratchett on audio. Maybe I should try a Rincewind book on audio.

42bragan
Modifié : Août 4, 2017, 5:08 am

84. Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday by Nancy Atherton



This is actually book 8 in the Aunt Dimity series, but it's the first of them I've read. I'm usually a bit of a stickler for reading series in order, but a friend gave me a copy of this one, and I figure with most mystery series it probably doesn't matter all that much where you start. And, indeed, I had no trouble jumping in here, although I do kind of wonder whether I might have found the characters a little more interesting if I'd already known them going in.

The series appears to involve a woman who solves minor mysteries with the help of the ghost of an old lady who communicates with her by making words appear in a journal. In this installment, an aristocratic family gets together in their stately English home to work out some inheritance issues, and someone is making anonymous threats towards one of the family members.

It's a readable enough novel, I guess, and I find the fact that there's no actual murder involved a little refreshing, but mostly it just kind of bored me. The ghost gimmick sounded potentially interesting, but it's actually completely extraneous here, and could easily have been left out entirely. The mystery was mildly interesting for a while, but it's solved in a very unsatisfying way, with a third party basically coming in and telling us the answer, rather than the protagonist working things out herself. And the family issues are all resolved in a really pat and unbelievable way.

Oh, well. At least it was short. And I do suppose that someone who's a bigger fan of cozy mysteries than I am, or who is less tired of English aristocrats in stately homes -- I think watching Downton Abbey met my quota of those approximately forever -- might find it at least a little less dull. Still, I don't really think I'll be bothering with any of the rest of the series.

Rating: 2.5/5

43bragan
Août 6, 2017, 12:25 am

85. Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten Troost



Author J. Maarten Troost takes us along for his time living in the Pacific island nations of Vanuatu and Fiji, including his experiences with cyclones, mudslides, and annoying colonialist Frenchmen, not to mention starting a family and becoming entirely too fond of kava, the local recreational drug of choice. Along the way, he tells us a bit about the history, culture, landscape, and politics of these islands. (The politics were particularly relevant on Fiji, which had recently experienced a coup before Troost moved there, and was clearly in a disturbed and unsettled state.)

It's a fun, interesting, breezily written book, with a good sense of humor, making it a pleasant experience for the armchair traveler. I do look a little askance at the title, because, come on, are we not over referring to people as "savages?" But Troost certainly never takes a condescending attitude towards the native peoples of the islands, even if he does have a little trouble wrapping his brain around the violence of their history, which apparently includes a fairly recent tradition of cannibalism.

Rating: 4/5

44bragan
Modifié : Août 11, 2017, 12:33 am

86. All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg



I almost feel like I shouldn't have liked this book. It focuses on the life of an art school dropout who works for an advertising firm in New York City, drinks too much, navel-gazes a lot, sleep a with a lot of completely unsuitable men, and feels generally unfulfilled with her life and her single status. Not the sort of person I generally find interesting or easy to empathize with in a novel. But, damn it, Jami Attenberg makes me care about her, and relate to her, and feel for her. It's something in the writing, I think. The writing is terrific. It's a very clean style, nothing that feels fancy, but the words are all perfectly chosen and it's a delight to read. Which seems a bit odd to say, because the protagonist's life, in general, is not a happy one. But it is, anyway. And, in the end, it left me with a beautiful, painful knot of emotion in my stomach, which was unexpected and impressive.

The structure is odd, because each chapter reads like its own tiny short story, with facts we already knew about from past chapters re-explained or characters re-introduced as if we might never have seen them before. It sounds as if it should be annoying, but it works. It doesn't feel repetitive, but rather as if we're seeing aspects of the main character's life in a relevant new context each time. And the end result very much does feel like it adds up to a novel.

I doubt I would ever have picked this one up on my own initiative -- I got it from a book subscription service -- but I'm really, really glad I read it.

Rating: 4.5/5

45dchaikin
Août 7, 2017, 8:19 am

I'm listening to a memoir by a chic-lit author, which has me thinking of genres and prejudices. I would have pegged this, derogatorily, as chic-lit based on cover and plot summary. But it sounds like a good correction to that. (I'm curious what the book subscription service is.)

46bragan
Août 7, 2017, 3:59 pm

>45 dchaikin: I know, the cover, in particular, screams chick lit, and I find it irrationally off-putting. I sort of want to say, well, maybe it is chick lit, but it's really good chick lit. But, geez, do I hate it when people speak condescendingly like that of genres I like. When people say it about science fiction, it's an infallible indicator they don't know very much about science fiction, so I fear I have become the thing I hate. :)

The subscription service is Muse Monthly, which every months sends you a book and some tea. I joined for a few months, but quite because it was just making my TBR bigger, and I kept not getting around to reading the previous books before the new one would come. But I've now read three of the ones they've sent me, and two of them (this one and Dragon Springs Road) I've loved, while the third (A Word for Love) was not my -- ha! -- cup of tea, but was at least interesting. I'm thinking if I ever get the TBR even a little bit under control I should rejoin, if it's still going. But, really, who am I kidding about that?

47dchaikin
Août 7, 2017, 10:43 pm

chick lit is associated with lower quality authors who sell tons of books. A modern conundrum that makes our snobbish sides hyperventilate. But, it surely includes good writing too. (Isn't Ferrante essentially chick lit?)

Interesting about Muse Monthly and the tea.

48bragan
Août 8, 2017, 12:23 am

>47 dchaikin: There's certainly no reason it shouldn't include high-quality stuff. To say "if it's good, then by definition it isn't (insert genre here)" seems to be both really dumb and downright insulting to fans of the genre in question.

Books and tea are two of my favorite things, especially when enjoyed together, so it seemed like a really great idea! And it would have been, if my shelves weren't already full...

49mabith
Août 8, 2017, 3:09 pm

>38 bragan: >41 dchaikin: I think for most people the way you FIRST read something is the way you end up thinking is best.

>42 bragan: I really like Troost's books, but the titles... I did have to stop being annoyed about his book The Sex Lives of Cannibals because there's a clear bit in the book where he explains that the locals on Kiribati thought he and his girlfriend were cannibals. I just glossed over it in my first reading.

50bragan
Août 8, 2017, 10:09 pm

>49 mabith: Yeah, The Sex Lives of Cannibals is certainly an eye-catching title, but pretty darned misleading. I like that one, anyway, though.

51mabith
Août 9, 2017, 10:13 pm

I really liked the book too, and even re-read it recently. I should have said I had to stop being mad at the title!

52Simone2
Août 10, 2017, 11:38 pm

>44 bragan: Your review makes me want to read this book while it sounds like another Bridget Jones ar the same time. Will check it out!

53bragan
Modifié : Août 11, 2017, 12:34 am

>52 Simone2: I haven't read Bridget Jones, only heard things about it second-hand, so I can't say for sure. But I suspect the similarities don't go very deep.

Also, I just realized the touchstone on it was wrong, and have now fixed it.

54bragan
Août 16, 2017, 1:14 am

88. The Art of Failing by Anthony McGowan



In the format of short diary entries over the course of a year (September to September), Anthony McGowan records various moments of failure, awkwardness and eccentricity, as well as random observations, stray thoughts, and offbeat musings. It's simultaneously self-deprecating and self-indulgent, and the writing sometimes seems clever and original, and sometimes like it's trying entirely too hard to be clever and original. It's all reasonably entertaining for a while, but, honestly, 275 pages of it is way, way too much. I was getting pretty tired of it by about 50. I suspect it's a book that's really better just not read straight through.

Rating: 3/5

Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.

55bragan
Modifié : Août 19, 2017, 3:31 pm

89. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame



I know I'd read this book as a kid, but have always been a bit surprised by how little impression it apparently left on me and how little I remembered about it. So a revisit seemed in order.

And... Well, it's a perfectly fine kids' book. The writing is good, and doesn't condescend to or oversimplify itself for young readers, which I approve of, although a few of the hymn-to-nature passages do get to be a little bit much. And Toad is kind of a fun character; the chapter where his friends stage an intervention for him for his automotive addiction made me laugh out loud. But I can kind of see how kid-me didn't find it all that memorable. I just never quite felt as charmed by it as its reputation suggests I should be. It's nice enough, but when it comes to classic talking-animals-in-the-woods-of-Britain stories, it's never going to rival Winnie-the-Pooh for a place in my heart.

Rating: Despite my sense that it doesn't quite live up to its reputation, this probably does still deserve a 4/5.

56bragan
Août 20, 2017, 12:23 am

90. The Grownup by Gillian Flynn



A sex worker-turned-scam artist psychic seizes on an opportunity when a client comes in for an aura reading with a story about something being very wrong in her house: why not charge her for repeated "cleansings" of the place? Eventually, however, it begins to feel as if there is something genuinely creepy going on.

This is a novella-length story (or maybe it's even short enough to qualify as a short story), and that's a good thing. It's pretty slight, so the fact that it's a quick, easy, read-in-one-sitting experience works in its favor. Also working in its favor is the way it plays on traditional haunted house stories in a somewhat clever way. Less in its favor, however, is the way it goes positively overboard with getting all super-twisty at the end. In theory, there's an interesting idea here, but in practice it results in kind of an unnatural-feeling mess. Which is maybe another reason why it's good that it's short. In a novel, that kind of ending would be deeply frustrating as payoff for everything that went before it. In something this short, it's easier to accept it as moderately entertaining, even if not entirely successful.

Rating: 3.5/5

57bragan
Août 23, 2017, 8:16 pm

91. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013 edited by Siddhartha Mukherjee.



I've been slowly making my way through these Best American Science and Nature Writing collections from a few years ago. So far I've read the 2011, 2012, and now the 2013 editions. I've enjoyed all of them, but I think this might be my favorite of the three. Some of these essays, admittedly, have more worthwhile things to say than others, but I found all of them interesting, at least, and many of them very well-written. 2013's editor, Siddhartha Mukherjee, says he mostly tried to pick pieces he felt were about the process of doing science, rather than just about interesting results, which I approve of. But even more than that, it seems to me that most of these essays and articles feature, or at least tie in to, the asking of very big, broad questions about life, humanity, the universe, and the future. Also, for what it's worth, while the previous two volumes seemed to skew very heavily towards technology and biological and environmental sciences, this one has at least a fair bit of representation for subjects like physics and cosmology as well.

Rating: 4/5

58bragan
Août 29, 2017, 12:10 am

92. The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker



A novel about two women of humble, redneck-y origins who make edgy, compelling, autobiographical animated movies together.

This wasn't quite the story I expected it to be. I think maybe I was under the impression it was about the careers of and romance between two hard-working women employed by an outfit along the lines of Pixar, which turned out not to be right at all. The main characters' life stories and lifestyles were wilder than I was expecting, as was their art, and I was completely wrong about the nature of their love lives. But once I shifted mental gears away from whatever book I thought I was reading, I did enjoy the novel it actually was. The characters are vivid and believable, sometimes endearing and relatable, sometimes exasperating and self-destructive, but always interesting. I did, in places, find myself thinking that the sheer number of bad things that had happened to them (things that complicate their identities and fuel their art) was maybe a bit, well, much. But mostly it really works. And I'm rather impressed by the realistic and interesting way that Whitaker captures and engages with the idea of artistic creativity, including the ways in which putting your life on display can affect the other people who are part of your story.

Rating: 4/5

59bragan
Août 30, 2017, 1:48 pm

93. Summer Falls and Other Stories by Amelia Williams, Melody Malone, and Justin Richards



OK, no part of this was actually written by Amelia Williams or Melody Malone, because Amelia Williams (better known as Amy Pond) and Melody Malone (aka River Song, among other things) are fictional characters from Doctor Who. But they're characters who both did some writing at some point, according to the show, and this book purports to feature some of it. In actuality, the stories were written by Justin Richards (who did put his name on his contributions) and James Goss (who didn't, but is credited on the copyright page).

I'll be honest here. A lot of these Doctor Who tie-in books are not great, and this particular concept seemed super gimmicky, so I wasn't really expecting much. Which means I was delightfully surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

Here's what's included:

"Introduction": An introduction supposedly written by Amy, in which she starts off talking about the book, but then throws in a message for the Doctor that ties in to events that happened on the show after she left. Which is a bit clever, and the characterization of Amy and her husband Rory feels spot-on.

"Summer Falls": A kids' story, supposedly written by Amy, in which a young girl finds her seaside town in the grip of an unnatural winter and has to bring summer back. It features a very Doctor-like character (or perhaps a character who simply is the Doctor), and does a great job with his very Doctorish dialog. Arguably, this could be a Doctor Who episode written as if it were a kids' story, albeit with fewer sciencey-sounding explanations and more talking cats. But it's actually a genuinely good kids' story in its own right, aside from a slightly rushed-feeling ending, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

"The Angel's Kiss": This is the one by "Melody Malone," a pulpy SF/detective piece in which River's alter ego, Melody Malone, is hired by a movie star who thinks people are plotting to kill him, and discovers the truth is much weirder than that. The plot makes less than zero sense, but it's hard to care, because the writing is so much fun. And I could hear pretty much every line in River's voice.

"The Devil in the Smoke": This one isn't by a Doctor Who character, but rather about some of them. It features the great Silurian detective, Madame Vastra, and her friends investigating a strange murder and ultimately saving the world. The writing here doesn't work quite as well as in the last one, as it's trying to mimic a Victorian style just by throwing a lot of big words around, but it was fun to read, anyway. The story felt like it could very easily have been an episode of the show, and the characters are well done. In particular, Strax was pitch-perfect and hilarious.

"The Girl Who never Grew Up": This is supposedly an extract from an interview with Amy in 1969, in which Amy says a lot of things that the (rather annoying) interviewer doesn't understand, but the reader does. It makes for a little bit of a poignant emotional moment at the end.

Rating: 4/5

60dchaikin
Août 31, 2017, 11:45 pm

>60 dchaikin: I'm always interested in reading your response to these anthologies. You make this one appeal. I like the idea of Mukherje's focus.

61bragan
Sep 1, 2017, 12:44 am

>63 bragan: It is worthwhile, I think. And Mukherjee and I have largely compatible ideas about what good science writing should do, I think.

62bragan
Modifié : Sep 1, 2017, 9:20 pm

94. What Language Is (And What It Isn't and What It Could Be) by John McWhorter



John McWhorter offers us a linguists'-eye view of language, considering questions like: what does it mean for a language to have a simple grammar vs a complex one, and what is it that causes the difference? He also explores a lot of ways in which the understanding and perspective of people who study language for a living can be very, very different from the intuitive assumptions of those of us who merely speak it, including questions of what's a "real" language (as opposed to sloppy, mistaken, or wrong language, or "primitive" or "impure" language), and what kinds of characteristics are "normal" in a language. (English, it turns out, is a little strange in some ways -- albeit ones that make perfect sense given its history -- and isn't the greatest standard by which to judge normality.)

McWhorter does go into a lot more depth than I was expecting, or, honestly, than I thought I was quite in the mood for, including lots and lots of (sometimes slightly technical) examples from languages both familiar and obscure. But I quickly became utterly fascinated by it all. It helps that he writes in a very accessible style, sprinkling the text with occasional dorky jokes, dorky references, or odd little personal asides. If you're familiar with his Lexicon Valley podcast -- and if you have an interest in language, it's worth a listen -- the book feels much the same in tone, it's just that he gets to take a much deeper dive into things than a half-hour podcast would ever allow.

I found it meaty, insightful, informative, and well worthwhile. Despite having already read a few other books on more or less the same subject, I feel like I've come out of it more enlightened than I went in.

Rating: 4.5/5

63bragan
Sep 3, 2017, 1:39 pm

95. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith



Ten books into the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and I'm still finding it as warm and lovely as ever. This time, we finally get to know something about the life of the character formerly known as The Apprentice Who Is Not Charlie, mourn with Precious Ramotswe as she faces what looks like the end of her beloved little white van, and watch Grace Makutsi seething over the fact that her fiancé has hired her man-stealing nemesis to work in his furniture store. Oh, and there's also some investigation, of course, as the owner of a soccer team hires the ladies to find who is sabotaging his team so they keep losing. But, as always, the plot, such as it is, is far less the focus than the characters, the ups and downs of their lives, their endearing human foibles, their heart-warming basic decency, and their gentle musings on the human condition.

Interestingly, many of said musings, even more in this book than in previous ones, involve the nature and roles and differing interests of men and women, a subject I usually find unbearably annoying. But Mma Ramotswe's thoughts on the matter, somehow, offend me not at all, perhaps because they're less about lazy stereotypes and more about very real-feeling observations, and because she is always careful not to present those generalizations as absolutes. That, I suppose, and because the women always come out of it well.

Anyway. This series remains marvelous comfort reading for me.

Rating: 4/5

64RidgewayGirl
Sep 3, 2017, 1:46 pm

I really enjoyed The Animators when I read it. I'm looking forward to more by Whitaker.

I've downloaded a few episodes of Lexicon Valley to try out.

65bragan
Sep 3, 2017, 1:49 pm

>67 bragan: I'm really impressed by the fact that that was her first novel. I think I'll be interested in more by her, too.

I hope you enjoy the Lexicon Valley episodes! If you're starting at the beginning, it's worth noting it was originally hosted by other people, but the last, I dunno, couple of years' worth have been all McWhorter.

66bragan
Sep 6, 2017, 5:55 am

96. Résumé with Monsters by William Browning Spencer



Philip Kenan works a tedious job at a print shop, and spends much of the free time his boss grudgingly allows him endlessly fiddling with the bloated horror novel he's been writing for the last twenty years. But he doesn't believe the Lovecraftian horrors he's writing about are merely fiction. He's seen them. Or he thinks he has, at least, even if everyone else in his life thinks he's crazy.

The basic concept here is something like the Cthulhu Mythos meets Office Space, with Lovecraft's monstrous Old Ones either representing or in league with the soul-crushing systems of corporate America. Which is an utterly irresistible premise. But, despite the fact that there are some really fun ideas and entertaining moments, this story never quite clicked for me the way I wanted it to. I'm not entirely sure why. I think mostly the balance between the wacky, ridiculous elements and the more serious ones never felt perfectly right, somehow. Or, at least, I was never quite able to calibrate that balance properly in my head. I suppose it also didn't help that that main character's stalkery behavior towards his ex-girlfriend was a bit of a deal-breaker for me when it came to being able to sympathize with him. Or, come to think of it, that the female characters were less believable than the extradimensional abominations.

Still, I can't help thinking that, handled the right way, this story could have served as the basis for a really entertaining offbeat movie.

Rating: 3/5

67bragan
Sep 6, 2017, 6:54 am

97. F in Exams: Pop Quiz: All New Awesomely Wrong Test Answers by Richard Benson.



A collection of dumb or smart-assed answers to test questions. Mostly smart-assed ones. This is apparently the third such collection, although I'd only previously read the first one. As I recall, the first one made a point of claiming in the introduction that these were real answers from real students. I notice this one doesn't, and it's honestly a bit difficult not to think they're probably fake. In any case I didn't find it quite as amusing as the first one, overall, although there were some that did make me laugh.

My hands-down favorite: answering "Give one advantage of having a telescope at the top of a high mountain rather than the bottom" with "The mountain doesn't get in the way." I mean, hey, they're not wrong!

Rating: 3/5

68mabith
Sep 7, 2017, 3:50 pm

Glad to see that the McWhorter book was good. I think he's really skilled at packing in real, scholarly info in a clear way. I loved his Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue.

69bragan
Sep 7, 2017, 7:19 pm

>71 bragan: Yeah, it's an important skill, and he definitely possesses it.

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue is definitely on my wishlist.

70bragan
Sep 9, 2017, 11:29 pm

98. Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson



Izzy is eighteen and pregnant by a man who, it becomes clear, is not going to stay in the picture, when she is approached to become part of a strange new project in which ten families, all expecting babies at the same time, will live in a complex together and raise their children communally, with the kids not even knowing which ones are their biological parents until they are five.

My reaction to this book is interesting, because while I feel like I mostly liked it all right, when I sit down to think about it, all I can focus on are its flaws. Like the fact that while the project described here is certainly a social experiment, it's really not a scientific one, despite being presented that way. And while you could have gotten away with pretending something like this is scientific in the 70s, I really don't think it would fly today. And then there's the secondary main character, Dr. Grind, the founder of the project. He's a fairly interesting personality, but I just don't find his backstory creditable. So I had a little trouble with suspension of disbelief, in general.

More significant is the fact that, while Izzy lives with these nine other families for years, I never got a good sense of who most of these people are. Generally they were so underdeveloped that nothing about them really stuck in my head, to the point where I ultimately stopped trying to keep track of who was who. And while, unsurprisingly, there's a lot of drama and conflict in this non-traditional family, the novel skips lightly over most of it, skimming over all the years these people spend together and just occasionally dipping in to give us a glimpse of how things are going and telling us what the problems are, rather than letting us experience it immersively. Which is not really very satisfying.

But, like I said, I did like it okay, anyway. I think that's mostly down to two things. The first is the inherent interest value of the idea. And the second is the character of Izzy, who is really well-realized and interesting. The early part of the novel, which is set before she joins the program and focuses very strongly on her and her life, is by far the best, and it earned a lot of goodwill from me, I guess. I do feel like our sense of Izzy as a person gets weaker as the novel goes on, though. So, again, not totally satisfying.

I suppose, in the end, I'd characterize this as a decent and fairly interesting, but very far from perfect. Maybe a bit like the experimental family itself.

Rating: I suppose I ought to call it a 3.5/5.

71bragan
Sep 10, 2017, 10:52 pm

99. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein



Eccentric game designer Luigi Lemoncello has just built a fantastic new public library, complete with lots of nifty extras and some impressive futuristic technology. He's invited twelve twelve-year-old essay contest winners to spend a night in the library before it opens, during which he reveals a contest: The front door is shut tight, but there is another way to escape from the library (without using the fire exits!). Whoever follows the many clues provided to discover the exit will win a fabulous prize.

I wasn't super impressed with this one at first. I mean, I'm immediately well-disposed towards anything set in a library, but it otherwise seemed like a fairly run-of-the-mill kids' book, with a not terribly interesting protagonist and a deeply annoying antagonist. Plus, Mr. Lemoncello, while he's compared to Willy Wonka in the story, isn't nearly as interesting.

But once the challenge got started and the puzzle plot kicked into gear, I have to say, I was hooked. It was clever and lots of fun, with the puzzles and clues complicated and non-obvious enough to thoroughly to engage well-read adult me, but without, I think, being too hard for bright kid readers to follow along with and enjoy. I ended up liking it way more than I expected to. I'd definitely recommend it for kids who like books and/or puzzles, and it's entertaining for adults who like kids' books about books and puzzles, too.

Rating: 4/5

72Narilka
Sep 11, 2017, 9:39 am

>74 Narilka: That sounds like a lot of fun. Is it part of a series?

73bragan
Sep 11, 2017, 8:14 pm

>75 Simone2: Yes, apparently there are two sequels (although the book itself stands alone). I've already put the next one on my wishlist.

74Narilka
Sep 12, 2017, 10:13 am

>76 bragan: Nice. I put it on my wishlist.

75Simone2
Sep 16, 2017, 6:05 am

>61 bragan: Catching up on your thread. Good review this, seems like a book I should read.

76bragan
Sep 16, 2017, 5:41 pm

>78 dchaikin: I did like it, even if it wasn't quite what I was expecting and might not be perfect, so if it sounds appealing to you, I'd say it probably is worth checking out!

77bragan
Sep 17, 2017, 12:41 am

100. Natural Lives, Modern Times: People and Places of the Delaware River by Bruce Stutz



A look at the people, places, wildlife, and history of the Delaware River, with a particular emphasis on the natural habitats it provides for plants and animals, on people who live (or once lived) traditional lifestyles along the river, such as fishing or farming, and on how the river has changed, often in troubling and destructive ways, over the course of time.

I grew up in the Delaware Valley, myself, but my particular piece of New Jersey was a wasteland of seemingly endless suburban sprawl, and my views of the shores of the Delaware consisted largely of the slums of Camden on one side and the streets of Philadelphia on the other. So it was interesting to me, at least in principle, to get a broader look at a river I never knew quite as well as I should have. And this is a very broad look, as Stutz covers a lot of ground, spending time with everyone from muskrat trappers to historians to biologists to kids on a canoe trip.

But, I must say, the book itself varied a lot in how interesting I found it, with some sections I found engaging, and others that seemed to drag rather badly. And while overall it follows the geography of the river, heading upstream as it goes along, it feels very, very rambly and not particularly structured. It's also probably a bit dated, as it was published in 1990, and the future of many of the places and people Stutz talks about was already very uncertain then. On the other hand, many of the environmental issues he brings up are no doubt still extremely relevant.

I think this is one of those books I wouldn't necessarily recommend to someone who's just looking for some good nature writing in general, because as nature writing it's okay, and it makes some good points, but it doesn't particularly stand out. On the other hand, if you have a specific interest in the Delaware and the past, present and future of its people and environment, it may well be the book you want to read. Although I'm not entirely sure whether it's still in print or not.

Rating: 3.5/5

78dchaikin
Sep 17, 2017, 3:13 pm

Congrats on book 100. The Delaware as a topic does interest both because I've spent time in Philly and from a geological perspective I've always been curious about the "Delaware Gap". A casual interest, mind you, but noting.

79bragan
Sep 17, 2017, 10:33 pm

>81 OscarWilde87: There is a little bit in the book about the geology of the Delaware Water Gap, although it's far from a main focus.

80bragan
Sep 18, 2017, 2:24 am

101. Cosmic Engineers by Clifford D. Simak



Two space-going newspapermen, an experimental pilot, a famous scientist, and a woman -- also a scientist -- who has been in suspended animation for a thousand years make contact with aliens from the edge of space, and are recruited to help save the universe from a devastating threat.

I liked this a lot. For much of the time I was reading it, I kept thinking that I liked it more than I probably really ought to. It was, after all, published in 1950, and it has a very old-fashioned feel to it, of a kind that does not often age well. The characters have a habit of standing around explaining things to each other in stilted fashion. Many of the scientific details are dated or downright nonsensical. And it plays on an SF trope I've come to dislike: the idea of humans as somehow extra-special and possessed of abilities or strength of character that nobody else in the universe has.

But, regardless, I liked it a lot. It's chock-full of interesting SF ideas, even if not all of them do make a whole lot of sense. And the old-fashioned feel it has, rather than feeling dusty and annoying, had a certain odd, nostalgic charm for me. Rather like watching an old black-and-white movie with slightly cheesy sensibilities, but surprisingly good production values. Or maybe an episode of the classic Twilight Zone. Although, towards the end, it began to feel more like original-series Star Trek to me (which I regard as no bad thing). There are moments where the writing is surprisingly evocative, in a low-key but effective way, conjuring up a real sense of the vastness and strangeness of the universe and the exciting possibilities of humanity's place in it. Plus, Simak may not have been the only SF author in 1950 able to write a female character who doesn't feel terribly offensive or embarrassing to modern readers, but there are certainly few enough of them to make it worth noting, anyway.

Rating: 4/5.

81OscarWilde87
Sep 20, 2017, 12:38 pm

Interesting books and great reviews around here. I am especially interested in What Language Is (And What It Isn't and What It Could Be).

82bragan
Sep 20, 2017, 12:53 pm

>84 avaland: It's worth being interested in, I think!

And thanks.

83bragan
Modifié : Sep 22, 2017, 10:31 am

102. Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough



Louise has an encounter with a man in a bar that ends with a kiss, after which she has trouble getting him out of her head. Then she discovers that the man is her new boss. And then she (literally) bumps into the guy's wife and somehow finds herself entering into a friendship with her, even while there's something developing between Louise and the husband. So far, so Jerry Springer, but then things get really weird. There is obviously something very, very odd going on in that marriage, but it's not remotely obvious what. And the wife is clearly pursuing some scheme, but is she a villain or a victim?

I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but this is another book I feel like I enjoyed maybe more than I actually should have. I mean, the plot is nuts. Just nuts. I'm not sure how well any of it holds up under too much scrutiny. It also does this thing of starting out feeling like it's grounded in the real world only to introduce some mystical or paranormal idea partway in, which is usually something I find very annoying. I like fantasy elements, but only if they're clear from the start, rather than feeling like the author is expecting me to believe these things are real. It didn't bother me nearly as much here as it usually does, though. And I actually managed to find Louise somewhat sympathetic despite the fact that she makes all the worst, most awful, most eyeroll-inducing decisions in the world, which leaves me unsure whether to feel irritated or impressed at the way she's written.

And then there's the ending, which is touted all over the dust jacket as a shocker. I was feeling rather smug about the fact that I saw it coming at least 50 pages ahead, but it turned out I only guessed about half of it. The things I didn't had part of me feeling quite pleased that I got an unexpected ending after all, while the rest of me (probably the more rational part) protested feebly that it wasn't sure any of it actually worked, on any number of levels.

But. Well, it did keep me entertained and interested the entire time I was reading it. Which is possibly all I ask of this kind of novel. Maybe that's just because I happened to be in exactly the right, not-very-critical mood, but, y'know, I'll take it.

Rating: 4/5. Based, of course, entirely on my enjoyment levels rather than on some objective attempt at assessing its quality.

84avaland
Modifié : Sep 23, 2017, 9:03 am

Ce message a été supprimé par son auteur

85auntmarge64
Sep 22, 2017, 11:01 pm

>9 bragan: re: Star Trek Cats - I had the same reaction. First I thought it was going to be a total loss, and then I loved it. Then a neighbor stopped by and couldn't take her eyes off it, so after I read it I gave it to her, because she and her husband are cat AND ST fans. And I agree about a TNG version.

86bragan
Sep 23, 2017, 9:54 pm

>88 bragan: You're very generous. I don't think I'd part with my copy. :)

Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing a DS9 version, either...

87bragan
Sep 24, 2017, 3:00 pm

103. Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan



Humorous musings and anecdotes from comedian Jim Gaffigan about the experience of raising five young kids in a small apartment in New York City. I never found it laugh-out-loud funny, but it's mildly amusing (even if he does tend to reuse the same basic kind of jokes a little too often) and sometimes cute. I gotta say though, even though it's very clear Gaffigan loves his kids no matter how much chaos they cause in his life, my main reaction to reading the whole thing is a sort of horrified relief at the fact that I've managed to escape living this life by virtue of not having kids. I'm feeling very, very good about that life choice right now.

Rating: a slightly generous 3.5/5

88bragan
Sep 27, 2017, 3:22 pm

104. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett



My intermittent re-reading of Pratchett's City Watch books continues with Night Watch. In this one, Commander Vimes is flung back in time while chasing a psychopathic murderer and finds himself fighting in a revolution he already lived through once, but seems destined not to live through this time.

This is often named as possibly the best of Pratchett's Discworld books (a category with a heck of a lot of competition). I'm not sure it's my own personal favorite, but it is damned, damned good. Pratchett's writing often features some extremely insightful reflections on what we might call the human condition -- much more so than you'd expect from what purports to be a fun, humorous fantasy series -- and that is very much in evidence here. Pratchett looks full-on at the often uncaring messiness of the world and its depressing cycles of repeating history, but tempers that with some affecting examples of the hope that community ties and the integrity and humanity of individuals can provide in the face of faceless oppression. It may have left me with a bit of a lump in my throat at the end. And, of course, it once again provides an excellent showcase for one of Pratchett's best characters, and comes with a generous helping of Pratchett's trademark wit.

Also, I'm not saying that Mad Lord Snapcase -- who is raised to power by people desperate for change largely on the basis that he pretends to pay attention to them as he waves from his fancy carriage, only to immediately prove to be a self-centered and terrible ruler -- well, I'm not saying he makes me think of anybody in particular. I'll just say that none of these books seems to have gotten any less timely and relevant-feeling since the day they were published.

Rating: 4.5/5

89bragan
Sep 29, 2017, 12:06 am

105. Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich



Book fourteen (ish) in Janet Evanovich's series about Stephanie Plum, bumbling bounty hunter. This time, Stephanie takes a side job as security for an aging singer, she and her sometimes-boyfriend Joe Morelli end up babysitting a teenager who's obsessed with an online RPG, and it turns out there may be nine million dollars hidden somewhere in Morelli's house.

Really, what is there to say after fourteen-plus of these? It's quick-reading and mildly diverting but instantly forgettable. Or, basically: it's another Stephanie Plum novel.

Rating: 3/5

90dchaikin
Modifié : Sep 29, 2017, 7:56 am

"my main reaction to reading the whole thing is a sort of horrified relief at the fact that I've managed to escape living this life by virtue of not having kids. I'm feeling very, very good about that life choice right now."

: ) Some days, more than I should admit, I wonder about life without the insanity of kids...

ETA - I really should read Night Watch. Enjoyed your review.

91bragan
Sep 29, 2017, 2:41 pm

>93 I occasionally wonder what it would be like to have kids, but then I inevitably come to my senses. ;)

And Night Watch definitely comes recommended. I think the experience of having re-read the previous Watch books enhances it, too.

92bragan
Oct 1, 2017, 3:50 pm

And that's it for this thread. A new post for the last quarter of the year can be found here.