Bragan's Tenth Thingaversary Reading, Part 4
DiscussionsClub Read 2017
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1bragan
Time for a new post, as we head into the final quarter of my tenth Thingaversary year. The post for the previous quarter is here.
As usual, I'm just going to jump right back into the reading. So:
106. Eavesdropping: An Intimate History by John L. Locke
Eavesdropping sounds like a very narrow and limited subject. But the more you think about it, the more you might realize that it covers some very broad territory indeed, since what is eavesdropping but a manifestation of our psychological and social need (or at least desire) to learn about and understand the people around us? This book talks about that need/desire in a lot of different contexts, from animals who monitor the alarm cries of other species and the social hierarchies of their own, to the way human societies police behavior and enforce their social norms, to the changing notions of privacy that cropped up as people started living their lives behind walls, to readers' interest in experiencing the inner lives of people who don't even exist. There's also a bit about how the internet puts ordinary lives on display in a way they never have been before, although rather less of that sort of thing than you might expect; the author seems way more interested in 18th century court cases involving people peeking through holes in walls than he does in cyberstalking.
It's wide-ranging and fairly interesting stuff, and definitely gives you things to think about, although Locke's writing, while decent enough, never grabbed me as much as I would have liked. And I do feel like he has a little bit of a tendency to make sweeping, abstract assertions without thoroughly grounding them in actual evidence. But, to be honest, I find myself feeling that way about most books that are labeled with things like "an intimate history" or "a cultural history." My more scientific brain keeps wanting them to be scientific histories instead, and isn't satisfied unless they not only tell me interesting things, but explain sufficiently how we know. This book is actually a lot less irritating to me in this way than many of them are, but that's still something I found myself thinking from time to time.
Rating: 3.5/5
As usual, I'm just going to jump right back into the reading. So:
106. Eavesdropping: An Intimate History by John L. Locke
Eavesdropping sounds like a very narrow and limited subject. But the more you think about it, the more you might realize that it covers some very broad territory indeed, since what is eavesdropping but a manifestation of our psychological and social need (or at least desire) to learn about and understand the people around us? This book talks about that need/desire in a lot of different contexts, from animals who monitor the alarm cries of other species and the social hierarchies of their own, to the way human societies police behavior and enforce their social norms, to the changing notions of privacy that cropped up as people started living their lives behind walls, to readers' interest in experiencing the inner lives of people who don't even exist. There's also a bit about how the internet puts ordinary lives on display in a way they never have been before, although rather less of that sort of thing than you might expect; the author seems way more interested in 18th century court cases involving people peeking through holes in walls than he does in cyberstalking.
It's wide-ranging and fairly interesting stuff, and definitely gives you things to think about, although Locke's writing, while decent enough, never grabbed me as much as I would have liked. And I do feel like he has a little bit of a tendency to make sweeping, abstract assertions without thoroughly grounding them in actual evidence. But, to be honest, I find myself feeling that way about most books that are labeled with things like "an intimate history" or "a cultural history." My more scientific brain keeps wanting them to be scientific histories instead, and isn't satisfied unless they not only tell me interesting things, but explain sufficiently how we know. This book is actually a lot less irritating to me in this way than many of them are, but that's still something I found myself thinking from time to time.
Rating: 3.5/5
2bragan
107. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
On the generation ship Matilda, on a centuries-long journey that seems to be going nowhere, the dark-skinned inhabitants of the lower decks are oppressed and impoverished, forced to labor for the rich, light-skinned upper-deckers. (Any resemblance to actual history here is surely not remotely coincidental.)
It's hard for me to know quite how to review this one, because it sort of feels to me like a really good novel and kind of a meh one smooshed inextricably into each other. On the good side, the social commentary is decent, there are a few nicely imaginative world-building touches, and there are quite a few moments where I found the story or the writing or the characters really compelling.
The less satisfying aspects, though, are harder to articulate. Mostly, lots and lots of the details just failed to feel convincing to me, in a way that kept me from ever feeling fully immersed in this world. And the plot... Well, the plot, which involves the main character searching for secrets left behind by her mother, sort of stutters and splutters along, skipping over much of what seems to be the actual plot part of the plot. And I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the end, but I think I was hoping for something a bit, well, more.
It was an interesting reading experience, and it does some things I think are very much worth doing. I just wish I liked it more unreservedly than I did.
Rating: 3.5/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)
On the generation ship Matilda, on a centuries-long journey that seems to be going nowhere, the dark-skinned inhabitants of the lower decks are oppressed and impoverished, forced to labor for the rich, light-skinned upper-deckers. (Any resemblance to actual history here is surely not remotely coincidental.)
It's hard for me to know quite how to review this one, because it sort of feels to me like a really good novel and kind of a meh one smooshed inextricably into each other. On the good side, the social commentary is decent, there are a few nicely imaginative world-building touches, and there are quite a few moments where I found the story or the writing or the characters really compelling.
The less satisfying aspects, though, are harder to articulate. Mostly, lots and lots of the details just failed to feel convincing to me, in a way that kept me from ever feeling fully immersed in this world. And the plot... Well, the plot, which involves the main character searching for secrets left behind by her mother, sort of stutters and splutters along, skipping over much of what seems to be the actual plot part of the plot. And I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the end, but I think I was hoping for something a bit, well, more.
It was an interesting reading experience, and it does some things I think are very much worth doing. I just wish I liked it more unreservedly than I did.
Rating: 3.5/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)
3dchaikin
Sorry for two mixed books, unfortunately always a risk with Early Reviewer books (regarding this last one). The eavesdropping book sounds like it could have been really good.
4bragan
>3 dchaikin: Well, mixed quality is better than just plain bad, and in both cases, they were worth reading. But there is perhaps something a special kind of frustrating about a book that feels like it could have been awesome, but doesn't really get there.
5bragan
108. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
In a post-apocalyptic world, in a ruined city overrun with strange biotechnology, a scavenger plucks an anemone-like creature from the fur of a giant flying bear, and, when it proves to be intelligent, raises it as if it were a child.
You know, I can't quite decide if this book is more or less weird than that summary makes it sound. But it is pretty weird, which I guess is what you expect from VanderMeer. The only things of his I'd read before this were the books of the Southern Reach trilogy, (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), and I'd say this seems to be along much the same lines, although I don't think it's quite as complex or possibly as deep as those. The writing does feel much the same, although I'm not sure the odd, detached quality of it works quite as well here as it did in those books, if only because the world this one is describing, while still hard to comprehend, is much more familiar, even everyday, to the protagonist, since she's lived with it for a long time.
Still, even if it's not perfect, Borne is really interesting, at times even compelling, and the title character is fun, in his own bizarre and occasionally disturbing way. Plus, that giant flying bear is astonishingly well-realized. I don't know that everything makes huge amounts of sense in the end, and while various things are a little bit explained, I'm not sure anything at all is fully explained. But I wasn't really expecting anything different, so I was okay with that.
Rating: Things like this are kind of hard to rate, but I'm going to give it 4/5, just for being the interesting read it was.
In a post-apocalyptic world, in a ruined city overrun with strange biotechnology, a scavenger plucks an anemone-like creature from the fur of a giant flying bear, and, when it proves to be intelligent, raises it as if it were a child.
You know, I can't quite decide if this book is more or less weird than that summary makes it sound. But it is pretty weird, which I guess is what you expect from VanderMeer. The only things of his I'd read before this were the books of the Southern Reach trilogy, (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), and I'd say this seems to be along much the same lines, although I don't think it's quite as complex or possibly as deep as those. The writing does feel much the same, although I'm not sure the odd, detached quality of it works quite as well here as it did in those books, if only because the world this one is describing, while still hard to comprehend, is much more familiar, even everyday, to the protagonist, since she's lived with it for a long time.
Still, even if it's not perfect, Borne is really interesting, at times even compelling, and the title character is fun, in his own bizarre and occasionally disturbing way. Plus, that giant flying bear is astonishingly well-realized. I don't know that everything makes huge amounts of sense in the end, and while various things are a little bit explained, I'm not sure anything at all is fully explained. But I wasn't really expecting anything different, so I was okay with that.
Rating: Things like this are kind of hard to rate, but I'm going to give it 4/5, just for being the interesting read it was.
6auntmarge64
>108 I loved Borne, as well as the Southern Reach trilogy. So glad you liked it too. Isn't VanderMeer an interesting writer? His stuff is just enough this side of completely weird that it can be followed. As I get older I don't want to have to concentrate too much on what I read, but for some reason his stuff just grabs me and won't let go.
7bragan
>6 auntmarge64: "Interesting" is definitely the word for it, mostly in a good way. The Southern Reach books, in particular, left me with this really strong feeling that there were depths to the story I'd only just barely glimpsed.
8auntmarge64
>7 bragan: Did you see the trailer for the movie yet (or have we talked about this???)
9bragan
>8 auntmarge64: I don't think we have, but, yes, I have, and it's got me looking forward to seeing it. I'll be impressed if they manage to do it justice, but the visual look of the trailer is very, very promising, I think.
10bragan
109. The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne
Josh Hanagarne is a six-foot-seven bodybuilding Mormon librarian with Tourette's Syndrome. As a friend of mine put it when I told him what I was reading, if he were a fictional character, people would find him hard to believe.
He's a perfectly real person, though, and in this book he intersperses his life story with anecdotes about dealing with a wide (and often difficult) cross-section of humanity in his job at the Salt Lake City Public Library. As his stranger-than-fiction description indicates, he's a pretty interesting guy. I found my feelings about him varying from time to time, though. It's hard to think well of him when he talks about some appalling and unnecessary lies he's told in his life, and I look a bit askance at some of the dubious things he let himself be led into in his attempts to build strength and ease his tics. Plus, I'm not sure his sense of humor and mine always quite align. But the book lover in me clicked instantly with the book lover in him the moment he started talking about hiding Steven King novels from his mother as a kid, his impassioned multi-page defense of public libraries made me want to cheer, and there's actually a moment towards the end where he almost made me tear up a little with some very poignant reflections. Plus, I found his very frank and open discussion of life in the Mormon church and his own struggles with faith and doubt surprisingly interesting and commendably honest. So, in the end I came away liking and respecting him, and overall I enjoyed reading what he had to say.
Rating: 4/5
Josh Hanagarne is a six-foot-seven bodybuilding Mormon librarian with Tourette's Syndrome. As a friend of mine put it when I told him what I was reading, if he were a fictional character, people would find him hard to believe.
He's a perfectly real person, though, and in this book he intersperses his life story with anecdotes about dealing with a wide (and often difficult) cross-section of humanity in his job at the Salt Lake City Public Library. As his stranger-than-fiction description indicates, he's a pretty interesting guy. I found my feelings about him varying from time to time, though. It's hard to think well of him when he talks about some appalling and unnecessary lies he's told in his life, and I look a bit askance at some of the dubious things he let himself be led into in his attempts to build strength and ease his tics. Plus, I'm not sure his sense of humor and mine always quite align. But the book lover in me clicked instantly with the book lover in him the moment he started talking about hiding Steven King novels from his mother as a kid, his impassioned multi-page defense of public libraries made me want to cheer, and there's actually a moment towards the end where he almost made me tear up a little with some very poignant reflections. Plus, I found his very frank and open discussion of life in the Mormon church and his own struggles with faith and doubt surprisingly interesting and commendably honest. So, in the end I came away liking and respecting him, and overall I enjoyed reading what he had to say.
Rating: 4/5
11bragan
>10 bragan: OK, I just happened to check out Hanagarne's Twitter feed, and I've decided I now really like this guy.
13bragan
>12 avaland: Thanks! And I hope you're enjoying it, too.
14bragan
110. Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
I'm finally getting back to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series of Age of Sail novels after a bit of a hiatus. It's always a little hard for me to know exactly how to feel about these books. The deliberately old-fashioned style, complete with lots of historical slang, and the profusion of complicated naval terms make them much less fun and zippy reads than they seem like they really ought to be. Despite having read (or at least skimmed) an entire book-length guide to said terminology, I still can't follow any of the action when they're fighting storms or other ships at sea, which can get a little frustrating. But I do love the characters, and their wonderful odd-couple friendship, and the scattered moments of sly humor. I like those a lot.
This particular installment, which involves a voyage to Australia -- or at least in the direction of Australia, as they have various difficulties getting there -- seemed to me to feature a bit more slogging for a bit less reward than the last two, despite some character stuff for Stephen Maturin that did serve to regularly remind me just how fond of him I am. But once they reach the titular island, towards the end of the novel, things really came together in an interesting way, and I enjoyed the last fifty pages or so a great deal.
Rating: I'm going to give this one a 3.5/5 overall, but, hey, going very slowly and then finishing strong is better than going along well for a while and then finishing poorly.
I'm finally getting back to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series of Age of Sail novels after a bit of a hiatus. It's always a little hard for me to know exactly how to feel about these books. The deliberately old-fashioned style, complete with lots of historical slang, and the profusion of complicated naval terms make them much less fun and zippy reads than they seem like they really ought to be. Despite having read (or at least skimmed) an entire book-length guide to said terminology, I still can't follow any of the action when they're fighting storms or other ships at sea, which can get a little frustrating. But I do love the characters, and their wonderful odd-couple friendship, and the scattered moments of sly humor. I like those a lot.
This particular installment, which involves a voyage to Australia -- or at least in the direction of Australia, as they have various difficulties getting there -- seemed to me to feature a bit more slogging for a bit less reward than the last two, despite some character stuff for Stephen Maturin that did serve to regularly remind me just how fond of him I am. But once they reach the titular island, towards the end of the novel, things really came together in an interesting way, and I enjoyed the last fifty pages or so a great deal.
Rating: I'm going to give this one a 3.5/5 overall, but, hey, going very slowly and then finishing strong is better than going along well for a while and then finishing poorly.
15bragan
111. It Devours! by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
This is the second novel based on the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. It's about science, religion, love, the ground collapsing under you, and giant bugs. As with the first Night Vale novel, this should be readable even if you're not familiar with the podcast, but for those who are, it does tie in to a lot of stuff from the show.
I have to admit something. When the podcast finally let us see exactly what "doing science" means for Carlos the scientist -- basically a parody of movie depictions of science, in which specialized fields don't exist and all problems are solved by staring at bubbling liquids, blinking lights, and inscrutable numbers scrawled on whiteboards -- I was disappointed. It's a funny joke, but I always thought that the idea of seeing a real scientist doing real science to try to come to grips with the utter insanity that is Night Vale was potentially fascinating. So I'm really pleased that this novel in fact gives us an actual scientist trying to understand this world in an actually scientific fashion, and in the process demonstrates that the authors themselves understand very well what science really is.
The story itself is a bit lightweight, and perhaps not ideally paced, but it's fun. And, like the podcast, it's sprinkled with lovely little insights, and it manages to capture the beautiful and awkward experience of being human surprisingly realistically within its ridiculous, wackily unrealistic setting. The ending is particularly strong and well-written. And, even though he's not the main character here, there are some good, effective character moments for Carlos, which is nice to see.
I do recommend it for fans of the show. And for those who aren't, but are curious about it, this may be as good a place as any to start.
Rating: 4/5
This is the second novel based on the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. It's about science, religion, love, the ground collapsing under you, and giant bugs. As with the first Night Vale novel, this should be readable even if you're not familiar with the podcast, but for those who are, it does tie in to a lot of stuff from the show.
I have to admit something. When the podcast finally let us see exactly what "doing science" means for Carlos the scientist -- basically a parody of movie depictions of science, in which specialized fields don't exist and all problems are solved by staring at bubbling liquids, blinking lights, and inscrutable numbers scrawled on whiteboards -- I was disappointed. It's a funny joke, but I always thought that the idea of seeing a real scientist doing real science to try to come to grips with the utter insanity that is Night Vale was potentially fascinating. So I'm really pleased that this novel in fact gives us an actual scientist trying to understand this world in an actually scientific fashion, and in the process demonstrates that the authors themselves understand very well what science really is.
The story itself is a bit lightweight, and perhaps not ideally paced, but it's fun. And, like the podcast, it's sprinkled with lovely little insights, and it manages to capture the beautiful and awkward experience of being human surprisingly realistically within its ridiculous, wackily unrealistic setting. The ending is particularly strong and well-written. And, even though he's not the main character here, there are some good, effective character moments for Carlos, which is nice to see.
I do recommend it for fans of the show. And for those who aren't, but are curious about it, this may be as good a place as any to start.
Rating: 4/5
16bragan
112. You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield
Vivid photographs of various places on Earth, from the densely inhabited to the desolate, taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Chris Hadfield. Each picture comes with a few lines of explanation telling you where and what it is: nothing too in-depth, just enough to let you know what you're looking at and to get your imagination going. Some of the picture/text combos are whimsical, with Hadfield pointing out features that he thinks look like animals, or facial features, or bits of punctuation. A few come with picture-postcard photos from ground level, for a comparison of perspectives. All of them are striking.
I have several different volumes of pictures of the Earth from space now, and I never, ever get tired of them. This one makes a nice addition to the collection.
Rating: 4/5
Vivid photographs of various places on Earth, from the densely inhabited to the desolate, taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Chris Hadfield. Each picture comes with a few lines of explanation telling you where and what it is: nothing too in-depth, just enough to let you know what you're looking at and to get your imagination going. Some of the picture/text combos are whimsical, with Hadfield pointing out features that he thinks look like animals, or facial features, or bits of punctuation. A few come with picture-postcard photos from ground level, for a comparison of perspectives. All of them are striking.
I have several different volumes of pictures of the Earth from space now, and I never, ever get tired of them. This one makes a nice addition to the collection.
Rating: 4/5
17dchaikin
you're cruising through books Betty. I don't own any books that I know of with pictures of earth from space, but I think that's my own flaw.
18bragan
>17 dchaikin: It was actually kind of a slow book month, there for a while, but I'm catching up.
And everybody should have at least one book of pictures from space. :)
And everybody should have at least one book of pictures from space. :)
19bragan
113. Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Citoyen "City" Coldson is a black teenager in Mississippi dealing with racism and the difficulties of adolescence. But he also seems to be... a character in a book he's reading? Maybe a book that he himself wrote? One that involves time travel, and other kinds of strangeness.
The novel's depiction of and commentary on racism and the way it affects people is pointed and painful and often very well done. Everything else about it... Man, I don't even know. It's weird, because I'm perfectly comfortable with time travel stories, and I'm okay with magic realism, and well practiced in believing six impossible things before breakfast. But the strangeness in this book... I just never really felt like I had a handle on it, never felt like it quite made sense to me, even on its own terms. Maybe that's the book, maybe that's me, I don't know. I did notice, when I was nearly finished with it, that there was a blurb on the back comparing Laymon to Murakami, which suddenly reminded me that I felt a very similar can't-quite-find-my-footing feeling with the one Murakami novel I've read, Kafka on the Shore. Although I found that one more interesting than frustrating, in the end, and I'm not sure I feel that way about this one.
Rating: This is a hard one to rate. The aspects of it that worked for me worked really well, and I want to give it credit for that, but mostly I'm left with this unsatisfied what-the-hell-did-I-just-read? feeling. Let's go with 3/5.
Citoyen "City" Coldson is a black teenager in Mississippi dealing with racism and the difficulties of adolescence. But he also seems to be... a character in a book he's reading? Maybe a book that he himself wrote? One that involves time travel, and other kinds of strangeness.
The novel's depiction of and commentary on racism and the way it affects people is pointed and painful and often very well done. Everything else about it... Man, I don't even know. It's weird, because I'm perfectly comfortable with time travel stories, and I'm okay with magic realism, and well practiced in believing six impossible things before breakfast. But the strangeness in this book... I just never really felt like I had a handle on it, never felt like it quite made sense to me, even on its own terms. Maybe that's the book, maybe that's me, I don't know. I did notice, when I was nearly finished with it, that there was a blurb on the back comparing Laymon to Murakami, which suddenly reminded me that I felt a very similar can't-quite-find-my-footing feeling with the one Murakami novel I've read, Kafka on the Shore. Although I found that one more interesting than frustrating, in the end, and I'm not sure I feel that way about this one.
Rating: This is a hard one to rate. The aspects of it that worked for me worked really well, and I want to give it credit for that, but mostly I'm left with this unsatisfied what-the-hell-did-I-just-read? feeling. Let's go with 3/5.
20dchaikin
>19 bragan: I liked your description of the weirdness. Makes me want to read Murakami...well, more so.
21bragan
Murakami is interesting (or at least, the one I read was), but I'm still not entirely sure what to make of him.
22bragan
I've been on vacation for a week, so I've got a few books to catch up on here. Starting with:
114. Cujo by Stephen King
Stephen King's 1981 novel about a rabid dog who traps a woman and her kid in their broken-down car. Somehow, I'd managed to go this long without ever reading this book or seeing the movie, although I do remember my cousin trying to read me bits of it when I was a kid and begging her to stop because I was entirely too easily freaked out then.
Well, I am far less easily freaked out now, which may be a good or a bad thing when you're reading horror fiction. But I liked this one, honestly, much more than I expected to. What was effective about it, for me, wasn't so much the scariness of the dog -- although I do find rabies utterly, utterly terrifying -- or any of the usual Stephen King style creepiness. There is a bit of that, with some well-done passages about monsters in a kid's closet, although the attempt to bring hints of the supernatural into what is, by and large, a story about real-world things like dogs and diseases is a bit odd. But mostly what gets me here is the series of largely unrelated decisions and difficulties that all slowly add up to mounting disaster with no rescue in sight. That could have felt massively contrived, I suppose, but instead it feels sickeningly realistic to me. Although it's interesting to note that this is a quintessential example of a story that could not be written now, in the age of cell phones. Or at least, it couldn't be set now, and might never be thought of.
The main takeaway here, though, is obvious, and worth taking to heart: Vaccinate your damn dog!
Rating: 4/5
114. Cujo by Stephen King
Stephen King's 1981 novel about a rabid dog who traps a woman and her kid in their broken-down car. Somehow, I'd managed to go this long without ever reading this book or seeing the movie, although I do remember my cousin trying to read me bits of it when I was a kid and begging her to stop because I was entirely too easily freaked out then.
Well, I am far less easily freaked out now, which may be a good or a bad thing when you're reading horror fiction. But I liked this one, honestly, much more than I expected to. What was effective about it, for me, wasn't so much the scariness of the dog -- although I do find rabies utterly, utterly terrifying -- or any of the usual Stephen King style creepiness. There is a bit of that, with some well-done passages about monsters in a kid's closet, although the attempt to bring hints of the supernatural into what is, by and large, a story about real-world things like dogs and diseases is a bit odd. But mostly what gets me here is the series of largely unrelated decisions and difficulties that all slowly add up to mounting disaster with no rescue in sight. That could have felt massively contrived, I suppose, but instead it feels sickeningly realistic to me. Although it's interesting to note that this is a quintessential example of a story that could not be written now, in the age of cell phones. Or at least, it couldn't be set now, and might never be thought of.
The main takeaway here, though, is obvious, and worth taking to heart: Vaccinate your damn dog!
Rating: 4/5
23bragan
115. Naked and Marooned by Ed Stafford
Ed Stafford, following up on his previous ordeal of spending two years walking the entire length of the Amazon river, spends sixty days alone on a small island with no supplies or even clothing. (Well, unless you count the cameras he used to film it for TV, of course.) His stated goal was not just to survive, but to thrive, building shelters and hunting animals. Which he more or less succeeded in, although he ran into a lot of difficulties and generally didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
Despite the reality-TV-stunt feel to the whole thing, there's something irresistible about this idea. Who doesn't love a good desert island survival story? Unfortunately, Stafford's story was never quite as engaging as it felt like it ought to be. While some of the details of how he lived on the island are interesting, he spends a lot of time thinking and talking about his own mental state, rather than about the island and its external challenges, and while that also seems like it could be really interesting, it mostly comes across as a lot of whiny self-recrimination, usually over things that seem perfectly understandable in the circumstances. I feel a little bad saying that, especially after reading the epilogue, in which he talks about lingering psychological problems he experienced as a result of this period of prolonged isolation, but, well... it does.
And even the survival story aspect of things is... not a particularly pure experience. It turns out that mostly he was able to get along because he was able to make use of trash washed up on the shore or left behind by previous visitors to the island. (Plastic bottles to store water, cans to cook in, bits of metal to sharpen into cutting tools, and so on.) I don't remotely begrudge him for using whatever he could find, but it sort of makes the whole thing feel less like an exciting primitive adventure and more like a sad reflection of the fact that nowhere is untouched by human trash.
Rating: 3/5. Although I admit that the above probably sounds more negative than that.
Ed Stafford, following up on his previous ordeal of spending two years walking the entire length of the Amazon river, spends sixty days alone on a small island with no supplies or even clothing. (Well, unless you count the cameras he used to film it for TV, of course.) His stated goal was not just to survive, but to thrive, building shelters and hunting animals. Which he more or less succeeded in, although he ran into a lot of difficulties and generally didn't seem to enjoy the experience.
Despite the reality-TV-stunt feel to the whole thing, there's something irresistible about this idea. Who doesn't love a good desert island survival story? Unfortunately, Stafford's story was never quite as engaging as it felt like it ought to be. While some of the details of how he lived on the island are interesting, he spends a lot of time thinking and talking about his own mental state, rather than about the island and its external challenges, and while that also seems like it could be really interesting, it mostly comes across as a lot of whiny self-recrimination, usually over things that seem perfectly understandable in the circumstances. I feel a little bad saying that, especially after reading the epilogue, in which he talks about lingering psychological problems he experienced as a result of this period of prolonged isolation, but, well... it does.
And even the survival story aspect of things is... not a particularly pure experience. It turns out that mostly he was able to get along because he was able to make use of trash washed up on the shore or left behind by previous visitors to the island. (Plastic bottles to store water, cans to cook in, bits of metal to sharpen into cutting tools, and so on.) I don't remotely begrudge him for using whatever he could find, but it sort of makes the whole thing feel less like an exciting primitive adventure and more like a sad reflection of the fact that nowhere is untouched by human trash.
Rating: 3/5. Although I admit that the above probably sounds more negative than that.
24bragan
116. Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
This is one of the "between-the-numbers" novels in Evanovich's series about incompetent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum -- part of the series, but distinct from the usual installments. This one is longer than most of them, and less obviously holiday-themed, although it is apparently set somewhere around Halloween. But it does feature the usual supernatural elements, including a mysterious character called Diesel, and it turns the wackiness typical of the series up to eleven. In fact, I'd say this one really dials up the wackiness, with a plot featuring mad science and monkeys. Lots of monkeys.
The (frequently monkey-based) humor here is dumb and often feels kind of forced, but when you're able to turn your brain off and just go with it, which I managed a reasonable amount of the time, it is kind of amusing. Which is generally about all I ask from these books.
I am growing more and more uncomfortable, though, with the way that people sexually harassing and/or sexually threatening Stephanie is played for laughs and, when it comes from the men she's working with, treated as no big deal and only to be expected, or even presented as if it's supposed to be sexy. I'm never happy about that, but right now it makes me feel particularly squirmy.
Rating: 3/5
This is one of the "between-the-numbers" novels in Evanovich's series about incompetent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum -- part of the series, but distinct from the usual installments. This one is longer than most of them, and less obviously holiday-themed, although it is apparently set somewhere around Halloween. But it does feature the usual supernatural elements, including a mysterious character called Diesel, and it turns the wackiness typical of the series up to eleven. In fact, I'd say this one really dials up the wackiness, with a plot featuring mad science and monkeys. Lots of monkeys.
The (frequently monkey-based) humor here is dumb and often feels kind of forced, but when you're able to turn your brain off and just go with it, which I managed a reasonable amount of the time, it is kind of amusing. Which is generally about all I ask from these books.
I am growing more and more uncomfortable, though, with the way that people sexually harassing and/or sexually threatening Stephanie is played for laughs and, when it comes from the men she's working with, treated as no big deal and only to be expected, or even presented as if it's supposed to be sexy. I'm never happy about that, but right now it makes me feel particularly squirmy.
Rating: 3/5
25bragan
117. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I first read this when I was in high school, and I remember being impressed and affected by it then. I'm unsurprised to discover that I'm still impressed and affected by it on re-read now. Vonnegut's writing is like nobody else's, and this is likely his very best writing. How the hell adding time travel and aliens shaped like toilet plungers to a novel about the wasteful, unglamorous, profoundly absurd horrors of war somehow makes it feel more real, rather than less, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure no one but Vonnegut could have pulled it off.
Rating: 5/5
I first read this when I was in high school, and I remember being impressed and affected by it then. I'm unsurprised to discover that I'm still impressed and affected by it on re-read now. Vonnegut's writing is like nobody else's, and this is likely his very best writing. How the hell adding time travel and aliens shaped like toilet plungers to a novel about the wasteful, unglamorous, profoundly absurd horrors of war somehow makes it feel more real, rather than less, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure no one but Vonnegut could have pulled it off.
Rating: 5/5
26chlorine
>116
Funny you should read this now, I was talking about this book on OscarWilde's thread. I haven't read any other book by Vonnegut so I can't compare but this one also left a very strong impression with me.
Funny you should read this now, I was talking about this book on OscarWilde's thread. I haven't read any other book by Vonnegut so I can't compare but this one also left a very strong impression with me.
27OscarWilde87
Great books and great reviews! Sounds like a good vacation. I completely agree with your thoughts on Vonnegut, his writing is really somewhat different and special - the good kind.
28bragan
>26 chlorine: I've liked a lot of Vonnegut's other stuff. I read Mother Night most recently -- a novel whose main character actually makes some appearances in Slaughterhouse-Five -- and was impressed by it, too. But this one is still his masterpiece.
>27 OscarWilde87: I had actually kind of hoped to get a little more reading than this done while I was gone, but I'll take it!
And I find Vonnegut's writing style so impossible to describe I decided not to even try, but you sure wouldn't mistake him for anyone else. I've seen people try to imitate him, but never very successfully.
>27 OscarWilde87: I had actually kind of hoped to get a little more reading than this done while I was gone, but I'll take it!
And I find Vonnegut's writing style so impossible to describe I decided not to even try, but you sure wouldn't mistake him for anyone else. I've seen people try to imitate him, but never very successfully.
29RidgewayGirl
You are the first person to talk about Cujo in such a way to make me want to read it.
30bragan
>29 RidgewayGirl: Honestly, it was rather different than I was expecting it to be, based on whatever vague things I'd heard about it.
31bragan
118. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
A look at the psychological tendencies we humans have that lead us to make irrational decisions, with lots of examples illustrating those tendencies and their results, from an airline pilot taking off without tower clearance and crashing into another plane, to basketball coaches not putting their objectively best players on the court most often, to people who become less likely to support a toxic waste dump in their town when offered financial compensation for it.
This is far from the most detailed or in-depth book on this subject. (If you want a really deep dive into many aspects of human irrationality, I recommend David Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow instead.) But with its breezy writing and vivid examples of irrational thinking that are often interesting stories in their own right, it's a very, very readable one. (Admittedly, there are one or two of those examples I might have some reservations about, but that's a fairly small quibble.) The book seems to be primarily aimed at businesspeople, who are unlikely to have much of a background in psychology, but who really do need to be aware of widespread decision-making pitfalls. For someone like that, I'd say it's a good first introduction to the subject, with some useful advice, but a merciful absence of the kind of rah-rah motivational rhetoric or annoying corporatespeak you often get in books aimed at businesspeople.
Rating: 4/5
A look at the psychological tendencies we humans have that lead us to make irrational decisions, with lots of examples illustrating those tendencies and their results, from an airline pilot taking off without tower clearance and crashing into another plane, to basketball coaches not putting their objectively best players on the court most often, to people who become less likely to support a toxic waste dump in their town when offered financial compensation for it.
This is far from the most detailed or in-depth book on this subject. (If you want a really deep dive into many aspects of human irrationality, I recommend David Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow instead.) But with its breezy writing and vivid examples of irrational thinking that are often interesting stories in their own right, it's a very, very readable one. (Admittedly, there are one or two of those examples I might have some reservations about, but that's a fairly small quibble.) The book seems to be primarily aimed at businesspeople, who are unlikely to have much of a background in psychology, but who really do need to be aware of widespread decision-making pitfalls. For someone like that, I'd say it's a good first introduction to the subject, with some useful advice, but a merciful absence of the kind of rah-rah motivational rhetoric or annoying corporatespeak you often get in books aimed at businesspeople.
Rating: 4/5
33bragan
>32 chlorine: I also really recommend Kathryn Shulz's Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, for a slightly different but very good take on the human capacity for mistake-making.
34dchaikin
Loved Bring Wrong. A book I could closely relate to...seriously. Kahneman fans might like The Undoing Project. Admittedly I found Kahneman's own book unlistenable.
Enjoyed your take on re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. Also glad I'm not naked and marooned.
Enjoyed your take on re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. Also glad I'm not naked and marooned.
35chlorine
>33 bragan:
It does also seem interesting, thanks!
It does also seem interesting, thanks!
36bragan
>34 dchaikin: Being Wrong is terrific. I've been wondering if The Undoing Project is worth reading or not. As for Kahneman's book, it's definitely a bit dense, but I strongly suspect it's one of those books that's really much better approached in print than on audio.
37bragan
119. Thud! by Terry Pratchett
The penultimate book in my re-read of the City Watch subseries of Pratchett's Discworld novels. The one features growing tensions between dwarfs and trolls, an art theft, and something evil moving deep down in the dark.
This isn't my favorite of the City Watch books. The plot never quite gains the feeling of momentum the previous books have, I think. Plus, Sam Vimes has pretty thoroughly completed his character development by this point, and, much as I still love him, that fact makes reading from his POV a bit less compelling. And the themes Pratchett deals with here are perhaps starting to feel a little over-familiar, even if they're good, worthwhile themes. But, still, we're talking about a very high bar, so that "not my favorite" really just means that it's pretty solidly good, rather than flat-out terrific. It's mostly the smaller things I like the most here, though. I like the way Pratchett continues to put a lot of thought into the world-building of the dwarfs and their culture, this time adding a few small glimpses into the trolls' world, as well, including a few really nice little moments with the troll watchman Detritus. Ite also does a great job with lots of interesting minor characters, many of whom come vividly to life in a surprisingly small number of words.
Rating: 4/5
The penultimate book in my re-read of the City Watch subseries of Pratchett's Discworld novels. The one features growing tensions between dwarfs and trolls, an art theft, and something evil moving deep down in the dark.
This isn't my favorite of the City Watch books. The plot never quite gains the feeling of momentum the previous books have, I think. Plus, Sam Vimes has pretty thoroughly completed his character development by this point, and, much as I still love him, that fact makes reading from his POV a bit less compelling. And the themes Pratchett deals with here are perhaps starting to feel a little over-familiar, even if they're good, worthwhile themes. But, still, we're talking about a very high bar, so that "not my favorite" really just means that it's pretty solidly good, rather than flat-out terrific. It's mostly the smaller things I like the most here, though. I like the way Pratchett continues to put a lot of thought into the world-building of the dwarfs and their culture, this time adding a few small glimpses into the trolls' world, as well, including a few really nice little moments with the troll watchman Detritus. Ite also does a great job with lots of interesting minor characters, many of whom come vividly to life in a surprisingly small number of words.
Rating: 4/5
38bragan
120. The Big Lebowski by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
This is the script for the movie The Big Lebowski. That's pretty much it, really. I bought it a few years ago at a library sale, and I'm honestly not sure why. I mean, I like The Big Lebowski. I've seen it a couple of times (albeit not very recently). I even own the soundtrack. But I'm not the kind of superfan who regards the Dude as their personal role model and guru, and I hardly had a burning need to own it in script form. So it sat on my shelves for quite a while. But last night I was incredibly sleep-deprived and brain-dead, but still wanted something to read, and figured something short and fun and already familiar would be about what I could handle, so I took it down and read it. And, yep... It's the script for The Big Lebowski. Which is fun, although encountering it in this form isn't remotely the same, without the acting and the visuals and the music. Walter is still hilarious, though, even in print. But, really, don't read this instead of watching the movie. That would just be kind of dumb.
Rating: I'm going to call it 4/5, just because I'd rate the movie itself at least that high.
This is the script for the movie The Big Lebowski. That's pretty much it, really. I bought it a few years ago at a library sale, and I'm honestly not sure why. I mean, I like The Big Lebowski. I've seen it a couple of times (albeit not very recently). I even own the soundtrack. But I'm not the kind of superfan who regards the Dude as their personal role model and guru, and I hardly had a burning need to own it in script form. So it sat on my shelves for quite a while. But last night I was incredibly sleep-deprived and brain-dead, but still wanted something to read, and figured something short and fun and already familiar would be about what I could handle, so I took it down and read it. And, yep... It's the script for The Big Lebowski. Which is fun, although encountering it in this form isn't remotely the same, without the acting and the visuals and the music. Walter is still hilarious, though, even in print. But, really, don't read this instead of watching the movie. That would just be kind of dumb.
Rating: I'm going to call it 4/5, just because I'd rate the movie itself at least that high.
39bragan
121. Fish Whistle: Commentaries, Uncommentaries, & Vulgar Excesses by Daniel Pinkwater
A 1989 collection of very short non-fiction pieces by children's author Daniel Pinkwater, most of which originated as radio segments on NPR's All Things Considered. They seem, by and large, to be about whatever random subjects Pinkwater happened to be thinking about at the time: writing, travel, food, reminiscences about his childhood and youth, personal anecdotes, odd little musings... There's an entire series about his dogs.
Pinkwater was one of my favorite writers as a child, and I still like his quirky style. But I had somewhat mixed feelings about this collection. Some of the pieces are terrific. Most of them are vaguely interesting or mildly amusing. A fair few seem kind of pointless. I bet the dog ones will appeal a lot to dog people, though. (I liked them OK, myself, but I'm a cat lady.)
Rating: 3.5/5
A 1989 collection of very short non-fiction pieces by children's author Daniel Pinkwater, most of which originated as radio segments on NPR's All Things Considered. They seem, by and large, to be about whatever random subjects Pinkwater happened to be thinking about at the time: writing, travel, food, reminiscences about his childhood and youth, personal anecdotes, odd little musings... There's an entire series about his dogs.
Pinkwater was one of my favorite writers as a child, and I still like his quirky style. But I had somewhat mixed feelings about this collection. Some of the pieces are terrific. Most of them are vaguely interesting or mildly amusing. A fair few seem kind of pointless. I bet the dog ones will appeal a lot to dog people, though. (I liked them OK, myself, but I'm a cat lady.)
Rating: 3.5/5
40bragan
122. Ethan Frome & Other Stories by Edit Wharton
I first read Ethan Frome in a high school English class, and, as I recall, I was the only one in the class who actually liked it. (Well, as much as I was ever able to like things I was forced to read and then lectured about and quizzed on, anyway.) I felt a lot of empathy for poor old Ethan Frome, with his wasted his intellect and his hopeless love and his bleak life spent with people he had to care for but didn't actually want to be around. I felt it again now, too, as well as very much appreciating the way Wharton's prose so effectively conveys both the literal and metaphorical coldness of Ethan's existence. Clearly I was the only discerning one in that classroom, because this novella really is good, and I'm glad I finally read it again without the quizzes and lectures distracting me.
As for the "other stories" in this volume, they consist of four tales -- "The Eyes," "Afterward," "Kerfol" and "The Triumph of Night" -- featuring various reasonably imaginative kinds of supernatural hauntings. None of them are the kind of classic story anybody's ever going to teach in an English class, and a couple of them left me wondering if there were some implications in them I wasn't entirely getting, but I enjoyed reading all of them.
Rating: 4.5/5, but that extra half-star is really just for the title story.
I first read Ethan Frome in a high school English class, and, as I recall, I was the only one in the class who actually liked it. (Well, as much as I was ever able to like things I was forced to read and then lectured about and quizzed on, anyway.) I felt a lot of empathy for poor old Ethan Frome, with his wasted his intellect and his hopeless love and his bleak life spent with people he had to care for but didn't actually want to be around. I felt it again now, too, as well as very much appreciating the way Wharton's prose so effectively conveys both the literal and metaphorical coldness of Ethan's existence. Clearly I was the only discerning one in that classroom, because this novella really is good, and I'm glad I finally read it again without the quizzes and lectures distracting me.
As for the "other stories" in this volume, they consist of four tales -- "The Eyes," "Afterward," "Kerfol" and "The Triumph of Night" -- featuring various reasonably imaginative kinds of supernatural hauntings. None of them are the kind of classic story anybody's ever going to teach in an English class, and a couple of them left me wondering if there were some implications in them I wasn't entirely getting, but I enjoyed reading all of them.
Rating: 4.5/5, but that extra half-star is really just for the title story.
41dchaikin
I remember reading this in high school, but the content is mostly forgotten. I think my class had about the same reaction and if anyone liked it, they kept these feelings to themselves. But I like to think it left us all thinking a bit. Nice to see it show up here.
42bragan
>41 dchaikin: Most teenagers, as far as I can tell, don't seem to appreciate this kind of really bleak stuff. What it says about me that I was perfectly happy with it even at that age, I'm not remotely sure. :)
43auntmarge64
>40 bragan: I read Ethan Frome quite recently, maybe 2 years ago, and loved it. I have to admit I don't remember it much, but the descriptions sound so bleak I can't imagine why I picked it up. And yet - wonderful!
44bragan
>43 auntmarge64: Yes, bleak isn't always bad!
45bragan
123. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Somewhere outside of normal time and space, there is an enormous library staffed by a team of Librarians dedicated to retrieving and preserving important books from across the multiverse. But on what seems like it should be a simple mission to retrieve a unique copy of Grimm's fairy tales, a junior Librarian and her trainee assistant quickly find themselves in over their heads.
This book seems like it should be right smack down the center of my alley. I mean, an inter-dimensional library full of mystical librarians! The power of books and stories! A crazy steampunk-and-magic setting! A character who might as well be Sherlock Holmes! Sign me up! But... Somehow, it just didn't do that much for me. I'm not even entirely sure why. It doesn't feel very well-written, but not in a blatantly obvious way that's easy to put my finger on. Some unfortunate combination of too much exposition, and dialog that feels off, and characters who just never really come to life, I guess. And I never quite got into the spirit of the wacky McGuffin plot, I'm afraid. I will say that there was some reasonably cool stuff at the climax, but then it all gets wrapped up in a way that feels less like a satisfying ending and more like a hook for the next volume in the series, which I really don't think I'm interested enough to read.
I'm not sure if my lukewarm reaction is entirely the book's fault, though. It's the kind of story that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and willingness to roll with the silliness in order to enjoy it properly, and I may just not have been in the right mood to do that. It was definitely not the right book for an especially cranky week.
Rating: Compensating a bit for my mood, I'm going to call it 3.5/5.
Somewhere outside of normal time and space, there is an enormous library staffed by a team of Librarians dedicated to retrieving and preserving important books from across the multiverse. But on what seems like it should be a simple mission to retrieve a unique copy of Grimm's fairy tales, a junior Librarian and her trainee assistant quickly find themselves in over their heads.
This book seems like it should be right smack down the center of my alley. I mean, an inter-dimensional library full of mystical librarians! The power of books and stories! A crazy steampunk-and-magic setting! A character who might as well be Sherlock Holmes! Sign me up! But... Somehow, it just didn't do that much for me. I'm not even entirely sure why. It doesn't feel very well-written, but not in a blatantly obvious way that's easy to put my finger on. Some unfortunate combination of too much exposition, and dialog that feels off, and characters who just never really come to life, I guess. And I never quite got into the spirit of the wacky McGuffin plot, I'm afraid. I will say that there was some reasonably cool stuff at the climax, but then it all gets wrapped up in a way that feels less like a satisfying ending and more like a hook for the next volume in the series, which I really don't think I'm interested enough to read.
I'm not sure if my lukewarm reaction is entirely the book's fault, though. It's the kind of story that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and willingness to roll with the silliness in order to enjoy it properly, and I may just not have been in the right mood to do that. It was definitely not the right book for an especially cranky week.
Rating: Compensating a bit for my mood, I'm going to call it 3.5/5.
46chlorine
>45 bragan:
Sorry to hear your week has been cranky. I hope your next book will lift your spirits!
Sorry to hear your week has been cranky. I hope your next book will lift your spirits!
47bragan
>46 chlorine: Thanks! I don't know about uplifting, but my next one at least looks interesting.
48bragan
124. Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D, and Sandra Blakeslee
Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran introduces us to patients who have suffered deeply strange effects from damage to various parts of their brains, from an inability to recognize or admit that their arm or leg is paralyzed, to the conviction that their loved ones have been replaced by impostors, to becoming ultra-religious in the wake of certain kinds of seizures. He also talks extensively about phantom limbs, a subject he's done a lot of research on. He describes what we know about what's going on in the brains of these people, the many unanswered questions that still remain, his ideas for experiments to help answer some of those questions, and his big-picture thoughts on what it all means for how our brains and our minds function.
I already knew about the various pathologies he's describing, having done a fair bit of reading already on the subject of the human brain, so I was a little worried, going in, that I might find it all kind of old hat. (Or old The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, maybe.) But instead I was absolutely fascinated, because brains are just absolutely wonderful and weird, and Ramachandran vividly illustrates just how weird they can get. Plus also sort of terrified, because thinking too hard about this stuff forces you to face some really unsettling implications about the nature of the self and what can happen to it. There were a lot of ideas in here that were new to me, too, as they seem to be very much Ramachandran's own. Mind you, a lot of those ideas are clearly very speculative, not to mention possibly being out of date, as this book was published nearly twenty years ago. And Ramachandran seems to combine some impressively keen scientific thinking with a tendency to perhaps be a little too open minded about some less scientific ideas. But it was all really, really thought-provoking, nonetheless.
Rating: 4/5
Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran introduces us to patients who have suffered deeply strange effects from damage to various parts of their brains, from an inability to recognize or admit that their arm or leg is paralyzed, to the conviction that their loved ones have been replaced by impostors, to becoming ultra-religious in the wake of certain kinds of seizures. He also talks extensively about phantom limbs, a subject he's done a lot of research on. He describes what we know about what's going on in the brains of these people, the many unanswered questions that still remain, his ideas for experiments to help answer some of those questions, and his big-picture thoughts on what it all means for how our brains and our minds function.
I already knew about the various pathologies he's describing, having done a fair bit of reading already on the subject of the human brain, so I was a little worried, going in, that I might find it all kind of old hat. (Or old The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, maybe.) But instead I was absolutely fascinated, because brains are just absolutely wonderful and weird, and Ramachandran vividly illustrates just how weird they can get. Plus also sort of terrified, because thinking too hard about this stuff forces you to face some really unsettling implications about the nature of the self and what can happen to it. There were a lot of ideas in here that were new to me, too, as they seem to be very much Ramachandran's own. Mind you, a lot of those ideas are clearly very speculative, not to mention possibly being out of date, as this book was published nearly twenty years ago. And Ramachandran seems to combine some impressively keen scientific thinking with a tendency to perhaps be a little too open minded about some less scientific ideas. But it was all really, really thought-provoking, nonetheless.
Rating: 4/5
49bragan
125. The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Book number eleven in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The time, Precious Ramotswe tries to track down someone who has an inheritance coming, helps a man who's been swindled out of his house, and disobeys Clovis Anderson's advice not to get involved in doing detective work for friends. Meanwhile, Grace Makutsi's fiance has suffered a serious accident.
This one maybe feels very slightly different from the typical installment in this series, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it spends a little more time than usual on the actual detective cases and a little less on Mma Ramotswe's musings on life. Or maybe the accident that happens makes the whole thing take on a slightly more serious tone, despite some amusing moments. Or maybe I was just in an odd mood while reading it and there's nothing really unusual about it at all.
In any case, it didn't necessarily achieve the heights of warm-fuzzy comfort reading this series often reaches for me, but it was still a pleasant and charming read, and, unlike some of them, it did get me actually feeling a little tense about exactly how everything was going to work out.
Mostly, though, I find myself thinking that I really want Precious Ramotswe to come and pour me some tea and give me gentle, wise advice. (Well, either her or Uncle Iroh form Avatar: the Last Airbender. Or both of them. That would be the most amazing tea party ever.)
Rating: 4/5
Book number eleven in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The time, Precious Ramotswe tries to track down someone who has an inheritance coming, helps a man who's been swindled out of his house, and disobeys Clovis Anderson's advice not to get involved in doing detective work for friends. Meanwhile, Grace Makutsi's fiance has suffered a serious accident.
This one maybe feels very slightly different from the typical installment in this series, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it spends a little more time than usual on the actual detective cases and a little less on Mma Ramotswe's musings on life. Or maybe the accident that happens makes the whole thing take on a slightly more serious tone, despite some amusing moments. Or maybe I was just in an odd mood while reading it and there's nothing really unusual about it at all.
In any case, it didn't necessarily achieve the heights of warm-fuzzy comfort reading this series often reaches for me, but it was still a pleasant and charming read, and, unlike some of them, it did get me actually feeling a little tense about exactly how everything was going to work out.
Mostly, though, I find myself thinking that I really want Precious Ramotswe to come and pour me some tea and give me gentle, wise advice. (Well, either her or Uncle Iroh form Avatar: the Last Airbender. Or both of them. That would be the most amazing tea party ever.)
Rating: 4/5
50bragan
126. The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
Richard Adams is of course best known as the author of Watership Down, but that was not the only book he wrote featuring somewhat anthropomorphized animals. There was also this 1977 novel about two dogs who escape from a research facility where horrible things were done to them.
To be honest, I can see why this isn't nearly as well-known as Watership Down. I remember that being a really good book. This one... Well, it's one of those odd novels that feels to me like a good book and a bad one have been somehow fused inextricably together.
To begin with, it is perhaps almost more of an anti-animal research or anti-animal cruelty statement than it is a novel. Not that taking a stand against animal cruelty is a bad thing, but Adams clearly really doesn't care if you think his message is heavy-handed. (Which is is. It so, so is.) Personally, as a lover of both science and animals, I find the whole subject of animal experimentation distressingly difficult and complex, but it became clear to me when we were told the experimental facility in this story goes by the acronym A.R.S.E. that we weren't exactly going to get a nuanced examination of scientists and their motives. Well, all right, to be fair, there are some small hints of nuance on the subject at the very end, but mostly it's all horror and cynicism. Deep, deep cynicism, which extends to politics and the press, as well as to science. Sometimes that cynicism feels like well-placed criticism, but more often it just feels like way too much.
I have similar feelings about the writing itself. There are long, often tedious sections that are overdone, overwritten, pretentious, even purple. But then, scattered there and there, are little moments of succinctly brilliant prose. It made for a weird reading experience. Kind of an interesting one, admittedly, but weird and a little frustrating.
On the positive side, the dogs themselves are good characters, especially poor, mad Snitter, a fox terrier with artificially induced brain damage and terrible, terrible luck. There are moments with him that are genuinely moving. Adams, unsurprisingly for the author of Watership Down, also does a really good job of imagining what the world might look and seem like to dogs who had something of the faculties of humans while still being dogs. (Although he is either unaware of or chooses to ignore the fact that dogs don't have color vision as good as that of humans.) And their survival story is reasonably interesting.
But then there's the ending, which not only features a deus ex machina (or possibly two), but actually stops the narrative cold at what should have been an affecting moment for a long, fourth-wall breaking lecture about animals and environmentalism. The fact that it is, perhaps, a pretty good lecture does not make this any less annoying.
Ultimately, I can't say I'm sorry I read this. Despite all these issues I had with it, large portions of it work much better than it feels like they really should, and, as I said, reading it was at least an interesting experience. But I don't think I'd recommend it to most people. And I particularly wouldn't recommend it to people who can't handle reading about upsetting things happening to animals, because this is basically Upsetting Things Happening to Animals: The Novel.
Rating: This is a hard one to rate. Let's call it 3/5.
Richard Adams is of course best known as the author of Watership Down, but that was not the only book he wrote featuring somewhat anthropomorphized animals. There was also this 1977 novel about two dogs who escape from a research facility where horrible things were done to them.
To be honest, I can see why this isn't nearly as well-known as Watership Down. I remember that being a really good book. This one... Well, it's one of those odd novels that feels to me like a good book and a bad one have been somehow fused inextricably together.
To begin with, it is perhaps almost more of an anti-animal research or anti-animal cruelty statement than it is a novel. Not that taking a stand against animal cruelty is a bad thing, but Adams clearly really doesn't care if you think his message is heavy-handed. (Which is is. It so, so is.) Personally, as a lover of both science and animals, I find the whole subject of animal experimentation distressingly difficult and complex, but it became clear to me when we were told the experimental facility in this story goes by the acronym A.R.S.E. that we weren't exactly going to get a nuanced examination of scientists and their motives. Well, all right, to be fair, there are some small hints of nuance on the subject at the very end, but mostly it's all horror and cynicism. Deep, deep cynicism, which extends to politics and the press, as well as to science. Sometimes that cynicism feels like well-placed criticism, but more often it just feels like way too much.
I have similar feelings about the writing itself. There are long, often tedious sections that are overdone, overwritten, pretentious, even purple. But then, scattered there and there, are little moments of succinctly brilliant prose. It made for a weird reading experience. Kind of an interesting one, admittedly, but weird and a little frustrating.
On the positive side, the dogs themselves are good characters, especially poor, mad Snitter, a fox terrier with artificially induced brain damage and terrible, terrible luck. There are moments with him that are genuinely moving. Adams, unsurprisingly for the author of Watership Down, also does a really good job of imagining what the world might look and seem like to dogs who had something of the faculties of humans while still being dogs. (Although he is either unaware of or chooses to ignore the fact that dogs don't have color vision as good as that of humans.) And their survival story is reasonably interesting.
But then there's the ending, which not only features a deus ex machina (or possibly two), but actually stops the narrative cold at what should have been an affecting moment for a long, fourth-wall breaking lecture about animals and environmentalism. The fact that it is, perhaps, a pretty good lecture does not make this any less annoying.
Ultimately, I can't say I'm sorry I read this. Despite all these issues I had with it, large portions of it work much better than it feels like they really should, and, as I said, reading it was at least an interesting experience. But I don't think I'd recommend it to most people. And I particularly wouldn't recommend it to people who can't handle reading about upsetting things happening to animals, because this is basically Upsetting Things Happening to Animals: The Novel.
Rating: This is a hard one to rate. Let's call it 3/5.
51ipsoivan
I think I've enjoyed reading your review more than I would the book, so I'm stopping with your review.
52dchaikin
Loved your review of Plague Dogs, and I have to admire the well named A. R. S. E. research. Intrigued by Phantoms of the Brain too. As for Alexander McCall Smith - book one is my daughter's room...I just might try it sometime.
53bragan
>51 ipsoivan: Glad to have read the book so you don't have to. :)
>52 dchaikin: It's an odd series, and probably one that not everyone is likely to find satisfying, but I really am surprised by how charmed I've been by it.
>52 dchaikin: It's an odd series, and probably one that not everyone is likely to find satisfying, but I really am surprised by how charmed I've been by it.
54ipsoivan
>53 bragan: I'd like to say I'll reciprocate, but I rarely give anything much of a chance after the first few chapters. Glad to let everyone know to avoid them though!
55valkyrdeath
Catching up from being way behind on threads again. Lots of interesting reviews to read through as always!
>15 bragan: I'd forgotten all about the release of the new Night Vale book. I need to get reading that.
>25 bragan: Slaughterhouse-Five was a book I picked up a few years ago because I'd heard of it but knew virtually nothing about it and had never read Vonnegut before. I ended up reading almost the entire book in one sitting. Your mention about the main character from Mother Night appearing in it has just pushed it up my reread list since I read and loved that book a couple of years ago but didn't realise the connection.
>15 bragan: I'd forgotten all about the release of the new Night Vale book. I need to get reading that.
>25 bragan: Slaughterhouse-Five was a book I picked up a few years ago because I'd heard of it but knew virtually nothing about it and had never read Vonnegut before. I ended up reading almost the entire book in one sitting. Your mention about the main character from Mother Night appearing in it has just pushed it up my reread list since I read and loved that book a couple of years ago but didn't realise the connection.
56bragan
>55 valkyrdeath: I pre-ordered the Night Vale book as soon as it was announced. :)
And Slaughterhouse-Five is, I think, a great book to read in one setting. I'm kind of glad that Mother Night just happened to be the last Vonnegut book I'd read, or I might not have realized the connection, either. Not that it's a hugely important connection, but still, it was kind of interesting.
And Slaughterhouse-Five is, I think, a great book to read in one setting. I'm kind of glad that Mother Night just happened to be the last Vonnegut book I'd read, or I might not have realized the connection, either. Not that it's a hugely important connection, but still, it was kind of interesting.
57bragan
127. The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth About Healthy Eating by Anthony Warner
Anthony Warner is a blogger and a chef. He also has a degree in biochemistry, although he admits that he doesn't now remember all that much of what he studied for it. He has, however, clearly retained a love of and respect for science to go along with his obvious love of and respect for food.
In this book, he takes on various pieces of pseudoscience, misinformation and flat-out nonsense surrounding food, nutrition, and eating. And boy is there a lot of that. Probably far too much for any one reasonably sized book to cover, but Warner manages to look at a decent cross-section of culinary wrongness, from diet regimens that most of us would find utterly insane (especially when they come with a recommendation for four coffee enemas a day) to mistaken "facts" that most of us accept without question. (I mean, anti-oxidants are obviously good for you, right? Right?)
He goes into the scientific details of some of these food fads and why they don't work as advertised -- such as an explanation, for instance, of why coconut oil is not actually a health food -- but mostly what this is is a primer on how to think critically about food claims and to recognize bad advice and hogwash when you encounter it. It does a pretty good job at that, but that does mean that most of what he's talking about here was not remotely new to me. Which I think is sadly an issue with these kinds of books: all too often, despite their best intentions, they end up mostly preaching to the choir. Skeptics who are likely to be happy to snap this one up undoubtedly already know most of what it's telling them, and the people who've already drunk the Kool-Aid (or, as the case may be, the organic kale smoothie) aren't going to give it a second glance, or will simply dismiss it if they do. And the vast majority of people in the middle, who just want to know how to eat healthy, are, as Warner himself points out, much more likely to gravitate towards sources that provide them with easy answers, rather than the "Well, bodies and nutrition are very complicated and there is no one simple magic bullet, only some vague, hard to follow advice about eating a balanced diet in moderation" message that science has to offer.
Still, I'm glad that there are books out there that at least try to help ordinary, reasonable people sort through the confusion and bad advice that surround food in our culture, and I do recommend this one for anybody who's trying to figure out who they should or shouldn't listen to about what to put into their mouths. Or at least, I recommend it for anyone who isn't likely to mind Warner's super-casual, profanity-laden style and occasional passionate rants about the pleasures of good food and what a crime it is to place unnecessary restrictions on that enjoyment. I imagine that style will be off-putting to some and appealing to others. (I could take or leave it, myself.)
Rating: 4/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewer book.)
Anthony Warner is a blogger and a chef. He also has a degree in biochemistry, although he admits that he doesn't now remember all that much of what he studied for it. He has, however, clearly retained a love of and respect for science to go along with his obvious love of and respect for food.
In this book, he takes on various pieces of pseudoscience, misinformation and flat-out nonsense surrounding food, nutrition, and eating. And boy is there a lot of that. Probably far too much for any one reasonably sized book to cover, but Warner manages to look at a decent cross-section of culinary wrongness, from diet regimens that most of us would find utterly insane (especially when they come with a recommendation for four coffee enemas a day) to mistaken "facts" that most of us accept without question. (I mean, anti-oxidants are obviously good for you, right? Right?)
He goes into the scientific details of some of these food fads and why they don't work as advertised -- such as an explanation, for instance, of why coconut oil is not actually a health food -- but mostly what this is is a primer on how to think critically about food claims and to recognize bad advice and hogwash when you encounter it. It does a pretty good job at that, but that does mean that most of what he's talking about here was not remotely new to me. Which I think is sadly an issue with these kinds of books: all too often, despite their best intentions, they end up mostly preaching to the choir. Skeptics who are likely to be happy to snap this one up undoubtedly already know most of what it's telling them, and the people who've already drunk the Kool-Aid (or, as the case may be, the organic kale smoothie) aren't going to give it a second glance, or will simply dismiss it if they do. And the vast majority of people in the middle, who just want to know how to eat healthy, are, as Warner himself points out, much more likely to gravitate towards sources that provide them with easy answers, rather than the "Well, bodies and nutrition are very complicated and there is no one simple magic bullet, only some vague, hard to follow advice about eating a balanced diet in moderation" message that science has to offer.
Still, I'm glad that there are books out there that at least try to help ordinary, reasonable people sort through the confusion and bad advice that surround food in our culture, and I do recommend this one for anybody who's trying to figure out who they should or shouldn't listen to about what to put into their mouths. Or at least, I recommend it for anyone who isn't likely to mind Warner's super-casual, profanity-laden style and occasional passionate rants about the pleasures of good food and what a crime it is to place unnecessary restrictions on that enjoyment. I imagine that style will be off-putting to some and appealing to others. (I could take or leave it, myself.)
Rating: 4/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewer book.)
58bragan
128. Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera
A very short novel -- possibly actually a novella -- from Mexico, about a young woman who illegally crosses the border into the United States to search for her brother.
It's an odd, odd book, and I doubt I understood it entirely or remotely got everything out of it that might have been there to get. But it's weirdly compelling, dark and dreamlike with strange poetic writing that really pulls you along (even if there are one or two particular linguistic quirks that I think probably didn't translate all that well from the Spanish). It's the sort of writing that I suspect would, for all its skill, have gotten tiring if it had gone on much longer, but for something this short, it worked extremely well.
Rating: 4/5
A very short novel -- possibly actually a novella -- from Mexico, about a young woman who illegally crosses the border into the United States to search for her brother.
It's an odd, odd book, and I doubt I understood it entirely or remotely got everything out of it that might have been there to get. But it's weirdly compelling, dark and dreamlike with strange poetic writing that really pulls you along (even if there are one or two particular linguistic quirks that I think probably didn't translate all that well from the Spanish). It's the sort of writing that I suspect would, for all its skill, have gotten tiring if it had gone on much longer, but for something this short, it worked extremely well.
Rating: 4/5
59avaland
>40 bragan: Your thoughts made me wistful to read Ethan Frome again... (I don't think we read it in high school, though).
60bragan
>59 avaland: Well, it's very short and easy to re-read. :)
61avaland
>60 bragan: ah, but so many tempting books....
62bragan
>61 avaland: Boy, do I know that tune...
63bragan
129. Snuff by Terry Pratchett
The final book in my sporadic, year-long re-reading of the Discworld City Watch books. This one sees Sam Vimes taking an enforced holiday to the countryside, where, of course, he finds a crime to investigate, although in this case it's a crime that's not technically illegal. No matter how much it should be.
The Discworld books sometimes start out a little slow, before they pick up enough steam to make you forget they ever felt that way, but this one is kind of odd in that respect. The first hundred pages or so mostly consist of uncomfortable scenes of Vimes, a guy who has very little respect for the aristocracy even after joining it, not knowing how he's supposed to treat the servants, and the social commentary here hardly seems up to Pratchett's usual deft standards. Although I suppose the awkwardness and lack of a clear moral is probably part of the point. Plus, as an American who doesn't share the baggage the British have about class issues -- we have entirely different kinds of baggage on the subject -- I suppose it's hard for me to connect to it properly.
Still, it was a bit of a relief when we got into the actual plot, which featured lots of action and Pratchett's more usual moments of really sharp and witty insight. I can't say it pulled me along as compellingly as the earlier books in the series (although that might have as much to do with my own distracted mood as with the book itself), but it was entertaining and, in the end, satisfying enough, regardless.
I'm pretty sure I'd call this the weakest of the City Watch books, but, as I mentioned in my review of Thud!, there's a very high bar there, and even comparatively somewhat weak Pratchett still makes for a better read than many people's top efforts.
Rating: I gave this one a 4/5 when I first read it, in 2011, and I think I'm going to stick with that.
The final book in my sporadic, year-long re-reading of the Discworld City Watch books. This one sees Sam Vimes taking an enforced holiday to the countryside, where, of course, he finds a crime to investigate, although in this case it's a crime that's not technically illegal. No matter how much it should be.
The Discworld books sometimes start out a little slow, before they pick up enough steam to make you forget they ever felt that way, but this one is kind of odd in that respect. The first hundred pages or so mostly consist of uncomfortable scenes of Vimes, a guy who has very little respect for the aristocracy even after joining it, not knowing how he's supposed to treat the servants, and the social commentary here hardly seems up to Pratchett's usual deft standards. Although I suppose the awkwardness and lack of a clear moral is probably part of the point. Plus, as an American who doesn't share the baggage the British have about class issues -- we have entirely different kinds of baggage on the subject -- I suppose it's hard for me to connect to it properly.
Still, it was a bit of a relief when we got into the actual plot, which featured lots of action and Pratchett's more usual moments of really sharp and witty insight. I can't say it pulled me along as compellingly as the earlier books in the series (although that might have as much to do with my own distracted mood as with the book itself), but it was entertaining and, in the end, satisfying enough, regardless.
I'm pretty sure I'd call this the weakest of the City Watch books, but, as I mentioned in my review of Thud!, there's a very high bar there, and even comparatively somewhat weak Pratchett still makes for a better read than many people's top efforts.
Rating: I gave this one a 4/5 when I first read it, in 2011, and I think I'm going to stick with that.
64bragan
130. Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books by Tim Parks
A collection of essays, originally published in the New York Review of Books, by Tim Park, an author, translator, and literary critic. Unsurprisingly, they're all about literature, writing, and translation. Some of the essays give the impression of having been written almost solely to be provocative, such as the ones considering whether e-books may be superior to print or challenging the novelists' familiar self-congratulatory assertion that "the world needs stories." But that's all right, as they are provocative in the right kind of way, I'd say: they make you think, and perhaps even re-think some of your basic assumptions.
Other essays are clearly about subjects he cares a lot about. Or rather, they're mostly about one subject he clearly cares a lot about, as he revisits it over and over: the idea that an increasing emphasis on literature as something that should have an international appeal (and, of course, sell in an international market) discourages authors from writing books that are very much products of their own environment and community, intended for an audience of people who share their own local culture. It's an issue worth considering, and Parks makes some good points about it, as well as having some interesting things to say about translation in this context. But the fact that it's an issue he keeps coming back to repeatedly in essays that were no doubt originally published months or years apart means that when one reads them all close together in collected form, the repetition does start to feel just a little tedious.
Rating: 3.5/5, but that's with me uncharitably docking it a half-star for feeling too repetitive.
A collection of essays, originally published in the New York Review of Books, by Tim Park, an author, translator, and literary critic. Unsurprisingly, they're all about literature, writing, and translation. Some of the essays give the impression of having been written almost solely to be provocative, such as the ones considering whether e-books may be superior to print or challenging the novelists' familiar self-congratulatory assertion that "the world needs stories." But that's all right, as they are provocative in the right kind of way, I'd say: they make you think, and perhaps even re-think some of your basic assumptions.
Other essays are clearly about subjects he cares a lot about. Or rather, they're mostly about one subject he clearly cares a lot about, as he revisits it over and over: the idea that an increasing emphasis on literature as something that should have an international appeal (and, of course, sell in an international market) discourages authors from writing books that are very much products of their own environment and community, intended for an audience of people who share their own local culture. It's an issue worth considering, and Parks makes some good points about it, as well as having some interesting things to say about translation in this context. But the fact that it's an issue he keeps coming back to repeatedly in essays that were no doubt originally published months or years apart means that when one reads them all close together in collected form, the repetition does start to feel just a little tedious.
Rating: 3.5/5, but that's with me uncharitably docking it a half-star for feeling too repetitive.
65chlorine
>130 It seems like there's food for thought in this book. From what I understand from your review, the book itself would have been made more interesting if some of the essays had been left out, which would have reduced the repetitiveness.
66bragan
>65 chlorine: Maybe. Individually, they might all have something worthwhile in them, but collectively it did become a bit too much. I suppose that's the danger in collecting a set of essays that were originally meant to be read one at a time over the course of several years.
67bragan
131. Cemetery World by Clifford D. Simak
In this short science fiction novel from the early 70's -- or maybe it's a science fantasy novel, since it's got ghosts in it -- Earth has been largely abandoned by humans in the wake of a devastating war, but now serves as a massive graveyard to which people all over the galaxy send their dead for burial, at great expense. An artist, a treasure-hunter and a very old robot make their way to this world to, uh, make art, hunt treasure, and see the old planet again, I guess.
Simak is a very strange author. He has this weird ability to get away with a lot of things in his novels that ordinarily irritate me in SF. He sort of does it in this one, too, as I found myself being quite willing to overlook the unnatural dialog, the nonsensical time scales, and the way the gaps between interesting far-future SF ideas are just filled in with transplanted 20th century American culture. There's something about his writing, some indefinable charm, that just pulls you along and makes you willing to go with it all. Or at least, it does for me.
But having relaxed and willingly decided to just go along with wherever he was taking me, I can't say I was entirely satisfied with where we went. There's a plot, I guess, but it feels more like a loosely connected collection of weird events (some cool and interesting, some rather less so) than like an actual story. It's not exactly an unpleasant read, but not exactly a satisfying one, either.
Rating: 3.5/5
In this short science fiction novel from the early 70's -- or maybe it's a science fantasy novel, since it's got ghosts in it -- Earth has been largely abandoned by humans in the wake of a devastating war, but now serves as a massive graveyard to which people all over the galaxy send their dead for burial, at great expense. An artist, a treasure-hunter and a very old robot make their way to this world to, uh, make art, hunt treasure, and see the old planet again, I guess.
Simak is a very strange author. He has this weird ability to get away with a lot of things in his novels that ordinarily irritate me in SF. He sort of does it in this one, too, as I found myself being quite willing to overlook the unnatural dialog, the nonsensical time scales, and the way the gaps between interesting far-future SF ideas are just filled in with transplanted 20th century American culture. There's something about his writing, some indefinable charm, that just pulls you along and makes you willing to go with it all. Or at least, it does for me.
But having relaxed and willingly decided to just go along with wherever he was taking me, I can't say I was entirely satisfied with where we went. There's a plot, I guess, but it feels more like a loosely connected collection of weird events (some cool and interesting, some rather less so) than like an actual story. It's not exactly an unpleasant read, but not exactly a satisfying one, either.
Rating: 3.5/5
68bragan
132. Possession by A.S. Byatt
Two literary scholars discover evidence that the Victorian poets each of them specializes in had a love affair with each other, and set about trying to uncover answers to the mysteries of the past.
This is, in many ways, a truly impressive novel. There's a bit of mystery, some romance, some feminist themes, and a lot of thoughts about poetry and life. Byatt's also carefully written out letters, journals, and poems of various lengths and kinds by her two fictional poets, and I can't even imagine the work and artistry that must have gone into all of that.
I have to say, though, that despite all the intellectual appreciation I have for it, I found this novel very slow-going. Not tedious, never that. But my interest levels in the scholars and the subjects of their investigations varied a lot. Sometimes, I was fully invested in learning more. Other times, I found myself reflecting that while I have a soft spot for people who are passionate about details nobody else cares about, I don't necessarily want to listen to them going on about it for long periods, and the specifics of the love lives of dead fictional poets aren't necessarily an exception. And, as a story, it does feel a little... all over the place. Honestly, for much of it I wasn't entirely sure exactly what I thought of it, other than that it was an impressive piece of writing and a rather odd novel. But I did appreciate it, and while I can't deny that I'm glad to finally be done reading it, I'm also glad to have read it.
Rating: This is super hard to rate, but I'm going to give it a 4/5.
Two literary scholars discover evidence that the Victorian poets each of them specializes in had a love affair with each other, and set about trying to uncover answers to the mysteries of the past.
This is, in many ways, a truly impressive novel. There's a bit of mystery, some romance, some feminist themes, and a lot of thoughts about poetry and life. Byatt's also carefully written out letters, journals, and poems of various lengths and kinds by her two fictional poets, and I can't even imagine the work and artistry that must have gone into all of that.
I have to say, though, that despite all the intellectual appreciation I have for it, I found this novel very slow-going. Not tedious, never that. But my interest levels in the scholars and the subjects of their investigations varied a lot. Sometimes, I was fully invested in learning more. Other times, I found myself reflecting that while I have a soft spot for people who are passionate about details nobody else cares about, I don't necessarily want to listen to them going on about it for long periods, and the specifics of the love lives of dead fictional poets aren't necessarily an exception. And, as a story, it does feel a little... all over the place. Honestly, for much of it I wasn't entirely sure exactly what I thought of it, other than that it was an impressive piece of writing and a rather odd novel. But I did appreciate it, and while I can't deny that I'm glad to finally be done reading it, I'm also glad to have read it.
Rating: This is super hard to rate, but I'm going to give it a 4/5.
69dchaikin
I haven't read Byatt, but have wanted to for a long time. Iirc, reviews tend to be very positive or bored, and your review captures a nuanced view of both responses. This is what I'll expect when I get to her.
70bragan
>69 dchaikin: It was an odd combination of reactions on my part, I have to say. Which at least was interesting.
I also have Byatt's The Children's Book. I'm not sure when I'll get to that, though. As much as Possession left me impressed with Byatt's abilities, and as much as I decided it was worth it in the end, it didn't leave me eager to rush out and read anything else by her right away.
I also have Byatt's The Children's Book. I'm not sure when I'll get to that, though. As much as Possession left me impressed with Byatt's abilities, and as much as I decided it was worth it in the end, it didn't leave me eager to rush out and read anything else by her right away.
71dchaikin
Totally understand. There are times for long slow books without narrative drive. Just maybe not right now, whenever now is.
72RidgewayGirl
For what it's worth, I liked The Children's Book much more than I liked Possession.
73bragan
>71 dchaikin: It wasn't the best time for it for Possession, even, to be honest, although not the worst time, either. I have read a few long, slow, narrative-drive-less books at exactly the wrong time, though, and it's never a good choice.
>72 RidgewayGirl: Noted! I will get to it eventually.
>72 RidgewayGirl: Noted! I will get to it eventually.
74bragan
133. Santa vs Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights by Jake Kalish
Jake Kalish stages imaginary fights between various real people, fictional characters, abstract concepts, or whatever other weird matchups his brain comes up with. He then offers a run-down on the contestants, solicits "expert opinions" on how it's likely to go, briefly sums up the outcome, and declares a winner.
It's kind of a fun concept, and I did find parts of this book mildly amusing. But it's never remotely as funny as it thinks it is. Admittedly, I'm hardly the ideal audience for this, as it's a very juvenile male sort of humor, overall. Which is fair enough, maybe, since, as the author himself cheerfully points out, "who would win in a fight?" is a quintessentially juvenile male question. But even so, I think the book just really doesn't work very well. The parts that aim to be entertainingly ribald mostly just end up feeling kind of skeevy. And much of it is going for an edgily cynical kind of humor, which sometimes does hit its mark, but too often just ends up turning into something unpleasantly and unfunnily (although impressively wide-rangingly) offensive.
Rating: 1.5/5. I would have rated it a bit higher, just for the bits I actually did find at least somewhat funny, if it weren't for some really, really ugly transphobic "jokes." Ugh.
Jake Kalish stages imaginary fights between various real people, fictional characters, abstract concepts, or whatever other weird matchups his brain comes up with. He then offers a run-down on the contestants, solicits "expert opinions" on how it's likely to go, briefly sums up the outcome, and declares a winner.
It's kind of a fun concept, and I did find parts of this book mildly amusing. But it's never remotely as funny as it thinks it is. Admittedly, I'm hardly the ideal audience for this, as it's a very juvenile male sort of humor, overall. Which is fair enough, maybe, since, as the author himself cheerfully points out, "who would win in a fight?" is a quintessentially juvenile male question. But even so, I think the book just really doesn't work very well. The parts that aim to be entertainingly ribald mostly just end up feeling kind of skeevy. And much of it is going for an edgily cynical kind of humor, which sometimes does hit its mark, but too often just ends up turning into something unpleasantly and unfunnily (although impressively wide-rangingly) offensive.
Rating: 1.5/5. I would have rated it a bit higher, just for the bits I actually did find at least somewhat funny, if it weren't for some really, really ugly transphobic "jokes." Ugh.
75bragan
134. Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
Book fifteen (ish) in the Stephanie Plum series. In this one, Stephanie's lust object, Ranger, asks her to help him investigate some break-ins at places his company provides security for. Although why he has to rely on the generally incompetent Stephanie to figure this problem out for him, I have no idea. Also, Stephanie's friend Lula witnesses the beheading of a famous barbecue chef. (Whose name is Chipotle, thus proving that by this point Evanovich isn't even remotely trying to pretend that these books aren't 100% ridiculous.)
All of that probably makes it sound more substantial that it is, though, really, because pretty much all of that exists only to set up the sexual tension and wacky hijinks. Not that that's not usually what the plots in these books exist for, but this one really does seem even slighter than usual.
Otherwise, though, it's your basic Stephanie Plum novel. The same things that usually annoy me still annoy me: the love triangle, the fat jokes, the treatment of various kinds of sexual harassment as basically harmless fun for all involved. The humor is much the same as always, too, and I have to say, by this point I think it's wearing thin for me. Although there is one bit towards the end involving a hot dog costume that genuinely made me smile. Still, also as usual, it's a quick, effortless read.
Also, it made me really, really hungry for barbecue, but I'm not sure if I should count that for or against it.
Rating: a stingy, slightly tired 2.5/5
Book fifteen (ish) in the Stephanie Plum series. In this one, Stephanie's lust object, Ranger, asks her to help him investigate some break-ins at places his company provides security for. Although why he has to rely on the generally incompetent Stephanie to figure this problem out for him, I have no idea. Also, Stephanie's friend Lula witnesses the beheading of a famous barbecue chef. (Whose name is Chipotle, thus proving that by this point Evanovich isn't even remotely trying to pretend that these books aren't 100% ridiculous.)
All of that probably makes it sound more substantial that it is, though, really, because pretty much all of that exists only to set up the sexual tension and wacky hijinks. Not that that's not usually what the plots in these books exist for, but this one really does seem even slighter than usual.
Otherwise, though, it's your basic Stephanie Plum novel. The same things that usually annoy me still annoy me: the love triangle, the fat jokes, the treatment of various kinds of sexual harassment as basically harmless fun for all involved. The humor is much the same as always, too, and I have to say, by this point I think it's wearing thin for me. Although there is one bit towards the end involving a hot dog costume that genuinely made me smile. Still, also as usual, it's a quick, effortless read.
Also, it made me really, really hungry for barbecue, but I'm not sure if I should count that for or against it.
Rating: a stingy, slightly tired 2.5/5
76dchaikin
Maybe skip Chipotle, if you’re still thinking bbq. It’s kind of fun to read your Plum reviews and get a sense of what’s in these best selling books.
77bragan
>76 dchaikin: Honestly, the books are so lightweight probably all you really need to do is read the reviews, and you'll get almost as much out of them. :)
78bragan
135. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 edited by Joe Hill
This is the first science fiction and fantasy installment in the yearly Best American series, and as such it contains a nice foreword from series editor John Joseph Adams about the history of science fiction and fantasy and his own relationship to them, and a really fantastic introduction from this volume's editor, Joe Hill, about the power and the wonder of these genres.
Which starts things off well, and the stories themselves happily continue this trend. It's a sad truth that almost every anthology features its clunkers, and with "best of" anthologies, I usually find myself looking at a story or two and wondering how anybody could regard this as the best of anything. But, gratifyingly, that's not the case here at all. Some of these stories are more exactly to my taste than others, but I found all of them well worth reading, at the very least, and collectively they made for a really fantastic (in both sense of the word) reading experience.
Not that I imagine these will be to everyone's taste. It's all very 21st-century genre writing, with strong literary sensibilities and no good old-fashioned sword & sorcery, space opera, or technophilic hard SF to be found. Many, or perhaps most of the stories are quite dark, and often they're quite surreal. Some of them feature social commentary of the sort that makes you feel pretty depressed about the world. All of them are well-written, albeit sometimes in slightly odd or unconventional ways. I imagine individual readers know quite well whether they like that sort of thing, but for those who do like that sort of thing, I recommend it highly. Also, I recommend not skipping over the "contributors' notes" at the end, which features some really interesting comments from the writers about the stories and how they came to be.
My one disappointment about this volume was when I realized I'd already read several of the stories included elsewhere. But even that didn't last, as every one of them turned out to be worth re-reading.
I am definitely going to have to seek out the 2016 edition.
Rating: 4.5/5
This is the first science fiction and fantasy installment in the yearly Best American series, and as such it contains a nice foreword from series editor John Joseph Adams about the history of science fiction and fantasy and his own relationship to them, and a really fantastic introduction from this volume's editor, Joe Hill, about the power and the wonder of these genres.
Which starts things off well, and the stories themselves happily continue this trend. It's a sad truth that almost every anthology features its clunkers, and with "best of" anthologies, I usually find myself looking at a story or two and wondering how anybody could regard this as the best of anything. But, gratifyingly, that's not the case here at all. Some of these stories are more exactly to my taste than others, but I found all of them well worth reading, at the very least, and collectively they made for a really fantastic (in both sense of the word) reading experience.
Not that I imagine these will be to everyone's taste. It's all very 21st-century genre writing, with strong literary sensibilities and no good old-fashioned sword & sorcery, space opera, or technophilic hard SF to be found. Many, or perhaps most of the stories are quite dark, and often they're quite surreal. Some of them feature social commentary of the sort that makes you feel pretty depressed about the world. All of them are well-written, albeit sometimes in slightly odd or unconventional ways. I imagine individual readers know quite well whether they like that sort of thing, but for those who do like that sort of thing, I recommend it highly. Also, I recommend not skipping over the "contributors' notes" at the end, which features some really interesting comments from the writers about the stories and how they came to be.
My one disappointment about this volume was when I realized I'd already read several of the stories included elsewhere. But even that didn't last, as every one of them turned out to be worth re-reading.
I am definitely going to have to seek out the 2016 edition.
Rating: 4.5/5
79wandering_star
>68 bragan: Interesting discussion of Byatt. I loved Possession when I read it back in the 1990s, and more recently (2014, I think) read and enjoyed The Children's Book although I found it impressive but requiring concentration. More recently I picked up The Biographer's Tale and just couldn't make head or tale of it - even when I got to a particular passage and realised that I'd read it before! I fairly regularly think about reading Possession again but am slightly worried that I wouldn't find it as engaging as I did first time around.
Also, good to know about the Best American SFF series. I always hunt through second-hand bookshops for the short stories, as they are generally high quality collections. I will look out for these as well.
Also, good to know about the Best American SFF series. I always hunt through second-hand bookshops for the short stories, as they are generally high quality collections. I will look out for these as well.
80bragan
>79 wandering_star: I can't imagine wanting to re-read Possession, to be honest, even if I am glad to have read it the first time.
I'd enjoyed some of the other Best American collections -- specifically, the Best American Science and Nature Writing and Best American Non-Required Reading ones -- so I'm glad to see the new SF/Fantasy series appears to be of similarly high quality.
I'd enjoyed some of the other Best American collections -- specifically, the Best American Science and Nature Writing and Best American Non-Required Reading ones -- so I'm glad to see the new SF/Fantasy series appears to be of similarly high quality.
81ipsoivan
>79 wandering_star:, >80 bragan: I did reread Possession this past year, and yes, I was disappointed this time around although I had loved it back in the 80s. On the other hand, I loved The Children's Book last year. And like you, wanderingstar, I could not get into The Biographer's Tale at all. I wish I could put my finger on why Byatt is either hot or cold for me.
82bragan
>81 ipsoivan: I will be interested to see what I think of The Children's Book when I get to it.
83bragan
136. Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staaf
A look at what we know, and what we don't know, about the evolutionary history of cephalopods: octopuses, squid, and their relatives. Cephalopods have always seemed really fascinating to me, and evolution is kind of fascinating, too. So the evolutionary history of cephalopods, logically, seems like it should be extra-fascinating, but I'm afraid I didn't find it quite as much so as I might have hoped. Despite Staaf's fairly pleasant writing style and her attempt to make the book accessible even to people who'd never heard the word "cephalopod" before, all the details of how shell shapes changed over time, and the parade of complicated terms for various species and anatomical structures did sometimes make me glaze over a bit. Still, parts of it definitely did capture my interest, especially the chapter on modern cephalopods, and I do feel like I came out of it having learned some intriguing things. And it certainly continues to be true that the more I learn about these creatures, the cooler I think they are.
Rating: 3.5/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)
A look at what we know, and what we don't know, about the evolutionary history of cephalopods: octopuses, squid, and their relatives. Cephalopods have always seemed really fascinating to me, and evolution is kind of fascinating, too. So the evolutionary history of cephalopods, logically, seems like it should be extra-fascinating, but I'm afraid I didn't find it quite as much so as I might have hoped. Despite Staaf's fairly pleasant writing style and her attempt to make the book accessible even to people who'd never heard the word "cephalopod" before, all the details of how shell shapes changed over time, and the parade of complicated terms for various species and anatomical structures did sometimes make me glaze over a bit. Still, parts of it definitely did capture my interest, especially the chapter on modern cephalopods, and I do feel like I came out of it having learned some intriguing things. And it certainly continues to be true that the more I learn about these creatures, the cooler I think they are.
Rating: 3.5/5
(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)
84bragan
137. The Adventures of Tintin: Flight 714 by Hergé
Tintin and friends are on board a private supersonic jet owned by a weird rich guy when it's hijacked and diverted to an island, where the millionaire is held and questioned about his bank account details. And then for some reason, they're rescued by aliens.
Like the previous Tintin books I've read, this was lent to me by a friend who's a fan of the series. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to match his enthusiasm for it; I suspect it's the sort of thing you have to encounter early in life if you're really going to love it. But the others I've read have been at least mildly amusing, and that's true of this one, too. It's utterly ridiculous. But mildly amusing.
I think my friend chose this one to lend me because of the science fictional elements, but, honestly those were just... weird. On the other hand, the scene in which the kidnapper and the millionaire have a drugged-up argument about which of them is the bigger bad guy did actually make me laugh out loud a little.
Rating: 3.5/5
Tintin and friends are on board a private supersonic jet owned by a weird rich guy when it's hijacked and diverted to an island, where the millionaire is held and questioned about his bank account details. And then for some reason, they're rescued by aliens.
Like the previous Tintin books I've read, this was lent to me by a friend who's a fan of the series. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to match his enthusiasm for it; I suspect it's the sort of thing you have to encounter early in life if you're really going to love it. But the others I've read have been at least mildly amusing, and that's true of this one, too. It's utterly ridiculous. But mildly amusing.
I think my friend chose this one to lend me because of the science fictional elements, but, honestly those were just... weird. On the other hand, the scene in which the kidnapper and the millionaire have a drugged-up argument about which of them is the bigger bad guy did actually make me laugh out loud a little.
Rating: 3.5/5
85bragan
And scraping one more book in just before the end of the year:
138. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Eighteen-year-old Madeline has a condition that's kept her trapped in her house, unwillingly isolated from the rest of the world, since she was a baby. Mostly she's okay with that, content to spend her life reading books, studying, and enjoying a close relationship with her mother. But then a cute, funny, troubled boy moves in next door...
By rights, I feel as if I should have disliked this book. I mean, first of all, it's a teen romance, with all the slightly over-the-top emotion that entails, and I'm forty-six years old and, honestly, have very little romance in my soul. Not to mention the fact that I find Madeline's story and her situation to be several kinds of unconvincing. Or that the story centers primarily on these kids doing something dumb enough that it felt like I ought to be rolling my eyes at them. Or the fact that I couldn't help noticing a significant plot hole that, realistically, means none of the events of second half of the book could have actually happened.
But the truth is, despite all that, I actually quite enjoyed it. The writing is effortless and charming, with some fun little multimedia touches. The characters are likeable, stupid actions notwithstanding. And all the little references to math and science and literature were right up my alley. So, despite everything, it was a pleasant read. Much more than it probably should have been, but, hey, I'm hardly going to complain about liking something too much, am I?
Rating: I feel like objectively I should rate it lower, but I figure a book that has that many strikes against it but somehow still manages to be enjoyable anyway surely deserves some recognition for that. So, I'll give it a 4/5.
138. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Eighteen-year-old Madeline has a condition that's kept her trapped in her house, unwillingly isolated from the rest of the world, since she was a baby. Mostly she's okay with that, content to spend her life reading books, studying, and enjoying a close relationship with her mother. But then a cute, funny, troubled boy moves in next door...
By rights, I feel as if I should have disliked this book. I mean, first of all, it's a teen romance, with all the slightly over-the-top emotion that entails, and I'm forty-six years old and, honestly, have very little romance in my soul. Not to mention the fact that I find Madeline's story and her situation to be several kinds of unconvincing. Or that the story centers primarily on these kids doing something dumb enough that it felt like I ought to be rolling my eyes at them. Or the fact that I couldn't help noticing a significant plot hole that, realistically, means none of the events of second half of the book could have actually happened.
But the truth is, despite all that, I actually quite enjoyed it. The writing is effortless and charming, with some fun little multimedia touches. The characters are likeable, stupid actions notwithstanding. And all the little references to math and science and literature were right up my alley. So, despite everything, it was a pleasant read. Much more than it probably should have been, but, hey, I'm hardly going to complain about liking something too much, am I?
Rating: I feel like objectively I should rate it lower, but I figure a book that has that many strikes against it but somehow still manages to be enjoyable anyway surely deserves some recognition for that. So, I'll give it a 4/5.
86dchaikin
>83 bragan: Ha! I just saw this and Squid Empire sounds wonderful. !
87bragan
>86 dchaikin: Well, it's definitely the book to read if you're interested in the evolutionary history of cephalopods. :)