May 2014 Reading List

A very mixed bag of books read in May:

1. The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
2. Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
5. TheWatchers by Stephen Alford

It seems to me that Quick is mining gold by writing about quirky characters that somehow don't fit within our nice definitions of "normal".  I had read The Silver Linings Playbook just before I saw the movie and enjoyed the book much better and so when Good Luck was released I went for it.  ( I see that a movie is to be made of this book as well).  While the main protagonist, Bartholomew, instantly endears himself to the reader via his naive review of his circumstances, it was Max that really held my attention.  I just loved his potty mouthed and creative use of the F bomb in every sentence he utters.  Fold in a road trip to Canada with the four misfits of the story and you have the makings of a tale that while straightforward is also funny, heart warming, and a little zany.

Pathfinder is basically formulaic Card stuff.  Take a kid coming of age and put him in a situation where he has to uncover for himself some unusual powers he possesses.  Off the top of my head I can think of Alvin, Ender, Gate Thief and Homecoming where this same premise is used so it is getting a little tired.  As always Card creates interesting locations and sci-fi ideas (in this case combining quantum physics and time travel to effect) to weave into the stories.  I'll continue with the series' next book but I will be becoming more selective of Card's newer work in future.

Against my better judgment I picked up Divergent to read in advance of watching the much-hyped movie.  Unlike Mortal Instruments I felt that the Divergent series had a chance of taking on the Hunger Games for supremacy.  During my readings last year, the only YA novel I read that I truly enjoyed was The Fault in Our Stars.  All the other drivel with coming-of-age female protagonists that I read got me so p***ed off that during the last YA novel I read I had to put the damn book down after getting about halfway in -- which is something I hardly ever do.  At times I felt like doing that with this book.  But I persevered.  The combination of first person narration and sentences that start with "I did this" or "I felt that" just grate against my soul.  The only thing that kept me going was the anticipation of learning what the Erudite were planning.  I will watch the movie now and if it is lucky enough to be made into a further two movies then I will be spared from having to read the other two books in the series.  And I think I have (finally) learned my lesson.

So from YA to Children's fiction -- huh?  Well the story of Oz is one I never knew as a child.  I never saw the movie until a few years ago.  I have never really liked the musical movies from that era (e.g. The Sound of Music -- I know, I know, I am pagan!).  Having recently watched Saving Mr Banks my curiosity was piqued about the true nature of some of these stories when compared to the syrupy movies that we made about them.  What surprised me about Oz is just how much STORY there is in the book that never makes it onto the screen.  Sure this is a kid's story but what it must've been like for children over 100 years ago to read this book!  Blessedly the tale is short but I feel so much better now for having discovered the real Land of Oz.

Elizabeth I's reign is usually seen as a form of "Golden Age" when England prospered and grew as a nation.  In The Watchers the reader gets a glimpse of what life must've really been like within Liz's court -- i.e. nerve-wracking.  The term "watcher" refers to a spy and I was intrigued by the notion that Liz's reign needed to resort to espionage.  Apparently the Pope had declared her a heretic because of her stand on protestantism and the rest of catholic Europe wanted her dead and gone.  Elizabeth's spies thwarted a number of plots against her and she narrowly escaped defeat from a Spanish invasion in 1588.  Great stuff!  The historical records that still remain over 400 years later is phenomenal and reading history from this perspective was not only enlightening but also thrilling.  You couldn't make this stuff up!

April 2014 Reading List

Here's what I finished reading this month:

1. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
2. Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
3. Earth Abides by  George R Stewart
4. Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho 
5. The Circle by Dave Eggers

I guess I expected something different from Gospel.  I expected a rational account of the life of the man.  Instead, and I in hindsight I feel appropriately, that what I got was a version of the story the man himself might've written to set the record straight.  Saramago's writing is simple and beautiful.  The story seemed more cohesive than the actual gospels.  However, what made the reading more challenging was that there was no punctuation like question marks or quotation marks.  I assume that this was to make the narrative more like other books in the New Testament.  While the din has probably died down now for the 20 years this book has been around, it still packs a punch.

For Children, again my expectations were not met but in a different way.  I was expecting something like Hosseni's And the Mountains Echoed but I was disappointed.  While the story was similarly arranged and dealt with a similar topic and region, the end result was not as good.  I found the characters to all be very similar.  The narrative seemed to shift from person to person rather than sitting clearly with the protagonist.  I frequently got lost or my mind drifted until I encountered a poignant phrase that would jar my attention back again.  So the potential was there but by the end I was just relieved it was done.

Written in 1949, it could be argued that Stewart created the original post-apocalyptic novel in Earth Abides.  He clearly gave a lot of thought to what it would be like to be the only person left alive in a world where humans had essentially disappeared -- a Robinson Crusoe of America.  However once others coalesce around Ish, the protagonist, the central theme of the book becomes: How can one impart their intelligence and civilization to descendants and put off a descent into barbarism?  The title should provide a clue.  But I couldn't help thinking for myself how I would perpetuate my thoughts and experiences to those I leave behind.  I guess we all struggle with this "meaning of life" quandary.  This book is not so much an action-thriller as it is a philosophical musing that could easily become all too real.  Very well written.

I had to look up whether Manuscript Found in Accra was based on something real or whether it was a work of fiction.  Turns out it is the latter.  But that is how good the little book of "wisdom" is.  Given this is out of Coelho's head, it is clear he has a lot of stuff on his mind that he wants to leave us with.  It reads like a book out of the Bible -- perhaps like David or Solomon would've written.  While it doesn't take long to read per se, it is dense with philosophically good advice.  It would take time to absorb it all -- and probably many, many reads.  I'll be going back to it in the future to spend more time with it.

No doubt people have already written more about The Circle than I can observe here.  I was wary of reading another book by Eggers since I really didn't enjoy A Hologram for the King that much.  But the notion of seeing what he had to say on the issues around the evolution of social networking and the effect that has had on our privacy as a society -- well, I couldn't resist.  And I'm glad I did read it.  The unfolding of the story gave me the creeps.  I discussed some of what Mae (the protagonist) was adjusting to, with my wife.  She didn't think it was a big deal where I was horrified.  This tells me that those of us that have issues with the erosion of our privacy from the likes of Google and Facebook, are numbered as a minority.  And this is one of the major points Eggers seems to be making.  Sure the plot is a little flimsy in parts and some of the characters seem a little shallow but top marks for making us think consciously about what we're doing each time we put ourselves "out there".