December 2015 Reading List

Finished up the year with a big push to get loose ends tied up and as many books completed as possible.  Here's what I read in December:

1. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
2. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
3. Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano
4. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
5. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
6. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
7. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
8. Sand by Hugh Howey

What a relief to finally finish the All Souls Trilogy with The Book of Life.  While I enjoyed the first two novels I found it all a bit tiring by this third installment. The endless movement from location to location to escape some imagined peril; the moments of intense romance between the vampire and witch; the fierce but trite loyalties and familial infighting -- argh! I just wanted to find out what The Book of Life really contained and hope for a blood rage cure.  I met my goal but the cost...

What a difference the next book was.  The Sense of an Ending is brief, but poignant and haunting at the same time.  The middle-aged narrator reflects back on his life after learning that the death of a teenage friend was not what he thought it was.  Barnes slowly lets the story reveal itself like a detective story -- leading us on a roller coaster of emotional revelations. I felt like I was the narrator and I was totally absorbed in the revelations.  Brilliant.

Elizabeth Street, to me, didn't know what it wanted to be.  It was a tragic story about Italian migrants and why they had to come to America.  It was a story of the beginnings of the mafia.  It was about the importance of family.  But what I felt it needed to do was just be one of those things because the result was disjointed and the writing styles jarred against each other.  Perhaps Fabiano experienced much of this story through her own family history and just needed to get it down.  The result to me was just ok.

I see a lot of books by Jojo Moyes.  For a road trip earlier in the year, my wife and I started to listen to the audio version of this book.  We got less than half way through and forgot about finishing it.  I guess that means it didn't really grab either of us.  I decided to finish it this month.  I thought I knew where it was headed but I wanted the confirmation.  And  I was pretty much on the money.  Chicklit.  Pure and simple.

I had no idea what Middlesex was about -- a friend recommended it to me and didn't say anything more. It's about a lot of things: moving to another country; the importance of family; why it's important not to marry your siblings and other important lessons like that.  If nothing else, I learned that the definition of gender is not a mutually exclusive absolute.  Instead it's more of a sliding scale with every point in between those two poles being available for some form of sexual expression.  But mostly it's just good storytelling and Eugenides is a master at it.

Another master of storytelling is Ishiguro.  I've previously read Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go -- both stories that are memorable and very British.  With the Buried Giant, Ishiguro tackles another topic that is as British as they come -- the legend of King Arthur.  More specifically, the events a couple of generations after King Arthur has gone.  Arthur has forged a nation in an uneasy alliance between Britons and Saxons but has left behind the means to keep the peace.  But this is perhaps a spoiler because this information is a long time coming.  At the beginning of the story one doesn't even know what period of time they're even in, as the relationship between the central characters of Axl and Beatrice could be taking place in any village in Britain at almost any time.  Such is the skill of Ishiguro to develop meaningful characters without the context of period.  Brilliant.

I saw the American Psycho movie years ago when it was made.  I picked up the book on a whim to dig in a bit more on what made Patrick Bateman tick.  One is assaulted with the very definition of "yuppie" in the mid to late 80s.  Designer clothing, diet, facial regime, exercising, music, dining out -- it's all there.  If you lived through the 80s this book is an unpleasant reminder of what they were all about.  You could be anonymous out in the open.  Instead of mergers and acquisitions, Bateman states that he's into "murders and executions" and everyone laughs.  I did find the descriptions of the violent acts too horrific to dwell on -- deeply disturbing.  But I am glad to have read this book as it is easier to be in the mind of Bateman through his narrative than through the screen.

And the last book of the year appropriately mirrors the first.  I started off with Hugh Howey and the 2nd book in the Silo series.  This last book is also by Howey but a standalone story called Sand.  Having got near to the end I felt sure this must be the first in a series (and perhaps Howey will yet do this) but he did manage to tie things up neatly in the last few pages. Sand is more satisfying than Half Way Home that I read recently.  It's a post apocalyptic world again where much of Colorado is covered in sand.  Humans have adapted the concept of diving in water to diving in sand.  Howey's use of this paradigm is simple and brilliant as it sets the scene for the entire story.  Sand is not as gripping as Wool (though they were both written and released as a series) but it proves that Howey is great at imagining a near future for us and immersing us into it.

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November 2015 Reading List

A slow month.  Must be the Holidays.

1. The Dinner by Herman Koch
2. Half Way Home by Hugh Howey
3. Wilderness by Lance Weller
4. Brilliance by Marcus Sakey

The Dinner is a great book.  As the reader starts in on it there are amusing stabs that Paul, the narrator,  makes towards his brother who is in line for Prime Minister at the next election, at a dinner in a suave restaurant.  You might ask yourself how Koch will be able to keep this up for an entire novel.  By the "main course" Koch has peeled away various layers of narrative dead ends to reveal the true dilemma.  The two brothers' sons have committed a heinous crime and the moral dilemma is what the brothers and their wives are going to do about it.  I must say that I found it hard to go along with the outcome.  I agree somewhat with the reasoning but something in me abhors the result.  And perhaps that is Koch's power -- perhaps this was intended.  After all, what better outcome could there be in thinking about a moral issue that affects most of us than to be thinking about it much later than if there was a nice neat result?

Half Way Home is, I think, not Mr Howey's best work.  A quick tale describing the situation that a bunch of premature, tank-grown adolescents find themselves in on a strange pre-colonized world.  There is some imaginative descriptions of this hostile planet but the outcome is somewhat predictable.  Perhaps this is YA fiction and my expectations are too high.

Wilderness is my favorite book for this month.  Weller is a marvel in his writing. Vivid and evocative prose makes every sentence a joy to consume.  A Civil War veteran's life is examined both during that War and thirty years later when he is nearly done with it.  Weller goes back and forth those two time periods telling two stories of the quiet strength and unspeakable pain this veteran has endured.  We might visualize what it is like to experience hand to hand combat through realistic battle scenes like those seen in Saving Private Ryan or Patriot or scores of other movies.  But Weller, to me, brings another dimension to the inevitability, hopelessness and pointlessness of it all.  I have more books on my shelf to read concerning the American Civil War and if they're anything like this I'm in for a harrowing time.  In the meantime I look forward to Weller's second novel, American Marchlands.

It's only as I set to writing this summary that I learned that Brilliance if the first of a trilogy. Huh.  I thought the ending was nicely tied up.  Sure there are questions in my mind about what happened to the community of brilliants in Wyoming but I had that Hollywood feeling that it was all going to work out.  Apparently not.  Will I read the other two books? Maybe -- I haven't completely decided.  So what's it about? Since the 1980s some kids are being born with exceptional talents that the rest of us might consider savant-ish.  As they grow up there arises the inevitable tensions between the "haves" and the fearful.  One government agent, a brilliant himself, goes undercover to get his man.  But what he learns along the way brings everything he believes into question.  Yada yada.  The trip is entertaining but... I'm still deciding.

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October 2015 Reading List

A bumper crop of excellent books this month:

1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2. Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
5. The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
6. War Brides by Helen Bryan

There is no doubt that The Goldfinch is a well constructed and well written book.  Tartt's use of metaphor is at times beautiful.  However, I, like many other readers found the pace of the story a little ponderous.  Perhaps less would be more.  The character development is awesome -- all of them being flawed in some way, especially the protagonist whose entire life is turned upside down within the opening pages of the book.  Overall I didn't mind the length of the story because the rest is so good.

Revised Fundamentals is one of those stories that examines how someone's down-and-out life is transformed by another person's whose is even worse.  Evison manages this transition well however.  The "real story" behind the protagonist's history is gradually, almost painfully teased out.  At times I found myself asking: "C'mon what did you do?!".  He isn't conveniently "fixed' by the end of the story but he is definitely headed in the right direction.  Nice job Mr Evison.

I haven't seen the Book Thief movie yet.  I've been waiting to get the book read first.  Though the style and difficulty of the book makes this a children's story the length and the nature of the content is challenging that notion.  The horror of what happened to the Jewish people during WWII is not as graphic in this story as it could be and that is a good thing.  What makes this story stand out however is the hope and defiance brought about by the unselfish act of making a difference in one man's life.

The Golem and the Jinni would have to be my favorite book this month and possibly for the year (we'll have to see).  I think everyone has heard about genies and magic lamps but how many have heard of a golem? Certainly not me.  And yet Wecker takes these two mythical beings and brings them together in New York City around about 100 years ago.  Both beings are broken is some way and demoralized with their situations but together they make a difference to each other.  Their redemption is bound up with the same evil source across a thousand years of history.  Ah yes, this one was a good one.

Mad Scientist's Daughter is a straightforward tale of a forbidden romance between a human woman and an android.  I guess "straightforward" is a bit harsh and I mention this only because, yet again, I made a poor choice in selecting a story for its premise rather than its genre.  Romance in a scifi setting is what this should be labeled as.  Well at least it wasn't YA fiction.  One aspect of the story I did like was Clarke's handling of the consequences of global warming.  This background to the narrative doesn't get emphasized but is more of an unobtrusive backdrop.  Summers get hotter each year.  Freak winter storms occur randomly.  Even the Midwest is a dust bowl.  But these events play (appropriately) second fiddle to the main romantic conundrum.

War Brides.  Again what was I thinking when I bought this?  More chicklit?  But I was pleasantly surprised.  Bryan captures that English attitude of getting on with it when times are hard just perfectly when she brings together the lives of a group of women from different places and backgrounds.  The one thing they all have in common is getting married during WWII.  Parts of the story seem contrived such as the German sympathizers and the reporter summarizing 50 years of history at the end of the story but all in all Bryan does a good job.  Even if it really wasn't my thing.

(19889[49])

September 2015 Reading List

For the first time this month I'm mentioning books I started to read and for one reason or another could not finish*  Here's my list for September:

1. Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A Lee Martinez*
2. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
3. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
4. Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
5. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter
6. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
7. Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo
8. Die Empty by Todd Henry*

 First up in my list is a book I only got about 5 or 6 chapters in.  I thought it was going to be funny sci-fi like Hitchhikers, for example, or maybe Vonnegut.  But to me it was just silly.  The plot was silly, the made-up words were silly and the characters just so vapid.  I read a few other reviews to see if I was off base.  Most say this isn't Martinez's best work but I think you really have to be a fan of his style and imagination to enjoy a work like this -- I wasn't.

I'd already bought Steelheart before I realized it was technically YA scifi fiction and the first in a series of at least two books.  However, while it is possible to determine that the narrative is in a straightforward tone the subjects dealt with in Steelheart are of that coming-of-age type -- on the cusp of adulthood.  The book also turns the superhero genre on its head where almost all the superhero types are evil and only want to use their super powers to dominate the rest of humanity.  There are enough loose ends in the story that make the reader want to continue.  I don't think I will but the tension is there nonetheless.

My wife and I recently watched the movie Wild.  We enjoyed it but felt that there was a lot more that wasn't there.  So we decided to listen to the audiobook version of the novel.  So much better.  Aside from the expected rearrangement of events for dramatic effect there was so much more richness of experience that came through Strayed's thoughts as she made her way over the PCT.  Not unexpected really given how much time such an adventure would give one to think about everything in one's life.  What was most striking however to come from the book that was missing from the movie was the resolution Strayed achieved of her past to the future.

Ever since the movie Midnight in Paris I've been intrigued about the events where Hemingway and Fitzgerald and others 'misspent' so much time with each other.  I thought this book might fill in some of the blanks.  That was a little misguided since there are so many other books that would probably do a better job.  But I'm glad I read this book.  Robuck carefully weaves her fictional story around actual historical events.  Well the story made me read more about Zelda's actual life anyway and I realized how tricky it must've been to create a story like this without altering the historical record.  It wasn't explosively riveting prose but it was a good yarn.

I really have to say that I loved McWhorter's book.  I had no idea just how much was behind the evolution of the English language.  McWhorter goes back through historical events like a grammatical detective unearthing clues that very much supports his hypotheses regarding the peculiarities of English.  Not really having ever learned a 'foreign' language to a proficient degree I only have an English frame of reference.  But when looking at the grammatical similarities between all the other proto-germanic languages it is very odd how English is different.  A quick and entertaining read.

I didn't know what to expect from The Awakening.  Depending on who you follow it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect some form of early feminist literature.  Perhaps so given the protagonist's refusal to accept the societal norm for women in that era.  But my interpretation was more along the lines of the consequences of despair or depression with her situation.  Perhaps it is a combination of both.  Certainly the writing was deeply personal and heartfelt.

 I enjoyed Breakfast immensely.  Mostly because of my own leanings towards Buddhism as a philosophy for living one's life meaningfully.  But I could not tell if this book was autobiographical or fictional -- so that was a good thing.  I didn't look into it any more until after I had finished when I learned that it was in fact, fictional.  And there were two sequels.  I don't think I'll be reading those as I have enough from this story. For me however this book did rekindle something in me to be more mindful and to meditate more often.  So bravo Mr Merullo.

As with the first, so with the last -- another book I did not finish.  I am usually wary of self-proclaimed self-help books or courses.  I thought this one might be different.  Yes I admit the title got to me.  But I can't stand someone breaking down common sense into a set of rules or attributes or maxims or whatever.  I put it down.  It won't be picked up again.  I'll find my own way of getting the most out of my life.

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August 2015 Reading List

The first week of August had me driving around Northern California "on vacation" -- needless to say there wasn't much book reading that week.  But here is the rest of the month's completed books:

1. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
2. Resurrection by Arwen Elys Dayton
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
4. Damocles by S G Redling

I really am on the fence about Bone Season.  On the one hand it was an alt-history/magic/psi/zombie scifi novel with a bleak outlook for the protagonist.  At first I thought it was a like other YA novels building on a different kind of world but it didn't devolve into drivel-y teenage girl romantic mush.  On the other hand however it is the first in a seven part series and I lack that kind of commitment.  I'd like to see where the story is heading but it might take some peek into the next book's story line before I commit.

With Resurrection I first thought it was a cliched humans vs aliens for domination of the universe.  Certainly the characters were a little flat and difficult to get behind.  But then Dayton started to tie in the ancient Egyptian pyramid appearance into the plot and things got a little more interesting.  The ending was still a little predictable but there was enough in overall story to keep me going.  I'm a sucker for scifi even when its not that good.

I'm one of those people that's only ever read The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway so I've never really got a sense of his brilliance -- until now. For Whom the Bell Tolls covers so much -- the futility of war, death, politics and so much more.  What I especially loved however was the formal "thees" and "thous" that marked the written language as being the formal grammar of Spanish being spoken (when compared to English's lazier grammar).  Brilliant!  Hemingway masterfully allowed us to get in the heads of all the main characters showing each to be flawed and courageous at the same time.  Loved it!

And lastly I tried some more "hard sci-fi" this month with Damocles. Redling explores the premise of how first contact might go between humans exploring the universe when meeting other humanoids for the very first time.  Most of the narrative revolves around establishing some form of meaningful dialogue when there are no language cues or common grammar to work with.  I thought there was just too much of this back and forth and little else that would mark the two races as so different.  As with Resurrection though there was enough to keep me interested but not enough to go "wow!" at the end of the book and look around for more by the same author.

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July 2015 Reading List

Some excellent reads this month:

1. The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman
2. Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde
3. The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
4. The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty
5. Accordion Crimes by E Annie Proulx

So after really enjoying Magician King a couple of months ago I couldn't wait to get into the third and final book in the series.  Grossman has truly created a unique world and painted many memorable characters in it.  It sometimes seems that he is re-visiting every character from the first book (in particular) and the second book in order to round out everything in the story but for me this was fine because I read the first book a lot longer ago and needed the reminders.  Over the course of the series and particularly in this last book we see that the kids that started out in the beginning have finally come of age and are realizing the full responsibility of becoming an adult.  This is really a great series and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the magic genre.

I've read other books by Catherine Ryan Hyde and probably enjoyed them more than Walk Me Home.  I was waiting for the "shock" moment in this book and it didn't really come.  It all just unrolled itself somewhat predictably.  Still there are always elements of these books that delight and that's why I enjoy them (e.g. the girls' insistence on keeping a record of everything they obtain unscrupulously so that they can go back later and pay them back).

I love Toibin's prose.  Every word seems so perfectly selected.  Mary recounts her life as she nears her passing and explores the events around her son's life like a loving mother would.  We could more easily believe this telling of events than any other account because of that mother's love shining through.  Wonderful.

Not so much with Bloodletter's Daughter.  I like historical fiction because I get to benefit from the research an author has conducted to let us glimpse into a time and place that we're not familiar with.  On that score this book does well.  But I felt that the ravings of the king's mad son were overwrought and went on far longer than was necessary.  The king's brother seemed to be added to the story to give some context but not enough to be a player in the outcome, which history clearly tells us.  On balance though there was enough fascination of events for me to make me read about events on Wikipedia and that tipped the balance to enable me to finish the book.

Accordion Crimes follows the "fortunes" of one particular accordion from it's original maker's life and migration to America through to its eventual ignominious demise over 100 years later.  The lives of many different American immigrants are told through the exchange of the accordion's ownership from migrant to migrant.  I couldn't figure out if possession of the accordion was a curse on the owner or not as each one seemed to come to an unfortunate end (I have a new horror of Recluse spiders).  But certainly it has not been easy for many folks who have made their lives in America.  This book tells their stories and they are worth reading.

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June 2015 Reading List

Back in the swing of things:

1. Under the Skin by Michael Faber
2. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
3. The Disenchanted Widow by Christina McKenn
4. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catto
5. Greyhound by Steffan Piper

I'd bought Faber's book well before I realized it was made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson.   I haven't yet seen the latter but the book is quite a good read.  The story begins quietly but disturbingly.  You know something is amiss but you really don't know what exactly.  Gradually Faber unravels a bizarre macabre situation taking place in rural Scotland.  Isserley's character development is excellent as she grapples with her own misgivings about herself and her "job" and seemingly wants to go native.  As the book accelerated in pace so did my will to not put it down.  Very good.

I think I've read enough Stephenson now to both respect and revile him.  The worlds he creates for his stories are fantastic.  I especially like Anathem for this reason.  However, once the world is described, the protagonists developed and the crisis has been identified, the stories all seem to have a similar feel to them.  The characters race towards the inevitable climax and the hero wins. Hurrah! Having also read Reamde I can see a lot of similarities between the virtual worlds described in that and in Snow Crash.  Incredible imagination Mr Stephenson but I crave some less than perfect outcomes.

After reading the Widow novel I thought I could belt out a pretty good Irish brogue.  That's because McKenna records the words of the main characters in her Northern Ireland story as if they were to be pronounced by a native.  And while this story deals with serious issues that existed in the 80s (i.e. the IRA) there is a distinctly ironic tone to whole narrative which has the reader on the edge of laughter the whole time.  It's just like watching a BBC comedy!  Loved it.

There's been a lot written about Luminaries and its Man Booker win.  My interest in it was as a kiwi reading a book about a part of NZ's history by a kiwi author -- a rare combination.    The story is a complex whodunnit with 12 main characters -- one for each sign of the zodiac.  The structure of the book is intricately tied up with astrology where location, time of the year and even some of the character's birth dates all playing a part.  I know virtually nothing of such matters but to think that Catton took the time to construct a story along these lines is both technically impressive and entertaining.  Each chapter gets shorter and shorter as if approaching a solstice.  The introduction to the contents of each chapter, as was done in Victorian times (the period where the story takes place), begins to say more about the plot than the chapter itself.  Oddly weird that it works but to me the technical details sometimes got in way of the flow of the story.  However I enjoyed the overall effect.

On the surface of it, Greyhound is a story of a kid's bus trip across America.  But it's more than that -- it's a journey of philosophical understanding too -- which is odd for a kid of 11 or 12.  A lot happens on this trip, all of which conspires to help the protagonist (Sebastien) grow up and realize that he has finally grown apart from his irresponsible mother.  Help comes in the form of an unexpected protector and philosopher accompanies Sebastien for nearly the entire trip.  To realize that much of this story is true is perhaps surprising and makes the journey even more compelling.

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April and May 2015 Reading List

It's been a harrowing past couple of months. The loss of a loved family member unsurprisingly dampens any desire to distract oneself through reading.  Prior to these events I did get a bunch of books read and towards the end of May I started up again.  But my comments on these books I am only just getting to now.

1. The Magician King by Lev Grossman
2. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
3. Founding Brothers by Joseph J Ellis
4. Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card
5. Heft by Liz Moore
6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
7. A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

 I have to admit its been some time since I read The Magician by Grossman.  I found that similar in concept to the freshman Potter novel where the whole world that is Hogwarts needed to be set up.  For that reason I wasn't overly impressed with the first of Grossman's novels.  However I had purchased the 2nd book in the series so I decided to read it.  I'm glad I did because I loved it! While the plot seems like any other fantasy adventure on the surface of things, it reveals an undercurrent of much more sinister goings on.  And the many references to pop culture idioms by the characters is just hilarious.  I've already bought the 3rd in the series and can't wait to read that now.

The Speed of Dark is a near future scifi story about a highly functioning autistic that is given the opportunity to be "cured" of his condition.  Moon does a good job describing the pros and cons of such a choice.  However aside from this interesting speculation there isn't much else to the storyline that compels the reader.

Founding Brothers is a book I read half of recently and then forgot all about it.  So this month I completed it when it turned up on my pile.  This piece explores the premise that after the war of independence had been fought and won, the future of the fledgling USA was anything but assured.  So many other revolutions have not been sustainable throughout history and the US one had similar challenges.  Ellis walks us through the events of roughly the first 30-40 years following the victory and identifies the challenges that Washington, Adams and Jefferson faced.  I found the accounting fascinating and informative and my attention never wavered.

Ender in Exile seems largely superfluous -- but I read it anyway being the die hard that I am.  It seems safe to assume that the careful reader of Speaker for the Dead inferred most of the content of Exile from the narrative.  Its nice to have the actual content validated but I found it mostly unnecessary.

 Heft is familiar sort of story based on an unfamiliar protagonist.  Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and has been confined to his house for quite a number of years.  Without giving away too much else the story created by Moore defines an unusual family based around Arthur's re-emergence into the world.  Things don't go as smoothly as you might expect in a "movie version" of the story.  The book also ends just when you might think that things are getting interesting.  Perhaps there's a sequel in that but I found it to end just at the right point.

Aside from A Christmas Carol, I've never read much Dickens.  I know, right?  Reading A Tale of Two Cities was therefore surprising in its familiarity - like I've read it before.  Sure, some of the lines are so familiar to us that they're almost cliches.  And yes, this is obviously a book written well over 100 years ago so it is a little more challenging because of it.  But I found Dickens straightforward,  entertaining and gratifying.  I have more on my shelf so now I am looking forward to it.

At first I thought A Dog's Purpose was just cutesy.  And then in the first few pages the protagonist dog died! What?  Fortunately the dog is reborn again and the story continues.  Enough of the spoilers.  As the story unfolds and you wonder where it's headed next you ultimately realize at the end what the dog's "purpose" is and you look back over the story and feel glad for having read it.  At least I did.  Mr Cameron has found the right combination to pull on your heart strings (being a dog owner myself).  For goodness sakes, don't make this into a movie -- it's fine the way it is.

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March 2015 Reading List

Definitely a mixed bag of some good / some not so good in this month's haul:

1. The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
2. Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
   
3. One Second After by William R Forstchen
4. The Sensory Deception by Ransom Stephens

I love stories like AJ Fikry -- a book about the love of books (amongst other things).  These stories are uncomplicated but leave you feeling good -- even if they contain tragedy and don't have Hollywood endings.  These kinds of stories pull you in and make you part of the flawed characters they contain.  They make you laugh and perhaps even bring a tear to your eye.  I'd recommend this book if you're into all that.  And into books too!

Calling Me Home was just the opposite.  A worn-out mechanism for telling a story.  Well perhaps it wouldn't be worn out if I hadn't read so many books of late that use it.  That is, relating a story from the present and the past, flicking back and forth in alternate chapters.  Clever use of this mechanism will gradually reveal details in one period of time that have a bearing on the revelations of another (The Forgotten Garden does this very well).  But alas there's none of that here.  Additionally it was during the reading of this book (and the completion of AJ Fikry) that I realized I was tired of female protagonists.  Don't get me wrong, I LIKE female protagonists -- I've just read way too much of it of late so I'm gonna try to restore the balance a little with new books that I purchase.

I've had One Second After on my shelf for a while but decided to blow the dust off of it this month and get it read.  The basic premise here is that "the apocalypse" is not caused by nuclear detonations but instead a near silent release of a few strategic nuclear warheads above the atmosphere such that an EMP burst fries anything with a solid state device in it.  Infrastructure as we depend on it is gone.  This book follows the lives of a North Carolina community as it deals with this scenario.  I was expecting the usual kind of bland near-sci-fi narrative but instead I read something akin to Alas, Babylon and Earth Abides that describes the harsh realities that could be expected in such a scenario.  Yes there were times when things were perhaps a little melodramatic or preachy but overall I was genuinely moved.  It is interesting to note that a threat assessment of this type of attack came out the same time as the 9/11 report and was subsequently eclipsed.  Sadly so because we should be more prepared for this type of threat.  (Read more at http://empcommission.org/ )

Stephens' Sensory Deception story was just ok to me.  I enjoyed the relatively quick (thankfully so) romp through just a near futuristic virtual reality caper.  The aspect about it that put me off was too much of the importance on just about every ecological cause going on right now.  Sure its good to highlight one or two but the crusade became a blood bath.  The characters too seemed one dimensional and lifted from a comic book.  Perhaps this was intentional and meant to be tongue-in-cheek.  But if so, I missed it.  Stephens' technical knowledge however did make the narrative entertaining so that I could at least finish the book with some sense of satisfaction.

(5889[15])

February 2015 Reading List

A very weird mixture of books completed this month:

1. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
2. Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
3. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
4. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
5. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

My second book by Murakami in as many months, I would have to say that Kafka is more enjoyable than 1Q84. Murakami's stories are just so haunting and memorable.  I am still thinking about this book weeks and other reads later.  Again I found that there are some aspects to the plot that are completely unexplained but it doesn't seem to matter - one takes them at face value.  This book was my favorite for the month.

Cutting for Stone would have to be a close second however.  It wasn't long into this story that I found the graphic descriptions of applied medicine a little more vivid than you could expect from someone without medical exposure.  Sure enough when I looked up Verghese I found he is doctor.  Furthermore he was born in Ethiopia which explains a lot more about this story's context.  Both of these aspects made the story very enjoyable and informative -- if a little clinical (if you can pardon the pun).

The mechanism of telling a story through flashbacks at the end of a protagonist's life is somewhat overused.  However, the twist with Dean's work is that the teller of the story is suffering from the advanced stages of Alzheimer's and the recollections become longer lasting as the elder version loses hold of their faculties.  I have to admit I found this aspect of the telling more interesting than the recollections themselves.  However that is not to detract from a vivid accounting of the horrors that must have been experienced by the inhabitants of Leningrad during the war years.

My second attempt at a Vonnegut story (partly inspired by my recent read of The Universe versus Alex Woods), Cat's Cradle is supposedly one of the best.  Some people rave about Vonnegut but I guess I don't really appreciate the satire.  Sure you can admire the fun that Vonnegut is poking at the nature of society and at human nature in the telling of this story but I find it just a little bit silly.  What the hell is wrong with me?  Am I missing the point?

And if Cat's Cradle is a little odd then Master and Margarita is just plain bizarre!  What a ride!  The first part of the story is just this zany collection of practical jokes played upon the populace of Moscow.  The second part, to me, made more sense even if it was less believable.  I loved the ending that brought it all together but at times I during the reading of the story I considered abandoning the book.  However I took encouragement from the many reviewers of this story stating that it was the best book they've ever read so I figured there must be something more to it.  I'm glad I did finish it if for no other reason than to claim that I have diverse reading interests.

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January 2015 Book Reading List

A very mixed bag this past month:

1. Shift Omnibus by Hugh Howey
2. Fireblood by Jeff Wheeler
3. Dust by Hugh Howey
4. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 
5. The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence
6. Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley

Having been captivated by Wool last year I have been savoring the moment when I would consume the two sequels.  This month I tackled Shift.  This second novel is a prequel to the first and explains how the Silo world came into being and takes us up to when the events of the first book come to a conclusion.  I have to applaud Howey for structuring the books in this way in order to make the first novel allow the bizarre world to unfold in a way that is both surprising and coincident with the story.  The result however is that Shift is not as dynamic and shocking.  Yet there are still some surprises to set up things for the third in the series (Dust), which I also read this month (couldn't wait to see how it ended). I found at times that the pace of this final installment varied -- sometimes too slow.  I was in a rush to get to the end and find out what is really going on a who makes it.  No spoilers here.  The outcome was almost an anticlimax for me.  Satisfying, yes, but not very alarming.  Still I love Howey's writing style and have other books of his in my library.  For now though I am done with the Silo world.

An interesting change has taken place in me over the past two years of doing some serious reading -- my expectations for style and prose has risen.  If I'd read Fireblood a few years ago I might've been satisfied but as it stands, when stacked against the likes of George RR Martin, Murakami, and even Howey -- Wheeler just doesn't stack up.  I expect characters with more depth and imagery that makes me gasp in wonder.  For Fireblood I get an interesting new world and a somewhat satisfying plot (albeit slow to begin with) but the whole thing of a new acolyte embarking on a journey of self discovery that is nastier than they expected -- its been done better.  I'm not curious at all to read more of the series.

I've had Inherent Vice on my shelf for several years now.  I had no idea it was being made into a movie until I saw the trailer recently.  So the book moved up in my "to read" pile pretty quick.  And I'm glad it did.  Everyone who's read Pynchon seems to have read Gravity's Rainbow (which is now on my wish list) but Vice was my entree into Pynchon's canon.  Bottom line: I loved it! Some references to 1970 LA went over my head and others of the period took me back to my childhood (albeit one that was not even in the US).  I loved his wordellishments, his sense of humor and his story tangents.  The plot itself was a little meandering with its almost constant new character introductions chapter by chapter but I didn't care.  It was like imagining The Big Lebowski 35 years ago.

Alex Woods is a quirky, feel-good, coming-of-age story about a kid's life after he is hit by a meteroid.  And that is enough of a spoiler for this one. Extence seems to hit the nail on the head for what it's like to be a nerd in high school and pits Alex up against some very adult situations to which he applies his special brand of nerdiness.  The story is straightforward and perhaps a little predicable but very enjoyable for all that.  I also didn't think of it as a YA novel and I didn't bother to look it up because it really doesn't matter.

Dimension of Miracles is an older sci-fi novel written in the 50s that at times seemed to channel Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker series.  Perhaps Adams was inspired by Sheckley, whose humor  is less "in your face" and more ironic.  The "hero", Carmody, finds himself stranded in an unknown part of the universe with no idea how to get home.  We follow him through various impossible and absurd situations -- each one poking fun at ourselves.  As with any meaningful travel, Carmody learns more about himself and finds at the end of his travels and changed person.  Miracles is a short work that is nonetheless very clever and layered in a way that will keep you thinking past the end.

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December 2014 Reading List

Got through more this month than I thought I would.  Standout for me has to be The Martian -- can't stop thinking about this story.  Though 1Q84 would be a close second!

1. The Martian by Andy Weir
2. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
3. At the Mountains of Madness by H P Lovecraft
4. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
5. Guernica by Dave Boling
6. Persuasion by Jane Austen 
7. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
8. Galore by Michael Crummey

The Martian f***ing rocks!  That's what Mark Watney might say.  I'm glad this book is going to be released as a movie because it has all the hallmarks of a great scifi/action/drama.  A NASA astronaut finds himself abandoned on the surface of Mars and uses an almost endless array of creative ideas to survive while NASA tries to get him home again.  What makes this book more enjoyable is that all the MacGyver stuff seems technically feasible.  A romp of a read and the main character of Watney is funny as hell.

Lowlands, to me, seemed like a novel-length short story.  Or perhaps a series of related short stories that told a bigger story.  It also seemed like everyone in the story lost something rather than reaching some kind of fulfilment.  It was just ok for me.

Having finished Mountains of Madness and looking at when this story was published I had to wonder if the Aliens vs Predator movie and the Antarktos saga by Jeremy Robinson borrowed from Lovecraft's twisted imagination.  Very descriptive and very good at creating tension.  It seemed like it was difficult to maintain that tension until the very end but it certainly gave it a good try.  I'd like to try more Lovecraft works.

In hindsight perhaps I should've started with Kafka on the Shore instead of 1Q84 as my entree into Murakami's works.  Don't get me wrong, I loved 1Q84 but it left me wondering if certain aspects of style were normal or just part of this overly long novel.  I could put this book down for weeks at a time and when I resumed I would be reminded of events that had previously taken place by the repetitive internal dialogue that the main characters engaged in.  Also, to me there were a lot of loose ends.  Who were the Little People?  Why did they build air chrysalises?  Was the troublesome NHK Collector the spirit of Tengo's father?  But with all that aside, the story is awesome in its scope and creativity.  Part romance, part sci-fi, part thriller -- if you have the right amount of patience there are rewards for your perseverance.

One of the enjoyments of reading an historical novel is learning something about the past while being entertained from the fictitious stuff.  Such was the case with Guernica.  I'd never heard about the misfortunes of this place at the start of WWII and certainly did not know that Picasso had painted a large piece depicting the events that took place.  But this book took me a long time to finish.  The storyline before and after the events surrounding the ill-fated Guernica were just not compelling to me and at times I felt like I was watching a made-for-TV movie.

I have mixed feelings about Persuasion.  On one hand some of the satisfaction that comes from reading a book like this is just figuring out what the heck is going on from all the "proper" language and actions of the characters from the early 1800s.  On the other hand the machinations of romance from those times are so frustrating to someone nearly 200 years later.  "For goodness sakes just tell him how you feel!" is what I want to say to Anne.  Sheesh!  No more Austen for me.

Ocean is classic Gaiman stuff.  Short but punchy with great plot ideas and narrative.  Told from a child's point of view it is interesting to note that the protagonist is just able to accept everything happening to him that an adult might balk at.  This brief story is definitely up to the hype I'd read about it.

Galore on the other hand reminded me of the Kings and Queens of Roam that I also had some trouble with.  The narrative seems to basically follow one character for the duration of a chapter but the meandering back and forth in time really lost me at times.  Unlike other multi-generational novels I've read, Galore was not cohesive to me -- except for perhaps the beginning and the end.  I found the somewhat magical happenings interesting but it wasn't enough to keep me glued.  I see that Crummey has just published another novel called Sweetland which seems to promise more of the same formula -- I won't be tackling that.