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])