Bad
Okay
Good
Wow
Go
read it! Changed me.
I don't like depressing art. That's not to say it is inherently bad, or that artists should not produce it. That's great, fine. However, for me, there is a cost to consuming such art (being depressed). Thus, the benefit of consuming (quality of the art) should outweigh the cost (any depression caused), or I am annoyed. Furthermore, one of the easier ways of creating dramatic tension is to be sad, so it seems like a cop-out to me. It is much harder to do great comedy; that is, comedy that actually makes me laugh (don't tell me about Moliere or South Park; barely a chuckle from either one). So, my ratings are slightly tilted away from depressing.
Also, I have found a couple of types of books I tend to like:
Bad
Okay
Good
Wow
Go
read it! Changed me.
Of course, the ratings are slanted towards the top, for many reasons I'm sure. For example, I only tend to get books I think I'll like.
Books with the same rating value are a little bit ordered, but not always.
They are divided intoThe
Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins. Oxford University press, 2nd edition, 1989.
This is an exciting book! It changed the way I think about life and evolution.
The beauty of it is taking a simple principle (the defining property of
life is that it reproduces; the gene is the fundamental unit of reproduction)
and describing unexpected consequences. I must say, this book is borderline
offensive to a Christian. However, I respect his very clear difference
of opinion. No waffling. To loosely paraphrase: All explanations for the
origins of life before the late 19th century (Darwin) are ridiculous. Click
here
for the opening pages. Click here
for someone who thinks this book is off the mark.
Divorce Among The Gulls : An Uncommon Look at Human Nature, William
Jordan. I read this book long ago now, and I keep coming back to
it. By a Ph.D. in entymology, the writing is beautiful, personal and
human, and the subject is interesting: what the animal world has to
say about human behavior.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. A
five- book changes the way I think about the world, or
explains fundamental mysteries. This books explains why peoples from
some areas became dominant over peoples in other areas: geography and
available domesticable plants and animals. An important book. A
little slow at the end, since the theory has been revealed long since,
and now it's details are being filled in.
The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond.
Yet another five-book book! Jared says: "How the human species
changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal
to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all
that progress overnight." Our biology and history: how we evolved.
Our fundamentally human behavior (including art, sex, and genocide),
and its animal precursors. Considerable in-depth study into what
Jared considers two major challenges to our existence: 1) using up our
natural resources, and 2) exterminating ourselves with weapons of mass
destruction. I believe 1 is more likely. He remains optimistic at
the end, but the examples he explored made it sound more likely to me
that we'll use up our resources. How is this guy a physiology
professor again?
The Lynchings in Duluth, Michael Fedo. This
detailed look at a lynching in 1921 in Duluth, Minnesota is
horrifying, hence educational. The cover photo is a crowd of white
folk. On the inside, you see it is part of a larger picture, taken
during the lynching! The white folk, posing (proudly?) for the
picture, are standing around three dead black youth! The book says
this picture was sold as a postcard at local businesses after the
event. The level of injustice throughout is stunning. The boys were
lynched for what is probably a made-up story about a rape. Other
blacks not lynched were sent to jail after evidence was ignored or not
brought to light.
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, James
McBride. He interleaves his own story with that of his mother, whose
story he only discovered in adulthood. Honest. One reaction while
reading it was, "Wow, some people have real troubles, and they still
make it; I just whine." McBride also went to Oberlin (my old school),
so I felt some connection, even though we went at completely different
times, and probably if we had been there at the same time, we wouldn't
have spent any time together, or possibly even met.
The Baby Boomer Body Book: The complete health reference for our
generation, Brian Peck, M.D. I'm not a baby boomer, but I'd like to
know how the body works and common ways it can go wrong. This is a
book that describes medical conditions in a way that a) contains a lot
of real detail, b) is written in such a way that I don't fall asleep.
This is a difficult balance. Their big gimmick was having little
italicized fictional scenes of people encountering medical
difficulties strewn in between the facts. While this might seem
cheesy, it really worked for me. I empathized with the characters,
and it made the facts more interesting.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric
Schlosser. Most of the book made me terribly angry and depressed, as
designed. Essentially, large corporations are amoral, which turns out
evil. Disney hired nazis. McDonald's advertising targets kids, which
ends up making them obese. Fast food corporations resist any sort of
government oversight of the quality of their product, which has
repeatedly been shown to have nasty bacteria in it (e.g., E. coli).
Meat-packing is a truly horrible job. It has been made into unskilled
labor (pioneered by Iowa Beef Packer's or IBP), and the packer
corporations hire immigrants, who are easier to take advantage of, who
get injured and sign away their rights, who turn over quickly hence do
not require health insurance or paid vacation. However, the last
couple of chapters mention some recent good developments, e.g. McLibel, and mentions some things
we can do: support various forms of legislation for meat-packing,
government oversight, etc., and don't buy so damn much fast food. I
believe that its consumers are in large part responsible, and though
that was clearly laid out at the end, it wasn't mentioned until the
end, which I believe to be a mistake.
The Shadow of The Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski. I was looking for a book
to show me a little of Africa. I know almost nothing. Poland's first
African correspondent put together a bunch of reportage over his
experiences from 1957 until the late 1990s. Usually I get bored
reading a book composed of little unrelated bits, because there is no
momentum to pull me through. This book was a real page-turner. I
think partly it was a constant sense of drama and urgency. He's
always suddenly blazing in some direction. The translation by Klara
Glowczewska is fantastic-- I couldn't believe it wasn't written in
English.
The Dangerous Passion: Why jealousy is as necessary as love and sex,
David M. Buss, Ph.D. As you can tell from this book page, I am a
sucker for "how do people really work" with experimental evidence.
This book delivers. David is a professor of psychology at the
University of Texas who has spent a serious hunk of his career
studying the strategies of human mating. Jealousy has evolved to
protect against infidelity. Infidelity is bad for those being cheated
upon because their genes are less likely to be passed on to a future
generation. This book explores infidelity (especially the meat
market-- what makes someone attractive?) and jealousy (when has it
proven appropriate or not), and the strong gender differences in these
areas. It's a fairly dark book, because these are not happy topics;
it spends a lot of time exploring how people's lives go awry. The
last chapter of the book is "what wisdom can we gain from all this?"
but it's pretty thin.
The
Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum
Cryptography, Simon Singh. The story of codes is the story of powerful
people who had something to hide, as well as the people who helped them
hide it, or reveal what was hidden. Good description of the Enigma cipher
machine used during World War II, Navajo code talkers, and of course Mary,
Queen of Scots.Eiger
Dreams : Ventures Among Men and Mountains, J. Krakauer. This is a book
of essays about climbers, and why they do it. Some beautiful thoughts about
the world. I especially liked the essay about John Gill, who "boulders"
(makes short difficult climbs) in part for the mental state it puts him
in.The
Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger. This is a compelling read of people in
a highly stressful environment. The world is tough for sailors, especially
in 100-foot-wave seas, and for their families. He also has classic descriptions
of what it's like to drown, what overfishing is doing to oceans, what fishing
has been like on the east coast of North America for a long time.Hiroshima,
John Hersey. This follows six people from just before the atomic bomb dropped
to a few months after, and then one chapter forty years later. Sobering
and fascinating. Also, mercifully brief! 150 pages, you can read it in
a couple of hours.Artificial
Life : The Quest for a New Creation, Steven Levy. Fascinating book about
people trying to create "intelligence" in software. The author's home page
(with a link to the book and other artificial life sites) is here.Playing
Off The Rail, David McCumber. A journalist "stakehorse" writes his story
of funding and going along on a national hustling tour with a world-class
pool player. This is all about surviving the high-pressure world of high-stakes
gambling. See here
for a review, or go to Amazon.Tracking
Marco Polo, Tim Severin. Three Brits scrape together a few pounds to buy
a couple of heavy-duty motorcycles and try to retrace the path of Marco
Polo's journeys. The book is a mix of Tim's quotes and interpretations
of Marco's writings, their own adventures, and how their adventures elucidate
the mysteries of Marco's writings. Fascinating stuff. The low-budget nature
of the expedition provides an element of comedy and risk-taking.The
Psychology of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman. A cognitive psychologist
looks at how people interact with designed everyday objects and what makes
those designs good or bad.Why
Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and
Coping, Robert M. Sapolsky. A neuroendocrinologist (hormone guy) who specializes
in the mechanisms of stress looks at how our stress response, while good
if a lion is chasing you, turns out bad if triggered by our modern life
(traffic jams, etc.), especially over the long term. Lots of interesting
experiments, good stories. Strategies to cope with stress: exercise, social
support network. Different strategies work with different people.miles and me, Quincy Troupe. Miles Davis is a legendary
figure; I love his music. His autobiography and his music to me have
the same tone: honesty. This book is the experiences of the poet who
helped him put together his autobiography. It has the same
honesty. It leaves me wondering (like the autobiography), do you have
to be a bastard to have an impact?
The Art of Mixing : A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering,
and Production (Mix Pro Audio Series) by David Gibson, George Petersen
(Editor). I didn't totally get into the whole picture thing.
However, the concrete, informed descriptions of how various changes to
audio (EQ, effects, loudness, etc.) affect a listener's perception are
really cool. The page and a half on how various frequency bands are
perceived was worth getting the book (from the library) all by itself.
Cookwise, by Shirley Corihher.
Rauser suggested this chatty food science book, full of examples of
theories. It looks like an amazing book, but I never got into it.
On the Road With Hillary: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Journey from
Arkansas to the U.S. Senate, Patrick S. Halley. An engaging story,
mostly about Patrick, and the life of an "advance man" (someone who
makes sure a political trip will be smooth), but also about Hillary
and Bill Clinton, and their lives slightly before and during Bill's
term in office.
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken. Humor writing about
politics. Sometimes funny.
Knock-out blackjack: the easiest card-counting system ever devised,
Olaf Vancura, Ken Fuchs. Well-written, in-depth introduction to
counting cards for blackjack. Quite educational.
A Cook's Tour, Anthony Bourdain. I always think I don't like this
book, but then when I'm actually reading it, I like it. He is a good
writer. His rants and exaggerated style are amusing. However, like
most travelogues, I'd probably rather go there than read about it, and
I'm sure he'd agree. What do I take away from the book that I can use
in my own life? Go to the French Laundry. Vietnam is cool if you eat
seafood, especially if you want folk aids for sexual potentency.
Home Recording Power!, Ben Milstead. This book is
current. That is a great virtue. Also, it has a good grasp of
audience: do-it-yourself-er hobbyist, who wants to know decent but not
insanely expensive options. It has expansive scope: from rebuilding
your garage to the internals of MIDI. It has opinions, for example
that digital recording will get you much more quality per dollar.
Also, its focus on digital recording home user puts me squarely in its
audience. I just skipped the parts I already knew about (digital
audio fundamentals, and so on).
You
Just Don't Understand, Deborah Tannen. Linguist looks at different speech
patterns of men and women. The underlying thesis is that men compete, women
cooperate, and this is reflected in their speech. Moreover, the same phrase,
or absence of a phrase, can be interpreted quite differently in either
of these two world-views. Another great Rauser recommendation. There is
another Tannen book about differences in communication among regions in
the U.S.The
Hungry Ocean, Linda Greenlaw. The well-known swordfish boat captain. A
rare woman among men. Swordfishing is incredibly hard, dangerous work.
I heard her interviewed
on Fresh Air. She sounded down-to-earth, which I like. Her book is
an easy read, with fun, inspiring stories. Makes me want to go do something.
See also her commercial
representation.The
Hot Zone, Richard Preston. This bestseller of the 1990s is a memorable
description of Ebola, a damn awful disease. Yuck.Innumeracy:
Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences, John Allen Paulos. An easy,
fun read with lots of back-of-the-envelope calculations.Effortless
Mastery, Kenny Werner. The humility, stories, and wisdom of an artist is
inspirational. However, I haven't yet been able to get into his recommended
exercises of telling myself every day that I'm a master.The
Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like
Real People and Places, Byron Reeves & Clifford Nass. People know computers
are not social beings, and say they know. Still, experiments show they
treat computers (and other media like movies) as if they were real social
beings. This book does a good job of describing their hypotheses clearly
(e.g., "People will believe that they did better on a task when they are
flattered by a computer than when the computer doesn't give any evaluation."),
and the experiments they conducted to test the hypotheses.Sources
of Power: How People Make Decisions, Gary Klein. Semi-scientific fieldwork
to discover how people make important decisions under pressure. The answer?
Good decision-makers have experience; they recognize the parallels between
the current situation and previous one ("Recognition-Primed Decision Making"
or the RPD model). When faced with a novel situation, they are good at
imagining the consequences of a decision in great detail, simulating it
to discover flaws. In a few cases, also where the decision-maker is a novice,
they lay out several options and try to weigh pros and cons. This last
strategy is often taught, seldom followed by successful decision makers.Into
Thin Air, J. Krakauer. Climbing Mount Everest, most people die in this
expedition. A morality play with plenty of death. Why do people do this?
At what point should people save their own lives at the expense of others?
At what point should they not feel guilty about it? Plenty of detail of
the grueling ordeal.The
Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, Caroline Alexander.
Written by the curator of the photo exhibit, there are lots of pretty pictures.
It's a good story, too, of an expedition leader who was beloved (mostly)
because he put the safety and comfort of his men above all else, including
glory. They sit in the ice for months, then their ship gets ripped apart;
they sit on the ice for more months, finally get out, make it to an island,
and a subset have to eventually sail 800 miles in a teensy boat to safety.A
Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar. About a mathematician John Nash who was talented
at finding important problems that were far away from what people knew,
and attacking them with unusual methods. Went crazy young, came back from
crazy older. The book espouses, among other things, "Conversation enriches
the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius." -- Edward Gibbon.
Very unlike the Erdos book.Lies
My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,
James W. Loewen. A deep study of twelve high-school history books, particular
historic episodes they get dead wrong, and why. Basically, all the interesting
stuff is missing (from the high school books). Some might call the author
leftist, but I believe he encourages questioning of all positions, including
his own. Look for yourself, here's
his page. This page
also has many good links about it.The
Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for
Mathematical Truth, Paul Hoffman. An engaging biography about a highly
productive, highly collaborative mathematician who took amphetamines, caffeine,
and coffee and did math 19 hours a day. Go here
for links to pages about him.How
to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie. I had always heard
of this book as a cliche, but you know what? It's good. Fun reading, plenty
of stories. Dale was probably fun to hang with. And I believe much of the
book. For Dale's summary of this book, click here.
Round Ireland with a Fridge, Tony Hawks. I heard Tony speak on "Savvy
Traveller" September 20, 2000. It was a fun story about how people
(especially the Irish) rally to a senseless cause (and the person who
champions it) if the cause is amusing. He makes a good point about
how great it is to be able to take three months to be senseless.
Success Is A Choice : Ten Steps to Overachieving In Business And Life,
Rick Pitino. Good book! This is out of the "motivational" genre. The
main points are: define a goal, work hard, be disciplined. There are
some amusing parts where he suggests ignoring people who call you a
workaholic.
Crossing Antarctica, Will Steger, Jon Bowermaster. This book reminds
me how easy I have it, even on the worst of days. This team had to be
endlessly persistent in tugging sleds through antarctic conditions,
faces cracking, wind blowing, moods dipping.
Successful Intelligence : How Practical and Creative Intelligence
Determine Success In Life, Robert J. Sternberg. A look at what
"intelligence" is. He claims intelligence has three parts (analytical,
creative, practical), and as a culture we overemphasize a small
fraction of the analytical to our detriment. In particular, he got
low test scores and has turned out quite successful, and describes
many similar cases.
How We Die, Sherwin B. Nuland. A doctor describes in detail the
physiology, psychology, and philosophy of how people die. A bit of a
downer to read 1000 ways aging just erodes a body. Skim the philosophy
and quotes of poets past. The best part (though gruesome) are the
actual case studies of real people dying, and what happened.
Protecting
Yourself Online, Robert Gelman with Stanton McCandlish and members of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). This is a good introduction to the
present-day privacy and information issues of the online world for a non-geek.
For a geek, the signal to noise ratio is low, though it still has some
good tidbits.Running
the Amazon, Joe Kane. A journalist who can't kayak joins an expedition
to follow the Amazon from its source high in the Andes to its conclusion
flowing into the ocean. He does a decent job of describing the incredible
experience (escaping near-death from rapids, the Shining Path guerrillas,
drug lords, seeing poor villages that never have contact with the outside
world), but it is continually tiring that the expedition leader seems almost
incompetent, yet jealously guards his supposed authority.Coercion:
Why We Listen To What "They" Say, Douglas Rushkoff. Evil marketers seek
to control your mind, but you encouraged them. Somewhat hype-filled, but
a good reminder to understand clearly what you want, and remain focused
on it, as opposed to listening what "they" (marketers, culture, even friends)
say.The
Genius of Alexander The Great, N.G.L. Hammond. Dry, but as factual as this
Alexander expert can make it. "Alexander succeeded Philip II as king of
Macedonia in 336 B.C., and spent the next thirteen years subduing and consolidating
the lands of the Persian Empire." This dude was good at conquering and
politics. For those who cooperated, he would give them land and authority
to reign justly; for those who resisted, he would crush them with his well-trained
soldiers and great tactics. He basically suddenly died of a cold at age
32.Sex
on The Brain: The Biological Differences Between Men and Women, Deborah
Blum. The other gender differences book (I also read "Brain Sex"). This
was a better book, though I don't remember why. Presumably more interesting
stories and experiments, and more presentation of the complex nature of
the world, less argumentation to a particular point.Herblock
: A Cartoonist's Life, Herbert Block. A liberal cartoonist, most
famously at the Washington Post, who's been around awhile. The first part
of the book tells of growing up in an earlier age, and starting out. I
always like starting out stories. The second part of the book is a romp
through all the presidents he cartooned (starting with Eisenhower?). Confirms
my belief that Reagan was very, very bad.You
Got to Dance With Them What Brung You, Molly Ivins. I like Molly. She values
humor to illustrate liberal politics. Emphasis on humor. Apparently, she
can't live long outside of Texas, because she encounters so much good story
material there. You can catch her column here.Molly
Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?, Molly Ivins. I like Molly. See above.Digital Home Recording, editor Carolyn Keating,
Craig Anderton. This is the only book I've read that even is aimed at
me: recording at home with a computer. However, like many how-to
books, it covers basics I could learn anywhere (how do computers work?
How does MIDI work?) while remaining silent on the art of
recording.
Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making
Images, Bert P. Krages. I had a very specific question in mind: if I
took a photo in a public space, and the building owners told me I
could not use the photo without paying, can I use it? What if I was
standing on their lawn, probably slightly off the public space? This
book convinced me that whether it was legal or not, it was not worth
the hassle.
The Musician's Home Recording Handbook, Ted Greenwald. Hot Tips for
the Home Recording Studio, Hank Lindermann. These two are okay books,
maybe, but out of date. Most of the info doesn't help with modern-day
computer-based recording.
On
The Wild Side, Martin Gardner. A collection of essays debunking nut-cases.
Orgone energy, Urantia, speaking in tongues, lots of extra-sensory perception
(ESP) like mediums and psychokinesis. At first, the kooks were funny. Then,
it was unexpected how many there are in the world. Finally, it was boring.
Sadly, the boredom came halfway through the book. The problem is the format.
A collection of short essays has no broader arc to pull you through the
entire work. Thus, if each essay isn't absolutely compelling, the rhythm
is wearying. Well, copious, 20-page detail on some crazy cult you don't
believe in gets tedious.Terra
Incognita : Travels in Antarctica, Sara Wheeler. A British writer traipses
Antarctica, but it's really her inner journey that counts (!). A little
shallow, since she is mostly writing about fairly short encounters with
others. I liked best where she gets her own hut on the ice with a painter,
and does a bit on her own.Brain
Sex: The Real Difference Between Men & Women, Anne Moir, David Jessel,
1991. Anne Moir has a Ph.D. in genetics, though is now a journalist. David
Jessel is a journalist. They draw together a lot of research into differences
between women and men (as of 1991) to support their claims: men and women
ARE different (contradicting feminist desires), women shouldn't be ashamed
of female traits (emotional intelligence, not being good at math, etc.).
Some of this may be true, but by the end, it felt as if they were arguing
with feminists more than presenting the true picture of the world.True
and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor. David Mamet. Mamet rails
against some acting method I've never heard of. He could have condensed
his book into a single page. Some of the things on that page would be:
don't think getting emotional will help, just read the lines; don't go
to acting school.Letters
to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Wilke. (Translated from German.) LOC# PT
2635.I65 Z488 1992. A German poet in his late twenties writes a budding
poet in his late teens ten letters about the sanctity of aloneness. Though
Bill Carruthers loves this book (see Vince Voelz's great piano
lesson/interview), I didn't get a charge out of it.A
Mathematician's Apology, G. H. Hardy. Dewey 510.0 H26. An English mathematician
describes why mathematics is worthwhile. A little stuffy. Suffused with
the regret of one who feels past his prime.Garbage
and Recycling, Kathlyn Gay. I am looking for a book that answers naive
questions: How much landfill space do we use? Is it a serious problem or
not? How much do we really pollute? What's a landfill like? This book didn't
really answer those. Instead, it informed me that Americans throw away
N tons per year. But is that a lot or a little?
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving. This is a fantastic book! The
characters were really good. It pulls you through, and wallops near
the end. Better (for me) than several other of Irving's
books. Unreservedly idealistic. Much better than the movie "Simon
Birch", which was based on it.
about a boy, by Nick Hornby. I actually had a fit of
laughter while reading this book, which never happens to me,
especially for books where readers said they "laughed out loud." Nick
Hornby creates more than one interesting character, and is actually
good at it. I really like this book because the plot is rarely driven
by what people are hiding, which irritates me in so many other books.
Often, even when you lay it all out on the table, life is still hard
or interesting, and more authors should figure that out. SPOILER
DESCRIPTION: Marcus is unusual, which causes trouble at school. His
mother is unusual, which causes trouble at home. A guy, Will, who is
unusual, which maybe helps with the other two.
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby. Most people find this book funny
because the main characters are layabouts who make lists about music.
I found it scary because most of it is about the main character's
broken romance, and how it severly messes with his head. Very good,
tho.
A Shortage of Engineers, Robert Grossbach. This is really a
3-book book, not a 4-book book, based on writing quality, but I handed
it the extra book for subject matter. That is, a book that's even
tangentially related to my life is unusual enough to get extra
attention. This book is about engineers (not software guys, like I
am). The people in it are much more gross, charicatured, and immature
than those I know. Still, it can be pretty funny, and there is a
certain geek sensibility.
Nero
Wolfe books by Rex Stout. Enjoyable, good characters, witty, fun. As Wolfe
would say, "Satisfactory." The first is fer-de-lance. See the "Merely
A Genius..." fan page or the Open
Directory Rex Stout category.Strong
Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers. A distinguished, funny, twisty British mystery
released in 1930. One of the 'Lord Peter Wimsey' series.The
Persian Boy, Mary Renault. Historical fiction about Bagoas, a boy who is
gelded, given to Darius (a Persian king), then to Alexander the Great.
He loves Alexander passionately and describes his feats of conquering and
politics. Basically a love story. Ms. Renault takes pains to not contradict
historical fact, but has necessarily created much of the personal detail.
Brings Alexander's exploits to life.Burden
of Proof, Scott Turow. Turow is an even better writer than before. His
main character is dignified, reserved, intelligent. Something shocking
happens that compels him to understand his world perhaps better than he
wanted to. He is endlessly disoriented. He finds he didn't really know
anyone around him. Lots of twists.Personal
Injuries, Scott Turow. His latest. Somehow, they are all similar in flavor,
but I like the flavor. Densely layered deceit and discovery of same.
The main character (Robbie Feaver) is great. I was a little irritated by
the end (literature drama), but when I thought about it, it might be hard
to end it any other way.
Penance, David Housewright. A mystery set in the Twin Cities. No
recollection of what this was about.
The Staggerford Flood, Jon Hassler. Unfortunately, I write this long
after reading the book. I don't remember it.
Original Sin, P.D. James. A mystery. I don't remember any more about
it. I like James.
The Children of Men, P.D. James. Science fiction from a mystery
writer. What happens to people when everyone loses the ability to
have kids? Unfortunately, I write this long after I read the book,
but I remember a good read.
The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean Auel. I had heard of this book for
some reason. It was compelling enough to get me to read 400-odd pages
or more. Plot-driven, sympathetic characters. Focuses heavily on
relationships between people, which can get a bit smarmy. It trod the
line pretty well, though.
The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson. I thought this was
headed for a four-book book because of its grandeur and sweep. Then
by the end it had petered out to a disquieting squeaking of the wheel
of incarnation.
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger. Many American school kids read
this book, and reams have been written about it, so I won't. I reread
it because a friend said it was one of the only fiction books he ever
liked. Indeed it seemed to somehow embody some of the spirit of my
friend, or vice-versa. The two most notable things are the hatred of
"phonies" and the compulsion to do, a sort of human perpetual motion.
It might be a four-book book, but I wrote this weeks after I read it,
and it has faded a little.
Remains of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. A British butler takes a journey
surveying his life. His understated story of servitude is told with
style, but it turns out to be a tragic story. In part, explicitly
explores the idea that the purpose and meaning of your life is not
entirely under your own control.
The
Phantom Tollbooth. Norman Juster. Children's book with fun Alphabet City
and Mathopolis. Children's books have some essence of good storytelling:
pared down characters, whimsical situations, wordplay, fun. This is a good
example.
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. I remember REALLY liking this book as
a kid. I think the whole idea of powerless boy becomes powerful and
important is an exciting concept, for a boy. Rereading it as an
adult, it still pertains, but somehow didn't grip me as much. Still a
good read, the characters are a little shallow: no one is drawn nearly
as much as Ender. NOTE: This book finds its way onto many top 100
lists. See The Internet
Top 100 SF/Fantasy List or a Google
search.
Have
His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers. I like the 'Lord Peter Wimsey' mysteries,
but this was a bit long. Endless plot twists, unsatisfying ending.The
Body Farm. Cause of Death. All by Patricia Cornwell. Decent mind-candy
thriller for a lazy afternoon.Stuart
Little, E.B. White. Short, charming fiction about a little boy who looks
very much like a mouse. Adventures a child might dream up, it nicely avoids
cliches (e.g., cat and mouse).A
Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Robert Olen Butler. A collection of
short stories, many centered around the first-generation experience of
immigration from South Vietnam to the Southern United States of America.Pleading
Guilty, Scott Turow. Turow is a good writer. His main character is a little
pathetic. The book has a nice long series of twists near the end.Sphere.
Jurassic Park. All by Michael Crighton. Decent mind-candy thriller for
a lazy afternoon.Strange
Wine, Harlan Ellison. His grown-up short stories (1978). Nothing memorable.
Sort of dark.
Bear Comes Home. Rafi Zaboz. A jazz-playing grizzly bear. This is the
only fiction I've ever read written by someone who sounds like he
really knows jazz. The respect paid to giants, chord progressions,
even the feeling of improvisation or trying to get a group to play
well. However, the main character turns out pathetic over a long
period of time, and that gets tiring.
The Mocking Program, Alan Dean Foster. A decent read, don't remember
much more.
Fire Upon The Deep, Verner Vinge (also wrote True Names) - Sci-fi
novel on applied theology. Recommended by John Riedl. I don't read
much science fiction any more; I don't know why. Still, this reminded
me of what I like about the genre: imagining life completely different
from what we've ever seen. In this book, pack-life. That is, a life
form where the intelligence resides in a collection of individuals,
not in any one.
The Ferret Chronicles : Air Ferrets Aloft, Richard Bach. A children's
book. It's really a 2.5-book book. Probably if I had kids it would
be more interesting. It's not badly written, just didn't affect me
much.
Forward the Foundation, Isaac Asimov. I used to like Asimov when I
was a kid. This is one of his later books (the last?) in the
foundation series. It was pretty bad. It just wasn't in any way
believable. It was somehow a mockery of itself, in the way sequels
sometimes are. All the new ideas and surprised were in the previous
books, so now the continuations of those ideas are lifeless.
Anthem, Ayn Rand. I've been curious to read a
book by Ayn, since she is a well-known representative of a philosophy
having to do with self-reliance and individualism called "objectivism"
by some. This book was the thinnest I could find, a little less than
a hundred pages, and a VERY quick read. Rand writes it is like "the
preliminary sketches which artists draw for their future big
canvases." Well, it was well executed (terse), but I just didn't care
about the characters. Yeah, as individuals they're supposed to be so
important, but they seemed generic.
Adrian
Mole: The Lost Years, Sue Townsend. I find Mole whiny and pathetic. Still,
occasionally funny, and hey, those Brits sure talk funny.Lost
World. Michael Crighton. This was so much like Jurassic Park I was bored:
little kids in danger, intelligent strong female lead (not bad in itself),
psuedo-philosphical silly mathematician.Night
Prey, John Sandford. Thriller based in the Twin Cities. It is somewhat
of a page turner, and has its moments, but situations and characters are
a bit crude.Lying
Cheating & Stealing: Great writers on getting what you want when you
want it, edited by Sara Nickles. Good premise, but boring reading. I bought
it just for the e e cummings poem, May I Feel Said He?Quantum
Healing, Deepak Chopra. It is hard to dispute that we don't know the secret
of life itself. Hence, it is possible that you can heal yourself with this
ineffable will. However, the book is a little short on the nuts and bolts
of it.The
Bible, God (presumably). I am not religious. Also, I can't read a lot of
this book at one sitting. However, it has had a profound influence on the
culture I live in, so it is quite interesting to go to the source. For
example, although people paint Jesus in blase pastel colors, he says, "Do
not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come
to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his
father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves
his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me .." Matthew 10:34-37.