This month marks my 34th year and I celebrate by reading whatever the hell I want to. You’ll also notice some slight changes in the ‘palooza this month, namely new categories for E-Books, Currently Reading, and I’ve changed up the Books Read reviews to start with a list of the titles for ease to browse titles and decide what reviews you’d like to read. You’re comments and suggestions are always welcome, so please feel free to comment on books or to suggest titles for me to read. Happy reading!
This is Literary Lollapalooza, November Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke, Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney, Blacklands by Belinda Bauer, and Osama Van Halen by Michael Muhammad Knight
Non-Fiction:
E-Books: The Great Perhaps by Joe Meno, The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens, and McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
Books Borrowed:
Currently Reading: The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind, McSweeney’s Mammoth Book of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
Books Read This Month: Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, Big Sur by Jack Kerouac (included is a music review of One Fast Move or I’m Gone by Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard), The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler…by Italo Calvino
Reviews of This Month’s Books:
Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno
I started this book by Joe Meno two days before Halloween, thinking “really, what’s more frightening than high school?”
Hairstyles is the story of Brian, a Catholic high school malcontent, and his best friend Gretchen, a pink-haired punk rock girl. Told first person by Brian, it covers his junior year and all the confusion, desire, fear, and longing that that year contains.
This is as pitch-perfect an account of what it’s like to be a teenager as I have ever read. Centered on the need to belong and the inability to belong, this book is at times hilarious, tragic, and frighteningly close to home. Meno writes with unflinching honesty about how screwed up finding one’s own identity can be. Like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, Brian is a whining, unhappy American teen rebelling against everything he can, but unlike Caulfield Brian comes off as likable and charming. I couldn’t help but identify with his daily high school heartbreaks (because that’s how many there are in high school).
If you like the novels of Nick Hornby you’ll like this book. If you are a fan of The Perks of Being a Wallflower you’ll like this book. If you like great young adult fiction with heart and warmth you’ll like this book. ‘Nuff said.
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
One Fast Move or I’m Gone by Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard
I started reading Big Sur again because I picked up One Fast Move or I’m Gone a cd soundtrack to a documentary film of the same name detailing the time that Kerouac and the other great Beats of San Francisco spent time at cabin in Big Sur.
The soundtrack by Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab and Postal Service) and Jay Farrar (of alt-country stalwarts Son Volt) is a musical masterpiece. Gibbard and Farrar teamed up to write and record the songs for the project using Keroauc’s own words. The result sounds like what we can imagine Kerouac is feeling. It is an astounding mix of two very different sensibilities, coming together to create an altogether unique musical collaboration. Gibbard, in his optimistic tenor, sounds wide open and free on the opening track “California Zephyr”, a feel-good song about the endless fun and possibility of travel. One can imagine a smiling Kerouac, watching the countryside fly by, mile after mile. Farrar, sounds like the weary, soul-worn Keroauc of late night drunken bouts and early morning hangover desolation. On “San Franscisco” he sings about waking up “all goopy and wobegone in the Mars Hotel” and we can see Keroauc feeling the weight of his addiction. Each track manages to evoke a different and altogether fitting aspect of “The King of the Beats”, whether it is wild kicks, or the anguish of self-deception, it’s all here, and it sounds lovely.
So I had to read Big Sur again. I first read this while in college, and my memories were vague at best. Upon rereading it I discovered a couple of things. First, it’s not nearly as well written as most of his earlier novels are. Keroauc was deep in the throes of his alcoholism when he wrote this account of his experiencing first delirium tremens, and eventually a mental breakdown at a small cabin on the California coast. It is essential reading for anyone wanting a complete picture of Kerouac, the man. It details his faults at every turn, an aged old hipster, drunk and taking advantage of everyone around him. He offends and mocks his friends, always in search of the next good time. But the heart of the book is his realization of his inability to quit drinking and settle down. He first goes to Ferlinghetti’s cabin in order to dry out and be alone after the endless promotional touring he’d been doing. He writes, “too much fame keeps a body busy”. He ends up experiencing delirium tremens and hallucinating on the sounds of the ocean. But he breaks down from loneliness and his own paranoid delusions and heads back to San Francisco where the party is never-ending when old Jack’s around. When he eventually has a complete breakdown at the end of the book, he has destroyed his friendship with Neal Cassidy, and destroyed a sad young woman named Willamine, with a young son in tow. In this haunting story, gone is the simple “goofing” that characterized On the Road and The Dharma Bums. This is a man, warts and all, looking at himself in the mirror and writing down what he sees.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
This is the third and final book in Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. It has not been released in the States yet. I loved the first two books so much that I couldn’t wait for a US release, and ordered my copy from Amazon.uk. It was well worth it.
If you haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet you should. Today. Okay, maybe not, but tomorrow at the latest. Larrson has managed to create one of the best female characters ever written, the complex and dazzling computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. In this third and final part of her story, she finds herself at the center of a government conspiracy and cover up. What I find incredible is how Larsson has written three separate stand alone stories that are still so indelibly linked to the one that came before it, like a puzzle of sorts. I don’t need to say much about this. If you have read Dragon Tattoo, you’ll read Played with Fire, and this one as well. And you’ll be happier for it. This is dazzling writing from an author too soon gone.
If on a winter’s night a traveler…by Italo Calvino
This book came as a recommendation from my friend Annika.
If on a winter’s night a traveler…is not really a novel. It is ten different novels interrupted by a wrap-around story. In this ingenious little book, a reader (who knows, it could be you) picks up If on a winter’s night a traveler…starts reading it and gets about twenty pages in, and right when it’s starting to get good, it just stops. It must be a printing error. The reader goes in search of the missing rest of the book, and finds instead a mystery of literary conspiracies and mass produced cookie cutter novels and anarchist publishers.
This book is a mind-trip of the best kind. From the start it crackles with its own self-awareness, and Calvino continues twisting your expectations at every turn. It is a labyrinthine ode about the love of literature. But it’s never grandiose or condescending. With a wink of his eye Calvino let’s you know that we’re all just having fun here.
And that does it for November. I had a great birthday month, with a great new eReader from Sony (Thanks Carmen!), and a lot of great reads. Next month we’ll close out the year with more reviews and a special Best of 2009 edition. Stay tuned and keep reading!
Meno
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Literary Lollapalooza, October Edition
This month we check out the latest books from two of my favorite authors, and discuss a whole host of spooky and terrifying tales for your Halloween reading fun.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, October Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler…by Italo Calvino, Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami, and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Non-Fiction: Hope for Animals and Their World by Jane Goodall with Thane Maynard & Gail Hudson, and Orangutan by Colin Broderick
Books Borrowed: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Books Read:
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
I have been a fan of Hornby’s work since Ryan Barbe gave me a copy of High Fidelity back in college. I had recently suffered through a rough break-up, and Ryan (knowing a few things about tough break-ups and good books), knew just what the doctor ordered. High Fidelity remains one of my favorite books today. About a Boy only confirmed what I already suspected. Here was a writer that not only understood a great deal about how adult relationships really work in all their thorniness, but how music and pop culture explained us to ourselves and to the world around us.
His works have not always lived up to the promise of those early books, but in this his latest, Hornby returns to familiar ground: adult relationships and how music helps define who we are. Annie and Duncan aren’t in love. That’s the first thing. Annie isn’t sure when she first realized it, or if in fact, there had ever been a time that the thought had crossed her mind. Duncan, an aging music fanatic who spends his time and energy retracing the steps of an American singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe, who mysteriously quit the business and disappeared twenty years earlier, is too busy being self-involved to notice, or truthfully to even care. Theirs is a partnership of convenience, and really, where else would they go? When a seemingly new, stripped down recording of Crowe’s most seminal record arrives in the post, it leads to a cataclysmic change in their staid and regret-filled lives.
This is Hornby back in top form, revisiting his areas of expertise as only he can. The writing is sharp and sardonic, the characters flawed and complex, and as it seems, at least in my life, music serves as the emotional glue that connects us to the world. Juliet, Naked is a top-notch tale of aging, regret, and hope.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Anyone who knows anything about me knows that Stephen King is important to me. His books are probably single-handedly responsible for making me the book lover that I am today. My clearest memories are of reading Christine at my grandmother’s house at the age of 11 or 12, completely enraptured, hanging on to every line, not able to turn the pages quick enough, my heart pounding in my chest. Since then I have read everything the man has written, including a little non-fiction book called Danse Macabre that isn’t even in publication anymore. Some of his books astonish and take me right back to that childhood memory at grandmother’s house. Others aren’t as well plotted, or paced, or are lacking in an emotional hook. But no matter what, I am what King refers to as a Constant Reader. And when I received an advance reader copy of his latest 1,000+ page epic Under the Dome, I was beside myself. And what better way to spend Halloween than with the Master of Terror?
Anyone familiar with the majority of the works of King knows that small-town Maine is his bread and butter. Here, King is right in wheel-house. Began in 1976, and then abandoned because he felt over-whelmed by the scope, Under the Dome tells the story of little Chester’s Mill, Maine. A small-town in the smallest of sense, (Castle Rock, of many a King story, is the big city to the North if that tells you anything. And readers of Needful Things will understand that.) Chester’s Mill is a place where every single person knows everything there is to know about every other person in town. They all hang out at the same places, they all support the high school football team, and they are all good God-fearing Christian folk. Nice people. The kind of people you find in small towns all over America. The problem with Chester’s Mill is that on the morning of October 21 a giant invisible dome descended on the town completely encapsulating the town at its borders, cutting off access to the outside world and trapping the citizens of the town within. What follows is typical King: The first two pages involve a decapitated woodchuck and an airplane crash, and the violence only worsens with each page. There is no new material here. I was reminded consistently of Needful Things, another small town America tale where good, kind people do horrible things out of fear and greed. But here, King finds a way to tie the story into our cultural zeitgeist. Racism and gossip-mongering fueling national politics instead of hard, deliberate facts; the way the mob-mind has a way of taking over and making ordinary people behave in ways they never ordinarily would (think the guards at Abu Ghraib); how ignorance and blind-faith can be an easy option even when the truth is plain to see.
King is painting in broad strokes here, and every swatch is a slice of modern America, in all its hope, rebellion, resilience and ugliness. The brilliant thing about King in this mode is that the enemy isn’t supernatural, or some outer force, but we at our weakest, most vulnerable states. It may be unpleasant to read, but when King describes how a quiet, inquisitive crowd turns suddenly and viciously into a rioting, looting, mindless mob you can’t help but recognize the scary truth behind the story: these aren’t some loons separate from us that we can frown at disapprovingly from above. This is us when we are fueled by fear, hatred, and ignorance. Do you doubt it? Turn on the TV. and watch the news coverage of the tea-bag parties and how quickly the most vile, ignorant, and hate-filled messages become mantras uniting a people; or how a peace protest can suddenly and without reason become violent and deadly. Again these aren’t new concepts, or even new examples of mankind being its own worst enemy. But they work. And they stick. The images in this book are brutal, gruesome, and terrifying. The book is overlong (as many of King’s books are) but unlike many, I didn’t feel this one drag. That may be because of the heightened sense of time (the entire book takes place in a little over a week’s time), and the extended cast of characters that never become forgettable or one-note.
It’s obvious that King was inspired to revisit this earlier effort because of the recent global and national political landscape, but he never gets preachy and tells one hell of a satisfying story. He has his flaws, including the ridiculous conceit that everyone in this small town in Maine would a.) know and b.) like singer-songwriter James McMurtry and would be able to quote selections from a little known song called “Talkin’ at the Texaco”, an obvious influence for the book. Now, I know who James McMurtry is because I pride myself on knowing esoteric pieces of information like that. I even had some of his music, but I had to find and download this song to have a reference point. To think that a small-town would one and all embrace this song and quote it to themselves in their head is laughable at best. But look at me, nit-picking about a foolish author conceit. The fact is, either you read King or you don’t. You know who you are. If you are a fair-weather friend, I think it’s time to reconnect. If you haven’t read King, this isn’t the place to start. Let me suggest perhaps, Christine. If you wouldn’t normally pick up a copy of King and read it, let’s not fool ourselves or anyone else, you’re not going to read this either. And that’s okay. There are us Constant Readers out there, and we are reading. Constantly.
Under the Dome is available for purchase at your local bookstore or online beginning November 10. (But personally, how they possibly missed a Halloween release date for this is the biggest mistake of all. This is perfect Halloween reading.)
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami
I picked up this little oddity of a book while browsing the shelf of Haruki Murakami titles at the bookstore. It had an interesting blue cover of a Japanese man’s face, bald head, and painted pale white. It looked unusual and best of all, short (following the marathon that is King I needed a sprint).
This book was first published in Tokyo in 1976. Centering on the character of young Ryu, and his myriad of friends both female and male, the action takes place during the height of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll revolution that was the seventies. The meandering nearly plot-less 125 pages that make up this book are filled with surprisingly grotesque, lovingly detailed descriptions of orgies, drug use, hallucinations and other finery of Tokyo life near an American military base in the 1970’s. The author’s fascination with bugs, mucous, semen, torn anuses, and orgies involving all mixture of black American men and Japanese women and men is indeed unique.
Yeah. Having said that, I didn’t love this book; I also didn’t dislike this book. It was as I said earlier an oddity, the Japanese equivalent of William S. Burroughs. I’m glad I read it…but I’m not looking forward to reading it again. But hey, if you like that sort of thing…
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is one of those writers whose reputation precedes him. I didn’t have to read Gaiman to know he was one of the premier English-speaking modern writers currently working in the idiom of science fiction/fantasy. That I had read Gaiman’s critically heralded Sandman comics before I knew there was a THERE there, is beside the point. I later read American Gods and was equally impressed with his work in the novel form.
The Graveyard Book is the award-winning latest book by Gaiman, author of Coraline, and is intended for younger audiences. What age range that might include is baffling to me, because I read it and was thoroughly engaged the entire time, not once feeling pandered to, or as if I was reading below my level. However, I could imagine falling in love with a book like this at the age of twelve or so and rereading it countless times over and over again the following years into adulthood.
This book is simply delightful. This is the story of a young child named Bod (stands for Nobody), whose family was brutally murdered as a baby, but who by chance or fate crawled into the nearby Highgate Cemetery and finds his salvation in the unlikely hands of the Graveyard’s denizens. This adopted family of ghosts, vampires, witches, and werewolves raise Bod in the graveyard, teaching him all the tricks they have to offer to ensure his survival against a brutal killer still intent on finishing the job he left undone.
This book is beautiful. The illustrations by longtime Gaiman associate Dave McKean are incredible, and the gentle, uplifting, and altogether heartwarming story about young Bod’s ascent to adulthood is fascinating and enduring storytelling. Gaiman proves here why he’s garnered the praise that he has, and establishes himself as a writer of unparalleled imagination and warmth. That creatures so ordinarily reviled and feared could be made warm, loving, and loyal is a testament to the man’s ability and charm. If you are looking for a great Halloween read for you and/or your pre-teen/teen that is not scary, but enlightening and uplifting this one is worth your time. Trust me.
I dare anyone to read this book and not love it. I dare you.
I thought not.
That finishes this month’s spooky celebration of Halloween, and well, my favorite authors…Tune in next month to see what I read when I promise myself, for my birthday (on the 9th if you want to send gifts, cash is okay) to only read books I’m really, really, really excited about!
Until then, keep on reading!
This is Literary Lollapalooza, October Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler…by Italo Calvino, Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami, and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Non-Fiction: Hope for Animals and Their World by Jane Goodall with Thane Maynard & Gail Hudson, and Orangutan by Colin Broderick
Books Borrowed: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Books Read:
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
I have been a fan of Hornby’s work since Ryan Barbe gave me a copy of High Fidelity back in college. I had recently suffered through a rough break-up, and Ryan (knowing a few things about tough break-ups and good books), knew just what the doctor ordered. High Fidelity remains one of my favorite books today. About a Boy only confirmed what I already suspected. Here was a writer that not only understood a great deal about how adult relationships really work in all their thorniness, but how music and pop culture explained us to ourselves and to the world around us.
His works have not always lived up to the promise of those early books, but in this his latest, Hornby returns to familiar ground: adult relationships and how music helps define who we are. Annie and Duncan aren’t in love. That’s the first thing. Annie isn’t sure when she first realized it, or if in fact, there had ever been a time that the thought had crossed her mind. Duncan, an aging music fanatic who spends his time and energy retracing the steps of an American singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe, who mysteriously quit the business and disappeared twenty years earlier, is too busy being self-involved to notice, or truthfully to even care. Theirs is a partnership of convenience, and really, where else would they go? When a seemingly new, stripped down recording of Crowe’s most seminal record arrives in the post, it leads to a cataclysmic change in their staid and regret-filled lives.
This is Hornby back in top form, revisiting his areas of expertise as only he can. The writing is sharp and sardonic, the characters flawed and complex, and as it seems, at least in my life, music serves as the emotional glue that connects us to the world. Juliet, Naked is a top-notch tale of aging, regret, and hope.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Anyone who knows anything about me knows that Stephen King is important to me. His books are probably single-handedly responsible for making me the book lover that I am today. My clearest memories are of reading Christine at my grandmother’s house at the age of 11 or 12, completely enraptured, hanging on to every line, not able to turn the pages quick enough, my heart pounding in my chest. Since then I have read everything the man has written, including a little non-fiction book called Danse Macabre that isn’t even in publication anymore. Some of his books astonish and take me right back to that childhood memory at grandmother’s house. Others aren’t as well plotted, or paced, or are lacking in an emotional hook. But no matter what, I am what King refers to as a Constant Reader. And when I received an advance reader copy of his latest 1,000+ page epic Under the Dome, I was beside myself. And what better way to spend Halloween than with the Master of Terror?
Anyone familiar with the majority of the works of King knows that small-town Maine is his bread and butter. Here, King is right in wheel-house. Began in 1976, and then abandoned because he felt over-whelmed by the scope, Under the Dome tells the story of little Chester’s Mill, Maine. A small-town in the smallest of sense, (Castle Rock, of many a King story, is the big city to the North if that tells you anything. And readers of Needful Things will understand that.) Chester’s Mill is a place where every single person knows everything there is to know about every other person in town. They all hang out at the same places, they all support the high school football team, and they are all good God-fearing Christian folk. Nice people. The kind of people you find in small towns all over America. The problem with Chester’s Mill is that on the morning of October 21 a giant invisible dome descended on the town completely encapsulating the town at its borders, cutting off access to the outside world and trapping the citizens of the town within. What follows is typical King: The first two pages involve a decapitated woodchuck and an airplane crash, and the violence only worsens with each page. There is no new material here. I was reminded consistently of Needful Things, another small town America tale where good, kind people do horrible things out of fear and greed. But here, King finds a way to tie the story into our cultural zeitgeist. Racism and gossip-mongering fueling national politics instead of hard, deliberate facts; the way the mob-mind has a way of taking over and making ordinary people behave in ways they never ordinarily would (think the guards at Abu Ghraib); how ignorance and blind-faith can be an easy option even when the truth is plain to see.
King is painting in broad strokes here, and every swatch is a slice of modern America, in all its hope, rebellion, resilience and ugliness. The brilliant thing about King in this mode is that the enemy isn’t supernatural, or some outer force, but we at our weakest, most vulnerable states. It may be unpleasant to read, but when King describes how a quiet, inquisitive crowd turns suddenly and viciously into a rioting, looting, mindless mob you can’t help but recognize the scary truth behind the story: these aren’t some loons separate from us that we can frown at disapprovingly from above. This is us when we are fueled by fear, hatred, and ignorance. Do you doubt it? Turn on the TV. and watch the news coverage of the tea-bag parties and how quickly the most vile, ignorant, and hate-filled messages become mantras uniting a people; or how a peace protest can suddenly and without reason become violent and deadly. Again these aren’t new concepts, or even new examples of mankind being its own worst enemy. But they work. And they stick. The images in this book are brutal, gruesome, and terrifying. The book is overlong (as many of King’s books are) but unlike many, I didn’t feel this one drag. That may be because of the heightened sense of time (the entire book takes place in a little over a week’s time), and the extended cast of characters that never become forgettable or one-note.
It’s obvious that King was inspired to revisit this earlier effort because of the recent global and national political landscape, but he never gets preachy and tells one hell of a satisfying story. He has his flaws, including the ridiculous conceit that everyone in this small town in Maine would a.) know and b.) like singer-songwriter James McMurtry and would be able to quote selections from a little known song called “Talkin’ at the Texaco”, an obvious influence for the book. Now, I know who James McMurtry is because I pride myself on knowing esoteric pieces of information like that. I even had some of his music, but I had to find and download this song to have a reference point. To think that a small-town would one and all embrace this song and quote it to themselves in their head is laughable at best. But look at me, nit-picking about a foolish author conceit. The fact is, either you read King or you don’t. You know who you are. If you are a fair-weather friend, I think it’s time to reconnect. If you haven’t read King, this isn’t the place to start. Let me suggest perhaps, Christine. If you wouldn’t normally pick up a copy of King and read it, let’s not fool ourselves or anyone else, you’re not going to read this either. And that’s okay. There are us Constant Readers out there, and we are reading. Constantly.
Under the Dome is available for purchase at your local bookstore or online beginning November 10. (But personally, how they possibly missed a Halloween release date for this is the biggest mistake of all. This is perfect Halloween reading.)
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami
I picked up this little oddity of a book while browsing the shelf of Haruki Murakami titles at the bookstore. It had an interesting blue cover of a Japanese man’s face, bald head, and painted pale white. It looked unusual and best of all, short (following the marathon that is King I needed a sprint).
This book was first published in Tokyo in 1976. Centering on the character of young Ryu, and his myriad of friends both female and male, the action takes place during the height of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll revolution that was the seventies. The meandering nearly plot-less 125 pages that make up this book are filled with surprisingly grotesque, lovingly detailed descriptions of orgies, drug use, hallucinations and other finery of Tokyo life near an American military base in the 1970’s. The author’s fascination with bugs, mucous, semen, torn anuses, and orgies involving all mixture of black American men and Japanese women and men is indeed unique.
Yeah. Having said that, I didn’t love this book; I also didn’t dislike this book. It was as I said earlier an oddity, the Japanese equivalent of William S. Burroughs. I’m glad I read it…but I’m not looking forward to reading it again. But hey, if you like that sort of thing…
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is one of those writers whose reputation precedes him. I didn’t have to read Gaiman to know he was one of the premier English-speaking modern writers currently working in the idiom of science fiction/fantasy. That I had read Gaiman’s critically heralded Sandman comics before I knew there was a THERE there, is beside the point. I later read American Gods and was equally impressed with his work in the novel form.
The Graveyard Book is the award-winning latest book by Gaiman, author of Coraline, and is intended for younger audiences. What age range that might include is baffling to me, because I read it and was thoroughly engaged the entire time, not once feeling pandered to, or as if I was reading below my level. However, I could imagine falling in love with a book like this at the age of twelve or so and rereading it countless times over and over again the following years into adulthood.
This book is simply delightful. This is the story of a young child named Bod (stands for Nobody), whose family was brutally murdered as a baby, but who by chance or fate crawled into the nearby Highgate Cemetery and finds his salvation in the unlikely hands of the Graveyard’s denizens. This adopted family of ghosts, vampires, witches, and werewolves raise Bod in the graveyard, teaching him all the tricks they have to offer to ensure his survival against a brutal killer still intent on finishing the job he left undone.
This book is beautiful. The illustrations by longtime Gaiman associate Dave McKean are incredible, and the gentle, uplifting, and altogether heartwarming story about young Bod’s ascent to adulthood is fascinating and enduring storytelling. Gaiman proves here why he’s garnered the praise that he has, and establishes himself as a writer of unparalleled imagination and warmth. That creatures so ordinarily reviled and feared could be made warm, loving, and loyal is a testament to the man’s ability and charm. If you are looking for a great Halloween read for you and/or your pre-teen/teen that is not scary, but enlightening and uplifting this one is worth your time. Trust me.
I dare anyone to read this book and not love it. I dare you.
I thought not.
That finishes this month’s spooky celebration of Halloween, and well, my favorite authors…Tune in next month to see what I read when I promise myself, for my birthday (on the 9th if you want to send gifts, cash is okay) to only read books I’m really, really, really excited about!
Until then, keep on reading!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Literary Lollapalooza, September Edition
This month, we leave the frivolity of summer behind in favor of cold hard facts, as I dive head first into as a pile of nonfiction, only coming up for air to take in the latest bestseller from Dan Brown.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, September Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Under the Dome by Stephen King
Non-Fiction: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Books Borrowed: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
Books Read:
The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power by Tariq Ali
If you pay attention to American foreign policy, or at least stay somewhat afloat of the daily news then it comes to no surprise that Pakistan has been a key element in our Middle Eastern exploits. It is the sixth most populous country in the world and is the only Islamic state to currently have nuclear weapons. It shares a border with Afghanistan, stretching thousands of miles, which is the likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden and continues to be the site of some of the worst insurgency. It has been ruled by a military dictatorship for 33 of its 50 year existence, almost all of which have been backed by the U.S. government. You see, Pakistan is important to us Americans. We’ve provided over $10 billion dollars in aid since 2001, and we’ve sold them more than $5 billion in U.S. weaponry in 2006 alone. So what does the future of Pakistan look like, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
Tariq Ali is one of the most well-respected and well-connected Pakistani journalists and in this book he examines the entire fifty year history of Pakistan in order to answer this question. With clear and insightful writing, Ali dissects the brutal and shifting militaristic leadership of the country he loves. He explains in great detail how each insurrection and coup came about and how some were stopped before they could ever come to fruition. He also coldly examines the role that the U.S. government has played in backing certain military regimes, in order to protect American interests in the region. I learned more than I ever thought I could about not only Pakistan but about foreign policy and Middle Eastern diplomacy as well.
But don’t be fooled for a second, this is a very dense book recommended to students of history and foreign policy only. This isn’t a book to take on lightly. At times it reads like a textbook of dates, names, and terms. At others it takes on a lively tone of rebellious patriotism, boldly questioning the status quo and calling for everyone to take a closer look at how Pakistan relates to the rest of the world. This is a great book about a difficult and timely topic.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
This autobiography caught my eye years ago and it has been on my reading list ever since. I have even sold this book to other people based solely on my enthusiasm about someday reading it. Its cover is striking, with a sash of blood red drape hanging across the upper left corner, revealing a cloudy sky at either dawn or dusk. It seems to suggest the revelation of some great hidden truth.
It doesn’t reveal any deep hidden mysteries, but it does reveal a writer of astonishing ability. If you think the title is a bit self-important and pretentious you would be right. Unfortunately Eggers has already beaten you to the punch. In what turns out to be a frequent self-deprecating, self-conscious commentary on his own writing, Eggers reveals an obsessive need to judge and validate his every thought or action. What follows is a sort of meta-autobiography as he mixes real events and conversations with imagined self-excoriating conversations with characters that start out being one person but eventually morph into some version of himself. Confused yet? Trust me it’s not actually all that confusing.
Eggers’ great skill here is to do two things at once: a) tell the story of his life following the death of his parents and then having to raise his twelve year old brother, and b) constantly comment on or judge how truthfully or artfully he is accomplishing a). What this built in self-conscious commentary reveals is the inherent “icky”ness of writing a book about oneself. How does one, with all humility and honesty, treat one’s life story as noble or tragic enough to deserve being memorialized at all, much less when you are the one writing the memorial? It leads to questions of integrity and self-aggrandizing phoniness. Eggers is painfully aware of all of this, and so in disarming bits of literary playfulness he both embraces the fact that he is indeed the center of the story, but that he also gets how stupid and self-centered that makes him seem.
Despite all of the literary hoops, Eggers is first and foremost a story teller, and the tale that he lays down here is in fact a heartbreaking one. But don’t worry; you won’t want to open a vein or anything like that. Luckily Eggers also has a great sense of humor and manages to keep things light while treading very dark territory. The first few paragraphs are pretty much a straight-forward memoir recounting his mother’s deterioration from cancer, he and his siblings’ care for her after the sudden death of their father, and the horrors of having to watch as a loved one dies slowly and painfully from an unseen killer. Having lost my mother to cancer in my early twenties, I found it very difficult to get through these pages. I spent much of my time on the bus, or in the break room at work, fighting back tears, swallowing hard to get rid of the lump that rose in my throat.
The book of course has its faults, such as an almost meandering second half, but no amount of pointless twenty-something blathering can take away the book’s multiple charms. An oddity of a book that revels in its own inadequacies, this may not be evidence of a staggering genius, but it is definitely the work of a master craftsman.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a roller-coaster sidetrack in the midst of my non-fiction month. I had never read any of Mr. Brown’s previous novels, though like millions of others I did see the Ron Howard and Tom Hanks film of “The DaVinci Code”. This novel being set in Washington, D.C., was something that I could not resist. I am just nerdy enough to visit the various locations in the book, a sort of literary treasure hunt or scavenger hunt for book nerds.
You know what you’re getting into when you read a novel like this one. While based on history, the facts end where the book begins. You have to be willing to suspend your disbelief, turn off your bullshit detector, and just go with it, even if you already see that it’s just going to drop you off in the same place you got on.
It’s a fun read with all of the events taking place within a twenty-four period. Sort of like “24” for the nerdy history buff, conspiracy theory set. Is it logical, or believable, or even remotely plausible? Of course not. But you know that already.
This isn’t about facts, it’s about fun. And there is plenty of fun here, even with an over-the-top full-body-tattooed black magic 33rd degree Mason as the villain (I know!). This is a trifle. Take it on vacation. I’ll let you know when I finally do the historic sites scavenger hunt.
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
Sarah Vowell is a history buff. Strike that. Sarah Vowell is absolutely batshit gaga about U.S. History. Seriously. She visits places like Salem and Gettysburg on her vacations because she loves history so much. She’s also very, very funny.
That Sarah Vowell is a history nerd should come to no surprise to anyone who has seen her in any of her many appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Late Nite with Conan O’Brien. That’s how I was first introduced to Sarah Vowell. Watching her talk about presidential assassinations with her trademark sardonic humor, I was instantly a fan.
This is a collection of her essays, ranging from topics in U.S. history to modern pop culture, and it is really, really funny. Did I say that already? Its okay, it bears repeating. If you like David Sedaris or Ira Glass, this is right up your alley. Enlightening and educational, she never ceases to make me think and laugh about the world we inhabit.
TT4N. Next month I get the privilege of reading brand new books by two of my favorite authors, Nick Hornby and Stephen King. Until then, happy reading!
This is Literary Lollapalooza, September Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Under the Dome by Stephen King
Non-Fiction: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Books Borrowed: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby
Books Read:
The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power by Tariq Ali
If you pay attention to American foreign policy, or at least stay somewhat afloat of the daily news then it comes to no surprise that Pakistan has been a key element in our Middle Eastern exploits. It is the sixth most populous country in the world and is the only Islamic state to currently have nuclear weapons. It shares a border with Afghanistan, stretching thousands of miles, which is the likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden and continues to be the site of some of the worst insurgency. It has been ruled by a military dictatorship for 33 of its 50 year existence, almost all of which have been backed by the U.S. government. You see, Pakistan is important to us Americans. We’ve provided over $10 billion dollars in aid since 2001, and we’ve sold them more than $5 billion in U.S. weaponry in 2006 alone. So what does the future of Pakistan look like, and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
Tariq Ali is one of the most well-respected and well-connected Pakistani journalists and in this book he examines the entire fifty year history of Pakistan in order to answer this question. With clear and insightful writing, Ali dissects the brutal and shifting militaristic leadership of the country he loves. He explains in great detail how each insurrection and coup came about and how some were stopped before they could ever come to fruition. He also coldly examines the role that the U.S. government has played in backing certain military regimes, in order to protect American interests in the region. I learned more than I ever thought I could about not only Pakistan but about foreign policy and Middle Eastern diplomacy as well.
But don’t be fooled for a second, this is a very dense book recommended to students of history and foreign policy only. This isn’t a book to take on lightly. At times it reads like a textbook of dates, names, and terms. At others it takes on a lively tone of rebellious patriotism, boldly questioning the status quo and calling for everyone to take a closer look at how Pakistan relates to the rest of the world. This is a great book about a difficult and timely topic.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
This autobiography caught my eye years ago and it has been on my reading list ever since. I have even sold this book to other people based solely on my enthusiasm about someday reading it. Its cover is striking, with a sash of blood red drape hanging across the upper left corner, revealing a cloudy sky at either dawn or dusk. It seems to suggest the revelation of some great hidden truth.
It doesn’t reveal any deep hidden mysteries, but it does reveal a writer of astonishing ability. If you think the title is a bit self-important and pretentious you would be right. Unfortunately Eggers has already beaten you to the punch. In what turns out to be a frequent self-deprecating, self-conscious commentary on his own writing, Eggers reveals an obsessive need to judge and validate his every thought or action. What follows is a sort of meta-autobiography as he mixes real events and conversations with imagined self-excoriating conversations with characters that start out being one person but eventually morph into some version of himself. Confused yet? Trust me it’s not actually all that confusing.
Eggers’ great skill here is to do two things at once: a) tell the story of his life following the death of his parents and then having to raise his twelve year old brother, and b) constantly comment on or judge how truthfully or artfully he is accomplishing a). What this built in self-conscious commentary reveals is the inherent “icky”ness of writing a book about oneself. How does one, with all humility and honesty, treat one’s life story as noble or tragic enough to deserve being memorialized at all, much less when you are the one writing the memorial? It leads to questions of integrity and self-aggrandizing phoniness. Eggers is painfully aware of all of this, and so in disarming bits of literary playfulness he both embraces the fact that he is indeed the center of the story, but that he also gets how stupid and self-centered that makes him seem.
Despite all of the literary hoops, Eggers is first and foremost a story teller, and the tale that he lays down here is in fact a heartbreaking one. But don’t worry; you won’t want to open a vein or anything like that. Luckily Eggers also has a great sense of humor and manages to keep things light while treading very dark territory. The first few paragraphs are pretty much a straight-forward memoir recounting his mother’s deterioration from cancer, he and his siblings’ care for her after the sudden death of their father, and the horrors of having to watch as a loved one dies slowly and painfully from an unseen killer. Having lost my mother to cancer in my early twenties, I found it very difficult to get through these pages. I spent much of my time on the bus, or in the break room at work, fighting back tears, swallowing hard to get rid of the lump that rose in my throat.
The book of course has its faults, such as an almost meandering second half, but no amount of pointless twenty-something blathering can take away the book’s multiple charms. An oddity of a book that revels in its own inadequacies, this may not be evidence of a staggering genius, but it is definitely the work of a master craftsman.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a roller-coaster sidetrack in the midst of my non-fiction month. I had never read any of Mr. Brown’s previous novels, though like millions of others I did see the Ron Howard and Tom Hanks film of “The DaVinci Code”. This novel being set in Washington, D.C., was something that I could not resist. I am just nerdy enough to visit the various locations in the book, a sort of literary treasure hunt or scavenger hunt for book nerds.
You know what you’re getting into when you read a novel like this one. While based on history, the facts end where the book begins. You have to be willing to suspend your disbelief, turn off your bullshit detector, and just go with it, even if you already see that it’s just going to drop you off in the same place you got on.
It’s a fun read with all of the events taking place within a twenty-four period. Sort of like “24” for the nerdy history buff, conspiracy theory set. Is it logical, or believable, or even remotely plausible? Of course not. But you know that already.
This isn’t about facts, it’s about fun. And there is plenty of fun here, even with an over-the-top full-body-tattooed black magic 33rd degree Mason as the villain (I know!). This is a trifle. Take it on vacation. I’ll let you know when I finally do the historic sites scavenger hunt.
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
Sarah Vowell is a history buff. Strike that. Sarah Vowell is absolutely batshit gaga about U.S. History. Seriously. She visits places like Salem and Gettysburg on her vacations because she loves history so much. She’s also very, very funny.
That Sarah Vowell is a history nerd should come to no surprise to anyone who has seen her in any of her many appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or Late Nite with Conan O’Brien. That’s how I was first introduced to Sarah Vowell. Watching her talk about presidential assassinations with her trademark sardonic humor, I was instantly a fan.
This is a collection of her essays, ranging from topics in U.S. history to modern pop culture, and it is really, really funny. Did I say that already? Its okay, it bears repeating. If you like David Sedaris or Ira Glass, this is right up your alley. Enlightening and educational, she never ceases to make me think and laugh about the world we inhabit.
TT4N. Next month I get the privilege of reading brand new books by two of my favorite authors, Nick Hornby and Stephen King. Until then, happy reading!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Literary Lollapalooza, August Edition
This month, in true summer movie fashion, we end the summer season with a handful of sequels…and a heart-wrenching true story.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, August Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind
Non-Fiction: The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
Books Borrowed: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Books Read:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
This sequel to the stunning debut The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo picks up right where the first one left off. Almost all of the characters from the first book make a return appearance here. I can’t say too much without giving important plot points away, but just know that the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander plays the central role here with Blomkvist in the supporting role. Salander was such an incredible creation that it is nice to spend much of our time getting into her head and into her past.
While the sequel doesn’t have the driving urgency and gut-busting impact of the first one, this is still a solid story with well-rounded characters. The plot finds itself relying sometimes clumsily on coincidences and convenient plot devices to get to where it is going, but it is still a fun ride.
Any readers who liked the first book will definitely enjoy this one as well. I’m looking forward to the completion of this trilogy when The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes out next year.
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Any constant reader of these pages will recognize Ms. Cain’s name. Stephen King named both of her first two books in this series on his Best Books of 2008 column in EW magazine, and I quickly fell in love with her writing as well reading both books in the last year.
In this the third entry in the serial killer saga, Gretchen Lowell, notorious serial killer, is on the loose. Archie Sheridan, the detective who first caught the Beauty Killer and became her victim and obsession, is now spending his days hospitalized in a mental facility. He’s suffered much too much and needs an extended rest. But bodies are starting to turn up with the Beauty Killer’s signature on them. Has Gretchen started killing again or is there a copycat out there committing crimes in her name. In a society that sells “Run, Gretchen, Run” T-shirts and key-chains that count down the days since she escaped, where does the line fall between celebrity and serial killer?
Evil at Heart is a taut and blazing thriller, easily the best in the series. Ms. Cain’s prose is at its best here, whether describing her hometown of Portland or a crime scene covered in human gore. She is obviously honing her craft with each book, and enjoying herself more along the way. Each page is well-crafted and terrifying suspense, with dark bits of humor and wit peppering the thrills. If you haven’t started reading this series yet…what are you waiting for? I’ve already told you twice! Uncle Stevie told you, too. Heartsick and Sweetheart are both out now in paperback, and Evil at Heart drops into stores on September 1.
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
This is the sequel to Mr. Moore’s Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story. The love story between Jody, recent vampire, and Thomas Flood, her minion continues here. The problem is that Jody has just turned Tommy into a vampire, too. Sometimes love sucks. So as the two fledgling vampires try to figure out how to survive in a human world without becoming vicious killers, they must also find a new minion to do their bidding during the daytime. Meanwhile a blue prostitute (named Blue, of course) has hooked up with the Animals, the overnight Safeway stocking crew Tommy used to work with, and has plans of her own. Lucky for her, the Animals have experience hunting vampires.
To tell you the truth I wasn’t really looking forward to this book. I didn’t absolutely love the first book, and I wasn’t really looking forward to reconnecting with the characters. But the book was on my shelf, and I had committed to this idea of sequels, so I read it anyway. I’m glad I did.
The humor comes fast and furious in this book, and while Moore continues to be completely immature and inane, he finds some fun and interesting ways to be completely moronic. This is a very fun story and the characters are all very ridiculous and entertaining. It’s a fast read, and one that requires no thought at all. You Suck is a blast, one hell of a good time. The funniest writing in the book belongs to the journal entries of a fifteen year old wannabe Goth girl named Abby Normal. How Moore so perfectly captures the thoughts and tone of a teen girl I’ll never know. It seems his immaturity finally finds its calling. This is one of the rare cases where a book’s sequel far outshines its predecessor.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Abdulrahman Zeitoun was a 49 year old father of four, and proud owner of a painting and contracting company in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast. His wife Kathy gathered the kids and fled the city, fearing the worst. Zeitoun, a humble and stubborn man, decided to stay and keep an eye on things, after all he’d stayed through all the other storms and been fine. Besides he had clients and equipment all over town, and a few rental properties that he owned, someone had to be there to take care of something in case of an emergency. When the levees broke, leaving New Orleans completely under water, Zeitoun was there to drag the family’s belongings to the second floor, saving much. In his aluminum canoe he was able to paddle around the neighborhood, helping people who had stayed like him to safety. He was able to locate houses where abandoned dogs whined from hunger and feed them. He felt like God had put him there for a reason. But as conditions spiraled out of control in the region between looters and the American military presence, New Orleans was the last place on Earth he should have been.
This true story of the Zeitoun family is a top-notch read. Above and beyond simple reporting, Eggers revels in the details, the smallest points of interest that add up to a human life. The story told here is of a Syrian immigrant, strong-willed and well-liked, a small-business owner and loving husband and father who when called upon to act did the extraordinary; and the uplifting, terrifying, and shattering journey that followed in the wake of disaster.
I CANNOT give this book a higher recommendation. You will love this book, I guarantee it. A better biography has not been written this year. Astoundingly well-written, this one is a must read!
That’s all for now folks. Hope you find some time to do some reading.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, August Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind
Non-Fiction: The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
Books Borrowed: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Books Read:
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
This sequel to the stunning debut The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo picks up right where the first one left off. Almost all of the characters from the first book make a return appearance here. I can’t say too much without giving important plot points away, but just know that the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander plays the central role here with Blomkvist in the supporting role. Salander was such an incredible creation that it is nice to spend much of our time getting into her head and into her past.
While the sequel doesn’t have the driving urgency and gut-busting impact of the first one, this is still a solid story with well-rounded characters. The plot finds itself relying sometimes clumsily on coincidences and convenient plot devices to get to where it is going, but it is still a fun ride.
Any readers who liked the first book will definitely enjoy this one as well. I’m looking forward to the completion of this trilogy when The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes out next year.
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Any constant reader of these pages will recognize Ms. Cain’s name. Stephen King named both of her first two books in this series on his Best Books of 2008 column in EW magazine, and I quickly fell in love with her writing as well reading both books in the last year.
In this the third entry in the serial killer saga, Gretchen Lowell, notorious serial killer, is on the loose. Archie Sheridan, the detective who first caught the Beauty Killer and became her victim and obsession, is now spending his days hospitalized in a mental facility. He’s suffered much too much and needs an extended rest. But bodies are starting to turn up with the Beauty Killer’s signature on them. Has Gretchen started killing again or is there a copycat out there committing crimes in her name. In a society that sells “Run, Gretchen, Run” T-shirts and key-chains that count down the days since she escaped, where does the line fall between celebrity and serial killer?
Evil at Heart is a taut and blazing thriller, easily the best in the series. Ms. Cain’s prose is at its best here, whether describing her hometown of Portland or a crime scene covered in human gore. She is obviously honing her craft with each book, and enjoying herself more along the way. Each page is well-crafted and terrifying suspense, with dark bits of humor and wit peppering the thrills. If you haven’t started reading this series yet…what are you waiting for? I’ve already told you twice! Uncle Stevie told you, too. Heartsick and Sweetheart are both out now in paperback, and Evil at Heart drops into stores on September 1.
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
This is the sequel to Mr. Moore’s Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story. The love story between Jody, recent vampire, and Thomas Flood, her minion continues here. The problem is that Jody has just turned Tommy into a vampire, too. Sometimes love sucks. So as the two fledgling vampires try to figure out how to survive in a human world without becoming vicious killers, they must also find a new minion to do their bidding during the daytime. Meanwhile a blue prostitute (named Blue, of course) has hooked up with the Animals, the overnight Safeway stocking crew Tommy used to work with, and has plans of her own. Lucky for her, the Animals have experience hunting vampires.
To tell you the truth I wasn’t really looking forward to this book. I didn’t absolutely love the first book, and I wasn’t really looking forward to reconnecting with the characters. But the book was on my shelf, and I had committed to this idea of sequels, so I read it anyway. I’m glad I did.
The humor comes fast and furious in this book, and while Moore continues to be completely immature and inane, he finds some fun and interesting ways to be completely moronic. This is a very fun story and the characters are all very ridiculous and entertaining. It’s a fast read, and one that requires no thought at all. You Suck is a blast, one hell of a good time. The funniest writing in the book belongs to the journal entries of a fifteen year old wannabe Goth girl named Abby Normal. How Moore so perfectly captures the thoughts and tone of a teen girl I’ll never know. It seems his immaturity finally finds its calling. This is one of the rare cases where a book’s sequel far outshines its predecessor.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Abdulrahman Zeitoun was a 49 year old father of four, and proud owner of a painting and contracting company in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the Louisiana coast. His wife Kathy gathered the kids and fled the city, fearing the worst. Zeitoun, a humble and stubborn man, decided to stay and keep an eye on things, after all he’d stayed through all the other storms and been fine. Besides he had clients and equipment all over town, and a few rental properties that he owned, someone had to be there to take care of something in case of an emergency. When the levees broke, leaving New Orleans completely under water, Zeitoun was there to drag the family’s belongings to the second floor, saving much. In his aluminum canoe he was able to paddle around the neighborhood, helping people who had stayed like him to safety. He was able to locate houses where abandoned dogs whined from hunger and feed them. He felt like God had put him there for a reason. But as conditions spiraled out of control in the region between looters and the American military presence, New Orleans was the last place on Earth he should have been.
This true story of the Zeitoun family is a top-notch read. Above and beyond simple reporting, Eggers revels in the details, the smallest points of interest that add up to a human life. The story told here is of a Syrian immigrant, strong-willed and well-liked, a small-business owner and loving husband and father who when called upon to act did the extraordinary; and the uplifting, terrifying, and shattering journey that followed in the wake of disaster.
I CANNOT give this book a higher recommendation. You will love this book, I guarantee it. A better biography has not been written this year. Astoundingly well-written, this one is a must read!
That’s all for now folks. Hope you find some time to do some reading.
Literary Lollapalooza, July Edition
This month I attempt to slum it, then get delightfully literary, and then finish things off with an uber-violent summer popcorn action flick…but wait, it’s a book! With reading this fun, it must be summer.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, July Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Damnation Game by Clive Barker, The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder, Spooner by Pete Dexter, Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe, Music for the Off-Key by Courttia Newland
Non-Fiction: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, My First Movie: Take Two edited by Stephen Lowenstein, At the Center of the Storm by George Tenet
Books Borrowed: Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary, The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Books Read:
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
If you have seen any of the hundreds of science fiction films made in the last twenty-some-odd years then you are familiar with William Gibson. Not that he wrote any of those movies, or even the novels upon which those movies are based. No, William Gibson’s influence goes much deeper into the overall thematic breadth and scope of modern science fiction. Like Asimov and Bradbury did for earlier generations, Gibson provides the visionary framework with which we as post Gen-Xers understand the realm of probable and possible science; by reaching into the cultural zeitgeist of the burgeoning 1980’s computer culture, in a sense he fashioned us into who we are today. The man after all coined the term Cyberspace.
Long before there was an internet, or even accessible wireless communication Gibson was dreaming it and writing it down. When he burst onto the sci-fi scene with his now classic Neuromancer he managed to tap into our mass unconscious, creating a world not too far removed from the one we now find ourselves inhabiting.
Burning Chrome is a collection of short stories written and co-written by William Gibson and reading it is like reliving every modern classic of science fiction all over again. From Bladerunner to The Matrix, and seemingly every step of the way Gibson was there first, laying the groundwork. Most of the stories are brief and highly visual glimpses into a world so jacked into its technology, that it’s lost its soul. Among the stories is “Johnny Mnemonic” the original source material for the egregiously bad Keanu Reeves movie of the same title. Trust me, this is better. My favorite of the collection is The Belonging Kind co-written with John Shirley. It’s about a lonely guy named Coretti who while drinking in various late-night dives notices an odd breed of bar denizen and becomes obsessed. The beauty of this as with all his short stories is that he paints a lasting image without filling in all the holes. He is a master of ambiguity, and often the reader is left uncertain of what to believe. Reality in these works is as elusive and slippery as it often is in life, depending on interpretation and perspective for definition.
The future that Gibson paints is not a bright one, and these stories are often cold, gritty, and mournful, but the eloquence of his voice and the power of his images make him a must-read for anyone. Plus sometimes the cold empty void of space is just what is needed in the heat of the summer doldrums.
Candy Girl by Diablo Cody
Candy Girl is the autobiographical story of how author Cody became an unlikely Minneapolis stripper. Ms. Cody is best known for winning an Oscar for the screenplay of last year’s indie darling Juno. She has several other screenplays in production including Jennifer’s Body with Megan Fox coming out this Fall, and is a contributing columnist for Entertainment Weekly. Ms. Cody is a funny and often offensive writer. And this book is a whole lot of fun.
In what is ultimately an outsiders’ perspective Cody delves into the bright lights and dingy back rooms of the stripper’s life, laying bare (literally) all the nasty truths and often surprising realities of the sex trade.
Told in her self-deprecating voice Candy Girl is a fast and frothy read. It is comical, sick, endearing, educational, and often gross. But it is light and good-hearted fun. For those of you who always wanted to know what goes on in those little video booths but were afraid to ask, this is for you.
Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary
Denis Leary is also a funny sonovabitch. His wit is at its sharpest on his phenomenal FX series Rescue Me. But his stand-up shows are also quite funny, if not a little repetitive and immature. Why We Suck is like Leary’s stand-up act. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing.
A full-blown treatise on all the things that make Denis crazy about fat, whiny, self-important Americans, it is a bit one-note. If you are even a little cynical most of the good Doctor’s rants are far from novel. Americans are fat? Shocking! Americans have a bloated legal system weighed down by frivolous law suits? I protest!
But seriously, Leary is very funny and there are moments of brilliant social satire to be found here. Unfortunately I think much of the material falls flat without Leary’s caustic delivery. I would’ve rather seen this material live on stage, or at the very least listened to it on audio so that Leary’s personal wit and charisma could fill some of those flat moments.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Tower Wells
Some people just seem to have an innate ability to string words together in such a way that reading them is a pleasure in and of itself.
Tower Wells is one of those people. This, his first collection of short fiction, is a testament of his uncanny ability. A collection of stories that (mostly) highlight the ordinary and everyday moments of an average life, the stories rise above the average on Wells’ well-constructed prose, subtly building its own momentum on pure lyricism.
From a story about a middle-aged man (literally) rebuilding his life after his job and marriage have tanked on the North Carolina coast, to one (Insert Story) Tower Wells announces his arrival on the literary scene like a modern Raymond Carver, creating a sense of purpose and beauty out of the banality of average human life.
The only weak story in the bunch is ironically the one which shares the collection’s title. A tale of Vikings pillaging and plundering seems blatantly out of step with the rest of the collection, and brings me to think that Wells must have been meaning to draw some sort of parallel between these very different stories. Perhaps it is something about how modern man ravages and burns his own village rather than those of his neighbors, etc. I don’t know; I don’t get it.
Despite this misstep Ravaged/Burned is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read this year. This is a collection of short fiction that sings, an absolute glorious way to spend a warm summer afternoon with a glass of wine. I can’t offer higher praise than that.
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
My friend Josh brought this book to me unsolicited, and said I should read it. I had never read anything by Casares before, or indeed had ever even heard of him. I was, to say the least, intrigued. It’s not often that a book gets placed into my hands.
A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentinean author who, inspired by his Buenos Aires landscape and the influx of poets and intellectuals from Spain, North America and Asia, sought to create a “fantastical literature” that rebelled against what he felt were the artifices of nineteenth century realism.
The Invention of Morel is part adventure story and mystery, part Kafkaesque absurd drama, and a metaphysical and philosophical exploration of reality and our perceptions of reality. The story of an escaped political prisoner, our hero finds himself living on a deserted island and witnessing the most unusual of comings and goings. Thinking himself mad, he seeks to uncover the secret behind the mysterious group of people that seem to come and go at a moment’s notice. To make matters worse, he finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dark-haired girl in the group. But why does she pretend not to see him? Is she torturing him or setting him up for capture? As he digs deeper, the clear distinctions between reality and perception starts to thin, raising the question “how can he be with one he loves when she doesn’t and truly can’t ever know him?”
This is a fast read and an amazingly athletic and dexterous one at that. With what seems like little or no effort Casares manages to weave incredibly deep strands of thought into what comes across as a simple adventure story. It isn’t until you’ve finished the thing and let it really sink in that you marvel at the author’s ability to get under your psychic skin without ever letting you know he was there.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
It should be no surprise that Beat the Reaper coming in paperback September 14 from Back Bay Books has already been optioned for film rights by New Regency Productions.
Josh Bazell’s frenetic break-neck paced debut thriller is pure cinematic fun. It weaves and bobs and slashes and bashes like a Tarantino film about doctors and mafia dons. Think the visual style of Lucky Number Slevin mixed with the comic sensibilities of Pulp Fiction. It ain’t pretty, but is sure is fun.
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He’s keeping himself awake for his shift by chewing down whatever medications he can cop off nurses or patients, and to make matters worse some guy just tried to mug him on his way into work. Dr. Brown has patients he’s struggling to keep alive, and a secret he’s desperately trying to keep hidden: he’s an ex-Mafia hit man with a knack for violence. And as if things weren’t bad enough he was just recognized by his new patient, Nicholas LoBrutto. Now he’s got hit men and government agents closing in and Dr. Peter Brown must find a way to keep himself and his patients alive until end of his shift.
A hard-boiled uber-violent mix of medical mayhem and mafia shenanigans Beat the Reaper is pure blood-soaked fun. It’s a summer popcorn flick without the film. You won’t find anything resembling a message here. There are no deeper meanings, no symbolism, no thematic structures; this is fluff. But hey, if you like your comedy black and your violence bloody and your good guys just a little bit bad, this just might be your cup of tea.
Whew! July was a busy month. I have a feeling things are going to slow down in August. Join me next month here at Literary Lollapalooza and read about what I’ve been reading.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, July Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Damnation Game by Clive Barker, The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder, Spooner by Pete Dexter, Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe, Music for the Off-Key by Courttia Newland
Non-Fiction: A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, My First Movie: Take Two edited by Stephen Lowenstein, At the Center of the Storm by George Tenet
Books Borrowed: Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary, The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Books Read:
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
If you have seen any of the hundreds of science fiction films made in the last twenty-some-odd years then you are familiar with William Gibson. Not that he wrote any of those movies, or even the novels upon which those movies are based. No, William Gibson’s influence goes much deeper into the overall thematic breadth and scope of modern science fiction. Like Asimov and Bradbury did for earlier generations, Gibson provides the visionary framework with which we as post Gen-Xers understand the realm of probable and possible science; by reaching into the cultural zeitgeist of the burgeoning 1980’s computer culture, in a sense he fashioned us into who we are today. The man after all coined the term Cyberspace.
Long before there was an internet, or even accessible wireless communication Gibson was dreaming it and writing it down. When he burst onto the sci-fi scene with his now classic Neuromancer he managed to tap into our mass unconscious, creating a world not too far removed from the one we now find ourselves inhabiting.
Burning Chrome is a collection of short stories written and co-written by William Gibson and reading it is like reliving every modern classic of science fiction all over again. From Bladerunner to The Matrix, and seemingly every step of the way Gibson was there first, laying the groundwork. Most of the stories are brief and highly visual glimpses into a world so jacked into its technology, that it’s lost its soul. Among the stories is “Johnny Mnemonic” the original source material for the egregiously bad Keanu Reeves movie of the same title. Trust me, this is better. My favorite of the collection is The Belonging Kind co-written with John Shirley. It’s about a lonely guy named Coretti who while drinking in various late-night dives notices an odd breed of bar denizen and becomes obsessed. The beauty of this as with all his short stories is that he paints a lasting image without filling in all the holes. He is a master of ambiguity, and often the reader is left uncertain of what to believe. Reality in these works is as elusive and slippery as it often is in life, depending on interpretation and perspective for definition.
The future that Gibson paints is not a bright one, and these stories are often cold, gritty, and mournful, but the eloquence of his voice and the power of his images make him a must-read for anyone. Plus sometimes the cold empty void of space is just what is needed in the heat of the summer doldrums.
Candy Girl by Diablo Cody
Candy Girl is the autobiographical story of how author Cody became an unlikely Minneapolis stripper. Ms. Cody is best known for winning an Oscar for the screenplay of last year’s indie darling Juno. She has several other screenplays in production including Jennifer’s Body with Megan Fox coming out this Fall, and is a contributing columnist for Entertainment Weekly. Ms. Cody is a funny and often offensive writer. And this book is a whole lot of fun.
In what is ultimately an outsiders’ perspective Cody delves into the bright lights and dingy back rooms of the stripper’s life, laying bare (literally) all the nasty truths and often surprising realities of the sex trade.
Told in her self-deprecating voice Candy Girl is a fast and frothy read. It is comical, sick, endearing, educational, and often gross. But it is light and good-hearted fun. For those of you who always wanted to know what goes on in those little video booths but were afraid to ask, this is for you.
Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary
Denis Leary is also a funny sonovabitch. His wit is at its sharpest on his phenomenal FX series Rescue Me. But his stand-up shows are also quite funny, if not a little repetitive and immature. Why We Suck is like Leary’s stand-up act. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing.
A full-blown treatise on all the things that make Denis crazy about fat, whiny, self-important Americans, it is a bit one-note. If you are even a little cynical most of the good Doctor’s rants are far from novel. Americans are fat? Shocking! Americans have a bloated legal system weighed down by frivolous law suits? I protest!
But seriously, Leary is very funny and there are moments of brilliant social satire to be found here. Unfortunately I think much of the material falls flat without Leary’s caustic delivery. I would’ve rather seen this material live on stage, or at the very least listened to it on audio so that Leary’s personal wit and charisma could fill some of those flat moments.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Tower Wells
Some people just seem to have an innate ability to string words together in such a way that reading them is a pleasure in and of itself.
Tower Wells is one of those people. This, his first collection of short fiction, is a testament of his uncanny ability. A collection of stories that (mostly) highlight the ordinary and everyday moments of an average life, the stories rise above the average on Wells’ well-constructed prose, subtly building its own momentum on pure lyricism.
From a story about a middle-aged man (literally) rebuilding his life after his job and marriage have tanked on the North Carolina coast, to one (Insert Story) Tower Wells announces his arrival on the literary scene like a modern Raymond Carver, creating a sense of purpose and beauty out of the banality of average human life.
The only weak story in the bunch is ironically the one which shares the collection’s title. A tale of Vikings pillaging and plundering seems blatantly out of step with the rest of the collection, and brings me to think that Wells must have been meaning to draw some sort of parallel between these very different stories. Perhaps it is something about how modern man ravages and burns his own village rather than those of his neighbors, etc. I don’t know; I don’t get it.
Despite this misstep Ravaged/Burned is without a doubt one of the very best books I have read this year. This is a collection of short fiction that sings, an absolute glorious way to spend a warm summer afternoon with a glass of wine. I can’t offer higher praise than that.
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
My friend Josh brought this book to me unsolicited, and said I should read it. I had never read anything by Casares before, or indeed had ever even heard of him. I was, to say the least, intrigued. It’s not often that a book gets placed into my hands.
A contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentinean author who, inspired by his Buenos Aires landscape and the influx of poets and intellectuals from Spain, North America and Asia, sought to create a “fantastical literature” that rebelled against what he felt were the artifices of nineteenth century realism.
The Invention of Morel is part adventure story and mystery, part Kafkaesque absurd drama, and a metaphysical and philosophical exploration of reality and our perceptions of reality. The story of an escaped political prisoner, our hero finds himself living on a deserted island and witnessing the most unusual of comings and goings. Thinking himself mad, he seeks to uncover the secret behind the mysterious group of people that seem to come and go at a moment’s notice. To make matters worse, he finds himself falling in love with a beautiful dark-haired girl in the group. But why does she pretend not to see him? Is she torturing him or setting him up for capture? As he digs deeper, the clear distinctions between reality and perception starts to thin, raising the question “how can he be with one he loves when she doesn’t and truly can’t ever know him?”
This is a fast read and an amazingly athletic and dexterous one at that. With what seems like little or no effort Casares manages to weave incredibly deep strands of thought into what comes across as a simple adventure story. It isn’t until you’ve finished the thing and let it really sink in that you marvel at the author’s ability to get under your psychic skin without ever letting you know he was there.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
It should be no surprise that Beat the Reaper coming in paperback September 14 from Back Bay Books has already been optioned for film rights by New Regency Productions.
Josh Bazell’s frenetic break-neck paced debut thriller is pure cinematic fun. It weaves and bobs and slashes and bashes like a Tarantino film about doctors and mafia dons. Think the visual style of Lucky Number Slevin mixed with the comic sensibilities of Pulp Fiction. It ain’t pretty, but is sure is fun.
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital. He’s keeping himself awake for his shift by chewing down whatever medications he can cop off nurses or patients, and to make matters worse some guy just tried to mug him on his way into work. Dr. Brown has patients he’s struggling to keep alive, and a secret he’s desperately trying to keep hidden: he’s an ex-Mafia hit man with a knack for violence. And as if things weren’t bad enough he was just recognized by his new patient, Nicholas LoBrutto. Now he’s got hit men and government agents closing in and Dr. Peter Brown must find a way to keep himself and his patients alive until end of his shift.
A hard-boiled uber-violent mix of medical mayhem and mafia shenanigans Beat the Reaper is pure blood-soaked fun. It’s a summer popcorn flick without the film. You won’t find anything resembling a message here. There are no deeper meanings, no symbolism, no thematic structures; this is fluff. But hey, if you like your comedy black and your violence bloody and your good guys just a little bit bad, this just might be your cup of tea.
Whew! July was a busy month. I have a feeling things are going to slow down in August. Join me next month here at Literary Lollapalooza and read about what I’ve been reading.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Literary Lollapalooza, June Edition
In this month’s edition of Literary Lollapalooza, a tale of Islamo-punks searching for truth, a side trip into the fineries of the Muslim faith, a dazzling Swedish mystery debut, and the truth that literary sycophants don’t want you to know about David Foster Wallace.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, June Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, Huge by James W. Fuerst, Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony Zuiker
Non-Fiction: The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing
Books Borrowed: The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight, Dummies Guide to Islam by
Books Read:
Dummies Guide to Islam by
I started the month by attempting to read The Taqwacores (see below) which I borrowed from my good friend Fahad. He gave it the highest recommendation along with all the other books by Michael Muhammad Knight. I was very excited and dove in with aplomb. To my chagrin, I did not get very far. This book centering on devout, yet non-traditional Muslims is so steeped in the everyday life of the Muslim faith that I could not ignore the obvious hole in my worldly knowledge. I would read Taqwacores, but first I would educate myself, damn it.
This Dummies’ Guide like most is a general knowledge compendium without much style, flair, or depth. I knew that going into it. I was not surprised, pleasantly or otherwise upon completion. It was as dry as toast, and as lifeless and dull as a textbook. It was however, very clearly organized and exactly what I needed: a brief and thorough education for the utterly uninitiated. I find now that I know much, much more about Islam than I did before. The test of which came day before yesterday when a Jeopardy category titled “Islam” stumped the on-air players while I confidently answered all correctly.
Take that as you will.
The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight
This book, first self-published in 2004, has in recent years become a word of mouth sensation inspiring film adaptations, and foreign-language translations. Newsweek called it “A manifesto for the Muslim punk movement” and is regarded by many as a “’Catcher in the Rye’ for young Muslims.”
As my friend Fahad described it to me, having been raised Muslim and a fan of punk music since his teens he always had a hard time reconciling the two in his life. This book, he said, was like everything he ever wanted to say, and he was pissed off because Knight got to it first.
To say that this is a book about young Islamic punks is like saying Catcher in the Rye is about a rich whiny white kid with an attitude problem. Wait. Catcher IS about a rich whiny white kid with an attitude problem. Sorry, bad example.
Okay, try this: Saying Taqwacores is about Islamic punks, is like saying On the Road is about young urban hipsters. It may be true at its core, but it misses the point entirely.
Taqwacore is name for the Islamo-punk subculture, and comes from the term taqwa meaning consciousness of the divine in Arabic. The characters in this book are unique and starkly drawn individuals, and the house they share in a college town in Upper New York state houses their own religious community, pious and irreverent, swinging from salaats in the morning to wild parties at night.
Reading this was like taking a trip back in time for me. All of the characters felt like people I knew back in high school and college. The camaraderie of the housemates, their philosophical, late-night musings, bong smoke hung thick in the air. I feel closely connected to these characters and their story in a very personal way that transcends any cultural or religious differences that we may share.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. I loved the people, the places, the good times, and the heartbreaking times. And I will always think of them fondly, much like my own days of bliss and doubt, when the world was as simple or as complicated as you wanted to make it.
Consider the Lobster, and other essays by David Foster Wallace
Last year when David Foster Wallace was found dead at his own hands the literary world mourned a fallen and unsung genius. Literary critics got together and wailed at the loss of such a bright young literary star.
It makes sense then that Wallace has been on my short-list of must reads since his death was announced last year. My first foray into Wallace’s work was the collection of essays Consider the Lobster, consisting mostly of previously published freelance writing appearing in a number of periodicals over the years.
I wanted to like it. That’s all I can say. I was rooting for him. Perhaps this isn’t his finest work (and I’m still withholding final judgments until I read Infinite Jest), but it seems to me that no one thought Mr. Wallace more a literary hero than he did himself. These essays, while some are cute or verging on interesting, are just downright tiring and aggravating. While reading this collection one can’t help but hear the self-righteous snark underlining each sentence. And the endless footnotes are mind-bogglingly self-important and overly inflated. I mean come on; do we really need a two page footnote in the middle of an essay on the Adult Video News Awards? And footnotes to footnotes? Come on! By the time I got to “Snoot” the self-righteous essay self-righteously explaining his snobbery when it comes to grammatical faux pas, I was done. I could take no more. Mr. Wallace may think that elucidating the myriad horrors of a dangling participle, or heaven forbid a dangling preposition, with footnote upon footnote of the failures of modern English classes to be enriching and entertaining. I do not.
And don’t get me wrong, I like snark as much as the next guy. And even smug plays well with me sometimes, as my collection of Hunter Thompson will attest. But when the self-importance of the writer is all I can get from a book that is supposed to be on a myriad of different topics, that is a failure of the writing.
David Foster Wallace well may be fallen literary hero. The critics may clamor for him as if he were some unsung genius of literary wit. But I am not amused.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
Stieg Larsson died before the publication of this, his first novel, and it is truly a shame because The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has made him a phenomenon.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a top-notch mystery thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you glued to the page. Part “locked room” mystery, part corporate finance, and part nail-biting suspense this is the epitome of a great summer read.
Over forty years ago Harriet Vanger, youngest of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, disappeared without a trace. Now, her elderly uncle has hired Mikael Blomkvist, a troubled but brilliant journalist, to investigate and discover what really happened all those years ago. Helping him out is the anti-social computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander: a tattooed badass with a badass attitude. Together they uncover the darkest family secrets of depravity and corruption.
This book is a sucker-punch of a good read. It will leave you breathless and wanting more. Both boldly paced and meticulously plotted, Girl clips along at a breakneck speed, with plenty of chills, thrills, and unnerving violence.
There are even moments of great humor. When a rape victim turns the table on her attacker and mitigates her own form of justice and revenge, you can’t help but giggle at the gruesome turn of events.
Brilliant. ‘Nuff said.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, June Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson, Huge by James W. Fuerst, Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony Zuiker
Non-Fiction: The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing
Books Borrowed: The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight, Dummies Guide to Islam by
Books Read:
Dummies Guide to Islam by
I started the month by attempting to read The Taqwacores (see below) which I borrowed from my good friend Fahad. He gave it the highest recommendation along with all the other books by Michael Muhammad Knight. I was very excited and dove in with aplomb. To my chagrin, I did not get very far. This book centering on devout, yet non-traditional Muslims is so steeped in the everyday life of the Muslim faith that I could not ignore the obvious hole in my worldly knowledge. I would read Taqwacores, but first I would educate myself, damn it.
This Dummies’ Guide like most is a general knowledge compendium without much style, flair, or depth. I knew that going into it. I was not surprised, pleasantly or otherwise upon completion. It was as dry as toast, and as lifeless and dull as a textbook. It was however, very clearly organized and exactly what I needed: a brief and thorough education for the utterly uninitiated. I find now that I know much, much more about Islam than I did before. The test of which came day before yesterday when a Jeopardy category titled “Islam” stumped the on-air players while I confidently answered all correctly.
Take that as you will.
The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight
This book, first self-published in 2004, has in recent years become a word of mouth sensation inspiring film adaptations, and foreign-language translations. Newsweek called it “A manifesto for the Muslim punk movement” and is regarded by many as a “’Catcher in the Rye’ for young Muslims.”
As my friend Fahad described it to me, having been raised Muslim and a fan of punk music since his teens he always had a hard time reconciling the two in his life. This book, he said, was like everything he ever wanted to say, and he was pissed off because Knight got to it first.
To say that this is a book about young Islamic punks is like saying Catcher in the Rye is about a rich whiny white kid with an attitude problem. Wait. Catcher IS about a rich whiny white kid with an attitude problem. Sorry, bad example.
Okay, try this: Saying Taqwacores is about Islamic punks, is like saying On the Road is about young urban hipsters. It may be true at its core, but it misses the point entirely.
Taqwacore is name for the Islamo-punk subculture, and comes from the term taqwa meaning consciousness of the divine in Arabic. The characters in this book are unique and starkly drawn individuals, and the house they share in a college town in Upper New York state houses their own religious community, pious and irreverent, swinging from salaats in the morning to wild parties at night.
Reading this was like taking a trip back in time for me. All of the characters felt like people I knew back in high school and college. The camaraderie of the housemates, their philosophical, late-night musings, bong smoke hung thick in the air. I feel closely connected to these characters and their story in a very personal way that transcends any cultural or religious differences that we may share.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. I loved the people, the places, the good times, and the heartbreaking times. And I will always think of them fondly, much like my own days of bliss and doubt, when the world was as simple or as complicated as you wanted to make it.
Consider the Lobster, and other essays by David Foster Wallace
Last year when David Foster Wallace was found dead at his own hands the literary world mourned a fallen and unsung genius. Literary critics got together and wailed at the loss of such a bright young literary star.
It makes sense then that Wallace has been on my short-list of must reads since his death was announced last year. My first foray into Wallace’s work was the collection of essays Consider the Lobster, consisting mostly of previously published freelance writing appearing in a number of periodicals over the years.
I wanted to like it. That’s all I can say. I was rooting for him. Perhaps this isn’t his finest work (and I’m still withholding final judgments until I read Infinite Jest), but it seems to me that no one thought Mr. Wallace more a literary hero than he did himself. These essays, while some are cute or verging on interesting, are just downright tiring and aggravating. While reading this collection one can’t help but hear the self-righteous snark underlining each sentence. And the endless footnotes are mind-bogglingly self-important and overly inflated. I mean come on; do we really need a two page footnote in the middle of an essay on the Adult Video News Awards? And footnotes to footnotes? Come on! By the time I got to “Snoot” the self-righteous essay self-righteously explaining his snobbery when it comes to grammatical faux pas, I was done. I could take no more. Mr. Wallace may think that elucidating the myriad horrors of a dangling participle, or heaven forbid a dangling preposition, with footnote upon footnote of the failures of modern English classes to be enriching and entertaining. I do not.
And don’t get me wrong, I like snark as much as the next guy. And even smug plays well with me sometimes, as my collection of Hunter Thompson will attest. But when the self-importance of the writer is all I can get from a book that is supposed to be on a myriad of different topics, that is a failure of the writing.
David Foster Wallace well may be fallen literary hero. The critics may clamor for him as if he were some unsung genius of literary wit. But I am not amused.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
Stieg Larsson died before the publication of this, his first novel, and it is truly a shame because The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has made him a phenomenon.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a top-notch mystery thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you glued to the page. Part “locked room” mystery, part corporate finance, and part nail-biting suspense this is the epitome of a great summer read.
Over forty years ago Harriet Vanger, youngest of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, disappeared without a trace. Now, her elderly uncle has hired Mikael Blomkvist, a troubled but brilliant journalist, to investigate and discover what really happened all those years ago. Helping him out is the anti-social computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander: a tattooed badass with a badass attitude. Together they uncover the darkest family secrets of depravity and corruption.
This book is a sucker-punch of a good read. It will leave you breathless and wanting more. Both boldly paced and meticulously plotted, Girl clips along at a breakneck speed, with plenty of chills, thrills, and unnerving violence.
There are even moments of great humor. When a rape victim turns the table on her attacker and mitigates her own form of justice and revenge, you can’t help but giggle at the gruesome turn of events.
Brilliant. ‘Nuff said.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Literary Lollapalooza May 2009
In this month’s edition of Literary Lollapalooza, a timeless classic, and a new release by one of Mystery-Thriller’s brightest young voices.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, May Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, and Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Non-Fiction:
Books Borrowed: The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight
Books Read:
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky is one of those writers I always felt like I should read. Out of obligation to…I don’t know, all self-respecting literature hounds. However, between feeling like I should read Dostoevsky out of some misguided need to feel better about myself and the easier option of taking a look at the sheer HEFT of Crime and Punishment and putting it off indefinitely, the procrastinator in me always won out. This last month though I struck a compromise with myself: I would read Dostoevsky, but I would read something much shorter, and something with a fun title. Hey guess what? That smart Russian guy wrote a book called The Idiot. Sounds funny.
Okay, so no. The Idiot isn’t really funny. It is not short-listed for a film-adaptation by the Farrelly Brothers (though I must admit I’d love to see that). What it is, is a fairly light Russian novel about the dangers of independence and of being kind-hearted in a modern society. It is a sweeping tale involving many characters over a period of years, and yes it does wear its moral heart on its sleeve.
It is also a very good read. Not fun or thrilling, but a very involving and accessible story about people not so very different than you or I. And it’s considerably shorter than Crime and Punishment. So you can feel good about yourself without the strain of those heavy Russian novels.
The Idiot refers to the title character of Prince Myshkin, a kind-hearted and guileless rube from the countryside who travels to the city and makes a splash in good Petersburg society. The word idiot here does not really refer to a stupid person, just a simple one. Childlike, trusting, without personal machinations, Prince Myshkin is laughed at openly, the unwitting butt of his own joke. But his honesty, unselfconsciousness, and lack of agenda quickly make him a party favor of sorts, with good families requesting his presence at gatherings as a conversation-piece. He is tossed immediately into the maelstrom of society, money, marriage, wealth, and backstabbing.
The story is a complex one, and it would be a disservice for me to try to summarize it here. The point is that these are relevant characters, finely drawn, unique and immediately recognizable. The situations are, while steeped in Russian upper class history, easily transferrable to our own societal stratifications. Imagine a poor country bumpkin, unaccustomed to societal niceties and oblivious of faux pas, suddenly becoming a mascot to the very wealthy, treating him like an odd bird, and never truly accepting him as a human being until he too has gained some status of wealth.
There is a lot of humor, and a lot of quirky characters, and tons of intrigue and double-dealings and love and heartbreak. It took me nearly six weeks to read the damn thing, but now that I’m through it, I’m very glad I read it. And not in an intellectually superior way either. Nope, I’m just glad I’ve gotten to know these characters and that I invested my time into understanding them, maybe just a little bit. AND I get to say I read Dostoevsky. So suck it.
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.
And now for something completely different. Gillian Flynn is a bright new up-and-comer in the mystery/thriller world who was short-listed for an Edgar Award for her first novel Sharp Objects. Dark Places is her second novel, and I can’t wait to read more from this young lady.
The first thing one might notice about Ms. Flynn’s books are the simple, sparse and captivating cover art. The cover of Dark Places features a prominent pad lock in the hatch of the kind of lock one puts on basements, or dungeons. The kind of lock one puts on a door to keep people out or maybe more importantly to keep something inside.
Dark Places refers to those parts of one’s psyche we’d rather believe didn’t exist. We lock them away and keep them far from the cold sane light of day, because looking at them, admitting they are there might somehow make us a little less human. Libby Day, the story’s protagonist is the sole survivor of a massacre that took place when she was a young child way back in 1985. It seems Libby’s brother Ben, in the early hours of Jan. 3 1985 slaughtered his entire family as part of an elaborate Satanic ritual, and Libby alone survived to testify against her brother, putting him away for life.
Libby is now in her early thirties, and has eked out an existence on the pity of strangers sending donations to “that poor Day girl”, but now the donations have dried up. It seems no one cares about a thirty-something tragedy survivor. So in an attempt to further capitalize on her past Libby begins selling memories and memorabilia to local so-called Kill Clubs, a group of individuals obsessed with horrific serial killers. But Libby soon starts to uncover bits and pieces of her past that were supposed to stay hidden forever. As Libby traces the clues to her own past, she sets off on a terrifying journey of discovering the hidden truth of her family’s deaths.
I loved Gillian Flynn from the first paragraph of this book:
“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you can stomp on it.”
Anyone who can write a line like that is okay in my book. Plus, Stephen King calls her writing “an admirably nasty piece of work…” And I am sold.
This reads along at a dizzying pace, flipping forward and backwards from the present to that fateful January day back in 1985, keeping you constantly moving forward searching for the next piece of evidence. But what stayed with me long after the nightmares faded were the scary-but-true insights Ms. Flynn uncovers about the human psyche. Again we’re talking about those dark places. The ones we’ve shoved deep in a closet and pretended never existed. Heck we’ve even bolted that door with a padlock. How disturbing it is then to have Ms. Flynn parade those skeletons right past you, your head nodding in recognition before you have the good sense to shudder and quickly shove them away again.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, May Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, and Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Non-Fiction:
Books Borrowed: The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight
Books Read:
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky is one of those writers I always felt like I should read. Out of obligation to…I don’t know, all self-respecting literature hounds. However, between feeling like I should read Dostoevsky out of some misguided need to feel better about myself and the easier option of taking a look at the sheer HEFT of Crime and Punishment and putting it off indefinitely, the procrastinator in me always won out. This last month though I struck a compromise with myself: I would read Dostoevsky, but I would read something much shorter, and something with a fun title. Hey guess what? That smart Russian guy wrote a book called The Idiot. Sounds funny.
Okay, so no. The Idiot isn’t really funny. It is not short-listed for a film-adaptation by the Farrelly Brothers (though I must admit I’d love to see that). What it is, is a fairly light Russian novel about the dangers of independence and of being kind-hearted in a modern society. It is a sweeping tale involving many characters over a period of years, and yes it does wear its moral heart on its sleeve.
It is also a very good read. Not fun or thrilling, but a very involving and accessible story about people not so very different than you or I. And it’s considerably shorter than Crime and Punishment. So you can feel good about yourself without the strain of those heavy Russian novels.
The Idiot refers to the title character of Prince Myshkin, a kind-hearted and guileless rube from the countryside who travels to the city and makes a splash in good Petersburg society. The word idiot here does not really refer to a stupid person, just a simple one. Childlike, trusting, without personal machinations, Prince Myshkin is laughed at openly, the unwitting butt of his own joke. But his honesty, unselfconsciousness, and lack of agenda quickly make him a party favor of sorts, with good families requesting his presence at gatherings as a conversation-piece. He is tossed immediately into the maelstrom of society, money, marriage, wealth, and backstabbing.
The story is a complex one, and it would be a disservice for me to try to summarize it here. The point is that these are relevant characters, finely drawn, unique and immediately recognizable. The situations are, while steeped in Russian upper class history, easily transferrable to our own societal stratifications. Imagine a poor country bumpkin, unaccustomed to societal niceties and oblivious of faux pas, suddenly becoming a mascot to the very wealthy, treating him like an odd bird, and never truly accepting him as a human being until he too has gained some status of wealth.
There is a lot of humor, and a lot of quirky characters, and tons of intrigue and double-dealings and love and heartbreak. It took me nearly six weeks to read the damn thing, but now that I’m through it, I’m very glad I read it. And not in an intellectually superior way either. Nope, I’m just glad I’ve gotten to know these characters and that I invested my time into understanding them, maybe just a little bit. AND I get to say I read Dostoevsky. So suck it.
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.
And now for something completely different. Gillian Flynn is a bright new up-and-comer in the mystery/thriller world who was short-listed for an Edgar Award for her first novel Sharp Objects. Dark Places is her second novel, and I can’t wait to read more from this young lady.
The first thing one might notice about Ms. Flynn’s books are the simple, sparse and captivating cover art. The cover of Dark Places features a prominent pad lock in the hatch of the kind of lock one puts on basements, or dungeons. The kind of lock one puts on a door to keep people out or maybe more importantly to keep something inside.
Dark Places refers to those parts of one’s psyche we’d rather believe didn’t exist. We lock them away and keep them far from the cold sane light of day, because looking at them, admitting they are there might somehow make us a little less human. Libby Day, the story’s protagonist is the sole survivor of a massacre that took place when she was a young child way back in 1985. It seems Libby’s brother Ben, in the early hours of Jan. 3 1985 slaughtered his entire family as part of an elaborate Satanic ritual, and Libby alone survived to testify against her brother, putting him away for life.
Libby is now in her early thirties, and has eked out an existence on the pity of strangers sending donations to “that poor Day girl”, but now the donations have dried up. It seems no one cares about a thirty-something tragedy survivor. So in an attempt to further capitalize on her past Libby begins selling memories and memorabilia to local so-called Kill Clubs, a group of individuals obsessed with horrific serial killers. But Libby soon starts to uncover bits and pieces of her past that were supposed to stay hidden forever. As Libby traces the clues to her own past, she sets off on a terrifying journey of discovering the hidden truth of her family’s deaths.
I loved Gillian Flynn from the first paragraph of this book:
“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you can stomp on it.”
Anyone who can write a line like that is okay in my book. Plus, Stephen King calls her writing “an admirably nasty piece of work…” And I am sold.
This reads along at a dizzying pace, flipping forward and backwards from the present to that fateful January day back in 1985, keeping you constantly moving forward searching for the next piece of evidence. But what stayed with me long after the nightmares faded were the scary-but-true insights Ms. Flynn uncovers about the human psyche. Again we’re talking about those dark places. The ones we’ve shoved deep in a closet and pretended never existed. Heck we’ve even bolted that door with a padlock. How disturbing it is then to have Ms. Flynn parade those skeletons right past you, your head nodding in recognition before you have the good sense to shudder and quickly shove them away again.
Literary Lollapalooza April 2009
This month’s Literary Lollapalooza is a short one featuring a book many of you saw me gush over on Facebook. Besides that one, I started reading The Idiot which would take me through most of May as well, so not a lot to report. I had the fortune (or misfortune, if you ask my bank account) of happening upon some really terrific book sales and so this month is a little heavy on the acquisitions side. Lord knows when I’ll find the time to read them all…
This is Literary Lollapalooza, April Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Body Artist by Don DeLillo, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, God Is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr., Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Non-Fiction: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, Outcasts United by Warren St. John, How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan, The End of Oil by Paul Roberts, The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn by Joseph M. Marshall III, Popism: The Warhol Sixties by Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, Candy Girl by Diablo Cody, Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer, The Secret War with Iran by Ronen Bergman, Books by Larry McMurtry, The American Way of War by Eugene Jarecki, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Books Borrowed:
Books Read:
The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno.
My friend Ryan had been touting this book for quite some time as his favorite book and encouraging all his friends to read it. I ignored him. Or rather, I added it to the dustbin in my mind reserved for odd pieces of information I’ll probably never put to good use. Then back in February he reminded me again (undoubtedly in one of those silly web surveys) that this was a book that I MUST read. I took him up on his suggestion and read the damn thing.
First, of all: I loved this book. It’s not my favorite book, sorry Ryan. But I did love the hell out of it. And I would be willing to bet that anyone who remembers reading the “Encylopedia Brown” books, or The Hardy Boys, or Nancy Drew mysteries, reveling in the finely drawn sets of clues, the simple solution sussed out amongst friends, and the glory as the evil candy factory owner gets hauled away in cuffs will find much to enjoy here.
The titular Boy Detective, Billy Argo, is a childhood crime-solving phenom much like the above mentioned “Encylopedia Brown”, solving simple mysteries with the help of his sister and pudgy friend, vanquishing evil villains and garnering accolades. There’s only one major problem: life goes on, people grow up, and life gets messy. There are no simple solutions, no masked villains causing our collective misery. Just plain, old everyday fear, self-conciousness, and doubt. As the years pass and young Billy heads off to college, his world is destroyed when his younger sister and crime-solving partner Caroline commits suicide, sending him into a spiral of fear and helplessness.
Cut to ten years later and young Billy is being released from St. Vitus’ Hospital for the Mentally Ill. The world he encounters is foreign and frightening. He can barely draw the courage to leave his room, much less go to his new job as a telemarketer at a wig company. What’s even worse? There are people and buildings that are vanishing everyday, evil villains live next door, and animals are losing their heads. What’s a boy detective to do? With the help of two neighborhood children, and a lovely pickpocket named Penny, Billy begins to put the pieces together, and come to the greatest realization of his life.
The story is funny, cute, odd, disheartening, uplifting, and sweet. But what puts this book over the top in my opinion is the sense of childhood wonder and joy that it instills through its interactive features. That’s right: interactive. Readers are encouraged to use the decoder ring (thoughtfully included on the back book jacket) to solve clues throughout the book, helping Billy closer to his resolution, as well as additional fun items like a recipe for Angel Food Cake, and mazes and word-searches. This is a book for the dreamer in all of us, for the latent child detective in each of us, still searching for our own happy endings.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, April Edition.
Books Acquired:
Fiction: The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Body Artist by Don DeLillo, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, Impulse by Ellen Hopkins, God Is Dead by Ron Currie, Jr., Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell, The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Non-Fiction: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, Outcasts United by Warren St. John, How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan, The End of Oil by Paul Roberts, The Day the World Ended at Little Big Horn by Joseph M. Marshall III, Popism: The Warhol Sixties by Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett, Candy Girl by Diablo Cody, Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer, The Secret War with Iran by Ronen Bergman, Books by Larry McMurtry, The American Way of War by Eugene Jarecki, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Books Borrowed:
Books Read:
The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno.
My friend Ryan had been touting this book for quite some time as his favorite book and encouraging all his friends to read it. I ignored him. Or rather, I added it to the dustbin in my mind reserved for odd pieces of information I’ll probably never put to good use. Then back in February he reminded me again (undoubtedly in one of those silly web surveys) that this was a book that I MUST read. I took him up on his suggestion and read the damn thing.
First, of all: I loved this book. It’s not my favorite book, sorry Ryan. But I did love the hell out of it. And I would be willing to bet that anyone who remembers reading the “Encylopedia Brown” books, or The Hardy Boys, or Nancy Drew mysteries, reveling in the finely drawn sets of clues, the simple solution sussed out amongst friends, and the glory as the evil candy factory owner gets hauled away in cuffs will find much to enjoy here.
The titular Boy Detective, Billy Argo, is a childhood crime-solving phenom much like the above mentioned “Encylopedia Brown”, solving simple mysteries with the help of his sister and pudgy friend, vanquishing evil villains and garnering accolades. There’s only one major problem: life goes on, people grow up, and life gets messy. There are no simple solutions, no masked villains causing our collective misery. Just plain, old everyday fear, self-conciousness, and doubt. As the years pass and young Billy heads off to college, his world is destroyed when his younger sister and crime-solving partner Caroline commits suicide, sending him into a spiral of fear and helplessness.
Cut to ten years later and young Billy is being released from St. Vitus’ Hospital for the Mentally Ill. The world he encounters is foreign and frightening. He can barely draw the courage to leave his room, much less go to his new job as a telemarketer at a wig company. What’s even worse? There are people and buildings that are vanishing everyday, evil villains live next door, and animals are losing their heads. What’s a boy detective to do? With the help of two neighborhood children, and a lovely pickpocket named Penny, Billy begins to put the pieces together, and come to the greatest realization of his life.
The story is funny, cute, odd, disheartening, uplifting, and sweet. But what puts this book over the top in my opinion is the sense of childhood wonder and joy that it instills through its interactive features. That’s right: interactive. Readers are encouraged to use the decoder ring (thoughtfully included on the back book jacket) to solve clues throughout the book, helping Billy closer to his resolution, as well as additional fun items like a recipe for Angel Food Cake, and mazes and word-searches. This is a book for the dreamer in all of us, for the latent child detective in each of us, still searching for our own happy endings.
Literary Lollapalooza March 2009
This issue of Literary Lollapalooza features a serial-killer obsessed cop, the search for Lincoln’s killer, a crime story about fathers and sons, an action packed Harlan Coben thriller and a sweet story about a Russian Jew in WWII era Leningrad in search of a dozen eggs. It was a busy month and I did a lot of reading. Some were home-work, some personal obsessions. If you must skim, just skip to the last review. It’s the bees knees.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, March Edition.
Books Acquired: The Way Home by George Pelecanos, A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenowith, Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk, and The Lost City of Z by David Grann.
Books Borrowed: Long Lost by Harlan Coben and City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Books Read:
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain.
This is the sequel to the bestselling thriller Heartsick. Chelsea Cain delves right back into old territory with this continuation, following detective Archie Sheridan and his obsession with serial killer Gretchen Lowell.
This book picks up a few months after the events of the first book and barrels forward with momentum. Archie, our most beloved of F**ked-Up detectives is on the mend. He has moved back in with his ex-wife and children (though sleeping in a separate room), he is still heading a homicide task force dealing exclusively with serial crimes, and he is attending therapy and attempting to control his addiction to pain killers. He has however stopped visiting Gretchen.
And with the discovery of two bodies in a neighborhood park, Archie is faced with another serial killer, and reporter Susan ward is nearby to help identify one of the victims. Trouble is, just as this case takes off the Beauty Killer is back in the news: Gretchen Lowell has escaped from prison. Archie needs to focus but can’t keep his mind off Gretchen. He has a fool-proof plan to both reunite with and capture his one true obsession.
This is a brilliant if not slightly forgettable follow up to the incendiary debut that put Chelsea Cain on the literary map. All the old characters are back, and so are all the old crushes, grudges and emotional baggage. The plot progresses naturally from events set up in Heartsick and the characters follow the trajectories already set in motion. Everything rings true, and while we cheer Archie’s surface progress (the family, the drugs), we know it’s just surface and that the demons that haunt him swim much deeper, and that sooner rather than later Archie will inevitably dive to join those demons.
The case is a good one, and the sub-plot involving Susan Ward and a politician’s affair with a teen is thankfully revived from the first book and brought to fruition.
If there is a problem with the book, it is also its most endearing quality, that it is too intricately tied to the first. This isn’t so much a sequel as it is a continuation of the first. The loose ends of the first book are revived here, and the issues unresolved in the first book are back on display here. It’s almost as if these two books should have been one larger volume.
Again, this is part of its inherent charm. And it is also the reason why it comes across as forgettable. One begins to forget where one book ends and the other begins. When paired together (as Stephen King did when he named these two books among his top ten books of last year) they are phenomenal reads. They are highly engrossing and the characters and likeable and flawed, and we root for them and two minutes later we shake our heads in sympathy because we know why they make the bad choices we wish they wouldn’t. This is top-notch crime writing and Chelsea Cain is a name to watch.
Manhunt by James L. Swanson
Manhunt follows the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and traces the 12 day hunt for John Wilkes Booth and his collaborators.
I have been obsessed with all things Lincoln since reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s incredible Team of Rivals. However that book left me unsatisfied in the fact it literally ends with the assassination. Don’t get me wrong, it provides perfunctory information about what befalls our key players in the following years, but I wanted to know minute by minute what happened following the assassination, as I had grown accustomed to in Kearns’ 800 page opus.
Luckily for me, James L. Swanson, a man obsessed with Lincoln’s death has provided a moment by moment account of Lincoln’s death and the days thereafter where all of the country waited with their breaths held to hear of the capture of Lincoln’s murderer. This is the PERFECT follow-up to Kearns’ in-depth Lincoln bio. It picks up right where Kearns leaves off, and his eye and ear for detail, not to mention his encyclopedic research into all things Lincoln and Booth, provide a thrilling moment to moment account of Lincoln’s murder and Booth’s subsequent escape and the nation-encompassing manhunt that followed.
This book reads like the best mystery/thriller, but of course, it’s all true.
Swanson is an expert on the topic of Lincoln’s assassination, having written three separate books on the topic (and he is currently working on another Lincoln bio), so you know the facts are solid, and he crafts them into a well-told campfire story about honor, duty, conviction, and hubris.
I would recommend this book to anyone. But I would especially recommend it to anyone who has read or is planning to read Team of Rivals. Focusing on Lincoln’s death and aftermath, it is a terrific follow up to a great biography of Lincoln’s life.
The Way Home by George Pelecanos (To be released May 12, 2009)
George Pelecanos is the kind of come crime writer that you read because it rings true. The novelist and Emmy-nominated writer for HBO’s hit series The Wire is a D.C. native, and chooses to place his novels in the heart of the city he loves best.
The Way Home is the latest in Pelecanos’ treasure trove of D.C. crime novels. Stephen King calls Pelecanos “possibly the greatest crime writer working today”.
My first Pelecanos was his last called “The Turnaround” and I immediately fell in love with his writing and his landscape. I had just moved to D.C. and his use of geography in telling the story really served me well as a new resident.
Pelecanos isn’t florid or melodic. He isn’t wordy and he doesn’t try to impress with a fancy turn of phrase. However Pelecanos writes the truth. His books are often short, simple, and to the point. The trick is that his characters are so real and his situations so believable and immediate that you can’t help but be transported. He doesn’t deal with major situations, but rather with simple real-life moral questions that any of us could face on any given day. His characters are not one-sided two-dimensional plot devices, but flawed and complex human beings who try to do their best from one moment to the next but often wind up making the wrong choice, only to have deal with the consequences later.
As a matter of fact, Pelecanos’ books are all about the consequences of our actions. The stupid split second decisions that we spend a lifetime reliving, overcoming, and forgiving ourselves for are his bread and butter.
The Way Home is another in this line. This one is particularly focused on the relationship between a father and a son. The way that we let the silence and miscommunication separate and dictate our relationships with one another.
The story is about Chris Flynn, a tough but uninspired teen who lets his bad decisions land him in a teen correctional facility. His relationship with the outside world, including his parents, is tenuous at best. He has no interest and no concern for anything outside of the here and now—The Pines, the facility in which he is incarcerated and the young men who spend their youths there is his only concern. Day to day survival is enough to worry about. But soon Chris starts to imagine a life outside of his violent environs, and with the help of Ali, a studious fellow inmate, begins to put his life back together.
Fast-forward, and Chris is out and working for his father’s carpet company. He’s got a girlfriend, and a best friend, and he’s mending his relationship with his father. The trouble comes, as it often does, unexpectedly and faced with a tough decision Chris sets his future, his family and friends, onto a crash-course with destiny, rolling with the punches until ultimately he must make one last decision. And he and his father must face the toughest challenge of all: trusting one another.
I love Pelecanos, and find that his writing transports me more fully into the lives of his characters than most any other writer I know. This stuff isn’t pretty, but it’s real.
Long Lost by Harlan Coben (released March 31, 2009)
Long Lost is the latest in a series of novels based around the character of Myron Bolitar, a sports agent turned man-who-gets-things-done.
The book centers around Myron’s re-acquaintance with an ex-lover named Therese, and a mystery involving her ex-husbands’ disappearance, a strange genetic clue, and a faction of terrorists using Aryan children as weapons, bent on utter destruction.
This is kind of a silly beach read. This is a fun and rewarding mystery thriller that doesn’t require much in the way of investment. There are shocks to be had, for sure, but this is good old-fashioned fluff, and it is an enjoyable way to pass an afternoon.
Coben makes this book entirely accessible to anyone, whether they have read the previous Myron Bolitar novels or not. I, in this case, had not. And I enjoyed it immensely. This is the literary equivalent to a Hollywood action blockbuster. It required no deep involvement, the slimmest of character development, and presented action, thrills, and chills galore.
My only complaint is that Bolitar, a funny, self-deprecating ex-athlete is never allowed to fully become a person. I assume that this is because it is part of a series. Along with the ease of dealing with characters we already know is that we don’t have to do all that long boring character development that you get in the first one. However, in a book that is intended to stand alone and entice readers to read the other Bolitar novels, it is important to know who our hero really is. Unfortunately, he never really becomes a solid identity, and his friends and colleagues, cartoonish and two-dimensional at best, while fun and amusing, never lend an ounce of realism.
I said there were surprises, and I wasn’t joking. About midway through there is a jaw-dropper that I still haven’t recovered from, and at the time left me breathless like a punch to the gut. There is lots of international intrigue, twists, turns, and crazy surprises that you’ll never see coming, and others that you saw all along. This is great mindless entertainment, the popcorn movie equivalent of a great read. Sometimes it’s just what the body craves, even while you chide yourself for giving in to the temptation.
City of Thieves by David Benioff (released in quality paperback format March 31)
This is quite simply a stunning novel of grace, wit, horror, and human frailty and courage. I was blown away from the first few pages.
David Benioff is a screenwriter best known for his adaptation of The Kite Runner, and the author of the book 25th Hour, which subsequently became a Spike Lee joint starring Edward Norton. 25th Hour was a good crime story, but held no clue as to the depths and heights of Benioff’s talents.
City of Thieves is a fictionalized account of Benioff’s grandfather’s stories of growing up as a young Russian Jew in Leningrad during WWII. The tale that follows is a wry, sprightly, menacing, and ultimately joyful romp though the Russian countryside. It has moments of great sorrow and austerity, but revels in the all-too-human moments of farts and sexual arousal.
This is a great coming-of-age tale that spans many genres while telling its too-strange-to-not-be-true story. The story centers on 17 year old Lev Beniov who by chance happens on a fallen German soldier, and upon taking the soldiers knife enters into an adventure that will take him to the edge of death’s door and to the heights of love’s kiss.
Sent on a mission to find and bring back a dozen eggs, Lev and his cocky soldier sidekick encounter many odd assorted characters and many life-affirming and defying moments only to discover that the greatest gift they have is each other.
This is a hell of a read. It is by turns funny, sad, heartbreaking, torturous, uplifting, and ultimately satisfying. You will fly through this book as I did. It is a fast read, and you won’t want to waste a moment to put it down. And the good news is, and this maybe giving away the ending, but you will be smiling as you put this book down. It is a charmer, and I am in love with this book.
Go. Read it. Now.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, March Edition.
Books Acquired: The Way Home by George Pelecanos, A Little Bit Wicked by Kristin Chenowith, Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk, and The Lost City of Z by David Grann.
Books Borrowed: Long Lost by Harlan Coben and City of Thieves by David Benioff.
Books Read:
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain.
This is the sequel to the bestselling thriller Heartsick. Chelsea Cain delves right back into old territory with this continuation, following detective Archie Sheridan and his obsession with serial killer Gretchen Lowell.
This book picks up a few months after the events of the first book and barrels forward with momentum. Archie, our most beloved of F**ked-Up detectives is on the mend. He has moved back in with his ex-wife and children (though sleeping in a separate room), he is still heading a homicide task force dealing exclusively with serial crimes, and he is attending therapy and attempting to control his addiction to pain killers. He has however stopped visiting Gretchen.
And with the discovery of two bodies in a neighborhood park, Archie is faced with another serial killer, and reporter Susan ward is nearby to help identify one of the victims. Trouble is, just as this case takes off the Beauty Killer is back in the news: Gretchen Lowell has escaped from prison. Archie needs to focus but can’t keep his mind off Gretchen. He has a fool-proof plan to both reunite with and capture his one true obsession.
This is a brilliant if not slightly forgettable follow up to the incendiary debut that put Chelsea Cain on the literary map. All the old characters are back, and so are all the old crushes, grudges and emotional baggage. The plot progresses naturally from events set up in Heartsick and the characters follow the trajectories already set in motion. Everything rings true, and while we cheer Archie’s surface progress (the family, the drugs), we know it’s just surface and that the demons that haunt him swim much deeper, and that sooner rather than later Archie will inevitably dive to join those demons.
The case is a good one, and the sub-plot involving Susan Ward and a politician’s affair with a teen is thankfully revived from the first book and brought to fruition.
If there is a problem with the book, it is also its most endearing quality, that it is too intricately tied to the first. This isn’t so much a sequel as it is a continuation of the first. The loose ends of the first book are revived here, and the issues unresolved in the first book are back on display here. It’s almost as if these two books should have been one larger volume.
Again, this is part of its inherent charm. And it is also the reason why it comes across as forgettable. One begins to forget where one book ends and the other begins. When paired together (as Stephen King did when he named these two books among his top ten books of last year) they are phenomenal reads. They are highly engrossing and the characters and likeable and flawed, and we root for them and two minutes later we shake our heads in sympathy because we know why they make the bad choices we wish they wouldn’t. This is top-notch crime writing and Chelsea Cain is a name to watch.
Manhunt by James L. Swanson
Manhunt follows the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and traces the 12 day hunt for John Wilkes Booth and his collaborators.
I have been obsessed with all things Lincoln since reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s incredible Team of Rivals. However that book left me unsatisfied in the fact it literally ends with the assassination. Don’t get me wrong, it provides perfunctory information about what befalls our key players in the following years, but I wanted to know minute by minute what happened following the assassination, as I had grown accustomed to in Kearns’ 800 page opus.
Luckily for me, James L. Swanson, a man obsessed with Lincoln’s death has provided a moment by moment account of Lincoln’s death and the days thereafter where all of the country waited with their breaths held to hear of the capture of Lincoln’s murderer. This is the PERFECT follow-up to Kearns’ in-depth Lincoln bio. It picks up right where Kearns leaves off, and his eye and ear for detail, not to mention his encyclopedic research into all things Lincoln and Booth, provide a thrilling moment to moment account of Lincoln’s murder and Booth’s subsequent escape and the nation-encompassing manhunt that followed.
This book reads like the best mystery/thriller, but of course, it’s all true.
Swanson is an expert on the topic of Lincoln’s assassination, having written three separate books on the topic (and he is currently working on another Lincoln bio), so you know the facts are solid, and he crafts them into a well-told campfire story about honor, duty, conviction, and hubris.
I would recommend this book to anyone. But I would especially recommend it to anyone who has read or is planning to read Team of Rivals. Focusing on Lincoln’s death and aftermath, it is a terrific follow up to a great biography of Lincoln’s life.
The Way Home by George Pelecanos (To be released May 12, 2009)
George Pelecanos is the kind of come crime writer that you read because it rings true. The novelist and Emmy-nominated writer for HBO’s hit series The Wire is a D.C. native, and chooses to place his novels in the heart of the city he loves best.
The Way Home is the latest in Pelecanos’ treasure trove of D.C. crime novels. Stephen King calls Pelecanos “possibly the greatest crime writer working today”.
My first Pelecanos was his last called “The Turnaround” and I immediately fell in love with his writing and his landscape. I had just moved to D.C. and his use of geography in telling the story really served me well as a new resident.
Pelecanos isn’t florid or melodic. He isn’t wordy and he doesn’t try to impress with a fancy turn of phrase. However Pelecanos writes the truth. His books are often short, simple, and to the point. The trick is that his characters are so real and his situations so believable and immediate that you can’t help but be transported. He doesn’t deal with major situations, but rather with simple real-life moral questions that any of us could face on any given day. His characters are not one-sided two-dimensional plot devices, but flawed and complex human beings who try to do their best from one moment to the next but often wind up making the wrong choice, only to have deal with the consequences later.
As a matter of fact, Pelecanos’ books are all about the consequences of our actions. The stupid split second decisions that we spend a lifetime reliving, overcoming, and forgiving ourselves for are his bread and butter.
The Way Home is another in this line. This one is particularly focused on the relationship between a father and a son. The way that we let the silence and miscommunication separate and dictate our relationships with one another.
The story is about Chris Flynn, a tough but uninspired teen who lets his bad decisions land him in a teen correctional facility. His relationship with the outside world, including his parents, is tenuous at best. He has no interest and no concern for anything outside of the here and now—The Pines, the facility in which he is incarcerated and the young men who spend their youths there is his only concern. Day to day survival is enough to worry about. But soon Chris starts to imagine a life outside of his violent environs, and with the help of Ali, a studious fellow inmate, begins to put his life back together.
Fast-forward, and Chris is out and working for his father’s carpet company. He’s got a girlfriend, and a best friend, and he’s mending his relationship with his father. The trouble comes, as it often does, unexpectedly and faced with a tough decision Chris sets his future, his family and friends, onto a crash-course with destiny, rolling with the punches until ultimately he must make one last decision. And he and his father must face the toughest challenge of all: trusting one another.
I love Pelecanos, and find that his writing transports me more fully into the lives of his characters than most any other writer I know. This stuff isn’t pretty, but it’s real.
Long Lost by Harlan Coben (released March 31, 2009)
Long Lost is the latest in a series of novels based around the character of Myron Bolitar, a sports agent turned man-who-gets-things-done.
The book centers around Myron’s re-acquaintance with an ex-lover named Therese, and a mystery involving her ex-husbands’ disappearance, a strange genetic clue, and a faction of terrorists using Aryan children as weapons, bent on utter destruction.
This is kind of a silly beach read. This is a fun and rewarding mystery thriller that doesn’t require much in the way of investment. There are shocks to be had, for sure, but this is good old-fashioned fluff, and it is an enjoyable way to pass an afternoon.
Coben makes this book entirely accessible to anyone, whether they have read the previous Myron Bolitar novels or not. I, in this case, had not. And I enjoyed it immensely. This is the literary equivalent to a Hollywood action blockbuster. It required no deep involvement, the slimmest of character development, and presented action, thrills, and chills galore.
My only complaint is that Bolitar, a funny, self-deprecating ex-athlete is never allowed to fully become a person. I assume that this is because it is part of a series. Along with the ease of dealing with characters we already know is that we don’t have to do all that long boring character development that you get in the first one. However, in a book that is intended to stand alone and entice readers to read the other Bolitar novels, it is important to know who our hero really is. Unfortunately, he never really becomes a solid identity, and his friends and colleagues, cartoonish and two-dimensional at best, while fun and amusing, never lend an ounce of realism.
I said there were surprises, and I wasn’t joking. About midway through there is a jaw-dropper that I still haven’t recovered from, and at the time left me breathless like a punch to the gut. There is lots of international intrigue, twists, turns, and crazy surprises that you’ll never see coming, and others that you saw all along. This is great mindless entertainment, the popcorn movie equivalent of a great read. Sometimes it’s just what the body craves, even while you chide yourself for giving in to the temptation.
City of Thieves by David Benioff (released in quality paperback format March 31)
This is quite simply a stunning novel of grace, wit, horror, and human frailty and courage. I was blown away from the first few pages.
David Benioff is a screenwriter best known for his adaptation of The Kite Runner, and the author of the book 25th Hour, which subsequently became a Spike Lee joint starring Edward Norton. 25th Hour was a good crime story, but held no clue as to the depths and heights of Benioff’s talents.
City of Thieves is a fictionalized account of Benioff’s grandfather’s stories of growing up as a young Russian Jew in Leningrad during WWII. The tale that follows is a wry, sprightly, menacing, and ultimately joyful romp though the Russian countryside. It has moments of great sorrow and austerity, but revels in the all-too-human moments of farts and sexual arousal.
This is a great coming-of-age tale that spans many genres while telling its too-strange-to-not-be-true story. The story centers on 17 year old Lev Beniov who by chance happens on a fallen German soldier, and upon taking the soldiers knife enters into an adventure that will take him to the edge of death’s door and to the heights of love’s kiss.
Sent on a mission to find and bring back a dozen eggs, Lev and his cocky soldier sidekick encounter many odd assorted characters and many life-affirming and defying moments only to discover that the greatest gift they have is each other.
This is a hell of a read. It is by turns funny, sad, heartbreaking, torturous, uplifting, and ultimately satisfying. You will fly through this book as I did. It is a fast read, and you won’t want to waste a moment to put it down. And the good news is, and this maybe giving away the ending, but you will be smiling as you put this book down. It is a charmer, and I am in love with this book.
Go. Read it. Now.
Literary Lollapalooza February 2009
This issue of literary lollapalooza features a celebrated bestseller about how epidemics affect sales, a young adult novel about a high school senior who just can’t seem to do anything right, and a novel of pure terror set in the frozen Arctic.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, February Edition:
Books Acquired: Very Washington, D.C. by Diana Hollingsworth Gessler, The Wicked Wit of William Shakespeare edited by Dominique Enright, Building a Character and Creating a Role by Constantin Stanislavski
Books Read:
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
This ground-breaking book by the celebrated author of Blink and Outliers is an extraordinary analysis of fads in the marketplace and how “the next big thing” becomes the next big thing. What is fascinating about this book to me is the author’s approach of the fad phenomenon as that of an epidemic, coursing how it starts, catches, and then spreads far and wide.
With a few particular case studies, and a very linear and well-constructed narrative device, Gladwell illustrates how an idea becomes a powerful and pervasive phenomenon. Using case studies as diverse as Hush Puppies, Sesame Street, and New York City’s decrease in criminal activity, he indicates the ways and means, the people and players, and the sets of circumstances that help make an idea first “tip” and then “stick”.
This book is marketed as being about sales and marketing, but I find that terribly limiting. This is actually a book about sociology. About why we do the things we do. A book that examines what exactly creates any given moment’s particular zeitgeist. Why do we as people tend to flock to the same things at the same time? This book is a mind-blowing answer to that question.
I haven’t read Gladwell’s other books, but I will. If they are anything like this, I will be happy to follow along.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best Young Adult writers working today. She is most known for the book (and inferior movie adaptation) Speak, about a teen girl suffering the after-effects of a date-rape. She also wrote Catalyst, which I read to my senior remedial reading class back at Bay High. That book was my first introduction to Anderson’s writing, and I was immediately hooked. I loved reading that book. One of the few bright points of that class. Anderson is one of those Young Adult authors who manages to capture the gritty reality that teenagers face without sugarcoating anything, and without devolving into exploitation.
Twisted is the story of Tyler , who is a ne’er-do-well nerd-cum-bad boy, who entering his senior year finds himself not only suddenly VISIBLE, as he was that kid that was arrested last year, but also he finds himself in the crosshairs of the very lovely and very popular Bethany. In the only way a teenager can he manages to let everything in his life spiral madly out of control, until he is forced to finally grow up and accept responsibility for his actions.
Anderson knows the madness, insecurities, extreme highs and devastating lows of being a teenager, and she plumbs those depths with alacrity and a dexterous ability that belies her age. Never have the realities of high school been more painfully examined, and never have they felt so…true. There isn’t a false note in her writing, and the book is a painful reminder of the hell of high school, and the uplifting realization that it does end, and that believe it or not, we all grow up, get past it, and forget about it. At least for awhile.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Terror is a fictionalized account of the true story of the 1845 Arctic expedition headed by Sir John Franklin, with the two ships H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror. The ships became frozen in Arctic sea, and the members of those ships were doomed never to be seen again. This is Dan Simmons’ take on what happened on that doomed expedition.
First of all, Dan Simmons is a first-class novelist. He takes the reader in fully into his world, wrapping one into layers upon layers of detail and exposition. That sort of detail is important in a historical fiction, and even more important in one dealing with the alien and highly technical world of the seafarer. Even more so, of the seafarer who ventures often into the frozen wastelands of the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The men of the ships not only must survive the brutal cold, losing appendages to frost-bite daily, but they are also running dangerously low on food, giving way to sickness and starvation, as the ships’ stores dwindle the men are overcome with the worst physical hardships and morale depletions, and as the men die slowly, painfully, and grotesquely from scurvy with no hope for escape from the ice, one might think that things can’t get worse. But then Simmons’ has something else up his sleeve. There is something out there on the ice, something hiding in the extended darkness, waiting and hunting. It’s smart, hungry, and utterly unstoppable. And let’s not forget the evil that lurks in men’s hearts…
Warning: this book is so dense with description and technical explanation that it at times felt truly daunting. Like reading Moby Dick as adapted by Stephen King. It is a thick volume, weighing in at a stout 800 pages, so it is a task to take this book on.
That being said, this book is SOOOOOOO worth it. It is 700 or so pages of the most miserable, depressing, and absolutely frightening excesses of pure terror that I have ever survived. I will never, ever forget this book. It took me so deeply into that frozen nautical world of the early 20th century that I still see the scenes and characters plainly in my minds eye a month after having read it. It is a brutal and relentless read. My only complaint is that when the end does finally come, it almost seems hurried and rushed, which after such a long build-up hardly seems balanced.
Still, The Terror is easily one of the best books I’ve read, not only this year, but maybe ever. I just can’t shake the absolute fear and loathing that this book made me feel.
This is Literary Lollapalooza, February Edition:
Books Acquired: Very Washington, D.C. by Diana Hollingsworth Gessler, The Wicked Wit of William Shakespeare edited by Dominique Enright, Building a Character and Creating a Role by Constantin Stanislavski
Books Read:
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
This ground-breaking book by the celebrated author of Blink and Outliers is an extraordinary analysis of fads in the marketplace and how “the next big thing” becomes the next big thing. What is fascinating about this book to me is the author’s approach of the fad phenomenon as that of an epidemic, coursing how it starts, catches, and then spreads far and wide.
With a few particular case studies, and a very linear and well-constructed narrative device, Gladwell illustrates how an idea becomes a powerful and pervasive phenomenon. Using case studies as diverse as Hush Puppies, Sesame Street, and New York City’s decrease in criminal activity, he indicates the ways and means, the people and players, and the sets of circumstances that help make an idea first “tip” and then “stick”.
This book is marketed as being about sales and marketing, but I find that terribly limiting. This is actually a book about sociology. About why we do the things we do. A book that examines what exactly creates any given moment’s particular zeitgeist. Why do we as people tend to flock to the same things at the same time? This book is a mind-blowing answer to that question.
I haven’t read Gladwell’s other books, but I will. If they are anything like this, I will be happy to follow along.
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best Young Adult writers working today. She is most known for the book (and inferior movie adaptation) Speak, about a teen girl suffering the after-effects of a date-rape. She also wrote Catalyst, which I read to my senior remedial reading class back at Bay High. That book was my first introduction to Anderson’s writing, and I was immediately hooked. I loved reading that book. One of the few bright points of that class. Anderson is one of those Young Adult authors who manages to capture the gritty reality that teenagers face without sugarcoating anything, and without devolving into exploitation.
Twisted is the story of Tyler , who is a ne’er-do-well nerd-cum-bad boy, who entering his senior year finds himself not only suddenly VISIBLE, as he was that kid that was arrested last year, but also he finds himself in the crosshairs of the very lovely and very popular Bethany. In the only way a teenager can he manages to let everything in his life spiral madly out of control, until he is forced to finally grow up and accept responsibility for his actions.
Anderson knows the madness, insecurities, extreme highs and devastating lows of being a teenager, and she plumbs those depths with alacrity and a dexterous ability that belies her age. Never have the realities of high school been more painfully examined, and never have they felt so…true. There isn’t a false note in her writing, and the book is a painful reminder of the hell of high school, and the uplifting realization that it does end, and that believe it or not, we all grow up, get past it, and forget about it. At least for awhile.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Terror is a fictionalized account of the true story of the 1845 Arctic expedition headed by Sir John Franklin, with the two ships H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror. The ships became frozen in Arctic sea, and the members of those ships were doomed never to be seen again. This is Dan Simmons’ take on what happened on that doomed expedition.
First of all, Dan Simmons is a first-class novelist. He takes the reader in fully into his world, wrapping one into layers upon layers of detail and exposition. That sort of detail is important in a historical fiction, and even more important in one dealing with the alien and highly technical world of the seafarer. Even more so, of the seafarer who ventures often into the frozen wastelands of the Arctic and the Antarctic.
The men of the ships not only must survive the brutal cold, losing appendages to frost-bite daily, but they are also running dangerously low on food, giving way to sickness and starvation, as the ships’ stores dwindle the men are overcome with the worst physical hardships and morale depletions, and as the men die slowly, painfully, and grotesquely from scurvy with no hope for escape from the ice, one might think that things can’t get worse. But then Simmons’ has something else up his sleeve. There is something out there on the ice, something hiding in the extended darkness, waiting and hunting. It’s smart, hungry, and utterly unstoppable. And let’s not forget the evil that lurks in men’s hearts…
Warning: this book is so dense with description and technical explanation that it at times felt truly daunting. Like reading Moby Dick as adapted by Stephen King. It is a thick volume, weighing in at a stout 800 pages, so it is a task to take this book on.
That being said, this book is SOOOOOOO worth it. It is 700 or so pages of the most miserable, depressing, and absolutely frightening excesses of pure terror that I have ever survived. I will never, ever forget this book. It took me so deeply into that frozen nautical world of the early 20th century that I still see the scenes and characters plainly in my minds eye a month after having read it. It is a brutal and relentless read. My only complaint is that when the end does finally come, it almost seems hurried and rushed, which after such a long build-up hardly seems balanced.
Still, The Terror is easily one of the best books I’ve read, not only this year, but maybe ever. I just can’t shake the absolute fear and loathing that this book made me feel.
Literary Lollapalooza January 2009
A brief introduction: This is an idea that I ripped off from my good friend Ryan who just successfully completed one whole year of these without ever missing a month. I so enjoyed reading about what Ryan was reading that it inspired me to be a copycat. This is my lame attempt at what he does effortlessly.
Some things that you might notice: I tend to alternate between heavy, thoughtful books and what might be otherwise called fluff, or genre fiction. I like books, have a large stack waiting for me, and I tend to think of them in terms of food. The heavy, thoughtful books are my entrees, the ones in-between are light trifles meant to cleanse my palate. This quite often translates into a non-fiction/fiction dichotomy, but that is not always the case. The truth is I read whatever I want to read at any given time, just like you.
This is Literary Lollapalooza Jan, 2009
Books Borrowed: Beckett in Performance
Books Bought: Take the Cannoli- Sarah Vowell, Burning Chrome-William Gibson, Captain Freedom-G. Xavier Robillard, Crossing to Safety- Wallace Stegner, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh-Michael Chabon, Bloodsucking Fiends-Christopher Moore,
Books Read:
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain –
I picked this book up for a couple of reasons. I had seen both this and its sequel Heartsick around and was interested based solely on curiosity. Then Stephen King added the two books to his top ten books of the year list in EW. Now I was going to read them no matter. Finally, add in finding Heartsick for $3.99 in our Bargain Blowout sale. That did it: put the nail in the coffin. Not only was I in, but also had to immediately pony up the $7.99 for the paperback of Sweetheart.
The story is a crime thriller in the tradition of the Hannibal Lecter series. But this is no tired retread. Cain manages to take what should be a “been there/done that” crime thriller and turn it into a fun, terrifying, horrifying, thought-provoking and heart-pounding read. Trust me: it’s a page turner in the literal sense. I finished in a couple of days. And I’m no speed reader. (It took me two months to read American Wife).
The story centers on Archie, a middle-aged homicide detective in semi-retirement, and his life’s work, a beautiful and manipulative serial killer, his greatest collar and also his greatest obsession. You see, she managed to kidnap Archie and then relish in his torture, always keeping him from the brink of death for weeks. Now Archie has a special relationship with his former captor, and can barely keep things together enough to function in polite society. It is only through heavy doses of medication and weekly visits to her that he can keep his world in check. Now Archie is working on a new case, a serial rapist/murderer who targets young girls. He has no choice but to give in to the advice of his greatest obsession.
I highly recommend this book. I have yet to read its sequel (but I will soon), but this is high octane reading. I have rarely had as much fun while simultaneously being grossed out, intrigued, and turned on. This is no “Lecter repeat”. Cain manages to create wholly believable and wholly invested characters in what could have easily been a knock-off. I look forward to what promises to be an on-going series featuring this fractured homicide detective and his greatest victory/obsession.
America and the World by Zbienew Brezenski and Brent Scowcroft with David Ignatius.
I had heard good things about this long before even reading the dust-jacket.
I had a few reservations. For one, I’d never read this sort of pragmatically political book before, not even read much politically besides left wing diatribes and Woodward’s Bush series. So naturally I was afraid that this book would be over my head.
Luckily, this was surprisingly easy reading. And I only had to look up a couple of terms and ask a couple of questions from people with more political acumen than I to get through the book.
Bottom Line: This is REQUIRED READING for ANYONE interested in the future of our great country. Brezesinski and Scowcroft, two of the leading foreign policy advisors alive anywhere got together with journalist Ignatius, who mediated an ongoing conversation about American foreign policy, past and future. These two great political minds, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, spent their days offering advice, discussing, and arguing over what the next (read current) administration should be doing in the world at large to secure American peace and prosperity in the years to come.
The first surprising thing about this book is the clear, unfiltered, and easily understood language with which these three men speak. Besides a few foreign terms or ideas the language is very easily understood plain speak. Gone is the lofty language one might expect from top foreign policy thinkers. These guys are talking simply, truthfully, and quite compellingly from their experience, wisdom, and instinct about how to navigate the increasingly troubled waters of the 21st Century.
The second, and most surprising thing about this book is how often these two very different, partisan political thinkers agree on how to proceed with every major country in the known world. The exceptions are the few times that they actually disagree, so rare, in fact that they are thrown into sharp contrast. One can easily see that what lies at the base of the very few disagreements these men share are in a deeply laid ideology. A stark difference, mainly laid out in terms.
What is obvious after reading this, is that America must take a decisive lead in the future of the world, from all aspects. But what both men earnestly urge is careful listening, and thoughtful, steady, and yielding leadership when it comes to dealing with our foreign leadership. The book serves almost as a foreign policy checklist, listing clearly and carefully each major player in the world stage, and what should be done to ensure a lasting peace. Let’s hope our new administration heeds their words carefully.
Dog On It by
I came by this one honestly, having picked up a free advanced reading copy at work. It looked interesting, featured a positive quote from Stephen King on the cover, and after reading the first couple pages I decided it would be my next read.
Dog On It is the first in what the publisher promises to be a new series of mysteries. The subtitle announces that it is “A Chet and Bernie Mystery”.
Here’s the skinny: This is a fun and somewhat mindless read. Mindless is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s exactly what I’m after. This hit the spot perfectly.
The gimmick of the series is that Chet, of the eponymous title, is in fact a dog, the loyal and devoted friend and partner to private detective Bernie Little, and he is also our narrator.
This leads to lots of fun bits about color and scents, and while Chet does a good job of keeping us apprised of the case at all times, he is still a dog and still subject to a few doggy sidetracks as well, a.k.a. chasing rabbits, getting a good scritch behind the ears, or involuntarily growling at a nearby cat.
In the end, this is not groundbreaking fiction here. However, it is clear that the author has a deep love and respect for dogs, and knows a great deal about them as well. Though the story might come across a little cliché or one-dimensional, it is still worth reading due to the infectious excitement of the canine narrator, Chet. Chet is what sells this book. Chet will be what sells the series. If you own a dog, have ever owned a dog, and enjoy mysteries, you will like this book. If you wrinkle your nose at the thought of a dog narrating, please ignore this book. Not all books were meant to change the world. Some are meant to make us smile. This is one of that variety.
Some things that you might notice: I tend to alternate between heavy, thoughtful books and what might be otherwise called fluff, or genre fiction. I like books, have a large stack waiting for me, and I tend to think of them in terms of food. The heavy, thoughtful books are my entrees, the ones in-between are light trifles meant to cleanse my palate. This quite often translates into a non-fiction/fiction dichotomy, but that is not always the case. The truth is I read whatever I want to read at any given time, just like you.
This is Literary Lollapalooza Jan, 2009
Books Borrowed: Beckett in Performance
Books Bought: Take the Cannoli- Sarah Vowell, Burning Chrome-William Gibson, Captain Freedom-G. Xavier Robillard, Crossing to Safety- Wallace Stegner, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh-Michael Chabon, Bloodsucking Fiends-Christopher Moore,
Books Read:
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain –
I picked this book up for a couple of reasons. I had seen both this and its sequel Heartsick around and was interested based solely on curiosity. Then Stephen King added the two books to his top ten books of the year list in EW. Now I was going to read them no matter. Finally, add in finding Heartsick for $3.99 in our Bargain Blowout sale. That did it: put the nail in the coffin. Not only was I in, but also had to immediately pony up the $7.99 for the paperback of Sweetheart.
The story is a crime thriller in the tradition of the Hannibal Lecter series. But this is no tired retread. Cain manages to take what should be a “been there/done that” crime thriller and turn it into a fun, terrifying, horrifying, thought-provoking and heart-pounding read. Trust me: it’s a page turner in the literal sense. I finished in a couple of days. And I’m no speed reader. (It took me two months to read American Wife).
The story centers on Archie, a middle-aged homicide detective in semi-retirement, and his life’s work, a beautiful and manipulative serial killer, his greatest collar and also his greatest obsession. You see, she managed to kidnap Archie and then relish in his torture, always keeping him from the brink of death for weeks. Now Archie has a special relationship with his former captor, and can barely keep things together enough to function in polite society. It is only through heavy doses of medication and weekly visits to her that he can keep his world in check. Now Archie is working on a new case, a serial rapist/murderer who targets young girls. He has no choice but to give in to the advice of his greatest obsession.
I highly recommend this book. I have yet to read its sequel (but I will soon), but this is high octane reading. I have rarely had as much fun while simultaneously being grossed out, intrigued, and turned on. This is no “Lecter repeat”. Cain manages to create wholly believable and wholly invested characters in what could have easily been a knock-off. I look forward to what promises to be an on-going series featuring this fractured homicide detective and his greatest victory/obsession.
America and the World by Zbienew Brezenski and Brent Scowcroft with David Ignatius.
I had heard good things about this long before even reading the dust-jacket.
I had a few reservations. For one, I’d never read this sort of pragmatically political book before, not even read much politically besides left wing diatribes and Woodward’s Bush series. So naturally I was afraid that this book would be over my head.
Luckily, this was surprisingly easy reading. And I only had to look up a couple of terms and ask a couple of questions from people with more political acumen than I to get through the book.
Bottom Line: This is REQUIRED READING for ANYONE interested in the future of our great country. Brezesinski and Scowcroft, two of the leading foreign policy advisors alive anywhere got together with journalist Ignatius, who mediated an ongoing conversation about American foreign policy, past and future. These two great political minds, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, spent their days offering advice, discussing, and arguing over what the next (read current) administration should be doing in the world at large to secure American peace and prosperity in the years to come.
The first surprising thing about this book is the clear, unfiltered, and easily understood language with which these three men speak. Besides a few foreign terms or ideas the language is very easily understood plain speak. Gone is the lofty language one might expect from top foreign policy thinkers. These guys are talking simply, truthfully, and quite compellingly from their experience, wisdom, and instinct about how to navigate the increasingly troubled waters of the 21st Century.
The second, and most surprising thing about this book is how often these two very different, partisan political thinkers agree on how to proceed with every major country in the known world. The exceptions are the few times that they actually disagree, so rare, in fact that they are thrown into sharp contrast. One can easily see that what lies at the base of the very few disagreements these men share are in a deeply laid ideology. A stark difference, mainly laid out in terms.
What is obvious after reading this, is that America must take a decisive lead in the future of the world, from all aspects. But what both men earnestly urge is careful listening, and thoughtful, steady, and yielding leadership when it comes to dealing with our foreign leadership. The book serves almost as a foreign policy checklist, listing clearly and carefully each major player in the world stage, and what should be done to ensure a lasting peace. Let’s hope our new administration heeds their words carefully.
Dog On It by
I came by this one honestly, having picked up a free advanced reading copy at work. It looked interesting, featured a positive quote from Stephen King on the cover, and after reading the first couple pages I decided it would be my next read.
Dog On It is the first in what the publisher promises to be a new series of mysteries. The subtitle announces that it is “A Chet and Bernie Mystery”.
Here’s the skinny: This is a fun and somewhat mindless read. Mindless is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s exactly what I’m after. This hit the spot perfectly.
The gimmick of the series is that Chet, of the eponymous title, is in fact a dog, the loyal and devoted friend and partner to private detective Bernie Little, and he is also our narrator.
This leads to lots of fun bits about color and scents, and while Chet does a good job of keeping us apprised of the case at all times, he is still a dog and still subject to a few doggy sidetracks as well, a.k.a. chasing rabbits, getting a good scritch behind the ears, or involuntarily growling at a nearby cat.
In the end, this is not groundbreaking fiction here. However, it is clear that the author has a deep love and respect for dogs, and knows a great deal about them as well. Though the story might come across a little cliché or one-dimensional, it is still worth reading due to the infectious excitement of the canine narrator, Chet. Chet is what sells this book. Chet will be what sells the series. If you own a dog, have ever owned a dog, and enjoy mysteries, you will like this book. If you wrinkle your nose at the thought of a dog narrating, please ignore this book. Not all books were meant to change the world. Some are meant to make us smile. This is one of that variety.
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