Another good month for reading... unemployment suits this habit! Sigh. But! I have been accepted to start a master's in library science come June, so pretty soon I won't feel like such a loser anymore. :)
Days spent reading: 25
Books read: 13
...in fiction: 11
...in non-fiction: 2, if humor columns count?
...in mystery: 3
...in science fiction: 2
...in fantasy: 1
...in classics: 1
...in short stories: 4
...in humor: 2
...in young adult: 1
...in children's: 1
Series reads: Nursery Crime, Old Man's War
Favorite book: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (Review) 9/10
and The Manual of Detection, by Jedediah Berry (Review) 9/10
Challenges
Countdown Challenge: +5 books for 37/45
Chunkster Challenge: +0 books for 3/6
The Baker Street Challenge: +0 books for 0/3
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge: +0 for 0/12
Support Your Local Library Challenge: +13 for 31/50
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: +3 for 3/10
31 March 2009
30 March 2009
The Manual of Detection, by Jedediah Berry (24 March — 25 March)
Charles Unwin is a clerk at the Agency; he compiles the notes of his detective, Travis T. Sivart, and files them away nicely under titles like "The Oldest Murdered Man" and "The Man Who Stole November Twelfth." But on this day, he is mysteriously promoted to detective in place of Sivart, which does not suit Unwin, who likes his clerk's job and has no interest in detecting. He makes his first case to find out what happened to Sivart, and soon realizes that this case will take more skills than what he can learn in his Manual of Detection.
This book was weird, and also awesome. There's not much more I want to say about it because I'm not sure which are details and which are clues. The weirdness is along the lines of Jasper Fforde's — an alternate universe where weird things happen and it's okay. The man who stole November twelfth did, actually, make the whole city skip from Monday straight to Wednesday.
Berry's awesomeness is much in his writing. I had to read aloud this (long-ish, sorry!) passage to Scott after I read it because it's just so brilliant:
"On the twenty-ninth floor, another long hall, another lone window at its end. But in place of the carpeting of the thirty-sixth, here was a buffed surface of dark wood, so spotless and smooth it shone with liquid brilliance. The floor gave Unwin pause. It was his personal curse that his shoes squeaked on polished floors. The type of shoes he wore made no difference, nor did it matter whether the soles were wet or dry. If the shoes contained Unwin's feet and were directed along well-polished routes, they would without fail sound their joyless noise for all to hear.
"At home he went about in his socks. That way he could avoid disturbing the neighbors and also indulge in the occasional shoeless swoop across the room, as when one is preparing a breakfast of oatmeal and the oatmeal wants raisins and brown sugar, which are in the cupboard at the other end of the room. To glide with sock-swaddled feet over a world of glossy planes: that would be a wondrous thing! But Unwin's apartment was smallish at best, and the world is unkind to the shoeless and frolicsome."
Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
This book was weird, and also awesome. There's not much more I want to say about it because I'm not sure which are details and which are clues. The weirdness is along the lines of Jasper Fforde's — an alternate universe where weird things happen and it's okay. The man who stole November twelfth did, actually, make the whole city skip from Monday straight to Wednesday.
Berry's awesomeness is much in his writing. I had to read aloud this (long-ish, sorry!) passage to Scott after I read it because it's just so brilliant:
"On the twenty-ninth floor, another long hall, another lone window at its end. But in place of the carpeting of the thirty-sixth, here was a buffed surface of dark wood, so spotless and smooth it shone with liquid brilliance. The floor gave Unwin pause. It was his personal curse that his shoes squeaked on polished floors. The type of shoes he wore made no difference, nor did it matter whether the soles were wet or dry. If the shoes contained Unwin's feet and were directed along well-polished routes, they would without fail sound their joyless noise for all to hear.
"At home he went about in his socks. That way he could avoid disturbing the neighbors and also indulge in the occasional shoeless swoop across the room, as when one is preparing a breakfast of oatmeal and the oatmeal wants raisins and brown sugar, which are in the cupboard at the other end of the room. To glide with sock-swaddled feet over a world of glossy planes: that would be a wondrous thing! But Unwin's apartment was smallish at best, and the world is unkind to the shoeless and frolicsome."
Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
Audiobook Round-up
I got back last night from a week-long camping trip in Alabama, which was awesome. Less awesome is all the internet catching-up I have to do!
Because of the twelve-hour drive, I decided to collect a bunch of audiobooks from the library's fancy-pants online trove of such things. Scott loves them, but I'd never given them a real try. Now I have, and... well. I was right — I can't focus on an audiobook to save my life. So. No ratings (or even decent reviews) for these until I read them proper, but here's the list of things I listened to in the car last week.
Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, by Dave Barry (22 March)
This is a 1988 collection of Barry's columns, which shows in all his talk about Reagan as president! I like Barry, so I enjoyed listening to this hour-long book while I tried to stay awake (we left home at 6am!). Bonus points for having John Ritter as a narrator.
More of Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, by Dave Barry (22 March)
I can't seem to find this listed anywhere but fancy-pants online troves of audiobooks, so this is possibly audiobook-only. Unsure. Anyway, this is the 1996 collection of awesome columns. Still entertaining. Still narrated by John Ritter. Still capable of keeping me awake, if not listening properly.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (28 March — 29 March)
I knew the general idea going in, of course — Dorian Gray has a painting that ages while he stays young. That turns out to be a gross over-simplification of this novel, which deals with heavy themes of morality and ethics and deception. Grey likes his painting at the beginning, but as it ages and the bad things he's done show up in it he comes to loathe it. And his loathing of it has him doing even more bad things that show up in it. And all the while he has an angel-friend telling him how good he is, and a devil-friend spouting off ridiculous (even to him) notions of how the world works. I definitely enjoyed this book, but I will have to go back and read it to pick up on the hour or two I missed of it!
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
Because of the twelve-hour drive, I decided to collect a bunch of audiobooks from the library's fancy-pants online trove of such things. Scott loves them, but I'd never given them a real try. Now I have, and... well. I was right — I can't focus on an audiobook to save my life. So. No ratings (or even decent reviews) for these until I read them proper, but here's the list of things I listened to in the car last week.
Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, by Dave Barry (22 March)
This is a 1988 collection of Barry's columns, which shows in all his talk about Reagan as president! I like Barry, so I enjoyed listening to this hour-long book while I tried to stay awake (we left home at 6am!). Bonus points for having John Ritter as a narrator.
More of Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, by Dave Barry (22 March)
I can't seem to find this listed anywhere but fancy-pants online troves of audiobooks, so this is possibly audiobook-only. Unsure. Anyway, this is the 1996 collection of awesome columns. Still entertaining. Still narrated by John Ritter. Still capable of keeping me awake, if not listening properly.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (28 March — 29 March)
I knew the general idea going in, of course — Dorian Gray has a painting that ages while he stays young. That turns out to be a gross over-simplification of this novel, which deals with heavy themes of morality and ethics and deception. Grey likes his painting at the beginning, but as it ages and the bad things he's done show up in it he comes to loathe it. And his loathing of it has him doing even more bad things that show up in it. And all the while he has an angel-friend telling him how good he is, and a devil-friend spouting off ridiculous (even to him) notions of how the world works. I definitely enjoyed this book, but I will have to go back and read it to pick up on the hour or two I missed of it!
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
20 March 2009
The Last Colony, by John Scalzi (19 March — 20 March)
Another good book! Hooray!
This is the last book for me (but not the actual last book) of the Old Man's War series. I started with the previously linked book and then went back to the beginning to see what I'd missed. A lot, apparently. :)
Anyway, this book tells the last story of the original trilogy, which is the formation of the colony of Roanoke — aptly named. John Perry and Jane Sagan, our friends from the previous books, are put in charge of the colonization as it is being done not by humans from Earth, as is the usual MO, but by previous colonists, a first for the Colonial Union. John and Jane have to convince 2500 people of 10 different homeworlds to like each other, and it's not easy. And, of course, when they do start figuring it out, other things come in to play, like the fact that the Colonial Union has been lying to everyone about the nature of the colony. And that there're some people out there who want to destroy the colony. And that maybe it's okay if that happens. Oh boy.
This was very interesting to read after reading Zoe's Tale, since that book is just a retelling of this one from Zoe's point of view. I can see why Scalzi wanted to write that second one... although this story is very good in and of itself, there are a lot of weird jumps and convenient things happening that I could forgive because I knew what happened by having read the other book. If I did it again, though, I'd read them in order.
Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2007, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
This is the last book for me (but not the actual last book) of the Old Man's War series. I started with the previously linked book and then went back to the beginning to see what I'd missed. A lot, apparently. :)
Anyway, this book tells the last story of the original trilogy, which is the formation of the colony of Roanoke — aptly named. John Perry and Jane Sagan, our friends from the previous books, are put in charge of the colonization as it is being done not by humans from Earth, as is the usual MO, but by previous colonists, a first for the Colonial Union. John and Jane have to convince 2500 people of 10 different homeworlds to like each other, and it's not easy. And, of course, when they do start figuring it out, other things come in to play, like the fact that the Colonial Union has been lying to everyone about the nature of the colony. And that there're some people out there who want to destroy the colony. And that maybe it's okay if that happens. Oh boy.
This was very interesting to read after reading Zoe's Tale, since that book is just a retelling of this one from Zoe's point of view. I can see why Scalzi wanted to write that second one... although this story is very good in and of itself, there are a lot of weird jumps and convenient things happening that I could forgive because I knew what happened by having read the other book. If I did it again, though, I'd read them in order.
Rating: 8/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2007, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
19 March 2009
Booking Through Thursday (19 March)
Booking Through Thursday asks...
“What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?”
That's easy. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. That books was all over NPR, the book blogs, the internets... everyone loved it. And NPR doesn't usually steer me wrong. But it did. Oh, it did.
I'll admit that the book had its moments, but the main Hamlet plot just annoyed the heck out of me because Wroblewski didn't even try to paraphrase the play, he just picked up pieces and threw them in verbatim even if (when!) they didn't make sense in the context of the parts of the story he wrote. Ugh.
“What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?”
That's easy. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. That books was all over NPR, the book blogs, the internets... everyone loved it. And NPR doesn't usually steer me wrong. But it did. Oh, it did.
I'll admit that the book had its moments, but the main Hamlet plot just annoyed the heck out of me because Wroblewski didn't even try to paraphrase the play, he just picked up pieces and threw them in verbatim even if (when!) they didn't make sense in the context of the parts of the story he wrote. Ugh.
18 March 2009
The Composer is Dead, by Lemony Snicket (18 March)
I haven't really been in a mood for reading these past couple days, which I suppose is natural when you have nothing to do but read all day. I suppose you could say I read on Sunday, when I read from my Cleveland on Foot guidebook when Scott and I were walking around Bratenahl (fun fact: Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, was once a schoolteacher there), but mostly we were feeling poor amongst the lakefront summer mansions.
But the books I've got stacked up just weren't interesting me... until today, when I went to the library and collected three new books, all of which I'm excited about. The first one I cracked open was The Composer is Dead, which was quite a bit smaller than I'd envisioned when I didn't know it was a children's book. Oops!
All 40 pages are, however, full of awesomeness, as is the accompanying CD. The jacket flap recommends reading the book first, then listening to the audio, and I agree.
The story starts, as you might imagine, with a dead composer. An inspector comes in and asks a few questions of the orchestra to figure out whodunnit. Certain remarks are made about the various instruments which are rather apt. Of my beloved instrument, the inspector asks, "What say you, French Horns? You have a strange accent." Their response? None. "The French Horns did not understand the question, and began murmuring a story about the Old Country." Teehee!
So you get to the end of the story and you're like, okay, that's cute, what's this CD all about? And it turns out that this story was actually set to music for the San Francisco Symphony, and that's what you get to hear! Daniel Handler reads the story, with a few additions (you get to hear the horns' story; he wonders about getting some food), and the symphony plays some wonderful music in the background. I want to play this piece. I bet the rights are expensive.
Rating: 9/10 (8 for the story itself, 10 for the music!)
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
But the books I've got stacked up just weren't interesting me... until today, when I went to the library and collected three new books, all of which I'm excited about. The first one I cracked open was The Composer is Dead, which was quite a bit smaller than I'd envisioned when I didn't know it was a children's book. Oops!
All 40 pages are, however, full of awesomeness, as is the accompanying CD. The jacket flap recommends reading the book first, then listening to the audio, and I agree.
The story starts, as you might imagine, with a dead composer. An inspector comes in and asks a few questions of the orchestra to figure out whodunnit. Certain remarks are made about the various instruments which are rather apt. Of my beloved instrument, the inspector asks, "What say you, French Horns? You have a strange accent." Their response? None. "The French Horns did not understand the question, and began murmuring a story about the Old Country." Teehee!
So you get to the end of the story and you're like, okay, that's cute, what's this CD all about? And it turns out that this story was actually set to music for the San Francisco Symphony, and that's what you get to hear! Daniel Handler reads the story, with a few additions (you get to hear the horns' story; he wonders about getting some food), and the symphony plays some wonderful music in the background. I want to play this piece. I bet the rights are expensive.
Rating: 9/10 (8 for the story itself, 10 for the music!)
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
15 March 2009
We'll Always Have Paris, by Ray Bradbury (15 March)
Maybe I'm just not cut out for short stories. I don't know. But of the 22 stories in this collection, I only really liked five of them. It seemed like the others I either just did not get or did get, really, no really, no please stop explaining it I GET IT. So yeah.
But the ones I did like were good! Those touched on themes of relationships: friends with benefits, friends without any benefits, how friends change over the years or even the days. All of them I thought got right to the heart of the matter and ended with just the right touch... I wish the others had done so well.
There's not much to say in specific as these stories are, on average, 10 pages long. If you don't read all of the stories, do read "Apple-Core Baltimore," as that is my hands-down favorite.
Rating: 5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
But the ones I did like were good! Those touched on themes of relationships: friends with benefits, friends without any benefits, how friends change over the years or even the days. All of them I thought got right to the heart of the matter and ended with just the right touch... I wish the others had done so well.
There's not much to say in specific as these stories are, on average, 10 pages long. If you don't read all of the stories, do read "Apple-Core Baltimore," as that is my hands-down favorite.
Rating: 5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
14 March 2009
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling (13 March)
This book took me like seven minutes to read. Or maybe 30. Something like that. But it was cute, and if you like Harry Potter you might as well read it. :)
Basically, this is a book of five short educational tales for small wizards. They touch on sympathy toward Muggles, except the idiot kind; solving your own problems; experiencing life to the fullest; and not trying to cheat death.
The fun part is that after each of these tales, Rowling includes "Albus Dumbledore's" notes on each of the stories, explaining why they're important to wizards and, in some cases, why wizards don't like them. And it's cute. And it'll take you seven minutes to read. Or 30. Just do it.
Rating: 6/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
Basically, this is a book of five short educational tales for small wizards. They touch on sympathy toward Muggles, except the idiot kind; solving your own problems; experiencing life to the fullest; and not trying to cheat death.
The fun part is that after each of these tales, Rowling includes "Albus Dumbledore's" notes on each of the stories, explaining why they're important to wizards and, in some cases, why wizards don't like them. And it's cute. And it'll take you seven minutes to read. Or 30. Just do it.
Rating: 6/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
13 March 2009
The Fourth Bear, by Jasper Fforde (10 March — 13 March)
I can't help it. I love Jasper Fforde and his novels. And now I have to wait several months until his next book comes out! Oh no!
The Fourth Bear is the second in Fforde's Nursery Crime series, in which nursery rhyme characters are real(-ish) and subject to actual laws. Our main participants this time are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Gingerbreadman, who has escaped from jail and is again on a murderous rampage. DCI Jack Spratt and his sergeant Mary Mary are not on the case, as they've been sidelined after letting Red Riding Hood and her grandmother get eaten by the wolf. Oops.
Instead, they're on the hunt for the missing Goldilocks, a journalist with an eye lately for cucumber news who was last seen in a baby bear's bed. The trail leads, well, everywhere. Giant multinational corporation (no, not Goliath), porridge smuggling, explosions, closet-heterosexual member of Parliament, Agent Danvers (Danvers!)... it's all there, and mostly makes sense. Oh, also, Jack buys a car from Dorian Gray. That's smart.
I liked the story, here, but it was a little back-loaded answers-wise. Things just keep spiralling out of control until all of a sudden, poof! The answer! Convenient! But the writing is fun enough that I will forgive it. A quote I put up on Twitter when I started out: "He was seven foot three, and she was six foot two. It was a match made perhaps not in heaven but certainly nearer the ceiling." Strangely, that's 140 characters exactly.
One other thing I didn't like about the story is that there's a point where everything is going wrong and it's looking bad for Jack and then he's like, "But wait! This is just a plot contrivance! I will convince those involved in this situation to just, ah, ignore it, and then I can go back to detecting!" I get that in this weird Fforde universe, the characters know they're in a book. But generally, they're meant not to let everyone else know that, so this is just lazy. Ah well.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Wales)
The Fourth Bear is the second in Fforde's Nursery Crime series, in which nursery rhyme characters are real(-ish) and subject to actual laws. Our main participants this time are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Gingerbreadman, who has escaped from jail and is again on a murderous rampage. DCI Jack Spratt and his sergeant Mary Mary are not on the case, as they've been sidelined after letting Red Riding Hood and her grandmother get eaten by the wolf. Oops.
Instead, they're on the hunt for the missing Goldilocks, a journalist with an eye lately for cucumber news who was last seen in a baby bear's bed. The trail leads, well, everywhere. Giant multinational corporation (no, not Goliath), porridge smuggling, explosions, closet-heterosexual member of Parliament, Agent Danvers (Danvers!)... it's all there, and mostly makes sense. Oh, also, Jack buys a car from Dorian Gray. That's smart.
I liked the story, here, but it was a little back-loaded answers-wise. Things just keep spiralling out of control until all of a sudden, poof! The answer! Convenient! But the writing is fun enough that I will forgive it. A quote I put up on Twitter when I started out: "He was seven foot three, and she was six foot two. It was a match made perhaps not in heaven but certainly nearer the ceiling." Strangely, that's 140 characters exactly.
One other thing I didn't like about the story is that there's a point where everything is going wrong and it's looking bad for Jack and then he's like, "But wait! This is just a plot contrivance! I will convince those involved in this situation to just, ah, ignore it, and then I can go back to detecting!" I get that in this weird Fforde universe, the characters know they're in a book. But generally, they're meant not to let everyone else know that, so this is just lazy. Ah well.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Wales)
09 March 2009
Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black (8 March — 9 March)
Hmm. I'm not sure what to say about this book. I picked it up because I loved Tana French's Irish crime novels (as you well know by now!) and I was like, "Oooh. More Irish crime novels!" But they aren't the same at all, and I'm not sure I'd even classify this book as a crime novel, since I'm not clear what crime has been committed even after reading the book (it's possible I should know, but I don't... please tell me what it is if you do!).
The novel follows a Mr. Quirke (no first name given), who catches his quasi-brother Mal (Quirke is adopted) messing with a file at at the hospital where the two work (that's a crime, I suppose?). Quirke finds the name Christine Falls on the file and, wondering why Mal would need to be writing things in a dead girl's file when Quirke is the pathologist, starts asking around about the girl and how she died. Mal tells him to back off, which of course makes Quirke even more curious about the thing. His search leads him to the woman who was taking care of Christine before her death, who is shortly murdered by some alleged robbers, and on a hunt for the baby girl Christine died giving birth to, who has recently been sort-of adopted by a family in Boston. There's all sorts of complicated things going on.
But, like I said, I got to the end and I still had (nor have) any idea what really happened. The book is more focused on religion (it is set in 1950's Ireland, after all) and Quirke's weird relationships with his family than it is on the "mystery" part of the plot, all of which is interesting but which I still find lame. You may differ.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Ireland)
The novel follows a Mr. Quirke (no first name given), who catches his quasi-brother Mal (Quirke is adopted) messing with a file at at the hospital where the two work (that's a crime, I suppose?). Quirke finds the name Christine Falls on the file and, wondering why Mal would need to be writing things in a dead girl's file when Quirke is the pathologist, starts asking around about the girl and how she died. Mal tells him to back off, which of course makes Quirke even more curious about the thing. His search leads him to the woman who was taking care of Christine before her death, who is shortly murdered by some alleged robbers, and on a hunt for the baby girl Christine died giving birth to, who has recently been sort-of adopted by a family in Boston. There's all sorts of complicated things going on.
But, like I said, I got to the end and I still had (nor have) any idea what really happened. The book is more focused on religion (it is set in 1950's Ireland, after all) and Quirke's weird relationships with his family than it is on the "mystery" part of the plot, all of which is interesting but which I still find lame. You may differ.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Ireland)
Musing Mondays (9 March)
Today's Musing Mondays question:
"What is your policy when it comes to new authors? Do you feel comfortable purchasing a book or do you prefer to borrow new authors from the library? How often do you 'try out' a new author?"
I think I've mentioned before that I don't really buy books anymore now that I'm making negative money, so it should come as no surprise that I prefer to borrow books by new-to-me authors from the library or friends. Even when I did buy books often, I wouldn't take a chance on a book I wasn't going to like; either I had to like the author or it had to be recommended to me by several people. These days, the only way I'm going to buy a book is if I've read it and loved it and plan on reading it again and lending it to others to read.
"What is your policy when it comes to new authors? Do you feel comfortable purchasing a book or do you prefer to borrow new authors from the library? How often do you 'try out' a new author?"
I think I've mentioned before that I don't really buy books anymore now that I'm making negative money, so it should come as no surprise that I prefer to borrow books by new-to-me authors from the library or friends. Even when I did buy books often, I wouldn't take a chance on a book I wasn't going to like; either I had to like the author or it had to be recommended to me by several people. These days, the only way I'm going to buy a book is if I've read it and loved it and plan on reading it again and lending it to others to read.
08 March 2009
The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi (6 March — 8 March)
I finished up this book really early this morning (really, how does one wake up at 7:30 EDT on the first day of Daylight Savings when she doesn't usually wake up until 8 or 9 in the first place?), and I must say that I was pretty much ready to move on once I did. I liked the book, for sure, but it suffers from that second-book-in-a-series problem of wanting to keep the story moving but also wanting to get people ready for a third book. And maybe I'm too ready for the third book, since the book that started me on this whole thing (the fourth in the series) is a retelling of it.
But it was good! Scalzi abandons John Perry for the moment to focus on Jane Sagan and, more particularly, a new Special Forces soldier called Jared Dirac. Dirac is special because he was created to house the consciousness of one Charles Boutin, who turned traitor on humanity but conveniently left a copy of his consciousness behind (he does consciousness research, it's not that far-fetched...). It doesn't take, and Dirac is just trained as a new SF recruit under Sagan, who knows his history and is understandably upset and skeptical about his abilities.
Thus the first half of the book takes a good look at the Special Forces (also called the Ghost Brigades) and what it means to be part of it, with lots of speculation about the soullessness of both the Special Forces soldiers and those who made them. Then, when (spoiler alert?) Dirac finally unlocks a bit of Boutin's consciousness, it's time to go track down the traitor and figure out whether Dirac or Boutin or anyone, really, is the ethical person in this shenanigan.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
But it was good! Scalzi abandons John Perry for the moment to focus on Jane Sagan and, more particularly, a new Special Forces soldier called Jared Dirac. Dirac is special because he was created to house the consciousness of one Charles Boutin, who turned traitor on humanity but conveniently left a copy of his consciousness behind (he does consciousness research, it's not that far-fetched...). It doesn't take, and Dirac is just trained as a new SF recruit under Sagan, who knows his history and is understandably upset and skeptical about his abilities.
Thus the first half of the book takes a good look at the Special Forces (also called the Ghost Brigades) and what it means to be part of it, with lots of speculation about the soullessness of both the Special Forces soldiers and those who made them. Then, when (spoiler alert?) Dirac finally unlocks a bit of Boutin's consciousness, it's time to go track down the traitor and figure out whether Dirac or Boutin or anyone, really, is the ethical person in this shenanigan.
Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)
06 March 2009
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (1 March — 5 March)
-sniffle- I really wasn't sure about this book. I'd heard good things, but when I picked it up and started reading I was a bit put off by Death's narrative style. Yes, Death is the narrator. Of a Holocaust book. Oh, joy. And Death spouts off about colors for a chapter, and it's symbolic, sort of, but it didn't make a lot of sense while reading it. Death also cuts in all the time with weird, bolded pronouncements like
* * * HERE IS A SMALL FACT * * *
You are going to die
That's on the first page. I was a bit concerned. But then, as I read some more, I got used to the intrusions and even started to appreciate them. That fact seems almost appropriate to this book.
Anyway, I said the book was about the Holocaust, but it's not, really. It's about a young German girl who is sent to live with a foster family during Hitler's reign, and how she grows up amid the tumult. She makes friends, she gets into fights, she steals some books (obviously), she helps hide a Jew, and she generally becomes a fine young woman. Of course, bad things happen all over the place. To paraphrase Death, an admission: I cried for the last 50 pages. It's not a happy book, and it took a bit to really pull me in, but it is a very very good book and you should read it.
Rating: 9/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Australia)
You are going to die
That's on the first page. I was a bit concerned. But then, as I read some more, I got used to the intrusions and even started to appreciate them. That fact seems almost appropriate to this book.
Anyway, I said the book was about the Holocaust, but it's not, really. It's about a young German girl who is sent to live with a foster family during Hitler's reign, and how she grows up amid the tumult. She makes friends, she gets into fights, she steals some books (obviously), she helps hide a Jew, and she generally becomes a fine young woman. Of course, bad things happen all over the place. To paraphrase Death, an admission: I cried for the last 50 pages. It's not a happy book, and it took a bit to really pull me in, but it is a very very good book and you should read it.
Rating: 9/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Orbis Terrarum Challenge: Australia)
05 March 2009
Booking Through Thursday (5 March)
This week's Booking Through Thursday question:
"We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.
What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?"
I... don't know how to answer this question. Because, you know, I haven't read these books I haven't read. And previous "awesome books" I've tried to read (and even finished!) were just so awful to me that I couldn't believe anyone would recommend them! Twilight and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I'm looking at you.
But there are those truly awesome books... In the last year I've read a lot of great books, like The Sparrow, In the Woods and The Likeness, everything Jasper Fforde's written, and Elantris, that I probably wouldn't have read except that someone told me they were worth a read. Oh, and The Book Thief, which I'm reading right now and which is wonderful.
So you tell me. What are the best books out there that I should have read already?
"We’ve all seen the lists, we’ve all thought, “I should really read that someday,” but for all of us, there are still books on “The List” that we haven’t actually gotten around to reading. Even though we know they’re fabulous. Even though we know that we’ll like them. Or that we’ll learn from them. Or just that they’re supposed to be worthy. We just … haven’t gotten around to them yet.
What’s the best book that YOU haven’t read yet?"
I... don't know how to answer this question. Because, you know, I haven't read these books I haven't read. And previous "awesome books" I've tried to read (and even finished!) were just so awful to me that I couldn't believe anyone would recommend them! Twilight and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I'm looking at you.
But there are those truly awesome books... In the last year I've read a lot of great books, like The Sparrow, In the Woods and The Likeness, everything Jasper Fforde's written, and Elantris, that I probably wouldn't have read except that someone told me they were worth a read. Oh, and The Book Thief, which I'm reading right now and which is wonderful.
So you tell me. What are the best books out there that I should have read already?
02 March 2009
Musing Mondays (2 March)
This week's Musing Mondays question:
"When reading do you read every word? Do you ever skip chapters or skim over parts?"
I generally try not to skip over sections while reading fiction, because if I do I usually end up having to come back and read them again to see what I missed! That said, I often do have to come back to sections because I'll zone out while reading and suddenly find myself in the middle of a page I can't remember turning to. Oops.
Since I do end up reading everything, I will tell other people who are reading the same book what they can and can't skip over and still understand the book, because sometimes there are just parts of a story that don't matter to the plot, like the typewritten novel in Misery (which is also just difficult to read after some of the letters start going) or the comics in The Tenth Circle. They're nice, but not necessary.
And, of course, in non-fiction books I don't feel bad skipping over sections I don't care about or already understand.
"When reading do you read every word? Do you ever skip chapters or skim over parts?"
I generally try not to skip over sections while reading fiction, because if I do I usually end up having to come back and read them again to see what I missed! That said, I often do have to come back to sections because I'll zone out while reading and suddenly find myself in the middle of a page I can't remember turning to. Oops.
Since I do end up reading everything, I will tell other people who are reading the same book what they can and can't skip over and still understand the book, because sometimes there are just parts of a story that don't matter to the plot, like the typewritten novel in Misery (which is also just difficult to read after some of the letters start going) or the comics in The Tenth Circle. They're nice, but not necessary.
And, of course, in non-fiction books I don't feel bad skipping over sections I don't care about or already understand.
01 March 2009
Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell (28 February — 1 March)
Hee. This book was awesome. I'm not sure if it was just so much more awesome coming off of a book I didn't like or if it's actually as awesome as I thought it was, but either way it's a quick and thoroughly entertaining read.
Our protagonist, Peter Brown, is a doctor at a crap hospital in Manhattan. He's checking out a patient with cancer when he realizes — too late — that the patient is someone he knows from a past life. One that's been covered over by the Witness Protection Program. The patient, Eddy Squillante, quickly realizing the leverage he has, orders a hit on Brown if Squillante isn't alive by the end of the day. Inconveniently, the cancer he has is pretty much guaranteed to kill him, especially with the surgeon that's come in to operate. Brown now has to "beat the reaper" and keep Squillante alive so as not to have to find a new life as a gas station attendant out west.
The book cuts back and forth between Brown's current and previous lives, telling us how and why he got where he is, and it's all done in a very conversational style that makes it feel like you're really watching the action. Bazell also inserts witty footnotes (!) that let you learn possibly more than you ever wanted to know about medicine, the mob, pubic hair... it's wonderful.
I didn't quite appreciate the ending, though. The book ended right before I wanted it to, which was irksome, but I do like that he didn't overwork the ending, so it ends up on the plus side.
Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
Our protagonist, Peter Brown, is a doctor at a crap hospital in Manhattan. He's checking out a patient with cancer when he realizes — too late — that the patient is someone he knows from a past life. One that's been covered over by the Witness Protection Program. The patient, Eddy Squillante, quickly realizing the leverage he has, orders a hit on Brown if Squillante isn't alive by the end of the day. Inconveniently, the cancer he has is pretty much guaranteed to kill him, especially with the surgeon that's come in to operate. Brown now has to "beat the reaper" and keep Squillante alive so as not to have to find a new life as a gas station attendant out west.
The book cuts back and forth between Brown's current and previous lives, telling us how and why he got where he is, and it's all done in a very conversational style that makes it feel like you're really watching the action. Bazell also inserts witty footnotes (!) that let you learn possibly more than you ever wanted to know about medicine, the mob, pubic hair... it's wonderful.
I didn't quite appreciate the ending, though. The book ended right before I wanted it to, which was irksome, but I do like that he didn't overwork the ending, so it ends up on the plus side.
Rating: 9/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)
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