January 2011 - Pattern Recognition

I found it kind of hard to get into William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. Page after initial page is spent discussing branding and marketing (in the personal context of the lead character), topics that don’t grab my interest, except in a dry theoretical kind of way.

Despite that, at some point I got drawn into the more enjoyable, central mystery. It’s not a life altering book, but interesting enough to make me want to go back and re-read some of Gibson’s earlier stuff, which I found less accessible at the time.

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A review of "Faceless Killers"

Faceless Killers

by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers is the second Kurt Wallander novel that I’ve read (my first was Firewall). I’m now officially a fan of Henning Mankell; this was even better than the first.

Again we’re given the little details that make Wallander a realistic character. While investigating a horrific murder, he deals with mundane issues like weight loss, an aging father, a failed marriage, a troubled child. Many of these problems he’s hopelessly ill-equipped to solve, and he seems to recognize this but soldiers on anyway.

On top of that there’s a peek into Swedish immigration problems. It’s always interesting to get a look at what’s going on in other countries, even in works of fiction.

I’m going to make an effort to find the other books in the Wallander series, and anything else by Mankell that I can lay my hands on.

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A review of "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (Fully Revised and Updated)"

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science (Fully Revised and Updated)

by Charles Wheelan

My comments are actually about the 2002 edition.

1. I didn’t learn anything. I’ve read a bunch of finance books and a few books on economics, and this book just didn’t add anything substantial for me, so it was a waste of time.
2. The author likes to give multiple metaphors to explain economic activities, things like people choosing a line at the grocery store. I found this to be boring padding, ymmv. I’d prefer a straightforward discussion of how it works, and then some detailed discussion of the nuances involved.
3. I found the author’s writing style pompous on occasion, which was a turn-off.
4. The book struck me as slanted to the right, although it’s probably true that I’m ignoring his minor attempts at appeasing the left. There’s the usual talk about “creative destruction” and rah rah for globalization. The author proposes that inhumane labor practices should be ignored in third world countries – after all, the alternative is prostitution for these workers, and no one is making them work under poor conditions in these factories, they are choosing it of their own free will! So buy your junk from Wal-Mart and feel good about all the tiny kids stabbing themselves with sewing needles for 12 hours a day, because we’re all winners in this equation! We are supposed to believe that only these two options are available, and that we have no say in adding more options for third world workers. There is not one mention of the fair trade movement. Negative effects of capitalism are sprinkled with fairy dust and swept under the rug with “yes, it really sucks to be poor, but we’ll give them a little government subsidy to soothe our consciences, but let’s not dwell on unpleasantness, but instead move right along to the next sterling example of creative destructionism.”

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Bones of the Master

Bones of the Master is the amazing, true story of a Chinese ex-pat Ch’an monk’s incredible journey to honor his long-dead teacher.

I recommend reading the book all at once. I read the first 170 pages in parts, which took away from my enjoyment of the story, since it really requires full attention. The last 120 pages, which I read straight through, I found riveting. It helps that I love climbing mountains!

I found the spooky mysticism an added plus. As a fan of fiction like the X-Files, I enjoy that kind of stuff without having to make decisions about whether it’s bogus or not.

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A review of "On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World"

On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World

by Jason Burke

In On the Road to Kandahar, Jason Burke writes about his experiences as a reporter covering the Arab world (Pakistan, Iraq, etc). A lot of the time, I had a hard time understanding what was going on inside his head. I don’t always get the feeling that he’s horrified at what he’s seeing (whereas it horrified me) and that kinda creeps me out. I also don’t fundamentally understand the attraction? romance? of reporting in those regions; maybe it’s a British thing.

I found the book tedious at times. I think it could have used some editing, or maybe it’s just that I don’t enjoy the author’s writing style. Caveat: the book was given to me by a friend, so it’s not something that I picked up of my own accord. My attitude may be due to that.

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got bored (rated 3 stars)

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

by Michael Pollan

The message: You shouldn’t eat processed foods, they’re not all that good for you. Well, duh! It’s not that there’s anything wrong with In Defense of Food, but the content is not exactly news. I don’t feel like I got anything out of it that I didn’t know already.

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A review of "The Picture of Contented New Wealth: A Metaphysical Horror (Zero Books)"

The Picture of Contented New Wealth: A Metaphysical Horror (Zero Books)

by Tariq Goddard

I read about half of The Picture of Contented New Wealth at night, and it creeped me out. Then I read the rest during the day, and it was not so creepy, more funny and sardonic. It’s an interesting idea to write a family melodrama with demonic possession tossed in. I don’t usually read horror, so I’m not jaded, which maybe helped. The book is not overly long, and it was a quick read.

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another top story (rated 5 stars)

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest is another excellent story from Stieg Larsson. His books are written with such clarity, suspense, and realism that I feel disoriented when finishing them. The world in his books seems more real than my own – and way more interesting!

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kinda boring (rated 3 stars)

Tetraktys

by Ari Juels

I can’t recommend Tetraktys. While the book should be filed in the same section as The DaVinci Code, its mystery – centered around cryptology and a modern version of a Pythagorean cult – is not nearly as thick, tantalizing, or convoluted.

In addition, the book is written entirely from the point of view of the lead character, a computer science grad student. With a sufficiently interesting character, that can work, but our hero is a rather dull guy, and I just got pretty bored.

Skimming the comments about this book over at slashdot, it appears that Dan Brown is pretty widely scorned, and I agree with the poster that described Digital Fortress as dreck. However, for page-turning entertainment, The DaVinci Code beats Tetraktys hands down.

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November 2009 - The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Played with Fire is an excellent follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s another page turner, just as addictive as the first book in the series. Stieg Larsson had a real talent for writing thrillers!

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A review of "The Golden City: A Novel"

The Golden City: A Novel

by John Twelve Hawks

This review contains spoilers, so don’t read on if you want to be completely surprised by everything that happens in The Golden City.

Way back in January, I reviewed The Dark River, the second book in a paranoid fantasy thriller series written by the mysterious author, John Twelve Hawks. Out of nowhere, several weeks ago, someone posted a comment in response to the review. The comment was from the author’s literary agency. I was offered a free copy of the third book in the series, The Golden City.

Wow! Being offered free goodies just for posting a review seemed too good to be true, and I wondered if it was a weird form of comment spam (or perhaps a ruse by the Tabula to get their clutches into me). However, it turned out to be genuine. I received a shiny new hard cover copy of The Golden City a few weeks ago. (Hopefully, writing about this clears me with the FTC.)

It took me a while to get started on the book, but once I did, I zipped through it in just a few days. This last book is consistently good, although it suffers from a few flaws, just as the first two books did.

Again, the MacGuffin – the threat of a Big Brother coming to control our lives – fails to inspire me with fear. The Big Brother organization here, the Tabula, would be fairly benign if all they did was spy on you all the time. But they don’t just do that – they also seem to be intent on killing the people who might expose them. This, it seems, is where the real danger lies – the fact that they’re an organization which thinks it’s OK to kill people to advance their cause. And since there are plenty of other organizations/people which are out to get you (terrorists, your average serial killer, and so on), I don’t see why the Tabula is touted as the greatest possible threat to all of mankind.

The entirety of Chapter 42 is a defense of the premise that the loss of privacy is the gravest possible threat, but reading it didn’t convince me. And I’m a pretty paranoid person! It seems to me that loss of privacy has its ups and downs, and humanity will learn to cope. Seriously, which is worse, the government snooping through your underwear drawer, or terrorists pointing your airplane at a skyscraper? Let’s face it, marketing agencies already know way more about us than we’d like – but does that alter our quality of life significantly?

Well, I already knew this was an issue from reading the two earlier books, and I was along for the ride. This book is just as fun as the first two, so if you enjoyed them, I think you will enjoy this one, as I did. If you enjoyed the Alias TV series, with its kickass strong female lead and its mish-mash of science fiction/fantasy paranoia, you'll probably like this trilogy.

I don’t want to reveal too much, but here comes a spoiler: I have to mention that Maya’s pregnancy was way too jarring – one minute, she’s being rescued by Gabriel, the next she’s preggers, with nary a mention of hand-holding in between, let alone shagging. At least a few shy kisses were in order to prepare the reader.

One more thing: the series is described as a trilogy, but the book is open-ended enough that there could be another sequel. I’d be happy to read more, but I’m also happy with the trilogy as it is. Good entertainment value! If John Twelve Hawks writes anything else, I’ll definitely take a look.

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July 2009 - Dreamers of the Day: A Novel

I just finished Mary Doria Russell's Dreamers of the Day: A Novel. This is a sort of timely travelogue and historical fiction piece about the middle east and western imperialism in the early 1900's.

It starts out pretty slow going. We follow the narrator through a rather dull, dreary childhood. In that sense, it brought to mind Of Human Bondage. The plot picks up when the heroine inherits a fortune and kicks up her heels. Unfortunately, the story does not wander off into Somerset Maugham's transcendentalism, but instead follows the narrator through some rather more mundane experiences.

The book is marginally worth reading. Mary Doria Russell is an accomplished author, no doubt about that, so anything she writes is probably worth reading. But I've never been keen on historical fiction because I'm never sure what's supposed to be real and what's made up (even though this book has a short appendix going into some of that). I didn't like the way the book ended, with some pseudo-mysticism or magical realism, whatever that was. And like I said, the beginning was a bit of a yawner. I found the narrator only mildly interesting - i.e. sympathetic, but kind of boring. I suspect this book was much more fun to research and write than it was to read. Perhaps fans of historical fiction would differ with me.

I see the author has a new book planned which is based on the life of Doc Holliday. I'll definitely take a look at that when it comes out; sounds more interesting to me.

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A review of "Firewall"

Firewall

by Henning Mankell

I picked up Firewall because it was written by a Swedish author, Henning Mankel, and I’d recently enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, also by a Swedish author. Pretty silly reason. Well, there was that, and the fact that my local Barnes & Noble was having a 3-for-2 sale.

I was not disappointed. I enjoy Mankel’s style. He fleshes out his story and characters by adding quick little mundane details that seem to come straight from your own life. Wallander, his police detective, is moody, going from pessimistic one day to upbeat the next, for no particular reason. He becomes paranoid about his colleagues, but later feels amiable towards them. He writes himself a note to do something and leaves it on the floor in front of his door so he won’t forget it in the morning. Etc. These little details make you feel like Wallander is a person, not the cardboard cutout that so often appears in genre fiction.

Aside from that, the mystery in this book, involving financial network security, was intriguing. Although it didn’t contain enough detail to make me perfectly happy, it did keep me eagerly following along to find out more. I was slightly disappointed by the ending. There was a bit of that element where the evil arch-villain trips himself up by making his master stroke far too complicated. However, getting to that ending was entertaining, so all is forgiven.

Plus, it’s kind of fun walking through a world where all the place names remind you of items from an IKEA catalog.

I am succumbing to the idea that the Swedes are just really good fiction authors. Maybe it helps that a book has to be pretty good for it to be worth translating from Swedish into English.

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A review of "Babylon by Bus (Unabridged)"

Babylon by Bus (Unabridged)

by Neumann, Ray, Jeff LeMoine

Babylon by Bus is the autobiographical account of two young American men, Ray Lemoine and Jeff Neumann, who head for Iraq to become NGO workers soon after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, during the “lull” before the major insurgency.

I’ll be brief. My impressions are accurately reflected by the 1-star and 2-star reviews at Amazon.

The narrator (the story is told from the POV of LeMoine) has an almost comically arrogant attitude. He and his friend, both surprisingly jaded for people so young, seem compelled to encourage each other into the most inane, pointless behaviors. If you ever want to understand why people hate Americans, this book gives numerous examples of the stupidity that sometimes makes me embarrassed to be American myself.

The story makes some vague claims about the good that was done by the two authors in organizing aid to war victims under the CPA. I suppose this proves that two fools just might accidentally do something right once in a while.

I give this book two stars because I think it might be educational. In a few instances, their underlying experiences are interesting, from a sort of back-alley perspective. Unfortunately, the whole story reeks of their overweening self-righteousness and “too cool for school” perspective. When they are assaulted by two men who beat them with their shoes, you want to join in and shout along with the attackers “You are stupid men! You are arrogant Americans!”

To get a grittier feel for post-war Iraq, I’d much rather have heard from some of the interesting characters described in the book, such as Marla Ruzicka or A Heather Coyne. I don’t have any good recommendations for alternative information sources, however.

Full disclosure: I opposed the invasion of Iraq, as did the two authors. So my criticisms have nothing to do with their claims of liberalism.

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A story about "Babylon by Bus (Unabridged)"

Babylon by Bus (Unabridged)

by Neumann, Ray, Jeff LeMoine

I picked up the audiobook of Babylon by Bus at the library today. I have a lot of driving to do tomorrow, and I was looking for something interesting to occupy the time.

I got through the first disc today. So far, I’m finding it kind of irritating. Their attitude strikes me as exceptionally cavalier and stupid. This may be aggravated by the sound of the narrator’s voice. I’m still planning to finish it, and I hope it improves.

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A review of "Quantico"

Quantico

by Greg Bear

Bioterrorism has sort of dropped off the radar, it’s been so long since the last anthrax scare. Greg Bear’s Quantico (2005) reminds us that we’re probably in a lull.

This is not exactly science fiction, it’s more speculative fiction focused on bioterror. What the world could be like in a few years, or tomorrow, I’m not sure which. Disturbing, but as a novel I didn’t find it engrossing (although it’s certainly an easy read). The characters were kind of dry and boring – maybe too close to reality for my taste. If I’m going to read about international paramilitary operations, I much prefer reading about Nick Stone.

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A review of "The Genesis Code: A Thriller"

The Genesis Code: A Thriller

by John Case

The Genesis Code is a book in the same vein as Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Both involve the conflict between science and religion, and a huge religious conspiracy.

Difference is, Genesis Code is less “fantastic” and rather more believable (up until the ridiculous twist ending). The focus is not so much on the mystery itself, but more on the action as we follow our hero, a private investigator, in his search for his sister’s murderer. I find this book better written – better character development and style. But being less fantastical, it’s also less gripping.

True, the book has plot holes – how on earth did Lassiter manage to leave a vital document untranslated for so long? And the plot line involving a reclusive celebrity was rather far-fetched. Still, it was entertaining enough that I’d be willing to try something else by John Case.

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A story about "Free to Choose: A Personal Statement"

Free to Choose: A Personal Statement

by Milton Friedman

I’m up to p. 66, where Friedman is bemoaning our “restrictive” government:

We are not free to buy an automobile without seat belts, though, for the time being, we are still free to choose whether or not to buckle up…

...Today you are not free to offer your services as a lawyer, a physician, a dentist, a plumber… without first getting a permit or license from a government official.

rolleyes! This book is both boring and irritating. Will I ever get through it?

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Why I want to consume "Free to Choose: A Personal Statement"

Free to Choose: A Personal Statement

by Milton Friedman

Being a liberal, I don’t expect to enjoy reading Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose.” But I think it’s a good idea to see what the other side has to say. I read the Introduction this morning while at the laundromat, and already found it irritating:

• He starts out quoting Adam Smith, but doesn’t bring up the tragedy of the commons.
• He marvels at the agricultural productivity of the US, and about how the US is “the largest single exporter of food in the world” without considering the eventual penalty we might pay for this overproduction and exactly what was done to get to this state (admittedly the book was written in 1980).
• “The millions of immigrants from all over the world were free to work for themselves, as independent farmers or businessmen, or to work for others, at terms mutually agreed.” Now it sounds like we’re really living on a different planet.

I like his idea that “government’s role is to serve as an umpire to prevent individuals from coercing one another,” but I suspect that we have different ideas of what that means. Anyway, I’ll continue wading through this, with a stiff upper lip.

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Why I gave up consuming "The Experiment"

The Experiment

by John Darnton

Lately, I have been somewhat randomly pulling fiction books from the library shelf for my reading material. I say “somewhat” random because I’m selecting for suspense fiction with a little science fiction/supernatural twist.

John Darnton’s “The Experiment” was the most recent book I picked up. I got about 10 pages into it, when I thought, “hey, haven’t I already seen this as a movie?” I did a little hunting, and it seems that The Island, which was a terrible movie, is not based on “The Experiment”. However, it sounds close enough that I don’t want to read any further. I’m heading back to the library for something else.

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