book worm

1Q84 : Haruki Murakami

2011-11-15T20:35:00.001-08:00

1Q84
By Haruki Murakami

When I think about this book, I have this image stuck in my mind.

It's of a hypothetical sculpture/art piece, where there is a fur hide made of intricate caterpillar fuzz on the outside. And like some caterpillars, it has neon bright yellows, blues and pinks contrasted against a dark felt-like black, where the colors spill out across the fuzz in mesmerizing recursive patterns like those on the most striking butterflies or seashells. On top of that, the fur hide itself curls in on itself and it has its own hills, valleys, reaches and pulls in 3d space.

It's this piece that compels the viewer to examine and get lost in the details: to leisurely trace the intricate swirls of texture, color and presence.

And the artist's process of creation was done like that: by solely focusing on one detail at a time and then moving on to the adjacent detail. There was some minimal stepping back and gathering of local perspective, but it was more focused on the creation of these details as a linear journey forward, not really knowing the global plan.

And when all had been said and done, the details were mostly beautiful and the one-step-at-a-time nature of the creation had led to some novel pathways. However, stepping back to take in the whole piece at once, it just did not quite come together.

The details that worked, to which I am so vaguely and abstractly referring to were:

Murakami's writing style - his word choices, sentence structure and the way words just flow forward.
Murakami's description of mundane details and their interplay with some very far-out conceits
Tone - I suppose it's not surprising that Murakami is a music buff. He has a way of setting up the environment and the mood and rapidly shifting it to a different emotion with ease.
Growth beyond the standard Murakami themes - One of my complaints about Murakami's earlier works was that there were recurring themes between novels. Some of them are a bit indistinguishable in my mind. This breaks through that bubble and explores new ground.

What did not work so well

Repetition - There were some spots where it felt like a tv show / comic recap moment, where he reminded the reviewer of what a character was feeling and why.
The deep connection between the two central characters - it's obviously ambitious to take on both characters perspectives in a true love story, but it seemed to hinge too much on a single point of contact
The delving into the background of the antagonist - actually I'm unsure of whether this worked or not. Certainly, it made you sympathetic to the character in a challenging way, which was intellectually intriguing, but it did not support any additional details that could have added to the connection between the protagonists.

As a note, I ended up reading this in 3 days. When I get a chance, I'll probably end up picking it up again and flipping through.

Flipback book

2011-03-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

A super small type of book that uses the thin bible paper has come out in Holland. Apparently, you can read it one-handed. Certainly interesting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/20/could-this-kill-kindle

It's Kind of a Funny Story : Ned Vizzini

2011-02-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

It's Kind of a Funny Story
By Ned Vizzini

Really liked this one. Introspective, and unlike other books with protagonists who have particular mental issues, this comes across as understanding the true nature of what it is like to be depressed, in particular that curious meta-feeling that one recognizes that they are depressed, but that recognition alone does solve it.

Also enjoyed the apt descriptions of the emotions of being a teenage boy, the sarcasm and the modern culture references.

The Hot Spotters : Atul Gawande

2011-01-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

Gawande writes about a couple of doctors, with an approach to health-care, which may potentially help save the healthcare system a significant portion of money. New Yorker - The Hot Spotters

[via mefi]

Skirmish : Clifford Simak

2011-01-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

Skirmish
By Clifford Simak

I had a rough time getting into the first story, but I really liked the rest of the short stories, which had great writing and a strikingly varied range of tone, characters and subject matter. Just an example of the range is a one-line setup of some of the short stories:

* An very old, out-dated robot, after last generation of the family he has served for 500 years dies out, goes on an adventure
* A man transforms himself into alien creatures to find out why the previous transformed humans have mysteriously disappeared
* A man awakens at the side of the road in the middle of the night clueless as to what he is doing there and slowly figures out the situation
* A superintendent's school results have slowly improved over the last years since two aliens arrived in town.
* A handyman finds that devices are mysteriously being changed and improved inside of his house in ways that he would be incapable of doing.

I really quite enjoyed this one. I found that I really responded to the main characters, who tended to be relatively normal (as opposed to super-intelligent) people who are put into unusual situations. Simak describes both the logic that the protagonist take, in addition to their emotional state, which I appreciate. In addition, it feels like he takes a mind-bender situation and takes it as many levels deep and the resulting consequences as the situation requires, as opposed to other less-talented sci-fi authors who never really get beyond self-appreciation of their clever idea.

Interpreter of Maladies : Jhumpa Lihiri

2010-12-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

Interpreter of Maladies
By Jhumpa Lihiri

I couldn't finish this. After a few stories, it seemed like it was the same tone, the same points and the same tricks in writing that were being deployed.

The perspective always seemed to an outsider one, focusing on the flaws of different characters, whether they be an ugly-American or the flaws of a husband, whatever it was, it had an all-too-familiar university, intellectual type tone to it.

Manazuru : Hiromi Kawakami

2010-11-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

Manazuru
By Hiromi Kawakami
Translated by: Michael Emmerich

Intriguing, slightly mind-bending book. Kei, the female protagonist, is struggling to move on, after her beloved husband mysteriously disappeared years ago.

Kawakami fluidly jumps from describing reality to Kei's memories to a space that is not quite clear whether it's supernatural, Kei going on a crazy what-if scenario or her simply losing her sanity. However, it gets at the nature and emotions of love, especially of the feelings of someone left behind.

Simultaneously, Kawakami also explores the relationships between Kei, her daughter and her mother, who live together and who had distinctly different perspectives on Kei's husband.

An intriguing book, that still is rattling around my head a bit now.

Waiting by Ha Jin

2010-11-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

Waiting
By Ha Jin

The writing initially reminded of writing found in kid's books. I suspect it was this passage in particular:

Beside him, chickens were strutting and geese waddling. A few little chicks were passing back and forth through the narrow gaps in the paling that fenced a small vegetable garden.

But the story quickly moves along and gets into the more substantial plot of a doctor in China, trying to work out a divorce of his wife of 15 years.

That's the short description of the plot, but in reality the doctor is one of the more passive and indecisive characters that one will read about.

He had initially agreed to marry the woman in his home-town, due to a sense of filial obligation. His parents had selected this woman to be his wife and not long afterwards, sequentially fallen sick. The doctor worked a day's trip away from his hometown and had essentially married in order to have someone take care of his parents. Needless to say, his wife is a very obedient and selfless person. Not long after their marriage, they have a daughter.

A few years afterwards, he "falls into" a relationship at the army camp that he works at and after a few cycles of the two trying to deny their relationship, his new girlfriend forces him to get a divorce with his wife.

Year after year, the wife initially accepts the divorce, but at the last minute has a change of heart. As a result, the title refers to the girlfriend waiting on the doctor to get a divorce. In addition, it also refers to the wife waiting on the doctor to potentially returning to his family.

The story is largely written from the perspective of the doctor; but the intent seems to be pointing out the passiveness and selfishness of the man and the accompanying rationalizations that accompany it. Ha Jin does a fine job of exploring and elucidating the psychology behind the character and it's certainly valuable to read about such characters, but at the same time, it can be frustrating to have to read about them, when personalities like that exist in real-life.

Northern Lights by Tim O'Brien

2010-11-14T07:57:00.000-08:00

Northern Lights
By Tim O'Brien

I had read and enjoyed Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried in high school and decided to pick up another of his books.

I also liked this one.

There is a tiny set of main characters: two brothers (Perry and Harvey), Perry's wife and a younger lady that flirts with Paul and dates Harvey.

O'Brien uses frequently has paragraphs with a number of shorter, descriptive sentences:

Perry took a step and stood alone. The Greyhound brakes hissed and forms moved behind the tinted windows and Perry searched for familiar movements. The door opened with another strange hiss, and the great gray cave was transfixing, dust and trembling. Perry peered into the tinted glass.

Sometimes O'Brien puts in odd juxtapositions of sentences to help establish the Perry's middle-aged confusion and dissatisfaction with his life, which was well-done. I also thought O'Brien's exploration of the effects of Perry being the less-favored son and some of the jealousy of his brother to be well-done as well.

Not all was perfect. I was surprised at how long of a section there was after the blizzard event. I was also not a fan of the whole "I've got bile in my stomach" symbolism, which felt tired.

But all in all, a nice psychology study of the characters and decent forward momentum of the plot.

Brasyl : Ian McDonald

2010-11-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Brasyl
by Ian McDonald

Ugh, just tiresome writing. Contained long descriptions of environment and characters that didn't add much value to the story or characters that just made things drag on. Plot that just seemed tired and written to try to impress with knowledge of Brazil.

Pushed through the book hoping it would pick up, but it didn't.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love : Raymond Carver

2010-11-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
By Raymond Carver

A collection of short stories that just rattle around in your brain. A little depressing in that a number address love that has gone wrong: divorces, violence, arguments, etc. But it's quite amazing how Carver can set-up such realistic personalities, problems, settings and tone with so few words.

The Devil's Whisper : Miyuki Miyabe

2010-11-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

The Devil's Whisper
By Miyuki Miyube

Rather enjoyed this one. A mystery plot of unexplained deaths of young women. Not too deep, but well written and entertaining and having a concrete explanations to things, say unlike a typical Murakami ending. (Hopefully without spoiling things, the explanation kind of brought me back to the 90's when I first heard of the subject. Yet, it still had a bit of freshness to it.) Definitely wouldn't mind picking up more of Miyabe's works for an random read.

Strip: Thomas Perry

2010-08-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Strip
By Thomas Perry

Simply written. Not a fan of the ending, which seemed too rushed, too neatly tied off and forced in certain circumstances (the waitress, who had been a woman with a heart of gold, actually having a malicious streak). But certainly an entertaining popcorn book.

City & the City

2010-08-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

The City and the City
By China Mieville

Imagine if you took a city, cleaved it down the center and made two cities, sitting immediately side-by-side. Furthermore, add to it that it would be illegal for the citizens of city A to interact, touch, look, throw stuff at anything in City B and vice versa. If you so much hucked a loogie over that imaginary boundary line, you would be hauled off by some super-power that would be watching this boundary.

That's the basic assumption of this book and it's a large one that if you don't buy into, like I did not, makes the rest of dependent plot-line (a murder that crosses this boundary), somewhat forced.

The whole idea that a city would develop like this; well, I suppose there have been historical examples: Berlin or countries like this: South and North Korea. But part of the problem is that the historical or political why is never really explained and rather hand-waved as part of the mystery of the murder case.

Shrug, I ended up finishing this, but not without struggling to motivate myself to do so.

Children of Men : P.D. James

2010-07-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

Children of Men
P.D. James

(Sorry in advance for the rather disturbing book cover image. Amazon only had that one.)

A bit disappointing. The large driving premise of this book is the what-if scenario of all men inexplicably become infertile, leading to no children being born and human-kind going on its way to a slow extinction.

That is a massive question with huge implications on how society would react to such an event, economically, religiously, scientifically, and it seemed like James bit off more than she could chew with it. Despite a large part of the book dedicated to probing some of these effects, her exploration came across as insufficient and done more to establish an "interesting" and semi-fleshed out set-up for the archetypal thriller story.

Strangely, the protagonists' story was flat and under-developed as well, the characters coming across as one-dimensional, with the romance angle seeming particularly out of the blue.

Shrug, I did not see the film, but I cannot imagine it being that much better if the source material was that not well worked out.

Google How to Save the News

2010-06-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Atlantic has an interesting article on how Google is working to save the news. As interesting as I find some of the quotes and observations made by Google execs and employees, I find Google News simply unusable. I simply cannot focus on anything that looks worthwhile reading. They really need to tap into the old newspaper knowledge on to graphically design a news page.

Kafka on the Shore : Haruki Murakami

2010-04-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

Kafka on the Shore
By Haruki Murakami

I really enjoy reading Murakami books and while I found myself once again addicted to this one and flipping page after page, I did try my best to take a bit of time to analyze this one.

A few observations:

A number of Murakami's characters are introspective, interjecting random comments like the following:

Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in, and walk through it, step by step.

They split hairs about the nature of people:

People soon get tired of things that aren't boring, but not of what is boring. Go figure. For me, I might have the leisure to be bored, but not to grow tired of something. Most people can't distinguish between the two.

Murakami tends to feature passive, cool-headed characters who wait, go with the flow and see how things turn out. Frequently, there's a sense of powerlessness to mysterious, greater forces, which I think is what drives the pace of the book so quickly. It's almost like the show, Lost; you always are hoping the each successive page will clear up what these mysterious forces are.

... the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me. What Ive done up till now, what I'm going to do - the know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under teh shining nigh sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heart's pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and I've never given them more than a passing thought before. Not just stars - how many other things haven't I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about? I suddenly feel helpless, completely powerless. And I know I'll never outrun that awful feeling.

He also adds to this by putting in two separate narrative threads and having them come together at the end, which unlike some of his earlier novels actually comes to a more concrete resolution and which actually was a bit of a disappointment in its tidyness after so much buildup.

One last thing, again in this novel, there is the missing female character, this time a missing mother. I keep on wondering what it is about these female characters gone missing that attracts Murakami so much?

Anyhow, despite the ending, I did enjoy this one. I think I managed to prolong its reading to 2 days, instead of the drop-everything-finish-it-in-one-sitting type deals.

Once a Runner : John L Parker Jr.

2010-04-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

Once a Runner
by John L Parker Jr.

Loved this one.

This is a fictional story, but was written but a guy who got pretty far along in the US track and field system and who run with some of the best runners of the time, so it paints a pretty accurate mental picture of the minds of competitive runners.

Also its depiction of the running team atmosphere was pretty spot-on, reminding me a lot of my high-school cross-country experience. Lastly, it touches upon some of the backward mentality of the south, which while I don't see quite that directly in Atlanta, can understand it better here.

Anyways, I will probably re-read this in the future.

White Teeth : Zadie Smith

2010-03-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

White Teeth
by Zadie Smith

The narrative was a bit meandering and long and the teeth metaphor, somewhat overdone. Wasn't a fan of the ending, where a few of the came together a bit too neatly to be satisfying. That being said, where this excelled was in describing of and in the analysis of personalities, their attachment to religion, beliefs, history and culture and the clashes that occur as a result. I wish I could find the passage, but I distinctly remember a passage that got the mentality of some immigrants spot-on, without getting into the emo self-indulgent writing that I see too much in say oh Asian-American writing/movies all too often. Anyways, somewhat worthwhile read, I'd be curious to read Smith's third novel, On Beauty, to see if some of the problems I saw here have been improved.

The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson

2010-03-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

The Devil in the White City:

Murder, Magic & Madness at the Fair that Changed America
by Erik Larson

Loved this book. A non-fiction that details the planning, involved in the Chicago's World Fair of 1893 and a serial killer that was drawn to the accompanying chaos. It was cool to hear of the influence of the World's Fair, such as the decision to use alternating current electricity, which became the U.S. standard for electricity distribution, or the introduction of Shredded Wheats at the fair or the invention of a famous civil engineering structure just for this fair, which continues to amuse people to this day.

In addition to the details, the narrative for both the planning and execution of the World Fair and that of the serial killer push along quite nicely. For being a non-fiction book, it is amazing how fun and fast a read this is. I just wish there were more accompanying pictures, especially during the parts that they describe the architectural wonders that they built just for the world fair.

Anyways, really enjoyed this one.

Diplomatic Immunity : Lois McMaster Bujold

2010-03-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

Diplomatic Immunity
By Lois McMaster Bujold

A fast read, but somewhat of a popcorn novel. I may be missing the context of the earlier books (this is the last of a series of books focused on the Miles Vorkosigan protagonist).

This quickly becomes a detective story, set in a sci-fi setting, which makes for an interesting, page-turning stuff. But occasionally, there just seemed random notes that are thrown in, as if Bujold had reread a draft, found an inconsistency in her writing and had added phrases to make sure things were consistent. For example, Miles has a high ranking position, that generally requires other characters to address him as "Lord Auditor Vorkosigan." Later in the story, during an intense scene, a character might say something without addressing his formal title and the text might follow up, saying such and such character, forgetting the formalities in the moment. Just these random breaks in flow to cover details.

Also, the ending kind of follows a familiar feel-good ending, the protagonist and protagonist's good friend get seriously harmed, but Miles still manages to figure out the mystery and save the world, type of deal.\

Shrug, I'm guessing I'll forget about this one quickly.

The Good Soldier : Ford Madox Ford

2010-02-26T22:32:00.000-08:00

The Good Soldier
by Ford Madox Ford

Structured like a fireside storytelling, the protagonist explores the personalities, motivations and character of his respected, married, but habitual womanizer of the title's soldier, Edward Ashburnham, Edward's wife, the other women Edward falls in love with, himself and his own wife, who cheats on him with Edward.

It's somewhat darkly amusing that the character talks about the incident with such an unemotional, analytical perspective, like me writing this review about the novel, except he discusses the story of his own wife cheating on him as if he was helpless party to an overall driving narrative that he couldn't control.

(Mulling over Edward, who cheated with his wife). And yet again you have me. If poor Edward was dangerous because of the chastity of his expressions-and they say that that is always the ahll-mark of a libertine-what about myself? For I solemnly avow that not only have I never so much as hinted at an impropriety in my conversation in the whole of my days; and more than that, I will vouch for the cleanness of my thoughts and the absolute chastity of my life. At what, then, does it all work out? Is the whole thing a folly and a mockery? Am I no better than a eunuch or is the proper man-the man with the right to existence-a raging stallion forever neighing after his neighbour's womenkind?
I don't know. And there is nothing to guide us. And if everything is so nebulous about a matter so elementary as the morals of sex, what is there to guide us in the more subtle morality of all other personal contacts, associations, and activities? Or are we meant to act on impulse alone? It is all a darkness.

Interspersed throughout the book were mullings on the nature of relationships and on the characteristics of human nature that rang true, despite this being written in so long ago in 1915:

Upon my word, I couldn't tell you offhand whether the lady who sold the so expensive violets at the bottom of the road that leads to the station was cheating me or no; I can't say whether the port who carried our traps across the station at Leghorn was a thief or no when he said that the regular tariff was a lira a parcel. The instances of honesty that one comes across in this world are just as amazing as the instances of dishonesty. After forty-five years of mixing with one's kind, one ought to have acquired the habit of being able to know something about one's fellow beings. But one doesn't.

Also, I found this to be a random, but humorous line as well.

I chuckle over it from time to time for the whole rest of the day. Because it does look very funny, you know, to see a black and white cow land on its back in the middle of the stream, It is so just exactly what one doesn't expect of a cow.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that it was refreshing reading an "older" fiction novel that had a distinctive American perspective, after being forced to read so many British historical novels in high school (ugh Thomas Hardy.) The references to American history and some of the cultural differences between the U.S. and Britain always came as a surprise for some reason.

Anyhow, perhaps the older writing style takes some getting used to, but the overall story and the philosophizing on human nature can provoke one to think on one's own personality and relationships.

Anders Loves Maria

2010-02-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

Just came across Anders Loves Maria, a web-comic, which just came to a conclusion and I read through the entire thing last night. It's a NSFW strip about relationships and is more complex emotionally than some other web comics that I've read before.
[Via Mefi - be wary of link to spoiler there]

Never Let Me Go : Kazuo Ishiguro

2010-01-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

I've never read Ishiguro's apparent classic The Remains of the Day and the local library didn't have that, but they did have one of his later novels, Never Let Me Go, so I sprung for that instead.

And I found it to be quite engrossing and ended up finishing it the day after I started reading it. There's actually a review quote on the back by the NYTimes book Review, which states "[Ishiguro is] Not only a good writer but a wonderful novelist," which I think sums up nicely a couple of good points of this work.

First, the writing is well-done. For example, the first section of the novel focused on the middle-school/high-school life of the protagonist and narrator, Kathy and other main characters. And I found that the worries, ideas and dialogue of these characters in this section particularly reminded of female friends/classmates from my own middle-school/high-school life, in that he seemed to get the perspective of not only kids of that age right, but also particularly a female perspective.

I must admit that I initially found this scoped perspective to be a bit over-simplistic and worried whether whether this was a novel geared more for young adults, but as things progressed, the significance of the simple joys and dramas really shine through. It isn't a simple glossed-over idealistic vision of that period in one's life.

I will note that Ishiguro has a trick that he uses throughout the novel. It is narrated in hind-site by the protagonist, Kathy, and numerous times, he describes an event, then makes a leading statement to the significance of the event in the next chapter. For example:

We started to walk back towards the main house then and I waited for her to explain what she meant, but she didn't. I found out though over the next several days.

For one, it propelled the story forward, perhaps explaining why I breezed through the book. But relating to more the "wonderful novelist" portion of the earlier quote, it allows Ishiguro to gradually crescendo the feel that a much larger and menacing context surrounds the initial facts being presented and constantly has the feel that a some sort of science/societal ethics question is about to be revealed.

The latter sections describe the characters developing beyond their school years and that initial time spent describing the joys, events, and relationships of the characters during their school gives weight and emotional impact to latter events and the end-reveal.

The only qualm I had and I am trying not to spoil the story, was that the ethical quandary in question seemed like a bit of a strawman situation. Perhaps the best parallel to describe this would be certain Hollywood movies show a small, individual business-owner with heart and humanity, struggling against unshown, but absolutely heartless employees of a mega-corporation. Well, I hate to break it to you, but every company is run by people with their own idiosyncrasies and human concerns. There doesn't really exist a company with simplistic, evil motives.

In any case, the minor qualm aside, it was quite an enjoyable novel and I can picture myself reading another Ishiguro's novels in the future.

JD Salinger's unpublished short stories

2009-11-29T17:04:00.000-08:00

Making my way through some of JD Salinger Unpublished Short Stories.

2009-10-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Tin Drum

by Gunter Grass

I rather enjoyed this one. The writing (and I suppose the translation work) was very engaging and was more or less broken up into chronological episodes. The characters were many, yet memorable, starting with the narrator and main character, Oskar, who purports to have purposefully stopped himself from growing anymore at the age of three, has a talent for drumming and has the ability to scream and accurately break any glass in his eye-sight at his choosing.

If Oskar's character sounds a bit unorthodox, that's just the beginning, there's a rather surrealistic/humorous/dark skew to all of the stories and characters. But not so much in the cartoony, overly done way that I think is so common to a lot of modern tv shows now. It's just well much more subtle than that.

There's a musicality to the writing in a lot of places and I suspect that it must have been even more so in the original German version. In the forward, they mention that Grass originally was planning for this to be a tone poem and I think a lot of that still comes through:

In blowing, my grandmother closed her eyes. When she thought she had blown enough, she opened first one eye, then the other, bit into the potato with her widely spaced but otherwise perfect front teeth, removed half the potato, cradled the other half, mealy steaming, and still too hot to chew, in her open mouth, and, sniffing at the smoke and the October air, gazed wide-eyed across the field towards the nearby horizon, sectioned by telegraph poles and the upper third of the brickworks chimney.

Intriguingly, there are frequent change-ups in writing styles throughout. For example, there are occasional shifts in the narrator, such as shifting from Oskar's perspective to that of Oksar's mental hospital nurse. There are also varied usages of rhythm and tone. The chapter, "Faith, Hope, Love," in particular sticks out for its use of repetition to underscore the emotions of the burial of Oskar's friend Herbert, who was killed in a supernatural fashion by a beautiful but evil wooden female ship's figurehead.

I think also that Oskar the narrator can also be an untrustworthy one. He claims his genius, yet throughout the stories, he's in a mental hospital, because he convinced a friend to turn him in for the murder of a nurse whom he had a crush on, but the act of which he did not commit. His actions also are sometimes inane. For example, for some time he lived across the hall from the nurse mentioned above. One night, he woke up in the middle of the night and instead of properly dressing himself, grabbed a piece of rough carpet to surround himself with. He managed to startle the nurse while she is in the communal bathroom, and instead of apologizing and clarifying himself, he instead convinces her in her fright that he is Satan and proceeds to sexually pleasure her with the rough carpet.

It's just a very striking novel in many respects.

Of course, one must mention that it is set in a city on the German-Polish border during the Nazi era. I mention this last, since these references were the ones that I had the least understanding of and I'm guessing having a basic grasp of the political and historical events of these times would have helped clarify why this book was such a bomb-shell of a book for Germans when it was published.

In any case, even without understanding the historical context of the story, it's still a strikingly interesting book to read. I just wish I could more fully understand the history to get the full impact of it.

Old Filth : Jane Gardam

2009-09-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Old Filth
by Jane Gardam

Wasn't really a fan of this. It's a fictional life story of a judge which contrasts with the professional, dry image with which those who know him less well associate him.

The story is told non-linearly, starting with him as an old man and jumping rather disjointedly back and forth to earlier times in his life.

I thought some of the writing was rather clumsy. An excerpt from the first page:

The Queen's Remembrancer: I suppose we all know who that was?
Junior judge: I've no idea.
Senior judge: It seemed to be a famous face.
The Common Sergeant: It was Old Filth.
JJ: What? But he must have died years ago. Contemporary of F. E. Smith.
CS: No It was Old Filth. Great advocate, judge and-bit of a wit. Said to have invented FILTH-Failed In London Try Hong Kong. He tried Hong Kong. Modest, nice chap.

I will say that some of the random anecdotes that are supposed to elucidate Filth's life-story and personality are moderately interesting, mainly because the whole historical British angle was new to me.

But overall, there just wasn't much direction to the book. The end-reveal came too late to have much of an impact. And if this was a character study, there wasn't much depth on the characters either. I didn't quite understand Old Filth very much, nor have much interest in him at the very end.

Dream Chaser - Al Joyner & Flo Jo

2009-08-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

ESPN has a story on Al Joyner and Flo-Jo. I always love reading about Olympians in general, but throw in a love story, and it's even more interesting.

He had first laid eyes on that woman in 1980, at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore. He can still remember the time (7 p.m.), the place (a sign-in table), their ages (both 20) and her face (gorgeous). She looked so elegant, he assumed she was a trainer. He was wrong.

He asked for her name, and she told him, "Florence."

[via mefi]

The Forgotten Astronaut of Apollo 11

2009-08-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Guardian has an article on Michael Collins, the third astronaut on the Apollo 11, along with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

Minutes later, Columbia swept behind the Moon and Collins became Earth's most distant solo traveller, separated from the rest of humanity by 250,000 miles of space and by the bulk of the Moon, which blocked all radio transmissions to and from mission control. He was out of sight and out of contact with his home planet.

"I am now truly alone and absolutely alone from any known life. I am it," he wrote in his capsule. Lindbergh's remarks were certainly accurate.

[via Mefi]

Short story of Toshie Une, Hiroshima Survivor

2009-08-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Toshie Une, Hiroshima survivor, age 90, has been offering drinking water at the memorials of the A-bomb victims. Read the short story here. Also, here's an interview with her:

[via JapanProbe]

Philly Library Podcasts

2009-08-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Just stumbled upon the Phili Free Library's Podcasts, which are recordings of their author lectures.

NYTimes: Watching Whales Watching Us

2009-07-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

A pretty lengthy, but interesting article about whales and their potential intelligence and possible "trust" for us. NYtimes' Watching Whales Watching Us

SR-71 Blackbird

2009-06-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

The SR-71 Blackbird was the Ultimate Spy Plane, capable of hurtling along at more than Mach 3, about 2,280 miles per hour—faster than a rifle bullet—at 85,000 feet, or 16 miles above the earth...

On March 6, 1990, as it made its final flight, the Smithsonian plane set another record—Los Angeles to Dulles International Airport, outside Washington, D.C., in 1 hour 4 minutes 20 seconds (barely time for a snack and a snooze).

The story of how an evaluation SR-71 plane literally disintegrated in mid-air was kind of cool too.

[via kottke]

Gain endurance in 6 min per week?

2009-06-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

To be able to get fit within a incredibly short amount of time. Well, that sounds like a cheap infomercial. But some research on rats and humans on stationary bikes as reported by the NYTimes says this might be the case. Whether or not this is widely applicable for every person and for all sports, it's still unclear.

Reporters escape from Taliban camp

2009-06-22T07:10:00.001-07:00

A short write-up of how a couple of kidnapped reporters escape from a Taliban camp. Love the jokey quote "The food was good."

Sophie's Choice by William Styron

2009-05-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sophie's Choice
By William Styron

I've never read any William Styron novels, nor did I hear very much about this book before picking it up. I was therefore pretty surprised to find that the narrator of this novel, Stingo, speaks fairly openly about sex, which I thought lent this book a pretty modern tone. Styron layers in different topics piece-meal by slowly revealing more about the two other main characters in the book: the Polish beauty who survived the Holocaust, Sophie and her sometimes charming, sometimes violently angry boyfriend, Nathan. Most of the novel focuses on the gray area of evil of the Holocaust, but it also touches upon the history/mentality of the Southern region of the US, where Stingo grew up and some commonalities between the two with respect to the South's role in slavery and racism.

Since I haven't had much background in either of these topics, it was interesting to read and think about these themes. I will also say that I enjoyed the writing style.

The one thing I was disappointed by was the end-reveal, which wasn't quite as powerful as I thought it should have been, particularly well it describes why the book is named as such. Largely, this let-down has to do with the fact that Stingo is the main character and it's through his eyes that you learn about Sophie, which helps provide perspective on what she goes through, but lessens the emotional impact.

Anyways, thought this was a solid read, but probably wouldn't be on the top of my head to recommend to others.

The Jasons : The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite by Ann Finkbeiner

2009-05-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite
By Ann Finkbeiner

This started off pretty intriguingly hearing about a secret scientific group and their involvement in government projects like the Manhattan. It then follows the group and its development chronologically and seems to get sidetracked into various mundane details, where the stories are not really that interesting nor contributory to a larger picture insight. Shrug, I never finished this one.

2009-03-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

Moneyball
By Michael Lewis

I really enjoyed reading this one. I'm admittedly only a half-hearted sports fan, watching baseball games if other fanatics like my brother or my Dad are watching.

But this book isn't really a sports book per se. It concentrates more on how a team, the Oakland A's, more systematically evaluates a baseball player's performance through statistics and has succeeded despite its limited budget, by acquiring heavily undervalued players. While statistics can be a scary term, things are very well explained and reasoned such that I think most readers would be able to follow the logic.

The book also gets into why baseball teams, despite being businesses at heart, have resisted taking on a strategy that could potentially make their teams better and as a result, might make them more money.

I think there are a couple of things that attract me to this book. One, there's an aspect of the underdog, who plays the game smarter, but who is initially dismissed for being different, which underlies all of the people involved. Secondly, hearing about the development of sabermetrics is exciting in a scientific discovery type of way. One of my engineering friends once said to me that it's kind of no fun that you can no longer walk around and think all day like the Greeks and Romans did and come up with a major breakthrough. Hearing about sabermetrics kind of feels like the major breakthrough that could have been developed by just thinking about a subject. And from a more scientific perspective, that's pretty exciting.

Better : Atul Gawande

2009-03-06T05:59:00.001-08:00

Better
By Atul Gawande

Loved this. Dr. Atul Gawande observes and researches what makes for a great doctor in varying contexts, such as during wars, in 3rd world countries and up against difficult-to-treat diseases. Since a doctor's performance affects everyone, it makes the stories relevant to almost everyone, yet simultaneously gives perspective into the career and moral challenges of a doctor.

Gawande's writing is crisp and lucid, explaining the technical terms and their relevance simply. All in all, this was an enjoyable read, which seems like it would be applicable to performance in other careers.

At 44 Carpenter is again the King of High-Altitude Running

2009-02-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to gather that I really like reading about athletes and their amazing natural traits. (Perhaps it's comes from reading comic books as a kid). There's a NYTimes article on Matt Carpenter, an apparently naturally gifted phenom in high-altitude running:

At 44, Carpenter is known as the grand paladin of high-altitude distance running...

...In part, Carpenter has owed his prowess to his physiology. His resting heart rate has been measured at 33 beats a minute, lower than those of Michael Phelps and many astronauts. In a test at the United States Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Carpenter’s VO2 max, a gauge of the body’s ability to process oxygen, registered at 90.2, perhaps a record high for a runner. (Only Bjorn Daehlie, a Norwegian cross-country skier, has scored higher. Lance Armstrong recorded an 81.)

NYTimes: At 44, A Running Career Again in Ascent

What's Wrong with Summer Stiers?

2009-02-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

NYTimes has a fascinating article on a program at the National Institute of Health called the Unidiagnosed Diseases Program. As their name implies, they take on patients with the most mysterious set of symptoms that have just eluded a simple diagnosis. (A simple way of looking at it is: the TV show House, except with real life consequences and minus the nice tidy diagnoses at the end.)

The Undiagnosed Diseases Program was designed to move past that halting first step — the inevitable result of the organ-by-organ orientation of most medical specialties — to achieve a more coherent view...
...This is especially important in someone like Stiers, whose doctor back home described what happened to her as a “cascading collapse of systems.” Over the past 20 years, her health declined bit by bit, unpredictably, from her head to her toes: one eye removed, retinal bleeding in the other one, cavernous hemangiomas in her brain, kidney failure, intestinal bleeding, osteoporosis, bone-tissue death in both legs.

It's certainly an interesting, if not slightly discomforting read: What's Wrong with Summer Stiers

Toradora! by Yuyuko Takemiya

2009-02-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I've been watching the Toradora romantic comedy anime series [Japanese] for some time. (If you want to watch, it's on various video sites. Just Google it)

However, I've started to read the original Toradora light novel, translated into English here and I've found it to be surprisingly enjoyable. Humorous, personable and descriptive, it surprisingly plays out semi-realistically. It's certainly a lot less cartoony well then the anime version. Here's a quote to give you a taste.

The Palmtop Tiger had an amazing name called Aisaka Taiga. Her height was 145 cm. Aisaka Taiga and Kushieda Minori were what you would call good friends. From the various whispers Ryuuji had heard, it was rumored her father worked as a fixer in the underworld. There was another story that her father was actually a karate master ruling the underworld in America. And then there was yet another that said she herself was a karate expert, but was expelled from her dojo for attacking her master.

Back when she first entered this school, a lot of people were fooled by her beauty, and many guys lined up to confess to her. Of course their dreams were all ruthlessly shattered as they were intimidated, bitten, torn to shreds... There were quite a few that never did recover after they were mercilessly belittled by her. Wherever Aisaka went, her path was drenched with the blood of countless corpses of male students.

That is all. I've yet to finish, so this isn't a full review, but just wanted to give a heads up.

The Successor by Ismail Kadare

2009-02-04T23:59:00.000-08:00

The Successor
by Ismail Kadare

I did not like this very much. The parts about intelligence agents being downright lost about analyzing Albania downright irked me for its utter lack of logic. The names of characters, "the Architect" literally representing an architect character made me want to bang my head into a wall. And the vague language just seemed like a 5 year old boy's attempt at making a story sound more mysterious than it actually was. Ugh, what a waste of time.

The House at Pooh's Corner : A.A. Milne

2009-01-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

House at Pooh Corner
By A.A. Milne, Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
(Facsimile Edition, Deluxe Edition)

Definitely a wonderful read, both for kids if you have them and for adults alike. And if you're reading aloud, it's fun to try to come up with the voices for the different characters. (Although my eeyore voice inexplicably came out with a southern accent)

I must say that after reading the original material and then watching a clip of the Disney Winnie the Pooh cartoon, I'm massively disappointed at the adaptation of the original to tv. One of the best aspects of the original source are Pooh's spontaneous poems. They're simple, yet absolutely charming and in general made me regret my general lack of knowledge of poetry.

The other aspect that I found rather interesting was that all of the characters have a distinctively unlikeable trait, including Pooh himself. All of them, bar none. And this is what actually makes them somewhat realistic personalities. I was actually reminded me of the TV show, the Office, where it is the personality flaws, that give the character their realism. Of course, unlike in the Office, Milne's point is not to skewer his characters and gives some, but not all, characters redeeming traits, like Pooh's poetry for example. However, I will say (and perhaps its my growing up in a time which prioritizes political correctness) that I was struck by some of Eeyore's, Owl's and Rabbit's insults. They straight-up said that others were stupid (which was not without merit).

I will mention one last thing. I rather liked the edition that I got from the library. It was the Facsimile Edition, where the text and illustration are a direct facsimile of the first edition, published in 1928. In addition, the bindings and blockings were recreated in the style of the first edition. Altogether, the book has a classic and elegant look to it, from cover to cover. I've provided some photos below:

All in all, this was a delightful book, which once I find myself in a more established time in life, I will probably purchase a copy for myself (and family).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : Robert Pirsig

2009-01-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
By Robert Pirsig

I could not finish this. The half-baked pseudo philosophical reasoning completely turned me off.

Agent Zigzag : Ben Macintyre

2009-01-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal (Paperback
by Ben Macintyre

I really rather enjoyed this one. It describes the true story of a double-agent during World War I, Eddie Chapman, who began his career as a fairly successful thief and consummate liar.

At times, it's hard to believe that this isn't a fictional spy story, which is both praise and criticism of Macintyre. Certainly Macintyre's appreciation of Eddie's character helps make this book a fast read; however, it can at times be hard to shake the feeling that Macintyre got caught up in the Chapman's movie-like story.

That being said, it does sound like Chapman was a difficult personality to understand even for those around him in his time, so I will give Macintyre a good deal of credit.

I should say that it certainly helped that the book had pictures of Eddie Chapman, his handlers and other relevant historical photos, as well as other details, such as how the secret code systems worked, which really brought home the fact that this guy actually did some of the feats that we only see in movies these days.

Which gets to me to another point. I am more than a little bit surprised that Chapman's story has not been adopted by Hollywood yet. The book mentions that Terrence Young, the director of the very first James Bond movie, had met Edie Chapman and may have been influenced by him in his directing. However, the James Bond character is quite different than that of Chapman and because it actually happened, Chapman's story still rings quite remarkable.

Anyways, I wholly recommend giving this a read. In the very least, it should provide some better appreciation for the military and some of the things they have to think about in a war.

Cathedral : Raymond Carver

2008-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Cathedral
Raymond Carver

I had read somewhere on the web that Raymond Carver is apparently one of Haruki Murakami's favorite authors, so much so that the title of Murakami's book/memoir What I talk about when I talk about running, was inspired by Raymond Carver's book title What We Talk About When We Talk about Love. I'm always curious to see who influences my favorite "artist's family trees," so I decided to check out Carver's Cathedral, a collection of his short stories.

While on the most part, the short stories were mostly about disappointments and were kind of depressing, I rather enjoyed them. These short stories describe everyday men and women and the issues they face, such as a father's feelings before a reunion with an estranged son or a woman's perspective on her husband after he has been laid off. Carver sticks to a very realism-based tone, only describing what's going on in the scene and what the protagonist is thinking, unlike Murakami, who frequently departs into the abstract and surreal. It's never overtly stated, but these stories focus on American characters.

It was interesting reading one story after another, as each story has such a distinct situation and accompanying set of feelings. On some level, it seemed like Carver understood the different levers of disappointment, sadness, and embarassment and was methodically going through situations that covered each distinct permutation.

These feelings aren't ones that I think about on a daily occurrence either. Rather, these are thoughts and feelings that fade into your subconsciousness and I think subtly shape your personality and outlook on life.

Anyways, I recommend this little book of short stories.

Million Little Pieces : James Frey

2008-12-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

Million Little Pieces
James Frey

This memoir got a bit of negative publicity a few years ago, after The Smoking Gun uncovered some falsehoods about events in the book and Oprah denouncing Frey, after she had selected the book for her book club. (Wikipedia has the whole story)

My first reaction after finishing this memoir was that it read like fiction or at least a guy's sugared-up version of his life. All of the characters just came across as 1-dimensional movie characters, each with their differing motivations. The whole time I was thinking that it was blend of a more-mature version of Catcher in the Rye (the whole smart protagonist-angry-at-the-world thing) and the movie version of Girl, Interrupted (glossification of mental issues).

And umm, maybe I've the advantage of perspective, but I don't get the outrage. Seriously, this dude was in rehab for some hard-core drugs and alcohol abuse. Do you really expect him to have the discipline for memoir truth?

So I read this with the perspective that it was fiction. And I would say that I might recommend this to say college age readers, folks who have matured beyond Catcher in the Rye and who would benefit from reading a sugar-coated storyline of how badly drugs can mess you up. But for me, I just didn't get very much out of it. I enjoyed certain parts - his interactions with his parents, his descriptions of his pain (cringe-inducing in parts) and his love story. But in the end, it just felt like a somewhat generic movie that I'll forget about soon afterward.

What I talk about when I talk about Running : Haruki Murakami

2008-11-29T21:10:00.000-08:00

What I talk about when I talk about Running
Haruki Murakami

This is a non-fiction book by Haruki Murakami, describing his lengthy experience with long-distance running (having run almost 1 marathon a year for 25 years) and its effect on his writing. I will be the first to admit that I'm a prime "target reader" for this novel. I'm a big Murakami fan, have lived in Cambridge, MA (where Murakami also lived and talks about in the book) and am a runner to boot, so I found this memoir to be quite interesting on several levels.

A few thoughts:
1) I really liked some of Murakami's insights on running. In particular, he thought that unlike athletes of other sports, a lot of non-elite runners aren't driven by competition with others, but rather are self-competitive. They are most happy when they accomplish the goals that they set for themselves and are driven by self-improvement. This is a spot-on description for me and particularly for my running.

2) Murakami hints at his aging and particularly on its negative effect on his recent marathon performance. For those already familiar with Murakami's other works, his narration here doesn't differ too much from some of his main characters in his fictional works. Like how his characters seem to be very okay with going with the flow in some very odd situations and interacting with odd characters, Murakami comes across as pretty accepting (or perhaps resigned) to his aging.

3) Murakami mentions that he's comfortable with having a difficult and generally "unliked" personality as a writer. This strikes me as particularly strange as he seems like he'd be a generally well-liked person in real life...

Anyways, I suspect for existing Murakami fans, it shouldn't take too much convincing to check out this book. You definitely get some insight into Murakami as an author and I must say that the things he says aren' too far off than what you'd imagine.

But for newbies to Murakami, I would still recommend some of his fictional works, such as Wind Up Bird Chroncile or his short stories floating around the web.

NYTimes 100 Notable Books of 2008

2008-11-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

Update Here is NYTimes Top 10 books of 2008.

NYTimes's 100 Notable Books of 2008

Just plowed through a couple of books on my Thanksgiving break. Will post thoughts on them soon.

Diving Pool - Yoko Ogawa

2008-09-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Diving Pool
by Yoko Ogawa

These stories are still rattling around in my head.

A few notes. Perhaps it's just the short story format, but it seemed like Ogawa has a very compact way of writing, such that if you read a sentence too quickly, it's very possible that you'll miss the whole point of a paragraph or a page.

Secondly, her characters are simultaneously normal and sadistic in a way that makes you rethink which average jane (the characters are female) who you thought were normal might in fact have some not-so-comfortable thoughts bouncing around in her head.

Definitely recommend a read. I'd be interested to see what her full-length novels are like.

[Found via Mefi]

China: Humiliation & The Olympics

2008-08-07T14:32:00.001-07:00

Interesting (although perhaps an overly simplified) article on why the China government reacts the way it does: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21715

NYTimes Out There (Michael Phelps)

2008-08-07T10:36:00.001-07:00

Reading articles on Olympic athletes is always fascinating, but at times it feels like I'm reading a mix of erotica and superhero comic books adapted for sports. Here's the NYTimes article on US swimming phenom, Michael Phelps:

Phelps had other attributes, too, that would help him develop into the rare amphibious creature he would become. His joints were unusually flexible. Lying on his back, he could stretch his legs and point his toes far enough so that they would brush the ground. His shoulders had a similarly outsize range of motion, giving him the potential for great power and fluidity in his strokes. Even his spine proved particularly amenable to balancing in, and slithering through, water. “Michael,” Bowman says, “had everything.”

The full article.

NYTimes The Trolls Among Us

2008-08-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

NYTimes article, Trolls Among Us interviews the uber trolls of the internet. Why do these personalities remind me of A Clockwork Orange?

Haruki Murakami's What I Talk about When I talk about Running

2008-07-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

This looks intriguing. A book about running (something I have been off-and-on doing for more than 10 years now) by Murakami, an author I find hopelessly addicting.

More from Kottke.org

Spain grants rights to great apes

2008-07-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

NYTimes writes about Spain's decision to grant some rights to the great apes.

If the bill passes — the news agency Reuters predicts it will — it would become illegal in Spain to kill apes except in self-defense. Torture, including in medical experiments, and arbitrary imprisonment, including for circuses or films, would be forbidden.

I've always thought the ethical issue of how we treat other animals to be a fascinating one. Here's the full article:
When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans.

The Itch

2008-06-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

A fascinating New Yorker article describing a lady, whose itch was so terrible that she scratched a hole through her skull. The article gets at medical issues that we don't have a clear picture of, such as itching and phantom limbs and in this respect, some of the examples they give are rather perturbing.

Wind Up Bird Chronicle : Haruki Murakami

2008-04-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Wind up Bird Chronicle
Haruki Murakami

I think this is my favorite Murakami book so far. There's a maturity and depth to this book that is not in his other books that I've read so far. You've still got Murakami's usual crisp and hopelessly addictive writing style. And there's a number of classic recurring Murakami themes: music and pop culture references, a female character disappearing and bizarre/surreal/semi-mystical powers at play. But here, he's able to sink his teeth into more powerful subjects, like issues affecting marriage as well as the Japanese involvement in World War II. (How many novelists can say that they pair those two subjects together in a novel?)

As a result of this more expansive nature, a number of secondary characters get more coverage than his other novels. This is not to say that there are multiple main characters. Murakami's books usually have one strongly defined protagonist, which he seems to return to again and again (in fact, in my mind, all of his books have the same main character) and all of the secondary characters really are thrown in to guide the protagonist through his odyssey. However, in this novel, Murakami can more leisurely go into some stories of these secondary characters, such as a military character's secret mission experience.

Finally, unlike a number of Murakami's other novels, which end rather obtusely, this novel felt like it had a specific and realistic closure.

I must say that it's been a bit eye-opening reading a Murakami novel after so long. I don't think Murakami is exactly weighty serious literature that changes your perspective on life. But it is writing that is well done and is consistently interesting. I look forward to the next time I get some time to read another Murakami.

The Enigma of Amigara Fault

2008-02-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Enigma of Amigara Fault is a rather creepy story by Junji Ito about mysterious human-shaped holes that perfectly match a person's shape. Really interesting read...

[via Mefi post]

What is the What

2008-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng
By Dave Eggers

I really liked this. I think as an American, it can be hard to learn more about other cultures and countries. Much of the world news doesn't register more than a blip in the daily (television) news here, and many regions of the world don't even get that coverage.

As a result, Africa has always remained a enigmatic continent, with my exposure to it being limited to the "help the starving Africans" commercials, the Nigerian 419 email scams, and a jumble of "third-world" keywords like starvation, widespread AIDs and lack of access to clean water.

What is the What does a phenomenal job at giving an ignorant reader (like me) a keen understanding of 1) what someone from Sudan had to go through to survive physically, emotionally and spritually and 2) some of the global political reasons for why things are the state they are in Sudan. What is the What is essentially an autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a Lost-Boy survivor from Sudan, with Dave Eggers just lending his knowledge of the English language to tell (and promote) the story.

Some issues in the book are simply quite unsettling. It's one thing to think about foreign policies in the abstract from a comfy chair, but yet another to hear how it affects Achak's and others lives. How it can split up families, kill best friends and lovers, etc.

It's also quite uncomfortable thinking about how in moving from Sudan (later Kenya) to the US, Achak no longer has to constantly worry about war, diseases, starvation, but still has to deal with a system and a culture that is insiduously emotionally difficult and inequitable. That the culure of my country can be so harsh on immigrants was very thought-provoking.

I highly recommend this book.

Midnight's Children

2007-10-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie

It's been too long since I've last read any fiction books. I've started to dig into this novel and have found it to be quite amusing so far:

...while the Muslim League rejoiced, secretly of course, at the fall of its opponent, my grandfather could be found (my nose finds him) seated every morning on what he called his 'thunderbox', tears standing in his eyes. But theses are not tears of grief; Aadam Aziz has simply paid the price of being Indianized, and suffers terribly from constipation. Balefully, he eyes the enema contraption hanging on the toilet wall.

This is utterly ridiculous. More to come later, don't have much time these days, so I'm slowly making my way through this one.

NYTimes Top 10 & 100 Notable book lists of 2006

2006-11-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

<edit>

NYTimes Top 10 books for 2006

NYTimes Notable 100 books of 2006 list

I've yet to read any of the books listed, so don't quite have a grasp on whether or not I agree with the list. But this will undoubtedly be a good source for books to check out.

Crime and Punishment

2006-11-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

Crime and Punishment
By Fyodor Dostoevsky

In summary, I rather enjoyed this classic.

(Updating this a year later...)
I noticed it touched upon a number of more abstract individual and society issues that Rand grappled with in Fountainhead, specifically pertainining to super-talented people. (i.e. if you think of people on a bell-curve for talent, those to the far right). What are the responsibilities of these individuals to society and what can they get away, if anything?

An aside, I wonder if these type of issues were just something the Russians liked to think about during that period?

One of the interesting things I found was that there was an overall sense of progression towards ... I guess enlightenment would be the best word. This occurs both for the protagonist and the reader. To clarify, the novel begins as a jumble of mixed irrational emotions, during which the protagonist commits his crime. Afterwards, the protagoniosts expectedly goes through various emotional states and then the interesting part occurs. As time passes by and the protagonist still has not been caught, he begins to really internalize what has happened and figure out what he should do. And this was what I really liked about the book - an intelligent main character, working out his responsibilities for his crime.

The reader gets a broader vision of what's going on, getting a chance to see friends' and the detective's perspective on the story, all of whom are intelligent as well.

I think it's pretty difficult to communicate abstract concepts without sounding foolish, but it's done with a great deal of grace in this one.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

2006-11-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Perhaps if I had more time on my hands, I might have finished reading this. It's well written, especially when you consider the complexity of some of the topics. But as I feel strapped for time these days and felt as I already had been introduced to many of the concepts, finishing reading the book didn't seem worth it.

I mention it here as a recommendation for those who might be interested in logic and mind-binding stuff, but haven't yet had the education in it.

Dooce

2006-08-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

While I'm on the subject of non-book reading material, I thought I would mention my favorite blog: Dooce. I've been reading her blog for probably a year and a half and it's been consistently entertaining, humorous and touching. Yeah, blogs are certainly a different beast than books, with their own pros & cons, but I think Dooce is a damn fine example of a blog well done.

Watching Beirut Die

2006-07-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

Watching Beirut Die
Anthony Bourdain

Not a book, but an interesting read nonetheless. An article by Anthony Bourdain on being caught in Beirut as it was being bombed. I must admit to being terribly stereotypically American in being rather ignorant about world news, so it's interesting getting a more personalized view on something I would otherwise have had zero contact with.

(As a side-note, I'm a passive fan of Anthony Bourdain. I really enjoyed reading Kitchen Confidential and when I actually watch television, his show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel Network is cool to catch.)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

2006-07-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey

Ironically, I am being more effective and efficient with my time by choosing to discontinue reading this book than to finish it. I got a little past the first chapter.

Metafilter recommended books

2006-07-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/42616

The Master of Go

2006-07-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

The Master of Go
by Yasunari Kawabata

I really liked this one. It 1) was well-written 2) gave me a deeper respect and understanding of the game Go, and 3) followed the entertaining upstart versus master storyline, sometimes found in sports, albeit at a more peaceful and conscientious pace. Kawabata starts off by jumping around in time, but once the Go game starts, follows the moves of the (multi-month) game in chronological order and even shows diagrams of the board so you can follow the game. I'm unfamiliar with even the most basic of strategies of Go, so some of the moves described and some of the Go terms were slightly lost on me (despite the book even having a glossary). But in the end, this was a rather enjoyable, relaxing and mentally stimulating read.

The Sound of Waves

2006-07-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Sound of Waves
By Yukio Mishima

A simple love story that is a quick and entertaining read. This was slightly reminiscent of Old Man and the Sea in its simplicity and its setting, but it was not quite as masterfully put together.

My only complaint was very minor. Some of the narrator's meta comments regarding the main character's inexperience with women seemed a little awkward (perhaps this was due to translation?)

But all in all, this was definitely a good read, one of those books that those of almost any age can pick up and enjoy.

A Long Stay in a Distant Land

2006-06-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

A Long Stay in a Distant Land
by Chieh Chieng

A Long Stay in a Distant Land is written interestingly enough to be engaging and I'd categorize it as yet another airplane reading book. I think there are a couple of details that set this slightly apart from some other books, one of which is a personal reason and the other, I think is more generally applicable.

The personal detail that I found particularly interesting was that the main character is Cantonese-Chinese American, which I've never really encountered before. Now granted, I haven't been looking particularly for such an author, but I must say that it was refreshing to read phrases in Cantonese and realize, hey I get that, instead of having to do a cultural empathy translation so to speak.

The other more generally applicable, but still subtle pro about this book was how the generations of family were portrayed. A lot of books and movies, which involve multi-generation family subjects, tend to rely on the same tired stereotypes - the grandparent generation tend to be played really sappily, the youngest generation really cut-throat, and the parents generation caught somewhere in the middle. And while there were issues that I kind of rolled my eyes at, once in a while, certain scenes were be subtly well-done. For example, when one of the characters walks into the bathroom to catch his parents starting to make love in the bathtub, that was a nice detail.

Anyways, to sum it up, decently done, but nothing all that unique.

(PS. My step-grandmother's cooking is out of this world and my parent's cooking is pretty good. All in all, when I'm with my family or extended family, I tend to expect to eat well. To hear one of the characters talk about his grandmother's turnip cake being awful struck me as really really odd.)

Bless Me, Ultima

2006-06-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Bless Me, Ultima
by Rudolfo Anaya

A decently written novel. On the cover, it's described as a Chicano classic, a term which had I googled before reading probably would have given a little bit more context and appreciation of the novel, but alas I did not. (definition ).

Bless, Me Ultima is more geared towards the high school or younger crowd. It's really a coming of age story with religion, spirituality, and magic/witch-craft/mysticism playing a large role in the story. Apparently it got banned from some school reading list, I'm guessing because the child questions Christianity a lot and ends up focusing on other local powers, such as a God that lives as a golden carp in a local river or the powers of the benevolent witch (witch isn't quite the right term), Ultima.

Anyways, it's not exactly high-intellectual, but it's well-written, eye-opening and enjoyable, a good one for the summer.

China, Inc.

2006-05-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

China Inc.
By Ted C. Fishman

Unlike Guanxi, which I was heavily disappointed with, China, Inc. was exactly the type of book I was looking to read on China. First, it provides a fair and wide-ranging perspective on China: discussing various industries, concerns over legal enforcement of intellectual property, an attempt at historical perspective, etc. Second, given the rapid changes that China is undergoing now, it is essential that the book be as recently published as possible and this is (2005). Third, despite doing his homework and digging up numbers from a number of studies and articles, the writing remains very accessible and contains a number of personal stories of when Fishman was in China. And lastly, the perspective with which he writes, I appreciated on two levels: as an American citizen, I have concerns over whether China's rapid growth will cause a decline in the excellent quality of life here. Fishman cannot obviously answer those issues (can anyone?), but does his best at bringing up the issues to the forefront. And secondly, being Chinese in ethniticity, I appreciated that Fishman attempted to be as informed as possible in the culture and its differences. There is nothing worse than when an American of non Chinese heritage travels to China once and is suddenly convinced that he/she knows more than you about it.

All in all, a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone in the US to read, because like it or not, if things keep on going the way they are heading, China's dramatic growth will change the lifestyle here in the near future.

Guanxi: Microsoft, China, and Bill Gate's Plan to Win the Road Ahead

2006-05-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

Guanxi: Microsoft, China, and Bill Gate's Plan to Win the Road Ahead
by Robert Buderi and Gregory T. Huang

This book wasn't really that insightful in examining Microsoft's thought process in establishing their R&D lab in Beijing or into the Chinese culture. The authors write with too much reverence for Microsoft and those in China, such that they really don't challenge their subjects enough and delve into the more interesting issues. For example, while they proclaim that the researchers at Microsoft create truly innovative products, I never got the sense that they really understood why something was innovative and what the significance of the product was. Their discussion of everything else, Chinese cultural differences, decisions to expand, etc, were similarly light-weight.

I think the most interesting part of the book was their description of the departure of Kai-Fu Lee, the person who led the initiative to start a lab in Beijing, to go work for their competitor, Google. This part was interesting, for really the opposite of what you'd want out of a good book, because it seemed like the authors were so biased in favor of Microsoft, that you indirectly got a sense of how those at Microsoft reacted to the decision. That is, they attempted to be accepting, but on some level smarted with a sense of betrayal. To me, it was interesting to note that that particular aspect might be a large part of Microsoft's company culture now - that the best and the brightest of talents may not automatically go to work for Microsoft anymore; however, their employees remain fiercely (and slightly irrationally) loyal.

Anyways, I will be attending the authors' talk at MIT. It should be interesting to see whether my critiques were well-founded or not.

Lizard

2006-05-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Lizard
By Banana Yoshimoto

This was a set of 6 short stories that were introspective and mostly dealt with the subject of the perception of life and relationships. It's decently written, but not particularly memorable. Mainly this is because the writing style seems like a mix of different influences. In addition, the short story format inherently translates to less depth that I could sink my teeth into. I'd say this would be passable as relaxing reading material on a plane, but I can't imagine myself rereading this again.

Shanghai Baby

2006-04-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Shanghai Baby
by Zhou Wei Hui
Translated by Bruce Humes

An interesting, but in the end somewhat light-weight novel. I generally have an affinity for books that go into detail about relationships, especially complex ones. Shanghai Baby definitely does this, talking about love, loyalty, sex, attraction, etc and does so quite honestly. I think the best aspects of this book are first and foremost, the strong and specific perspective of the main character, Coco, who is young, ambitious, creative, attractive, sexual, and Shanghai-centric and secondly, her take on being in love with one man, Tian Tian, while having a sexual relationship with another, Mark.

However, going beyond that, there is not much actual meat to the novel. Just to name a few complaints: the details about the main character's relationship with the man she loved was actually surprisingly sparse. There was very little description of what Shanghai was like as a city. And lastly, there were a number of pop-culture references and quotes which were just random and without any particular deeper meaning for their use.

All in all, this was a interesting and fast read, but in the end, not that significant.

The Untouchable

2006-02-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Untouchable
by John Banville

Ugh, I was unable to finish this, mainly out of frustration.

The novel is written as a memoir of a former spy. From what I read, the focus seems to be on how a lot of the things involved in being spy are mundane, just like any other job... which I was fine with. But what bothered me immensely was the main character's rather pointless and shallow reflections on his actions and reactions and his not-enlightening mullings on large-scale schools of thoughts. To me, it was like listening to college students in "philosophical" debates - bloody pedantic and not insightful at all. It pains me to even think this much about this.

On to my next book.

More books on queue

2006-01-07T23:27:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know I haven't ripped through another book in some time. But I'm just getting around to reading more books - up next on the queue is The Untouchable by John Banville.

Blog of a Bookslut

2005-12-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

For later, check out Blog of a Bookslut for any interesting recs.

The Fountainhead

2005-11-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand

So a few acquaintances had been rather enthusiastic about Ayn Rand and there seems or at least seemed to be a reemergent interest in Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand Institute, suggestion of Ayn Rand'ien thought in The Incredibles), so I decided to reread an Ayn Rand book and see what the hubbub was about.

I'm in the middle of this right now and had some thoughts. I'll write more once I'm done.

The first part, Peter Keating, hooked me. My impression: intelligent author, intelligent characters... okay, this is pretty interesting.

The second part, Ellsworth M. Toohey, however, gets pretty tiring. It drips with condescension of socialists. Ellsworth Toohey becomes an extreme caricature, from his upbringing to anything he says. Reading the front flap, Ayn Rand experienced Communism in Russia first-hand and then moved to the US, vowing never to go back, so I can understand the reasoning for why she felt so strongly anti-socialist; however, it's too bad it's reflected so obviously in the novel, because I feel like I'm reading propaganda in intellectual novel form.

An aside, I don't quite buy how anyone could read this book and use it as basis for arguing anything politically here in the United States. It seems that the point of Fountainhead is to attack socialism and specifically Communist Russia around the 1930's, which is a key point, because almost nothing in the US is run remotely close to that system. Even the left big-goverment ideas are so drastically different than Russia, that I don't buy Rand'ism used as an argument for less government. What is particularly ironic is that one of the themes in Fountainhead is similar to ones in that of the Futurist art movement. That is, ideas from the past are not applicable to the present and should not be used. So to be using Rand as a "proof-point" for how things should be run today seems rather contradictory.

As much as I criticize, I do believe in some of the ideas she presents, just not to the extreme she does: 1) The importance of reason and rationality 2) Creativity and innovation is hindered by beauracracy 3) That people should pursue the things they love to the best of their abilities.

One more thing that I'll note about this book. Rand writes Roark's character as if he is a perfect man whose genius was suppressed by other people. I shudder at the thought of those who read the book and falsely delude themselves in thinking they are that genius.

--12/1/05

Finally finished this book... It's definitely a worthwhile read, mainly for stating the things I mentioned above. But Rand could have definitely done with a better editor. A lot of the time, it was just like, okay, I understand your point, you're frickn rambling now.

Besides that, I don't think I have much else to say.

-- 10/31/09
An NYTimes article on Heller's biography, Ayn Rand and The World She Made, which also discusses Ayn Rand herself.

The Ten Faces of Innovation

2005-11-19T16:17:00.000-08:00

The Ten Faces of innovation
By Tom Kelley

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Yes, it gets a bit "Hallelujah innovation saves!" in parts (like praising Starbucks for their suggested cds? c'mon) But Kelley really gives a very nice framework for which to think about new ideas and for ways of making it into a reality.

Kelley co-founded a fairly well-known product design consulting company, Ideo, so he's got street-cred, which is quite evident on reading it. Of course, the book focuses on innovation in the work-place, but I have found it equally applicable when talking about new ideas to friends and family.

Anyways, I'm lending my copy to family and friends. I liked it that much.

[Spotted on Amazon. Bought it to help think about my career]

Blast

2005-11-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Apparently, I missed Murakami read at MIT. MIT Writer Series Darn.

End Zone

2005-10-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

End Zone
by Don DeLillo

I can't say that much about this book. The writing and some of the observations were passable, but I didn't really come out of it with anything. The only thing slightly interesting was that the plot was so unabashedly not a traditional story-arc, but even that I can't really say all that much about. In the end, forgetable.

(Another author that Murakami is compared to.)

V

2005-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

V
by Thomas Pynchon

Just started V and I got a kick out of this description:

There is no way to describe the way she walked except as a kind of brave sensual trudging: as if she were nose-deep in snowdrifts, and yet on route to meet a lover.

I'll return to this entry when I'm done.

>

(Oct 18, 2005)

I finally finished this mother of a novel and I rather liked it.

Having some sort of guide (like such) would have been immensely helpful... As the reviewer of the guide mentions, there are a lot of repeated themes, a lot of details from various worlds (Navy, various cities, different languages) and add on the fact that Pynchon does not give you any guidance in how to interpret the things in the novel.

But I really appreciated the latter attribute. It's very akin to moving to a new city and living there. You encounter day-to-day events, meet various people and see contradictory events & actions ... and slowly you develop a sense of the city, you begin to see the identity of the city as a whole. (Not surprisingly, this is one theme in the novel)

Pynchon gives *a lot* of details and has a slew of characters, but leaves enough on the ground that you could probably start to piece together the different themes and points with enough time and effort, which I generally appreciate. I'm quite sure I did not pick up everything in the novel, so if I were to pick up this book again, I would see and understand new things, not because of any new perspective I would bring into reading, but because there are that many things going on in the novel.

I noticed that Pynchon had a habit of describing an action and then only sometime later, would he reveal an explanation. Say something like the following (and this is my poor writing at work here):

Joe and Jim were talking about the redness of certain church steeples. Joe's dog, Pluto wanders in to the room and Joe hits Pluto upside the head with a newspaper, exclaiming, "Bad Dog!" Pluto leaves the room with tail between legs.

Joe and Jim continue to talk about church steeples, getting into whether burgundy or maroon is a more appropriate color for churches. Or maybe because red could be interpreted as a representative color of Satan that it should be discarded as an option altogether. They continued this discussion late into the night.

Earlier, Joe and Sara were eating dinner at the apartment. Barry Manilow had just finished playing on the radio and the DJ came on to talk about the weather about the same time Pluto jumped into the room to viciously set upon humping Sara's leg. Joe and Sara were less than pleased at this.

In the least, it's an interesting way of writing, but moreover, I think it contributes to the sense that you are organically learning about everything, as if you see something and later on, someone tells you the explanation.

Anyways, all in all, V was a solid novel and one that I wouldn't mind picking up again ... or at least reading that guide.

(A quote on a Murakami booked compared Murakami to Pynchon)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

2005-09-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
By Carson McCullers

This novel is not meant to be read as a realistic description of people in a real town. The characters in this novel are abstract..."proof-points" that it is difficult if not impossible for humans to truly communicate with each other. And that the noble goals of racial and economic equality are difficult to achieve as a result of this failure to communicate among those with the vision and ignorance on the part of all others.

I generally do not like novels written for the sake of proving something about human society or human qualities (See my entry on Einstein's Dreams.) In the context of current day in the United States, I do not agree with the thesis of this novel. But given that this was published pre civil-rights movement and pre Cold War Commmunism paranoia scare, I respect this novel a great deal. And despite the fact that I do not agree with the thesis, it is quite deftly written and challenging in the topics it covers, making it more than a worthwhile read.

(Rec by Judy)

Book lists

2005-09-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

If I ever run out of book recommendations from friends:

Wow, what a claim... the Top 40 most important works in the world

BBC Top 100 books

(Swiped from metafilter)

Empire Falls

2005-09-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Empire Falls
By Richard Russo

A page turner, but I'm not sure I liked it or not. The characters and their relationships are well written. But nothing really stuck out at me and in the end I'll probably forget about this book - kind of like watching a fairly decent, but somewhat forgettable film like Cider House Rules. Entertaining read, but nothing special.

Oh, one small complaint, it's set in Maine, but I just didn't feel any New England'ness to it. Mentioning the Red Sox not winning games just doesn't cut it for me.

(Rec by Judy)

Dandelion Wine

2005-09-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

Dandelion Wine
By Ray Bradbury

A truly delightful book about a boy's summer and all the things he experiences. I hate when reviewers do this, but really, the book is like drinking wine. I really liked this book, but unlike other I enjoy and read page after page after page, this one, I had to put it down after a few chapters and reflect on what I had just read.

A particular favorite chapter of mine. A man in his forties visits an ice cream shop with a local neighborhood boy. They both order lime ice cream and upon ordering, an older woman invites them over to eat their ice cream with her, saying "ordering such an unusual ice cream flavour with such conviction must mean interesting company." And the man says to the older woman, "I used to be in love with you."

The older woman and the younger gentleman, begin to talk every day, the older woman sharing stories of her travel around the world alone. And by sharing the stories with him, it is as if they had traveled together - the woman no longer had traveled longing for a companion, and the man no longer had stayed in the same town, dreaming of traveling. It is the best days of their lives.

The woman is old, however, and can feel herself going. Before she passes away, she says to the younger man. "If there is the opportunity, try to die before your time. Catch pneumonia and pass away. That way in the next life, we will meet and we will be the same age."

I do the book disservice by so ineloquently summarizing a chapter, but I can't get over certain parts. A definite gem of a book.

(Kathleen's)

Old man and the Sea

2005-08-31T09:21:00.000-07:00

Old man and the sea
By Ernest Hemingway

This book is a classic. I'd describe it akin to the best engineering designs - everything in the story is there because it has to be and nothing more.

(Leif's)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

2005-08-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
by Michael Chabon

I rather liked this. It covers a fairly large span of time - from when the two main characters, Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, are just boys to when they're successful comic book creators.

The one thing that did bother me about the story was minor inconsistencies (I think). Like at the end of a chapter, it would say something like Joe would never drive a car again and then at the start of a new chapter, Joe would be driving a car. Maybe it was just me parsing these details to quickly, but I could have sworn it happening multiple times.

I think the thing that really works about the book is that it is this wonderful amalgam of comic-book and fiction based on real-life. The characters combine real-life comic book creators from the Golden Age of comics and the comic-book superheroes they create. As in comic books, the characters have their flaws and make mistakes that make you cringe. And of course, there are the love stories, which I do have to say somewhat conveniently work out in the end, but were interesting nonetheless. But overall, it's a solid mixture of its elements. In particular, it really seems like Chabon did a fairly extensive job of investigating what it was like to live in those times and see what real comic-book creators were influenced by and what problems they faced.

So to quickly conclude, definitely worth a read.

(Recommended by Judy)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2005-08-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

I felt kind of blase about this one. The main character is autistic. He tells a story of how in the process of investigating the "murder" of a neighbor dog, he inevitably is lead into a further adventure.

The story is quite realistic - I mean it could happen to someone real. And it was interesting getting into the mind of a real autistic. It's just that at times, it doesn't feel authentic - it feels like someone who isn't autistic creating a character who is and trying his best to inhabit that mind. (It turns out that the author isn't autistic - he was a volunteer at one point helping autistic children.) It's an somewhat ambitious goal, and it works at times (an autistic perspective renders certain realities somewhat humorous), but it doesn't work all the time, which makes it feel forgettable.

(Lying around. Shan's)

The Alienist

2005-08-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

The Alienist
by Caleb Carr

I don't know how else to describe it, but the writing in this book just has a very classic feel. Kind of like reading a Sherlock Holmes. In certain ways, it seems like this book is influenced by the Sherlock Holmes series.

The story is set in New York in the late 1800's and a serial killer is on the loose. A reporter, John Moore, provides the common man perspective (similar to Watson's character). He is invited by his old Harvard friend, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a renowned psychologist, and the Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to help bring in the killer. Together they assemble a small team of personalities to assist.

I can't say that anything about The Alienist is that novel, but things are put together quite nicely. The classic style of writing I mentioned before and the characters in the story help to evoke the late 1800's setting, although I wasn't so sure that it wasn't just taking advantage of the readers impression of that era through stereotypes. The action proceeds along organically as one would expect such an investigation to go, which I appreciated and there were nice action moments that were page turners. All in all, this was quite an entertaining read.

(recommended by judy)

The Pleasure of Finding things out

2005-07-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Pleasure of Finding Things out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
By Richard Feynman

After starting to reading the bits in this book, it becomes quickly evident why so many people have such a profound respect for Richard Feynman. The way he so easily elucidates a complex theory with simple analogies is really quite astounding. I think people also respond to the fact that he genuinely wants to share what he finds interesting and to inspire a similar interest in his audience.

But I think what really makes him and his stories so worthwhile are that like a good comedian or a good story teller, they reveal small truths about life, about interacting with others, etc. It's just rather refreshing, like seeing a good true friend after a long time and sharing some deep conversation.

(Post on Metafilter)

Chindi

2005-06-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Chindi
by Jack McDevitt

I liked this book. The good points: I was satisfied with the science - inventions/discoveries was either well-explained and/or plausible in 100 or so years. The disasters were good in setting up how dangerous it really is to be in space and to be an explorer. And I think some valid social questions were hinted at, one of which was: is it best to leave an archaelogical find in its original context or should it be brought to a location in which more people can view it.

As for critiques, I'll list off a few of the complaints on Amazon and my reactions to those complaints:

1) The Point-of-view narration shifts are a bit tiring - Yeah I'll agree with this. They're a bit jarring, especially after Hutch had been set up as the main character in the beginning
2) The selection of characters is like Gilligan's Island - Haha, I didn't think about this, but yeah I'll give it that too. (The millionaire, the hot actress, the artist, etc)
3) The aliens they encountered had male and female sexes. This is highly unlikely and shows a lack of imagination. - It's true that the alien lifeforms they found were remarkedly human-like, but I think it was implied they only encountered two types of aliens out of a number of alien forms that did exist.
4) The characters were dumb. (i.e. they impatiently try to meet aliens without much forethought) - I guess there are different schools of thought on this issue. My personal view is that there are a variety of people in the world, so why would you only want to read about super-awesome, super-intelli, James Bond characters all the time? I think the characters were like people you'd meet in the real-world. I suppose that a point could be made possibly for lack of development of all characters, but there were quite a few.
5) The last-minute cliffhanging rescues were a bit much - I think I was okay with that. I think traveling in space is one of the most dangerous things to do, so there should be close-calls, especially with the amateur explorers on-board.

Anyways, all in all, this book was worth a read.

(Recommended by Mark)

Einstein's Dreams

2005-05-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

Einstein's Dreams
by Alan Lightman

Not a fan. The writing is stylish, but since there's no real plot to the book, the book kind of gets repetitive.

And I think I had the same problem with this book that I did with books such as The Giver by Lois Lowry or Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The problem is more evident in those previous books, but at times in Einstein's Dreams, it seems like Lightman is trying to push an opinion, such as it's not worth it to want to live forever or to want to slow down time. But since each chapter is so short and he doesn't expand on one particular idea for too long, the reasoning for those opinions comes across as both half-baked and clumsy.

(Saw a recommendation on Amazon)

A Wild Sheep Chase

2005-05-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

A Wild Sheep Chase
by Haruki Murakami

Murakami's writing is excellent. His topics may be slightly odd and surrealist for some people's taste, but whenever I pick up any of his books, his writing hooks me and I polish them off in a couple of days.

Of the books of his that I've read, I've found that a striking similarity between them. The main character is usually an average guy who really likes reading, drinking in a regular bar, jazz, and keys in on rather mundane body parts of a woman like ears. The character usually has to go investigate something or find someone and relationships play a large role in the plot (and are well described). And the endings can be sometimes be frustratingly supernatural/surrealist (which could very well be some cultural difference that I'm missing out on).

A Wild Sheep Chase follows this pattern. The main character finds himself attracted to a woman with spectacularly sexy ears and ends up going out with her. Meanwhile while working as a graphic designer for a small company, he is tracked down by a powerful and mysterious boss because of a picture that he put in a client's advertisement. This picture contains a sheep with a star on its fur and this sheep is a special one, having something to do with the boss's rise to power and ability to control a great deal of companies and politics. As a result, the main character is coerced into a quest to find this sheep.

Bizarre plot, eh?

Well it's good reading as usual and had me hooked to the last page. If you've never read any Murakami, I'd suggest you pick up any of his books and give him a shot.

(Recommended by Shan)

All Souls: A Family Story From Southie

2005-05-26T08:28:00.000-07:00

All Souls: A Family Story From Southie
Michael Patrick MacDonald

Having lived in Massachusetts my whole life and now having lived in the Boston area for the past 6 years, it was interesting reading about a region of Boston that I had heard about, but knew little of: Southie.

Southie is located south of downtown Boston, and in the past, was home to a very poor and mostly Irish community. It's most well known for a great deal of violence (unreported murders, suicides, and drug and gangster activity) in the 60's and 70's.

The book is a memoir of Michael growing up in those violent and chaotic times. To be honest, I had trouble getting into the book for quite some time, but I am not sure if this was purposeful or not. The memoir follows Michael from when he is quite young and in the beginning, things are told as an observant child would, sticking to straight descriptions of actions and events. But as Michael grows up, the narration of the events becomes more reflective and relationships and reasons for events begin to clear up for him as well as for the reader. It's as if you found someone's diary, who had written in it for 30 some odd years and you read it through chronologically.

This method of narrating provides the reader the sense that he is growing along side of Michael and as a result, when he starts to describe the tragedies that befall his family, it's downright devastating. And this is the key to the book. Families all over Southie were dealing with their own suicides and murders and drug overdoses, yet kept the pain to themselves and would not acknowledge the violence as a wide spread problem.

I'm oversimplifying as always, but I found myself quite touched with the book. And in the end I really understood why Michael loved being in Southie so much and felt the need to return there to help out when he was older.

All in all, it was quite a worthwhile read.

(Laying around. Shan's)

Eragon

2005-05-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Eragon
by Christopher Paolini

Another book borrowed from a coworker, this one I had more trouble getting into initially and certain writing passages seemed a little too wordy and explicit. And as my coworker pointed out when he first handed it over, it heavily borrows from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. But I think that once you realize that Christopher was 15 years old when he finished it, you give him some leeway.

This book involves dragons and dragon-riders, which puts it squarely in the fantasy genre. And it is another coming-of-age story. But what I found unique about this book were the things that the main character learnt as he grew up. Of course, he had to learn the cool magic spells and the sword-fighting and how to ride his dragon. But things like learning to purposely act independently of a respected leader's suggestion, or telling white lies to family members, or other relationship/communication details really gave this firmly fantasy book a realistic sheen to it.

Worth a read, but not a classic or a favorite.

(Recommended to me by Mark)

Abhorsen Trilogy

2005-05-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Sabriel

Lirael

Abhorsen

by Garth Nix

Borrowed from a coworker, I got caught up in these books big-time. It is very much fantasy reading, involving magic, spells, swords, talking animals, kings and queens. But it is set in modern time (or at least 1900's) where there are guns, soldiers, churches, etc, the link being that the fantasy magic is mainly restricted to one part of the land and the rest of the world is mainly non-magical.

I think the thing that draws you in about the books is the coming-of-age narrative. In both Sabriel and the Lirael/Abhorsen storylines, the female protagonists start off as clueless characters and you follow as they learn their trade, travel and fight progressively stronger bad guys. Yeah, I'm making it sound like a cheap fantasy video-game, but I can definitely see these books appealing to both boys and girls.

Maybe the best thing I can say about these books is that they got me wanting to read more after I was finished.

(Recommended to me by Mark)