she would not leave him.

i just don’t have the literary chops to properly describe the brilliant writing of octavia butler. i can say that this was a fantastic book. the characters, albeit superhuman, are realistic and full of emotion. the plot moves a little slow at times, you really don’t mind though because it is written so beautifully.

finally a rational response.

after reading so much about this book i picked it up at powell’s on a whim. for those not in the know twilight is the first in a series young adult of books about vampires.  this series has become quite a phenomenon, much in the vein of the harry potter and the his dark materials series.

twilight centers on bella who moves to forks wa, on the olympic peninsula, to live with her father. shortly after starting school she starts hanging out with the mysterious edward, who turns out to be a vampire. edward is part of a clan of vampires that do not feed on humans, so the story doesn’t directly go in that direction. the first half of the book is written more like a romance and moves rather slowly, and in my opinion got a little boring. once the romance is out of the way things get more interesting as we learn more about the clan and another clan of uncontrollable vampires is introduced.

sure, i’ll read the next book in the series, but i have a hard time recommending this book to most people. if you like vampire stories, and want a good beach or plane book, this would be good. but if your looking for the next great young adult book series, this isn’t it.

the fleas of course.

the first jonathan ames book i read was i love you more than you know, a collection of essays in the vein of david sedaris. after thoroughly enjoying that book i read his other collections before diving into his novels. for some reason i was a bit wary about reading his novels, it turns out that his novels seem like long versions of his essays. with the main characters seemingly based on himself and his adventures in new york and new jersey. the extra man starts with his character ,louis ives, moving from new jersey to new york city and sharing an apartment with an eccentric and mysterious older man, henry harrison. as he learns more about the man’s he gains a unique admiration for him and does everything he can to earn henry’s respect. henry, in his own way, teaches louis how to survive in new york’s society life while not spending a penny. all the while louis is trying to keep his own personal life a secret. the extra man was funny and strangely insightful.

when ever i try to describe jonathan ames writing all i can ever say is that he reminds me of charles bukowski , and thanks to wikipedia i know i’m not the only one. the only problem with that comparison is that most people i know don’t really like bukowski, people often find him abrasive and misogynistic. ames is nothing like that, it’s just they both seem to skirt a line of perversion and grit. i would also say he belongs in the same group as the mcsweeney’s crowd of hipster writers that recall, and are possibly trying to reinvent, the beat generation. i am a big fan of jonathan ames and look forward to his future writing, which include a graphic novel, the alcoholic, and a new book of essays in 2009.

watch out for the loop.

this is the last of the orson scott card books that morgan’s aunt bridget lent me, i have been overwhelmed with science fiction. this book follows a similar plot as treason. they both tell the story of the outcast ruler trying to make things right on a far away planet populated with people expelled from earth. while treason was an interesting look into gender and race relations in politics, wyrms is more of a statement on religion. i didn’t really like this book at first because i thought it was going to far into the realm of religous allegory. but then as the story got more developed with introduction of the other species, the geblings, the dwelfs and the gaunts, and how their history and non religion fit into the course of human development mr. card took the book into another direction. choosing to focus on the how all species are connected and not on how they are different, thus turning wyrms into a revolutionary, almost blasphemous, tale. besides the heavy religious overtones of the beginning of the book, my only other complaint is that the main conflict is resolved a bit quickly and simply. i would like the last three chapters to have been fleshed out a bit more. orson scott card is a really great writer, while his books are firmly set in science fiction, he takes them to so many different levels.

the venom in his voice almost stung.

while not quite “bone chilling” this was another great book by orson scott card. this is the first of his non-sci-fi books that i’ve read. treasure box falls more into the supernatural thriller territory, coming dangerously close to stephen king. it took a little getting used to the fact that this book took place on earth in the early ninties. once i accepted that this was a good quick read. this would not be the book that would bring to orson scott card’s interesting world, for that i would point you towards the ender saga, or the pastwatch books. if you are already a fan, or perhaps sick of waiting for stephen king to write another interesting book, treasure box is worthy of your time.

i kept hearing the word devil.

how can such a strangely right wing person write such a touching sci-fi novel that deals so well with race and class issues. also he throws in a side story about gender identification. i don’t get you orson scott card, but i will keep reading.

don’t mess with pride and prejudice .

jasper fforde has become one of my favorite authors. over the past year i have read all his books. this is the latest book in his thursday next series. i always have a hard time describing these books without it sounding juvinile or uber-nerdy. thursday next is a literary detective with the ability to jump into fiction, which happens to often go out of control. within the “bookworld” there is a group called jurisfiction that help keep things in order. with all the jumping in and out of fiction the story lines of the thursday next books can often splinter off in many tangents.

first among sequels takes place fifteen years after the last thurday next book, something rotten. thursday now has kids and a happy married life. suddenly she finds herself trying to save “the now” by motivating her son, battling the book versions of herself, and trying to keep pride and prejudice from being turned into the first reality bookshow. this is a great book, highly recommended.

a chase through the ether.

if you have already read erik larson’s more famous book “the devil in the white city” then you know what his shtick is. he combines to seemingly unrelated stories and shows how they are related. “the devil in the white city” covers the tale of the architects of the 1893 chicago world’s fair and americas first serial killer in chicago around the same time. in “thunderstruck” he weaves together the stories of the development of wireless communication and a murderer on the run in turn of the century london.

i really enjoyed “thunderstruck”, it was a really interesting read. the story of marconi and the development of his transmitter is right up my alley. and it is not often that a book has me on the edge of my seat, the chase of the murderer, once it really started, was impressively written. i want to say riveting. sadly during the chase of dr. crippen, the murderer, we lose the story of marconi. i would of liked to know how his system developed beyond simple morse code.

i can’t help comparing “thunderstruck” to “the devil in the white city”. the biggest difference is that “thunderstruck” is a simpler story, with a lot less names and dates involved. something i appreciated, i didn’t like having to keep a list of names. also it seems that erik larson might be treading water in the writer’s pool. he brought nothing different to this book, which is his third book of historical non-fiction.

i would recommend this book. i found it to be a hard book to put down, and was a bit sad when it was over.

interfering with the past.

at a recent family dinner morgan’s aunt bridget found out i was a fan of the ender saga written by orson scott card. she immediately leapt up to find this. pastwatch: the redemption of christopher columbus, which is her favorite book by card, and she has read them all. in fact she has pretty much read every book ever written.

this tells the story of a future society that has the technology to watch the past. while watching they discover that an alternate future had sent a message back in time to columbus to alter the future, leading to the future that they live in. which they quickly point out is soon doomed to extiction. so they decide to send actual people back to shape another alternate future. after much study they determine that they must change columbus’s path again to lead to another more peaceful future.

orson scott card, along with octavia butler, really stands out in the world of sci-fi. their books bridge genres, in pastwatch: the redemption of christopher columbus card uses elements of historical fiction and drama. and he does it in a way that is not forced or awkward. card’s biggest talent lays in the details. by the end of the book we know all about columbus’s life and world. we also have a total grasp of the future society and the people trying to save it.

pastwatch: the redemption of christopher columbus is a total success, well written and plotted fantastically.

while looking for the links to insert in this post i read some disturbing facts on orson scott cards wikipedia page. let me list them for those too lazy to click on the link.
1. he was raised and still is a mormon
2. he has written several books based on the bible
3. he has been a vocal supporter of george w. bush, the patriot act and the iraq war
4. he often praises fox news
5. he considers himself a democrat despite the fact that he is pro gun and writes article supporting the republican party
6. he blames pre-marital sex for the rise in crime
7. he considers same-sex marriage to be a “potentially devastating social experiment”, and has a very wishy washy stand on homosexuality in general

so with all i know about him now, i don’t know if i can continue to read his books. i already borrowed three more from bridget, so i’ll read those. but now i faced with a dilemma, should i keep reading?

okay, i get it.

becuase of his marvelous book the botany of desire i will probably buy every book michael pollan writes. the botany of desire was written so well, and gave such an interesting perspective on how plants can shape lives and society, it quickly became one of my favorite books. not to mention one of my most recommended and lent out, and i hardly ever lend out books. my copy of the botany of desire has made it all around the world and is unfortunately missing. if someone reading this has it, please give it back.

in defense of food, his third book about food since the botany of desire, just dosen’t live up to its predecessors. while the omnivore’s dilemma was far from perfect, it had quite a bit of interesting information, much of which is repeated in this book. having read nutritionist marion nestle food triology food politics, safe food and what to eat this book is kind of redundant. if you can read what the band around the lettuce on the cover says (”eat food, not too much, mostly plants”), then you get the point of the book.

the writing style that i fell in love with in the botany of desire, which was barely there in the omnivore’s dilemma, is gone and replaced with kind of an upper class smugness. he seems to assume, and probably likely so, that only the well off would read this book.

so if you haven’t read the marion nestle books, or michael pollan’s previous books, you will probably enjoy this book, or at least find it interesting. really though i think everyone should just run our and read the botany of desire.