Rated The Complete Johnny Nemo 6/10
Not really for me, but there were a few funny bits, especially the bizarro Bing Crosby story.
Edited 47d ago
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Rated Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes 10/10
I confess a weakness for the most brilliant person in the room. People who are great at what they do, whatever their “thing” may be, are my favorites. Excellence is dead sexy, especially when it comes to intelligence and the desire to improve. For this reason, I'm interested in the character of Sherlock Holmes.<br><br>Oh, sure, he's maddening to deal with — abrupt, insensitive, and distant at times — but the skill with which he gathers and assesses information is why his character has endured since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created him in 1887. In <i>Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</i>, Maria Konnikova examines what goes into Holmes' process, the way he can block out all other distractions in order to solve his cases, and how ordinary people can use these skills in their everyday life.<br><br>(Read the rest of my review at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/12/mastermind-how-to-think-like-sherlock.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Gallifrey: Lies 8/10
I enjoyed this very much and was glad to hear the first Romana in the Doctor Who world again. <spoiler>Getting an answer as to why Romana regenerated seemingly on a whim that first time, was good to hear. After long last!</spoiler>
Rated Lanark 8/10
<div> is one of the wildest, most ambitious books I've ever read. Sort of set in Glasgow, also set in the Glasgow-like city of Unthank, the story is so many things at once. It's a disillusioned youth losing grip on his sense of reality, it's a surreal Vonnegutian descent into bureaucratic hell, it's an allegory for the slum tenements destruction in '70s, but also the oncoming storm of the corporate '80s.The references and acknowledgements sections are handled in perhaps the most inventive way I've ever seen. Not everything holds up since its publishing in 1981, but I hope more dedicated people than me have written papers on this weird, perpetually interesting book.</div>
Rated The Many Daughters of Afong Moy 3/10
<div>Too many similes, too many words lifted from other people. The overall concept is interesting and understandable, but I didn't care for the the execution. In short, not for me.</div>
Rated The Master Bedroom 4/10
The trouble with The Master Bedroom is that while I found sentence after paragraph after page that made me want to start writing something new, I still found Kate rather unlikeable. She didn’t grow to any significant degree. She potters around her life, straining to feel like “herself,” though I was never quite sure who that was. Though she’s willing to vaguely complain to her friends, she expects her romantic interests to read her mind. She can’t be bothered to take charge, despite her feelings. It’s an attitude I don’t really understand. <br><br>However, Tessa Hadley’s exceptional writing and varied points of view kept me going, still eager to discover how it all worked out in the end. <br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/06/master-bedroom-by-tessa-hadley.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Russia Shift 8/10
Ending was just an ok payoff for an otherwise very interesting world. Good art.
Rated Gigi and The Cat 7/10
<div>It wasn't love, but I liked these two stories. The characters are all very compelling. I'm interested in (finally) reading more Colette.</div>
Wants to read Kissing Sherlock Holmes
Rated This Close 10/10
Not many short story collections are entirely wonderful. One or two stories, while not necessarily UNenjoyable, usually feel like filler. And yet, Jessica Francis Kane's new collection is quite near perfect. It left me wishing for one more story, which likely means that the length of the book is exactly right. Twelve stories, some related and some standalone, navigate the yearning for connection and the complex interior lives that we all have. <br><br>(My full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/06/this-close-stories-by-jessica-francis.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: Shada 10/10
I've read the book, watched the Eighth Doctor animated version of this, and now finally listened to the CD audio adventure of Shada, so I guess this means it's one of my favorites. It's a very good Doctor Who story from Douglas Adams (yes, THAT Douglas Adams, for those of you who were unfamiliar with his having written for the show) featuring Romana II and K9, and if they are indeed going to make an animated Fourth Doctor version, I expect I'll be into that one too.
Rated We Should All Be Feminists 10/10
Essential reading.
Rated The Ocean at the End of the Lane 8/10
It is not that the unfolding events are particularly difficult to understand, but I felt an undercurrent of symbolism that I knew I was missing because of my greedy turning of the pages. Gaiman, of course, writes beautifully, in that full-on heart-swelling way that identifies tricky emotions that one could not previously name. The nightmares of children exist in a language that is often impenetrable to adults, but he writes with such a direct insight to those dreams that we begin to remember what it was like to have them.<br><br>My full review appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2013/09/book-review-the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-by-neil-gaiman/">Persephone Magazine</a>.
Rated Doctor Who: No More Lies 6/10
A short one, this seemed like. Decent, but nothing amazing. Worth it for the set up for another story at the end.
Wants to read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
Rated The Truth Lenders: A multimedia novel 8/10
2510: After the wars, science progressed to the point where other species live and work among the reduced human population. A pharmaceutical news conglomerate called News Now! Corporation controls much of this post-progress society, in which anti-establishment, anti-corporate critics are regularly persecuted and atomically rearranged into more useful items — say, vegetables or water for a struggling third world nation. The island of Manhattan no longer exists; in its place is the undercity Atlas, domed beneath the ocean, climate controlled and accessible by the subway-like trundcar. Children are taught The New Language Model in their Zen English classes, with hopes of phasing out language in order to attain enlightenment. Reading has fallen out of favor with so many voice-activated devices and there are only two remaining independent bands on the planet. Amidst all this is a news anchor, Sammy, a beautiful woman who the entire world has come to know and trust.<br><br>Architect and designer Peter Scharber, along with his colleague Donaldson West, are part of the team testing News Now! Corporation’s latest venture — a pill that takes subscribers inside any news story while they sleep. Sammy guides them as the story appears to happen in real time, and by the time a person wakes, they are informed. Before long Peter and Donaldson begin suspect that the company is up to something far more sinister than the easy distribution of information.<br><br>In her first novel, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen <i>(pronounced Twee Zoh Win)</i> has created an entire world where she explores creativity, realism and metaphysics. Much in the same way one has to adjust to reading works written hundreds of years ago, there is a lot of new information to absorb. Realizing this, the book is peppered with footnotes to provide a greater sense of place. Early on Peter and Donaldson discuss the Sammy Brain Project:<br><br><blockquote>“Right now they’re injecting nanosensors into her skin, and it doesn’t hurt because they’re so nano from the shrinking algorithms (18).”<br></blockquote><br><br>Rather than have the characters reveal information that they would already know, the reader jumps to the bottom of the page for an explanation:<br><br><blockquote>18 Atoms, theoretically, are mostly empty. The nucleus of any particular atom is a volumetrically small fraction of the atom, while the electron cloud is a tiny fraction of both mass and volume. Scientists went and compressed that wasted space in the development of shrinking technology. As a side benefit, no more jail overcrowding.</blockquote><br><br><br>The story has a subtle, meta humor, one that calls attention the fact that it is indeed a book with a reader, and that the writer and reader have present-day knowledge. There are jokes about fonts, picas, books and culture that are especially funny if one has ever worked in the publications industry. Broadsheet newspapers are considered rude in this world because they take up so much space, therefore interfering with the personal space of others. Instead, Atlas has a more “acceptable” newspaper (knowingly called <i>The Atlas Shrug</i>), which comes in a width of 46 pica — roughly the same width as the human headspan. All of its stories are corporation and government approved. In opposition is an underground form of journalism, operating in basements and printing stories about corruption, all while planning a creative uprising, the Nostalgia Movement. They want to show the value of the history, justice and free-thinking, for “There is nothing more valuable than something true and authentic.”<br><br>What makes the novel multimedia? Beyond textual footnotes is an enclosed CD that is referenced throughout the story. When the mainstream and publically-traded band SpynSpeck [Spine-Speck:]’s trademark song, “Duck Wave Function,” is mentioned, a footnote directs the reader to the appropriate track. There, one can hear just what a deconstructural, robo-rock pop band sounds like and how they recycle small fractions of existing songs into new ones. “They contributed to a post-post-postmodern musical movement in which new styles challenged what people classified as true music,” a footnote informs.<br><br>Telegrams, news broadcasts, and single lines of dialogue are also represented on the CD, and while it might be occasionally cumbersome to have the CD queued up while reading, it does add a certain level of engagement to the experience. Whole essays and articles have been written about the trouble with writing about fictional music, about how the reader interprets a audible medium by absorbing it visually instead, but Thuy saves the reader the trouble.<br><br>Of course, this begs the question: Is the Footnotes CD a mere bonus feature, or is it like the News Now! pills, “helpfully” informing the reader without that pesky burden of self-interpretation? Perhaps it is just one more meta moment in a meta-futuristic novel, a wink towards the plot itself.<br><br><i>The Truth Lenders</i> also acknowledges that no creative work is a one-(wo)man show. Thuy self-published the novel with the help of other designers, musicians and artists who live in and around the Spokane, Washington area. The Footnotes CD was produced, mixed and mastered by Joe Varela of Black Lab Recording Studios in San Francisco, a man who gets a nod within the story itself every time “Varela University” is mentioned. There are extensive credits as to who did what at the back of the book, as well as a list of recommended reading that informed the story. Musicians Kevin Long, Dane Ueland, Ross Robinette contribute their fictional selves to the CD, as well as Spokane writers Kurt Olson and Isamu Jordan. No person pulls all their ideas from the ether after all, so even the sources for jokes receive credit.<br><br>The end result of all this collaboration is an entire world which takes some time to acclimate, but provides plenty of thought-provoking ideas. And while, yes, the story is more concept-over-character, the characters are rendered clearly. Their history unfolds gradually as society begins to value the past again. While there’s a lot going on and infinite details to digest, it’s helpful to just keep going, trusting that all will align in the end. <i>The Truth Lenders</i> is possibly a one-of-a-kind effort, original both in its content and delivery, and for that, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen deserves utmost praise.<br><br><br>For those interested in purchasing the book, contact Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen at truthlenders [at :] gmail [dot:] com or visit <a href="http://www.truthlenders.com">truthlenders.com</a> For those who live in the Spokane, WA area, it is also available at Auntie's Bookstore.<br><br><i>(This review originally appeared on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-lenders-multimedia-novel-by-thuy.html">Glorified Love Letters</a> on April 27, 2010.)</i>
Rated A Dark and Starless Forest 10/10
To be quite honest, I didn't know how strongly I'd feel about this book because I don't read a lot of YA, and close sibling relationships are a bit of a foreign country to me. Still, expending one's horizons and an interesting premise made me start, and wow, what a captivating story. I fully read 75% of this in one evening because I wanted to know what happened next. If suspenseful YA is your jam, this will definitely be your jam, and if you're not sure, give it a go anyway. Treat yourself.
Rated So You Know It's Me 10/10
Oliu’s missed connections could be any person out there, a person receiving attention from someone who over-thinks a little too often and sometimes wonders if he remembers too much. The tone of each essay is slightly obsessive and sad, yet beautiful in their moments of sincere flattery. I enjoyed the book a lot, and though I appreciate the structure, I thought by the end, <i>Ah, just let us have one more…</i><br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://www.wordriot.org/archives/3978">Word Riot</a>.)
Rated Forest of Noise: Poems 10/10
<div><em>In the refugee camp,<br>where land is strewn with<br>debris, where air chokes with rage,<br>my harvest is yet to arrive,<br>my seeds only sprout on this page.</em><br>— "My Grandfather's Well"<br><br>FOREST OF NOISE is a breathtaking and heartbreaking collection from Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, which explores the ongoing struggles of living in an occupied country and how those struggles can infect the small moments of joy. He worries about his family still living in Gaza, he mourns the family he has lost. F-16s replace birdsong, but the old house keys survive. Essential reading.</div>