Bragan Reads Everything Else in 2016, Pt. 2

Well, here we are in the second quarter of 2016, which means that it's time for a new thread! I'm looking forward to another three months of great reading, but I never really have much to say at the start of these posts in the way of preliminaries, so let's just jump right into the books, shall we?

38. The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin



This is a sequel to The Killing Moon, a fantasy novel featuring a civilization loosely based on that of ancient Egypt, and an interesting dream-based magic system. The Killing Moon was the first of Jemisin's books I'd read, and it left me feeling incredibly impressed by her. I heartily recommend it. It's worth pointing out, by the way, that the first book stands perfectly well on its own, rather than ending on a cliffhanger or with a zillion unresolved threads, the way so many fantasy novels do. So you can check it out without committing yourself to some kind of of giant ongoing series, or even to reading the second book. I do suggest reading that one before this one, though.

Anyway. The plot of this sequel, while decent enough, didn't grip me anywhere near as thoroughly as the first one did. (Although that may in some small part be due to me having let too much time lapse between the books, so that I'd forgotten most of the details of the political situation.) The characters were good, though, and the worldbuilding is fantastic. I really love the complex, deep, nuanced ways in which Jemison explores these people and their societies, and just that would probably be more than enough to make this worth reading all by itself.

Rating: 4/5

Do I get a special prize? I'm first again. Don't want to let my first row seat go .... :)

Love the titles of the Jemisin books. They just sound cool!

>2 avidmom: You should get some sort of prize! I'm not sure what, though. Maybe just my appreciation. :)

39. The Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon by Hergé



Knowing how much I love stories about space travel, including ones from before space travel was an actual human accomplishment, a friend of mine lent me this 1953 collection of Tintin comics, along with its follow-up The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon. As the titles indicate, these feature Tintin and friends taking a trip to the moon. This one covers testing and preparing the moon rocket, as well as dealing with some unfriendly elements who are trying to steal the rocket's secrets, and ends with our heroes blasting off on their journey.

I know several people who have a great fondness for Tintin, so I was a little curious to finally read some of his adventures for myself. And... Well, the bumbling antics of the various characters are mildly amusing, but I have the sad suspicion that I may have come to this series a little late in life to fully appreciate it. I do give it some points for actually getting its lecture on nuclear science mostly right, though! Even if some of the other elements had more of a lighthearted sense of ridiculousness to them.

Rating: 3/5

40. The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon by Hergé



A continuation of the story that begin in The Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon, which together have constituted my first real experience with the Tintin comics. I said after reading the first one that I found parts of it mildly amusing, but wasn't necessarily getting a good sense of why this series is so popular and well-loved. Well, I think it's growing on me. I'm not sure what made the difference. Maybe it's that being on the moon is more interesting than getting ready to go to the moon, or maybe I just needed a little more exposure. But I actually laughed out loud a couple of times here, and, to my surprise, found myself genuinely getting into the story.

I'm not sure if I'll ever read any more Tintin, but I am beginning to see the appeal.

Rating: 4/5, if only just for how good a job it did at winning me over.

>4 bragan: >5 bragan:

Tintin can be tricky - some of them sound very dated, some of them are very readable. Nice to see that you are liking them at least a bit.

>6 AnnieMod: These were, unsurprisingly, very dated, but I'm not sure that actually had much impact on how readable they were.

>7 bragan:

Dated in a bad way I mean - dated because of technology does not make them unreadable; dated because of attitudes and pure hatred sometimes do. I still like them but if you get one of those as your first one, chances are you are not going to give them a chance.

>8 AnnieMod: Ah, yes. That can make a big difference, in a bad way. Fortunately the ones I read didn't have any of that.

The dog (snowy)in English is called Milou in the original and I think half the dogs in France are named after him.

>10 baswood: That is a pretty influential dog.

My son has been a fan of Tin Tin since childhood. Now that he is middle-aged child (!!!) he still treasures his full collection - and still tries to get me excited about them. I've read them all and can appreciate the talent of Hergé, but have never been a true enthusiast.

ETA: If we'd ever had a white dog, I'm positive that it would have been called Milou (or Snowy)!

>12 VivienneR: As a fellow middle-aged child, I can share a certain amount of fellow feeling with him, even if Tintin isn't my own particular enthusiasm. :)

I got Tintinitis as a child, and there's no cure for that. I still automatically buy any nice looking copies from the sixties/seventies (I have strong and unfavourable opinions about the printing quality from later decades--and yes that's across the board of publishers); just the other day I picked up the third or fourth copy of Tintin au pays de l'or noir.

There's a ton of stereotyping; one (Tintin in the land of the Soviets, actually the first story to be published) is PURE propaganda; quite a bit of racism (Tintin in the Congo being the worst), and no women with the exception of the domineering operatic diva, Bianca Castafiore.

Tough proposition today, and I think it's a testament to the charm of the graphic style and the excitement of the stories that they keep their popularity today. (I confess. I have a Tintin towel and a Tintin keychain and a Tintin sweater and once I had a girlfriend with a Tintin haircut. But I swear that's the limit.)

>14 LolaWalser: I don't have anything intelligent to add in response to your post, but I just wanted to say that "Tintinitis" is making me laugh probably more than it should. :)

>15 bragan:

It is a serious matter, as serious as Asterixema.

>16 LolaWalser: I know one or two people who suffer from that one, too!

I have a Tintin et le lotus bleu rug, and an enamel plate with the moon rocket and the immortal dialog "Allo la terre, ici la lune". I'm not sure why I don't have a model of the rocket, I loved that one but maybe it was a bit too expensive for me at the time. But I have to admit I love the graphics more than the stories, which are fun nonetheless.

>18 FlorenceArt:

It's a beautiful rocket!

>17 bragan:

I just thought of another Tintin story with astronomical interest--The shooting star (L'étoile mystérieuse). It's one of my favourites. If your friend has it, I hope you won't resist. :)

>18 FlorenceArt: It is a pretty rocket!

>19 LolaWalser: I don't know if he has that one or not. Perhaps I will check. Although, really, I ought to be working on reading my books!

>14 LolaWalser: & >16 LolaWalser: I can't wait to hear the response to "Tintinitis". Thanks for that :)

41. Hey Ranger!: True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks by Jim Burnett



Jim Burnett has worked as a park ranger at national parks and other sites run by the National Park Service since the 1970s. As you might expect, it's the kind of job where you can't help accumulating some interesting stories, and he's compiled his into this collection of amusing anecdotes and cautionary tales, including various mishaps and accidents, dumb excuses people give for speeding in the parks, the weirest questions he's been asked by visitors, and what it's like to live inside a national park in Montana in the winter. He also includes a chapter at the end with some tips for having a safe and successful trip.

The writing isn't exactly polished, but it captures rather nicely the feel of having someone sitting around a dinner table or a campfire telling stories, and Burnett throws in both some erudite quotes and some slightly corny humor, which I thought was a somewhat charming combination. Some of the stories, unsurprisingly, are a lot more interesting than others, and in some cases the details he relates about the parks get a little repetitive. But overall it's a pleasant enough read if you're a national parks enthusiast, or are curious as to just what park rangers' jobs actually entail.

Rating: 3.5/5

Catching up. I always enjoy your reviews.

Loved your commentary is on the accuracy in the Doctor Who book. (The Annie Hall clip Lola linked us to was wonderful). My son loves Tintin. We tried some collected volumes after seeing the movie. Now we have all seven volumes and a stuffed Snowy.

Hey Ranger makes me curious about what kind of stories he has. (Warning!! Somewhat gruesome story in next sentence.) I once read about some young Yellowstone employees who jumped into boiling pool at night, by mistake. I don't remember where I read it, but I will never forget the story.

>23 dchaikin: Thanks!

I also have a book called Death in Yellowstone that tells a lot of horrible stories like that. The one I remember best is about a guy who let its dog off its leash. The dog jumped into a boiling-hot pool, and the guy jumped in after to rescue it. He didn't succeed. It was hauntingly gruesome, and a good illustration of one of the many reasons why you should obey the rules about leashing your dog.

Burnett deliberately avoids any stories that end with people being killed, to keep the book from being too much of a downer. Even so, some of the incidents he talks about came very close to killing people.

42. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro



I thought when I picked this up that it was a collection of short stories. It's not. It's a novel, albeit one that seems at first to be fairly loosely structured, about a girl coming of age in a small town in Ontario during and after World War II. It's the first thing of Munro's I've read aside from a couple of stories I encountered in anthologies, but based on those -- and, I guess, on the fact that she has a Nobel Prize to her name -- I expected to be impressed by this one, and I was not disappointed. Munro's writing is, well, impressive. She has a great talent for describing things -- people, places, emotions, experiences -- in perfectly apt, subtly insightful ways, and the result here simultaneously feels like one woman's very specific, personal story and like a broad, deep, realistic reflection on the lives of girls and women in general.

Rating: 4.5/5, but it comes very close to a perfect 5.

>25 bragan: enjoyed your review - I'm going to take a BB on that one and add it to my wish list. I've not read Munro yet but have had one of her short story books on my wish list for ages. As I'm not a massive short story fan I keep on finding reasons not to read it, so this novel sounds like the ideal starting point with her.

Oh Yes! Alice Munro is quite extraordinary, so glad you loved it.

J'aime Tintin!

And I liked the first N. K. Jemisin series I read. A yes, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, I had some issues with it, but I think it got better and better. I think I might have one of this series around, but am waiting to collect the rest.

>26 AlisonY: It's a novel that's maybe structured a little like linked short stories, with each chapter seeming at first like its own distinct thing, but it ultimately holds together as a unified novel really well, I think.

>27 sibylline: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is on my TBR shelves already. I've mostly heard good things about it, so I'm looking forward to it.

>22 bragan: This sounds right up mu alley for wacky travel/nonfiction. I'll check it out.

>22 bragan: I don't necessarily recommend it for everybody and anybody, since the writing isn't super-exciting, but if it sounds right up your particular alley, it is worth a look. I hope you enjoy it!

43. Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher



This dictionary of science fiction includes words and phrases invented by SF writers (assuming they then became widely familiar, e.g. "warp drive"), scientific terms commonly used in SF, terms used in discussion or literary criticism of science fiction, and in-group jargon (much of it slangy or jocular) used by SF fans. It presents all of this OED-style, with a short definition of each word followed by a meticulous series of citations.

Honestly, there's probably not much reason to own this unless you're a real scholar of the history of science fiction, or of language use, or both. And yet, despite the fact that I am neither of these, but rather a simple SF reader, I must say I enjoy owning this, and I at least skimmed every page of the thing, in a couple months' worth of spare moments.

If nothing else, the sheer amount of work and dedication that must have gone into this is impressive. And I'd say it'd be worth the cover price just for having taught me the phrase "cognitive estrangement" -- "the effect brought on by the reader's realization that the setting of a text (film, etc.) differs from that of the reader's reality, especially where the difference is based on scientific extrapolation, as opposed to supernatural or fantastic phenomena" -- which I am now going to use at every available opportunity. It was also interesting to note just how many different terms writers have come up with to describe a drive that makes spaceships go faster than light, or the astonishing variety or words and phrases you can put the word "space" in front of.

I did, however, often find myself wistfully wishing there were more to this project than just a dictionary. I would have loved a deeper dive into the etymologies of some of these words, or an account of how they spread from one writer to another, or how science and science fiction have traded terms back and forth. (As it is, it's often not at all obvious which direction a particular word has gone in.) I suppose it's hardly fair, though, to complain that the book is something that it was never intended to be.

One limitation, though, is probably worth pointing out: the focus here is very much on written SF and literary SF fandom. There are some basic terms that come from SF television and its fans, but most of the jargon specific to media-SF fandom (a subculture that overlaps with but is far from identical to literary SF fandom) is not to be found here, and there is one notable case of a term from the fanfiction-writing subset of fandom that's defined in a way that is not in fact, how that group actually uses it.

Rating: 4/5

44. The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman



This is the third book in Lev Grossman's Magician's series (which has also recently been adapted into a TV show I haven't seen). To be honest, I found the first two rather disappointing; despite the fact that every single thing about them seemed like it should be right up my alley, they somehow just never worked for me the way I wanted them to. So I really only read the conclusion out of a sense of completism.

But I'm glad I did. I liked this one much better, right from the beginning. I think it helps a lot that the main character, at this point, is a bit older and wiser, and thus significantly less annoying than he used to be. That, and this one didn't wait until the last 100 pages to feel like it was finally growing a plot, which I seem to remember being an issue for the others. I could nitpick some things if I wanted to -- developments that fit together a little too smoothly for realism, a slightly-too-abrupt character turn or two, a lack of sharp focus to the plot -- but mostly I'm not inclined to, because it kept me entertained and sufficiently happy. And I'm actually fairly impressed by the way the story ultimately transcends its own sense of cynicism without ever relinquishing it.

Rating: 4/5

>32 bragan: Glad you ended up liking it. The series as a whole was a pretty solid read for me, nothing spectacular, but sometimes that in and of itself is satisfying.

>33 janemarieprice: I think maybe part of my problem was that I kept wanting or expecting it to be something a little different than it was, which can often be a real barrier to full enjoyment. I am glad that, whatever my issue with it really was, I felt better about it by the end.

45. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert



Scientists identify five great mass extinctions that have occurred throughout the history of life on Earth. We appear to now be in the middle of the sixth, this one caused by humans: as our species has grown, spread across the planet, and altered its environment, we have been responsible for the disappearance of many species and the decline towards probable future extinction of many, many more, sometimes by direct and deliberate action (hunting to extinction, destruction of habitats for farmland), and sometimes by indirect and inadvertent ones (the increasing acidification of the oceans caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the accidental or misguided introduction of invasive species to new environments).

Elizabeth Kolbert talks about the scientific history of our understanding of mass extinctions, and of the very idea of extinction itself (which was once dismissed as impossible), and about the science behind the current loss of species in a very clear, very readable way. She also takes readers with her as she travels to various places to see endangered species and habitats firsthand, and to talk to biologists who are on the ground studying them.

Kolbert never takes a histrionic, hand-wringing tone about the current state of affairs, but rather lets the facts -- and the people who are out there observing the facts -- speak for themselves. What they have to say is depressing, but it is also interesting and important.

Rating: 4/5

>35 bragan: You've added The Sixth Extinction to my wishlist. There are so many people who don't understand the ramifications of human actions on plants and animals, and of their unwillingness to understand climate change. I find it mind boggling.

>36 NanaCC: I think it's disturbingly easy for people to go into denial about such things, or just not to want to think about them at all.

Nice review of The Sixth Extinction, Betty. I'll add it to my wish list, as it seems to be an essential book to read.

>35 bragan: I read excerpts from The Sixth Extinction in The New Yorker and they were powerful. I'm not sure about reading the book because of those articles I've already read.

>38 kidzdoc: Thanks. I definitely recommend it.

>39 rebeccanyc: I don't know how much the book was excerpted, but I did find the whole thing worth reading.

46. To the Nines by Janet Evanovich



Book nine (or is it ten? nine and a half?) in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. This time, Stephanie is out to apprehend a guy whose US work visa is about to expire, which involves following him to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, someone keeps sending her flowers, but not in a good way, and she begins to notice her biological clock ticking.

It's possible I was just in the wrong mood for Evanovich right now, but I think I may have reached the point where this series is starting to get old for me. There are some funny moments -- Stephanie switching out her bad luck with cars for bad luck with bodyguards was fun -- but a lot of the stuff that was meant to be funny -- an overdone running joke about Lula's diet, Stephanie's target's annoying landlady -- really just weren't.

Meanwhile, Stephanie's Lust Triangle of Doom, which I'm not a fan of, continues apace. And I am really, really ready to be done with plots that involve Stephanie being stalked. It's starting to be creepy in a bad way. And the revelation here of why she was being stalked in this one was just... dumb. I mean, OK, you don't read these books for the intelligent plots. Maybe the problem was mine for not being able to turn my brain off far enough (something I'm usually quite willing to do for this series so I can just sit back and enjoy the ridiculous ride). But... But it was really, really dumb.

Rating: An ungenerous 2.5/5

47. What's it Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who've Been There by Ariel Waldman



This little book -- which looks like it could be a picture book for kids, but is pretty clearly aimed at adults or teens -- consists of a series of two-page spreads. On one page of each, there is a short paragraph with some fact or observation about living and working in space. These range from the silly to the quirky to the interesting to the profound, touching on everything from the difficulty of using a barf bag in zero gravity to the beauty of watching a sunrise from above. On the opposite page, there's an accompanying picture. These are all done in the same funky, colorful, whimsical style, usually featuring people in spacesuits. I got a kick out of both, and, despite the fact that I've read a lot of books on space travel, I even learned a few things I didn't already know.

If you've read Mary Roach's Packing for Mars -- and you should! -- you might find this a fun companion volume. I think it'd also make a nice little gift for any space enthusiast with a sense of humor.

Rating: 4/5

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)

Enjoying your reviews as always Betty. The Sixth Extinction looks like something I would enjoy reading and perhaps then I could brow beat my friends into doing more to save the planet. If I saw Brave New Words in any bargain bin I would not be able to resist.

>43 baswood: Thanks!

Sadly, I suspect it's likely to take more than that to get people to work on saving the planet, but it's certainly worth a shot!

Great reviews here from the space dictionary to the Sixth Extinction -- I read a lot of the pieces in the NYer too, so I haven't tackled it. I'm WLing the What's it like in Space for the spousal unit for next xmas. I have had The Magician's Land in my audible wl for quite awhile, wondering if I should listen to it there or get the book. All three of us (spouse, daughter, me) have read the first two . . . but the second one, while OK, wowed none of us.

>45 sibylline: I read The Magician's Land in print, so I can't say anything about the quality of the audiobook. But as someone who also wasn't wowed by the second one (or the first one, for that matter), I did think the trilogy finished on the best of the three.

48. Destroyer by C. J. Cherryh



Book seven in Cherryh's Foreigner series -- or the first book in the third Foreigner trilogy, if you prefer to number things that way -- about a population of humans sharing a planet with an alien species called the atevi. In this one, our protagonist, Bren Cameron, returns from a long voyage to discover that things have changed significantly while he was gone.

It's a good, solid entry in the series. Unlike some of them, it gets going pretty quickly, with some fairly exciting things happening right from the beginning. As usual with this series, the story takes its time from there, but it features some interestingly complex political situations and a bit of action by the end, and it left me very interested to see what was going to happen next. (Although not until I've had a little bit of a break, because too much of Cherryh's writing all at once makes my brain tired. Not as tired as the people in her books usually are, admittedly. But still.) And I'm also rather pleased by the fact that, even seven books in, we're still getting some interesting insights into the atevi and the way their minds work.

Rating: 4/5

49. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes, with Joe Layden



Cary Elwes, aka Westley, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts, shares his memories of the filming of The Princess Bride and his thoughts on the movie and what the experience of making it meant to him.

I wasn't entirely certain about this book at first. I mean, I've read a few actors' movie-making memoirs now, and I started out with the feeling that maybe I'd reached the point where they might all start to feel a bit same-y. But Elwes pulled me out of that frame of mind gratifyingly quickly. His enthusiasm for the movie -- he was a big fan of the book even before he was ever approached about playing Westley -- is just so wonderfully sincere and warm, as is his appreciation for everyone he worked with. And he has interesting behind-the-scenes stories to tell, from funny moments to mishaps to some impressively hard challenges. (The sheer amount of training he and Mandy Patinkin had to do for their sword-fighting scene is downright staggering. I had no idea!) He also includes, scattered about, some comments from his costars, and from director Rob Reiner, producer Andy Scheinman, and author William Goldman, all of whose input was interesting to get.

Basically, it's really good-hearted and charming, as is absolutely appropriate for a book about the making of The Princess Bride. And I'll admit, come the end, when Elwes went from sharing sweet, affectionate memories of the late André the Giant to talking about celebrating the movie's 25th anniversary and how pleased he was that something that was so special to him had become so beloved by so many people... Well, I confess, I might've gotten just the teeniest bit choked up.

And now I really, really want to pop my copy of the movie into the DVD player and watch it again. Because no matter how many times you do it, it's always fun storming the castle.

Rating: 4.5/5

I loved the book The Princess Bride. It made me so happy while I was reading it. And, as you said, the movie is so much fun every time I watch it. I haven't read this memoir, but may need to change that.

That sounds like a great memoir.

>48 bragan: I very much enjoyed this memoir on audio. Elwes narrated it which added even more to the enjoyment of the experience. 'Good-hearted and charming', indeed.

I read this, but I think I might listen to it. I don't think I'd mind a few hours of Cary Elwes's voice.

>49 NanaCC: It is just such a weirdly happy-making piece of fiction, isn't it? I do recommend the memoir if you're a fan.

>50 Narilka: I saw a couple of the reviews on LT complaining that they thought it was a little too up-beat, or even saccharine. Maybe they were hoping for some dishy dirt from behind the scenes? I don't know, but Elwes's warmth and affection towards it all seems so wonderfully genuine, I can't imagine complaining about it, myself. I thought it was lovely.

>51 brodiew2:, >52 RidgewayGirl: I read it it print, but I've heard good things about the audiobook, too. I can't imagine anything bad about hearing more of Cary Elwes's voice!

>25 bragan: I'm really behind with threads but I have to add my thumbs up to Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women. I was in awe when I read it years ago and have been a Munro fan ever since.

>54 VivienneR: She really is just an amazing writer. I must read more of her soon. I already have The View from Castle Rock and Dear Life on my TBR shelves.

50. Mark Twain: Wit and Wisecracks, selected by Doris Benardete



This slim volume of Mark Twain quotes was published in 1961, judging by the date on the copyright page. (I bought it at a library sale.)

Twain's reputation for wit is unquestionably well-deserved, and a lot of the quotes here are wonderfully funny, or biting, or insightful, or all of the above. I can't help thinking, though, that pulling all his best lines out of context probably doesn't really do the man or his writing a great service, and there are more than a few of them that I suspect would have worked better if encountered where he originally put them. The book also features some generic, cartoony illustrations, which don't really add very much.

Rating: 3.5/5

51. The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith



Book four in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. This one features, among other things, a new business venture, a client looking to make amends for past bad deeds, and the opening of a rival detective agency. As usual, it's a gentle, pleasant, slightly rambly character-based story that doesn't bother all that much with plot. And, as usual, that works surprisingly well. I particularly like the touches of sly, subtle humor in this one.

Rating: 4/5

52. Reality Boy by A. S. King



A YA novel about a young man with serious anger management issues, a bad home life with an abusive older sister, and a past he can't get away from, since, thanks to the Supernanny-style reality show his parents put him on when he was five, the entire world got to see his most humiliating childhood moments without ever understanding them.

This is one of those odd cases where I can recognize that a book is good even while I can't say that I completely enjoyed reading it. I think I was expecting something a bit lighter, some sort of humor-laced satiric commentary on the nature of reality TV. That commentary is in here, I guess, but mostly A. S. King does a really, really good job of capturing the feeling of adolescent angst, of feeling angry and trapped and looking for an escape from your life. And having lived through the pain of adolescence once, that's not a place adult me really enjoys going back to. Even if, in the end, the story does become more hopeful than bleak.

Rating: 4/5, for doing well at what it's doing, even if it wasn't quite what I wanted to read.

>35 bragan: i'm catching up, and this one stands out. I keep seeing praises of The Sixth Extinction. But I keep thinking that I don't need to read it, I already know this. But your comments on the historical aspects make it sound a lot more appealing.

>48 bragan: glad you enjoyed Elwes take. It was really well done.

I think I'll pass on Reality Boy, but I feel bad for the protagonist.

>59 dchaikin: For what it's worth, I already knew, more or less, about a lot of the things The Sixth Extinction was talking about, and I still found it a very worthwhile read.

53. Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci



As the title indicates, the main focus of this is supposedly on the "demarcation problem," that is, how to draw the line between valid science and pseudoscience. I'm not entirely sure how well it achieves that goal, as a lot of what Pigliucci discusses doesn't seem to me to work towards answering that question in any clear and immediate way, although he does tie it all together reasonably well, if very briefly, in his concluding chapter. I also wouldn't say that this is the book I'd recommend for an in-depth discussion of pseudoscience and its characteristics. Most of his specific coverage of that topic consists of some very cursory case studies of individual psuedoscientific beliefs, although his chapter on the famous Dover case (in which a school board attempted to mandate the teaching of creationism in the guise of "intelligent design") is good. (He also has a decent, if perhaps slightly dated, discussion of global warming, although I'm not entirely sure about his choice to, effectively, present his arguments about the subject in the form of a pair of book reviews.)

Where this book is really worthwhile, though, is in the chapters on the philosophy of science -- unsurprisingly, perhaps, considering that this is Pigliucci's main field of interest. These chapters include a thought-provoking examination of the difference between "hard" and "soft" sciences, a history of scientific thinking from the time of the ancient Greeks, and a critique of the extreme postmodernist view of science as having nothing to do with objective reality. I found these chapters fascinating, and very much appreciated Pigliucci's nuanced and thoughtful approach in discussing the powers and the limitations of science as a human endeavor.

Rating: Despite some unevenness, I'm giving this one a 4/5. If this is a topic you're interested in, the worthwhile parts are very worthwhile.

Nonsense on Stilts sounds interesting. I think I'll add it to my wishlist.

>62 FlorenceArt: It was definitely interesting, even in places where I maybe didn't agree 100% with the author.

Must get to Lives of Girls and Women! Thanks for your review.

>64 detailmuse: I very much recommend it!

54. Pretender by C. J. Cherryh



Book eight of Cherryh's Foreigner series (aka book two of the third Foreigner trilogy).

OK, I basically enjoyed this one. There's a weird sort-of-a-car-chase in the middle that's surprisingly fun, and it ends on an appealing note. But, while I was reading most of it, I couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't quite satisfying. At fist I thought maybe that's because after the significant events of the previous book, the story slows down a lot for the first half of this one. But, hey, I know what I'm getting when I open a Cherryh novel. There are inevitably going to be many, many pages of people sitting around thinking about politics, and then talking about politics, and then thinking about the conversations they just had about politics. If I weren't pretty much okay with that, I wouldn't have made it to book eight.

But then I finally realized what the problem was. It's that our ostensible protagonist, Bren Cameron, has gone from being an active problem-solver directly involved in driving the narrative, back to being largely passive again. For most of the book, he's basically along for the ride -- literally, even, as for a good chunk of the narrative he's just a passenger on a long bus ride, followed by a long train ride. He has a couple of good moments in the very last chapter, but otherwise there's no showing off his diplomatic chops, no potentially saving the world from aliens, just a lot more being shoved away from windows by his bodyguards and obsessively worrying about losing track of his computer. (Seriously, he frets about this so often I've started mentally subtitling this series "Dude, Where's My Computer?") And I found myself thinking something that I don't believe had crossed my mind, at least not as a fully-formed thought, since the very first book in the series: that this story would have been more interesting if told from almost any other POV at all.

All of which sounds more down on it than I mean to be. It's really not a bad installment. And I'm certainly still interested in this series, for its world-building and for the grand narrative sweep of the story that leaves me curious as to how everything will play out over the years. But I could definitely do with a bit less "dude, where's my computer?" along the way.

Fortunately, there are some hints that perhaps ol' Bren will get to play a more active and influential role as the story continues, so I shall maintain an optimistic attitude as I take a short break before going on to book nine.

Rating: 3.5/5

I've been pondering a purchase of Nonsense on Stilts for several years. The part that you like does sound interesting and worthwhile. In the meantime, I listen to a lot of skeptic podcasts and YouTube videos, so I'm not sure how much new material this would cover.Still pondering.

>67 Nickelini: I listen to a skeptic podcast or two myself and have read quite a few books on the subject, so a lot of what Pigliucci covers wasn't new to me, and his discussion of actual pseudoscience was shallower than a lot of treatments I've seen. But the philosophy-of-science parts, even though they maybe weren't chock-full of stuff I found entirely new, did provide some interesting arguments and perspectives, so I definitely found them worthwhile.

(Do you follow The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe? I really like those guys.)

>68 bragan: (Do you follow The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe? I really like those guys.)

My listening is all over the place, and I don't really follow anyone. I have heard of them though and it's possible I've listened to something they've done. I will definitely look for them next time I'm in the mood for some skeptical inquiry. Thanks for the recommendation.

>69 Nickelini: They do a weekly podcast. It's on the long side, but I usually find them entertaining, as well as interesting. They have a fun, geeky sense of humor.

55. Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon



Fifteen years ago, twelve-year-old Lisa disappeared after telling people that she was going off to live with the King of the Fairies. Twenty-year-old Phoebe found herself briefly fascinated with the case, little knowing that she would eventually begin dating the missing girl's brother. He doesn't talk about the incident much, and would really rather put the past behind him, but suddenly it's all being dragged up again, and new evidence may be coming to light. What really happened that day? Who knows the truth? And were there really fairies in the woods, or is what happened to Lisa an entirely mundane sort of horror? The story alternates modern-day chapters narrated by Phoebe as she attempts to understand, and to deal with the strange turns her own life has taken, with chapters narrated by Lisa in the days leading up to her disappearance, letting us see things as Lisa saw them, although how much she might or might not have understood about what was going on is another matter.

I... I almost don't even know where to begin with this book. It's nuts, but in a good way, full of twists and turns and creepiness and darkness, and a never-ending parade of revealed layers of secrets, and moments of "Oh my god, what is even happening?," and I pretty much ate it up. Much as I want to, I can't talk about my reaction to the ending, because it would totally be a spoiler, but I will say that, while I'm sure not everyone would agree, I found it surprisingly effective.

The novel certainly isn't flawless. McMahon doesn't have much of a gift for dialog, for one thing. But it was still the most engaging, disturbing, wild ride of a story I've read in quite a while.

Rating: 4.5/5

>71 bragan: - Interesting!

56. Detained and Deported: Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire by Margaret Regan



Margaret Regan tells the stories of a number of undocumented immigrants (mostly Mexican nationals) arrested in Arizona and either detained by ICE, or deported, or both. Some of these folks were brought to the US as children and grew up here, others came fleeing violence or abuse, and a truly depressing number have children who are US citizens, from whom they were forcibly separated. (Regan also provides statistics on that last point, in particular, making it clear that these are not unusual cases at all.)

The result is an exposé of sorts of America's (and especially Arizona's) handling of these people, which includes holding them under poor conditions (in uncomfortably cold rooms, often without adequate food or medical care) in detention centers that make a profit from imprisoning them; making it difficult for them to contact their families, who might not know they were even picked up or have any idea where they are; ramrodding them through the legal process, often without even explaining their rights to them; dumping them across the border in an unfamiliar city with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no easy way to get word to their loved ones; and, of course, separating parents from children, some of whom then end up in the US foster care system.

Some of these stories are heartbreaking, and I don't think you have to have ultra-liberal opinions on the subject of immigration for them to make you think that something is badly wrong with this system. If you are already pro-immigration, they'll undoubtedly just make you angry. Whatever your stance, I think it's good to see these things. It's all too easy, in the course of political debate, to regard it all as an abstraction and forget that there are actual human lives involved, or even to think of them as an undifferentiated mass of "undesirables," rather than as people at all. Putting a real human face on things is necessary and important.

Regan herself, although she clearly cares for these people and is writing this book about them for a reason, avoids climbing up onto a soapbox and lecturing her readers about how to feel, or how to vote. Instead, she lets the people she talks to, and the facts of the matter, speak for themselves, which I think is exactly the right tack to take.

Rating: 4/5

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)

57. Mort by Terry Pratchett



Having finished the final Discworld novel earlier this year, and having recently marked the first anniversary of Terry Pratchett's passing, this seemed like a good time to start a re-read of the series, or at least a partial one. Plus, a friend of mine is currently reading the Discworld books for the first time, and there's nothing like watching someone else discovering something you've loved to make you nostalgic for it.

I figured I'd start with the Death books, mainly because Death is probably my favorite character in the entire series. Well, OK, maybe it's a toss-up between him and Granny Weatherwax, but I remember liking the Death books, overall, a little more than the witches ones.

I was, however, a teensy bit nervous about revisiting this one. I remembered it as possibly my favorite of the series, but that doesn't seem to be a widely shared opinion, and it seemed very likely to me that the only reason I remember it with such fondness is because it's the point where I fell in love with the series, not because it was actually a standout.

Well, there may be something in that, but if there is, I don't care, because I loved it this time, too. Admittedly, the plot is slighter than most of the others, but that's not at all a problem, as this one is really all about the characters and the world-building. (And the witty writing, of course.) And I don't care if the ending features an almost literal deus ex machina, either, it still left me feeling all warm and fuzzy. There may be a couple of oddities here due to this being very early in the series and Pratchett not having worked out all the details of his world and its inhabitants yet, but they're pretty minor.

My affection for Discworld's Death has only been reinforced by revisiting his first appearance as a major character, too. I confess, I am something of a sucker for this particular character type: the inhuman outsider looking in on humanity with a sort of wistful affection but a limited amount of understanding. And Pratchett captures that in a deft, subtle way that hints at a lot of complexity inside that fleshless skull. (Or, y'know, wherever it is that Death keeps his complexity.)

Much as I enjoyed this re-read, though, there is a note of melancholy to it, too. Because it's impossible not to compare the prose in this one to that of the last few Discworld books, written after a particularly cruel and unfair manifestation of a particularly cruel and unfair disease got its evil hooks into Pratchett's brain. And the contrast is hard to ignore: the more recent books may be perfectly decently written, with occasional flashes of bright wit, but they don't remotely come close to the exuberant, playful linguistic cleverness that's evident in almost every paragraph of Mort. Death has it right: there is no justice.

Anyway. I will definitely be continuing to re-visit the Disc from time to time over the course of, I don't know, maybe the next year or so. Re-reading the entire series is entirely too daunting a project for me, I'm afraid, but I am planning on at least reading through the rest of the Death books, and then the City Watch ones

And I'm still sad that there will be no more Discworld books from Sir Terry, but this exercise has reminded that all the ones he already gave us are still sitting on my shelves waiting to be loved all over again, and that makes me happy.

Rating: 4.5/5

>74 bragan: I can't believe it's been a year already. Mort was a fun one :)

>75 Narilka: I know, I can't either. And yet, at the same time, I sort of feel like I've been sad about him being gone forever.

I am looking forward to revisiting the rest of the Death books sometimes soonish.

>73 bragan: Well said Betty

>73 bragan: Thank you. That wasn't an easy one to review.

58. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers



A coming-of-age novel, of sorts, about a twelve-year old girl growing up in the American South during World War II, a girl who becomes obsessed with the idea of her brother's wedding and somehow convinces herself that when it's over, she will go off with them and into another, freer life.

Carson McCullers' writing style is a little odd. It is, on the surface, very plain, even unsophisticated, but at the same time it often has a strange, oblique quality to it. It takes some getting used to, but I'd already done so once, over the course of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, which I loved. It had to win me all over again when I started this one, and that took a while, but by the end it was absolutely working for me. And McCullers does an amazing job of capturing what it's like to be at that in-between age. Not just the usual cusp-of-adolescence stuff either -- inklings about sex, a longing to escape the confines of childhood and find or make one's own place in the world -- but also the, for lack of a better phrase, existential crisis of it all. I'd almost forgotten what that's like, and it hit me with quite a shock of recognition to see it represented so well here.

Rating: 4/5

>79 bragan: I have yet to read any of McCullers' books, Betty. You really make me want to get to her.

>80 NanaCC: I absolutely recommend The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. It's a good place to start.

I really enjoyed catching up. Mort is terrific and not an easy book to duplicate, even when TO was at his sharpest. Very interesting about Nonsense on Stilts (>61 bragan:). I would be interested for the reasons you highlight- just getting a clearer sense on the philosophy of the scientific method in practice.

ETA - half my post got lost because of a typo. Now fixed.

>82 dchaikin: I've always been incredibly impressed, though, by how consistent the quality of Pratchett's writing was, up until the point where it couldn't be any more. Mort was a harbinger of a lot of great stuff to come, and I am definitely looking forward to re-reading some of it.

>74 bragan: You make me want to reread Mort. I have reread many of Pratchett's books but not this one. And I was just looking for a light read.

>84 FlorenceArt: It is in excellent choice for a light read, and it's very short, so it's easy to breeze through it.

I just read Mort too, in the lovely limited edition Folio Society issued a few days back. They copied the description of Mort's own "book" Death gives him at the end--black leather, "MORT" blocked in gold leaf on the spine. :)

I'd read it before but it's amazing what a difference binding can make, it struck me as much more entertaining and touching than I remembered.

>86 LolaWalser: Ooh! I'm not normally much fussed about what the outside of a book looks like, myself, but that sounds wonderful, and I may be a little envious. Even if I still found it entertaining and touching in my cheap old book club edition.

I do like the cover art on the edition I have, at least, except for not being able to figure out why Death is dressed like that.

Yeah, I wouldn't ordinarily go for Pratchett in leather, I don't think, but just in this one special case I love the idea, the self-reference. Otherwise to me those little paperbacks with Josh Kirby's covers are perfect--frankly, I don't think Omar Rayyan's illustrations work as well (that's the "standard" FS edition):

http://www.foliosociety.com/book/MOR/mort

>88 LolaWalser: Ah, that is very pretty! And, yeah, that sort of style wouldn't be appropriate for most of Pratchett, but the self-reference works for this one.

That's the standard cloth-bound edition--people say it feels like it's bound in velvet--this is the sold out leather one:

http://www.foliosociety.com/book/LMO/mort-limited-edition

>90 LolaWalser: Now, that is about perfect.

Looking forward to reading The Member of the Wedding one day soon. I loved The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - it was one of my top reads last year. Her writing was so mature for her age it blew me away.

>92 AlisonY: I know. It was so hard to believe The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was her first novel, and that she wrote it so young.

59. Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr



Lynn Sherr is a journalist who has often covered the space program, and was also a personal friend of Sally Ride. But, like many people, she discovered after Ride's death that she didn't know nearly as much about her as the thought she had. And so, with the permission and encouragement of those closest to Ride, she set about attempting, as best she could, to capture both the professional and the personal sides of her life.

The professional part of her life was remarkable, indeed. She is best known, obviously, for being the first American woman to fly in space, but that was only one step in an impressively accomplished career. Ride was also a physicist, an athlete, a businesswoman, an educator, a mover and shaker in the world of space policy, and, of course, a role model to an entire generation of girls (something that, unlike many of the other effects of fame, she embraced actively and wholeheartedly).

Her personal life was much more difficult to paint a complete picture of, however. Ride very much fit the stereotype of the tough, emotionally closed-off astronaut. She preferred not to talk much about herself or her feelings, and liked to keep her private life private. So private, in fact, that she kept a 27-year relationship with her same-sex partner secret from the world until the final days of her life.

The book, overall, is an interesting look at an extremely interesting person. I wasn't entirely sure about the writing style at first, as Sherr seemed to me at times to be trying a little too hard to make it feel breezy and zingy. Fortunately, that settles down once she reaches Ride's adulthood, and the rest of it works very well.

And Sally Ride's story is very much worth telling, not just because it's compelling in and of itself, but also because it illustrates vividly how attitudes towards women have changed -- some of the sexist remarks she had to deal with, especially from reporters, almost defy belief at this point -- and how important it still is to encourage young girls and help them to feel that STEM careers are acceptable to them. Sadly, it also illustrates the how far LGBT acceptance and equality have lagged behind the progress made by women, as well as the personal and societal costs of that lack of acceptance. It's clear, after all, that continuing to exclude women from the space program and other areas of life and work would have robbed us all of this person with incredible contributions to make, but had she publicly acknowledged her sexuality, or her partner, she wouldn't have been allowed to make all of those contributions, anyway. Those are important things to be aware of, and that makes Ride's an important story to be told, as well as an interesting and inspiring one.

Rating: 4/5

>94 bragan: I think I'll add Sally Ride to my wishlist. Your review tells me it is one I would enjoy.

>95 NanaCC: I hope you do enjoy it, if and when you get to it! I think it's very much worth reading, although, I admit I have a personal weakness for astronaut biographies.

>96 bragan:. I enjoy reading biographies. In fact, I think I always have, but for some reason I haven't read one in a very long time.

Wow - catching up on your reading -- all of it either books I like hugely (From the Cherryh to the McCullers) or just sounds very good - (the science&philosophy and the Sally Ride )

Re the Cherryh-- the more recent ones are balanced some with the appearance of the atevi boy, names have fallen out of my head--I'll go find them and bring them back--and I too have occasionally pondered what keeps me going when Bren, let's face it, is often kind of boring. It is totally the atevi themselves. They are fascinating and at times I almost do feel their emotional strangeness, the different logic of it. Anyway, I'm glad you are also reading them. I won't read any more until next winter (#10 will be the next one) because I am collecting the rest of them (so far no #10, promised from someone from PBS but not arrived . . .) and because, as you say, it does get overwhelming. The car chase/ride was fun. More humorous than Cherryh often is.

>98 sibylline: Clearly you have good taste in books!

I'm reading the next Foreigner book, Deliverer, right now, actually, and I was delighted to suddenly be given an additional viewpoint character immediately after complaining that staying in Bren's head all the time was too limiting. And the fact that it's an atevi point of view (albeit a human-influenced one) is also great, because it allows some more exploration of how the world looks to them. I might have more to say about that when I finish it. And then I'll probably not get around to starting #10 for a while, either.

The Sally Ride book sounds excellent. Like Colleen I also enjoy a good biography, but somehow I only seem to come across ones that interest me quite randomly. I'd love to find a recommended list of decent biographies - the local charity shops seem full of biographies about Z list TV stars that I have zero interest in.

>100 AlisonY: I used to think I wasn't that interested in biographies, but I seem to have accumulated a lot of them in recent years, and some of them are really good. Me being me, I definitely tend to gravitate towards biographies of people like astronauts and scientists.

60. Deliverer by C. J. Cherryh



Book nine in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series of novels, which are set on a world shared by a lost colony of humans and an alien species called the atevi, and are full of politics, extra-planetary threats, and uneasy conflicts between traditional atevi culture and technological changes introduced by humans.

I have to admit, I think I'm getting to the point in this series where the slow pace that is so often typical of Cherryh, and is definitely typical of these books, is starting to wear on my patience a little bit. For the first half of this installment, nothing whatsoever happens; it's really all about getting things back to normal after the events of the previous volume. Then when something does finally happen, that something is interesting and engaging and occasionally rather exciting, but it also takes a good long while to tell and drags significantly in the middle. This sort of thing can be a little tiring.

On the other hand, I was utterly delighted to discover that, after I complained in my review of the last volume that it was getting old being stuck in one particular character's POV all the time, even when he wasn't a major player in the action, we were finally given a second viewpoint character here. And a great choice of additional POV it was, too: the fresh, engaging, likable voice of someone who was involved in doing at least a few interesting things. More than that, it's an atevi voice (even if that of an atevi highly influenced by humans), which gives us a welcome new window into the minds and culture of the species. And learning more about that culture and those alien thought processes has always been one of the big draws of the series. I'm really hoping we get to see a lot more of this in future volumes.

Rating: a slightly stingy 3.5/5

61. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett



My partial re-read of Pratchett's Discworld series continues with the second book in the sub-series focusing on Death. In his previous novel, Death tried to retire from his job for a while, which didn't go all that well. In this one, he's not given a choice, but is instead forcibly ousted from his post and reduced to mere mortality.

There's actually two main storylines here. One features a group of wizards (including one who is currently undead, since Death wasn't around to collect him on schedule) dealing with some of the weird side effects of a world that, for the moment, lacks a life removal service. That's good, silly, fun, with a wonderfully bizarre climax, but, I confess, it's not the part of the story that stuck in my head from my years-ago first encounter with this book, and there were moments when I found myself just an eensy bit impatient to get back to the Death bits.

Those bits feature Death getting a job as a farm hand (well, he is very good with a scythe), trying to fit in among humans, and discovering for the first time what it's really, truly like to know you are finite. And that part of the story is just beautiful. Funny and sweet and terribly poignant, with the sense of some very profound human truths lurking under the light fantasy exterior. Admittedly, I might be a little biased, because I have immense fondness for Pratchett's Death as a character. But the ending has made me feel, well, just a little bit like a pile of emotional mush. And, yes, that is a good thing.

Rating: 4.5/5

Just want you to know that thanks to you I am rereading Mort now. I have to admit the Death books were not first on my Pratchett reread list, but you also make me want to read Reaper Man (not sure that one would be a reread).

>104 FlorenceArt: Yay! Like I said, I may be a little biased, but I really do think the Death books are just terrific. Even if Reaper Man did occasionally make me think, "Why are there so many wizards in my Death book?" :)

62. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 edited by Dave Eggers



Like most of the rest of the books in the "nonrequired reading" series, this collection of writing was selected by Dave Eggers and a team of high school students.

I read and was really impressed by a couple of the later volumes in the series -- specifically the 2011 and 2012 editions -- so I figured I'd go back and check out some of the older ones. I have to say, though, that I didn't enjoy this one nearly as much as those other two. That's probably partly my fault, though. The 2011 edition, which was the first one I read, featured some really excellent non-fiction pieces, which impressed me so much that, despite the fact that the next one was a lot more fiction-heavy, I seem to have gotten it thoroughly stuck into my head that this is a great series to go to when you're in the mood for some top-notch journalism. And, going into it in precisely that mood, it was a little hard not to be irrationally disappointed when the first nine pieces in the collection turned out to be short stories.

Not that the fiction was bad. There were a couple of pieces I liked a great deal: Jhumpa Lahiri's "Hell-Heaven" immediately made me decide I needed to read more Jhumpa Lahiri, and George Saunders' "Manifesto" darned near made me cry and, short as it is, would still have made the entire collection worthwhile even if the rest of it had been awful. A lot more of it, though, was stuff that I can recognize as skillful, but that wasn't nearly as much to my taste. Alas, a story about bullfighting is probably never going to appeal to me, no matter how well it's written. And while I am certainly capable of appreciating slice-of-life literary stories about unmotivated characters with pathetic lives, there does seem to be a limit to how many of them I can take in short period of time, and that limit might have been exceeded in just those first nine stories.

Ironically, I found the non-fiction in this one to be weaker, overall, than the fiction. A couple of the pieces actively annoyed me. Specifically, Al Franken's account of doing a USO show, complete with jokes that apparently the troops liked, but which I found deeply unfunny; and Kate Krautkramer's bizarre piece about removing teeth from roadkill for artistic purposes and not wanting to wear a fetal monitor while giving birth because she is just too sensitive a soul for science. I fear I may have sprained something in my face while rolling my eyes at that one.

Anyway. I do still think this is a pretty cool series, and I'm still intending to read more of it, but this one definitely isn't going to go down as my favorite.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mort is the last Pratchett I read and it has been recommended to me to read them not in order of appearance, but in order of the character - so I think I will avail myself of Reaper Man next. I'm convinced!

You can find lots of different advice on what order to read the Discworld books in, but doing it by following a particular character is a strategy that's hard to argue with. And Reaper Man really is great, if you have any liking for Pratchett's version of Death at all. (And, really, how could you not? He's strangely adorable.)

63. Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere by André Aciman



Some of the essays in this collection are fairly straightforward pieces of travel writing. (Well, OK, very highbrow and introspective pieces of travel writing.) Others are personal essays or complicated philosophical musings. Throughout all of it, there are many recurring themes: memory, art, nostalgia, the author's inability to be in one place without longing for another, the experiences of being a Jew in exile.

Aciman's writing is eloquent and thoughtful and intimate and... I wish I liked it better than I did. Because, the truth is, most of it left me a bit cold. The most complex essays seemed to me to swirl back and forth, in a rather frustrating fashion, between genuinely profound insights, self-indulgence, and muddled obscurity. Sometimes, I would feel like he was getting at some really important psychological truths, but doing so through personal experiences I couldn't connect to at all. And there were moments where I found myself irritated by him: an admission that he was ashamed at having lived on a lower-middle-class street in his youth, another about having lied in his memoir, an occasional habit of slipping from "I" into "you" or "us" when describing experiences some of us are never going to be able to afford. All of which is probably unfair, but there it is. It's entirely possible that I am just not the right audience for this particular book.

Rating: 3.5/5

>109 bragan: I loved Aciman's Out of Egypt, which I read many years ago, but despite the fact that I have other books by him on my TBR, they're not calling to me.

I liked Out of Egypt too - but haven't rushed off to find more of his books.

>110 rebeccanyc:, >111 sibylline: He mentions Out of Egypt several times in Alibis, but I'm afraid it didn't really make me want to run out and pick up a copy.

>106 bragan: immediately made me decide I needed to read more Jhumpa Lahiri
yes, do! I love her short stories (Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth), not so much her novels.

She's lately immersed herself in Italy and published a memoir+stories (?) in Italian, translated to English by someone else. I've been avoiding it, just seems indulgent and confused, but am starting to soften because I so love her writing.

>113 detailmuse: I have Interpreter of Maladies on my wishlist now. Which, considering the number of books on my wishlist, doesn't necessarily mean much, but I am definitely hoping to get to it.

64. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold



This latest installment in Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series is set three years after the events of Cryoburn (the previous volume in the series chronologically, if not by publication order), and focuses on Miles' mother, Cordelia, as she looks back on the past, plans for the future, and reveals a secret or two about her personal life.

And it's... Well, it's pleasant enough. There are some mild but welcome touches of humor. The characters are likable -- I've always enjoyed Cordelia, and while she's not at her most most formidable here, she does have her moments. It's great, and very refreshing, to see a love story written for an older women, and (in principle, at least) I like the fact that it's a no-drama love story in which the participants behave consistently like mature adults.

But I couldn't help wishing that there was just a little bit, well, more. Because, honestly, the story is made up of some decent character development packed with a lot of filler. It's not bad filler, but, still, I found myself wishing more than once that something would happen. Not necessarily a space battle (although Bujold is great at those), but something just a little more substantial than what we got. I don't mind a nice, gentle story, but this one was perhaps a little too relentlessly gentle to be fully satisfying.

Rating: 3.5/5

65. The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey



It's hard to know how much to say about this book, and what might or might not constitute a spoiler. I've heard several people suggesting that it's best to know very little about it going in, or that they really enjoyed doing so and figuring out what was going on as they went along. So, although I don't think knowing what genre it's in hurt the experience of reading it for me at all, I'll be a little cagey about the premise and just say that it starts with a very special little girl who's being kept in a cell on an army base where she is instructed by teachers and studied by scientists, and that it's clear very quickly that something has gone very wrong in the world outside.

With or without spoilers, it's a novel that got a lot of praise when it came out a couple of years ago, and this is one of those cases where I think the hype was pretty well justified. I enjoyed it a lot and it felt to me, all the way through, that the author did just about everything right. The characters, while lightly sketched, are very real-feeling, and often more complex than they first appear. There are some great fresh variations on ideas that could have felt very old and tired indeed. The writing is scientifically literate, which is something that always pleases me, and full of vivid, apt, natural-feeling metaphors. And the ending is a corker, and not what I was expecting at all.

Basically, after a few less-than-satisfying recent books, this one totally hit the reading spot.

Rating: 4.5/5

>116 bragan: oh so close to being snagged, great review. But I peeked at the tags and have to resist, dystopias and I are like oil and water. Except Never Let Me Go; is it on a par with that or it is much more horror?.

>116 bragan:

I loved the first 100 pages. Then it just stopped being unique and became just one of the genre novels - well written but... May be just me reading in the genre too much of course.

>113 detailmuse: About In Other Words, Lahiri's book in Italian -- I read an interview with her that made me think it was weird and self-indulgent too, but I'm considering reading it in Italian.

>117 detailmuse: I have seen comparisons to the book you mentioned, and I can see where they're coming from, especially for the earlier part of Girl With All the Gifts, but it does eventually go in a different direction, which may well be less to your taste. There are horror elements and some gore, so it's probably not for people who are strongly put off by such things.

>118 AnnieMod: I was afraid I might feel that way, myself, as things developed, but it turns out I also really liked where it went after that, so I was good.

Glad you got a winner Betty. Although Reaper Man is good fun too. One of my first Pratchett's, iirc. I also liked Death's confrontation with mortality and his making a life for himself...even if I don't remember many details outside Death sharpening a scythe until it's really really really sharp.

>121 dchaikin: The scythe sharpening was great. Death has a lot of great moments in that one, actually, including a really terrific speech towards the end. I'd forgotten most of the details, too, so I am very glad I went back to it.

66. The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck



Rinker Buck, on a whim, decided to travel the entire length of the Oregon trail in a covered wagon more than 100 years after the last pioneers to do so. Which may be slightly less crazy than it sounds: Buck's father was an antique wagon enthusiast who once took him and his siblings on a covered wagon trip through Pennsylvania, so it wasn't like the experience was entirely new to him. And his brother, who accompanied him, is an expert mechanic and horseman who inherited their dad's wagon obsession. So if anybody was going to make that trip in the modern era, they would seem to be the right guys for it. It's still at least a little crazy, though, which is something the author readily admits.

The book is part adventurous travelog, part memoir (complete with lots of personal musings about Buck's ambiguous feelings towards his father), and part history lesson. It also takes a variety of tones: snarky, self-deprecating, appreciative, informative, introspective, even inspiring (although not in a mushy sort of way). Somewhat surprisingly, it works on all these levels. Occasionally, Buck's airing of his emotional issues borders on over-sharing, but he never quite goes too far with it, and it does serve to bring a human element to the story. And I found the history surprisingly interesting, and the many new things I have learned about mules even more surprisingly interesting.

Rating: 4/5

Sounds fun - book and journey.

>124 dchaikin: I did like the book. And while I wouldn't have made the journey, the guys who did seemed to have fun.

67. Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich



Yet another installment in Janet Evanovich's series about Stephanie Plum, the bumbling bounty hunter from Trenton, New Jersey. This time out Stephanie gets threatened by some gang members and finds an interesting new place to stay for a while.

It's mildly entertaining, in the pleasantly brainless way typical of this series, and I did like it better than the last one-and-a-half installments, which left me decidedly "meh." But the plots are getting increasingly formulaic and thin -- which, considering where they started, is saying something -- and I do wonder how many more of these I'm going to get through before I finally decide I'm completely tired of them. Especially as I'm already tired of certain elements, like the love triangle stuff, and the constant jokes about women getting fat. Still, for the moment the series is still filling its function of always being there for me when my brain is tired and needs something light and easy.

Rating: 3/5

68. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett



My partial re-read of the Discworld series continues with Soul Music, in which Death suffers another existential crisis and disappears again, his granddaughter Susan is tapped to fill in for him (which comes as quite a shock to her, since she was raised to believe beings like him were mythical), and the Disc discovers the dangerous power of Music With Rocks In.

And a terrific installment of the series it is. I really like the rock music plot; it's definitely more engaging than the wizards-and-shopping-carts parts of Reaper Man (much as I adored everything else about that one). The story is sufficiently substantial and satisfying, while also having some laugh-out-loud funny moments. And Pratchett is clearly having loads of fun with all the musical jokes. Whoever said that puns are the lowest form of wit clearly never read Pratchett. The man pretty much elevated them to an art form.

Susan, who makes her first appearance here, is a great, too. She may not be quite as awesome as I remember her being later in Hogfather, and she's still a teenager with a teen's limited experience of the world, but she's a wonderfully vivid character, and already formidably strong-minded. I might have appreciated seeing a little more of Death himself than we got, but that's just because I'd happily read an entire novel full of nothing but Death petting his cats and doing his paperwork, not because there was less of him than there needed to be. Pratchett certainly does capture all the interesting things about him here, sometimes in fairly subtle ways: his utterly endearing well-meaning cluelessness, his humor, the profound nature of what he is, and the inescapable sadness of his duty and his existence. (Yeah, there are reasons why Death is kind of my favorite.)

Rating: 4.5/5

69. What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton



This collection of essays, which originally appeared as blog posts at tor.com, feature author and compulsive re-reader Jo Walton talking, usually in happily enthusiastic terms, about whatever she happens to be re-reading lately, including many recognized classics of science fiction and fantasy and more than a few works she regards as sadly neglected gems. Some of the pieces just talk about the book in question in a fairly broad way, while others address more specific points. There are also a few that aren't about particular books at all but more about the experience of reading (or re-reading) or about the SF field in general.

The individual essays are all very short -- usually somewhere around three pages -- which means that they don't really have time to go into anything in huge amounts of depth. Mostly they're the sort of thing that works just fine when you read it on a blog, but perhaps feels less substantial than you might hope for once it's printed and bound. Also, there are times when she sets off to re-read entire long series, discussing them one book at a time, often with considerably more detail and considerably more spoilers than she usually employs, which can be a little annoying if you haven't read the series in question. (I ended up skipping or skimming over a lot of pages about Steven Brust's Dragaera series. I did read a couple of them, ages ago, and have always meant to get back to them, so I definitely wanted to avoid spoilers.)

Despite that, though, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Even if the individual entries are mostly pretty slight, the book as a whole has a pleasant more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts feel to it, and Walton's love of the genre shines warmly through it all. I finished it surprisingly quickly, too, for a book of over 400 pages. Those short little chapters were as easy to keep on munching through as a bag of tasty potato chips.

Also, she has caused my already ridiculous reading wishlist to swell even further. Which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Rating: 4/5

>128 bragan: I've had this book on my to read list for a while and I'm partly eager to get to it and partly terrified how much it's going to add to my wish list. I do love reading about books like that though.

>129 valkyrdeath: Books about books, and about other people's reading, are always weirdly fun. And it's added at least 9 books to my list, with a few more that I'm still sort of waffling about. But, hey, considering how insanely big that list is already, it's really just another drop in a very big bucket.

>128 bragan:

I've read most of the articles when she was posting them - I loved the ones about books I had read and she made me read the ones I had not. I have the book somewhere as well - not sure when I will get to it though :) Nice review.

>131 AnnieMod: I think maybe one or two of them I had seen, but I haven't been a regular reader of the blog, so almost all of them were new to me.

70. The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev



Ria is a big Bollywood star, but she is haunted by trauma in her past, and has not been able to open herself up to anyone since Vikram, the man she left behind in Chicago ten years ago, for what she believed was his own good. But now she has to return to Chicago for her cousin's wedding, and it becomes impossible to avoid seeing him, and rekindling her feelings for him, once again.

This book has a number of things going for it. The writing, while flawed in a few places, is generally pretty good, and certainly very readable. The main character felt fairly real to me, in all her complex misery. The ending was pleasantly sweet. And the portrayal of Ria's extended Indian family was so well-done and so immersive that I almost felt like part of it -- which is a nice trick, considering that my knowledge all things Indian is embarrassingly small.

The thing is... Well, whatever else this book may be, it is at its core a fairly conventional romance novel, something I wasn't entirely aware of when I started it. And, as I concluded the last time I made an attempt to read romance, it's really just not my genre. Among other things, there's a point in here where I suddenly felt like the love interest was behaving the way he was not because it made sense, but because it was the point in some formula where he was supposed to make that particular kind of change. And then came the sex scenes, which -- while decently written and mercifully free of "throbbing manhood"s or other such nonsense -- felt more than a bit clichéd to me. Meaning that for a while my suspension of disbelief snapped, I found it hard to keep thinking of these characters as people and not characters, and I lost interest in the story entirely. I did mostly get it back after a while, fortunately. But, once again, I think I'm not the best audience for this sort of thing. I suspect that for people who enjoy the conventions of the romance genre and are looking for something with a bit of substance, it's likely to have a great deal of appeal.

Rating: It's always hard to rate a book in this kind of situation. I want to go with my own reaction, but it seems unfair to penalize it for being part of a genre I don't happen to like. Let's call it 3.5/5.

71. The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente



This final book in Valente's wise, whimsical series of kids' novels picks up right where the previous volume, The Boy Who Lost Fairyland leaves off, and turns its attention back to the usual hero of the series, September, who has found herself crowned Queen of Fairyland, but has to win a most unusual race to keep the throne (or at least to keep it out of the hands of people who shouldn't have it).

I don't think any of the later books have wowed me quite the way the first one did, but they've all been charming and fun and smart, this one included, and finally finishing the series has left me with a nice warm feeling.

Rating: 4/5

72. Doctor Who: The Complete Visual Collection by Jason Loborik, et al.



A compilation of two separate visually-oriented Doctor Who reference books:

Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary: This is actually a revised version of a book that originally came out sometime during the Eleventh Doctor's run. It now covers up through the Twelfth Doctor's first season, so it's still out of date at this point, but less so. It features pictures, with some explanatory text, of all kinds of people, places, and things from Doctor Who. Or rather, from the new version; you won't find much in the way of references to the classic show here. The text, to be honest, is kind of... insipid. (And not necessarily always 100% accurate, although the one obvious mistake I noted --since when does the Doctor affectionately refer to his TARDIS as "Tardy?" -- I'm inclined to explain by some ashen-faced editor seeing the word "Sexy" in there, exclaiming, "But children are going to be reading this!" and changing it just before going to press.) But visually it's very cool, fun to browse through, and potentially useful if you're into costuming or fan art.

Doctor Who: Character Encyclopedia: This one covers both the classic and new series, although I do think it's more comprehensive about the newer stuff. It only goes up to the very beginning of the Twelfth Doctor's stint, though. It contains entries on various people and species to be found in the show: Doctors, companions, friends, enemies, and prominent one-story guest characters. For each person (or species) there's a large, colorful picture (well, colorful except for some of the folks from the black-and-white era), and some notes about who they are and what they did on the show. Overall, I liked this text better than that to be found in the Visual Dictionary, possibly just because it's more succinct. And at one entry per page, it's fast and reasonably entertaining to flip through.

Overall, I think it's not necessarily something every Who fan needs to rush out and buy, but I can testify (having received it that way) that it makes a very nice gift.

Rating: 3.5/5

My daughter and wife had a Dr. Who kick for a years and then drifted, so I've lost touch with him to. It's possible we have the older version of the visual dictionary.

Loved your review of Soul Music, which I haven't read. Haven't read Hogfather either. I think these are from when he was at his best.

>136 dchaikin: It's never too late to make the Doctor's re-acquaintance! :)

I am really enjoying going back to these Pratchett books, which doesn't surprise me in the least. Very much looking forward to revisiting Hogfather. I remember that one being lots and lots of fun.

73. The Last Testament: A Memoir by God (with David Javerbaum)



God, eager to repeat the bestseller status of his previous books, has released this new volume in which he shares behind-the-scenes information about familiar Bible stories, dishes up celebrity gossip, offers his opinions on human history, corrects a few misconceptions about his earlier work, and reveals his plans for the upcoming apocalypse (although the book must have sold well enough for him to decide to delay it so he could write a sequel, since it was originally scheduled for 2012). Among other interesting tidbits, we're presented with the never-before-told truth about Adam and Steve, given an explanation for where God's been lately (he was off having a "midternity crisis"), and told who God's favorite sports teams are.

The humor here ranges from the mildly silly to the bitingly satiric. Which is perhaps unsurprising, as the author -- uh, co-author -- David Javerbaum was once the head writer for The Daily Show, and is thus a guy who clearly knows his satire. Needless to say, those who lack a sense of humor about religion or a tolerance for blasphemy are bound to disapprove, but atheistic me thought it was pretty darned funny.

Rating: 4/5

>138 bragan: That sounds great. I'll look for it.

Is that a photo of the author on the cover? :-P

>139 Nickelini: I suggest buying a copy to encourage him to continue holding off the apocalypse while he watches his sales figures. :)

>140 FlorenceArt: Yep! I believe he mentions sitting for photos somewhere in the book.

>138 bragan: That sounds hysterically funny.

>142 avidmom: The humor can maybe be a little uneven, but it's always amusing, and the funniest bits are really funny.

>138 bragan: If you're looking for more of that sort of book, I recommend The Story of God by Chris Matheson. He wrote the screenplay for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

>144 Nickelini: Oh, that one's already on my wishlist!

74. The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis



In a post-apocalyptic Canada, a young woman discovers that the man who raised her is guilty of horrific crimes and flees across the wilderness to find her real parents, with both the criminal and the law hunting her as she goes.

It's not bad. The basic story is interesting, and it gets decently tense towards the end. I liked the protagonist's tough attitude, and very much liked the unlikely friendship she strikes up with another woman on her travels. And I almost always enjoy a post-apocalyptic setting, even if this one was light on world-building details and mostly read like the author really wanted to be writing a Western instead.

Somehow, though, I never got into it nearly as much as I wanted to. There are probably a number of reasons for that, but I think part of it is the way it's written, in a slightly overdone (and, to me at least, unidentifiable) dialect, sprinkled with first-person observations that seem unlikely coming from a narrator with the kind of sheltered life the main character has led, even if she is looking back from years later. And part of it is that there were things I kept not quite buying into, from the storm that whisks the girl away from her family in exactly the way that Dorothy was whisked away to Oz, to a half-tamed wolf cub who seems to magically understand absolutely everything that's said (or not said) to it, to a shocking revelation that's saved for the end in a way that didn't quite work for me.

Rating: 3.5/5

(Note: This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book.)

And that's it for the second quarter of 2016! Please join me here, as I keep reading my way on into July.

Some dangerous reviews here . . . I am so looking forward to bingeing at some point on Pratchett. I've dipped in my toe.

I found the Walton, in retrospect, a bit self-indulgent-- her thoughts on the books she was reading seemed too bloggy, which of course, is just what they were. It would have made better sense (but a lot more work) to pull her thoughts about, say, Brust and Jhereg into one (or two?) essays about particular aspects of his work . . it was just too reactive. All the same, since I respect Walton, I slogged along to the end and yes, it did fatten up the WL list.

Will have to check out The Girl With All the Gifts - - I like some dystopics and not others, am very picky!

Back to add - I read that article in the New Yorker about Lahiri's obsession with Italian. Had mixed feelings reading it -- in some ways it struck me the same way that I feel when "literary" people write about science fiction -- their experience of it is so unlike my own I hardly know what to think--and a kind of self-consciousness and competitiveness and fear of admitting you like something--well--intellectually suspect keeps them from "getting" it and leads to that tone of condescension that makes me grind my teeth. I was, for a long time, obsessed with French and my learning experience was completely different, I think because I don't think much about what "other people think" and long ago came to terms with making an ass of myself when learning something new. It's the only way!

>148 sibylline: Pratchett, apparently, is very, very binge-able. I have a friend who's been reading pretty much nothing else for the past couple of months, and she seems to be having a great time.

"Self-indulgent" is a fair enough word for Walton's writing, I guess, and I wonder now if it would have bothered me if I hadn't known the essays in the books were just collected blog posts. But I appear to have different standards for blogging, which is something I hadn't thought about too much before, and which might merit some further contemplation.

No idea if The Girl With All the Gifts will be your kind of dystopia or not. But if you want to read a little more about it before deciding if you want to start it, I personally don't think it will totally ruin things.

>149 sibylline: I know nothing about Lahiri and her desire to write in Italian, although I've been reading the conversation on the subject here with mild interest. But I certainly have encountered that "kind of self-consciousness and competitiveness and fear of admitting you like something--well--intellectually suspect," and I think that is very well-put.