Zinn's book was a long read. The is substantial in both shear number of pages and in the amount of information packed in between the covers. Because I was reading it during a presidential election cycle between an explicitly corporate man and a centrist made it even more difficult.
Zinn's writing is ponderous. He clearly has a message and never misses an opportunity to bludgeon the reader with it. The research, secondary, and primary sources, are prodigious and drives home the point like a sledgehammer.
Despite the writing, I forged through because I found the story Zinn was telling compelling. It is true that the victors write the history, so when the losers get a chance it is a troubling treat. As part of the mollified middle class, it is disheartening to be reminded that my happiness is a well constructed myth and that in many ways I, along with my peers, have been duped, and are in league with, the rapacious captains of capitalism.
Reading the book I moved between feeling angry and despondent-mostly despondent. I thought that perhaps the best way to effect change was to vote for Romeny and accelerate the rapid decimation of the middle class. I also thought that despite the fact that Obama was part of the grand compromise that kept the existing balance in place, it was better than the pain of revolution. I eventually found a balance by accepting that Zinn and his ilk present a false choice.
It is not the case that the current balance is fundamentally flawed and that it needs to be torn down. The current balance is still weighted towards the haves, and is arguably getting more lopsided, but it is far better than many systems. Revolution will not get us any closer to a healthy balance; it will only get us further away. That doesn't mean we accept the balance. The answer is constant vigilance and never accepting the status quo.
Nov 12, 2012
Jan 31, 2012
The Last Werewolf
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan is an odd duck of a book. There is a trend for literary authors to tackle genre, particularly horror, novels. Most frequently it is zombies or vampires. Duncan, however, decided to change things up and go with a less popular species of creature: the werewolf. Werewolves turn up in the current crop of faux romance horror, but it always in a supporting role. Duncan puts the werewolf right at the heart of the story.
I think it is a great choice for exploring the human condition. Unlike vampires or zombies, werewolves have a soul, a life to lose, and spend a majority of their lives as human beings. A werewolf must truly learn how to reconcile the monster and the man in order to live. Vampires and zombies are truly other. They lose all of their humanity once they are turned. All that is left for them is to mourn. A werewolf, because of the duality of their nature, can never leave their humanity fully behind. For 30 days every month a werewolf is basically human. They must make their way in the world; they must navigate human relationships; they must deal with human emotions. People are not just food to the werewolf; people are the werewolf's other half.
Duncan explores this duality from the point of view of Jake Marlow, a two hindered year old werewolf. He is hunted by a relentless man who has wiped out all other known werewolves and has saved Jake for last. Duncan could have made Jake a likable guy who has always tried to balance the monster with extraordinary feats of grace or had him be a noble monster, like Dexter, who only eats the guilty. Instead, Duncan makes Jake tired, cynical, selfish, and tired of life. Jake is essentially waiting to die. Duncan goes almost out of his way to make Jake unlikeable. However, Duncan also humanizes Jake by allowing Jake to have some consciousness of the evil he commits and the toll it takes on those close to him. Duncan also gives Jake a sense of honor. Jake's dual nature makes him complex and interesting. It keeps you reading despite the plot twists.
The plot centers around Jake's inexorable meeting with his hunter. Jake just wants it to end, or so he believes. The hunter of course wants the end to be a challenge, so he goes out of his way to provoke Jake. There are a number of crazy plot twists that get between Jake and his stated desire to die. The twists are just a way to keep Jake talking. It is Jake's talking, the way he sees life, the way he deals with his nature and humanity that keeps the reader in the game.
The Last Werewolf is a horror novel, a chase novel, and a journey of self discovery all wrapped up in one ball. There is almost no horror other than having werewolves and vampires. The chase is pretty slow. It is the inner journey that makes up the meat of the book. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of their position on werewolves.
I think it is a great choice for exploring the human condition. Unlike vampires or zombies, werewolves have a soul, a life to lose, and spend a majority of their lives as human beings. A werewolf must truly learn how to reconcile the monster and the man in order to live. Vampires and zombies are truly other. They lose all of their humanity once they are turned. All that is left for them is to mourn. A werewolf, because of the duality of their nature, can never leave their humanity fully behind. For 30 days every month a werewolf is basically human. They must make their way in the world; they must navigate human relationships; they must deal with human emotions. People are not just food to the werewolf; people are the werewolf's other half.
Duncan explores this duality from the point of view of Jake Marlow, a two hindered year old werewolf. He is hunted by a relentless man who has wiped out all other known werewolves and has saved Jake for last. Duncan could have made Jake a likable guy who has always tried to balance the monster with extraordinary feats of grace or had him be a noble monster, like Dexter, who only eats the guilty. Instead, Duncan makes Jake tired, cynical, selfish, and tired of life. Jake is essentially waiting to die. Duncan goes almost out of his way to make Jake unlikeable. However, Duncan also humanizes Jake by allowing Jake to have some consciousness of the evil he commits and the toll it takes on those close to him. Duncan also gives Jake a sense of honor. Jake's dual nature makes him complex and interesting. It keeps you reading despite the plot twists.
The plot centers around Jake's inexorable meeting with his hunter. Jake just wants it to end, or so he believes. The hunter of course wants the end to be a challenge, so he goes out of his way to provoke Jake. There are a number of crazy plot twists that get between Jake and his stated desire to die. The twists are just a way to keep Jake talking. It is Jake's talking, the way he sees life, the way he deals with his nature and humanity that keeps the reader in the game.
The Last Werewolf is a horror novel, a chase novel, and a journey of self discovery all wrapped up in one ball. There is almost no horror other than having werewolves and vampires. The chase is pretty slow. It is the inner journey that makes up the meat of the book. I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of their position on werewolves.
Jan 14, 2012
2012
So this is the last year of the Mayan calendar, so the world might end in December. If that is the case, which I doubt, there is a lot of living left to squeeze into the year....
For me, less is usually more so I'm not going to clutter the year up with lots of big plans and lofty must accomplish goals. Instead, I'm going to set myself a few things to guide how I live this year:
1. I'm going to value time with my family over time at work.
2. I will do my best in all things that I do.
3. I will read indiscriminately.
4. I will prefer outdoor time to screen time.
5. I will stay active.
6. I will eat healthy with the occasional chocolate and ice cream.
7. I will try to relax.
These are just guiding principles. They are not mandates. They are not goals to be reached.
Mandates, goals, resolutions are just another way to beat yourself up. They are carrots to chase and hoops to jump through on the way to the next goal. They are not a way to live a life.
If they Mayans were right, I don't want to be looking back from the end of the world wishing I had accomplished some goal. I want to be happy knowing that I had lived life.
For me, less is usually more so I'm not going to clutter the year up with lots of big plans and lofty must accomplish goals. Instead, I'm going to set myself a few things to guide how I live this year:
1. I'm going to value time with my family over time at work.
2. I will do my best in all things that I do.
3. I will read indiscriminately.
4. I will prefer outdoor time to screen time.
5. I will stay active.
6. I will eat healthy with the occasional chocolate and ice cream.
7. I will try to relax.
These are just guiding principles. They are not mandates. They are not goals to be reached.
Mandates, goals, resolutions are just another way to beat yourself up. They are carrots to chase and hoops to jump through on the way to the next goal. They are not a way to live a life.
If they Mayans were right, I don't want to be looking back from the end of the world wishing I had accomplished some goal. I want to be happy knowing that I had lived life.
Dec 17, 2011
The Night Eternal by del Toro and Hogan
"The Night Eternal" is the last book in the Strain Trilogy and I was really looking forward to a strong ending to cap off what has been a great story. Instead I got a pseudo-religious anticlimax.
How the story ends is no great surprise (although there is always a slim chance that an author will either let the bad guys win or extract an extraordinary price from the good guys), but, in my mind, having an obvious ending puts a lot of pressure on the authors to make getting to the end good.
Instead the authors spent a lot of time going into the backstory of how vampires came to exist, building a case for Mr. Quinlan being a Jesus figure, and Eph being the hand of God. All of this gets in the way of a tight storyline and spending more time on how people react under an oppressive occupation. It also gets in the way of any character development.
The two year interlude between the action in book two and the beginning of book three has changed the characters. The change is mostly in Eph and because the changes fit in with the character's basic disposition, they don't require much explanation. Fet and Nora have also changed, but their changes don't really fit with the characters as laid out in the first two books. Little is done to smooth this over either. The reader is just left to accept it.
That said, the book is not a bad read. There are some excellent fight scenes and the writing is excellent. The mythology is not uninteresting.
If you have read the first two books, you should read this one as well. I found it disappointing, but not without merit. My sense of disappointment is likely just a matter of taste for the direction the authors took the story. I'm less interested in religious mythology and more interested in social critique.
How the story ends is no great surprise (although there is always a slim chance that an author will either let the bad guys win or extract an extraordinary price from the good guys), but, in my mind, having an obvious ending puts a lot of pressure on the authors to make getting to the end good.
Instead the authors spent a lot of time going into the backstory of how vampires came to exist, building a case for Mr. Quinlan being a Jesus figure, and Eph being the hand of God. All of this gets in the way of a tight storyline and spending more time on how people react under an oppressive occupation. It also gets in the way of any character development.
The two year interlude between the action in book two and the beginning of book three has changed the characters. The change is mostly in Eph and because the changes fit in with the character's basic disposition, they don't require much explanation. Fet and Nora have also changed, but their changes don't really fit with the characters as laid out in the first two books. Little is done to smooth this over either. The reader is just left to accept it.
That said, the book is not a bad read. There are some excellent fight scenes and the writing is excellent. The mythology is not uninteresting.
If you have read the first two books, you should read this one as well. I found it disappointing, but not without merit. My sense of disappointment is likely just a matter of taste for the direction the authors took the story. I'm less interested in religious mythology and more interested in social critique.
Dec 15, 2011
Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst
I downloaded this book from Apple because it sounded interesting and it was free. It is not the sort of book I would pay money to read. The description made it clear that this was a book with something to sell.
Bit literacy is the product and Hurst's company will gladly sell it to your company for a hefty fee. I don't begrudge Hurst for this or think any less of him, but I don't ever feel like paying for a marketing tool.
It turns out that the book has some good stuff in it. It also doesn't shy away from offering up details on using the system. So, if you are buried under bits(e-mail, photos, power points, etc) it may be worth paying a few
bucks.
The key to the whole system is rooted in standard productivity lore. Let the unimportant stuff vanish so you can focus on getting things done. Don't keep ten pictures of the same thing; only keep the best one. Don't save every scrap of e-mail because it buries the stuff you need to save.
Hurst is a proponent of inbox zero. You should empty your inbox at least once a day. E-mails are either junk to be discarded, to do items that need to be tracked, or information to b stored in an appropriate place. The inbox is not a place to keep to do items or information.
One other discussion I found interesting was the discussion of file formats for textual data. Hurst comes right out and says that Word, and its ilk, are never the proper choice for sharing text. He prefers plain text unless you require formatting. If formatting is required he prefers PDF.
Bit Literacy has some interesting ideas for writers as well. Hurst has a whole section on how to write in a bit literate manner. Basically it is all about front loading the point and brevity. Write in a way that respects that the reader is busy. This is not about pleasure it is about efficiency.
Hurst's book has some worthwhile points. There is something in there for anyone who uses a computer.
Bit literacy is the product and Hurst's company will gladly sell it to your company for a hefty fee. I don't begrudge Hurst for this or think any less of him, but I don't ever feel like paying for a marketing tool.
It turns out that the book has some good stuff in it. It also doesn't shy away from offering up details on using the system. So, if you are buried under bits(e-mail, photos, power points, etc) it may be worth paying a few
bucks.
The key to the whole system is rooted in standard productivity lore. Let the unimportant stuff vanish so you can focus on getting things done. Don't keep ten pictures of the same thing; only keep the best one. Don't save every scrap of e-mail because it buries the stuff you need to save.
Hurst is a proponent of inbox zero. You should empty your inbox at least once a day. E-mails are either junk to be discarded, to do items that need to be tracked, or information to b stored in an appropriate place. The inbox is not a place to keep to do items or information.
One other discussion I found interesting was the discussion of file formats for textual data. Hurst comes right out and says that Word, and its ilk, are never the proper choice for sharing text. He prefers plain text unless you require formatting. If formatting is required he prefers PDF.
Bit Literacy has some interesting ideas for writers as well. Hurst has a whole section on how to write in a bit literate manner. Basically it is all about front loading the point and brevity. Write in a way that respects that the reader is busy. This is not about pleasure it is about efficiency.
Hurst's book has some worthwhile points. There is something in there for anyone who uses a computer.
Nov 27, 2011
Keurig Must Die!
Keurig is evil. They prey upon people's laziness to foist bad, over priced coffee on us. To make it even worse, their k-cups pile up in landfills where what ever comes after humanity will find them and be amazed at how primitive and backwards we were.
It is easy to make good single cups of coffee cheaply and without so much waste. Use a French press or a single cup filter. It tastes better and is better for the planet. As an added bonus, you will be forced to sit back and relax for a few minutes while your coffee brews.
It is easy to make good single cups of coffee cheaply and without so much waste. Use a French press or a single cup filter. It tastes better and is better for the planet. As an added bonus, you will be forced to sit back and relax for a few minutes while your coffee brews.
Nov 18, 2011
Heat Rises
This is the third Richard Caslte novel. Like its predecessors, it presents fictionalized versions of the "real" people on the TV show Castle. The book is a solid piece of genre fiction, that I think an stand on its own. However, for me the fun is in the association with Castle. I love the show and the characters, so seeing how they are morphed to fit the crime genre is fun.In this installment we are treated to a more intimate portrait of Nikki Heat. Her vulnerabilities are at the fore throughout the story. She is uncertain about her relationship with Rourke. She is off of her game because of her relationship with her Captain. It is interesting to see the tension between her weaknesses and the tough as nails shell she projects.It is an interesting parallel to Bekett's development on the show. Outwardly, she is tough as nails and an emotional brick wall. Internally, as we've seen glimpses of throughout the series, she is a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. This season in particular is exploring the balancing act she plays to keep it together and the price she pays to do it.
Sep 26, 2011
Haven
I got this book as a free sample from the iBookstore. It is a dystopian novel set in the near future. It has all the stock features of a dystopia: class-based oppression, political in-fighting, a rag tag band of fighters trying to over through the regime, some vague sense that a super disease has destroyed the global world order, and alien technology.
It is OK if you are looking for a distracting summer read. The plot moves along at a good pace. The writing is clear. The characters are serviceable. There are no jarring holes in the story. The level of gore is on the high side, but still safely PG. It unfolds in a pleasantly predictable manner.
The problems with the book are manifold, but none of them raise to level of being egregious. There seems to be too many characters with a lot of backstory that never really serve to move the story forward. The author does not seem to have a good grasp on showing characters maturing or having complex, yet subtle, relationships. The ending is also problematic for such a long book.
All of the problems point to the fact that Haven was conceived as a much longer work. The author, while ambitious, didn't proved skilled enough to whittle out a solid standalone story as his first outing. I know there has to be a follow up book, but I don't feel like wading through another 500-600 pages of OK writing to reach the end.
It is OK if you are looking for a distracting summer read. The plot moves along at a good pace. The writing is clear. The characters are serviceable. There are no jarring holes in the story. The level of gore is on the high side, but still safely PG. It unfolds in a pleasantly predictable manner.
The problems with the book are manifold, but none of them raise to level of being egregious. There seems to be too many characters with a lot of backstory that never really serve to move the story forward. The author does not seem to have a good grasp on showing characters maturing or having complex, yet subtle, relationships. The ending is also problematic for such a long book.
All of the problems point to the fact that Haven was conceived as a much longer work. The author, while ambitious, didn't proved skilled enough to whittle out a solid standalone story as his first outing. I know there has to be a follow up book, but I don't feel like wading through another 500-600 pages of OK writing to reach the end.
Jul 29, 2011
It's All About the Bike
I picked up this book based on a recommendation from a friend and a review from a trusted magazine. If you are remotely interested in bicycles, it is a must read. It packs the history of cycling and a good amount of technical information into a shortish and fun to read package.
Penn uses his quest to get a custom built bicycle as the backdrop for unravelling the story of the bicycle and its special place in the world. For the history buff it is an interesting lens through which to see the changes that have taken place over the last 150 years. As Penn points out, the bicycle was a leading edge of many of the changes in the early 20th century. It made the populace more mobile, it helped liberate women, it provided a healthy past time, and was a huge employer.
For the bicycle buff the book is an even vaster treasure trove. It has some technical details. It tells the stories behind some of the biggest innovations in bicycling. It validates the special place a bicycle holds in your heart.
For the rest of the world, it is just full of great stories and good writing. Hopefully, it is also full of inspiration to hop on a bicycle!
Penn uses his quest to get a custom built bicycle as the backdrop for unravelling the story of the bicycle and its special place in the world. For the history buff it is an interesting lens through which to see the changes that have taken place over the last 150 years. As Penn points out, the bicycle was a leading edge of many of the changes in the early 20th century. It made the populace more mobile, it helped liberate women, it provided a healthy past time, and was a huge employer.
For the bicycle buff the book is an even vaster treasure trove. It has some technical details. It tells the stories behind some of the biggest innovations in bicycling. It validates the special place a bicycle holds in your heart.
For the rest of the world, it is just full of great stories and good writing. Hopefully, it is also full of inspiration to hop on a bicycle!
Apr 4, 2011
Naked Heat
I make no secret of my love for Castle. The mystery's are not puzzling and the plot is predictable, but the writing is fun and the the interplay between Castle and Beckett is sweet.
One of the other fun things about the show is that ABC actually has books written by Rick Castle that match the books he writes on the show. The second one, Naked Heat, came out late last year and I put a hold on it at the library almost immediately. My turn to read it just came round.
Like the show, the book is not going to win any awards or be mistaken for high culture. It is a quick read with a few laughs. It also sticks to the form of a modern police procedural novel.
The thing I like most about the novels is that they make me appreciate the TV show more. The dialog in the novels is snappy, but it doesn't have the same buddy quality that the actors bring to it. The characters in the book are flat compared to their TV counterparts despite the fact that the novel gives us glimpses of their interior thoughts. The action in the book lacks the funny tension of the TV show.
The cast is what makes Castle magic.
One of the other fun things about the show is that ABC actually has books written by Rick Castle that match the books he writes on the show. The second one, Naked Heat, came out late last year and I put a hold on it at the library almost immediately. My turn to read it just came round.
Like the show, the book is not going to win any awards or be mistaken for high culture. It is a quick read with a few laughs. It also sticks to the form of a modern police procedural novel.
The thing I like most about the novels is that they make me appreciate the TV show more. The dialog in the novels is snappy, but it doesn't have the same buddy quality that the actors bring to it. The characters in the book are flat compared to their TV counterparts despite the fact that the novel gives us glimpses of their interior thoughts. The action in the book lacks the funny tension of the TV show.
The cast is what makes Castle magic.
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