The Candidate's Wife (Patricia O'Brien)
Here's what happened in the 54 pages I read (out of less than 350 in the book total): The titular candidate's wife eats some eggs for breakfast. The candidate gives a speech - described in a paragraph or two - and then goes for a jog. I yawn mightily. The candidate's daughter wants to give a speech at a breakfast, but she can't because there isn't enough time. I get bored and my attention starts drifting. The candidate's wife takes a car ride. They get on a plane and land at an airport. I realize nothing interesting is going to happen and put the book down. I come to my book review blog and assign the dreaded
Grade: F
Monday, July 30, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
"Promethea" (Book 2)
Promethea: Book Two (Alan Moore)
Pretty much more of the same - which is a good thing in this case. With the basics taken care of, this is where Promethea starts getting really weird; The back half of this book is, in order, a issue-long exploration of how a living concept like Prometha has sex, a story about Y2K causing people's clothes and furniture which is made out of electronic goo turning sentient and attacking, and Prometha being shown the history of the universe and the human race, themed to the major arcana of the tarot cards, by the talking snakes of her caduceus, who always speak in rhymes. In other words, don't miss it.
Grade: A
Pretty much more of the same - which is a good thing in this case. With the basics taken care of, this is where Promethea starts getting really weird; The back half of this book is, in order, a issue-long exploration of how a living concept like Prometha has sex, a story about Y2K causing people's clothes and furniture which is made out of electronic goo turning sentient and attacking, and Prometha being shown the history of the universe and the human race, themed to the major arcana of the tarot cards, by the talking snakes of her caduceus, who always speak in rhymes. In other words, don't miss it.
Grade: A
Friday, July 20, 2012
"Promethea" (Book 1)
Promethea: Book One (Alan Moore)
I'm tempted to just write "It's another great Alan Moore comic" and leave it at that. Mostly, I don't want to have to try and summarize the book's plot; It's very weird and interesting, and summing it up in a few words just makes it sound nonsensical, whereas Moore unfolds it skillfully on the page. I'm just going to leave it at saying the plot is about the imagination, and the book is brimming with exciting ideas and typical Moore-ian level craftsmanship. Recommended.
Grade: A
I'm tempted to just write "It's another great Alan Moore comic" and leave it at that. Mostly, I don't want to have to try and summarize the book's plot; It's very weird and interesting, and summing it up in a few words just makes it sound nonsensical, whereas Moore unfolds it skillfully on the page. I'm just going to leave it at saying the plot is about the imagination, and the book is brimming with exciting ideas and typical Moore-ian level craftsmanship. Recommended.
Grade: A
Monday, July 16, 2012
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin
I had a hairdresser ask me how I could have possibly put this book down and start reading other books when I had trouble getting into it at first. Apparently your mileage may vary with this, was the lesson I got.
So, yes, obviously, I had trouble getting into this book. It doesn't help that it has slightly fewer characters than a Suikoden game. I have to say, watching an episode or two of the TV series helped. I've only seen one or two episodes of the TV series, though. It helped put a face to the at first endless parade of new characters being introduced, and afterwards I was ready to give the book another go (and apparently putting aside all hope of ever finishing the Iron Warriors omnibus.)
There's a dramatis personae at the back of the book, which I didn't notice was there until I was done with the book. It would have helped immensely to know it was there. Or if it had been printed at the front, so I could have known whom the Westeros equivalent of Hetman of Genome Brigade 321 Gilead was.
I've already finished the second book, which addresses at least some of my complaints about the first book, which is largely the lack of characterization or character development. It's much improved in A Clash of Kings, but throughout Game of Thrones, I felt confined by some of the characters, especially since the whole story is divided into chapters as seen by specific characters. I can't say how many times I skipped ahead in a Sansa chapter to see who would be next out of frustration with Sansa being frustrated. The only characters that actually seem to grow throughout the book are Arya Stark and Jon Snow, both of whom only seem to grow when they resign themselves to being stuck with life having dealt them a shitty hand and can't mulligan it.
Another frustration is some major characters never have a "chapter," and spend a lot of time "off camera," leaving me, two books in, wondering just what kind of character some people actually are, since we only see them through other characters reporting far-away actions and reminiscing about how great/terrible they are.
Overall, once you get over the initial hump, the book glides along on all cylinders, and the court intrigue and medieval combat actually becomes gripping and compelling, in spite of the oft too archetypal heroes and villains. (Most of whom eventually improve anyway.)
Grade: B+
George R. R. Martin
I had a hairdresser ask me how I could have possibly put this book down and start reading other books when I had trouble getting into it at first. Apparently your mileage may vary with this, was the lesson I got.
So, yes, obviously, I had trouble getting into this book. It doesn't help that it has slightly fewer characters than a Suikoden game. I have to say, watching an episode or two of the TV series helped. I've only seen one or two episodes of the TV series, though. It helped put a face to the at first endless parade of new characters being introduced, and afterwards I was ready to give the book another go (and apparently putting aside all hope of ever finishing the Iron Warriors omnibus.)
There's a dramatis personae at the back of the book, which I didn't notice was there until I was done with the book. It would have helped immensely to know it was there. Or if it had been printed at the front, so I could have known whom the Westeros equivalent of Hetman of Genome Brigade 321 Gilead was.
I've already finished the second book, which addresses at least some of my complaints about the first book, which is largely the lack of characterization or character development. It's much improved in A Clash of Kings, but throughout Game of Thrones, I felt confined by some of the characters, especially since the whole story is divided into chapters as seen by specific characters. I can't say how many times I skipped ahead in a Sansa chapter to see who would be next out of frustration with Sansa being frustrated. The only characters that actually seem to grow throughout the book are Arya Stark and Jon Snow, both of whom only seem to grow when they resign themselves to being stuck with life having dealt them a shitty hand and can't mulligan it.
Another frustration is some major characters never have a "chapter," and spend a lot of time "off camera," leaving me, two books in, wondering just what kind of character some people actually are, since we only see them through other characters reporting far-away actions and reminiscing about how great/terrible they are.
Overall, once you get over the initial hump, the book glides along on all cylinders, and the court intrigue and medieval combat actually becomes gripping and compelling, in spite of the oft too archetypal heroes and villains. (Most of whom eventually improve anyway.)
Grade: B+
"Don't Know Much About the Bible"
Don't Know Much About the Bible: Everything You Need To Know About the Good Book but Never Learned (Kenneth C. Davis) [Second Look!]
This is a great starting place for beginning bible history. Although it's a hefty book, over 500 pages, Davis keeps it moving right along and avoids managing to get bogged down in many of the drier parts of the Bible (just like R. Crumb!). There's only two issues to be aware of, neither of which bothered me that much: The first is that this is really a starting place - having listened to a bunch of The Human Bible, a good amount of this material was familiar to me, which wasn't really a problem as I just skipped through it. Truly, if you don't know much about the Bible, start here, but if you're already well versed, you can probably skip it. (Also, be prepared for Davis' stream of bad jokes and pop culture references, most of which are rather clunkily dated [Baywatch] or just plain bad [The First Wives Club, seriously].)
Grade: A-
This is a great starting place for beginning bible history. Although it's a hefty book, over 500 pages, Davis keeps it moving right along and avoids managing to get bogged down in many of the drier parts of the Bible (just like R. Crumb!). There's only two issues to be aware of, neither of which bothered me that much: The first is that this is really a starting place - having listened to a bunch of The Human Bible, a good amount of this material was familiar to me, which wasn't really a problem as I just skipped through it. Truly, if you don't know much about the Bible, start here, but if you're already well versed, you can probably skip it. (Also, be prepared for Davis' stream of bad jokes and pop culture references, most of which are rather clunkily dated [Baywatch] or just plain bad [The First Wives Club, seriously].)
Grade: A-
Monday, July 9, 2012
"The Scar" (Second Look)
The Scar (China Mieville)
Up until now, all the Mievelle books I've been read have been feast or famine: You either get a gangbusters book crammed with great ideas like Perdido Street Station, or you get a tedious, unreadable slog like The City & The City. As it turns out, The Scar is neither; It's more of a big, tasteless buffet, the first mediocre Mieville book I've read. Never let it be said Mievelle doesn't have original ideas, and the book is fairly bursting with them. The problem is that there's no beginning, middle, and end the to plot. There's no climax. Instead, the book reads like "Here's a bunch of shit that happened," and the result is that while I wasn't bored, the story never kicks into high gear. Instead, the story remains shapeless and flabby. It's kind of like this: Imagine the first Indiana Jones movie is six hours long, and at the end, instead of opening the Ark, the Germans decide it's a bad idea and go home, and also let Indy go because they're not that bad after all.
I can't really recommend this one, and at this point I'm starting to worry that Mieville has already written his one great book and needs to hire a new editor.
Grade: C-
Up until now, all the Mievelle books I've been read have been feast or famine: You either get a gangbusters book crammed with great ideas like Perdido Street Station, or you get a tedious, unreadable slog like The City & The City. As it turns out, The Scar is neither; It's more of a big, tasteless buffet, the first mediocre Mieville book I've read. Never let it be said Mievelle doesn't have original ideas, and the book is fairly bursting with them. The problem is that there's no beginning, middle, and end the to plot. There's no climax. Instead, the book reads like "Here's a bunch of shit that happened," and the result is that while I wasn't bored, the story never kicks into high gear. Instead, the story remains shapeless and flabby. It's kind of like this: Imagine the first Indiana Jones movie is six hours long, and at the end, instead of opening the Ark, the Germans decide it's a bad idea and go home, and also let Indy go because they're not that bad after all.
I can't really recommend this one, and at this point I'm starting to worry that Mieville has already written his one great book and needs to hire a new editor.
Grade: C-
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
"The Civil War" Volume 3
The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol 3. Red River to Appomattox (Shelby Foote)
First a quick note on the cover if you click the link: I have this as a three-volume set, and Amazon only has the first two volumes of that particular set. So this links to another edition, which frankly has a big dumb ugly cover, and also, has less colons in the title, which I got used to in Vol. 2. Very important business here.
As to the actual content of the book itself, well, it's more of the same from Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 3's probably my least favorite. One reason for this is because Foote's bias shows a little - probably the worst example of this is in all three volumes is his blowoff of the Fort Pillow massacre, which appears in this book. The other factor is ending fatigue; Once the actual war is wrapped up, Foote followed Jefferson Davis around and his path crosses with almost all the war's major figures so you see what happened to everyone. To be honest, I didn't really care that much. That sounds bad, I know, but there it is.
Even as my least favorite of all of the 3 volumes, all the praise I had for Volumes 1 and 2 still applies, and if you're planning on reading these, by the time you've finished the first two, I doubt you're going to quit anyway. Just don't start peeling the plastic off the cover like I did.
Grade: A
First a quick note on the cover if you click the link: I have this as a three-volume set, and Amazon only has the first two volumes of that particular set. So this links to another edition, which frankly has a big dumb ugly cover, and also, has less colons in the title, which I got used to in Vol. 2. Very important business here.
As to the actual content of the book itself, well, it's more of the same from Volumes 1 and 2. Volume 3's probably my least favorite. One reason for this is because Foote's bias shows a little - probably the worst example of this is in all three volumes is his blowoff of the Fort Pillow massacre, which appears in this book. The other factor is ending fatigue; Once the actual war is wrapped up, Foote followed Jefferson Davis around and his path crosses with almost all the war's major figures so you see what happened to everyone. To be honest, I didn't really care that much. That sounds bad, I know, but there it is.
Even as my least favorite of all of the 3 volumes, all the praise I had for Volumes 1 and 2 still applies, and if you're planning on reading these, by the time you've finished the first two, I doubt you're going to quit anyway. Just don't start peeling the plastic off the cover like I did.
Grade: A
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