Kalki

Kalki (Gore Vidal)


A book that is, unfortunately for me, simply far too of-its-time - this book is so 70's it hurts, and having missed that decade, I could almost feel my hair getting rustled as most of the book flew straight over my head. I've really enjoyed some of Vidal's historical novels before, and I think perhaps I'm going to stick to those in the future.


Grade: N/A

"A History of Britian in 36 Postage Stamps"

A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps (Chris West)

This was an interesting book to read; I know basically nothing about postage stamps, and not a great deal about the period of British history covered (1840 - the modern day). I enjoyed reading it, but the history is very basic, and it mostly just left me wanting more. I can easily recommend this for school kids, history novices, and people with an interest in postage stamps; otherwise I'd probably give it a miss.

Grade: B-

"An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth"

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything (Col. Chris Hadfield)

A pretty interesting book that's easy to recommend, if not quite demand that you run out and pick up now. The book is mostly a autobiography of Hadfield's life, mostly centered on his last mission to space on the International Space Station. Mixed in is almost comedically Canadian common sense advice (make sure you're doing your own job well, etc). I don't really know that I have much more to say about this; I liked reading it, and the advice isn't bad. Um, I guess this review's a small bite.

Grade: B

"American Savage"

American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics (Dan Savage)

I had an eerie feeling reading this book; Savage's voice comes through so strongly that I couldn't help but hear him reading the text. This is not necessarily a bad thing, although I guess it removes the need for an audiobook.
Aside from that, I liked it; Savage's positions seems pretty sensible to a liberal dupe like myself (although I was left wanting to hear more about his collection of Catholic kitsch).
My only two caveats are that I'd recommend skipping the gun control chapter, which is a real downer and doesn't look to be getting better any time soon; and this is probably a book to get out of the library (I polished it off in two sittings).

Grade: B+

"The Diary of Edward the Hamster 1990 - 1990"

The Diary of Edward the Hamster 1990 - 1990 (Miriam & Ezra Elia)

I guess I didn't get this book; it's about a sad hamster who (spoiler alert? I can't even tell, it's in the title) dies at the end. It's not funny or entertaining; it's puzzling and depressing. The whole book I was like "Is this supposed to be funny?" and then I got to the end and went "What?" and then "Was this supposed to be funny?"
Don't even bother getting this one of the library.

Grade: F

"Dividing the Spoils"

Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire (Robin Waterfield)

I'm torn on this book; it does a very nice job of summing up the fallout from Alexander the Great dying young, stopping to touch on Greek social and political ideas in addition to who fought whom. But I also struggled with it - there's a ton of new unusual Greek names, and I never got a really solid grip on who was who as the story played out. In the end, this is probably not for the casual reader; I think I'd recommend this as a quick endcap (it's barely 200 pages) after a nice meaty Alexander the Great biography. (Speaking of which, can anybody recommend a nice meaty Alexander the Great biography?)

Grade: B-

"The X-President"

The X-President (Philip Baruth)

Is there anything more frustrating than a book with a good idea that has no idea what to do with it? That's the case with this novel, based around the idea that Bill Clinton - through no fault of his own - sets in motion a chain of events that leads the world to unite against America, and his biographer is recruited to go back in time and steer him away from this path.
At least, that's what the back cover and reviews say. I got to page 80 (out of 369), and not only has our heroine not yet traveled back in time, she doesn't even know time travel is possible, having farted around for 80 pages getting nothing done. I could forgive how long this takes to get going if the writing was excellent, or if interesting things were happening, but neither of these is the case. The most egregious example, to me, is a clutch of pages wasted showing the heroine returning to her house that she's sublet and breaking up a party that her tenant's teenage daughter is throwing. What do we learn from this? That our heroine doesn't like having keg parties thrown in her house? Why should I care? Why are you showing me this? When is something exciting going to happen?
Urgh. Baruth either needs a more forceful editor, or to have more respect for his readers. This leaden brick is going right in the donation pile.

Grade: D-

"Grandpa Won't Wake Up"

Grandpa Won't Wake Up (Simon Hill & Shannon Wheeler)

I don't really have a lot to say about this book except that I really enjoyed it. The bare-bones premise is that Grandpa told his grandkids he'd take them to the zoo, and he'd take them soon, and it's already noon, and Grandpa won't wake up. The writing is very funny, the art is very apt, and the attention to detail is wonderful (I lingered over the list at the back of fake horrible children's books). That's all I have to say.

Grade: A

"The Penelopiad"

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus (Margaret Atwood)

Boy, I wanted to like this book. It's a retelling of the Odyssey, from Penelope's point of view, with a backup Greek chorus of 12 of her maids who end up murdered when Odysseus finally comes home.
Unfortunately, there's a very basic problem with this premise, which is that Penelope wasn't on the Odyssey, and the author either can't or won't come up with anything nearly as interesting. Want to guess what Penelope was doing while Odysseus was out there? She sat at home worrying and watching the suitors eating all her food. Combine that with the Greek chorus ending up being pages of goofy poems I skipped and I was pretty disappointed with this book. The most amusing part ended up being the chapter titles, which is never a good sign.

Grade: C-

"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

"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

"Crap Cars"

Crap Cars (Richard Porter)

The Carthage to the Rome that is "The World's Worst Cars". This book differs from that one in that it has only 50 cars (to the 150 included in World's Worst), and the writing is much snottier. These aren't necessarily negative, but this is a really short book, basically 50 snarky paragraphs, and it does feel rather thin. Still, I enjoyed reading it, so I guess I can't be too hard on it.

Grade: C+

"Taking On the System"

Taking on the System: Rules for Change in a Digital Era (Kos)

I felt bad finding this in the dollar store. Even Amazon has this marked down to $6. I guess it's because it was published in 2009, and since it was written by one of those tricky Internet guys, the information in it is old news? Either way, I liked this book. It's a bit brief - it doesn't feel like its 290 pages, certainly - but I thought there was a lot of good information in here, and even if it's two years old, it still seems quite valid to me. Given the brevity of the book, I don't know that I'd pay too much for it, but it's a steal at a dollar, and I wouldn't complain for six, either.

$1 price: A-
$6 price: B

"The Hundred Years War"

The Hundred Years War: The English in Frace 1337-1453 (Desmond Seward)

In contrast to the monstrous history books I usually read, this book is positively bite-sized; You get the whole history of the (slightly over) 100 years war from a god's eye view. Seward never stops unnecessarily, and as a result the book never bogs down. Since the roses are never stopped and smelled, you may not be too pleased when famous persons or battles are ushered onstage, dealt with, and shuffled off instead of being investigated further, but I liked this approach. I'd view this as a book to read to get a basic grounding (or even to see if you're interested in the time period), and after reading it, you can move on to more specific books covering whatever you're interested in, or a more in-depth history of the war itself.

Grade: B+

"Art of the Mass Effect Universe"

Art of the Mass Effect Universe ("Various")

A very nice, high-quality artbook about, well, you can guess which universe, I'm sure. A little more detail on 1 and 3 would be nice - about 50% of the book is ME2 - but I really liked how you get to see the different concepts for characters that were never used, and the commentary on discarded ideas is spare but illuminating. Maybe not worth $40, but for the $26 I got on Amazon I'm very pleased. That's all I have to say.

Grade: B+

"The World's Worst Aircraft"

The World's Worst Aircraft: From Pioneering Failures to Multimillion Dollar Disasters (Jim Winchester)

At last, the stunning finale to the trilogy! You won't believe what happens to your favorite characters from "The World's Worst Cars" and "The World's Worst Weapons!"
No, I'm lying; It's just another book, which is about (checks title) bad airplanes. I don't know a lot about airplanes, so I was more interested in the parade of unbelievable disasters from the wild and wooly teens and twenties, where putting eight wings and sixteen motors on a houseboat looks comparatively sane. As for the rest of the book, well, it's an interesting bathroom book, and I wasn't expecting or asking for more than that.

Grade: B

"Fiasco"

Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops (James Parish)

A lightweight examination that follows Hollywood's history by tracing the flops, this book starts with Cleopatra up through (fairly modern) bombs like Battlefield Earth. Parish always keeps the book moving, so you never go too in-depth on any of the movies, but I like how you get a sense of the buisness changing as you go from movie to movie. Parish steers clear of movies that already have extensive post-mortems, so there's no Heaven's Gate or Bonfire of the Vanities on here; Instead, this is a nice, breezy starting place if you're interested in this genre (or want to see if you're interested in this genre, I guess).

Grade: B+

"Lady Chatterly's Lover"

Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawrence)

Well, God help me, I tried, but I just couldn't make it through this book. It's just too British; I got 67 pages in, and it's nothing but British class-consciousness, being navel-gazed and fretted over. I'm sure it picks up, but I just couldn't stand to read any more. The writing itself is fine, but the subject matter is incredibly tedious to an American like me. YMMV.

Grade: N/A 

"Regrety's Big Book of Fabricated Folktales from Finland"

Regrety's Big Book of Fabricated Folktales from Finland (April Winchell)

Just exactly what it sounds like (well, aside from "Big"): A book full of made up folktales and invented facts and statistics about Finland, usually about how Finland smells like pee and everyone who lives there is a depressed drunk who takes turns beating each other with sticks to pass the time while the moonshine ferments. It has nothing in common with the author's other book except the quality of writing, which is still excellent. This is a good bathroom book, as it is a little short (like this review).

Grade: B+

"Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer"

Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History (Greg Wyshynski)

Just what it sounds like: A list of 101 horrible sports ideas. Wyshynski is a snappy writer and this book moves right along. Even if you, like me, know nothing about hoops or soccer, it isn't difficult to follow. Good bathroom book. That's all I have to say.

Grade: B