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Adult Review: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

4/23/2012

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Moon Over Soho (Peter Grant #2)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Publication Date: 3/1/11
Publisher: Random House

Blurb(GR): 
The song. That’s what London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant first notices when he examines the corpse of Cyrus Wilkins, part-time jazz drummer and full-time accountant, who dropped dead of a heart attack while playing a gig at Soho’s 606 Club. The notes of the old jazz standard are rising from the body—a sure sign that something about the man’s death was not at all natural but instead supernatural.

Body and soul—they’re also what Peter will risk as he investigates a pattern of similar deaths in and around Soho. With the help of his superior officer, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, and the assistance of beautiful jazz aficionado Simone Fitzwilliam, Peter will uncover a deadly magical menace—one that leads right to his own doorstep and to the squandered promise of a young jazz musician: a talented trumpet player named Richard “Lord” Grant—otherwise known as Peter’s dear old dad.

Review:
Whenever I contemplate continuing a series that I love, there’s always that little bit of anxiety in the back of my mind: will this one live up to the rest? Will I have to abandon yet another series? Well, if any of you out there are worried about this one, be at ease. This installment is lovely and I have no doubt that fans of the first book will enjoy this one just as much.

At the end of Midnight Riot (aka, Rivers of London), Peter had just learned of a rather ferocious new murder. In this installment, he is on the trail of that particularly incisive (har har) killer as well as a black ethically challenged magician and a ravenous jazz vampire. Along the way, we are treated to interesting glimpses of Peter’s parents as well as the mysteriously ancient Thomas Nightingale.

The villains, crimes, and continuing mysteries still feel hazy to me. There's an attempt to force all three mysteries to magically come together and it doesn't quite coalesce. However, in the end, I found it hard to care. I enjoy these stories for their dry and witty humor, for the unique blend of science geekery and magic, and for the completely wonderful MC. If the solution to the mystery feels a little forced, or the villains feel a little flat, I am willing to let that slide because everything else is so enjoyable.

The main character feels so authentically young, and I don’t just mean because he loves his Playstation, and can’t help but act like a complete idiot when it comes to romance. He’s very youthfully idealistic and hopeful, while at the same time bringing a fresh, inventive mind to the stuffy old world of magic. Once again, I loved his ingenuity, clever scientific analyses, and silly nerd jokes.

There’s only one part of this book that I didn’t quite enjoy. I think that you know what I’m talking about, Peter. I see you hanging your head right now, and you should! For shame, Peter. FOR SHAME. Even I could see that she was a complete slag* from fifty paces away, and not even in an ironic, postmodernist way. You’d better make this up to me Leslie.

*A fun word that I picked up recently. Another fun word that I learned from this book: flannel, which seems to be similar to the American baloney. I’ll have to stick with my kinsmen on this one though, because flannel? Not only is it comfortable, durable, and let’s face it, sexy; it’s the perfect winter time fashion statement. Whereas, baloney? Serves no real purpose on Earth.

Also, if any of my fellow ignorant Americans are wondering what a Scouse accent is (like I did) then check out this mini-documentary: scouse accent.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Kate Nash – We Get On

Oh, Peter. When I declared you my fictional boyfriend, I really felt like we could get on. And then I caught you having wild monkey sex with that trampand now I just don’t know. 

What? No…of course that wasn’t me the other night at the folly. Telephoto lens? Seriously, I don’t even know how to work a remote control…much less a sophisticated piece of surveillance equipment. 

What, these? These are just some…photos…that I…found…in the gutter…the other day. I came to see you as soon as I found them, obviously. You really need to be more careful. This world is a crazy place…*shaky laugh* 

3.5/5 Stars
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Adult Review: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

4/23/2012

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Midnight Riot cover
Midnight Riot (Peter Grant #1)
Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Publication Date: 2/1/11
Publisher: Del Rey

Blurb(GR): 
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Review:

I have to admit that a moderate portion of my liking for this book is probably due to the fact that I am one of those Americans who is instantly charmed when faced with a page of British slang and references. I don’t know if it’s in the genetic memory or what, but I pathetically cannot help myself! Guh…it’s like thar speakin’ mah language but diffrint! However, this book isn’t just a compendium of British slang. I found quite a lot more to love within these pages.

Peter Grant is a young constable with the London Metropolitan Police who has just completed the required stint as a street cop and is about to be assigned to a higher duty. He’s hoping for something flashy like the murder squad, but is disappointed to learn that he will instead be asked to make a “valuable contribution” as a paper pusher. But fate takes him in a different direction one night when he ends up interviewing a ghostly eye witness to a strange murder. Soon he’s signing on as apprentice to the enigmatic Inspector Nightingale of the Economic and Specialist Crime Unit, where he must begin training in magic, arrange a truce between two river deities, and track down a raging revenant.

This book is hilarious, in a dry and silly way that will appeal to fans of Terry Pratchett. The main character is a young man, with a love of risk, high definition television, and his petite blonde coworker (not to mention the flirty river spirit), but he’s also cunning and analytical. It’s exciting to see him come into a world inhabited by ancient beings and traditions, and breathe new life into it with his more contemporary attitudes. He’s a science geek! He ponders the force required to levitate an apple, and where that energy might come from; he runs sensitivity trials on his own magic; and he counters the magic of an enemy using wave interference. He really comes across as authentically young, but clever. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

”I’d like to say that I remembered the practice of exchanging hostages from school history classes or from stories of precolonial life in Sierra Leone, but the truth was that it came up while playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was thirteen.”

He tends to view everything and everyone in a humorous light, but he has a complicated relationship with his family, and there’s a bit of mystery surrounding his past and why he ultimately decided to join the police that I can’t wait to find out more about. Basically, I love everything about this guy. I wish that there had been more explanation about how the magic works, but I understand that that’s probably in the cards for later books in the series. I’m really looking forward to some more mad science out in the carriage house!

I’m not sure if I would classify this as urban fantasy, but I guess it’s more like that than anything else. It reads like a humorous police procedural with just a dash of the paranormal. So, I wouldn’t go into this expecting lots of thrilling action or heavy magic use. 

Perfect Musical Pairing
Belle & Sebastian – Funny Little Frog

The dry, witty lyrics of Belle & Sebastian really remind me of this book. I know they’re from Scotland and not England but…oh, hang on a second. Really? Huh. Okay then. 

I’ve just been informed that Scotland and England are actually both a part of the U.K. So yay! This is a love song for an imaginary girlfriend, which is just perfect because I have a little announcement: I am officially throwing over my current fictional boyfriend for one Peter Grant, science geek, constable, and apprentice wizard. Sorry Gilbert, but we’ve had a good twenty one years. I’d be lying if I said that things haven’t gotten a little dry lately. I mean seriously, I’ve had Anne of Windy Poplars on my currently-reading shelf for over a month. Look at this guy…he runs validation studies on his own magic powers and uses fun words like, “faffing, “gastropub,” “knickers,” and “fancy” (as a verb!). Can you really blame me? 

4/5 Stars
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Pump Six And Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

4/9/2012

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Pump Six cover
Pump Six And Other Stories
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publication Date: 3/11/08
Publisher: Night Shade Books

Blurb(GR):
Paolo Bacigalupi's debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning, and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience. The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best Paolo's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the nebula and Hugo nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award winning story "The Calorie Man."

Review:

This volume makes me remember how much I love short stories.  I love how they sneak up and punch you right in the eye, then leave abruptly without even explaining themselves.   They don’t have much time, so they have to be blunt.  I can really appreciate that.

I won’t summarize all of the stories, but they are all intense.  They are all set in not so distant futures, but are all chillingly related to present day events.  The calamities taking place in these stories are exaggerated (a bit), but what’s universal is the human reaction to these events, and human nature.  All the horrible truths about us are faithfully represented here.  We’re not really a fun bunch as it turns out.

My favorite, unbelievable as it may seem, is Pop Squad, which follows a conflicted, slightly sadistic killer of children in a world where procreation is illegal.  After the discovery of a pharmaceutical treatment which renders all humans immortal (as long as they keep getting it), part of the authorities’ job becomes tracking and killing all prohibited children.  Part of the reason I love this story is that it is one of the few written in first person, which gives it a much more forceful, intimate feeling.  It is also one of the most powerful motherhood stories I’ve ever read, and definitely the only one I’ve ever come across that’s narrated by a baby-killer.  This story made me want to vomit (I can’t forget that damn dinosaur either, buddy), while simultaneously flooding me with motherhood-affirming emotion.  It also made me chuckle a few times, which was weird.  I kept thinking, “I can’t believe he just killed a baby and now I’m laughing.”  But it’s true; that story took me by surprise.

I think that Paolo Bacigalupi is one of the most skillful storytellers I’ve ever come across.  He amazes me with his ability to convey only the bare essentials of what is necessary, without ever overloading the reader with anything 
superfluous.  He lets his worlds build slowly, as the story progresses, and never resorts to long introductions.  He trusts the readers to understand, without hitting us over the head with his ideas.  Reading his stories feels like a compliment. 

None of these stories are easy or light.  I listened to this one, and I had to take many music breaks throughout the 12 hours.  I highly suggest Radiohead's Kid A: “I’m not here…this isn’t happening….”  You said it, Thom!  If you can get past the extreme situations and imagery, this collection is not to be missed.

4/5 Stars

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

4/9/2012

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The Windup Girl cover
The Windup Girl
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publication Date: 9/1/09
Publisher: Night Shade Books

Blurb(GR):
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko... 

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century.

Review:

This is the kind of book that unceremoniously dumps you in the middle of a teeming, noisy world and demands that you sink or swim.  Oh, and that noise that I mentioned?  Yeah, it’s all slang, and in about five different languages – none of which you can understand.  My advice is just try to float with it.  Don’t stress out if you can’t understand half the words, or the vague references to “the incident” or “the situation in Finland.”  All will come clear…trust me.

This story is set in a futuristic Thailand, which is one of the last countries “surviving”, after several plagues have wiped out the majority of human and plant life* and the sea levels have risen to cover most cities.  Thailand has managed to endure by using levees and pumps (operated with spring-power, since all other fuels are scarce) to hold back the rising waters, and a hidden seed bank to provide new genetic material for food engineering.  Unfortunately this makes it a nice fat target for the masses of human refugees, looking for a place to rebuild, and the greedy calorie corporations, which have already monopolized most of the world’s food supply by engineering plant species that can’t reproduce (thus ensuring that no one else will be able to grow them). 
 
There are upwards of four main characters in this story (some of the minor characters take on larger roles later in the book) which seems like quite a lot.  I think that the biggest danger with too many characters is that there won’t be enough time or energy devoted to any of them and in the end there’s no connection for the reader.  I’ve definitely come across novels like that, where I just didn’t care enough about the characters because there wasn’t a chance to become attached to any of them (Guy Gavriel Kay’s
Under Heaven comes to mind).  There really wasn’t one single character in this book, no matter how minor, that I didn’t end up caring deeply about.  One of the minor characters actually ended up becoming my favorite (Kanya!).  All of these characters are deeply scarred(some more literally than others) by the years of famine and tragedy that they’ve gone through.  Not one of them is a truly good person, and yet I cared for all of them and wanted them all to succeed (which was really hard, because they were often trying to manipulate and/or kill each other).  It was powerfully moving to witness them all fight and flounder, and eventually realize that it doesn’t matter how much opium or how many jewels you’ve got stashed away in your bamboo walls, or how much you’ve betrayed everything you believe in just to get ahead – you can never escape the destructive power of nature, or your karma.

I can easily see how this book won’t be everyone’s cup o’ tea (Christina, I’m looking at you).  There really isn’t very much action in this story (although I found myself frequently shocked by all the twists and turns).  Instead there’s creepy political maneuvering and enough sinister machinations to get my evil laugh going and my fingers drumming together like Monty Burns.  This is definitely more for those, like me, who are just as excited by psychological action as physical.  The pacing is a bit slow, but I really enjoyed that – the writing is so good that I was happy to just float along and wallow in all the nice pretty words.  This book was 100% right up my alley – I can even say that I genuinely enjoyed being confused for much of it.  This one’s going on the favorites list!

*Brief scientist rant below:
One tiny little niggling problem I had with this book is the whole idea of viruses moving from plants to humans.  While viruses frequently break through the animal/human barrier, I had always assumed that due to the differences in cell structure and modes of infection, plant viruses would be extremely unlikely to move to humans.  However, I just googled this and found an article supporting a virus jumping from plants to humans.


Oh. My. God.  It’s happening!  Watch out everyone; it’s time to start hoarding baht and brushing up on your Thai!

5/5 Stars

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The City & The City by China Miéville

4/6/2012

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The City & The City
Author: China Miéville
Publication Date: 5/26/09
Publisher: Del Rey

Blurb(GR):
New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives. 

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

Review:

I think that this is the absolute worst choice for someone who’s never read China Mieville.  Like me.  All I have to say is: it’s a good thing that I have an endless store of patience and I like being confused.   In audiobook terms, it took eight miles, three loads of laundry, four bathrooms, and a huge batch of vegetable korma for me to start liking this book.  My interest was sparked by his creative, highly detailed world building, and my brain was completely engaged by the dozens of philosophical tangents that this world initiated in me.  Oh, and there’s also a murder mystery, but that feels more like window dressing for some Very Big Ideas.

This book begins like so many other murder mysteries – with a young, beautiful, dead girl in an alley.  Of course everyone assumes that she’s a prostitute, and of course, she ends up having a much larger story to tell.  Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad is one of the first to arrive at the scene. He soon begins to suspect that the murder is a precursor to a much more significant crime: breach.  In Beszel, the people are conditioned from childhood to “unsee” and not perceive in any way the people of Ul Qoma, a city which occupies some of the same geographic space as Beszel and is distinguished only by the learned habits of the citizens and the architecture and language endemic to each area.  To see, acknowledge, or cross over into Ul Qoma from Beszel is a taboo – the severest of crimes, policed by a shadowy and seemingly all powerful force named for the crime itself.  But when it is revealed that breach has in fact not taken place, Inspector Borlu must investigate the murder, which necessitates a journey through Beszel, Ul Qoma, and all the places in between.

Somewhere around halfway through this book, the foreground of the murder mystery faded for me and the backdrop of the cities took center stage.  This book made me think about the ways that we all define ourselves and our homes, and how they have very little to do with geographic location.  It made me think about all of the social constructs and taboos that aren’t in place because of logic or natural inclination, but because of generations of training and conditioning.  It made me think about how easy it is to see the absurdity of these behaviors as an outsider, but how impossible it is to see them from the inside.  It made me think about revolution:  how complicity and pack mentality can keep a belief in place, but how minds are inevitably opened and changed one at a time.  It made me think about how some people go out looking to have their beliefs undermined and others hold violently to what they have, but most of us fall into neither category.  And this book made me think about how lonely and debilitating it can be to have even the most illogical of beliefs dissolved away.  Once your eyes are opened, you can never go back to the way you were.

So yeah, with all of these thoughts swimming around in my head (and really, I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even scratch the surface of this thing), it’s easy to understand why I found the murder plot and even the main character to be a bit flat.  So, if you are new to China Mieville, I would suggest starting somewhere else (I’ve already checked out Perdido Street Station and Un Lun Dun to attempt a catch-up) and if you already love China Mieville, then you will probably get way more out of this book than I did!  I highly recommend it for current fans, or people who like to be thrown in the deep end.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Radiohead – Little by Little

If a hypothetical cave-dwelling friend of mind had never heard anything from Radiohead, and wanted an introduction, I would never give her the latest album.  For Radiohead fans, The King of Limbs is another complex, haunting work of genius.  But I can see how the uninitiated might find it dense and strange.  This song speaks to the nature of growth and change: it must be accomplished in small steps, and we must not be afraid to take them.  The lyrics also relate to the way that this book grew on me – little by little.

4/5 Stars
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Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

2/16/2012

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Perdido Street Station cover
Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon #1)
Author: Chine Mieville
Publication Date: 2/27/01
Publisher: Del Rey

Blurb(GR): Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.

Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.

While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . .

A magnificent fantasy rife with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and wonderfully realized characters, told in a storytelling style in which Charles Dickens meets Neal Stephenson, Perdido Street Station offers an eerie, voluptuously crafted world that will plumb the depths of every reader's imagination.


Review:
When we’ve turned this world into a dried up husk and have to resort to shutting ourselves in to life sustaining pods and “living” within some sort of virtual environment, I vote we nominate this guy to imagine and design our virtual
realities.  Sure, we’ll probably end up with some weird shit, like fire breathing iguana flowers and pulsating organic clouds that rain mucus and blood (he won’t be able to help himself) but we’ll get the most detailed, complete, panoramic world, and I can guarantee that it won’t feel imaginary. 

I think that’s China Mieville’s greatest strength:  his limitless imagination and 100% commitment to his ideas.  Reading this book feels a bit like watching this video; like living in a place where nothing behaves as you are
accustomed to, but somehow it’s all still graspable.  This is my third Mieville, and I keep feeling like, when is he going to run out of ideas?!!  I mean, everything that I’ve read from him feels completely original and new…and
this book in particular just has one new and original idea stacked on top of another ad infinitum.  At times I did feel like I needed to slow down.  It’s like driving 100 miles per hour through an abomination of the Emerald City:  everything’s flashing by and I just want to slow down and focus on one of the disgusting, hideous details but I can’t, because…here’s another one!

So yeah, maybe I should actually write something about what this book is about.  Just as in the other two Mieville novels that I’ve read, the environment is a major character in this book.  New Crobuzon is a putrescent, festering, melting pot of a city, with combustible tension between its highly varied denizens and the city’s leaders (both formal and illicit).  It’s a place with a long memory, inhabited by recent arrivals, desperate and ignorant, building their lives up on top of waste, pollution, and the corpse of a desiccated behemoth.

In addition, this book has a large cast of compelling characters, which is something that I felt was missing from The City & The City.  Isaac is naïve in the way of scientists: he’s insular and so focused on his own ideas that he doesn’t pay enough attention to their potential impact on the world.  He’s a bit of an antihero: he’s impulsive and rash, sometimes lacking in bravery and integrity.  I found Lin and Yagharek to be the most fascinating characters.  I think there’s some interesting mirroring between them.  Lin was born down in the filth and muck, and managed to lift herself out and find a new life, but she can’t help but miss her old home.  Yag was born free and powerful, and through his own reprehensible actions, brought himself down to the gutter, and now he can’t get out.  Yag is also the only character to be gifted with first person narration for a few passages throughout the novel, which are my favorite
parts.

Isaac and Lin are in love, which is difficult because they come from two different worlds, and their relationship is viewed as taboo and perverted.  Isaac worries and guards the secret, but Lin is less concerned, as she is already an outcast among her own people.  When Yagharek arrives at Isaac’s laboratory, desperate to regain his former power, and Lin is commissioned to create a life size statue of a grotesque underworld boss, events are set in motion which could lead to the destruction of New Crobuzon.

The writing is elaborate and ornamented with a surfeit of big big words.  For the most part it feels appropriate, like he’s using just the right word at the right time.  It doesn’t feel overdone.  However, he definitely has a few favorites that appear frequently enough that I took note:  palimpsest, vestige, palimpsest, exudations, ineluctable, palimpsest, autopoiesis, ichor, and uhh…did I mention palimpsest? I wonder; if these words weren’t so conspicuous (because of their big big-ness) would I have even noticed?  I mean, if he had used “layered” or “inevitable” twenty times I doubt it would stand out in the same way.

I just have one more thing to add:  I’m onto you, Mr. Mieville!  That climactic slake moth battle scene?  I know exactly where that idea came from.  Do you get all of your material from cheesy 90’s movies or what?

Perfect Musical Pairing

Bon Iver – Holocene

Because I listened so obsessively to the new Bon Iver album for the entire time I was reading this book that they melded and layered themselves together.  Parts of each were visible, but they had combined and concealed each other as well…they had become a blend, a…oh god, what is that word?  I know it…if I could only just remember...it’s on the tip of my tongue….
4/5 Stars

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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) By Mindy Kaling

2/16/2012

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Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Author: Mindy Kaling
Publication Date: 11/1/11
Publisher: Crown Archetype


Blurb(GR):  Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

Review:
There’s a passage in this book in which Mindy Kaling laments that she will never be the kind of comedian who can get away with really raunchy humor or jokes about race.  (She cites Sarah Silverman and Dave Chappelle as examples.)  But, here is what she can get away with: writing a book chock-full of lists and stories all about how she’s basically (in her words) a “vain flake” and still coming across as a kind, intelligent woman and an excellent best friend.

I kind of wish that Mindy Kaling were my best friend.  She’d be the kind of friend who would call up on a Saturday night, and when you sheepishly admitted that you really didn’t feel like going out, would show up at your door wearing pj’s and laden down with fancy chocolates and champagne.  Then she would plop down on your couch and make absolutely no complaints when you wanted to watch a Say Yes to the Dress marathon.  She’s the kind of friend who would never shame you for loving (just as a few completely out-there random examples which have absolutely nothing at all to do with me) When Harry Met Sally (like, to the point where I you can recite every single line), or
Sixteen and Pregnant, or US Weekly, or cheddar cheese pretzels, or house music.

One of my favorite chapters in this book is entitled “Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities” and outlines a few of Mindy Kaling’s rules for BFF-dom:

“I MUST BE 100 PERCENT HONEST ABOUT HOW YOU LOOK, BUT GENTLE
Your boyfriend is never going to tell you that your skirt is too tight and riding up too high on you.  In fact, you shouldn’t even have asked him, poor guy.  He wants to have sex with you no matter how pudgy you are.  I am the only person besides your mom who has the right (and responsibility) to tell you that. I should never be overly harsh when something doesn’t look good on you, because I know you are fragile about this, and so am I.  I will employ the gentle, vague expression ‘I’m not crazy about that on you,’ which should mean to you ‘Holy shit, take that off, that looks terrible!’  I owe it to you to give feedback like a cattle prod: painful but quick.”


Mindy and I (I’m just going to go ahead and call her Mindy…because that’s what future best friends do) are also about the same age, and there is some excellent 90’s nostalgia porn in here.  In particular, I loved her list of favorite comedy moments (Chris Farley as Matt Foley = more evidence that we should be best friends) and her list of remakes that she’d like to take a crack at.  An all-girl remake of Ghostbusters?!!  I would totally go and see that, especially if they cast female comedians in all the main roles.

I didn’t enjoy the pieces about dieting and dating/commitment quite as much but overall I really had a fun time with this book.  This is a humorous memoir that also belongs alongside the fluffy/frothy books and I think that’s exactly what my little Min was really going for.  Well done!  (Call me later!)

Perfect Musical Pairing

Mariah Carey – We Belong Together

I may or may not love Mariah Carey with all my heart.  And I may or may not have seen Glitter more than once, possibly not even to make fun of it.
3/5 Stars

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The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

2/16/2012

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Age of Innocence cover
The Age of Innocence
Author: Edith Wharton
Publication Date: 1920
Publisher: D. Appleton and Company

Blurb(GR): Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton’s masterful portrait of desire and betrayal during the sumptuous Golden Age of Old New York, a time when society people “dreaded scandal more than disease.”

This is Newland Archer’s world as he prepares to marry the beautiful but conventional May Welland. But when the mysterious Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York after a disastrous marriage, Archer falls deeply in love with her. Torn between duty and passion,
Archer struggles to make a decision that will either courageously define his life—or mercilessly destroy it.


Review:
The title of this book is now one of my favorites of all time.  At first glance, it seems so dry, so suggestive of sweeping historical detail.  It made me think of the fond memories of an age gone by – how quaint, how rosy-hued and idealistic it all was.  Summoning the vague ideas that I had about 1920’s New York, I pictured smoky clubs and laughing ladies in fur-lined cloaks and peacock feather hats.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever come across another title so seemingly innocuous, yet so absolutely loaded with darker meaning.  Shouldn’t there be some quotation marks or italicizing in there?  Shouldn’t she have warned us?

But she doesn’t, and this book is all the more devastating for it.  The beginning had me laughing along with how ridiculous it all was – the gardenia in the buttonhole, the fashionably late arrival, the opera translated within an inch of its life, the fiancé waiting in all her cosseted “perfection”.  She lured me in with these little witty and darkly humorous asides.  How silly!  And then, just when I was getting comfortable, she twisted all those details into something stifling and malevolent and tenacious.  She’s violent with her readers, but her blows aren’t passionate or frenzied.  Rather, they are given out systematically, calmly, and with absolute precision.

This is how to write a love triangle.  My god!  I honestly don’t think I will ever read a more vivid and lacerating portrayal of the guilt, inner conflict, and yearning of it all.  These three characters are so fully realized and exposed to the reader, yet within the world of these pages, they are neatly sectioned.  They are sequestered inside of their own thoughts and feelings.  They do not see each other at all.  We are given the best/worst seat in the house, and it’s painful, but always absolutely compelling.

May is sheltered and grown in a tiny space, like some sort of delicacy.  She is preserved and wrapped, like a present, for Archer to unwrap – an offering to his male vanity.  But is that all that she is?  Archer constantly assumes that she is child-like and vacant, with no hidden depths.  But then, she has unexpected moments of shrewdness and lucidity.  I think that she has more insight than he knows. 
She is very much a product of her environment and she has learned to navigate its roads.  She has learned to succeed in her role.

Unlike May, Ellen is given experience and perspective in childhood. Her eyes have been opened by her eccentric upbringing and the bad marriage that she’s run away from.  She’s realistic to the point where she’s almost lost the ability to be romantic.  Does she love Archer?  I still don’t know.  She sees the reality of their relationship so much more clearly than he does, and I think that holds her back.

Archer is given center stage in this drama and so he is the most visible to us.  In the beginning, he is the favored son, almost worshipped by his mother and sister.  His every need is cared for; his whole life set out before him.  But when Ellen arrives – a color photo in a sea of black and white – he suddenly begins to see his society as an outsider.  Without even intending to, she jars him out of his set course.  She makes him examine his own thoughts.  But his transition isn’t instantaneous and complete: he regresses to his earlier state of complacency when she’s not around.  Or at least, he tries to.  He's idealistic and romantic in his innocence, hoping for impossible things.

And then there’s a fourth main character: society.  Acting as a single, terrifying tribe, they collude to set trends, make rules, and excise bad elements.  They are a “
society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the unpleasant,” but as a result they also eschew learning, experience, and perspective.

The ending is intense, and made me question my own much touted love of sad and ambiguous endings.  Quite a feat.  I think that it can be interpreted in a couple of ways.  If you’ve read this book, please comment because I’d love to have a discussion about it.

*Spoilers Below!*
Archer seems to have fallen back into his old groove, but he feels that he’s missed out on “the flower of life.”  When he’s given an opportunity to see Ellen once again, he resists, thinking that the memory of his association with her will be more vivid and real if he doesn’t see her again.  Has he simply become complacent, or does he finally see things as they really were?  Reflecting on his son’s attitudes, he thinks,

“
The difference is that these young people take it for granted that they’re going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn’t.  Only, I wonder – the thing one’s so certain of in advance: can it ever make one’s heart beat as wildly?”

I’d like to think that he’s realizing there that maybe he didn’t miss out on the flower of life: he had passion and sadness and powerful feelings.  Maybe the flower of life is more about the wanting, not the getting.  His mind is so obviously opened and broadened by his experience with Ellen, even if they are never meant to be, and he now sees his idealistic visions of freedom from society realized (at least somewhat) in his children. In the end, he isn't courageous enough to reach for more.

*End Spoilers*
This is some of the most breath-stealing, gorgeous writing I’ve ever read and I am now very happy that I have an old, battered, highlighted and written-in copy from a library book sale, because I dog-eared the life out of this thing.  

Perfect Musical Pairing

Mendelssohn –
Wedding March (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Joyous, grand, lively, triumphant…structured, traditional, confined, false…I’ll never hear this damn song the same way again. 

5/5 Stars

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Rage by Stephen King

2/9/2012

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Rage Richard Bachman Stephen King cover
Rage
Author: Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)
Publication Date: 9/6/77
Publisher: Signet

Blurb (GR): 
A disturbed high-school student with authority problems kills one of his teachers and takes the rest of his class hostage. Over the course of one long, tense and unbearable hot afternoon, Charlie Decker explains what led him to this drastic sequence of events, while at the same time deconstructing the personalities of his classmates, forcing each one to justify his or her existence 

Review:
Holy hell, I had no clue what I was getting into with this one. I am a SK lover and King’s earlier Richard Bachman books are some of my favorites. (readThe Long Walk and The Running Man if you haven’t) I happened upon this one rather randomly and couldn’t stop reading it. It is out of print, for reasons that will be absolutely clear by the time you are done reading the next paragraph. (SK and his publisher both agreed that it was for the better) 

Written in 1977, Rage starts of with a bang (pun intended), when Charlie Decker gets called to the office, mouths off, lights his locker on fire, then shoots two teachers. He holds his entire class hostage and the rest of the book is basically a psychotherapy session wherein he and his classmates tell stories of times when they “got it on.” (no sexual connotation) Are we all a little bit crazy? I have no clue. 

The shared experience of the hostage situation was weird…but not unrealistic. It is amazing to see how people react in stressful situations. I mean, there is a body lying in the room and everyone is basically shooting the shit, but I could buy it and that is what is kind of scary. It’s that moment when everything is so serious and you’ve gone beyond the seriousness to some sort of relaxation. King writes, “When you’re five and you hurt, you make a big noise unto the world. At ten you whimper. But by the time you make fifteen you begin to eat the poisoned apples that grow on your own inner tree of pain…You bleed on the inside.” God, how sad is it that ? 

When I saw the movie Se7en, I remember thinking it was crazy to imagine a government keeping tabs on what people are checking out at the library. This is the type of book that would be on those hypothetical lists. (hypothetical? :-)) There are at least two instances of teenagers taking guns to school and holding their classmates hostage after reading this book. Do I think it is dangerous? No, not any moreso than all the other crap we are bombarded with daily. Impressionable teenagers will find their inspiration from somewhere else. And this book is more of a commentary on how parents affect their children for better or worse. The takeaway should be not to exhibit violence in school but to keep lines of communication open, not be a shitty parent, and to treat your classmates like human beings. (is this even possible in high school?) 

Stephen King is the ultimate storyteller. I swear, on nearly every page, I’m either chuckling, underlining, or completely aghast. He is like that friend that we all have who can tell a story about something completely benign and have you rolling on the floor with laughter or make you cry just by recounting the plot of a sad movie. I’m sad that more people won’t get the chance to read this book. If you can stomach it, definitely find a copy.  

4/5 stars

PRe
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Working Stiff (Revivalist, #1) by Rachel Caine

11/13/2011

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Working Stiff Cover
Working Stiff (Revivalist, #1)
Author: Rachel Caine
Publication Date: 8/2/11
Publisher: Roc


Blurb (GR): Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn't the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment--until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele as part of an extortion racket. Now, Bryn faces being terminated--literally, and with extreme prejudice.

Wit the help of corporate double-agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem--pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She'd better do it fast, before she becomes a zombie slave--a real working stiff. She'd be better off dead...

Review:
There are some kindred spirits working at TNT/TBS/USA who choose which movies to show regularly on the weekends. It's like they somehow know that I will ALWAYS watch Overboard, What About Bob?, Hook, Father of the Bride, and about a billion other movies--and there must be tons more people just like me that regularly think about dressing up as Bob Wiley for Halloween every year because why else would they be showing the same movies unless people are watching them?  Death Becomes Her, which you may or may not remember as MY FAVORITE MERYL STREEP MOVIE EVER EVEN INCLUDING HER MANY AWARD-WINNING PERFORMANCES, is always on basic cable on the weekends...and I pretty much know it by heart. It is just so bizarre, I mean, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Isabella Rossellini in a movie about two women dueling over a balding mortician and then taking a potion to life forever? That's pure cinematic gold. I saw Rachel Caine at an event last weekend and you can't really tell by looking at someone but I'm pretty sure she also likes Death Becomes Her. Evidence:

Picture
_I haven't fully signed on for the new zombie love story trend in books and I'm sure many people would try to argue with me about the main character in this book not being a zombie, so here's a quick two-question quiz to find out if you are a zombie:

Question 1: Did you die at some point? If yes, move on to question 2. If no, congratulations! You are alive!
Question 2: Are you somehow still walking around and "living" to a varying degree? If yes, congratulations (?), you are a zombie!

Some people might say that you need to be craving brains to be a zombie. Then again, some people think bands like Nickelback and Creed make good music. Bryn, the MC of this book, dies and is subsequently revived by a chemical compound that must be taken daily to maintain her zombie, oops, I mean revived person's body. I know what you're thinking here--that's hot. You totally would be attracted to an animated, walking, talking, thinking corpse, right? Wait...something's not right here. We had a discussion at book club about whether or not the romantic element in this book was off-putting and it totally was to me BUT it is mostly for one reason and surprisingly, it isn't because Bryn is revived. Patrick sees her die. He sees her as a dead body. He sees her beat up, shot, and basically mangled and then sees her tissue regrowing in front of him. Um, that's gross. That is a constant reminder that the person you are looking at is artificially alive. Necrophilia is so in right now. I couldn't truly get on board with it in this particular book but she does basically live a normal life so I'm not ruling out romance with some future guy who doesn't know she's dead (SPOILER ALERT FOR HIM! "Hey, I've been meaning to tell you...I can't have kids." "Oh, is it something genetic?" "Meh, actually I'm a reanimated corpse. No biggie.")

Overall, the mystery and intrigue were entertaining and the series started off with enough world-building and quirky characters that I'll come back for more. (*cough*some of the side characters are more interesting than the main girl*cough*) Since Bryn was in the military, I expected much more badassery to be happening but she gets punched out pretty regularly. Perhaps she'll really come into her zombie self in future Revivalist series books? Until then, you can most likely find me watching What About Bob? on repeat...

3/5 stars
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