wheelspinner
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Jul 13, 2010 5:38:32 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jul 13, 2010 5:38:32 GMT -5
Also just devoured a book I've had for a little while now - the graphic novel based on Paul Auster's City of Glass. There's phenomenal talent behind this book - Auster himself, academic Paul Karasik, Art Spiegelman (Maus) and David Mazzuchelli (Asterios Polyp) among others. It's as good as the talent would lead you to anticipate.
City of Glass is a very difficult book to visualise, with lots of playing with characters' names, shifting of the narrative voice and so on. The book does a superb job both of distilling Auster's story and capturing its nuances. It definitely achieves the aim Spiegelman describes in his introduction: the re-imaging of a great novel in graphic form, without a Classics Illustrated dumbing-down.
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Pax
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quod erat demonstrandum.
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Jul 13, 2010 14:23:22 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Jul 13, 2010 14:23:22 GMT -5
Just finished a book called "Succubus Blues," by Michelle Mead. I have a bit of an interest in "energy vampires."
I thought I'd like the book, and I liked it even better after finishing it. It was very unpretentious. Our heroine is a succubus. She is a vampire of sorts, but her stock in trade is that she absorbs energy from humans, not blood, and she does it by having sex. She can kill with it, but doesn't have to, and generally doesn't. She's a few centuries old, but, believe it or not, she's not yet jaded and she's still figuring things out, particularly when it comes to "higher" immortals such as the demons and angels she is friends with, who are friendly enough, but aren't exactly fountains of information.
It's written by a woman, and is a very feminine book. That is, a lot of it is about feelings and relationships -- but it was not overdone. Again, just a girl trying to figure things out. That's not to say she's "girly." She's very strong and intelligent, even defiant.
The book, oddly enough, defies easy classification. It is a 'fantasy' book, yes, but it is also a detective novel. It's also an erotic novel... she is a succubus after all... that said, though, there are only two explicitly sexual scenes in this 350-page book, and neither run more than a page. Tasteful and well-written.
It was interesting reading a book that was so clearly feminine, but not so "alien" to me as a male that I can't relate. I actually found it interesting in that way as a window on how women view/approach things.
Anyway, I enjoyed it, and was pleased to find in the final pages that her next book was to come out in 2008. I think I'll pick it up.
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Pax
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Jul 13, 2010 14:32:54 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Jul 13, 2010 14:32:54 GMT -5
ps., you might be getting the impression from "Succubus Blues" and "I, Lucifer" that I'm a bit infatuated with the whole angels and demons thing. The truth of it is that I am interested in anything metaphysical. I love books that involve magic or psionics, or simply advanced technology.
Actually, yet another topic switch -- as you guys know, I'm interested in writing as well. Sadly I haven't had a chance to get back into it as I'd hoped. In any event, two things occurred to me while reading this book, and they both have to do with relentlessly telling a human story that happens to take place with magic/technology/the occult whatever.
One, not to pick on him, but I think this is one of my major problems with James Patterson. His books, in my opinion, are not about the human story, they're all about the gee-whiz of whatever vehicle he's using. In movie terms, all special effects and no plot. Of course, I judge this just from the one book, "Maximum Ride" (I thought I'd like it because it involved enhanced humans with actual wings), which was enough to turn me off the guy forever, but I've heard from others that he's pretty formulaic, so I feel the one data point is enough.
Two, and more importantly to me -- it's a lesson to me to make sure to center the story on the humanity, and only to use the gee-whiz stuff to flavor the story about the humanity. Often when I'm driving home I'm thinking of how certain stories/scenes could go, and I realized that I may be thinking too much about the "enhanced" characteristics of my characters and not so much on who they are or what they want. I realize that's important, too, but I've thought I could figure out the gee-whiz stuff (what they can do, its limitations, etc., what kinds of plausible surprise twists they could allow, etc.) and the fleshed-out characters would come later. But I think it has to be the other way around: Character first. And use the gee-whiz stuff to tell the story about the character.
Anyway.
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Jul 13, 2010 23:55:22 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Jul 13, 2010 23:55:22 GMT -5
James Patterson writes vague outlines of characters in very fast-moving, thin plots. They are super-easy reads, which is what causes such vast appeal of his books to so many people. I can't deal with his stuff at all.
I finished Stroke of Insight and highly recommend it to anyone who is human, has a body that can screw up and/or has people they love and care about who are possessed of bodies that could potentially screw up.
The author is a brain doctor who experiences an aneurysm on the left side of her brain. Fully recovered eight years later, she's able to describe the whole of her experience, from actually experiencing the stroke to working through recovery. What she experiences as the "tactile world" left hemisphere portion of her brain shuts down and how it feels to function entirely from the right hemisphere is fascinating in itself. But the biggest benefits of the book are two critical pieces of body ownership.
First how to recognise what's going on if you're experiencing something like she did, so you can get help for yourself. Even having a PhD on all things brain didn't give her sufficient warning to understand what was happening to her when it was. And once she figured it out, one of her first responses was, "What a fantastic opportunity!" But anyway. It's good information to know.
Second, she talks extensively about how it feels to be damaged and wounded as a result of brain trauma and what she needed most from the people around her. What she needed from doctors, and nurses, and family, and friends. How she needed people to treat her and talk to her and best help her. And what she really, really didn't need that was actually harmful to her. It's critical information to know what someone who otherwise can't tell you what they need and it's not immediately apparent that they need it.
It's fascinating and entirely worth the price of the book. Then pass it along.
Now, onto I, Lucifer . The first few paragraphs have me captivated.
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Pax
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quod erat demonstrandum.
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Jul 14, 2010 6:42:20 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Jul 14, 2010 6:42:20 GMT -5
I'm glad you're enjoying the book so far, G.
I may pick up Stroke of Insight -- it sounds fascinating. Thanks!
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wheelspinner
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Jul 14, 2010 7:05:22 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jul 14, 2010 7:05:22 GMT -5
I finished Stroke of Insight and highly recommend it to anyone who is human, has a body that can screw up and/or has people they love and care about who are possessed of bodies that could potentially screw up. Oh well, that leaves me out ... (drags cape across fangs and glowers broodingly)
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Pax
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Jul 15, 2010 6:49:00 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Jul 15, 2010 6:49:00 GMT -5
That reminds of of "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat," an anthology of the effects of various neurological disorders. I haven't gotten through the whole thing -- I'm usually reading 10 things at once -- but it is interesting.
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Jul 15, 2010 9:16:00 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Jul 15, 2010 9:16:00 GMT -5
WS admitting to being a vampire reminds you of that, Pax? I'm always reading several books at once too. From time-to-time one busts out of the pack and I read that exclusively until I'm through it. I, Lucifer has busted out of the pack. It's creepy and a joy all at once. You feel empathy for the character right from the start and yet you loathe him. And! He's the ultimate unreliable narrator so you're never certain when he's telling you the truth, especially when it's instructions about how to get into heaven and what will and won't count against you. You can't take his word for anything, yet still. Good recommendation Pax.
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wheelspinner
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Jul 24, 2010 8:27:10 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jul 24, 2010 8:27:10 GMT -5
Finished Blind Descent. This is a great book. It's the riveting story of extreme cavers; scientists and explorers who are vying to find the deepest cave on earth. James Tabor rightly describes these expeditions as trying to climb Mt Everest in the dark, often surrounded by water and with the hard part - the ascent - coming at the end.
Tabor's descriptions of the hardships and deprivations these explorers suffer make one wince, and he rightly compares them to Scott, Amundsen, Hillary and Tensing.
Tabor has a compelling character to write about in American Bill Stone, who comes across as a flawed genius, driven towards his goal at the expense of everything else in his life. Ukrainian scientist Alexander Klimchouk comes across as a bit more clinical and remote, although Tabor still shows the great price that his quest costs him.
Even though they are recent events, these were explorers and expeditions that I had never heard of. Tabor's book brought them to life and inspired awe at what they have done. Can't ask for more than that.
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wheelspinner
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Jul 24, 2010 8:32:31 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jul 24, 2010 8:32:31 GMT -5
I'm now reading Bendable Learnings, by Don Watson. Watson was once Paul Keating's speech-writer, and is now one of our leading exponents of history and biography. This is the latest in a series of books he has written on management speak; let's just say he's not a fan of it.
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wheelspinner
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Jul 28, 2010 22:27:28 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Jul 28, 2010 22:27:28 GMT -5
Finished the second Martin Beck novel, The Man Who Went Up In Smoke. These are the Danish police procedurals I'm reading as eBooks. I'm now moving onto the third one. With the state of the trains here lately, I seem to be reading more on my iPhone than with physocal books.
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Jul 30, 2010 0:14:03 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Jul 30, 2010 0:14:03 GMT -5
You're making me miss my daily commute to work by bus, WS, because not having it has severely cut into my available reading time.
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wheelspinner
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Aug 1, 2010 20:27:05 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 1, 2010 20:27:05 GMT -5
Finished Bendable Learnings. What a disappointment. The book is about 5% input from Watson and the rest is just masses of quotations of management-speak. This book needed a damn good edit, limiting the quotes to the best examples, and cutting it from about 320 pages down to 150 or so. A lazy, slapped-together book.
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wheelspinner
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Aug 1, 2010 20:29:21 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 1, 2010 20:29:21 GMT -5
Now reading Love in Infant Monkeys, a collection of short stories by Lydia Millet. Very good so far.
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wheelspinner
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Post by wheelspinner on Aug 3, 2010 7:34:05 GMT -5
Finished Love in Infant Monkeys. I don't usually read short stories, but this was a good collection. The stories have a unifying theme of celebrities with animals, and Millet is able to make some telling points about both celebrity and about human nature in this context.
Now reading The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
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wheelspinner
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Aug 16, 2010 4:01:14 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 16, 2010 4:01:14 GMT -5
Finished The Imperfectionists.
The structure of this novel is interesting. Each chapter revolves around a single character associated with an international English newspaper based in Rome. While Rachman tells each of these characters' stories he also moves the plot along to recount the story of the newspaper and its fate. Pretty good read.
Now engrossed in Phantoms in the Brain (thanks G!) and dipping into The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag for some fluffy bedside reading
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Aug 17, 2010 0:28:31 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Aug 17, 2010 0:28:31 GMT -5
I hope you enjoy it, WS. That book was the final straw for me believing in anything save chemical firing around in one's brain.
Currently finishing up I, Lucifer (yes, I know it's been a long time, but I don't have a work commute, and stuff has been eating my time of late) and racing to the end to find out the truth is spurring me on. What a terrific book and a marvelous, luscious piece of writing. Clever concept and just a beautiful use of words and concepts. I'm liking it whole bunches.
Also reading Denialism which isn't helping the world's case in my court. Yes, I want to throw up my hands entirely. But, at least I know I'm not nuts. It frightens me -- honest and for read, frightens -- how science currently appears to be losing the battle of sensibly thinking in North America. Frightens and saddens. Anyway, huge, huge, huge recommend for your non-fiction list.
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Aug 17, 2010 9:24:09 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Aug 17, 2010 9:24:09 GMT -5
Done I, Lucifer. Brilliant work. If for nothing else, if you're a fan of stellar prose, this is worth the read. I'm left feeling a bit uneasy for being left hanging.
Next. Hrm. I have so many fiction shelf-sitters. I have to travel, so I guess something slender.
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Pax
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Aug 18, 2010 7:21:02 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Aug 18, 2010 7:21:02 GMT -5
Yeh, I'm not sure I like where it was left, either. I guess one could make the excuse that a book written "by" Lucifer would leave you uncomfortable, unfulfilled, and questioning, but that sounds pretty thin. Maybe he's leaving room for a sequel. I'd hate to think after writing such a well-designed book that the author simply didn't know how to end it.
For that matter, there IS something that I found incongruous. Angels aren't THAT different from humans. Yes, they (apparently) very sharply feel the presence (or absence) of God while we do not. And yes, they are constitutionally predisposed to honor God, though, of course, the existence of Lucifer and his minions as demons proves that the predisposition can be resisted. (For that matter, this could be made to relate to the truism that we've all felt -- that with intense love there is the potential for intense hate, as in the case of, say, coming to desperately hate someone you used to desperately love because you just discovered he has been cheating on you for twelve years -- but I digress.)
Here's where I'm going with this. Halfway through the book I developed the sense that Lucifer wasn't really all that bad a guy. Just really, really bitter... even further, with the bitterness of a being that has gone through millenia of the worst hangover anyone can experience (having to live outside the presence of God). Add to that the feeling of unfairness... Lucifer, in a sense, took for himself what God denied his race but that we humans take for granted: A choice. And he was punished for it. Very bitter. If motives can legitimately be gleaned from an entirely different source -- risky, but what the hell, so to speak -- in Paradise Lost, Lucifer made the decision to take revenge on God, and Lucifer made the choice to do it by corrupting as much of God's creation (especially the humans) as he could manage. Lucifer may be a loose canon, and impulsive with the details though he may be, he's not stupid, and there is an order to his chaos.
There is further proof that Lucifer is not such a bad guy in that he had angelic friends who genuinely cared about him -- who missed him. You might even call what the angel (Michael? Gabriel? I forget which one) did an intervention. Lucifer would have none of it. Even in the face of the prospect of going home... even in the face of the knowledge of oblivion... he was so... cavalier about it. I mean, I could see Lucifer having a, well, lucid moment, and actually contemplating, if only for a few seconds, the prospect of oblivion. Lucifer in many ways is the ultimate survivor. So, an opportunity for the author was missed -- to ask the question: What is more important to Lucifer? His own existence? Or his independence from God? That question wasn't so much as broached, though the story was easily leading there, and it's such an interesting one. No, all we got was Lucifer frankly being a wiseass in the face of his friend who (it seemed) truly wanted to help. To my mind, Lucifer is impulsive in the details, but a cold planner with the broad strokes: Oblivion is a game changer, and I think Lucifer would have seen it. I think Lucifer would have at least thought about it. That this Lucifer did not, and simply kept on whistling while inexorably drawing nearer to the cliff... cheapens him a bit, and misses the point a little.
I still think it's a fantastic book, and maybe there'll be a sequel that will make the two books together more satisfying, but yes, it's a bit of a mystery to me how an otherwise so brilliantly laid out book failed to explore some such obvious questions.
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Aug 18, 2010 23:40:11 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Aug 18, 2010 23:40:11 GMT -5
Wow, cool, Pax. That was really lucid and well thought out. I actually have quite a bit to say about what you just wrote, but I'm supposed to be packing right now. If I start writing, I won't get up in time in the morning to catch my plane. So I'll write when I return.
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wheelspinner
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Aug 19, 2010 6:30:25 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 19, 2010 6:30:25 GMT -5
Today I finished The Man on the Balcony. I like the way these Beck novels are resolved. Police work is shown to be hard, unrewarding slog and the breakthroughs that happen are largely luck. The authors don't telegraph much, and they are clearly using their books for social commentary as well as telling a story. Considering when they were written, it's amazing how well they have aged. They anticipated today's style of hard-bitten police procedural by several decades.
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Aug 24, 2010 5:58:53 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 24, 2010 5:58:53 GMT -5
Started my latest eBook, Justin Cronin's The Passage. I hasten to point out that I am not getting into teenage vampire fiction for the "pale and interesting" set. That said, I do enjoy a good vampire story like the Russian "Watch" series, or Let the Right One In. This book is supposed to be more like The Stand than Twilight, and it seems pretty good so far.
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Aug 29, 2010 7:04:00 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Aug 29, 2010 7:04:00 GMT -5
Finished The Weed That String The Hangman's Bag. Pedestrian detective fiction with an irritating heroine. There'll be more Flavia de Luce books, but I won't be reading them.
Some more light bedside reading now in The Dictator and the Hammock, a comic novel from French writer Danial Pennac.
Try as I might, I can't find I, Lucifer anywhere. Looks like I need to hit the library.
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Aug 30, 2010 11:16:50 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Aug 30, 2010 11:16:50 GMT -5
I could get another copy and mail it to you if you'd like, WS.
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Sept 1, 2010 7:41:40 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Sept 1, 2010 7:41:40 GMT -5
Finished Phantoms in the Brain. What a book! Thanks for the recommendation G.
As an epileptic, I was really interested to read about the form of epilepsy that makes you believe in God. There was loads of other info in there (such as why your posed smile is always awful) that I couldn't stop from telling people all about. My only reservation is that his blase accounts of animal experiments left me a bit distressed at times.
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Sept 2, 2010 9:41:42 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Sept 2, 2010 9:41:42 GMT -5
Quite welcome, WS. The section(s) that talk about neurochemistry triggering belief in "god" or that people describe as spiritual or religious experience made me think if those labels aren't simply naming convention. Meaning, that people describe what they're feeling or experiencing as "knowing god" simply because those are the words and nouns human culture has devised to describe those experiences. Does that make sense? I was impressed about how evenly the author treated those experiences people have, though, in that he applied an entirely scientific approach to it. He gave equal time to either "god" being a neurochemical reaction to a certain part of the brain, or a certain part of the brain existing to connect us to "god". While I dismiss the second theory out of hand, I can see how, in the face of no solid proof one way or the other that that is the appropriate conclusion, you leave all of it on the table. I like that about the author. And yes, he seemed a little too calm in his descriptions of animal testing. Yet I still found myself not so angry with him for it, because he's kind and gentle and doesn't seem to have a malicious or cold spot in him. It doesn't strike me as he'd ever be cruel, if that makes any sense. If I had any vestiges of belief in anything other than feeling both of my feet on the ground, that book stripped it away. I'd been building towards that thinking with everything I'd been reading just prior to it, and it was the proverbial straw. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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Pax
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Sept 5, 2010 20:12:14 GMT -5
Post by Pax on Sept 5, 2010 20:12:14 GMT -5
Hey, G. If you're still thinking of it, I'd be interested in the comments you were inspired to make just before your trip... 'sok though if you've lost the muse. I know sometimes when I'm torn away the urge dims after a few days and other things take priority...! Anyway, just reminding... up to you. :-)
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Sept 6, 2010 3:11:49 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Sept 6, 2010 3:11:49 GMT -5
Started on my next non-fiction book today: Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land.
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Sept 7, 2010 23:44:25 GMT -5
Post by Georgina on Sept 7, 2010 23:44:25 GMT -5
I will, Pax. Thanks for the reminder. I really, really enjoyed the book. Yes, I need to refresh myself a bit, because, as you pointed out, the immediacy is gone, but I will get back to it.
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Sept 9, 2010 7:03:26 GMT -5
Post by wheelspinner on Sept 9, 2010 7:03:26 GMT -5
Finished The Dictator and the Hammock. Another disappointment from a favourite writer.
There is the basis of a great comic novel here - a South American dictator hears of a threat on his life and scarpers for Europe, leaving a double behind in his place. Later the double does a bunk and leaves another double. And so on.
Sadly Pennac spoils the novel by being entirely too self-aware. His author's narrative voice intrudes to recount how the novel was developed, engage in discussions with newly-introduced characters about how he came to think of them and who they are based on, and so on. It tries too hard to be clever and comes off a colossal failure. If he'd written it as a straight narrative like his Belleville books, it probably would have been hilarious.
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