Archive
Book Review: Claws and Saucers by David Ellroy Goldweber
Summary:
An alphabetical guide to scifi, horror, and fantasy movies made between 1902 and 1982.
Review:
One thing I have learned from the two movie reference guides I’ve received for review since starting this book blog is that movie reference guides are not for me. Frankly with things like, oh, the internet, they’re just not useful the way they were back when I was in undergrad and professors wouldn’t accept IMDB as a reference in your English paper comparing books to their movie versions. But I digress.
Putting on my librarian cap then why does this reference guide get 2 and not 3 stars? (3 indicating not for me but maybe for others). It frankly bothers me how not academic it is. It essentially reads as a list randomly assembled by some random dude down the road, not a professor of the history of film or a film critic or anything like that really. This would be great for a blog, but not for a serious reference book. Additionally, maybe the print edition is better, but the ebook version is badly formatted and contains none of the pictures promised in the blurb.
The book basically then is your neighbor yammering in alphabetical order about random movies he selected from the early 1900s with all of the natural individual prejudices and caveats that go along with that. There’s nothing academic about it, and when push comes to shove, it’s something that would be better off as a blog than a book. I will give it this though: the title and cover are excellent.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Book Review: Haunted by Glen Cadigan
Summary:
Mark is an Iraq War vet with PTSD, so he counts himself lucky when a Gulf War vet gives him the chance to be a security guard at an office tower. Unfortunately, he’s the night watchman, and he doesn’t seem to be alone in the tower.
Review:
This is a unique, sympathetic story idea that is not as well-executed as it deserves.
Mark is ultimately a well-rounded character, but it takes too long to get to know him in this novella. Since it is in first-person narrative, he has the option of holding off on telling us about his PTSD symptoms and how they affect him. While a soldier would certainly most likely be more stoic in a traditionally masculine way, it gets in the way of the reader understanding where Mark is coming from and empathizing with him. He *tells* us that his PTSD makes his life difficult, but we don’t really ever see it.
Because this is a first person novella, this problem with the characterization gets in the way of the strengths of the scifi/fantasy plot, which is honestly fairly unique. I was glad I got to the end and saw the surprise reveal, but I certainly wasn’t expecting such a good twist from the rest of the book.
Essentially, the scifi/fantasy element of the book is strong, but the characterization at the center of the first person narrative is weak. Although Mark is a soldier, Cadigan shouldn’t be afraid to let us see the vulnerability of his PTSD. Recommended to fans of a unique ghost story looking for a quick read.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Kindle copy from author in exchange for my honest review
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Book Review: The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla
Summary:
After Kristallnacht, Franz Adler, a secular Austrian Jew, is desperate to save the remaining members of his family–his daughter Hannah and sister-in-law Esther. The only place they’re able to find letting in refugees is the relatively border-lax Shanghai.
Meanwhile, Mah Soon Yi, aka Sunny, the daughter of a Chinese doctor and American missionary, is trying to deal with the partial Japanese occupation of her home city of Shanghai while working as a nurse in one of the large hospitals and volunteering in the Jewish Refugee Hospital.
Review:
It’s difficult to review a book that the author obviously put a lot of research effort into, as well as passion for social justice, but that I just personally didn’t end up liking. The story itself isn’t bad, if a bit far-fetched. Clearly based in fact and solid research. I believe the problem lies a bit in the writing.
When I read historic fiction, I like seeing history through the eyes of one person (possibly two). It brings the huge picture you get otherwise down to a personable level. The problem with this book is that it kind of fails to keep things at that personal level. There’s far too much contact with actual big movers and shakers from the historic events. How the heck is this Dr. Adler in so much contact with the Japanese and Nazi elite? One scene like that can be quite powerful in a book, but not multiple ones. It takes it from the realm of historic fiction to that of fantasy.
Additionally, I feel that a bit too often Kalla tells instead of shows. Two characters will be talking about something the reader doesn’t yet know about, such as how the city of Shanghai is set up politically, and instead of putting it into the dialogue, the book just says “And then he told him about thus and such.” That makes for dull reading.
So, really, to me, the plot itself is unique in choosing a population and area of WWII that is not written about that much. The author clearly did his research and has a passion for the time period and issues faced by the people, but the story would be better served if it was made more about the everyman and dialogue and action were used more effectively.
Overall, this is a unique piece of historic fiction that will mainly appeal to fans of the genre looking for a new area of WWII to read about.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Book Review: A Cold Night for Alligators by Nick Crowe
Summary:
One day on his way home from work, a homeless man shoves Jasper in front of a subway train. Waking up months later from a coma with medical leave from his job, his (now ex) girlfriend living in his house with her new boyfriend, religious Donny, Jasper decides to join Donny and his best friend Duane on a trip south from Canada to Florida. Donny and Duane are going fishing, but Jasper is on a hunt for his brother who disappeared ten years ago at the age of seventeen. He has a hunch he may have returned to what was previously a happy family vacation spot.
Review:
This is one of those situations where I recognize that the book is well-written, but personally I just didn’t like it. The combination of the plot and characters struck a sour note for me, although I can see other people enjoying it.
I struggled because I simply did not find a single character to like. I didn’t like Jasper, his ex Kim, her new boyfriend Donny, the best friend Duane, the long lost Aunt Val, well, you get the picture. None of them were people I could relate to or sympathize with. Not a single one! That is rare in a book for me. I can relate to characters from all over the world and all over time itself, but here. Yeesh. I mean, it’s bad when you’re agreeing with the villain (who you also don’t like) that the main character is a pussy. That’s just generally a bad sign.
I also found myself struggling some with the flow of the plot. It’s rather unevenly structured with random side stories such as an entire chapter devoted to Duane taking a bar bet to eat 19 pickled eggs. So much time devoted to this point (that was gross to read about) and it never turned out to be relevant. It felt at certain points like Crowe was writing just to write, and it’s not that they’re badly done scenes, they’re just not relevant to the book.
Similarly, and consider this your spoiler alert, characters escape alligators just a few too many times. Having one character who is a gator whisperer is fine, but having other characters repeatedly escaping gators is just insanity and unbelievable. It left me wondering if Crowe has ever actually watched the Discovery Channel.
Overall, this is a book that left me decidedly lukewarm. The characters are so average as to be dull, and the way they look on the rest of the world left me feeling a bit sour. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy literary fiction that moves at a slow pace, as well as those interested in a Canadian’s view of Florida.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Book Review: David Goodis Five Noir Novels of the 1940s and 50s by David Goodis
Summary:
The Library of America collects together great pieces of American literature into themed books. This can be anything from an author, to writing on aviation, to the Harlem Renaissance, to transcendentalism. This collection is David Goodis’s best works, all of which happen to be noir. Obviously the most well-known noir author is Raymond Chandler, but one of Goodis’s works was made into a Bogie and Bacall movie, so he’s not too far behind. The books in order of year published included in this collection are:
Dark Passage–A man framed for his wife’s murder escapes San Quentin and investigates the case with the aid of a beautiful woman in San Francisco.
Nightfall–A WWII veteran on his way to Chicago for a job finds himself inextricably linked to a robbery and murder and goes on the lam.
The Moon in the Gutter–A dockworker becomes obsessed with figuring out who raped his sister, leading to her ultimate suicide.
The Burglar–A man in his 30s who fell into the world of thieving during the Great Depression tries to get out but his tutor’s daughter keeps sucking him back in.
Street of No Return–A hobo finds himself implicated in a cop murder in the middle of race riots between whites and Puerto Ricans.
Review:
I am a huge fan of noir. I even took a noir class in undergrad, so when this showed up on Netgalley, I knew I wanted to read it, particularly since I recognizedDark Passage as a film I had watched last year. Surprisingly, we didn’t read any Goodis in that class, so it was fun to try out someone who’s not Chandler. I think Chandler found more of a niche than Goodis what with the fact his main character is the same in every novel. Goodis explores a bit more. His books all have a noir feel, but they don’t follow the exact same formula. For instance, instead of a hardboiled private dick, you might get a hardboiled thief or artist or hobo. Plus the books tend to be a bit more tragic than most noir I have read.
Goodis’s writing at the sentence level has the tongue-in-cheek wit that I so enjoy.
“Madge is a fine girl.”
“Maybe one of these days she’ll get run over by an automobile.”
“It’s something to pray for.” (location 801)
He also is fabulous at setting a scene so richly that it seems as if it is our world but simultaneously is Wonderland.
She had seated herself in a deep sofa that looked like it was fashioned from pistachio ice cream and would melt away any minute. (location 5039)
The mystery aspects of his storylines are unpredictable, don’t always wrap up neatly, and yet make sense once they are revealed to you. Unfortunately, these strengths are offset by his weak romance writing. Every single romantic interest in all of the books are a small-framed, lean woman with light brown hair. The author has a type, we can definitely see that. Beyond that, though, the love is always instant. They see each other across the room and fall for each other. And both people acknowledge this and say it’s something that can’t be helped and they are at its beck and call. This would be less of a bother except that the main characters often make important decisions based on this new “love.” For instance, one of the characters gives up his career for this woman he barely knows. Who does that?! It’s therefore difficult to be sympathetic to the characters when you are thrown out of believability. That’s unfortunate because the scene setting and mystery plots are so strong.
The best work of the bunch is The Moon in the Gutter where the impetus for a lot of the action is not the romantic interest, but the love between siblings. Additionally, it looks at issues of class, being stuck where you are, having who you can love and build a life with dictated to you by that classism innate in society. The grittiness is extreme. We’re talking about a dockworker dealing with his sister’s rape and subsequent suicide. Yet Goodis acknowledges the good there too for the blue collar dock workers and their families. Their lives are passionate and intense in a way that sitting around sipping wine and discussing the symphony just isn’t.
Overall, Goodis exhibits a lot of the qualities of good noir writing. His style is dark and gritty, often with a femme fatale. His stories offer more variety than those of other noir writers, but still fall solidly within and as a great example of the genre. I recommend this collection to those who know they are a fan of noir, and the book The Moon in the Gutter
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Book Review: A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)
Summary:
On New Year’s Eve, four incredibly different strangers accidentally meet on Topper’s House a popular local spot for suicides. Somehow running into each other leads to them taking the long way down that night instead of the quick one. What happens after is a continuance of their life stories that no one could have predicted.
Review:
I distinctly remember that this book made it into my tbr pile because of the suicide theme. What makes these four different people want to kill themselves, and what makes them not do it. Clearly this is a book about depression and suicidality. But it is not a depressing book. Not by far.
Without revealing too much, since the revelations are part of the fun of the read, I will just say that the four suicidal people span different generations, reasons, and nations of origin. Different levels of conservatism and liberalism. But what makes them come to understand each other is their universal depression and suicidal thoughts. This fact that someone out there gets them….well oftentimes that can help get a profoundly depressed or mentally unwell person over the hump. Feeling less alone.
Her past was in the past, but our past, I don’t know…Our past was still all over the place. We could see it every day when we woke up. (page 253)
In spite of this being a book about depressed people bonding over their depression, it doesn’t read as such. I was reading it on an airplane and found myself literally laughing out loud at sections. Because these people are brilliant. They have a great understanding of the world. Of art. Of relationships. Even of themselves.
I had that terrible feeling you get when you realize that you’re stuck with who you are, and there’s nothing you can do about it. (page 208)
That is, after all, frequently what depression can be all about. A profoundly clear understanding of how royally fucked up you are or your life is. What’s hard is seeing past that moment. The book is kind of a snapshot of the process of them learning to do that. And that’s what makes it so eloquent and poignant. Nothing is done melodramatically. Things are just presented as they are. Even down to the four being able to laugh together periodically (and make you laugh in the process). Depression isn’t just oh everything sucks nonstop. There are moments of laughter. It’s just that those moments are outweighed by the weight of the depression. Getting rid of that weight is a cleansing, uplifting process, and that’s how it feels to read this book. You bond and you laugh and you maybe even cry (if you have more susceptible tear ducts than this reader). And in the end you come to an understanding of that suicidal dark place without being abandoned in it.
Overall this book manages to eloquently present depression without being a depressing book. It is compelling to any reader who has ever struggled with a depressed period of life. Highly recommended to the depressed and the sympathetic. Both will be left feeling lighter and less alone.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
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Book Review: Abject Relations: Everyday Worlds of Anorexia by Megan Warin
Summary:
Warin, an anthropologist, takes an entirely new approach to anorexia, looking it from a purely cultural and anthropological perspective. She spends a couple of years interviewing women with anorexia at various points in the life of the illness from early treatment to recovery to relapse. In this way she analyzes not just the culture of women and men suffering from anorexia but also how anorexia is a response to the culture these people find themselves in.
Review:
This was my first read from the holdings of my new workplace. The instant I saw the title and book cover, I knew I needed to read it. The anthropology of anorexia? How fascinating!
It’s interesting that I feel I actually learned a bit more about anthropology than anorexia from this book, but perhaps that is because I am more familiar with the latter than the former. From my work in psychiatry and as a mental illness advocate, I was already aware that people suffering from anorexia have their own culture. I still highly valued seeing this presented in an academic fashion with a respect for the people involved. I commend Warin for her ability to interact with these women and glean a sense of how they came to be who they are now with a respect for them as people that is all too rare to see in this type of work.
So what of the anthropology then? What are abject relations? Over the course of the book I learned that abject relations are ambiguous relations.
What is abject is in between, ambiguous, and composite. Abjection is thus contrary to dualist concepts because it undermines and threatens that which is separate. As such, abjection is fundamentally concerned with the complexities and contradictions of relatedness. (page 184)
Whereas most books about eating disorders attempt to say THIS definitively caused it, this book’s premise is that the etiology is entirely ambiguous. What caused it, what makes it persist, what it is to suffer from anorexia. Nothing about it is clear-cut. That is the powerful statement of the book. There are no easy answers to anorexia, but we can do much more to understand it both as its own culture and as an aspect of our own.
This focus on anorexia as a response to the mainstream culture and a formation of a new culture leads Warin to question a lot of the inpatient treatment techniques. Warin sees anorexia as frequently about women attempting to assert a right to control over their own bodies that goes horribly awry, ripping the control out of society’s or tormentor’s hands, into their own, into ana’s hands, then into the hands of an authority figure again at treatment. Warin sees value in helping people suffering from anorexia recover in the context of society. Instead of feeding them alone in a single room have them cook and eat together in a group. This reenforces the cultural and connecting aspect of eating that they have been denying for so long.
It is an interesting idea to look at anorexia as an abject cultural response, but I don’t think it’s one that is quite as unique or revolutionary as Warin seems to think. Whereas there have always been those who think anorexia is the ultimate kowtowing to what society deems feminine, there have also been those who view it as women protecting themselves from being perceived as feminine, from having unwanted interactions with those who would objectify them. Perhaps it is really both, which is what makes it so hard to treat. I believe this is what Warin is trying to say, although she is often not as clear as she could be. She gets caught up in academic jargon. She is at her strongest when simply organizing her interactions with the women into themes and presenting them to the reader to do with what they will.
Overall, for an academic look at anorexia this is unique in that it is an anthropological study instead of a psychiatric one. Looking at a group of people who are a group simply because they share the same illness and studying their anthropology is a truly fascinating concept. The book is scientific, but it is social science and is thus easy enough for the mainstream reader to follow. It provides the human aspect of anorexia without sensationalizing. Anyone with an interest in eating disorders or anthropology will enjoy this book.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Work Library
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Book Review: Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats by Emily Monosson
Summary:
Monosson attempts to explain both current and possible future impacts of chemical pollutants on humans by examining how life responded to toxic threats in the past.
Review:
Allow me to preface my review by saying that although I am not a scientist, my profession is that of a medical librarian, so scientific jargon is not new to me. I would therefore say my understanding of science is somewhere above average American but below actual scientist. I had the impression from the description that this book is written by a scientist for public consumption aka the average American. It misses the mark.
The content is great and informative, but it is couched in such an overload of scientific jargon and an assumption of an above average understanding of how the human body works that it was incredibly difficult to get through in order to glean out the interesting information. Thank goodness I had the kindle version and could look up words easily as I went, or I would have given up within the first chapter. Additionally, just when things were starting to get interesting, such as with how DDT impacts development in utero, Monosson would switch topics. Very frustrating!
That said, I did learn quite a bit from this book. It was just difficult to get to these understandable tidbits given the writing style and structure. Here are a few interesting things I learned:
Like some pervasive computer operating systems, p53 is an archetypical example of the unintelligent design and compromise that is inherent in evolution—a multifunctional, multipurpose transcriptional coordinator that has only lately been retasked to the job of tumor suppression in large, long-lived orgasms….At the end of the day p53, together with all our other suppressor mechanisms, fails half of humanity. (location 1314)
Though two species may share a common ancestor and hence a common ancestral receptor or enzyme, once they part ways on the family tree, the branches evolve independently. (location 1670)
For a genetically male mammal to come out looking and functioning male, he requires in utero exposure to hormones like testosterone and its more potent derivative, dihydrotestosterone, along with a functioning AR. An embryo lacking either hormones or a properly functioning AR (or exposed to chemicals that disrupt either receptor or hormone production) will take on a female appearance, despite possessing a Y chromosome….work by Kelce, Gray, and others revealed that a metabolite of the pesticide DDT was an even more potent inhibitor of the AR than was vinclozolin. Given the ubiquity of DDT and its metabolites, this was a potentially explosive finding. (location 1716)
If our CYP enzymes are increasingly metabolizing a variety of pharmaceuticals, what happens when we add one more, or change our diet, or breathe in chemicals like polyaromatics bound to micron-sized air pollution particulates? (location 2509)
Ultimately though, although I learned a lot, the reading experience itself was a bit daunting for the average American. I believe this book would best be enjoyed by a scientist for whom evolution is not their normal research area. They thus would have an easier time with the jargon, but also not already know what Monosson is talking about.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Book Review: Acacia: The War With the Mein by David Anthony Durham (Series, #1) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)
Summary:
The Akarans have ruled the Known World for twenty-two generations, but the wrongfully exiled Meins have a bit of a problem with that. They enact a take-over plot whose first action is assassinating the king. Suddenly his four children are flung to different parts of the Known World in exile where they will need to come to terms with who they are, who the Mein are, and the wrongs past generations of Akarans committed in order to help the Known World make a change for the better.
Review:
I have a big announcement to make. Huge even. THIS IS THE FIRST HIGH FANTASY BOOK I HAVE LOVED. There. I said it! And it’s true.
I wish I had some vague idea of how this ended up on my TBR pile. The only clue I have is that I acquired it via PaperBackSwap, so I know I got it very intentionally after reading a review or something somewhere. But where? And why? Who knows! It was entirely out of my comfort zone, took me much longer than my norm to read (over two weeks according to GoodReads), and yet. I loved every moment of it.
A momentous occasion such as this obviously leaves me asking why. Why when I generally am irritated by most high fantasy did this one not just not bug me but worm its way into my heart? This is a key question, because it’s something that helps stories cross genres. I do have an answer, but of course it has many elements.
First, although this primarily depicts a war, no side is depicted as pure evil or good. Both sides have good points and flaws. Good people work for both. Bad people work for both. The Akaran king isn’t a bad guy per se, but he’s allowing things to happen under his rule that are bad. The Meins have a just cause, but they do horrible things in the process of achieving that cause. This realistic complexity is something that I have found to be sorely missing in other fantasy. The Known World is its own fantastical place with its own cultures and history, but it is realistic in the fact that everything is complex and nothing is clear-cut.
Second, the female characters are incredibly well-written. They are well-rounded, strong and yet vulnerable. Beautiful and yet terrifying. They are innately a part of the world depicted, not just princesses in a tall tower or the girl at the side of the field whose beauty inspires the men. Women are historically a part of the Akaran army, and the two Akaran princesses have strengths and flaws of PEOPLE. They are not “female flaws.” They are people who happen to have vaginas. It is some of the best writing of women I’ve seen from a male writer in a while.
Third, the Known World is complex and eloquently imagined, yet clear and easy to understand. It is its own thing, but it is similar enough to our own real world that I wasn’t left grasping for straws trying to understand things. People in cold climates are pale, and people in deserts are dark. The animals range from recognizable horses and monkeys to fantastical creatures that are a mix of rhinoceroses and pigs. It is creative yet fathomable.
Finally, the storyline is complex. I could not predict what was going to happen next at any moment, really. The ending caught me completely by surprise, and I am baffled as to what Durham will be doing with the middle book of the trilogy. Baffled and impatient.
My god. I love a fantasy story.
Overall, this is now the book I will hold up when people ask me what is good fantasy. It is what leaves me with hope for the genre that it can be more than pasty white men wishing for a patriarchal past of quivering ladies in waiting and knights fighting dragons. Fantasy can imagine a world where some things are better than ours, and yet other things are worse. It can be a reflection of our own world through a carnival mirror. Something that makes us think hard while getting lost. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for those things in their reading.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Book Review: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead (Series, #2)
Summary:
Georgina Kincaid, the succubus that wishes sex with hot men didn’t always steal their life energy, has held up her side of the bargain with her demon supervisor. She’s been going after quality men in exchange for him not wiping the memory of her human boyfriend, the hot writer Seth. Of course, they can’t have sex together without yanking some years off his life, so when they sleep together, it’s literal sleeping. But life continues in spite of boyfriends and job accolades. Georgina finds herself caught up in helping an old incubus friend, as well as trying to find out what has her coworker, Doug, so full of energy.
Review:
Ahhh, Georgina. You are quite possibly my favorite urban fantasy heroine, although your fixation on Seth kinda bugs me. Anyway, everything that made Succubus Blues so fun is back with a bang this time around. We’ve got crazy sex scenes, paranormal mystery, and an every reluctant succubus.
The story itself is a bit more predictable than the first one, but that’s ok. I may have known right away what was up with the incubus’s project as well as what was wrong with Doug, but it’s so much fun to be in Georgina’s world that I honestly didn’t care that I knew. I mostly delighted in this new version of Seattle that Mead has created.
Georgina is complex and so well-rounded. We constantly learn little snippets of her long life, this time around focusing in more on her succubus years than her human ones. She may have sex down pat, but she still doesn’t have relationships figured out, which is part of what makes her character work. Men can still surprise her sometimes. Especially Seth.
There is honestly not that much else to say about this book. The world is delicious, the plot predictable, the heroine delightful. It’s drizzled in intelligent wit and topped off with some red hot sex scenes. This series is definitely remaining my go to for urban fantasy. Fans of the first won’t be disappointed, and anyone with even an inclination toward the genre should definitely check it out.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Public Library
Previous Books in Series
Succubus Blues
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Opinions of a Wolf 