Sara Gruen
Set in the 1930's U.S., Jacob Jankowski drops out of Cornell vet school to join a small time train circus. And set in the 1990's, Jacob is an old man in a nursing home, dealing with old age and negligent family, and remembering the circus. I found the descriptions and stories of the back side of circus life interesting, but what really sold this book for me was the old man Jacob story. Two different people in different times, but the same person. And it made me think about being old and how to make that a time of dignity for myself and for others. It is hard in this age where people live well beyond their ability to care for themselves or mentally participate in the world. Well done. Maybe I will see the film.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Agent X
Noah Boyd
Airplane book. This is a classic national security / spy thriller that reminds me of the cold war agent-double agent stories of the 80's and 90's. Here the FBI brings in its now retired, disgraced and reluctant super cop to help uncover Russian sleeper agents in the U.S. government. Steve is a typical lone-wolf operator who is forced to work with his once-lover of an assistant deputy director to save the U.S. for certain peril. My only complaint is how much a a pedestal Steve is put on. Whenever there is a particularly difficult problem, Steve comes in and is allowed to sit in silence and look at all the evidence while everyone else stands around and watches him. Then he has an epiphany and a course is charted to solved the next piece of the mystery. A bit too well wrapped up for me. But I liked how seemingly unrelated mysteries tied back together into a single story. A pretty good effort in this genre.
Airplane book. This is a classic national security / spy thriller that reminds me of the cold war agent-double agent stories of the 80's and 90's. Here the FBI brings in its now retired, disgraced and reluctant super cop to help uncover Russian sleeper agents in the U.S. government. Steve is a typical lone-wolf operator who is forced to work with his once-lover of an assistant deputy director to save the U.S. for certain peril. My only complaint is how much a a pedestal Steve is put on. Whenever there is a particularly difficult problem, Steve comes in and is allowed to sit in silence and look at all the evidence while everyone else stands around and watches him. Then he has an epiphany and a course is charted to solved the next piece of the mystery. A bit too well wrapped up for me. But I liked how seemingly unrelated mysteries tied back together into a single story. A pretty good effort in this genre.
The Lola Quartet
Emily St. John Mandel
Airplane book. The Lola Quartet is a jazz group formed during high school by four kids. Their lives are intertwined for years as one of them has a child, steals money from a drug czar and lives on the run. The running and the rescuing provides the impetus for reunion and reminiscing about "the good ol' days". Not particularly excellent, but as an airplane book, it passed the time and kept everything moving.
Airplane book. The Lola Quartet is a jazz group formed during high school by four kids. Their lives are intertwined for years as one of them has a child, steals money from a drug czar and lives on the run. The running and the rescuing provides the impetus for reunion and reminiscing about "the good ol' days". Not particularly excellent, but as an airplane book, it passed the time and kept everything moving.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Variable Man
Philip K. Dick
A short story (or maybe a mini-novel). Earth (Terra) is in a war with Proxima Centauris. A war of sorts. There is not actually any battle or fighting. Earth scientists design a weapon and then feed the existence of this weapon into their statistical modelling computers to determine if they could win a war. And then the Cenaurians design a defense to this weapon and the defense gets fed into the model. There is never enough gap between weapon and defense to actually allow a weapon of defense system to be built. The statistical models never predict strong enough odds inspire actual action. But somewhere along the line, a man gets pulled to the present from the past and the statistical models have no way of calculating his effects on anything. So they get stuck and the generals are just as stuck. No statistical model, no ability to determine if they should actually start fighting.
Brilliant.
Rating: Read it
A short story (or maybe a mini-novel). Earth (Terra) is in a war with Proxima Centauris. A war of sorts. There is not actually any battle or fighting. Earth scientists design a weapon and then feed the existence of this weapon into their statistical modelling computers to determine if they could win a war. And then the Cenaurians design a defense to this weapon and the defense gets fed into the model. There is never enough gap between weapon and defense to actually allow a weapon of defense system to be built. The statistical models never predict strong enough odds inspire actual action. But somewhere along the line, a man gets pulled to the present from the past and the statistical models have no way of calculating his effects on anything. So they get stuck and the generals are just as stuck. No statistical model, no ability to determine if they should actually start fighting.
Brilliant.
Rating: Read it
Player Piano
Kurt Vonnegut
Now I remember why I like this guy. This is a dystopian future novel. The fun part is that this is a future where automation has been identified and the great progress and magnetic tape storage and vacuum tubes are ubiquitous. Automation is so rampant that most Americans are without work and only a few managers and engineers are actually employed to keep the automated systems working. The unemployed are given money so that they can continue to consume so the automated factories can continue to efficiently manufacture products. Of course this cries for rebellion and protest. Vonnegut has fun with the characters leading the revolt and holding the status quo. And he has fun crashing reality into the idealism of the revolutionary. For me at least, this was a page turner.
Rating: Read it
Now I remember why I like this guy. This is a dystopian future novel. The fun part is that this is a future where automation has been identified and the great progress and magnetic tape storage and vacuum tubes are ubiquitous. Automation is so rampant that most Americans are without work and only a few managers and engineers are actually employed to keep the automated systems working. The unemployed are given money so that they can continue to consume so the automated factories can continue to efficiently manufacture products. Of course this cries for rebellion and protest. Vonnegut has fun with the characters leading the revolt and holding the status quo. And he has fun crashing reality into the idealism of the revolutionary. For me at least, this was a page turner.
Rating: Read it
Sunday, May 20, 2012
The Years of Rice and Salt
Kim Stanley Robinson
How would civilization have developed if the plague that wiped out huge populations in Europe actually wiped out all of Europe? With a void of western ideas and Christianity, scientific and religious progress was made in Asia and the Middle East. How do you even tell this story, which spans many hundreds of years and thousands of miles of geography? Robinson chooses to set the story in the guise of a Buddhist jati. A jati is a group of souls that are connected somehow and continue to be reincarnated together so that they encounter each other in every life. This device allows us to travel from Asia to Arabia to the New World as each new reincarnation takes place. Very clever and very well done. I found myself looking for the reoccuring characters since it was not always obvious. I love the imagining of how Newton's laws would have been discovered in an Eastern scientific context, or how democracy might have developed. Covering science, religion, politics, economics and philosophy, Robinson provides a fascinating and entertaining look at an alternate universe.
Rating: Read it
How would civilization have developed if the plague that wiped out huge populations in Europe actually wiped out all of Europe? With a void of western ideas and Christianity, scientific and religious progress was made in Asia and the Middle East. How do you even tell this story, which spans many hundreds of years and thousands of miles of geography? Robinson chooses to set the story in the guise of a Buddhist jati. A jati is a group of souls that are connected somehow and continue to be reincarnated together so that they encounter each other in every life. This device allows us to travel from Asia to Arabia to the New World as each new reincarnation takes place. Very clever and very well done. I found myself looking for the reoccuring characters since it was not always obvious. I love the imagining of how Newton's laws would have been discovered in an Eastern scientific context, or how democracy might have developed. Covering science, religion, politics, economics and philosophy, Robinson provides a fascinating and entertaining look at an alternate universe.
Rating: Read it
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing
Traitor to the Nation - Volume I - The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
While I like a book that has an immediate hook, there is something inherently satisfying about settling into one as well. Asimov's Foundation Series is such a settling series. You just have to have faith that it will become impossible to put down at some point. In this case, I didn't have that faith and so meandered through this book. In the end, I was hooked. Our hero is a young black slave named Octavian. He is owned by Boston colonists who are interested in finding out about the different capacities of the races. So Octavian is actually a specimen to be studied. He is given a classical education and over time observed to compare his acquisition and use of education in comparison to white persons. What strikes me now is that the "scientists" are extremely concerned about not giving Octavian unintentional advantages to skew the results of the experiment, but in fact they do not have a control. They do not have a white child who is going through the same experimental education regiment for which to compare. They also do not seem to care about individual differences in intellect or ability. This one boy will answer the question for the entire race. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book for me is seeing the historical events happening (the American revolution unfolding) in a scenario where the revolution is not "The Story", but is only "The Setting". Very interesting, very insightful commentary on the development of our capitalist society, and very disturbing all at the same time.
Rating: Read
M.T. Anderson
While I like a book that has an immediate hook, there is something inherently satisfying about settling into one as well. Asimov's Foundation Series is such a settling series. You just have to have faith that it will become impossible to put down at some point. In this case, I didn't have that faith and so meandered through this book. In the end, I was hooked. Our hero is a young black slave named Octavian. He is owned by Boston colonists who are interested in finding out about the different capacities of the races. So Octavian is actually a specimen to be studied. He is given a classical education and over time observed to compare his acquisition and use of education in comparison to white persons. What strikes me now is that the "scientists" are extremely concerned about not giving Octavian unintentional advantages to skew the results of the experiment, but in fact they do not have a control. They do not have a white child who is going through the same experimental education regiment for which to compare. They also do not seem to care about individual differences in intellect or ability. This one boy will answer the question for the entire race. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this book for me is seeing the historical events happening (the American revolution unfolding) in a scenario where the revolution is not "The Story", but is only "The Setting". Very interesting, very insightful commentary on the development of our capitalist society, and very disturbing all at the same time.
Rating: Read
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Crossed
Ally Condie
Book 2 in Matched series
Matched - Book 1
Reached - Book 3
Cassia has accepted a job in the boundary provinces because she thinks that is where she might find Ky. Meanwhile, Xander has been placed in a high level government job back in the city. We get wind of a resistance, and Cassie and Ky meet up in the wilderness. Unfortunately, this book is a big plot bridge from Matched to the third book (yet-to-be-released) Reached. I don't do well with placeholder books or films in a series. It must be good on its own. This wasn't.
Rating: Wait
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