Horror - Yoko Ogawa - Revenge (2013)

Bryan got me this book for my birthday this year. Not because it was on any wishlist or anything, but because he heard them talking about it on NPR. The fact that he heard that and decided that this would be relevant to my interests meant a lot more to me than getting a book that I had put on my list just because.

I read it because he told me to, really. I was floundering over what to read after that library book, and after first pulling The Weird out, he changed his mind and bid me to read the book he got me for my birthday.

This book is super short; at 162 pages, I easily read it over the course of a day. It is made up of a series of interconnected stories, and I do mean interconnected. A bit player in one story is then a childhood friend of another, or a place may appear in two stories, or strawberry shortcake will make another appearance. And all of the tales are dark, but at different degrees: some are subtle, some are not, some are just sad, some are even confusing.

I actually rather liked this book. The fact that almost no one has a name really adds to the sense of interconnectedness, and the fact that emotions are almost never directly described means that you can pull it from the way they talk or think instead. I know it's probably some work by the translator, but the word choices are spot on. Towards the end, however, the complexity of the intertwining stories gets to be a bit much and it's hard to follow how each character relates to another. The last story is actually connected to the first, which I appreciate, but not in a super clear way, which was disappointing.

If you like dark tales and want to see some great examples of how to express emotion without saying "she felt sad", I would recommend this book. $14 seems a bit steep for what you get, but I imagine that will go down the older it gets.

8.5/10

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Thriller - Jeff Abbott - Collision (2008)

Believe it or not, I only recently got a library card. I know, right? Especially with it being within walking distance and with monthly writers' group meetings there. But the fact of the matter is with an extensive personal library, it's hard to justify picking up a book at the public library.

But since I had to do something uncomfortable to practice skills learned in group therapy, I decided to make it something that would reward me. So, fresh and new library card in hand, I picked up the first book in the fiction section that was not a Book # of Many More.

Collision is about two guys on the run from the law and more dangerous guys. Ben Forsberg is a consultant to a security corporation and is a person of interest now because a guy who killed another guy left Ben's business card with the corpse. Pilgrim is a guy who works for a secret government agency that has been ripped apart by bad guys, and is also the guy who left the card. They have to learn to trust each other because they've both been set up to take the fall for a bunch of shit.

This book is like an action movie in book form. If you like CIA dramas, terrorism thrillers, and murderer mysteries, you might find something you like in this book. Personally, I recognize that it isn't FOR me. Also, the theme song of this book should be "It's a Small World" because everyone is being played by someone else regardless of how many years between. Almost no character is used only once, unless as bullet fodder. So don't sit there thinking one person will never show up again until they are dead. Because they will. Ad nauseum.

All in all, I didn't enjoy reading this book. But like I said, it's not FOR me. It's for someone else. So maybe you would enjoy it. But to me it feels very average, almost mediocre.

6.5/10

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Fantasy - Anne Bishop - Daughter of the Blood (1998)

I mentioned before that the Black Jewels series is my absolute favorite, so it should come as no surprise that when I take a book vacation (defined here as a vacation into a favorite book), I default to these. This read-through, however, I went through every single word and actually discovered some points I always missed. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

I bought this book in 2004 at a used bookstore that no longer exists. This was another one of those times when my interest in what was going on on the cover led to a great find. The first time I read this, I blasted through it in a day because I liked it so much.

Daughter of the Blood, being the first book in the series, sets up quite a lot for the future to remark on, but let's just go through it like normal, shall we? A powerful seer named Tersa foretells the coming of a mythological being known as Witch before descending into madness. Witch is dreams made flesh, the wishes and desires of a people known as the Blood. Seven hundred years later, she appears: a child with more power on tap than any other member of the Blood ever before her ascension from her birthright. She is the joy and secret of many people, including a sexually brutal man named Daemon who believes he was born to be her lover, his brother Lucivar (who is featured more in the second book), and their father, who happens to be the High Lord of Hell, Saetan. But there are also those who wish to use her for their own purposes, and the fear that this may happen sows suspicion among her own friends.

Of the three books, this one is probably my least favorite, but let me tell you why. I love these characters. There is a lot here that really turns my crank: the human weapon, the brutality and violence, the wide and sparkling spectrum of color. This book has Jaenelle with her shitty family and occasionally in Briarwood. There isn't as much room for friendly interactions, or the fun of her whirlwind personality as it blows through the lives of these men and her friends. Sure, she spends a great deal of time with Daemon, but the danger of the so-called Light Realm (noted, the danger had to be increasingly present to provide contrast with the Shadow Realm of the other books) takes so much precedence that I don't really like this one. I don't like seeing my book-friends in trouble.

Now, to be fair, I still love it. The detail in the descriptions alone is sensuous and brilliant. But of the three, I dislike this one the most.

It occurs to me that I got a little lost in the details up there, but still. If you like blazing magic and brutal violence, diplomacy and relationships, get thee to your bookstore.

9.75/10

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Fiction - Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves (2000)

Obviously, like any creature of the internet, I heard about this book from this XKCD strip and Wil Wheaton's blog post. But it wasn't until I saw it on a Buy 3 Get the 4th Free table at my local B&N that I bought it. But then there it sat on the bookshelf until a friend of mine saw that I had it, and encouraged me to read it.

House of Leaves is nigh impossible to describe. It starts out being about this one guy having been dealt a poor hand in life, and his friend lives in an apartment complex. And in this apartment complex is an old hermit of a man that has just died. They go into his apartment and find tons and tons of writing, apparently a dissertation on a film called The Navidson Record, where a photojournalist and his family move into a house that is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. At first, this discrepancy could be easily explained away; the difference is only a quarter of an inch after all, so somebody just messed up measuring somewhere. But then a door appears that should lead outside, but instead leads to a dark, cold place that just keeps changing in shape.

More than just being hard to describe, House of Leaves is hard to analyze. First off, I could give two shits about Johnny Truant. This guy is really just a gateway to his mother's letters, of which there is a whole separate book apart from just the insanity at the appendix. But the more fluid language of Johnny is a nice contrast to the highly technical analysis of Zampano. But the odd formatting is only briefly touched on before it HITS like a ton of BRICKS. You'll know it when you see it, but I implore you to power through until at least the Minotaur chapter, which is a work of suspenseful art.

The problem is that then the whole book seems to fall apart.

Too much time is spent after that chapter away from what everyone is interested in, the fucking house, and instead on Navidson and Karen's relationship. Listen, dude. No one gives a fuck. Even the so-called climax is not as powerful as that chapter in the middle of the book.

I know, you're thinking "hur hur, bigger on the inside, it's a TARDIS". And when I read the description on the inside flap, I felt the same way, with a dash of "aren't there a million SCPs that do this?". But it's really more than that. This book really explores what that concept means. If it's bigger on the inside, how big is that? Twice the size? Miles more? Bigger than the earth?

For that chapter and approach alone, I must suggest you get yourself a copy. For the typography tricks, I beg you to read it. The whole thing isn't the best in the world, but you will not regret your time spent on this book.

9.85/10

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Writing - Barbara DeMarco-Barrett - Pen on Fire (2004)

This book was probably purchased during a book buying binge; those are usually the times I pick up writing instruction books. In this case, I only remember what I wanted this book to do, which was help me find time to write in between the moments of my life.

I'm pretty sure I got it while I still had a job.

Now, I have nothing but time, but I still can't really get myself out of this not-writing funk.

However, I pulled this tome off my bookshelf in anticipation of November, which everyone should know by now is National Novel Writing Month. At this point, I've lost more than I've won; a fact that makes me feel so guilty I refuse to go to a meetup organized by my fellow Las Vegans. I always tell myself that this time I will not lose, but then I do something to kick my own ass after week one.

You're not here to hear about this shit. You're here for this book review.

Honestly, this book is very average. It talks a lot about how women make themselves feel bad for taking time to do their own thing, which is true I think of more than just women, and how if you want to write, you have to work past that to carve out your own bits of time. It also tries to give you resources to develop ideas, as well as stuff having to do with the craft of writing like voice and shit. All and all, average.

The most disappointing part, I think, is the "Living the Life" section, which has more to do with literary agents than actually living a writer's life. Listen, the information on literary agents is great and all, but that has actually not much to do with your own section title. And, there are tons of books that work on that subject that you'd be better off just listing.

It may also be that the book is kind of dated, but the self-publishing world is so hopping, even traditional publishers have to rethink their acceptance guidelines or be left in the dust. Basically, what worked for one person does not work for all.

7/10

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Fantasy - Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind (2007)

I think Steve got me this book for Christmas. I tend to depend on him to tread those new fantasy waters while I deal with my backlog of unread books that fill my shelves, but I may have eventually picked this up on my own, but for a different reason. We didn't go to PAX this year, but Rothfuss was in the DnD Live Show this year, so I likely would have read it for that reason even without Steve's interference. The truth of the matter is, I had plans to read this after A Dance with Dragons, but then Nadia was kind enough to lend me a bunch of her books, so it got pushed back.

The Name of the Wind is a book one of a debut series, so it is covered in accolades that, for the most part, are well-deserved. The story starts out with some drunken bumpkins coming to an inn, encountering some razor-sharp spider creatures, and declaring them demons. That's just brushing over it briefly. Then a guy known as the Chronicler comes up and discovers that the innocuous innkeeper is a legendary hero by the name of Kvothe. It's a great hook, especially once Chronicler convinces Kvothe to relate to him his story. The majority of the book is just that: the first day of Kvothe telling Chronicler his tale.

I could totally see this in so many different media: DnD adventure, TV miniseries, comic serial. The book form is great for relating it in his own words, but I don't doubt that there is potential for more here.

There is one problem. He gives away some of the shit that happens with this method. Kvothe lists some of his accomplishments and failures before you even get started. Since most of this is about him trying to get to the University, and then stay, the fact that you say on the back that he has gotten "expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in" gives some of the story away, now, doesn't it? But that's a problem I tend to have with book backs. They always give too much away. But that line is embedded in the text as well, so there's really no avoiding it. It's just a nitpick.

Here's another: the world is great, the worries of a poor person spot on, and the main character a giant douche.

Don't get me wrong. Kvothe's story is interesting. But he is the MOST Mary of Sues, and if you don't know what that means, maybe you should look it up. This is wish-fulfillment at its most heinous. Why does he have to be some kind of super-genius? Why does he always convince his elders to do what he wants? There's so little opportunity really for Kvothe to fail. I wonder if it is the intention of the author to make Kvothe relate his story with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia in order to toot his own horn, or if the first-person POV got to Rothfuss when it came to his character.

All in all, it's a great read, especially if you like fantasy. There are some annoying higher fantasy aspects toward the end, and the climax is, for lack of better description, somewhat anticlimactic, but I enjoyed it, despite Kvothe jerking off to himself the entirety of the book.

9.5/10

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Science - Victor J. Stenger - The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning (2011)

You know that stupid thing that comes up on your ignorant relative's Facebook statues where they assert that if the Earth were ten feet closer to the sun we would all burn up? And then you try to explain to them that our orbit isn't a perfect circle and we often drift both closer and farther from the sun throughout the year, and then they accuse you of either not taking a joke or picking on them? (Unless they are truly lost, which is when they say, "Duh! How else would we have summer or winter? Stupid!")

That Facebook argument has taken form.

It is this book.

I told Steve (Sorry Steve!) That The Name of the Wind was going to be the next book I read, but I decided to get this one done and over with. I don't really know the circumstances it entered our library. Most of the science books in our possession (and we have quite a few) are Bryan's, and this one is definitely no exception. It's primarily his because it has been sitting on his nightstand for as long as we've had nightstands, and by the bed before that. It always frustrated me that he wasn't making any progress on it, but he said that it was a snorefest and riddled with too-hard math. I'm here to tell you that he is 100% not wrong when it comes to that.

I don't have any problems with you believing what you want, as long as it doesn't harm anyone else, physically or emotionally. I'm an atheist. I come from Christian stock. I married into a Jewish family. One of my best friends is Catholic. I don't care. Don't proselytize, don't hurt anyone, and I don't care. I will admit that I get frustrated by some of the ladies in group therapy that talk about praying and mantras and reiki, but I don't care, really. My frustration stems from them wasting our valuable time with their bullshit. But I don't go around arguing with people.

This guy not only doesn't believe in a higher power, but he is dedicated to proving that believing, and specifically believing that science has proven the existence of one, is bullshit. Whatever. That's fine.

Apparently, the idea surrounding "science has found God" is that the numbers in physics have been "fine-tuned" by some designer entity to make our universe perfect for life to grow. This book is intending to disprove all of that.

Unfortunately, it is very dull.

What could be an infinitely interesting book is bogged down with all of the math and none of the explanation of what a lot of the holy math even means. He gets so caught up in his equations and constants that the layman's mind reels, and when Stenger finally comes up for air, ages after the reader has already pantingly done so, he speaks in vague terms that he asserts are proved by the math, repeats word-for-word assertions made in the preface, and claims we will understand better in a later chapter.

The whole thing flows more like a textbook that a book for the regular populace. That isn't because it's a science book. There are plenty of science books that still have the ability to hold the interest of the reader. But not this one.

Did some supernatural entity fine-tune the numbers in our physics models for life? Probably not. Would life have been able to form without fine-tuning? Probably. Is there any life to speak of between the covers of this tome?

Absolutely not.

2.5/10

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