swynn's 75 in 2010

This is my first challenge, but even without a challenge I read 57 books last year. Eighteen more doesn't sound too bad.

(Editing this message with a running list of my 75. The index for each title is a hyperlink pointing to the post where I first mention it.)

1) The odds / Kathleen George
2) Derai / E. C. Tubb
3) Sandman Slim / Richard Kadrey
4) Remarkable Creatures / Sean B. Carroll
5) The quick / Leigh Ellis
6) NurtureShock / Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
7) Liberty falling / Nevada Barr
8) Tactics of mistake / Gordon Dickson
9) The man who loved books too much / Allison Hoover Bartlett
10) The universe maker / A. E. Van Vogt
11) Symmetry in chaos / Michael Field and Martin Golubitsky
12) I, the divine / Rabih Alameddine
13) Triplanetary / E. E. Smith
14) Spooner / Pete Dexter
15) Tweak / Nic Sheff
16) First lensman / E. E. Smith
17) The drunkard's walk / Leonard Mlodinow
18) Wanting / Richard Flanagan
19) The Anubis gates / Tim Powers
20) Strip search / William Bernhardt
21) At the seventh level / Suzette Haden Elgin
22) Tinkers / Paul Harding
23) Deep south / Nevada Barr
24) The day before tomorrow / Gerard Klein
25) The girl with the dragon tattoo / Stieg Larsson
26) Don't sleep, there are snakes / Daniel L. Everett
27) Oval track and other permutation puzzles / John O. Kiltinen
28) The shack / William P. Young
29) One thousand white women / Jim Fergus
30) From papyrus to hypertext / Christian Vandendorpe
31) To ride Hell's Chasm / Janny Wurts
32) The hanging of Thomas Jeremiah / J. William Harris
33) Galactic patrol / E. E. Smith
34) The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. Vol. 1, The pox party / M. T. Anderson
35) City of thieves / David Benioff
36) Primitive mood / David Moolten
37) Howl's moving castle / Diana Wynne Jones
38) The boat / Nam Le
39) The speed of dark / Elizabeth Moon
40) The affinity bridge / George Mann
41) The housekeeper and the professor / Yoko Ogawa
42) Blood lure / Nevada Barr
43) Eye of the whale / Douglas Carlton Abrams
44) American gods / Neil Gaiman
45) Soulless / Gail Carriger
46) Free for all / Don Borchert
47) Blacklands / Belinda Bauer
48) The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. Vol. 2, The kingdom on the waves / M.T. Anderson
49) The baby blue rip-off / Max Allan Collins
50) Library ethics / Jean Preer
51) The Monty Hall problem / Jason Rosenhouse
52) Dexter by design / Jeff Lindsay
53) Another mother tongue / Judy Grahn
54) Panic / Jeff Abbott
55) Beat the reaper / Josh Bazell
56) Ash / Malinda Lo
57) Toby alone / Timothée de Fombelle
58) Wake up dead / Roger Smith
59) Perdido Street Station / China Miéville
60) The tutor / Peter Abrahams
61) Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär / Walter Moers
62) Radical equations / Robert P. Moses
63) A dead hand / Paul Theroux
64) The chocolate cat caper / JoAnna Carl
65) Big machine / Victor LaValle
66) Mr. Peanut / Adam Ross
67) Hunting season / Nevada Barr
68) Toby and the secrets of the tree / Timothée de Fombelle
69) Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen / Katharina Hagena
70) The empress of Mars / Kage Baker
71) A darkness in my soul / Dean Koontz
72) m-Libraries
73) Ghost story / Peter Straub
74) Geek love / Katherine Dunn
75) Living with books / Helen Haines


I have visited 14 countries (6.22%) in my reading this year.
Create your own visited map of The World


I have visited 16 states (32%) in my reading this year.
Create your own visited map of The United States

Hi Swynn - welcome to the challenge.

Welcome to the group!

Welcome!

3) Sandman Slim / Richard Kadrey
4) Remarkable creatures / Sean B. Carroll

(3) was a lot of fun; (4) was a nice collection, though a bit too chatty at times

5) The quick / Leigh Ellis

Ho-hum small-town Satanism.

6) NurtureShock / Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

I found this near the top of ALA's "Best Books of 2009." It's an interesting book, but "best book" is hyperbole.

It makes its point well enough. The message -- "Everything you thought you know about parenting is wrong" -- is made repeatedly and ably, with references to studies backing the claim. I was aware of some of this research, particularly that on counterproductive praise. But the amount of studies and the breadth of their scope surprised me.

For that reason, I would have liked for Bronson and Merryman to spend a little more space discussing the research in depth. Instead, for each of about a dozen subjects (praise, sleep, race, lies, accelerated education, etc.) the authors compress a large number of interesting & surprising studies into about 20 breezy pages. Granted, their documentation is copious and I plan to track down some of their references. But the book could have carried a lot more meat.

Their approach does have at least one benefit: it is a quick and easy read. More muscle might have scared off some parents who need to hear the message.

7) Liberty falling / Nevada Barr

I've been reading through the Anna Pigeon mysteries in order, and in that context this one is okay, since it ties up an end left loose a couple of books back, when Anna's ex-boyfriend fell in love with her sister. This volume puts all three sides of that love triangle together to sort it all finally out.

And that's really the point of the book: Anna's love life. The mystery gets postponed to the last half of the book, so I wouldn't recommend this to a reader not familiar with the series.

To be fair, once the mystery is wrapped up, you realize that clews have been dropped evenly throughout the narrative; and the book does end with a high-speed chase and deadly showdown and who doesn't love that? But compared to the previous entries it is easily the weakest.

I really need to get back to the Anna Pigeon series. I fell off the bandwagon a long time ago. Thanks for the reminder.

@9. I'm about halfway through now, and "Liberty falling" was the first one that made me go "meh." As a lifelong couch potato who has recently become interested in camping & hiking (thanks to parenting a Boy Scout), I really appreciate the nature writing she works into each novel.

8) Tactics of mistake / Gordon Dickson

A brilliant young military officer singlehandedly fights off a couple of interstellar empires, mostly without bloodshed, and even gets the girl. It must have been about 25 years ago I first read this, and for the most part it's held up well. The adventure still has that "gee-whiz" feeling; but the plot now seems awfully naive and protagonast seems less the hero he was 25 years ago, and more of a jack***.

9) The man who loved books too much / Allison Hoover Bartlett

I found this one on the American Library Association's "Best Books of 2009," and it deserves its place there. It had me from the prologue, where the author discusses her discovery of a "Kraeuterbuch," a medieval German book of herbal remedies. Her enchantment with the book matches my own fascination with old books, and the prologue only sets the stage for more stories about rare books and the people who love them.

The central story follows a book thief who gave the Antiquarian Booksellers Association quite a bit of trouble with credit card fraud and rubber checks. Bartlett's interviews with the thief and a book-dealer-cum-amateur-detective form the book's structure. It sounds like a setup for a true-life "Les Miserables," but the thief is no Jean Valjean and the detective is no Javert. On the contrary, the thief comes off as the petty and obsessed bourgeois villain, and the detective as the countercultural romantic hero. All of this is delivered in an engaging style with many bookish anecdotes for booklovers. Very much recommended.

I have the Bartlett book home from the library now to read. I hope I enjoy it as much as you did.

I'm taking a course this semester, so the pace of my recreational reading is about to slow waaaay down. Still, I hope at least to read one short science fiction/fantasy/horror novel over most weekends. Unfortunately, this weekend's sf novel was a dud.

10) The universe maker / A.E. Van Vogt
I remember reading Van Vogt's "Weapon Shops of Isher" and "Slan" as a kid and thinking this guy was brilliant. Since then I've read a few of his Twilight-Zonish short stories, so I figured "The universe maker" would be a good weekend's entertainment. Instead it was a big disappointment.

The book begins with a promising chapter about a soldier who kills a girl in a drunk-driving accident, only to be confronted by her years later. Mysteriously alive, she tells him he is about to be murdered for therapeutic reasons. Suddenly he is transported to a world 300 years in the future. He spends the next hundred pages or so escaping one danger after another, usually without trying very hard. Sounds like a setup for a good pulp sf adventure ... but it's not. Mostly it's page after page of incomprehensible musings about souls and energies and life forces.

For an idea of characterization, it suffices to note that the hero opens romantic negotiations with the line, "What's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?" (I'm paraphrasing, but not exaggerating.) And gets her in bed by telling her the only reason she's so frigid is that she's never made love to _him_ (Yes, he says "frigid." And yes, she says "yes.") Okay, the copyright date is 1953, but really -- has that dialogue _ever_ been plausible?

I'm almost afraid now to revisit those books I loved as a kid. But surely there was more to them than this. Not recommended to anybody.

Yikes! I hope your next read is better than that one was.

11) Symmetry in chaos by Michael Field and Martin Golubitsky

This book was supplementary reading for the course I'm taking this semester. It was part of the fad of popularizations of dynamical systems in the late '80s/early '90s. Essentially it's a gallery of intricately beautiful and symmetric images generated formulas which are, in a certain mathematical sense, "chaotic." One of the authors has examples on his website here.

No question, the images are beautiful, but I'm a bit ambivalent about the math. Some of it is just plain wrong: the definition the authors give for a "group" actually defines a "loop"; they seem to have forgotten that a group operation is associative. In another passage they claim that the function f defined by f(x)=x^2 + x is odd: it's not. These kinds of errors are distracting, but the most vexing thing is that their intended audience is unclear. Sometimes the authors seem to assume no more than high school algebra, other times they seem to expect at least a semester of calculus.

Still, most interested readers will be able to get a general idea of their methods; and the authors supply much-appreciated mathematical detail in appendices, together with programming code for those who want to try it at home. The code is in BASIC, but it's also suprisingly simple ... so it'd be a piece of cake to rewrite into Python or JavaScript or Perl. All in all, it's a beautiful book with uneven mathematical exposition, and cautiously recommended.

Welcome to the challenge. We can always use another science fiction aficiando!

We're doing a group read of the Lensman series, if you are interested. The link is on the group page.

I think a lot of the pulp sf doesn't live up to our adolescent memories, but some of it does. Way Station by Clifford Simak does for me, and I always get a kick out of reading Wolfling by Dickson--another one man conquers the universe story, but such fun. Asimov's Foundation trilogy, which I loved as a teen, was surprisingly thin when I re-read it years later. Books have evolved a lot. I used to blaze through those 188 page Nortons and Heinleins and Asimovs and Clarkes one a night--when was the last time that happened?

I find the same thing. Dickson mostly lives up to my memories -- I'm just reading with a more jaded eye, which probably isn't fair. Poul Anderson seems actually to have improved with age: The high crusade rocks pretty much as always, and I enjoy, say, The night face or World without stars in ways I wasn't ready for as a teenager. As for Van Vogt's The universe maker, I was encouraged to read some other reviews, and see that it's generally disliked even among his fans. I have a copy of Slan around here somewhere, and I think I'll give that another go sometime soon.

I'd seen the group read of the Lensman series, but hadn't decided whether to join in. I've heard good things about the series, but I started reading Triplanetary years ago and didn't get far. Still, it's hard to turn down a personal invitation: I'll dust off my copy this weekend.

just remember, Triplanetary is by far the weakest of the series. We are reading the series in large measure, for many of us, to see exactly how it DOES measure up in our more mature eyes, so should be some interesting commentary.

12) I, the divine by Rabih Alameddine

Last year I read Alameddine's masterful "The hakawati", and thought "I, the divine : a novel in first chapters" looked like an interesting follow-up. It is.

The story is about Sarah Nour el-Din, named for "the divine" Sarah Bernhardt, whence one meaning for the title. Sarah is a Lebanese engineer and artist, black sheep of her traditional Druze family, twice divorced and living abroad. Her next project is to write a memoir, and she's have trouble starting.

But Sarah's trouble is our benefit. Her difficulty gives the book its structure: when you've finished Chapter One, there's another Chapter One, then another. Then it's Chapter 1, then Chapter I, and so on, a chronicle of Sarah's attempts to organize her memories. To be fair, it's not all first chapters: there is also an introduction and a prologue and several title pages scattered throughout. This entertained my son as he thumbed through it, giggling at how the book starts over again every 5 or 10 pages. Like any gimmick, the "first chapters" run the risk of overwhelming the narrative, but for me the effect was of reading through Sarah's work-in-progress, bringing me closer to her inner life than a straightforward narrative could.

It's not a quick read, but for me it was a rewarding one, and I recommend it.

#18: That one looks very interesting. Thanks for the recommendation! I will see if I can locate a copy.

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much sounds like a title that's going to attract the attention of a lot of avid bookworms.

13) Triplanetary / E. E. Smith

This was for the group read, and my comments are there. I liked it.

If it's something you'd like, you have probably already heard of it. Not recommended for anyone else.

14) Spooner / Pete Dexter

This is another from Library Journal's "Best Books of 2009" list, and for all I know it belongs there. It's well-written. It's funny. It's irreverent. And it's a labor of love -- in an afterword Dexter explains how he based the book loosely on events from his own life, and that it's one of the more personally difficult novels he's written. So I'm not sure why I'm ambivalent about it.

The title character is a misfit who stumbles through most of his life, "living in third person." His anchor to reality is his relationship with his stepfather, who is also the moral center of the book. We follow Spooner through incidents of his life with no particular thematic direction, like a series of segments of "News from Lake Wobegon." But Dexter's world and his characters aren't just quirky, they're downright, gleefully perverse -- imagine Garrison Keillor writing the novelization of a John Waters film and you're not far off.

The section on Spooner's childhood is the best: it's solid, it's intriguing, it's laugh-out-loud funny, and sets you up for a story that never quite comes. (I suppose a lot of us could say that about our childhoods.) The rest feels kind of scattershot, with some very good bits and an ending that is poignant, poetically just, and darkly hilarious. Then at other times it just feels like the author is nursing a grudge against humanity ... and for long stretches I felt that the book's misanthropy outweighed its undeniable quality. I have a feeling this isn't the best place to begin with Dexter, and I've added some of his other books to my TBR list, starting with Paris Trout and Deadwood.

Oh, one more thing: I said Dexter wrote an afterword, and that's not exactly true. It's a nine-page "Acknowledgments" section, and one of the funnier things in the book. If you happen to see Spooner in the library or bookstore, at least pick it up and read the Acknowledgments. It'll give you an idea of what to expect when Dexter's on a roll.

#22: I will give that one a shot. Thanks for the recommendation.

I hope you like it, Stasia. Whether you do or not I'd be interested in hearing your take.

Unfortunately my local library does not have a copy, so it may be a while before I get a chance to read it.

15) Tweak / Nic Sheff

I read this for a book discussion group. I wouldn't have finished it otherwise. It made me nostalgic for the elegant style, sparkling dialog, and thought-provoking storylines of Beavis & Butthead cartoons.

Here's the condensed version (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
"So I, uh, met this girl and we got high, high, high. We stayed high for a while and stuff. Then we ran out of, like, money or whatever. Then I went, went, went to rehab and got really sober and things. Then I, uh, met this girl and we got high, high, high. We stayed high for a while and stuff. Then we ran out of, like, money or whatever. Then I went, went, went to rehab and got really sober and things."

That's all there is: both of story and of the author's literary tools. Only it goes on for over 300 pages. Not recommended.

#26: One I decidedly do not need to read! Thanks for the warning.

Ugh.

16) First Lensman / E. E. Smith

This was for the group read, and my comments are there. I had mixed feelings.

17) The drunkard's walk / Leonard Mlodinow

A friend recommended this. It's a survey of the basic ideas you'd encounter in an introductory course in probability. But instead of theorems, proofs, and formulas you get anecdotes, examples, and applications. By design it's as lightweight as possible, and my only reservation is that it feels a little too lightweight: I can't help but wonder whether the chatty presentation might unintentionally introduce as many misconceptions as it corrects.

It's no How to lie with statistics, but it is informative and entertaining, and Mlodinow's treatment of conundrums like the Monty Hall problem is admirably intuitive. Recommended.

Someone in my book group wanted to read Tweak--I vetoed that, and it sounds like that was a good move!

#31: Yes, good move.

I have wondered whether I missed something: obviously somebody liked it well enough to pick it for our group. But I talked to another group member yesterday and she also reacted negatively. She thought it was self-centered, repetetive, and not very well written. She did have one additional insight: she said, "I've worked with addicts, and this is exactly how they behave." She also thought that because of that, a person struggling with addiction might find it helpful.

So I suppose the author gets points for verisimilitude; and anything that can help someone overcome addiction is a Good Thing. But that sure doesn't make it a good book.

Our discussion is Tuesday, and I hope that someone who liked it will be there to explain its merits.

His father wrote a book of his son's addiction called Beautiful Boy. I haven't read it but I understand it's pretty good. You might be interested in Ellen Hopkins books which are based on her daughter's experience with meth. They are novels in verse, quick reads, and very powerful. I read Glass and was blown away and I am very, very thankful I never came in contact with meth or love anyone who is involved with this drug.

edited to remove touchy touchstones

18) Wanting / Richard Flanagan

This is a novel with historical characters -- Charles Dickens and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin the most recognizable -- but as author Flanagan explains in an afterword, it's not an historical novel. Instead, it's a meditation on desire: its suppression and its power. It's also the best book of my year so far: eloquent, heartbreaking, haunting. Highly recommended.

#33: Thanks for those recommendations.

I'd heard of Beautiful boy, and heard that it is a much better book. Nic's father is a professional writer, and that probably helps. I may pick it up sometime in the future but right now I've had about enough of Nic Sheff's life.

It probably doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of the "memoir of addiction." I recognize there is an audience for it but I'm just not part of it -- not unlike sports biography. Still, last year I did enjoy David Carr's The night of the gun, mostly because it went beyond Carr's addiction to explore the function and misfunction of memory. The Ellen Hopkins books also sound intriguing, and I may give them a try. Would you recommend reading Crank first?

#34: That one looks good. I will have to see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!

Crank was not available so I read Glass first. It's not necessary to read Crank first to understand Glass. It might be overload reading both. Even though I found Glass outstanding, I don't really want/need to read Crank. One of the series was plenty for me.

Last night was our discussion group for Tweak. Apparently some other groups have considered this, so I thought I'd share how it went.

Nobody liked the book, not even the discussion leader who had picked it. About a third of us admitted they hadn't finished it. One person had read Beautiful boy, said it was a better book, and referred to it several times to clarify things that Tweak left vague.

Still, the discussion turned out pretty good (it usually does, no matter the quality of the book). The discussion leader was a recently-retired judge, and she talked about her experience on the bench: seeing the growth of meth production and its impact on our law enforcement and justice systems, and the balancing act that is applying the law and simultaneously encouraging kids to make better choices. Some members also talked about personal experiences with addiction among friends and family members.

Again, I think it was a good discussion -- but one that could have been provoked by a better book.

19) The Anubis gates / Tim Powers

This was for the group read. I first encountered this book back in high school in the mid-80's. At the time I thought it was the best book I'd ever read -- I reread it twice and loaned it to friends. I was curious how it would hold up over the last twenty years, and I'm happy to report that it still rocks. Out loud. Still recommended after all these years.

20) Strip search / William Bernhardt

This was for the February TIOLI challenge to read a book with a bright red spine. William Bernhardt is an author whose books I've intended to get around to trying for awhile now. Besides a red spine, Strip search also has jacket copy promising a mathematical theme, which I couldn't resist. It's not his usual series, but then I didn't want to get hooked on a new one, so that was a plus.

The good news is it's a passable thriller that kept me entertained while at the gym on the stairclimber. The bad news is that the detective is annoying, the plot is silly, and the math is bad. Really bad. The "math" in this book bears the same relationship to mathematics that Star Trek scripts bear to physics. I kept expecting the detectives to solve the case by "reversing the polarity" of something or other.

Not only does he not understand elementary math, Bernhardt misspells about half of the mathematicians he mentions by name. For those names he only mentions once, you can grin and bear it. But he has one of the central characters working on a proof of the "Reimann hypothesis." (Hey Bill, on the remote chance that you're reading this, the rule is, "i before e, except after c.")

Still, it's at least as good as anything James Patterson ever wrote. If I read any more Bernhardt, I think I'll go to his usual series, the Ben Kincaid novels. I'll bet he can write a pretty decent novel when he sticks to something he knows.

#39: I am currently enjoying me re-read of The Anubis Powers too, although I only encountered it for the first time 2 years ago.

I think I will skip the Bernhardt book. I hope your next read is better for you.

My summary of Strip search's mathematical content is posted at Alex Kasman's MathFiction site. This is my first contribution to that site, and I'm unreasonably pleased to participate in it.

21) At the seventh level / Suzette Haden Elgin

Okay-not-fantastic science fiction mystery set on the planet Abba, where crime is bureaucratically managed and taxed, wars are fought with poetry, and women are traditionally treated like cattle. Despite the restrictions against her, one woman has managed to become a seventh-level poet, practically a living saint, and somebody is trying to poison her. Because of her dual status, other Abbans are conflicted: on the one hand she is revered as a poet, and on the other hand she's a woman. Coyote Jones is called in to investigate.

Elgin's prose is clean and precise, always a pleasure to read, but several things rang false. For instance, Coyote Jones is called in for a criminal investigation yet he is ignorant of the Abban criminal justice system: hadn't he done his homework en route? Also, the book consists of several disjointed incidents: I don't know whether the book is a mashup, but it feels like one. Still, despite its flaws I wished mostly that it had been a bit longer, that Elgin had explored characters, motivations, and culture at greater length.

The Coyote Jones books are her earliest, aren't they? I have that in a set of three called Communipath Worlds--haven't read them for ages, though. I really like her Ozark Trilogy and her Native Tongue series, especially the first book.

It's a little sad to follow Elgin on LiveJournal--they fairly recently lost their son, and without him the frailties of age are meaning they have to move from the country home they love. She's working on a poem there now.

#42: Yes, the Coyote Jones books are her earliest, and this is the first I've read in that series. But I have the The communipaths, her very first, around here somewhere and will read it soon.

I first encountered Elgin in college through her brilliant short story, Lo, how an oak e'er blooming. From there I sought out the very rewarding Native tongue series, and intended to read more of her work but until now haven't gotten around to it.

A few years ago I met Elgin at a science fiction convention in Tulsa, OK. She shows in person the same dignity and grace she shows on the page. I know her family means everything to her, and I'm sorry to hear about her loss.

#41 Hi Stephen. Really enjoyed your summary of Strip Search on the MathFiction site - very funny!

#44: Thanks, Heather!

(SPOILERS!)

When I hit "love slave of a UNLV mathematics professor," I had to fight the urge to include "(I'm not making this up.)" Oddly, it didn't seem all that bad a thriller, other than the terrible math -- until I tried to summarize it. So I assume either my summary is unfair or my attention to the math blinded me to its other flaws.

I'm pretty sure my summary is fair.

(And a puzzle on the bomb? Where'd she go, the Batman School of Villainy?)

"And a puzzle on the bomb? Where'd she go, the Batman School of Villainy?"

*Chuckle!*

22) Tinkers / Paul Harding
This is another from Library Journals list of Best Books of 2009, and it's a keeper. The story is simple: a man on his deathbed, surrounded by family, remembering his father (who remembers his father before him). Not an original premise but the execution is remarkable: Harding has read his Whitman and has studied his lessons and has produced a rich, lyrical book about our relationships with nature, with family, with craft and with death. It may sound cheesy, but about half of the book I read aloud to enjoy the sound and the taste of the words, and to make the book last a little longer. Very highly recommended.

23) Deep south / Nevada Barr
This one finds park ranger/detective Anna Pigeon in Natchez Trace Parkway, investigating the murder of a teenage girl. It's quite a bit better than Liberty falling, and would work pretty well as a standalone. Recommended.

Now I'm off on spring break vacation. I don't know how often I'll check in, but I do hope to get a lot of reading done: I do hope at least to read The strangest man and The girl with the dragon tattoo, maybe finish Oval track puzzles and also find a copy of Galactic patrol. Hm, I suppose I ought to crack that textbook a time or two, but we'll see how that works out.

Well, rats. I forgot to pack The strangest man so that'll have to wait until I get back, but here are my next two:

24) The day before tomorrow / Gerard Klein

This time-travel novel has a few nifty moments, but mostly it's too much exposition about civilization and its discontents. It takes place in a far future where a galactic empire consolidates its power through time travel: possible threats are identified then neutralized by sending teams into the past to nip the threats in the bud. The book follows one such team on an assignment where everything goes south, early and deep.

One strength of the book is characterization: the seven team members are distinct characters without being charicatures, and are varied enough to offer a broad perspective on the questions Klein wants to raise. The team leader has lately entertained ethical misgivings about his work, and those doubts move to the foreground when the mission goes wrong.

Despite the strong characters, and the intriguing story, exposition interrupts the flow too often and too long. The infodumps are necessary, I suppose, and philosophical pontifications about civilization are after all Klein's point. I prefer a little more story and a little less sermon, but for those who like a science fiction tale as background for philosophical musings, this may be a forgotten gem.

25) The girl with the dragon tattoo / Stieg Larsson

Recommended by just about everybody. I liked it too, but Mikael's sex appeal baffles me.

Wrapping up my Spring Break reading:

26) Don't sleep, there are snakes / Daniel L. Everett

I heard about this on NPR, and found the book even more intriguing than the radio segment.

Beginning in the 1970's the author served as a missionary among the Pirahã (pee-da-han), a tribe of Brazilian aboriginals living in the Amazon basin. His task was to analyze the Pirahã language, which apparently belongs to no known language family and which had resisted all attempts at translation, with the goal of writing a translation of the New Testament. Over the next thirty years, Everett's discoveries in Brazil provoke a major controversy in academic Linguistics and a crisis of faith for Everett. Everett's prose is clean and clear, always intriguing and in some places enthralling: there's a race downriver when Everett's family contracts malaria, for instance, and a tense night when a stranger hires the tribe to assassinate the meddling missionary.

About two-fifths of the book gives a popular account of the academic controversy. Everett explains the unique features of Pirahã, and how the language contradicts prevailing linguistic theories. If this sounds dry ... well, maybe it is, and this old nerd just can't tell: I found it fascinating, accessible, and unexpectedly even-handed. Recommended.

27) Oval track and other permutation puzzles / John O. Kiltinen

This was supplemental reading for my class this semester. A "permutation puzzle" is a puzzle consisting of pieces that can be scrambled, where the object is to return the puzzle to a certain initial state. Examples include an oval track puzzle marketed as Top Spin, one marketed as Rubik's Rings, and the slide puzzles that show up as party favors for the under-10 crowd.

The puzzles are all analyzed using mathematical group theory. In fact the subtitle promises "just enough group theory to solve them." The promise is kept: Kiltinen doesn't assume any mathematical background beyond high-school algebra. That doesn't necessarily mean it's easy going: the prose is as conversational as Kiltinen can make it, but the underlying structure is still theorem-proof-application, and I expect it would be most accessible to readers with some experience in what the pedagogues call "proof-based courses." And there's no puzzle-solving payoff until the theory is done: if you'd like to solve the puzzles but skip the math, look somewhere else.

With that caveat, the book is quite good and even entertaining: an accompanying CD-ROM includes electronic versions of all the puzzles, and the text includes lots of suggestions for play. It's an excellent supplement to the course I'm taking, and could actually be used as a gentle introduction to abstract algebra.

28) The shack / William P. Young

I wasn't inclined to read this, but a friend repeatedly insisted that I _must_ read it, and I finally gave in. Like many others, my enthusiastic friend had found this book enlightening and comforting, so all I can say to him is that it wasn't my cup of tea. So _this_ is where I record my honest response to the book. Spoilers and rant follow:

Dear Sweet Merciful Almighty Whatever, is this ever a load of excrement!

I really don't where to begin, so let's begin with the writing. It's not just bad, it's bad at every level. Every piece of it -- plot, pacing, prosody, polemic -- is excruciatingly bad.

There's the writing: Young uses "career" as a verb (and not in the sense of "to rush" -- no, he means "to profession"); he uses "adrenaline" as an adjective. He doesn't know the difference between "affect" and "effect." He spends an entire chapter proving that he can't tell a verb from a noun. I don't know whether he ever passed grade-school grammar, but he certainly hasn't given it much thought since then.

There's the characters: Young begins the book explaining that only Mackenzie's closest friends call him "Mack." Everyone else calls him "Allen." Apparently everybody is Mack's close friend because in the next 240 pages nobody calls him "Allen"-- not the postmaster, not the police, not the park ranger. Apparently the world is full of Mack's close friends.

One incident may shed some light on this. Now, Mack lost his daughter three years ago and has been seriously depressed ever since. Mack is not just depressed: he has named his depression. He has capitalized and italicized it. So Mack calls his best friend Willie to explain that now he wants to go into the backwoods of Washington to meet his maker, what does Willie do? Willie knows about Mack's depression. Does he offer to go with him or beg him to reconsider? No, he offers Mack a gun. With friends like that, who needs strangers?

Don't get me started on dialect: The first rule every writer should learn is, "If you're not Mark Twain, don't write dialect." Young hasn't learned this rule, so he delights in stuffing his characters' mouths with painful stock phrases from the "Midwestern" postmaster's "Now don't be goin'" and "Don't ya know" to the "Sho' nuff" and "Aw honey" of the Aunt-Jemimah-God (who calls him "Mackenzie.")

Then there's the philosophy. Apparently God sort of disapproves of people who torture little girls to death, but it's not like he/she/whatever can do anything about it. Well, he/she/whatever _could_ do something about it, but now honey don't you go askin no questions about things you got no business knowin'. Apparently it's comforting to know that even though the little girl was tortured, God was right there with her. And we're supposed to be happy knowing she's in a better place.

Honestly: _this_ is what passes for life-changing theology? What exactly have this book's fans been reading for the last several thousand years? Is it somehow more convincing now that the same old theodicy comes from the mouth of a stereotyped Black Auntie? What does this say about race and popular religious discourse in this country? No, scratch that: I don't want to know.

And considering my obsessions, I have to include: the math's bad too. There is one chapter inexplicably titled, "A piece of π." It has nothing to do with pi, which is one small blessing I suppose. Alas, Young can't leave the math alone: in the next chapter he has Asian-Princess-God explaining that her garden appears chaotic from the ground, but "from above it's a fractal." No, no, no: a fractal is a structure which has self-similar structure at every level of resolution. If it's a fractal from above, it's a fractal on the ground, and even at the microscopic level it's a fractal.

For a better example of "fractal," consider The shack: its structure is bad, its pacing is bad, its characters are bad, its plot is bad, its prose is bad: at every location and every level -- book, chapter, paragraph, sentence, word -- the book is bad. I really thought it would be a long time before I read another book worse than Tweak, I have to say that at least Nic Sheff's book had a decent phrase now and then, maybe even a couple of good sentences. Not so The shack, which is not recommended.

#49: The Daniel Everett book looks good, so I will see if I can find a copy of it.

As far as The Shack goes, I made it to page 25 and then threw it at the wall (probably not a good move as it was a library book). No way was I going to continue on with it.

Stasia, the fact that it's a library book is the only thing that saved my copy from a fate worse than the wall. Besides, I wouldn't even want to give a wall the impression that it's worth reading.

You said it!

I concur.... the flawed theology AND the fact that The Shack was terribly written has contributed to my refusal to include it in our church library. Some might say that's wrong of me and I'm censoring people's reading... but there's no way in heck I'm spending church money on that piece of drivel!!! LOL

#53: How can you be accused of censoring something that is readily available through scads of other outlets? If your church library has policies on content and quality, those policies exist to support the church's mission and you are absolutely right to follow them. (Actually, I have a twinge of envy for your position & privilege of saying "Heck, no!")

Obviously, things are a bit different with public libraries. There has been strong public demand for this waste of wood pulp. That demand may be inexplicable, but whatever its cause the book belongs in a public library's collection -- for which I'm grateful, because that means I didn't have to spend my own fifteen bucks.

Now I just have to make sure it gets back on time. Usually I don't mind paying late fees, but I really hate the thought of spending even a quarter on this book's behalf.

My mum read The Shack for her book club and then lent it to me but I haven't got round to reading it yet. I'm tempted to read it now just to experience that throwing it at the wall moment...

#55: Just don't say we didn't warn you.

29) One thousand white women / Jim Fergus

This historical romance was for a discussion group. The book is in the form of a journal written in 1875 by May Dodd, a woman participating in a secret government-run mail-order bride program for the Cheyenne Indians. Dodd is an independent woman and doesn't think much of marriage, but she signs up anyway because her only other option is to spend her life in an insane asylum, where her family has sent her for "promiscuity."

There's a good bit to like about the book: Fergus's nature writing is realistic and compelling. He never gushes, but it's easy to imagine the land as a cherished home. Also, there are plenty of interesting & plausible details on Cheyenne life and customs; and Fergus includes a bibliography, so one assumes he's not just making it up.

Unfortunately, the characters are much less appealing. Most of the brides are caricatures straight out of American slapstick: there's the bosomy Swiss maid, the boozy Irish sisters (actually, you get a twofer with them: they're also hookers with hearts of gold), the jilted Southern belle, the jolly but bookish Brit, and so on. And dialect: did I mention I _hate_ hackneyed dialect?

As for the heroine, I never got a sense that she'd ever even seen the early side of 1950. Her opinions and her turns of phrase are all late-20th century. I kept losing the flow because I'd stumble across an expression and wonder, "Was that even used in 1875?" Or the bit where Dodd brags about how her bathing suit "shows (her) figure to its best advantage." Um ... I've seen Victorian bathing suits: they're designed to do something to your figure, but not show it off. So it's hard to swallow the text as a 19th-century diary.

On the other hand, the book seems to have gotten some pretty glowing reviews; it wasn't bad exactly, so I have to assume this one was just not my cup of tea. No recommendation one way or the other.

#57: I think I will pass on that one. I hope you like your next read better, Stephen.

That book doesn't sound any good at all, but your review was very entertaining!

I love your rants ... enjoyed the other parts too :)

I normally don't read the long reviews/rants about books because there are only so many minutes in the day but I read your review of The Shack after seeing the comments below it. Wow! Tell us what you really think of the book! ;-)

Mamzel: I didn't care for it. (Glad you liked the rant. I needed to get it off my chest.)

I'm still waiting for a good palate-cleanser, because One thousand white women wasn't quite it, and neither was number 30. Number 31 looks promising though, which will probably be To ride Hell's chasm unless something else gets in the way.

30) From papyrus to hypertext / Christian Vandendorpe

This was professional reading, so I wasn't expecting a gripping read, and it's not. It's forty short thought-pieces on our reading habits and how they change. Broadly speaking, the pieces cover print culture; how traditional and digital texts work, don't work, and might work; and a few predictions about the future.

For me, Vandendorpe is most enlightening when he explains some limitations of interactive texts. Highly-interactive "hypertexts," according to futurists of the late 90's and early 00's, were were about to replace stodgy old "linear texts," and within a few short years you and I would prefer hypertexts to novels. Novels, you see, could only start in one place and guide you along one path; but the "hypertexts" would let you begin anywhere and explore any path you liked by means of a richly-interlinked narrative space. Experimental texts were written, and mostly flopped. Vandendorpe explains their failure by applying narrative theory. Having read a few of the experimental texts I think his explanation is spot-on.

Besides that, though, it's familiar territory. On print culture this book can't touch The Gutenberg galaxy, which is dated and cryptic but also more challenging and about ten times as fun. And as for "the universal digital library" of the subtitle, you'll be left wondering when Vandendorpe planned to get around to that because there's not much about it in this volume.

Hi, Swynn, glad you've joined us. Your thread is extremely well-written and interesting, and we seem to have the same opinions about the books we have in common (always a good sign!). Your review of The Shack is priceless. Thank goodness I didn't read it!

I completely agree with you about the Nevada Barr books. As a New Yorker, I expected to like Liberty Falling but couldn't wait to finish it and get on to the next one. The books get much better after that.

I haven't starred many threads, but I'll have to star yours. You really raise the bar.

#62: Have you read Sven Birkerts The Gutenberg Elegies?

Welcome. Also, please put the review of The Shack onto the book's LT page so that I can give it a thumbs up. Please.

I second #65! You gave me all of the laughter-generating highlights of it without me having to read it myself in other to trash it.

I agree with #65 also. Have been putting off reading The Shack because I was pretty sure there were lots of things about it I would not like. Your review convinces me it really is not worth my time. The only reason for reading such books is to try to puzzle out why so many people do rate them so highly...

Re #9, I've added The man who loved books too much to my wishlist - thanks for drawing my attention to that.

By popular demand, I've added my Shack review to the book's LT page.

#64: I read it about 10 years ago. Back in library school, I read just about everything written on the topic. My recollection is that he was really pessimistic about new media, and in despair about the loss of much of our culture. I remember him talking about how Henry James is inaccessible to undergraduates. I also remember that his was a better book than most. I share some of his concerns, but not his apocalyptic take on them -- maybe because I'm a child of the 80's, straddling print and new media cultures.

Thanks for posting your review of The Shack so I could give it a thumbs up.

How does The Gutenberg Elegies compare to the Marshall McLuhan book? I have read the Birkerts book but not the other.

Just found your thread and am really enjoying it. I don't do sci fi (no, no pleeeeeeease do not try to convince me because I have enough unread books without thousands more!) but I love maths. I've just read your Strip Search review over on the mathfiction website and it was great - the Reimann Hypothesis?!

Have you read Uncle Petros and the Goldbach Conjecture or Simon Singh's The Code Book? I liked both of them a lot. Uh oh, the touchstone's pointing to the Da Vinci Code....bad LT, bad bad!

#69: They're quite different books. Both books are written by "book people": Birkerts wears his heart on his sleeve, and McLuhan was a English professor before he became a darling of the media he studied.

The Birkerts book is more polemical but also more accessible. It addresses the digital media we're most curious about right now.

None of those media were around in 1962 for The Gutenberg Galaxy. McLuhan was interested in newspapers, advertisements, television, and movies. His object is less polemical and more descriptive: he wants to examine how media shape culture, never mind his personal preferences. But McLuhan was trained as a literary critic, not a social scientist. His pronouncements often seem arbitrary, his writing is often gnomic or cryptic, and his compositions are experimental.
The Gutenberg Galaxy is an early work, and about as accessible he gets. if you've ever been curious about McLuhan I'd say it's a better starting point than Understanding Media.

#71: Thanks for the input, Steve. I will look for the McLuhan book. I have never read anything of his, so I will take your advice and start there.

#70: Thanks for stopping by, and it's good to hear from somebody else with this odd obsession.

I haven't read either of those books. Uncle Petros came out at a time when I wasn't reading much fiction and I've never gotten back to it. And though I haven't read The Code Book, but I did read Singh's Fermat's Enigma, which I thought was wonderfully clear. Both the books you recommended are now in the Someday Swamp.

31) To ride Hell's Chasm / Janny Wurts

This was for the TIOLI challenge. The Princess of Sessalie has disappeared on the eve of her wedding. Mystery, intrigue, sorcery, and adventure follow. I was impressed by the depth of the world-building and characters, especially for a stand-alone book. Even the horses -- I can't remember the last time I saw horses so attentively written as supporting characters.

My complaints are minor: a few incidents seemed too convenient, and the writing was awkward at times. But I barely want to complain about that: it seems like popular fiction is only written at the 8th-grade level anymore, and if a few awkward phrases are the price of a rich vocabulary skilfully deployed, then sign me up.

I haven't read that book by Janny yet. Makes me want to :) I enjoy her vocab too. And I must say, I just love "Somday Swamp" -- LOL that's the best name for a TBR that I've seen. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face.

#74 I agree with your comments about To Ride Hell's Chasm - especially the horses! I know nothing about horses myself and can only assume that all the detail was accurate. Had you read any Janny Wurts before?

I am not a horse person either. So I don't know about the details, but I bought it. I especially liked the fact that they weren't magical psychic horses like in Valdemar or Finisterre. Nothing against those series -- I especially like Rider at the gate -- but Wurts' distinct characterization of animals that are "just" horses was a treat.

I hadn't read any Janny Wurts before. I probably will read more of her books. But I don't think I'll attempt "The Wars of Light and Shadow" until I have a lot of time on my hands ...

Horses play a prominent role in Elizabeth Moon's series, Hunting Party, Sporting Chance, and Winning Colors--science fiction rather than fantasy, but probably my favorite of her series.

I'm amazed! The library actually has To Ride Hell's Chasm in its system--I've just reserved it.

{/lurk}
Steve...such an interesting thread. I enjoy lurking here, thanks!
{lurk}

Janny is a serious horse person (as well as musician and artist), so I imagine she did the horse stuff correctly. I don't know squat about horses either, 'cept I like 'em. :)
ETA
>78 ronincats: Roni, I think I've missed those!

Re: the horses. I have a colleague who is a dedicated horse person. The world she sometimes talks about fascinates me, and her enthusiasm makes me wish I could participate in it. Unfortunately, there aren't enough hours in the day for the obsessions I already have. Anyway, I got the same vibe from Janny Wurts, and loved it -- it doesn't surprise me at all that she's a "serious horse person. "

Thanks roni for the suggestions. I haven't read any of Elizabeth Moon, but I've heard wonderful things about her Speed of dark. Your recommendations are yet another reason to give her a try.

Richard & everyone else who stopped by upon reading my introduction: welcome!

And on with the books:

32) The hanging of Thomas Jeremiah / J. William Harris

This is another from Library Journal's "Best of 2009" list.

The Thomas Jeremiah of the title was a free Black in Revolutionary-era Charles Town, South Carolina. He was rather successful, possibly the richest African in North America. And in August 1775, four months after the Battles of Lexington & Concord, he was hanged for inciting a slave rebellion. Chances are, he was framed. The evidence was flimsy. The improbable accusations almost certainly arose from mass hysteria. Jeremiah probably would have been let go with an undeserved flogging if it hadn't been for the intervention of Henry Laurens, a prominent slave trader and patriot who pressed the issue because he didn't like Jeremiah's character.

Contradictions abound: Jeremiah was a free Black who owned slaves; his chief antagonist condemned slavery with one breath and profited from it with the next; his chief advocate was a Royal Governor who tried to dissuade a mob of patriots from practicing tyranny; the mob itself demanded independence but was terrified that its slaves might get the same idea.

If the book has a flaw, it's that Harris can't seem to mention a contradiction without telling us why it's a contradiction. We can figure out for ourselves that there's something ironic (at least) about slave owners demanding independence. But despite the occasional heavy-handedness it's a thought-provoking look at a complicated time, an enlightening document of how some of the American founders thought about "liberty," and a meditation on how we can deceive ourselves into promoting things we hate.

#81: Thanks for the recommendation of the Harris book, Steve. I will look for that one.

Speed of Dark is tremendous, but not necessarily like her other sf offerings which are also quite enjoyable. You know it's about autism in the future and that one of her children (or her only child?) is autistic. It's an absolutely fabulous book, and I think with your math love you might enjoy it even more than I did. No, I can't say what kind of math :) or, actually, if it was even about math so much as patterns. Regardless, glad to hear you're considering it. It's one of my most often recommended books.

>81 swynn: That sounds fascinating! Onto the Wishlist it goes.

#83: Yes, I did know it was about autism, and I had the impression that most of the rest of Moon's work was military SF/space opera. All of it sounds appealing to me, but I've never gotten around to it.

I visited the Friends' of the Library quarterly book sale this weekend, and there was The speed of dark smiling at me. I guess I'll take that as a sign.

33) Galactic patrol / E.E. Smith

This was for the group read, and is the best of the lot so far. I think I finally understand the appeal of the series.

34) The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. Vol. 1, The pox party / M. T. Anderson

Several LTers have read & enjoyed this, but it was Richard's enthusiastic review that made me decide to read it. I can only echo his praise. For my reading, it was an excellent companion piece to The hanging of Thomas Jeremiah, exploring the same themes from a fictional perspective.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on TSoD ... cool how you found it :)

>85 swynn: Steve, that is a very welcome encomium. I consider myself well praised to be linked to by you in the course of a positive review!

Thanks for recommending it, Richard. I just got Volume 2 by ILL, though I'm a bit daunted at the fact that it looks twice as long and your review was about half as encouraging.

My class is slowing things down quite a bit -- the professor just discovered that the semester is three quarters complete and he's only covered about half the material he wanted, so he's cramming most of the rest of it into the next two weeks. Still, I've managed to complete one more before the fines grew too high:

35) City of thieves / David Benioff

I saw this recommended here on LT but I don't remember whose review convinced me to add it to the Swamp. Whoever it was -- thank you. I enjoyed it very much, which was a bit disorienting because at the same time it seemed constantly to be trying to spin out of control. Seemed like it couldn't decide whether to be absurdist drama, Grand Guignol, or action thriller.

It isn't any of these things exactly, and I think the only thing that made it work at all is a character: the deserter and aspiring novelist Kolya, who behaves as if he had the world wrapped around his little finger, which he frequently and improbably does. And by the end of the book he had me wrapped around it as well. Recommended.

#88: I already have that one in the BlackHole, but it looks like I need to bump it up a bit.

Love your thoughs on #35 :) THx for the visit.

#88 That ones already in my wishlist as well, glad you enjoyed it!

For kidzdoc's TIOLI challenge:

36) Primitive mood by David Moolten

My employer has a small press, which sponsors an annual competition and award for unpublished poetry collections. Part of the award is publication by the press. I thought I'd check out the latest winner to meet the challenge.

I'm not an avid reader of poetry. As Homer Simpson would say, "I have a history of missing the point of stuff like this." The last time I tried to read a modern poet was when a friend convinced me to sample John Ashbery, who for my money makes James Joyce read like Dr. Seuss.

So I was happy that the poems were accessible -- some needed a few readings to appreciate, and some needed a little research. For instance, there's a poem addressed to Captain Barros Basto, Apostle of the Marranos. Um, Captain who? The poem itself doesn't give enough detail, but a little time with the Wikipedia article unlocks an unknown (to me) history of Judaism in Portugal and its unlikely and ill-fated hero, to whom one can sing:
You stormed the 1920s on horseback,
In full uniform, decorated and alone or sometimes
Brought a doctor to perform the circumcisions.
Other than that small sword you assailed no one.

Or there's "The girl without hands," based on a fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm which I've read several times but did not recall. Rereading the tale, I know why I keep forgetting it: it's one of those incoherent tales in which unlikely things happen for no apparent reason. Moolten's poem illuminates the tale, giving coherence to the story and explaining:
Living is so endless, a fairy tale
Bluntly cuts away the surplus, leaving
Just the odd detail, the stingy bone.
I won't forget this tale again thanks to Moolten's evocative interpretation.

Poems in this volume are generally of three types: (1) fairy tales or legends retold in modern settings, (2) tributes to great artists, and (3) tributes to women the author has loved. Of the poems, those of the first type are generally best: the modern settings are often squalid or horrific. There are scenes of poverty, drug abuse, and genocide related to fairy tales and legends. As to which informs which, Moolten accomplishes a nice synergy: the fairy tales give the stories depth, and the stories bring the fairy tales down to earth. Check out "Beauty" at Moolten's website for an excellent example. The second type includes poems for Vincent Van Gogh, Dorothea Lange, Arshile Gorky and others. For me these needed a bit of background, but were enlightening and occasionally moving, especially the one to Gorky, "The Artist and his Mother." The poems of the third type are the weakest, and for my taste could have been dropped from the volume altogether. But then I have a history of missing the point of this sort of thing.

I'm not sure I've got the point of these poems either, but I certainly enjoyed them, and a few have piqued my curiosity. Two of the poems are tributes to Federico Garcia Lorca, a poet whose work I've never read, but which I plan to seek out on the strength of Moolten's admiration.

37) Howl's moving castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Recommended by several LTers, I read this one evenings with my son. We both got a bit lost in the Byzantine plot. We read it in half-hour installments, sometimes with days between readings, so neither of us was exactly sure what was happening in the last couple of chapters. Still, we both thought Sophie and Calcifer were great characters and that the book was a lot of fun.

38) The boat / Nam Le

This one was on Library Journal's list of best books from 2008. I didn't get to it last year, so the April TIOLI challenge was an excuse to go back & pick it up. I'm glad I did. These stories are diverse in setting and mood, and exceptionally well-crafted. Most of them deal with difficult family relations.

The first story, "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" concerns a Vietnamese student attending the Iowa Writers' Workshop juggles a deadline with a visit from his father. This is my favorite story in the book. It is pitch-perfect and heartbreaking. As the introductory tale it also serves as a sort of manifesto for the rest of the book. In a discussion among Workshop students we learn that "ethnic literature" is a tired genre, and that the things to write about are Faulkner's "old verities": love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, sacrifice. The delicious thing is that Nam Le delivers both compelling settings and even more compelling stories.

We go to the streets of Columbia ("Cartagena"), the New York art scene ("Meeting Elise"), a depressed Australian fishing village ("Halflead Bay"), WWII Japan ("Hiroshima"), wartime Iran ("Tehran Calling"), and postwar Vietnam ("The Boat"). We inhabit these locales thanks to Le's talent for convincing detail.

But as compelling as the settings are, it's as if Le chose them only for the challenge of populating them with even more compelling characters: a drug cartel's young assassin balances loyalties among his friends and his family and his new employer; a dying artist wishes only to meet the daughter he abandoned years ago; an aimless young woman follows her self-destructive friend to a dangerous country .... these are Faulkner's old verities, delivered with such force that they overpower even the exotic settings. Very highly recommended.

The only complaint I have is this: in that first story, the protagonist's friend mentions stories about Vietnamese boat people (check), Columbian assassins (check), Hiroshima orphans (check), New York painters with hemorrhoids (check), and lesbian vampires. In Nam Le's next book, I anxiously await the lesbian vampires.

#93: I already have that one in the BlackHole. I will have to get moving!

Hope you like it, Stasia!

My problem is getting hold of it. None of the local libraries has it unfortunately.

Oh I'm glad to catch up on you & your fam's recent reads.

ETA You reminded me of when I was in NY and my gf took me to the theatre to celebrate my bday. Her choice? 'Vampire Lesbians of Sodom' and 'Coma', done by a duo of fellas, one of whom did a topless bit and had better breasts than most women! LOL Well it was memorable.

>92 swynn:: The first excerpt really cracks me up (not sure that's the point), but the fairy tale excerpt is pretty cool.

Susan & Carly: Thanks for stopping by!

#97: I'd never heard of "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom," but I Googled it & see that it was a project of Charles Busch -- who I thought was a riot in "Psycho Beach Party." And I have to say, "vampire lesbian Sodomites" sound even more enticing than plain old every-day vampire lesbians.

#92: I didn't take humor to be the point, and I'm intrigued that you have that reaction. Rereading it, I suppose the image of a decorated officer galloping across the countryside wielding a scalpel is pretty absurd. And that may also be the author's intent, but suddenly I have the mental image of a hypothetical Woody Allen/Monty Python collaboration: Rabbi Dennis Moore, robbing from the rich to deliver lupins and circumcisions to the poor.

Perhaps that excerpt was a poor choice.

*Whew* The final is done & now I can get to the pile of books that has been accumulating over the last couple of months. That means Soulless and American Gods (at least) for the TIOLI challenges; The affinity bridge, Wolf Hall, The children's book and The strangest man because now I'll have time to read them; the next Anna Pigeon book just for fun; and a few others because they're already on their second renewal.

But first: The speed of dark.

But mostly I'll not be thinking about groups, rings, fields, and integral domains. (Yep, I'm math'd out. Don't worry, it won't last long.)

Oooh can't wait to hear what you think of The Speed of Dark :)

39) The speed of dark / Elizabeth Moon

I liked it but didn't love it, which puts me in the minority. I know it's well-appreciated here on LT, and there's much to like. Moon has done a remarkable job in creating and maintaining the autistic narrator's voice. She's also created a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of identity and what it means to be "normal," without any tedious sermonizing: no mean feat, especially when one chapter literally includes a sermon.

But there were a few things that spoiled the magic for me. Most of the book is narrated by the autist Lou, but three or four times the viewpoint shifts jarringly and inexplicably to another character. I never quite bought that Lou was a mathematical genius: most of the time his mathematics is just vague talk about "patterns," "chaos," and "symmetry." There's only one time that he actually explicates a mathematical problem, and he gets it wrong. Also the ending is too abrupt. A two-page epilogue wraps things up, but unpack it and you see that the epilogue summarizes a third act Moon just didn't write.

In other words, I'm complaining that the book ended about 100 pages too soon, an odd complaint to make about a book that disappointed me. So I hope my reservations won't discourage anyone from reading it. It really is a special book, needing only -- for my taste -- a little more polish and better math.

Great that you're finished with the exam. Never got as far as field theory!

Am looking forward to what you think of Wolf Hall - I LOVED that book. I have The Children's Book but haven't read it yet.

Maybe you didn't do field theory, Cushla, but you did economics so my hat's off to you!

I'm looking forward to Wolf Hall, which was originally a TBR for its appearance on Library Journal's "Best of 2009" list. Now I'm as interested in it because of all the positive comments here on LT. And I'll get to it as soon as I clear a few more library books off my shelf.

40) The affinity bridge / George Mann

I picked this up last month, intending to join the steampunk group read, but didn't have time for it. I'm catching up now, and it's pretty fun but my goodness does it ever need a line editor. Mann uses "bade" as the past participle of "to bid"; he uses "appraised" when he means "apprised"; he uses silly redundancies like "supine on his back"; and he dangles participles and splits infinitives like a drunken spoken-word artist. The story kept me going through to the end, and some parts I loved, but the prose is such a mess I won't be looking for the others in the series.

>105 swynn: he dangles participles and splits infinitives like a drunken spoken-word artist Steven, I just fell in love with you. Be sure to tell your wife.

#105: he dangles participles and splits infinitives like a drunken spoken-word artist

I probably do the same thing, so it did not phase me a bit.

If I were you, I would not tell my wife about Richard. lol

My wife says she is willing to consider offers. But alas, Richard, my heart is hers and hers alone. (If it's any consolation, I'm not Sicilian.)

I'm afraid my latest read doesn't even provoke any curmudgeonly bons mots:

41) The housekeeper and the professor / Yoko Ogawa

Spare, perceptive, beautiful. And oh, is the math ever done well. There is mathematical exposition here, but don't let that put you off: it is clear and accurate but you'll find no formal theorems or proofs. Instead, Ogawa captures the affect of mathematics: the charm of numbers, the allure of a problem, the excitement of a solution. Very highly recommended.

#108: I really have got to find where I put my copy of that book!

Hi Steven, good to know you survived your exams! It sounds like I sat similar subjects for my finals but sadly since I left the world of maths behind for a job I can't really remember anything about groups, rings or fields anymore :-( When do you get your results?

I have The Speed of Dark to read and I'd heard good things about The Housekeeper and the Professor from cameling, glad you enjoyed it!

Are you going to be joining in with the steampunk group read of Perdido Street Station?

I don't have enough math to have noticed, Swynn, those probs in The Speed of Dark. I do agree a fuller ending would have made the book much more satisfying. THoughtful review. Thx.

#110: I just saw my score today, and I got an A, so the hard work paid off.

I really feel for the other students, though: I'm an old guy with a more or less stable career, taking one course a semester for fun as much as any other reason. Most of the other students are taking a full courseload of difficult classes, doing work-study, holding down part-time jobs, the works. The pacing of this course was bizarre: the professor picked up speed as the material became more difficult, and I know the final was pretty stressful all around. I'm obviously happy with my grade, but I'm also aching for the good students who I know didn't do as well.

As for joining in on Perdido Street Station ... I'd like to, but I have a backlog to read through first. I'm not sure I'll get to it.

#111: This is probably more than you really want to know, but I've been pondering Lou's math problem in The Speed of Dark, and ... well heck, it's my thread and I'll overanalyze if I want to.

*** WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS AND CERTAIN MATH! ***

The problem occurs after Lou's car has been vandalized the third time and the policeman Mr. Stacy visits Lou at his workplace. Stacy warns him that somebody is most likely targeting him, and quotes an "old saw": Once is accident, twice is coincidence, and third time is enemy action.

Lou immediately realizes that this maxim could be false. After all, three accidents could occur, and this saying would misidentify accidents as "enemy action." Lou quickly calculates the permutations: if an incident can be (a) an accident, (b) a coincidence, or (c) enemy action, then there are 3^3 = 27 possibilities, only one of which meets the criteria of the maxim. Thus the probability is 1 in 27 that the saw is correct, but there is a 1 in 3 chance that the third incident is enemy action, and a 19 in 27 chance that at least one of the incidents is enemy action.

I see two errors in Lou's thinking. The first may be explained by his autism, which affects his grasp of language. Lou assumes that "accident," "coincidence," and "enemy action" are mutually exclusive when in fact they are not. In the maxim, the word "coincidence" only means a second accident.

The second error is more difficult to dismiss, since it goes straight to Lou's understanding of probability. Suppose that Lou is correct in saying that there are 27 distinct permutations. He is incorrect to say that this means a given permutation will occur 1 time in 27. This inference would be true if each of the 27 permutations is equally likely. But this is not the case: Mr. Stacy has just explained at length that accidents are more frequent than malicious vandalism. So Lou would have to consider the different likelihoods or "relative frequencies" of the different permutations.

This is not the kind of mistake that an expert in bioinformatics would make. Now, Lou has been through a lot, and we could blame the error on stress. But what bothers me is the thought that Moon could have turned this mathematical problem to her literary advantage.

The literary opportunity is a model for the "speed of dark is faster than light" motif. By this time Moon has already made the connections between light and knowledge and between dark and ignorance. And Mr. Stacy's maxim exemplifies how ignorance is faster than knowledge: if you car is vandalized once then it is probably an accident, but if your car is vandalized three times then it was probably malicious the first time. You are ignorant about the malice until the knowledge arrives with the third incident: dark is faster than light.

This kind of thinking is generally difficult to model using Lou's combinatorial probability. But there is an entire body of mathematical thinking that does it very well: it's called Bayesian statistics, and anyone who has taken a college course in statistics has been exposed to it. Lou would certainly be aware of it, and using Bayesian methods he could have connected Mr. Stacy's maxim and Don's vandalism to the "speed of dark." Those connections would have improved the scene. They would have deepened its thematic significance. And they could have been an excuse for some very nice mathematical exposition.

Ah, missed opportunity.

fascinating! Really ... and I almost understood it! LOL My eyes tend to glass over (along with my brain) whenever I run into things like this. Thx for 'overanalyzing', although I'd doubt you'd find many who see it that way. I don't. Rather, it's shedding further light on how and why you reached your conclusions. Very thoughtful and I'm glad you shared :)

#113 - Excellent discussion, Swynn! It's this kind of thinking that is so lacking in many areas today - especially politics! Thanks for digging in.

>113 swynn: And then the cow jumped over the moon? Did the Poky Little Puppy get home before dinner, too? I am so ill-equipped to comprehend the sentence fragment, "...using Bayesian methods he could have connected Mr. Stacy's maxim and Don's vandalism to the 'speed of dark'" that I feel the need to retreat to my beddie-bye and eat my pablum.

Richard, sorry for the ugliness. (Oh, for the grace of Martin Gardner!) I'm afraid I did go on a bit last night.

In a nutshell:

Error 1. Lou's math distinguishes events which are indistinguishable.

Error 2. Lou's math assumes that the universe plays with fair dice when the evidence is they're loaded.

Wrap up: Lou's math is inappropriate for the problem. This is unfortunate, because the appropriate approach resonates with the book's central motif.

Addendum: The disadvantage of the appropriate math is that Lou would probably have to spend a page or two explaining it. This may not seem like a disadvantage, but I reluctantly admit that the number of readers who would enjoy it may be smaller than the number who would throw the book at the nearest wall.

Ah, I'd just unfocus my eyes and hum gently until more intelligible language appeared.

>117 swynn: But why is there overt, apparently unashamed math in a novel in the first place? Math is like deviant sexual practices...keep it behind closed doors, I got no kick with it; put it on the coffee table, it's in poor taste and can lead to social ostracism.

#119: "Math is like deviant sexual practices"

Richard, I'm not sure whether you mean that it is surprisingly delightful or that it is best enjoyed in groups.

In either case I wholeheartedly agree, and if we must close the door, well, that seems a piddling price to pay.

LOL

Hey I understood the short version :)

I picked up Perdido Street Station from the library, so I'm going to give it a go. But I definitely won't have it done for the discussion that starts yesterday. The end of the month is looming and I've committed to a couple of TIOLI challenges, and those will come first.

But even before the TIOLIs I had a couple of library books that are absolutely positively and no more renewals sir due tomorrow:

42) Blood lure / Nevada Barr

Anna Pigeon goes to Glacier/Waterton National Park to assist with bear research. There is a mysterious death and grizzly bears. It's far from the strongest in the series, but it's okay.

43) Eye of the whale / Douglas Carlton Abrams

I heard about this on NPR and picked it up last month for the "animal in the title" TIOLI challenge. It's about a whale who wanders up the Sacramento River, and the marine biologist who tries to save him against the wishes of evil corporations. It has its moments but it's not as good as I'd hoped: it's an ecothriller with few thrills and it gets pretty heavy-handed at points.

Too bad about the Abrams book. It sounds like one I would have liked.

Stasia,

If it sounds appealing you might give it a try anyway. It didn't work for me, but the reviews on its LT page give it 4 & 5 stars, so it must have worked for some readers.

OK, I will do that (assuming of course, that I can ever get it from my local library.)

44) American gods / Neil Gaiman

This was for the "I can't believe you haven't read that" TIOLI challenge. Actually, started to read this last year after hearing several rave reviews but set it aside when the rave didn't catch. It didn't catch this time either, but with lower expectations it's not half bad.

True, it meanders quite a bit: for a long time it's one episode after another of Meet the Deity. It's a bit unfair but not by much to call it 400 pages of introductions and 200 pages of story. Fortunately, the introductions are mostly to intriguing characters; and both introductions and story are a pleasant mix of earthy humor and unsettling imagery. It's not exactly riveting, but it is fun and thought-provoking. (Or was it thought-provoking? I haven't decided.) Well, it's fun anyway.

45) Soulless / Gail Carriger

Liked it, didn't love it: too much steam, not enough punk.

46) Free for all / Don Borchert

I don't remember the thread where I first saw this indifferently reviewed, but I couldn't resist reading it for myself.

Coincidentally I see that Angela just finished this as well, and I pretty much agree with her assessment: it is interesting and entertaining, but Borchert comes across as awfully smug with respect to his patrons, his coworkers, and his chosen occupation. I wanted to say to him: "Okay, we get that you never wanted to be a librarian, and we get that you're cynical about the whole proposition of public libraries. But nobody asked you to sign up so there's no point in acting so superior. Now tell me another story."

I recognized many of the characters and many of the stories, albeit with slight variations: I don't remember anyone finding a used sex toy in the bookdrop, but at one library we did have a problem with body fluids: specifically, someone used to urinate in the bookdrop at night.

But what can you do? You work with the public, you get your share of crazies. You believe in the work and you think about the large majority of patrons who believe in the work as well.

Or you get a job in technical services, where you get all the satisfaction of doing good work for a good cause, without having to handle cleanup when someone decides to paint the men's room with, erm, media convenient to the location. So what if Don Borchert calls you a "basement dweller"? Somehow I'll get over it.

#127: Like both you and Angela, I did not care for the tone of Borchert's book either. I think the book could have been so much better if a lighter tone had been used.

I hope you enjoy your next read more, Stephen!

Stasia:

Absolutely on the problem with tone.

You mentioned on Angela's thread Borchert's attitude toward homeschoolers. I wouldn't make too much of it -- Borchert has plenty of contempt to go around, and it's only natural that homeschoolers get some too.

Having worked circulation at a public library, I think I can guess the sorts of homeschoolers Borchert has in mind.

There are homeschoolers who berate library staff over any display of Harry Potter -- or in fact over any display that offends their sense of propriety.

I've talked to a homeschooler who was irate that the library would not buy six copies of an obscure Victorian children's novel (she wanted each of her children to have his/her own copy).

I've talked to another who demanded that loan periods be extended from two weeks to six months because her child would be reading the book until Christmas.

There was another who was shocked that the library expected her to replace a book that was returned with extensive highlighting and notes in the margins. "You don't understand," she said. "I am a homeschooler and my son used this book for his education!"

Then there was another who demanded the library buy a new edition of the works of Zane Grey because her son found the sturdy binding on the library's copies unattractive.

Just like any other population, homeschoolers have their share of crazies. Based on my experience, I expect they also have more than their share of control freaks. But by and large, homeschoolers who use the library are model patrons: most homeschooled kids seem to read widely and copiously, they respect library materials and return them on time, and goodness bless them they don't leave young children unattended. Unfortunately, this sort of behavior doesn't seem to interest Borchert very much.

As a homeschooling mom, to me it is unfortunate that anyone should act the way you have described, let alone homeschoolers who, in my opinion, should know better!

I know that every population has its share of crazies - I just thought Borchert could have used some evenhandedness as opposed to completely trampling over homeschoolers as if we are all nuts. Oh well.

Nice review! Glad to know we are on the same page, no pun intended. :)

47) Blacklands / Belinda Bauer

Twenty-some years ago, twelve-year-old Billy Peters disappeared while running an errand near his Somerset home. It's common knowledge that Billy was killed by Arnold Avery, a child rapist and murderer now serving time for a handful of other victims. But Avery has never admitted to killing Billy, and Billy's body has never been found.

Now twenty-some years later, Billy's twelve-year old nephew Steven has grown up with a mother who could never measure up to her absent brother, and a grandmother still waiting for her favorite child to come home. Steven decides that if he can only find his uncle's body then the resolution will fix whatever has broken his family. He spends his afternoons and weekends digging up the countryside until a school assignment in letter-writing gives him the idea of contacting the one person who knows where to dig.

What follows is a psychological thriller that channels "Silence of the Lambs." It's a quick and compulsive read, and recommended.

#132: Thanks for the recommendation of that one. I see my local library has it, so hopefully I can get my hands on it soon.

48) The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation. Vol. 2, The kingdom on the waves / M.T. Anderson

This was a good follow-up to volume one, though it sprawled a bit & didn't carry quite the same punch. Since the first volume is definitely a prerequisite for the second, I'll restate that the first is highly recommended, after which you'll almost certainly want to read this one too ... and won't be entirely disappointed.

49) The baby blue ripoff / Max Allan Collins

This is the first in Max Allan Collins's "Mallory" series, about a crime-solving mystery writer in Iowa. At a girlfriend's urging, Mallory volunteers for a "meals on wheels"-style program. One day on his route he interrupts a burglary and finds the client dead. Entertaining but not especially memorable.

#134: I still have to read the first volume of Octavian Nothing, but I own them both, so will probably get around to the second one eventually too.

50) Library ethics / Jean Preer

This is a pretty good survey of ethical issues in library service. Based on the author's course in foundations of librarianship, this is intended as a textbook and that's pretty much how it reads.

Congratulations on making it 2/3 of the way through the challenge!

Thanks, Stasia! Creeping up on 75 surprises me less than the fact that I have only 7 more books to go to reach my total from last year.

This group has certainly got me reading more. Of course, the downside is that my tbr list now has enough material to keep me reading at this pace for the next couple of years. That's assuming that I stop adding to the list. And that I quit browsing the library stacks and used book stores to grab books on impulse.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen.

#136 - Yes congratulations on having read 50 already - at this rate maybe you'll double last year's total.

I'm curious as to what some of the main ethical issues are in the library service. Having just read a historical mystery set in the Great Library of Alexandria (Alexandria) where some of the issues are whether to dispose of older, apparently unwanted scrolls, or ones that the librarian does not think are any good, I wondered what kind of issues are covered in a contemporary text book and how much they have changed...

Apparently the Alexandria library got many of its scrolls by capturing them from enemies and others and then holding them until copies could be made (I can't remember if they returned the copies or the originals).

#140 Yes that gets a mention in the book I just read - the catalogue apparently identified some scrolls as 'from the ships' ie ships that were hijacked in order to commandeer scrolls they were carrying. They didn't seem too worried about an ethical approach to acquisitions!

Genny,

See, now this is what I'm talking about. I have no choice but to add Alexandria to the Someday Swamp.

This is going to be a bit long. I hope it answers your question.

Preer divides her book into the chapters:

Service: by whom?
Service: for whom?
Access: what information?
Access: which format?
Conflicts of interest: philosophical
Conflicts of interest: financial
Confidentiality

The "Service" chapters include discussion of staffing, and who the library serves. How do you decide what sorts of service you offer to different segments of your population?

Do you provide service equitably regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, age, or immigration status? (The gut reactioin is "yes, obviously." But what if your library board or backwards state government says otherwise?)

Do you provide service to patrons who make other patrons uncomfortable? Maybe they talk to themselves. Or stare. Or stink. If you make a policy regulating behavior, how do you apply it equitably?

The "Access" chapters cover collections. Preer doesn't discuss the collection methods in use at the Library of Alexandria, but I don't think it's entirely irrelevant. Suppose your library has a prized collection of Native American artifacts that were donated to your library's archives by the grandchild of a soldier who served at Wounded Knee? What if the Sioux tribe learned of the collection and demanded their return?

Other issues under access include making sure the information needs of your users are met, and that any subject in your collection is fairly represented on all sides, in an appropriate format.

She also discusses how public library collections have evolved: in the early 20th century the goal was "the best reading for the most people at the least cost." And of course it was the librarians who knew what was "best." Selection practices have slowly changed toward trusting the users' preferences.

Under "Conflicts of interest," she discusses how it's important not to let your political, religious, or aesthetic preferences skew your decisions about selection or service. And it's very important not to compromise the library's mission in the face of financial temptation.

Do you refuse to collect material opposed to your point of view? What if the material is patently false? What if it is patently false but also in demand? What if it is plainly racist? What if it is plainly racist and sitting at number one on the NYT Bestseller list?

She also talks about financial conflicts of interest. Most libraries can't operate today without gifts, grants, and cooperative programs. Sometimes those gifts come with strings attached.

What strings are acceptable? What if a generous gift includes stipulations contradictory to your library policy -- say a generous gift on the donor's condition that the library install Internet filters on its public computers, when your library has already decided that filters are unethical? What if the donor in this case is the federal government?

Under "Confidentiality" she talks about the library's responsibility to keep personally identifying information and reading habits of its users confidential. She specifically talks about ethically handling requests from law enforcement, especially in PATRIOT-Act-style situations when you are legally required _not_ to handle such requests ethically.

Thanks for that comprehensive reply! While clearly some of the ethical dilemmas are new (internet filtering) it sounds like there is a lot that would have been familiar to librarians of the ancient world - financial pressures, political interference, smelly patrons to name but a few! Alexandria is not a serious study of the Library, of course, but I think Davis has researched it thoroughly as the setting for the mystery, and conveys well the frustration of junior staff seeing a great institution mis-managed.

51) The Monty Hall problem / Jason Rosenhouse

Ooooh, what a delicious book!

Here's the Monty Hall problem: You are playing a game show according to the following rules. There are three doors. One door hides a car, and the other two hide goats. You want to win the car. You choose a door -- say door 1 -- but do not open it. The host "Monty Hall" then opens one of the two remaining doors -- say door 2 -- to reveal a goat. (Monty knows where the car is and he intentionally reveals a goat. Whenever Monty has a choice of doors he chooses randomly.) You may now choose to claim the prize behind your door 1 or you may switch to door 3. Should you switch?

The answer is "yes": switching doubles your chances of winning. If this answer doesn't make you uncomfortable, then chances are you've either heard it before or you're not paying attention. For most people, intuition says that you begin with three equally probable options, and when the host opens a door you are reduced to two equally probable options. But intuition is wrong. In fact, intuition is frequently wrong on probabilistic questions. Mathematicians delight in imagining scenarios where the most obvious solution is wrong, and by this measure the Monty Hall problem is delightful.

Delightful maybe, but sufficiently so for a book-length treatment? Surprisingly, yes. Variations on the Monty Hall problem are legion: What if Monty doesn't know where the car is? What if he likes to open door number 3? What if there are more than 3 doors? More than 1 car? More than 1 player? What if some doors are more likely to conceal the car than others? Variations are so rich that Rosenhouse, a mathematics professor at James Madison University, thought that he could design an entire introductory course in probability using only variations on the Monty Hall problem. And darned if he didn't. What's more, it's engaging, challenging, and even surprising in more places than just the answer to the original problem.

But there's more: it turns out that the Problem has applications or parallels everywhere, from physics to contract bridge. Rosenhouse wraps up with discussions of the problem by behaviorists and philosophers. Who knew?

The only complaint I have about the book is the audience. It looks like a book of popular mathematics, but it's not. Rosenhouse acknowledges this up front, warning the reader that "the equations get rather dense, I'm afraid," but adding, "an undergraduate mathematics major should not have much difficulty understanding anything I have presented." I think he's probably right about that: the shame is, I think a little gentler approach might have made it more widely accessible.

For instance, when the equations get dense Rosenhouse presents a couple of inductive proofs, but without even briefly explaining how inductive proofs work. He's right that the math undergrads will get it, or the upperclassmen will anyway. But other potential readers, say bright high schoolers in Mu Alpha Theta or even freshman math undergrads, may never have encountered induction. Without some sort of preparation they are not likely to find the proofs convincing.

Overall though, this is strongly recommended for anyone who enjoys recreational math and doesn't mind pulling out pen & paper to follow an argument. I just wish he'd aimed it at a broader audience.

#144: I will look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Stephen.

I hope your library has it, Stasia.

No, it doesn't, unfortunately.

Hmmm, there's one to go on the list. Nice review!

ETA: Hey, go post this review on the book page and I'll thumb it up!

Okay, I've posted a slightly edited version of the review.

Thanks for thinking it's worth sharing!

I'm fascintated by your description of The Monty Hall Problem but also very aware that I won't be able to follow it. Bummer. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I've thumbed your review.

Edited to add I've put Blacklands on my wishlist. It looks great.

Nancy,

That's the thing ... everyone understands the setup, and everyone is surprised when they first hear the answer. Alas, the book isn't for everyone.

To be fair, much of the book is straightforward and relatively plainless. For at least 80% of the math, you don't need more than high school algebra. But when the path gets rougher, the pace doesn't slow down.

If you're curious about the problem, the Wikipedia article also covers a lot of territory. And there's a pretty cool simulation at the NY Times's website: play the game over & over, and you'll find that the more times you play, you win about 2/3 of the games where you switch and about 1/3 of the games where you don't.

52) Dexter by design / Jeff Lindsay

It's not "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," but it's head and shoulders (and miscellaneous limbs) better than the silly "Dexter in the Dark."

#152: I agree with you about that one.

#144 That one sounds really interesting - I'll definitely look out for it.

53) Another mother tongue : gay words, gay worlds / Judy Grahn

This was for Richard's TIOLI challenge, "A Gay/Lesbian Themed Book for Gay Pride Month."

I have mixed feeling about this one: on the one hand, it seems to dip a bit too often into unsubstantiated and nebulous New-Agey territory, for which I usually have very little patience. I have little prior knowledge about the subject matter, so when the author did hit on something I know a little about, German slang terms, she frustrated me with misspellings & bad grammar. These easily-checked errors made me wonder about her reliability in other areas. (And once again ... where was the editor?)

On the other hand, I can't help but admire the book. I can't think of another book I've read quite like this one: it's part memoir, part secret history, part mythography, and part love letter. It's a record of the author's search for a gay historical and spiritual narrative, and a corrective to the pervasive lie that no such narrative exists.

She begins:

In 1961, when I was twenty-one, I went to a library in Washington, D.C., to read about homosexuals and Lesbians, to investigate, explore, compare opinions, learn who I might be, what others thought of me, who my peers were and had been. The books on such a subject, I was told by indignant, terrified librarians unable to say aloud the word homosexual, were locked away. They showed me a wire cage where the "special" books were kept in a jail for books. Only professors, doctors, psychiatrists, and lawyers for the criminally insane could see them, check them out, hold them in their hands.

Wow. As a librarian, reading that .... *shudder*. This passage competes with "Sophie's Choice" for "Most Cringe-Inducing Library Service in Literature." But instead of passing out like Sophie, Judy Grahn took up arms: she wrote the book she wished her 21-year-old self could have read.

I'm afraid I'm generally not familiar with gay literature, and I hope that there are now other books like it for other 21-year-olds, especially books with a less esoteric perspective. But for me it was an intriguing, challenging, and occasionally uncomfortable read.

In 1985, when I was eighteen, I nervously slunk into the scary and exhilerating HQ section of the local public library. I certainly wasn't brave enough to go into a book prison, but luckily that was no longer required. In HQ, I found Judy Grahn's Another Mother Tongue amongst many other gay and lesbian books which changed my life. I am sure this book is dated, but its existence and, more importantly, its tone meant so much to me as a young lesbian feminist.

I believe that now there are so many options for connection available to young men and women that slinking into HQ may not even happen anymore.

Nancy, thank you for sharing that memory. Despite my misgivings the book was for me an eye-opener, and I can only imagine what a source of comfort and encouragement it must have been for you. No to mention: that is the sort of story I like to hear about libraries.

I'm afraid that the "book jail" may have returned in another form. Many public libraries have Internet filters installed, either by choice or in order to get federal "e-rate" funding. Depending on the filtering software, and depending on the library's policies, a patron wanting to access gay-friendly sites -- even the most innocuous ones like PFLAG -- may have to approach library staff to request that the filter be disabled, may have to explain the "research purpose" for their request, or may be out of luck altogether. Talk about chilling effect.

54) Panic / Jeff Abbott

Evan Casher, a documentary filmmaker in Austin, TX, gets a frantic call from his mother in Dallas. By the time he gets to her, she's dead, and her killers are still in the house. What follows is a novel that begs to be turned into a Hollywood action movie: relentless chases, bullets, explosions, et cetera. Abbott seems to cover the right territory: the writing is crisp, the dialog mostly serviceable ... but the whole thing just seemed awfully silly. I'm either burning out on thrillers or there's something wrong with this book I can't quite put my finger on.

#158: Her killers are still in the house when he gets there? Are they just stupid or what? Even if the guy gets into a plane the minute his mother calls, it is going to be a good hour or so flight. That scenario alone makes me find something wrong with the book, lol.

Ninja Math Librarian, I hope your next read is more deserving of your ninjaness.

I thought Another Mother Tongue was an exciting mess when I read it, though I was a lot more than 21 at the time. It's not up to a scholarly standard, and a discerning and knowledgable reader such a our own Ninja Math Librarian would very likely have made a good editor for it; but my GODDESSES, what a revelation it was in 1985.

Drawing Down the Moon had the same sort of bombshell effect on me, but that was a lot earlier, and wasn't explicitly about LGBT issues, though those were tantalizingly padded around. Still, to a 20-yr-old whose Catholicism had curdled early, the idea that spirituality could take this form, this positive and life-affirming and accepting form, was as amazing as Grahn's re-vision of words in a queer context.

Books have power. The Nazis were right to burn them. Otherwise ideas escape from rigid control and seduce people into believing things *can* and even *should* be different.

Internet filters. Yuck. LibraryThing is filtered on my local village's library Internet, because it fails to screen out potentially offensive speech.

#159: It turns out the killers are targeting not just Evan's mother but Evan too, for convoluted reasons that unravel with the plot. So they're not entirely stupid, just lying in wait.

That's not to say they're geniuses. "Panic" is a thriller in the subgenre of "ordinary schmuck outwits experienced professional killers." Goodness rest Eric Ambler who pulled it off so well, but he also made it look easy, thus deceiving lesser talents. Mostly these books just make you wonder how professional killers survive long enough to gain experience: they're so easily distracted by someone shouting, "Holy cow, look at that!" The killers of "Panic" aren't the dumbest you'll find, but they're not exactly Sun Tzu either.

Anyway, I'm now reading Josh Bazell's Beat the reaper, about an ex-hit-man-turned-M.D. Plus: he's an expert in martial arts, so yes there's ninjamatic goodness. (You know, maybe the problem with "Panic" isn't that it was too silly, but rather that it was not quite silly enough.)

#160: Call me hopelessly straight, but it was a bit of a revelation to me in 2010. "Exciting mess" pretty much sums it up.

It was interesting to watch my own reaction: Grahn makes unsubstantiated claims that in any other book would throw me into a vicious tear ... so why did I keep reading, and why was my overall reaction so positive? I think part of it was the way she cast the book as a personal journey rather than an academic argument; part was the originality of its form; and part was simply her way with words. Despite its flaws I'm glad I read the book, which I probably would not have done without the challenge. So thanks, Richard.

I also agree about the power of Drawing Down the Moon, which I read back in the nineties, while going through ... well, let's call it a "spiritual transition."

Finally, re: Internet filters. That's the first I've heard of LibraryThing being blocked by an Internet filter, but I am very far from surprised.

Sounds like Beat the Reaper might be just the book for you, Ninja Math Librarian, with its 'ninjamatic goodness.' I had it checked out of the library once, but took it back because I was told it was gory. Gore is just not my thing.

Stasia,

I think you made the right choice: not only is there gore but there's also quite a bit of cursing which I know you also usually dislike in fiction. But for me ... yep, it hit the spot.

55) Beat the reaper / Josh Bazell

Peter Brown is a former hit man, client of the federal Witness Protection Program, and a resident at what one hopes is the worst hospital in the country. The idea is that the quality of medical care keeps wiseguys away. But one shows up anyway, recognizes Brown, and jeopardizes his new life ... such as it is.

This was for Zoe's "Member Recommendation" TIOLI challenge. It's a recommendation from Sandman Slim, and it does have a similar feel. There's the tough-guy antihero, the desolate setting, the themes of betrayal, and the cartoonish violence. This one doesn't have the supernatural plot, but it does have all the fun. It's fast, funny, and over the top, with a climax that makes Macguyver look like a tenderfoot.

On a whim I've decided to see how many of the TIOLI challenges I can meet this month. I think I can still squeeze in two more.

I am still working on my TIOLI challenges for June. I am not going to attempt any more!

I am going to continue to skip Beat the Reaper. Thanks, Stephen.

56) Ash / Malinda Lo

I'm not a fan of paranormal romance, or romance of any subgenre, but I did like this book, with its straightforward storytelling, its elegant prose, and its subversion of fairy-tale tropes -- and I don't just mean the gender of the "handsome prince." Recommended.

>165 swynn: ...?...

(I fear I've gone into Firbank mode.)

"Firbank mode"? I'm afraid the reference is lost on me.

57) Toby alone / Timothee de Fombelle

Toby lives in a tree where nearly everyone else has turned against him. His parents have been thrown into prison, the authorities have declared him an enemy of the tree, and even Toby's childhood friends have joined the lynch mobs. Exactly why things have come to this pass we learn over the course of the book, starting in medias res like a proper epic, so I won't say why.

I will say that the book is a parable about ecology and industrialism. Also that its allegorical elements frequently risk becoming a bit too obvious. But just when I'd start to roll my eyes, there'd be a distracting detail: the fat-cat villain's acrobatics with a cigarette, or his henchlady's talent for extinguishing the same with her bosoms. There is a Flintstones-like playfulness in the tree's technical civilization. And oh, the evocative pen-and-ink illustrations.

There are a few flaws: I've mentioned the didacticism that's never far from the surface; the plot relies a bit too much on coincidence; and the characters have an inexplicable tendency to have a change of heart immediately after they've done something horrible.

Also a couple of cautions: although it's a juvenile book, characters die, often in cruel and frightening Brothers-Grimm-ish ways. But perhaps more importantly: it ends in a cliffhanger. Actually the last two chapters read like the first two chapters of the next book, ending abruptly just as the narrative steam starts to build. And until August, the second volume is only available in French.

Despite the flaws, it's a charming story and I recommend it. Though I also recommend you wait for August.

#168: Though I also recommend you wait for August.

Duly noted, since I already added this one to the BlackHole after Kerry's recent recommendation, NML.

Sorry! I just made it back. "Firbank mode" refers to Ronald Firbank, quite probably the queerest writer of the queerest books of the twentieth century...eg, The Flower Beneath the Foot, Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, Valmouth...and a writer whose eccentric gifts led him to have characters who converse in punctuation, as I did above. But even without words, his point (and mine) is clear, right?

Hm. Rereading my comments on Ash I see that I wasn't very descriptive. I'm guessing you'd like me to expand a bit.

Ash is a YA fantasy novel based on the Cinderella tale, set in a world evoking pre-Christian Britain. There is a cruel stepmother, a handsome prince, royal balls. There's no fairy godmother, but our heroine does have a fairy protector of the pale and broody and to all appearances male type. Here's the spoiler: our heroine falls in love with the king's huntress.

As a spoiler, it's not much: the author herself describes the book as "a lesbian retelling of Cinderella." But that description doesn't seem fair: as I said above, it's more a subversion than a retelling, and in several ways. Obviously the tale's heterosexual assumptions are discarded, but there's more: the story contradicts the original's assumptions about female passivity, the value of wealth & social power, and the superiority of courtly to rural life. For my personal reading schedule, it was a nice object lesson to follow Another Mother Tongue.

Add to that the fact that Lo can write. Her style isn't flashy or intricate, but she creates powerful images with plain language. The overall effect is something better than your average YA fantasy romance -- or I assume so, since I honestly can't think of any other YA fantasy romances I've actually finished. I assume that if Stephanie Meyer were gay and could write, she might give us something like this.

According to Lo's website, her next book is a companion to Ash, set in the same world but not a sequel. She promises, "There are no crossover characters; there are lesbians." It's due in spring 2011.

Oh, one more thing: if you could convince me to read one of Ronald Firbank's books, which would it be?

The Flower Beneath the Foot hands-down. Its weird alternate Balkans Royal house makes me smirk even now recalling the read 28 years later.

ETA touchstone error alert! Your touchstones go to Mary Gentle's alt-Joan of Arc series!

Richard,

Thanks for the alert about the touchstone. It's fixed now, I think.

The Flower Beneath the Foot is now on my list, but it looks like the only copies available through my library consortium are omnibus editions, so I may end up reading more than one.

Meanwhile, I brought one more in under the wire for the June TIOLI challenges:

58) Wake up dead / Roger Smith

This is a noir thriller set in the Cape Flats slums of Cape Town, South Africa. Billy Afrika is an ex-cop returning to his old beat of Cape Flats. He's been away for awhile in Iraq, making money by doing work that's too dirty for a company the U.S. hired to do its dirty work. But the money dried up: the broker that was supposed to pay him owes him $30,000. Now the broker has been murdered, and things get more complicated.

The plot may be complicated, but you know most of the players. There's the loner ex-cop with promises to keep. There's his partner's widow. There's the gang leader with a cruel code of honor. There's the psychopathic homosexual. (Honestly, couldn't we have left that one in the sixties?) And of course there's the gorgeous femme fatale.

Besides the characters, there's the tough-guy prose, which for my taste was overdone. Apparently Smith is too tough for grammar: the ratio of fragments to complete sentences is pretty close to 1:1. And he loves those noir similes, which are hit-or-miss, with a ratio of about 2:1.

As sensationalist crime fiction it's not bad, but there's not much new here either. If there's anything fresh, it's the setting. Smith has created a strong sense of place, enough for me to feel justified in listing it under Zoe's challenge #3, "a book about Africa." I feel like I've lived in Cape Flats for the last couple of days. Not incidentally, I feel like I need a bath.

I'm horrified by the stories of caged books, but we've had such censorship of lesbian and gay books here too. In the 1980s in Britain the then Conservative government passed legislation outlawing the use of public money to "promote" homosexuality, known as Section 28 (just one of many things in the Local Government Act 1988). Much quoted to explain the need for the legislation was a book found on school bookshelves about a child living with her father and his boyfriend (Jenny lives with Eric and Martin) . Shamefully it took until 2003 until it was repealed. Interestingly, David Cameron (who voted against repeal in 2003) finally apologised for it last year.

It presumably would have made special displays such as I regularly see in libraries now of lesbian and gay writing illegal. I've never read the famous book even though I remember the title, but I think children's books should reflect reality for kids, and it's scandalous that one book should have been singled out like that.

Sigh. I'm constantly telling myself that the American impulse for censorship is an archaism among developed democracies. So I'm always disappointed to hear evidence that our peers are not always happy utopias where speech roams free. It's obviously ignorant of me, but there you go. What a relief that the law has been repealed. Sic semper something.

59) Perdido Street Station / China Miéville

Please, sir, I want some more.

#176: Give The City and the City a try.

>176 swynn: ROFL

Also try The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters.

Well, there are two others set in New Crobizon, so there's definitely more!

#177,179: The rest of China Miéville's oeuvre has gone straight to the Someday Swamp. I have a copy of King Rat that I picked up in a bargain bin years ago, and will be taking it down from the shelf soon.

#178: Ooh, that one looks good too.

Next is a quick thriller, but after that is Walter Moers's Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käptn Blaubärs, which should give me another helping of unrestrained, gleeful invention.

#180: I will curious to see what you think of the Moers' book, since I have had The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear in the BlackHole for a while now.

I like your name for your TBR.

Your thread is so much fun! Sorry I've been AWOL -- And now I'm reminded why I don't want to be!

#181: I've read the first few dozen pages, and so far so good. I want to live with the Dwarf Pirates like Blue Bear. Alas, I am too large.

#182: I have to give Stasia credit for suggesting a swamp.

#183: Welcome back!

60) The tutor / Peter Abrahams

High schooler Brandon Gardner starts hanging around with the wrong crowd, skipping class, experimenting with drugs and sex, and worst of all scoring at the seventy-fifth percentile on the SAT. His parents take decisive action: they hire a tutor. What they don't know is that the tutor, who seems such a nice boy, is really a manipulative sociopath with the idea of turning the Gardners' domestic problems into a "living novel." And he's not thinking Harold Bell Wright.

The only Gardner who stands a chance of seeing through the tutor's charming exterior is eleven-year-old Ruby, a distracted little girl with a fixation on Sherlock Holmes. Ruby really makes the novel-- I haven't yet read Alan Bradley's books, but if Flavia de Luce has half of Ruby's charm I'm a fan already.

>185 swynn: Ugh. That sounds like one of Darryl's four-hankies-and-a-pistol reads. *skips gaily past "The Tutor"*

Even more than recommending a good book I relish the thought have having induced skipping in Richard. My work is done.

#185: The local library has that one. Thanks for the recommendation, NML.

Welcome back Stasia. You were missed during your brief sabbatical. Please please please continue to take care yourself.

**Hugs**

Thanks, Stephen!

I've just caught up with your thread. There's some fine reading here, and even finer reviews/comments!

I have added several to my wishlist, including The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah and Blacklands.

Hi, Terri! Thanks for the kind words. I hope you like the books you've added to your wishlist. I think Thomas Jeremiah is especially good.

I saw this on several other threads, and it seems like a pleasant diversion as I make my way slowly through "Käpt'n Blaubär." Using books from my 2009 reading:

Describe yourself: The Mindblocked Man (Frustrated writer -- 'nuff said)

How do you feel: Guilty as Sin (Blame my strict evangelical upbringing.)

Describe where you currently live: Picnic on Paradise (Except for when it's This Republic of Suffering)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Your favorite form of transportation: Life Probe (Actually, that sounds like a uniquely uncomfortable ride, but it's the only one that fits.)

Your best friend is: The Princess Bride (Though she'd slap me if she heard me call her "princess.")

You and your friends are: Banquet at Delmonico's (Yeah, we all like to eat.)

What’s the weather like: Ill Wind (Don't get me started.)

You fear: Firestorm (Fire BAAAD.)

What is the best advice you have to give: Let the Great World Spin (It's not like you can do anything about it.)

Thought for the day: Hurry Down Sunshine (Rain, rain I said go away!!!)

How I would like to die: A Superior Death (It doesn't get better than superior.)

My soul’s present condition: Blind Descent (Ain't we all?)

I like your answers, Stephen. I think we gave the same one on 'best advice!'

Stasia, I just looked at your answers again and saw that I stole that one from you.

I'm stuck with it, though, because the only other title on my list that resembles advice is Eat Pray Love, and I can only get behind that one 67%. I'll have a little more diversity to choose from on this year's list ... Don't Sleep There are Snakes, for instance, is pretty prudent, but Beat the Reaper also seems wise.

#195: No worries, it is a good answer :)

Part of my problem is that I have a little too much diversity, I think. I had to go through 370+ titles to answer the questions.

I must share this bit from "Käpt'n Blaubär."

Blue Bear finds himself in Atlantis, where the favorite spectator sport is the "Lügenduell" or "lie-duel," a storytelling competition in which participatants called "lie-gladiators" trade outlandish stories until one concedes. Blue Bear decides to become a "lie-gladiator," and describes his training regimen:

Another important training method is the reading of great, middling, and lesser literature. Authors are the best liars, not counting politicians, so one can learn the most from them. I made it my habit, every day after breakfast, to read three books, none under three hundred pages, before I began my work. At night I sacrificed half of my sleep to read more books.

Amateur. Stasia'd mop up the floor with him.

LOL! I cannot wait to get my hands on that book.

61) Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär (Link goes to English translation.)

Recently I got a whim to start reading books to give my very rusty German a bit of a polish. This book, which I first read about on bryanoz's thread, seemed like a good one to begin ... until I saw that it ran to 700 pages. Ah well, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Right. It's a delightful, intricately inventive book which gave me frequent giggles and occasional belly laughs. It contains the adventures of Captain Blue Bear, from his earliest memory of being adrift in the ocean floating in a walnut shell, through his encounters with surprising characters such as ghosts, giant spiders, trolls, rescue dinosaurs, a headless giant, a giantless head, a tyrannowhale rex, a seven-brained genius, and a creature from another dimension who subsists on music played on instruments made of milk.

So it runs to 700 pages, so what? The sum of Blue Bear's picaresque adventures is rather long, sure, but it rarely seems all that long: before any one adventure wears out its welcome Blue Bear stumbles upon another one, completely fresh. Moers has written other books set in this same world, and I will be reading them -- auf Deutsch, natürlich, but I'm happy to report that several of Moers's novels are available in English translation.

#199: I want to read that one so badly! I have had it on my PBS wishlist for a long while now. I may just have to break down and buy the thing.

62) Radical equations / Robert P. Moses

This one has been on my shelf for years, and Zoe's challenge, "Read a book about making a difference," was an excuse finally to take it down and read it.

The author has made a difference in two important battles. He organized voter registration drives during the civil rights movement; and he currently works with the Algebra Project, a nonprofit organization he founded to promote mathematics education.

The first half of the book contains Moses's recollections of the civil rights movement, mostly working for the SNCC in Mississippi. In the second half he tells of his realization that mathematics education is a civil rights issue for our generation, and his work to address it.

The link between algebra and the civil rights movement is not obvious. Moses argues that they are closely linked, mostly in that both civil rights and mathematics education are about securing the possibility for equal participation in society: the movement was about political participation, while algebra is about economic participation.

Despite Moses's enthusiasm, you might buy the claim that algebra is a civil right and you might not. (My son, I'm sure, would insist that it's a civil wrong, or not even civil at all.) Still, it's surprising to read how the methods Moses learned for organizing voter drives -- establishing relationships, involving families, letting young people lead -- also work well for improving mathematics education.

I do wish I'd read the book when I first got it almost ten years ago. Parts of it are dated, unavoidably I suppose, but I'm very happy to see that the Algebra Project is still going strong. And the book, as a document of making a difference, is recommended.

I didn't know Robert Moses was doing maths education - I read Parting the Waters a few years ago and remember him from that. I'll definitely look for this book - thanks!

I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't remember hearing of Robert Moses as a civil rights leader. In fact, while reading Moses's book I realized that my knowledge of the civil rights movement is pretty much based on vague recollections of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Montgomery, Little Rock, and so on. I think I need to pick up "Parting the Waters."

Just don't drop it on your toe! It took me months - worthwhile, but I wish I'd gone a bit faster because I have forgotten half of it.

And then there are Pillar of Fire and Canaans' edge to follow! I've only made it through one so far.

#201: I will have to find that one! Thanks for the recommendation, NML.

@204: Wow, I checked the bib record for "Parting the Waters," and see that it's over 1,000 pages. I think I'll have to carve out some time for that one.

@205: And they don't get much slimmer, do they?

@205: I hope you like it, Stasia.

63) A dead hand / Paul Theroux

Jerry is a second-rate travel writer, hiding out in Calcutta and coming to terms with terminal writer's block. Jerry becomes involved with Mrs. Unger, an independently wealthy American expatriate who spends her time and money rescuing Calcutta's children from poverty. Mrs. Unger is mesmerizing and saintly ... and she'd like Jerry to investigate a possible murder. Discreetly, please.

Unfortunately, it doesn't go very far from there. The mystery is pretty simple, the amateur detective is weak-willed and dull, and the obsessive love affair is better left undiscussed. Paul Theroux himself shows up as a character in an unnecessary scene that I suppose is meant to be playfully self-deprecating, but instead comes off as awkward.

The novel's only strong point is its sense of place. The Indian settings are convincingly exotic, beautiful, menacing or squalid as needed: they deserved better plot and characters to populate them.

This is the first Paul Theroux I've read, though I admire the film "Mosquito Coast," and have heard rapturous praise for his travel writing. From that I was expecting a little bit more. On the strength of the settings, I think I'll seek out some of his travel writing, but not soon. Not recommended.

#208: Too bad about that one, Stephen. I hope your next read is better for you!

I listened to Dark Star Safari: From Cairo to Capetown earlier this year and did enjoy it - his writing and descriptions of the places and people as well as some of his insights. But this is the 2nd or 3rd time I've heard that his fiction isn't that good. During Dark Star Safari he talks about an erotic novel he's writing that didn't sound interesting at all. I think I'll stick with his travel writing.

#209: I'm reading JoAnna Carl's The Chocolate Cat Caper, which is both much less ambitious and much more satisfying. I hope to finish it by midnight to qualify for the culinary TIOLI challenge.

#210: Laura, I believe that his travel writing may be totally absorbing, and I'll certainly give it a try before another novel, with the possible exception of The Mosquito Coast.

Based on the attempted eroticism in A Dead Hand, my guess is you haven't missed much by skipping the novel he talked about.

64) The Chocolate Cat Caper / JoAnna Carl

Squeezed it in just in time for the challenge. Lee McKinney is a recent divorcee looking for a new start. She leaves Dallas for small-town Michigan, where she helps her aunt run a chocolate shop, but has to solve a mystery when one of her aunt's wealthy clients drops dead, apparently from a poisoned chocolate.

It's a light & breezy read. Okay, it's fluff. I'll probably pick up the next in the series sometime when I'm looking for a literary palate-cleanser.

August reading is going to have to be about getting some of these library books off my shelves before the overdue fines rack up too high. For starters I'll have to read at least:
Big Machine / Victor LaValle
Mr. Peanut / Adam Ross
M-Libraries / edited by Gill Needham
Hunting Season / Nevada Barr
Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen / Katharina Hagena

Still, I can see some possibilities for next month's TIOLI, which I list here for my own reference as much as anybody else's.

#1: Ghost Story / Peter Straub. (I'll definitely read this one.)
Feed / M.T. Anderson
The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins (recommended by everyone)
Intuition / Allegra Goodman (recommended by LizzieD)
The war lovers / Evan Thomas (recommended by NPR)

#2: The possibilities are too numerous to list.

#3: Storm front / Jim Butcher
Stormwarden / Janny Wurts
Shadow of the Wind / Carlos Ruiz Zafon (recd by several LTers)
Crazy for the storm / Norman Ollestad (recd by NPR?)
Cloud atlas / David Mitchell
Cloud & ashes / Greer Gilman (Locus Recommended Reading)
The children's blizzard (recd by several LTers)
Snow / Ronald Malfi (recd by DaddyGoth)
Snow crash / Neal Stephenson

#4: Soul of the age / Jonathan Bate
Ecstatic / Victor LaValle

#5: Parrot and Olivier in America / Peter Carey (I've had this in mind since reading about it on the NPR website.)

#6: Tarnsman of Gor / John Norman
Bug Jack Barron / Norman Spinrad (reread)
Satan, Cantor & Infinity / Raymond Smullyan
Vollidiot / Tommy Jaud
Christianity / Diarmaid MacCullough (recd by NPR)
Snow / Ronald Malfi (recd by Daddygoth)
Stiff / Mary Roach (recd by the other Stephen)
Oblomov / Ivan Gonchorov (recd by Stasia)
Young Romantics / Daisy Hay (recd by NPR)
Black Ships / Jo Graham (from StormRaven's rec for "Stealing Fire")
Mudbound / Hillary Jordan

#7: Spies of the Balkans / Alan Furst (recd by NPR?)

#8: A walk on the wild side / Nelson Algren

#9: In the shadow of Gotham / Stefanie Pintoff
Silver pigs / Lindsey Davis

#10: The story of an African farm / Olive Schreiner (Oxford World's Classics)

#11: Deaths on Pleasant Street / Giles Fowler (True Crime)

#12: River of Doubt / Candice Millard (Brazil)

#13: A Darkness in my Soul / Dean Koontz (I'll definitely read this one.)

#14: How the Dead Dream / Lydia Millet
Heart-shaped box / Joe Hill
horns / Joe Hill

#15: The book of William / Paul Collins
The Hamlet / William Faulkner

_____
Edited to add more possibilities as they occur to me.

#213: Looks like you have some good reading coming up in August, Stephen. I read River of Doubt and really liked it, so I will be interested in seeing what you think of it.

I hope I get to it, Stasia. It's been on my mind since a friend recommended it to me this spring.

65) Big machine / Victor LaValle

This is a good one. It's is the third book in the last two months that has made me add an author's complete oeuvre to the Somedy Swamp. Fortunately for my TBR list, in this case the author has only two other books. But I sure hope there's more to come.

Ricky Rice is a heroin addict, cleaning bathrooms in bus terminals for minimum wage, when he receives an invitation and a bus ticket.

Years ago Ricky had been in a desperate spot -- even more desperate than "heroin addict cleaning bathrooms in bus terminals" -- and he made a promise to whoever happened to be listening. The invitation tells him it's time to make good on his promise.

The bus ticket takes him to a cozy spot in rural Vermont, where he meets a group of people like him: poor, addicted, Black, all having once heard a Voice and made a promise. And now a mysterious agency gives them an opportunity to turn their lives around. The agency begins by having them scour newspapers for strange stories, apparently to seek out the Voice, to learn what it is and what it wants.

This sounds like a setup for another paranormal mystery series, a more urban X-Files. Indeed, there is mystery and adventure, and while the book does not feel unfinished there is plenty of room for a sequel. But LaValle has his sights set a little higher than formula fiction. He mixes the thriller elements with meditations on responsibility, faith, and redemption. The combination works on every level, and the book is highly recommended.

I think Big Machine would appeal especially to readers who enjoy epics that mythologize the American landscape, like Last Call or American Gods or or The Talisman.

NPR has an excerpt online.

#216: I have never heard of Victor Lavalle until now. I will look for that one. Thanks for the review and recommendation, NML.

There's a good chance your library has it, Stasia: it has been on several "best books" lists and won the Shirley Jackson Award. Good luck!

#218: No, I already checked. No luck with the local library. *sigh*

66) Mr. Peanut / Adam Ross

I picked this up after Bonnie's review promised Möbius strips and puzzles. I'm sorry to report there's very little topology, but yes there are puzzles galore, enough to keep English majors unraveling elements of its style for semesters on end.

David Pepin's wife is dead. She was highly allergic to peanuts and ate some nevertheless. Is it suicide or did Pepin force her to eat them? The detectives investigating her death have their own marital problems: one of them has served time for killing his wife (but was he really guilty?), and the other fantasizes about killing his own.

Sounds like a mystery. Indeed, the jacket copy calls it a "police procedural of the soul" (whatever that is), and my library has decorated its spine with a bright blue "MYSTERY" sticker. But the conventions of a mystery are largely ignored. This book has a different agenda: contemplating marriage.

The marriages in Mr Peanut are not particularly happy ones, but they're not uniformly unhappy: Pepin and the two detectives each love their wives. They have each also contemplated killing them. The book excels in detailing the tensions and the cautious compromises in the characters' marriages. Ross's ear for dialog is uncanny: there were a few uncomfortable passages where conversations very nearly echoed words that ... um ... may have been uttered ... by persons I have loved ... or have resembled ... and let's leave it at that. His description of the awkward and ongoing give-and-take of marriage hits close to home, even if his version is (hopefully) exaggerated a bit compared to most of our experiences.

The writing did drag in spots for me. There's a lot of interior dialog that for my taste could have been tightened. But overall the book's structure, plot, and imagery are very carefully crafted with puzzles, unreliable narrators, stories within stories, allusions and in-jokes, and recurring motifs. Recommended.

#220: I know I already have that one in the BlackHole. Nice review, Stephen.

67) Hunting Season / Nevada Barr

A rotund good ol' boy shows up dead and mostly naked in an historic inn along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi. Anna Pigeon investigates. It's one of the weaker books in the series, but still fun enough and better than Liberty Falling.

As the mum of a kid who's anaphylactic to peanuts, I am going to skip Mr Peanut for about the next, ummm.... 75 years! Great review though.

>67 gennyt: ALL of her other books are better than Liberty Falling

#223: I understand your reluctance, but glad you liked the review!

#224: This is certainly true of the 10 I've read so far.

Ooh, a package just arrived from Amazon with Toby and the Secrets of the Tree. I'm a bit surprised at how much this excites me, and I'm afraid that everything else will just have to wait.

#226: I cannot wait to see what you think of it!

>>223 cushlareads:. Cushla, I'm skipping Mr. Peanut for the exact same reason. In fact, when I read my first review of it, I actually audibly sucked in air in horror at the premise. Just can't do it.

I sympathize with the feeling. I remember reading with fascination and shock those passages in Tinkers describing the father's epileptic seizures. As a father of a child with epilepsy, my emotions on the subject are already primed. Then to read the painfully accurate descriptions, and how the other characters mishandled the episodes ... well, it wasn't easy. Fortunately, Tinkers provided catharsis to go with the difficult passages. I don't think I can say that about Mr. Peanut.

I should add that the book doesn't dwell on the peanut-allergy death. The bulk of the book is about dysfunctional marriages. But your initial reaction is probably worth heeding.

68) Toby and the secrets of the tree / Timothée de Fombelle

Well, disappointment was all but inevitable I suppose.

The good: The playfulness is still there, though there's very little expansion on the ingenious world-building of Toby alone. The prose is still plain and direct, with beguiling details and easy charm. The first volume's heavy-handedness is gone, leaving a fast-paced adventure story with endearing characters.

The bad: The edge is also gone. The world of Toby alone was a dangerous place, with frequent violence and casual cruelty. Even the heroes practised an ugly realpolitik, which gave the book a tone unusually dark for a juvenile novel. In this follow-up the world is a much safer place, with all the nick-of-time rescues, tearful embraces, fortunate coincidences, and surprising revelations of forgotten parentage you'd expect in a Dickens knockoff. (Richard, beware.)

Still, it's not a bad ending. You want to read the first, and if you read the first you'll want to read the second, and together the two make a great story whose target audience will remember twenty years from now with nostalgic affection.

Interesting passage on reading from Der Geschmack der Apfelkernen:

At one time I still wrote letters, still believed in written things, printed things, read things. I didn't do that any more. I was a librarian at the Freiburg University Library, I worked with books, I bought myself books and yes, I even borrowed a few. But read them? No. Earlier, yes, of course, I read continuously, in the bed, while eating, on the bicycle. But I was done with that. Reading, that was the same as collecting, and collecting was the same as guarding, and guarding was the same as remembering, and remembering was the same as not knowing exactly, and not knowing exactly was the same as having forgotten, and having forgotten was the same as falling, and a fall must have an end.

I don't think she'd fit in here.

Neither do I!

>231 swynn: Maybe not, but it sounds fascinating. Is that your translation? Is the book available in English?

It's my translation, so I'm happy to hear you found it fascinating. The book is certainly having that effect on me.

Unfortunately, no English translation is available yet.

69) Der Geschmack der Apfelkernen / Katharina Hagena

Iris fondly remembers the summers she spent at her grandmother's home in northern Germany, despite the tragedies she experienced there: her cousin Rosmarie's accidental death at sixteen, and her grandmother's slow descent into dementia. So when her grandmother's will leaves the estate to Iris she is overwhelmed. She spends a few days learning and remembering her family's history, and pondering the very meanings of remembering and forgetting. It's a family saga mixed with bits of magical realism, maybe a bit pensive and melancholy, but I found it very effective and recommend it.

I don't know of any plans for an English translation, but if it happens it will probably be published as "The Taste of Apples," which is the title under which the German Book Office is trying to sell translation rights.

70) The Empress of Mars / Kage Baker

Wild-West novel about rough-and-tumble pioneers struggling to establish a life for themselves despite corporate villainy. Oh, and it takes place on Mars. This is my first Kage Baker novel but it won't be my last. She has an easy way with exposition and an endearing way with characters and I'm sorry we'll not see a follow-up. Recommended.

#235: I have been meaning to get back to Kage Baker's books. I read In the Garden of Iden and enjoyed it, but never went any further with the series since my local library does not have any more of them. Thanks for the reminder that I need to track down her books, Stephen.

I hope you can find more, Stasia.

Also: I had planned to read "River of Doubt" this month after you nudged me in #214. But this weekend I picked up the schedule for my RL reading group, and saw that that book is the group's January selection. So I think I'll put it off til then. The other selections are:

September: Await Your Reply / Michael Chaon
October: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Stieg Larsson
November: Housekeeping / Marilynne Robinson
January: River of Doubt / Candice Millard
February: The Help / Kathryn Stockett
March: To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee
April: Lemon Tree / Sandy Tolan

Between you & me & LT there were a couple of duds last year. But this year's list looks much better.

#237: The only one on the list I have never heard of is Lemon Tree, but it looks interesting.

I hope you enjoy River of Doubt when you get to it!

still interesting here :) unfortunately that's prob part of the reason I keep getting sooo far behind ;->

Housekeeping is something to really look forward to.

Susan & Judy, thanks for stopping by. I think "Housekeeping" is the one I've heard the least about-- good to hear that it's also quality reading.

Two will be rereads: the Stieg Larsson and the Harper Lee, but I haven't read "Mockingbird" since it was required reading way back in eleventh grade. I remember liking it very much, and it has to be a very special book if not even "required reading" could suck all the joy out of it.

Meanwhile:
71) A Darkness in my Soul / Dean Koontz

I haven't read much Dean Koontz: Phantoms, Watchers, Odd Thomas, Relentless, and I think that's it. My experience is that Koontz writes atmospheric and riveting set pieces that get lost in Swiss-cheese plots and undermined by disappointing endings. This book confirms that experience.

Simeon Kelly is an artificially-grown human. He was developed by the government and though he has since gained his freedom, the authorities still want him around for his ESP abilities. And now the government needs him because they've developed a second artificially-grown human, a precocious child with ingenious ideas for military technology. But the child isn't cooperating, so the government calls Kelly for help.

The plot is convoluted and the ending drags on longer than it should before it just sort of peters out, and there's Dean Koontz for you. But the book is packed with ideas: some good, some bad, some stolen, and it doesn't get dull until the very end. At a mere 120 pages the book can hardly overstay its welcome for long, and for my taste the relentless and wacky inventiveness of the first 100 pages redeems its considerable faults. Recommend for those who enjoy pulpish science fiction with a seventies vintage.

I think I will be passing on the Koontz book. It does not look like my cuppa.

I hope you enjoy your re-read of To Kill a Mockingbird. I had never read the book at all until about 2 years ago and then I kept wondering why it had taken me so long to discover it!

Well, darn. I didn't read nearly as many TIOLI books as I wanted, and here we have 18 challenges for the new month already.

Here are my thoughts for possible reads, which I'll update as more occur to me. It's for my own reference but I welcome nudges. Starred reads are definite reads since due dates are looming.

Not fitting any challenges, but risking overdue fines:
Silver pigs / Lindsey Davis

And my German book for September:
Vollidiot / Tommy Jaud
Ensel und Krete / Walter Moers
(This will fit the "fairy tale retelling" challenge. Jaud can wait another month.)

#1 (LT 3-letter combo)
* Living with books / Helen Haines (ing)
The symmetries of things / John Conway (ing)
Fingersmith / Sarah Waters (ing)
Libyrinth / Pearl North (lib)
Into thin air / John Krakauer (thi)
A history of algebra / B. L. van der Waerden (bra)
A time for everything / Karl Knausgaard (ryt)
The ethical assassin / David Liss (thi)

#2 Pen name challenge
Cop hater / Ed McBain (Evan Hunter)

#3 Book with a building in its title
* Keepers of the house / Shirley Ann Grau
The anarchist in the library / Siva Vaidhyanathan
Church of dead girls / Stephen Dobyns
I had seen castles / Cynthia Rylant

#4 Compass directions
A guide to the birds of East Africa / Nicholas Drayson
Far north / Marcel Theroux

#5 Educational setting
* The Oxford murders / Guillermo Martinez

#6 White
White masks / Elias Khoury

#7 Number 9
The 900 days / Harrison Salisbury

#8 Financial

#9 Two authors writing as one.
Something by Lewis Padgett (Cyril Kornbluth & C.L. Moore)
Something by Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay, Manfred Lee)

#10 480+ pages
Ghost story
Parting the waters / Taylor Branch

#11 Paranormal being
Geek love / Katherine Dunn
Rosemary and rue / Seanan McGuire

#12 Controversial book

#13 Title in title
* Mr. Shivers

#14 Character Walla Walla
The adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat / Harry Harrison

#15 Fairy tale / Myth retelling
Ensel und Krete / Walter Moers

#16 Banned books
Baby Be-Bop / Francesca Lia Block

#17 Possessive
The year's best horror stories. No. 1 (1972)

#18 Old hardcover with a dustjacket

Looks like you have a nice slate of books ready for September already, NML! Good luck with the challenges.

72) mLibraries / edited by Gill Needham, Mohamed Ally

Conference proceedings, more or less, about library services to mobile devices. As you'd expect, the same points get hit over and over with slight variations. And even just two years old, it already feels dated -- an indication of how fast the environment is changing around us. Not really recommended for anyone but librarians, and even they should skim.

Though I did get a little chuckle out of an experiment in providing access to medical databases via mobile devices in a clinical setting. The service didn't go over well with some users: apparently a resident was concerned that a nurse might find it too easy to consult a diagnostic manual and find information to contradict the resident's experienced opinion. Oh dear.

In other news, I'm not going to finish Ghost Story in August, so I'm removing it from the TIOLI list. Fortunately it's just fat enough to qualify for the "chunkster" challenge in September. Oh, and it's quite good.

Glad you're enjoying Ghost story -- and September's upon us! It's been here for a few hours where I live. :)

I haven't posted for a little while: my thread approaches the 250 mark, and I thought I'd wrap up both the thread and my 75 simultaneously. Happily, I close the thread with a trifecta of very good reading:

73) Ghost Story / Peter Straub

My edition is a volume in the "Stephen King Horror Library," and includes an introduction by King explaining what an important novel it is you're about to read.

I can see why King likes it. For one thing it's a very good story, atmospheric and carefully paced. But it also hits on some of King's favorite themes and motifs: a protean antagonist attacks a small-town community, and our heroes must confront their own secret past to prevail against it. It's all fleshed out very nicely, and recommended for anyone who enjoyed "'Salem's Lot" or "It" or "Needful Things."

74) Geek Love / Katherine Dunn

I am totally geeked out about "Geek Love." Carny manager Al Binewski and his wife, the chicken-biting geek Lily, are on the out phase of a down-and-out carnival, when Al hits on the idea of creating their own family of freaks:

The resourceful pair began experimenting with illicit and prescription drugs, insecticides, and eventually radioisotopes. My mother developed a complex dependency on various drugs during this process, but she didn't mind. Relying on Papa's ingenuity to keep her supplied, Lily seemed to view her addiction as a minor by-product of their creative collaboration.

Their "collaboration" results in an albino hunchbacked dwarf (our narrator), a fish-boy, Siamese twins, and a physically normal child with remarkable powers, not to mention numerous failed efforts which the family displays in jars for the paying public.

I first thought this would play out something like Tod Browning's "Freaks," a morality tale questioning who is the "freak" and who is "normal." But Katherine Dunn leads us down a different and darker path, where nature's physical deformities are nothing like the spiritual deformities we bestow on each other. Part Greek tragedy, part American grotesque. and part rock opera, it's mesmerizing and disturbing and very highly recommended, but definitely not for the squeamish.

75) Living with books / Helen Haines

This is a textbook on selecting books for public library collections, originally published in 1950 (this is the second edition).

Textbooks as a rule are tedious. Library Science textbooks are particularly odious. And of all the Library Science textbooks I've personally read, the one assigned to my Selection class was easily the worst.

How I wish my Selection textbook had been more like this. I found myself constantly reminded of Katherine Hepburn's librarian Bunny Watson in Desk Set. At the ring of her phone Bunny could name Santa's reindeer or recite Longfellow at length. She was intelligent, erudite, self-assured, articulate, authoritative and (let it be said) oh my goodness someone fetch the smelling salts totally smoking hot.

If Bunny Watson were a real person she might have been Helen Haines. Imagine a time when librarians were expected to be intimate with good books of every subject, genre and style. Imagine the very model of such librarianship inviting you to tour her carefully-cultivated collection. Imagine that she takes the time to show you what titles she has chosen and explain her reasons why. Okay, you have to step back to 1950 to do it, but here is your chance.

I challenge any booklover to read a single chapter from this without adding a dozen titles his/her TBR list. Personally, I gave up trying to keep a separate list of the interesting ones and just ordered my own copy of "Living with Books" from AbeBooks. I'll be dipping into this treasure chest for a long time.

Recommended for bibliophiles (though you'll probably want to skim), and highly recommended for librarians as a glimpse into our professional history.

Congrats! Ghost Story is one of my faves. What a great choice for winding up to 75.

Congratulations on reaching the 75 books mark, and with a book you really liked!

Thanks everyone for the congratulations, and the sparky-heeled Pac-Man makes it official.

New thread with title #76 is here.