Subliminal
Leonard Mlodinow
ISBN: 978-0307-378217
Pantheon, 2012
You really ought to see the jacket design for this book. It's frankly brilliant, and I laughed out loud when it arrived. On a bright green cover (people are reassured and made comfortable by green) is a nice blocky text stating the title, subtitle, and author. Just barely noticeable is the counterprinted slightly glossy text complimenting you (people are more likely to listen and conform after being complimented) and instructing you to buy! On the inside flaps and reverse, tis a bit more blatant, with huge BUY BUY BUY instructions marching down the pages in that blink and you miss it printing.
Once you get inside, the book continues to be entertaining (which is good, because frankly, the information presented therein is depressing as hell as it relates to our ability to rationally or logically select our governing bodies or who we believe... ) as Mlodinow draws you in through studies and brain imaging and more studies and surveys and polls and even more studies to show that really - we don't actually decide much of anything at all. In fact, we're really kept pretty busy just deciding on the made-up reasons to justify why we already decided things that we didn't know we decided, but we did, so obviously we must be right, and we need a good persuasive reason for it.
Sigh. Other than unseating my tiny spark of hope that someday humanity would become at least reasonably logical and rational, this was a truly amazing book. Read and be astounded!
Monday, June 4, 2012
A Jane Austen Education, William Deresiewicz
A Jane Austen Education
William Deresiewicz
ISBN: 978-159420-2889
Penguin Press, 2011
I have a complicated relationship with Jane Austen. As a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic with a serious pragmatic streak, I have difficulties with the Austen/Bronte dichotomy that popular culture and academic culture alike have deemed insurmountable. I really like Jane Eyre, I really do. And I hate Wuthering Heights with a burning passion. I also think that Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park are quite lovely, and I still wish that I could get my hours back from Emma and Persuasion.
Therefore I feel a little unsuited to review this (at times uncomfortably obsessive) tribute to Austen and her ability to use her novels as object lessons to teach people how to be decent human beings. (I also question the parenting involved that leaves someone in their post-graduate work to realize that they are being schooled in how to be decent human beings.)
Our boy Will apparently grew up under a rock, or had his head so far up his nether regions as a child and young adult that I find it hard to believe that he had any long-term friends at all. Once he made the acquaintance of the delightful Ms Austen's writings, he began to slowly work his way intellectually into the social niceties of not being a self-absorbed twit.
Over the course of a review of the six main Austen works (likely much cross-pollinated with his graduate thesis and subsequent publication on roughly the same topic) Will realizes that Austen was purposefully creating main characters with character flaws, so that the reader would be tricked into identifying with them, and then subsequently shamed by their close identification when the character realizes their lapses (or not, as the case may be) and suffers the obvious consequences.
Perhaps I was read too many moralizing tales as an impressionable child, but I really do have to wonder how someone gets to be an adult without realizing much of what Will seems to attribute directly to the near-divine wisdom imparted by Austen's pen. Perhaps our social circles are simply very different.
In any case, while the rhapsodizing gets a little overwhelming at times, the voice is charming and self-deprecating enough that one doesn't quite want to hit him over the head (I did say quite), and the flow is very well handled between episodes of Austenia and episodes of the ongoing Will learns to be a decent person show.
If you're short on time, or have little patience for obsessive devotion, the back jacket will tide you over quite nicely with short paragraphs of the "point" of each of the novels according to our now totally humanized guide.
William Deresiewicz
ISBN: 978-159420-2889
Penguin Press, 2011
I have a complicated relationship with Jane Austen. As a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic with a serious pragmatic streak, I have difficulties with the Austen/Bronte dichotomy that popular culture and academic culture alike have deemed insurmountable. I really like Jane Eyre, I really do. And I hate Wuthering Heights with a burning passion. I also think that Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park are quite lovely, and I still wish that I could get my hours back from Emma and Persuasion.
Therefore I feel a little unsuited to review this (at times uncomfortably obsessive) tribute to Austen and her ability to use her novels as object lessons to teach people how to be decent human beings. (I also question the parenting involved that leaves someone in their post-graduate work to realize that they are being schooled in how to be decent human beings.)
Our boy Will apparently grew up under a rock, or had his head so far up his nether regions as a child and young adult that I find it hard to believe that he had any long-term friends at all. Once he made the acquaintance of the delightful Ms Austen's writings, he began to slowly work his way intellectually into the social niceties of not being a self-absorbed twit.
Over the course of a review of the six main Austen works (likely much cross-pollinated with his graduate thesis and subsequent publication on roughly the same topic) Will realizes that Austen was purposefully creating main characters with character flaws, so that the reader would be tricked into identifying with them, and then subsequently shamed by their close identification when the character realizes their lapses (or not, as the case may be) and suffers the obvious consequences.
Perhaps I was read too many moralizing tales as an impressionable child, but I really do have to wonder how someone gets to be an adult without realizing much of what Will seems to attribute directly to the near-divine wisdom imparted by Austen's pen. Perhaps our social circles are simply very different.
In any case, while the rhapsodizing gets a little overwhelming at times, the voice is charming and self-deprecating enough that one doesn't quite want to hit him over the head (I did say quite), and the flow is very well handled between episodes of Austenia and episodes of the ongoing Will learns to be a decent person show.
If you're short on time, or have little patience for obsessive devotion, the back jacket will tide you over quite nicely with short paragraphs of the "point" of each of the novels according to our now totally humanized guide.
The Humming Room, Ellen Potter
The Humming Room
Ellen Potter
ISBN: 978-0312-644383
Feiwel and Friends, 2012
What an interesting book this was. Way too short for my tastes.
Potter has taken the bare bones of the Secret Garden, transferred them to modern times in Upstate New York, and slimmed the story down to a tight 182 pages.
I have to say that her version is quite fun (an old sanitarium is the house, the garden is a central greenhouse surrounded by the interior rounded wall of the building, Dickon has become a wild child called the Faigne, and sallow Mary has been transformed into shifty magpie Roo) but I really do wish that it were a YA or adult book instead of Juvie. I can't imagine this story having quite so much resonance for an audience not familiar with The Secret Garden itself, but that story is a beast, clocking in at over 350 pages.
So I'm left with a bit of a twinge, because while I really enjoyed this interpretation, I have to say that it really doesn't quite have an audience. I don't think it's quite captivating enough on it's own merits to incite readers to tackle The Secret Garden, which is both old and huge, and I really don't think that anyone will find this more than a tantalizing tease of a mouthfull after they've devoured all of the rich details and fine storycrafting of The Secret Garden.
So... I really don't know what to say. Perhaps a lush graphic novel (similar to the work Young Kim did with the Twilight graphic novels) to embrace the setting and character changes and make the brevity a virtue?
In all actuality, I would suggest to the author that she consider an adult adaptation - the exact reverse of what Patterson did with The Lake House and the subsequent Maximum Ride series. This tiny little book has such an interesting quality to it, and I really think that many grown-up readers who are nostalgic for The Secret Garden would quite enjoy a really intense and deeply realized re-tread. There are moments here which feel very similar to the breathlessly magical impact of the Night Circus, but they're all just tiny little snatches, and then you're whisked along again.
Ellen Potter
ISBN: 978-0312-644383
Feiwel and Friends, 2012
What an interesting book this was. Way too short for my tastes.
Potter has taken the bare bones of the Secret Garden, transferred them to modern times in Upstate New York, and slimmed the story down to a tight 182 pages.
I have to say that her version is quite fun (an old sanitarium is the house, the garden is a central greenhouse surrounded by the interior rounded wall of the building, Dickon has become a wild child called the Faigne, and sallow Mary has been transformed into shifty magpie Roo) but I really do wish that it were a YA or adult book instead of Juvie. I can't imagine this story having quite so much resonance for an audience not familiar with The Secret Garden itself, but that story is a beast, clocking in at over 350 pages.
So I'm left with a bit of a twinge, because while I really enjoyed this interpretation, I have to say that it really doesn't quite have an audience. I don't think it's quite captivating enough on it's own merits to incite readers to tackle The Secret Garden, which is both old and huge, and I really don't think that anyone will find this more than a tantalizing tease of a mouthfull after they've devoured all of the rich details and fine storycrafting of The Secret Garden.
So... I really don't know what to say. Perhaps a lush graphic novel (similar to the work Young Kim did with the Twilight graphic novels) to embrace the setting and character changes and make the brevity a virtue?
In all actuality, I would suggest to the author that she consider an adult adaptation - the exact reverse of what Patterson did with The Lake House and the subsequent Maximum Ride series. This tiny little book has such an interesting quality to it, and I really think that many grown-up readers who are nostalgic for The Secret Garden would quite enjoy a really intense and deeply realized re-tread. There are moments here which feel very similar to the breathlessly magical impact of the Night Circus, but they're all just tiny little snatches, and then you're whisked along again.
Spell Bound, Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall #3)
Spell Bound
Rachel Hawkins
ISBN: 978-1423121329
Hyperion 2012
A solid conclusion to an overall quite decent YA girl-power thriller-urban fantasy trilogy.
Sophie Mercer first thought she was a witch, then she found out she was a demon, then she got wrapped up in an ancient blood-feud turned politial coup which left her friends possibly dead, and her father forcibly bereft of his own awesome powers. Now she's on the run, alone, and powerless.
Yay fun!
Rachel Hawkins has a style very similar to that of the Gallagher Girls books, and Sophie herself has that almost Clueless meets Buffy style of breezily taking in horrible news and immediately using sarcasm or wisecracks to take the edge off. I like it.
This final installment brings the trilogy nicely around full-circle, although I do wish that the last third of the book had been about two or maybe three times as long. I really felt that some of the desired impact and emotional intensity were lost through compression. Not to say that it was badly done, just that I felt that there was a lot more potential to be drawn out of that final stretch, and it is a shame to have let it go to waste.
However, a good series all the way through is hard to find, and this one was very enjoyable!
Rachel Hawkins
ISBN: 978-1423121329
Hyperion 2012
A solid conclusion to an overall quite decent YA girl-power thriller-urban fantasy trilogy.
Sophie Mercer first thought she was a witch, then she found out she was a demon, then she got wrapped up in an ancient blood-feud turned politial coup which left her friends possibly dead, and her father forcibly bereft of his own awesome powers. Now she's on the run, alone, and powerless.
Yay fun!
Rachel Hawkins has a style very similar to that of the Gallagher Girls books, and Sophie herself has that almost Clueless meets Buffy style of breezily taking in horrible news and immediately using sarcasm or wisecracks to take the edge off. I like it.
This final installment brings the trilogy nicely around full-circle, although I do wish that the last third of the book had been about two or maybe three times as long. I really felt that some of the desired impact and emotional intensity were lost through compression. Not to say that it was badly done, just that I felt that there was a lot more potential to be drawn out of that final stretch, and it is a shame to have let it go to waste.
However, a good series all the way through is hard to find, and this one was very enjoyable!
The Sword of the Land, Noel-Anne Brennan
Ran across this at the 25-cent table at Goodwill, and was struck by the cover - a young woman with short dark brown hair, and what looks to be a shaggy puma sprouting from the side of her head.
Despite certain issues in composition, I was struck by the hope that this story would include big cats (it does) and that it would have a heroine who wasn't a Rapunzel body-double (it did).
Rilsin (who my brain keeps insisting should be Rislin) Sae Becha is the heir presumptive, until a bloody coup leaves her family dead, and she only lives due to the effection of her elder cousin Sithli (may I note here that creating a character who is named SITH is perhaps not the wisest choice when trying to create nuance and ambiguity about the relative evilness of said character, but I digress).
Rilsin accepts that life changes, becomes her cousin's Sword (essentially Prime Minister and Commander in Chief rolled into one), and sits around moping while her bipolar cousin runs the kingom into the ground through graft, arrant stupidity, slave trading, and also the decay of a fleetingly-explored magical connection that the land should have to the ruler, and Sithli doesn't have.
After a bad marriage, a few wars, an alliance, and a magical transformation in a grotto with candles (no, I'm not kidding) Rilsin finally gets on with it, and thus ends the book in a solid tear of action to make up for the first three-quarters.
Now, that review sounds really harsh, and on the face of it - yeah, kindof. There are sequels, but I'm not really interested enough to hunt them down, which says a lot about how invested I am.
That said, it was an enjoyable light read, and while the story plodded in a lot of ways, there were always interesting characters and dynamics going on, even if there wasn't much action. In addition, the world was very well realized, with an interesting dynastic structure of squabbling family Houses and a gender-equal society where no one ever comments on how marvelous their gender-equal society is.
Plus there were hunting cats, which are always worth a few extra credit points in my book. :)
Despite certain issues in composition, I was struck by the hope that this story would include big cats (it does) and that it would have a heroine who wasn't a Rapunzel body-double (it did).
Rilsin (who my brain keeps insisting should be Rislin) Sae Becha is the heir presumptive, until a bloody coup leaves her family dead, and she only lives due to the effection of her elder cousin Sithli (may I note here that creating a character who is named SITH is perhaps not the wisest choice when trying to create nuance and ambiguity about the relative evilness of said character, but I digress).
Rilsin accepts that life changes, becomes her cousin's Sword (essentially Prime Minister and Commander in Chief rolled into one), and sits around moping while her bipolar cousin runs the kingom into the ground through graft, arrant stupidity, slave trading, and also the decay of a fleetingly-explored magical connection that the land should have to the ruler, and Sithli doesn't have.
After a bad marriage, a few wars, an alliance, and a magical transformation in a grotto with candles (no, I'm not kidding) Rilsin finally gets on with it, and thus ends the book in a solid tear of action to make up for the first three-quarters.
Now, that review sounds really harsh, and on the face of it - yeah, kindof. There are sequels, but I'm not really interested enough to hunt them down, which says a lot about how invested I am.
That said, it was an enjoyable light read, and while the story plodded in a lot of ways, there were always interesting characters and dynamics going on, even if there wasn't much action. In addition, the world was very well realized, with an interesting dynastic structure of squabbling family Houses and a gender-equal society where no one ever comments on how marvelous their gender-equal society is.
Plus there were hunting cats, which are always worth a few extra credit points in my book. :)
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