So of course I missed two books in my grand catch-up post of last week.
#15 Slaughterhouse - Five by Kurt Vonnegut
This is one of those books that everyone in my generation seems to have read in high school, yet somehow I didn't. I think for many it was assigned as a class read, but everyone I talked to seemed to really like the book. It seemed like it was probably past time for me to read this classic.
As promised, Slaughterhouse - Five is definitely a quick read. It's an interesting exploration of a type of time travel. I didn't fall in love with it but it's definitely a good book and deserves its status as a classic.
#16 The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
This was a reread. The first time I read it was in 1996 right after I saw the Marlon Brando & Val Kilmer movie adaptation. I was in high school and a lot of the Victorian terminology was confusing to me. Even so, I had a favorable memory of the read.
My reread was very quick and I certainly picked up on a great many more of the nuances. The Island of Dr. Moreau may be slightly more horror than it is science fiction, but it's still part of the cannon.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Catch-up #9-14
Four months ago, I think I mentioned that I was heading into a busy time. Well, I wasn't wrong. It was a good four months, but I am glad that they are over. My JV Basketball Boys took second place in the championship and I couldn't be prouder of them. It is with some small sadness that I close the chapter on "Basketball Coach," but realistically speaking I wasn't a very good one. Team sports were never my thing, even in high school. I learned a lot.
In other news, it looks like my husband and I will be expecting a little boy in June sometime. It is both exciting and intimidating at the same time and I think it is good that I'm working such a demanding job; it keeps me from brooding over much.
Against all odds, my Science Fiction Literature class made minimum enrollment so many of the forthcoming books and reviews will be classic sci-fi and rereads. Below is what I did manage to read during the busy times. It's possible that I've missed one or two but I believe this is correct.
9. The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block
Teenage werewolves. A girl going through all those fun changes in adolescence suddenly gets an additional one. It seems she's been cursed with lycanthropy because of a deep family secret. It was a fun quick YA read and many of my kids like this book, but it is not in my favorites of Block's
10. Medusa's Children by Bob Swan
Late 70's sci fi with an endorsement from Roger Zelanzny on the cover. I picked it up at the Book Nook on a whim based on the endorsement and the somewhat evocative cover art. There are a couple of really cool ideas in here. The book opens in a strange underwater community of humans, not mermaids mind, but humans who survive by capturing bubbles of air. Strange, I know. Apparently this environment is almost entirely free of gravity but there is one large current and it is getting stronger, dangerously so. Eventually the action ends up back on earth. Shaw plays with the ideas of cyclical climate change and the mutation of a protoplasmic organism free of gravitational forces. It's a pretty good story with only one flaw: Shaw shoehorned in a romance. Without the love story it's a great book. With the distraction of the love story the best I can say is that it's fun.
11. Watchstar by Pamela Sargent
Sargent has somehow hit my consciousness as someone I should read more of, so I picked this one out more or less randomly from what was available at the Book Nook sometime around mid-November. It was a very enjoyable read about a young woman, Daiya, who is coming of age in her community of telepaths. The coming of age rite of passage is dangerous and often fatal, so Daiya trains frequently out in the desert. On one of these forays, she comes across a stranger whose very existence is taboo and causes her to cut herself off from the minds of her village for the first time in her life.
12. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Both a re-read and a classic of proto-sci fi. Every time I read this I get up to the last chapter loving every minute, but that last chapter is a real slog. I think Stevenson probably had difficulty figuring out how to wrap up his story after the inevitable death of Jekyll/Hyde. It's a understandable problem; it's not like he had many examples to look at for inspiration. The best thing about this book will always be the core idea which is philosophical. Man is, at his core, a mixture of good and evil. If we could separate these two sides into different beings, would the good be better or would the evil simply get stronger.
13. The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace
Over the holidays, one of those fly-by-night stores opened selling remainder book stock. No advertising or publicity; it just appeared one day selling books at a deep discount. Apparently their first run was successful enough that they extended their stay and reduced their prices even further to $1 a book. The siren call reeled me in. . . of course. I left with over 60 books, mostly from authors I'd never heard of and this is one of them. This was a lucky find.
The protagonist is a young women who, just before her marriage, realizes she is going blind. No one around her believes her, though, except for her childhood friend, the embarrassingly eccentric inventor next door who incidentally is in love with her and is unfortunately married to someone else. The story tracks her experience descending into and coping with her blindness, her escape into the world of dreams where she can still see, and the inevitable affair with her childhood friend. It's a great story: sad, but beautiful as well. I wasn't particularly in love with the ending, but I can't come up with a better one, and frankly this is one of those books where the end doesn't really matter. It's the journey that matters.
14. Journal of the Dead by Jason Kersten
Another giant book sale gamble. I don't read a lot of true crime books, but the blurb on the back did a good job selling it. Kersten follows the 1999 case where Kodikian stabs to death his best friend Coughlin during a disastrous camping trip in the National Park around the Carlsbad Caverns. What was supposed to be an overnight stop turned into a four day nightmare when the friends couldn't find the exit trail out. According to Kodikian's story, after several days in the searing desert without any water, the painful aspects of moderate to severe dehydration and the certainty that death was inevitable combined in Coughlin's mind when he asked his best friend to kill him, which Kodikian did. Soon afterwards, rangers rescue Kodikian who is, under the definition of New Mexico law, a murderer.
Kersten does a good job of following the particulars of the event and resulting trial while providing the right amount of back story. While he appears sympathetic to Kodikian, Kersten maintains a sense of objectivity and it is well written book.
In other news, it looks like my husband and I will be expecting a little boy in June sometime. It is both exciting and intimidating at the same time and I think it is good that I'm working such a demanding job; it keeps me from brooding over much.
Against all odds, my Science Fiction Literature class made minimum enrollment so many of the forthcoming books and reviews will be classic sci-fi and rereads. Below is what I did manage to read during the busy times. It's possible that I've missed one or two but I believe this is correct.
9. The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block
Teenage werewolves. A girl going through all those fun changes in adolescence suddenly gets an additional one. It seems she's been cursed with lycanthropy because of a deep family secret. It was a fun quick YA read and many of my kids like this book, but it is not in my favorites of Block's
10. Medusa's Children by Bob Swan
Late 70's sci fi with an endorsement from Roger Zelanzny on the cover. I picked it up at the Book Nook on a whim based on the endorsement and the somewhat evocative cover art. There are a couple of really cool ideas in here. The book opens in a strange underwater community of humans, not mermaids mind, but humans who survive by capturing bubbles of air. Strange, I know. Apparently this environment is almost entirely free of gravity but there is one large current and it is getting stronger, dangerously so. Eventually the action ends up back on earth. Shaw plays with the ideas of cyclical climate change and the mutation of a protoplasmic organism free of gravitational forces. It's a pretty good story with only one flaw: Shaw shoehorned in a romance. Without the love story it's a great book. With the distraction of the love story the best I can say is that it's fun.
11. Watchstar by Pamela Sargent
Sargent has somehow hit my consciousness as someone I should read more of, so I picked this one out more or less randomly from what was available at the Book Nook sometime around mid-November. It was a very enjoyable read about a young woman, Daiya, who is coming of age in her community of telepaths. The coming of age rite of passage is dangerous and often fatal, so Daiya trains frequently out in the desert. On one of these forays, she comes across a stranger whose very existence is taboo and causes her to cut herself off from the minds of her village for the first time in her life.
12. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Both a re-read and a classic of proto-sci fi. Every time I read this I get up to the last chapter loving every minute, but that last chapter is a real slog. I think Stevenson probably had difficulty figuring out how to wrap up his story after the inevitable death of Jekyll/Hyde. It's a understandable problem; it's not like he had many examples to look at for inspiration. The best thing about this book will always be the core idea which is philosophical. Man is, at his core, a mixture of good and evil. If we could separate these two sides into different beings, would the good be better or would the evil simply get stronger.
13. The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace
Over the holidays, one of those fly-by-night stores opened selling remainder book stock. No advertising or publicity; it just appeared one day selling books at a deep discount. Apparently their first run was successful enough that they extended their stay and reduced their prices even further to $1 a book. The siren call reeled me in. . . of course. I left with over 60 books, mostly from authors I'd never heard of and this is one of them. This was a lucky find.
The protagonist is a young women who, just before her marriage, realizes she is going blind. No one around her believes her, though, except for her childhood friend, the embarrassingly eccentric inventor next door who incidentally is in love with her and is unfortunately married to someone else. The story tracks her experience descending into and coping with her blindness, her escape into the world of dreams where she can still see, and the inevitable affair with her childhood friend. It's a great story: sad, but beautiful as well. I wasn't particularly in love with the ending, but I can't come up with a better one, and frankly this is one of those books where the end doesn't really matter. It's the journey that matters.
14. Journal of the Dead by Jason Kersten
Another giant book sale gamble. I don't read a lot of true crime books, but the blurb on the back did a good job selling it. Kersten follows the 1999 case where Kodikian stabs to death his best friend Coughlin during a disastrous camping trip in the National Park around the Carlsbad Caverns. What was supposed to be an overnight stop turned into a four day nightmare when the friends couldn't find the exit trail out. According to Kodikian's story, after several days in the searing desert without any water, the painful aspects of moderate to severe dehydration and the certainty that death was inevitable combined in Coughlin's mind when he asked his best friend to kill him, which Kodikian did. Soon afterwards, rangers rescue Kodikian who is, under the definition of New Mexico law, a murderer.
Kersten does a good job of following the particulars of the event and resulting trial while providing the right amount of back story. While he appears sympathetic to Kodikian, Kersten maintains a sense of objectivity and it is well written book.
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