feste_sylvain

I read slowly. Odds are, I will not achieve fifty (50) books by the end of 2008, especially as the one I still haven't finished is Neal Stephenson's System of the World; I still have around 200 pages to go on that, including the numerous epilogs.



Books in italics are the ones I'm currently reading, but have not finished yet. I will switch that to an underline, date when I completed it, and then add a microreview.

1. System of the World, Neal Stephenson: completed 1/26. For once, the esteemed Mr. Stephenson actually finished a story. While thick and crunchy, I did not feel that The Baroque Cycle needed to be shortened from its 3000 pages. High-brow early science and engineering, low-brow picaresque, and a large dollop of economic intrigue (not to mention the beginning of Abolition).
   
2. Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past, Ray Raphael: completed 4/9. Think of this as a companion to "Lies My Teacher Told Me", another critique of how American history is taught, this time focusing on the American Revolution. The author is an avowed leftist, but he's also enough of a scholar that his politics only show thru in the issues he choses for focus. For example, "Sam Adams" (who wasn't called "Sam" until a few decades after his death) was not exactly a rabble-rouser in his own time, but the British could not fathom that the democratic principles of the Massachusetts colony were truly widespread, so they looked for a "ringleader". Later, American historians would use the British arrest orders to bring in "the rebel leader" to paint Samuel Adams as a "founder of the revolt". This allowed a narrative to teach children about the founding of our country without instilling revolutionary traits. Fascinating reading, and I strongly recommend it. (BTW: Molly Pitcher never existed.)
   
3. The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, Catherynne M. Valente: completed 5/22. Gorgeous language, evocative imagery, deeply nested story-telling. I'm afraid that some of the stories themselves aren't all that compelling, but it's a credit to the author that it takes some reflection to figure that out. Oh yeah I'm reading the next book in the series.
   
4. The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell: completed 3/22. At first blush, this looks like "apply a catechism to your priest-teachers in a science fiction setting", but it's more than that. The characterization is excellent, the tests of faith are well-imagined, and the ultimate plot-point is one which does require a world which is not ours (but is perfectly plausible).
   
5. Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman: completed 4/8. This is a brief tale written for children, but with all the delightful imagery you expect from Neil Gaiman. And he sneaks in a valuable lesson on exit strategies in war-time.
   
6. P.J. O'Rourke on The Wealth of Nations, P.J. O'Rourke: completed 4/16 Oh yeah, like you've read all 900 pages of Adam Smith's definitive work on capitalism. And his previous book "Theory of Moral Sentiments", which is pretty much required if you're going to make sense of the better-known work. Well, P.J. read it for us, and explained what Smith got right, what he got wrong (usually in contradiction with his own self), and why it all still matters. Strongly recommended. The only real flaw is that P.J. makes many pop-culture references which will not stand up in five years.
   
7. The Philosopher's Diet: How to Lose Weight & Change the World, Richard Watson: completed 6/6. Succinct.
   
8. Young Miles, Lois McMaster Bujold: completed 8/26. This is actually a trilogy of "The Warrior's Apprentice", "The Mountains of Mourning", and "The Vor Game". The characterization is brilliant, the military aspects are believable, the science fiction is almost pasted on. Still, this is good light reading.
   
9. The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice, Catherynne M. Valente: completed 8/9. Beautiful. Beautiful construction, beautiful words, harsh stories, but a book I'll refer to when I need to get into a certain mind-space for writing.
   
10. World War Z, Max Brooks: completed 8/13. This is excellent. Yes, it's an oral history of the zombie apocalypse, but it manages to be a deconstruction of human foibles and a celebration of the human spirit. I strongly recommend this book.
    
11. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, Mary Pipher: completed 12/28. Dr. Pipher is a psychotherapist with a bit of an agenda, but she nonetheless provides valuable insight into the minds of adolescent girls. While she likes to blame "the culture", including MTV videos and pinball arcades (which was dated even when the book came out), the threats of violence to girls, the attitudes about sex (as illustrated by Bristol Palin, for example) and lashing out in general are explained quite well. A must for any parent of a teenage daughter or anyone who is reading "Twilight".
    
12. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis: completed 10/26. A Victorian comedy of manners, aesthetics, and time-travel. It's also a mystery, heavily dependent on the styles of the great British authors of the 1930s, but there's more than a passing references to Jeeves and Jerome K. Jerome. Most exquisitely executed.
    
13. Twilight, Stephanie Meyer
    
14. The Areas of My Expertise, John Hodgman: completed 11/29. A parody of an almanac, a literally absurd compendium of false facts, and the infamous list of 700 hobo names. Plus 100! Excellent for getting into a farcical frame of mind.