Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

September 20, 2012

Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes by Jamey Heit

Filed under: Humor,Philosophy,Technical — Randolph @ 8:02 pm

Imagination and Meaning in Calvin and Hobbes by Jamey Heit

This book is an analysis of the Calivin and Hobbes comic strip through the eyes of philosophy. In some ways it reminds me of the popular culture and philosophy series, but here the focus is on building a better understanding the comic rather than philosophy, philosophy is the tool for the understanding.

At first glance, the book does remind me of more traditional philosophy books. It has a smaller font, dense pages with few breaks, and a serious list of footnotes. On starting to read it the same impression continued, high information density and heavy at times. Sometimes it became difficult to follow, but the focus on the comic brought recurring themes of humor.

Difficult as it may have been, I never considered giving up. The book reveals a lot of information about the comics, calling on specific themes and even individual strips to support its arguments. While reading the book, I gained insights in to the strips, and a great desire to reread the series with my new understanding.

Watterson drew heavily on philosophers for his inspiration, from the very name of the strip and characters. The book discusses themes and how they relate to philosophy, from flying dinosaurs, Spaceman Spiff, Calvin as god of his snow creatures, and Hobbes appears real to the reader so long as an adult isn’t in the strip.

My two issues with the book is that I would have liked some comics included to help break up the book’s text, and having just finished it, I’m already having trouble remembering many portions of it due to its heavy content.

I do recommend the book for anyone who has enjoyed the comic and has any interest in philosophy. I’m going to reread the comics, and my try tacking the book for a second time, some day…

August 30, 2012

Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

Filed under: Humor,Mystery,Series — Tags: — Randolph @ 8:00 pm

Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

The Spellmans are back in their typical dysfunctional way. D (Demetrius Merriweather), an ex-con introduced in Document #4, has joined the crew. We are also introduced to Sydney Spellman, David’s daughter, who seems to have her own neurotic association with bananas. Rae is sitting in trees. And Grammy Spellman is coming to live with the family, if only someone could get along with her.

Investigations are starting to interfere with each other, they have to introduce a Chinese Wall. And then someone in the family will have to defeat it. There is a real shake-up brewing in the Spellman home.

Investigations introduce a neurotic mathematician, someone broke into his home and made toast. Then there’s the family who want to investigate their daughter, and another man who just wants to be followed. A wife who wants to have her husband followed, and whose brother wants her followed.

Naturally, Izzy has to cross everyone she meets, pushing her own luck with the company. She is still seeing ex-boyfriend #13, but for how long?

This book answers a lot of questions:
* Why doesn’t David seek revenge on his sister, Rae?
* Has D been dating a single woman in secret?
* Have D and Grammy Spellman founded a friendship, or a conspiracy?
* Who broke into the mathematician’s house to make toast and do other forms of sabotage?
* How can they get rid of Grammy?

Just in case everything might become reasonable in the Spellmans home, they introduced nicknames. But there is little risk of functionality in this family.

August 26, 2012

The Art of Reading by Timothy Spurgin

Filed under: Literature — Randolph @ 8:55 am

The Art of Reading by Timothy Spurgin

The Art of Reading is a lectures series from Great Courses. The author is an English professor at Lawrence University.

The series discusses how to get more out of a book. It is divided into two parts, the first half examines different aspects of literature and compares works with different styles. The second half looks at works of literature using the techniques from the first half to offer more insight into the works.

The author discusses styles of narration, descriptions, and the use of plot devices to develop the story. He provides clues to recognize different styles and compares works using these styles. He does the same for plot and characters. He discusses the role of the author and his relationship to the narrator and how to “preread” a book to prepare for the reading.

Most of the second half of the book discusses specific works of fiction and how to analyze them using the provided tools. He also discusses related items such as how a book is translated into a movie and why they differ so much, as well as dialog, the use of irony, and rhythm.

I found the series enjoyable and enlightening. Maybe I can get a little more out of reading in the future.

July 20, 2012

Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes

Filed under: Fantasy — Randolph @ 9:03 am

Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes

This is a book about voodoo, a hanged man, a magic gun, and zombies. On the cover, the author is compared favorably to Stephen King, and to top it off, the story takes place in Oregon, in Astoria and Portland. It sounds like it could be fun.

The back cover was probably the best part.

The characters are all fairly shallow and single-minded. They don’t have any hang-ups or flaws. Then the minor characters seem to be in place to help move the plot along, at times providing much more information and help than seems reasonable for their characters.

Not quite half-way through the book, the author decided to provide some background information on the characters. The stories were very terse, provided new skills, didn’t fit the characters, and weren’t substantiated. For instance, the marshall’s son-in-law who owns a bookstore and runs a special investigation service started out as a horse thief. The marshall turns out to be a Nez Perce indian with special abilities not mentioned previously.

When the zombies did arrive, the author didn’t build suspense or intrigue. He didn’t even have the token character there to be overwhelmed or scared off. They just appeared.

The author did have some good ideas, he just doesn’t have the skill to tell the story. This is one of very few books that I won’t finish.

June 20, 2012

The Wizard of Oz and Philosophy edited by Randall E. Auxier and Phil Seng

Filed under: Philosophy — Randolph @ 4:51 pm

The Wizard of Oz and Philosophy edited by Randall E. Auxier and Phil Seng

This series is a lot of fun. It feels light, yet gets into some important philosophical topics, using the stories of The Wizard of Oz as a mechanism to drive the discussion.

The book covers the movie, touching on some of the earlier versions, the original series of books, the books by Gregory Maguire, and a couple of plays. The authors also touch on Rushdie’s analysis of Oz. The focus is on the 1939 movie, the first two or three books of Baum’s series, and Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

Several philosophers provide short discussions on different topics touched on, intentionally or not, by the different versions of the Wizard of Oz. These include the nature of evil, the value of home and what it means, feminism, morals, slavery, and more. Phillip Seng discusses the relationship between the Pink Floyd soundtrack and its relationship to the movie, and discusses some basic probability with it.

The discussions are very interesting. They are admittedly light, as entire books can be found on most of these subjects, but they provide good food for thought and a solid basis to build on.

June 8, 2012

What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been by Various, Edited by Robert Cowley

Filed under: Fantasy,History — Randolph @ 8:58 pm

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

I was a bit disappointed in this collection, but it was mostly a personal taste. Some of the writers’ styles were not to my liking. But several of the stories seemed to fall short of their promise, focusing more on the history around their chosen event and just suggestions of alternate sequences of events. The history of the potato was very interesting and the author raised some real question about what could have happened if any of a number of events had varied, but he did not write any real alternate stories. I felt this story didn’t deliver what the book promised.

Some of the stories worked very well, exploring Churchill’s politics and his influence on WWII.

Overall, I suspect the scope of speculative fiction doesn’t work well with the short story format.

May 29, 2012

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Filed under: Uncategorized — Randolph @ 9:03 pm

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

My impression of this book seems to improve with age. Susan Cain presents a new perspective in introversion and its place in society. The book seems aimed at parents and teachers, but has enough information of general interest and value to be a good read for anyone interested in these aspects of psychology or sociology.

The book presents the strengths and weaknesses of both introversion and extroversion and why both are of value to society. I found the section on leadership styles and strengths and weaknesses very interesting. Susan continues to touch on why corporate America overvalues the extrovert and the value to business of the introvert and on the relationship between the two personality styles.

More of the book was directed more toward parents and teachers dealing with introverted children than I liked, or I would have rated the book much better. These sections were still interesting, but much less relevant.

This book is a good read for anyone, but it could have been better.

May 14, 2012

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand: A Novel by Helen Simonson

Filed under: Fiction,Humor — Randolph @ 11:24 am

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel by Helen Simonson

This book is the story of Major ernest Pettigrew, retired. It is set in contemporary England. The Major is a bit stuffy, everything has to be proper and just so. The book has a lot of subtle (to an American) British humor scattered throughout in the situations the Major encounters and his prim and proper reactions to them.

The Major is a bit materialistic, especially when it comes to a pair of guns, a pair of Churchills. These were given to his father for an account of bravery. These were split on his father’s death. one going to each of his sons. The Major wishes to mount them so he can impress people of higher status than himself.

The book opens with the brother’s death, now the second gun comes back to the Major and the two are reunited. The death leads the Major to come acquainted with Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani and owner of a grocery.

The relationship between Jasmina and the Major grows through the book, blossoming into a romantic relationship.

The two guns seem to be symbolic of the Majors own emotional state, or perhaps his relationship to Jasmina. Early in the book, the one acquired from his brother is poorly maintained, as is the Major. He takes to cleaning it, and his own state improves as his relationship to Jasmina develops. The loss of the second gun seems to occur as the relationship solidifies, suggesting the two would be united.

the story explores some predjudism through the relationship between the Major and Jasmina.

The Major’s son also plays prominently in the book. He is a bit rude and lacks the refinement of the Major. The Major admonishes the son for characteristics that he does not see in himself.

Although reasonably well written, I found the book difficult to get into. It took half the book before I found the Major likable and was able to appreciate the humor in the book. I don’t regret the time reading the book, but I think I would have enjoyed others more.

April 23, 2012

The Lacuna: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver

Filed under: Fiction — Randolph @ 2:13 pm

The Lacuna: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver

From Wiktionary.org:
 From Latin lacūna (“ditch, gap”), diminutive form of lacus (“lake”).

Noun
lacuna (plural lacunae or lacunas)
1 A small opening; a small pit or depression; a small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
2 An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar.
3 (microscopy) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
4 (linguistics) A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language

The story is about a writer by the name of Harrison Shepherd, and how he experiences history. He has an American father and a Mexican mother, the first portion of the book takes place in Mexico. His first “lacuna” is the discovery of a cave off the coast that leads to some bones, it hints at an early interest in Aztec history. His first experience with history happens when he has an opportunity to mix plaster for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. He becomes a cook for Trotsky, here he encounters the Russian Revolution and relates that to the reader through the eyes of Trotsky.

Frida sends him to the US to escort some paintings. Here he finds his father. Through Harrison’s eyes, we see the wars, politics, and finally McCarthyism.

The book is told in vignettes, mostly part of Harrison’s diary. some of these stories are good, some are not. They are glued together by general references to events in his past, but this breaks up the flow of the book. It didn’t have the feel of a real diary. Although the books span a lot of the 20th century, but the style doesn’t change with Harrison’s learning, age, or stresses in his life.

My summary demonstrates my feelings about the book. Harrison is a passenger through history and a storyteller. Nothing more. He doesn’t seem to make his own decisions, the events happen to him and he reacts, little more. I did find some of his experiences as a writer to be of interest, and his tribulations in the McCarthy period.

I don’t understand the vast interest in this book. It is well written, but not interesting enough for me to recommend.

April 9, 2012

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

Filed under: Fiction,Mystery — Tags: — Randolph @ 8:23 pm

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

This is the 22nd book in the Kinsey Millhone Mysteries. The books are holding up, but the setting is lagging behind real time. The book mostly takes place in 1988, starting for Kinsey when she notices a small-time shoplifter. In the typical Grafton style, Kinsey gets wrapped up in the events and must look into things. The shoplifting leads her into a big-time racketeering ring.

I have two complaints about the book, first is that Sue Grafton is moving the series away from traditional mysteries. Starting with the previous book, U is for Undertow, it seems to be moving more toward adventure, as the reader knows so much more about the crime than Kinsey does. The book wanders through three different plots that ultimately intertwine. But the reader cannot play detective and try to solve it as Kinsey does.

The second issue is that Kinsey neglected to check surveillance tapes from the scene of the initial shoplifting. Although she had reason not to be interested in them initially, events changed and she seemed to forget about them for too long. It was a plot device to help build suspense, but in my opinion, was inappropriate. This did not detract from the enjoyment of the book.

Overall, it is an enjoyable book and left me looking forward to the next installment.

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