Recently Read - 31st July 2007

Here's a list of the books I've recently read, with an Amazon-style star rating and a few comments.

• Lean Mean Thirteen - Janet Evanovich
  Same ol' same ol'. If you've liked the previous twelve books in this series, then you will be entertained by this one. If you are looking for character development or conflict resolution, then you'll be disappointed.

• Broken Angels - Richard K. Morgan
  
• Woken Furies - Richard K. Morgan
  Two more SF novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs -- private eye, soldier of fortune and all-purpose anti-hero -- into the body-swapping, hard-boiled urban jungle of the future. All three Kovacs novels have been different. Excellent character development in a gritty style that leaves you emotionally drained by the end of each book.

• The Stupidest Angel - Christopher Moore

• M is for Magic - Neil Gaiman
  Similar in format (and name) to Bradbury's R is for Rocket and S Is for Space, this is an excellent collection for (young) adults of several of Gaiman's short stories.

• Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
  Another mainstream vintage piece of fiction from Vonnegut.

• Getting Even - Woody Allen
• Side Effects - Woody Allen
• Without Feathers - Woody Allen
  The first three collections of humerous essays by Allen. A mixed bunch. Full of non-sequenteurs that sometimes really work and are funny and at other times turn the story into nonsense. The one about great impressionist art in the form of dentistry has to be my favorite.

• The Crucible - Arthur Miller
  A classic play written in 1953, inspired by the Salem Witchcraft trials near the end of the 17th century, but really was a metaphor for McCarthyism, and as the Wikipedia entry states, it suggests that the process of McCarthyism-style persecution can occur at any time or place.

  From the Salem witchcraft trials commentary:

  "The witches disappeared, but witchhunting in America did not. Each generation must learn the lessons of history or risk repeating its mistakes. Salem should warn us to think hard about how to best safeguard and improve our system of justice."

• Plato And A Platypus Walk Into A Bar - Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein
  Using jokes to explain philosophy. It started off really well (and very funny), then the number of jokes started to outnumber the philosophy explanations. And it's already a thin book. Save some money and check it out of the library.

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
  No spoilers here. Not much of a review either. If you want a review, read one of the 967 (and counting) that are currently available on the Amazon web page. All I'd say is that I thoughly enjoyed it and was very happy with the way that Rowling finished the series.

• A Saki Sampler - H. H. Munro
  A 25c impulse purchase from the last library book sale. Humor from the turn of the last century. A master story teller. 24 short funny stories, some with a last paragraph or sentence that was so completely unexpected that I just thought "wow!" I'm now looking out for The Complete Saki so I can read the rest of his stories.

• The Last Laugh - S. J. Perelman
  Somebody, I forget who, told me that if I liked the way that Dave Barry and Bill Bryson wrote humorous prose, then I'd also like S. J. Perelman. And they were right. I found this book at 50c in the bargain room at the last Palo Alto library book sale. It's his last published work. The first part contains several of his final stories and the second part is four chapters of his autobiograpghy.

• The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
  Now here is an author that can make me laugh out loud. The first "Nursery Crime" novel. His word play is wonderful. Helps to know your nursery rhymes though (and some greek mythology).

Four more books from the ROTFL list.

• Suds in Your Eye - Mary Lasswell
  I enjoyed this, but found everybody (apart from the lawyer) to just be too nice and things just always seemed to work out just right. It was written during WWII, so it might just be that it was done this way to boost spirits. I'll still look for the followups at library book sales as the three women who lived in the junkyard were interesting characters.

• Smoke - Donald E. Westlake
  I'm starting to flag on Westlake books. Another invisible man story, but I just didn't find it that funny and he could have done so much more with it (or rather, other people have already done so much more with this idea).

• Krippendorf's Tribe - Frank Parkin
  I almost didn't bother to start this one, when I saw it compared to Confederacy of Dunces, an award winner which I truly hated. But I persevered and ended up really liking it.

• The Boyfriend School - Sarah Bird
  A mainstream romances novel that's sort of a meta-romance novel. Its plot deconstructs the atypical romance novel, then solid repeats it and make fun of it at the same time. I'm definitely jaded with the humor in these types of books. No uncontrolled fits of laughing. No burst of giggles. Just the occasional smile. Others (especially romance novel readers) will probably find this book very funny indeed. Note that the author has written romance novels herself under the pen name of Tory Cates, so she knows what she's writing about.

  There is also a film based on the book, which, from the plot outline, seems to spoof itself. The occupation of the main male character was not appropriate enough, so it's been changed from computer programmer to cartoonist (yes, I thought of him too. Hi Scott!). The stories main character now seems to be the sister trying to do the match making rather than the struggling photo-journalist (who now is a reporter). I think I'll give the film a miss.

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( Jul 31 2007, 07:23:19 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink