Recently Read Book

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Previously, I gave “The Kite Runner” 4.5 zombie heads. That was a good story. Heartbreak, regret, redemption. This one? Meh.

It’s a brief history of modern-day Afghanistan featuring people beating the shit out of each other, either physically or emotionally. The first 80% builds the characters and relationships pretty well, even if it’s difficult (for me) to relate to them. Then, it’s as if Hosseini discovered he didn’t know what to do with them, so he rushes through the remaining 20% tying up the loose ends he’s created. There’s no “emotional reward” for the reader; it’s *bing* this happens, *bam* here’s an effortless concept, *boom* you’re done… buy my next one, too.

Skip it.

Recently Read Book

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

976 pages of 12th century England. Sound like a snorer? It’s not. Looking for historical accuracy and/or a more reliable dissertation on the political discord between the church and ruling class? Look elsewhere… this book is fictional, and makes no claim to the contrary (fucking snobby-ass Amazon nerds). I’ve never read Follett before, so I can’t make any comparisons to his other works. This one is a good read, though, and it surely doesn’t feel like it’s almost a thousand pages. I can’t say the same about Cryptonomicon, despite it being one of my absolute favorites.

Recently Read Book

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

That’s right… the zombie war… an epidemiological nightmare pandemic that spawns millions of un-dead, cannibalistic motherfuckers. How awesome is that? As it was a global catastrophe, the only way Brooks could have conjured the magnitude of it all… was exactly the way he wrote it. The unnamed, first-person narrator works for the U.N. Postwar Commission Report, and travels around the globe interviewing survivors, chronicling their memories as record.

Gregg suggested this one. I will continue to accept his recommendations as nearly bullet-proof.

Recently Read Book

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

This book was an entertaining read, and provided a well-researched, historical glimpse into circus life in the Depression era. Above all, it’s a love story… but with carnies, freaks, a masturbating midget (!) and animals.

The final pages reveal an unexpected twist, but–ultimately–a hokey denouement.

Recently Read Book

Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille

This book is a follow-up to his novel Night Fall, which previously earned 4 zombie heads. I ripped through it in 2 days over the holiday break at the in-laws’.

As with Night Fall, this book features many of the same characters (including the protagonist, naturally), and the plot device is essentially the same: One particular NYPD cop (retired) works for some anti-terrorism task force, and he becomes privy to hints of some deep-dark government secrets, which he absolutely must investigate. Sure, it’s fodder for all those conspiracy-theorist nutbags, but it’s fiction. It doesn’t help that the author does very little to dissuade said whackjobs, and even hints at the possibility of real-world parallels to his plot.

I guess that shit sells books.

If the premise was anywhere near believable, would the author have to drop a bit of wink-wink-nudge-nudge in the prologue? Absolutely not; his novel would establish that on its own. It’s exactly this pretense of plausibility that makes me knock off a couple of points.

If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief (hard to do given the above), it’s still a pretty good read.

Recently Re-read Book

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

As I’d previously exhausted the available reading material in the house–that wasn’t some namby-pamby chick lit–I went back to an old favorite.

The link goes to the paperback, but I have the hardcover. Nevertheless, this 900+ page tome was my first exposure to Stephenson, urged upon me by the throng of comment-geeks at Slashdot back in the day. Since then, I’ve read 5 other Stephenson books: In the Beginning… was the Command Line, The Big U, The Diamond Age, Zodiac, and Snow Crash–this latest can convincingly be argued as the inspiration for Stephen King’s Cell, if not a blatant rip-off.

Either way, I must admit that Stephenson has become one of my favorite authors. It should come as no surprise, then, that Cryptonomicon gets:

Recently Listened-to Book

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

This was the (unabridged) audiobook that Erin and I agreed to purchase offa’ ITMS for our 13 hour round-trip to her aunt’s place in North Carolina for Thanksgiving.

Despite the information proffered by The Foof w/r/t Showtime’s serial (ha!) titled “Dexter”–based on this book and its sequels–yet never having watched an episode… I can only imagine that the show must be a heaping lump of shit…

… when compared to this book.

The show must be awesome.

Recently Read Book

The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson

I realize that most people have hobbies, and that some of those hobbies aren’t necessarily what you’d call “mainstream”. So it goes for Ms. Johnson’s obsession with obituaries and their value as literature, journalism and maybe “art”. Having worked in a funeral home, I understand that death can be simultaneously macabre and hilarious. But this book’s inspiration seems borne in her desperation to legitimize her hobby and its online cabal, instead of serving as a matter-of-record or a celebration of an often overlooked journalistic niche.

Recently Read Book

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson

Throughout the book, I couldn’t figure out if Ferguson was ridiculing or bolstering religion. Forget all the bullshit you read about his caustic derision of Hollywood and show business. The true subtext is the merit (or flaw) of religion vis-à-vis faith. I don’t think Ferguson has drawn his own conclusion on this topic, and that’s evident (y’know… as the subtext) in this book. An entertaining read, but an ultimately indecisive journey with an ending that screams, “just got tired of writing”.

Recently Read Book

The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler

Sure, it’s intended to recount the events that brought success and failure to the family and their wineries. As such, it is quite informative. But it’s like reading a 400-page encyclopedia entry; very dry prose. Instead of developing the biographical “characters” in the book, and guiding the reader to draw their own conclusions as to why and how things went down (it’s not hard to connect the dots), the author simply conveys the facts.

It’s basically a huge research paper. Not a light or enjoyable read, but extensively researched and thorough.