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defrog
Do I read books? Boy, do I. JUST FINISHED
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
Many people know Vowell from This American Life, but I know her mainly by a couple of appearances on The Daily Show, where she basically charmed the socks off me. One appearance involved her talking about this very book, which is basically her pop-culture take on the Puritans who founded Massachusetts and Rhode Island. You wouldn’t think that would interest me, but one of my favorite professors in university, who taught history, was a big fan of the Puritans as a history subject and made me one too, not least because they are widely misunderstood by modern conservatives and liberals alike. So I had to read this.
I’m glad I did. Vowell is very engaging and funny writer, and while her take on the Puritans is somewhat snarky, it’s also well-researched and makes some astute observations on how little the ultra-religious Puritans have in common with today’s Christian evangelicals (both in good and bad ways). Vowell’s POV is decidedly leftist, so conservatives probably won’t appreciate it. But it made an instant fan of me. I’ll definitely be looking to read more of her books.
JUST STARTED
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
This is my third outing with Abbott, after reading Queenpin and The Song Is You, both of which I liked a lot. This time it’s Depression-era noir and a fictionalized version of an actual murder case, in which abandoned young wife Marion gets mixed up with a fun-loving redhead nurse, a tuburcular blonde and a local ladies man. So far so good.
RECENT TITLES
The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc
The first book featuring Arsène Lupin, collecting a number of short stories strung together to form a loose narrative. There’s something appealing (to me) about the idea of a thief who steals what cannot be stolen, often just to make a point that it can be done, and enjoys his/her own notoriety (probably a holdover from my D&D days). The stories here are fun, but some more so than others. Also, too often Leblanc resorts to narrative trickery to reveal the key to the puzzle (typically in the form of a character, to include the first-person narrator, being revealed as Lupin in disguise all along) – which may work in individual stories, but when you read them bundled into one collection, it wears thin and gets predictable, which takes some of the fun out of it. Still, points for pitting Lupin against Sherlock Holmes. Flawed, but interesting.
Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov
I’ve been enjoying the Foundation series so far, but was a little wary of moving beyond the initial trilogy, as Asimov decided to continue the series some 30 years later. This fourth novel is noticeably different on several levels, not least by accounting for Asimov’s work on the Robot and Eternals novels, which he hadn't come up with yet when the original trilogy was written. Also, it’s much longer, as it’s the first to be written as a proper novel instead of serialized novellas. Result: it feels like it’s too long, though it’s pretty well paced. I liked it well enough, and while I initially thought I might skip the rest of the Foundation books, this one ends on a cliffhanger. Well played, Isaac. Well played.
Daddy Cool by Donald Goines
Or rather, the graphic-novel version, adapted by Don Glut and Alfredo P. Acala and bound in mass-market paperback form (but still billed under Goines’ name on the cover). I’d heard of Goines before, but given his focus on early-70s ghetto thug life melodrama, I wasn’t sure if he’d be up my street or not. I thought this version might give me an idea, but not really. The adaptation distills the book into a shorter version that uses comic-book shortcuts to get the narrative across, but while that tells me the basic story – hit-man Daddy Cool, who is actually a hothead, flips out after his daughter leaves home for a pimp – it doesn’t tell me what Goines is like as a writer. Anyway, it’s all right (apart from some glaring editing mistakes), and to its credit it doesn't shy away from the sex and violence (especially the sex, of which there is a-plenty, not all of it nice – hardly any of it, actually). Will I try a proper Goines book later? I’m not sure.
They Called Me Mad: Genius, Madness, and the Scientists Who Pushed the Outer Limits of Knowledge by John Monahan
Purportedly a compendium of the real-life inspirations behind the “mad scientist” (one of my favorite subgenres), this book by science teacher Monahan doesn’t quite succeed in that regard. While it tells the stories of science legends who were considered too radical for their time yet made some of the most important breakthroughs in history – Newton, Tesla, Einstein, Madam Curie, etc – not many of them really bear much resemblance to the “mad scientist” stereotype. And where’s Wilhelm Reich? You can’t have a “mad science” book without him. Still, as an anthology of scientific geniuses ahead of their time, it’s good reference material.
Mad daddy,
This is dF
