The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--And How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson


Alan Sklar's narration is a little heavy, but adequate.

The first part of this book examines the process of scientific advance through the lens of an 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Johnson's research seems thorough and complete, and he does a good job of explaining relevant concepts and facts. From time to time he stirs in a narrative-style story of the outbreak and the two men who were studying it.

He uses this whole to discuss how science advances in fits and starts as new theories compete with old, established ones. I thought this part of the book was fascinating because I see the same process going on today. Johnson also does a good job of describing the role of chance in the story of the outbreak and its solution. (E.g., the solution would not have been found without the intervention both of a medical man trained in anesthesiology and of a clergyman who understood the neighborhood that was affected.)

Another of Johnson's themes is the nature of urban living and urban planning. He describes the patchwork of services, individual laborers, technological advances, and economic realities that made up London's inadequate refuse disposal solution, and explained how understanding the transmission of cholera led to the development of modern sewer systems.

The final third of the book is Johnson's ode to modern cities and human progress. It's not grounded in research the way the historical narrative was. I wasn't very impressed with it and didn't finish it.

In the part I did listen to, there is a lot of "gee whiz" about how the Internet will let you look up your nearest coffee shop and how dense urban living is good for the environment and for population control and for human interaction and progress. I have heard those ideas before and mostly agree with them, and he doesn't present anything new from my point of view, nor does he do a careful job of providing supporting evidence for his arguments.

He also goes on about how squatter cities are really where things are happening these days (apparently drawing on Robert Neuwirth's Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World). I don't know much about this but it seems he glosses over the infrastructure problems (and concomitant pollution problems) such cities have in order to talk about how they are cool because they have multi-story buildings and nightclubs and lots of (*ahem*) economic opportunities.

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Tags: audiobooks, booklog, books, science

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child


My friend piglet/porcinea said that the Jack Reacher series is "like a feminist James Bond" and that's a pretty good description, although Bond is more upscale and camp, based on this novel. This is the first of the Reacher series I've read, and I'll be reading more. I liked this especially because it emphasized a team approach to solving a crime, rather than being all about the Lone Hero(tm), and because most of the characters are smart and competent (I dislike thrillers where the plot is driven by stupidity), and because Child takes a geeky delight in details, and the details actually make sense.

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Tags: audiobooks, booklog, books

The Dragon in the Sea by Frank Herbert



Everyone know Frank Herbert as the author of Dune but a lot of people don't know that he wrote a number of other excellent novels.

The Dragon in the Sea is a science-fiction submarine-battle psychological thriller. It was written in the 1950s and for the most part it stands the test of time. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the modern submarine-battle thrillers like Das Boot and The Hunt for Red October owe it a debt.

It's not just a battle story, it's also a compelling depiction of the ways men function in conditions of pressure and uncertainty.

Psychology geeks who know a little Freud and Jung will probably get more enjoyment out of this book. Some of the psych theories might seem a little silly and dated now.

The audio version is narrated by Scott Brick. I think he overacts some of the narration, and he gets the accent of one of the crewmembers wrong, but overall he does a good job.

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Tags: audiobooks, booklog, books, sf&f

I listened to the Audible Modern Classics edition, well narrated by Victor Levine. I especially liked his characterization of the Blue Fairy Godmother.

This book is set in WWII Germany, post-war New York City, and a prison cell in Israel. It has no science fiction tropes. I did not find any of the characters particularly likeable (but that's true of most Vonnegut for me).

A line from this book is one of the favorites in my quote file, and it sums up one of the themes of the book:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

This book is evidence that Vonnegut is one of the great American writers. He has the gift of making hope out of emptiness and simplicity, something that many people assume only Zen Buddhist masters can do.

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---

Goodreads.com posted to my Facebook status line when I added this book, and my friend supergee commented that he didn't like the book. I asked why and he wrote "Not sf, crappy characters, dumb moral."

I agree with point 1.

I also somewhat agree with point 2 (see above) and it puzzles me why Vonnegut's "crappy characters" don't bother me the way some writers' crappy characters do. I think it has something to do with how Vonnegut's protagonists mostly aren't emo, and/or how Vonnegut's writing style is definitely not emo. (I'm contrasting it to my reaction to Dan Simmons's Hyperion, which has some tremendously emo characters which are punched up because the writing style can be pretty emo.)

I don't know what supergee thinks the moral of the book is; the closest I can come to a moral in it is what I quoted above. I don't think that's a dumb moral, although I'm not sure I agree with it. (For me, it might be a prescription that I tend to over-follow. I have a hard time pretending, and it limits me in some ways.)

Tags: audiobooks, booklog, books, ethics, reviews

A Different Light by Elizabeth A. Lynn

If I told you the plot of this book it would sound like a space opera, or possibly a romance, but it doesn't entirely have the feeling of either. It's sort of noir, and it's sort of...langorous. The protagonist is a visual artist, and Lynn pulls it off so I got a pretty clear picture in my mind of what he was seeing and depicting.

I really liked that the main characters were bisexual and non-monogamous and that no big deal was made out of this -- it was just how they behaved naturally. I really liked that the relationships among the main characters were emotionally complex and that the characters gave each other emotional space.

Yes, I mostly read this book for the atmosphere and relationships, and I didn't read carefully enough to comment critically on the science or the plotting.


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There may be spoilers in the comments.

Tags: booklog, books

I listened to an audiobook edition of Kindred by Octavia Butler. It is fucking brilliant, and really disturbing because it is about slavery and abusive relationships. It is also depressing because it's about unpleasant parts of US history. But that's not the whole story.
( lots of spoilers, and if you haven't read it, you don't want to be spoiled about some of them )

There are also notes of hope. Several of the characters who have cross-racial interactions gradually move toward seeing at least some people of the other race as human—that is, similar enough to themselves to attempt communication. I imagine that Butler is saying there is a human urge to see other people as equal humans, and that if there’s enough interaction between people who start out as Other to each other, eventually Similar will start to infiltrate. But there are cultural and historical and personal reasons why, in a slave-owning society, no one on either side can fully replace Other with Similar.

I found Kindred a compelling read in a way that Parable of the Talents wasn't for me.

There's a certain emotional detachment in both books, at the same time that Butler describes some horrific behavior and screwed up relationships. I'm not sure if the detachment I sense is due to the way the audiobook narrators chose to approach the works, or if I would have felt the same way if I read the books on paper. Butler's characters for the most part are survivors, whose response to suffering is to get up and go back to the work of surviving and at the same time following their dreams. So it feels as if some of the emotional hard stuff is diluted or buried in hard work. On the other hand, what this also means is that Butler anchors her stories very strongly in the work the characters do and therefore in day to day living.

Tags: 50books_poc, audiobooks, booklog, books

The Investigation by Stanisław Lem, translated by Adele Milch


rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Investigation is beautifully written, even in translation. Scenes are described with a clarity that I can almost touch. Lighting is especially described vividly.

I put this on my detective/mystery shelf, because those are the genre tropes Lem is playing in, but it's not really a genre book. Specifically, many people read detective/mystery because they like that the mystery is solved in a tidy package at the end, and that doesn't happen here. It's more of a commentary on the human condition, especially the conditions of emotional isolation, uncertainty, and inability to connect/communicate with other people.

It took me forever to read this book because I figured out early on that the resolution that makes me enjoy a genre book wasn't going to be there.

So I only gave the book 3 stars because I didn't enjoy it that much, but as a work of literature it probably deserves 4 stars at least.

It's been a long time since I read Stanisław Lem's other famous book, Solaris, but my impression is that Lem's themes worked better for me in that book, because I am used to those themes being played with in the science fiction genre.

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Tags: booklog, books

I've read almost everything that Bujold has written and have liked most of it, but I have a few reservations. In http://epi-lj.livejournal.com/1728122.html - a discussion of Bujold, specifically Falling Free - I commented "Bujold's works sometimes have nastiness that bothers me." phantom_wolfboy wanted to know why, so this is my attempt to think out loud about it.

( This part has spoilers for Bujold's Vorkosigan series )

Bujold is known for saying at cons that part of the way she writes is to get her characters into a particular position and then ask herself "What's the worst that could happen to them now?" and then write it.

I think possibly something else she does is to ask herself "What's a really controversial or taboo or emotionally loaded thing that I could introduce here?"

Much of the time I like that she does that; it means she addresses some things that other books don't, in ways that other books don't, and it's thought-provoking.

But I think I've gotten kind of sensitized to these things in Bujold's writing, to the point where sometimes when I'm reading her books I sometimes get tense in a way I don't enjoy, because I'm anticipating something that will feel uncomfortable to read.

Tags: books, thoughts, writing

Here is a post from Readercon about a committee's first attempt to create a "slipstream canon":
http://community.livejournal.com/theinferior4/91464.html

(insert cf.why_there_are_problems_with_canons)
Also, the comments in the original post about just how definitive one might consider this list are very funny.
Also, if you don't know what slipstream is—I don't—the comments contain some links that might enlighten or further confuse you.

Below the cut are the top 115 books in their canon (some of which are "complete works," so some appear twice). (If you want to know why 115, it's explained in the original post.) I've bolded the ones I've read, italicized the ones I've started and not finished, made various comments, and so on.

I haven't read very many of them, but I've liked enough of the ones I read that I will be using this list to pick other books from. If you liked or disliked particular ones I'd love to hear about it.
( Read more... )

Tags: books

( Too true )

Tags: books, memesheepage
listening to: "Fish" - Philip Glass - Kundun

punkmom cleverly suggested that I ask my knitting friends if y'all have any of the books I was ranting about not being able to see online. Here is my current list and if you have opinions on any of these, or if you are local and have a copy that I could look at, please let me know:

Wrap Style: Innovative to Traditional, 24 Inspirational Shawls, Ponchos, and Capelets to Knit and Crochet by Pam Allen, Ann Budd

I like this wrap from it and either don't like or can't tell whether I like (Green Sleeves) the other wraps shown on the Interweave site (here and here). I like this but it's available for free. I want to know if there are any others I like, because I would rather not pay $22 for one pattern.

I find myself wanting to play around with cable and celtic knot stitches so I would also like to have a look at these:

Aran Sweater Design by Janet Szabo

I have these on hold at the library:

220 Aran stitches : includes diamonds, cables, twists, honeycombs, textures, panels, backgrounds

Aran knitting, Alice Starmore

Vogue knitting stitchionary 2. Vol. 2, cables : the ultimate stitch dictionary

Michael Pearson's Traditional knitting : Aran, Fair Isle, and fisher ganseys

Finally, if you have any opinions about the books in my Amazon yarncrafts wishlist I would welcome them. (ObDisclaimer: I am not trolling for gifts; this is just a convenient place to keep track of stuff I want to check out.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/2H16VWFC2C9PQ

Tags: all knowledge is contained in lj, books, knitting, queries

There are still people out there who think girls shouldn't read lest boys not like them:
http://community.livejournal.com/customers_suck/21166233.html

Tags: books, feminism, gender, things that piss me off

How am I supposed to know whether I want to buy a book of knitting patterns if I can't see photos of the patterns? The publishers' web sites, Amazon, and the yarn companies' web sites usually show photos of one or maybe even up to six patterns, but most of the books contain lots more patterns than that. Yes, I can go to my LYS* to look at books, but they usually don't have every book I want to look at.


*local yarn store

Tags: books, knitting, whinge

Via marykaykare via peake:
A list of all the major sf and fantasy award winners - Hugo, Nebula, Clarke, World Fantasy, Tiptree, Philip K. Dick, Stoker.
A few years ago I embarked on a Project to read all the Hugo and Nebula winners (which is proceeding in fits and starts), so I've read a bunch of these recently. The ones I've read are in bold; comments in italics. I've given ** to the ones I liked a lot (only the first time each is listed). Feel free to recommend others - my reading list can never be too long. :-P

1953
HUGO: **Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man**
( Read more... )

Tags: books, reviews, sff, surveys

My dad volunteers as a web designer for his local library. He put together a great library of book reviews that you can search by age category and/or subject category.

Please pass on to people who might find it useful.

Children's Books Browsing Library

Tags: books, check it out, family