attack of the 30 second book reviews
by John at 4/06/2006 04:50:00 PM
Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America - Harm de Blij
I saw de Blij speaking on one of the CSPAN channels a while back and decided to read his latest book. The book isn't as interesting as the talk he was giving, but it is still pretty good. He begins by recounting the decline in the teaching of geography in American schools (it was replaced by "Social Studies") and the marginalization of geography in academia as well. Then he demonstrates through examples how a poor understanding of geography has lead to multiple foreign policy blunders in the part of the US - you can guess what some of those are. The remainder of the book focuses on the geography of many looming problems, including the notable three in the subtitle, "climate change, the rise of China, and global terrorism." Not a great book, but good, and there is a lot of information in it, so you will learn something.
Ubik - Philip K. Dick
This is a real PKD mindf**k of a tale, and sincerely weird. Calling it complicated is a bit of an understatement, but basically, a group of people who have the ability to suppress psychic powers have to find a way to stop the world from degrading, and themselves along with it. Then the questions begin to arise: What is going on? Who is causing it? What exactly is Ubik? Tell me again, which ones of us are already dead? This is a good story, and the writing is pretty tight so it's not a slog to read.
Never Let Me Go - Kazou Ishiguro
Woah. I found this to be a deeply affecting book. It's been several weeks since I finished reading it and I still think about it sometimes. On the surface it's just a memoir of adolescents growing up at an English boarding school called Hailsham, and it has the all the elements of that that you'd expect - half remembered childhood incidents, teachers, first loves, etc. On the other hand, from the very first page of the novel, it is clear that there is something odd going on; something that is implictly taken for granted by the characters (and narrator) and is rarely spoken of or thought about directly. I'm trying not to give anything away, but the novel is so cleverly written that the reader just may understand the truth before it is actually revealed. And even then, that truth is just a fraction of what the story is actually about. I thought this was a brilliant book. Can you tell?
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
This one is kind of a mess in my opinion. I recall reading some reviews of this novel that said it was very good, but as I get farther and farther away from it, I'm less and less impressed. It's a tale of magical realism meets Greek tragedy in post-bubble Japan. The heroes are a fifteen year old boy and a sixty year old, mildly-retarded man who can speak to cats. Since it's magic, the story doesn't have to make a lot of sense, and it doesn't. I'm not even sure it follows it's own internal logic, however. But what really bothered me was that the characters didn't seem like they could be real. Also, the author seems to spend a lot of time telling us his opinions, through the character Oshima, on philosophy, culture and art (literature, music, painting) which, for a noted philistine like me, was kind of a drag. On the other hand, maybe I was unhappy with the novel because I read it on the heels of Never Let Me Go, and I suppose it paled in comparison.
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind - V. S. Ramachandran
Yuris gets the nod for recommending this one. I think it's a good book, but not great. I found the writing a little stiff and the humor often seemed pasted in - sometimes I half expected to see little smilies :^) next to the funny parts. But enough being critical. The meat of this book is the author's thinking on how the human brain works, through his consideration of a wide variety of neurological disorders like phantom limbs, vision problems, and various aphasias and agnosias. That stuff is really fascinating, and some of the author's conclusions are unexpected and insightful. He tries to tie it all together at the end by summarizing what it all might mean for the concept of self. Guess what? You are not who you think you are. Following Yuris' lead, I'll recommend this for anyone with an interest in the brain and the mind.
I saw de Blij speaking on one of the CSPAN channels a while back and decided to read his latest book. The book isn't as interesting as the talk he was giving, but it is still pretty good. He begins by recounting the decline in the teaching of geography in American schools (it was replaced by "Social Studies") and the marginalization of geography in academia as well. Then he demonstrates through examples how a poor understanding of geography has lead to multiple foreign policy blunders in the part of the US - you can guess what some of those are. The remainder of the book focuses on the geography of many looming problems, including the notable three in the subtitle, "climate change, the rise of China, and global terrorism." Not a great book, but good, and there is a lot of information in it, so you will learn something.
Ubik - Philip K. Dick
This is a real PKD mindf**k of a tale, and sincerely weird. Calling it complicated is a bit of an understatement, but basically, a group of people who have the ability to suppress psychic powers have to find a way to stop the world from degrading, and themselves along with it. Then the questions begin to arise: What is going on? Who is causing it? What exactly is Ubik? Tell me again, which ones of us are already dead? This is a good story, and the writing is pretty tight so it's not a slog to read.
Never Let Me Go - Kazou Ishiguro
Woah. I found this to be a deeply affecting book. It's been several weeks since I finished reading it and I still think about it sometimes. On the surface it's just a memoir of adolescents growing up at an English boarding school called Hailsham, and it has the all the elements of that that you'd expect - half remembered childhood incidents, teachers, first loves, etc. On the other hand, from the very first page of the novel, it is clear that there is something odd going on; something that is implictly taken for granted by the characters (and narrator) and is rarely spoken of or thought about directly. I'm trying not to give anything away, but the novel is so cleverly written that the reader just may understand the truth before it is actually revealed. And even then, that truth is just a fraction of what the story is actually about. I thought this was a brilliant book. Can you tell?
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
This one is kind of a mess in my opinion. I recall reading some reviews of this novel that said it was very good, but as I get farther and farther away from it, I'm less and less impressed. It's a tale of magical realism meets Greek tragedy in post-bubble Japan. The heroes are a fifteen year old boy and a sixty year old, mildly-retarded man who can speak to cats. Since it's magic, the story doesn't have to make a lot of sense, and it doesn't. I'm not even sure it follows it's own internal logic, however. But what really bothered me was that the characters didn't seem like they could be real. Also, the author seems to spend a lot of time telling us his opinions, through the character Oshima, on philosophy, culture and art (literature, music, painting) which, for a noted philistine like me, was kind of a drag. On the other hand, maybe I was unhappy with the novel because I read it on the heels of Never Let Me Go, and I suppose it paled in comparison.
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind - V. S. Ramachandran
Yuris gets the nod for recommending this one. I think it's a good book, but not great. I found the writing a little stiff and the humor often seemed pasted in - sometimes I half expected to see little smilies :^) next to the funny parts. But enough being critical. The meat of this book is the author's thinking on how the human brain works, through his consideration of a wide variety of neurological disorders like phantom limbs, vision problems, and various aphasias and agnosias. That stuff is really fascinating, and some of the author's conclusions are unexpected and insightful. He tries to tie it all together at the end by summarizing what it all might mean for the concept of self. Guess what? You are not who you think you are. Following Yuris' lead, I'll recommend this for anyone with an interest in the brain and the mind.
