the escape

The Escape is the third in the John Puller series by David Baldacci. I haven't read the first two, but this one was pretty good. My wife is a fan of Baldacci and she has picked up a number of his books, and I usually find them around when I'm looking for something to read. She found me reading this one and after checking out the text on the back cover to jog her memory, she said that this was a good one.

John Puller seems like a good character, by the time we get to the third in his series anyway. There are a fair number of throw away characters in this book that I get the impression aren't carried over from previous installments, and may never show up again. That's not a bad, thing just an observation.

The story has a mystery to it, or at least an problem that needs to be unraveled so that we can get a look at who the bad guys are, and as one would expect in a story like this, there are few twists and turns along the way which kept the story riding pretty high on plot twists, but some of them I could see coming.

All in all, a good effort. If you're a Baldacci fan, I think you'll like this one.

spiders web

After the death of Stieg Larsson in 2004 of a heart attack, I assumed we'd seen the last of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.* 

Nope. 

I guess there was just too much juice in these stories to give up on them. According to Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's long time girlfriend (who apparently also helped with his story development) Larsson had plans for seven more books in the Millennium Series. The Girl in the Spider's Web is the latest installment, penned by Swedish author and journalist, David Lagercrantz, and translated in to English by George Goulding. Goulding is also a switch from the original translator of Larsson's efforts in the series, which were done by Reg Keeland.

I will admit that its fun to Have Lisbeth Salander back, but I'm sorry its not really her. Lagercrantz does a pretty good job, but this story just didn't have the depth of the Larsson stories. This story moved quicker perhaps, but that may be because not as much was happening. Lagercrantz has also introduced some new backstory elements, that I believe he will use to further the overall story arc as he writes more of these stories. Whether these new elements are based on discussions with Larsson, research in his notes, or speaking to someone who may know, such as Gabrielsson, I don't know.

What I do know is that I'll probably read the next one, if and when it shows up in my house, or perhaps at the library book sale, but I'm not in a hurry to do so. Here's hoping Lagercrantz just needs to warm up a bit.


* We have, unfortunately, seen the last of Mikael Nyqvist who played Mikael Blomkvist in the 2009 movie adaptations of the Millennium Series.

deathly hallows

Harry, Harry, Harry.

You old scamp.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is book seven--the last installment--in the Harry Potter series. can she really resist, do you think? Harry, Hermione, and Ron have their work cut out for them in this one. Rowling does a good good of building toward the climax, altho our heroes may have escaped Coldisnort by the very skin of their teeth one too many times for my taste, but this is a kids book after all. My kids had no such concerns when I read this to them first time through.

J.K. Rowling has created a series that is fun, exciting and accessible for kids, with a storyline and plotting complex and well thought out enough for older readers. Moreover, the universe she's created is original, and carefully planned. It has history, depth, and a connection to reality that makes it fun for kids to wonder about what magical things may be lurking just outside their collective understanding.

Harry and company have been through a lot, and what we've learned about them is that they've grown enough to deal with the hardships they've been dealt. Dumbledore and their other teacher's knew they could do it, that they needed to do it, and they did. We were just along for the ride.

I'm not sure if this series will hold up over time, but I'm thinking that it will. I don't know if the books are as popular now as they were when they first came out, but I don't think that's ever the case. Are there more Potter stories out there? Who knows, Rowing has repeatedly said no, and I'm sure they haven't just been asking what her plans are, but rather begging her to make a plan to write more about our hero and his friends.

Read these books.

half-blood prince

Its book six!

Harry, Ron and Hermione have made it to their sixth year at Hogwarts. That is, after a little summer action to get this year going. Dumbledore has finally decided that Harry is old enough to get some background information is just why he is so darn special. is that why they wrote all them books about me perfesser? And it all comes from Voldemort, Harry's archenemy. He's the enemy of all people, actually.

Voldemort is a bad dude, that's pretty clear, and no matter what we've heard up to this point, there is always more badiness he's willing to do, just to remind Harry (and us) just how bad he is. Everything that Harry has been through has led him to this point, and Dumbledore is doing everything he can to help prepare Harry and friends for the rematch that must inevitably come.

But in the meantime, there are classes to take, potions to brew, spells, charms, and jinxes to learn, and that's to say nothing of all of the things that any normal 16 year old boy is obviously interested in when hanging out with a bunch of people his own age. are those girils perfesser?
 


J. K. Rowling takes the opportunity to begin lacing up some of the oldest, nagging questions and mysteries that she has sprinkled throughout the series, and Harry and his friends are eating it up. And they're left wanting more. That's right, there is one more book to go and Rowling has saved some of the good stuff for the finale. Book 4 is where this series stopped being a little kids story, and became a big kids story. Just look at the artwork on the covers. On the covers of the first three books, Harry is flying! wheeee It looks daunting to be sure but Harry looks young and cartoonish, and the images are colorful and fun. On the cover of book 4, Harry is smiling again. Its still colorful, but he does look more carefully drawn. The art itself seems more serious.

Book 5? Yikes, just look. Shades of deep blue, Harry looks serious, warily glancing over his shoulder. The wand held in what looks like celebration on the cover of book 4, looks a lot like a defensive weapon on the cover of book 5. And this book, book 6? That's a pretty grim color scheme, and again, the smile is gone. Harry and Dumbledore don't look like they're making a cake for the Spring Faire.

As I've said before, the stories seem to grow with Harry. Reading them when they first came out, with a year or so between the later books, my kids were growing at the same rate as the characters in real time, so they kept same pace as Harry got older and the stories more grown up. Reading to your own kids? 6 or 7 is probably old enough for the earlier stories, but that may be too young for these later ones, depending on their maturity.

order of the phoenix

Book five, year five at Hogwarts for Harry and company. Now that the dung has hit the ventilator, its high time to put the band back together. Against the backdrop of Harry and his class of fifth years studying for their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) lots to deal with has come to Hogwarts--and the magical community in general--and Dumbledore also appears to have his dance ticket full as well.

After struggling with Harry a number of times over the years, its seems as though Lord Baddy McBadguy (or he-who-must-not-be-named) may be taking a step back from openly trying to murder Harry in this one; it appears that sewing discord and infighting amongst his rivals is the newer, less risky course of action. Voldemort seems to be hanging back, and taking his time to catch up on some of his old unfinished homework. here's me winkin' at yer

Some of the members of the English Ministry of Magic appear to caught up in this discord, which manifests itself as the Ministry trying to strong arm those that don't agree with them. For our heroes, this comes in the form of a new teacher, sent by the Ministry, to bring the school into line with their views. A simpering, troll of a woman who tries to clamp down on those who disagree with the Ministry's take on the state of affairs surrounding Moldywart.

This, of course, pisses off Harry, Hermione and Ron (along with most everyone else) to no end. And you would expect, antics then ensue. But Boldysort isn't done, and by the time we reach the end of this book (another fat one, by the way) its pretty clear that there's going to need to be some ass kicking up in here real soon.

The Order of the Phoenix tees up the storyline for the last two books, and is not to be missed. Its a little long in the middle parts, and could have been trimmed a bit, but I'm sure the hardcore fans won't feel it. I know my kids ate it up when I read it to them years ago, and were only too happy to have the additional material to hold them over until the next volume came out, and a few more nights having it read to them.

Wondering what other differences the American version of these books may have from their English predecessors, I took a look around and found that the English books don't have the chapter head illustrations by Mary GrandPréas do the American books. No illustrations at all, other than the cover jacket and a map of the Hogwarts grounds.

They are in the process of releasing illustrated versions of the books now. Its a slow process; only three books have been released thus far. Jim Kay is doing the illustrations and they are really nice.

goblet of fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is book 4 and halfway through Harry's Hogwarts career. The title goblet has a pretty small part in the story, but I will admit, its a better title than "Harry Potter and the Triwizard Tournament," which sounds a little dumb. So I can imagine that was considered and then rejected for its dumbness. But who knows, it may have been the name of the book in the UK.

Harry is getting older, and so are his problems. This year, the Triwizard Tournament comes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after a hiatus of many years (centuries?) geeks, I'm looking at you The idea of the Triwizard Tournament is to encourage international wizarding and witching community cooperation. Rowling tells us how select students arrive from two separate European magic schools and stay for the year at Hogwarts, with their respective headmasters. Sounds grand, and very cooperative buuuuut... who's running things back in France and... Bavaria? geeks, help me out Maybe the headmaster's flit back and forth; but they do seems to be around whenever the storyline calls for them.

And whats up the rest of the select bunch of students that each school brought that don't get to represent their school in the Triwizard Tournament? I assume they're enrolled in classes at Hogwarts, but that's not mentioned. Or maybe I'm wrong. nerds?

This book is a fat one! Clearly, Rowling know understands the depth of her power, her right to pen whatever she likes, regardless of length or complexity. Rowling has ascended to god-like writer status at this point. And you know, becomes a brazilianaire. 

The crap gets real in this book, don't miss it.

And can I get a holla' for Mary GrandPré for those illustrations, yo? 

 

prisoner of azkaban

Harry & Hermione riding a hippogriff

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is book three in the series, and the prisoner...well, you'll have to the read the book; no spoilers here.

Harry is back for his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with his friends Hermione and Ron. This year we meet the dementors, those creepy, ragged cloak wearing, angel-of-death looking, soul sucking monsters that act as prison guards at Azkaban Prison. The dementors start hanging out at Hogwarts, presumably to insure the safety of the students and to watch out for the escaped prisoner. You can see why these creepy bastards became such a popular Hallowe'en costume.

Harry is also learning more about his own history, and the history of his dead parents. Harry's third year also means more advanced learning for him and his classmates, and one gets the feeling that the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is keeping a special eye on Harry, given his history and the murmurs of dark wizards that are cropping up more and more.

In a lot of ways, Prisoner is a filler book; a transition book between what has come before and whats coming next. Rowling is laying groundwork in this book by introducing us to Harry's history, the dementors, defensive spells, predicting the future, and the followers of Voldemort, know as Death Eaters. In fact, Voldemort himself doesn't appear to be the main focus of evil in this story, but rather its Voldemorts followers that Harry finds himself pitted against. Foreshadowing-filler book may be a better description for this one. I would not, however, recommend skipping this one.

chamber of secrets

Harry Potter, book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, came out in 1998. I'm pretty sure that I had no idea, and I'm guessing that most other folks didn't either. My oldest would have 4 in 1998, and didn't really discover these books until 6 or 7. By that time, 3 or 4 of them were out, and when the next one came out, we picked it up in the store, and there may have been a little buzz then, that I became aware of. A few years later, there were lines, kids dressed up, the religious types whining about occult stories and the indoctrination of children. It may have been the wait between books 4 and 5; prior to that they were one a year, but it was a few years before the 5th book came out and people were in a tizzy.

Ah, good times.

I think were pre-ordered the rest of the series on Amazon, and they were delivered on the publish date.

The Chamber steps in up a notch from book one, and we're starting to see the issues and problems these young wizards and witches have to deal with growing with them. The secret in the Chamber of Secrets (other than a creepy monster) appears to be prejudice. The mystery revolves around who is opening the secret chamber--apparently in an effort to turn loose said creepy monster and the magical equivalent of ethnic cleansing. Hint: its the bad guy.

On the positive side of the equation, we've got Harry, his friends Hermione and Ron, and their mentors. We also have trust, faith, honor, and loyalty at work.* Its a manual for how to do the right thing, and an ongoing lesson about how stupid kids can be when it comes to telling the truth to the adults that are trying to help them. Why would religious types have any problem with this?

Get your 'good vs. evil' on. Read this book!


* Sounds like half of the Scout Law. The rest are probably in this book too.

sorcerer's stone

A blast from the past.

I've just re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time in 10 or 15 years. The last time I read a Harry Potter book, I was probably reading aloud to one of my kids, and they are both in their twenties, so I guess its been a while. I had a feeling that I'd come back to them to read them to myself at some point--it’s a different experience reading them aloud to your kids. That time was probably delayed by the huge impact the movies made on pop culture... and then the VHS tapes and DVDs, which they watched over and over until just a few years ago. I've been feeling a little saturated.

Then my niece decided to have a Harry Potter themed birthday/Hallowe'en party a few weeks ago, and it all came back: the fun, the characters, the adventure and the tragedy. So when I finished the sequel to The Three Musketeers, and I was looking for something fun and light,  suited for fall and early sunsets, Harry Potter seemed like a good choice. nice work on the party k!

I think I cranked through this book in three days. In fact, I've just finished the second one without finding a few minutes to write about this one. J.K. Rowling struck a chord with children and adults alike when she put together this story of an orphan boy of magical birth. Its got all of the hallmarks of a classic epic: heroism, mystery, adventure, coming of age, mentors, reluctant heroism/burden, true friendship, evil nemesis, special powers, and destiny, to name a few.*

Some have said that when they read Harry Potter as an adult, especially when the re-read the books, they find that Professor Dumbledore's treatment of Harry is shameful, even abusive, but to those who suggest that I will point out two things: its a story, and secondly, taking this stance is to project our value system of what is right and wrong, or perhaps more to the point, what is a appropriate for an eleven year old child to deal with, but Harry Potter is not a child from our world, and he doesn't live in our value system. Harry lives in a universe where children have immense power, and with great power, comes great responsibility. You and I are simply not equipped to judge, but I would suggest that Albus Dumbledore is.

For me, the latter point is the more cogent, and closer to my heart but maybe the former is all we really need. meybe y'all shud r'lax lil' bit

Yeah, so relax, and enjoy some Harry Potter. I'll come on back and write a little something about book two pretty soon, but in the meantime, I'll be visiting in on year three at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Read this book. To your kids if you can. I would suggest somewhere around 6 to 8 years old depending on how mature they are. The stories are complex and may be hard to follow for younger kids. Younger kids may also be frightened at some points, it does get tense now and again. Have fun!



* Check out The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell for more on this. (Its in my 'great's column to the right!)

twenty years after

Twenty Years After is a follow up or sequel to The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas, so its part of the D'Artagnan Romances, so called. The finale is titled The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. From what I understand, this is a big book, and includes three parts (or at least is broken into volumes that way.) 

According to Wikipedia, the three parts of Ten Years Later are independently called:

• Part One: The Vicomte of Bragelonne (Chapters 1–93)
• Part Two: Louise de la Vallière (Chapters 94–180)
• Part Three: The Man in the Iron Mask (Chapters 181–269)

But more about that tome when I read it, back to Twenty Years After. The story is complex, as are all the Dumas stories I've read. He relies upon his readers a great deal, and given that this, like many of his novels, was written in series, he needed to help his readers keep the story straight, so he occasionally speaks directly to the reader, reminding us where we are in the story as we move along. This, along with the language, gives the story an old-timey feel, as you'd expect with a classic from this period.

Twenty Years doesn't move along as well as The Three Musketeers, the plot is good, solid, it just isn't as fun as The Musketeers. Dumas seems to struggle at some points to resolve issues he's written himself into, and while he does it, it doesn't feel as seamless as with Musketeers or Monte Cristo. In many way, it seems as though Dumas answered the call of his readers and gave them more Musketeers. Some, but not all, of the characters are the same. Where they are the same, they bring with them their old feelings, as one would expect, but occasionally, the intervening years has softened some of those feeling. It is those insights which make Dumas stand apart. Just writing in serial alone must be complex and require much forethought; its seems to me that the thought put into these stories is what elevates them.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I knew that The Man in the Iron Mask was a sequel to The Three Musketeers but I wasn't aware of this book until I bought that book, brought it to Italy, and discovered in the front matter that I was missing something. In a word: no wonder. This book was good, it just wasn't as good as it could have been, and I can see why it is generally overlooked. le yawn

I'll probably take a break from Dumas in the short term. This book took me three weeks (or more?) to read, and I could use a break. I also don't know where I put my copy of the next one, I think its in a box somewhere.

prince of fire

The Prince of Fire is a Gabriel Allon novel from 2005 I found on my bookshelf, so it’s from an earlier stage in the overall story arc. It was interesting to go back and read this installment after reading some of the more recent efforts; it read like a prequel, but one that wasn’t forced. If you have the opportunity to back and infill one of the holes in a series like this, I’d recommend it based on this experience.

Allon as a character is not yet completely jelled and his position in his organization and in the larger world of spycraft is still developing. Much of the history that goes into making Allon what he is in the current books is playing out here in this earlier story. Silva, as an author seems a little younger, perhaps more excited, and to me, it seems as though he’s not as jaded about the plight of Israel as he appears to be in this one.

Allon’s work as an art restorer and his personal relationships keep him human in a way not often shown in spy novels and I wonder if that’s because other authors in the genre don’t bother to fill in these details or if it’s just not possible to have a life that keeps one human, grounded and whole when you also have to do this job. Maybe it’s wishful that Allon’s only loss is his inability to create original works of art. I don’t remember the back story exactly—it wasn’t part of this story—but I think it may be that he doesn’t trust himself to create new art for fear of the horror that may emerge on the canvas.

Allon’s complexity is his strong suit as a character and it’s what brings me back to this series.

wife or hat?

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is perhaps the best title for a non-fiction book about neurology, ever. But what do I know, I'm more of a fiction reader.

Oliver Sacks is the man behind the voice of neurological wisdom for the radio show and podcast RadioLab. Or he was until his untimely death a few years ago from cancer. I miss his voice, and his thoughtful approach to working with folks who deal daily with the challenges of a mind that doesn't operate within (what we'd call) standard parameters. Sacks was called upon to explain complex neurological issues, and how the mind works for the folks at RadioLab, because of his ability to explain complex things in easy to understand terms. He demystifies the sciences of the mind with a subtle wit and a believe in humanity that is foremost in his thinking. His patients are first and always, just people who need help.

Sacks lays out his theses with well written, often charming characterizations of a series of patients, their challenges, and their triumphs; rare though they may be. Its clear in his writing that Sachs is much more interested in how his patients think about and deal with their own problems, than simply identifying what those problems are and applying the most popular treatment. He seems to be more interested in the person, and how they are dealing with the particular set of circumstances they deal with, and working with them to figure out the best way forward. Sometimes, what people need, is to just get back to some of their routine. The part of life that made them feel better, or whole, or normal.

Seems like good medicine.

Oliver Sacks would have been 85 this year.

origin

Dan Brown is at it again. I read Origin mainly because I was in Italy, out of books, and the shop in Sulmona that sold books in English is no longer.

Side note: The Great Recession, or World Economic Downturn, or whatever you want to call it, has not lifted in Italy as much as it has here. Where it started. thank you greedy, coke snorting, trust-fund, ivy-league, frat boys who blew up the world to make a few bucks on all of our backs*

I've read a couple of Brown's books, and like most people, I read The Da Vinci Code first, which was pretty good and then I went back and read Angels and Demons, which was better. I think I've said this before, Brown's character Robert Langdon is a pretty good character; he has the skill set as a professor of symbols or whatever to help solve the mysteries he stumbles upon, but the story arc in each of his stories is just too similar. Langdon doesn't begin a mystery solving venture until he stops of at the adventure store and picks up two things: a mysterious and shady quasi religious organization bent on murdering him before he solves this mystery (complete with some crazy, holy water guzzling psychopath with C-clamps on his junk) and a foxy lady to run around with and mansplain his brilliance to, for our benefit.

If you're a Dan Brown fan, I think you'll enjoy this. If not, then I'd say you could probably skip this one and never know the difference.



* Please note, I have no idea if the people who tranched up a bunch of bad loans, sold them as AAA and then broke the banks, Wall Street, and then the world, actually snorted cocaine, were funded by trusts, went to Ivy League schools, or were in fraternities. I'm pretty confident about the greedy part. And I actually feel pretty good about the rest of it too.

prague golem

The Prague Golem: Jewish Stories of the Ghetto is a small collection of stories about the Jewish Ghetto in Prague, edited by Harald Salfellner, and illustrated by Hugo Steiner. *

My oldest brought this back for me after traveling there for five days while we were in Italy. Both of my kids went and they loved it. The architecture, the food, the people, and the parks. They had a great time. I’ve heard that Prague is one of the few larger European cities that escaped significant damage during the wars. Based on their photos it seems legit.

This group of short stories tell the history of the Jewish community in Prague which goes back centuries. The story of the community is told though the history of its people, their sometimes rocky relationship with the sovereign, and tales of a few nearly superheroic figures. These stories especially we fun to read. They read like folk tales of Paul Bunyan or John Henry with a little Greek myth thrown in.

The writing is simple and accessible, like some committee had the idea to put these stories together and they hired someone’s nephew to bang them out. OR, this book was originally written in some other language and translated; Czech or something. Yeah, that sounds better, let me check... well, based on the Vitalis (publisher) website, this book is available in many languages and most indicate that it was translated from German, however the English version doesn't include a translator in the credits. Maybe Harald Salfellner is multi-lingual. sounds like he has more than one tongue. nope, not even going to look it up

The golem itself appears in a couple of the stories, and it apparently pretty well known as a taker of care when it comes to business. Seemed a little creepy to me, and maybe not a very wholesome solution to the rabbi's problems, but there you go.


* you can find this book on Amazon, and a bunch of other places, with the author listed as "U Zelezne Lavky" which is the name of a street in Prague as far as I can tell. 

wizard of oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum came free with a copy of The Man in the Iron Mask I bought at the bookstore to bring with me to Italy. Come to find out The Man in the Iron Mask is the last in a series of sequels Dumas wrote to follow up The Three Musketeers. It’s actually the third part of a long third book so I have a few thousand pages to read before I get to the Iron Mask.

Oz on the other hand was a pleasant surprise—it’s a completely different story than the cinematic superstar of the same name. The introduction (written by J. T. Barbarese along with end notes) were informative and included some helpful analysis which helped me to understand the differences between the book and the movie, as well the stage production which Baum helped to write. Apparently the stage production included some of the changes from the book which appear in the movie. The consensus being that production of some of Baum’s fanciful ideas may have been either too expensive or simply not possible at the time.

It was fun to read the story that so closely matches the movie we’ve all seen so many times but is different in both subtle and dramatic ways. Oz has been compared to both Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Both have young heroines and both stories can be summarized as the fanciful dream of the main character. This is exactly the storyline of the movie version of Oz, but that is not how Baum envisioned the adventure of his heroine.

The writing is simple and geared toward his target audience. Baum also consciously avoided the terrors common to children’s literature to that point. Baum was also the first to break the mold of many standard children’s story characters, most importantly was the creation of good witches; a concept which didn’t exist in children's literature befor e Baum.

Read this book. Read it to your children and after a few weeks maybe watch the movie together.

reamde

Yeah, you read that right. Neal Stephenson's new book is called Reamde, altho to be fair the title is written thus on both the hardcover (book jacket) and the softcover versions:

REAMDE

I guess it makes it a little easier to read, and gives a clue as to the subject matter. Not surprisingly, Stephenson is again writing about computer/internet use, as he has a number of times in the past. This one is more Crytonomicon, and less Snow Crash. Reamde is not my favorite Stephenson book, but it did move right along and the characters were interesting to follow, even if I did have a pretty good idea how it was all going to end after a few hundred pages.

What Stephenson does so well is explain virtual world events and online activities so well that even though its not my thing, I was able to follow what he was describing and didn't feel bogged down by the technology. I'm sure that must be difficult and its one of the reasons I like his writing. All of the research and the back story is there. Its clear he's done the work, but it stays in the background (for the most part) and doesn't take over the story.

If you're a Neal Stephenson fan, I think you'll enjoy this one, if you're new to Stephenson, this isn't where I'd start, you're better off with Snow Crash, Diamond Age, or Seveneves.


[Note: I've been reading while on vacation, so I have some books, and my thoughts on them, stacked up. There are a few more to come when I get to them]

price of duty

This is the first book I've by Dale Brown. Brown is a former U.S. Air Force captain, where he was a bomber pilot, so in the tradition of writing what you know, Brown writes military fiction. Altho it may be more accurate to say that Price of Duty is military science fiction, as the tech the fighting forces are using is pretty advanced.

It took a few chapters for me to catch on to Brown's writing style, but that may be true for many writers, I guess I just don't keep track. Once I got into it, the story moved right along. Even though the military tech is extremely high-tech, the story seems inspired by today. The Russian president is a ex-KGB man with dictatorial control over his country and has begun a cyber-war against a group of European allies (read NATO) who have been left out to dry by the American President. This is particularly ironic given that I think Brown has based his character on Hillary Clinton* (as he has based his Russian dictator on Putin) and he has her leaving the European's to fend for themselves, even though she isn't a fan of the Russian president, who has a habit of denying involvement in actions that are clearly and demonstrably his responsibility. But who knows, the American president could be inspired by a combination of Clinton and Trump, or created wholly in the mind of Brown.

This book is a follow-up, or one of a series of books about this special force called Iron Wolf. This isn't the first in that series and I don't know where it falls, but I didn't find it listed on the author's website, so it could be that his site hasn't been updated in a while. The Iron Wolf secret weapon (and I don't think I'm giving too much away here) is a fighting robot, or exoskeleton, piloted by man who is on board rather than remote. This is not the first story with big fighting robots, and its not the first military story with big fighting robots, but this one does seem to view the exoskeleton idea in a more practical sense than some of the other visions out there.


* Its my impression that Brown was writing this during the run up to the election, and his choice for president was based on the polling at the time.

14th colony

I think I read the first 4 or 5 books in the Cotton Malone series not long after they came out, but since then I've only read a few, and I haven't done that in any particular order. The 14th Colony is number 11 in the series. I think the last one I read was number 7, but I'm not sure if I read 5 and 6. I know, lots of numbers

It doesn't really matter if you don't read them in order, the main adventure in each book is stand-alone so you're all set, but there are some over arching story lines that continue from book to book, and a real diehard fan would miss out on the continuity. Steve Berry does mention something that happened at some point in the past (I presume the last book) that obviously impacted the dynamic between the regular character's in the series, so if that kind of thing drives you crazy, them line 'em up.

Cotton Malone is a good character. I've probably said that in the past; what I like about him is he's not overwrought. He's got some skills and experience, but it all seems achievable and grounded in reality. As with all of the stories in the series (that I've read) this one includes a seed of history that needs to be discovered as part of the sleuthing/spy-work Malone needs to to complete his mission. Being well read must be a help with that, and as usual, the historic bits have both real and some made up parts to jazz up the story. In the backmatter of the book, Berry explains what is real and what he embellished. What is usually surprising is how much of that crazy stuff is real.

Its been a while, but I don't think I liked this one as much as some of the earlier ones, but this was fun to read.

ideagraph

I'm probably not the first one to come up with something like this, but I did develop this without researching other things which may be similar, so it may need to be tweaked as I begin to test it out. I've done one test so far, mapping out a series of ideas and things to see where they fit. With a little fiddling, I was able to come up with results that seemed like a proof-of-concept this isn't exactly the scientific method at work here I'll probably post a version of that test run at some point but for now I wanted to post  the chart in the hope that it may be helpful to at least a fraction of the half-dozens of people that occasionally wander past this blog.

Clicky-click to bigenate. Use at will, according to rules below please*

The IdeaGraph was born on a short walk I took at work the other day. I walked past a bus/camper parked in front of the Artisan's Asylum. This vehicle is some kind of mobile eye exam venture. I know this because I searched for what it was after seeing what I did. As I approached, looking up from a vantage point that was probably too close for maximum effect, I saw a bus painted mostly pale-peach, with a large, black graphic made of curving black lines, overlapping in a random way, forming a large tapered arc. What? I'm too close, so I looked again assuming it was something normally smaller than 8 feet long. Ah, an eyebrow. Yep, there's another one, down the other end. A little hard to see from where I was approaching. There is a spot that juts out when parked, fancy camper style, making the front end brow harder to see. I'm almost past it now, searching for what would have two big eyebrows, clearly a face graphic, no, a photo. There's the name, opto-blah,  whatever, but where are the eyes? Just eyebrows? No...

The eyes are the wheels! oh, I get it

Round, black, shiny hubcaps. yeah, sure, but...

Wait, the eyes are... dirty, sort of separated from the rest of the face by the wheel wells, the dark hollows are like the eye sockets in a skull, the eyes are detached, dangling, lumpy, dry, filthy, and wait... they're actually touching the street! In the gutter! Ground right in there, smooshed into the asphalt and the grit, flattening out the irises... bleeahck

Yeah, its kind of gross. Dumb. Not a good design. Not a good idea. The antithesis of eye health.

It probably started out as an interesting idea. That's how design works.But how do we know whether or not something that looks good on paper or a computer screen will work in reality. what if we tear off the eyelids, and scrub the eyes in the dirt. forever. yeah, lets try that Some things need to be mocked-up, prototyped, tested. But before we go to the trouble, we just need to think about things a little more before foisting them onto humanity.

IdeaGraph won't help you determine if your idea is worth realizing by plugging in some numbers, or cranking it through some algorithm, but it may help you to see where your idea lies in relation to other ideas. This is the reason I'm not including my own test mapping. Everyone has their own value system and the mapping skews toward what works for you. Disclaimer: In order to be useful for idea realization, you will need to think about the norms of the society upon which you be doing your foisting while mapping on IdeaGraph. So what does it do? It may just help to organize your thoughts.

How does it work? IdeaGraph helps organize ideas (and real things) by fitting them into an overall framework of their relative weights, and seeing how they compare to one another, with some Venn diagram aspects to it. The map has no real scale, and if you blow it up you can fit more into it. The more ideas you enter, the more helpful it becomes. Thinking about things that are real, as ideas rather than physical things is helpful when mapping. George Washington was definitely a real guy, but the idea of George Washington, or taxes, or music (regardless of whether you consider these things as worth it) will help you map.

An oval representing ALL IDEAS sits at the center of the graph. This oval shape represents every idea we have or can have, and its expanding over time. The ALL IDEAS oval is overlaid, Venn diagram-style, with a parabola representing GOOD, which grows upward, and is potentially infinite. The mirror of that, EVIL, is a parabola which extends downward, and is also potentially infinite. Think positive and negative on the y axis with Venn aspects.

GOOD and EVIL overlap in the center, creating a zone where things and ideas are both good and evil, again, Venn diagram-style, but with scale. The further ideas are located from the center, vertically, the more good or evil they are. Where they overlap, ideas are more meh, but the scale is still important.

There is also a scale from left to right. The further things are to the right on IdeaGraph, the more helpful they are, the further left, the less helpful (or more detrimental, depending on your viewpoint.) The line between MORE HELPFUL and LESS HELPFUL is not vertical. The higher ideas get on the vertical scale, the more the line (shown in red) slides to the left. The more evil things get, the more the line slides right. At the upper and lower limits, really good is always helpful, and really bad is never helpful. Even though the arrows are shown graphically, they are not overlays in the Venn diagram sense, its just a relative scale. Think positive and negative on the x axis.

Running vertically through GOOD and EVIL is a vague strip of weirdness. This band is a little murky and expands at the upper and lower limits, where it also becomes more vague. Unlike the line between more and less helpful, the weird band is an overlay of the GOOD and EVIL zones (Venn again) but its character changes; it doesn't have a fixed value. Its has some labels along the band to help you decide where things fall. For example, weird ideas on the low end of the GOOD scale are just ODD. The higher you go, the more lofty, and lower things get darker. Fee free to add your own intermediate labels to fine tune the scale.

Within ALL IDEAS is a smaller oval shape representing ACHIEVABLE IDEAS. These are the ideas that can be spun up into tangible things: buildings, books, movies, art, governments, nuclear bombs, etc. That means the oval ring of ALL IDEAS that sits outside ACHIEVABLE IDEAS contains the rest of our collective intangible ideas: greed, charity, despotism, faith, dragons, magic, Satan, etc.

Both the ALL and ACHIEVABLE ideas ovals extend left and right beyond the bounds of GOOD and EVIL. Some ideas and things are neither good nor evil, but we still need to decide if they are helpful or not. For example, I would argue that optimism exists outside the limits of good and evil, and as an intangible idea, it sits in the oval ring. Maybe it does; if so, does it fit on the left or the right?

The green circular area floating high at the center is labeled "Ideas worth considering." I put it here, on the good side of the scale, but overlapping the bad a little, spanning equally left and right, but a closer look at the red line shows that this zone is more helpful than not. This is where my value system indicates I should be looking. Yours may differ slightly. This zone has no hard limit; its more Vennish than Venn. This zone also extends outside what is achievable, with the hope that we can expand that oval.

Lastly is a red colored parabola, that makes up a very small portion of what is actually achievable. This is the "Ideas worth realizing" zone. This is where you want to be. It sits on the good side, but not too high, and extends to infinity on the right, toward helpful. The smallest bit of the parabola extends to the left, and the bottom just touches on bad, assuming that some ideas worth realizing may not always be extremely helpful, or without a darker side, but only at the very lowest scales. The red zone is also overlapped by the weirdness zone; some things worth doing may also be a little weird. This is where some art, comedy, and Shakespeare live. A blow-up of this zone, mapped with only real things may be helpful for graphing your ideas when they are close to fruition, to see if they fall in the red zone, or if they are just outside it (like scraping your eyeballs on the pavement) or way outside it (like Fat Man and Little Boy.)

Download it, print it out, fool around with it, and let me know if it works for you. And tell me where IdeaGraph and this blog post fit on IdeaGraph. I'm guessing a shorter post would probably move up and to the right, but I'm not sure if it makes it to the red zone! Based on my experience, mapping ideas can get pretty funny, pretty quickly.


* You are free to use the IdeaGraph for whatever you would like as long as you maintain the copyright information, the title, and the text referring to this blog. Also give credit to me, and link back here. If you decide to derive from the ideas and/or intellectual property manifest within IdeaGraph for profit, whether or not you've modified the graphics and text, then be a grownup and send me a fat check.**

** If you're unsure if this is the right course of action, plot it on the IdeaGraph without lying to yourself.*** And then send me the check.

*** If you are an evil person, IdeaGraph won't work for you, because everything you plot will be skewed down and left. Lying to yourself is as indivisible from evil as responsibility is indivisible from privilege.

last mile

Like the last book I read, I also borrowed this one from my wife. I've read a couple of Baldacci's books, and I don't like him as much as some of the other prolific action writers out there, but this one wasn't bad. I guess I have a little trouble with the dimension of his characters. I don't really understand how the main character's head works. Maybe that's the point about Amos Decker, but I'm not sure if its that, or if that's just the writing, because I don't really understand any of the minor character's either. There are a bunch of people that are included in Amos Decker's newly formed team, and even the most prominent of them seems like a stand-in. A borrowed stereotype that is completely 2-dimensional and we're relied upon, almost exclusively, to fill in the blanks of these characters. They just seem to wander into scenes and say lines the main character can react to and then disappear.

When one of the new team members goes missing, I'm like, who? I don't even know this person, I have no idea why they are on the team, and I'm not sure the team does either. And then it seems like a day or two will go by and then someone seems very concerned about finding the missing teammate and I realize that I'd forgotten they were gone. Because it seemed like everyone in the story had forgotten they were gone too.

That said, the Amos Decker character is interesting. His personality and the way he thinks is the engine behind the plot. The story has some twists to it, that only Decker can see, and then they are revealed to us in short order. I'm not wild about the tactics sometimes; like Decker scribbling a note on a slip of paper at the end of a planning meeting and saying something like, then this is what we'll do. No one would do that. They've just been talking in a room for 20 minutes, why would he suddenly stop and write something down instead of just saying it, if only to keep it from us for a chapter or two. I don't feel like the author should be huddling with his characters and whispering so I can't hear. hey Dave, I'm right here. I can see you hiding stuff with your hand 

So if you're like me and you need something to read, this is definitely something to read. There's pages and everything.

no middle name

I just borrowed No Middle Name: The Complete Collected Jack Reacher Short Stories from my wife, who hadn't read it yet. She picked it up recently in paperback and I was looking for something to read. I've read a bunch of the Reacher Stories, but not in order, and I certainly haven't read all of them. I didn't know what this one was about--I don't usually read book jackets and back covers--so I was on my third story before realizing that this wasn't a novel and I was reading a series of unrelated short stories. I remember thinking, we're really jumping around in time, and I'm not sure how these things are even related

The way I've noted the title with its sub-title above, its a little easier to see. The sub-title on the book cover is a little small, as you can see in the image to the left. If the size of the text on the cover is any indicator, and I assume it is, Lee Child is what is selling the book, Jack Reacher is next in line, and the book's title is third, almost an afterthought down there at the bottom. And the sub-title? Well, you're going to need to dig for that, its not even as important as the best seller list crap. Its even written in that too-narrow-to-read, Surgeon General's Warning font. warning, the information contained here is not really meant to be read

The stories range from novella size to a few pages that read more like a slice-of-life; just Reacher being a good guy. Some of the stories fill in some of his early life, and other slot in between his larger adventures, and I'm not sure the timing, or where they fit in is even important. I get the feeling that Lee Child may have an idea, and if he can't spin it up into a novel, he doesn't just give up on it, he writes it through to see where it goes. Sometimes its 500 pages, and other times its 50. or 10.

So, as I said to my wife when she asked me about it, it wasn't what I was expecting. Is the publisher really trying to hide the fact that this is a collection of short stories and not the next Reacher novel? I'm not sure, but I can tell you that my wife is the one who bought this, and after reading a few of the stories, she wasn't sure when they were going to get tied up into the same story either. score two for the publisher But this book is better than the last one.

My recommendation is clear, you should read this if you're a Jack Reacher fan.

essential ingredients

The School of Essential Ingredients is the first novel by Erica Bauermeister, which I picked up in paperback at my library's on-going book sale. Lillian owns a small restaurant in a quiet neighborhood, tucked into a old house with a front porch and small gardens in the yard, where she mixes flowers with herbs she uses in the kitchen. Once a week, Lillian hosts a cooking class, on Mondays when the restaurant is closed. The story opens with Lillian, and why she got into cooking, what she thinks it did for her, and how she thinks that it may help others to connect or re-connect with people, feelings, memories, and their own sense.

Each of the following chapters is focused on one of her students in this particular class, what their history is, what they bring to the class and its explorations of flavor, memory, confidence, and connectedness. Lillian sees food as more than sustenance, she sees it as one of the essential ingredients in life. The point seems to be, that there are a number of things that we as human do throughout our lives, maybe even most of our lives (such as work) which are really essential to human life. What we need is food, water, air, and in some or most cases shelter, clothes, and to procreate. That's it. Of that short list, only food gives us the opportunity to dazzle all of our senses, or perhaps just comfort them.

The cooking class is not really about food--although the descriptions of the food and the cooking are well done, and help form the backbone on which this sweet story is about. This story is about the people in it, and how slowing down and allowing their senses to indulge can help unlock other feelings they may not have been allowing themselves to have.

It was an interesting, and sensual look at what simple pleasures can do for us, and how they may not be so simple after all. This is a great first book, and I bet was popular with the book club folks, and cooking clutch folks as well.

prisoner of heaven

I picked this book up at the library book sale because I recognized the author's name, and was pretty sure I'd read one of his books. Carlos Ruiz Zafon may be a prolific writer, but perhaps not all of his books are translated and brought to the US, what do I know. The title credits in the frontmatter of the hardcover I just read only list a few books.

I think the book I read was The Shadow of the Wind,* which is part of Ruiz's Cemetery of Lost Books series, as is this one: The Prisoner of Heaven. The way the series is described on the book jacket, these stories are related, but they don't need to be read in order. Which is probably good, as I don't think I've read any of the intervening books.

This was good. A fast read, pulled me right in. I read a lot more of this one at each siting than I did the last one. see below The story was dark, a little Gothic, romantic, sweet, sad, with a little intrigue, and glimpses at larger unseen things in the background.

The translation was done by Lucia Graves, and it appears to be British rather than North American English. After a quick look, Graves is indeed English, and a writer herself. She's also translated a lot of her father's works (Robert Graves.) I liked the translation. Sometimes translations are obvious, they seem to be a separate thing, that kind of floats over the author's work, and obscures as much it reveals. I like how Graves translates the feeling, or the meaning, rather than just the words. She finds idioms and phrases that may not match word-for-word what Ruiz has written, but they do match what he means, or needs to convey in the story. Brava Lucia Graves.




Unrelated: So, where have I been for over a month? Reading has been difficult with my house under construction; its hard to find books that are either packed away or hidden behind piles of stuff. After a couple of false starts (reading a few pages of things that I could find, but wasn't really interested in reading) I went to the library and picked out a book--Jerusalem by Alan Moore, of graphic novel fame--and its got, like 2000 pages or something. Its new so its in the 14 day book group, which means that you can only take it for 2 weeks, and then you have to renew it, which I did (once) then gave up. Its not often that I do, give up on a book that is. I felt like this one had something to say it just took... so... long... to... say it. I just couldn't get that book rolling. I've had slow starts in books before. You know, it takes 50 or a hundred pages for the author to lay out the premise and get you up to speed sometimes.

200+ pages in, in a month! and I'm still reading completely disjointed tales from the POV of a bunch of, as of yet, unrelated characters from Northampton or "The Boroughs" (Moore's hometown) and I'm not getting it. I've had this book twice as long as I'm supposed to have had it and I don't even know what its about. Might have been good, I think it could have been. A little purple however. Moore seems to suffer from trying to paint as colorful a backdrop as he can in a graphic novel with words. If each frame in a graphic novel is indeed worth a thousand words, then it appears that is about where he was headed.

This ends up being a partial review of Jerusalem as well, I guess.


* None of Ruiz's books show up here, so if I read some of his stuff, it was before 2009, when I started writing this stuff down. And that's why I started thing, so I could keep track of what I've read, and not buy the same book 3 times.

lion for easter

So for those of you who don't know, I typically try to predict whether or not March will actually go out like a lamb, and I usually make the call around the 15th ides of march, right?

Given that I can cheat my way through by waiting until the middle of the month, I'm typically pretty good at guessing, but this year, because Wednesday is no longer Prince Spaghetti Day in the Boston area, its Nor'easter Day, I blew it.

The bet I made this year is: If I'm right we'll have lamb for Easter. no brainer But if I'm wrong we'll have lion. Little did I know how difficult it would be to make good on this bet. Its really difficult to find lion meat, as it is (of course) illegal, but I did find a source on line you have to dig pretty deep and took a ride to Vermont yesterday to meet a guy who brought it over the border from Canada. Don't think its legal in Canada either, but I didn't ask a lot of questions. I won't say any more, as I'm sure that the guy I met with isn't looking for publicity.

So, one squishy package into a cooler in the trunk, and some last-minute advice to try juniper berries to help with the gaminess from my guy really, where the hell am I going to find those? and I'm off home to try and cook this stuff up. I've had it in a brine all night, with salt, peppercorns, vinegar, bayleaf, and rosemary (which I read on line is a pretty good substitute for juniper berries.)

It just went into the oven to slow roast for dinner, I'm going to deglaze the pan with gin, which is flavored with juniper berries! I hope it comes out good! In any case, I'm glad its April.

Happy Easter everyone!

barbershop libraries

From their InstaGram (without permission)

Today I heard a story about Barbershop Books on public radio. Barbershop Books is the brainchild of Alvin Irby, a ex-kindergarten teacher, and stand-up comedian, who decided to do something about encouraging--inspiring, even--black boys to read. In an interview, Irvy made a point about the reading that is assigned in schools, that has always bothered me, the negative storylines in books assigned to young people to read. My kids understood the formula, and made jokes about it, before they finished elementary school, which runs through grade 6 in my town. Here's how they described the books they read, year after year: victim of Nazis, victim of racism, or victim of Nazis AND racism.

Irvy summed it up this way (I'm paraphrasing) What are the role models black boys read about in school? Old, dead, black men who's stories don't touch their lives, and that they can't relate to. Irvy has curated a select list of 15 books that he installs on a shelf somewhere in a participating barbershop. Books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and The Snowy Day.

These are books want to read, can relate to and are fun. The idea is to encourage reading, by making books available in a safe space. Irvy has chosen barbershops because they typically are home to men. Men interacting with one another in a comfortable, friendly, normal way. Young and old. Many of them father figures. Ingenious.

This is library.

Here's the mission, in their own words (used without permission):

"In an increasingly global and knowledge-based economy, poor reading skills among young black boys today will produce black men who are unprepared to compete in the workforce of tomorrow. Four key factors contribute to low reading proficiency among black boys: (1) limited access to engaging and age appropriate reading material; (2) lack of black men in black boys’ early reading experiences; (3) few culturally competent educators; and (4) schools that are unresponsive to black boys’ individual learning styles."

Visit Barbershop Books, and see for yourself. Kudos to Alvin Irby and Barbershop Books.

in like a lion

Lion and Lamb Eyes

I'm a little late getting my March calendar up this year, but figured I had to get with it with a big storm coming to the Northeast. Might be rain, might be a foot of snow, might be nothing. We won't know until tomorrow. Today was a bull, and tomorrow is a moose. Either one could be trouble, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Last year, March was so bad, I ended up changing the whole month to lion. I hope that's not the case this year. Enjoy!

Here's how it stacks up this year. yes, its the same every year, that's why we call it a tradition.

March 1 - Lion: Of course. Its in like a lion, right?
March 2 - Tiger: Up to 11-feet, and nearly 700 pounds!
March 3 - Bear: Oh my! Definitely polar bear this year.
March 4 - Shark: Everyone knows that shark week is not really a thing, right?
March 5 - Wolf: The Timber variety. They're coming back, baby!
March 6 - Bull: One word: Pamplona.
March 7 - Moose: Brake for moose, it could save your life.
March 8 - Eagle: Don't leave your pets outside... or your chickens.
March 9 - Scorpion: Step on it before it steps on you.
March 10 - Dingo: No, its not a stray dog.
March 11 - Hawk: Not hawkish. That's for scared people, pretending to be strong.
March 12 - Lynx: No honey, that's not a tom cat, don't feed it.
March 13 - Bat: Wanna put on your Batman suit, party on!
March 14 - Monkey: They're cute but can also throw poop! HBD Coleen!
March 15 - Snake: The Ides of March. Snakes are known for wisdom, and treachery.
March 16 - Ox: Hard working in a plodding kind of way.
March 17 - Elephant: Wise, big, powerful... gray.
March 18 - Raven: Nevermore.
March 19 - Stag: Power and compassion. Might make a good patronus.
March 20 - Crab: This one can sneak up on you. First day of spring!
March 21 - Goat: Stubborn and tough going.
March 22 - Horse: Strong and reliable. Sometimes crappy on the back end.
March 23 - Pig: Smart but messy; wear your boots today.
March 24 - Dog: Friendly and good-natured; take a walk.
March 25 - Dolphin: Fun and wet; bring an umbrella.
March 26 - Rooster: Get up early and wake the neighbors.
March 27 - Turtle: Muddy, but adorable; boots again.
March 28 - Toad: Similar to turtle, but a little squishier.
March 29 - Robin: I guess you could wear your Robin costume today. You cosplay nut!
March 30 - Rabbit: Roasted with rosemary and potatoes! HBD Kelton!
March 31 - Lamb: Mmm... arrosticini. Smells like spring!

According to one source I read "This phrase has its origins with the constellations Leo, the Lion, and Aries, the ram or lamb. It has to do with the relative positions of these constellations in the sky at the beginning and end of the month." Sounds like a stretch to me. My guess is it comes from someone making up a story to tell children around a fire, or something equally as mundane.

In any case, March is the month that brings us Spring, so it can't be all bad. But the weather might be.

Sheep eyes are weird. That's all I'm saying.

UPDATE: Happy Easter everyone! We made it, tho I was tempted to change this year to lion (or some other vicious beast) everyday. This March was one to remember. Wednesday was Nor'easter Day this month. Seems like we got one once a week all month, but it WAS sunny and warm yesterday, so lamb-like it was.