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I just got back from a six week hiatus back in Canada, that unfortunately is quickly fading. During the lovely break I had the opportunity to read a lot, something which I find hard to do during the usual hustle and bustle of work life.

So, for those that may be interested here is the list of books I read, in order, and with my ‘quick and dirty’ review of each.

Enjoy!
(The italicized synopsis are stolen from various web sources, Google them if you want)

1. The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life.

My Review
I’m huge Neal Stephenson fan. I went through this fairly quickly, and really enjoyed it for the most part. I was slightly disappointed in the end as it felt a bit rushed and wrapped up, whereas the previous parts of the book felt more well-paced to me.

I saw a lot of parallels in how Nanotech has affected everyday life within the book, to how the Internet has affected our lives at the moment.
I think Neal Stephenson captured the integration idea perfectly. Rather than being this complete Utopian society, it has simply been integrated into our lives in ways both wonderful and mundane. Just as the Internet allows fantastic ideas to emerge, it also reflects our vanity and provides a new platform for things as annoying as advertising. Nanotech provides those same platforms in the Diamond Age.

There are still rich and poor class divisions, but Diamond Age also imagines a progress towards a society which is gathering in groups of shared ideals (eg. Victorians, Confucians, etc), rather than geographic political boundaries for law, economic benefit, and so on.

I also like how Stephenson contrasts and compares between Western and Eastern cultures; their interpretation and uses for this technology.

Apparently a sci-fi mini-series is in the works, that could be well worth a watch! Though I’d also like to the see the Baroque Cycle made into a series…

2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) is a parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith. It is a mashup[1] combining Jane Austen’s classic 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice with elements of modern zombie fiction. Austen is credited as co-author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was first published in April 2009 by Quirk Books.

My Review
Very enjoyable and fun read. This book uses the actual storyline of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austin is co-author, but combines it with an underlying zombie storyline in which England has been a bit overrun by “unmentionables. The Bennet girls exhibit the same behaviors and attitudes as the original novel but have also been trained in the “deadly arts” of kung-fu. The great classic dialogue is still there, but there is a bit of poking fun at that “very polite” style of conversation along the way.

I’m a big fan of the zombie genre, having read comics, watched movies and played video games along those lines. I also like good literature and took some English Lit classes at University. I think anyone who enjoys classic literature would enjoy this as it is a very unique riff on the old styles, and they should be able to enjoy the way in which the new zombie storyline and the original have been interwoven. I would actually recommend reading the original before reading this one to have a better appreciation for the integration of the themes.

The other fantastic thing about this book is that it shows what art and culture falling into the public domain can allow us to create. New works, both fun and serious. Something to consider during the current copyright struggles.

3. The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho
The book tries to find an answer to a question that arises in the human mind at times of distress, rejection or betrayal. Put simply, the question is “Are people bad?”.

My Review
Well written book that I plowed through in less than a day while soaking up some sun by a lake. Some strong points emerge about human nature, greed, are we intrinsically good or bad, etc.

I found there was no real character that was the “bad guy” nor the “good guy”, which was more than likely very intentional given the main theme.

In the end I was left with some things to debate myself, whether I agreed with the outcomes likelihood and the motivations for some of the characters.

A good weekend read.

4. Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
A bestselling non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer.[1] It details the author’s May 10, 1996 ascent of Mount Everest, which turned catastrophic when eight climbers were killed and several others were stranded by a ‘rogue storm’.

My Review
Highly recommend this book. Fantastically written and highly descriptive, Krakauer really pulls you into the true life experience and you feel like you are there.

You can almost feel the cold, the pain, the exhaustion, the lack of oxygen. I sometimes found it hard to breathe while reading this book when he got into detailed descriptions of the effects of low-level oxygen at high altitudes.

Beyond the physical writing, the other climbers are well described and much of the book is very emotionally raw. I can’t imagine what it was like for those that had to see so many lost, while struggling for their own survival.

I was reading this book as I travelled from Vanderhoof to Terrace BC by Via Rail. That train route follows along the base of the Coast Mountain range and I often looked up to those breathtaking peaks as I was reading.

Oddly enough, despite the content of the book, I found myself considering taking up climbing….

5. Who’s Your City – Richard Florida
Where we live matters more than we may think, says the man who made the “creative class” part of the lexicon. In his new book, Who’s Your City?, Richard Florida examines how “mega-regions” are driving the global economy and how each one is informed by its own distinct personality. Where we choose to live, argues the director of the University of Toronto’s Martin Prosperity Institute , is crucial not only to how we live and who we share our lives with, but also to what kind of career we end up having.

My Review
Where I will be living within the next couple years is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. Particularly as I was back in Canada and visiting family and friends. This book does a great job of really making you think about all aspects involved and what is most important to you.

It also has a lot of great data on what different cities offer by way of housing, work, art, environment and so on. It covers how different stages of our lives may mean moving to somewhere better suited for that stage.

It also takes on some of the ideas of Internet and “global village” concepts, in that it may not be that easy to be sitting in some remote cottage while still doing the work you may want to do. Physically close connections to people, and cities is a key driver towards creativity and productivity for some industries.

6. Tropic of Cancer – Henry Miller
First published in 1934 by Obelisk Press in Paris. Its publication in 1961 in the United States by Grove Press led to an obscenity trial that was one of several that tested American laws on pornography in the 1960s. While famous for its frank and often graphic depiction of sex, the book is also widely regarded as an important masterpiece of 20th century literature.

My Review
My first Henry Miller novel. Guess you could say I was a Henry Miller virgin, hehehe…..

All I ever heard about this novel before was in relation to sex, but I have to say that is a very minor part of the amazing novel. It certainly wouldn’t register on the shock-o-meter by today’s standards, which I think is good because maybe now we can focus on the actual novel.

My god! This guy could write. The way he strings together words to create a poetic stream of ideas and thoughts, your brain melts and at the same time it sets off all the pleasure receptors.

He alternates between this poetic, abstract approach and a more biographic story-telling of his day to day life, his friends and misadventures in Paris. I admit I enjoyed and laughed a lot during these more autobiographical chapters. But the parts of the book that kept me coming back to re-read again and again were the more poetic aspects.

In the book, He writes frequently of the decay of American culture, its boringness in comparison to Old World Europe. No doubt, he’d have even more to say today. The ideas in there are still relevant today, appreciate art, appreciate life! Be human.

I kept calling it Fear and Loathing in Paris, to those who asked me to describe it while reading it.

7. Gods Behaving Badly – Marie Phillips
Being immortal isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Life’s hard for a Greek god in the 21st century: nobody believes in you any more, even your own family doesn’t respect you, and you’re stuck in a dilapidated hovel in north London with too many siblings and not enough hot water…

My Review
Very clever book. The premise being that all the old Greek myths are actually true, but that their power is directly related to how much “us mortals” actually believe. Modern belief being fairly low, the Gods have been reduced to shacking up together in a flat in London.

Nothing ground shattering or thought provoking, just a thoroughly enjoyable read, full of funny situations and clever takes on what these Gods would be doing now. For example Aphrodite is a phone-sex operator, Artemis is a dog-walker, and Dionysus runs a popular night club.

8. Three Bags Full – Leonie Swann
A work of detective fiction which features a flock of anthropomorphic Irish sheep out to solve the murder of their shepherd. Written originally in German by Leonie Swann, the novel has been translated in to more than 15 languages.

My Review
Picked this up one near the end of the vacation, heading back to New Zealand so why not a book about sheep. A good mystery that I can honestly say kept me guessing til the end.

The added twist of having all the events interpreted to you by a flock of sheep makes it all the more fun. Their take on human behavior and beliefs led to more than a few chuckles.

There was also a nice underlying theme around nature, sheep being more closely connected to their environment and humans appearing so far removed from it.

Some nice plays on religion as well, given the terms shepard, flock etc, and the sheep’s interpretation of the role of the village priest and church.

9. Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen
Life in the state of Florida is solitary, nasty, brutish and short in Carl Hiaasen’s comedy of revenge, Sick Puppy. Like his earlier novels (Native Tongue, Striptease), Hiaasen mines South Florida for some of the greediest, slimiest, and most grotesque characters in popular fiction. But unlike his colleagues, Hiaasen girds his black comedies with serious political commentary.

My Review
After a couple of fairly light-hearted and quirky books I felt like something a little darker. Sick Puppy does that very well. It is a black comedy but one that strikes so close to reality sometimes, you realize how screwed up we are. You’ll laugh, shake your head, and likely get a bit angry.

This is how politics works at its worst, back-handed deals done on Golf Courses that guarantee whole ecosystems are forever destroyed. Then its back to the club for a cigar and a nice drink.

In this book we at least have a couple of protagonists, though somewhat unhinged, who don’t take this kind of thing lying down and set out to make life very difficult for the types of people who never stop and think about what their actions are really achieving.