This book was very uneven for me. I like Herbert's exploration of power and possession. In this installment, 9 years have passed since twins were born to Paul Atreides, Muad Dib, emperor, and his wife, Chani. Nine years since Paul walked off into the desert, blind and ready for death. Overwhelmed by all the possible futures he had seen and choosing instead to pass the burden on to his infant children (coward).
His children, Leto II and Ghanima, are not like children at all. They too are filled with all the past lives of their ancestors. They can remember things that have fallen out of knowledge for centuries. And they have a plan for the empire. But, looking like children, they are also surrounded by powerful adults who also have plans for the empire.
The grandson of former Emperor Shaddam plots with his mother to murder the twins and take back the throne. Alia, overcome by a lifetime of attempting to repress the past lives inside her, becomes overtaken by the memory of Vladmir Harkonnen. Under his sway, she plots also to kill the twins and remain in power. And Lady Jessica, Paul's mother, returns to Dune to complete the Bene Gesserit breeding program by mating the twins together (ewwwww).
Thinking they are facing mere 9 years olds, these adults plot and scheme, all the while the twins carry out their own plan. Looks like Leto has also looked into the future and decided to make the necessary changes Paul was unwilling to make, why? Oh because it involves the death and destruction of millions, possibly billions, all in an effort to wipe the slate clean on religion and power in the empire. I didn't really buy all that Leto was selling on this and it left a bitter taste in my mouth about all the interesting facets of the power struggle going on otherwise.
Lastly, Herbert is so damn vague about so many details of the Butlerian Jihad or what is coming under Leto's "Golden Path" that it's difficult to grasp just how dangerous a position in which the players have put themselves.
3.5/5 Stars.
Here's a good plan for when you have finished an audiobook and all your other audiobooks are still on hold at the library and you're unlikely to get one for a few more weeks - you go to your Goodreads "to-read" list and you start searching to see what is available.
What is not a good idea, is to go to your library's "available now" section of audiobooks, because then you will wander blithely into picking a mediocre novel by a famous author who once "stunned" the world with a provocative explosively popular novel over a decade ago.
I think I was living in Italy when Dan Brown's The Davinci Code came out and I bought it from my Air Force Base's BX Store (in hardback!) and proceeded to read it in about three days. It was not Brown's first book to feature Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon, but it was certainly his most popular. From it a movie with Tom Hanks was made, and since I love Tom Hanks, I saw that too. But although I went back and read all of Brown's earlier work, I haven't read anything published after The Davinci Code.
So I walked into Inferno knowing that Robert Langdon was back, and this was apparently a fourth Langdon novel (I entirely missed a third that came out some time ago). And well, my impression of Inferno is that I didn't miss much. In this one, Langdon wakes up in a hospital room, having been shot in Florence, Italy and he has retrograde amnesia covering the past 48 hours. Pursued by unknown assassins, he and a young English doctor, Sienna Brooks, must follow the path left by a madman prior to his suicide. The man, a famed geneticist named Bertran Zobrist - significantly obsessed with Dante and an impending global catastrophe represented by overpopulation - has left a video of himself placing a virus in a subterranean lagoon set to deploy in the next 36 hours.
Langdon and Brooks must attempt to locate the virus before it is too late. Of course not all is as it seems, including the virus and Brooks herself.
I get it, by this point, Brown has the formula down that makes him money. Link up some obscure locations and facts, underlay a conspiracy and shadowy groups that operate on the margins, and have Langdon go on a treasure hunt of sorts to find the pieces. Voila, publishing gold. Really at this point Brown likely has so much money, more books are not necessary, but the publishing contracts don't fulfill themselves I suppose.
But this one felt a little more lifeless than the Davinci Code. A little more rote. It was sort of like a chase scene combined with a Rick Steve's guide and somehow had an underwhelming baby. The evil guy was seriously weird and twisted, but actually not that evil. The symbols were detailed and well researched, but for all that I'm not really sure they served a purpose other than leading us on a 400 page scavenger hunt.
Was I entertained? Yes. But since I wasn't on the beach or an airplane, this felt like too little work, for too little reward. I did end up recently watching the movie and several things were changed from the book, including the entire ending. (you can rent the movie here).
3/5 Stars.
Great read! This book took forever to receive from the library and it's more than 20 years old! That's how you know a book has some kind of extra quality that takes it out of the realm of popular and into a more sustainable category when it begins to weave a tale of lasting characters and universal truths.
Berendt said he was not writing a story about Savannah for Savannah, but rather about Savannah for people who had never heard of Savannah before. And he certainly delivered. In the realm of narrative non-fiction, this book is one of the best. Titillating characters, a murder, a trial, a trial, a trial and a trial - this book wraps them all up and manages to make them all relate to one another.
Berendt visits Savannah on a weekend holiday and decides he needs to set up shop there to really get a feel for the city. He's right of course, you can't visit a city and really understand it, you do have to live there. And on the way he introduces us to a cast of characters that couldn't have been made better even if the book were fiction. In fact, the best part is that none of this is fiction.
Jim Williams is a wealthy, and a bit eccentric, antiques dealer who is charged with murder in the shooting death of his young lover. Joe Odom is a charming penniless piano player/lawyer, and The Lady Chablis is a black drag queen with a huge personality. The first half of the book introduces us to these and other minor characters. The rest of the book details mostly the trial, retrial, retrial and retrial of Jim Williams for the death of Danny Hansford.
The book occasionally started to feel a little stale, but these moments were far and few between. I can see why the book has done so well, and left such a lasting mark on Savannah and people's view of Savannah. After reading the book I set out to watch the movie. Aside from Chablis, who was a real treat, the movie felt kind of flat, which was very surprising. (Watch it yourself here).
4/5 Stars.
This is a beautifully written, fascinating, tragic, and simply human look at the end of life. Tragically unfair is the diagnosis of lung cancer handed out to neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi at the age of 36. His exploration of what death and the end of life mean in this short but moving book is so succinctly and honestly written it's breathtaking.
The audio version is narrated by Sunil Malhotra, who has become one of my favorite audiobook narrators (he also narrated the audio version of Cutting for Stone - you can read my review of that book here). Malhotra's voice clearly distills the melody of Kalanithi's words.
I can't imagine getting the same news Kalanithi received at the age of 36 - my current age. On the cusp of finishing his neurosurgery residency and beginning his life's passion as a surgeon/scientist, Kalanithi's promise is cut short and the world is the lesser for his absence. His reflections of being a doctor, and then a patient are so straightforward and true, but in his description it gains an added element of empathy and understanding.
While I mourn that the world lost such a giving soul and brilliant mind, it's consolation (though small) that he left behind this beautiful piece of work that somehow avoids being overly sad and saccharine, and goes right to the heart of matters, without getting needlessly weepy.
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| Paul Kalanithi, M.D. |
Thank goodness for clear-headed Scots, or this book would have been a real mess. Maddie, her husband Ellis, and their friend Hank decide to travel to Drumnadrochit, a small town on the shores of Loch Ness, during the middle of WWII to capture evidence of "The Monster." See, both Hank and Ellis are 4F, unfit for service in the war due to flat footedness and color blindness, respectively. Two otherwise able bodied men about town, Ellis and Hank are increasingly uncomfortable with the judgments they get from others.
This all comes to a head on New Year's Eve, when Ellis, Hank and Maddie get so drunk at a party that they misbehave and Ellis claims his father's spotting of the Loch Ness Monster many years before was a sham. This is apparently a family sore spot, as his father claims to have photographic evidence of his sighting, but later journalists claimed the photos were a hoax. Word about this gets back to Ellis' parents, with whom he and Maddie live, and his father decides to cut Ellis off and kick him and his wife out of the house.
I should mention at this point that Ellis has nowhere to go with his wife because HE'S A HORRIBLE PERSON. Seriously, the guy is THE WORST. It's obvious from very early on in the book. So Hank and Ellis book passage for the three of them across the ocean amid u-boat sinkings and all so Ellis can prove there is a monster and redeem his father and family's honor. The arrive at an Inn and act like completely spoiled brats because during a war there isn't anything better to eat for breakfast than porridge.
There's a bunch of whining on the part of Maddie as she has no idea how she'll survive if Ellis leaves her at the Inn on her own. But eventually, she becomes more likeable by whining less and the two women, Anna and Meg, that work at the Inn befriend her. They teach Maddie how to do her own hair, and basically be a decent human being, all the while HORRIBLE Ellis and slightly less horrible Hank run around completely oblivious.
But you know what's not oblivious, Ellis has a real thing for Hank. And when it turns out that Ellis got to marry Maddie due to the result of a coin toss, it's not all that surprising that the arrangement suited Ellis, who barely shows interest in his wife, and would rather spend time with Hank. No one else seems to say this, but at some point it becomes clear that everyone finally gets it. And at that point, I had a Dixie Chicks moment and knew that "Ellis had to die." I mean, it gets to the point that the only solution is for Ellis to die.
The rest of the story leading up to will he or won't he die is a bit predictable. But the stakes are raised for our Maddie and the owner of the Inn, a war hero named Angus who broods in the background smolderingly.
I think I'd say this book was 3.5 stars, but it gets 4 because Maddie finally became a likeable character about 40% of the way through the book.
4/5 Stars.
I've been sitting on this review for a couple of days. I know. I know. I usually am able to review something quickly, but for some reason, I don't know where to begin. I thought I'd give it a few days to percolate out but alas, lacking in divine inspiration I'm going to move forward and hope it makes sense.
The Nix is one of the most highly rated books of 2016. It has a lot going for it. It's funny, hilarious even at points, a total satire on our current culture, but also somehow extremely truthful, it covers a wide range of issues, but somehow feels intimate and personal at points.
I'm not sure how Nathan Hill does this, although having 600+ pages to work with certainly helps. And at times this book did feel long. I listened to the audio version and have to say the narrator was GREAT!
Is the story about Samuel Andreson-Anderson, a has-been english professor whose life is in shambles? Or his mother, Faye Andreson, who abandons Samuel in his pre-teen years and vanishes without a trace. Until, that is, she appears on cell phone video throwing rocks at Senator Packer, a staunchly conservative candidate for president. Samuel's publisher, to whom Samuel has owed a manuscript for years, threatens to sue Samuel for all the advance money he was paid, unless Samuel pens a scathing tell-all about the mother who abandoned him at age 11.
Samuel agrees and then attempts to figure out what exactly his mother was doing all those years before she became his mother, and then after she left him and his father. The story then takes us back and forth between Samuel's life and troubles (he's being taken down by a vengeful co-ed whom Samuel fails in the first couple chapters), and Faye's history.
Samuel, despite himself, begins to understand Faye. She once told him, "The things you love the most will one day hurt you the worst." And it's true, of Faye, whom Samuel desperately loved as a child. And it's true for Faye, who desperately loved and wanted to please her own father who in turn had issues of his own. Faye too, must take the time to understand her own father and in turn, forgive him.
There's a wonderful and heartbreaking cycle of love and disappointment in the story that Samuel first starts to unravel when he begins to forgive his mother. And yet, in all the descriptions above, I feel like I've made the book seem weightier than it really is. Because in the midst of all this, you have Samuel's friend Pwnage, an avatar Samuel meets in the computer game Elfscape, a clever twist on the word "escape," where Samuel spends hours everyday avoiding the empty shell his life has become.
What Faye tells us is that "if a new beginning is really new, it will feel like a crisis. Any real change should make you feel, at first, afraid. If you’re not afraid of it, then it’s not real change." And I think this is really felt throughout the book. While it seems like a description of the ultimate crisis in both Faye and Samuel's lives, the book ends up being a new beginning for them both. And it's hopeful which seems entirely impossible given how dire everything seems through the rest of the story.
This is a thinking book and a feeling book. But it's also a long book, so if you aren't willing to invest in the payoff, beware.
That Nathan Hill manages to loop in 1940s Norway, 1960s Chicago and 2011 New York and make it all seem completely obvious these things would have something to do with each other is a testament to his skill as a writer. Since this novel took him ten years to write (he writes long hand - CRAZY), I don't expect anything new soon and I hope he doesn't feel pressured to crank out something too fast. But when his next book does come out, count me in.
5/5 Stars
On a recent work trip to Portland, OR, I found myself at Powell's Books. I've you've ever been to Portland, you've probably visited here. It takes up an entire city block. It's shelves are filled of new and used books. There are helpful tags everywhere regarding staff picks and recommendations. Good God, I could have spent hours here. And so ironically, I'm Thinking of Ending Things was a book I picked up on the first pass through the first room I entered. It's one of NPR's 2016 Books of the Year. So I figured I couldn't go wrong.
For all the hype, I guess the book was a bit of a let down. Although it does some things very well for what it is. I should probably stress that horror is not my go-to genre. I don't seek out opportunities to be scared. But if you're into that thing, this book sets up very nicely. We start with driving in the car with Jake and his girlfriend. It took me a few chapters to realize she doesn't have a name, even though the narration is from her point of view. She's thinking of ending her relationship with Jake, but then she describes all the things she finds wonderful about him. So the premise feels off. I was wary. And then after a while and they were still in the car, I was bored.
This is a 210 page book and the first 100 pages of the book are of Jake and the GF in the car driving to his parent's house. Who decides to break up with a guy but still agrees to meet his parents? The GF is also keeping a secret from Jake in that she is getting threatening phone calls from someone she refers to as "The Caller", someone who calls from her own number and then leaves cryptic voicemails.
So there is this overarching uneasiness that starts to develop in the drive out to his parents that then evolves into a more menacing feeling as the meeting with the parents is predictably awkward. Jake's mom is a bit off and the house seems empty and old. There is a building of menace and it's very well done.
Getting you even further into the plot would ruin a lot of things and the final twist, but I admit I didn't see it coming, although I did have a feeling that something was definitely off. The plot twist seems a little gimmicky and overall is like a push to have you read the book again from the perspective of knowing the ending (almost like wanting to go back and watch The Sixth Sense from the beginning once you find out Bruce Willis has been dead the entire time).
3/5 Stars.
This book was very uneven for me. I like Herbert's exploration of power and possession. In this installment, 9 years have passed since twins were born to Paul Atreides, Muad Dib, emperor, and his wife, Chani. Nine years since Paul walked off into the desert, blind and ready for death. Overwhelmed by all the possible futures he had seen and choosing instead to pass the burden on to his infant children (coward). 
