A few of the books and such that I've finished up recently...
"Halting States" by Charles Stross was a great little mini-thriller/detective story/day after tomorrow future/geek/gaming fun house. Basic premise? a bunch of orcs break into an online world and rob the vault, but in reality they maybe are chinese hackers trying to take down the economy in the real world (or substantial parts of it). Not as unlikely as it sounds. Team up a reclusive geek and a sword wielding analyst and add some random english wit and you've got another diverting ride from Mr. Stross. I recommend just about anything he's ever written.
"Nova Swing" by M. John Harrison was a book. Meh. Not bad, I liked some of his other work but this one seemed like just too much for me to get my head into. I finally did and it wasn't bad, but not worth spending money on. Set in a world where some alien artifact, manifested as a sort of dimensional tear in the fabric of things, makes predicting what will happen if you walk down a street hard to do. People (or something like them) start coming out of the tear and others are adventurers who want to go in. Whatever.
"Beautiful Children" by Charles Bock is a richly detailed journey into the seedier side of Las Vegas, adolescence, wasted youth, run away children, lost dreams and crushing helplessness. Well done. Bleak. Kinda reminded me in some parts of Chuck Palahniuk's work (though without the evil giggle burbling out of the edges of the page).
"Firstborn" is another time odyssey book by Arthur C. Clark and Stephen Baxter. Fluffy sorta hard sci-fi. Nothing really to see but distracting if you need that sorta thing.
"Proust was a Neuroscientist" by Jonah Lehrer is an interesting attempt to meld science and art. The author is the editor of Seed magazine which is a pretty nicely crafted art/science journal in itself. In this book he takes a number of artists (Proust, Cezanne, Walt Whitman, Auguste Escoffier, etc.) and explores how their art predated, predicted, explored current advances in science decades ahead of time. I enjoyed some aspects of the book and found others a bit of a stretch. Jonah is a really smart guy and I'll keep an eye out for more from him.
"Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson was a great exploration of Einstein's life and theories. Written to be accessible to a broader audience, Isaacson tries hard to explain some pretty heavy stuff. The biography is based on some recently released personal papers and as such is probably the most complete history of Einstein's life. Great nuggets? He graduated from school and spent 2 years or more trying to get a job and couldn't get anyone to give him the time of day (probably in part because he was jewish and in part because he sorta alienated a few of his professors). Worth reading.
"The Age of Turbulence" by Alan Greenspan was both a memoir (he dated Barbara Walters, was dragged to celebrity parties, and declined Nixon's offer of a job in the white house after seeing Nixon lose it during a high pressure meeting for instance) and economic treatise (his basic theory is that market economies supported by an evenly applied rule of law and strong property rights have done more to raise the standard of living throughout the world than any other form of government AND that they are incredibly resilient to the ebb and flow of the human psyche). If you're interested in the economic implications of the current and future world (on its current trajectory), read it.
"The World To Come" by Dara Horn was a nice surprise. I picked it up on the road without really knowing what to expect and really enjoyed it. The story revolves around a child prodigy, artists from Russia (Chagall figures prominently), generational love stories and the plight of Russian Jews. In a sense its a book of stories about the world to come, many resurrected from lost Russian writers. Lyrical, imaginative, poignant, and captivating.
Other things...
Yeah Juno is actually really well done, and the sound track crackles, Charlie Wilson's War is pitch perfect, funny and deeply sad and I really did not like Sweeney Todd (I really can't stand musicals and almost walked out a few times even though I wanted so much to like it).
2 comments:
Yeah, I've been telling everyone how much I didn't care for Sweeney Todd. Didn't like the songs. Very gross. I loved how once the plot of the "main characters" was resolved Joanna and what's-his-name (the sailor kid) just fall off the earth.
I keep wanting to like tim burton, I really liked his earlier work but this one (and really even the wonka one) just seem like a downward spiral (like nobody will tell him there is no heart in the films or something).
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