Wants to read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
book
Rated The Crow Road 6/10
<div>It's definitely not a bad book, but it takes until the second half to really kick off at all, plot-wise. I definitely wanted to know how it all shook out, but there are a lot of, let's say, privileged people problems. And one truly cringe-worthy sex scene at the end that involves Morse code. Yes, really</div>
Wants to read I'm Not Saying, I'm Just Saying
Rated Doctor Who: The Marian Conspiracy 10/10
<div>I'd heard only one story with Evelyn before, so I didn't have a proper appreciation for her yet, but now I do! What a great character. Really glad I bought the bundles that contain all her stories so I can hear them all now. This is a good throwback to when the show did more full-on historical tales. </div>
Rated The Truth Lenders: A multimedia novel 8/10
2510: After the wars, science progressed to the point where other species live and work among the reduced human population. A pharmaceutical news conglomerate called News Now! Corporation controls much of this post-progress society, in which anti-establishment, anti-corporate critics are regularly persecuted and atomically rearranged into more useful items — say, vegetables or water for a struggling third world nation. The island of Manhattan no longer exists; in its place is the undercity Atlas, domed beneath the ocean, climate controlled and accessible by the subway-like trundcar. Children are taught The New Language Model in their Zen English classes, with hopes of phasing out language in order to attain enlightenment. Reading has fallen out of favor with so many voice-activated devices and there are only two remaining independent bands on the planet. Amidst all this is a news anchor, Sammy, a beautiful woman who the entire world has come to know and trust.<br><br>Architect and designer Peter Scharber, along with his colleague Donaldson West, are part of the team testing News Now! Corporation’s latest venture — a pill that takes subscribers inside any news story while they sleep. Sammy guides them as the story appears to happen in real time, and by the time a person wakes, they are informed. Before long Peter and Donaldson begin suspect that the company is up to something far more sinister than the easy distribution of information.<br><br>In her first novel, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen <i>(pronounced Twee Zoh Win)</i> has created an entire world where she explores creativity, realism and metaphysics. Much in the same way one has to adjust to reading works written hundreds of years ago, there is a lot of new information to absorb. Realizing this, the book is peppered with footnotes to provide a greater sense of place. Early on Peter and Donaldson discuss the Sammy Brain Project:<br><br><blockquote>“Right now they’re injecting nanosensors into her skin, and it doesn’t hurt because they’re so nano from the shrinking algorithms (18).”<br></blockquote><br><br>Rather than have the characters reveal information that they would already know, the reader jumps to the bottom of the page for an explanation:<br><br><blockquote>18 Atoms, theoretically, are mostly empty. The nucleus of any particular atom is a volumetrically small fraction of the atom, while the electron cloud is a tiny fraction of both mass and volume. Scientists went and compressed that wasted space in the development of shrinking technology. As a side benefit, no more jail overcrowding.</blockquote><br><br><br>The story has a subtle, meta humor, one that calls attention the fact that it is indeed a book with a reader, and that the writer and reader have present-day knowledge. There are jokes about fonts, picas, books and culture that are especially funny if one has ever worked in the publications industry. Broadsheet newspapers are considered rude in this world because they take up so much space, therefore interfering with the personal space of others. Instead, Atlas has a more “acceptable” newspaper (knowingly called <i>The Atlas Shrug</i>), which comes in a width of 46 pica — roughly the same width as the human headspan. All of its stories are corporation and government approved. In opposition is an underground form of journalism, operating in basements and printing stories about corruption, all while planning a creative uprising, the Nostalgia Movement. They want to show the value of the history, justice and free-thinking, for “There is nothing more valuable than something true and authentic.”<br><br>What makes the novel multimedia? Beyond textual footnotes is an enclosed CD that is referenced throughout the story. When the mainstream and publically-traded band SpynSpeck [Spine-Speck:]’s trademark song, “Duck Wave Function,” is mentioned, a footnote directs the reader to the appropriate track. There, one can hear just what a deconstructural, robo-rock pop band sounds like and how they recycle small fractions of existing songs into new ones. “They contributed to a post-post-postmodern musical movement in which new styles challenged what people classified as true music,” a footnote informs.<br><br>Telegrams, news broadcasts, and single lines of dialogue are also represented on the CD, and while it might be occasionally cumbersome to have the CD queued up while reading, it does add a certain level of engagement to the experience. Whole essays and articles have been written about the trouble with writing about fictional music, about how the reader interprets a audible medium by absorbing it visually instead, but Thuy saves the reader the trouble.<br><br>Of course, this begs the question: Is the Footnotes CD a mere bonus feature, or is it like the News Now! pills, “helpfully” informing the reader without that pesky burden of self-interpretation? Perhaps it is just one more meta moment in a meta-futuristic novel, a wink towards the plot itself.<br><br><i>The Truth Lenders</i> also acknowledges that no creative work is a one-(wo)man show. Thuy self-published the novel with the help of other designers, musicians and artists who live in and around the Spokane, Washington area. The Footnotes CD was produced, mixed and mastered by Joe Varela of Black Lab Recording Studios in San Francisco, a man who gets a nod within the story itself every time “Varela University” is mentioned. There are extensive credits as to who did what at the back of the book, as well as a list of recommended reading that informed the story. Musicians Kevin Long, Dane Ueland, Ross Robinette contribute their fictional selves to the CD, as well as Spokane writers Kurt Olson and Isamu Jordan. No person pulls all their ideas from the ether after all, so even the sources for jokes receive credit.<br><br>The end result of all this collaboration is an entire world which takes some time to acclimate, but provides plenty of thought-provoking ideas. And while, yes, the story is more concept-over-character, the characters are rendered clearly. Their history unfolds gradually as society begins to value the past again. While there’s a lot going on and infinite details to digest, it’s helpful to just keep going, trusting that all will align in the end. <i>The Truth Lenders</i> is possibly a one-of-a-kind effort, original both in its content and delivery, and for that, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen deserves utmost praise.<br><br><br>For those interested in purchasing the book, contact Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen at truthlenders [at :] gmail [dot:] com or visit <a href="http://www.truthlenders.com">truthlenders.com</a> For those who live in the Spokane, WA area, it is also available at Auntie's Bookstore.<br><br><i>(This review originally appeared on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-lenders-multimedia-novel-by-thuy.html">Glorified Love Letters</a> on April 27, 2010.)</i>
Wants to read The Secret Lives of People in Love
Wants to read Creativity: The Perfect Crime
Rated Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook 8/10
Detailing portions of his life after <i>Kitchen Confidential</i> (and explaining some of what he said in that previous book), he talks about his transition from “the bad old days” of drug addiction into the life of a happily married (and happily employed ) man with a small child. “Life does not suck,” he regularly says.<br><br><blockquote>Like a lot of things in my life, there’s no making it prettier just ‘cause time’s passed. It happened. It was bad. There it is.</blockquote><br><br><br>In some ways he glosses over his personal life because, while it may inform where he is today, what he’d rather talk about is food and the people who make it, review it, and influence how we consume it. With time passed, he goes into more detail about his issues with Food Network and their culture of mediocrity. <br><br>And it’s true — six years ago, I would gladly laze about and watch Sara Moulton chop an onion. Two Fat Ladies? Hilarious. That network partially taught me how to cook. But now? There are so many other things I’d rather do than watch Sandra Lee or Guy Fieri massacre another dish. The Neeleys make my skin crawl, as does Paula Deen’s spackled-on make-up (though she seems like a perfectly nice lady). I will admit to catching Iron Chef America and occasional episodes of Ace of Cakes, but that’s about it. In some cases it’s not just mediocre, but downright terrible, disguised in shinier packaging. Somehow, it still sells. Like Mr. Bourdain, I find it puzzling and disappointing.<br><br>The book is not all criticism, however. Bourdain offers plenty of praise for the people he sees as heroes in the food world. From big names like Eric Ripert and Mario Batali, who regularly give to charity, to LA Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold, who consistently writes well and with respect. He talks to rising chef David Chang about his various neuroses and aspirations, and finds out just what happens after you lose on Top Chef.<br><br>It’s a good book, a funny book, and one that anyone even remotely interested in food should read.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/07/medium-raw-by-anthony-bourdain.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: Home Truths 10/10
Really excellent start to this storyline.
Rated Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group 6/10
What a delightfully odd little book this is. Presented as an old manual mixed with a narrator that's rather Lemony-Snicket-meets-Ted-Wilson, Supernatural Strategies For Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group manages to be just as funny as it is strange. Throughout, Ian F. Svenious injects enough knowing truth that anyone who has ever involved themselves with musicians will recognize.<br><br>(My full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/07/supernatural-strategies-for-making-rock.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Marriage Portrait 8/10
<div>I wasn't as into the story itself as much as I have been with other O'Farrell books, but when the writing is so great, who cares? I know I go on elsewhere about how it's often better to describe things simply and to get to the point, but when people write lushly and expansively WELL? Get in. Maggie O'Farrell shows us how it's done.</div>
Rated An Untamed State 10/10
Roxane Gay has appeared in a shedload of year-end lists already, and with good reason. With two books out this year, her tenacity and skills are finally receiving their due. I could have just as easily put her essay collection, Bad Feminist, in this [Top 5] slot (linked below), except I have a confession: I don’t own it yet. True, I read many of the included essays as they originally appeared in various online outlets, but the book itself, I do not have.<br><br>An Untamed State is no poor substitute, let’s be clear. Gay’s novel about Mireille Duval Jameson, a woman kidnapped while visiting her family in Haiti, is an unflinching look at the effect violence (particularly sexual violence) has on a person. The difficult scenes between Mireille and her captors never feel exaggerated for dramatic effect, and her descent into numbness in order to survive is one of the best depictions I’ve ever read. This novel also deals in memory, pain, and interpersonal relationships, but it’s also about a Haitian-American’s feeling of disconnect with her native country. It’s an outstanding debut.<br><br>(This review also appeared at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/reading-list-top-5-favorite-books-2014/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated The Scarifyers: The Thirteen Hallows 8/10
This was pretty funny, especially Gareth David-Lloyd as Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr (now that's a Welsh name).
Rated Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish 10/10
What a remarkable book, not only just for the time in which David Rakoff wrote it before his death, but for the sheer feat of its poetic structure. This reminded me of Simon Van Booy's Everything Beautiful Began After, which I read last year.
Rated Call Me Master: Inner Demons 8/10
<div>I don't know that it was instant LOVE like I had with the War Master, Missy, or the Roberts Master series, but I liked this quite a bit, and I'm glad it's finally out, since it was announced so long ago. Sacha Dhawan's Master is an interesting version of the character, and I'm interested in further stories with him.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Whispers of Terror 7/10
Rated Taiwan Travelogue 10/10
Many layers, even more in the translated version, cleverly put together. Can be tricky to follow along with locations in the translated version, but the map is helpful! The way this book uses food to explain politics and societal systems was great.