2011 Random Read #7...Wondrous & macabre happenings in 1890's Chicago

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America is two stories, one the mad construction and wonders of the Chicago's World Fair of 1893 and the other the terrible career of conning and killing by a young man going by the name of H.H. Holmes, juxtaposed in order to give the full picture, light and dark, of a certain time in a a certain place.
    Erik Larson, the writer of this book, has proven himself capable of adequately handling this sort story.  I use the word 'adequately' because at times the complicated score of characters involved in the building of the Fair becomes jumbled and occasionally the artistic license necessary to convey the story of Holmes becomes a bit heavy handed and overly evident, but with that said he was able to illustrate the wonders the Fair held and the horrors that Holmes committed evocatively.
   Just to talk of the Fair for a moment, to learn of all the amazing innovations that it presented was astounding.  Firstly, as a person raised in Florida, to learn that the bedtime stories of this Fair told by his father may very well have been what inspired the vision and drove Walt Disney to create the wonderland that is Disney World is amazing, and truly self-evident once you look closely, everything from the purposefully laid landscaping to the intentional uniform planning all echoes back to the Fairs execution.
   Also, that this Fairs choice of alternating current over direct current, chosen so based on the bids given by the respective contractors, is what may have won the war for AC current and shaped the way all of us power our homes is fairly fascinating.  Lastly, the centerpiece of the Fair, what the architects of the event chose as their way to 'Out-Eiffel Eiffel' and his tower in Paris, was the worlds first Ferris wheel, a monstrous marvel of engineering which stood at over 260 feet with 36 cars each of which could accommodate 60 people each for a max occupancy of 2160 people.
   A fun book for history buffs, Chicago lovers, or serial killer nuts, and on related note this book is said to be soon made into film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the killer himself Mr. H.H. Holmes.

2011 Gothic Reading Challenge #2

    I was having a hard time deciding what to read next, and I was searching through my goodreads.com account reviewing what I've been reading recently when I saw they were holding a book challenge, to read Jane Eyre, take a 5 question quiz, and pick your favorite line from the book.  By doing those things I've been entered in a chance to win a new Kindle, so I figured what the hell.
    Well, am I ever glad to have stumbled upon that contest because 'Jane Eyre' stands as one of the single best books that I've read.  A Bildungsroman in type, simple enough, a story telling the tale of a young Jane Eyre grown to young woman and the roads she traveled thus, though it is the writing itself that makes this book something special and made me thirst for more Charlotte Bronte.  It is striking how obviously this book has influenced so much of what we read in fiction and see in film today, the subtle touches of heartbreak and the aching pangs of regret have echoed from these pages and have reappeared countless times, though unfortunately rarely if ever as effectively as Bronte herself did.
    A pleasantly unexpected element of this book were all the subtle touches of the supernatural, some explained away and some not, that litter these pages.  Strange and haunting apparitions and distant psychic communication.  Again, not expected in what I expected to be a stodgy tale of the Victorian era.
    Another mark to how well this was written (in my opinion, of course) was how intensely the complex and heartfelt emotions of these characters' relations resonated with me.  I couldn't help but to physically react toward certain passages.
    All said I greatly enjoyed this book and cannot more strongly recommend it to all, both young and old, both well read and not, simply put, for any wishing for as good a reading experience as is at all possible.

2011 Random Read #6...Screenwriter Diablo Cody

    Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper is the memoir of Diablo Cody, Academy Award winning Screenwriter of 'Juno', in which she recounts her adventures, which she was driven to by the sheer boredom and monotony of modular office life, in the sex industry (stripping and peepshows) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
    Written with observations made with eyes for the grotesque and ears for the absurd, Cody spun it all with the wit viewers of her movies are fondly familiar with.
    While I don't recommend this book to any in the possession of either a weak stomach or of a puritanical disposition, I found it a quick (at just over 200 pages), funny and lighthearted departure from the average fare.

2011 Haruki Murakami Challenge #3

And so it all makes sense, sort of. A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel is the third book in Haruki Murakami's 'Trilogy of the Rat', and having read the first two I was really depending on this one to bring it all together. I have to say it did, and it even wrapped the whole of it up quite well with the last chapter, which was my big complaint with the second book in the series, that it had no real end. That all makes a sort of Harukian sort of sense now because the second book didn't have an ending it was just a sort of throughway to this book.

With all that said, I have read a few reviews online about this book, '..Sheep Chase', and have found that many readers have read it knowing it was the third book of a trilogy without feeling they'd missed anything. They're right, you can absolutely read this book without having read the other two because this book is, in my never humble opinion, the an actual novel, while the other two feel to me know as little more than extended prologues, or even something written after to illuminate a few things. That sounds harsh and dismissive, but I don't mean it to. The previous two are good, they are just very different, and without a few subtleties they would have no connection to each other or this book at all.

This is also the most complete book of the three, it is evident when reading it that it took some planning to get right, he had to know an ending in absolute terms to even begin, and that's what makes these three books taken together as such a great discovery for any of Haruki's longtime fans. You can clearly see a writer flexing and building his talents to what they have become today. In the first of the three he started with his meandering sort of everyday prose that best evokes the 'lost in a crowd' feeling that is so prevalent in Japanese fiction. In the second he first uses his alternating stories tool that has become almost a trademark of his style, though he does not use it in the third. Then, in this the third, he finally uses the part of his writing to imagine, untethered by convention, unique oddities, like a demon sheep with a star on its back, and to build mythologies around them.

I loved this book for a laundry list of reasons. Haruki Murakami is capable of making the mundane captivating and the alien seem coffee shop normal.

2011 Random Read #5...More Philosophy

I've always been interested in the French Existentialist writers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre and have read most of their fiction, but I've always found the actual philosophical writing difficult to read because of the philosophical vocabulary that is used. Then I found The Ethics Of Ambiguity while deciding which Simone De Beauvoir fiction book I would read. It seemed to be a bit more accessible as far as the language was concerned, so I picked it up.

The premise of her proposition (she even has me using the philos. lingo) is that the meaning of our lives is what we make of it and that it is up to us to give our lives meaning. Also, she states that freedom is not an end result, that it must be continually cultivated in ourselves, through giving our lives meaning, and in the world at large.

I found it interesting how prescient her writing is almost as if she was peering into 2011 from her 1940's Parisian window. Or, maybe its that the times in which we live are just so aligned with her writings to make it seem so. All over the world we see people fighting for their freedoms in such organized direct ways. Maybe her views on freedom just needed the age of the internet to be fully realized.

I'm sure there is more that I can get from this book, not just because there is more there if only I'd dig, but also because of a deficit in my philosophy comprehension, so don't be surprised to see more philosophy books reviewed here.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the discourse on freedom and what it means, or anyone just looking for a book to think over.

As always, Good Reading!

2011 Haruki Murakami Challenge #2

I just don't know what to say about this book. It feels like half a book, or I am severely missing the point. This was Haruki Murakami's second published novel in Japan, as well as the second in what is referred to as the 'Trilogy of the Rat', the first being 'Hear The Wind Sing', which I reviewed last week, and the third being 'A Wild Sheep Chase', his first U.S. release. I had similar issues with the first, but not nearly to this extent as I felt that it had a more complete arc. It was still a fun read for a long time Murakami fan like myself as I get to see the development of what have become his signatures in his writing one such being dual stories with alternating chapters.

I cannot recommend this book to non-Murakami fans, as I feel it has so many basic story flaws. It also feels experimental, as it probably was, and I think that would turn a lot of first time readers off.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, as with the Murakami book from last week, it just has a certain feel that I associate with his writing that I enjoy. As far as my disappointments, I'm holding out hope that in the final book of the trilogy my patience and diligence will be rewarded.

2011 Random Read #4...You are what you eat eats

Yet another great read and potential contender for best book i'll read this year. About the food we eat and how it gets to us The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals taught me many things about the natural and unnatural food chains that we all find ourselves in. If you're a fan of McDonald's, or any other fast food, its probably a good idea for you NOT to read this book because what you don't know can't made you vomit. I am not a fan of fast food, and this book only reinforced my aversion to it. But, unfortunately it has also turned me off of mass produced meat, meaning I now will probably have to spend more to buy grass fed beef instead of the grain fed Frankencow meat that is sold at most grocers.

But wait, there's more. Don't think this book venerates 'Whole Foods' either. Pollan, the writer, it brutally honest about the price still paid in order to sell food cheaply, regardless of where its sold or how its marketed, may it be labelled organic or not.

Pollan breaks down the three potential chains that can connect us to our food in a concise and descriptive way. He starts with a look at what he calls the industrial system. This is the chain that provides food to most Americans. It consists of produce loaded with pesticides and chemical fertilizers and meat adulterated in the name of cost eating foods that aren't natural to them causing illness and higher fat contents at the cost of taste and loaded with antibiotics to fight disease. To fully experience this food chain he takes his wife and son to, where else, 'McDonalds' for an industrial family meal. Yum dripping with a warm sauce of sarcasm.

Next, he breaks down what has become of the 'organic' chain, which in reality has become just another arm of the industrial, and in most cases owned by the same parent companies. Many of these 'Industrial-Organic' have even gained the moniker of 'Face-Farms' because of the positive P.R. those parent companies garner by owning them. There is hope however in the case of many a smaller organic, or 'beyond organic' as they call themselves, farms. One such is Polyface farm in the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. Here they practice sustainability at its best and bring farming back to a place of real nature with seemingly no waste. This place sounds amazing, but to enjoy any such farm you need to live with a half days drive, which I don't. Once again, to complete the chain Pollan has a meal, in this case a series of meals as he stays and works on Polyface farms for several days.

At his point I was frustrated, not with the book, but with the food system that we are all a part of and that the U.S. government advocates and supports thanks to lobbyists working for these food producing giants.

Then came the last of the possible food systems, the Forager, the modern day equivalent of our 'Hunter-Gatherer- ancestors. Now, I must admit, I am a minor league foodie. I love me some 'Top-Chef' and 'Iron-Chef' and late night Food Network is my channel of choice, so this last section really whet my appetite. Pollan learns, through the guidance of what he calls his forager 'Virgils', to find and identify wild mushrooms, and hunt california wild boar. With these two components as well as additions from his garden and fruit from area trees he makes an amazing sounding meal, basically made without any money as everything was gathered and prepared by him and one other guest.

If your interested in food and where it comes from definitely read this book, but if you'd prefer the bliss of ignorance about what is actually in your food don't even read this introduction. Happy reading AND eating.

2011 Haruki Murakami Challenge #1

Let me start off by saying that in order to read this book I had to order it off ebay and have it shipped from Japan. That is because of all Murakami's books, he has apparently vowed to not release the first 2, this being the the first of said 2, in the U.S. in an English translation. Why? you ask. I have no clue, thats just the way it is.

The most surprising part to me about this apparent refusal is that this is a very good little book, and when I say little I mean it. At 130 pages and literally small enough to fit in your front shirt pocket its very short, but in those few pages Murakami crafted an interesting 20-something tale of being somewhat lost and dissatisfied. The sort of novel that echoes the likes of young Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and forecast writers like Bret Easton Ellis. This may sound like hyperbole, but I stick to it.

Murakami is the type of writer that one cannot be told about, he must be experienced, so I can't wait to make my way through the rest of his books, some I've read and will re-read some I've not, during this year leading up to the release of his largest work yet, '1Q84', coming in November, and I suggest you give him a try as well.

2011 Random Read #3...Philosophy

I became aware of All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age because of the NY Times book review podcast, and am happy to have picked it up. Its basic premise is to track western mankind's outlook on the world as influenced by our various religious philosophies and how they have been portrayed in popular literature of the times. Starting with the ancient Greeks as portrayed by Homer in his epics 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' as an easily understandable, easily ordered polytheistic world, then on to Aeschylus 'Oresteia' trilogy highlighting the conflict between the New Olympian gods and the old Furies, on through Dante's Aristotleian graded version of sinner and saint (hence the nine circles), eventually leading to the longest chapter of the book, and the most comprehensive, about Melville's 'Moby Dick'. Now, I have yet to read this book, and for the first time I am pleased about that fact. After reading 'All Things Shining' I now know that the story of 'Moby Dick' is a multi-textured, multi-layered one, and though I may have seen some of those textures/layers I am not the least bit confident I would have seen them all.

As for the actual 'new' philosophy this book offers I, though clearly not as seasoned as these writers in the world of philosophy, found their offerings somewhat meek. The majority of the book is a history of philosophy both ancient and modern, and the thesis they present falls a little flat in comparison though I suppose that is to be expected after reviewing the philosophical ideas that changed the world in their times.

All said, I enjoyed this book thoroughly, not because of what they did or did not offer, but because of what I learned. I am a confirmed bibliophile, and the new perspectives that they have gifted me with in this book makes it easily a permanent reference guide for literature. Not everyone will enjoy this book because not everyone can enjoy this book, but anyone with any interest in literary philosophy should absolutely pick it up.

2011 Global Reading Challenge North America #3

This is the last of the N. American novels that I've committed to reading this yr. with the Global reading challenge, and its a new release.

Karen Russell has been festooned with just about every award a young writer can receive, The New Yorkers '20 under 40', The National Book Foundations '5 under 35', and was chosen as one of Granta's best young American novelists for her previous book St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and honestly after reading this book all the accolades are deserved. Russell shows a maturity in her fiction that can take decades to achieve, which makes her a writer to watch as her abilities will seemingly continue to evolve and improve.

Swamplandia! is the story of the Bigtree tribe (non-native american) of alligator wrestlers in the Florida Everglades. Russell, as a Miami native, was faithful to the traditions of Florida writing, with echoes of both classic, Matthiessen and Hurston, and contemporary, Hiaasen and Dorsey, Florida writers. She shows the knowledge, care and love for the history, lore and absurdities, which commonly intersect, of the state.

The writing style is playful. Russell toys with, without committing to, the ideas of 'Magical Realism' (a literary genre in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality' (wikipedia.org) that many a Nobel Laureate has written in, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Jose Saramago.) The door is left open for interpretation throughout most of the book whether or not any real magic is taking place or whether we are just seeing the world through the eyes of a child. I argue that it is magical realism, based on many inclusions throughout the book, including a red alligator and a seemingly living breathing swamp that very much acts as a main character, but can simply rest my argument on the basis that seeing the world through the eyes of a child is a magical experience.

I cannot leave this review without drawing the line to whom I see as one of Russell's closest contemporaries, the one I see her showing the most parallels to, and that is Haruki Murakami. He as well plays with the traditions of Magical Realism, though he uses it much more overtly, and even the structure of the book, with alternating chapters, resembles his works. If you read this and like it, pick Murakami up next. If you like Murakami, check 'Swamplandia' out.

2011 Random Read #2...IT'S SCIENCE!

When I read a good nonfiction book it turns me on to reading more of the like. That was the case with The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science which I read a finished a few days ago. After finishing that book my eyes began scanning my shelves of unread books, searching for something to fill the need for more fascinating science, and I settled on this book, The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry. The author is Brian Sykes, a professor of genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the prestigious Oxford University, so he clearly knows his stuff.

It is about the breakthroughs Professor Sykes and his colleagues made in Mitochondrial DNA extraction and sequencing, and their discovery that through said mitochondrial DNA they could trace all of modern man back to their distant ancestors, anywhere from 10,000 to 45,000 yrs through the maternal line because mitochondrial DNA is only passed on through ones mother without any modification from the father's DNA.

Throughout their scientific journey they also settle some long standing fueds in the academic community about the origins of modern man, such as where the original Polynesian's came from, southern Asia of the Americas, and whether all modern man are the descendants of Cro-Magnon man or a hybrid of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal.

Most of the book was intensely fascinating, but that last third of the book, when Sykes describes the lives of the 'Seven Daughters', the ancestral mothers of all modern Europeans, I found it, for lack of a better word, boring. That is because it was all pure speculation, Sykes even says so not once but twice, and after 200 pages of hard scientific facts it felt very out of place.

All said, I would recommend this book to anyone with a thirsty mind for any type of science, with the caveat that they may or may not enjoy the last 90 or so pages as much.