Goodreads: Albion's Seed

Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What started out as following a reference in Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" ended up with me reading this monstrous 900-page behemoth over a period of months (mostly... in the bathroom). I feel like I learned a lot about the different British subcultures that settled in America and their effect on modern US culture. There were definitely some boring stretches - lets face it: Quakers are not that interesting. But the backcountry Southern Highlands stuff was a hoot, and I liked the way he compared each subculture in terms of everything from naming habits to sexual mores. For a serious student of American History, its well worth a read. Most of you can probably skip it, however.

View all my reviews >>

Goodreads: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. Not for dumb kids. This is one of those books that exposed me to a flood of history, ideas, cultures, facts, and theories that I had never before managed to encounter. It filled in lots of gaps I knew I had along the way, like how New York changed hands from being Dutch to being English, or how Phoenician language became Punic and the language of the Carthiginians. It is a remarkable book in the same way that Guns, Germs and Steel or A Short History of Nearly Everything are remarkable - on nearly every page you will have learned something that will fascinate you.



If you're in the right mood, that is. This book took me nearly a year of stops and starts to get through. It can be, let's say, a little dry. But it's still the kind of book I want to make other people read just so I can have the pleasure of discussing it with them. But it is NOT an undertaking for the faint of heart or short of attention span. Anyone up to the challenge?


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: Notes from a Small Island

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I first tried to read this one a few years ago, before I lived in England. It quickly became clear to me that it was written as a love letter to Britain for British people to read; not at all for Americans. But now, having lived here a year, I get all the jokes, I sympathize with the ways Bryson pokes fun at them as an American at heart. Basically, Bryson travels around Great Britain complaining about all the things that are going wrong with it and how old buildings are being replaced with new ones and so forth, and yet all of this complaining is in fact pandering to his (equally crotchety) audience. This being Bryson, of course there are moments of laugh-out-loud funniness, but I grew tired of the book at times. In every town he visits (including mine; he lived not 25 miles from here before he moved back to America) he sees a few lovely things and then moans and complains about some building ruining the skyline or something. Which can be a bit tiresome. But none of that changes the fact that it really is a love letter.



I'd have trouble recommending this book to anyone who hasn't lived here a while, unless they are true Anglophiles.


View all my reviews.


(note: I read this a while ago now and just didn't review it till now)

Goodreads: Carry on, Jeeves

Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having seen several episodes of the BBC adaptation of the Jeeves & Wooster stories, it was difficult for me to read Jeeves without invoking Stephen Fry's portrayal of him; likewise Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster in all his exasperated cluelessness. Wodehouse is of course exceedingly clever - one wonders what it might do for the verbal talents of a generation if they were required to read Wodehouse in school instead of ghastly classics like The Scarlet Letter.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: Mouse Guard - Fall 1152

Mouse Guard Volume One: Fall 1152 by David Petersen

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
What's not to like? Beautifully drawn, well scripted adventure tale. It's a fantasy tale in that they're up against huge, foul beasties, but these are things we all know like snakes or crabs. No sign of "magic", which is fine - totally unnecessary here. If it were all humans, the plot might be a little flat, but they're mice! And that makes up for it. In a few years (when I'm sure they won't rip anything) I'll happily let my kids read it.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
My friend Ty is a big fan of both the movie and the book. When I happened to mention that I hadn't seen or read either, he was aghast, and loaned me the movie immediately. I enjoyed the film quite a bit, and so he insisted I read the book. The stories themselves and the people involved are quite interesting, and make for compelling reading. Wolfe's style is a bit grating at times - he picks a few themes and then mentions them and points them out OVER and OVER ad nauseum, as if the reader might not be able to connect the dots without his big pointing finger to tell you that here's yet another example of "flying and drinking and drinking and driving." Still, it's worth knowing a bit about the men involved in the beginnings of our manned space program. I've always leaned towards unmanned projects, partly because my grandfather was heavily involved with them at JPL and partly because I never understood what was so important about having people be there. Reading this helped me understand the viewpoint of those who love manned space flight (although it does nothing to change my position on the subject).



If I were in a book club with my former workmates with whom the subject of manned vs. unmanned space exploration was a common subject of discussion, this would be an excellent book for us to read & discuss. I am with the Chuck Yeagers of the world who thought that the Mercury astronauts were little more than payloads, and that truly piloted flight (of planes that reach space flight) is more impressive. But I still question the enterprise at all at this point - now that the cold war is over, what is the point of, say, working towards putting a single person or few people on the surface of Mars? It is inspiring as a human enterprise, but more than anything it is a colossal way to burn money. No doubt you have some thoughts on the matter; feel free to share them.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: Body of Lies

Body of Lies: A Novel by David Ignatius

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The movie was pretty good - one of the best spy films I've seen lately. The book was better in some ways and worse in others for me. Ignatius definitely knows his stuff, and you have no trouble visualizing the places he's talking about - he clearly knows them well. Likewise, he seems to have a decent hold on the modern business of espionag e. All that stuff is good, but the love story in the book is just not compelling for me - the girl, Alice, is a little too plainly allegorical for the "just-show-the-Arab-world-we-care-and-they-will-love-us-back" point of view, and so the whole story of their relationship and the dissolution of the main character's marriage to a "true believer in the War on Terror" becomes political commentary to beat the reader over the head with. The spy stuff is good, though.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: I, Robot

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
Groundbreaking at the time, to be sure, but the fact that it was written in the 40s & 50s makes its vision of the future not just wrong but completely silly. Not to mention all the "swell" lingo we all use in the year 2003 on Venus. Aasimov does well at poking holes and finding loops in his own three laws of robot behavior, which is an interesting ethics/logic exercise; it's just buried in story that I had trouble caring about.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: 10 Bad Dates with De Niro

Ten Bad Dates with De Niro by Richard T. Kelly

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am naturally a list-reader. I make lists too, when the occasion warrants, but I like reading a good list just as much as making a good list. Not all the movie lists in this book are great, but there are enough lists and enough films covered to make it very enjoyable. And, since there's no plot to follow, there's no guilt in skipping a list that doesn't look interesting, or only reading the paragraphs about movies you've heard of in a list. This may reveal more about my personal habits than I'd like, but I should mention that I read almost all of the parts I read on the toilet. Now you know.



Be forewarned: it is impossible to read this without adding a bunch of movies to your Netflix queue. Seriously, unless you've seen them all, at least add one from the "10 Best Gangster Deaths" list.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: another Hellboy and The Arrival

Hellboy Volume 7: The Troll Witch and Other Stories by Mike Mignola

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
As with most compilations, this one is hit-and-miss. I do enjoy the way Mignola will take an old folk tale from someplace like central Africa or Norway or Malaysia and then retell it through Hellboy. Probably my favorite in this collection is "Dr. Carp's Experiment", because of the electric harpoons. But Makoma would be a close second.


View all my reviews.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wordless and beautiful - The story of an immigrant man and his arrival in a new land, where everything is foreign. I think I'll be giving this one as a gift sometime soon; just need to figure out who needs it.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: Vegetarian Planet

Of course! Cookbooks! I've loads of those I could review!

Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Chock full of deliciousness! Among our faves:



- Creamy tomato soup

- Dirty Rice

- Roasted New Potato Salad

- Masa cakes with salsa verde



And lots more. There are whole sections we still haven't delved into, but I'm sure they're just as good as the stuff we've tried. My sister gave this to us for our wedding as I recall, and it's been serving us well ever since. Whether or not you're vegetarian (we are most definitely NOT), this book is worth picking up and cooking from.


View all my reviews.

Goodreads: Conan and Hellboy

Conan of Cimmeria: The Conquering Sword of Conan by Robert E. Howard

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
I had no idea going into this book that the original Conan stories were so incredibly rife with racism and misogyny, to the point where even though the plots are interesting and the setting excellent, I can't overcome my disgust every time (and it is EVERY TIME) that Conan has to save a near-naked white girl from the unspeakable horrors that "brown-skinned men" will inflict on her. Ugh. Have to quit this one 3/4 of the way in, I'm afraid.



Typical of pulp fiction for the time, I'm sure, but I'll just have to rely on later authors for my swords-and-sorcery fix.


View all my reviews.

Hellboy Volume 6: Strange Places by Mike Mignola

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great art, great stories, great one-liners. Not as epic or memorable as some of the earlier Hellboy tales, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.


View all my reviews.


Here's a couple panels from that Hellboy comic that had me cracking up:

Goodreads review: Queen and Country Vol 8

So, I'm trying out Goodreads after realizing Librarything wasn't doing anything interesting for me. So far, it's been good - I've added several books to my 'to-read' lists based on seeing friends' reviews of them, and I always think its interesting to hear what friends think of the books they read. If you're on there, look for me. I also got a lot of books for my birthday and am technically in the process of reading at least 5 books, so I'm thinking I'll sometimes post my reviews here. This one is for Vol 8 of Queen and Country, a comic/graphic novel about the Special Section of MI6. I recommend watching The Sandbaggers first, which is dated (filmed 1979-ish) and has the low production values of the time, but is some of the best spy-drama I've ever seen; every bit as good as any of the Le Carre adaptations.

Queen & Country, Vol.8: Operation: Red Panda by Greg Rucka

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This one was near-perfect. I realized, after reading it all in one sitting, that I finally felt as though Queen and Country had surpassed The Sandbaggers, its own inspiration. Well done Greg Rucka.


View all my reviews.