Change is good
Whirligigs - O. Henry, 1910
Excellent collection of classic O. Henry, especially "The Ransom of Red Chief." Interestingly, this collection appears to be completely out of print and culled for other collections. Thank goodness for Project Gutenberg. Not all of the stories are as hardcore about the O. Henry Twist, some of the plots are downright mean, but they're all leavened with that classic Henry sympathy for downtrodden characters.
Book #5, putting me on track for 96 in 2008.
Omnivoracious (Amazon's book blog and a surprisingly interesting read at times) discusses our soon-to-be Reader in Chief.
Tolstoy Lied - Rachel Kadish, 2006
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this novel, though I'll admit I found help in understanding it in an old Washington Post review:
"Dorothy Sayers once used the whodunit format to create a modern "Woman Question" novel in the satirical yet deeply moving Gaudy Night. Similarly, in Tolstoy Lied Kadish hopes to build a more serious edifice on a chick-lit foundation. Women appear as colleagues, enemies, friends, advisers, daughters, wives, mothers, deae-ex-machina. At the book's various crises Tracy must choose what matters most, each time risking her profession, her man, her obligations to a suffering friend in crisis, her fidelity to herself as a human being. Kadish increasingly blends office politics with the politics of sex and domination, and the novel dramatically, even melodramatically, darkens as it proceeds. By its end Tolstoy Lied will include a poison-pen letter, spiritual revamping, mental illness, attempted suicide and cowardly appeasement. And that's just in the English department."
So I may be punking out here, but I think I can't disagree with pretty much anything in that paragraph. But what it doesn't really reveal is that it's also quite a tender and funny novel at times, full of the foibles of humans life in both our personal and office life (if you like good office stories, this has plenty of them). Also, it does illustrate one of the central lessons of modern life:
Never, ever, ever tick off the administrative assistant.
Book #74, putting me on track for 109 in 2008.
Coraline - Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell, 2008
Nothing really to add here, since I've already read this in the original version with Dave McKean illustrations. Those were creepy (besides it being a great story) but Russell (who previously did a masterful adaptation of Gaiman's Murder Mystery, about the first murder) outdoes McKean here in this lush graphic novel adaptation. With any luck, the movie adaptation (from the Nightmare Before Christmas crew) coming later this year means that we're going to have three great versions of this story to enjoy.
Book #72, putting me on track for 107 in 2008.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson, 1938
I was inspired to read this by seeing the delightful movie with Frances McDormand and Amy Adams, and I'm happy to see that this is even more delightful. Miss Pettigrew, a down-on-her-luck (and not very good) governess, falls in with a ne'er-do-well young lady who leads her through all sorts of adventurers and misadventures. There's romance, violence, drinking, cocaine, cheroots and all sorts of scathing conversation that wouldn't be out of place in a Thin Man novel. Basically, a hell of a lot of fun that actually has some interesting things to say about class and superficiality.
Book #71, putting me on track for 107 in 2008.
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour Of The Beautiful Basics Of Science - Natalie Angier, 2007
Whirligig is right. This is a madcap, but serious, tour through the basics of science and how they underpin everything in our lives. Angier (who's won a Pulitzer for her science reporting with the New York Times, is a very capable writer who's great at amusingly writing about al sorts of science subjects, from chemistry (and some of the most under-appreciated-feeling scientists in any field) to physics to biology. One of the best chapters is on biology actually, epecially when she gets into completely cutting creationism/intelligent design off at the knees in their proponents' efforts to replace science with religion in classrooms and textbooks. It may not be quite as good as Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, but Angier is quite good enough that this is well worth your time.
Book #70, putting me on track for 108 in 2008.
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Now playing: Bob Dylan - Most Of The Time
via FoxyTunes ----------------
From Gawker:
Small-town Michigan librarian "Ann Miketa" wrote a book about the batshit-crazy patrons she encountered at her job all day, called Library Diaries
, and was promptly fired, reports the Chicago Tribune. But think for a minute how weird library patrons really are: these people obviously have nothing to do and nowhere to go. And everyone knows that they use the library's computers for porn--that's been a well-documented problem for years. First sign that this book is probably awesome: Miketa refers to her rural town as "Denialville."
This sounds like it could be right up my alley from the get-go!
Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live As Told By It's Stars, Writers And Guests - John Miller & Tom Shales, 2002
A pretty thorough and interesting history of SNL, helped by pretty much everyone that was still alive in 2002 agreeing to be interviewed (with the notable exception of Eddie Murphy). Not everyone has the nicest thing in the world to say about their time there but at least they seem to be honest about their problems (Al Franken on his drinking, Victoria Jackson on how she felt cut out by Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn, etc). Also quiet funny at times and I felt I learned some interesting backstage stuff about how the show is put together (and heck, odd tidbits like learning that Lisa Kudrow and Julia Sweeney, who wee both with The Groundlings at the time, auditioned against each other).
Of course, there's an entire chapter about Lorne Michaels. There just has to be, right?
Book #69, putting me on track for 110 in 2008.
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