Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Gingerbread Girl by Stephen King

After her baby girl tragically dies, Em begins to run to deal with her devastating loss. Soon after, her marriage dissolves, and in order to deal with the tragedy in her life Em heads to the Florida Gulf, where she moves into a house owned by her father on a lonely stretch in the Vermillion Key. One day, while running on the beach, she looks into the driveway of Pickering, a man who is known to bring women to his house on a regular basis. To her horror, Em soon discovers what Pickering is doing to these women, and before long she has to fight for her life.

This novella is not one of King’s best works. In several parts, the dialogue is suprisingly clunky and at times downright cheesy. The plot also echoes his previous book Misery, so it is not that original. Despite these flaws, however, this is still a half-decent story. Which is pretty impressive when one thinks about it. For even a so-so tale by King is better than the best work of many writers

3 out of 5 stars

Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form by Scott McCloud

This is a follow-up to Scott McCloud’s brilliant work Understanding Comics. Though not as good as the latter book – which is unsurprising, given that UC contains a truly groundbreaking analysis of the art form (and the potential) of comics – Reinventing Comics is still an interesting read that covers a lot of ground. From the need to have greater minority representation and gender balance among comic artists, to the potential of digital distribution, to the necessity of comic books to cover as many genres of possible, this work contains a lot of thoughtful discussions. That being said, I was not really captivated by this book in the same way that I was when reading Understanding Comics. In short, this is a good book but not a brilliant one.

3 out of 5 stars

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

This is a wonderful book that is filled with numerous fascinating ideas. For instance, McCloud writes that humans perceive the world through our senses, but that our senses can only observe fragments of the world at best. (Example: Even the most ardent traveler can only see so much of the world in a lifetime). As such, our minds constantly engage in "closure", i.e. create the sensation that we are observing the whole, when in reality we are only perceiving fragments. This ability to engage in closure is exploited by comic book artists. In other words, when a comics fan reads a graphic novel, they are presented with a sequence of separate illustrated panels. But from this fragmented set, the mind constructs the illusion of the passage of time. McCloud goes on to discuss numerous other ideas -- such as the ability of a purely visual form to create the other senses, such as smell and sound -- while providing a fascinating discussion on the history and potential of comics. A great read that I highly recommend.

5 out of 5 stars

Flatland: A Journey of Many Dimensions, the Movie Edition by Edwin A. Abbott; (Introduction) Lori M. Campbell

This book is a delightful read. Written in 1884, this "memoir" tells the story of A. Square, a being in a two-dimensional world called Flatland. On the eve of the year 1999 in the Flatland calendar, A. Square -- who is a mathematician -- is visited by a creature from the third dimension, who introduces him to the fantastic world of three-dimensional space, and the possibility of worlds with four or even more dimensions. The original novel by Edwin Abbott contained a strong critique of Victorian Society, with its class divisions and subjugation of women. Besides these social commentaries, however, it also contained a fascinating discussion of multi-dimensional reality, which is amazing when once remembers that this book was written in the 19th century, or several decades before physicists started to seriously talk about extra dimensions. This short book is a wonderful work of fiction that captures the imagination, by leading the reader to wonder about their real place in the universe.

4 out of 5 stars

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

This is one of the best graphic novels that I have read in a while. It tells the story of Asterios Polyp, a famous architect who had it all: a prestigious academic career as a university professor; fame; a beautiful wife. But after indulging for years in self-absorption, his life begins to unravel. After his apartment in downtown Manhattan burns down in a fire, he decides to turn his back on his former life and start anew as a mechanic in a small town. The ensuing transformation and redemption of Asterios is captivating.

Besides an interesting story, what I really enjoyed about this graphic novel was the artwork. At face value the latter point may seem redundant, as one would expect that illustrations would be a primary focus in a comic. In an ironic twist, however, I have noticed that many comics pay more attention to the written word than the graphic story line, with the result that the word “graphic” starts disappearing more and more from the genre of “graphic novel”. That is why this work was a breath of fresh air. On many occasions the beautiful artwork was able to convey complex themes and interesting storylines, without having to rely on narrative dialogue to tell the reader what is going on. The result is a wonderful graphic novel.

4 out of 5 star

The Story of Zahra by Hanan Al-Shaykh

Zahra is a young woman from Beirut who moves to Africa to escape her abusive parents and her dark memories of two abortions. After moving in with her uncle in Africa, however, she doesn't find any solace, and ends up in a loveless marriage. After realizing the marriage will never work, she gets a divorce and moves back to Beirut, only to be caught up in her country's civil war, where she begins a relationship with a sniper.

As the above synopsis shows, the subject matter of this novel is fascinating. Unfortunately, the narrative style gets tiresome. For unlike a regular novel -- where characters interact and build relationships -- this book is structured like a play where only one actor is on stage at a time, and the actress who plays Zahra takes up 2/3 of the stage time. In certain parts of the book this format works brilliantly, as the character that is speaking is allowed to fully describe their thoughts. By the end of the book, however, this literary trick becomes tiresome, and the reader is left with the impression that they are being dictated to rather than being told a story. In particular, three-quarters of the way into the book, I felt that I was hearing a long speech by Zahra, rather than reading a novel.

The village voice called this book a “masterpiece”. In my view, I don't understand how the Voice could have come to this conclusion. To be fair, this is not a terrible book, (in fact, some parts are pretty good), but it is also by no means a literary classic.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart

This book purports to be a history of how the concept of symmetry was developed. In reality, it is a mish-mash of numerous ideas from math and physics, with the discussion of symmetry often appearing as an after-thought. To be fair, Stewart is able to convey the beauty of numerous mathematical ideas, such as octonions, and how these ideas can be linked to symmetry. On the other hand, this book also hops, skips and jumps from subject to subject (e.g. group theory; quadratic equations; quaternions; quantum mechanics; theory of relativity; string theory, e.g.) without tying them together into a coherent narrative. The result is a collection of fascinating topics, but no clear focus, and only a loose connection to what's supposed to be the main thesis, namely, a discussion on the history of symmetry.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

The World Inside by Robert Silverberg

It's the year 2381 and 75 billion people live on earth. In order to sustain this enormous population, (the growth of which is actively encouraged), humanity has moved into massive buildings called urbmons, which climb 3 kilometers in the sky. This vertical existence allows the human race to pack itself one on top of each other, while being able to use most of the arable land on planet Earth for food production. Inside the urbmons, humans have learned to coexist peacefully, and on paper everything seems idyllic. But in this highly regimented world where you are not allowed to leave your own urbmon, and where those who think differently -- or "flippers" -- are eliminated, some people dare to dream about what exists outside their giant vertical homes. Overall, I found this novel fascinating. My only complaint is that it is obsessed with sex, with its vision of a sexually liberated culture being a thin disguise for a teenage male sex fantasy. This being said, parts of this book are brilliant, and the reader is left with this interesting question, “what if human population growth did not slow down, but was actually encouraged to increase unabated?

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Carrie by Stephen King

Stephen King is a master storyteller. In this classic horror novel, we are introduced to the unforgettable Carrie While, a misunderstood teenage girl who is teased mercilessly at school, until she gets her final, horrible revenge. What most fascinated me about this book, however, is King's incredible narrative skills. From a stylistic point of view, (let alone the spine chilling plot), this book is a narrative masterpiece. When I finished reading it, the first thing I wanted to do was get another King novel.

4 out of 5 stars

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Colin is a teenage prodigy who is heartbroken after being dumped for the 19th time by a girl named Katherine. Smarting over his latest failed Katherine-induced romance, he heads on a road trip with his best friend, where he ends up in a small town called Gutshot, Tennessee. In between his rural adventures -- where, among other things, he ends up hunting a monster size pig -- he obsessively works on a math formula that will help him know in advance if a relationship will work out. Yes, this is a nerd book. And yes, it's as dorky as it sounds. But it's also well written and fun and ... OK, OK, I admit it, it's a nerd book for math geeks, but hey, I like math!

3 out of 5 stars

Living Dead in Dallas (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 2) by Charlaine Harris

Beware! Reading this book can be harmful to your sense of pride. With horrible dialogue, clunky narrative structure, and plot twists that are downright juvenile, this terrible mess of a novel somehow manages to be enjoyable. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I liked this campy vampire book, which is the second volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series. It also reconfirmed that the people from HBO are geniuses for turning this flaky book series into a gritty TV drama.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Turing (A Novel about Computation) by Christos H. Papadimitriou

This book should never have been made into a novel. It's clear that Papadimitriou has many interesting ideas about mathematics, computer science and artificial intelligence. But when it comes to writing fiction, this work falls flat. Everything in this book (characters, plot, dialogue) simply serves as a thinly veiled excuse to lecture on the history of computers. The result is a string of wooden characters, a plot that goes nowhere, and academic speeches that masquerade as "dialogue". It would have been better if these ideas were presented as part of a straightforward academic work, rather than a poor third-rate work of fiction.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Beats: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar

I found this graphic novel to be very uneven. The first half of the book contains brief biographies of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Unfortunately for the reader, however, these bios are written in a simple, boring prose that is straight out of junior high school, while the artwork is ho-hum.

The second-half of the book, in contrast, is a lot more interesting, especially when it describes other members of the Beat Generation, such as Diane di Prima, Philip Lamantia and Gary Snyder. (The different art style for these stories also makes a huge difference). The brief history of City Lights Bookstore, as well as the account of some of the famous Beat women, are also quite good.

3 out of 5 stars

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Every once in a while one discovers a new author that is a hidden gem. Mark Haddon is such a writer. In this ingenious novel, Haddon tells the story of Christopher, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome who discovers that his neighbour’s dog has been murdered. Curious to discover what happened, Christopher begins to write a book, which serves as the vehicle for the novel. Written in the voice of someone with autism, the book tackles such themes as mathematics, death, parental love and betrayal, adultery, trust, logic and the adventures of a young teenage boy. This is truly wonderful material.

5 out of 5 stars

The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (Great Discoveries) by David Leavitt

A good biography of Alan Turing, the famous British mathematician who helped crack the German spy machine enigma during world war two, and who was also one of the pioneers of computer science / artificial intelligence.

3 out of 5 stars