Be Cool by Elmore Leonard

In this sequel to the highly enjoyable Get Shorty, we are re-introduced to the affable former loan shark turned film producer Chili Palmer. After witnessing his friend (and record company owner) Tommy Athens get executed, Chili helps his Athens' widow Edie resurrect the company by signing a female singer / songwriter named Linda Moon.

Along the way, Chili has to hide from the Russian mob (who killed Athens and are now looking for Chili, who witnessed the crime), as well as Linda Moon's former manager, who also wants to kill Chili for having stolen Linda from him. Other notable characters include the hitman Joe Loop, Elliot the gay Samoan bodyguard and the rock group Aerosmith.

Elmore Leonard is an excellent writer who can craft brilliant dialogue and quirky, memorable characters. For these reasons I enjoyed reading this book. At the same time, however, I felt that Be Cool rehashed a lot of the material from Get Shorty. To use an analogy, reading Be Cool was like eating an excellent meal for the second straight day in a row. The dinner is still good, but not as enjoyable as the first time you ate it, for leftovers are rarely -- if ever -- as good as the original meal.

2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard

Days after arriving in Rwanda, Father Terry Dunn watches his congregation butchered to death inside his church. The massacre is part of the Rwandan Genocide that tears apart this African country. Five years later, Father Dunn -- or "Terry" to his one-armed housekeeper -- has to return home to Detroit, with a tax-fraud indictment hanging over his head.

While in the States, Terry is forced to come to terms with a criminal past, while falling for an ex-con named Debbie who has just been released from prison for running over her ex-boyfriend with a car. Amidst all of this chaos, he trades wits with a series of mafioso characters (e.g. a Capo boss; a dumb as rocks hit man; a wannabe gangster), while seeking to raise money for Rwandan orphans, in an a fundraising operation that may or may not be a scam.

With brilliant writing, Elmore Leonard introduces a seres of wonderful characters and fantastic plot twists in this great book. Reading through this excellent novel I was reminded why he is one of the best contemporary fiction writers

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster

There was once a sensible straight line who fell in love with a dot. Unfortunately, the dot was a frivolous creature who preferred the chaos of a squiggly line. Heartbroken, the straight line decided to transform itself into countless shapes (e.g fractals, spider web, a maze, numerous geometric shapes, etc.) to win the affection of the dot.

What can one say about this tiny, cute, novel and strange book? I think it's best to quote from the book's jacket cover, "Some may call [this story] a poignant and sensitive evocation of an eternal theme. Other may see it as a sensitive, soul-searching examination of a heart-wrenching dilemma.

"Or, in these uncertain times, we we seem to stand alienated from the meaning of life itself, it is a shining beacon illumination the pat to some higher understanding? 

"We doubt it."

3 out of 5 stars

Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker

Joe Cube is a high-tech worker living in Silicon Valley who wants to develop a 3-D TV. On New Year's Eve, while working on his prototype, he is visited by a creature from the fourth-dimension named Momo who tells him that he can give him an advanced new technology.

In the ensuing pages, the reader is taken on a screwball sci-fi adventure involving Joe Cube (the names in this novel are awful), his wife Jena, and other characters with such names as Spazz, Tulip and the strange Wackles. As Joe works towards attaining this strange new technology, he is caught up in a geopolitical struggle between two different fourth-dimensional worlds, while having his body "augmented" so he can leave Spaceland (i.e. the three-dimensional world where humans live) in order to be able see into the hyperspace of 4-D.

This book is a modern rendition of the sci-fi classic Flatland, the 19th century story of a two dimensional creature that is introduced to the third dimension. Unlike the original story, however, Spaceland is hampered by some terrible writing. The dialogue is particularly horrific, while the cheesy humor throughout Spaceland comes across as a weak attempt to hide wooden characters that are (if I can use the expression) one-dimensional.

This is the second book by Rudy Rucker that I have read and, once again, I have not been impressed. It's true that Rucker's ideas are interesting, and that his background as a mathematician, computer scientist and professor give him a lot of legitimacy. As a novelist, however, I find him quite weak, and I am still not sure why he is held in such high esteem by some science fiction fans.

If you are interested in stories about multi-dimensional space, you should forego this book and read instead such works as Flatland, Sphereland and the Planiverse.

1 out of 5 stars

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

This delightful children's book is an ingenious way of teaching young people about the wonders of mathematics. In this imaginative tale, a young boy named Robert falls asleep and in his dream meets an impish, elderly man who calls himself the Number Devil. Over a series of nights (and dreams), the Number Devil teaches Robert such concepts as prime numbers, infinity, the Fibonacci numbers, pi, imaginary numbers and square roots. Along the way, Robert is introduced to such famous mathematicians as Bertrand Russell, Georg Cantor, Friedrich Gauss and Pythagoras.

Reading this book reminded me of Sophie's World, the wonderful novel by Jostein Gaarder that provides an excellent summary of the history of western philosophy. Like Gaarder (who is able to convey a wide array of ideas with a brilliant tale), Hans Magnus Enzensberger finds a way to explain a wide range of mathematical ideas to his young audience, while simultaneously entertaining them. This is a great book for any parent who wants to teach their young children math.

4 out of 5 stars

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem by Simon Singh

This book is a wonderful recount of how Fermat's last theorem, one of the world's most (in)famous math problems that eluded mathematicians for more than 350 years, was finally solved by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles in the 1990s.

Written in easy to understand prose, Singh not only describes the amazing intellectual breakthroughs that were required to solve this problem, but in the process also recounts the tale of such mathematicians as Sophie Germain, the tragic boy-genius Evariste Galois and the Japanese duo of Taniyama and Yutaka that helped set the stage for Wiles historic and brilliant solution.

4 out of 5 stars

Love and Rockets: Human Diastrophism v. 4 (Love & Rockets 4): Human Diastrophism v. 4 (Love & Rockets 4) by Gilbert Hernandez

For several years now, I have been meaning to read the Love and Rockets comic book series by the Hernandez brothers. I finally took the plunge by going to my local library and picking up this collection of stories that are collected in a graphic novel format.

Based in a Central American town called Palomar, this book contain tales of love, death, art and family with a magic-realist feel. We are introduced to such characters as the passionate and headstrong Luba (along with her numerous lovers, both past and present), the mysterious Tomaso and the semi-crazed artist Humberto.

On paper, this series is exactly the type of story that I enjoy. For some strange reason, however, I was not captivated by this book. I will definitely borrow other volumes of this series from the library (the stories good), but that being said, I wasn't left with an urge to go out and purchase a copy -- as I do with my favorite books or graphic novels -- so I can re-read it again.

3 out of 5 stars

The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are by Andrew Cohen

Andrew Cohen likes to point out that Canadians are sometimes smug, envious and petty. Based on his arrogant writing style, Cohen makes a perfect Canadian.

This book was a big disappointment. In terms of subject matter, the book is quite interesting: i.e. Cohen analyses the Canadian identity from various angle, from Canada's relationship to the U.S., to the Canadian identity formed by multiculturalism, to the borderline disdain that many Canadians have for the capital Ottawa.

Cohen's interesting analysis, however, is undermined by a literary tone that is, to be frank, right down snooty. It is ironic to hear Cohen complain about how Canadians can sometimes be smug, while engaging in a form of prose that is incredibly arrogant.

By the end of the book I was left with a bitter-taste in my mouth. On the one hand, I was impressed with the depth and variety of Cohen's ideas and analysis. On the other hand, I was not impressed by how much of an arrogant ass he was. All in all, reading this book is like going to a lecture of a brilliant professor who is also pompous and at times insufferable.

2 1/ 2 out of 5 stars

Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game (Sporting) by David Wangerin

An interesting history of how soccer developed in the United States. Beginning with the the sport's early start in North America in the 19th century, to the repeated attempts to launch a professional league -- i.e. the American Soccer League (1921-32), the infamous NASL (1968-84) and the current-day MLS -- this book is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in knowing the history of footie in the U.S.


3 1/2 out of 5 stars