Isaac's Storm - Erik Larson

Isaac's Storm is the story of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the early days of hurricane prediction. Like the other works by Erik Larson, Isaac's Storm is the non-fiction that reads like a good mystery. Larson seamlessly weaves the facts and figures of the events into a narrative that keeps the reader engaged. Each of the books that I've read by this guy have been peppered with historical surprises, and this one is no exception. Fascinating tidbits about technologies, companies, and individuals that we think we know are revealed in the context of their time.

This isn't my favorite Larson book, but it's still worth your time. Very informative and entertaining.

• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard

The Foreign Correspondent - Alan Furst

Alan Furst writes historical spy novels, usually set in Europe between 1930 and 1950. He writes from unique perspectives. His protagonists are Polish, Bulgarian, Italian, French, English. He shines a light on aspects of the World War II era that few Americans ever think about.

The Foreign Correspondent is the story of an Italian dissident ex-pat journalist, living in Paris in the months leading up to the start of World War II in Europe. Our hero is an ordinary person, living in extraordinary times. His work for the Reuters News agency takes him from the front lines of Spain's civil war, to Poland during the Blitzkrieg, to Nazi Berlin.

The Foreign Correspondent doesn't have the same amount of action as some of Furst's other novels, but it is no less satisfying.

Next up:

• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

Yes, I liked Into the Wild enough to plow right into the rest of Krakauer's repertoire. Into Thin Air was written earlier than the Into the Wild. While both works are post mortem examinations of adventures gone wrong, this one hits much closer to home for the author. Krakauer was a participant on an ill fated 1996 expedition to summit Mt. Everest which lost 8 people to the mountain.

Krakauer describes the events in detailed, gripping prose. I did not want to put this book down.

On the bedside table:

• Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard

Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer

Yeah, it's been forever. I know. I've been too busy reading to write!

After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in 1992, Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked across the US, finally arriving in Alaska, where he went to live in the wilderness. He was later found dead in the wilderness. Into the Wild is the story of McCandless' journey. It examines the possible reasons for McCandless' behavior. As someone who has a bad case of wanderlust, I identified with McCandless. I have read, and admired, some of the same works that influenced this kid.

Into the Wild is a well written account. It will grab your attention, and not let go until the bitter end.

Next up:

• Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
• Up in Honey's Room - Elmore Leonard
  

Thunderstruck - Erik Larson

When I saw that the author of Devil and the White City, Erik Larson, had written another book, I had to read it.

Thunderstruck is the non-fiction account of two figures who each captured the imagination of the western world at the beginning of the 20th century. Guglielmo Marconi was one of the driving forces behind the invention of wireless telegraphy. Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was an American doctor of homeopathic medicine, who in 1910, killed his wife. Larson tells the tales of these two fascinating men with the same engrossing style which he brought to Devil and the White City. The reader easily forgets that he is reading a work of non-fiction.

I happen to enjoy reading about the history of science and technology, but Larson's account of Marconi's development of transatlantic wireless telegraphy is accessible, and engrossing. One can't help but draw parallels between the the technological developments of the early 1900's and the early 2000's. The excitement and wonder with which the world embraced wireless is palpable.

I highly recommend Thunderstruck.

Still on the Bedside Table:

• W. Sommerset Maughm's Of Human Bondage
• Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre
  
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

Bag of Bones - Stephen King

I give up! Not on reading, or even my less than faithful blogging. I've been trying to get interested in Stephen King's Bag of Bones, and I just can't do it. The book is bloated. I read about 125 of the book's 752. I've read plenty of books that are 1000+ pages that feel less ponderous than this one.

Perhaps I didn't give it a fair shake, but there are too many other books by great authors waiting on the bedside table. Maybe I'll pick this one up later.

the average american male - Chad Kultgen

My friends Doris and Rob got me a gift card to my favorite bookstore for my birthday recently. It's my favorite gift. Anyone out there who reads this and wants to make my day, get me a gift card to a bookstore or an outdoor equipment store. One of the books that I bought yesterday was the average american male, the first book by Chad Kultgen. This book is a little like a bad wreck on the highway. You don't want to look, but you can quite bring yourself to keep your eyes away.

The book is a first person narrative from the viewpoint of a 28 year old guy living in the LA area. The guy is college educated. He has what we can only guess by virtue of his shopping and eating habits is a decent paying job. He also has no soul. I'm a little frightened that I identify with him a little.

This guy has spewed onto paper every evil, insensitive thought that has ever come into my head about women. He's also found a few of his own that I'm proud to say, had never entered my head until last night when I read this book. Thats right. It's a fast and easy read. The author routinely refers to women as bitches in the book. This is something that, even in my own head, I do not do. He views women almost exclusively as sex objects. I'm not proud to say that I've been guilty of that on occasion.

In spite of the ugliness, read this book. It's a frightening and enlightening view into the mind of an average suburban, white, heterosexual American male. The particular male portrayed happens to be more cold hearted and emotionally immature than most of us were at 28. I don't think I've ever been as unfeeling for as long an amount of time as the narrator, but I've been as immature, and as meatheaded.

What I really identified with is the portrayal of some of the thoughts that pop into this guys brain while he moves through life. Some of these things are obvious, some serendipitous. He checks out attractive women. He gets annoyed by what he sees as th silliness of some of the more estrogen laden situations in which he finds himself. The chapter about waiting in line at a Marie Osmond book signing with his girlfriend while surrounded by women who are chattering on about Oprah, Dr. Phil, and such is laugh out loud funny. He spends time finding old video games that he's never had a chance to finish.

The narrator also captures the laziness, fear, and emotional ineptitude which so many of us bring to our relationships. The guy actually manages to accidentally get engaged because he just goes along with his girlfriend, and never has the guts to tell her how he really feels. I know quite a few guys who have ended up in some very strange places solely because they have a relationship, and are either too lazy to work at it, too afraid to leave it, or to blind to see it for what it is.

Anyway, I've rambled on. Read this book. It's funny, irritating, oversimple, and a million other things. But read it anyway. Know that it does not represent all of all of us men. It DOES represent a little in most of us.

Currently on the Bedside Table or in the queue:

• Stephen King's Bag of Bones
• W. Sommerset Maughm's Of Human Bondage
• Alan Furst's The Foreign Correspondant
• Laurell K. Hamilton's Danse Macabre and Micah
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
  

I'm Back!

A friend recently commented that she was happy and surprised that I love poetry. This was my reply to her.

I never liked poetry in school, when we were supposed to be reading and interpreting the classics. I think it was because I had not lived. I was one of those people who, to quote Thoreau, lived "a life of quiet desperation." I didn't go out. I lived in fear. Of what, I'm not now sure. I've mostly gotten over that fear and reserve.

What reintroduced me to poetry was a radio show that Garrison Keillor does on public radio, called The Writer's Almanac (http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/). The Writer's Almanac is a daily poetry reading, and almanac of important literary events. The poem that grabbed me, made me sit up in my car seat, was Song of the Open Road, but Walt Whitman. Whitman is my favorite poet. He is my kind of romantic. He's a lover of women and men, adventure, and beauty it's varied forms. He's a rambler.

Here are the first few verses of Song of the Open Road.

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

The earth—that is sufficient;
I do not want the constellations any nearer;
I know they are very well where they are;
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

The poem is MUCH longer. Whitman could have used an editor! But there are nuggets of amazing and unparalleled beauty hidden in there, just like the roads upon which we travel.

The Hornblower Series - C.S. Forester

I read about half of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels a few years ago, and was completely addicted to his tales of adventure on the high seas. The novels are amazing in their detailed description of life on a King's ship at the turn of the 19th century. They follow the two main characters through naval battles, political intrigue, domestic challenges, and international espionage.

Jack Aubrey is an up and coming British Royal Navy officer in the time of the Napoleonic wars. Stephen Maturin is his ship's surgeon, and sometime spy. Aubrey is a character who viewed the world in black and white. The needs and traditions of the service are always foremost in his mind. For Maturin, the world is a much more complex place. The Maturin character in particular gives these novels a depth that allow the O'Brian novels to exist as something more than great stories.

C.S. Forester's novels were the inspiration for the O'Brian works, so I had to give them a shot. I started on Christmas Eve, and have read 6 books so far. The only reason I'm writing this entry, and not reading the next one is that the bookstore is closed right now!

Forester's Hornblower novels lack the depth of the O'Brian books, but stand as truly great stories. The O'Brian works are very enjoyable reads, but the later novels suffer from too much exposition on the tedium of life ashore. This may appeal to some, but I eventually lost interest in the series. No such problems with Hornblower. Horatio Hornblower is like Jack Aubrey without the boring home life! So far, every book is packed with action. If you enjoy historical fiction, these books will not disappoint.

Still in the queue:

• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy
• Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume One
• Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities
  

Stormy Weather - Carl Hiaasen

Stormy Weather is another fun read from Carl Hiaasen. Like Skinny Dip, reviewed on this page one week ago, Stormy Weather is a character and dialog driven romp through south Florida.

One key figure in this book, who shows up as a minor character in Skinny Dip, is someone called Skink. Skink also answers to "The Captain." The Captain is a former high profile Floridian who goes off the radar, and is a little "off." This character reminds me of a friend in the Cincinnati kayaking community. Maybe Hiaasen has met him?

After two good results, I can now say that Hiaasen has joined my list of authors who are safe buys. I'm pretty sure that any novel of his that I pick up will give me a few hours of good fun.

Up next on the Bedside Table are:

• C.S. Forester's Lieutenant Hornblower
  
• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Bob Dylan's Chronicles Volume One
  

The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson

The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is the novel that, along with Snow Crash, put Neal Stephenson on the map in the mid 90's. Stephenson has since written a string of imaginative, thought provoking books that all touch on some aspect of the nature of information and it's movement. While it's never stated, Diamond Age seems to be set about 50 - 75 years after Snow Crash.

The first part of the title is a reference to the names that anthropologists and historians use to describe the technological ages of humans: Stone Age, Bronze Age, etc. Some believe that we will one day have the ability to create objects and devices at the atomic level. One result of this might be the ability to synthesize carbon based objects which use the crystalline structure of diamonds. This may yield materials that might be, among other properties, extremely light and rigid. Hence, the Diamond Age.

Like the other his works, Stephenson touches on a wide variety of subjects. The future according to Stephenson includes the perfection of nanotechnology, obsolescence of nation-states, distributed consciousness, and an emphasis of culture over ethnicity.

Set in this world is the story of John Hackworth, a leading nanotech engineer, and Nell, a young girl of humble birth. Hackworth is commissioned to create the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a futuristic book which is capable of tailoring its content to the reader's interests and abilities. Nell's life is changed dramatically when her brother gives her the primer after mugging Hackworth and stealing a copy of the Primer.

Diamond Age was not an easy book to get into initially. I read the book over the course of two months, with other reading interspersed. I never really lost interest, but it took awhile before the book really grabbed me. Stephenson writes with a focus on narrative. There is relatively little dialog, and the characters are not as fully developed as some might like. In spite of these things, the book is well worth the effort. The stories of Hackworth and Nell are compelling, and the vision of the future put forth is like nothing I've ever read. Unlike most science fiction, Diamond Age and Snow Crash contain a future world that could believably exist in our lifetime.

Up next on the Bedside Table are:

• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy
• Carl Hiaasen's Stormy Weather
  

Skinny Dip - Carl Hiassen

My most recent read is Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip. I picked up the book the other day on a whim and plowed through it in a day.

Skinny Dip is character and dialog driven fiction. The plot is original and well constructed, but it's the characters that make you want to keep reading. There's a chronically inept biologist, his remarkably resilient wife, a morally bankrupt Florida agri-mogul, and his dim-witted minion. Hiaasen weaves sparse narrative with crisp dialog to keep the story moving along.

This is not life changing, morally uplifting fiction we're talking about here. The book is simply fun, easy reading. I found myself biting my lip to avoid waking my wife with laughter. Fans of Elmore Leonard will recognize and appreciate the style of entertaining, well written crime fiction. I'm not ready to put Hiassen up on the throne with Leonard, but he's close. I liked Skinny Dip well enough to go back to the store for two more of Hiaasen's novels today. I'll let you know how they stack up.

Books currently on the bedside table are:

• Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age
• Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point
• Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
• David Liss' A Conspiracy of Paper
• Hiaasen's Sick Puppy