Category Archives: 4-star

May 16, 2013 · 5:00 am

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

image

Ooooo criminally-insane, murder-mystery, literary non-fiction goodness. You could seriously pour chocolate on this and gobble it up.

I’m feeling lazy (I might be getting sick, yuck), so I’m just gonna go ahead and post the description of the book here from the back of the book:

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W.C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

 

That sums it up so well! Way better than I could have. But yeah, so basically the HUGE project of creating the Oxford English Dictionary involved asking volunteers to send in quotes for words both common and rare, in order to best be able to trace the history and all meanings of each word. I guess I never really thought about what an impressive project that would be, especially back then. Seriously, we live in a world today when we can look everything up on the Internet. Everything. And I knew few people even own paper dictionaries anymore because most of us can just type a word we need a definition for into our phones and get it. I can’t imagine living in a time before dictionaries when you would think “Hmmm I wonder what the word means” and NOT have a way to look it up! I finally understand why Shakespeare’s crazy ass never makes any sense to me – he didn’t have a way to check if a word was a word already invented, if he was using it correctly, or if it was even spelled correctly.

So yeah, back to the book. This one guy, W.C. Minor, had a whole lot of time on his hands since he was locked away for being criminally insane and ended up contributing a TON of quotes to use in the OED. So many so that James Murray realized it and eventually went to meet Minor, and the two kind of became friends.

Well clearly I’m not going to tell you why Minor was locked away – how crazy he was or what crime he committed. That would ruin the fun! But this is a lovely, nerdy book if you care at all about literary history or lexicography. I learned way more about the making of the OED than I never thought I would, and I enjoyed the tale of crazy that surrounds Minor, and the lovely hint of bromance between him and Murray.

 

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

6 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Non-fiction

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

May 14, 2013 · 6:00 am

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

 

You have a sick mind, John Connolly. But somehow you totally made it work.

David is a young boy in WWII England who slowly, painfully watches his mother die (of what I’m thinking is cancer). Very obviously distraught by her death, things get worse for David when his father remarries and announces that David has a sibling on the way. David has always taken refuge in reading books, but now those books are speaking to him and as his family life becomes more stressful, the lines between reality and imagination start to blend. Suddenly David finds himself in a strange, dangerous world and has to find his way home again. His only hope is to make it to the King, an old, dying man whose legendary “Book of Lost Things” might be the key to David’s return to his world.

I really liked this book when I started it. The writing is simple but also kind of lyrical and I was a bit enchanted by it. Also, David was a weird kid that I totally felt for. He’s a book lover so obviously I connected on that level with him instantly, but he does start to go a little crazy with grief. It’s SO RARE that I connect with a 12-year old character, but I instantly felt for David.

Once he crosses over into that weird realm, things took a definitely darker twist. He’s in danger, and there are hints of fairy tales in this land but they’ve been warped from the stories he knew. Honestly, some things were so twisted and disturbing and gruesome that I was a little put off by it. It was weird. And then by page 200, I felt like the book was slowing down a bit and wasn’t convinced that I’d end up liking it as a whole. When I posted on Instagram that I was reading The Book of Lost Things, I got a lot of “That’s a great book!” type of comments, and I was starting to worry that I would have to disagree.

BUT THEN THE ENDING HAPPENED. By page 250 things had picked back up and some huge things were revealed. Well, they were huge to me because I never see these things coming. But yeah, I was in for a total shock in some aspects and things were happening and I was biting my nails and yeah… I finished the book surprised but glad. And a little blind-sided. I went online immediately to look up more info and about the book and whatnot, and Wikipedia described this as a “coming-of-age” novel. I’ve come to mistrust and hate books labeled “coming-of-age” (I’m looking at you, A Visit From the Goon Squad) and usually avoid them, but I think that I’ve finally found a book deserving of that label. David grows a whole lot as a kid and as a character, through the trials and obstacles that he has to overcome.

The Book of Lost Things examined a whole lot of issues in one book – OCD, death, grief, maturity, bravery, the after life, etc. My mind feels shaken up with it all, and I feel like I’ll be thinking about this book for a good long while. And when I’m done musing on this book, I’ll probably seek out some of John Connolly’s other novels.

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars (with .5 star missing because the middle dragged just a bit)

 

18 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Fantasy, Fiction

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

May 8, 2013 · 2:05 pm

Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson

neil degrasse tyson

 

 I think it sucks that being smart isn’t considered cool. (I’m not talking about you book bloggers – obviously you think being smart or bookish is cool.) I think it sucks that science as a whole isn’t more appreciated these days. You’d think that given all the super impressive technology that we have these days, science would be held in the highest esteem. That parents would be urging their kids to get into any kind of science – astronomy, engineering, physics, chemistry… ANYTHING besides more doctors and lawyers and sports stars. But nope. This book was kind of a relief because Neil deGrasse Tyson feels pretty much the same way.

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier is a collection of articles, interviews, and essays by Tyson about pretty much one subject – the importance of NASA and space exploration. It’s separated into three sections: WHY, HOW, and WHY NOT. Tyson’s enthusiasm for space is infectious. You can’t help but be excited about it. Tyson calls out the NASA skeptics, goes over some of the technology we have today thanks to NASA, talks about why it’s so important that we continue to explore space with humans and with robots, and just so much more.

In all honesty, the format for this book - that it’s a collection of articles and such written over the past fifteen years instead of just a plainly written book – was not my favorite. It led to a lot of repetition on some points, and no sources are cited besides where each article or interview was originally featured.  I ended up looking into a few of the things he mentioned myself. For example, did you know that NASA’s budget per tax dollar is one half of one penny? Tyson mentioned that several times, and I did a bit of looking around online and it appears to be accurate. That means that only about $20 of all the federal income tax I paid last year went to NASA’s budget. Their budget is less than 1% of the entire federal budget. That is insanely low.

Tyson goes on to point out that space exploration (and in fact, scientific research in general) is never well-funded by the government until there is a clear military or monetary need.  He talks about why space exploration is still so important – for the sake of research, innovation, the economy, and more. He laments that America is falling behind in technology and science now when we were so clearly ahead decades earlier. He discusses the current idiocracy* trend happening now (also called anti-intellectualism), and I nodded along the whole time. And during all of this, he is absolutely brimming with excitement for space, and for those of us who are scientifically curious even if we’re not working in a science-related field.

Let’s face it – I was all for space exploration before I read Tyson’s book. He didn’t need to convince me there. I did however learn more about the history of NASA and why it’s so underfunded right now, and a few other things along the way. So, if any of you are NASA skeptics or don’t have an opinion as of yet, maybe read it and let me know if it swayed you in any way? Either way, read it and we can chat about it!

I feel like this review has been all over the place, and that’s because I basically want to share every little awesome factoid or quote with you and I’m restraining myself, because really- just read it! It’s only about 260 pages. The chapters were relatively short and held my attention, and I enjoyed the “Space Tweets” from his Twitter account sprinkled throughout the book. I highly recommend reading this – there isn’t any scientific lingo or anything that you’ll have to struggle through, I promise. It’s just a really passionate plea from an astrophysicist who wants to see America become a great leader in space exploration again.

 

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars

 

*Have any of you seen the movie Idiocracy? It’s awesome.

4 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Non-fiction

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

May 1, 2013 · 10:57 pm

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

image

 

 

Good morning, book lovers! So it’s time for my review of the fourth Thursday Next book. I’m not quite sure my brain it up to the task, but I’ll try.

 

BUT REMEMBER THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE FIRST THREE BOOKS, MMMKAY? KAY.

Somehow, it’s been over a year since I read the third book, The Well of Lost Plots! Honestly, don’t know how I went that long in between books. So let’s just say that I remembered that Thursday was still in Bookworld, and her hubby Landen was still non-existent because he had been eradicated, and she was chasing some book characters who apparently ended up escaping into the real world.

Something Rotten starts off with Thursday getting a bit frustrated with Bookworld and realizing that she needs to go home, try to un-eradicate her husband, and catch Yorrick Kaine - the escaped book characters that’s been making waves in the real world as a politician. So she takes a long leave-of-absence from Jurisfiction, grabs her two-year old son Friday, and heads back to reality.

There was a LOT to like about this book, and I read it pretty quickly. I liked seeing Thursday struggle with fictional character baddies, a husband that doesn’t exist, a hitwoman out to get her, Shakespeare clones, and more – and all while now being a mom. I like that being a mom doesn’t diminish Thursday’s awesomeness or adventures any - Friday is just one more thing she has to take care of in her hectic, weird life.

Once again, after finishing this book I had a weird dream – something about me being trapped with other people in a big store of some kind and black, shiny, hard-looking spiders and lizards that were WAY over-sized were crawling around trying to attack us, and none of my long-range weapons or machetes were around. It was weird, I didn’t sleep well that night.

Also, there were a few quotes I liked and wrote down, but I think this one (spoken by Hamlet himself who’s experiencing the real world for the first time) is my favorite:

“If the real world were a book, it would never find a publisher. Overlong, detailed to the point of distraction – and ultimately, without a major resolution.”

Which sounds pretty true, but I agree with Thursday’s response – that maybe we like it that way. I have the 5th Thursday Next book (although from what I understand, it’s the start of a separate Thursday Next series or storyline…?) on it’s way to me from Paperbackswap, and this time I’m not going to let a whole year go by before I read it.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

10 Comments

Filed under 4-star, British, Fiction, Sci-Fi

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 26, 2013 · 9:14 am

My Beloved Brontosaurus by Brian Switek

Brian Switek

It’s been a long time since I’ve really thought about dinosaurs.

I read a really great review for My Beloved Brontosaurus, and then the last time I was at the library I saw it right there on the “new non-fiction” shelf and I grabbed it immediately. This review has been hard to write so far, because my brain is literally teeming with all the things I’ve learned about dinosaurs and there’s a part of me that just wants to go on a never-ending ramble about all of it like a little kid. 

So, dinosaurs! Remember them? I haven’t really learned anything about dinosaurs since middle school, and what I learned was this: Dinosaurs were big, scary reptile-like things that walked around until an asteroid killed everything on Earth. I mean, that’s basically the gist of what we learned. And when I heard of My Beloved Brontosaurus, I thought “Hey, that sounds like a fun book on a topic that I basically know nothing about.” And it was! Also, pretty much everything I learned about dinosaurs in middle school was wrong.

This book is really well-written, and discusses a whole wide range of dinosaur topics. Stuff that I never even thought of, like how dinosaurs got their groove on, what illnesses they suffered from, if they were social or solitary creatures, what they actually looked like (shock to me that a whole lot of them had dino fuzz and/or feathers), what they might have sounded like, and why they didn’t survive whatever killed them off. All of this is interspersed with Switek’s own personal recollections of fossil excavations, interviews, and trips. The chapters were concise, well-organized, and flowed smoothly.

My favorite thing about this book is that the author’s passion for dinosaurs and paleontology practically radiated from the pages. Writing good non-fiction for the average reader is HARD. What makes non-fiction books particularly enjoyable, at least for me, is when the author clearly enjoys the subject matter. If the author is really excited about what he’s writing, then it’s more likely that the readers will find interesting as well. Also, there were unexpected bits of humor in this book, especially in the chapter speculating how dinosaurs might have mated. 

 Honestly, I didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Like I said, dinosaurs wasn’t even a topic I was particularly interested in, more than idly wondering if we’ll ever bring them back from extinction like in Jurassic Park. And… now I’m more curious. I kind of want to know more about the dinosaurs. It bums me out that we’ll probably never know enough about them. I’ll be keeping an eye out for other interesting paleontology books, as well as for future books by Switek.

I definitely recommend checking this book out. Also, I hear that the dust jacket folds out to be a poster! I couldn’t check that on the library copy, but I plan on buying my own copy anyways.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

2 Comments

Filed under Non-fiction, 4-star

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 23, 2013 · 4:44 pm

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Christopher Healy

I love me some fairy tales, but let’s face it – they’re all about the ladies and kind of ignore the dudes. But not anymore!

The Prince Charmings are kind of sick of being ignored. They’re all a major part of the fairy tale stories – Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty – but somehow they get no recognition. No one even knows their names! All going through some sort of turmoil, they’re cast out of their castles and meet up in the forest, where they discover an evil plot that endangers the people of their kingdoms. It’s time for them to get their act together and be the heroes they know they are!

So, OBVIOUSLY this is a kid’s book, in case you couldn’t tell. It’s a pretty hefty one (400+) pages and there’s lots of wit and snark, so I’d say it’s probably aimed at the 9 to 12 range? But of course if you’re an adult (like myself) you’ll probably enjoy it even more than most kids might. I’m definitely going to save my copy to let my nephews read when they’re a bit older.

I really liked this flip-side of the fairy tale universe. The princesses aren’t quite the dolls they’re made out to be, and the princes are so crazy and entertaining! There’s Duncan, who’s a total introverted weirdo and hence my favorite. Liam is the most classic hero but he’s a bit naïve. Gustav is the MANLY prince that mucks everything up by being too manly. And Frederic was a delicate little rose of a prince who finally has to take some risks. Together they face dragons, bandits, evil witches, and other scary things and form a wonderful four-way bromance in the process.

It was cute. It was campy. It was fun enough that I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

6 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Fantasy, Fiction

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 20, 2013 · 6:00 am

The Disaster Diaries: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Apocalypse by Sam Sheridan

doomsday prepper

Just pretend for a minute that the worst has happened – there’s a major apocalyptic event that means you’re on your own. There’s no police, no government,  no food, water, or electricity. Are you prepared?

Sam Sheridan has a ridiculously impressive resume – MMA fighter, student of muay thai, farm hand, wildland firefighter, sailor, and the list goes on. But after becoming a parent, he suffered from insomnia and worried constantly about those never-ending disaster scenarios and whether or not he’s prepared to take care of himself and his family. The answer was to set out to learn whatever he could to be ready, just in case that day ever comes.

The post-apocalyptic world has become a really popular topic for movies, TV shows, and books over the past several years, and I think it makes everyone think “What would I do if I were in that situation?” Despite that, I’m sure not nearly enough people have actually taken steps to prepare for it. In my home, we lean on the “prepper” side – having extra food and water stored, having a bug out bag (or “go” bag), having batteries, candles, and more all set aside just in case something goes wrong. What I really liked about this book is that Sheridan realized that while all of that is well and good, there are skills you might need if the world is coming to an end, and he set out to learn what he could. This is NOT a how-to book. The Disaster Diaries is just about one guy’s quest to learn some things that might be useful if the shit ever hits the fan in a majorly catastrophic way, and it provides some really interesting insights along the way.

I really enjoyed this book, because Sheridan presented many angles that I never thought of and he did so with impressive references and research. It also made me want to do ALL THE THINGS. He goes on to tackle Olympic weightlifting, gun shooting, how to start a car without a key, hunting, knife-fighting, emergency medical care, and more. The start of each chapter starts with a little fictional glimpse into himself trying to keep his family alive in a variety of disaster scenarios, and each chapter ended with the skill he just discussed saving their asses. You wouldn’t think that learning how to stunt drive a car would be handy in a post-apocalyptic world, but it turns out it probably would be.

And for those of you thinking to yourself that this is all a bunch of crap that only paranoid people would worry about, I give you this nice tidbit from the last chapter:

“Preparing for the apocalypse is essentially about walking the line between paranoia and self-reliance. To me, the definition of paranoia is a little like the definition of addiction. If something is destructive to your life – takes your job, alienates friends and loved ones – then it’s an addiction (or paranoia). If it makes your life better, it’s not. By keeping my preparation mostly in the arena of self-reliance and knowledge (as opposed to the “my fallout shelter has four-and-a-half-foot-thick walls” arena), I have only made me life better. I’ve enjoyed learning new skills for dealing with new scenarios – and the confidence that comes with it.”

Sarah Says: 4.5 stars

2 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Non-fiction

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 18, 2013 · 6:00 am

Nexus by Ramez Naam

Nexus

This is one of those books where the more I think about it, the more I think I liked it.

Nexus is about a drug called – guess what? – Nexus. It’s an illegal nano-drug that exists in 2040, that humans can use to connect; mind-to-mind, brain-to-brain. A young scientist named Kade finds a way to improve Nexus – to make it’s effects permanent. When he’s caught by the government, he’s forced into an international fight between those to want to eradicate Nexus and those who want to unleash it.

My thoughts about this book are so MIXED, but ultimately positive. The book starts off kind of slow – the software lingo was hard to get in to, and I was thiiiiiissss close to DNF-ing it. But then around page 200 BAM! It picked up and I read the next 250 pages in one sitting. I’m glad I stuck with it.

Basically in this near-future, nano-drugs and biological enhancement are a thing. Some humans have gotten things done to them to make them faster, stronger, more durable, etc. Nexus is something considered dangerous by the government, because it gives people the ability to connect their minds – to see memories, read thoughts, communicate telepathically. There are official terms in this world such as “transhuman” and “posthuman”, distinguishing just how many changes a person can make to his or her self before they are no longer considered human, and therefore no longer protected by basic human rights.

The story wasn’t exactly the best. Like I said, it started off slow. I liked the characters Kade and Wats, but felt like we didn’t get to learn quite enough about them. Sam was the other main character, and I think I liked her but she was so messed up that her actions didn’t always make sense to me. But the action definitely picks up in the second half of the book, and I was biting my fingernails while reading because things were getting intense. And it gave me a lot of food for thought – Are we on our way to this kind of future, where bioengineering is so common? When and how will the lines between humans and software machines start to blur? Would I take Nexus if I was in this world?

It made for some really interesting discussions with my honeyman when I was done reading, and I am more curious about some of the nanotechnology presented in the book. I want to check out one of Naam’s other books, a non-fiction book called More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement. Oh yeah, Ramez Naam isn’t just some new sci-fi author! He apparently helped invent Internet Explorer and Outlook, and he was the CEO of a nanotechnology company, so he obviously knows his subject matter! I dig that.

OH, and there’s a sequel to Nexus coming out in August! It’s called Crux, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

2 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Fiction, Sci-Fi

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 17, 2013 · 6:00 am

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

much ado about nothing shakespeare

Yeah, I totally read the “Shakespeare Made Easy” edition. Cause DUDE I haven’t read any Shakespeare since middle school (Hamlet) and the teachers basically explained it all and I still don’t remember anything about what it was about. And since I really wanted to know the storyline for when Joss Whedon’s movie version of Much Ado About Nothing comes out, I decided to read something that would definitely help me understand it. I tried to read the real Shakespeare and then look at the next page and read the modern-day lingo, but that was taking forever and really getting in the way of me trying to keep everything straight so I mostly read the translation, and referred to the original lines when I felt like it.

ANYWAYS, so! This is a story about a whole lot of misunderstandings taking place and almost preventing two couples in love from getting married. There’s Benedick and Beatrice, who have a war of words going on that obviously hints to a deeper fondness. And then there’s Claudio and Hero, the quiet couple in love until Claudio is deceived into thinking that Hero’s a hoebag. Dun dun DUUUNNNN!

Yup, didn’t expect the word ”hoebag” in a Shakespeare review, now did ya?

This story is kind of ridiculous, with lots of eavesdropping and confusion and chaos kind of screwing over everything for the characters. BUT I did  totally enjoy it, and I am really, really looking forward to seeing it done in a theater sometime soon-ish. Reading a play is fine I guess, but well, obviously it’s probably more enjoyable when you are watching people act it out. And I SOOOOO can’t wait for the Joss Whedon movie now, although I’m a little disappointed that Nathan Fillion is playing Dogberry (a side character at best that was kind of weird and slightly annoying). I would have liked to see him as Benedick instead, cause he was so sassy.

So hooray, the first Shakespeare I (kind of) read and understood and enjoyed! I probably will go flip through this later and try to absorb more of the real Shakespeare writing.

Sarah Says: 4 stars!

14 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Classics, Poetry

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 10, 2013 · 6:00 am

Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines

Peter Clines

 

I bought Ex-Heroes mainly because the blurbs by other authors on the cover were so impressive:

“The Avengers meets The Walking Dead with a large order of epic served on the side… I loved it!” – Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One

“Zombies? Check. Superheroes? Check. Awesome? Check. Ex-Heroes has it all. You’re in for a treat!” – Mira Grant, author of Feed

Those are two authors I really like, so I took their word for it. They didn’t let me down!

So basically there are some superheroes around – Stealth, Gorgon, Regenerator, Zzzap, and more. They’re kind of going around and helping out here and there, and then the zombie apocalypse hits and they get together to try to save as many people as they can. They set up a base in Los Angeles and try to protect the people there – from zombies, and from the local gang the Seventeens, who have been causing more trouble lately.

Good premise, right? Ex-Heroes wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but it was a really good, quick read. There are a few chapters sprinkled throughout the book where you get a glimpse on the superheroes’ lives before they got powers, and what they were up to before the zombies popped up. I really liked seeing each of the different heroes and seeing what kind of cool powers they had, and I liked that they all had kind of an inner-struggle thing going on. Instead of a similarity to The Avengers like Ernest Cline says above, I’d actually say it reminded me more of the Watchmen. It felt gritty, which I liked. The heroes are all normal people underneath, who are equally as distraught about the zombie apocalypse as everyone else but who feel obligated to try to save humanity – even when some of humanity includes an annoying gang trying to take over now that there’s no society.

Some big epic things were revealed near the end, so I’m really looking forward to reading the sequel Ex-Patriots, which comes out on April 23rd.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

 

 

 

2 Comments

Filed under 4-star, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Sci-Fi, Zombies

Tagged as , , , , , ,