Book Review: Practical Demonkeeping

Posted by Dana on 11.03.2008 at 12:45 pm

Okay – we’re digging back to 1992 for this one. Some of you were still toddling around in your diapers, but I’ll try not to think about that.

I have heard so many great things about Christopher Moore over the years that I finally had to go check him out for myself. And where better to start than at the beginning. Practical Demonkeeping is Moore’s debut novel and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Not to use a phrase that could come back to haunt me, but I was totally sucked in.

The book has the pace and intricacy of a Carl Hiaasen mixed with a sort of sarcastic and silly demon world. Think Sick Puppy meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer except the heroes are not so attractive or nice or successful.

If you’re not drawn in by the premise, check out some of the characters – you’ve got a small time drug dealer called The Breeze, an obese police data expert called The Spider and sometimes the Nailgun, a demon named Catch who postpones his killing to enjoy the Magic Fingers of a motel room bed, Billy, a cross dressing hotel clerk who is sometimes called Roxanne and Gian Hen Gian the king of the Djinn.

And if that isn’t enough to get you reading, here’s my favorite quote from the book. When Travis, our hero, is asked what morality is, he replies, “It’s the difference between what is right and what you can rationalize.”

(If you like Christopher Moore, check back for an interview with him coming as his new release approaches in 2009!)

2 Comments » | Tagged Book Reviews, author interviews, christopher moore, practical demonkeeping

Book Review: Lila by Robert Pirsig

Posted by Jack on 10.28.2008 at 10:30 am

Everyone has a favorite cult book.  Maybe it’s Fight Club, maybe it’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, maybe it’s something else.  For me, it’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Robert Pirsig does an amazing job of exposing the less philosophy educated, but interested, in a whole new way of thinking about the world.  As a young man brought up in a Catholic household, his concept of “Quality” as the divine, in its way, was racy and delicious.

Fewer have read his effort: Lila: An Inquiry into Morals.  Lila delves deeper.  In the same way Atlas Shrugged was used as Ayn Rand’s soapbox after priming the pump with the superb “The Fountainhead,” Pirsig knows you’re bought in to an extent, so he’s going to dive in deep.  At one point he chirps “Metaphysics is a diner menu with 30,000 pages and no food” and thusly seems to wash his hands to the need for food in the text.  He weaves around a story down a river, as opposed to on a bike, with his own morality in his sights and that of other characters, be they real or created for the vehicle of the story.

Fundamentally, the problem with Lila becomes not that it fails to entertain; it is dense but appeals to the inquiring mind.  Rather it is that this text is a kind of basis for the same mysticism based new-age philosophies that become relative and in their relativity become dangerous.  Although Pirsig thankfully shies away from “The Cloud of Unknowing” concept in which any attempt to attach names to “the Divine” furthers us from understanding it, he still clings to the fact that connotation refracts the light of knowledge and thusly obfuscates the reality of experience.  Even in his oft-cited example about a hot stove and the “low quality experience” of sitting on it, he muddles something tangible and physical with conclusions much deeper than “that was uncomfortable” opting instead for the “dynamic” nature of realizing the issue andb amending it and the consequent “static” nature of writing into your mental code “do not sit on hot stove.”

Regardless, Pirsig’s writing is clean and anyone interested in the concepts will be satisfied not only by his execution, but by his elocution.  And besides this is the stuff that dorm common rooms were made for.

4 Comments » | Tagged Book Reviews, cult books, lila an inquiry into morals, robert pirsig, zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

Book Review: Practicing by Glenn Kurtz

Posted by Jack on 10.27.2008 at 11:30 am

When we get entrenched in something that takes so much of our day, be it work, a significant other, or the curious amalgamation of the two in the form of our “craft” (be it writing, playing music, dancing or whatever), we often fail to see anything else.  As someone who went to school for classical guitar and English, I picked up Glenn Kurtz’s Practicing: A Musician’s Return to Music.  I figured “Hey, I lapsed from guitar too and need to return!  I like to write too!”  But even I, in my love of these simple joys have trouble at times delving into the indulgence of Kurtz’s writing.

His tacit statement of genius is part of the affect of the book.  I get that.  His descriptions of the music and practice are excellent, Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, glenn kurtz, music, practicing

Book Review: Vince and Joy by Lisa Jewell

Posted by Dana on 10.22.2008 at 2:49 pm

I have always been a fan of Lisa Jewell, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Remember a few years back (okay more than a few) when Bridget Jones’s Diary hit the big time and we all wanted to read anything British? Well that’s when Lisa Jewell hit it big in the states

Ralph’s Party and Thirty Nothing were really great – and though Ms. Jewell is marketed as chick lit, her characters are very real and likable as well. I think it’s fair to say she got that label because chick lit was all the rage at the time. In fairness, her books should really just be considered contemporary fiction.

Vince & Joy is kind of like a British When Harry Met Sally except that instead of starting out friends, the pair in this story start out as lovers – each others first, in fact. Circumstances separate them and they go on to live their own very normal, very that-could-be-me lives. We experience them over a nearly twenty year period as they live their lives and bump into each other every several years along the way. The supporting cast is well thought out and interesting from the parents to the roommates to the transgender neighbor and the psychic cat.

2 Comments » | Tagged Book Reviews, Bridget Jones, british lit, dana barrett, Lisa Jewell, Vince & Joy, When Harry Met Sally

The Classic American Road Trip

Posted by Geoff on 10.16.2008 at 10:25 am

This book piqued my interest not because of the obvious timeliness of the release with the election, but because Dave Eggers contributed the writing for Illinois. I don’t recognize any of the other authors, but What is the What and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius were both great reads.

Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, anthony bourdain, book reviews, Dave Eggers, road trip, state by state

Slate Audio Book Club

Posted by Jack on 10.14.2008 at 10:35 am

Slate Audio Book Club, one of my favorite reading resources on the web is currently discussing The Night of the Gun by David Carr, a book that I briefly previewed here.  Also, next they’ll be discussing my favorite book, The Great Gatsby(!)

Thoughts on SABC review of The Night of the Gun:

Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, david carr, f. scott fitzgerald, slate, slate audio book club, the great gatsby, the night of the gun

Book Review: The Almost Moon

Posted by Dana on 10.13.2008 at 12:26 pm

I have to admit, I didn’t read the highly acclaimed and hugely bestselling The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold mostly because the idea of reading about a dead teenager turned me off.  But I heard it was amazing.  My own teenager really liked it, in fact.

I don’t know why I thought I would do better with the topic of The Almost Moon.  It’s a tough one to swallow, too.  I’m not giving anything away by telling you that on page one we learn that the main character has killed her aging mother.
Read more…

2 Comments » | Tagged Book Reviews, alice sebold, book reviews, dana barrett, the almost moon, the lovely bones

Beedle the Bard and Brisingr

Posted by Jack on 09.25.2008 at 2:11 pm

Pre-Order “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” for $9.98 w/Free Shipping Muggles and Wizards, current members and alumni of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin students of light magic, dark magic, or just plain-old algebra (magical in its way), we have an announcement: You can now pre-order Beedle the Bard at Better World Books. That’s right; Beedle the Bard, the same book Dumbledore gives Hermoine to study, the same book that Harry uses to defeat Lord Voldemort, the same book that every wizard in training knows as well as the story of Goldilocks, is for sale now on the website.  You read “The Tale of the Three Brothers” in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” but now you can look through the four other tales in Beedle the Bard.  Get a hold on what could be the last book in the Harry Potter series! Sorry, we currently can’t accept anything from Gringotts, only credit cards and PayPal.

Brisingr Think Harry Potter is for the kids?  Feel like taking on a tougher beast? Brisingr is Christopher Paolini’s followup to the very popular Eragon and Eldest.  This 700+ page tome stars wizards, dragons, elves, dwarves and myriad other mythical creatures, and is sure to satiate your desire for a great fantasy book. Paolini began writing the series when he was 15 and wrote one-third of the latest book with a quill and parchment (we kid you not). Check the rest of his titles here.

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, beedle the bard, brisingr, christopher paolini, deals, emails, eragon, erasmus, harry potter, jk rowling, paolini, rowling

Grammar Girl (?!)

Posted by Jack on 09.23.2008 at 3:05 pm

Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is my current read.  Normally I’m more of a classicist, preferring my MLA and Chicago Manual of Style or the wonderful Elements of Style.  Meanwhile, Grammar Girl is the opposite end of the spectrum, appealing to youth or business people who aren’t as interested necessarily in the rote, represented by an avatar, and having made her name via podcasts.  Didn’t sound like necessarily my cup of tea.

However, after she answered a question I had for her on twitter (in regards to the capitalization of the word “minister” in a strange context), I thought I owed her text a chance.

It arrived a few days ago, looking very orange and not overly imposing.  I delved right in and within some 15 minutes I had already found a number of intuitive rules that I knew previously as well as fleshing out those I was definitely confused about.  She even sometimes supports splitting infinitives (Ah! The horror!  Meh, whatever… I’m OK with it).

In any event, for the casual writer or anyone who wants to improve their written communication (especially those Wall St. suits that are busy making resumes?  Man am I glad I got out of there when I did…) this is a solid addition to your bookshelf.

1 Comment » | Tagged Book Reviews, Book Reviews, editing, grammar girl, manuals of style

Book Review: The Cult of the Amateur

Posted by Jack on 09.17.2008 at 6:04 pm

Over at Speak Media Blog, a great resource for all things social web, there’s a great article about Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture.”

To give you an idea of why his book is particularly boring, try this quote on for size: “[Web 2.0] worships the creative amateur: the self-taught filmmaker, the dorm-room musician, the unpublished writer. It suggests that everyone — even the most poorly educated and inarticulate amongst us — can and should use digital media to express and realize themselves. Web 2.0 ‘empowers’ our creativity, it ‘democratizes’ media, it ‘levels the playing field’ between experts and amateurs. The enemy of Web 2.0 is ‘elitist’ traditional media.”  Oh heavens no!  Next thing you know people with degrees in History and Poli Sci will be writing books about the internet!  Come, help me scoff at the so-called “art” of the proletariat.

For that matter, isn’t that the best part of the internet?  I love being able to see and hear the creative output of thousands of people with no budget, who would never be signed by a major label and never would have Payola to get them on the radio, people who would never get a book deal selling tons and filmmakers with a whole new canvas to go with their liberation.  Not everyone can afford NYU film school, talent or not.  The Web provides us with an unbelievable view, not into the uber-educated necessarily (although those people are certainly represented online as well).  I wonder how someone like Keen can be so displeased with the collective editing of information when the past has been riddled by books in classrooms dominated by serious biases of the authors (hence the wild popularity of A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn).  Really, he’s just an opportunist: it’s always sexier to disagree with the populous on something-to criticize the great work of art-to try and make a name for yourself than it is to agree and try to innovate.

His elitist, aristocracy loving, democracy hating pandering can be read here I would get busy eviscerating the tedious, pedantic tripe that is this text, but Speak Media did a great job.  Enjoy! (and notice the reviews of the book, 198 reviews, 2.5 out of 5 stars).

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, andrew keen, book reviews, lame books, outlinks