Books Read 2013

[Madmarcus]

Middle of the year so I guess I should final post something here.

Reread
Getting Right with Tao - Ron Hogan
Dao De Jing translated by David Lin

Getting Right with Tao is a great rewriting of the Dao De Jing in in a "modern" style Sometimes the language almost reaches a parody of Ancient Chinese Secrets but I feel Hogan's paraphrasing get across the playful aspect that often gets lost in more literary or scholarly translations. David Lin, on the other hand, is a somewhat scholarly translation by a man who knows Chinese (Hogan is really paraphrasing other English translations).

New reads in 2013 (1st half)
Wool - Part One by Hugh Howey
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky
Necropolis by Michael Dempsey
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
City of Dream and Nightmares by Ian Whates
City of Hope and Despair by Ian Whates
City of Light and Shadow by Ian Whates
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

Way too short of a list in my opinion.

All three series (by Rothfuss, Whates, and Abercrombie) were decent. I didn't find Rothfuss as good as I expected from comments around here. In the end I think I just don't really like Kvothe. I'm tired of prodigies and especially prodigies that are more inept than is believable about the opposite sex.. That should have turned me off of the City of a Hundred Rows series by Whates but while our heroes end up being prodigies they also more believable. Especially in the first book the characters are much closer to normal people caught in a big events. The series did begin to drag by the end; I read all three back to back and it was probably too much. Rothfuss is a much more interesting writer even if I'm not wild about his characters. I don't have much to say on Abercrombie's books. I enjoyed them and will probably look to continue the series but I need to take a break from fantasy.

I hadn't read Roadside Picnic even thought I'd been hearing about it since the 80's. Nice to finally see it although I don't know if having played Stalker improved the book or just forced me to color everything with the images from the game.

[Isgrimnur]

[Jeff V]

Knight's Lady by Julianne Lee

Knight's Lady is the third book of a series involving a modern day couple (American and Brit) who have been transported back to Medieval Scotland. In earlier books, Alex, an airforce pilot, rises to the nobility in the service of Robert the Bruce, the first King of Scotland. His wife, Lindsey, becomes a rare female knight in her own right. How they got there, and how their son went from newborn to apparently the same age as his parents is a convoluted tale involving faeries, elves, and magic.

In the this third volume, Lee discards all pretense of writing any sort of historical novel (the previous books had their moments). The son, Trefor, finds out from his fairy lover that he is destined to become a prince. Meanwhile, a fairy warlord, introduced in the last book, remains captivated by Lindsey and endeavors to kidnap her and plot the murder of Alex. Alex survives, just barely, and Lindsey is harried by a magically enhanced captor to forsake Alex and become his willing bride. In medieval times, willingness is not a requirement, and it's made clear to her she will be his one way or another. Alex's attempted rescue falls short, and he finds himself in the warlord's dungeon -- unbeknownst to the warlord. What follows is that Trefor realizes his destiny, with more than a little help from the fairy queen/goddess.

This is the latest book in the series, but none of the story lines have been ended, so I expect the author will crank out another in due course. While the characters are strong and interesting, the story itself is become brain candy. I hope Lee can pull it up a bit in the next volume.

[Jeff V]

The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek

The 4% Universe is a succinct history of astronomy as it pertains to the quest to reconcile observation with theory. Starting from Einstein's "cosmological constant," astronomers have used a fudge factor to make the data fit into a comprehensive model. Astronomers believe that with complete understanding, these constants will vanish, but until then, they are a necessary part of creating models that fit current data.

Panek's book covers the who's who of astronomy and physics over the past century. Einstein, Hubble, Feynman and Hawking are the best-known, but the who's who of astrophysics appear somewhere in this book. Anecdotal stories describing how certain think tanks came together provide insight on how up-and-coming astronomers gain their cred.

The over-arching theme is the search for dark matter. Dark matter, by definition, is mass that is heretofore unobserved, but must exist for the universe to behave the way it does. A scientifically important pursuit, it is also costly in terms of research teams,. time on the world's largest telescopes, and supercomputing power. This quest is largely an academic one, and those are none to popular during times of austerity. Still, the pursuit goes on, and as long as brilliant minds dedicate themselves to proving the ultimate story of the universe, it is worth the effort from time to time to check in on the progress. Panek's progress report is well written and can get anyone up to speed on the current state of research as well as the historical research preceding it.

[Jeff V]

Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The 12th volume in the Aloysius Pendergast series of crime novels has our intrepid detective briefly reunited with his wife (thought long dead), and introduced to some loving teen-age sons he never knew he had. Of course, the joyous reunions is ruined by those damned Brazilian Nazis, but with a title like Two Graves, there has to be some reason to dig them in the first place. Additionally, we find out more about Constance's story, and Pendergast's student apprentice solves a case of her own, one involving her father and a scam at a car dealership.

As usual, the highlight is the reading by actor Rene Auberjonois. While I find these stories quite absurd, having them told by one of my favorite actors ads an entertainment factor that transcends the text itself. I haven't been reading them in order, but story lines arching across books are kept to a minimum. I've read enough of them now to get most of the references when they appear. If you're going to dive into this series, though, I would recommend doing so in order.

[Isgrimnur]

Grenadiers: The Story Of Waffen SS General Kurt 'Panzer' Meyer

The autobiography was not an easy read, partly because I didn't have map references and was not able to follow the movements of the units across the plains.

I'm glad I read it, but it certainly took me longer than normal to get through its 400 some pages.

[hitbyambulance]

fiction completed:

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
Haruki Murakami - 1Q84
H.G. Wells - The First Men on the Moon

fiction in progress:
Miguel Cervantes - Don Quixote [Book II] (Edith Grossman translation) (six years after finishing Book I]
unknown? - Beowulf (Howell D. Chickering, Jr. translation, so i can compare it to Shamus Heaney's)
Zane Grey - Riders of the Purple Sage
Neil Gaiman - Odd and the Frost Giants

[silverjon]

Last week I was reading London Falling by Paul Cornell, who has previously written for DC Comics and Dr. Who. This is his first novel.

The book is urban fantasy, a successful fusion of police procedural and dark magic. I rather liked it. Pretty obviously going to be a recurring series.

[Bad Demographic]

So I’ve been very bad and haven’t said anything about what I’ve read in quite a while. I am still reading Diana Wynne Jones (these are mostly kids and teens books but I really like her writing), Terry Pratchett, and Tom Holt.

Single best book I’ve read so far this year: I saw the movie version of Moneyball and enjoyed it, so I read the book. This is probably the best book I’ve read this year. It will sound geeky, but I really liked how Billy Beane and his assistant used statitistics. It wasn’t just to choose the best players they could afford (they couldn’t afford much at all) but they found new ways of defining what to look at – they asked good questions and also refined their questions and chosen stats to get better results. I found this exciting because where I work people want to use statistics but 1) stats are often used inappropriately and 2) people don’t formulate good questions. Imo, the key thing really is asking the right questions (and obviously I’m arrogant enough to feel people don’t ask good questions).

Best accidental discovery: Kameron Hurley.
Nutshell description of the “God’s War”: In a desert world defined by centuries of constant war, bounty hunter Nyxnissa is hired by the government to find a offworlder woman with technology that could end the war. Of course, she’s not the only one after the offworlder and whichever side gets the alien technology will be able to obliterate the other.
The first thing that struck me about these books was the writing. Many writers load up their stories with long-winded descriptions of pretty much everything (if I fall asleep in the first chapter, that’s a bad sign). Hurley keeps her descriptions spare and sprinkles in what you need to know, when you need to know it. When a character travels in a “bakkie”, you know it’s some kind of vehicle (in our reality, it’s a small South African truck). When there’s a crash and dead bugs spill out of it, you realize that the bakkie is powered by bugs (not internal combustion), and when you encounter characters who can manipulate the bugs you begin to understand the world’s technology.
The second thing that struck me was that people covered up their bodies – not just because their culture was like our Arabic culture and therefore it was traditional, but also because this is a world with two suns, long days and because skin cancer is common.
The third thing that struck me was that the protagonist is not the smartest, not the strongest, not even really the toughest woman around. But she seems to be determined to survive.

Second best accidental discovery: Jim C. Hines goblin series (Goblin Quest, etc.)
Hines spoofs “typical fantasy” – his main character Jig, a runt even by goblin standards, is forced into a search for a legendary magical artifact (held by a dragon, of course) by a party of adventurers consisting of a fighter, a magic user, a dwarf cleric and an elf thief.
I was a bit dubious about “Goblin Quest” initially but I liked Jig (and Smudge, his fire spider) and had to read the other two books. Really enjoyed them and suspect I’ll re-read them in the not too far future.
Note: I tried “Red Hood’s Revenge” by the same author but didn’t like it as well. He has another series I’ll try (Libriomancer), if only because the main character has a fire spider named Smudge.

Disappointment: The “Muirwood” series by Jeff Wheeler. The first book wasn’t too bad. The second was not as good. Reader comments on Amazon suggest the third book is a big slide downhill. Sometimes some stereotypes (probably really commonly accepted dualism) irritate me. In this series the evil person was a scantily clad wealthy woman (the Queen), the protagonist was a poor but honest and hard-working and chaste young woman (who was abandoned as a baby). The protagonist, being good, was able to tap into the world’s mysterious power but the Queen, being greedy and of low morals, could only use a twisted form of the power. Eyeroll. I just couldn’t bring myself to read the third book.

Best recommendation from person at work that I know from elsewhere: the Kate Shugak mysteries by Dana Stabenow. I’m hooked and am reading the third book now. I really like the characters.

[Zarathud]

I highly recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War series. Great sci-fi concept, but the writing focuses on telling the chatacter's story rather than world building for its own sake. Great story concepts come up naturally, but are set aside for later.

His Redshirts (which just won the Hugo) is a funny, meta-aware story about pulp sci-fi officers getting killed and their relationship with those who write in the genre.

[Rumpy]

His Redshirts (which just won the Hugo) is a funny, meta-aware story about pulp sci-fi officers getting killed and their relationship with those who write in the genre.

For what it's worth, I hated this one. I wanted to love it as I felt it was something worth exploring and I was looking forward to reading it. But I felt the concept struggled under its own weight, that the author didn't really know where to take it. It ends way too abruptly, and the codas feel more like filler that goes against the flow of the rest of the story. In general, I felt it was poorly executed.

[J.D.]

New Jack Reacher book out today. Yes please!

[Bad Demographic]

New Jack Reacher book out today. Yes please!

I have it on reserve at the library - and I'm only number 328 out of 900 something. The first time I reserved a Jack Reacher book I started somewhere past 900 - and a few hundred people signed up after me!

[Bad Demographic]

I highly recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War series. Great sci-fi concept, but the writing focuses on telling the chatacter's story rather than world building for its own sake. Great story concepts come up naturally, but are set aside for later.

His Redshirts (which just won the Hugo) is a funny, meta-aware story about pulp sci-fi officers getting killed and their relationship with those who write in the genre.

I really like the Old Man's War series. Have you read The Human Division yet?

I liked Redshirts but liked Android's Dream better. And have you read Judge Sn Goes Golfing?

[Jaymann]

Haven't posted recently, but finished 2 series and some light reading:

The Expanse Series:
Leviathan Wakes
Caliban's War and
Abaddon's Gate by "James S. A. Corey"


The Warded Man
The Desert Spear and
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

Limitless by Alan Glynn

Spoiler:

No happy ending like the movie.

Working on:

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks
Second book in The Lightbringer series (think Harry Potter for adults)

[Zarathud]

If you don't like the coda, then I agree that the whole meta story in Redshirts doesn't work. I thought it was meant to be abrupt, but I'm a pretty forgiving reader on execution as long as the character or story keeps flowing.

I'm currently reading Zoe's Tale, and I'll probably take a break before starting the Human Division.

[Scuzz]

One Day in September by Simon Reeves

The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God"

This book begins with the 1972 Israeli Hostage and ultimate killings at the Munich Olympics and ends with an epilogue written in 2005 explaining the authors opinion of how American drone strikes in the middle east will never bring peace. The first half of the book is a detailed look at the Olympics Massacre. Reeve does a very balanced job in explaining the background of the attack and it's intended purposes. At the end of the book he explains how even now the last surviving Palestinian's involved in the attack see it as a success. Reeve writes as the journalist he is, and while it is a dry style the detail of the story and how things went down in Munich are very interesting. The inability of the Germans to plan for and deal with the attack stands out in the failure to rescue the hostages.

The second half of the book is about the Israeli reaction to the Munich attack, and about the legal battles of the survivors relatives to find out what really happened. The Israeli government reacted to the attack by instigating government sanctioned assassinations of everyone and anyone who could have been involved. The victims may have been directly involved (2 of the surviving 3 terrorists were murdered) or there involvement may have been just an excuse to kill them. The Israeli government did this in ways which often led to the deaths of innocent bystanders, but they were seen as collateral damage. One event has the Israeli Air Force dropping a 1,000 lb bomb on a neighborhood just to get one guy.

Of course in the end the vaunted Mossad killed at least one man by mistake and while attempting to poison another set off an international incident.

Reeve has interviews with people on both sides, and you get the feeling his political agenda is really just that violence begets violence, and no peace will ever come in the middle east by trying to kill everyone who disagrees with you or represents a threat.

EDIT: I just realized today is the 31st Anniversary of the hostage taking. Weird.

[Isgrimnur]

Rebuilding:

NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe by Daniele Ganser

What do you do when you've just won a war where you had to set up insurgent organisations after the Nazis rolled into town and you fear another coming war?  You set up stay-behind organizations in those countries beforehand, arm them with weapons caches, training, and secure radios.  

Who do you recruit when some of the strongest allies you had in the last war were Communists and socialists, but now those people are sympathetic to your former ally who's now your biggest enemy?  Why, you recruit former Fascists and right wing organizations to be the stalwart bulwark in your new world.

What do you do when the Communists aren't quite threatening enough in these countries to alienate the public to their evil?  Why, you activate your patriotic right-wing organizations to perpetrate terror attacks and have the state blame and frame the Communists in the country.  If that doesn't work enough in your favor, just help the military state a coup.

What do you do when it's finally brought to light and the parliaments cry foul and demand investigation of these secret armies that were beyond the knowledge and control of democratic leadership?  Why, you claim secrecy at a multinational level, as you were answering to NATO, the CIA, and MI6, who were providing the money, assets and training, and proceed to claim supreme secrecy, especially since most of the parties in power at one time or another, including some of those that may have been targeted, were aware when they had ministerial power and condoned and assisted them in their goals.

Truly, the world of Cold War geopolitics was a wilder place than even the Bond movies dare ever dreamed.

[Isgrimnur]

Just finished A History Of Middle Europe: From the Earliest Times to the Age of the World Wars by Leslie C. Tihany

It's an interesting read about that part of Europe that doesn't get much play in the West, and honestly does a pretty good job of explaining why. From Poland down to the Balkans, whatever self determining governments arose in these areas were short-lived and at the mercy of the "coastal" countries, be it the Turks, the Holy Roman Empire, the Russians, etc. These lands were pawns in the games of the big boys for the entirety of civilization.

One interesting thing that came into play in the aftermath of WWI that I wasn't aware of was the Cordon sanitaire, basically a French version of the Cold War buffer states that were to serve as an ideological buffer to the expansion of Communism in the interwar period.

[gilraen]

Forgot about the new Jack Reacher book! That's what happens when they announce a book release months in advance...I wait with bated breath and then it becomes too exhausting to wait, and I forget

Just finished "Last Wish", the first book in the Witcher series. I listened to the audiobook version (in Russian...don't think they recorded an audio version in English), and the book is great on its own merit (especially if you're into dark fantasy), but in this case it also benefited from a superb actor reading.

[J.D.]

Forgot about the new Jack Reacher book! That's what happens when they announce a book release months in advance...I wait with bated breath and then it becomes too exhausting to wait, and I forget

It's really good. If you've read the others it's a continuation of the story where Reacher is trying to get to West Virginia. It starts with him arriving and shit hits the fan. Any book that has the first chapter ending with two unconsious men and fresh dents in the side of a car door works for me.

[xwraith]

Finished the third volume of Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy.

I saw Isgrimnur read Man in the Empty Suit so I picked it up as well -- An interesting read, but it felt uneven at times. Overall I enjoyed it.

I've really enjoyed The Automatic Detective -- The author mashed together hard-boiled detective film noir and Asimov's robot series and it really worked for me.

[Jag]

Need a recommendation for a good War of The Roses historical fiction (rather than just a history book). I've been watching the White Queen on Starz and it is so well done that I've been totally drawn into the events of that time period.

[McNutt]

The Sunne in Splendour is a novelization of the War of the Roses. It's pretty good, but is a little more lenient towards Richard than I would have been.

[McNutt]

Darth Plagueis - This book covers the life of Darth Plagueis, his pupil Darth Sidius (Palpatine) and Darth Maul. It's interesting to learn about those characters, especially since Plagueis was alive and kicking during Episode I even though he was never shown. Unfortunately the book still has to work with the story of Trade Federations, the Senate and a ton of talk of midichlorians. There is just enough cool stuff to make the book work though and I found it to be a good read, especially when Dooku began to make his appearance.

[KKBlue]

Just mentioned On Writing which is resting on my night stand in a tower of books to read. Thought I would share that I am currently finishing up an biography on Frank Zappa by Barry Miles. I had read Frank's autobiography several years ago. I have this one out (from the library) along with Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. I'll end up renewing the Beach Boys one.

I tend to go with non fiction writing, trying to get as much knowledge in my brain as possible, ha.

(Edit to add, I'm not noticing the reference in the back of the book making me unable to direct quote but I did stop and put the book down for a second or two when I read how Zappa bought the recording van from the Beach Boys. I found it very strange and odd how I had just written about borrowing the 2 books and finding out the two parties were in contact with one another. Actually learning there are very few who haven't had run ins with Frank but was not expecting the Beach Boys.)

[Bad Demographic]

I'm currently reading Jo Nesbo's The Bat - the first of the Harry Hole mysteries (it's pronounced 'Ho-leh' - he's Norwegian). A few years back a friend gave us Nesbo's The Leopard. Bob read it and said I'd like it but that it's pretty far along in the series so I thought I'd start with the first. So far I'm liking it. So now I can go back and forth between Jo Nesbo and Dana Stabenow (with a sprinkling of other books) and not run out too soon.

Oh - and Harry Hole is a Norwegian policeman. I don't know if he travels internationally a lot but The Bat seems to be taking place in Australia (I'm about 25% of the way through) and The Leopard has him in a couple of countries.

[silverjon]

Probably not too much of a spoiler to say that most of Hole's adventures take place close to home, and I feel Nesbo's writing is actually strongest when his setting is (presumably) most familiar.

I got into that series before The Bat was available in English, but it's definitely preferable to be able to read in order. My own experience of The Bat was really just to fill in the details, since I knew whodunnit and how the major plot points would turn out.

Highly recommended for the murder mystery fan is Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series. In a world seemingly overflowing of dysfunctional detectives with serious personal issues, we meet a man who conducts himself always with grace and dignity.

[gilraen]

It's really good. If you've read the others it's a continuation of the story where Reacher is trying to get to West Virginia. It starts with him arriving and shit hits the fan. Any book that has the first chapter ending with two unconsious men and fresh dents in the side of a car door works for me.

I know, right? I did read all of them. I bought the 8th book in the series purely by accident several years ago. Waiting for a delayed flight at the Copenhagen airport, there wasn't a lot of English-language books to choose from, and the description looked promising. Got me totally hooked and actually prompted the purchase of my first Kindle, to start reading the series from the beginning.

I finished reading "Never Look Back" in one night - stayed up until 2:30 in the morning because I couldn't put it down.

Also finished Dan Brown's "Inferno" - listened to the audiobook, so it took a while, since I haven't had any long commutes recently. He seems a little out of his depth on the science/biology stuff but the overall story is still solid, and art/architecture/history references are consistently awesome.

[Carpet_pissr]

Just finished 'Eastern Inferno: The Journals of a German Panzerjager on the Eastern Front, 1941-43' after much stopping and going, and several books read in between.

I guess my overall thoughts on it are "meh" even though it has 4.5 stars out of 99 reviews on Amazon, and the WWII buffs reviewing it seem to consider it a must read.

Basically, it's the reprinting of a German soldier's HIGHLY detailed diary entries throughout the war on the Eastern front. While it does give a ground soldier's perspective in a massive, broad war, and I doubt it was the compiler's intent to garner any sympathy considering the circumstances, I couldn't help but read certain passages where the protagonist comments about the "Bolshevik, subhuman dogs" or "God willing, we will prevail" type sentiments, and at the same time hope this dude would get a bullet between the eyes.

You have this apparently humanistic soldier who longs for his home, his wife and child, who obviously cares for his fellow soldiers, and is obviously severely affected by seeing the awful slaughter at Lutsk, and on top of all that seems quite intelligent. Yet he has bought into the Nazi marketing, and believes their actions are just (invading Russia). This was telling: ""we soldiers in the first attack wave have never thought about the stuff that happens behind us in the cities we leave..." after hearing from a "Kill Commando" coming from the rear, reporting how they took care of the Jewish "problem" in some of the cities that the frontline troops had already rolled over.

Not sure if I was expecting more "yay! we are awesome, our fight is just! down with the filthy Jews!" or what, but I think even the subtle hints that the protagonist drops about how proud he is of his Fuhrer, country, etc, about what they are doing is almost more disturbing than if he was more brash about this.

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Inferno-J ... tern+front" target="_blank

[McNutt]

Interesting. I have this book and haven't read it yet. I've been skipping it for awhile and might continue to skip it for awhile longer now.

[Isgrimnur]

There was less of that jingoism in the Panzerjager book that I read. He was a professional soldier and wrote his book as such.

[Carpet_pissr]

Argh...I should re-write that little write-up, sorry.

If someone asked me if the book was full of Nazi jingoism, I would say no, not even close.

There are only a few subtle references by the author indicating that 1. he believes in the war and 2. he reveres and believes in the higher echelon German leaders (and I guess by default their ideas, and methods).

The focus of this front line soldier is day to day and sometimes getting through the night survival, and the well being of his brothers in arms, not the macro view of the war effort, the politics, or the morality of the same.

The vast majority of the book is him describing in detail the battles he is in (apparently wrote them IN THE MIDST of the battles, which makes his diary unique in the genre according to those who know more about such things than me) his enemy, and his surroundings (and bitching about "rear-line" troops who apparently would go back home and be the ones bragging about how heroic they were, when he and his poor bastard buddies were the ones in the trenches, having knife fights, and starving in the sub zero temps).

I only mentioned what I did, not to say the quality of the book is poor, or that it's not recommended reading (it is), but that instead of reading about his horrible conditions, the fact that he constantly pined for his home and wife, and feeling empathy for his situation, my personal take the whole time, was "fuck this guy". Which is probably the opposite of what these type books try to portray, which is to show that there is a certain...common element among soldiers in these conditions, and if you pluck writings from all the major war powers of the time, translate them all into one language, and remove references to positions and names, you would be hard pressed to tell a difference (their thought processes, their concerns for food, shelter and bodily harm, love for their comrades, etc).

Please take a quick look at the Amazon reviews instead of mine, as there are some obviously well-read WWII buffs giving their opinions on this title. This is the first book of this type that I have read, so I think my comments should be taken with a grain of salt. I would be interested in reading a similar book, but from the Russian soldier's perspective, just to confirm (or not) my suspicion about the commonality.

[McNutt]

Okay, now it's going back on my "to read soon" list. After I finish this damned Dance with Dragons book. God, could these last two books of his be any freaking slower.

[Jeff V]

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester

This book starts off with a synopsis of life during the dark/middle ages. For nearly 1000 years, it was remarkably unchanged -- the church rule was absolute, and free thought was unheard of. Feudalism existed because the peasants knew no better than acceptance. Divine Right covered the fate of kings and helped strengthened the stranglehold the Catholic Church had on the world. Such absolute power, naturally, corrupts, and the church became corrupt beyond imagination. Nunneries were brothels., popes left litters of bastard children. Indulgences were sold as a way to raise funds so the cardinals and pope could keep living large.

The first few to challenge this long-held status quo, like the Czech Jan Hus were typically met with death sentences. Martin Luther turned things around with defiance backed by the German people, while he became a fugitive, he continued to foment revolution. The Renaissance followed, as well as the Reformation.

A World Lit Only By Fire tells the stories of some of the key figures who helped bring light and sanity back to the world. Thomas More, Henry XVIII, Erasmus, Calvin, Luther, Copernicus, and Magellan are all profiled in brief or extensively (nearly a quarter of the book follows Magellan's career to his death in the Philippines -- nearly a book within a book).

My only complaint is a little lack of focus. I think I would rather have learned more about every day life, and highlights of the dramitis personae as time marched on. The book began this way, then dug in deep with Luther and Magellan in particular. This had a rather uneven effect, but the stories told were told well and it was an interesting telling of the age.

[Jeff V]

The Transplant by Alexandria Ulysses

The title of the book, "The Transplant"., has several different meanings in this book. A Polish girl, Agata, is brought to the US as a German family's au pair, only to flee to Chicago after her client sexually assaults her. A Mexican, Mario, sneaks into the US and comes to Illinois, working menial labor jobs as a floor cleaner and painter so he could send money back home and allow his mother to get a desperately needed kidney transplant. Their paths cross and Mario is smitten by the Polish beauty. She...well, not so much at first but she comes around.

Mostly this is tale of hard work and accomplishment, although they both desperately want to become "legal" for the sake of their natural born, US citizen daughter. They own a business, pay taxes, and own a home. But while they successfully evade the scrutiny of INS, they find luck to be a fickle thing. They win a $500,000 lottery prize, but can't claim it because they are not citizens. Agata is haunted by a dead-beat dad and jealous guy who presumed too much. Mario suffers setbacks from the seasonal nature of his work, competition, and theft. They are both, for the most part, likeable characters and their struggle is entirely plausible. Part of the story even takes place in the same 'hood where I grew up, making the story even more genuine from my perspective.

But then it came to an end. The unfathomable, terrible ending that is utterly inexplicable given the overall quality of the rest of the story. We can guess, infer, what happened, but we don't really know and it's hard to contemplate after the "WTF!" reaction to the last three pages.

Do yourself a favor. If you read this book, when Mario meets the American citizen that was unfortunately deported by the Arizona because he was picked up with no ID, consider this the end. There isn't any sense of closure at that point, but you'll just get pissed at the author if you read on.

[Jeff V]

Sinai by William Smethurst

This book seemed twice as long as it was...or more likely twice as long as it needed to be. A German tourist with an archeological group disappears...then reappears dying of dehydration -- an advanced state that is at odds with his last known drinks. What follows is a convoluted story of time travel that follows modern events in the Sinai along with Moses' Exodus. A few clues point to some sort of temporal anomaly -- the corpse of a child appears with tattooed markings from the Middle Kingdom. An archeologist in the employ of the CIA appears wishes to interview a court-martialed former tank commander who reported seeing chariots during the 6 Days War with Israel. There is a secret military installation in the Sinai masquerading as a wildlife refuge. Hit men go after the archeologists.

Too many loose ends are not explained as the book wears on. In the end, we're not sure exactly what happened., nor why so many died uncovering a mystery never fully explained. The whole Exodus story line doesn't go anywhere...I kept expecting an Egyptian tank to appear and mow down Pharaoh's chariots by the dozen but it just peters out instead. On top of that, the prose during these ancient interludes seems to be an attempt at biblical-style dialog and I found it to be a major turn-off.

The book ends with an anticlimactic finish. I rather like the setting, but the characters are never all that interesting -- you keep wanting the lead archaeologist to be Indiana Jones, but he doesn't even aspire to be Mother Jones. Perhaps Smethurst is plotting a follow-up that would provide some answers, but I have little interest in reading t.

[Isgrimnur]

Jeff, if you haven't already, I'd recommend you read The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England.

[Carpet_pissr]

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age by William Manchester

My goodness. I just read the Amazon reviews for this title since it piqued my interest, and WOW, can academics be downright nasty! I assume that the reviewers are also historians, and have it on good knowledge that some of the inferences made by the author are factually incorrect, but still...

Or it could be a jealousy thing, no idea, but the level of hate in those reviews seems awfully high for a book on history. Yikes.

I know that some people get off being hard asses on line, and especially in comments, because I have felt that myself after writing a relatively negative review on a Panasonic infra-red toaster. A TOASTER...and you should see the howling in the PAGES of comments that followed. Personal insults, etc. I stopped commenting after a while, as I realized that I was in some kind of infinite loop of bad juju. Maybe the same here...trolls being trolls, or actually a poorly written, poorly sourced book?

[Jeff V]

The author wrote an extensive afterward explaining this was not meant to be a scholarly work, but he did have it vetted by experts and they were rather brutal. He took some advisement, discarded others as suited his purpose of writing something that met his goals. Now, he did focus a lot on the cretins occupying the papacy during these years and the atrocities they committed in their god's name...anytime someone points out papal douchebags, there seems to be backlash from those with the opposite agenda.

I would have preferred he focused more on daily life, as the book started, but I guess his point was that it didn't change much. Those few he keyed in on were prime movers over the course of a few centuries. Like the Time Magazine Man of the Year, his purpose wasn't to honor these individuals, but merely to suggest they had substantial influence on the course of events, for good or evil. It just so happened that the Catholic Church was the embodiment of evil.