How Do I
Wes's Picks
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Lindqvist, John Ajvide Let the Right One In Fiction |
| Lindqvist’s debut novel Let the Right One In
was made into a movie of the same name that is now a cult horror phenomenon.
This is an instance, however, where the book is far superior to the
movie. Both contain the same general plot: a bullied human boy and
a misfit vampire girl meet and become best friends amidst the dusky
ambience of snowy Sweden. The friendship inspires courage in the boy,
and invokes the girl's lost humanity. But while the movie does an
adequate job of recreating the gore and bleak feel of the novel, it
never reproduces the emotions invoked by the book’s telling of the
children’s transcendent relationship. Worse, the movie unacceptably
leaves out major climactic events described in the book. So skip the
movie and read the book. It masterfully redefines the vampire genre
for the 21st century while being one of the best vampire stories ever
written. Recommended January 2011 |
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Schreiber, Joe No Doors, No Windows Horror |
| An above average haunted house story about a Seattle writer
who returns home to New Hampshire for his father’s funeral, only to
discover lingering family mysteries begging to be solved. The prime
mystery is that of Round House, an odd house in the middle of the
woods designed without interior edges: all the corners of the rooms
have been sanded into smooth curves. When our protagonist discovers
that his father was writing a story about the house, he takes an interest,
too, and picks up the story where his father left off. Soon the storytelling
reveals terrible secrets about murdered girls, vengeful warlocks,
and family curses that ultimately lead to a terrifying climax within
Round House’s creepy walls. Fans of Mark Danielewski’s cult classic
House
of Leaves will appreciate its obvious influence on Schreiber’s
page-turner plot. Recommended September 2010 |
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Ridley, Matt The Rational Optimist Nonfiction |
| Being a big fan of Matt Ridley’s The Origins of Virtue,
I was excited to get my hands on his latest book, The Rational
Optimist. Though not quite as hard-hitting as his previous work,
it’s filled with interesting insights that lend themselves to a more
optimistic view of the world. Ridley’s central thesis is that humans
trading with each other led to the evolution of prosperity that many
of us enjoy today, and that continued trade will continue to improve
the state of the world. Indeed, humans are the only species that trades
with strangers, and in doing so we reduce our workload and expand
our gain. Historically, Ridley argues, it’s been the power-hungriness
of politicians and priesthoods that have stymied trade and human prosperity.
But fear not, Ridley is not an off-the-tracks libertarian: he backs
his statements up with historical facts and data. If there’s one thing
about the book I dislike, it’s that Ridley sometimes glosses over
human atrocities with a simple “but, it’s getting better.” Still,
the logical and empirical support for his main argument leads me to
conclude that, for the most part, we have a lot to be optimistic about. Recommended July 2010 |
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Stutz, Bruce Chasing Spring Nonfiction |
| Shortly after undergoing heart surgery to repair a damaged
valve, Bruce Stutz hopped in a 1984 Chevy Impala lovingly called Moby
Dick and began a cross-country tour to follow spring as it emerged
throughout the country. Part of his trip was scientific: Stutz visited
numerous scientists and conservationists across the country to learn
about the effect global warming is having on spring. He troublingly
learns that spring is arriving earlier each year, resulting in altered
migration patterns for animals, melting glaciers, and destroyed ecosystems.
The other part of Stutz’s trip was personal, and he waxes poetically
about the importance of spring as a shared human cultural experience
steeped in mythology and symbolism. But as spring changes, our culture
is not keeping up, and Stutz laments that people are losing out on
an opportunity to experience a human tradition that may not be with
us much longer. Chasing Spring is an enlightening treat for fans of
travelogues and popular science books. Recommended June 2010 |
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Aronovitz, Michael Seven Deadly Pleasures Horror |
| I spent a good part of the day yesterday experiencing
a feeling of dread. The reason? I'd read a novella called “Toll Booth,”
the final tale in a collection of short horror stories, Seven
Deadly Pleasures by Michael Aronovitz. A Pennsylvania native,
Aronovitz practices his craft in the Philadelphia area when he's not
teaching English literature at a charter high school. That said, it’s
clear that Aronovitz follows the mantra “write what you know.” He
tells of horrors in contemporary life, in everyday locales like schools,
alongside highways, or inside your own home, and Pennsylvania often
fits into the equation. While not all equally scary, the stories all
display a literary quality beyond average horror writing, with characters
and locations so vivid you are instantly pulled in. But be warned,
these are not light-hearted gorefests or ghost stories. While some
gore and supernatural elements are part of Aronovitz’s repertoire
of scares, they are secondary to the emotional traumas he inflicts
on his characters, and you will feel every bit of emotional agony
that they do. Any fan of classic Stephen King and Clive Barker or
old school horror television shows like "Night Gallery" and "Tales
from the Darkside" will find a lot to like in this book. Recommended April 2010 |
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Miller, Geoffrey The Mating Mind Nonfiction |
| The origins of the human mind’s varied features is a
hotly debated topic amongst philosophers, psychologists, and social
scientists. Why do people like art, literature, music, and poetry?
Why do we crack jokes, or for that matter laugh at them? What are
the origins of language? For Geoffrey Miller the answer to these questions,
and many others like them, is that the human mind is an evolved product
of a process Charles Darwin called sexual selection. You may already
be familiar with Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which explains
that organisms evolve as traits that aid in survival are passed on
to successive generations. Sexual selection works in a similar way,
except that traits that aid in attracting mates are passed on to successive
generations. In other words, rather than an organism’s natural environment
selecting for traits, the organism’s potential mates do. Applied to
humans, this means that everyone alive today is partly the product
of our ancestors’ preferences in what they found attractive in sexual
partners. While this certainly applies to bodily traits, Miller argues
that it also applies to the human mind. Thus, for Miller, our artistic
tastes, sense of humor, propensity for language, and even our sense
of right and wrong survive today simply because our ancestors preferred
mates who displayed these traits. Miller’s argument is eye-opening
to say the least, and his laid back, often humorous writing style
makes this book an enjoyable read. Highly recommended reading for
anyone interested in popular science topics or human evolution. Recommended January 2010 |
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Kiernan, Caitlin The Red Tree Horror |
| Don’t judge this book by its cheesy cover: The Red
Tree is one of the best pieces of supernatural suspense horror
you’ll ever read. Its premise is classically Lovecraftian. Girl moves
into creepy old house in New England; girl finds crumbling manuscript
that describes something fantastically evil; girl faces the evil and
slowly loses her mind. Despite the modern setting in which the story
takes place, Kiernan does a perfect job of channeling the timeless
terrors evoked by the old school elite of horror writing. Nightmares
that are more ethereal than in-your-face haunt the pages of The
Red Tree in dark, cavernous basements and haunted forests, and
ultimately it’s the horror of the unknown that gives the book its
power to scare. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, and Arthur
Machen should not hesitate to give The Red Tree a try. Recommended November 2009 |
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Kirkman, Robert The Walking Dead Graphic Novel |
| As a long-time fan of zombie horror, it’s strange that
I’ve only just begun to read the amazing zombie-filled graphic novel
series, The Walking Dead. Each book in the series is a collected
volume of previously published comic books that began their run in
2003. Up to the ninth volume with a tenth on the way, the series,
like the monsters it portrays, keeps on coming with no end in sight.
This is fine by me. I’ve read the first three volumes, and it just
keeps getting better. Kirkman’s series is true George Romero style
zombie survival horror. In similar fashion to Romero’s famous films,
the living dead stalking the human survivors are a constant threat,
but the real horror and drama come from the survivors’ all-too-human
relationships. As alliances break down and bodies pile up, one begins
to realize that “the walking dead” are less the zombies than they
are the zombies’ inevitable victims. For fans of zombie horror, I
can’t recommend this series enough. Don’t make the mistake I did by
putting this one off – start reading it now! Recommended July 2009 |
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Martin, George R. R. A Game of Thrones Science Fiction |
| If you are the least bit interested in the fantasy genre
but have yet to read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
series, stop reading this review right now, grab a copy of the first
book in the series, A Game of Thrones, and start reading.
For those who don’t usually dabble in fantasy, I still say give it
a shot, as Martin’s saga doesn’t rely on the stereotypical swords
and sorcery plot that might turn off the fantasy neophyte. While A
Game of Thrones does introduce the reader to a medieval world
populated with knights, kings and queens, and yes, dragons, it emphasizes
plot-twisting political intrigue and not the banal good vs. evil imagery
of your standard fantasy tale. Martin’s characters are also written
in this vein – the real strength of the series – and so are not easily
categorized. Thus, a “bad guy” character that you hate in A Game
of Thrones may become one of your favorites later on, though
you shouldn’t expect Martin to keep many of the characters alive for
very long! In this regard it’s easy to compare A Song of Ice and
Fire to HBO’s television series The Wire, and in fact
HBO is planning a televised version of Martin’s entire saga, slated
to begin with a pilot episode based on A Game of Thrones.
But don’t wait for the television version, read this now! Recommended June 2009 |
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edited by Ken, Asamatsu Lairs of the Hidden Gods Horror |
| The tentacled horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos
extend their slimy reach to the minds of people all over the world,
as demonstrated by an intriguing new four-volume series, Lairs
of the Hidden Gods. Each volume of Lairs is an anthology of Lovecraft-inspired
short stories written by Japanese authors. The first, Night Voices,
Night Journeys, is the only volume I’ve read thus far, but the
quality bodes well for the rest of the series. There’s a mix of scenarios
for everyone here: prohibition-era Chicago gangster noir with an occult
twist; seemingly delicious sea cucumbers with bat wings in the service
of Shub Niggurath; evil daggers used in grotesque ways reminiscent
of gory Japanese horror films; and more. Robert Price, a religion
scholar steeped in Lovecraft’s mythos, provides an interesting introduction
to the book, while editor Asamatsu Ken offers thoughtful commentary
on each story. For fans of pulp fiction and H.P. Lovecraft, there’s
certainly a lot here to sink your teeth into (though I wouldn’t recommend
doing this to the bat-winged sea cucumbers). Recommended April 2009 |
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Martel, Yann Life of Pi Fiction |
| Life of Pi is my default book recommendation
for someone looking for “something good to read.” It’s the story of
an Indian boy named Piscine, or Pi for short, who’s moving from India
to Canada with his parents and the family zoo. That’s right, zoo –
Pi’s family owns a large zoo in India, but for political reasons decide
to move themselves and the zoo to Canada. To do so they must pack
the zoo onto a huge ocean liner, which sinks. Pi survives but is stranded
in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat. And he’s not alone:
some zoo animals survive the shipwreck and hop aboard Pi’s lifeboat,
including a fearsome Bengal tiger. Most of the story centers around
Pi’s adventure on the open sea with his unwanted companion, and it’s
a truly page-turning ordeal. But there are other interesting elements
in the story too, such as its underlying religious theme. The novel’s
prologue presents Pi’s adventure as true, and claims it as a “story
that will make you believe in God.” This little detail is easily forgotten
until the conclusion, when an incredible twist brings it back to the
fore in a “whoa” kind of moment. Life of Pi is crosslisted
under adult and young adult fiction, and it’s a survival adventure
classic with a philosophical edge that I will recommend to people
of all ages for many years to come. Recommended March 2009 |
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| Vinge, Vernor A Fire Upon the Deep Science Fiction |
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| There’s science fiction, and then there’s SCIENCE FICTION.
Vernor Vinge’s Hugo Award winning A Fire Upon the Deep is
definitely the latter. A Fire Upon the Deep takes the reader
thousands of years into the future to a point in time when Earth,
or “Old Earth” as it is referred to, is just a legend. This distant
vision of the future imagines a Milky Way Galaxy populated with thousands
of alien species living in various “zones of thought.” These zones
of thought influence the developmental capacity of civilizations and
technologies. At the very bottom of the zones is the Slowness, where
most civilizations have barely surpassed the stage of feudalism. Old
Earth, for instance, resides somewhere in the Slowness. Many species,
including humans, have escaped the Slowness and have founded civilizations
in the Low, Middle, and High Beyond, where powerful technology allows
for complex trade networking. (Vinge’s description of the networking
is clearly strongly inspired by computer networking, which makes sense
because Vinge is a former computer scientist.) Above the Slowness
and the Beyond is the Transcend, where some individuals, called Powers,
have achieved godlike technological abilities that have a significant
impact on those in the lower levels. With all of that now explained,
A Fire Upon the Deep is about a malevolent Power that is
accidentally created and begins wreaking havoc on the civilizations
within the Beyond. A human spaceship carrying the secret to destroying
the Power escapes the devastation and becomes stranded on a planet
in the Low Beyond populated by a wolf-like species that communicates
with a group mind. Two child survivors from the ship, a brother and
sister, become separated and enmeshed in a bloody war between rival
factions of the wolf-like creatures. In the High Beyond, a rescue
group of four individuals, two human and two tree-like aliens that
ride in automated carts, set off for the Low Beyond to save the children
and retrieve the secret of the ship, but face their own challenges
as they attempt to traverse thousands of light years of space while
being stalked by the malevolent Power. And this summary just scratches
the surface. A Fire Upon the Deep is truly SCIENCE FICTION.
Recommended February 2009 |
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| Ridley, Matt The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation Nonfiction |
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| What are the origins of human morality? If your first
answer is religion, think again. While it cannot be denied that the
moral systems of the world’s great monotheistic religions have a strong
influence on us today, these moral systems have only existed for several
thousand years. For millions of years prior, humans and our hominid
ancestors lived in social groups that required moral behavior without
the mediation of powerful religious institutions. Hence, contemporary
research in human evolutionary studies is asking what evolutionary
pressures led humans to behave morally. Matt Ridley’s The Origins
of Virtue is a brilliant delineation of the developments in this
field of research. Limited space prevents me from discussing every
excellent detail of the book, but its basic conclusion is this: human
morality is the result of the evolutionary pressures of group living.
In other words, the features of morality that we take for granted,
such as empathy for others, cooperation, sharing, and a sense of justice,
are the hardwired products of millions of years of biological evolution
that emerged as our hominid ancestors turned to sociality for survival
purposes. The fascinating implication of this is that mandated morality
by governments or religious institutions is unnecessary, and usually
does more harm than good. With that said, besides being a tour de
force of contemporary science writing, The Origins of Virtue
is also a compelling argument for the libertarian political tradition.
Recommended January 2009 |
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Guterson, David The Other Fiction |
| The Other did not receive the critical acclaim
of David Guterson’s first and most famous novel, Snow Falling
on Cedars, but it is an excellent story nonetheless. The
Other is about the friendship between level-headed, working class
Neil Countryman and eccentric, trust funded John William Barry, who
decides to leave behind the world of brilliantly portrayed 1970s Seattle
and become a hermit in the Hoh Rain Forest. Countryman devotedly helps
Barry survive in his hermitage, until disaster strikes and Countryman
finds himself the heir to his friend’s 400 million dollar fortune.
No spoilers here; you learn all of this in the first few pages of
the book. Most of the story afterward is an examination of John William
Barry’s motivations behind his withdrawal from society, and Neil Countryman’s
meditations on choosing the “other,” mainstream path through life.
The story is interspersed with beautiful scenes of the Pacific Northwest
wilderness, which lives and breathes in Guterson’s prose. Otherwise,
the novel is less about wilderness adventure and more about discussions
of philosophy, theology, and literature, which may wear on some readers.
If, however, you are a fan of philosophical, soul-searching novels
that take place in beautiful settings, The Other will not
disappoint. Recommended December 2008 |
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Butcher, Jim Storm Front: Book 1 of The Dresden Files Science Fiction |
| The first book of The Dresden Files introduces the series'
protagonist, the modern day magic-slinging, duster-wearing Harry Dresden,
and his antics as a wizard-for-hire in Chicago. In Storm Front,
Harry faces a mysterious black magic-wielding foe who’s been murdering
people in gruesome ways. Harry must use his magic and his wits to
track down the evil wizard before he becomes the next victim, all
while dealing with the Chicago Police Department, a mobster, a bordello
owning vampiress, and an angry group of wizards who blame Harry for
the murders. Frankly, the book can be a little cheesy (as can Harry
himself, offering lines like "I adore children. A little salt, a squeeze
of lemon--perfect"), and it doesn't offer a lot in terms of a complex
story or shocking plot twists. Despite this, it’s a fun read that
is a good distraction while you’re deciding on which mind-expanding
novel to read next. This is Jim Butcher's first book, and I suspect
that The Dresden Files have gotten better as he's written them. After
all, if Storm Front offers anything, it's the potential for
bigger and better things for Harry Dresden and his adventures. Recommended November 2008 |
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| Laxness, Halldor World Light Fiction |
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| World Light came to me as a recommendation because
of my interest in Hermann Hesse, and reading it was a truly revelatory
experience. First, because it is an amazingly beautiful story, and
second, because it was a great introduction to the Icelandic author
Halldor Laxness. Like Hesse, Laxness is not afraid to explore the
very heart of the human spiritual condition, and both are great at
exploring this condition from the perspective of individuals who find
themselves standing apart from the rest of society. World Light introduces
us to Olafur Karason, a hapless boy who is orphaned and then fostered
by Icelandic peasants. At a very young age Olafur physically experiences
the beauty of the world, the “world light” of the title, in something
akin to spiritual revelations. Olafur’s ability to experience the
world in this way gives him a unique vision that sets him apart from
others, for better or worse, and he dreams of one day becoming a famous
poet. Unfortunately, Olafur’s dream is often met with the brute force
of lesser individuals, such as when his foster brothers beat him until
he is physically incapacitated and bedridden. On the other hand, some
are drawn to Olafur’s poetic worldview, such as the strange mystic
who heals Olafur and rescues him from his foster home. Either way,
Olafur always seems to be the prisoner of other people’s whims, which
ultimately drives him into a life of poverty and, eventually, scandal,
while never finding the greatness he longs for. Despite this, to the
very end he remains inspired by the beauty he sees in the world around
him. And it’s this theme that makes World Light so wonderful.
At times the book is brutal, bizarre, and slow, but by the end everything
clicks, and you are rewarded with the insight that “beauty shall reign
alone.” Recommended October 2008 |
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Wolf, Maryanne Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain Nonfiction |
| We take reading for granted; it probably feels totally
natural to read this sentence without a second thought of why you
are able to do so. But did you know that alphabets and our ability
to read them are only a few thousand years old, and that some of the
greatest thinkers in history, such as Socrates, feared the influence
reading would have on the mind and society? These are some of the
topics Maryanne Wolf discusses in her excellent book, Proust and
the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Maryanne
Wolf is a neuropsychologist who studies reading development in children.
Her research eventually led her to study the history of reading and
the ways in which reading influences the development of the brain.
In one of the more fascinating parts of her book, Wolf discusses the
fact that reading actually changes what parts of the brain we use,
and that the parts used vary depending on which alphabet is being
read. (Someone reading Japanese, for instance, would use different
parts of the brain than someone reading English.) Wolf also spends
a good deal of time discussing reading development in children, including
reasons why reading fails to develop properly, particularly in cases
of dyslexia. Wolf offers an especially interesting discussion here,
mentioning at one point that dyslexia is strongly related to high
activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, and that a surprising
number of creative thinkers throughout history, such as Leonardo Da
Vinci, were dyslexic. At times Wolf can be heavy-handed with her use
of technical jargon, which might slow you down a little. Despite this,
Proust and the Squid is overall a fascinating read, and should
interest anyone curious about the history and importance of reading.
I also highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading development
in children, as there are a few golden facts presented that are as
useful to know as they are intriguing. Recommended September 2008 |
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Russo, Richard Straight Man Fiction |
| Discovering a new author is exciting. Recently, I discovered
Richard Russo, whose name you may recognize from his Pulitzer Prize
winning book (and subsequent HBO miniseries), Empire Falls.
My first Russo book wasn't the prize winner, however, but a slightly
earlier work called Straight Man. Straight Man is
the story of William Henry Devereaux Jr., the aging chair of a quarrelsome
English department in a mediocre small-town college in, of all places,
Pennsylvania. Devereaux's approach to life is "don't take things too
seriously." When Devereaux applies this approach to administrative
funding cuts, the possibility of being ousted from his job by embittered
colleagues, and the indifference of his family, hilarious situations
ensue one after the other. Honestly, I think this is the funniest
piece of fiction I have ever read. Straight Man isn't all
laughs, though, and in the end it turns out to be pretty heartwarming.
Throughout the story there is serious soul searching on Devereaux's
part as he reflects on missed opportunities and wonders how he got
to where he is. His conclusion is not bitterness, however, but rather
a kind of grateful submission to life's vagaries that comes from his
refusal to stop seeing the joke in everything. Overall, Straight
Man is a good introduction to Richard Russo's writing and his
favorite themes, such as small-town life and missed opportunities.
Straight Man is also absolutely required reading for anyone
walking the precarious path of academia, as Russo's descriptions of
the wackiness of academic life are pricelessly spot-on. Recommended August 2008 |
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