Sissy

Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa

I haven`t written a real review yet since I`m busy and stressed out (when I have time I’ll write one!). I loved this book! (4/5) Just as other reviewers say, it is very sentimental…but I love it that way…and it made me cry. D:
It`s nice to read something without violence or evil, as the author describes it…it may not make the reader think about big pictures/issues, but it reminds the reader to appreciate simple pleasures and the beauty of being able to love others. And that`s important, too.

The Old Man and the Sea

Author: Ernest Hemingway
Review: October 01, 2009
Edition: 1995 printing (0-684-80122-1)
Pages: 127
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: An old fisherman having gone an unlucky amount of time without catching anything decides to pursue a fortune; thus he goes out to sea, further than any of the other fisherman, to make his greatest catch.
Strengths: Consistent writing, thoughtful.
Weaknesses: N/A.
Further Review: I’ve always loved the flavor of this story; it’s different from many of the other classics introduced in high school English, which made it stick out for me when I was younger. It’s a very introverted novel rather than a story of society, and this makes the experience valuable to me, personally. The prose is accessible; it’s very clean and very precise, but somehow still pretty with a comfortable rhythm, and despite the use of ordinary words there is something poignant in the presentation. Even though it’s been six or seven years since I last read this book, I very vividly remember the old man Santiago’s dreams of the African coast and the lions. Although there are more intensely or more beautifully written scenes, these few paragraphs have stayed with me for quite a long time (although I cannot pinpoint why!). Perhaps it’s just that he remembers the coast so clearly himself, or perhaps while I could never understand any symbolic meaning behind Africa (perhaps there is nothing more to it than a sentimental attachment?).

He was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through. He smelled the tar and oakum of the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning.

... I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.

Kairos: A Wind in the Door

Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Review: September 30, 2009
Edition: Copyright 1973 (0-374-38443-6)
Pages: 211
Overall Rating: 3/5 [Average-Good]
Synopsis: Meg’s youngest brother Charles Wallace struggles to be himself at school without finding trouble, and to make things worse he is now also deathly sick. Meg and her friends Calvin, “Progo” the cherubim, and Sporos the “farandola” now must discover the source of the illness.
Strengths: Interesting concepts, consistent characters.
Weaknesses: Occasional writing quality problems.
Further Review: A Wind in the Door was, when I was younger, always my favorite of this series because at that time it always seemed somewhat surreal to me; unfortunately, I did not like it quite as much on this read-through. In re-reading this, I did get a little frustrated with Meg’s persistent and repetitious questions since she comes across as so obstinately wanting to make the worst of things that it ends up making the reading drag a bit, but she as well as the other characters of the book remain consistently themselves. The writing occasionally slips, not in description because Madeleine L’Engle’s ideas for the story are always presented very clearly, but in dialogue; for example, there are times when the character Calvin will be present but not interacting at all, almost as if he’s been forgotten. Also, this book tends to be very [for want of a better word] sappy, almost annoyingly so. Otherwise, the story is smoothly expressed and L’Engle has a very clear idea of every scene, of every character, in the book, and that is conveyed well to the reader.

Yes. Charles Wallace’s drive of dragons was a single creature, although Meg was not at all surprised that Charles Wallace had confused this fierce, wild being with dragons. She had the feeling that she never saw all of it at once, and which of all the eyes could she meet? merry eyes, wise eyes, ferocious eyes, kitten eyes, dragon eyes, opening and closing, looking at her, looking at Charles Wallace and Calvin and the strange tall man. And wings, wings in constant motion, covering and uncovering the eyes. When the wings were spread out they had a span of at least ten feet, and when they were all folded in, the creature resembled a misty, feathery sphere. Little spurts of flame and smoke spouted up between the wings; it could certainly start a grass fire if it weren’t careful. Meg did not wonder that Charles Wallace had not approached it.
Again the tall stranger reassure them. “He won’t hurt you.” The stranger was dark, dark as night and tall as a tree, and there was something in the repose of his body, the quiet of his voice, which drove away fear.

“There are still stars which move in ordered and beautiful rhythm. There are still people in this world who keep promises. Even little ones, like your cooking stew over your Bunsen burner. You may be in the middle of an experiment, but you still remember to feed your family. That’s enough to keep my heart optimistic, no matter how pessimistic my mind. ...”

Love Walked In

Review: September 29, 2009
Edition: 2006 printing (0-452-28789-8)
Pages: 307
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: Cornelia is falling in love with Martin Grace, a man who seems straight from a classic 40s romance film: he’s elegant, charming, handsome, and witty. But his emotional distance worries her, and as she sets about figuring him out, in comes eleven year old Clare—-his daughter, whom he rarely sees and who has just been abandoned by her beautiful but flighty mother. While Cornelia’s relationship with Martin struggles, she warms up to Clare and takes her into her life.
Strengths: Beautiful writing, well-written main characters.
Weaknesses: Sometimes odd pacing, occasionally repetitive, minor plot problems.
Further Review: My favorite part of this book is the poetic and readable way in which it’s written. There are plenty of little paragraphs in the book that are really very pretty, and it’s my belief that if another author had written this I wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all. The beauty of the style is that it’s simple and stylish by its greatest parts, and then it’s spotted with occasional descriptions or particular wordings that just ring out beautifully or have some nicely unique flavor to them, so that they stay with the reader for a long time—-this is so much more interesting than books that are overdone, because it highlights the beauty of certain passages.

We talked and talked and talked. Maybe love comes in at the eyes, but not nearly as much as it comes in at the ears, at least in my experience. As we talked, lights flicked on inside my head; by the end of the night, I was a planetarium.

The plot, while interesting, does not quite live up to its potential; late into the book, it begins to feel unnatural and it becomes solely a vehicle for the characters. This creates a lot of scenes where what happens to side characters feels forced or unreal, existing only to get the characters somewhere. I suppose what I’m trying to express it that it can be a little deus ex machina—-it feels more like things are randomly put in there to move the story along, rather than characters behaving in a reactionary manner to what’s happening to them. That said, it picks up again in the last few chapters, and the ending is satisfying. I’ll admit that, like the girl I am, I was crying by the last pages.

As a side note, Marisa de los Santos also has a reading guide up on her website (available here) in which she answers a few questions on the book.

The Vizier’s Second Daughter

Author: Robert F. Young
Review: September 24, 2009
Edition: Copyright 1985
Pages: 203
Overall Rating: 3/5 [Average-Good]
Synopsis: Mark Billings has an assignment: “borrow” Sheherazade (narrator of The Thousand and One Nights) from the past and bring her to the present. Unfortunately, he kidnaps the wrong girl- Sheherazade’s younger sister Dunyzad- and they both find themselves lost in the land of Jinn.
Strengths: Fun adventure, straight-forward telling, interesting myth basis.
Weaknesses: Simplistic writing.
Further Review: This is a fun fantasy adventure book, the kind where the reader is best suited by turning off the brain and just enjoying the ride. This particular novel also has the added bonus of being based on Arabic myth rather than the more familiar Western myths (particularly psuedo-Celtic). I think I would have benefited more by having known The Thousand and One Nights, since the chapters of the book are more or less based on these stories. Still, even with a limited knowledge of the tales, it’s an entertaining and very brief, light read with a good ending.

Suddenly she seized his arm and pointed across the lake. “Look, Bill—-a Jinni!”
He looked in the direction she was pointing but all he saw was what appeared to be a whirling pillar of sand. He said as much. “But how can sand whirl,” Dunyzad asked, “when there is no wind? No, it is a Jinni. And an evil one, too, I think. An ‘Efrit at least. Perhaps even a Marid.”

The characters (expectedly for the size and type of novel) lack depth but make up for it by being good adventure heroes. I particularly like Dunny, she is one of the rare fantasy heroines who is not only sassy but can actually back up her personality. She’s legitimately a fun character rather than a pompous or over-reaching one.

League of Peoples: Radiant

Author: James Alan Gardner
Review: September 23, 2009
Edition: 2005 printing
Pages: 404
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: Youn Suu is an untested member of the “Explorer Corps”—-the group of people who, in our interstellar future, are seen as expendable and therefore used for dangerous tasks. This job leads her to become host to a parasitic alien life form as well as lands her on a dangerous planet where one race’s desire for evolutionary “ascension” has created a deadly and hellish existence for its inhabitants.
Strengths: Interesting and believable characters, strong action plot, unique concepts.
Weaknesses: A bit predictable, a bit repetitive.
Further Review: This book is surprisingly sensitive for a sci-fi, even more than previous stories in this series. Youn Suu is really believable and her growth is exceptional. She comes into the world with family problems: bioengineering goes wrong and leaves her beautiful, strong, smart, and capable…with the problem of a festering cheek that never heals, which puts her at odds with the mother who designed the birth. She grows up lonely, finding solace in her religion as well as ub crafting tiny figurines of princes and princesses trapped in their own palaces. As a reader, I became sympathetic to what she is feeling; although there is so much humor in Gardner’s book, he manages to flesh out Youn Suu’s feelings precisely and humanly, therefore giving it a very well-rounded feeling. Youn Suu, only nineteen (and I believe this makes her the youngest hero of his books?), faces challenges not in a stereotypical way, but in a responsive way that pulls details out of her personal history; the way she feels events is shaped by her upbringing and her religion as well as her age.

I thought I would die from loneliness—-not the sharp, aching kind but the dull, ongoing blur. It can feel like fatigue that never goes away; it can feel like dissatisfaction with everything around you; it can even feel like lust, as you lie alone in the dark and pretend someone else is there.
But it’s loneliness. Deep, helpless, hopeless.

What caught up with me was my life. The whole of it. The isolation of a childhood as Ugly Screaming Stink-Girl. The unfairness of being forced into the Explorer Corps. The loneliness of months on a starship with nothing but a lunatic partner, a collection of amateurish figurines, and a crew of thirty-five people who couldn’t look me in the face but constantly stole sidelong glances.
I should have been somebody else. Not an Explorer, not a virgin, not an alien parasite’s host. I was only nineteen. I should have had a future; I should have had a past; but I had neither.

[...] A moment later, she said, “You pray too, Ma Youn. Maybe the spirits will heal your cheek.”
“They aren’t spirits, Mother. They’re aliens.”
“They’re smart aliens with advanced technology. That makes them better than spirits. Show them respect, and maybe they’ll help you.”
“These are jost holos, Mother. The Fuentes aren’t really here.”
“You never know, they could be listening. Maybe standing right beside you, but invisible.”
“The Fuentes have better ways to pass the time than lurking in one of our temples. They’re higher beings, Mother. They must…”
I stopped—-because the holo in front of us had just become tangible. Not just a lighting effect, but an actual mound of jelly: shining UV/purple. [...]

This book also examines western and eastern heroes from the perspective of Youn Suu’s Buddhist beliefs.

The only thing I find exceptionally disappointing in this book is the final involvement of the League of Peoples—-they have far more presence in this book, become predictable, and really are unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the manner in which they play into this book…does this mean that Radiant is indeed the final novel in this series? I wish not…

Kairos: A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Review: September 20, 2009 (reread)
Edition: 1976 printing
Pages: 198
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: Meg and her younger brother Charles Wallace, with the help of their new friend Calvin, must reach across time and space to their father in order to save him from a dark evil.
Strengths: Imaginative concepts, consistent and well-written characters, well-addressed themes and issues.
Weaknesses: Sometimes repetitive.
Further Review: This book was always important to me in my childhood; I used to check it and its sequels out from the library over and over again until I had portions of the series memorized by heart. Still, it’s been over a decade since I’ve read this novel so I wasn’t sure what the experience would be like now. Fortunately, I still find this an amazing read; I may be older, but I certainly still find myself connecting with each of the characters, their situations, and the timeless messages presented in this book.

Her mother carefully turned over four slices of French toast, then said in a steady voice, “No, Meg. Don’t hope it was a dream. I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be. ...”

He clenched his fists. “But I love her. That’s the funny part of it. I love them all, and they don’t give a hoot about me. Maybe that’s why I call them when I’m not going to be home. Because I care. Nobody else does. You don’t know how lucky you are to be loved.”

For a moment her brain reeled with confusion. Then came a moment of blazing truth. “No!” she cried triumphantly. “Like and equal are not the same thing at all!”

The Weight of Glory

Author: CS Lewis
Review: September 18, 2009
Edition: 2000 printing
Pages: 192
Overall Rating: 5/5 [Great]
Synopsis: A collection of address that CS Lewis gave [mostly] to university and college students on the topic of Christianity and how it applies to daily life.
Strengths: Approachable writing, broad range of topics, very insightful/helpful.
Weaknesses: N/A.
Further Review: These conversational addresses provide the reader with Lewis’ meditations on several different topics of Christianity.
The Weight of Glory—The first of these topics, from which the collection draws its title, discusses the promises made to us in the Bible, with special attention paid to the idea of being with God and that of glory. Lewis discusses the Biblical meaning of the word glory as being acknowledgment from God rather than being uniquely famous. My favorite part of this discussion, however, is how Lewis stresses the importance of loving one’s neighbor, not just because we are told to do so but because each person around us is as close as we can get to holiness on earth outside of the Sacrament. These explanations changed what I thought of the word “glory” for the better.

Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.

To be ignorant and simple now- not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground- would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defence but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

Why I Am Not a Pacifist—The third address details CS Lewis’ reasons for not being a pacifist considering World War II. Instead of examining WWII specifically, he approaches from another angle: morality, and how we ought to judge right and wrong in the same method of discerning truth and falsehood. He provides argument by selecting each of the reasons a person would become pacifist, and explains why that belief does not apply to him. While this writing is thought-provoking, to me it isn’t as profound as the previous two works.

Transposition – In this address, Lewis explains his theory of transposition- the act of using something intended for a higher medium (eg., a piece for an orchestra) on a lower medium (eg., to play that piece on only a piano) to describe spiritual sensations, and why, though they are beyond our means truly, we experience them in familiar fashion. Shortly he’s saying that what we feel is something from a higher source being interpreted by a lesser source, so that until we arrive at Heaven we will not know entirely what it is like, only symbolically through the natural methods we now have.

The contemplation of what we take to be real is always, I think, in tolerably sensitive minds, attended with a certain sort of aesthetic satisfaction—-a sort which depends precisely on its supposed reality. There is a dignity and poignancy in the bare fact that a thing exists.

Theology is, in this sense, poetry to me because I believe it; I do not believe it because it is poetry.

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy, and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

[...] If you subtract any one member, you have not simply reduced the family in number; you have inflicted an injury on its structure. Its unity is a unity of unlikes, almost of incommensurables.

It was not for societies or states that Christ died, but for men.

A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in [the forgiveness of sins], from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favour. But that would not be forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it.

[In case my review of this book is not enough, another more thorough one can be found here via the Into the Wardrobe website.]

The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter

Author: Beatrix Potter
Review: September 18, 2009
Edition: 1989 printing
Pages: 383
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: A collection of children’s stories and rhymes accompanied by illustrations and paintings.
Strengths: Beautiful artwork, interconnection of world, consistently written.
Weaknesses: A bit uneventful.
Further Review: Currently I’m sorting through my books for children and young adults and evaluating them; since I no longer read these books, I’m basically deciding which I want to keep and share with my own future children, and which I do not. The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter is definitely one I’ll be keeping to share. While the stories themselves are rather ordinary in terms of plot, the illustrations are beautiful and the characters are generally pleasant (and those who are not typically meet the consequences of their actions). Overall, this is a nice collection of peaceful, sweet stories.

This edition in particular is a good one, because it’s well-printed and it also includes a small history of each story.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit—Beatrix Potter’s most famous story, surely. This shares the adventure of Peter Rabbit, whose risky adventure into a garden leads to trouble.
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin—Squirrel Nutkin is [unsurprisingly] a squirrel with no manners, who delights in teasing an owl.
The Tailor of Gloucester—The tailor of Gloucester needs to make a coat for the mayor for his wedding, but falls ill too soon to finish it. Luckily he’s to receive the help of some friendly mice. This has quite a true ring to traditional fairy tales.
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny—Peter Rabbit and his cousin Benjamin Bunny return to McGregor’s farm. This is unfortunately a rather forgettable story.
The Tale of Two Bad Mice—Two mice, Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb, break into and trash a doll’s house.
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle—Lucie, a small girl, searches around for her lost items and meets a kindly hedgehog named Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.
The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan—Duchess the dog wishes to visit her friend Ribby the cat, who has invited her to dinner. When Duchess realizes that Ribby will probably give her a mouse pie, she decides to replace it with her own pie since she dislikes mice.
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher—Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a frog who wishes to go fishing; unfortunately, for someone of his size this is much more difficult than it looks.
The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit & The Story of Miss Moppet—These are two stories for very young children; the first is about a rabbit who mistreats one of his peers, and the second is about a kitten chasing a mouse.
The Tale of Tom Kitten—Tom Kitten, Mittens, and Moppet are kittens who lose their nice clothing to several ducks.
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck—Jemima wishes to warm her own eggs rather than have a farmer take over for her. As she looks for a suitable place to have her eggs, she is fooled by a fox.
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding— Tom Kitten, who does not wish to be shut away while his mother is baking, climbs into a passageway accessed by the chimney, where he gets capture by rats who want to eat him in a pudding.
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies—Benjamin Bunny and his wife Flopsy Bunny have numerous children to feed, and thus look to McGregor’s garden.
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles—Ginger and Pickles together own a store, which is quite popular as it allows its customers to use credit. Unfortunately, no one ever pays their credit so the shop must close. This tale is rather forgettable.
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse—Mrs. Tittlemouse wants to keep her house clean, a task that’s difficult given her many “uninvited guests.”
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes—Timmy Tiptoes is a squirrel who, accompanied by his wife Goody, gathers nuts for the winter.
The Tale of Mr. Tod—Mr. Tod (a fox) and Tommy Brock (a badger) cause plenty of trouble for the other residents of their woodland home. When Tommy Brock kidnaps Benjamin and Flopsy Bunny’s children for supper, these two “unpleasant neighbors” are brought to a confrontation.
The Tale of Pigling Bland—Pigling Bland is to go to the market, but after getting lost on the way finds himself at a farmhouse where he meets fellow pig Pig-Wig.
Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes & Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes—Two collections of nursery rhymes, which are quite recognizable.
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse—Timmy Willie is a mouse who lives in a garden, but accidentally finds himself in the city where he meets Johnny Town-Mouse.
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson—The only longer piece of fiction in this book, this is a look at the origin of the pig in “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

We have a little garden,
A garden of our own,
And every day we water there
The seeds that we have sown.

We love our little garden,
And tend it with such care,
You will not find a faded leaf
Or a blighted blossom there.

A Fall of Moondust

Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Review: September 06, 2009
Edition: 1974 printing
Pages: 215
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: The ship Selene cruises a cavity filled with dust over the moon’s surface, providing a tourist attraction for visitors to the barren satellite. However, an unexpected geological anomaly sends the ship, its crew members, and its passengers sinking into the lunar dust and into a crisis that humanity has never had to face on the moon…Now twenty-two people are stranded and invisible in a hostile setting, hoping for help to find them.
Strengths: Strong writing, reasonably good pacing, beautiful execution.
Weaknesses: Characters are somewhat over-simplified.
Further Review: A Fall of Moondust is a rich, exciting read that covers natural disaster in an alien setting. What’s most commendable in this novel is the way Clarke addresses not only those who are in the crisis themselves, but also everyone involved: the scientists and engineers whose task it is to locate and save the victims of a quake on the moon’s surface, the news reporters who cover the progress of the entire ordeal, and those outside of the event who are hoping and waiting for the victims to overcome their obstacles. Furthermore, the nature of the crisis continues to change throughout the book—-it isn’t a static problem, it’s one in which new complications arise constantly. This book is truly involving and exciting, and personally my expectations were not only fulfilled but surpassed. I’ll be honest: I was dubious in how a book of this nature could credibly extend beyond two hundred pages, but Clarke’s attention to detail makes this book an experience in itself, and surprisingly fast-paced, exciting, and emotionally-involving.

It was hard to recognize the familiar constellations among this multitude of stars. The eye became entangled in patterns never seen from Earth, and lost itself in a glittering maze of clusters and nebulae. In all that resplendent panorama, there was only one unmistakable landmark—-the dazzling beacon of Venus, far outshining all other heavenly bodies, heralding the approach of dawn.

Though he had only a sketchy knowledge of the Moon’s geography, he could recognize at a glance the great craters of Archimedes and Plato, Aristillus and Eudoxus, the dark scar of the Alpine Valley, and the solitary pyramid of Pico, casting its long shadow across the plain.

Star Wars—-The Adventures of Lando Calrissian: Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu

Author: L. Neil Smith
Review: September 05, 2009
Edition: Copyright 1983
Pages: 182
Overall Rating: 2/5 [OK]
Synopsis: In collecting the earnings of a card game, Lando Calrissian finds himself in the Rafa star system cornered into a quest for the “mindharp of Sharu”—-an ancient native artifact of great worth to the local government. His helpers include a shaman of no noticeable wit and a droid with faulty personal memories.
Strengths: Campy adventure story.
Weaknesses: Quality of writing.
Further Review: Since this is a Star Wars book I wasn’t expecting anything of astonishing literary quality (I was merely expecting something light-weight, entertaining, and fun), but I will admit that holes in the plot affected my enjoyment of reading this novel. While the premise seems to be good, campy, early Star Wars fun, there are an awful lot of loose ends- such as the lack of an answer to the question what ever was it that scared the Sharu into mass hiding, anyway?—-and predictable writing devices that make the book dry and sometimes boring. The writing is cheesy and occasionally becomes repetitive, particularly in description, and there are a lot of unnecessary passages.
For examples of laughably cheesy writing:

The robot cowered in its corner, manipulators trembling. Abruptly, it collapsed, curled up into a ball. Its light went out.
So did Lando’s.

The anthropologist looked as if he wouldn’t mind at all, even if requested to discourse standing barefoot on a large cake of ice while his ample gray hair were set on fire.

The Hanan Rebellion: Brothers of Earth

Author: C. J. Cherryh
Review: September 03, 2009
Edition: 2003 omnibus edition (with Hunter of Worlds)
Pages: 282
Overall Rating: 3/5 [Average-Good]
Synopsis: Kurt, a human survivor of a massive war between societies, crash lands on an alien planet where he sees human’s history begin to repeat itself among the race of the honorable nemet.
Strengths: Varied cast of characters, consistent writing and world-building, well-addressed themes.
Weaknesses: A bit rushed in growth, somewhat anticlimactic.
Further Review: This is C. J. Cherryh’s first novel (although published second), which is apparent compared to later titles by her. This novel, on its own, is enjoyable albeit a bit infantile. There is something very pleasant and simple in the telling; the prose is even, gentle, cozy, and quiet even though the themes applied to the story are rather serious and thoughtful—-honor, family, racism, and loss.

Nephane was well named the city of mists. They rolled in and lasted for days as the weather grew warmer, making the cobbled streets slick with moisture. Ships crept carefully into the harbor, the lonely sound of their bells occasionally drifting up the height of Nephane through the still air. Voices distantly called out in the streets, muted.

“You think I am silly and you cannot make me understand.”
“Would it make you wiser if you knew where fog comes from?”
“I wish that I could talk to you about all the things that matter to you.”
He frowned, realizing that she was in earnest. “You matter. This place, this world matters to me, Mim.”
“I know so very little.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“Well, you owe me breakfast first.”

This book, while not a difficult read, is tragic in many ways and I would merely warn future readers that this story isn’t solely a fun futuristic fantasy; it is meant to engage one’s emotions and C. J. Cherryh accurately captures the feeling of loss, of the untimely cutting short of bonds, in a somewhat rushed fashion, and a lot of what happens is not at all happy.

Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About

Author: Donald E. Knuth
Review: August 24, 2009
Edition: Copyright 2001
Pages: 257
Overall Rating: 3/5 [Average-Good]
Synopsis: A collection of six lecture transcripts delivered by Donald E. Knuth on the topic of his previous book, 3:16, and the overlap between Christianity and computer science. This also includes the transcript of a brief panel held by Donald Knuth, Guy Steele, Manuela Veloso, Harry Lewis, and Mitch Kapor that discusses spirituality and programming.
Strengths: Accessibly written for non-technical readers, interesting topics of discussion, inclusion of slides.
Weaknesses: Misleading summary, lack of depth.
Further Review: This book will be more interesting to those who have already read Donald E. Knuth’s previous book on Christianity, 3:16, in which he researches verse 3:16 from every book of the Bible (New and Old Testament) as a statistical way of gaining information about the word of God. Unfortunately, I haven’t read 3:16 myself, although I do plan to do so in the future. Knuth goes into detail about the “making of” 3:16, offering a sample of the calligraphy used in the book as well as the trouble he went through to make that artwork print-worthy, talking about how he worked on the translations, and a little about the sources he used in compiling material for the book. Ultimately, the summary of this book is misleading for the reason that the book primarily talks about 3:16 rather than what it claims to be about: God through the eyes of one of today’s best programmers (I myself was expecting information on how Christianity and computer science are compatible, how thinking like a computer scientist influenced Knuth’s way of believing in God, etc.) and was disappointed with the heavy focus on his 3:16 book. Despite, the ideas presented are interesting if not fully addressed—-especially by the final chapter, which covers some mathematical and programming principles, and the panel, which brought in other prominent computer folk to discuss the theme of spirituality very briefly. Topics in these final two pieces include AI, uncertainty, free will, the importance of infinity versus the unimaginable finite (does it matter if God’s abilities are infinite or if they are finite past our understanding?), and Conway’s Game of Life.

Yes, this is how God loved the world: He gave his only child; so that all people with faith in Him can escape destruction and live a full life, now and forever.

Cien sonetos de amor/100 Love Sonnets

Author: Pablo Nerdua, trans. by Stephen Tapscott
Review: August 18, 2009
Edition: 2006 printing
Pages: 222
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: A collection of love sonnets.
Strengths: Imaginative, surreal, well-written.
Weaknesses: Sometimes repetitive, a few poems translated somewhat too far from the original.
Further Review: First off, I’m glad I have a bilingual edition of this book (although I’m unsure if one could get just an English-language copy); even though this translation is good as a whole, reading something in its original language versus its nearest connotative translation is still a different experience. In this case, in Spanish the poems really strongly remind me of natural forces; rivers, seas, jungles or forests, mountains and volcanoes. It’s less a picture in the brain since it’s not simply the words he uses; rather, it’s more a sense of two things residing parallel to one another (in this case, nature and love); something in his choice of rhythm is reminiscent of nature, it’s the way he puts words together rather than the words he uses. In the English, the poems sort of lose some of this feel but instead become more surreal in terms of words or small phrases. More simply, I find the rhythm of the Spanish version prettier and the word choice of the English prettier (or less mundane). For this reason I’m satisfied with a bilingual version. Again, the translations are good and in the translator’s note Stephen Tapscott mentions that he tried to capture the sense of the original poems. He largely achieves this goal for the majority of the poems, but for one or two it seems that there is a huge difference between the two—-in these rare cases, it’s almost like reading two separate poems. (This, however, may stem from the fact that I acquired Spanish artificially; English is my native language. I learned Spanish from a text-book and reinforced it by staying in Honduras, and I am still not fluent in it.) The translation is pure enough in feeling that I’d definitely recommend this translator’s work to someone who wants to read the poems only in English.

However, to readers of this version I’d suggest reading the notes at the end of the book first (to clarify some geographical locations mentioned in the book and their personal importance to Neruda), and the translator’s note and Neruda’s dedication after finishing the collection rather than before. I read all three at the end, but I feel that even though the dedication reinforced what I walked away with from the poems, it would have spoiled the fun in noticing during my reading.

As for the poems themselves, almost all of them are uniquely beautiful although they do sometimes become repetitive (which, I suppose, is understandable given a limited topic). What I love in Neruda’s poems is a sense of simplicity; his poems rarely carry a sense of being epic, but rather celebrate ordinary but beautiful things. How his lover moves in the kitchen, the almonds of her fingernails, wheat, “diamonds of frost,” threads, the seasons, fire are all themes that tie the every day into a timeless love; this simply purity is what makes these poems so beautifully romantic, personal to Neruda’s dreams but familiar in that they contain things we have all loved, done, or desired. However, there is still something very rich about his writing, which makes these poems difficult to read in quantity. It took me two years to make my way through this collection!

Neruda’s most popular sonnet is probably number seventeen; at least, I see it posted everywhere. (I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz / or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off / I love you as certain dark things are to be loved / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.) Therefore, I’ll sample with you [in English] another two from this collection (numbers thirty-six and fifty) ; although I do not like them as much as seventeen, these two are among my favorites.

My heart, queen of the beehive and the barnyard,
little leopard of the string and the onions,
I love to watch your miniature empire
sparkle: your weapons of wax and wine and oil,

garlic, and the soil that opens for your hands,
the blue material that ignites in your hands,
the transmigration of dream into salad,
the snake rolled up in the garden hose.

You with your sickle that lifts the perfumes,
you with the bossy soapsuds,
you climbing my crazy ladders and stairs.

You taking charge: even my handwriting, its characteristics,
even the sand grains in my notebooks—-finding in those pages
lost syllables that were searching for your mouth.

Cotapos says your laughter drops
like a hawk from a stony tower. It’s true:
daughter of the sky, you slit the world
and its green leaves, with one bolt of your lightning:

it falls, it thunders: the tongues of the dew,
the waters of a diamond, the light with its bees
leap. And there where a long-bearded silence had lived,
little bombs of light explode, the sun and the stars,

down comes the sky, with its thick-shadowed night,
bells and carnations glow in the full moon,
the saddlemakers’ horses gallop.

Because you are small as you are, let it
rip: let the meteor of your laughter
fly: electrify the natural names of things!

I haven’t been posting reviews here. I’ve been going through a bit of a weird time so I’ve been neglecting 43things…I also haven’t been reading a terrible lot. :P I still post my reviews on my review blog .

Here’s what I’ve read since my last post:
30. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
31. Unprotected by Anonymous MD
32. The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
33. The Veiled Web by Catherine Asaro
34. Burning Chrome by William Gibson
35. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
36. Star Wars – Young Jedi Knights: The Emperor’s Plague by Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta

Washington Square

Author: Henry James
Review: June 09, 2009
Edition: 1998 printing
Pages: 166
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: An exploration of love and greed. Catherine is a wealthy young woman without many good characteristics—she isn’t pretty, she’s not very sociable, and she certainly isn’t clever. But she’s lived a lonely, unnoticed life with her brilliant father whom she adores dearly, although he’s constantly disappointed in her. But when a young man comes along who seems to Catherine to be genuine and genuinely good despite the actuality of the situation, her entire life is thrown in disarray as she has to choose between one cruel keeper or another.
Strengths: Interesting characters, believable psychology.
Weaknesses: Grammar, lacks in complexity.
Further Review: I really liked how at its core, this book showed basically how withholding affection can be more corrupting than money. Catherine’s attraction to Morris seems to stem from the huge lack of affection and interest afforded her by her father, since her suitor is the complete opposite—open, affable, doting. Even though Morris ends up being cruel to Catherine, and her aunt is incorrigibly rude and meddling, the biggest problem for Catherine is actually her attachment to her father, and defying him scars her far more than Morris.

Anyway, I did enjoy the book but I found it lacked complexity. It was narrated as and felt like a mere account of something, not like a story. Still, it was a brief and easy read that was enjoyable in its own way. My only big complaint is that I really dislike Henry James’s grammar. He uses so many commas that it becomes cumbersome and detracts from the story. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Henry James previously, so I don’t remember if this is his style or if it was affected on purpose just for the narration.

Shinto: The Kami Way

Author: Sokyo Ono
Review: June 08, 2009
Edition: 1999 printing
Pages: 112
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: An introduction to the Shinto religion practiced in Japan.
Strengths: Covers a broad range of topics, includes drawings and diagrams.
Weaknesses: Very lightweight.
Further Review: This is a guide mainly useful in showing how Shintoism is practiced rather than what’s being celebrated. Despite being a little outdated, I found this book a useful introduction to Shinto—it gives a very good starting place for those interested in learning more. Basically, I’ve treated it as a little handbook that summarized concepts so that I can go off and…well, use Google…to find more information about each of the concepts, which I wouldn’t have known about without the book. I would not recommend this to a reader who wants to know more about the kami, mythology, or ethics teachings related to the Shinto religion. This book is a bit of history, a bit of architecture (which I would have liked a LOT more of, really), a bit of beliefs, and quite a bit culture (author continually stresses how integral Shintoism is to the Japanese way of life/thinking).

Forgot to post this review here before…My cover is different from the one I’ve uploaded here.

Author: Gregory Benford & Gordon Eklund
Review: April 28, 2009
Edition: 1981 printing
Pages: 215
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: What is it that living creatures seek among the stars? Bradley, an astronomer and Mars astronaut, learns that not all races search for simple facts. . . The first alien contacts, for instance, wonder if the sun loves its people. This simple statement so contrary to human understanding spurs a probing of the galaxy that spans, for Bradley, his entire life. . .
Strengths: Well-written stylistically, use of math, interesting concepts.
Weaknesses: Sometimes confusing, pacing is sometimes weirdly done.
Further Review: When I finished this book I was extremely confused. At first I didn’t understand what any of the concepts had amounted to; I didn’t know what Reynolds’s conclusion in the end is and, in many ways, I didn’t understand his questions. However, after reading about Plato’s argument in Book X of Law (this article, to be precise) it suddenly all clicked- Plato, in trying to prove that the stars are god, made the argument that stars and gods have three things in common: they are everlasting, they are benevolent, and they are intelligent. Given that all three of these concepts are explored in different degrees via three (or four?) alien lifeforms, this book is a really strong, speculative execution of exactly the title—what if Plato is right? What if the stars are gods?
This book shows how humanity behaves on the first steps into galactic interaction—working on Jupiter and Saturn’s moon Titan in order to understand a message from far away, and the problems that are overcome to arrive at a working conclusion. Despite its adventurous overtone, the real theme is of course humanity and what that entails, from Corey’s tragedy to Mara’s adaptation.

Overall, I’m still a little confused about some parts of the story and would appreciate any other readers of the book to share their thoughts with me!

The Songs of Distant Earth

Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Review: April 19, 2009
Edition: 1987 printing
Pages: 313–some extra stuff extends it to 319
Overall Rating: 4/5 [Good]
Synopsis: As the sun approaches its final days, man knows he must leave Earth or be swallowed… centuries before this, mother ships are sent out to seed habitable worlds with human life. On one such planet, Thalassa, plentiful resources, strategic planning, and a strong society have yielded a paradise among the lifeless galaxy. This idyllic world could continue indefinitely, until the very last survivors of Earth arrive.
Strengths: Strong use of the time’s theoretical science (particularly of particle physics, more specifically the neutrino), poignant writing, consistent and developed characters.
Weaknesses: Questionable/unrealistically simplified society.
Further Review: This is a very bittersweet tale that uses science fiction to explore very human themes–love, grief, the spirit of exploration. All the dramas of human society are underscored by the larger effects of space exploration, particularly in the absence of Earth. Arthur C. Clarke very strongly captures a sense of loss and pain that would accompany a total, irrevocable departure from Earth. While Thalassa may seem a veritable paradise to the last exiles from Earth, the main characters realize and painfully accept that nothing can completely eradicate the farewell of the world they were born to live in. Furthermore, the book briefly touches on the theme of distance, of time–an interstellar explorer who spends hundreds of years in ’stasis’ will wake up with day-old memories of events that happend five lifetimes beforehand. This is one of my favorite themes in sci-fi/fantasy literature (I guess I’m just tragic =_=) and I think here it’s outlined well.

My complaints with the book lie in two areas: Thalass’s oversimplified society and the integration of the overlying plot with the emotional plot. To voice my dissatisfaction with the first, it seems to me that the view of paradise is way over-simplified–Clarke seems here to show a lot of faith in mechanisms that would render the place perfect, but I have sincere doubts about the effectivenes of everything he writes about. I don’t think I have an unnecessarily pessimistic view of human society–on the contrary, I think MOST people genuinely want to do the right thing–but I just can’t see any realistic aspect to Thalass. And my last gripe is that some parts of the story’s plot don’t seem useful to the emotional plot, or vice versa. For instance, the subplot with the scorpions feels almost random… However, this is probably just my sleep-deprived brain failing to pick up some intricate symbolism. I also didn’t appreciate the snubbing of religion, either, but because this is a more personal issue for me I wouldn’t let it affect my overall rating in recommending this book to someone else.

Overall, however, the beautiful passages and the strong human undercurrent outweigh the negative aspects of the experience by a long shot. My enjoyment of the book was greatly enhanced by playing some of Mike Oldfield’s album of the same name to certain paragraphs. Mike Oldfield is one of my favorite artists, and ultimately why I picked this particular novel out of the huge number Clarke has written… (Although I do hope to read a lot more by him! This isn’t my first encounter with his writing, but by far my favorite.)

Of course, it’s also nice to have some actual ‘hard science,’ even if it is out-dated! What I really like about this era of sci-fi (Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, etc.) is a really speculative sense of the future. Even if such ideas usually get proven untrue ten years down the road, they are far more thought-provoking than the usual fare which just throws in all the familiar props of modern “sci”-fi without explaining anything…

Here’s one my favorite passages in the book–and there are many poetic passages that are stirring; it comes in a later segment, but it doesn’t spoil any of the plot, story, or characters’ feelings (I cut it off before the big event) so it’s harmless in that sense.

At first it seemed that she was hearing the deepest note of a giant harp whose strings were stretched between the worlds. It sent shivers down her spine, and she felt the little hairs at the nape of her neck stirring in that immemorial fear response forged in the primeval jungles of Earth.
Then, as she grew accustomed to it, she became aware of a whole spectrum of shifting overtones covering the range of hearing to the very limits of audibility–and doubtless far beyond. They blurred and merged one into the other, as inconstant, yet steadily repeating, as the sounds of the sea.
The more she listened, the more she was reminded of the endless beating of the waves upon a desolate beach. She felt that she was hearing the sea of space wash upon the shores of all its worlds–a sound terrifying in its meaningless futility as it reverberated through the aching emptiness of the universe…

Dreaming in Cuban

Author: Cristina Garcia
Review: April 18, 2009
Edition: 1993 printing
Pages: 245
Overall Rating: 1/5 [Bad]
Synopsis: The story of three generations of a Cuban family, and the boundaries that separate them.
Strengths: Occasional moments of lyrical writing.
Weaknesses: Frequently forced-feeling, pretentious, imbalanced.
Further Review: This book uses a rather forced-feeling magic realism style; it’s as if the author got all the style’s points right on a technical note, but not on a more symbolic or spiritual level–almost as if she read about the style but not many works within the style. In its best moments it does obtain that movement present in other magic realism stories, but mostly it just has a certain plastic or fake feel to it.
I have a very difficult time feeling sympathy for the characters, especially Pilar. They all come across as whiny, insane, self-absorbed, and melodramatic and never really grow as characters. Celia especially bothers me, being the most self-worshiping of the lot.

Overall, it’s painfully obvious that this is a first novel. I feel like I didn’t come away with anything after reading this.