Whatta Fiasco

This is a love poem set to an urban beat. When your lover disappears without a word of explanation and the whole world threatens to fall apart, how do you cope? An entire city can slip out from beneath your feet. Or maybe it’s just the imminent arrival of aliens threatening apocalypse complete with an end times cult and the four horsemen in purple rain coats. Sweet and sad, and not a bad last book to finish out the year.

[powells]

Not a bad movie, in spite of the nearly Shrek style (ugh) animation of the demons. But what no one warned me about was the textiles. Ruth Myers went crazy with the textiles, mostly in terms of texture. Moire weave suiting, stunning hand woven tweed, chunky hand knit sweaters, delicate woven wools, rich embroidery, butter soft gloves. I kept finding myself waiting for a camera angle to better show off the details in yet another gorgeous textile.

[imdb]

I’m so sad to have finished this one. And so happy to know that more are on their way. Lovely, prickly characters that only confused my brain a few times – much less often than in the previous, Blood & Iron. But having to work a little bit as a reader is a good thing.

[powells]

A geisha falls in love with a samurai. Things end awkwardly. The geisha falls in love with another samurai. Things continue awkwardly. The screenplay was written by Akira Kurosawa, but not directed by him. Pretty and strange, but I can’t decide if I like it or not.

Yes, I’m very late to this party, and it led to the weird realization that I had heard all the content of this book without hving ever read it. And then there’s the part where the subject matter isn’t all that freaky at all. And then there’s the part where the baby name chapter is about as robust as a bowl of (ahem) jello. Still, it’s a short book and a quick read. If you’re still interested in what it has to say, do take the time (unlike me) to hunt down the revised edition. Or just go read some Steven Pinker. (Which should not be construed as a blanket endorsement of Steven Pinker’s books. As usual, read with your skeptic’s hat on.)

[powells]

This was one of those books that I thought I probably ought to read. Every time I heard it mentioned, the words were glowing – if unspecific – praise. Every time I picked the book up to see if it was something I wanted to read, something would put me off. And then I saw the audiobook version on the shelf at the library. Why not? Through the first CD I wasn’t sure if I could really make it through the entire book, let alone like it. By half way through the second CD I knew I would finish it, but I still wasn’t sure whether I’d like it. Now that I’m done… I get it. I don’t love it (yet) but it was well worth the time. ANd if you’re at all inclined toward audiobooks, the performance on this one was very good.

[powells]

Japanese school kid romance with a kinky bent. Beautiful young girl in search of True Love romance, has sex with her new boyfriend. Boyfriend discovers after the fact that sex isn’t what he really wanted. Confusion and angst ensue on all sides.

Gorgeous language, mythological alternate identity dreams. Short, sweet and violent with beautiful illustrations. I hope it gets reprinted with the errors corrected.

[powells]

Now I know what the fuss is about Jeff Vandermeer. He writes well. He writes strange. He writes self-referentially in Borgesian loops. He’s good stuff. I’ll be reading more of his work in the coming year.

[powells]

Take the clockmaker hypothesis and map it onto a world that is visibly and demonstrably driven by literal clockwork, but with an invisible god. Now, what happens when the clock starts winding down? What happens is that you’re glad you’re on a flight just long enough to let you rip through the pages to the end because it’s a great story. Gorgeous world building and wonderful story telling.

[powells]