pixxiefish in the stacks

National Geographic Traveller: Egypt

2011-01-01T11:45:00.000+09:00

National Geographic Traveller: Egypt
2nd edition
(National Geographic: 2007)

READ: December 2010 - January 2011

I actually never read through the entire book, but dipped in and out, here and there, as one is wont to do with a travel guide. Lonely Planet's forte is getting you out and about, explaining the how and why to go places. I like them a lot. We didn't feel a need to purchase a Lonely Planet guide to Egypt, however, prior to our travels there this winter, as most of our trip was going to be spent with a tour group, and we had a fairly clear idea of what we were going to do while we were not on tour. We bought the National Geographic guide because it was so beautiful, and had such extensive entries on the various sites, both from an archaeological and a cultural viewpoint. It was absolutely fantastic for this purpose, and served us well on a number of occasions where we had to decide between visiting Optional Location A and Optional Location B. (The option to visit neither never even occurred to us; this is how we travel.) The guide was well-written, with a lot of detail but never too much, and, quite importantly, beautiful photos accompanying the text to illustrate exactly what was being discussed (some other guides do not have enough photos). My only regret was that I did not have time to read through the entire long section on visiting the Cairo Museum before we actually went there.

2011 Booklist

2011-01-01T11:17:00.009+09:00

National Geographic Traveller: Egypt

This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America by Ryan Grim

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

From "Radical Extremism" to "Balanced Copyright": Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda edited by Michael Geist (currently reading)

Going Beyond Google: The Invisible Web in Learning and Teaching by Jane Devine and Francine Egger-Sider (currently reading)

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell (audio book) by Mark Kurlansky (currently listening)

The President's Choice Garden Guide Series: Containers

Pocket Gardening: A Guide to Gardening in Impossible Places by Marjorie Harris (currently reading)

Dune by Frank Herbert (currently reading)

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2010-02-02T12:38:00.002+09:00

The Road
Cormac McCarthy
(Movie Tie-In Edition)
(Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group: 2009)

READ: January - February 2009

My first mistake was trying to read this whilst on vacation in Mexico. While it worked well as a book to read on the flight down (indeed, I picked it up in a bookstore only a day or two prior to our departure), the post-apocalyptic desolation of the book did not ring true while on a lush, sunny beach. However, post-vacation, I was able to return to this book.

I had a few friends who had read it and sung its praises, one of the reasons I picked it up. They talked about the nightmarish quality of the book and of the engrossing nature of its writing. I thought the book was good and well-written; however, I wasn't sure why it was so lauded. One of the book's qualities, I think, was in how it keeps feeling like something is about to happen, yet nothing (almost ever) does. The post-apocalyptic world isn't full of monsters and excitement; it is full of day after day spent on the move, trying to find somewhere with enough food to sustain yourself. That was well-done by McCarthy. Maybe it is because I have watched Randal play Fallout 3 too much; maybe I have just spent too much time thinking, reading, or watching things about the apocalypse, but I didn't find McCarthy's vision of the post-apocalyptic world particularly frightening. Yeah, it's quiet, and scary, and hard to find food, and not everyone is out there to help you. It's the post-apocalypse.

2010 Booklist

2010-01-01T06:22:00.016+09:00

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell

The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester

World History for Dummies by Peter Haugen (unfinished)

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia Of Crafts

Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads by Nancy Baggett

Knitting for Babies: Blankets, Booties, Bibs & More

The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa

The Theory and Practice of Online Learning, 2nd ed., edited by Terry Anderson (unfinished)

Complete Contemporary Craft: Textiles

The Rapture by Liz Jensen

The Music Room by William Fiennes

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia Of Sewing And Fabric Crafts

Law School 2.0: Legal Education for a Digital Age by David I.C. Thomson

Life Inc.: How The World Became A Corporation And How To Take It Back by Douglas Rushkoff

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre by H.P. Lovecraft

Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane (unfinished)

In Defence of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

Ringworld by Larry Niven

The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict by Peter Beaumont

One-Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn-shop Favorites From Coast To Coast by Judith Durant

Stitch & Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller

The Golden Compass (audiobook) by Philip Pullman

I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (unfinished)

Bags In Bloom by Susan Cariello

A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections On A Year Of Books by Alberto Manguel

Cairo: The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck

A Short Course in Digital Photography by Barbara London (unfinished)

Under the Skin by Michael Faber

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg (unfinished)

Killing the Shamen by Thomas Fiddler (unfinished)

The Passage by Justin Cronin

In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak

2009-04-03T11:34:00.010+09:00

In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century
Geert Mak
Translated by Sam Garrett
(Pantheon Books, New York City: 2007)

First published in the Netherlands as In Europa by Uitgeverij Atlas, Amsterdam, c. 2004 Geert Mak.

READ: April 2009

Heather Mallick, one of my favourite Viewpoint & Analysis columnists on the CBC website, reviewed this book about 6 months ago, and I was immediately intrigued. The book instantly went on my must-read list, though in the form of a request on a long hold list at the public library.

Well, Christmas - as I like to call it when I get an email about a long-forgotten book now being held for me at the library - arrived at the beginning of April. I sunk into this book with very little hesitation, and found it quite hard to get out.

Geert Mak, a journalist for a Dutch newspaper and an acclaimed Dutch author, spent the year 1999 travelling all across Europe in search of eyewitnesses and contemporary accounts of historical events from the past century. He takes us to so many places and introduces us to so many people. The 20th century was anything but dull for Europeans. But Mak's book is not a mere recitation of facts, dates, and events. He assumes his reader already knows the basic outlines of modern history, and so, while he does spend some time giving historical and political background, he mostly explores events through the people who experienced them.

20th century Europe was not always a happy place to be, depending on where you ended up. There was so much bloodshed, so much violence, so much turmoil. Mak does a very good job at putting a human face on much of this. On the one hand, that makes things like the rise of Nazism and Hitler in 1930s socialist Germany easier to understand; on the other, it also makes things like "the Troubles" in Ireland that much more horrifying, gut-wrenching, and disturbing. Mak makes recent European history personal.

Weighing in at just over 800 pages, this is a huge book! I had to read it far too quickly, and had to absorb a lot of information, drama, and emotion in each sitting. Sometimes it overwhelmed me for that reason. But mostly it just compelled me to keep reading (even if that compulsion was occasionally caused by a feeling of "if you keep reading, things must get better"). Mak's writing is lucid and clear, his eye for detail is keen, and he knows how to tell a story in such a way that the events become very personal.

Happiness(TM) by Will Ferguson

2009-04-02T11:32:00.004+09:00

Happiness
Will Ferguson
(Penguin Group Canada, Toronto: 2002)

READ: April 2009

One of my all-time favourite books. I have read it at least three times since first picking it up in 2004 (because I found the giant daisy on the cover was, ironically, pleasing). I hadn't heard of Will Ferguson before, though he has since become one of my favourite authors. I have since bought the book again at least three times, since I kept giving away my own copy to others.

It is a story about self-help books. One day, junior editor Edwin, desperate to show the boss that he is working on something, pulls - not out of his slush pile but literally out of the garbage - a giant, rambling manuscript someone had sent in, claiming it to be The Only Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need. The book and its claims are clearly ludicrous, but the boss gets Edwin to push through and get it published. The book is an instant success...except instead of reading it and moving along to the next trendy thing, people start taking its advice to heart. They quit their jobs, move to communes, start farming sustainably. They quit smoking and drinking, too. But even worse, they stop buying self-help books. Soon, the world's biggest problem is that everyone, everyone is just too darn happy. Except for Edwin.

The first time I read this book, I remember many laugh-out-loud moments. There were a number of chuckles this time around, too. Ferguson is witty and concise, his characters are likeable, and his insight into the human psyche is spot-on as well as amusing.

The Hike It, Bike It, Walk It, Drive It Guide to Ottawa, the Gatineau, Kingston and Beyond by Ann Campbell

2009-03-04T11:53:00.002+09:00

The Hike It, Bike It, Walk It, Drive It Guide to Ottawa, the Gatineau, Kingston and Beyond
Ann Campbell
(Boston Mills Press, Erin (Ont.): 2001)

READ: intermittent to March 2009

A good book to help me discover some of these places literally next door. I have yet to undertake an entire one of Campbell's suggested excursions, but I have done some in part; for example, hiking up to the Mackenzie King estate in Gatineau Park. I keep this one nearby and often consult it when starting to wonder what to do on an upcoming Saturday. My one complaint: each described excursion would be well-served by an accompanying map. There isn't a single map in the whole book.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

2009-03-03T11:44:00.002+09:00

Watchmen
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
(DC Comics, New York: 2008)

Originally published in serialized form, 1986-87.

READ: March 2009

Read the graphic novel in anticipation of going to see the movie, and I was so glad I did. Seemingly the story of how a number of retired superhero crime-fighters are now, apparently, being slowly targeted and eliminated, it is also, and much more importantly, a larger story of the fight for world domination and the end of the world. I thought the movie did a decent job of conveying the story onto the screen. The action and movement that is packed into the novel, however, is amazing. I may have to read some more graphic novels, if anyone has any suggestions.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

2009-03-02T11:39:00.003+09:00

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Wordsworth Classics edition
(Dover Publications, New York: 1994)

First published in 1816.

READ: February-March 2009

I've had this book for many years now, and had tried once or twice to read it with no success. This time, I did! You really have to be in the mood for some Victorian literature - it's wordy, with lots of big words. (Hey, I have 2 graduate degrees - I know a big word when I see one.) Plus, it's written in the "confessional" style, which is probably my least favourite writing style. And not only is it confessional in tone, it's purportedly written by Dr. Frankenstein, who hears all this from the monster himself. The monster had initially fled after Dr. Frankenstein expressed horror at the being he had just created. Over the course of many, many years, he apparently taught himself English by living in the shed of an unsuspecting family in Switzerland, listening to their conversations and watching their interactions, night after night. His English is impeccable! And very Victorian. Then there is a whole string of misunderstood events that lead to a fairly high body count, and a multi-country pursuit.

However, once I was able to suspend my disbelief and get past the fact that the monster spoke as if he'd fallen out of a novel, it was, in fact, a fairly enjoyable story. It is not a very long book, and the story has a good pace. By the end, you really do feel sorry for the monster.

20,000 lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne

2009-03-01T11:33:00.004+09:00

20,000 lieues sous les mers
Jules Verne
Édition jeunesse
(Hachette Jeunesse: 2009)

Publié pour la première fois dans sa version intégrale en 1870.

READ: November 2008 - March 2009

J'ai lu ce livre en anglais pour la première fois il y a quelques années à peine. Cette version fut la version jeunesse. C'est une histoire très intéressante (comme la première fois!), et je le recommande fortement, mais le français était d'un niveau assez compliqué... Voir le recensement en anglais pour plus d'information.

The Academic Library and the Net Gen Student : Making the Connections by Susan Gibbons

2009-02-03T11:26:00.004+09:00

The Academic Library and the Net Gen Student : Making the Connections
Susan Gibbons
(American Library Association, Chicago: 2007)

READ: February 2009

Libraries like to think that they are at the cutting edge of technology, but more often than not, they really aren't. Many in librarianship (the younger ones, anyway) likely played with various technologies while in library school[1], but once out in a real library, you are suddenly faced with layer upon layer of bureaucracy anytime you want to try another or get anything done.[2]

In this book, Susan Gibbons, the director of digital initiatives for the libraries at the University of Rochester, surveys the main Web 2.0 technologies being used by students today, and suggests ways in which libraries could use these in order to better meet the needs of students. The technologies she discusses include: social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, RSS feeds, online gaming and MMORPGs like Second Life, wikis, blogs, collaborative sites like LibraryThing, social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, and, of course, instant messaging.[3] She also stresses the importance of reaching students by making library services and websites available for cellphones and other mobile devices.

Some of these ideas work better than others. I see, for example, no need for my library to have a presence in something like Second Life (but maybe that's just because I don't really understand its purpose). I question the value of a Facebook page (though the idea of having "fans" is kinda neat). I've started playing around with RSS feeds (though I note the law library does not have one), though the jury is still out on whether it's saving me time or whether it's causing me to read more things than before (I lean slightly toward the latter; however, I am becoming more well-informed, at least where travel, book reviews, and alien abduction stories[4] are concerned). Library sites do need to become more accessible via cellphones, etc., and I certainly see applications like IM helping libraries gain more ground.

The book was written in 2006, so it's not (yet) too hopelessly out-of-date. While I didn't find it too helpful in terms of suggesting suggestions of things we could actually do here at my library (though that might be at least partly due to bureaucracy that stands between my ideas and actual change), it was good for giving an overview of what is out there and what some other libraries are doing with some of these tools.

[1] I know I personally loved my classes in multimedia (for which I made an electronic version of the Tolkien bestiary), electronic text design (wrote an e-paper on the (alleged) death of the book), and yes, even the dreaded systems analysis and design (my partner and I designed a database system for the law library - alas, never implemented - in which reference questions could be tracked and indexed for easy retrieval in the future).

[2] Statement not meant to imply anything about reviewer's current workplace. If anything, I have recently started finding some loopholes to work around the bureaucracy, and implement ideas that don't affect the bureaucracy. The real problem really has become finding the time to do so.

[3] I believe the book was written pre-Twitter, but that certainly has a role to play as well.

[4] That last one is (mostly) a joke.

The Next Gen Librarian's Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon

2009-02-02T11:20:00.003+09:00

The Next Gen Librarian's Survival Guide
Rachel Singer Gordon
(Information Today, Medford (NJ): 2006)

READ: January-February 2009

I believe I stumbled across this book when getting some other books on librarianship that I had recently read reviews for. The author, Rachel Singer Gordon, is a name I already knew - she is the editor of the Info Career Trends Newsletter to which I subscribe, amonst other things. She is one of those people who, in the world of librarianship at least, always seems to have something interesting to say. Plus I figured I am a NextGen librarian (I guess?) and so might learn something useful or two.

I probably had a larger need for this book a few years ago, but I still found it useful. Gordon provides advice and tips on many different issues in librarianship, from surviving library school*, to finding a first job, to perceptions of librarianship, to working with older colleagues who might perhaps be a bit more - ahem - traditional.

Another important aspect to note is that Gordon is focusing on the American library job market, which, from what I know, is significantly different from the Canadian one. It is really hard for many graduates of American library schools to snag that first job. Canadian library school graduates - and my evidence is largely anecdotal on this account, I admit - have a much easier time. Gordon gives some good general advice on job-hunting; for example, no matter how broke you might feel upon graduation, don't necessarily just snap up the first job that comes your way.

What I really found useful in this book is that Gordon also sent out surveys to both NextGen (under-40) and older librarians (over-40), in order to solicit feedback on the issues covered in her book. Some of the responses to these are very telling. Others are quick to point out that the under-40, over-40 divide is a bit of a false dichotomy, which Gordon (to her credit) acknowledges whenever possible. (You have to draw a line in the sand somewhere, right?)

The final chapter in the book tackles the subject from a completely different angle. It is written for current administrators and managers, rather than the NextGen librarians working for those administrators and managers. This gives an interesting perspective from "the other side of the fence", so to speak.

Well-written, and a quick, easy read, I would recommend this to people still in library school, or those recently graduated (within the last few years). Beyond that, you've probably figured out most of what's in the book - maybe the hard way! I would also recommend it to older librarians, administrators and managers, who might be having a hard time relating to or understanding their younger colleagues.

* Those of you who are not librarians will not necessarily know that while most librarians are very content and happy in their day-to-day jobs, library school itself is almost universally disliked.

2009 Booklist

2009-01-01T11:58:00.021+09:00

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester

Payback by Margaret Atwood

The Next Gen Librarian's Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon

The Academic Library and the Net Gen Student : Making the Connections by Susan Gibbons

20,000 lieues sous la mer by Jules Verne

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Chartrand des Écorres by Cosette Marcoux-Boivin (incomplete)

Beijing Confidential: Tales of Comrades Lost and Found by Jan Wong

Happiness (TM) by Will Ferguson

The Hike It, Bike It, Walk It, Drive It Guide to Ottawa, the Gatineau, Kingston and Beyond by Ann Campbell

In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century by Geert Mak

The Rough Guide to Paris

The Story of French by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow

The Uses and Abuses of History by Margaret McMillan

The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts And The Challenges To American Power by David E. Sanger

Neither Here Nor There: Travels Through Europe by Bill Bryson

Canadian Courts: Law, Politics, and Process by Lori Hausegger, Matthew Hennigar & Troy Riddell

The Jade Peony by Wayson Choi

Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick (incomplete)

The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services by Richard Susskind (incomplete)

Nova Scotia Book of Everything by John MacIntyre & Martha Walls

The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs (incomplete)

The English Legal System: 2009-2010 by Gary Slapper & David Kelly

Wilderness Pleasures: A Practical Guide to Camping Bliss by Kevin Callan

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

A Paddler's Guide to Weekend Wilderness Adventures in Southern Ontario by Kevin Callan

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast by Bill Richardson

The Human, The Orchid and The Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World by Jacques Cousteau and Susan Schiefelbein

Guide: Van Gogh Museum from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

2008-11-03T10:45:00.002+09:00

image not available

Guide : Van Gogh Museum
from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

READ: November 2008

Bought this when we went to the Museum in 2005. It's actually in French (they were out of English copies). "The Sower", the painting I was writing a paper on for my art history course is actually on display at the van Gogh Museum, so there was some good information specifically on that particular painting. I really like museum guides generally - they are a good reminder of what I saw at the museum - and this is certainly one of the better ones.

Van Gogh by Keith Wheldon

2008-11-02T11:27:00.004+09:00

Van Gogh
Keith Wheldon
(Smithmark Publishers, New York: 1995)

READ: October-November 2008

Again, I read this for my art history course paper. This is a giant coffee table book that a friend gave to me many years ago before moving overseas. Finally I had a reason to use it, rather than moving it from bookshelf to bookshelf in one apartment after another (bookshelves it never fit on, I might add). Wheldon looks at van Gogh's work in the larger context of contemporary art movements, and many of the works have a few pages dedicated just to critiquing (detailing) the techniques used in each one.

Discoveries: Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye by Pascal Bonafoux

2008-11-01T11:24:00.005+09:00

Discoveries: Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye
Pascal Bonafoux
(Harry N. Abrams, New York: 1992)

READ: October-November 2008

I was writing an essay on van Gogh and, in particular, his painting "The Sower" for my art history course. I have had this book on my shelf forever. It is a detailed look at van Gogh's art and his life, including extracts from his numerous, lengthy letters to his brother, Theo, and others. While more factual than scholarly, it is a good examination of van Gogh and his particular style of Impressionism (expressionism?).

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

2008-07-02T01:13:00.006+09:00

The Library at Night
Alberto Manguel
(Alfred A. Knopf Canada, Toronto: 2006)

READ: June - July 2008

This is a delightful book and I was sad to finish it (though largely unable to stop from compulsively reading it) and sadder still to send it back to the library from whence it came.*

Alberto Manguel is not a librarian, though he would make a marvelous one. He is a bibliophile, and knows his way around books and the written word so incredibly deeply and thoroughly. I can only hope to ever have a tiny fraction of the bookish worlds in his head. This book should be required reading for every first-year library school student. It is a wonderful tour of library history with stops at many interesting, quirky places along the way.

Some slices of my favourite parts:

Talking about how early Arab libraries often divided books by subject rather than alphabetically (as most early Western libraries tended to do), Manguel tells us about the doctor Abou Ali El-Hossein Ibn Sina ("Avicenna") who discovered a library at the home of one of his patients in what is today's Uzbekistan. While the doctor's account deals mostly with the expert classification of the books, I was struck in particular by the doctor's description of the resident librarian as "keeper of the live memory of the books". How apt.

His discussion of how the digitization of materials may, in fact, not be the saviour of our times is an interesting look at the other side of the coin. While slanted a little heavily toward the printed word - "As any reader knows, a printed page creates its own reading space, its own physical landscape in which the texture of the paper, the colour of the ink, the view of the whole ensemble acquire in the reader's hands specific meanings that lend tone and context to the words" - it is certainly enlightening in terms of helping us to question the attitude of complete and total reliance that we have taken toward electronic materials. As one good example, in 1986, the BBC undertook a massive project to digitize the Domesday Book, a census of England from the 11th century. As of March 2002, the digital copies could no longer be accessed on a computer (even on the original computers for which the discs had been made). The original paper copy, however, is still available and perfectly useable (though, granted, you have to go to Kew in Britain to see it). At the very least, these sorts of examples could be used to good effect in a library school debate on the subject.

Manguel's admittance that his library is larger than what he will perhaps be able to read in his lifetime made me laugh, for my library, while undoubtedly infinitely smaller and not as broad-based, is fast taking on the same unmanageable nature. "I know that my books have unlimited patience," he writes. "They will wait for me till the end of my days." I love that. In a similar vein, he then goes on to discuss the decidedly odd Samuel Johnson, the 18th-century compiler of the infamous Dictionary of the English Language, who "thought it 'strange advice' to urge someone to finish a book once started. 'You may as well resolve that whatever men you happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep to them for life.'" While I try in most cases to finish the books I have started, I am not as wedded to that ideal as I once was. With so many good books out there, why waste time reading something you don't enjoy? There are always other books waiting.

But don't get me wrong: You don't need to be a librarian to enjoy this book (though it will certainly help!). You do, however, need to love books. I for one will be keeping my eyes open and will pick up a copy of this as soon as I can find it at one of my favourite second-hand bookshops. Because, like a good friend, it would be nice to have around.

* Having written this review a few months ago and then having forgotten to upload it to this site, I am happy to add that I have since bought my own copy.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat

2008-07-01T01:12:00.004+09:00

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be
Farley Mowat
ill. Paul Galdone
(Bantam Books, New York: 1984)

First published by Little, Brown in 1957. Two pieces in this book first appeared in magazines - one in the Atlantic Monthly, one in the Saturday Evening Post.

READ: June - July 2008

Who doesn't know and love this book? I read it as a kid, of course, but recently re-read it during my daily commute (as are, indeed, the majority of my books consumed these days). Mowat has a very familiar, conversational, and almost intimate tone in this book, which made me, the reader, feel like he was telling me these stories directly, and I felt so pleased that he was sharing them with me. However, I find it an oddly suspicious coincidence that no sooner had I finished reading this book than Rion had his own skunk encounter. My telling of Rion's misadventure is neither as eloquent nor as entertaining as Mowat's rendition of Mutt and his numerous escapades (and, for that matter, numerous trysts with skunks). Perhaps I am biased toward dogs, but all in all, an enjoyable read.

Les Enquêtes de Vipérine Maltais : Mortels Noëls by Sylvie Brien

2008-06-04T00:10:00.004+09:00

Les Enquêtes de Vipérine Maltais : Mortels Noëls
Sylvie Brien
(Gallimard Jeunesse, Paris: 2004)

READ: June 2008

Un livre d'enfant, évidemment. En 1920, à Montréal, Vipérine Maltais, jeune pensionnaire, est chargée de déterminer s'il fut vraiment un fantôme qui a fait peur la nuit à une des soeurs. Concept simple, mais toute une histoire se développe. Très intéressant, facile à lire, puis une bonne manière de pratiquer mon français (j'ai appris toutes sortes de nouveaux mots).

A children's book, obviously. In 1920, in Montreal, Vipérine Matais, a young girl who lives in the convent, has been assigned the task of determining whether it really was a ghost that scared one of the nuns one night. A simple premise, but a whole story develops out of this. Very interesting, easy to read, and a good way to practice my French (I learned a bunch of new words).

First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea by Paul Woodruff

2008-06-03T11:34:00.003+09:00

First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea
Paul Woodruff
(Oxford University Press, New York City: 2005)

READ: June 2008

Jury's still out on this one. It was ... fine. But I didn't think it was very well-written (still trying to figure out why, however), and it frightened me how often I disagreed with or disputed some of his claims, leading me to wonder if I really believe in democracy at all!

Highlights (?) include:

The tale of the frog and the snake, one of Aesop's fables, used to illustrate how our laws are often absurd, yet somehow necessary in order to protect from tyranny (p. 211 et seq.). I found this argument unfounded, illogical, and, frankly, ridiculous. I also think the fable was a poor illustration of the point being made.

The fallacies in the arguments of those who would oppose democracy: mainly, that citizen wisdom will always fail since the ordinary person has neither the time, the education nor the will to make decisions, so best to defer to those with the expertise to do it for them (see p. 159 et seq.). I agree with Woodruff to a point; yet, again, his arguments (remember he is disagreeing with these claims) are not carried out as fully as they should have been.

In a discussion of whether the United States and other similar so-called "democracies" are ready for actual democracy (rule actually for and by the people), Woodruff has a throwaway paragraph about Canada in which he points to the actions of a citizen activist group in British Columbia as proof that Canada is, in fact, ready for actual democratic reform such as proportional representation (see 213 et seq.). Not likely, Mr. Woodruff. First of all, while proportional representation is a popular idea generally, the chances of it becoming the norm in Canada as a whole is highly unlikely, given the structure of our government. Second of all, a citizen group in B.C. is unfortunately not going to have the leverage to get this idea successfully promoted cross-Canada ... even if they could get the B.C. legislative assembly to agree. Their activism cannot be taken as representative of Canada's prevailing political will.

On the plus side, Woodruff knows a lot about the workings of Greek democracy, and that was fairly interesting. However, there are better books on the origins of democracy, and while this is a short read at just over 200 pages, I'm not sure it's worth the time.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2008-06-02T08:05:00.004+09:00

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
(Doubleday Canada, Toronto: 2003)

READ: June 2008

One of those remarkable books where you can't really put it down despite the fact you don't really like the narrator (he *does* grow on you somewhat) and despite the fact that the last quarter of the book (or so) feels like you're watching a train rushing to an impending collision in slow-mo. Hosseini's writing is vivid and his characters jump off the page. I haven't eaten up a novel like this in a while. Truly enjoyable.*

* There is also now a movie, which I have not seen and about which I have heard mixed reviews. I'm always torn on the book-to-movie transition - a really great book does not need a movie to make it more real. And really great books often translate into mediocre movies - you can only fit so much into 2 hours. Thoughts?

Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate by Felicity Lawrence

2008-06-01T15:56:00.007+09:00

Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate
Felicity Lawrence
(Penguin Books, London: 2004)

READ: May-June 2004

I stumbled across this book in my library's catalogue whilst searching for something else food-related for a client. Intrigued, I requested it be sent to me, and it was quite a fascinating read.

Felicity Lawrence is an investigative reporter for The Guardian in London, England, and she has been writing on food-related topics (and other things, too, undoubtedly) for over 20 years. This book focuses on the food industry in Britain*, but I have no reason to believe that things are substantially different or better in Canada and the U.S. I'm willing to bet that while things may differ in the details, the larger brushstrokes of our food distribution chains are similar.

From the back cover (because sometimes they just say it better):

In a series of undercover investigations tracking some of the most popular foods we eat at home, Felicity Lawrence travels from farms and factories to packhouses and lorry depots around the world. She discovers why beef waste ends up in chicken, why a third of apples are thrown away, why bread is full of water and air. And she shows how obesity, the plight of migrant workers, motorways clogged with juggernauts, ravaged fields in Europe and starving farmers in Africa are all connected to a handful of retailers and food manufacturers who exert unprecedented control over what we eat and where we buy it.

This book is well-written and fascinating. Lawrence isn't preachy. She isn't trying to get us to switch to all-vegetarianism or all-organics or all-local. Rather, in a series of exposés (Chicken / Salad / Beans / Bread / Apples and Bananas / Coffee and Prawns / The Ready Meal), she is simply trying to make us more aware. She eats meat, and doesn't shun (all) processed food. She even sometimes buys bananas. However, she wants to make us more aware of where our food comes from, and what is done in the system to make food as cheap and abundant as it is today (at least in the Western world). Her general philosophy is: As much as possible, buy local, seasonal, and direct. Sounds like fine advice to me.

The book is an eye-opener. Sure, I've been hearing for years about the appalling conditions in which many animals destined for slaughter are raised (chickens in tiny cages where they can't even turn around, etc.). Lawrence mentions these things, but doesn't dwell on them. Rather, she walks us through the steps in production of some of the most basic things. Like salad: there are an unbelievable number of steps involved in getting today's ready-cut, pre-washed bags of salad to the grocery store. And if you want a mini-lesson on the effects of globalization, read her chapter on Coffee and Prawns. You'll suddenly have a much better understanding of why so many countries can't afford to feed their own people.

A rather timely read, as the headlines these days are full of dire predictions for the food supply in the not-so-far-off future, and we keep hearing about the rise of food prices despite any direct evidence of that here. This book helps me understand this rising debate, and I am looking forward to reading more on the subject.

* Perhaps in some ways it would be more accurate to say "the food industry not in Britain".

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky

2008-05-02T22:22:00.006+09:00

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Noam Chomsky
(Owl Books (Henry Holt and Company), New York City: 2006)

Part of the American Empire Project.

READ: April-May 2008

I studied Mass Communications in my undergrad, and I remember having to read a bit of Chomsky. I didn't like him. I had no idea what he was talking about. Only much later, when I rediscovered Chomsky, did it occur to me - I had only ever been exposed to Chomsky the linguist and never[1] Chomsky the media theorist or Chomsky the political junkie.

There's a number of his books on our bookshelves, and I am looking forward to eventually making my way through them. Chomsky is just too right too much of the time. This was a very good read.

In Failed States, Chomsky traces how the United States is increasingly fitting the profile of what are generally considered to be "failed states". Some salient points that stuck with me:[2]

US military expenditures approximate those of the rest of the world combined, and the alleged fears over other countries strengthening militarily are likely less of a threat than the fact that the US already controls so much (shipping, etc.);

the derision and outright aggression directed toward those intelligence experts who have exercised caution or tried to understand the roots of terrorism (i.e., anything beyond an "us versus them" mentality);

Washington's long-standing habit of exempting itself from international law when appropriate;[3]

negotiations surrounding the Non-Proliferation Treaties of the late '90s and early '00s;[4]

the credibility of intelligence in various international conflicts;

the promotion of democracy and institutionalization of state-corporate control;

the incredible lack of health care;[5] and,

the intricacies of country-to-country relations (e.g., NAFTA, Cuba-Venezuela, etc.).

I'm a left-leaning small-l liberal who believes that corporate interests have taken over way more of our daily life than is healthy. So needless to say, I agree with Chomsky a lot. But even for those who might not agree so readily, he's pretty hard to argue against. His information is all painstakingly footnoted and documented. While no doubt there is a certain level of spin applied to what he is saying, you can't dismiss him as a crank. He is obviously knowledgeable and clearly interested in the future of the US. He also writes clearly (unlike his linguistics work which, having recently returned to one text out of simple curiosity, I still can't make heads or tails out of) and compellingly. Even for those who may not be hugely political persons, this book will surely interest and captivate.

[1] Or, to be fair to my program, never as far as I can remember, some 15 years later.

[2] Somewhat unfortunately, I am writing this book review almost two years after reading the book. I don't remember many details. However, somewhat fortunately, I did make liberal use of sticky tabs whilst reading this book.

[3] The particular passage that I marked had a mention of Michael Ignatieff, now the leader of the Liberal Party, and his apparent support of some of the violations of the Geneva Convention (see p. 54). I really must learn more about this.

[4] Including a quote from the recriminations from the head of Canada's delegations, Paul Martin (see p. 77). Yay for Canada references!

[5] Keeping in mind I read this book two years ago, that was waaaay before Obama's health care reform was even a twinkle in the electorate's eye. And it was hugely overdue (and one of the better signs of real common sense that I've seen coming out of the US in a really long time).

You Grow, Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening by Gayla Trail

2008-05-01T02:54:00.005+09:00

You Grow, Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening
Gayla Trail
(Simon & Schuster, Toronto: 2005)

READ: April-May 2008

This was another good recommendation from Rebecca; apparently her sister swears by it. It's a perky guide to gardening with lots of great ideas (both very practical and very I-have-better-Martha-Stewart-things-to-do-with-my-time). Doesn't assume you know what you're doing from the get-go - if I knew how to garden, do you think I'd be buying a how-to-garden book??? Trail starts really from scratch and explains everything, from soil composition to reading a seed packet label to dealing with bugs, etc. Lots of handy illustrations, lots of fun projects, lots of encouragement. Most importantly, she recognizes that: (a) not everyone is a good gardener, so she shows how to scale projects appropriately; and (b) not everyone has a large garden space to make their own, so she includes projects such as container gardening and even guerilla gardening. I would have never bought this if Rebecca hadn't recommended it; at first glance, it seems kind of trendy and - *gasp!* - chick-litty, but it really does have some good, solid information in it.

Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook by Debbie Stoller

2008-04-06T11:24:00.004+09:00

Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook
Debbie Stoller
ill. Adrienne Yan, photos John Dolan
(Workman Publishing, New York City: 2003)

READ: April 2008

Rebecca recommended that I buy this book. Having learned to knit whilst in Japan, now back in Ottawa I no longer had a regular knitting group upon whose experiences I could draw,* so she suggested I pick this up. And I am so glad she did - it's fantastic!

It's clearly written, with good examples and step-by-step instructions. I've learned lots already and can't wait to try some of the projects in here! Stoller has a good sense of humour, and the book is quite entertaining. But she also takes the time to explain basic techniques and tips. I always keep this book nearby for easy reference, and I consult it quite a bit. I've recommended it in turn to one or two friends who have recently taken up knitting, and they've found it quite useful. I almost took it on vacation with me recently, though luggage weight got the better of me and I left it behind, though not before committing to memory certain upcoming stitch styles in the pattern I was working on (which did make the trip south). I really do recommend it highly, especially for new or newish knitters, though I bet more advanced knitters could find a useful thing or two in there, too.

* Writing this review now, in April 2010 (yes, I'm behind), I am pleased to report that I do now, in fact, have a knitting group here; just a few friends who knit, and we meet downtown at a bar every couple of weeks or so.

Vintage Ondaatje by Michael Ondaatje

2008-04-05T11:22:00.008+09:00

Vintage Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
(Random House, Toronto: 2004)

Includes selections from The Collected Works of Billy the Kid and Coming Through Slaughter; "Travels in Ceylon", "Passions of Lalla", and "Photograph" from Running in the Family; the poems "Light", "Claude Glass", "The Cinnamon Peeler", "Elimination Dance", and "To a Sad Daughter" from The Cinnamon Peeler; "The Bridge" from In The Skin of a Lion; "Katharine" and "In Situ" from The English Patient; the poems "The Great Tree", "The Story", "Step", and "Last Ink" from Handwriting; and "Linus Corea" and "Anil" from Anil's Ghost.

READ: April 2008

I am a die-hard Ondaatje fan, and really, the only question remaining for me is whether I prefer his prose or his poetry. This book is a good chance to compare the two, but the question, alas, remains unresolved. I will say this, however: While there are other authors out there whose prose comes close to the quality of Ondaatje's, I have yet to discover a writer whose poetry falls so easily off my tongue (for poetry is best read savouring each word in your mouth), like water skimming across rocks in a shallow, fast-flowing stream, whose words are so natural yet so carefully-chosen to be always and exactly just right.

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

2008-04-04T11:19:00.007+09:00

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
Noam Chomsky
(Henry Holt & Co., New York City: 2003)

READ: April 2008

One of the more rational, clear-headed thinkers out there. Chomsky's book is well-thought out and, in my opinion, fairly uncontroversial - just because you might not agree with him doesn't make him wrong - everything he says is backed up with real evidence, and he's pretty good about showing the evidence in the other direction, too. A must-read.

Noam Chomsky was one of those authors who would show up from time to time on my undergraduate mass communications degree reading lists. Though a linguist and philosophy professor at MIT, he has written many works that also lie firmly in political science and media studies. At the time, however, I remember dreading the Chomsky readings. However, I have grown to truly appreciate much of his work, mostly because I have learned more since then and am now more ready to understand and engage with his work.*

In this book, Chomsky outlines the tactic of "full spectrum dominance" pursued by the American government in its international relations since at least the end of WWII. From the Bay of Pigs, through Nicaragua, Cuba, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and, most recently (at least at the time the book was written, in 2003), Iraq, the U.S. has followed policies and practices geared toward global control, a new kind of colonialism. At the same time, it has fairly consistently worked to undermine certain principles of international law, and refused to recognize many instruments of international justice, such as the World Court and the International Criminal Tribunal.

I'm going to leave the review at that, closing off with a blurb from author Arundhati Roy on the book, because she says it better than I could:

"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance, (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best. Hegemony or Survival is necessary reading."

For more on this topic, see the American Empire Project.

* Sometimes I feel that university is wasted on 17-21 year old students. Better we all go at 32, no?

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

2008-04-03T13:21:00.003+09:00

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
Oliver Sacks
(Touchstone, New York: 1998)

Many of the case studies previously published in similar forms, starting in 1970 and through 1984 (when book was first published).

READ: April 2008

This was an interesting read, with some truly fascinating stories of people with various mental disorders. Dr. Sacks has been working with patients with neurological disorders for a very long time, so he has many stories to tell.

While I enjoyed the book on the whole, I found it a little unsatisfying, however - I wanted more in terms of neurological explanations and perhaps even a word or two about the philosophical side of neurological disorder (which Dr. Sacks kept alluding to but never going into more detail about). For the majority of the stories, Dr. Sacks just states the facts of the case, makes one or two observations, then moves on... I understand that it was not always possible to follow-up with the patients, to see perhaps how a particular type of treatment was working out, but it felt a little too much like I'd sat down with him in a bar and now he was telling me story after story without a chance for me to get a word (or question) in edgewise: "Here's an interesting story ... Here's another one ... What about this guy? ... It makes you wonder about what it really means to be human doesn't it? But enough about that already, how about this case here?"

So overall: Interesting, but if you were hoping to get some insight into how the human mind works or a bit of an understanding for why a certain disorder may or may not develop, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

2008-04-02T13:18:00.004+09:00

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World
Mark Kurlansky
(Vintage Canada, Toronto: 1998)

READ: April 2008

Who knew that a history of the Atlantic codfishery could be so entertaining? Focusing largely - though not entirely - on the once-fabled Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Kurlansky starts with the Basques, a small group of peoples living near the Spanish border with France. Somewhat oddly, they were renowned seafarers, and as early as the 15th century, they were selling dried cod, fairly different in taste and texture from the North Sea cod that was already well-known to ports across Europe. The Basques never divulged the secret of where their cod came from, but now it seems the jig is up, so to speak: it was from the Grand Banks. They didn't want to tell anyone, because they didn't want others to share in the spoils. And so Columbus "discovered" America; and John Cabot, able to report back with news of the terrific splendor the Banks had to offer, where you could dip a bucket in the water and bring it back up brimming full of fish.

Kurlansky takes us through the heady days of exploration of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, showing how cod became a commodity not only in its own right, but also as a necessary resource in the business of waging war against the other colonial powers. (He who had the most cod could feed the most soldiers.) Through the 19th century, the codfish's allure continued, and well into the 20th. In fact, the Grand Banks are the main reason France continues to hold on to the tiny island colonies of St-Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence: it allows them to retain some fishing rights. Finally, Kurlansky takes us to the last few decades, with the decline of the cod fisheries, both here on the Grand Banks and elsewhere (for example, off the coast of Cape Cod - ever wonder why it is called that? - and in the North Sea). He does a good job of showing the tight links between culture, politics, and cod. Iceland in particular proves to be an interesting case study in the ways to handle (or not handle, as the case may be) a domestic fishery.

Throughout the book, while clearly well-researched and exceptionally informative, the tone is kept light. Kurlansky personalizes the story by telling anecdotes, including photographs, and re-printing various recipes for cod, both very old and very new. My only complaint with this book, in fact, is that it is a little dated. It was written in 1997, only five years after the Canadian moratorium was announced. In the book, Kurlansky states that in 1994, the Canadian government estimated the moratorium would last till at least the end of the century. Some experts opined it would be about 15 years before the stocks would be viable again. Well, both those dates have passed. I'm not sure what the state of the cod fishery in Canada is nowadays (though, granted, it shouldn't be too hard to find out), but I almost wish that Kurlansky would do an update to the book, putting some of those figures into a more current context.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

2008-04-01T12:32:00.004+09:00

The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
(Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York: 1989)

First published by Oxford University Press in 1976. This edition, 1989, with extensive endnotes updating the original material, as well as two new chapters.

READ: March-April 2008

Why does Richard Dawkins get such a bad name? His name is constantly being bandied about, and now that I've finally read something of his, it's a bit unfair, I think. This is an exceptional book, and really cleared up a lot for me regarding genetic theories and evolution.

I think the thrust of the misunderstanding of Dawkins, at least in regard to this book, is that people misinterpret (whether purposely or not) what he means by a "selfish gene". He doesn't believe that any one particular gene, sitting inside my body right now, is so selfish that it will do whatever it can to perpetuate itself. We would have gone extinct long ago were that the case. Obviously there is a reason that life on earth is so varied. Rather, and I am sure I am oversimplifying it here to such a degree that Dawkins would probably no longer agree with me, genes act selfish on the class level. It is classes or groups of genes that are selfish, not individual ones. And because they are selfish, they try to find the best ways to perpetuate themselves, but at the macro- not micro-level, if that makes any sense.

It's a bit daunting at first, but once you get going, his style is clear, simple, and immensely readable. It's a complex subject, but he's not afraid to take time with it and give good, concrete examples of each point. Somewhat amusingly, since this particular edition is a 1989 update of the 1976 original, he has added extensive footnotes that counterpoint arguments that have been made against his theories. He also - and this is one of the marks of a good scholar - is quick to note where his theories have since been proven incorrect, and often takes a page or two or more to elaborate a different or a concurrent theory to replace the old, incorrect one. This is probably one of the more enjoyable books that I've read so far this year.

The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

2008-03-03T08:36:00.005+09:00

The Bells of Nagasaki
Takashi Nagai
(Kodansha International, Ltd., Tokyo: 1984)

Originally published in 1949 by Hibiya Shuppan under the title nagasaki no kane. Translated and with an introduction by William Johnston.

READ: March 2008

Dr. Nagai was the dean of the School of Medicine at Nagasaki University, and was on the frontlines of the atomic explosion. His school was destroyed, the majority of his students and colleagues killed instantly or within days of the incident. His wife was also killed. He himself was grievously injured, but with the remaining staff and students, they moved to one of the neighbouring villages in the surrounding mountains, and spent a month or more tending wounded people for whom, oftentimes, there was not a lot they could do.

The book is fairly bluntly written. But it is honest, and a simple, sobering read. Dr. Nagai spends no time feeling sorry for himself or for others, and very little time philosophizing about the situation. It is a lot to take in. The no-nonsense tone of the book, and the perfectly tiny amount of time spent lamenting the loss and wondering about the horror of the use of the bomb, might throw some readers off. But it is important to remember the book is a product of its time. The fellow characters who populate Dr. Nagai's book are also medical personnel. They were trained to respond and react quickly to medical situations and emergencies, and they did their work well. While they never thought they'd have a situation so dire (to put it lightly), nor one in which they, too, were casualties, they remembered what their duties were. Dr. Nagai was trained to be cool and detached in these situations, and his book reflects that. He doesn't dwell on philosophizing about the merits of using the A-bomb, or about Japan's actions during the war, and some might perhaps criticize the book on that front, but that is not what this book is about. Those issues are for a different book.

Some knowledge of Japanese history and especially more traditional Japanese culture will help toward better enjoying this book. While certainly not necessary, it will make a lot more sense if you have at least a slight understanding of Japanese culture and ideals throughout the period between the two world wars and even earlier. While nothing can give us a sense of what it was like to be on the ground in Nagasaki on that fateful day, it clarifies the picture a little bit by allowing us into this man's professional life. I say "professional" because I only learned from the book's introduction that Dr. Nagai's wife was killed in the atomic blast. I also know from some of the accompanying pictures that he had two children who survived the bombing and (I think) its aftermath. I wish he had spoken more personally. But again, I guess, that would have made this a different book.

What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin

2008-03-02T08:28:00.004+09:00

What the Body Remembers
Shauna Singh Baldwin
(Vintage Canada, Toronto: 2000)

First published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, Toronto, in 1999.

READ: March 2008

What the Body Remembers tells, put simply, the history of two women and the man they both love. The more complicated version is that it is the story of families, cultures, and religions struggling to survive against the backdrops of the 1930s, World War II, and ultimately, the partition of Pakistan and India after the Second World War.

Singh Baldwin's writing style is lyrical, yet clear. She knows her characters well; sometimes too well, in fact, as occasionally I wanted her to step back and explain why someone was acting in such a way, though I could tell their actions were based in cultural norms (but ones with which I am unfamiliar). She does better on the personal level than she does on the political level; but in a way, that is fitting, since the characters themselves, especially Roop, do not really comprehend what is happening in the world outside their small circle, at least not until near the very end of the tale (when India and Pakistan are undergoing their very chaotic, violent partition).

My only negative comment about this book, then, would stem from this: I wanted a bit more politics and a bit less story. However, in all fairness, I think that is telling of my current reading interests, rather than a real critique of any fault or shortcoming of this novel.

The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, with annotations by Douglas A. Anderson

2008-03-01T11:06:00.008+09:00

The Annotated Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien
Annotations by Douglas A. Anderson
(Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston & New York: 2002)

The Hobbit, first published 1937.

READ: February - March 2008

The classic text of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, with detailed annotations on the text by Douglas A. Anderson, a leading Tolkien scholar. The annotations cover everything from differences in text between various editions (and, in particular, explanations of how parts of the text were changed from the first edition to the second in order to bring some aspects of the story more in line with The Lord of the Rings), influences on Tolkien's work by other authors (Anderson is, after all, the same person who edited Tales Before Tolkien, so he has a decent grasp on the subject), and excerpts from Tolkien's own writings explaining why the story developed in certain ways. Most charming of all, however, was perhaps the inclusion and explanation of various illustrations from different foreign-language editions of The Hobbit, which, if you hadn't realized it already, really drives home the idea that The Hobbit is a true classic tale that speaks to many different cultures. A wonderful book.

Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey

2008-02-05T07:32:00.003+09:00

Journeys of Frodo : An Atlas of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
Barbara Strachey
ill. Barbara Strachey
(HarperCollins, London: 1998)

First published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin, 1981.

READ: February 2008

I love books.

I love maps.

I love the Lord of the Rings.

Therefore, it logically follows that were there a book of maps based on the travels in the Lord of the Rings, I would love that, too. Journeys of Frodo, happily, proves this hypothesis.

In this marvelous gem of an atlas, what Strachan has done is gone through all of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings related to the Lord of the Rings, and matched up descriptions to detailed maps. Tolkien was largely consistent in his descriptions, but he occasionally gave conflicting evidence, and in those cases, Strachan has done her best to reconcile differing accounts. While you won't find a story, per se, in the pages of this book, it is a lovely complement to anyone who wishes to have a deeper, more detailed understanding of Middle-Earth and the travels of the Fellowship.

Next by Michael Crichton

2008-02-04T01:47:00.009+09:00

Next
Michael Crichton
(Harper (HarperCollins), New York: 2006)

READ: February 2008

I didn't have quite the visceral reaction to this book as I did to The Da Vinci Code, but almost. My mom left this book behind after coming to visit one weekend, and so I figured I'd read it.

In his book, Crichton states that Next is a work of fiction, "except for the parts that aren't." He then leads the reader through a dizzying whirlwind of genetic science events. A drug addict is cured by a gene therapy that causes accelerated maturity. A cancer patient who donated some of his cells for gene therapy to a university loses control over those cells, and those of his descendants. A monkey-boy is created when a researcher injects some of his sperm into an ape. You dream it up, Crichton's probably already put it in his book.

According to a review in the New York Times, "oddity after oddity in 'Next' checks out, and many are replays of real events." To which I respond, "Sure, but so what?" Just because something is true, doesn't make it worth reading. I've studied enough law and read just enough science to know that certain genetic procedures are still currently operating in a Wild West as far as patent law is concerned. I even agree that some, if not all, of these developments are troubling. But if you're trying to bring the issue to the forefront, why not do so in a less tabloid-esque way?

And that, I guess, is my main problem with this book. Fundamentally, I can agree with Crichton's main thesis. A novel with a thesis, you may ask? While certainly not every work of fiction can be said to have a central thesis, in an Author's Note to Next, just in case you didn't "get it", Crichton clearly lays out his five conclusions:

1) Stop patenting genes.
2) Establish clear guidelines for the use of human tissues.
3) Pass laws to ensure that data about gene testing is made public.
4) Avoid bans on research.
5) Rescind the Bayh-Dole Act [which grants universities, small businesses, and non-profit institutions in the U.S. the control and ownership of any intellectual property on inventions resulting from federal government-funded research, rather than the IP rights going to the government].

On their face, these are laudable goals. And a novel, of course, does not have to be neutral in its politics. However, I find Crichton's method of hammering the reader over the head with example after example of why our current legislative scheme (or lack thereof) is faulty, to be tedious, deplorable, and even somewhat insulting. Next is geared to prove that these five conclusions are inevitable. While this may or may not be true, a proper exploration of the issues would have been more appropriate. A proper exploration could very well, in fact, lead to the same five conclusions, but without me feeling like I've been dragged through 300+ pages of bias to get there, leaving me a happier reader as a result, and perhaps more concerned about the issues.

But Next dismisses any need for a proper debate. It says, "It's so obvious," and then throws 37 different examples my way. It portrays the guys (yes, mostly guys) in the biotechnology business as cowboys, bent on getting the results they want at any cost. Everything is black and white. Even those issues that could have been dealt with more subtly are painted with fat brushstrokes: Alex - whose father is the cancer patient mentioned above whose cells, and those of his descendants, are now "owned", as it were, by the university who developed a particular gene therapy - is a lawyer. But wait! - she's not a blood-sucking, money-leaching lawyer, like all the others in the book. She is nice and cuddly, and prefers to settle matters out-of-court whenever possible, rather than dragging everything out into a prolonged court fight. She only starts to get mean when her son is threatened. I mean, c'mon - it's her son! And then there's David, the 4-year-old "monkey-boy", who is rescued by the researcher who created him when it turns out David is scheduled for termination (due to the lab being worried about the ethical ramifications that may arise if David's existence is discovered, though why that hadn't happened earlier when David first started showing signs of being anything other than a regular ape is a good question, but I digress). He is brought to live with the researcher's family in California, and things only come to a head when another young boy starts challenging David. But this boy is not just your average neighbourhood bully, not just that kid who didn't get enough hugs from his mother when he was very young - oh, no, this kid is mean, escalating from a brief schoolyard scuffle to an actual gunfight in the blink of an eye. Shed no tears for the bully; David needs them all.

Crichton dumbs down the issue by using such broad, obvious strokes. In addition, the style of the book, with its short, fast-paced chapters, cutting from storyline to story line, and interspersed fake news articles written to look as if they are real, further debases the actual importance of these issues. Really, all I ever needed to know about cloning, I did not learn from Jurassic Park (to be fair, I have not read the book), and I am dismayed at the thought that people will think they have "learned" about genetic testing from Next.

Final thought: For an example of how to rewrite Next - even in such a way that it has almost exactly the same plotlines - but with less bias and more exploration of actual issues rather than the panic-stricken tone adopted here, take a look at Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. In it, Stephenson clearly and concisely sets out the history of cryptography, and also explores future possible developments of the technology of cryptography, both good and bad. It's a big book, and will take you longer than 3 days to read (which is roughly how long it took me to get through Next, mostly while commuting to and from work), but there are certainly worse things on which you could waste brain-cells and time.

Your Own Worst Enemy : Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement by Kenneth Christian

2008-02-03T01:46:00.002+09:00

Your Own Worst Enemy : Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement
Kenneth W. Christian
(HarperCollins, New York: 2002)

READ: January - February 2008

Not my usual fare, but Randal had picked this up at some point in Japan, upon a number of recommendations, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Well, the book was an interesting read and it certainly gave me a good perspective on some of the habits I have that may not always be the most productive. So I guess it was helpful in that it made me a bit more aware. I mean, most people would probably not consider me to be an underachiever. For all intents and purposes, I come off as an overachiever: I have two graduate degrees, a good job, a stable relationship. But - and Dr. Christian would allude to this again and again in his text - I could have done more. I am happy with where I am, with (most of) the choices I have made, and with what I am doing; however, along the way, I occasionally have made choices that were clear underachiever choices. But this is a book review, not a personal review.

It was hard, sometimes, to see the book as truly relevant when I was consistently being give examples of fairly extreme cases - people who had truly and completely dropped out, either socially or academically, despite having shown great promise, talent, and ambition early on. This was a little disappointing - I think there are probably a lot more so-called adult underachievers who are more like me: borderline underachievers. But maybe that just means I needed to read a different book.

I probably could have gotten more out of the book if I had taken more of the advice given - for example, there were numerous suggested written exercises that I merely read over and did not attempt. All things considered, however, this was still a useful book. If nothing else, it made me more aware and more conscious of how I deal with things, helping me to perhaps fend off potential problems or issues in the future, and also more aware that it's important to be content with where you are in life, something which is often parroted but not often practiced.

Tales Before Tolkien : The Roots of Modern Fantasy, ed. Douglas Anderson

2008-02-02T05:29:00.004+09:00

Tales Before Tolkien : The Roots of Modern Fantasy
Edited and with commentary by Douglas A. Anderson
(Del Rey Books (Random House), New York: 2005)

READ: January - February 2008

Douglas Anderson, a leading Tolkien scholar, has collected here 21 stories that either inspired Tolkien directly in the creation of his seminal The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, or are striking examples of the lineage of prior fantasy works from which Tolkien drew inspiration.

While I understand that some sort of criteria needed to be followed in order to choose from a more finite pool of candidate stories, the selection criteria indeed seemed (as the editor himself admits) a little arbitrary: That the authors be born at least 5 years before Tolkien, not that the stories have directly influenced Tolkien. There's many other works I would have liked to see in this list, of which I have become aware from one of Anderson's other works, The Annotated Hobbit.

At any rate, as I expected to find in a work of this scope, many of the stories were wonderful little gems in their own right (for ex., The Elf Trap by Francis Stevens), while others struck me as being vastly inferior to what came later (for ex., The Golden Key by George MacDonald). Some stories were quaint and charming (for ex., Puss-cat Mew by E. Knatchbull-Hugessen), while others were simply off-beat (for ex., The Coming of the Terror by Arthur Machen).

For anyone who is a fan of fantasy literature, whether or not you are a huge fan of Tolkien, this is a book I'd recommend.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

2008-02-01T11:26:00.002+09:00

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Mordecai Richler
(Penguin Canada, Toronto: 1995)

First published by Penguin Canada in 1964.

READ: January - February 2008

As someone who professes to love Canadian literature, I have been a little embarrassed to admit that I have never read any Mordecai Richler. So when I had a chance to pick up a nice copy of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, I jumped. (I haven't even seen the movie.)

I can see why the book is as lauded as it is; however, I hate it when I finish a book and still dislike the main character as much as I did upon starting. Still, there's something about this book that grabs you, and I can understand why it's endured as it has. The writing is, of course, excellent, and Richler really did a good job of developing the story. Still, the characters were a little one-dimensional, and that's probably why I disliked Duddy as much as I did. I had no starting-ground in common with him from which I might attempt to try to put myself in his shoes.

That being said, I am looking forward to reading more Richler.

Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland

2008-01-01T11:29:00.002+09:00

Hey Nostradamus!
Douglas Coupland
(Random House of Canada, Toronto: 2004)

READ: January 2008

Possibly the most puzzling Douglas Coupland I have ever read. For a book I'm not even sure I liked, it really grabbed me - I couldn't put it down, and I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever I wasn't reading it, and even now that I'm done.

As a general rule, I like Coupland. He is, mostly, brilliant: witness Jpod, Microserfs, Generation X, and Life After God, to name a few. But then he'll fall into a dismal hole of ... well, I don't even know how to describe it. Girlfriend in a Coma, which I read years and years ago, was one of those abysmal moments. In fact, it turned me off Coupland altogether for about 3 years. From what I actually managed to read of it, Polaroids from the Dead was another. It's as if, every now and then, Coupland just becomes too self-aware of his brilliance, and he just inputs too many of his conventions and his what-it-is-that-makes-him-brilliance (his je ne sais quoi, as it were), and the result is overloaded and heavy.

But Hey Nostradamus! doesn't quite do that. It tries to - it tries very hard to be too self-aware and too Couplandesque - but it never quite manages it. And so you end up with this: a book that ought to be terrible, but isn't. Damn you, Coupland, for writing a book I want to dislike but can't!

2008 Booklist

2008-01-01T09:51:00.055+09:00

Hard-to-Answer Questions About Japan by Uchiike Hisataka and Michael Brase

Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy, ed. Douglas A. Anderson

Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland

Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement by Kenneth Christian

The Annotated Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, annotated by Douglas A. Anderson

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler

Islam: Art & Architecture, ed. Marcus Hattstein and Peter Delius (unfinished)

Next by Michael Crichton

The World's Greatest Art : Asian Art by Michael Kerrigan (re-read)

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin

Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey

The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

Vintage Ondaatje by Michael Ondaatje

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook by Debbie Stoller

You Grow, Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening by Gayla Trail

Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky

Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate by Felicity Lawrence

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Les Enquêtes de Vipérine Maltais: Mortels Noëls by Sylvie Brien

First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea by Paul Woodruff

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't Be Jammed by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

Butterfly Mind: Revolution, Recovery, and One Reporter's Road to Understanding China by Patrick Brown

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman

20,000 lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne

What Just Happened by James Gleick

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Discoveries: Van Gogh: The Passionate Eye by Pascal Bonafoux

Van Gogh by Keith Wheldon

Guide: Van Gogh Museum from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

Who is Frances Rain? by Margaret Buffie

2007-12-03T10:53:00.003+09:00

Who is Frances Rain?
Margaret Buffie
(University of Toronto Press, Toronto: 1987)

READ: December 2007

Back in the days of Scholastic book fliers, I ordered this (gr. 5? gr. 6?). I've read it a few times since then, and it remains one of my favourite childhood books.

Elizabeth is going to her grandmother's cottage on Rain Lake, north of Winnipeg, for the summer, like she does every summer. Although this time, instead of it being just her, her little sister, and older brother, her mother and her mother's new husband have decided to come along. In an attempt to avoid the family strife, Elizabeth goes wandering, and she stumbles across a haunted island, of sorts, with a mystery to be solved.

It's a wonderful, short read, and while I can now see more clearly the gaps in the plot and the short-cuts sometimes taken by the author to meet certain conventions of the genre, it remains a magical, fantastical, and riveting story sure to impress and inspire kids. I highly recommend it.

Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now by Jan Wong

2007-12-02T09:20:00.003+09:00

Red China Blues : My Long March from Mao to Now
Jan Wong
(Doubleday Canada, Toronto: 1998)

READ: December 2007

For those of you who, like me, always thought Jan Wong was just a writer of fluffy, though amusing, columns in the Globe & Mail (lunch with Jan Wong, anyone?), this will set you straight.

I stumbled across this book in a second-hand shop in Ottawa, when I'd walked in intending to get something nice and light-hearted to read over lunch one day. Remembering how fascinated and curious I'd been to learn more after reading Ian Johnson's Wild Grass, I decided to pick this up. And - WOW! It's an amazing book. It's eye-opening, elucidating, and entertaining. Or to put it more bluntly, it will knock your socks off.

I don't think I can hook you any better than by posting here the publisher's blurb (from the Chapters website):

Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer -- and one of only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University -- her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock and roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.

Red China Blues begins as Wong's startling -- and ironic -- memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism that began to sour as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism and led to her eventual repatriation to the West. Returning to China in the late eighties as a journalist, she covered both the brutal Tiananmen Square crackdown and the tumultuous era of capitalist reforms under Deng Xiaoping. In a wry, absorbing, and often surreal narrative, she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And through the stories of the people -- an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises -- Wong creates an extraordinary portrait of the world's most populous nation. In setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and why we should care, Wong reacquaints herself with the old friends -- and enemies -- of her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacies of her ancestral homeland.

Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Go to your nearest bookstore or library and read this book. You won't be sorry.

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

2007-12-01T05:27:00.003+09:00

The Player of Games
Iain M. Banks
(Orbit, London: 1989)

A Culture Novel

READ: November-December 2007

I picked this up, mostly out of curiosity because Randal has been singing Iain M. Banks' praises for a while now. Though when he found out I was reading it, he said he would have recommended others of his books, rather than this one.

It was fine, but for someone who is only moderately familiar with the genre, Banks' particular mix of science fiction and fantasy, at least in this book, didn't really do it for me. The Player of Games tells the story of Gurgeh, a renowned game-player from the Culture, a super-advanced galactic civilization. He is sent, through a strange set of circumstances, to the Empire of Azad to participate in the Empire's ultimate tournament, a series of games which, for Azadians, determine job positions and social ranks.

While it was an interesting read, I found it a little long and ponderous at times. The story did have many parallels in today's world, especially in how its overall "point" (so to speak) was about racism and sexism, but I found it handled a little clumsily at times. Randal says I need to read more books in the genre to gain a better appreciation of what SF&F authors may be trying to do in similar cases, and he's probably right. That said, I'd be interested in reading more Banks because I can tell he has better things to offer.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

2007-11-04T01:16:00.003+09:00

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
(Anchor Canada (Random House), Toronto?: 2004)

READ: November 2007

I'd been wanting to read this book for months now, and boy, was it worth the wait. In his Short History, Bryson explains everything from the beginnings of life on our planet, to astrophysics, natural disasters, dinosaurs, and Einstein's theory of relativity, in plain, simple language. Well-known as a travel writer, Bryson brings his particular brand of humour to these, and many other questions of scientific import. Entertaining and elucidating, it's one of those books I should have taken notes on while reading. Well-documented, and well-thought out, this is one of the most entertaining and informative reads I've had in a while. My first Bryson book, but definitely not my last.

Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories edited by Roald Dahl

2007-11-03T11:38:00.006+09:00

Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories
Roald Dahl, ed.
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 1983)

Originally published in the United Kingdom in 1983.

READ: August-November 2007

In the late 1950s, Roald Dahl started collecting ghost stories. He was looking for the best of the best, the cream of the crop, with the intention of making a television series based on these stories. The series died after the pilot episode, but it left Dahl with an appreciation for the difficulties in finding truly good ghost stories:

The best ghost stories don't have ghosts in them. At least you don't see the ghost. Instead you see only the result of his actions. Occasionally you can feel it brushing past you, or you are made aware of its presence by subtle means. [...] If a story does permit a ghost to be seen, then he doesn't look like one. He looks like an ordinary person.

In preparation for the ill-fated television series, Dahl read over 700 ghost stories. He published this collection almost 25 years later, adding a few stories he hadn't included in his original list, and removing some others. The result isn't the scariest book ever. You can't pick up this book expecting to be scared out of your boots. Many of these stories are, to be honest, not very scary. But they are all well-written, and many of them were quite successful at making me feel fairly unnerved. A few positively rose the hairs on the back of my neck. I still think, for example, of Harry by Rosemary Timperley with a chill and a shudder. Others are just clever; for example, W.S. by L. P. Hartley and Playmates by A. M. Burrage. The bulk of the stories are from the first half of the 20th century, so the writing style may not be to everyone's liking, but overall, the stories are fairly entertaining and interesting, and it's a fairly worthwhile read.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

2007-11-02T02:38:00.004+09:00

The Secret Garden
Francis Hodgson Burnett
(Wordsworth Editions Limited, Ware (Hertfordshire): 1993)

New introduction and notes added in 2000. First published in 1909.

READ: October-November 2007

Though it's a classic of children's lit, I'd never read this before, and now I know why it is so highly thought of. I don't know how I missed it. What a fantastic, amazing book. You can always tell, with a really good book like this, why exactly it is the classic it became. The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary Lennox, a spoiled, selfish little girl, who is sent to live in Yorkshire with her hunchback uncle after the death of her parents in India. After discovering a secret garden, a transformation comes over her and the inhabitants of the Yorkshire mansion that perhaps can't be explained by anything other than magic. It sounds a little hokey, perhaps, but the writing is charming and sure to win you over. It charmed me from page one, and I was sad to put it down.

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

2007-11-01T02:35:00.003+09:00

Obasan
Joy Kogawa
(Penguin Books, Markham (Ont.): 1983)

First published by Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd., 1981

READ: October-November 2007

I first read this in my second-year university course in Canadian literature and, looking for something to read on my bookshelves at my parents' house, decided it was time for a re-read.

I had forgotten how compelling a story it is. Obasan tells the story of the displacement of the Japanese Canadians in WWII through the eyes of a child. Naomi has never been to Japan, and doesn't really understand what is happening when her own family gets broken up because of the war. She has never thought of herself as different, and continues to live in some sort of denial of that fact, until many years later, after the death of her uncle who helped raise her, when she starts to become more aware of the true extent of the injustice and prejudice that had been levelled against Japanese Canadians for so many years.

To be sure, I have a better appreciation now for the Japanese culture, and also WWII events, that I did not have when I first read this. It's a really poignant story, and, given the heady nature of its subject matter, does a surprisingly good job of not being too heavy-handed, with one or two exceptions. Kogawa really captures the sense of a child, bewildered by the changes around her but, in the way of children, easily adaptable to whatever circumstances are thrown her way. The writing is very accessible, and the story, while sometimes glossed over in history books, is one that every Canadian ought to know.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2007-10-02T11:35:00.001+09:00

The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown
(Doubleday, New York: 2003)

READ: October 2007

I picked this up because it was cheap and I figured I should see what the buzz is all about.

Well, it was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be - PULP. I guess there's nothing de facto wrong with that, and I guess it's more high-quality pulp than some other pulp (if that makes any sense).

I know the book generated both a lot of excitement and a lot of flack over its actual content. As far as the whole idea of the Holy Grail being the fact that there is a family alive today who is descended from Jesus Christ, and that the Church is deadly afraid of this and has gone to great lengths over the past two millenia to attempt to eradicate both the knowledge and the family - sure, it was plausible enough. I mean, I have no background in this sort of thing. I also don't believe it (or maybe I do, but don't really care), but it's an interesting theory. Why not, right? It was fun to read for that aspect, I guess.

However, I couldn't stand the writing style. I know one of the conventions of novel-writing is to end each chapter with a bit of a cliff-hanger, but here each chapter was about 2-3 pages long (with a few exceptions), and it just became too much. It felt like I was reading the transcript of a really long, fast-paced TV show. A lot of people looking at each other for 4 seconds before the all-too-frequent commercial breaks, after stating (or thinking) "there's something I must tell you" or "but wait! there's more" or "oh, listen! are those police sirens?" It was just too contrived, too formulaic, and I don't want that in the books I read.

Here's an idea: Make it into a movie. It's pacing is such that you'll barely need a rewrite. I suggest Audrey Tautou for the female lead - she's dreamy...

JPod by Douglas Coupland

2007-10-01T00:28:00.000+09:00

JPod
Douglas Coupland
(Bloomsbury, New York: 2006)

Distributed by Holtzbrinck Publishers.

READ: September - October 2007

Six video game designer co-workers, whose last names all start with the letter "J" (hence the title), doomed to work forever on the same video game that will never be released.

It sounded vaguely like the premise of Microserfs, but I am pleased to say that the only thing the two books have in common is that the protagonist works in the high-tech world. JPod is so different from Microserfs. It is a book about a surreal, strange world, where morals are constantly shifting and things are never quite what they seem. It just kept getting weirder and weirder and weirder, until finally, partway through, I started wondering where the book was derailing to. Randal, who was also reading it at the same time but was further ahead than me, told me, "Just keep reading. You'll see." It got right back on track and the weirdness somehow all made sense in the end.

CBC Television has made a television series out of JPod, and I'm curious to see how it will work in this format.* I don't know how they will make episodes out of the book, or whether it will just be a spin-off, so to speak, loosely related to the events in the book.

Anyway, I was hooked start to finish. A great read.

* Unfortunately, I don't have cable, so lacking any good bunny-ears, I'm going to just have to wait for it to come out on DVD or something. It starts January 8, 2008 (tomorrow, incidentally).

Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America by Russell Bourne

2007-09-01T00:31:00.000+09:00

Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America
Russell Bourne
(Harcourt, New York: 2002)

READ: September 2007

I read this faster than I normally would have wanted to (a loaner while I was in Winnipeg this fall), but it was an interesting history of the relationship between the early settlers and the natives in America, and in particular, about the interplay between the settlers' religions and the native religion(s).

I don't have much of a religious background myself, let alone an understanding of the Puritans' and Pilgrims' philosophies. Bourne, however, did a good job of presenting the issues and problems, and, at least from the vantage point of a "newbie" to the topic, he seemed balanced and reasonable. The book was a bit of an eye-opener, and I certainly want to read more on the subject in the future. In particular, I'd be interested in hearing if there are any similar books looking at the interplay between early settlers to Canada (well, before it became Canada, of course) and our First Nations peoples.

The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II by Donovan Webster

2007-08-02T00:18:00.000+09:00

The Burma Road: The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II
Donovan Webster
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 2003)

READ: August 2007

I'd read Webster's shorter article on the Burma Road in National Geographic some time back and it had tweaked my interest. Having been over in that part of the world (Kanchanaburi and the River Kwai in 2004) also helped.

Overall, it was a good read, but not the one I'd expected. The back of the book was a bit misleading - it made it sound like the River Kwai events would play a much larger part in the book than the one chapter that they were actually given. This in itself is a little odd since the whole fight for control of the River Kwai was not, at least as far as I know, part of the fight for the Burma Road at all (though, I guess, you could argue that control fo the River Kwai was at least partially necessary in order to further the fight to clear the Japanese out of Burma and, eventually, Thailand).

Webster did his research and develops the leading players quite well. I'd say it's more a book for the military history buffs out there than for li'l ol' me, however. It did have some interesting background on China and Chiang Kai-Shek, which is an area of history I'd like to learn more about.

Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester

2007-08-01T00:15:00.000+09:00

Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded: August 27, 1883
Simon Winchester
(HarperCollins, New York: 2003)

First published by Viking, Great Britain: 2003.

READ: July-August 2007

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Winchester could make the phone book interesting, I swear.

While not quite as entertaining as A Crack in the Edge of the World, Krakatoa is a fascinating look into the insides of this infamous Indonesian volcano, and the devastation it wrought over 100 years ago. As a trained geologist, Winchester knows what he's talking about, and as a trained journalist, he knows how to make his story interesting. The story was hard to initially piece together, and Winchester has done a formidable job. It was the first modern volcanic explosion of such a ferocious magnitude. Vulcanologists (yes, they are really called that) didn't really exist yet, and those geologists who did have an interest in volcanoes didn't really know what made them tick. There were also very few survivors, and virtually no eyewitness accounts. Furthermore, while very few people actually died as a direct result of the volcanic explosion itself (Krakatoa was a volcanic island unto itself, so there was no Pompeii villagers waiting to be buried), the death toll skyrocketed after a series of devastating tsunamis hit the surrounding Javan and Sumatran shores. We don't even understand tsunamis today, let alone back in 1883. Beyond the actual devastation, of course, is the science of why it all happened - why did Krakatoa explode? - and that is where Winchester, like he did in A Crack in the Edge of the World, truly shines. If plate tectonics and the inner workings of the mantle core had been presented to me in such an interesting manner back in my early school days, I might have chosen a quite different career.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

2007-07-02T00:11:00.000+09:00

Cryptonomicon
Neal Stephenson
(Avon Press, New York: 1999)

READ: July 2007

Well, the third time's a charm. I first started to try to read this a number of years ago, while still a grad student, and quickly put it aside. Too big, too much. Then I tried again this past Christmas, while on vacation in Bali, but having just finished Simon Winchester's lengthy, though fascinating, book on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it was again quickly put aside, again, too big, too much.

But as my time in Japan was winding down, I tried once more. And this time, I couldn't stop reading. In the classic "just one more chapter" routine, I stayed up quite late, night after night, reading on and on, wanting to know and see and hear and experience more and more.

In a nutshell, it's a fascinating (but GIANT) novel, covering over 50 years in cryptography (code-breaking, essentially), from WWII to modern-day. There are three major story lines, but once I got used to who was who (which took a few chapters), I never got lost again. It's an excellent, compelling, fascinating read, and I highly recommend it.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

2007-07-01T00:06:00.000+09:00

Kitchen
Banana Yoshimoto
trans. Megan Backus
(Grove Press, New York: 1994)

READ: July 2007

The first of the two novellas included in this book yanked out my heart strings and then carefully replaced them one by one. The second one didn't have quite that impact, but it was nevertheless worth every word.

This being the second book of Yoshimoto's that I have read, I am starting to get a feel for her style. Her prose is simple, yet even the most straightforward of sentences often uncovers a tumultous layer of emotion. While I don't think it's entirely necessary, I feel that having gone to Japan for a year allowed me to better understand the Japanese psyche that runs through her work, the almost clinical detachment that some of the characters display. These are both beautiful stories of loss and love.

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

2007-06-02T01:09:00.000+09:00

Anil's Ghost
Michael Ondaatje
(McClelland & Stewart, Toronto: 2000)

READ: June 2007

As always, I love Michael Ondaatje. I would leave everyone and everything in the material world behind, if only I could spend more time immersed in Ondaatje novels. Seriously.

I've read this one 2 or 3 times now (I've read all his books before, except the new one, Divisadero, for which I am anxiously awaiting the paperback release), and it is coming dangerously close to supplanting "The English Patient" as the most beautifully-written book ever. I love losing myself in his words. This book just gets more delicious each time. Anil is a forensics specialist who returns to her native Sri Lanka after almost two decades abroad as part of a human rights organization investigating some crimes committed during the ongoing civil unrest. It is a beautiful, moving story. Ondaatje was originally a poet, and that influence shows time and time again in his novels. His words are fluid, and trigger vivid images of what he is describing.

To prove I'm not entirely biased, while it is an excellent book, I must admit it is not perfect. The ending left me slightly unsatisfied. It ends quickly, on a sour note (for both the characters and the readers), and feels somewhat unresolved. Perhaps, however, that is a good parallel to the book's tale itself, of war and uncertainty and strife.

The Lady and The Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer

2007-06-01T18:36:00.000+09:00

The Lady and The Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto
Pico Iyer
(Knopf (distributed by Random House), New York: 1991)

READ: April-June 2007

In the late 1980s, Pico Iyer came to Kyoto for a year, to try his hand at learning more about the Japanese culture. What he learns, and what any person who has spent a significant chunk of time in the country will likely corroborate, is that Japan is a country of contradictions, a country pushing relentlessly into the future while still holding particular ties to many of its traditional cultural and religious roots.

Iyer doesn't learn this by contemplating in front of a Zen rock garden, however. His guide turns out to be the most unlikely person, a petite, 20-something mother of two called Sachiko. She is small and superbly naive, but she dreams big, sharing her thoughts and ideas in her devil-may-care English.

This was quite a lovely book, though I sometimes found it strange and jarring to be reading it while in Japan. I'm not sure why that was. Perhaps it was that the Japan that I was reading about was all too much like the Japan in which I was actually living. While perhaps that seems strange, it isn't. Iyer's Japan is magical and mundane, steeped in culture and completely removed from the outside world at the same time. This is entirely too much like the Japan I know. If you've never been to Japan, Sachiko's character might seem overly precocious and naive, a cute character sketch from the late 1980s, but not possibly a real person...but once you come here, you realize that not much has changed, and people are really like this.

That aside, it was a great read and I recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in Japan. It's a nice, little romance, but can also be taken as much more.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

2007-05-04T17:24:00.001+09:00

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Sophie Kinsella
(Dell Publishing, New York: 2001)

READ: May 2007

I actually have never had any desire to read this book, but I picked it up for $2.00 at a charity sale, so I figured what the heck? It was pretty much the fluff I expected, but once I got into it, it wasn't too bad. The writing was simple, and the story a little contrived (you just know she's gonna get the guy in the end), but it was entertaining and a quick read. I'm not running out to the store to buy any of the other books in the series, however; at least not just yet.

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada by Will Ferguson

2007-05-03T22:44:00.001+09:00

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada
Will Ferguson
(Alfred A. Knopf Canada, Toronto: 2004)

This edition includes "bonus" material, including a tongue-in-cheek "cheat sheet" for students, "outtakes", various suggested cover designs, and a list of Canada’s "big objects by the side of the road."

READ: May 2007

I've mentioned this before (twice, actually): Will Ferguson is a funny, funny man. And with the intriguing title of this book, which I'd picked up in Canada before leaving for Japan but had made myself wait many months before allowing myself to read it, I was expecting more belly laughs.

And boy, did it deliver! Ferguson spent a few years traveling back and forth, here and there, across Canada, and the result is a series of short stories about strange happenings while on the road. He peppers these humourous stories with a good dose of history - not enough to choke those who always fell asleep during Canadian history class in high school, and just obscure enough to keep those Canadian history keeners (myself included) listening and curious. He goes everywhere: Victoria, B.C., for a poetry slam; Churchill, Man., looking for polar bears; Saguenay-Lac St. Jean, Que., to find a lost kingdom; and even St. Thomas, Ont., just outside London, in search of "Canada". It's always interesting, often funny, and never pedantic. This is the kind of literature I wish we'd read more of in my Canadian literature classes. For starters, I don't think he mentions the name "Susanna Moodie" even once (though I think he does talk a bit about Catherine Parr Trail) - kudos all around right there.

Japan: Its History and Culture by W. Scott Morton and J. Kenneth Olenik

2007-05-02T21:59:00.000+09:00

Japan: Its History and Culture
W. Scott Morton and J. Kenneth Olenik
4th edition
(McGraw-Hill, New York: 2005)

First published 1970; subsequent editions 1984, 1994. The 4th edition is the first to include Olenik as co-author.

READ: April-May 2007

This book is a great overview to anyone who has an interest in Japanese history, but doesn't want to get stuck in thousands of pages detailing the lives, hopes and dreams of the various emperors and shogun. It's concise and informative, always interesting, and really helps one get insight into why Japanese culture has turned out quite the way it has. I found the last few chapters, about contemporary Japanese political and economic developments (since about 1970), a little weaker than the rest of the book; however, I understand that the immediate nature of contemporary events sometimes can make it difficult to figure out what is noteworthy and what is not.

Shortly after finishing this book, I headed down to Kyushu, the southernmost island of "mainland" Japan (ie., other than the Okinawan islands), and found myself recalling the history I had just recently learned. Certain events in Kyushu were at the centre of the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s, which, in turn, had a profound effect in shaping the Japan that was to eventually attempt to steamroll over the rest of East Asia in the first half of the 20th century. All in all, a very, very interesting book.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

2007-05-01T20:42:00.001+09:00

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins
(Penguin Group, New York: 2006, c2004)

First published 2004.

READ: April-May 2007

John Perkins worked for over three decades at the heart of an international business consulting firm, and claims that the modern American political/economic system is founded on a system which exploits and neutralizes developing nations in ways that force them to remain acquiescent to American economic policies. It's almost a Forrest-Gump-like story - Perkins seems to have been fairly intimately involved with some of the more important political upheavals of contemporary times, including the deaths of Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos and Ecuadorian president Jaime Roldós Aguilera in the early 1980s, and the (as an example of how the "EHM system" occasionally failed) overthrow of the shah in Iran in the late 1970s.

This has been quite a popular book over the last few years, and I don't know how much to believe and how much to disbelieve. The events in this book are either largely and/or entirely true, in which case we should be worried about the sham called democracy in which we participate, or it is the product of a conspiratorial and overly-fertile imagination. While many people, well-educated and otherwise, would argue the latter proposition, I have to admit I tend, most days, toward the former. I think Perkins does have a tendency to dabble in conspiracy theory (especially in other contexts outside this book (just do a Google search for his name)); however, I also think this is definitely a case of "where there's smoke, there's fire."

At the very least, some of the response to this book has at least raised a bit of a debate about global finance and the development of the Third World, bringing these issues beyond the confines of APEC and G8 protests. It's an interesting read, even if you choose to disbelieve most of what he says, and it's well-written, unlike many other books in this genre. It occasionally smacks of conspiracy, but at the very least, it will get you thinking and being more aware.

Mightier than the Sword: "My Hero" by Tom Holt

2007-04-02T23:29:00.000+09:00

Mightier than the Sword: "My Hero"
Tom Holt
(Orbit, London: 2002)

Mightier than the Sword is Tom Holt's Omnibus 2 which consists of the novels "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" and "My Hero". "My Hero" first published by Orbit in 1996.

READ: April 2007

I read the other half of Tom Holt's Omnibus 2, Mightier than the Sword, "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?", in March.

Of the three books by Tom Holt that I have now read (the third is Falling Sideways, which I read back in January 2006), I think this one is the weakest. It is funny and entertaining, but it suffered from the same thing Falling Sideways did to some degree: too many characters and too many parallel storylines. Figuring out who everyone is and what their purpose is in the story, is all a bit unnecessarily exhausting. Even when they all come together at the end, it isn't all clear. I think what made "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" so successful, in my opinion at least, is that it avoided this almost entirely, by having just two sets of characters (Good v. Evil, essentially), rather than a bunch who come together at the climax only. That can be done well, but in this case, it was just a bit too scattered.

That being said, I did enjoy the book. It was an interesting premise: Jane is an author whose fictional characters start to need her help, and then when she tries to help them, it turns out she needs theirs. Fiction becomes reality, and vice-versa.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

2007-04-01T20:56:00.000+09:00

Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
(Alfred A. Knopf, New York: 1997)

This edition published by Vintage Contemporaries, New York, 2000.

READ: March-April 2007

I haven't seen the movie, but have wanted to read the book for a while. Initially, I was confused. I had always thought that Memoirs of a Geisha was a novel, but it began with a word from a translator who claimed to have translated Sayuri's words faithfully from the Japanese. I then realized that, of course, this was part of the novel, meant to give it an added aura of authenticity.

It's a wonderful book. Nitta Sayuri, a 9-year-old girl with unusual blue-grey eyes, is not born into the world of geishas, as most are, but is taken from her small village, after her mother dies and her father can no longer care for her, and sold to a geisha house in Kyoto. This is, effectively, akin to being sold into slavery. Many girls who trained to be geisha did not succeed, managing to incur substantial debts along the way, indebting them indefinitely to the geisha house to which they belong. For Sayuri, the story is, at least at first, much the same, but as she becomes more committed to the idea of becoming a geisha, things change.

A compelling read, I hated putting the book down at the end of a chapter, always wanting to read "just one more chapter". Though sometimes I lacked sympathy for Sayuri, I could not doubt that her story was a fairly common one in Gion, the famous geisha district of Kyoto. The book also spans a key point in modern Japanese history, from the late 1920s through the 1930s, to WWII and the post-war Occupation years. Arthur Golden apparently did a fair bit of research for the book, and as far as I know, his account of what it meant to be a geisha in those days is fairly accurate. I might see the movie now, to see how it compares.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2007-03-05T20:37:00.000+09:00

Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(Alfred A. Knopf, New York: 1988)

Translated from Spanish by Edith Grossman, 1988.

READ: March 2007

I'd read One Hundred Years of Solitude many, many years ago (back in high school, in fact), and really enjoyed it. This book was one of the few left to me by my predecessor, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet.

Now, I was feeling a bit down about Japan at the time I read it, so I think it was a bit of a relief to be so suddenly transported to Colombia. It is the story of Florentino Ariza and his lifelong wait for Fermina Daza, a beautiful, haughty woman who once told him she would marry him but then did not.

It was a compelling read. It was supposed to be the book I brought with me on my trip to Hokkaido, but I handily finished it in the 3 days before leaving. That being said, I started to be filled with dread sometime during the last 100 pages. The characters were starting to do and say things that I thought were leading to a dumb, Disneyfied, happy ending. While that's a bit harsh, I was disappointed in the end. I guess I just don't have any sympathy for Ariza, who spends his life in a weird fantasy world where everything is done with the intention that one day Fermina Diaz will come back to him, and when she does, everything must be just so. I see that as being a bit compulsive, in a creepy way rather than a cute, or devoted, way. Maybe I'm just too unromantic to appreciate it.

Vintage Murakami by Haruki Murakami

2007-03-04T01:36:00.003+09:00

Vintage Murakami
Haruki Murakami
(Vintage Books, USA: 2004)

Includes the opening chapter of his novel Norwegian Woods; "Lieutenant Mamiya's Long Story: Parts I and II" from his novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; "Shizuko Akashi" from his non-fiction book on the 1995 Tokyo subway attacks, Underground; and the short stories, "Barn Burning", "honey pie", and "ice man".

READ: March 2007

Reading this collection of works from Murakami, who is apparently one of Japan's top contemporary authors, was a bit of a tease. I'd just start getting into a story when it would end, leaving me wanting more. Luckily, many of these stories are, of course, parts of longer novels, and so someday, more I can get!

His style is sparser than I normally like (sometimes I wonder if that's more of a translation thing, though I guess the trick to being a good translator is to use a style consistent with the author's style in their original language), but they are interesting and insightful. The excerpts from The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in particular still leave me shuddering while thinking about them late at night (almost a month after I finished reading the book!), and I may definitely have to read that entire book someday, if none other, in order to exorcise those memories.

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham

2007-03-03T21:13:00.000+09:00

The Moon and Sixpence
W. Somerset Maugham
(Penguin Books, London: 1944)

First published in Great Britain by William Heinemann Ltd. in 1919.

READ: March 2007

I hadn't read this kind of book in a while (you know, "real" literature) and wasn't sure what to expect, but it had an interesting premise as being loosely based on Paul Gauguin's life.

Well, once I picked it up, I almost couldn't put it down, and finished it in a compulsive burst of reading. I think it took me three days, and only then because I had to stop reading for sleeping and working. The narrator, a writer (go figure), is likeable enough, but the main subject, Charles Strickland, is a thoroughly disagreeable, unlikeable man. Yet somehow it didn't matter. The book is cleverly written in such a way that I spent my time not wondering what is going to happen to Strickland, which would have held much less interest for me (we know the outcome from page one anyway), but in a way that compelled me to see how the narrator learned more about Strickland. It's really quite good. Disappointing lack of anybody resembling Vincent van Gogh, however. ;)

Wild Grass: China's Revolution from Below by Ian Johnson

2007-03-02T23:47:00.000+09:00

Wild Grass: China's Revolution from Below
Ian Johnson
(Penguin Group, London: 2004)

Some of the material previously appeared in a slightly different form in the Wall Street Journal .

READ: March 2007

Here's an excellent example of how a well-respected journalist should write a book based on his columns and expertise in a particular area.

Ian Johnson is a roving correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, and lived in Beijing for seven years. In his book, Wild Grass, he tells the stories of three people in China, three stories of people who tried in little ways to resist the corruption and oppression of the Communist Party. The first is a paralegal who is jailed for having helped peasants mount a legal battle against illegal taxes. Second is an architect fighting to save Beijing's historic buildings, which are being destroyed at an alarming rate. The last is a daughter who has been jailed and running into difficulties with authorities because she tried to find out answers about her mother's death in prison (where she was jailed as a Falun Gong practitioner).

I know shamefully little about China and its politics, and understand even less. I was depressed for at least two days straight after finishing this book. That being said, it was an excellent read and I strongly encourage anyone with any interest in the outside world (esp politics) to read it. Johnson knows his subject, he knows how to make a story interesting, and he knows how to make things resonate on a personal level. There were a few "of course Communism is bad and of course it is failing" moments, but overall, he does a good job of exposing the Chinese government's current weaknesses in policy and strategy without devolving too far into the land of democracy-and-market-freedom-is-great. It is well-written, and the endnotes put Thomas Friedman to shame.*

* Not that that is very hard to do.

Mightier than the Sword: "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" by Tom Holt

2007-03-01T23:50:00.000+09:00

Mightier than the Sword: "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?"
Tom Holt
(Orbit, London: 2002)

Mightier than the Sword is Tom Holt's Omnibus 2 which consists of the novels "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" and "My Hero". "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?" first published by McMillan (London) Limited in 1988.

READ: March 2007

Hildy Frederiksen is just your average archaeologist until the day she accidentally awakens King Hrolf Earthstar and his twelve companions from their centuries-old sleep. King Hrolf is determined to carry on, and finish once and for all, his war against the Sorceror King.

This is only the second book of Tom Holt's that I have read. I quite enjoy his style so far, and plan on reading more (including, of course, the second novel that is included in this book, "My Hero"). He's a bit of an oddball, an interesting mix of scifi-meets-fantasy-meets-humour. Anyway, this book was quite enjoyable; a quick, easy, entertaining read (just over 200 pages), and made me laugh out loud at a number of points.

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth

2007-02-04T23:43:00.000+09:00

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan
Alan Booth
(Kodansha America, New York: 1995)

READ: February 2007

I've mentioned this before: Alan Booth is often mentioned as the quintessential travel writer of Japan. Like in The Roads to Sata, Booth takes us deep into the heart and soul of Japan and ordinary Japanese. Published a few years after his premature death from cancer in 1993, Looking for the Lost, is actually three shorter novellas detailing three different walks he took in Japan.

First, Tsugaru. This is the peninsula at the very northern end of Honshu, the central Japanese island, in Aomori Prefecture. Booth sets out in May 1988 to walk the same route taken by a Japanese author 44 years previously.

Second, Saigo's Last March, wherein Booth recreates the route taken by Saigo Takamori in August 1877, when Saigo, a previous government minister and one of the leaders of the loyalist army that defeated the shogun, led a final, ill-fated protest again the new government.

Third, Looking for the Lost itself, which, I was slightly thrilled to learn, was Booth's recounting of his walk along the length of the Nagara River through Gifu Prefecture (!). He is following what might be the path taken by the survivors of the ruling Heike clan after they were run out of the imperial capital of Kyoto and forced to flee in the late 12th century, one of the seminal points in Japanese history.

As I expected, Looking for the Lost was a tremendously enjoyable book, though, I must admit, there was something almost disquieting about reading about Japan in such a personal way, but one that was so different from my own (and my own could never hope to be similar). We all view countries in our own ways, and while I don't know if Booth loved Japan, he certainly was fascinated by it. And that, I think, is what makes his two books so good. He is not vaunting Japan, nor, à la Will Ferguson, poking fun at its idiosyncracies. He just tells the story as it is, as it happens.

I think I may have enjoyed Looking for the Lost even more than The Roads to Sata. The fact that there were three stories of three very different parts of Japan, each meticulously described with great personal anecdotes that really brought the regions to life, was excellent. It also probably helps that I am now in Japan and can better relate to some of his experiences. Also, the Japan he describes here feels different from the Japan in Sata, which was a Japan of the late 1970s and vastly more inward-thinking than it is now (as difficult as it is to imagine; Japan still being largely fixated on itself and often unaware of the larger world outside its borders).

And yes, most importantly, Booth does find the lost Japan he'd been looking for for the past 20-some years. He finds it, most poignantly for me, in Gujo-Hachiman, a small castle town about an hour's drive north of Gifu City. Having been there myself last October, some 15 years after Booth's visit, though I wasn't yet aware of Booth's opinion on the town, I felt at the time that it was a relatively untouched corner of Japan. Sure, the town has some industry and modernized facilities, and there are convenience stores like everywhere else, but there's also a certain charm, a certain Japanese-ness, some kind of magical / traditional quality to Gujo-Hachiman's streets and buildings that is hard to find in the rest of Japan, if at all.

So, my only problems with Booth's books are that there's only two of them and that I cannot help but compulsively read both of them entirely too fast.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

2007-02-04T00:58:00.000+09:00

Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
(Harpertrophy, New York: 2001)

READ: February 2007

So, um, I first read this about two months ago, and after writing a review for it here in the stacks, I got a hankering to read it again. So I did. It's quite a compelling book, and I finished it in four hours flat.

I'm not reviewing it again - you can read the original review here.

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

2007-02-02T19:49:00.000+09:00

The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje
(Bloomsbury Publishing, London: 1992)

This edition published 2004.

READ: February 2007

In my last year of high school, I was expressing my discontent about what I had read recently (I don't remember what it was now) to one of my English teachers (I was taking 3 different English classes that year), and he recommended I read some poetry by a Canadian poet and author called Michael Ondaatje, as well as Ondaatje's novel In the Skin of a Lion. Well, there's been no turning back. Michael Ondaatje, without a doubt, has been my favourite author, bar none, ever since then.

I'm never quite sure which I like better, The English Patient or In the Skin of a Lion. I think The English Patient edges out ahead, but then I re-read the other and remember how excellent it is.*

The English Patient has some of the same characters as the other book, but you don't need to have read In the Skin of a Lion to appreciate this one. Hana is a young Canadian girl who is in Italy working as a nurse in the last days of World War Two. She has stayed behind in an old Italian villa to nurse a dying patient who suffered extensive burns to most of his body a few years earlier, does not remember who he is (or so he claims), and is not expected to recover. The story unfolds parts of the English patient's past in a wonderful, sometimes dream-like, narrative. There is also a romance between Hana and a young Indian sapper who has come to defuse mines in the area, as well as the reintroduction of Caravaggio into Hana's life, an old friend of her father's (who was killed in the war) who worked as a spy for the Allies through the war and has now come to join Hana in her isolation. But the focus of the story is the English patient and the strange circumstances that led him to the villa where he now lays dying.

I was so excited, though trepidatious, when plans for a movie were announced. Well, the movie was awful. Elements of the story were changed, apparently at random, that made the story lose so much of its powerful magic for me. If you've only seen the movie, don't hold it against the book. Please.

People seem to either really like Ondaatje or really don't. I personally am addicted to his fluid prose, so poetic and often dreamy. Others find him wordy and inaccessible. While I generally tend to agree with the posit "why say in 25 words what you could say in 10", I don't think that always works so well in fiction. I remember, in university, in 4th-year poetry class, being irritated by Elizabeth Bishop who, as I told my dismayed teacher, needed a serious editor to cut out the superfluous words she was tossing in. I switched my project to P.K. Page who was much better at being concise. Salman Rushdie is a prime example of a writer in love with the sound of his (boring, pedantic, unnecessary) words. But there is very little I would cut out of Ondaatje's work. His words are precise and appropriate to generate the extremely vivid images that I get when I read his books and his poetry (his poetry tends to be a lot more sparse in words). I see faces, I hear voices, I can even smell the place he is describing.

So, yeah. I like this book. Everyone should read it.

* If you still can't make yourself like The English Patient, at least try In the Skin of a Lion. It's written in a more concrete style. I know a number of people who have liked that one but couldn't get into The English Patient. And for those of you who are history buffs, it's about Toronto in the 1930's.

English for Use in "The Way of Tea"

2007-02-01T19:48:00.002+09:00

English for Use in "The Way of Tea"
no author listed
(Tankosha, Tokyo: 2003)

READ: January 2007 onwards (intermittent use)

At my school, I was asked to join the tea ceremony club (sado). The members are me, a bunch of giggling first- and second-year students who don't want to speak English, and three Japanese teachers who don't speak much English at all. So the teacher who is in charge of the club bought me this book. It is targeted toward Japanese-speaking people who have to introduce and explain the tea ceremony in English, but it works well for me, too. Mostly, it is like a Japanese-English dictionary specifically directed at tea ceremony. There are long lists of the items used in the ceremony, with illustrations, and the names of each written in English and in Japanese (both in kanji and in hiragana/katakana). There are a few short explanatory sections, written in English and Japanese, and the last section has some short skits, again in both languages - I guess to demonstrate common conversations one might have while explaining tea ceremony to a foreigner. I wish it had more how-to sections - how to fold my tea cloth (fukusa), how to hold the tea cup, etc., but I guess it's technically targeted at people who already know how to do all that. Anyway, it's helping the tea club bridge the language gap, and it's a handy little reference book.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman

2007-01-02T19:46:00.001+09:00

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Thomas L. Friedman
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York: 2006)

Expanded and revised version, 2006; original edition, 2005.

READ: January 2007 (unfinished)

All you need to know about this book is summarized thus: Ugh.

For those of you who feel that isn't an adequate review, read on:

I was looking forward to reading this book. It had been recommended to me by a few people, and I kept seeing it at bookstores - even those bookstores that only sell a handful of English-language books. But the fact it was alongside Danielle Steele and Da Vinci's Code* should have tipped me off.

I made it through 300-some pages, so 2/3 of the way through, before I decided enough was enough, that I had much more worthy books on my shelf, and I wasn't going to read it anymore. The problem was, I didn't like the book from about page 5! I was giving Friedman the benefit of the doubt. I thought he might change! Alas, I can be too patient of a reader sometimes.

Friedman is a columnist at the New York Times and I guess his The Lexus and the Olive Tree is considered (by some, at least) to be the definitive work on the Middle East. Well, all I can say is that I hope it is better-researched and more critical than The World is Flat. This book reads like a long, lengthy, never-ending magazine article. And, with all due respect to magazine writers, here we have an incredibly BAD magazine article. He has lengthy quotes from various players in the global market, but they are all CEOs and other people who have already bought into the "flat world" way of thinking. In other words, Friedman seems to have only spoken to people who already agree with his thesis. That just doesn't "do it" for me.

I need to start reading with sticky-tabs handy. There were many sentences and paragraphs that made me snort derisively, and I wish I could find one now to share with you. The amount of times Friedman pointed something out that was either blatantly obvious or blatantly one-sided just made me cringe. What? He's going to spend another 550 pages telling me businesses need to go global, that they can't do it all themselves and remain economically efficient? Tell me something I don't know. Or at least, tell me in a way that could possibly garner some debate. Maybe - here's a radical idea - maybe tell me what an anti-globalization activist thinks of his "flat world" inevitability. How about those countries who have yet been unable to jump onto the globalization bandwagon (for ex., swathes of Africa)? Oh, the world exists only of the United States, India, China and Bangladesh. I see. Am I really supposed to swallow the line that outsourcing American accounting to Indian accountants is good for everyone because now Indian accountants can stay in India and be employed (the fact that the Indian wage is a fraction of the American wage is discussed no further by Friedman other than as a statement of fact) while the American accountant can exercise his true talents of more complicated accounting (ie., rather than just straightening out Friedman's taxes once a year, he can sit down with Friedman and figure out how to best shelter Friedman's income from taxes). How about paying a bit of lip service to the other side of the coin? Isn't that what journalism should be about??? No, Friedman has already written off anyone who doesn't see globalization as the future. And that's just lazy writing, as far as I'm concerned.

If anyone knows a good book on globalization, please let me know. But this sure ain't it. Keep your $17 (what I wasted on it).

* OK, I'm sure Da Vinci's Code is a good book and shouldn't be tossed in with Danielle Steele. But it's just disgustingly everywhere!!!

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

2007-01-01T19:45:00.000+09:00

A Crack in the Edge of the World: The Great American Earthquake of 1906
Simon Winchester
(Penguin Books, London: 2006)

First published by Viking in 2005.

READ: December 2006 - January 2007

There is no need to be an avid earthquake junkie to enjoy this book,* though it would be fair to say a passing interest in natural disasters helps. Former journalist Simon Winchester, who is trained in geology, has written an intensely compelling account of the famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The earthquake was simply devastating. Striking early in the morning on April 18, 1906, it reduced a large part of San Francisco, one of the United States' most vibrant cities, to rubble. And what the earthquake did not destroy, the widespread fires that subsequently broke out finished off. Many thought the city would not be able to rebuild, but within a few months, it was back on its feet.

This is not just a social history of the people of San Francisco, detailing how peoples' lives were interrupted by the earthquake. While that in itself might be interesting enough, it certainly would not be adequate to sustain my interest for ~400 pages. Instead, in addition to bringing the 1906 earthquake and its reluctant participants to vivid life, Winchester also takes us on a fascinating geological tour. To research this book, he in fact traveled from just outside Albany in New York State, and straight across the southern United States to California. He then continued his travels northwards, through British Columbia up to Alaska (which is frequently hit by large quakes), and then back down through the Rockies and across the North American plain to his starting point in New York State. Along the way, he visits some of the most important geological hotspots, and tells us about their most interesting histories. Who knew, for instance, that a little tiny town in Missouri has suffered tens of thousands of earthquakes in the years since it was rocked by some quite violent ones in 1811, and that someday (in another 100 years or so) it will be hit by more big ones? Also, have you ever stopped to think that Yellowstone Park's Old Faithful is really just biding its time before, one day, it will turn into a super-volcano?

Set against the backdrop of the 1906 earthquake itself, Winchester tells us about these quirks of geology, and also takes us on a fascinating tour through the history and world of earthquake science, plate tectonics. This book should be called "Earthquake Science for Dummies (and It's Interesting, Too!)". Winchester knows his subject, and he gives just enough of a personal touch to every part of his subject (throwing in anecdotes, etc.) that what ought to be dry geological theories become quite interesting.

In fact, I suspect Winchester could make the phone book sound interesting.

* Unlike your beloved reviewer.

2007 Booklist

2007-01-01T17:01:00.010+09:00

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman (unfinished)

English for Use in "The Way of Tea"

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

Looking for the Lost by Alan Booth

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (re-read )

Mightier Than the Sword by Tom Holt (Book 1: "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?")

Wild Grass: China's Revolution from Below by Ian Johnson

The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham

Vintage Murakami by Haruki Murakami

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Japan: Its History and Culture by W. Scott Morton and J. Kenneth Olenik

Mightier Than the Sword by Tom Holt (Book 2: "My Hero")

The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto by Pico Iyer

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada by Will Ferguson

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester

The Burma Road by Donovan Webster

Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories edited by Roald Dahl

JPod by Douglas Coupland

Gods of Peace, Gods of War by Russell Bourne

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Obasan by Joy Kogawa

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Hard-to-Answer Questions About Japan by Uchiike Hisataka and Michael Brase

Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now by Jan Wong

Who Is Frances Rain? by Margaret Buffie

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

2006-12-04T19:36:00.000+09:00

Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
(Harpertrophy, New York: 2001)

READ: December 2006

I think this was made into a Japanese anime movie not so long ago, by Miyazaki, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I'd heard good things about this book, so I figured it would make a good Christmas vacation read. And it did!

Sophie is an ordinary girl destined for ordinariness, when one day, through no error of her own, she runs afoul of the Witch of the Waste, who transforms her into an old woman. So Sophie sets out to seek her fortune, and ends up in the always-moving castle of Howl, a young and unlikeable wizard whose help Sophie has decided to seek. Things become, as they so often do when wizards are involved, most extraordinary.

The tale is quite enchanting, and while a little simple at times (again, targeted for readers much younger than me), I really enjoyed it. It was funny, the characters were decently-developed, and the story touching. A good read.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clement

2006-12-03T21:21:00.000+09:00

Things Not Seen
Andrew Clement
(Penguin Young Reader Group, New York: 2004)

READ: December 2006

This is not the usual kind of book I like to read. I was given the book in September by an American teacher who was at our school for a week as part of a student exchange. Nevertheless, it was good.

Bobby wakes up one morning to find he is invisible. He just isn't there anymore. This, understandably, freaks his parents out. He's a little freaked out, too. His parents don't want to get doctors involved as they fear Bobby will be taken away from them for research purposes, so they set out to do their own investigations. Social services gets involved after Bobby is absent from school for almost two weeks, and many other hijinks ensue. Bobby also makes friends with Alicia, a girl who suddenly went blind about a year earlier, and she also gets involved in trying to figure out how to make Bobby reappear. You can kind of figure out the plot from there.

While the plot is simple, I can see why it's a popular book with its pre-teen target audience (which a quick Internet search indicated). I haven't read enough in the genre to really assess it, but it's kind of entertaining, mildly compelling, and just quirky enough to keep you reading.

The Book of Ikebana by Kawase Toshirou

2006-12-03T00:03:00.000+09:00

The Book of Ikebana
Kawase Toshirou
(Kodansha International, Tokyo: 2000)

READ: December 2006

This is partly a how-to book and partly a why-to book. Ikebana is the Japanese art of arranging flowers. Allow me to quote from the book's Foreword - he says it better than I could:

[T]his book discusses flowers in detail from a variety of perspectives as they have been passed down through the generations in the hearts of the Japanese. And to make flower arrangement more enjoyable, it provides easy-to-understand explanations - in both Japanese and English - from the basics of handling flowers to fairly advanced professional techniques, all richly illustrated.

I'm slightly hopeless at arranging flowers. But I've gotten some neat ideas from this book. I also like reading about the culture of flower arranging in Japan.

This book is part of a series of books on Japanese life and culture that are published in bilingual editions by Kodansha International. I plan on picking up a few more before leaving Japan, as I think they're well-written and interesting.

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking

2006-12-01T23:59:00.000+09:00

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
Stephen Hawking
(Bantam Press, Great Britain: 1988)

With an introduction by Carl Sagan.

READ: September - December 2006 (intermittent)

This is not a big book (185 pages), but in it, Stephen Hawking covers a massive amount of ground. Starting from the Greeks, and running through Newton all the way to Einstein and beyond, Hawking attempts to outline for us, the non-science-y people, that area of physics that explores questions of time and space and, most importantly, the search for a theory that would explain it all. The meaning of life in one sentence (or rather, since it is physics, one equation).

I won't pretend I even begin to understand everything he talked about (in fact, the truth is far from that), but it is a fascinating read. Though a little tough and dry at times, Hawking generally does a good job of explaining concepts. A piece of advice for those who want to read it: Rather than reading it in dribs and drabs over a few months like I did, read it in as concentrated a period of time as you can. I want to re-read this book again at some point in the next year or so, and do exactly that - I think that way I'll get a better understanding of it.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

2006-11-03T23:55:00.000+09:00

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Jules Verne
(Puffin Classics: 1995)

First published in French in 1870.

READ: September-November 2006

A 19th-century classic. Through a strange twist of fate, Professor Aronnax and two companions, his man-servant Conseil and a French Canadian (!) harpooner (whaler) called Ned Land, journey to the deepest, darkest depths of the sea with the elusive Captain Nemo on his fantastic submarine, Nautilus. It's a fantastic journey, but the reading is not for those who want their stories told quickly: the Professor is a noted marine biologist, and he wastes no opportunity to minutely detail every creature of the sea that he encounters.

However, the story itself is entertaining, and while I don't know Verne's background (nor have I read anything else by him - an oversight I should correct someday), I admire the level of work and research that must have gone into the writing of this tale. While submarines did exist when Verne wrote this, many of the features of Nautilus were not yet possible, and his imagination has to be admired. Finally, I found the political vision of Captain Nemo, a man who has turned his back on most of mankind, to be fairly un-Victorian, giving the book an interesting resonance for contemporary times (at least for me). Besides, if nothing else, this book was worth reading just to see how the 19th-century French viewed their provincial Canadian cousins.

Lost Japan by Alex Kerr

2006-11-02T23:53:00.001+09:00

Lost Japan
Alex Kerr
(Lonely Planet Publications, Australia: 1996)

First published in Japanese in 1993 as Utsukushiki Nippon no Zanzo (Shincho-sha, Tokyo). Translated by the author Alex Kerr in 1996 for the Lonely Planet Journeys series.

READ: November 2006

Along with Alan Booth's books, Lost Japan is lauded pretty much everywhere as one of the best books ever written about Japan.

I agree. I couldn't put it down.

My recommendation: Read this book.

There's really not much more I can say. It's just a wonderful book. Even for those who are not Japanophiles, this book can be appreciated on many levels. Yes, it is about Japan and the Japanese, and was written by a man who has lived most of his adult life in Japan. A memoir of sorts, it is a story about looking for beauty, a beauty whichi happens to exist in Japan but is rapidly disappearing as Japan continues stumbling blindly forward to the future.

As a side-note, this book was originally written in Japanese, and Alex Kerr was the first foreigner to win the prestigious Shincho Gakugei Literary Prize of Japan in 1994 for it.

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg

2006-11-01T20:14:00.002+09:00

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language
Melvyn Bragg
(Hodder & Stoughton, Great Britain: 2005)

READ: September-November 2006

I kept seeing this book in the English-language section of one of the bookstores in nearby Nagoya, and finally I had to buy it. And man, what a compelling read!

As the title suggests, Melvyn Bragg has set out to give us a history of the English language. But far from being dry and pedantic, he has a humorous, often light-hearted twist on the story. He gives further details where needed, and glosses over other parts of the story when they are not key to the advancement of the telling. (A skill I sorely lack.) The result is a thoroughly entertaining read about an important movement in history - the development and entrenchment of the English language across large swathes of the world.

Obviously, this book is a little Euro- ethnocentric, but, well, it is about the English language specifically (not just language in general), so that's hardly avoidable. While he sometimes explodes into overblown grandeur, overall Bragg does a good job of recognizing his bias (and, indeed, the bias of the language itself).

This book is apparently at least based in part on a television documentary (I think for the BBC) that Bragg did a few years earlier, but that's all I know.

Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson

2006-09-01T19:12:00.000+09:00

Why I Hate Canadians
Will Ferguson
(Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., Vancouver: 1997)

READ: July-September 2006

In this book, Will Ferguson (one of my favourite Canadian authors) takes a mostly-humorous, somewhat-serious look at what it means to be Canadian. Far from being a boring political study, he draws personal anecdotes and other strange stories, in an attempt to examine his own attachment or connection to "Canada" and "Canadianness".

Before continuing with my review, however, I feel obliged to mention, in the interests of full disclosure, that I read this book on the plane to, and immediately after arriving in, Japan, while Will Ferguson wrote this book pretty much immediately following his return to Canada after many years of living and teaching in Japan. That is to say, there might just be some weird alignment of the stars which caused me to enjoy this book. Or it is simply a good book. I still haven't figured out which.

Though he makes many sweeping generalizations about the whole mess we like to call "Canada", I found him to be, more often that not, fairly on the mark. Through his political musings and wanderings, Ferguson attempts to pin down why Canadians are what they are (what makes us tick) and also what personally keeps him going as a Canadian. In particular, I had a hearty laugh at his exposure of the Canadian Dream (success without risk) and the three Great Themes (keeping the Americans out, keeping the French in, and trying to get the Natives to somehow disappear).

Sometimes funny, often tongue-in-cheek, while it doesn't provide as many belly laughs as the other books I have read by him, I'd recommend this if you're into books about Us.

Lonely Planet City Guide to Kyoto

2006-08-03T19:05:00.000+09:00

Lonely Planet City Guide to Kyoto
Chris Rowthorn
3rd edition
(Lonely Planet Publications, Australia: 2005)

READ: July-August 2006 (and ongoing reference)

Yes, I like Lonely Planet guidebooks. And yes, you know exactly why I bought this book. Anyway, we used it thoroughly when we went to Kyoto in August, and we plan on going back once or twice in the next few months, so I feel I got my money's worth. (Heck, even if I had never gone to Kyoto, it was worth every penny - it's interesting, informative, and has pretty pictures.) It's fairly extensive, covering pretty much anything you might be interested in seeing in Kyoto, and there's a lot! There are also short sections on things to do in Nara, Osaka, Kobe, and Miyama-cho (a small town north of Kyoto), as each is an easy day-trip from Kyoto.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

2006-08-02T16:01:00.000+09:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
J.K. Rowling
(Bloomsbury, London: 2005)

READ: August 2006

Ah, the always irrepressible Harry Potter and his gang. Yes, I managed to wait many months before reading the latest instalment. In fact, it was one of the few English books at my school's library, so I felt compelled to borrow it.

I have kind of enjoyed the Harry Potter books thus far, and this one was the same. At times, I found it hard to put down, and at others, looked for a fast-forward button. Don't even get me started on the movie versions of these books, but J.K. Rowling, while a good, entertaining writer overall, could do with a bit more editing sometimes. Anyway, Harry and his friends get up to more hijinks - some of them are fun, some make you shake your head and roll your eyes. It was a good read, and I have to say I am anxious to read the next one to see how it will all end!

2006 Booklist (Part 2)

2006-08-01T16:01:00.000+09:00

books from my japanese bookshelf

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg

Lost Japan by Alex Kerr

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Book of Ikebana by Kawase Toshirou

Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr (unfinished)

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clement

still waiting:

Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth

Vintage Murakami (collection of works) by Haruki Murakami

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada by Will Ferguson

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman (updated and expanded version)

Wild Grass: China's Revolution from Below by Ian Johnson

constant companions:

Lonely Planet Guide to Japan

Lonely Planet City Guide to Kyoto

Japanese for Busy People (Kana Version) by the Association for Japanese Language Teachers

How to Tell the Difference Between Japanese Particles: Comparisons and Exercises by Naoko Chino

Japanese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, 2nd ed. by Rita L. Lampkin

Basic Kanji Book, vol. 1

Minna no Nihongo I

How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer

TESL Certification Course: Training Manual prepared by Oxford Seminars

Handbook for Team-Teaching, rev. ed. prepared by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Resource Materials and Teaching Handbook prepared by the Japan Council of Local Authorities for International Relations

Japanese for Busy People by the Japanese Association of Language Teachers

2006-07-06T07:26:00.000+09:00

Japanese for Busy People (Books 1&2 and Kana Workbook)
Japanese Association of Language Teachers
(Book 1 - Oxford University Press, USA: 1995; Book 2 - Fitzhenry & Whiteside: 1996)

Read: from May 2005 onward (I still use Book 2 regularly)

When I first started wanting to learn Japanese over a year ago, Randal lent me his old text, Japanese for Busy People (Book 1), that he'd used when he'd started Japanese lessons many years before. So I was quite pleased when the Japanese course that I took at Algonquin turned out to use the same text as well!

Book 1 is really well-organized. It has short, concise lessons that introduce a few grammar points and some vocabulary, then many exercises to get you using, learning and really remembering what you have learnt. Book 2 is slightly more unwieldy, but still good. It has more grammar and vocab in each lesson, and I find the order in which it is all introduced - thematically (eg., At Work, At the Health Club, etc.) rather than by grammar topic - to not always be intuitive. Plus, I bought the kana version, which is good for practicing my hiragana and katakana practice, of course, but makes reading slow! That will improve with practice, I know.

I also picked up, somewhere along the way, the Kana Workbook for the Japanese for Busy People series. It was VERY useful for practicing katakana and hiragana and really getting them to stick in my head. Now if only they produced a book to teach me, equally simply and painlessly, the 1,945 kanji designated necessary by the Japanese government.

Watership Down by Richard Adams

2006-07-05T12:19:00.000+09:00

Watership Down
Richard Adams
(Avon, New York: 1975)

READ: May-July 2006

This is one of those books that it felt like everyone else read in high school (or saw the movie of) except for me (that, and The Hobbit). I borrowed the book from Randal's endless bookshelf.

If you've only seen the movie and have not read the book, READ THE BOOK. It is wonderful. It is the story of Hazel and his brother Fiver and some other rabbits from his warren who strike off on their own into the unknown larger world after Fiver, who has a sense for these sorts of things, feels impending danger coming to the warren.

Definitely not a book just for children, Watership Down is a larger tale of environmental destruction and a study of societies. It's very, very good.

Tokyo: A Certain Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki

2006-07-04T07:36:00.000+09:00

Tokyo: A Certain Style
Kyoichi Tsuzuki
(Chronicle Books, 1999)

Karin Goodwin is often listed as the author. Perhaps she translated? (Original photos and text are Tsuzuki's.)

READ: March-July 2006 (intermittent)

What a fascinating little book. We found it on one of the bargain shelves at Chapters, and it quickly became a permanent fixture in the washroom (only the best books are reserved for the "throne" at our place). This is a long way from Zen gardens and stripped-down, bare interiors. Instead, Kyoichi Tsuzuki took many candid shots of people's apartments in order to show how Tokyoites really lived. And how do they live, you may ask? Well, according to this book, they live in tiny little spaces sometimes barely deserving of the word "room", and they fill these spaces with stuff, stuff, and more stuff. It was just insane to see how some of these places were just filled to the rafters - and beyond! To be fair, many of the people whose places were profiled were artists and other such occupations in which much "stuff" is often accumulated. But it's a crazy read, loads of fun, and really really really interesting to see.

Quirky sidenote: I don't have the book handy* so I can't give you an exact quote, but in Wrong About Japan, Peter Carey makes a reference to a book showing how Tokyoites fill their homes with stuff. He describes the book at some length, without actually mentioning it by name. But there is no doubt that this is the book he meant!

* It's sitting in a storage locker in Ottawa, halfway across the world from where I am currently writing this. That excuse should hopefully be good enough.

The World's Greatest Art: Asian Art by Michael Kerrigan

2006-07-03T11:42:00.000+09:00

The World's Greatest Art: Asian Art
Michael Kerrigan
(Konecky & Konecky: 2005)

READ: May-July 2006 (intermittent)

Another great "throne" book. This small but thick volume has a few hundred pictures of some of the greatest Asian art with descriptions and some history. Much of the art (includes paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc.) is from China and Japan, but there is also a decent selection from other Southeast Asian countries: Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and so on. It's a nice overview of some of the most beautiful art there is.

The Cook's Encyclopedia of Japanese Cooking by Emi Kazuko

2006-07-02T11:53:00.001+09:00

The Cook's Encyclopedia of Japanese Cooking
Emi Kazuko
(Barnes & Noble Books: 2003)

READ: April-July 2006 (ongoing)

A book I sorely wanted to bring with me to Japan, but couldn't spare the space for. But I look oh-so-forward to using it when I return home to Canada - it will help me recreate some of the Japanese meals I have eaten here and loved! It's a really nice cookbook. There is a whole first section explaining various Japanese meats, vegetables, noodles, and cooking utensils. Then many, many recipes organized by type. Some of these seem somewhat complicated, but others quite simple. Plus, if you've ever wanted to find out the difference between all those kinds of tofu sitting on the shelf at the grocery store, this book will surely be able to tell you.

The Art of Japanese Prints by Nigel Cawthorne

2006-06-03T11:51:00.000+09:00

The Art of Japanese Prints
Nigel Cawthorne
(Advantage Publishers Group: 2000)

READ: May-June 2006

Another Chapters bargain-book find, I kept seeing it and refusing to buy it on the premise that I was moving to Japan soon and the last thing I needed to acquire was another book. Then I convinced myself that since I was moving to Japan soon, I needed to acquire this particular book, that I owed it to myself as a soon-to-be-Japanite and a lover of ukiyo-e, the specific focus of this book. So I bought it.

It was a great purchase and one I will not regret anytime soon. Though a slim volume, it provides an excellent overview of the development of ukiyo-e and a look at some of the masters of ukiyo-e. There are nice illustrations, interesting details, and well-written explanations. A lovely book.

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair MacLeod

2006-06-02T10:53:00.000+09:00

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
Alistair MacLeod
(McClelland & Stewart, Toronto: 1992, c1976)

With an afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.

READ: May-June 2006

This is a book I had long wanted to read, supposed admirer of Canadian literature that I am. I have read one or two short stories of Alistair MacLeod's before. This is a collection of seven stories, all focused around family love and family relationships. They are all based in or focused on Cape Breton, but have meaning and value beyond those borders. There's a reason why Alistair MacLeod is commonly included in the canon of Can-Lit, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work in the future.

The Mad Trapper of Rat River by Dick North

2006-05-03T02:33:00.000+09:00

The Mad Trapper of Rat River: A True Story of Canada's Biggest Manhunt
Dick North
with photographs and illustrations
(Lyons Press, Guilford (CT): 2003)

Sections of Parts One and Two originally published in 1972 under the title The Mad Trapper of Rat River. Sections of Parts Three and Four originally published in 1989 under the title Trackdown.

READ: May 2006

I was sent this as a Christmas/birthday present from my brother and sister-in-law in Vancouver. They'd picked it up (assumedly) on their northern travels to Yukon that they'd done earlier in 2005. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first, but after the first few pages, I was hooked.

No one was sure where the mad trapper came from. He'd shown up in a town in the Northwest Territories in 1931 or so, and most knew him as one Albert Johnson. But they didn't know where he came from, and he wasn't fond of making friends. After a run-in with the RCMP which left one member dead, Johnson led the police on a 5-week chase through the backwoods and snow of the NWT and the Yukon.

The author, Dick North, is a northern journalist who has had a lifelong interest in the mystery of Albert Johnson. He details the manhunt as if he were there, and then he proceeds on a long exploration of who Johnson was. He goes through many possible suspects, and details why each one does or does not match up with what was known about Johnson. It ought to be boring, it ought to be tedious, but it is not. It is quite a remarkable story, and I recommend it to all you Canadiana junkies out there.

The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth

2006-05-02T07:33:00.000+09:00

The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan
Alan Booth
(Viking; Penguin, Toronto: 1986)

READ: March-May 2006

Alan Booth's two books (the other is Looking for the Lost, which I have not read yet but is on my shelf awaiting) are largely heralded as the two best travel books about Japan. I had heard this a few times, and then after Will Ferguson went on and on about him, I figured I had to find his books. One Chapters order later, they arrived.

I took my time reading this book, mainly because it was so delicious. Booth moved to Japan in 1970, and in 1977, he set out from the northern tip of Hokkaido and walked all the way across Japan, all the way south to the southernmost tip of "mainland" Japan, Cape Sata on the south shore of Kyushu Island. It was over 2,000 miles (as the title suggests). He tells poignant and often funny stories of the people he meets, of people who follow him slowly in their cars in the rain because they can't understand why he refused their offer of a lift, of people he chats with about life, death, and WWII in little pubs in small towns. It is a touching portrait of Japan.

It was also interesting to compare Booth's Japan to Ferguson's, since Booth took his cross-Japan trek in the late 1970s while Ferguson was there, post-crash, in the mid-90s.

A wonderful, well-written book that I'd recommend to anyone with an interest either in Japan itself, or just in armchair travel in general.

Art History by Marilyn Stokstad

2006-04-01T17:01:00.000+09:00

Art History
Marilyn Stokstad
(Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.; Harry N. Abrams, New York: 2002)

Volumes 1 and 2 combined, with ArtNotes companion workbooks. In collaboration with David Cateforis, and chapters by Stephen Addiss, et al.

READ: September 2005 - April 2006

This was my textbook for the first-year Art History course that I was taking at the university this year. It's a textbook, so I won't go on and on about it. But as far as textbooks go, it was quite good. Other than being way too heavy to carry anywhere (I never brought it to class), it is fairly comprehensive as far as European art is concerned. There were two tiny chapters on the entirety of Japanese art totalling about twenty pages in all (as I discovered when I went to write a paper on Japanese temple architecture). But I guess it's only fair that most art history classes, at least in this part of the world, will focus mostly on the European tradition in art and architecture. There was a decent amount on American art, though again, not much if you are interested in aboriginal art. Ditto for other Asian art, like China and Southeast Asia, plus a small bit of information on Islamic and African arts. Still, this book is widely recognized as being the best textbook there is for a general introduction to art history. If you have an interest in art and art history and don't know where to start reading, this is a good place. I tend to not keep most of my textbooks - they get outdated or are not compelling enough on their own, but I'm keeping this one for sure.

Wrong About Japan by Peter Carey

2006-03-03T17:01:00.000+09:00

Wrong About Japan
Peter Carey
(Vintage International, New York: 2006)

First published by Knopf in 2005.

READ: March 2006

I picked this up one day from a secondhand book shop because it had an intriguing premise: Peter Carey, famous Australian author (among other things, he is the author of the novel True History of the Kelly Gang, which I really want to read someday) who is based in New York City, takes his 12-year-old son to Tokyo for a week after his son declares that he is going to live in Japan someday. Charlie is interested in Japanese manga and anime, not kabuki theatre and temple architecture. So he gets his dad to promise that they will visit the Real Japan, which they do. They meet a young Japanese boy who speaks English (I guess in Tokyo, anything is possible) who shows them some way-off-the-beaten-track aspects of Japanese life. There is a bit of Japanese theatre, despite Charlie's loud protests, and if I recall correctly, Carey gets away at one point by himself to visit one temple or something like that. But mostly there is anime and yakuza and comics and Mr. Donut. It's a short book, and you don't have to be a Japanophile to appreciate it. It's a fun read with a number of laugh-out-loud moments.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

2006-03-02T17:01:00.000+09:00

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Lynne Truss
(Gotham Books, New York: 2004)

First published in U.K. in 2003 by Profile Books.

READ: March 2006

Hee. Another funny book. I was given it as a present back in 2004 immediately before I left for Southeast Asia, but hadn't gotten around to reading it. By March of this year, plans were firmly underway to head to Japan for a year (or some) to teach English, so I figured it was time to figure out punctuation.

I've always been a bit of a punctuation stickler. Not always in my own writing (I do tend to drag things on and on), but when editing others' work. Plus in grade 8, my English teacher, Mr. Waddington (who, strangely, had been my French teacher the year before, but that's another story entirely), told me I overused commas. I'm not sure you can actually overuse commas - usually the problem is underuse, no? - but there you have it.

Anyway, this book hasn't helped really in terms of making me a better English teacher, but it was an excellent book nonetheless. It is quite funny. It's certainly not a how-to book. Truss doesn't really tell you when a comma is appropriate, but she can sure show many examples of inappropriateness. And the poor apostrophe! That's the one that drives me batty. It's so simple to use, yet so rarely used right. I can forgive things like "1970's" (shouldn't be an apostrophe), but "Orange's for sale" is only right if there is one thing for sale and it happens to be called Orange. And "it's" versus "its" - the easiest rule in the entire grammar book - let's just not go there.

Yes, the hype that surrounded its publication was worth it. It's a good book and quite enjoyable.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

2006-03-01T17:01:00.000+09:00

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond
(Viking, New York: 2005)

READ: February-March 2006

I read Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel almost exactly one year ago and really enjoyed it. Collapse was one I'd been seeing around a lot, so it was time to tackle it. And it did not disappoint. Guns, Germs, and Steel is the better of the two, but Collapse is also worth a read.

The book is a series of case studies of environmental degradation, and the ways in which the societies affected did or did not overcome these collapses. Guns, Germs, and Steel looked at the winners in civilization; Collapse looks largely at the losers: the Vikings, the Easter Islanders, the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Mayans, modern-day Rwandans, and so on. But he also looks at societies that managed to overcome their environmental difficulties; for example, the Icelanders. Iceland is an environment that should not work, yet it is one of the most prosperous nations in the world. Why?

Diamond's basic argument, to really dumb it down, is that not all failures of societies can be blamed on a cataclysmic event, on an act of God (or whoever), but that many times, a society fails because it does not respond appropriately to the environment around it. So the Vikings, for example, tried to live in Greenland in exactly the same fashion they had in Norway. Greenland's fragile ecosystem could not handle this, and so it eventually collapsed. Greenland itself, however, did not become inhabitable; the Inuit lived there for many centuries after the Vikings were forced to leave. But the Vikings were unable to adapt to a lifestyle that was more sustainable on Greenland's shores. Likewise, Easter Island, once a lush, thriving ecosystem, was continuously exploited by the Islanders until it, too, became what we now know it as: a barren, windswept rock of an island. There was no great event that destroyed Easter Island. People kept living there, farming the land and cutting the trees, until there were no trees left, and consequently erosion sped up.

Diamond also looks at a few modern-day societies who are facing potential environmental crises. Japan, with its post-WWII rapid deforestation, is one of these. So is the state of Montana, with the damage mining has wrought on its natural environment.

The pace gets sluggish at times, but overall the book is well-written and thought-provoking. I like the way Diamond approaches this subject - not too preachy, not too technical. He mixes just enough science with real-life meaning to make it interesting. Start with Guns, Germs, and Steel and move on to this one if you want to know more.

Hitching Rides With Buddha: Travels In Search Of Japan by Will Ferguson

2006-02-01T17:01:00.000+09:00

Hitching Rides With Buddha: Travels In Search Of Japan
Will Ferguson
(Knopf Canada, Toronto: 2005)

Originally published in abridged form in the U.K. as Hokkaido Highway Blues by Soho Press in 2001.

READ: February 2006

Will Ferguson is one of my new favourite authors, and he's Canadian to boot! I actually haven't read much by him, but what I have read, I have enjoyed immensely. I spent a thoroughly enjoyable few days on Bali and Lombok in Indonesia two years ago, reading his book Happiness (TM). I really need to re-read it solely so that I may have the pleasure of reviewing it on this site.

Anyway, I digress. I'd been waiting for Hitching Rides With Buddha to come out in paperback, when I received it as a Christmas present from my parents who knew I was thinking of coming out to Japan later this year. And man oh man, is it ever funny. If you know anything at all about Japan, or don't know much at all but are interested in learning a bit, this book is for you. Taking Alan Booth's 2000-mile walk across Japan as inspiration, Ferguson, who taught English on Kyushu in the south end of Japan for about 5 years in the early to mid-1990s, set out to hitchhike clear across Japan. He is witty, he is insightful, and I promise he will make you laugh and laugh and laugh. I drove Randal crazy while I was reading this book as I kept laughing out loud every page or two. He couldn't understand it...until he went to read it himself a few months later. Then it was his turn.

And it's not just a book for Japanophiles. While the action is obviously set in Japan and most of Ferguson's comments are targeted toward Japanese and foreigners in Japan, many of these comments also translate to a larger picture of human nature generally. I'm sure I often say on this blog that "this book is an entertaining read", but this time I really, really mean it. I can't recommend this book enough.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

2006-01-04T17:01:00.000+09:00

Small Gods
Terry Pratchett
(HarperPrism, London: 1992)

READ: January 2006

So while I was going through my mini sci-fi/fantasy reading binge, I added this book to the list (yes, same bookshelf). The only other Terry Pratchett I have read is Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. And I am, oddly enough, constantly getting the two books confused. But Small Gods is a good book, though not laugh-out-loud funny like Good Omens. It takes place in a time when the various small gods have been largely forgotten in favour of a few large, very important gods. One of these, Om, unfortunately has somehow gotten trapped in the body of a very small tortoise, and he must convince his chosen disciple, Brutha, and the people of his land that he is in fact the god Om and must be obeyed. There are, of course, neighbouring lands with competing gods, and most worrying of all, the Quisition, a thinly-veiled version of the Spanish Inquisition. Hilarity ensues. Read it.