When He Woke In the Woods In the Dark And the Cold...

Title - The Road
Author - Cormac McCarthy
Genre - Fiction
Published - 2007
Pages - 287
ISBN - 0307387895
..........................FFR - 4, 5 ,8

When I saw this book reviewed on Oprah, and her interview with the author, I was intrigued enough to want to read it. Until I got the audio version, however, I just didn't have time. Now I've listened to it, and even though the narrator is absolutely fantastic and the story relatively moving, I honestly felt like the author spent more time droning on and on using adjectives and adverbs which just didn't fit the nouns and verbs they were modifying.

To make things worse, McCarthy apparently doesn't feel the need to name his main characters. Which is fine, I suppose, though I like to care about the characters in any story I'm reading and I am more likely to care about a character that I can name than one I cannot. Instead McCarthy uses "the man" or "the boy" over and over ad nauseam. Add to that the fact that he NEVER once distinguishes between "the man" = main character, and "the man" = various random encounters whilst on the road, and we have momentary contextual confusion as our brains try to sort out just which "the man" is doing or saying a thing.

Even when there is no pointless third person, there are moments when the pronoun "he" is used without clarification of whether "he" is the man or the boy.

This was my first experience with Oprah's book list, and I have to say I'm disappointed, but not surprised. McCarthy has written a novel swallowed up by the "intellectual elite", which is to say he's an emperor in new clothes, and if we can't see them, we must be fools, though I'd be surprised if many of the people who laud this book really truly cared about it at all beyond earning the right to say "Why, yes, I read that masterpiece!".

Summary: Great narration. Decent character development. Vivid, though occasionally obscure descriptions. Gruesome, ghastly, and occasionally depressing - which, considering the setting, fit very well. Once you get past the author patting himself on the back for having a huge vocabulary (aka access to a thesaurus) it becomes easy to get lost in this sad world with these two lonesome drifters.

I don't really recommend this book for anybody who likes to enjoy reading or who want to enjoy stories in general, nor to anybody who likes clarity, or who wants to actually care about their protagonist. To everybody else I have one word: Library.

Treason Only Matters When It Is Committed By Trusted Men.

Title - Empire

Author - Orson Scott Card

Genre - Science Fiction

Published - 2007

Pages - 368

ISBN - 0765355221

..........................FFR - 4, 5, 8

Card begins this book detached from the main story-line, giving us plenty of background on several of the main characters.  It's a bit of a slow start, in my opinion, full of technical mumbo-jumbo, but informative and occasionally entertaining.

The premise of the book is that there is a coup in the United States, a modern civil war, which is the driving force of the story.  Despite the contemporaneous feel of the story (taking place in a time not too far removed from the date of publication), Card provides us with a sack-load of cool (possibly impractical) technologies used to conduct the coup.  

Warning:  This book practically bellows Card's political beliefs.  Card, who is a strong supporter of George W. Bush and his administration, never names the president assassinated in the book, but it is hinted that the Chief Executive is, if not Bush, a Bush clone.  The rebelling faction is clearly mis-led and doesn't fully understand why the President has done the things he's done, the things that have led to the rifting of the nation.  

Card does make it clear that the problems are not primarily because of any specific ideology, he does not blame the Democrats or Republicans, but rather he tries to spread the blame evenly.  The the ultimate cause is the polarization of the political parties. The Dems are too liberal, the Reps are too conservative, and there isn't enough voice provided for the moderates.

In the end, I enjoyed the story, though I found the political agenda occasionally oppressive (and I share, more or less, his political views). The technologies were cool, if not always convincing.  The coup itself was executed in an interesting way, though I didn't believe anything about the rebels' headquarters.  The whole climactic sequence moved very quickly, and was kind of confusing, not to mention fairly unrealistic (read: impossible).

I would recommend this book to anybody who thinks Card can do no wrong; however, If you are looking for the quality of Ender's Game, you'll want to read something else.  His early works are still his best, and his more recent work has suffered from an unknown (to me) cause that I can only speculate about.  Needless to say, he's still a first rate thinker, and an excellent story-teller, I just think he might be rushing some of his later stories.  If you just like cool sci-fi-ish stuff, this book has some.  If you think military strategy is friggin' awesome stuff to read about but don't actually know anything about it yourself, this book is probably right up your alley.  If you do know something about military, I'd be interested to hear what your take is on this book, because I don't know if it's anywhere near accurate. 

All in all, it's ok.  Give it a look-see if you don't mind political agendas, flawed technologies, or if you simply love Card.

The Wheel of Time Turns, and Ages Come and Pass...

Title - The Eye of the World

Author - Robert Jordan

Genre - Fantasy

Published - 1990

Pages - 782

ISBN - 0812511816

FFR – 2, 4, 8

This is the first book of the Wheel of Time series (eleven books strong, plus a prequel and the final book on its way some time next year).  I’ve read this series before, but with the ultimate book of the series coming out within the next little while, I thought I’d re-read the series in its entirety as both a personal preparation for the final book as well as in tribute to the late author who passed away of  cardiac amyloidosis, a heart condition, in September 2007.

The book itself is lengthy, setting a precedent that reasserts itself in each of the subsequent novels.  It is essentially the story of Rand al’Thor – a shepherd and farmer from a backwater called Emond’s Field, located in the rural country side of The Two Rivers – as he begins a journey that is really just the prologue to the direction his life is destined to take over the course of the following books.

A treatment of this novel would not be fair without mentioning his two best friends who make the journey with him: Matrim “Mat” Cauthon (something of a romantic and rogue in personality), and Perrin Aybara (a shy yet brave apprentice blacksmith).  It also behooves me to summarize the basic premise of the novel and perhaps give a smattering of back-story.

3,000 years prior to the beginning of this tale, the world in which the story takes place was governed by men and women who were “Servants of All”, or Aes Sedai in the ancient tongue.  These Aes Sedai were people who were gifted with the ability to channel the "One Power,” which is essentially an eternal source of mystical power.  One could think of the One Power as the contents of a well, the well itself would be called the "True Source," though the two terms are used interchangeably. The Source has two sides: Saidar, which can only be sensed, touched, and wielded by women; and Saidin, which can only be used by men.   The two sides of the One Power are separate but essentially equal, and when wielded together, the results are synergistic – one man and one woman channeling the Power to perform a work will result in a mightier, more powerful outcome than if two men alone or two women alone attempted the same.

Due to events of the time, there was a great battle. The Shadow (the devil of the story) who had been banished and locked away by the Creator at the dawn of time had begun to escape his prison, and some of the Aes Sedai were corrupted by his influence and promises of greater power.  This war was eventually won by those fighting on the side of Light, but as the Shadow was bound again in his prison, he lashed out with one last mighty assault, this time directly against the One Power. This attack tainted Saidin (the male half of the Source), essentially poisoning the mind of any man who touched it.  Thus, though bound again, the Shadow ended up having the proverbial last laugh, as all the male Aes Sedai (referred to as the Hundred Companions) who had fought in the war were quickly driven mad and rampaged through the land causing what is known as “The Breaking of the World,” from which even in the time of Rand al’Thor (3,000 years later) the world has not fully recovered.

The overlying philosophy/mythology of the story implies that time is but a large spinning-wheel weaving the great Pattern, the lives of people becoming the thread used in the weaving.  At the end of each turning of the wheel, one age ends and another begins, essentially beginning anew.  History is bound to repeat itself in all the major ways, though individual details may differ.  The greatest of the Hundred Companions, Lews Therin Telamon (known alternately as the Dragon and Lews Therin Kinslayer – due to his having murdered his entire family in a mad rage during the Breaking),  was prophesied to be reborn at the time of Tarmon Gaidon (analogous of Armageddon), to unite the various nations and lead them in the great and last battle against the Shadow.

A book of this nature doesn’t need to hint much that the protagonist will eventually be revealed to be the reincarnation of the Dragon, as it is expected and looked forward to from early on in the story, so I’m not spoiling any of the book by mentioning it.  Rand himself is driven from his small farming community along with a number of his friends when the Shadow, who is beginning to free himself from his prison again,  launches an attack on Emond’s Field, as he knows that the reincarnation of Lews Therin is there, though he does not know which of the young men Rand’s age it is. 

The driving force of this story is how the world views the prophesy of the Dragon being reborn, in a world where men who can channel are feared as powerful madmen bent on breaking the world again. Rand struggles with this himself, as he too fears anybody, male or female, who can channel.  He travels with an Aes Sedai (Moiraine by name) from his village, destined for Tar Valon, the city of Aes Sedai, in hopes of finding out why it is that the Shadow wants him dead.  He doesn’t even begin to suspect himself of his latent ability to wield the One Power until near the end of the novel. 

The world of this story is reminiscent of the works of Tolkein.  Its detailed histories and vast conceptual world is immense and very impressive.  As the books progress, Jordan continues to expand the reader’s understanding of just how vividly detailed the social structures throughout the world truly are.

The men in the Eye of the World are all well-developed, three-dimensional characters of personality.  The women, though they start off ok, are soon revealed to be two-dimensional, misandrist, manipulative and conniving.  And this just gets worse as the series progresses (with extremely rare exceptions).  I don’t know if Jordan was a misogynist, or if he really thought women were evil to the core with relation to their treatment of men, but he certainly didn’t take any shame in showing the women of his world as not-very-pleasant for men.

Over all, I really enjoy the Wheel of Time (I’ll give briefer accounts related primarily to the book being reviewed as I read additional novels), and I think The Eye of the World is a great start to what becomes an epic telling of the growth and change of a man from humble beginnings to true and frightening greatness.

I think anybody who reads fantasy or sword-and-sorcery would enjoy this book, though I’d be surprised if there are any fantasy readers who are not familiar with this series, and fewer who have not read at least this book.

In the Bosom of One of Those Spacious Coves...

Title - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Author - Washington Irving
Genre - Classic

Published - 1820

Pages - 76

ISBN - 1599869306

..........................FFR - see guide on right: 1, 3

A quick read, I finished it in one sitting. The most notable thing about this book from the beginning was how annoying the narrator was. I don't plan to dwell much other than to recommend avoiding audio books narrated by B.J. Harrison. The book is written in a relatively common voice, told in first person by the author of events he learned second-hand, and yet the narrator insisted on using a moderate-high voice in the reading, affecting a somewhat snooty accent and applying pauses for emphasis where none were needed and certainly weren't written into the text. This was distracting, pretentious, and substantially annoying.
However, I wanted to give Irving a fair chance, so I gritted my teeth until I was able to block out the irritation and hear the tale. Which turned out to be pretty good, in fact. I could easily compare it to the Disney cartoon version produced back in 1958. As Ichabod Crane was described in delicious detail, I pictured Disney's Ichabod in my head. They were true to Irving's description. Every moment of terror I felt in tandem with Ichabod as a child while watching the Headless Horseman chasing him was renewed in me as I read the original book.
I don't know how much of my enjoyment of the book was other than me reliving my childhood experience, but to be fair, Disney did such a great job portraying the original text (with some minor changes), I'd have to concede that my adult experience, even based on my childhood experience, is as true a response to the author's intentions as one could expect.
Based on the brevity of the book, the ease with which I was able to lose myself in the environment of the Sleepy Hollow community, and the mild heart-racing excitement stirred up in empathy with Ichabod as he listens intently to various ghost stories and tales of the Galloping Hessian (aka the Headless Horseman), followed in short by the climactic scene, I have to say I would recommend this book to anybody.
In addition to the FFR, I would say it is generally safe for kids who don't scare easily. If it were a movie, I'd rate it a “hard G” or possibly a “soft PG”.

In the Beginning...

Bookoo: dictionary.com allows for it as an alternate spelling for beaucoup, which means "an abundance; a lot."

I chose this spelling because it's just a little goofy, and probably easier to remember than beaucoup... or is it boucoup? or buecue? Barbequeue? Thus it should be easier to remember than the proper spelling. Besides, bookoo has the word "book" right in it!

I was just about sick of trying to find a good domain name for this blog... there are literally hundreds of book-related blogs on blogger that have usurped all the good domains. Most of these so-called blogs have fewer than 5 posts, many have no posts at all, and only a handful have posts more recent than 2003. Tremendously frustrating, really.

Because I have other blogs where I keep my thoughts and where I update about my family, this blog is going to be primarily for keeping an account of the books I've read and my thoughts about those books.

If you disagree with any of my thoughts about the books, please feel free to respond with venom, and tell me exactly why my opinion is wrong. If your posts could be considered offensive, I may have to delete them, but that is merely out of respect for others who may read the comments. I will personally accept your criticism and take sincere vulgarity to heart. Maybe I was in the wrong to think that Ayn Rand was unfamiliar with the human race, as a whole, and maybe it's wrong of me to think people have more to offer each other than a business arrangement.

Whatever your thoughts, I would love to hear (read: read) them. If you have books you'd like to suggest I read (and thereafter review), please feel free to add them to the comments. I can't promise I'll be able to read them right away, or (possibly) ever, depending on my backlog, my desire, the book's availability, etc. but I promise to give any and all recommendations a fair consideration.

I love books. I love to read. I love to write. Therefore, I must love to read books and then to write about them. Hence this new and overwhelmingly awesome blog!

-EDIT
Please note: the list of books at the bottom of this page is just a collection of what I have read so far. I will be posting actual reviews of books as I read them in a standard journal-review format. I will also try to catch up on reviewing the books already on the list, though that may take a while.