Collected Miscellany

For reasons I won’t get into at the moment, I will be very busy over the next few weeks (maybe months). I am not sure how much blogging I will be able to do. Heck, I don’t really know how much reading I will be able to do. I might find the time to read, and post reviews and links, as a way to relax and reduce stress or I might find that I am just not focused on reading or blogging. Given that this isn’t exactly a post-a-minute type of place anyway, that probably isn’t a big concern. But I just thought I would let you know, in case anyone cares. If content drops precipitously you’ll know why.

In the meantime, here are some links worth checking out:

– Matthew Omolesky reviews the latest from Martin Amis over at the American Spectator:

After Martin Amis, the renowned but polarizing English writer, tackled the issue of Stalinism and its moral legacy in his non-fiction work Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million, it was only a matter of time before the same historical and emotional terrain was trod in novelistic form.

This has happened in House of Meetings, in which depictions of the personal and political consequences of the Gulag slave archipelago combine to form a work of unsettling moral power. House of Meetings is at its core the story of a love triangle (an “isosceles,” Amis tells us, “it certainly comes to a sharp point”) involving two brothers and a Jewish girl in a post-WWII Moscow on the verge of a pogrom. But Amis’s latest offering is also a profoundly political work, concerned with the impact of Communism on today’s Russia, both on the level of the individual and the state. As such, Amis is a worthy heir of a long tradition of Western eyes trained on Russia.

– And if you didn’t catch it, also in the Spectator was Larry Thornberry’s review of the latest Rumpole book:

The point of this novel, the most political and most topical of the Rumpole stories, is to give Mortimer some space to vent on the steps New Labour has taken to protect the UK from terrorists, steps Mortimer feels tread unnecessarily on the rights English citizens have traditionally enjoyed. In previous stories Mortimer has given us gentle wit and satire, with Horace playing off against an ensemble cast of slightly off-plumb judges, prosecutors, and his colleagues in chambers at 4 Equity Court. (And of course Horace’s formidable and worthy wife, Hilda, known to Rumpole as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.”) These judicial short-rounds (an artilleryman’s term — think about it) are present in Reign of Terror, and amuse us as always. But they share a stage with some real names and real offices and real contemporary issues.

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I wanted to quickly mention a book that I just finished today – The First American Army by Bruce Chadwick. As explained in the subtitle, it is the untold story of George Washington and the men behind America’s first fight for freedom.

Here is an excerpt from Publisher’s Weekly:

In this novelistic treatment of the Revolutionary War, Chadwick (George Washington’s War, Brother Against Brother) uses the experiences of eight men to give the reader a “bottom up” look at the war. Drawing on their letters and diaries, he follows them through their years in and out of the war, from the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 to the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. Although the horrors of battle are a main focus of their writings, everyday activities and concerns-romance, food, clothing, leisure and friendship-reveal much about these early Americans’ lives. Readers will find little academic analysis of the subjects; except for a few expansive chapter introductions, Chadwick keeps standard history writing to a minimum. Instead, he focuses on these men’s day-to-day and writes in lively prose, although some accounts push the limits of reconstruction and read like fiction.

I thought it was interesting to read about the war from the perspective of the common soldier. This seems to be a common theme in academic books – the generals and other famous people in wars have been written about to death and now writers are looking for a different perspective of wars – the common soldier. I don’t think this is a bad trend, but I think that there needs to be a balance of a history of a war by blending descriptions of the generals and the privates.

With all of that in mind, the average reader will enjoy the stories as told by the participants.

I recently finished Tom Harper’s first book entitled The Mosaic of Shadows. It is the first in a mystery series set in Middle Ages Byzantium.

Here is an excerpt from Publishers Weekly:

British author Harper effortlessly draws the reader into the court intrigues and conspiracies of 11th-century Byzantium in his outstanding debut. Former bounty hunter and bodyguard Demetrios the Apokalyptor (who will remind many of Steven Saylor’s ancient Roman sleuth, Gordianus the Finder) is summoned to Emperor Alexios’s palace after a mysterious assassin narrowly misses killing the ruler with an arrowlike weapon that managed to pierce a guard’s armor. The emperor’s chamberlain, Krysaphios, hires Demetrios to identify the murderer, as well as the forces behind him. The quest is imbued with greater urgency as the residents of the empire’s capital nervously anticipate the arrival of a large barbarian army, ostensible allies who may be connected with the attempted regicide.

I am really interested in this time period for historical mysteries and I think Harper did a pretty good job in this book in describing the time period and the political atmosphere. As Harper describes, the Middle Ages were a difficult time for the Byzantine Empire – they were in the beginning of their decline, but they still held some sway in the region. There was a lot of intrigue and deception for control of the throne.

The character development was good – not fantastic, but not horrible. I guess I am trying to say that you can tell this was Harper’s first book because the book did not flow well all the time. However, I think that the series has huge potential.

As I mentioned earlier, I was excited about the Sisters Grim series by Michael Buckley. Having enjoyed the first book, I quickly picked up the next, The Unusual Suspects, and began reading.

It didn’t disappoint. The Unusual Suspects continues the madcap fun and adventure while ratcheting up the suspense and bringing in a darker element to the characters and stories. Here is a basic plot description:

In Book Two, the Sisters Grimm start school at Ferryport Landing Elementary. Daphne’s lucky enough to get Snow White for a teacher—she loves little people—but poor Sabrina’s stuck with Mr. Grumpner and a class of mildly psychotic sixth graders. When Mr. Grumpner is murdered in a particularly unusual way, it is up to the Grimms to find the Everafter who did it. If only Sabrina can get over her distrust of all Everafters. But how can she trust folks who just might be responsible for the disappearance of her parents?

This summary gets at the developments in the story. As always seems to be the case with characters who are experiencing puberty, while facing some pretty challenging circumstances at the same time, Sabrina begins to come off as an angry and rather unstable young girl. Hard to blame her seeing how she is trapped in a bizarre world, her parents have been kidnapped, and her teachers are dying around her. You can see how her emotions and loyalties are being pulled in a million different directions and it is driving her mad. Throw in the normal, but not always easy, challenges of growing up, and who wouldn’t be a little testy?

Continue reading →

As I mentioned earlier, I was excited about the Sisters Grim series by Michael Buckley. Having enjoyed the first book, I quickly picked up the next, The Unusual Suspects, and began reading.

It didn’t disappoint. The Unusual Suspects continues the madcap fun and adventure while ratcheting up the suspense and bringing in a darker element to the characters and stories. Here is a basic plot description:

In Book Two, the Sisters Grimm start school at Ferryport Landing Elementary. Daphne’s lucky enough to get Snow White for a teacher—she loves little people—but poor Sabrina’s stuck with Mr. Grumpner and a class of mildly psychotic sixth graders. When Mr. Grumpner is murdered in a particularly unusual way, it is up to the Grimms to find the Everafter who did it. If only Sabrina can get over her distrust of all Everafters. But how can she trust folks who just might be responsible for the disappearance of her parents?

This summary gets at the developments in the story. As always seems to be the case with characters who are experiencing puberty, while facing some pretty challenging circumstances at the same time, Sabrina begins to come off as an angry and rather unstable young girl. Hard to blame her seeing how she is trapped in a bizarre world, her parents have been kidnapped, and her teachers are dying around her. You can see how her emotions and loyalties are being pulled in a million different directions and it is driving her mad. Throw in the normal, but not always easy, challenges of growing up, and who wouldn’t be a little testy?

Continue reading →

A few links worth a gander:

– John Barlow’s Intoxicated: A Novel of Money, Madness, and the Invention of the World’s Favorite Soft Drink is being released in paperback today. And to whet your whistle so to speak, he has posted a Monty Python-esq teaser video. Please, check out the video and the book that the Washington Post said was a “gastronomical story that’s as surprising, funny and satisfying as a good belch.”

– Stephen Policoff, author of Beautiful Somewhere Else, alerts us to his essay, In Dreams Begin, in Review Americana on using dreams to teach writing. Could be useful to those of you actually trying to improve your writing (I am comfortable in my hackdom).