January in books
Jan. 31st, 2007 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassToday's breadcrumb is about how "free" the free will offerings of the Hebrews really were.
I've decided that instead of doing a gigantic book summary at the end of the year, I'd do one a month, containing both the names of the books I've read and also brief synopses and reviews. So, here we go:
1. Meditations on Middle-Earth, Karen Haber, ed.
This is a collection of short essays by fantasy writers, some of them quite well known (Orson Scott Card, George R. R. Martin, and Terry Pratchett, among others) about Tolkien and his influence. Some of the essays were interesting, others less so. Final verdict: read it if you're a serious Tolkien fan, otherwise skip it.
2. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, Alexandra Robbins
Another non-fiction, this one about overachieving high-school students. It's written roughly chronologically, following about 6-8 kids through their junior or senior year of high school (and one college freshman). Interspersed are statistics and op-eds about various features of American education, including the emphasis on standardized tests, admissions competition for university and even kindergarten, and "helicopter parents." It was a bit of a slog at times, and I wanted to put it down more than once, but I finally finished it. Final verdict: an interesting read, but only for those interested in the issue of overachieving culture.
3. Mort: A Discworld Novel, Terry Pratchett
I'm ashamed to say that, other than Good Omens, I've read practically nothing by Terry Pratchett. I'd started Mort before, but never finished it. So I picked it up and zoomed through the whole thing in two or three days. Basic plot: Mort, an accident-prone youth, is apprenticed to death, falls in love with someone he's supposed to kill and consequently doesn't kill her, and chaos ensues. Final verdict: It's a fun, fluffy sci-fi book: no more, no less.
4. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
I borrowed this book from my friend Eric. In short, Sagan spends the first half of the book providing alternate, scientific explanations for things like UFO sightings and alien abductions, and spends the second half of the book emphasizing the need for scientific literacy. Though he makes some good arguments and brings up some interesting historical evidence, I felt the book was at least twice as long as it needed to be. Especially in the first half, Sagan seems to be repeating himself an awful lot. Final verdict: not recommended unless you feel like a slog.
5. Phule's Company, Robert Asprin
More fast-reading sci-fi: I think I finished this one in less than two days. The plot, in brief: a rich, charismatic officer in the Space Legions (the military for people who couldn't get into the real military) turns a pack of the worst soldiers imaginable into a cohesive fighting force. I found that the protagonist solved most of his problems either by throwing money at them or quick-talking the other people involved, but it was fun despite that. Final verdict: another fun, fluffy sci-fi book, good for an afternoon with nothing else to read.
6. Phule's Paradise, Robert Asprin
Sequel to Phule's Company, this one is pretty much more of the same. (There's more to the series, but I don't own any of the others.) The plot: the hero from the first book, along with his reformed company, must stand guard duty for a casino in the throws of a hostile takeover by organized crime. Yet again, I think I finished this in a single day. Final verdict: if you liked Phule's Company, you'll probably like Phule's Paradise.
So that's it for this month. Six is actually a bit high for me, but that's because half the books were fluffy sci-fi that took less than 3 days each to read. See you in February for the next update!
I've decided that instead of doing a gigantic book summary at the end of the year, I'd do one a month, containing both the names of the books I've read and also brief synopses and reviews. So, here we go:
1. Meditations on Middle-Earth, Karen Haber, ed.
This is a collection of short essays by fantasy writers, some of them quite well known (Orson Scott Card, George R. R. Martin, and Terry Pratchett, among others) about Tolkien and his influence. Some of the essays were interesting, others less so. Final verdict: read it if you're a serious Tolkien fan, otherwise skip it.
2. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, Alexandra Robbins
Another non-fiction, this one about overachieving high-school students. It's written roughly chronologically, following about 6-8 kids through their junior or senior year of high school (and one college freshman). Interspersed are statistics and op-eds about various features of American education, including the emphasis on standardized tests, admissions competition for university and even kindergarten, and "helicopter parents." It was a bit of a slog at times, and I wanted to put it down more than once, but I finally finished it. Final verdict: an interesting read, but only for those interested in the issue of overachieving culture.
3. Mort: A Discworld Novel, Terry Pratchett
I'm ashamed to say that, other than Good Omens, I've read practically nothing by Terry Pratchett. I'd started Mort before, but never finished it. So I picked it up and zoomed through the whole thing in two or three days. Basic plot: Mort, an accident-prone youth, is apprenticed to death, falls in love with someone he's supposed to kill and consequently doesn't kill her, and chaos ensues. Final verdict: It's a fun, fluffy sci-fi book: no more, no less.
4. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
I borrowed this book from my friend Eric. In short, Sagan spends the first half of the book providing alternate, scientific explanations for things like UFO sightings and alien abductions, and spends the second half of the book emphasizing the need for scientific literacy. Though he makes some good arguments and brings up some interesting historical evidence, I felt the book was at least twice as long as it needed to be. Especially in the first half, Sagan seems to be repeating himself an awful lot. Final verdict: not recommended unless you feel like a slog.
5. Phule's Company, Robert Asprin
More fast-reading sci-fi: I think I finished this one in less than two days. The plot, in brief: a rich, charismatic officer in the Space Legions (the military for people who couldn't get into the real military) turns a pack of the worst soldiers imaginable into a cohesive fighting force. I found that the protagonist solved most of his problems either by throwing money at them or quick-talking the other people involved, but it was fun despite that. Final verdict: another fun, fluffy sci-fi book, good for an afternoon with nothing else to read.
6. Phule's Paradise, Robert Asprin
Sequel to Phule's Company, this one is pretty much more of the same. (There's more to the series, but I don't own any of the others.) The plot: the hero from the first book, along with his reformed company, must stand guard duty for a casino in the throws of a hostile takeover by organized crime. Yet again, I think I finished this in a single day. Final verdict: if you liked Phule's Company, you'll probably like Phule's Paradise.
So that's it for this month. Six is actually a bit high for me, but that's because half the books were fluffy sci-fi that took less than 3 days each to read. See you in February for the next update!
