Little Lake (Armenian Poetry XIX-XX Book 1)

#1132
Title: Little Lake (Armenian Poetry XIX-XX Book 1)
Author: Bedros Tourian
Translator: Alice Stone Blackwell
Year: 2012
Publisher: GS (Kindle)
Pages: 33
Country: Armenia (better exemplar)

I can't locate originals to see what Tourian's writing is really like, but this jangly translation in ABCB rhyme is jarring. The imagery seems trite and immature. Okay, he died early. However, he's apparently much-loved in Armenia, which might speak to the translation or might speak to classical Armenian poetic sensibilities. 

Lock In

#1129
Title: Lock In
Author: John Scalzi
Year: 2014
Publisher: Tor
Pages: 336

Best preceded by Scalzi's novella Unlocked, a Working/World War Z-style prequel that provides the history on which this novel rests. Lock In is in the style of his The Android's Dream and Agent to the Stars--clever badinage and snappy repartee dominate the dialogue, and characters work together with a synchrony that reminds one of Heinlein's ex-military men.

I read this in conjunction with articles on HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and Ebola, which was a good set of reflective readings. I recommend Sacks's Awakenings as a companion piece for heightened pleasure.

The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #11)

#1126
Title: The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #11)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Year: 2010
Publisher: Pantheon
Pages: 211

Although there's more literary subtlety to this one, I was more disappointed in it. I was ultimately puzzled by the title. "Double Comfort" suggested that the Safari Club might have something to do with Phuti Radiphuti's furniture store of the same name, but there is no connection. Nor are either of the camps called "Double Comfort," nor is there really either a safari or a club. In fact, little of the novel has anything to do with a safari or a safari club. At the plot level, it's more of a mishmash of little stories than anything else. Oh, and Phuti has a terrible accident, but it's treated with as little emotion or focus as... well, as these orphans who do so little and mean so little through so many installments.

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

#1120
Title: Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Author: Herman Melville
Illustrator: Rockwell Kent
Year: 1851
Publisher: ICU Publishing/Kindle
Pages: 669


I've been reading classics electronically or on audiobook to fill in the gaps in my non-English Literature-major background. A lot of them have sermonizing sections. I was shocked to re-read Robinson Crusoe again and see how much religious discourse it includes. I think when we're younger, we blip right over the philosophizing, especially if the book is required reading. Moby-Dick, while rich in this regard, manages to incorporate the material effectively. It's funny and astute. I had deja vu for the first chunk--I'm not sure if I might have read the first chapters at some point, or read something where this was part of a pastiche, or just hung around New Bedford too much as a younger person.

Lemur 866 on The Straight Dope suggests reading as if Ishmael is a blogger. Some days he'll tell you about his friend, while some he'll talk about religion, and on others, the crafts and practices associated with whaling. This works for me (though I also see the novel as using both  documentary and natural and philosophical sciences approaches, a la Justine, 120 Days of Sodom, The Golden Bough, or any natural history of its era).

Ishmael's many descriptions and reports serve two functions: To establish verisimilitude (i.e., that this is a factual report), and as a contrast to Ahab's monomaniacal obsession--Ishmael has wide-ranging conversations, is interested in all aspects of whaling, and has a relationship with the reader, whereas Ahab only wants to kill Moby-Dick. In this regard, it makes sense that Ishmael as a character fades from importance in the story, which increasingly focuses on Ahab's all-encompassing obsession. In a way, Ahab is already consumed and dead, while Ishmael, who will live to tell the tale, is engaged and alive.

I enjoyed this well-performed audiobook, and followed along in the linked Kindle edition for the pleasure of Kent Rockwell's illustrations (of which the below is a wonderful example).