A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)

#657

Title: A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)

Author: George R. R. Martin

Publisher: Bantam

Year: 1999/2011

1,010 pages

This is the sort of statement that drives my partner crazy, but I thought the first 1,500 pages of the series were a little slow and hard to get through. It seemed to take Martin that long to get everyone in place and establish their motives (at least, those of their motives to which the reader is privy). Some reviewers have disliked the series because it's sad, and because characters die. While I would feel some loss if one of the interesting characters died (or, more typically for this series, was killed), I can't say that this would make me feel negative about this story unless the death seemed like a deus ex machina device, was too convenient or coincidental, or was evidence that the author didn't know what to do. The casual nature of the deaths and the muddled, self-serving brutality of even the good forces (though it's arguable who that might be) effectively capture the indifference of war. I'm glad that* Arya and Tyrion are still alive, and I'm enjoying poor Theon's ongoing failed attempts to gain power and respect.

*(Spoiler follows. Highlight to see text.)

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

#656

Title: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

Author: James W. Gleick

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday

Year: 2011

527 pages

Audiobook

I enjoyed Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science many years ago, and similarly enjoyed The Information, though, from the vantage of a certain age, I know more about more of the topics. Still, if I were 15 I'd be electrified by Gleick's account of the conceptual and technological progress of an idea and the accompanying paradigm shifts this engendered. Instead, I read most of it as a reunion with history and ideas that are old friends, brought together by Gleick to tell the story of the natural history of information. Recommended for nerds and geeks who like to see their various interests brought together.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

#655

Title: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Author: Barbara W. Tuchman

Publisher: Ballantine

Year: 1978/1996

704 pages

Audiobook

I moved this up in my queue as I worked my way through Martin's A Game of Thrones because I correctly surmised that it would help elucidate some of the beliefs and behaviors on which Martin's characters' actions are based. This was true, and A Distant Mirror was enjoyable in its own right. I found the broader historical chapters more compelling. Though Tuchman's structure relied on following a particular person, this strategy only variably kept my interest. Sometimes it personalized the generalities, while at others it seemed to bog down in details. Still, overall a compelling, readable history with occasional humorous and acerbic comments that kept Tuchman present in the narrative.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)

#654

Title: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)

Author: George R. R. Martin

Publisher: Bantam

Year: 1996/2011

835 pages

I have a strong preference for hard science fiction or heterotopias over fantasy, especially historical fantasy, which is what this essentially is. I find the construction of a plausible world more interesting than overlaying eurohistory with swords 'n' sorcery. Martin's dense, slow-moving epic has the virtue that the swords are often broken, their wielders cold and wet, and the sorcery is thus far restrained. To move myself along with a set of characters I didn't find especially sympathetic in a setting that isn't very interesting to me, I read Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century in order to provide context and higher engagement. This allowed me to appreciate Martin's historical reconstruction enough to develop an interest in the story. The Lannisters are effectively vile and most of the other characters, if not complex, are interestingly ambiguous in their motivations. We might think of this volume as "Things Fall Apart." Tyrion, Arya, Bran, and Jon are the characters I find most compelling. Whether Martin keeps them alive remains to be seen.

The Canterbury Tales

#653

Title: The Canterbury Tales

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer

Translator: J. U. Nicholson
Publisher: Dover

Year: 1990/2004

576 pages

Audiobook

I  was happy finally to read the complete set of stories rather than excerpted tales. It was entertaining to read "The Pardoner's Tale" again after having read  "The Tale of the Three Brothers" in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I'd never have read the long, dry religious sections had I not been listening to an audiobook, and I would merely find them odd had not Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century given me the background and context I needed to understand why Chaucer included them. I now have a strong desire to re-read Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies, and to bump The Decameron up my list.

The Translator

#652

Title:  The Translator

Author: Leila Aboulela

Publisher: Grove Press

Year: 1999/2006

208 pages

I liked this author's language very much, I liked the set-up and how the story unfolded, and I thought the ending was wish fulfillment that required no compromise from the protagonist and complete capitulation by another character. This was disappointing and shifted the novel from literature to genre romance. All the way through I was anticipating reading more by this author; now I'm not sure I will.

Go the Fuck to Sleep

#651

Title: Go the Fuck to Sleep

Author: Adam Mansbach

Illustrator: Ricardo Cortés

Publisher:Cannongate Books

Year: 2011

32 pages

Read as an audiobook narrated by Samuel L. Jackson while watching the pages scroll on YouTube. Lovely illustrations and a very familiar, tragicomic story.