Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War

#1043
Title: Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War
Author: Jeffrey A. Lockwood
Publisher: Oxford
Year: 2009/2010
400 pages

In The Simpsons, Season 7, Homer finds occasion to taunt: "Or what? You'll release the dogs? Or the bees? Or the dogs with bees in their mouths so when they bark they shoot bees at you?" At its best, Six-legged Soldiers is very much about dogs with bees in their mouths so when they bark they shoot bees at you. Or at least, about bee and hornet nests catapulted over the parapets. Or the biblical plagues of Egypt understood through the lens of causal insect action. Or scorpions in overhead trap doors. Or torture involving fleas and lice. Or the refinement of insect-delivered diseases, or the development of insectoid weapons. This is all riveting. Unfortunately, Lockwood's writing drags and bogs down at times, even with such exciting subject matter. It's worth working your way through it, though there isn't really a conclusion or climactic payoff. Still, despite the sometimes-slog, you'll learn a lot about attempts to weaponize bugs.

The Time Machine

#1042
Title: The Time Machine
Author: H. G. Wells
Publisher:Unknown
Year: 1895
~104 pages

Re-reading Wells's classic after many years, I'm struck by the "scientific" style, also used by Poe for his science fiction. The learned exposition about physics or the material world; the careful articulation by the protagonist of the limits of his expertise or possible lack of objectivity at times; the proofs that lead to the suspension of disbelief; the citing of authorities (here, though unnamed, Darwin plays a major role)--I just love the tone and the techniques used to reel the reader in.

Strip away the science and you've got a story which, although ostensibly about the future degradation of human nobility, reads very much like a colonial tale about the debased indigenes. This makes me think about how much of science fiction follows this model, though the noble rather than monstrous savage sometimes takes center stage.

I can poke some holes in the plot, but why bother? It's still a good story and in its day must have galvanized many readers.

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

#1041
 Title: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Author: Reza Aslan
Publisher:Random House
Year: 2013
327 pages

Like many books about Jesus (or, for that matter, HIV), the reviews are reasonably shrill, accusatory, and polarized. Aslan does a good job of contextualizing the period in which Jesus preached and making is accessible to the non-technical reader. I can't evaluate his contention that Jesus's activities can be understood as emerging from and buttressing the framework of zealotry, in its technical sense; I think he makes a case for this, but as I'm not a biblical scholar, I can't critique the argument. I felt that his analysis made more sense than most interpretations I've read, particularly his discussion of post-crucifixion politics and Paul's reinterpretation or reinvention of Jesus.

Read well by the author, but hunt up a visual copy for the end notes.

Hallucinations

#1040
Title: Hallucinations
Author: Oliver Sacks
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2012/2013
352 pages

 Enjoyable, as Sacks always is, but more episodic than some, with modular chapters that don't really build on each other. Sacks here identifies and characterizes a variety of processes, ailments, damage, and poisons that can lead to different forms of hallucination (with a delusion or two thrown in for good measure). Sacks references many of his previous books; for a fun look at how his storytelling style has developed, read with his first book, the outdated but scholarly and highly annotated Migraine.

Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story

#1039
Title: Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
Author: Christina Thompson
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Year: 2008
288 pages

A good effort to interweave personal and cultural histories. Thompson, an American graduate student in Australia, meets and marries a Maori New Zealander. She alternates between and blends the story of their relationship with the story of European first and later encounters with Maori, analyzing some of the assumptions underlying the European view of the Maori. What's less well explored is her own feelings. I finish the book having enjoyed it, but with little understanding of what attracted her to her future husband "Seven," what their relationship was like, why they moved to the U.S., and what happened as they became a more established couple. All of this is in the story, but it doesn't have an emotional underpinning. Thompson tells anecdotes that purport to use the relationship as a parallel or springboard to the examination of European-Maori dynamics. I was ultimately left wanting more depth.

We Need New Names

#1038
Title: We Need New Names
Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Year: 2013
298 pages

Linked short stories generally follow Darling, a Zimbabwean girl, from her hungry, conflict-saturated childhood in Africa to her dislocated/relocated young adulthood in the U.S. Most of the sections worked well, though the end point of some didn't resonate or satisfy. There are some intrusions of a poetic narrator, best understood as Darling's philosophical future self, perhaps. They add complexity and perspective, but are at times heavy-handed and detract from the intensity I imagine the story would have had if it stayed tightly connected to the developing and acculturating protagonist.

A creditable first novel. Nicely read by Robin Miles.

Birds: Mini Archive with DVD

#1037
Title: Birds: Mini Archive with DVD
Author: Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
Publisher: Harper Design
Year: 2011
288 pages

 A pleasing collection of bird paintings. It's interesting to compare these rather stiff renditions with sometimes-inaccurate body types to those more lifelike portraits painted by Audubon. The book comes with a DVD of the images, which is fun. Also fun is reading the end matter, since the names at the time of initial publication sometimes don't correspond with contemporary common name, genus, or species.