Snakes with Wings & Gold-digging Ants

#1083
Title: Snakes with Wings & Gold-digging Ants
Author: Herodotus
Editor: John M. Marincola 
Translator: Aubrey de Sélincourt
Year: ~400 BCE (excerpted)/2007
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 118

A bit of "travelogue" excerpted from Herodotus. I really like this Penguin Great Journeys series. I bought this and the James Cook excerpt at Daedalus, but might go ahead and pay retail for the rest of it. I deeply love careful descriptions and explanations of scientific and anthropological phenomena that don't make sense to the author. It abounds here.

Zendegi

#1082
Title: Zendegi
Author: Greg Egan
Year: 2010
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Pages: 278

I keep going back and forth on this novel. I liked the scope, I was invested in the characters, I enjoyed the action, and then felt let down by the ending--maybe. Wherever I land on this, there was some sabotage at the end that too tidily disposed of complications. Was the ending earned? Is it sufficiently literarily sufficient that no, what one of the protagonists tried to do couldn't be done? If so, so what? If so, what's compelling about telling this story? In some ways it's like a study that fails to disprove the null hypothesis. This may be useful but it's not, ultimately, exciting to read.

Something to Declare: Essays

#1081
Title: Something to Declare: Essays
Author: Julia Álvarez
Year: 1998/1999
Publisher: Plume
Pages: 314

Autobiographical essays by Álvarez, those of her earlier life in the Dominican Republic being most compelling. A good companion to her novels, the writing of several of which is a topic here.

At the Mountains of Madness

#1080
Title: At the Mountains of Madness
Author: H. P. Lovecraft
Year: 1931 (orig.)
Publisher: ?
Pages: 142 

An incorrect cover, but I like it best of the choices.

While entertaining, and the world-building is fun, I agree with early Lovecraft critics that this is pulp. Most noticeable is the layering of description that means nothing--a thing is horrible because the narrator tells us so, though rarely for any reason other than that it is tautologically horrible. I was pulled repeatedly from my suspension of disbelief by the narrator's ability to effortlessly and seamlessly interpret pictographic murals to make unsupported and narratively suspect inferences about the emotions and motivations of aliens. This assertion of the meaning of things builds the narrator's surface credibility as a reporter and, as for Poe and Wells, I love the pseudo-scientific "factual" presentation of the story. However, it's immediately evident to the reader that Lovecraft is a sloppier writer than Poe or Wells, which dampens the effect significantly.

Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

#1079
Title: Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Author: Dorothy Allison
Year: 1995/1996
Publisher: Plume
Pages: 112

An extended essay/set of essays that are memoirs of family, and also very much convey their origins as spoken word performances. There's something of Spalding Gray here, though Allison always seems more permeated with a defense against helplessness.

Dominican Republic - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

#1079
Title: Dominican Republic - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
Author: Ilana Benady
Year: 2010
Publisher: Kuperard
Pages: 168

A reasonable introduction, though very much focused on the majority culture Dominican and woefully deficient on the culture and experience of the many non-majority, poor, disenfranchised Dominicans of Haitian ancestry (for example, in the southwest). Not at all useful for that part of the country, where some French phrases and descriptions of Haitian customs would have made a positive difference in my travel experience.

Cutting for Stone

#1078
Title: Cutting for Stone
Author: Abraham Verghese 
Year: 2009
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 541

I enjoyed this enough that I read another book by the author, but found it bloated for what it was. The parallelism of the different story elements grew predictable after awhile in a way that a shorter novel could have avoided. The protagonist's twin brother remains a mystery, but a strangely unremarked one given the ruminative character of this novel.