A Fire upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1)

#1112
Title: A Fire upon the Deep (Zones of Thought #1)
Author: Vernor Vinge
Year: Tor
Publisher: 1995/2010
Pages: 613

Read as physical and audiobook.

A long novel with lots of interesting ideas about the nature of space itself as it influences technology and consciousness, the expansion and clash of civilizations, what characteristics make one a person, and found or stolen or jettisoned technology. But it comes down to a boy, a girl, a young woman, a constructed young/old man, a cosmic consciousness, and a bunch of philosophizing telepathic dogs. Doesn't it always?

A great big novel that moved along quickly at most points, and sets the stage for two subsequent great big novels (at least one with telepathic dogs).

World's End (Sandman #8)

#1111
Title: Worlds' End (Sandman #8)
Author: Neil Gaiman, Stephen King (Introduction) 
Illustrators: Bryan Talbot, John Watkiss, Michael Zulli, Shea Anton Pensa, Alec Stevens, Gary Amaro
Year: 1993/2012
Publisher: Vertigo
Pages: 168

A crossroads/Decameron/Canterbury Tales/Castle of Crossed Destinies/Hitchhiker's Guide set of stories, distinct from each other but nicely reflective of and lightly entangled with each other. Worlds', not World's. The tavern is a focal point for multiple realities whose travelers are stranded on a dark and stormy night. Every tale touches, in some way, upon Dream--the place or the avatar.

My Education

#1110
Title: My Education
Author: Susan Choi
Year: 2013/2014
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 304

I picked this up to support an independent bookstore. I liked the cover. It wasn't what I was expecting, in a good way (though what I expected would also have been good). This college novel (fake Ithaca alert) mostly held my interest, mostly had good pacing, and generally satisfied. The language mirrored the hyper-conscious tone of college students trying very hard to impress their faculty and each other. This style has put some readers off; I'd need to read something else by Choi to know if it represents deliberate characterization or is simply how she writes.

The second section seems unbalanced with the first, tacked on, and in some ways, while making a certain amount of emotional sense, raises questions about deceptiveness in the characters' current relationships. However, it nicely illustrates [highlight to see spoiler] the diminution common to revisiting the once beloved, and revisiting the scenes or people from one's college or other young adult years. [end spoiler].

Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

#1109
Title: Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
Author: Andrew Solomon
Year: 2012
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 976

Interesting premise, and many opportunities to several times in every chapter. Often overgeneralized, and sometimes simply incorrect. It doesn't help that he narrates the audiobook himself and keeps sounding like he's about to cry.

Everyone, whether parent or child, regardless of which horizontal condition the child has, is pretty miserable and isolated. Even in the prodigy/gifted chapter, everybody's depressed, damaged, and lonely.

I'm not a prodigy, but I do have a number of horizontal identities (that is, those unshared with all or most of my family of origin). I'm just not, and haven't ever been, that miserable*. While acknowledging that Solomon is on to something some of the time, the overgeneralizations are wearying. Where is resilience? Where is curiosity? Where is community? Although I'm privileged in many ways, my lived and observing experience can't be that off.

In addition to the content/focus problem, the book is structurally wobbly, ranging around but often not actually addressing the titular "search for identity," for example, or the parent-child identity/identification issues that are promised but not delivered. It ultimately leaves the impression of a plea for understanding because we are like you but we're not like you, and non-normal (in the statistical sense) characteristics are a deficit with some benefits. This seems to fit the phenomenology of the author's coming out process, but not my own.

*(Except in middle school, where it's virtually required no matter what one's identities and characteristics.)

H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu: For Beginning Readers

#1108
Title: H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu: For Beginning Readers
Author: R. J. Ivankovic
Year: 2011-2014
Publisher: Author at http://drfaustusau.deviantart.com/gallery/32992770/The-Call-of-Cthulhu
Pages: 51

Every once in a while, all that aimless internet surfing pays off in the form of a wonderful surprise. In the poetic and graphic styles of Dr. Seuss, Ivankovic's H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu: For Beginning Readers is one such wonderful thing.

Look at that cover. How benign, yet still how terrifying, is this cuddly yet malign rendition of Cthulhu. How strangely Lovecraft's prose translates to Seussian verse. Look! Look, I say! But don't look! You'll go mad! When this is published as a meat book, I am so buying it for everyone I know in Rhode Island. Also, any fell Esquimaux of my current acquaintance.

http://drfaustusau.deviantart.com/art/The-Call-of-Cthulhu-Pages-18-19-278656116

Seriously...I'm Kidding

#1107
Title: Seriously...I'm Kidding
Author: Ellen DeGeneris
Year: 2012
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 256

We listened to most of this during a multi-hour detour to take our minds off the fact that the multi-hour detour was causing us to run out of gas, with not a station in sight. I can say that, while not a work for the ages, it was pleasantly distracting. Books read by their comedian-authors usually have good delivery, and this was no exception. It was fun, and forgettable, but not in a bad way.

Guide to Troubled Birds

#1106
Title: Guide to Troubled Birds
Author: The Mincing Mockingbird [Matt Adrian]
Year: 2014
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Pages: 64

This book is more troubled than the birds. I bought it because I'd seem some of the author's greeting cards, which feature very engaging and attractive portraits of birds with pithy and sometimes discrepant statements. However, this collected volume can't stick to this combination, but overextends itself and tries to incorporate additional material. The end result is muddled, pretty hostile, not funny, and likely to alienate the bird lovers who would otherwise be willing to spend $16 on it. My suggestion is to enjoy this author's cards or magnets and skip the book, and the author's other two books as well. Enjoy the art or art plus captions, and avoid the rest.

 I bought this to support an independent bookstore, which is the only reason I didn't return it.