The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson (2005)

Reviewer: Elle Ewok

Rating: 4 Pierogies with a Disappointing Aftertaste

Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a long book and I read it in about 2 days. I could not put it down and tore through it like there was no tomorrow. The mystery at the heart of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is totally captivating and I can respect any storyteller that can capture my imagination and interest so well.

Due to the popularity of the book and the current movie pretty much everyone is at least briefly familiar with the plotline. A disgraced journalist and a emotionally disturbed computer hacker join forces to solve a mystery involving a serial killer of women. At the heart of the mystery is the Vanger family - a wealthy family of industrialists comprised of oddballs, nazis and perverts.

My favorite part of the book was probably the setting. I have never been to Scandanavia and I cannot recall having ever read a book set there either. I really enjoyed becoming immersed in Swedish culture and lifestyle even though many of the political and cultural references were completely lost on me. Also, the characters are interesting even though they are totally unrealistic. The main character, Mikael Blomkvist, is a male fantasy projection. Every woman in the book throws herself at him sexually and he successfully avenges all who have wronged him. He bangs every main female character without consequence even though a normal man would have major ethical constraints on such behavior (one conquest is a co-worker, one is a rape victim half his age who works for him and the other is a person he is supposed to be objectively studying for a book he is being paid to write). But I guess its okay to bang all these women despite the inconvenient context because they initiated it. How Conveeeeeeenient - male fantasy much??  Lisbeth Salander is a really great character but she is basically an aspergers ward-of-the-state and emotionally disturbed rape victim who just happens to be a world class hacker and researcher even though she had no education or training to speak of - seriously, she might as well be a member of the X-Men.

Many of my friends said they struggled to get through the beginning of the book but I didn't have a problem with getting sucked in immediately. However, by the time I had finished the book I wasn't as in love with it as I had been initially. Basically, I felt I could have just seen the movie and not have missed much by skipping the book. In fact - I am going to skip the next two books in the series. Life is too short and there is too much I want to read.

Although I appreciate that the mystery in the book was totally solved by the end, I found the revelation to be not that interesting, imaginative or surprising. It was both over-the-top and totally underwhelming at the same time. Half way through the book  Bible clues are introduced ala The Divinci Code but as it turns out they were pretty much totally irrelevent. The connection between the Bible verse clues and the solution to the mystery were tenously related at best.

Another aspect of the book that confused me was the message behind the sexual violence. This is an extremely violent book and the violence is almost all sexual in nature and almost always directed towards women. However, if there was some social commentary or higher message regarding such violence it didn't come through. Between portions of the book, random statistics about sexual violence are stated. I kind of felt like these statistics were included to make it look like the author was making some sort of stand or commentary on the inhumanity of such violence. However, at the end of the day this book totally uses such violence itself as the engine behind the drama in the book. Those statstics just came off as a poor attempt of trying to have one's cake and eat it too. Obviously, that is just my opinion.

Even though there were aspects of the book I didn't love it is definitely worth reading simply because the mystery is set up masterfully and the character of Lisbeth is great (albeit completely unrealistic).
Also, I LOVED the final scene of the book (which had to do with the relationship between characters not the underlying mystery).

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (2011)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating: 4 pierogies

Review:



This book has the following things:

1. Creepy old photos.

2. Bird-people.

3. Time travel.

4. Monsters.

5. Scary half-human-half-monsters.

6. An abandoned orphanage.

Obviously you need to read it.

 

CREEPY.

Peregrine is written in a very conversational tone, so it's a breeze to get through. The plot is quick-moving and does not dwell in drama or emotion, it's all action action action.

In terms of character development, Riggs only focuses on a handful of characters. It's enough to get the reader invested in the key players, but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in back stories.

Riggs builds Peregrine around real vintage photographs. He takes the easy way out by creating a world of "Peculiar" children. My imagination got distracted wondering about the real history behind these photos. They are so strange, how did they possibly come about?

Like Veronica Roth, Riggs is a contemporary writer with a blog. He is not as prolific as Roth, but he still writes enough to give you a glimpse into the life of a "real" writer. As a ridiculous book nerd, I tend to deify authors. It's amazing to me to see how down to earth they really are.

Peregrine has been tapped for the silver screen, with Jane Goldman (X-Men First Class) signed on for screenwriting, and Tim Burton for directing. Peregrine is so visually focused and action driven that it will easily translate to a great movie.

The World that Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square; Ned Sublette (2008)

Reviewer: Elle Ewok
Rating: 4 Pierogies (ignoring the last two pages)

Review: I have always been rather taken by New Orleans. Its unique culture (French/American/African influences) - particularly its dark creepy undertones - appeal to my interests. That said, although I can name all sorts of unique attributes of New Orleans (jazz funerals, cemeteries, voodoo, mardi gras, creole, cajun, jazz, vampires, pirates, lasciviousness ect) I could never understood how they all fit together or why they are even attributes of New Orleans to begin with. On my most recent trip to New Orleans in February I stopped by Faulkner House books (as I always do when in NOLA) and asked for a recommendation on a general history of New Orleans. The lovely lady who works there (and I suspect is a part owner) recommended "The World that Made New Orleans" and explained that it is a comprehensive history of New Orleans told through the prism of musicality. Sounded interesting so I bought it.

"The World that Made New Orleans" is simply a very good, interesting and straight forward history book. If you are interested in history you will like this book. If not - you will be bored to tears. Proceed accordingly.

I love history and enjoyed reading this book very much. All my questions about how New Orleans' peculiar atmosphere and culture came to be were answered and I learned a great deal. This book is not simply a book about New Orleans. The history of New Orleans can only be understood by studying the context of its time and place in the world. As such "The World that Made New Orleans" is also a comprehensive history book about English, Spanish and French colonization in North America; American Revolutionary history; Caribbean colonization; the African slave trade; the American Civil War and the Haitian Revolution. Considering I have not studied any of these things since high school, it was an incredibly engaging and interesting history to read about.

Surprisingly the least successful part of the book was when it talked about music - which was supposed to be the "hook" of this book. I really appreciate what he was trying to do here, but the reality is, reading about music that you can't hear just is not that interesting. I studied music extensively for a very long time and I found it hard to follow and boring. I ended up using You Tube to hear some of the songs and styles the author was talking about and they sounded absolutely nothing like what I was expecting from what I read. This is just a mild criticism, however, and reading about the historical evolution of musical styles was interesting.

I really enjoyed this book and only have one gripe with it but it pissed me off enough to mention here. On the last two pages of the book the author, out of nowhere, states that the less-than perfect government response to Hurricane Katrina was a calculated effort on the part of the Republican Party to drive black Democratic voters out of Lousianna so that Louisianna would be an even redder state.

Um okay.

I really lost all respect for the author for saying such a ridiculous thing as a fact and it made me question the credibility of the entire book. The fact that he would make such an inflammatory accusation without feeling the need to produce any supporting proof whatsoever was offensive.  Look, I get that turning people with different political beliefs than you into evil caricatures is tempting - it is easy and allows you to feel morally superior in the process. In reality, however, most people are not hyper-partisans who are going to fall for it and you are just making yourself look like an idiot. The majority of Americans probably lean one way or the other politically, but have beliefs that cross party lines on occasion. Furthermore, most Americans have friends and family members of different policial persuasions that they love and respect and don't think of as supporters of evil. Gratuitiously accusing republicans of something so horrendous and evil may get you a high five from Kanye West and back slaps at Manhattan academia dinner parties but everyone else is going to look at you as a complete fart-sniffing a-hole (South Park reference FYI).

Let me posit an alternative theory Mr. Sublette: Perhaps the lackluster goverment response to Katrina was because the federal government (regardless of which party is in charge) was not prepared for such a crisis and is generally a big, bloated, slow, wasteful, and ineffective bureaucracy. It has never had to change or streamline its operations to become less bloated/slow because is immune from liability and can pay for its constant screw ups by taking tax money off the citizens that actually earned it. Not to mention that it hardly makes sense from a policitical perspective for Republicans to drive black democratic voters out of one red state (Louisianna) directly into another (Texas mainly). The whole thing was mean-spirited, groundless and stupid and it left a really really bad taste in my mouth.

Ignoring the last two pages, I would otherwise recommend this book to any history lover.

Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (2011)

Reviewer:  BeezusKiddo

Rating: 5 Delicious homemade pierogies

Review:  This is the book that Breakfast at Tiffany's failed to be. Katey Kontent is an intelligent, strong-minded young woman brushing elbows with New York's blue bloods, never quite fitting in herself, but taking the city by storm. I loved this book.

It's not a typical pick for me-- I usually like mysteries, scary books, dark humor. Rules of Civility has none of those, and even has a touch of romance. That's usually not my style. But Katey's narrative voice hooked my right in, and I couldn't help myself. I finished this book in less than a week.

The synopsis, from Towles' website:

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year-old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

The story opens on New Year’s Eve in a Greenwich Village jazz bar, where Katey and her boardinghouse roommate Eve happen to meet Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a ready smile. This chance encounter and its startling consequences cast Katey off her current course, but end up providing her unexpected access to the rarified offices of Conde Nast and a glittering new social circle. Befriended in turn by a shy, principled multimillionaire, an Upper East Side ne’er-do-well, and a single-minded widow who is ahead of her times, Katey has the chance to experience first hand the poise secured by wealth and station, but also the aspirations, envy, disloyalty, and desires that reside just below the surface. Even as she waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her orbit, she will learn how individual choices become the means by which life crystallizes loss.

Katey's voice is so authentic that I was constantly surprised that this book was written by a man. Towles' captures the intricacies of female friendships, jealousies, and rivalries but never retreats to catfighting.

There are so many quote-worthy passages in this book that it took great restraint for me to only pick one to share:

If my father had made a million dollars, he wouldn't have eaten at La Belle Epoque. To him, restaurants were the ultimate expression of ungodly waste. For of all the luxuries that your money could buy a restaurant left you the least to show for it. A fur coat could at least be worn in winter to fend off the cold, and a silver spoon could be melted down and sold to a jeweler. But a porterhouse steak? You chopped it, chewed it, swallowed it, wiped your lips and dropped your napkin on your plate. That was that. And asparagus? My father would have sooner carried a twenty-dollar bill to his grave than spent it on some glamorous weed coated in cheese.

But for me, dinner at a fine restaurant was the ultimate luxury. It was the very height of civilization. For what was civilization but the intellect's ascendancy out of the doldrums of necessity (shelter, sustenance and survival) into the ether of the finely superfluous (poetry, handbags and haute cuisine)? So removed from daily life was the whole experience that when all was rotten to the core, a fine dinner could revive the spirits. If and when I had twenty dollars left to my name, I was going to invest it right here in an elegant hour that couldn't be hocked.

Before starting this book, my interest went back and forth. The synopsis didn't particularly grip me, and I named it as a book I planned to read in 2012 only because it was getting so much noise over at the BlogHer book club. My friend Regina lent it to me, and since I had finished up my book club books for the month, I decided to pick it up. I'm so glad I did, this book is a gem.

The Scented Ape: The Biology and Culture of Human Odour, D. Michael Stoddart (1991)

Reviewer: Ignacio van Kugel

Rating:  4 musky, onion scented pierogies

Review:  “Take your stinking paws off of me you damn dirty ape!” –Astronaut Taylor.

How often do you consider your nose, the way things smell, or how smells affect you?  There can be little doubt, that of all our senses, olfactory receives the least conscious thought on any given day.  In fact, humans have a distain of their own human smell, as we all are aware of the great amount of daily effort to remove all trace of human scent.  Language reflects a human preference to sight over smell with the phrase “I see” to mean I understand, whereas, “something smells” to mean that something is wrong.  D. Michael Stoddart attempts to explore this lack of conscious thought of the nose, why humans have a complex relationship with how we feel about how things smell, and our own human scent.  Stoddart takes a multidisciplinary approach in his book in attempting to analyze the role olfactory plays in human biology, culture, psychology, and evolutionary history. 

Stoddard begins with a fairly technical explanation of how the olfactory bulb is connected to the brain of various creatures, including humans.  It is well known that other animals use scent, and sexual attractants to aid in reproduction.  In fact, olfactory is often critical to reproduction, and in some species sexual development and maturation.  Experiments on mice that have their olfactory bulb removed results in the mice having no interest in sex, and other hormonal effects.  Whether such sexual and behavioral disruption is effected in humans is unknown (as it would unethical to remove the olfactory bulb in a person), however, it is suspected that such an effect may occur.  Indeed, the olfactory bulb, which is in the highest passage of the nose, shares a special connection with both the pituitary gland as well as deepest parts of the brain that control emotion.  It would seem the unique feelings that can arise from a scent are the result of this nose-emotional brain connection.  Our eyes and ears lack this direct connection to the emotional brain as the sensory information from the eyes and ears are filtered through the neocortex (conscious brain) before any emotion can be triggered. 

Beyond our olfactory sense being different from our eyes and ears the question is raised, for what purposes does our nose continue to play in human life?  The human body, more than any other primate, contains more scent glands, focused in greatest number in the pubic region, axillary (armpit) region, and face.  That we develop pubic and axillary hair at puberty and that hair excels at increasing the surface area for scents to be release, it would seem that “goat under the armpit” or “flower of youth” scent is directly tied, at least, to sexual maturity and notification of sexual maturity. 

So then, why do we have such disgust with our own odor, and where did the custom of scenting ourselves with perfumes come about.  One interesting aspect of human females is that ovulation is concealed and kept secret from males, whereas in other primates, it is not.  Also, humans, although subject to debate, form monogamous (or at least serial monogamous) relationships in a “gregarious” group.  One theory for this type of relationship to work in a group is that ovulation must be kept secret from males.  Thus, courting behavior will result and force the male to invest time with the female thereby increasing the likelihood that the male will stay with the female throughout the duration of the pregnancy and the resulting 10-15+ years until the offspring reaches adulthood.  One theory of the use of perfume, is that the sexual attractants of plants and animals that do mimic human body odor, was applied to scramble any fertility signals given away by human odor.  

It is clear from the book, that Stoddard is only scratching the surface of the role of scent and human odor.  Although we may think that the nose is a primitive organ and merely a vestigial sense, it is clear that the olfactory sense and our numerous scent glands endured to play a role in the behavior and development of modern humans.  Although, much of the book focuses on the likely sexual connection between humans and scent, it is interesting that the nose is also a direct gateway to emotional parts of the brain.  This likely accounts for the unique feeling that comes about when a scent triggers a memory.  

One final theory worth mentioning is that although human scent may no longer advertise sexual readiness (ovulation), human scent may rather be a way to promote pair bonding, and monogamy through strong emotional attachment.  Could this then account for the ever increasing divorce rates in the last 100 years in Western cultures, where we cleanse, deodorize, engage in depilatory activities; that our ever increasing lack of scent makes it ever easier to break the pair bond?  So ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the best way to keep your significant other is to throw out the soap, deodorant and razors.

Divergent, Veronica Roth (2011)

Reviewer: BeezusKiddo

Rating: 4.5 tasty pierogies

Review: Divergent was selected as the top book of 2011 in the Goodreads Readers Choice Poll. It's easy to see why- this book is engaging, excited, and leaves the reader eager for Roth's next book (Insurgent, expected in May 2012).

 

Roth has the unfortunate timing of her book being released in the height of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books. Both depict dystopian futures with strong, brave women in the lead role. Veronica Roth's book is excellent, but her writing is less mature than Collins, so the comparison weighs in favor of Collins. It's not necessarily fair to compare these books in this way, but it's unavoidable due to the timing.

The only criticisms I have about Divergent are few and petty. I wish the lead, Beatrice, didn't re-name herself "Tris," it reeks of trying to hard to fit in. (Admittedly, strong female characters named "Beatrice" or "Beatrix" mean more to me than most, my daughter's middle name is "Beatrix," and she is named after a certain brave, ruthless woman of the same name.)

The love story is predictable and kind of immature, but that's not entirely a valid criticism, because the characters are young, so an immature love story is appropriate in that context.

I liked the way Roth characterizes and develops each of the factions. I also liked the extensive initiation process for joining the factions, it was an excellent plot device for developing the faction's personality, and makes the social structure much more interesting than "ok, this is where you're going."

There is the perfect balance of action and description in this book for it to be transformed to a thrilling movie that is completely true to the book. (Although I love the Hunger Games, it's so heavy on description that I think the movie won't be able to everything.)

Roth keeps a blog about her writing experiences, and it's interesting to get such an intimate view into the writing and editing process. I particularly liked her entry about the differences between the early drafts and the final story of Divergent. She seems down-to-earth, intelligent, and friendly. Also, she's only 23! What an amazing accomplishment for someone so young.

Happy Friday Gift: Best Short Story Evah!

Well, it's Friday - finally. This has been one of the more stressful weeks of my life professionally so I need to decompress something fierce.

To celebrate our collective impending weekend freedom here is a link to what may very possibly be the best short story ever written: Symbols and Signs by Vladimir Nabokov.

SYMBOLS & SIGNS

I'm pretty certain at this point that Nabokov is the best writer ever although there are a few more of his works I need to read before I can say this definitively. No one can do what he can do with the written word. I love this phrase from Symbols and Signs so much, "...of neglected children humming to themselves in unswept corners." He writes phrases like that - which stick in my mind for days.

I began writing short stories when I was eight years old. I love writing but everytime I read Symbols & Signs I want to punch myself in the face and burn everything I have ever written.

Enjoy! Love, Elle