The Stories of English by David Crystal
534 pages
Published 2004
Read from July 21(?) to July 29
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
This is the first review I'm writing after the great laptop disaster. It is Weird As Hell typing on a keyboard with a working E key. I keep wanting to hit CTRL-V every single time there's an E coming up. My fingers keep fouling each other on the keyboard. It doesn't help that this is a big clacky keyboard of the sort libraries have been using for the last decade or two. Give me a laptop keyboard almost any day. So long as all the keys actually work.
Anyway, this was a pretty good book. Much more informative than Bryson's Mother Tongue, albeit far less entertaining. Crystal doesn't become utterly dry at any point, but it does seem to drag on a bit in spots. As usual with me, I most enjoyed the chapters dealing with the oldest permutations of the language; I annoyed Jen with my constant attempts to sound out the Old English bits sprinkled throughout the first part of the book. But even the post-Tudor material was interesting to me, in part because my knowledge of British history peters out by Elizabeth's time. For a book with the stated goal of "telling the stories" of dialect English, of "non-standard" language, it's really kind of baffling how so little space gets devoted to English overseas; between them, American, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and African Englishes get maybe an entire chapter of coverage.
I'm sure there was a lot more I could have said about this book if I cared to, but I haven't had to write anything on a public library terminal in ages, and between that and this keyboard, the whole situation is not conducive to profound thought.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
2013 read #98: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
307 pages
Published 2008
Read from July 23 to July 24
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
As soon as the character Scarlett was introduced, "dressed in bright colors, yellow and pink and orange," I wondered how closely this one would adhere to the Neil Gaiman novel formula. Thankfully we don't get into that rut, at least not entirely; Scarlett is a relatively grounded everyteen instead of a flaming car crash of a manic pixie dream girl, and Bod assumes the quietly competent role instead of getting caught in the well-meaning but useless Gaiman male protagonist trap. On the other hand, Every Man Jack and the ghouls both fulfill Gaiman's archetypal (contractual?) well-dressed, waggish, faux-cultivated, faux-gentlemanly, slyly sinister villains from the underworld role, which got a bit distracting. But really, you don't read Gaiman books for the main characters (or at least I don't), and you don't read children's books in general for plot twists you don't see coming a mile away. Gaiman's strength is atmosphere and deftly-if-broadly drawn supporting characters, which The Graveyard Book has in spades (get it?).
307 pages
Published 2008
Read from July 23 to July 24
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
As soon as the character Scarlett was introduced, "dressed in bright colors, yellow and pink and orange," I wondered how closely this one would adhere to the Neil Gaiman novel formula. Thankfully we don't get into that rut, at least not entirely; Scarlett is a relatively grounded everyteen instead of a flaming car crash of a manic pixie dream girl, and Bod assumes the quietly competent role instead of getting caught in the well-meaning but useless Gaiman male protagonist trap. On the other hand, Every Man Jack and the ghouls both fulfill Gaiman's archetypal (contractual?) well-dressed, waggish, faux-cultivated, faux-gentlemanly, slyly sinister villains from the underworld role, which got a bit distracting. But really, you don't read Gaiman books for the main characters (or at least I don't), and you don't read children's books in general for plot twists you don't see coming a mile away. Gaiman's strength is atmosphere and deftly-if-broadly drawn supporting characters, which The Graveyard Book has in spades (get it?).
Monday, July 22, 2013
2013 read #97: Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
226 pages
Published 1990
Read from July 21 to July 22
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
I so called this when I read A Wizard of Earthsea. Well, maybe not so much called it as suspected it: There was no way Le Guin would create a world dominated by male-only magic without eventually addressing the issues of gendered power inherent in her fictional universe. Tehanu gets right to the point, presenting a blunt, broad metaphor for how society marginalizes and subdues women, relegating them to lives as accessories to and dependents of men. Tenar, the central character of The Tombs of Atuan, returns as an older widowed woman, a role seldom encountered in fantasy (or, for that matter, in fiction in general) -- a role of particular powerlessness, a superfluous stage of life after a woman's societal "usefulness" has been exhausted. She's joined by Ged, himself rendered powerless, a man unmanned in a male-dominated society. It's practically textbook gender studies fiction, and the lack of subtlety is driven home by a particularly one-dimensional villain who appears just long enough to subjugate our heroes before being rather inevitably dispatched. (Oops, I guess I should have warned you about spoilers. Oh well.)
Despite this heavyhandedness, I enjoyed Tehanu quite a bit. The story may not be subtle, but Le Guin's prose here has a delicate touch, a melancholy tinge of fading years and a long lifetime behind it, an affecting match for the heavy themes. Above all I enjoyed the novelty of a female protagonist in late middle age. Tehanu isn't quite the breezy fantasy classic that is A Wizard of Earthsea, but all in all I'd say it comes in second best of the Earthsea novels.
226 pages
Published 1990
Read from July 21 to July 22
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
I so called this when I read A Wizard of Earthsea. Well, maybe not so much called it as suspected it: There was no way Le Guin would create a world dominated by male-only magic without eventually addressing the issues of gendered power inherent in her fictional universe. Tehanu gets right to the point, presenting a blunt, broad metaphor for how society marginalizes and subdues women, relegating them to lives as accessories to and dependents of men. Tenar, the central character of The Tombs of Atuan, returns as an older widowed woman, a role seldom encountered in fantasy (or, for that matter, in fiction in general) -- a role of particular powerlessness, a superfluous stage of life after a woman's societal "usefulness" has been exhausted. She's joined by Ged, himself rendered powerless, a man unmanned in a male-dominated society. It's practically textbook gender studies fiction, and the lack of subtlety is driven home by a particularly one-dimensional villain who appears just long enough to subjugate our heroes before being rather inevitably dispatched. (Oops, I guess I should have warned you about spoilers. Oh well.)
Despite this heavyhandedness, I enjoyed Tehanu quite a bit. The story may not be subtle, but Le Guin's prose here has a delicate touch, a melancholy tinge of fading years and a long lifetime behind it, an affecting match for the heavy themes. Above all I enjoyed the novelty of a female protagonist in late middle age. Tehanu isn't quite the breezy fantasy classic that is A Wizard of Earthsea, but all in all I'd say it comes in second best of the Earthsea novels.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
2013 read #96: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.
Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
218 pages
Published 1988
Read July 21
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
When I was a 'tween, I had a predilection for books on mountaineering, polar adventure, and anything that involved more or less voluntary misery and the possibility of lost toes. My living situation back then prevented me from ever obtaining and reading more than two or three such books, but they left a mark on me, contributing to highly optimistic fantasies in my teen years of voyages and feats of adventure I would undertake as soon as I was free of my father. Ice and frostbite and oxygen deprivation lost their hold on my imagination, but I still have a soft spot for "pure" mountaineering, for climbs up untested routes and unsummited peaks, for uncomfortable bivouacs in snow caves and the rhythmic chipping of ice axes.
I would have liked this book a lot as a 'tween. Nowadays I read too critically. I look askance at Simpson's decision to imagine climbing partner Simon Yates' perspective in the first person (seriously, that's what third person narration is designed for), and find Simpson's prose mechanical and a bit amateurish. I can't find it all as compelling as I would have twenty years ago.
218 pages
Published 1988
Read July 21
Rating: ★★★ out of 5
When I was a 'tween, I had a predilection for books on mountaineering, polar adventure, and anything that involved more or less voluntary misery and the possibility of lost toes. My living situation back then prevented me from ever obtaining and reading more than two or three such books, but they left a mark on me, contributing to highly optimistic fantasies in my teen years of voyages and feats of adventure I would undertake as soon as I was free of my father. Ice and frostbite and oxygen deprivation lost their hold on my imagination, but I still have a soft spot for "pure" mountaineering, for climbs up untested routes and unsummited peaks, for uncomfortable bivouacs in snow caves and the rhythmic chipping of ice axes.
I would have liked this book a lot as a 'tween. Nowadays I read too critically. I look askance at Simpson's decision to imagine climbing partner Simon Yates' perspective in the first person (seriously, that's what third person narration is designed for), and find Simpson's prose mechanical and a bit amateurish. I can't find it all as compelling as I would have twenty years ago.
2013 read #95: Watership Down by Richard Adams.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
482 pages
Published 1972
Read from July 17 to July 21
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
I always assumed that this book was decades older than it is. The title has a certain Edwardian mustiness that brings to mind the smell of fancy old books and yellow paper in a warm wooden attic. The text itself is thoroughly 1970s, of course, brisk when not heavy with bucolic description, stirring with early signs of modernity but still stained with the odd casual reference to "primitive men" in hot latitudes. The story is hella entertaining, if a bit dry in spots, and it ends satisfyingly. Definitely a good read.
482 pages
Published 1972
Read from July 17 to July 21
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
I always assumed that this book was decades older than it is. The title has a certain Edwardian mustiness that brings to mind the smell of fancy old books and yellow paper in a warm wooden attic. The text itself is thoroughly 1970s, of course, brisk when not heavy with bucolic description, stirring with early signs of modernity but still stained with the odd casual reference to "primitive men" in hot latitudes. The story is hella entertaining, if a bit dry in spots, and it ends satisfyingly. Definitely a good read.
Friday, July 19, 2013
2013 read #94: Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente.
Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
167 pages
Published 2013
Read from July 18 to July 19
Rating: ★★★★½ out of 5
I am all about this sort of thing; the title alone is enough to tell you why. Fantasy western is hands-down my favorite genre, and fairy tale retellings -- done well and with attention to new detail -- are a reliable font of good times. The only way I would have liked this book any better is if it were longer, more fleshed out, though honestly much of its impact draws from its clipped prose, hard as coffin nails, and any sort of lingering indulgence or excess would probably soften and ruin that.
A minor technical quibble: I have a bit of a pet peeve about books that begin in, say, first person and then shift for no discernible reason into third. Aside from that, I was tempted to give this book an unheard-of perfect score. Not bad for a book I didn't even know existed before I spied it on the shelf the other day.
167 pages
Published 2013
Read from July 18 to July 19
Rating: ★★★★½ out of 5
I am all about this sort of thing; the title alone is enough to tell you why. Fantasy western is hands-down my favorite genre, and fairy tale retellings -- done well and with attention to new detail -- are a reliable font of good times. The only way I would have liked this book any better is if it were longer, more fleshed out, though honestly much of its impact draws from its clipped prose, hard as coffin nails, and any sort of lingering indulgence or excess would probably soften and ruin that.
A minor technical quibble: I have a bit of a pet peeve about books that begin in, say, first person and then shift for no discernible reason into third. Aside from that, I was tempted to give this book an unheard-of perfect score. Not bad for a book I didn't even know existed before I spied it on the shelf the other day.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
2013 read #93: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
181 pages
Published 1950
Read from July 15 to July 17
Rating: ★★★★½ out of 5
Until now, my only significant exposure to Bradbury consisted of Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Of the two, Something Wicked lingered with me the most over the years. What I most admire is Bradbury's hand at description, the shadowed fantasy spaces at the edge of childhood awareness and in the chill of autumn nights, the unsettling familiarity and familiar terror of adolescence in memory. My description could never do Bradbury justice.
Only one segment of The Martian Chronicles, the all too brief interlude titled "The Musicians," is suffused with what I would consider the Bradbury magic, the realms of macabre unreal that open when the adults don't know where you are. The rest of the stories and snippets tend to be more or less predictable but still quite excellent samples of late Golden Age sci-fi. My favorite full story in the set, "The Million-Year Picnic," is a hybrid of these two styles, a sharply observed vignette of adolescence in the ruins of two worlds.
Throughout this book Bradbury emphasizes scene and sensory marvel over character; a product of its time, most of the characters in The Martian Chronicles are broad archetypes, rendered vivid through Bradbury's skill but nonetheless lacking some substance, whereas concepts and imagery go all-out.
181 pages
Published 1950
Read from July 15 to July 17
Rating: ★★★★½ out of 5
Until now, my only significant exposure to Bradbury consisted of Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Of the two, Something Wicked lingered with me the most over the years. What I most admire is Bradbury's hand at description, the shadowed fantasy spaces at the edge of childhood awareness and in the chill of autumn nights, the unsettling familiarity and familiar terror of adolescence in memory. My description could never do Bradbury justice.
Only one segment of The Martian Chronicles, the all too brief interlude titled "The Musicians," is suffused with what I would consider the Bradbury magic, the realms of macabre unreal that open when the adults don't know where you are. The rest of the stories and snippets tend to be more or less predictable but still quite excellent samples of late Golden Age sci-fi. My favorite full story in the set, "The Million-Year Picnic," is a hybrid of these two styles, a sharply observed vignette of adolescence in the ruins of two worlds.
Throughout this book Bradbury emphasizes scene and sensory marvel over character; a product of its time, most of the characters in The Martian Chronicles are broad archetypes, rendered vivid through Bradbury's skill but nonetheless lacking some substance, whereas concepts and imagery go all-out.
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