Jennifer Government by Max Barry

This book went on and off my wishlist a couple times. I heard about it somewhere as a witty Orwellian satire, and I added it. I later heard there was an online game based on the novel (http://www.nationstates.net/), which I signed up for and was bored by, and thus later I took the book off my wishlist. Then, it cropped up somewhere else as a recommended novel for its smart wit and satire, so I added it back.

I dunno. It was an okay read. There was not a lot of depth or originality to any of the characters. The alternate future was a bit outlandish (Privatizing the government? Just how would that work, and how is that not a paradox?), but with a bit of effort I was able to suspend my disbelief… like Cars: accept the premise, don’t think too hard about it.

I wasn’t bored by it, and early on I knew there wasn’t going to be any big payoff, so the ride was fairly enjoyable. Though I can’t figure out what some of the reviewers “laughed out loud” about.

Max Barry’s other books (Company and Syrup) look like more of the same. As one Amazon reviewer put it, “knee-jerk anti-corporate humor is occasionally funny…” I probably won’t bother.

Aliens in America by Sandra Tsing Loh

I heart Sandra. I really do. I get all sorts of excited when she does commentary on Marketplace or some other NPR thingy. She reads her stuff like Meryn Cadell (especially The Sweater) who I also love and whatever happened to her anyway¹?

And I have enjoyed all of her books,this one being no exception.

Except that… well… “book” is a strong term. How about four short essays? They are funny and well-written, and an enjoyable peek into Sandra’s upbringing. But there was oh, so little of it. I hadn’t expected to add another book to the 2006 log, but this one is read almost by accident.

Ah well. Every little bit counts.

¹ Well, for one she apparently has a LiveJournal, and she is now a he, or in the process of becoming one. I must reads further!

Return From The Stars by Stanislaw Lem

The Slice of Sci Fi podcast guys gushed about Lem and specifically this novel. I believe they were discussing it in the context of Solaris, a movie adapted from another one of his novels. It sat on my Amazon wishlist for a good while, until I was able to procure it through paperbackswap.com.

Translated from the original Polish, it’s a story about a space traveler’s return to earth 127 years after his departure and his efforts to adapt to the new world.

It’s pretty well written, but kind of… well… dull.

I read this by a reviewer on Amazon… This is a relatively contemplative work by Lem – he saved his blatant humor for other works… [cut] This might not be the best intro for someone new to Lem. I’d recommend his lighter writing to start with. Still, it’s a good one. At the end of the book there are blurbs about his other works, and I have to agree that the other ones sound more entertaining.

So, perhaps I’ll give him another chance.

Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven: A Novel by Fannie Flagg

I think got this book for our beach vacation earlier this year, and as I enjoyed Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man: A Novel and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel, I added it to my To Be Read pile.

I was not terribly engaged by the read, and given that I was engaged by her previous works, I’m curious as to why. I see three possibilities…

1) Can’t Wait just isn’t as good as her previous works.
2) I’ve changed as a person since I read the other books about 10 years ago.
3) I’ve since read The Rattlesnake Master, which is a superior work in the southern-small-town-stories genre.

I’m inclined to think it’s a combination of the above.

I can’t understand why Beaufort Cranford doesn’t enjoy the same popularity as Fannie Flagg. Maybe because nobody made a movie of his one book. Possibly because he only wrote one book. , poke him on that, won’t you? Fannie is flagging, somebody’s got to pick up the slack.

Darwin’s Children by Greg Bear

Spoilers

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

I read this a while back. I’m not sure when, but the mass market paperback came out a year ago and it’s sitting on our bookshelf with creases and dog ears, so that coupled with a vague memory of the plot makes me think I’ve read it. But I didn’t see it on the Book Log when I went looking for it a moment ago, so here it is.

I think I enjoyed it. Why not? It’s a Discworld novel.

Thud! by Terry Pratchett

This is another in the wacky Discworld series. Why can’t dwarves and trolls just get along?

Like M&Ms, this is very much like the last one I ate. Sugary, enjoyable, but I wouldn’t want to live on them.

——

On the To Be Read pile:

*The Ancestor’s Tale: A pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins
*Darwin’s Children by Greg Bear
*Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
*Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven by Fannie Flagg
*Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
*Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
*A whole slew of Janet Evanovich books given to for early Xmas.

Shiksa Goddess (or, How I Spent My Forties) by Wendy Wasserstein.

This book was recommended by one of the Motley Fool folks on their Eclectic Library discussion board. Non-fictional Essays are more or less my favorite type of book, so I was sold.

I’ve never seen a Wasserstein work on stage, nor do I think I’ve read any. In fact, before I read this book I knew two things about her: 1) She was a somewhat famous playwright and b) She died in January 2006.

While the essays were well written, nothing in there jumped out at me as amazing. Some stories are sad, some amusing. There was somewhat of a black cloud over the reading, as her sister died young and she is writing about how her mother was terribly concerned about Wendy’s health. Here I am, knowing she would be dead 5 years later (at the way too young age of 55), so even her optimistic essays get a tinge of unintentional melancholy.

She seems a nice lady and in fact writes an entire essay about her own niceness, and how she often uses it to her advantage. The one essay that made me think a bit was about gov’t funding of the arts (Wendy was for it, and I remain on the fence). So, since she got me to think a bit, I’ll call the book a win.

NeverWhere by Neil Gaiman

Brefly, an unremarkable London man with a mediocre life falls between the cracks of society for a while to join a quest in the magical London Below.

Skimming his bibliography on WikiPedia, I see I have read Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, The Sandman, Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion, American Gods and, I’m assuming here, some text he wrote for SimCity 2000.

I originally bought NeverWhere for my brother’s birthday present back in August, but turned out he already had it. So, I put it on my To Be Read pile, and sent him the Serenity essay book as a replacement.

So, I’ve read it, but like most of his books, I end up thinking, “Well. That was that.” I expect that this book will have no lasting impact on my life or worldview, but it was a fine distraction for a couple hours, much like Terry Pratchett’s stuff (whom he cowrote Good Omens with). It gave me something to read on a recent night when I couldn’t get back to sleep after Steakette had woken us up. So, there’s that.

Probably, I should have bought a copy of the Serenity essays for myself.