My Library

Over the next several months I'll be writing some posts on the topic of threatened books under the topic «banned books». I won't actually be limiting myself to books that have suffered an actual legal ban but will be including banned, boycotted, threatened and censored books, books whose authors have suffered «fatwas» or similar extrajudicial punishment, and controversial books that have narrowly escaped these fates. I'm devoting this project to the concept from Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature that «readers are born free and ought to remain free.»

I'm currently reading Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, a book which while not directly banned has certainly stirred some controversy. Nafisi takes as one of her themes that same quote from Nabokov, an author she returns to time and again not merely in the novel about the eponymous Dolores Hayes, but in other novels, poems and essays. In addition to sources such as the American Library Association's «100 Most Frequently Challenged Books» I'll also be reading some of the selections from Nafisi's book.

The first few books include:

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death by Kurt Vonnegut
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs used to be smart. «in high school and college, [he] was actually quite cerebral.» Covering pop culture at Entertainment Weekly, then highbrow pop culture at Esquire drained his brain. He wanted to feel smart again. So, he decided to read the Encyclopedia Britannica all the way from a-ak to zywiec. Actually, he stole the idea from his father, an attorney and prolific author of law books, who tried the same feat but only made it to the mid-Bs. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World is the story of his year long quest.

At 389 pages, it's not just an extremely condensed version of Brittanica's 33,000. Jacobs shares his efforts to become a father, made more difficult by the annoyance his encyclopedia obsession causes his wife, Julie. As the future smartest person in the world, he uses his college board scores to join Mensa, then takes the Mensa entrance exam anyway...only to find out, that it's a good thing he had those high college board scores. He exams his rivalry with his father, trying to complete the mission his father didn't, and the reader learns that what psychobabblers might call «dysfunction» is really normal, loving, often hilarious and sometimes touching. The facts he obsesses over range from fertility gods to obscure diseases to Rene Descartes' fetish for cross-eyed women. Along the way he encounters Alex Trebek, Ted Kennedy and a trove of Spock-eared Mensans. The book is funny and enlightening, with much of the enlightenment for Jacobs and the reader coming not because of, but in spite of the fact filled tomes of the Encyclopedia.

In The Devil Inside, Jenna Black invites the reader into the world of exorcist Morgan Kingsley, a world where demons operate openly, so openly they're regulated and controlled by law. Kingsley's job is to exorcise the demons that break the law and possess the unwilling and she is one of the best at it. These are and aren't the demons we know. The premise is that these supernatural beings are the basis for the demon mythology, but they aren't simply fallen angels. In fact, Black never makes it entirely clear just what a demon is - of course not, this is the first novel in a series.

Morgan comes from a family of demon enthusiasts that belong to the Spirit Society, a group promoting demon possession. Demon hosts have exceptional strength, resilience and immunity. Legal, licensed and registered they take on dangerous jobs like firefighting and police work. Morgan's brother is a willing host to a demon, his own personality trapped somewhere in the back of the demon mind and Morgan definitely doesn't approve. She approves even less when she finds out, early in the novel, that she's an unwilling host herself and one that's starting a civil war among the demons no less. The penalty for the demon is exorcism and exorcism may leave the host's mind completely shattered, a fact she understands from long experience.

Through the course of the story, Morgan mistreats her boyfriend, fantasizes about/with the demon in her head, fights with her brother's demon for herself and as part of the war, exorcises a legal demon gone roque and discovers things about demon society no other human knows. In this milieu exorcists exist in the same shadowy semi-official second class private cop status as private investigators in all the private dick pulp fiction. So, of course, Morgan has a love-hate relationship with a cop, in this case a demon cop, who also has a thing for her and in the style you might expect of a demon his attraction is not satisfied with vanilla courtship. Even aside from the sacrilegious ideas that all demons aren't evil, demon possession might not be all bad and exorcists can be sexy young women, not just old priests, the easily offended will need to stay away because of the sex and the kink. (The worst Amazon review gave the book three stars because it «bogged down in rough erotic content.» The other reviewers didn't complain.)

This novel is suspenseful, sexy and action packed. The world Black builds is intriguing. The demons internal strife, their positive role in human society and the moral complexity of the human and demon characters make for an interesting read.

You may be tempted to put down Tom Reynold's Blood, Sweat, and Tea: Real-Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulanceafter reading the tragic story in the prologue. Don't. This book based on a compilation of posts from his popular blog Random Acts of Reality, does have its share of tear jerker stories, but balanced by enough humour to help the reader maintain sanity and see how Reynold's maintains his as a member of the London Ambulance Service.

Readers who've been on the net since the mid-90s will likely remember a recording of a 911 call requesting a «bambulance» [NSFW] for the caller who has been bitten on the neck by a deer he hit with his car. Think of that story multiplied times 270 pages and you've got this book in a nutshell.

This book is a light read that you could finish in a couple of hours. I've spent the last week reading it in little doses and letting it set the tone for my day. Dealing with drunks, idiots or the simply ill mannered isn't quite so tough when you've read a humorous anecdote of the trouble they cause for emergency workers. Of course, anyone who's ever worked in a role that involved any level of customer service will quickly see parallels in stories about concerned passersby calling an ambulance for a collapsed drunk and laugh along with «Control» (the ambulance dispatchers) telling kids making prank calls to look up at the security camera in the call box. Anyone who's had to deal with bureaucracy on a regular basis will feel for the author when he is stuck waiting for a tire change, unable to get to emergencies, because he'd be held responsible if he changed the flat tire on the «Fast Response Unit» and something went wrong.

There's plenty of serious stuff in the book to provoke real thought, too. You'll certainly think twice before trying to beat an ambulance across an intersection or calling in an emergency when getting in the car to drive to the hospital is a more viable option. You'll feel for the emergency workers who take care of us when you read about Reynold's brush with HIV-exposure.

Those who think that the US should emulate Britain's National Health Service should definitely read this book. The common assertion recently is that universal health care frees up emergency rooms for real emergencies. Hardly. It just assures that the indigent who don't have GPs (a family physician) use the ambulance service AND the emergency room as their first stop for medical care.

Bottom line: This is a great book, well worth the read. I got it as an early review copy and it was near the bottom of my list of the books I requested. Sometimes things work out for the best, because I loved this book.

The Charlemagne Pursuit: A Novel by Steve Berry is a historical conspiracy novel centered around the Piri Reis map; a group of mythical beings, The Watchers; the disappearance of a top secret Navy submarine and a conspiracy stretching from Charlemagne's court to Hitler's bunker and into the highest levels of modern American government.

The Piri Reis map is a map that should not exist.  It was drawn on a gazelle skin in 1513 by Piri Reis, a Turkish admiral.  The map shows western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica - 300 years before Antarctica was discovered.  More importantly, it shows the actual coastline, under the ice.

Fans of Tom Clancy will love the intrigue.  The great thing about this sort of conspiracy theory is that you don't have to believe the conspirators are correct, or even sane; all you have to believe is that the conspirators believe their own mythology. When those who believe have access to classified intelligence and secret military equipment things begin to get interesting.

Dan Brown fans and others of a less skeptical bent, the explanation of the Piri Reis map Berry presents, a lost race of humans with advanced technology that were in contact with European and Asian cultures, is intriguing.  In fact, it may be a more believable explanation for the map, for the similarities among widespread cultures, reports of white men in Aztec myths, stories of lost continents, than many alternate theories.

Whether you approach it with the skeptics willing suspension of disbelief or the mystics open contemplation of what might be, the book is a great read, in keeping with Berry's other work.

Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture and an acclaimed true crime author. In Depraved: The Definitive True Story of H.H. Holmes, Whose Grotesque Crimes Shattered Turn-of-the-Century Chicago, Schechter brings readers the tale of one of America's first serial killers. H.H. Holmes, or Herman Mudgett as he was more prosaically named by his parents, operated from a base in Chicago in the time of Jack the Ripper, but his crimes spread from Texas to Toronto and east to Philadelphia.

Holmes was the consummate con man, building a «castle» in Chicago that covered a city block, all while shafting the builders and building material suppliers. Facing financial ruin, Holmes began his career of murder with schemes reminiscent of the «Black Widow» mold of female serial killers - a bigamist and playboy, Holmes killed several wives and mistresses for their money. When that failed and he appears to have met a woman he had no intention of killing, he eventually branched out to killing others in insurance schemes. (He may have been involved in an earlier life insurance scheme as well, though whether that involved murder or merely grave robbing or whether it happened at all are unclear.) At some point, Holmes seems to have acquired a taste for murder, as he purposely chose murder, including the murder of three children, to cover his tracks even when it appears the track covering murders brought more attention than simply leaving well enough alone.

The career of Holmes lacks the titillation of the psychosexual crimes of later serial killers like Ted Bundy and his matter of fact methods are not as gruesome as the likes of Ed Gein. Perhaps the most shocking, frightening aspect of Holmes is that he fooled so many while calmly and methodically murdering first for profit alone and then for profit and sport.

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008)
requiescat in pace

If, as a chef interviewed in Food & Wine noted, slick cookbooks are nothing but «food pornography» then the voice of South Park's Chef has brought us the girl next door's centerfold spread in Cooking With Heart & Soul . Turns out that the hillbilly favorites I've eaten all my life alternately go by the name of «soul food». From «Memphis Summer Fried Green Tomatoes» to «Lucky Black Eyed Peas» to «Cheesy Turkey Tetrazzini» this book is full of the best comfort foods. As expected there is plenty of barbecue (Lu's Chopped BBQ Pork), southern seafood (Barbara Carey's Shrimp Creole) and great desserts (Sweet Brown Sugar Pound Cake). And yes, of course, the recipe for Chef's «Homemade Chocolate Salty Balls» is included.

I'd take the easy way out and say that Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1) is Zen Moses meets the Chronicles of Narnia, but I won't for three reasons. First, the whole «x meets y» thing has become clichéd. Second, some of you are probably unfortunate enough not to know about Zen Moses. Third, it wouldn't be nice to steal the heroine's own reference to the Chronicles of Narnia.

Eugenie Markham, Odile, the Dark Swan. With so many identities, you'd think the protagonist of Richelle Mead's latest novel was confused enough, but things only get worse as she finds family members, dead and alive, that she never knew she had, learns her true identity and, maybe, her destiny.

Odile is a shaman. Not a peyote smoking (well, maybe once or twice) buckskin clad Native, but a real warrior with the power to bind and banish spirits and other denizens of the Otherworld including the gentry, the shining ones, fairies. And she's damn good at it, with a lot of fairy blood on her hands. She's a magical gun for hire, defending this world against invaders from elsewhere...for a price. «Have athame, will travel.»

Things get dicy when the djinn possessing a running shoe knows her real name and others follow. Then, her latest gig, rescuing the 15-year old sister of a conspiracy theory blogger who's been kidnapped by a fairy king leads her to the answer of just how they know her real identity. It also leads her to a new question: «Does she know who she really is?»

Eugenie is a real hero, defending this world against the denizens of the Otherworld, but no stranger to spilling blood. In the course of the story she confronts her prejudice against the gentry, her aversion to fairy magic, even her attitude towards two men. Her attitudes evolve and she gains power. She sacrifices greatly for love and honor. The Dark Swan becomes a bit darker in the process.

This book is an engaging read with interesting takes on the fey, the afterlife and magic. There are amusing characters as well as serious ones, but overall the tone is more serious than Mead's Georgina Kincaid series. There may be a moral sentiment or two tucked in there, too, but it doesn't suffer for action. It's a real page turner you won't want to put down.

Keep reading →

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead's second novel and her first effort in the Young Adult market, opens with Rose, our heroine, and Lissa, her best friend, under attack by what they think are Strigoi, the evil immortal vampires of human legend. Rose is a Dhampir, a human/vampire hybrid, and Lissa is a Moroi, a mortal but pureblooded vampire with powerful magic, and a Princess at that. They've run away from St. Vladimir's Academy, a vampire boarding school in Montana of all places, and the Academy wants them back. [Spoiler of sorts, but nothing you won't find on the book's cover or deduce from the title - they get taken back.] The book manages to combine typical school age gossip and rivalries with royal intrigue and the complexities of Mead's own vampire society. The entire story is set against the related mysteries of why Rose and Lissa ran away from the Academy in the first place and the unusual telepathic bond between the two.

As you'd expect of a Young Adult novel, this is a light, quick read. Even so Mead includes plenty of meat in the story - suspense, mystery, humor and romance that pushes the borders of what's allowable in the genre.

This book is every bit as good as Succubus Blues. Both are must reads for fans of vampires, paranormal and fantasy.

The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine is aimed at people who might be described as multiply interested, the cliched «jack of all trades and master of none.» She calls them «Renaissance Souls» (the modern, PC version of «Renaissance Man».)

She answers questions starting with «Am I a Renaissance Soul?», «What do I say when people ask what I do?» and «How do I make a living without a 'career'?» She provides examples from the lives of Renaissance Souls from Leonardo da Vinci to Benjamin Franklin.

Her chapters on earning an income are good. She emphasizes ideas to get a job that earns an income but also contributes to other interests, when getting the perfect job just isn't possible.

The book is really good and well worth the read for anyone who feels too confined in the idea of following one career for 30-40 years and then retiring to play golf. It was good enough that it contributed to the name for my website network (along with several other occurrences of the Renaissance theme).

There are two downsides to her book, shared with many in the emerging «life design» genre. First, a lot of space is devoted just to convincing the reader that it's ok to be a Renaissance Soul. For some, that may be great. For me, I saw the title, intuitively understood what it meant and that it applied to me. I was already familiar with the life stories of Leonardo, Ben Franklin and Oprah Winfrey. I didn't need to be convinced, I needed a *plan*. The pages devoted to convincing were, for me, mostly filler.

Second, it works from an assumption that the reader is either a well paid professional or a single person with no debts for many of its suggestions. For those with obligations and without substantial savings, all her suggestions may be doable, but they'll require the kind of sacrifice from the Renaissance Family that the family may not want to make. For an attorney to move into a job outside the legal field is relatively easy. For a Renaissance Soul with a family, debts and an interest in law to go the other way - especially for what is likely to be a relatively short legal career that never leads to the perks and income partnership, etc. - is not so simple.

The book still has plenty to recommend it for the Average Renaissance Joe, but it's more tailored to Renaissance Joseph, Esquire. For the reader of average means, additional resources may be more necessary, but the book is still a great starting point. Plus, if you do need some convincing that it's OK to try new things, switch jobs and make a career out of following all your dreams instead of just one, this book should do the trick.