Joshua's Bookshelf

Emperor by Stephen Baxter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book stood out for me. It's historical fiction, and it's a great introduction to why "historical fiction" deserves it's own category. It complimented my world history classes very well. It painted a great picture of day to day life in ancient England. It focused on a historical event and made it interesting. The characters were believable but brief. The book seemed to be concerned with history and if it didn't have much to do with world event's, it kept things brief. That could be a negative for a lot of people, but it worked for me.

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I went on a major Star Wars spree in the last few weeks.  I read four book in three weeks.  Most of them were set near the movies, and helped fill out background on those characters.  After that I wanted something a bit more challenging.  My Nook Simple screensaver has a picture of Kurt Vonnegut and I picked up Slaughterhouse 5.

Twenty pages in I set the Nook down.  “Cripes,” I thought, “This book is trying to make me think.  What on earth is going on?”

 So I looked it up on Wikipedia.  I leave myself open to literary snobbery.  The reader I was, studying for my English Degree is sneering, somewhere in the back of my head.  Still, a bit of an outline and a basic theme summary always helps.  I’m getting more out of the book and enjoying it more.  

Thanks to the Sword and Laser Podcast I read the ENTIRE Song of Fire and Ice series this summer, the ENTIRE series, straight through.  Now it's fall and where the hell did summer go?

 

I should have written these reviews out one by one but I was in love.  I loved John, who shares my bastard blood, Cersie, who reminded me of so many co-workers, Jamie, the prick who decided that he could be better, and Tyrion, the dwarf.  Now that I am in the legion of fans waiting for the next book, I feel quite. lost.  George RR Martin, in a way, you've ruined there rest of the written world for me.  

 

A Dance with Dragons

I swear to the Old Gods and the current three faced Gods is this the best introduction to a fantasy series I've ever read.  It enthralled me, won my love and broke my heart in one swipe.  It left me with the following opinions, that I would decent into the fighting cages to defend: I will read the rest of the series, and it is totally worth the money HBO invested in the series.

 

A Storm of Swords

The last time I read a piece of literature that was so jam packed with convoluted political bullshit it was Shakespeare.  I honestly think Martin managed to top the Bard, but only for a 21st century reader.  If Martin was writing a play of old, he'd have a run for his money.  I opened this book wanting, no craving, dialogue concerning certain set of characters and was denied time upon time.  In it's stead was a tale of incest, deceit, love, money and the one quality that bonds all of those vices together, power.  This book left me savoring of the next and I opened that file with no consideration of foresight of the net book.

 

A Feast of Crows

In retrospect, if I were one of the many fans that finished this book and waited six years for the next one, I'd be calling for blood like so many of them were by the time Dance With Dragons was released.  It's obviously a split novel piece, which is normally fine in this day and age, but this day and age doesn't allow for a 6 year break in publications.  it was a noticeable departure from the rest of the novels, it centered on the center of the kingdom.  The narrative was far more political than before, but it had a certain taste of selfishness that I enjoyed tremendously.  The climax of this book led to me pumping my hand in the air, silently chanting the name of a point of view characters, because he growth as a man was that tremendous.  

 

A Dance With Dragons

I'm so angry right now.  Over the years I listened to friends bemoan the never ending Wheel of Time Series, and I promised myself that I'd never get involved with a book series that wasn't' finished. I assumed that as a late adopter to this series I would receive some amount of satisfaction to this enthralling literally series, but no, you just had to end it on a gigantic cliff hanger.  Now I open my Nook like a feverish drug addict, ready for that next hit, desperate to find out what happened to the Tyrion and the bloody horn.  Well, thanks.  It was the most mind blowing experience of fantasy, genera, literature that I've ever had.  I'm talking incessantly about it and naming co-workers after the characters they most reassemble.  I feel like a lover of notable accomplishment abruptly exited my life, leaving me simultaneously satisfied and abandoned.  Like the rest of my heartbreaks, I'm sure I'll recover quickly, but Gods, be gentle next time.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is epic, dramatic, political fantasy literature at it's best. It's raw, bloody, brutal and does a great job of showing how mean human being can be to each other. My only complaint is that I often feel in over my head because there are so many different characters. Since I read it as an ebook and never bothered to check the tabel of contents, I discovered the appendix at the end of the book. It's a great read but if it catches you, it will consume your life for the next few weeks.

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The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger by Leonard Scheff
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really liked this book, but my thoughts on it have much more to do with the format that I listened to it in than the content itself.

I love listening to fiction on audible.com but it has to be really well writing fiction. If it's an avant garde piece then I will easily loose interest. If it's a nonfiction piece I'll only pay attention to the bullet points. I have a tendency to journal while I read non fiction to process the ideas a work presents into my head. While I'm listening to non fiction on a commute I end up talking to myself in the car and ignoring half a chapter at a time.

That happened a lot with this book. I choose it for the Buddhist background and walked away with a few very profoud parables about anger. It goes much further than presenting tools to deal with the frustrations of daily life, and presents the idea that anger itself poisons the body.

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