iftyzaidi takes on another 100 in 2011

Keskustelu100 Books in 2011

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iftyzaidi takes on another 100 in 2011

Tämä viestiketju on "uinuva" —viimeisin viesti on vanhempi kuin 90 päivää. Ryhmä "virkoaa", kun lähetät vastauksen.

1iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 29, 2010, 12:13 pm

So I'm back again and looking forward to the challenge. Last year I upped the challenge from 100 to 125 about half way through the year and it looks like I will just fall short. For 2011 I will aim for 125 once again!

I also threw in a couple of random challenges for myself; 6 books by authors whose names start with a 'B', 6 books I bought in 2005 or earlier, and lastly 6 books with the word 'dark' in the title.

This year my random challenges will be:
6 books on history (to try and increase the amount of nonfiction I read)
6 books I bought in 2006 or earlier, and
6 books by my most highly rated authors (who average 4 stars or higher with a minimum of 3 books read).
6 short story collections

The other thing I'm going to try and do is ensure a better female to male author ratio in my reading. I may add more challenges later. (edited to add the 6 short story collections).

2iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2011, 6:27 am

Reading January - April

January (100 TBR, 6 read)
1. Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky ***1/2
2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan by J. K. Rowling ***1/2
3. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte ****
4. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse ****
5. Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs ***1/2
6. The History of the Crusades Vol. 1 by Steven Runciman ****

February (94 TBR, 3 read)
7. The Hidden War by Artyom Borovik ****
8. The First Crusade: A New History by Thomas Asbridge ***1/2
9. In the Ruins of the Reich by Douglas Botting ***

March (91 TBR, 8 read)
10. Witchblade: Origins by David Wohl, Christina Z. & Michael Turner ***
11. Kingdom Come by Mark Waid & Alex Ross ***1/2
12. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes ****
13. Napoleon and the Awakening of Europe by Felix Markham ****
14. Planet of No Return by Poul Anderson ****
15. Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip ***1/2
16. The Elysium Commission by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. ***
17. Fire by Kristin Cashore ***1/2

April (83 TBR, 8 read)
18. Retief of the CDT by Keith Laumer ***1/2
19. A Different Light by Elizabeth A. Lynn ***1/2
20. The World Swappers by John Brunner ***
21. Temeraire: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik ***1/2
22. Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 5: Public Scrutiny by Brian Michael Bendis ***1/2
23. Queen & Country Declassified Vol. 2 by Greg Rucka ***1/2
24. Transition by Iain Banks ***
25. The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker ****1/2

3iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: syyskuu 17, 2011, 3:27 am

Reading May - August

May (75 TBR, 7 read)
26. Frontline Pakistan by Zahid Hussain ****1/2
27. The Boys Volume 1: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis ***
28. Raise the Dead Hardcover by Leah Moore ***1/2
29. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks ***1/2
30. Holes by Louis Sachar ***1/2
31. A Mighty Fortress by Steven Ozment ***1/2
32. The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery ****

June (68 TBR, 7 read)
33. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell ***
34. Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai ***
35. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi ****1/2
36. Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco *****
37. A Golden Age by Tahmina Anam ***1/2
38. Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa ***1/2
39. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin ****

July (61 TBR, 16 read)
40. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin ****
41. A.B.C. Warriors by Pat Mills et al. **1/2
42. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin ****1/2
43. Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser ***
44. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon ****
45. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich ***1/2
46. A Storm of Swords I: Steel and Blood by George R. R. Martin ****
47. A Storm of Swords II: Blood and Gold by George R. R. Martin ****1/2
48. A Feast of Crows by George R. R. Martin ****
49. The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson ****
50. Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson **
51. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson ***1/2
52. Batting on the Bosphorus: A Skoda-powered Cricket Tour Through Eastern Europe by Angus Bell ***1/2
53. Freaks of the Heartland by Steve Niles ***1/2
54. Three Empires on the Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899 by Dominic Green ***
55. The Cold War by Priscilla Roberts ****

August (45 TBR, 9 read)
56. Batman: Bloodstorm by Doug Moenech et al ***
57. The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale by Bronwyn Carlton et al ***
58. The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power by Tariq Ali ***
59. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid ****1/2
60. Existencilism by Banksy ***1/2
61. Graceling by Kristin Cashore ***1/2
62. The Electric Forest by Tanith Lee ***
63. Mockingbird by Walter Tevis ***1/2
64. Crossfire by Nancy Kress ***1/2

4iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2012, 2:17 pm

Reading September - December

September (36 TBR, 2 read)
65. Daybreak vol. 1 by Brian Ralph ***1/2
66. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie ***1/2

October (34 TBR, 18 read)
67. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin ***1/2
68. Elektra Volume. 1: Introspect by Greg Rucka et al **1/2
69. Black Widow: The Coldest War by Gerry Conway ***1/2
70. Black Widow by Devin Grayson ***
71. Wolverine Legends Volume 6 by Larry Hama et al ***
72. Peter Parker, Spider-Man: One Small Break by Gerry Conway ***
73. Startling Stories: Banner by Brian Azzarello ****
74. The Incredible Hulk Vol. 4: Abominable by Bruce Jones ****
75. Union Jack TPB by Ben Raab ***
76. Catwoman: When in Rome by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale ****
77. Doom TPB by Chuck Dixon ***
78. The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan - and How They Threaten America by Zahid Hussain ***1/2
79. The Punisher: Circle of Blood by Steve Grant et al ***1/2
80. X-O Manowar: Retribution by Bob Layton et al **1/2
81. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammad Hanif ***1/2
82. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny ****
83. The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny ***1/2
84. Aliens vs Predator vs The Terminator by Mike Schultz **1/2

November (16 TBR, 11 read)
85. The Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny ****
86. The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny ***1/2
87. Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello ***1/2
88. Hounded by Kevin Hearne ***1/2
89. Playing With Fire by Pamela Constable ***1/2
90. Instant City by Steve Inskeep ****1/2
91. Hexed by Kevin Hearne ***1/2
92. The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny ***
93. Lords of the Starship by Mark S. Geston ***1/2
94. Bin Laden, Islam and America's New War on Terrorism by Asad Abukhalil ***1/2
95. The Day of the Dissonance by Alan Dean Foster ***1/2

December (5 TBR, 12 read)
96. Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler ***
97. The King and the Cowboy by David Fromkin **1/2
98. The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes ****
99. Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death by Jim Frederick ****1/2
100. Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski ***
101. A Million Bullets by James Fergusson ***1/2
102. Taliban by James Fergusson ***1/2
103. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers ****
104. The Ballad of Abu Ghraib by Philip Gourevitch & Errol Morris ****
105. Cherrywood Cannon by Ralph Steadman ***
106. Hammered by Kevin Hearne ***
107. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins ***1/2

5wookiebender
joulukuu 27, 2010, 8:37 pm

Looking forward to your 2011 reads!

6iftyzaidi
joulukuu 29, 2010, 12:08 pm

Thanks wookie! I'm pretty excited about the new year as well! Another year of books - awesome!

7ronincats
tammikuu 5, 2011, 11:34 pm

I'll be checking in on your reads as well.

8judylou
tammikuu 6, 2011, 3:30 am

You are so organised! Looking forward to following your thread.

9iftyzaidi
tammikuu 7, 2011, 3:09 am

Thanks everyone. I'm sorry I haven't been posting recently. I've been really bummed out about various things recently. Hopefully I'll be back on track soon. :)

10judylou
tammikuu 7, 2011, 3:38 am

Sorry to hear that. hope it passes soon.

11ronincats
tammikuu 7, 2011, 4:19 pm

RL happens. Hope things clear up for you quickly.

12iftyzaidi
tammikuu 8, 2011, 8:31 am

Well, I'm not too sure its going to be passing any time soon, actually. I know this thread isn't really the place for such discussions, but much of what's been upsetting me is related to this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/pakistan-salman-taseer-liberal

I swear I can't recognize this country any more. It feels like its gone totally bonkers in recent time. For more context:
http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2010/12/interview-salmaan-taseer-governor-of-pun...

and
http://tribune.com.pk/story/99052/utter-madness/

Anyway, sorry about that. I needed to rant.

13wookiebender
tammikuu 8, 2011, 5:12 pm

Rant away, I'd be pretty depressed too if something like that happened in my home. Thanks for the links, I've been rather news starved of late (school holidays) so hadn't heard anything (not that Australian media is so good that they would have had this much on it).

14Aerrin99
tammikuu 8, 2011, 5:30 pm

> Agreed! I didn't realize that's where you were.

15ronincats
tammikuu 8, 2011, 5:55 pm

Only the last link worked for me, but that was enough to make very clear what is upsetting you. I am so sorry. I had good friends who worked in the US State Department in Pakistan, and they loved the country and the people they worked with. It is so sad and scary to see civilization devolve like this, and to realize it could happen anywhere.

16iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 12, 2011, 4:59 am

Hmm. Not sure why those two links aren't working. The Newsline interview is particularly good at showing the late governor's views in his own words. I suppose events in the U.S. yesterday show that we don't have a complete monopoly on crazy, but there is unfortunately so much of it here at the moment.

17clfisha
tammikuu 10, 2011, 7:07 am

I can access all 3 so they maybe back up or maybe it's because I am in the UK? I agree rant away, it's a depressing and disheartening situation.

18ronincats
tammikuu 10, 2011, 12:12 pm

All three are accessible this morning, so maybe they were down temporarily or had too much traffic. You are right, you were the first person I thought of when I heard about the Arizona shootings.

19iftyzaidi
tammikuu 15, 2011, 9:21 am

Reading has been somewhat slow over the last couple of weeks and I haven't had the time to really keep up with the threads on this group. Hopefully I'll be able to make up for that over the next few days.

1. Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky: 3 and a half stars.

Empire in Black and Gold is the first book in the Shadows of the Apt series and author Adrian Tchaikovsky's début novel. The series is projected to be 10 books long, though the structure is apparently broken up so that the first 4 books form one narrative arc, books 5-7 form a second narrative arc and books 8-10 a third. I generally don't like starting a long series unless its available, but given that the first 5 are already out and the 6th and 7th slated to appear later this year, I thought it safe to give this a shot. The series has been garnering a fair amount of praise without quiet having set the internet on fire. My own reaction seems to mirror the general one - its an engaging and entertaining fantasy novel, though not a exceptional one. At just a pip over 600 pages its fairly chunky, but a uncomplicated, straightforward and fairly smooth read which was pretty much just what I was in the mood for.

The basic plot structure is familiar with a small band of heroes venturing forth to gain intelligence about a deadly adversary (the wasp empire - i.e. the empire in black and gold) that is gathering its armies to descend upon the unsuspecting peoples of the lowlands. However the world setting is given some unusual trimmings which help to give the novel a distinctive flavour. The different human races of this world have taken on the characteristics and talents of different insect races (the 'art'). Hence the mantis-kinden are fearsome solitary warriors, the beetle-kinden industrious workers and innovators, the dragonfly-kinden are able to use their art to fly, etc. Furthermore the races are divided into the 'apt' and 'un-apt'. The un-apt, which included the mantis, spider, moth and butterfly races used to rule the world using magic and other talents, but since their rule was swept away by their former slave-races, the world has come to be dominated by the 'apt' who are able to use tools and have developed technology and industry. The world is thus very much a steampunk world, with dirigibles, steam trains, spring-loaded automobiles and steam-powered repeating crossbows. The characters are vivid, diverse and have their own issues and purposes, which helps prevent the racial characteristics from becoming over-deterministic. The story unfolds at a rapid pace, and while it doesn't hold any major surprises, manages to entertain and the ending is both satisfying and helps set up the next book in the series, which I'll probably be looking to read sometime soon.

20iftyzaidi
tammikuu 15, 2011, 9:31 am

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan by J. K. Rowling: 3 and a half stars.

What I liked the most about this third instalment in the Harry Potter series is that the characters and character-dynamics between Harry, Hermione and Ron develop. I must also confess to not really have taken to Harry in the first two books as a character - he seemed to be very thinly sketched perhaps. But here he seems a much more vivid and likeable personality. The story itself was fairly decent, despite the deus ex machina at the end. Again I think enough of it had percolated into the cultural Zeitgeist for it not to hold any significant surprises. Well, I'll now have to track down book 4!

21iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 17, 2011, 12:14 pm

3. The Sun Over Breda by Arturo Perez-Reverte: 4 stars.

The historian in me absolutely loved this. If the greatest strength of the first Alatriste novel was how vividly it brought early 17th century Madrid to life, here Perez-Reverte really brings to life the war in the low countries. I suppose one might feel that the novel is more a series of vignettes than a fully structured story, but I thought that it succeeded wonderfully in capturing a certain period in the lives of the two main characters. The descriptions of the siege, the trench warfare and life in the tercios of Imperial Spain are brilliantly conceived and executed and to my mind as vivid as any classic war novel. The development of the relationship between Alatriste and his ward, Inigo is also well done. I also liked the departure from the swashbuckling adventure of the previous books and the exquisite dissection of the horrors of war.

Now I need to start scouring bookshops for the next in the series. For some reason they are devilishly difficult to find here!

22wookiebender
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 17, 2011, 5:28 pm

iftyzaidi, I have the same problem with the Captain Alatriste novels in Australia! My local bookshop raved about the first, I bought it and enjoyed it. I found the second when it came out (without raves). I missed the third... but found it just the other week, second hand!

And now I see there are another three to get. *sigh* I may have to go to The Book Depository for them...

I've picked up a number of his other novels second hand (all, as yet, unread), but not The Fencing Master which I'm hanging out for - I saw some of a magnificent movie adaptation of it on TV some years back, and really want to know the whole story! (Oh, and at least Captain Alatriste has been made into a movie, with Viggo Mortensen. I've caught it on TV, and it's very good.)

ETA: Actually, it looks as if the bigger bookshop in the city has a good range of his books. And I hadn't realised that his The Dumas Club was made into the very silly "The Ninth Gate" with Johnny Depp. Looks like he's popular with film makers!

23CynWetzel
tammikuu 17, 2011, 10:23 pm

#22>
One of the instructors at our college assigns here classes to read/report on a novel which as *not* been made into a movie. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to find these for the students. :)

24iftyzaidi
tammikuu 17, 2011, 11:45 pm

wookie - I've been able to pick up most of Perez-Reverte's books here and there but for some reason the Captain Alatriste books don't seem to be as easy to find. All three of the books I have I picked up in second hand! I got the first in Karachi, the second in Islamabad and ordered the third from an online second hand shop.

I didn't realise that The Fencing Master had been made into a movie. I'll have to read it soon and then go hunting for the adaptation. I was quite excited when I found out about the Viggo Mortensen Alatriste movie, but I read somewhere that it combines events from several books so I thought I'd read the books first then watch it.

Speaking of books made into movies and TV series, I've started reading my very first Jeeves book. I've loved the TV adaptation for years but for some reason I had never got around to reading any of the books. Maybe kcs' recent forays into Jeeves and Wooster territory inspired me!

25iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 23, 2011, 4:50 am

4. The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse: 4 stars.

Wonderful. Even, dare I say it, inimitable! This is the first Jeeves and Wooster book I've read and honestly I can't say why it took me so long to get round to reading it. I have to say that the TV series has left such a lasting impression that I can't help 'hearing' the voice of Hugh Laurie's Wooster while I was reading this. And of course Stephen Fry is now firmly embedded as Jeeves in my mind.

26clif_hiker
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 21, 2011, 2:07 pm

nothing like a little British humor, what? Jolly good for pulling one out of the blues eh?

Glad you liked the Jeeves, and hope things are improving on your end!

27jfetting
tammikuu 21, 2011, 12:34 pm

The Inimitable Jeeves was my first Jeeves-and-Wooster book, too, and I think it is the perfect place to start. The best one, IMHO. They're all wonderful though.

28iftyzaidi
tammikuu 23, 2011, 11:50 am

5. Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs: 3 and a half stars.

This is probably Raymond Briggs' (author of When the Wind Blows) most personal graphic novel. It tells the story of the lives of his parents in brief vignettes, from the time they first met, she a lady's maid and he a milk deliveryman till their deaths in 1970 and 1971 respectively. Its obviously a labour of love and in the course of the tale, one grows to know both as warm-hearted, kind people very much in love with each other. Whether its the wonder of buying their own home, disagreements over politics (Ernest is a staunch supporter of labour while Ethel puts her faith in the gentlemen of the conservative party), their joy when their only son qualifies for grammar school or their consternation when he decides to take up art, one can't help but be moved by the way they respond to their changing fortunes, both good and bad. Nor can one fail to be moved by the devotion of their son in penning and painting this work of art in their memory.

29clfisha
tammikuu 23, 2011, 2:10 pm

5 I love the terrible underated Raymond Briggs. I still cherish my childhood copy of Fungus the Bogeyman. I haven't read that one though..

3 Just picked up a copy of Captain Alatriste, I cannot wait :-)

30iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 30, 2011, 9:29 am

6. The History of the Crusades Vol. 1 by Steven Runciman: 4 stars.

A wonderfully readable and scholarly work. For many, many years this was the definitive account of the First Crusade (later volumes deal with the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and later crusades). Though its 60 years old now I don't think it has really been eclipsed, though later works have added to it. Where it is lacking is in archaeological sources (none mentioned here) and the past few decades have seen some excellent work on the social origins of the crusaders and the crusading movement in Europe. Having said that I haven't yet read God's War by Christopher Tyerman which is a most lauded recent work (yes, its somewhere in my tbr mountain range). As a historian of the Byzantine empire he is particularly strong at putting the crusade into its geographical and political context (too many narratives focus only on the crusading army itself). He is up front about his sympathies with the Eastern Christians who he feels were ultimately the greatest victims of this entire episode in history, but is wonderfully balanced in presenting his case. Now I have to start hunting for volume 2.

This is Book 1 of 6 in my History Books challenge.

31iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 12, 2011, 1:44 am

7. The Hidden War by Artyom Borovik: 4 stars

This book is an excellent ground-level view of the Soviet war in Afghanistan from a Soviet journalist who was "embedded" in the Red army. While those who may be expecting a military or political history of the war will be disappointed, what this book does so well is capture what it was like to be a soldier caught up in the conflict. The book itself was patched together from a series of articles that appeared in a soviet news magazine during the glasnost era.

The first part of the book was written during the author's first 'tour' of Afghanistan in 88-87 and the second part in the days leading up to the Soviet withdrawal in 88. The first part focuses more on the lives and experiences of various soldiers and is full of vivid, gripping anecdotes, such as that of the soldier who was killed 3 times in a day and survived (the first 'death' when he stepped on a mine, the second when one of the soldiers carrying him on a stretcher to a waiting helicopter stepped on a mine and the third when the helicopter medevacing him and the other wounded is shot down) or the soldier who is flying home to Moscow for 14 days leave but gets stranded at Tashkent where no flights are available and gets increasingly desperate to be back with his wife while day after day is eaten up waiting for alternative route back home. What comes through is the bravery of the soldiers just trying to do their jobs and stay alive in the face of an implacable enemy, terrible conditions, poor leadership, and a home front which does not understand what they have to face.

The second part of the book is much grimmer in tone. While there was some questioning of why the war was happening in the first part, by the time of the second, the sheer incompetence and unnecessariness of the war has sunk in, discipline has broken down to a greater degree so that there officers are indulging in drugs and arms trafficking, and the unpopularity of the war on the home front leaves returning soldiers feeling like outcasts. The author also visits the USA where he interviews deserters who were taken back to the States and now live lives of luxuriant loneliness, missing their homes, but not trusting the asylum offered by the communist government.

All in all this is the story about the pity of war and the devastating impact it had on a generation of young Soviet men. It was also a landmark book, as the author mentions in an afterword because when it was first published it tested the boundaries of glasnost in the USSR, with many army and party officials wanting it severely censored. Its a pity the author died before he had the chance to revise the book - its origins as magazine articles is obvious and there are times (particularly in the first part) where the author seems to tiptoe around certain details, perhaps due to censorship reasons. But all in all, this captures the Soviet experience of the war vividly.

32iftyzaidi
helmikuu 12, 2011, 2:02 am

Have been extremely busy and have had hardly any time for reading or perusing the group threads. Matters don't look as if they will be improving any time soon. At this point I would think it has become fairly obvious 100+ is probably not happening this year. Hopefully I can push myself to 75 or so. Still I think I'll continue posting here rather than on the 75 thread. I feel more at home! :-)

Reading Round-Up at the end of January.

Books read to date: 6/100
Female to Male authors: 1 to 5
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 0/25
Fantasy: 2/25
Mainstream: 2/25
Non-fiction books: 1/25
Others: 1/25
- (Graphic Novels: 1)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 1/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 0/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 0/6

33Aerrin99
helmikuu 15, 2011, 8:32 am

We are happy to have you whatever the numbers!

34iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 15, 2011, 10:46 am

8. The First Crusade: A New History by Thomas Asbridge: 3 and a half stars.

This was an interesting counterpoint to the first volume in Steve Runciman's History of the Crusades which I read last month. Essentially both books cover more or less the same period, though Runciman spends more time giving background information, particularly concerning the Byzantine Empire. Asbridge is a noted modern scholar of the crusades and 50 years separate the writing of the two books. When it comes down to it though I would probably pick the Runciman over the Asbridge.

Asbridge's work is written in a readable, popular style. He spends more time discussing medieval European society and is more detailed in explaining the social backgrounds and the 'world-view' of Latin Christendom. There are also some additional biographical details of some of the major crusaders that are lacking in the Runciman, which fills in some questions about the recruitment of the crusaders. To someone with a passing knowledge of Medieval European history, (for example the role of the monastic reform movement in the Church and the importance of pilgrimages in medieval religious life) this information is not really necessary - I found Runciman's focus on the Byzantine empire much more informative given the gaps in my own knowledge - but for someone with no background in the period this is probably useful stuff.

Another way that Asbridge differs from Runciman is there greater focus on the military aspects of the various battles and sieges. The siege of Antioch in particular gets a great deal of attention. Asbridge cultivates a healthier scepticism of Byzantine sources than Runciman and his explanations of the rifts between the crusading leaders is more developed. Asbridge is clear (as Runciman also was) in differentiating between generally agreed upon facts and explanations and his own interpretations and readings of various events. One area in which Asbridge's account is clearly superior is in explaining the period between the second siege of Antioch and the storming of Jerusalem.

All in all its a readable, informative, and gripping read. When it comes down to it, the reason I would probably put the Runciman ahead of it would be because I felt it was better written and focused on areas of historical knowledge that I was less familiar with. Having said that I feel the two compliment each other well and I would have no trouble recommending this book to anyone interested in reading about the First Crusade either.

Incidentally this is book 2 in my 6 history books challenge and the first book in my 6 books I bought in or before 2006 challenge.

35iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 26, 2011, 10:03 am

9. In the Ruins of the Reich by Douglas Botting: 3 stars.

History book about the plight of ordinary Germans under allied occupation following the fall of the Third Reich (1945-1949). Long review pending.

36iftyzaidi
maaliskuu 4, 2011, 11:59 am

Reading Round-Up at the end of February.

Books read to date: 9/100
Female to Male authors: 1 to 8
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 0/25
Fantasy: 2/25
Mainstream: 2/25
Non-fiction books: 4/25
Others: 1/25
- (Graphic Novels: 1)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 3/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 0/6

There really wasn't a great deal of reading in February but what there was, was all about non-fiction. It has to be said, though, that I did start a couple of fiction works during the month but wasn't really able to sustain the interest in reading them right through - not because they were bad books - but I think I was just in more of a non-fiction kind of mood.

Heading into March I think there will be more history stuff (French Revolution and Napoleon in particular) and some graphic novels...

37iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 17, 2011, 4:56 am

10. Witchblade: Origins by Wohl, David, Z., Christina, Turner, Michael et al.: 3 stars.

Witchblade made its mark in the comics industry back in the mid to late 90s. This is the origin story of the character and it is fairly decent without really being exceptional in any way. The art by the late Michael Turner is very characteristic of that era, with its exaggeratedly stylized women. At the time it was all the rage but I find it dated and slightly irritating even - the 'posed' postures seem unnatural and unbalance the page visually. Art aside, the characters are also very stylized and broad - which is fine, as this is a superhero comic and the vividness with which the characters are drawn add to the fun. The story revolves around NY detective Sara Pezzini's discovery of an ancient alien artifact called the Witchblade which has chosen wielders through history to bond with and grant special powers. But even as she is trying to come to terms with her new abilities Pezzini is being manipulated by mysterious millionaire Kenneth Irons, who has his own interest in the artifact. The charm of the series lies in its marriage of hard-boiled cop show sub-plots with X-Files-like mysterious characters and story-arch.

11. Kingdom Come by Waid, Mark: 3 and a half stars.

Set in a future where the original crop of superheroes (Superman, Wonderwoman etc.) have all sidelined by a larger, younger generation which is much more flagrant with its powers and unrestrained in their actions. The art work is gorgeous - each panel painstakingly painted by Alex Ross. The story seems a little more ordinary to me and seems to draw on some of the themes of older classics such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, while sacrificing most of their depth and complexity. This won a whole slew of awards, but while I found it interesting, I thought it rather predictable. Maybe it struggles a little too hard to be an 'event'. Was it really necessary to stuff every DC character (and then some) in here?

12. Ghost World by Clowes, Daniel: 4 stars.

Two cynical, world-weary high-school girls approach graduation and life beyond it with a sense of ennui and uncertainty. This is actually a graphic novel that should probably rate 5 stars - it is an incredibly well-drawn portrait of fear and loathing in a small town but I was possibly not in the frame of mind to appreciate it as much as I should have. Will re-read this one down the line.

38clfisha
maaliskuu 17, 2011, 7:42 am

I have only ever watched the film of Ghost World so I would be interested to see how it compares, sounds worth tracking down.

39iftyzaidi
maaliskuu 18, 2011, 3:19 am

clfisha: I saw the Ghost World movie many years ago and don't remember it very well. I would say that one of the differences is that the characters in the movie were smoothed down somewhat and the edge taken off their cynicism. In the graphic novel Enid in particular is pretty unlikable most of the time and it is only very gradually that we begin to see the self-loathing and humanity that lies beneath her abrasive attitude and its only at the end that one gets a fuller understanding of who she is (its a powerful moment).

I think Seymor's character (played by Steve Buscemi) was also made more important in the movie. In the graphic novel a character by the name of Josh - a young man their age - plays an important role that I don't remember being in the movie.

Overall I recall liking the movie but don't recall it having the emotional punch that the graphic novel does. I would strongly recommend you seek it out. I'd love to read your thoughts on it.

40clfisha
maaliskuu 21, 2011, 7:27 am

I am going to try and track down a copy :)

41wookiebender
maaliskuu 21, 2011, 11:53 pm

From an embarrassingly long time ago:

At this point I would think it has become fairly obvious 100+ is probably not happening this year. Hopefully I can push myself to 75 or so. Still I think I'll continue posting here rather than on the 75 thread. I feel more at home! :-)

Of course, it's not the number of books you actually read that we care about! You're always welcome here.

And I must track down Ghost World too, I enjoyed the movie when I saw it however many years ago that was now...

42iftyzaidi
maaliskuu 30, 2011, 2:16 am

41 - Thanks wookie! I've been too preoccupied to follow everyone's posts here and keep up with my own reviews so I can't point any fingers about responding to old posts!

No work today as the country as come to a virtual standstill because of the upcoming Cricket World Cup semi-final match against India. To say that expectations are running high is an understatement! Anyway there's a few hours to go before the start so spending a bit of time on LibraryThing may be just the thing to calm the nerves! :)

The India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is an epic one (as all of you who might follow cricket would know). For my American friends, here is how an acquaintance of mine who lives in the States described the rivalry on facebook: "So I was trying to explain to my friends at work the magnitude of Pakistan vs India in cricket world cup. This is what i came up with... take Michgian vs Notre Dame, Texas vs OU, Yankees vs Red Sox, Cowboys vs Redskins. Add in 3 WARs and then you are in the ballpark."

I have no clue what he's talking about but it seems suitably epic.

43iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 30, 2011, 3:17 am

13. Napoleon and the Awakening of Europe by Felix M. Markham: 4 stars.

This was an excellent little volume which despite its short length did a great job of covering Napoleon's rule and the major historical questions that arise from this period of French history. Why was he successful in maintaining power? What were the causes of his military successes? To what extent did his rule maintain the ideals of the French Revolution and in what ways did it go against him? Certainly after his final defeat and exile, Napoleon attempted to build up the myth that he has always been a son of the Revolution and his rule a model of revolutionary principles in practice, but an examination of the facts suggests that this is not the whole story.

The book is well written and easy and engaging to read. It does presuppose some knowledge about the French Revolution (for example it will assume you know who the Jacobins were, what the Directory was, what Sieyes' role in the Revolution was, what the Revolutionary regime's rift with the Church was about, etc.) but otherwise it an excellent introduction to the topic as well as a fine survey of its major themes and questions. Readers looking for more depth and detail on Napoleon himself would probably do well to look for one of the recent major biographies such as Philip G. Dywer's monumental Napoleon: The Path to Power - the first of a detailed multi-volume bio of "that Corsican Ogre."

44iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 31, 2011, 2:34 am

14. Planet of No Return by Poul Anderson: 4 stars.

I really enjoyed reading this. Possibly because it was light and undemanding while being engaging at the same time. In many ways the book is a response to the 'Foundation' books of Asimov and other books of its ilk that posit the creation of a human Utopia if only humanity were to be "guided" by a hidden technocratic elite which would map out its future for its own good. It is set in a future where humanity is less and less interested in space exploration beyond the solar system since it is expensive and no earth-like worlds that are not already uninhabited have yet to be found for settlement. An explorer ship sets out for a planet which was reported to be fit for human habitation by a previous expedition which never returned. But there seem to be mysterious forces that are set on preventing the ship from reaching its goal....

45iftyzaidi
maaliskuu 30, 2011, 3:51 am

15. Winter Rose by Patricia K. McKillip: 3 and a half stars.

McKillip's prose is like a particularly rich cake. Luxuriously rich and layered. And sometimes the flavour can be a little overwhleming with the vivid imagery piled on so thick like icing that the substance of the thing starts getting lost. Make no mistake, I really enjoy reading McKillip, but there were times in this story when I wished there was more... story... and less lyrical flourishes.

The story follows Rois, a younger daughter who loves to wander the woods and gather flowers and herbs, while her sensible, practical and more beautiful older sister is courted at home. When the grandson of the man who lived in their neighbouring farm, a man who was murdered many years ago, appears in the village and announces his intention to fix up the place and move in, Rois gets increasingly involved in the mystery of the murder, and where the grandson has been all these years.

There's no one who can imbue nature with magic with the lushness of their prose quiet like McKillip. Overall I enjoyed this book, though it took me a little while to get through it.

46iftyzaidi
maaliskuu 31, 2011, 3:13 am

16. The Elysium Commission by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.: 3 stars.

L. E. Modesitt is best known for his fantasy works and has been on my radar for a while now. However given that the various fantasy series he's written (such as the Saga of Reclucce) have a large number of volumes, most of them hefty door-stoppers at that, I wanted to dip my toes in the waters with a stand-alone book first, before starting yet another long fantasy series. The Elysium Commission, a stand-alone science fiction work seemed to fit the bill.

The story follows an ex-special forces fellow who is now a private eye named Blaine Donne. The action takes place on the far future world of Devanta and begins with Donne receiving a mysterious commission to investigate the connection between a corporate moghul, a research scientist and the word "elysium" (hence 'The Elysium Commission'). Of course, in true PI fashion, Donne soon finds that the connection is far more convoluted and mysterious and dangerous than he had bargained for.

Modesitt's prose is workmanlike but fluid. Its an easy read. The world he creates is an interesting one, with some thought given not only to the technology, the society, but also to wider galactic politics. Beyond the setting though, one gets the feeling that the story itself is a little vanilla. Donne is so hyper-competent and has so many technological gizmos at his service that he seems like more than a match for the villains. This is a PI who hasn't bitten off more than he can chew. The bulk of the book seems to consist of Donne calling up people asking about his various commissions and googling (sorry, "diving into the datastacks"). This is punctuated by the odd failed attempt to kill him. The sense of mystery is further disappointed by inter-spaced chapters where we switch to the main villain's perspective. This does little for the story except informing us of what's going on well before Donne figures things out and also slowing down the pace of the story. Thankfully Modessitt abandons this approach halfway through and the chapters from the villain's perspective become much more infrequent later on. The characters are nothing to write home about. Overall, I would say its a decent read, but not outstanding in any particular way.

47iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 31, 2011, 11:09 am

17. Fire by Kristin Cashore: 3 and a half stars.

When I picked this up, I did so assuming it was the first book in the 'Graceling' series. So I was a bit perturbed to find out that it was a prequel. Combine this with the fact that the cover blurb proclaimed that this was what Twilight fans had been waiting for and it was with a sense of foreboding that I started reading.

I needn't have worried. Its a fairly decent read. Also coming to it without having read 'Graceling' takes away nothing from the reading experience. In fact it seems to work perfectly well as a stand-alone work, both story wise and thematically.

There are scores of reviews which outline the plot out there so instead of doing that I would like to point out a couple of criticisms which prevented me from giving it four stars. The first is that Fire decides to use her powers in support of, and work for, the royal family against the various usurpers when there is absolutely no moral reason to do so. At no point do any of the factions distinguish themselves from each other in terms of their behaviour. All factions are equally ready to deceive, assassinate, and commit mass murder to achieve victory. The only reason Fire decides to put aside her reservations with using her powers to help the royal family is because she is attracted to one of them. Her putting aside of reservations and the use of powers to manipulate and pry on the thoughts and emotions of others is presented as an act of personal growth and empowerment. But I couldn't help feeling that from an ethical perspective she was a better person for not using her powers in that way.

The second quibble has to do with the number of times she breaks down and ends up a sobbing wreck (usually in the stable crying on her horse's shoulder). Yes, she undergoes a number of traumatic experiences which would leave anyone a quivering wreck, but by the end the number of such breakdowns starts becoming a wee bit tiresome, especially given the strength of personality she displayed in her dealings with her father.

Anyway, quibbles aside, this was an entertaining read.

48wookiebender
maaliskuu 31, 2011, 5:15 am

...the cover blurb proclaimed that this was what Twilight fans had been waiting for...

*shudder* No wonder I haven't bought it yet (I did enjoy Graceling as a good fun read), I must be blacking out of my vision all books associated with that tripe.

49iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 3, 2011, 7:22 am

@48 Wookie I believe the exact quote is "(Kashore) will slake the thirst of Twilight fans", which one has to admit is somewhat off-putting.

On another note I can't find the round-up of my reading in the month of March which I am pretty sure I posted yesterday. I checked around to make sure I didn't post it in someone else's thread by mistake but there seems to be no sign of it. Odd. Maybe I closed my browser before it saved or something. Anyway, here is the round-up again:

Reading Round-Up at the end of March.

Books read to date: 17/100
Female to Male authors: 3.5 to 13.5 (21% to 79%)
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 2/25
Fantasy: 4/25
Mainstream: 2/25
Non-fiction books: 5/25
Others: 4/25
- (Graphic Novels: 4)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 4/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 0/6

This was a better month than the first two with 8 books read, though much of that is due to the 3 graphic novels I read at the beginning of the month - short, easy reads. I'm hoping to pick things up in the coming two months. I'm looking forward to chipping away at my personal challenges, particularly the short-stories and my most highly rated authors.

50iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 3, 2011, 12:48 am

18. Retief of the CDT by Keith Laumer 3 and a half stars.

The third Retief book I've read. These are mostly collections of short stories about Retief, a member of a bureaucratic, bumbling diplomatic corps of a future Terran empire. They're light reading but hugely entertaining. Each book (in fact each short story) is essentially stand alone and one doesn't have to read them in any kind of order.

1) Ballots and Bandits: 4/5
The CDT is overseeing elections and the transition to self-rule in a former Groaci colony. This involves finding an amenable strongman to take charge so that the planet can remain on friendly terms with the Terran Concordiat. Retief’s involvement ensures true independence. Great satire and some not-so-veiled allusions to the Congo crisis.

2) Mechanical Advantage: 4/5
An archaeological expedition of CDT diplomats goes awry when the Groaci show up looking for loot. Retief discovers that while the original inhabitants of the planet are now extinct, their Robot servitors are still around.

3) Pime Doesn’t Cray: 3/5
The Terran Concordiat and the Groaci empire vie for influence in non-aligned worlds by building cultural centres (either Bolshoi ballets or Fenway Ballparks) as gifts to the locals. But on one planet a nefarious Groaci plot threatens Terran humiliation... until Retief comes along. The aliens’ manner of speech is irritating to read and it almost ruins what is at essence another hilarious caper.

4) Internal Affair: 3/5
Retief and his hapless superior, First Secretary Magnan are sent into the unknown to find a missing ambassador to a world inhabited by giant slugs.

5) The Piecemakers: 3/5
Two alien fleets are close to war over a newly discovered planet. First Secretary Magnan is sent to broker a diplomatic compromise and manages to turn both against humanity. Luckily Retief is along to salvage matters.

51iftyzaidi
huhtikuu 2, 2011, 2:01 pm

19. A Different Light by Elizabeth A. Lynn: 3 and a half stars.

A fine little science fiction book. Jimson Alleca is a successful artist who dreams of travelling to the stars. However he has been stuck on his home-world due to his cancer, which can be held in check through treatment at home, but may mutate if he chooses to travel through Hyperspace ('The Hype' as it is called). He finally decides to take his chances and leave. He soon meets up with a young pilot named Leiko who is looking for a job. Drawn by her and a figure from his own past, Alleca signs up with a crew that has been hired by a mysterious, long-lived millionaire to steal a set of legendary crystal masks from primitive civilization located on a distant planet. Even as his cancer spreads and death approaches, Alleca learns that there is more to the masks, and the crew of the ship he is on, than he had been led to believe, and that there may be a way for his artistic talent and genius to live on even after his death.

This was an engaging tale in which the focus was very much on the characters, their relationships and their dealing with death, loss and the possibility of immortality through one's art. Not outstanding but well worth reading.

52ronincats
huhtikuu 2, 2011, 3:22 pm

What a lot of reading you've been getting done! I'm a McKillip fan, too, but you are right, Winter Rose was heavy on the imagery. I loved the early Retief books, so much fun.

53iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 4, 2011, 1:53 am

Thanks ronin. Most of these reviews are of books I read a little while back - I'm just catching up on reviews. However, I have now read 3 books already in April - all admittedly short, easy reads - but hey, alls fair in love and 100 book reading challenges, right?

20. The World Swappers by John Brunner: 3 stars.

One of John Brunner's early SF works and the first that I've read by this acclaimed author. Its a decent read, full of ideas, but most of them under-developed. The story follows a secret organization that is trying to prepare mankind for the coming contact with another intelligent space-faring race. In fact in many ways the Poul Anderson book Planet of No Return is an critique of this very idea - that any one organization or person can or should take on the responsibility of moulding mankind through manipulation behind the scenes.

54iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 8, 2011, 1:36 am

21. Temeraire: Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik: 3 and a half stars.

Very entertaining and dare I say it, an improvement upon the first book.

55wookiebender
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 8, 2011, 2:35 am

Oh dear. I do seem to be the odd one out! I found the second one fairly interminable, so much so that I haven't mustered up any enthusiasm for #3, which is sitting on the shelves...

56iftyzaidi
huhtikuu 10, 2011, 1:31 pm

Wookie - I enjoyed the first book but I doubt I would have really gotten into another volume of England vs. France naval and dragon engagements. I liked how the world and the main characters (well Temeraire and Laurence) are fleshed out some more and particularly liked Laurence's realisation that the way dragons are treated in England is not necessarily the best way to go. I liked the China storyline (apart from the gratuitous Boxer Rebellion scene near the end which seemed to come out of nowhere and then be quickly forgotten by all). Sadly all the characters (other than T and L) are cardboard but that was also the case in the first book so one can't say it was unexpected. Overall i enjoyed it more than i thought that I would.

57iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 10, 2011, 1:39 pm

22. Ultimate Spiderman Vol. 5: Public Scrutiny by Brian Michael Bendis: 3 and a half stars.

Randomly picked this up and glanced through it and was surprised at how i got sucked it. Its been years since I read anything spider-man related but this was really entertaining. If this volume is anything to judge by, Brian Michael Bendis did a good job of rebooting the Spider-Man franchise and making it fresh again.

58iftyzaidi
huhtikuu 27, 2011, 2:20 am

23. Queen & Country: Declassified Volume 2 by Greg Rucka: 3 and a half stars.

The "origins" story of Tom Wallace who is head of section in the regular series. It shows how he is recruited and his first case investigating the death of an agent in Hong Kong just a few days before the territory is to be handed over to the Chinese in 1997. Reads like a mature and slightly more believable James Bond. Not bad, and makes sense to read even if, like me, you haven't read any of the Q&C graphic novels before.

59iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 27, 2011, 2:38 am

24. Transition by Iain Banks: 3 stars.

Well this one just about manages to scrape 3 stars in my opinion. I'm a big fan of Iain Banks (in both his SF and 'mainstream' incarnations) but I did feel this was one of his weaker efforts. It felt like it needed some judicious editing. There are still flashes of brilliance in his writing (too few in this instance) and the prose is as readable as ever, but the flow of the plot seems to come unstuck at times, there is too much jumping from one perspective to another, and many of the characters and their reflections/experiences seem a little too flat and uninteresting. Anyone who has read Banks' recent works would know that at times his books can be slow-burners, taking their time in setting the scene and the characters, before building up to a spectacular finish. The formula didn't quiet work as well here. And am I the only one to detect plot holes that could not simply be put down to 'unreliable narrators'? (For example, when Temujin and Mrs. M. transition to the parallel world where mankind is extinct and a tyrant had built a palace up on mount Everst - whose bodies are they inhabiting?) After the unrestrained sprawl of most of the book, the ending seemed to have been forced into a nice neat little package in far too short a time. Long time fans of Banks will probably read this anyway, but for others I would recommend starting with any of a number of his other books.

60clfisha
huhtikuu 27, 2011, 5:55 am

That's a shame although a new Iain Banks book is not the event it used to be, I still haven't read Transition or Matter. Is Matter worth a try?

61iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2011, 6:12 am

25. The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker: 4 and a half stars.

I was completely captivated by this memoir of Kim Barker's time covering the South Asia region as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. It is snarky, it is funny, it is sad and infuriating and it is eye-opening. I read books that have made be want to laugh and books that have made me want to cry but rarely have I come across a book that has made me want to do both at the same time!

First of all a quick summary: Kim Barker gets the assignment to cover South Asia after 9/11 not because she is well qualified (she has hardly ever travelled outside the U.S. before) but because she is single and doesn't have children - in other words expendable. She travels to Afghanistan knowing next to nothing about the place and the people and is quickly overwhelmed by her task. The only thing that helps her make sense of everything is her Afghan fixer Farooq, a medical student whose ambitions to become a doctor are becoming ever more distant and who puts his energy, language skills and good sense to use in 'fixing' appointments, interviews and logistics for western journalists in an attempt to support his extended family. Barker's naivety and gaucheness start giving way to an adrenaline-addiction common to many of the westerners in Kabul at the time, as well as a growing bond with the place itself (at one point she wonders if the reason she feels so at home in Afghanistan is because she grew up in rural Montanna, which also has an abundance of armed bearded men driving around in pick-ups who hate their government!) Over the course of the next few years she will have increasingly surreal experiences and a chance to observe politicians, warlords, soldiers, contractors, aid workers, journalists, prostitutes, generals, lawyers, boyfriends and most keenly of all, herself, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as she does the 'Taliban shuffle' shuttling between the two countries.

At this point its worth noting what this book is not. It is not a detailed account of the American war in Afghanistan/Pakistan. It is not an in-depth view of the developments of the last 10 years in the region (though it does have some pithy insights to offer along the way), it is not an analysis of American policy in the War on Terror, or military strategy, or an attempt to dissect the social and historical forces at play in the region. There is a whole crop of books that have come out over the last year or so that have attempted to do these things and readers looking for the above would be well advised to refer to them (examples include Ahmed Rashid's Descent Into Chaos:, Sebastien Junger's WAR, Peter Bergen's The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda, Seth Jones' In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan or Gretchen Peters' Seeds of Terror or Bird and Marshall's upcoming Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way).

While Barker does a good job of describing what is happening around her this is primarily a story about her journey as a person and as a reporter. As someone who reads very extensively on the topic of the war in Afghanistan, and who considers himself very well informed on the subject, what I found most useful about the book was its insight into the world of journalists, aid workers and contractors and the walled-off culture of excess they create for themselves while working in war zones. Its also a good insight into how the world of reporting works (after the Iraq invasion, Afghanistan is essentially ignored as being 'old news' for years, until in 2006 a resurgent Taliban are beginning to cause serious trouble again). Barker's reporting is also effected by the declining readership of newspapers and downsizing of reporters in the U.S. - adding an extra element of stress and tension to her life. Finally its also an interesting look at several prominent personalities in the region (several of whom seem to take a shine to Barker, not least of whom is Nawaz Sharif, former PM and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League party). Many of these episodes seem utterly extraordinary and the only thing that keeps me from being certain that she is embellishing her accounts is the knowledge that all sorts of crazy and bizarre things can and do happen every day in this country!

But putting aside the question of what we learn, or find useful, about this volume, the best reason to read it is that it is so much fun to read. At first I thought I would be irritated by Barker's accounts of her lifestyle, her loves (and break-ups) or the challenges of finding a place to drink and dance with a date in Afghanistan, but when it comes down to it, the author's personal journey is also an engaging one.

Edit: Despite a fair amount of fiddling I can't seem to get the touchstones for the book to work. Sorry :(

62iftyzaidi
huhtikuu 27, 2011, 6:21 am

clfisha - I read and enjoyed Matter a couple of years ago. Again it was a book that took its time and rambled a bit but overall I enjoyed it.

63clif_hiker
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 29, 2011, 8:33 am

The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan looks like a good start in educating myself about what in the h*** is going on in that part of the world. Like too many Americans, I've allowed myself to remain ignorant of the history and events in the Middle East & South Asia.

64iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 3, 2011, 7:44 am

kcs - some reviewers seem to think that Taliban Shuffle isn't the best place to start for an in-depth understanding of that part of the world and they may be right if you are looking for depth. But I think it probably makes a good introduction with the added bonus of being well written and very funny.

Reading Round-Up at the end of April.

Books read to date: 25/100
Female to Male authors: 6.5 to 18.5 (26% to 74%)
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 5/25
Fantasy: 5/25
Mainstream: 3/25
Non-fiction books: 6/25
Others: 6/25
- (Graphic Novels: 6)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 4/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 1/6

April started off well but things kind of slowed down in the last 2/3rds of the month. Still way behind where I should be with a 1/3rd of the year gone.

65wookiebender
toukokuu 9, 2011, 11:34 pm

Bother, The Taliban Shuffle doesn't seem to be available locally. I'll just add it to my Book Depository wishlist, it does sound great!

66clif_hiker
toukokuu 13, 2011, 9:59 am

>64 iftyzaidi:: I'm not an historical scholar... so an amusing discussion of events is probably the best place for me to start. I've read From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman (many years ago), and Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler. Bruce Fromkin's book A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East looks really good and is on my wishlist.

But those are all Middle Eastern in focus.... not South Asia; Afghanistan/Pakistan etc...

67iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2011, 6:00 am

26. Frontline Pakistan: The Path to Catastrophe and the Killing of Benazir Bhutto by Zahid Hussain 4 and a half stars.

There’s a passage on page 139 in my edition of this riveting and informative look at militancy and the War on Terror in Pakistan that throws light on the international kerfuffle that started brewing after Osama Bin Laden was executed by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abottabad a couple of weeks ago:

“The possibility of seizing bin Laden presented a serious dilemma for (Pakistani President) Musharraf. While his capture would further boost US support for the Pakistani President, it could also cause a serious public backlash. The Islamists could use the issue to whip up anti-government and anti-American sentiments in the country and this might have been one of the reasons behind the insistence by Musharraf and other senior Pakistani government officials that bin Laden was not in the country, and their attempts to keep Pakistan’s participation in the manhunt as low-key as possible. In an interview with Time magazine in October 2005, Musharraf acknowledged that he was not eager for bin Laden to be caught in his country. ‘One would prefer that he is captured somewhere outside Pakistan, by some other people,’ he said.”

Ironically, 6 years after the interview and following a massive surge in militant attacks on Pakistani civilians, Bin Laden’s death went largely un-mourned in Pakistan, while the circumstances in which he was living, and the manner in which he was killed, seems to be leading to a meltdown in relations between the USA and Pakistan, the two countries most deeply involved in the War on Terror. As the headline in a Pakistani daily ruefully noted the day after the raid, ‘Even in Death, Osama Haunts Pakistan’. But to what extent are American accusations of Pakistani duplicity true and how realistic are their exhortations to the Pakistani military to do more? And to what extent is the Pakistani assertion that they are fighting and suffering and sacrificing their own national interests for the sake of America’s war true? This book does much to illuminate both these questions and the contours of their answers.

Frontline Pakistan has been on my radar for a while now. It was first published in 2006, with a slightly revised paperback edition released in 2008, after the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The bulk of it deals with the events in Pakistan between 9/11 2001 and 2006. I was finally prompted me into picking it up after I bought the author’s follow-up book, The Scorpion’s Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan which focuses on events from 2006 to 2010.

The rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan can be traced back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the decision by the United States and Saudi Arabia to make use of Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul Haq and his covert intelligence organization, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) to create and nurture an Afghan ‘Islamic’ resistance to the communists. Billions of dollars worth of arms and training were poured into recruiting young Afghans from the refugee camps that had been set up for Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion. The call for Jihad was promoted around the world by networks of mosques and religious schools funded and controlled by Saudi oil money, so that impressionable young men from around the Muslim world traveled to Pakistan to participate in the war against Godless communism (This was how Al-Qaeda was founded). Once the war was won and the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the Americans declared victory and left, Afghanistan descended into a bloody civil war, which would eventually be all but won by the Taliban, and this apparatus of holy war was put into use by the ISI for its own regional goals (mainly to try and force India to withdraw from Kashmir). Meanwhile Al-Qaeda lived on in Afghanistan and turned its guns on the USA. After 9/11 the USA returned to the region with a vengeance, seeking to destroy Al-Qaeda and bringing down the Taliban regime that had sheltered it. In this war, Pakistan could either side with the Americans, or the Taliban. It tried to do both.

For a while this strategy of running with the hares and hunting with the hounds seemed to be working. While helping the US in hunting down Al-Qaeda members (a hunt which is well chronicled, and which after 2002 finds most Al-Qaeda high-ups hiding out in Pakistan’s teeming cities, not in isolated caves as the popular imagination usually pictures), the ISI also tries to shelter certain sections of the Taliban, with an eye to what would happen in Afghanistan after the Americans left. But after a few years the strategy starts to break down and the cross-pollination of Islamist militant groups means that the Pakistani division between good militants and bad militants makes less and less sense. Militants of all stripes increasingly started turning their guns on Pakistan. The mess is made worse by military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s reliance on right-wing (including Islamist) political parties to stay in power, despite himself being resolutely secular in his personal life. Under American pressure to ‘do more’, he launches a military crackdown on the Tribal Areas – large, mountainous wilderlands on the border with Afghanistan ruled not by Pakistani law but the Pashtun tribal system, where militants have taken shelter after being driven out of Afghanistan. This leads to virtual civil war and growing disquiet within the army about fighting its own people at the behest of an outside power.

So to answer the questions posed above it would seem as if on the one hand Pakistan's involvement in America's war in the region has done much to destabilize the country and lead to a great deal of Pakistani deaths and suffering - something does not quiet get the appreciation it deserves or even needs in the USA given that Pakistan is after all a nuclear-armed state. Meanwhile the idea that Islamic militants can and should be fostered as military assets for geo-strategic reasons is increasingly revealed as a terrible idea and must be re-thought by the Pakistani military - as is the idea that the violence within Pakistan will simply die out once America leaves the region. Pakistan does need to be more proactive in addressing the militant threat.

There’s far more to the story than can comfortably fit in a summary here. But rest assured by the end of the book one is left shaking one’s held at the growing sense that things are going well and truly wrong. Zahid Hussain, who is an excellent journalist, is well connected and has good sources both in the military and outside it. The book is well organized and very, very informative and was deservingly selected as a Wall Street Journal Book of the Year. I’m fairly well read on the region and the topic and I would say this is the best single summary of the War on Terror in Pakistan in this period. I’m certainly looking forward to reading The Scorpion’s Tail now.

68iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2011, 6:03 am

27. The Boys Volume 1: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis 3 stars.

Here's the thing about Garth Ennis. His graphic novels are violent, gratuitous, foul and occasionally teeth-jarringly juvenile (in an adults-only sex and gore kind of way) but still oddly readable. This is the first volume in the tale of a special CIA group (essentially a bunch of psychotic thugs) whose aim is to hold super-hero groups accountable. And of course the super-heros are all seedy, lying, cheating, greedy perverts. And they get what's coming to them, apparently. Of course while I'm reading this, I'm wondering, okay so there needs to be a secret group to watch the watchmen, but, umm... who watches the watchmen watchers? (No one apparently.)

69iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 16, 2011, 6:02 am

kcs - apart from several great books by outstanding journalists (Owen-Bennet Jones' Pakistan: Eye of the Storm comes to mind, as does Ahmed Rashid's Descent Into Chaos) I would also recommend some books which mix in personal observations/experiences such Nicholas Schmidle's To Live Or Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan. One of my favourite writers on the region is William Dalrymple, who apart from a couple of fabulous history books has written outstanding travel writing and reporting. In particular City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi is wonderful, as is Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters (which includes a couple of articles from Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well.) Also if its the middle east you are interested in his book From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East comes very highly recommended and is on my tbr mountain (my own 'holy mountain' as it were - heheh!)

Also a slightly left-field recommendation, but I absolutely loved War Minus the Shooting: A Journey Through South Asia During Cricket's World Cup - which was the 1996 World Cup - by Mike Marqusee. Marqusee is an American who fell in love with cricket after moving to England and even though he was ostensibly in South Asia to cover the cricket (and he does) his observations on the politics, economics and societies around him are excellent. However I suspect you may have to be interested in cricket to get the most out of the book!

70iftyzaidi
toukokuu 24, 2011, 5:46 am

Its been a zombie double these last couple of days:

28. Raise the Dead 1 Hardcover by Leah Moore: 3 and a half stars.

Enjoyable zombie graphic novel mayhem. It doesn't do anything new (though there are hints of a cure - though not necessarily a good one), but sticks to the basics fairly well.

29. The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks: 3 and a half stars.

I'm not entirely certain what makes this faux 'survival guide' in the case of a zombie apocalypse so entertaining. But despite expectations to the contrary this was engaging reading all the way through. The tone is consistently 'serious' throughout but the humour does shine through, whether its discussions of the practicality (or lack thereof) of trying to weather a zombie outbreak on an oil rig to different methods of hunting zombies underwater. The 'recorded outbreaks through history' portion at the back provides the icing on the cake. Its also the kind of book you can just pick up and browse through anytime.

71clif_hiker
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 24, 2011, 8:35 am

thanks for those great recommendations Ifty!! I'm off to Amazon to see what I can get on the Kindle, and then to the library to order the rest.

re: The Zombie Survival Guide which I haven't read, I consider World War Z, also by max Brooks, to be one of the best apocalyptic stories (that just happens to include zombies) around. Realization came late to me that "zombies" are a stand-in for ANY contagious disease, and that the human response would be pretty much the same regardless ... and while nobody really believes in zombies, everyone believes in the black plague, HIV/AIDS, & ebola.

72Aerrin99
toukokuu 24, 2011, 8:40 am

Yeah, World War Z is just brilliant, and one of the big reasons I'm in love with a well-done zombie story these days. You're completely right about the stand-in. Plus there's something just terrifying at the idea of an apocalypse where the danger after the world ends isn't just how to find food and clean water.

73clif_hiker
toukokuu 24, 2011, 8:45 am

I agree Aerrin! Finding food and water would be far less difficult than actually KEEPING what you found from all the others determined to take it from you.

74iftyzaidi
toukokuu 25, 2011, 8:41 am

kcs - you're welcome! World War Z is certainly a book I'll be keeping an eye out for.
Aerrin - there's nothing that quite makes you appreciate civilization than seeing (or reading about) it all falling apart!

I'm helping out with revamping the literature syllabus for grades 6 to 9 at a school I used to work at, so over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be reading suggested texts. I'm open to suggestions by the way! (Why not take advantage of all the accumulated literary wisdom on this forum?) Basically the old reading list was getting a bit stodgy: Hound of the Baskervilles, Merchant of Venice and To Kill A Mockingbird. We're looking for something more contemporary and fresh.

30. Holes by Louis Sachar: 3 and a half stars.

This was a fun little book. It tells the tale of Stanley Yelnats and his unjust incarceration in the boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake (which is neither green nor has a lake) where the boys build character by digging holes. Stanley ends up there after being accused of stealing a star baseball player's shoes. He blames his predicament on the family curse that has followed the Yelnats' for generations. But after arriving at the Camp, realizing that the Camp Warden is actually looking for some kind of buried treasure and meeting the other residents of the Camp, including one whose history is tied up with his own, Stanley's luck may just be about to change!

75Aerrin99
toukokuu 25, 2011, 8:51 am

I like Holes! Your first sentence pretty much gets it exactly. It's just fun.

76clif_hiker
Muokkaaja: toukokuu 25, 2011, 10:13 am

re: Holes; the movie is actually quite good too! Stars Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, and... who's that Transformers guy that my daughter loves... oh yeah, a youngish Shia LeBeouf.

77iftyzaidi
toukokuu 27, 2011, 6:20 am

kcs - oh I didn't know about the movie. lol! "The Beef" looks a little older and a little slimmer than I imagined! As for Transformers movies, I hear we are being subjected to another one this summer. I hope its better than the excruciating second movie. I don't think my childhood memories can take another battering on that scale!

78clif_hiker
toukokuu 27, 2011, 9:50 am

gleaned from our conversations, here's my Middle East/South Asia reading list for the rest of the year (or the next several years...)

1. Pakistan: Eye of the Storm; Owen Bennet-Jones
2. Descent Into Chaos; Ahmed Rashid
3. To Live Or Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan; Nicholas Schmidle
4. City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi; William Dalrymple
5. Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters; William Dalrymple
6. War Minus the Shooting: A Journey Through South Asia During Cricket's World Cup; Mike Marqusee
7. From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East ; William Dalrymple
8. The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Kim Barker
9. WAR; Sebastian Junger
10. The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and Al-Qaeda; Peter Bergen
11. In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan; Seth Jones
12. Seeds of Terror; Gretchen Peters
13. Afghanistan: How the West Lost Its Way; Dr. Tim Bird and Dr. Alex Marshall

in my part of the world, I will be able to lead seminars and teach classes by reading these... I'm sure that my librarian will wonder if I'm converting to Islam ;-)

79iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 1, 2011, 1:17 pm

Hm. Encountering posting issues... lets try that again!

80iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 1, 2011, 2:56 am

31. A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People by Steven Ozment: 3 and a half stars.

By attempting to cover over 2000 years of history in just over 300 pages, Harvard historian Steven Ozment set himself a daunting task, one that was never going to satisfy every kind of reader. The need to compress so much history means leaving a great deal out, assuming some basic prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and focusing on cultural and intellectual trends and themes rather than mere politics and battles. The result is surprisingly effective, as long as the reader does not approach the book with false expectations.

Ozment is a fine writer, whose previous work has tended to focus on social history in Early Modern Germany. This gives him a perspective that allows him to get away from the clichéd approach to German history which sees it always through the prism of the Nazi era. As he points out in a substantial introductory chapter where he discusses the historiography of Germany, far too often “a tour of German history can be a circular journey around a magnetic Nazi pole, mesmerizing the general public and distracting historians and politicians eager to move on. This enduring perspective has also turned Germany’s pre-twentieth-century past into a hunting ground for fascist forerunners and defeated democratic alternatives to the absolute territorial state.” At the same time, neither can any single segment of history be singled out as an aberration, a fateful and atavistic detour from an otherwise straightforward journey of progressive liberalism, as some would like to see it. Again, as Ozment reminds us, no one “doubts that the past casts powerful shadows on the present, and more recent decades more powerful ones.” Ozment’s own approach is to write history “from past to present, not from present to past”.

In attempting to create a “reliable history” that does this, Ozment has fashioned a readable, informative, and insightful book. One may not always agree with all of his interpretations, but there is much food for thought here. Perhaps the best sections are those on the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, and on the stretch of history from Frederick the Great to Bismarck. There is also a lengthy and intriguing discussion of Luther and the effect of the Reformation on German society, but this was, at least to my mind, somewhat undermined by a lack of factual details concerning the period. It was sometimes difficult to follow discussions of Luther’s ideas about social hierarchies, peasant-lord relations and the treatment of Jews, when the events alluded to were not described or narrated. I can see similar complaints arising about the Nazi period, though given my own background knowledge about that era, I didn’t find it a problem there.

This brings me back to the point about reader expectations. My guess is that readers who already have some familiarity with German history are the ones who are going to get the most out of this book. Those readers who are looking for a narrative history, which lays out the basic timeline of political and intellectual events, will probably be disappointed. Want to know how World War 2 was fought and lost? How Prussia went about uniting the German states into a unified German Reich? Germany’s role in dragging Europe into the First World War? Why the Berlin Wall fell? These events are merely alluded to here or discussed in only the most general terms. True, one does not need to know about these events in detail to get something out of this book, but some readers may specifically be looking for these explanations. Another issue is that one becomes increasingly aware that there is a great deal of history being completely ignored. The high Medieval period seems to get a particularly bum deal. While one can understand the need to pick and choose from the wealth of material available, did so much time have to be spent discussing Luther, his theology and its vision of the ideal civil society?

These caveats aside, there is much to enjoy and mull over here for even a casual history buff. The writing is fluid and a pleasure to read – no dull, dust-dry tome this. For those looking for an intelligent overview of the history of the German people, this is a fine place to look.

81iftyzaidi
kesäkuu 2, 2011, 3:18 am

32. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery: 4 stars.

A whimsical, entertaining tale which takes an abrupt dark turn at the end. Odd. I liked it.

82iftyzaidi
kesäkuu 3, 2011, 2:35 am

Reading Round-Up at the end of May.

Books read to date: 32/100
Female to Male authors: 7 to 25 (22% to 78%)
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 5/25
Fantasy: 5/25
Mainstream: 6/25
Non-fiction books: 8/25
Others: 8/25
- (Graphic Novels: 8)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 5/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 1/6

Slow progress...

83iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: kesäkuu 23, 2011, 5:01 am

I'm falling further and further behind in keeping this thread up to date, so I'm just going to do a quick round up of stuff I've read to try and catch up:

33. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell ***

An amusing autobiography by Bruce Campbell, the B movie star of such movies as Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep and a regular on the Hercules and Xena TV shows. Its diverting enough, not really the kind of thing I usually read but I'm a fan and while not utterly riveting, I found it a decent read.

34. Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai ***

Now that I've had time to let this one sit and stew in my head I'm wondering if I didn't do this book an injustice by only giving it 3 stars. The basic story follows a middle class family in India, and is in two parts. The first is from the perspective of the eldest daughter, who being neither very pretty nor very bright, is pulled out of school at a young age to help with the housework, and the second part from that of the youngest sibling, the son, the apple of his father's eye and bearer of the family's expectations, who is sent to America to study. Its well written but I think my initial reaction was skewed by the unresolved nature of both parts of the tale. Which perhaps is part of the point. While I was reading it I was quiet absorbed though, and portions of the story have really stayed with me.

35. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi ****1/2

Brilliant. I saw the animated movie a while back and having heard that it sticks pretty close to the book, I sort of let this one coast by for a couple of years, despite it being on my tbr list. As it turns out the story just seems more cohesive and... stronger in this graphic novel that it did in the movie. The overall impact is stronger, the characters come across more vividly. This is a coming of age story about a young girl in Iran during the revolution. Its told with such zest, humour and passion that I can't recommend it enough to anyone, even those who have no interest in, or don't like the idea of, reading a graphic novel.

36. Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco *****

Another stunning non-fiction graphic novel. 5 out of 5 stars for me, the first this year. Joe Sacco went to live in Gorazde, a small Bosnian Muslim enclave that was cut off from Sarajevo and surrounded by Bosnian Serbian militia groups. It was declared a 'safe area' by the UN for refugees, but that did not prevent it being repeatedly shelled and attacked. Sacco here tells the story of Gorazde and the people he came to know there and how they lived and survived through the war. By the time Sacco arrives there, the fighting is mostly over, but the fate of Gorazde is still uncertain, as there is talk of it being traded to the Serbs for territory further to the west. The ruminations by various inhabitants about whether they would leave their homes if this does happen, or whether they could ever live with their Serb neighbours again as they did before the war are truly heartbreaking. This is first class reporting, wonderfully touching, brutally honest and beautifully illustrated. The people Sacco came to know are shown with their faults and quirks, not lionized or idealized but shown in all their humanity. I can't recommend this enough.

37. A Golden Age by Tahmina Anam ***1/2

This novel by Bangladeshi author Anam is set during the Bangladeshi war of independence (known as the '71 war in Pakistan) where East Pakistan, as it was then known, won its independence from West Pakistan (or just Pakistan as it is now known). The catalyst to this even was the stolen election of 1971 which was won by a politician from the East, who was denied power by the powerful, western-dominated army and politicians from the west.

This story, despite its dramatic political backdrop is much more focused on the story of one woman, the widow Rehanna Haque. Essentially apolitical, she is gradually drawn into the independence movement due to her love and desire to shelter her college-going children (son and daughter), who are fired up by nationalist ideas and who become deeply involved in the insurgency against the army. As the tale progresses we see Rehanna's devotion to her children, all the sacrifices she has made and is willing to make for their sake, and also her fear as her children become more and more committed to the cause and less and less devoted to, and dependent on, her. In that sense Rehanna also learns to let them go, a stark contrast to the way that West Pakistan desires to hang on to and keep East Pakistan tight in its grasp, despite the wishes of the majority of people for independence.

The story is a bit slow to start out with but gradually builds up to a tragic and fitting climax. While Rehanna is well drawn and a character we can empathize with, other characters are somewhat more sketchily drawn - her children in particular are somewhat distant which means one doesn't necessarily feel as concerned about them as perhaps one should.

Being a (west) Pakistani, I've heard several people accuse this book of presented a biased version of events but really I can't agree with them. Events related here have been pretty reliably documented (including torture, rape and massacre). And while its true there were some revenge atrocities committed by Bengali nationalists, the author here isn't trying to document the entire war (for that one can turn to a history book). Nor does she get into the reasons for nationalist feelings and so on - its incidental to the plot and unnecessary. Anyway, its something I mention here because this is a book that I and a couple of others recommended for our English literature syllabus and there was a passionate debate about its appropriateness. As a history teacher I thought it was an important book to have, with the only concern being that it is a bit slow to start, and being told from the mother's point of view, isn't the most easily relatable book for teenagers to read.

38. Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa ***1/2

A collection of short stories by Japanese author Akutagawa which include two stories that the Akira Kurosawa-directed classic 'Rashomon' was based on. The Grove and Rashomon. Interesting and worth a look, but a bit bare, given there are only a handful of stories here.

84wookiebender
kesäkuu 27, 2011, 11:56 pm

Oh, I've been meaning to get to If Chins Could Kill for a while now. Love the title. :) And I loved Persepolis too! Beautiful stuff.

Looks like the library has Safe Area Gorazde available, whoohoo!

85clfisha
kesäkuu 28, 2011, 7:23 am

If Chins could Kill was a great, fun, book, although I sadly didn't think much of his next book Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way.

86iftyzaidi
heinäkuu 1, 2011, 6:32 am

If Chins Could Kill was fun. As I said earlier, not typically the kind of thing I read, but certainly worth a look if you are a fan of either Campbell or director Sam Raimi.

39. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin 4 stars.

This wonderfully written book consists of a collection of interlinked short stories that follow the lives, loves and losses of various members of the household of a wealthy Pakistani landlord, K. K. Harouni. Most, though not all, of the stories trace the arcs of doomed love affairs, which has led to the complaint among some that they seem a bit similar in plot. All are well written though and the lives of the characters are empathetically observed, as they move through a world that is changing around them. Mueenuddin has really effectively captured life in rural Punjab, from the wealthy landowners to humblest servants vividly and poignantly. To my mind he is the strongest of the current crop of Pakistani writers in English. I really regret not sticking around for the panel discussion he was on at the Karachi Literature Festival back in February. Oh well, there's always next year!

87iftyzaidi
heinäkuu 1, 2011, 6:40 am

Reading Round-Up at the end of June.

Books read to date: 39/100
Female to Male authors: 10 to 31 (24% to 76%)
Rereads: 0

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 5/20
Fantasy: 5/20
Mainstream: 10/20
Non-fiction books: 9/20
Others: 10/20
- (Graphic Novels: 10)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 5/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 0/6
- Short story collections: 3/6

Hm. Half way through the year and not yet 40% through my challenge....

88iftyzaidi
heinäkuu 1, 2011, 6:50 am

40. The A.B.C. Warriors by Pat Mills et al.: 2 and a half stars.

The first volume of collected stories from the 2000 A.D. comic. It's about a group of seven robot warriors who are brought together by a mysterious human controller for special missions (sort of a dirty dozen scenario set in the 2000 A.D. universe). I haven't read much 2000 A.D. stuff but picked this up after enjoying Alan Moore's Ballad of Halo Jones and D.R. and Quinch which I both liked. This however, I found rather dull. The early episodes where the team is being assembled was decent enough but after that its just... insipid really.

89iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: elokuu 3, 2011, 1:15 am

Once again I have been remiss about keeping up with reviews. But it has been a good month for reading!

41. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin: 4 stars.

I had been toying with the idea of re-reading the Song of Ice and Fire books before I got my hands on A Dance With Dragons but wasn't certain if I would actually ever get around to it. Watching the TV show decided the matter. It was flawed in some respects but on the whole I really enjoyed watching the world of Westeros and its inhabitants come to life on the screen.

So, a re-read then. The first thing that struck me was... well, how pedestrian some of Martin's writing was, particularly his descriptions. Maybe this reaction was the inevitable aftereffect of seeing the world so richly and vividly portrayed on TV? Its only later in the book (and somewhat more in the sequels) that GRRM seems to start letting his descriptions take flight a little more (particularly in the scenes beyond the Wall). But ah, the characters, the wonderfully rich, larger-than-life characters! Its them that make the tale. And of course the plotting, with storylines haring off into unexpected new directions. The language used to describe the world GRRM creates may be plodding, but the depth and detail it is given cannot be faulted. Once one sinks into the story, the book becomes well nigh unputdownable.

42. A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin: 4 and a half stars.

Loved it even more the second time around and partially I credit the TV series for this. The first time around I never really got into a couple of the POV characters, particularly Daenerys Stormborn. This time around I savoured her chapters a great deal more. I'm really looking forward to seeing this on the silver screen next year.

90iftyzaidi
elokuu 3, 2011, 1:25 am

43. Flashman's Lady by George MacDonald Fraser: 3 stars.

This is the sixth book featuring Flashman, the cowardly bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays who grows up to become an unlikely (and undeserving) hero of the British Empire in the 19th century. By now many of the jokes and situations have become familiar and though the locales are still exotic and unfamiliar, that's not necessarily enough to make up for a certain staleness in the tale. I suspect that the rest of the Flashman books are probably best read with lengthy intervals in between to combat over-familiarity. Still, this outing does have some transcendent moments, including what must be one of the most hilarious cricket matches set to paper as Flashman needs to beat his nemesis in a one-on-one cricket match on whose outcome his wife's reputation depends, while at the same time he must lose it if he is to stay on the right side of a dangerous match-fixing loan shark.

91iftyzaidi
elokuu 3, 2011, 1:42 am

44. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon: 4 stars.

I've not read any Michael Chabon before and I can understand why some would say this is the wrong place to start. Be that as it may, I absolutely enjoyed his take on a boy's own swords and sandals medieval adventure tale - somewhat reminiscent of Fritz Leiber or Michael Moorcock fantasy fare (he dedicates the book to Moorcock). The story is light, frothy and fun to read. What gives it that extra flavour is the wonderful setting - one rarely reads much fiction set in 10th century Central Asia, let alone one following the adventures of 2 Jewish swordsmen, one a mercenary from Abyssinia and the other a former medical student from France getting caught up in a succession struggle in the Jewish tribal kingdom of Khazaria. Highly entertaining!

92wookiebender
elokuu 3, 2011, 1:59 am

Oh, I've got Gentlemen of the Road, but I've never gotten around to reading it! Thanks for the reminder! (And I've also got the first Flashman novel somewhere. Must dust that off too. Ack, too many books!)

93iftyzaidi
elokuu 3, 2011, 2:40 am

@92 - I know the feeling wookie! Gentlemen of the Road is a very quick, easy read. The first Flashman I thought was the best. I was chortling throughout.

94iftyzaidi
elokuu 3, 2011, 2:44 am

45. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich: 3 and a half stars.

The fourth installment of Evanovich's series about inept bounty-hunter Stephanie Plum. The plot pretty much follows what is now a fairly standard formula, but to make up for it Evanovich ratchets up the humour! A fun, light read.

95iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: elokuu 3, 2011, 2:51 am

46. A Storm of Swords I: Steel and Blood by George R. R. Martin: 4 stars.
47. A Storm of Swords II: Blood and Gold by George R. R. Martin: 4 and a half stars.
48. A Feast of Crows by George R. R. Martin 4 stars.

Again, all 3 re-reads. Brilliant! Even A Feast of Crows which many people dislike. And my goodness, but Martin does not pull his punches. I can't describe the mounting sense of horror I felt the first time around while reading a certain scene in A Storm of Swords. During a re-read one can prepare oneself for the carnage but still...

96iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: elokuu 3, 2011, 11:53 pm

49. The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain & Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson: 4 stars.

I still maintain that Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is the best fantasy series going out there (though I have greater difficulty in explaining why I haven't read the last 3 installments in the mammoth 10 book series - note to self: I must do so soon!). Anyway, this here is a collection of 3 novellas set in the same Malazan world. They were originally written by Erikson as a kind of palette-cleansing exercise between his door-stopper books and its clear that he's having a great deal of fun with them. They feature the psychotic necromancers Bauchelain & Korbal Broach who roam from city to city conducting their experiments into the dark arts while waited upon by their luckless manservant, Emancipoor Reese who frequently finds himself in the middle of whatever mess their actions (or the actions of others) have created. Its kind of a combination of Fawlty Towers, Jack the Ripper, P.G. Wodehouse and the Call of Cthulhu.

The three novellas are 'Blood Follows', in which Emancipoor Reese first gets hired, 'The Lees of Laughter's End' which consists of the most outrageous farcical happenings when B & KB take passage on a haunted ship (whose crew includes a bunch of thieves pretending to be sailors who have stolen some artifacts best left untouched). The third novella is the, in my mind, somewhat weak 'The Healthy Dead' when B & KB come upon a city ruled by a sect of fanatic knights devoted to "wellness and health" (sort of fitness freaks and advocate of healthy living taken to the extreme!) Of course B & KB set about trying to bring an end to their reign of (healthy) terror!

A thoroughly entertaining collection, though its worth cautioning that the novellas don't necessarily give a good introduction to Erikson's longer works, and there may be some minor confusion for readers unfamiliar with the Malazan world (what's a 'Soultaken', etc.?)

50. Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson: 2 stars.

Not terrible. But almost. I really had to push myself to finish it. It hasn't aged well. And the whole sub-plot about the main character's insistence of enforcing military discipline on the civilian crew of humanity's first faster-than-light spaceship as it explores the universe is eye-rollingly bad, as is his insistence on the need to show no emotions or feelings, keep the rest of the crew at a distance and bark orders at them rudely all the time. I think we're meant to sympathize with his shouldering this great burden of command which leaves him isolated and lonely, seeing it as a necessary sacrifice for the sake of all mankind. But really, its stupid. Overall the book comes across as a kind of proto-fascist Star Trek.

97clfisha
elokuu 3, 2011, 1:56 pm

I thought Gentlemen of the Road was lots of fun and I loved the illustrations too, always a bonus.

I think Flashman is better in the earlier books when he is at his most roguish, the latter books are primarily as the history is so interesting.

98wookiebender
elokuu 4, 2011, 1:04 am

Its kind of a combination of Fawlty Towers, Jack the Ripper, P.G. Wodehouse and the Call of Cthulhu.

Oh, sounds awesome! I'm only four books into the Malazan Book of the Fallen, it takes a huge run-up to read each, and I seem to have lost the energy for such things. Must get book 5 dusted off and start on the run-up...

99iftyzaidi
elokuu 4, 2011, 2:18 am

wookie - oh well book 5, Midnight Tides is my probably my favorite book in the series, and it works fairly well as a stand alone, so I highly recommend dusting it off! Meanwhile, I still have reviews to catch up on!

51. Shakespeare by Bill Bryson: 3 and a half stars.

I haven't read much Bill Bryson (one book, almost two decades ago) so I didn't exactly come to this as a fan. I'm can't say I'm a huge Shakespeare aficionado either. When I picked this up, I was looking for something engaging, well written and not overly long and I as it turns out, this proved to be just the ticket. The writing is breezy and easy to get into, the subject is fascinating and Bryson makes the most out of the fact that we actually hardly know anything about Shakespeare at all. The discussions of various theories and where they spring from makes up for the sparseness in verifiable facts. And to top it off we get some wonderful insights into Elizabethan (and early Jacobean) London and England. Highly enjoyable.

52. Batting on the Bosphorus: A Skoda-powered Cricket Tour Through Eastern Europe by Angus Bell: 3 and a half stars.

This is an amusing and often outrageous account of Angus Bell's travels across Eastern Europe in a quest to play cricket in the unlikeliest of locales. His ultimate goals: to score a century against an international side (he's counting on his last match against Poland after discovering everyone, even a village team from Lithuania have beaten Poland!) and to hit a six from Europe into Asia (which is how he ends up dodging the Turkish police on a bridge across the Bosphorous for just long enough to club a ball bowled by a terrified Pakistani businessman from the European side to the Asian side!)

Many of the anecdotes are hilarious, and some sound contrived (such as the fateful meeting with a psychic in Canada that initially sets Bell on his path). I suppose at least a passing acquaintance with cricket would be useful to get the most out of the book.

100iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: elokuu 4, 2011, 5:14 am

53. Freaks of the Heartland by Steve Niles 3 and a half stars.

A reviewer called this graphic novel a "triumph of presentation over (lack of) substance", which I feel is a bit harsh. Certainly the artwork is wonderfully rendered and deeply atmospheric and certainly gives the whole thing greater depth than a bare story alone. However there is some poignancy in the tale as well. True, the conclusion seems rushed and somewhat threadbare, but generally I would say this is well worth a look.

54. Three Empires on the Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899 by Dominic Green 3 stars.

This book deserves a longer review than I really have the time for. It is a popular history about the contest for domination over the Nile (Egypt and Sudan) in the late Victorian period which involved 3 (4 actually, or even 6 if you include Abyssinia) empires: The Egyptian, the British, the French and the short-lived Mahdist empire in the Sudan. Generally the pros are that it is a well written, fairly well researched and exciting history about a place and time of great interest. The author manages the difficult task of packing in a great deal of detail about a great deal of different people and events spread across several continents, while never letting the pace of the narrative lag. The action is relentless and we're always in the thick of it, whether its a battle in the Sudan, intrigue in Alexandria, or a parliamentary debate in London. Its accessible in style and I suspect even readers with the most fleeting acquaintance with the era would be able to pick it up and immerse themselves very quickly in the world (or worlds) that Dominic Green describes.

However there are also a number of cons. The superficial attempt to give the story a contemporary resonance (thankfully limited to the introduction, the afterword and the blurb on the back) by mentioning Darfur and current political events doesn't really work. One suspects the publisher's marketing arm has had a hand in this. Another drawback is that primary sources (of which admittedly there are a plethora) are limited to English and French. One suspects that this may skew the narrative's perspective in a certain way. For example, the move by the Egyptian nationalists led by Urabi Pasha to end forced labour (the corvee) of poor peasants (the fellahin) to the state and Khedive is presented as a cynical ploy to win over support against the Khedive and his foreign backers. However Charles Gordon's re-legalization of slavery in the Sudan is presented as a necessary measure to win tribal support away from the rebels. Both actions are open to different interpretations. In fact I suspect many Egyptians would be pretty unhappy about the portrayal of Urabi Pasha in this book. Urabi Pasha's appeal to the British and French to not intervene in Egypt and pledge to repay Egyptian loans is scoffed at as unrealistic and barely worthy of contemplation, while swift, efficient British action is the order of the day. After the British occupation installs Lord Cromer in power, he is repeatedly praised for being a prudent and efficient administrator who is able to finally put Egyptian finances back on track. Later its briefly mentioned that only a rescheduling of the loans prevented a default. One can't help wondering what the nationalists would have achieved had they been allowed to rule the country and been given the same kind of breathing space vis a vis foreign debt when the Egyptian modernizers were still in charge. Egyptian anger at Cromer's austerity measures are also treated by the author as typical Egyptian obstructionism and inability to run a rational and thrifty administration. As we see in our own day, drastic austerity measures can and often do cause harm to people and are often opposed for very sound reasons. For example (one the author doesn't bother to mention), one of Cromer's austerity measures was to end free public education for girls, which had first been instituted in the 1870s. The number of government-run secondary girls schools was also reduced during the period of British rule. Lord Cromer actually justified these measures by saying that in an Islamic society, girls didn't need an education. Lord Cromer's relationship as the scion of the Baring family (owners of Barings bank, the dominant British merchant bank throughout most of the 19th century) and his connection with the British banking financial elite is not only considered unproblematic and a possible conflict of interest, but a mark in his favour. For the author modernity and liberalism march unreservedly hand in hand with free trade and British administration (though to his credit the author does mention the opium wars which "opened up" China to the British trade in opium as a somewhat problematic aspect of British free market ideology).

Some of the major characters that feature prominently in the events seem to be almost caricatures and the portraits we get of them don't seem to explain all their actions or words (e.g. Lord Cromer cared first and foremost about setting Egyptian finances on a sound footing and disliked the idea of Charles Gordon being sent to the Sudan... then why did he start agitating on Gordon's behalf later on and calling for an (expensive) military expedition, etc.?) Jamal al-din Afghani comes across as some kind of raving, paranoid occultist terrorist-in-the-making lurking in the background. Charles Gordon comes off somewhat better, but not by much. Again, the author doesn't really offer any convincing kind of explanation of why he quit the governorship of the Sudan in disgust only to return to the task a couple of years later.

It is taken as a given, from public pronouncements, that the British Prime Minister Gladstone, and the British government had no desire to permanently occupy Egypt and that this remains the case until several years later when criticism over the "absence" of an Egyptian policy finally forces Britain to formalize its occupation against its will. The idea that the actual obstacle to an earlier permanent occupation was foreign (mostly French) opposition to British rule and France's ability to hamper British control because of the structure of the international debt commission is not entertained. An alternate reading to the reluctant Gladstone finally giving in to political and humanitarian pressure reading of Britain's take over of Egypt is that it was only following the 1881 Berlin Conference which divided up Africa between the European powers, and where Bismarck used "the Egyptian lever" to gain major concessions from the British in return for supporting their claim to Egypt, that Britain finally had the diplomatic muscle to formalize control. France was compensated elsewhere in Africa.

Other criticisms are minor. You'd never know from the author's description of the event that the British bombardment of Alexandria caused much damage, so the reader is somewhat surprised to hear several pages on, the admiral of the British fleet being accused of "destroying Alexandria" by another British military officer who is deeply offended that he and the murderous admiral should be given similar honours, or that the bombardment stirred up a controversy at home. At times one suspects the author also sidelines scholarly skepticism in order to tell a good tale. The death of Charles Gordon at Khartoum is a heroic affair, vividly described, and one of the most stirring episodes in the book, but one has to take a glance at the end-notes to discover that the actual circumstances of Gordon's death are disputed, based on differing "eyewitness" accounts. One would prefer that even if he does stick with the account that best suits the purpose of his narrative, the author might at least mention that there is some dispute about whether it is fact or fiction.

Overall its a fun book to read and as I said earlier, the events and people it describes are so inherently interesting that its certainly worth reading. However, I feel it isn't entirely problem-free.

101iftyzaidi
elokuu 4, 2011, 5:27 am

55. The Cold War (Sutton Pocket Histories) by Priscilla Roberts: 4 stars.

Excellent. A fine example of what a short (about a 100 pages), readable synthesis of historical scholarship for a general reader should be. I'll be keeping a look out for more of these Sutton Pocket Histories.

102iftyzaidi
elokuu 4, 2011, 6:02 am

Phew! Finally caught up with my July reviews!

Reading Round-Up at the end of July.

Books read to date: 55/100
Female to Male authors: 12 to 43 (22% to 78%)
Rereads: 5

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 6/20
Fantasy: 11/20
Mainstream: 13/20
Non-fiction books: 13/20
Others: 12/20
- (Graphic Novels: 12)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 6/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 1/6
- Short story collections: 4/6

That was a pretty good month for reading. The female to male ratio of the authors I've read is disappointingly low, but otherwise I seem to have recovered from the slump earlier in the year. Lets see if I can maintain the momentum this month!

103wookiebender
elokuu 5, 2011, 12:21 am

Congratulations on reaching the halfway (plus some) mark! And a great review of Three Empires on the Nile, I now know far more about modern Egyptian history than I used to. :)

104iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: elokuu 24, 2011, 5:14 am

wookie - thanks! I'm glad my Masters in Imperial and Commonwealth History is paying off for something! :)

56. Batman: Bloodstorm by Doug Moench et al 3 stars.

This graphic novel was a sequel to the elseworlds tale chronicling Batman's conversion into a vampire in Batman: Red Rain. The concept is an intriguing one and the artwork suitably moody but generally I felt the story did not really come together well. Joker becoming the King of the vampires seemed odd. Catwoman came across as a Mary Sue and her conversion into a Were-Cat a bit random. The finale, with Inspector Gordon and Alfred hunting down Batman in his lair should have been executed with greater intensity. As it is, what should be a poignant and shocking moment just kind of fizzles out as if the creators were in a great hurry to get the book over and done with.

57. The Books of Faerie: Auberon's Tale by Bronwyn Carlton et al 3 stars.

A spinoff from Neil Gaiman's Sandman and Books of Magic series, this graphic novel is a collection of stories featuring characters from the land of faerie. The first few tales focus on the machinations involved in Auberon's ascendance to the throne when he was but a boy. Its the strongest part of this collection and its a pity that the story comes to an abrupt end just as the story is building up steam. Presumably the story is continued in future collections. The rest of this collection is a gathering of short odds and ends which don't really stand out in any way. Fans of Sandman etc. may want to have a look in, but otherwise, there's not enough substance here to attract newcomers.

105wookiebender
elokuu 25, 2011, 3:45 am

Wow. When did Batman become a vampire?? I'm definitely out of the loop here. :)

106wookiebender
lokakuu 5, 2011, 6:46 am

Awfully quiet around here.

Just popped my nose in to say that I read In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and would like to thank you for the recommendation, it was a very good read.

107iftyzaidi
lokakuu 28, 2011, 2:59 am

Hello wookie - I have been woefully neglectful both in maintaining this thread and in my reading. Things have been very busy since we got a bright, bouncing little addition to the family in July and with the academic year getting under way a few weeks after. i will catch up eventually though (and catch up on reading everyone's threads too!)

108wookiebender
lokakuu 29, 2011, 10:17 pm

Best reason ever for being busy, methinks. :)

Congratulations on the bouncing addition to the family! Babies keep you on your toes, but they're absolutely worth it.

109maestro96
marraskuu 4, 2011, 4:06 pm

Wow! You are one prolific reader. My count is not that so good. I would be lucky to knock down one book a month but than I read a lot on the internet and news magazines.

110iftyzaidi
marraskuu 5, 2011, 3:14 am

58. The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power by Tariq Ali: 3 stars

Tariq Ali has become an institution in of himself and therein lies the strength and weakness of this book. By now anyone with even a fleeting acquaintance with his articles, books, speeches or political activism will know more or less what to expect – a scathing leftist critique of the Pakistani governing elite and of US foreign policy mixed in with a generalized summary of the history of the relationship between the two countries.

The problem is that the critique itself is so generalized that one starts to feel that it lacks incisiveness. Its not that I necessarily disagree with what Ali says but when he paints with such broad brush strokes, there isn’t really a great deal of substance to engage critically with. The problem is that Tariq Ali is not a journalist and comes across as somewhat out of touch with the day to day evolution of the troublesome Pakistani-American relationship since 9/11. In fact the book is strongest when he recounts events that he has a first-hand knowledge of (his description of students organizing for political agitation in the lead up to the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971 for example) or his conversations with those great icons of disappointed liberal Pakistani aspirations – Zulfiqar and Benazir Bhutto.

Its difficult to say who precisely will get the most out of this book. Someone looking for a readable and general summary of the Pakistani-American relationship and its effects on Pakistan could do worse than pick this up, though those looking for nuance might be frustrated by some sweeping assertions presented as indisputable fact. Those looking for a comprehensive or detailed account will probably not get what they want here, while specialists in the region will find little that is new (with the possible exceptions where Tariq Ali writes of his own experiences). I suspect the readers who will get the most out of the book will be those who already essentially agree with Tariq Ali’s analysis and are looking for an eloquent articulation of the views they already hold – that the ruling American and Pakistani elites are locked in an mutually beneficial relationship which has proved in the case of Pakistan to be disastrous for the country, strangling the development of democratic institutions and progressive social movements.

111iftyzaidi
marraskuu 27, 2011, 1:49 am

108 & 109> Thanks wookie and maestro.

59. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid ****1/2

This is a book I had pretty much dismissed and, for the longest time, had really had no interest in reading. This, even though I had liked Mohsin Hamid’s first book, Moth Smoke, which I had found absorbing and well written without being exceptional. The reason for my lack of interest was that I simply felt that the author would not be able to handle the premise with the complexity and insight that it needed. My fears deepened over the years as I read various articles and editorials Hamid has written. Mohsin Hamid seemed to me to have a very conventional and blinkered take on the events unfolding both in the country and internationally.

As it was I was finally prodded into picking up a copy of the book because I was helping someone revamp their school’s literature syllabus and we were going through Pakistani authors who wrote in English. The Reluctant Fundamentalist, of course, has won great acclaim and so it made sense to finally give it a go. I did and the novel simply sucked me in. It was a wonderfully compelling read and I loved it. At the same time, I feel I wasn't wrong about Hamid's insights.

The book operates on two levels – the first is what is on the surface – an anonymous American (who may or may not be a covert operative) is confronted by a sauve, mysterious Pakistani (who may or may not be a radical militant) at an outdoor restaurant in the Pakistani city of Lahore. The Pakistani buys the American dinner and over the meal he gradually reveals the history of his own relationship with the United States, a country to which he travelled as a student and where he worked for a while on Wall Street, before becoming disenchanted and returning to Pakistan. On this level the story is riveting. Hamid’s prose flows beautifully and one is glued to the page, caught up both by the man’s story and the search for the slightest hint or clue about the real motives of the two men and what will come of their meeting. Its fair to say that I’m in awe of how a book that consists of a dinner conversation (in which we never hear one of the two interlocutors speak) can be as gripping and absorbing as the most action-packed potboiler. Its for this that I felt compelled to give the book 4 and a half out of 5 stars.

On the second level the story is an allegory and it is on this level that it fails. Now Mohsin Hamid seems fond of pushing allegorical undertones into his novels. In Moth Smoke, his two main characters were named Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb – the first a poor, self-made man and the second the scion of a feudal family. They were best friends until they fell out over a woman, where Aurangzeb’s wealth and domineering tendencies win out. The allegory of course refers to the two Mughal Princes Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb, who fought a civil war over the succession to the Mughal Empire that ruled India. Traditional historiography made Dara Shikoh’s defeat out to be a key turning point for the Empire based on the idea that he, like earlier Mughal Emperors followed a tolerant Sufi brand of Islam whereas Aurangzeb was puritanical and intolerant of his non-muslim subjects. Aurangzeb’s long tyrannical rule saw uprisings amongst his subjects that led to the decline of the Mughal Empire which allowed fractured soon after his death, allowing the British to conquer the subcontinent in the 18th century. Now more recent historical research has rejected such a facile account of Mughal decline, but the theory has enjoyed a sort of extended half-life amongst Pakistanis of a liberal, secular persuasion, particularly because it acts as a sort of moral-historical argument against the conservative religious right (who have their own mythical historical narratives) which proscribes Islamic orthodoxy as a political formula for progress. In the context of Moth Smoke, we root for Dara Shikoh because his name is a signifier that he will be tolerant, open, less-controlling, than the wealthy and powerful Aurangzeb. In short he’ll be good for the girl. Aurangzeb, once she agrees to marry him, will prove to be anything but.

The allegorical element of Moth Smoke, to my mind, was weak and unnecessary and easily dismissed. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, its not as easy to dismiss. After all this is supposed to be one of THE post 9-11 novels. It purports to represent the complex relationship many people around the world have with America and examine why so many people around the world seem to have turned against America. But once again I find it a little facile. In the States, the narrator meets and falls in love with (Am)Erica but after the events of 9/11 it becomes increasingly obvious that she is still hung up on her late first lover, Chris(t?) and his loss has left her deeply scarred and unable to maintain a meaningful relationship. To top it off the narrator starts to feel like a stooge for global capitalist forces (seemingly conflated with the USA) which are exploiting and hurting people around the world. He feels guilty over the fact that he is raking in the money and living the high life in the USA while the shadows of war loom over his family back home. He feels the United States is unfairly pushing Pakistan towards war in the crisis following the militant attack on the Indian Parliament. He rebels.

Now obviously the narrator is an unreliable one. And if he is to end up as a radical fundamentalist, he needs to develop a sense of grievance against the United States whether or not it is warranted. But I really felt the allegorical representation to be off-kilter and feel the book would have been better off without letting the allegory seep into the book. I can't help but think that all it does is undermine the strength of what is otherwise a very strong narrative.

As an aside, the book also has interesting resonances in light of the Raymond Davis incident that occurred in Lahore (the city in which the book is set) earlier this year. In the book, our unnamed narrator meets a lone American sitting in a street-side restaurant. It is intimated that he is armed, is an ex-military man and possible a security contractor or secret agent. The book ends with him being accompanied by the narrator and being followed by a couple of suspicious looking characters who may or may not be militants out to do him harm. Back in January, an American Security Contractor working for the CIA named Raymond Davis shot and killed two motorcyclists he claimed were following him. A third person was killed when a U.S. consulate vehicle driven by security personnel rushing to the scene to aid Davis sped down the wrong side of the road. The incident caused an uproar in the country because the men involved claimed diplomatic immunity and diplomatic pressure was brought to bear to drop charges (the wife of one of the dead motorcyclists later committed suicide by taking sleeping pills when it became clear Davis wouldn't stand trial). It also crystallised strong objections to the presence of large numbers of armed Americans doing unspecified 'contracting' jobs in Lahore at the time. Mohsin Hamid himself in a newspaper column described bristling at a party where he ran into an American ex-military type proudly showing off a weapon he was carrying around - almost as if to personify the crude stereotype of the gun-totting obnoxious American abroad. Though Hamid is careful not to give any but the slightest of glimpses of the American his narrator is speaking to in the book, its easy enough to picture a Raymond Davis-like character in his place. It does make one wonder if the only 'reluctant fundamentalist' in the book is the narrator.

112clif_hiker
marraskuu 27, 2011, 5:22 am

great review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist; I've been wanting to read that book for some time... and now want to even more!

113iftyzaidi
marraskuu 30, 2011, 5:18 am

kcs - thanks. Its well worth reading. I shouldn't have blown it off for so long.

Since its obvious I'm never going to catch up on my reviews if I continue at this rate, I'm going to try and rush things a bit.

60. Existencilism by Banksy 3 and a half stars

In recent years I've generally become more alienated from the art world and the whole gallery-critic-art-school-artist nexus. But street art is something that still speaks to me and Banksy is a master of the form. I love how it is so politically engaged, uses humour so zestfully, and how it tries to connect with the man on the street.

61. Graceling by Kristin Cashore 3 and a half stars

I read Fire, which was a prequel of sorts, earlier this year and really enjoyed it. This book sequentially comes after Fire, but was written first. Generally I like it, but did feel that it was not as well-paced as the first. It dragged a little in the middle, but things picked up in the last quarter and ended with a compelling finale.

62. The Electric Forest by Tanith Lee 3 stars

One of Tanith Lee's earlier, minor works. It is SF but still has that strange, baroque feel to it that Lee is so adept at injecting into her novels. The story is a grotesque SFnal take on the old Pygmalion myth. Its interesting, and short, but I wouldn't number it amongst her essential works.

114clfisha
marraskuu 30, 2011, 5:32 am

I think Banksy is great & luckily living in Bristol (UK) we have some lovely stuff, although its a real shame that a lot of Banksy's stuff is being vandalised :( If you haven'y caught his "documentary" I would recommend it.

115iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: marraskuu 30, 2011, 10:54 am

114 - The Banksy "documentary" 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' was definitely one of the best movies I saw last year. I loved it and would recommend it to everyone!

Meanwhile, onward with my mission to catch up on reviews!

63. Mockingbird by Walter Tevis 3 and a half stars.

A beautifully written dystopic novel. My only gripe is a personal one, as I tend to find these kinds of novels somewhat conservative and technophobic in outlook. The fear that technological advancements meant to make life easier will 'kill' something essential within the human spirit strikes me as a little atavistic. But maybe that's just me. This is a beautiful novel.

64. Crossfire by Nancy Kress 3 and a half stars.

Fun sort of space colonisation/first contact novel which kind of reminds me of Anne McCaffrey's better non-Pern novels.

116iftyzaidi
marraskuu 30, 2011, 11:13 am

I got very little reading done in September. Teaching was in full swing. Parental responsibilities with 2 young 'uns was overwhelming and so forth.

65. Daybreak vol. 1 by Brian Ralph 3 and a half stars.

This slight black and white graphic novel was a nice little introduction to a world devastated by some kind of zombie-apocalypse. Very simple and elegant and unfortunately very little plot to go on. Would love to read more of the story.

66. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie 3 and a half stars.

I really liked Abercrombie's blend of grittiness and humour in his First Law trilogy (though the second book was a little weak). In this stand alone novel, which is set in the same world but features different characters, Abercrombie dials up the darkness. Overall its a compelling tale of vengeance with a focus on the relationships between the central characters. Not as good as the First law trilogy, but certainly worth a look if you like your fantasy grim, bloody and laced with black humour.

117iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: marraskuu 30, 2011, 12:38 pm

By October I was deep in a reading slump. After finishing GRRM's long-awaited next instalment in A Song of Ice and Fire, I think I needed a break from novels. Salvation came when I came across a whole bunch of random discounted graphic novels going cheap at a bookshop.

67. A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin ***1/2

Its been a long wait and the HBO series did a great deal to whet the appetite for this. I was even driven to re-reading the previous books earlier in the year. My reaction to ADWD however was somewhat mixed. On the one hand, it was great to be following the stories of the various characters once again and I was captivated throughout. On the other hand by the time I finished the book I was left with a feeling of 'Is that it?' The story really didn't progress very far from where things stood in A Feast of Crows. I know that's partially due to the fact that many of the events described here at happening concurrent to events in A Feast of Crows, but the lack of plot progress was still a little disappointing.

GRRM has a lot of plot threads to manage and manipulate and one gets the feeling that he is facing a similar problem to what Robert Jordan faced in his later books. The need to manage so many different threads and characters led to a glacial pace in plot development. GRRM's narrative hasn't seized up to the extent Robert Jordan's did, but one still hopes that the pace will pick up in the next instalment.

68. Elektra Volume. 1: Introspect by Greg Rucka et al **1/2

A misguided attempt to give Elektra's character more depth but making her out to be a adrenaline junkie with a death wish. Poor. And the art comes across as unnecessarily gratuitous.

69. Black Widow: The Coldest War by Gerry Conway ***1/2

This was published back in 1990 when the Cold War was still on everyone's minds. When the Black Widow is contacted by the KGB, they inform her that her husband, long believed dead, may still be alive. But the only way she can see him again is if she steals secret American tech for the Russians. Entertaining.

70. Black Widow by Devin Grayson ***

Post cold war. A new Black Widow has been trained in Russia and wants to prove herself as an equal of the previous one. Post cold-war cooperation by Russia and the USA sees both being sent to the Middle East with the same assignment. Hi-jinks ensue. Decent enough.

71. Wolverine Legends Volume 6 by Larry Hama et al ***

Collecting various issued of the Wolverine comic with art work done by March Silvestri. Contains some great (and some rather mediocre) stories.

72. Peter Parker, Spider-Man: One Small Break by Gerry Conway ***

Collects 4 stories, none of which are really outstanding. Also I get the feeling that Gerry Conway's take on Spider-Man is just a little bit too angsty.

73. Startling Stories: Banner by Brian Azzarello ****

This was outstanding. Brian Azzarello is an excellent author and the artwork here, while unusual for a superhero comic really works well. This is a devastating story and really gets to the heart of how terrifyingly destructive the Hulk can be when he is out of control, and what a burden this places on Bruce Banner.

74. The Incredible Hulk Vol. 4: Abominable by Bruce Jones ****

I never really used to pay much attention to the Hulk as a character, but I have to say that this graphic novel really wrings out all the pathos inherent in a Jekyll and Hyde kind of a situation. Good stuff.

75. Union Jack TPB by Ben Raab ***

British vampire hunter. A bit run of the mill really. And why do American authors always imagine working class joes with cockney accents and scions of wealthy aristocratic families tend to hang out at country pubs together all the time?

76. Catwoman: When in Rome by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale ****

This is the fourth story Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have teamed up to do in The Long Halloween series featuring Batman. Like The Long Halloween this is great, mixing mystery, humour, romance in a truly entertaining blend.

77. Doom TPB by Chuck Dixon ***

Well this is downright bizarre. Doctor Doom's psychedelic adventures in space-time to escape the prison-planet he was trapped on by the Fantastic Four. Not sure how to describe it really, its a bit of an oddball.

118iftyzaidi
marraskuu 30, 2011, 11:52 pm

78. The Scorpion's Tail by Zahid Hussain ***1/2

Journalist Zahid Hussain's follow-up to Frontline Pakistan (which I read earlier this year) brings the story of the "War on Terror" up to 2010. Essentially Hussain argues that both Pakistani and American policy is seriously flawed; Pakistan for assuming that the Taliban can be divided into 'good' and 'bad' Taliban and the first coddled and America for assuming that the war can be won by 'droning' its leaders to death, when the collateral damage only causes more people to turn to militancy. The title alludes to the parable of the scorpion's tale, which, when cut off, only grows back. All in all a good read, though I only really found the last few chapters of real use. Most of the book simply rehashes the history of militancy and US/Pakistani policies which have already been covered in Frontline Pakistan and numerous other books.

79. The Punisher: Circle of Blood by Steve Grant et al ***1/2

This was a re-read as I first read this many, many years ago when I was a kid. Its a pretty good story about how the Punisher, with the support of a shadowy vigilante organization launches a personal war on crime, eliminating various crime lords. All this leads to is increased violence, as secondary crime bosses compete to take the place of the eliminated crime lords. Realizing that his tactics aren't working, the Punisher tries to help negotiate a truce to end the bloodshed, but the organization that had previously backed him now turns against him.

80. X-O Manowar: Retribution by Bob Layton et al **1/2

A saxon warrior from the dark ages is held by aliens who plot an invasion of Earth. He escapes with the help of an alien super-weapon (a semi-sentient suit of armour) to return to Earth in modern times. Sounds like a great premise, doesn't it? Pity its so boring....

119wookiebender
joulukuu 1, 2011, 1:23 am

Wow, that was a massive catching up! Great review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, I read it when it first came out, and I'm thinking I should re-read it now.

120iftyzaidi
joulukuu 5, 2011, 5:44 am

Thanks wookie! Still have more catching up to do.

81. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammad Hanif ***1/2

This deserves a longer and more in-depth review than I have the time to write, particularly given that there are currently no reviews up on LT. Alas, time constraints intrude. This is Hanif’s second book, following the excellent A Case of Exploding Mangoes. The story follows a Christian nurse named Alice Bhatti working at a public hospital in Karachi and a police tout (unofficial muscle for when the police want to do things on the down-low) named ‘Teddy’ Butt, who fall in love. Complications ensue, ultimately leading to a tragic ending.

The language is rich, at times too rich, with sentences bursting at the seam with overripe imagery and lurid prose. The tone is earthy, vulgar and intense as we are bombarded with images, colours, smells, sounds – a barrage of impressions of the seedy underbelly of the city of Karachi. It deals with the themes of intolerance, misogyny, brutality, and the unlikely origins of hope – the grandest of themes write large across a gaudy canvas. The biggest drawback in my mind is that the narrative stutters and skitters from image to image without really giving the characters a chance to gel. Hanif is better at writing set-pieces – the novel feels like a series of set-pieces or vignettes strung together rather than an organic whole. As a result the characters don’t properly come alive. Its like we are seeing snapshots of them at particular moments rather than their development over the course of the doomed love affair. As a result I feel its easier to engage with the setting than with the characters. And the setting is so sordid for the most part that I can see a lot of people getting turned off with the whole thing.

82. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny ****

A re-read. In fact I believe it’s the fourth time I’ve read this particular book (the first in the Amber series by Roger Zelazny). It is so utterly and compulsively readable that as soon as a read the first couple of sentences I’m hooked and utterly carrier away. A true fantasy classic and a great comfort re-read!

83. The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny ***1/2

Second in the Amber series and another re-read.

84. Aliens vs Predator vs The Terminator by Mike Schultz **1/2

Graphic novel which has an interesting basic plot but seems oddly rushed – as if the creative team had to skip panels to get the thing completed on time rather than taking the time to really get their teeth into the fun of having Aliens, Predators and Terminators running around hunting each other with a group of luckless humans caught in between. A bit of a wasted opportunity really.

Phew! And that's October done! My reading round-up at the end of October:

Books read to date: 83/100
Female to Male authors: 15.5 to 67.5 (19% to 81%)
Rereads: 8

Breakdown:
Science Fiction: 9/20
Fantasy: 16/20
Mainstream: 15/20
Non-fiction books: 15/20
Others: 29/20
- (Graphic Novels: 28)
- (Art: 1)

My personal challenges:
- Books on history: 6/6
- Books I bought in 2006 or earlier: 1/6
- Books by my most highly rated authors: 3/6
- Short story collections: 4/6

121iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 5, 2011, 6:20 am

On to what I read in November:

85. The Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny ****
86. The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny ***1/2

Books 3 and 4 in the Amber series. Its a great series and Zelazny's a wonderful writer. I noticed some of the other LT reviewers were complaining about the use of outdated slang ("I can dig it") and the main character smoking and drinking a great deal, but given that the series was written in the late 60s I don't see why any of that is a problem, particularly since it doesn't impact the storyline in anyway. Its like someone watching the TV show 'Mad Men' and complaining about the smoking and drinking and the lack of high ranking female executives.

87. Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello ***1/2

Very noir, very gritty graphic novel that seems to owe a great deal to the Sin City series (thankfully it isn't as moronic). The anti-hero protagonist is so dislikeable that its hard to really engage with him, or any of the other, mostly seedy, characters.

122wookiebender
joulukuu 5, 2011, 11:02 pm

Its like someone watching the TV show 'Mad Men' and complaining about the smoking and drinking and the lack of high ranking female executives.

Oh, I read the Princes in Amber series and complain about the lack of good strong female characters (not the smoking and drinking so much). Every time. Up to about four reads now.

It's a guilty pleasure that I try to hide from my feminist side. ;)

123iftyzaidi
joulukuu 6, 2011, 3:32 am

122 - Good point wookie! Now that you remind me of it, I did find it a little irritating that none of the princesses of Amber are contenders for the throne and mostly tend to suffer from a crippling lack of ambition when compared to their brothers!

88. Hounded by Kevin Hearne ***1/2

'Dresden Files meets American Gods'? Well how could I resist this first instalment of Kevin Hearne's 'Iron Druid Chronicles'? As it turns out that's a pretty good description, though it is fluffier and more action-oriented than either. All in all Hounded suggest I have a fun new series to tide me over till I can finally get my hands on more Dresden Files. Hopefully over the coming instalments in the series, it will acquire more depth and a interesting cast of supporting characters.

89. Playing With Fire: Pakistan At War with Itself by Pamela Constable ***1/2

Washington Post reporter Pamela Constable has done a remarkable job in this survey of where Pakistan stands 64 years after its founding. Rather than focusing on the political wrangling at the pinnacle of state, each chapter focuses on a different episode that she covered during her time reporting from the country, and then explores how that highlights broader cultural, legal, political or economic issues affecting the country. To a certain extent (though not completely) Constable is able to break away from the single-minded focus on the country through the prism of the War on Terror. For the most part its a depressing read and one can't help but feel that one is exploring a country that in some important respects lost its way.

90. Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi by Steve Inskeep *****

This is an absolutely outstanding book. NPR reporter Steve Inskeep has written a brilliantly insightful look at the Pakistani megalopolis, Karachi, and what ails it. To understand what is happening in Karachi (and in a wider context in Pakistan), Inskeep focuses first and foremost on the fact that it is an "instant city". In 1947 it had a population of 400,000, was known for its cosmopolitanism, (just over half the population was Hindu) entrepreneurial spirit and progressive politics. The upheaval of partition dumped over a million refugees in the city in the space of a couple of years. Continued migration means that the population, within the span of a lifetime has boomed to an estimated 18 million. Within the course of a lifetime it has changed completely. In a series of vignettes Inskeep explores how and why the city has changed in this time and the invisible currents that underlie today's fearsome headlines about the city. He profiles some astonishing characters, including architects, high-powered businessmen, clerics, doctors, policemen, racketeers involved in land-development, and the indomitable and eccentric Abdul Sattar Edhi (who if there is any justice in the world should win the Nobel Peace Prize he has been nominated for this year for his lifetime's work - though honestly his wife should have been jointly nominated alongside him). Immensely readable, and truly insightful, I'd single this out as probably the best non-fiction book I've read this year.

91. Hexed by Kevin Hearne ***1/2

Second book in the Iron Druid Chronicles picks up right where Hounded left off, at the same break-neck pace. Keeps up the standards of the first book (though I'm still hoping for greater depth in the books to come!)

92. The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny ***

Fifth and final book in the first Amber series. By now the energy that made the earlier instalments such fun reads has dissipated somewhat. This final instalment has pacing problems and suffers from too much of its slight length being taken up with Corey travelling from one place to another. The ending also lost a little oomph when Zelazny decided to leave room for a sequel. All in all an ordinary end to an otherwise great series.

124clif_hiker
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 6, 2011, 5:53 am

I am about due for a reread of the Amber series, it's been far too long. I'm glad you are enjoying Kevin Hearne's series.. I like them more than Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden, but I do agree that they are a bit 'fluffier'.

the book by Inskeep looks terrific! IMO, he is one of the best reporters NPR has.

125iftyzaidi
joulukuu 23, 2011, 4:50 am

clif - I would definitely recommend the Inskeep. Also, I finally got my hands on the 3rd Hearne book so I'm looking forward to reading that soon.

In the meantime I still have reviews to catch up on!

93. Lords of the Starship by Mark S. Geston ***1/2

An interesting little SF book set in a post-apocalyptic world. Its written almost like a kind of future history about the attempt of a small feudal post-technological state to try and build a starship as a way to inspire a defeated and demotivated populace. If I'm not mistaken there are shades of post-war Empire-less British angst woven in these pages.

94. Bin Laden, Islam and America's New War on Terrorism by Asad Abukhalil ***1/2

In his foreward Professor Abukhalil writes about how he has always looked down on 'instant books' until he felt compelled to write this one in the aftermath of 9/11 and what he felt to be America's alarming response. Much of what he warned about then is now in hindsight shown to have been prophetic. Its a pity more notice wasn't (and still isn't) taken of what he had to say. I still recall him being dissed by Bill Maher on his Politically Incorrect show when he argued that the fact that a pro-war consensus had taken over the media which had become increasingly conformist (this was before the invasion of Iraq). Bill Maher seemed to take personal offense and increasingly turned to his other middle-east "expert" on the show - Jean Sasson (!!!) I guess the chief reason to read this book now is to see that there were intelligent dissenting voices that made some pretty intelligent calls at that time.

95. The Day of the Dissonance by Alan Dean Foster ***1/2

Perfect for reading in a hospital waiting room when you want something uncomplicated, undemanding and diverting. The third in Foster's Spellsinger series of books.

126ronincats
joulukuu 23, 2011, 8:53 pm


Happy Holidays, Ifti, even if they aren't celebrated in Pakistan. We can all drink to Peace on Earth, I hope.

Some great reading and great job catching up on reviews. Very interesting reading (your reviews).

127iftyzaidi
joulukuu 29, 2011, 3:18 am

Thanks Ronin. Merry Christmas to you too! I'll be doing my best to catch up on my reviews before the end of the year. Best wishes for the holidays!

128iftyzaidi
tammikuu 1, 2012, 5:49 am

96. Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler ***

Happy with the results of taking a chance on a new urban fantasy in the case of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, I decided to try out this first book in the a new(ish) series by Nicole Peeler. The story revolves around a young woman named Jane True living in a small port town in Maine who discovers that her long lost mother was actually a supernatural being named a selkie and is introduced to the wonderful and dangerous world of the fae as a result. Yes, there is a hunky vampire present to spice up the proceedings. All in all its an okay book which takes its time setting up the supernatural world that coexists with our mundane one and while also leaving plenty of space for the sexy vampire romance element. By itself its fairly average but I reckon I'll have to read the second before I can really make up my mind about the series.

97. The King and the Cowboy by David Fromkin **1/2

International Relations expert and Historian David Fromkin delivers a slim, elegant little book which puts forward the claim that there was a special relationship between Theodore Roosevelt (the Cowboy) and Edward VII (the King) of England which changed the course of history by creating a special relationship between Britain and the USA which still stands today and which drew the battle lines in World War One by blocking the ambitions of Kaiser Wilhelm II at the Algeciras during the First Moroccan Crisis in 1906. Furthermore he uses this claim to put forward the idea that individual personalities are often just as if not more important than impersonal forces (industrialisation, nationalism, economic structures etc.) in determining the course of history.

Alas in singularly failing to prove the first claim, Fromkin undermines the second as well. The first 4/5s of the book provide us with short biographies of Edward, Theodore and Wilhelm, which are interesting to read (given that they are sprinkled with scandalous tidbits about the peccadillos of the European monarchs in particular) but don't seem to really fully support the thesis. We are told Edward (who had nothing to do with foreign policy directly) exerted an indirect influence through his patronage of pro-French friends in the foreign office. The evidence for this, and its impact is never provided. The special relationship between Roosevelt and Edward amounts to one telegram of congratulations after the conference is over. The conference, which one would expect to be described in depth is passed over in only a couple of pages. In short, Fromkin's thesis does not hold up. At best he shows how Edward VI preferred an Anglo-French alliance rather than the Anglo-German one his parents had wanted and that this preference may have filtered into official British thinking.

A final note concerns odd little irregularities with facts and some (at least to me) debatable interpretations of historical records. Charles II of England was not a Catholic. The Hanoverian dynasty came after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, not the execution of Charles, etc.

98. The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes ****

129wookiebender
tammikuu 1, 2012, 6:49 am

Hang on, didn't Charles II* convert to Catholicism on his deathbed? Or was Fromkin saying he was Catholic earlier than that?

* Or, the King of Bling as my kids know him, thanks to Horrible Histories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2kyNbZc7oc

130iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2012, 2:15 pm

wookie - yes of course. I was referring (as Fromkin did) to Charles I, who was the one who was executed. Sorry, I was in a bit of a rush to finish that review! (Parental duties were calling!)

98. The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes ****

NPR reporter started reporting from Afghanistan in 2001. Eventually she quit her job to help found an NGO which ran development projects in Kandahar (the so-called 'capital' of the Taliban). Eventually, as the Taliban insurgency against the NATO-supported govt. began to pick up and reporters and journalists retreated "behind the wire" she became virtually the only American living in Kandahar itself. This is a chronicle of her time there between 2001 and 2005 and her assessment of what went wrong. The story starts with a funeral - that of her friend, the chief of police in Kandahar - and the author's determination to figure our how exactly he died and who killed him.

This is an outstanding book and probably the best look at what went wrong in the American-led occupation of Afghanistan from the ground level. Sarah Chayes herself comes across as tough, highly independent-minded, deeply sympathetic to the plight of the ordinary Afghan. Its an extraordinary book by an extraordinary person.

99. Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent Into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death by Jim Frederick ****1/2

This is an outstanding work of journalism based on extensive interviews. Frederick tells the tale of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, deployed during one of the worst periods of the Iraq occupation in one of its deadliest areas. It is a clinical examination of leadership in war time and the dangers that can arise when leaders fail their men (apparently its now being used in leadership courses at West Point). It is also an investigation into a terrible crime, the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi girl followed by her murder, and the murders of the rest of her family by soldiers of 1st Platoon. While the soldiers directly responsible were eventually punished, there is little doubt that the responsibility for the incident goes much further than simply the men on the ground. Lastly in examining what this platoon went through during its tour, and what it did, it is also raises wider questions about the war in general, its purpose and its planning. Surely one of the best books on Iraq out there.

Thomas Ricks recently interviewed Jim Frederick on his Foreign Policy blog here: http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/12/12/qa_jim_frederick_s_black_hearts_...

(Which remind me I have Ricks' two books on the Iraq war on my tbr mountain as well)

100. Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski ***

Posthumously published memoirs by the renowned Polish journalist, I found I couldn't quiet warm up to this book. When the author is giving us biographical stories and details, its interesting, though there really isn't a whole lot of that here. Where he is essentially summarizing passages from Herodotus (which he does a lot of) it is again interesting but more than anything actually makes me want to pick up Herodotus! And then there is the mixed bag of ruminations and generalisations on life, the world and human nature which he derives from the passages in Herodotus which are occasionally intriguing, but more often, not. I much preferred Shadow of the Sun which I read last year.

131iftyzaidi
tammikuu 1, 2012, 2:24 pm

Oh and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all have a great year of reading ahead of you and look forward to sharing thoughts on whatever it is we read!

In the meantime I need to find the time to actually finish reviewing the books I read last month. (Lots of non-fiction for a change!)

132wookiebender
tammikuu 1, 2012, 6:07 pm

Congratulations on 100 reviews, and 100+ reads!

I enjoyed Travels with Herodotus more than you did, but I agree, it was pretty patchy. I also really liked his Shah of Shahs, have you read that one yet?

Happy New Year to you, too!

133iftyzaidi
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 2, 2012, 12:13 am

132 - I've only read the two books by Kapuscinski, and while I wasn't crazy about Travels with Herodotus, I would definitely like to read Shah of Shahs as well as some of his other books.

Soldiering on with my reviews:

101. A Million Bullets by James Fergusson ***1/2

Two books by British reporter James Fergusson. The first is an examination of the British campaign in Afghanistan's Helmand province in 2006-2007, which was supposed to be model counter-insurgency campaign which would clear the area of militants, provide security for development projects and establish the writ of the Afghan government. It ended in complete failure and recriminations all around, including some very public statements by army brass in the British press. Fergusson places the campaign in context, examines its aims and planning and then looks at what went wrong. He also looks at the stories of soldiers on the ground, the pilots involved in resupply and support missions, and the political wrangling surrounding British involvement in Afghanistan. He examines many of the claims made at the time, that the planning was bad, that there was political interference from Whitehall, that local Afghan government imperatives distorted the execution of the plan, that not enough resources were provided for the mission (the political opposition and the media in the UK in particular made a big deal out of a supposed shortage of Chinook helicopters needed to resupply and transport troops) and that there was inadequate coordination with other NATO allies. In the final chapter Fergusson interviews a Taliban commander and his men and suggests that this is a war that will not be won on the battlefield and puts forward the suggestion that there will have to be a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.

102. Taliban by James Fergusson ***1/2

This was Fergusson's follow-up book to A Million Bullets. When that book was written Fergusson's suggestion of negotiations with the Taliban was a fairly radical and certainly unpopular idea. 3 years later when Taliban came out, everyone was talking about negotiations, but it wasn't clear how this was to proceed. In this book Fergusson presents us with a short history of the Taliban movement. He argues that it was not as unified and monolithic in its ideology as its most reactionary and repressive elements would suggest and also argues fairly convincingly that for many Afghans it was better than the chaos and lawlessness of the civil war period that preceded it. He argues that the Taliban is not beholden to the ideology of Al-Qaeda and that it should be possible to negotiate with them to come to an agreement which will end the war in Afghanistan, allow for a NATO withdrawal and ensure that Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups will not return to the country. Fergusson interviews a host of Afghan leaders, including members of the current regime, former Taliban leaders (some who have reconciled with the present government and others who have not) and some from the Northern Alliance who are most dead-set against an agreement with the Taliban.

Some may feel that Fergusson is a little too sanguine about the Taliban's repressive ideology and the question always remains over whether negotiating from a position of perceived weakness is going to yield very positive results, but once again it does appear that Fergusson is ahead of the curve in much of what he says. Very recently some of his suggestions, such as the release of some Taliban leaders from Guantanamo, the removal of the UN travel ban of some ex-Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and the unified support of the US, Afghan government and the Arab States for one negotiating track have been implemented. What kind of results these moves yield yet remain to be seen.

134iftyzaidi
tammikuu 2, 2012, 3:53 am

103. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers ****

An elegently written account of the Zeitoun family and their experiences during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath in New Orleans. I found this to be an engaging and enlightening read. It is on the one hand an intimate biography of a fairly ordinary, if interesting man, Abdelrehman Zeitoun, an American of Syrian origin and his family. Its also a cautionary tale about why it is so important to hold on to the civil liberties enshired in the American constitution and not give them up in the face of national crisis. Gripping.

104. The Ballad of Abu Ghraib by Philip Gourevitch & Errol Morris ****

First published under the title 'Standard Operating Procedure' (one of the authors directed the accompanying documentary by the same name), this is an insightful and disturbing book which pokes under the hood of the Abu Ghraib scandal. At times I found it a slightly discomforting read since the authors do such a good job of humanizing the men and women who were found guilty of the Abu Ghraib abuses which shocked the world in 2005. But the authors' purpose is clear. Ultimately the responsibility for the worse of what happened at Abu Ghraib lies at the feet of those who were never tried or questioned. In some ways, the trials of the MPs who were in the photographs actually helped to cover up the crimes of others (particularly the Interregators). In fact some of the worse crimes (as defined by the Geneva Convention) were never tried at all, since they were considered to be part of 'Standard Operating Procedures' as detrmined by the chain of command. For example, no one was ever investigated or tried for the beating to death of a prisoner by interrogators in a shower cell, but the army did try to convict one of the MPs who found the body afterwards for posing with and photographing the dead body.

105. Cherrywood Cannon by Ralph Steadman ***

Based on a folk tale of a power-hungry general who wants to build the ultimate weapon (the Cherrywood Cannon), this is a grotesquely illustrated story which seems to aim to engage both younger and adult readers but, to my mind at least, fails to do either. The art is too surreal and weird and dark to appeal to younger readers (I may be wrong about this) and the story far too simplistic to engage older ones. Interesting but not engaging.

106. Hammered by Kevin Hearne ***

A change of pace from all the non-fiction. This is the third book in Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles and once again picks up right where the second (Hexed) left off. The action, as always, is break-neck paced. In fact one has to wonder how the main character has survived 2000 years when he has managed to severly deplete two seperate pantheons in the space of a couple of months. The trademark humour is also present (In some ways its probably the goofiest of the three) though it does end on a fairly dark note. Emminently readable but probably the weakest book in the series so far in my reckoning.

135iftyzaidi
tammikuu 2, 2012, 4:06 am

And my last read of 2011:

107. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins ***1/2

NYT journalist Dexter Filkins describes his experiences reporting from Afghanistan and Iraq over many years in a series of viginettes. Some reviewers have described this reporting without editorializing, but a more accurate description might be reporting without contextualizing, which can be a kind of editorializing in of itself. So for example, we get a series of viginettes from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, then one from ground-zero after 9/11, then more from Afghanistan once the regime is being toppled and then a shift to Iraq, where the rest of the book stays (except for a final more introspective chapter from Cambridge, Massachusetts after he has left the war zone). What the link between Iraq and 9/11 and Afghanistan is, and why the United States is engaged in a 'Forever War' there is really left to the reader to work out. Generally the on-the-ground reporting is very good, but for those who want a fuller overview of the post 9/11 wars, this should probably be read in conjunction with a different book (possibly Jason Burke' new book, The 9/11 Wars? Its on my tbr pile!)