12.31.2004
Galileo's Daughter
by Dava Sobel, 368 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
Pretty trite, I've heard much of this before. Even though it says it's about Galileo's Daughter, it really only uses her as a fresh look at Galileo's life. zzzzz. I suppose Sobel doesn't lambast the Church too much, but the general attitude of Galileo biographer annoys me. So I wouldn't say there's much to find here is this book that you couldn't find elsewhere.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
Pretty trite, I've heard much of this before. Even though it says it's about Galileo's Daughter, it really only uses her as a fresh look at Galileo's life. zzzzz. I suppose Sobel doesn't lambast the Church too much, but the general attitude of Galileo biographer annoys me. So I wouldn't say there's much to find here is this book that you couldn't find elsewhere.
Labels: genre: historical, genre: non-fiction, media: book
Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers Book #4: No Surrender
by various authors, 311 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: B
I guess this is pretty good brain candy. Four more SCE stories. Some seem a little contrived, and I always loath the ones that include pitting rival political/religious factions of a planet against each other. But most good stories without the committment requirements of a novel.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: B
I guess this is pretty good brain candy. Four more SCE stories. Some seem a little contrived, and I always loath the ones that include pitting rival political/religious factions of a planet against each other. But most good stories without the committment requirements of a novel.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: scifi, media: book, series: Star Trek, series: Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers
Lord Valentine's Castle
by Robert Silverberg, 447 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
This book pretty much lived up to my expectations of fantasy novels, which is why I don't read a lot of them. The gist being that sourcery is somehow used to displace the ruler (called Coronal) of the planet Majipoor into a different body & stiffle his memory while the mind of the son of another ruler is placed in his body. The main character Valentine slows learns who is he, must accept it, blah blah blah, and reclaim his throne. He reconnects with the peasantry along his travels, blah blah blah. The only interesting bit was how the false Coronal is finally caught, which in itself is pretty blah, but leaves some very interesting motives behind who exactly usurped the throne. But if you want to find that out, you'll have to read the book.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
This book pretty much lived up to my expectations of fantasy novels, which is why I don't read a lot of them. The gist being that sourcery is somehow used to displace the ruler (called Coronal) of the planet Majipoor into a different body & stiffle his memory while the mind of the son of another ruler is placed in his body. The main character Valentine slows learns who is he, must accept it, blah blah blah, and reclaim his throne. He reconnects with the peasantry along his travels, blah blah blah. The only interesting bit was how the false Coronal is finally caught, which in itself is pretty blah, but leaves some very interesting motives behind who exactly usurped the throne. But if you want to find that out, you'll have to read the book.
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book, series: Majipoor
Meet the Fockers
PG-13, 100 minutes
Movie website
Official Grade: B
Not as good as the original, but most sequels aren't. Did not seem to have as much of a plot driving it. Lots of laughs. I don't know what else to say. Probably you should watch 'Meet the Parents' first.
Movie website
Official Grade: B
Not as good as the original, but most sequels aren't. Did not seem to have as much of a plot driving it. Lots of laughs. I don't know what else to say. Probably you should watch 'Meet the Parents' first.
Labels: media: movie
12.27.2004
Letters from Egypt: A Journey on the Nile, 1849-1850
by Florence Nightingale, 208 pgs, hardcover
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C
I think I dug this up at my grandma's house, so it might be pretty obscure & its not really worth finding anyway. But here's the skinny, this is a collection of letters Florence wrote to her family during a trip she took down the Nile River with some family friends. Sort of interesting is the view she gives on how traveling the Nile & the Egyptian ruins used to be. People running around all over, places not excavated or cleared out of sand. Some of the places she went aren't even around anymore.
But she was too aristocratic for my tastes, and though many would probably argue against she also has a nasty disdain from Catholicism which shows up from time to time and I get really annoyed when stuff like that comes up in what I'm reading.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C
I think I dug this up at my grandma's house, so it might be pretty obscure & its not really worth finding anyway. But here's the skinny, this is a collection of letters Florence wrote to her family during a trip she took down the Nile River with some family friends. Sort of interesting is the view she gives on how traveling the Nile & the Egyptian ruins used to be. People running around all over, places not excavated or cleared out of sand. Some of the places she went aren't even around anymore.
But she was too aristocratic for my tastes, and though many would probably argue against she also has a nasty disdain from Catholicism which shows up from time to time and I get really annoyed when stuff like that comes up in what I'm reading.
Labels: genre: historical, genre: non-fiction, media: book
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume II
by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, 224 pgs, hardcover
Amazon site
Overall Grade: A-
Series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Egads, I guess this is really a graphic novel instead of a book because it's basically a bunch of comic books stuck together, but still stupendous. I think I find this series so enjoyable because it has literary allusions all over the place. Though I do have to admit that this one was disturbingly graphic in other ways that it need not have been since it made no difference to the plot. But the premise, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in its current form is a group of five characters assembled from Victorian literature by the British government to stop bad things from happening to England. This time the bad thing is the Martians from 'The War of the Worlds'. Its quite ingenious how Moore & O'Neill coordinate so much literature into how their stories unfold. Plus, the 'New Traveler's Almanac' in the back is amusing to no end. I mean really, how can a work that references 'The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek' not be on my A-list?
Amazon site
Overall Grade: A-
Series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Egads, I guess this is really a graphic novel instead of a book because it's basically a bunch of comic books stuck together, but still stupendous. I think I find this series so enjoyable because it has literary allusions all over the place. Though I do have to admit that this one was disturbingly graphic in other ways that it need not have been since it made no difference to the plot. But the premise, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in its current form is a group of five characters assembled from Victorian literature by the British government to stop bad things from happening to England. This time the bad thing is the Martians from 'The War of the Worlds'. Its quite ingenious how Moore & O'Neill coordinate so much literature into how their stories unfold. Plus, the 'New Traveler's Almanac' in the back is amusing to no end. I mean really, how can a work that references 'The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek' not be on my A-list?
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: graphic novel, genre: historical, media: book, series: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers: Book Three: Some Assembly Required
by various authors, 295 pages, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: B+
Okay, this is basically a collection of four novellettes that were available through a webservice. But anyway, there sort of follow chronologically the missions of this ship called the da Vinci which has an extra contingent of engineers on it as they go around cleaning up after other people's technical problems. That's right, you get lots of 'our planetary computer is malfunctioning' and 'we're losing containment of our explosive supply of whatever'. I don't know how long they can keep using variations on that theme, but we'll see. Amusing mind candy though.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: B+
Okay, this is basically a collection of four novellettes that were available through a webservice. But anyway, there sort of follow chronologically the missions of this ship called the da Vinci which has an extra contingent of engineers on it as they go around cleaning up after other people's technical problems. That's right, you get lots of 'our planetary computer is malfunctioning' and 'we're losing containment of our explosive supply of whatever'. I don't know how long they can keep using variations on that theme, but we'll see. Amusing mind candy though.
Labels: genre: fiction, genre: scifi, media: book, series: Star Trek, series: Star Trek Starfleet Corps of Engineers
12.15.2004
The Princess Bride
by Willliam Goldman, 398 pgs, paperback
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
I have to say, after seeing first my high school's play, and then the movie (which was let down after the superb play) this book was disappointing. It really is the "good stuff version", so there wasn't much cut out of the play actually. What is new is Goldman's mock authorial notes stuck in throughout the text that which are actually just annoying & don't add much to the backstory. Plot: The most beautiful girl in the world falls in with a farm boy, and many bad things happen to keep them apart. Much "high adventure" and some sappy unconvincing "true love" segments.
Amazon site
Overall Grade: C+
I have to say, after seeing first my high school's play, and then the movie (which was let down after the superb play) this book was disappointing. It really is the "good stuff version", so there wasn't much cut out of the play actually. What is new is Goldman's mock authorial notes stuck in throughout the text that which are actually just annoying & don't add much to the backstory. Plot: The most beautiful girl in the world falls in with a farm boy, and many bad things happen to keep them apart. Much "high adventure" and some sappy unconvincing "true love" segments.
Labels: genre: fantasy, genre: fiction, media: book
12.09.2004
The Incredibles
PG, 115 minutes
Movie website
Overall Grade: B
Yah, a decent flick. Lots of action, sometimes to much for the eyes to take in. Not as funny or heartwarmer as usual Disney fare. The animated short before the movie is abominably terrible. And the preview for the 'Cars' movie, oh my gosh, they've run out of movie ideas, that's it, a movie about talking cars? Anyway, even if the Incredibles movie is slightly not interesting, the characterizations are well captured for the people in those age groups, so applause for that. There are a few characters that are interesting, but need to be explained more because they just sort of drop out of the story after their important interludes. Premise: Superheroes started getting lawsuits against them, and so the government puts them into a sort of 'witness protection' type program. Except some of the heroes are restless to be back fighting crime, and what would a hero story be without the evil villian with a gripe?
Movie website
Overall Grade: B
Yah, a decent flick. Lots of action, sometimes to much for the eyes to take in. Not as funny or heartwarmer as usual Disney fare. The animated short before the movie is abominably terrible. And the preview for the 'Cars' movie, oh my gosh, they've run out of movie ideas, that's it, a movie about talking cars? Anyway, even if the Incredibles movie is slightly not interesting, the characterizations are well captured for the people in those age groups, so applause for that. There are a few characters that are interesting, but need to be explained more because they just sort of drop out of the story after their important interludes. Premise: Superheroes started getting lawsuits against them, and so the government puts them into a sort of 'witness protection' type program. Except some of the heroes are restless to be back fighting crime, and what would a hero story be without the evil villian with a gripe?
Labels: genre: animated, genre: superhero/villian, media: movie
