8.30.2011

 

In the Garden of the Beasts


by Erik Larson, 365 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: A

What would it be like to be in Berlin in the years before WWII? The history of the American ambassador and his family.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 10:35 PM
 

The Enemies of Jupiter


by Caroline Lawrence, 171pgs, hardcover
Series: The Roman Mysteries #7
Overall Grade: C+

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 10:33 PM
 

Heartless


by Gail Carriger, 374pgs, paperback
Series: The Parasol Protectorate #4
Overall Grade: B-

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 10:31 PM

8.22.2011

 

The Social Animal


by David Brooks, 376 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B-

An interesting read. I'm not sure I buy all of it, but Brooks tries to pull in years of psychology and brain research and weld it into a narrative about the underlying forces and drives that influence how people view the world and approach others.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 3:46 PM

8.12.2011

 

The Throne of Fire


by Rick Riordan, 446pgs, hardcover
Series: The Kane Chronicles #2
Overall Grade: A

Starts a few months after book 1, which the Kane siblings have spent recruiting and training other kids in Egyptian magic. Now they have less than a week before the equinox in order to collect the three Scrolls of Ra from various parts of the world (Brooklyn, Russia, Egypt) and use them during a voyage along the River of Night in the Duat to reunite the three aspects of Ra before Apophis is released and Chaos rules the world.
The story has plenty of action, and makes nice use of the split-narration between Sadie and Carter. Many new characters are introduced which helps flesh out the cast (as well as provided the requisite teenage crushes and angst). I especially liked the nod to Riordan's 'Percy Jackson' series.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:15 PM
 

I Shall Wear Midnight


by Terry Pratchett, 347pgs, hardcover
Series: Discworld, Tiffany Aching #4
Overall Grade: B+

The book begins with Tiffany in her village on the Chalk doing witchy stuff. The whole tone of the story is quite dark, starting off with child abuse, teen pregnancy and attempted suicide in the first few chapters. Tiffany is finding that the people are having trouble figuring out how to act around the neighborhood-girl-turned-witch, and it only gets worse when some begin to denounce her as evil with echoes of witch hunts not far behind. And if life isn't tough enough, her erstwhile friend, the Baron's son is getting married to some waifish, weak-minded Duke's daughter with a domineering mother. When it rains it pours.
There was a nice amount of Feegle in this book, as well as appearances by many of Discworld's cast of witches, for nice use of Pterry's (extensive) extended universe.
And that's it for the series as far as I hear.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 5:29 AM

8.09.2011

 

An Artist of the Floating World


by Kazuo Ishiguro, 206pgs, paperback
Overall Grade: B+

Unfolding over the course of couple of years, we learn about the life and career of Masuji Ono. An artist trained in painting the ephemeral beauty of the "floating world" of the Japanese pleasure districts, through post-war interactions with family and acquaintances we slowly discover the cause of the questionable feelings Ono and others hold towards his conduct during the war. As with most of Ishiguro's novels, much is conveyed in how the characters don't say what they're thinking.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 9:46 PM

8.08.2011

 

The Tale of the Body Thief


by Anne Rice, 430 pgs, paperback
Series: The Vampire Chronicles book 4
Overall Grade: A-

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:21 PM
 

Dreadnought


by Cherie Priest, 400pgs, paperback
Series: Clockwork Century 
Overall Grade: A-

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:19 PM
 

The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina


by Caroline Lawrence, 159pgs, hardcover
Series: The Roman Mysteries book 6
Overall Grade: B

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:15 PM
 

The Four Fingers of Death


by Rick Moody, 725pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: C+

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:13 PM
 

Join the Club


by Tina Rosenberg, 351 pgs, hardcover
Overall Grade: B-

The argument in this social science book is relatively simple. If negative peer pressure can make people do bad things, then positive peer pressure can help them make good choices. Rosenberg dubs this technique "the social cure" and gives examples from around the globe of many different peoples using it to solve or overcome many different types of problems. Anti-smoking campaigns, calculus classes, rural healthcare in India, ousting a dictator in Serbia among others.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 12:53 AM
 

Fortune's Favorites


by Colleen McCullough, 940pgs, paperback
Series: Masters of Rome book 3
Overall Grade: B+

This books starts with the victorious Sulla strong-arming the senators into making him dictator. Sulla then proceeds to make extensive reforms to just about every aspect of Roman government, and to persecute his political enemies via proscription. Finally, Sulla retires to a seaside villa where he lives out the last few months of his life. The rest of the book deals with the aftermath of Sulla's dictatorship. Pompey running around generalling everywhere. The war in Spain against Sertorius. The Spartacus uprising. And Caesar finally coming into his own, flexing his military leadership, and generally stunning everyone around him.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 12:28 AM
 

Ghost Story


by Jim Butcher, hardcover, 496 pgs
Series: Dresden Files book 13
Overall Grade: A

Finally! The wait is over. The story picks up right where 'Changes' left off. We follow Harry, now a sort-of ghost, around Chicago trying to find his killer. But things are hard for a ghost, most of his friends can't see or hear him or even believe that it is him, he can't be out in the sunlight, and he can't do magic. Supernatural baddies are running rampant and holding things together in Harry's absence has put major strain on his close friends, especially Murphy and Molly. Anyway, as we expect from Harry, he gets caught up in helping others instead of helping himself. But in a way, he finally does figure out who his killer is...

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 12:10 AM

8.06.2011

 

Cowboys & Aliens


PG-13, 118 mins
IMDb, Official Website
Overall Grade: B

For scifi, this is horrible. There are so many questions about why the aliens are doing what they are doing it's laughable. For a western, well... I haven't seen enough westerns to compare it to the genre. For a summer movie with western & scifi themes, it's pretty decent.
It starts off with a man waking up in the desert with complete amnesia, doesn't even remember his name. But he does have a herky metal cuff stuck on his wrist which he can't get off. He proceeds to assault the first group of riders who stumble across him, and rides into town trying to figure out who he is, what the bracelet does, and if he even wants to remember what brought him into contact with the aliens to begin with.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 8:15 PM
 

Super 8


PG-13, 112 mins
IMDb page, Official Website
Overall Grade: A-

During the summer of 1979, Joe is helping some of his middle school friends produce their zombie movie for an amateur film competition. While filming a scene late one night at the train station, they witness their school's biology teacher drive his truck onto the track and derail a military train in an extraordinary crash sequence. But what was on the train? What did it have to do with the biology teacher? Why have all the neighborhood dogs disappeared, along with other odd thefts in their small town?
This movie does a good job of keeping the alien out of site till the climax. Which is always good because what you can't see is scarier than what you can. It also does an excellent job of blind-siding the characters. They'll be talking or arguing and then BOOM! something happens from behind them.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 7:54 PM
 

Captain America

PG-13, 124 mins
IMDb page, Official Website
Overall Grade: B+

Not being a comic book geek, I didn't go into this with any preconceptions about Captain America and his surrounding mythology. So I can't say how well or poorly that was treated. I did however enjoy it as a good summer action flick. Plenty of explosions, fight scenes, and generally bad-ass-ness.

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# posted by Cptn. Suz @ 7:20 PM

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