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Review: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Posted by Stew at 5:14 PM

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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm going to be honest and admit that prior to reading 'A Constellation of Vital Phenomena' I didn't even really know where Chechnya was. My best guess would have been somewhere Russia-ish - in the eastern half of the world. I certainly wasn't aware of the way people live in that part of the world. For the most part I have been happy in my ignorance, occasionally reading a book about a country where you expect wars and danger, like Afghanistan.

Despite my ignorance, I dove in to the pages and found myself engrossed in the characters and events. This story was just my cup of tea. It told the story of war-torn Chechnya and a couple of doctors who find their lives thrown together while hiding a little girl whose father was taken to a prison camp. It is a dark and heart-breaking story but is told so beautifully that you won't be able to get enough.

I love books that tie multiple events and stories together but often find that they aren't executed well by the author. This is one of the successful ones. I've never read anything previously by the author but his story-telling ability is phenomenal.

The book awarded me with not only an immensely enjoyable tale but also a desire to learn a little more about our friends in Chechnya.

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Review: More Than Human

Posted by Stew at 7:56 AM

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More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This was a very, very weird book. I'm convinced that the concept was simply beyond the capacity of my intellect because I was lost most of the time I was reading. There were times when I was intrigued and lost in the story but overall I just felt lost.

Basically, if I understood correctly, this is a story about a group of people, mostly children, who are the next step in the evolutionary chain. They have unique abilities such as telekinesis, which when combined together make a "gestalt" unit that basically has incredible ability to do just about anything and control anyone. It's a very complicated and scattered tale that took either a genius or a lunatic to write (possibly both).

I generally try to read for enjoyment and the brains that it took to understand what was going on in this story took most of the fun out of it for me. Theodore Sturgeon is a gifted author but just not my style.

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Review: The End of Your Life Book Club

Posted by Stew at 7:48 AM

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The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a book about the death of the author's mother. That explanation is on its own is sufficient for me to have expected a heart-breaking.... or inspiring.... or emotional story. What I really ended up reading was a fairly dry, unemotional, one-dimensional tribute to Will Schwalbe's mother. The book essentially follows the last couple of years of Schwalbe's time with his mom where they share their love of books while they chat in waiting rooms at doctor's offices. The concept sounds like it would be full of heartbreak and tear-filled bonding between mother and son but it really wasn't.

I don't want to sell this book short as not being a lovely tribute to his mother, because I'm sure she'd be very proud, but what it lacked was a reason for me, the reader (who doesn't know his mom), to be interested. It lacked a heart. As with most eulogies, the author seemed unable to admit to any flaws in his mom, which is understandable but makes for bland reading. She's depicted basically as a superhuman who has single-handedly changed the world and hasn't said or done a single negative thing in her life. She was completely selfless and a champion of humanity. That's all well and good and very well may be true, but it just felt like a child describing why their mom is the best mom. The moments in the book that were told as life-lessons felt more like a advocacy campaign than a book I'd want to read.

I enjoyed some of the discussion about the novels they read, especially since I have read many of those myself, but that was mostly due to a comradery that I had regarding the other book, not because the story in this one made it more interesting or compelling. The concept fell flat and was lost in banal descriptions of the things that filled Schwalbe's time with his mom.

What really disappointed me the most is that the book simply lacked emotion. Something like this should have brought a grown man to his knees in a puddle of tears. I didn't even feel sad, or anything else for that matter, when his mom died. To me this one is a book to skip.

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Review: The Devil All the Time

Posted by Stew at 2:19 PM

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The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy moly this was a dark book. I had read that in reviews before picking it up but I definitely wasn't prepared for what I read. As I got deeper and deeper into the story I actually disgusted myself that I somehow was able to sympathize with some of the wretched people in this story. This was my first experience reading something by Donald Ray Pollock but the tone and flavor of the book felt very much like something by Cormac McCarthy... but much, much darker.

This was one of those books that I'm not sure I know who I could recommend it to partly because they may question my sanity in such a high rating of such a brutal book but also because I think that everyone I know is much too innocent for a tale of this kind. However I have to admit that it was a fantastically entertaining story and kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end!

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Review: The Fault in Our Stars

Posted by Stew at 2:09 PM

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The author of 'The Fault in Our Stars' might as well have just squirted lemon juice in my eyes. It really wasn't fair what was done here with this story.... First, start off with some extremely like-able teenagers and give them terminal illnesses. Then, pepper in some hopeless romance and voila! I'm going to have to stop pretending that I have a single masculine bone in my body because half of the country was witness to me passing by in my car while I choked back bitter tears on my roadtrip.

Before I gush about why I liked this story, let me first say that there was so much to hate about it. It was overly sentimental and indulgent and the characters were far from believable (at least unlike any kids I have ever met... or like I ever knew when I was young). The dialogue between Hazel and Augustus, while clever and intelligent on paper (or audio), was fairly unnatural and formulated.

But.... ahhhhh, fight as I might, it all sucked me in. Behind all the weaknesses and faults with the story, I loved everything about it. I somehow forgot that I hate cheesy teen romances and blubbery sentimentality and succumbed to my soft side. The story is completely heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. I am not over-exaggerating when I report that my face was contorted for nearly the last 2 hours of this audiobook while I attempted to cover my tears up and hide them from passers-by. I should really be ashamed that a story could get me so well.

Look, in the end I think this is a solid 3-star book but when something is able to reach inside me so deeply and juggle my heart for 8 hours without stopping, I have to increase the reward. When all is said and done, I think it is a book I'll probably never forget. Be warned, if you pick this up, you will cry. I promise.

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The pen is mightier...

Posted by Stew at 2:54 PM

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To add to my list of geeky interests, lately I have found myself drawn to the Honjo Masamune of writing instruments - the fountain pen. Whenever I bring up my interest in fountain pens to anyone, I get pretty much the same response: "Seriously? Dude, you must be gay. A pen is a freaking pen. Here, I'll lend you my Bic."

I don't want your Bic. I want a glorious and powerful weapon for conquering the written word. I want my pen to be as mighty as the sword.... like it has been said. Okay, I admit that that sounds a little over-the-top. Perhaps a tad bit sentimental for an inanimate object.... But I like that sentimentality.

Everything we do nowadays is disposable or chopped into tiny fragments on a computer keyboard. I was want write stuff worth keeping.... with a pen. And don't tell me that the pen doesn't matter - that it's just the words. That's not wholly untrue but I want my words to appear as nice as they sound. Watch this video and see what I mean:

Now of course it isn't realistic to spend 2 minutes typing every letter you write but I want to take back some of the art in my writing that was stolen by computers. I want to learn how to make things beautiful on paper. Now, you may be wondering what exactly I intend to write with these mind-blowing fountain pens. That's a dang good question. I'm not quite sure. I enjoy writing in a journal occasionally and I also throw out some rhymes every once and a while... and by rhymes I mean the kind that Robert Frost threw down, not Slim Shady. Of course, I'm not Robert Frost and I may never create anything worth much to anyone... but I still want something that one day my children or grandchildren can pick up and hold in their hands and say, "You know what, Grandpa was a weird duck but he sure was passionate about something." That's good enough for me.

So, hence the fountain pens. Of course, I don't really have a nice one yet. I have some really cheap Pilot Varsity pens (which are actually more of a pleasure to write with than I expected) and I have a Lamy Safari waiting at home in CLE for me to try out when I finally get home. But, I WANT to own a nice pen. I have to admit that I have spent hours on Youtube watching videos by InkNouveau and sbrebrown and a bunch of others lusting after pens and inks and notebooks. Perhaps a graduation gift to myself will justify the cost of a nice pen next year.

My wish list is overflowing with pens right now but here are some of the ones that are on my 'yes please' list right now:

Waterman Carene - this is at the very top of my list. This is my lust pen. I've already named her in my dreams.