Though I only read one of his books (A House for Mr Biswas), I feel sad at the passing of Mr Naipaul, because of his documentation of the Indian experience. RIP.
Obituary Note:
V.S. Naipaul
V.S. Naipaul
the Nobel laureate
"who documented the migrations of peoples, the
unraveling of the
British Empire, the ironies of exile and the clash
between belief and
unbelief in more than a dozen unsparing novels and as
many works of
nonfiction," died August 11, the New York Times reported.
He was 85. Naipaul
"was born of Indian ancestry in Trinidad, went to
Oxford University
on a scholarship and lived the rest of his life in
England, where he
forged one of the most illustrious literary careers of
the last
half-century," the Times noted, adding that he was an "often
difficult man with
a fierce temper."
He won the 1971
Booker Prize for In a Free State, and was knighted in
1990. His many
books include A Bend in the River, A House for Mr.
Biswas, The Middle
Passage, The Mimic Men, The Enigma of Arrival, A Turn
in the South, Half
a Life, Miguel Street, and Among the Believers.
While Naipaul's
supporters
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37918288
"hailed him as a
towering
intellect--delivering an original, scorching critique
refreshingly
devoid of political correctness: attacking the cruelty of
Islam, the
corruption of Africa and the self-inflicted misery he
witnessed in the
poorest parts of the globe," BBC News wrote that for
"his numerous
critics, Naipaul's writing was troubling and even bigoted.
They recognized
his literary gifts but saw him as a hater: an Uncle Tom
who dealt in
stereotypes, paraded his prejudices and bathed in loathing
for the world from
which he came."
I believe that if anyone can stand against the might of Amazon, it is the many beloved indie booksellers around the world who present a more personal way to purchase books.
Quotation of the
Day
Booksellers
'Ideally Placed to be the Vanguard' Against Amazon
"I actually
think that because booksellers were the first to have to
combat Amazon
(because Amazon initially started off selling books), we
are ideally placed
to be the vanguard--we know what it takes to attract
customers in the
twenty-first century and are in a good position to look
at a new format
for the high street."
--Nic Bottomley,
Booksellers Association president and owner of Mr. B's
Emporium of
Reading Delights http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz37945631
in Bath,England,
responding to news the government may levy an "Amazon tax"
to help
"rebalance the playing field" between physical and online
retailers."
I'm intrigued to see what Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffatt can do with this novel that was ill used in the movie, in my opinion.
TV: The
Time Traveler's Wife
HBO has landed The
Time Traveler's Wife
a drama from
Steven Moffat (Dr. Who, Sherlock) and based on Audrey
Niffenegger's 2003
novel, with a straight to series order, Deadline
reported, adding
that "the project had been pursued by multiple outlets,
including Amazon
whose topper Jeff Bezos was involved in the effort."
"I read
Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife many years ago,
and I fell in love
with it," Moffat said. "In fact, I wrote a Doctor Who
episode called
'The Girl in the Fireplace' as a direct response to it.
When, in her next
novel, Audrey had a character watching that very
episode, I
realized she was probably on to me. All these years later,
the chance to
adapt the novel itself is a dream come true. The brave new
world of long form
television is now ready for this kind of depth and
complexity. It's a
story of happy ever after--but not necessarily in
that order."
Moffat, Sue Vertue
and Brian Minchin will executive produce through
their Hartswood
Films. Deadline noted that the company "produces in
association with
Warner Bros. Television, which has rights to the title.
Warner Bros.' New
Line division was behind the 2009 feature adaptation
of the book that
starred Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams."
HBO president of
programming Casey Bloys said that Moffat's "passion is
evident in every
project he's written and we are certain that his love
and respect for
this mesmerizing and textured novel will make it a
quintessential HBO
series."
This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada is a surprisingly intense YA science fiction medical thriller that could easily stand beside anything written by Michael Crichton of Andromeda Strain fame. Here's the blurb: In this gripping debut novel, seventeen-year-old Cat must use her
gene-hacking skills to decode her late father’s message concealing a
vaccine to a horrifying plague.
Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.
When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.
Cat's journey from isolated young woman barely surviving to kick butt hero hacker is a wonder to behold, and with all the twists and turns of the plot (that I didn't see coming until they were nearly upon me), enabled by surgically precise prose, I couldn't put this novel down. I'd give this book a hearty A grade and a recommendation for anyone from older teenagers to seniors to read it and realize that the science in this book is probably only a generation or two away from being reality.
Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.
When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.
Cat's journey from isolated young woman barely surviving to kick butt hero hacker is a wonder to behold, and with all the twists and turns of the plot (that I didn't see coming until they were nearly upon me), enabled by surgically precise prose, I couldn't put this novel down. I'd give this book a hearty A grade and a recommendation for anyone from older teenagers to seniors to read it and realize that the science in this book is probably only a generation or two away from being reality.
The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell is another YA novel that doesn't really seem like YA, but would appeal to anyone who enjoys well written fantasy. I hate to use the word "spellbinding" but that is how thoroughly I was engrossed in this tale of time travel and magic wielders hunted by those who wish to use them for money and power. Here's the blurb: In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who
have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who
they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a
dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means
losing their power—and often their lives.
Esta is a talented thief, and she's been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.
But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.
Esta is a talented thief, and she's been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.
But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past.
The tone of this book reminded me of The Prestige by Christopher Priest, with its old world magical duels and creepy after effects of machines on magic. But Maxwell's prose is less fussy and provides a clean and elegant style that compliments the fascinating and intricate plot down to the ground. Another A with a recommendation to those who like turn of the century "wild" magic vs industrial greed and power stories.
The Cosy Tea Shop in the Castle by Caroline Roberts is a romantic comedy/drama novel that takes place in England and felt to me as if it were written by someone who read a guidebook on "how to write a romance novel." All the tropes and cliches are in evidence here, from the meet-cute of the female protagonist, Ellie, with the castle manager, Joe, who just happens to be the hot illegitimate son of the castle owner, Lord Henry, to the silly euphemisms for body parts that are a plague on every sex scene in nearly every romance novel I've ever read ("throbbing manliness" and "heaving boobs" included). Of course Ellie is a petite but big busted blonde, (they're the only kind of woman who can attract a man in romance novels...anyone with dark skin, or dark hair or larger size need not apply) who still lives at home with her over protective family at age 26. She's been jilted by a former fiance, and she finally decides to leave home to run a tea shop after padding her resume and lying about her catering experience to the lord of the manor. Insert eye roll here. Here's the blurb:
When Ellie Hall lands her dream job running the little teashop in the
beautiful but crumbling Claverham Castle, it’s the perfect escape from
her humdrum job in the city. Life is definitely on the rise as Ellie
replaces spreadsheets for scones, and continues her Nanna’s brilliant
baking legacy.When Lord Henry, the stick-in-the-mud owner, threatens to burst her baking bubble with his old-fashioned ways, Ellie wonders if she might have bitten off more than she can chew. But cupcake by cupcake she wins the locals over, including teashop stalwart, Doris, and Ellie’s showstopping bakes look set to go down in castle history!
Now all that’s missing in Ellie’s life is a slice of romance – can Joe, the brooding estate manager, be the one to put the cherry on the top of Ellie’s dream?
Ellie comes off as being too innocent and childish to be 26 years old, and Joe comes off as a sexist jerk who only thinks with his penis, but of course that's okay, as Ellie has the hots for him, too. If you're looking for a book with simplistic prose and a plot that is akin to a children's book without the depth, all wrapped up with unintentionally funny sex scenes, then you'll love this novel. I'd give it a C+ and only recommend it to someone looking for empty calorie reading.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is the memoir of a neurosurgeon and philosopher whose quest to understand death becomes more personal when he is diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. This is one of those non fiction books that gets a ton of good ink and everyone claims it is so insightful and amazing that it will change your life. I beg to differ. I found Dr K to be an arrogant prick for most of the first 100 pages of the book. He seems to think he's cornered the market on insight into life and death with his research and philosophical literature background. Once he decides to become a doctor, to get closer to an understanding of death, as a surgical resident he develops the ability to distance himself from feeling guilty or really caring about whether or not his patients die on the table for whatever reason. Having worked in nursing for years, I realize that it is important to try to be professional when dealing with patients, but my mom, who was a nurse for over 40 years, never ceased to be compassionate and caring about her patients, dying or not. But then, nurses don't have the luxury of swanning in with a diagnosis and medication and then leaving the actual day to day patient care to someone else. Anyway, here's the blurb:
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of
training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV
lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he
was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and
his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air
chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student
“possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all
organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon
at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human
identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own
mortality.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.
Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
I don't feel that this book is "brilliant" or life affirming, I think it's an egotistical stab at leaving a legacy, just like ensuring that his wife was pregnant so he'd leave a baby behind when he passed. He doesn't really answer the question of what makes life worth living, nor did I feel moved by his nattering on and on about his career and his pain. Lots of people get cancer, and they all experience pain and suffering, and anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock realizes that the most important thing in life is family, particularly children. So Dr K tells us nothing new here, he just wants us to feel sorry for him because he died young, which is, admittedly, sad. I found his prose stilted and boring, and the afterword by his wife was too long and martyr-like, as if her husband were the first person to experience an untimely demise. I'd give this short but dull memoir a C, and I would only recommend it to anyone who hasn't read better books on cancer survivors or victims.
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