Books Reviewed 2015

Here is  housekeeping post, collecting all the books reviewed here in 2015.

Looking back at this list, I see that this year saw Terry Pratchette’s last book (a wrenching experience), and new novels by old favorites Stross, Perry, Macguire, Holt, Gaiman, among others. I also read older but still good histories by Goodwin and Graeber. I read several books about banking, Papal and otherwise, and overlapping works about Italy, fictional and (supposedly) real.

Over the year, I reviewed a sampling of important books about contemporary digital life, including cryptocurrency, the “sharing economy”, social media, and “mind change”.   These works covered a spectrum from enthusiasm to dark worry, giving us much to think about. There are many more I did not have time or energy for. (I will say more on this topic in another post)

Throughout 2015 I continued my ongoing investigation of the question, “what is coworking?”, including reviews of two recent (self published) books about coworking by practitioners. (More on coworking in another post.)

Shall I name some “Best Books” out of my list? Why not?

Fiction:

There were so many to pick from. I mean, with Neil Gaiman in the list, how can I choose? But let me mention two that are especially memorable

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Very imaginative and well written, and, for once, not so horribly dark. This book lodged in my memory more than others that are probably equally good.

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
Published a few years ago, but I didn’t read it until this year. A wonderful, intricate story. The flight of the parrot is still in my memory.

Nonfiction:

There were many important works about digital life, and I shall try to comment on them in another post. But three books that really hit me are:

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
From several years ago, but I didn’t read it until this year. Highly influential on the ‘occupy’ and other left-ish thinking. This is an astonishingly good book, and long form anthropology, to boot. Wow!

Reimagination Station: Creating a Game-Changing In-Home Coworking Space by Lori Kane
An exlectic little self-published book about “home coworking”, which I didn’t know was a thing. Kane walked the walk, and made me think in new ways about community and coworking.

Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
Unexpected amounts of fun reading this short book. It does an old, graying nerd no end of good to see that at least some of the kids are OK. Really, really, OK.

List of books reviewed in 2015

Fiction

A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias
After Alice by Gregory Maguire
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson
Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen
Chasing the Phoenix by Michael Swanwick
Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush
Chicks and Balances edited by Esther Friesner and John Helfers
Corsair by James L. Cambias
Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Distress by Greg Egan
Electric Blue by Nancy Bush
Forty Thieves by Thomas Perry
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
Get In Trouble by Kelly Link
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
Mort(e) by Robert Repino
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Shark Skin Suite by Tim Dorsey
String of Beads by Thomas Perry
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume Nine ed. by Jonathan Strahan
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
The Fortress in Orion by Mike Resnick
The Future Falls by Tanya Huff
The Good, the Bad, and The Smug by Tom Holt
The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray
The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Wild Ways by Tanya Huff
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Ultraviolet by Nancy Bush
We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler
Witches Be Crazy by Logan J. Hunder
Zer0es by Chuck Wendig

Non Fiction

Arrival of the Fittest by Andreas Wagner
Blue Mind by Wallace J. Nichols
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper
Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner
LaFayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell
Let’s Be Less Stupid by Patricia Marx
Live Right and Find Happiness by Dave Barry
Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi
Mind Change by Susan Greenfield
Mindsharing by Lior Zoref
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
No More Sink Full of Mugs by Tony Bacigalupo
Not Impossible by Mick Ebeling
Pax Technica by Phillip N. Howard
Peers, Inc by Robin Chase
Reimagination Station: Creating a Game-Changing In-Home Coworking Space by Lori Kane
Speculative Everything by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Age of Cryptocurrency by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey
The Art of Forgery by Noah Charney
The Next Species by Michael Tennesen
The Reputation Economy by Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson
The Social Labs Revolution by Zaid Hassan
The Ugly Renaissance by Alexander Lee
Twentyfirst Century Robot by Brian David Johnson
Women of Will:  Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays by Tina Packer

 

Book Reviews

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housekeeping: Second Quarter Round Up

This blog has now passed 500 days of daily posts.

This quarter saw the start of the “Inappropriate Touch Screen” File, as well as other grumbling about cruddy digital design.

I also posted initial “Notes on “What is Coworking?””, which will be continued in ongoing research.

1. Notes On “What Is Coworking?” (Part 1)
2. Notes on “What is Coworking?” (Part 2): Rules
3. Notes on “What is Coworking?” (Part 3): Recruitment
4. Notes On “What is Coworking?” (Part 4): Noisy versus Quiet
5. Notes on “What is Coworking?” (Part 5): Demographics
6. Notes on “What is Coworking?” (Part 6): Research Methods

Book Reviews

Non Fiction

Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy by Sam Maggs
God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner
Mindsharing by Lior Zoref
Pax Technica by Phillip N. Howard
Twentyfirst Century Robot by Brian David Johnson
Women of Will:  Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays by Tina Packer

Fiction

A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias
Corsair by James L. Cambias
Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Distress by Greg Egan
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

For reference, the Q1 summary is here.

 

 

Book Review: “The Buried Giant” by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

 Ishiguro is a famous and acclaimed author who, for some reason, I haven’t read before. Due to that circumstance, I had no idea what to expect from thie mysterious fantasy.

Set in a fictional England after the death of King Arthur, the rural land is inhabited by farmers and knights and monks and all manner of magical animals and events. The story is about memory and the loss of memory, and what that means for life, love, identity, and humanity.

The countryside is under the influence of a mysterious mist that erases human memories in a rather confusing and inconsistent way. Ishiguro works through the effects as people cannot remember their own lives, and sometimes not even the purpose of their current actions. And how can we tell truth from lies, without proper memory?

I must say that it is all very confusing (as it is intended to be), which makes the story hard to follow. Ishaguro adds to the uncertainties of memory with some deft writing, using flashbacks and multiple views to pop back and forward in time. But most of the story is carried by rather complicated dialog, capturing the difficulty of understanding each other, even in the absence of magical amnesia.

One of the consequences of the memory loss is, I think, the people rely too much on imagination to construe their own actions and the events around them. Ishaguro repeatedly presents objects and events that are viewed as ominous, or maybe ordinary, the people go back and forth with each other and even in their own minds.

Who is who, and what is everyone up to? Who is honest and who is lyying? And what is the secret of the mist? What will happen if and when it is removed, and normal memory returns?

It’s all very strange. I would hate it—I don’t really like incomprehensible magical mysteries—but the writing is superb. It’s worth reading just to admire the smooth, lovely way he gets us into this very odd mood and attitude, that anything is possible, senses are not to be trusted, understanding is very iffy. And all due to a lack of remembrance.

Interesting and beautiful and kind of sad.

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1. Ishiguro, Kasuo, The Buried Giant, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.

 

Sunday Book Reviews