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I’m a bad, bad person and have once again let myself slide. I am going to blame it on work and that is partially true, I did have a pretty busy month, October, but I will also accept that I have allowed a pile of books to go unreviewed. This would probably not look so bad if I have not accidentally discovered that I had let a couple of jewels get swept under the rug. How? Don’t ask me, but now I go from one review, to five reviews. So really, I was not behind, I was almost on schedule, until I found a crap load of books that I had forgotten about, so the other part of this I am blaming on the past.

Not sure how that works either, but I don’t really care. Let’s talk about books:

Title: The Beach
Author: Alex Garland
Category: Fiction - Adventure

I credit a small handful of authors for getting me back into reading. Neil Gaiman is one of them, Mark Z. Danielewski would be another and we could probably toss Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut into the mix for good measure, but Alex Garland is another definite. Before Neverwhere, before American Gods, before House of Leaves…I read The Beach.

I am having a difficult time remembering the specifics, but I was on a trip somewhere, maybe back to Wa. State to visit an old friend and I read an article on some magazine (again, details escape me, sue me, I am not a freakin’ elephant), regarding some new hot shot that had written a hell of a debut and the guy was younger than me. So I looked it up and bought it at the air port. I am a slow reader, so I can not brag that I had it read by the time I got off the plane, but I really wanted to! That counts for something.

The story is that of an British kid, fed up with what he feels is the over crowding of civilization, looking for that one thrilling experience that will separate him from the herd, the one story that will make his youth worthwhile. He finds said thrill in the form of a hand drawn map given to him by a man who calls himself Duffy Duck, a man who is found dead a day later in the seedy hotel in which Richard is staying. Richard being the British kid. The map? It is the promise of paradise on earth, a secret carefully guarded, a beach untouched by civilization rumored to be beyond beauty.

On a whim, Richard decides to believe it and take with him two neighboring French kids that are there in Thailand, for similar reasons. It of course helps that one of those French kids, is Francoise, who is both beautiful and unattainable (she is with Etienne, the other French kid). So they go, but on a drunken night, just before departure, Richard redraws the map for another group of kids, thinking nothing of it.

Richard, Francoise and Etienne find their beach…unfortunately things are not entirely perfect and when others begin to show up and the secret seems to be ruined, the stakes raise much higher than anybody could have imagined.

If I sound over excited about this book, that is because I am. It is difficult for me to contain myself when talking about it. I ended up reading everything else that had Garland’s name on it afterwards and I do not regret a single minute of it. I still recommend this book to most people I meet and I will recommend it to you. The Beach, go get it.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Genre: Fiction - Horror

Bram Stoker’s classic, I do not know that you really need me to tell you what this is about, because anybody that has not heard of this book has most likely been living under a rock (my apologies to those of you that have not heard of this book, but really…get out a little). Vampires, horror, classic literature, I hardly need to say more. But I will because as is often the case with classics, it takes a bit of patience to sink your teeth into. Books, like film, have changed over time. The pacing is different, language is different, story arcs are different and that means adjustment from the part of the reader.

It took me three tries to actually get into this book. First it was recommended to me by my swim coach (Amy, not Jay, this is when I was still a tot), but the combination of a difficult read, with my lack of knowledge of the language had me giving up pretty early in. I tried again later in high school, but I was in that mentality where…I had better things to do, like going out on Friday nights and do nothing with groups of friends. So it was not until I got into the swing of reading and prior to Halloween last year that I finally picked it up. This time I was able to appreciate it for what it was and I do not have to say it was engrossing.

I also ought to comment on the edition that I got, which is actually called The Illustrated Dracula, which is the same story as pretty much any edition you get, but comes coupled with some illustrations by Jae Lee which are pretty damn amazing. Kinda like frosting on your cake. Really good frosting. So if pictures help keep you intruiged, then this version is for you. If you could care less about pictures, there are a lot of other editions that could save you a couple of bucks. Either way, the read is the same and it is a good one!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Title: The Master and Margarita
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov
Category: Fiction

I did not forget to review this book because it was not memorable. Quite the contrary, actually, which may sound a bit strange but it actually makes sense. This book was so different to my average read that I really had to digest it to better understand where I stood on it. A lot about this is unorthodox, starting with the fact that the book was actually banned in Russia for a good number of years, or the fact that neither The Master, nor Margarita, are really main characters in this story. In like fashion, this story unfolds in ways that are hard to predict and so for the longest time I had to wonder if I enjoyed the breaking of the mold or if it was throwing me off. I decided I liked it…a lot…but apparently forgot to let you guys know. So here it is now.

The devil came to Moscow, and he did not arrive alone. He, is a charming, gentleman with mismatched eyes, with a gift for trickery (no duh!) and a self-proclaimed master of Black Magic, who goes by the name of Woland. With him are a vodka-drinking, black cat who occasionally wears clothes and always walks on two legs named Behemoth; a ‘translator’ and former ‘choir-master’ who is dressed in near rags and a cracked pince-nez, wielding a certain charm of his own and named Koroviev (among other things); a red haired, stocky, fanged hitman named Azazel; and a beautifully witch with a tendency to walk around naked, named Hella. Needless to say, all sorts of hell (no pun intended) breaks loose when Satan lands in Moscow, often results that are as hilarious as they are troubling.

Add to the mix a writer that has given up on himself after writing a magnificent story about Pontious Pilate, a man who goes by the name of The Master, who in the passing of time won himself the heart of a woman named Margarita. When the work is destroyed and The Master is in the brink of insanity, Margarita is willing to risk it all to save him and his writing. But with the devil around, things are simply not that easy.

The fact that this book was banned points to the fact that the government did not like it. And from the on-set one can tell the author is taking cracks the Stalinist regime and social conditions of Russia during the 30’s. But there is much more to this book, which mixes politics, religion and entertainment, breaking every rule to bring us a very memorable, very entertaining, very clever book that everybody ought to own a copy of. Guaranteed to provoke thought and laughter, this is a book I will recommend to the avid reader, though perhaps not to the ones that like their stories more neatly packaged. There is nothing neat about this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Title: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Author: Hunter S. Thompson
Category: Fiction - Semi-auto-biographical?

If you have not yet read the book, you most likely have watched the Johnny Depp vehicle that bears the same name and which is largely very accurate to the book, bringing for your entertainment a twisted, drug enduced hallucination for you to either devour or reject. The book is the same, but better and more in depth, as most books tend to be when compared to the movies based off them. The feeling and the mood, will remain, however, unchanged and if you had a hard time watching, you will probably not enjoy the book either.

Vulgar, politically incorrect and all sorts of funny, Hunter S. Thompson describes his journey to Las Vegas to find the American Dream and while he is at it try to pay the bills, that is if he is able to keep himself alive after taking pretty much every drug known to man kind and after running into trouble with just about everybody he meets. Lucky for him, he has his good for nothing attorney at his side, who is just as much under the influence as our dear narrator is.

The trip, literally and figuratively, starts from the get-go and never, ever, lets up, providing with one of the most interesting, off the wall, reads I have had since Naked Lunch. It is a short read, so there you can say the investment of time is not going to be much and I can guarantee you that if you do not like the first five pages, you are not going to like the entire book. So grab it at the book store, sit down with it for fifteen minutes and if you do not like what you are reading…then don’t buy it. If you do, it only gets worse…much much worse, and you can only shake your head and smile about it.

“People, as your attorney, I advice you all to check this book out.”

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author: Haruki Murakami
Category: Fiction

Blending David Mitchell-esque story telling with a touch of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magical realism for spice, Murakami writes an interesting story about a boy, self-named Kafka, who is running away from home, from all he knows and from an Oedipal prophecy made by his father, which basically says that young Kafka will kill his own father at the age of fifteen and sleep with both his mother and his sister, whom he has not seen since he was a toddler.

Determined not to carry out this curse, Kafka runs away with a pocketful of cash, a pocket knife, a backpack and a lot of determination, having no particular destiny in mind. It is a story presented to us in first person, which takes us through the journey as Kafka makes some interesting acquaintances and goes into hiding, first for one reason, then for another. That takes care of the odd chapters, meanwhile, a secondary story is brought up on the even chapters, which runs parallel to the first and which is written in third-person perspective, having to do with a senior named Nakata, with a mental disability, who is able to talk to cats and make fish fall out of the sky. The latter is trying to escape his father, possibly looking for his mother and sister, while the former is simply trying to find a cat, a duty that ends up leading him through an unexpected journey that begins to pull into its net complete, unsuspecting strangers. How the two are realated, Nakata and Kafka…well that is part of the fun in trying to figure it out.

Labeled by some critics as a ‘mind-bending, metaphysical story’, Kafka on the shore blends pop culture, music and some interesting theories to put together quite a good tale. Though I will have to say, at moments the characters are so full of…instinctual knowledge, that I found myself pulling back at times and remembering this was a story. It is interesting, it is very much worth the read, but in my humble opinion, it is not perfect, nevertheless, the puzzle itself is alternatively humorous, interesting and creepy enough, that the read never lets up until the end and while I found it difficult to truly relate to the characters, in its own detached way, the story is still a very good one.

Rating: 4 out of 5

And that, finally, brings me up to date in all my reading. Next up? Kafka…the real one. Obviously, reading a book with Kafka on the title made me itchy to go for something considered more classic…and that is proving to be an interesting experience. More on that later.

• Author: Robert A. Heinlein
• Category: Fiction - Sci-fi/Politics

You will find this book under the Sci-Fi section and I have to be honest, as far as sci-fi books, this one is not much. I will give it props, considering that it was written in the sixties, it actually was pretty accurate in the way somethings would have worked in the future, but as far as this book being an entertaining sci-fi, Mistress falls short of the mark. That being said, it is very clear from the beginning that this book is intended to be far more than an ‘entertaining’ sci-fi book, focusing instead on politics, social commentary and libertarian ideals and that is where this book shines.

The setting is the Moon (or Luna, as they refer to it) a penal colony, where all of earth’s outcasts were once sent to serve their prisons. It was the perfect set up, as far as Earth was concerned, you got rid of your malignant entities pretty much for good, because once you spend a certain amount of time in the moon, your body becomes adjusted to the lower gravitational pull and you will eventually reach a point were coming back to earth is impossible. And as far as the prison in the Moon goes, it is also perfect. No need for cells, bars, walls, the prisoners were free to live as they wished, it is not like they could escape anywhere.

Time goes by and eventually the colony ceases to be a prison, more people begin to head out to Luna to make a living, the way pioneers did during the gold rush. It is a difficult lifestyle, but one that they seem to have streamlined without the aid of government or any true ruling, quite easily. The only darkside to this lifestyle, is the precense of the Warden and his troops, who remain in authority even though the colony is no longer penal. ‘Authority’ controls all the crucial aspects of society, dictating the prices of the produce they sell, the water they utilize, the air their breathe, etc. Needless to say, by the 2070’s certain citizens have had enough. It is not until Wyoming Knott, a beautiful blonde speaker, comes to speak in regards to revolution and independence that the wheels start actually turning.

Caught in the motion are Manny, a one armed tech man, in charge of Authority’s computer systems; Profesor Bernardo de la Paz, an eclectic, well respected old man and Mike (named after Mycroft Holmes, brother of Sherlock Holmes), a computer that has made so many ‘neural’ connections with other computers that it actually becomes sentient. And it is this ragged bunch, that come together and plot revolution, to gain a free Luna.

It is a cool and interesting concept, with very interesting ideas, however ideological and in for that aspect, this is very much a book worth reading. However, those of you that are looking for an entertaining read, will find this bland, at best. The plot moves painfully slow and dialogue is over abundant and on the verge of repetitive, to the point where if you have no interest in politics and the libertarian theories, then chances are you will not get to the end of this book. So….keep that in mind before picking this one up. There are some interesting theories in regards to society, the role of government and even marriage, but all of that may not amount to an interesting read, if what you are looking for is a thriller.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: See the book cover I am showing up there? Do NOT buy that version of the book if you can help it at all. It is a cheap cover (not to mention poorly designed), flimsy, the paper is cheap to and overall I was quite dissatisfied with the quality of the book. I knew this when I bought it, but it was the only book they had available and I had already committed myself to reading it. So…yeah, try to find a better edition out there, this one sucked.

Song of the Day: “We Are Rockstars” - Does It Offend You, Yeah?

• Author: Steven Hall
• Category: Fiction - Experimental

If you were to take the love child from a Alex Garland, David Mitchell and Mark Z. Danielewski threesome, say…”The Beach”, “Number 9 Dream” and “House of Leaves” respectively, then the product of it would probably be “The Raw Shark Texts”. Other, more qualified critics are also comparing him to Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon and a Japanese author whose name I can not remember and likely would not be able to spell if I could (but whom I will most definitely have to look up), but I do not pretend to know that, because I have only read one Auster book. There is no doubt that for his debut novel Hall has borrowed heavily, in my opinion mostly from Danielewski, and he has taken the elements that he appreciated from other authors and given it his own creative, ambitious twist, to make of this thriller something that is conceptually amazing, albeit abstract and difficult to approach.

If you are a fan of the clear cut story with simple to follow plots and entirely grounded themes, then I will let you know now not to come anywhere close to this book. If you however have enjoyed the work of any of the authors mentioned above or even the work of Italo Calvino (particularly “If On A Winter’s Night A Tarveler…”) then this book is going to take you for a wild ride.

This story will demand a little bit of patience from the reader, not because the story develops slowly (quite the contrary, from the very beginning it gives you a kick in the butt and sends you down a flight of stairs, blindfolded), but because it starts like a very straight forward thriller and then becomes something else entirely. Eric Sanderson wakes up one day not knowing where he is, who he is and why he is there, having only letters sent to him by a past self with a series of instructions to try to help him determine who he is. You see, Eric suffers from a condition that began shortly after a boating accident that claimed the love of his life, which wipes out chunks of his memory, time and time again, each time erasing more and more of his former life. This is Eric Sanderson number 11. And just when it may seem that you have a handle on that, the weirdness comes, shaking things all over and making somewhat of a mess. There is the Ludovician, which threatens Eric with never making it to his 12th ‘rebirth’ from amnesia, there is his run into unspace guided by pixie-ish Scout and then there  is the entire last third of the book which asks you to exercise your pretend bone, one which most of us forget to use after the age of ten.

If that makes absolutely no sense, do not worry, it all does as you read the book and it does in a fashion that is fast paced and engaging. Raw Shark reads like a thriller, but requires a lot of imagination from the reader, to tell a vivid story of a man in the run not from killers, not from concrete evil, but rather conceptual evil which is the product of a mad man’s quest for eternal life. Needless to say, while some of the readers (such as me) will eat this up with a spoon, this will also upset and frustrate the majority. Hall has tackled an inventive story and as mentioned above, ambitous, but he is still not exactly polished. Here and there his characters will falter and a few strings are left untied. For that reason, while I enjoy the work that was written here and would definitely read it again, I do not consider it as good as “Could Atlas” or “House of Leaves” which take the time to close all the small gaps and answer the important questions pertinent to the plot.

Typography plays heavily in this book, the way it did in Danielewski’s ‘House of Leaves’, but unlike the latter, Raw Shark streams together a story that is more approachable and easier to follow, if still entirely nightmarish and strange. With an efficiency of language–saying what needs to be said in six words what most people would say in six sentences–Steven Hall creates a handful of vivid, interesting characters starting with the easily relatable Eric, the gutsy Scout (who in my head would be perfectly cast as Natalie Portman) and the ecclectic Prof. Trey Fidorus, but just as the book seems rugged and broken, so too is the story. There is a way about this writing style that has a burst release quality, which is what reminded me of Alex Garland, clearly a book of the new generation that is used to technology and the way it seems to condense our writing, particularly on the internet. Unlike Garland, however, Hall tends to use word pairings that are at times clevers and at other times brow-furrowing (hehe, notice my own word pairing?), which might annoy another handful of readers. This is not necessarily a jab, at least I do not intend it as such, though some will likely see it in that shadow. I personally enjoyed the stylistic change and the simultaneous brevity of his sentences which collectively manage to make a very vividly detailed picture.

Lastly, it is unavoidable that I address the flood of media hype this book apparently has gotten. Commercially, this book is apparently doing incredibly well and I can only imagine a movie will be soon to follow. Do yourself a favor and try to ignore the numerous quotes commenting on the book. I say this because this book is a good book, fun and though not really ground-breaking it is certainly helping tear open the break already created. However, when one reads so much praise for a book it could end up building false expectations and that could lead to the ‘Da Vinci Code’ effect where you end up expecting a masterpiece and end up with something much less. This is not a masterpiece, but definitely a very fun read worth your time if the genre appeals to you.

Is this an abandoned island book? For me, yes, but I will say that most people will not agree with me here. In the end, if you are up for an experimental, imagination defying read, this one is for you. If you like your books off the Oprah list, then look further down my list of reviewed books, this one is not going to be one of them. And for the record, yes, there are some books (two, actually, to be precise) I have reviewed that as it turns out, did make it to the Oprah Book Club list…yikes.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Funny how I picked up this book. Having never heard about it before, I walked into B&N just after reading The Watchmen, where one of the detectives is called on the phone and given a tip on one of the characters named Rorschach. Unable to hear properly, the detective answers: Raw Shark? This struck me as curious and when I walked into the book store and saw that on a title, that curiosity grew. I had to touch the book, because I am a freak when it comes to books, if it does not feel good in my hand, the paper, the cover, the size, I will try not to buy it or find another edition that fits me better. It is also the reason why I avoid hard backs like the plague, because they are awkward and wrong and make a harshness out of the pleasure of reading. But anyway, I am going off on a tangent. When I picked up this edition of Raw Shark, the cover felt perfect, the weight of the pages perfect, the quality of the binding is solid. This book was a joy to have in my hands. Really. But most surprising to me was the coincidence which let me to pick it up in the first place. No regrets here.

Song of the Day: Forget Her - Jeff Buckley

• Author: Alan Moore
• Category: Fiction - Graphic Novel

So it took me this long to finally read what many people claim to arguably be the greatest graphic novel of all time: The Watchmen. That argument has been given to me for a while and perhaps it was the hype itself that made me originally reject it; or maybe it was the fact that stylistically, the artwork itself did not seem to magnetize me; or was it the character concepts with a certain old school je ne sais quoi which simply did not interest me. Even after Todd and I made reports on Turtle Pellets regarding the upcoming movie I did not feel compelled enough to pick this novel up.

It was, in fact, not until Comic-Con just this past month that my interest was piqued. By then I had already seen the trailer that came ahead of The Dark Knight, which had failed to impress me much. However, attending the panel and seeing the extended footage showed me a side to this story I had simply not understood before. The panel itself seemed passionate about the work and though I am very hesitant of Synder at the helm (you need only read my review of 300), I came out of that panel wanting to read this novel and find out more about it.

I finally did and though I am by no means in a position to call it or disregard it as the ‘greatest graphic novel of all time’, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it is the greatest graphic novel I have ever read. That may not mean much; though I am perhaps more familiarized with comics than the average person, my comic knowledge is still relatively limited and my hands have not held that many graphic novels to begin with. Nevertheless, it does not take an avid comic book reader to appreciate a book that contains not only finesse, but also enough smart and heady content to satisfy the most intellectual of readers.

Surely, The Watchmen served as the inspiration for Pixar favorite The Incredibles, though the content has not been watered down for the younger audience. Dealing with heavy morality and ethical questions, the novel basically looks at a world where heroes were forced to retire in the seventies due to legalities, changing public perception and resentment from cops who felt increasingly marginalized and incapable of doing their job. They all seem to have settled in their retirement, some more comfortably than others, when a ‘mask killer’ suddenly emerges, bent on taking out the group of vigilantes, one by one. Racing against time, the former heroes must don their costumes one more time to solve the crime that may save their lives or more importantly, the planet.

After reading the novel, I have to say that my comments on the illustration remain remarkably the same. I am still unimpressed with the old school style and incredibly simple layout, though perhaps, my eyes have been opened to Dave Gibbons’ (illustrator) own spartan efficiency. Even in its barren form, each cell seems to serve its duty with precision, in both composition and content. There may be no gravity defying poses, or humanly impossible contortions from the aged protagonists on the paper, but all the information is drawn out with a purpose which is married most interestingly with the often multi-layered content.

Let it be known, this is not your typical superhero tale. It is a tale of humanity that happens to have hero’s as its central figures, allowing for a much grander scheme which is nonetheless timeless and applicable to just about any person that has ever questioned their actions in relation to good and evil. This is exciting in that it feels refreshing and new. Considering that this graphic novel came out in the eighties, it is a surprising achievement, that it is able to hold out so well against the recent works that continuously try to paint themselves in the same light. At the same time, however, when considering the movie that looms in the horizon, I can only grow in my skepticism and concern. I repeat, this is not your typical superhero tale. Having seen the trailer and the footage, I have to wonder how many people that have not read the novel will go in expecting another Iron Man or Dark Knight. More than an action story, this is a drama, a story about what goes on behind the scenes and the crime fighting itself takes a secondary role to the character and plot development which, as I mentioned earlier, is much more broad than your run of the mill, evil villain trying to destroy the world story.

It is perhaps that I am still elated from my read (I just finished it about half an hour ago), that I fail to find any reasonable flaw with this book. It reads in complex layers and carries a theme of epic proportions and it is populated by a cast of characters that are so well fleshed out and developed, that they are likable beyond their obvious flaws, of which they have many. Careful reading of the novel, and a good eye will show details peppered throughout the story that make it a delightful read, on top of the challenging theme it decided to tackle. My recommendation? Go read it, because if Snyder happens to screw up this movie (which I am praying he will not), you will at least know where he went wrong and be able to hold your knowledge to the movie and say…no, the original work was much, much better.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: There are some adult themes here and very brief nudity. Language is kept in check but, this comic book is really not intended with for your six year old.

Song of the Day: Kissing Families - Silversun Pickups

• Author: David Mitchell
• Category: Fiction

There are books that hook you, grip you and will not let you go until you finish them and this one is one of those, falling in the category of Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Atwood’s Oryx & Crake, and though thematically they are different, they all have that engrossing quality to them. Needless to say, I am quickly becoming a David Mitchell fan, who has batted two out of two for me with amazing skill.

Like Cloud Atlas, Number 9 Dream was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, unlike Cloud Atlas, this book is a lot more accessible, with a straight forward storyline that does employ a number of flashbacks and side stories to set itself up, but done in a way that is easy to follow and rather entertaining.

Based in japan, Number 9 Dream tells the story of Eiji Miyake, a young man of twenty with an overactive imagination that is determined to find his father, whom he has never met, in Tokyo. Having suffered enough as far as his family life goes, Eiji is sure that finding his father will be the first step to a better life, or at least a life that he will have an easier time understanding. However, what the young aspiring soccer player and country boy does not know, is that in his search for father, he will be tugged into the ruthless underbelly of Tokyo in a way that will change his life forever, not to mention his point of view in the meaning of family.

Mitchell impresses, with a voice that is clearly in control, characters that are unique, believable and interesting, though they may or may not be likable. Throughout the novel the author does a magnificent job balancing, suspense, thrills, fantasies and humor. If anything, this book ended up reminding me of my experience reading Catche in the Rye, and that is a tremendous compliment.

There is one minor plot point which I found too convenient and given the complexity and the multiple layers that Mitchell operates in, it sticks out like a sore thumb, which is unfortunate because it could have easily been changed to make it less obvious (for those wondering, I am speaking of Suga’s gift). Outside of that, this is a fully entertaining read that keeps you  hooked through the entirety of the read.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: Some violent content here, not exactly a read for the younger crowd.

• Author: Mark Haddon
• Category: Fiction - Adventure/Autism

Effectively ‘Dog’ would be a story categorized almost as a children’s book, if it did not deal with a handful of issues that are rather adult in nature. The main character is Christopher, an autistic 15 year old who sets out to write a detective novel trying to determine who it was, exactly, that killed his neighbor’s dog Wellington. And what starts out to be a rather simple journey turns instead into an adventure of self discovery of larger proportions.

Having worked with autistic kids for a number of years, Mark Heddon brings to this book a realistic tale told through the eyes of a child that seems his environment in entirely different ways. The result is an eye opening experience that would do a lot of people good in coming to understand the way the autistic mind works. It is an interesting, unique, moving story, which keeps innocence at its core.

In turn both touching and comic (despite Christopher’s promise to be otherwise, given his inability to tell or understand jokes), ‘Dog’ is an insightful tale that opens doorways into a unique character, his world and his family, none of whom are perfect, all of whom are likeable and all of them struggling to try to juggle a difficult situation as best as possible, leaving in the end, a significant amount of hope.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Notes: Told through the eyes of an autistic child, this story does not read as a simple novel, starting with the fact that chapter numbers are not your typical cardinal numbers but rather a sequence of prime numbers and ending with the fact that his own mathematical mind has such a liking for puzzles and algebraic challenges that the read itself often becomes a curious puzzle itself.

• Author: Vladimir Nabokov
• Category: Fiction

A classic and one that I had placed in my list for a long while now and just never dared to buy. I did not realize just how bad it must look for me to go and read Lolita after reading Oryx and Crake, which as I mentioned dealt with some issues of child pornography. Bad freaking timing…I swear that is all it was. But anyway, as Nabokov explains through his fictional introduction, this book is not pornographic and so, if that is what you are expecting, you better put the book down and go read something else. This is in fact…a love story. Not to say it is not a messed up love story, because it is about a fully adult male and a twelve year old girl, which…regardless of how you look at it, is all sorts of wrong.

The interesting thing here, is that if you replace pedophilia with just about any other taboo romance, it becomes one hell of a romantic concept. What Nabokov has done is gone for the jugular and touched on the most unacceptable of taboos and in turn given it one of the most beautifully worded romance stories. But…I do underscore the romance, which, initially was beginning to wear on me. While this looked to be a happy story, I actually considered putting the book down, mostly because I do not do romance so well. This too, Nabokov seems to have planned nicely, because just as I though this book may be too much of a love story for me, the author throws in the wrench into everything he has methodically built up. And in my opinion, that saves the story, where the happy ending seems forever ruined and the mystery begins.

Having now finished and being able to contemplate it from afar, the book rounds up nicely. It does some things with language which are just absolutely stunning and while I could do with a little bit less of romance and a bit more of the mystery, I do think this is a very good book and recognize it as such.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (I am sure this is 5 out of 5 for most people, but for my taste? I docked half a point)
Notes: Umm…taboo romance, but you already know the deal.

• Author: Margaret Atwood
• Category: Fiction

In what is probably described as a Sci-fi/post apocalyptic novel, Atwood gives us a frighteningly realistic bleak vision of the future, in which we follow the last of the humans, a bearded, naked man who clothes himself with a sheet, and who goes by the name of Snowman.

As we meet him, the world is a hell of a mess and though he is the last human, we soon learn he is not the last…humanoid creature. Innocent, naive, friendly people referred to by Snowman as Crakers live in the same area, walking around shamelessly naked and living in complete harmony in their territory. The animals, are familiar, but they are not the animals you and I would know and within a small amount of time we realize just how much of the world has changed.

Thankfully, we have Snowman, who once used to be known as Jimmy and who is haunted enough by his memories for us to see, little by little, how this future came to be, brought upon by ourselves and in a manner that is so realistic, it actually becomes frightening. Often, in the news, I will hear something that sounds like it came out of this book and it sends a chill up my spine. Basically, Atwood has made an effort to create a vision of the future that is entirely attainable if the right pieces fell into place. And when you see the results? It is scary as hell.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: The topic of pornography comes up, specifically the topic of child pornography, which is likely to make most normal people cringe. Worry not, she does not dwell in the details, but it is something that comes on early in Jimmy’s life which turns out to be something significant by the end.

• Author: Miguel García Márquez
• Category: Fiction - Magical Realism/Drama

Not the first time I read the book, to be honest. My dad had actually recommended it to me back in High School and I had indeed picked it up and read it cover to cover, mostly during one long swim meet weekend, between heats. However, reading it now, almost fifteen years later, I wonder if I really read it the first time, or if I really knew what exactly it was that I was reading. Though certain concepts remained the same, there was a lot here I did not remember and which struck me as brand new. Certainly one can chuck it up to a forgetful memory, a lot of ish does happen in over a decade, but I was still struck by how this book took me by surprise all over again.

As the title implies, this book is about Solitude, one hundred years of it, in fact and all of it centered around the Buendia family, starting with Jose Aureliano Buendia and his wife, Ursula, who are part of the group of people that founded a tiny town named Macondo in the middle of the bog. Largely untouched by the outside world, Macondo develops under it’s own self imposed structure and law and the families grow. However, our point of view is always kept through the eyes of the Buendia’s.

Ironically enough the very concept of Solitude was entirely lost to me as a high school student. Probably because I was still submerged in an environment where the idea had not taken root. Reading it now, the entire story is soaked in it, solitude suffocates every character in a way that even with the humor, the tenderness, the beauty that this story encompasses, it is not enough to get past that melancholy feeling.

The book takes us over a whole century of the Buendia family, with Ursula Buendia being the only character that manages to tie it all together until close to the end. Me meet all the Jose’s and all the Arcadios that are born and are introduced to some very interesting women as well like Remedios, Rebeca and Amaranta, all characters fully fleshed out and quirky in their own way to help make of this story an epic.

I highly recommend this one, though be aware for some magical realism, which I guess is what they call this type of story which is set in a real world but where magical reasons for things are often taken as logical explanations for how things actually happen. It is a touch of spice that takes this story to a whole other level of enjoyment.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Notes: There is some adult content here, so be aware that there will be language infused here along with some ideas that are not exactly puritanical.

• Michel Houellebecq

There’s another fun last name for you to play with and an author I had been eyeing for a while, particularly his other popular novel “Platform”, but for whatever reason I started with this one instead. It is a short read, a little more than 200 hundred pages, and a fast read, relating the life of two half brothers, born out of a mother that, pretty much never wanted to be one and should not have been allowed to become one. But things happened, and they boys were born and separated, living with their respective families, namely grandparents that chose to take care of them.

It is a hard life for the boys, a life of torment for Bruno and of solitude for Michel, who early on realize they have only themselves to see them out of this cruel world they have been birthed into. One of them becomes a mediocre writer, part time teacher and complete sex-a-holic, the other becomes a rather successful biochemist/physicist who…really has very little sex at all. This book relates, in a rather documentary-style, the life of the two boys, through their childhood, their adolescence and their adulthood, with every jarring detail attached, from the painful to read to the too arousing to read.

Oh…and then there is the little bit dealing with metaphysical mutations, which is explained to you right off the bat, in the first few pages. A metaphysical mutation being the sort of event that changes the world as a whole. For example, you take Christianity. One day we are happy as random people, then comes Jesus, people start Christianity and bam, you got yourself a changed world. Then comes science, which proves evolution and challenges the fundamentals of Christianity and BAM you got yourself another changed world………and them comes Michel Djerszinski, who does not even know what he is about to change the world. In fact, even I as the reader could not see how this man would do what the first few pages promised…until you get to the end and you are just like….damn……

For that ending alone, this book is worth the read. Just be aware, if you thought Choke had too much sexual content…this one will ensure you get another ‘think’ on the way.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Category: Fiction - What the eff just happened-fiction