Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

book jacket manga style teens with x in backgroundLittle Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008) surveillance run amok and not in a good way. Obvious references to George Orwell’s 1984 creation of Big Brother and the constant surveillance state abound. The protagonist even uses Winston (W1n5t0n) as a handle, the name of Orwell’s protagonist.

Good read. In fact, I decided it warranted a straight through read because it was that kind of plot. Chain events leading ever onward. The 2008 contrasted with reality of 2017 (being unbelievably surreal today) dates the plot a bit because it relies on a belief in the legitimacy and independence of the Fourth Estate, A Free Press.

The concept of Fake News comes through perfectly with the way the clever teens find themselves being misunderstood and portrayed as terrorists instead of freedom fighters in the general news.

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The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan

book jacket elephant and crown graphic for Indian detective mystery fiction story
The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan (2016)

What a wonderful mystery with fun and interesting characters full of personality — including the baby elephant, Ganesha.

Good read, though I did get a little impatient with one too many subplots. This is not the first book in the series. Maybe the author tidied previous plot twists.

Check the Goodreads link to see which is the first if you want to start at the beginning of the series.

I am pleased that there are more books in the series because this is a world I want to visit again. However, I only want to be an armchair visitor, because the small depictions of the actual reality are too distressing for me. Here in the USA we are more fortunate than many, even though fewer and fewer of us can say that. But in too many places in the world, there are too many people starving. Cruel treatment of animals exists everywhere too, to my sorrow.

In this book, the intelligence of this most unusual detective sidekick, the baby elephant, Ganesha, proves a delight. Alas, it also makes me sad for the cruelty being done to  elephants wherever they are left for however long they manage to survive.

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Satire and Great Read: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

satire going postal by Terry Pratchett one of the best books everGoing Postal by Terry Pratchett [RIP, you are very missed]

Alas, I do not remember which of his books I read first. But Going Postal is my favorite among all the books I have ever read. Last year I had learned that the Brits made a video of it and was able to get from the library and it was respectable job, but to my recollection, did not capture what Pratchett’s writing manages like no other I have read: half the content of the book is not WHAT HE WRITES but what he DOESN’T WRITE. I have tried to put my finger on this for years without success. Until now. Now that I LISTENED to the book on CD read by a masterful narrator. He captures more than the words; he captures the meaning behind the words that is often different from what the words as written are actually on the page.

HE IS MY FAVORITE AUTHOR AND NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY! He makes me snort and laugh and giggle and have wry smiles and nod appreciatively and gasp in amazement when something so minor, so thrown away chapters ago becomes significant and masterfully portrays the cleverness of a particular character, or their steely determination, or their ability to read between the lines themselves.

In art it would be called negative and positive space. A good painting or photograph illustrates some subject, flowers or whatever, but the background — negative space — is incidental, or meant to disappear, hopefully in harmony and balance and not disjointed from the main subject. A great image integrates the negative and positive space so that the parts NOT THE SUBJECT are EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO THE COMPOSITION. For example, the space between the curve of a woman’s arm and her waist that forms a diamond that is repeated by the position of a space between her dress and the wall. The negative space defines the positive space as much if not more than the other way around.

Ordinary, even very good authors are excellent at positive space. Putting the words on the page, putting the best word on the page is even better, and using techniques like ending chapters on cliff hangers and switching scenes in the next so you have to go on to learn what happens. Even better authors gently and subtly put little hints of things to come, or more often state their intentions baldly, “If only I had known then. . . ”

Terry Pratchett’s writing is more like a weaving than a flat page in a book or a photograph.

As an example of ordinary writing, consider mystery stories. They start out with x, toss in a murder, throw in some red herrings and obstacles, and proceed to resolution, usually with the protagonist’s life being threatened, or loved ones, because the drama is presumed to be in the threat level. You can flip to the end and see if you guessed the antagonist correctly and decide if the journey is worth making or not. Too often lately, I have decided not, and turned to non-fiction. Even when I know how those books end (e.g. history), the pleasure is in the details of how we got there, with very frequent completely unexpected twists, and most shockingly to me, things happened in plain sight during my lifetime when I thought I was paying attention but it turns out I was clueless.

Terry Pratchett makes you enjoy every sentence, every word as if each were a treat to savor and listen to or read over again and again and still laugh anew (or feel sorrow, or rage, or satisfaction) every time in Going Postal in particular. Not a false note, nor too many, and every word serves a purpose.

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The Dystopia of “The Circle” by Dave Eggers

book jacket red cover white circle logo of storyThe Circle by Dave Eggers (c 2013)

Dystopia in the near future described as the hell it would be if the “share everything” becomes a coerced “share everything” panopticon world of my worst nightmares described in this book.

The is the book that received a perfect 100 score referenced by a previous post and discussed on Book TV, The Bestseller Code. This book was a bestseller and received a perfect score of 100 based on the computer algorithms by Archer and Jockers.

Reading the book jacket text frames the expectations of a book so you can guess if things that seem good will turn out to be rotten or have a happy ending. A few are unpredictable journeys and this book is one of those.

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Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Photoshop fail distorted woman body in long dress book jacket Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger (2013)
I really enjoyed this book. I had to take it back to the library already or I would have included some of the clever lines of text. Rats, I did take a photo of one of my favorite bits of repartee but cannot find it now.

The book has sly, clever bits of dialogue scattered throughout. Since the protagonist is only 14 years old, it gives a nice change from having “love interests” cluttering up a perfectly good story.

A touch of Harry Potter suddenly off to wizard school, in the case a rambunctious young girl goes off to “finishing school” that is more of a spy school and therein lies the fun.

I saw this book in a list of good “steampunk” stories and it fits that genre nicely. Toss in the “you can never miss with vampires and werewolves” elements, and it is a fun world to live in. I will definitely be reading more by this author.

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