Sylvar's Bookshelf |
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The reading log of Ben Ostrowsky, a librarian and geek with a taste for nonfiction and sf. See Also: My LiveJournal My Old Blog 
 
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Sunday, December 02, 2001
The! Greatest! Of! Marlys! Barry, Lynda Right on! This collection of Lynda Barry's comics features Marlys, Maybonne, Skreddy 57, Arna and Arnold, but we all know who the book is really about. Many of these comics have been printed in her previous books, but this is a great collection including more recent stuff like Fred Milton, Beat Poodle. Wow! Can you dig it?
Shopgirl Martin, Steve The jacket cover calls this novella "a work of disarming tenderness", and that's exactly right. Steve Martin is best known for wacky comedy, but his fans know he has a flair for evoking subtle emotions, for capturing with an eyelash or a breath the sometimes painful magic of life as a human being. Here he paints with quick strokes the story of Mirabelle, a clerk at the Los Angeles Neiman-Marcus glove counter, whose encounter with a rich customer brings two worlds together.
There's no such place as far away Bach, Richard A fable, dazzlingly illustrated, in which Bach learns that distance is irrelevant, that life and joy are infinite, and that growing up is a thing to which no sane child would aspire. If you seem to be far away from a child you love, send them this book to remind both of them that you're not that far at all.
Out of my mind: the discovery of Saunders-Vixen Bach, Richard The author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull goes on a journey through imagination to an alternate past (it's 1923; they recently decided not to have a Great War -- just as we decided not to have a war in 1963) where a team of designers provide inspiration for airplane builders in other timelines. This book is dedicated to Tink, and if you're enough of a Bach fan to spot the reference, you'll also realize that Saunders-Vixen Aircraft Company Ltd. is basically Tink's workplace in another guise. At 101 pages, it's a quick read, but Bach notes that "just because something happens in a split second doesn't mean it hasn't happened, as any clay pigeon will tell you." I think I'll remember this book for the label inside a leather jacket, dedicating it to 'the dear animal who gave her earthly life' to protect the wearer. What a wonderful idea!
The business of books: how international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read Schiffrin, André This account of the author's life in publishing is a real eye-opener for anyone who thinks of the industry as lofty or intellectual. It once was, he writes with chagrin, and some small bits of it still are, but most publishing corporations are owned by larger publishing corporations, which in turn are owned by the likes of AOL Time Warner. Guess how intellectual and civic-minded that crowd is. But his tales of what publishing once was bring a bit of dampness to this reader's lachrymal glands, and also point the way to some very interesting other books about books.
Introducing Muhammad Sardar, Ziauddin, and Zafar Abbas Malik This book is unfortunately named to conform with other titles in its series (Introducing Freud, Jung, Marx, etc.). A far more accurate title would be Introducing Islam: History, Religion and Culture. It does cover the life of the Prophet, but it spends much more time talking about the structure of Islam as a religion (what is commanded, what is forbidden, and how the Qur'an is interpreted), the scientific and cultural achievements of Islamic society, and how it has interacted with the non-Muslim world. The authors have made their subject marvelously easy to understand.
A Tribble's guide to space Tribble, Alan A beginner's guide to the difficulties facing space exploration, from gravity and LEO debris to deadly bursts of solar radiation and the unfortunate laws of physics. The serendipitously named Mr. Tribble uses examples from popular sf set in space, particularly Star Trek. On the "this makes my brain hurt" scale, it's miles below The Elegant Universe (which will explain superstrings, extra dimensions, etc. quite rigorously if you'll sit still for it) -- it's about as easy to follow as a James Gleick book, I suppose. I learned a few things I hadn't known before. Chief among them is the story of Yuri Gagarin's return to Earth; he left his capsule at about two miles up and parachuted to safety. An old Russian woman saw him come out of the sky and asked him "Did you come from outer space?". He said "Yes, as a matter of fact, I certainly have! ...But don't worry, I'm a Soviet." Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Am I pig enough for you yet?: voices of the barnyard Shaff, Valerie (photography), and Roy Blount, Jr. (poems) I don't often use the word delightful without any trace of irony, so collect all four while supplies last. Valerie Shaff's photos of barnyard animals would be goofy enough to make anyone chuckle, but it's Roy Blount, Jr.'s poems that evoke each animal's personality so vividly that those chuckles will become out-loud laughter. Granted, you have to be the type of person who thinks animals are more than beef on the hoof (if you enjoyed Babe, you absolutely must read this book), but it's a stony-hearted clod of clay who won't smile broadly at the very least while reading this. Sunday, November 18, 2001
300 Miller, Frank (story and art), and Lynn Varley (colors) A bold retelling of the Spartan-Persian battle of Thermopylae, during which a tiny force of 300 Spartans held the 'Hot Gates' for three days against the overwhelming numbers of Xerxes' amalgamated army, some tens or hundreds of thousands of invaders. When their defenses were overrun (only after an outcast repaid his rejection by the Spartan leader Leonidas with a military betrayal), the 300 chose a heroic death which ultimately inspired the city-states of Greece to unite against Persia. Frank Miller's dark and often germanely gruesome illustrations, in an appropriately epic horizontal comic format, bring this story to life as no prose ever could. "Up until then I saw heroes as people who generally had an awful lot of power over the situation," he said in an interview. "This was, to my young eyes, a shocking story of people willing to die for their beliefs, rather than simply being on the right side of things and having all the weapons." |