Jeff Carlson (.com)
Recent Books
I'm still reading this one too, but enjoying it so far. The stars and space exploration continue to fascinate me, but I never really got a good idea of how we came to know what we know. This book attempts to tell that story.
I'm actually still reading this, but have put it aside for now. Reading Slant on my Palm V sporadically is enough Greg Bear for the moment.
King is really only now starting to get the credit for the quality of his writing. Oddly enough, I haven't read a "Stephen King novel" for several years, but I grabbed this title off a shelf at the grocery store the first week it was available. It helped that I was on vacation and read the book in a day. What's nice is that King talks about how he writes, and lets the reader glean whatever information or inspiration from his experience.
I'm happy to see Steve Martin doing more than just movies. I've read that he's quite intelligent, with a fine sense of art appreciation (and quite the impressive art collection, allegedly), but I've also gotten the sense that there's more to the Wild and Crazy Guy. What a novel concept: pursue multiple things (writing, comedy, film)! Although Shopgirl isn't the best thing I've read this year, it's still pretty fulfilling. Although sometimes I found myself repeating that writing mantra, "Show, don't tell" when Martin went on narrative streaks, at the same time the sections didn't read like an author unaware of what he's doing.
[A revelation! I had high hopes for commenting on the books I've read, but that became daunting, so I didn't write a damn thing. So I'm no longer going to feel bad if I didn't write something witty or insightful about a book. That way, when I do think of something that just demands your attention, I can come back and add to it.]
Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
It took me long enough to read this book, but that's due more to my lack of time than any fault of the book. I haven't dipped my feet into hard sci-fi much, and this was a good choice to do so. I'll come back to this page and elaborate more, but for now I give it a high recommendation. Robinson has clearly thought through the practical details of colonizing Mars, and doesn't get bogged down in techno description trying to convey it.
|
