TWIB II-14: 12/31-1/6
Jan. 26th, 2008 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanOnly two more weeks to go before I'm caught up!
1) Stumbling On Happiness - Daniel Gilbert
I have a general aversion to popular science books precisely because they're written for a popular audience, which often creates an apparently irresistible temptation toward intellectual dishonesty on the part of their authors. (I'm looking squarely at you here, O authors of Freakonomics.) Nonetheless, Daniel Gilbert was pretty funny on The Colbert Show, which is why I bought the book.
He's hysterical in Stumbling On Happiness. I haven't laughed as much at books I've picked up in the “Humor” section. Luckily, this book is as informative as it is entertaining, and better yet, it exposed me to a good deal of new research, simply and engagingly explained. Gilbert takes up a deceptively simple-appearing question: What makes us happy? and demonstrates the many reasons why those very things we anticipate will please us don't always meet our expectations at getting the job done. (Interestingly enough, I “failed” many of the quizzes Gilbert poses to explain why our anticipation of what will make us happy is so often misguided--maybe all the zazen is finally kicking in!) I recommend this book to anyone interested in the psychology of happiness--or just having a good laugh.
2) The House At Riverton – Kate Morton
Kate Morton's "The House at Riverton" is one of those rare novels that seamlessly transports its readers into an unfamiliar setting in unfamiliar times. Set in turn-of-the-20th-century England, Morton's tale chronicles the fortunes of Riverton House's aristocratic family through the eyes of Grace, a young maid in their employ.
Morton truly works wonders in her deft handling of a large ensemble cast, allowing the modern day reader insights into the hearts and minds of people with very different opinions, priorities, and outlooks than those of their 21st century counterparts. While many of Riverton's characters struggle with problems not so unfamiliar to our own times, they do so in a way that is never anachronistic or forced; their portrayals avoid falling into the trap of two-dimensionality.
One truly comes to know and care for Grace, her charges, and her acquaintances throughout the course of the novel, thanks to the subtlety Morton's writing, and will miss them once the last page has been turned. Although the plot of "The House at Riverton" is driven by a few pivotal events, Morton fleshes out her narrative with several tangential storylines that give depth and breadth to the main focus of the story, thus drawing readers into the lives of her secondary characters as well. There is plenty of foreshadowing, to be sure, and some elements of the plot perhaps dovetail a bit too seamlessly in the end, but there are also plenty of red herrings and hidden clues to keep the observant reader intrigued and guessing.
Morton excels in her depictions of aristocratic Britain as seen through the eyes of the servant class; readers will truly feel as though they are standing beside Grace, experiencing the elegance and turbulence of the times themselves.
Although an abrupt (albeit necessary) point of view change late in the narrative prevents "Riverton" from attaining utter perfection, it is just about as close to reaching it as any other novel one is likely to encounter.
3) Korea After Kim Jong-il - Marcus Noland
This slim volume purports to be an examination of a Democratic People's Republic of Korea no longer under the control of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il. It examines the prospects for North Korea in the event of either a violent collapse or protracted reunification with the South. If this sounds eerily familiar, it's because it is. Noland has essentially plagiarized his own Avoiding The Apocalypse, trimmed out much of its background, and updated his predictions and assessments for the year 2003. As such, almost all of the content of the book will be familiar to readers of that earlier work. It should also be remembered that Noland is an economist writing for other economists: as such, Korea After Kim Jong-il is heavy on economic modeling and speculation; the text is equally as concerned (if not more so) with South Korea's economy as it is with the North's, making the title something of a misnomer. Noland also largely ignores all policy issues--politics, security, and humanitarian concerns--not directly related to economics, which will surely be frustrating to readers looking for the more holistic approach to a post Kim-dynasty Korea suggested by the title. Which isn't to say that Korea After Kim Jong-il is a bad book per se, only that Noland would have been more honest in titling it The Korean Peninsula’s Economy After Kim Jong-il.
4) A Corpse In The Koryo – James Church
I'm equal parts intrigued and frustrated by this crime procedural. Set in North Korea, it follows Investigator O as he attempts to solve a string of murders and other mysterious occurrences that may strike to the very heart of the nation's politics. Author Church (apparently a pseudonym) claims to have decades of experience as an intelligence agent on the Korean peninsula, and if his writing is any indication, he is certainly very familiar with North Korea. Although I'm not a fan of the flat, matter-of-fact prose in which most mystery and crime novels are written, Church employs it to great effect, creating a suffocating atmosphere of distrust, uncertainty, and imminent betrayal.
Unfortunately, the twisted nest of betrayals in which the main character finds himself, combined with his uncertainty and the necessity that he distrust everyone with whom he interacts made it impossible for me to figure out what the hell was going on after I finished reading. The last twenty pages of the book point to a gripping climax with a shocker of a conclusion, but I'll be damned if I understand what it was. Read this book for what is likely the most accurate portrayal of life in North Korea available outside of scholarly works, but be prepared to not understand the narrative's ending without putting in multiple readings.
5) I Am America (And So Can You!) – Stephen Colbert
Oh, this book definitely has its moments, but it's neither as good as The Daily Show's America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction, or the explicitly political segments of the Colbert Report. Colbert's spoken delivery is responsible for injecting a good portion of the humor into his material; absent this, it can come off as no different from the rantings of any other O'Reilly blowhard. America's authors make a good attempt at compensating for this by including "The Word"-esque counter-commentary in the marginalia, but the effect is often lost due to the inability of the reader to know precisely when such comments should be read for optimal punchline kick. That said, I Am America justifies its price tag solely on the inclusion of the text of Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which actually gains a good bit of punch in written form, as readers can see just how amazingly audacious and brave it really was.
That will be all.
1) Stumbling On Happiness - Daniel Gilbert
I have a general aversion to popular science books precisely because they're written for a popular audience, which often creates an apparently irresistible temptation toward intellectual dishonesty on the part of their authors. (I'm looking squarely at you here, O authors of Freakonomics.) Nonetheless, Daniel Gilbert was pretty funny on The Colbert Show, which is why I bought the book.
He's hysterical in Stumbling On Happiness. I haven't laughed as much at books I've picked up in the “Humor” section. Luckily, this book is as informative as it is entertaining, and better yet, it exposed me to a good deal of new research, simply and engagingly explained. Gilbert takes up a deceptively simple-appearing question: What makes us happy? and demonstrates the many reasons why those very things we anticipate will please us don't always meet our expectations at getting the job done. (Interestingly enough, I “failed” many of the quizzes Gilbert poses to explain why our anticipation of what will make us happy is so often misguided--maybe all the zazen is finally kicking in!) I recommend this book to anyone interested in the psychology of happiness--or just having a good laugh.
2) The House At Riverton – Kate Morton
Kate Morton's "The House at Riverton" is one of those rare novels that seamlessly transports its readers into an unfamiliar setting in unfamiliar times. Set in turn-of-the-20th-century England, Morton's tale chronicles the fortunes of Riverton House's aristocratic family through the eyes of Grace, a young maid in their employ.
Morton truly works wonders in her deft handling of a large ensemble cast, allowing the modern day reader insights into the hearts and minds of people with very different opinions, priorities, and outlooks than those of their 21st century counterparts. While many of Riverton's characters struggle with problems not so unfamiliar to our own times, they do so in a way that is never anachronistic or forced; their portrayals avoid falling into the trap of two-dimensionality.
One truly comes to know and care for Grace, her charges, and her acquaintances throughout the course of the novel, thanks to the subtlety Morton's writing, and will miss them once the last page has been turned. Although the plot of "The House at Riverton" is driven by a few pivotal events, Morton fleshes out her narrative with several tangential storylines that give depth and breadth to the main focus of the story, thus drawing readers into the lives of her secondary characters as well. There is plenty of foreshadowing, to be sure, and some elements of the plot perhaps dovetail a bit too seamlessly in the end, but there are also plenty of red herrings and hidden clues to keep the observant reader intrigued and guessing.
Morton excels in her depictions of aristocratic Britain as seen through the eyes of the servant class; readers will truly feel as though they are standing beside Grace, experiencing the elegance and turbulence of the times themselves.
Although an abrupt (albeit necessary) point of view change late in the narrative prevents "Riverton" from attaining utter perfection, it is just about as close to reaching it as any other novel one is likely to encounter.
3) Korea After Kim Jong-il - Marcus Noland
This slim volume purports to be an examination of a Democratic People's Republic of Korea no longer under the control of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il. It examines the prospects for North Korea in the event of either a violent collapse or protracted reunification with the South. If this sounds eerily familiar, it's because it is. Noland has essentially plagiarized his own Avoiding The Apocalypse, trimmed out much of its background, and updated his predictions and assessments for the year 2003. As such, almost all of the content of the book will be familiar to readers of that earlier work. It should also be remembered that Noland is an economist writing for other economists: as such, Korea After Kim Jong-il is heavy on economic modeling and speculation; the text is equally as concerned (if not more so) with South Korea's economy as it is with the North's, making the title something of a misnomer. Noland also largely ignores all policy issues--politics, security, and humanitarian concerns--not directly related to economics, which will surely be frustrating to readers looking for the more holistic approach to a post Kim-dynasty Korea suggested by the title. Which isn't to say that Korea After Kim Jong-il is a bad book per se, only that Noland would have been more honest in titling it The Korean Peninsula’s Economy After Kim Jong-il.
4) A Corpse In The Koryo – James Church
I'm equal parts intrigued and frustrated by this crime procedural. Set in North Korea, it follows Investigator O as he attempts to solve a string of murders and other mysterious occurrences that may strike to the very heart of the nation's politics. Author Church (apparently a pseudonym) claims to have decades of experience as an intelligence agent on the Korean peninsula, and if his writing is any indication, he is certainly very familiar with North Korea. Although I'm not a fan of the flat, matter-of-fact prose in which most mystery and crime novels are written, Church employs it to great effect, creating a suffocating atmosphere of distrust, uncertainty, and imminent betrayal.
Unfortunately, the twisted nest of betrayals in which the main character finds himself, combined with his uncertainty and the necessity that he distrust everyone with whom he interacts made it impossible for me to figure out what the hell was going on after I finished reading. The last twenty pages of the book point to a gripping climax with a shocker of a conclusion, but I'll be damned if I understand what it was. Read this book for what is likely the most accurate portrayal of life in North Korea available outside of scholarly works, but be prepared to not understand the narrative's ending without putting in multiple readings.
5) I Am America (And So Can You!) – Stephen Colbert
Oh, this book definitely has its moments, but it's neither as good as The Daily Show's America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction, or the explicitly political segments of the Colbert Report. Colbert's spoken delivery is responsible for injecting a good portion of the humor into his material; absent this, it can come off as no different from the rantings of any other O'Reilly blowhard. America's authors make a good attempt at compensating for this by including "The Word"-esque counter-commentary in the marginalia, but the effect is often lost due to the inability of the reader to know precisely when such comments should be read for optimal punchline kick. That said, I Am America justifies its price tag solely on the inclusion of the text of Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which actually gains a good bit of punch in written form, as readers can see just how amazingly audacious and brave it really was.
That will be all.