April reading round-up
Due to extreme busyness, I not only failed to write up most of what I read, I also failed to write down most of what it was. I know I read more than this in a month, however busy. Oh well.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition
by Oliver Sacks. If you like Sacks, you will like this; if not, you won't. I do like Sacks. Case studies involving patients with conditions involving or relieved by music, including several variants on Hell's own earworm; musings on the meaning, power, and neurological effects of music. Several of the most touching and powerful stories involve the nostalgia of music heard in childhood -- a nostalgia which is not always positive.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy
, by Lawrence Weschler. Nonfiction (or is it) about the world's strangest museum, or perhaps an art installation on the theme of museums (and truth, and legend, and belief), Culver City's own Museum of Jurassic Technology. Amazingly, it does not dispell the spell of the museum itself; at one point I began to seriously wonder if Weschler had completely invented a large portion of his seemingly irrelevant but bizarrely fascinating research. Absolutely in the spirit of its subject.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Volume 1 (v. 1)
, manga by Eiji Ohtsuka and Housui Yamazaki. Gruesome but very funny manga about a crew of misfits, some psychic, some possibly just crazy, who deliver corpses, solve mysteries, and lay the souls of the restless dead. One guy either channels an alien via a hand puppet, or is a psychic who is also a crazy person with an alternate alien personality, or maybe just a very consistent prankster. Some of the best dialogue I've read in a manga; should appeal to fans of Kazuya Minekura and Brian K. Vaughn, if they can take the gruesome corpse drawings, which are sometimes nude for extra creepiness.
A Companion to Wolves
, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Gay Vikings, violent man-on-man (and wolf-on-wolf) gangbangs of dubious consent, man-wolf bonding, and trolls -- if this sounds good, I promise you will enjoy it. I especially liked the last third, which delves fascinatingly into the underpinnings of the world. The supporting characters could have used more development, especially the hero's sexual partners other than his first (who was great and could have used more pagetime.) Loved the trolls.
The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1
, by R. M. Meluch. Marines and Romans in spaaaaaace! Loved the main Roman character; unfortunately, was completely allergic to the prose and dialogue (except the dialogue by the main Roman character.) Darn.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition
by Oliver Sacks. If you like Sacks, you will like this; if not, you won't. I do like Sacks. Case studies involving patients with conditions involving or relieved by music, including several variants on Hell's own earworm; musings on the meaning, power, and neurological effects of music. Several of the most touching and powerful stories involve the nostalgia of music heard in childhood -- a nostalgia which is not always positive.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy
, by Lawrence Weschler. Nonfiction (or is it) about the world's strangest museum, or perhaps an art installation on the theme of museums (and truth, and legend, and belief), Culver City's own Museum of Jurassic Technology. Amazingly, it does not dispell the spell of the museum itself; at one point I began to seriously wonder if Weschler had completely invented a large portion of his seemingly irrelevant but bizarrely fascinating research. Absolutely in the spirit of its subject.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Volume 1 (v. 1)
, manga by Eiji Ohtsuka and Housui Yamazaki. Gruesome but very funny manga about a crew of misfits, some psychic, some possibly just crazy, who deliver corpses, solve mysteries, and lay the souls of the restless dead. One guy either channels an alien via a hand puppet, or is a psychic who is also a crazy person with an alternate alien personality, or maybe just a very consistent prankster. Some of the best dialogue I've read in a manga; should appeal to fans of Kazuya Minekura and Brian K. Vaughn, if they can take the gruesome corpse drawings, which are sometimes nude for extra creepiness.
A Companion to Wolves
, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Gay Vikings, violent man-on-man (and wolf-on-wolf) gangbangs of dubious consent, man-wolf bonding, and trolls -- if this sounds good, I promise you will enjoy it. I especially liked the last third, which delves fascinatingly into the underpinnings of the world. The supporting characters could have used more development, especially the hero's sexual partners other than his first (who was great and could have used more pagetime.) Loved the trolls.
The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack #1
, by R. M. Meluch. Marines and Romans in spaaaaaace! Loved the main Roman character; unfortunately, was completely allergic to the prose and dialogue (except the dialogue by the main Roman character.) Darn.