les livres pour janvier
I didn't really put it up here, but after seeing flisters resolving to read fifty books this year I decided to do the same and try to read at least a book a week, since anyway I've been on trains a lot of the time and need to be somewhat productive.
pour le mois du janvier:
pour le mois du janvier:
- 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham
Okay, so it isn't technically a book. It's a graphic novel though, and that's got to count for something. If you have never heard of Fables yet, please click the link to know more. Anyway, I've always loved retellings and will never tire of the many ways one can pick up "fairest girl in all the land poisoned by apple and kissed to life by prince" and make it their own tale. This book, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, takes the Fables universe and essentially adds more depths to it with character origins, AND the art is just gorgeous. Seriously pretty. GUH.
- Mort by Terry Pratchett
As can usually be expected from Terry Pratchett, Mort is an irreverent look at the world if it were situated on the back of a tortoise, more or less. I found Death highly amusing here, although I suppose Neil Gaiman's Death is really just prettier, haha. :| Anyway. Fun book. Thoroughly amusing.
- The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
Yes, I bought this because it was Christmas-themed, but while I started reading this around Christmas Eve I failed to finish it until after the holidays. Oops? Anyway, this is also light and enjoyable, which is something you can usually expect from Christopher Moore, who wrote awesome books like Lamb and A Dirty Job. If I had to recommend you a Moore book though, I'd go for Lamb or A Dirty Job first.
- China's Generation Y by Michael Stanat
The author was 17 years old when this book was written. They didn't SAY whether he was home-schooled or not, but it was implied that he had a background that was highly attuned to market research and he worked with a company to help him research this book which, while I wasn't required to read, I felt compelled to for class because we had to sell an AMERICAN PARENTING book to CHINESE. It's informative enough, and I think it's the only book on the subject, and there are a few glaring errors in his methodology (such as presenting focus group results as quantitative data--come on), but the qualitative portions were more insight than I could have gotten anywhere else. You could sort of tell he was a bit full of himself though, as he has referred more than a few times to how Chinese adults treated him like a child (he was fifteen when he was researching the book via homestaying with a family in Shanghai) "even though I was doing an adult-like task of writing a book". Honey, find another reason why they should treat you as an adult.
- Smart Parenting: How to Raise Happy, Can-Do Kids by Brad Smart and Kate Smart-Mursau
Why, yes, twenty-one is too young to be reading a parenting book, thank you, but no, that's not why I read this. :\ This is the book that I really sort of had to read for class because they wanted to sell it to China, heaven knows why. It's. Well. Elementary. Everything that's ever been pounded into our heads about how to treat kids well so they grow up well-rounded, balanced people is in here. There's also a "Smart Decision Pad" that is utter bull, because you can't just take the Pros/Cons format and slap it with your brand to 'own' it, doofus.
- Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes by Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne
So this isn't fiction, and this isn't a class requirement either. What was I doing with it? I confess, I can be a geek. :\ Ever since Freakonomics and Blink and Tipping Point (which jaig actually brought my attention to many years ago but which I never read til two years later) I've gotten this fascination with random market trivia. A couple of the things notable from this book? The rise of left-handed people (because APPARENTLY they tried to CURB left-handedness YEARS ago), extreme commuters, online relationships, social geeks, knitters, vegan kids, etc etc.
- Pour Your Heart Into It: How STARBUCKS Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Doris Jones Yang
My favourite professor from undergrad recommended this book, which is my excuse. :| I'm torn about Starbucks, I really am. On one hand, you know, this IS the first company that's offered something as extensive as health benefits to part time workers. On the other hand, they're opening six new stores a day now and I'm getting sick of seeing them. Personally I think there's a saturation point for any kind of market and while Schultz's "vision" has allowed him to achieve what seemed to be impossible and charge people thrice more than what their coffee is worth, now his "vision" might be a bit suspect.
- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco
I bought this book because of a few reasons: It was on sale, it was hardbound, and it had a pretty title. Mostly I bought it for the title. I also thought Umberto Eco I couldn't go wrong with, although some well-known authors I've found boring difficult to read, but this book was so much more than I expected. I bought it months ago but only got around to finishing it this month, but it's because it's so thick and I just wanted to spend long periods of time reading it and enjoying its language. It's a fantastic narrative and I wish I knew more about Italy during the second world war; I've a feeling once I do I could much more appreciate this book on a re-read.
- Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
I don't remember why I bought this particularly, but I'm not regretting it one bit. This book is funny, and the author's voice is strong and amusing, in a fucked up sort of way.
- The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness by Steven Levy
This hardbound book I bought for a dollar. It's divided into many different chapters which, besides the first and last chapters, have been "shuffled" upon publication. It's a stupid gimmick, but let's give the author that. It's fairly interesting and quite informative, except the chapters tend to drag out to unnecessary territory when it could have ended much sooner.
- Death of Media: And the Fight to Save Democracy by Danny Schechter
When I was in Germany for that student festival the host university managed to invite Danny Schechter along and if you've never heard of him, don't worry. I don't think very many people have. (As a side note, I love how the photo of him in the wikipedia article was taken while he was in Germany for the aforementioned conference.) The reason for this is probably because we already have Michael Moore. :| I actually met him prior to the tournament as we were taking the same train but I thought we had to stay where our seats had been assigned to us so I excused myself and continued onto the other cars. I now wonder whether I'd just saved myself the trouble of spending a train ride with him or if I'd missed something vastly interesting. I can never trust people with agendas. :| Anyway, he sold this thin book at this conference for 10 euros (it sells for 10 dollars regularly), and I bought it and had him sign it, thinking eventually maybe he'll be popular enough that I can sell the book on eBay.
I'm still waiting for that day.
- Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
I know Douglas Coupland because he wrote Generation X and I spent a quarter sort of wrapped up in that shit for class. I hadn't realised Generation X was a novel, though, and while I was wandering around Borders wondering how to spend my five extra Borders Bucks and the 30% coupon Borders sends me twice a month to make sure I never stop buying, I spotted his novels. This one jumped out at me for its summary--four people's stories after a high school shooting, though it's never aimed to explain how and why teenagers become killers. That's not this novel's point. For the main characters Jason and Cheryl (one of the victims) the book is a strong character portrait, and I think to a certain extent this novel is really about Jason the character, something I don't think Publishers Weekly grasped in their review. (They were looking for a cohesive plot and tight narration; they'd forgotten Gen Xers like Douglas Coupland, who defined Generation X, don't believe in rules.) As I told Line, this book broke my heart in some places and fucked my head up in others--it was compelling to read, and though I suppose the rest of his books have less appealing plots, I might end up giving them a go now.