[Book Reviews] Grammar, interception, hunts & vets
I've vacillated between correct but uppity prose and more accessible ways of speaking in my writing for years. However, when I'm writing professionally, I hold myself to a higher standard of correctness and artfulness than I do for LiveJournal, and every so often it's useful to give myself a refresher course in correct style and grammar. This time around, Constance Hale's "Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose" was the chosen instrument of correction. Hale writes in an engaging and peppy way, much like her mentor Karen Elizabeth Gordon (she of the much-beloved "The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed". "Deluxe Transitive Vampire" was my chosen grammar book the last time I got on this kick.). "Sin and Syntax" will be much more useful to people already familiar with parts of speech, sentence diagramming, and points of style than it will be to grammar newbies -- though it's rich in examples, it dashes quickly through the basic explanations. It's written with Generation X in mind, and many of the cited examples of usage both correct and unfortunate are from the Reagan and Bush I years. This will probably aid current readers, but will make the book awfully dated-feeling in ten years.
Still, I will forgive much for an introduction to good poetry, and one of the cited examples of musical speech was the previously unknown-to-me poet John Agard, whose "Listen Mr. Oxford Don" contains the following gem:
Dem accuse me of assault
on de Oxford dictionary/...
I slashing suffix in self-defense
I bashing future with present tense
and if necessary
I making de Queen's English accessory/ to my offence
Fantastic. [grin] I'll be searching out his poetry now. I enjoyed the refresher course in style and grammar, but prefer Gordon's work overall -- three grammar bats out of five.
While I'd found "Storm Front" through some "people who like X may also like..." referral, I enjoy detective stories and thought I'd give it a shot. In the worst case, I'd chalk it up as a fluffy airplane book. I was pleasantly surprised to find a gritty and self-depreciating read -- magic in film noir. Protagonist Harry Dresden is a goofy luckless wizard-cum-detective with a marked sardonic streak; I liked him immediately. Normally I'm not very fond of books with more ceremonial systems of magic, but in this case it's an interesting system and adds to the plot rather than forcing the plot around it. Good urban grit (it's set in alternate-universe Chicago... what is it with mystical private detectives and the Midwest?), likeable characters that aren't entirely predictable, and a pleasant ambiance of "oh bloody hell" for at least half the book. I'd recommend this one to fans of early Laurell K. Hamilton/Anita Blake or of Kim Harrison -- I'm very tempted to run right out and buy the rest of the series. (I understand from a Borders cashier that the Sci-Fi channel will be making these books into a series in the fall, too. Almost, I regret my lack of a TV. Almost. [grin]) Five my-kingdom-for-a-Tivos out of five.
Surprisingly, "The Hallowed Hunt" was the first Bujold novel that I haven't liked. There was nothing *wrong* with it, per se -- the story just didn't engage me for some reason. Lack of empathy with the characters, perhaps. I liked her Vorkosigan space opera much better; I was sufficiently flat that I don't think I'll even bother getting the other two books of the trilogy, dual Hugo/Nebula award or not, unless someone else that didn't dig "Hallowed Hunt" sings their praises.
Speaking of style, I enjoyed the content but not the style of "Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks". Michal Zalewski does a good job of covering some of the less well known information disclosures relevant to security geeks, including his major area of passive fingerprinting as well as physical-layer attacks such as electromagnetic frequency monitoring and bit decoding from blinking lights. Much of it is only relevant to the military and other folks who need to be superparanoid (I really doubt anyone is across the street from me with a telephoto lens watching the lights on my DSL router and reconstructing the passed packets that way), but the theory is interesting to those who enjoy a certain amount of paranoia. The book couldn't seem to decide whether it was an advanced text, a beginner guide, or a thriller novel, though -- it alternates between purple prose describing the dazzling journey of electrical impulses through the advanced circuitry in a keyboard and a technical discussion of the problems of producing worthwhile randomness in computers, both in the first ten pages. A little less dazzle (yes, yes, we're all very impressed at timing attacks based on typing patterns per individual... or we were several years ago, anyway) would have improved the book greatly. Higher-level security geeks keeping abreast of IT news probably won't find anything new here, but it's a decent collection of indirect techniques that get less press than more overt measures. Three revealing blinkenlights out of five.
I think snidegrrl suggested "All My Patients Are Under The Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor" to me, but I'm not sure of that. Regardless, it's a delight for anyone who grew up on James Herriott's traveling vet stories. I breezed through it in an hour, but I had great fun in that hour. Dr. Camuti has a gruffly lovable personality with a no-nonsense attitude, and the combination of autobiography and kitty anecdotes is hard to resist. Four hiding cats out of five.
Someone on my flist read and recommended "Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army", but sadly I fail to remember who it was. Regardless, thank you -- it was a really interesting read. Ms. Williams has way more patience than I would have; I don't think I could have put up with a platoon of my fellow soldiers calling me "Boobs", or the bitch/slut dichotomy she describes. I don't know which was more depressing to hear about, the frustrating situations good soldiers get put into or the troglodyte manners of half the men towards their female compatriots. Had I actually ended up in the military (it was a near thing), I think I would have spent a lot of time mad at the world for the behaviour of the people who were supposed to be on my side. I definitely would have done some sort of physical violence to Mr. Attempted Rape. Grr! It's not *all* depressing -- the sections discussing the army's interactions with the Yezidi were fascinating, particularly since I'd come across references to their culture through another venue entirely, and I enjoyed hearing about Williams's interactions with her various superior officers, good and bad. Perhaps the best thing about the book is Williams's own voice, raw, brash, and honest. From training to reintegration with civilian life, you get a very vivid sense of hearing her story. Four machine guns out of five.
Still, I will forgive much for an introduction to good poetry, and one of the cited examples of musical speech was the previously unknown-to-me poet John Agard, whose "Listen Mr. Oxford Don" contains the following gem:
Dem accuse me of assault
on de Oxford dictionary/...
I slashing suffix in self-defense
I bashing future with present tense
and if necessary
I making de Queen's English accessory/ to my offence
Fantastic. [grin] I'll be searching out his poetry now. I enjoyed the refresher course in style and grammar, but prefer Gordon's work overall -- three grammar bats out of five.
While I'd found "Storm Front" through some "people who like X may also like..." referral, I enjoy detective stories and thought I'd give it a shot. In the worst case, I'd chalk it up as a fluffy airplane book. I was pleasantly surprised to find a gritty and self-depreciating read -- magic in film noir. Protagonist Harry Dresden is a goofy luckless wizard-cum-detective with a marked sardonic streak; I liked him immediately. Normally I'm not very fond of books with more ceremonial systems of magic, but in this case it's an interesting system and adds to the plot rather than forcing the plot around it. Good urban grit (it's set in alternate-universe Chicago... what is it with mystical private detectives and the Midwest?), likeable characters that aren't entirely predictable, and a pleasant ambiance of "oh bloody hell" for at least half the book. I'd recommend this one to fans of early Laurell K. Hamilton/Anita Blake or of Kim Harrison -- I'm very tempted to run right out and buy the rest of the series. (I understand from a Borders cashier that the Sci-Fi channel will be making these books into a series in the fall, too. Almost, I regret my lack of a TV. Almost. [grin]) Five my-kingdom-for-a-Tivos out of five.
Surprisingly, "The Hallowed Hunt" was the first Bujold novel that I haven't liked. There was nothing *wrong* with it, per se -- the story just didn't engage me for some reason. Lack of empathy with the characters, perhaps. I liked her Vorkosigan space opera much better; I was sufficiently flat that I don't think I'll even bother getting the other two books of the trilogy, dual Hugo/Nebula award or not, unless someone else that didn't dig "Hallowed Hunt" sings their praises.
Speaking of style, I enjoyed the content but not the style of "Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks". Michal Zalewski does a good job of covering some of the less well known information disclosures relevant to security geeks, including his major area of passive fingerprinting as well as physical-layer attacks such as electromagnetic frequency monitoring and bit decoding from blinking lights. Much of it is only relevant to the military and other folks who need to be superparanoid (I really doubt anyone is across the street from me with a telephoto lens watching the lights on my DSL router and reconstructing the passed packets that way), but the theory is interesting to those who enjoy a certain amount of paranoia. The book couldn't seem to decide whether it was an advanced text, a beginner guide, or a thriller novel, though -- it alternates between purple prose describing the dazzling journey of electrical impulses through the advanced circuitry in a keyboard and a technical discussion of the problems of producing worthwhile randomness in computers, both in the first ten pages. A little less dazzle (yes, yes, we're all very impressed at timing attacks based on typing patterns per individual... or we were several years ago, anyway) would have improved the book greatly. Higher-level security geeks keeping abreast of IT news probably won't find anything new here, but it's a decent collection of indirect techniques that get less press than more overt measures. Three revealing blinkenlights out of five.
I think snidegrrl suggested "All My Patients Are Under The Bed: Memoirs of a Cat Doctor" to me, but I'm not sure of that. Regardless, it's a delight for anyone who grew up on James Herriott's traveling vet stories. I breezed through it in an hour, but I had great fun in that hour. Dr. Camuti has a gruffly lovable personality with a no-nonsense attitude, and the combination of autobiography and kitty anecdotes is hard to resist. Four hiding cats out of five.
Someone on my flist read and recommended "Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army", but sadly I fail to remember who it was. Regardless, thank you -- it was a really interesting read. Ms. Williams has way more patience than I would have; I don't think I could have put up with a platoon of my fellow soldiers calling me "Boobs", or the bitch/slut dichotomy she describes. I don't know which was more depressing to hear about, the frustrating situations good soldiers get put into or the troglodyte manners of half the men towards their female compatriots. Had I actually ended up in the military (it was a near thing), I think I would have spent a lot of time mad at the world for the behaviour of the people who were supposed to be on my side. I definitely would have done some sort of physical violence to Mr. Attempted Rape. Grr! It's not *all* depressing -- the sections discussing the army's interactions with the Yezidi were fascinating, particularly since I'd come across references to their culture through another venue entirely, and I enjoyed hearing about Williams's interactions with her various superior officers, good and bad. Perhaps the best thing about the book is Williams's own voice, raw, brash, and honest. From training to reintegration with civilian life, you get a very vivid sense of hearing her story. Four machine guns out of five.