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Book Log Catch-Up
Jan. 14th, 2014 08:50 pmA few 2013 leftovers:
Star Wars: Razor's Edge (Martha Wells) (2013): Alliance-era hijinks. Light on plot in favor of plans going off the rails and better living through banter. I found I quite enjoyed Leia and Alderaanipirates survivors TOTALLY PIRATES have adventures. There are scrappy Rebels, and people who got in over their heads who are offered a second chance, and piratical villains who are painted wicked evil, so there's no question who the good guys are (Leia and Han and the Rebel original characters, of course! And Luke and Chewie). In the minus column, I picked out the wicked Imperial spy on the first try (but passed the character over as "too obvious", wasting a bunch of time worried other characters were the spy), but then, I did not pick this up for subtlety. I picked it up for Leia Organa using wit and skill to achieve her agenda. If there had been more plot to hang this on, I would happily have read another hundred pages of this novel.
Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite (Michael P. Ghiglieri, Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr.) (2007): Nonfiction. Subtitled "Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in America's first protected land of scenic wonders", Death in Yosemite sets itself a high bar for dramatic retelling. It doesn't always meet that bar. Since I wasn't reading exclusively to be gripped, but also to be educated on how to avoid becoming a statistic, I was okay with that.
( What did I learn? )
Interesting statistics: waterfall and climbing deaths get significant press, but auto accidents, non-falls drowning, and hiking/scrambling mishaps are the top three Yosemite killers. Then it's "big wall" climbing deaths. Young men lead almost every category other than homicides, where they're overtaken by young women.
This isn't a book that necessarily reads well straight through, but is very interesting in pieces, especially when shared with others. I quite enjoyed several conversations about backcountry camping and national parklands that spun off this book. Recommended for people who might be headed in those directions.
And a late addition, an audiobook re-read of Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1953). One of Asimov's novels I recalled with affection, if no particular impetus to reread, until I had the hands-free highway option. The mystery was never the selling point of this novel, and Elijah Baley is less sympathetic than I recalled. I liked him for being open to changing his mind, based on new data, and I'd forgotten one of the most important examples of this, his feelings on robots, was heavily influenced by the spacers tweaking his brain chemistry. Oh Asimov.
Star Wars: Razor's Edge (Martha Wells) (2013): Alliance-era hijinks. Light on plot in favor of plans going off the rails and better living through banter. I found I quite enjoyed Leia and Alderaani
Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite (Michael P. Ghiglieri, Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr.) (2007): Nonfiction. Subtitled "Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in America's first protected land of scenic wonders", Death in Yosemite sets itself a high bar for dramatic retelling. It doesn't always meet that bar. Since I wasn't reading exclusively to be gripped, but also to be educated on how to avoid becoming a statistic, I was okay with that.
( What did I learn? )
Interesting statistics: waterfall and climbing deaths get significant press, but auto accidents, non-falls drowning, and hiking/scrambling mishaps are the top three Yosemite killers. Then it's "big wall" climbing deaths. Young men lead almost every category other than homicides, where they're overtaken by young women.
This isn't a book that necessarily reads well straight through, but is very interesting in pieces, especially when shared with others. I quite enjoyed several conversations about backcountry camping and national parklands that spun off this book. Recommended for people who might be headed in those directions.
And a late addition, an audiobook re-read of Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1953). One of Asimov's novels I recalled with affection, if no particular impetus to reread, until I had the hands-free highway option. The mystery was never the selling point of this novel, and Elijah Baley is less sympathetic than I recalled. I liked him for being open to changing his mind, based on new data, and I'd forgotten one of the most important examples of this, his feelings on robots, was heavily influenced by the spacers tweaking his brain chemistry. Oh Asimov.
