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Reviews 2005 04.17.05 - Mankoff, Robert - The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker Cartoon heaven! This gigantic collection edited by Robert Mankoff which includes a CD set--with all the cartoons ever published in the magazine--is a cartoon collector's dream. Cartoons range from satirical, cutting edge, cerebral, and hilarious. The book is divided into chapters each covering a decade of The New Yorker's existence with essays by well-known writers like John Updike and Lillian Ross. [permalink] 04.09.05 - Roberts, Nora - Key of Valor In the conclusion to the Key Trilogy, Key of Valor finds Zoe McCourt, a small town single mother, tasked with finding the last of three keys that will help liberate the souls of three demigoddesses trapped in a box by Kane, an evil sorcerer. As Zoe struggles to make sense of the clues she's given to find the key, she's courted by Bradley Vane--the heir to a home improvement empire. When she gains the courage to acknowledge that she shares a mystical connection with Brad, the three demigoddesses gain their freedom. It's a light fluffy read which works on a relationship-driven level, but when it comes to the suspense and the big showdown with the villain--it fizzles. [permalink] 04.08.05 - Roberts, Nora - Key of Knowledge Key of Knowledge is the second book in Roberts' Key Trilogy which chronicles the story of three women tasked to free three Celtic demigoddesses trapped in a glass box by an evil sorcerer god Kane who hates humanity. This time, it's Dana Steele--a small Pennsylvanian town librarian--who must find the second key. Meanwhile, Dana with her other two friends Malory and Zoe renovates a building to house the new starts to their businesses and tussles/reunites with Jordan Hawke, a thriller writer who broke her heart in the past by leaving their small town for New York. The suspense aspect of the book, however, is rather bland than scary. (And what sort of self-respecting villain would pull the hero and heroine into a book without making sure that the ending couldn't be rewritten?) [permalink] 04.07.05 - Roberts, Nora - Key of Light The first novel in yet another Roberts' trilogy, The Key of Light is a romantic paranormal in classic quest form. A word of warning for nitpicky readers--if you've already read Robert's other earlier romantic paranormal trilogy (Three Sisters Island)--you're going to be in for a severe case of deja vu. In the first book, we are introduced to the three intrepid heroines who are invited to a reception at a mansion in a small Pennsylvania town. Malory Price, Dana Steele, and Zoe McCourt are tasked by a pair of mysterious hosts to find the keys to a glass box that imprisons the souls of three demigoddesses. Malory is up first and along with Dana's brother Flynn, they wade through bits of art history and Celtic lore to find the first key. [permalink] 04.06.05 - Diamond, Jared - Germs, Guns, and Steel Why do people in today's societies live in such unequal circumstances? Jared Diamond answers that it isn't due to any group's inherent superiority or inferiority to another but to geography, habitat, and population. He argues that it is environmental factors which influence the differences between countries and societies--that because of the availabilities of crops and domesticated animals in Europe and Asia compared to Africa or the South Pacific or the Americas, it was the Europeans who developed steel for weapons and resistence to high population density diseases which in turn helped conquer less developed socities. Diamond lays out an intriguing theory that is very palatable and easy to take, but the reader has to be cautious about believing that the history of the world can be solely traced back to geography. That explanation is too easy and Diamond makes no effort to take cultural and religious factors into account. [permalink] 04.02.05 - Simmons, Deborah et al. - The Love Match Includes three regency short stories: Nicola Cornick's The Rake's Bride where the Marquis of Merlin falls for the woman who left his cousin at the altar, Deborah Simmons' The Nortorious Duke in which the duke in question is dared to find a woman immune to his charms, and Deborah Hale's Cupid Goes to Gretna in which a young woman convinces a young man to pretend to elope in an attempt to matchmake her brother and his aunt. Rather light fluff featuring impossible situations. [permalink] 04.02.05 - Davidson, Mary Janice - Derik's Bane Derik Gardner has gone alpha but before he could inadvertently get into any further trouble with his best friend and leader of the werewolf clan, a psychic tells him to save the world by "doing something" about the reincarnation of the most powerful sorceress in history, Morgan Le Fay. So Derik is off to California to destroy Morgan Le Fay who turns out to be a flaky doctor named Sara Gunn who has no idea she is a sorcerer. Derik can't find it in his heart to kill her so the both of them go off on a quest to find out the real evil trying to destroy the world. Funny chick-lit that's at times completely off-the-wall, the ending's so outrageous and wacky you can't help but agree that it fits in a surreal way. [permalink] 03.12.05 - Owens, Robin D. - Guardian of Honor Alexa Fitzwalter, a lawyer, is summoned into a fantasy world desperately needing her powers in fighting evil monsters encroaching onto their lands. Llandrana is a world peopled with magicians who derive their powers from song and led by Marshalls who rule as an oliocracy with warriors called chevaliers. Alexa must not only figure out ohow to fight monsters and mend magical fenceposts of protection but also to juggle internal politics with the chance to go home. Guardian of Honor is a light, amusing read, but I could not help thinking that the plot devices used are not so original. Plenty of other fantasy novels have dealt with characters being pulled from this world into a parallel universe with magical musics. Nonetheless, I'd be interested in the following books to see how the author resolves the showdown between Llandrana and the evil mastermind the author has hinted at in this novel. [permalink] 02.20.05 - Hamilton, James - A Life of Discovery For most students, Michael Faraday is mostly another famous name to remember in physics and chemistry classes. But besides discovering many of the basic physical laws in science, who was Faraday? In Hamilton's biography, A Life of Discovery, we find that Faraday rose up to prominence in the 19th century scientific world from a poor background. He had little formal education, but he was always seeking to improve himself. After a stint at the bookbinding business in his formative years, he got a job as Humphry Davy's assistant. Later on, he made his own name when he discovered the connection between magnetism and electricity. Among all these scientific endeavors, Faraday was a complex man. He was deeply religious, yet he found it hard to reconcile those religious teachings with what he was discovering about nature. He also steered away from politics and he personally inspired other 19th century figures from the tempestuous mathematician Ada Lovelace to the art critic John Ruskin and even the author Charles Dickens. Quite an interesting biography. I learned a lot about a scientific figure who isn't discussed a lot these days. [permalink] 02.19.05 - Booth, Martin - Cannabis: A History Although a bit dry at times, Cannabis: A History is packed with all sorts of facts about the drug known by various names (marijuana, hashish, dope, pot, weed, grass, ganja) and how throughout history it has gone from harmless to outright criminalization. Some interesting highlights: The term hashish was derived from an ancient Islamic sect that trained initiates called assassins to kill any of their enemies. Hashish was derived from the term assassin because people believed that they used the drug to booster their violent urges--this is not true, but the myth stuck. In the west, the cannabis plant was initially used for hemp fiber to make cloth and related textiles. Cannabis itself is not addictive (and is far less toxic than other drugs like asprin) but the nicotine contained in joints is the addictive factor. The bad connotations for cannabis in the United States was stirred up in the 1920's-1930's when cannabis was used for artistic inspiration in minority groups and xenophobic politicans used this as an excuse to persecute these groups. A very interesting and informative book, Booth lays out a convincing argument for legalizing this drug. [permalink] 02.13.05 - Anthony, Piers - Swell Foop In this twenty-fifth adventure in the Xanth fantasy series, Anthony tackles another pun-filled, rabble-rousing quest. Cynthia Centaur goes to see the Good Magician for an answer to a Question and in payment for her Answer, she must go on a quest to save the Demon Earth who has been kidnapped. Demon Earth controls gravity and without him, not only Mundania but also Xanth will be in peril. Cynthia gathers several other companions--her betrothed Che Centaur, a young bird named Sim, the future rulers of the zombies Breanna of the Black Wave and Justin Tree, and the Mundanian teenager Jaylin--to find six rings that will help wield the Swell Foop, a powerful device that can control Demons. But once they locate the Demon Earth who is captive to a foreign Demoness called Fornax, they must wage a game in which the outcome could determine the fate of the universe. A pleasant (and parts suspense of course!) read with as many puns as ever. [permalink] 02.13.05 - Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve - Agent of Change Perhaps it was a bad idea to jump right into the middle of a series, but I needn't have worried. This book can stand alone as a fantastic sci-fi space opera that contains a bit of everything--weird aliens, romance, danger, excitement, conspiracies. Val Con yos'Phelium is an agent of change, a Liaden spy who takes on different personalities by getting brainwashed and indocterinated. After the end of one mission, Val Con runs across the ex-mercenary Miri Robertson who is being pursued by a gang of assassins. After saving her, he realizes that both of them are now hunted. There are various different groups after the pair, but the main group is a xenophobic mafia-like organization bent on destroying anyone not human. On their adventures, Val Con and Miri are aided by a strange breed of aliens called Turtles whose sense of time is decidedly much different than everyone else. Definitely amusing adventure, although by the end, there are many questions left unanswered. These, presumably, will be addressed in the next books of the Liaden series. [permalink] 02.12.05 - Joy, Dara - High Intensity This book is a sequel. At any rate, we meet Zanita Masterson, a reporter for paranormal events, and her genius physicist boyfriend, Tyberius Evans and a cast of zany characters that range from an eccentric mathematician who thinks he's a skipper on a pirate ship, paranomal investigators, fat cats, annoying skeptics, and a ghost who likes messing around with haute cuisine. While Tyberius is trying to convince Zanita to tie the knot, Zanita drags her boyfriend off to a New England bed and breakfast to investigate a supposed ghost's malicious kitchen antics which are driving the innkeeper crazy. Of course, nothing is what it really seems. The reporter and the physicist stumble onto secret passageways and rooms in the seemingly benign looking bed and breakfast and discover that people are not who they say they are. Part mystery and part romance, one can't help chuckle at the character antics which verge on completely outrageous. Amusing, but as I said, outrageous. [permalink] 02.10.05 - White, Benjamin - The Biology of Pneumococcus The volume I read was an incredibly old one dating back to the 1930s so if you want any sort of accurate information, find something more recent or better yet, look up a recent review article on Google Scholar or PubMed. Anyways, White's purpose here is to survey the entire field of S. pneumoniae research. I found the first chapter particularly interesting since it detailed the history behind this pathogen--especially its identification. White also details biochemical characteristics, experimentation on animals and the effectiveness of vaccines and antibacterials in a clinical setting. There is also an entire chapter about streptococci classification but one shouldn't take this as anything but antiquated--capsular types are now sorted via the Dutch system, not the American. [permalink] 01.25.05 - Quick, Amanda - Wait Until Midnight Set in Victorian England, this is mainly a romantic suspense tale mixed with murder, blackmail, and the eighteenth century craze for the supernatural. Caroline Fordyce is a writer of sensation novels, but she is bored--little does she know that when she decides to accept a call from a mysterious gentleman with ulterior motives that her world will be turned topsy-turvy. Adam Hardesty is the mysterious gentleman in question--he is on the track of a diary containing family secrets and his first impression is that Caroline is involved in the murder of the medium who used to possess the diary. The villain, as usual, is predictable, but an amusing fluffy read nonetheless. [permalink] 01.25.05 - Williams, Anna W. - Streptococci in Relation to Man in Health and Disease Published in 1932, this is obviously out of date in a scientific point of view, but historically, is a fascinating volume illuminating on what people knew about microbes at the time. Williams details (or maybe overtly so with so many experimental procedures) of what is known about the bacterial streptococcus species. This is way before genomic sequencing was available so scientists at the time had to make do with more morphological and chemical means to determine what streptococcus species was what. Unfortunately, as presented with the data, the scientists at the time knew woefully little and were hopelessly confused as to the classification of streptococci. Without the knowledge that streptococci could produce different morphologies, undergo phase variation, and is naturally transformable, many strains were needlessly separated or lumped together depending on investigator. [permalink] 01.23.05 - Hamilton, Laurell K. et al. - Bite An anthology containing five short stories. In Laurell K. Hamilton's "The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death", Hamilton's series zombie reanimator and vampire hunter, Anita Blake, takes on the case of a suicidal teenager but ends up contemplating her relationship with the vampire, Jean-Claude. In Charlaine Harris' "One Word Answer", a telepath has to contend with the mysterious and scary vampire queen. In "Biting in Plain Sight" by MaryJanice Davidson, a vampire vet and her smitten lover head south trying to find who is forcing young girls to commit suicide. Angela Knight's "Galahad" is a classic good versus evil tale of a witch and a legendary knight battling evil vampires. And Vickie Taylor's "Blood Lust" is about a researcher who wants to get revenge on a vampire by becoming vampire himself. I am sure people who have read the works that these short stories were based on would find this anthology delightful, but as stand alones, plot and characters were rather weak and contrived. [permalink] 01.22.05 - Feehan, Christine et al. - Fantasy An anthology of four stories. In Sabrina Jeffries' "The Widow's Auction", a young widow finds herself in an exclusive gentlemen's club to be bid on for a night with a rake. In Emma Holly's "Luisa's Desire", a vampire ventures to a Tibetan monastery in search of a way to banish her bloodlust. Elda Minger's "Mr. Speedy" is a contemporary story of a reporter posing as a man in order to get the scoop on a shady seminar for men. And "The Awakening" by Christine Feehan is a tale set in the rain forest about a shapeshifter trying to find her identity and a way to save an endangered environment from poachers. Out of the four stories, only Holly's story stood out as a unique twist on the seduction of a priest motif. [permalink] 01.14.05 - Ghuysen, J.M. and Hakenbeck, R. - Bacterial Cell Wall A collection of reviews on the bacterial cell wall field. This is an excellent guide for serious students in molecular microbiology which ranges from an overview historical view of the subject down to the nitty-gritty molecular details of how the cell wall works. If you're looking for up-to-date research, though, this is not the book for you. This book focuses on the basics of what is known about bacteria--which is good if you want the straight facts, but bear in mind this was published in the early 1990s. [permalink] |