Two summers ago, I couldn't put down Gillies first memoir, Happens Every Day, which chronicled the abrupt demise of her first marriage. When I heard she had written a sequel about finding love a second time I looked forward to reading it.
This book picks up where the last one left off - Gillies is arriving in Manhattan, two toddlers in tow, to move in with her parents. The first half of the book was similar to her first book; Gillies remains charming, modest, and honest. I cheered for her when she accomplished victories like getting her son into a preschool mid-year, and I felt for her when she stumbled, like when she misunderstood her husband and thought he wanted to get back together.
However I didn't really enjoy the end of the book. About two-thirds of the way through, after a series of unsuccessful dates she meets a friend-of-a-friend named Peter and immediately falls in love. In what seems like just months (I think that's true, actually), she is married to Peter and joining their families together. I don't know if it was because I thought it was too fast, or Gillies thought it was too fast, but I fould the writing about this part of her life hurried, and defensive. She breezes through the decision-making, the therapy, and the new life in a way that seemed unsustainable.
Hopefully her new marriage will be successful and long. I'd enjoy reading another book by her about her adventures in blending her family with Peter's.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
The Network by Jason Elliot
I had put this on my "to-read" list sometime last year and somehow remembered it as being a computer crime book - it's not. But it is a really unusual book that I'm glad I read.
The novel follows Anthony Taverner, who reports in first person his experience being recruited into MI6 (the British Intelligence agency, like the US CIA), being trained by senior agents, and then being sent into Afghanistan on a secret mission. While there is an action-packed climax, this isn't a book to read for adventure purposes - it's slow-going at times, and leverages the author's first-hand experiences in Afghanistan to paint a very clear, detailed picture of what that country was like before 9/11.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of Anthony's training, as well as his mission in Afghanistan. Both were like reading a really detailed letter from a friend who had been through these experiences. I was amazed at how ingenious some of his escapades were, as well as how basic and not high-tech other ones were. The author also did a good job developing Anthony's character and his relationships with his mentors and colleagues.
This was different from what I usually read, but I enjoyed it.
The novel follows Anthony Taverner, who reports in first person his experience being recruited into MI6 (the British Intelligence agency, like the US CIA), being trained by senior agents, and then being sent into Afghanistan on a secret mission. While there is an action-packed climax, this isn't a book to read for adventure purposes - it's slow-going at times, and leverages the author's first-hand experiences in Afghanistan to paint a very clear, detailed picture of what that country was like before 9/11.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of Anthony's training, as well as his mission in Afghanistan. Both were like reading a really detailed letter from a friend who had been through these experiences. I was amazed at how ingenious some of his escapades were, as well as how basic and not high-tech other ones were. The author also did a good job developing Anthony's character and his relationships with his mentors and colleagues.
This was different from what I usually read, but I enjoyed it.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
I like the idea of this book - an investment banker with an "American dream" resume finds that someone has the same name as him, but is in prison for armed robbery. He finds him and tells both of their stories.
Both Wes Moore and Wes Moore grow up in inner cities - one in Baltimore, the other begins his life in Baltimore but is raised in the Bronx. Both are raised by single mothers, and as the book progresses, Moore does a fine job of reporting on what each of them was doing during different phases of childhood and adolesence. One ends up mixed up in drugs, jail, and fathering several children as a teenager, while the other becomes a Rhodes Scholar after graduating from college.
The book is not judgemental - if anything it is a little ascetic for such a personal story. Moore makes the point in the foreword that he doesn't want to lessen the other Moore's crimes, but wants to dissect how they could start out with such similar odds and yet end up in such different places. He punctuates that at the end with a multi-page resource guide for organziations that help children growing up in all sorts of situations.
I found this sentiment lofty, and admirable, but a strange end to the book. I guess it's his way of not drawing any conclusions other than "we need to engage kids to get them on the right path," but I think there are some more conclusive distinctions to be drawn between the two Wes' upbringings and outcomes. My other beef with this book is that it may have been too long. It was not long from a page-count perspective, but I did feel like it may have been similarly effective as a piece of long-form journalism.
Both Wes Moore and Wes Moore grow up in inner cities - one in Baltimore, the other begins his life in Baltimore but is raised in the Bronx. Both are raised by single mothers, and as the book progresses, Moore does a fine job of reporting on what each of them was doing during different phases of childhood and adolesence. One ends up mixed up in drugs, jail, and fathering several children as a teenager, while the other becomes a Rhodes Scholar after graduating from college.
The book is not judgemental - if anything it is a little ascetic for such a personal story. Moore makes the point in the foreword that he doesn't want to lessen the other Moore's crimes, but wants to dissect how they could start out with such similar odds and yet end up in such different places. He punctuates that at the end with a multi-page resource guide for organziations that help children growing up in all sorts of situations.
I found this sentiment lofty, and admirable, but a strange end to the book. I guess it's his way of not drawing any conclusions other than "we need to engage kids to get them on the right path," but I think there are some more conclusive distinctions to be drawn between the two Wes' upbringings and outcomes. My other beef with this book is that it may have been too long. It was not long from a page-count perspective, but I did feel like it may have been similarly effective as a piece of long-form journalism.
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
This book caught my attention from the first review of it I read, likely on some tech blog. I had read Stephenson's Cryptonomicon last year and while I liked and respected it, I didn't love it. Too embarrassed to admit I didn't love it, I'll borrow my friend Gregg's critique of Stephenson's writing style: "Isn't it another paid-by-the-word?" But Stephenson's an icon and I'm a geek and this one sounded awesome so my inlaws got it for me for Christmas.
I loved it but it's not for everyone.
The story starts with a MMORPG (Massive multi-player online role playing game) called T'Rain. T'Rain is wildly popular and ingenious - after a previous foray into money-laundreing, its creator Richard got the idea to leverage Chinese teens who will work for very low wages to create value around the gold pieces in the game. When Peter, the boyfriend of the Richards's niece Zula gets involved in a bad credit card scam, they are kidnapped. And then it gets fun.
What ensues is a 1000+ page ride around the world as the "good guys" and "bad guys" fight it out. Zula and Peter are shortly joined by a few other captives, a couple hackers and a tour guide, and fight to stay alive. Along the way, they encounter the Russian mob, MI-6 agents, and other members of a crazy cast of characters that is surprising both in their variety and in the depth of their development in the novel. The bad guys are *really* bad and yet it becomes confusing sometimes to determine who the bad guys are. Meanwhile, Richard is unsure of what's happened to Zula but slowly gets some clues as to her whereabouts. On his side is a quirky family including some fringe survivalists and the staff for his online game.
And at the center of all of this is technology. Stephenson is, as usual, right on the cusp of what is possible. The gold pieces in the game reminded me of Bitcoin...and the computer virus that starts off this chain of events (did I mention there was a computer virus) is ingenious, possible, and freaking scary: it is a virus that exists within T'Rain but has consequences in the real world. Really this has enough material to be several books - there is meticulous detail applied to the background of all the characters and all the plots. There are even characters in the book whose job it is to write the cannon of history for T'Rain, which is - thankfully - excerpted and not included in its entirety.
I could not put this book down but you have to like this kind of thing.
Hello, HBO? Please option for a mini-series. Zoe Saldana should play Zula, Lucy Lui can play the MI-6 agent, William H Macy can be the survivalist brother, and if he tries really hard, Seth Rogen can play Richard and finally get the dramatic respect he deserves. Thanks.
I loved it but it's not for everyone.
The story starts with a MMORPG (Massive multi-player online role playing game) called T'Rain. T'Rain is wildly popular and ingenious - after a previous foray into money-laundreing, its creator Richard got the idea to leverage Chinese teens who will work for very low wages to create value around the gold pieces in the game. When Peter, the boyfriend of the Richards's niece Zula gets involved in a bad credit card scam, they are kidnapped. And then it gets fun.
What ensues is a 1000+ page ride around the world as the "good guys" and "bad guys" fight it out. Zula and Peter are shortly joined by a few other captives, a couple hackers and a tour guide, and fight to stay alive. Along the way, they encounter the Russian mob, MI-6 agents, and other members of a crazy cast of characters that is surprising both in their variety and in the depth of their development in the novel. The bad guys are *really* bad and yet it becomes confusing sometimes to determine who the bad guys are. Meanwhile, Richard is unsure of what's happened to Zula but slowly gets some clues as to her whereabouts. On his side is a quirky family including some fringe survivalists and the staff for his online game.
And at the center of all of this is technology. Stephenson is, as usual, right on the cusp of what is possible. The gold pieces in the game reminded me of Bitcoin...and the computer virus that starts off this chain of events (did I mention there was a computer virus) is ingenious, possible, and freaking scary: it is a virus that exists within T'Rain but has consequences in the real world. Really this has enough material to be several books - there is meticulous detail applied to the background of all the characters and all the plots. There are even characters in the book whose job it is to write the cannon of history for T'Rain, which is - thankfully - excerpted and not included in its entirety.
I could not put this book down but you have to like this kind of thing.
Hello, HBO? Please option for a mini-series. Zoe Saldana should play Zula, Lucy Lui can play the MI-6 agent, William H Macy can be the survivalist brother, and if he tries really hard, Seth Rogen can play Richard and finally get the dramatic respect he deserves. Thanks.
Lady Matador's Hotel by Cristina Garcia
This was a nice book - it was a collection of linked stories, that type of book that lives somewhere between a collection of short stories and a novel. It had been on my list for a while, after I read the NYT review of it.
The stories all take place around a hotel in what could be any Central American country. There's something I find oddly familiar about these "Anycountry" settings in Latin America (like Blindness, for example) although I'd be scared out of my wits if I were there. Staying at the hotel is a couple from the States adopting a baby, a waitress at the hotel, members of the unstable military government, a Korean businessman and his mistress, and the title character - a female matador determined to emerge victorious an upcoming bullfight.
This was of a completely different style from Reamde, which I just finished. This book was short, with each word chosen very carefully. There was a little magical realism thrown in - just enough to secure the book's place in Latin American writing. And there were many places where Garcia hinted at something or insinuated that something in particular had happened, or referred to a previous event, in a way that meant you had to pay close attention. Intricate but very, very subtle.
The stories all take place around a hotel in what could be any Central American country. There's something I find oddly familiar about these "Anycountry" settings in Latin America (like Blindness, for example) although I'd be scared out of my wits if I were there. Staying at the hotel is a couple from the States adopting a baby, a waitress at the hotel, members of the unstable military government, a Korean businessman and his mistress, and the title character - a female matador determined to emerge victorious an upcoming bullfight.
This was of a completely different style from Reamde, which I just finished. This book was short, with each word chosen very carefully. There was a little magical realism thrown in - just enough to secure the book's place in Latin American writing. And there were many places where Garcia hinted at something or insinuated that something in particular had happened, or referred to a previous event, in a way that meant you had to pay close attention. Intricate but very, very subtle.
No Biking in the House without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene
This was a sweet memoir - easy to read & well-written.
Melissa and her husband had four biological children. Just when they were beginning to go off to school, she and her husband decided to adopt a Roma boy from Eastern Europe. Over the next few years they added four other children to the family, all from Ethiopia. It reads like the plot for a feel-good movie but it is indeed a true story, which is what makes it so cool.
Greene is a journalist, and she does a good job of writing honestly about the decisions, the transitions, and all the aspects of the both difficult and joyful expansion of her family. She was fortunate to have a supportive husband and welcoming children, but still suffered from post-adoption depression (akin to post-pardon depression), that she writes sadly of. She writes of being overwhelmed the first few times she brings new children home - at the magnitude of the adjustment they will have to make, and the challenge of incorporating them into the family. But she also writes of the big joy she felt when each child settles in and the daily joys of being a mother that she appreciates.
There are two parts of the book that stand out to me the most. One is the repeated trips she makes to Ethiopia and how she meets each child, then has to wait (sometimes months or even a year) before she can bring them home during a follow-up trip. She brings them toys and bonds with them and then has to leave them until the paperwork is done. The other part of the book that stuck with me was when several of the older kids all leave for college, two of the younger children begin to fight - a lot. She realizes that the older boys were playing a strong role in bringing order and fun into the family and their departure had a big toll in the family dynamic.
Kudos to Melissa Fay Greene, both for being a great mom to so many kids as well as for writing about it with such honesty.
Melissa and her husband had four biological children. Just when they were beginning to go off to school, she and her husband decided to adopt a Roma boy from Eastern Europe. Over the next few years they added four other children to the family, all from Ethiopia. It reads like the plot for a feel-good movie but it is indeed a true story, which is what makes it so cool.
Greene is a journalist, and she does a good job of writing honestly about the decisions, the transitions, and all the aspects of the both difficult and joyful expansion of her family. She was fortunate to have a supportive husband and welcoming children, but still suffered from post-adoption depression (akin to post-pardon depression), that she writes sadly of. She writes of being overwhelmed the first few times she brings new children home - at the magnitude of the adjustment they will have to make, and the challenge of incorporating them into the family. But she also writes of the big joy she felt when each child settles in and the daily joys of being a mother that she appreciates.
There are two parts of the book that stand out to me the most. One is the repeated trips she makes to Ethiopia and how she meets each child, then has to wait (sometimes months or even a year) before she can bring them home during a follow-up trip. She brings them toys and bonds with them and then has to leave them until the paperwork is done. The other part of the book that stuck with me was when several of the older kids all leave for college, two of the younger children begin to fight - a lot. She realizes that the older boys were playing a strong role in bringing order and fun into the family and their departure had a big toll in the family dynamic.
Kudos to Melissa Fay Greene, both for being a great mom to so many kids as well as for writing about it with such honesty.
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