Steven desJardins (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stevendj) wrote,@ 2007-10-06 13:25:00 |
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Books of the Fortnight
It's been slow. I started Gyula Krúdy's Sunflower, a 1918 Hungarian novel full of elaborate seductions and passionate despair and I really couldn't care less. It's a slim book, but I wasn't making much headway, and finally I dropped it for something more entertaining.
Charles Stross's The Clan Corporate is an entertaining installment from the middle of a series about a secret war between a world-hopping family of drug smugglers and the folks who really aren't happy to find out about them. I didn't feel like it was breaking a lot of new ground, though, and it felt like the plot was getting so tangled that some of the subplots were getting choked off before they could fully develop. A good choice for when you want to clear the cobwebs of dull 19th century erotica from your head, but when you think about it, that's a pretty limited market.
I didn't finish A Separate War and Other Stories by Joe Haldeman either, but I did enjoy all the stories I read tremendously and do plan to come back to it. Haldeman's last few novels haven't thrilled me, but this short work is excellent.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan raised the question of, how do we know what's good to eat? He looks at industrial-scale food production, and how it's affected the quality of our food; at a small, intensively managed organic farm; and at hunting and gathering. I found it absolutely riveting, and not just because it reinforces my preconceptions. The ways in which farm policy and corporate culture have changed the way we eat, and the question of whether artisan methods can significantly replace mass-produced commodities, is discussed with a great deal of depth and insight. Very much recommended.
It's been slow. I started Gyula Krúdy's Sunflower, a 1918 Hungarian novel full of elaborate seductions and passionate despair and I really couldn't care less. It's a slim book, but I wasn't making much headway, and finally I dropped it for something more entertaining.
Charles Stross's The Clan Corporate is an entertaining installment from the middle of a series about a secret war between a world-hopping family of drug smugglers and the folks who really aren't happy to find out about them. I didn't feel like it was breaking a lot of new ground, though, and it felt like the plot was getting so tangled that some of the subplots were getting choked off before they could fully develop. A good choice for when you want to clear the cobwebs of dull 19th century erotica from your head, but when you think about it, that's a pretty limited market.
I didn't finish A Separate War and Other Stories by Joe Haldeman either, but I did enjoy all the stories I read tremendously and do plan to come back to it. Haldeman's last few novels haven't thrilled me, but this short work is excellent.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan raised the question of, how do we know what's good to eat? He looks at industrial-scale food production, and how it's affected the quality of our food; at a small, intensively managed organic farm; and at hunting and gathering. I found it absolutely riveting, and not just because it reinforces my preconceptions. The ways in which farm policy and corporate culture have changed the way we eat, and the question of whether artisan methods can significantly replace mass-produced commodities, is discussed with a great deal of depth and insight. Very much recommended.
