Steven desJardins (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stevendj) wrote,@ 2007-10-17 20:20:00 |
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Books of the Week
My Happy Days in Hell is a sort of novelized autobiography by George Faludy—I presume it's broadly accurate, but I suspect some of the incidents are embroidered. It's an interesting look at Hungary's slide into totalitarianism. Faludy fled Hungary in 1938, then fled Paris in 1940 after the Germans invaded. He lived in Morocco for a while, before emigrating to the United States. After the war, he returned to Hungary, knowing it wasn't safe, but wanting very much to be home again. He saw the new Communist government consolidate power and conduct show trials, and was not surprised when he was arrested, made to sign a false confession, and shipped to a labor camp where he was expected to starve to death. The most compelling part of the book is the final section, where he describes how he and his fellow prisoners schemed to get extra food or to minimize the energy they consumed, and worked to keep their spirits up.
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik is the fourth book in her Napoleonic dragon series. It's somewhat darker than the earlier books, as her heroes sail to Africa to find the cure for a dragon plague and the British slave trade takes on a central role in the plot. It's definitely one of those books where you're meant to admire the hero and identify with him, and while I wouldn't want a steady diet of that sort of book, they're fun to read every once in a while.
Don't Try This At Home is an anthology of short essays from famous chefs describing culinary disasters and how they dealt with them. It's a mixed bag; most of the chefs tell a story about some other chef they happened to be working with, or something that's pretty much off-theme, but there are some good stories about things that went wrong in the kitchen and how they salvaged it.
Wizards at War is the eighth book in Diane Duane's series, and the formula is growing a bit tired. The wizards keep throwing around more power with each book, the stakes keep getting higher, and it's getting farther away from what wizardry was about in the first book: talking to things and finding out what they want. It's not a bad book, but a lot of the heart has been replaced by flash and bang.
My Happy Days in Hell is a sort of novelized autobiography by George Faludy—I presume it's broadly accurate, but I suspect some of the incidents are embroidered. It's an interesting look at Hungary's slide into totalitarianism. Faludy fled Hungary in 1938, then fled Paris in 1940 after the Germans invaded. He lived in Morocco for a while, before emigrating to the United States. After the war, he returned to Hungary, knowing it wasn't safe, but wanting very much to be home again. He saw the new Communist government consolidate power and conduct show trials, and was not surprised when he was arrested, made to sign a false confession, and shipped to a labor camp where he was expected to starve to death. The most compelling part of the book is the final section, where he describes how he and his fellow prisoners schemed to get extra food or to minimize the energy they consumed, and worked to keep their spirits up.
Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik is the fourth book in her Napoleonic dragon series. It's somewhat darker than the earlier books, as her heroes sail to Africa to find the cure for a dragon plague and the British slave trade takes on a central role in the plot. It's definitely one of those books where you're meant to admire the hero and identify with him, and while I wouldn't want a steady diet of that sort of book, they're fun to read every once in a while.
Don't Try This At Home is an anthology of short essays from famous chefs describing culinary disasters and how they dealt with them. It's a mixed bag; most of the chefs tell a story about some other chef they happened to be working with, or something that's pretty much off-theme, but there are some good stories about things that went wrong in the kitchen and how they salvaged it.
Wizards at War is the eighth book in Diane Duane's series, and the formula is growing a bit tired. The wizards keep throwing around more power with each book, the stakes keep getting higher, and it's getting farther away from what wizardry was about in the first book: talking to things and finding out what they want. It's not a bad book, but a lot of the heart has been replaced by flash and bang.
