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I found myself in a position to have enough time to zip through three books over the past four weeks. While I usually get through only about one book a month, it was fun to jam on the reading in July.
Company by Max Barry
 Barry is a great one for introducing morally ambivalent characters, then weaving them through a series of unlikely events until you end up rooting for them. As with Syrup and Jennifer Government, Barry shines a light on modern consumerism and corporate culture. Unlike the earlier novels, though, his latest one didn’t seem as original and witty as I’d hoped. If you like his writing style, it’s worth the read, but I’d recommend his other books over this one if you haven’t read them, yet.
The Spiritualist by Megan Chance
 I’d never read anything by Chance, or even heard of her before stumbling across The Spiratualist at the local bookstore. It looked like a fun, historical (set in mid-19th century New York) mystery centered around the spiritualism craze of the time. It delivered on the promise on the book jacket saying Chance paints a rich picture of the time and place. As it was written in first person, however, I was mildly disappointed she didn’t go as far as Susanna Clarke in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by grappling with the descriptive language of the day, too. It was a serviceable story, and I’m glad I read it, but there’s definitely better historical mysteries out there.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
 This is the first book in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, originally titled “Northern Lights” and renamed when the film rights were purchased. I haven’t seen the film adaptation, yet, but see how it could make an amazingly fast-paced, CGI-laden action flick. I was initially turned onto this trilogy by my niece, and was impressed by it’s allegorical depth centered on the world-changing quest of a 12 year old girl. It’s set in an alternate 19th century and Pullman does a great job setting up the universe of discourse. The narrative floats effortlessly between fact and fiction, playing each off the other, allowing the reader to distinguish between them. I’d also classify this as the “thinking reader’s Harry Potter” as the characters are much more fleshed out with heavily nuanced motivations. I’m looking forward to reading the second book soon.
Other Books I Recommend:
 After finishing “Double Negative” by David Carkeet, a good off-beat mystery, I wondered about other books for comparison when recommending it to people. It definitely has a hard-edged, acerbically humorous “flavor” that is hard to describe. I often like to frame books in context with others, trying to convey something of a “if you like that, you might like this” kind of thing. This case is a bit more difficult, though, and I’ve tried to come up with an apt comparison.
 The nearest thematic neighbor to it I have in my own library would be “The Woman Who Knew Too Much” by Bett Reece Johnson. While that’s a relatively easy connection for me as they’re sitting near each other on my shelf, they’re generally placed across the room from each other in your favorite big bookstore. In fact, when looking for it in Borders as well as Barnes & Nobel, you’ll find it in the Gay/Lesbian Literature sections, an aisle not generally frequented by the mainstream mystery reader.
I was initially turned onto Johnson’s book while browsing a small bookstore in New Mexico. She was a featured local author, and from the jacket cover it seemed like it’d be worth a try. The blurb sketched the main character as a renegade espionage agent, Cordelia Morgan, who was tired of the game and left her unnamed employers to strike out on her own. The plot is about how she helps solve a local murder mystery.
The story turned out to be well written, and filled with interesting, earthy characters. As I’ll often do with books I’ve enjoyed, I looked for copies to give as gifts to friends. It was a surprise, then, when I’d query the bookstore staff and found where it was shelved. Apparently, they’d been told by the corporate office where it belongs, and it wasn’t with the other mysteries.
The book’s classification is the real mystery here. As far as I can tell, there’s one character who we learn (in flash-back) was a feminist, and may possibly have been a lesbian. Knowing where I pulled it from the shelf, I suppose I could infer some ambiguous sexuality in the main character, but it’s by no means overt (and I’d have to squint when reading between the lines to find it). At the end of the day, the only clue I’ve been able to uncover is that fact that the publisher, Cleis Press, puts out a number of (by and about) lesbian books. My guess, then, is that Johnson is missing out on a much wider potential audience being categorized outside the genre of the story itself.
In short: These are two fun, slightly offbeat murder mysteries I recommend. You’ll probably be able to find “Double Negative” easily enough, but you might need to wander into the Gay/Lesbian section for “The Woman Who Knew Too Much.”
Other Books I Recommend:
Perhaps it’s the way my brain is wired, but I can’t help but see synergies everywhere. In this case, it’s in some of the books I’ve been reading and how they include nuggets that seem to speak to other stuff I’m doing.
Take, for example, “Thuderstruck ” by Erik Larson. Part of the story is about Marconi and the development of a functional wireless communication system. While I have to admit I haven’t cross-checked the facts in the book, Larson lays out an interesting interplay between the “practical” and “theoretical” research into the technology.
The connection I see is in the playing out of a similar debate within the Data Portability camps. On the one hand there’s the theory of portability from the semantic web, linked data and identity groups. They are similar to Sir Oliver Lodge and his research into wireless from a physicist’s perspective. On the other hand are the members of the DataPortability Project who are working toward a practical solution using existing research. It’s by no means a perfect comparison, but interesting to read about history and consider how aspects of it could be applicable to understanding what’s happening today.
The other book, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow, talks about the action happening within the context of a future culture of adhocracies. The story is a hilarious discussion of how open, collaborative development can be taken to extremes (along with some amusing lines like “The first time I died, it was not long after my sixtieth birthday.”). While reading it I couldn’t help but imagine how the DataPortability Project would fare under this light.
BTW – It was while reading “Thunderstruck” that I was able to put the labels “practical” and “theoretical” physics in context as they were similarly applied to the term “magic” in “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell“. Great use by Susanna Clarke of contemporary terms being applied to historical fantasy.
NOTE: Even though the links to “Down and Out” above are to Amazon.com (for you wanna’ buy it now junkies), you can also download free versions Doctorow’s site.
Other Books I Recommend:
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July 28th, 2008 | 
