Iiiiiiit’s Micro Reviews Night in Canada!

Books
MG/YA fiction
The Emerald Atlas ( **** – liked)
Homeland ( *** – enjoyed)

Fiction
Body Double (**** – liked)
Vanish (**** – liked)
Daybreak (**** – liked)
The Sisters Brothers (**** – liked)

Non-fiction
Outliers: The Story of Success (**** – liked)
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves (**** – liked)
Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull) (**** – liked)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) (***** – loved)

Theatre
Dancing With Rage (***** – loved)

Film
Vertigo (*** – enjoyed)
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (***** – loved)

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (MG fantasy novel, 2012) – Abandoned by their parents as small children, siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma learn that to re-unite their family, they must also shoulder their magical destinies and save the world. The book jacket compared this series to Narnia or Harry Potter, and while I can see elements it shares with both, it didn’t have that sweeping characterization of good and evil that I associate with those series. The book’s strength is its characters: each is clearly defined in voice and goals, even the villains and antagonists.

Homeland by Cory Doctorow (YA novel, 2013) – This sequel to 2007’s Little Brother follows the continuing struggle of teenager Marcus and his friends as they work in a not-so-future dystopia to fight corruption of power and erosion of privacy and freedom. The novel is gripping, but, personally, I found it didactic, so much so that I automatically wanted to argue for the villains despite generally agreeing about politics. On the other hand, I learned to cold-brew coffee (not yet attempted), and you won’t find a more topical book: some scenes involving a protest Marcus attends are strongly reminiscent of the 2010 G20 protests in Toronto.

Body Double by Tess Gerritsen (thriller novel, 2004) – Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles is surprised when she arrives home from abroad to find the identical twin she never knew she had murdered on her driveway. This one’s pretty fun, with elements of Isles’s past popping up to surprise the reader. I kind of wish there was more interaction and partnership between the two female leads, but that’s my own taste.

Vanish by Tess Gerritsen (thriller novel, 2006) – Pregnant Detective Rizzoli finds herself in the middle of a hostage situation while Isles runs around investigating what turns out to be the connected super-duper conspiracy cover-up. The plot of the novel gave me chills, particularly since it evocatively describes scenes from the perspective of unwilling sex slaves. I wasn’t so excited about the actual mystery part of the thing, but it didn’t matter because characters I care about were in conflict and struggling for their lives/psyches/both.

Daybreak by Brian Ralph (speculative fiction graphic novel, 2011) – This is the first time I’ve seen a graphic novel told in the second person. The story, in which you, the reader, work with your new friend, a one-armed boy, to survive the zombie apocalypse, is interesting. But the part I liked best was the cleverness of the way the reader gets to inhabit a character in this world — as if you’re a video-game silent protagonist like Link or Gordon Freeman.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (Western novel, 2011) – The darkly comic story of the Sisters brothers, hired killers for a man known only as the Commodore, is fast-paced and easy to read. The voice of the narrator, younger brother Eli Sister, is engaging and unique. All the same, the plot feels like it takes a sharp turn once the brothers reach their destination and start pursuing their target.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (non-fiction book, 2008) – This book argues that in contrast to the Western cultural mythos of success as the result of inborn talent and hard work, factors outside our control such as socio-cultural environment and historical contingencies also affect the success and failure of individuals. To which, I think, any historian would have to say: duh. The book is well written, enjoyable, and intriguing, but I didn’t feel like it contributed new or exciting ideas.

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely (non-fiction book, 2012) – Dan Ariely’s book about the frequency with which we all cheat, lie, and deceive ourselves is easy to read. His descriptions of experiments are interesting, although sometimes I wish he’d explain in more detail how he and his colleagues ruled out alternative explanations. I enjoy his engaging and self-aware style that conveys his love of the subject.

Sincerity: How a moral ideal born five hundred years ago inspired religious wars, modern art, hipster chic, and the curious notion that we all have something to say (no matter how dull) by R. Jay Magill Jr. (non-fiction book, 2012) – This ambitious book follows the changing meaning of what it means to be sincere from antiquity to modern-day. What fascinated me the most were its attempts to define sincerity apart from other concepts such as “honesty” and its distinctions between different understandings of the virtue. However, I still found the book’s evidence to be somewhat thin, particularly in the final sections, which concentrated in detail on modern art and hipsters.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson (memoir, 2012) – Hilarious.

Dancing With Rage by Mary Walsh (theatre performance, 2013) – Thanks, Deb, for deciding we should try for tickets! I’ll admit right off, the intersecting plotlines of Walsh’s famous This Hours Has 22 Minutes characters like Connie Bloor, Marg Delahunty, and Dakey Dunn didn’t interest me so much. That said, everything else was theatrical gold. Bravissimo!

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock (thriller film, 1958) – Vertigo *IS* a masterpiece, but I have no patience. Sorry.

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror by John Rawlins (mystery film, 1942) – This, on the other hand, was the best film ever. With the help of his lower-class pals, Sherlock Holmes outwits the Nazis, whose nefarious scheme involves broadcasting sound effects meant to imitate the terrorist attacks they’re now committing in England. Based only on accents, you’d be hard pressed to tell who’s on which side, or, indeed, whether some actors are playing the same characters throughout the movie.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.