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reviews

What to do about good reviews and fans: Two quotes from Heinlein

I’m in the middle of the first volume of Patterson’s meticulous biography of Robert Heinlein (Robert A. Heinlein in Dialogue with His Century: Learning Curve) and among the many interesting things RAH said, in interesting ways, the following two quotes stuck out.

The first one is a downer, but it goes to show that some things don’t change fast enough, sadly enough. Writing to Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1964, he had this to say about behavior he experienced at the hands of people who ostensibly loved science fiction in general and his work in specific:
“The unique problem of organized fandom is one that I have wondered about for many years. Here is a group made up largely of well-intentioned and mentally-interesting people — how is it and why is it that they tolerate among themselves a percentage of utter jerks?–people with no respect for privacy, no hesitation at all about libel and slander, and a sadistic drive to inflict pain. Marion, I do not understand it.”
I’ve been lucky in this, and have encountered few utter jerks. A lot of friends and artists I’ve worked with have not — this is especially true for the women professionals — and I’m clearly no smarter than Heinlein, since I also do not understand it.
On a more positive note (in terms of maintaining sanity) RAH, writing to John W. Campbell in 1941, shows he knew not to be so foolish as to take reviews that glow to heart:
“The write-up made me sound so omniscient that I was tempted to call myself up and ask for some advice and a little coaching.”
I’ve been lucky to get some flattering reviews myself, and I do wonder who that writer is they’re talking about, and could I maybe meet him someday.
The converse is true as well. When someone hates your book (I just noticed my first one-star review for Feynman on Amazon) it doesn’t mean I’m no longer omniscient…I just never was.
Now, back to writing things I hope I can be proud of, and that maybe some other people will like. 

Something(s) to read, 2014

It’s finally getting cold again, and I’m staying
inside and reading more. You might also plan to spend extra time
indoors in the next few weeks. Or months. We’ll see what the Polar Vortex has to say about that. So in case you wondered, here
are the best books I read in 2014, complete with
my brief notes to myself about them. They’re in no particular order — they’re all good and some are even better than that.

I hope you find
something new here that you like!
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Joyce, Graham
I couldn’t wait to return to reading it. Not sure who was telling the story in the book, or whether that person is at all believable, but (and so!) it’s an excellent evocation of mystery.
Excession
Banks, Iain M.
A Culture novel, full of great ideas. The plot didn’t move me (or hold me) from start to finish, probably because I read it over too extended a period. Still, as always with Banks, a worthwhile journey.
The Martian
Weir, Andy
Super fun super hard SF. Everybody wants to be Mark Watney…or should. Read this.
Every Day
Levithan, David
Excellent premise, execution, and resolution. Though when we discussed this in our reading group the people who knew developmental psychology weren’t as convinced by it, this hooked me from the start, held me throughout.
The Girl in the Road
Byrne, Monica
Interesting and well written, and even though I’m not sure I got every allusion or how things fit together in the end, it’s worth re-reading to get those things, and I probably will. I still have images from it in my head.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Sloan, Robin
Quite a lot of fun, and would have been almost perfect if it hadn’t failed on the cryptography front. Still, that’s forgivable for many great scenes and quotes, such as one describing Google’s many research projects, one of which was “developing a form of renewable energy that runs on hubris.”
Wool
Howey, Hugh
Excellent. You probably already knew this.
Pump Six and Other Stories
Bacigalupi, Paolo
A clear and present and frightening near future, esp. the title story.
Non-fiction
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Rex
Colonel Roosevelt
Morris, Edmund
It’s hard to recommend these books enough. They read like novels, even the bits that would be desert dry in other people’s hands. This is in part because of Morris, and largely because of Roosevelt himself…what a life. It will be hard to read biography again after this. (Not really, but it’s hard to imagine a better subject, handled better.)
Truck: A Love Story
Perry, Michael
Fully entertaining, with some especially good bits of writing and insight about writing. And i’s about a truck.
Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington
Teachout, Terry
Very good, though I got impatient (mostly because of ignorance) with the analysis of the jazz in terms I don’t understand. But this is a more complex and compelling book than others I’ve read about my favorite composer/arranger/bandleader.
The Sports Gene
Epstein, David
Interesting exploration of what makes top athletes what they are; so many factors, including sports-specific training and mental databases, but mostly? Optimized body types and good genes coupled with good training.
Ten Years in the Tub
Hornby, Nick
Combines previous books, but with a couple hundred pages I hadn’t read. They are, like what came before, excellent. Makes me want to read even more.
Infidel
Ali, Ayaan Hirsi
I learned a lot I didn’t want to know about the world from this book, including just how much any success and happiness I’ve had is earned and not just a matter of almost unbelievable good luck. (Hint: it’s mostly luck.)
Fiction
Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems
Collins, Billy
Poetry I like! A lot. Amazing! So many excellent choices in it.
Out of Sight
Leonard, Elmore
Entertaining, light, fun. Leonard writes so smoothly you forget you’re reading a book.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Semple, Maria
Light and a farce and I read it just after Infidel so the mental relief was particularly good.
Lord of Misrule
Gordon, Jaimy
Fantastic storytelling and imagination and world-building. Magical realism? I’m not sure, but it works through-and-through.
Graphic Novels
[I read relatively few of these this year. Probably because I was absorbed with working on one of my own (and adding to another), so that part of my brain was super-saturated with comics most of the time. But I still snuck a few excellent ones past my own defenses.]
Clockwork Game
Irwin, Jane
Fascinating story, beautifully told and drawn. A graphic novel about the Mechanical Turk was like catnip to me, and it was fresh and good catnip and I’m still drooling and that’s enough of that metaphor.
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
Greenberg, Isobel
Very well done, and she’s already so good that if she gets better still (I get the sense that she’s young) she’ll be a superstar.
This One Summer
Tamaki, Mariko; Tamaki, Jillian
Everybody already knows this book is terrific, right? 
The Shadow Hero
Yang, Gene; Liew, Sonny
Ho hum, another fabulous book with Gene Yang’s name on it. Doesn’t he get tired of being better than everybody else? (I hope not.) This time, a superhero story, with great art by Sonny Liew.
The Property
Modan, Rutu
Well done, and heavily layered. Worth reading again.
Bluffton
Phelan, Matt
Another book about summer, and this too captures it perfectly. It does so differently from the Tamakis’ book, proving that there’s more than one way to be wonderful.
Walt Before Skeezix: 1918-1920
King, Frank O.
Nostalgia for something I never knew, and wouldn’t have participated in is a weird and wonderful feeling.
The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation
Mishkin, Dan; Colon, Ernie; Drozd, Jerzy
Excellent, detailed, and true to its subject matter.
The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy
Patton, Michael F.; Cannon, Kevin
Great introduction to the major fields of philosophy. You can’t buy this yet, but when you can, you should.

Something(s) to read, 2013

Up here above the 42nd parallel the weather is such that I’m staying
inside and reading more, and you might also plan to spend extra time
indoors in the next few weeks. Or months. So in case you wondered, here
are the best books I read in 2013, complete with
my brief notes to myself about them. They’re in no particular order — they’re all good and some are even better than that.

I hope you find
something new here that you like!

Non-Fiction

Black Holes & Time Warps
Kip Thorne
Excellent, and worth working your way through it slowly to feel the wonder of what’s going on out there.
We Learn Nothing
Tim Kreider
Contains the best essay on politics I’ve read in ages: “When They’re Not Assholes”. He’s a terrific writer all around.
John Adams
David McCullough
An admirable book about an admirable person. McCullough gives him a pass on quite a lot, but makes a good case for doing so. And Jefferson comes off poorly, certainly by comparison, and that may be fair…though the book is titled Adams, so there’s a selection bias here.
My Beloved Brontosaurus
Brian Switek
Fine overview of the current state of the art in dinosaur research. He’s also a great speaker, so if you get a chance to see him, do it. (I did months after reading the book, so no selection bias here, I don’t think!)
Animal Wise
Virginia Morrell
Great survey of the current state of research into whether animals have minds (yes) and how they think (more and harder than we give them credit for). See above about speaking excellence.
Gulp
Mary Roach
Great as usual. Just read everything she’s written, okay?
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
Chris Hadfield
If you’ve seen his videos from space, you know you can expect earnestness and honesty and humor. You get it here. (And I got to meet him here in Michigan, and the wonderful Schulers Books.)
Fiction
The Art of Fielding
Chad Harbach
Very well written; more than a baseball book, though it’s that too. I would read another just like it, but this is too good do a sequel.
Science Fiction/Fantasy
2312
Kim Stanley Robinson
Sweeping, epic, real. You know the drill with KSR. Great, as usual.
The Name of the Wind
Patrick Rothfuss
No closure at all, but effortless (seeming!) writing and a good epic style and story. I read the next one too, and it just about drove me crazy in some respects, the least of which is that closure thing. But the guy can write!
The Sorcerer’s House
Gene Wolfe
Puzzling, but pulled me through quickly. Much more there than meets the eye, and the transitions between reality and faerie realms were slick and disorienting, just the effect he intended, I’m sure.
Zone One
Colson Whitehead
Layered and elliptical and digressive and funny. Not sure what the point was, or is, but I’ll think about this again, and will read more by him. He’s a terrific writer. And speaker…it was a great year for hearing first-rate authors speak!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaiman
Beautiful. His best. Cf. Mary Roach above, though they could hardly be more different in subject matter and scope. (Also cf. above re. getting to hear him speak. Dang, it was a really great year for that.)
Young Adult
Seraphina
Rachel Hartman
Superb, and funny, and real-feeling. A well-built world and a sequel awaits. We’re lucky, we readers!
A Hat Full of Sky
Terry Pratchett
Another Wee Free Men and Tiffany Aching delight.
Graphic Novels: Fiction
Marble Season
Gilbert Hernandez
Just about the perfect kids book, or rather, a book about what it’s like to be a kid.
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack
Tom Gauld
Odd and fun and a book-lover’s book
Genius
Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen
Excellent, and I think subtler than I gathered on first reading. And I gathered me some subtlety, I think. So I’ll read it again.
Boxers & Saints
Gene Yang
Oh Gene, you can do no wrong. This is a terrific matched pair. Deep and broad and human.
Strange Attractors
Charles Soule, Charles and Greg Scott
Good premise, well executed. Solid fun with some math as seasoning.
The Adventures of Superhero Girl
Faith Erin Hicks
Fun, light, peppy, funny.
Building Stories
Chris Ware
Amazing formal work, again. Depressing story, again. Worth feeling sad about.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
Tony Cliff
A delight. Really and truly rollicking. I read it on the web, I read it in print, and I’ll read it again and again in print again. It really is a delight, and notice how I don’t stoop to the Turkish pun there?
Bad Houses
Sara Ryan and Carla Speed McNeil
A straightforward story that isn’t — the story structure is clever and handled deftly in both the writing and the art. Impressive and enjoyable.
Graphic Novels: Non-Fiction
Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller
Joseph Lambert
Wonderful depictions of Keller’s inner life, and how she learned. I was floored by how good this is.
March
John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Hits the trifecta: First rate in both story, significance, and art.
Relish
Lucy Knisley
Great book, and bonus: recipes!
Alec “The Years Have Pants”
Eddie Campbell
He’s been great from the get-go, it seems, and at 638 pages, is itself remarkable how consistently great he’s been.

Something(s) to read, 2011: Graphic Novels

Up here above the 42nd parallel the weather is such that I’m staying inside and reading more, and you might also plan to spend extra time indoors in the next few weeks. Or months. So in case you wondered, here are the best books-without-many-pictures I read in 2011, complete with my brief notes to myself about them. They’re in no particular order; they’re all good and some are even better than that. I hope you find something here that you like!

Fiction

Finder: Voice
McNeil, Carla Speed
Dense and entertaining, as always!

Anya’s Ghost
Brosgol, Vera
Excellent. I’m not sure why the colors shifted in places, but if it’s on purpose I’ll find out upon re-reading, and if not it doesn’t detract. Really well done.

Shapes and Colors
Thompson, Richard
Keeps getting better.

The Complete Peanuts: 1979-1980
Schulz, Charles
Still has it — a couple classics (“Have you ever considered you might be wrong?”) and a revealing sequence about what must have been a summer bible camp. Revealing in that I’d like to know what prompted it, at least…

Love and Rockets: New Stories 4
Hernandez, Jaime; Hernandez, Gilbert
Once again, Jaime H. knocks it out of the park.

Infinite Kung Fu
McLeod, Kagan
Almost perfectly evokes the best of kung fu movies. Terrific characters, intricate and goofy plot, spot-on dialogue. Great.

Hark! A Vagrant
Beaton, Kate
Extra commentary, hardcover, fun, hilarious, hurray.

The Complete Peanuts: 1981-1982
Schulz, Charles
Particularly good material here. Some of the funniest I can remember, in fact!

Dear Creature
Case, Jonathan
Unique and beautifully drawn. Charming too — a great debut.

The Storm in the Barn
Phelan, Matt
Really good art and effective wordless pages and sequences, simple story, beautifully done all the way through.

Zahra’s Paradise
Amir; Khalil
Tragic and moving. Fast-paced and educational as well. Up there with Persepolis as an introduction to another culture.

Non-Fiction

Dar (vol 1-2)
Moen, Erika
Honest and charming and funny.

The Stuff of Life
Schultz, Mark; Cannon, Zander; Cannon, Kevin
Well drawn and fun, even if the abundance of facts slow down the narrative a little.

Evolution
Hosler, Jay; Cannon, Zander; Cannon, Kevin
Excellent.

Cancer Vixen
Marchetto, Marisa Acocella
Much better than anticipated, with lots of narrative invention and a not-at-all-sappy (which is what I was betting on going in) throughline.

Paying for It
Brown, Chester
Clinical and rather ugly, and the end-notes are not convincing to me. (Lots of straw men standing around.) But an interesting book about a taboo subject, and it will stick with me.

Vietnamerica
Tran, GB
Wrenching, and beautiful on a formal and storytelling level.

The Influencing Machine
Gladstone, Brooke; Neufeld, Josh
Excellent. It’s much like an episode of “On the Media” in print form, with visuals. Josh does a fine job, of course.

Missouri Boy
Myrick, Leland
Well described on the jacket as a poem, and the last chapter ties things together beautifully.

Manga

Gogo Monster
Matsumoto, Taiyo
Challenging and complex. Beautifully drawn as well. An exploration of what it’s like to have and lose (on purpose?) childhood wonder. I didn’t like this nearly as much on first reading as I ended up after the discussion in book club — there’s a lot of depth here.

Something(s) to read, 2011: Prose

Up here above the 42nd parallel the weather is such that I’m staying inside and reading more, and you might also plan to spend extra time indoors in the next few weeks. Or months. So in case you wondered, here are the best books-without-many-pictures I read in 2011, complete with my brief notes to myself about them. They’re in no particular order; they’re all good and some are even better than that. I hope you find something here that you like!

Non-fiction

Stuff of Thought
Pinker, Stephen
Full of interesting ideas, examples, and facts, but I didn’t understand the throughline and don’t think it held together as a complete thesis. Maybe it wasn’t intended to, and maybe it’s an affect of it being an audio book, so I may need to read this again. It was certainly more fun than I anticipated.

Stiff
Roach, Mary
Excellent, as usual, though I got a little tired of corpses. I read it while eating, mostly, though, so that might contribute to that feeling. It’s her first book, and you can see her style and sense of humor develop and mature through the course of it.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Pollan, Michael
The best book about food, in all its aspects, that I expect I will ever read. Well written, researched, and lived. In the top five I read all year.

Proofiness
Seife, Charles
Though too fond of trying to coin new words, this is a good book about how math and numbers (not just statistics) are misused, particularly by politicians. His bias is clearly against the conservatives, but I didn’t mind that. He’s particularly harsh on Scalia.

The Making of the The President 1960
White, Theodore H.
The writing, and some of the ideas and attitudes, is dated. But this is still much more fascinating than I thought it would be, and the chapter on television and Kennedy’s speech on religion are classics.

Sleights of Mind
Macknik, Stephen; Martinez-Conde, Susana
The neuroscience of magic. Entertaining and light, but also interesting. It inspired me to want to learn more about magic.

Martian Summer
Kessler, Andrew
Detailed and interesting (though narcissistic and disjointed as well) account of the Phoenix mission to Mars. If anyone needed convincing that doing science via robot is hard, this would do it. The 90 (Martian) day mission could have been done in about 10 minutes by a human. It’s a tough job. The description of NASA’s weak P.R. ability is probably the most telling, and damning, thing about the book.

Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout
Redniss, Lauren
Beautiful book — it might be a graphic novel, but it probably isn’t. Regardless, from font to the texture of the cover it’s terrific.

The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter
Davies, Russell T.; Cook, Benjamin
Writing successful TV clearly requires a great deal of ego, but there’s a great deal of insight into creativity (and work ethic) in the book as well. If nothing else, it prompted me to watch Dr. Who, which is a feat.

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Brown, Mike
Crisp and entertaining and informative. It even has some skullduggery and suspense and some educational and confessional parts to. All in all, excellent. And…sorry Pluto! (And Xena, etc.)

Quantum Man
Krauss, Lawrence M.
The best introduction to Feynman’s technical achievements I’ve read. I need to read it again (and again).

Feathers
Hanson, Thor
Excellent book on the natural history, uses, and evolution of feathers. Feynman is up against this in the SB&F awards, and if it loses I won’t feel bad. Well, not too bad, anyway.

Lost Detroit


Austin, Dan; Doerr, Sean
Amazing stories of the ruins of the city, and the photographs are even better. “Death is the mother of beauty,” as Wallace Stevens said. Just wish there was less architectural death in the Motor City.

Fiction

The Summer Book
Jansson, Tove
Quiet and lovely; I can’t figure out why the father says only the one line and it’s that one, but that’s the only odd note in an unwonderful way. The rest of the notes are wonderful.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shaffer, Mary Ann; Barrows, Annie
Better than its title by a long, long stretch. Nothing shocking, or even mildly surprising, but a pleasing story, well told.

The Final Solution
Chabon, Michael
A fine novella about an unnamed, late in years, Sherlock Holmes. Rich writing.

Olive Kitteridge
Strout, Elizabeth
Unsparing, and wonderfully written. It won’t make you feel good, but it will make you believe in all of its characters, no matter how briefly they appear.

True Grit
Portis, Charles
Spare and excellent. It was hard to get the movie images out of my mind, but the movie was so faithful and well-acted that it wasn’t a problem. An excellent book.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Carver, Raymond
Concise and harsh.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

The Windup Girl
Bacigalupi, Paolo
Terrific near (?…hope not!) future science fiction with fully realized characters, settings, conflicts. Genetic engineering gone awry, and our messing with the world’s seedstock comes home to roost. Really really good.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Yu, Charles
Innovative and well done sf, playing with the genre in literary terms reminiscent of Never Let Me Go, though by no means as dark or dour. Excellent.

The Algebraist
Banks, Iain M.
Huge ideas here, and well developed (see e.g. Stephenson’s latest). It felt long, but I started to feel immersed and interested before I got frustrated with the apparent digressions and slow speed. Which was on purpose, I’m sure, given the presence of the Dwellers. A good Culture novel, so thanks to Gina and Leland M. for recommending it.

The God Engines
Scalzi, John
A lot of story packed into a few words. Terrific atmosphere of horror and failure. One of his best, I think.

Young Adult

Dead End in Norvelt
Gantos, Jack
A fun book to read on a summer’s day. (And that’s what I did.)

The Implosion of Aggie Winchester
Zielin, Lara
A page-turner. Teen melodrama, and not meant for my demographic, but I enjoyed it.

Sports

Sandy Koufax
Leavy, Jean
Makes the case that he’s the best pitcher ever, and from the other things I’ve read it’s probably true. It certainly makes me wish I’d seen him play.

56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports
Kennedy, Kostya
Provides a glimpse at the setting and context (personal, local, and international) of the hitting streak. As often is the case, I find myself doubting some of the interior dialogue/thinking Kennedy attributes to the various main characters, but they do enrich the texture and mood. The asides as they relate to modern thinking, e.g. about the statistical likelihood of streaks like this happening, are good.
 

Audio

When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Sedaris, David
More somber than I expected, but still laugh out loud funny often. Read by him is the only way to go, so…