Todd Warner
Beaverland is a narrative deep dive (impressively researched) into the the world of beavers and all the folks who champion (from trappers, to enthusiasts, to scientists, to everyday people) this most important keystone species. The focus is on North America, and Connecticut more specifically, but the author does a great job outlining the specie's ecological importance globally as well. Great book. It's at times light and full of adventure as the author tramps through swamps and other times very appropriately serious and academically detailed. Recommend.
Literary and very cerebral and 100% dialogue. A brilliant complement to The Passenger that explores genius and the big questions of life, meaning, and purpose. The real genius here is McCarthy. This story could only have been pulled off by this author.
UPDATE: I can't stop thinking about this book. I changed my review from 4.0 to 4.75. it may be a 5-star review in another month of musing. It is just so good.
Quote from this Nation article...
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/cormac-mccarthy-late-style/
Billed at once as the culminating pinnacle of McCarthy's career and an unexpected departure from his earlier work, The Passenger and Stella Maris are sibling novels about incest, mourning, mathematics, salvage diving, schizophrenia, New Orleans, theoretical physics, Knoxville, the invention of nuclear weapons, car racing, suicide, vaudeville theater, the weight of history, the sins of the father, psychiatry, the crisis of the European sciences, and the moral decline of the West. At once intricate and beautiful, challenging and moving [...]
Very literary. There is setting and character and relationships. That's it. The plot is interesting in that it is never really what you expect it to be. The main thrust of the novel is an exploration of the mind and spirit and mythology and state of being.
Only mature and focused readers will “get” this novel, but if they do, it's a real treat created to make them think and reflect. And of course, as always, McCarthy's prose is so very elegant. Loved it.
UPDATE: I can't stop thinking about this book. I changed my review from 3.5 to 4.75. it may be a 5-star review in another month of musing. It is just so good.
Quote from this Nation article...
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/cormac-mccarthy-late-style/
Billed at once as the culminating pinnacle of McCarthy's career and an unexpected departure from his earlier work, The Passenger and Stella Maris are sibling novels about incest, mourning, mathematics, salvage diving, schizophrenia, New Orleans, theoretical physics, Knoxville, the invention of nuclear weapons, car racing, suicide, vaudeville theater, the weight of history, the sins of the father, psychiatry, the crisis of the European sciences, and the moral decline of the West. At once intricate and beautiful, challenging and moving [...]
Succinct. Measurable-ish. Actionable. Chamine offers a practical approach to shifting individual and team dynamics towards a more positive pathway. This is not a book that offers a plan to merely “think positive” or “meditate your way to happiness.” No. It's an actionable approach to identifying and then addressing fundamental problems through analysis, introspection, and communication.
A solid read. I would say a fun read, but fun is probably not the right word. The writing itself is more than a bit sophomoric, though. Especially the first third. The writing really reminded me of Patrick Bateman's internal dialogue in American Psycho. I wonder if this was intentional for some reason, or was this just how the author writes? She does write for Cosmo, though, so . . . It seemed to tone down later in the book. But the story and characters are tremendous, IMHO. I give it 3.5 stars.
A haunting novella. In some ways at least. A story of empowerment and yet disempowerment. A look into the world of human trafficking (the immigration kind), motivations driven by poverty, and cultural tenacity. A linear story of a young woman traveling alone from Mexico to the US in search of her brother. I wasn't a fan of some of the choices made in the translation, but this is a great story that will stick with me for awhile.
Fox and I is a tale of a woman—a woman as modern human and as human animal—and her introspective engagement with the natural world that surrounds her. It's a tale of participation and not mere observation and what that means to her and what that may mean to the rest of us.
This memoir is utterly unique and her writing is stupendous. I was also quite impressed with her ability to seamlessly weave a tale of both fiction and memoir. Fox and I deserves all the awards it is bound to win and is one of those rare books that will be read and reread for decades to come. Quite an achievement.
I enjoyed this book. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I read only one or two entries each sitting. Instead, I essentially read it in two long sessions ... and since each entry is, more or less, unrelated except by theme, the experience is much like binge reading an entire blog.
Well written, often “Hmm” generating, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading something a bit more thought provoking. His writing I can already see influencing my own.
A fascinating look into the world of obsession and the lives of exceptional children and their parents. The prose was more than a bit stilted and cold as was the author himself (my impression), but the story of their lives is engaging and truly very unique.
(Note, the book is a very different animal than the movie. The movie is spectacular, by the way.)
Fantasy, but light on the fantastical, this series is a real breath of fresh air. Fantasy for adults, one might say. It has a narrative that evokes Asimov to me for some reason. I really enjoy this series and hope that book 3 is not too far behind. Recommend.
Criticism of the publisher: really wish the publisher would produce hardcovers for books 2 and 3 and not just for book 1. It's just unprofessional. Commit or don't commit, not something in between. Or hell, give the author self-publishing rights to the hardcovers if you won't follow through.
Oh! Not that it matters all that much, but the covers are just bitchin'!
Blood of the Innocents completes an outstanding three-book saga. The story follows a company of English archers throughout a brutal campaign rampaging across France during the Hundred Years War. Berenger Fripper, a vintener (think: first sergeant or company commander), anchors the storyline as he wrestles with both his internal and external struggles with the horror of war—especially war of this time—and how it has affected him, the landscape, the people, and his compatriots. The exploration of the inanity and failed logic of why we fight, which is then expertly painted with a grim backdrop of debased humanity, is a fascinating throughline. Each book improves upon the last and the story will stick with you for a long time to come. Jecks really nails this.
This book teaches you how to become a more rigorous reader, writer, thinker, idea-generator, and researcher via a note-taking methodology that is slowly emerging out of German academia (where it has enjoyed legendary status but in niche obscurity) and now into the popular consciousness. It has come to the attention of the rest of the world primarily because of this book. That model of note-taking and knowledge-management is called Zettelkasten, or the slip-box method. Even if you don't adopt this methodology, this book is an excellent discussion of these themes and will give you lots of ideas for how you can incorporate better techniques of reading, note-taking, and introspection.
The target audience is academia, but this really is a tremendous resource for all learners. It is an exploration of how we learn and remember and how we can do better. How we can reduce the amount of knowledge, comprehension, and ideas that evaporate from our brains over time. But where this book really shines is as a how-to guide for the Zettelkasten methodology so you can better interrogate what you have learned over time combined with your current thinking and new ideas. It can help you follow paths of introspection and guide you to new ones.
This book is tremendous. It will make you better.
...
Criticisms:
The author at times uses unclear labeling (namely because you think he is labeling when he is, in fact, describing). You know this is an issue when review after review about and tutorial after tutorial associated to this book misdescribe the methodologies in the same way. I figured this out by deep note-taking (since this was a note-taking book) and using this book as a model to implement the techniques he described. If he ever re-edits this book, I would love to see him clear up some of the ambiguity. The description of how notes in the Bibliographical Slip Box are developed, written technically, and organized would be particularly helpful. He is especially vague there (you have to pick it out from several places in the books).
Also, the spine text is flipped, as is traditional in Eastern Europe. But the book I am reviewing is the English translation. The author or publisher should have also adjusted the cover to match the English-speaking world's expectations. Most annoying. Like really really annoying.
Still . . . a five-star book. Excellent.
This is a sequel. Much like its predecessor, I liked the book. And there need to be more books like this, by authors such as this. You will like the book. So read it!
But I have much criticism. This was traditionally published, but the editing is rather poor. I'm not talking about grammar or spelling (I found only one typo in two books!). It's the developmental editing that was so . . . slapdash. There are outright errors (a poker scene really screws up which hand beats another, for example) but then there are other major errors that a good editor (or team of editors, or beta-readers) should have caught.
Spoilers . . .
The geography is messy and not well understood. For example, not for many pages did we understand that they were downstream of Sacramento when they were on the Sacramento River. The reader is left wondering what the characters are thinking on this.The antagonist. I didn't know he was the main antagonist until act 3. I didn't buy into him being the bad guy. His crimes were not sold well. Sure, he made really REALLY bad choices, but we didn't know that he was doing Nazi-like experimentation until near the end. Plus, the cure would have saved millions. So, for the entire book, I just felt that the thrust of the story was that the main protagonist was in the wrong about him—that she would discover that, no, the scientist's quest for the cure was far more complicated than she thought and he really isn't a terrible person. I was wrong. But I blame the writing and the editing. The writer could have developed this better, for sure, but I lay this on the feet of the editorial staff failing the author and the readers.World-building: If the entire east and mid-west is wiped out . . . how is everyone not starving to death and dressed in rags. All materials would be extremely scarce. And humans would be MAJORLY more violent towards each other. I'm not buying the world as it is described.The main character murders a lot of people. This is not addressed well enough IMHO. She even swapped out one body for another to get a bounty. Execution without justice . . an odd choice for a book such as this. I mean, it can certainly work, but I don't think it is explored nearly enough and the main character doesn't earn it. IMHO.The magic. The penny was unnecessary and seemed out of place. It think the author realized that after the first book and that is why she invented a way to make it a non-factor in the second book. But then she added a ghost. Ugh! The ghost was really her conscience, but it was not sold on the page as such and was simply not well done. Cut out those scenes entirely and it would have been a better book. This is a sci-fi western, really, not a fantasy. Just didn't fit.Murder, mayhem, torture, prostitution, and sexually charged language here and there. And yet still, the unbelievable amount of racism of that era is only given a lukewarm treatment for the YA audience (though they are moving outside of White America for much of this sequel). Much like the previous book, I think the YA audience could be treated a bit more maturely and this historical fiction made a bit more historical.
Criticism aside. I want to see more from this author and more books like this on the bookshelves. The self-published world is so much richer in this regard, but I want to see it from the trad-publishing world as well.
