Blue-Footed Musings

1. Below by Meg McKinlay, A-: On the day that Cassie was born prematurely, her family’s town ceased to be. The local government had already built a new town in a different location so that they could flood the old one as part of a dam project. Cassie, who never lived in the old town, is obsessed with it and the lake that now covers it. Thanks to her premature birth, she has a breathing problem. She’s supposed to swim laps every day to strengthen her lungs, but she hates the town swimming pool. So she starts swimming in the lake. As the water level starts dropping, parts of the old town start to resurface, and maybe some secrets well. I think Below is a beautifully written book, but I never really understood Cassie’s obsession. I mean, I got why she was supposed to be fascinated, but I never felt like her level of obsessions was justified. Also, I was well into the book before I realized that it took place in Australia. While I was impressed in a way with the story’s universality, I think it might have been more interesting if the location had been highlighted.
2. The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean, A+: I loved this book. It’s a collection of stories about the science and the scientists behind the periodic table of elements, and it is absolutely engrossing. Recommended.
3. Elidor by Alan Gardner, B+: Four siblings are magically transported to a land called Elidor, where a man named Malebron enlists their aid in finding four magical treasures that he believes will save his world. The siblings return home and hide the treasures, but they soon discover that something is trying to enter their world to steal the treasures. The ending was so abrupt that I kept flipping through the last few pages (all blank) looking for the rest of the text, which just wasn’t there. I wondered at first if I had gotten an incomplete edition. But no. That’s just the way the story ended. It left me feeling cheated.
4. Language Visible by David Sacks, B+: This is the story of the English alphabet, tackled one letter at a time. Alas, the format leads to a somewhat tedious read, as most of the letters followed similar routes into our alphabet. The book would probably be much better if read a little bit at a time. That makes sense, as it originated as a series of columns for a newspaper. In any event, it contains enough interesting information to make it a worthwhile read.
5. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde, A-: The Last Dragonslayer takes place in an alternate reality where magic is used in a way similar to how we use electricity, England is divided into a bunch of independently ruled kingdoms, and orphans are sold into indentured servitude at the age of 12. The main character is Jennifer Strange, an orphan who was sold to the owner of Kazam, an employment agency for magicians. Her master has gone missing and so it’s up to her to take care the business and its ragtag collection of magicians. Not quite as good as Fforde’s Thursday Next series (while sometimes seeming very similar to it), it is nevertheless a fun read. Recommended.
6. The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde, A-: Sequel to The Last Dragonslayer and equally good.
7. Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer, A-: This is the story of how Joshua Foer (brother of author Jonathan Safran Foer) learned to master ancient memory techniques and subsequently won the United States Memory Championship. Interesting, informative, and fun.

I’m up to 52 books for the year, which means I’ve already met my annual goal. Hooray! Here’s a look at two books I read recently.

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Grade: B

I feel bad about giving Bossypants a B grade, but I have to be honest. While the early parts about her youth were good, the book lost both its rhythm and its purpose as it progressed. It stopped being an amusing memoir and became a sort of random collection of funnyish things. At times Fey seemed self-effacing to the point of belittling herself, and it was a turnoff. I mean, I chose to read the book because I thought she was a comedic genius, but I guess I was wrong, because according to her, everyone else on SNL was so much funnier than she. Also, the whole Sarah Palin thing seemed to be a sore point for her, which is a shame, because those skits were the reason that some of us became fans. There were times, though, when Fey’s voice was confident and wise and funny. So, I wouldn’t say don’t read it. I would simply suggest going into it with an adjusted set of expectations.

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken (A Vish Puri Mystery) by Tarquin Hall
Grade: B+

The main character is an Indian detective named Vish Puri. Nicknamed “Chubby” by his wife, he has a passion for food, especially butter chicken. When the father of a Pakistani cricket star dies after eating butter chicken (the same chicken that Puri himself had eaten), Puri wants to investigate, and he is lucky enough to find a client willing to hire him to do just that. The clues take him all around Delhi and eventually into Pakistan, and along the way readers get a taste of modern life in that area of the world.

I thought the book was fun, but it wasn’t fleshed out enough for me. There weren’t a lot of lavish descriptions, but it seemed like just the kind of story that ought to have them. What good is an exotic locale if you don’t describe it to its fullest, right? I also don’t know much (or care much, frankly) about the sport of cricket, and that was a hindrance.

On the positive side, Vish Puri and his mother were amusing characters. What I enjoyed most, though, were the vocabulary (a partial glossary is included at the end of the book) and the history of the region. Though I knew in a vague way that Pakistan and Indian had once been part of the same country, it never occurred to me how the Partition might have been accomplished or how it might have affected the common people. This book goes into that, which made it very interesting.

My favorite passage from the book occurs just after Puri enters Pakistan. He hears the people speaking Urdu and realizes that he understands it.

And yet hearing some of the turns of phrase and enunciation took the detective back to his childhood, when he used to roam the streets of Delhi’s walled city where, after Partition, Urdu survived amongst a few old Dilli wallahs. In those days the bazaar storytellers used to gather on the steps of the Jamme Majid on Thursday evenings and the young detective would sit and listen to them recount the great Urdu epic the Dastan-e Amir Hamza. Tales of dashing princes, cloaks of invisibility and evil djinns had held him transfixed for hours.

And the language!

The language had been pure nectar—long phrases linked like carriages to create a train of thought fraught with multiple meanings. A phrase as simple as “the moon rose” would be rendered as “the sorcerer of this world changed his robes.”