'The Invisible Library' by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library, Genevieve Cogman (3.0)

It was hard to pass up a book about spy librarians who can travel to different time/worlds – great potential, but oddly not as compelling as one would hope. After reading it, I found out it was categorized as Young Adult and that makes a bit more sense. The basic idea is that librarians collect valuable books from various alternate realities, returning them to a time agnostic main library where they can live without growing older. They utilize a magical Language as a power and meet many magical creatures in the alternate realities. This volume follows Irene, an experienced Librarian, and her trainee to an alternate London to find a Grimm’s Fairy Tales. While there, they find their task is far more complicated and dangerous than first assumed. I found the book generally interesting to read, but I was hoping for more depth of character and more logic in the world building (magic is fine, but consistency is still needed). This is supposed to be the first in a series and I not particularly compelled to read on.

'Sick Puppy' by Carl Hiaasen

Sick Puppy, Carl Hiaasen (3.5)

Carl Hiassen’s books are not grand literature, but they tend to be fast, funny books to read. This one blends it’s funny with the somewhat gruesome. Set in Florida, as usual, the main character is a trust fund eco-terrorist (of sorts) who angers quickly and who spends the majority of his time chasing down those who are not showing due respect to the earth with the goal of highlighting the error of their ways. Unfortunately, he tends to go to extremes as his targets rarely get the point right away. Enter the next character, a serial litterbug state lobbyist who also happens to be working to destroy one of Florida’s remaining unspoiled islands. Hiaasen weaves crazy characters (including a wonderful black lab), current political issues and Florida’s culture. If anything, the lobbyist is too horrible and unredeemable and the ‘good guys’ are too cheer worthy. I found some of the book to be hard to read and it certainly didn’t put me in a good political mood-I’m a big fan for outlawing lobbyists!

'A Moveable Feast' by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (3.5)

Hemingway’s famous memoir/not-memoir takes us back to a simpler time to the City of Light in the 1920’s where he and his (first) wife lived before his first novel was published. While I don’t love Hemingway’s writing style, I did enjoy his simple stories of the places and peoples that make up the starving artist’s life in Paris after WWI. From the neighborhood cafes to the bookshops, it’s a city that feels much more approachable than the one found today. I particularly enjoyed his interactions with Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald, though he cleverly starts the book with a question mark over whether it is a memoir or not. It is left up to the reader to determine how true he has been to the real characters. Overall, he comes across more likeable as a young writer than old, but that may be because this tale covers good times with his first wife. Only at the end does he gloss over the events that ended that marriage – the affair- and you remember his large reputation as a egotistical lout. I found it interesting that he wrote these remembrances at the end of his life and it was published posthumously. In some ways it seems like a love letter to his first wife and the city they enjoyed.

'The Lost City of the Monkey God' by Douglas Preston

The Lost City of the Monkey God, Douglas Preston (4.0)

I started reading this book just after seeing ‘The Lost City of Z’, a film about the true story of a British man’s search for an ancient city in the Amazon in the 1920’s. While different timeframes (current vs 20’s) and locations (Honduras vs Bolivia), both stories highlight the enticement and mystery of the possibility of riches and fame. In ‘Z’, they were definitely looking for gold, but there was still the excitement of finding a lost civilization. In this book, the rumor of an ancient abandoned city nestled in the overgrown Honduras jungle beguiles a group of people, mostly incredulous that it hasn’t been found already. With the availability of a new technology allowing effective viewing from the air, a team is put together to search for the city. The author goes along to document the trip for National Geographic and becomes one of the first people to enter the ‘city’ in hundreds of years. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the hazards (snakes, pests, weather, more snakes!) and the team’s defensive measures. I also found Mr. Preston did a good job postulating on hypotheses of extinction of the culture found. Overall the story reads like a good adventure mystery with real life consequences.

'Walkaway' by Cory Doctorow

Walkaway, Cory Doctorow (4.0)

This most recent Cory Doctorow cyber punk tale offers some of his past themes mixed with a newer take on large scale issues our society appears to be facing, particular the effects of the division of wealth and power. In his near future, society has reached a post-scarcity point (i.e. everything essential can be made from a machine on demand), so normal jobs have become somewhat superfluous. More and more disillusioned youth have ‘walked away’ from society to find a new beginning. At first this is fine with the general society and specifically the powerful rich. But once a group of walkaway professors discovers a way to possibly live forever, the power balance shifts and all eyes turn to the disparate walkaway groups as threats. The book follows a couple of interesting characters as they choose to walkaway and the effect family, money and power have on their decisions. Doctorow, as usual, weaves creative technology into a driving plot. He goes deep enough into technology to likely lose a few readers, but if you enjoy examining the possible effects of a post-scarcity age on a have/have-not society – you’ll find plenty to chew on here.