Books I’ve read lately
Ubik by Phillip K. Dick
The whole half-life/cold-pac setup was very Matrix-y. Jory is a fairly accurate analog to Agent Smith, especially when he first reveals himself to Joe Chip (who makes a terrible Neo).The end of the book, where Runciter finds a Joe Chip quarter, left the reader still uncertain about the reality of the situation he characters found themselves in, as well as mightily pissed off.
Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle
May Day Mystery quote: “‘Religion must necessarily produce industry and frugality,’ Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, proclaimed, ‘and these cannot but produce riches.’” (Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004. pg 50)
On January 1st 1923, a white mob from Sumner, Florida attacked the black town of Rosewood, killed 17 of its citizens, and forced the rest to flee before the town was put to the torch. (pg 123) This is not something they teach you in history class.
Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
Funny the whole way through.
The Truth, with Jokes by Al Franken
Also funny the whole way through, as well as insightful. His line about “[t]he ‘I will stop you from doing good because I don’t want you to get the credit’ thing” was particularly resonant. (pg 142)
The System of the World by Neil Stephenson
Entertaining. Of particular note is the scene on pgs 485-6 where Saturn (Peter Hoxton) tells the rest of his Clubb the difference between what he told the innkeeper, what the publican thinks, what he told the patrons, and the “conclusions” the patrons drew. “That’s not what they think. They think that you are Sodomites.”
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This book was depressing as hell, but compelling. It brought a new paradigm to the post-apocalyptic society, one in so few people are actually killed in whatever vague event it was the ended the world that the majority of the suffering was caused by the flood of people who descended like locusts upon the land. (This is, or course, my interpretation. Usually in post-apocalyptic fiction, society reverts to some prior stage of human progress. That supposes that the number of people in urban areas were killed and the food that is available in the remainder cities is enough to prevent the urbanites from swamping the agricultural areas.)
Next on the Reading List:
The text of the Frank-Dodd bail-out.
The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
The Dark Side by Jane Mayer
Law and the Long War by Benjamin Wittes
China: From the 1911 Revolution to Liberation