The Uses of Enchantment

The Uses of Enchantment

I'm looking forward to this. I've read several other books by Heidi Julavits, and enjoyed them, but I find I have to pace myself. Her books do tend to be a lot alike, and have eccentric and unlikeable characters and bizarre situations. A little goes a long way. I think I'm ready for another, though.


Update:

The year was 1985. Sixteen-year-old Mary Veal, leaving school after soccer practice, was abducted by a stranger, held prisoner for a few weeks, and sexually molested. Or was she?

Her psychiatrist doesn't think so. He believes she fabricated the entire incident. Her mother tends to believe him, thinking it less shameful to have a liar for a daughter than a rape victim.

15 years later, Mary still isn't sure what did or didn't happen. Her mother has just died, unreconciled to her daughter, and Mary returns home for an uneasy reunion with her father and sisters. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the past, and attempts to unravel what might or might not have happened. Like so many of Heidi Julavits' books, the novel is filled with unpleasant female characters, difficult relationships, and the truth is never cut and dried.

Interesting novel.

How to Mind Map by Tony Buzan

How to Mind Map

Unlike the book I reviewed yesterday, How to Mind Map really is about right-brain thinking.

If you already know about mind-mapping, you don't need this book, because, believe me, this really is mind-mapping at its simplest. Which is not to say that it's not a good book. If you know a student who's having trouble in school or someone that has so many ideas they just keep getting themselves confused all the time, this would make a dandy present. It's pocket-sized and a really quick read, and it's pretty much the perfect solution to those of us who were terrorized by outline-preaching teachers at some time during our lives.

I first heard about mind-mapping on the internet, and I find that there's a whole slew of software products available now and even ready-made mind maps to get you started. (I can't even begin to understand how a ready-made mind map would help anyone.) What I found particularly interesting in reading this book by Tony Buzan -- who, if he didn't exactly invent mind-mapping, certainly popularized it -- was that his concept was that the mind map should be hand-made, always colorized, and definitely visual. (You're supposed to draw all kinds of little pictures and stuff.) Which is pretty much everything that the mind-mapping software doesn't give you. Interesting.

The Right-Brain Business Plan

The Right Brain Business Plan

I decided to take a look at this book because I wanted to see what a right-brain business plan would look like. I didn't find out.

You know what a business plan is, right? And you know what a vision board is, probably. So, this author would have you take your business plan and then translate it into a vision board. Know how to do that? Well, I've just saved you $19.95.

So, this is basically a way to play around with your business plan and draw some nice pictures and build a collage or two so you won't be so afraid of it. Because, oh-my-goodness, I'm just too creative and too much of a girly-girl to not be intimidated by the Big Bad Numbers.

You're not creating your business plan with your right brain, in other words. And I still believe there's a way to do that -- you just won't find it in this book. (In fact, at the end of each chapter there's a left brain check-off list to make sure you covered everything.)

So basically, I don't have much use for this book. I seem to be in the minority, however. 32 Amazon Reviewers have given this book an average of 4.9 stars out of 5. And only 2 of those reviews were less than 5-stars. And that's mostly because the Kindle edition doesn't do the pictures well.

Why Paint Cats

Why Paint Cats

I don't quite remember when I ordered this from the library. I do remember that I found it when I was looking for Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics.

I was well aware that Why Cats Paint was a "joke" book, a parody on artistic criticism and history.

What I didn't realize until I started looking at Why Paint Cats is that it's a parody, too. It is not, as I had thought, about the pastime of painting pictures of cats, but about the activity of painting cats themselves. You know, instead of canvases. Or, like, barns.

Even then, I'm ashamed to say, I wasn't quite sure it was all a joke. The pictures are pretty convincing -- all Photoshopped, of course, but still... It was the text that finally convinced me. While I'm not positive that there aren't people who paint their cats, I'm quite sure that there aren't enough of them to constitute a school. And this book discusses a lot of schools: Neo-Totemism, Retro-Ritualism, Anamorphic Hybridism, and my favorite, Transmogrificationism.

The book really is a hoot. Get it to give to your Art Major friend, or anyone, really, who's a little too pretentious about their artistic leanings.

The Sacrifice Game

The Sacrifice Game

It's here! It's here!

I've been waiting for this book for ever so long. Last April, hearing that it was going to be released soon, I reread the first book in the series -- In the Courts of the Sun.

What's it about? Well, it's an absolutely amazing blend of science fiction, historical fiction, adventure, and fantasy. Jed Delanda, a 21st century Mayan, has been transported back in time to the seventh century. Well, sort of. Since Jed and everyone else knows that it's impossible to take someone back in time literally, Jed and his cohorts have figured out a way to print his memory and personality on a seventh century person -- who becomes, for all practical purposes, Jed Delanda.

So now we have two Jed Delandas running around -- one in 7th century Mesoamerica and one in the 21st first century, awaiting the the countdown to Doomsday in December 2012. Jed-2's objective is to learn enough about "The Game" -- an ancient Mayan practice that Jed-1 is somewhat familiar with -- to find a way to prevent the End of Everything. As for Jed-1, he's moved on to other motivations.

If you haven't read the first book, you definitely don't want to start with this. The opening chapters recount what's happened up to then pretty well, I thought (and I really appreciated having it there), but I can see that it would be pretty dry reading for someone who wasn't already a fan.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a terrific read.

In the Courts of the Sun

 (If you haven't already read it, this is the one you'll want to start with.)











Update:

Just finished reading this, and ... wow! I mean, wow!

This book is just as good as its predecessor, but again, I really would not recommend that anyone start with volume two. It would probably not be as confusing as I had thought -- D'Amato does an excellent job of recapping the action of the first book -- but the recap might get a little boring if you weren't familiar with the first book.

The game sequences and the the torture episodes are much more involved in this book, and seem to go on forever -- although not necessarily in a bad way. I'm relieved to think that there will probably be very few people out there reading this book just to get to the icky parts, though.

There are at least two major, major plot twists in The Sacrifice Game that were total surprises to me. I love that in a book.

One thing confused me a little, however. When I finished this book, I felt as though everything had been wrapped up. Did I make up that idea about the series being a trilogy? Went back to Amazon to check it out, and sure enough, it's still being marketed as a trilogy. Hmmmm. It felt so complete.

Well, that means good things are yet to come. I sure hope it won't be 3 years for the next volume to come out, though!

Points of View

Points of View

I'm waiting for the new Brian D'Amato book, The Sacrifice Game , to get to me from the inter-library loan program, and it's taking awhile. While I'm waiting I'm trying not to start any major fiction, because I know I'd want to stop as soon as the D'Amato book gets here. (And it's over 600 pages and I'm not a fast reader, so I'm going to be at it for a while.) While I'm waiting, I'm killing time reading Points of View.

Points of View is an anthology of short stories, arranged, not surprisingly by the point of view of the narrator. It's an interesting technique, not particularly valuable, in my opinion, but then, why not? After all, you have to arrange the stories somehow.

I'm not normally much of a fan of the short story genre, but I'm making an exception in this case, because they really are good stories. Among the featured authors are Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Henry James, Dylan Thomas, Anton Chekhov, and a host of others, all of them pretty much considered "classic" authors.

Selected Writings by Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung: Selected Writings

Yes, this is a little over my head, and no, I didn't read it cover to cover.

I found Jung's Selected Writings an interesting book for browsing. Mostly, I was interested in his treatment of dreams and archetypes, and I read several of the articles on that subject.

I touched a little on his discussion of synchronicity, but I just didn't have the concentration necessary to focus on it this week. I may go back to it later, however.

One thing I think he said is that natural law is only statistically valid.

???!!

Sure gives you something to think about, though, doesn't it?