Month: March 2009

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Westlake, Donald E.: (03) Jimmy the Kid

I hadn’t planned to resume the Donald E. Westlake Memorial Dortmunder Re-Read—had in fact picked up Jimmy the Kid and put it back down as not what I was in the mood for—and then I found myself with a sleeping SteelyKid in my arms and nothing else at hand. (She really, really needed the sleep, and was unlikely to keep sleeping if I put her down. Nb.: do not offer me parenting advice.)

This is the very meta one in which Andy Kelp proposes a job using a novel as a blueprint, one written by Richard Stark—Westlake’s pseudonym. (It doesn’t actually have independent existence.) At least in my edition, there’s no indication of the connection, which might make it rather a peculiar experience for someone unfamiliar with Westlake’s career—though whether more or less peculiar, I don’t know. Since, after all, having one set of fictional characters critique the realism of the plans of another set of fictional characters is pretty darn peculiar.

Because this is a Dortmunder novel, things do not go anywhere near according to plan. And the complications are amusing enough, but somehow the book just didn’t click for me. It may have been the circumstances of the re-read, but on the other hand, this is not one of the Dortmunders I re-read usually, so it may be something about the book as well. I just can’t quite put my finger on what.

Ongoing series notes: they’re still not “regulars” at the O.J., but their absurdity levels are approaching baseline. Dortmunder seems angrier at Kelp’s perceived jinxings of plans than I remember him being later. And May and Murch’s Mom again play a more active role than in many later books.

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Robb, J.D.: (28) Promises in Death

The most recent novel from J.D. Robb, Promises in Death, opens with a murder that strikes close to home: the victim is Amaryllis Coltraine, a cop and the lover of Chief Medical Examiner Morris.

Despite the more personal nature of this case, this book fell somewhat flat for me. It may just have been that, reading it at three in the morning as I did, I couldn’t suspend disbelief enough: I couldn’t pretend that there was a chance that Morris wouldn’t get justice and start healing, and so there wasn’t very much suspense. I realize that this could be said about basically every entry in the series, so it was probably me, not the book.

(Though it didn’t help that the charming quirks of Morris’s personality get suppressed by his role as the grieving loved one.)

Also, apparently this book was not copy-edited, otherwise a sentence like “Art radiated from the walls in an eclectic mix from bold, bright colors and odd shapes to elegant pencil drawings of naked women in various stages of undress” would never have been published.

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Duane, Diane: (108) Wizards at War (audio)

I really enjoy Christina Moore’s narration of Diane Duane’s Young Wizardry series, but didn’t want to listen to the next ones in the series, The Wizard’s Dilemma and A Wizard Alone, for personal reasons. And I didn’t much like the next, Wizard’s Holiday. So I decided to just skip to the eighth and presently-last book in the series, Wizards at War.

Moore does her usual astonishing job of narration, moving effortlessly between distinct and extremely appropriate voices for all manner of species. And I’d remembered almost nothing about this book, so it was also a suspenseful listen. Anyway, after listening and then looking back at what I said on my first read of the book, I stand by those comments, with the additional grump that the ending strikes me as coming at too low a price.

On the other hand, this listen also prompted me to look up what else Moore has narrated (answer: unfortunately not much I want to listen to except maybe Kelly Link’s Pretty Monsters; apparently she is also on the new 90210) and what the status of Duane’s writing is (answer: no idea, none of her web pages seem to have been updated for half a year or more), so that was also a plus.

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Ariely, Dan: Predictably Irrational (audio)

Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely, is a popular-level look at behavioral economics, the relatively recent field of study that examines how people actually make decisions, instead of assuming, as economics traditionally has, that people act rationally. As numerous behavioral economics experiments have demonstrated, people often act in ways that are, as the title says, both irrational and predictably so. Thus, for instance, people can be shown to buy things they don’t actually want just to get something “free,” or to pay arbitrary amounts for things related to random numbers like the last digits of their Social Security Numbers.

The book is generally a fun, engaging, and convincing description of the research findings regarding people’s irrational tendencies. It is somewhat less successful when it suggests ways to combat those tendencies. The worst of these is when Ariely suggests that to make people keep medical screening appointments, they should be forced to put down $100+ deposits. This strikes me as an incredibly efficient way of making sure that the poor get even worse health care than they currently do, or, put more concisely, my, what astonishing class bias you have.

My annoyance with that particular “suggestion” was probably exacerbated by the reader of the audiobook version, Simon Jones, who is British and whose voice I found just a touch snooty—giving an extra dash of condescension to this American ear. Otherwise, Jones generally gives a smooth and accessible reading, though I probably would have preferred to read this book.

You can find out more about Ariely’s research at www.predictablyirrational.com.

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Liu, Marjorie M.: (02) Shadow Touch

A while back, I read the first of Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirk and Steele paranormal romance series, Tiger Eye. I enjoyed that well enough to stock up on the next several books in the series as light reading during my pregnancy, and then of course never got around to reading any of them. Recently, however, I needed something light, fast, and fun, and picked up the second book, Shadow Touch.

I believe the general consensus is that this is a better place to start the series and a better book generally, and I agree wholeheartedly. Elena’s touch can heal; Artur’s touch forces him to experience the emotional history of people or objects. They meet as captives of a shadowy organization. Together, they try to escape, fall in love, and, yes, fight crime.

This is full of fierce funny characters, fast-paced cracktastic action, and tasty tasty angst: just the thing for taking one’s mind off other stuff at three in the morning. It also has the start of a long-term plot arc that opens up the world established in the first book, which now seems rather like a series prologue to me. I had altogether too much fun reading this, and while some of that may be the delight of finding exactly what I was in the mood for, well, there’s nothing wrong with that. I look forward to reading more of Liu’s work as the mood calls for.

Crossposted to [info]50books_poc.

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