The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq

I read The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq in early January. I've been reviewing books on my edublogs site instead of here for some time, and I didn't want to review this book there. As much as a quarter of the book is dedicated to sex scenes written in pornographic detail, though presented in a way that they are joyless and depressing. The whole book is joyless and depressing. The main characters are two brothers parented, well abandoned really, by a mother who fully embraced the "free love" lifestyle of the '60's. One brother is emotionally stunted to the point he cannot engage in any kind of meaningful human relation. The other brother values only sex. Anything meaningfully specific I could say about it beyond that would be a spoiler. I'll say this much, there's no long term happiness or redemption for anyone in this book. I would not be surprised if I ever read of a middle-aged man reading this book and then killing himself.
So, it is not appropriate for teens or anyone prone to depression or mental instability, but it is full of interesting though negatively-spun ideas and social/scientific commentary. And it is very short. **

Mixwit mixtape

Gray Ghost by William G. Tapply

Gray Ghost by William G. Tapply is the second book in a new series for Tapply. The hero is Stoney (Stonewall Jackson) Calhoun. Struck by lightning, Stoney cannot remember anything before that event. He lives in the woods of Maine and works as a fishing guide and fishing supply shop co-owner. Stoney's constantly rediscovering old skills: he knows how to kill people with his hands, for example, and in this book he learns that he once played basketball. Gray Ghost was as easy to read as any of Tapply's Brady Coyne books, but with most of the action in Portland and on Casco Bay I got hung up on some geographical issues. South Portland is treated as if it is part of Portland, Cape Elizabeth is moved to where South Portland is, a deep-water cove is described as being in a place only a very small boat can get to (and there's no cove there), a dive bar is placed in an alley off Wharf St (which in reality is an alley). Why?
All the distraction of those inaccuracies kept me mulling about the story and led me to realize that the characterizations are unrealistic and generate plot holes. So know what you're getting, but it's still a ***
Here's a link to my last Tapply review.
I mention Tapply's recently deceased friend and sometime cowriter Philip Craig in that one. I couldn't help thinking that this new character, named Jackson, living in the woods, surviving an injury that ended some kind of law enforcement career, and loving fishing is in some ways a tribute to Craig's J.W. Jackson.

Mad Dogs by James Grady

Mad Dogs by James Grady **** approaching the magical 5. If you follow the link in the header you'll see a blurb about this book being a seamless blend of styles.
Grady, of course, wrote Six Days of the Condor, paranoid spy thriller that was the basis for the tightened up movie Three Days of the Condor. Very noir, very Seventies. Mad Dogs updates the concept to the 2000's, including a brief homage to the older one. Cool! Hot! Crazy!
Dan Brown wishes he could write this well, and so do a lot of other people.
You'll only put it down to take a few deep breaths.

Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire

Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire is a comic book version of the book that shows how America's foreign policy has had less to do with democracy than capitalism. It's a graphic, but no comic book. This is heavy stuff, but condensed and comprehensible. ****

When We Get to Surf City by Bob Greene

I could hardly wait to start When We Get to Surf City by Bob Greene, and once I did I didn't want to do anything but read it until I finished. I've read two other Bob Greene books: Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan, and Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War. Both would get a four-star rating here. He's got a journalist's ear and a columnist's eye. And he must be a pretty good guy to hang with, since Michael Jordan and the whole Jan and Dean band befriended him.
This story starts with a member of that band contacting him after picking up a Greene memoir in an airport. He ends up joining the band on tour whenever possible for years. On the oldies circuit and encountering Ben E. King, Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and others Greene portrays the tragic Jan Berry as only the most extreme example of the unasked question, "What do you do when your life is over, but you're still alive." The answer is modern-day heroism: just keep living.
Maybe you have to be in your fifties to enjoy a book about playing surf music, but Greene sees young kids at the concerts who know every word to songs like "Help Me Rhonda." I never went more than ten pages without laughing or crying (often both at once). ****

The Annotated Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler

Yesterday I zipped through The Annotated Northwest Passage by Scott Chantler. In the annotatations he mentions that it is his first professional writing job. That's incredible! It is superbly plotted. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of writing and visual composition the annotations make it a lot more fun. ****
I don't even want to bother to summarize plot. Click on the title to go to Chantler's home page. Or click here to go to a summary in a review on a blog.