One-Sentence Book Reviews

Okay, I never post on this blog, but I am still reading a lot of books. So, in an effort to participate, I present my "One-Sentence Book Reviews" --- designed to be almost worthless, but nevertheless in existence. These are all books I've read in the last month or two:

Poetry

Avatar by Sharon Harris --- About 1/3 of this book, the "Fun with 'Pataphysics" section, is worth the cover price, but overall it's not very impressive and the concrete poems are far from noteworthy.

Camber by Don McKay --- This is McKay's "best-of" and it's a solid collection of poems but it's disheartening to see how McKay doesn't really evolve that much over a very long period --- his more recent books, starting with Vis a Vis, are much, much better --- but he's one of the better lyric poets and has a great sense of humour, rare for a "serious poet" (especially in Canada).

As Elected by bpNichol --- Again, a "best-of" but a rather solid one which is far more adventurous than most, owing to Nichol's range --- many of the "standards" and a good introduction.

Shakti’s Words: An Anthology of South Asian Canadian Women’s Poetry by Various --- This book is fucking terrible, with a few exceptions to that rule... a pathetic collection, and poorly collected, with some poets getting about 15 pages, some getting a single page.

Waiting for Saskatchewan by Fred Wah --- A classic set of long poems, very affecting lyrics with some stylistic experimentation, exploring Wah's relationship with his father.


Fiction

The Double Hook by Sheila Watson --- Easily the finest modernist novel by a Canadian, if you haven't read this (or reread it lately) then pick it up again.

Bear by Marian Engel --- My friend Erin Wunker affectionately referred to this as "bear porn," and it is that but so much more... a thin slip of a book which is much riskier and more well-written than a lot of more recent work.

The Clockmaker; or, The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Thomas Chandler Haliburton --- A weird collection of short sketches regarding a Yankee in Bluenose country, an old CanLit classic which reads very weirdly now, the book exists mainly because Haliburton was a prominent politician who wrote sketches to spread his opinion that there should be a railway between Windsor and Halifax --- more interesting and quirky than enjoyable.

The Wars by Timothy Findley --- Findley is an exceptional writer and this book is astounding, a slim volume which is incredibly rich, rewarding, and readable.

Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley --- I liked this better than The Wars, which I loved, it's lighter but also more complex and serious, a strange magic realist comedy/gothic about the biblical Noah.

The Insanity Defense by Woody Allen --- This is really a compilation of Allen's prose, his first three prose books (3 books for the price of 1!) and it's very, very funny... if you like silly humour you'll love Allen's little "essays" (although they tend to get repetitive after a while, in terms of tone).


Drama

Leaving Home by David French --- I am a sucker for father/son relationship stories that aren't boring, and this fits the bill... one of the better realist plays I've read, and I don't like realist plays much.

Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature fio Love by Brad Fraser --- This is overhyped but it's still very good, worth reading for sure, dark and clever.


Non-Fiction

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat --- This book is hilarious, Mowat is not a great writer but he's a very competent writer and has a nice ear for deadpan satire, better than you'd expect overall.

The Perilous Trade: Book Publishing in Canada 1946-2006 by Roy MacSkimming --- A fascinating overview of the publishing industry in this country, although relatively depressing... guess the plot... yep, it was sold to the Americans....


I've read a ton of other stuff lately, but this popped into my head or is near my desk. More later, kiddies....

how a hamster reads palahniuk

so, i joined a gym and it only makes sense to me that a person (a person planning to sink 45minutes running this way or cycling on this machine for another hour) should plan ahead. it's a lot of time to spend in a room covered in mirrors–any direction you look in, you're going to get some unflattering, hamster-on-wheel version of yourself. to keep up morale on the voyage, and avoid looking at myself for two hours straight, i brought my book with me.

most treadmills, elliptical cross-trainers etc come with measly plastic ledges–what else could they be for, besides reading material? sure, it blocks all the big important numbers, but it only makes sense.it would make more sense, however, if it only worked with books that didn't have the dimensions of a large colouring book. the ledge isn't very wide, and there's nothing to clip your book in place.

my previous gym had a bin full of handy book clips. this gym is not my friendly downtown business-people-on-break gym. this gym is a gym for trainers. very tan trainers. i can't approach the front counter for juice or a question, without being asked "scheduling a tan?".

so, when i asked the bronzed goddess at the front counter if they had things to clip books to the machines... i sent her eyelids into hyper-overdrive. blink, blink, blink. more silence, before she she says, "i've worked here 8 years and no one has ever asked that". and after a precarious "no hands" workout, i went back with some bull clips.

two awkward, gigantic black clips; 'don't tip too far this way' balancing; blowing on a page to keep it from flying over the one i'm reading; and sticking out like a pale, sore thumb in a gallery of tanned "we eat lots of protein" thumbs–this is how i finished the new palahniuk novel (rant: an oral biography of buster casey) .

you can argue that all palahniuk books are the same. people have different favourites, and it's not because some are better quality than others: all it relies on is story preference, character preference, or just how much you done learned from all that man's research. it's true, palahniuk's tone doesn't change book to book. his lead characters have the same personality squeezed into different cirucumstances, different employments, statstics... but i think it's fair to say he's ripened in subtle ways.

some of his sentences, they're really well-crafted sentences. a few tiny bits make me jealous. i think his writing has improved, but he keeps it really low under the radar. some of them are such good sentences you don't really notice they're there.

it's less preachy, which god knows helps me through it. there's more focus on the story than on creating catch phrases, which are there, granted, but they're a bit better concealed. not so likely to be scratched on an angsty teen's locker.

it maintains the same organized appeal, the same amount of research that his former books have. palahniuk's stories have a lot of meat on their bones, which makes them some of the most satisfying summer reads in the summer reading genre. it's an interesting enough book, but that's what i'd recommend it for. if you've got some extra cash, you can buy it and then probably trade it in later for other books you want to have around permanently. if you can borrow it from someone, even better. it's nothing you'll ever brag about having in your collection, but you'd probably enjoy the read for what it is.

the cover design also makes me hot. just sayin'.

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* recently purchased: no one belongs here more than you. stories by miranda july; against the day thomas pynchon; nasty bits anthony bourdain (yes, more summer reading); the slynx tatyana tolstaya; love in the time of cholera marquez (needed my own copy as the ex still has mine...)

* currently reading the slynx in bed & no one belongs here more than you is my gym book for tomorrow.