{"id":728,"date":"2014-12-15T20:17:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T01:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/?p=728"},"modified":"2014-12-16T00:38:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T05:38:55","slug":"books-of-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/2014\/12\/books-of-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Books Of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by my pal Michael<\/a> I’ve decided to do a brief review of every book I read this year.\u00a0 Hopefully you’ll find it interesting, maybe discover a couple of new books.\u00a0 If nothing else, it’ll be interesting for me to organise a year’s worth of reading habits in one place.<\/p>\n

A few observations first:<\/p>\n

This year was the first time in a while that I’ve read a significant volume of fiction.\u00a0 This list includes 14 fiction and 7 non-fiction titles, which is more of the former than I would have guessed, but much less of the latter.<\/p>\n

Another major shift for me has been the move to e-books.\u00a0 I read only one paper\/printed book this year, and it was given to me as a gift.\u00a0 My own book purchasing habits have moved almost entirely to e-books.<\/p>\n

And of course, this year my own debut novel The Disillusioners<\/a> was published, which I read multiple times throughout the editing process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n
\n

<\/h2>\n

\"eisler1\"
\nThe debut novel by a former CIA officer, A Clean Kill In Tokyo<\/em> introduces assassin John Rain, revered for his ability to make his murders look like they were the result of natural causes.\u00a0 The Rain novels are essentially spy novels even though Rain is an assassin rather than a spy.\u00a0 I very much enjoyed the attention to detail about the actual routines of surveillance and counter-surveillance that Eisler employs.\u00a0 On the other hand, at times it just felt like Eisler was just trying to show off how much he knew, to the detriment of the story.\u00a0 A good but flawed novel.<\/p>\n

\"eisler2\"
\nAnother Rain novel, this time with three additional assassins by his side.\u00a0 The overarching plot strained my suspension of disbelief (high ranking U.S. officials stage increasingly elaborate terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in order to allow a dictatorial coup d’etat), but Eisler’s attention to the details of spycraft remains compelling.\u00a0 One particular focus of this novel is how difficult it is to remain undetectable and untraceable when a modern state has you in its sights.\u00a0 Unlike A Clean Kill In Tokyo<\/em>, there’s far less time spent showing off; the narrative moves at a very brisk pace from start to finish.<\/p>\n

\"vonnegut\"
\nThis year I decided to try reading some of the Vonnegut novels that I hadn’t read before.\u00a0 God Bless You<\/em>, Mr. Rosewater<\/em> is a mixed bag.\u00a0 On the one hand, it does contain much of Vonnegut’s deep compassion, his razor-sharp wit, and his general zaniness.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other hand, there was a bit too much of a focus on the day-to-day lives of the characters at the expense of the bigger picture.\u00a0 A novel about how little is actually done by the rich to deserve their wealth, and how easily it might have been otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"vonnegut2\"
\nI’m not really a fan of Vonnegut’s pre-Slaughterhouse Five<\/em> novels, so unsurprisingly this one didn’t really work for me.\u00a0 There are moments where the things that I love about Vonnegut shine through; some of the prose is just delightful, and the twist at the end is vintage Vonnegut.\u00a0 But much of what leads up to the end is disappointing.\u00a0 The section on Mars, in particular, felt to me like it dragged on and on, and added next-to-nothing to the story.\u00a0 Almost worth recommending just for the final act, but not a great read up until that point.<\/p>\n

\"rowling\"
\nSurprisingly, this turned out to be one of my favourite things that I read this year.\u00a0 The story suffers from too much fantasy cliche, as though Rowling was determined to stuff every last bit of other fantasy universes into her own – look, here’s a goblin! and a troll! and a ghost! and a centaur! and a vampire! and so forth.\u00a0 But the writing itself is truly top-notch.\u00a0 Rowling’s skill with prose is evident from the opening passages.\u00a0 The characters are also very well drawn.\u00a0 The story is at its best when it focuses on the relationships between the characters rather than on their hijinx.\u00a0 What’s perhaps most interesting to me is that I suspect I would not have enjoyed Harry Potter<\/em> at all when I was closer to the age of its intended audience.\u00a0 I had friends who adored the books when they first came out, but they sounded like a dreadful bore to me, as I wanted to read “serious” novels.\u00a0 Now, older and with a better ability to appreciate a well-told story without needing it to also help define my identity, I really enjoyed reading this.<\/p>\n

\"leguin\"
\nI read this prior to Harry Potter<\/em>, and it was due to an article suggesting that there were similarities between Earthsea<\/em> and Potter<\/em> that I decided to give P<\/em>otter<\/em> a shot.\u00a0 Wizard of Earthsea<\/em> is the story of Ged, a young rural boy who goes off to a wizarding school and begins on his path to becoming the greatest mage in the world.\u00a0 I always feel like I ought to enjoy Le Guin more than I do.\u00a0 She sounds<\/em> like an author whose novels I would really enjoy.\u00a0 But I didn’t really enjoy this one all that much.\u00a0 The novel covers such an astonishing array of events in such a small number of words that I never felt like I had a chance to get to know any of the characters, places, or events.\u00a0 There were also far too many just so<\/em> events, where exceptionally unlikely events are hand waved away as “Well Ged is powerful and the world is mysterious.”<\/p>\n

\"rich\"
\nA novel about a man whose job is to convince large corporations that a wide array of terrible disasters could befall them, and that they need to invest in a complicated limited liability insurance to protect themselves against tragedy.\u00a0 Has a great premise, but is tremendously flawed in its execution.\u00a0 The characters are all poorly drawn, especially the female characters, of whom there are only two, who only serve as projections for some element of the central male character.\u00a0 I gave up about half-way through this one.\u00a0 It wastes a great premise by not having it written by Chuck Palahniuk, who could have treated it with the grim, grotesque humour that it demands.<\/p>\n

\"eggers\"
\nMy favourite novel that I read this year.\u00a0 A former executive for the Schwinn bicycle company has become a corporate IT consultant as a result of the hollowing out of the American manufacturing economy.\u00a0 He travels to Saudi Arabia, where he spends most of his time worrying about a presentation he never seems to be allowed to give, while struggling to write a letter to explain to his university-aged daughter why he can no longer afford to help her pay her way through school.\u00a0 The story takes a weird turn about 3\/4 of the way through, veering off into a couple of unnecessary diversions, but what comes before is so good that I still strongly recommend reading this novel.<\/p>\n

\"sloan\"
\nA young, recent university graduate begins working the midnight shift in a bookstore that has a bizarre owner and even more bizarre patrons.\u00a0 Eventually the young man realises the bookstore owner is involved in a centuries-old secret society, and tries to unravel its mystery.\u00a0 My primary problem with this novel was that it just seems to be uncritically in love with everything.\u00a0 Books are great!\u00a0 Friendship is great!\u00a0 Google is great!\u00a0 Making art by hand is great!\u00a0 Making art with computers is great!\u00a0 It’s not even an especially happy novel, just one that seems incapable of turning a critical eye on anything.\"coetzee\"
\nJ.M Coetzee, old literature professor, writes about a fictional old literature professor who lusts after his young students.\u00a0 Thoroughly boring.\u00a0 Gave up half-way through.\u00a0 No idea why this novel received such overwhelming critical acclaim.\u00a0 Have to assume literary critics are also awful old literature professors.<\/p>\n

\"osborne\"
\nI have mixed feelings about this one, which is about an old, white man who kills a young Moroccan man in a hit-and-run late at night on the way to a lavish party in an old Moroccan castle.\u00a0 The premise is interesting, and the author – who has been employed as an international journalist and lived in Morocco – does a good job of drawing a vivid picture of the location.\u00a0 But the plot meanders and ultimately ends up nowhere.\u00a0 Not bad, but could have been much better.<\/p>\n

\"lecarre1\"
\nI decided to try reading some spy fiction this year (hence Barry Eisler above as well).\u00a0 I had mixed feelings about this one.\u00a0 The plot is kind of brilliant; entirely logical, entirely plausible, not predictable.\u00a0 But the writing itself was a bit too plain for me, and even though everything comes together in the end, it often feels<\/em> like nothing is happening for long stretches, especially in the first half.<\/p>\n

\"lecarre2\"
\nDidn’t really like it.\u00a0 Way too many flashbacks.\u00a0 Way too many diversions.\u00a0 Way too much trying to be “literary”.\u00a0 Gave up half-way through.<\/p>\n

\"chandler\"
\nI’ve been a fan of noir films for a while, so I decided to jump into some noir novels as well.\u00a0 I’ve got The Glass Key<\/em> by Dashiell Hammett on deck, but first up was some Chandler.\u00a0 I really enjoyed this novel.\u00a0 Chandler perfected the archetype of the wise-cracking private eye.\u00a0 Despite the fairly grim subject matter, Farewell, My Lovely<\/em> is one of the funniest novels I’ve read in a while.\u00a0 The plot also moves along at a very brisk pace.\u00a0 Easy to recommend.<\/p>\n

\n

Non-Fiction<\/h2>\n
\n

<\/h2>\n

\"weisman\"
\nI’m actually in the middle of reading this, but I’ll include it anyway.\u00a0 I love the premise of this book: what would happen to the Earth if humans just suddenly vanished from it?\u00a0 Some of the stories are really interesting, but it mostly seems to be a book about human history and engineering rather than about what would happen in an Earth without us as such.\u00a0 Also, most of the chapters feel like long-form, self-contained journalism (which makes sense, since the writer is a journalist) rather than chapters in a cohesive whole.\u00a0 It’s good, but could have been much better.<\/p>\n

\"kolbert\"
\nThe Sixth Extinction<\/em> is the best thing I read this year.\u00a0 Over the course of the Earth’s history there have been five mass extinctions in which nearly all species were wiped out.\u00a0 Many people believe we are currently in a 6th mass extinction, caused by humans.\u00a0 Global warming is the most obvious culprit here, but there are many others, including poaching, habitat destruction, and unintended and unforeseen outcomes related to international travel and globalisation.\u00a0 An extremely readable book that covers both the past and the present in an engaging and informative way.\u00a0 Part history, part biology, all fascinating.<\/p>\n

\"issenberg\"
\nA history of how political campaigns in the U.S. have used evidence and data-driven methodology to improve outcomes on election day.\u00a0 Those of you who are familiar with the stats vs eye-test debate in pro sports will find the battles here very familiar<\/a>.\u00a0 Some of the older history was quite interesting, but much of the newer techniques being used are kind of frightening.\u00a0 Political parties, especially those of Presidential candidates, are putting an incredible amount of money and effort into building psychological profiles of voters, and they often seem to know voters better than voters know themselves.\u00a0 I found Issenberg focussed too much on the personalities rather than the stories, but some people likely enjoy that approach more than I did.<\/p>\n

\"angwin\"
\nWhile most of the news about surveillance over the past year or two has been about the programs of the NSA and GCHQ, we’re being tracked virtually all the time by corporations, both online and offline.\u00a0 Dragnet Nation<\/em> is primarily about that corporate surveillance.\u00a0 One of the most interesting parts of the book is when Angwin attempts to discover what it would take for a person to prevent themselves from being tracked and whether it was actually feasible for a normal person (like Angwin, a middle-aged, married journalist with children living in a big city) to follow through on.\u00a0 As someone who’s been reading Angwin’s reporting for a while now, there was a lot of material in here that I had read before.\u00a0 Definitely a book I’d recommend though.<\/p>\n

\"konrath\"
\nThe final three books are all related to self-publishing, since that was a topic I took a great interest in starting this spring.\u00a0 Be The Monkey<\/em> is a conversation between two authors who left major New York publishers to self-publish their novels to great success.\u00a0 The discussion primarily centres on why big publishers are bad and why self-publishing is a better deal for most authors.\u00a0 I’d say this book is worth reading even if you’re not a writer so long as you have an interest in the business side of arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n

\"kawasaki\"<\/p>\n

&<\/p>\n

\"gaughran\"
\nThese two books cover similar territory, so I thought I’d include them here.\u00a0 Both are primarily how-to guides for self-publishing.\u00a0 They explain how to find an editor, how much money to budget, what kinds of marketing are most effective, and so forth.\u00a0 Of the two I’d say Let’s Get Digital<\/em> was more interesting and useful to me, as it focuses entirely on fiction (while APE<\/em> is often concerned with non-fiction).\u00a0 Both are worth reading it you’re thinking about getting into self-publishing, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by my pal Michael I’ve decided to do a brief review of every book I read this year.\u00a0 Hopefully you’ll find it interesting, maybe discover a couple of new books.\u00a0 If nothing else, it’ll be interesting for me to organise a year’s worth of reading habits in one place. A few observations first: This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greatapes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}