Known and Strange Things: Essays

Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole, 393 pages.
A truly excellent collection of essays from the Photography columnist of the New York Times magazine. Cole writes incredibly insightful pieces on photography and photographs, on literature and about the interactions of people around the world.
Okay, so the photographic essays were a little beyond me, but his essays on poets and writers were fascinating. I have started one Tomas Transtromer book, and am hunting down a second. I have dug out a collection of Derek Walcott poems for winter reading, and I have put Sebald on my list of authors to try one more time.

Born to Run

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, 510 pages.
Bruce Springsteen has written a very readable and enjoyable account of his life, from childhood to his rock and roll beginnings and on through super-stardom. He tells the strange story of his grandmother's sort of obsessive love for him when he was very young, recalling that at age three and four he could do whatever he pleased, staying up until 3am and the sleeping all day. His mother was able to remedy this situation after a while, but not before Bruce felt the lasting effect of being the center of the world. Springsteen's relationship with his father was also fairly trauma-filled, and the dysfunction there also formed him. Who is not a sum of all their parts, though. Springsteen acknowledges the mental unwellness of some of his forbears, but then moves on to the music. He was part of a local band called the Castiles which had a local following. He and fellow Jersey natives also made it big locally with Child (renamed Steel Mill when they discovered another band already using the name Child). Several members of that band joined Bruce on his first album and eventually became the E-Street band. Lots of interesting stories written in a readable, introspective style. Great for fans of Springsteen and his music.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by
Cathy O'Neil, 259 pages.
O'Neil, who has worked as a Quant on Wall Street, as an academic, and as data scientist for many start-ups shows how big data can be and is used used in a manner that reinforces unfounded assumptions about people with fewer resources and often ends up oppressing those who most need help. In education, college recruitment, bank loans, employment, and advertising the data collected about an individual, no matter how precise or refined, can be used against that individual when the underlying premises about what the data means are flawed. O'Neil calls for using the data in a way that helps people instead of having the whole data machine aimed at maximizing profits.
An engaging and thought-provoking look at an omnipresent issue.

Hot Milk

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, 218 pages.
Deborah Levy, has written a number of books, including a novel, Swimming Home,which was shortlisted for the Booker in 2012,of which I have to confess I was unaware. She is a really good writer though; quiet, fun, and engaging, so this was my loss. Sofia, our protagonist, is an all-but-dissertation anthropologist who was working as a barista and caring for her mother, a self-centered and controlling hypochondriac named Rose. Sofia has been relying in turn on her mother for financial support. She and Rose have now traveled from England to Almeria, in southern Spain, to see specialist Dr. Gomez in the hope that he can somehow help  Rose with her ever growing list of imagined maladies. In Almeria Sofia encounters jellyfish and attractive strangers and begins to see a way back to her own life. Sofia is a charming character, unembarrassed by her many flaws and aware of all that she is quietly enduring. She and other characters talk about the confusion they face in their lives, the effect that others have upon them, and the roles they are forced to play, A well-written and enjoyable book.

Razor Girl

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen, 333 pages.
Former police detective, and current health inspector, Andrew Yancy returns in this second novel set among the more ethically challenged citizens of the Florida Keys. While tagging along with his former partner, and hoping to get back in the sheriff's good graces and return to the police force, Yancy meets Merry Mansfield, a specialist in faked car accidents. Merry's specialty gives rise to the title. There's a lot going on in this book, with reality TV stars, mobsters, and, as with Yancy's debut, Bad Monkey, neighbors who want to block the main character's view.
A fun read for fans of Hiassen.

Pax

Pax by Sarah Pennypacker, 276 pages.
When his father goes off to war, young Peter agrees out of necessity to return his pet fox, Pax, to the wild, but immediately regrets his decision. Left with his grandfather, a man who seems to have no love for him, Peter decides to run away, after Pax, and then back home. He embarks on a quest to recover his best friend without too much planning, and runs into trouble fairly soon. Vola, a wounded war veteran, grudgingly offers assistance. Despite injury and delay, Peter is determined to be reunited with Pax. Pax, who is telling his side of the story, tries to stay alive and deal with the wild world as he waits to be reunited with Peter.
A bit didactic, and though it is lacking in wizards, mythological creatures, or vampires, Pax is a decent story.

The Girls

The Girls by Emma Cline, 355 pages.
Evie is a semi-lost teen in the waning years of hippiedom, in the late 1960s. Her father has moved on and her mother is mostly interested in her own happiness. Evie is drawn into the orbit of a Manson-like character, Russell, not because of his charisma, but because of what she feels for Suzanne, one of Russell's inner circle. Part of the book is told with Evie looking back from years later, and part of it is told as it was happening then. Evie and all of the characters are well-drawn, and it is an interesting and emotionally rich tale. Or maybe I really need to write this before I forget the whole story. I know that I enjoyed it, that I listened to part of it on audio, and that I enjoyed that too, but honestly I wrote the first part of this a while ago, and the year is almost over so I am going with this as my review.

Beowulf

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney, 213 pages.
Teju Cole, in the introduction to his book of essays, Known and Strange Things, tells how when he is shopping for a new pen he tests the candidates out by writing the first page of Heaney's 2000 translation of this (more than) thousand year old Anglo Saxon tale which he had memorized. I am assuming that he meant the  "So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled then had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns."
and not the "Hwaet we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum peod cyninga . . ." part.
So, the tale of the Geat warrior, Beowulf, and his battles with Grendel and then with Grendel's mother, retold by one of this century's (and the last one) greatest poets. Heaney, who died in 2013, has made this classic poem exciting and accessible for generations to come.
Plus it's the bilingual edition, so double page points.

Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" the Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Shirley Jackson and Miles Hyman, 139 pages.
The classic short story in graphic form with art by (probably) acclaimed artist Miles Hyman. Hyman's realistic style with dark colors and grim detail conveys the mood of this story well. You remember the story, right? Every adult in town must participate in the lottery, as they have every year. The story ends with the revelation of the "winner's" prize.

Mooncop

Mooncop by Tom Gauld, 96 pages.
Gauld's spare, minimal drawings adequately convey the loneliness of the moon colony he has created. The colony is slowly being depopulated with only the mooncop and one or two others left. The mooncop (pretty sure he is unnamed) is there to make sure that crime is under control, though it's been a long time sincde that has been a problem more serious than a lost dog or a wandering robot.
Sad, somewhat bittersweet, and interesting.