reading notes

by John Berger
ISBN: 0140216316
This book contains seven essays about, as the title suggests, seeing things. Three are entirely about seeing, as they consist only of images. All the reproductions (ranging from Old Masters to magazine ads — unfortunately not always clearly reproduced) are black and white. The list of reproduction credits in the back is [...]

by Richard Ellis
ISBN: 0140286764
I think the giant squid, even the idea of giant squid, is inherently fascinating. Unfortunately, this book was not all that fascinating.
Ellis is fascinated by giant squid; I’d even say he is obsessed. Like many people with an obsession, he goes on too long and repeats himself. As in, he not only [...]

by Dan James
published by Top Shelf Productions
James gives us the True Story of the octopi, presented as a fable. In this clever tale, a young boy with cruel parents is kidnapped by the school bus driver, who is really an octopus in disguise. (A tentacle is cleverly arranged as a tie.) He is taken to [...]

by David Quammen
ISBN: 0393051404
Indian lions, Australian crocodiles, Romanian bears, and Siberian tigers, oh my! Quammen, while noting other types of predators, keeps his focus on these four keystone species in this fascinating and hefty tome.
What are keystone species? They are animals that are “of inordinate importance to the overall structure of an ecosystem.” In other [...]

by Marjane Satrapi
ISBN: 0375422307
In this graphic novel, Satrapi draws us a childs-eye view of revolution and war in Iran.
In the opening story “The Veil” we see girls using veils as a toys on the playground, underneath the narrator’s explanation: “we didn’t really like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we [...]

by Jonathan Franzen
ISBN: 0312422164
Jonathan Franzen may always be known for getting himself disinvited from the Oprah show and book club. He’s a relatively young man (early forties) as authors go, and no doubt has many more books and publically-recorded “misstatements” to come, so one can’t be sure. This book, as a collection of essays, gives [...]

by Randall Kenan
ISBN: 0375703977
This is Kenan’s first novel, and the promise fully realized in his later work (Let The Dead Bury Their Dead) is evident. Many of the elements in place in the later stories are already present here: the small town of Tims Creek, the pride and pressure brought to bear by generations of [...]