Ern's Monthly Page Turners (April 2010)

*本に関するネタ日本語は書き込みません

I've decided not be anal-retentive about posting my book reviews at the beginning of every month. I will post them when I finish writing them; however, it will still be within the month. I had to continue reading "The Borrowers" series and am still looking forward to seeing the new Miyazaki film, which is based on the first book, at the theater in a couple of months. This month is eclectic as always, it wouldn't be me if it wasn't. But you may be surprised to find a fiction title and a science-fiction title as well. I also like to reiterate that the number of books should not surprise you because I write about the visual and children's book I read as well. Some of those titles can be read in less than a half-hour. Now, to share with you my choices for the month:


THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS : THE GRUMPIEST MAN ON THE PLANET GOES IN SEARCH OF THE HAPPIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD by Eric Weiner - Eric Weiner has been a foreign correspondant for NPR for over ten years. He had been based in such far flung places as Jerusalem, New Delhi, and Tokyo. After years of reporting on disasters, mayhem and whatnot from some of the worl'd most depressing places, Weiner decides to take a break from it all and travels the globe looking for the happiest places in the world. It may seem ironic that with a name like Weiner (pronounced whiner) to be writing about happiness. However, Weiner is not writing about Who are the happiest people in the world, he is focusing on Where in the world are the happiest places. His friends and peers tell him he's crazy and ask him how is he going to measure happiness? But that doesn't stop him from hitting the road. His travels first take him to the Netherlands where a Dutch professor named Ruut Veenhoven has created the "World Database of Happiness" who is also known as the "Godfather of Happiness Research". With the "World Database of Happiness" as a guide, Weiner visits the happy people of Switzerland, Bhutan (who's King has created the GNH - Gross National Happiness, happiness as a policy). To Qatar which is a country with a lot of money but no culture to speak of, to Moldova (rated at the bottom end of the happiness scale in the database), to Thailand where he experiences something called mai pen lai which is similar to the French "c'est la vie" or the crude American phrase of "Shit happens!". He also visits Great Britain, India and travels back to the States. So, who are the happiest people in the world? Well, you will have to read this and decide for yourself.


THE BORROWERS ALOFT by Mary Norton - Continuing the story of the Clock family - Pod, Homily, and Arietti think they have finally found a permanent home. Spiller has led them to a hamlet called Little Fordham. It’s a model village built on the edge of garden created by one Mr. Potts. It is here where Arietti also makes a new friend - another "human bean" named Miss Menzies. However, Miss Menzies isn't the only who has seen the Borrowers. A couple named the Platters who live across town and have a rival miniature village feel they will lose more business unless they do something drastic. That something is to kidnap the Borrowers and showcase them in a miniature glass house like a zoo for the rest of their lives! They succeed in the their scheme and have trapped the Borrowers in an attic room for the time being as the miniature house hasn't been completed. But with Arietti's reading ability and Pod's ingenuity, the Borrowers set out on freeing themselves from their captives. This book also includes a short story called "Poor Stainless".


JAPANESE LIVING : MINI LIFESTYLE LIBRARY by Noboru Murata - To put it simply, I shall just quote what was written on the back of the book - [Illustrated with over 150 stunning colour photographs, "Japanese Living" is an inspirational celebration of the unique aesthetic charm of Japanese architecture and interior design.] In my own words, it's a small photography book filled with pictures of rustic and traditional Japanese houses. The book also explains the Japanese terms you would need to know to create your own Japanese style room or house - tatami, shoji, fusuma, engawa, genkan, and tokonoma among others.

THE BORROWERS AVENGED by Mary Norton - The final chapter in Mary Norton's "Borrowers" series. The Clock family - Pod, Homily, and Arietti have narrowly escaped the attic room of the Platters by building a hot air balloon. Although Homily longs to move back to Little Fordham, Pod puts his foot down and says it's too dangerous. He says they need to find a new home and also makes Arietti swear not to talk to any "human beans" under no circumstances. And that's only one of their problems - because the Platters have not given up on re-finding them and using them for their own purposes. Will the Borrowers ever find peace and a permanent home?

MILKWEED by Jerry Spinelli - The story opens with a young boy who steals food to survive in the streets of Warsaw, Poland at the beginning of World War II and doesn't even know his name other than "Stopthief". He doesn't know who his parents are, how old he is, if he has any brothers or sisters or even where he came from. He doesn't even know what he is - German? Jew? Gypsy? When he grows up, he wants to become a Nazi so he could have nice shiny boots to call his own. But when the Nazis start emptying out the Jews who live in the Warsaw Ghetto, the boy decides he no longer wants to become a Nazi. In fact, he feels it would be safer if he was just a nobody. Pretty intense for a young adult novel dealing with the serious subject of the Holocaust, yet the reader is left feeling hopeful with a beautiful ending. Perhaps you should have your kids read this if you have any.


EXTREME CUISINE : EXOTIC TASTES FROM AROUND THE WORLD by Eddie Lin - If you're a fan of Andrew Zimmern's program on the Food Network, "Bizarre Foods", you will be familiar with some of the dishes that are featured in this book that Zimmern himself has tried, such as the Nutria - a large rodent found in the swamps of Louisiana, balut from the Philippines which is a duck embryo, hakarl from Iceland which is rotten shark, haggis from Scotland which is a boiled sheep stomach encased in its own innards to name a few. Even Japan's natto (fermented soy beans) and shirako (fish sperm) gets a mention, as does the very American dish of Lime green Jell-O Salad. Some of my friends may call me a foodie, and even I claim that title myself at times, but some of the other foods featured in here, I'm not sure if I would have the courage to try. Balut is one. The giant grubs of Australia might be another as well as any food item that has six legs or more - (although I have tried inago (grasshopper) and didn't find it too bad. Other items featured are Casa marzu, the maggot cheese from Sardinia, lutefisk (a whitefish soaked in lye), durian - the King of Fruit, seahorse, sea worms, geoducks, etc. A total of 65 different delicacies are covered. I've had or at leat tried at sixteen of the 65 items listed. Can I really call myself a foodie if I've only tried less than half? And I can't believe they didn't include a dish from Laos called "Ant Egg Soup".


BOOKS DO FURNISH A ROOM by Leslie Geddes-Brown - Aside from having my own book published, I have one other dream. To have my own personal library. I've always wanted a house with lots of shelving so I could display an assortment of my first editions and autographed copies of the various books I own. This is a beautiful visual book which shows you how you can create your own library by showing examples of the personal libraries of various people from around the world. It gives you examples on lighting, shelf length and height. There is a chapter devoted to designer shelves, which the author isn't too particular about. There is also a chapter devoted to those people who lack the space to store their books and shows how they cope with the limited facilities they have by stacking books on the floor, in the corner, on top of table, etc. But to each his own. The formal and informal libraries of certain designers and architects will make you green with envy. I have to make do with my tiny apartment and can only display a small portion of my collection as my wife is more of a minimalist and wouldn't allow heaps of books on the floor or scattered every which way in our limited closet space. But I can dream!


STILL LOST IN TRANSLATION : MORE MISADVENTURES IN ENGLISH ABROAD - by Charlie Croker - Living in Tokyo as I do, I cannot help but find strange signs in English as well. One that caught my attention was a sign forbidding leaving certain items in a coin locker. No.9 on the list was "corpse". Of course this was before I even heard of a phenomenon called "coin locker babies" which is the term used for unwanted babies being left in a coin locker. Another one of my favorites was "No downstairs please". There are many similar books on how English gets mangled abroad as well web-sites devoted to showcasing these priceless gems. This book collects the mangled English from around the world - in newspapers adverts, menus, signs, and from the World Wide Web as well. I think I laughed most when I saw what was listed on some menus. Of course the Japanese language doesn't have the "r" or "l" sound so it’s not surprising to find "Fried Lice" on the menu but check out some of these others - "Fish poup" from a menu in Mallorca, "fresh stirred crap with black bean sauce" from Ealing, "green jewess with jam" (Spain), "crap meat omelet" (Thailand), "deep fried ghost" (China) and there are lots more. Quite entertaining and no long attention span required.


THE WALKING DEAD Volume 1 : DAYS GONE BY by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Tony Moore - This is a graphic novel with the currently popular theme of...zombies!! The story opens with a couple of cops chasing down a bad guy. Unfortunately, one of the cops, Rick Grimes, gets shot and later wakes up from a coma in a hospital. That beginning reminds me of the English film "28 Days Later". Anyway, as Grime wakes up, he can find nobody around. No doctors, no nurses, and no other patients. As he does some exploring, he is nearly bit by a former patient - now zombie! He has awakened to a world that's been taken over by the "walking dead". Unlike the movies of this genre, although the walking-dead are flesh-eating zombies, they are extremely slow and stink up to high heaven. Hoping that his wife and kid had tried to take shelter in the big city, Grimes heads for Atlanta. But the city is even worse than the hospital, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of the walking-dead. Before Grimes himself becomes fodder for the masses, one of the remaining unaffected humans helps him and leads him to a place where there is a small group surviving day by day - including Grime's wife and son! As this is an ongoing series, the story is left open ended. Not only does this remind me of "28 Days Later", it also blends aspects of the classic science fiction thriller, "Countdown to Year Zero". It should be fun to see how Grimes and company continue to survive in their new world.


マイ・アイズ・トウキョウ [MY EYES TOKYO] by 徳橋 功 (Isao Tokuhashi) - Full review previously featured on "Asia by the Book" blog at http://asiabythebook.thingsasian.com/ Being an ex-pat and living in my adopted city of Tokyo for the past fifteen years, I am always fascinated by other people's perception of Japan and Tokyo in particular. Apparently, Tokuhashi shares my interest as well and decided to share the stories of the people who were willing to talk to him. In the prologue, Tokuhashi mentions that he had lived in a small town in California for a short time and realized how much of Japanese culture had already penetrated America - Hondas and Toyotas running along the freeway, Panasonic or Sony stereos in people's homes, kids playing video games on Nintendo, the popularity of anime such as Pokemon, Sailor Moon and Dragonball. But then his roommate would ask him questions like, "Do you speak Chinese?", "What color are the signal lights in Japan", "Are there really more bicycles than there are cars?" Tokuhashi thought for a state like California with a large second generation Japanese population and a lot of Asian exchange students that the majority of Americans really know nothing about his home country. And as I'm one of the many who has also decided to live here, I can tell you there is more to Tokyo than just karaoke, anime, or electronics!


GHANAVISION : HAND-PAINTED FILM POSTERS FROM GHANA by Thibaut de Ruyter - This is an interesting collection of art work of movie posters created in the African nation of Ghana. According to the author, the VCR was introduced in the 80s. In the early 90s and throughout early 2000, the major cities in Ghana such as Accra and Kumasi were saturated with video clubs but with television becoming easier to buy, a new business was formed – the mobile cinema which usually consisted of a VCR and a monitor, a generator and a car, and traveled to the more rural areas showing Hollywood blockbusters and some long forgotten titles as well. And to advertise their wares, the video stores and moving cinemas would commission artists for posters of the latest movies – even if the artist has not even seen the movie in question. Most of the posters look like they were drawn by junior or high school students with too much time on their hands featuring buxom babes and sword wielding men chopping off the heads of their enemies. Some of Hollywood’s big name actors even get the Ghana treatment such as Sylvester Stallone in “Rambo” and Bruce Willis in “Die Hard”, it can’t help but put a smile on your face when you see them.


THE EARTHQUAKE BIRD by Susanna Jones – This is Susanna Jones’ debut novel. I was a little undecided on my opinion as to whether I had enjoyed this book or not but now that a bit of time has passed, I think I did enjoy it. It's one of those stories that make you think about long after you've finished reading it. The story is set in Japan and is narrated by Lucy Fly. Lucy has just been arrested by the police for the murder of her friend Lily Bridges. Although, she does not admit to anything, she also does not deny anything as well. Then she fills us, the reader, in on how she escaped from her Mundane life in Yorkshire, England and found herself working in Tokyo as a translator for technical manuals, falls in love and has a relationship with a man named Teiji who has also disappeared. But we, as the reader, cannot be sure if Lucy is guilty or not. But if I were to tell you the outcome, then you would understand why it’s taken me some time to decide if I had enjoyed this or not. It really is a subtle little story which sucks you in and make you wonder. I think I may have to expand this review and feature it on the "Asia by the Book" blog.


DARK ENTRIES by Ian Rankin – Popular mystery author Ian Rankin has taken on the task of writing a story for a graphic novel which was illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera. Rankin writes a story for the main character of “Hellblazer” – John Constantine. For those of you who are unfamiliar with “Hellblazer” or “John Constantine”, all you need to know is that he is an occult detective who fights demons and other nasties. In this story, Constantine is talked into appearing as a contestant on a popular reality television show. The producers tell him that although the studio had set up a bunch of booby traps and whatnot, it appears the contestants are suffering some delusions that are not the studio’s doing. However, it turns out that this reality show isn’t aired for normal people – Constantine learns the secret of the show – the contestants are already dead but they are not aware of it and the show is being aired to all the demons in hell who seriously want to do some damage to Constantine as he was the one who sent them to hell in the first place.


STAR WARS : A SCANIMATION BOOK by Rufus Butler Seder - Continuing the "Scanimation" series which started it out with "Gallop!", then followed by "Swing!" and "Waddle!", we are now treated to eleven separate scenes taken from Star Wars and given that Scanimation touch. What is "Scanimation" you ask? For those of you who are not familiar, it's a low-tech design technique using vertical lines on acetate which interacts with an image to give the illusion of movement (or something like that anyway). Scenes include Darth Vader light-saber fighting with Obi Wan Kenobi, R2D2 and C3PO walking across the desert of Tatooine, Boba Fett flying away on his jet pack, and more. Very cool! Okay, I admit it, I’m a Star Wars fan but not as geeky as one of my friends in the States.


THE ENGINES OF GOD by Jack McDevitt – Thinking about the kinds of books that really spawned my interest in reading, I decided to revisit the genre that had captured my imagination when I was a teen – that being science-fiction and fantasy. But I wanted to read some hard science-fiction, the kind that would include other worlds, interstellar travel, technology far beyond our present capacity and so forth. So I picked this McDevitt book which reads like a cross between Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama” and the movie “Star Trek IV” with maybe a bit of “2001 : A Space Odyssey” thrown in there as well. It appears there were other space-faring races long before humans have even developed spaceflight. But two of the three known races aside from humans seem to have been extinct for ages. The earthlings have named these ancient space-farers the Monument Makers as they have found remnants of old monuments on the satellites of planets spanning many light years apart. Archeologist Richard Wald and Starship Pilot Priscilla Hutchins are studying the alien ruins called Oz on a planet called Quraqua. Unfortunately, they are running out of time. As the earth is suffering from serious environmental damage, the government has decided to terraform Quraqua to create another Earth. Will they discover why the aliens made their monuments? What exactly are “The Engines of God”. Reading and finding out about it was just as delightful as getting back to my reading roots. I think I’m going to read even more science-fiction again!

As always, I hope you enjoyed my literary journey. For next month I have already made a few purchases. I bought the autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne - "I am Ozzy", along with the new release by Barry Eisler - "Fault Line" and am a third of the way through reading Alastair Reynold's space opera "Revelation Space". I also finished reading another title which is currently featured on the "Asia by the Book" blog - "Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential" as well as a few children's book which were published by ThingsAsian Press and an unofficial biography which you will have to read about next month. Until next time.

Happy Reading!!