Ern's Monthly Page Turners (January 2012)

*本に関するネタ、日本語は書き込みません

I suppose you book reading fans of mine have been wondering what happened to my "Monthly Page Turners" posts as I haven't written one since last June.  It's not that I haven't been reading any books, it's just that I had let the reviews fall by the wayside.  And since I haven't renewed my new year's resolution of reading at least 100 books, I've decided that I should at least try to write my monthly reviews on a regular basis.  I'm not so sure about my film reviews although I will try to update those as well.  Only five books featured this month as one of them was a monster at 627 pages and was a chore to read.

MY DAYS, MY DREAMS : STORIES FROM A BOYHOOD IN NORTHERN JAPAN by Yojiro Ishizaka – My wife and I headed to her hometown for the New Year’s holidays. We spent New Year’s at a hot spring near Hirosaki. The following day we went to Iwakiyama Shrine for hatsumode (the first visit to a shrine in the new year), then off to a place called Neputa Mura which features displays of the Neputa float. So what does this have to do with this book. Well, after our visit to Neputa Mura, as we were wandering in their gift shop, I came upon this book. Yojiro Ishizaka is probably unfamiliar to American readers as hardly any of his titles have been translated, yet there are at least eighty movies or more based on his stories in Japan. This a collection of short stories all set around the area of Tsugaru (present day Aomori Prefecture) long before the industrial revolution. What I found great about this book was the fact that most of the stories centered around the places I had just visited – Iwakiyama Shrine, Dake Hot Spring, and although it wasn’t the season for the Neputa festival, it is featured prominently in the first story. I also enjoyed the story with the American missionary as it reminded me of a short trip I took to this place called “Kiristo no Haka” which translates to “Christ’s Tomb”. And no, I’m not making that up. These stories just showcase everyday life in Tsugaru.

SURFACE DETAIL by Iain M. Banks – My favorite genre to read when I was in junior high was science-fiction and fantasy, much to the annoyance of my mother. Although my tastes in reading material has expanded, I always enjoy going back to my reading roots every now and then so this month I started off with this monster of a book by Iain M. Banks. You know, I made up my own reading rule, if I wasn’t enjoying the book after 100 pages, then I would have no problem tossing it aside and look for a new title. Unfortunately, I was nearly 300 pages into this book and not at all enjoying it (and there was still over 300 pages to go). One – I am not a fan of cyberpunk. William Gibson, Neal Stephenson do not interest me. Super techno-cyber babble also makes me lose interest in the story (and this was full of it). But as an avid reading friend of mine mentioned to me, I will read it for the review. So taking his advice to heart I continued to read through this. I’m sorry but this was just awful. It was another “Culture” book (I haven’t read his previous Culture book so I didn’t know what to expect). However, I did read his debut book, “The Wasp Factory” and really enjoyed that. But this, “The Culture” reminded me of those first few episodes of “Star Trek : The Next Generation” with that annoying know-it-all character, Q. And all these sentient rocket ships with their avatars was just too much to follow. And the sub plot of these artificial “heavens” and “hells” just totally turned me off. I know I won’t be reading another “Culture” book any time soon. Oh, how I long for the days when science-fiction didn’t need to be so technical. Give me Robert Heinlein or Frank Herbert over those cyberpunk authors any day.

HUNTING WITH HEMINGWAY by Hilary Hemingway and Jeffry P. Lindsay – Hilary Hemingway is the daughter of Leicester Hemingway, who is the younger brother of world renowned writer Ernest Hemingway. Yep, that would mean Hilary is Ernest Hemingway’s niece. This is part memoir, part fiction? Why the question mark. I will be getting to that soon. But first, this book starts off with the death of Hilary Hemingway’s mother. Her father, Leicester died fifteen years earlier (by his own hand no less). And although I’ve read a few of Ernest Hemingway’s books, it saddens me to admit that I did not know that he took his own life as well. In Hilary’s mother’s last will and testament, Hilary was left with an audio cassette tape. When her siblings asked if she was going to play it, she said she would once she found a cassette player. Currently, they only had a CD player. Hilary remembered they she had bought her daughter a Barney cassette player. When she popped in the cassette she was surprised to hear her father’s voice. The content of the tape was of her father telling some professor stories of hunting with his older sibling Ernest – tracking crocodiles in the Nile, trying to catch wild ostriches to start an ostrich farm, battling wild dogs and baboons just to name a few. Hilary and her writer husband, Jeffry thought the stories would make for a great book, and if they were true, would make them even more interesting. But we will never know. Even they aren’t true, they make for great stories though.

TRACKING THE SERPENT : JOURNEYS TO FOUR CONTINENTS by Janine Pommy Vega – Another one of my favorite genres to read is travel essays.  After Vega recovers from an accident, she decides to make a pilgrimage to Glastonbury, considered a power spot where there is a ancient maze representing a snake coiling on itself. Walking through this maze is called “threading the maze” and believed to hold some mystical power. Her next journey takes her to the jungles of the Amazon. From the Amazon, her next journey takes her to Peru and treks through the Andes while trying to avoid the “Shining Path”. On her final journey, she heads to Nepal and treks the Annapurna. The narrative of the treks were fascinating but I really didn’t need to read about her various conquests on her pilgrimages. I didn’t feel they added to the story any. Maybe I’m just old fashioned. Her pilgrimages were chosen so she could go and find the sacred spots of the Goddess, but her talk of the Goddess seemed to be entwined with having sex with different people. Perhaps she wanted to have the subtitle read as “Journeys to Have Sex in Four Continents”, although she refrains from that activity in Nepal. Who knows. Still an interesting read.

ANVIL : THE STORY OF ANVIL by Steve “Lips” Kudrow and Robb Reiner – “At fourteen, they made a pact to rock together forever. They meant it.” If you’ve seen the movie then you must read this book. If you don’t know who or what “Anvil : The Story of Anvil” is, go to your nearest DVD rental shop and go watch it now. Then read this book. Anvil is a heavy metal band from Toronto, Canada. They were playing speed metal long before Metallica, Anthrax or Slayer came on the scene. This documentary was released in 2008 and first shown at the Sundance Film Festival. You could consider this a companion piece to the film, even though the story of the film or the director of the film, Sasha Gervasi doesn’t appear until halfway through the book. Of course I was familiar with the band and of course I watched the film. I’ve been listening to hard rock and heavy metal ever since the fifth grade when my first ever record I bought with my allowance was Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” album. I also have a brother three years older than me who was into rock and metal as well. He had bought Anvil’s first album “Hard ‘n’ Heavy”. This book tells the story of Anvil’s beginning, their struggle for success, and is also about friendship, loyalty, and family and their comeback at Japan’s Loud Park 2006. Even if you do not like heavy metal, this makes for a great story. And if you haven’t seen the film yet, I highly recommend that as well. You won’t forget the beginning of the film – Super Rock Festival 1984 in Japan. Five bands on the bill, all of them went on to make millions of dollars and became successful in their own right, all but one – that band was Anvil! Just for you trivia buffs, the other bands on the Super Rock bill were The Scorpions, Michael Schenker, Whitesnake, and Bon Jovi.