Tag Archives: Broadway Books

Review: Ready Player One

July 7, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Published: 2011
ISBN-13: 9780804190138
Publisher: Broadway Books
Twitter: @ErnieCline
Publisher’s Blurb:

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

I saw the movie with co-workers who are gamers and were so excited I could hardly stand it. My opinion of the whole deal was, at best, neutral. My knowledge of Ready Player One was only this was a really popular book, and at least one friend loathed it.

What a perfect escapist film. Bright, fast, flashy, filled with 1980s pop culture references that had my co-workers talking excitedly for days. I was bemused. Then one of them loaned her copy of the book to me. She was so excited to share it with me.

Perfect escapist fare again. Ready Player One is wish fulfillment 101. It’s like Cline took every reference from 1980s pop culture and crammed it into a “wouldn’t it be cool if ….” version of “my life sucks and I was really happy back then.” Which is, pointedly, harsh and maybe a bit unfair to Cline. Because we all have wish fulfillment fantasies, mine is comfortable surroundings on a golden beach surrounded by books and all the time to read them.

Pollution, poverty, climate change, unemployment have all reached their logical conclusion in 2045. It’s no wonder people would rather be in OASIS, the virtual world created by James Halliday, than anywhere else. And, like everything else in any world, the rich and powerful want even more.

Wade is the one-dimensional hero. The teenager who’s smarter and cooler than everyone else, saving the day from the big bad corporation who wants to take over OASIS and profit from it. Halliday’s death spurs an all out 3-riddle solving winner takes all contest for ownership. Wade’s team of five against IOI’s massive army of employees whose only job it is to research Halliday’s life and 1980s trivia, or strap up in game harnesses and play until they pass out.

The teenagers win. Wade gets the girl, the fortune and the power to turn OASIS off one day a week so everyone can reconnect to the “real world.” That’s pretty much it. Nothin’ deep or complex. Just a good mind candy afternoon read.

Although I’m sure my co-workers would disagree about the meaning of all those Easter Eggs.

Reviews

Review: The Inkblots

April 6, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

Title: The Inkblots
Author: Damion Searls
Published: 2017
ISBN-13: 9780804136563
Publisher: Broadway Books
Publisher’s Blurb: The captivating, untold story of Hermann Rorschach and his famous inkblot test.
What’s Auntie Reading Now? picture

[Rorschach] wanted to do more than treat patients: he wanted to bring culture and psychology together to explore the nature and meaning of individual and communal belief. (p. 91)

Ten inkblots. That’s all there are. Just ten cards with carefully thought out art in which can be found the meaning of the innermost workings of a human mind. There’s no right, or wrong, answer. Merely interpretation.

Rorschach’s carefully developed test remains controversial, its use hotly debated in psychology circles. Interpretation is key, but which method? Its usefulness as diagnostic tool is not without debate as well.

Hermann Rorschach was working towards a tool which would help psychiatrists know how to help their patients get better. Unfortunately, Rorschach died at the age of 37, not quite convinced his test was as finely tuned as it should be.

Damion Searls tells the story of this remarkable Swiss doctor/artist who yearned for a more holistic approach to patient care at the sanitarium for which he worked and did research. It was his hope that his inkblots, with careful diagnostics, would be one of the tools used for better care.

As someone who worked in the Ph.D. program for psychology at a small university, I’ve been exposed to the foibles of both students and faculty who think they have much to prove. Both to themselves and to each other. I can now be amused at the memories, at the time it was just downright painful to be in the middle of it.

And yet, Searls’ story reminded me of what we’re all up against, psychologists and laypeople alike. There’s a lot at stake for potential caregivers and their patients, and an overwhelming abundance of tools available. It’s no surprise that passions flare and boil over. Its understandable to some extent. This is not to say egos don’t come into play. I’ve encountered more than one “celebrity” psychologist who turned out to be a complete douche in need of some careful handling themselves.

Searls reminds me that despite all the posturing and arguing, there are people like Hermann Rorshach who are genuinely kind and caring, searching for ways to better help those under their care. Inkblots gave me real insight into the struggle of early psychoanalysts to find footing in their new field. Rorshach was among the pioneers, and his test has proven to be a useful tool for those who are careful with it.

Damion Searls has written the only biography of Hermann Rorschach and it’s worth reading if you’ve any interest in what makes people tick.

I received a free copy of The Inkblots as part of the Blogging for Books program.

New to the Stacks

New to the Stacks: The Armored Saint, Binti, & The Inkblots

March 3, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole (Damn you John Scalzi)

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor – read
The Armored Saint by Myke Cole ~ read
The Inkblots by Damion Searls ~ read

What's Auntie Reading Now?

What’s Auntie Reading Now?: The Inkblots

March 3, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

The Inkblots by Daniel Searls ~ Review

The biography of Herman Rorschach, designer of the Rorschach Test

Reviews

Review: Second Street Station & Brooklyn on Fire

March 3, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

Second Street Station by Lawrence H. Levy	Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H. Levy
Title: Second Street Station Author: Lawrence H. Levy Published: 2015 ISBN-13: 9780553418927 Publisher: Broadway Books Publisher’s Blurb What’s Auntie Reading Now? picture	Title: Brooklyn on Fire Author: Lawrence H. Levy Published: 2016 ISBN-13: 9780553418941 Publisher: Broadway Books Publisher’s Blurb What’s Auntie Reading Now? picture

“She had a magnetic aura about her, fueled by her strong spirit and her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, that only those purely interested in the superficial could possibly miss. (p. 12)

I enjoyed the trilogy of Mary Handley books (Last Stop in Brooklyn being the third) as light afternoon reads, and recommend them to those looking for something slight to read.

Mary is meant to be a novelty, the tough and independent, outspoken women who dreams only of being a detective. And she isnovel, but the constant bickering with her mother over getting married wears quickly. Hopping into bed with men she’s romantically involved with may not be shocking to contemporary readers, but it doesn’t fit well with the character we are meant to admire. The way Levy handles makes it seem forced. As though this is how he proves to his readers Mary truly is a novelty in this era.

She can often be coarse, without needing to be. And she almost always rubs men the wrong way, even those she winds up engaged to. I often wonder what sort of research writers do to prepare themselves for writing protagonists of the opposite sex. Mary Handley is Levy’s conception of what a smart, independent woman should be. But he gives her traits which feel forced.

In Brooklyn on Fire, it’s her romance with George Vanderbilt which feels forced. To me, all the romances in these books feel forced. It’s like Levy wants her to be non-traditional, but not too non-traditional. The text clunks a bit from one plot point to the next, often telegraphing what’s coming.

And yet, Mary is fun to follow. As are the power mongers just waiting to get their comeuppance by the brains of this extraordinary woman. The history is fun too. Best not to take these books too seriously and just go along for the ride.

Reviews

Review: Last Stop in Brooklyn

February 10, 2018 Clio Leave a comment

Last Stop in Brooklyn
by
Lawrence H. Levy

Title: Last Stop in Brooklyn
Author: Lawrence H. Levy
Published: 2017
ISBN-13: 9780451498441
Publisher: Broadway Books
Publisher’s Blurb
What’s Auntie Reading Now? picture

“Coney Island,” Lazlo remarked. “It’s where intelligence and human decency go to die.” (p30)

The third in the Mary Handley series. By chapter 3 I knew I needed to get the first two, it’s that entertaining. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to have read the first books to keep up with the plot of Last Stop in Brooklyn.

Mary Handley, Victorian era detective in Brooklyn, breaks all the stereotypical rules about how women should behave. As her mother frequently reminds her, nice women get married and have a family. They don’t traipse around Brooklyn as private detectives, solving crimes and speaking her mind to the Manhattan rich.

It starts simply as a case of possible adultery. A friend of her mother’s son is concerned that his wife is cheating on him. Using familial pressure, Elizabeth convinces Mary to take the case. Which leads her to Coney Island, the last stop on the train in Brooklyn.

In her ten days of following Colleen Murphy, Mary notices that she too is being followed and confronts her tail. Who, it turns out, is the brother of a man wrongly convicted of killing a prostitute in a similar fashion to Jack the Ripper.

Mary agrees to take on the case which leads her through New York police department corruption fed by money from the rich and powerful who run the stock market like Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller.

Mary’s quest to prove Colleen’s infidelity (or not), and Ameer Ben Ali’s innocence takes her to the seedier part of Coney Island where racism, sexism, and violence live cheek by jowl, rarely noticed but ever-present.

My favorite kind of books are the kind which entwine history with fictive, but believable, history. Levy does not disappoint in this regard. However, I did find the plot wandered as though Levy were trying to get his bearings, or to fit too much in before then end. And there were a few times when I was shocked out of the story by Mary’s profane language, and actions which didn’t seem to fit her character or the times.

Despite that, I’d gladly spend another day reading the further adventures of Mary Handley.