The Quiet American

This is a novel by Graham Greene. If I had to compare it to something else I've read, I'd say this come closest to Catch-22 in tone, though with more seriousness. In fact, this is probably the most philosophical book I've read that is not actually a book about philosophy

This book is about human frailty with respect to the human dilemma. It emphasizes the idea that things can not be described in terms of good or evil. Therefore, no action can be taken in the name of "good," and thus people can not be described as innocent or guilty. Obviously the book puts it much much much more eloquently than I did it just there, but I believe that is what it boils down to.

The story itself is fairly interesting. There are some time-shifts that have the potential to confuse the reader if you are just trying to skim through the book, but otherwise shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, I recommend this book.

The Mirror Men

UPDATE: Still waiting for updates.



This is a novel-in-progress by Grace Eyre. Although it probably goes without saying to those who know the author, this is a work of genius.

Personally, I'd say it is so far and oddball cross between Dan Brown (author of The DaVinci Code) and Neil Gaiman (the best author in the world.) But, that is not to say it is unoriginal. Every moment is unpredictable, and every word is artfully chosen.

Now, it may be too early in the game to call out faults with The Mirror Men, but I'm a jerk, so I will anyways. There are a few holes, but I am eager to ascribe those to me not seeing the whole picture as the novel is still incomplete. Rather, the main problem I see so far is a division between character characters and plot characters. What I mean is, there are some characters whom it is obvious that the author loves, and then there are characters who are solely there to fill a void in the story and make events move along. It just seems the author doesn't really care about these plot characters, which means I don't care about the plot characters, and the whole story ends up suffering.

Regardless, I love this story so far and eagerly await updates. I highly suggest everyone spam Grace for permission to read The Mirror Men.

Eragon and Eldest

These are the first two books of the Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini. The final addition to this trilogy is set for release on September 20, 2008 at 12:01 am.

From reading the cover of Eldest, I learned that Paolini started writing the series when he was just 15 years old. I can tell you that it shows. Personally, while reading Eragon, I found the lack of variety in sentence structure a little annoying. However, in Eldest, it is apparent that Paolini matured a lot as a writer, though the novel is still far from being a difficult read.

As far as plot goes, this is a fairly enjoyable story. Critics have suggested that it borrows too much from other fantasy and science fiction, but in my own experience, this can be said of pretty much any piece of literature. If you read enough, you see similarities. But enough with critics, I found most of the story surprising and enjoyable.

In terms of literary depth, I'm going to be a jerk and say it is at a level even below Harry Potter (which itself is close to zero.) A person could claim themes about the importance of friendship and loyalty, but really there is nothing here greater than what can be found in a newspaper article. The popularity of this series is a result purely of it being a fun and easy read.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This is an odd (and recent) novel by Mark Haddon. I picked it up because I was looking through the shelves at a used book store and remembered seeing the title on a list of 1000 "must read" books. What makes it unique is it is "written," I'm guessing, by an autistic savant. I have to guess, because a specific problem is never actually mentioned, and my knowledge of mental defects is rather limited.

Anyway, I think the main goal of this book is to give the readers a sense of perspective. Other than that, it has sub-themes of love, patience, self-reliance, accomplishment, and basically all the trash that lesser novels (that don't make lists) have.

I can only say that this is not an enjoyable read. Nor is it a book that is going to blow your mind. A person can quite easily go through this book, hate it, and not realize that it has anything important to say. Personally, when I got to the end, I spent quite a while trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to have learned from this before I came up with the idea of "perspective." This is probably why the book store I visited had over a dozen copies of this book that were "used" but practically brand new.

Anyway, if you pick this up, don't be ashamed to chuck it out the window when you are done. If you spend some time thinking about it and come up with some new revelation that is better than "perspective," please let me know.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

This is a bestseller by author Christopher Moore.

I must say, when I picked it up, I expected something that would be making fun of the Gospels, probably would get a lot of things wrong, and basically sacrifice a lot for the sake of a good joke.

I was wrong.

The author did some very extensive research into the Gospels, talked with researchers, even traveled to Jerusalem. There are some historical inaccuracies, which are discussed in the afterword, but in terms of contradicting the Gospel, there are no such occurrences; admittedly not everything that is in the Gospels is mentioned, but that is really just to keep the book from being too long. All in all, I actually learned a lot from reading this book.

Anyway, to the story. As you can tell by the title, it is about the life of Jesus Christ and told by the Levi called Biff. Biff meets up with Jesus when they are about 7 years old, and the story continues from there until Jesus's crucifixion. The many years of Christ's life that are not mentioned in the Gospels are thus filled in with the author's guess at what happened.

Obviously, if the readers of this book were as detached as they are from the Gospels, it would have never made a bestseller list. (It probably wouldn't have even been published.) But the humor (this book is hilarious,) the sadness, and everything comes from the perspective of Biff. What I have come to understand from reading this book is that the Gospels were not written by friends of Jesus, people who Loved him, but rather people who believed in him and loved his word. Biff, however, is someone who doesn't necessarily understand anything Jesus preaches, but Loves him as a friend. I think, even if this book is inaccurate, understanding that limitation in terms of the Bible can really bring a better understanding to a christian's faith.

I really recommend this book to any non-hillbilly-half-retarded-semi-open-minded christian, anybody who wants to learn a little about christianity, but doesn't want to ask some insane creep who will take it as a sign from God that they need to convert this person, or anyone who just wants to read a good and funny book.