Bridget Jones' Diary 2: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Read: 2005

I am often typecast by friends and family as "the one who likes books." To non-readers, a book is a book is a book, so I often end up getting some really weird books that I would never pick up for myself. This is how I ended up in possession of The Edge of Reason, Helen Fielding's second Bridget Jones novel.

In this novel, Bridget stumbles through her day-to-day life, surviving one ridiculous mishap after another, until she is finally reunited with her love.

The writing is designed to imitate a form of shorthand that might be used to keep a diary. It reminded be somewhat of Flowers for Algernon in the sense that the form was an important part of the content (something that we (should) see often in poetry, but that is quite a bit rarer in novels). It was interesting and it gave the story quite a bit of verisimilitude. The short sentences kept me reading at a faster pace than I do normally, which was rather interesting. And even though I read this about four years ago, I still use the "v." (or "vee," if I'm speaking) as a shorthand for "very."

Bridget Jones herself is a hilariously inept character, bouncing from one situation to another with little agency of her own. I have a soft spot for such characters, so long as they aren't annoying about it, so I rather enjoyed her as well. The situations themselves were so ridiculous (particularly the one involving a naked boy and a bunny - yes, really) that they had me laughing quite a bit as I read through.

This is the ice-cream of the reading world - it's enjoyable, not particularly nutritious, but it won't rot your brain out either (provided it's consumed only sparingly and interspersed with meatier fare).

Discworld #12: Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

Read: 26 April, 2009

A beautiful young servant girl is destined to marry a handsome prince, thanks to her fairy godmother. The ball has been arranged, the gown made, and everything prepared so that Ella can meet her prince charming and live happily ever after.

But there's a catch. Three witches have come to put a stop to this fairy tale and make sure that Ella never marries the prince. Ella couldn't be happier!

Terry Pratchett's twelfth Discworld novel returns to Bad Ass and to the adventures of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat.

There isn't much to be said about this novel that can't be said for pretty much any of the other Discworld books. As usually, Pratchett his hilariously funny. I love Granny and Nanny and how they play off each other. The inversion of the classic fairy tale is quite clever as well.

But this isn't just about fairy tales. A large portion of the novel could better be called a mock-travel narrative, which was very interesting.

Discworld #13: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

Read: 23 February, 2009

Things just can't seem to go right for Brutha, Novice to the Great God Om. First a tortoise starts talking to him, then the head of the Inquisition notices that he exists, and that's just the start! Terry Pratchett delivers yet another wacky, zany, hilariously funny, and delightfully philosophical episode in the Discworld Series.

POSITIVE: Funny. Really funny. Laugh out loud while in public and make others think you're adled funny. In Small Gods, Pratchett's focus is on religion - monotheistic religion in particular. He handles his topic with great care, so that it is irreverent and funny, and yet somehow manages never to come off as insulting. The morals and philosophies of the story are also a treat and the ending, in particular, is absolutely perfect in every way.

NEGATIVES: None. Pratchett frequently falls a little short on his plots and endings, but this book is a shining exception. I don't get to say this often, but I think that this novel might just be perfect in every way.

Overall, this is a fabulous book and a joy to read from start to finish. I think that Atheists and scientists would most enjoy this read. Fundamentalists and religious conservatives may see themselves too accurately reflected and dislike the book as a result. Even so, I think that a good sense of humour will make this book an enjoyable read regardless of your religious beliefs.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Read: 17 June, 2008

The edition I have has The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, and So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish all bundled up into one book, so I just read that straight through and I'll be reviewing all four together.

Firstly, I loved Hitchhiker's. It was by far the best of the four. It was the most solid in the sense that I could just relax and go with the story without ever having to put the book down and think "okay, now how does that make sense?" I know it seems strange when reading Douglas Adams, but Hitchhiker's had good internal logic or verisimilitude, something the other three novels didn't quite achieve to the same degree. I also found this first novel to be the most densely packed with humour.

I found The Restaurant at the End of the Universe to be a little dull, honestly. There were good moments, but the whole bit that followed Zaphod as the main character just didn't work for me. I love Zaphod, he's a great character, but most of his appeal comes from how he appears to others. Taken alone, he lost much of his individuality because we saw him having to do non-Zaphody things out of necessity. This was made all the worse because I had an image of who Zaphod was that the real Zaphod, with the story seen from his perspective, couldn't live up to. I found him dull and tiresome.

Life, the Universe and Everything and So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish were better, but didn't have that "embarass myself by laughing out loud in public" quality that Hitchhiker's had. Taken separately from the first novel, I liked them quite a bit (loved the ending, by the way). I just didn't feel that they measured up to the first novel.

I think that most of what put me off the three novels after Hitchhiker's is that they spent a lot of their time trying to explain or expand upon the jokes made in the first novel. These were jokes that had worked beautifully on their own. It felt like, when at a party, you tell a joke and some guy comes along while everyone else is laughing and tries to explain the punchline. He might do it in a funny way, but it's still a little annoying. Don't get me wrong, I did like all four novels. My complaints are more about saying how wonderful Hitchhiker's was, rather than saying that the other three weren't.

Arthur Dent was by far my favourite character. He was just fabulous. I found Trillian well handled - she's not a major part of the story and she isn't described in any great detail, but what is said aboput her hints at a character with a lot of depth. Zaphod was great, but, as I said earlier, works best when seen through others as an extravagant character rather than as an actual human with his own mundane life. I felt that Ford Prefect was rather unmemorable. All the details the narrator tells us about him were interesting and funny, I just didn't find that he jumped off the pages when he spoke or acted in the same way that the other characters did. And why does everyone call him Ford when that's just the name he used while on earth? That bugged be a bit! Marvin was good. He was funny and, thankfully, wasn't around enough to get annoying.

All in all, a good read that I would highly recommend.

How To Tell Your Friends From The Apes by Will Cuppy

Read: 2 February, 2008

A series of two page profiles for a number of animals (including a section devoted to other humanoids). Cuppy displays a great deal of research and uses it well to make his profiles quite funny. The style of comedy is very subtle, making it easy to miss if the reference isn't known.

I wasn't wildly impressed with this book. I did enjoy it and it truly is very funny, but it left me feeling a bit empty; it's like a meal that just isn't as filling as expected. Finishing, I couldn't help but to feel that I could have much better spent my time with a different selection. That being said, however, it truly is quite funny and I certainly wouldn't say that it's a bad book.

Just to give a sense of what to expect, here is a passage:
"When standing beside a mimosa the Giraffe is indistinguishable from the tree except that he has four legs and a head and a tail. Some hunters will stalk a mimosa tree for days without getting results."

Ultimately, I found that the introduction by P.G. Wodehouse was the best part of the whole book (not only because Wodehouse is awesome, but also because all the best passages from the book to follow are quoted there).

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Thank you, Zeba, for the recommendation.

Read: 11 January, 2008

The story is written from the perspective of Biff, Jesus's best friend. In the modern day, an angel raises Biff from the dead so that he can write a new gospel. It follows Jesus from the time Biff met him as a child up until their deaths. It shows us Jesus's early training as a stonemason, his travels into the East, and his eventual ministry.

Lamb is an absolutely hilarious comedy about Jesus that, surprisingly, manages to remain almost completely inoffensive. I loved reading it. It was very funny with a writing style similar to Carl Hiaasen's, but lacked Hiaasen's flaws (like the awfully disappointing endings). It was clever where it needed to be, sensitive where it needed to be, and funny where it needed to be. The characterizations of Jesus, Biff, and Mary Magdalene were stunningly constructed.

There were two portions that I felt a little let down by. The first is when Biff and Jesus get to Calcutta and see a ritual dedicated to the goddess Kali. The scene was important to the story, but it felt dry. It was too descriptive, like an anthropological study. I do understand that it's supposed to be horrifying, so the humour of the rest of the story would have been out of place. But it needed something different. Reading the Afterward, Moore mentions that he had learned about the ritual from Joseph Campbell, which goes a way to explain the tone of the passage. Unable to use his normal humour, Moor had resorted to Campbell's more academic writing style.

I was also a little disappointed that the story skipped over much of Jesus' ministry. The reason given in the book is that the real gospels already tell that story, but I would have liked to have heard Biff's perspective. I understand that it would have been more difficult to write about that portion without offending people and without getting preachy, but the pacing just didn't match up with the rest of the story. It felt like the last few chapters ended the book with a bit of a "plegh."

These two complaints are very minor, though. The book was awesome and I highly recommend it for pretty much anyone. Having studied the New Testament a bit, I found a lot of references to theories about Jesus and a lot of jokes that asked for a certain familiarity with the Bible to get and my previous knowledge enriched my reading. But friends who had no previous interest or understanding found no difficulty in following the story. I also think that reasonable Christians won't find it at odds with their faith. There's something for everyone.

Discworld #8: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Read: June 2007

Constable Carrot, Captain Vimes, and the rest of the Nightwatch must save Ankh-Morpork from a "noble dragon" that's taken over the city.

Another great book from the Discworld series. I absolutely loved Captain Vimes. He's just such a great character and would work perfectly well in a story of his own sans the comedy. The humour is, as usual with Pratchett, laugh-out-loud hilarious.

The Warden by Anthony Trollope

Read: 2006

Hiram's Hospital was a small alms house that functioned without much public notice under the guidance of the warden, Mr. Harding. When the young reformer, John Bold, notices the disparity between the lifestyles of those in the care of the hospital and the warden, he appeals to England's presses to correct the issue, despite being a friend of Mr. Harding's and a suitor to his daughter. When the case comes under the notice of some popular journals and authors (including a Mr. Popular Sentiment - a hilarious caricature of Charles Dickens), Harding falls under very public attack.

The story is well-written and interesting. Though the beginning is rather heavy with facts and figures (the first ten or so pages devoted to the total earnings and holdings and allocations of the hospital), the story quickly picks up and, for me at least, was functionally glued to my hands. The drama was well handled and the characters, particularly Harding and Bold, had enough depth for me to feel sorry for both. One of my favourite aspects of the book is that it took both sides of the issue and dealt with both sympathetically enough that I would have been saddened by any possible outcome.

The moments of humour were also well handled, particularly those passages that poked fun of Dickens.

Discworld #4: Mort by Terry Pratchett

Read: 2007

Mort was an awkward farm boy with the horticultural talents of a dead starfish. Eager to send him into a trade that might better suit his dispositions, his family agreed to place him in an apprenticeship with Death.

As far as coming of age and first love stories go, this is one of the better ones I've read. That's the major aspect of the Discworld novels I've always liked - they are hilarious, but the stories would still be quite good even without the humour.

Like most of the Discworld series, I loved the book right up until the climax. At that point, I usually feel like Pratchett is letting some fumbling inner author take over and I lose interest completely. It's usually a struggle for me to read the last 10-20 pages.

Overall, though, I highly recommend Mort as well as just about any other Discworld novel for anyone who enjoys comedy, particularly the more word-play witty humour of Britain rather than the slapstick/situational humour of North America.

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen

Read: 10 July, 2007

Jack Tagger's career as a reported was destroyed when he criticized his new boss. He now writes the obituaries - a job he was assigned in the hopes that he would give up and quit. But Jack isn't quite ready to give up yet. He waits for the day that someone famous dies in his territory so that he can write the obituary that would save his career. When Jimmy Stoma of the Slut Puppies dies under mysterious circumstances, Jack believes this time has come. He must fight his editor and discover the secret to Jimmy's death, a search that leads Jack into the very bowels of the music industry.

With all this talk of once great reporters reduced to anonymity by an oppressive newspaper structure, I begin to wonder if Hiaasen isn't verging on the autobiographical. When a theme is repeated in two or more of an author's works, I begin to question just how fictional that theme may be. Similarly, the "baddie" characters are again killed (in similarly gruesome fashion). Now, in this case there doesn't seem to have been much of a peaceful solution (though the characters never propose simply going to the police). Even so, a normal (non-psychopathic) individual might still feel a little guilty for what happened. Not these characters, though! So what is it about Hiaasen that compels him to write about such brutality with total lack of feeling? Finding this in one novel was unnerving. Finding it in two is downright scary.

Other than that, however, the novel was fantastic. Again, I adored the writing style and the humor. The references to Neil Young and other musicians I rightfully should not have heard of at my tender age prejudiced me in favor of the story. The jokes about modern pop music sealed the deal, so to speak.

Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen

Read: 8 July, 2007

JoLayne Lucks has won the lottery. In a town where miracles are made of plastic Maries with water pump tears, a real miracle becomes quite the center of attention. Bodean Gazzer and Chub, two Neo-Nazis who would rather blame just about anyone but themselves for their less-than-perfect lives, also win the lottery and decide to use the money to start up a militia. When they find out that their winnings will be split, they decide to steal the other ticket. JoLayne, how has plans of her own for the money, enlists the help of Tom Krome (a once successful journalist who now only writes the "fluff news") to track Bodean and Chub down and take back what's rightfully hers.

I love Hiaasen's writing style. It strikes me as very conversational (a great change from the novels I read for school!) and filled with humour that sometimes touches on over-the-top. I enjoyed most of the novel, but the end seemed to display a very questionable morality. Bodean is killed and Chub is badly injured. JoLayne, who cannot bear to be his cause of death, heals his wounds. She then proceeds to abandon him on the island where he eventually starves and is eaten by scavenger birds.

I found this to be very inconsistent behavior for someone who, just recently, had claimed not to want to cause the death of a fellow living creature. In fact, the very casualness with which Tom and JoLayne leave Chub struck me as disturbing. They seemed to see absolutely nothing wrong with the act, justifying it merely by stating that they had no way to prove that their version of the story was the true one should the police intervene - the sort of thinking a psychopath might used. A character set up to be as caring as JoLayne might at least have lost a few nights of sleep.