{"id":2428,"date":"2010-11-09T11:38:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T16:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=2428"},"modified":"2010-11-10T04:30:45","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T09:30:45","slug":"third-quarter-ii-into-the-fourth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/third-quarter-ii-into-the-fourth\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Quarter II, Into the Fourth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brick<\/strong> book list with sketchy reviews, continued.<\/p>\n

Book List through October 2010<\/h3>\n

September 2010<\/h4>\n

Solar by Ian McEwan. Book on CD. The novel by the polished McEwan got mixed reviews but I liked it. It’s a successful comic novel whose hero is brilliant but a buffoon, who wages a cynical war against global warming. The audiobook concludes with a brief author’s interview, which indicated the ending pointed to a bright, comic future, and not sad and short-lived as I took it to be.<\/p>\n

October 2010<\/h4>\n

Who Owns the Sky?: Our Common Assets and the Future of Capitalism by Peter Barnes. Didn’t finish. I might agree with most of it but it’s a book-length polemic, and I lost patience.<\/p>\n

Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart. In paper, after trying an audio version a few months ago, I found I still didn’t like it. Hollow, sniveling characters.<\/p>\n

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. Book on CD. Last of the trilogy. A newspaper story more than ever, as Blomqvist’s lover Erica now is editor-in-chief of a venerable, sleepy daily. Due to its popularity I had to return it to the library, after reserving it again; it’ll be winter before I get it back. Sure the trilogy’s conclusion wraps up loose ends, but it maintains the cleverness, the heart, and at its root the outrage against crimes against women.<\/p>\n

Nox by Anne Carson. An elegy for a brother whom the longtime poet barely knew. In a box is one continuous card-stock page, folded accordion style, with nearly all pages appearing to be a scrapbook, printed\/photographed realistically from the original collage. Clever and heartbreaking. Like any book of poetry — though this is more memoir than verse — it can be read in an hour or slowly pondered for a week.<\/p>\n

Invisible by Paul Auster. Didn’t finish. Auster is quaint and subtly fun but I’m on strike against non-purposeful passive protagonists. Here is another one.<\/p>\n

Thomas Paine by Craig Nelson. Book on CD. To date, I’m halfway through. A solid biography, no fluff. There’s almost more history than biography, but perhaps that’s necessary. I certainly need a refresher on the American and French revolutions.<\/p>\n

The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman. Kalman was on the Colbert Report promoting her newest, And the Pursuit of Happiness, but the library only had this (and a lot of her children’s books). The two adult titles look to be similar. They comprise illustrated ruminations, heavy on the ruminations though there’s paintings and a few photos on nearly every page. Very quick to read and you don’t want a week with it.<\/p>\n

Our Tragic Universe, by Scarlett Thomas. I checked this out based on a mini-review in \u00a0The New Yorker. I’m a quarter of the way through. She’s good. As the magazine notes, Thomas’s asides about writing and storytelling are about as vital as her parody of a chick-lit plot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brick book list with sketchy reviews, continued. Book List through October 2010 September 2010 Solar by Ian McEwan. Book on CD. The novel by the polished McEwan got mixed reviews but I liked it. It’s a successful comic novel whose hero is brilliant but a buffoon, who wages a cynical war against global warming. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mr-boo-klist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2059,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/finally-a-book-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":0},"title":"Finally, a Book List","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I've been reading, Mommy!\u00a0But in recent years, I've heard of more people keeping lists of books they've read. I've enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby's is a feature in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2263,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/10\/but-seriously-folks\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":1},"title":"But Seriously, Folks","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is my column for the October 2010 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.\" -- Robert Benchley To avoid betraying my idol, Mr. Benchley, I'll rationalize. This is not analysis but a lesson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2595,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/12\/4th-quarter-no-overtime-soon-overdue\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":2},"title":"4th Quarter, No Overtime, Soon Overdue","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A final book list will close the 2010 year of Brick. After years of not starting then false starts, I resolved last January to keep a list of books on the home computer. It's a vanity project -- well, both the list and Brick are -- but it's been instructive:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2232,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/09\/a-blogs-purpose\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":3},"title":"A Blog’s Purpose","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Book Report: A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. The novel A Dog's Purpose is the best book written by a dog I have ever read. No, that's not quite true. The book actually is written by the spirit of a dog. It's the best book I've ever read by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3581,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/03\/fourth-and-goal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":4},"title":"Fourth and Goal","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Completing the book list of 2011 shouldn't be taxing. Its first entry after all took in the first three quarters. So where are we? Or to quote independent Ross Perot's 1992 running mate James Stockdale (it IS a presidential year, after all), in a televised debate's opening statement: \"Who am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":404,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/book-em-benno\/","url_meta":{"origin":2428,"position":5},"title":"Book ’em, Benno","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Book 'em, Danno\" is a stick-in-your-brain phrase I've no memory for this. A book is mentioned and I'll remember if I've read it, and how long ago, and whether it was paper or audio, as I also \"read\" about 1 1\/2 books a month on CD while commuting. (There's no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2428"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2428\/revisions\/2452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}