Book Review: Year of The Hyenas

Two book reviews in one day. You should all feel very privileged...or bored.

Year of the Hyenas by Brad Geagley is based on an intriguing concept. Take your typical detective story and transport it through time. Drop the story back in ancient Egypt, specifically in the city of Thebes. The idea, as I said, is interesting. The problem is that without strong writing and an interesting story, it is still just a typical mystery novel with a more exotic setting.

The story is that of Semerket, the former Secretary of Investigations and Secrets. I say former, because his wife has left him and married another man, driving him to become a drunk who was no longer able to hold his job. After a priestess is murdered and dumped in the Nile, the vizier has no choice but turn to the drunk, who, based on his former reputation, is the only man who can solve the case. As is to be expected, nothing is as it seems, and the conspiracy reaches to the highest levels of government. Does any of this sound familiar yet? Save for the considerably more literal than usual deus ex machina toward the end, this novel was a virtual blueprint for the generic detective novel.

The verdict: While the plot, characters and tone of Year of the Hyenas were not innovative, the book is still interesting enough, in both the novelty of its setting and in story, to make it worth the time I spent reading it. Of course, it didn't take that long to read it, either.


Until later...

Book Review: The Historian

I was first attracted to Elizabeth Kostova's novel The Historian when I heard a story on NPR that mentioned that it had been purchased for just over two million dollars, a record for a first novel. I needed to know what made publishing companies feel it was worth that. I assumed that, like most of the works gaining media recognition, it would turn out to be over-hyped and under-written. Happily, it was not the next Da Vinci Code as many had promised, but rather an intricate weaving of story with history, of lives with life.

Our story is told to us by a nameless narrator, the sixteen year old daughter of an American diplomat living in Amsterdam. As she recounts the story, she pulls from not only her own experience but also from the letters of her father, her mother and her father's mentor Bartholomew Rossi. Using these letter and this perspective, the story unfolds in three separate timelines: Rossi's initial discovery (1930), the story of her mother and father (1950's), and her own quest to discover the truth (1972). She finds a strange book in her father's library; it is blank save for a woodcut in the center depicting a dragon holding a banner with a single word: Drakulya. Inside the book, she finds a letter dated 1930 that begins..."My dear and unfortunate successor."

The book then leads us on chase after chase to track down Dracula. As we travel from America to Turkey to Romania and Bulgaria, we learn not only of the significance of the Dracula legend in these places, but about the lives of our characters.

While on the surface, it is a novel about Dracula, in the end we are left with the story of a young girl examining the forces that shaped her life. The same obsession is passed on from generation to generation, an obsession that took away her loved ones before she ever had a chance to know them and threatened to take all that she had. Then with the discovery of a book and a letter, the obsession is hers as well.

The verdict: While Kostova's novel did not reveal the meaning of life or give greater depth to any particular topic, the writing was done quite well, especially for a first novel. Each character was given a distinct personality and a purpose behind his or her actions. The story was intricately detailed, but still easily understood. I enjoyed the book and feel that it was more than worth my time and was certainly better than most popular fiction...though I'm not sure about $2,000,000 though.

Until later...

Say Hello to My Little Blog

The AFI recently released their top 100 movie quotes of the past 100 years. As many of you well know, there are few things I love better than a good movie quote. If I can find a way to slip an especially appropriate or amusing line from a movie into a conversation (I'm actually quite jealous of the one at the top of Invisible Lizard's page, because I didn't think of it first), you can almost guarantee that I will. This means, of course that I have a few thoughts of my own on the AFI list. Strangely enough, no one asked my opinion before publishing the list; I still can't figure that out.

My rules are similar, though not identical to the AFI rules: The quotes need to be recognizable, not only in context, but out of context as well. The larger the impact on pop culture or the greater the inroads the quote has made into everyday life the higher it should rank. Just because I like a quote doesn't mean that it should be on the list. Obscure quotes, while fun, don't make the list because of the lack of impact on culture.

First let's address the most egregious of inclusions, numbers 98 and 100 respectively. Typically, if a quote is cringe-worthy it shouldn't be on a great quotes list. Sadly both "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" and "I'm king of the world" fit this category. Surely there were 2 other worthy quotes in the group of 400 up for consideration.

There are even some quotes that I love, but have to admit that they don't really belong. For example, a quote should be famous because of the movie, not because of the book that came long before the movie. While Peter Jackson turned Lord of The Rings into a remarkable trilogy and Andy Serkis gave Gollum life I would not have thought possible outside of the imagination of readers, "My precious" was around long before Jackson had even turned Kate Winslet into a murderer. There are even some of us who are just nerdy enough that we have been saying "What does it have in its pocketses?" for years.

Going through the list there were some that I thought simply had to be in the top 10 that weren't. I'm not sure what I would have removed to put them there, but I know they have to be in the top 10. The big example here: Number 17. "Rosebud." Its meaning in the film is one of the worst kept secrets in the history of cinematic final act reveals. It is quoted and referenced by people who have never seen a single frame of the movie. Not to mention that it is (potentially) a fairly offensive reference to the basing of Charles Foster Kane on William Randolph Hearst.

A few other thoughts as I peruse the list:

Casablanca is the film found most often on the list, and for good reason. I must wonder, however, how "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" or "I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray; you wore blue." were left off the list.

Number 28. "Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By." and Number 36 "Badges? We ain't got not badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking' badges!" are both deserving inclusions on the list, but are probably two of the most often misquoted lines in cinema.

Jerry Maguire managed to get two quotes on the list. I'm not sure which is more upsetting seeing "Show me the money!" at number 25 or "You had me at 'Hello'" at number 52. While more people annoyingly quoted (and shouted) "show me the money", I'm leaning toward "you had me at hello", because it makes me think of Renee Zellweger squinting at the camera in every film she's ever been in.

Numbers 66 "Get your stinking paws off me you damned dirty ape" and 77 "Soylent Green is people" really work much better if you read them aloud in full Charlton Heston mode. Otherwise, they lose most of the impact.

Number 61 "Say hello to my little friend": Certainly the right choice from Scarface, but also probably the only quote from the movie that could have made this quasi-family friendly list. Well that or "Hey pelican, pelican. Fly pelican."

Number 40 "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what your going to get." I have little to say about this quote, other than that it is impossible to even read it without hearing it in the voice Tom Hanks used. About the movie itself, I will say that everytime I see it I like it less.

One more Casablanca quote. Number 32 is, as far as I can tell, the only quote to have inspired the title of a movie in the IMDB top 20. (As an aside, I just noticed that Schindler's List has moved past Casablanca on the all-time ratings list. It's a traveshamockery!)

Number 78 "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." If you are going to have only one quote from 2001, how could this be it over "Just what do you think you are doing, Dave?"

I could keep going for much longer. It's really amazing to look at the list and realize how many of these things you here in everyday life on a fairly frequent basis.

I may have to revisit this subject soon and talk about favorite movie quotes, which is somewhat different than "greatest movie quotes of all time."

What about you? What do you think should have made the list, been higher on the list or been left off the list altogether? (Two suggestions: "I'm Spartacus" "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.")

Until later...

Trivial Tuesday

With the long weekend and everything else that has been going on, I almost forgot this week. In honor of yesterday's holiday, today's question is inspired by Independence Day...vaguely.

Long before he was the President of the United States (but after he saved the universe as Lone Starr), Bill Pullman was Walter, the guy who lost Meg Ryan to Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. Walter had serious allergies including one that would make his head "swell up like a watermelon" and cause him to "drop dead." What was this serious allergy to?

Post the answer in the comments section and win bragging rights for a week.


Until later...

Celebrate The Independence of Your Nation By Blowing Up a Small Part of It

It's the Fourth of July and that means a few different things.

First, it means people are setting off fireworks all day and all night. (And it looks like it's not just here.) This one, obviously was the inspiration for the Simpsons quote in the title.

Second, it means that it's a great time to toss a slab of deceased bovine on the grill and have a cook-out.

In fact, I'm smoking a brisket right now. The problem with smoking the brisket is that, while there is an incredible amount of time when nothing is going on, there are still things that must be done (check on the fire, check on the wood chips, go out and apply the mop) that will prevent anything else from being done at the same time. This leaves one with an incredible amount of time for self-contemplation or, in my case, to worry about the food. Is the fire too hot? Is it still going? I'm using applewood instead of hickory, will that taste as good? Did I make the spice rub properly? This is why even if it involves no more activity than sitting around, cooking exhausts me.

I hope you are all having a happy, stress free Fourth of July.

Until later...

More Fun With Statcounter

There has been plenty of discussion of statcounter on various blogs recently. I've even talked about it here before. One of the great things about it is that I can look at who has been reading the site and where they are located. For some people, I can even tell if they are reading from home or from work. The IPs belong to a different name or they come through a different city. If someone comments, I can often compare the hits from the commenting to the name and figure out just who is who (if I don't know already). The problem comes when there is a repeat visitor and I have no idea who they are or where they are coming from. They might be someone who's commented before and I missed matching location to name they might simply be a lurker.

For example, places that show up fairly often:

Las Vegas: 2 people. Know who it is.

Boston: Know who it is.

Missouri: Know who that is too.

Oregon: Pretty sure of this one.

Thousand Oaks, California: Yep.

New York, NY: One frequent visitor reading from work.

Bronx, NY: Multiple people on one IP. Know who that is.

Nashville, TN: I know who this is, and they are not in Nashville.

Dayton, OH: Here is the outlier. It would appear that someone at Wright State is reading. I don't think I know anyone there. I don't remember seeing a commenter that matched this. So Mr. or Ms. Wright State, if you're still reading, please comment. My OCD is getting out of control, and I may not be able to sleep until I can figure this out.

Ah, statcounter. More addictive than any street drug.


Until later...

It's All About Meme

You do one meme and everybody starts thinking your that type of guy. Today's meme was passed along to me by Aurora. I'll try to answer the best I can, but once again I don't like being too personal, so I might not take things too seriously.

I had to work on this in stages because I can't think of answers fast enough, so if it seems disjointed, that would be why. Well, that or my poor transitional writing abilities.

The 3's Meme

Three Nicknames - You don't get my real name on the site, so you won't get any nicknames either. Sorry. It doesn't really matter I have absolutely no nicknames to which I will still answer. Well, I'm starting off well.

Three Things I Like About Myself - My sense of humor, My ability to get along with people, My ability to get out of Best Buy without buying anything (Ok, so I can't actually do that.)

Three Things That Scare Me - Heights, Rejection and Failure

Three Everyday Essentials - A plan, music for driving, a good friend to talk to

Three Things I'm Wearing Right Now - Why is it this question feels a little creepy to me? White broadcloth button-up shirt (because when it comes to shirt fabrics, I don't like oxford), charcoal gabardines, remarkably large black cap-toe oxfords desperately in need of a good shining. What? It's almost time to go to work. Now you know I'm just as boring in real life as I am online. (and knowing is half the battle.)

Three Fave Bands Growing Up - This depends entirely on the time period defined as "growing up." I'm not so sure that I'm not still doing that. Let's go with Boyz II Men, Pearl Jam and Nirvana

2 Truths and a Lie - I'm left-handed, I like myself, I am a published author.

Three Things I Can't Do Without - My UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs sweatshirt, iPod, books

Three Things I Can Certainly Live Without - This extra weight I'm carrying around, yardwork, people who call meetings at 10:30 Friday mornings for 1:30 Friday afternoon

Three Places I Want to Go On Vacation - London, New Orleans, To This (though right now I'd take just about anywhere)

Three Things I Want to Do Before I Die - Win on Jeopardy, Learn a foreign language, Become really good at something

Since this whole thing has been about threes, I'll pass it on to three people: Laziest Girl, Invisible Lizard and MK

I hope they have fun and have an easier time than I did.

Until later...