A Modest Construct

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Publisher: Canongate U.S.

Year: 2007

Pages: 448

In Brief: “Whatever structural problems The Raw Shark Texts may have, I think it more than makes up for it with its innovative media and compelling story. I heartily recommend this book, and very much look forward to Hall’s forthcoming work.”

№61

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

Publisher: Knopf

Year: 2008

Pages: 784

In Brief: “I’ve seen the Wikipedia entry. Its 9-paragraph summary captures pretty much everything Brisingr has to offer. If you’ve been reading along for the sheer joy of Paolini’s prose, I’m sorry. If you’ve been reading out of an obligation to know how things end, you may save yourself time by simply reading the summary of this and waiting for the final book to satisfy your morbid curiosity. In a word, Brisingr is tinder.”

№62

Stuff White People Like by Christian Lander

Publisher: Random House

Year: 2008

Pages: 224

In Brief: “Most of the book is nothing more than a reprint of the entries on the linked blog, sometimes even incorporating its spelling or grammar errors. I don’t see the financial incentive to buy it, but its perhaps worth getting your hands on if you aren’t a follower of the web-based incarnation.”

№63

More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

Publisher: Dutton

Year: 2008

Pages: 368

In Brief: “If ever someone cultivated a thriving ecosystem of in-jokes and footnotes, it’s Hodgman, but the end result is ultimately fulsome: the jokes of pomposity and grandiloquence is only funny for a limited time and in a limited scope, after which it becomes a rather tedious exercise in the occasional droll witticism.”

№64

The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Year: 2008

Pages: 384

In Brief: “I was a little taken aback by his uncompromising tone at first, but began to understand its source as I read on. What’s the Matter With Kansas, while somewhat bitter at the large snowjob that was the 2000 and 2004 election cycles, was more genuinely inquisitive as to the puzzling nature of conservative success in working class states; Wrecking Crew, but contrast, is more like taking a sandblaster to the neocon edifice. Frank’s mad, and he’s guaranteed to make you mad as well.”

№65

The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken

Publisher: Dutton

Year: 2005

Pages: 384

In Brief: “I still don’t get the whole Franken qua Comedian thing, since I so rarely find his writing funny as opposed to insightful and compelling; but I do enjoy his books, and admit to being more than a little sad that writing has taken a back seat to his Senate campaign in Minnesota. Though a little angrier and (if possible) a little more partisan, The Truth (With Jokes) is a good read, and a solid piece of political journalism.”

№66

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Publisher: Riverhead

Year: 2005

Pages: 352

In Brief: “But I wasn’t impressed, overall. I think book was a hot mess, full of florid prose and intense characterization that drowns in Díaz’s attempt to ethnicize, modernize, and politicize the damn thing all at the same time. I don’t get any coherent message or idea from it. It’s a cipher to me, overly abstruse and drowning in the weight of it’s own pretensions.”

№67

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Publisher: Penguin

Year: 2006

Pages: 464

In Brief: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a good book, but inconsistent. If nothing else, it’s a good jumping-off point for getting one’s mental juices flowing, though it’s superfluous chapters tend to drag it down. To Pollan’s credit, he manages to avoid the fawning, hippie-like pro-organic bent that I feared when picking it up; quite the contrary, in fact, he seems every bit the lucid pragmatist, and so manages to write a book worth reading even to those who have never bought into the Whole Foods trend.”

№68

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Year: 2008

Pages: 288

In Brief: “I finished Post-American World, however, feeling as though I had just waded through a book of bullet points, politics and economics abstracted of all their nuance—similar to the way I must analogize and speak slowly when explaining complicated computer concepts to unsavvy people. I suppose such a book needed to be written, but I wish I had known beforehand that it would be as broadly-termed (and, honestly, just a bit jingoistic) as it was. I’m a little surprised that Obama read it.

№69

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