Di Mortui Sunt

The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly – This review originally appeared in the Sacramento Book Review:  Twitter is Silicon Valley’s current web application darling. You’ve likely already heard of the program, even if you have no idea what it is. News media, celebrities, politicians, and corporations all seem to be using the service. But, what is exactly is Twitter, and how can you, too, use it?

Every question you might have about what Twitter is and how to use it has been answered in O’Reilly press’ timely new The Twitter Book, which guides the reader from the sign-up process, through best practices and Twitter resources, to using the web app to successfully grow your brand (personal or corporate) and your wallet. Along the way authors Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein explain the constellation of web sites, programs, and services that have sprung up around Twitter to help users get the measurable most out of it. I’ve been using Twitter now for two years (@dimortuisunt) and I learned several new things from this handy guide. The Twitter Book is a complete and comprehensive guide that can help both the uninitiated and veteran users. Until of course the next big internet thing comes along…

The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual by Jonathan Kirsch -This review originally appeared in the Sacramento Book Review:   “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Like many of you, this line from Monty Python’s Flying Circus was my introduction to the Roman Catholic’s 700-year-old institution of the Holy Office of Inquisition into Heretical Depravity, which incidentally still exists, though under the more benign title of the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” The institution was recently headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger until he was called to a higher office. The version of the Inquisition portrayed by cross-dressing British comedians and other modern farces is rather more hysterical than its historical counterpart. The actual Inquisition remains obscure to the average citizen, as do its sickening crimes, mindset, and the progeny it midwifed into existence in our modern world. Jonathan Kirsch’s The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual attempts to remedy the historical gap in our culture as well as elucidate how the Holy Office blazed a trail that too many tyrants, despots, fascists, and even liberal democracies have been happy to travel down.

Kirsch provides a thorough (if generalized) account of the Inquisition’s history, from its inception to deal with the Cathar “problem” of France in 1207 to the last victim of the Spanish Inquisition in 1834. The incidents and details Kirsch highlights not only shed some light on oft-skimmed part of Western history, but they stand out in their modernism; surely, with a simple change of cast, these scenes would be familiar to our own century. Kirsch explores how the ideas and methodology of the Inquisition lived on after its demise in Communist Russia and Nazi Germany, two obvious candidates, but also in the United States (McCarthyism, the pursuit of draft dodgers, post-9-11 interrogations, and internment of “enemy combatants”). Even the simple tools of club and stone used in jungles or deserts in a systematic hunt for a constructed, arbitrary enemy play heir to the legacy of the Inquisition. Kirsch’s book is convincing even in its brevity of the horrors that the Inquisition brought to Europe and the horrors its ideology continues to deliver today.

A Poetry of  Remembrance by Levi Romero – This review was originally published in the Sacramento Book Review:  Poetry is a hard thing to evaluate. There is no overarching narrative or characters to cling to, or judge. Only the author’swords, the attempt to evoke images and emotions in the reader. Levi Romero’s A Poetry of Remembrance does an admirable job of painting a vivid image of the Northern New Mexico he so clearly knows and loves. Its people, its culture, its poetry, even, are captured in the weaving of his words. Romero evokes: low-riders, Spanglish, blue-collar workers, low-income families, the broken-down America that is passed over by progress, and the ever-present yearning for something better and new, without having to give up our connections to the past, to a place that we know and are connected to, the places that accept us. Especially touching were “Diablitos” and “Yellow,” which draw you in to a world that, despite its foreignness, is beautiful and enchanting.

The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson – The American obsession is unhealthy and unhistoric.  Empire is not what our found fathers had in mind.  Empire is what they were rebelling against.  The last 60 plus years of our society have been corrupted by what President Eisenhower himself termed the military-industrial complex.  Chalmer’s looks at how multi-nationals, an all volunteer army, and the cold-war have largely destroyed the constitutional United States.

World of Goo by 2d Boy – An excellent construction/puzzle game that is easy to do but difficult to master.  The only complaint I have for this game was it being too short.  A great casual game.

Watership Down by Richard Adams – I’d always heard that this was one of those must read books.  A classic of English literature.  Yet, despite being repeatedly told to read it no one could ever explain to me what the book was about.  I’d get some vague synopsis of rabbits, coming of age, environmentalism, tyranny, etc.  I could never fit together just how all of that was suppose to come together in a book with rabbits as the central characters.  I got my hands on a cheap copy of the book, still not sure if I wanted to read it, and dove in.  It turns out that Watership Down is a good book.  I think though that other books do what Adams was attempting better.  The story in Watership Down reminded most of the Lord of the Rings, just with rabbits and more expository lore.  I think Tolkien did it better too.  Think high fantasy with rabbits.  I came away slightly disappointed.  Not because Adams failed to engage me, rather my friends and acquaintances had failed to accurately portray the book to me and in so doing inflated my own expectations.

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection – review over at Gamestooge.

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe – I picked this book up on the recommendation of strangers who said that it was one of those must read American novels.  I’m always leery of these recommendations as they Ayn Rand usually appears on them and as a someone once told me “Friends don’t let friends read Ayn Rand”.  This was a surprisingly good book, I can’t say how accurately it portrays New York City in the late 80’s early 90’s but it feels real, and the tensions and issues it deals with (race/class inequalities, the purpose of wealth) are ones we’ve yet to overcome or even recognize they need to be dealt with… Highly recommended.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia – review here.

Megaman 9 – Check out my review here.

Nostromo by Joseph Conrad – Having never read a Conrad book before I didn’t know what to expect… Nostromo is the story of a fictional south american country that gets caught up in the political and financial games of North America and Europe, the power of wealth to corrupt and consume, and what self-determination means.  A fascinating story and a great series of psychological studies

Cryptonomicon By Neal Stephenson – This was a hard book to get into, mostly because Neal is so slow in building up the story… After 100 or so pages though I was hooked.  Stephenson is a master of creating stories with serious intellectual questions surrounding them all while still having realistic characters and engaging story.  If you’re not ready for such a large book now, then read his cyber thriller Snow Crash, while is a slim excellent volume that will introduce this author to you

Star Wars: Force Unleashed by LucasArts – My review

N+ by MetaNet – My review

GTAIV by Rockstar – My review is up at Gamestooge

Mass Effect – My thoughts coming soon, in general though good game, shitty combat, typical, predictable story. It’s a “good” thing standards are so low when it comes to narrative in video games…

Patapon by Sony the review is here

Professor Layton and the Curious Village by Nintendo follow the link for more info

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin by Nintendo read my take on it here!

Contra 4 by Konami read my review over at Gamestooge.com

Front Mission by Square Enix, read my review here.

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles by Konami, read my review here.

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass by Nintendo, read my review here.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely – Read my thoughts on this book here <– Coming Soon!

The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik – An epic piece of writing, Winik’s sweeping history covers just 15 years at the end of the 18th century. But his scope covers the Revolutionary War in the States, the Revolution and the following Terror in France and the machinations of Russia’s Tzarina, Catherine.

Hollow Earth by David Standish – I picked up the book thinking it would provide fodder for some of my own writing, a task it does admirably, even more though I gained a an in depth history of the theory of a hollow earth and the personalities connected to it, from notable like Sir Halley, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs to people you’ve never heard of like Cyrus Teed and John Symmetry. Standish follows the idea from it’s real scientific origins to the quirky new age thing it has become.

Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brian Sanderson -The first book in the Final Empire series, Sanderson introduces his readers to a fantastic dystopian fantasy world. A world where the premise of most epic fantasies has been turned on its head, the chosen one failed, evil prevailed. While the premise itself is interesting it’s Sanderson’s world and the characters that inhabit it that keep you reading. Everything just seems a little more real than the cardboard cut-out people and the tired old magic you’ve seen over and over in epic fantasies these days. Instead Sanderson offers us flawed characters with real motivations and gastronomic alchemy. Enjoyable.

The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by Andre Comte-Sponville – A book very much for the philosopher, if you haven’t read widely in western philosophy and are not at least passingly familiar with the major forms of eastern spiritualism, this book is going to be nigh incomprehensible to you. For those of you still there, Comte-Sponville’s book is a beautiful piece of philosophy. He clearly elucidates how spirituality exists without God and how each of us, including atheists can tap into it and into ourselves/the universe/reality. The hardest part to get through is his explanation and description of ecstasy, if you are having trouble understanding his, I recommend any introductory text to Zen meditation, Buddhism, Sufism, or Taoism. Comte-Sponville is so thorough that he can be overwhelming at times, a studied read of the text is richly rewarded. Here in Comte-Sponville’s book we perhaps find the spirituality Sam Harris spoke of and hoped for in his book The End of Faith?

Carpe Diem: Put a Little Latin in Your Life by Harry Mount – You might be interested in reading some of the reviews of the book on Amazon.com… The ones pointing out all the little “errors” Mount left in his text, those folks are snobs, Mount calls them wankers in his book. They piss and moan about the state of the language, but then go out of their way to make it seem as daunting and intimidating as possible. That kind of attitude isn’t going to get students interested in Classical history, and it most definitely isn’t going to fill chairs in a Latin class. Mount doesn’t cover ever single little rule because it isn’t in his interest to do so. He only states a dozen or so times that his intent is to give the average person enough information to translate the bits and pieces of vestigial Latin our civilization retains. His audience doesn’t need to know that the supine occasionally declines with a -u and not an -um!

In this, Mount succeeds wonderfully! His little book is a great primer to the subject, his examples are of his own construction and use people and places we’ve all heard of. He covers all the basics and even has a few tests. If a reader picks the book up, reads it, and leaves with a desire to dig a little deeper into the subject, I’m elated! It is only through such small victories that interest in Latin will ever be renewed.

Camber of Culdi by Katherine Kurtz – Review coming soon!

Rome and Jerusalem by Martin Goodman – A fascinating an in-depth look at these two iconic cities. Goodman pulls out all the stops in this exploration of The Roman Empire from the 1st to 4th century CE and it’s responses and interactions to one of it’s most exotic members, Jews in Palestine. Goodman explodes all the theories you’ve heard before about why the Jews were persecuted and how antisemitism developed in western Europe. Goodman points out that both Jews and Romans were content with the status-quo that had developed by the beginning of the 1st century CE, and if it hadn’t of been for political radicals in Jerusalem, the fall of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty in Rome, and the beginning of Christianity as a faith independent of Judaism history would have played out quite differently. A great read for fans of Roman and Jewish history.

Supercontinent by Ted Neild – A great resource for the geological history of the planet for the interested amateur. Nield explains in easy to understand terms and analogies the complicated science that allows us today to “travel” back over 4 billion years and witness the development (and redevelopment) of the earth. He also subtly points out the difference between science and myth and why humanity must embrace reality and abandon myths that do not reflect the reality of our situation here on Earth today. He appeals for us to be reasonable and abandon our arrogance and ignorance! Powerful, educational, and ever more important in a world being pushed closer and closer to the brink (for us, the earth will abide…)

Microtrends by Mark Penn – Penn Argues that in our current large and subdivided world that the next big thing isn’t big at all, but rather small. All it takes is for 1% of the population to be interested in, well anything, for it to matter, to marketers, politicians, historians, businessman, etc… The books looks at 75 interesting trends that Penn sees going on now, he then proposes how one might cash in or take advantage of all these next big small things. Penn might be right, he might not, I don’t know, neither does he. All his ducks are in a row when it comes to the stats. But, there were times while I was reading this that he explanations for those numbers made me shake my head. There are other explanations that are just as likely… Despite the fact that he might be a little long on supposition in explaining the numbers I enjoyed the book and found much of it compelling.

The other thing to note, which Penn downplays I feel, is how wrong people are when they make decisions or build beliefs on their own experiences without looking at the numbers. In our complicated world it might makes sense to look at the stats and what they are telling us as opposed to what the talking heads are saying on the television

Hokkaido Highway Blues or Hitching Rides with Buddha by Will Ferguson – Diana and I read this book together, in it Mr. Ferguson tells of his adventure from the southern tip of Japan to the northern hitchhiking. He also talks about religion, relationships, strangers, and reveals much about the culture of Japan. If you’re looking for a good travelogue, I can’t recommend this one enough!

Unruly Americans and the Origin of the Constitution by Woody Holton – A fascinating and revealing look at the creation of the United States constitution. Holton explores how much of the important events and causes of the convention that created our constitution are ignored in historical accounts. This book is an attempt to rectify that in some measure. Holton describes in detail what he believes the primary reason behind the framer’s intent, the economic failure of the Confederation and the democracy of the States. The constitution was written to make the country less democratic and remove from the people the ability to get out of debt (through the courts or printing money) In doing so it created a elitist government that had to appear non-elitist. Holton says that in the end, the underdogs, the farmers, won because our nation isn’t as elitist as it could have been. I tend to disagree with his conclusions…Especially since so much of the evidence he shows goes against his own conclusions. I’d argue that the wealthy minority who wrote the constitution and expected to control it still do. Still an excellent read that showed me a part of American history I was unaware of. A great read for the liberty minded!