The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets - Simon Singh

I just finished this audio book today, and a few things come to mind about it. First, I think, given the opportunity to go back in time, knowing what I know now, I would have preferred reading this as opposed to the audio version. There are a couple reasons for this. First, some of the dialogue where the narrator would read a large string of numbers, could be easily skimmed over if read, but the audio version was quite mind numbing to listen to read out as a whole. And speaking of mind numbing experience, that brings us to the next reason that the book would have been better read than listened to: The narrator was dead boring!

They say that if you have to explain the joke, then it's not funny. Well imagine an entire book that is dedicated to explaining jokes; and not just jokes, but jokes that involve nerdy math humour! If you want to make a book like this interesting, you have to make the writing evocative and witty; emphasis on the witty. I mean this is a book about humour after all. And don't get me wrong, the book actually contains a great deal of humour within it. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the narrator either doesn't understand the concept of humour, or recorded the audio after reading the book for the millionth time. I mean, how difficult is it to make a book about The Simpsons interesting? It's The Simpsons! They're funny!

That being said, the actual content of this book was absolutely amazballs! It delves into the incredibly deep and nerdy humour of many of the Simpson's writers; virtually all of whom appear to be math savants...math savants who can make anything funny...including math! Now you might be thinking to yourself: How interesting can this book be? It's about math! But I really learned a lot about concepts they never really delved into in school. Concepts such as Mersenne primes, Euler’s equation, vampire primes,narcissistic numbers, infinity with subsets of infinity that are larger than infinity! What??? Finding out how these concepts work, actually had me proclaim "COOL" out loud many times, and I'm not a guy who was ever good in math! But the way these concepts were explained really help illustrate just how interesting math can be, and by extension, how funny and nerdy The Simpsons really are.

I am only giving this book a 4 star rating, but the reason for that is the lousy narration. Now, if you like DVD extras and interviews from the creators/writers/producers of The Simpsons, then you will love this book.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie King

This book was a real treat for me.  I had just finished season 3 of Sherlock and this helped feed my cravings nicely.  This book tells the story of an older Sherlock Holmes and his role as a mentor to a young and insanely bright young girl.  King takes you on the trail of Holmes' latest mystery and explores Mary's role in solving it.  I loved it and look forward to reading more.  While my favorite part was when Mary and Sherlock's relationship was first developing, I had a lot of fun riding along for the mystery as well.  The one thing I'm less sure about is the direction their relationship takes at the end, but I'll reserve judgement for future books!

Room - Emma Donoghue

I didn't enjoy this book.  It was bleak (expected), but also creepy (not quite as expected).  This book tells the story of a mother and her five-year old son who are held captive.  The boy is actually fathered by the captor and has never set foot outside of their "room".

There are a number of reasons why I didn't enjoy this book, but two stand out.  First, I tend not to enjoy "stream of consciousness" books and perhaps because this book is narrated by the five year old, this is how the story is told.  I disliked We Need to Talk About Kevin for the same reasons (the narrative structure was really random).  I know that books narrated by children are often criticized because the child seems too old to be real.  After reading this book, I've decided that I quite like that style of narration and am willing to suspend disbelief in order to get a coherent narrative.  The other thing that I really disliked was the aforementioned creepiness.  I didn't like reading about the creepy results of being held captive, such as rotting teeth, blood stained carpets, and so on.  I am well aware that many adore this book and it was short-listed for the Booker.  Nonetheless, it simply was not for me.  It was oddly compelling enough for me to finish though, so points for that.

The Golem and the Jinni - Helen Wecker

This is a novel that takes hold of you and doesn't let go for almost 500 pages.   It tells the story of two "other worldly" creatures who are newcomers to early twentieth century New York.  As you might have guessed by the title, these beings are a golem and a jinni.  Relating to Jewish traditions, a golem is essentially a creature made from clay and brought to life so that it can serve a master.  A jinni, on the other hand, is a supernatural desert being.  Both new to the city, the golem and the jinni become companions of sorts.

In many ways, this is an immigrant story that explores the challenges of finding oneself in an unfamiliar land and learning how to belong. While the golem finds herself feeling unsure of her place in the world, the jinni is constantly comparing his new home to what he had previously in the desert.  However, because of their unique natures, this book becomes much more than just an immigrant's story.  The pairs' unique natures drive them relentlessly towards a climax that makes the reader fly through this book, dying to know what happens.

I loved learning more about the Jewish and Arabic traditions from which the golem and the jinni emerged and the conversations between the two were particularly good.  They both had such unique takes on the world that were often quite at odds.  I also enjoyed the setting of early New York, Wecker's descriptions were captivating.  Really, there is very little fault I can find in this book, it is quite simply fantastic!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

This is the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and one that seemed to let a lot of readers down; according to the internets anyway.

In this book, we join up with Katniss Everdeen not long after she had been rescued from the arena in the previous book. She is still in shock after all she had gone through in the previous stories and unsure if she is willing to become the symbol of the rebellion.

After she makes a deal with the rebel leader become the Mockingjay, in exchange for the right to kill President Snow herself.  Katniss is put into various situations where she goes outside the boundaries of being a symbol, and instead becoming an active participant in the rebellion, and in doing so, becomes an even greater symbol.

Initially, I was a little taken aback that Katniss' attitude wasn't as heroic as you would expect a protagonist to be. But then I remembered that this heroine is only 17 years old, and in retrospect, many of her inner conflicts and how she dealt with the challenges she faced, are pretty much what you'd expect a kid going through a war to manage with.

I might be wrong, but I think what many of the readers were hoping for in this book was for Katniss to become a virtual perfect heroine, where each decision she made was the correct one, and where everything would be tied up in a nice neat bow at the conclusion, as a result of her actions. In the end, I was really compelled with the fact that the atrocities she witnessed in the war, affected her immeasurably! I found there was a real element of realism in the fact that she seemed to come out of the war with scars that would never heal.

This was a great book, and because of the various story lines within it, I am now a little more forgiving of the fact that the movie version will be split into two films.

Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland

This book is essentially a murder mystery, but its setting is what differentiates it from the pack.  The novel takes place in an aboriginal community in central Australia.  When a leader in this community is killed, an investigation to find the murderer ensues.  There are the obvious suspects, but this book delves deeper into land claim issues that may also have played a role in the death.

This was a solid book and I did think the tensions between the aboriginals and non-aboriginals was well described.   The only real problem that I had with the book is that it was authored by Adrian Hyland, who wrote the much revered Kinglake 350.  This wasn't quite at the level of that book and despite being a murder mystery did not evoke the tension and suspense of Kinglake.  However, it was Hyand's first novel, so it's perhaps not surprising that it wasn't perfect.  On the whole, well done and I'd consider reading the sequel.