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Science Fiction and Other Interesting Books

  • Michael Benson: Beyond Visions of the Interplanetary Probes

    Michael Benson: Beyond Visions of the Interplanetary Probes
    Pardon my buzz but it's been a long vacation Pittsburgh to Boston to SF in less than ten days, and I've been waiting for almost two weeks to receive my copy of this book. All I have to say is go straight to page 222-223. If this book isn't on your coffee table this holiday season you'll be nominated for the Grinch awards. How could I possibly run a SciFi Library Website without plugging this book this is the sine qua non (or - Playboy) of outerspace images books. (sorry Mr. Benson but I'm a gen-xer gotta make the cultural ref.) When Michael's interview was aired on NPR, I listened, I took notes, I salivated, I became very excitied.. here are some exerpts from my notes (haven't had time togo to the NPR website to see if the interview is archived there but I wouldn't be surprised if it were) .. page 260 of Beyond..shows an image of Saturn the "Pina Farina fo the Solar System" and its "Mathematical Perfection"...if I'm not mistaken M. Benson considers Europa "the single most fascinating" [object in the solar system] A.C. Clarke describes it as developed by a bunch of "Insane Highway Engineers". The Bottom Line is that this is the coolest coffee table book to have sitting around your flat, mansion, apartment, or in the words of Samuel R. Delany's "the star pit"..two glass panes with dirt between and little tunnels from cell to cell: when I was a kid I had an ant colony."...so go buy, or check this book out..but don't steal it (that would be a serious violation of U.S. Constitution Article One Section 8) The last thing I want to do is steal the thunder from Nelly Reiflers new book "See Through" but I have to keep things fresh or the Dept of Cutting Edge Ideas will revoke my liscense to inovate. Ta ta for Now..please stay tuned fresh new content on it's way soon..give me a couple days to unpack and organize my notes: coming soon I-hobo, and Interview with a librarian. Mark your favorites list. Explore C.J. (*****)

  • Nelly Reifler: See Through: Short Stories

    Nelly Reifler: See Through: Short Stories
    I went to Nelly's reading at Black Oak Books in Berkeley and asked her to sign my copy of her grity down and dirty look at life through the eyes of some uniquely disturbed characters from the pantheon of American Icons. I was so enchanted and smitten with her that I brazenly gave her the address to Citizen Jones so Nelly if you stop by please say hi. Not only is Ms. Reifler a gripping short story writer but she is a professor and a playwrite, whose father is a short story writer as well (Samuel Reifler) So pick up a copy of Nelly's book and read it outloud with someone you love. You'll love the looks on eachothers faces as your read this gritty new anthology of short stories. Let the revival continue. Short Stories Rock!!! C.J. post script: no i don't know who the woman on the cover is but if you buy the book i'll promise to see if i can find out who it is for you!!! (****)

  • Todd Depastino: Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America

    Todd Depastino: Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America
    In this book you will find some great information about how to become a full fledged hobo "http://www.press.uchicago.edu /Misc/Chicago/143783in.html" come on join the HOBO tribe the only true north american gyspes to still exist in modern North America ".edu/Misc/Chicago/143783in.html"

  • Josiah Flynt Willard: Tramping With Tramps; Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life (Patterson Smith Reprint Series in Criminology, Law Enforcement, and Social Problems)
  • Koushun Takami: Battle Royale

    Koushun Takami: Battle Royale
    This Book Kicks Ass - the movie I've heard isn't so hot but I am telling you the book is fabulous. From: Rolling Stone Oct 30, 2003 "Royale" Bloodlines for "Kill Bill" In his latest, Tarantino tapped into his cult faves It's no acident that in 1993's True Romance, Tarantino's first screenplay made into a movie, there's a seduction scene that takes place in a theater showing a hung-fu series. Tarantino grew up obsessed with kung-fu movies, and Kill Bill is his love letter to the genre. But according to Tarantino, the movie that most influenced Kill Bill wasn't strictly a martial-arts movie. It was the 2000 Japanese hit Battle Royale. Not even available on DVD in the United States, Battle Royale caused a furor in Japan both caused a furor in Japan both for its shocking violence and its premise, in which the government runs a program to exterminate teens by sending them to an island where they kill each other off using everything from machine guns to gardening implements. Kinji Fukasaku, Battle Royale's director, who died in January, was a close friend of Tarantino's and a leader in the current wave of hyperviolent pop cinema in Japan waht Tarantino calls "the most exciting cinema in the world right now." Even if you never see Battle Royale, you meet actress Chiaki Kuriyama in Kill Bill, as she plays the teenage assassin Go-Go Yubari, wearing a schoolgirl uniform and wielding the chain mace that nearly takes Uma Thurnan's head off in the final battle. E.W. (*****)

  • Norman Mailer: The Spooky Art

    Norman Mailer: The Spooky Art
    Norman Mailer has an ego so big it's hard to get it all into one single book especially one with fewer than 400 pages. But one thing is certain; when Norman talks writing people listen. This book provides priceless insight into the daily life and struggles of professional writers. Anyone serious about writing for a living will learn a lot from this book: how to cry, when not to pick a fight with your editor, and some new vocabulary too (papyruphobia). Pick it up and read it. I did and now I have my own blogg!!! (****)

  • Eddy Joe Cotton: Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America

    Eddy Joe Cotton: Hobo: A Young Man's Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America
    Eddy Joe Cotton gives us a modern perspective on the life of the last American nomadic tribe the Hobos. As always this hobo book is dirty, crime laden and full of wonderous adventures. A perfect compliment to Jack Black's You Can't Win (****)

  • Jack Black: You Can't Win

    Jack Black: You Can't Win
    Excellent story of one mans life as a petty theif and profesional hobo. Puts new meaning into the oft used phrase bindlestiff and a fresh perspective on the origins of yegghood in early 20th century America. Read this story if you like history, adventure, crime stories, tramps, hobos, and freight trains, colorful nonfiction worthy of a postumus award such as the pulitzer. Jack Black is the forefather of such writers as William S. Burroughs and Bukowski. Whose dank dirty looks into the underbelly of humanity tell stories that are both repulsive and compelling. (*****)


  • K. W. Jeter: The Mandalorian Armor

    K. W. Jeter: The Mandalorian Armor
    (****)

  • Frank Herbert: Green Brain
  • Allen Steele: Rude Astronauts: Real and Imagined Stories
  • Charles Stross: Singularity Sky

    Charles Stross: Singularity Sky

  • Harlan Ellison: Angry Candy
  • Samuel R. Delany: Aye, and Gomorrah: And Other Stories

    Samuel R. Delany: Aye, and Gomorrah: And Other Stories

  • Walter M. Miller Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)

    Walter M. Miller Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)
    (****)

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Book of the Month: "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" ZZ Packer

"What are you going to do when you're finished?" Heidi asked. Sexy question marks of smoke drifted up to the windows before vanishing.
"Take a bath."
She swatted me with her free hand. "No, silly. Three years from now. When you leave Yale."
"I don't know. Open up a library. Somewhere where no one comes in for books. A library in a desert."
She looked at me as though she'd expected this sort of answer and didn't know why she'd asked in the first place.
"What are you going to do?" I aksed her.
"Open up a psych clinic. In a desert. And my only patient will be some wacko who runs a library."
"Ha", I said. .....

http://citizenjones.typepad.com//image.jpg
shhhh


ZZ Packer's imagery is crisp, clear, vivid, and so real that days after reading her stories you're still thinking about them. That's mastery of ones craft.

April 26, 2004 in Books |

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