Michael Janairo

Author: Michael Janairo

Why I quit reading “Against the Day”

By now all the initial hoopla surrounding Thomas Pynchon’s “Against the Day” has died down, with the reviews coming in mostly mixed. So I feel I can finally confess that even though I was among those to receive an advanced readers copy, complete with my name and the name of the Times Union imprinted in thick magic marker, I gave up around Page 199.

Giving up is not something that gives me pride, but when I realized that I didn’t know who I was reading about or, really, what was going on, and was searching my house for a really big piece of paper to map out the family trees of the book’s characters, I realized that the book had escaped me.

I’ve enjoyed reading Pynchon before, including Gravity’s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49 and, especially, Mason and Dixon, but I don’t consider myself a huge fan of his work. I even gave up on Vineland.

Basically, the book wasn’t leading me anywhere — just showing me some rather clever and mildly humorous scenes, and connecting them with long expositions that spanned who knows how much time (I’m sure someone out there is busily trying to figure that out).

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January 5, 2007
Albany Project reading “Three Men in a Room”

An outfit calling itself The Albany Project, which seeks to return New York State Government to its rightful owners – the people, is starting an online book club, with its first book being Three Men in a Room: The Inside Story of Power and Betrayal in an American Statehouse by Seymour P. Lachman (w/ Robert Polner).

Go here for more info: http://www.thealbanyproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=104

January 5, 2007
A new release from Christopher Ringwald

Former Times Union reporter, author and visiting scholar at The Sage Colleges Christopher Ringwald has a new book, “A Day Apart: How Jews, Christians, and Muslims Find Faith, Freedom, and Joy on the Sabbath,” which is now available from Oxford University Press.

The book received a STARRED review in the January issue of Booklist, which called it “a valuable contribution to interfaith studies.”

In conjunction with the book, Ringwald also will be holding various public events:

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January 4, 2007
That’s interesting

The tireless book reviewer and editor Bob Hoover at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tries to make the word “interesting” interesting again with this short list of books:

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January 4, 2007
Where’s ’shaggy dog’ come from?

The Guardian in London says the Oxford English Dictionary is looking for help. They’ve got about 40 words they don’t know the origin to, and are opening it up to the public. The article, of course, is written in England for Brits, but that doesn’t mean Americans can’t get involved. Click here for more info about the OED word hunt.

Here’s what the guardian says:

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January 4, 2007
Latest issue of Albany Poets art/lit mag now available

Here’s some news from the Albany Poets blog:

The sixth issue of Albany Poets’ art/lit magazine, Other, is now available. We are now in the process of getting them out to coffee shops, bookstores, and any other location that is willing to carry it. We have posted all of the poetry on the Other website.

January 3, 2007
A blog worth a look

This blog is based in faraway Houston, Texas, but it is written by Patrick Kurp, a former Times Union reporter:

http://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/

He bills his blog as “A blog about the intersection of books and life. ”

Take a look.

January 3, 2007
What was your favorite book of 2006?

Eleanor Skinner at Flights of Fantasy, an independent science fiction and fantasy bookstore with a large gaming section and two lovely cats, weighs in with her favorites of last year:

I will limit myself to books I read this year that were actually published in 2006. I would have to say my utter favorites of the year were The Virtu, by Sarah Monette; To Ride A Rathorn, by PC Hodgell; and The Empty Chair, a Star Trek novel by Diane Duane. All three of them had the long-awaited sequel effect going for them. They are books 2, 4, and 5 of their respective series.

Sarah Monette is the author of the beautifully-written fantasy series beginning with Melusine and continuing with The Mirador in August 2007. It’s about two half-brothers separated at
birth, both abused children, one a wizard and the other a former thief and assassin. They find themselves embroiled in a maze of court politics, conspiracies, dead religions, and ancient magics.

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January 3, 2007
A note about Haruki Murakami

If you’ve followed my book reviews, you’ll know that I have an interest in Japanese literature, so here’ a link to an interesting article published in Japan reflects on the importance of Haruki Murakami’s work in East Asia. The article is here. (A tip of the hat to the literary blog The Elegant Variation for pointing it out.) Here’s an excerpt:

“Resonating with the thoughts of the times, Murakami is challenging universal issues of mankind such as history and morality, and is expected to increase his presence in an East Asian region in transition.”

January 3, 2007