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<![CDATA[new comment from Kemper]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74544390
Kemper's review of
My Dead Body: A Novel byCharlie Huston
Amanda wrote: "Quotation marks may have offed his parents? I'm not surprised--quotation marks are pretty bad ass. Little punctuation harbingers of doom (and clarity)!"
If you think those are bad, you should see what a comma will do. You do not want to meet one of those guys in a dark alley. They will mess you up...
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'My Dead Body: A Novel']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74544390
to: My Dead Body: A Novel (Paperback)byCharlie Huston bookshelves: horror
- Hey, Charlie Huston. Can I ask you a question?
- Sure, Kemper.
- First, I’m a big fan. Your new breed of neo-noir writing is a blast to read in both your crime and horror novels.
- Thank you.
- No problem. I gotta admit that I thought the Joe Pitt character was probably one of your weaker creations for a while there, though.
- Why? You didn’t like the idea of a tough guy Vampyre getting caught up in various turf wars between rival clans in New York?
- No, I was good with that. I just have this pet peeve about writers doing supernatural characters. There's always a hero or anti-hero who is supposed to bad ass, but it seems like they always spend the majority of their books getting beaten to the point where they can barely function, but somehow prevail in the end. Harry Dresden and Sandman Slim, for example. And Joe Pitt is a poster boy for this. He’s supposed to be the rogue independent vampire that everyone is scared off, yet he seems to spend most of the books getting his ass handed to him, and even his Vampyre healing hasn’t prevented him from being maimed and half-crippled by now.
- You have a point, and I’m sorry to say that poor old Joe doesn’t fare much better in this book. So I assume you want to ask why I felt the need to inflict such misery on him?
- No, actually, after reading My Dead Body, I’m pleased with how you handled the whole thing. I didn’t realize that there was an arc to the whole story and that this one would be the final culmination of Joe’s saga. The fact that he’s a damaged mess makes sense in that context. Plus, I now realize that Joe wasn’t a miserable asshole just for the sake of being a miserable asshole. He’s a character like John Constantine or Rorschach from Watchmen. He’s the outsider who refuses to compromise no matter what it costs him and others.
- Oh, well I’m glad you feel better about that now, Kemper, but I thought you had a question?
- I do, Charlie Huston. My question is just why in the hell you are incapable of writing dialogue like every other goddamn writer in the known universe?
- Are you referring to the way I don’t use quotation marks or verbs like ‘said’ or ‘asked’?
- Yes, I am. I mean, you do some of the best and most realistic dialogue this side of Elmore Leonard, but this affectation of using a dash and then the dialogue with no clue as to who spoke it… Well, frankly, Charlie Huston, it’s kind of a pain in the ass. And it gets really bad when there are several people in a room talking, and then you have to get cute about letting us know who’s speaking by using the other person’s name. All this could have been avoided if you would just use some freaking quotation marks and a ‘I said’ every once in a while. Everyone else does it.
- Yes, but I’m a groundbreaking writer trying to perfect a new style of noir….
- Save it, Charlie Huston. It’s a cute little gimmick that was mildly amusing in the first book I read by you, but now it’s just a distraction. And it’s too bad because My Dead Body was a terrific book, but I shouldn’t have to create flow charts as I’m reading to try and keep track of who is speaking. I really don’t get it. Were your parents killed by quotation marks and you swore vengeance? Did the word ‘said’ steal a girlfriend from you once? You need to get it over it.
“I’ll think about it,” Charlie Huston said.
“You see how easy that was?” Kemper asked.
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'Thunder and Ashes']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77845039
Thunder and Ashes (Paperback)
byZ.A. Recht bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'Oryx and Crake']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75162084
Oryx and Crake (Paperback)
byMargaret Atwood bookshelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'Plague of the Dead']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76899202
to: Plague of the Dead (Paperback)byZ.A. Recht bookshelves: apocalypse-now,
horror
I am a stone cold sucker for zombie stories. I don't care if they're the old school Romero shufflers or the new breed of 28 Days Later style runners, give me a story about the world being overrun by undead flesh eaters, and it makes me happy. This probably says something very disturbing about me.
This is pretty standard stuff. A virus code named Morningstar breaks out in Africa and *gasp* brings the dead back to life with a taste for the living. Efforts at containment fail and soon the entire planet is being overrun.
The remains of an Army force is trying to get back to the States after failing to hold back the zombies in Africa, and a Army virus expert finds that the U.S. government may be more dangerous than the flesh eaters after she leaks classified info to warn the public about the threat. Hilarity ensues.
Pretty solid zombie story, but there's a lot of overly macho military and spy crap with a lot of B movie cliches. This isn't anywhere close to the class of a World War Z or The Walking Dead graphic novels, but not too shabby as ending the world by zombie apocalypse goes. It was entertaining enough that I'll check out the sequel.
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'Of Mice and Men']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6595443
to: Of Mice and Men (Paperback)byJohn Steinbeck bookshelves: critics-list,
plain-old-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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<![CDATA[new comment from Kemper]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77191498
Kemper's review of
Blink byMalcolm Gladwell
Yeah, I wasn't that interested myself but my GR friend Logan reviewed it and I decided I had to check it out.
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<![CDATA[Kemper added 'Blink']]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77191498
to: Blink (Paperback)byMalcolm Gladwell bookshelves: blinded-me-with-science,
non-fiction
I generally distrust anyone who says that they ‘go-with-their-gut’. But when the company I work for announced a major decision a few years back, I instantly said, “This is going to be a huge mistake.” Smart people had examined the deal backwards and forwards for months and thought it was a great idea. I had a bad feeling about it that I could only later explain, and I was far from the only one. And we were right. The entire thing turned out to be a huge disaster.
I kept thinking about that incident when I read Blink. The book has a pretty obvious point. People make snap decisions that they can’t consciously explain. Sometimes these decisions are correct and amazing based on the limited amount of information available. Art experts who instantly know a statue is fake despite scientific tests indicating otherwise. A fireman who appears to be fighting a routine small fire suddenly orders his men out without really knowing why and the floor collapses a second later. And sometimes these decisions can be wrong and have tragic consequences. Four cops think a guy has a gun when he’s pulling his wallet out and shoot him multiple times.
We’ve all made quick decisions and later been amazed at how good or bad they turned out, but what makes Blink interesting is that Gladwell does some examination of the science behind how we arrive at these conclusions, and his thoughts on how the data we’re processing can either give us incredible insight or lead us horribly wrong.
Thankfully, Gladwell is not making an argument against logical thinking or analyzing a problem. What he is doing is pointing out that instinct or intuition can be a powerful tool IF the people involved have trained themselves to make good decisions, and if we know when to trust it. He’s got a lot of great examples of doctors, military officers and police officers who often have to make life-or-death decisions in a matter of seconds with limited information. They have to trust their instincts, and Gladwell makes some common sense points that the right kind of training and education can make a huge difference. He contrasts the story of the four New York cops who killed the guy with a wallet versus a patrolman who did not fire on someone who actually had a gun but was attempting to surrender it.
What made this book fun to read was the variety of examples that Gladwell uses and the scientific research done with them. Art dealers, doctors, marriage counselors, cops, military officers, car salesmen, a tennis coach, and classical musicians are all used as examples of the strengths and weaknesses of snap decisions. There’s also some simple experiments included that let you play along at home. This is a book that will make you think about the way you think.
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<![CDATA[Kemper made a comment on Kemper's profile]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/405390-kemper
Kemper made a comment on Kemper's profile:
Nancy wrote: "A golf club is lighter and faster, and your dignity will still remain intact. "
Too much chance I might swing and miss. If I've got a cobra rearing back to strike, I can't be worrying that my left arm is straight or that my club head is lined up properly.
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<![CDATA[new comment from Kemper]]>
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76798991
Kemper's review of
Quarry in the Middle (Hard Case Crime #61) byMax Allan Collins