Just a quick post to round up what has been going on with me and my books.

First up: Recent books read:
The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World’s Most Astonishing Number by Mario Livio

Livio writes a great book on the history of phi.  He takes a look at the fascination with this number throughout history and even tackles the pseudo-math throughout history that has tried to cram the golden ratio into everything from the Pyramids of Giza to the paintings of great artists.  Where some mathematicians have fallen for the allure that phi seems to be built into everything, either consciously or naturally, Livio shows that this is more a phenomenon of trying to massage numbers so it works more so than the numbers actually working.  THis, however does not diminish the importance of phi.  Livio also ties phi and the Fibonacci numbers together and shows how Fibonacci numbers show up in odd places and behave in odd, but fascinating ways. Worth a read.

The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar

This was so close to being a great book.  Millar has some great ideas and a knack for characters that are both absurd (in a good way) and likeable.  But his style is an acquired taste, specifically in this work where he jumps point of view with no more than a line break to denote the change.  And as with many UK writers writing books set in the US, dialogue has a distinct British flavor and at times uses British terms and vocabulary.  This is easily forgivable if the character is from the UK but ends up being distracting if the character is an American.
Barring that, this book about alcoholic Scottish, Irish, and English fairies that land in NYC, throw in a fairies workers revolt, a homeless lady that thinks she is a ancient Greek General, and a faerie war, you have a book that is worth reading.

Escape From Hell!by Hal Duncan.

Known for Vellum and Ink, Duncan takes a quick, dirty, and imaginative jaunt into the horror genre with Escape.  At first the reader can easily dismiss this book as a fun read with nothing really to think to deeply about.  But with a careful reading Duncan comments on the themes of humanity that goes beyond the good/evil or even what it means to be either.

Books I’m reading:
I just picked  Vellum: The Book of All Hours by Hal Duncan off of my shelf and will be beginning to read it tonight.  I have enjoyed the few short stories of Duncan’s I have come across especially his contribution to Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories edited by John Klima.

On the books received front:

Bloodletting Press just sent me my copy of Castaways by Brian Keene.  I’ll post a separate entry on that over the weekend I hope, with pictures even.

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