'The Dirty Streets of Heaven' by Tad Williams

Exciting, full of action and humor ... and trouble

I've come to that point in my life; everything I read reminds me of something else.  This is not a bad thing when it reminds me of something good.  Bobby Dollar reminds me of Harry Dresden.  Both these characters have the amazing ability to spot trouble and immediately make it worse.  This quality they share has nothing to do with super powerful beings in books; it is a quality inherent in being males, which is probably why it is so easy to suspend my disbelief.  Please bear with me on this...

I have a relative who tried to fix the plumbing in the kitchen by sawing through a pipe. His idea was that he would cut out the leaky portion and try to glue the two smooth portions together.  His wife went to have a quiet coffee in the living room, secure in the knowledge that she was going out for dinner, probably for a few nights.  He knew ahead of time that his approach was not likely to work.  He felt that action, any action, was better than paying a plumber first.  Another male of my acquaintance often tries to put furniture together or install software without reading the instructions (incomplete information).  He insists that logic will get him through and his favorite complaint is "this doesn't make sense!"

So you see where I am headed with this?  Take a powerful being (but not the biggest fish in the pond) and give him a super problem, missing souls instead of a leaky pipe, and set him lose in the kitchen or city of your choice.  The whole approach is so consistently masculine and, yes, endearing.  I flinch every time Bobby decides to put his foot in it.  The most desirable partner for such a man is obviously a she-devil, as are all wives one way or another from a man's point of view.

The story was exciting, full of action and humor.  The universe Tad creates stays consistent which is important with so much action and unknowns.  I kept reading all day... I was laughed at by a friend when she terrified me in my car (waiting for kid X to come out of sport Y).  I did not put the book down until I was done.  Alright Tad, I am persuaded to hunt some of your other books down until I get to hear more of this fun angel.

@tadwilliams

Tad Williams
ISBN: 9781444738551

'Down Under' by Bill Bryson

...now I need to visit Australia

I am suspicious of those quotes on book jackets... you know the ones, "riveting", "engaging","best one yet".  I can only think of one occasion when the quote and the name by the quote encouraged me to buy a book.  But never mind that, as to this particular book, the quote said "funny as ever".  I hoped so.  I read the book because it was there.  By there I mean covered in dust under my husband's nightstand.  My son had brought the book from school, certain chapters were required reading (astonished? I was).  The rest of us had not touched it and so it lay.  I vacuumed and dusted and thought "ok, a travel book, why not?"  I don't read travel books unless I'm certain I am going somewhere.  Travel books are not entertaining, I find them slightly pathetic without an actual destination.

Bill Bryson is fortunately in a league of his own.  He travels.  He does not take careful, anal notes.  Instead, he experiences, blunders, learns, discovers and finally makes readers like me laugh out loud in public places.  His dry humor gives the aridity of Australia a good run for its money.  Bill put me in mind of Terry Pratchett's 'Lost Continent' (which is not about Australia).  Any moment I expected to find Death (Terry's DEATH) propping up a dusty bar in the outback Bill was exploring.  There are so many painful, unexpected, horrible ways to die inAustralia and Bill Bryson made me laugh about most of them; Death had to have been around trying to get the joke.

Bill's observations on local idiosyncrasies, politics and cricket give me glimpses of English speaking aliens.  My theory is that given their isolation and red dirt/dust/sand perhaps they are homesick colonizers from Mars.  The result of all this laughing is that now I need to visit Australia.  I need to rent a car with very good climate control.  And I need to try the beer ( yes, I know I live in Germany and beer here is the BEER but Australian beer sounded so good in Bill's book).  I need to vista Uluru and Perth and a crocodile park.  I will carry 'Down Under' with me like a treasure to bury in some desolate beach, provided the local inhabitant of a seashell doesn't kill me first.

Bill Bryson
ISBN: 9780552997034

'Dearly Devoted Dexter' by Jeff Lindsay

I thought this series looked a little different from average thrillers and a light read.  It turned out to be a fun book ( and series so far, this is book 2).  It is a real escape in the best sense of the word.  Another person's mind is as far away as an alien planet;  Dexter's is indeed so far gone, phrases like "event horizon" come to mind.  I have never seen the show so I do not know how it translates on to the screen.  In writing, the jokes are as funny as they are macabre.  A serial killer that only kills serial killers is intriguing, the warped humor is a plus.  It is not an especially difficult or deep book.  On the other hand, I like the risk the author took with such an anti hero.

I was surprised to find the book cathartic.  Most mothers and a lot of decent, virtuous people never the less fantasize about busting a ring of criminals and dispensing suitable, occasionally creative amounts of justice.  To live in a moral world governed by consistent laws (we are lucky) and to be moral beings that voluntarily abide by these laws means that we do not blow up or torture drug pushers, pedophiles, etc.  We trust (hope) that we can bring them to justice with our laws and humanist ideals.  Unfortunately, we know that many murderers never get caught.

Ok, so now a book describes a serial killer who has been taught by a moral (but frustrated) policeman to channel his violent, conscience free inner nature and help make this world a better place.  Dexter goes after other serial killers and prides himself on the quality of his work.  The jokes are good because we sympathize with Dexter, which is weird and then see life through his eyes, which is weirder.

People's emotions and therefore motivations are a mystery to Dexter.  It feels to me that Dexter views people the way I view an iPhone; what goes on inside may as well be magic.  People speak volumes with looks and body language.  Dexter can only imitate not understand.  The situations and occasional misunderstandings are great.  Lindsay does a hilarious job of reminding the reader about points of view, degrees of morality, and justice as an abstract concept as opposed to a sharp (and pointy) reality.

ISBN: 9780752877884