Miniature Book Reviews

I?ve read a few good books lately and instead of five separate posts for each book I?ve enjoyed I thought I would combine them all into one post.

Augustus: The Life of Rome?s First Emperor

Anthony Everitt, the author, is well-known for his historical biographies and this one doesn?t disappoint. I liked this biography of Augustus quite a bit except for the push to argue his death was an assisted suicide. There?s not a lot of evidence to support this idea so those parts of the book discussing it are basically glorified historical fiction. It was only one trouble spot for me.

A biography about Augustus probably isn?t the type of book people with just a passing interest in the history of the Roman empire would seek out. Those sorts of people want to read books about Julius Caesar or Marc Antony and Cleopatra but their lives overlapped and intertwined so much with Augustus that there is probably enough in this biography to catch those readers? interests as well.

In The Plex

Steven Levy is one of the better technology writers around today and it shows in this book. There?s not a lot of computer science mumbo jumbo in here to scare off non-technical readers and yet Levy does a nice job of explaining some of the behind-the-scenes workings of Google?s search engine and other products.

As someone who has given up using Google search for quite awhile now I found a look into the politics and leadership at Google to be very interesting and, to be honest, helped justify my decision to cut back on my reliance on their search products.

Bossypants

Tina Fey?s book made for some pretty light reading compared to my usual appetite for books that are snooty and elitist. I managed to read this in several hours on my iPhone while I was waiting between a wedding and the following reception. The chapters are short and it?s only 288 pages overall.

It?s very funny in parts, slightly amusing in others and there?s a lot of mild humor in between. There?s biographical information about Fey throughout but a some of it is hidden behind jokes or obfuscated for a laugh so you?re never entirely sure what really happened.

Hyperion

I?m a pretty nerdy dude but I haven?t read science fiction of any sort since I was in high school or, as I like to refer to it now, ?the good old days.? The only reason I picked Hyperion up was based on a thread on io9 where a bunch of dweebs were rambling on about how it was the best science fiction book in recent memory.

Well, I don?t know if it?s the best sci-fi book of the last 25 years, but the dweebs were dead on that it?s an amazing story. I was totally suckered into this thing. I literally couldn?t put it down which is about as cliche as I?m ever going to get probably.

There are four books in this series, and I knew in advance that Hyperion ends with something of a cliff hanger which required reading the second novel at the very least. So my next review shouldn?t come as much of a surprise.

The Fall of Hyperion

The second novel in the Hyperion series was a tad longer than the first and, to be honest, drags quite a bit near the end but I still managed to rip through the entire book one Sunday afternoon.

I don?t want to talk too much about the specifics of the plot of either of the Hyperion books I read but I?ll say that they involve heavy doses of the following: time travel, religion, space travel and robots. It?s like a future version of Lost, a show I still hold silent vigil over its ending to this day, so of course I was into Hyperion. I wouldn?t begrudge anyone for finding it to be a bit much, just like Lost, but anyone with a passing interest in good fiction might want to check this series out.

Source: http://www.brianjlink.com/miniature-book-reviews/

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