I just finished reading John Dos Passos' USA trilogy. (The 42nd Parallel, Nineteen Nineteen, and The Big Money.) I first read these for a history class in college and fell in love with them. I figured it was about time to reread them.

They're a mixture of contemporary headlines, stream of consciousness autobiography, biographies of contemporary public figures, and the stories of several characters as they live from the turn of the century up to the late 20s. The story of the USA is also told by those characters' lives. They go from small town rural kids to sophisticated, trendy urban dwellers playing in the stock market, and their development tells the same story of the country.

I really like these books, but then again I have a thing for the literature of the 20s era. Also, I'm fascinated by the first three(-ish) decades of the 20th century. That time seems to me to have been a fork in the road of American development. Things were bad for lots of people: working conditions were pretty miserable, poverty was rampant, economic recessions were commonplace and bad; and yet, there seems to have been a real sense of optimism among people. People seemed to believe that if everyone just got organized and put their minds and their backs into it, they could make the world a better place. Reading the biography sections of people like Eugene Debs is always inspiring. However, with the New Deal co-opting much of what these people were agitating for in order to take the radical edge and energy off the popular movement and then, World War II, the emphasis seemed to have changed from making the world better for everyone towards everyone getting their own house in the burbs with a white picket fence. I have to admit, I do wonder a bit how things could have turned out differently.

But no matter what you think of my ramblings, the books are worth reading.

I just finished reading Anna Funder's Stasiland, which I learned about from Charlie Stross, and it was an unbelievably good book.

The GDR seemingly took to Stalinism with the zeal of a religious convert and completely outdid its parent state in creating an Orwellian surveillance state. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union had one KGB agent for every 5800 people. The GDR had one Stasi agent or informer for every 63 people. If part-time informers are counted, it was one informer for every 6.5 citizens. Everyone was under observation by the state.

Stasiland looks at what living in such a society does, both to the watched and the watchers, and how people have dealt with their roles in such a society now that it no longer exists. Funder does this by letting former East Germans tell their stories, whether they were imprisoned or whether they worked for the Stasi. It's almost unfathomable, what it must have been like to live in the GDR. Funder pretty much sums it up at one point: "Relations between people were conditioned by the fact that one or the other of you could be one of them. Everyone suspected everyone else, and the mistrust this bred was the foundation of social existance."

Once the Wall came down, and Germany was reunited, Germany took the step, which apparently no other Eastern Bloc country has taken, of opening up the Stasi files to the public. Individuals are allowed to see their files with names of third parties redacted, but with the real names of Stasi agents and informers who observed and informed on them. I cannot imagine what this does to a society, much less an individual, to know which of your family members, friends, or coworkers spied on you and to also know that these same people are still in positions of authority. After the files were opened up, even Erich Honecker and, apparently, Erich Mielke asked to see their files.

This book was infuriating, heartbreaking, and inspiring. It sounds cliche, but it was a good reminder of what people can do to each other in the name of ideology, and for any sane state, it should serve as a warning of what not to do.

If you're looking for a new SF author to pick up, you should do yourself a favor and check out Tobias Buckell. I'm wrapping up his second novel, Ragamuffin right now, and it's a good read. You can even read sample chapters of it and his first one, Crystal Rain at his site. So you don't have to take my word for it. You can head over there and check out his work before buying it.

Wow. Just wow.

I just finished Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein. You should go read this book. It's basically a Dashiell Hammett-esque detective novel, only a lot stranger and more disturbing and funnier. (This book is probably not for the faint of heart or easily disturbed, so if strange sexual practices bother you, go read the Reader's Digest instead.) His writing reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson and Mark Leyner, only whereas Leyner's outrageousness is all invented, Ellis' comes straight out of real life and off the web.

So it's kind of a strange ride, but it's well worth it.

And if you want to watch his research for material in action, "Daily trawling of the world for signs of the apocalypse continues at warrenellis.com".

ArmadilloCon is coming up next month, August 15 - 17. John Scalzi, who I'm a fan of, is going to be the guest of honor. Anyone got any interest in going with me?

This sucks. Cody's Books is closing. Cody's was a great bookstore and certainly our favorite when we lived out in Oakland. It'll definitely be missed.

LibraryThing seems to have reached critical mass where lots of new features are rolling out very quickly. The newest one, series coverage, is great. This'll let me figure out which books I don't have in a series and what order they belong in.

So, if the title says "two topics" and the above is about books, this next bit has to be about music.

I recently picked up Bill Evans' "Complete Village Vanguard Recordings". Very, very good collection. I don't think I'd ever heard Scott LaFaro on bass before. (Obviously I'm going to be biased towards listening to the bass players. I have to at least act like I'm trying to learn something from these artists.) Listening to him play was, to me, worth getting the collection. Yes, Bill Evans is an excellent pianist, but LaFaro keeps the trio grooving, and when he's given the chance, he knocks out some really nice solos. That was something that also impressed me. I don't know if I could easily name another group from around that time, other than one led by Charles Mingus, that gave bass players that much room to solo and do more than just play rhythm. (I'm sure there were, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.) It was nice to hear a trio where everyone was part of creating the music and not just setting the backdrop for the piano player to solo all night long. If you haven't heard any of this trio, it's definitely worth a listen.

Warren Ellis found this quote from Frederik Pohl, and I think Warren's interpretation of it is dead on.

It's been a while since I posted anything about books, so I figure that since I just finished reading a really good one, I'd do a book review.

In short, I'd highly recommend Cormac McCarthy's The Road .

It's a post-apocalyptic story of a father and his son, and is beautifully written. I a few simple sentences McCarthy brings home the bleakness and despair of the characters' entire lives being boiled down to survival. Their entire world is devoid of anything except staying alive. Then, a few paragraphs later, McCarthy can bring out the heart-breaking love the father has for his son while trying to encourage him swimming and the despair the father has because he knows his son will know nothing different.

The Road is probably the easiest to read of the McCarthy books I've read, but it still has his characteristic, matter-of-fact brutality. It's not glorified brutality, simply the matter-of-fact things that people will do to survive.

I would definitely recommend it.

And in other Cormac McCarthy news, No Country For Old Men is worth seeing. The Coen brothers were an excellent choice to adapt one of his novels.

The New Mastersounds

John Scalzi novels. Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades.