Dreaming of alternative endings
The month of June is almost over, and with it, our daily book reviews of "Dream reads". To finish the month, here's something you may dream about....
Do you ever find yourself dreaming of alternative endings for the books you have read? Maybe you found the ending of a book abrupt, improbable or with just too many loose ends that left you wondering what happened next.
Do you ever find yourself dreaming of alternative endings for the books you have read? Maybe you found the ending of a book abrupt, improbable or with just too many loose ends that left you wondering what happened next.
The ending of a book can make or break a story for the reader. In some books you may have preferred to have left your characters living happily ever after, would have enjoyed a more believable ending or maybe you would have liked to have had something left to your imagination.
There are certainly no rules saying that a fiction book has to end a certain way, and some fans have taken this to heart, dreaming up and writing countless alternative endings to their favourite books and series, posting them on the net as fan fiction. Some are indeed dreamy, whereas others you may regard as being the stuff of nightmares! Of course, this is because each individual reader experiences a story differently, with their own reactions, interpretations and thoughts about the story (if you are part of a book group, you would know this is true).
Monique
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection by Alexander McCall Smith
The first female detective of Botswana, Mma Ramotswe has had a portentous dream. Normally a sound sleeper she has a vision of a tall man under an acacia tree. But what does it mean?
And so starts the thirteenth installment of Alexander McCall Smith's charming cozy mystery series the No.1 Ladies Detective set in Botswana. In this novel Precious Ramotswe's assistant Mma Makutsi is having issues with the construction of her new home. While at Speedy Motors next door the previously squeaky-clean trainee mechanic Fanwell is in trouble with the law. Then the indomitable matron of the orphan farm Mma Potokwani is sacked!
Precious Ramotswe is a charming character who while maintaining the old Botswanan ways of politeness and respect always manages to catch the culprits and put things right. Never one to rush, many a mystery has been solved over a cup or two of redbush tea.
Although this book stands alone readers of the entire series will get a special thrill when then meaning of the vision is revealed. For those who want to start at the beginning see the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Book review: Her Father’s Daughter by Alice Pung
Having grown up as a white girl in the Sutherland Shire, it’s hard for me to fully appreciate the great sacrifices that many Australians have made in making a new home here. Alice Pung tells the story of her parents’ lives in Cambodia prior to their migration, as well as her own experience of growing up here. Alice found it difficult to understand why they were so protective of her. Her father, Kuan, struggled with how to get his daughter to understand what a “waste of time it was, that loss of four years of his life” living in Cambodia under the regime of Pol Pot’s Black Bandits. Kuan felt born again after coming to Australia; he “could feel feelings again!” and named his daughter Alice because to him and wife Kien, Australia was truly a Wonderland.
This memoir is a wonderful insight into the complexities of growing up the child of migrant parents with troubled histories. It is alternately heart-warming and heart-breaking and I found it a powerful eye-opener.
Sue
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
If you're at all interested in how social networking via the web is changing the way society operates, here's a book for you!
Clay Shirky studies the effects of the internet on society and is a well known (in the web world at least) thinker and speaker. In this book he takes a look at how the increasingly social nature of the web, think Facebook, Foursquare, etc., is changing the very nature of our society.
One of the main themes of the book is that technological change can only really change a society once the technology has become ubiquitous. Call it a paradigm shift if you like but Shirky argues that we are only just heading into the territory where the Web 2.0 tools are 'not new' and that we are only beginning to see the ways that these tools will change the way society works. He poses a lovely tech history question to illustrate his point:
When Web 2.0 tools become ubiquitous everyone becomes a content creator. This is what Chris Anderson calls the democratisation of production in his book, The Long Tail. Shirky argues that once the lines blur between producers or publishers and consumers there is a fundamental change in the way our society operates, that "the category of 'consumer' is now a temporary behavior rather than a permanent identity." (Here Comes Everybody, p. 108). The result is that previously impossible things start occuring.
Martin
One of the main themes of the book is that technological change can only really change a society once the technology has become ubiquitous. Call it a paradigm shift if you like but Shirky argues that we are only just heading into the territory where the Web 2.0 tools are 'not new' and that we are only beginning to see the ways that these tools will change the way society works. He poses a lovely tech history question to illustrate his point:
Which went mainstream first, the fax or the Web?
People over 35 have a hard time understanding why you'd even ask - the fax machine obviously predates the Web for general adoption. Here's another: which went mainstream first, the radio or the telephone? The same people often have to think about this question, even though the practical demonstration of radio came almost two decades after that of the telephone, a larger gap than separated the fax and the Web. We have to think about radio and television because for everyone alive today, those two technologies have always existed. And for college students today, that is true of the fax and the Web. Communications tools don't get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. The invention of a tool doesn't create change; it has to have been around long enough that most of society is using it. It's when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody. p105.
When Web 2.0 tools become ubiquitous everyone becomes a content creator. This is what Chris Anderson calls the democratisation of production in his book, The Long Tail. Shirky argues that once the lines blur between producers or publishers and consumers there is a fundamental change in the way our society operates, that "the category of 'consumer' is now a temporary behavior rather than a permanent identity." (Here Comes Everybody, p. 108). The result is that previously impossible things start occuring.
The hallmark of revolution is that the goals of the revolution cannot be contained by the institutional structure of the existing society. As a result, either the revolutionaries are put down, or some of those institutions are altered, replaced, or destroyed. We are plainly witnessing a restructuring of the media businesses, but their suffering isn't unique, it's prophetic. All businesses are media businesses, because whatever else they do, all businesses rely on managing of information for two audiences - employees and the world. The increase in the power of both individuals and groups, outside traditional organisational structures, is unprecedented. Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be. (my emphasis)The book is full of fascinating, real life examples and situations that the Internet enables, which would have been completely impossible pre-web. It's a few years old now but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think it's just as relevant as ever.
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody, p. 107.
Martin
The Witness by Nora Roberts
I swear Nora Roberts must be an Alien.
How is it possible for her to churn out so many books (under two author titles - J D Robb is the other) and for them to still be pretty good?
One of her latest, The Witness is about a young girl who in a fit of rebellion against her straight, impersonal mother goes out on the town and in a series of events, witnesses a horrific murder by a mob hit-man. Because of her photographic memory she recalls all details of the night and becomes a very valuable (or threatening, depending which side you are on) witness that could help take down a lucrative criminal mob.
Things go awry for young Elizabeth, when corruption blows her world apart and sets her running for her life. 12 years later we find her in a hermit-like state, making millions from a software security firm she has established under a fake identity. She is still very wary of everyone and has extremely poor social skills - stringing a sentence together is work for her. All seems to be going well for 'Abigail' until the local chief of police takes and interest in her. Her secure, anti-social world is slowly unravelled by this charming cop who feeds her multi-lingual guard-dog Bert rawhide bones and won't take no for an answer! This make Abigail think about the life she could have, which is only possible if the mob who are tracking her get brought to justice...
This is a really fun, charming and exciting novel. It has love, computer hacking, fighting and suspense galore. If you are after a light read that doesn't take too much effort to piece together I highly suggest The Witness.
Jess
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