Cynical Optimism

This past couple days i have finished two books: The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr and The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. Both take place in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th century (1897 and 1909 respectively). Carr's book has a fictional psychologist running the investigation and an appearance of Theodore Roosevelt while Rubenfeld's has both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung throughout but neither do much real detective work. Both have a lot of commentary on the police corruption of the time and the living conditions of the city's poorest citizens.

I definitely liked Angel better. NOT just because it was 640 pages. I felt the crimes and the process of discovering the criminal were far more interesting. Murder was rather confusing. Most thrillers/mysteries are told in either first person perspective following the investigator (Angel and Carr's earlier The Alienist use this) or a third person omniscient perspective following the investigat…

Just read Drive by James Sallis. Short, dark, sad and heavy. I read it in less than a day at work and really enjoyed it. I need to read more noir because every time i do i absolutely love it. i am going to look up some more works from this author.

Joined a few of yahoo groups for books and, unrelatedly, atheism. I am getting way too many reading suggestions from these.

Finished Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice again. I have read it a couple times before and i find it to be the most dreamlike of any of her novels. An interesting story dealing with the castrated soprano singers of Italy in the 18th century. There's sex because it's an Anne Rice novel. Probably about 80% story and 20% soft core porn. as opposed to her Sleeping Beauty series or Exit to Eden which are about 20% story.

I am working on a couple other books right now too so may have a few more to post soon.

Read Coroner's Journal: Forensics and the Art of Stalking Deathby Louis Cataldie. I enjoyed it most because the author was the coroner in Baton Rouge from 1993-2003 and i recognized many of the locations. It also was a big dose of South Louisiana culture and environment. And when i was a student at LSU I took classes from Mary Manheim who had been involved in some of the cases. so it was a weird reminder of home in a way.


and no, i do not come from a dysfunctional family.

i feel bad. i used to write on here at a respectable rate. while i may not have posted everyday like BF, i did feel i updated at least regularly. There really were several reasons why i just stopped: i got out of the habit when i moved in May as I had so many other things to do at that time; i organized our trip to Portland, OR in late May and June; i got deep into World of Warcraft in July and thereafter; BF and i have been dealing with his health problems since October.

so i am trying to at least get back in the habit of getting on here on a semi regular basis. I read a lot, frequently i get through a book in 2 days at work when it is slow between calls. And i can never remember a year later what all i read unless i pick it up again and flip through and refresh my memory. so i am going to start really logging everything i read on here and while not exactly reviewing at least give a short appraisal of it.

so here goes.
Last week i read Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are…