Teaser Tuesday: 8/10

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

It isn't exactly my current read, but a book that we recently bought and I think is interesting: The Back of the Napkin (Expanded Edition): Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam.

The essence of this book can be distilled down to one central idea.

Visual thinking is an extraordinarily powerful way to solve problems, and though it may appear to be something new, the fact is that we already know how to do it.

Why Dystopian Lit?

Interested in why I, and many others, find dystopian fiction so interesting? Then check out this post from Presenting Lenore: Dystopian Reader Views - What fascinates you about the genre?, part of her Dystopian August series.

Links & Wishlist: The Architect's Portfolio

Via NPR's Monkey See blog, Galleycat's Worst Negative Book Review Clichés: I was fine until I hit #5, "I just didn't *care* about the characters." I'm pretty sure I say that in every other negative review. Oops!

It's been a long while since I had to do a portfolio, so The Architect's Portfolio: Planning, Design, Production by Andreas Luescher looks like a good resource.


My husband and I went to see Inception this past weekend. I'm not sure I understood it, but I thought it was great. And one of the main characters is an architect! I definitely recommend it.

My 2nd Blogoversary!

arch thinking is two years old today! My very first post was on 8/8/08 - such a nice round number. While I always planned to do a lot of book reviews, I thought then that it would be more of a general interest blog. These days, I don't discuss much other than books and I like it that way. Sometimes I feel like I should write about art and architecture more, but generally I feel like there are a lot of better writers out there who have that covered. Plus, as an architect, I have a pretty good outlet for those interests, whereas this is my space to write and talk about reading and writing.


Just like last year, I'd like to hold a special giveaway to celebrate the occasion. The rules:

• Choose any book (up to $30 in value) that I have reviewed or discussed in the past year (that's August 8, 2009 to August 8, 2010).
• Tell me in the comments on this post why you chose it.
• I will pick one reader who will win the book of their choosing!**
• Contest is open for one month, until September 8th.
• Please read the fine print.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and being such a great community!

*Fine print: I will send the winner an Amazon (or other online seller) gift certificate for the value of the book plus $3.99 for standard US shipping. This contest is open to anyone, but you will have to pay for any shipping above that amount.

Wishlist: Packing for Mars

I watched The Daily Show from Monday last night and loved Jon Stewart's interview with Mary Roach, regarding her newest book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can't walk for a year? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 4,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations -- making it possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA's new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Packing for Mars takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

While I wasn't blown away by the previous book by her I've read (Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife), the conversation with JS about this one was so hysterical, I am going to have to read it.

Review: The Good Thief

I finally finished reading The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti recently, having put it down several times to read something else, but not having quite given up on it. I've read many positive reviews of this book. I mean, hey, The New York Times loved it. So I wanted to keep going. But I just didn't click with this book. I thought it was, to be honest, odd, with a confusing ending.

The Good Thief is about twelve year-old Ren who is missing his left hand and was abandoned as an infant at Saint Anthony’s Orphanage for boys. One day Benjamin Nab appears, claiming to be Ren’s long-lost brother, and his convincing tale of how Ren lost his hand and his parents persuades the monks at the orphanage to give him Ren. But Benjamin is just a thief, looking for an apprentice. Or maybe he's not, and there's more to this story.

If you like Dickens, I think you'll enjoy this book more than I did. For me, there were just too many coincidences, too many quirks. The elements are all there, I just didn't really like the way it was put together.

Buy The Good Thief: A Novel on Amazon.

Review: Charmed Life

Charmed Life is the first book in Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series and the first book I have ever read by her.

Orphans Cat and his sister Gwendolen, a young witch, are summoned to live with at Chrestomanci Castle, home of the powerful enchanter who regulates the use of magic in the parallel worlds and his family. When the Chrestomanci doesn't acknowledge ambitious Gwendolen's talent, she decides to wreck havoc on the castle to make him pay attention. Poor Cat is haplessly dragged alone for the ride.

I know DWJ has legions of fans, but I wasn't really impressed by this book. There were basically no sympathetic characters - Gwendolen is clearly just a shrew, Cat is a patsy, we hardly know Chrestomanci and his wife, their daughter is obnoxious, and their son barely registered as a person. The only person I liked in the book was Janet, and she's not in most of the book. Does Wynn Jones have something against kids? For a kids book, I found the children characters to be really poorly developed. I resented that the female characters were either harpies or doormats, but the male characters didn't fare much better.

As I said, I know this author has a lot of fans. I loved the movie Howl's Moving Castle, so maybe I will seek out the book, but otherwise, I doubt I will pick up another one of Wynn Jones's books again.

Buy Charmed Life on Amazon.