Book Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Another Gaiman book read aloud, this one meant for young readers. I liked revisiting it and thought it was well paced, but it was a bit dark and "stuck in place" for the younger readers. I also like how Coraline struggles with fear, yet how she's not deceived by the beldam for more than an instant. She has the right kind of strength -- she chooses it. It's instructive to compare the villain in Stardust to the beldam here. Both have a similar modus operandi, but in Stardust she preys on general hospitality, when in Coraline she instead usurps family. This is a great read because it's so focused, but at the end my favorite Gaiman works have more atmosphere and explore more. A hero like Coraline who likes to explore should be given more to explore.

Book Review: End of Watch by Stephen King

This book is the third in a trilogy following the exploits of retired detective Bill Hodges. The upshot is that this is a well-plotted, functional little detective story. More than the previous two books, this one verges into more typical Stephen King territory what with telekinesis, hypnosis, and even possession. The plot also involves suicide, and it all comes together with an almost audible snap. Yet, in other Stephen King books, there's something more going on. This could've had genuine insights into suicide or old age, but I feel like it's less than the sum of its parts relative to other insightful works like King's Joyland or 11-22-63. The first book in the trilogy, Mr. Mercedes, had some of these insights about the nature of evil, but nothing new on that really comes out here, possibly because the plot gives the villain too much power over his victims. I'd prefer if the victims actually had to be convinced but they are more controlled here. Regardless, King moves the plot along, has enough character moments to keep you invested, and surprises you just enough in the right ways at the right time. If you're pressed for time, I recommend just the first of the three novels here rather than sticking it through to the end, but it's still hard for me to find fault with something so cunningly crafted that it's difficult to find the seams in the story.

Audio: ASA 2016 talk on How the Periodic Table Shaped Life (and the Brain)

Two weeks ago I gave a talk on my book at the American Scientific Affiliation meeting at Azusa Pacific. Since the theme of the meeting was the mind and brain sciences, I focused on the chemistry of the brain and why I think that chemistry would be similar on different planets. This is an extension of Chapters 9 and 10 of my book with some new research findings.

Here's the audio for the talk*, and here's a PDF of the slides (fair use pics only).

(* Sorry I walked around so much, the mike picked up everything but volume goes up and down as I pace!)

Book Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I just re-read Stardust by Neil Gaiman, aloud for my kids, from the version with illustrations by Charles Vess. The illustrations are perfect and the story fits together just as it should. It was a little tricky to read aloud. I know Gaiman thinks that certain scenes will just fly past kids who aren't ready for them yet, and I know that you have to establish the Fairie parentage of the main character for the story to work, but I'm reading it to a group including a 5-year-old, so, yeah, I'm going to edit out the sex. I remembered the first scene and edited accordingly, but there were others that I didn't remember and had to improvise a bit clumsily. Anyone who's reading it aloud should know it comes with the territory, and don't use the audiobook if you're reading to young children. That said, it's got wonderful characters and a fitting ending and occasional early-20th-century verbiage that just makes it that much more fun. This book is more Princess Bride than the Princess Bride book! On my personal Gaiman ranking list, it's definitely below Neverwhere, American Gods, and the Graveyard Book, but that still makes it very good.

BioLogos Blog Post about Finding Fossils with Kids

Here's a blog post about finding fossils from the Cambrian Explosion with my four boys, and what I think about the chemical causes that could have got us there:

http://biologos.org/blogs/kathryn-applegate-endless-forms-most-beautiful/the-surprising-chemical-story-behind-the-cambrian-explosion

It's kind of like a real-life Pokémon Go, with a purpose!

More details (and more science) are in the three-part series posted earlier, starting here:

http://arrowthroughthesun.blogspot.com/2015/09/finding-burgess-shale-fossils-with-kids.html

Book Review: Reviving Old Scratch by Richard Beck

Today I'm under a massive weight of fear -- not all or mostly mine, but so many of my friends are afraid, and for real reasons. Traffic stops shouldn't make you fear for your life. Going to an Orlando club shouldn't make you fear for your life. Going to an airport shouldn't make you fear for your life. Going to Wednesday night church shouldn't make you fear for your life. The best review I can give for this book is that it offers what I think may be the only real way forward through this oppressive fear. This book by a Texas psychology professor (and Abilene prison study leader) addresses fear and economics and spirit and idols and capitalism and power and, yes, the devil and demons. I don't even know how to post about this in a short form that will explain things right, but Beck, as a self-described progressive Christian from a denomination not known for its progressiveness, approaches spiritual warfare in a very real way but also a very different way from the tired Frank Peretti way. I'm just beginning to process it. This kind doesn't come out except by prayer and fasting. But, as a Christian, I think that the only way out of this tangled cultural web of fear and escalation is through the gospel, through me as a white guy policing myself and my own sin before turning to others, and through the cross and its proclamation that the powers and principalities are defeated. I don't claim to have realized what that means, but all I know is that I start from there, and I pray our country will go somewhere with it this time. We can't stay here.

Book Review: The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

The subtitle of this book is "Selected Nonfiction," but it runs to a full 500 pages, so there's a lot that made the cut. Be prepared if you read this book to read more than that 500 pages, because Gaiman is his usual generous self here, and points you to so many other works of art that you'll be making library holds and Googling public domain short stories as you go. Thanks to this book, I found "The Gardener" by Kipling and "The Door in the Wall" by H.G. Wells, two excellent short stories that show underplayed sides of each of their respective writers. When Gaiman says something's especially good, it is indeed especially good.

The Yankees' legendary closer, Mariano Rivera, would freely show other pitchers how to throw his special cutter. He would try to give it away (yet he was always the master of it himself). Gaiman is the same way here -- he's trying his best to give away the secrets to making good art, and he explains it clearly several times over. Here's to some of it sinking in.

The organization of this book is also very good. It is a little overwhelming, and I would have cut about one or two essays per section, but the most recent stuff is the deepest and is concentrated in the last section, which deals with life and death. Despite the fact that this may seem to be "just a collection," it has a definite arc and a worthwhile climax in the last 50 pages.

For all that, it's ultimately a scrapbook, like The Art of Neil Gaiman by Hayley Campbell but with words only and from Gaiman's own pen. It's as worthwhile as most of Gaiman's writing -- which is to say, very.