Book Reviews: Reading Over Holiday Break

While spending the holidays in Charleston, I finished a dense, heavy book that I had been reading since before Thanksgiving, and then very quickly whisked through a light, fluffy sci-fi collection. To the reviews!

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

In evaluating this book, we have to hold two opposing truths at once:

1. Mark Twain's life is infinitely more interesting than you could imagine

2. This book could have easily been half as long

Regarding the first point, while Twain is most famous nowadays for Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, those were really just footnotes to his incredible life. He raised himself out of poverty with his writing and wit, lived as a reporter all over the country (including Hawaii), married into wealth (mixed in with the income he earned as his writing became more and more popular), spent a ten-year period living all across Europe, went bankrupt due to several failed business ventures, scrapped his way to paying back EVERY PENNY that he owed (despite bankruptcy courts ruling he only had to pay back half of what he owed), then returned to America a beloved and far-left hero. And this doesn't even include his tragic family history - he had four children and outlived three of them - or his creepy late-period obsession over pre-teen girls. And not to mention that in an effort to stand out within the lecture circuit - and naturally make more money doing so - he practically invented stand-up comedy.

All of the above is absolutely fascinating. But then we come to the second truth - many of these facts are repeated over and over again for chapters and chapters on end. Some of these chapters just read like re-tellings of the previous chapters - makes you wonder if George RR Martin was the guest editor. Ron Chernow is a great popular history writer, but as my dad said, he wrote this book like he was being paid by the sentence. It's possible that he did the same thing in Hamilton and Grant - maybe it's easier to digest when repeating points about war and/or politics? - but hearing the same publishing stories over and over again really does a number on the reader.

Overall, the amazing story barely outweighs to unnecessary length - seven out of ten hot dogs.

A Very Sci-Fi Christmas by Tristan Voss

I read a collection of sci-fi Christmas stories a long time ago (probably have the review somewhere on this blog). That book was full of interesting spins on the holiday and the theme.

This book is not that.

A Very Sci-Fi Christmas reads like a collection of stories written by high school sophomores given the assignment of writing sci-fi Christmas stories. We have "The Grinch" as a computer virus (in the far future), more than one story with Santa in space (in the far future), and an alien ship resembling the Star of Bethlehem going into orbit around the Earth (in the far future).

Also of note: When looking for an image of the book cover for this post, I typed in "a very sci-fi christmas by tristan voss" into Google Images and came up with...nothing. That's how much of a push this book got - it stumped Google! (Had to go to Amazon for the pic)

In total, this earns only three out of ten hot dogs. However...what exactly do you want to read over the holiday break? Are you looking for a dense slog? Or do you want something short and sweet you can read between family gatherings and beach time? I wanted the latter, and this book definitely fit those needs. So, with a bump from holiday CHEER, I give this one...six out of ten hot dogs. HO HO HO!!!