PJH Studios

Category: Books

All things books, fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi, thriller, horror, comics, literary

  • Dan Wells – Mr. Monster

    The second book of the I Am Not a Serial Killer series, Mr. Monster, begins shortly after the first.  John Wayne Clever still harbors feelings of a sociopath after killing the demon, Mr. Crowley.  John’s life seems to be copacetic for the moment, and improving with the growth of his relationship with Brooke as a high school girlfriend.  Yet, mysterious bodies begin to appear in random, public places, and John believes a second killer is amongst the town.  The last third of the book is between John and the killer with a unique twist that provides believable, psychological suspense.  There, John also battles his own inner demons.  The books subplots of John’s sister’s boyfriend, and Brooke tie in very well in the book’s final act.

  • Don’t Take My Picture – Craig Alesse

    Don’t Take My Picture by Craig Alesse is a good photography 101 for the family shutterbug who likes to take snapshots at all the family events, but get a little better at getting those shots. Topics covered include composition, lighting, group shots and how to put all these tools together to see a good shot. The writing is simple, casual and direct with very little photo jargon. The focus is understanding situations and when to click the shutter button.

  • Emma Donoghue – Room

    Room: A Novel, by Emma Donoghue, tells the story of a boy named Jack, who lived the first five years of his life in an isolated shed. The circumstances for his sheltered life stem from his mother being kidnapped and imprisoned and bearing the kidnapper’s child, Jack. Jack narrates the story in four acts: life in the room, events leading up to the eventual escape, the escape and initial adjustment and life thereafter.

    Life is the common thread throughout the four acts, and Donoghue uses language to capture the perceptive of an isolated five year old’s view of the world. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it stretches. The simple sentence structure and purposefully incorrect verb tense add to Jack’s proper naming of items within his Room–Rug, Bed, Toilet. At times Jack seems too perceptive or the innocent naivete wears thin, however, he remains an endearing character. Surprisingly, Jack describes his mother well, well enough for her character to be fully realized, and adults and infer the things Jack doesn’t know. Ma, as he calls her has done her best to educate Jack as if he received a normal upbringing.

    The first two acts are tense, with the question–how will they escape, while the last two acts tend to float along as Jack and Ma adjust to their new found freedom. Everything is new to Jack–rain, bees, the entire size of the world. Ma struggles to cope with how much she’s missed, and perhaps the weakest moment of the story is her interview with a TV reporter, where the reporter superficially pities her as a poor subject and questions whether Ma made the right choice in keeping Jack. The dialogue is thin to the point of caricature–the media is only there to exploit the hottest story. Other character interactions are shallow as well in the last act, particularly that of her father.

    Ultimately, the story is about Jack and his growth as his world explodes in a short period of time. Throughout, Donoghue keeps a light of hope on as she illuminates some dark corners.

  • An Intimate Portrait of the Carousel Horse

    An intimate portrait of the carousel horse. Vol. 1 — Southern California is a vintage, specialized photography book from 1982. John R. Cook photographed carousel horses. The copy I looked through contained no forward or afterward to detail what the intimate portraits were attempting to achieve.

    Most of the photos appear to be snapshots and seemingly, there are such subtle differences that the horses are indistinguishable. Perhaps this book could serve as a reference for carousel horses, but these pictures appear about as intimate as the results you’d get from grandma at the family reunion learning how to use her disposable camera.

  • Kevin Kelly – What Technology Wants

    In What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly views technology’s evolution from multiple perspectives–the anthropologist, the sociologist, the evolutionary biologist, the technologist and the futurist. Using these perspectives, he examines his core thesis: technology is an extension of our abilities.

    Broken into four sections, Origins, Imperatives, Choices and Directions he combines ideas from various disciplines with stories, documented history and deconstruction of facts. In Origins, evolutionary biology and anthropology explain humans and human interaction with technology. We began as a very simple species, and we adopted tools as we needed them. As homo sapiens evolved, our needs became more complex.

    Throughout Imperatives, he documents history and science with sociology in mind–how does technology affect us as it progresses? How do we reconcile our needs and abilities as humans adapt and grow into higher order civilizations? Technology comes from lower order needs, desiring of higher order abilities.

    Choices begins with Kelly stating that the Unabomber was right. Quoted at length from his manifesto, the Unabomber disdained technology due to it taking over our lives and growing beyond our control. Kelly points out the flaws in the manifesto somewhat cautiously–humans are incapable of fully living without technology. The Unabomber relied on others for tools and materials.

    The last two chapters consist of Kelly’s futurist, philosopher take on where technology is going. At length, he charts Technology’s Trajectories among 10 different areas: complexity, diversity, specialization, ubiquity, freedom, mutualism, beauty, sentience, structure, evolvability. These areas are the same areas that life itself works within, he states. Lastly, in a nod to James P. Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games, Kelly believes that our relationship with technology and ideas will constantly push boundaries and seek ways to grow in order to continue.

    In short, this book is full of ideas and perspectives. One particularly interesting idea he proposes is how many geniuses missed out on fully reaching their potential because they weren’t alive at the right time in history? Further, once a technology is created, in never ceases to exist. It may become rare, but it will serve a niche. If you want to get the most out of What Technology Wants in the shortest amount of time, read the last two chapters. Read the entire book for a synthesis of numerous ideas converging at once.

  • Seth Godin – Tribes

    Seth Godin’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us serves up a compact guide to be a leader of ideas. How should a leader of a tribe, a movement, cause, purpose devoted to a singular mission act or think? That’s what Godin covers with a mixture of anecdotes, stories from people who have led and succeeded or analogy or blunt deconstruction of a point.

    At about 130 pages, it reads quickly with each point or example no more than 300 to 500 words. He writes with purpose and clarity. There are times when his anecdotes seem thin, needing more context or explanation. Or is this a clever trick for the reader to become curious about the person he mentions and Google them?

    If you’ve read other Godin books, similar themes emerge. His emphatic belief that the factory mindset of cranking out widgets is broken. Education that invokes follow the rules behavior is an unsuccessful path. People fail not by the act of failing, but by not doing anything due to fear.

  • Seth Godin’s Purple Cow

    Seth Godin’s Purple Cow is a call for businesses and start ups to be remarkable. Being remarkable means being memorable, unique and doing business in such a way that it can be distinguishably different from the competition.

    Godin explains his purple cow: drive about the country side and watch cows–brown cows, black cows, black and white cows. After a while, they’re boring and part of the landscape. But what if all the sudden you saw a purple cow? That would be remarkable wouldn’t it?

    And his caveat: for a while, and then it too fades in to the scenery.

    Where most businesses stumble, is that they create something new and exciting and make money, but then they become stuck in a cycle of protecting the product and doing things that are safe and for the masses. What businesses should do, he says, as the purple cow is making money, invest that money on the next thing, the next idea. He supports this stating that you make more money on early adopters who then tell the masses (their friends) about the product or service. This doesn’t mean you seek out they next cool thing immediately, but be attentive and creative to when the market will provide an opportunity for you to create your next purple cow.

    Godin writes in stories, anecdotes and case studies. Purple Cow contains plenty of examples. My Pearl Jam nerd self received a little bit of glee when the band sold all 72 live shows from their 2000 tour–and made a profit–as an example. Sections are at most two to three pages in length, and some contain explicit take away points. Teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs, mid-level executives should be able to gleam morsels of inspiration within the books 200 pages.

  • Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog

    Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice and Fog by Tony Sweet showcases photographs of of water in its three states. Yes, there are great shots, but this book is a how-to book. Sweet discusses the composition of the shot and the elements of photography that went into it. What lens was used, at what aperture, at what time of day with what filter. His writing style is direct and to the point and instructional. Novices and advanced photographers should be able to get something out of this book.

  • Parker: The Hunter

    Parker: The Hunter (Richard Stark’s Parker) by Darwyn Cooke puts crime noir pulp author Richard Stark to page in graphic novel format. It tells the tale of a thief who’s been betrayed by his girlfriend and double crossed by a partner in crime and his hunt for revenge.

    The story is told in four arcs. The first, begins with a man (we soon to find to be Parker) crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and remains wordless for 8 pages as he cons a bank for money, insults a waitress at a diner and eventually meets up with his former girlfriend. The second arc focuses on the man, Mal, who betrayed Parker, and the third tells of how Parker found Mal. Finally, Parker continues, scorched earth style, up the chain of the organization that took his money.

    The dialogue reads like that of a pulp crime novel and the action is violent with some scenes graphically depicted and others implied. The art is a throwback to the 50s and 60s–sharp angular inks and expressive styled lines. The blue coloring is used for visuals to accentuate drama. It’s a well done effort into the graphic novel genre.