Galileo’s Dream
I have read many books by Kim Stanley Robinson including two trilogies (the Mars books and his Science in the Capital trilogy). Galileo's Dream was both unusual and yet typical from him. Unusual, in that it was primarily a work of historical fiction about Galileo. Typical, but he also painted a picture of a fantastic future that is not dystopian and is rather idealistic. In Galileo's Dream, he achieves this by having a future society living on the moons of Jupiter (circa the year 3020) contact Galileo. The "first scientist" goes back and forth between his present life in Florence Read more…
I now understand derivatives (kinda)
I love Michael Lewis's books and articles. I wouldn't put The Big Short at the top of the list, but it's still pretty good. The reason it's not at the top is that it's incredibly complex, and yet it's still about the most coherent description I've found of what really went wrong with the subprime market (and hence, the rest of everything else). Outside of any individual, Lewis lays the blame for the crisis on two key factors: 1) the decision in the 1980s on Wall Street to take the investment banks public. With the shareholders essentially footing the bill, Read more…
Join me next Wednesday night at the Downtown Library to talk about The Maltese Falcon as part of Tacoma Reads
I'm going to be moderating a panel on Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" as part of Tacoma Reads on Wednesday, April 28, at 7:00 at the downtown library. Panelists include County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist, Architect and Tacoma Councilmember David Boe, and Hans Ostrom, Professor of English at UPS. If you haven't read the book, you can get it at Kings Books. It's a great noir read (and a quick one too). Join us!
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest
After finishing the 2nd book of the Millenium Trilogy, I decided I didn't want to wait for the 3rd and final book to come out in the US, so I got it from Amazon.co.uk. It's a mammoth book: 745 pages or so. Reading it was my principal occupation during a day at the Lake this weekend. I don't want to give away any spoilers, since it's pretty certain that no one's read the book, so let me address the series as a whole. These three books roughly comprise a trilogy, but they weren't intended to. The author hoped to write Read more…
Yay! The Saints Go Dying is #18 on the Kindle’s “Police Procedural” Mysteries list.
It's working, it's working! Thank you to everyone who purchased the book! After less than 24 hours, The Saints Go Dying is #18 on the Bestselling Kindle "Police Procedural" Mysteries, right between two James Patterson novels. I'm not up to the straight Bestselling Mysteries list yet (Sue Grafton seems to have a lock there right now) but this is a start. If you haven't purchased the book, please do! Especially now that I know this little scheme of mine could work. Here's the key links: 1) download the Kindle reader (if you don't already have it) 2) purchase the book
“The Saints Go Dying” is in the top 2000 books downloaded on the Kindle today …
So close to hitting the mystery best-seller list! http://j.mp/dftHqE
The Saints Go Dying, by Erik Hanberg — out today!
In 2007 I started working on a novel called The Saints Go Dying, and I'm happy to say that I am releasing it today, exclusively as an e-book. The novel is a detective mystery with some really fun cat-and-mouse games between a detective and a killer. Self-publishing it as an e-book is something of a experiment, and I would love it if my readers would consider helping me out! The Plan My plan is that I can get enough people to buy the book today, Monday, April 5. By having a concentrated effort of a lot of people purchasing the book within Read more…
Crichton’s “Travels”
My friend Aaron recommended this book to me years ago, maybe even in junior high school, while I was reading any Michael Crichton I could find (Sphere, Jurassic Park, etc). But I didn't get to it. It sounded boring. Who'd want to read about some guy's vacations? … said the travel-blogger. Mary read it just recently and I finally picked it up. It was pretty interesting. Crichton has some great yarns. His medical school experience, some hair-raising SCUBA diving trips, shooting movies with Sean Connery, and trips into the wilderness. But the book is primarily about his inner-travels, if you Read more…
“The Ghost Writer” at the Grand
I'd definitely recommend "The Ghost Writer" as a mystery/suspense film. It's at the Grand now, and it's pretty great. I'd read the book it was based off going in, and Mary had not. We both agreed it was a good film, and there's no reason to go because you haven't read the book. In fact, it's possibly better than the book. Really well done.
Wonder Boys
I'm a big fan of Wonder Boys. It came out in 2000 but got lost. The studio apparently thought enough of it that they decided to rerelease it again. It still got lost. Which is too bad, because it's a great movie. The only thing that seemed to stick was that Bob Dylan's song was really good (which it was). Good writer's inspiration, too. There's a feel to it that I really like and realize that I've often tried to emulate.
^