{"id":6845,"date":"2018-03-06T15:13:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T19:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=6845"},"modified":"2024-08-31T15:33:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T19:33:08","slug":"readers-notebook-3618","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2018\/03\/06\/readers-notebook-3618\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader’s Notebook, 3\/6\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"

My torrid pace of reading in 2018 continues. I knocked out two more books in the Y: The Last Man<\/a><\/em> comic series and am still enjoying it. And I\u2019m still working through Nick Hornby\u2019s Ten Years in the Tub<\/a><\/em>. And then I knocked out a few other books over the past couple weeks.<\/p>\n

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End of Watch<\/a><\/em> – Stephen King \u201cEnd of watch\u201d is the term used when a police officer is killed in the line of duty. So King is kind of telegraphing how this book, the final one in the Bill Hodges trilogy, is going to end. But you still want to read to see how he gets there.<\/p>\n

This book ties back more directly to book one, and Brady Hartsfield, that book\u2019s evil centerpiece, than book two did. Hartsfield has been in a hospital brain trauma wing for years after Hodges\u2019 partner bashed him in the head repeatedly before he could trigger a bomb that would have killed hundreds of teens at a concert. But Hartsfield is not as feeble as he seems. He has gained the power to enter other people\u2019s bodies and control them. He uses this ability to attempt to finish his concert bomb plan and gain revenge over Hodges and the others who stopped him.<\/p>\n

As always, King makes it an entertaining and spooky trip to get to the inevitable end. But I kept feeling like he had done variations on this theme better in the past. As it was a quick and generally entertaining read, I\u2019m not going to complain too much. I will probably not read any more of King\u2019s new work, unless word reaches me that he\u2019s rediscovered the zip on his fastball again.<\/p>\n

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IQ<\/a><\/em> – Joe Ide Isn\u2019t there a saying about not picking up a book and making assumptions about it based on its title, the cover art, or the author? Gosh, I can\u2019t think of what that would be, but it seems like there should be one\u2026<\/p>\n

Whatever it is, that certainly applies in this case. Joe Ide is an Japanese-American author who was raised in South Central LA. Thus I assumed this book would be about a Japanese-American community that was wedged into that predominantly African-American part of the city.<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

Ide writes about black folks in the \u2018hood, and there\u2019s not a Japanese character anywhere in it. The central character is Isaiah Quintabe, who goes by the nickname IQ. He\u2019s a literal genius who uses his intelligence and powers of observation to help people around South Central with problems. Basically, he\u2019s a private detective, but will take just about any job for someone who needs help.<\/p>\n

The book is split in between a tale of IQ\u2019s current life – helping to discover who is trying to kill a famous rapper – and an origin story of how he came to be IQ – a story involving the death of his older brother and him hooking up with a small time drug dealer and robbing stores for very particular items. Ide goes back and forth between the two stories, and both are excellent. There is an especially brilliant section near the end where, over the course of ten or so pages, we see how IQ transformed from being a directionless criminal to being the Black Sherlock Holmes of LA.<\/p>\n

I think it was an interesting choice to provide so much of IQ\u2019s origin story here. The book being almost evenly split between old and new makes me wonder if Ide can pull off an entire book that is centered on one IQ story (he is working on book two currently). Could he have offered up less of IQ\u2019s background here, stretched out the rapper-killer section, and maybe done a full book about IQ\u2019s past down the road?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the most minor of quibbles, though. IQ<\/em> is fresh, exciting, smart, deeply funny, moving, and captures the language and culture of its setting perfectly. IQ<\/em> was on many Best Of lists for 2016 and shortlisted for several awards. I\u2019m excited to see where Ide takes IQ next. He seems like an author poised to do amazing things.<\/p>\n

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Anatomy of a Song<\/a><\/em> – Marc Myers This is another book I discovered wandering through a bookstore while waiting out a volleyball practice. Based upon a series Myers wrote for The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, he looks at 45 songs that, as the subtitle states, \u201cchanged rock, R&B, and pop.\u201d Each song is explored via an oral history from the performers, producers, songwriters, and record execs, depending on who was available to Myers. You can never go wrong with an oral history of pop culture, so that element of the book works quite well.<\/p>\n

I would argue he doesn\u2019t make the best choices in songs. There is an Elvis song, but no Beatles, Michael Jackson, Prince, or Madonna. He ties some songs that were not big charting tracks to technological changes, which I can get on board with. But I would also argue there were better choices in those places. But he does do a nice job of hitting a wide variety of genres. There are several country songs, a Jimmy Cliff song, and a couple songs that are more representative of an era than something that is a permanent part of the cultural memory.<\/p>\n

Despite those minor flaws, this was a fun read.<\/p>\n

(Crap: I forgot to include a link to the Spotify playlist for all the songs in the book. This playlist is a little out of order, but you get the idea.)<\/p>\n