The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: June 2015 Blog List

 

Greetings to all!  I hope you'll join us for the next installment of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, an online gathering of bloggers who love books.  The next meeting is set for Friday, June 26th.  If you're interested, please sign on to the link list at the end of this post.

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers.  Please join us:

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: May 2015

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the tomes they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: Among the Thugs 

Author: Bill Buford

via Wikipedia

In the 1980s, soccer's popularity in the United States was growing by leaps and bounds. With the simultaneous rise of youth soccer and cable television, more Americans than ever were becoming aware of a sport with which much of the rest of humanity was already dangerously obsessed.  Exposure to the world's game - known by most as football - brought knowledge of its darker side: hooligans, especially English hooligans.  Football-related violence in England was, we were told, epidemic and uncontrollable.  No American journalist - indeed, perhaps no journalist of any nationality - went to greater lengths to learn about English hooligans than Bill Buford.

Buford spent most of the decade embedding himself in hooligan culture, particularly the Manchester United "firm" known as the Inter-City Jibbers.  Among the Thugs was the end result, a highly disturbing chronicle of the excesses of an unchecked mob.  Buford endured riots and police beatings in his quest to understand the mentality behind the phenomenon.  As upsetting as the gory details frequently are, the book's ultimate power lies in Buford's startling conclusions about the group psychology of the crowd.  In essence, the rioting mob is not the other.  It is us.

This was my second Buford book.  Heat, his exploration of the culinary world, is far less gruesome.  In both cases, his commitment to the project is uncompromising. 

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post June's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is June 26th.

Star Trek: The Ambergris Element

My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series.  We'll be posting on Wednesdays.  All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.

Episode: "The Ambergris Element"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 13
Original Air Date: December 1, 1973

via Gutter Talk

In this week's story, our heroes visit the water world of Argo.  Kirk and Spock are captured by the native Aquans and subjected to genetic mutation, becoming water-breathers.  Ambergris refers to a substance derived from Earth's sperm whales, similar to one found in the Aquans' bloodstream.  Writer/producer D.C. Fontana has frequently cited this episode as Exhibit A for a story that could never have been produced for the live action show.

My sage friend Geo. often points out Trek's allusions to the inter-generational conflicts of its era and "The Ambergris Element" is an excellent example.  The older Aquans harbor deep-seeded prejudice against surface dwellers and would have been perfectly happy to let Kirk and Spock drown. Meanwhile, the younger generation strives for greater tolerance and understanding.

*****

via Memory Alpha

Rila is a Junior Tribune on the Ruling Tribunal of the Aquans.  She is our friends' most important advocate, speaking on their behalf publicly and aiding them secretly when they are left on the surface to die.  She was voiced by Majel Barrett.

If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below.  Please visit the other participants.  Next week: "The Slaver Weapon."

Family Book Swap: Castle in the Air

Title: Castle in the Air
Author: Diana Wynne Jones

via Wikipedia

With summer approaching, we have resumed our Family Book Swap.  Castle in the Air was my daughter's book for me.  Diana Wynne Jones is her favorite author, her devotion reaching the point where her teacher had to encourage her to try other books for the sake of variety.  I read Howl's Moving Castle a couple of years ago and was curious about this companion story so I was delighted she chose it for me.

Abdullah is a carpet merchant.  One day, a man sells him a magic carpet, one that not only flies but has an uncanny knack for making Abdullah's daydreams come true.  He is whisked away to a beautiful garden where he meets Flower-in-the-Night, the Sultan's daughter (though he doesn't learn that bit until later).  The two fall in love.  The trouble begins when she is kidnapped by a djinn and Abdullah is compelled to run after her.

As it turns out, the djinn and his brother have nabbed a whole slew of princesses, though clearly without fully considering the implications of trying to control 30 willful women together in one room.  The Howl characters do turn up over time but it takes a while.  The energy of the story certainly picks up once they do, perhaps even drowning out the Abdullah adventure.  Even so, I did enjoy the book and am curious about the third volume of the Howl series, House of Many Ways.

On the Coffee Table: Sisters

Title: Sisters
Author and Artist: Raina Telgemeier

via Goodreads

Raina Telgemeier wins again.  The author/artist of Smile and Drama is a superstar among the preteen set.  Not long ago, one of my students - a twelve-year-old girl - expressed surprise and snarky amusement that I knew these books.  Granted, as an adult male, I am not the target demographic.  But I do appreciate quality.  Telgemeier's work is top notch and always a big hit with my daughter, too.

Sisters is her latest release, an autobiographical account of a family road trip from her childhood. As the title implies, the story focuses on Raina's relationship with her younger sister, Amara. But of course, that dynamic exists within a broader family context and not all is well between mom and dad.

For me, the main selling point of Telgemeier's work is the believability of her characters. Few writers possess the skill to present children, particularly adolescents, as the nuanced entities they truly are.  Yes, we all know they can be moody, bratty, insecure, shallow and it's easy enough to write them that way. But the basic frustration of being in between and neither is more elusive. The kids in Telgemeier's books always feel like people I have known, or even people I have been.

The sibling relationship was central to my own adolescent experience. In the global sense we were peers but the difference between 13-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy was a yawning gap indeed. By the time my own pubescent journey began, hers was essentially over. And just as in the Raina/Amara tale, the differences were never more keenly felt than during a family vacation  - in our case, a trip to Europe.  Interestingly, in both their trip and ours, a teddy bear played a memorable role. 

If you don't know Telgemeier's work yet, you should really get on that, especially if you have preteens milling about your home or classroom. And don't get duped into thinking they're "girl books."  I don't think it matters which one you pick first. Smile is also autobiographical but the two stories are independent of one another.  I was less impressed by her adaptation of the Baby-Sitters Club series but my daughter enjoys them.

A New Project: The Clone Wars

via Toonami Wiki

Ladies and gentlemen, my friend Andrew Leon and I are embarking on a new adventure: an exploration of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Every Tuesday, we will be featuring an episode from the series which began in 2008 (as opposed to the one that started in 2003).  We'll begin on June 2nd with "Ambush."  As with my Star Trek TAS project, others are welcome to join us for all or parts of the fun.  The sign up list is below.

This requires a bit of housekeeping on my end.  In an effort to avoid blogger burnout, I try to limit my posts to a reasonable weekly number.  As such, I'm going to take a break from my family adventure posts on Sunday nights, beginning this coming week.  With Mock Squid Soup going well, I'll still have a hand in movie reviews - just on a monthly basis rather than weekly.

Please join us:

Star Trek: The Time Trap

My friends and I are embarking on a new journey to watch all 22 episodes of Star Trek's animated series.  We'll be posting on Wednesdays.  All are welcome to join us for all or parts of our adventure.

Episode: "The Time Trap"
Series: Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 1, Episode 12
Original Air Date: November 24, 1973

via Memory Alpha

During a tumble with the Klingons, the Enterprise stumbles into Saragasso Sea, a cosmic Bermuda Triangle.   Over centuries, dozens of other ships have been drawn into this graveyard and the survivors' descendants have built their own idyllic, multi-species society, governed by the Elysian Council.  One of the Klingon ships fell into the vortex with them.  Our friends and their adversaries find they must work together in order to escape back to their own dimension.

Much of the fun of this story is in revisiting several of the alien races the Enterprise encountered in the original series.  The Elysian Council includes an Orion (first seen by viewers in "The Menagerie, Part II"), an Andorian ("Journey to Babel"), a Tellarite ("Journey to Babel") and a Gorn ("Arena") among others.  "The Time Trap" also sees the return of the Klingon Commander Kor ("Errand of Mercy"), voiced here by James Doohan. The reluctant cooperation between Federation and Klingons is well in keeping with the moral compass of the franchise.

*****

via Memory Alpha

Commander Kuri heads one of the Klingon ships in the early tussle.  His image was reused footage - a common Filmation trick - of Koloth from the TAS episode "More Trouble, More Tribbles."  He was voiced by George Takei.

If you would care to join us for all or part of our travels, sign on to the list below.  Please visit the other participants.  Next week: "The Ambergris Element."