Looking for Alaska, by John Green

Summary: Miles Halter decides to go to Culver Creek boarding school in search of adventure, and after meeting Alaska Young, he finds it. This is the story of those adventures.

Comments: First, I want to call out that the book is divided into two sections, entitled "before" and "after", and that each section within those is introduced by the number of days before or after this pivotal event that I'm not going to reveal because that would spoil the suspense. That helped draw me in because I wanted to know what we were counting down towards. But also, I was drawn in by how interesting the characters were. Which I guess is kind of what drew Miles to Alaska also.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. And it was a pretty quick read too. Now I need to find something else to occupy me for the last three hours of this flight...

The Casual Vacancy, by J. K. Rowling

Summary: Following the death of one of the members of the Pagford Parish Council, things start coming to light that people would prefer stayed hidden.

Comments: Let's get the obvious one out of the way first - while the main reason I read this book is because of the author, it bears very little resemblance to the works that made her famous, both because this one is set firmly in the world as we know it and because of all the references to breasts, shagging, and related concepts. This one is definitely aimed at a more mature audience.

Probably my favorite part of the book is that each section is from the point of view of a different character - the reader is allowed into the heads and the secret thoughts of what seems like half the population of Pagford. Then again, I'm not sure one could make this storyline as engaging without it.

And this is where I admit that I read 500 pages about these characters without being able to concretely articulate why. I guess I cared about them and wanted to see what kind of resolution to the quagmires of their lives might arise?

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, by Robert L. Glass

Summary: A collection of facts related to software engineering, from management to maintenance to a variety of other topics, that are either often overlooked it controversial.

Thoughts: While I found this book interesting, I'm not sure if I actually got anything out of it. Many of the facts relate to areas of software I'm not really involved in (management, for instance), and many of the references that I might trawl to find more items for my to read list are instead journal articles.

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick

Summary: The subtitle might say it all - in this book, Gleick summarizes the history of communication and knowledge and how people think about both.

Comments: A fascinating read. Gleick takes us through history, from talking drums to dictionaries to information theory to the internet. Masterfully arranged, and incredibly informative.

The Totally Useless History of Science, by Ian Crofton

Summary: This book is a chronologically-organized series of blurbs about ridiculous scientific ideas, ideas that were ahead of their time, the research that might or might not have been in the running for an Ignoble Award, and other randomness from science through the ages.

Comments: I didn't have to get too far into this book before concluding that someone knows me too well (this was a Christmas present a few years back). I rather enjoyed all the useless facts this book has to share, and the chronological order seems like a rather good way to organize all of them.

The Master Algorithm, by Pedro Domingos

Summary: An overview of the different tribes within machine learning, with a focus on trying to unify them.

Comments: First, I have to say that I was looking for Machine Learning, A How-To For Dummies, and instead got Machine Learning, A Brief History. Which is really my fault for not paying more attention to what I was actually getting. But anyway. This book somehow manages to both be fairly technical and not require much, if any, background knowledge. So if that's something that interests you, I'd definitely recommend this book. On the other hand, I could definitely see most people who are interested in the gritty details also wanting some how-to info, which you're not going to find.

Redwall, by Brian Jacques

Summary: When the Abbey of Redwall and its peace-loving inhabitants come under attack by the army of Cluny the Scourge, they find themselves fighting for their lives.

Comments: I probably should have included in the summary that the Abbey is inhabited by an order of mice, as well as assorted other woodland creatures while Cluny's army is comprised of rats, stoats, ferrets, and weasels. Jacques does a good job of balancing the anthropomorphicness of the animals tending crops and wielding swords with allowing the animals to act in keeping with their species. For example, when they need someone to scale the side of the Abbey, they naturally turn to Jess Squirrel, who is an excellent climber.

As far as the battle side of things, the various twists and turns and narrow escapes make for a book that's hard to put down. And being able to get inside the heads of a variety of characters on both sides, and on no side, both helps one to get a full picture of what's going on as well as to increase the suspense.

I would highly recommend this book.