The 351 Books of Irma Arcuri: A Novel by David Bajo
The publisher's synopsis sums it up quite well:
Throughout mathematician Philip Masyrk's peripatetic life, there has been only one constant: Irma Arcuri. Their ongoing love affair has endured his two marriages and her countless travels. But now Irma has vanished, leaving Philip her library of 351 books, including five written by Irma herself. Buried somewhere within her luxuriously rebound volumes of Cervantes and Turgenev, Borges and Fowles, lies the secret to her disappearance-and Philip soon realizes that he is trapped within their narratives as well. Who is Irma Arcuri? What is really hidden in the library? And most importantly, whose story is this?
Bogs down in a few places. And the inevitable sex scenes weren't handled all that well. (It's harder to write a good piece of erotica than most people think.) And
none of the characters are even
remotely likeable. Something that surprised me considering the story works reasonably well despite that.
My only complaint was that the
reveal and
payoff didn't quite do enough justice to the
premise and
build-up. Which is unfortunate since this
is a story about playing a variant of the god-game. But it's a brainy-fun read nevertheless. If you like Fowles, especially his book
The Magus, you'll feel right at home here.
For technical reading there's
Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning by Gordon Lyon and Nick Marsh's most excellent
NMAP Cookbook.
I always suspected I wasn't using NMAP to anywhere near its full potential. Turns out I was right.
I'm about half way through Lyons' book. And I'm 'page hopping' Marsh's book at the same time. Both are good. Together they're
very good. Recommended.
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