The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

2003 was the year of Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code. Selling over 80 million copies to date, the book was translated into 44 languages and a major movie came out a few years later. Those in the publishing world kept asking one question –could Dan Brown do it again? The Lost Symbol, released in mid September, answers with a resounding yes. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is back in Boston when he receives a phone call from the office of his mentor, Peter Solomon, asking him to quickly get on a plane and deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Yet when Langdon arrives, he finds the Capitol empty, except for Solomon’s severed hand, which is now covered with tattoos of ancient symbols.

The Lost Symbol is set over a tense evening in Washington D.C., when Langdon and Peter’s sister, Katherine Solomon join forces to not only find Peter, but to solve an ancient Masonic mystery. Brown draws readers in with short, quickly paced chapters that alternate story lines and gives readers an in-depth background of the historical Washington buildings, secret societies, the intertwined role of history and science, and hidden histories. Brown also creates one of the most evil characters in recent thrillers, Mal’akh, who brings terror to Washington, and tries to expose long lost Masonic secrets.

Those looking for a quick, thrilling read, or those interested in books set in Washington will find it with The Lost Symbol. The Tompkins County Public Library has 20 copies to check out, as well as 3 copies of the audio version. - Reviewed by Sarah

Phaedra by Tangerine Dream

"....to sleep, perchance to tangerine dream..."

If you are looking for a great album to fall asleep to, then this album is for you. Even the painting on the cover and the song titles themselves can put you to sleep (I like to think that the music on the albums are soundtracks for the group's album covers). Phaedra, which was released in 1974, was Tangerine Dream's fifth album (if you don't count Green Desert, which was recorded in 1973, but not released until the mid 80's) and for me, was the album where Tangerine Dream, by then consisting of Christopher Franke, Peter Baumann and founding member Edgar Froese, finally came into their own with their unique brand of electronic, ambient background music. The first four albums, particularly Atem and Alpha Centauri, sounded too much like the group Pink Floyd around the time of Saucerful Of Secrets (I like that era of Pink Floyd, but Tangerine Dream were no Pink Floyd!). And the double album Zeit was four sides of sheer boredom....kind of like an ambient version of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. What made Phaedra so different was the abandonment of any acoustic drumming and the use of the sequencer, which provides the pulse for a good section of the 17 and a half minute title track, which takes up the entire first half of the album. To me, this is 17 and a half minutes of absolute soothing, electronic ambient bliss, my only complaint being that it's not long enough!

The second half isn't quite as spectacular, but it does get off to a good start with the mellotron dominated tune Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares, which gets my vote for best Tangerine Dream song title of all time and outer space. It is also the only piece here to have anything even slightly resembling a melody. This band was never really about melodies or catchy guitar riffs, anyway. There are no vocals, so you can't sing along to it. No drums, so you can't tap your foot to it or dance to it. This is not music that one can memorize. Just put it the background, turn the speakers up and let the music absorb you or wrap around you like a blanket.

What's nice is that I don't even consider this Tangerine Dream's best album. I think they got even better at this kind of music on their next four albums, Rubycon, Ricochet, Stratosfear and the live album Encore. Phaedra is a great album, but it was really only the beginning for this group. Highly recommended if you have problems falling asleep at night! - Reviewed by Rich