Makers - Cory Doctorow

On our cross country drive, I finished what will most likely be my last book of 2012: "Makers", by Cory Doctorow. This is a piece of near-future speculative fiction based around the idea of the democratization of manufacturing brought on by 3D printing. Cheap access to printers by hacker types (in the tinkerer sense of hacker) upsets the way companies do business and brings about a flourishing of inventiveness and innovation. The story follows two guys who spark it all, their rise to fame, their coming to terms with how big companies do business and all of the messiness of hackers trying to make it in the Real World.

I thought this was an interesting book, especially since I am fascinated by 3D printing. I think Doctorow spends a lot of time talking to people who think like he does - this is similar in a lot of ways to another of his books, "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" in that it centers around Disney and the "Disneyfication" of our culture. This is an interesting thought to explore, but I don't see our culture collapsing in quite the same way - there's a danger in the shallowness of our consumer culture and our desire to be continually entertained, but the heroes of the novel facilitate this kind of shallowness even as they try to fight it. Their entire business model is based on cool hunting and making crap to fill the niche until someone else figures out how to make it cheaper. I don't know if this irony was intentional, or if I am just cynical (maybe both?), but it overshadowed the novel for me. The story is well written and even gripping at times, but I couldn't get the philosophy to jive.

Worth a read, maybe, but the story didn't make up for the convoluted and self-contradictory philosophy.

In the Heart of the Sea

This last week on my business trip I read "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick. This is the story of the sinking of the whale ship Essex and the 90 day, 4500 mile trip the survivors made in open lifeboats in the Pacific. The sinking was the inspiration for "Moby Dick", and Melville may have even met the captain of the Essex.

The physical and mental anguish these men went through is staggering - they survived on about 500 calories a day of hardtack, eventually running down to 200 calories or so. They eventually resorted to cannibalism, which probably saved the lives of the men who made it.

What I found most interesting was the way that the various leaders on the crew dealt with things. When the ship sunk, they were only something like 800 miles from the Societies islands. The captain said they should sail for those islands, but the first and second mates were terrified of cannibals (somewhat ironic, right?) so they talked the captain into a scheme that would, in optimal circumstances, give them about one or two extra days of starvation rations. It was a terrible plan, but the captain was shell shocked and didn't assert his command. The real kicker? There weren't any cannibals on the islands.

I thought this was a fascinating book, and an amazing story of what people can survive. I could have done with a little less graphic description of cannibalism, but it certainly drove home the point.

Three Books

Over the last month, I have finished a couple of books. Rather than describe them all fully, I am just going to give brief thoughts so that I can discharge my karmic guilt and move on to my next book.

The Mark of Athena - Rick Riordan. This is the third book in a YA fiction series about teenagers who are Greek and Roman demigods. It is much better and significantly more entertaining than it has any right to be. Pure brain candy, but it is at least good brain candy.

Zero History - William Gibson. Interesting look at "cool hunters" and the interplay between fashion design and defense contracting. It is a little far fetched, but this is Gibson, so that is to be expected.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell. I was really surprised by this one. The movie is directed by the Wachowski brothers, which would normally imply science fiction, and there are sci-fi elements to the story, but it's not really a sci-fi work. It is six or so interrelated stories... You know what? This is too hard to describe. You just gotta read it. I know Adam has read this too... I am interested to hear what others think of it.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

This book had been recommended by cousin Heather as she and I both like all things India.  I am glad I took her advice as this is a great book!  I think I have said before, I like author's first novels and this is Roberts first.  It is loosely based on his life experiences but it is fiction.  Like the main character Roberts was a fugitive from an Australian prison and fled to Bombay to "loose himself".  I have put off blogging about this book as I don't know to to capture it.  It is long, a bit complicated as the plot weaves in and out of so many characters lives.  As the novel begins, Lin (aka Shantaram) arrives in Bombay on a fake passport and is befriended by a tour guide who introduces him to his eventual circle of friends.  Being illegal and destitute, he resorts to the dark side and become involved with organized crime.  For a period of time, he lives in the slums and runs a make shift medical clinic where he learns to love Bombay and her people amid all the poverty and squalor.  Eventually with his connections to the mafia, he ends up helping his boss in a gun running war in Pakistan.  And weaving back and forth in the story is his lover, Karla.  How this all comes together and resolves itself is intriguing, captivating, irresistible, and makes you sad when the book ends - even after 933 pages.  Ah, you would be better off reading the Amazon review.  I am not doing it justice, but I would recommend it and I may even read it again - a rare, rare thing for me!

"A Rural Affair" by Catherine Alliott

Well, this was a dumb book.  It says it is a number one bestseller, but I wonder where?  I picked it up at a book exchange and thought it would be a mindless, light read and I guess I was right.  The main character, Poppy, is relieved when her husband dies - she had fantasized about it for some time.  But when he was hit on the head with a chunk of blue ice (frozen airplane waste) and dies as a result, she found that she mourned the loss of a father for her children, but not her husband.  As the story unravels, it turns out he had been having a long time affair and was as unhappy as Poppy was in their relationship.  However, he was finding love in the arms of the neighbor woman!  Of course Poppy is rescued by the dashing new man that moved to town to save the local and loved crumbling country estate.  And wouldn't you know, the dead husband hadn't got around to changing his will and Poppy inherited his vast fortune from the dot come boom.  Naturally this was contested by the "other woman" but all ends well.  I can't believe I read all 453 pages of this book!  I do not recommend it.  I am tempted not to return it to the book exchange to save anyone else from the wasting their time!

Killer Elite

On my business trip this week, I finished "Killer Elite" by Michael Smith. It's a history of a special ops unit in the US military that focuses on on-the-ground intelligence gathering and what is euphemistically referred to as "battle space preparation" - things like sabotage and prepping landing zones, etc. This book was written by a British reporter, so it has a slightly different perspective on the increased role of special operations units in the US military.

This book was mediocre at best. Started off pretty interesting, but as the story progressed, things got more and more vague. It sounds like he had a good source for the early days of the unit's history, but had to go on declassified and rumored stuff for the more current events. It also had a lot of 'we have an awesome plan, but Brass won't let us do it' stories. These were some cool plans, but it's not very interesting to know what was planned but never executed. It's also very one sided, as it's always the brave heroes of The Activity versus the stuffy and unimaginative upper echelons of military command. Never mind that some of what they planned probably could have been considered war crimes.

Anyway, there's a new edition of this book that was published in 2011 - maybe he developed better sources after the 2007 edition was published.

Children of Húrin

I recently finished "The Children of Húrin" by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a posthumous work completed / edited by Christopher Tolkien, and it is an extended version of one of the stories from The Silmarillion (Tolkien's prehistory of Middle Earth). The story is nce and tragic, but it is written to sound like a high epic so it sometimes reads like the genealogies in 2 Chronicles or something.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. It took a while to plow through, but it explains some great back story from The Lord of the Rings and has great action scenes. It's probably not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It probably won't make any sense unless you've read the Silmarillion... just a warning!

Third Base For Life

"Third Base for Life" by Josh Berkowitz is an interesting book. It's the story of a youth baseball team that heads to Cooperstown to play in one of the most prestigious baseball tournaments in the country. The only problem? Most of the kids have never played baseball before, and they certainly are not all stars like the rest of the kids in the tournament. You feel like this should be a Bad News Bears kind of story, but it takes some interesting turns. As a dad, I thought it was a touching story, and as a baseball fan, I got caught up in the drama of the game.

Overall, a good read. It's a moving story about baseball, being a dad, and what success really means. It's also a quick one - even given the length.

Night by Elie Wiesel

This weekend I read the book Night by Elie Wiesel.  I have not read much about the holocaust so this book was something new for me.  I greatly enjoyed the book.  The holocaust was a disgusting occurrence that plagues the history of the world but Wiesel’s words created a beautiful and real painting of what it may have been like to exerpience it.  I really enjoyed his style of writing and the details and feelings in which he included in this book.  His inner struggle with God, caring for his father in a world where caring for anyone besides yourself could easily result in death and also his motivations for what kept him pushing on were particularly interesting to me.  This is a short and quick read but very good.  I read it rather quickly so I look forward to reading it again soon.

Thunderstruck

About a week and a half ago I finished 'Thunderstruck' by Erik Larson. It's the story of Marconi's invention of radio telegraphy and a story about the "murder of the century" right around 1900. The book is well written and it is an interesting look at how science was done at the end of the Victorian age - nobody knew enough about how electromagnetism worked to have any real theoretical basis for Marconi's work! He basically guessed how he thought it should work and then kept trying until he got the result he was looking for. The book implies that he didn't consider the idea of polarization until long after the episodes portrayed. This is like someone figuring out how to build a bridge without really understanding physics - sure you can do it, but it's also a bit of a surprise when it works.

There was also some frame story about a murder, designed to show off how telegraphy - particularly at sea - changed how criminals were pursued and caught. While this is true, I thought the parts about Marconi were much more interesting and better written. I found myself slogging through the murder mystery parts.

Interesting book about an interesting time. There are probably better biographies of Marconi, but if you are looking for something to evoke the end of the Victorian era, this is a good atmospheric look at two important events of the time.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

What a great read!  I was in the mood for something different and this novel fit the bill.  It is fantasy, a bit of mystery and intrigue, plus the subtle tension of a relationship between two of the main characters.  The story centers around a circus that appears without warning or announcement.  It simply is there - no color, only black and white tents and trappings, and it only performs at night.  But there is none of the traditional fare; it is a circus of amazement and magic.  Behind the scenes there is a competition, a duel of sorts between Marco and Celia who have been trained since childhood by their instructors for this sole purpose.  Only one can remain standing but either of them are aware of their competitor or the rules of the game... or that there even is a game!

I am not doing the book justice with any sort of a review because it is hard to explain.  The plot winds and weaves around several important and well developed characters.  As I was reading it, I thought, "How will I ever explain this?"  But I loved it.  It made me want to read it slowly to savor the story and creative descriptions of the "night circus".  I recommend it!

Lucky by Alice Sebold

I borrowed this book to read on the plane back from Boston and actually finished it all in one day.  I couldn’t put it down.  It was disturbing, detailed, intriguing and excellent.  I had never read anything by Sebold before and was pleasantly surprised.  I also do not usually read books like this, I tend to stick to the lighter side of things.  This book starts by the main character being raped on her college campus.  The story continues as we learn about her past and follow her through the trial of the man who raped her.  It was interesting to me the wide range of people in her life it affected and how it affected them.  It made me stop and think about life changing events and how so much of the world moves on and leaves the victim there to struggle with the remains.  It is odd to me to want to recommend a book with such a dismal and tragic plot line but I must say, I would recommend it.  In fact, I look to seek out another book to read by Sebold.

The Heart of Horses by Molly Gloss

I received this book as a gift from Mom last year for Christmas or my birthday, I don’t remember which.  I finally had some time to do some reading and this was an easy first choice.  To start it off I must say I truly enjoyed the book.  It goes back to during WWI when a woman leaves her home to break horses for people as the majority of the able men have gone to fight in the war.  She stumbles upon a small region in the pacific northwest where she starts riding numerous horses and breaks them in ways people have not seen before.  This is the story of a brave woman and those that she comes into contact with.  It can be a bit choppy at times but overall an easy and delightful read.  It made me smile, laugh and cry which I think is a pretty complete checklist when selecting a book.  I would recommend it if you like tales of the old west!

A song of Ice and Fire - books 1 - 5

I've posted about the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series before... I just finished slogging through book 5, the most recent book to be published. In case you don't recall, this series is the basis for the HBO series, "A Game of Thrones."

Books 1 -3 were hard to put down. Book 4 was like starting over. Book 5 finally starts to build some story back up. The characters you love in books 1-3 are either dead or not mentioned in book 4. It's long and very, very slow. You get to hear about some of your favorites in book 5 again but they aren't doing much. Some are wandering across the narrow sea, some are captive, some are fretting over whom to marry, some are wandering around Westeros. Oh yeah, Arya still exists, what the hell has she been up to? It was very, very frustrating to reach the final page and realize that not much has happened.

The thing is... I really like it! The story lines move glacially which cause me to feel both frustration at the lack of action but also a connection to the characters. It's a rich, fully developed world that feels familiar. Need directions from King's Landing to Winterfell? I can do that. What are the preferred foods in Mereen, I could probably cool you some. Where does the best wine come from? The Arbor, of course.

I really hope the stories start to come back together in book 6. It hasn't been published yet and we'll likely have a couple years to fret over what it may or may not contain. I hope there is a payoff or at least resolution within the next 10 years. I'll read the future books as soon as they come out but I've already started to ask myself, "Why?" In for a penny, in for a pound. 

"Full Black" by Brad Thor

When I was in the airport on the way back from DC last week, I picked up "Full Black" by Brad Thor. This book was hilarious, but not on purpose (I suspect). The first clue is the dedication: "To the patriots who exist all across the political spectrum." This is, of course, a warning that in this book if you're not a white Republican, you're going to have a bad time. The plot is based around an attempt by an antisemitic Jewish banking mogul who is trying to collapse the US government by using Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. I am not kidding - this reads like a Bourne Identity version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The action sequences are exciting, but the plot gets more and more ridiculous over time.

The part of this book that really bothered me was the constant repetition that all Muslims are terrorists, and it's OK to think that until "good Muslims" stand up and denounce terrorism (what do you think they've been doing since 9/11?). There's one scene that is fantastically terrible - a woman in an airport line is looking at two Arabic men and decides that she's going to be different and not assume all Muslims are terrorists. She is immediately blown up by the men, who are of course terrorists. See what happens when you start thinking like a liberal?

You can probably pass on this one.

"The Magicians" and "The Magician King"

While on vacation, I read "The Magicians" and "The Magician King" by Lev Grossman. The easiest way to describe these books would be if Stephen King wrote a Chronicles of Narnia / Harry Potter mash-up. The basic premise is that there is a teenage guy graduating from high school who is obsessed with a fantastic world called Fillory (basically, Narnia). He goes to a college interview, and on the way home gets pulled into a magical college where seemingly, everything he ever dreamed about becomes true. But only kind of. In reality, all the magic is true, but it's not what he expects. It's much darker, and grittier, and much, much more dangerous than he expected.

This is basically an anti-Potter novel. It looks at what would happen if you gave a bunch of college age weirdos and outcasts phenomenal cosmic powers. I don't want to give too much away, but I'll give you a hint - it involves a lot more hedonism and ennui than Rowling could even conceive of.

There's a lot of depth to this book, and it deals with some really interesting questions about purpose, power, and responsibility. The magical universe has no "big bad guy" - so what do magicians do when they graduate from these magical universities? If you're immortal, how long can you handle it? Given phenomenal magical abilities, do you solve world hunger, or redecorate your house once a week to look like a different historical place? There's no simple answers in these books, and I think that's an interesting statement in itself.

The first book is better than the second, but they're both well worth reading. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who reads these, so speak up if you do!

Out of the Blue: A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival

I first heard about this book on NPR and was hooked as the author John S. Friedman talked about his research. I have always been awed by lightning and was curious to see how much myth and superstition he would bring into this book. So I picked it up from the library and dug in.

I did enjoy this book a lot and I learned so much about lightning and its impact on humanity and history. For instance I did not know that Ben Franklin's lightning rod sparked so much Theological debate about God's punishment vs this new technology. I really had no idea how much lightning affected the daily lives of people and how much it impacted history (especially Church history.)

I also learned so many facts about lightning that I never knew. Like how most people aren't hit by the direct bolt but usually a splash off. And I learned that lightning can be generated up to 30 minutes before and after a storm. You can literally be hit seemingly "out of the blue."

As much as I enjoyed reading that book, the jury is still out as to whether I should have read it. As a hypochondriac I will probably make a bee line indoors and stay away from all faucets, telephones, and outlets at the first sign of lightning. But I will also be peeking out the nearest window to watch God's light show.

Skunk Works

I just finished Skunk Works by Ben Rich. Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works division, which was responsible for the U2 spy plane, the SR-71, and the F-117A stealth fighter, among other neat airplanes. This is a really interesting look at what the aerospace industry looked like before all the regulation and red tape in the acquisitions process - the director of Skunk Works went in with an idea for an airplane at one point, and the director of the CIA wrote him a personal check to get his assembly line started. Everyone involved would go to jail if that happened today. Seeing how these guys wee able to develop stealth technology with essentially the equivalent of pocket calculators is fascinating, and honestly, and incredible story. Also, the way you hear it, our brave, brilliant American scientists came up with stealth ex nilo. As it turns out, the key idea of stealth (the faceted surfaces that reflect radar off away from the receiver) was developed by a Russian scientist and published in an obscure journal that a Skunk Works employee happened to read. Of course, the Soviets ignored the original developer, and Skunk Works went on to develop stealth, and the rest, as they say, is history.

From a managerial perspective, the Skunk Works model is really interesting. They worked on high risk, high payoff projects that revolutionized aerospace design. They had virtually no oversight from upper management, and the only reason they were allowed to do what they did was because they were incredibly good at it. You have to hire the absolute best and give them a lot more rope than you are probably comfortable with. They also have to have a parent organization to borrow tools, people, and production lines from (and return to after they finish a product). It's a model that a lot of people have tried to emulate and very few have recreated successfully, which should tell you something about how easy it is. Also, the current acquisition process basically prohibits this kind of development, which is kind of an important difference.

Well worth a read. The technical stuff is fascinating, and the personal dynamics are very interesting.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I know most of you have already read this, so I'll skip the summary. I thought this was a very interesting book, and it really made me think about my food. I can barely eat at fast food restaurants any more, so thanks for that, Mr. Pollan.  Thinking about our food systems and how we get food on the plate is very important, but I am not sure I would go as far as he does in terms of the animal rights stuff. I did have a moment of wanting to quit my job and start a post-organic farm though. Anyway, this book is worth reading, especially the first two sections (the bit at the end about foraging is kind of ridiculous, and the author acknowledges it).

The biggest criticism I have of this book is that he doesn't really present any alternatives to the problems he sees. For example, we can't all live close to management intensive grazing farms, and if we could, not everyone would be able to afford to eat food from one. He points out that people in other countries spend a lot more of their income on food, but they also starve to death in much higher numbers too.

I have been talking about thus book pretty much nonstop since I read it, so that's probably a good sign. Well worth a read. (Ironically, I bought my copy of this book at Costco.)

Half Broke Horses & The Glass Castle by J. Walls

Oh boy - I have had both of these books sitting by my computer for a couple of weeks waiting for me to review them!  However, Meredith has reviewed them both, I read both of them at her suggestion and loved both of them... so!  I am going to leave it with that.  Read them - you will love them!  They are quick reads but the style pulls you into the story and you feel a part of the family.  I rarely read books twice, but this is the second time for The Glass Castle, and I loved it just as much as the first.  I am trying to get going on a long novel now, so it may be awhile....

Fodor's Travel Books

I have been reading travel books like they are going out of style.  With all the honeymoon travel planning I carry around 2 travel books almost all the time.  The first is Fodor’s Pacific Northwest.  The second is Fodor’s Northern California.  Both are excellent and have glossy pages with lots of pictures.  I’m all about that.  Every time I travel I take notes in the books I have so if I ever want to go back I can remember what I did or didn’t do and what I did and didn’t like.  I can’t wait to fill these pages! Yay for travel books!

The Glass Castle

I finished the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls a few weeks ago.  I loved the book.  It is the story of a girl’s life and her growing up with crazy parents that basically keep them living in a poverty stricken life due to their own self motivations and self centeredness instead of doing things for the best interest of their children.  I especially enjoyed this book because the story is from the point of view of the granddaughter of main character in Half Broke Horses (HBH) by the same author.  It is amazing because the grandma in HBH is so driven and disciplined.  This drive did not transfer through to her daughter but it is clearly evident in her granddaughter in The Glass Castle.  Having the two books about one family was wonderful.  I loved the Glass Castle and would recommend it to anyone.

The Lady of the Rivers

I just finished "The Lady of the Rivers" by Philippa Gregory.  I did enjoy reading it, but it was not my favorite  Gregory book. I had a harder time getting through some of it than usual-although that could be due to my circumstances and not because of the writing.  I had a month of kids being sick and that made reading for pleasure hard.

Anyway this book was interesting because it's  main character (Jacquetta Woodville) is a woman is a constant figure in the War of the Roses.  She was the Lancaster Queen's head lady in her court, the mother of the York Queen, and the grandmother of the Tudor Queen when Henry Tudor takes the throne back from York. She is Queen Elizabeth I's great great grandmother.  Gregory really made her come alive and her novels "The White Queen," "The Red Queen," and "The Lady of the Rivers" have made me a lot more interested in the War of the Roses and that time period just before the Tudors.

So to sum up...fun read, but it did drag in the middle a bit. Overall I'd recommend it to others.

A Couple of Books

I haven't posted in a while, and in that time, I have finished two and a half audiobooks, a novel, and I have pulled the ripcord on a non-fiction book. Here's some brief summaries:

The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner (audiobook) - What is it that makes people happy? To find out, the author visited a series of countries, some of which rank high on happiness measures (Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Thailand, etc.), and some of which rank low (Moldova, England). Not to spoil anything, but there are lots of different reasons why people are happy, but fewer reasons why people are unhappy. This was a really interesting listen - very well written, with some interesting philosophical detours into what happiness really is. Made me want to travel more and see some of the places he talked about!

Red Shirts, by John Scalzi (audiobook) - great meta- sci-fi novel about a group of ensigns on the Universal Union spaceship Intrepid (modeled closely on the USS Enterprise) who notice that there's always a junior crew member on away team missions, and that's the guy who always dies. They set off to find out why. I don't want to spoil it, so that's all I'll say. This one gets weird quick, but it is a really great story that touches on fate, destiny, meaning-of-life kind of stuff. Even if you don't like sci-fi, I think you might find this one interesting. (To add to the meta, the audiobook is read by Wil Wheaton, who played Ensign Crusher on Star Trek The Next Generation. He does a great job!)

I got through half of "The World Without Us", by Alan Weisman. It's a thought experiment about what would happen to the planet if mankind suddenly disappeared, leaving behind all our buildings, chemicals, plastic, etc. It's an interesting book, but I got tired of the anti-human attitude that ran through the entire first half. I know we need to be good stewards of the world we have, but the assumption that the untamed wilds are preferable to a human-influenced landscape seems like a big assumption to me. In the first chapter, he talks about a project that is trying to recreate enclaves in Manhattan that restore pre-Dutch landscape and vegetation. It's interesting that he doesn't mention until the last sentence of the chapter that the Native Americans had settled Manhattan for thousands of years and significantly influenced both the flora and the fauna that the Dutch found when they got there. The assumption that European settlement is somehow less valuable than agrarian hunter-gatherer tended forest is just not an assumption I agree with.

Reamde, by Neal Stephenson - entertaining novel about a computer virus that gets out of hand. This novel starts out strong, gets (frankly) rather ridiculous in the middle, and finishes really strong. I mean, you've got Chinese hackers, Russian mafia, islamic terrorists, fundie survivalists, and everything. It's just nuts. But it's well written, and has done interesting things to say about international crime, computer security, and unintended consequences. Weighing in at something like 900 pages, it's an investment, but it pays off.  It's more of a techno-thriller than anything else, and with a good editor could make for an exciting movie.

I was going to write something about the book I just bailed on 25 pages on, but it's not worth it. On to the next book!

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts

Oh boy.  I was in the airport in Lincoln, NE and needed a book.  The choices were mostly Harlequin Romance types, so I opted for Nora Roberts.  For what it is, it didn't disappoint.  Boy meets girl, angst, resistance,  pursuit, seduction, and victory.  In this bodice ripper (as Max calls them) the man (Gulliver) is a rookie fire jumper, the girl (Rowan) is his trainer and they fight forest fires.  Of course there is murder, mystery and betrayal thrown in to thicken the plot.  If the facts are somewhat accurate, I did learn some interesting things about those that jump out of planes to fight fires - they are nuts!   It was a pleasant, mindless read, but I have had enough of Nora for a while. 

Jasmine

Jasmine by Barbara Kevin was a book I downloaded onto my Kindle for free.  I read it on two plane rides and overall thought the book was good but I was glad I didn’t pay for it.  It was a basic love story that had a few elements of drama, surprise and mystery.  I wanted to see more of the relationship between the two main characters and also more about them and who they were as people.  Sometimes it felt like they left a few chapters out of the book but I checked my Kindle and it was all there!  The best part was that it was a quick read and kept you entertained during it.  It is like a less raunchy harlequin on speed.

Half Broke Horses

I recently finished the book Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and my feeling after finishing the book is that I can’t wait to read it again.  I very rarely find pleasure in reading a book more than once but I am excited about this one.  This book was simply amazing!  It has jumped into the top 5 of favorite books I have read.  It is titled a “true life novel” and it tell the story of the authors grandmother and her life.  As usual, Amazon does a great job summing it up.  Here is what Amazon shares:

“So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls’s no-nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town—riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.

Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all kinds—against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn’t fit the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa or Beryl Markham’s West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it will transfix readers everywhere.”

I cannot begin to recommend this book enough.  I have leant it to Mom/Cindy and I hope she loves it just as much as I did.  The details, the relationship that is naturally formed between the reader and Lily and all the adventures she has is thrilling.  I think that anyone would enjoy this book even if they are not terribly interested in the southwest lifestyle.  At the least I believe it would form a sense of respect for women of that day and age.  Read this book, I hope you love it as much as I did!

Peter and the Secret of Rundoon

I was at the library trying to find an audiobook that was kid friendly and yet would be some what interesting to me, and I saw this book. Peter and the Secret of Randoon this is the third installment of the Barry and Pearson's Peter Pan series.  It was a fun listen.  In this book, you learn why Peter can separate from his shadow, how the croc swallowed the clock, and how the lost boys got to the island.  If you are reading the series it's worth continuing.  Just some fun brain candy.

The Hatfields and the McCoys

Well I finished the book "The Hatfields and the McCoys" by Rice Otis.  I really enjoyed reading about my family history.  I grew up on some of the stories that the book covers, but it was fascinating to read just how long the feud lasted and how involved it was.  I didn't know that the Kentucky and West Virginia governors were so deeply involved in the political aspects of the feud.  The book was more historical and focused on historical documents rather than lore.  But Otis did a good job tying these documents together in a narrative form.  I really enjoyed reading it and it was a pretty short book (only about 130 pages or so).  Otis also did a pretty good job staying neutral and represented both sides of the feud well.  The pictures were fun to look at and I am pretty sure I saw my uncle John and his son John Richard in those pictures!  And the History Channel mini series does a good job of following the facts as Otis presented them.  I am enjoying watching the mini series, but is harder to see the violence than it was to read about it.  Over all I am proud to know about my ancestry and am thankful for the chance to learn more about it.

Ready Player One

I finished this audiobook a week or two ago - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, as read by Wil Wheaton. I really liked this book. It's set in the not so distant future, after the collapse of the world economy under the pressure of the energy crisis. An inventor born in the 1970s creates an immersive virtual world called The Oasis, filled with 1980s nostalgia. When the inventor dies, his avatar announces a contest - whoever finds the easter egg he has hidden in the Oasis will inherit his fortune. A mad race to find it begins.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. It's very well written, it's full of great nostalgia, and the performance is fantastic. Even if you don't like Science Fiction, I think you'd enjoy it.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philip Sendker

Erin recommended this book and I am SO glad she did!  It is simply a beautiful book.  The language, the style, the flow and rhythm are just lovely and magical.  The setting is mostly Burma and the story revolves around a man's life; past and present.  The main character, Tin Win, disappears and when his daughter tries to find him, his secret past is beautifully unwrapped, bit by bit.  It is a story of love and devotion, dedication and commitment.  Since Erin has already reviewed this book, I will leave it at that - I loved it - it was a great read and I enjoyed it immensely. 

Run With Me: An Accidental Runner and the Power of Poo

This is not going to be a complete review on this book by Jennifer Luitwieler because I CANNOT get through this stupid book.  I was so excited to receive this book from Amazon.  It had great reviews and great hype.  Wow have I been disappointed.  This book is an unorganized, scatter brained account of a lady (Jennier – the author) and the process of trying to find herself.  It occasionally touches on running and how she relates it to her finding herself and easing her struggles.  The style of writing reminds me of an old Gilmore Girls episode gone terribly wrong.  Trying to be witty and quick, she falls short.  She tries to be funny but to me, she has failed miserably.  I have had 1 page so far (I am 75% of the way through) that I have dogearred because it has a quote from SOMEONE ELSE that I like.  Nothing to do with her.  I usually am very drawn to these light and fun reads but this has been miserable.  She does a fair amount of church bashing although she is starting to come around, so it seems.  She will start a story and how it has helped her grow, change, whatever, but never follows through.  It lacks details and the element that makes you want to keep reading.  Usually I can immediately find a connection with the main character in a book but I am still stuck looking for ways to form a relationship with Jennifer.  My perception of the book must be terribly wrong given the raving reviews on Amazon.  Best of luck if you try and read this book.  I am off to read something else that will hopefully suppress my literary appetite. 

Caleb's Crossing

Thanks for letting me join this blog...I read a whole lot of books that I wouldn't review for you guys...I call them "junk" books.  But many times I read good literature that I want to share with you all. 

I just finished reading Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks.   This is the second book I've read by her, the first one was People of the Book, which I also enjoyed.  Caleb's Crossing is a historical fiction based on a true life in mid-seventeenth century Martha's Vineyard.  I thought most of you might know where this island is!  Caleb is a native American boy who gets to know a white settler's daughter, Bethia.  Bethia's father is a missionary to the Native Americans on the island, trying to bring them to Christianity. 

The story is fascinating in that Caleb ends up going to Harvard and graduating as the first Native American graduate.  The story tells of his transformation from a son of the medicine man to studying to become a minister.   I found the constraints of the Christian beliefs and the living conditions at this time in history extremely harsh and unforgiving as portrayed in this story.  Punishment was given out quite readily by the elders of the church if people were found sinning.  Sure glad this doesn't happen in our current Protestant churches. 

Linda/Aunt Linda

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

You know, I liked this book a lot and was going to write something crafty and witty, but Amazon just sums it up so well that I have again, just done a cut and paste from them.  The author has several interesting comments regarding America's involvement in Afghanistan and although this is a work of fiction, she lets her life experiences and thoughts come through in her writing. Meredith, thank you for this book!

"After hard luck and heartbreak, Sunny finally finds a place to call home—in the middle of an Afghanistan war zone. There, the thirty-eight-year-old serves up her American hospitality to the expats who patronize her coffee shop, including a British journalist, a “danger pay” consultant, and a wealthy and well-connected woman. True to her name, Sunny also bonds with people whose language and landscape are unfamiliar to most Westerners, but whose hearts and souls are very much like our own: the maternal Halajan, who vividly recalls the days before the Taliban and now must hide a modern romance from her ultratraditional son; and Yazmina, a young Afghan villager with a secret that could put everyone’s life in jeopardy. In this gorgeous first novel, New York Times bestselling author Deborah Rodriguez paints a stirring portrait of a faraway place where—even in the fog of political and social conflict—friendship, passion, and hope still exist."

The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

I have always enjoyed Philippa Gregory's books and this one is no exception.  It is entertaining, engaging and thoroughly readable.... if you like her style of writing and period of history that is.  I don't have the book in front of me to write about it with a critical nature, so I am copying a review from Amazon.
 

Publication Date: April 3, 2012 | Series: The Cousins' War

A story rich in passion and legend, The Lady of the Rivers is the story of Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, a woman who navigated a treacherous path through the battle lines in the Wars of the Roses. When Jacquetta is married to the Duke of Bedford, English regent of France, he introduces her to a mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great household is the duke’s squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side when the duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal friend to his new queen.
The Woodvilles soon achieve a place at the very heart of the Lancaster court, though Jacquetta can sense the growing threat from the people of England and the danger of their royal York rivals. As Jacquetta fights for her king and her queen, she can see an extraordinary and unexpected future for her daughter Elizabeth: a change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York. . . .

The Hunger Games -- all three books

I was so curious about all the hype that I delved in and read them all in a week.  I started over Iceland and finished before we came back to America - about a week of reading.  I couldn't put the first book down, was anxious to go on to the second and from there I lost steam.  It is evident they are written for a younger audience which made the reading easy and quick but by the middle of the second book I found myself wanting something a little more developed.  That being said, I would recommend them for an enjoyable read.  I won't even comment on the storyline or content as most everybody that reads this blog has read the books!

A Storm of Swords

I finished "A Storm of Swords" a few weeks ago, it is the third book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin. Amazon Link for the summary and details...

This book was lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng and really, really good! It moved along several plots that had been simmering for the first couple thousand pages of the series. Martin's ability to make a long story interesting is impressive.
     The themes throughout the first books continue, the ones that are most overt to me involve morality. There are characters that you are sure you hate that end up, maybe, being not so bad. The morally pure (good or evil) players seem to have the most problems getting their way and also seem to have a short life span.
    This installment had quite a few surprises and twists that launched me right into book 4. I had planned on taking a break from the series but here I am. Thus far it has been much slower and is focusing on characters that are not as interesting. I may take a mid-book break yet... 

SEAL Team Six

Amazon link

Continuing in my current theme of military memoirs, I just finished "SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite SEAL Sniper". The title is pretty much what you get. It's well written, and it's an interesting look inside the training that goes into making a SEAL team member. The author was involved in the Battle of Mogadishu, which is also recounted in "Black Hawk Down". I was amazed at what these brave men endure in order to do what our country asks of them. One thing that stuck out to me was the absolute certainty that after making it through SEAL training, you are somehow more than human. I wonder what that does to your psyche over time? It certainly was interesting to see how the author reacted when faced with his own mortality.

This is a quick read, and written with the pacing of a good Clancy novel. Good for the beach or the plane.

Between Silk and Cyanide

To speed things up, here's a link to the Amazon summary.

I really enjoyed this book - it's the memoirs of the British code master for their commando units during WWII. At the beginning of the war, the Brits were using a simplistic code based on picking a set of words out of a poem they had memorized and coordinated ahead of time with home base. Leo Marks, the protagonist, realized how vulnerable the codes were to interception and decoding, and designed a set of codes that were significantly more secure. The conflict between the eggheads who were designing codes and the directors who were running the agents is fascinating, and it's kind of surprising that we don't all speak German at this point, given how much politics went into fighting the war.

As an egghead, it was also really neat to read about someone who made a difference and saved lives in the field, even from the home base.

This book is quite long (600 pages?) but it is very well written. I could hardly put it down - he even makes frequency analysis exciting! The author later went on to write screenplays. Well worth a read if you like WWII history or cryptography.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker is a very lovely book.  Within the first few minutes the prose drew me into the book.  The book is beautifully written and asks some really deep questions about love, life, and seeing.  The plot follows a woman who is on a quest to find her father after he disappears.  She follows his trail to Burma where he grew up and finds a strange man waiting for her, longing to tell her his tale.  In the tale she discovers her father anew.  His tale is the tale of a beautiful love story that lasts through the years.  I can't go into it much without giving the story away.  But the prose paint a wonderful picture of love, loss, and life.  Sendker does lead the reader's expectations in a very clear path, but it doesn't really take away from the book.  Over all I liked this book.

Several Audiobooks

I actually finished listening to several audiobooks over the past few weeks. Between being sick, sick babies, and a sick husband...well time hasn't been on my side, but I have had time to listen to books.  Anyway, I finished  Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Eric Metaxis' Bonhoeffer's biography (the one Alex posted on), and the first three books of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monster's, and The Titan's Curse). 


I have never read this American Classic (unless the Illustrated Classics count) and I wanted to "read" a fun classic.  Mark Twain didn't disappoint.  The fun thing about this book is how clearly Mark Twain displays the attitudes of his time.  I really didn't agree with a lot of the ideas he was promoting (mainly ancient people were stupider than modern people, and some of the stuff he said about the Church). But it was fun to listen to and the performer did a great job reading it.  I don't if this is the first time travel novel, but it is one of the earlier ones, even so it didn't spend a lot of time on how "The Boss" was transported to Arthur's Court, so it's really not much of a "science" fiction story but more of a fiction.

So the plot is basically a Connecticut Blacksmith gets into a fight and gets knocked out.  He wakes in King Arthur's England without any idea of where he is and how he got there.  He is captured and taken to Court where he is sentenced to burn on the stake.  But because he knew that a solar eclipse was going to happen the day of his execution he uses it to turn around his fortunes.  He then tries to turn the "simple" people into modern (Twain's modern) people with "modern" sensibilities and values.  There is adventure, love, war, and time travel. A fun book all around.  It was also kinda fun to argue with some of his assertions, but they were merely the mindset of his time. I enjoyed it.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy Alex has already commented on.  All I can say is Wow.  What a life! It was a great book, very well written.  I almost want to get it in print to be able to mark it up and use it for quotes and things to ponder.  I wonder if Alex would let me do that...he hasn't ever really liked me marking up books...anyway...It's a great book and a fascinating person.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians these are great to listen to while driving the kids around praying they will go to sleep.  As they have been sick their naps have been off, and Auggie  has been teething so naps unless taken in a moving car don't often last longer than 15 minutes. So anyway these are fun kids books that are about the children of the Greek gods in today's world.  They are just brain candy and easy to pick up on the plot after dealing with screaming kids. Lots of fun.

Catching Fire: Book 2 of The Hunger Games

I finished this the other day and it was a quick read.  I liked all the action and it kept me entertained.  Not much else besides that except that I am looking forward to reading the next and final book.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

About two weeks ago, I finished the audiobook version of "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy", by Eric Metaxas.  This was fantastic, and since I've done nothing but talk about it (apparently), I won't write much of a review.

Basically, if you thought the Nazis were bad, you should read/listen to this book.  The Nazis were horrible.  In particular, their deception and abuse of the Christian church in Germany teaches an important lesson the church needs to learn -- be serious and coherent about your theology!  Many pastors and congregations in Germany were led astray because they didn't listen carefully to what the Nazis were saying, and didn't know the Bible well enough to respond.  A lazy church is a weak church, and the Nazis exploited it as long as it served their purposes.

Anyway, this was a fascinating book, and I am even more interested to read some of Bonhoeffer's original works.  Highly recommended!

The Alloy of Law

This week, I finished "The Alloy of Law" by Brandon Sanderson.  It's a fantasy/sci-fi novel set in a world that's about the technological level of 1880s United States, where the magic is based on metals.  This book is in the same "universe" as the Mistborn series (which is really good), but standalone and 300 years after the last Mistborn book ends.

You know what?  It just keeps sounding lamer and lamer as I write about it, but it's really good.  Sanderson is an excellent storyteller, and his system of magic is well thought out and a unique twist on a lot of different tropes.  Placing the story at the transition from the pre-modern to modern era lends some excitement.  It's brain candy, but good brain candy.

Unbroken

I just finished a wonderful biography about the life of Louis Zamperini called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. I know that Alex, Max and Cindy have read this book but I think they read it last year before we started this blog. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good read and fascinating story. Hillenbrand is the author of Seabiscuit and has done a wonderful job telling the life story of Zamperini.

Without giving anything away I was captivated by the life of this man who was a terror to his town and parents when he was a kid, but soon became the town's hero when he almost broke the 4 minute mile and ran in the Berlin Olympics. He then became a lieutenant and bombardier in the air force during WWII. His plane was downed in the Pacific. He and two other men survived on a raft no bigger than a bath tube in shark infested waters while being shot at by a Japanese plane. He then washed up in Japanese territory and endured some of the most inhumane treatment that was routine in Japanese POW camps during WWII. As incredible a story that is the book still has many more chapters after the end of WWII.

I don't think I would have read this book (I don't read many biography's) except that Alex read parts of it to me and intrigued me. That and the fact that I just read Lit by Rienke and have been challenged to read a larger variety of books. I think now I am hooked on bio's and would welcome any suggestions. :) (Yes Alex, I DO intend to listen to the Bonhoeffer bio...how could I not after all you have told me ;) Anyway its a good read and we have it if anyone wants to borrow it.

Peopleware: Productive Products and Teams

I finished "Peopleware: Productive Products and Teams", by DeMarco and Lister, the other night.  It was a really good collection of "management" essays about how to lead teams of knowledge workers.  It's mostly focused on software developers, but it has some applicability to other fields as well, I think.  One of the more interesting chapters in it was the chapter on Teamicide -- things you do as a manager that make it impossible for your team to jell into a cohesive team.  It was particularly interesting that there's nothing you can do to make a team jell, but there are certainly things that you can do that guarantee it won't happen.

A lot of the strategies and particulars were things that I don't have the authority to influence (yet), but it's a good picture of making teams that work well together and are more productive, and probably more fun to be on.

Next up: "In Defense of Sanity" -- a collection of essays by G.K. Chesterton!

THe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I just finished up my read of The Hunger Games.   I really liked it and got into it very quickly, also through it very quickly.  Something just kept me wanting to keep the pages turning and reading more.  I enjoyed the characters and also was delighted to read something different than my usual style.  It reminds of the Twilight books where you read and read and read just to get through and when you are done you can’t wait to jump into the next book.  It was filled with action, a little bit of romance and some drama.  A trifecta for a good read.  I look forward to reading #2.

Night Watch

Just finished "Night Watch" by Terry Pratchett. It's one of his later Discworld novels, and as such is part fantasy novel, part political satire, and dryly funny. In this one, Vimes and a madman get thrown back in time, and Vimes has to stop the bad guy before he destroys the past. It's pretty standard fantasy time travel fare, but Pratchett does a great job twisting it around to talk about fate, politics, and revolutions. It's brain candy, but it's tasty.

I am currently listening to a biography of Bohnhoffer on my commute, so I needed a break from Nazis and really deep theology!

Brides of the West - Faith

I just finished Brides of the West – Faith by Lori Copeland a gift Mom had sent me back in February.  My thought after turning the last page was, “Well, at least I finished it!”  It is a tale set in old western times – doesn’t give an exact date - of a mail-order bride from Michigan (Or some northern state) getting placed to marry a man in Texas.  It’s a typical love story.  Woman and man hate each other, woman and man develop secret love for each other but are to scared to say anything, etc, etc, etc.  Needless to say there were no surprises in this book.  I bet if you just let your imagination take over for a minute you will know how it ends.  I liked the idea of the story but execution was poor.  The author is a Christian writer and works VERY hard to not let you forget that.  I try my best to read fiction Christian books but I am yet to be wowed by one.  Just because it is sold as a Christian book doesn’t mean you need to put the words “Jesus, faith, God or pray” in every sentence or paragraph.  I would love any suggestions of Christian fiction that doesn’t do this though!

Brides of the West - Faith

I just finished Brides of the West – Faith by Lori Copeland a gift Mom had sent me back in February.  I was excited about the read and thankful for the gift.  Sadly, my thought after turning the last page was, “Well, at least I finished it!”  It is a tale set in old western times – doesn’t give an exact date - of a mail-order bride from Michigan (Or some northern state) getting placed to marry a man in Texas.  It’s a typical love story.  Woman and man hate each other, woman and man develop secret love for each other but are to scared to say anything, etc, etc, etc.  Needless to say there were no surprises in this book.  I bet if you just let your imagination take over for a minute you will know how it ends.  I liked the idea of the story but execution was poor.  The author is a Christian writer and works VERY hard to not let you forget that.  I try my best to read fiction Christian books but I am yet to be wowed by one.  Just because it is sold as a Christian book doesn’t mean you need to put the words “Jesus, faith, God or pray” in every sentence or paragraph.  I would love any suggestions of Christian fiction that doesn’t do this though!

    Overall, I'd say pass on this read unless you need an easy book that you can read a page of at a time and never get lost in the plot.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Finally! I have finished a book. I wish I could say I really liked it, but for me... it was just OK. Meredith left it for me and she has already posted about it, but I will just do my own re-cap as well. The book has several stories going at once and nearly each chapter moves from one to another. The main character is Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife. Ann Eliza is a pioneer and crusader to end polygamy in the United States 1875. The book includes a history of her and her family's polygamist life style, as well as her escape from it and her powerful husband. The other narrative unfolds as a murder mystery in present-day Utah centering around a polygamist family. The main man in this story was cast out of his fundamentalist sect but returns to discover the truth behind his father's murder. So I guess this book is part history, part a revelation of the LDS and their polygamist behavior and part love story. I will bring it home and you are free to pass it around. I learned some interesting things about polygamy and was glad to read it, but glad to be done.
(507 pages)

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

I wrapped up "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void" by Mary Roach last night. Roach explores what happens to the human body during space flight. It's a very entertaining and somewhat educational read. Topics range from early concerns about zero-g (a couple concerns were that the heart wouldn't function and that eyes would deform, rendering the astronaut blind) to food to motion sickness.
     She explores some more taboo subjects as well. The sections on bathroom use was particularly humorous and really painted a picture of the challenges of space. Another brief section covered sex and whether it has happened in flight yet. Not particularly enlightening but it served as to introduce some of the challenges of long duration space flight and the psychological challenges it presents.


Her wit and fast pace make it an enjoyable read. I've read quite a bit about the space program so some of this wasn't exactly fresh to me. It did provide a good amount of history and information about the less glamorous parts of being an astronaut. It actually sounds pretty terrible aside from the fact that you're weightlessly traveling around the earth at 17,500mph.

I've read another book by this author and would recommend it over this one. It's called "Stiff" and tells the story of what happens to the body after you die. It sounds morbid, and at times it is, but it is also very interesting.

I probably won't be posting for a while as I've started book 3 of the "A song of Ice and Fire" series. It is quite long. 

Killing Lincoln

Tonight, I finished Killing Lincoln, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  This was a good pop-history account of Lincoln's assassination, but it was modeled way too much on a James Patterson mystery paperback for my taste. It has no references, very little background information, and the Notes section is an informal bibliography (most charitably). I had the hardest time with the insinuations that there was "more to the conspiracy than we know", presented without actually saying what the accusation was, or sourcing the accusation. The notes section mentioned a few "controversial" books, but it never said where the most out-there conspiracy theories came from.  It did helpfully note that the source for a lot of the conspiracy theory stuff has been thoroughly discredited by the historical community.

Basically, I thought this book did a good job of telling the story of the assassination, but it's not a useful piece of history writing, and if you'd paid attention in US history class, you'd have heard about 80% of it before. 

TL;DR: Good read, but feels like one of those History Channel shows you watch when you're home sick at 2 in the afternoon.

Moonwalking with Einstein

Last week, I finished Moonwalking with Einstein, by Joshua Foer.  This book is about memory - how it works, how people train their memories, and what happens when our memories don't work quite right. Foer started it as a "creature feature" on people who compete in memory challenges. Assuming that they were some sort of freaks with photographic memories, he was surprised to discover that they were pretty much ordinary folks who had trained their memories for these specific tasks. As a challenge, Foer decided to dedicate a year of his life to training, and ended up winning the national competition (not a spoiler, as it is on the dust jacket).

Overall, this is a good look at one of the most interesting things we take almost entirely for granted.  The structure of training for the competition is a good frame for a bunch of different aspects of investigating memory.  He describes the memory palace technique that Pastor Oien used to memorize his sermons... As it turns out, that was one of the first recorded techniques for memorizing complex sequences of things, pioneered after a banquet hall collapse in Greece in the 5th century BC.

(As a heads up:  this is an interesting book, but it's not a how-to on improving your memory.)

Peter Pan and the Shadow Thief

A week or so ago I finished Peter Pan and the Shadow Thief the second book following "Peter Pan and the Starcatchers." These are fun kids books. They are quick reads and would make great read aloud books. I think the kids will really enjoy them when they are eight or 9. They are filled with adventure and truly cutthroat pirates.

In this book Peter Pan returns to London to warn his friend of a strange creature that is after the starstuff he helped recover in the first book. Not much I can say without giving away stuff from the first book.

Overall it was fun and I can't wait to read it again with the kiddos. I'm thinking after the Chronicles of Narnia and before Harry Potter.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

About a week and a half ago, I finished "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo".  It was a really good, really disturbing mystery.  I had picked it up because the main character was supposed to be a hacker, and the author was allegedly really accurate with the hacking info.  Turns out that there was a lot of techno-sounding jargon with nothing actually very interesting.  Oh well.  Other than that disappointment, this was an exciting mystery novel with some crazy twists and turns.  The main characters are kind of unpleasant, and there are some disturbing topics involved, but it's well written and doesn't descend into the tastelessness that it easily could have.

Nothing Finished

Hi all - I am not reviewing any books today as I haven't finished anything in ages. The reason is, I have so many started and I can't seem to get through any one to say, "Completed!" I am in the middle of "The 19th Wife" that Meredith left for me. I am almost done with a John LeClarre that I don't like, have recently started a fun one called "Cat and Dog Theology" and am only in the very beginning of "The Omnivore's Dilema". Also I think I have the first 10 pages read in "The Hobbit". Maybe the problem is that for me, none of them are barn burners! (or I haven't gotten far enough in to say so - except the LeClarre) The month of March will be one of finishing, not starting anything new! How do you guys read so many books at once? Look what happened to me when I gave that a go...

I like Meredith's idea of finding a way to make a lending library. At least our blog will let us know who has what.

Lit

I just finished Lit by Tony Reinke. I think Alex did a great job with his explanation. So I'll just say I really enjoyed it and it was very thought provoking. It did a great job of making me really think about what I'm reading and why I'm reading it. Anyway, kids are asleep and I'm going to bed. Sorry to wimp out on this post.

Books as Gifts - My Recent Fail

Today I wanted to mention something that has nothing to do with a specific book.  I was reminded all to well last month that the Jordan family is into their books! It was Alex and Adam’s birthday in February and since we have been on a big book kick I sent them both a book for their birthday.  I must be spot on in knowing their taste because I got them both books that they already had!  How can that be?!  With that being said, if there is a book you have been wanting but don’t have yet we need to come up with a plan to make this known!  I feel terrible that the excitement of getting a new book was gone because they already had it.  Maybe next year I will be as good as guessing what they would like but pick something they don’t have yet!  I just hope that they are able to return them for a book they don't have yet and they can share it with us here!

Meredith

Mockingjay - Book 3 of Hunger Games

I wrapped up the Hunger Games trilogy last night. The third book does a good job explaining what is going on in the world of Panem. Compared to the first 2 books, the beginning of the third is a bit slow. By the time they've set the scene though the action starts again and before you know it you're done.

It's a satisfying end as it answers a lot of questions and you get some closure but this is also where the young adult genre leaves me wanting more. The books are so efficiently written and move at such a fast pace that I now wish there were more guts and detail to the world that Collins has painted. Then again the slower pace would make these an entirely different read. It wouldn't surprise me if Collins revisits this world in future writings; my bet would be on the story of Haymitch (an older character that acts a mentor to the young protagonists) or the Dark Days (the conflict that led to the first Hunger Games).

Catching Fire: Book 2 of Hunger Games

I'll make this post as quick as it was to read the book:

Pick up where 1 left off

plot development and introduction of new characters 

Action, action, action

Start book 3

I Will Carry You

I just finished the book "I Will Carry You" by Angie Smith. I absolutely loved this book. It was a very beautiful book that was so hard to read. It was hard because the book is their story of faith during tragic loss. Angie's husband is Todd Smith who is in the Christian band Selah. While she was pregnant with their fourth daughter they were told that she had so many problems that she would not survive birth. They chose to praise God regardless of the outcome. Here is a passage that really hit me as I read it. I can only pray that if God ever calls me to endure something this hard, that I will have the faith to say this. They went in for their ultrasound with such hope and joy and the doctor told them that her heart didn't have any chambers, her stomach was to large there would be no room for her lungs, her kidneys had cysts on them, and there was no amniotic fluid. The doctor asks Angie,

"What are you thinking, sweetheart?'

I said the first thing that came to my mind, and I said it with much more conviction than I was feeling.

"I think my Jesus is the same as He was before I walked through that door."

I have only read one other book about miscarriage and what the grieving process is like for mothers whose joy turned to sorrow. But what I like about this book is that the focus is not on the joy turning to sorrow but the joy in the sorrow. Their baby did not live but two hours after they delivered her, but they chose to praise God whatever the outcome. I cried and cried while I read this book, but it also helped me to process some of the emotions and fears I had held on to after my miscarriage and Alex's illness. It was a sweet reminder that in the midst of our sorrow our Savior is there holding us and listening to us and loving us, and in Him we find the Joy.

I first heard about this book, because Beth Moore read from it in our James study. Then Mary Beth Stevenson read a passage from it to our ladies Bible study, and I knew I had to read it. I will pass it on to anyone who wants to read it. Anyone need a good cry?

The Hunger Games

I finished up The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, over the weekend. From Wikipedia:

"The Hunger Games is a young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins. It was originally published on September 14, 2008, byScholastic.^[1] It is written in first person and introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, holds absolute power over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive."

It is a very fast read as much because of the gripping story as because of the writing. It is simply and effectively written in the first person. I've heard critiques that it isn't well written but I think the 1st person tense of a mostly uneducated girl can explain/excuse that. I haven't read any of Collins' other work so I really don't know. I also really don't care because this was such a fun read. 

The themes aren't, to me, fresh but could be to the younger target audience. Dystopia sounds like hell for those that have to live in such an environment but it sure makes for great fiction. 

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

While I was waiting for M and M to finish their time on the "mountain" at Ski Dubai, I found myself without anything to read. So off I went to Borders and found this crazy book. I have heard a lot of controversy and fuss about this Mom, and I was very curious. It is a brutally honest memoir of her Chinese approach to parenting. The book is sometimes funny, sometimes outrageous as she describes how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones.

It is an extreme parenting style that I would not embrace, but it certainly produces high achieving, disciplined kids! For example, here are 10 things the author's daughters were never allowed to do:

1. attend a sleepover 2. have a play-date 3. be in a school play 4. complain about being not being in a school play 5. watch TV or play computer games 6. choose their own extracurricular activities 7. get any grade less than an A 8. not be the #1 student in every subject except gym and drama 9. play any instrument other than the piano or violin 10. not play the piano or violin

The fact was, they spent so much time on homework and instrument practice, they had no time for any of the above. However, the girls were performing internationally by ages 10 and 12. The author says Western parents would complain about getting in 1/2 hour of music practice - she says it is hour 3 and 4 when it starts to get tough!

Here is a little blurb from some of her threats to her daughter:

"According to Sophia, here are three things I actually said to her at the piano as I supervised her practicing:
1. Oh my God, you're just getting worse and worse.
2. I'm going to count to three, then I want musicality.
3. If the next time's not PERFECT, I'm going to take all your stuffed animals and burn them!"

I think you will enjoy this short read - entertaining and thought provoking for sure. You will have to laugh at some of the absurdity of it as she writes with candor and humor. It left me shaking my head but at the same time recognizing all she wanted was the best for her children - like all mommas all over the world.

The 19th Wife

I have finally finished reading The 19^th Wife by David Ebershoff and overall enjoyed the read.  This style and subject of book is not something that usually interests me but I gave it a try based on a recommendation from Michael’s sister.  The book intertwines two stories; a murder mystery set in today’s time and a historical fiction of Ann Eliza Young.  Ann Eliza was one of the wives of Brigham Young and this book tells the story of her separation from him and her fight to ban polygamy in the United States in the late 1800’s.  It is interesting to learn some of the background of the Mormon church and also to gain insight to the thoughts and opinions of someone who grew up in a polygamist family. The other story twisted in is that of a murder in a present day Utah polygamist community.  The story is told from the point of view from a young man who was thrown out of the church and abandoned by his family as an early teenager who now searches for the truth of the murder that his mother is being accused of committing.

                Although I did not always enjoy the switching back and forth between stories it did the job of keeping me wanting to read more.  I would recommend this book for others to read but probably not pay full price for it.  I am glad that I found it at Goodwill for $0.75.  With that being said, if anyone would like to borrow it just let me know and I will send it your way!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

On Thursday night, I finished "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", by Mark Haddon.  This was a really interesting novel -- it's written from the point of view of an autistic (?) teenager named Christopher who discovers his neighbor's dog has been killed.  Christopher has read some of the Sherlock Holmes books and decides that it is time to do some Detecting to determine who the culprit is.  It's very interesting to see how Christopher interacts with his world, and especially to see how his tics and odd behavior are perfectly normal to himself but terribly distressing to the rest of his world.

The author has an incredibly deft touch -- it would be easy to descend into pathos or caricature, but Haddon does a great job at making Christopher a sympathetic character without exploiting him.  It's fascinating to see the people around him interact, filtered through his perspective.  This is well worth a read.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

At long last, I've finished The Omnivore's Dilema. I've written about it a couple of times in comments of other posts so I'll just leave a few thoughts. Quick recap, Pollan traces 4 meals to their origins: Industrial (McDonalds), Industrial Organic (Whole Foods), Pastoral (think Local, "beyond organic") and Foraged. In each section he talks about relevant facts, figures, policies, controversies and his own experience.

I hate to say this book was "eye opening" as that is such a tired cliche but, it opened my eyes to an industry that I don't know much about. The book covers many issues in food and food policy so I think it's fair to say that it made me more aware than it did make me an expert.

Will it change the way I eat/buy? Maybe. I was discouraged but not really surprised to see that it isn't as easy to switch to "organic" or "free range" to achieve altruism. It isn't just the regulations, marketing and desire to buy humanely that makes it difficult. It's my own desire for apples year round, $1.99 boneless, skinless chicken breast and food with a shelf life measured in months, not hours. In short, it would just be too much work and money to go whole hog (oh yeah, that's a pun). Will I try? Yeah, I'll try to be more responsible. I'm better about it with fish and things I perceive to be wild... We'll see!

It is a worthwhile read, even if you skip the foraging section (more personal to the author than the other sections, in my opinion).

I'm on to the Hunger Games, it is going to be a very, very fast read. 

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor

Well, I finished Bruce Campbell's memoirs, "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor".  I think I'll stick with my initial assessment: it's interesting, and a neat look at how independent movies are made, but it's not a very good memoir.  There's some funny parts, and it's really neat to hear how the classic "Evil Dead" was made, but overall, I thought the memoir portion was pretty weak.  It's a quick read, at least.

First Parenting book of the year

I just finished "Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: and 8 other myths that trap us in worry and guilt" by Leslie Leyland Fields. Ironically I have to run to take care of the kids, so I will come back and post a second entry soon....(sigh)

I'm back. Alright so "Parenting Is Your Highest Calling..." was pretty good. In it Fields explores our notions of the "Ideal Parent" and other things that are common myths parents believe and compares them to the truth of the Scriptures. This book would really make a great young parents/family small group study. I think some of the questions she has at the end of each chapter are very thought provoking and I would love to hear what other people have to say about them.

Some of the myths that stood out to me as a person who really wants to do everything the "right way" is the myth that there is such a thing as the "perfect mom\parent" and the "right/biblical way to parent," and that "parenting is my highest calling." Over and over again in the scriptures there are examples of incredibly godly people whose children rebelled against God (i.e. Esau and Samson) and examples of children who were righteous in spite of their parents (Jonathan and Josiah). The truth of the matter is that we are all sinners and it is God that makes us righteous and not our parents. So even though I mess up twenty plus times a day...God can redeem my children in spite of me. Fields also points out that there is no biblical mandate "You shall parent this way..." because God doesn't parent that way. He sees us all as the individuals we are and parents us that way. So my job is to be faithful to Him and to teach my children about Him in a way that sees and celebrates them as the individuals God made them.

Well unfortunately that is all the time I have to write...small children. Well I'll just have to settle with short summary. The book was good and helped me let go some of the guilt I have about decisions I've made/failed to make