I Love Books

Simplification

2011-08-08T14:03:00.003-06:00

To simplify my life, I'm going to only update the books I read at Goodreads from now on. I can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/237604-tanya

These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

2011-07-10T18:28:00.000-06:00

I didn't expect to like this because it is basically a western, and had I known it was also basically a romance I would never have read it. (Romance + western = um, no.) However, my naivete was good because I gave it a chance and loved it. I laughed, I cried, I rooted for people to get together.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams

2011-05-27T12:45:00.000-06:00

A lovely collection post-apocalyptic short stories. Some were misses (maybe four?), but most of them were very good. I wished a couple were novels because I really wanted to know more about that world. Definitely an enjoyable read. Terrifying, but enjoyable.

The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs

2011-04-28T16:20:00.000-06:00

I really liked this book, though I was in the minority in my book club. I expected it to be more snarky than it was, but I found it interesting how the author found more depth to the exercise than he expected. I also enjoyed reading about some of the more obscure laws/rules/traditions and practitioners of the same.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

2011-04-20T15:33:00.002-06:00

Very, very good. It's a YA novel, so it's an easy read, but I was totally sucked in to the story. It ends annoyingly abruptly, though! Good for making you read the sequels, I guess. Regardless, it's a fabulous tale. If you're into dystopias, this is a highly recommended read.

Arabian Nights and Days by Naguib Mahfouz

2011-04-05T07:56:00.001-06:00

Clever, fun read. Hard to follow the characters sometimes, but it was good to read something from another culture.

Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness by Pete Earley

2011-04-05T07:50:00.004-06:00

So I kind of abandoned this place again. Rather than go backward, I'll just start again where I am now, with my two most recent reads.

Crazy was a frustrating read because the U.S. mental health system is so incredibly screwed up and so incredibly immoral in the way those with mental illness are treated. However, it was definitely interesting and I learned a lot (primarily that things are even worse than I realized). Definitely a heartbreaking read. Everyone should read this, and then maybe something would change.

The author has a blog of the same theme. The book is better than that blog, though :-)

Bill Bryson's African Diary

2010-09-06T16:57:00.000-06:00

Way too short. It's basically the length of a magazine article, but between a hard-backed cover. Still, it's definitely worth a read. I love Bill Bryson's writing.

Judas and the Gospel of Jesus by N. T. Wright

2010-09-05T17:00:00.000-06:00

Not what I thought it would be, and with less content than I'd expected, but not bad.

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

2010-08-21T18:17:00.000-06:00

I read this because I really like his TV show, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. This book made it clear that I never want to meet him. He has an intense hatred for fat people, and he's enough of an ass that there is a chance he would totally be a jerk to my face (I'm fat), but almost definitely behind my back. I don't need to be brought to tears because someone thinks I am repulsive and shouldn't be on the planet.

So I don't want to meet him. But it was nevertheless an interesting read (though not recommended unless you're already a fan of him or his show; it didn't seem like the sort of book that would interest a random reader) and I still really like his show.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fisher

2010-08-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

Meh.

SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

2010-08-08T20:52:00.000-06:00

Very interesting. Definitely worth a read.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

2010-08-02T17:14:00.000-06:00

Interesting. I enjoyed learning all about corn. His anti-vegetarian conclusions were eye-rollingly dumb, but the rest of it was good.

Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End . . . by Philip C. Plait

2010-07-13T17:50:00.000-06:00

Very fun read. It's basically a general astronomy book using potential apocalyptic endings to explain things. Loved it.

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright

2010-07-13T17:46:00.000-06:00

This author came highly recommended by a number of people on an email list I'm on, so I decided to try out some of his books, and this one came up first. I quite enjoyed it, and will definitely continue to read more of his books.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

2010-07-13T17:41:00.000-06:00

Excellent. I was familiar with HeLa cells, having become one with them during college, but never gave it any thought (nor remember reading anything) about the person they originally came from. That's what this book is about - the woman, Henrietta Lacks, whose cells these were and the repercussions on her family. It was a fascinating read.

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman

2010-05-31T07:30:00.001-06:00

Fascinating. I know this is kind of a random thing for me to read since I don't have kids and likely won't, but I read a review somewhere (not sure where now) and it piqued my interest. If I did have kids, this book would have changed my approach. Since I don't have kids, it's merely very interesting.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

2010-05-25T16:29:00.000-06:00

Incredibly sad. But I'm glad I read it.

The Taking by Dean Koontz

2010-05-09T12:19:00.000-06:00

Deliciously chilling. I really like Dean Koontz's books, though I haven't read anything by him for quite a while. However, my mom, who loves his books, strongly recommended this one, so I read it. As I said, it was deliciously chilling. It doesn't quite end as strong as it starts, which was disappointing (because the first half is fabulous), though the last two pages creeped me out again. This one is definitely worth a read, though.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2010-04-03T09:18:00.000-06:00

Excellent. Absolutely excellent. A very engaging story that had me staying up way too late to finish it.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

2010-03-19T18:46:00.003-06:00

I love a good apocalyptic tale. The writing was mediocre - not bad, merely a tool to tell the tale, though the occasional sentence made me cringe - but the tale the text told was chilling and engaging. And now, of course, I'm terrified an electromagetic pulse (EMP) will be the end of my happy, electricity-filled existence, and I will die a horrible, miserable death.

So a recommended read!

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

2010-03-19T18:40:00.000-06:00

Excellent book. The weakest parts were the ones set basically modern day. I really didn't care what happened to Hanna, and the ending drama felt like it sort of came out of nowhere, like the author thought some sort of twist was necessary. However, the parts in the past, tracing the different little pieces, were so fabulous that they made up for the weaknesses. Lovely prose, too.

Blooming English by Kate Burridge

2010-01-31T15:38:00.001-07:00

I LOVED this book. Completely and totally fascinating. Its subtitle - "Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language" - pretty much covers what it's about.

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart

2010-01-23T13:07:00.006-07:00

Very good. This is not something I would have selected on my own in a million years - who cares about a piano shop in Paris? - but it was selected by a member of my book club so I read it. To my surprise, I really liked it. It introduced me to a couple worlds I've never given any thought to, and it did so with excellent writing and an interesting tale (it's non-fiction). I'm glad I read it.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

2010-01-23T13:04:00.001-07:00

Very good. Gave me some food for thought.

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

2009-10-30T16:13:00.000-06:00

Fabulous book. Everyone should read it.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

2009-09-05T07:07:00.004-06:00

Very interesting. His almost-final declaration that, "See, there's absolutely nothing wrong with kids experimenting with drugs," was eyerollingly stupid (okay, so their chances of getting addicted are small, but that's hardly the only reason it's not such a good idea), but that's the only thing I remained unconvinced about in the entire book. Definitely a good read.

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

2009-09-03T19:33:00.003-06:00

Loved it. But I've loved everything of his I've read. I love the travel/comedy mix. And as someone in book club pointed out, he's writing about common, normal things; he doesn't experience anything extraordinary on his travels. However, he manages to make it seem fascinating and fun. That's quite a skill. (Also, this is technically a re-read for me, but it was just as fun to read it this time around as the first time.)

Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama

2009-09-03T19:31:00.001-06:00

I expected to dislike it. I'm sick of hearing about Obama. But it's actually quite interesting.

Bonds That Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner

2009-09-03T19:26:00.003-06:00

Pretty good. Probably would be better if I had a husband and kids I could use it with. It makes sense, though.

Chindi by Jack McDevitt

2009-08-04T22:20:00.016-06:00

I liked it. I could not in good conscience call this quality literature, but it was enjoyable fluff of the sci-fi persuasion.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2009-07-30T10:29:00.021-06:00

Loved it. Gaiman is my favorite author, so the chances I would like it were high. It's a kid's book, so it's a quick, easy read, but it's plenty enjoyable for adults.

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

2009-07-18T16:03:00.001-06:00

Mediocre science fiction, to be sure, but I enjoyed it.

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

2009-07-18T15:59:00.003-06:00

Meh. Maybe it's just too allegorical for my tastes, but this one didn't do anything for me. I didn't hate it, but... meh.

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm

2009-07-18T15:57:00.001-06:00

I liked it a lot, even though the author is clearly a fool.

The City by Joel Kotkin

2009-07-18T15:56:00.002-06:00

I liked it. It's a short, concise overview of cities. Definitely a survey book, not anything indepth, but it's a good introduction.

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

2009-07-18T15:55:00.000-06:00

I enjoyed it. I find Taoism interesting, and this is an interesting way to approach it.

Elsewhere, U.S.A. by Dalton Conley

2009-07-18T15:53:00.004-06:00

Subtitled, "How we got from the company man, family dinners, and the affluent society to the home office, blackberry moms, and economic anxiety."

Meh. Interesting enough to read, but I'm not sure I'm convinced.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

2009-07-18T15:50:00.002-06:00

Loved it! I didn't expect to love this book - romance during a hostage situation - but I did. The author is incredibly talented at working with language. For much of what I've read lately, language is a tool. In this book, language is an art. It was like reading an orchestra. And I loved the story as well. I'd never read anything by her before this one, and now I have two of her books in my to-be-read pile.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

2008-10-04T19:35:00.003-06:00

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. Highly recommended.

This is the non-fiction story about Greg Mortenson, who stumbled into a small, remote Pakistani village after a failed attempt to climb K2 in 1993. Separated from his group, sick, and exhausted, Greg was impressed by the kindness he received. While there he saw kids sitting outside on the frozen ground, writing in the dirt with sticks, trying to have school without a building or even a teacher. Wanting to do something to repay the kindness, he promised to return and build them a school. With that promise, his life took a sudden turn. He did build that school, and then went on to form the Central Asia Institute. According to the website, "As of 2008, Central Asia Institute has successfully established 64 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide (or have provided) education to over 25,000 students, with a emphasis on girls’ education."

Very inspirational book. Well written. Interesting. I can't say enough good things about it. Highly recommended.

"In times of war, you often hear leaders - Christian, Jewish, and Muslim - saying 'God is on our side.' But that isn't true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans." (page 239)
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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

2008-09-17T06:09:00.007-06:00

Meh.

I read Twilight because it was picked for this month's book club, though I've been thinking of picking it up for a while now anyway. I enjoy young adult novels in general, and I love vampires, so I expected to love this. And I didn't. I'm so disappointed. Three-quarters of it was boring, just the two of them (mostly Bella since it was from her perspective) pining over each other. That's it. I hate romance novels, and that's basically all this was - a Harlequin romance novel without all the sex. Blech.

It's also poorly written. Very poorly written. And there is no real character development. Bella is beyond annoying, and all she does is pine after Edward. That's it.

I did somewhat enjoy the parts where we finally find out how the vampire thing works, and the parts where Edward's family came into play. I sort of liked the last part where things were actually happening. So it wasn't a total loss, and I didn't loathe it or anything like that, but... I was disappointed.

Not recommended. I'll skip the sequels and also the movie unless it gets fabulous reviews (based on the limited previews I've seen, though, it looks pretty bad).

This review from Amazon is pretty much a perfect reflection of my thoughts on the book: Click Me.

Just added!: For highly entertaining chapter synopses. I suggest To Try a New Sword on a Chance Wayfarer.
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

2008-09-01T11:58:00.004-06:00

Meh. I had high expectation for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life since I'm a fan of eating locally (even if I don't consistently apply what I support...). The book, however, really wasn't all that interesting of a read. Also, she seems to be seriously naive about her approach being able to support our current global population. Like I said, I'm a fan of the approach, but I recognize it as a luxury of my high socioeconomic status and national residence.
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Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

2008-09-01T11:50:00.004-06:00

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life is pretty good. I'm not a huge Steve Martin fan, but I'd heard his autobiography was actually quite interesting, so I decided to read it. It did not disappoint; it was actually fairly interesting to see his persistence that lead to his rise to fame. He worked hard to get where he is.

Highly recommended if you're a Steve Martin fan. Moderately recommended if you're not a Steve Martin fan but find autobiographies or performing arts interesting.
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Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy

2008-09-01T11:47:00.004-06:00

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born is fabulous. I found it fascinating. The author discusses the history of approaches to (and consequences of) childbirth over the ages. She focuses primarily on the Western world, though some non-Western cultures get minimal treatment.
Highly recommended.
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The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

2008-08-07T10:21:00.003-06:00

The Memory Keeper's Daughter was pretty good. Tragically sad, but good. A doctor delivers his own babies - twins - at his office during a snowstorm in the 1960s. One baby has Down syndrome, and the doctor instructs the nurse to take the baby to an institution. This decision doesn't come out of nowhere - he had a sister with a heart condition who died young and he can't bear the thought of what a disabled child would do to his wife. When his wife wakes up from the anesthesia, he tells her the baby died. The nurse, however, can't bear to leave the baby at the institution and takes off with her, raising her as her own daughter. From there the story takes off, following the years as the two families deal with the consequences of that one choice the father made.

Recommended.

Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli

2008-07-31T14:18:00.003-06:00

I've totally been slacking on updating this blog. It's too much effort to go back and update on what I've read the past several months (er, half year), so let's just start fresh and new where I am now, okay?

Bliss is excellent. It is set in Turkey, and the author is Turkish. The book is beautifully written, though painful to read because of what happens to the main characters, the 15-year-old Meryem in particular (she is raped by her uncle and has thus "shamed her family"), though her cousin is also traumatized by war. However, it ends with hope.

The novel is a fascinating look at Turkey, where modern and traditional worlds clash. It was a quick read for me, and I found the language flowing and enjoyable.

I highly recommend this book

10th Grade by Joseph Weisberg

2008-01-21T14:17:00.004-07:00

Pretty good. It’s a young adult novel, which means I’m not really the target audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The lack of punctuation and the rampant run-on sentences did give it an authentic feel (first person of a 10th grade boy), but it make it a bit slower to read. Still, I remember a lot of high school feeling that way – lots of uncertainty and just sorta making everything up.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

2008-01-21T14:17:00.003-07:00

Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner

2008-01-21T14:17:00.002-07:00

Excellent. Highly recommended.

The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

2008-01-21T14:17:00.001-07:00

Meh. Fairly interesting, but they were wrong on a couple things (like the names of subatomic particles; minor, sure, but still), which means I can’t trust them on everything else in the book I knew nothing about. Which means it's a waste of time.

Don’t Try This At Home by Hunter S. Fulghum

2008-01-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Very fun. I admit… I’m tempted to try some of the things….

Fried Eggs With Chopsticks by Polly Evans

2008-01-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

An enjoyable, fairly mindless romp that I read while myself traveling. I’m not dying to seek out her other books, but it was pleasant and fairly interesting to read nonetheless.

Blood Music by Greg Bear

2008-01-21T14:09:00.000-07:00

Very good. Kinda scary, but in a fun, interesting way. I haven't been reading much sci-fi lately, so it was good to get a sci-fi book in.

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Gregory A Prince

2007-10-27T11:17:00.001-06:00

Excellent. A fascinating look at DOM and the church during his administration.

Dream Country (Sandman, Book 3) by Neil Gaiman

2007-10-27T11:12:00.000-06:00

Meh. I was disappointed because the second one was so good. It was really short, only three tales, and none of them thrilled me.

The Doll's House (Sandman, Book 2) by Neil Gaiman

2007-10-27T11:09:00.000-06:00

Excellent. Definitely much better than the first one. It was fairly disturbing, but I liked it.

The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

2007-10-27T11:07:00.000-06:00

I'm not really into comics, but I've read everything else by Neil Gaiman (quite possibly my favorite author), so it was time to give his Sandman series a try. It took a while to get into it, but I enjoyed it.

The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark

2007-09-15T21:20:00.001-06:00

Very interesting. I plan to look for more books by this author.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

2007-07-23T18:49:00.000-06:00

SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!

So good. Very good. Book 6 kind of sucked. I didn't object to Dumbledore's death; I objected to how boring the book was. Therefore I worried that the conclusion to the saga would be a disappointment. I'm glad I was wrong.

Fred's death is the saddest to me, followed by Lupin's. I was not shocked by Lupin's death, but I honestly was not expecting Fred's. I was actually kind of glad that Dobby died just because he's so annoying, and yet I cried as I read of his burial and small memorial. I'm glad to see depth to Dumbledore, and am glad to see that Snape really isn't evil, and I'm glad Ron and Hermione lived (though surprised the both made it). I'm surprised Harry lived. I love that Neville is a hero.

I generally don't like epilogues that jump years into the future, and this was no exception. We are given every indication that Ron and Hermione will end up together and Harry and Ginny will end up together and, hey, what do you know, that's what happens. Why bother jumping into the future to show that? It should have ended with Harry wanting to go to the Gryffindor tower to lay down. If she wanted the epilogue, she should have actually shown info we didn't already basically know.

All in all, this was a very good conclusion to the saga. It's been a lot of fun. I would be very happy if JK Rowling writes another series in that same world - not about Harry and Ron and Hermione, but other new characters unrelated to them. I really, really love the world she created.

Psion by Joan D. Vinge

2007-07-15T17:02:00.000-06:00

I read this in high school and loved it, so I wanted to reread it to see if it was as good as I remembered (though I remembered nothing about it other than I loved it). The conclusion? It is indeed an excellent book.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2007-06-21T20:38:00.000-06:00

Chilling, terrifying, fascinating. A very good book. I desperately wanted to know what destroyed the planet, but can definitely see why the author left that out - it doesn't matter to the story. When it ended, I desperately wanted to know what happened next.

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan

2007-06-21T20:36:00.000-06:00

Mundane. Boring. It's a tale of a middle-age woman with two grown children. Her husband informs her that he's fallen in love with someone else and is leaving her. Two days later she is fired from her job, an event related to her husband leaving her, as they worked at the same company, and the woman he fell in love with was her assistant. (The book is set in London. If it were somewhere in the U.S., the firing would have been immediately followed by a lawsuit.) And then a couple days later her cat dies. She accepts it all and moves on. That's it. That's the entire story. I don't know where revenge comes into it.

I would give it a medium rating because I really like the author's use of language. It is very appealing. She is also good with characterization. If she can take her talent with language and characterization and find a good story somewhere in her mind, she could be very, very good. This tale, however, was dreadfully dull.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America by Chris Hedges

2007-06-02T08:48:00.000-06:00

Not very good. It was basically an anti-evangelical Christianity book. I’m not really a fan of evangelical Christianity, but this was seriously over the top. It wasn’t at all what I thought the book was about when I bought it.

One of his arguments was that evangelical Christianity was a cult because they befriend converts. No! The bastards!

Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo by Lawrence Anthony

2007-05-05T13:46:00.000-06:00

Excellent. I found out about Babylon's Ark from a story last weekend on CBS Sunday Morning about Mr. Anthony and what he did for the Baghdad Zoo, and I just had to read it. It is indeed a moving book. Paragraph to paragraph I was alternately horrified at the cruelty of humanity and moved to tears by the kindness of humanity.

It begins when Mr. Anthony is watching the U.S. bomb Baghdad before taking it. He owns and lives at a game preserve in South Africa, and man who loves animals, and knows that wartime is particularly cruel to animals in zoos, as they are completely abandoned to die horrible deaths from starvation or thirst. He knows he can't do much about the war, but he can - hopefully - help the animals. So with some outright lies, stretching of the truth, and luck, he manages to get to Baghdad just after the American troops. He gets to the zoo and finds it in worse shape than he expected. Nevertheless, he gets to work, doing all he can to save the animals that remain (most having been taken by looters for food or sale on the black market).

The time sequence in the book isn't clear - he discusses events at various places in time - but it seems like what he did takes a year or more. However, the whole thing, from the time he arrived in Baghdad until the zoo opened once again to the public with healthy animals, was a mere 4 months. It is amazing all that took place in those four months. Six weeks after the zoo opened, he returned home to South Africa, the zoo fully in the hands of the Iraqis.

In the final chapter of the book, the author steps out of the tale of his experience and onto a soapbox. Though I agree with much of his perspective (that we humans are currently poor stewards of the Earth), it was kind of annoying and I skimmed through that chapter rather than read it. Still, it is a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent book simply because it is easy to skip, and also because I feel hard-pressed to chastise him for taking the chance to rant on his soapbox after what he did and saw in Baghdad.

So definitely read this book.

Life of Pi By Yann Martel

2007-04-20T19:10:00.001-06:00

Very, very good. It started slow, and I actually wonder if it would be even stronger as a short story, but still I like it as a novel.

Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses: A Memoir By Paula McLain

2007-04-20T19:09:00.001-06:00

Very interesting, and also very sad. This is the true story of a girl and her two sisters, one older and one younger, who were abandoned by their parents. They lived with their grandmother for a short time, but then she turned them over to the state. They then grew up in foster families, where they were never really anything other than outsiders and sometimes abused. Only when they were adults did their mother come back into their lives, and they found out she’d remarried and had a whole other life without them, but they reconciled anyway.

This book was depressing because I ached that these girls did not have love from family growing up. They did have each other, though, and it seems that is the only way they emotionally survived.

Life: The Odds: And How to Improve Them By Gregory Baer

2007-04-20T19:06:00.000-06:00

An amusing simple read. It goes over the odds of things - good and bad - happening in your life, like marrying royalty or succeeding in starting a business or dying from various deaths. Around the middle, I started getting bored and skimmed over some of the chapters. Some of them were quite fascinating though.

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

2007-03-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Funny and enjoyable. I enjoyed his writings of his wanderings.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

2007-03-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Loved it. I do enjoy his books. This describes his attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail (he doesn't hike all of it, but he certainly hikes a large chunk). This book was fun to read.

Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology by Donna Jarrell and Ira Sukrungruang

2007-03-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

Meh. I had such high hopes for these fat/fat acceptance books, and they all came highly recommended, but none of them met my expectations. This one was no exception.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

2007-03-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Loved it! I love apocalyptic stories, though, so I'm an easy target for this book. Still, it was excellent.

Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb

2007-03-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Interesting.

Body Wars: Making Peace with Women's Bodies, an Activist's Guide by Margo Maine

2007-03-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

Meh. Didn't really do anything for me.

Stick Figure: A Personal Journey Through Anorexia and Bulimia by Christine Fontana

2007-03-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Pretty good. It was an interesting world to read about.

Bodies out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression by Jana Evans Braziel and Kathleen LeBesco

2007-03-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Meh. A couple of the essays were pretty good, but most were boring at best.

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman

2007-03-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Some hits, some misses. Overall a good read. I have yet to try his graphic novels (I know, I'm a bad fan), but his novels are more to my taste than his short stories. Still, there were some good ones.

Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

2007-03-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Interesting. So obvious (to others, anyway). Giving it a try.

The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank by David Plotz

2006-09-30T15:17:00.000-06:00

Very interesting. I'd read the author's articles on slate.com about the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and found them interesting, so when he wrote about his book I added it to my wish list. I never gave sperm banks much thought, so it was interesting reading about this particular twist on a world I knew nothing about. It was interesting to read about what happened to a few of the kids, and how they did when meeting the sperm donors, who were not Nobel Prize winners (no kids were born from the Nobel donors).

It was just... interesting.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

2006-09-09T19:42:00.000-06:00

Very interesting. Impressive for something as torturously dull as economics and statistics.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

2006-08-06T14:00:00.000-06:00

Eh. As children's stories they don't do a thing for me. I don't believe it's because I'm not the target audience. I love children's books. I love to hit the library or book store, settle into the children's section and start reading. It's fun and relaxing. But these two stories just don't do it for me as a children's story. The fact that I want to smack Alice because she's such a snotty little brat doesn't help.

As a satire on Victorian society, however, I found them amusing, though I only caught a few things. I'm thinking of finding an annotated copy to read, one which points out all of the satire that I'm totally missing.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

2006-07-28T06:53:00.000-06:00

Very good. This is now one of my favorites by him. It left me giggling multiple times. It a collection of short essays (usually around 3 pages) that he'd previously published in Britain individually. They are entertaining glimpses of American life as he rediscovers it after moving back to the U.S. after 20 years in England. Definitely recommended for enjoyable giggling and relaxing.

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

2006-07-16T18:33:00.001-06:00

Eh. It was decently entertaining, but it was also fairly annoying. I found particular annoyance in the "OMG! Science and religion are enemies!" thing going on throughout the book. Yes, very annoying. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. A number of friends who had read this and The Da Vinci Code told me this one was better. I definitely disagree. I thought The Da Vinci Code was much better. Also, I've never understood the Catholic freaking about The Da Vinci Code, but if I were Catholic, I think I'd find Angels & Demons quite offensive. I'm not Catholic, though, so I'm just a bit annoyed.

My Parents Married on a Dare by Carlfred Broderick

2006-07-16T18:33:00.000-06:00

Very good. An enjoyable collection of essays, many of which are more applicable to someone married, but even in my single state I liked those essays. Some essays are applicable to all, though.

Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy edited by Noel B. Reynolds

2006-07-16T18:27:00.000-06:00

Excellent. It is a collection of articles/essays by sevaral folks, and they are all quite enlightening. This should be a must-read introduction (or even beyond introduction) to study of the apostasy.

Creepy Susie : And 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children by Angus Oblong

2006-07-07T08:36:00.000-06:00

Short, disturbing picture book. I liked it :-).

A Case of Conscience by James Blish

2006-07-07T08:24:00.000-06:00

Hated it. Despite hating it, I finished it because I wanted to know what happened. But still, I hated it. The motivations for the actions of the characters are mostly a mystery, and the characters are incredibly unethical. And it just makes no sense.

For example, a group of four people are sent to a planet inhabited by intelligent, sentient lizards to find out if Earth should have some sort of permanent contact with them... or something. Basically it is a first contact group. Two of the men have strong feelings about what Earth should do, and the other two just join a side. One of the men is a Catholic priest as well as a biologist and linguist. He became more involved with the alien world and society than the others, mostly because the others had no interest in learning the alien language, and one guy was downright hostile toward the idea. And this is the first contact team?! How are they suppose to learn about culture without learning the language?! Anyway, the biologist/priest does. However, he learns that they are highly ethical creatures, but that they have no belief or even concept of God. This freaks the priest/biologist out, and his recommendation to Earth is that they have absolutely no contact with these people, ever, because clearly they were created by Satan. He seriously presents that the Earth. And he is taken seriously!

The other guy, one who was most hostile to learning the language, is even a step down. They discover that this planet has deposits that can be used for making nuclear weapons. His proposal is that they tear the planet apart to build weapons for the UN (there don't seem to be autonomous countries at this time; the UN is the big, planetwide ruler), and the aliens can be used as slave labor because they don't have any concept of money. He seriously proposes this! This is our first contact team? Psychotic and unethical?! And Earth decides to go for his proposal.

What the heck?!

After that the story goes downhill. They come back to Earth, and they bring an alien baby with them (he was a gift). The characters then do things, including the alien, but the reason for why they act is either never shown or doesn't make sense.

Bad story.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals : Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost

2006-07-07T08:16:00.000-06:00

Loved it. It was funny and interesting. And educational (it's nonfiction). For example, I now know that I have absolutely no interest in running away to a small equatorial atoll. However, it was a great read. It's about this guy and his girlfriend/fiance who go to live on the island(s) of Tarawa in Kiribati when his girlfriend gets a job with an international development group. He plans to write a great novel, but that never quite happens. It's very interesting to learn about that part of the world, and the author's style is fun and easy to read.

Wake Up, I'm Fat! by Camryn Manheim

2006-03-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Pretty good. It's a memoir of the actress's life up through when she won her Emmy for her work on The Practice. It was interesting to read of her struggles trying to make it as an actress in a subculture that values thinness and good looks above all else. She seems like a really interesting person.

The book, however, suffers mightily from punctuation errors - not the kind that could be dismissed as personal style or a way to create a tone (though there are those, and they really needed to be toned down a bit), but the kind that are just simply wrong. Did this book not go through an editor? If so, did the editor have the flu at the time? It was really annoying.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

2006-02-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

Brilliant. Another book from Neil Gaiman that I love. Love, love, love. I love how he intertwines a bizarre, fantasy world with our normal, modern world. It creates fascinating reading. In this book, a man named Charlie hears that his father has died. He flies from his home in London to Florida to attend the funeral, and from there everything goes weird. He finds out that his father was actually a god (a spider) (and might not really be dead, but he doesn't play a direct role in the novel, so he may as well be dead for our purposes as readers) and that he has a brother (sort of) who has his father's god-like abilities, which Charlie does not have. Sort of. Charlie invites his brother into his life, and Spider (his brother) makes a mess of Charlie's life and then Charlie has to figure out how to get rid of his brother. And then he has to figure out how to save his brother when Raven takes him. Great story. Great worlds.

Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn Mccrumb

2006-02-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

I have very mixed feelings about the book. I can't decide whether I like it or hate it. It's a clever premise. It is a murder mystery set at a science fiction convention. The title of the book (and it's a great title) is also the title of a book written by a minor author invited to the con; he is our protagonist. However, the author's agent/editor/girlfriend seems to be voice of this book's author, Sharon Mccrumb. And she's annoying.

And this is where my mixed feelings mostly come in. She seems to have a very cliche view of con-goers, incredibly judgemental about what losers they all are. The geeks are all superfically characterized. At the same time, I had to admit I'd met con-goers like those portrayed. Thus I was constantly bouncing back and forth between offense and laughter.

As for the tale itself, I liked the premise. It was a fairly interesting read (I don't normally read murder mysteries), and they way the killer was brought to light at the end (through a Dungeons and Dragons game) was a great idea. Unfortunately, the events at the very end of the game when the murderer is revealed led me to roll my eyes. I didn't buy it. I think that the suspension of disbelief was lost because of the weak characterization. We as readers had not been given a deep enough understanding of the murderer - or any of the characters, for that matter - to accept what was then told us about what he did and his motivation.

So... mixed feelings. Clever premise, fairly good read, but weak characterization, which damages the entire story.

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein

2006-02-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Good book. It's a tale about an actor who is hired to impersonate a politician who has been kidnapped. His kidnapping threatens the relationship between Earth and Mars because the Martians have an intensely ritualistic culture that makes it impossible to just not show up for an impending important ceremony, and this politician is expected to participate in this ceremony.

I had a hard time getting into this book. For the first half of the book, I thought it was quite dull and was disappointed. I just wasn't caring about the actor - actually, he was kind of annoying, and he wasn't supposed to be annoying. But then around the midpoint, I suddenly got really into the story and quite enjoyed the rest of it. The ending was predictable, but it was a good enough tale that I didn't mind.

Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel

2006-01-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

Painfully boring. I didn't finish it, and I generally don't write a review about books I don't finish, but I feel the need to warn people away from it. I kept thinking the story would have a point and get better, but finally gave up about midway through. It's about a guy who can't make decisions and just sort of stumbles through life. Plot? Who needs it. Interesting characters? Waste of brain power. Abundant profanity and vulgarity? Got it.

The few hours I spent reading it, thinking it would get better, have been pointlessly lost forever, and I'm bitter.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

2006-01-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

Pure fluff chick lit, but I liked it. It made me happy I have absolutely no connections to the fashion world, though. I read some reviews where the reader found it an annoying book because the narrator didn't realize how out-of-touch she was from reality, but I think I understood the narrator's perspective better than the perspectives of her friends and family and became annoyed with them for not getting how important this was to her. It was a fun read.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

2005-12-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

Since it's Christmas-time, I wanted to read something Christmas-y. I haven't read this book since I was a wee beastie, so I broke out the book Saturday. Yep, it's still a fun, good story.

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Bushman

2005-12-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Excellent.

History just isn't something that interests me, especially American history after the Revolutionary War (ancient Greece and Rome are much worse than American history and make me want to poke my eyes out with a spork, but Europe earlier than 1200 AD and Asian history are quite fascinating). Thus, Church history gets folded into the category of "boring" and I generally ignore it. But this book was such the hot item, I gave in and read it. I learned quite a bit from the book. Nothing was particularly shocking; I love studying LDS doctrine, and Church history gets sprinkled in when you study that. However, it provided more detail and context than I'd previously known.

Context is the thing Bushman is quite good with, and it makes all the difference. He provides a contextual interpretation of why Joseph did what he did and how he became who he was. He firmly places Joseph in the human category, and yet as believing readers, we see how he was a prophet despite his humanity. It's inspiring, actually, providing hope to us mere mortals who hope to be great (or even just kinda good and not a waste of carbon).

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

2005-10-20T12:44:00.000-06:00

Brilliant. This is a kids story, and I would have adored it when I was a kid, but I loved it as an adult, too. It's a short, easy read, as you would expect for a kids story. Like all of Neil Gaiman's books (he is one of my favorite authors, and I read this in my attempt to read everything he has written - I haven't quite been able to convince myself to read his graphic novels, though), this is a tale of an altered, bizarre, fantastic world just a heartbeat away from the world we know. In this case, a young girl finds her way into a duplicate world where the Other Mother has trapped her, some dead children, and her parents. It's a creepy story, and a lot of fun. I'd recommend it for kids and adults.

Plane Insanity by Elliott Hester

2005-10-17T12:58:00.000-06:00

Hahahahaha! That's what I thought of this book. Human beings are idiots. And as long as they are not idiots around me, idiots provide good laughter.

The author has been a flight attendant for the past 20 years (I think), and he has seen almost everything. There are, of course, tales of sex in the air, but there is a lot more that he goes into. It provided a few hours of laughter, so I enjoyed the book.

Candyfreak by Steve Almond

2005-10-17T12:54:00.000-06:00

Eh. The info about the candy world is actually quite interesting, and I enjoyed learning about the realm of candy makers. However, he takes far too many random diversions that have only the tiniest of connections to the theme of the book. Far, far too many. If he cut those out, it would be a greatly improved book. It would also no longer be a book, but that wouldn’t be a bad thing. With the harsh hand of a good editor, this would make an excellent long article in a magazine like Atlantic Monthly. Also, I find the very casual tone of voice kind of annoying. That tone isn’t entirely out of place considering the fact that this is a book about the author’s obsession with candy and his explorations of candy makers, which is not exactly a serious topic, but still the casual tone just seems to go too far.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

2005-09-03T13:42:00.000-06:00

Fascinating novel. It's a story told in the first person from the perspective of an autistic teenage boy. The story itself is interesting - he's investigating who killed his neighbor's dog and finds out a much more difficult secret and has to deal with what he learns - but it's also a fascinating character study in how someone with such different experiences thinks. Definitely recommended.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2005-08-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

Not bad. Not worth all the hype, but that's what I'd heard. Still, a fairly entertaining read, but the ending was less than satisfactory. There is no way this book could have lived up to its hype, so I tried to keep very low expectations. That's they only reason it was enjoyable at all. Foucault's Pendulum, a book with a similar theme, is much better.

I am baffled, though, why this book seems to be so popular in Mormon circles. I understand being drawn to the idea that Christ was married, as that idea is fair game within LDS theology, but there are so many other ideas in the book that are definitely contrary to LDS theology. As long as you read the book as fiction (which is how I take it) then there isn't a problem. Unfortunately, it seems that people (LDS or otherwise) are up in arms or all excited because they forget that it is a novel, not a history book. Weird.

But not a bad escape book for a few hours.