November 2014 Reading List

A varied bunch of books this month:

1. The Great Siege by Ernle Bradford
2. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
4. The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg
5. Waking Up by Sam Harris
6. Still With Me by Thierry Cohen (translated by Summer Robinson)

 The Great Siege was a great historical retelling of the siege that took place on Malta in the 16th century between the Turks and the Order of St John.  I know!  Who knew about this event, right?  And yet it is an incredible story about the underdog winning an impossible war against incredible odds.  This account was written well over 50 years ago but still seems as fresh as anything from today's historians.  An awesome read and totally recommended.

Who has been living under a rock (or maybe in a sewer?) and has not seen or heard the well known Phantom musical from Lloyd Webber.  But you might be forgiven for not having tackled the book upon which the musical is based.  I decided to give it a crack.  The story was written/published a little over a century ago and it's style is typical of stories written at the time.  Partly based on historical events Leroux wrote his book as if the entire thing were a true story and is recounted from the testimonies of some of the characters.  After completing it I was satisfied that Lloyd Webber did an ok job of converting the story into a romantic drama.  The movie version of the musical even more so.  But I will say the original story is just creepier and more disturbing than either retelling.  Measured up against today's standards however, it is a mere trifle.

Gone Girl on the other hand is what mystery and roller coaster rides are all about! I read this novel in preparation for seeing the movie (which I have not yet done as of yet).  Without revealing any spoilers in case you're one of the ten people on the planet yet to read the book or see the movie, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of the story.  The only aspect I was disappointed in was the ending.  Perhaps it was appropriate given the journey but I am interested to see how it is Hollywood-ified.  Don't tell me though!

Moonlight Palace was one of those impulse buys.  I like historical novels because I learn a little about another time and most often about another place too.  In this case its a coming-of-age story taking place in Singapore during the 1920s.  I found the historical stuff interesting but the rest was a bit predictable.  Just ok.

I have read all of Sam Harris' books and I really like his intelligent and unique observations on issues that the majority of us are conflicted about (or might never have considered!).  I have to admit I had no idea that Harris was an accomplished practitioner of meditative techniques.  So I was also surprised how linked his practice with the concept of spirituality.  Waking Up goes further and examines the whole understanding of self and consciousness, which are topics that Harris has explored before.  However, the integration of these concepts via meditation is something new.  As always Harris leaves me with plenty of substance for rumination.

I have to admit that Still With Me shook me up a lot.  Looking into the background of the book I understand that Cohen used the writing process to help him deal with the suicide of a friend.  The consequences of the protagonist's act get harder hitting as the book goes on.  It's a delicate subject and has had a lot of media attention recently.  So reading this book helped me examine how suicide affects those who are closest to it but being honest it is impossible to truly know unless you are directly impacted.  For that reason I think this book could easily polarize readers but I think the effort would be worthwhile.

October 2014 Reading List

A slow month, book-wise.  Where does time go sometimes?  Well, I did get started on a couple of substantially longer novels which should be in next month's list once I finish them.  Here's October's:

• Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots by Jessica Soffer
• The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
• Where She Went by Gayle Forman

I found Soffer's book enjoyable even if a little predictable.  For a story that revolves around a regional Iraqi recipe and cooking, I found the frequent use of food-related metaphors very clever.  The characters were well developed and had all endured their own tragedies.  However, the unfolding of how their lives were linked seemed to reveal too much too soon such that I couldn't believe the outcome was going to be where the story was headed.  But like I said, I still enjoyed it a great deal.

As I mentioned last month regarding Ship Breaker, I'd purchased Drowned Cities before realizing it was a sequel.  I need not have worried.  The only aspects of this story that were linked to the first novel were the character Tool and the post-Global-Warming future that Bacigalupi has imagined.  This novel is about war and the impact it has on this new paradigm -- especially on children and how they're used in conflicts.  The graphic nature of the narrative is all too real with our own times.  Bacigalupi is using the story to point back at ourselves and pitching the novel at a YA audience to hopefully effect change in the next generation's attitude towards the senseless loss of life we see today.  Although the story is easily accessible to a YA reader, they'd better have a strong stomach.

I had hoped to read War and Peace this year.  It now seems unlikely to happen.  So I gave myself the concession of reading Ivan Ilyich, as I had not heard of this novella by Tolstoy before.  Tolstoy begins at the end as Ivan Ilyich's contemporaries evaluate the man and then quickly moves into the life of the man as he moves forward to his end.  What struck me was Tolstoy's skill in describing Ivan Ilyich's suffering.  While Tolstoy does not mention cancer, it certainly seems as if that is the terminal illness involved.  What also took me by surprise is considering what it must've been like to have such an illness in those times where doctors could not peer inside a patient's body.  Instead we get a diagnosis like a "dislodged kidney" -- whoa.  A good if brief read.

My wife and I had another long road trip this month up to Northern California.  My wife wanted to learn what happened to Mia after she awoke from her coma in If I Stay.  So we got the audiobook version of Where She Went.  The beginning of the story is surprising given where Mia and Adam are at but once this is understood the rest of the plot is expected (hoped for?).  Given that expectation there is no doubt that Forman is a captivating writer and keeps the frustration level down while allowing the story to unfold.  Not totally my cup of tea but my wife was satisfied with the outcome.

September 2014 Reading List

I lost momentum this month. I blame the move to our new house. Tried to do most of the work myself. Boxing, driving, lifting, cleaning, unboxing -- ugh! Still, I did manage to get the following read:

1. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

2. The Gate Thief by Orson Scott Card

3. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

4. A Calculated Life by Anne Charnock

5. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Initially I got the sequel to Ship Breaker before I realized there was a #1 to the series. I'd read Windup Girl before and loved it but didn't realize this new book was YA fiction. Still, I'm beginning to realize what types of YA fiction I don't like and it wasn't far into Ship Breaker that I knew it was going to be enjoyable even if it was straightforward.  I like Bacigalupi's vision of a near-future where global warming has taken hold and sea levels have risen to wipe out much of the planet's land mass.  The gap between those with money (swanks) and those without is wider than ever before.  And this vision sets up a story between a rich girl and a dirt poor ship breaker boy.  I still have the sequel to read.

Talking of sequels, Gate Thief is the follow up to The Lost Gate that I read a little while ago.  Card takes the all-mythological-gods-are-related idea a few steps further by tying in Satan/Bel into the plot as the uber-bad guy that everyone was trying to stop in the first book.  He does a pretty good job setting this up but I have to admit that by the end of this second installment I wasn't feeling the despair that I should be this point.  Danny is down but not out and capricious Wad isn't likely to just run off without helping.  I like the stories Card creates but this one seemed a little over long in getting to the point.  Still I await what happens in book 3.

What an odd story Metamorphosis is!  We start out in the very first sentence with a matter of fact observation that our protagonist, Gregor, has become an insect overnight.  What happens between him and his family from that time and over the next few months is what Kafka explores.  Gregor is unable to communicate with his family.  Furthermore his appearance to his family fills them with increasing disgust.  The resulting alienation and eventual outcome is Kafka's metaphor for how people change -- growing up as well as dealing with social differences.  Literally the story is just weird but metaphorically it is much food for thought.

A Calculated Life also explores social differences.  A futuristic utopian society has engineered a class of humans with IQs off the charts to help in big business big data number crunching.  The key to having these hyper smart beings stay manageable is to deprive them of memories of growing up and to keep their immediate environment free from distractions.  As Jayna explores society outside this perfect control she asks more and more questions that make her behavior unpredictable.  Her growing self awareness takes her to an exciting conclusion.  Well that's the direction of the story.  In the process Charnock examines the ethics of such alteration and the growing gap between the haves and have nots.  Average.

I have a couple of books on my shelf by Lahiri and this was the first I tackled.  Its actually a collection of short stories about the cultural clash of Americans and Indians living in each place.  Lahiri draws on the pain of missing family and tradition when undertaking this journey to a foreign place.  The differences in culture basically jump out at you especially when children identify more with their new found home than from their parents' roots.  I find short story anthologies jarring with their rapid fire character changes so I look forward to reading a novel by Lahiri and see how such superb character developments unfold.

August 2014 Reading List

1. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
2. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
3. The Translator by Nina Schuyler
4. The Humans by Matt Haig
5. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
6. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
7. Journeys on the Silk Road byJoyce Morgan and Conrad Walters

There were times when I was reading Flamethrowers that I was reminded of The Family Fang with its almost ridiculous instances of artistic expression.  Perhaps in the 70s art was really like that but I couldn't avoid laughing out loud.  That being said, Kushner really knows how to turn a phrase.  Its as if the manner in which she describes a scene is her art and the images are both beautiful and poignant.  However, jumping from description to description does not a story make and while there is a great story here it feels like it is obscured by such artistic vistas.

I really didn't know what to expect as I started Salmon Fishing but it wasn't at all what I got.  The book starts in that typically British form of humor where events quickly spiral out of control in a comical way.  The story is told using written items like diary entries, transcripts, news headlines, etc which I think is always very clever.  I tore through the book quickly and enjoyed it a great deal.  I now want to watch the movie version and see if the producers preserved the near perfect ending.

Even though I finished Translator a couple of weeks ago, it is still resonating with me.  A middle aged woman who speaks many different languages loses her ability to speak anything other than Japanese after sustaining a head injury.  Feeling alienated at home she travels to Japan and learns much about herself while there. How she uncovers her failures in life though is done compassionately leaving room for amends to be made but not without the risk of failure.  I gained a new appreciation of the challenging work translators perform for us when we read works written in a different language from our own.  This book has finally given me the nudge I needed to start reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and translated by Jay Rubin.  I expect it is going to take a while.

Again when starting The Humans I wasn't sure what to expect. Haig handles his alien's description of life on earth with the kind of style I'd expect from Douglas Adams in the Hitchhiker series.  Laugh out loud funny at times and at others Haig finds a light hearted sensitivity to describe how his alien "goes native".  Very enjoyable and just the right length.

I've read other books by Gaiman and books he also recommends but all I can say about American Gods is just "wow!".  Similarly to Card's The Lost Gate, Gaiman decided to integrate all the gods throughout history into one storyline where the aforementioned deities have all found their way to life in America for one reason or another.  And the old gods are heading towards a war with the new gods of the modern age like media, music, big money, etc.  Caught in the middle is Shadow -- just an average guy a little down on his luck who is very important for some reason.  You can feel Gaiman's  first hand observations of places and people throughout his travels within the US but then there are times when I just wondered where he gets his ideas from for some parts of the story.  Utterly mesmerizing.  Footnote: American Gods is to be made into a tv series on Starz soon.

I had often heard that the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany's was a whitewashed version of Capote's story but I wanted to find out for myself.  I am so glad I did.  The original story is so much better than the movie.  For the time it was written it was so raw -- when society was just not ready for such a gritty take on the elements within our culture that no one spoke about.  This is my first time reading Capote and his use of metaphor is just so striking and skilled.  Masterful.

I have a fascination with books about the Silk Road -- mostly as a pet topic for a book I'd like to write myself one day.  But I had never heard of Aurel Stein, who in the early 1900s explored the area around the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts.  He was in a race to uncover artifacts that had captured the attention of other european explorers of the time.  Stein found a cache of scrolls that included the (still) oldest dated printed book known as The Diamond Sutra -- from 868 AD.  This excellent book covers his journeys as well as describing what became of Stein later on as well as his scrolls and the area as it exists in modern day China today.  I found it fascinating.

July 2014 Reading List

1. The Autobiography of Black Hawk by Black Hawk
2. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
3. Two Women of Galilee by Mary Rourke
4. The Master by Colm Toibin 
5. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I think I got Black Hawk at some point as a freebie and its sat on my shelf for a while.  This month I tackled it -- it being a quick read.  I had no idea who Black Hawk was or his story other than being somewhat aware that Chicago's hockey team bears his name as well as a type of helicopter also shares that honor.  And honor it is!  How striking it is to understand the difference between how the native people of this country (and others that were colonized around this time) and the oncoming onslaught of immigrants perceived the idea of land "ownership".  On one side land could not be "owned" by people and on the other here was a piece of paper that made it so.  Also surprising in this story was the peaceable manner in which Black Hawk protested the loss of his village lands by refusing to move -- a precursor to later protest methods over 100 years later.  Consider this reader now enlightened by who Black Hawk really was.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Forgotten Garden. I seem to recall that I might've watched parts of the movie some years ago, and on the strength of that I obtained the book recently when it was on sale.  The story itself is like peeling an onion layer by layer.  As one piece of the mystery is unraveled more mysteries are revealed and this process kept my attention and interest level up.  It is even more remarkable that the story takes shape following three different characters over three different historical periods: The early 1900s, the mid 1970s and in the current time (circa 2005). As a small piece of the puzzle is revealed in one period, the events in other periods inherit this as a "given" and reveal a bit more.  Very nicely done Kate!  I was unaware I was reading a novel because I was so absorbed in the story.

I have said before that I like to read about novels and non-fictional pieces around the time of Christ and so I picked up Two Women some time ago.  (I am making a concerted effort to read stuff that has languished on my book shelf for years).  This book is about some of the B-list characters from biblical times.  I enjoyed the contrasting of Roman and Hebrew lifestyles and getting a sense of what it must have been like to be living in your own home and ruled by a foreign power.  Essentially Rourke kept to script though, using biblical events to outline her story.  I thought there might be room for exploration of other ideas about that time along the lines that Saramago did in his work that I read recently.

The Master is my first read of a novel by Toibin and I am glad to say it won't be my last.  There is a line in an early part of the book where it is said "All the Irish are natural writers, my wife says, it comes naturally to them."  I put Mr Toibin in this category.  There are times this novel reads like a biography and times when you think it could be an autobiography.  I was convinced I was hearing the thoughts of Henry James.  The Master of psychological works is himself subject to a master of a psychological work.  Obviously this book is well researched and although I have not read any books by James, I will be in future.

Ok, ok -- I said I'd never read another YA novel -- ever!  My family and I just went on a road trip to Paso Robles and we wanted a book to listen to in the car.  My wife and daughter both wanted to listen to this book so I downloaded it from Audible real quick and off we went.  My faith in such novels has been somewhat restored.  I mean this story is still clearly aimed at teens but it is written with sensitivity and genuine feeling.  The first person narration doesn't get cloying like many other teen novels I've read.  I was moved in parts -- and not just during the soppy teen romance ones! My wife thought the ending was unfulfiling but I thought it was just fine.  However, she was very happy to learn that there is a sequel that tells us what happened to Adam and Mia.  Sigh.

June 2014 Reading List

I am late this month in getting this out -- books read this past June:

1. Wool (Omnibus Edition) by Hugh Howey
2. The Fracking King by James Browning
3. Misquoting Jesus by Bart D Ehrman
4. Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson
5. A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin
6. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

 When it comes to Wool, I was a little behind the 8 ball.  Howey self published his book and Amazon were offering it up really cheap to begin with.  But with new authors its really hard to know whether something is good or not.  Well it wasn't until this book was picked up by a publisher that I thought there must be something to it.  So with that said I have to admit that Wool is fantastic!  From the end of the first short "book" I was stunned and hooked.  I devoured the rest as quickly as time permitted me.  The silo world that Howey creates is unique and a fresh spin on the usual apocalyptic genre.  I will be reading more by him in future including some of the other books about the Silo.

The Fracking King was a quick read bringing together two subjects that I would never have guessed at -- scrabble and fracking.  There's plenty to learn about both and so this novel has a good message to bring to the fore.  But I found myself getting lost at times in the narrative and just wanted to get to the end.

I've written before about my fascination with how Christianity came about from an historical perspective.  Ehrman is one of my favorite authors in this area and Misquoting is, I think, an essential book to read to understand how historical researchers establish their findings from ancient manuscripts.  It is amazing to learn how the modern Bible came about and surprising at how the faithful take for granted so many mistakes as truth.  I respect all people's faiths but I think that anyone that takes this type of research seriously, even Christians, will challenge their faith as Ehrman did and come to some unsettling conclusions.

With the release of Wilson's second robot apocalypse novel I decided it was probably time I read the first one.  The premise started off well but I quickly became disappointed with learning how the story was going to unfold.  I couldn't help but think that the mostly first person narrative was a little melodramatic.  That perhaps I was visualizing a video game where your objective was to be the various characters and take out Archos.  I removed the second book in the series from my wishlist.

What can be said about Game of Thrones that hasn't already been said?  I've been chugging through Dance for several months now (I always read more than one book at a time) and this month I finally finished it.  When I first started it I had no idea it was contemporaneous with Book 4 so I was confused until I read online about it -- then all made sense.  I enjoyed Book 5 so much more than 4 though and am anxious to get on with Book 6 now.  I read recently that HBO plans to finish the Series with 3 more seasons.  That means that they must cover Books 4 and 5 and two more unpublished books to do so.  Obviously that will be without the last two books coming out first.  This explains much of what I observed in Season 4 where aspects of the plot were coming forward in time, out of sequence with the other pieces of Book 3's plot.  I therefore now have different expectations of the tv series than the books but still enjoy both.

I was after a few quick reads this month and Reluctant Fundamentalist was in my sights.  Especially since a movie version was released recently and I was interested to watch it.  I didn't know quite what expect but this story was not it. Especially the ending. I thought the protagonist was overly hung up on his girlfriend but perhaps his nationalistic pride would come out in any of us. The end though was out of sorts with the deeds. So it was just ok for me.

May 2014 Reading List

A very mixed bag of books read in May:

1. The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
2. Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
3. Divergent by Veronica Roth
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
5. TheWatchers by Stephen Alford

It seems to me that Quick is mining gold by writing about quirky characters that somehow don't fit within our nice definitions of "normal".  I had read The Silver Linings Playbook just before I saw the movie and enjoyed the book much better and so when Good Luck was released I went for it.  ( I see that a movie is to be made of this book as well).  While the main protagonist, Bartholomew, instantly endears himself to the reader via his naive review of his circumstances, it was Max that really held my attention.  I just loved his potty mouthed and creative use of the F bomb in every sentence he utters.  Fold in a road trip to Canada with the four misfits of the story and you have the makings of a tale that while straightforward is also funny, heart warming, and a little zany.

Pathfinder is basically formulaic Card stuff.  Take a kid coming of age and put him in a situation where he has to uncover for himself some unusual powers he possesses.  Off the top of my head I can think of Alvin, Ender, Gate Thief and Homecoming where this same premise is used so it is getting a little tired.  As always Card creates interesting locations and sci-fi ideas (in this case combining quantum physics and time travel to effect) to weave into the stories.  I'll continue with the series' next book but I will be becoming more selective of Card's newer work in future.

Against my better judgment I picked up Divergent to read in advance of watching the much-hyped movie.  Unlike Mortal Instruments I felt that the Divergent series had a chance of taking on the Hunger Games for supremacy.  During my readings last year, the only YA novel I read that I truly enjoyed was The Fault in Our Stars.  All the other drivel with coming-of-age female protagonists that I read got me so p***ed off that during the last YA novel I read I had to put the damn book down after getting about halfway in -- which is something I hardly ever do.  At times I felt like doing that with this book.  But I persevered.  The combination of first person narration and sentences that start with "I did this" or "I felt that" just grate against my soul.  The only thing that kept me going was the anticipation of learning what the Erudite were planning.  I will watch the movie now and if it is lucky enough to be made into a further two movies then I will be spared from having to read the other two books in the series.  And I think I have (finally) learned my lesson.

So from YA to Children's fiction -- huh?  Well the story of Oz is one I never knew as a child.  I never saw the movie until a few years ago.  I have never really liked the musical movies from that era (e.g. The Sound of Music -- I know, I know, I am pagan!).  Having recently watched Saving Mr Banks my curiosity was piqued about the true nature of some of these stories when compared to the syrupy movies that we made about them.  What surprised me about Oz is just how much STORY there is in the book that never makes it onto the screen.  Sure this is a kid's story but what it must've been like for children over 100 years ago to read this book!  Blessedly the tale is short but I feel so much better now for having discovered the real Land of Oz.

Elizabeth I's reign is usually seen as a form of "Golden Age" when England prospered and grew as a nation.  In The Watchers the reader gets a glimpse of what life must've really been like within Liz's court -- i.e. nerve-wracking.  The term "watcher" refers to a spy and I was intrigued by the notion that Liz's reign needed to resort to espionage.  Apparently the Pope had declared her a heretic because of her stand on protestantism and the rest of catholic Europe wanted her dead and gone.  Elizabeth's spies thwarted a number of plots against her and she narrowly escaped defeat from a Spanish invasion in 1588.  Great stuff!  The historical records that still remain over 400 years later is phenomenal and reading history from this perspective was not only enlightening but also thrilling.  You couldn't make this stuff up!

April 2014 Reading List

Here's what I finished reading this month:

1. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
2. Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani
3. Earth Abides by  George R Stewart
4. Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho 
5. The Circle by Dave Eggers

I guess I expected something different from Gospel.  I expected a rational account of the life of the man.  Instead, and I in hindsight I feel appropriately, that what I got was a version of the story the man himself might've written to set the record straight.  Saramago's writing is simple and beautiful.  The story seemed more cohesive than the actual gospels.  However, what made the reading more challenging was that there was no punctuation like question marks or quotation marks.  I assume that this was to make the narrative more like other books in the New Testament.  While the din has probably died down now for the 20 years this book has been around, it still packs a punch.

For Children, again my expectations were not met but in a different way.  I was expecting something like Hosseni's And the Mountains Echoed but I was disappointed.  While the story was similarly arranged and dealt with a similar topic and region, the end result was not as good.  I found the characters to all be very similar.  The narrative seemed to shift from person to person rather than sitting clearly with the protagonist.  I frequently got lost or my mind drifted until I encountered a poignant phrase that would jar my attention back again.  So the potential was there but by the end I was just relieved it was done.

Written in 1949, it could be argued that Stewart created the original post-apocalyptic novel in Earth Abides.  He clearly gave a lot of thought to what it would be like to be the only person left alive in a world where humans had essentially disappeared -- a Robinson Crusoe of America.  However once others coalesce around Ish, the protagonist, the central theme of the book becomes: How can one impart their intelligence and civilization to descendants and put off a descent into barbarism?  The title should provide a clue.  But I couldn't help thinking for myself how I would perpetuate my thoughts and experiences to those I leave behind.  I guess we all struggle with this "meaning of life" quandary.  This book is not so much an action-thriller as it is a philosophical musing that could easily become all too real.  Very well written.

I had to look up whether Manuscript Found in Accra was based on something real or whether it was a work of fiction.  Turns out it is the latter.  But that is how good the little book of "wisdom" is.  Given this is out of Coelho's head, it is clear he has a lot of stuff on his mind that he wants to leave us with.  It reads like a book out of the Bible -- perhaps like David or Solomon would've written.  While it doesn't take long to read per se, it is dense with philosophically good advice.  It would take time to absorb it all -- and probably many, many reads.  I'll be going back to it in the future to spend more time with it.

No doubt people have already written more about The Circle than I can observe here.  I was wary of reading another book by Eggers since I really didn't enjoy A Hologram for the King that much.  But the notion of seeing what he had to say on the issues around the evolution of social networking and the effect that has had on our privacy as a society -- well, I couldn't resist.  And I'm glad I did read it.  The unfolding of the story gave me the creeps.  I discussed some of what Mae (the protagonist) was adjusting to, with my wife.  She didn't think it was a big deal where I was horrified.  This tells me that those of us that have issues with the erosion of our privacy from the likes of Google and Facebook, are numbered as a minority.  And this is one of the major points Eggers seems to be making.  Sure the plot is a little flimsy in parts and some of the characters seem a little shallow but top marks for making us think consciously about what we're doing each time we put ourselves "out there".

March 2014 Reading List

March was mostly a non-fiction reading month for me.  Still catching up a significant number of unread books from previous years.  Only four completed:

1. Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
2. The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
4. The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant

I must emphasize that Weiner is not one of my regular sorts of authors.  But my wife and I listen to audiobooks while traveling in the car and this one was her choice.  I have to say though that I enjoyed this one a bit more than others we have "read" by Weiner.  That doesn't mean I'll be tackling any books in this genre by myself -- lets get that clear!

Onto the first of the non-fictions.  The Shallows covered a lot of the same ground as Moonwalking with Einstein when it came to describing how our brains work.  But what is new is the convincing argument that Carr makes to substantiate how the Internet is making it harder for us to maintain a deep extended focus on tasks.  Definitely will change my habits and give me something to encourage my family to change in their lifestyles too.

I recently found Henrietta Lacks on the Amazon 100 Books to Read in Your Lifetime and I had it in my unread library so figured I needed to do something about reading it.  I'm glad I did.  Skloot does a great job of not only telling us why Henrietta's cells are immortal but also immortalizes her family too.  And that seems way overdue!  The afterword is particularly poignant and really digs into the ethical issues about tissue culturing today.  It is by no means cut and dried and you'll be surprised how strongly you will react to these issues after completing this book.

I can't believe the Story of Philosophy was written in the 1920s.  It doesn't read as if the book were nearly 100 years old.  I have often wanted to get a good coverage of the lines of thought of key philosophers like Kant and Spinoza and this book does them justice.  Even if you don't have much interest in philosophy this is still an interesting read.  What gave me chills was how some of the ideas expressed in Nietzsche's Zarathustra became horribly twisted by the Nazis into party doctrine.  I have made a reading list of some of these guys to look into further.  Definitely NOT Kant though!

February 2014 Reading List

Started more books this month than I ended up finishing.  Have been focused on reading ones that have been on my shelf for longer than they should have:

1. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
2. Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
3. The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar
4. Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson
5. The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

The Kitchen House is a Southern slavery tragedy with a slightly new twist whereby an irish immigrant, orphan girl is thrown into the mix.  As the girl grows up and serves out her indenture the tension increases as she finds herself between two distinct worlds.  It was ok in my opinion -- just ok.

Shadow of Night is the second in a series.  In this outing the couple (witch and vampire) travel back to Elizabethan England to uncover Diana's latent talents.  I really don't like romances which is a key element of this story but I am distracted enough by the complexity of play between the different creatures and the weaving of history into the plot to really enjoy it.  The system of magic that Harkness creates is also very rich and complex that I can totally forget about the lovey dovey stuff.  If you like Outlander by Gabaldon then Shadow is in the same neighborhood.

I very much enjoyed Barbarian Nurseries.  Not so much for it's depiction of a couple going through relationship problems and the effect this has on their housekeeper but more for its slice-of-life description of Southern Californian society and the forces that shape it right now.  Tobar has a technical grasp of language that reminds me of how I would describe something.  His use of wry understatement has to make you laugh out loud sometimes.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Alif.  On the one hand it tells a story that is fresh to westerners like me because it is based in a type of society that I am not very familiar with -- and of course the idea of the Jinn -- and I liked that.  But on the other hand if the subject matter was more familiar to me I might think this story to be overly simplistic.  It took me a while to complete this story which overall tells me that it was just ok.

Having not grown up in the US, I completely missed out on what many high schoolers experience as a rite of passage to read Catcher.  So I addressed this shortcoming by tackling it this month.  I have read that this book is controversial and certainly it must've been when it was released.  But now anyone that reads it for the first time like me has to wonder what the fuss was all about.  Societal attitudes (for most of us anyway) have changed in the past 60 years such that the shock value is not there.  What remains is a very unique narrative style (to me anyway) and reminder of what we have had to deal with as norms have changed.  I am sure that a modern day Holden could still shock us but that would need a rewrite.

January 2014 Readling List

Happy New Year! Even though I have no set goal for numbers of books to read in 2014, I still want to record what I have read and impressions of those books.  With that being said the following books are what I completed this past month:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling
2. The Seventh Day by Scott Shepherd
3. Revelations by Elaine Pagels
4. The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
5. The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck
6. The Zero by Jess Walter

Finally finished the Harry Potter series.  Haven't finished watching the movies yet but I almost think they couldn't capture the pictures in my mind.  I do have to admit though that Part 1 so far has kept pretty close to the book.  Definitely glad I read the books though.  I even did a QuizUp challenge based on the books and did ok!

With Seventh Day I had no idea what to expect.  A pirate ship floating across the land?  That's weird (and never really got explained).  By the end I was pretty much hooked and I'll be looking for the sequel(s).  It was written as a serial so Shepherd had no way to go back and revise previous portions of the story.  That being said it is still pretty cohesive.

I'm a sucker for debunking history as we understand it and especially history twisted by religious institutions.  So if you're up for that then you'd love this non fictional account of the true purpose of the Book of Revelation.  Not my first by Pagels and certainly won't be my last.

I really enjoyed Lost Gate and already have Gate Thief on my virtual shelf.  Classic Card stuff.  He weaves together many of the magical histories of different cultures into one framework and then extends it across planets.  Perhaps not as good as Alvin or Ender but still very enjoyable.

The Good Earth is practically a classic.  I enjoyed it as the writing was solid and intelligent.  However it read as a "story" in the traditional sense of how a storyteller might relay it and I found that a little distracting at times.  This book was followed by two sequels but you get the sense at the end of Good Earth that the story is done.  I am with it anyway.

If you enjoyed Beautiful Ruins then leave it at that.  The Zero is nothing like that.  Don't get me wrong -- it's a clever story but I should've been paying attention to what other folks have said about it.  The protagonist has "gaps in his memory" which relates to gaps in the narrative which I think detract from the flow.  I got lost so often I despaired of ever finishing.  At the end I almost felt let down but I do have to give Walter credit where its due -- he has a masterful skill but I don't think this use of that skill is universally received.

December Booklist

We've reached the end of the year and the final tally was 107 books.  I added only 6 books to the total this month and I think the reasons for this were: (a) I got some kind of weird knee injury that put a hold on my running; (b) the holidays meant there were other distractions going on; and (c) there was a pressing work need forcing me to work longer hours than I normally would.  But all in all I am very happy with meeting my goal this year.  The 6 books I completed in December were:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling
2. 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
3. Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz
4. Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
5. Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey
6. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Now that I have caught up in books where I'd gotten to with the films I am very excited to complete the Harry Potter series!  And it all makes so much more sense to me now!

22 Britannia Road is a good read about a Polish couple who come together after again in 1946 after being split apart by the events of WWII.  Their different experiences of survival are what get in the way of picking up where they left off.  Well written story but just a little predictable.

I've been following along the Odd Thomas series from the beginning and Apocalypse is the 5th in the series (there's #6 out already).  I am getting a bit tired of the formula though.  Odd's narrative is always amusing and entertaining but unless events are going to come to some kind of completion in #6 I won't bother going any further.

I loved Await Your Reply.  Such an interesting topic to select to write about.  The book explores the psychological impact on different personalities as they undergo a conscious decision to reinvent themselves (or the impact of knowing someone who has disappeared in this way).  Not until the end do we learn how three seemingly different stories are linked together.  Great book that I would recommend.

Same too with Too Bright (i.e. I loved it).  I kept thinking about this story long after I completed it.  We follow the narrator's experience with his descent into and out of a severe bipolar disorder.  The way the story unfolds is every bit as fragmented as his loss and recovery of memories as treatment for the disorder ensues.

My daughter had to read Watching God for high school.  I picked it up this month out of curiosity.  Although the story is straightforward as events unfold I loved the parts of the story where the dialog has stopped and the characters contemplate.  The prose is just beautiful as the name of the book suggests.  I enjoyed stopping and thinking about the imagery of those words when the book was in this mode.

>>>>>>>>>>

I've decided to continue keeping a monthly summary of my readings going forward -- even though I have no set goal in mind for 2014.  If nothing else, its a record of what I've read and impressions that I have.  Some friends ask for recommendations on what to read based on my thoughts so if nothing else this blog might help others.