| Year 4, Book 48 |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|04:17 pm] |
48. Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States by Kristin Celello
This book is definitely not for anyone who is not a big sociology dork like I am (or unless they have to read it for a class or use it for research). The book is based on the author's dissertation and basically follows the institution of marriage and the roles expected to be held by each partner in the marriage through the 20th century. I enjoyed it, but as I said it is not for the average reader. I give it a 6 out of 10.
As an aside while reading the acknowledgments I discovered that the author is a fellow Wake Forest alumni. I didn't know her, but apparently she graduated 2 years earlier than I did, so we were there at the same time for a few years. Just a fun little piece of trivia there for you. |
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| Year 4, Book 47 |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|04:05 pm] |
47. Squint: My Journey with Leprosy by Jose P. Ramirez
This book was sort of interesting, sort of informative, and sort of frustrating all at the same time. I had two big issues with the book. First, I don't think it was written very well. The narrative is rather dry even when the author is describing very emotional things. It was a lot of this happened, then this happened kind of writing. That may partially be as a result of English not being the author's first language (or at least I assume it isn't based on the story). My second criticism can only partially be blamed on the book. Like most Americans my knowledge of leprosy is pretty much limited to stuff from the Bible and the movie Ben Hur. Obviously not the most factual, or up-to-date information. The author continuously points out how wrong people are about leprosy and how hurtful it is to be stigmatized and called a leper, but I never really felt like he gave much information to combat it in the book. There is a FAQ section about leprosy at the back of the book, but it was kind of annoying to have to wait to get to that section to have some of my questions answered. Although some of them still remain unanswered because they just are. For instance no one really knows for sure how people catch leprosy.
I learned a lot about the effects of the disease reading the book, but despite the author's best efforts he did not eradicate my fears about leprosy (not that I really think about leprosy all that much), but if I ran into someone who had it I would be afraid. He says that only 3% of people are even capable of catching the bacillus responsible, but if you don't know if you are one of that 3% it's kind of scary because trust me after reading about what he went through I would never want to take the chance.
I rate the book 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 46 |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|03:29 pm] |
46. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Pollan wrote this book in response to all the questions he received about what people should eat after writing The Omnivore's Dilemma. His basic tenet is "Eat food. Not too much. And mostly plants.", and by food he does not mean the processed crap that lines most of the shelves of our grocery stores these days. He basically discusses the history of nutritionism and how the Western Diet is bad for us. He uses all this information to conclude that a healthy diet is about eating whole foods and whole cuisines not picking and choosing nutrients or particular food groups as the villain or the savior of healthy eating because as is evidenced by the fact that Americans have been doing this for decades we are now fatter than ever. None of it was rocket science to me, but obviously a lot of Americans could stand to read this book. I give it an 8 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 45 |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|03:16 pm] |
45. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
It seems like for the past several months no matter what books I put on my wish list at Amazon it told me I should be reading this book, so I finally broke down and read it. The story takes place right after the end of WWII, and is told completely in the form of letters written back and forth between the characters. A writer/journalist named Juliet is contacted by a man named Dawsey living in Guernsey to help him find more books by and about Charles Lamb to read for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which sets off a correspondence between Juliet and the other members of society. I found the book to be a good, quick read for the most part. I have to say that I didn't so much buy the love story between the Juliet and Dawsey I think partly because I didn't actually realize Dawsey was a man until a decent ways in to the book and second because he is painted a character with such a quiet manner that he's barely present. Thus although I could see that was where the story was headed I never really bought it. Also I felt the end was kind of hokey compared to the rest of the story. After reading the Acknowledgments at the end of the book I realize the change in tone of the story is most likely due to the fact that the book was finished by the niece of the main author after she became to ill to finish it on her own. It is a quick, fun read though and I'm sure one day it will be made into a movie because it just felt like it was a perfect fit for a romantic comedy. I give it 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 44 |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|03:08 pm] |
44. Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl by Susan Campbell
I picked this book up from the new book section at work to read while I was waiting on some books I had requested from another library to arrive. The author describes her upbringing in a church of Christ while elaborating on her eventual rejection of the church because of her feminist leanings. I enjoyed some parts of the book, but not the book as a whole for the most part. It didn't feel very cohesive to me as she jumped back and forth in time somewhat and inserted stuff about feminism and feminist history in-between stories from her life. I was amused by some of the stuff from her childhood because having attended churches of Christ from between the ages of 12 to 18 I could relate to a lot of the stuff she was talking about. Although none of the churches I attended were as fundamentalist as the one she attended. I got bored by her feminist rants though. I give the book 4 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 43 |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|12:58 pm] |
43. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The premise of this book is rather horrible. It takes place in France partially during WWII and partially during the early 2000's. On July 16, 1942 during an incident referred to as Vel d'Hiv the French police rounded up almost 13,000 Jews many of whom were women and children. Most were eventually sent on to extermination camps. The part that takes place during WWII involves a Jewish family who is taken away. Trying to keep her little brother safe and not realizing that they would not be able to return to their apartment, Sarah locks her brother in a hidden cabinet and takes the key with her when the police round up her family. The part that occurs during the more present times involves an American journalist (Julia) living in Paris with her French husband and daughter. She is reporting on the 60th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv incident and during her research finds out that the apartment her husband is renovating that belonged to his grandmother was previously lived in by a Jewish family, who obviously turns out to be the family whose story is being told in the other half of the book. She is determined to find out what happened to that family and to unearth whatever secret she feels surrounds them and their relation to her husband's family. The first half to 2/3 of the book has the two stories being told in alternating chapters. After that Sarah's story at least from her perspective just ends, and the rest of the book is told purely from the perspective of Julia. I thought the story lost something at this point. I was expecting Sarah's story to continue following her life as she had to live with the knowledge that she effectively killed her brother. I also thought the ending of the book was rather cheesy and it was very obvious what was going to happen so I don't know why the author insisted on trying to make it suspenseful through the last 3 or 4 chapters with some big reveal at the end. It was a good book, and I would recommend it, but I think the last 1/3 of the book had greater potential than how it was ultimately written. I give it 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 42 |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|12:53 pm] |
42. Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox
Since I enjoyed his more recent book Looking Up, I decided I would go back and read Fox's first book. This one has a bit more of a memoirish feeling to it than Looking Up. Lucky Man very much follows Fox through his life from childhood up to the point the book is written. He talks about his childhood, how he wound up as an actor, his experiences as an actor, his diagnosis of Parkinson's, his issues with alcohol, his family, etc. It eventually ends with him coming to terms with his Parkinson's and viewing it in a positive light, hence the fact that he is a "Lucky Man". It was an enjoyable read. I give it 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 41 |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|01:04 pm] |
41. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
I picked up this book because it was showing up on all kinds of the best books of the year lists at the end of last year. Apparently all these critics and I do not share the same taste in books. This it seems is the year for me to wind up reading books that drive me insane with an incomprehensible plot that doesn't even bother to tie up in the end. I feel like I should have been reading this for one of my book clubs because it seems like we've had a knack for picking those, however in this case it was own bad choice.
The plot of this book was just plain weird. The main character, a psychiatrist, comes home to find a woman who looks and acts like his wife but for some reason he has determined she is an impostor pretending to be his wife. We never really get a good explanation for why this is other than the fact that she is ambivalent towards dogs, yet she has brought a dog home. He also has a patient who believes he can control the weather and is disappears to go on assignments given to him by some meteorological society. The psychiatrist and his wife (before she gets replaced by the supposed doppelganger) cook up some scheme whereby he pretends to be involved in the society and she phones him during his sessions with the patient and pretends to be some higher-up instructing him to tell his patient to stay put and deal with local weather issues. After the disappearance of his wife, the psychiatrist decides that it is somehow related to the society and his patient, who has also disappeared again. He then winds up in contact somehow with the person his wife was pretending to be, only you later find out that the guy actually died a long time ago, but there is never any explanation of who he was in contact with then or if he imagined the whole thing. It was completely bizarre and as I said it never wraps anything up. I just don't get the point of writing things like that. It is not satisfying to read at all. I give this book 3 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 40 |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|12:56 pm] |
40. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang
This book was not really what I expected. The author of the book spent several years interviewing and creating relationships (or at least trying to as it was hard to keep in contact with many of the girls as they were constantly moving and changing jobs) with girls working in factories in the Dongguan area of China. I expected the book to concentrate on the horrid working and living conditions of the girls, but it didn't. It did mention those things to a degree, but they were really ancillary to the story. She really used the stories of the girls she met to construct a cultural story about how things have changed in China from the older, rural generations to this new, independent younger generation. She also interweaves the history of her family in the story, which fell rather flat for me. I found most of the chapters that concentrated on her family's experience in China to be boring. I did enjoy the rest of the book though, and found it gave me a completely different perspective on the factory workers in China. At just over 400 pages it looks like a lengthy book, but the print is large and I got through it much quicker than I was anticipating. I give it a 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 39 |
[May. 26th, 2009|02:43 pm] |
39. At Wakes and Weddings by Alice McDermott
I really enjoyed Charming Billy, so I quickly picked up another book by Alice McDermott. Unfortunately At Wakes and Weddings was not nearly as good. I had a really hard time following what was going on in this book. McDermott apparently has issues with using way too many prepositions, which I am surprised her editor hasn't pointed out to her. I thought the same thing when reading Charming Billy, but had less of a problem following it. This time there were way too many hes and shes for me to figure out who was even being talked about half the time. The story is sort of about 3 generations of an Irish family living in New York. The oldest generation is really just the stepmother/aunt of the second generation. Their real mother and father who both died early in their childhood aren't really part of the story. The original mother and father had 4 daughters and then the father had one son with his wife's sister how he marries after his first wife's death. Three of the 4 daughters live with their stepmother "Momma" even though they are well into adulthood. It never really made sense to me why. There were veiled allusions to something being wrong with the youngest, but I could never figure out what. One of the others was a nun, but then got kicked out, again it was not really clear why. And the one who actually doesn't live there anymore is the mother of the third generation her son and 2 daughters. She drags them to the house where her stepmother and sisters live several times a week to complain about her marriage. I didn't really follow this story much if there even was one. I couldn't figure out the point of anything and the way it kept jumping back and forth in time coupled with all the pronouns made it even harder to figure out if there was something really going on. If you're going to read something by Alice McDermott I wouldn't recommend this book. I give it a 4 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 38 |
[May. 26th, 2009|02:34 pm] |
38. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox's newest memoir. It basically recounts his life since he opened up publicly about his Parkinson's disease, specifically focusing on how he became involved in actively looking for a cure and the fight for the use of stem cell therapies. It found it to be a good read and a good reminder about looking on the bright side of life. I give it a 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 37 |
[May. 19th, 2009|03:59 pm] |
37. Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
For the first time in awhile this book wasn't for one of my book clubs. It's too bad because as soon as I finished it, I really wanted to talk about it with someone. Alice McDermott did a reading at the library where I work about a month ago. She read a short story that is soon to be published. I really liked it and since I normally am not a fan of short stories, I decided it was high time I checked out some of her novels. I started with Charming Billy because it is probably her most well-known. The story starts at Billy's funeral and then weaves back and forth through time with telling of Billy's life from the time he returned from WWII until his death from alcoholism. Part of the story are told by people attending the funeral who reminisce about Billy and others are narrated by the daughter of Billy's cousin Dennis. The parts narrated by the daughter threw me sometimes because it wasn't always obvious that she was narrating and then it was hard to figure out who some of the pronouns were referring to. Although that was a bit awkward at times, it didn't detract much from the narrative for me. After hearing McDermott read some of her work in person I could really hear her voice in this book. I found it to be beautifully written and very lyrical. And some of the descriptions of mundane things enriched it for me, instead of seeming superfluous as things like that can do at the hands of lesser writer. Ultimately I viewed the book as asking the question whether we are destined to be what we become or if things might have been different if circumstances had been different. That was what I really wanted to discuss when I was done with the book. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes character based literary fiction. I give it a 9 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 36 |
[May. 12th, 2009|11:32 am] |
36. Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion
As with the last two books I read, this book is also for one of my book clubs. It was a nice change of pace from the last two books, one of which I hated and the other which although I liked was very heavy subject matter. This book was nice and light and fun. The story chronicles the year long bus trip the author and her husband Tim took driving around the country. It's half memoir, half travelogue. It was an enjoyable, amusing read. I give it 8 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 35 |
[May. 8th, 2009|03:19 pm] |
35. Song Yet Sung by James McBride
This book is the May selection for my other book club. Thankfully it was much better than Servant of the Bones. It incidentally is also this years One Maryland, One Book selection. The book takes place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during the times of slavery, although I don't believe we ever get any exact dates. Harriet Tubman is referred to, so it would be at the same time she is freeing slaves. The story revolves around Liz, a slave who everyone refers to as the Dreamer as she has dreams that foretell the distant future (i.e. she dreams about life in modern times). There are a whole lot of other characters including other slaves, slave owners, and slave catchers who all interact throughout the story. I thought it was a good book with some interesting ideas about what constitutes freedom. I'm looking forward to discussing it. I give it a 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 34 |
[May. 5th, 2009|04:04 pm] |
34. Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice
I have never been so happy to finish a book in my life. Ok that's probably not true. In fact I think The School on Heart's Content Road was probably worse. I only read this book because it is for one of my book clubs. For this book club whoever is hosting gets to choose the book. The person hosting May's book club is a sci-fi/fantasy fan, which is so not my genre at all. She offered us 3 choices of books and this seemed the most mainstream, so it got the most votes. I sincerely wish I had voted for something else. It's not just that this book wasn't my cup of tea, it was that it was extremely boring and very long at almost 400 pages. I don't even have the heart to recap the plot of this book. I'm sure you can find a summary of it somewhere if you want. We'll see if anyone else in my book club found it more engaging than I did. I give it a 1 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 33 |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|04:19 pm] |
33. Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss
Seriously this a book all about punctuation. If you've never heard of it, it was wildly popular for some reason right after it came out, which was when I was working at Barnes and Noble. I always meant to read it to find out what all the fuss was about because who knew a book about punctuation would be so popular. I for some reason never read it, but finally decided to pick it up while I was waiting for the books for my 2 book clubs to come into the public library. Since it's a short book I figured I could finish it in a few days and be ready to start on my other books when they arrived.
I did enjoy the book, but because I'm a dork like that. It's something that might appeal to me even if it hadn't been such a bestseller. It is a witty little book with some humor and a writing style that doesn't make punctuation a dry subject matter. However, I have to wonder how many of the copies of this book that were sold were actually read. First of all it turns out it's written by a British author and isn't even about American punctuation, but British punctuation, which is mostly the same but not completely. I didn't know that before I read it. And secondly, I'm betting a lot of people picked up the book because it was being talked about so much and then sat down to read it only to discover that "oh man" this really is about punctuation, and then never finished it. If you're into that kind of thing I'd recommend it. If you don't care, and don't find humor in punctuation mishaps then skip it. I give it a 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 32 |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|04:06 pm] |
32. Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters by Debra Gwartney
I started reading this book and thought man this story sounds awfully familiar. Turns out I had actually heard it on a segment of This American Life. Of course the book goes into much more detail than they could cover in a 20 minute radio segment, so it wasn't as if reading it was a complete waste of time.
I actually really enjoyed the book, although it made me sad. The story is basically about a family with 4 daughters, the older 2 of whom run away from home. The book is written by the mother basically about her life with her daughters after her divorce from their father, specifically concentrating on the fact that her two oldest daughters eventually run away from home.
The story is really interesting, if not heartbreaking. You really get a sense of how the girls got to be so rebellious, but you can also relate to the mother who is trying to hold onto her children even though she should probably just let them go because she is barely keeping it together, and she still has two other daughters who need her. The mother seems to finally come to some realization about the things she did to get her family where it winds up, at least she writes as if she has some insight. Although I never really get the sense that her actions truly change.
It's actually kind of amazing that with everything this family went through that all 4 of the daughters seem to have eventually turned out well. I'm actually shocked that the younger 2 daughters didn't wind up mental cases like their older sisters with living in the situation caught between their mother and sisters as they did.
It's an engaging book and the mother really does a good job of not just presenting her side of the story. Although I really do wonder what makes sleeping on the streets a better alternative for some kids than a home that may not be perfect, but certainly isn't abusive. I give it an 8 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 31 |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|10:31 am] |
31. Self-Made Man:One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent
I heard a lot about this book when it first came out, but never really felt compelled to pick it up until I read Vincent's more recent book Voluntary Madness. I enjoyed that book, and she referred to Self-Made Man in it and how her experiences writing that book lead her into the depression she was experiencing during her writing of Voluntary Madness. So I decided to check it out.
Basically Vincent spends 18 months impersonating a man and inserting herself into situations that she deemed extremely male in nature to in order to see how she could fit in as a man and to learn about what it's like to be male. She spent time on a bowling league, working in an extremely brash male dominated sales job, living in a monastery, patronizing strip clubs, and joining a men's group based on John Bly's Iron Man. She also entered the dating scene. She eventually revealed herself to many of the people she interacted with including her bowling team, some of the monks, some of the people she interacted with at the strip club, and a few of the women she dated.
I had a hard time with this book mostly because I couldn't get past all the people I felt like she was betraying. Pretty much all of the people she eventually told about her experiment (all the name of writing a book I might add) seemed to be okay with it. Although that's coming from her mouth and may or may not accurately portray their true feelings. Three of the women she dated even slept with her after she told them the truth even though they were self-professed heterosexuals (Vincent is actually a lesbian). I took issue with that only because the book is dedicated to her beloved wife and I have to assume she was at least in some sort of committed relationship during the time that all this was going on.
She attempts to absolve herself at the beginning of the book saying that all that she suffered spiraling back into a depression, which she claims is a result of the cognitive dissonance she experienced while being a woman living as man, is far more horrible than any deception of the people she was interacting with.
Also I'm not sure that she found out anything all that relavatory in the process. I don't think she told me one thing about being a guy that I didn't already know, so I'm not sure that this book was worth all the pain she caused herself or others even if she doesn't want to own up to that.
That being said it wasn't a bad book. Vincent is a good writer. If you decide to read it just don't expect any great revelations and be prepared to feel a bit icky about her betrayal of the people she is interacting with. Particularly in the dating section. I give it a 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 30 |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|03:42 pm] |
30. Songs from a Lead-Lined Room: Notes--High and Low--from my Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation by Suzanne Strempek Shea
This is the third book I've read by this author. She is also a fiction writer, although I haven't read any of those books. From what I can tell this book is her first foray into non-fiction, and I didn't enjoy it as much as the later two books that I read. It may be because this is her first attempt at non-fiction and she didn't quite have the feel for it yet, or perhaps because the book was crafted out of a diary she kept while undergoing radiation for breast cancer. I just had a hard time getting into the book at all, and even though it follows a certain timeline and revolves around a common theme it seemed a bit disjointed to me. I give it a 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 29 |
[Apr. 13th, 2009|10:02 am] |
29. Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
I read this book for one of my book clubs. It's kind of comprised of two stories. The first half of the book is about a family of 2 sisters and their father plus the farmhand who grew up with them after his parents were killed when he was 4 years old. The second half of the book is the story of some French writer who one of the sisters researches. The first story cuts off pretty abruptly and never got picked back up, which rather annoyed me. I also didn't care that much for the story of the writer and really felt that the author should have stuck to the original story and explored it more as there were lots of unanswered questions. I give it a 4 out of 10. |
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