| Year 4, Book 78 |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|01:31 pm] |
78. The Case for God by Karen Armstrong
This book was incredibly tedious to get through and not really what I was expecting based on the title. As opposed to the Case for God I would have called it the history of religion. At least to me it didn't seem to focus very much on God. Only peripherally as she went through seemingly every single religious idea and their thoughts on God and also science in many cases since the beginning of time all the way up through today. Obviously with covering that many ideas there is limited space to get into any detail on the movements, and I just didn't find myself getting much out of this book at all. It's a shame because I've really enjoyed some of Armstrong's other books on religion. This one just didn't work for me though. I give it 3 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 77 |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|01:27 pm] |
77. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
This is a very short novel written about the Japanese internment camps during WWII. There are 5 chapters told by members of an unnamed family. The first by the mother, the second by the daughter, the third by the son, the fourth by a mix of those three, and the final chapter by the father who has been separated from his family the entire time. The book has some haunting details in it, but like most books where the characters remain anonymous I had a hard time relating to them and getting drawn into the story. It is a quick read though and does cause you to stop and think about that horrible situation in our nation's history, so I would recommend it. This book was Loyola's common text for freshmen this year and I saw the author speak about it, which I actually found far more compelling than her book. I give it a 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 76 |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|01:22 pm] |
76. Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor
I expected this to be more of a travel writing book than it actually turned out to be. The book is written in alternating chapters by Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor. The backdrop for the story is various trips they took together to Greece and France, but those places are really just the setting for self-examinations that they share with us. Sue Monk Kidd's chapters focus on her mid-life crisis of dealing with menopause and what that means to her as a woman. It's very based in mythology and rather esoteric. I liked Ann Kidd Taylor's chapters better probably both because they were not so steeped in tedious mythology and because I can better relate to the quarter-life crisis issues she was experiencing. It was an okay book, and I did admire their relationship, but it was not the fun travel read that I was expecting. It was very melancholy for most of the book. I give it 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 75 |
[Nov. 20th, 2009|01:16 pm] |
75. The Shack by William P. Young
I have had a ton of people marvel about the wonders of this book to me. It's a Christian fiction book that uses the experiences of the main character Mackenzie to elucidate the holy trinity. The first third of the book was kind of a crime fiction type novel with the story of Mackenzie's daughter begin abducted during a family camping trip, which leads him to doubt God. The last two-thirds of the book are some supernatural experience in which he meets God (who is an African-American woman named Papa), Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (an Asian woman named Sarayu) at the shack where his daughter's killer was found. They help him come to terms with what happened as well as teach him about who they are. I found the crime part gripping but once we switched over to the rest of the book I found it tedious and boring. All the people raving about it claim that it has given them new perspective, etc. I either already had the perspective or didn't get nearly as enlightened while reading this book because it did a whole lot of nothing for me. I give it 3 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 74 |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|10:15 am] |
74. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
I absolutely adored Niffenegger's first book, The Time Traveler's Wife, so I was very excited to read her newest novel. For the first 60 pages I was in love with this book. It was everything I hoped it would be. The beginning chapters had so much heart and wonderful turn of phrase. Then the ghost showed up and everything went downhill. The story starts with the death of Elspeth Noblin. She leaves her flat in London to the twin daughters of her own estranged twin sister with the condition that they must live in the flat for one year before they are allowed to sell it and that their parents are not be allowed in the flat. There are two other flats in the building containing the other major characters of the book. The flat below contains Robert, Elspeth's younger lover, who is writing his thesis on Highgate Cemetary, which borders the flat. The flat above contains Martin a man crippled by OCD, whose wife of 25 years leaves him in the beginning chapters to return to her native Amsterdam as she is no longer able to live within the confines of Martin's OCD. The beginning chapters detailing the Robert's loss of Elspeth and the separation of Martin and Marijke were beautiful. The introduction of Elspeth's nieces Julia and Valentina and the bizarre stipulation of their inheritance leaves an intriguing mystery about what happened between Elspeth and her twin Edie to result in this absolute estrangement. The book at this point had such potential, but then Julia and Valentina come to live in the flat and discover the ghost of Elspeth living there as well. Then things go from bad to worse with a ridiculously contrived plot that turns the novel into a farce. I won't share what that plot is in case you actually care to read the book as I wouldn't want to give anything away. I'm horribly disappointed in this book, not because it didn't live up to The Time Traveler's Wife, but because it didn't live up to itself. I give it a 4 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 73 |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|10:07 am] |
73. July and August by Nancy Clark
This is the book one of my book clubs was reading for November. The story revolves around an extended family who all seem to descend upon the remaining family matriarch, a spinster aunt named Lily, for the months of July and August. The setting is a small town in Massachusetts named Towne. Some of the characters do actually live in Towne, but the majority of them seem to have some reason to come visit and then some seemingly contrived reason about why they can spend 2 months sitting around this town where they don't live helping Lily out at her farm stand. The whole book just felt really shallow to me. It bothered me that all these people were randomly stepping out of their lives for 2 months to hang around with each other, and there were a lot of characters so you never really got more than a cursory glimpse at any one of them. The author has written a couple other books that I'm not familiar with, but that based on the titles I suspect may have featured some of the characters. In which case some of the back story alluded to may have occurred in previous novels. As it is I sort of felt like I was abruptly dropped into these characters lives and was reading the second half of a story. I don't know if the answer is in the previous books or not, but at any rate I definitely felt like I was missing something while reading this book. I give it a 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 72 |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|10:00 am] |
72. Closing Time: A Memoir by Joe Queenan
I picked this book up randomly at the library when I was there to get another book I had placed on hold. Now I kind of wish I hadn't. It wasn't a completely horrible book, but for some reason I found it rather tedious to read. I'm not sure why. The story is of the author's life growing up poor in Philadelphia with an alcoholic father and a mother who didn't much care to be a mother. He mostly focuses on his relationship with his father and the men his life who he used as surrogate father figures due to his father's failings. He does have some interesting if not conflicting insights about poor people. As someone who grew up in poverty and is now very well off he seems to both equally blame them for being in the situation they are while also admitting that the experience of their lives and the system keeps them where they are. I give the book 4 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 71 |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|09:45 am] |
71. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
I was excited to read this new book by Sarah Waters as her novel previous to this one, The Night Watch, was one of my favorite reads of the year. Unfortunately this book didn't live up to my hopes for it.
Like The Night Watch, The Little Stranger is set soon after the end of WWII in England. The similarities end there however. The story revolves around 4 main characters: Mrs. Ayres the elderly matron of a once large and glorious estate named Hundreds, which has fallen on hard times since the war, her two grown children Roderick and Caroline, and Dr. Faraday. Dr. Faraday's mother was once a maid at Hundreds when he was a child, and the house always fascinated him. He is called to Hundreds in his capacity as a doctor and winds up becoming quite involved with the Ayres family and Hundreds Hall. Many mysterious things begin to happen at the house and it appears as if it may be haunted a conclusion all its inhabitants come to, while Dr. Faraday continues to try and rationalize all the mysterious happenings at the house.
Waters writing is excellent in the book, which is what kept me reading even as the story fell somewhat short for me. The relationship between the characters interested me, but when the story became more and more about the haunting I became less and less interested. Also I felt the story lacked a good conclusion or explanation for what really happened. I guess in some ways it is left up to interpretation, but I wanted a definite answer about what really happened.
As I do enjoy her actual writing style though I think I will check out her earlier novels set in the Victorian era. I give this one a 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 70 |
[Oct. 20th, 2009|10:13 am] |
70. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid
I wish I could force every member of Congress to read this book right now. It is an excellent fairly unbiased look at American health care compared to other mostly successful health care models from around the world. Reid makes no qualms about the fact that he thinks that American health care is broken and that it is a moral travesty that the United States does not provide universal health care coverage, something I am in complete agreement with. He however does not espouse any one model over another.
He begins the book with a look at how the American health care system currently stands and how we spend more on health care than almost any other developed nation in the world with much worse result and the reasons we have these issues.
He categorizes health care models into 4 types.
The Bismarck Model found in countries such as Germany, France, Japan, and Switzerland has both private providers and private payers with insurance plans usually financed jointly between employers and employees through a payroll deduction. This is similar to what we currently have in the United States with the major difference being that in these other countries the insurance companies are non-profit charities that are required to cover everyone.
The Beveridge Model found in Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Hong Kong involves the government providing a health care system that is financed through tax payments. Most doctors are government employees working in government owned facilities. Americans use the Beveridge model to run health care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service, which provides government run health care for Native Americans.
The National Health Insurance Model found in countries such as Canada and Taiwan combines elements of the Beveridge and Bismarck models. The health care providers are private entities, but the payer is a government run insurance program that all citizens contribute to. This type of system is used in the United States for Medicare.
The Out-of-Pocket Model is found in the worlds poorer nations. Citizens of these countries have minimal access to health care and the health care they receive must be paid out of their own pockets. Thus generally the only the rich are able to receive medical treatments. For millions of Americans who cannot afford health care or who have been denied access to health care by insurance companies, the out-of-pocket model is the health care system they are living under.
As is evidenced in the previous descriptions the American health care system combines elements of all the major health care models, which Reid claims is part of the problem. Too much overhead and administrative costs go into reconciling all these different forms of health care causing many of our high health care costs.
Much of the book is spent visiting countries who use each of these models in their health care systems. Reid has an issue with his shoulder that he gets looked at in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and India. For each country he describes their health care system, the history and culture of the country that led it to the system it currently employs, and his own personal experience as a patient in that country. He is blatantly honest about the benefits and drawbacks of each model. His main point is that no system is perfect and pretty much every system is dealing with rising health care costs, but that of the systems running in the developed nations all of them are doing better than the U.S.
By the end of the book Reid seems much more optimistic than I am about being able to enact meaningful health care reform in the United States. He thinks one of the major failings of health care reform to date is that it has been framed around economics. He believes that if we reframe the debate as a moral issue than meaningful progress would be made. I however am doubtful.
I thought this was an excellent book and think that it should be required reading for anyone with a stake in health care reform. I give it a 9 out of 10.
Read on for my own personal thoughts on health care.
I like Reid fundamentally do believe health care is a moral debate. It honestly boggles my mind to hear people say that our health care system is not broken or essentially that not everyone deserves coverage. I have thought about writing a blog post on this topic for months now and I haven't been able to do it because it literally pains me to think about.
I am currently lucky that although I have a chronic health condition I am insured. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't. I certainly wouldn't be able to afford my medications or doctors' appointments. I at this point am healthy enough to work and have a job that is good enough to provide me with affordable health insurance. I am lucky on a secondary level in that at this point should I get sick enough to lose my job and thus my health insurance I have a husband whose insurance I could receive coverage under.
For millions of Americans these things aren't true. They may not have a job that provides them with health insurance or a spouse they can rely on to provide their coverage. They may have a chronic condition that leaves them uninsurable in the private market. I definitely would be.
We as Americans are basically at this point saying it is ok for us to let people die because we don't want to have to pay for their insurance. There is such a me mentally that I can't abide. I think people who say that we can't cover everyone because there aren't enough doctors to go around now and they don't want to have to wait for health care just pain me. If there aren't enough doctors then we need to change the system so that there are or learn to wait for things that aren't immediate threats to our lives.
People try to use Canada and Great Britain as examples that "socialized" medicine leaves people standing in line and unable to get health care. Canada does have a long wait, but the average wait times for Great Britain are no longer than I already wait to see specialists here. And I've had a lot of interaction with people in Canada who also have Crohn's disease and not one of them wishes they were in another medical system. You see far more Americans on these list servs complaining about our access to health care than the Canadians. Generally the Canadians feel sorry for us, not the other way around.
As I mentioned I feel less hopeful after reading the book than the author did after writing it because reading about all these other health systems no matter what we might choose in order to effectively work and provide universal coverage would require way to many changes to our current model. And too many powerful people, particularly the doctors and the insurance companies would lose their current way of life. One thing that stood out in all other countries was that doctors make much less money than American doctors and that insurance companies are either government run or private non-profit entities. I don't see any way that these people will not fight tooth and nail to hang on to their bottom line nor do I see Congress willing to go against them in their fight because obviously money is more important than human life. |
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| Year 4, Book 69 |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|03:52 pm] |
69. Persuasion by Jane Austen
I read this book for the first time probably about 10 years ago. I was studying abroad in London and found a bunch of classics including all of Jane Austens books on sale for 99p at a bookstore in Covent Garden and bought a bunch of them. I read it again recently for one of my book clubs. I didn't remember much about it as it seemed almost wholly new to me upon reading it a second time. I think part of the problem is that to some degree all of Austen's books are the same plot and have too many of the characters named the same thing. This book is typical Austen with a plot revolving around marriage and the issue of suitable partners based on class. I give it a 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 68 |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|03:25 pm] |
68. The Black Girl Next Door: A Memoir by Jennifer Baszile
Baszile recounts her experiences growing up as a black kid in a well-to-do white neighborhood in California. She shares her feelings about being out of place as the only African-American, but also facing criticism from her parents when they feel she is straying from her roots and not spending enough time with other African-American children. I honestly found a lot of the book boring. I felt like it had the potential to be a lot better than it actually was. I give it 4 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 67 |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|03:19 pm] |
67. The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else by Christopher R. Beha
This is another book in the seemingly ever increasing genre of I did some ridiculous thing in a year's time and now I'm going to write a book about it (see recent entries by A.J. Jacobs on living by Biblical laws and reading the Encyclopedia Britannica and Julie Powell's book Julie and Julia). In this particular version Beha spends the year reading the Harvard Classics, a selection of books compiled into large volumes by a past Harvard president. The amount of shelf space needed to house the books is approximately five feet, which is where the title of the book comes from. Like other books of this ilk Beha mixes in knowledge he is gaining from reading the books along with anecdotes from his past as well as talking about the experiences in his current life as he reads the book. It was a quick read, but I didn't find it as compelling as some of the other books of this genre that I've read. I give it a 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 66 |
[Oct. 13th, 2009|03:09 pm] |
66. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
Wow am I behind with my postings. Looking I see my last post was almost a month ago after I went to Abbey Burger Bistro for book club. As luck would have it we also went there again for this month's meeting and that was last night. Geez! The lack of posting does not leave me horribly behind in book reviews though because the lack of posting is due to the insane busyness that has been my life as of late especially at work, which has also led to a lack of reading.
This is the second book in a series of three that Stieg Larsson wrote and submitted to his publisher before promptly dying. I read the first, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and enjoyed it for what it was, which is a mystery, thriller type novel. However, these type of books aren't usually my thing and I probably felt more compelled to read this one because of all the threads left hanging in the first book. Many of these threads were resolved, so I don't feel completely compelled to read the third one when it is released in the US in the spring aside from the fact that I know it's the last one and I now feel compelled to find out how everything is tied up. That of course is if it is because who knows how the author left things not knowing he would die before writing anymore books.
Anyway, this book picks up where the last one left off. It delves more into Salandar's past and the main mystery of this book revolves around her and things that happened in her past. Blomkvist also becomes involved first because it relates to work at his magazine Millennium, but later because he realizes that Salandar has been caught up in the investigation. The book is a pretty quick read despite its length and Larsson does know how to write in such a way that you want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen. I give it a 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 65 |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|03:16 pm] |
65. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
In some respects this book reminded me of Three Cups of Tea because Paul Farmer and Greg Mortensen as they are both very driven in their pursuits to make a difference in the world to detriment of everything else in their lives. In the end though I came away with a much more favorable view of Paul Farmer for whatever reason. He is a Harvard doctor who made his life's work providing health care in Haiti and attempting to eradicate diseases such as TB and malaria. His involvement in Haiti also led him to get involved in other areas of the world including Brazil and Russia. It's a very interesting look at how one man has caused great change. I give it 7 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 64 |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|03:04 pm] |
64. Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell
This book got a lot of press when it was released so I was surprised at horrible editing in it, but we'll get to that in a minute. First I have to say that the book wasn't really what I was anticipating for the first 2/3. The last 1/3 was more what I was expecting in that it addressed the effect buying cheap goods has on society, which you would expect based on the title. The first 2/3 though was more psychologically based on why we are attracted to certain prices even if they don't make sense and how and why prices are actually set and things like that. I have a psychology background, so I'm not saying I didn't find it interesting because I did, it's just not what I was expecting. But back to the bad editing. Based on the references in the book to lots of studies and conversations with experts it appears that this book was fairly well researched, but I had a hard time putting a lot of credence in anything being said based on all the typos and misspellings in the book, not to mention calling Bernie Madoff, Michael Madoff. I've never read a published book that had so many errors in it. It was kind of embarrassing. So in the end my psychological perception of this book was probably altered by a bad editor and thus I can't really recommend it like I thought I might prior to reading it. I give it a 5 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 63 |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|02:55 pm] |
63. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
If you've been reading these book review for any length of time you'll know that I am a huge fan of Richard Russo's works. This book is a little bit of a departure from his earlier works, although not completely in that it revolves around academic life, which is a frequent theme of his, but does not contain the working class past it's prime mill town setting that is found in so many of his novels. The story is mainly about Jack Griffen a former Hollywood screenwriter turned English professor following in the footsteps of professor parents. It begins during a trip to Cape Cod for his daughter's long-time friend's wedding on Cape Code. He is at an apparent crossroads in his marriage and his life and throughout the book we get flashbacks of the past in particular his relationship with his parents and how it has affected where he is in his present and where he will wind up in the future. Not Russo's best work by far in my opinion, but still an enjoyable enough read. I give it 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 62 |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|02:43 pm] |
62. Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage by Jeff Benedict
This book shares the story of behind the Supreme Court case Kelo vs. City of New London. Most of the book is centered on everything that leads up to the case and what happens after, there is relatively little space dedicated to the trying of the case in the actual Supreme Court. I think reading this book made me angrier than I have ever been reading a book. I knew going in what the result was, which I always disagreed with, but getting all the background story and the details, which I wasn't really aware of when this case was being tried just made me even madder. I've read a lot of books that have made me mad regarding injustices I feel that are occurring, but I think what was different about this one was that it very easily could have turned out different unlike in most of the books that make me mad where the injustice is so much ingrained in society that there is no easy fix. There were so many points in this story where the New London Development Corporation and various other people associated with it and the city could have backed down and reconfigured their development plans to include the final houses remaining, but they refused over and over again out pride, stubbornness, the feeling of superiority over lower-class people I don't know. I really enjoyed this book even though I was angry the whole time I was reading it. I give it 8 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 61 |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|03:56 pm] |
61. A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages by Kristin Chenoweth
This was a fun, quick read. I read the whole thing in one day. It's a very conversationally toned memoir by actress Kristen Chenoweth. It was just a good fun read. I laughed out loud multiple times while reading it. I have a whole lot of respect for the way she lives out her faith and hope that I do something similar. It also really made me miss Pushing Daisies. I'll be sad to not be seeing Olive Snook on my TV every week this fall. The final manuscript was obviously submitted sometime between the first and second seasons of the show, so there's lots of references to it in the book as what she is working on now. Anyone whose a fan will love this book and even if you have no idea who Kristin Chenoweth is I still think you would enjoy it. I give it 8 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 60 |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|03:48 pm] |
60. Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding
The author uses the small town of Oelwein, Iowa to discuss the meth epidemic. He talks about the history of meth and how this epidemic it came to be, the failed legislation that might have helped prevent it, and how it is a social scourge on small-town America. I found it to be an interesting read, although if you are familiar at all with the meth epidemic most of it will not be news to you. There was some interesting history as well as a connection to big farm agriculture that I wouldn't have thought of, but totally makes sense now that he pointed it out. If you're interested at all in this kind of stuff it's worth a read. I give it 6 out of 10. |
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| Year 4, Book 59 |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|03:36 pm] |
59. Middle Age by Joyce Carol Oates
This is the second book I've read by Joyce Carol Oates and I think despite the fact that she is Alison's favorite author it will be the last. I find all her characters to be too whiny and unsympathetic I think. This book had a lot of characters and I struggled to like a single one of them. Plus I wonder, at least based on this book, about Oates's view of women. All of them were middle-aged unself-fulfilled women chasing after men who didn't care about them or allowing themselves to be taken advantage of by men who disgusted them. I don't get behind the whole you disgust me I want nothing to do with you until you force yourself on me and then I'll melt into your arms deal. Not realistic and totally propagating date rape in my opinion. Not that any raping occurs in this book, I just think stuff like that gives people the idea that no doesn't mean no.
At any rate the book centers around a guy named Adam who moves at some point in his adulthood to this small upper class town in New York. It is evident from the first few pages of the book that he has a secret past. He also dies in the first chapter or so and you figure the story is going to be about the discovery of his past after his death. Not so much. The story revolves around all these people in the town who knew him and their sad pathetic lives. All of them, mostly the women, but a couple of the men (not sexually) were entirely obsessed with Adam for some reason that remains elusive at least to me. So you get to find out what happens to their lives in the wake of his death. Finally near the end of the almost 500 page book you find out about Adam's past. It was rather a let down and not worth reading through all the melodrama to find out about. I would definitely skip this book if I were you. I give it 3 out of 10. |
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