2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 6)

In an effort to catch up on my reading, I'm writing short reviews of everything I've read thus far this year. This is the final part!

Title and author: Animals Behaving Badly: Boozing Bees, Cheating Chimps, Dogs with Guns, and Other Beastly True Tales - Linda Lombardi
Source: Library
Rating: 9 out of 10

This book was David Sedaris's recommendation of the night when I saw him a few months ago. I'm trying to read more non-fiction, and a book about the crazy things animals do sounded like just the trick. I couldn't believe some of the wild stories in here! Lombardi obviously did extensive research to find the most interesting stories the world over, and it's the quirky quality of the subject that makes this book sing.

Title and author: Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age Five - Lisa Guernsey
Source: Library
Rating: 9 out of 10

As the mother of a young toddler, I'm very interested in how exposure to media influences development and learning. I heard the author participate in a discussion on media use by young children on The Diane Rehm Show and picked up her book at the library. Guernsey at times seems to be assuaging parental guilt over allowing children to watch TV by showing that, yes, it can be educational, which bothered my old-fashioned sensibilities. But, at least she did her due diligence and showed that there is no one-size-fits-all answer: Your kids won't be behind the curve if they watch no TV and, if you choose to let them watch TV, moderation and parental discretion is key.

Title and author: Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood - Susan Linn
Source: Library
Rating: 10 out of 10

Linn is cited in Guernsey's book (above), and I was very interested to see her views on marketing toward children, something I feel is out of hand. Turns out, she agrees with me 100 percent. There was a lot of information in this book that I already knew, like how many instructional hours are lost each year to watching Channel 1 or that companies make licensing deals of movie and TV characters to make sales more lucrative, but some of the statistics were just startling and, frankly, frightening. Needless to say, it made our decision not to buy licensed toys and clothing for our son all the more rational in my mind after reading this book.

Title and author: Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
Source: Library
Rating: 8 out of 10

I've loved Mindy Kaling ever since my first episode of The Office. I think she's smart, funny and would be great to hang out with. If she's anything like she portrays herself in her book, my perceptions of her are 100 percent correct. My only beef with this book is that Kaling repeatedly calls herself "chunky" or says she's bigger than most girls but then reveals she's a size 8. Maybe in Hollywood that's on the high end of the clothing scale, but that's pretty small to normal in the real world.

2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 3)

 In an effort to catch up on my reviewing, I'm doing short reviews of every book I've read this year. I'm so far behind!

Title and author: Discardia - Dinah Sanders

Source: Kindle

Rating: 9 out of 10

I'm on a minimalist kick lately. Many minimalism books/blogs are focused on the major things in life: Minimizing your impact on the planet, minimizing your debt, etc. While Discardia does touch on some of that, Sanders also gives a lot of real, down-to-earth advice for those looking to get rid of the crap in their homes. I have yet to actually celebrate a Discardia, but I've put some of her tips into practice in my home.

Title and author: Miss Minimalist: Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter and Simplify - Francine Jay

Source: Kindle

Rating: 8 out of 10

I really liked this collection of short essays on everything from practical decluttering tips to how much of one thing is too much. Jay has an easy-to-read, conversational style of writing that made this a breeze to get through. I would recommend this to anyone considering a life of simplicity.

Title and author: Guest House - Barbara K. Richardson

Source: Author

Rating: 7 out of 10

This was a nice, easy read. At times, I wasn't a big fan of the way the parents were characterized (I really dislike negligent parents as characters), but I realize it was necessary for the plot to pan out the way it did.

Title and author: The Stranger - Albert Camus
Source: Personal library
Rating: 7 out of 10

First, creepy cover, right? I liked this book well enough, but I didn't love it as much as I loved another Camus work (The Plague), so I think that colored my view of this novel. It was a quick, easy read, even though I didn't care for the protagonist at all. While this is held up as Camus's greatest novel, I think The Plague is much more complex and philosophical.

2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 2)

 In an effort to catch up on my reviewing for this year, I'm writing a series of short review posts for every book I've read this year. I'm so far behind!

Title and author: 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
Source: Library
Rating: 7 out of 10

Whew! This was a slog, but a good one. I wasn't sure, for most of the book, where the story was going, but I think that can be the mark of a good novel. Murakami certainly is a master of the craft. here was something ephemeral, though, that made this difficult to really get behind. I liked it well enough to finish and say that, generally, I enjoyed this book, but not enough that I would read it again.

Title and author: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Randy Frost
Source: Kindle
Rating: 8 out of 10

I find hoarders equal parts fascinating and disturbing, so I read this book with a mixture of curiosity and horror. I liked that Frost was able to really get into the heads of some of his subjects and pull out the reasons behind their hoarding, yet others remained enigmas. This was an easy, interesting read that I powered through in a few sittings.

Title and author: Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal - Conor Grennan
Source: Publisher for review
Rating: 9 out of 10

I'm not usually one for memoirs, or nonfiction for that matter, but this year has been the year of really good nonfiction, and this book is just one of that group. Grennan has not only a talent for writing, and writing well, but also an obvious love for the children he met while volunteering in an orphanage in Nepal. I found myself wanting to meet each of the children and cheering along with Grennan when he had a small victory in his quest. Highly, highly recommended!

Title and author: The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less - Barry Schwartz
Source: Kindle
Rating: 4 out of 10

I really liked the concept behind this book: That having more choices in our everyday lives actually creates much more stress. Unfortunately, that's about as far as this book went. It seemed to repeat all the ways we have choice (OK, I get it. There are TONS of different products in a grocery store! I don't need a whole chapter listing numbers of brands of breakfast cereals) over and over again without really drawing any useful conclusions. It just seemed to me that someone read an academic article on having too much choice, thought it would make a great book and didn't really look at the finished product.

2012 reading: Catch-up (Part 1)

I have been such a slacker with reviewing books since my son was born ... uh ... more than a year ago. I've actually managed to get a decent amount of reading done so far this year, partially thanks to my Christmas gift of a Kindle (Yes, I finally jumped on the digital train), so I'll try to catch up on reviewing what I've read in a series of short reviews.

Title and author: The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Source: Library
Rating: 7 out of 10

I put off reading this book for a long time because I just tend to not read really popular books, but I decided to read it after seeing the movie. I thought the book was really well-written and had a great concept. It showed a side of pre-civil rights life that not everyone thinks about. That being said, I think I would have liked this book more if I had read it before seeing the movie. I just didn't feel the connection with Skeeter that I felt I should have as she was the main protagonist.

Title and author: Room - Emma Donoghue
Source: Library
Rating: 10 out of 10

This is one of those books you hate to love due to its subject matter. Kidnapping and imprisoning a woman, impregnating her and then keeping her and the child locked in a room for five years isn't exactly a feel-good, happy topic, but Donoghue's choice to tell the story through the eyes of Jack was a brilliant one because he had an innocence about the whole topic so the reader didn't feel beaten over the head by the negative subject. I adored Jack. He is probably on my list of Top 5 Favorite Protagonists Ever. I want a 5-year-old just like him (Minus the fact that he's been locked in one room his whole life). Donoghue manages a feat not often mastered: She employs a young, innocent narrator but his narration is not annoying or difficult to read, and I never felt talked-down-to. Jack is just Jack, and he absolutely makes this story. Highly, highly recommended book!

Title and author: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Source: Library
Rating: 8 out of 10

The thing that intrigued me the most about this book was the vintage photographs which inspired the story scattered throughout the text. I kept looking back at the photos! Though I didn't really feel a particular connection to any of the characters (I'm not sure why), I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a unique concept, it was well-written and made an easy, fun read.

Title and author: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness in the Fair that Changed America - Erik Larson
Source: Kindle edition
Rating: 8 out of 10

I'm not usually one for non-fiction, but a serial killer during the World's Fair in Chicago? Sign me up! Larson actually helped me to like non-fiction because his writing isn't dry. This book read more like a novel than history. My usual Kindle-reading time is when putting my son to bed at night, and I found myself sitting long after he was asleep, reading this book because I wanted to find out what happened. I would recommend this to anyone who is wary of non-fiction. This may just be a gateway book!

Review: Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini

Title: Proust's Overcoat: The True Story of One Man's Passion for All Things Proust

Author: Lorenza Foschini

Pages: 120

Source: Publisher for review

Rating: 7/10

Summary (From Amazon):

Jacques GuÉrin was a prominent businessman at the head of his family's successful perfume company, but his real passion was for rare books and literary manuscripts. From the time he was a young man, he frequented the antiquarian bookshops of Paris in search of lost, forgotten treasures. The ultimate prize? Anything from the hands of Marcel Proust.
GuÉrin identified with Proust more deeply than with any other writer, and when illness brought him by chance under the care of Marcel's brother, Dr. Robert Proust, he saw it as a remarkable opportunity. Shamed by Marcel's extravagant writings, embarrassed by his homosexuality, and offended by his disregard for bourgeois respectability, his family had begun to deliberately destroy and sell their inheritance of his notebooks, letters, manuscripts, furni-ture, and personal effects. Horrified by the destruction, and consumed with desire, GuÉrin ingratiated himself with Marcel's heirs, placating them with cash and kindness in exchange for the writer's priceless, rare material remains. After years of relentless persuasion, GuÉrin was at last rewarded with a highly personal prize, one he had never dreamed of possessing, a relic he treasured to the end of his long life: Proust's overcoat.
Proust's Overcoat introduces a cast of intriguing and unforgettable characters, each inspired and tormented by Marcel, his writing, and his orphaned objects. Together they reveal a curious and compelling tale of lost and found, of common things and uncommon desires.

My Two Cents:

I don't read a whole lot of non-fiction, so my expectations for this spare book were pretty low. I was pleasantly surprised by how much this book read like a novel instead of a piece of non-fiction. It moved at a quick pace (Of course, at 120 pages, it's hard not to move quickly) and kept me interested.

Foschini does a great job of painting Jacques Guerin, who you could theoretically call her main character. Sure, he was a real person, but his obsession with Proust and his quest to collect pieces of the author's life. I found Guerin a fascinating person, and could see the source of his eccentricities.

My main problem with this book, however, is that there was so much emphasis placed on Guerin's collection of things such as Proust's manuscripts and his bed that there was very little time left for his overcoat, the title object. Foschini's entire introduction is dedicated to her viewing of the coat, yet the coat only really comes into play for about 20 pages of the book. I would have liked to hear a lot more about the coat, if possible, and think it would have added to this book.

If you like non-fiction about authors and their legacies, or you like reading about people who collect things, you may want to check out this book. 

Review: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom

Title: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human

Author: Harold Bloom

Pages: 745

Source: Personal library

Rating: 9/10

Summary (From Barnes & Noble):

Remember the controversy attending the publication of The Western Canon? Well, hold on to your mortarboards -- critic, scholar, and Falstaffian gadfly Harold Bloom returns with his magnum opus, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. Whether deriding the tenets of the so-called "School of Resentment" or trumpeting the 39 plays of William Shakespeare as "the fixed center of the Western canon," Bloom is here at his audacious best, offering a passionate analysis of the ways Shakespeare not only represented human nature as we know it today but actually created it. Infusing literary criticism with an unusual narrative force, Bloom helps us to understand ourselves through literature, revealing "not only of how meaning gets started...but also of how new modes of consciousness come into being."

My Two Cents:

As much as I love Shakespeare biography and criticism, I've shied away from reading any Bloom for years simply because I've heard nothing but how arrogant and pompous he is. And, while I do get that from this book (Honestly, what academic publishing a book isn't somewhat arrogant and pompous?), it didn't distract me from my reading at all.

Bloom certainly knows his stuff. He's read all the plays many times over and has looked for through-lines and connections that casual readers normally wouldn't see. He links Shakespeare's earlier characters with their counterparts from later, completely opposite plays. Some of the connections seemed, to me, a bit of a stretch, but most of his observations were incredibly insightful and had me looking at some of the plays in a completely new light.

His writing is, obviously, somewhat hard to decipher at times. He's an academic who is really fond of the million-dollar words. But, all that is just part of the aura that surrounds Bloom and makes the book just a little more fun to read, I thought. Sure, it was difficult to get through sometimes, and I had to put it down and read something much simpler from time to time, but this book wouldn't be what it was without the overblown language.

If you're a fan of Shakespeare, or just want to read a really long, really in-depth discussion of each of his plays, this is the book for you. But, it's not for the faint-of-heart! 

Review: How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin

Title: How To Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way

Author: Tim Seldin

Pages: 187

Source: Personal library

Rating: 9/10

Summary:

A practical parenting program to help build a calm and happy home life with your child, from birth through age six.

Based on Montessori school methods that inspired Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Packed with creative activities to help children discover more about their world -- as well as foster independence, concentration, and respect for others.

My Two Cents:

I'll admit, since reading about the Montessori mattress idea in a few blogs a while back, I've been a little obsessed with the Montessori method of educating children. I've found a lot of schooling theories in researching homeschooling techniques, but this one strikes me as the most complete in terms of both academics and home life, as well as working with children from birth.

This book isn't a complete how-to manual for the Montessori theory. If you want that, you'll have to go read some of Maria Montessori's original texts, hook up with a licensed Montessori school, or just do tons and tons of research.

What this book does do, though, is give parents some really practical tools that they can implement in their own homes to either reinforce an already ongoing Montessori education, or as a way to introduce some of the philosophies of Montessori education in the home if a child is not receiving a Montessori education. Sure, our soon-to-be little one is still a few years away from any kind of formal education, but I absolutely plan to implement some of these things in our home.

The thing that struck me most about this book was teaching a child, at a young age, to be independent. Pouring water, fixing snacks, doing household chores and dressing are all covered in Seldin's book, along with real-life ways to teach your child the techniques. Seldin, president of the Montessori Foundation, gives parents step-by-step directions for things such as teaching a young child how to sweep a floor, and often includes serial pictures of the process. I really, really liked that aspect of this book, especially the pictorial illustrations, as sometimes just words don't get the point across well enough.

This is a great book for anyone considering a Montessori education for his or her child, as it's a very basic introduction to a lot of the tenets. It's also great for parents who want to teach their children Montessori methods, but don't have access to a licensed school.

Review: Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Title: Pirate Latitudes

Author: Michael Crichton

Pages: 312

Source: The library where I work

Challenges: Read 'n' Review challenge

Rating: 7/10

First Sentence: "Sir James Almont, appointed by His Majesty Charles II Governor of Jamaica, was habitually an early riser."

Summary (From book flap):

The Caribbean, 1665. A remote colony of the English Crown, the island of Jamaica holds out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, its capital, is a cutthroat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses.
In this steamy climate there's a living to be made, a living that can end swiftly by disease -- or by dagger. For Captain Charles Hunter, gold in Spanish hands is gold for the taking, and the law of the land rests with those ruthless enough to make it.
Word in port is that the galleon El Trinidad, fresh from New Spain, is awaiting repairs in a nearby harbor. Heavily fortified, the impregnable harbor is guarded by the bloodthirsty Cazalla, a favorite commander of the Spanish king himself. With backing from a powerful ally, Hunter assembles a crew of ruffians to infiltrate the enemy outpost and commandeer El Trinidad, along with its fortune in Spanish gold. The raid is as perilous as the bloodiest tales of island legend, and Hunter will lose more than one man before he even sets foot on foreign shores, where dense jungle and the firepower of Spanish infantry stand between him and the treasure...

My Two Cents:

I'm a pretty solid Michael Crichton fan, so I was thrilled when they found a complete manuscript after his death. I was also pretty excited that his last book wouldn't be sci-fi (Even though I adore sci-fi), and would instead be a period piece about pirates. I mean, how many pirate books can you think of? I'll be the answer is not many.

The book starts out really strong. It's got all the hallmarks of Crichton -- great writing, solid characters, a compelling story. I think I read about half the book in no time flat, surprised at how swiftly everything moved. I had really high hopes for the second half, while simultaneously wondering where we could go from here because the characters seemed to have achieved their original goal.

But then, all sorts of strange things started happening. The last half of the book seemed, to me, like all three of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies stuck together without all the humor and no Johnny Depp. Every ridiculous, legendary thing that can happen to pirates happened to this particular band of pirates on one trip (A long-lost cannibal Indian tribe and a kraken? Seriously?), and I just kind of started to lose interest.

The characters also seemed to take a backseat to the action, which can be OK at times, but when all sorts of crazy things are happening one after another, the characters are just there to advance the plot and nothing else. There were characters that I would have liked to see a lot more of and to know more about, such as Lazue and the Moor, but they were just relegated to their functions in the plot.

One can only hope that these huge plot holes and issues would have been resolved had Crichton lived to polish the manuscript into a finished piece.

Review: Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Title: Three Guineas

Author: Virginia Woolf

Pages: 144

Source: My personal library

Challenges: Read 'n' Review challenge

Rating: 10/10

First Sentence: "Three years is a long time to leave a letter unanswered, and your letter has been lying without an answer even longer than that."

Summary (From back of book):
When asked to donate one guinea for a women's college building fund, Virginia Woolf sat down and responded with a letter. As two more requests for donations came in, the much famed author and critic returned to the same letter, expanding it into this simple yet profound declaration of women's importance to society. Three Guineas became one of the foundations of modern-day cultural analysis, and Virginia Woolf's letter went on to be printed and reprinted for new generations of readers. A classic of argumentative expression and discursive style, Three Guineas is the brilliant summation of Virginia Woolf's most acute thoughts on her most impassioned topic.

My Two Cents:
I'm going to try something a little different with this review. I love Virginia Woolf and her writing, so there's really not much to be said on that topic, but I am going to give you a few of my favorite passages and tell you why they're my favorites. OK?

Your class possesses in its own right and not through marriage practically all the capital, all the land, all the valuables, and all the patronage in England. Our class possesses in its own right and not through marriage practically none of the capital, none of the land, none of the valuables, and none of the patronage in England. That such differences make for very considerable differences in mind and body, no psychologist or biologist would deny. ... Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes. (p. 18)

In this section of the book, Woolf is writing a letter to a man who asked her for advice on how to prevent war. Here, she says that she believes that she, and other women, by extension, would never be able to prevent a solution to war that would be satisfactory to men because women have such a different realm of reference than men. Most wars are fought for money or land or property, things women in Woolf's day did not possess in their own rights. Since women did not possess the causes for wars, she says, they would be unable to find a prevention for war in the way a man would.

Even stranger, however, than the symbolic splendour of your clothes are the ceremonies that take place when you wear them. Here you kneel; there you bow; here you advance in procession behind a man carrying a silver poker; here you mount a carved chair; here you appear to do homage to a piece of painted wood; here you abase yourselves before tables covered with richly worked tapestry. And whatever these ceremonies may mean you perform them always together, always in step, always in the uniform proper to the man and the occasion. (p. 20)

This quote really has very little to do with the overall message of Three Guineas, but I marked it as one of my favorites because it reminds me of my time in England. Sure, people wear uniforms and participate in some pretty hardcore ceremonies here in the United States, especially if you're talking about the military, but never before had I seen more pomp and circumstance than at pretty much any Oxford event. Even nightly dinner (Also called formal hall) was a big deal, as students were required to wear their gowns -- Just one piece of what's known as sub fusc -- before they could even enter hall. There were processions and specific seating arrangements. I couldn't get over how much ceremony there was just in dinner!

For if you agree to these terms then you can join the professions and yet remain uncontaminated by them; you can rid them of their possessiveness, their jealousy, their pugnacity, their greed. You can use them to have a mind of your own and a will of your own. And you can use that mind and will to abolish the inhumanity, the beastliness, the horror, the folly of war. Take this guinea then and use it, not to burn the house down, but to make its windows blaze. and let the daughters of the uneducated women dance round the new house, the poor house, the house that stands in a narrow street where omnibuses pass and the street hawkers cry their wares, and let them sing, 'We have done with war! We have done with tyranny!' And their mothers will laugh from their graves, 'It is for this that we suffered obloquy and contempt! Light up the windows of the new house, daughters! Let them blaze!' (p. 83)

I love this quote because it's just so (For lack of a better term) girl power. Woolf is telling women to use whatever inch they can get, whatever small in to the professional world previously inhabited only by men (And if you read the rest, she says it is definitely a small in) and turn things upside-down. She wants women to shake things up and set the world on fire so that all their female predecessors will know that their struggles will not have been in vain.

Throughout the entirety of the book, Woolf shows her consistent gift for writing and her ability to be critical of the society in which she lived simply by showing how ridiculous some things are. This reminded me a lot of reading Mrs. Dalloway with a feminist slant.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Virginia Woolf or anyone interested in women's issues, especially women's issues of the early half of the 20th century.

Review: Tithing: Test Me in This by Douglas LeBlanc

Title: Tithing: Test Me in This

Author: Douglas LeBlanc

Pages: 152

Source: Publisher, via Booksneeze

Challenges: Read 'n' Review challenge

Rating: 5/10

Summary (From book jacket):

Douglas LeBlanc traveled to seven states and a dozen cities within those states to talk to the people you'll read about here -- from a pastor on Chicago's tough South Side to a progressive Episcopal priest ... from a best-selling author to journalists reporting on religion issues ... from an Eastern Orthodox priest to a Seventh-day Adventist to an orthodox rabbi ... and from political and social activists. But LeBlanc discovered they have one important thing in common: a fervent belief that the ancient practice of tithing has enriched their lives and filled them with uncommon joy.
In fact, the phrase starting point crops up again and again in LeBlanc's interviews, because tithing isn't necessarily the endpoint of generosity. "What I always say to people," says interviewee Randy Alcorn, "is that if you take the standard of 10 percent and say God required it of the poorest people in Old Testament Israel, and now that we're under the grace of Jesus and ... we live in this incredibly affluent culture, do you think he would expect less of us?"

My Two Cents:

I had to give myself a couple of days away from this book to solidify my thoughts on it because, when reviewing books of a religious nature, it's hard not to let one's own beliefs creep in somewhat. I try really hard to be as impartial (In terms of politics and beliefs, not opinions) on here as I can be, so I'll try to leave any personal feelings about religion and the practice of tithing out of the way.

Personal disclaimer over.

This book is fairly well-written. It's obvious that LeBlanc is a journalist, as his prose is precise and clean. However, it lacks something that even good non-fiction writing can have -- It has no real heart behind it. Sure, the words flow well and it's easy to read this book, but there's just no feeling behind any of it. A lot of times, it seems as if LeBlanc is just relating his interview subjects' life stories instead of giving the reader any real sense of who these people are. That sense of the person -- What's felt and believed and held up as important -- is something I think should be really clear and present when dealing with a fairly polarizing topic such as religious tithing.

While all LeBlanc's interview subjects got the point across easily -- Tithing is good and good things will happen to you if you tithe, according to Scripture -- it felt as if there was a little too much of the same. No one disagreed with the tithing mandate in Scripture. Sure, the conflict among the religious community was occasionally alluded to, but LeBlanc did not seek out interview subjects who don't tithe to find out why. I felt that, because of this lack of conflict, it was a really one-sided and repetitive book. By about the third story, I was kind of bored, but I plowed through anyway. If he had found someone who doesn't tithe for whatever reason, or who doesn't believe that the Old Testament version of tithing (Which is basically what LeBlanc was dealing with here) should be adhered to anymore, I think it would have made the book more interesting.

Also, I thought LeBlanc chose his subjects a little too carefully. They were all either clergy of various denominations (There's even a rabbi in here) or they ran specific religious charities. Common sense would dictate that people who have made religious work their livelihood would ascribe to the tithing mandate. I think this book would have been much more interesting and well-rounded if LeBlanc had sought out the common churchgoer and asked for his or her opinion.

I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone. This is a book for someone who is really interested in religious topics and wants to learn more about the specific practice of tithing.