read 50 books in 2008

The “he/she loves me, he/she love me not” routine gets a little old by the end of this one, especially when you know they’ll end up together (of course!). but it doesn’t matter, still loved it. i can’t help but feel cold reading this. it’s hard to imagine humans living comfortably in the conditions described (friggin cold).

I can’t be reminded enough to slow down. The theory of this book completely makes sense but required a mindshift for me. Essentially, all organisms have a finite amount of life energy, which can either be used up slowly or quickly. Mice with fast heart rates and metabolisms live short lives, elephants with slow metabolisms have long lives. Our society is all about “increasing your metabolism”, but really, that’s simply using up more of your life energy as is digesting the extra food you consumed that you want to boost your metabolism to get rid of. A smarter, and more life-prolonging, course would be to try and slow your metabolism and eat less to accommodate that. not saying i’m quite capable of that, but it’s an interesting spin. The books not solely about food and eating habits, of course. Sleeping patterns, stress, overexercising, etc are all ways of accelerating the aging process (using up your finite life energy). This book is coming at a perfect time, when I’m giving up teaching yoga and need some anti-guilt fodder.

Maybe the first “Western” I’ve ever read, but I use that term loosely and only because they call it such on the back cover. quite a page turner. this author consistently makes me happy.

Woah, I forgot how racy Jean gets as the series progresses! I definitely enjoy the Ayla chapters more than the Jondalar/Thonolan ones. But once they connect, it’s a mad dash to the end of the book during which time I couldn’t put it down. i stupidly forgot to order the next in the series and so now will have to wait a week or more to read on. boo.

What can I say, I want to be Ayla. I want to camp every day, cook over a fire, live off the land, learn all about medicinal plants and herbs and make concoctions with them and just be generally awesome. okay, the whole living with neanderthals and being thought ridiculously ugly wouldn’t be the greatest, but i’d make do. love, love, love this series. enough to want to keep as my very own (very rare for me).

I can’t remember the last time I read an entire book in a day, let alone in 3 hours. but this story was too fascinating to put down. I love that the author hits on the causes of this (and other) outbreaks of disease ranging from the microscopic to the societal. and the thought that, without the proper sanitation structures that resulted from this, city-living would likely be impossible gave this new-ish city dweller pause. there were quite a few times when I paused after reading a paragraph with a whirl of questions going through my head and looked to the next paragraph only to find him addressing just those questions. it’s a good (science) author, in my opinion, that can anticipate exactly what his writing is going to bring up for his readers and systematically address those thoughts. i almost felt like I was discussing the topic with the author rather than reading the book alone.

I will never forget reading this author’s “Cleopatra”, it was that good and this book more than lives up to her reputation in my mind. Greek mythology is one of those topics I can never get enough of and I enjoyed the hell out of this book. it was like reliving memories with family and friends at a reunion. i was a little disappointed with her depictions of Hector and “big” Ajax, though. She extensively researches her material so I don’t doubt that she found much evidence that led her to portray them the way she did. it’s just that they live differently in my mind. in short, they have always been my favorites but were portrayed here as less than stellar. i forgive her (and them) though and will likely hold onto this book for future re-reads.

This was a… comfortable book, for lack of a better word. I was neither overanxious to pick it up nor inclined to discontinue reading it at any point, just content with it. Most of it is front story concerning the daily life of a myriad of characters with backstory/flashback pieces sprinkled throughout that keep all the day-to-day stuff interesting. the last handful of chapters were real page-turners. for a book randomly inherited from a friend’s move, I’d say it was well enjoyed.

What an exciting book for someone who perpetually feels only a step away from depression AND who is anti-pharmaceutical! It starts with an interesting and accessible explanation of the differences in and relationship between the emotional and cognitive brain. It was so reassuring to finally understand why someone so hyper-logical and analytical can know why she’s reacting in such a way but is at a loss to actually stop it or change the underlying behavior. Rather than thinking your way to healing, much of the research he reviews focuses on using the body as a means to heal your emotional health. This makes sense when you believe that we experience emotion in our bodies, not in our heads. As a yoga instructor, this isn’t news to me. In addition to reinvigorating my intention to begin supplementing with omega-3’s, I also took away some great techniques for improving communication from this book.

I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of “meh” books lately, but this one certainly was not! I was reminded within the first few chapters what had put this book on my radar in the first place. One of the main characters is on a mission to bring a vegetarian center to the developing world. He and his wife believe that the acidity of a carnivorous diet heightens aggression and therefore troubled countries would do well to adopt vegetarianism. That substory is only one small piece of the plot of this completely engrossing story of a few ex-pats in Haiti during the turbulent reign of Papa Doc and the Tonton Macoutes.