Do the 2008 TBR challenge

Title: Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds
Author: Joy Adamson
Year: 1987
Date read: 7/26/2008
No. of pages: 220
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 3/5 = good

Description:

“There have been many tales of animals’ return to the wild, but since its first publication in 1960, when the New York Times hailed it as a ‘fascinating and remarkable book,’ one stands alone as the most original and perhaps best-loved animal story. Born Free is a classic which traces the extraordinary development of the lion cub Elsa in transition between two radically different worlds.”—from the back cover

My thoughts:

I remember I saw the movie years ago, but I had never read the full story of Elsa and her human family Joy and George Adamson until now. I liked reading about Elsa’s curiosity and how even as she gradually left the Adamson’s care, she never lost the bond she had with them.

Title: Conquistador
Author: S.M. Stirling
Year: 2003
Date read: 7/19/2008
No. of pages: 440
Genre: SF
Rating: 3/5 = good

Description:

“If you could re-create civilization, what would you do differently?

Oakland California, 1946. Ex-soldier John Rolfe, newly back from the Pacific is about to make a fabulous discovery. It happens with a flip of his shortwave radio switch, a thunder crack of sound, and a blinding light. He blinks his eyes to discover a portal to an alternate world where Europeans have never set foot on the land he knows as America. Able to return at will to the modern world, Rolfe summons the only people with whom he is willing to share his discovery: his war buddies. And tells them to bring their families…

What mistakes would you repeat?

Los Angeles, twenty-first century. Fish and Game warden Tom Christiansen is involved in the bust of a smuggling operation. What he turns up is something he never anticipated: a photo of authentic Aztec priests decked out in Grateful Dead T-shirts, and a live condor from a gene pool that doesn’t correspond to any known in captivity or the wild. These finds soon lead to a woman named Adrienne Rolfe—and a secret that’s been hidden for sixty years.

As danger brews on both sides, two realities are threatened, and so too are the live of everyone who crosses the boundary between them….”—from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This book was an interesting look at an alternate Earth, particularly western America. I liked the interactions between characters Tom, Adrienne and Tully and the ways Tom and Tully noticed the differences between New Virginia and First Side (current Earth).

Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin
Author: Lionel Shriver
Year: 2004
Date read: 5/24/2008
No. of pages: 400
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5 = good

Description:

“In this gripping novel of motherhood gone awry, Lionel Shriver approaches the tragedy of a high-school massacre from the point of view of the killer’s mother. In letters written to the boy’s father, mother Eva probes the upbringing of this more-than-difficult child and reveals herself to have been the reluctant mother of an unsavory son. As the schisms in her family unfold, we draw closer to an unexpected climax that holds breathtaking surprises and its own hard-won redemption. In Eva, Shriver has created a narrator who is touching, sad, funny, and reflective.”

My thoughts:

This was a powerfully moving book about the ambiguousness of family relationships. At times, I wished to hear Kevin’s point of view, but Eva’s honest and searing account held my interest throughout.

Title: Killing Floor
Author: Lee Child
Year: 1997
Date read: 4/13/2008
No. of pages: 407
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 3/5 = good

Description:

“Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter, just passing through. He is in Margrave, Georgia, for less than a half hour when four policemen arrive, shotguns in hand to arrest him for murder.

All Jack knows is he didn’t kill anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time. . .”—from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a good mystery featuring Jack Reacher who finds himself in the middle of an ongoing plot that threatens a small town. I liked how Jack and his new friends figure out the mystery and eventually outwit the criminals and I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Die Trying.

I’ve been lagging with my posting. Here’s my progress is tracked in the list I wrote at the begining. I’m reading book # 32 for the year (most, but not all of them are TBR). I’ve now read every book off of last year’s TBR challenge list.

I do hope to sit down and write some posts on the books I’ve been reading. They’ve been really terrific.

I’m reading one of two recently added books – I’ve had them on the shelves for a couple years. I started on Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources, but found I could stand a bit more background, so I dug a few oldies off the shelf.

The current read attempts to make the math less intimidating by using humor. I think it succeeds, but I’d rather just plow through something more concentrated. So this is probably good, it’s forcing me to smell more roses on this journey of words, ideas, and an expanding universe.

The next book for my book club is a graphic novel called Persepolis and it’s about the (female) author’s childhood in Iran. The book club meeting is in two weeks so I reserved the book from the library. I picked it up yesterday.

Turns out I accidentally requested the Spanish version. D’oh. I don’t really have time to request it again in English and be sure I’ll get it before the book club meeting. Oh, well. I guess this is a good chance to brush up on my Spanish! And if I had to make this mistake, this was a good book to do it with, since it’s fairly short and there are pictures!

I’m about halfway through Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and I’ve decided to give up reading the rest of it. I’ve realized that the thing I really like about Jane Austen’s work is the story/plot, and not so much the imagery or characterization. In fact, I find her writing quite an effort to comprehend when I read since the way she writes (along with others of her era) is so different from modern parlance. Since I already know the main plot (having watched it in May in the form of a BBC miniseries) I don’t really have the driving desire to find out what happens next.

I other news, I just watched the movie version of Sophie’s Choice. I was pleased that it followed the book’s story fairly well, and I thought the acting was fantastic, but (like the book) it just seemed far too drawn-out and, frankly, a little boring. I don’t really think they could have done anything differently, but it was just the sort of movie that I wanted to (and did) get up in the middle to go do other things.

I didn’t not like this book.

1. Jennifer Government by Max Barry
2. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
3. The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
4. Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez
5. Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman
6. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
7. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
8. A Tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
9. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
10. French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano
11. The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout
12. Creating a Charmed Life by Victoria Moran

I have been on a serious reading hiatus. Too busy, lack the focus, etc.

I’m not going to give up on this goal though. I think I’ll just try to make it thru half the list then move the other half over to 2009.

Most important one is probably How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. I think I am in SERIOUS need of that one!

This is an amazing, life-altering book. I truly wish everyone could read this book.

Pollan examines four different meals: a fast food meal, a meal of industrial organic food, a meal of food from a small organic farm, and a meal which Pollan creates from food he has raised or foraged himself. For each meal, Pollan traces the food from farm/origin to the meal itself, and along the way delves into the social, ecological, and ethical issues involved in food production.

One striking point that Pollan makes is about the true cost of food. People balk at paying more for food, seeking out the cheapest possible food instead of examining the food’s quality. But as Pollan points out, that $5 fast food meal is not cheaper. It’s just that the high costs are spread around, paid not at the drive-through window, but paid in terms of our damaged health, as well as the damage to nature, farmers, and animals. Americans spend only about a tenth of their disposable income on food, down from a fifth in the 1950s. Pollan says Americans spend a smaller percentage of disposable income on food than any other industrialized nation, suggesting that we could spend more on food if we made it a priority. And since food is such a major part of our health and that of our children, not to mention the pleasure good food gives us, why wouldn’t it be a priority?