John Adams by David McCullough

Jackie recommended this and it's very good. If any of you saw the recent HBO series based on the book, I'd suggest that, although the series was good, the book is better. All I'd heard of Adams in the past was that he wrote extensively to his wife while at the Second Continential Congress and that he also shared a correspondence with Jefferson late in life. The book paints a picture of a complex man who worked hard for his country and his family. I came away with thinking he'd have been a good friend and deserves more praise than he gets. His contribution was major in getting the Declaration of Independence written and approved. He also made multiple contributions during the Revolution and prior to becoming Vice President. Jefferson, on the other hand, was also a complex man who is depicted as a lesser man than Adams when it comes to honesty and a willingness to engage difficult issues. Usually, when the going got tough, Jefferson went to Monticello.

I'm continuely amazed that the U.S. survived the first 80 years of its existance and this book puts an exclamation point to that thought. The book is well written and easy to follow. I found myself actually looking for more anecdotes in a book that is 651 pages. Don't let the length deter you, you'll zip through it. Enjoy.

Thunderstruck by Erik Larson

As in Larson's earlier book, The Devil in the White City, this one also intertwines the true stories of two unlikely characters. In Thunderstruck, Guglielmo Marconi and Hawley Crippen are the two men whose lives intersect in the early years of the 20th c.

Crippen was a mild-mannered doctor, who committed the second most famous murder in London (after Jack the Ripper). When his flamboyant, demanding and extravagant wife, Belle, mysteriously disappears her friends suspect him but the police can't find any evidence to hold him and he quietly leaves London with his secretary/lover, headed to America.

The other story describes Marconi's plodding and unscientific efforts to create the equipment that used electromagnetic waves to send wireless transmissions across the Atlantic. Larson goes into a bit too much detail here describing the relentless competition among the various "inventors" who were vying to be the first to master wireless technology. The fact that Marconi even succeeded at all is actually quite amazing because he really didn't understand how or why the equipment worked. For me, this was the most fascinating part of the book...

But in the end, the two mens' stories intersect when Marconi's wireless "invention" is the tool used by the London police track down and capture Crippen (after they did some digging in the garden of his former house), as he sailed across the Atlantic on the SS Montrose, ready start a new life in America. Oops, not so fast Mr. Crippen!

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with David Sedaris, and venture to guess that at least a few of you have read something by him before. This is the third book by him that I've read (others were "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Holidays on Ice") and it was also my favorite. He has a way of taking everyday events that all of us can relate to and making them funny and touching....I guess that's every good comedian's trick, and he masters it in "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim." It's a great book for two reasons: (1) It'll make you laugh because it's about his experiences growing up, and no matter what family you're part of, there are some universal things we can all nod along with and say "yep, that's just about right." and (2) it's a quick read and a book with which you can skip around and not be confused. It's a collection of short stories, so if you want to skip over one, or put the book down for a bit and come back, you can do that and pick right back up where you left off. The perfect quick summer read!!!

So, needless to say, I recommend this to all of you. If you're looking for something uplifting (and who isn't?) and something you can read in a day or two, this is the book for you!!!

And thanks for the reminder to get back up and blogging, Amanda - I've missed this!

The Long Emergency by James Kunstler

The author of this book was interviewed on "The Colbert Report" for his new book "World Made By Hand." I thought he was kind of a kook (but entertaining!) Like everything else, I didn't want to dismiss him out of hand. So I checked into some of his other books at the local library where I came across "The Long Emergency." It sounded pretty apocalyptic but I thought I'd give it a try anyhow...just to see what this guy was about.

Well, the book was fascinating! Basically, Kunstler explains his theory that the world is about to hit peak oil, and what the ramifications of that may be. I'd heard talk about peak oil before but never completely understood what it was. The book uses good references and citations to scientific studies and oil industry insiders. I found many of Kunstler's arguments coherent and well-reasoned. It makes a lot of sense that we're about to (or already have) reached peak oil. It also stands to reason that much of our lifestlye will have to change as oil becomes rarer (and costlier.) I have often thought that our economy will naturally transition to some other, more sustainable, energy source when the price of oil becomes too high. And Kunstler argues that we will definitely try. He lays out all of the alternatives to oil and how they will probably be used after peak oil. He pins his best bets on nuclear energy for running appliances, etc. But the point he made about oil that I had never thought much about before is: oil is portable, ships easily, relatively safe, and abundant. Most other energy will not run our cars (ship our food, make our plastics, fly our planes.) Really, he brought up so many things I'd never thought of before he made me a believer.

That being said, Kunstler IS rather apocalyptic and believes society will be taken by surprise and have a long, uncomfortable period of converging catastrophes to deal with which will decimate large populations and force much of society to be rebuilt. Some of the other catastrophes include climate change and disease pandemics, along with the depletion of oil. A big part of me says "No way, we won't be caught so off guard. Technology and society will adapt in time to prevent huge population losses, at least in the U.S." And hopefully that's true. But his argument that our entire way of life in the U.S. (i.e. suburbia, constant economic growth, etc.) is incongruent with an oil-less world is awfully compelling.

One last thing: as I was dismissing some of the author's more far-reaching predictions for the near future, he began talking about the housing crisis. He explained everything that's currently happening in the housing market and how that will affect the rest of the economy. The creepy thing is, this book was published in 2004, before any of this started happening. The detail and exactness with which he described the housing bubble and his prediction of how quickly the price of a barrel of oil would shoot up in the next few years (i.e. NOW!) was frightening. It makes me give the rest of his predictions even more credibility.

I don't know if the rest of you would find this as fascinating as I did. But I hope at least one of you reads it so I have someone to discuss it with. I'd really like to know what you guys think. Let me know.

The End Of Faith – Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

It’s interesting that Amanda and I are reading books that sound anti-religious (American Fascist, The End Of Faith). The study is not anti religious, it is a drive for greater understanding in the face of existing ignorance. That same quest is behind Mr. Harris taking on the faith part of religion. Faith is belief in things that can not be proven. Through most of history, faith drove almost everything we knew about the world, including medicine, physics, chemistry, genetics, etc. Only when we were able to separate the blind acceptance of what we thought we knew about those fields from what can be proven could we understand that the Earth is not the center of the universe, our bodies were not ruled by the four humors, and there were more than four elements.

Mr. Harris suggests there is at least a chance that a similar breakthrough in understanding is possible if we stop accepting items on faith and start applying the same intellectual rigor to the questions of God and an existence different from the one most apparent to use in our daily lives.

He also points out the dark side to not breaking away from faith. That dark side has been apparent in all the monotheistic religions, starting with Judaism, spanning centuries in Christianity and now being demonstrated with Islam. In each religion’s sacred book there are portions that require you to kill anyone, no matter how beloved, who does not believe exactly everything written in that text. In the case of Christianity, it resulted in centuries of the most terrible torture and murder imaginable in the name of God. There is now a certain live-and-let-live aspect to the vast majority of Christian believers who just don’t believe those passages that call for mass death as well as some or all miracles. That approach appears to be changing with the rise of fundamentalist churches and is troubling to our unity as a religious and secular community and nation.

Mr. Harris points out that the live-and-let-live crowd enable the more radical practitioners by not overtly renouncing those parts of the Bible they do not believe and having the discussion about what that means for their various religions. If a person does not believe in magical events subject to more than two millenium of editing by controlling powers that be, can they still call themselves a Jew, Christian, Muslim, etc.

Mr. Harris makes the point that Islam appears to be at the same point as Christianity prior to the live-and-let-live phase. This makes Islam dangerous as long as the silent majority of believers who say they are tolerant do nothing in the face of Islamic believers who act on pure faith and fundamentalism.

I strongly recommend this book for those who care about religion and its place in the world. It’s an easy read and he makes his case. Even if you think that an organized church is still part of the solution after reading this book, coming to grips with the questions he raises will make your beliefs stronger and more relevant to your spiritual life.

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America

This book was great! I saw the author interviewed on Jon Stewart months and months ago and thought this was one I'd probably like. Of course, like is a strong word. I didn't "like" reading most of it because it turned my stomach to think I'm living next to these people. But I'm glad I read it and think all of you should too.

The author talks about the Christiam Right in America as a fascist-like movement that is only waiting for the right crisis to shake the foundation of America before they are able to wrestle control from the hands of liberals, atheists, and heretics. Watching the Bush administration these last 7 years has made a believer out of me. I really think Christian fundamentalists believe in the Apocalypse and would like to usher it in under their watch. They also believe in the Rapture (trust me, they DO!) and believe conformity and adherence to Church doctrine (as interpreted by crazy people) is the path to salvation. When the stakes are that high, you're not playing around people! They want this to be a Christian nation above any democracy, tolerance, or open society.

Now, I know what you're saying. "They're just a bunch of crazies. No way would Americans turn their backs on hundreds of years of progress towards democracy, free thinking, and general cussedness..." Oh no? Have you seen the last 7 years? What do you think 9/11 did for the fundamentalist movement? Great things, is what. And with more people in poverty, cut off from their communities, and just generally feeling alienated and lost, more people are being lured into fundamentalist churches. The churches have easy answers. Granted, you have to give up free thought, Sundays, and premarital sex, but for an eternity in heaven, that's peanuts!

These are some of the ideas the author discusses. He also documents speeches given by different church leaders, programming on Christian broadcasting stations, and seminars on how to proseletize and spread the Word. This stuff is scary but definitely worth keeping an eye on. Check out this book if you get a chance.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

So now that Amanda has officially kicked off the new year with her book review, I decided to follow suit. And I'm happy to report that my first review of 2008 is a good one! I really enjoyed this book, which is a collection of essays by author Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman was a columnist for Spin magazine and the essays are all about pop culture and, mainly, the 30-somethings out there who grew up with shows like The Real World, Growing Pains, etc. It is hilarious and poignant and he really is right on the mark with much of what he observes, which is everything from reality television to why Billy Joel is underappreciated (it's hilarious). And it's such a fun read because, as a (new) 30-something, I could relate to nearly every pop reference he made! I think this is a book that Amanda would definitely enjoy, and is such a quick, fun book - you can pick it up, read an essay, skip essays, whatever you want. It's the perfect book to have laying around when you want a good laugh. Definitely one of the better books I've read in a while!

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters

Why beautiful people have more daughters
Originally uploaded by David GP

Hello, everyone...welcome back to the blog! Let's all take our seats for a new year and new ride and some new books and (hopefully) new things to laugh about. Running with Scissors, anyone? I thought not. Let's move on.

I read this book a couple weeks ago and it was great! We all suspected the title was true, didn't we? Well, it is. At least on a grand, societal level. Basically, when you let people reproduce for tens of thousands of years, certain trends pop up. For example, babies resemble their fathers during their first year of life - it increases their chance of the father protecting and caring for them.

The book discusses a lot of stereotypes and where the truth lies from a genetic and societal level. Men are generally more aggressive than women for very good reasons. Women are more likely to be awarded custody of their children during divorce for good reasons. Sex, love, money, racism, power, the book covers all of them and how they all relate back to our genes trying to outdo everyone else's to get passed on to future generations. The important thing to remember is that this book deals with generalities. There are exceptions to every rule, of course.

The authors did a great job explaining the relatively new field of evolutionary psychology which attempts to explain human nature on many different levels. It starts from the supposition that we are mammals like other mammals, no better or worse. We have a human"ness" like dogs have a dog"ness" and cats a cat"ness." What is it that makes people people? Why do we do the things we do? Studying humans as a subset of primates, not beknighted children of god, was refreshing!

I also connected with the idea that modern humans are using a 10,000 year old brain, one that was adapted to a very different world from the one we find ourselves in today. It was a slower paced world, a more dangerous world (in some ways) and a more basic existence. When you think that many of our instincts are based on life 10,000 years ago, it explains a lot. Check this book out. I think all of you would find it really enjoyable!

Eat, Pray, Love

Ok, so I almost named this post "Eat, Pray, Love it!" But I restrained myself. But that's how I feel....FINALLY! I feel like it's been a while since I've really loved a book, probably since reading The Kite Runner (so glad you liked it, too, Amanda! I have broken the "Running with Scissors" curse!). But now I'm back on track and am very happy to post that this book is everything it's cracked up to be. When I first started reading it I didn't realize it was a memoir - even mom said "It's fiction?" and I was adament that it was...but I'm an idiot. It's a memoir.

The way Elizabeth Gilbert writes is infectous, I was immediately engrossed with the story from the first chapter. And while I was a bit distracted by all of the excitement of a little redheaded 1.5 year old when I first picked up the book, once Amanda and Katie left, I read the rest of the book in a day.

It's the story of Elizabeth Gilbert (duh) and her struggle to find herself after going through a divorce at 30 years old. She decides to take the next year of her life and devote it to travel - and she chooses Italy, India, and Indonesia (for lots of reasons that you can get from the book, should you choose to read it). She lives in each place for 4 months and finds love - love for good food, her spirituality, and...well, love (hence, the name). It actually reminded me a lot of some discussions that Amanda and I had about religion and spirituality when she was visiting and she asks a lot of the same questions that I've asked myself over the years. But the way she goes about her journey is envious and very cool. She actually has inspired me to start learning Spanish again (she learned Italian, but I'll go back to my high school roots). And I think that really is what sums up the book the best - besides the fact that it's just a wonderfully colorful, well-told story, it's inspirational and I found myself rejuvinated after reading it.

I highly recommend this book to Amanda. I think Dad will probably pass, and Mom is 50/50. But it's a keeper in my personal library - that's for sure!

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner
Originally uploaded by i-Topographies

Before I start, Becky, you did a great review on this book a while ago which is why I picked it up in the first place. Comparisons to Running With Scissors notwithstanding (graphic violence, child abuse, taking me out of my element,) this book was worth the emotionally grueling journey. I was stunned that about every 3 pages something heartwrenching happened - not for effect, but because it was what had to happen. This is how people lived and still live in so many parts of the world.
I think the unrelenting brutality and perpetual suffering, both emotionally and physically, was the most difficult part of this book for me. Things seemed to stay bad for so long. Is that an analogy for Afghanistan itself, and perhaps the Middle East as a region? I remember on page 272 I said, "Finally, something hopeful has happened." I was elated. And I think that's how many Afghanis must feel about their situation. But every time they cling to that little bit of hope, somehow it's dashed away.
One of the best things about this book, other than the superb, spare writing, was the way I really began to understand someone else's suffering. As frustrated as I occasionally was with the narrator, I had to ask myself if I would have acted any differently if I was in his shoes? Who would I be if I'd grown up in his world? I have a deeper understanding and a much broader perspective on Afghanis lives. When will things get better, when will they change? I don't know.
This was one of those wonderful fiction books that brought you closer to truth than any biography ever could. Highly recommended!

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Well, I'm happy to report that "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" was the best book I have read in the last two months. Of course, that's kind of false praise because the two books I read (and blogged about) before were big time suck-fests. But this was a pretty good book. Like I said to mom: I'm not not recommending it to people, I'm just not really recommending it, either. It was fairly enjoyable, and a really interesting story to be told - I just wasn't too keen on the writing style after a while. I like description up to a point. But I felt about this the way I feel after reading a Hemmingway novel - I liked it, but after awhile I feel like "Ok, ok, I get it. The grass was wet." Geesh. A little too touchy-feely, a little too descriptive as an overall work. But again, not a bad book or story.
It's about a young married couple, David and Nora, who are expecting their first child. David is a doctor, and the night his wife goes into labor he gets the surprise of his life - his wife gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The girl is born with Down Syndrome, and in order to spare his wife heartache (it's a long story how we get here, I'll spare you), he asks his assistant to take the baby girl to a "home" and tells Nora that the baby died during child birth. Well, the assistant can't bear to leave the baby at the "home" so she decides to take the little girl, Phoebe, and raise her - thinking that David will want her back in a few days, weeks, months, once he realizes the enormity of what he did.
Needless to say, this opens up a whole Pandora's box of problems for everyone involved, and takes us through the next 20 years of their lives. It's a really interesting look at family, what it means to be a parent, secrets, and, ultimately, truth. But I felt like the ending was tied up too neatly with a bow - life doesn't typically work that way, and so I don't typically like it when my books do. Especially not when it takes hundreds of pages to get there with way too much description about unimportant objects within a room.
All in all, I give it a B-.

Night by elie wiesel

night by elie wiesel
Originally uploaded by kewlio

Has anyone else read this? I can't even say that I have because I only made it to the fourth chapter, as the Jews are being led off the train at Dachau. I was trying to read it at school while the children napped and felt the need to sob uncontrollably. The idea of babies being thrown in the air over graves and shot at as target practice was too much for me to handle. Before I actually lost it, I put the book down, that awful lumpy crying feeling in my throat, and silently apologized to the author for not being strong enough to read more. Maybe I will read a chapter a month and will be able to digest it more slowly. Has anyone else attempted this one? It's only 109 pages so I thought I would finish it in an evening. Oh, how wrong I was.

Our Kind by Kate Walbert

I hate to say it, but this is the second book I have read in a matter of two weeks that was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the second book in a matter of two weeks with which I was thoroughly disappointed. This was a tad bit better than A Feast of Love, but only a tad....and only because it was shorter.
This was something outside of the norm of what I normally read in the sense that it is a series of short stories that are compiled to tell one complete story. I like the idea of this, and won't shy away from this style in the future, but was not engrossed with this book. It's the story of a group of middle-aged women, all of whom are divorced or widowed, leading their lives in the suburbs and trying to "discover" who they are now that their children are grown and their husbands are no longer around. I really, really wanted to like this book and gave it a fair shake until the last page. But it just didn't flow. Much like The Feast of Love, it wasn't cohesive. The characters seemed eccentric for the sake of being eccentric and half of the time I had no idea why a certain story was being told or what on earth was going on. It was somewhat comical, at times, because I found myself reading it for an hour or so and then Mark would ask me how it is and I would say "You know what? I'm not really sure. I have no clue what this book is about or what it is that I just read."
It was an interesting concept and had the potential to be a great book - and clearly I stand alone in my opinion since the people who decide the finalists for the National Book Award thought it was worthy of the title. But I'm starting to get weary of those shady National Book Award people, so I am going to go back to reading what my gut is attracted to and not reading something because of its accolades. I thought it would help me find great literature, but I've just been disappointed as of late, so I'll back off a bit and see where it leads me.
So, sorry to post two negative Nancy reviews in a row, but I gotta' call 'em like I see 'em.

The Feast of Love

Ok...I'm going to start this post by posting something from the author's website:
The Feast of Love is just that--a sumptuous work of fiction about the thing that most distracts and delights us. In a re-imagined Midsummer Night's Dream, men and women speak of and desire their ideal mates; parents seek out their lost children; adult children try to come to terms with their own parents and, in some cases, find new ones.
In vignettes both comic and sexy, the owner of a coffee shop recalls the day his first wife seemed to achieve a moment of simple perfection, while she remembers the women's softball game during which she was stricken by the beauty of the shortstop. A young couple spends hours at the coffee shop fueling the idea of their fierce love. A professor of philosophy, stopping by for a cup of coffee, makes a valiant attempt to explain what he knows to be the inexplicable workings of the human heart. Their voices resonate with each other--disparate people joined by the meanderings of love--and come together in a tapestry that depicts the most irresistible arena of life.

Now I'll tell you why this is a load of crap. I picked up this book because it was a finalist for the National Book Award and thought, after reading a lot of reviews and doing some dorky research on it, that it sounded interesting and like a story I might like to read. So I started. Right off the bat I didn't love the writing, though I thought it might be something I just had to get used to (I was wrong). It was choppy and disconnected, and the dialogue between characters was completely unrealistic. People simply do not talk the way these characters did. And that bugged me.

But what really bugged me is that I found myself not caring about any of these characters - they were all very one dimensional, though you got the idea that the author thought he was creating very deep, complex, and complete characters. I did not find this to be the case. They all had a "role" in this book and, other than fulfilling that "role", they weren't really very interesting. I like the idea of books and movies that have several stories going on that all intertwine at some point - unfortunately, I liken this book to the movie Babel - a great idea, in theory, but poorly executed.

This was supposed to tell the story of love in all of its various forms, and what we do (and don't do) for it. But when you get to the last page and read those last words you're left feeling... well, unfulfilled. Perhaps I was expecting too much from this book, or perhaps it was one of those situations where it just wasn't the right time for me to be reading it. But I got the distinct feeling that it was trying to be deep and meaningful for the sake of being deep and meaningful. The way I described it to Mark was like this: If you were reading this book in a literature class, I'm sure the professor, and other students, would be finding all sorts of deep meaning behind the actions of the characters, and the ways in which they interacted with each other. But I think searching for that meaning is giving the book too much credit. I think sometimes people just search for meaning in a book because they can't believe that it's just not a very good book. In my opinion, if the book is truly powerful, and really does evoke these emotions and deep thoughts out of you, it's on a very innate level. You simply feel it, you simply get it. And with this novel, you just don't do either. Or at least I didn't.

So, that's a big thumbs down from me. Maybe you all would have a different take; but I have a feeling you'd all walk away feeling a bit robbed....of time.

The Kite Runner

This was a powerful book. I wasn't quite sure how I would feel about it when I read reviews on various websites, but decided to give it a chance. I sometimes shy away from "NY Times Bestsellers" when there's too much hype about it because I feel like it's just not as good as the hype (and usually I find that I'm right). But I was pleasantly surprised.
This is a very moving book that spans life in Afghanistan over 40 years (through present-day Afghanistan which, as you would imagine, is bleak). But it's much more a book about a young boy, Amir, seeking the approval of his father, feeling torn between his friendship with the son of his servant, and what his culture deems acceptable....but most of all it deals with choices and how those choices can haunt you, change you, and if you're lucky, redeem you. I was also struck by the hopeful feeling I came away with after closing the last chapter; even during the bleakest moments and the most horrendous crimes, humanity and compassion surrounded Amir and it contributed to why I didn't want to put this book down. I found myself turning the pages in anticipation of where the story was going... and sometimes cringing at the often graphic depiction of the unrelenting violence that is forced upon the citizens of this war-torn country.
I highly recommend this book, though I have a feeling Amanda and dad might prefer it over mom (since you expressed not-too-much interest in the topic, which is why I think you probably will pass). I already warned Amanda that there is some gruesome violence and some dappling with child abuse (can you simply "dapple" in child abuse? Maybe not the best choice of words) - so you are forewarned (I am forever scarred by your repulsion of Running with Scissors, so want you all to be prepared!).

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Many books have been written about WWII but I think this one is unique and well worth reading. Written by a woman, who herself died at Auschwitz during the war, Suite Francaise is written in two parts (five were intended but she died before completing the entire suite). Book One describes the palpable confusion and fear of ordinary men and women who were forced to flee their homes and city (Paris) in advance of the impending Nazi invasion in 1940. I don't think most of us can really imagine ever being in a situation where we would have to abandon our homes, sometimes our family and most of our worldly possessions to an invading army. Yet, it happend to France during WWII and she was one of the most advanced nations and cultures in the world...

Book Two covers the period of occupation and shows how people were forced to find ways to either accept or simply coexist with their Nazi occupiers if they wanted any semblance of ordinary life. In some cases families were forced to feed and house German officers in their homes. And occasionally people actually started to see the 'other' as a just another fellow human being with the same needs, desires, and foibles-and sometimes not.

Since this story is based on the author's first hand experience (and knowing her ultimate fate) I found this book to be riveting. I didn't want to put it down...

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, was a book I'd had on the bookshelf for about a year and a half. I'm not sure if I ever picked it up, started it, and put it down, but I am certainly happy that I picked it back up again.
This is the story of a 14 year old girl, Lilly, living in South Carolina in 1964. She comes from a broken home where her mother died tragically when Lilly was only 4 and her father is a troubled soul who takes his misery out on his daughter at every turn. The only friend Lilly seems to have is the housekeeper, Rosaleen, a black woman who has been with Lilly's family for years.
Through a variety of twists and turns, all woven within the race riots and civil rights unrest of that time, Lilly and Rosaleen find themselves miles away from home living with a colorful group of sisters who take them in and shine light on lives that, for both Lilly and Rosaleen, have been anything but sunny.
This book sucked me in almost from the beginning and spoke to all of the different forms in which love can come into our lives. I was left with a really complete feeling after finishing this book; the characters were so well written and Kidd really got the essence of family, the essence of love, and the true meaning of what forgiveness is. I liked that there wasn't a ribbon tied around the book at the end, everything wrapped up all nicely with a perfectly happy ending. If anything, I think Kidd leaves you with the feeling that life is anything but perfect, or always happy, but that's the journey. And sometimes the people we end up letting into our little weird worlds are the ones we never thought would fit there at first glance... and that's beautiful.

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born...by Tina Cassidy

Allison III
Originally uploaded by Sara Heinrichs (awfulsara).

"I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different." T.S. Eliot

This was one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time (Sagan's was also pretty rockin'!) Right off the bat, though: Becky, you probably can't stomach this one. And dad, you probably don't care much about the topic. So, mom...are we alone now? What a great book this was. You've been there, so I'm sure you can stomach the finer details.

Basically, Cassidy finds herself talking about the birth of her new daughter with the other women in her family and realizes how different birth was for different generations. This sends her on a quest to learn about birth in different times and different cultures. The sheer variety of medical procedures ("twilight sleep?"), expectations of the mother (SILENT labor?!), and cultural traditions (coils around the father's testicles which the birthing mother pulls on so he can feel some of her pain (-: !!) were so interesting and unexpected.

Of course, I also found myself crossing my legs as tight as possible during discussions of labor difficulties and the different implements "doctors" used to save laboring mothers. And sometimes doctors weren't allowed to save the mothers. During certain historical times, Catholics weren't allowed to sacrifice the baby's life for the mothers - the baby hadn't been baptized yet. So mom and baby usually died during difficult Catholic deliveries. Fun!

The history of birth experiences was fascinating. However, I felt there was a larger message to this book - life is precious. Reading about how many mothers have died trying to bring their children into the world broke my heart. Thinking of how many infants died before taking their first breath broke my heart. And with all of this heartbreak, I was reminded of how big love and sacrifice are...lessons I've learned only upon becoming a mother myself. Life is so precious and brief and that's so important to remember. I really thought this was a beautifully written, researched, and thought out book.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

This was Dave's Christmas gift from Amanda and we both read it (thanks Amanda)so I'll be the first one to review it.

This book should serve as a clarion call to all the naysayers who refuse to recognize the urgency of global warming in our world today. The book recounts one of this nation's worst environmental disasters- the dust storms that devastated the High Plains during the 1920-30s. At it's peak, the Dust Bowl covered 100 million acres and the dust darkened skies as far away as Manhattan! The Plains were a barren landscape, covered by tall grass, where the Native Americans had hunted bison for centuries. Thanks to the Homestead Act (1850s?)the U.S. government moved the Indians off the land and encouraged settlers to move west, promising them free land for farming (160 acres). The railroads, politicians, banks and newspaper editors also played a role according to Mr.Egan. He writes, "The flattest, driest, most wind-raked, least arable part of the United States was transformed by government incentive, private showmanship, and human desire from the Great American Desert into Eden with a haircut."

This is truly an amazing tale, told through the voices of people who actually lived through the dust bowl days. It is a story of government incompetence (sound familiar?), greed, ignorance, and denial that things were really as bad as they seemed. I couldn't help but see parallels with what is happening today as we experience climate change and hear the dire warnings about what that portends for life on Earth.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who cares about protecting the environment. The summation on the back cover says it best: "In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature."

Hi - This is Dave adding to Jackie's post. I'm afraid my comments are pessimistic. Each reading of a new book on the subject of global land use seems to suggest a poor outcome. A suggested additional companion piece to "The Worst Hard Time" (WHT)is "COLLAPSE - How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed" by Jared Diamond. The book is a little problematic in tying the whole story together, but the conclusions seem reasonably well supported.

WHT & Collapse seem to deal with an environmental issue more dire than global warming. WHT described an expanding population moving to marginal land and succeeding in good times and damaging the land to the point it could no longer be used (or it disappeared in the case of the Dust Bowl) in bad times.

Collapse saw peoples either move away or starve and disappear under similar circumstances across time in different areas around the world. Globally, we appear to be at the point where many lands can not sustain the existing population with easily predicted climatic variances like weather events and temperature & rain fluctuations. The case gets worse with an increase in population. In the U.S., we still have a lot of land that appears to be ripe for occupation, but is marginal. Think lowlands (New Orleans, coastal regions including NYC, river flood plains), arid lands (the central high plains, high lands above 3-4,000 feet, or lands serving a cleansing purpose like forests and wet lands. Resource practices (high consumption in U.S., Europe, Japan; lesser rates in rest of world) also have a large effect and the trend is bad. Developing countries aspire to the U.S. consumption model. Collapse estimates we can maybe double the world's population with all known resources and at current consumption rates. If the current global population consummed as the U.S. does, we wouldn't have enough resources to live at the current 6 billion person level. It suggests that the developed nations need to use far fewer resources than today because the rest of world will catch up to that rate in a short time. It also suggests the global population should stop growing. A global discussion on consumption and population appears to be the most pressing environmental issue (not global warming) but is unlikely to occur until the predictable conflicts over water, food and habitable land occur multiple times and the root causes become more apparent. Like I said, my conclusions (most of the preceding paragraph) are pessimistic but that should not take away from reading either WHT or Collapse. The better we understand the known situation, the greater chance we have of producing a better outcome.

It's a Keeper!

Well, folks, this one is a keeper! I think the index is especially nice. Whoever worked on it must not only be handsome, but very smart...he obviously put a lot of time into it!

Ok, I confess. I haven't read the book, but I know Michael Thompson (he was one of Mark's professor's at William Paterson and was at our wedding) and I think he has a good writing style, from what I've read.

Woo hoo! New Conservatism! Rock on!