Book List pt 2

That last book post was getting too long.  So, here's the next set of books.  With this, I'm caught up on reviews, at least at the time of me scheduling this post, which I suppose I'll leave for a few days in the future.  See, this is how you keep people attentive, always leave them wanting more.  My next project is going to be a treatise on how to build a blog that will bring in dozens of readers.  Now, having reached a requisite level of ado, here are some more books worth reading (and one that is not):


Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Not a good book.  The idea is that Dr. Kaku looks at things from science fiction (time travel, faster than light travel, light sabers, teleportation, etc.) and describes them as either possible in the next few decades or centuries, possible but requiring a level of technology that seems far in the future, or not possible without a fundamental change in how we understand physics.  I found the book to be so non-technical and arbitrary as to be unreadable.  On light sabers, he essentially said that we can make plasmas that would essentially behave like light sabers do, so if you just had a tube with little holes in it to let the plasma out, and some marvelous advances in battery technology to make powering it possible then we should be able to make them.  Should be 50 to 100 years away.  He doesn't begin to describe how we would make batteries that would be many orders of magnitude better than what we currently have, nor does he describe a material that would stand up to plasmas, and let me smack it into other people's light sabers without shattering and be light enough to easily use.  He just seems to trust that because science has invented many wondrous things, we clearly will continue to invent all of these specific wondrous things.  (And I couldn't help but note that it is easy to write a book making claims about things 50+ years out, knowing full well that no one will remember your book then, and even if they do, you won't be around to see if you were right or not.)  I made it less than a third of the way through the book.

Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
This book is written from the perspective of Dr. Jennifer White, a former surgeon who was forced to retire because of Alzheimer's disease.  As the reader, we experience the world through her eyes, as she struggles to remember who these people are visiting her (her children), and what they're talking about.  At the center of the story is the murder of Jennifer's best friend and neighbor, Amanda.  Jennifer is a suspect in the murder, but most days she doesn't even remember that Amanda is dead.  It is painful at times to experience a little bit of what it would be like to suffer from this tragic disease.  The book is very well written, following a disjointed narration, and leaving us wondering who killed Amanda - with the possibility that even the murderer doesn't know who killed her.  I won't give away the ending other than to say that there is at least reasonable closure to the plot.

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
This work of fiction is a collection of letters from Jason Fitger, a tenured professor of writing at Payne University.  He deals with funding cuts, construction annoyances (for upgrades to the Economics Department facilities), and an endless stream of requests for letters of recommendation.  As befitting his occupation, he writes wonderfully colorful letters on all topics, particularly for some of the more ridiculous letters of recommendation that students ask him for.  The book is short (180 pages) and whimsical, but through the course of his letters (the novel is entirely made up of his outgoing mail) a few plot lines develop, and I found the book to be much more poignant than I first suspected.

Book List

It hit 72 degrees at my house yesterday, so I suppose it's time for the blog to come out of hibernation.  I'm generally not a huge fan of big blog posts in an attempt to "catch up" on things that were missed, but . . . I'm going to do a little bit of that, and today we'll start with books.

The Blockburger's keep reading, and that doesn't look likely to change any time soon.  While I stand no chance at catching Julia's reading total for the year, I am currently 302 pages ahead of Shannon!  (No doubt Shannon finished up a 305 page book yesterday afternoon and just hasn't gotten around to putting it in the log yet.)  Here's my list for the year so far, with a brief thumbs up/down.

Dune by Frank Herbert
This is a sci-fi classic.  It was good, but not great.  I think I started reading this book decades ago and never finished it, as the first hundred or so pages seemed vaguely familiar.  It's a story of a family that goes to a dessert planet (think Tatooine) to take over governing from a rival noble family.  Assassinations and fighting ensue, and a young boy from the first family has to survive and then fight back.  There are more books in the series, but I don't plan on reading them.

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan
If you've only ever seen one bit from Mr. Gaffigan's standup comedy, it's probably about Hot Pockets.  He thinks a lot about food, he talks a lot about food, and he writes a lot about food.  The book is funny at times, but Gaffigan is a better stand-up comedian than he is a writer.  I've read both of his books (Dad is Fat, which is about parenting was his first) and for me the scope of the book is too narrow for the number of pages.  Essentially, he's got 220 pages of good stuff, spread out over 330 pages of him talking about every type of food he's ever eaten.  Boy, does that man love food.

The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson
This book is pretty famous, so I won't go into tons of detail.  The book flips between two stories from 1892 Chicago.  The White City is about the construction of the World's Fair, specifically the planning and architecture and focuses on Daniel Burnham who over saw the project.  The devil in the title refers to Dr. H. H. Holmes, who was a serial killer who took advantage of the many people attracted to Chicago at that time and the World's Fair in particular to select his victims.  Needless to say, he is a thoroughly creepy character.  The book is very good, and I enjoyed the chapters about the World's Fair the most.  It's also fun because living in Chicago as we do, we have been to the only remaining buildings constructed for the fair (now the Museum of Science and Industry and the Chicago Art Institute) and Shannon and I have even stayed in the Burnham Hotel.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
I have a problem with Brandon Sanderson, and that problem is that he writes too slowly.  In the last 2 years I've now read the majority of the novels he has published, and they are, nearly without exception, excellent.  This book (which apparently has sequels planned) ranks below Mistborn and The Way of Kings, but is still very good.  I'm not even going to describe the book, but will just say that if you like fantasy novels, start with Mistborn, and if you like Sanderson, this is another good one to read.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
I read this book multiple times as a kid and loved it.  It's about a boy (13 years old?) who runs away from home and lives in the Catskill Mountains, hunting and collecting his own food, capturing and training a baby falcon, carving out a tree to live in, and doing all sorts of mountain man things.  I re-read it to see if it would be something that I could suggest for Julia.  Sadly, the book isn't as good as I remember it.  Everything goes ridiculously well for this kid.  This criticism probably isn't as pressing for young readers though.  Julia could probably read the book, but since she still won't read the book that we got her for Christmas . . . .