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 . . . .