Reading May 2011 - Jan 2012

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids - Carol McCloud: I can't say enough about this book or concept. It's a great way to teach kids about kindness and maximizing their own happiness by spreading it to others using the metaphor of bucket filling and emptying. Also a great reminder to adults.

Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins: I know I am way behind the curve on this one but it is my current obsession. My sister gave this book to me for Christmas and said, "trust me". A few pages in one night, I knew this book would present a problem to my shut-eye. So I held off till the morning. Never have I been so excited to get up and get Avery off to the bus. I then brought the boys into bed with me so that my body heat would keep them asleep and I proceeded to read till it was over. I took one break to make them brunch when they woke up at noon, then they were promptly plopped in front of a television until I finished at 2pm. It took me a few days to shake the feeling that I was part of this story. I still wish I could have thought this up. If there is anyone left who hasn't read this, you have until March before the movie comes out. One of the jacket reviews touts that this book is "perfectly paced". That's probably the best way to describe it. It's easy to read, intense, wildly entertaining, tragic, gripping with bonus points for keeping it clean. Target audience - teenagers - or middle aged white women who drive station wagons and get the occasional speeding ticket.

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand: Oh man, this story was gripping as well. But true. I listened to this one on cd when we were travelling around California, and while my usual go-to for long drives is talking to Ben on the phone (hands-free of course), what I really wanted to do was find out what was next for Louis Zamparini and his World War II compadres. This one will also be made into a movie, no trailer yet. Sharks, sociopaths, Billy Graham...this story has it all. Ben also listened to this one and it almost made his commute enjoyable.

What Would Google Do? - Jeff Jarvis: Someone at work recommended this to me. It was boring. Maybe if I was currently in a management position it may have some value, but I didn't find that it inspired anything beyond what one might come up with intuitively.
I wish I could make the picture of the book smaller.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua: Wow Amy Chua, you are crazy, woman! But I love it. If she was submitted as a tribute for the Hunger Games she would survive, I'm sure of it. This Yale law professor/author/tiger mother has seriously high standards for her children. Sure, we all think we are whipping our little ones into shape, but compared to her techniques I might as well be letting my kids stay up late watching Netflix on the iPad, sleep in till noon, eat peanut butter out of jars and marshmallows out of bags and sign their one page of homework off without even glancing at it to see if they did it right...er...but it's cool as long as they practice 5 minutes of piano and I fawn all over their slaughtering of a simplified Imperial Death March, right? Amy Chua has her kids redo their homemade birthday cards to her if she feels that they did less than their best. But guess what, she has a daughter at Harvard. You can read an excerpt here. Interesting note: For bookshelves in China the title was changed to : Being a Mom in America. :)

Designing with Succulents -Debra Lee Baldwin: Pretty, pretty succulents.

Sugarsnaps and Strawberries - Andrea Bellamy: Great for any level of gardener with any size of garden.








Spousomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage and Dirty Dishes or How to Maximize Returns on the Biggest Investment of Your Life. - Paula Szuchman & Jenny Anderson: Hmmm. I'm on the fence on this one. I like marriage and I like Econ, so I enjoyed the premise. The chapters are organized into common economics topics- Loss Aversion, Division of Labor, Game Theory and I think it is a fun and novel way to look at relationships...I just feel like it fell into the traps that lots of books and even more movies do too often - by inserting excessive foul language and a general sexing up when unnecessary. Some things are worth taking to heart and applying but overall I'm not sure how qualified the authors are to offer some of the advice and think that some of it may have harmful implications.

At Home: A Short History of Private Life & I'm a Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson: At Home was my introduction to Bill Bryson. I picked this book up at the library off the shelf. It's long but chock-full of fascinating history of the components and activities of various rooms of a home including but not limited to: the kitchen, the fuse box, the garden, bedrooms, bathrooms, attic, nursery and drawing room.

The Victorian time period being ever so formal but rife with scandal makes it perhaps the most interesting of times to read about, although we can be made to appreciate modernity on multiple occasions. And if we thought our current supply of produce was toxic one of my favorite passages in the book talks about how cherries could be made to glisten afresh by being gently rolled around in the vendors mouth before being put on display. How many unsuspecting ladies of quality, he wondered, had enjoyed a plate of luscious cherries that had been 'rolled and moistened between the filthy and, perhaps, ulcerated chops of a St Giles's huckster'? It's a long book but the good news is that you can jump around to that which interests you and not get lost.

Since I really enjoyed Bryson's wit and style I picked up a couple of his other books and read the fairly short I'm a Stranger Here Myself about his experience coming back to the U.S. after living in England for 20 years. Not as jam packed with info as At Home, but okay. Basic premise - we drive everywhere.

Be a Successful Property Manager - R. Dodge Woodson: Made me realize that I do not want to be a property manager.

What's Gotten into us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World - McKay Jenkins: Alarmist without being alarmist, Jenkins basically breaks down our basic environment - home, food, body, lawns and the amount of chemicals we are surrounded by everyday. I enjoyed it, but I am into worrying about stuff like BPA, PCB's, phlalates, dioxins etc. I probably don't recommend this book for most, because if you do read it you will have no choice but to escape into the wilderness naked and take your chances with the wild animals. So I won't say anything else, but the inside of microwave popcorn bags are covered in Teflon, which I'm not sure mixes well with heat. And most chemicals have some sort of immunity from testing for health implications. Cheers!

The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis: I'm a C.S. Lewis fan. I just am.

I am in awe of his skill with allegory and frequently enlightened by his symbolism. In this book I was astounded by his grasp of both humanity and divinity and darn it if I didn't get a glimpse of myself here and there among the inhabitants of his hell (which thankfully is more like purgatory). As with most Lewis, one page might be the most you can handle at a time. So many quotes of course, but my favorite comes from the preface, which alone is worth the read: Even on the biological level life is not like a pool but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good.

First Things First - Kurt & Brenda Warner: I picked this book up when the kids and I were at Barnes & Noble and when it was clear that they wanted to stay a while. Warner had recently been in the news advising Tim Tebow to tone down the religious rhetoric (speaking from experience), so I was interested in knowing more about his story. I was surprised at how good it was. Basically it's about their family and the values and goals they have. Both Kurt and Brenda take turns writing about their history and how they make their family work. Surprisingly candid and relatable with some good advice.

Heaven is For Real - Todd Burpo: It's been a while since I read this book, and I sense that the skeptic in me has had time to set in. But if I recall my perception when I read it, I think that the story is incredible and that the details are moving if not amazing. Everyday I make a choice to believe in God, heaven and all that abounds therein, so why couldn't it be for real? And I don't know the title but I recently saw another account that seemed similar to this little boy but the encounter was under different circumstances.

I would be interested to know what anyone else who has read this thinks. It's a very quick and interesting read. Can easily be read in one sitting.

Radical: Taking back your faith from the American Dream - David Platt: Of all the books recorded in my book journal, this one has multiple pages of notes. The author is a pastor of a mega church in Alabama - which caused me to instantly and unfairly judge him as a televangelist who makes major bucks off of his followers by giving them a very entertaining weekly show. Which he very well may make a lot of money and be charismatic, but it's what he does with his church, his money and his life, and then challenges those reading the book to do, that is remarkable. He starts off by changing the premise of his church, saying that a mega-church with all of it's comforts is not what God asks of his disciples, and furthermore that Christ was the pastor of the first "mini-church" and that like Him, we should have material concern for the poor and spend time in another context, away from our big homes and comfortable churches. Platt recounts some great examples of people in his congregation that do so and impact lives in a major way locally and to all corners of the world (specifically China, India, Darfur and Indonesia). The problem with this book is that it is challenging and makes you uncomfortable with your comforts.

Edible Landscaping - Rosalind Creasy: Great resource for integrating a garden into your landscape. Encyclopedia of plants included. Great photos.

Bossypants - Tina Fey: Mostly funny, sometimes tedious, or maybe the reverse. Bad language which never earns points with me. I had two favorite parts. One was her "prayer for her daughter" (If you click on the link, be prepared for some of that language I mentioned). The other favorite excerpt is: About the current beauty ideal. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall (bum)…the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll (boobs). The person closest to achieving this is Kim Kardashian , who was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.

That, I thought, is funny.

Stories I Only Tell my Friends - Rob Lowe: Rob Lowe is a good writer who has lived a fascinating life. I didn't know anything about him and I picked this book up b/c our library was having a/c issues and they only had a few kiosks of books available for checkout. So I got this, Bossypants and Stolen Life. All of them have the "F" word, but I think I have belabored my disapproval of this already. His stories about growing up in Hollywood were really interesting and I enjoyed his writing.

A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard: A major downer, of course. I didn't know that she was tazed to facilitate her kidnapping and that scares me as a mother.

Instant Physicist: An Illustrated Guide - Richard Muller: Everything you ever wanted to know about lasers, bio-fuels and radioactivity but were too dumb to understand! This book is really fun I thought and was full of interesting info like on pg 104 - If the sun blew up we wouldn't know it until 8.6 minutes after because that's how long it takes for it's light to reach the earth. And pg. 110 - Organic foods are higher in poisons and carcinogens that foods grown using pesticides. Typically the natural pesticides in organic foods are thousands of times more carcinogenic than artificial pesticides approved by the USDA - and they can't be rinsed off. I don't know what to believe anymore.

I Don't Believe in Atheists - Chris Hedges: Even though I get that it's a joke, I don't love the title of the book because it is offensive, but I did love it's cute little size and gold cover and I thought the content was good. The author observes two radical and polarizing sides debating faith and religion in the U.S. - fundamentalists and atheists. I have a few notes but it's been so long since I read this that they are cryptic to me. I think this quote came from the book, "Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind." And also something to the effect that it's not what we do in life, but what we do with what life gave us, enduring with compassion, wisdom, humility and accepting the ambiguity and ultimate mystery of existance. I may have to go back and read this again b/c I think I liked it but can't remember specifics.

Lights Out / Sex, Lies and Menopause - T.S. Wiley: I can't remember what turned me on to this author but I checked both of her books out at the library and I thought they were great. Basic premise - Get adequate, if not abundant sleep (in complete darkness) and if you are going to eat sugar and stay up late do it in the summer when the days are longer. She also has a lot to say about bio-identical hormones. I thought that these books would be smart reading for any woman, regardless of age.

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that changed America - Erik Larson: This historical fiction novel about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago is riveting. Larson intertwines the lives two men: one a doctor and murderer, the other an architect in charge of designing and carrying out a huge undertaking in the World's Fair. It took me a few tries to get into this but I'm glad I stuck it out. I was even reading this when we went to Chicago last spring so it was fun to explore some of the architecture in the book. This took a long time to read but I am excited to read Larson's next book about Nazi Germany.





It's You and Me Lord: My Experience as a Black Mormon- Alan Cherry: This book did not end up in my hands organically as many of my eventual reads do. In fact, I'm not even sure that this book is still in print. I ordered this book used as a part of interest and study in the experience of Black Americans in the Mormon church that came about mostly through discourse and disagreement with Ben. Good read, interesting experience and testimony, especially considering the time period he joined the predominately white church. What I have found of greater and continued interest is the Sistas in Zion website and the Genesis Group.