Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion edited by Ronald L. Numbers started out as a fantastic history of science and religion. Mr. Numbers and the authors of each of the myths, debunked a number of myths about the connections of science and religion. Some of the myths, I was aware of as myths, and that they had been proven wrong. It was interesting however to read briefs on them. I actually didn't know, or more likely didn't remember, the myth that Galileo had gone to jail for his beliefs. I really enjoyed reading each little brief, and learning something new about the connection that science and religion has shared.

Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu

Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen is a fascinating biography of a fascinating man. Mr. Bergreen is well known for his other biographies and for being a man who writes definitive biographies of famous people who have since passed on. He does just that with his biography of Marco Polo. Marco Polo had some fantastic adventures and having not read his book, I felt just fine reading the biography. Mr. Bergreen has made sure that he has researched well his topic and can present readers with a good picture of what the main character of his biographies may have seen, from strange (to us) customs, and experiences that are unique to his time. Laurence really did his research, and presented an excellent view of the court of Kublai Khan, as well as some of the reasons as to why the Mongolians of this particular era were such a feared fighting force, and some of the ways that the force was eventually defeated. Mr. Begreen also presented the role of foreigners in the court system, and the reasons why Kublai Khan would have employed them, and what Marco Polo's probable role was in the court. Mr. Bergreen takes some time to discuss the views on the modern work not being the same as the account written by Marco Polo so many years prior, and why there was such a difference between the types and where he thinks the most accurate account lies. The book was a fascinating study in Marco Polo and his works.

The Third Tower Up From the Road: A Compilation of Colums from McSweeny's Internet Tendency's Kevin Dolgin Tells You About Places You Should Go

The Third Tower Up From The Road: A Compilation of Columns from McSweeny's Internet Tendency's Kevin Dolgin Tells You About Places You Should Go by Kevin Dolgin was a fascinating book, which mostly was a collection of previously published travel columns as stated in the title. Kevin Dolgin does an excellent job of not reiterating information that most readers can find through a good google search or any particular travel guides to the areas, but discusses his experiences with the areas, while in the mean time giving tips on what to see and what to avoid. His tips are based on experiences he has had while traveling to these places. As a person without a lot of money it was good to feel as though I lived vicariously through his travels around the world. I loved his experiences, and reading about others makes me think that I can really search out my own around the world, and with very little effort create a more memorable trip than the average tourist. I especially liked reading his stories about the Island where his wife's family is from, Corsica, because Kevin really demonstrated that an adventure can be had right at home, in your own backyard, and you can still sleep in your bed at home. While I do not know if I will become a devout blog reader of his, (my success at blog reading is the same as my success of writing blogs) I can say if he ever publishes another collection I will look forward to reading it.

Carrying the Heart: Exploring the Worlds Within Us

Carrying the Heart: Exploring the Worlds Within Us by F. Gonzalez-Crussi was a fantastic book, that explored the history of our understanding of the body. He explored the early myths and other stories and treatments for the body. He arranges the book starting with the digestive system which is appropriately where the world had and still does view the seat of the body, from feeling not right when the digestive system is upset, to some of the views we believed about the system, and some of the remedies for our perceived maladies, or true maladies of that particular system, he goes on from there through the respiratory system, the reproductive system, and finally the cardiovascular system. Mr. Gonzalez-Crussi discusses our beliefs and addresses the more unusual cures that we have used in the past to treat the various symptoms. One of my favorites that he addresses is some of the unusual enemas and the picture featured on the cover of the book is the device used to give smoke enemas. I enjoyed his book and have added some of his others to my list of books to read.

Stitches

Stitches by David Small is my first ever read of a Graphic Novel. It was recommended by a woman at a both at the ALA. The book, the copy I have is an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) and the actual book's release date is not listed on Amazon. -- this has changed since I started this post. The date of Release is now September 8th. I didn't know what to expect, except the person who told me about the book told me to have the Kleenex ready. I didn't have the Kleenex ready but was really in shock when I finished the book, but it was much the way I expected the author felt, when he first lived the events of the memoir. I feel as though we are the privileged audience reading something that was written for someone privately. I think it was an amazing piece of work, and while it did not turn me on to the field of graphic novels, it certainly helped to open my mind to the possibility of a great graphic novel, and a once and a while quick read. I found the book to be very fast moving, and I think that helped to contribute to the level of shock at the end of the book. I find that the speed of the book really set the tone for the book also. I think David Small did a great job with his first book, and I will look for him in the future.

The Order of the Odd-Fish

The Order of the Odd-Fish by James Kennedy is a fantastic book by an author who is clearly influenced by Monty-Python and Roald Dahl. His book contains all of the fantastic whimsical ideas that they could dream up along with the dark and scary too. But at no time is the dark and scary overwhelmingly dark and scary. The book was recommended to me by the author who described it as Monty-Python meets Roald Dahl, and it was. It is the story of the Odd-Fish, a society that studies the appendix to the encyclopedia, which is everything you think it should be, it is the science of smells, unusual creatures, and dithering. The book is a bit of a harrowing ride at the beginning, but as Jo (the main character) settles into her new life, you settle in to expecting the unexpected, and to me that is the only throwback. I figured out the end of the book shortly after the start, but wasn't disappointed by having done that. As the book crashes around corners you find yourself cheering on even the guy who is set out to be one of the villains in the start of the book. Death and destruction is present but dealt with much as Roald Dahl did, just a fact of life and to celebrate the life of, rather than mourn the loss of. So I suggest you head to the California Desert, Lily Larouche and her niece Jo, but beware, when Jo was found there was a note warning that she is a very dangerous baby.

The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of the Obituaries

The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of the Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson. When I first saw this book, the name reminded me of a former nursing school instructor by the same name, but since the author is neither a nursing school instructor or living in Illinois, just a coincidence. At the same time, the title was completely intreguing, and what I thought was going to be a collection of obituaries, based on the title alone. I really regularly judge a book by its title, and then if intregued, and at the library, I am likely to pick it up. The book was not a collection of obituaries, but a dive into the cultural world created by the obituaries section of the paper. I liked her stories of the editors of the obituaries of the various major newspaper and the history of the modern newspaper obituarie of the "common man", although I didn't feel like her writing flowed well. I felt as though her thoughts hadn't been fully revised, and it was difficult to follow her train of thought.

While her writing may have left something to be desired, anyone who has ever read one of the staff written obituaries, about all the slighltly famous, or not famous at all that die everyday, will enjoy this book, and the look at the culture, a newly discovered culture for me, that surrounds the obituaries, and will think harder about the next time you see a newspaper and look at the obituaries sections of the paper.

Ms. Johnson comments on the form of the obituary and the changes along almost a pendulic line of the obituaries. From obituaries that celebrate life, to obituaries that focus on death, and back again. She also does a nice job of dealing with the effects of Sept. 11 and the following bombing of London Public Transit, and how obituary writers deal, or don't in some cases with crisis. She also focuses on the difference between an English Obit and an American Obit, highliting some of the people who make this section of the paper a must read for some people every moring.

The obit section will never surpass the comics section or the crossword puzzle for me, it is a section of the paper that I do seek out, and I think after this book I will pay this section more of the attention that it deserves.

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything To Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson is a true adventure tale in the best sense of the word. The men, John Chatterson and Rich Kohler, are deep sea divers, attracted both by the challenge and thrill of the dive. They dove separately to what they believed were all of the great dives in the North Atlantic ocean, when a friend of John's, a boat owner, who makes his money from these divers, hears about one more, a site where the fishing is good. The men go to investigate the wreck. What they find changes their lives. Robert does a fascinating job of exploring both how these men's lives have changed as a result of the boat, and explaining about the art of the dive, and the history of the boat, its inhabitants, and what life was like for the men aboard the U-Boats during World War II. I have previously read books by Mr. Kurson, and believe him to really study his subject writing books that are not only informative but also engage the reader in the sport of participating with him in learning. The book is about not only a boat and a couple of men who dive, but all the intricacies of a deep sea dive, and the relationships and bonds that develop between the various people on the dive team. He discusses their relationship, both on and off the boat. It was exciting to read their exploits, and for the time I read the book, pretend that I also could deep sea dive, and explore the wreck with them.

Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000 year old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight

Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000 year old Delicacy Inspired the World's Fiercest Food Fight, by Mark Caro provided a look at the controversy around the production, eating, and ethical issues of Foie Gras. I didn't expect to read such a balanced book about the subject, because it is so controversial. The debate made national news starting right here in Chicago when the 49th ward Alderman Joe Moore proposed a ban on the sale of Foie Gras in Chicago. The ban was successful and the restaurants of Chicago were no longer allowed to serve Fois Gras. I expected either a straight expose about the evils of the subject, and how Joe Moore was such a good person for introducing a ban on the product, or an narrative about how wonderful the product was and we should all go out and eat it. I got a bit of both, and neither at the same time. Mark not only speaks with both sides of the issue, but reviews their materials and takes a serious look at the claim that each makes. He visits national, local and international producers of various styles of foie gras, from a manufacturer in Minnesota to a small farm in France. I appreciated that he discussed the issue with Joe Moore, although the book did not leave me with a positive feeling towards my former alderman. Mark, with journalism as his primary profession, does an excellent job of not pushing any particular opinion on the reader, but allows the reader to start seriously thinking and possibly drawing his or her own conclusions on the matter, or at least desiring to do more research on the matter for the readers self. At the end of the book, I'm not sure of where I stand on the matter, but I feel that I am beginning to grasp the basics of the arguments and am in a position to go do my own research and make my own judgements.

I feel as if the goal of the book, is not to enjoy a nice narrative about an experience with foie gras, but to head out there and learn more, and become ready to draw personal conclusions about the product.

Rooftops of Tehran

Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji is another coming of age story that is told almost like poetry. The words create a small little block of Tehran in 1973 where rooftop gardens abound, and they are places where people hang out.

When Pasha, the narrator of the story, paints the pictures of his friends and neighbors, you can almost hear them calling, from his mother with her herbal remedies to his best friend, and the local geek. Each of these characters helps him become the man for whom he will become in adulthood and what challenges he will have to face. Not only does he have to deal with the challenges of falling in love for the first time, but his parents hopes and dreams, and the bigger challenge of the Iranian Secret Police... trained by the American CIA.

When things change because of an encounter with the police, Pasha is thrown into a world that he had not considered for himself. He would like to study to become a story teller, and through the authors poetic words of the narrator, if he had not been a fictional character, a rich tapestry of life experiences would provide him with just the right amount of "THAT" to quote the book, to make excellent movies and the ability to see things from an entirely different perspective.

Mortal Coils

Mortal Coils by Eric Nylund was a fantastic science fiction novel. I was not and am still not a fan of really out there science fiction, but science fiction that have some grounding in things I understand, I really appreciate. I also enjoy when the footnotes explore other issues and expand upon the book. It makes the book more colorful and fantastic to read.

The coming of age story presented in the book is one that readers of all ages can identify with. How do you deal with your new body, your new feelings, and your new--new because they are different-- relationships with your family. How do you remain the same, how do you change, and how do you handle it. What problems and challenges are addressed by this book and do the main characters solve it?

Those questions are the ones that the main characters are faced with, and I feel that Eric has written characters that explore those challenges and use the skills that they've learned throughout their lives to help them, as well as learning new skills quickly and working on identifying with adults and the new world they are sent to help shape.

Shaping the new world, something that the main characters are not originally out to do is something that they get involved in, and shapes who they are and whom they are to become, goddess, hero or something else all together. The book leaves us wondering if they will be able to fulfill the roles set out for them by the adults in their lives, or if they will go on, as many of us have to destinies unknown to all.

The New Annotated Dracula

The New Annotated Dracula, with story by Bram Stoker, and annotations edited by Leslie Klinger, is a fascinating read. Usually I don't go for particularly scary stories, but having seen the stage show Dracula in high school, put on by a high school cast, I at least knew the plot. Having been bored by the long introduction that Leslie and a few others give to the book, and having skipped ahead to the story itself, it was not until nearly the end of the book, that I realized that while Leslie was aware that Dracula was a work of fiction, and his annotations were to give us additional light into the book. I personally don't recommend this, being the annotations for a first read through Dracula. For someone who had never read the book, sometimes the annotations were helpful, but sometimes they got in the way. I think I would have rather picked an UNABRIDGED version of Dracula for the first read. I also think that the book would have been scarier that way. Reading it with all of the attached annotations, it was easy to get lost in the annotations and at times, hard to follow the story. The annotations came in surprisingly helpful when the characters spoke a language other than English or a heavily accented English, that would be difficult for the modern reader to understand.



Bram Stokers book was a good book, however, and I was able to Imagine the kind of fear Dracula would have certainly caused in the 19th century. I really enjoyed the fashion the story was told in, a found collection of journals. This made it easier to believe these characters existed and allowed for them to comment and feel for each other but not have it be traditional thought box. For me I feel that it helped to eliminate some of the fear. Mina was my favorite character. She had the most detailed diary.

To the End of The Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson

To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson by Tom Avery is a fantastic journey, and makes me feel as if I could do it, even when I know that I cannot. Tom is a support of Peary and believes that he made it to the pole, and wants to prove that he did. So he sets up to try, and with a team of less than hard working sled dogs and 4 other explores, he attempts to recreate the experience as well as someone without any igloo building experience can. They see their share of peril, and strife, with their trip to the Artic Ocean, but at the same time provide support to a group of people back home and motivate them in a way that peer training seminars and experiences never could. I found the whole adventure fantastic and would get lost in the book wherever I was. I found myself refreshed reading such a cold book in the hot sun of a black car. Anticipating the upcoming adventure I was looking for excuses to read the book. It made me think about working on my own writing, in its thoroughness and in the way that Tom Avery seems to capture his own feelings and the adventures of him and his fellow travelers. I look forward to Tom Avery going on and writing about more adventures, and the changing adventure and explorer experience.

A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhikering Odyssey

A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhiking Odyssey by Tim Brookes is a fantastic travel narrative about something I don't have the courage to do, but enjoy reading about others whom do have that very courage. Tim Brooks does a great job about setting the stage of who he is and why he is setting off on this particular adventure. He also talks about his joys and failings on this trip, including dealing with homophobia, and the opinions of modern day America (1990's) versus how he was raised and his own current thinking on the matter. He does a good job of describing the people that he is picked up by, and who he stays with, as well as the people he meets when he doesn't actually hitchhike, including his current traveling companion and his previous travel companion. Tim Brookes has to face his past in a fairly forthright way, and I think as a result of having to face the past as he does, he provides a vivid description of current America, through eyes looking for contrasts and similarities, and not only does he succeed in his search, but finds something about himself as well, which is what hitchhiking should be about. The idea is inspiring enough for me to daydream about something I would never possibly dream of even in the age of cellular phones with cameras, and video cameras, net books, laptops, air cards, and iPods that do all of it. That's what I look for in an excellent travel narrative, the daydream to have that adventure, or one similar to it of my own.

People of the Book

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, is the book about a book. In more ways than one it is a book about the people of the book, the Jewish people, and the people of the book, the people whose lives have been touched by the Sarajevo Haggadah, specifically, the characters in her book. She does an great job of describing the people who have had a hand in the safe keeping of, and the destruction of the book, at the same time. Each of them have had a very different role in the book and connecting the stories, was magic. I was grateful to see the book written by people who have a hand in Jewish culture, and that the main character shared the same Hebrew name as I. I also enjoyed reading about the process used to restore the books. It shows how much research the author put into the book. I could follow the process from Hanna, the main character to each vignette of the book. I was impressed by the vivid descriptions, that led me to imagine living in these various roles, in the books history. The book even does a good job of explaining any words that are used that are out of the normal reader, not the unintelligent readers, will have previously encountered in their regular reading, which makes me as the normal reader feel that the story is fantastically easy to follow. A Jewish reader may feel as though they have the upper hand over another reader initially when they pick up the book, but Ms. Brooks does a fantastic job of making the book not about being Jewish, or being repressed, but about the history of a BOOK, a thing of learning of intelligence and history, and a thing that in the end has touched the souls of all whom have laid hands on it, and have used it over the years. That makes it a book to read and enjoy the experience.

A Field Guide To Getting Lost

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit turned out to be a terrible disappointment. Her book was a series of essays on the existential idea of getting lost. The idea of getting lost existentially is a good one, but one can get lost in a good book, as well as in the wilderness. I thought that the book would be about the idea of getting lost in the wilderness, or in the city scape, about being aware of your surroundings and getting lost in the beauty of a sunset. In a way each of the articles deal with her getting lost in those environment, but not how we can as individuals get lost in those surrounds, so that we can create our own lost experiences. The Publishers Weekly expressed some of the same concerns about the book, saying that the book leaves the reader feel lost while reading it. Solnit seems to be lost in her own words and isn't apologetic about it, but leaves the reader behind in her wandering and rambling. She's not really int rested in interesting her readers, as much as rambling to herself, much as one would on a blog or in a journal, but she happens to be a respected and published author with other books that have granted her the right to publish a book of her ramblings that otherwise would not have gotten published, and she may have had to think about what the book really meant, and maybe she would have produced a book on existentialism rather than the idea of getting lost.

Ah yet another blog

After looking at my reviews of the books I read on a regular basis, on my regular weekly blog, it became a little overwhelming. I decided that I had a few too many books read during the week, so I have decided to form a book review blog. This way each book can have its own entry and its own review. Look forward to three to four books for each week to be posted. I called the blog book of the day club because that's how many books I read each day, but due to a schedule issue, expect publication to be approximately once to twice a week.