Anna Karenina

For my 100th book, I read a book that had long been waiting on my shelf: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. I saved it for my final book because it's a long book, clocking in at over 850 pages - and not easy pages at that. I figured I had (from the start of it) over 6 weeks to read it, and that would be more than enough time to push my way through it.

Anna Karenina plays the central role amongst a large cast of characters. Like most of the epic novels from the Romantic era, Anna includes a great number of characters who are all interconnected. The title character is unhappily married and madly in love with another man, Vronsky. They want to spend their lives together but face the obstacle of obtaining a divorce in a culture and religious atmosphere that strongly discourage it. Other storylines include that of Levin and Kitty, great friends since childhood yet Kitty is promised to Anna's Vronsky, despite Levin's deep love for her. Later on, when Levin has a family, Tolstoy writes the story of his philosophical and spiritual journey to find the meaning of life and love. Interspersed through the story we read of other characters and get to take a look at the life of the Russian upper class and the politics of 19th century Russia.

As these stories unfold, Tolstoy's message becomes clear. The very first sentence of his book sums things up pretty well: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." You certainly get to see plenty of unhappy families, only occasionally catching a glimpse of a happy one. Each family reaches unhappiness in a different way.

This was definitely a good read. A book of such great length could easily become a chore. However, when compared to other literature of the time, it occupies a strange place. As its story goes, it pales in comparison to pop fiction writers such as Dumas and Dickens. As far as its philosophical and spiritual musings goes, it comes up short against Dostoyevsky (though not terribly short). Yet still it packs a strong punch, but only for those patient enough to dare these pages.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

100/100!!!

THe Hunger Games

Wow. It's been a long time since I read a book as compelling as Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. While aimed for a teenage audience, much like the Twilight series or the Harry Potter saga this book has managed to also create a stir amongst adults. Unlike the Twilight books, which are fad-based and poorly written, this book has earned the attention it has received.

The book centers around a Dystopian society where a city known only as "the Capitol" rules over the 12 Districts. At one point, the Districts tried to rebel, but the Capitol held them back, rampaging the Districts and destroying the former 13th District. As punishment, the Districts are severely restricted in what they are able to have and do. If that wasn't enough, they instituted the Hunger Games.

The participants of the Hunger Games are selected from each District. One boy and one girl aged 12-17 is selected at (sort of) random. These children then are forced into an immense outdoor arena with one goal: be the final competitor alive. The Gamekeepers add to the intensity by playing with the ecosystem or introducing deadly weather events and ferocious mutated creatures. All of this is televised for the Districts to watch. The District (and combatant) that survives gets showered with incredible riches. The brutality of the games (and the fact that children are the stars) reminds the Districts that the Capitol is in charge.

Katniss quickly finds herself as the female contestant from District 12. She is a scrappy girl who has taught herself to hunt and provides for her family, which consists of her mother and her sister. They depend on Kat for almost everything they need. Kat is joined by Peeta, a shy boy who has long had a deep affection for Katniss, a fact completely unknown by Katniss.

They have many obstacles to overcome: a washed-up alcoholic mentor, a lack of access to the level of training the wealthier districts enjoy, and 22 other desperate teens who want nothing else but to escape alive and victorious.

And only one of them can make it out alive.

I haven't been this glued to a fiction book in an extremely long time. Unlike far too many action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy books written for adults, the main characters in the book have a lot of depth. Not only do they behave and speak in a realistic way, but they cultivate an attachment with the reader. Collins also wrote the book in first person and present tense. The fun thing about this is that the narrator is neither the "omniscient narrator" of the third person nor the first person narrator relating past events. This technique takes only a chapter or so to get used to and really adds to the excitement - the narrator doesn't know how things are going to turn out!

My only complaint is that the dystopian society has not been completely developed yet. I hope that comes in future books because what I saw seemed very intriguing.

One quick warning - this book does contain quite a bit of violence. It's not overly gory, but definitely PG-13 with flashes of R (just because of the amount of killing that happens). Overall the book has a PG-13 feel, but violence is the only concern. As a result, I would recommend this book for anyone 13 and up (10-12 only if their parents know their kids would be able to handle it) who wouldn't mind the violence and enjoy a good exciting dystopian novel.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

99/100

Black Fire

I received Estrelda Y. Alexander's Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism from my brother-in-law, who often receives free books to review. He warned me that it was like a textbook, which was why he didn't plan on reading it, but thought that maybe I'd give it a try. I often claim that I'll read anything (which is nearly true), so I took up the challenge.

Black Fire is quite like a textbook. This review will be short because I don't have much to say. The back of the book claims that it would be good both for the scholar and for the general public. Not true. This book is not for the general public. Alexander spent quite a lot of time researching and compiling information about virtually every branch of Pentecostalism into one text. She went about this because very few history texts exist that cover Pentecostal denominations that are primarily African-American. 

In some sections the reader is treated to some interesting history. Those sections were pleasant to read, but most of it comes from the days of William Seymour, and just over a year ago I read a book that thoroughly covered the history of the Azusa Street revival. The rest of the narrative history comes towards the end as Alexander covers some neo-Pentecostal groups. I enjoyed the last 20 pages or so. The rest of the book delves into all different sub-denominations within Pentecostalism. Occasionally Alexander breaks to talk about certain individuals. Each person or denomination gets covered in anywhere between one and four pages. The end result is a torrent of names (of people and denominations) and doctrinal positions that wound up creating a confused soup in my brain.

As a side note, the Bishop of my church - Bishop Joseph Garlington - is mentioned twice in the book, both times very glowingly. That was a pleasant surprise - Alexander had a lot of criticism for most of the church leaders she covers.

This book does not have an appeal that would reach out to the general public. Exhaustively researched, Black Fire possesses value to researchers and church historians. But it really shouldn't be read cover to cover - that was a mistake. I don't think I wound up learning much. Its role ought to be as an occasional resource for information about specific Pentecostal movements, churches, or leaders.

Rating: N/A - it's a great resource, but not really a cover-to-cover read

98/100

The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction, by Terry Glavin, carried a remarkably different tone than the last book I read. While it made an attempt to end on a hopeful note, this book was overwhelmingly glum and depressing.

Glavin wrote a collection of "stories" that were woven together for this book. He focuses in on the phenomenon currently occurring that many title the Sixth Extinction. We currently live in a time where the extinction rate of species rivals that of five other great extinctions, among which is the Cretaceous-era extinction of the dinosaurs and other surprisingly bigger extinctions. Glavin looks at several different animals and how humans have contributed to their near-extinction and how they attempt to keep these animals among our wild species. His stories come from the experiences he has. He weaves facts in among the tales.

Glavin writes with a magnificent pen. His tales are elegant, introspective, and enthralling. Each chapter I felt myself sucked in and unwilling to leave the pages. Unfortunately, what I read was pretty depressing. Humans have caused an extinction rate that rivals some of the world's most cataclysmic mass extinctions. There's not much we can do about it, either. As long as our global population continues to increase and we continue to consume ridiculous amounts of natural resources, our biodiversity will continue to decrease.

The book has rather scathing comments to be made about zoos. Glavin calls them homes for the "living dead." The animals there have a miserable existence and even notable attempts to keep species from going extinct have largely failed.

In the end, Glavin calls on people to simply "do what they can." He doesn't feel that people purposefully bring about death and habitat destruction, with a few exceptions (like the Puritans, who believed that wild animals were demonic spirits). People of all kinds have simply acted selfishly, including ancient civilizations and virtually every Native American tribe, who he claims were not as sustainable as modern tales romanticize. Humans are the mammalian version of the cockroach (almost a direct quote), able to adapt to just about any environment. We'll survive for a long time, but if we want to have a world with substantial biodiversity, we need to make conscious decisions to support the environment.

Fat chance of that happening.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

(97/100)

$20 Per Gallon

Reading Christopher Steiner's $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better was like breathing in a breath of fresh air.

$20 Per Gallon explores what the world and average American life would look like at different levels of gasoline prices. There's no doubt that petroleum is running out: even the big oil execs (like T. Boone Pickens) have admitted that. There's still enough for now, but gas prices will inevitably rise - and some day at a much faster rate than what we see currently. Steiner goes with this premise and has a chapter for each even dollar increment: $4, $6, $8, and so on up to $20 a gallon for gas.

Unlike many environmentally-themed books, this one does not get preachy. Steiner did not write this book to push an agenda. He simply explores what each price level of gas would do to society. He does show some of the negative effects of high gas prices, but also explains what benefits would come as well. Rather than presenting a doom-and-gloom book, Steiner winds up creating a mostly hopeful depiction of a society weaning itself off of petroleum.

Each chapter took on a gas price and focused in on a particular issue that would be most impacted at a particular level. At $6 SUVs will in extremely low demand, at $8 air travel becomes too costly for most people,  at $10 gasoline-only cars become irrelevant, and so on. Steiner did his research on the big topics but gives educated guesses on what other changes may happen at each level.

It was very exciting to read this book. His goal of depicting high gasoline prices as a societal blessing was achieved. I hope that our society can keep up with the technological advancements required to prevent society from degrading into mass chaos. If we can, and if people can give up their stubborn selfishness, the world may very well become a much better place with $20 gasoline than it was with $1, $2, or even $4 gas.

I'd recommend this book to just about anyone interested in these topics!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

96/100

Celtika

Celtika, by Robert Holdstock, tells a tale of Merlin, before Arthur. Holdstock's Merlin is an ancient sorcerer whose origins extend back to the beginning of humankind. He serves an instrumental role in the mythology of Ancient Greece, and several hundred years after that era, this story picks up.

In Celtika, Merlin finds himself drawn to the ancient ship Argo, which calls to Merlin from a frozen lake. Merlin finds within the ship the body of Jason, whose soul is as frozen as the lake itself. Merlin wakes Jason and as he rises from his long-lasting slumber comes back to life. From there, they assemble a team of men (and a couple of women) to reassemble the Argo and bring life back to it.

Along the way, however, Jason discovers that he has a living son that he once believed dead. The journey evolves to center as much around Jason's son as the Argo. Along the way, Merlin encounters the relative of a past lover, a forest spirit, and a noble regal warrior Urtha, with whom he develops a close friendship. In the end, battles will be fought, lovers reunited, and two nasty duels will determine the future of Merlin and Jason's crew.

This book surprised me. I've been mostly disappointed by the Sci-Fi and Fantasy books I've read over the past year. I had fairly low expectations as I began Celtika, but as I read I noticed a richness absent from most recent entries in these genres. Holdstock clearly put a lot of thought into this tale. I did find the multitude of characters a bit off-putting at first, but by the end I felt very comfortable with all of the connections and societal structures. If I were to continue reading this series (it's the first of at least three books), I would be able to jump right in. The setup for the Arthurian Merlin worked, and I'd be interested to perhaps read the next book at some time in the future. I felt as if Holdstock was able to balance the Fantasy world with the bitter reality of life in era of the book (which is never directly specified, but clearly between 1500-2500 years ago).

This book still primarily for fans of Fantasy. Lovers of Greek Mythology and followers of the tales of King Arthur will also find a lot of merit in this book. Other readers looking for a decent fantasy may enjoy this book, although one should be warned that it still is a genre book. By genre book I mean a book that is tailored to fans of a particular genre, carrying certain characteristics, plot tactics, and overall tone. Generally these books are mass-produced and sometimes written by a team of writers (this one is not), and are meant to be predictable in their style. It's a good "genre book," but don't expect it to blow you away.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

(95/100)

A Fistful of Rice

A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability, by Vikram Akula, tells the story of Akula's for-profit microfinance organization, SKS Microfinance. Microfinancing has become increasingly popular over the past several years. The main idea revolves around small loans, which are distributed to (typically) women in poor countries. These women take the small loan and use it to establish a small business, a farm, or something like that. They then repay their loan with interest. This model has proven its effectiveness time and time again. People living in this state of poverty only need a small jump start financially in order to make a living.

Most agencies that do this operate as nonprofits. Akula argues, however, that higher profits allow for faster expansion and the ability to reach out to a greater number of struggling people. SKS Microfinance has enjoyed great levels of success and, at least by Akula's account, have engendered a greater level of trust in their members than the government of India. I should have mentioned earlier that as of now, SKS operates primarily in India, Akula's country of birth.

Akula's rise to the top has an interesting back story. Born in India, Akula's family moved to the United States to seize the opportunities open there for well-educated foreigners. There they grew to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. However, during visits to his native country, Akula felt that he needed to do something for the poor. The poor in India are nothing like the poor in America, he realized, and have urgent yet simple needs. After graduating from college, he went on to work for a Microfinance institution only to discover the limitations that faced the nonprofit organization. People begged Akula for loans that he could not offer due to financial limits. This inspired Akula to start his own business.

Akula had a rough time getting SKS off the ground. Once it did, however, it grew exponentially. Before long, Akula found himself on the list of Time's 100 Most Influential People. He has been able to reach over 6 million people and more recently began providing cheap (and reliable) insurance as well as an Ultra-Poor program that provides basic needs (for free) to the most desperate and destitute of the poor in India.

All of this sounds great, and made for an easy and relatively fun read for someone not particularly interested in economics (it helps that I love India). However...

Just about a month ago, SKS hit some hard times. Critics have long bemoaned the high interest rates (28%) that SKS charges. Between that and reports of overly aggressive loan officers and a series of suicides of SKS members cause the stock to dive, investors to pull out, and Akula to step down as CEO. Oops.

So while I enjoyed reading this book, I'm hesitant to recommend it because, after all, it doesn't exactly have a happy ending.


Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

94/100