White Oleander

Spring "Break" (more like Spring Extended Weekend) provided me an opportunity to read. A lot. I quickly read my most recent book, White Oleander, by Janet Fitch, over the space of about 48 hours. This is a book Kendra had picked up and just recently completed.

The book follows the journey of Astrid who, after her mother is convicted of killing an ex-boyfriend, finds herself bouncing from foster home to foster home, struggling to find her identity in the process.

Exploring the all too often mediocre world of foster care is a wonderful idea, if done correctly. Fitch, an excellent writer, does a terrible job at it. She exploits and manipulates your feelings by presenting an utterly unrealistic picture under the guise of realistic fiction. Astrid finds herself in a total of 6 foster care placements, each one riddled with issues. The situations she lands in are all pretty extreme, and while they are individually believable, the sum total of her situations is not. Yes, awful things happen to people, and there are a lot of poor foster care placements. However, in the span of 6 years, Astrid goes through pretty much every worst-case scenario of a teenager in foster care. It's simply too much to believe.

This would have made a nice fantasy/fairy-tale but instead is meant to be seen as a real-life scenario. No wonder Oprah picked it as one of her book club picks. It's sad, introspective, and a picture of life in an unfortunate scenario. If Fitch had zoomed in on two or three of these situations, I would have bought it. But this - is just an unecessary manipulative emotional rollercoaster.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

completed 4/25...14 books, 56 days...at this rate I'll read 91 books

I Am America (And So Can You!)

I Am America (And So Can You!) is Stephen Colbert's entry into the print world. I am a big fan of his show and thought the book would make a worthwhile read. I began it with some hesitancy, though, because Jon Stewart's book America was a huge disappointment. What I found inside, however, was quite enjoyable.

There's not a whole lot to say about the book. It contains Colbert's (in character) thoughts and observations about the world. He maintains his character throughout - fake conservative pundit - and it shows up clearly in the text, the margin notes (similar to his "The Word" segments), and footnotes. It's easy to hear his voice narrating the text as you read.

The book itself goes through a variety of subjects - immigration, sports, sex, family, Hollywood, etc. In each he delivers plenty of laughs and humorous observations. If you enjoy his show, you will have a lot of fun with this book. Just don't do what I did and read it all in 36 hours...savor it a bit.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

13 books, 54 days...at this rate I'll read 88 books

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

I really should have enjoyed this book. Michael Chabon, author of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, also wrote one of my favorite novels, The Amazing Adventures of Kavilier and Clay. Additionally, this book won a Hugo Award for best science fiction novel.

But I didn't enjoy it.

I'm not sure what happened, but I never got sucked in. I couldn't really relate to the characters, the plot never hooked me, and I found the prevalence of Jewish references distanced me even further from the text.

The book revolves around Meyer Landsman, a detective whose personal life is a mess. He resides in a Jewish settlement in the Alaskan peninsula. In the book's alternate history, Alaska was set up as a settlement for displaced Jews after WWII, rather than Palestine. Landsman works on a murder case where things get worse and worse with each turn. He continues despite his fortune, unraveling a metaphorical (and literal) chess game.

I guess my problem with the book was that it contained all the wrong qualities. It was richly written (which is good), but the plot never hooked me (which makes the rich writing laborious). The characters were quirky (which was good), but they were quirky in their Jewish-ness (which I can't relate to). The book was a bit science fiction-y (which is good), but just as an alternate history with no science related qualities. In fact, it's easy to forget that there is an alternate history whatsoever.

Don't get me wrong - Chabon writes at a level matched by few other modern authors. The Yiddish Policemen's Union displays Chabon's mastery of the English language. It lacks story, a result perhaps of Chabon's effort to be creative and original.

Rating: 2 of 5 stars



12 books, 53 days...at this rate, I'll read 83 books

Decoding the Universe

I've been trying to read less science books, particularly those about the universe...oops. Decoding the Universe, by Charles Seife, puts a different spin on things through the lens of information theory. I can't go too far into it, because it's the first book I've read, and there's still a lot I'm confused about. Basically, it's the theory that everything is essentially made up of "bits" of information. It's a very compelling and interesting idea, and Seife presents it in a way that is accessible to the curious non-physicist reader.

Seife does a decent job explaining his theory and provides a number of good illustrations and explanatory stories. At times, however, he goes off on long explanatory tangents that don't really add much to his case. While he presents a lot of interesting ideas, I never really felt as if they all wrapped up to make one compelling case that information theory is any more plausible than other existing theories, particularly string theory. I've read another book of his, Zero, and it suffered many of the same problems. He's not as talented a writer as Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, Paul Davies, or a number of other popular science writers.

He also seems to be a bit disconnected from popular theory in physics. He makes the claim that most scientists believe the universe is infinite. Wait - what??? There are a few scientists that believe this, but many more believe our known universe to be finite (but large).There were a couple of other moments like that, but they were less blatant errors.

There aren't a lot of books (yet) on information theory, and this is the first I've read, so it may very well be the best. This is a worthwhile read for the science enthusiast who is looking for something new and different. But don't expect anything spectacular or you will be disappointed.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars


completed 4/17...11 books, 48 days...at this rate I'll read 83 books

The Art of Crossing Cultures

I don't have a lot to say about The Art of Crossing Cultures, by Craig Storti. It's a short (135-page) book with the purpose of helping people who are going overseas for a significant amount of time. This book was originally purchased by Kendra before she spent her semester in China, but I thought it might be an interesting read. Unfortunately, as it turned out, I was not its target audience. While I do hope to go overseas someday and would even consider something long-term, I don't think I would ever really benefit from this book.

Why? The book clearly caters to people who are not only going overseas for a significant amount of time (several months or more), but also to those with little overseas experience who are nervous about the change. I personally love experiencing different cultures and would almost never find myself in a position where I would be anxious about the differences. Rather, I would embrace them and try to immerse myself in the culture as much as possible, as I did in my month in India.

I think this book would be helpful (and perhaps necessary) for the stereotypical American traveler or for someone moving overseas for a job where there is a lot of anxiety over the new culture. For those that love other cultures or have a lot of travel experience, this probably isn't for you. Don't let the title fool you - the broad topic of "crossing cultures" is covered in only the most narrow sense in this book.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

10 books, 46 days...at this rate I'll read 79 books

The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, by Jim Wallis, is the type of book one writes prior to running for political office. Full of political ideology, competantly written, mentions the need for bipartisanship, and mostly preaches to the choir.

Wallis is not, in fact, running for office, but in this book he does make a passionate call for change among Christian voters. Released just 10 months prior to the 2008 election, Wallis's intention here seems to be to sway young Christians away from the clutches of the Religious Right.

Wallis writes primarily through the lens of his personal experiences, which at times renders the book vague and distant, and may give the impression to some that Wallis is self-absorbed. That was not the case for myself, but there were times in which I wished he stepped out of his experience and gave bigger-picture illustrations of his points.

As far as the content of the book, it is quite clear where Wallis falls in the political spectrum - and you can tell from the title. In the book he released prior to this one, God's Politics, he jabs both the Right and the Left, but in this book his statement of "post-Religious Right America" clearly gives away his left-leaning politics. Granted, throughout the book he does his best to sneak in criticism of Democrats, but throughout the book his blows almost always (except with abortion) land heavier on the Right than the Left.


Not that I have a problem with this - and I'm much in agreement with him - but it seems to take away from his "non-partisan" claims. Granted, it's not as egregious an offense as Fox News calling themselves "fair and balanced," but it still doesn't quite ring true.


Wallis's main argument is for the emergence of a new type of Christian: the social justice Christian. The social justice Christian is concerned about the poor and how to help them, racial justice, family and community, the dignity of human life (in and out of the womb), and love of one's enemies. After all, Jesus Himself concerned himself much of these things. Even at a political level we should have an interest in how the government addresses these areas.


But at a most basic level, he really wants to see an end to Christians being brainwashed into being members of the Religious Right. Christians certainly can be conservative and Republican, but not without losing sight of their true Biblical values (and not the somewhat arbitrary "values" prescribed by the Religious Right).

I agree with most of what Wallis writes and much of his writing is poignant. However, I think he's preaching to the choir. Few conservatives will pick up the book because they'll be turned off by the title. Really, though, they should, because Wallis is a passionate writer who, unlike many Christian writers, toils away to transform the world through words, humble service, and zealous action.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

9 books, 43 days...at this rate I'll read 77 books

The Case for Books

I've started a new project within my reading. I'm still going for 100 books in a year, but I'm trying to mix up my non-fiction a bit. I'm going through the Dewey Decimal System from 0-999 and selecting books from different areas that fit my challenge criteria. The Case for Books, by Robert Darnton, came from the early #s, but I think it was misplaced...

...it should have been in the recycling bin.

This book, rather than making a case for books, presents nothing but annoyance and an argument that some things should never be published as a book. Rather than publishing a coherent, flowing argument for books, Darnton simply packages together a bunch of already-published essays into book form. The first 2/3 of the book contains essays that are essentially identical. The last third has almost nothing to do whatsoever with the topic of the book.

To sum things up, Darnton, head of Harvard's library, thinks that e-books are the wave of the future and that Google Book Search is an awesome tool, as long as Google isn't overly monopolistic about it. But wait - he later argues that Google is being too monopolistic. So much for coherence. Second, he thinks that academic journals should move to e-book form because they are too expensive to print. Finally, he thinks that printed books should still exist for several reasons. First, because of rare books or books owned by famous people having certain value; second, because microfilm was a complete disaster and print lasts longer than we tend to think. Third, there are elements of the printed word that are valuable (flipping through pages, making notes, the feel and smell of a book).

These are all fine arguments. They are fairly obvious, but good points nonetheless (particularly the stuff about academic journals). They would make for an excellent 20-page article. Somewhere in the first 130 pages that worthwhile 20 pages is there. The rest is repetitive, redundant, or just plain annoying.

Then, in the last third of the book, Darnton presents a few articles that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. One of them is 30 years old! They concern the history of books, but contain almost no interesting or useful information - at least to a non-librarian. Honestly, the level at which he cares about this stuff - he came off as stuck-up and snooty.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is Darntons' obsession with preserving even obscure publications. He has this semi-utopian idea that we should preserve every minuscule piece of literary history. Sorry, but that's not possible. Things come and things go. Some things are forgotten...and some day all worldly things will be forgotten.

I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Even university librarians, who seem to be the target audience. All of these articles have been printed elsewhere. Pick one and read it and that will be good enough. Don't waste your time with this completely unnecessary book.

In A Sentence: While there may indeed be a case for printed books, there is no case for the existence or preservation of this one.

Rating: 1 star out of 5 (it's competently written, and there are 20 pages of substance inside)


Book completed April 3...8 books, 34 days...at this rate I'll read 86.

Spin

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, is a true science-fiction book. It contains plenty of fiction but mixes in real science. Many sci-fi books focus on new technologies, fantasy worlds on other planets, or aliens come to Earth. While a tiny bit of those elements are in this book, Wilson also adds a fair amount of accurate physics and theories based on real science.

Spin has a strong fiction piece, though. Fiction and science are fairly well balanced which creates an interesting dynamic. In the end I found myself wanting either more depth in the fictional story OR more expounding of the underlying science.

Spin generally tells the story of Tyler, a doctor who lives through an astonishing time: when he is young, "aliens" known as the Hypotheticals surround the Earth with a membrane known as the "Spin" that creates an artificial sun, while messing with relative time. Each Earth year now encapsulates about 100,000,000 Universe years. Most of the story takes place close to when Earthlings believe the sun is going to die. Earth has turned into a much different place, although beyond religious cults, most of this change is not documented in the pages.

Tyler is very close to two childhood friends, Jason and Diane. Jason is an extremely bright physicist who might be able to solve the problem of the Spin and the survival of the human species. He establishes an environment and an atmosphere on Mars and begins a civilization there. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve all of the issues at stake and he develops a serious illness that may jeopardize the survival of the human race. Diane is the love of Tyler's heart but unfortunately is married to a man who is deep into one of the big religious cults. Everything comes together in the end...but how, well I can't tell you that.

This is a fun book to read that has just enough depth to satisfy the serious reader. But it's no masterpiece. The jumps between the science-rich material and the fictional story are disappointing. Both elements are above-average, but I found myself wanting more of each. In the end I was dissatisfied. This was a decent book that could have been great.

In A Sentence: Spin can't decide if it's science or fiction and settles for something in the middle.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

7 books, 33 days...at this rate I'll read 78 books