The Story of Stuff

While I don't celebrate it, Halloween is right around the corner, and my latest selection was appropriately scary, although perhaps not in a conventional sense.

Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health - And a Vision For Change pretty much summarizes the book with its title. Annie Leonard takes the reader on a journey through "stuff" ranging from food to electronics to packaging to clothing to whatever else you can think of. She looks at the 5 stages of "stuff:"

• Extraction
• This section looks at the process of gathering the raw resources needed for various items. Leonard particularly focuses in on our destruction of forests and the creation of homogenous forests of one tree species for wood and paper production. Single species forests do not support biodiversity of other living species the way a heterogenous forest does. She also shares her great concern for water usage. Weaved through this section and the next are human rights concerns. Many of our resources are gathered in questionable ways, and then are produced by people who don't make enough money to buy the items they are making - or even put food on their plates.
• Production
• Leonard focus on the process of producing and manufacturing our stuff. Her main concern is the use of natural resources and toxic chemicals in the production of far too many items. She goes on a long anti-PVC tangent, but also stresses the importance of regulating or banning other toxic substances as well.
• Distribution
• The obvious main focus here is the carbon footprint of our stuff. In America, half of our energy use is devoted to transportation, and a large chunk of that is transportation of goods. Buy local!
• Consumption
• This is the part where the average person steps into the chain. This is where we buy stuff, are manipulated to buy more, and are forced into replacing items on a frequent basis. In addition to going after big-box stores, Leonard also rails against planned obsolescence, the act of manufacturing items that will either go out of style within a year or two or will break down and stop working after a few years. Things are made cheaply so they will have to be replaced. Leonard also goes after advertisement and branding.
• Disposal
• Waste not, want not. First, we waste too much. The average American throws away an average of 4.6 pounds of trash per day!!! Almost all of this trash could be avoided in several ways. First, many items shouldn't be bought in the first place - why not lend what you need from a neighbor? Second, many items can be reused or repaired until they completely fall apart. Third, many items can be recycled or composted. Finally, if corporations would limit their waste in manufacturing and packaging, that would greatly reduce waste (they account for 76% of all waste in the U.S.). With all of this in place, the only things that would have to be specially "thrown out" would be toxic substances and infectious medical waste. Plain and simple (sort of).

I learned some interesting facts from this book, but overall there wasn't much new here for me. It's pretty much preaching to the choir. However, this collects some of the scariest real-life facts all in one place: toxic chemicals are everywhere, we're running out of natural resources, pollution is everywhere, humankind is spewing gasses into the atmosphere that are causing climate change, biodiversity is decreasing everywhere, the rainforest is disappearing, plastic never breaks down, waste is everywhere, the rich are getting rich while the poor are getting poorer to the point where millions of people are practically starving to death so that American CEOs can make millions of dollars and you and I can have our stuff for nice and cheap (and have lots of it). And that's only some of the scary "stuff"!!!!

I found this book both fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because it was extremely well-written and highly researched. Frustrated because Leonard doesn't provide many solutions. She suggests many laws and regulations that should be passed, but when it comes down to personal action, she gives you very little to work with. Granted, it's not all that hard to glean the things we should be doing as individuals from these pages, but she essentially says that while individual action helps, it really takes larger-scale action to make a difference. That's kind of depressing - especially in America, where somehow super-conservatives have taken over American discourse to the inane level where over 40% of people doubt the fact that the earth is warming (let alone the fact that humans are making it worse, if not actively creating it), where corporations are defined as people, and where environmentalism is somehow seen as some nazi-socialist-communist scheme to destroy America.

Oh well...at the very least this book got me to consider a few things in my life that need to be changed. Every time I read a book like this or watch a documentary I change something about my life. I just wish that Leonard could have at least lied to me and told me that my day-to-day actions can make a big impact. Then, at the very least, I'd feel a little less defeated.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

77/100

Darkness of the Light

As I read Darkness of the Light, by Peter David, I also happened to be reading through Peter David's first run on the comic book X-Factor. The comic is clever and funny, frequently poking fun at the genre while simultaneously weaving interesting plot lines. David has fantastic writing skills and I very much looked forward to reading this book.

Darkness of the Light is the first of an intended series of books taking place in a post-Apocalyptic world. Most humans are dead, and those that survive are enslaved by one of 12 races. The 12 races consist of mythical creature types, with different names. They fight amongst themselves for control of what is left of Earth, but time is running out, as the energy resources for the planet are running low. A group of misfit characters of different races band together along with a renegade human to try to find the "orb" that will be a certain source of power in a very uncertain time.

It took me a very long time to read this book - MUCH longer than I expected. I hope I don't lose momentum! I think it took me so long because while the book is 400 pages long, the font is quite small, and the plot is very complicated. The first 250-300 pages read much like some of the Russian classics, where a million characters with unusual (to Americans) names are introduced and all of the elements are laid down for the rest of the book. Unfortunately, the book was almost over by the time I got all of the characters, races, and political systems straight. The book has 12 races, plus humans, and while some races are more featured than others, it was really hard to keep everything straight. Especially difficult was managing all of the political relationships between the races.

David also sticks pretty strictly to the Fantasy genre. He doesn't really have anything particularly new to bring to the table and sticks to the overused tricks of the trade. He does so in a better fashion than most, though, and that makes it at least an interesting book. It still falls mostly in the category of formulaic fantasy.

It's a shame. David is an excellent writer but engages in way too many projects at the same time. He spits out at least 24 comics, 3 books, and several television scripts every year. If he put all of his time and effort into one or two projects per year, he'd create masterworks. Instead, in the name of making a quick and easy buck (actually, a lot of quick and easy bucks), David sticks to being just "pretty good." This book fits that mold perfectly. Could be great, but settles for just "pretty good."

Rating: 3/5 stars

(76/100)...still ahead of schedule despite the book taking a while to read)

Family

I always know what to expect with books from Greenhaven Press's Opposing Viewpoints series. This is the second book from that series that I've read for this challenge, and at least the fourth or fifth that I've read overall. You always get literally opposing articles on controversial topics, and it always paints an excellent picture of both sides of a debate. You won't get thorough articles, for the most part, and you're on your own for deciding whose argument is better.

Family is no different. The editors selected articles debating many topics, such as:
- Has the traditional family changed in structure?
- Should homosexuals be allowed to marry?
- Is adoption a moral option for the majority of cases?
- Does divorce have long-lasting impact on children?
- Should both parents in a family work?

As always, good overview articles were chosen to represent the two sides of the debate. There were a couple of duds, but to balance that out, there were a couple of really excellent research articles. As usual, I appreciated hearing the different views, although I didn't really learn a whole lot, except about adoption. I was really surprised to hear that a lot of adoption agencies are really just for-lots-of-profit child markets...both viewpoints on the adoption issue recommended a lot of caution with adoption.

If you want to see competently-written, smartly compiled articles on a few family-related issues, this is a good place to start.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

(75/100)...3/4 of the way!!!

Mrs. Dalloway

The prospect of reading my first book by highly-regarded classic writer Virginia Woolf excited me. By the time I had reached page 10, I lost that excitement.

Mrs. Dalloway recounts a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway. We hear much of her story through flashbacks as the day goes on. Throughout the day, Clarissa plans for and hosts a dinner party. In between the events of the book the reader gets to see inside Clarissa's mind through stream of consciousness narrative. We also get to peer inside the mind of a few other characters, like Septimus Warren Smith, a man with great mental illness who is supposed to be a mirror of Clarissa, Peter Walsh, Clarissa's former lover, and bits and pieces of others.

Clarissa is unhappy with her life, for the most part. She married Richard Dalloway instead of her long-time lover Peter Walsh because Richard was more reliable and therefore better marriage material. However, he's not around much and their marriage is fairly loveless, though still intact. Clarissa still has feelings for Peter (who is married but seeking divorce to pursue a married woman) and for a woman from her college days, Sally Seton. In the end, Clarissa holds the dinner party and it's more or less a success. Most of the characters we meet or are mentioned show up to the party, and there's some mild surprises in store throughout the party.

Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway almost like a 180-page poem. It takes a great deal of effort to read the book, and while it's delicately written, it's also tremendously boring and depressing. Clarissa suffers from mild depression and swims around in hopelessness. Woolf apparently put a lot of herself in these pages, and it isn't pretty. Woolf eventually committed suicide - a prospect that Clarissa finds intriguing. There's also a very dismal view of marriage and relationships that exists in these pages. Almost every married couple is close to divorce, and characters pursue one another as if marriage was only a trifle. Clarissa/Woolf also has some very condescending things to say about Christians and God. There's also great emphasis placed on societal position, as if being rich makes you a better person than if you are poor.

I hated this book. I read for basically three reasons: to be enriched (through knowledge), enlightened, or entertained. This book fit none of those categories. I didn't learn anything, found the book to be offensive, and it was absurdly boring. Was it well-crafted? Absolutely. Could I recommend this book to anyone? Not really.

Rating: How can I rate a book so well written in form yet so lacking in anything I can appreciate?

74/100

Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Elizabeth Kolbert compiled a series of New Yorker articles together with new material and published Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a work that intends to join the climate change conversation. I'm growing very weary of this conversation, because honestly, it shouldn't be a conversation. If you read this book, as with other related books, you'll understand why.

The climate change conversation currently exists over whether or not climate change is manmade. This is a waste of time, and the furthering of the conversation is necessitated by individuals who insist upon wallowing in ignorance. Let me sum it up in a sentence: Some climate change can occur by natural events, but our current changing climate stems largely from humankind's actions - primarily through the amount of carbon dioxide we send into the atmosphere. It's this precise fact that Kolbert sets out to prove. Listen, there's so much evidence for humans creating climate change that the conversation that we should be having is over how we can turn this around. There could possibly be a conversation over the extent to which humans are impacting the climate - whether its moderate or extreme - but our time is better spent figuring out solutions.

Kolbert walks us through a number of different case studies and historical inquiries surrounding climate change. Each chapter reads like a magazine article, which is because many of these chapters began in that form. They are fairly in-depth, somewhat engaging, and certainly filled with interesting information. As a whole, it's not as cohesive and complete as some books (such as The Inconvenient Truth, which I read for this challenge), but it's still a worthy entry into the genre. Kolbert lays out the facts that prove that humans are behind the current changes in our climate. I don't know that it's enough to convince the stubbornly ignorant, but it's a worthwhile read.

If you have your doubts about human impact on climate change, read this book. It's not as much of an emotional appeal as some of the more popular books on climate change and sticks mostly to the raw facts. If you leave this book unconvinced, then I'm sorry, but you are ignoring the facts. The scientific consensus on this issue is almost unparallelled, like that of the earth being a spherical orb that revolves around the sun. Except to deny the fact outlined in this book is potentially harmful to the water you drink, the air you breathe, the nature in your back yard, and human survival itself.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

(73/100)

The Wright 3

I've now finished my second book for school, The Wright 3, by Blue Balliett. Honestly, I can say that I don't know what to think about this book. It lies somewhere in between brilliance and idiocy. I'll explain why.

The Wright 3 follows three kids: Tommy, Petra, and Calder. They were all a part of Balliett's first book, Chasing Vermeer. Like that book, these 6th graders find themselves in the middle of a mystery that is soaked in art, geometry, coincidences, and cryptic messages. In this case, Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House is about to be cut into sections for display in museums. However, as this is close to happening, some strange things happen around the building. The three friends will try to solve the mystery, but can only do so if they all can get along.

This book is very rich. Starring sixth graders, it was surprising to find that this book featured an 8th grade level vocabulary. It also made allusions to H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, and Alfred Hitchcock's movie Rear Window. If that wasn't enough, the book goes on and on about pentominoes - geometric puzzle pieces - and a written code that takes an annoying amount of time to decode yet never provides you with anything worth reading. I enjoyed some of the richness, but if your target audience is 5th/6th grade, the vocabulary is going to push away many kids, and those willing to stick around almost certainly haven't read The Invisible Man or seen Rear Window or played with pentominoes. Granted, those aren't prerequisites (Balliett gives summaries and explains pentominoes), but the book certainly carries a deeper richness if you are familiar with those elements.

The Wright 3 has a few fundamental flaws. First, it's not a very good mystery. The plot is scattered, and the clues are mostly in the form of coincidences, pentomino work, and strange supernatural-ish events that in the end have nothing really to do with the culprits, but with the architectural features of the building. In the end, it winds up being more of an adventure than a true mystery, because there aren't really any suspects except one super-obvious suspect. For all of its richness, it's really a poor mystery. The second flaw is that this book has (almost) no audience. Typically, children and adolescents like to read books featuring characters that are their age or older, but rarely younger. That would pin this audience at 4th-6th grades, maaaaaybe 7th grade. The vocabulary is a better fit, however, for 8th grade and up. Those older students, though, still might not get the connections to The Invisible Man and Rear Window. Also, with the book featuring a mediocre mystery plot, it might not hold the interest or the appreciation of an older crowd.

So I don't really know how to rate this book. I don't really know who to recommend it to, aside from advanced 4th-6th grade readers. It's got some really good stuff and some not-so-good stuff.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

72/100

Practicing the Presence of People

Mike Mason used to be severely introverted. However, God gave him an epiphany and Mason learned that he needed to really, truly love people. Mason's introversion had spread beyond preference and into fear and anxiety, which are not of God. As a result, while he still enjoys his time to himself, Mason no longer has fear and has had his view of love transformed. This book, Practicing the Presence of People, explains the lessons he learned in a practical and theological way.

Mason has split his book into 5 sections: People (loving others), Self (loving yourself as well), Presence (how God fits in), Practice (how-to), and Friendship (kind of a summary). Each section has several mini-chapters that deal with a smaller issue, provide examples, or tell a story.  There are 65 chapters in addition to chapter introductions, a prologue, and an epilogue. Over the span of 270 pages, this allots less than 4 pages per segment. It's a quick read, and could be done as a devotional.

Mason's basic message is to love others. That's a message that never grows old. Christians and non-Christians alike have attempted to spread that message through the years, but we still haven't quite gotten there yet. Mason has a lot of insight into this topic as he relates his journey through the concept of love. He uncovers many different levels and aspects of loving others and provides some practical ways to put this into practice.

It's an easy uplifting read with some definite takeaways. It probably could have been done more succinctly - there is some redundancy - but that's probably my only complaint. It's certainly worth a read, and it's a manageable read that could change the way you interact with others.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

(71/100 books...I'm starting to think that maybe I'll be done by the end of this calendar year, which would be 2 months ahead of schedule!)

Physics of the Future

Man, I was SO excited to read this book. I am a big fan of quantum physicist Michio Kaku, having read a few of his other books. This is his latest (and maybe the first book I've read this year with a 2011 publication), and promised to peer into the future. Funny enough, Kaku references two books that I read previously for this challenge in his introduction - Paris in the Twentieth Century and Neuromancer. I figured that was a good sign.

To write this book, Kaku used both the depths of his great knowledge of the science realm as well as interviews and research from other scientists and innovators. He looks at several main categories and how they will play out in the near future (by 2030), the middle of the century (2030-2070), and the end of the century (2070-2100). His categories are:
- Computers/Internet
- Artificial Intelligence/Robots
- Medicine
- Nanotechnology
- Energy
- Space Travel
- Wealth/Government
- Humanity/Civilization

He takes an extremely in-depth look into each category, explaining what prototypes are in work today, as well as likely paths for each area. He explains the science behind all of the future technology, and also points out potential limitations. Some of his predictions include computer chips (with internet access)  in just about everything from clothes to your walls, internet contacts, handheld medical diagnoses scanners, and quantum computers that use atoms as their base rather than digits.

Physics of the Future reads a lot like the magazine Popular Science: futuristic science and technology explained for anyone with an interest in science or technology. The title is a bit of a misnomer. There's only a minimal amount of actual physics in the book. As a fan of Kaku's previous material, I found this to be disappointing. I skimmed over most of the physics parts because they were fairly basic quantum physics, stuff I've read a hundred times. Physics of the Future, apparently, is Kaku's attempt to appeal to a broader base. However, by referencing physics in his title, he can still get readers of his other books to read this one.

Kaku also extends his reach a bit beyond science, covering economics and politics in shorter sections towards the end. He probably should have stayed away from this arena, as his predictions are very broad and unspecific. These sections were the weakest and I could tell that he was out of his comfort zone. I think they were included only to create an overarching picture of the future in 90 years.

Physics of the Future may have a misleading title, but it was still an interesting book. The future technology Kaku describes is fascinating. At times, it feels like you are reading a science fiction book, but in actuality there are at least prototypes for almost everything he predicts being widely available by 2070.  I enjoyed reading this book, but it's clearly Kaku's weakest book for two main reasons:
1.) Kaku strays away from his area of expertise, physics, to write something with wider appeal. At times it reads like a Discover Channel or PBS special rather than his usual scholarly work. There's a purpose for both, but he shouldn't have billed it as being a physics book.
2.) Kaku strays away from science in some areas. This creates a lot of openings for his personal opinions, rather than research and scientific theory. He inserts (perhaps subconsciously) his political opinions, most markedly by referring to anything in the very near future as happening in "Barack Obama's second term." He does this several times, which seems to indicate that he can't even imagine the ramifications of a Republican being in the office of the Presidency. I tend to agree with Kaku, especially because of the threat of human-created global warming. Kaku gives a short but complete explanation of how it's literally impossible to disagree with the phenomenon of global warming, and it's extremely ignorant to disagree that humans are the primary cause of it. There are other areas where Kaku's opinions come out, but not quite in as biased of a fashion.
3.) Kaku inserts more of his religious beliefs (or lack thereof) in this book. He disregards pretty much any notion of God, seeing science as our way of achieving some sort of god-hood. That notion was only occasionally present, but when it was, it came off as being a bit arrogant and ignorant. Kaku's nowhere near as bad as Richard Dawkins, but this is the most overt Kaku has been in any of the books I have read.

While this may be Kaku's weakest book, it's probably the one I would recommend to start with for anyone unfamiliar with his work. It's fairly easy to read (compared to his other work), and not too rich in its science. If you like Popular Science or science documentaries like Nova or stuff from the Discovery Channel, then you'll probably enjoy this book as well.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

book 70 of 100...still very much ahead of schedule!

God's Abundant Grace

This was another short-ish devotional. Dwight L. Moody earned his fame in the late 1800s from his establishment of the Chicago Bible Institute, now known as the Moody Bible Institute, and from his work as an Evangelist and missionary. His writing...well, not so much.

God's Abundant Grace is a typical "popcorn" Christian book. It's easy to read, somewhat spiritually encouraging, but not terribly profound. Moody spends most of his book unfolding what the gift of grace really means. He does well with this. The last 30 or so pages of the book go through a series of interviews with Reverend Marcus Rainsford that cover the basics of Christianity.

The front jacket says that this book is the updated (1998) version. I suspect this means that they took the liberty to update his language. I've seen that before with older Christian writing. Basically, a group of people rewrites and waters down the author's original writing. While that does make the book more accessible, it also tends to dumb down the subject matter in the process. There's value in rich language; I hope nobody ever does this with C.S. Lewis's books.

This book is fine, but it's nothing revolutionary or transforming. If you come across this in a used book sale for cheap, or on the discount rack in your local Christian store, you might find it worth the few hours it will take you to read.

Rating: a hesitant 3 out of 5 stars (assuming that it lost a bit with the update)

(69/100)

Shadows of Blue and Gray

One of my all-time favorite short stories is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." I've read it at least 3 times and seen both the Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Twilight Zone episodes that take on this short story. Much to my delight, I got to read this story again, because it was contained in a collection of short works by Ambrose Bierce.

Shadows of Blue and Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce contains the entirety of Bierce's works about the Civil War. Bierce fought throughout the entire Civil War, witnessing many tragedies, obviously forever scarring his life. Most of this collection contains his fictional short stories, though there are several memoir selections as well.

Bierce is a masterful storyteller. He writes richly yet clearly and enjoys shocking or surprising the reader. You can tell that the Civil War had a profound affect on him, as all of the stories in the collection are enveloped in a dark cloud of misery and suffering. A character dies in nearly every story, in addition to the piles of dead and rotting bodies often witnessed as well. There's also some subtle supernatural feel to the stories as well, mostly manifested in visions of dead people and dead main characters witnessing the events of the world without realizing they are dead.

The Civil War was rough - if you add up the American deaths of EVERY war besides the Civil War, they number less than the American deaths that occurred during the Civil War. The grim darkness of Bierce's stories would be depressing in virtually any other setting and would cause me to question the author's sanity. In this case, Bierce merely attempts to paint a realistic picture of the Civil War. It would have been nice, though, if there were at least one or two pleasant stories.

Bierce's memoir pieces are interesting to read, but lack the intensity of his stories. He doesn't seem nearly as passionate about real events as he is fiction.

If you enjoy short stories and can handle a almost 300 pages' worth of dark stories, you'll love this book. If you are a Civil War buff, I would also highly recommend this book!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (I feel like Bierce could have thrown in a bit more variety to the tone of his stories)

68/100...still way ahead!

Bobos in Paradise

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Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

67/100 books - over 2/3 of the way!!!