Red Pen’s blog

Read in September

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:57:57 -0600

I read fewer books than usual this month, but enjoyed them all. Favorites: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Predictably Irrational. On This Earth takes the visual cake for its breathtaking photography.

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On This Earth

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:45:47 -0600

On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa

Nick Brandt

As Nick Brandt states in the Afterword of this wonderful book, "...there is something profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East and Southern Africa."

Paging through the stunning images he captured, one can't help but agree. From breathtaking panoramas to up-close and intimate portraits, Nick creates an "elegy to these beautiful creatures, to this wrenchingly beautiful world that is steadily, tragically vanishing before our eyes."

Nick's photographs transcend traditional documentary wildlife photography and enter the realm of art. The images are infused with a sense of poignancy and a deep respect for life. And he does it all without a telephoto lens. (Once you've seen the photographs, that fact will properly knock you off your feet.)

I'll close this post with more of Nick's words.
"To me, every creature, human or nonhuman, has an equal right to live, and this feeling, this belief that every animal and I are equal, affects me every time I frame an animal in my camera."

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Quote of the day

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:18:31 -0600

"What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books."

–Thomas Carlyle

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Read in August

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:51:52 -0600

Favorites this month: In a Sunburned Country and Whistling in the Dark.

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Read in July

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:50:25 -0600

Favorites this month: Mother Night, Smoke and Mirrors, Child 44

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Read in June

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:00:06 -0600

Top 3 for this month: Then We Came to the End, Speaker for the Dead, The Host

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Read in May

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:04:45 -0600

THE BEST:
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
Part travelogue, part psychological study, part philosophical journey, Weiner's book narrates his determined quest to find and experience the world's happiest places. Many a common-sensical expectation is turned upside down in this funny and instructive narrative. I thoroughly enjoyed it and offer my unreserved recommendation.

Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction
David Sheff chronicles his son's meth addiction and the way it pervaded the lives of his loved ones. The story of Nic, his beautiful boy, is by turns heartbreaking and hopeful, and is told with honesty and professionalism. An eye-opening and terrifying account of every parent's nightmare.

THE REST:
The Miracle at Speedy Motors
The latest installment in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. Mma Ramotswe is intelligent, resourceful, loyal, and good natured. She is also perhaps the kindest character in fiction. The books in this series never fail to bring a smile to my face.

When Science Goes Wrong
Twelve interesting stories of scientific mishaps and failures from varied disciplines.

The Third Angel
An intense and emotional novel with subtly layered and interwoven stories of three women and life-shaping experiences.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A multicultural, multigenerational romp of family curse and national doom, liberally sprinkled with wit, humor, and unforgettable characters.

The Commoner
This fictional story is based on Empress Michiko and Crown Princess Masako of Japan. Our narrator, Haruko, is the first commoner to marry into the imperial family, and through her, we come to understand the many challenges and sacrifices of a commoner entering into the rarefied and ritualized world of court life.

Fire in the Blood
From the perspective of middle age, our narrator, Silvio, unfolds stories of youthful passion, the 'fire in the blood' that fuels love and betrayal across two decades. This manuscript, only recently discovered, was one of the final works of Némirovsky, who died in Auschwitz.

Every Last Cuckoo
Seventy-five year old Sarah has recently lost her husband of fifty years, and the novel follows her as she deals with grief and finds new meaning and direction in life. It is rare to find a book written from the perspective of an elderly woman. Sarah is a vibrant and memorable protagonist and the story is joyful and positive.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake
A collection of well penned and very amusing essays. Crosley shines a knowing light on the quirky and the humorous in episodes from the stage of the twenty-something American life.

Unaccustomed Earth
Indian immigrants and the children they raise in America take center stage in each of the wonderful stories in this collection. The fully drawn characters struggle to reconcile generational and cultural clashes, and the complex bonds of family. I particularly liked the Hema and Kaushik trio that closes out the book.

Change of Heart
An engrossing page-turner with complex issues including capital punishment and religious freedom. Death row inmate Shay Bourne wants to donate his heart to the sister of the girl he was convicted of murdering fifteen years ago. The first-person narrative switches off among several key characters. Although I had figured out many of the plot 'surprises' long before they occurred, I still quite enjoyed the book.

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Coincidental covers

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:47:03 -0600

I recently saw a promotion for a new book and it looked eerily familiar to me. I was sure I'd seen it before, but it's a new release, so how could that be? Turns out, I had a different book in my Amazon wish list with the same photo on the cover. It seems odd to me that with so many images in the world to choose from, two distinct books end up with nearly identical covers.

clipped from www.amazon.com

Oh My Stars: A Novel (Paperback)

clipped from www.amazon.com

Skeletons at the Feast (Hardcover)

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Read in April

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:21:13 -0600

THE BEST:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time
It seems trite to tell you that this book is inspirational, but it truly is. It is the reminder we all need that one passionate, committed person can set in motion significant positive change for many. When Greg Mortenson set out to build a school for the remote village in Pakistan that had sheltered and cared for him after his failed attempt to climb K2, he was no billionaire philanthropist, he was an avid climber and sometime trauma nurse living in San Francisco. He returned to the US, sold his belongings, typed out hundreds of fund solicitation letters on a rented typewriter, and lived in his car. As of 2007, the Central Asia Institute co-founded by Mortenson has established more than 50 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education and opportunities to thousands of children. It's an amazing story.

March
This well researched novel presents a poignant account of the Civil War travails of Mr. March, the absent father from the classic Little Women. The idealistic March volunteers to serve as a chaplain in the Union forces. His naivete and convictions are sorely tested by his experience of the horrors of war.

THE REST:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Klein makes a credible assertion that crisis and upheaval are often used (and sometimes orchestrated) to obscure or advance the imposition of radical free market economic policies, often with devastating long-term results.

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
The Nobel Peace Prize winner proposes the creation of 'social businesses', organizations specifically designed to address social and humanitarian needs.

The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
The natural world, its habitats and ecosystems, and the biodiversity of life on Earth are in peril. Wilson suggests that whatever your beliefs about the origins of life, it is time for all of us to work together to preserve and care for the 'Creation' before it's too late.

The View from Castle Rock: Stories
This fine collection of fictional short stories from Alice Munro is largely inspired by her ancestors and family history, and from personal experiences. "We are beguiled. It happens mostly in our old age, when our personal futures close down and we cannot imagine -- sometimes cannot believe in -- the future of our children's children. We can't resist this rifling around in the past, sifting the untrustworthy evidence, linking stray names and questionable dates and anecdotes together, hanging on to threads, insisting on being joined to dead people and therefore to life."

Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
From the pages of this book, Bhutto passionately speaks out for moderation, understanding, and reconciliation. She asserts that the peaceful, pluralistic message of Islam has been exploited by extremist factions, and denies that a clash between Islam and the West is inevitable. She offers hope and concrete suggestions for reconciliation and peace. She was a courageous, extraordinary woman and her death is a great loss.

All Quiet on the Western Front
Often cited as the greatest war novel ever written, this book recounts the inhumanity and bleak horror of WWI though the eyes of young Paul Baumer and his German classmates. They enlist and soon find themselves in an all-out struggle for survival in the hellish trenches of a brutal war they can't comprehend, forever altered and alienated from their pre-war life and dreams.

Armageddon in Retrospect
A posthumous collection of previously unpublished writings, both fiction and nonfiction, on war, peace, and the darker tendencies of humanity. "If television refuses to look at something, it is as though it never happened. It can erase anything, even whole continents, such as Africa, one big desert now, where millions upon millions of babies, with a brand-new thousand years of history looming before them, starve to death."

Singer from the Sea
A mystical sci-fi tale centered on a dark secret kept and fueled by greed. The book features complex characters and confident storytelling with environmental and feminist threads.

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Economics twofer

nobody@vox.com(Red Pen) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:24:17 -0600

Due to coincidence imposed by the library queue, I recently read these two books back-to-back.

First, an unflinching look at the ravages inflicted when Friedmanite free-market capitalism is brutally imposed upon an economy, particularly in times of crisis or upheaval.

Then, a proposal from the Nobel Peace Prize-winning "banker to the poor", for a new type of self-sustaining, non-dividend-paying 'social business' that will work alongside and compete with typical for-profit enterprises, but will be established to address a specific humanitarian need and will be evaluated by the success in serving that need.

I'm glad I read them in this order, as the first informed me and riled me up, and the second inspired me and restored some of my faith in humankind.

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