Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, David Sedaris

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk:  A modest Bestiary by David Sedaris is a collection of the humorists works with an animal theme.  My wife and I decided to read this on long trips.

Started:  6/21/2015

Completed:  6/21/2015

Recommendation:  Mildly Funny

Recommended By:  Nobody, we have both enjoyed David Sedaris

Review:

These are funny, but not split your sides funny.  We enjoyed most of the stories (except one which clearly involved animal testing and we just couldn't read that one).  David Sedaris seems to be obsessed with loss of eyes in this book.

The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is the first book in the Thursday Next series.  It looked like a fun spoof on Jane Eyre.  My wife is reading this book to me on long drives.

Started:  Cannot Remember

Completed:  6/21/2015

Recommendation:  Fun Read

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Full of lots of puns, word play, and horrible jokes at the expense of great literature, this book examples an alternate universe in which the great books play a much bigger part of everyday life then they do here and now.  The characters in books can even, sometimes, come into this world and vice versa.  The literature police (with Thursday Next leading the Swindon office), however, do their best to straighten up any mishaps (even going so far as to fix Jane Eyre's ending :) ).  This time travelling, alternate universe, romp though literature involves all kinds of action, mystery, and even evil for the sake of evil.  Join Thursday as she fights to straighten things out in literature (and even addresses the long war in the Crimea).

The Law of Dreams, Peter Behrens

The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens is a book that received the Governor General's Award for English Fiction.   This book is based on the Irish Potato Famine.  For the life of me, I can't remember where or why I picked it up.  I have long had an interest in Ireland and the Irish in general after visiting, but I cannot remember buying this book.

Started:  3/4/2015
Completed:  Cannot remember
Recommendation: Not recommended
Recommended by:  Nobody


Words and Concepts for which I sought help:

Billing -- the action or fact of being publicized in a certain way

cadging -- ask for or obtain (something to which one is not strictly entitled)

conacre -- to sublet land

Haggard -- area adjacent to the farm yard (Irish slang)

metaled road -- A road surface formed with a mixture of tar and stone chippings


Plangeant -- a loud, reverberating sound usually associated with melacholy

profligate -- recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources

skirl -- a shrill wailing sound, especially of bag pipes

Review:

The book was interesting and started quietly, but seemed to move rather quickly into the horrors of the potato famine.  The adventures of the protagonist seem truly unrealistic, but suspending disbelief, I moved on.  The characters were hard to like and the horrors which were experienced automatically distanced the reader.  I did not enjoy it.

People of the Moon, Michael and Kathleen Gear

People of the Moon by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear is another book in their "North America's Forgotten Past" series that looks at Native American communities.  As mentioned in a previous post, this book has been awaiting its turn to see the light.

Started: 9/1/2014

Completed: 6/18/2015

Recommended: Mildly

Recommended By: Part of a series

Review:

I have enjoyed the "People of" series.  The beginning (with some archaeologist facing opposition of some sort to whatever has been found or to the act of archaeology at all) is almost always slow and so it was hard for me to get started on this book (as it has been for the others in the series).

The plot here is decent, although, frankly, gory.  I'm sure that this story needed to be told and it is an ugly story.  That said, I would prefer to read less gore these days.  That is my personal preference and it made this book difficult to read.  The Gear's seem to want to focus on that in this book, although they pursued their normal love story in the book as well.  The story is good and moves along pretty well.  The preachy material is kept to a minimum, but stands on its own as enough to inform about some of the nature of the native peoples who inhabit this novel.

I can mildly recommend this book to anyone who has wondered what it must have been like to climb into your home via a ladder in the roof.  I've wondered and this book doesn't go to great lengths to detail that component, but it does come up as a normal part of the lives of the people and that alone was interesting to me.

Einstein's Enigma, C. V. Vishveshwara

Einstein's Enigma or Black Holes in my Bubble Bath by C. V. Vishveshwara caught my eye at a library book sale.  I originally picked it up for my wife who has some interest in the life of Einstein, then realized it was more about black holes which is up my alley!

Started: 9/4/2014

Completed: 6/15/2015

Recommendation: Strongly Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a layman's view of the physics behind a black hole.  For most of the book, I was fine, but I can see where most of the book would be quite challenging to laymen.  I found the last part of the book quite challenging.  The author tried to ease the reader through it by relying more and more heavily on dream sequences that originated in a magic bathtub and was a sub-plot running through the book allowing physicist to "add their own" contributions to the author's understanding directly.  The basic plot is that of one professor teaching another about black holes.

I can't imagine a more readable approach to the topic.  It is worth noting, however, that this topic is not easily read or understood.  The mathematics behind the physics are brutal and the physics is truly impenetrable to the average reader.  I've spent more time reading Hawking's most recent paper on black holes then I spent working through this book.

That said, however, this book is approachable for the lay reader.  You do not have to be physicist to understand the material.  Of course a high school or college background in physics is going to help dramatically, but the information is presented exceedingly well.  If you enjoy the history of science you will be doubly pleased with the short history lessons presented.  If you are so well-rounded as to be an English scholar as well, then you will simply be over the moon with this book.

I enjoyed it and appreciated how difficult it was to write.  It is already dated.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in black holes.