Book review: The Maze Runner Trilogy

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

In this first book of the trilogy, we meet Thomas as he wakes up with no specific memories of his past, on the way to what we learn is The Glade.  Thomas and some other boys are apparently being kept here, surrounded by an impenetrable maze filled with deadly monster-machines.  None of them have any memories.  Suddenly, the first girl ever arrives in The Glade, and triggers catastrophic events.

Seemingly the love-child of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, this book is fast-paced and interesting, if not very deep.  It's mostly the desire to solve the multiple mysteries that keeps one reading.  Unfortunately, if that is your main motivation (as it was mine), you'll have to finish the series to really answer everything.

 The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2)
by James Dashner

A direct sequel to #1, picking up pretty much exactly where we left off.  Thomas and the gang have escaped the Maze, but find themselves thrust into yet another life-threatening experiment where many will die.  Thomas might even be one of them.

Somewhat satisfying in that as Thomas slowly gains back some memories, we can start to piece together what has happened.  Since we, the readers, are not faced with death (and near-constant exhaustion, as Thomas does), we have more leisure to go back and fit his sketchy memories together.  We won't have all the information, though, until book 3.

The Death Cure (Maze Runner #3)
by James Dashner

In the final installment, Thomas and his friends try to figure out how to deal with the organization that has stolen their memories, made them distrust everything and everyone, and killed their friends.

Questions are answered, mysteries solved, and the human race goes on.  Hooray!

Final verdict: a fun, quick read.  Much more cheerful ending than Hunger Games.  Gotta read the whole series to be happy, but don't really have to reread ever, in my opinion.

[This is post #95.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

Book review: Coop

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting
by Michael Perry

What a fun book!  Perry has a great way of making his writing funny by using much more complicated vocabulary and sentence structure than is warranted by the situation.  He is also very skilled at bringing out the emotional complexities of starting a small farm: in his relationships with his family, his neighbors, his livestock, and in his ambivalent attitude about "work" that pays the bills versus "work" that feeds the family.

A quote for Susan:

"I wrote the word reverence into our vows in honor of the way my father has always treated my mother.  Dad taught me that reverence wasn't fawning, nor was it always delivered in hushed tones.  I saw it in the goofy way he doffed his fur-lined Boris Yeltsin hat when he opened the van door for her on Sunday mornings; the way he quietly abstained when we kids teased her for not getting our jokes; the way he never failed to leave the dinner table without thanking her.  And there was the reverence between them: lest we be deceived, on many occasions-- together and separately-- Mom and Dad made sure we understood that their marriage had rough patches and disagreements, but that they had long ago promised to work it out quietly behind closed doors.  It didn't hurt that they sometimes made sure to let us catch them kissing.  Nothing off-putting, just a hug and peck in the kitchen or in the sheep barn during lambing.  In this I believe they were extending their reverence to the children-- letting us know that when we went to sleep it was in a house headed by parents joined at hip and heart."

Book review: The Compassionate Carnivore

The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, how to keep animals happy, save old Macdonald's farm, reduce your hoofprint, and still eat meat
by Catherine Friend

This book is an excellent mix of factual information, amusing anecdotes about the author's experience farming sheep and steers, and consumer recommendations or suggestions on how to find the meat products we want.

Friend makes the case first for why we should care about how the animals that become our meat are treated, killed, and processed; then guides readers through four basic steps to being more compassionate carnivores:

1. Pay attention.  Know where and how your meat is produced; don't allow yourself to be fed, like a baby bird.
2. Waste less meat.  Really scary statistics on how much meat Americans eat, and how much we throw away.
3. Replace factory meat with "happy meat".  How to find sources for happy meat, what makes a livestock operation "humane," why we should care.
4. Choose meatless meals over factory meat.  Mostly for use at restaurants: if you can't be sure it's happy meat (and most isn't), go veggie.

I also appreciate what she says about the most effective way to create change, both in our individual lives and in the larger national food system.  "Change that doesn't last isn't change; it's a fad." (pg. 256)  Friend advocates for small, sustainable changes in the way we approach meat consumption.  She also points out that in order to change the way the system works, we must stay at the table; vegetarians, while they may vocally advocate for humane treatment of animals, have no skin in the game.  They don't spend their capital on any kind of meat.  If everyone who opposed inhumane treatment of animals did that, then farmers who treat their animals humanely would have no market, and would go out of business, leaving only the inhumane operations.

I have now read two of Friend's books (this one and Hit by a Farm); I look forward to reading her most recent publication, Sheepish.  Her style is conversational, at times raucously funny or dryly witty, yet always manages to treat her subject with compassion.

Grade: A+.  Recommended to anyone who tried to read Michael Pollan but got too bogged down in all the facts and figures and seriousness.

Book Review: Joshua

Joshua: A Parable for Today
by Joseph F. Girzone

I have read a fair amount of Christian fiction.  Much of it has interesting and important stories to tell, whether they are rooted in the facts of scripture or not.  But this book misses the mark.  While it shares an important message of freedom in religion through loving faith, the style is clunky, the prose awkward.  Characters speak in pedantic, pompous paragraphs (enjoy the alliteration, Mom), and Joshua himself repeats his message over and over in much the same words each time.  The few actions described carry much more weight than the many verbose soliloquies delivered by the various characters.  Joshua's carvings, healings, and acts of mercy and kindness toward the people in the town are much more powerful than the theological arguments he delivers to ministers of escalating importance.

Overall, an interesting idea that was executed poorly.  Would not read again.

How's library school going?

Lots of people have asked me this recently, and I've been so busy and sick that I haven't been able to give a good answer.  But tonight's class made me realize some really neat things that I wanted to share.

Book Review: Jayber Crow

Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership, as Written by Himself
by Wendell Berry

This was recommended to me by a good friend, upon hearing that I'd started reading fiction about farming and small-town life.  He cautioned me that it moves very slowly, and not to get impatient with it.

Maybe it's because I've got the flu, but I wasn't impatient with it for a minute.  It certainly does ramble along, not always logically or chronologically, but it keeps moving and is never boring.

It's the story of a man's life, from childhood outside the small town of Port William, orphaned twice, oppressively schooled at an orphanage and later a college, how he started his trade of barbering and was gradually pulled back by the gravity of his hometown.

There is a good portion of philosophy about God, life, and love, but it's never heavy-handed or proselytizing.  (Holy cow, I spelled that right on the first try!)  Mostly, it is conversational, like an old man telling of his life and what he learned.

I loved it.  It fit perfectly the kind of story I wanted to read just now.  Berry (or supposedly Crow) often describes the life of the river near his home, and the story is like that.  Sometimes slow, sometimes reflective, and sometimes flooded or wild.  Just like life, in his view.  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the minutiae of daily life that I forget the whole, beautiful flow of it.

Whee!

I just got A Countryside Anthology 1998, published by Countryside Magazine, in the mail.  I'm so excited to read this, you have no idea.  Just to give you an idea, here's the main sections:

Alternative energy
Gardening, orchards, crops & soils
Country kitchen
Beginning homesteading & finances
The beehive
The homestead dog
The poultry yard
The rabbit barn
The goat barn
The sheep shed
The cow barn
Livestock and health
The pig pen
Book reviews
The machine shed
The workshop
Miscellaneous tips/crafts/leisure
Homestead health
Emergency preparation
Country neighbors

and more!  Between this and Storey's Basic Country Skills, I should be all set.

Whee!

The Books of 2010

It's been a year since I started keeping track of the books I read.  Some were re-reads, some were new, and some I didn't finish.  Here's the list.  If you'd like me to write a review of one or more of these, let me know in the comments.

Book Review: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
by Dorothy Gilman

This book was recommended to me by my friend S (of the State Fair adventures).  She and I share a taste in somewhat-feminist-but-not-really fantasy novels, among other things.

The novel opens with Mrs. Pollifax visiting her doctor.  During the course of their conversation, we learn that 1. her husband is deceased, 2. her children are grown and live far away, 3. she is in good health "for a woman of her age", and 4. she feels she has outlived her usefulness.  The doctor recommends that she find a meaningful hobby, something she actually likes, as opposed to the clubs and volunteer work she does to keep busy, but secretly loathes.

As it turns out, as a child, Mrs. Pollifax always wanted to be... a spy.  So at whatever age she is (we can safely assume over 65), she makes an appointment with the CIA, and asks to join.  Due to certain scheduling mix-ups, she is actually given an assignment!  Hilarity ensues.

Not just hilarity, though.  Throughout the novel, we find that Mrs. Pollifax is made of stronger stuff than we, and the CIA, might have suspected.  When she finds herself in dire situations, it is Mrs. P, not the trained CIA agent, who makes plans to escape.  It is Mrs. P who befriends her communist jailers and wheedles special favors and useful items from them.  It is Mrs. P who is ultimately responsible for the top-secret information getting back to headquarters.

Not to get too heavy, but a character like Mrs. P makes us reexamine all the older ladies we know, who seem to live such sensible, somewhat mindless lives.  Mrs. P outwardly engages in all the activities we expect: Garden Club, the soup kitchen, listening to her neighbor talk about her travel slides.  But inside, she is possessed of a quick wit and a deep compassion for all people, even her so-called "enemies".

Grade: B+.  Very nearly an A-.  Lost points for predictability, but scored very high on humor and delightful characters.

Book Review: Peter and the Starcatchers

Peter and the Starcatchers
by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

I loved this book!  Such a good adventure story.  If you've never heard of it, it's essentially the story of how a boy named Peter met a very mean captain and ended up on an island called Never Land.  It is certainly aimed at older children and younger teens, but it's one of the best in that genre that I've read.  The villain(s) are perfectly abhorrent, the heroes are brave yet vulnerable, and the stupid characters are laughable.

My favorite line occurs when one of the villains is trying to find out what he's being attacked by:
"Coconuts.  Children are beating me senseless with coconuts."

I was reading this on the plane from Minnesota to Philadelphia, and I actually laughed out loud when I read that.  My seatmates gave me strange looks.

Grade: A+.  Recommended to all children's-adventure-book-lovers.

Apparently, this is only the first of a series of FOUR.  Guess what three books are going on my "to-read" list?

Book Review: The Problem of Pain

The Problem of Pain
by C.S. Lewis

I really enjoy Lewis's writing.  He makes logical, well-supported arguments, but using language and syntax that are eminently understandable and natural.  I feel like I could read his work out loud without tripping over myself; parsing his sentences is effortless.  Even beyond the loveliness of his writing, however, is the intelligence and care with which he treats his subject.

For example, when he wishes to make distinction between two related ideas, he very clearly outlines what it is he is not talking about, or not trying to prove.  He makes it very clear that pain, and Hell, are not good, nor tolerable, but necessary according to the laws of free will and God's love.

Augh, I can't even do justice to a review without quoting most of the book to you.  Lewis explains things better than I could summarize them.  Here's just a few of the quotes I enjoyed:

"We are... a  Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character."

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."

"If, when walking on slippery pavement, you neglect the law of Prudence, you suddenly find yourself obeying the law of gravitation."

"For you will certainly carry out God's purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John."

"Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you.  The mould in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock.  Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the Divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions.  For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you-- you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith.  Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another's.  All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have his good way, to utter satisfaction... God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love.  Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were  made for it-- made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand."

DC Library Flash Mob

Linked via Christina:



Awesome.  I may have to steal this idea and the lyrics at some point in my life.

Book Review: Reading Like a Writer

Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them
by Francine Prose, (c) 2006

People have told me I should be a writer, because I write coherently and fast.  In high school and college, I nearly always wrote papers the night before they were due, and got As or Bs.  Part of this is because I spend a lot of time subconsciously planning and mapping out the paper, so that when I sit down to write it, most of it just flows.  So yeah, I write well.

I also love books.  Books, books, books.  Even books that I don't like (too long, too boring, too dense) I appreciate because they add to the diversity of the global population, if you will, of books.  (It's the same reason I appreciate radishes, or cauliflower.  I don't like to eat them, but I'm glad they exist.)

For these reasons, I figured this might be a good book for me.  And while I found it interesting, most of what I got from it is that I am not a *writer*.  I cannot stand to spend hours on end obsessively editing and revising a single sentence, or word, in order to achieve perfection.  A little bit of editing, okay, fine, to make sure I don't sound like an idiot, or accidentally repeat myself.  But Prose's book is all about reading literature and noticing how the authors find the exact word, phrase, description, or whatever, that conveys not just the plot but the subtext and the character of the work as a whole.  And I appreciate that, I really do.  I am capable of doing close reading exercises like Prose demonstrates, and coming to the conclusion that these great authors are, in fact, great, and really know how to do their thing.

But close reading, I think, is like hindsight; it is possible to see everything clearly and say, knowingly, "Ah, yes.  The author said this instead of that, which shows x.  How inspired."  But translating that after-awareness that we gain from reading into the forethought and ability to create one's own x is much more difficult, both in terms of time consumption and likely frustration levels.

Maybe someday I will be a *writer* and thus capable of such intentional nuance of language, but not yet.  I don't have the patience.

Book Review: What the Rest of Us Can Learn from Homeschooling

What the Rest of Us Can Learn from Homeschooling: How A+ Parents Can Give Their Traditionally Schooled Kids the Academic Edge
by Linda Dobson, (c) 2003

I ordered this book from Paperbackswap, thinking it would have some good ideas for me, a potential teacher, on incorporating homeschool-style learning in my eventual classroom.  And while it does have some ideas that could work in that setting, both in terms of philosophy and tangible activities, it leans a little more toward being a sermon on how homeschooling is the best for most children.  Dobson seems to take the view that if parents are reading this book, they are on the first step toward homeschooling.  I expected, from the title, that it was more for parents who are not willing or able to homeschool, but still want their children to enjoy the benefits of what Dobson calls the "learning lifestyle".

Again, I don't mean this as criticism, exactly.  Well, maybe a little-- of the slightly misleading title, at least.  But the ideas presented in the book are sound, if sometimes a little touchy-feely or obvious.  But maybe they're only obvious to me because I have encountered those same ideas elsewhere, either in my own experience or in formal pedagogy courses.

I found the chapter on study skills to be the most helpful at this point in my life/career.  While the other chapters included some really interesting games, activities, and events, most were geared toward the family.  As I am not married, nor do I have any children, those sections I will hold until another time.  But the study skills are applicable to all students, and could be taught (should be taught) within the context of the classroom.  ESL students in particular need the kind of structured note-taking and organizational skills presented here.

Grade: B.  Recommended for parents of young children in particular, as many of the games etc. are geared toward children under the age of about ten.

Widget Code

Haha, I feel really smart!  I've added widgets at the bottom of the page from Goodreads, so you can see what I'm reading now, what I'm looking forward to reading, and what I've read already.  The reason I feel especially smart is that I managed to edit the code for the widgets to get rid of an annoying link that was unnecessary and didn't fit in my design template.  Huzzah!

Look, I realize this is not earth-shattering news.  You might even say it doesn't count as real editing, since all I did was delete stuff.  But I had to figure out what stuff was necessary and what stuff was part of the annoying link.  I don't speak code, so it was an exercise in translation.

Edit (8/7/10): I've removed the "Currently Reading" and "To-Read" widgets because, for whatever reason, they weren't updating correctly.  Oh well.