Review: One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh

One Damned Island After Another: The Saga of the Seventh by Clive Howard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I 'purchased' this eBook using Amazon credits for Great Reads books.

This is perhaps the fourth of the www.digitalhistorybooks.com books I have read and the one I liked the least. I'm not 100% sure that it's not the lack of respect for the 'enemy' that made me dislike this one, but this book read to me like just a long list of the various accomplishments of the Seventh Air Force. There were some occasional interesting stories that delved a little deeper than who shot how many planes, but not really enough to weave a narrative.

I wonder if I would be more or less bothered by the use of the terms 'Jap' and 'Nip' if I weren't Japanese. This isn't the only way that the authors show zero regard for the Japanese soldiers they're fighting, very unlike Black Thursday by Martin Caidin, which showed respect for German airmen as well as the Americans. Perhaps because Germans and Americans have race in common, so it was more acceptable to treat Japanese as less than human?

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Review: Holding Up the Universe

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I purchased this at Kew & Willow. This is a book on the 9-10 NYC Reads 365 list.

I'm not sure what it is about young adult books with their shifting first-person perspectives. It works well in this book, but it's not my favorite. I like that Niven mostly alternates their perspectives, but I still get confused for a split second who the narrator is.

The book states that about one in fifty people have prosopagnosia. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but a quick Google search seems to confirm that. This probably means that I must know someone who has this to some degree, but I don't know about it. I really can't fathom it, but I guess Jack's condition is on the severe end of the spectrum.

I'm not entirely convinced of the romance in this book, but as a novel that has really opened my eyes to what others go through, I give it a pass.

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Review: God's Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs

God's Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs by Timothy J. Keller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I used credits to purchase this through Amazon's Great Reads.

I had read Timothy Keller's The Meaning of Marriage right before getting married. I am not religious in any way, and neither is my husband, but I think both of us have a healthy respect for it and understand that there is a lot of collective wisdom in religion. I decided to check this out both because I was familiar with the author and because I had recently become close to a Christian friend.

I didn't follow Keller's guide in how to 'use' the book, seeing as I finished it in a little over a month. The book is divided into about two pages (I think less in the print book, but about two pages for the Kindle version I was looking at) per day, which questions to journal on each day and a prayer. He also suggests forming a group to discuss these questions periodically. I didn't journal, nor did I ever discuss the questions with anyone, but since I'm already in the habit of reading books aloud, I did say many of the prayers aloud. I suggested the book to my friend, and she purchased it, but I'm not sure if she's done anything beyond that.

I found this book interesting and enlightening in learning what the ideal is for Christians. Since I don't believe, I don't find the foundation that the book is based on to be compelling, but there are still a lot of things to reflect on to live a fulfilled life.

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Review: Lab Girl

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I purchased this book from the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. This book was recommended to me by one of my husband's coworkers, who works for the NYC Parks department.

I'm not really sure that this book should be categorized as a 'science' book. It's definitely much more of a memoir. The chapters mostly alternate between a stage of Jahren's life and some information about a plant that maybe symbolically relates to what's happening in her life. I don't really think those added much to the book, and some of the things she writes seems somewhat misleading (like when she refers to DNA as a protein and how the northern hemisphere has winter because it's tilted away from the sun...which is true, but it's not made clear that it's not the distance that matters).

The part of most personal relevance was her description of her pregnancy and birth of her son. Reading about such experiences makes me half grateful that I haven't gotten pregnant yet. But she did get through it to have a healthy son, and I guess if it comes to it, I could, too.

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Review: Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I purchased this book at Kew & Willow. This was on the NYC Reads 365 Grade 9-10 reading list. I think I have a hard time judging what is age-appropriate because this felt like more of a middle school book than a high school book to me.

Maybe I should stop reading Grade 9-10 reading list books since I don't feel like I get all that much out of them, but the one thing I really liked about this book was the perspective it gives on gentrification. I just couldn't tell whether I was not enjoying the book because it is written for a younger audience or because it is just written poorly. I know teenagers posture and can be very awkward, but I don't feel the need to read about it.

That said, this was an entertaining and thought-provoking book, and now that I know Older has written an adult fantasy series, I'm slightly more inclined to check that out. Probably not, though, and I have no interest in continuing this series.

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Review: The Wump World

The Wump World by Bill Peet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book at The Strand. The first time I read this, I was in elementary school, and my teacher was reading it aloud to the class. I'm not sure if this is the first time I'm rereading it since then, but it might be.

This book left quite an impression on me when I was a youngster. I was very into animals and environmentalism. Upon rereading it now, especially after reading other great children's books, I'm not sure it quite lived up to my memory of it, but I think it still deserves my esteem for the life it's had in my mind all these years.

I guess the main issue I have with this book is that I'm not quite sure what the message is. It seems to me that the strongest takeaway is that nature bounces back if we leave it alone, but is that really the message we want to be expressing? That's not the message I got as a kid, though, and that's probably the most important.

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Review: The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life

The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life by Richard Russo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up from the used book section of Kew & Willow.

I've read several books by Richard Russo, including Elsewhere, and generally enjoy them. I see a lot of parallel between his writing and Stephen King, though they write in very different genres. Since this was a collection of essays, it's quite different from the novels and the memoir, especially since I don't think these essays were written to be together in one book. That makes it so that certain stories or references are repeated in different essays, and while there is a cohesive theme running through them, it definitely doesn't hold together like Elsewhere did.

Having fairly recently finished reading Jonathan Franzen's How to be Alone, I also saw a lot of similarities between the two books. I felt like Russo was more positive in general, and it was definitely interesting to see a writer reflecting so deeply and honestly about his own craft. I had never really thought about how different the process of writing for a publisher and self-publishing could be, and it makes me appreciate print books more.

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Review: Silent Spring

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I purchased this book from Kew & Willow. I figured this is too much of a classic to not read, so I picked it up when I saw it.

It's definitely interesting to read a book like this that was written over fifty years ago. So many of the things Carson writes about are terribly alarming, and it seems amazing that we are still here fifty years later. With everything that was going on, it's amazing that we haven't driven everything (except snails, apparently) to extinction.

I'm guessing that the state of things are better now, but I don't really know. I wonder how much I would want to read about this for the present day. It seems like I would be scared to eat anything.

I'm sure that culture has changed, but it was interesting to read about the successful importation of predators and parasites of an invasive pest. There are a lot of fantastic failures of that at this point, but maybe they hadn't happened yet?

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Review: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This was a book recommended to me by one of my husband's coworkers. I purchased it used from Kew & Willow.

I found this a hugely inspirational book. I've never really had an interest in backpacking, but this book really made me want to give it a try. The most I've ever done are day hikes with car camping, and even that very infrequently, and I have a lot of respect for those who achieve something like Cheryl did.

I really appreciate how frankly she writes about her flaws: her infidelity, drug use, and regrets. The passages about her failed marriage to Paul were especially heartrending. I can't imagine what it must be like to go down the path of divorce, especially with someone she still obviously cares deeply about.

I'd definitely be interested in seeing the movie version of this.

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