A really wonderful autobiography. She’s so honest, so real, so down-to-earth. I enjoyed hearing about her courtship with Barack, her struggle with trying to find a job that gave her a feeling of purpose, and how she dealt with the transition from being a regular citizen to being a heavily-guarded first lady whose every move was scrutinized. Her passages about…
An in-depth look at the struggles of the ultra-poor in America. The authors do extensive interviews and reporting on families that somehow manage to survive on $2.00 per day per person. People who move from place to place to place; a woman who sells her plasma twice a week for $30 a visit and who lives in fear that if…
My first book by Wallace. (About 8 years ago I tried reading Infinite Jest and could only get through the first 100 pages, with great difficulty. I vow that one day I will read it in its entirety along with Moby Dick and Gulliver’s Travels. Really.) I see why he garnered so much fuss. This book is a collection of…
The plot sounded cute: a guy sells and gives away his old vinyl, and then decides he wants to get these records back. Not just the music, but the actual, individual albums that he specifically owned. He would hunt for the actual albums in record stores and conventions, looking for the Bon Jovi album that had a high school girlfriend’s…
My second book by Hawking that I’ve read this year. The brilliant scientist has a way of making outrageously esoteric concepts graspable, and he really outdoes himself in this book. The question and answer format works very well here, as he tackles some of the more philosophical questions about God, time travel, and possibilities of other life in the universe.
Capote’s first novel. Really fabulous. It’s the story of a young socialite and the risky romance she gets involved in. The novel is set in New York in 1945, and is somewhat reminiscent of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Beautifully written. Very poetic, lyrical prose. Apparently, the manuscript was found in Capote’s apartment after his death, with instructions for the housesitter to…
I read two other of Hawking’s books, A Brief History of Time, and Black Holes and Baby Universes many years ago. At that time, I felt like I understood them reasonably well. This book was a challenge. I think I grasped most of it while I was physically reading it, but the concepts are pretty esoteric. Very interesting, though. He…
Very interesting, well-written novel told from the point of view of a dead soldier who is waiting for his hospitalized, severely injured fellow soldier to die and join him. Initially unable to speak or communicate, the injured soldier suddenly regains the ability to understand his surroundings, and starts to realize some troubling truths about his marriage, and what may have…
It was supposed to be an inside look at what really goes on at hotels. I was expecting a book like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but it was not to be. This book was mostly juvenile stories involving uninteresting characters. When the author talks about how hotels really operate, how to get upgrades, how you can always dispute minibar charges…
Quick Book Review: “Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government’s Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis” by Annie Jacobsen.
There are many biographies of Lou Reed out there, but people say that this one is the best. (I’ve read one other; I have three more on my bookshelf.) DeCurtis is amazingly comprehensive, chronicling every phase of Lou’s life, personally and musically, with many fascinating and insightful stories. It also goes into detail about Lou’s bisexuality, something other books tend…
Mission Rabies Fights Rabies in Both Dogs and Humans Dr. Arnold Plotnick discusses his work in India with Mission Rabies, an organization that vaccinates dogs to prevent rabies. Check out the full story here on Dogster.com Check out my elaborated journey here.
Ah, home sweet second home. I arrived in Amsterdam, to spend the last few days of this long winter trip. The weather forecast for the second Amsterdam leg of the trip did not look promising. As is typical in Amsterdam, it was rain, rain, and more rain. I would have liked sunny weather, but I didn’t really care. In my…
This is Yoshimoto’s 13th novel, and I’ve read them all. She has a simple, light and fluffy style that I know is a bit lightweight, but I don’t care. This book, like all of hers, is filled with quirky but relatable characters, and even when she introduces something weird or ridiculous, it just doesn’t matter. I like her dreamy little…
I had no pre-set plans for my last day in Chiang Mai. I knew that there was a huge Sunday market, and I planned on going there. I suspected it was an all-day affair, but the woman at the front desk of the hotel told me that it began at 5:00 p.m. I didn’t really want to travel 45 minutes…