Nonfiction Book Reviews

~~~~~~~~~~~

I was discussing books with a coworker the other day (hi, Corrine!) and she told me that she has tried time and again to read nonfiction books because she feels like she should.  After all, you learn so much more from nonfiction than you do fiction, and she wants to learn.

But she says that she can’t get through any nonfiction books because they are all so boor-ring!!!  She said (and I quote), “I start reading, and within minutes, my head is down on my chest, and I’m sleeping.  I just can’t stay awake through those books!”

I used to have that perception of nonfiction books too.  Nonfiction?  No way.  That’s boring, dry stuff!  Let’s read some fiction, where there’s action and storylines and FUN stuff.  Right?  Yeah, I see you nodding your head.  It’s true - fiction is almost universally thought of as the interesting books, and nonfiction as the dry tomes that only desperately dull people read.

Leaving aside the debate of whether I am desperately dull or not (no comments from the peanut gallery!) I think that there are a lot of nonfiction books that do not deserve the title of dull, and that anyone could enjoy reading.  I figured that it was about time I put together a list of my top ten favorite nonfiction books.  None of these books are academic treatises on a subject, I give you my solemn oath.

Most of these books I’ve written reviews of on here; in those cases, I have linked to the reviews.  Also, I am trying to link to a variety of books, so that if you’re not interested in biographies, for example, you might want to read a book about finances or relationships.  So it isn’t that I have ADHD or something (although that is possible…)

Let’s get going, shall we?

1. Marley and Me by John Grogan: If you do not laugh while reading this book, there is a good chance you are dead.  I just thought you should be aware of that.  There could be some sort of freaky sixth sense thing going on here.  I have not watched Marley and Me the movie, so I have zero input on that (although here’s a great review of Marley and Me the movie from another site).  Marley and Me the book is actually the book I ended up recommending to my coworker.  We’ll see if she enjoys it as much as I think she will.
2. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand: No top ten list of mine would be complete without including my other favorite animal nonfiction book, Seabiscuit.  There is a lot more to this book than just Seabiscuit the horse, which at times can seem overwhelming, but it really helps set the stage for horse racing, which makes the racing portions of the book come alive.  Again, I have not watched the movie.  Anyone seeing a trend here?  Hmmm…
3. John Adams by David McCullough: This is one I have not written a review of yet, but it was one of the first nonfiction books that I ever read, and absolutely turned me on to biographies of historical figures, and especially biographies written by David McCullough.  He is a fantastic writer; at the end of John Adams, I actually cried because, you know, John Adams died.  (Hope I didn’t just ruin it for anyone.)  But that’s how strongly McCullough makes you care about his subjects of his books.  I did write a review of his masterpiece, 1776: Illustrated Edition, so check that out.  And no, I did not watch the John Adams movie either, in case you were wondering.
4. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson: There is no way to walk away from this book without feeling inspired, uplifted, and full of the can-do spirit.  Well, I guess you could if you were dead, but didn’t we already go over that?  Anyway, when I read a fiction book of how someone works hard to overcome incredible odds, I nod and smile and think, “Well of course he did!  It’s easy to do that in the fiction world.”  But when I read nonfiction book about a homeless mountain climber building hundreds of schools in the Middle East and doing his part to bring peace to the world…Well, it’s just hard to argue with that, you know?  And even harder to not want to do something yourself to help.
5. Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: If you’re up for a depressing but touching and truly wonderful memoir, then this is just the book for you.  There is a reason this book was on the New York Bestseller’s list for ages.  If you have not read it before, go forth and read.  I guarantee your complete satisfaction, or your…well, sorry, you’re just screwed.  But really, you should be satisfied.  Most likely.
6. Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall: If you’re into polygamy books, then you absolutely must check out Stolen Innocence.  I’ve read most of the polygamy books out there, and I enjoyed this one the most.  Elissa manages to tell her depressing story without being completely depressing and/or bitter to the bitter end.  It is also the best edited out of the polygamy books; some of the other ones could have stood to have a little better editing job done.  If you read one polygamy book, make it this one.
7. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman: In the crowded books-about-relationships field, Five Love Languages is consistently rated one of the top books of the genre.  There is a reason for this: The book plain makes sense.  If you’re in the market for a great book to help you out with your relationship with your loved one, then you must buy this book.  Between Five Love Languages and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, you honestly cannot go wrong.
8. Hands of My Father by Myron Uhlberg: This is a fantastic memoir of a boy growing up during the Depression, son of two deaf parents.  I will be posting my review of it soon, but suffice it to say that I LOVED it.  Really and truly.  Check it out on Amazon in the meanwhile.  You won’t be sorry.
9. Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey: If you’re looking for a book on personal finances (how to manage your money) then this it.  Look no further.  Ramsey manages to make the book not only chockful of interesting information, but also interesting, inspiring, and easy to read.
10. Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott: Of course I couldn’t put together a list of my favorite nonfiction books without listing an astronomy book.  There are a lot of books that offer collections of space pictures, but I have to say that this the best one I’ve ever come across.  Gorgeous pictures, quality printing job, insightful info…You really can’t get any better than this book for space pictures.

So, did I miss any?  What is your favorite nonfiction book?  And if you say you don’t have one, then get reading!  I’d suggest starting with one the above books.  All are guaranteed to be snore free.

Or something like that…

Hava

~~~~~~~~~~~

This is part of my Fun Fridays series. If you’re interested, be sure to check out my other children’s book reviews.

My brother-in-law and his partner live in Norway, so when I saw How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols by Melody S. Mis, I immediately decided to check it out. I wanted to learn more about this beautiful country.

How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols, despite the title of the book, did focus on quite a bit more than just how to draw a particular item. It started out by outlining the history of Norway from 10,000 BC to present day. The first “how to draw” section did not appear until page 15. Far from being disappointed by this, I thought this added a lot to the book. What is the point of learning how to draw something that you don’t know anything about?

As for the drawing portion of the book, I have to say that I am conflicted about it. When I think of a kid’s book on drawing, I think in terms of more simplistic items being drawn. Some of the items to be drawn were simple (like the national flag of Norway) but some of the items to be drawn would have absolutely killed me off, and I’m an adult. Granted, not an especially talented adult when it comes to artistic abilities, but I have considerably more hand-eye coordination than your typical 7 year old. At least I hope so.

On the other hand, I’m not entirely sure I can fault the author, Melody Mis, for this, considering the fact that she was not in charge of creating the coastline for Norway (click on the thumbnail to your left for a larger version so you can see exactly how difficult the Norway coastline is.)  Some of the other challenging items that you are shown how to draw: The purple heather flower, the Borgund Stavkirke, and more.

I enjoyed the book and certainly learned a lot from it.  The ages it is appropriate for is 9 - 12 years old, and I would suggest sticking with that unless your children are especially talented readers and artists.

This is part of a large series that includes other countries like Italy, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, and more.  More than countries, however, the series has also branched off to include a book on each state in the United States, so you can find a book on Ohio, New York, Michigan, Idaho, and of course the rest of the states.  Pretty cool, eh?

When looking through those books, it looks as if part of the series is geared at 4 - 8 year olds, and part of the series is geared at 9 - 12 year olds.  That seemed rather strange to me, but I wasn’t able to personally look at those books to verify this.

Overall, I give How to Draw Norway’s Sights and Symbols 4.5 stars.  The illustrations to show the kids how to draw various items are a little small, and again some of the items are overly complicated, but other than that, I thought the book was well-done, full of interesting information, and a nice take on the “normal” series that you see about different countries around the world.

Hava

PS If you’re into children’s books, there is another terrific site here at Today you should check out.  Laura writes children’s book reviews exclusively, and has a fun site going.  Happy readings!

Okay, all of you germophobes, you can’t leave yet!! Why Dirt is Good: 5 Ways to Make Germs Your Friends by Mary Ruebush is especially important reading for the Clorox Sanitizing Wipes/Purell gel sanitizer type people, which germophobes usually are.  Yeah, you know who you are.

Why Dirt is Good was written by a doctor who is a microbiology and immunology instructor at Kaplan Medical and has taught about immunology, infectious disease, and pathology in medical schools for 30+ years.  So she isn’t some quack who is spouting of her own ideas of what she thinks we ought to do - she has years and years of experience backing her (and her admittedly insane ideas).

So here’s the book in a nutshell:

Our immune system is like anything else - it gets better and stronger the more it is used.  An immune system has to learn how to fight off bugs, and it has to do it regularly to stay in good shape (just like an Olympic gold medalist couldn’t take off an entire year from training and then still compete in an event.)  When a child is not exposed to dirt and germs at a young age, then the immune system doesn’t learn how to fight the viruses and bacteria, and the child will actually be more prone to illnesses when they get older than a child who was exposed to a lot of dirt n’ germs.

In other words, those parents who are clean freaks who sterilize everything that goes into their child’s mouth in order to “keep them from getting sick” is setting that child up for a lifetime of sickness.  Ironic, is it not?

But having said that, this doesn’t mean that the author was advocating that you have your child never wash their hands or send your child outside with specific instructions to eat a cup of dirt every day, but she was saying that you as the parent should not freak out when your child does the things that children do (eat mud pies, eat food dropped on the floor, share their food with others, etc).  Don’t sterilize the binky/pacifier every time it drops on the ground.  Wipe it off on your pants and plug it back in!  Your child will thank you later.

Ruebush also spent a lot of time talking about the anti-bacterial and anti-microbial hand sanitizers that you see all over the place.  She said something that probably won’t be trumpeted in the next Purell ad you see on TV: These sanitizers work really well in the laboratory but have shown virtually zero effect in real life.

From page 111:

The primary ingredient in the hundreds of liquid antibacterial soaps on the market today is triclosan.  In much higher concentrations, triclosan is used in hospital settings - by surgeons scrubbing before an operation, for example.  At those concentrations and in that setting, triclosan kills bacteria across the board.  At the much lower concentrations in soap made for the consumer use (usually 0.15 percent), the amount of triclosan is just right for creating resistance to it.

What the story there is: Bacteria and viruses are some of the best organisms at evolving out of anything residing on this planet.  They can literally evolve within a couple of hours.  You cannot possibly keep ahead of them by producing a new anti-bacterial in the lab every time something evolves.

And the bacteria do it by adapting to the agents trying to kill them.  There is the phrase, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” right?  Well, that phrase is absolutely applicable to bacteria.  When you use a low level anti-bacteria on bacteria, it kills off the weak strains of bacteria and leaves the more advanced and potentially deadlier bacteria alive, and now resistant to whatever it was that you used to try to kill it.  The more you use anti-bacterial soap, the more deadly the bacteria gets, and the less effective that soap is.

Seriously, it’s just frustrating isn’t it?

To find out lots more than you ever really wanted to know about bacteria and viruses, you need to read Why Dirt is Good.  It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I had thought I had known but now know is false.

Well, now for the negatives.  The margins are huge, and the book is short (roughly 170 pages without counting the glossary at the back) so there really isn’t much to it.  At times, it felt like an overblown magazine article, where the author just tried to take a topic and stretch it out as far as possible.  There were some things that were repeated too much in my ever so humble opinion.

If they had shrunk the margins down to normal size, resized the dimensions of the book itself into the “normal” (and bigger) size for a book, and had taken out all of the repeated stuff, this would have been a very short book indeed.

Does that mean that I don’t think it’s worth it to buy?  At retail ($19.95) probably not.  But if you can find it on discount, then I’d go for it.  There really is a lot packed into these pages, much more than what I’ve covered above.  Or just do like I did and check it out of the library.

I give Why Dirt is Good: 5 Ways to Make Germs Your Friends 4.25 out of 5 stars.  If you’re a germophobe who uses every sanitizing product under the sun, then run, don’t walk, to the bookstore and buy it.  Or order it online.  It will change your way of thinking, guaranteed.

Hava

~~~~~~~~~~~

For my honors class in college, a speaker came in and talked to the class about something you don’t normally hear about much: Slavery right here and now, in the year 2009.

Unfortunately, I missed class that day, so I didn’t get to hear him speak. As make-up work for missing the class, I was assigned a video to watch on this global pandemic. I have posted the video below for all of you to watch.

WARNING: This video will make you sick to your stomach, not so much because of the graphic pictures in the video (although there is a little of that) but because of the realization that all of this has been happening, and you have done nothing to stop it.  At just over 5 minutes, it is well worth your time to watch.

After watching that video, I wanted to know what I could do. I also wanted to find more information on the subject, since this was literally the first time I had heard about this. Slavery? Here in America? C’mon, what are you talking about? Slavery was abolished! President Lincoln? Emancipation Proclamation? Doesn’t any of that ring a bell?

Yeah, that was me. I was shocked and disturbed to the tips of my toes that this was still happening today. I went to Amazon to see if I could find a book with more information on modern-day human slavery, and I found Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone.  I just finished reading it today.  Batstone is the head of a website, Not For Sale Campaign, and now does tours around the United States speaking about human trafficking.

The book Not for Sale was an eye-opening look at all the forms of human slavery, from women being forced to serve as sex slaves in a brothel, to whole families being locked inside of a rice factory for years, to children being forced to fight as soldiers in rebel armies in Africa.  There doesn’t seem to be a corner of the world that is not affected in some shape or form by this.

The book did have some ADD tendencies to it, however.  The author would start out a chapter talking about sex slavery in Asian countries, and throughout the chapter would jump from the story of someone who was forced into slavery, to a person who is fighting it as an abolitionist however they can (by providing aid to those who escape, by helping people escape, by providing legal representation to those who escaped, etc), and then on to the general landscape of the problem - why it is thriving, what has made it hard to fight, etc.

Each new section within the chapter meant a jump to a new point of view on the problem, and he regularly jumped back and forth between the different point of views until wrapping up the chapter (usually) with the escape and freedom of the slave.

When I first started reading, I thought, “Who is this?  What is he talking about?  What happened to the person whose story he just left?”  After I read through several chapters and got more used to this writing style, it didn’t bother me as much, but I still cannot say it’s my favorite writing style, and I wish he had done it differently.

Despite this minor flaw, the book was still excellent.  If you want a broad overview of the worldwide problem of human trafficking, then this is the book for you.  If you are outraged by the video above and you want more information and you especially want to know what you can do to make a difference, then you need to read this book.  This is an excellent introduction into the world of slavery, and will help you better understand the global dynamics of it.

At the end of the book, he has a listing of the various agencies fighting this problem along with their websites so you can find a group nearby that you can join to help fight this.  Don’t think this problem exists in your backyard?  Check out Slavery Map, where you can search the globe and see where the various incidents have happened.  I had two in my state alone.

There are books that make you laugh, there are books that teach you stuff.  There are books that broaden your horizons.  But Not For Sale will change your life.  Buy it today.  After you’re done reading, pass it on to a friend or neighbor, and encourage them to continue passing it on when they’re done.  The more we know about this problem, the better we can fight it.  Knowledge is everything.

If you don’t see it, then you aren’t looking for it.
~ modern slavery in a nutshell

Havs

PS My hometown is going to get a visit from David Batstone and his entourage very soon.  If any of you who are reading this are from my hometown and want more information, call me or send me an email and I’ll gladly give you the info.  I’d love to post it here but for privacy reasons will not.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: The following is part of my intermittent Fun Friday series where I write reviews of children’s books.

I love children’s books because they take incredibly complicated subjects and distill them down into bite size pieces that you can understand and learn from without having to have a Masters degree in the subject.

Ox, House, Stick: The History of our Alphabet by Don Robb is just such a children’s book. It is about how our alphabet came into being, something I was discussing with someone just the other day. Why, I wondered, is our alphabet in the order it is in?  Why doesn’t our alphabet read as A, C, Y, W, F, Z…

You get the picture.

According to Ox, House, Stick page 19:

No one knows why the letters of the alphabet appear in the order they do.  They’ve kept pretty much the same order since Phoenician times.

Well, at least I’m not the only one who doesn’t know the answer to that question.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it took a fairly complicated subject (the history of written language) and broke it down into understandable and interesting chunks.  I enjoyed looking at all of the colorful and well-drawn illustrations scattered throughout the book too.

The picture below is actually the back cover for the book, and shows the first two letters of the alphabet (A and B) in a variety of languages: Hebrew, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian.  It’s interesting to see the similarities and differences between the alphabets.

Does it make me a real geek that I think lists like that are interesting?

Don’t answer that.

This would be a great book for a teacher in a classroom (geared for ages 8 - 12), a homeschooling mom, or just someone like me who loves to learn about a variety of subjects without having to invest months or years of my time to learning every nook and cranny.

I give Ox, House, Stick: The History of Our Alphabet 4.75 out of 5 stars.

Havs

~~~~~~~~~~~

I first heard about Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey With His Wordless Daughter by Robert Rummel-Hudson from a patron who was returning the book. He said that his wife read it, and thought it was excellent. Intrigued, I checked it out and brought it home, only to promptly forget about it.

It sat on my shelf for a while, until a couple of days ago, when I finally decided that I needed to either read it or return it. I figured I’d give it the first chapter to prove its worth, or it was going back to the return bin.

Well, I read it and fell in love with it.

Schuyler (pronounced “Sky-ler”) is a beautiful little girl (yes, that is her on the front cover of the book) who was born with an extremely rare disease that robs her of the ability to speak coherently. It also causes her to have only partial small muscle control, which means that it’s difficult for her to use sign language.  She does it, but it’s hard and some of the more difficult signs are out of her reach. And in the other cases of people afflicted with this disease, there is usually mental retardation, although they aren’t positive that’s something Schuyler has been afflicted with.

But up until Schuyler’s 18-month birthday, nobody realized anything was wrong with her. She was a smiley, happy baby who won the hearts of everyone around her; she was able to walk and eat like other babies, and she did make noises. During a routine check-up with the doctor, however, the doctor started to probe deeper and they started to realize that not all was right in the land of Oz. It took several years and many, many tests to finally receive a correct diagnosis.

The eventual result of the testing and diagnosis was that they realized that Schuyler was never going to be able to speak like “a normal person.”  Up to that point, they had been hoping that with enough therapy and work, Schuyler would eventually be able to speak clearly.  So they started looking at options that would provide Schuyler a way to communicate with the rest of the world.

Like I said before, sign language is something she can do, but not well, so they went after a high-tech option that if Schuyler would have been born 20 years earlier, never would have been available to her.  It was an “alternative augmentative communication device” or an AAC device.

An AAC in its most basic form allows the person to push buttons and then the device says the sentence outloud.  The picture I have posted is of the latest and most high tech version yet, the Vantage Lite, but at $7,295 it isn’t cheap.  The funding would normally come from a school district, but the majority of Schuyler’s Monster is spent chronicling their fight to get an AAC for Schuyler, and to get the teacher support needed for this type of device to work.

So that’s the story in a nutshell. Although it’s a sad story, on the surface there isn’t much there to grab you and hold your attention. But it’s the writing that really does it for me. Rummel is a blogger (check out Schuyler’s Monster blog) and in fact this book grew out of that blog, not the other way around. His writing style causes this to be one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year. I cried, I laughed, and everything in between.

I cannot tell you how thoroughly I enjoyed Schuyler’s Monster.  It is rare to find an author who is willing to be so open about his life and his feelings.  Life wasn’t hunky-dory.  The family went through a lot, and they almost didn’t make it.  I appreciated Rummel being willing to tell it exactly how it was, and to tell it so well, I cared about them through out it all.

For a darling video of Schuyler using her very first AAC (or “box of words” as Rummel calls it) check out the following.  Keep in mind, she’s 5 years old in this video.

I give Schuyler’s Monster 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Good luck, Schuyler - I know you’re going places, girl.

Havs

~~~~~~~~~~~

I first heard about Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing “Hoax” by Philip Plait at the local planetarium when my husband and I went to watch a movie called (you guessed it!) “Bad Astronomy.” It was a movie made to show in a planetarium, so as you might imagine, it was not exactly on par with Hollywood blockbusters. But still, it was enjoyable, and I learned a lot from it. It also made me want to read the book.

The premise of Phil Plait’s book, movie, and website (Bad Astronomy at Discover Magazine,) is the fact that there are a lot of flat-out wrong ideas when it comes science, and more especially astronomy.  Plait is working hard to debunk the conspiracy theories that surround things like the moon landing, and to help people realize that there are common myths (like you can only balance an egg on the spring equinox) that are completely untrue.

In short, he’s a skeptic and a debunker of pseudo-science.

Since I enjoy that kind of thing, I really enjoyed the book and the movie.  There were certain things that he covered that I had honestly never thought about.  Take, for example, ships flying around in space.  Watch any famous movie or TV series (like Star Wars or Stargate) and you’ll see ships flying, then slowing down and stopping next to the mother ship (or whatever).  Notice when you watch those scenes that as far as you can see, there is nothing to slow the ship down!

In space, in order for a shuttle to slow down, it has to fire thrusters at the front of the ship in order to produce force that would send them backwards.  Or in the case of them already going forward, a backwards thrust would cause them to slow down and eventually stop.  But in all of the Hollywood movies, the ships simply stop, as if the pilot stepped on the breaks or something.

After Plait pointed this out to me, I have to admit that it’s been bugging me ever since.  If you like sci-fi movies or TV shows, do know that reading this book may take away some of that joy.  Just a head’s up in case this sort of thing would annoy you instead of provoking humor (ha-ha!  This movie is so stupid - it breaks every natural law in the book! kind of humor.)

Some of the other bad science that Plait tackles: UFO’s, naming stars after yourself, the supposed “fake” moon landing, and a whole lot more.  I will say that there was hard-core science in the book in some spots, and since I have a hard time following that sort of thing (science is interesting to me but science doesn’t always make sense to me) I will admit that I skipped some paragraphs.  Anyone who is more of a science geek than me won’t have any problems with it.  For the most part, it was written so that anyone could understand, even the non-science geeks of the world.

And, speaking of science, there are some great science blogs here in the Today.com network that you might want to check out - both Science Fun and Rocket Scientist are well-written and educational blogs in the science field.  Also, I have read and reviewed other astronomy related books here on Nonfiction Lover, like Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe and Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking that you might want to check out if science and astronomy are a passion of yours.

Overall, I give Bad Astronomy 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Whether you’re a science teacher, debunking fiend, or just enjoy astronomy, you’ll love Bad Astronomy.

Havs

~~~~~~~~~~~

The combination of working at a library plus reviewing nonfiction books in my spare time meant only one thing - Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron was a must read for me.

It is about Dewey, a stray cat found in the return bin at the library one morning after a terribly cold night in Spencer, Iowa. Someone had dropped the cat down the return bin shoot, and the library director, Vicki Myron, found him in there, clinging to life.

The Spencer Public Library adopted the cat and made him their own. In this autobiography, Myron chronicles not only Dewey’s life but her own, and also the background and history of Iowa, family farms, and libraries.  She discusses going to school to get her masters in library science,  Carnegie libraries, and remodeling libraries, all items that were especially interesting to me as a librarian.

But much more than that, it was a touching memoir of what it means to love a cat wholeheartedly, not only in good times (Dewey brought a lot of fame and attention to this small corner of the world) but in bad - when Dewey started to age and his coat wasn’t as shiny and youthful as it was before.  (Yes, believe it or not, the library board actually discussed what to do with Dewey “now that he was old” and didn’t look as good.  Apparently, we Americans are not only obsessed with human youthfulness but cat youthfulness too.)

If you love cats, libraries, or the small town life, then you’ll adore Dewey. There are pictures of Dewey throughout the book but all of them are printed in black and white, which for an orange tabby means you lose something in the process. But the Spencer Public Library has put together a web page dedicated to only pictures of Dewey with great captions underneath.  After finishing the book, I enjoyed looking through all of the pictures.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat touched my heart - it made me think, it made me grateful, and it made me cry.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Havs

Well, I know that this will come as a surprise to all of you, but I have heard a rumor that there are more books in this world than just nonfiction books.

Sit and let that soak in for a moment.  That means that there might be other book reviewers than just me!

No!

Yes!

Really?

Okay, fine, so there are a LOT more bloggers than just me out there.  And in an effort to help introduce all of my lovely readers to that great big world of Other Book Bloggers that does in fact exist (this is like The Others from the TV show Lost although not as creepy), I thought I’d start a new series on my site.  From here until the day I run out of people to interview, I will post an interview with a fellow book blogger every Tuesday.

I was trying to come up with a cool title for it like “Tuesdays Bloggers” but then realized that Tuesdays Bloggers is in fact not a cool title, and so I gave up trying to be creative and cool and stuff.

Then I realized that DUH!, I have creative and cool and stuff readers!  So I’m opening this up to you guys - if one of you can come up with a catchy or fun title for this new series, then you’ve just won yourself a nice permanent backlink in my sidebar.  Leave your ideas in the comment section below.

And if you don’t have a blog for me to link to, then you will win a permanent place in my Top Ten Coolest People Ever list.  So if I ever put together another list like that again, you’d totally come in at number one.  And if I don’t, well…ummm….

Moving on now…

I also have to ask: Are you one of those Other Book Bloggers?  And if so, are you interested in being interviewed by moi, and being spotlighted on my blog?  Drop me a link through my Nonfiction contact page and we’ll chat.  I have had quite a few people respond already, so you wouldn’t be highlighted, say, tomorrow, but it would happen eventually and it would totally be worth your while.  I think.

Last but not least, before I sign off for the night, I wanted to thank DreadPirateRose of the ultra-cool Convention Fans blog here at Today.com for my new header.  I will be messing with my colors in my blog to match my new spiffy header which is always fun for me.  I like messing with that kind of thing.  It’s like all the fun of painting your home without all of the work that comes along with!

Thanks again Dread - you rock!

Havs

PS The book bloggers that I interview will have their link added to my sidebar under the “Book Bloggers I Interviewed” heading.  —-> The most recent five bloggers will be highlighted there.  As you can see, I’ve already got one up - Andrea from So Many Books, So Little Time will be the first in the series - her interview will show up Tuesday morning.  Be sure to check it out then!

I saw Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know by Randall Stross one day while doing check-in.  Since I am a big fan of Google (I use Gmail for my email service - Gmail ROCKS! - and faithfully use only Google to search the internet) I thought it would be interesting to learn more about this company that has played such a large role in my online life.

Overall, Planet Google was interesting.  It didn’t quite progress the way I thought it would - I thought it would start at the beginning, with the history of the co-founders, and then progressing linearly through time up to the point of publication.

Instead, it had very little personal history about the co-founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) and instead of progressing forward through time, the book was organized around ideas that Google has experimented with, from Google Earth to Gmail to YouTube.  Each chapter focused on an idea, or focused on the competition Google has faced from Microsoft and Yahoo.

It made for a very quick read (I sat down after work tonight and finished the whole book in one sitting - about 2.5 hours or so) and I think that reading it so quickly made me realize something that would have otherwise been lost reading it over the course of a week or a month: Randal Stross repeated himself several times throughout the book, almost as if he had written each section separately, and then at the end combined it all into one book.

There were a couple of instances where he would explain a concept in-depth in one chapter, and then explain that same concept again a chapter or two later (in much less detail, but still, there was more explanation the second time around than was needed, for sure.)  If I had taken 6 weeks to read the book, I never would have noticed this.

Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed it, and I feel like I have a better understanding of the fundamentals of Google than I did before I read it.  I use Facebook regularly, so I was really surprised to learn about the rivalry between Facebook and Google.  I had no clue before I read Planet Google.  Nor did I know that Microsoft has some monetary stake in Facebook, or that Microsoft and Google are rivals (I don’t pay much attention to rivalry between tech companies, what can I say?)

But while there were events or happenings that the author covered in great detail (like YouTube, and more specifically, making YouTube monetarily solvent) there were other Google-related items that the book did not touch on at all, or only mentioned once or twice in passing, like Blogspot and Google AdSense.  Those are both huge parts to the Google world, and yet they garnered zero attention by Stross.

I think that is one of the book’s biggest downfalls - it tended to be fairly superficial.  I feel like he skimmed through a lot, but then repeated other things (how is YouTube going to make money?) too much.

There were events that the author referred to as being a “huge deal” and I had no clue they had even happened, let alone was affected by it happening.  I think there has been more than one technology bubble - for someone wrapped up in the Google world, perhaps these things were a huge deal, but to the rest of us, it was negligible at best.

Planet Google would obviously would not appeal to someone not interested in the tech world - this is not a book I could recommend to just anyone in off the street.  But for the right person, I think this would make for a fascinating read.  Since I fall into that group of people interested in both technology and the story behind the companies that shape our world today (I really need to read a book about Microsoft!) I give it 4.25 stars out of 5.

Havs

The following is a fantastic guest post by a fellow blogger, Jennifer L Price, here at Today.com. If you are interested in more of Jennifer’s writing, please check out her blog at Journeys and Adventures. She is an excellent writer, so be sure to give her lots of praise in the comment section! Thanks again, Jennifer!!

I should probably start this review by admitting that I’m a foodie; foodies are defined by Wikipedia as “amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news.” Yup, that’s me - I like to make food, look at food, think about food, and, of course, eat food…so a book about a food writer attending the well-known Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris is exactly the kind of book I enjoy.

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn details her experiences as a former middle manager attempting to follow a life-long dream and navigate life in Paris after being fired from her job - while also trying to learn how to gut a trout without damaging the head, cook with rooster blood, and make the perfect 512-layer puff pastry.

The book is obviously about food; Flinn uses mouth-watering descriptions to illustrate the dishes she creates and enjoys: “My final menu [includes] fillet of veal in pastry, stuffed with apples, celery, and mousse de fois gras with Calvados sauce, endive flowers with marinara sauce, whipped cauliflower with salsify and roasted garlic, chanterelle mushrooms sautéed with parsley.” (Don’t worry if your stomach starts to growl while reading, more than 25 recipes are also included in the book!)

There is more to the book than the food, though - Flinn offers an honest portrayal of life in a challenging culinary school, including demanding chefs and competitive classmates from around the world. The facts used to support her story (like the history of Cordon Bleu and how restaurants started) add a fascinating background to the already enchanting Paris. Trips to the market and glimpses of the Eiffel Tower bring the city to life.

At the forefront, however, The Sharper Your Knife is a memoir. In addition to her culinary experience, Flinn honestly shares the stresses, joys, and trepidations of losing her corporate job, moving to a foreign country, discovering herself, and searching for love: “As in cooking, living requires that you taste, taste, taste as you go along—you can’t wait until the dish of life is done.”

So, foodies like me will definitely enjoy the book—as will anyone who ever thinks of starting over and following their dreams overseas. There’s quite a bit of French in the book and Flinn covers a lot of territory in a short amount of time, sometimes moving too quickly and seemingly glossing over important parts, so The Sharper the Knife, The Less You Cry gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars from me.

~Jennifer

****

Again, you can find Jennifer’s blog at Journeys and Adventures - she writes about countries all over the world that she has visited, and that the tips and ideas that she has to make your trips more enjoyable and stress-free. Even if you’ve gone no further than your own backyard but you love to dream, you’ll love her site. Check it out!

Havs

I first heard about Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan when I read Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales.  Gonzales referred to Callahan’s experience quite extensively in Deep Survival, and I thought it sounded like a fascinating story.

Turns out, it was.

Callahan was an avid lover of the sea.  He would spend weeks out in the ocean on his boat, go into port to get some supplies, and then after just a day or two, head back out into the ocean.  He lived on the sea like you and I live in our homes.  He was extremely knowledgeable about the plant and animal life that lived and thrived out in the vast space he called the wet desert (an apt description: There you are, surrounded by miles and miles of water, but there is nothing to drink).

He entered into a race but there was bad weather from the start.  Undeterred, he went ahead with it, a decision that almost cost him his life.  The race was an extensive one and included crossing several oceans, and he had the smallest ship in the race.  He was also all alone.

Six days into the race, the weather became stormy again and the seas were rough.  Callahan did all that he could, and then he went to bed.  He was awakened with a jolt - he later figured out that the most likely cause of the accident was a whale hitting up against the side of the boat.  Either way it happened, the end result was that his boat was sinking, and he needed to get off of it as soon as possible.

There are quite a few things that contributed to Callahan’s survival against odds that have killed every other person ever faced with them:

*He was extremely knowledgeable about the ocean and how to survive in its environment.
*He had bought a six-man raft instead of the standard four-man raft after trying to climb into a four-man raft with two other friends. Apparently, life boats are like tents: You never actually want to go by the count on the outside of the box. *He had not stocked the “normal” emergency kit and left it at that. Instead, he had bought the standard kit and then added a whole lot more, throwing the whole bundle into a sea bag that he was able to grab and go with when the ship started to sink. Because of this extra preparation, he had things like a spear to kill fish with and other items he would have died without.
*He kept his cool and did not panic when the boat started to sink, allowing him to retrieve extra supplies that were very useful.
*He kept his desires to drink fresh water contained - he knew he had a very limited supply of water and was only able to procure more fresh water at a slow rate, so he rationed the water even when every fiber of his being screamed out for more.
*He was creative and smart with his hands, finding fixes for problems that would have been the death of almost anyone else.

As I read the book, I kept thinking, “Okay, what would I have done in that situation? How would I have handled it?” I compared myself to Callahan throughout, and let me just tell you right now: It’s unlikely I would have lived through the night of the boat sinking. If I had been lucky enough to scrap by through that, I wouldn’t have lasted the week.  Depressing but true.

I don’t have the knowledge of the sea and the fish that he did (I know I would have ate a poisonous fish, not realizing what I was doing), I don’t have the ability to fix things easily with my hands (I am a thinker, not a doer, at least in that sense), and most of all, I don’t keep my calm in tense situations. I would have panicked straight out of the box and died.  Lovely, eh?

Other than the interest that the book provided by helping me understand myself better, I also enjoyed it because Callahan is an excellent writer. Just imagine, for a moment, that an entire book is centered inside of a very small area (perhaps the size of your couch) and that there is only one person in that whole book. No one else to talk to, no relationships to develop - nothing but this guy and the ocean.

In most author’s hands, that would have been a recipe for disaster. Talk about boring. But Callahan did a great job of keeping the story line interesting throughout, and making you feel as if you were really living everything that he was. I found myself a lot more thirsty than normal while reading Adrift, which, when I realized what was happening, made me laugh. But after reading so much about fresh water and high temperatures, you can’t help but hit the faucet often while reading.

I also enjoyed his writing style. He has an almost poetical style of writing, and was very enjoyable to read.  He did not focus on just mere survival for the duration; he also spent quite a bit of time contemplating his life, the grand scheme of things, and of course, the great circle of life.  Not boring or dry, but definitely thought-provoking.

My only (small) critique was that there were parts of the book that were confusing to me, since I have only been on a boat a couple of times, and I certainly have no nautical knowledge. It wasn’t enough to make me not want to read the book, but I do have to say that there were some paragraphs that I skipped over, because I just didn’t have any idea of what he was talking about. Luckily that didn’t happen too often, and quickly petered out after his boat sank and he was just on the raft.

I can’t say that’s really his fault - after all, I’m the one who is knows nothing about boats.  But I thought I ought to warn you in case you get very easily frustrated with that kind of thing.

Overall, I give this book a 4.75 out of 5 stars. If you are at all interested in survival stories, or you just want a good autobiography to read, be sure to check out Adrift: Seventy Six Days Lost at Sea. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for 36 weeks - I am positive you’ll love it.

Havs

Before I get this party started, I just wanted to say that I was sent this book for free from the publisher, and my review of it is part of a virtual book tour being done by the author. This didn’t change how I felt about the book or what I am about to say, but I did think that in the spirit of honesty and forthrightness, I ought to tell you guys that anyway.

Moving on…

Before the Scalpel: What Everyone Should Know About Anesthesia by Panchali Dhar, MD was an interesting look into the world of anesthesia, something that us normal people usually miss seeing (probably because we’re sleeping. ::rim shot:: Okay, no more bad jokes, promise).

The two best things about the book were A) The author is an actual anesthesiologist; she doesn’t just play one on TV, and B) The book is well written, walking the fine line between being easy to understand by the patients who don’t have medical degrees, yet including a lot of accurate medical information.  It is easy to veer off into one direction or the other, but Dr Dhar does a great job of balancing the two needs.

Before the Scalpel covers a lot of situations - not just your standard scenarios like giving birth or having open heart surgery, but also dealing with surgeries on children, mouth (oral) surgeries, and having cosmetic surgery, among others.

I don’t plan on having surgery any time soon, but I still found it fascinating how they formulate an approach, what goes into the training of an anesthesiologist, and how the patient is handled while under anesthesia (did you know that while the patient is being operated on, an anesthesiologist is there at all times?  I always thought that the anesthesiologist did their thing, and then left, but that’s not so.  They stay from beginning to end to monitor the patient at all times).

The publishers also put a lot effort into providing great visuals - diagrams of anesthesia machines, cute pictures of babies, and other great shots (like of a baby penguin pushing its way out of the egg while the penguin parents looked on.)  Too many books have pages of dry facts and no illustrations, something that’ll put you to sleep without the need of any anesthesia. I was impressed by how this book handled that.

If you or a loved one is facing surgery in the near future, and you’re worried about the effects of the anesthesia or you want to know what your options are, I would highly recommend reading this book.  I have a coworker at the library whose father is very sick and is facing yet another surgery - I think I’m going to give her this book to read, because she’s a worrier, and it might help put her mind at ease.

I give Before the Scalpel 4.75 out of 5 stars.  Highly recommended for anyone facing surgery, or for anyone looking at entering the anesthesiology field.

Havs

Today, we are being given a rare treat: A guest post from a fellow blogger here at Today.com. Ravyn has been blogging on her site, Exchange of Realities, since June of 2008, and is (as you’ll be able to tell below) a very talented writer.  If you are at all interested in role-playing games (the topic of her blog) then you’ll definitely want to check out her site.

For us, Ravyn wrote up a review of a nonfiction book called The Language of the Night, written by a popular science fiction author many moons ago.  Read through and be sure to leave her lots of praise in the comment section.

******

I found The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K Le Guin by accident. My original goal in asking for reading material had been finding linguistics books, so I could write about slang. And where better to go than my mother and her shelves full of references on language? But amid the pile of pieces on semantics and colloquialisms and the evolution of language, she handed me this book. In a way, I haven’t put it down since.

Having read a few of Le Guin’s pieces, I’d expected the writing to be excellent. What I hadn’t expected was for it to call out to me so perfectly. Yes, the book was published thirty years ago, and most of the essays therein are at least a decade older than I am. But they’re still true, and with every essay I read, I found one more point that I’d always wanted to make but never known how to say.

What I find particularly interesting about it is her approach. Le Guin doesn’t talk about how to write, in the way that many ‘how to write’ articles do, with should and shouldn’t filling every other page. Instead, she talks about how she writes, and how other people write; what was out there at the time, and what she wanted to read; she grounds the essays in the real world with personal anecdotes, but at the same time couches them in terms of archetypes and ideals. Like the author, the book stands with feet in two worlds, and without one the other makes no sense.

And most importantly, she laughs at all of it, even as she tackles issues that go far beyond science fiction.

Did you know that I am a very rare creature? My species was at first believed to be mythological, like the tribble and the unicorn…I am extremely puzzled, even embarrassed, at my own rarity. Are they going to have to lock me up in pens, like the Whooping Cranes and Duckbilled Platypuses and other species threatened with extinction, and watch eagerly to see if I lay an egg?
~In “The Stone Axe and the Muskoxen” essay

Every six months I read this book, and every time I do something ends up as a blog article. The first time, it was a rail against the lack of proper critique in science fiction, something that from what I can see hasn’t changed a bit since the essay that inspired me was written. This read-through, I penned my own opinion on where to find that elusive image of humanity in fiction known as Mrs. Brown. Next time - who knows?

The advice here is eternal; it’s something every writer of science fiction or fantasy should go through at least once, every teacher of how to write should treat as a reference book, and anyone merely interested in the written word should at least consider skimming. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Ravyn

Thanks again to Ravyn for her wonderful review of The Language of the Night.  Now I’m going to have to add another book on my To Be Read list!  Again, be sure to visit Ravyn at her site, Exchange of Realities.  ~Hava

PS Do you have a favorite nonfiction book that you’d love to review for my site?  I’m open to either exchanging guest posts, giving payments for the guest posts using EntreCard credits, or any other idea that sounds reasonable to you.  Drop me a comment through my contact page and we’ll see what we can figure out.

Although I tend to focus on adult nonfiction books, I do occasionally review children’s nonfiction books too. This is one of those books - if you’re interested, you can find other reviews of children’s books here.

Before I started at the library, I had never heard of the “You Wouldn’t Want to…” series, but now I see the books pass through the library all the time.

You Wouldn’t Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice by Fiona MacDonald is just one of many in the series - other examples are You Wouldn’t Want to be a Viking Explorer or You Wouldn’t Want to Work on the Railroads.  They tend to focus on the more gory aspects of history; the things that a boy in elementary school would think is fascinating, but which the “normal” textbooks tend to pass over.

In You Wouldn’t Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice: Gruesome Things You’d Rather Not Know, the author takes you from the beginning: Who the Aztecs are and who “you” are (yes, everything happens in the present tense, and it all happens to you - the author tells you “Now you are doing this.  Now you are feeling that.”  Etc.  Except not in a boring way, promise.)  Eventually, you get captured in battle and eventually end up as a human sacrifice to the gods (and in case you were wondering, no, no last minute save happens - you really do die as a sacrifice.  I had kinda thought that a “But wait!” moment would happen, and you’d be saved.  Nope - you die.)

The illustrations are bright, colorful, and eye-catching.  I found a two-page spread online that I could download, so here’s two pages in the middle of the book:

I found that the book was both gruesome and humorous. That’s not normally a combination I find in reading materials, but I think the book will strike just the right chord for its intended audience - 4th to 6th grade boys. It is historically accurate (okay, not so much the pictures per say, but the facts and history in the book) and for kids who normally find history “bor-ring!” and “Can’t we do something else?” this might be just the ticket to spike their interest.

MacDonald’s right - I don’t want to be an Aztec sacrifice, but I did enjoy this book, and I would want to read more in the same series.  With an eye towards my eventual job as a teacher, I have to say that I’m excited about this series - I think this is a great way to connect with kids who might not otherwise care.  I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Hava