October was a pretty crazy month and I was only able to read one book, so I knew I had some catching up to do if I was going to meet my goal of 52 books in 2012. In order to help get back on track, I decided that my November reading would consist solely of books 350 pages or less. I managed to get six books in over the past month, so here’s a quick look back at what I’ve been reading.

The Long Earth

My good friend Jason has recommended many of the books I’ve read over the years, and this recommendation didn’t disappoint. I’ve always been a sucker for scientific “what if” scenario books, where the author explores what would happen to our society of some random change was thrust upon us. The Long Earth explores the question of what would happen if it was suddenly discovered that there were an infinite number of earths, and that anyone could travel through them with almost painless ease. Suddenly gold and silver isn’t quite as rare as it once was, entirely new continents are available for exploration and development, and overpopulation is a concept that simply doesn’t exist anymore. I really enjoyed reading this book, and the only reason I’m docking it any stars is that I wish it had explored the idea a bit further, and possibly not let me down quite as much on some of the big mysteries that were presented early on.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – 

The Sense of an Ending

I’m actually not sure how this book ended up in my to-read shelf, but I’m glad it was. I was browsing my list for something short to read, and stumbled upon this one. It’s an interesting story about our perception of ourselves and our life experience, and how malleable it is based on how we choose to remember things. Tony, the story’s protagonist, is a middle-aged man who is suddenly put faced with dealing with some events from earlier in his life, and he gradually realizes that the things that happened when he was younger didn’t go exactly as he had recalled, and perhaps he didn’t behave quite the way he remembers behaving. I wasn’t completely sold on the way the book was wrapped up, but the style of writing really spoke to me. Lots of highlighted quotes in this book, and definitely a story I’ll be going back to in the near future.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes – 

Timequake

I love Kurt Vonnegut. He writes with an honesty that I really enjoy. His final novel, Timequake, is a strange mashup of memoir and fiction that was a little hard to follow at times, but it had a really conversational tone that I had fun reading. I’m quite certain that I ended up highlighting at least 25% of this book as I read it, and while it wasn’t a very cohesive book, I was absolutely worth the time.

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut – 

Blue Like Jazz

This was “the book” in Christian circles several years back, with everyone insisting that it was amazing and that it would change the way you thought about your faith. On our drive out to California in 2009, January and I read a different Donald Miller book to each other and I remember really enjoying it, so I was hopeful that I would also enjoy this earlier work of Mr. Miller’s. Unfortunately, I felt like it just came across as a strange mix of self-deprecating and self-congratulatory. Repeatedly, the author would write about some thoughtless, thing he did back when he was younger and it turned out to be something really smart instead. It just got kind of grating. I have no doubt that the author is a good guy, but it just didn’t feel all that genuine.

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller – 

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote’s classic non-fiction novel about the murder of a family in rural Kansas in the 1950’s. My problem with this book may have been my expectations. I didn’t really know much of anything about the actual events the book was based on, but I was expecting a sort of true crime novel, and that’s not really what I got. There was no mystery, no suspense. Within the first chapter, Capote tells you exactly who perpetrated the murders, and then just spends hundreds of pages going over what happened, from the days before the murders through the prosecution and sentencing, and agonizing detail. “Agonizing” being the key word here. I was just really bored through the entire book, with the exception of the killers’ confession.

In Cold Blood by Truman Copote – 

Me Talk Pretty One Day

This is the book I was referring to when, on speaking with January one of the first times we met, I said that I didn’t “read books other people read.” This book seemed to be everywhere at the time, and I think I found it kind of annoying. I did read David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice a few years ago and really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d finally give this one a chance. Like Holidays on Ice, this is a collection of short stories, and it’s really easy to read. Each chapter took anywhere from 5-15 minutes to read, so this was a great one to read in small bits over the course of a day or two. If you like clever, self-deprecating humor, definitely put this one on your list.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – 

One month and six books left to my goal of 52 books in a year, and I’m feeling pretty confident. The holiday season will be busy, but I’m also taking a week off work between Christmas and New Years, so I’m hopeful that six more short books won’t be hard to pull off. Check back in January for my final reviews, after which I will, naturally, put together a top ten list of this year’s best books and quotes.

It’s a short one this month. With all the work we’ve been doing on The Salt Mines, I’ve been left with very little time to do any reading. In fact, the only reading I was able to get in was a furious 48-hour session during a business trip to DC. But one book is still progress, so here’s the review.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect when I started this book. It’s one that pretty much everyone has been aware of since becoming super popular over the past several years, but I still didn’t really know anything about it. I got the vague impression that it was very raw and gritty, and while it didn’t turn out to be that intense, it was still fairly dark. If you’re as unfamiliar with the story as I was, I won’t spoil anything for you, but it’s a pretty heavy mystery novel wherein the protagonists are working to solve a crime whose trail has, at least seemingly gone cold more than forty years prior. As with many grand crimes of this scale, nearly everybody comes under scrutiny at some point, and by the end nobody is really left untouched by what is discovered. Really easy read, and if you enjoy crime novels it’s definitely recommended.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson – 

So, two months to go, and 12 books to read. Check back next month, when I review six very short books.

I’ve been reading a lot of fiction this year. An awful lot of fiction. Of the 35 books I’ve read since January, a scant 5 of them are nonfiction. In an effort to tip the ratio away from such a fiction-heavy rotation, I decided that September would be “nonfiction month.” I have many more fiction books that I’m eager to check out, but it seemed like a good idea to take a month out from the world of the made-up and invest a little time what actually is and has been.

Salt: A World History

My best-friend-in-law Tasci recommended this book a few months ago, so I was willing to take a chance on this seemingly bland topic. Get it? Salt? Bland? Nevermind. Salt is something we don’t think much about these days, but for thousands of years it helped shape the course of history. Up until a hundred years or so ago, salt was a relatively rare substance and those who controlled the salt controlled the power of commerce. The book was really interesting, but a bit dry at points. I really enjoyed the parts discussing the scientific makeup of salt, as well as the role salt played in early US history. If you’re a history buff, it’s worth checking out, but be prepared for a few slow parts.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlanski – 

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

I’m an introvert. I know this may surprise a lot of people reading this, but it’s true. It’s not easy being an introvert in an extrovert’s world, but that’s the situation I’ve found myself in for the past 34 years. This book does a really nice job detailing the differences between introversion and extroversion, and makes the case for a better understanding between people of each persuasion. Really, though, I mostly recommend this book for people who have important people in their lives who are introverts, whom they want to understand better, especially extrovert spouses and parents of introverts. It will give you a good introduction into better understanding how we work.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain – 

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

Boom. There it is. “The N-Word.” In the history of the spoken word, perhaps no other word has had as much power to anger, infuriate, subjugate, or at the very least make people uncomfortable. This book covers the history of the word, the history of its acceptance and use in the popular culture, and the way in which it has been dealt with in recent history since becoming widely recognized as taboo. It was definitely an uncomfortable read, but sometimes uncomfortable subjects need to be addressed. I’m not certain I agree with the author’s conclusions about the words appropriateness or the way it should be handled, but I think it’s a subject should perhaps be tackled head-on instead in hushed whispers behind closed doors.

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy – 

Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan

After reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63, I was really interested in the idea of how American history — and world history — has hinged on a series of small events, and how radically things might have been different had things gone another way. Then Everything Changed explored this very question in a handful of specific events: The near-assassination of JFK in 1960, JFK’s assassination in 1968, and a critical gaffe in during the 1976 Presidential debates. After getting into this book, I’m not sure that it’s accurately categorized as “nonfiction,” as the assumptions the author makes about these “alternate histories” take a few liberties that could be construed as far-fetched. Obviously, we have no way to know what actually would have been, but Greenfield makes an entertaining guess. Definitely recommended for history buffs who want to debate the author’s story, but also very much recommended for people of my generation, born just after these events took place, who don’t know a lot about the twenty critical years in US history before the 1980’s.

Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reagan by Jeff Greenfield – 

I’m officially back on track for my goal of reading 52 books this year! My nightstand this month has hosted a wide variety of genres, from Irish detective mysteries to graphic novels to science fiction, it’s been a full month. Here’s a quick overview.

Cloud Atlas

I was really, really conflicted about this book. Although I read it very quickly, it took me a considerable amount of time to decide if I thought it was a 2-star book or a 4-star book. I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt for now and going with a 3-star rating, simply because it did hold my attention and keep me interested. The problem with this book isn’t necessarily that it’s trying too hard — Lord knows how many authors do — but that one feels the author is constantly winking at the reader, trying to remind the reader of how clever he is. And I’m just not convinced that it worked.

I realize that my review really doesn’t tell you anything at all about the book itself, so here’s the long and the short: Cloud Atlas is a collection of six stories that take place over a span of  3 centuries interwoven together in a way that shows how the main character of one story affects the protagonist of the next. Like a matryoshka doll, Cloud Atlas takes you through the story within the story down all six levels, and then back out again. Every story is written in a different style, and while I found some of them harder to get through than others, I did appreciate each story’s “voice” fitting the time period. 

I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of hype about this book over the coming months, as the movie adaptation is due out this fall. If the movie trailer catches your attention, give the book a shot. If you can forgive the author’s occasional self-imporance, I think there’s a decent story in there.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell – 

Broken Harbor

I do love a good tragedy, and Tana French never fails to make me want to blow my brains out in the best way possible. This is the fourth book in her Dublin Murder Squad detective series, in each of which she tells the story of a lead detective in an Irish police force as they try to solve a particular crime. This book focuses on a triple-homicide in an abandoned housing development: A man and his two children are found murdered, with the wife as the sole survivor of the attack. Dublin Murder Squad’s top detective Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy and his rookie partner are put on the case, and things slowly unravel from there. 

I loved French’s first three books, and she didn’t let me down on this one either. If you like mystery books, definitely start with In the Woods and work your way through the series. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Broken Harbor, by Tana French – 

Jericho Season 3: Civil War

Jericho is one of those TV shows that I’ve been aware of for a while, but never had the time to check out. The first season premiered in 2006 and was cancelled after lackluster ratings. The fans convinced the network to bring the show back, but it was finally put to rest after another half a season. Earlier this year, I finally got the chance to watch this show on Netflix and really enjoyed it. It’s the story of a nuclear attack on the United States as seen through the eyes of a small Kansas town. The first half of the season, in fact, the viewer is kept as in the dark as the town is and the details are slowly revealed as news makes its way to the town.

Jericho Season 3: Civil War is the continuation of the the Jericho story and picks up directly after the events of the TV show’s second season. This isn’t some fan fiction; It was actually written by the TV show’s writers. I’ve never been a big comic book guy, but I was interested in knowing what the writers had planned, so I gave it a shot. Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot of meat to the book — and maybe that’s just how comic books are? — but I did enjoy seeing where the show was going. If you saw the TV show and are hungry for more, it’s worth a read. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of point in it.

Jericho Season 3: Civil War, by Don Shotz – 

Chicago’s Bridges

The author of this book happens to be my second cousin, and he recently had his first book published. I never really gave bridges a whole lot of thought, but I’m a little more knowledgeable about them after having read this short book. Having spent a few years living in Chicago, it definitely put the subject matter in a light that made it a lot more interesting. If you’ve ever wanted to know about the history of the various types of moving bridges in America, this is a great short read on the subject.

Chicago’s Bridges, by Nathan Holth – 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I love Philip K. Dick as much as the next guy, but man are his books hard to get into. I love his short stories (Paycheck, The Minority Report, The Golden Man), but his full-length novels are just really hard for me to work through for whatever reason. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the book that the highly-successful 1982 movie Blade Runner was based on. There are quite a few differences between the movie and the book, but the basic premise of a bounty hunter chasing down a group of six androids illegally on Earth remains. There are lots of philosophical questions about the nature of existance, but overall I was just kind of slogging through the book. Dick does short stories really well, but it seems like when he tries to devote more than fifty pages to a story it gets kind of rough.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick – 

The Dog Stars

Earlier this month I decided to go camping. Just me and my dog, Gus. I recognize that some may find the idea of camping in the woods without any company other than your dog a horrifying thought, but to me it sounded like a perfect 24 hours; No obligations, no distractions, just relaxing in the quiet of the outdoors. The only advanced technology I took with me was my circa 2007 phone-calls-only cell phone and my second generation Kindle. I planned to spend at least 75% of my time reading by the campfire, so I wanted to make sure my Kindle was loaded with some books appropriate for camping with one’s best four-legged friend.

The Dog Stars the a post-apocalyptic story of a man and his dog who live in an airplane hangar in Colorado. For the nine years since a superflu wiped out 99% of the world’s population, they’ve spent their days taking daily perimeter checks in a 1956 Cessna plane. Their only company is their gun-nut neighbor who helps them defend their land from the occasional roving gangs.

While there’s nothing amazing here, it was a good read and really enjoyable. After setting up camp and getting a fire started, I sat down and read through the first 60% of this book in one go, stopping only to roast a hot dog or throw another log on the fire. If you’re up for yet another post-apocalyptic journey of self-discovery, you could do a lot worse than this book.

The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller –  

Travels with Charley: In Search of America

After tearing through The Dog Stars in my first day camping, I moved on to another story about a man and his dog. In 1960, John Steinbeck set out on a cross-country roadtrip with his French standard poodle, Charley, in an attempt to rediscover the America that he had lost touch with over the years. Appropriately, my opinion of this book matches nearly exactly with Steinbeck’s experience on the road; We were both excited and eager at the beginning, and slowly lost interest over the course of the journey. There are easily a hundred quotables here, but the overall journey grew somewhat scattered and tired almost as quickly as it began. 

Overall, though, I did enjoy the story and the writing. Travels with Charley serves as something of a bookend to Kerouac’s On the Road. Written nearly ten years earlier by a man thirty years younger, it’s full of excitement and hope that only a man first discovering America, without any expectations, can have. Travels with Charley, on the other hand, is scattered with disappointment at not finding what was expected.

Travels with Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck – 

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

After the somewhat disappointing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I felt like I had to get a few of Dick’s short stories back into my system. This collection features some of my favorites, including Beyond Lies the Wub, Paycheck, and The Minority Report. Great collection, if you haven’t read much of Philip K. Dick’s work, this is a great introduction. 

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick, by Philip K. Dick – 

My reading list has seen some pretty good action over the past few weeks. I’m currently halfway through my goal of reading 52 books this year, and my to-read is is still stocked full of titles I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while. Let me give you a quick rundown of what I’ve been reading the past few months.

11/22/63

I don’t read a lot of Stephen King’s work, but the premise behind his latest book was intriguing. If you had the opportunity to go back in time and prevent an atrocity from happening, would you do it?  I’m not going to give you and spoilers, but that’s essentially the premise behind King’s 11/22/63, in which the protagonist goes back to the year 1958 and must wait out the five years, working toward the ultimate goal of preventing the JFK assassination. It was a pretty hefty read at nearly 1,000 pages, but it was a pretty easy read. Very entertaining and definitely recommended if you’re looking for a smart, but not too complicated read.

11/22/63, by Stephen King – 

Daemon

My good friend Jason has mentioned this book off and on for a couple of years, and I finally got around to reading it. At the surface, it’s a story about a brilliant programmer who programs a computer system that, on the event of his death, begins carrying out a programmed mission. To go into more detail might spoil the story a bit. The characters were a bit two-dimensional, but the author clearly has a really solid grasp of the technical details he was talking about, and I appreciated that the technical details weren’t just glossed over, but were actually explained assuming the reader had a moderate background on how today’s technology works. That may not be a safe assumption for all readers, but it was for me and it made the read that much more enjoyable. Not a masterpiece, but a good technological thriller.

Daemon, by Daniel Suarez – 

Freedom™

Daemon definitely left me wanting to know what happened next, so I was glad that I had the sequel ready to go. Pretty much “more of the same,” which was a good thing. I could spend an afternoon debating some of the themes of the books and how I felt about where the author took the book, but for a short review I’ll just say that it was a good follow-up, very smartly written, and didn’t get too bogged down in sharp deliniations between the “good guys” and “bad guys.” Realism like that always makes for interesting reading.

Freedom™, by Daniel Suarez – 

A Wild Sheep Chase

As I’ve mentioned before, Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors, and A Wild Sheep Chase is one of my favorite books of his. It’s the surreal story of a pretty typical, self-described mediocre man in his early thirties who is suddenly tasked with a seemingly impossible task. This task, if not completed, has dire consequences attached to it, so he has little choice in the matter as to whether or not he will attempt it. On the surface it’s certainly something of a mystery, but I feel like it has a bigger metaphorical message about the time most thirty-somethings go through when they have to learn to leave some of their youthful selves behind or else fall into backwards-focused medicrity. It’s something of a “coming of age” for those of us past our youths, but before midlife. 

A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami – 

Hear the Wind Sing

It was my second time reading A Wild Sheep Chase, but I only just recently learned that it’s actually the third book in a series — The Trilogy of the Rat. Hear the Wind Sing is the first in the series, and is actually Murakami’s first book. It was only recently translated and released in the States, and it’s apparently very hard (and expensive) to find a physical copy of the book. Thank God for the ebooks. The book’s direction is pretty meandering, and the style is a little rough, but knowing where the trilogy was going gave me a pretty good appreciation for this first book. If you’re a big Murakami fan it’s worth giving a read, but probably not worth going out of your way for if you aren’t.

Hear the Wind Sing, by Haruki Murakami – 

Pinball, 1973

The second in The Trilogy of the Rat, this is a book I actually started reading more than two years ago and just couldn’t get into. The style is even more disjointed than Hear the Wind Sing, and frankly I just didn’t find it very interesting. It features the same narrator as the other books in the series, but it just feels more like “here’s what happened to me during a span of a year or so” wherein he doesn’t end up anywhere other than where he started. It does fill in the gaps between the other two books, but it didn’t serve much purpose apart from that.

Pinball, 1973, by Haruki Murakami – 

The Age of Miracles

January heard about this book and the premise sounded interesting, so we thought we’d try reading this one together. The world’s scientists one day discover that the Earth is slowly descelerating by a matter of minutes every day, and this is the story of this world as seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl. At first, I expected it to be a sort of science fiction thought experiment in what would happen in a world like this, and while it does address a lot of the scientific “what if” questions, it’s really more of a coming-of-age story for the narrator. The author’s writing is super heavy with the metaphors, linking what is happening to the planet to the struggles of being a teenage girl, but it was an enjoyable, winsome read. It somehow reminded me a lot of The Brief History of the Dead, which I read a few years ago and remember enjoying.

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker – 

Gentlemen

This is a tough one to rate. On the one hand, The Afghan Whigs are one of my favorite bands from the 90’s. I’ve listened to their albums for years without knowing a whole lot about the band’s history, and I enjoyed learning a little more about their background and the process that went into one of my favorite albums. On the other hand, the writing itself wasn’t very good. It had that feel when you can tell the author has a thesaurus on their desk, and they just keep looking up other ways to say “great” or “album” because they feel like they’ve said the word too many times. I almost felt like I was reading narration for a VH1 “behind the music” episode. In some ways that’s a good thing; When discussing certain songs, I could actually hear the music as a backdrop to the narration. All that to say that if you’re a fan of Greg Dulli or The Afghan Whigs, it’s definitely worth your time.

Gentlemen, by Bob Gendron – 

So here we are. 31 weeks in, 26 books down. Goodreads tells me that I’m 4 books behind, so I’ve got a little work to do to get caught back up, but I’m on a pretty good pace. I’ll have an update for you again next month, but in the meantime please hit me up with any recommendations. I’m trying get in a wide variety of styles of books, so I’d love to read anything that you think would be worth checking out.