Sophie's World

Title: Sophie's World

Author: Jostein Gaarder

Pages: 19 discs

Genre: Fiction, Philosophy

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book is a philosophy textbook disguised as a novel about a Swedish girl, Sophie.  Luckily, I knew that when I started this book or I would have found this book to be very strange.  Sophie is a young teenager who comes home to school one day and find a couple of notes with the questions: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" The anonymous note-sender begins sending pages and pages about the history of philosophy and is essentially running a correspondence philosophy course for Sophie.  As the course progresses, Sophie begins to receive birthday cards for another girl, Hilde.  Sophie works hard to unravel the mystery and must use the things that she is learning from philosophy to understand the mystery.

My Review:  There's no question that this book is strange, but I was surprised the I enjoyed it as much as I did when the end rolled around.  I'm no philosopher, but I think that I understand more of what philosophy is and what philosophers are trying to address.  The course, I mean book, covers everything from Plato and Aristotle to Camus, Kant and Nietzsche.  I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Philosophy during the time of Christ and in the modern day.

In the Skin of a Lion

Title: In the Skin of a Lion

Author: Michael Ondaatje

Pages: 256

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Patrick Lewis arrived in Toronto in the 1920's from deep in the woods of Ontario, where his father was a dynamiter for the logs that would be shipped down the river.  In Ontario, Patrick works as a searcher for the vanished millionaire Ambrose Small, and in doing so he falls in love with Small's mistress.  In parallel times and stories, there are detailed descriptions about the building of the Bloor Street Viaduct and the huge waterworks plant for the city of Toronto, focusing on the lives of the immigrant workers, who have accepted Patrick as one of their own.

My Review:  I enjoyed this book, and I think that I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to read it over the course of a week or so.  Instead, I was quite busy at the time I was reading it, which meant that I would only get to read it about once a week.  Because of this, I had a hard time following the stories and parallel plotlines. Going back and reading the detailed summaries and synopses online was a big help in understanding and remembering what was going on.  I've read that this is a prequel to The English Patient, however, I have not read that book yet.

The Pale Blue Eye

Title: The Pale Blue Eye

Author: Louis Bayard

Pages: 16 discs

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Augustus Landor is a retired New York City police detective living near West Point Academy.  After a cadet is found hanging on Academy grounds, he is asked to discreetly investigate the incident.  The death becomes even more bizarre when the dead man's heart is savagely removed during the night.  As Mr. Landor begins to investigate the crimes, he enlists the help of a young cadet, one Edgar Allan Poe.

My Review:  The book was an interesting amalgamation of West Point History and the younger life of Edgar Allan Poe.  A poem that Poe has written plays a large role in the course of solving the mystery.  I'm not sure if the author was trying to mimic Poe's style or the style for the time, but it felt like the book was literally written in the first half of the 19th century, and there were times that it dragged on a bit. 

Black Hawk Down

Title: Black Hawk Down

Author: Mark Bowden

Pages: 6 discs?

Genre: Non-fiction, History

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is the heroic account of a group of  elite US soldiers that were sent into the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia as part of a U.N. peacekeeping operation in 1993.  Somalia was in the middle of a long and drawn out civil war and famine that was partially the fault of Mohamed Farrah Aidid.  The soldier's mission was to capture some of the high-ranking people working for Aidid. Things took a bad turn after one of the black hawk helicopters was shot down, and then another.  The US forces of Rangers and Delta Squads became trapped in the city for around 18 hours before an adequate rescue mission could be launched.

My Review: I've never seen the movie (although I'm interested in seeing it now), but this was a pretty intense account of a battle that did not go as scripted for the US.  From the very start when one of the officers fell out of the helicopter as the teams were being inserted (he hadn't grabbed the rappelling rope properly), the US was fighting an uphill battle.  The amount of shooting and fighting that took place in an urban setting in such a short time was pretty incredible.  The US eventually made it out of the battle, but not without casualties and injuries.

Disclaimer: This is a book about a large firefight, so there is going to be some violence and death.  However, compared to books about other military encounters, the language was less foul and crude.