Play Money

Title: Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot

Author: Julian Dibbell

Pages: 336

Genre: Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: I think that this book has been on my to-read list since it was published in 2006. I finally got around to reading it and it was interesting to read this book in the context of 2019 as opposed to when it was written.  The book was about the digital economies of online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest, Eve Online, Second Life, etc.  Similar to apps like Candy Crush or Farmville, a lot of the value in these games comes from simply spending time in the game and people are willing to pay for the items that are or can be produced by those who have spent enough time in the game to have obtained the expertise necessary to create rare items in the digital marketplaces.  This book gives background about these games and economies and outlines the author's attempt to create an income stream from the trading of these items that would be enough to live off of.

My Review: For the record, I've never actually played any of these games (or similar games), so I wasn't 100% familiar with what the book was about.  That said, I still found this relatively interesting, but this was a book that would have been far more intriguing during the heyday of these MMORPGs (massive multi-player online role-playing games).

Fire in the Bones

Title: Fire in the Bones: William Tyndale - Martyr, Father of the English Bible

Author: S. Michael Wilcox

Pages: 255

Genre: Religion

Grade: B

Synopsis: William Tyndale was a genius translator and familiar with numerous languages including Hebrew, Greek & Latin. During his life in the early 1500s, the printing press was a new invention and most people were illiterate.  The bible only existed in Latin, Hebrew and Greek and the Catholic church fought hard against reformers such as Martin Luther and others who were trying to translate the bible into the more common tongues of English, German, French, etc. Many of these condemned heretics were burned at the stake and hunted throughout both England and the European continent. Wilcox makes the comparison between Joseph Smith and William Tyndale and how both were guided by the Lord in their translation work.

My Review: I enjoyed the story, but it was loaded with speculation and conjecture and in my opinion was stretched out longer than necessary.  This book would have made the perfect novella or magazine article series, but was more of a stretch in book length.

Beloved

Title: Beloved

Author: Toni Morrison

Pages: 324

Genre: Fiction, Classic

Grade: B

Synopsis: Sethe was a pregnant slave with 3 kids who escaped to Ohio. While on the run she gave birth to another baby and made it to her husband's mother's home in Cincinnati. The story talks about the demons of slavery, Sethe's demons that she is always fighting and her relationship with the ghost of her daughter who was killed soon after she arrived in Ohio.

My Review: I actually listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author herself. I really struggled through the first part of the book, I enjoyed the middle part and I started to quite like the book by the end. The writing style of the book makes it difficult to always know what is really happening and what is just flowery prose. Once I started reading the book alongside a detailed summary everything started to make more sense and I enjoyed the book more.

Garden of Lies

Title: Garden of Lies

Author: Amanda Quick

Pages: 359

Genre: Romance

Grade: B

Synopsis: Anne Clifton committed suicide while working as a secretary under contract for the Kern Secretarial Agency.  The owner of the agency, Ursula Kern, does not believe that Clifton would actually commit suicide and believes that Anne Clifton had actually left a coded message for Ursula before her death.  As Ursula starts to dig deeper and deeper into Clifton's past the startling truth begins to become clear.

My Review: This was a unique plot and storyline, but it was not a book that I loved.  It was, however, fairly easy to follow and did not leave a bunch of loose ends at the completion of the book.

No Applause ~ Just Throw Money

Title: No Applause ~ Just Throw Money

Author: Trav S.D.

Pages: 328

Genre: History, Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is a biography of vaudeville in the United States. For a period of about 30 years, vaudeville was the main source of entertainment here in the USA.  It's legacy lives on at halftime shows during major sporting events, America's Got Talent, traveling circuses and loads of shows in Vegas.

My Review: The book was definitely well-researched and well-written, I'm just not sure why I picked it up.  For people who love reading about how the old-time stars got their starts (i.e. the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplain, Harry Houdini, Mae West, etc.), then you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did.

The Well-Educated Mind

Title: The Well-Educated Mind

Author: Susan Wise Bauer

Pages: 480

Genre: Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The subtitle for this book is "A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had." I thought it would be a primer on a bunch of different subjects, but instead, it is just a glorified reading list of novels, autobiographies, histories, dramas, poetry and science texts. Bauer gives strategies for making it through difficult subjects and advocates for time spent reading each day, keeping a reading journal, asking questions and reading books at the same time as a friend in order to stimulate discussion.

My Review: I do love reading lists.  I've got a good number of them and I rarely read books that are not on one list or another. However, I'm posting this review after only reading about 90 pages of the book as the remainder of the book is dedicated to the reading list along with little tidbits about the books suggested. While I can see the benefit of the strategies suggested for deep learning while reading, I also am of the mindset that life is short and that I'm not going to spend too much time re-reading and studying these texts.  Instead, I'll just read them for enjoyment with sparknotes open to help provide clarity to the difficult passages.  Next up (from Bauer's list): Don Quixote.

Ten Days that Shook the World

Title: Ten Days that Shook the World

Author: John Reed

Pages: 351

Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Grade: B

Synopsis: John Reed was an American journalist living in Saint Petersburg (Petrograd) during the height of the Russian Revolution in 1917 when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power and setup their own government.  The writing is not flashy or embellished as his intent was to simply convey the timeline and a description of what was happening during the height of the revolution. Incredibly, almost everything that Reed reported on in this book was based on his own account.  He was able to sit in on the meetings, congresses in addition to visiting the front of the battle and meeting with people involved on both sides. Side note: John Reed died in 1920 of typhus and is one of only 3 Americans buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

My Review: To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty proud of myself for making it through this book.  I don't think that I've read a book of this substance since college. If there is a university class on the Russian Revolution, this would be the textbook. Even though a substantial chunk of the book was well over my head, I found that I enjoyed it the more I got into it. It was more difficult to read this book in small chunks and I had to be sure to only read in places of  silence and without distractions. Normally I have no problem reading with music on in the background, but this one was too meaty.

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Title: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Author: Amy Schumar

Pages: 323

Genre: Autobiography

Grade: B

Synopsis: Amy Schumar is a comedian who has apparently lived a full enough life to warrant writing an autobiography. The book is mainly a collection of essays and stories of her life trying to make it as a comedian and having as much sex as she possibly can (yes, really).

My Review: I actually found this book to be more entertaining and enjoyable than I had expected.  I'm not sure if I've actually seen anything that shes in besides SNL, so I'm not terribly familiar with her, but the book felt like an honest view into her life interspersed with loads of lame jokes.

Tiny Dancer

Title: Tiny Dancer: The Incredible Tue Story of a Young Burn Victim's Journey from Afghanistan

Author: Anthony Flacco

Pages: 243

Genre: Non-Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: In the summer of 2001, 9-year-old Zubaida Hasan falls into a kerosene fire in rural Afghanistan.  She is severely burned all over her body and the family lives far from any medical facilities.  Miraculously she survives, even though the local Afghani doctors only suggestions to the parents are for them to pray for her to have a speedy death.  After a few months the scar tissue on her body and face is building up to such an extent that her chin is fused with her torso and it is even pulling the skin from around her eye sockets. (You may have even seen her photo before). Her father is desperate to save her and travels with her to the nearest American Army Base where she is seen on the streets by an American Green Beret who takes pity and begins campaigning for her to get help. Eventually Zubaida is brought to Southern California where she undergoes a series of treatments and surgeries to remove the excess scar tissue.

My Review: This is an incredible true story and a reminder of how blessed I am to live in a country with access to some of the best medical care available. The risks of living and growing up in the USA are far less than are faced by other children throughout the world.  The book was also a nice reminder of the humanity around us. So much of what we hear these days is only the bad and yet there are good people across the globe who are still trying to be good and willing to help those in need.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Title: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Author: Dave Eggers

Pages: 485

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B

Synopsis: This memoir is about life after Dave's parents both died within an month of each other. Dave was 21, his older brother was 24, his older sister was 23 and his younger brother Toph was 8.  The responsibility of caring for his younger brother fell largely to him.  He brought Toph to live with him in his small apartment in Berkeley and they existed more like roommates, than a parent-child relationship. 

My Review: I generally enjoyed this book, but after reading it I wasn't sure if it was a memoir or a work of fiction.  My gut tells me that the truth may have been stretched, but that mostly, this was a memoir. It's been a few months, but I believe there was a good amount of language.

The Associate

Title: The Associate

Author: John Grisham

Pages: 373

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: In true John Grisham fashion, this book takes us into the life of a busy attorney working for a prestigious law firm. Kyle McAvoy was a star student at Yale Law School. His father wanted him to stay and work for his firm in Kyle's hometown, but Kyle had his sights set far higher. However, based on some incidents in his past, he is ripe to be blackmailed by some folks with deep pockets.

My Review: It's been a few months since I read this book.  I remember that I enjoyed it just as much as most Grisham books, but that it wasn't specifically memorable. Sometimes it's nice to read a thriller that sucks you in and doesn't let you go until you finish it.

Rant

Title: Rant

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Pages: 320

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Buster "Rant" Casey is a serial killer who relies on totally unorthodox methods. He starts an urban demolition derby where drivers and teams roam the city looking to hit and mark other cars involved in the derby (mixed in with the general public).  This weekend event, known as "party crashing," becomes quite a dangerous pastime.

My Review: While I generally enjoyed the book, I spent large chunks of it having no idea of what was actually going on.  This may be one of those books where more and more of it would make sense if you read it a few times but I don't plan on doing that...

A Burglar's Guide to the City

Title: A Burglar's Guide to the City

Author: Geoff Manaugh

Pages: 296

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Geoff Manaugh explores how building design and architecture as well as city planning and design is exploited by criminals in their thievery and other malfeasance. The premise is that criminals and other fugitives see things differently than most people on the street.  Where a regular guy may see an impenetrable bank vault, the thief is considering ways to tunnel into the vault from the sewer tunnels below, or he (or she...) may know where they can be spotted by police helicopters or patrols.

My Review: This was an enjoyable side read.  It wasn't a book on my list, but when I passed by this copy on display in the library it caught my eye and it was pretty interesting.  With my background in working with architects on building design, I found this book to be related to the decisions that architect's are making everyday in trying to design a building that is safe and useful.

The Princess Bride

Title: The Princess Bride

Author: William Goldman

Pages: 398

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: B

Synopsis: Most everyone knows this story at least a little bit.  The most beautiful girl in the world marries the most handsomest prince in the world, but things don't entirely go as planned.  Because the girl's true love is the man in black who will stop at nothing to get her back.  Fencing, fighting, chasing, hate, battles of wits, feats of strength, quicksand, torture, murder and love. The book has it all.

My Review: I only vaguely remember the movie, but as I read the book I was able to recall some of the different parts of the movie that terrified me when I was younger. Generally, I liked the book. What I didn't really love was the whole charade about how the author William Goldman has reconstructed the S. Morgenstern classic book, but removed all of the boring parts. I think that attempt is much better recreated in the movie than the book.  But now I need to go re-watch the rest of the movie.

Everything is Illuminated

Title: Everything is Illuminated

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

Pages: 12 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Jonathan Safran Foer (the author) arrives in the Ukraine with a photograph of the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis back during WWII.  He has hired a tour guide and driver to help him get around, but his guide is a terrible translator who mangles the English language and the author is forced to ride in the back of the van with an undersexed dog named after Sammy Davis Jr.

My Review: The book was definitely clever and funny, but a little hard to follow at times.  It is a mix between letters and the narrative of a book being written and response letters, and it was often hard to identify where everything fit in the narrative. 

Disclaimer: There is a good amount of language, so be aware.

The History of Love

Title: The History of Love

Author: Nicole Krauss

Pages: 255

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: The History of Love is a book written by a Polish-Chilean immigrant, but it makes a far reaching impact on a couple of seemingly unconnected people in New York City.  Alma Singer is a young girl in New York City who only knows that she is named after the main character in a Spanish book titled The History of Love.  Leo Gursky is a lonely old man with only one friend, also in New York City, but who will often make a scene when he is out just to have human interaction. Zvi Litvinoff is the Jewish author of the book who fled from Poland to Chile at the beginning of WWII.

My Review: I found this book rather hard to follow as it jumped between three apparently unconnected story lines.  Each of the stories were independently interesting, but my brain had a hard time figuring out just what story was what, until the last chunk of the book.  I did find the ending of the book quite satisfying as it seemed to tie up the loose ends and stories very well.

A Wrinkle in Time

Title: A Wrinkle in Time

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Pages: 211

Genre: Fantasy, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: The unique young boy Charles Wallace and his older sister Meg are surprised by the arrival of some strange visitors on a stormy night.  Their father had been missing for years when researching alternate dimensions and tessaracts. When Meg, Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin have an opportunity to help locate Meg & Charles' father, they jump at the chance.

My Review: I'm certain that I read this book when I was younger, although I do not remember it.  I can handle and enjoy some science fiction, but this book was too strange for me.  Tesseracts and time travel, ok. Pulsing brains and talking and shape changing stars must be a bit too far (although, I did enjoy Dune and that was also a strange one). Ada likes the book and wants to read more in the series.  I'll go ahead and pass.

Mansfield Park

Title: Mansfield Park

Author: Jane Austen

Pages: 381

Genre: Classic, Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Fanny Price is invited to live with her rich aunt, uncle and Bertram cousins at Mansfield Park when she is 10.  Her own mother married a drunk below her level and has been living in poverty with loads of children ever since.  Fanny was invited to Mansfield Park to help out and to help convince Mr. and Mrs. Bertram that they are good people who do good things. While Mr. Bertram is away with business dealings in Antigua, Mary and Henry Crawford arrive in the area and bring with them a culture of flirting and sometimes questionable actions.

My Review: I'll be honest, this was one tedious book to complete.  I began reading more than 2 months ago and although the book was only 381 pages, it felt more like 700.  This was my first Jane Austen book and went pretty much like I expected.  Big estates, rich people who sit around gossiping, paragraphs that span 2 pages, dinners, balls, carriage rides and everybody judging each other.  Let's just say that I am so glad that we are more easily able to forgive mistakes in this modern day, and that we are not judged on the actions of our siblings, although most of mine are O.K...

From the Book: "(pg.359, the first paragraph of the last chapter) Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody, not greatly in fault themselves, to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest."

if i stay

Title: if i stay

Author: Gayle Forman

Pages: 201

Genre: Young Adult

Grade: B

Synopsis: Mia is 17 years old and is planning to attend Juilliard Music School to continue studying her the violin music that she is so passionate about.  On a day off from school Mia is driving with her family when they are in a terrible accident.  Mia doesn't realize it at first, but she has an extensive out of body experience where she watches everybody who loves her trying to help save her. 

My Review:  The premise of the book is interesting.  We all have beliefs about what happens after we die, but I had never really considered that we may have a say in whether or not we get to stay here on earth.  I didn't love the writing or even care too deeply about the story, but it was intriguing.

Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

Title: Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

Author: Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Pages: 192

Genre: Children's Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: In India, many of the young boys grow up training pigeons that they grow to love and recognize.  It wasn't uncommon for boys to have flocks of 40 or more pigeons that they train to always return home and carry messages.  Gay-Neck was an especially capable and fearless pigeon that was taken to help the British fight World War I.

My Review: This book was far better then I expected when I judged the book by its cover.  It was awarded the 1928 Newbery Medal.  It is interesting to me how many of the early Newbery Medal winners were books about animals (see: Smoky the Cowhorse and The Voyages of Dr Dolittle).  If you want to learn about carrier pigeons then this is the book for you!