The Wednesday Wars

Title: The Wednesday Wars

Author: Gary D. Schmidt

Pages: 264

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High School. On Wednesdays, all of the students except Holling have religious instruction. Holling stays back at the school with Mrs. Baker. Holling is certain that Mrs. Baker hates him, else why would she require him to read Shakespeare during their Wednesday classes?

My Review: This was a fun, young adult fiction book. The author does a great job of capturing the thoughts, emotions and actions of a seventh grader. The book brought back a lot of memories of being that age myself, although I don't recall having to read Shakespeare.

Marley & Me

Title: Marley & Me

Author: John Grogan

Pages: 6 discs

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Marley is arguably the world's worst dog. He is an excitable yellow lab with some crazy tendencies like destroying things, jumping on people and eating anything he can get his jaws on. The book is full of stories about Marley's antics and how his owner's family grows to love him, flaws and all.

My Review: I've never had a dog and I'll probably never have a dog so I found this book to be eye-opening into the lives of dog owners. The book does a very nice job of portraying how a family can fall in love with a pet that destroys rooms during thunderstorms, eats jewelry and embarrasses them whenever they have him out in public. I listened to this book on cd in my car and especially enjoyed the author reading the book. I found myself feeling much more compassionate to owner's of crazy dogs, but you still better clean up after your dog when they crap on my lawn ;).

The Judas Strain

Title: The Judas Strain

Author: James Rollins

Pages: 12 discs

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B

Synopsis: The United States' special ops Sigma Force is battling a mysterious plague in the East Indian Ocean. The antidote to the plague appears to come from some ancient writings of Marco Polo. One team is following the historical trail while another is tracking the scientific trail of the disease.

My Review: The book was an enjoyable read, but it seemed to be somewhat of a cookie-cutter type thriller. I enjoyed the historical references to Marco Polo and others and the geographical descriptions of the different locations where the story takes place although portions of the story (as is typical) were somewhat unbelievable.

The Mormon Way of Doing Business

Title: The Mormon Way of Doing Business

Author: Jeff Benedict

Pages: 221

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Jeff Benedict explores how eight men who grew up in the Western US were able to rise to the top of their professions while paying 10 percent tithing, keeping the Sabbath day holy, serving as Bishops, Stake Presidents and Young Men's Presidents and still finding time to spend with their families. The book specifically profiles JetBlue founder and former CEO David Neeleman, former Madison Square Garden CEO Dave Checketts, Former Harvard Business School dean Kim Clark, CEO of Dell Kevin Rollins and four others. Persistence, expecting a miracle, daily prayer and scripture study, Sabbath day service and putting first things first are all skills and commitments that have blessed their lives.

My Review: I'll be honest. I really enjoyed this book. I found it inspiring and uplifting and loved reading about how these men are able to balance work, family life, demanding church callings and personal time. The book is especially enjoyable because each principle is presented and then substantiated with life experiences from a few of these men. Stories of Checkett's hard-nosed negotiations with Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley, Jim Quigley's and Gary Crittenden's stories of leadership at ground zero on 9/11 and David Neeleman working as a flight attendant or baggage handler on busy days. Each of these leaders has qualities to emulate and skills that have allowed them to rise to the top. This is a book that I'll read again.

A Star Curiously Singing

Title: A Star Curiously Singing

Author: Kerry Nietz

Pages: 301

Genre: Science Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Sandfly is a level-12 debugger. He has a chip implanted in his head that allows him to obtain virtually any piece of information very easily. Each debugger is owned and controlled by a master that can cause the chip in his head to painfully reprimand the debugger when not explicitly following directions. Sandfly is sent up into earth's orbit to repair a robot that has torn itself apart after a journey into deep space. Sandfly begins uncovering a mystery that the new world leaders have been hiding for generations.

My Review: For those of you that are members of goodreads.com, did you know that they have tons of giveaways of books all the time? This particular giveaway was hosted by the author, Kerry Nietz, and out of more than 700 people, I was selected to win a pre-release signed copy. I'm not usually a fan of this type of science fiction, but as I got deeper and deeper into the story I started to enjoy it more. The first 50 pages or so were a blur to me as I was trying to piece together the science fictional world where the story takes place. By the end of the story I was engrossed and I plan on reading the sequels that will follow in this series.

PS - Thanks to Kerry Nietz for sharing his book!

Innocent Traitor

Title: Innocent Traitor

Author: Alison Weir

Pages: 416

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Lady Jane Grey was queen of England for a mere 9 days, the pawn of her scheming father and ruthless mother. Lady Jane was just 15 when she seceded to the throne after the early death of King Edward VI (who had seceded his father King Henry VIII). England was in a state of turmoil between the Protestant religion and Catholicism and anybody who did not subscribe to the religion of their rulers was put to death for heresy.

My Review: The book is written from many different points of view, but it was often difficult to determine who was writing as the tone and style of each person was so similar. I didn't really like the middle part of the book, but by the time I was 3/4 of the way through, I really started to enjoy the story. I've always felt that medieval Europe was somewhat of a black hole for me. I know very little of what went on during these times. I love reading books such as these that attempt to bring these time-periods to life while sticking generally to the facts.

The Devil in the White City

Title: The Devil in the White City

Author: Erik Larson

Pages: 10 discs? (I don't remember)

Genre: History

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The World's Columbian Exposition (i.e. World's Fair) of 1893 was held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America. This book intertwines the story of the architect Daniel Burnham's struggles to get the fair off the ground in such a compressed time frame and Henry H. Holmes and his World's Fair Hotel just west of the Jackson Park Fairgrounds. Architecturally and from a design standpoint, the buildings and grounds of the fair are simply amazing. More or less in 18 months, the swampy Jackson Park was transformed into a beautiful white city lighted entirely with electric lights (the first place for this to be done). Huge buildings were built to house the different booths with the crown jewel being the first Ferris Wheel. On the other hand, H.H. Holmes' hotel was originally built as a torture palace with dissection tables, gas chambers and a crematorium. All through the fair (and before and after) he would lure young women into his confidence before killing and dissecting them.

My Review: As a design engineer, I especially enjoyed the chapters where the design and construction of the Ferris Wheel was discussed. The Paris Exposition of 1889 had been a huge success with the Eiffel Tower and Chicago needed something great to follow it up. The original Ferris Wheel was huge. It stood 264 feet tall and had 36 compartments capable of carrying 60 people. Nobody had ever seen such a structure, yet the Ferris Wheel turned out to arguably be the strongest structure in the park. H.H. Holmes was one of the first serial killers in the US and almost went undetected had he not made a couple crucial errors. His story, while disturbing, was also very interesting. I also enjoyed random little historical nuggets that are scattered throughout the book from the Pledge of Allegiance being written for the fair's dedication day to descriptions of Walt Disney's father working on the fairgrounds and telling stories to his son about the White City (possibly helping Disney to create his vision of Disneyland).

Disclaimer: This book obviously gets pretty gruesome as it goes into as much detail as is known of the many murders Holmes' committed.

Rome 1960

Title: Rome 1960 - The Olympics that Changed the World

Author: David Maraniss

Pages: 496

Genre: Non-fiction, History

Grade: B

Synopsis: The Rome Olympics of 1960 were held when the world was in a transitory state. The Cold War was at its height, it was the first time that many of the Olympic competitions allowed women to compete and the United States (and much of the world) was in the midst of a racial revolution. While many of the athletes representing the United States were African Americans who were celebrated when they won, there were many restaurants and other places where they were prohibited due to the color of their skin. In addition, the 1960 Olympics were the first Olympics that were really televised and broadcast throughout the world. Clips had been shown during previous Olympics, but this was the first time that prime-time viewers were able to watch much of the competitions. These were the Olympics of sprinter Wilma Rudolph, decathlete Rafer Johnson and boxer Cassius Clay.

My Review: I loved reading the stories of the competitions. There always seemed to be an underlying political theme during every event. The Americans vs. the Soviets, the West Germans and the East Germans competing on a unified German team. The South Africans swearing that no racism was involved in selecting their team yet not a single black was good enough to compete. The inspiring stories of the decathlon, the track events and many others were also very enjoyable. The book did get a little wordy, but all in all was quite an interesting read.

Blink

Title: Blink

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Pages: 288

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: This book analyzes the psychology of first impressions and the snap-judgment (or think-slicing). In many cases, the judgments made by somebody in the first second or two of exposure go against everything that the experts say but are nonetheless often correct.

My Review: I found this book to be very interesting and thought-provoking. I enjoyed how the material was presented with stories and examples backed up with research and studies. I do think that the information in this type of book needs to be taken with a grain of salt because there are two sides to every story and research can often be found to support contradicting claims. That being said, there are ways that we can prepare ourselves to make better snap-judgments.

Crazy for the Storm

Title: Crazy for the Storm

Author: Norman Ollestad

Pages: 6 discs

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Norman Ollestad is 11-years old when he is in a plane crash high in California's San Gabriel mountains. His father and the pilot are killed immediately and Norman has to make it down the mountain on his own. The story of the plane crash is intertwined with a memoir of memories of young Norman skiing in races on difficult terrain and surfing throughout Southern California and Mexico. The pressure Norman's father puts on him to perform at these sports ultimately helps Norman save his own life when the plan crashes.

My Review: I listened to this book being read by the author and found the story to be quite enjoyable and amazing. When this book was recommended to me, it was recommended as one of the best books on parenting. While I don't concur with that opinion, I did find myself contemplating my own parenting style and the type of father that I would like to be.

Disclaimer: The language in the book is vulgar at times.

The Hummingbird's Daughter

Title: The Hummingbird's Daughter

Author: Luis Alberto Urrea

Pages: 528

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Teresita was born in 1873 on a prosperous ranch near the Mexic0-Arizona border. She was raised in dire poverty by her aunt but showed promise while growing up. She ended up becoming an apprentice to the ranch's medicine woman and is eventually invited to live in the rancher's (Don Tomas Urrea's) own home. At age 16, Teresita is raped and lapses into a deep coma before appearing to pass away. At her wake she sits up in her coffin rejuvenated and not ready to face death. She now has the power to heal and blesses pilgrim's from all over Mexico who visit to see her.

My Review: This book is often compared to "One Hundred Years of Solitude" as they are both Latin American classics, but I enjoyed this book much more. The author is the grand-nephew of the real Teresita (who is also remembered as the Saint of Cabora). While many of the stories are obviously apocryphal, the book was an enjoyable read and enlightening into 19th century Mexico.

Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway

Title: Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway

Author: Dave Barry

Pages: 208

Genre: Humor

Grade: B

Synopsis: The humor columnist for the Miami Herald writes about the history of politics and the United States government.

My Review: While you never know if Dave Barry is speaking the truth or not, this book was certainly an entertaining read. Barry pokes fun at everything he can fit into his 208 pages. In many ways, I found the book to actually be quite eye-opening to the excesses and poor practices of our government. Imagine if the government actually worked the way the founding fathers meant it to...

Tomb of the Golden Bird

Title: Tomb of the Golden Bird

Author: Elizabeth Peters

Pages: 9 discs?

Genre: Mystery

Grade: D

Synopsis: The book is part of the acclaimed Amelia Peabody series. Emerson and his wife Amelia are back in Luxor, Egypt excavating. Emerson has an idea of where a tomb may be located, but it is in the rights area of Howard Carter who eventually locates and excavates King Tut's tomb. Meanwhile, Amelia's family is being hounded by a mysterious group of people looking for somebody.

My Review: This book has generally received good reviews, but I found it to be dreadful. That may possibly be because I've never read any of the other books in the Amelia Peabody series, but this was a difficult one to finish for me. The only redeeming part of the book was in regards to King Tut's tomb, which was mildly interesting.

The Death of a President

Title: The Death of a President - November 1963

Author: William Manchester

Pages: 710 Pages

Genre: History

Grade: A

Synopsis: Essentially this book spans from November 20, 1963 to November 25, 2963, with the 2-3 hours surrounding the death of President Kennedy taking up around 300 pages. About 6 months after JFK was assassinated, Jackie Kennedy asked William Manchester to write a definitive account of the assassination. Manchester was given exclusive access to President Johnson, Jackie Kennedy, the secret service and others who were tied to the tragedy.

My Review: This was one of the most fascinating books that I've ever read. The depth of analysis that this book goes into is incredible. It was no surprise to many people that the President was killed in Dallas. People all over the country were warning the presidential party to avoid Dallas. Amazingly, the morning of the assassination the President and his wife were talking in their hotel room in Fort Worth and JFK mentioned that last night would have been a great night for an assassin to strike.

One thing that stood out to me in this book and in other biographies/historical accounts that I've read about US Presidents is the personality traits and qualities that set them apart from regular people. For example, the morning of the assassination Jackie Kennedy pointed out the beautiful artwork and flowers in their hotel room in Fort Worth. JFK had two minutes to spare and suggested that they give the lady that set them up a call. His final phone call was to thank a lady for the beautiful flowers and artwork.

Although JFK was elected in a country that was divided ideologically (much like today), most of the country was shocked and terribly saddened by his assassination. People throughout the world felt the impact of his death and leaders from countries across the globe made it a point to attend the funeral. What was most impressive of all was the poise and control that Jackie Kennedy showed throughout the ordeal, thanking visitors, receiving foreign dignitaries and planning the events. It was even her idea to place an eternal flame at his grave. I hope the country never has to suffer through a similar tragedy.

The Two Towers

Title: The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages: 17 discs

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The fellowship has broken up with Frodo and Sam sneaking off on their own to try and destroy the Ring in Mordor at Mount Doom. Pippin and Meriadoc have been abducted by Orcs who are taking them to Saruman at Isengard. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are carefully tracking their trail in an attempt to save them.

My Review: Once again I enjoyed being immersed in Middle Earth as I followed along Frodo and the others adventures. There were a couple of parts of the book that got a bit long-winded, but the story is still engrossing and enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.