Bonk

Title: Bonk - The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Author: Mary Roach

Pages: 319

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Mary Roach has previously written the non-fiction books, "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" and "Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife." Now Roach turns her mind towards the science of sex. The book explores the study of sexual physiology - what is happening, why it is happening and how can it happen better. Her research takes her to brothels, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, MRI centers and the labs of numerous sexologists. As the book jacket suggests, Roach tackles the questions such as: "Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women or... pandas?

My Review: Sex is about as taboo a subject as an author can explore. What makes this book work is the honesty and openness that Roach exudes as she digs into this topic. I'll be honest, I'm probably fairly naive about sex in the world in general, and this book was eye-opening in many ways. The book is not dirty or vulgar, but it is often hilarious and sometimes disgusting and disturbing. Alison can attest, the book is often very funny and had me laughing more often than most.

Disclaimer: Obviously, this book is about sex - from a scientific angle. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it (as I've recommended Alison to read it), but you've probably got to have an open mind. As you can imagine, the language in the book fits the subject matter and may cause some discomfort...

From the Book: There are so many quotes that I could have included from this book, but I'm doing my best to keep this blog a family blog...

(p. 91) Anne Marie's beauty and style belie a down-and-dirty education in the particulars of practical AI (artificial insemination). She has miked a boar of his prodigious ejaculate--over two hundred milliliters (a cup), as compared to a man's three milliliters--and she has done it with her hand. For, unlike stallions and bulls, boars don't cotton to artificial vaginas. (in part, because their penis, like their tail, is corkscrewed.) AI techs must squeeze the organ in their hand--hard and without letup--for the entire duration of the ejaculation: from five to fifteen minutes. "You should see the size of their hands," she says, of the men and women who regular ejaculate boars."

The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

Title: The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages: 16 discs

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Frodo and Sam continue on their trek into Mordor to try and destroy the ring at Mount Doom. At the same time, the remaining members of the fellowship are fighting battles for Rohan and Gondor. Gandalf the White hatches a plan to divert Sauron's eye to them so that he will not be aware of Frodo and the ring's presence in his own backyard.

My Review: The Lord of the Rings is truly an epic story. As you read this series, there are so many stories that could have been told about everything in middle earth, which allows your imagination to fill in the blanks. My only complaint is that the climax of the story happens just over halfway through the book, but the benefit of this is that the completion of the story is very satisfying as most loose ends have been wrapped up.

The Kiss

Title: The Kiss

Author: Kathryn Harrison

Pages: 207

Genre: Memoir

Grade: B

Synopsis: Kathryn Harrison is 6 months old when her father leaves her mother. She only sees her father a couple of times before he comes to visit her and her mother when she is 20. As Kathryn drops her father off at the airport, he gives her a sensual kiss that is the start to an obsessive love affair between father and daughter.

My Review: This book is a shockingly honest memoir from Kathryn Harrison. The power that her father (who is a pastor) is able to gain over her is amazing and disturbing. Her life unravels as they both become obsessed with each other before she is finally able to sever the tie.

Charlotte's Web

Title: Charlotte's Web

Author: E.B. White

Pages: 184

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Fern cares for the runt of the litter and helps the little piglet grow until Fern's father decides that it is time to sell the pig. He sells Wilbur to Fern's uncle and she makes sure to visit often. Wilbur makes friend with a little gray spider Charlotte, who makes it her life's goal to save Wilbur from the slaughter.

My Review: I read 4-5 pages of this book with Ada each night before putting her to bed. She enjoyed the story, but often found it hard to focus as the vocabulary in the book is quite above her level. But, she understood the story and I loved when should would ask, "Daddy, what does ___ mean?" Now we're looking for another book appropriate to read with a 4-year old. Any suggestions?

The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Pages: 552

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Liesel Meminger and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with Hans and Rosa Hubermann who live on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany. On the way there, Liesel's younger brother dies and is buried in a small town cemetery. Leaving the cemetery, Liesel notices a book in the snow, The Grave Digger's Handbook. At the time, Liesel can't read, but the book is the start of her love/hate relationship with words and books.

My Review: This is one of the more unique books that I have ever read. I enjoyed it immensely, but for some reason, I found it difficult to really get into it. I loved the viewpoint of the story, from that of a small non-Jewish family living in Hitler's Germany and their view of the oppression of Nazi Germany. I'd really like to read the book again, and will probably enjoy it more if I'm able to focus on it more.

Disclaimer: This book is full of swearing (mainly in German) and the taking of the Lord's name in vain, which was disappointing.

My Sister's Keeper

Title: My Sister's Keeper

Author: Jodi Picoult

Pages: 12 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Anna sues her parents for medical emancipation when she is 13 years old. Her older sister, Kate, has been sick with leukemia since she was two years old. The only reason Anna was even born, was to be a donor of genetically matched cord blood for Kate's benefit. Since that time, Anna has had to donate many parts of her body to her sister and now she is being forced to donate a kidney to her sister without ever giving her consent.

My Review: I found this book to be very interesting and thought-provoking. It was extremely difficult to take sides because it was difficult to determine who was right and who was wrong. The book is a serious portrayal of an issue of medical ethics. What made the book a little hokey (in my opinion), were the connections each character had to each other or to one thing or another that would cloud their view of these issues. Regardless, the book has surprises at almost every turn.

Disclaimer: There is a bit of language in the book to be prepared for.

The Winds of War

Title: The Winds of War

Author: Herman Wouk

Pages: 885

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Victor "Pug" Henry is a middle-aged naval officer recently assigned to be the Naval Attache for the US Embassy in Berlin just a few months before Germany attacked Poland at the start of World War II. The Henry's have one son in the Navy, one son that will soon join the Navy and a daughter back in the states who is looking into starting college in New York City. Throughout the course of the book, Pug has the chance to meet Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill and becomes a respected confidant of Roosevelt. This volume ends shortly after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. For a more complete synopsis, refer to this article from Wikipedia.

My Review: This is truly an epic account of World War II from a military family's perspective. I didn't realize until I had completed the book that there is actually a second volume in the series which is more than 1,000 pages long itself. I have always had a hard time piecing the chronology of World War II together in my mind, and this book helped that immensely. From everything that I have read, this book is known as one of the most correct historical fiction accounts of the Great War. When I finished the book, I wasn't quite sure if the book was fictional or not. In my opinion, that is the highest compliment that can be given to a work of historical fiction.

Disclaimer: As is often the case with 'true-to-life' military books, there is a bit of language in the book.

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.