The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Title: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Author: Hugh Lofting

Pages: 270

Genre: Children's Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: In this second book about the life and travels of Doctor Dolittle, young Tommy Stubbins joins him on his voyage that takes him to Spidermonkey Island after a perilous shipwreck. Doctor Dolittle becomes friends with the natives on the island, before escaping back to home in the Mysterious Great Glass Sea Snail.

My Review: This Doctor Dolittle book was not much better than the first, and it also won a Newbery medal! I can't help but think the available candidates for the medal in these early years must have been fairly weak... Once again, it's a kids book, a little ridiculous and very outdated (i.e. racist by today's standards).  The book was published in 1922.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Title: The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Author: Hugh Lofting

Pages: 176

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Doctor John Dolittle just loves animals and his home is always overflowing with animals of all kinds.He has a dear parrot, Polynesia, who teaches the doctor how to speak to the animals. After this, Doctor Dolittle becomes quite famous in the animal kingdom as he travels the world helping animals in need.

My Review:  This book was ok. It's a kids book, a little ridiculous and very outdated (i.e. racist by today's standards).  The book was published in 1920.

Good Omens

Title: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Authors: Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Pages: 412

Genre: Fiction, Humor

Grade: B-

Synopsis: This is a difficult book to describe because it is very strange...  Basically, there is a book that was written in the seventeenth century by a witch, Agnes Nutter and she predicts that the world will end on a Saturday.  She has never been wrong, so everybody expects her to be correct on these counts as well.  The armies of good and evil are gathering together in preparation.  However, there is a demon and an angel who have lived on the earth since Adam and have grown rather fond of their lives here.  They're not ready for Armageddon quite yet. Not to mention, who they thought was the anti-Christ was misplaced at birth.

My Review: This book took me more than a month to get through.  It just wasn't holding my interest.  Although I seemed to carry it with me nearly everywhere during that month, there were many things that I would rather be doing than reading Good Omens. Which, by the way, kind of surprises me.  The book has a bit of a cult following and appears to be very popular in some circles.  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy portions of the book.  It is written as a humorous noel and while some of the jokes are a stretch, generally the humor is wrapped very tidily in with the rest of the book.

From the Book: "(p. 306) I got another bath," she announced to her fellow telephone salespersons. She was well in the lead in the office daily Getting People Out of the Bath stakes, and only needed two more points to win the weekly Coitus Interruptus award."
"She dialed the next number on the list.
"Lisa had never intended to be a telephone salesperson..."

Physics of the Impossible

Title: Physics of the Impossible

Author: Michio Kaku

Pages: 7 discs?

Genre: Non-fiction, Science

Grade: B

Synopsis: Over the last 100 years, there have been many technological advancements that physicists prior would have deemed utterly impossible.  The author, Michio Kaku, explores many science fiction ideas and categorizes them in three categories: possible in the next 100 years, next 1,000 years, or that our understanding of the physical and atomic world would need to change in order for an idea to be possible.  He examines ideas ranging from invisibility and telekinesis to teleportation, space travel and time travel.

My Review:  While the book was interesting, I've never been that enthralled by some of the science fiction ideas that were being explored, so the book didn't grab me like it may others.  There were parts that were more interesting than others, and I think the content is pretty solid (Kaku is a Theoretical physicist with degrees from Harvard and Cal, and now teaching at the City College of New York).  That said, there is a lot of interesting advancements that may take place over the next 100+ years.

Abandon

Title: Abandon

Author: Meg Cabot

Pages: 8 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Pierce is involved in an accident that caused her death and sent her to the underworld.  While there, she met the caretaker of that portion of the underworld but was able to sneak away and return to her body.  When she moved to a new place and started attending a new school, she thought she had been able to escape the caretaker.  When he started showing up more often, Pierce knew she wouldn't be able to get away from him.  The entire trilogy is a re-imagining of the Persephone myth.

My Review: This was an interesting book. Every once in a while I enjoy picking up a book that I know nothing about (and it's often one that I never would have selected had I known more about it...).  This book straddled the line between normalcy and the supernatural, but presented it in a way that almost made it believable.  This is the first book of a trilogy, at this point I would read the other books in the trilogy as well.

Ship Breaker

Title: Ship Breaker

Author: Paolo Bacigalupi

Pages: 9 discs?

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: In some strange future version of the United States, Nailer works on the Gulf Coast on a light crew stripping old oil tankers of their copper wiring. He and the rest of his crew must meet quota every day to earn the food and stay on the crew.  When Nailer, who lives with his alcoholic, abusive father finds a brand new and very expensive clipper ship he must decide whether or not to save the beautiful rich girl or to strip the ship of all its worth in order to become a rich man.

My Review: The premise for this book is very unique and was surprisingly interesting.  It takes a little while to understand the society and how it is different from the one that we live in, but I gathered that the book is set in some future time after global warming and rising seas have changed the world and the United States forever.

The God of Small Things

Title: The God of Small Things

Author: Arundhati Roy

Pages: 333

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is set in the latter half of the twentieth century, generally in a small town in India. There is a lot of political unrest in the country. The book follows an affluent Indian family and explores how their lives were changed forever by one fateful day in 1969.

My Review: The writing and prose in this book is excellent.  At least at the beginning of the book, I found that I needed to review a more detailed synopsis to fully understand what was going on. Part of that was probably due to the fact that I found myself only able to read the book in bits and pieces and that I was unable to immerse myself in the book.

From the Book: "(p. 162) She had short, thick forearms, fingers like cocktail sausages, and a broad fleshy nose with flared nostrils. Deep folds of skin connected her nose to either side of her chin, and separated that section of her face from the rest of it, like a snout. Her head was too large for her body. She looked like a bottled fetus that had escaped from its jar of formaldehyde in a Biology lab an unshriveled and thickened with age.

She kept damp cash in her bodice, which she tied tightly around her chest to flatten her unchristian breasts, Her kunukku earrings were thick and gold. Her earlobes had been distended into weighted loops that swung around her neck, her earrings sitting in them like gleeful children in a merry-go-(not all the way)-round. Her right lobe had split open once and was sewn together by Dr. Verghese Verghese. Kochu Maria couldn't stop wearing her kunukku because if she did, how would people know that despite her lowly cook's job (seventy-five rupees a month) she was a Syrian Christian, Mar Thomite? Not a Pelaya, or a Pulaya, or a Paravan. But a Touchable, upper-caste Christian (into whom Christianity had seeped like tea from a teabag). Split lobes stitched back were a better option by far.

Kochu Maria hadn't yet made her acquaintance with the television addict waiting inside her. The Hulk Hogan addict. She hadn't yet seen a television set..."

Grimpow: The Invisible Road

Title: Grimpow: The Invisible Road

Author: Rafael Abalos

Pages: 10 discs?

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Grimpow lives in the Alps during the dark ages when he comes across a dead man in the woods. In the dead man's pouch Grimpow finds a stone that grants him visions of places that he has never been and grants him understanding of secrets and mysteries of the world. In possession of the stone, Grimpow embarks on a journey to unlock the full mysteries behind the mysterious stone.

My Review: This book was interesting and quite enjoyable, but the writing (possibly only the translation from Spanish) left something to be desired. Along with that, the story was a bit unbelievable and the characters felt too scripted.

The Appeal

Title: The Appeal

Author: John Grisham

Pages: 496

Genre: Legal Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: There is a small town in Mississippi where the water is undrinkable and scores of people have died from cancer or have cancer.  In a related court case, a Mississippi jury hands down a huge verdict against a chemical company for polluting the ground, groundwater and contaminating the area, causing a huge cancer cluster.  The owner of the chemical company is a multi-billion dollar executive living large in Manhattan, who will appeal the verdict to the Mississippi Supreme Court.  His next task is to get a judge elected to the Supreme Court who will overturn this verdict.

My Review: This Grisham novel has generally not received very good reviews, although I found that I enjoyed it.  It preyed on the fact that many of our elected officials have to answer to the big money that gets them elected.  There probably are companies out that that act similar to the chemical company in this book, if there are, then they make me sick (both figuratively and literally).

The Sex Lives of Canibals

Title: The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

Author: J. Maarten Troost

Pages: 11 discs

Genre: Humor, Travel

Grade: B+

Synopsis: When the author, Troost, was 26, he packed up with his girlfriend and moved for a couple of years to the remote country of Kiribati (pronounced Kir-i-bus). They would live on the small Tarawa Atoll, where the majority of the residents of Kiribati live. This book chronicles the authors adventures and misadventures throughout their stay on the small atoll.  The book was quite funny, although there were a few times when the humor was a bit forced.  I did find myself laughing often.

My Review: Contrary to the promise of the title, there is very little about sex in the book although there are times when the author's humor gets a little crass.  For example, the atoll is so flat that there really isn't a good sewer system. Some of the nicer homes have septic tanks, but the majority of the population is left to take care of business wherever they see fit.  This means that the residents (who are often plagued with dysentery-like diseases) will typically stick their booties out over the water and let it rip, which, of course, is the basis for many of the funnier parts of the book.

tuesdays with Morrie

Title: tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson

Author: Mitch Albom

Pages: 5 discs

Genre: Non-fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Mitch Albom hears that his old, most-favorite professor from college is sick with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (i.e. ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).  His health is declining quickly as the disease attacks his extremities and he is confined to a bed and requires assistance to do just about anything.  Mr. Albom works for a newspaper in Detroit that is on strike, so he decides to make a visit to his professor in the Boston area. His professor invites him back the following week and this quickly becomes their Tuesday tradition until the end of Morrie's life.  Morrie was a strong positive influence on many people and always had thoughts about how to live life to its fullest.  This story and Morrie's thoughts are recorded in this book.

My Review: Not a bad book, and Morrie had some great thoughts, but the book was a bit of a love-fest with the old professor. That's not to say he didn't have a lot of great thoughts and excellent aphorisms. Ted Koppel visited with Morrie and interviewed him a few times on Nightline.  You can see a few of the Nightline clips on youtube.

Mr. Vertigo

Title: Mr. Vertigo

Author: Paul Auster

Pages: 320

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Young Walter is a street boy living in St. Louis in the early part of the 20th century when he is approached by Master Yehudi, a Jew of Hungarian descent who promises the boy that he will teach him to fly. The boy agrees to be taught by Master Yehudi and is taken to the master's farm in Kansas where he will eventually learn how to control his mind and body in order to levitate.

My Review: This was a really interesting book.  It read more like a historical non-fiction book than anything fictional.  In fact, when I finished the book, in my mind I had serious doubts that the story wasn't true.  That to me is a sign of a well-written book of this style.

The Thirteenth Tale

Title: The Thirteenth Tale

Author: Diane Setterfield

Pages: 406

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B

Synopsis: Margaret Lea is an amateur biographer who spends most of her time helping her father run their antique bookstore or reading.  Imagine her surprise when she receives a letter from one of the most prolific writers in England inviting her to come and write her story.  This writer, Vida Winter, has never really opened up to anyone and Margaret is afraid that Miss Winter will not tell her the truth either.  As she gets into the story, she realizes that there is a lot more to the story that Miss Winter is leaving unsaid.

My Review:  I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it.  There were a lot of names and intricacies that I had a hard time keeping track of.  This may have also been due to the fact that I read the bulk of this book while spending time with family (Hi family, sorry I ignored you during Christmas...) and there were always lots of distractions.

From the Book: "(p. 58) I shall start at the beginning. Though of course the beginning is never where you think it is. Our lives are so important to us that we tend to think the story of them begins with our birth. First there was nothing, then I was born.... Yet that is not so. Human lives are not pieces of string that can be separated out from a knot of others and laid out straight. Families are webs. Impossible to touch one part of it without setting the rest vibrating. Impossible to understand one part without having a sense of the whole."

How to be Alone

Title: How to be Alone: Essays

Author: Jonathan Franzen

Pages: 278

Genre: Essays

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is a collection of essays, all by the same author.  The essays cover a huge range of topics from the fate of the American novel to supermax prisons in Colorado and from the story of his short time as an Oprah book-of-the-month author to the workings of American post offices in big cities such as Chicago.

My Review: This collection was published in 2002 and I would be interested to read Franzen's writings on more recent topics.  His writing has a liberal slant (don't let that scare you) that gave me plenty of food for thought as I read.  Most of the essays were easy to read and didn't digress into too much babble, although there were a couple that could have been trimmed by a few pages.  I was reading this book during a late lunch break at Rich's Mighty Fine Burgers and Grub (which is one of my favorite SLC restaurants) and the cook that brought out my food saw me reading this book and mentioned that it was one of his favorite collections of essays.  Needless to say I was surprised.

Little Bee

Title: Little Bee

Author: Chris Cleave

Pages: 288

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Little Bee is a refugee from Nigeria in Africa who has been a stowaway on a cargo ship and is now in a refugee detention center in Great Britain.  While in the detention center she learns how to speak the Queen's English and works hard to put the atrocities of the past behind her.

My Review:  This is a heart-wrenching book, with some disturbing parts that I won't soon forget.  Although a difficult story to swallow, I still enjoyed it and the writing was well done.