Book 18 - Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

As we approach the halfway point, I am still woefully behind. However, this is my second book this week, and I've started another, and I have another that is almost done, so there is hope yet.

Book 18 - Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

This is an interesting book in that imagines the story behind the painting of the same name by the 17th century Dutch master Vermeer. As the author tells it, the girl in the painting is named Griet, the daughter of a tile painter who can no longer practice his craft, due to the loss of his sight in a kiln accident. In order to help out financially, Griet is sent to work as a maid for Vermeer's wife, who is expecting her sixth child. One of her jobs is to clean the studio of the artist. Vermeer is very particular about the placement of items in the studio, especially of course the arrangements of items that he is painting, and apparently efforts of past servants to clean had been quite unsatisfactory. Griet possesses a unique sense of things being in their proper space, and is able to clean the studio without upsetting the master. In fact Vermeer recognizes her keen eye and attention to detail, and winds up having her assist him, grinding paints and even occasionally offering suggestions on the setting of the works in progress.

As a pretty teenage girl, Griet attracts the attention of a number of the men around her. Van Ruijven, Vermeer's patron, is constantly making lecherous advances toward her. Pieter, who is the butcher's son and much closer to her age, courts her for marriage. Her parents encourage him, as she would be financially secure in his family's business, and they would get free meat. Even Vermeer holds feelings for her, and although he resists acting on them, he is still jealous of the other men.

Griet is unsure of which way her life should unfold. Should she continue working as a maid, enduring the machinations and backbreaking labor of the household for the opportunity to explore her artistic sensibilities with the master Vermeer? Or should she do what is expected of her and marry Pieter, live a relatively stable life, see to the well-being of her parents and start family of her own? Or should she choose another path entirely? Ultimately, sitting for the Pearl Earring portrait is the catalyst which sets into motion events that cause her to make her choice.

This book paints a fascinating picture of life in Delft in the 17th century, and tells a wonderfully imagined story of this girl coming of age, but there are very few surprises. Perhaps it is a reflection of Griet's simple hard-working protestant upbringing, or a commentary on the place of women in 17th century society, but the story moves along much as you expect it, and Griet does pretty much what you would expect her to do, most of the time. Still, it's a lovely story, and worth a read.

Book 17 - Game Change - John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

I'd been wanting to get to this book for a while now, but there was a wait list at the library. My name finally came up, so I had to drop the other book I was reading so I could read this. I'm glad that I did.

Book 17 - Game Change - John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Game Change is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 presidential campaign. It was written by a pair of political analysts who conducted exhaustive research and interviews with just about every major player from the campaigns of both the Republicans and the Democrats. What is revealed is a much more sharply focused picture of the rivalries between the candidates, their gaffes and peccadilloes, and the infighting among their respective staffs.

While Heileman and Halperin cover all the major candidates, much of the book is focused on the race for the Democratic nomination, especially the epic battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to become their party's candidate. The book reveals, among other things, the initial indecision by Obama on whether to run, the highs and lows felt by both candidates as the moved up and down in the polls, the infighting among Clinton's staff, and the interference of Bill Clinton in the campaign. The Edwards campaign is not ignored, however. Edwards' affair and illegitimate child is discussed in detail, as well as his wife's somewhat unstable mental state.

Over on the Republican side, the authors describe the meltdown and resurgence of the McCain candidacy. The Republican battle lacks the drama of the Democratic story, and seems more like a war of attrition, with each candidate's weaknesses eventually doing them in. Giuliani can't win the conservative vote, Huckabee can't get beyond the conservative vote. Thompson doesn't really seem all that interested in campaigning. Romney, despite his deep pockets, also struggles with the conservatives of the party, and McCain looks like the lesser of two evils for evangelicals suspicious of his Mormon background.

The authors have a field day with the VP candidates as well. The friction created between Binden and Obama by Biden's frequent gaffe's are discussed, but the authors devote much of their attention to Sarah Palin. McCain's campaign was looking to make a splash with their choice, and had been seriously considering the idea of running Independent/Democrat Joe Lieberman as the VP nominee. At the last minute they opted against it as too polarizing, and needed to make another choice. Palin's name was floated, and a vetting process that should have took weeks was done in a few days. Little was known about her when she was named and the McCain campaign had to struggle to answer questions the press was asking about her. They soon found that she lacked much of the basic expertise that would have been expected of someone a heartbeat away from the Presidency. It was also revealed that faced with the pressure of preparing for the debates and interviews she had somewhat of a mental breakdown, and their was great concern as to whether she could handle the position.

Even if you are not a political junkie, I think you would like this book. It is not so much focused on being a comprehensive historical account of the campaign as it is in relating the drama of the campaign. It relates the political strategies, unforeseen events, scandals, tragedies, infighting, victories and defeats that made this bid for the Presidency one of the most memorable in history.

Book 16 - The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

Well, I'm not really catching up, but I'm not really falling farther behind either.

Book 16 - The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury tells the story of what would seem to be the last generation of the Compsons, a once great southern family now in decline. Set in the deep south of the early 20th century, the story centers around four siblings: Caddy, Quentin, Jason, and Benjy. Caddy is a somewhat promiscuous young woman. She marries early and quickly divorces, and due to her dalliances, the paternity of her daughter is unknown. Each of her brothers is obsessed with Caddy in someway. Benjy, who is severely mentally challenged to the point of being non-functional, thinks Caddy "smells like trees," but when faced with evidence that she is sleeping with men, he becomes extremely agitated and begins to wail and moan. Quentin loves Caddy and even falsely admits to committing incest with her in order to claim fatherhood of her baby and save her reputation, but no one takes him seriously. He too cannot stand the fact that she is with so many different men, and eventually kills himself. Jason is obsessed with Caddy because he blames her for his lack of success in life and resents having to help raise her daughter, who seems to have inherited her mother's promiscuity. Caddy's husband was supposed to hook him up with a cushy bank job, but this fell apart when she got divorced, and now Jason is forced to work as a clerk in a grocery store.

The book is divided into four sections, each one representing a particular day. The first, third and fourth are set in 3 consecutive, but out of order days in April of 1928, while the second section is set in 1910. In addition to this odd sequencing of days, Faulkner also tells the story using four different voices. The first chapter is told by Benjy, who has little sense of time, and shifts constantly and without warning between various memories and current events. The second chapter is told by Quentin, whose mind races while he prepares to commit suicide, such that obsessive thoughts of Caddy's sexual escapades are constantly interrupting the narrative. Things become much clearer in the third section, which is told by the bitter misogynist Jason. In Jason we finally have a better chronicler of events, but we are forced to see these events through Jason's bitterness and cynicism. In the final chapter Faulkner switches to third person, allowing him to tie up the multiple story elements.

As you have most likely already surmised, dysfunction abounds in the Compson household. Mr. Compson drank himself to death, and Mrs. Compson is a hypochondriac who constantly complains about everything, and is supposedly to sick to do anything for herself. Benjy is legitimately and completely non-functional. He has to be dressed, fed and constantly watched. They are taking care of Caddy's daughter, named after Quentin, but do not allow Caddy near the house or to see her daughter. Jason is stealing money from his mother, who for some reason trusts him implicitly, and is also pocketing the child support that Caddy sends for Miss Quentin. The only sane and moral people in the house seem to be the black servants. Dilsey, a house servant, is the true bedrock of the household. She keeps the house, prepares all the meals and waits on Benjy and Mrs. Compton hand-and-foot. She also helps to run interference between Jason and Miss Quentin, who have nothing less than contempt for each other.

I found this book a little hard to get started on because of the stream of consciousness nature of the first two chapters, but once I got into it, I enjoyed it. I haven't read any other Faulkner, so I don't know how this rates against other things he wrote, but if you want to experience this great American author, I think this would be a good place to start.

Book 15 - SuperFreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley

- Robert Burns

I'm still desperately behind. I think I should be at book 21 by now. I don't really have any excuses, I've just been doing other stuff and not reading. I'm tired of making inaccurate predictions about when I'll be caught up, so I won't. I'm just going to keep plugging away, and hopefully I can catch up.

Book 15 - SuperFreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

In SuperFreakonomics economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner follow up on the success of their 2005 bestseller Freakonomics, taking what at the surface might seem to be odd questions and applying principles of economics to explain the often surprising answers. In the first book they tackled such thorny questions as "What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common" or "Why do drug dealers live with their moms?" In SuperFreakonomics they continue their quirky microeconomic excursions with questions like "How is a street prostitute like a department store Santa?" and "Why should suicide bombers buy life insurance?" They also devote a chapter to cheap and elegant solutions, taking us to a think-tank led by a couple of ex-Microsoft chiefs, where they explore a number of seemingly viable solutions and surprisingly cheap solutions for global warming.

While Levitt is the economic genius behind these books, it is Dubner who makes this genius accessible. He has a clear writing style which presents Levitt's ideas effectively, and which avoids getting bogged down in numbers and statistics. Not to say that the numbers aren't there. Levitt backs up his numbers, and is careful to not mix cause and effect. That being said, you might not agree with every conclusion he makes. Still, it is fascinating the way he draws connections between seemingly unconnected things, and his ability to challenge conventional notions makes for a thought-provoking read.

Is this book for everyone? Probably not. Even with Dubner's clear prose, some people are still going to think there are too many tables and statistics to chew on. But if you are interested in the way economic incentives drive human behavior, this is an interesting read.

Book 14 - The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan

Book 14 - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan

What's for dinner? That's the question posed by Michael Pollan in this rather important exploration into the production and acquisition of food in America. Pollan explores the food industry by taking four different meals and tracing them back through their respective food supply chains: modern industrial farming, industrial organic farming, sustainable farming (usually organic, but not necessarily so), and Hunter/Gatherer. Each meal takes us increasingly closer to our primitive selves and the way that our bodies evolved to eat.

The first meal is modern industrial farming and corn is king. Pollan explains the evolution of the modern farm. How it stripped the land of biodiversity and henceforth fertility, the result being that it must be added back chemically in order for things to grow. This monocultural farming, ideally suited to the production of corn, combined with farm subsidies, has kept the price of corn low. What's wrong with cheap corn, one might ask? You might be surprised to learn its implications. Cheap corn results in cheap chicken and cheap beef. Again one might ask, what's the problem with that? Corn equals cheap calories - but not necessarily healthy ones - and these cheap calories in the form of sodas and high fat processed fast foods are largely responsible for the outbreak in obesity and its related diseases, not just in adults but in children as well.

It turns out that modern industrial organic is only marginally better, Pollan tells us. That's because a modern organic supermarket chain has one of the same problems a regular supermarket does: how to stock the shelves consistently and efficiently. Although they will feature some locally grown items, it is too inefficient for the organic supermarket chains to buy most of their stock from small producers. So while their producers might be leaving out the hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, many are using the same industrial techniques that conventional farmers use: monoculture, feedlots, tightly enclosed spaces for animals, etc. There has also been the development of "organic" convenience foods, which are just as highly processed as their conventional cousins.

Pollan then takes us to a sustainable farm. Pollan's sustainable farmer, Joel Salatin, is not so hung up on labels such as "organic." In fact many of these designations are a hindrance. Salatin concentrates more on creating sustainable ecosystems that cultivate food, rather than manufacture it. He raises chickens, cows, pigs, and a variety of crops, but principally, he regards himself as grass farmer. He carefully manages his plants and animals such that his farm is a symphony of symbiosis, each group of plants or animals providing benefits for another group.

Pollan's last meal is that of the hunter/gatherer. Pollan has never hunted before, but he befriends a man who teaches him to hunt wild pigs and forage for mushrooms in Northern California. Pollan explores the ethics of hunting, as well as the dangers of foraging and ties it all in with the theme of the Omnivore's dilemma.

This is a fascinating and thought-provoking book, and I recommend it to anyone that has to eat to survive. While it did not make me want to become a vegetarian or completely shun the conveniences that modern food production brings us, it certainly made me start to think about the true cost of cheap food. Pollution, loss of biodiversity, animal cruelty, obesity and other health problems are but a few of the hidden costs of our cheap food. Michael Pollan just wants us to get the math right.

Book 13 - Walden - Henry David Thoreau

The news of my demise has been greatly exaggerated. Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been reading. On the other hand, just because I've been reading doesn't mean I'm caught up. But school's out, and I don't think I'm going to take anything this summer so I should have a chance to get back in the game. There's this book, and then I have another book completed that I will write about the first chance I get. I'm also partway through two others. Still, I really need to be working on book 19 if I want to be on schedule, so I still have a ways to go.

As you might have guessed I had to read this one for school, but I had never read it before. At this point one might be asking, just what DID I read when I was younger? The answer is: not as much as I should have. Most of my early reading was in classic science fiction like Asimov, Herbert, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc., etc., although I did find room for some other things. Also, when I bothered to put down the frisbee and go to class, I had to knock through some Shakespeare and Hemingway and such, but still there are gaps in my literary experience that are big enough to drive a truck through. Anyway, lets get to it.

Book 13 - Walden - Henry David Thoreau

Walden is Henry David Thoreau's experiment in applied Emersonian philosophy. A great admirer of Emerson's work, not to mention Emerson's wife, Thoreau sets out to demonstrate his self-reliance by squatting on someone else's land a few miles outside of town. Thoreau spends the entire first chapter (which takes up about a fifth of the book), explaining in detail his income and expenses from the project. However, he leaves out key details, which tend to skew things a bit. Did I mention that the land belonged to Emerson, and that Thoreau didn't have to buy it or pay rent? Or that he lived but a short walk from the heart of Concord, MA, and frequently went into town to dine at his mother's house or at the house of one of his friends?

These details aside, his message is powerful: "Simplify, simplify, simplify." If you don't have a lot of stuff, you don't need a fancy house to keep it in, and you don't have to spend a lot of time cleaning it. If you don't eat a lot of food, you don't have to buy or grow a lot of food. He also tells us that "To be awake is to be alive." and says that "Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

Some look to Thoreau as an environmentalist, and with good reason. Thoreau definitely espouses the small footprint idea and many of the ideas of the locally grown food movement. His descriptions of nature are as powerful as an Ansel Adams photograph. He also seems to be very much against technology and progress, but it's not really because he wants to save the planet. He questions the usefulness of a telegraph from Maine to Texas, fearing that they might not have anything to say to each other. He also questions the efficiency of taking the train, claiming the time you would have to work and the wages you would have to expend, it would have been faster and cheaper to get there on foot (we are not talking cross-country here, his destination was only 30 miles away).

Thoreau's powers of observation are formidable. No detail of the landscape escapes his keen eye. He offers us detailed descriptions of Walden Pond and it's surrounding environs as it moves through the four seasons of the year: the forest all abuzz with life in the summer; the cool crispness of the fall; the blanket of quiet that falls over the pond in winter; and finally emerging in the rebirth of spring. Along the way he relates histories of the area and its people, and even takes a pause to describe in incredible detail the war between two colonies of ants. While this was surely an illustration of the brutality of combat in general, considering the time it was written it might have also been a warning of the horrors of the civil conflict that was looming on our nation's horizon.

Maybe I'm getting used to the nineteenth century writing style, but I found this book easy to read. My only problem with it was that Thoreau's descriptions of nature can be so vivid as to be hypnotic, and I frequently found myself lost in a reverie, not knowing when I had stopped reading and when my imagination had kicked in. It is a worthwhile read, and like many of the books I've read for this course, it definitely stirred up some ideas in my dusty old noggin. I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it, and to anyone who hasn't read it in a while.

Book 12 - The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett

Ahh, the best laid plans...I'd planned on being caught up this week, but I'm still one book behind. Oh, well.

The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett
I'd seen this movie a long time ago, and remember enjoying it immensely. I had never realized that the famous mystery author Dashiell Hammett had penned the original story. Never having read any of Hammett's books, I decided this would be a good place to start.

Nick Charles is a retired private detective who has married a wealthy heiress, Nora, and now manages her business affairs. This seems to entail a few hours of work several times a week making investments and managing the affairs of several businesses that she owns. The rest of the time seems to be spent drinking and going to clubs. And boy can they drink. Nick seems to be the heavier drinker of the two, often indulging before breakfast, which because of their all-night clubbing might actually be in the afternoon. Nora is no slouch however, and usually imbibes when her husband suggests it. Nick and Nora normally live in San Francisco, but are visiting the Big Apple and staying in a hotel with their dog Asta.

Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of Clyde Wynant, an eccentric but successful inventor, is looking for her father and asks Nick if he knows how to find him. Mimi, Dorothy's mother and Wynant's ex-wife, also wants to find Wynant because she has run through all the money he gave her in the divorce settlement. Wynant has been in hiding for months, supposedly working on a top secret invention. Wynant's assistant turns up dead, and the mysterious nature of his whereabouts raises suspicion as to his involvement with her death. Wynant, through his lawyer Macaulay, insists on his innocence and implores Nick, who did some work for him in the past, to clear his name. Nick insists that he is retired and wants nothing to do with the case, but between Mimi, Dorothy, Macaulay, and a police lieutenant named Guild, he keeps getting dragged further and further into the case.

I haven't read a lot of mystery so I don't know if I can be a fair judge of the quality of the book. It's a bit melodramatic, but I think that has a lot to do with the state of the genre at the time. The book moves along briskly, and is very dialogue driven, relying on the conversations between the characters to tell the story rather than a using lengthy descriptions of scene. All-in-all, I'd have to say I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone who wishes to check out this classic mystery writer.