ZEITOUN by Dave Eggers

Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

It’s not about a hurricane, but it is about a storm.

I just finished reading Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers. It is this year’s One Book, One Community selection otherwise; I never would have picked it up. I don’t read many biographies because the ones I have read were more like lists of names to drop in-between anecdotes and daily schedules. Some are not even authorized by person who the book is about!  We already know what happened during Hurricane Katrina anyway, right?

This book totally caught me off guard. I had no idea that the government had a secondary mission while sending emergency aid to New Orleans. The fact that ordinary citizens were pre-selected to be rounded up and treated as hostiles, while other survivors remained trapped without clean water and food is appalling.

As the saga unfolded, I connected to Kathy Zeitoun early on. She has a career-driven husband, children and pets. She’s a business partner and works hard to keep it all balanced.  Yet when the storm it, life as she knew it collapsed. She was haunted by a sense of terror overcoming her while doing the most mundane house chores. Feelings of isolation while being in a house full of people, the recurring thoughts and scenarios that seemed so far-fetched during waking hours - kept her mind in turmoil through the nights. I experienced this during my husband’s two deployments to Iraq in 2004 and 2008. If Eggers had interviewed spouses of soldiers who had been deployed to a war zone, he would have gotten similar descriptions.

 And this is where the irony lies. We really need to take a good look at ourselves as Americans and how our actions are perceived around the world. As a country proud to be born of a melting pot of cultures, Americans are perceived as not to accept foreign cultural traditions, religious differences, or respect values different to our own.  It is so sad that so many Americans are missing out by not embracing their own countrymen rich with the world’s diversity. Americans are branded in Europe for creating loud storms of uneducated opinions and flooding the media with them. Is this who we really are?

Zeitoun is not to be missed.

--Kristin

LEVERAGE by Joshua C. Cohen

Wow. Wow! The young adult book Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen was one of the most disturbing books I’ve read, yet also one of the most captivating.

The boys on the football team are gods at Oregrove High School and the coaches enhance their idol-like status by providing them with steroids. An unhealthy rivalry begins when the gymnastics coach sets out to prove to the football establishment that his boys are just as strong if not stronger than the football players.

After a one-on-one challenge in which a gymnast wins in a leg lift competition, the humiliated football captains set out to prove their strength by bullying the smaller gymnasts. The brutish football players, who can do no wrong in anyone’s eyes, cruelly attack one of the smaller gymnasts, which results in a horrifying turn of events. And here is where the book gets disturbing, so much so that I don’t know if I would even recommend it to a teen. It is hard to read and takes some strong emotions to plow through a few of the scenes. There is plenty of cursing, sex, and demented characters, so consider yourself warned!

I won’t spoil the story, but I will say, amid the pain there is a beautiful, deep, loyal friendship that develops between a talented gymnast who is a witness to his teammate's abuse and a stuttering football player, who is in foster care after a rocky and troubling past, trying to find his way at a new school and on a football team full of egomaniacs.

It’s not until the last few pages of the book when you finally learn if evil or good prevails. And, I say again, wow – I loved this ferocious, gritty story.

JJ

MATCHED by Ally Condie

Matched, a young adult novel by Ally Condie, takes place in a dystopian society where the government has total control over the lives of the people, down to the moment of death – before midnight on someone’s 80^th birthday. The Society monitors sleep and exercise patterns of its subjects and even distributes meals based on the specific dietary needs of a person.

Cassia, content with her place in society, attends her matching ceremony on her 17^th birthday and finds out she is to marry her best friend Xander. No doubt exists in her mind that Xander is her perfect match. However, when she sees another boy’s face flash across the screen – a mistake – a seed of doubt about her match is planted in her mind.

Thus begins Cassia’s journey to discovering some of the darker aspects of the perfect world in which she lives. The hundred songs and hundred poems that Society has preserved are not enough. Surely, there must be more to the world and life than what the Officials have been teaching her. Obedience to the Society becomes difficult for Cassia as she uncovers more about her own free thought and will.

Torn between two loves, Cassia is not only dealing with the pressures of the Society, but also of young love. Hints of societal rebellion exist in this book, which makes me eager to read the next two books of this trilogy.

If you like The Hunger Games, this book may appeal to you, though the story is quite different – no kids killing each other. It also reminded me of The Giver by Lois Lowry, which is a comparison others have made, even to some criticism – saying that Ally Condie took too much from The Giver when creating her dystopia.

Matched was a quick and fun read for me as an adult. I handed it over to my fifth grade daughter as soon as I finished and she is now devouring it. It is captivating enough for mature readers yet clean enough for young ones.


JJ

A WALK IN THE WOODS by Bill Bryson

You know how it is. You come home after a long day of work, throw yourself down in a chair and look for something to entertain you. Some options are too serious, some you've come across a zillion times before. You just don't know what you want. Finally something captures your eye (or you're just too tired to care) and you say, "Fine, I'll read that" and reach over and open the bookcase (you thought I was talking about channel surfing, didn't you?) and pull it out.

You might not know this about me, but I love to read. It's a shocker, I know. I take great pride in the fact that every room of my house except the basement (because of mold issues, most likely) has books in it. I've got bathroom reading, cookbooks in the kitchen. I even have home repair books in my mud room.

The majority of my books, close to 1600 of them, can be found in my library. That makes sense. When you have a lot of books, a library is a good place for them. Those are just baseball books, though. I keep my non-baseball books, of which there are probably only about two hundred, in a barrister bookcase which is where I found myself sitting in front of in the opening paragraph. I rarely acquire books that aren't baseball and so most of the books in the case are ones I've bought and read and felt the need to keep.

I mention this bookcase because it is a treasured possession. It belonged to Judge Jonathan Langham, who was a neighbor of my grandparents. When he passed away, my grandfather purchased the bookcase and it has been passed down to me. I like the idea that a piece of furniture I own has some history. I digress. Back to the book.

I don't remember when I first read A Walk in the Woods or even how I came to have a copy of it. It was probably around the time I was really into hiking. That would make sense given that this is about Bryson's attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen.

Bryson and Stephen discover it isn't all they expected. They begin at the southern end of the trail, in Georgia, and make their way north. They hike for several weeks and come across a rest area in Tennessee that has a map of the trail. When they discover that for all the effort they have put in - through all the difficult terrain and bad weather and poor eating and sleeping - they haven't hardly begun, they decide to give up on hiking the whole thing. They leave the trail and find their way to Roanoke, Virginia. Having decided they aren't going to do the whole thing, when the Virginia portion of the trail is lackluster, they halt their tandem efforts.

Bryson makes road trips into Pennsylvania to hike short sections of the trail but discovers the Pennsylvania portions of the trail are perhaps the most lacking in scenery. He does parts of the trail in New England (where Bryson lives) and he reunites with Stephen to do a portion of Maine at which point they are so sick of hiking you wonder if they'll ever do so again.

If you're looking for a book to inspire you to hike, this probably isn't it. If you're looking for something that is a pretty accurate description on what it's like to hike for weeks on end, it's a good book. Bryson is funny, likes to delve into the history of things, and doesn't pull punches when he encounters things that bother him. Sometimes he has a holier than thou attitude about him which rubs me the wrong way.

While I claim this isn't a book to inspire one to hike, it actually made me realize that I miss hiking. My oldest son and I have been talking about some hiking achievements we would like to accomplish (coincidentally, he recently wrote a paper for school about our attempts to hike the Maryland portion of the Appalachian Trail back in 2006) and we've decided we're going to do some hiking in 2012. I'm looking forward to that and who knows, maybe I'll find something to write about that will be as entertaining as Bryson.

--Jon

BLOOD HORSES by John Jeremiah Sullivan

I read various things online about books. I'm always on the lookout for something new and interesting to read, something out of the ordinary, or just plain old good writing. When everyone was doing their end of the year reviews, time after time I came across the name of John Jeremiah Sullivan. I don't think I read a single negative thing on his newest book, Pulphead, which is his second book. Blood Horses is his first and given my love for the horsies, I thought I would read it first.

If you couldn't care less about horsies, you'd still love this book. I've been trying to communicate my feelings about this book to a few people and I haven't been able to adequately express it. Reading this book made me feel smarter. This is different, I think, than what you think. There are many books that I read where I learn something. That makes me more knowledgeable. Sullivan makes me feel smarter. It's as if he found a way to ignite my brain cells to understand and explore things in ways I never have.

I think a lot of this comes from Sullivan's style. While this book is about horses, it's really about everything. Sullivan grew up in Kentucky and his father was a sportswriter so he has had a lot of personal connection with the sport of horse racing. He weaves his own personal history into his own personal present and ties it in with historical and current equestrian issues. He'll be talking about his Dad and next thing you know he's talking about Hitler. And even though you're suddenly reading about something you don't think you were reading about a page or two ago, you really are. Sullivan entwines everything marvelously. The changes aren't jolting. There are no non sequiturs. The transitions are smooth.

Sullivan does fantastic research and tells great stories. He has a gift for detail which is just amazing. After finishing the book, I found that I had made note of four books he referenced in the text that I wanted to read some more. Those who know me know that one of the things I look for in good non-fiction is how much it makes me want to learn more about whatever it is the author covered.

The book itself is really comprised of a lot of different essays of various length. They work so well together, you don't even realize that these are all separate components. It reads like a book, not a collection of essays, if that makes sense.

The only downside of the book were the illustrations. There are a large number of them but they are all in black and white and very little, if anything, was done to them to enhance the image quality. Some are so dark as to be undefinable. There are some neat photos and some interesting pieces of equine art pictured and it would have been nice if more effort had been made by the publisher to showcase them rather than make them seem like filler.

 This was a truly amazing book and I will definitely be looking to read Pulphead sometime this year.

--Jon

WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO US by McKay Jenkins

What's Gotten Into Us was a book I had meant to read for some time and didn't until it came time to remove it from the new book shelf at the library. I know the author in passing from my time as a Public Administration student at the University of Delaware. My specialization was watershed management and I did some volunteer work with the Water Resources Agency on campus that brought me in contact with Jenkins a couple of times. My first encounter with him was when he was the keynote speaker at the Drinking Water 2001 conference. His talk was incredible and I thought that anyone who speaks as well he does, has to be a good writer, too.

I had read one of his books, The White Death, previously, and it was fantastic (unfortunately, it is not in the library system). My ex bought it for her Dad for Christmas and he, too, liked it. She bought him two other books of Jenkins' which also were appreciated. So needless to say, I had an expectation of this being a good book.

I don't feel it was. I felt like a good portion of it was a bit of shock journalism. Jenkins explores how things we encounter in our every day life are causing illnesses and disease. Not things like Jenny McCarthy's accusation that vaccines cause autism but more stuff like lawn care chemicals causing health problems.

Jenkins' biggest issue seems to be with phthalates. These are substances added to plastics to make them more flexible and durable. They are found just about everywhere and they presumably cause health problems.

I say presumably because, really, what doesn't? I have read several times this past year that 1 in 2 people will develop cancer during their lifetimes. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that much of the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the things we use, cause illness. And it doesn't take much to figure out that there is little reason for the companies that provide us with this stuff to change. We can get in an uproar over lead paint in toys from China while we inhale chemicals from our carpets or phthalates that come from our electronic devices aging and decaying.

Jenkins cites some studies of people living in rural areas, presumably away from a lot of these contaminants, whose bodies are loaded with toxins. You can't escape it. And the world grows and gets more congested and more contaminated and eventually we'll hit a breaking point and the apocalypse will arrive. That last bit is from me, not Jenkins.

Jenkins is a little more optimistic. He thinks we can make changes to personal lifestyles that will enable us to avoid some of the detrimental junk. Eat organically, for instance. Use cleaners made only of natural substances. An assortment of other options available primarily to those with money, not poor public librarians.

I'm letting my personal feelings get too entwined in this review so let me focus more on the straight content. Jenkins' viewpoint is very one-sided. He looks for things to support his case but doesn't really explore the possibility that stuff might not be as bad as he is making it out to be. Like I said, it felt like shock journalism. There isn't a wealth of scientific evidence cited. What there is tends to be limited in scope and not entirely conclusive.

It didn't surprise me either that I thought the best chapter in the book was about water and it relied heavily on the work of Jerry Kauffman, who heads the Water Resources Agency. That chapter just felt like it was the most grounded in actual science.

Although I didn't care for the book, it might make a good primer if you aren't as naturally cynical as myself and it hadn't occurred to you that your environment is killing you. You might get something out of it. For a McKay Jenkins fix, though, you ought to track down The White Death. Awesome book.

--Jon

I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak

After reading The Book Thief, I wanted to read the book Markus Zusak had written immediately before, I am the Messenger. It took me a while but I finally got around to it.

I am the Messenger is about a group of people in their late teens - early 20's who live in Australia. There are four friends, all of them sort of struggling to find their way through life. The main character, Ed Kennedy, is a taxi driver whose most notable characteristic is that he is in love with his best friend, Audrey. Audrey appreciates Ed's friendship but never wants to let their relationship evolve into more. In the meantime, she sleeps around, driving Ed nuts.

The story begins with Ed standing in line at the bank with his friend Marv, whose defining feature is that he hoards all his money while driving what is arguably the worst functioning automobile on the planet. While the pair are in line, the bank is robbed. The robbery does not go smoothly and the robber's getaway vehicle takes off without the robber. The robber grabs Marv's keys, drops his gun and tries to escape. The car, naturally, doesn't start, and Ed retrieves the gun and holds it on the robber until the police come to apprehend him.

Ed becomes a minor hero in the papers. He is surprised one day to find a playing card of the Ace of Diamonds with three addresses on it. Ed comes to the realization that he is to provide a message to the people living at these addresses. What the messages are and how he is to deliver them is uncertain.

Ed eventually figures out a way to accomplish his task which then leads to another card with another cryptic assignment. All four aces arrive in Ed's hands, the last one relating to his three friends.

Upon completion of the tasks, the reason behind Ed being chosen for these messages is made clear but the ending takes on a bit of a meta-fiction feel which I didn't much care for.

All in all, I did like the book, even with an ending that was a little empty. The characters are different. There's a level of shallowness in them but enough depth to keep them interesting. The book is intended for a young adult audience and so Zusak's language and writing are appropriately basic. Even so, although the language isn't special, Zusak's a good storyteller. If anything, it made me appreciate The Book Thief all the more. I feel like the shortcomings in I am the Messenger were eliminated in The Book Thief. It definitely feels like Zusak grew as a writer between the two stories.

Can't go wrong with either but The Book Thief is considerably better.

--Jon

THE VISIBLE MAN by Chuck Klosterman

I liked Chuck Klosterman's The Visible Man but was disappointed by it. I had a lot of hope for it and was motivated to read it after watching the book trailer.



The story involves two characters. A psychologist by the name of Victoria Vick and a patient of hers known as Y. The book begins as if Vick is in the process of writing the book you're reading and she is writing the publisher concerning events in the story. The story is told as if this is the draft of the publication she is submitting.

Vick's contact begins with a phone call from Y. He is trying to understand more about what he does and is seeking psychological/moral guidance. After a few phone calls, Y comes in to the office and their sessions continue. It turns out that Y is a scientist but has been bothered by the question of the true natures of people. He sets out to see if he can understand better by observing them when they are alone.

As the pair continue to meet, their relationship evolves into something more than your standard patient/therapist situation.

I apologize in advance for the crummy review of this book but to say more reveals the story and it is one that shouldn't be spoiled. My disappointment came from the direction the book went. This had a lot of potential, at various times through the book, to be more dark and gripping. It never went that direction. It felt like getting into a Ferrari and finding it had a spoiler that prevented you from driving above 50 mph. Yeah, you're driving a Ferrari but what's the point? I felt the same with the book. It should have been creepy. Don't you think the trailer is creepy? That's what I was expecting. Never got there.

I liked it. It just didn't meet expectations.

--Jon

My favorite books of 2011

Admittedly belated, here are my favorite books from 2011:

1. Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
2. Eleven by Mark Watson
3. Blood Horses by John Jeremiah Sullivan
4. Ghosted by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
5. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
6. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
7. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
8. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
9. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
10. Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

I disqualified A Barn in New England and Art of Possibility because I've read them both before. THey'd make the list if I hadn't, though.

If there's no link, it's because I haven't written the review yet because I'm running behind. I'll add a link once I write the review.

--Jon