Pico Iyer, Falling Off the Map (1993)

A collection of first-impression essays by the well-known travel writer.

I love to discover the unusual & this book is full of it. Before reading this book, I wanted to travel to every place that I haven't been, with some places higher on the priority list than others. After reading this book, Iceland has moved up a few notches in the ranking.

I'm keeping this one on my bookshelf to read again someday.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi (2001)

A very engaging if unlikely story. Allegory tends to be that way.

I liked the author's writing style, but I wonder if I missed something on a few things.

First, the protagonist discusses his mixed view of religion at length before the shipwreck, but hardly mentions it again after he is stranded at sea.

Second, the story is interspersed with comments by his supposed interviewer, & then suddenly the interviewer stops commenting.

Third (you would have to read the story to know what I'm talking about here), why would the teeth remain if everything else was disintegrated?

Despite these seeming inconsistencies, & dispite the detailed accounts of the blood & guts variety, I enjoyed this novel from beginning to end.

This book will be passed on to Charlene Freeman.

Junot Díaz, Drown (1996)

A novel in short stories about a Dominican family searching for the American Dream. I really enjoyed Díaz's writing style, & I look forward to reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Thanks to Roxanne Doty for lending me this book.

Joe Queenan, My Goodness (2000)

Joe Queenan, famous for being a cynic & an all-around bad guy, tried being good for about six months. He purged his home of products that used animal testing, started eating vegetarian, wrote checks to save the whales, the spotted owls & the wolves, & listened to hours & hours of Sting CD's.

In the end, he decided that he could do more good by being mean, since he has so much influence over people. I have a feeling his karma rating has been drastically downgraded.

Most of the book is wrought with repetetive cliches. I can't tell if he's trying to be funny by over doing it, or if he really thinks that it's good writing.

He does make an important observation, though: It's damn near impossible to be good in every camp. I once heard that if you eat a banana for breakfast & then walk to work, you're doing more harm to the environment than if you skipped the banana & drove to work. It makes sense, right? How much fuel is used to get that banana to you?

So the best that we can do is do the best that we can, & don't worry if it's not perfect.

This book will be traded. Let me know if you're interested.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1971)

What a trip!

This book was passed on to Liane Kido.

Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, Watchmen (1986)

I was talking with my friend Ryan about the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. Being an avid reader himself, he advised me that I read Watchmen before reading Oscar Wao. He said that I would understand the Díaz book much better for having read the Alan Moore book first.

It was my first graphic novel, & I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I kept turning the pages to see what would happen next. Instead of being just a comic book, the story is unexpectedly profound & full of symbolism.

As it turns out, this book is somewhat of a cult classic. Even the Peanuts gang & the Simpsons are in on it. I was totally out of the loop.



















Still, Alan Moore is a bit creepy looking, don't you think?






















This book was returned to the Tempe Public Library.

Robert A. Johnson, She (1989)

At just 80 pages, this was a quick read. The author takes the myth of Pysche, wife of Eros, & relates it to the modern woman's mind. An interesting essay, but still slightly subjugative. I wonder if it's because of the author's personal views, or a sign of the time in which the book was written. Was 1989 really that long ago? He has a companion book called "He" (of course).

This book will be traded. Let me know if you're interested.

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (2001)

This book was interesting in the beginning, & then got interesting again in chapter 8, which starts on page 227. The rest of the book was waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen. Not much of what did actually happen was remotely plausible.

This book was passed on to Wendy Quast.

Bill Bryson, The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)

Another entertaining read from Bill Bryson describing his formative years in the 1950's & 60's.

This book was passed on to Michelle Aigner.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974)

I heard from several people that I would like this book, but I fail to see the reason. I've read 66 pages at a gruelingly slow pace. So far, the author is describing her experiences while living in a cottage in the woods. She hasn't offered any insight to her experiences, just descriptions of the animals, the changes with the seasons, etc. It seems pointless if she doesn't expound on her observations. But perhaps there is a deeper point to the book which is far beyond my understanding.

At any rate, I'm shelving this one until later.

Slate Magazine ed., The Explainer (2004)

Everything you ever wanted to know about... everything! (But didn't know to ask.)

This book was passed on to Sharon Bohm.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step (1991)

If only I could be so tolerant.

This book is in my personal library.

Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989)

What a great novel!

The story focuses on four immigrant women & their four US-born daughters, & the differences & similarities among them. Though they come from a Chinese culture, I'm sure the story would resonate with anyone who is an immigrant or first generation citizen.

All of the women in the novel are strong in their own ways. At times, however, their strength gets in the way of the daughters being able to truly know who their mothers are, & visa versa.

At the end, I was streaming tears, thinking of my own mother. I have tried many times to get to know my mother, to understand who she was before she married my father (when she was 20 years old), to understand who she is now as an individual. But she resists. She doesn't like to talk about her feelings or her past. I think she must have suffered a lot in her life to keep everything so tightly guarded.

So I continue to think of her merely as half of the pair "Mom & Dad". I call my parents every few weeks to catch up, but our conversations are very superficial: the garden, the dog, their next big trip.

Perhaps I'll try again when I see my parents at my brother's house in December. It will be difficult to find a time for the two of us to be alone. My parents tend to plan every minute of their visits so there is no room for spontaneity. But this will be a longer than normal visit. We'll all be together for 10 days, so if I put my request in early, I might be able to tear her away for a cup of coffee alone. Then I'll have to tackle that wall that she has built in hopes of finding out who is behind it.

This book was passed on to Wendy Quast.

Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006)

I got about halfway through & then lost interest.

I may try to listen to it on CD. Obama reads it, so it might be better that way.

The part that I did read, though, makes this book seem to be an excuse for Obama's actions as a politician - why he has "sold out". He basically says that politics is all a game & you have to play by their rules if you want to play at all.

This book has been passed on to Linda Redman.

Kurt Vonnegut, Welcome to the Monkey House (1968)

A collection of short stories.

I didn't like this as well as I liked "A Man Without a Country". These were some of his first published works, from the 1950's & 60's. They definitely carry the personality of the day, as I imagine it. Fear of space travel, fear of innovation & technology, fear that doing good will turn bad. In the wake of Hitler & the atom bomb, it's no wonder that people were skeptical of perfection & "progress".

But time has passed & we have not ruined everything - yet. So these stories for me were only mildly amusing, as a snapshot of the sentiment of the time rather than truly entertaining stories.

This book has been passed on to Wendy Quast.

Ilan Stavans, Spanglish (2003)

The introduction, which lasts for 54 pages, is a discussion of Spanglish: its origins, its relationship to languages like Ebonics & Yiddish, its social stigma, etc. The rest of the 258 pages is a dictionary of Spanglish terms.

Although I enjoyed browsing the dictionary section, I was more interested in the discussion of what Spanglish is, how it is developing, the impact it has on society & vice versa. With only 54 pages to work with, the author didn't go into much depth. So in the end, I felt kind of jipped.

The author's description states that Stavans teaches at Amherst College, but it doesn't say what he teaches. Latino studies? Latino literature? Spanish? Spanglish? What? Wikipedia has him as "the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture".

This book is in the library at The Spanish Place.

Rolf Potts, Vagabonding (2003)

A how-to guide on living on the road long-term, focusing more on travel in third-world countries. It has lots of resources for things from getting visas to getting jobs while on the road.

I'm sure this book will come in very handy for me!

This book is in my personal library.

J. Maarten Troost, Lost on Planet China (2008)

An engaging travel memoir. Troost's accounts of his experiences in China, including eating live squid & pushing to get to the front of the line, are entertaining yet intelligent. I wonder if his comments on the excessive pollution in China are accurate. He claims that in the US, a reading of 50 in particulate matter in the air (I have no idea what that really means) is cause for alarm. But in China, they typically experience 140. That sounds bad.

I definitely want to read more of J. Maarten Troost.

This book has been passed on to Mengying Fu.

Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven (2003)

A fascinating book! Krakauer presents the history both of the main Mormon church as well as the various fundamentalist factions in an effort to bring understanding to a double murder that occurred in 1984. This was a departure for Krakauer, who writes for Outside magazine & whose books are mostly about the outdoors (i.e. Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Eiger Dreams).

The most impressive part of this book for me was the appendix, where the author reprints in its entirety a criticism of the book written by a Mormon who felt the content was overly biased against the church. He of course writes a rebuttal, but I commend him for laying it all on the table like that.

This book has been passed on to Linda Redman.

Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country (2005)

An 82-year-old man's rant on politics & life in general.

Some memorable quotes:

"First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts."

"The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon."

On cigarettes: "A fire at one end and a fool at the other."

"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different."

This book is in my personal library.

Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea (2007)

Three Cups of Tea is the account of Greg Mortenson's efforts to educate the uneducated in Pakistan & Afghanistan by constructing schools in the very poorest of areas. I have a few issues with the book, but nonetheless, it's an interesting story. Even more interesting is that his daughter, mentioned throughout the book, has recorded a song to go with the book. Enterprising to say the least.

This book has been passed on to Roxanne Doty.

I was discussing the book with my friend Debra over coffee this morning. She mentioned another organization that also aims to educate those in third world countries, Room to Read, headed by John Woods, formerly of Microsoft. Apparently this guy has even been on Oprah.

I wonder if they're hiring.

Polly Evans, It's Not About the Tapas (2006)

Interesting because of the descriptions of the places that she visited & the bit of history thrown in. But Evans is too cynical for my tastes. Her account was sprinkled with negative, often self-centered observations.

She did mention a pilgrimage through the Pyrenees that I'd like to try one day.

This book was returned to the Tempe Public Library.

Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods (1998)

Bill Bryson is great! Funny, observant, very entertaining to read.

Several years ago I dated a guy who really liked the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail in one push. I wasn't a backpacker then, & was barely even a day hiker, so the idea of walking through mountains & valleys for six months without contact with civilization did not appeal to me in the least.

Years passed & I became an avid Camelbacker, as well as a dabbler in backpacking. I began to see the appeal of hiking over 2000 miles in the back country. I started to seriously consider doing the Arizona Trail, which bisects Arizona from Mexico to Utah (or from Utah to Mexico if you prefer), for a total of 800 miles. At a leisurely pace of 10 miles per day, this would take almost three months to complete. That sounded like fun.

Then I started reading "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. He makes months of communing with nature sound utterly insupportable, questionably unhealthy, & at times downright dangerous. Perhaps I'll have to revise my plan.

This book was traded at Bookmans.

Augusten Burroughs, Running With Scissors (2006)

Could all that he says in this book be true? If so, I'm surprised that Augusten Burroughs has it together enough to write just one book, let alone several. Even if half of it is true, I feel blessed to have grown up in a crazy-free home.

This book was traded at Bookmans.