Pretty interesting book about the ultra-running phenomenon. It focuses on the Tarahumara Indians, a reclusive tribe located in a desolate set of canyons in Mexico. These people like to run. They run for days at a time (seriously!) and even *like* it. Christopher McDougall spent some time in Mexico, trying to get more information about what makes them tick, and this book is his story.

Now if running were as easy and enjoyable as *reading* about running…I’d be set.

304 pages
3/5

To tell you the truth, I kind of freaked out a little when writing that last book review. I’m only at book 37…and I’m supposed to read 52 books by the end of the year. Yeah, probably not going to happen. Consider this one a desperate attempt at fixing my procrastination problem. (Tell-all memoirs are hunky romance-esque dirty secret.)

So – yeah. Rich people want things but they don’t want to do them, and that’s what concierges are for. Big surprise. The book was an easy enough read – a little condescending but also entertaining…just the way I like them.

271 pages
3/5

1Q84 (the Q stands for QuestionMark) is typical Murakami. Very lyrical writing (thanks to Jay Rubin – who translated it into English) and a multifaceted underlying story with parallel universes (1984 & 1q84) that are somehow connected. OK – so there were some parts of this book that really creeped me out (hint: basically all of the sex scenes – most of them are awkward and one in particular was super disturbing). The book is a bit on the long side, and the “Little People” are a “Little Annoying”, but man, what an imagination Murakami has. It is a gift I’m glad he shares with the world.

On a purely physical level, the book is gorgeous. It has a very thin ricepaper-like dustcover and super smooth newspaper-like pages. I probably like the book more than I should because of these details.

944 pages
3/5

update: here is a nytimes book review article that is worth reading

I do love a book that saves its surprises for the very end. This is the story of a group of scientists deep in the Brazilian rain forest, working on producing a drug that will Change The World. A doctor is sent to check on the progress, and word comes back that the doctor is dead. So our hero Marina is sent to find out about the dead doctor, and she finds out more than she expected. I’m not sure the excitement at the end of the book is worth the dreariness it took to get there, but it is one of the best endings I’ve read in a while.

368 pages
3/5

I thought this book would be full of stories about restaurants, but instead it is full of kitchens. And it is not so much a book of stories about kitchens as it is an unflinchingly honest memoir of Gabrielle Hamilton, from childhood to her current life as chef/owner of Prune, a high-end restaurant in NYC. I got a little bored about halfway through the book, but it picks up again, and I’m glad I finished it.

304 pages
3/5

I’ve been hearing about this book for years, but never really felt compelled to read it. Now that I’m finished with the “enhanced” version (which includes articles from the New York Post & Freakonomics blog), I owner what took me so long. It’s a fairly easy read, reminiscent of (but not quite as fascinating as) Predictably Irrational. If this sort of thing is interesting to you, check out the you are not so smart blog.

151 pages (not counting the notes or bibliography)
3/5

Most of The Passage takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where glowing zombie-vampire monsters (zompires? vambies?) roam in packs, looking for anything that can be devoured. The beginning of the passage takes place before the monsters are set loose, and that’s the part of the novel I found most entertaining. The characters are interesting, and I wasn’t really sure how the characters were going to come together – but when they did it was very satisfying. (In a literary sense, anyway).

The rest of the novel is a little slow (except for the very end, of course), and full of characters I found it hard to care about. I didn’t like the ending – it felt like a precursor to a sequel rather than a standalone book. As it turns out this book is the first in a trilogy (even though it’s long enough to be a trilogy of it’s own) – so I’ll see what happens with the next two in the series.

782 pages
3/5

Emily and I went on a two week trip to Montana, and nothing says vacation like a guilty pleasure read. I picked up a copy of The Testament from my parents garage & we headed to Glacier National Park (even though the Going To The Sun road wasn’t open) and camped for four nights. Our days were spent in awe of the scenery; our nights were spent over a campfire. After the fire died down, we turned on our camp light and sat on the picnic table, nose deep in our books, swatting at mosquitoes.

This book is basically about a bunch of people who have too much money, and one person who doesn’t. The richest man in the world dies, and doesn’t leave a cent to his children or ex-wives. Instead he leaves his fortune to an illegitimate child, a women living as a missionary in Brazil who has no interest in money or her father. The executor of the will sends down a lawyer straight out of rehab to find her & convince her to accept the money. And so it goes. It’s a typical Grisham read – fast paced and a bit preachy with a dash of pretentiousness. I finished it before the trip was over.

480 pages
3/5

It’s been a long time since I’ve read any straight up history books. I picked up The Last Stand because I vaguely remember a field trip to the Little Bighorn Battlefield when I was a kid, but I don’t remember many of the details about the infamous battle (except that the Lakota kicked Whitey’s ass). It was really interesting to read about places and landscapes I was familiar with – I grew up close to the banks of the Yellowstone River, and know the terrain is desolate. I also thought the book was very even handed in it’s description of the men, the battle and the circumstances leading up to the battle. If you’re interested in military history at all, this book is a fascinating read.

3/5
496 pages

Back in the day, I had a subscription to one of the best zines in the world: Punk Planet. I discontinued my subscription one year when I was super broke, and never subscribed again. (Sadly, the zine went out of business and the website has gone to the domain name hounds). I remember reading excerpts from this book, but never bought it because of my lack of funds. So when I saw hairstyles of the damned on my library’s ebook site, I checked it out pronto.

The book is a classic coming of age story about a boy growing up in the suburbs who doesn’t really fit in anywhere. Brian (that’s the boy) and his friends eventually become “punk rock” – at least, they start acting and dressing like they’re punk rock, and eventually Brian goes to his first official punk rock show. He gets a skateboard, gets fired from a crappy job, and tries to make out with girls. His parents fight a lot, and he has a hard time figuring out who his friends are. The book doesn’t really have a timeline, and it deals with most of the issues I remember from my high school experience (so many years ago). Except, Brian figures out that the key to social interaction is method acting much earlier than I did…

278 pages
3/5