Fuzzy Reading in 2016

Last year, I only managed to read 16 books. I had a lot happening in my life, and I was distracted from reading. I realize now that reading would have helped with a lot of that stress, and it is something that I really love doing. This year, I am going to force myself to read at least 20 minutes each day so that I can get back into the reading habit. I will post reviews about everything that I read and anything else that happens to strike my fancy in this thread.

Currently Reading: And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile

Read in 2016
1. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (3 stars)
2. Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory by James M. Schmidt (4 stars)
3. And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile (4 stars)
4. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (3.5 stars)
5. Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (4 stars)
6. He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him by Mimi Baird (2 stars)
7. East of Eden by John Steinbeck (5 stars)
8. The Ferrari in the Bedroom by Jean Shepherd (2.5 stars)
9. The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and His Adventures in the Wilderness by Darrin Lunde (1.5 stars)
10. The Weight of Shadows by José Orduña (5 stars)
11. Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice by Adam Benforado (4 stars)
12. Blue Men and River Monsters: Folklore of the North by John Zimm (4 stars)
13. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (3 stars)
14. Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (3 stars)
15. I Want to Know Why by Sherwood Anderson (5 stars)
16. The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe (2 stars)
17. "Death by Landscape" by Margaret Atwood (5 stars)

For the record, I don't really have a reading plan for this year other than reading every day. I never follow through with one anyway. I tend to just read whatever strikes my fancy at a given time. Sometimes that is a book that I have at home that I decide that I feel like reading. Sometimes I buy one or borrow one from the library.

I think that my favorite book from 2015 was Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It was my second Atwood, and it was amazing. I reviewed it in my 2015 thread if anyone is interested.

Books that I can't stand are books that are too plot driven or that have unbelievable dialogue. I need well thought out characters who speak and act believably to drive my fiction. Big themes and fiction that pushes boundaries are nice, too.

I also love history and sports. I studied history as an undergrad, and I am a social studies teacher by trade. I grew up watching sports, especially baseball and college football, with my dad, and sports puts me in my happy place. I will surely read some sports, history, and history of sports books this year.

Here's to a great year of free-range reading. And sixteen books is not nothing. I do hope that 2016 is less stressful for you. Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. You can't go wrong with her.

I like your idea of reading at least 20min a day. Reading helps keep me balanced too so I might adopt this as well. In particular I like to read before bed and find it helps me sleep better.

Thank you, janemarieprice. I agree about reading before bed. My other favorite time to read is first thing on a weekend morning with a cup of coffee. A few minutes of reading seems to become a few hours when I get into that habit. It's just a matter of getting back into the habit.

>6 fuzzy_patters: This is the exact same habit I'm trying to get into - reading regularly and at regular times. I find I can get into a really good reading habit at lunch times and before bed.

>Reading habit

And this is the main reason I like riding the bus, oh dear I have to sit and read for twenty minutes twice a day. :) It is funny because I've read so much less in the past week when I haven't been working just because there are so many other distractions at home. Granted I have got a number of projects done though. :)

>reading habits: I'm not setting new years resolutions, I'm going to try and start new, good, habits. One of those on the list is turn off technology and read for 30 minutes in bed.

as long as you're enjoying reading and are getting something from what you are reading, the number of books is irrelevant.

Heleniz, that's a great idea. I think it could be applied in other areas, too. For example, instead of focussing on getting in shape, people could focus on eating better and getting regular exercise. If you focus on the journey instead of the result, you will get there, and it will be more enjoyable.

Good luck with your reading plans! I look forward to hearing about what you end up reading.

Thank you, wandering_star. I have a few books in mind.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (3 stars)

Snow Falling on Cedars centers around the murder trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American fisherman, who lives on San Piedro Island in Puget Sound, Washington. Miyamoto is accused of murdering Carl Heine, who, like Kabuo, is a fishermen and an World War II veteran. The story takes place in 1954 against the backdrop of a country a decade removed from the war and Japanese internment.

I have found it problematic to determine whether I think this is a good book or not. The writing was uneven in quality throughout the book, and at times, I found myself thinking that it was all pointless. On the other hand, there were times when I thought it was wonderful, and I could understand why it won the Pen/Faulkner award for fiction in 1995.

One problem that I had was the uneven writing. At times, it was just outright clunky with too much passive voice making it unclear who was doing the action. This did not seem to be intentional or the writer’s choice of style. It was something that just appeared in the middle of the book and then left again by the end. I thought that some of the middle sections could have used a bit of editing and a rewrite for this reason.

It was during this middle section of the book that I began to be frustrated with the lack of a big, enlightening idea behind the story. It seemed as if the author was trying to convey the idea that racism is bad and that the treatment of Japanese people in the 1940s United States was particularly bad. I can see why this would have been a unique idea in 1950, but this novel was published in 1995 when these would have hardly been revolutionary ideas. It all seemed rather pointless.

It was in the last 100 pages that I thought that Guterson redeemed himself as an author. It was at this point that there was evidence of real growth in the characters in the novel and the revelation of some larger themes for the reader to consider. This section made me being to consider how we as humans relate to each other and the immense pain and happiness that can give each other through our relationships and our treatment of each other. In the end, our humanity and our human frailties are our only constants as the world itself is full of random coincidences that shape our fate. Guterson made this quite clear through his plot, his characters, and his beautiful portrayals of the island and it’s harsh winter weather.

I am left pondering the quality of this novel. I can only conclude that this is a good novel but not a great one. It is an enigma that contains some great writing at times despite its flaws. I could not put it down, which accounts for something, but I was also frequently frustrated by its problems, which also should count as well. I can recommend it, but I can’t say that it is a favorite.

It feels good to have my first book down for the year, and I have found that my goal of twenty minutes a day has paid off. Despite work and home stress, I am finding myself wanting to read again. Some sittings have been as long as 90 minutes despite only intending for 20 when I began reading. Reading has once again become a habit and has become fun again.

Snow falling on cedars seemed to be splashed over many of the big chain bookstores 20 years ago and so there are many copies int the second hand stores now. I think I have a copy somewhere and so it was useful to read your review.

I'm glad that I could help, baswood!

>13 fuzzy_patters: It's interesting to see different people's reactions to books like this. I read it a couple of years ago and really struggled to get through it. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading a decent novella that then had been stretched and padded out to make a lengthier novel.

It's always good when you get back into reading after a slump. A few years ago I was down to only 7 books for the entire year and now I'm not quite sure how I managed!

I see your point, valkyrdeath. I really did like the last 100 or so pages, though. It's weird because I had just been complaining to one of my friends that it wasn't a very good book at all. Then, I had to tell her today that the ending of it redeemed it somewhat in my eyes. There were parts of it that were really bad, though.

Great review. And glad you are enjoying the reading again.

Thanks, Dan.

Notre Dame and the Civil War by James M. Schmidt (4 stars)

Notre Dame and the Civil War is a history of the involvement of Notre Dame's students, former students, and priests in the Civil War. The author, James Schmidt, progresses chronologically from the founding of the university to the memorials that were built for the participant's after death. In addition to the participation of Notre Dame's students and priests, the book also discusses the role of the Sisters from nearby St. Mary's College.

Notre Dame and St. Mary's were established by the Congregation of Holy Cross, a religious congregation that was founded in France during the nineteenth century. Father Edward Sorin founded Notre Dame near South Bend, Indiana, and while famous today, the university during Sorin's time was much different from the Notre Dame that we are familiar with. This is a Notre Dame that educated students from grades K-University and also taught trades to the children of Catholic immigrants across the US at a time of Know Nothing Anti-Catholicism in the US.

ND's greatest contribution to the war was through its priests as chaplains. Many brigades that came from areas heavily inhabited by immigrants were largely Catholic, but there were very few Catholic chaplains in the military. Notre Dame sent five, including Father Corby, who has been immortalized in bronze at Gettysburg. These Priests helped Union soldiers who felt unsupported religiously to have their spiritual needs met so that they could be at ease fighting for their side.

St. Mary's greatest contribution is its nuns who served as nurses during the war. Schmidt explains how difficult it was to find good nurses during this period and how the nuns training in humility and service towards others made them ideal for this role that others had been unable to fulfill. These sisters would also be immortalized in memorials after the war for their roles.

Of course, the war also affected Notre Dame's and St. Mary's students. Schmidt focuses primarily on the students from Notre Dame. Many students fought in the war and some were decorated for their accomplishments. There were also battles fought on campus between students over political beliefs, and their lives were affected by the ongoing war. Of particular interest on campus was the story of the children of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who were at ND and SMC throughout the war.

One thing that troubled me while reading this book was to determine what made ND unique. Surely every university was greatly affected by the Civil War and had many people contribute to it bravely. It took me awhile to realize that ND was unique, and it wasn't because of the Sherman family or the great soldiers who came from there. It was because ND contributed to the spiritual well-being of American immigrants who were fighting for the reunification of a country that was full of discrimination against them. The contributions of these priests and nuns helped to make Catholicism more acceptable among those that they came in contact with. For example, the nuns had a great effect on some of the doctors and patients that they dealt with, and Schmidt makes it quite clear how impressed some of the officers that overheard Father Corby speaking to the Irish Brigade were with him saying that it was one of the greatest sermons they had ever heard.

For this reason, I liked this book in that I did learn something from it. I would have liked to have seen Schmidt make that more clear earlier in the book. I spent half the book wondering if this was not just some sort of celebration of a school that Schmidt loves rather than a serious history that is making a legitimate argument about history. Once that became clear though, I began to really enjoy the book, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more.

Not a book I'm going to read, but very interesting review. Nice to think of ND as other than a sports rival.

I actually finished this novel on 1/30, but I am just now getting around to reviewing it.

And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile (4 stars)

And After Many Days begins with the disappearance of Paul Utu and centers around his family's quest to find him. Jowhor Ile uses this as a backdrop to paint a picture of life in Nigeria across cultures and across the urban and rural divide.

One of the major aspects explored in this novel is the nature of Nigeria. Ile gives it a very dualist nature. The Utu family is both urban and rural having homes in both settings. The father, Bendic, has spent time as a Christian, but traditional religious beliefs are still important to him. He has children with names from both traditions. This dualism is in stark contrast to the divisiveness between the students and the government and the history of warfare within the country.

The structure of this novel is interesting in that I think that it is more than just a structure that enables Ile to tell the story. The novel starts with the disappearance of Paul, which is really the climax of the story arc. Then, the book goes through years of backstory before finally returning to Paul's disappearance late in the book. With the amount of historical detail given in the book, I was left wondering if Ile's point was that nothing really changes in Nigeria. The country always comes full circle to its unresolved issues.

One thing that isn't too surprising is that large parts of the book center on the relationship between oil companies and the Nigerian government. Ile highlights the exploitive nature of this relationship towards the villagers in rural Nigeria, and he does so in an even-handed way that also shows the benefits that the rural Nigerians receive. This is not unsurprising in post-colonial literature, but I thought that it was done well in this novel.

My favorite part of this novel was its rich characters. I fell in love with the whole family, and their friends. Each character is well-developed in that they are each unique individuals who grow and change over the course of the story. They were believable enough that I cared what happened to them, which is where books sometimes fail for me. I am happy for that.

Overall, I thought this was a good novel. I was not blown away by it, but it was an enjoyable read that made me think at times. It was a lot like a lot of other post-colonial type novels, but the characters made it worth reading.

Last Saturday, I picked up two books from my local library.

Currently reading: We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Next up: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

I have been meaning to try Oates, and I read the first book, Oryx and Crake, in Atwood's trilogy last year.

>24 fuzzy_patters: I really liked Oryx and Crake so will be on the lookout for the others in the series.

>24 fuzzy_patters: I've wanted to read We Were the Mulvaneys for ages but my library never stocks it. Looking forward to hearing what you think of it. If it's any good I might put in an ordering request with them.

I should be finished in the next day or two.

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates (3.5 stars)

We were the Mulvaneys is about a family living in the Chatauqua Valley of New York state and the events that led to the unravelling of that family. The story opens with a first person narrator, Judd, the youngest son of the family, telling the story of how his family used to be a very prominent family in the area near Mt. Ephraim, New York, before an incident in 1976 would lead to a chain of events that would slowly tear the family apart.

While I mentioned that Judd was the narrator, that isn't quite right. Sometimes the narrator is Judd, and sometimes it seems to be a third person omniscient narrator. Is that just Judd filling in what he surmises happened? That isn't quite clear. There are about 50-75 pages where Judd isn't mentioned as the narrator at all. Then, all of a sudden, he begins talking at the beginning of a chapter. It felt like Oates forgot that Judd was supposed to be narrating and then suddenly remembered him. However, the alternating between Judd and an omniscient narrator worked much better in the fourth quarter of the book, which leaves me wondering if it was intentional. Maybe it was unintentional at first, and then she decided to just go with it. Either way, it is jolting when Judd reappears in the middle of the book after having been gone for so long.

Another jolting issue with the book is the presence of anachronisms. For one, the family has a cat named E.T. in 1976. The film E.T. wouldn't come out for another six years. Also, there are teenagers in 1976 named Austen and Zachary. Both of these names were very popular baby names in the 1990s when the book was written, but they would not have been names commonly used around 1960 when these characters would have been born. Anachronistic names can jolt a reader out of the time and place of a story's narrative and make the book less effective. This is another thing that got better towards the end of the book, where I didn't notice anymore anachronisms.

One thing that really struck me about this book was the level of detail that Joyce writes with. That is something that can get on my nerves if a writer slathers layers of detail onto a story with no sense of purpose, which I thought Joyce was doing early in the book. However, as I continued to read, I realized that she was painting a picture that enabled me to get inside of the heads of her characters because I now knew every angle of their lives and the impact everything had on them. This level of detail had become a strength by the end of the book, and I realized that it was necessary and intentional to tell the story.

By the end, I thought this was a very good but very inconsistently frustrating book that was plagued by a muddled middle despite a good start and a very good finish. I was left wondering if Oates felt pressured to publish quickly and didn't have time to clean the middle up as much as she could have. The ending, however, was great, and would have been even better without the epilogue that, while good, wasn't really a necessary addition to the story. The story ended well without it.

>28 fuzzy_patters: enjoyed your review. I've only read one other JCO book (The Falls) which I found quite dense to begin with but then got really drawn into.

Somehow I think books that are great in parts and weak in others seem more disappointing than those that are just mediocre the whole way through.

I agree completely.

Stupid question, how do you link to the message that you're replying to?

>30 fuzzy_patters: By using the greater-than-sign > followed by the post number, no spaces. The username/link is added automatically.

>31 ELiz_M: Thanks!

I think I have fallen in love with a septuagenarian Canadian woman. Here is my next review.

Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (4 stars)

Year of the Flood is the sequel to Atwood's Oryx and Crake. It centers around two characters, Ren and Toby, who go from being members of a green religion called the Gardeners to trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world that was established in Oryx and Crake.

I thought this one started slow and wasn't quite as good as Oryx and Crake until the second half of the book. Atwood spent too long introducing a world that anyone who has read the previous work is already familiar with. Parts of it also felt forced like she was trying too hard to reach a destination.

Another thing that kept me from feeling as propelled towards the ending as I hid in Oryx and Crake was that it didn't have as many big ideas to think about. The ones that it did have were not exactly eye-opening, nor did they challenge me to look at the world in a new way. This added to the bogged-down feeling that I had reading the first half of the book. Then, it all changed...

The second half of this book was magnificent! As soon as the book started to reference Oryx and Crake, I felt hooked and compelled to know what happens next between her new characters and her old ones. This part of the book was an exhilarating ride and the ending provided a perfect symmetry to the first book. The second half made this book worth reading.

>33 fuzzy_patters: I really enjoyed Oryx and Crake so hope to pick this up some time this year. Glad to hear it holds up.

I suspect you may read more than sixteen books this year.

>34 janemarieprice: I loved it.

>35 RidgewayGirl: Thank you. I certainly hope so.

He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him by Mimi Baird (2 stars)

He Wanted the Moon is a memoir of sorts told by two people. The first half of the book is largely the memoirs of Dr. Perry Baird. The second half tells about how his daughter, the book's author, Mimi Baird, came to publish the manuscript of her father's book and how she came to terms with what she learned about her father through it.

Dr. Baird was a well-known dermatologist at Boston, who had studied at Harvard University. He suffered from manic-depression. At some point, he decided to write a book about his experiences of a life in and out of mental institutions and in and out of manic and depressive states. The book he had been working on during his life makes up the first part of the book, which includes medical reports as well as his memoirs.

Mimi Baird grew up without a father. Dr. Baird left when she was six years old, and she never quite knew where he went or why until young adulthood. Even still, he was not a part of her life, and while reading the second half of the book, you can sense the loss that she felt missing her father. I thought this second part of the book was the more interesting part of the book. It was compelling to read about her coming to terms with her father as a man and finally getting to know him.

The first half of the book was much less interesting for me. I was already familiar with the poor treatment of the mentally ill during the first half of the twentieth century. That which Mimi probably thought would shock the reader wasn't particularly shocking to me. Yes, it is sad how poorly these people were treated, but it was such a well-known story already that I wasn't particularly interested in it.

And now for the best book that I have read in a very long time...

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (5 stars)

I am not quite sure how best to review this book without spoiling anything. I think this book would best be read without any knowledge of the characters or situations in the book because the book is brilliant and beautiful and any hint of what is to come might dampen the experience. I guess I will say as little as possible and try to explain what makes it so good.

At its heart, this is a book about free will and whether it exists. This is told through a multi-generational epic taking place during the late nineteenth and first twenty years of the twentieth century but is also told through allusions to the story of the book of Genesis. In many ways, this story is just a retelling of Genesis, but it also asks questions about it and us and why we are here. The writing is beautiful and flawless and the depth of storytelling works on every level. This book is incredible.

I'm currently reading The Ferrari in the Bedroom by Jean Shepherd. Since Shepherd wrote short stories, I'm going to share brief impressions of each as I make my way through the book. At the end, I will post my overall review.

"I Hear America Singing; or "Leaves of Grass" Revisited"- It's about a first class plane trip with hippies and old WWII vets. The hippies are playing folk music and the vets are annoyed. Neither side understands the other. It was very dated and lacked Shepherd's typical humor. (2 stars)

"Straight Shooters Always Win...Dick Tracy"- The narrator and an old friend sit around reminiscing at Christmas time. The narrator got a camera for Christmas, so he tells about conspiring to get a camera when he was seven. It's a less charming version of Ralphie wanting his bb gun. (2 stars)

"An Independent Survey Today Announced..."- Written when Ralph Nader was pushing for cars that shut off if you were drunk, this story is a farce about cars that shut off due to increasingly ridiculous things such as loud arguments, drivers and passengers having sex, driver boredom, and drivers having political inclinations. The story is told through successive news articles with brief narration in between. By the end, Nader is the president. It was cute and creative but not particularly great. (2.5 stars)

"The Man of the Year May Be a Woman"- More essay than short story, this is a curmudgeonly lament of the changing role of women and men in the 1970s. It's rather sexist. What the heck, Jean? Your other three books were great. (1 star)

A few more story reviews from the Jean Shepherd book.

"Confessions of a TV Fishermen"- This is Jean's firsthand account of what it is like to be a celebrity guest on a fishing show. It takes place at a pond behind a Playboy hotel, and he is served by bunnies while ice fishing. It is all very staged and ridiculous, which makes for an entertaining read. (3 stars)

"Harold's Super Service"- Jean's ruminations on what is was like to pump gas as a teenager. This one was kind of fun. (3 stars)

"The Rosetta Stone of American Culture"- Jean waxes nostalgic about the Johnson Smith catalogue, which was a catalogue in the early twentieth century full of gags and curiosities. Jean is his typical humorous, nostalgic self in this one. (3 stars)

"One Day the Fog Lifted"- What kind of a land is Juneau? Apparently, it's a pretty boring one. (2 stars)

"Fun City"- New Yorkers are rude. Who knew? (1.5 stars)

"S.P.L.A.T."- Jean continues to be curmudgeonly. That seems to be a theme in this book. This time it is about the smell of dog poop in New York. This one is mildly entertaining and features a very long and dated dream sequence that is at least creative. (2 stars)

"43 Miles on the Gauge"- Jean imagines the story behind a guy who died owning bunch of old cars, including one with just 43 miles on it. Jean had seen an article about it in the newspaper. None of the cars are very desirable. They all would have been mediocre not very collectable cars in their times. I really liked this story. (4 stars)

For a second there, I mixed up Jean Shepard and Jean Kerr. Glad I was mistaken. And sorry it was so bad. It's always a real treat to discover an author you like has sketchy views.

>42 RidgewayGirl: I agree completely. It would help if it were better written, but I feel like I'm reading a parody of his other books.

The next story from the book is...

"The Chicken Clawed Chooser"- While watching a feminist on television claim that men don't know what it is like to be a woman, the narrator observes that women don't know what it's like to be a man, either. Then he reminisces about what it was like to choose sides for a baseball game. While I thought that this was going to be another curmudgeonly rant, this one actually turned out to be quite charming. I do recall what it was like to choose sides and all of the ritual and anxiety that comes with it. (4 stars)

"The Drive in Confessional"- A rambling analysis of our obsession with cars and a daydream about a drive in confessional in a Fiat while riding a subway, and somehow, it works. I liked this one. (4 stars)

"The Indy 500"- Shep tells about going to the Indy 500 as a kid with his dad and uncles. I liked this one. As a Hoosier, I thought that it accurately portrayed the way that some people feel about that particular event, and it captures the larger-than-life feeling that kids get when they are exposed to something like that. (4 stars)

"Lifetime Guarantee"- An essay on why we are so unhappy, and why people are so entitled. Shepherd blames a lifetimes of promises of "satisfaction guaranteed or double your money back." This one was witty and well-written. I liked it! (4 stars)

"Moose Area Next 18 Miles"- Shepherd at his finest. He is at his best when using his sardonic wit to capture what it was like to grow up in Indiana or what it is is like to live in New York City. In this case, he turns that wit towards Maine. As I get deeper into this book, it is getting much better. (4 stars)

"Great Expections; or the War of the Worlds"- This is a play written in the early 1970s to take place in the future. An old hippie and an old swinger reenact the war of the generation gap in the hippies apartment and lament that kids these days don't get either one of them. This one was probably funny at the time, but it just feels dated now. (2.5 stars)

"Little America, I love You-" Two guys are drinking together. One is a producer of borderline pornographic off-broadway plays who is a hotel-man. The other, his friend, is a motel man, and he spends the story telling of great motels that he has stayed in. It was cute. (3.5 stars)

I've almost finished the book. Just a few more short stories to review.

"Abercrombie's Bitch"- A psychiatrist sees a man who has a unique problem; he is addicted to buying things. The story is basically a sardonic romp through cheap and not-so-cheap gadgets available in the 1970s. It was a fun read. (3 stars)

"Lillian"- I really liked this one. The narrator sees a truck with "Cynthia" painted on the side. He begins a conversation with the truck driver. The truck driver says that "Cynthia" is the truck's name. This reminds the narrator of his old Hudson Hornet, Lillian, that he drove in college. The story includes observations about how cars take on the characteristics of their owner and how Lillian never really belonged to the narrator. She always belonged to her previous owner. There is also a rather funny part about listening for something wrong with the transmission. (4.5 stars)

And the last story in the collection is the titular story...

"The Ferrari in the Bedroom"- While waiting in a dentist office lobby, the narrator reads Cosmo and sees and add for a vinyl, Ferrari bed. He then daydreams about a man seeing a psychiatrist for his tendency to attack Italian sports cars with a fire axe. This story was humorous, witty, and one of the best in the book. (4.5 stars)

The Ferrari in the Bedroom by Jean Shepherd (2.5 stars)

The Ferrari in the Bedroom is the fourth Jean Shepherd short story collection that I have read, and I think it is the worst. That isn't to say that it is bad, but it is very inconsistent. I thought that eight of the last nine stories in the book were very good. They were witty, observant, and had that understated "gee whiz" kind of tone that is characteristic of Shepherd. The earlier stories in the collection felt more like the ramblings of a curmudgeonly old man who is sexist, ageist, and a angry at a changing world. If I were to recommend this book, I would recommend that you skip to the story titled "43 Miles on the Gauge" and read the rest of the book. The six that come before that one aren't very good.

The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt and His Adventures in the Wilderness by Darrin Lunde (1.5 stars)

This book did not really grab me. I found myself wanting more. It was interesting to learn the back story of how Roosevelt became interested in natural history and about some of the expeditions that he went on in his lifetime. However, I wasn't sure why Roosevelt's story was unique enough to warrant its own book as compared to more accomplished naturalists outside of the fact that Roosevelt also became the President of the United States. Yet, this book was light on his accomplishments and political battles that he fought as president to fight for conservation in the US. Most of the emphasis was on the times before he became president and the time after. If that was going to be the focus, the book should have been written about a more accomplished naturalist than Roosevelt.

The Weight of Shadows by José Orduña (5 stars)

I am not usually a fan of memoirs. This book is an exception. It was very, very well written. It reminded me of a very well written dystopian work of literature by someone such as Margaret Atwood for example, except that this is not fiction. This is a memoir about the immigration experience in the United States. It is harrowing, enlightening, sad, and engaging. I was very impressed with this work.

A lot of the book was not new information for me, but it was told in such a way that intensified the experience for me as a reader by personalizing the actors affected by the situations presented. For example, I was moved thinking about what it would be like to know that you could be deported after being pulled over for a minor traffic stop without your family being notified. I cannot imagine what it would be like to know that you are just disappearing and your friends and family will not know where you went because to notify them with cause them to be deported as well. That is terrible and dehumanizing for these people.

One thing that was new to me was the farce of a trial that illegals receive through the streamlining program. People who may not even speak English are given 20 minutes with an attorney, rushed into a courtroom en masse, and rushed back out of the courtroom to be detained and sometimes laterally repatriated back to Mexico hundreds of miles from where they crossed and where they came from. From a country that claims to believe in the natural rights of people, this is terrible and dehumanizing.

This is a very good book about a very terrible situation. It was written in a very non-politically partisan way (both the Obama and Bush administrations take a lot of heat), and it focusses more on the impact on individuals than on group dynamics. I felt like these stories needed to be told, and I am glad that Orduña told them. I highly recommend this book.

Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Justice by Adam Benforado (4 stars)

I was not sure what to expect from this book going in. After reading it, I have come away very impressed. Benforado does not tell you about what seems unfair to him about the US's criminal justice system. Instead, he uses a lot of psychological and evidential research to prove what is unfair. Then he spends the last section of the book proposing solutions to the problem. Having served on a jury in a criminal trial, I thought that it was all spot on. How can we tell who is being truthful and who is not? How can we prevent unintentional bias? Is it enough to tell people not to be biased? These questions and more were explored in this book, which I thought was a very provocative read. My only quibble, and it's a small one, is that I'm not sure that all of his solutions are feasible in the United States. Even so, he has highlighted the problems, and we should really take a long, hard look at potential solutions.

Blue Men and River Monsters: Folklore of the North by John Zimm (4 stars)

This is a collection of Wisconsin folklore anecdotes from Wisconsin citizens. It was originally collected as a WPA project in the 1930s. It also includes illustrations from Wisconsin artists from that time period.

I really enjoyed this book. The anecdotes varied from fantastical tales from the old world about gnomes and fairies to the more realistic tales about Wisconsin's early settlers and village life. Throw in a little bit of Native American folklore, and you have the recipe for a picture of what would make Wisconsin what it was in the 1930s. I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone interested in personal histories.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (3 stars)

The beautiful, enigmatic, villainous Zenia has ruined three women's lives. They meet at her funeral, and then run into her at a coffee shop. From there, we get their stories of how Zenia has affected them, which leads to the resolution in the final third of the book.

I enjoyed this book. There were a few parts where I thought that one of the characters became a bit cartoonish, and there were parts where I wanted Zenia to have a few more redeemable qualities to add depth to the novel. Overall, thought I thought that it was well done, and I enjoyed reading it.

Maddaddam by Margaret Atwood (3 stars)

MaddAddam is the third book in Atwood's Maddaddam Trilogy. I suggest reading the first two books before reading this one.

If you have done that, I think that this book is worth reading even if I didn't find it to be quite as engaging as the other two. It did provide a resolution to the story and answered some unanswered questions; however, it didn't quite have the same magic as the first two in that there was not that much new to learn about the characters. Atwood tried by providing a lot of backstory on Zeb and Adam, but it seemed thin to me and fell a bit flat.

I Want to Know Why by Sherwood Anderson (5 stars)

This is a wonderful short story by Anderson about a boy from Kentucky who sneaks off to New York to see some horse races, but has to deal with the fact that people are more complex and less honest than horses. It's a coming of age story, and it's great.

The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe (2 stars)

I thought this story was good, but I wanted more from it. The resolution didn't do enough for me. It needed more weirdness and intrigue.

I'm on a short story kick right now.

"Death by Landscape" by Margaret Atwood (5 amazing stars)

This is an incredible short story. You have a main character, retired, with art on her walls. The art is all North American landscapes where there is no foreground or background, everything is foreground. This puts the viewer as the center point, just as Atwood will put the main character as the center point of the story that will unfold in the Canadian wilderness. It is brilliant, and it is even better in the hands of Atwood, who is one of those writers who makes you hang onto every word.

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire by Stephen Kinzer (4 stars)

I really enjoyed reading this book, which wasn't so much about Roosevelt and Twain precisely as it was a general history of the the expansionist and anti-expansionist movements that Roosevelt and Twain were a part of. The author makes the argument that this was the fundamental question of what the US would become. The anti-imperialists argued that conquering foreign lands would degrade the fundamental principle of liberty that the country was founded on. The imperialists argued that the US economy had expanded to the point where it was necessary to secure foreign markets for American goods. This argument would play itself out into the argument for and against American intervention overseas that is still being held today.

I posted this in the wrong thread.