By Jonathan Stroud (462 pp.)
My sister gave me this book and I LOVED it. I'm going to buy the other 2 ASAP. It's a YA book about an ancient djinni (Bartimaeus) and a kid named Nathanial who is studying to be a magician. It's got action, danger, great humor and characters who keep doing the wrong thing and then getting into more trouble when they try to fix it. Recommend!
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 12, 2011
15. Chasing the Game: American and the Quest for the World Cup
By Filip Bondy (293 pp)
This is the story of the US Men's National Soccer team at the World Cup. It tells the story leading up to the 2010 World Cup and also the history of the US and the World Cup. There is a ton of great information in here and I learned a lot of new stuff. However, I found the structure sort-of confusing because the lead up to 2010 is intercut with the historical stuff and as you get closer to the present there are overlapping characters and I sometimes had to take a minute to sort out where I was in time. Plus the backstory of some of the players -- which are fantastic -- are thrown in seemingly at random. I also think the choice to put Tim Howard (click here for a special treat ladies) on the cover is weird. It seems like having a bunch of US players would have made more sense.
This is the story of the US Men's National Soccer team at the World Cup. It tells the story leading up to the 2010 World Cup and also the history of the US and the World Cup. There is a ton of great information in here and I learned a lot of new stuff. However, I found the structure sort-of confusing because the lead up to 2010 is intercut with the historical stuff and as you get closer to the present there are overlapping characters and I sometimes had to take a minute to sort out where I was in time. Plus the backstory of some of the players -- which are fantastic -- are thrown in seemingly at random. I also think the choice to put Tim Howard (click here for a special treat ladies) on the cover is weird. It seems like having a bunch of US players would have made more sense.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
14. As Always, Julia: Food, Friendship and the Making of a Masterpiece
Ed. by Joan Reardon (402 pp)
This is a book of correspondence between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. They met when Julia wrote a letter to Bernard DeVoto after reading an article he wrote about kitchen knives. It's hard not to love people who are passionate about cutlery. That letter started a correspondence that developed into an amazing friendship. Avis ended up playing a key role in getting Mastering the Art of French Cooking published.
I loved it. It gets a tad long in spots but is easy to skim. One of the things I loved is that they both write about being frustrated with trying to balance all the things they want to do. I feel like my personal challenges are so unique and here are two ambitious women 50 years ago, struggling with the same thing.
This is a book of correspondence between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. They met when Julia wrote a letter to Bernard DeVoto after reading an article he wrote about kitchen knives. It's hard not to love people who are passionate about cutlery. That letter started a correspondence that developed into an amazing friendship. Avis ended up playing a key role in getting Mastering the Art of French Cooking published.
I loved it. It gets a tad long in spots but is easy to skim. One of the things I loved is that they both write about being frustrated with trying to balance all the things they want to do. I feel like my personal challenges are so unique and here are two ambitious women 50 years ago, struggling with the same thing.
Friday, April 22, 2011
13. A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan (274 pp.)
Another book of inter-connected short stories that would be tough to sum up in a sentence. People in different places at different times. It's really good. I recommend.
I wanted to check something about the book online and found the author website here which I highly recommend *after* you read the book. She talks about the stories in the book and real life connections to them.
In course of doing that I found a bunch of reviews and blurbs. Man, I'd like to start a project making fun of book reviews. Like, every week on FB I'd review a fake book: "A shocking tour de force that rewards the yearnings of modernity and pits us against the sweeping land mines of the human heart."
This book inspired quite a bit inanity in the review department.
Another book of inter-connected short stories that would be tough to sum up in a sentence. People in different places at different times. It's really good. I recommend.
I wanted to check something about the book online and found the author website here which I highly recommend *after* you read the book. She talks about the stories in the book and real life connections to them.
In course of doing that I found a bunch of reviews and blurbs. Man, I'd like to start a project making fun of book reviews. Like, every week on FB I'd review a fake book: "A shocking tour de force that rewards the yearnings of modernity and pits us against the sweeping land mines of the human heart."
This book inspired quite a bit inanity in the review department.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
12. A Wind in the Door
by Madeleine L'Engle (211 pp.)
I read this book when I was a teenager and I remember loving it. I did not like it even a tiny bit this time. Tedious. It's a YA book about smart teenager with a science-y family. Her brother is sick and some random beings show up with stuff to teach and there are tests and evil.
I read this book when I was a teenager and I remember loving it. I did not like it even a tiny bit this time. Tedious. It's a YA book about smart teenager with a science-y family. Her brother is sick and some random beings show up with stuff to teach and there are tests and evil.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
11. A Feast for Crows
by George R.R. Martin (684 pp)
I've been sitting on this for awhile. It's book #4 in one of those sweeping epic swords and kings series. The series is still in progress and this is last one that's been written. (book #1, book #2, book #3). The TV series starts on HBO this weekend and supposedly number #5 is coming out this summer so I went ahead and plowed through it.
I didn't hate it but this is my least favorite of the series so far. Too many characters. And characters have more than one name and sometimes more than one identity. At one point I could swear the writer was doing this just to be mean. And it felt like the last book knocked all the pieces off the board and this book was about setting them back up again. But only some of them. There were still lots of good bits and I did manage to read it in two weeks and even dragged it on the bus with me (I read the hardcover). I will for sure continue with the series even though at this point my takeaway is that no matter if you're good, honest, bad or crazy: you will die, probably horribly.
Still, looking forward to the TV series.
I've been sitting on this for awhile. It's book #4 in one of those sweeping epic swords and kings series. The series is still in progress and this is last one that's been written. (book #1, book #2, book #3). The TV series starts on HBO this weekend and supposedly number #5 is coming out this summer so I went ahead and plowed through it.
I didn't hate it but this is my least favorite of the series so far. Too many characters. And characters have more than one name and sometimes more than one identity. At one point I could swear the writer was doing this just to be mean. And it felt like the last book knocked all the pieces off the board and this book was about setting them back up again. But only some of them. There were still lots of good bits and I did manage to read it in two weeks and even dragged it on the bus with me (I read the hardcover). I will for sure continue with the series even though at this point my takeaway is that no matter if you're good, honest, bad or crazy: you will die, probably horribly.
Still, looking forward to the TV series.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
10. The Native Star
by M.K. Hobson (387 pp.)
I'm on track to read 40 books this year. That's not terrible but I still wish I finished more. I'm trying.
I love the set-up for this book. It's magic and witches/warlocks in 1876 California. There are horses and trains and lumbermen. The protagonist is an everyday witch from a small settlement. Magic goes wrong and pretty soon there are all sorts of unsavory characters trying to find her. Very fun book.
I'm on track to read 40 books this year. That's not terrible but I still wish I finished more. I'm trying.
I love the set-up for this book. It's magic and witches/warlocks in 1876 California. There are horses and trains and lumbermen. The protagonist is an everyday witch from a small settlement. Magic goes wrong and pretty soon there are all sorts of unsavory characters trying to find her. Very fun book.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
9. Unlucky
by Dave Ungrady (207 pp.)
This book is about a soccer team's first year in D3 of the USISL. I'm copying that off the back of the book because I'm not even sure what that means. My big takeaway was: Wow, some guys really want to play soccer. For some of the guys, they hope this will be a jump-off point to bigger things. Some guys seem to be happy just to play for the team. Some guys have issues of one kind or another and just end up here. There was no pay, poor organization and a lot of uncertainty. And they lost a lot. This was in 1998. Looks like the club has done great. That would have been tough to predict from their first season. It's tough to resist the urge to put all those names into a search engine and see where they ended up.
This book is about a soccer team's first year in D3 of the USISL. I'm copying that off the back of the book because I'm not even sure what that means. My big takeaway was: Wow, some guys really want to play soccer. For some of the guys, they hope this will be a jump-off point to bigger things. Some guys seem to be happy just to play for the team. Some guys have issues of one kind or another and just end up here. There was no pay, poor organization and a lot of uncertainty. And they lost a lot. This was in 1998. Looks like the club has done great. That would have been tough to predict from their first season. It's tough to resist the urge to put all those names into a search engine and see where they ended up.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
8. I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith (343 pp.)
I wish I'd read this book when I was 17. Then, I bet I would have found it flawless. Sadly, I bring my aged wisdom and experience so I found our charming narrator a bit of a doofus. A doofus in the way that we all are when we're 17.
This book was originally published in 1948. It's about a 17 year old girl named Cassandra who has a wacky and extremely dysfunctional family and lives in poverty in England until some rich guys move into the manor next door. Then it becomes about boys and bagging a husband for the pretty older sister.
The narrator is wonderful. The characterization fantastic. Great setting. It's definitely worth reading.
I wish I'd read this book when I was 17. Then, I bet I would have found it flawless. Sadly, I bring my aged wisdom and experience so I found our charming narrator a bit of a doofus. A doofus in the way that we all are when we're 17.
This book was originally published in 1948. It's about a 17 year old girl named Cassandra who has a wacky and extremely dysfunctional family and lives in poverty in England until some rich guys move into the manor next door. Then it becomes about boys and bagging a husband for the pretty older sister.
The narrator is wonderful. The characterization fantastic. Great setting. It's definitely worth reading.
Friday, March 4, 2011
7. How Soccer Explains The World
By Franklin Foer (252 pp).
First of all, this book has the widest margins I've ever seen in a trade paperback. Every time I opened it I remembered writing book reports in grade school where they had to be at least 4 pages long. My writing (we used handwriting in those days) and the margins would get bigger and bigger as the report went on so I could make sure I filled the space.
Second, I don't know if I'd be as annoyed if the book had a different title. I don't think this book shows how soccer explains the world. Well, now that I look at the cover there is a subtitle that calls this an {unlikely} theory of globalization. Joke's on me!
The book isn't terrible. I enjoyed most of it. I thought the author tried too hard to convince the reader that he's badass hanging out with gangsters, hooligans and thugs. But there are interesting inside bits about how Brazilian and Italian soccer works within those countries, violence associated with the sport and fan culture. Worth a look for soccer fans.
First of all, this book has the widest margins I've ever seen in a trade paperback. Every time I opened it I remembered writing book reports in grade school where they had to be at least 4 pages long. My writing (we used handwriting in those days) and the margins would get bigger and bigger as the report went on so I could make sure I filled the space.
Second, I don't know if I'd be as annoyed if the book had a different title. I don't think this book shows how soccer explains the world. Well, now that I look at the cover there is a subtitle that calls this an {unlikely} theory of globalization. Joke's on me!
The book isn't terrible. I enjoyed most of it. I thought the author tried too hard to convince the reader that he's badass hanging out with gangsters, hooligans and thugs. But there are interesting inside bits about how Brazilian and Italian soccer works within those countries, violence associated with the sport and fan culture. Worth a look for soccer fans.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
6. The Imperfectionists
By Tom Rachman (269 pp)
Hannah was reading this when she visited and she liked it so I grabbed a copy when we went to the bookstore. It's another one of those linked stories novels and is set at an international newspaper located in Rome. I mostly liked it. The writing and characterization are fantastic. I thought some of the stories unraveled a bit and a couple of the characters were unforgivably pitiful. Overall, I recommend.
A favorite line: Nobody throws anything away here; nobody knows whose job that is.
There was also a good rant about misuse of the world "literally."
Hannah was reading this when she visited and she liked it so I grabbed a copy when we went to the bookstore. It's another one of those linked stories novels and is set at an international newspaper located in Rome. I mostly liked it. The writing and characterization are fantastic. I thought some of the stories unraveled a bit and a couple of the characters were unforgivably pitiful. Overall, I recommend.
A favorite line: Nobody throws anything away here; nobody knows whose job that is.
There was also a good rant about misuse of the world "literally."
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
5. Soccernomics
By Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (306 pp)
This book came out in 2009 and it uses statistics to talk about soccer. Most of it is super interesting but since the point of the the book is use of statistics, they sometimes talk so much about statistics my face melted. It's easy to skim over those parts. I wish I'd taken better notes as I went along so I could point out some of my favorite bits. They talk about soccer all over the world. They talk about the business side of soccer but also the game like penalty kick data. They talk about the US and soccer v. the NFL. They talk about why so many of the world's top players grew up in extreme poverty. I guess a better way of phrasing it would be to explain why such poor kids were able to grow up into great soccer players. Because they had nothing else to do so by the time they were teenagers they'd already logged in the hours and hours of practice to develop their skills. Recommended for soccer nerds.
This book came out in 2009 and it uses statistics to talk about soccer. Most of it is super interesting but since the point of the the book is use of statistics, they sometimes talk so much about statistics my face melted. It's easy to skim over those parts. I wish I'd taken better notes as I went along so I could point out some of my favorite bits. They talk about soccer all over the world. They talk about the business side of soccer but also the game like penalty kick data. They talk about the US and soccer v. the NFL. They talk about why so many of the world's top players grew up in extreme poverty. I guess a better way of phrasing it would be to explain why such poor kids were able to grow up into great soccer players. Because they had nothing else to do so by the time they were teenagers they'd already logged in the hours and hours of practice to develop their skills. Recommended for soccer nerds.
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