Salt: A World History (b)

So it turns out I'm not going to finish this book.  It has to go back to the library and I had sort of given up on it already anyway.  I thought it was interesting and it had some great tidbits about salt.  Salt is way more interesting than I thought it would be.  Unfortunately not quite interesting enough for me to finish the book.  I think the biggest reason I didn't finish the book was the organization of the contents of the book.  The history jumped all over the place and I never got a sense of a cohesive time line.  I think it's definitely work skimming but I feel okay about not finishing.

The Next Queen of Heaven (a)

I have not yet finished Salt and although I am enjoying it, it is taking me awhile to read.  I'm definitely working on another post with more random salt facts that I hope to get to before Christmas.  But in the mean time, Justin picked up this book for me from the library and I started reading it the other night mostly because I was already comfy on the couch and it was on the coffee table (and not upstairs with Salt).

The Next Queen of Heaven is by Gregory Maguire (Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, etc).  I really like all of his fairytale books, Confessions being my favorite.  This book is okay so far.  I think Maguire is really creative and has really great character development but what I'm missing in this book is the sheer cleverness of his other books. 

Heaven is two separate story lines that I assume will connect more closely eventually.  Plot A is about an uptight single mother of 3 teenagers who gets knocked on the head by a religious statue and is not fully recovering.  Her uncontrollable teenagers are now forced to take care of her.

Plot B is about a gay church choir director who is preparing for a showcase and looking for a place to rehearse.  The church offers him the use of a room in their convent provided that he (and his 2 HIV positive band members) spend some time conversing with the nuns before each rehearsal.  There is also a great deal of time spent on the choir directors failed relationship with a now married father of two.

So it's an easy and enjoyable read.  It's nice to get into a book some after trying to plow thru two books (Catch 22 and Salt) that I enjoy but haven't grabbed my attention like I had hoped. 

Here's hoping I manage to finish both books by the end of the month.  And my Christmas shopping and my cleaning, quilting, crocheting and everything else holiday related that has popped up last minute...

November 2010

I am disappointed in my lack of reading this month.  I will chalk it up to an abundance of reading in October, starting a new job/new routine and getting bogged down in a book I wasn't really in to.  I don't want to say much more about Catch-22, I'll just say that I vow to read much more in December.

Salt: A World History (a)

Finally, a new book.  This has been on my to-read list for a long time and I can't remember who first recommended it to me. 

The intro was great, it really drew me into the premise of the book and made me super interested in the history of salt.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Apparently salt has had more influence on the world than I'd ever thought.

Interesting tidbits:

In some ancient cultures you were only allowed to touch salt with your two middle fingers. Touching salt with your pinky meant you would end up poor, your thumb all your children would die and your pointer you would end up a mass murderer.  Clearly.

Throughout the ages salt has been associated with the erotica.  Interested to see how that chapter pans out.

So many words have their origin in the latin word sal meaning salt.  Think about all the food words that have sal:  salami, salad (Roman meaning salted greens), and more that I don't feel like looking back up right now

Salt has been used as a form of currency.  Salary meaning someone who is worth their salt or earning their salt.  The word soldier even originally meant "someone who was paid in salt"


Anyway, so far the book is interesting even if the history gets a little dry sometimes. 

Catch-22 (c)

Well I finally finished Catch-22.  I don't want to write a bad review of it because I have genuinely liked this book in the past.  I think I was really just not in the right mood for it and was annoyed that it took soooo long to finish it. 

The only other thing I wanted to say about the book is that there was a weird section towards the end that was really disturbing to me.  It was a 4-5 page paragraph description of Rome during WWII and was so hard to read.  People beating kids in the street, people beating dogs, prostitutes and death and decay.  It was really well written and thus so hard to read. 

Anyway, I was glad to be done and look forward to reading this book again in a couple of years and enjoying it more.

Catch-22 (b)

It is taking me a long time to read this book this time.  I'm not sure if I am just not in the right mood for this type of book or I am just tired from my drastic schedule change.  But either way, it's taking me a long time and I am anxious to be done.

I am still enjoying how witty the book is.  The characters talk each other in circles and  I love how what was true one sentence is not true the next sentence.  There are still too many characters to keep track of, and the characters are so ridiculous that I am still having a hard time tracking which ridiculous character has done what.

I also have been trying really hard to find a quote to post, as I would like to have one quote from each book I read to keep track of, but I haven't been successful so far.  It's not really a "quote" book, the things that strike me are more revelations after a cycle of conversation and not one sentence.  

So my goal for the rest of the book is to try to keep better track of characters...... and to read for more than 3 pages at a time without falling asleep.

October 2010

In October I read five books.  I'm sure the quantity of books has to do with the fact that it was my last month of unemployment.  I had officially gotten a job so I was finally able to enjoy some free time.  Here is the quick recap (which will be shorter in the future when I've actually written about the books as I read them):

Garlic and Saphires by Ruth Reichl - I really like the first half of the book but thought that it got redundant towards the end.  Although I could relate to Ruth not being happy at her job, it was also hard to feel sympathy for someone who had what most people would consider a dream job.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - I thought this book was fantastic and didn't even realize until afterwards that it was considered a book for young adults.  I thought it was a refreshing and unique view on WW2 and made the subject interesting to me again.  I was not surprised that some reviewers compared it favorably to the Diary of Anne Frank.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - This book was only so so to me.  I think the story is fascinating and the process/planning/craziness of climbing Mount Everest is definitely worth reading about.  However I thought too much backstory was given and I ended up skimming over a lot of the details of the history of each climber.  I know that this was done to memorialize the climbers who died, which also makes me feel like a bad person for skimming.

The Only Good Thing Anyone has Ever Done  by Sandra Newman -  I had actually read this book before and forgotten about it which probably tells you how much I liked it the first time around.  Sandra Newman has been called the Kurt Vonegut of our generation and while I see the similarities in writing styles I would say that Newman is not nearly as interesting.

NY Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker - This was a quick fun read.  Baker is quirky and has led an unusual life which lends it self to storytelling.  It was interesting to read about the challenges of a modern day Mormon in NYC and the discriminations they face. 

Pick of the Month:  The Book Thief

Catch-22 (a)

I have read Catch-22 at least twice before this and decided I needed to reread it after Anna asked me what the book was about and I had trouble answering.  Only after starting to reread it did I realize that not having an articulate answer about the "plot" of the book was actually pretty true to the book.  It turns out there is not plot.  Or the plot is not the point of the book. 

Things I love about the book:

It has it's own logic and it's own set of rules.  The characters live in a world so similar to our own and yet their logic is entirely their own and it's great.  I'll try to find more specific examples of this as I keep reading.

Things I dislike:

Some people's names don't make sense and I have a harder time keeping track of characters when I can't pronounce their names in my head.