Books Read so far in 2008

Go over to our sisterblog, TPC-CultureVultures, and see the list of books I've read so far in 2008. You might find a book you want to read from my list.

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Books Read in March

Well, this was a piss-poor showing. I guess I need an excuse factory for all the books I failed to read!

Excuse of the Month:

1. Pneumonia - delirious and uncomprehending for ~2 weeks; and
2. Gardening - the weather is beautiful and I have to get all the weeds gone before the annual fire inspections.

Books of the Month:

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
  
  Borrowed? Yes. I blame Smokey.
  

  This book got rave reviews from many well-respected authors and reviewers. Mr. Eggers, when it comes time for you to review my work, I hope you'll develop the same convenient amnesia that appears to be plaguing the entire current administration. This book is very clever.
  
  Recommended? For readers who enjoy cleverness.
  Reread? No. I prefer books that either move me or teach me.
  
  

• The China Study - Thomas M. Campbell and Colin T. Campbell
  
  Borrowed? Yes. Thanks, Jay.
  

  This book has changed my life. The Campbells have put together an excellent and much-needed epic on nutrition and human disease. The epidemic of diseases that faces the 21st century human is very different from the previous century. Our worries center around obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart diseases, cancer. Diseases of affluence and longer lifespans. Except, according to Dr. Campbell, it ain't necessarily so. Why are the wealthiest not the healthiest? Don't we have all the science, the research, the necessary tools? Let Dr. Campbell tell you why. If this book doesn't change your life, I'll eat my hat. Or you'll eat yours, or something. It'd be better for you than that hamburger, in any event.
  
  
  Recommended? Highly.
  Reread? Yes, as soon as I notice any evidence of slackment.
  
  

• The Easy Way To Stop Smoking - Allen Carr
  
  Borrowed? No.
  

  Okay, what's with the self-helpalooza? I'll tell you what. It's time to quit smoking, once and for all. When your lungs feel like hot buttered knives are ripping through them with every breath it is time to stub out the last little stinker and say goodbye to that feeelthy habit. This is an excellent book. Really. The book can be repetitive at times, but repetition is needed when trying to get rid of an ancient and deeply ingrained - and life-destroying - habit.
  
  
  Recommended? To any smoker trying to quit. To families and friends of smokers who want to help their loved one kick the habit.
  Reread? Every time I need to.
  
  

• You Must Set Forth At Dawn - Wole Soyinka
  
  Borrowed? Smoke, again!
  
  

  What a wonderful book! It's so richly evocative of Africa, written with all the love that a person feels for their country and culture. It made me wish I was in Africa, it made me want to read a million books of African history and culture and language, and music, and art, and long for all Africana. It gave me hope. Africa can be the hope of the old world and the new world and the third world. It's funny, Jonathan Raban's book about Africana is the polar opposite of this, though well-written in its own way. Professor Soyinka has played a vital part in Nigeria's history, and is a writer of great talent and skill. I am glad he is still writing.
  
  
  Recommended? Oh, yes!
  Reread? Someday. After reading all the books on African history and culture.
  
  

• Women's Lip - TBD
  
  Borrowed? Gift
  
  

  An amusing little collection of feminist snark, which is going to feature on this blog sooner or later.
  
  Recommended? For amusement only.
  Reread? No.
  
  

• Pronatalism: The Myth of Mom & Apple Pie - Ellen Peck, Judith Senderowitz, Eds.
  
  Borrowed? Nope.
  
  

  This is an excellent collection of essays about the institutionalized pronatalism that has led the global population to increase by 50% over the last 40 years. Whatever happened to the ZPG movement? Forty years ago, governments concluded that the human population of the planet had grown too large and must be managed down to zero growth. Forty years later, we are seeing a vicious wave of pronatalism nearly unprecedented in previous history. Even as people endlessly whine about the rising cost of living, the pollution of the atmosphere, the water, the very earth, the crowded conditions of our cities, the lack of opportunities for young people entering schools and the workforce, we are breeding like cockroaches, with disastrous consequences, and no one is drawing the logical conclusion.
  
  Recommended? Highly. For anyone interested in women's studies, feminism, social studies, population studies, ecology, sustainability, and the fate of the world.
  Reread? As soon as ever I can.
  
  

I just noticed that four out of the six books I read this month were weighty and not a quick read. So there's that in my defense. I will stop beating myself up now and post an updated booklist to be read by July 1.

books

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2007 Book List Updated

Hah! More books!

And alphabetically ordered, too!

Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
Amerika - Franz Kafka
A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
Believer Book of Writers Talking To Writers - Vendela Vida
Better Living Through Bad Movies - Sheri Zollinger and Scott Clevenger
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
Daughters of the House - Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen
Death and Justice - Mark Fuhrman
Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis
Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Mackay
Foreign Land - Jonathan Raban
Glory - Vladimir Nabokov
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie
Jai Bhim - Terry Pilchik
Moving Targets - Women, Murder, and Representation - Birch
My Life in France - Julia Child
Nectar in a Sieve - Kamala Markandeya
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Passions of the Cut Sleeve - Bret Hinsch
Plays, Vol. 2 - Bertholdt Brecht
Porphyrys' Letter To His Wife, Marcella
Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
Pronatalism - Peck & Senderowitz
Rabbit-Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington
Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
Reality Isn't What It Used To Be - Walter Truett Anderson
Republican Like Me - Harmon Leon
Robert van Gulik - van de Wetering
Rosie - Anne Lamott
Spices & Condiments - J.S. Pruthi
Stones From The River - Ursula Hegi
Take the Cannoli - Sarah Vowell
The Age of Diminished Expectations - Krugman
The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
The Bride Price - Buchi Emecheta
The Courtship of Robert Browning & Elizabeth Barrett - Karlin
The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
The Early Stories 1883 - 1888 - Anton Chekov
The Ginger Man - J.P. Donleavy
The Hollowing - Robert Holdstock
The Image - Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Inner Eye - Satyajit Ray
The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
The Plague - Albert Camus
The Secret Sharer - Joseph Conrad
The Sleeper Wakes - Knopf
The Unabomber Manifesto -
Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
'Tis Pity She's A Whore - John Ford
Where The Oceans Meet - Bhargavi Mandava
Why I Am Not A Muslim - ibn Warraq
Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Bardhan
You Shall Know Our Velocity - Dave Eggers

We're up to 48 now and counting. Smoke has threatened two more, which would bring the total count up to 50. I need to reread Salman Rushdie, The Jaguar Smile, so that could be 51. Does anyone want to bet that I'll get all these books read plus my backlog of Science News from the past year?

How much? Folks?

Update: We've added two books by Dave Eggers, thanks Smoke, and one by Vendela Vida, thanks Smoke. Also I went back and added various books that were on last year's list that I had not finished in the allotted time. The list is now up to 61 books. Bets still open.

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