The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Title: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Author: Elizabeth George Speare
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Pages (words): 256 (60,212)
Readability: 5.3
Rating (out of 5 stars): *** 1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: In 1687, Catherine Tyler leaves her home in Barbados to live with her aunt and uncle in rural Connecticut, where she struggles to assimilate in to the strict Puritan community. She learns how to cope with her new situation by associating with another outcast of the Puritan society, an old Quaker women named Hannah. Together, they learn to strike a balance between doing what society expects, and doing what they know is right.
Thoughts: It took me a while to get in to this book, but by the end I really enjoyed it. It really does a great job of demonstrating how prejudice can creep up and the terrible consequences that can result. My only complaint would be that everything gets tied up too neatly at the end, but it's a young adult book so I kind of expected that. If you're in the mood for a quick, easy read (or if you're about 12 years old or so!), you should check this book out.
Disclaimer: None.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Title: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Author: Mark Twain
Genre: Classic
Pages (words): 474 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Hank Morgan, a Yankee living in Connecticut in the late 19th century, gets transported back 13 centuries when he is hit on the head, ending up in 6th century England. He soon finds himself right in Camelot, complete with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Being a resourceful Yank, he wastes no time in using some common sense and 13 centuries' worth of knowledge to establish himself as a powerful magician and as the King's right-hand man. With his influence, he constructs some 19th-century amenities, including electricity and the telephone. But when he tries to make things better for the commoners, he meets with some serious opposition.
Thoughts: As will all Mark Twain books, A Connecticut Yankee is an enjoyable book. Twain has a great voice in his writing that is a pleasure to read. But beyond that, I can't say that I loved this book. It was entertaining and it brought out some interesting points (e.g. religion can be as bad as slavery), but much of it seemed a bit forced, like the book was simply a pretense for Twain to get out a lot of pent-up anger about society. The plot seemed like it was just draped over Twain's checklist of things that could be better about society. I don't mind an author writing books with a message in mind--in fact, I prefer it--but there are other Twain books that get his ideals across better than A Connecticut Yankee. Overall, if you're considering reading this book, my advice wouldn't be, "Don't read it," it would just be, "Don't start here." The Prince and the Pauper covers many of the same ideas and was better than this one, and of course Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are both incredible Twain books.
Disclaimer: None.

The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Modern Fiction (set in WWII)
Pages (words): 576 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: At 9 years old, Liesel's mother can no longer care for her, and she is sent to a foster home. The Book Thief tells about her coming of age in Nazi Germany: how she grows to love her foster parents, how she begins to understand prejudices, and how she learns about the power of words to do both good and evil.
Thoughts: For me, this book had it all. First, I thought the writing was fantastic. Zusak has Death narrate the story, which is an interesting and very effective way to convey the story. His descriptions are incredibly vivid and fresh, and several parts of the story were really quite funny, although the book itself isn't. Second, the plot was great. I love that the book is not about a Jew in Nazi Germany, or the allied forces in Nazi Germany. It is about a German girl in Nazi Germany. I have often wondered how so many Germans came to follow Hitler when Hitler was so obviously insane and amoral. I think The Book Thief sheds some light on that question, with the answer being that it didn't take many people to bully the rest into obedience. Anyway, the perspective of the book was interesting to me, and really helped me see a little better the difficulties of the German people under the Nazis. Finally, The Book Thief made me want to be a better person, which is what I'm really looking for in a lot of books. And I think that Zusak pulls that off without being preachy or even too idealistic. The characters are real and they make mistakes, but by the end you're really pulling for them because you can see what makes them good. Put all of that together, and you've got a 5-star book. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: There is some blood and gore, but this book is pretty clean. There are a lot of German swear words, which didn't bother me because I don't speak German. A few of them get translated in to English, but I didn't think it was too bad.

P.S. A huge thanks to Christina for giving us this book!!

In Fed We Trust

Title: In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic
Author: David Wessel
Genre: Financial Non-fiction
Pages (words): 336 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A narrative of the steps the Fed and the Treasury took to (attempt) to stem the tide of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Wessel gives the inside scoop on just what was happening inside the Fed as many of these major decisions were being made, and the rationale behind them.
Thoughts: I was surprised at how good this book was. The crisis isn't even over, and Wessel has really put together an impressive account of many of the major events that took place, include interviews with many key people which help give a larger understanding of what was going on behind closed doors while the financial system teetered on the brink. I think it is a pretty fair account as well; he's not overly critical but doesn't heap praise on the main actors either. In the end, Bernanke and Geithner come out looking pretty good, and, given the circumstances, I think they did as well as anyone could have expected them to. If anyone is looking for a non-technical description of just what went wrong over the past two years, and what the government (especially the Fed) did to try to stop it, this is the book to read.
Disclaimer: None.

D-Day

Title: D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Genre: History
Pages (words): 656 (218,581)
Readability: 8.8
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A blow-by-blow description of the events that occurred on D-Day.
Thoughts: For a long time I've felt like I knew much less about WWII than I should, which is why I decided to read this book (recommended by my friend Tim). I really enjoyed the book immensely, and I'm disappointed that I was only able to find an abridged version in audiobook format (which means that I didn't read all 218,581 words!). Not only was it meticulously researched, but Ambrose's writing is very good as well. What I enjoyed most was that he pieced the events together by telling a series of personal stories of the men who infiltrated Normandy on D-Day, rather than just giving the facts. This made the book more personal; it helped me understand better the horror and triumph of that day. While I still cannot imagine what it would have been like to have been one of those men coming off the boats and running up the beach, I at least have a very clear picture in my mind of what it must have been like. I'd still like to know more about WWII, but a full understanding of D-Day was a very good place to start.
Disclaimer: There is plenty of blood and gore, as you would guess from a war book. Also a few swear words, but not as many as I feared there would be.

The Greatest Generation

Title: The Greatest Generation
Author: Tom Brockaw
Genre: History/Memoir
Pages (words): 432 (96,020)
Readability: 10.1
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: The Greatest Generation is about the men and women who were born in the roaring 20's, grew up in the Depression 30's, fought in WWII, and then returned home to found families and begin the most prosperous period of our nation's history. Brockaw believes that this was the greatest generation of Americans ever. Brockaw tells the story of a few of these men and women, mostly focusing on the war and the years afterward.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed the stories of these men and women, how they survived the war, and what they did after returning home to try to forget the past and make up for lost time. While Brockaw is obviously making a huge generalization by claiming that the men and women who lived through WWII were the greatest generation of Americans ever, it's hard to refute his claim. Doesn't it seem like we've lost something since then? Maybe that something is a sense of duty and responsibility, or maybe it's a sense of unity. I'm not sure, but I wish we had it back. It was surprisingly refreshing to hear about the stories of heroism as well as the people (both on the home front and abroad) who just quietly did their jobs. Perhaps it takes a calamity as large as WWII to force a nation to come together like that, or perhaps Brockaw and the rest of us are looking back through history with rose-colored glasses. Whatever the case may be, I really enjoyed reading these stories and learning from the brave people who have gone before me.
Disclaimer: There are a few "war" words, but nothing serious. Also, I listened to the audio version of this book, which is unfortunately abridged down to just 3 CDs, so there is a large chunk that I haven't read.

Nudge

Title: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Authors: Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
Genre: Popular Economics
Pages (words): 320 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Thaler and Sunstein begin by laying out a few basic principles of behavioral economics: (1) the power of a default option, (2) the limited cognitive powers of humans, (3) and loss aversion (we hate losses more than we love gains). They then show how these three ideas can lead people to make bad decisions, sometimes very bad ones, and how government and businesses can apply simple "nudges" to push people in better directions. They call this idea "libertarian paternalism," with the idea being that we can preserve freedom of choice, but frame people's choices in a way that are more likely to lead them to better decisions. They then show how to apply this idea to a whole range of issues, including saving for retirement, health care, marriage, mortgages, and credit cards.
Thoughts: I've read several popular science books (Blink, Freakonomics, and The Tipping Point), but this is my favorite to date, hands down. I had a behavioral economics course last year, so I had actually already heard about all of the concepts in the book previously (they are very cool ideas, so I didn't mind reading them again), but the applications that they recommend are just incredibly useful. Here's an example: They found that just by switching the default option on retirement savings so that an employee has to opt out of the company plan rather than opt in results in hugely increased participation rates. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was something like jumping from 45% to nearly 90%. They go through example after example of this type of situation, showing how simply changing the environment of the decision-maker slightly can helpfully nudge the person towards making much better decisions. I think everyone should read this book, especially Congress. Actually, Sunstein is in the White House now, and I believe that a few of these ideas are actually being pushed by Obama. We can only hope.
Disclaimer: None.

Don Quixote

Title: Don Quixote
Author: Miguel de Cervantes
Genre: Classic
Pages (words): 992 (415,800)
Readability: 15.8
Rating (out of 5 stars): **1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Don Quixote is a Spanish gentleman who reads too many books of chivalry and goes mad in a very peculiar way: he keeps full use of his sense except when it comes to topics of knighthood. He becomes so befuddled that he soon believes himself to be a knight, and decides to sally forth in search of adventure as knight errant. His madness and courage mixed together lead him on a series of adventures which are to be at once laughed at and admired.
Thoughts: I've always thought that I should read Don Quixote some day, and I don't regret reading it, but it was a major the summer project. There were many parts of this book that I genuinely enjoyed, but 29 CDs is just too long for this story. In fact, my main complaint is that it isn't so much a story as a series of adventures that are only loosely connected, making the book really drag on. Why is it that so many old classics are much too long for their plotlines? (I'm thinking of think Les Miserables and Moby Dick, for example) Is it that our attention spans have gotten shorter, or that they were just overly verbose? Anyway, there is so much rambling that I would often find myself daydreaming as Don Quixote pontificated on the merits of courage or whatever. However, there are a lot of redeeming factors that make the book worth reading if you have a high tolerance for long, rambling books. Much of the book was genuinely funny (the inspiration for Monty Python?), it made a lot of good points, and I enjoyed the characters of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza immensely. My main takeaway is this: Valor and action will get you a long way in this life, even if you are a little mad.
Disclaimer: None.

So Brave, Young and Handsome

Title: So Brave, Young and Handsome
Author: Leif Enger
Genre: Modern Western Fiction
Pages (words): 272 (N/A)
Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Monte Becket is struggling to write his second novel when he chances to meet Glendon Hale. They quickly become friends, and Monte agrees to go with Glendon to make amends with Glendon's ex-wife, who lives in Mexico. But the trip takes a wrong turn when they run into the law, and the outlaw Glendon runs for it. Monte gets much more than he bargained for as he becomes deeply involved in Glendon's flight from the law.
Thoughts: I was really excited to read this book, after enjoying Peace Like a River (Enger's first book) a couple of summers ago. So Brave, Young and Handsome did not disappoint. It's been a long time since I read a western, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Similar to Peace Like a River, Enger's talent lies in storytelling. The prose is perfect, the characters vivid. The difference from Peace Like a River is that this book's plot really moves right along; the type of book that's not easy to put down. Peace Like a River was perhaps more thoughtful, which I also liked. Anyway, So Brave, Young and Handsome is great entertainment, and the perfect summer read.
Disclaimer: A little violence, but overall very clean.

The Know-It-All

Title: The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
Author: A. J. Jacobs
Genre: Non-fiction Humor
Pages (words): 400 (138,244)
Readability: 8.1
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A.J. Jacobs, an editor for Esquire, feels like he's on top of the world as far as pop-culture knowledge goes, but in all other areas he's in the shallow end of the knowledge pool.  So, he takes it upon himself to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica.  The whole thing.  That's 33,000 pages and 44 million words of pure facts.  As he works his way from A to Z, he chronicles some of the more interesting things that he comes across, and relates how reading the Encyclopaedia is changing his everyday life, for better or for worse.
Thoughts: Tyler Squire reviewed this book a while ago, and since then it's been on my to-read bookshelf.  It definitely didn't disappoint.  There's something in me that loves acquiring useless facts, but I don't love it enough to read the whole Encyclopaedia.  Luckily, Jacobs did, and he does a great job of relating some of the more interesting stuff, intertwined with his own life and funny anecdotes about how he uses his new-found knowledge.  Much of the book was laugh-out-loud funny, and by the end you could even say there was a bit of a moral to the book.  But mostly, I just loved the oddball trivia, because that's the kind of nerd that I am.  For instance, did you know that according to the scientific classification, bananas and pumpkins are berries, but strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries aren't?  Or that the largest bell ever built was made in Russia in 1733, but was never rung?  Or that opossums have 13 nipples?  Page after page was full of these little tidbits, but not so many that it was boring.  Overall, a great read.  Thanks to Tyler for finding it!
Disclaimer: Jacobs uses his fair share of foul language, including one beginning with F.

Gilead

Title: Gilead
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages (words): 256 (84,830)
Readability: 7.4
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: The entire novel is a letter from an elderly father to his young son.  The father knows that he is going to die soon, and wants to write down all of the things he'd like to tell his son if had had the chance to raise him to manhood.  
Thoughts: I would have liked this book a lot more if I had read it on paper rather than listened to it on my mp3 player.  The majority of the first 3/4 of the book is quite philosophical, as the father tells his son about life, and philosophy is easy to tune out if you are only listening to it.  There are plenty of short stories and vignettes in this section, but I think it would have been a lot better if I had read it.  That being said, I really enjoyed the book overall, and the last 1/4 was incredibly good, when there is more of plot to go with the philosophy.  What I really liked about the book was how it made me think about people who make bad choices, and how we can incorrectly stigmatize those people.  It's one of those books that I've thought a lot about even after I finished it, and that's a good thing.  Overall, I highly recommend this one for when you are in a thoughtful mood, and can read it from a real page.  Oh, and a huge thanks to my good friend Brittany for recommending this one to me.  If anyone has recommendations, let me know!
Disclaimer: None.

The Secret Life of Bees

Title: The Secret Life of Bees
Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages (words): 336 (94,467)
Readability: 5.6
Rating (out of 5 stars): **1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Lily Owens' mom died when she was young, and growing up with her not-so-fatherly father has been tough.  Eventually, enough is enough and she runs away from home and ends up at the home of August Boatwright.  While at August's, she learns about bees, but more importantly, about life.
Thoughts: I don't have any major complaints with this book, but it just didn't capture me.  It wasn't boring, and it wasn't painful, but if I hadn't finished it it wouldn't have bothered me at all.  Perhaps what I disliked most about the book was that the "life lessons" were rather thinly veiled behind the plot.  The whole book just seemed a little too sweet and sugary for my taste, like all of the honey the bees make somehow went to the author's head.  Overall, it was okay, but I probably will avoid the movie version (I hear it has Queen Latifah.  Yikes!).

Disclaimer: A few mild swear words, but overall quite clean.

Angela's Ashes

Title: Angela's Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt
Genre: Memoir
Pages (words): 368 (148,309)
Readability: 6.0
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben and Jenn
Description: A tale of growing up in desperate times in Ireland, Angela's Ashes paints a brutal but poignant picture of Frank McCourt's early days, when food on the table was scarce and boots were a luxury.  
Thoughts: This is easily the best memoir that we have ever read.  As he grew up, McCourt's family was desperately, despairingly poor, and what money they did have was mostly spent on the drink by his father.  Times were terribly tough for their family, but if anything we laughed (out loud) more than we cried as we read it.  McCourt does an incredible job of mixing in the perfect amount of humor to make this sad tale pleasing.  It is this ability that got him a Pulitzer Prize.  The story itself is depressing but moving at the same time.  You can see that the poverty is absolutely crushing, and impossible to overcome, yet the book is filled with the everlasting hope of youth, as it is told from the refreshing perspective of a clever child.  Also, if you ever listen to audiobooks, this book is an absolute delight to listen to, as it is read by Frank McCourt himself.  We both found ourselves speaking with a bit of an Irish accent between listenings (and saying things like, "Now you've gone beyond the beyonds!").  Overall, four stars are for the writing and story, and an extra 1/2 star for McCourt's performance.  If you're going to read it, really you MUST listen to it.
Disclaimer: This book includes quite a bit of profanity, although it doesn't seem as bad when it's spoken with an Irish accent! :)  On top of that, towards the end of the book there are several sexual situations, with moderately explicit detail.  This left a bad taste in our mouths for the ending of the book, although we loved it overall.

A River Runs Through It

Title: A River Runs Through It
Author: Norman Maclean
Genre: Novella/Memoir (Modern Classic)
Pages (words): 168 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Tells about Norman and his brother Paul, two boys who grew up in Montana spending every spare moment fly fishing.  The brothers take very different paths in life as they grow up, with Paul always living on the edge and pushing his luck, while Norman settles down and lives a calmer life.  Most of the story is focused on Norman attempting to connect with his brother to help him get back on the right track.
Thoughts: About 3/4 of this short book is an incredible description of fly fishing, which was very enjoyable for me since I've tried to fly fish a few times.  I almost felt like Maclean's main purpose in writing the book was to describe his passion for fly fishing, and that the story is secondary.  I'm okay with that, because I'm still puzzling over what the story is actually about.  I think there may be something deep that Maclean was trying to get out, but for me it never quite surfaced.  Overall, if you're a fly fisherman you'd probably enjoy the book, since his descriptions of fly fishing are spot on (it made me want to get out there and try it again).  If fly fishing's not your thing, watching the movie is probably the better option.
Disclaimer: There is a fair amount of swearing in the book, and several sexual references.  It wasn't as clean as I was expecting it to be, which was disappointing.  I felt like the filth was unnecessary, and brought the book down.  Nothing too bad, just unnecessary.

East of Eden

Title: East of Eden
Author: John Steinbeck
Genre: Classic - set between Civil War and WWI
Pages (words): 601 (226,741)
Readability: 4.4
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description:  Follows the life of Adam Trask, who grows up on a farm in Connecticut, serves in the cavalry, then gets married and moves to the Salinas Valley in California.
Thoughts: Okay, so my description above is lame because there is no way to describe this book.  It could easily be three or four different novels, and they are all wound together in this single, spectacular book.  I'm not even sure that Adam is the main character, but that's the closest I can come.  Anyway, this is truly a 5-star book.  Apparently the critics like The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men from Steinbeck, but, for me, this book displays humanity's basest instincts and endless potential in a more striking way than any other that I have read.  East of Eden is constantly returning to man's internal struggle between good and evil, and it really drives home the message that we are free to choose which course we will take.  Perhaps this resonated with me so much because the idea of agency is such a huge part of my faith, and Steinbeck uses the story of Adam and Eve and Cain and Able extensively in the text.  Anyway, the writing was beautiful, the characters are meticulously painted, the plot was captivating, and the theme was impactful.  All rolled up in one (long) book.  Highly recommended.

Disclaimer:  This one deserves a pretty heavy disclaimer.  There is a lot of prostitution in this book and some frank discussion of what goes on in a whore house.  For me, it never crossed the line into too much detail; all sexual references are quite indirect, but they are there.  Also, there is a fair amount of cursing in the book.  Again, I think it was all tastefully done and definitely not enough to merit not reading the book, but you've been given fair warning!

P.S.  A huge thanks to Katie, who recommended this book to me!

Seabiscuit

Title: Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Genre: Biography
Pages (words): 453 (119,056)
Readability: 7.7
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Seabiscuit is a racing horse unlike any other, and not in a good way.  He's built like a tank and runs with an odd gait.  But Tom Smith sees something in him that no one else does, and decides to train him to see what he can do.  Seabiscuit: An American Legend details the horse's historic rise and ultimate triumph in thoroughbred racing, during which he becomes an icon of hope for America in the Depression.
Thoughts: Seabiscuit's story is the thing that a movie studio dreams of: a runt horse beats the odds to become a champion.  The fact that the story is true is just icing on the cake.  And, just like everyone else, I'm a sucker for the underdog, so I really enjoyed this book.  But, although I certainly enjoyed the story (and the book is very well written, I might add), I knew the basic plot already from Seabiscuit the movie.  But the book had so much more detail than the movie, and that's what made it captivating.  I was fascinated by the intricacies of horse racing and the back story of the men who owned, trained, and rode Seabiscuit.  It was almost enough to make me want to watch the next Kentucky Derby.  Really a great book.
Disclaimer: The jockeys and trainers tend to use some rather coarse language, but besides that this book is quite clean.

The book list is back!

Confession:  When school started all recreational reading stopped for me for about a month as I tried to adjust to having a new baby and absolutely insane amounts of homework to attend to.  After a few weeks of reading only economics textbooks (with such thrilling titles as Microeconomic Theory, and Dynamic Programming in Economic Applications), I was going nuts.  In my desperation I grabbed a book that was sure to be both light and captivating at the same time: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The plan was to re-read just this first book in the Harry Potter series and then get back to my regular reading whenever I could find the time.  Well, all you Potter-philes out there can probably guess what happened.  When the first book was done, I thought I'd try the second one since, after all, it had been over seven years since I read it the first time.  Well, one thing led to another and yesterday I finally finished the seventh and last book in the series.  That's why the book list has been at a standstill for the past six months.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I've got big news for the book list in 2009:  For Christmas I got a sweet mp3 player (the Sansa Clip) which I will use to listen to audiobooks on my commute.  As it is, at least half of my commute is walking and waiting for the bus, so being able to listen for all of this time will allow me to get through a lot more than I could last semester.  I'm already most of the way through Seabiscuit, and I've got East of Eden all lined up and ready to go.  In short, the book list is back!