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.