The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Author: Mohsin Hamid
Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages: 191
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Changez is a young Pakistani man who recently graduated from Princeton and got a job at a finance firm in New York City.  He attempts to find his way as a Pakistani-American, and does well until 9/11 and attitudes toward him change.  The novel details an immigrant version of finding the American Dream, while attempting to remain Pakistani at the same time.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this book for the most part, but I can't honestly say that I've thought much about it since I read it.  It's fairly well-written and easy to read, but I never found it very gripping or engaging.  The ending is quite ambiguous and is meant to be thought-provoking, but I just found it kind of abrupt and odd.  Overall I'm glad I read it, but I don't give it too high of a recommendation.
Disclaimer: There is one somewhat explicit scene with his girlfriend and a few swear words.

Boys Adrift

Title: Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
Author: Leonard Sax
Genre: Nonfiction - parenting/popular science
Pages: 288
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Leonard Sax, a Ph.D., M.D., and practicing psychologist, lays out his view that there is an epidemic of boys and young men being unmotivated.  He attributes the downward trend to five factors: video games, teaching methods, prescription drugs, environmental toxins, and devaluation of masculinity.  He lays out each issue, and also provides practical solutions to help overcome some of these problems.
Thoughts: As the father of 4 boys, I figured this would be worthwhile to read.  It definitely was.  What I really liked about this book is that it didn't feel like it had an agenda to push.  These are simply the things that the author feels are going wrong for boys today, and his ideas to fix them.  I wish I was able to better evaluate for myself some of his claims, but all of them seem reasonable and really not overly extreme or out of line.  There are definitely things I'll take away that will make me a better parent and youth leader from this book.
Disclaimer: None.

Dad is Fat

Title: Dad is Fat
Author: Jim Gaffigan
Genre: Humor
Pages: 288
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Humor from Jim Gaffigan about being a dad of 5 kids in New York.
Thoughts: What can I say?  This book is basically like reading a Jim Gaffigan stand-up routine.  So, if you like him, you'll like the book.  Especially if you have kids.  As a father of four, I found myself relating to basically every single chapter, and laughing out loud often.  Which was bad because I read this between the hours of 11:30 and 4:00am as I rocked my newborn.  The one thing I didn't love about the book is that it seems like he is basically complaining about being a parent the entire time.  It's funny complaining, but if I read too much of it at once it kind of got on my nerves.  So take it in small pieces.
Disclaimer: None.

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

Title: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
Author: Jeff Hobbs
Genre: Biography
Pages: 432
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Robert Peace was born in the projects close to Newark, NJ.  His mother's sacrifices, combined with his innate brilliance, helped him get into private schools and eventually into Yale.  This book is essentially his biography, from his birth until his untimely death.
Thoughts: I've been telling everyone that I run into that they should read this book.  I'm still mulling it over in my head, trying to think through what I've learned from it - what went so right and so wrong in this person's life?  It might be that this book hit home for me personally because we lived near Newark in New Jersey, and then went from there to the Ivy League, so I can at least understand a bit the culture shock between the two.  But I think anyone would benefit from reading this book.  My favorite aspect is that it doesn't have a moral.  It simply tells the story and you, the reader, have to disentangle the personal, familial, cultural, racial, and societal forces that helped Robert Peace but ultimately undid him.  Read it.
Disclaimer:  A fair amount of swearing in this one, and lots of drugs.  Some references to sex, but it is quite clean in that regard.  But given the subject matter, this was a surprisingly clean book.