The Mayor of Casterbridge

Title: The Mayor of Casterbridge
Author: Thomas Hardy
Genre: Classic
Pages: 400
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: As a young man, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter in a fit of drunken rage.  As the years pass, Michael establishes himself and becomes successful, but his dark past hangs over him, and eventually comes back to haunt him.
Thoughts: Somehow, I forgot to review this book when I finished it, so my memory is a bit hazy now on the details.  But, I remember really liking this book.  It's got plenty of plots twists that keep it interesting, but Hardy is really at his best when he examines characters that are in difficult moral circumstances.  This book is full of those, and pondering over the characters makes you see a bit of yourself in each of them.  All in all, a really great book.  I think I might have actually liked it more than Tess of the D'urbervilles.
Disclaimer: None.

Northanger Abbey

Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
Genre: Classic
Pages: 192
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Catherine (the heroine) heads from her rural country home to Bath, where she enjoys society and makes friends with a man whom she's quite interested in.  Will she end up with him?  Or will the formalities of 18th century society get in the way?
Thoughts: This is classic Jane Austen writing: lighthearted, easy to read, engaging, romantic, and critical of society in general.  I really enjoyed the story and the writing for the most part, but in my opinion this doesn't compare to Austen's more famous works like Pride and Prejudice or Emma.  Still, if you're in the mood for some Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey was a good, if not great, book.
Disclaimer: None

Endurance

Title: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Author: Alfred Lansing
Genre: Historical Non-fiction
Pages: 288
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: In the summer of 1914, Ernest Shackleton set off with 21 other men on a quest with the goal of making the first transcontinental journey across the Antarctic Continent.  It did not take long for disaster to strike, however, when their ship was frozen solid in the middle of an ice sheet before even touching land in Antarctica.  Endurance chronicles the crew's astounding journey that had an entirely new goal: survival.
Thoughts: Between this book, Unbroken, and Undaunted Courage, I've had the pleasure of reading about some truly amazing accounts of the indomitable human spirit over the past few months.  Really, each of those three books is worthy of my highest praise.  And, to be honest, I think that Endurance just might contain the most incredible story of the three.  The extremes that these men suffered while stuck on sea ice in the middle of the ocean is just unfathomable.  Hunger, cold, thirst, fatigue, despair . . . and yet somehow they kept their wits about them.  It's just incredible to even think about, to be honest.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a great adventure story.  And it's a true tale to boot!
Disclaimer: None.

The Good School

Title: The Good School: How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve
Author: Peg Tyre
Genre: Non-fiction/Self-help
Pages: 256
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Peg Tyre, an education journalist, brings together as much research as she can gather in this book on how to identify a good school and a good teacher for your child.  She tackles all the major questions: picking a pre-school, the importance of class size, reading, math, teacher quality, and how to make a difference at your school.
Thoughts: I think that everyone who has a school-age kid should read this book.  It does a really nice job of synthesizing a whole bunch of information, and directly and answering the questions that concerned parents would like to have answered about their child's education.  Each chapter had some clear, major take-aways, and I felt like it at least gave me a clear set of things that I want to make sure that my kids' schools have.  I also really liked that the book was very fair, and that it was not pushing a particular agenda.  Tyre was open about what we still don't know, and openly says that some of her recommendations will likely change as new evidence comes out.  I really appreciated that.  I only have two complaints about the book: (1) it used a fair amount of research, but rarely were the claims backed up by numbers.  For example, she said pre-school teachers who are very verbal (talk a lot) do a better job of helping kids learn language skills.  That's good to know, but how big was the impact?  How much do they need to talk?  I just felt like it was light on real numbers so that I could get a handle on the magnitude of the various effects.  (2) It was bit on the dry side.  Writing a book like this that isn't dry is pretty hard to do, so this is a pretty minor complaint.  Anyway, besides those two things, this was really a great book.  Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: None.

Robinson Crusoe

Title: Robinson Crusoe
Author: Daniel Defoe
Genre: Classic
Pages: 304
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: The classic tale of poor Robinson Crusoe, who was stranded on a tropical island for 28 years.  Through his ingenuity, he not only survives, but comes to live in relative peace and comfort on the island, before he finally finds a way back to civilization.
Thoughts: Robinson Crusoe has been on my to-read list for a long time, and I'm glad that I finally got around to it, but it's not one that I'll highly recommend to someone looking for an exciting adventure book.  Crusoe is regarded as one of the earliest English novels, and so I think that reading it is more of an educational experience than pleasurable.  Defoe is prone to spend too long describing some things and not long enough on other parts, I felt like, so I wasn't never really captivated by the book.  I often found my mind wandering while I listend to it.  But, for being written in 1719, it's pretty darn good, and it's certainly become an important part of our culture.  I think you just have to expect some long, winding plots and some philosophizing with these old novels.  Overall, I'm glad I read it, but it was a bit of a project to get through.
Disclaimer:  None, other than the fact that Defoe is quite racist, as all white Europeans were in 1719.

To The Rescue

Title: To The Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson
Author: Heidi Swinton
Genre: Biography
Pages: 600
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: The biography of President Monson.  Not much more to say than that.
Thoughts: I had heard from several people that this was a great book, and I definitely agree with them.  I feel like President Monson has a very different personality from President Hinckley, and so when that transition happened it was hard for me to imagine President Monson as the prophet.  This book really put into perspective the greatness of this man for me.  I just can't get over how many stories are in there of him listening carefully to the Spirit and then reaching out to the one.  President Monson is an incredible example of that.  And, I don't think I had fully comprehended just how long he's been in full-time service for the Church.  He was made an Apostle by David O. McKay, for heaven's sake!  I think that you have to admire his incredible endurance to serve so faithfully for so long.  Anyway, I really enjoyed this book a lot--it's chock full of great stories, it's entertaining, and it's inspiring all at once.
Disclaimer: None, obviously.

The Upside of Irrationality

Title: The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
Author: Dan Ariely
Genre: Popular Science
Pages: 352
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Dan Ariely is back with a sequel to Predictably Irrational.  In this book, he covers new experiments that he has run, and explains how our irrational behavior doesn't always result in bad consequences.  He covers a wide range of topics, with the book being separated into a section on irrationality at work and another section on irrationality at home.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed Ariely's first book, Predictably Irrational.  The sequel is just as clever, but for me it held fewer "aha" moments, in which I'm really wowed by learning something I didn't know before.  Maybe that's because I'm already pretty familiar with behavioral economics, so I'm a tough customer in that regard.  My only other complaint is that I didn't feel like the book lived up to its title.  I didn't find much good about irrationality at all in the book, and still don't see how it is anything but just a continuation of his first book.  Still, Ariely is a great writer, and I really enjoyed the book quite a bit.  My favorite part was the section on the "Ikea effect"--the fact that we value something more when we put it together, even if putting it together doesn't require much effort on our part (e.g. by adding the eggs and oil to a cake mix, we like the cake more than if we didn't have to add them).  Overall, a solid book if you like this kind of thing.
Disclaimer:  I don't remember anything too sketchy in this one.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Title: The Scarlet Pimpernel
Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Genre: Classic
Pages: 320
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: During the French Revolution of the late 18th century, Madame Guillotine is busy beheading as many aristocrats as she can capture.  But the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, and his gang of British noblemen, are smuggling out dozens of French royalty right under the noses of the Inspector of the Republic, Chauvelin.  Who is the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel?  Will "those Frenchies" catch him in his most perilous adventure yet? Thoughts: My mom loved the movie version of this book, so I've probably seen that at least three or four times.  I've also seen the musical, which my awesome cousin Laura starred in in Logan.  But somehow, I had never actually read The Scarlet Pimpernel.  In fact, it wasn't until Jenn's dad told me that he had read it that I even knew there was a book.  I'm so glad he told me, because this was a delightful book!  It's in the same vein as The Three Musketeers, but much more concise and with more of a love story woven through it.  I really thought that the writing was superb, and the story is great, of course.  I really like it a lot, and would highly recommend it.  I just might try a few other Scarlet Pimpernel novels in the future.
Disclaimer:  Quite clean, except for a few English gentlemanly swear words.

I Am America (And So Can You!)

Title: I Am America (And So Can You!)
Author: Stephen Colbert
Genre: Humor/Satire
Pages (words): 240 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): **
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Stephen Colbert offers "knee-jerk beliefs" about everything that is destroying America, from pets to old people.
Thoughts: I think The Colbert Report is hilarious (I watch it during my lunch break most days, and it may be my main source of news), so I was excited to read Colbert's book.  I have to admit, I was disappointed in it.  The definitely had its funny parts, but overall wasn't as funny as I had hoped, and had more foul language that I cared for.  I wouldn't really recommend it.  Good thing I only listened to the abridged version, so I didn't waste too much time with it!
Disclaimer: Plenty of bad language in this one.

The Year of Living Biblically

Title: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
Author: A.J. Jacobs
Genre: Experimental Journalism
Pages (words): 416 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A.J. Jacobs follows up his book about reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica (my review of that book is here) with a chronicle of his quest to live the Bible literally for an entire year.  And I mean literally.  He grows a beard, wears only white clothes, stones adulterers, and is absolutely honest to the point of brutality.  He participates in sacrifice, and circumcises his newborn sons.  This book follows his journey, giving details of how the quest affects his life, his way of thinking, and his attitude towards God.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed Jacobs' first book, The Know-It-All, so I thought I'd give this one a try.  It was even better than The Know-It-All.  The Year of Living Biblically was not nearly as blasphemous as it sounds, actually.  I really appreciated that Jacobs approached the task seriously.  At the start of the year, he is basically agnostic and completely secular.  He's never gone to church, doesn't believe in God, and is skeptical of religion.  But, he's afraid that he's missing out on something, and so he decides to live strictly by the Bible for a year.  Not the way I would go about learning about religion, but, hey, if you can get a book deal out of it I guess you do it.  Anyway, the book has it's funny parts of course, like when he has to have a specialist come to make sure that his clothing doesn't have mixed fibers in it, but the parts about him trying not to covet, or learning to pray, are actually really good.  He gains a huge respect for religion, and it was very interesting to watch his outlook on life change and he tried to live the principles of the Bible.  I would highly recommend the book to anyone.  It's entertaining and enlightening at the same time.  And, it made me really, really grateful to have The Book of Mormon and modern-day prophets that can help us know which commandments are still in force and which are obsolete.  I'd hate to have to play a ram's horn at the beginning of each new moon.
Disclaimer:  There's a bit of swearing in the book, but it's pretty clean overall.

The Great Stagnation

Title: The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better 
Author: Tyler Cowen
Genre: Economics
Pages (words): 128 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Cowen lays out an argument that the United States is in the middle of an economic stagnation, one that began in the early 1970s.  His main argument rests on the idea that for the first 200 years of the history of the U.S., we had a lot of low-hanging fruit that made our economy grow steadily and rapidly.  Then, about forty years ago, that low-hanging fruit ran out.  He then goes over the implications of this for how we should expect the future to pan out.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this more than I expected to.  I read Tyler Cowen's blog, Marginal Revolution, pretty regularly, so I had heard the basics of his arguments before reading the book (an extended essay, really).  But it was really nice to hear the whole thing put together in one solid framework, rather than in bits and pieces like you get it on the blog.  The book is somewhat economics-y, so it might not make a ton of sense if you haven't had at least an Econ 101 class, but I would definitely recommend it if you're interested in macroeconomics, innovation, or business at all.  I'm fairly convinced by most of his arguments.  Also, Cowen's a good writer who doesn't take extreme positions in order to make a point, and I can really appreciate that.
Disclaimer: None.

The Corrections

Title: The Corrections
Author: Jonathan Franzen
Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages (words): 568 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): No Rating
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A novel about an older Midwestern couple who want to get their family back together one last time for Christmas.  The difficulty is that all three of their kids have serious issues going on in their lives, but all of them are trying to smooth over the problems, rather than confronting them.
Thoughts: You'll notice I didn't give this book a rating.  That's because I only got maybe 50 pages into it when I gave up.  It was just too dirty to complete, which is sad because I've heard so many good things about Jonathan Franzen, and the book seemed pretty well-written.  Unfortunately, it appears that Franzen, like many modern authors, is more concerned with writing about sex than about life.
Disclaimer:  Too explicit to complete.

Fire and Rain

Title: Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970
Author: David Browne
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages (words): 392 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): **1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Browne follows four major 60s rock bands through the year 1970, chronicling the way that the bands came apart in the midst of a changing era.  The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, and CSNY all struggled mightily in 1970, and in many ways this year altered the course of rock music drastically.
Thoughts: I thought I would like this book more than I did.  I really like the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor (but I'm not a big CSNY fan), so I figured this would be an interesting read and a great way to learn a bit more about this point in American history.  While I did get a bit of that, I often caught myself thinking about something else entirely while I listened to the book--a sure sign that the book isn't holding my interest well.  I think I hoped for a more coherent narrative that told a story.  Instead, the book was more like 4 separate timelines of a single year--one timeline for each band--that just marked off major events in the lives of the bank members.  At the end of the book Browne tried to show that the events reflected a bigger theme, but I just didn't buy it.  Instead, I felt like I just read about one concert or rehearsal after another, with lots of drugs and arguing in between.
Disclaimer: Some swear words, and lots of drug usage.

2010-2011 Books in Review

It's time for another book review!  I've fallen into the habit of doing these every two years or so.  Here are my previous reviews: 2009, 2007.

Over the past two years, I've read 30.5 books (I didn't finish one of them), all of which have been reviewed on this blog.  It surprised me to find that I only gave the full 5 stars to one of those books.  I must be getting crotchety in my old age, I guess.  However, there were several that just missed the 5-star cut, ending up with 4 1/2 stars instead.  So, without further ado, let's get to the top three!

And . . . drum roll please . . . the top three fiction books from 2010-2011 are:
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Modern)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Classic)
The Glass Castle (Memoir)

I should note that The Glass Castle is technically non-fiction, but the stories in there are so outrageous that it really feels like a novel.

For this Review, I feel like I really need a separate list for the non-fiction books because I read some really great ones over the past two years.  So, keep that drum roll going . . . the top three non-fiction books from 2010-2011 are:
NurtureShock
Predictably Irrational
Undaunted Courage


I highly recommend all six of these books.  They could all be 5-star books, even though I only gave full marks to The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.  The links will take you to my reviews of them.

Lastly, the worst book I read over the past two years was A Happy Marriage, which gets low marks for highly explicit material.  It was the only book I didn't finish out of the 31 on the list.

For the numbers-oriented, here's a statistical summary of my reading in 2010-2011.  For comparison, the number in parentheses is the corresponding figure for all 86 books that I've read since 2007.

Average Pages:  389.9 (377.3)
Average Reading Grade Level:  8.53 (7.65)
Average Rating: 3.71 stars (3.67)
Average Rating by Genre:
   Classic: 3.83 (4.03)
   Fantasy: 3.67 (3.44)
   Memoir: 4.25 (3.64)
   Modern: 3.38 (3.69)
   Mystery: 3.50 (3.19)
   Non-fiction: 3.85 (3.65)

If you're curious, here's what I've got on my stack to be read next:
Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970
The Corrections
The Year of Living Biblically
The Upside of Irrationality
To the Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson
Inverting the Pyramid


I'm always looking for recommendations, so please leave them in the comments!  Happy reading!

Moonwalking with Einstein

Title: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Author: Joshua Foer
Genre: Popular Science
Pages (words): 320 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: On assignment, the journalist Foer is sent to the U.S. National Memory Championships, and is so intrigued by the competition that he spends a full year preparing to compete in the event the following year.  This book chronicles all that he learned about memory and memorizing along the way.
Thoughts: This was a thoroughly enjoyable book.  I've always been fascinated by memory and learning, so this book was right up my alley in that regard.  There were several things that I learned about the mind that were completely new to me, and I really liked the section about how in many ways our memory is what our conscious selves are.  I only have two complaints with the book.  First, I was hoping to come away with more practical advice about how to naturally remember stuff, but unfortunately something like that doesn't exist.  That's not really a fault of the book, it's just the way things are.  Still it served a great reminder of the memory tricks I've learned in the past that I don't use anymore.  My second complaint is that Foer tends to ramble quite a bit.  That's good because the book covers a lot of ground, but it wasn't always in the most coherent way, I felt.  Overall, I'm really glad that I read it, but it wasn't the best book of the year.
Disclaimer:  There are a few swear words, but that's it.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Mystery / Classic
Pages (words): 170 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Sherlock Holmes takes on one of his most challenging cases yet.  In this adventure, a mysterious hound that lives on the moors of northern England has haunted the Baskerville family for years.  When the next Baskerville heir inherits the family estate, Holmes must solve the mystery of the hound before it strikes again.
Thoughts: This story came with The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, so I listened to both of them together.  The Hound of the Baskervilles is a longer Sherlock mystery, spanning several chapters rather than being contained in a single one like most of Holmes' adventures.  And, I quite liked the slower build up and the added mystery than can be achieved with a longer story.  The plot itself was a great one, I felt, and it kept me guessing up until the end.  All in all, this is probably my favorite Sherlock Holmes that I've read.  A really great story!
Disclaimer: None.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Mystery / Classic
Pages (words): 208 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A collection of 11 Sherlock Holmes adventures, narrated as always by the excellent Dr. Watson.  In this collection we meet two new, important characters in Sherlock's world: his brother Mycroft, and his nemesis Dr. Moriarty.
Thoughts: I'm kind of a sucker for Sherlock Holmes, and I happened to have these stories ready to go on my iPod while I was between books, so I breezed right through them.  You have to hand it to Arthur Conan Doyle; the man was interminably inventive, and really came up with some great plot twists.  Each mystery was quite entertaining!
Disclaimer: None.

Christmas Music Review

When Jenn was a junior in high school, she had this brilliant idea that she would get one new Christmas album each year.  We now pick out a new album together each year as a part of our anniversary celebration in the middle of November.  At this point, we've gathered a pretty good collection, so we thought that some of you out there might like to know what we've got and how good (or bad!) it is.  

So, Jenn and I each independently rated each album on a scale of 1 to 5, and then we took the average of our scores.  Here is the resulting ranking, from best to worst:

Artist: Frank Sinatra

Album: Christmas Through the Years

Rating: 5

Best Song(s):  "Homesick, That's All," "Mistletoe and Holly," all of the rest

Comments: You can't get more classic than this album.  Frank serves up a lot of great Christmas hymns, and mixes in a few fun ones as well.  Jenn always get a little teary-eyed listening to "Homesick, That's All," one of the best, least-known Christmas songs out there.

Artist: The Rat Pack - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Album: Christmas with the Rat Pack

Rating: 5

Best Song(s):  "I Believe," "Jingle Bells"

Comments:  Okay, if you're the kind of person that doesn't like Frank Sinatra, maybe you should just stop reading this post right now.  We happen to think that the Rat Pack = the perfect Christmas music.  They've got plenty of fast, fun numbers, but they're able to mix in some slower ones as well.  Even better, the Rat Pack sings the classics just how they're supposed to be; they don't ruin them with extra frills.  You just can't help but sing along!

Artist: Relient K

Album: Let it Snow Baby . . . Let it Reindeer

Rating: 5

Best Song(s): "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "In Like a Lion (Always Winter)"

Comments: We gave three albums the full five stars, and you might think it's kind of odd that Relient K is one of those three.  Something about this album is just so good!  Relient K is able to add a bit of a rock sound, but they still take the songs seriously.  Somehow, they were able to modernize some of the songs without ruining them.  Also, they've written a few Christmas originals that are actually thought-provoking and compelling.  Even better, we never skip any of the songs on this album.

Artist: Bing Crosby

Album: The Voice of Christmas

Rating: 4.75

Best Song(s):  "Christmas is A-Comin'," "Here Comes Santa Claus"

Comments: Here we are back with another classic voice from the big band era.  This two-disc album has all the Bing you'll need, and it's a must-own.  It only just missed out on the full 5 stars because it's got like 8 versions of White Christmas, which is a bit much.  But Bing's ensembles with the Andrews Sisters are smokin' good, and he's also got plenty of great Christmas songs you've probably never heard.

Artist: James Taylor

Album: At Christmas

Rating: 4.25

Best Song(s): "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," "River"

Comments: We heart James!  His "Have Yourself..." is the purest version we've ever heard, and "River" is really exceptional.  Lots of classics that are really well done (except for "Jingle Bells," which you can safely skip).

Artist: The Carpenters

Album: Christmas Portrait

Rating: 4

Best Song(s): "It's Christmas Time," "The Christmas Waltz"

Comments:  This is the first album that Jenn bought, and we've gotten a lot of use out of it.  The Carpenters sound different from any of our other albums, so they're a nice change of pace.  There isn't a bad song on the album either.  

Artist: Julie Andrews

Album: Christmas with Julie Andrews

Rating: 3.5

Best Song(s): "In the Bleak Midwinter"

Comments: These are great to sing along to: simple, pure, and reverent enough for Sunday.

Artist: Sarah McLachlan

Album: Wintersong

Rating: 3.5

Best Song(s): "Happy Xmas (War is Over)," "River"

Comments: This is the perfect CD to wind down after a stressful day of Holiday preparations.  It's soothing, rich, and lovely.

Artist: Jim Brickman

Album: The Gift

Rating: 3.25

Best Song(s): "Joy to the World"

Comments: We like the ones with only piano in them, which are most of the songs.  Great album for some nice background music.

Artist: Vince Guaraldi

Album: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Rating: 3

Best Song(s): "Linus and Lucy"

Comments: This soundtrack takes us back to the days of our childhood.  It's got some fun, jazzy, instrumental music that sets a nice Christmas mood.

Artist: Various Artists

Album: The #1 Christmas Album

Rating: 3

Best Song(s): "Deck the Halls"

Comments: Unfortunately, this isn't our #1 Christmas Album, in spite of its title.  But it's still a good one.  It's an opera and choral compilation, including Placido Domingo and other opera singers that you've probably not heard of.  Overall, a solid album for when you're feeling you need a little culture.

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Elf: Music from the Motion Picture

Rating: 2.75

Best Song(s): "Pennies From Heaven," "Sleigh Ride"

Comments: This one has a few great songs on it, but somehow we don't seem to put it on as often as many of our other CDs.  Still, if you're ever in the mood for some Passion Fruit Spray, this is a good choice.

Artist: Barbra Streisand

Album: A Christmas Album

Rating: 2.75

Best Song(s): "Jingle Bells?"

Comments: I was surprised the Barbra ended near the bottom of our list, because it's a decent album.  "Jingle Bells?" is really one of the best versions of the song ever.  I think that the rest of the songs on the album are just a little too slow for me, with a lot of long, held out notes that seem to never end.  I guess that's Barbra Streisand for you, eh?

Artist: Various Artists

Album: Yule Groove

Rating: 1

Best Song(s): The first one?

Comments: Anyone else have this free demo CD from American Eagle Outfitters?  Are any of Jenn's roommates still reading this post?  Well, the next time you're hosting a Christmas-themed club dancing party, this is definitely the go-to album.

Let the Great World Spin

Title: Let the Great World Spin
Author: Colum McCann
Genre: Modern Fiction
Pages (words): 400 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: In 1974, a man illegally walked a tightrope between the brand new World Trade Center Towers (that part is true).  This novel tells the story of many disparate and seemingly unconnected New Yorkers whose lives are going on around this incredible event.  Each chapter tells the story of a different character, where they came from and how they got to New York, and how their lives might have changed on that day.  Some of them witness the tightrope walker, and others miss the event completely.  But all of them, in their own way, are walking their own tightropes with no net to catch them, as the world spins around them.
Thoughts: There was a lot to like about this book.  The writing was very, very good, I thought, with clean, innovative description and really great voice.  I also thought that McCann did a cleaver job of pulling all the various stories together in a coherent, but non-contrived way.  And, while it is a bit more artistic than most books that I read, it wasn't so out there that I couldn't follow it.  On the contrary, the character sketches were each quite intriguing.  There were only two downsides for me.  First, I don't know that books about gritty side of New York are my favorites.  That's just personal taste, more than anything.  Second, the chapter about the prostitute (it's the one about Tillie) was far to seedy for me, and I ended up skipping much of it.  I think that chapter left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, and without it I would have likely bumped up the rating by another half star.  I'd recommend the book, but I you should just skip that chapter.  You can do so quite easily and it won't affect the story at all, since each chapter is about a different protagonist.
Disclaimer:  As mentioned, there is one pretty explicit chapter that I would recommend just skipping.  The rest of the book had some scattered swear words, and several chapters have prostitutes in them but do not describe anything explicitly.

Undaunted Courage

Title: Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Genre: History
Pages (words): 521 (218,949)
Readability: 10.6
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: A biography of Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame.  Of course, the majority of the book focuses on the famous expedition across the continent, but it also gives a history of Lewis' life before and after his famous journey.
Thoughts: This is one of those history books that reads like a novel.  Ambrose is a really great writer (similar to David McCullough), and this description of the Lewis and Clark expedition was incredibly fascinating for me.  Can you imagine leaving on a expedition for which you have no idea where you are going, how long it will take you, what Indians you will meet, what physical obstacles you might face, or how you will get food and water?  How do you even know what to pack?  I really enjoyed reading this one and learning how this incredible expedition actually made it to the Pacific and back, and how the leadership of Lewis and Clark made it happen.  Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: None.

Thanks to Katie for the recommendation, and Dan for providing the audiobook for me!

Predictably Irrational

Title: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions
Author: Dan Ariely
Genre: Popular Science
Pages (words): 384 (N/A)
Readability: N/A
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Reviewed by: Ben
Description: Dan Ariely is a professor of economics at Duke University, and has studied behavioral economics for his whole career.  This book is his attempt at writing up his findings for a non-academic audience, showing us all of the mistakes that we commit when making common, everyday decisions.  He covers topics including: over-valuing ownership, the price of zero, placebo effects, lying, and loyalty.  The book is full of novel experiments, and descriptions of what their findings mean for each of us.
Thoughts: I HAD to tell Jenn about every chapter that I read in this book.  It was seriously astounding how good it was!  I was afraid when I started the book that it would be full of things that I already knew, but in fact most of the findings he discussed I was unfamiliar with, and I thoroughly enjoyed each chapter.  Ariely is a really entertaining writer, and anyone could easily understand Predictably Irrational.  What I liked most about the book was the way that each section was completely applicable to my own life; it's all about decisions that we make daily.  Highly recommended.
Disclaimer:  Chapter 5 (I think) is about decision making under sexual arousal.  If you're uncomfortable with that, you could easily skip this chapter.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Genre: Classic Fiction

Pages (words): 234 (103,785)

Readability: 7.3

Rating (out of 5 stars): ****

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Sherlock Holmes takes on 12 trying cases with his trusty Watson always at his side to provide assistance.

Thoughts: It had been a long time since I read any Sherlock Holmes, and I actually liked this book more than I expected to. Each chapter contains a different case, and each case was vastly different from any of the others. Arthur Conan Doyle really had a great imagination to come up with each of the mysteries, and his writing is easy to read, full of just enough facts to make it nearly impossible to guess the truth of each case. If it's been a while since you read any Sherlock, or if you've never tried it at all, this is a great place to start.

Disclaimer: None.

The Bourne Supremacy

Title: The Bourne Supremacy

Author: Robert Ludlum

Genre: Thriller

Pages (words): 646 (230,270)

Readability: 6.1

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Jason Bourne is forced back in to action when his wife is taken hostage. The trail leads him to Hong Kong, where he must track down a trained assassin and use him to stop a plot that would plunge the world into war.

Thoughts: Like the first Bourne book, this one was a real page-turner. I thought it had a great plot, but it seemed to drag a bit. It probably could have been two thirds as long and I would have liked it better. Anyway, it was fun to read, and at some point I'll definitely read the last book in the series. Also, this one was completely different from the movie, so no worries if you've seen the movie already. They're not the same at all.

Disclaimer: Lots of violence, and quite a bit of swearing.

A Happy Marriage

Title: A Happy Marriage

Author: Rafael Yglesias

Genre: Modern Fiction

Pages (words): 384 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): *1/2

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Each chapter of this novel alternates between the story of how Enrique Sabas and Margaret Cohen meet, fall in love, and spend the first few years of their marriage, and the story of how Margaret is facing death by cancer 30 years later. As the story bounces back and forth, the full view of their marriage comes together.

Thoughts: It is very rare that I get halfway through a book and decide to stop reading it. I had heard good things about this book and really was enjoying it for most of the first half. It was an interesting story and the writing was great. But then more and more explicit material kept creeping in, until I'd finally had enough. So, I don't recommend this book. It seemed to be pretty well done, but just had way too many explicit details that were completely unnecessary. When it started creeping away from a novel and towards pornography, I put it down.

Disclaimer: Very explicit sexual encounters, lots of swearing.

NurtureShock

Title: NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children

Authors: Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

Genre: Parenting/Popular Science

Pages (words): 352 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Bronson & Merryman review a vast amount of child development and psychological research related to some of the major issues that parents are concerned about: lying, race, gifted children, language development, teenage independence, sibling interaction, praise and self esteem, and self-control. They show that many of the commonly-accepted practices of parents are in fact backfiring, and discuss ways that parents and teachers can better help children succeed.

Thoughts: Even though the year isn't even half over, I'm pretty sure this is going to be my favorite non-fiction book of the year. I really liked this book a lot. Jenn and I read it at the same time, and every night we had a conversation about what we had read that day, and I think we've really come away from it understanding our kids much better. It had good, solid science behind all of the recommendations, and in addition the authors gave a few examples of how they have put the ideas in to practice with their own kids. I felt like it was a great mix of proven fact and practical application, all without seeming agenda-driven or pushy in any way. Also, I always worry with books like this that the authors are trying to find that the accepted wisdom is incorrect, and that they will go to great lengths to "prove" this. With this book, it really seemed like the authors did an incredible amount of research, and then chose these ten areas where parents and/or schools commonly did things that could be better. That approach is so much better, because none of their recommendations are outlandish or quirky; they all make a lot of sense once you think about it for a bit. Anyway, I would highly recommend this book to everyone that interacts with kids regularly. I just hope I can remember all that I've learned.

Disclaimer: None.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Genre: Modern Fiction

Pages (words): 290 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Juliet Ashton, in search of material for her next novel, happens to begin a correspondence with a few residents on the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel. She learns of their heroic acts, large and small, in the face of occupation by German forces near the end of WWII.

Thoughts: This was definitely an enjoyable book, but overall it just felt a little too contrived for me. There seemed to be just too many happy coincidences that happen to makes things fall in to place just perfectly, a little like eating something that is just a bit too sweet. That being said, I felt like the book certainly had its moments, and I enjoyed the writing quite a bit (it is written as a series of letters between characters in the book). There were some very touching parts in relation to the German occupation, and also some good insights into the growth of friendships during difficult times, and I very much enjoyed those pieces. Overall, the good parts outweighed the overly sappy stuff, and I'd recommend it as a quick read. I should also note that Jenn probably liked this quite a bit more than me, so maybe I was just not the right audience!

Disclaimer: Very clean. Might be a few swear words, but nothing serious.

Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos, and Letters

Title: Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos, and Letters

Author: Richard Hack

Genre: Biography

Pages (words): 444 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Howard Hughes was an aviator, movie maker, business man, and complete lunatic. This book uses his private correspondence to examine the kind of man that he was: what he cared about, how he spent his time, and what concerned him.

Thoughts: Howard Hughes has got to be one of the most eccentric characters of American history. He ranged from constantly seeking the public spotlight early on in his career, to hiding inside his hotel with all light blocked out for the last 35 years of his life. While he had major psychological problems, he was also a brilliant business man (becoming one of the wealthiest people in the world) and daring aviator. This particular book was well written and had tons of interesting insights into his life. There are lots of other Hughes biographies out there that likely give more details on the major events of his life--how he made his money, the details of him flying across the U.S. in record time, etc. Instead, this book delved a bit more into his personal life, focusing on his hopes and frustrations, his relationships with others, and his eventual seclusion from the world. While I found this quite interesting, I probably would have preferred to read a more standard biography first just to get more information on the main details of his life. Still, it was really interesting to get a glimpse into the onset of his insanity. It was especially interesting to consider how this insane man with essentially unlimited money likely ruined himself, as he was able to simply purchase anything he desired including drugs, entire hotels (to enhance his seclusion), and endless amounts of tissues (for "insulation"). If he had been forced to actually go to a psychologist, I think it's likely that he could have enjoyed much better years before his death. Anyway, it was an interesting book.

Disclaimer: Not much bad here at all. Maybe a couple of swear words.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Title: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Author: David Mitchell

Genre: Modern Fiction

Pages (words): 496 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): *****

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: In 1799, Jacob de Zoet leaves his native Holland to make his fortune working as a clerk for the Dutch East India Company in Japan. In Japan, he struggles to deal with the clash of Dutch and Japanese cultures, corruption within the company, homesickness, and feelings he has for a Japanese woman who is completely off-limits.

Thoughts: I didn't know anything about this book before I read it except that most people who read it liked it, so I had no idea what to expect. It's odd subject matter for a novel written in 2010: a Dutchman living in Japan in 1799. But I seriously enjoyed this book. The plot was interesting, unpredictable, and had plenty of action (more than I expected). I thought the book was well-researched and interesting just because of that aspect. But on top of that, it was very well-written; it was pleasant to read. And best of all, it was just one of those books that made me want to be a better person and live a full life, but not in a preachy sort of way. All in all, this was a really solid book and I'm super glad that I gave it a try.

Disclaimer: Overall, this was quite clean. There were a few parts that were PG-13 for intimate situations, but it was never overly descriptive. There was also some swearing, and a bit of violence.

The Bourne Identity

Title: The Bourne Identity

Author: Robert Ludlum

Genre: Thriller

Pages (words): 608 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2

Reviewed by: Ben

Description: Jason Bourne wakes up on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with no memory of who he is...or was. His body is riddled with bullets, and he finds he has skills that no average person should have: he can handle a gun, speaks several languages, and can easily blend in to any environment. He must find out who he is, but at the same time part of him just doesn't want to know.

Thoughts: This book was pretty much as expected: no real deep insights, but it's a real page-turner and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really couldn't put it down, and found myself reading way too late at night on several occasions. I'd compare it to something like The Da Vinci Code. I'll definitely read the other two books in the series soon. Also, I didn't feel like having seen the movie ruined the book at all. The movie has the same premise as the book, but they are sufficiently different that both are pretty enjoyable in and of themselves.

Disclaimer: Lots of violence, some swearing.

The Help

Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Genre: Modern Fiction

Pages (words): 464 (N/A)

Readability: N/A

Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2 (Ben) ****1/2 (Jenn)

Reviewed by: Ben & Jenn

Description: The voices of three different women tell a story of early 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. "The help" are black women who work in white homes keeping house and raising the kids. While the help do the work, the white women spend their time organizing league meetings, going to bridge club, and eagerly gossiping about other women in town. The Help tells a story of those racial barriers slowly breaking, and the havoc that is caused as some fight the changes while others embrace them.

Thoughts: The Help has been gaining more and more popularity over the past few months, and it's no surprise that it has wide appeal. Overall, it's a solid book. For us, the best part about the book was the voice; Stockett did an incredible job giving each character a strong personality through her writing style. (Side note: we both listened to the audio book version, which had three separate readers, and it was incredibly well done.) Aside from the voice, Ben thought that the plot was good but maybe not spectacular. Jenn was much more drawn in to it, and finished it several days before Ben did because she couldn't put it down. We think that this is maybe because there aren't any significant male characters in the book at all, making it a bit harder for Ben to relate to it. At any rate, it's always interesting to consider just how far this country has come with regards to racism in the past 60 years, and this books definitely brought that to light. Overall, Jenn really loved it, and Ben enjoyed it as well.

Disclaimer: There are a few mild swear words, and also a scene with a naked man, but overall this is a pretty clean book.