Catch Up Book Reviews: Part 1

In case you didn't know. I got married. I got married to a woman. It is on paper. The government recognizes it, but sadly my parents don't....

Although the wedding preparations didn't put a damper on my reading, it did hinder me from writing my incredibly average book reviews. This to me is the worst casualty of all. I feel bad that I let everyone down.
I have been receiving emails from people whom have been walking around aimlessly in their local Borders book shop. A vacant hole resides where my literary guidance use to be and for that...I feel ashamed. I even received an email from someone who ended up buying the Autobiography of Kate Hudson because she was without my counsel.

Well folks, I am back and I am here to enlighten you by sharing my opinions on current books that I have absorbed. (Either read or rubbed on my body until the ink came off onto my skin)

In order to catch up, I will have to summarize my reading endeavors of the past couple months. While they will not be as in depth as past reviews, I will assure you that they will be very powerful. Also, they will come in installments since I don't have a ton of time. Here is the first couple!

Here we go:


The first book that I tackled was the late Steig Larson's world sensation, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. While a lot darker than I originally expected, I don't feel it deserves half of the praise that it gets. It set itself up to be a murder mystery that was chalk full of twists and turns, but turned out to be a somewhat interesting mystery/business thriller with a payoff that was less than exciting. In fact, it kind of made me feel cheated. So while not awful, not worth the price. 2 out of 4 dead horses.


The next book I checked out was Andrew Ross Sorkin's, Too Bit To Fail. Sorkin's book is an amazingly thorough account of how the subprime mortgage crisis put the entire financial sector at risk of failure. Starting around Bear Stearns sale to J.P Morgan Chase and climaxing with the implementation of T.A.R.P (Troubled Asset Relief Program), Sorkin gives the readers unprecedented access into the minds of those who held America's financial system in their hands. Whether motivated by greed or just by the desire to keep the system afloat, Sorkin gives the reader the whole picture. While I think some could argue that it was a couple hundred pages too long, I feel the length was necessary to paint a complete picture of the disaster. Overall, if you are not interested in the crisis, stay far away. (Or if you are having trouble sleeping, this could actually help a lot) This is in depth and at times downright depressing. Yet, if you can stick it out, you will be handsomely rewarded. 3 and 1/2 out of 4 dead horses.

Book Review: Ender's Game

Well this is the kick off to my Science Fiction summer. Although I finished this book a little bit ago, I got behind because I started Dune. Even though I felt I was already traversing through the nerd universe in Ender's Game, I realized I was only in the shallow end once I started Dune.
However, I do not want to take away from Ender's Game, which I found to be a great novel. While slow to start, I can certainly see how and why this book receives so much praise. It is an in-depth look into the mind of a child who from an early age, has been inculcated with how to be a solider. One who is taught to not act or react with emotion, but rather strategy. Alienated from peers and family, Ender's life is in a constant state of preparation for battle. While this book does have its science fictions staples such as space travel and futuristic devices, it truly is a human story and should resonate with all readers. It is a coming of age story of a boy who must bear the fate on humanity on his shoulders. As Ender knows that once false move in his preparation could mean life or death for humanity as we know it, he still desires affirmation from his peers. He still longs for the love of his sister and constantly questions the meaning of all of his endeavors. Although one in an unusual circumstance, he is a boy at heart and that is what makes this story particularly poignant.

Back to the futuristic devices, I was also pretty amazed how Card predicted the future of the internet. Published in 1985, the internet was in no way ubiquitous. In Ender's world, the "nets" are a vital part of every citizens lives. Although we do not have elections held through the internet, it was interesting to read how Card predicted a world in which everyone relied on the internet. While that is not entirely the case now, I do know a couple people who might actually die if they went a day without logging on facebook.

Ender is a fascinated and fully realized character in a mostly realized world. Which brings me to my one gripe, I wish that Card gave us a bit more about the world around him. Why things are the way that they are? How exactly were the wars with the Buggers started?

While I do have my problems, I do know that there is much more to Ender's story that I have yet to read. So I cannot really fault him for not including these details because I have only read the first quarter of the whole series.

I just bought Speaker for the Dead today so I am in no way done with this story. With a complex and utterly human cast of characters living in a world in which I can not visualize, but understand, makes this story an important read.

So far, my Sci-Fi summer is going really well.

Book Review: Columbine

On April 20th 1999, my childhood changed. I remember coming home from school and seeing a young man, Patrick Ireland, being helped out of a window. His body wasn't moving in a fluid motion. It seemed as though he were taking his time while hundreds of others fled from the school. It wasn't until later that I found out that he had been shot in the head. I couldn't understand it at the time. I kept thinking to myself, why wasn't he attempting to get out of there faster? My brain kept trying to grapple with this idea that something of that magnitude could happen on a high school campus. They were too young. We were too young. What could bring someone do this?

There were no clean-cut answers, there will never be. However, everywhere America turned, there were answers. The myths that we cling to so fervently began to materialize in the days after the disaster, e.g: The Trench Coat Mafia, that the shooters were outcasts, that they were targeting their oppressors, that heavy music and cinema influenced their decisions. These myths became fact in the American psyche. It was truncated, shaped, and fit into a box that people (myself included) could understand. This allowed Americans to go forward with their lives and look at themselves in the mirror knowing that events like Columbine were merely freak accidents. Compartmentalizing tragedy may help to cope with the unexplainable, but it doesn't serve to illuminate truth.

Dave Cullen's book Columbine is an important step in attempting to reclaim the truth. Thoroughly researched and meticulously written, Cullen's book is breathtaking and focuses not only those young men who killed twelve of their fellow classmates that day, but also everyone who was in some way affected by their decisions. Cullen himself had taken part in the subsequent media bonanza that the massacre brought to the town and used the next ten years culling sources. By judiciously using the killers personal journals and interviews with the victims and their families, Cullen dispels commonly held myths and is able to make some sense out of this seemingly wanton calamity. This was not a fluke or a battle of good vs. evil. It was a matter of two kids who made a momentous decision, a town that was caught in the aftermath, and a nation in mourning.

I cannot express how important this book is. It is expertly written and delicately handles a topic that is so quick to conjure an emotional response. It does not seek to blame, but understand. Which is something that is rarely attempted in these types of situations.

It is simply one of the best non-fiction books I have read and I am glad that someone gave the massacre at Columbine a comprehensive and fair treatment.

I give this book 4 out of 4 dead horses!

Summer Reading

I have always loved Science Fiction. The problem is that for every good science fiction book, there is most likely 12,000 awful books. Also, most series go on for 14-16 books so you cannot dabble in sci-fi. You either need to just take off your swim trunks altogether, or dive right in....to the deep end...and not come up for a while...because the water is so deep...you might hit your head...don't eat right before swimming...stomach cramps.

You get the picture. Sci-Fi is a serious undertaking.

As a guy who likes to get around the literary world (book whore), it is always tough for me to commit to one series for any length of time.

Yet, I am going to change that this summer. I remember the first time I read Phillip K. Dick. It was mind blowing. These novels do not adhere to any laws of the natural world, yet they have so much to say about our world and the nature of humanity. If you are a sci-fi fan, then you know what I am talking about. If your not, then you probably think I am a huge idiot and think I just like the idea of traveling through space.

Two things:
1) I do, because it would amazing
2) If you have written sci-fi off, then you're stupid. (In a fun way)

I am starting off with Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game." Then I want to try to tackle the "Foundation" series by Isaac Asimov. Maybe some more Phil Dick in there for good measure.

If anyone wants to start with me, then I am starting Ender's Game in two days. Set your clocks. Actually don't, because time doesn't apply to where we are going. I can actually feel my girlfriend become less attracted to me the more and more I talk.

Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I don't know why I do this to myself. I don't really have the time to be reading novels. School already has me bogged down with more reading than I can handle. Yet, I always desire to force down a novel in my(non-existent)spare time. Just like a new years resolution, I vowed not to touch a book and focus solely on my school work. I would get ahead. I would be the student that every teacher dreams of. My professor would invite me to a special "excellent students club" in which only the elite in education are invited. However, as soon as I made that vow, a man at my coffee shop threw a book my way. It was, and still is, Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

When I first picked up this book one night, I was incredibly disappointed. In the same vein as Cormac Mccarthy and a slew of other authors, Diaz forgos being formal in his writing. Every line feels like you are merely reading a transcript of a conversation one would hear on the street. A conversation riddled with big words. While this approach allows the reader to really immerse his or herself in the story, it can also pull the reader out of the story when it feels too contrived. Many times I felt like Diaz was trying too hard to make it feel authentic. His colloquial style made me step back a couple of times and think to myself, "there is no way anybody would say that."

Faults aside, Diaz creates a very interesting story. Revolving primarily around a multi-generational family curse known as Fuku, Diaz tells the story from the perspective of different family members and how this so called curse has changed their lives. One of Diaz's strong suits is how he is able to weave a compelling story together with the real life events that took place during the vicious reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina. From the lovable Oscar who hopes to one day become the Dominican J.R Tolkien, to the distant relatives who brought the Fuku upon the famiy, Diaz braids together history and fiction in a way that is both enthralling and informative.

On an interesting note, I have not seen footnotes in a novel until I picked up this book. The footnotes supplement the references made about those characters and events that took place during the Trujillo's reign. While sometimes daunting, these do enhance the experience and give the reader a better picture of the Dominican Republic during this time. Also, it would help if the reader should have a minor grasp of rudimentary Spanish since the author frequently uses it without translation.

Overall, while the book is not without its shortcomings. It is a very enjoyable read and an experience I am sure most readers have not had with a novel in a long time.

I give this book 3 out of 4 dead horses.

Book Club

I know this is kind of dead in the water. I am just letting everyone know that I just started The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao if anyone wants to join me.

Book Review: Sarah Palin's Going Rogue

I don't really know what to say, I only made it through the first chapter. I have never felt so filthy after reading a chapter of a book. The first chapter is her talking about how she is a straight shooter and that is why she wanted to get into politics. That she is kind of a people person that could cut through the political jargon and get to the heart of the american people. She got to me and I personally feel sick.

I'll let you know if I read more. As of right now....

I give it a quarter of 1 dead horse