be the perfect long-labor book*. After all, if those men could row as long as they did stuck in one position with frost-bitten hands and soaked boots, then surely I can't complain about being strapped to a monitor as I wait for the baby to emerge.I'm not what sure what makes Endurance so compelling. I knew from the beginning how it would end. The writing is fairly journalistic. Lansing tries to distinguish individuals, but few of the expedition members really becomes characters. Most of what happens is waiting. There is very little pessimism and dissension. Lansing clearly found the lack of conflict noteworthy, yet everybody getting along generally makes for poor reading. Still, somehow, the book is compelling. Halfway through each section I would re-check the map at the front just to make sure they were actually going to make it through the section. (I know, I know, if everybody survives to the end then they must survive each section, but I became worried several times). Lansing wisely lets the adventure speak for itself. He doesn't explain what happened to these guys after they returned home. He doesn't dwell on how absolutely miraculous these events are. I think even if I were not pregnant I would have come to the abrupt end, taken a deep breath, and sobbed. They made it.
I also read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown in the last week. The book was brought to my attention because The Mister was taken aback by the heroine's "full, firm breasts" being described in the opening chapters and openly wondered about the rookie writing quality. Unlike The Mister, I don't read many action/adventure novels, but I do read trashy romance, so I was very curious what was wrong with full firm boobs. I'll admit the book was a fun read and Brown did have me wondering who the bad guys really were (although it turns out that nearly everyone except our full-breasted genius heroine and her squash-playing linguist fiancee are bad guys, so I didn't need to lament the passing of those who were killed in the action). The redeeming qualities, however, didn't make it good. If a movie is made someday, I'd happily see it without any worries that they might ruin the book.
While I am discussing books, I should mention Amy Stewart's Wicked Plants which is a beautiful little book of poisonous, intoxicating, illegal and otherwise "bad" plants. I've read half of it and am thus far impressed with the short (less than five page) essays on the individual plants. They're scientifically accurate, interesting, and attractively illustrated with sketches and etchings. I still haven't figured out who this book is intended for. While the entries are alphabetical, entries are by common name, every third entry is a composite essay ("ordeal poisons" or "deadly houseplants") and there is no index, making the book impossible to use as a reference, and I have a hard time imagining there is a great audience of readers clamouring for 73 2-4 page essays to read straight through. Of course, several of you might be in that audience, but you know who you are.
*or not, I really have no idea what the appropriate book would be. I am looking for breast feeding books (having just read of a woman who read all of Anna Karenina during the first few days home with her newborn). They need to be something that I can turn with one hand and something that moves along at a pretty good clip. Suggestions?
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3 comments:
Library of America books will lie flat and allow you to turn pages with one hand, especially if you get an older edition (I used to be very fussy about this quality, but it was so that I could drink coffee and read at the same time!). So you could theoretically read John Muir's "My Boyhood and Youth," (full of great anecdotes) or for something a little more thrilling, Dashiel Hammett's collected novels, or one of their collections of noir novels.
Happy book hunting!
Try Dan Brown's other book about the Arctic. Deception Point. Fast easy read. A movie based on it might be better than the book. Dang, I admit I read Dan Brown, and like it. Well, maybe not DaVinci Code. Or that was more about disappointment in society. It was a best seller because 3rd graders could read it, thus the shocking realization that most Americans must read at that level or there wouldn't be enough people reading it to make it a best seller. PS do you know who this is? I made a new account so I can vent about student workers etc. and people won't be able to track it through my bird blog.
Sal Sis-- Of course I know who you are. I named you that, didn't I?
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