Monday, June 15, 2009

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
That's what history seems like to me now. There are hundreds of threads connecting everybody in all sorts of ways, both expected and unexpected. It's like a spiderweb (which, by the way, spiders sometimes eat when they're done with them).

 A.J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All; One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World


A wonderful, funny, interesting book about a man who decided to read the entire Encyclopeadia Britannica from a-ak to zyweic. Tucked into all the random and trivial knowledge is a study on the interconnectedness of humanity and the universe we share. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!!

Monday, June 08, 2009

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine


After reading this book, I have a strange urge to buy a few goats.



While I loved Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and found it to be an inspiring book, Kingsolver's world was a little more orderly than my world will EVER be. Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living seemed to be a little more my speed. Experiments, well-intentioned and well planned, don't always work out the way they are intended. Coyotes and hawks feast on flocks of chickens, vegetable oil powered engines don't always start on the first 10 tries and rattlesnakes find shelter in solar powered water pumps. Fine's memoir is funny. You'll learn some stuff. You might be inspired to make a difference in your own carbon footprint. You'll definitely laugh. You even might want to buy a goat.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Two books this time. I'm on one of those reading binges where I feel like Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka's factory. Fat kid on a cupcake as my boys would say, but they're not very nice sometimes. Lots of books in the hopper. Keep an eye out. I'll try to have the boys come up with nicer illustrations. Not promising anything. That said, here goes:

Saved Saved by Jack Falla



It's a novel about professional hockey. Is there such a genre for men like "chick-lit" is for women? Testosterature? Guy-lit? Nevertheless, if there is such a genre, this book fits the bill.


Escape Escape by Carolyn Jessop



Devastatingly sad. If even one third of this is an accurate portrayal of this group (FLDS -- Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints), then I'm horrified that more hasn't been done to stop the cycles of abuse.