Odds and Ends
Books I finished up reading this week
Spice by Jack Turner - Excellent history of the spice trade. Lots of insightful anecdotes of how a good chunk of history (e.g. voyages of Columbus and Magellan) was directly related to the spice trade.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - Excellent and very readable book about the power of our minds, how our brains process information so quickly
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - This book has gotten rave reviews, and indeed, the prose is top notch, there are sublime moments where Robinson captures emotions and thoughts in exactly the right way. Ultimately though, the novel was disappointing. The main reason is my chief gripe with a lot of modern fiction, there wasn't much of a plot. There wasn't a strong narrative thread to pull me through. Lots of little slices of life strung together. Plus, the book did not have chapters, it was just one long script, so there weren't places where I could stop and take a breath.
Commumice
The kids have been enjoying Disney's The Rescuers book lately. I just noticed last night though, the head of the Rescue Aid Society is called "Chairman Mouse".
Is that someone's private joke? A deliberate nod to Chairman Mao?
The book is a Commie plot to indoctrinate kids and turn them into little Commies!
The important things
It's funny how when your four-year old daughter looks you in the eye after climbing up a series of metal playground bars all by herself and says in all seriousness "I can do that now and I wasn't scared cuz I'm big!", and that's what's most important to her at that moment, and it's a big deal to her, how all the petty problems of the world, like bloviating US Senators or blaming Bush for Hurricane Katrina, just fade away into meaninglessness...
Spice by Jack Turner - Excellent history of the spice trade. Lots of insightful anecdotes of how a good chunk of history (e.g. voyages of Columbus and Magellan) was directly related to the spice trade.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - Excellent and very readable book about the power of our minds, how our brains process information so quickly
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - This book has gotten rave reviews, and indeed, the prose is top notch, there are sublime moments where Robinson captures emotions and thoughts in exactly the right way. Ultimately though, the novel was disappointing. The main reason is my chief gripe with a lot of modern fiction, there wasn't much of a plot. There wasn't a strong narrative thread to pull me through. Lots of little slices of life strung together. Plus, the book did not have chapters, it was just one long script, so there weren't places where I could stop and take a breath.
Commumice
The kids have been enjoying Disney's The Rescuers book lately. I just noticed last night though, the head of the Rescue Aid Society is called "Chairman Mouse".
Is that someone's private joke? A deliberate nod to Chairman Mao?
The book is a Commie plot to indoctrinate kids and turn them into little Commies!
The important things
It's funny how when your four-year old daughter looks you in the eye after climbing up a series of metal playground bars all by herself and says in all seriousness "I can do that now and I wasn't scared cuz I'm big!", and that's what's most important to her at that moment, and it's a big deal to her, how all the petty problems of the world, like bloviating US Senators or blaming Bush for Hurricane Katrina, just fade away into meaninglessness...
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