Blood on the Tracks (Cecelia Holland)

In 1877, the United States was just recovering from the Civil War. The railroad industry was booming, which meant the men who owned the railroads were fantastically rich. And greedy. In a meeting the men decided they weren't as rich as they wanted to be, so they agreed to kick it up a notch by cutting the railroad workers' wages by 10% and increase their workloads. The result was overwhelmingly catastrophic.

The workers began a strike, which snowballed into an all-out war between the remaining local militia and a mob of railroad workers driven crazy by anger. The railroad business owners completely underestimated the mob, and in the span of one night (July 20, 1877), the entire town of Pittsburgh was thrown into complete chaos. Innocent people were shot and killed by stray bullets, buildings were set on fire, and firefighters were held at gunpoint to prevent them from putting the fires out. After the massacre, the number of people who died resulting from wounds inflicted during the chaos is still unknown to this day. That which was documented is completely harrowing. One 4 year old girl was shot in the knee and her leg had to be sawed off. Another Irish immigrant who had only been in the country for a few days was killed without ever even realizing what the fight was even about. Because of the damage inflicted to the cities and to the railroad businesses, the "bosses" learned a lesson that has impacted the way workers have been treated ever since. The workers learned the very same lesson. There is great power, and great responsibility, in mass revolt.

Maybe I just never paid attention in history class, but I must shamefully admit, I didn't even know there was a "Great Railroad Strike of 1877." Did you?

Blood on the Tracks (Cecelia Holland)

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History (Ben Mezrich)

Thad Roberts was a co-op working for NASA at Johnson Space Center, and in his brief time there he experienced some rather amazing aspects of the study of space, including what astronauts experience in training, and what they bring back from voyages to space. One day Thad was shown a safe of moon rocks which were considered "garbage" by NASA because they had been removed from a controlled storage and preservation environment so they could be used in scientific research. One thing lead to another, and eventually Thad decided to try taking NASA's trash and turn it into his treasure by selling it to a mineral collector he located online. Yada yada yada, he got busted. Sent to jail for 8 years. Scorned by NASA, scientists, and geologists worldwide. A pock upon the American culture for attempting to profit from the sale of a national treasure. 

This is Thad's story as told by Mezrich, and it is note-worthy to point out that as such, this is the story from Thad's point of view. Controversy has already surrounded this book because people criticize the imbalance and the fantasy communicated through Thad's delusions. (That it was ok to steal lunar samples, that he was helping science by making them more valuable, that this girl he met and fell in love with while still married was his catalyst and inspiration for an adventure. Sounds like hooey to me.) 

Having said that, Thad's story is an incredible one. Though I fall very short of having ample knowledge on the topic, I've long been a NASA junkie. When I saw the description of this book in an email from Amazon regarding summer releases, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. (Side note: this was my first experience pre-ordering a Kindle book, and I so loved how it was magically delivered to my device at midnight on release date. Very cool!) This book is one of the best nonfiction pieces I have read in a very, very long time. I loved Mezrich's style so much that I automatically began to search out other books he has penned. I love the mystery and mystique of NASA, and this book captures the awe so many of us have for the organization and its missions. 

The timing of the book's release is interesting to me. The last shuttle mission was July 14, 2011. This mission signifies the end of our nation's pride in and fascination with the moon missions and the beginning of our single minded focus on the journey to Mars. The book's release date was July 12, 2011. In it Thad Roberts's thoughts and fascinations regarding his dream of becoming the first man to walk on Mars is described numerous times and in great detail. Could it be that Thad Roberts, in an attempt to make up for his great offense to NASA and science itself, used his book to help convert some of the widespread criticism about the end of the shuttle program to some excitement about the Mars discovery and exploration program? Talk about turning his trash into NASA's treasure! Hmmm...

As terrific as this tale is, there are a few things that irk me a bit. For starters, I believe that the blurbs posted for marketing purposes are drastically misleading. First of all, the book does not at any point state that Thad's reason for wanting to steal the moon rocks was because "he wanted to give his girlfriend the moon." I'm fairly certain I didn't skip a chapter, and by no means did the book ever state that the reason Thad robbed NASA was to give his girl the moon. There may have been a brief mention when the deed was nearly complete that it would be pretty exciting to give her a piece of the moon, but this was about Thad and Thad alone. Additionally, some reviews also state that he "convinced" his accomplices to assist him in the crime; on the contrary, the picture Mezrich paints is one of the accomplices offering themselves up willingly. I mean, it sounds like these reviewers didn't read the galleys at all. Or maybe they did, and it was merely a continued effort to market this book specifically to men. 

And make no mistake, Sex on the Moon is heavily marketed to the man crowd. The title itself isn't one that is going to pique the interest of many ladies. The heavy use of adjectives like "daring" and "audacious" are commonly used in marketing strategies for guys. There are a few scenes in the book describing Thad's lust after and physical encounters both with his wife and with his girlfriend (while still married-the jerk) that aren't necessarily graphic but definitely explicit in detail. Unnecessarily so. I mean, you're chugging along and here's this intimate scene and you think "Hey, I thought this was a book about NASA and moon rocks." 

As for Thad Roberts, I don't know where he is or what he is up to these days, but one thing I know for certain is that the guy is quite the brain. Despite going to federal prison for a sentence of 100 months and hacking off the greatest scientists in the world, his book is absolutely fantastic.

He just may make his millions on those moon rocks after all...

Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History (Ben Mezrich)

Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)

I love the Wizard of Oz. Seriously. Love. It. I am all about some "Somewhere oooover the rainbow..." "Follow the yellow brick road!" and "If I only had a brain." and "I'll get you, and your little dog, too!" and "I'm mellllttttiiiinnnggg!"

And those Munchkins? Don't you dare get me started.

But y'all. Judy Garland had it all wrong. All joking aside, the movie version should have had a disclaimer stating that it was loosely based on the book. There is so much left out, so much that is changed in the version written for the big screen.

Originally published in 1900, it all starts out about the same way. Dorothy has lost both her parents and is living with her aunt and uncle. A cyclone takes away Dorothy and her dog Toto to Munchkin Land, where her house accidentally kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North sends Dorothy (with the East Witch's silver shoes-NOT ruby slippers) on a journey to the Emerald City to get help there from the Wizard of Oz. Along her way, she meets the characters we know and love so well from the 1939 movie: Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. In the book, however, the story goes into great detail about the Tin Woodman and how he came to be rusted there on the side of the road. As the book tells it, the Tin Man used to be just a woodman who was in love with a girl. The Wicked Witch of the East put a hex on his axe, which turned against him and chopped his limbs off one by one. They were replaced with tin prosthetics until his entire body was made only of tin. His tin body was not given a heart, so he was unable to continue loving the girl he had lost his life over.

The Wicked Witch of the West blames Dorothy for her sister's death and sets out to doing whatever she can to keep her from getting to the Land of Oz. She sends hordes of crows, bees, and wolves to try and stop them. Two additional differences from the movie are that the Wicked Witch of the West has an army of Winkies in her service AND the witch has this Golden Hat. The Golden Hat grants permission to the owner to summon an army of winged monkeys to do her/his bidding. The witch uses her last summoning on Dorothy and her gang, and the monkeys tear apart the Tin Man and Scarecrow. Dorothy gets angry and throws a bucket of water on the witch, wherein she melts theatrically. No surprise there, at least.

So now Dorothy has the Golden Hat. She uses it to get the winged monkeys and the Winkies to help them all get put back together and taken to the Emerald City. They meet the wizard who really isn't a wizard at all, and he accidentally leaves Dorothy and Toto behind when his hot air balloon takes off unexpectedly. Dorothy and her friends make the long journey to see Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. After another series of adventures involving a giant spider and crazy trees, they make it to Glinda. Glinda tells Dorothy that the silver shoes have been her way home the entire time, and so they are. Dorothy and Toto are returned to her aunt's and uncle's house, and they all live happily ever after.

Check it out yourself in Google Books.

Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum)

The Weird Sisters (Eleanor Brown)

The Andreas sisters (Cordelia-Cordy, Bianca-Bean, and Rosalind-Rose) are all grown up and living their lives quite separately until their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. They have come back home as though magnetized, with much devotion to help their mother even despite their own capricious self-centerdness. In short, these girls are a mess.

Bean has destroyed her career and is over her head in tremendous debt despite egregious embezzlement from her company.

Rose has finally met and fallen in love with a real life Prince Charming, only the choice to build a life with him means letting go of all she has ever known and counted as her life...even if she can't reconcile the fact that her life as it is isn't what she wants.

Cordy has floated aimlessly from one hippie compound to another, lacking for even basic necessities of life in favor of her freedom. Suddenly, Cordy has another life to consider, and this sends her into a tailspin of despair.

The women do their best to give one another the impression that they don't need the other, but it is when they come home again that they figure out that sisters can be the only people they do need.

*This was Eleanor Brown's debut novel.

The Weird Sisters (Eleanor Brown)

Bossypants (Tina Fey)

Good for reflection as working moms and GREAT for a laugh, Bossypants is by far one of the most entertaining autobiographies I've ever read. With her classic wit and hilarious sarcasm, Tina Fey sends readers to the floor in all-out gut chuckles over her antics, experiences, and observations. She tells her side of the whole Palin impersonation gig, shares insight into work on the SNL set, and gives her inner monologue on the conflict (every working mom's conflict) between a desire to work and a desire to be with her children. It's a short, light read and you close it (or click out, in case of e-readers) with a greater respect and appreciation for Tina Fey's work than ever before. 

Just do not, don't even think of it, ask her about her scar. 

What scar? 

Yeah, that's what I said! 

 

 

Bossypants (Tina Fey)

Choosing to SEE (Mary Beth Chapman)

Thanks to a hot Kindle sale, I was able to read this narrative biographical journey of Mary Beth and the Chapman family throughout their rather tumultuous life experiences. In the book, she tells of her early life together with Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman. She also tells of their family's growth through birth and through adoption. She writes very candidly about the sad accident which caused the death of little Maria, one of their daughters. This is a book that resonates with every mother, and unlike many of the popular "celebrity" books written today, Mrs. Mary Beth is as real as it gets. I'm thankful for her courage in writing this book.

Choosing to SEE (Mary Beth Chapman)

Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret (Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor)

What do you believe in? 

I'm not talking Mac over PC, or Percy Jackson over Harry Potter, or even Nutella over peanut butter. (Though of course, the correct choices are in fact Mac, Harry, and Nutella.)

No, but really...what do you really believe in? What do you believe in so strongly that you would give up your money, your home...even your family?

Hudson Taylor's single focused passion, which fueled his efforts as a pioneer missionary to China in the 1800's, was his salvation in Jesus Christ.  

Hudson Taylor lived a life of sacrifice just to have the opportunity to travel to China and work with the people there, and during his years serving the Chinese he experienced death, destruction, violence, and resistance from the government. He lost children and even his wife. He lost his health. At one point, he even lost his mobility. But, champion of faith that he was, Hudson Taylor never wavered from his calling to serve the people of inland China through medical and evangelical missions. He was known as an oddball because he was the first to dress in traditional Chinese attire and to shave his head (leaving the long braided ponytail) in the customary manner of the people he was serving. But eventually others realized that his strategy was working, as it earned him favor and understanding with the Chinese. 

His biography, written in 1932 by his son and daughter-in-law, alternates betwixt excerpts from Hudson's personal letters and journal to narrative descriptions of the events he and his family faced during their years in China. The book emphasizes the strength of his faith, and explains throughout that his "spiritual secret" was a joyful and willing submission of trust to God's plan for his life and for the people of China. 

I found this book oddly sluggish at times yet compelling at others. Ultimately, I was utterly fascinated by Hudson Taylor, but I found this particular telling of his life and work substandard. His legacy deserves a better, more clarified biography than this particular book offers.

Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret (Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)

Ever heard of something called HeLa cells? Yeah, umm, me either...not until a few months ago, anyway.


HeLa is a building block of cell science and a cornerstone of modern medical research. Among numerous other very interesting uses, HeLa cells were used in the first space missions to test the effects of space on human cells, they were used in nuclear experiments, and they were (and still are) used to develop important vaccines, chemotherapies, and radiation treatments that have and continue to save millions of human lives. HeLa is widely known in the medical science community as one of the most important tools in the development of modern medicine. The purchase and sale of HeLa cells for the purpose of medical research over time likely numbers somewhere in the billions.


This book goes into painstaking detail about the relevance of HeLa cells in the existence of mankind, but its primary purpose is to shed some light on how HeLa came to be...which went a little something like this:


Once upon a time there was a woman, a wife and mother to several children. She suffered several medical ailments on and off in her life, but one day she became very ill and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The doctor treated her with radiation, but the cancer spread and in her very early thirties this young woman died. After her death, cells were removed from her body and used in an experiment of cell division. Unlike any other cell in that experiment, this woman's cells kept dividing. And kept dividing. And kept dividing. And even unto this very day, they are still continuing to divide. Because of this unique type of cell division and multiplication, the woman's cells were extremely valuable for a multitude of research purposes. The woman's name was Henrietta Lacks. Likely because it was the 1950's and even more likely because Henrietta Lacks was a black woman, her family was never informed of the cultivation of her cells for research and certainly not informed of their value. Today, Henrietta's family is trapped between an expired statute of limitations on the several infringements committed toward them and an understandable inability to trust anyone in the legal or medical communities after a lifetime of  betrayals they have experienced. They have lived 60 years of intense frustration, and no one in the Lacks family has lived happily ever after. 

What a sad, sad story. Henrietta Lacks left a legacy that has transformed medical science, yet her own children stated at one point that they were so poor that they couldn't even afford health insurance.

Somehow the author of this book won the trust of the Lacks family and was therefore able to put together this very comprehensive tale of Henrietta's life and background, her medical treatments, and the process of the discovery and subsequent uses of HeLa cells. It is incredibly thorough and in the author's own words was extensively fact-checked.

The thoughts that continued to run through my mind while trudging through the bits of cellular science history were that the real untold story here is that this family has been exploited in ways unimaginable. Their disadvantages due to poverty and race (at that time) made them easy prey for the people who they should have been able to trust: the doctors. What has been done to the Lacks family is positively inexcusable, and why no reparations have been made to Henrietta's descendants is beyond me.

In addition to her cells' contributions to science, the controversy surrounding Henrietta's family's experience has led to a revolution in the way patients are required to be informed and to give consent for their treatments or for bits removed from their bodies. What you and I take for granted in that stack of release, privacy, and consent forms we fill out at the doc's office or for pre-operative processing, Henrietta was never given the opportunity to consider. You can thank Henrietta Lacks for her seemingly ceaseless contributions to science, but you can also thank her for your right today as a patient to be informed and to give consent to procedures that involve your body and what is removed from it. And we can all thank Rebecca Skloot for telling Henrietta's story.

*The author used a portion of her earnings from sale of her book to establish the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which is a foundation that provides scholarships and grants for descendants of Henrietta Lacks as well as descendants of other research subjects (ex: the Tuskegee experiments). Learn more about that here: http://www.henriettalacksfoundation.org/

For more about the author and Henrietta's story, go to http://rebeccaskloot.com/.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)

Kindle convert-3rd edition

Read about why a book-lover would even care about a Kindle here and here.

One of the more intriguing aspects of my Kindle is that I can post quotes from books I'm reading to Facebook and Twitter. I enjoy social media, and what better way to share interesting thoughts from a book you are working on than a tweet or FB status? It's a way of sharing interesting thoughts, and sparking discussions. I like how people comment or reply with their own take on the book, which sometimes is quite different from my own. And I really like how sometimes people will suggest other books I might like based on a quote or note or thought I share through the Kindle on these social networking tools. I like being part of a community of thinkers, and it has surprised me how my Kindle has contributed to that.

I held back for a while because I feared the fragility of the device, but I finally got brave enough to tote my Kindle to the gym. I was totally surprised by how much I thoroughly love it! Reading on a treadmill is...tricky, to say the least. It still requires some effort at concentration, but what I love about the Kindle is that you don't have pages flopping over or have to be worried about losing your place. You hit the "next page" button mid-stride, and it waits for you to consume it. It's sweet like that. :)

An ed-tech blogger recently posted this about the "eBook Revolution" in schools.
I also caught this link on Twitter about the Kindle Revolution.
Great stuff!

Kindle convert-3rd edition

Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (Dan Cruver, John Piper, Jason Kovacs, Scotty Smith, & Richard Phillips)

Having recently experienced international adoption and having my eyes opened in such radical ways, I've also become sensitive to the adoption community. My family has attended adoption conferences and seminars, and have been able to learn from some incredible thinkers in the adoption world. The authors of this book are among them.

My husband and I felt called to adopt an orphan, and it was during the long and arduous process that we learned levels of Ephesians 1 that we had never contemplated before. How very interesting it is that while the most significant encounter of our lives is becoming adopted into the family of God, (and for Christians is the primary motive for adopting), it is nearly insurmountable that we truly and fully understand the depth of our adoption by God until we have experienced the adoption of our own child.

"One of my dreams is that when Christians hear the word adoption, they will think first about their adoption by God." (author Dan Cruver, first chapter, first sentence). Dan, along with several other authors, sets out to encourage just that in their newly released book Reclaiming Adoption. Within each chapter, John Piper, Dan Cruver, Jason Kovacs, Scotty Smith, and Richard Phillips each take turns delving into separate and unique characteristics of our vertical adoption as God's children, along with application in the horizontal adoption of our own children here on Earth.

The voice of each writer is evident, as is their careful choreography of collective authorship. I found their words encouraging as an adoptive mother and as a believer striving to grow in my relationship with God.  I also found myself quite pleasantly surprised and challenged by their fresh ideas in our meditations as believers of being adopted as heirs with Christ, as well as some cutting edge thoughts and philosophies in regard to orphan care within the church.

Thanks to my Kindle, I can easily navigate back to my list of notes, marks, and highlights from this book. It is truly the mark of a great work when, out of its 100 or so pages, I have 50 of these notations to review.

For more information about the authors, the book, or the T4A network, visit:
http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?page_id=9056

http://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Adoption-Missional-through-Rediscovery/dp/1456459503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294978860&sr=8-1

Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (Dan Cruver, John Piper, Jason Kovacs, Scotty Smith, & Richard Phillips)

The Help (Kathryn Stockett)

Of all the books I read, there are precious few that grab hold of my heart the way this one has. I have not fallen so deeply in love with a book like this since To Kill a Mockingbird. The hubs was privy to many of the hilarious occurrences buried in these twenty or so odd chapters, and I love him for always listening when I started out with "You are not gonna believe what Minny Jackson has done to Miss Hilly Holbrook now!"

Set in the tumultuous 1960's in the even more volatile city of Jackson, Mississippi, this is the tale of a blossoming novelist and her desire to write about the precarious relationship between white ladies and their black maids. "The help" finally get their chance to tell their side of the story, but it is not without consequence for these truly brave women of Jackson.

Like all great novels, The Help is wondrously complex, with its side stories twisting and turning all over one another in one red hot mess. Skeeter is a new graduate with no prospects for a husband and, much to her momma's chagrin, is itching to put her shiny new English degree to use. While writing for the town paper, Skeeter's eyes become opened to the injustice of the way black people are treated. She begins to question the lines that have always been so clearly assumed between the white family and the help. Aibileen is one of the first maids willing to share her stories, and is soon followed by several others, all with the strictest condition of anonymity. They all have much to lose if they are discovered.

There are some truly lovable women in this book. Minny, Aibileen, and Skeeter are just the kinds of characters you love to love. Hilly, Stuart, and Elizabeth are simply the ones you love to hate. Regardless of which side they are on, every character is distinctively complicated. Their natures and their situations would easily give way to endless discussions in a book club or high school lit class.

I'm definitely filing this one under "Favorites." :)

For more about the author: http://www.kathrynstockett.com/ 

I also just discovered that The Help is coming to a theater near you in August! :)

The Help (Kathryn Stockett)

Mockinjay (Suzanne Collins)

Katniss and Peeta have been forced to enter the arena yet again. Their victories in Hunger Games and Catching Fire were insufficient for the Capitol's cowardly scum, and Katniss and Peeta (along with dozens of other victors) must take part in a special round of the Games. This round will change everything. For everyone. 

The Games go badly, and Peeta is taken hostage by the Capitol. The President, who has developed an intense hatred of Katniss and Peeta over the past year, makes it his personal goal to torture Peeta beyond all recognition. 

Katniss has endured more, lost more, and been hurt more than any other tribute in the Games. She has to somehow find it within herself to pull it together for Peeta, and for the people of the districts. 

In a dramatic ending to a wildly climactic series, Katniss is faced with the opportunity to physically lead her people in a new direction. She shocks the world, and herself, with her choice. 

Best. Series. EVAH. Run along now and read it up today, people! 

The end. 

Mockinjay (Suzanne Collins)

Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

Surely by now the Capitol has realized that by messing with Katniss Everdeen, they have messed with the wrong girl? 

Apparently not. 

Even though she survived her first Hunger Games, Katniss has been brought back for another round. The trivial matter of lifetime immunity has been brushed aside by the bloodthirsty savages in the Capitol. Interestingly enough, when Katniss emerged as a winner in her first Hunger Games, she began a spark of rebellion in the people of the districts that just may propel them all to freedom. With every subsequent victory, she grows in popularity as the symbolic leader of the insurrection against the Capitol. 

Interestingly enough, a key element in the success of the rebellions involves Katniss and Peeta's exploration of a romance...and no one, not even the two of them, can decipher its authenticity. 

Catching Fire was irrefutably substandard to Hunger Games, but an essential stepping stone to the phenomenal conclusion of Katniss and Peeta in Mockinjay. Stay tuned! 

Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

Sometime in the future, there are 12 Districts. Each District is responsible for a certain industry, but is never permitted to flourish because of the tyranny of the Capitol. This means that every district is filled with people who are sick, starving, and always worried about basic needs. The Capitol controls boundaries, food, and medicine, and tightly so. 

As part of the Capitol's efforts to remind the people in the districts exactly who is in charge, every year the Hunger Games takes place. Two tributes from each district are selected by lottery to take part in a fight to the death, as the world watches it live on TV. The winner of the games is awarded a lifetime supply of food and shelter, which in turn benefits their entire district. 

Katniss Everdeen suddenly finds herself as one of this year's tributes for her district. Along with Peeta Melark (the other tribute from her district), Katniss enters the arena with a few dozen others who are eager to kill her as quickly as possible. The fights are gruesome, revealing the very worst of human nature, and leaving some definite surprises in the outcome of the most unique Hunger Games of all time. 

Without question, this book was the single best work of fiction I consumed in 2010. I was intrigued because there had been quite a bit of buzz surrounding the novel, and rightly so. To me, The Hunger Games was sort of The Giver meets The Lottery with a slice of Survivor and The Hatchet on the side, but somehow that strange combination was brilliant. I borrowed this book from a young adult library in my school's feeder pattern, and was so thankful that I had a Kindle to immediately download and begin the second book in the series! 

I barely even closed the cover of The Hunger Games before beginning the second book in the series. Next up, Catching Fire... 

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

The Confession (John Grisham)

Donte' Drumm is a young man wrongly accused, wrongly convicted, and potentially on his way to being wrongly executed by the state of Texas. There is a team of legal experts working feverishly to save him, but the one person who can set him free is the man who actually committed the crime of which Donte' is accused. 

Enter Travis Boyette. Total freak and creepazoid with one disgusting crime after another on his record, Travis is one troubled man. He decides it's time to confess to the world that he knows Donte' is innocent, and explain how he knows that, and chooses a Lutheran minister in Kansas as his recipient. Pastor Keith Schroeder is in for the ride of his life as he and Travis race to Texas in a last minute attempt to set Donte' Drumm free. 

The Confession was an absolute fantastic read! I do love a good Grisham, and this one was definitely one of his best. No confusing legal jargon, no technical and detail-heavy plots that twist beyond all recognition. Just a great story that leaves you thinking, truly thinking, about what you believe and why you believe it. Capital punishment is definitely an issue that divides America, and not always along party lines. It is good to examine your beliefs in order to alter or affirm them, and it's why I am liking this one a great deal. I do love a good book that makes me think! 

The Confession (John Grisham)

Kindle Convert-2nd edition

It's good to have become more comfy with my Kindle. Read about my conversion here. At this stage, I would say easily that I read every single day for at least 10 minutes on my Kindle, and that of the 8 books I have going right now, 7 of them are on my Kindle. My reading has not changed, but my reading habits are.

Here are some additional perks I've noticed about using the Kindle:

• pre-orders are available for hotly anticipated books, and are magically directly delivered to your Kindle at the stroke of midnight on release date (actually, whenever you turn on the device after it is released...but technically that could be midnight!)
• the aforementioned books are always cheaper than purchasing it in a store
• some library systems are beginning to provide e-checkouts for Kindle users
• the already impressive battery life easily quadruples when wi-fi/3G is disabled
• because of the ability to create and manage collections (lists), you can easily batch-add lists of books to your "To-Read" list

And in the interest of presenting a fair and balanced review, here are some of the less desirable qualities of an eReader:

• Use on airplanes (especially smaller ones) is limited. I once tried using mine anyway with the wireless disabled (rebel that I am), but the flight attendant was having none of that, thankyouverymuch. 
• There's no getting around it...books are just pretty. I like stacks here and there, and using them around our home. No matter how cute your case is, you just can't decorate with a Kindle. 
• Even though the stamina of the Kindle's power charge is ah-may-zing, I still love that an actual physical book can never deny me access because of a low battery. 

Kindle Convert-2nd edition

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Stieg Larsson)

This is the third and final installation in Stieg Larsson's "Dragon Tattoo" series. 

In the first, I met Salander and Mikael.

In the second, I tried to figure out what to think of them.

It is in the third book that I made peace with Salander and Mikael, and in many ways they found some peace (or at least closure) themselves.

Because of events that transpired in The Girl Who Played With Fire, Salander is now in critical care, literally fighting for her life...both from her own injuries and from the man down the hall who's trying to off her.

More than anything, she is trying to regain her mental faculties and physical abilities because she has things to do and people to kill. Oh, Salander...

There's also the trivial matter of that pesky triple murder case in which Salander is the only suspect.

I liked this series quite a bit, but this wasn't my favorite book of the three. It tended to be a bit slower and lacked the "pow" factor that was so heavy in the other two. However, I did love that in this book, FINALLY Salander gains some control and the ability to make some choices in what was to happen to her.  

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Stieg Larsson)

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson)

Meet the second installment in the Stieg Larsson series.

Salander remains a force to be reckoned with, as does Mikael Blomkvist.

Just before an expose' on the prevalence of sex trafficking in Sweden was set to be published, its authors are cruelly murdered. Mikael has the distinct misfortune of arriving at their apartment very briefly after the killings occur, and becomes intrinsically linked to the case.

Salander disappeared after the conclusion of their last adventure and is tucked away minding her own business until suddenly she becomes accused of the murders, and another-the slaying of a man who she had every reason to kill.

Oddly enough, the hunt for Salander eventually leads to the discovery of her father, whom she never wished to see again after a time in their life she referred to as "All the Evil." It is in this book where we find out exactly what happened to Salander to shape her into the fascinating, ruthless woman that she has become.

All along the way, Mikael trails her, attempting to exonerate her (despite her efforts otherwise). He is the friend to her that she never had, though she fails to recognize it even now, and even though she is determined to kill...again?

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson)

The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

Thousands of years ago life was obviously much different than modern existence. One rule of nature that has not changed, however, is the waning and waxing of the moon's monthly cycle...and the way women marked their own monthly cycles by the moon. The Red Tent is a book about so many things and biblical characters, but centers on the way women took their place in the red tent of the family during their monthly bleeding. I have had this on my list for a long time and always thought the women were SENT to the red tent, and that they had to go in order to separate their uncleanness from society. Po thangs. Yeah, only, Diamant paints a much different picture. There was quite a par-tay going on up in that red tent. Or there was in her telling of it, anyhow. 

So Dinah is our narrator, and she just so happens to be the only surviving daughter of Leah. For some biblical background, Leah was the first wife of Jacob (Isaac's son and Abraham's grandson) and sister to Rachel. Jacob ended up taking 4 wives total, all sisters. It seems as though Dinah truly was the only surviving daughter of Jacob and his wives, even with a whole fleet of brothers.

We learn, along with Dinah, that every month, the appearance of the new moon was a signal for the women of Dinah's family to retreat to their red tent. This is where the women would go and have their "time" away from the rest of the men. They also birthed their babies and recovered from delivery in the red tent. They sang songs together, rubbed one another's feet feet with oil, told family stories and legends, ate sweet cakes drizzled with honey, and massaged one another's shoulders. This was 3 days of pure girl time that gave them the opportunity to rest and relax before another month of the grueling service of everyday life. 

It's also important to note that included in Dinah's tale is the (fictionalized) version of the events surrounding the biblical Old Testament Jacob (who cheated his twin Esau out of a birth right); his wives Leah, Rachel, and their sisters; his pack of sons who ranged from precious and gentle to hateful and greedy; Dinah's marriage and the tragedy that resulted at the hand of her brothers; and the sale of Joseph into slavery, along with his rise to power in Egypt. All of these are embellished with Diamant's imagination and characteristics of people of this time that could have occurred, though there is no biblical record. 

Those women were on to something! Retreating to the red tent for sweet cakes, pedicures, hand massages, singing, and storytelling...they had the world's best-kept secret because no man would dare try to enter their tent and disturb them during this time! Why in the world aren't we permitting ourself a trip to the red tent?!  

For all that I loved about their red tent, I also considered it a dangerous foothold. The women had no religion other than the worship of the household and fertility idols passed down in their family, and the idols were quite prevalent in all the women's dealings, to say the least. In this book the only exposure Jacob gave of his worship to the one true God was that he did so himself, failing to teach his wives about the Lord as well. This can be a danger for every believer, and I pray that I will not be selfish with what I know and learn about my God. 

The idolatry was bothersome, and there were also some other troublesome details about everyday life, including the suggestion of bestiality among the shepherds, the physical use of an idol to "unlock" a girl's  womb, and Dinah's version of eternity...to name a few. 

I don't take all the details in Diamant's book as truth, but I do enjoy having my mind opened to what daily life might truly have been like for Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilphah, Joseph, and our dear sweet Dinah. Interestingly enough, I always sort of felt sorry for Joseph. You know, favorite son, target, odd man out, sensitive, visions and the like; however, this book paints him as a real prick. And the more I consider it, the more likely that seems to have been. The Bible indeed does give clear indication that he had quite a bit of pride to reckon with. 

So although I really raised my eyebrows at some of its contents, I really enjoy and value any book that gives me pause to consider the blanks left in the biblical account. 

*Find The Truth about Dinah and her peeps in Genesis 29-38. 

The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

One word: ABSURD.

This book, a childhood classic and available for free download via Google books, Kindle book store, etc. is just. plain. weird.

Alice is a little girl who is minding her own business one day, when out of the blue she follows a talking rabbit into his hole. Thus begins the first of numerous wacky experiences for Alice, as she enters the mysterious Wonderland.

There is a preface that explains that Alice's story was created as an entertaining bedtime story for children. It definitely has that mindless, pointless but entertaining aspect.

What I found most troublesome was the common thread that every single person Alice met was so incredibly contrary and argumentative. Everyone was rather rude, and both insulting and easily offended. I have no idea if there is some worthy symbolism below that surface, but I found Alice, her talking rabbit and turtle and cheshire cat and pig-baby simply....weird.

At least I got it for free on my Kindle! :)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)