Quick Synopsis: A young man learns that some of life’s most important lessons can be found in the works of Jane Austen Quick Review: Maybe a bit too constructed to be a true memoir, this is at least an interesting take on Austen and what one guy believes her works say about growing up and becoming a more decent person Read the full review here
Running is the new slow
It is difficult to capture the theme of this book as there is none. Murakami writes a journal while training for a marathon. In this process he talks about life as a novelist, life as a runner and life as a person who is living it. Sometimes he takes you running. You are there alongside him when he runs mile after mile next to rivers while being passed by college runners and 70 year old ladies. He will build you up on the run, let […]
How to make cheesecake with a microwave and laughing cow cheese
If you live under a rock, Orange is the New Black is the memoir of a Smith College grad who spent her post-college days experimenting with lesbianism and drug trafficking. Okay, to be fair, she might have been more grounded in the former than the latter, but it’s not really clear from the book. Watch the Netfiix series, though, and you’ll get waaaaaaay more lesbionic love scenes than the source material proffers. But that’s not to say you should skip the book! OITNB (get with […]
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
To escape the factory farm. At least that’s how Jonathan Safran Foer would explain it based on his book, Eating Animals. Using his unique style similar to Everything is Illuminated, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer investigates the process of how meat gets from the farm to our table. The impetus for this investigation was when he was deciding whether to raise his newborn son on a vegetarian diet or as an omnivore. I can relate to Foer’s journey because it’s something I’ve done […]
Four agreements: refreshing, enlightening, and hard
This book seemed perfect for me: interested in metaphysical philosophy and highly recommended by my best friend, whose interest in spirituality and growth is similar to mine. It is written by Don Miguel Ruiz, a shaman, and concerns the ways we have constructed our own version of reality – and the four “agreements” we can make with ourselves to start living in a much healthier and happier world. Here are the “agreements”: Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always […]
Geological love stories and bisons fleeing Yellowstone
Considering all the earthquake talk and stories about animals fleeing Yellowstone (but not really), I figured now would be a good time for a review of Simon Winchester’s A Crack in the Edge of the World: American and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. I admit that I sometimes like to read disaster nonfiction (I don’t get out enough anymore) and from the title it seems like a disaster story, but it is much more than that. Winchester in good geologist fashion gives you the entire […]