Book Report
Sep. 14th, 2014 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisBook Report
How to Meditate by Pema Chodron – A very solid audio book on meditation, taken from lectures by the Buddhist nun. I learned a lot and will keep trying to do this. Grade: B
Unfriending My Ex by Kim Stolz – This is a book that covers our addiction to social media. The author was a reality TV star (she was on “America’s Next Top Model” and was openly gay on the show, a show which FYI I’ve never watched). Stolz shares a lot about her own and her friends’ bad experiences with too much social media, and she occasionally throws in some science or a report on it. You know, how it’s reducing our attention spans, making us less empathetic, getting us addicted to the rushes. It’s a short book, but despite its brevity, by the end I was getting pretty tired of example after example from the author’s circle of people. Stolz does make a compelling case for managing our social media instead of letting it manage us, and for reducing our time spent on it. Sometimes she goes a bit too far, blaming social media on some of her friends’ breakups and cheating. (Come on). The book is not rocket science, but has some good reminders. As an aside, since I am a very devoted fan of someone who starred in a reality TV show, I gotta say that reading Stolz’s experiences with fans after her stint on another show helped open my eyes to what it must be like from the star’s perspective – so that was a plus to her book. (She writes how like after being on the show, she accepted friend requests from lots of fans and that could be awkward at times). Grade: B-
Raven Flight by Juliette Marillier – This is the second book in a series by one of my favorite authors. She writes historical fantasy, and in this series, an evil King has taken over the land and a small group of fighters and mystics are trying to end his cruelty. The novel is much like Marillier’s other works. I love the setting that she creates, and the plot is compelling enough. I would have liked this series to have had stronger characterizations, and after having read at least 8 of this author’s novels, I am forced to admit that her lead characters are almost interchangeable. Not good. I do give her props for creating a more compelling secondary character, the wounded warrior Tali. All in all, this novel was enjoyable enough. Grade: B
Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden – I really don’t know what to say about this book and maybe I shouldn’t say that much. It’s about the only known prisoner to have escaped from one of North Korea’s labor camps. His story sounds almost to terrible to be true, but several former guards at such prisons who have defected have confirmed that the events that Shin Dong-hyuk describes (with the help of journalist Blaine Harden) were pretty standard fare at North Korea’s prison camps. Sometimes we can read about the Holocaust or about the gulags and at least take some measure of comfort in the fact that these things don’t exist anymore. Unfortunately unknown numbers of innocent people are still suffering in North Korea’s labor camps. Grade: A
Farthing by Jo Walton – I have to admit that I am ambivalent about this novel. The premise is intriguing: an alternate 1949 where Hitler was allowed to remain in power and take over much of Europe. England has remained Hitler-free as they had brokered a deal. Now the country is slowly sliding into fascism. Against this backdrop is a murder mystery, a lot of closeted gay characters, and a husband and wife where one is Jewish (and thus faces serious prejudice) and one is not. It should have added up to more than it actually did. I wanted to be riveted to the page but I wasn’t, and I am leaning against reading the sequel. (I must add as an aside that I often read historical fiction wishing that more gay characters would be included. In this novel, by the end of it, pretty much most of the main characters are revealed to have been gay or bi, a fact which I'd like to applaud but it really strains credulity!!) Grade: C+
Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish
As with most book reports, usually there is a novel or two that I pick up and just don’t get into. I prefer non-fiction.
How to Meditate by Pema Chodron – A very solid audio book on meditation, taken from lectures by the Buddhist nun. I learned a lot and will keep trying to do this. Grade: B
Unfriending My Ex by Kim Stolz – This is a book that covers our addiction to social media. The author was a reality TV star (she was on “America’s Next Top Model” and was openly gay on the show, a show which FYI I’ve never watched). Stolz shares a lot about her own and her friends’ bad experiences with too much social media, and she occasionally throws in some science or a report on it. You know, how it’s reducing our attention spans, making us less empathetic, getting us addicted to the rushes. It’s a short book, but despite its brevity, by the end I was getting pretty tired of example after example from the author’s circle of people. Stolz does make a compelling case for managing our social media instead of letting it manage us, and for reducing our time spent on it. Sometimes she goes a bit too far, blaming social media on some of her friends’ breakups and cheating. (Come on). The book is not rocket science, but has some good reminders. As an aside, since I am a very devoted fan of someone who starred in a reality TV show, I gotta say that reading Stolz’s experiences with fans after her stint on another show helped open my eyes to what it must be like from the star’s perspective – so that was a plus to her book. (She writes how like after being on the show, she accepted friend requests from lots of fans and that could be awkward at times). Grade: B-
Raven Flight by Juliette Marillier – This is the second book in a series by one of my favorite authors. She writes historical fantasy, and in this series, an evil King has taken over the land and a small group of fighters and mystics are trying to end his cruelty. The novel is much like Marillier’s other works. I love the setting that she creates, and the plot is compelling enough. I would have liked this series to have had stronger characterizations, and after having read at least 8 of this author’s novels, I am forced to admit that her lead characters are almost interchangeable. Not good. I do give her props for creating a more compelling secondary character, the wounded warrior Tali. All in all, this novel was enjoyable enough. Grade: B
Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden – I really don’t know what to say about this book and maybe I shouldn’t say that much. It’s about the only known prisoner to have escaped from one of North Korea’s labor camps. His story sounds almost to terrible to be true, but several former guards at such prisons who have defected have confirmed that the events that Shin Dong-hyuk describes (with the help of journalist Blaine Harden) were pretty standard fare at North Korea’s prison camps. Sometimes we can read about the Holocaust or about the gulags and at least take some measure of comfort in the fact that these things don’t exist anymore. Unfortunately unknown numbers of innocent people are still suffering in North Korea’s labor camps. Grade: A
Farthing by Jo Walton – I have to admit that I am ambivalent about this novel. The premise is intriguing: an alternate 1949 where Hitler was allowed to remain in power and take over much of Europe. England has remained Hitler-free as they had brokered a deal. Now the country is slowly sliding into fascism. Against this backdrop is a murder mystery, a lot of closeted gay characters, and a husband and wife where one is Jewish (and thus faces serious prejudice) and one is not. It should have added up to more than it actually did. I wanted to be riveted to the page but I wasn’t, and I am leaning against reading the sequel. (I must add as an aside that I often read historical fiction wishing that more gay characters would be included. In this novel, by the end of it, pretty much most of the main characters are revealed to have been gay or bi, a fact which I'd like to applaud but it really strains credulity!!) Grade: C+
Books I Started Reading But Didn’t Finish
As with most book reports, usually there is a novel or two that I pick up and just don’t get into. I prefer non-fiction.
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no subject
Date: 2014-09-16 03:37 pm (UTC)Unfriending my ex sounds like it could have been good. There's probably something like it written by a researcher that covers the topic better. I don't have too many folks in my life that i have a contentious relationship with (and pretty much none that i would be facebook friends with. i mean, seriously) but i can imagine how it might be really hard to be deeply entangled with someone in online life as well as real life and trying to get out of that would be difficult. i'm with you though, when people start trying to blame social media for their relationships ending/cheating... that's just making excuses. How do you feel your perspective has changed about seeing things from the side of the reality star?
I know you've mentioned Marillier before. It's disappointing that some of her characters are so similar. However, I've read quite a few books where I didn't particularly care for the main character, but enjoyed the secondary characters so much that I didn't mind :)
Sometimes it's so frustrating reading books about situations that are that grossly unjust and knowing there's really nothing or very little that you can do about it. sometimes i feel like all the bad news that there is from all over the world is just overwhelming.
Thanks for sharing as usual :)
no subject
Date: 2014-09-17 12:34 am (UTC)For the Unfriending book….maybe it was just that Kim Stolz talked about having been on a reality show, getting a ton of friend requests, and then feeling obligated to accept them. And then like having a ton of 'friends' who she didn't know in real life. I hope Justin never felt pressured to accept my request.
I really do wish I could do something about North Korea. There is a group that helps people defect. But these are obviously not people in labor camps. I am debating whether or not to donate to them. I guess it's the age-old scenario: it's a drop in the bucket but it would sure mean the world to that one person. But there are millions of people in North Korea, and they can't all defect one by one, it would take forever. But doing nothing and wishing their dictator wasn't such a dick isn't helping either. I just don't know.
Thanks for reading.