My New Year's resolution was simply to keep track of the books I've read during the year. I always read quite a bit, but I don't keep any sort of records, then I don't end up remembering or sharing what I read. I decided to do index cards for each book and then report on them each month. So here's my January, in no particular order:
A World Undone, by G.J. Meyer
Probably one of the finest one volume overviews of WWI available. Meyer had a wonderful solution to the problem of dealing with all of the background historical issues of the war, which was to put short "interlude" chapters between the chapters on the course of the war. These began with the story of Franz Ferdinand and went on to things like an overview of the Ottoman Empire, Rasputin, and even one on war poetry. Someone new to WWI studies would be encourage to follow up with more detailed or critical works on specific areas, such as Niall Ferguson's excellent The Pity of War. Highly recommended.
Teen Proofing, by John Rosemond
John Rosemond is my favorite author on parenting issues, and he's without a close second. This particular book deals, obviously, with issues surrounding raising teenagers. Rosemond is very big on the concept of responsibility, so one the the main ideas here is that teenagers are and should be considered responsible for their own decisions. Part of what this means is that a) they will make bad decisions and b) those decisions are not your fault as a parent. The focus, then, is the subtitle of the book: "fostering responsible decision making in your teenager." Some of the book deals with how that should begin during the early and middle childhood years. Much of the book is Q&A from parents dealing with various issues with their teenagers. Very highly recommended.
Hospital, by Julia Salamon
I picked this one up to get a little background before beginning nursing school. Salamon spends a year at Moses Maimonides hospital in Brooklyn. It's a very fast paced, very multi-cultural hospital. One of the big things I picked up was a statement from on of the doctors that the fact that a patient doesn't speak English should be considered a risk factor on the level of other very serious risk factors. Communication barriers within a healthcare setting can be very serious. Recommended.
Deconstructing Theodicy, by David Burrell
This one is subtitled "Why the Book of Job has Nothing to Say to the Puzzle of Suffering." I attended a seminar on the book of Job a few years ago and found it very interesting. I also regularly hear questions specifically about the problem of evil and suffering, so I had high hopes that this book would be enlightening. It turned out to be a little too dry for my tastes (and I have a decent tolerance for dry books). Burrell seems to take the line that the book is more about the nature of men's relationship to God than it is about suffering and evil as such. I don't have any particular criticisms of his work other than the fact that I found it difficult going.
Focus, by Daniel Goleman
Did you know that you'll do better at something if you pay attention to what you're doing? If not, then you can thank me now for this nugget of wisdom. If you already knew that, then you really have no need to read this book. Waste of paper.
Beyond Belief, by Jenna Miscavige Hill
Ms. Hill's uncle is the person who took over the Scientology movement following the death of L. Ron Hubbard. She grew up entirely within Scientology, and thus provides a very intimate and detailed look inside. One of the things I learned is that there are basically three types of people associated with Scientology: seekers who are checking things out, getting their toes in the water; celebrities, the perpetual VIPs of the group; and insiders who do all of the physical and organizational work. Ms. Hill spent the majority of her life as an insider. This meant, for instance, putting in fours hours of heavy physical labor every morning before starting school (a school run on very odd principles, as you would expect). It also meant having very little contact with her own parents. Hubbard had been in the Navy, and structured his organization on military lines. This meant a very strict hierarchy where you lived and worked wherever your superiors said you would live and work, regardless of your family situation. Highly recommended.
The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michael Faber.
This is a big victorian novel stood on its head. Instead of being centered on wealthy Londoners dealing with issues of social upheaval, it centers on a prostitute (and one with a skin disease at that) who sets her eyes on rising to respectability. It's fairly dirty, so if you like that in a book, you'd probably enjoy this one (and the converse).
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespeare Plays, by Peter Leithart
Peter Leithart is one of my favorite Christian authors, and I like Shakespeare, so I figured this was a no-brainer. However I ended up tabling this one. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but it is written specifically as a text book for high school aged readers (with lots of exercises at the end of each chapter), so I'm going to put it back on the shelf until my kids are old enough to work through it.
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
The authors here look to approach various problems associated with poverty through an evidence based approach. They contrast the work of Jeffrey Sachs, on the one hand, who teaches that the poor face a big hump of various infrastructure problems which could be overcome by a concerted charitable commitment on a large scale, and William Easterly, on the other, who teaches that large scale solutions always tend towards failure for various reasons and that solutions need to stem from the poor themselves. Duflo and Banerjee put aside these positions and set up experiments regarding various specific issues (e.g. distribution of mosquito nets) to see what actually works and what doesn't. Their conclusions are complicated as each issue seems to have its own set of sub-issues which drive how we should think about development problems. Very highly recommended if you have any interest in international development problems.
Earthworks, by Brian Aldiss
A dystopian novel of overpopulation. The plot and characters didn't grab me in the slightest. Gave up on it, despite it being fair short.
The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks
I saw the film based on this one many years ago and found it utterly heart breaking. As always, reading the novel is a very different experience, but in this case one just as good. Banks' characters are as beautifully drawn as any I can remember from any novel. Very highly recommended.
No sig, must scream, etc.