serene’s posterous

I thought this book by Jon Krakauer was only average.  He uses the account of the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby daughter (by her Mormon fundamentalist brothers-in-law, Dan and Ron Lafferty) to examine Mormon history and roots of their beliefs.  While I don't think this is an anti-Mormon book, it certainly does reveal some less than flattering parts of the Mormon history.  It seems, however, that the historical parts are not well integrated with the rest of the book, as Krakauer moves from chapter to chapter. 

I liked this memoir by Azadeh Moaveni about her two years in Iran.  She was reporting for Time magazine, fell in love, got pregnant, then got married and had a baby in those two years.  The book gave some insight on the lives of the regular Iranian people and their Persian culture.  It seems that the author, as she grew up in California, had a generally idealistic view of her faith and Iran, but her extended time in Iran perhaps made her less idealistic.  I must be hard to straddle between the two cultures, her Western upbringing and the Persian and Muslim traditions.  I think this memoir at least gives us an idea about the psyche of the Iranian people.

Not having internet access for the past few weeks in the new apartment meant that in my downtime I do a lot more reading, rather than surfing the web.

This book, by Rose George, is one of the books I finished.  It was an thought provoking and engaging read, with lots of quotable bits of information.  For example, do you know an average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day? 

Sanitation is one of the biggest problems in the world, and poor sanitation is not confined to developing countries.  It is just not as cool to say we want to bring sanitation compared to bringing water to the people (perhaps that's why a charity is named "WaterAid" - not "SanitationAid").  Water and sanitation are intricately linked. We probably also don't want to think about sewage overflowing or why we shouldn't swim at some beaches.

I liked this book a lot more than Bottlemania, which is about water.

Paul Midler wrote this fascinating insider's account of Chinese manufacturing.  But I am not sure all that he writes about is representative of the whole industry.  There were a lot of personal anecdotes about the "quality fade" that happens once the factory gets the business - how the manufacturers actually make money from apparently low profit contracts, and the general short term thinking of the Chinese manufacturers.

This is a fun memoir of Ruth Reichl's days as a restaurant critic at the New York Times.  She describes how she needs to put on disguises and take on a whole different persona as she goes about her work.  Otherwise, she will get special treatment at the restaurants and will not be able to form an unbiased opinion of the restaurant.  I love her evocative descriptions of the food she ate.  I remember thinking that I got to go get some yummy sushi and soba soon after reading a particular section in the book.

This is a lighthearted memoir by Eve Brown-Waite about her experiences in Peace Corps in Ecuador, her eventual marriage to her recruiter, and finally their lives in Arua, Uganda.  I enjoyed the witty descriptions of her life in the book because it gives a sense of how things were (and probably still are) in Ecuador and Uganda.  It is hard to be a do-gooder!

Hmmm...third novel read in a row that has been made into a movie that I have not watched. 

I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction and to be immersed in some other time period.  I am not very familiar with the historical details in the Tudor period in England other than it was a tumultous time in England's history with the breaking from the Roman Catholic Church, and that King Henry VIII had several wives.  I imagine that Philippa Gregory took some liberties with the historical details for dramatic effect.  But since she used the lesser known Mary Boleyn as the narrator, she had somewhat more flexibility to take "artistic license".

The book was an easy read...it is mostly about plot development.  There was some sense of the rigid, claustrophobic life and all the politicking in the court.  Ultimately I wasn't too impressed by the book, it reads too much like a breathless fluffy throwaway.

Read this book by Tracy Chevalier during the flight to Kauai.  This is the second novel in the row I have read that has been made into a movie (and I haven't watched this movie either).  I like historical novels, and this one really immersed me in the world of the 1660s Delft, Holland.  It is also a neat idea...imagining how Vermeer came to paint this portrait of this girl with a pearl earring.  I think I have another of her novels lying around in the apartment, so I may read that next.

It has been a while since my last novel.  I have heard the movie adaptation is good, but I usually prefer to read the book first before watching the movie.

Some parts of the book was hard to read because you just know something bad was going to happen.  Nevertheless it was a very satisfying read, touching on themes of perspectives and attainability of atonement.  It was moving and thoughtful, and very hard to put down as I got towards the end of the book.  Now I want to watch the movie.

I picked this book by Tim Harford up a while ago, and have been reading it on-off.  But I finally finished reading it recently.  It was reasonably interesting to read, because it touched upon the economic principles behind everyday things.   For example, why does your coffee cost this much?  And why is there this huge gap between rich and poor countries?  I have heard that his Logic of Life book is more interesting, so I may read that next.