more animals
Want more cat pics? Of course, go to I Can Has Cheezburger for your daily dose.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
LolCats
Let's face it. I suck at blogging on this blog. I suppose it's because I have another blog I update with day-to-day things. So instead of wasting time with talking about the books I haven't been reading this week (all mags, pretty much, and the wonderful comic compilations of Get Fuzzy and Cul de Sac,) I thought I'd gakk a LolCat and put it here.
more animals
Want more cat pics? Of course, go to I Can Has Cheezburger for your daily dose.
more animals
Want more cat pics? Of course, go to I Can Has Cheezburger for your daily dose.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
After another break....
I have realized I don't have the stamina to keep up this blog as I had originally intended, but I want to keep the idea viable, so I am going to modify it and use it as a list of briefer book reviews.
This past week, I have finished three books; the first was Blue Death, by Robert D. Morris, a true story of waterborne diseases. Actually, it read like two separate books. The first half of the book dealt with Dr. John Snow, the Victorian-era doctor who discovered that cholera was a waterborne disease, and with the scientists who eventually isolated cholera. The rest of the book dealt with recent outbreaks of waterborne disease, such as in Milwaukee and in New Orleanse after Katrina. It was interesting and informative, and as Cedar Rapids has recently undergone its flood, reading this book made me realize how lucky we were that our drinking water was not so contaminated. It also made me wonder what the numbers for people in Iowa after the flooding were, or if anyone became ill from waterborne disease.
The second of this week's books was Food, Sex, and Salmonella, by David Waltner-Toews. I didn't enjoy this book. The author was trying too hard to be clever, and failed miserably. The premise was interesting - the discussion of how bacteria, viruses, and parasites spread through the food supply - but the author's attempts at an esoteric approach and his overstretched vocabulary made the book harder to stomach than the subject matter.
The third of this week's books was Overtreated, by Shannon Brownlee. This book was a real eye-opener and I think that everyone ought to read it. I didn't agree with some of the more radical and socialistic ideas Brownlee had for how to fix the medical establishment, but this discussion needs to be carried out in the public spectrum. Her point was that, as the subtitle says, the quantity of medical care one receives does not directly correlate to the quality of care one receives, and that the current system we have - where doctors are paid for quantity, not quality - in fact shortchanges the patient. Definitely read it if you have not.
I also reread Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub, the sequel to These Old Shades and precursor to An Infamous Army and thereby in part to Regency Buck. Devil's Cub is a charming, funny romance of a kidnapping that turns into an elopement that turns into a marriage, but of course with the Alistair family (represented, in all his reprehensible glory in this book, by the wild Marquis of Vidal, Dominic Alistair) nothing in love ever comes easy.
I am currently reading Where the Wild Things Were by William Stolzenburg, and so far I'm finding it fascinating. If you want to know more about the impact of predators on ecosystems, or if you - like me - worry that the planet's ecological balance is dangerously out of whack, you will enjoy this book. The scope paid to the importance of predators and the different kinds of evidence the author uses to support his views are excellent.
This past week, I have finished three books; the first was Blue Death, by Robert D. Morris, a true story of waterborne diseases. Actually, it read like two separate books. The first half of the book dealt with Dr. John Snow, the Victorian-era doctor who discovered that cholera was a waterborne disease, and with the scientists who eventually isolated cholera. The rest of the book dealt with recent outbreaks of waterborne disease, such as in Milwaukee and in New Orleanse after Katrina. It was interesting and informative, and as Cedar Rapids has recently undergone its flood, reading this book made me realize how lucky we were that our drinking water was not so contaminated. It also made me wonder what the numbers for people in Iowa after the flooding were, or if anyone became ill from waterborne disease.
The second of this week's books was Food, Sex, and Salmonella, by David Waltner-Toews. I didn't enjoy this book. The author was trying too hard to be clever, and failed miserably. The premise was interesting - the discussion of how bacteria, viruses, and parasites spread through the food supply - but the author's attempts at an esoteric approach and his overstretched vocabulary made the book harder to stomach than the subject matter.
The third of this week's books was Overtreated, by Shannon Brownlee. This book was a real eye-opener and I think that everyone ought to read it. I didn't agree with some of the more radical and socialistic ideas Brownlee had for how to fix the medical establishment, but this discussion needs to be carried out in the public spectrum. Her point was that, as the subtitle says, the quantity of medical care one receives does not directly correlate to the quality of care one receives, and that the current system we have - where doctors are paid for quantity, not quality - in fact shortchanges the patient. Definitely read it if you have not.
I also reread Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub, the sequel to These Old Shades and precursor to An Infamous Army and thereby in part to Regency Buck. Devil's Cub is a charming, funny romance of a kidnapping that turns into an elopement that turns into a marriage, but of course with the Alistair family (represented, in all his reprehensible glory in this book, by the wild Marquis of Vidal, Dominic Alistair) nothing in love ever comes easy.
I am currently reading Where the Wild Things Were by William Stolzenburg, and so far I'm finding it fascinating. If you want to know more about the impact of predators on ecosystems, or if you - like me - worry that the planet's ecological balance is dangerously out of whack, you will enjoy this book. The scope paid to the importance of predators and the different kinds of evidence the author uses to support his views are excellent.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Review: Jesus Freaks
Jesus Freaks
Don Lattin
I'm not trying to go through a phase of anti-cult literature - honest, I'm not - but Jesus Freaks caught my eye at the library. Honestly, I thought it was a different book (Krakaur's Under the Banner of Heaven was the book I was looking for), but I opted to read this book for now.
I knew nothing, going into this book, about the Children of God, also called The Family. Lattin does a creditable job of explaining who they were (an offshoot of the '70's hippie culture) and what their religious views entailed (for example, a hippie-like approach to free love). The book moves quickly - in my opinion, rather too quickly - as it explores the murder committed by Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez in January of 2005. Rodriguez was the son of David Berg's second wife and one of the men with whom she engaged in "flirty fishing" (which involved female cult members trading sex to share "the gospel" of Christ). Rodriguez was supposed to be the "heir" of the cult, but growing up in an atmosphere of pervasive sexual license (up to and including sexual experimentation and abuse of and by children) caused Rodriguez to leave the cult as a young man and marry a fellow escapee. Lattin details how Rodriguez attempted to live a normal life before deciding to murder those responsible for his abuse; Berg was dead by then, but his mother was still alive. Lattin explains that Rodriguez was attempting to get to her when he instead killed the woman closest to her - who had numerous aliases but is referred to as both Joy and Angela in the book - and then shot himself.
There is a lot of interesting information about the different movements that arose in the '70s, about which - as I have confessed - I am ignorant. Once this book descends to the meat of the story - what drove Rodriguez to commit murder - it begins to tumble over itself. While recognizing that there is much that the author could not know about the psychology of Rodriguez, enough else is inferred about his mental state that deeper treatment would have helped fleshed out the tale. It is a tragic story of past acts coming back to haunt the future, but there is a great deal missing and it ends up being nothing more than that - a sad story, but one without anything to grip onto. In the end, I wasn't sure what the 'madness' of the subtitle - A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge referred to: Rodriguez, his mother, Berg, or the cult itself.
2 out of 5.
See for yourself
Jesus Freaks
Don Lattin
I'm not trying to go through a phase of anti-cult literature - honest, I'm not - but Jesus Freaks caught my eye at the library. Honestly, I thought it was a different book (Krakaur's Under the Banner of Heaven was the book I was looking for), but I opted to read this book for now.
I knew nothing, going into this book, about the Children of God, also called The Family. Lattin does a creditable job of explaining who they were (an offshoot of the '70's hippie culture) and what their religious views entailed (for example, a hippie-like approach to free love). The book moves quickly - in my opinion, rather too quickly - as it explores the murder committed by Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez in January of 2005. Rodriguez was the son of David Berg's second wife and one of the men with whom she engaged in "flirty fishing" (which involved female cult members trading sex to share "the gospel" of Christ). Rodriguez was supposed to be the "heir" of the cult, but growing up in an atmosphere of pervasive sexual license (up to and including sexual experimentation and abuse of and by children) caused Rodriguez to leave the cult as a young man and marry a fellow escapee. Lattin details how Rodriguez attempted to live a normal life before deciding to murder those responsible for his abuse; Berg was dead by then, but his mother was still alive. Lattin explains that Rodriguez was attempting to get to her when he instead killed the woman closest to her - who had numerous aliases but is referred to as both Joy and Angela in the book - and then shot himself.
There is a lot of interesting information about the different movements that arose in the '70s, about which - as I have confessed - I am ignorant. Once this book descends to the meat of the story - what drove Rodriguez to commit murder - it begins to tumble over itself. While recognizing that there is much that the author could not know about the psychology of Rodriguez, enough else is inferred about his mental state that deeper treatment would have helped fleshed out the tale. It is a tragic story of past acts coming back to haunt the future, but there is a great deal missing and it ends up being nothing more than that - a sad story, but one without anything to grip onto. In the end, I wasn't sure what the 'madness' of the subtitle - A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge referred to: Rodriguez, his mother, Berg, or the cult itself.
2 out of 5.
See for yourself
Jesus Freaks
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Review: Debunked!
Debunked!
Richard Roeper
I thought this book was hysterical. And if you think the world is, in general, suffering from an overdose of hysteria, then you'll love it, too. Roeper sets out in this book to debunk many of the so-called "truths" of our time, and he has fun while doing it. Along the way he addresses Katrina news-reporting gone wild, conspiracy theorists who spin elaborate stories of what really happened on September 11th, 2001, and why Christmas won't disappear any time soon. I did wish at times that the pieces were longer - Roeper writes newspaper articles and this book is chock-full of article-length pieces - and I also wished that he would cite sources both where he uncovered what he was debunking and the evidence used in the debunkery. (I know it isn't a word.) It's a fast read, along the lines of an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, only less eclectic and random. Roeper has a way of turning a phrase, but he never is mean-spirited in the presentation of his urban media legends and his rebuttals.
If it seems to you sometimes that the media - indeed, the world - is becoming just a little too bizarre, this is the kind of book that helps you steer back to an even keel.
Get it:
Debunked!
Richard Roeper
I thought this book was hysterical. And if you think the world is, in general, suffering from an overdose of hysteria, then you'll love it, too. Roeper sets out in this book to debunk many of the so-called "truths" of our time, and he has fun while doing it. Along the way he addresses Katrina news-reporting gone wild, conspiracy theorists who spin elaborate stories of what really happened on September 11th, 2001, and why Christmas won't disappear any time soon. I did wish at times that the pieces were longer - Roeper writes newspaper articles and this book is chock-full of article-length pieces - and I also wished that he would cite sources both where he uncovered what he was debunking and the evidence used in the debunkery. (I know it isn't a word.) It's a fast read, along the lines of an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, only less eclectic and random. Roeper has a way of turning a phrase, but he never is mean-spirited in the presentation of his urban media legends and his rebuttals.
If it seems to you sometimes that the media - indeed, the world - is becoming just a little too bizarre, this is the kind of book that helps you steer back to an even keel.
Get it:
Debunked!
Review: Escape
Escape
Carolyn Jessop
This book was a huge seller from the moment it hit the shelves at the bookstore where I work, and having finally had the chance to sit down and read it, I understand why. It reads like a slow-motion train-wreck; you already know the ending (as it is told in the first chapter), and yet following the trail to reach that ending makes it rude to stare and still impossible to look away.
Jessop, born and raised in the polygamist sect (*cult) of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The FLDS, for those keeping tabs, is also known as the fundamentalist Mormon church; it broke with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over issues including polygamy and considers itself the true church. The practice of marrying multiple wives is important to the sect, as Jessop recounts; the more wives a man has, the higher his standing is. Jessop's husband was a high-standing member in the church; she was married to him when she was eighteen, and he in his fifties. Over the fifteen years of their marriage she gave birth to eight children; after the birth of the last one, she had an emergency hysterectomy to save her life.
Carolyn Jessop endured years of abuse at the hands of both her parents and later her husband, and the retelling of this abuse - both childhood beatings and later incidents of what she percieved as spousal rape - is difficult for the average reader to stomach. It is also difficult for the reader to fathom how intelligent women would stay in such dire situations, and the way that the situations prey upon these same women, making them enemies instead of the "sister-wives" they should be. She recounts an especially telling incident where Merril took herself and the two wives he married after her along to Hawaii for a vacation; there, the wives engaged in spats as to who would sleep with the husband. The idea that three young women would fight for sexual favors from a much older man to whom none of them wanted to be married, and who would give none of them any pleasure, is both sad and absurd.
The end of Jessop's story - once she flees her husband - proves however the resiliency of the human spirit. She managed to escape with all of her children, and while one daughter chose to return to the cult (which is, coincidentally, the same movement who occupies the YFZ or Yearning for Zion ranch which the government raided earlier this year), the rest were adjusting and adapting to life on the outside. Jessop also has found a relationship with someone who loves her and whom she loves; and her brother and sisters - who left the cult before she did - have been supportive of her. It was in large parts because of her story and her testimony that Warren Jeffs was indicted, arrested, and imprisoned.
This book, though understandably distressing, has a very strong message about the power of human beings to rise above what life deals them.
To see an interview Jessop gave, visit Time's website from October 24, 2007. If you are interested in seeing what other (negative) reviews say, you can always read Brooke Adams' blog. For more information about the YFZ ranch and the recent raid there, you can visit this site or this one.
I give this a 3.5 out of 5, and don't recommend it for younger readers or those sensitive to subject matter involving child abuse, spousal abuse, or sexual abuse.
Get it:
Escape
Carolyn Jessop
This book was a huge seller from the moment it hit the shelves at the bookstore where I work, and having finally had the chance to sit down and read it, I understand why. It reads like a slow-motion train-wreck; you already know the ending (as it is told in the first chapter), and yet following the trail to reach that ending makes it rude to stare and still impossible to look away.
Jessop, born and raised in the polygamist sect (*cult) of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The FLDS, for those keeping tabs, is also known as the fundamentalist Mormon church; it broke with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over issues including polygamy and considers itself the true church. The practice of marrying multiple wives is important to the sect, as Jessop recounts; the more wives a man has, the higher his standing is. Jessop's husband was a high-standing member in the church; she was married to him when she was eighteen, and he in his fifties. Over the fifteen years of their marriage she gave birth to eight children; after the birth of the last one, she had an emergency hysterectomy to save her life.
Carolyn Jessop endured years of abuse at the hands of both her parents and later her husband, and the retelling of this abuse - both childhood beatings and later incidents of what she percieved as spousal rape - is difficult for the average reader to stomach. It is also difficult for the reader to fathom how intelligent women would stay in such dire situations, and the way that the situations prey upon these same women, making them enemies instead of the "sister-wives" they should be. She recounts an especially telling incident where Merril took herself and the two wives he married after her along to Hawaii for a vacation; there, the wives engaged in spats as to who would sleep with the husband. The idea that three young women would fight for sexual favors from a much older man to whom none of them wanted to be married, and who would give none of them any pleasure, is both sad and absurd.
The end of Jessop's story - once she flees her husband - proves however the resiliency of the human spirit. She managed to escape with all of her children, and while one daughter chose to return to the cult (which is, coincidentally, the same movement who occupies the YFZ or Yearning for Zion ranch which the government raided earlier this year), the rest were adjusting and adapting to life on the outside. Jessop also has found a relationship with someone who loves her and whom she loves; and her brother and sisters - who left the cult before she did - have been supportive of her. It was in large parts because of her story and her testimony that Warren Jeffs was indicted, arrested, and imprisoned.
This book, though understandably distressing, has a very strong message about the power of human beings to rise above what life deals them.
To see an interview Jessop gave, visit Time's website from October 24, 2007. If you are interested in seeing what other (negative) reviews say, you can always read Brooke Adams' blog. For more information about the YFZ ranch and the recent raid there, you can visit this site or this one.
I give this a 3.5 out of 5, and don't recommend it for younger readers or those sensitive to subject matter involving child abuse, spousal abuse, or sexual abuse.
Get it:
Escape
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Mountaineering tragedy.
This seemed rather prescient, considering the recent weeklong exploration we did recently of mountaineering literature (see here for a review of Jordan's Savage Summit, featuring K-2).
My heart goes out to the families of these climbers. Nine climbers are missing on K-2, which is the second-highest mountain in the world (785 feet shorter than Everest, but steeper and with even more changeable weather conditions). An avalanche appears to have taken out the ropes on part of the descent. Some climbers appear to have been killed in the avalanche, and others were stranded without the ropes at a point called the "Bottleneck," 9,000 feet up the south face.
-----
From Yahoo!News
My heart goes out to the families of these climbers. Nine climbers are missing on K-2, which is the second-highest mountain in the world (785 feet shorter than Everest, but steeper and with even more changeable weather conditions). An avalanche appears to have taken out the ropes on part of the descent. Some climbers appear to have been killed in the avalanche, and others were stranded without the ropes at a point called the "Bottleneck," 9,000 feet up the south face.
-----
From Yahoo!News
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thoughts on vampires and cover art
I've been gone for a while, which is why I haven't posted in about a week. I plan on making this a twice-a-week blog from now on. It will be a little easier for me.
As such I don't have a review prepared for today, but I wanted to make a brief commentary on book covers. Anyone who is anyone in the teenage female reading public knows that this Saturday, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyers goes on sale. This is the conclusion to the fabulously famous Twilight series (it will be reviewed all over the Internet, I am sure, and I won't be reviewing it here). I'm not here to comment on the books; actually, I haven't read them. The sheer quantity of fandom for them turned me off them, rather like it did in the latter half of the Harry Potter series.
What I think is interesting about the series is the art used on the covers. The first book, Twilight shows a pair of hands open and extended, with a brilliant red apple nestled in the center. The second book, New Moon, shows what appears to be an orchid dripping blood from its white petals (though it is I believe a blood orchid, and the "blood" is part of the coloring of the petals). The third, Eclipse, shows a broken red satin or silk cord. This newest book, Breaking Dawn shows a chess board, with a white piece in prominent display to the front and a red surreptitious in the background. (Go on; see for yourself)
Those things might mean something to me if I read the book. I haven't, but I wonder how blatant the publisher was trying to be in making a never-subtle connection between vampirism and sex. The red apple, the dripping orchid, the broken cord; there is a unity in all and the use of the color red is suggestive of this latent sexuality and sensuality. Of course these have always been an important part of the vampire mythos, and judging by the fangirlishness prevalent in not-so-hidden corners of the Internet, this fact has not diminished in the current series. But does vampirism have to be about sex? And why has the vampire taken up again such a large portion of literature? From the Charlaine Harris books about Sukey Stackhouse, to the Coffin Club, to just about everything Anne Rice ever wrote, vampires are BIG news.
I think it is because the vampire has taken on certain characteristics; always available, considerate, sensuous, dangerous, and a complete alpha male. Vampire books have a tendency to be about submission. Is there something in the female mind that wishes for a male to be submissive to? I would argue that there is. As males in our culture see their masculinity diminshed and redefined, and as women see the idea presented more and more that you don't need to have a man to "have it all," the genre of romance writing and specifically the paranormal romance (or paranormal romance thriller) has boomed. The Twilight series epitomizes this, but is not the only one of it's ilk. I have the feeling that this is because somewhere in our primordial nature we remember as women that once we were hunted, and that because evoluntionarily this was beneficial to us, we still want to be hunted. And what better way to symbolize this than with the consummate hunter, the vampire?
Any thoughts?
As such I don't have a review prepared for today, but I wanted to make a brief commentary on book covers. Anyone who is anyone in the teenage female reading public knows that this Saturday, Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyers goes on sale. This is the conclusion to the fabulously famous Twilight series (it will be reviewed all over the Internet, I am sure, and I won't be reviewing it here). I'm not here to comment on the books; actually, I haven't read them. The sheer quantity of fandom for them turned me off them, rather like it did in the latter half of the Harry Potter series.
What I think is interesting about the series is the art used on the covers. The first book, Twilight shows a pair of hands open and extended, with a brilliant red apple nestled in the center. The second book, New Moon, shows what appears to be an orchid dripping blood from its white petals (though it is I believe a blood orchid, and the "blood" is part of the coloring of the petals). The third, Eclipse, shows a broken red satin or silk cord. This newest book, Breaking Dawn shows a chess board, with a white piece in prominent display to the front and a red surreptitious in the background. (Go on; see for yourself)
Those things might mean something to me if I read the book. I haven't, but I wonder how blatant the publisher was trying to be in making a never-subtle connection between vampirism and sex. The red apple, the dripping orchid, the broken cord; there is a unity in all and the use of the color red is suggestive of this latent sexuality and sensuality. Of course these have always been an important part of the vampire mythos, and judging by the fangirlishness prevalent in not-so-hidden corners of the Internet, this fact has not diminished in the current series. But does vampirism have to be about sex? And why has the vampire taken up again such a large portion of literature? From the Charlaine Harris books about Sukey Stackhouse, to the Coffin Club, to just about everything Anne Rice ever wrote, vampires are BIG news.
I think it is because the vampire has taken on certain characteristics; always available, considerate, sensuous, dangerous, and a complete alpha male. Vampire books have a tendency to be about submission. Is there something in the female mind that wishes for a male to be submissive to? I would argue that there is. As males in our culture see their masculinity diminshed and redefined, and as women see the idea presented more and more that you don't need to have a man to "have it all," the genre of romance writing and specifically the paranormal romance (or paranormal romance thriller) has boomed. The Twilight series epitomizes this, but is not the only one of it's ilk. I have the feeling that this is because somewhere in our primordial nature we remember as women that once we were hunted, and that because evoluntionarily this was beneficial to us, we still want to be hunted. And what better way to symbolize this than with the consummate hunter, the vampire?
Any thoughts?
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