book review - Jason’s Feed

Book Review | The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain

The first one was better. Could I end my review there? Maybe. But I won’t. I really love the image of this guy above, this is sometimes how I see Bryson in his traveling books. Bryson is a local guy, an American, but he moved to England for some time and has written about different locales all over the world, my favorite still being A Walk in the Woods.

To me, The Road to Little Dribbling, sounds like it could be a book about a baby that drools. I’ve never understood why the names are themselves funny in England, I guess we have a lot of those in America too though.

Bill Bryson by Flickr User: The National Churches Trust

Bryson is a funny and engaging travel writer and I have read many of his books. There hasn’t been one that I disliked. All of them have been entertaining enough. This is the only book that I know if that is a sequel to one of his other books, Notes from a Small Island. I gave both of these books 3/5 star rating. Not great, but in no way bad. Still entertaining and I will keep them and re-read them at some point in the future as well.

The only reason they got a low’ish’ rating is that there are a lot of inside jokes that only Englishmen will get. Not being one a lot of references to people and places went over my head. Maybe this is why I liked A Walk in the Woods so much. Since that book takes place in the Application Mountains it’s a little closer to this California boy than England is.

Book Review | The Stranger in the Woods

This may have been my favorite book I read in 2017. I just let go of The Stranger in the Woods and gave it to my brother-in-law to read. It is the fascinating story of a hermit who lived by himself outside year-round in all the weather of Maine. It is a fascinating story!

I ate up this story! Of course, it is all true and amazing. Ther hermit is eventually busted for breaking an entering and hauled off to jail. Feeling incredibly ashamed of his crimes he pleads guilty yo more than one-thousand break-ins. After several months they released him to the custody of his family.

I found the writing style and the story engrossing. Have you ever taken a long time to read a book, not because you didn’t like it, but because you didn’t want it to end? This is how I read this book. I could have finished it in a sitting or two, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to savor the story. I wanted it to last. It earned a 5/5 rating from me!

Book Review | Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

This book! First, it was great! I only gave it 4/5 stars probably because of the depressing nature of the discussion the authors start with the reader. However, this is exactly what the book sets out to do and he doesn’t sugar coat things. Everything is laid out here and it is much worse than anyone thinks. There is a very large portion of our America that can’t make rent and are either provided with unsafe housing for partial rent or evicted. Then you see they have a record of missing payments and have an impossible time finding a place. If they can find a place the new landlord knows that they can take advantage of this person because they have very limited options. The vicious circle starts and never ends for these people. It is not a small group, but it is a group and a problem that is easy for many of us to ignore.

Matt does a great job bringing these problems to the forefront by interviewing many people and living in the same conditions as many of them. You can see how it was difficult for him and you feel for the people in his stories.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (22.9K reviews, 4.47 avg rating) has won more awards than you can shake a stick at:

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2017)
PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction (2017)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Current Interest (2016)
National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction (2016)
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction (2017)
Kirkus Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (2016)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2016)

Book Review | The Five Orange Pips

This is the fifth book in the Sherlock Holmes Adventures. This list from goodreads is the one I’m using to read them in a certain order. I really enjoy these and they are very short, but I have a hard time remembering to read the next one because I switch around so much on the series that I am reading.

This particular adventure, The Five Orange Pips, is another fun one. At 40 pages, it made a great read for the summer reading program because it was a very fast read, but still enjoyable. I can’t tell you much about this one as it is so short, to talk about it gives away a lot, but it involves the KKK in London. A good albeit short read. I recommend it as I do all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I rated this story 3\5 stars.

Book Review | What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

This was a book that was recommended to me by a librarian. That’s about as a good a recommendation as you can get? I mean who knows books better! What If? is from the creator of xkcd.com. There are always plenty of cool stick figure art, with witty snappy writing.

I read most of this on a plane. It was extremely helpful it distracting me from a long horrible cross-country flight from sunny beautiful California to New Jersy. …Yeah. Anything that can make that flight better is a damn good book.

I especially liked the discussion on how to rid the world of the common cold. Really fun topics and plenty of real science behind every little story in here. This read earned its 4/5 star rating.

Book Review | An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce is not really a book, it is a short, very short story. It is only 36 pages. Readers of the blog probably know that I picked this one up primarily as a way to get another book under my belt during the summer reading contests that the local libraries always have. The more books you read the more chances you have to win a prize.

“The condemned man stands on a bridge, his hands bound behind his back. A noose is tied around his neck…” – From An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Finding books to read in this way has introduced me to many new authors I would not have found on my own. For example, I had never heard of this book but it has 16,800 ratings on goodreads, with an average rating of 4.02. Which I agreed with giving it a 4/5 rating.

The photo above is from the Ambrose Bierce Project. This is not Owl Creek bridge, but a similar bridge on the same river to give you an idea. More pictures are available at the website.

I would say you won’t lose anything by reading this book including your time as it is so short, but don’t take my word for it:

“I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read the greatest American short story, which is ‘Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,’ by Ambrose Bierce.” – Kurt Vonnegut

If you can’t trust Kurt who can you?

Book Review | Eating Animals

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer is a very powerful book. It may change the way you eat forever. In the book, Jonathan tells the story of how he became vegetarian. I think he did a lot more research than the average person. This was the first book that I have read of his. It was his first time writing non-fiction. Since this book, he has gone on to write more non-fiction.

I picked up this book because it is at the top of the list for books about veganism and vegetarianism on goodreads. Jonathan has filled the book full of numbers to drive home his points:

“Americans choose to eat less than .25%of the known edible food on the planet”

“Ninety-nine percent of all land animals eaten or used to produce milk and eggs in the United States are factory farmed.”

“… omnivores contribute seven times the volume of greenhouse gages that vegans do.”

There are more, many more. Before you balk at these statements let me tell you that Jonathan had the book fact-checked by two independent professional fact-checkers.

When you read this you can’t dismiss it. This is how our nation is creating food for us at low prices. We are suffering for it. I really don’t think that people know this is happening. If they do they are ignoring it. This is not good for us, the animals, our nation or our planet and we simply don’t have to do it. If you have doubts read the book.

The documentary of this book came out on 9/2/17. I can’t find it online. I believe its release may have been limited to Sundance. I’ll keep an eye out for it. The bonus is that Natalie Portman narrates it. She actually reached out to Jonathan to help him produce the documentary.

As if it needs to be said, I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review | The Divide

The Divide by Matt Taibbi will make you think. It will humble you. It will open your eyes to the other side of America. The side most of us hardly ever see and also the side that many of us won’t want to acknowledge. Reading The Divide lead me to read other books like it that depict the other side of America. Those people truly struggling to make ends meet every week. The Divide made me feel lucky to have the life that was given to me. My family had the money to give me an education and that education has to lead to a safe and happy life for myself and my family.

This book made me appreciate the things I have. It also made me realize a lot of the things I have I don’t need, much like The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

After reading Tidying Up, I made some changes. The Divide has helped me see that many of the changes I made could be much more profound. I can give up a lot more than what I have. In other words, I can do a lot more than re-organizing my shirt drawer. I gave this book three stars because I think the point could have been driven home in a much shorter way.

Book Review | Alight

This review may suffer from my delay in writing it. I know what this sounds like but this is another 5-star book. Alight is the follow up of Alive by Scott Sigler. I can’t say enough about this book series. As I write this I’m checking goodreads to see when I read the third novel. I can’t believe I haven’t read the third book yet! This is frustrating because I had my next book to read already lined up, but I loved the first two books in the series SO much.

The storyline is original. Right there is something that is far too rare now. You are immediately invested in the characters. This is YA and I do find myself really enjoying these novels as a whole. I’m not aiming to find them or anything. They seem to find me and on the whole, I really enjoy them. The story in Alight is fast paced and keeps you coming back for more. When you have to put this book down it is disappointing and you can’t wait to come back to it. The story has twist and turns. There are love triangles. There are baddies that are mysterious. So far its kind of like reading a LOST series.

Alight is 448 pages, but it moves incredibly fast. If you liked the first book, Alive, you will love the follow-up. If you haven’t read Alive yet, go back and read my review of that and then go read the book!

Book Review | You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

I’ve seen some of what the author, Felicia Day has done as far as the creation of content on the Internet and I’ve seen her featured as a guest on a lot of Internet shows like Twit and the like, but I never really knew her. She seems to be pretty similar to me. She seems pretty geeky. After reading You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) I can vouch for her geekiness! Actually, I think she has much more geek credibility than myself. She wrote a very entertaining biography. If you are a geek I think you will enjoy this book, she is also very funny!

I enjoyed listening to this book on audio from Overdrive a service that my local public library pays for. And one that I enthusiastically take advantage of. Ms. Day reads this audiobook herself. Which I love. Not many authors do this anymore. I feel as though you really get the whole idea of what the author is meant to be getting across to you. It is read as it should be in otherworldly because the author is reading it. No room for misinterpretation. I gave this audiobook 4 out of 5 stars. A very high rating for me. Almost nothing I read gets 5 starts. Maybe 2 or 3 books a year maximum will get a 5-star rating from me.