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Superfreakonomics - Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Feb 8th, 2010 by admin

superfreakonomics

This was one of my husband’s Christmas presents and I thought I would read it too.  I’ve never been particularly interested in economics - I studied it at school and that was enough. However, this book is fun and interesting almost makes me want to go back and study economics. Although it appears microeconomics rather than macroeconomics is the interesting stuff.

Here is the book description from Amazon …

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomicswas a worldwide sensation, selling over four million copies in thirty-five languages and changing the way we look at the world. Now, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner return with SuperFreakonomics,and fans and newcomers alike will find that the freakquel is even bolder, funnier, and more surprising than the first.

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but the unexpected ones: What’s more dangerous, driving drunk or walking drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it’s so ineffective? Can a sex change boost your salary?

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: 

  •  
    • How is a street prostitute like a department-store Santa?
    • Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands?
    • How much good do car seats do?
    • What’s the best way to catch a terrorist?
    • Did TV cause a rise in crime?
    • What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common?
    • Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness?
    • Can eating kangaroo save the planet?
    • Which adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor?

 

Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling like no one else, whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is – good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.

This is book is a fun read. The authors have a conversational style and they write about witty, interesting (and slightly bizarre) things.

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Surfacing - Margaret Atwood

Feb 2nd, 2010 by admin

surfacing

Atwood is one of my favourite authors. I was amazed I found one of her novels that I hadn’t read. This is one of her earlier works - her second novel first published in 1972.

Plot summary from Wikipedia …

The book tells the story of a woman who returns to her hometown in Canada to find her missing father. Accompanied by her lover and another married couple, the unnamed protagonist meets her past in her childhood house, recalling events and feelings, while trying to find clues for her father’s mysterious disappearance. Little by little, the past overtakes her and drives her into the realm of wildness and madness.

This novel has a wonderful sense of place - I can picture the lake and the cabin. The characters are beautifully portrait, but they are people of a definite era (I can imagine the men with hairy chests and medallions). The sexual revolution has started - both women took the pill and then stopped - women are beginning to be emancipated, but not quite.

The descent into madness is fabulous to read and it all seems quite logical.

I think this is a fabulous novel, but Atwood goes onto greater things with Cat’s Eye, Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace and Oryx and Crake. If you’re an Atwood fan, then it’s worth reading to see where she came from, but otherwise I probably wouldn’t bother.

Here are some other (and better) reviews …

http://silverseason.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/margaret-atwood-surfacing/

http://amandasrandombookthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/10/surfacing-margaret-atwood.html

http://joshlanghoff.blogspot.com/2009/09/best-thing-i-read-recently-surfacing-by.html

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The Bell - Iris Murdoch

Feb 1st, 2010 by admin

thebell

I got this book from the library - I’m not sure why I chose it. I think I felt that she was a novelist that one should read.

A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an order of sequestered nuns. A new bell is being installed when suddenly the old bell, a legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered. And then things begin to change. Meanwhile the wise old Abbess watches and prays and exercises discreet authority. And everyone, or almost everyone, hopes to be saved, whatever that may mean. Originally published in 1958, this funny, sad, and moving novel is about religion, sex, and the fight between good and evil.

This novel isbeautifully written, but I think it has dated. I don’t think a gay man in the twenty-first century would spend so much time soul-searching about his sexuality. The characterisations are fabulous - I didn’t like any of them, but I thought they were convincing.

The narrative switches between characters and we get insights into thoughts of the characters - Michael and Dora. It is clear that was is appearing on the surface is not what is going on in the depths - a bit like the old bell being hidden in the lake. Things do come to the surface (including the bell) and the characters need to face their true selves and then move forward.

One quote that stands out for me is from Michael’s sermon

One must perform the lower act which one can manage and sustain; not the higher act which one bungles.

This book could definitely be read more than once with more and more connections becoming apparent, however, I don’t think I will read it again.

More reviews …

http://blacksheepbooks.blogspot.com/2009/11/bell-by-iris-murdoch.html

http://mindywithrow.com/?p=360

A reading guide …

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/bell.html

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The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Jan 25th, 2010 by admin

thelacuna

I received this novel as a Christmas gift. I’m a keen Kingsolver fan so I did suggest it as a present idea.

From the publisher …

In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America’s hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption.

With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.

I found this novel slow going at first and I stopped reading it a couple of times and moved onto something else. However, by the end I was captured. This novel contains an abundance of information about Mexico, Communism and America during the ‘reds under the beds’ debacle. This book is beautifully written and contains an enormous amount of research. I found the characters compelling, in particular Violet Brown. Not being at all familiar with American history (or Mexican) I enjoyed the social history aspects of this novel.

Here are some other reviews …

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/books/review/Schillinger-t.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver-1811038.html

http://mylifeasseenthroughbooks.blogspot.com/2010/01/redux-12-lacuna-by-barbara-kingsolver.html

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Reading Resolutions

Jan 1st, 2010 by admin

This year I plan to consume less. I’m not going to buy any new books this year (except for the book club books). I’m going to read the books in my pile, the books hidden in my book shelves plus make more use of the library.

Currently in my pile I have:

The Lacuna Barbara Kingsolver

Surfacing Margaret Atwood

Magic IslandElizabeth Waterston

The Six Wives of Henry the V111 Antonia Fraser

The Longest Journey E M Forster

Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh

Ballet ShoesNoel Streatfeild

The BrontesPatricia Ingham

The Tennant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte

Of those hidden in my shelves I want to read

Daniel Deronda George Eliot

Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens

Bleak House Charles Dickens

The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy

Wings of the Dove Henry James

Anna Karenina Tolstoy

Words and Rules Steven Pinker

Women who run with the WolvesClarissa Pinkola Estes

I’m sure I’ll find others throughout the year…

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Oranges are not the only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson

Dec 31st, 2009 by admin

orangesarenottheonlyfruit

 While reading this novel I got the feeling that I’ve read it before, but I couldn’t remember what happened so I kept going.

This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God’s elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts. At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender, “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.

This is a beautifully written story - I do like first person narratives - the characters are fabulous. What an amazing first novel. In amongst the narrative are fairy tale vignettes about the search for the holy grail and a girl Winnet escaping from a wizard trying to find the magic city. These stories within a story highlight Jeanette’s mental state.

This is a quick read and well worth the effort. I’ll definitely be looking for more of her works.

http://andthenireadsomemore.blogspot.com/2009/11/jeanette-winterson-oranges-are-not-only.html

http://serendipityteacher.blogspot.com/2009/08/oranges-are-not-only-fruit-by-jeanette.html

There are even SparkNotes

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oranges/

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Howards End is on the Landing - Susan Hill

Dec 30th, 2009 by admin

howardsendisonlanding

I picked this book up from here while looking for a Christmas present for my Sister in Law (I don’t think I did very well on the christmas present).

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on my shelves, I encountered dozens of others that I had never read, or forgotten I owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired me to embark on a year-long voyage through my books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know my own collection again. A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, my eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in my home, neglected for years. Howard’s End is on the Landing charts the journey as I revisit the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

It’s written in a conversational style and Ms Hill has charming anecdotes about authors she has met. She writes about what was happening in her life when she read certain books and what she thinks of them (and the author’s technique and style). This is definitely a book for readers and it makes me want to take a journey through my own book shelves - I know there is a heap of books I haven’t read and others that I didn’t read properly the first time.

As an Australian and an Austen fan, I should be outraged (she dismisses both Canadian and Australian literature - how can anyone discard Margaret Atwood? and ‘doesn’t get’ Austen) but really it didn’t matter. It made me think about reading and being a reader and what they means.

http://bookbath.blogspot.com/2009/12/howards-end-is-on-landing-susan-hill.html

http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2009/09/howards-end-is-on-the-landing-by-susan-hill.html

http://books-snob.blogspot.com/2009/10/howards-end-is-on-landing-by-susan-hill.html

Posted in Non-Fiction, Recommended | No Comments »

The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery

Dec 29th, 2009 by admin

elegancehegehog

I think I bought this book based solely on the title. Here is the blurb …

Renee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated - an ideal concierge. But Renee has a secret. Beneath this conventional facade she is passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her self-important employers.

Down in her lodge, Renee is resigned to living a lie; meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid a predictably bourgeois future, and plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday.

But the death of one of their privileged neighbours will bring dramatic change to number 7, Rue de Grenelle, altering the course of both their lives forever.

By turn moving and hilarious, this unusual and insightful novel is now an international publishing sensation, with sales of over 2.5 million copies.

I found this novel to be quite difficult to read and very slow going. It required concentration, which is in short supply in December in a house with two small children. I had to force myself to read it rather than move onto something easier.

It was a slow moving novel - the neighbour (mentioned in the blurb) doesn’t die until half way through, so that’s a lot of scene setting. Having said that I did enjoy it (except the ending - but I won’t ruin it for anyone). This is a book that should be read slowly and savoured. Not read like I did between Christmas shopping and watching swimming lessons.

Here are more thoughtful reviews …

http://reviewsbylola.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/book-review-the-elegance-of-the-hedgehog/

http://scatteredpaper.blogspot.com/2009/12/elegance-of-hedgehog.html

http://bookishlyfabulous.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/the-elegance-of-the-hedgehog/

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The Blythes are Quoted - L M Montgomery

Dec 14th, 2009 by admin

theblythes

I’m a keen L M Montgomery fan - so keen I’ve travelled from Australia to Prince Edward Island. When this book was released I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to read it - I had already read The Road to Yesterday which I believed contained all of the stories, but I read a review on the Kindred Spirits email list which convinced me I should read it. As it’s not available in Australia yet, I bought my copy from the Canadian Amazon and it arrived within a week!

It’s a book of short stories with poetry bits in between (attributed to Anne and Walter) and conversations with the Blythes. It is spilt into two parts; the first contains stories set before World War 1 and the second stories set after. There is a forward by Elizabeth Epperly and an afterward by Benjamin Lefebvre.

Here’s the description from Amazon …

Adultery, illegitimacy, misogyny, revenge, murder, despair, bitterness, hatred, and death—usually not the first terms associated with L.M. Montgomery. But in The Blythes Are Quoted, completed shortly before her death and never before published in its entirety, Montgomery brought these topics to the forefront in what she intended to be the ninth volume in her bestselling series featuring her beloved heroine Anne. Divided into two sections, one set before and one after the Great War of 1914—1918, The Blythes Are Quoted contains fifteen episodes that include an adult Anne and her family. Binding these short stories, Montgomery inserted sketches featuring Anne and Gilbert Blythe discussing poems by Anne and their middle son, Walter, who dies as a soldier in the war. By blending poetry, prose, and dialogue, Montgomery was experimenting with storytelling methods in ways she had never before attempted. The Blythes Are Quoted marks the final word of a writer whose work continues to fascinate readers all over the world.

I must confess that I don’t really like Montgomery’s poetry so I tended to skip those bits. I did like the conversations with the family members it gave you a feel for how their lives continued after Rilla of Ingleside.

I haven’t compared each story with how it appeared in the Road to Yesterday, but it seems to me that there are more Blythe references in this version (and not all positive).  To me it contained the essence of all Montgomery novels and I want to go back and read them all again. If you’re hesitating about reading this novel because you’ve read all of the stories before, I would encourage you to give it a go.

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The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark

Dec 12th, 2009 by admin

theprimejeanbrodie

I bought this book years ago while on holiday in Sydney. I was quite keen to read it again when it was suggested at book club. Plus it’s the perfect read in the lead up to the busy Christmas season (short).

Here is the stuff from the back …

At the staid Marcia Blaine School for Girls, in Edinburgh, Scotland, teacher extraordinaire Miss Jean Brodie is unmistakably, and outspokenly, in her prime. She is passionate in the application of her unorthodox teaching methods, in her attraction to the married art master, Teddy Lloyd, in her affair with the bachelor music master, Gordon Lowther, and—most important—in her dedication to “her girls,” the students she selects to be her crème de la crème. Fanatically devoted, each member of the Brodie set—Eunice, Jenny, Mary, Monica, Rose, and Sandy—is “famous for something,” and Miss Brodie strives to bring out the best in each one. Determined to instill in them independence, passion, and ambition, Miss Brodie advises her girls, “Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first. Follow me.”

And they do. But one of them will betray her.

I enjoyed reading this - I liked the descriptive asides about the girls … ‘Rose Stanley was famous for sex’ and ‘Eunice Gardiner [...] famous for her spritely gymnastics and glorious swimming’.

It did make me think of all of the women who would have been left spinsters after World War 1 - what would they have done with themselves? They would still have been limited to ‘feminine professions’ like teaching and nursing.

I liked the writing style it was economical and yet managed to say a lot. I thought Miss Brodie was a bit sad - she had no real friends (adults that is) and she seemed to try to control the girls.

Here are some other reviews …

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/s2686642.htm

http://www.bibliographing.com/2009/10/12/emthe-prime-jean-brodieem-muriel-spark/

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