The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

This book was a $1 acquisition and was a dollar well spent. Vowell is funny, and I agree with her politics, which makes for a good combination. Her descriptions of her life and love of history made me smile, and her explanation of what it felt like to be at Bush II's inauguration made me laugh. For this fairly middle-of-the-road liberal, this made for good commentary.

Apartment Gardening: Plants, Projects, and Recipes for Growing Food in Your Urban Home by Amy Pennington

A good friend of mine gave my husband and I this book (and a composting pail) for a wedding present. Pennington gives some great advice on making the most of any size space. She helped me figure out what size pots to buy and also led me to the conclusion that my plants died last year due to lack of water and not because of unrelenting sun.

I have 5 basil plants...I also make a lot of pesto.

Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction by Bernard Wood

I love the Very Short Introduction series. Experts in fields, such as evolution, write short books that make their very complex subjects simple. I have read one on globalization, and I hope that more will pass through my hands in the future.

Humans did not evolve from present day monkeys, but I just love this old picture.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

The title makes me giggle, and the researchers make me scratch my head a little.

I honestly have no idea how to take a photo for this book...so enjoy the light painting.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

I wrote this post at the end of April, but I never got around to taking this admittedly simple picture.

Since I am going to be moving soon, I am slowly going through my books and trying to read the ones that ended up stacked in the back of the closet so I can decide whether to keep or donate them. I remember finding this book while attempting to organize the massive mess in my sorority's un-air conditioned storage room a few summers ago (mistake on multiple levels). I promptly stuck it on my bookcase and then packed it into boxes on more than one occasion during my CBU time.

The book was ok. Ehrenreich raises some good issues, but she also tends toward hyperbole at some points. It was interesting, and a nice break from Civil War ladies.

Final decision: donating it to the Goodwill Bookstore.

The Claddagh Ring by Malachy McCourt

I feel like I need to take a shower to get the saccharine tackiness off of me. I went to the library specifically to borrow this book because I love cultural traditions...and claddagh rings. I think they are beautifully wrought, and I was planning on giving one to a certain guy for a certain day, but first I wanted to make sure the tradition was what I thought it was. You know how writers sometimes end chapters or books with a lingering phrase that is meant to make you pause and consider what you have have been consuming? Well if you ever wondered what it would be like to read something where every sentence attempts to do that, then give this one a read. I have never been so disappointed in a book in my life. It takes mad butchering skills to take such a potentially great subject and turn it into drivel.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

“Because for some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”

I love the way Anne Lamott writes, so reading about how she writes seemed like a no brainer. Even though the type of writing we do is vastly different (my "characters" are not composites--historical writing does not lean that way), her take on the way writing sucks but is rewarding at the same time is damned true and good to hear from somebody else. Thanks to my dad for letting me read his Christmas present (from me) before he got a chance to. (All I'm saying is that I gave it a good five months of shelf time before I picked it up...)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

So I'm exactly the type of person Kingsolver was talking about in her book. The one who has no idea when certain foods are in season (with the exception of tomatoes). I also do not know where my food is grown and prefer not to think about the lives my meat led before turning up on my plate. Her memoir about eating locally for a year was eye-opening and horizon-broadening to say the least. I am not sure if I can become a truly dedicated locavore, but I do know that my attitudes about what I eat are changing. Since it is blueberry season in this part of the South, I think I will go enjoy lots of them right now.

Major thanks to Kristi for introducing me to this book and giving it to me after she finished her paper for her Spirituality and Ethics of Eating class.

Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer

Parasites are terrifying, interesting, and oddly enjoyable to read about. There are ones that castrate crabs (Sacculina carcini), ones that explode red blood cells (Plasmodium falciparum, commonly known as malaria), and ones whose larvae chew their way out of caterpillars (Copidosa floridanum). They have even influenced evolution and human culture. (It is possible that the symbol for medicine, the caduceus, is reminiscent of the cure for guinea worms.)

Zimmer ends the book with a disturbing thought; what if humans are the parasites on the face of the earth? Parasites are only as successful as they can learn to do minimal harm and keep their host alive. As he puts it, "If we want to succeed as parasites, we need to learn from the masters." I could not agree more.

Bonus for anyone who actually is reading this summary: NY Times op-ed contributor recently posted this about parasites. And thanks to Terry for the loan.

Hooked: Pirates, Poaching, and the Perfect Fish by G. Bruce Knecht

Well...it is a book about fish. Chilean sea bass (a.k.a. Patagogian toothfish) to be exact. And illegal fishing. And a chase halfway around Antarctica in the name of economic exculsivity and environmental protection. And globalization.

And no to everyone who asked if I was reading this book for pleasure, although given my disparate literary tastes I can understand the questioning. As a matter of fact, I will need to think of something more intellectual to say about it for my critical book review for GS200.

As for the picture, this is an digitalized version of a sun print I made this afternoon. I took light sensitive paper, cut out different sized fish to lay on top of the paper under glass, and exposed to the sun for two minutes. After being cold rinsed and dried, this print was the result. Just a different way to do photography.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell

Rapid cognition. The idea that your initial reaction, which may occur in the blink of an eye, can lead you in the right decision even if you cannot explain exactly why you made that choice. The idea that it is necessary to recognize when your implicit attitudes do you more harm than good. The discovery that it is better to think longer about small decisions and go with your gut reaction on large choices (like which grad school to go to?) for optimal satisfaction. The author also repeats himself a lot, just like he did in The Tipping Point, which means that by the end of the book, I was just waiting for him to stop prattling on.

To pull out my dad's favorite quote from the book: "But what I have sensed is an enormous frustration with the unexpected costs of knowing too much, of being inundated with information. We have come to confuse information with understanding." Props to him for passing the book along.

Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism by Walter LaFeber

LaFeber uses Michael Jordan and his endorsement contract with Nike to discuss globalization and its changing nature in the post-1970s world. He seemed to say that people got a type of "swoosh tunnel vision" as Nike quickly rose to prominence as a global entity. (My paper that is due on Wednesday will be slightly more detailed.) Thanks to Cal for letting me borrow her Nikes!

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels

What kind of self-respecting history major has not read The Communist Manifesto? The answer: me, for a very long time. I almost got through it last semester for my Russian Revolution class, but I stopped halfway through. (Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking.) When it got assigned again this semester, I figured it was time to bow to the curriculum, suck it up, and read it. Turns out, if you read it when you're not in a primary-document haze, it is surprisingly easier to read. Good to have read for historical context,but not so into the historical determinism. The picture is of a poster that has "Welcome to the Party" on top. You really have to see it to get the full effect.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about this book. I really liked it at the beginning, given that I generally like anything that makes me question the way I see the world. However, the danger the authors seemed to gloss over is that in exploring the hidden side of things, they still don't give equal weight to all of the possible arguments. I am not fully convinced by some of their rationales, but I did find the chapter about school teachers and sumo wrestlers interesting. If nothing else, at least I can have an informed opinion about it now.

I'm grateful to Greg for giving this book to me after he was finished with it for his Compleat Engineer class.

Globalization: A Very Brief Introduction by Manfred B. Steger

Ahhh, globalization, the buzzword of the decade. The book was a good overview of the basic history, ideas, and ideologies of the topic, including an interesting discussion about bin Laden. Dr. Leib gave us four days to read it; good thing it was only 130 pages. The photo is a picture of Delta's route map for the Americas combined with a mosaic filter. Globalization is a divisive issue that is not nearly as cut and dry as is often portrayed. It is the source of several problems, even as it makes the world a smaller place.