Book-A-Day

December 15, 2009 Book of the Day: Netherland , by Joseph O'Neill Grade: B+ First published: 2008 1-word review: Terror 8-word review: Cricket eases the pain, some of the time. Things get a little weird in New York after 9/11. People are afraid. Many foreign nationals move back home. The Chelsea Hotel houses some peculiar residents. A multicultural hodgepodge meet in parks around the city to play cricket. And one naif holds on to an ideal image of the American dream. In this bizarre world, a Dutch native named Hans struggles to find meaning. It's an unusual and surprising read. Here's what the game of cricket looks like. See, the guy throwing the ball is the bowler. The guy holding the bat is the batsman. The guy in the back is, I'm almost positive, part of the grounds crew. The goal of the batsman is to hit the ball, or not, I'm not really sure. I think they score points somehow, possibly, and somehow they decide when the game ends. The rumor is ther...

December 14, 2009 Book of the Day: Islam: A Short History , by Karen Armstrong Grade: C+ First published: 2000 1-word review: Ummahculate 8-word review: For Muslims, political history is inseparable from religion. Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who writes books about religion, usually from a comparative perspective. This short book on Islam is fairly good, but not particularly insightful. A pronouncement is made at the beginning that, more so than other major religions, Islam's identity and systems of belief are inseparable from its political history. This is a valid stance to take, but in so taking it Armstrong gives short shrift to Islam's impressively rich cultural and intellectual history. In my opinion, Reza Aslan's book No god but God is a much better introduction to the history of Islam. Former Boise-area Congressman Bill Sali (pictured below) believed that the election of a Muslim to Congress in Minnesota was going to bring God's punishment down on our n...

December 13, 2009 Book of the Day: The Ministry of Fear , by Graham Greene Grade: B+ First published: 1943 1-word review: Sneaky 6-word review: Don't ever accept cake from strangers. In a war-time London continually under siege by German bombers, a man wins a cake under mysterious circumstances and becomes a target for murder. Greene had the habit of of classifying some of his novels as "entertainments," or less serious works geared towards a more general, less literary audience. This is one of those entertainments, as is Our Man in Havana . And it is entertaining. There are all sorts of twists and turns and complex characters, and more humor than most of his works. Still, like his more serious works ( The Heart of the Matter , The Power and the Glory , etc.), it exhibits Greene's mastery of language, plotting, and character development. I'm a tremendous fan of Graham Greene. You should be one too. Britain was under constant bombardment because of this man,...

December 12, 2009 Book of the Day: Disgrace , by J.M. Coetzee Grade: A First published: 1999 1-word review: Brutal 9-word review: South Africa's still struggling in the aftermath of apartheid. A communications professor in Cape Town resigns his job after having a scandalous affair with a student. He visits his daughter on her ranch in the country, where they are viciously attacked and robbed in her home. The rest of the novel, in sparse and nearly perfect prose, deals with the aftermath of this attack, examining white guilt, police incompetence, and intellectual bankruptcy. Coetzee is a white South African who wrote a novel that depicts black on white violent crime in his country. As you may expect, this has generated quite some controversy, despite Coetzee's bona fide anti-apartheid status. Many critics have suggested that Disgrace should be read as an allegorical tale about the inadequacies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set up in South Africa to exam...

December 11, 2009 Book of the Day: Freddy the Detective , by Walter R. Brooks Grade: A- First published: 1932 1-word review: Porcine 5-word review: Don't mess with the pig. Freddy the Pig awakes one morning to find Hambone, his best friend and longtime sty-mate, missing. He begins an investigation into the disappearance only to stumble upon the dismembered and eviscerated corpse of Hammy hanging in a meat locker. He proceeds to take revenge on those he deems responsible, doing to them what was done to his buddy. Blood flows as Freddy self-destructs in an orgy of violence. This is all rather surprising to find in a children's book. Warning to my more sensitive readers! Here's a gruesome picture of some of Hammy's remains, shown only in the interest of science. Here we have Idaho.

December 10, 2009 Book of the Day: Dakota: A Spiritual Geography , by Kathleen Norris Grade: B- First published: 1993 1-word review: Solitude 8-word review: Desolation brings enlightenment, but only for a few. The western part of North and South Dakota is, perhaps, the most desolate, unforgiving location in the United States, even more so than Idaho. Populations shrink as farmers and ranchers struggle to make a living with nutrient-poor soil, harsh winds, little rain, and temperatures that range from well below zero to well over 100 degrees over the course of the year. Gossip and back-stabbing reign as residents struggle to find a reason for their hardship. Still, Kathleen Norris has found peace in this place. She uses a strange mix of realism and idealism to describe her life in Lemmon, an isolated town of less than 2000 people in northwestern South Dakota, right on the border with North Dakota. She left New York City in the early '70's to take over the farm she inherited ...

December 9, 2009 Book of the Day: Going Solo , by Roald Dahl Grade: B- First published: 1986 1-word review: Adventure 6-word review: British ex-pats have all the fun. This is the second volume of Roald Dahl's autobiography, the lesser-known sequel to Boy . It is inferior in almost every way to its predecessor, but it's still pretty interesting. We begin in 1938, with Roald on a ship bound for East Africa, where he will work for Shell Petroleum. Upon landing, he is assigned to work in Dar-es-Salaam. We meet an eccentric cast of characters, and Roald has many adventures there before joining the Royal Air Force during World War II, which ends up being the focus of the second half of the book. He becomes a successful fighter pilot, achieving "flying ace" status. It was revealed in the 1980's that Dahl had been a spy for British intelligence while he lived in the United States during and after the war. Mostly, he worked behind the scenes to convince American leade...