Jillbone's 12 in 12

Since I'm also doing the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die challenge and a Non-Fiction Challenge, I thought I would arrange some categories here to give myself ideas for the next year. Here are my 12 categories:




1. Linguistics (Non-fiction books pertaining to language: form, meaning and context) -- 2/13
2. Classic Science Fiction (e.g. H.G. Wells, George Orwell, etc...) -- 3/13
3. American History (histories and biographies) -- 2/13
4. Non-English Novelists (because too many of the 1001 books are English novelists) -- 2/13
5. New Classics (from 2000 to present) -- 1/13
6. New England Books (fiction and non-fiction) -- 1/13
7. Award Winners (e.g. Pulitzer, Booker, etc...) -- 2/13
8. Southern Books (fiction and non-fiction) -- 1/13
9. Medical Books (non-fiction books dealing with diseases) -- 2/13
10. Banned Books (novels from banned book lists) -- 1/13
11. Science Books (e.g. biology, physics, chemistry, etc...) -- 2/13
12. Classic Gothic Novels (combining horror and romance) -- 1/13

And just to make it a Baker's Dozen Category 13. Group Reads (for this and other groups). -- 4/13

Category #1: Linguistics

1. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker -- READ 2/23/12
2. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson -- READ 1/9/12
3. The Power of Babel by John McWhorter
4. The Story of English by Robert McCrum
5. The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher
6. Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
7. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
8. Spoken Here by Mark Abley
9. Alpha Beta by John Man
10. Lost Languages by Andrew Robinson
11. The American Language by H.L. Mencken
12. The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain
13. The First Word by Christine Kenneally

Category #2: Classic Science Fiction

1. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -- READ 1/27/12
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
3. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
4. Super-Cannes by J.G. Ballard
5. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
7. Foundation by Isaac Asimov -- READ 3/11/12
8. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
9. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
10. The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
11. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
12. Neuromancer by William Gibson -- READ 1/10/12
13. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlen

Category #3: American History

1. Ten Tea Parties by Joseph Cummins -- READ 1/2/12
2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
3. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen -- READ 3/6/12
4. 1776 by David McCullough
5. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
6. 1491 by Charles C. Mann
7. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
8. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
9. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
10. Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
11. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
12. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto
13. Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows

I'll keep an eye on your lists! I'm also doing banned books so it will be interested to see what you come up with. Journey to the Centre of the Earth is also on my list.

Category #4: Non-English Novelists

1. Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac (France)
2. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (India) -- READ 1/2/12
3. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Denmark)
4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Japan)
5. Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald (Canada)
6. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (Italy)
7. Snow by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) -- READ 3/9/12
8. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Spain)
9. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Germany)
10. Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago (Portugal)
11. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russia)
12. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (Nigeria)
13. Amok by Stefan Zweig (Austria)

Category #5: New Classics

1. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
3. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
4. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
5. The Human Stain by Philip Roth
6. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
7. Falling Man by Don DeLillo
8. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
9. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
10. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
13. The Double by Jose Saramago -- READ 1/14/12

Category #6: New England Books

1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
3. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder -- READ 1/15/12
4. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
5. Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas
6. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
7. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
8. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
9. Cod by Mark Kurlansky
10. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
11. The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson
12. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Category #7: Award Winners

1. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Pulitzer Prize)
2. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (Booker Prize)
3. Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (National Book Award)
4. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (National Book Critics Circle Award)
5. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (PEN/Faulkner Award)
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Commonwealth Writers' Award)
7. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Edgar Award)
8. Animal Farm by George Orwell (Hugo Award)
9. Home by Marilynne Robinson (Orange Broadband Prize) -- READ 1/17/12
10. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Ambassador Award)
11. The Accidental by Ali Smith (Whitbread Award)
12. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Hammett Prize) -- READ 2/23/12
13. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (British Book Award)

Category #8: Southern Books

1. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
2. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington -- READ 1/18/12
3. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
4. Cane by Jean Toomer
5. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
6. Black Boy by Richard Wright
7. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
8. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
9. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
10. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
11. The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
12. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
13. The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry

Category #9: Medical Books

1. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee -- READ 1/25/12
2. Polio by David M. Oshinsky
3. Flu by Gina Kolata -- READ 3/9/12
4. Plagues and Peoples by William H. McNeill
5. The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
6. The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
7. Twelve Diseases that Changed Our World by Irwin W. Sherman
8. The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
9. And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts
10. Plague Time by Paul W. Ewald
11. Infections and Inequalities by Paul Farmer
12. The Speckled Monster by Jennifer Lee Carrell
13. The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett

Category #10: Banned Books

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- READ 1/19/12
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. Ulysses by James Joyce
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
8. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
9. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
10. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
12. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
13. Rabbit, Run by John Updike

Category #11: Science Books

1. Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi (Physics)
2. The 13th Element by John Emsley (Chemistry)
3. The Wave by Susan Casey (Earth Science)
4. The Genius Factory by David Plotz (Biology) -- READ 1/27/12
5. Crow Country by Mark Cocker (Zoology)
6. Seeds of Change by Henry Hobhouse (Botany)
7. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Sociology) -- READ 3/29/12
8. Four Fish by Paul Greenberg (Economics)
9. Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel (Astronomy)
10. Lost Classics by Michael Ondaatje (Library Science)
11. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (Psychology)
12. The Next 100 Years by George Friedman (Futurism)
13. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (Ecology)

Category #12: Classic Gothic Novels

1. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
2. The Monk by M.G. Lewis
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley -- READ 1/23/12
4. The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
5. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
7. Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu
8. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
9. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
10. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
11. Dracula by Bram Stoker
12. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
13. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

You have some great books lined up! Some of my favorites (Beloved, Their Eyes were Watching God, Blind Assassin), some I've read recently and didn't love (Mysteries of Udolpho, The Grapes of Wrath), and many I'm planning to read this year (The Turn of the Screw, The Great Influenza, The Warmth of Other Suns).

I've got you starred and am looking forward to your thoughts this year!

Some interesting books there, looking forward to your reviews.

I'm so impressed you can list all the books you intend to read. I am too distracted by new books that cross my path (one of the disadvantages of working in a library). And if only those pesky authors would stop writing new ones so I might catch up!

What a great list you have lined up. I'll be watching with interest.

Category 13: Group Reads

1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (February) -- READ 2/10/12
2. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (March) -- READ 3/22/12
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (Year Long)
4. Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (March)
5. The Information Diet by Clay A. Johnson (Early Review) -- READ 3/11/12
6. Straphanger by Taras Grescoe (Early Review) -- READ 3/17/12
7. Masters of the Planet by Ian Tattersall (Early Review)
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The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
My second novel set in India (the first being The White Tiger set in southern India). This book was set in Northern India and highlighted the poverty of the region as well as the effects of colonialism. I also enjoyed the dichotomy of Biju and Sai's paths in life -- from fortune to misfortune. Not a book I would read again, but I did enjoy it.

"At Cho Oyu, the judge and Sai sat out on the lawn. Mutt, catching sight of the shadow of her own tail, leapt and caught it, began to whizz around and around, confused as to whose tail it was. She would not let go, but her eyes expressed confusion and beseeching -- how could she stop? what should she do? -- she had caught a strange beast and didn't know it was herself. She went skittering helplessly about the garden."

Ten Tea Parties by Joseph Cummins
A good quick read into ten patriotic "tea parties" that people may or may not know about. While most people know about the Boston Tea Party, fewer people know about the burning of tea in Greenwich, New Jersey or the protest by women in Edenton, North Carolina. While the coverage of the lesser known tea parties is not in depth, it does whet the appetite for more information if you choose to research further.

"Later, after the protests and the bloodshed and the Revolutionary War, when people returned once again to drinking tea, it was on their own teams. And I suspect that those steaming cups of Bohea must have tasted pretty good."

The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
I absolutely love linguistics books. It must be the English major still hidden away inside me. Bryson offers a good overview of different ways the English language has changed from its inception til the present (or at least 1990 when the book was published). My only peeve with this book is that many of the colloquialisms that Bryson cites I have never heard of having grown up in the South. Other than that, I enjoyed Bryson's small trivia tidbits and easy language.

"Perhaps for our last words on the subject of usage we should turn to the last words of the venerable French grammarian Dominique Bonhours, who proved on his deathbed that a grammarian's work is never done when he turned to those gathered loyally around him and whispered: 'I am about to -- or I am going to -- die; either expression is used.'"

Neuromancer by William Gibson
I like science fiction novels. Evidently, however, I don't like all science fiction novels...even classics. I had a hard time following the plot of the book. I'm not very well-versed in computers (although you'd never know it from the amount of time I spend on my laptop) and the bits of technical language and jargon threw me. I did find the novel interesting and can see how it spawned a whole generation of cyberpunk followers.

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...”

The Bryson book sounds great, I've got a bit of a thing for linguistics that I don't often indulge so I'll be looking into that one.

I read Neuromancer when I was way too young. I didn't understand it either. That's not to say I would understand it now, of course. :)

You have some great books lined up! The linguistics category in particular is different and very interesting to me. I look forward to following what you get up to reading. Plus your review format is really nice; I like it quite a lot!

>24 letterpress: & 26 Glad you like the Linguistics Category. My next will probably be The Unfolding of Language and Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

>25 The_Hibernator: Glad to know I wasn't the only one to find Neuromancer completely confusing.

You've got some interesting books on tap for 2012. Last year, I read Team of Rivals and loved that. It was probably my favorite book of the year.

The Double by Jose Saramago
Although the first 30 pages or so left me wanting to shoot myself in the face rather than read another line, I quickly picked up Saramago's distinct writing style from that point on. As a grammarian, it was a hard read -- run-on sentences that lasted for paragraphs, paragraphs that lasted for pages and no clear lines of demarcation for his dialogue. The plot, however, was innovative and thought-provoking: what would you do if you discovered you had an exact double?

"We all know that each day that dawns is the first for some and will be the last for others, and that for most people it will be just another day. For the history teacher Tertuliano Maximo Afonso, this day in which we find ourselves, in which we continue to exist, since there is no reason to believe it will be our last, will not just be another day. One might say that it appeared in the world with the possiblity of being another first day, another beginning, and indicating, therefore, another destiny. Everything depends on what steps Tertuliano Maximo Afonso takes today. However, the procession, as people used to say in times gone by, is just about to leave the church. Let's follow it."

I have planet word on my challenge due to receiving it for Xmas which would fit your linguistics category...

The Double sounds interesting

Wow, you have a wonderful list of books to read, and you're zipping right along (although Gotham should slow you down a bit!). I'll be following to see how you liked some of my favorites and to get a few more titles for my own TBR.

I have a vague interest in linguistics too (as in, "gee, that would be really fun to know more about" but I've never made the effort). I'll keep a watch on what you read in that category.

My dad is a bit of a linguististain too (linguistinarian? linguististist? Ah! of course! Linguist!!!), and when we read Blindness, by Jose Saramego he absolutely could not stand the writing style. Personally, it worked just fine for me. I DO wonder, however, how his writing style sounds in Portuguese? Does it have a special ring to it?

I hope Saramajo's Journey to Portugal is not as difficult to read as The Double was. I've got it checked out of the library and will probably begin it tomorrow or Monday.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Dr. Paul Farmer may not call himself one, but he might be one of God's angels on earth. And I'm saying that as a self-professed agnostic. I don't think I've ever read about a man who gives so much to help others in places others fear to tread -- Haitian villages, Peruvian slums and Russian prisons. That's not to say Farmer is perfect, however. But that's kind of the point. If an average imperfect man can do so much in his lifetime, what are the rest of us waiting for?

"On one visit, in a new empolyee's office, I saw a sign taped to a wall which read, 'If Paul is the model, we're golden.' When you looked closely, though, you saw that the word golden was written on a strip of paper. Lift up the strip and you saw that the original read, 'If Paul is the model, we're fucked.' This was a direct quote from Jim, a characteristically emphatic phrase, which sounded harsher than it was. Jim meant it as a warning to the many young PIH-ers who imagined, as many had and many would, that the right thing to do with their lives was to imitate Paul...'Paul is a model of what should be done. He's not the model for how it has to be done. Let's celebrate him. Let's make sure people are inspired by him. But we can't say anybody should or could be just like him.' He added, 'Because if the poor have to wait for a lot of people like Paul to come along before they get good health care, they are totally fucked.'"

I was totally amazed by the story of this young man. I frequently recommend this book to my students instead of Three Cups of Tea.

You have an awesome book list! Especially linguistics. Have you ever read Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith Basso? Amazing book. A short read, but a really great one. There is also the classic Course in General Linguistics by Saussure. Keep going, can't wait to see what you say about your books!

>36 SweetbriarPoet: I've never read Wisdom Sits in Places but after looking it up, I added it to my ever expanding wishlist. Thanks for the rec.

Home by Marilynne Robinson
I hate reading prize-winning books and ending with the feeling that I can't figure out what all the hullabaloo was about. It makes me feel like I've missed something in the reading. Unfortunately, this was one of those books for me. Although a good steady reimagining of the parable of the prodigal son, I just didn't get into it. The pacing of the novel was too slow and stilted for me (not a huge fan of novels as character studies, I prefer plots). But on another note, the mention of hymns throughout the book did have me singing to myself all evening.

"'It is an oddly patient beast, my carnal self. I call it Snowflake. For, you know, its intractable whiteness. Among other things. A certain lingering sentiment attaches to it. It reminds me of my youth.'"

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
I agree with most people who read this book: it is an important read about the Reconstruction from the perspective of a former African-American slave/now educated orator. While Washington's life story was interesting, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, I found most of his sentiments about the men of his time period and the future of his race naively optimistic. That said, however, thos sentiments don't make this any less of a compelling snapshot of history.

"The world should not pass judgment upon the Negro, and especially the Negro youth, too quickly or too harshly. The Negro boy has obstacles, discouragements, and temptations to battle with that are little known to those not situated as he is. When a white boy undertakes a task, it is taken for granted that he will succeed. On the other hand, people are usually surprised if the Negro boy does not fail. In a word, the Negro youth starts out with the presumption against him."

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
About three pages into this book, I realized I had already read it in high school, but Fitzgerald's flowing lyricism easily convinced me to re-read it. Touted as an example of The Great American Novel, the novel about poor young man James Gatz transforming himself into millionaire man-about-town Jay Gatsby is a relatively quick read filled with vivid imagery that everyone should read.

"He smiled undestandingly -- much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced -- or seemed to face -- the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanished -- and I was looking at an elegant young roughneck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. Some time before he introduced himself I'd got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care."

I am going to be following this thread with interest, especially the classic science fiction category. It has so many books that I know I really need to get round to reading!

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I say this knowing full well I may incur the wrath of more than a few people: I did not like this book. I had high hopes going into it because I'd heard so many great things, but I found the monster to be unsympathetic and whiny (and extremely chatty) and Frankenstein himself was a melodramatic depressed egomaniac.

"'Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Cursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid from its very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested.'"

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
I'm not a science person (I almost failed it twice in college), but this book is a must-read. I was originally going to say it was a must-read for those living with cancer or living on the periphery of cancer, but I think it's a must-read for everyone. Because whether we like it or not, we all live on the periphery of cancer these days. At once realistic and cautiously hopeful, Mukherjee's book is filled with the history of the living entity that is cancer. Throughout this history (a biography as he calls it), the different approcahes to cancer are laid out in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Reading this book leaves you optimistic about the future of cancer research, but with the frank knowledge that there is no "miracle cure" to be found.

"As Doll suggests, and as Atossa epitomizes, we might as well focus on prolonging life rather than eliminating death. This War on Cancer may best be 'won' by redefining victory."

Already have The Emperor of All Maladies on my reading list for this year and happy to see your positive review for it!

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
To say I loved this book is putting it mildly. As soon as I finished, I immediately wanted to pick it up and read it again. Huxley's vision of the future where stability is the watchword reminded me of one of my favorite Philip K. Dick short stories "Stability." Maybe that made me predisposed to enjoy his dystopic vision of a world where progress is not merely arrested, but actively discouraged. I greatly enjoyed how the book seemed to equally condemn the seemingly idyllic future of the Controllers and the savages of the reservations. Simply wonderful.

"No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable. Their world didn't allow them to take things easily, didn't allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain, what with the uncertainties and the poverty -- they were forced to feel strongly. And feeling strongly (and strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how could they be stable?"

I'm glad you liked Emperor of All Maladies. I just finished it myself. I was wondering how non-scientists would like the book. I think it was meant for the "popular reader;" he defined DNA right at the beginning and then leapt into more technical words that he didn't really define later. And the end of the book was very technical! I am a biologist, so I had no problem with the topic/vocabulary...but I was wondering if it was too much for a non-scientist. (I hate to recommend books to my friends and then find out that they're way too technical! It’s hard for me to judge sometimes—too many years of school does that to a person.)

>46 The_Hibernator: I'm about as non-scientist as a person can get (I'm a homemaker and former English major) and I didn't find the book overly technical. While the later chapters did have more technical terms and ideas than an average "popular science" book, I didn't find it overwhelming. I've already recommended it to several of my fellow non-scientist friends.

The Genius Factory by David Plotz
This is one of those books I picked up because my partner and I have been thinking about starting our own family lately. As we research fertility clinics and sperm banks, our thoughts inevitably turn to what type of donor to pick. Will he be smart? Athletic? Artsy? The sad history of the Repository for Germinal Choice (the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank) makes me more wary than before. Although no actual Nobel Prize babies were born during its short history, the Repository did usher in a new age for sperm banks with more donor characteristic choices and stricter sample screening. Good to know that something positive came out of this failed eugenics experiment.

"Graham seduced his targets like a lover. He literally got crushes on them. (He wanted to have their babies.) He arranged meetings as if they were first dates. He dressed to the nines -- immaculate sport jacket, tie, pressed white shirt, black leather belt with a silver 'RKG' buckle. He took them to long dinners -- he was a famously slow eater -- where he flattered them with questions about their work, their life, their families. He studied up on his men -- not merely Nobelists, but even late donors whose achievements were meager -- reading their academic papers, memorizing details from their entry in Who's Who of Emerging Leaders. He didn't use first names; anyone who could conceivably be called 'Doctor,' he called 'Doctor.'

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Although I enjoyed this novel, I found both Pip and Estella to be pretty repulsive characters. I found very few redeeming qualities in either of them despite their supposed "transformations" in the last few chapters. The character I enjoyed the most, however, is Mr. Jagger's clerk Wemmick. The self-styled survivalist (whose home could survive a seige) was warm and engaging throughout the novel. I particularly liked his relationship with his Aged P. which comes off as not only loving but almost bashfully doting.

"Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I loved her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection."

Great review of Brave New World and I love your classic science fiction category! I may have to steal that idea for 2013. Starred your thread for future reference. :) If you haven't read it yet I think you might like The Chrysalids.

I loved Wemmwick as well, he should have is own novel really! (Along with the Aged and his new wife.. . they could have all sorts of of larks!).

It strikes me that Wemmwick and Joe may have gotten on fairly well together if not for the class thing.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
Despite a slow start (the first few chapters are a bit hard to slog through), this is an interesting take on linguistic theory. Arguing that language is a basic human instinct, Pinker illustrates how we are born with an innate capacity for language hardwired into our brains. Although he can become bogged down in linguistic terminology at times, Pinker's use of anecdotes and humorous examples makes the book an enjoyable read.

"As you are reading these words, you are taking part in one of the wonders of the natural world. For you and I belong to a species with a remarkable ability: we can shape events in each other's brains with exquisite precision. I am not referring to telepathy or mind control or the other obsessions of fringe science; even in the depictions of believers these are blunt instruments compared to an ability that is uncontroversially present in every one of us. That ability is language. Simply by making noises with our mouths, we can reliably cause precise new combinations of ideas to arise in each other's minds. The ability comes so naturally that we are apt to forget what a miracle it is."

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
This was my first Atwood novel and I can easily say it won't be my last. Told in short bursts of chapters, I was thoroughly engrossed in the tale of the Chase sisters interwoven with the novel-within-a-novel, The Blind Assassin. I enjoyed the way that the recollections of the elderly Iris didn't romanticize her past or gloss over the realities of her present.

"She writes like an angel, it says of Laura , on the back of one of the editions of The Blind Assassin. An American edition, as I recall, with gold scrollwork on the cover: they set a lot of store by angels in those parts. In point of fact, angels don't write much. They record sins and the names of the damned and the saved, or they appear as disembodied hands and scribble warnings on walls. Or they deliver messages, few of which are good news: God be with you is not an unmixed blessing.
Keeping all this in mind, yes: Laura wrote like an angel. In other words, not very much. But to the point."

I've been thinking of reading a Pinker book for a while now. Your review reminds me. :)

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
When I started this book, I considered myself an amateur history buff. I'd taken more than a few classes in college, I like reading books about American and European history, and I love historical films. As I made my way through the chapters, however, I realized how little I actually knew about the history of my own country. Loewen presents 10 chapters of American history that high school textbooks have distorted either by omission or by using a Eurocentric slant that excludes minorities. While his own bias shows through as some points (as a textbook writer who had to fight a court case for his book to be adopted by school systems), Loewen is correct that teaching history as it has always been taught does not engage today's high school student or prepare them for thinking about their own future in relation to our collective past. I can only hope that teachers and administrators read this book and see the changes that need to be made.

"Students will start learning history when they see the point of doing so, when it seems interesting and important to them, and when they believe history might relate to their lives and futures. Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them."

I had a friend in high school who really got into Lies My Teacher Told Me. I ended up reading it quite a bit later. I enjoyed it too -- very interesting to see all the bits. I didn't know the author fought a court battle. Thanks for sharing the review!

Flu by Gina Kolata
I'll be honest. The only reason I had even heard about the influenza epidemic of 1918 was because it was featured on a recent episode of Downton Abbey. How could I have never heard of a pandemic that killed (by conservatiive estimates) at least 20 million people? Kolata presents a thoroughly researched and well-written account of scientists efforts to track and find the root of the deadly flu epidemic. Even for those us with no direct tie to the wave of deaths, it is a great read for those interested in epidemiology.

"Crosby calls the 1918 flu 'America's forgotten pandemic,' noting: 'The important and almost incomprehensible fact about the Spanish flu is that it killed millions upon millions of people in a year or less. Nothing else -- no infection, no war, no famine -- has ever killed so many in as short a period. And yet it has never inspired awe, not in 1918 and not since, not among the citizens of any particular land and not among the citizens of the United States.'"

Snow by Orhan Pamuk
I did not like this book. There was just something about the main character, Ka, that rubbed me the wrong way. I think maybe it was his naivete and selfishness in the midst of a revolution between militant secularists and zealous Islamists. His attitude completely negated any tension the author/narrator tried to set up. I know Pamuk won a Nobel Prize in Literature, but I really would not want to read another of his novels...especially if it's similar to this one.

"'There are two kinds of men,' said Ka, in a didactic voice. 'The first kind does not fall in love until he's seen how the girl eats a sandwich, how she combs her hair, what sort of nonsense she cares about, why she's angry at her father, and what sorts of stories people tell about her. The second type of man -- and I am in this category -- can fall in love with a woman only if he knows next to nothing about her.'"

The Information Diet by Clay A. Johnson
It may be my own prejudices showing, but I find it hard to trust facts in a book supported only by footnotes containing websites...especially in a book telling me that the Internet is full of bias information reporting. I'm also not so sure I trust some of the figures given. For example: "As of 2008, according to the UCSD, we were consuming 11.8 hours of information per day per person while we're not at work." Now assuming that the average person works between 7 to 8 hours per day and we are supposedly consuming another 11.8 hours of information independent of that, that leaves us approximately 4 or 5 hours to sleep. I'm just not sure those are accurate figures. It doesn't seem to add up to me. The book also contained several charts that were obviously meant to be rendered in color (although the book was not) which made the various shades of gray impossible to distinguish between.

"When we start looking at information consumption through the lens of a diet and take responsibility for the information we're consuming, things start to get really frightening. Poor information diets and poor filters are responsible for really atrocious things and have horrible social effects that are, as history suggests, as deadly as the worst of our diseases."

Foundation by Isaac Asimov
It's not really surprising to me that I loved this book. Science fiction has always been a passion of mine and Asmiov is one of the greats. The story is told in five parts (with a significant time lapse between the parts). Set at the ending of the great Empire that has reigned for 12,000 years, psychohistorian Hari Seldon manuevers to start his own society (under somewhat false pretenses) for the eventual rebuilding of a second Empire based on new ideals. As time passes and crises are faced, the Foundation (Seldon's society) changes its approach to situations with respect to knowledge, government, religion and commerce. Foundation's a must-read for sci-fi fans (along with its 2 sequels and 2 prequels).

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

Excellent quote from Foundation!

That was my motto for about a year after I first read Foundation.... I had forgotten about it until it started popping back up recently. It is a very good quote. (Can I say again how much I love that you're giving quotes?)

>61 pammab: Thanks. I love giving quotes too. I think there's only so much you can get from someone else's review of a book...adding a quote gives a potential reader an insight into the tone and language of the book. Plus, it's fun to see what people's favorite's quotes are from books. A lot of mine seem to revolve around relationships even if the relationships themselves aren't a focus of the book.

Straphanger by Taras Grescoe
I've lived my entire life either in suburbs or in small towns. I've never felt the urge to move to the city...until now. Reading this book makes me want to move to Copenhagen where 37% of residents commute to work by bicycle. I want to move to Tokyo with its ultra-efficient trains (even if they are really crowded). I want to live in Moscow and spend time in the beautifully decorated underground stations. Or maybe I'll just stay where I am and try to make the U.S. a little better by giving up my car and finding alternate ways around. Whichever I choose, I know that I can look back on this book as my inspiration.

"Sometimes, the best way to get to a better place is to make the place you are in just a little bit better."

Kim by Rudyard Kipling
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I liked the first 2/3 where we get the story of Kim's childhood. I enjoyed the way Kipling showed how Kim was a boy of two worlds (white and Indian), but fully belonging to neither. I think Kipling resolved this issue well by having the boy straddle both worlds and utilizing all of his skills as a member of British Intelligence. What I did not enjoy was the ending. I found it quite contrived, but I guess that is kind of a sign of the times it was written in.

“'I have seen something of this world,' she said over the trays, 'and there are but two sorts of women in it-- those who take the strength out of a man, and those who put it back. Once I was that one, and now I am this.'”

Bookmarking Straphanger! It looks to be a book right up my alley.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
This was a book my partner has been trying to get me to read for some time now. She received the book from her company's CEO who was trying to jumpstart his employees ways of thinking about their company. After reading this book, I can't help but think that Gladwell would appreciate how this book came into my hands. I found his ideas about how trends and epidemics start and spread fascinating. When I stopped to think about examples in my own life, it was eerie to me how easily they fit into the patterns he talks about. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand how and why some ideas spread and others don't.

"The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”