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Book Report
Jul. 29th, 2016 05:53 pmIt's Friday night. A lot of people go out and party. Me, I finished up another book.
By the way, I love my new rating scale:
10 – life-changing, an all-time favorite
5 - average for what I read
1 – terrible, why did I finish it?
Creating a Life Together by Diana Leafe Christian – This is a how-to guide for forming an intentional community (AKA cohousing or community living). The author talks about how most forming communities fail, and how you can avoid the common pitfalls. There’s a lot of really useful information on finding property or land, creating a legal entity, and financing. Boring but necessary if you are forming a community and not joining one already in existence. My favorite sections were ones that focused on more living in community and dealing with things like: making a living when you’re nowhere near a large or medium-sized city, dealing with conflict, and selecting members to join your group.
(A few other notes that have little to do with the book itself: I subscribe to “Communities” magazine and I sometimes entertain thoughts of joining a community. Surprisingly to me, Doris also said she might be interested too. There’s one about 6 hours from us that is seeking new members but it’s so far from any major city. It’s about 150 miles or so from Des Moines and from St Louis. Could I really handle driving 150 miles if I ever want to see a big concert or get on an airplane? It might be hard to get the food I want to eat, I might be too used to having more privacy and not being around people as much. And there’s the big issue of how community members in rural areas make a living. The author shares that they tend to fall into 3 categories: they are retired and/or living off income from rental properties; they work in jobs where they can telecommute; or they work multiple odd jobs and part-time jobs, some within the community itself, some driving 30 miles to take whatever work they can get in the nearest cities. The third scenario is the most common).
Grade: 8
The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter – Julia Ward Howe is best known for writing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”; she was also a suffragist and abolitionist. She also fought her own civil war, as she was married to a man for 30 years who didn’t want her to write, or to speak in public, who continually threatened to divorce her and keep custody of the kids (which he easily could’ve done in the 19th century), and who squandered her inheritance. Somehow she managed to shine despite his every attempt. This was a very good biography. I commend the author for her decisions on the book’s pacing and length. It clocked in at a readable 240 pages. I think anything longer would’ve started tiptoeing near boredom, but this book was good. Grade: 7
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright – A novel taking place in modern-day Cambodia, about a young woman, her husband, and son – they live in a garbage dump and make a living picking garbage. Their lives change one day when she speaks with their surly rent collector and asks her to teach her how to read. It was a lovely story, almost reading like a fairytale or a fable. It didn’t seem at all authentic; the author – an Australian man – never convinced me that he really was the character who narrates the story. I’m not an expert on Cambodians but Sang Ly’s voice just didn’t ring true. Maybe given the somewhat fable-like quality of the book, that’s ok? It was a good story anyway. Grade: 6
The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow – This is a book about Africa’s smallholder farmers, most of whom are women. Not only are they doing back-breaking work but they have virtually no access to any tools or information to improve their farming techniques and no access to credit. For many months out of the year, they and their families near starve, subsisting on tea, bananas, and cassava (root vegetable) if they are lucky. The author takes us into the homes of four families in Kenya, and he takes us behind the scenes of an organization called One Acre which is working to change this scenario. One Acre provides access to improved farming techniques, fertilizer, and the like. It was great to read about this work being done to make people’s lives better. Grade: 8
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – It was nice to listen to this classic on audio. I’d never read it before; I think maybe I’d seen the movie as a kid but I don’t remember any details. The book is pretty good; I could easily see why Christie is one of the best-selling authors in history. (The back of the book says that only the Bible has sold more copies). I was definitely engaged the whole way through. Special shout-out to the voice actor. He was phenomenal; he handled so many different voices and accents, and made each character unique. Grade: 6
( A few final thoughts - they contain spoilers on this mystery! )
By the way, I love my new rating scale:
10 – life-changing, an all-time favorite
5 - average for what I read
1 – terrible, why did I finish it?
Creating a Life Together by Diana Leafe Christian – This is a how-to guide for forming an intentional community (AKA cohousing or community living). The author talks about how most forming communities fail, and how you can avoid the common pitfalls. There’s a lot of really useful information on finding property or land, creating a legal entity, and financing. Boring but necessary if you are forming a community and not joining one already in existence. My favorite sections were ones that focused on more living in community and dealing with things like: making a living when you’re nowhere near a large or medium-sized city, dealing with conflict, and selecting members to join your group.
(A few other notes that have little to do with the book itself: I subscribe to “Communities” magazine and I sometimes entertain thoughts of joining a community. Surprisingly to me, Doris also said she might be interested too. There’s one about 6 hours from us that is seeking new members but it’s so far from any major city. It’s about 150 miles or so from Des Moines and from St Louis. Could I really handle driving 150 miles if I ever want to see a big concert or get on an airplane? It might be hard to get the food I want to eat, I might be too used to having more privacy and not being around people as much. And there’s the big issue of how community members in rural areas make a living. The author shares that they tend to fall into 3 categories: they are retired and/or living off income from rental properties; they work in jobs where they can telecommute; or they work multiple odd jobs and part-time jobs, some within the community itself, some driving 30 miles to take whatever work they can get in the nearest cities. The third scenario is the most common).
Grade: 8
The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe by Elaine Showalter – Julia Ward Howe is best known for writing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”; she was also a suffragist and abolitionist. She also fought her own civil war, as she was married to a man for 30 years who didn’t want her to write, or to speak in public, who continually threatened to divorce her and keep custody of the kids (which he easily could’ve done in the 19th century), and who squandered her inheritance. Somehow she managed to shine despite his every attempt. This was a very good biography. I commend the author for her decisions on the book’s pacing and length. It clocked in at a readable 240 pages. I think anything longer would’ve started tiptoeing near boredom, but this book was good. Grade: 7
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright – A novel taking place in modern-day Cambodia, about a young woman, her husband, and son – they live in a garbage dump and make a living picking garbage. Their lives change one day when she speaks with their surly rent collector and asks her to teach her how to read. It was a lovely story, almost reading like a fairytale or a fable. It didn’t seem at all authentic; the author – an Australian man – never convinced me that he really was the character who narrates the story. I’m not an expert on Cambodians but Sang Ly’s voice just didn’t ring true. Maybe given the somewhat fable-like quality of the book, that’s ok? It was a good story anyway. Grade: 6
The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow – This is a book about Africa’s smallholder farmers, most of whom are women. Not only are they doing back-breaking work but they have virtually no access to any tools or information to improve their farming techniques and no access to credit. For many months out of the year, they and their families near starve, subsisting on tea, bananas, and cassava (root vegetable) if they are lucky. The author takes us into the homes of four families in Kenya, and he takes us behind the scenes of an organization called One Acre which is working to change this scenario. One Acre provides access to improved farming techniques, fertilizer, and the like. It was great to read about this work being done to make people’s lives better. Grade: 8
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – It was nice to listen to this classic on audio. I’d never read it before; I think maybe I’d seen the movie as a kid but I don’t remember any details. The book is pretty good; I could easily see why Christie is one of the best-selling authors in history. (The back of the book says that only the Bible has sold more copies). I was definitely engaged the whole way through. Special shout-out to the voice actor. He was phenomenal; he handled so many different voices and accents, and made each character unique. Grade: 6
( A few final thoughts - they contain spoilers on this mystery! )
