Six Short Book Reviews

I've been meaning to review these books forever and haven't got round to it and at this rate I won't for ages. So here's the abbreviated version in order of the first read. As always any of these are available for checkout from the Smitty Library.

1. An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof.
Wonderful book. Enjoyable to read, will whet your appetite for a Caribbean vacation. Great recipes, although we haven't actually tried any of them yet (but I really want to, especially now I know the DeKalb Farmer's Market in Atlanta has callaloo). Ann Vanderhoof has done what we all want to do--leave the rat race behind and take a vacation forever (or a year, in her case)--so obviously she has more money than the rest of us, but she never ever writes like it, and the book is just a pleasure. Highly recommended.

2. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson.
A reread. I love Snow Crash and, the last time I read it, I still loved it. I like this book a great deal, but it runs out of steam 3/4 of the way through and enters a territory of great weirdness where it starts to get difficult to follow and even, frankly, to suspend disbelief for. Still contains wonderful moments of philosophy and lots of solid factual grounding, and still mostly a very fun read. But not as much fun as I remembered. Definitely worth looking at, but it shows the direction Stephenson has taken generally (i.e. increasingly hard to read).

3. Whatever You Do, Don't Run, by Peter Allison.
Subtitled "True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide." Lots of fun. Not quite as funny as you might expect from the cover blurbs and actually surprisingly touching at times, nonetheless a light, quick read, perfect for a bedside book as it consists of a collection of short episodes. I greatly enjoyed this book, and I don't think you need to have gone on safari to enjoy it yourself. It may make you want to pick up and go, though. I suspect Mr. Allison has three or four more books of stories in him and he is a fine storyteller. Smittywife needs to read this before it goes into the lending library circulation.

4. Airline/Transport Pilot Oral Exam Guide
Technical book of very limited interest. Will be out of date soon anyway, and since none of the airlines are actually hiring I won't need to take the test. Useful for brushing up on things before my interview, though.

5. Emergency Sex, by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson.
Absolutely my highest recommendation; the best book I've read this year. The authors were UN Peacekeepers during the 1990s and into the early 2000s and these are their tales. If you are at all aware of the existence of other countries you should read this book. If you are a firebreathing conservative and think the UN should be shut down, you should read this book. If you are bleeding-heart liberal and think the UN should take over the world, you should read this book. If you think it matters at all how the US is viewed in the other countries, you should read this book. If you don't think it matters how the US is viewed in other countries but are aware that other people have opinions, you should read this book.
You should read this book. It is gripping. It is well-written. It matters.

6. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene.
Interesting. On a lot of "Best Books" lists, which is why I read it. I will pick up The Quiet American and The Comedians on the basis of this, but I can't say I was exactly swept up in it or transfixed by its brilliance. Greene knows how to build a novel and is a good writer; if the subject matter, faith (in particular Catholicism) and keeping faith when there is no Earthly reason to do so, is of remote interest to you, this is one of few novels on the subject that doesn't preach to you (there's plenty of preachy junk out there for you if you want that). But it never really answers any questions, for the protagonist or for the reader. Valuable, but not one you need to put at the top of your list.

Short Short Book Reviews

I've been meaning to review these books forever and haven't got round to it and at this rate I won't for ages. So here's the abbreviated version in order of the first read. As always any of these are available for checkout from the Smitty Library.

1. An Embarrassment of Mangoes, by Ann Vanderhoof.
Wonderful book. Enjoyable to read, will whet your appetite for a Caribbean vacation. Great recipes, although we haven't actually tried any of them yet (but I really want to, especially now I know the DeKalb Farmer's Market in Atlanta has callaloo). Ann Vanderhoof has done what we all want to do--leave the rat race behind and take a vacation forever (or a year, in her case)--so obviously she has more money than the rest of us, but she never ever writes like it, and the book is just a pleasure. Highly recommended.

2. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson.
A reread. I love Snow Crash and, the last time I read it, I still loved it. I like this book a great deal, but it runs out of steam 3/4 of the way through and enters a territory of great weirdness where it starts to get difficult to follow and even, frankly, to suspend disbelief for. Still contains wonderful moments of philosophy and lots of solid factual grounding, and still mostly a very fun read. But not as much fun as I remembered. Definitely worth looking at, but it shows the direction Stephenson has taken generally (i.e. increasingly hard to read).

3. Whatever You Do, Don't Run, by Peter Allison.
Subtitled "True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide." Lots of fun. Not quite as funny as you might expect from the cover blurbs and actually surprisingly touching at times, nonetheless a light, quick read, perfect for a bedside book as it consists of a collection of short episodes. I greatly enjoyed this book, and I don't think you need to have gone on safari to enjoy it yourself. It may make you want to pick up and go, though. I suspect Mr. Allison has three or four more books of stories in him and he is a fine storyteller. Smittywife needs to read this before it goes into the lending library circulation.

4. Airline/Transport Pilot Oral Exam Guide
Technical book of very limited interest. Will be out of date soon anyway, and since none of the airlines are actually hiring I won't need to take the test. Useful for brushing up on things before my interview, though.

5. Emergency Sex, by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thomson.
Absolutely my highest recommendation; the best book I've read this year. The authors were UN Peacekeepers during the 1990s and into the early 2000s and these are their tales. If you are at all aware of the existence of other countries you should read this book. If you are a firebreathing conservative and think the UN should be shut down, you should read this book. If you are bleeding-heart liberal and think the UN should take over the world, you should read this book. If you think it matters at all how the US is viewed in the other countries, you should read this book. If you don't think it matters how the US is viewed in other countries but are aware that other people have opinions, you should read this book.
You should read this book. It is gripping. It is well-written. It matters.

6. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene.
Interesting. On a lot of "Best Books" lists, which is why I read it. I will pick up The Quiet American and The Comedians on the basis of this, but I can't say I was exactly swept up in it or transfixed by its brilliance. Greene knows how to build a novel and is a good writer; if the subject matter, faith (in particular Catholicism) and keeping faith when there is no Earthly reason to do so, is of remote interest to you, this is one of few novels on the subject that doesn't preach to you (there's plenty of preachy junk out there for you if you want that). But it never really answers any questions, for the protagonist or for the reader. Valuable, but not one you need to put at the top of your list.

College Football!

Okay, so this isn't what I said I was going to post about but I MUST talk about this!

USC lost to Oregon State last night. Lowly Oregon State, which, before last night, was considered in the bottom half of Pac-10 teams.
Why was everybody so freaking in love with USC before last night? Do they not watch what is happening out there on the West Coast? The freaking Mountain West and the WAC have both been beating up on the "better" tier of teams from the Pac-10. And what has USC done so far this year? Let's see, they flattened a Virginia team that's not even favored to beat perennial doormat Duke tomorrow. Then they took ten days off and beat up on Ohio State at home in LA--that's The Ohio State University, the football program that has made an utter laughingstock of the BCS championship the last two seasons and barely held off Troy last week. We already know Ohio State is grotesquely overrated, they should never have been ranked 5th when they played USC, and they shouldn't be ranked 14th now. They aren't even the second best team in a weak Big Ten, and might not be third best. And why is any of this a surprise????

I still don't understand why everybody lost faith in Georgia after week 1, or why ESPN commentators were as recently as yesterday afternoon announcing that the national championship would be played between USC and a team from the Big 12. Where is the SEC love, people? I hate the SEC, but even I can admit that the SEC championship this year will almost assuredly be played between two teams both of which are better than whatever teams show up in the BCS Championship game from any other conference. If anything, BYU looks like a better pick for the BCS than USC, and they have since week 1. Just because USC plays in LA and the team's stars look good in photo spreads and Pete Carroll gives his local brand of kool-aid away free at pressers does not mean they are the top team in the country.

Thank you, Oregon State, for clarifying what was already clear and making plain what was already obvious.

/rant

Um... The House Comes With These... Things

Many older houses come with animals inside. Ours is absolutely infested with spiders. Not the bad kind of spiders, but kind of creepy all the same. They're getting better, though, now that we live here. A friend of ours bought an older home a few years ago and found a squirrel nest in the attic big enough to stable a pony in. We were spared that particular annoyance, thank goodness.

But our neighbors moved out a few days after we moved in, and they left some things behind. (They also stole some things, including the refrigerator, out of the house they were renting, and left the garage piled floor to ceiling with kitchen garbage. In bags, but still, piled floor to ceiling with garbage.) They left behind their indoor-outdoor cat, a white and orange tabby tomcat. He is going to the humane society soon to become a regular plain cat instead of a tom cat, because he is the only male cat in the area and we can't afford to spay a bunch of cats.

Because a bunch of cats is what we have. There is a mama cat (Mama Cita, for now), who is a standard brown tabby. And there are these things. Three tabby kittens, very similar in appearance, and shockingly similar to Tribble. We have been calling them Dasher, Vixen, and Blitzen (that's in order, left to right, in the photo below) for the last couple days, although last night I decided maybe we should give them names of minor characters from Star Trek series (to go along with Tribble).

They're very nice kittens. They stayed reasonably still for this photo, which Tribble generally doesn't do unless she's asleep. In the background you can see the tom cat, who I've been calling Creamsicle (the obvious choice) although Smittywife suggested Orange Pop, since he's the dad and all. (But he's fathered his last kittens.) I like both names. Perhaps I'll let the humane society choose when they receive him for surgery.

We're keeping them as outdoor-only cats, although they have become rather too comfortable at the house and like to sit in the windowsills and look in at us. I think we shall have to start giving them their food in the garage or something so they don't get so comfortable at the house. Creamsicle/Orange Pop sits on the porch and just stares. It's toughest for him, because I know he was used to coming inside before. The kittens and Mama Cita have only been outdoor cats. Once there's money coming in, I'll get them all spayed, but none of them have had any shots and they probably have some fleas, so it won't be cheap to take them in (the Humane Society will give them their shots and everything at $10 a shot; it's a lot cheaper than taking them to a vet, but considering that they're not even really our cats... four cats times $49/each to spay, times $10 per shot (2 shots per cat), I mean, I just want to prevent future kitten outbreaks, not spend $300 turning them into pets. Maybe there's a charity that will pay for this for us...). In any event, neutering Orange Pop should at least prevent future kitten outbreaks for a while; that is the hope.

Anyway. Just wanted to post that adorable picture. There will be house pictures galore coming soon!

Wow. A Whole Month.

So it's been 33 days since my last post. I can't say I didn't warn you, but then, even the warning was rather sunnier than this.
I have lots of updates I want to post. We have a new house, of course, and we've done SO MUCH work to it. I can't wait to start posting before and after pictures and show off what we've done. I need to organize (and download from the camera) a lot of those pictures. But I want to start with a nice short post every day, or at least four or five days a week. That seems like a fair goal. So this little post will have to stand for today. But soon, I promise you, there will be pictures. Many pictures. Yaay!