Books Blog : politics

Colorful Fantasy Adventure

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:04:00 GMT

A few months ago I realized it had been a long time since I'd read any science fiction or fantasy novels. When I started making a list of titles to try, a friend recommended Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Now I'm recommending it to you because this is a book that has everything: mystery, romance, sword fights, political intrigue, religious debate, sarcasm and more!

Two strong female characters lead the story. Vivenna and Siri are sisters and princesses of Idris. Although Vivenna has been trained from birth to be the god king of Hallandren's bride, it is Siri who is sent to off to this foreign country to marry the god king. Vivenna, both confused about having her duty taken away from her and worried about her younger sister, takes off to Hallandren to rescue Siri from the god king.

The countries Idris and Hallandren have mostly opposite cultures, so both Siri and also Vivenna, who's been educated on the Hallandren lifestyle, experience major culture shock when they arrive in Hallandren. Idris is a quiet country with only small cities populated by worshipers of Austre, who strive to never be ostentatious. Their one god Austre is not someone they see, only someone who's good works they see. Hallandren is a bold country full of bright colors with a pantheon of gods, the most powerful of which is the god king. The Hallandren people can actually petition their gods in person at the gods' and goddess' palaces. Since the book takes place primarily in the capitol city of Hallandren, color is a very important part of the story.

Idris and Hallandren are about to go to war against each other and the two sisters, though separate, find themselves doing whatever they can to prevent it or make it easier on their beloved Idris. Meanwhile, in the court of gods, debate over the war becomes more and more heated. Most of the gods and goddesses are either strongly for or against the war, but Lightsong the Bold, a rather reluctant god, is not sure.

Each and every character brings something to this story, but some of my favorites are Vasher and his sword, Nightblood. Lightsong's high priest, who he nicknamed Scoot, is my favorite of the less central characters.The god king himself turned out to be more interesting than I thought he would.

At nearly 600 pages, Warbreaker is a little longer than most books I read, but it was well worth it. There really aren't any slow sections. Once I was in the last 200 pages, it became a real struggle to pull myself away from the story for anything at all!

To visit Brandon Sanderson's website, click here.

My Land is Dying, by Harry Caudill

Bufkinite@evpl — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:38:00 GMT

Why review a 38 year old book? When I spotted this book, I remembered the name Harry Caudill because of his book Night Comes to the Cumberlands. I read that book after reading a chapter about Harry Caudill in a book of essays by Wendell Berry called What Are People For?

Now, I've been an admirer of Wendell Berry for years, and enjoy his writing - and his thoughts - immensely. Like Berry, Caudill (1922-1990) was a person who willingly tied his life to a place - the Kentucky Cumberlands - and he spent his life living and working in that place, and protecting what he found valuable in it. What he found valuable, it turns out, was the landscape, the people, and the culture that the two - put together - formed.

Published in 1971, My Land is Dying is a detailing of the history the exploitation of the Cumberlands' resources - first the virgin forest that blanketed the region, later the coal, and always the people. He details how the collusion of state government with business interests first disenfranchised, then impoverished, and finally drove from the land the vast majority of the inhabitants of the land. Caudill knows what he's talking about; he was a lawyer, and a good one. But he defended the defenseless, and saw time & again how victories at the local level would be reversed by higher level courts in the capital of Frankfort. His narrative of this slow, inexorable death is accompanied by pictures that show the devastation, and he spends time talking about people. Not in the abstract, but real folks with real names, like the widow Ollie Combs, who was arrested on her own land when she delayed miners by laying down in front of bulldozers.

Written 38 years ago, this book's message should be read more urgently today, both because the stakes are higher, and the truths that it speaks are undiminished: "No nation was ever more abundantly endowed with natural beauty than ours. Yet it is clear from this continuing record that no nation has been more heedless of its legacy. And no chapter of that record is uglier or more threatening than the chapter that continues to be written by the mining interests, whether below or on the surface of the land."

This book may be old, but it deserves to be widely read.

The Food We Eat: New Ways of Thinking About Food

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:01:00 GMT

Red Bank Branch has two upcoming events concerning our food and where it comes from.

On Wednesday September 24 at 6:30pm Marvin Kemper and Joe Schalansky of Seton Harvest will be speaking. Seton Harvest is a CSA, or community supported agriculture project.

Next, on Wednesday October 15 at 6:30pm Suzan Ozel of the River City Food Co-op will be speaking. The River City Food Co-op is a local source for whole foods, organic foods and local produce.

If you're interested in learning more about the food we eat, try these titles:

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements by Sandor Ellix Katz
Simply in Season: A World Community Cookbook by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food by Gary Paul Nabhan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser
Feeding People is Easy by Colin Tudge
Everything I Want To Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin

"American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:24:00 GMT

Loosely based on the lives of George and Laura Bush, this novel is causing a sensation in both political and literary circles.

Thirty-three year old author Curtis Sittenfeld hit the bestseller lists with her first novel, "Prep," in 2005, utilizing her Seven Sisters background in a fictional probe of elite prep schools. Now she tackles one of American's premier political dynasties.

I'm only halfway done but find it interesting that the cover featues a formal wedding gown, since Laura actually wore a simple white two-piece outfit in a small ceremony within months of meeting George. She was a sweet book-reading thirty-one-year-old elementary school librarian and he was a charming, funny young politician hoping to do big things and please his family.

The most revealing chapter so far involves the secretly engaged couple's weekend visit to the family compound, Halcyon (Kennebunkport). There Alice (a thinly disguised Laura) must contend with the athletic, boisterous, and somewhat bawdy Blackwell (Bush) clan. "Maj" (Barbara) -- short for Major -- proves to be a special challenge. (Am I imagining it or do the Bushes and Kennedys resemble each other -- if not in politics than in their clanishness, good time 'tudes and hunger for power?)

Far greater reviewers than I have covered this novel -- including Joyce Carol Oates for the New York Times and Joe Klein in Time Magagine. Or read an author interview with Leslie Stahl of CBS News.

I can't wait to get off work -- but should I watch rehashed political commentary on CNN, Fox, or MSNBC or read my novel? I think I'll read.

A great book...or THE GREATEST book of all time???

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Last weekend I finished reading Stephen Colbert's epic tome I Am America (and So Can You!). If you have not done yourself the favor of reading this New York Times Bestseller (previously #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list), DO IT NOW! The fate of the free world rests in your hands.

Being a fan of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Stephen's spin-off, The Colbert Report, I can attest that I Am America lives up to the wit and humor of the television shows. As always, Colbert pulls no punches as he speaks his mind, the one-and-only absolute truth. The only other way to absorb this much of his truthiness is to beam the contents of his brain directly into yours; look for the "Stephen Colbert's Brain Downloading Kit" coming soon to stores, but unlike his book it won't be available for free at the library.

Without this book, I would not have known the truth about the evil, liberal media; the evil, liberal Hollywood; Catholicism being the one true religion; the unfair advantages seniors get in our country (lookin' at you, Social Security!!!); and, of course, the cold-blooded killers that bears are. I will not ruin the surprise by going on further about the book's content, but it should be considered sacred doctrine. In fact, each copy comes with a sticker alerting firemen how many copies of the book are in your house to rescue, in case it's ever on fire.

In short, read this book now. As I went through withdrawals during the writers' strike, it helped me get my Colbert fix. If you're still not convinced, know that it was recently awarded with "The Stephen T. Colbert Award For The Literary Excellence".