Synopsis: Through letters, this book tells the story of what happened on the islands in the English Channel during World War II, through the eyes of a writer who investigates the goings on in the aftermath of the war.
Review: C This book got consistently good reviews everywhere I looked, but I really was not very interested by it. If I hadn't been bored out of my mind cat-sitting for friends, I probably would have stopped reading a third of the way through. Personally, I find books written through the point of view of letters to feel very contrived, and this was no different. The worst was when the main character meets up in person with some other characters and clearly the authors had to come up with some way for the story to continue. I felt that the characters weren't fully developed and I wasn't really invested in them or the plot much at all. But it is an easy read!
Synopsis: The author takes a number of minimum wage or sub-minimum wage jobs within the food industry and tries to survive on limited funds as she investigates where our food originates.
Review: B This book reminded me a lot of Nickeled and Dimed, which I read in May. It is more recently written, and focuses more on food than the plight of the lower class, though in the end I felt like it had basically the same moral standpoint. It was easy to read and very interesting, but like I said before, pretty similar to a book I read a few weeks before, so I wasn't as interested in it as I probably would have been otherwise.
Synopsis: After her marriage ends, a woman travels around the world in search of personal fulfillment and rebirth.
Review: C I can see why this book was so popular a few years ago, because it was super easy to read and very much appealing to the "chick-lit" portion of the population. I got kind of bored by it because to me the main character / author seemed to be pretty entitled, and I can imagine that some of the people would be offended by how their cultures were depicted from an outsider's perspective. Good beach reading though!
Synopsis: A boy is sold into indentured servitude in the Indian-controlled lands in the post-Civil War era, and experiences a lot of amazing adventures as he aligns himself more and more with the Native Americans and less with his own racial group.
Review: A Though by the same author as Cold Mountain, one of my favorite books, I can see why this novel didn't garner as many accolades as his first. However, the story is really interesting once you get past the first three or four chapters, and, amazingly, it's closely based on a true story, which was quite interesting to research a bit after I finished the novel. At times it moves a bit slowly but I did enjoy it.
Synopsis: A story of a love quadrangle in World War II Europe (especially in what is now the Czech Republic and Austria)
Review: A I loved this book. I finally got around to reading it literally one year after a literary friend recommended it very highly. It, like many other great books, did take a few chapters to get into, but then I loved it. A quick warning, though: it was very explicit at moments, so some people might not appreciate it. Also, it uses quite a bit of poetic language - again something that many people dislike. However, if you have the same literary tastes as I do, read this book!
Synopsis: Positive thinking can transform the opportunities that present themselves to you
Review: B This book for me was not very interesting, but that's only because I know the author personally and have heard him give lectures on this topic at least four or five times, so I had heard many of the most interesting stories before. Additionally, I have worked with him, playing principal horn in his orchestra, for over two years, so I am quite familiar with his approach. I do like what he has to say, and have found it useful in my own life and playing, but for me the book was a bit redundant. However, I would recommend reading it, even if you're not a musician. It's more about finding opportunities in everyday life than anything specifically musical, and in fact it is co-authored by Ben Zander's wife, who was/is a psychologist, so she has a less specifically musical analysis of each problem or example.
Review: C To be honest, I really don't remember this book at all, and that's why I have to give it a C. It made very little impression, neither positive or negative, but from what I do remember, I think it was quite similar to Outliers and Freakonomics, both of which I had read the month before.
