Moonwalking with Einstein was yet another venture outside of my comfort zone. A book about memory, more of a memoir than a self-help book, Moonwalking with Einstein takes the reader (listener in my case) through Josh Foer’s journey from regular guy who can’t remember where his keys are to US Memory Champion.
I have to admit, this was much better than I was expecting. It’s been on my radar awhile, after being a best seller on both Amazon and NY Times. Before I impulse downloaded it to listen to, I thought there would be no way I’d ever pay attention to a book about memory tricks. But it’s so much more than that.
I can’t believe how interesting it was to hear about Foer’s training and tricks. The information unearthed through his studies of and with the various experts in the field was captivating. It’s remarkable what the human brain can do. Even now, I can remember the various list of random nonsense that was the one example Foer walks you through how to remember (pickled garlic, cottage cheese, peat smoked salmon, six bottles of white wine, three pairs of socks, three hula hoops, scuba diving gear, dry ice machine, email Sofia, skin colored cat suit). Are you kidding? That’s nonsense that I memorized and I listened to that part of the book a week and a half ago. Incredibly impressive.
I gave this a 3 based on my rating system (3 = liked it but won’t read it again) but this one was one that almost breaks the scale. I don’t need to read it again but I was really impressed with it. So much different (and so much better!) than I expected!
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close… I’m almost not sure what to say about this one. I was afraid to read it for awhile, because all I knew about it was that it was a book about a boy who lost his father in the attacks on September 11th. But I’m glad I did. I think it might have been my favorite book of the month (if not for Ready Player One). Bear with me on this review, it’s going to be different, just like the book.
It’s clear from the beginning that the narrator for most of the book, a young boy named Oskar Schell, has some kind of mental issue. Maybe it’s autism, maybe it’s OCD or ADD, maybe it’s just depression or a coping mechanism. Something’s going on. But you go with it, because it’s interesting and unexpected. The writing style is fast paced and close to a stream of consciousness with his sections, which are interspersed with letters from people you don’t make a connection with until about the middle of the book. The way this story is told is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and about 75 pages into it I was hooked. It’s purposely cryptic and draws you in. It keeps you involved, but it’s also obnoxious because you constantly feel like you’re missing something.
Oskar’s dad died in 9/11, and after his death, Oskar finds a key hidden away, and makes it his mission to find what it goes to. It's sad and upsetting, but not in the way you'd think. I’m still very conflicted about it. It's a story of recovering from loss. A story of hope. A story of enduring. A story about love and loss. About family and friendship. About life.
All in all, I don't know how I feel about it. I thought I wanted to see the movie but now I'm not so sure. I'm upset but ok. I gave this a four because I like the writing style and the book. I didn’t give it a five because I was unsatisfied with the ending, although there’s something to be said about how he did that as well.
How’s that for cryptic?
Matched is a young adult/borderline children’s book that wants very badly to be either The Giver or The Hunger Games. Set in a futuristic world remarkably similar to that of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, all of our free will as a human race has essentially vanished. Calories and food are predetermined, jobs are assigned based on relative strengths, and romantic relationships are determined by the appropriate match of personalities. Cassia is 17 and headed to her Matching Banquet, and to her delight, is matched with her best friend Xander, in a match that everyone classifies as perfect. But the next day, just for a split second while reviewing her “courtship guidelines” the face of another boy shows up, and she knows him too: Ky. So, the question becomes, somewhat predictably, does she go with what is planned and reliable: Xander, or what may actually be her perfect, but unauthorized Match, Ky?
First, let me say for the record that I liked Matched. I like the concept, I like the main character, I like the future world. I was annoyed by the love triangle. Where Divergent was clearly a Hunger Games wannabe and I could not have cared less, this one is more obviously trying to target the audiences of mainstream teen books with its teen love triangle. I wish the author had focused more on the world around the characters, the choices Cassia and her family do have to make that aren’t already predetermined, and the ethics of having a Society that makes your life easier but steals your free will. It’s an interesting concept. I wanted to know more about it.
All in all, a good book and a good use of my time overall. I’ll be reading the sequel eventually, I’m sure. This one was somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. But in order from favorite to least favorite of the recent dystopic fiction trilogies, my ranking would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched.
Where She Went, the sequel to If I Stay, is my typical type of audio book. Not complex by any means, but a good and engaging story, something that I had no problem listening and paying attention to. Spoilers ahead for If I Stay, which is a YA book that I read several years ago.
Where She Went continues the story of If I Stay, picking up several years after the tragic accident that left Mia without an immediate family. This book is told from the point of view of Mia’s high school boyfriend, Adam, who, we discover fairly quickly, is not with Mia anymore, but is still pining away for her. He has made it big with his band, Shooting Star, but is unrecognizable as the character from If I Stay. Throughout the book, we find that he has become a shell of his former self without Mia, and has very little joy in life, until a chance encounter with her brings him back.
I liked this book, but it was really nothing special. It was interesting to see the fallout from the accident, of course, and to see the way that the characters of If I Stay were affected. It was a good amount of closure for the first book. Solid 3.
Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman whose cancerous cells were taken in a sample at Johns Hopkins and grew to become the most prolific and first “immortal” strain that science had seen. With Henrietta Lacks’ cells (HeLa), scientists have cured polio, and made other unbelievable advances in medicine. But how were these cells collected? Why doesn’t anyone know the story behind the woman who made all of this possible? Rebecca Skloot is a white journalist who takes us on the journey of discovering who Henrietta was, why her cells are so important to science and history, and takes a (mostly) objective look at the ethics of what has been done to her and her descendents in the name of scientific progress.
This book was our book club’s March pick. It’s not something that I would usually read, as for the most part I’m a fiction kind of girl. But I’m very glad that I was out of my comfort zone and reading this one. I’ll admit, for the first half of the book or so, I was a little bored. The reporting of Henrietta’s background and her family was fine, but a bit bland. When we discovered things like the unethical treatment of African Americans at Johns Hopkins, and how cancer radiation was treated back then, I was downright disturbed. But I admit all of this was necessary to have the third part of the book, a look at Henrietta’s immortality, and questions about the ethics of how HeLa is used and distributed, which was much more engaging, in my opinion.
I’m still not sure I have a strong opinion either way on the events of the book. In general I think today the biggest problems of the situation are more regulated: informed consent, privacy laws, etc. I won’t go into it now, and will let you draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say, this book made for good conversation at our book club meeting. Highly recommended if you have someone to talk it over with.
I’ll give it a 3- I liked it more than I thought I would, and I’m happy I read it.
