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books

The fast and furious

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I have read quite a few books in the last couple of weeks, but I have had a hard time sitting down to write a full out review of anything just yet. But here’s a treat: Twitter-style book reviews. A quick selection of recent reads reviewed in 140 characters or less.

Rumors by Anna Godbersen

Book two of “Luxe” series reunites us with a character we grew to love in book 1, introduces new romances, and ends with an unexpected twist.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

Disappointingly underdeveloped dystopian novel reminiscent of 1984. Themes of freewill and government power but plot/character holes abound.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Memoir gracefully and tactfully depicts a dysfunctional family life of children living with an emotionally-absent mom and alcoholic dad.

The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas

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As a cookbook lover, I’ve been overwhelmed by the sheer selection in my local branch. However, when the 2009 James Beard Award nominees for cookbooks were announced, I braved the catalog to order Beatrice Ojakangas’ latest venture, appropriately called The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever: With More Than 500 Recipes! The tagline contains all that you really need to know about this massive book – it’s huge. Utterly teaming with delectable recipes. And really, they all sound good.

Ojakangas is known for her Scandanavian cookery. A native of Duluth, Minnesota, her ancestry is entirely Finnish. Her first writing venture, The Finnish Cookbook, is still in print – a marvel for a cookbook published in 1964. The Best Casserole Cookbook is her 27th published cookbook. In a recent interview with the Toledo Blade, Ojakangas says the publication of this book is “”very timely,” offering “economical meals that are simply made with ingredients that you won’t spend a fortune to buy, or that you already have on hand. It’s comfort food.”

The day I received this tome, I sat down and started reading it like a book. Normally, I like cookbooks with full-color pictures for each recipe; I’ve been spoiled by the gorgeous cookbooks published by Clarkson Potter. The Best Casserole Cookbook lacks the excessive photography of my favorite volumes, but it does have a few lovely inserts with some mouth-watering photographs. Ojakangas divides the book into several categories, starting with the basics. I loved this section, especially seeing that my early casserole attempts centered around cream of mushroom soup that always seems too salty. One Christmas, I made cream of mushroom soup purely for use in the green bean casserole. Ojakangas shares my disdain for the sodium-packed, overly processed stuff, so she explains how to make different sauces that can act as healthier substitutes for Campbell’s. In the following chapters, she details appetizers, meats, vegetarian, grains, desserts, and even breads that one can make in a casserole dish. I especially enjoyed the “Casseroles for Two” chapter – as a single person, it’s sometimes difficult to justify making a casserole intended for 12 people, but Ojakangas’ smaller portion sizes are spot-on.

Of course, I had to try a number of these recipes. My favorite? I made the Broccoli and Chicken Casserole for Two for a friend of mine one weekday night. The recipe was insanely simple, made with sour cream and parmesan instead of a heavy cheese sauce. I assembled it in less than 20 minutes, popped in the fridge, then put it in the oven when I came home from work the next day. My friend had never eaten a casserole before, so he was surprised to find that he liked it so much!

Next week, I’m making a Southwestern Breakfast Casserole with chorizo, queso fresco, and eggs for a work meeting. We have another potluck the following week – I know that Moussaka with Lots of Vegetables will be my contribution. And I’m sure I can find an audience for Spicy Cheese and Green Chile Dip. When I (reluctantly) returned the book to the library, I forced my co-workers to browse… and I saw several people making copies of the pages to try for dinner later. I may have to buy myself a copy of this book; it will look beautiful next to my worn copy of Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything.

Destroy All Cars by Blake Nelson

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In the last couple of weeks, I’ve read two books that were very guy-friendly and one thing that both of them had in common was how darn funny they were. First, I read Steven Goldman’s Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath, which had me laughing out loud at a couple of places. Then, I got to a book that made me laugh way more than a few times out loud: Blake Nelson’s Destroy All Cars.

When I began Nelson’s book, I was a little worried. I’d read a number of reviews that claimed it was nothing but a “liberal agenda set forth in teen fiction.” While I don’t mind a book with a political bent in any direction, this particular one had me a bit worried. Fortunately, Destroy All Cars was so not just an agenda.

James Hoff is a very angry teen, but not in the manner you’d suspect. Hoff spends his time railing against the factors that are destroying our planet, and more specifically, he spends significant time pointing out how much cars are ruining the planet with their emissions and their gas consumption. At 17, he is acutely aware of how important it is to cherish the environment and make strides against seeing it destroyed. How fitting, too, he lives in suburban Portland, Oregon, which allows this entire aspect of the plot to manifest quite well.

But James’s story is not just about his anger at environmental destruction. Rather, this is a story about losing the first girl he ever had real feelings for: Sadie. She was his first real girlfriend for him he had real feelings, and the break up was hard for him. James spends a lot of time in his junior year thinking about other girls and who he can potentially have relationships with post-Sadie. Although we’re briefly introduced to a few girls, it is quite clear he’s not interested in anyone but Sadie. And why Sadie, you ask? Well, she, too, is quite concerned about the world and rallies for any number of causes.

The story chronicles James’s interest in lambasting consumerist America and his interest in getting back together with Sadie.

Although the story itself sounds like something that’s been done again and again, Nelson does something very unique with the structure of the book itself. It’s told through James’s point of view, but it’s done so through a number of lenses. First, James shares his essay assignments for Mr. Cogweiller’s English class and subsequent remarks from Cogweiller; throughout the book, we’ll see that some essays are more successful than others and we’ll see that some don’t even get turned in. In addition to these very funny essays are James’s journal entries, which in some cases include the dialog between himself and other characters. Splitting the story into different mediums of writing like this is very successful in this book, and it does a fantastic job of building James’s character. We are also able to watch James develop in his writing and thinking, and we develop our own relationship with Cogweiller.

Perhaps what I liked most about Destroy All Cars was that the messages were valuable, but they were put in such a way that they were very, very funny. James and Sadie are both fighting for something valuable and important and understand how necessary it is to be aware of our environment. But, in James’s case, his awareness manifests in anger and outrage that are so spot-on for his character. While I don’t believe all 17-year-olds operate with his mindset, I think that a lot of how he acts and thinks is on par with that age group. He’s not ridiculous nor is he stupid. He’s passionate and inexperienced at the same time. James would be an easy character to dislike but as a reader, I really liked him and wanted to see him succeed. Nelson did a fantastic job of delineating him.

I think this is a book that guys would definitely like. It’s not overly emotional, and the format makes it a very quick and easy read. It helps that James is relatable and very funny. Admittedly, I can see people being turned off by what they might see as an agenda in the book, but I don’t think that’s Nelson’s point at all. In fact, I think that Destroy All Cars conveys the message that people in this age group are already aware of and concerned about, making it more appealing. Most of the book is clean, with little foul language, though about 3/4 through the book, things get a little sexual. It’s not risque nor unexpected and it fits with the story.

One of the other reasons I liked this book so much was because it allowed me to think about myself and my own development. This book captures a 17-year-old so well, and it allowed me to think about who I was at that age and who I am now.

The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim

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Yang and Kim team up for The Eternal Smile, a graphic novel that uses three different stories to explore fantasy versus reality, and the ways in which the two overlap. It’s a fascinating theme that carries with it layers of potential meaning. While I believe both Yang and Kim collaborated on the storylines, the words in the book are by Yang and the illustrations are by Kim.

The first story features Duncan, a stereotypical hero in a sword-and-sorcery land who must save the kingdom (and the princess) from a terrible villain. It’s a great story to start off this trio of stories where things are never what they appear, since it seems at first that Duncan’s tale is simply one of those by-the-numbers fantasy tales we see so often. In fact, it’s not one of those at all, and the ending turns this little tale into a powerful story with a powerful meaning.

The second story is about an avaricious frog named Gran’pa Greenbax and his obsession with money. One day, Gran’pa Greenbax finds a smile up in the sky (from which the title of the book is derived), and his life is changed forever. Again, thing are not what they appear.

These first two stories are clever and thoughtful, but it is the final story, about a cubicle worker named Janet Oh, that really makes the book a worthwhile read. Janet works in an unrewarding job with a boss who degrades her. One day, she gets an email from Henry, a Nigerian prince, who desperately needs her help. All she has to do is give him her banking information, and he will give her a large cut of his family’s wealth and carry her away to Nigeria. What you think you know about Janet’s motivations is wrong. This last story is my runaway favorite – it’s so deceptively deep, and sweet too.

Unlike Yang’s Printz-winning novel American-Born Chinese, the three stories in The Eternal Smile do not all coalesce at the end. They are related only by their emphasis on a common theme. Their exploration of this theme is so well-done that I went back and re-read them the same night I picked up the book. This book especially lends itself to re-reading because of its emphasis on how we use fantasy in our lives – to escape from reality, to enhance our lives, to empower ourselves. Each story is more than just a fun romp – there is meaning there. This is what makes the book a good read, and one I’d recommend. While I feel I can safely recommend books that are fun but pretty devoid of meaning, I do try to attach a disclaimer to them (“Well, I enjoyed it, BUT…”). No disclaimer necessary for this one.

I admit that I’m a late adopter of graphic novels. I wrote them off as glorified comic books when they first started to make their mark in libraries, and when I had to read one for a school assignment, I dreaded the fact that I’d actually have to pay attention to the pictures in order to understand the story. I quickly got over this bias. I read Linda Medley’s lovely and clever Castle Waiting, and then I read Watchmen, and my prejudice against graphic novels was erased. In these two novels I read before The Eternal Smile, the illustrations were wonderful and creative and expressive and interesting. The same goes for the illustrations by Kim in The Eternal Smile. His illustrations for each story are so different in flavor that I initially thought they must each have been drawn by a different person. The drawings for the third story are particularly lovely, with each frame washed in a light blueish-gray hue – until, that is, Janet visits Nigeria, and the frames come alive with color (reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz film in more ways than one).

I still don’t see much of a difference between graphic novels and comic books, except graphic novels have the requisite beginning, middle, and end, whereas comic books are serial in nature (this is not a hard and fast rule, but it seems to be the main distinguishing factor). I’ve just come to realize that graphic novels can vary as much in quality as novels without pictures do.

Aside from clever stories and beautiful illustrations, the book itself is also a work of art. I read one reviewer describe the physical feel of the book as “solid,” and I agree with that description. It’s a surprisingly heavy book for its size, with thick paper that just feels wonderful in your hands. And it has that smell – you know, the “new book” smell that accompanies books with heavy, glossy pages and bright ink. It really belies my initial assumption of graphic novels as “comic books with a fancier name.” This book does not at all resemble the flimsy, thin-paged Archie comics I sometimes read as a kid. I’ve read some authors describe the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book as “the binding,” and that’s not totally wrong. But the binding makes a difference. This book is well-made, and I think that will go a long way in making kids want to pick it up. While younger kids may have a harder time understanding the levels of meaning in the book (the satirical nature of the second story in particular may go unnoticed), older kids and teens will likely get more out of it. Fans of fantasy stories may also come to see their favorite genre in a new light.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University, Kevin Roose

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One of my favorite reads in the last couple of years was A.J. Jacobs’ A Year of Living Biblically, published in late 2007. Jacobs, who admits to not being the most religious person, spent a year living as close to the Bible as possible. While it sounded like it could get out of hand real fast — at least in my opinion — I found the book did a great job of treating a touchy subject like religion well. I learned a lot and gained a sense of respect for very devout people. I’d say his book changed my mind about many things.

Suffice to say, I was excited to pick up Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple, which came out this year. Roose’s book is an exploration into a semester at Liberty University, also known as Jerry Falwell’s dream evangelical liberal arts university. Roose took a semester off school from the ultra liberal Brown University to become a student at Liberty and understand who attends the school and exactly what the educational and social life is like at such a conservative institution.

Because this is a work of non-fiction, there’s not a lot to discuss plot-wise in a review. I found a lot of what Roose learned in his adventure to be entirely new to me, too. My perceptions and ideas of such a place were skewed much as Roose’s were and it was enjoyable to read about a lot of those perceptions being just flat out wrong. Perhaps it’s my background in psychology, but there is something fascinating for me in learning my ideas are actually far off the mark about things like this. Moreover, I loved seeing Roose change as a person, too. He made good friends with many people at Liberty, and I found the conclusion of his time at Liberty to be just….sweet. I won’t go into details about that aspect nor about the huge event that happened at the end of his semester which I had not even remembered to think about until he reported it.

This is a book that people who liked Jacobs’ work will like, as well as people interested in how a facility like Liberty runs [less on the administrative side and more on the social/student side]. The Unlikely Disciple is written in a journalistic style that makes it easy to skip around when parts get dull or are just not of interest to you as a reader. I appreciated that as some parts did a little dragging. Roose is respectful, attentive to detail, and does a good job of telling a story.

Throughout the book, I did have an ethical question that did not arise out of what Roose was doing. Roose admitted in the first chapter of his book that he interned for Jacobs while at Brown. Considering the time frame in which Jacobs did his experiment and published a book and the internship and subsequent experiment by Roose, it seems almost certain to me this entire story is ingenuine in its goals. I dislike speaking ill of a good story, but I do have a problem with the notion that Roose either a. did this because his mentor did it, b. did it at the suggestion of his mentor, c. got himself the book deal before embarking on the experiment, or d. some combination therein. There is a lot of discussion in the reading world about Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love because she got her book deal before embarking on her life changing journey. Well, it seems to me that Roose got his book deal before deciding to do this experiment.

How geniune are the lessons then? Does it impact how you read the book? I’m curious because I really did enjoy the concept and the way the story comes together, but there is a lingering feeling of disingenuity in this book that makes me question both Roose and Jacobs and makes me a bit hesitant to want to read more from either of them. It seems more about the money than about the story, in a manner that most journalists seems to rail against.

Should we not read or promote the books? Nah, I think people will enjoy them and I enjoyed them. But there’s a point where you need to take it with a grain of salt and constantly question your author. Perhaps the real value is in enjoying the story while also being able to think critically about the source and the spin — something invaluable in navigating a world fraught with information and disinformation.