Book Review: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I have resisted reading this book for SO long!! I am one of those people who hates jumping on a book bandwagon, and it just seems like everywhere I go I hear people raving about this book. My book club is reading it next month, though -- and one of our members just received something like 25 copies of it for free, and gave me one. I thought "oh, I'll just read the first few pages and save the rest for next month". haha, that's funny. Once you start this silly book, you canNOT stop reading it, may as well forget everything else you have to do. So I guess that is an earmark of a very good book. The book I had contained a preview of her next book in the back, so I didn't realize I was so near to the end and actually felt cheated when I finished it all in one big gulp. I've felt a little bereaved today to be without the life of the characters. I'm glad there's a few more in the series!

I feel like a split personality, though, because there were some things I didn't really like. It felt so much like a Harlequin to me at times....can we have a few less "he crushed her lips" and "she swooned against him" scenes, please?? I mean, I like a good love story like everyone, but the dramatic flair was a bit much for me at times. Some things, too, seemed a little off to me. The main character is a woman from England in the 1940's -- would she really say "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ"? I mean, I'm not arguing that a nurse on the front lines wouldn't have awful language -- it just seems like a pretty American thing to say! And once, she calls her man "John Wayne" -- again, it seems particularly American. Would Europeans really have acquired the American slang necessary for these expressions? Maybe; it just seemed rather inauthentic to me.

I tend to prefer a more literary offering, which this book could have been with it's obviously extensive research and information. It came off feeling like a thriller, though - a beach read, a romance. I can't quite put my finger on why. Will I read the rest of the series, though? You absolutely bet your bottom dollar. I can't WAIT to see what happens here! I love the time travel concept, and love the premise of this book.

Oh, and if you love this book, don't miss The Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis. Another time travel wonder -- I think I may have like that one a tiny bit better, and would have loved it if Connie Willis had written more in that series!

Waaaaaaayyyyyy behind

Ok, a friend of mind on Facebook told me the other day that she actually READS this blog once in awhile for book ideas. I do update the "Books Read" section on the right pretty often, but haven't been reviewing books at all. I'm so far behind that I'm not going to try to make it look real pretty -- but here's a little blurb on what I thought about all the books I've read since my last review!

The Help: This is an awesome book I recommend to everyone! Based in the 60's in Mississippi, you will be shocked at how people still felt about black people in our lifetime!! My whole book club loved this one, and we had lots and lots of discussion about it.

Finding Nouf: Yet another bookclub pick - I picked it and it's my favorite type of book. You will learn a LOT about the Muslim world, culture, and mindset - all while being very entertained with a well written mystery. Loved it.

Boundaries: This book is VERY Christian-based, and therefore not all my clients can tolerate it, but it's the best book out there on having boundaries in relationships. I wish I could find a more mainstream book that explains this just as well.

10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting: We had a 6 week group on this subject at my yoga studio, using this book as the text. I can't think of a religion that would find anything disturbing about this book - it will help you no matter what your religious background is.

In Pale Battalions: Awhile back I heard that Stephen King LOVES this author, and I had never heard of Robert Goddard!! How could that be? This is touted as his best book, and I thought it was really good. A mysterious sort of book, set in Europe after the second world war. A worthwhile read, and I'll be reading more of his.

The Wise Heart: When I spout Buddhist stuff, my friends often think I'm leaving the Christian faith or something!! I've often said that Buddha wasn't a god - he was the world's first GREAT psychologist. If you want to read about Buddhist psychology, without any religious overtones, this is the book for you. It's fantastic. If all my clients read it and understood it, I wouldn't have a job.

Mentoring: I'm going to be supervising another therapist soon, and this is the book that I chose to read to prepare myself for the new role. Based on the Tao Te Ching, it provides a great frame of mind for anyone who is in management, parenting, or any kind of authoritative role in life. I like to use it as a companion book to "Grace Unfolding".

The Age of Shiva: I have been looking forward to this book for a long time. It's the kind I love - education about another culture (in this case Indian), while being entertained. I was a little disappointed, though, and it might just be because I was so busy that I really didn't have time to throw myself into this book. I read it in very short spurts over a long period of time. It just didn't capture me. Looking back, I think of it as a pretty good book, but it certainly didn't keep me up late at night.

Fingerprints of God: I think this book might be pretty similar to the movie "What the Bleep do we know?" You probably shouldn't read it if you don't want to blow your mind and question all of your well-formed and comfortable religious beliefs. A non-fiction book written by the religion correspondent to NPR news. I don't even LIKE non-fiction. I could NOT put it down until I was done.

One for Sorrow: It came highly recommended to me, but was a little too weird for my taste. The entire book is about a boy's friendship with his dead friend. I never did quite figure out if he actually SAW the friend, or if the entire book was just a catalogue of his delusions. I think the kid really needed to just go to bed with some really good anti-psychotics, myself.

Christine Falls: A mystery story by Benjamin Black, which is the pen name of John Banville ("The Sea"). Some reviews on Amazon complained that for a mystery, there wasn't enough "on the edge of your chair-ness". Well, that's John Banville...his writing is slow, evocative and beautiful. I personally loved the book, but you should probably read it more based on the fact that you love John Banville, and less on the fact that you love mysteries.

Ok, that's it. Promise I'll try to keep up better in the future!!

Book Review: The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam

With over 100 books on my "to be read" list, rarely do I move a book I just heard about to the top of the list. But I did do that with this book, after reading a glowing review in my local paper. If you follow my reviews, you know I love books that take place in other cultures and locales. This book, the review said, had not only beautiful writing on it's side, but it is based in Afghanistan. I wanted to read it, and I wanted to read it now! So I did.

Let me first say that I struggled through this book for two reasons: the first is that I have been unreasonably busy the last few weeks, and the second is that this is tough material for a Western girl from California to read. It's not just the sort of book you can pick up while your car is going through the wash at the gas station. You need some quiet, some brain power, some sleep the night before.

(Minor spoilers below)
Having said that, though, this book is powerful. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to broaden their understanding of Afghanistan and that region of the world. It's fiction, to be sure, but so much of it is laced with truth. And, by the way, don't read this if you are married to one point of view. Yes, you'll see the great things the Americans have done in Afghanistan; you'll also see our not so moral or wise choices. You will meet fundamentalist Muslims - and gentle ones. You'll see the world through the eyes of a boy trained in a jihad camp - you'll see how he wants to change....and ultimately can't. This book is not for the faint of heart. But if you have the courage to read it, you'll love it.

Book Review: Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo

Wow! This is one of my favorite books of the year! I am so excited to report back on this one! I read that this book was the story of a skeptic's road trip with some sort of monk and the things that they talked about. I was expecting this to be a pithy little novel that espoused the Eastern viewpoint in a banal way, but I still wanted to read it.

Oh, wrong, wrong. This book is really profound. If you are skeptical of the Eastern viewpoint and you don't know much about it, this book will explain it perfectly -- all while you are being entertained! What could be better? There are some profound truths in this book, and your skeptical responses are welcomed - indeed, they are the responses of the main character.

If you already understand the Eastern viewpoint, and especially if you do yoga, you will love this book as well. There is an absolutely hilarious scene where the monk takes the skeptical character to a yoga class. It's hysterical, and does the best job I have ever seen of explaining why someone would put themselves through a vigorous yoga class. This book gets 5 stars in my book.

Book Review: The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer

This book defies review. Almost anything at all I would say about it would be a spoiler. The story unfolds so subtly, but so shockingly, that I'm still thinking about the implications after a night's sleep.

Marriage is my business (I'm a marriage counselor) so of course this book's title grabbed me. Oh yes, I want to hear another marriage story! This is the story of Pearlie and Holland Cook, living in San Francisco in the 1950's. Awesome writing, lyrical prose, you will get pulled in and won't want to stop. I read it in one sitting.

I'm sorry I can't say too much more, because of the spoilers. This story so typifies the marriages of the 50's though. So much unsaid. We're doing a little better now - at least we're saying more. Now we just need to figure out how to say more without destroying everything!! But I digress. Read this. It's great!!

Book Review: The English Major by Jim Harrison

This was an ok book. The writing is well done, told in first person (which I love) and the adventure is entertaining. I didn't have any trouble getting through it or anything. But, having said all that, I would say it's a passable read. I've read several books in this genre - an older man, looking back on his life and going through some kind of reflection about what he sees there. If you like that sort of thing, there are better ones -- I would recommend "Be Near Me' by Andrew O'Hagan, "The Sea" by John Banville or "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson above this one.

This character's wife has left him and taken everything and he's off on a road trip across the country to regroup. It's a good premise. I find all the sex and sex talk to be unlikely of an elderly farmer type though. And he has this hare-brained idea to rename all the states and the state birds and so forth. It seems a strange preoccupation. I guess maybe my main complaint was that I didn't like him all that much. His wife left him because he was a bit boring and predictable -- and, well, I guess I thought so too.

Book Review: The Beach by Alex Garland

This book is a trip into another world. Wow. I was so caught up in it and absolutely hated to see it end! Some of the blurbs on the flap compared it to The Lord of the Flies, but I've never read that one, so can't say if it's accurate.

This story is about a young guy named Richard, off backpacking around Asia. You know the type, right? Well, while in Thailand, he hears about this beach, supposedly some kind of Eden, where a group of people is living in paradise. Curious, he sets out for it and finds it.

What follows is a compelling story that you'll be caught up in - but also a philosophical discourse about creating a society from scratch. We feel like if we could create something from scratch, with all we've learned through history, we could make an ideal society, heaven, nirvana. But as the book unfolds, you realize that maybe we're not as smart as we think we are. Suspenseful and entertaining - and not just your run of the mill mystery. Kind of reminded me of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, which many of you know is one of my favorite books. You can take this book as a "beach read", or you can ponder it's deeper implications. Either way, it's a great read.