Dan's 2010 Books

12. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


So many amazingly weird stories in this book, so little space for a review. This was a real page turner for me. I read it basically in 1 day (and that was a workday, but I did spend about 4 hours of it on an airplane and an evening in a hotel). Though well written, the thing that kept me spellbound was the outrageous things this girl's parents continued to do, day after day, for her entire life. They did not really even belong to the human race, I don't think. It seems that they just had a different way of thinking about the world and how it all works and never really gave a hoot about what others thought. That is good, except sometimes they weren't even grounded in reality and certainly don't have much in the way of morals. Like when her father would consistently do "the skedaddle" and leave the hospital without paying the bill. Or when trouble arose and they just moved. Or when the kids had to sleep under a rubber raft because the roof was leaking so badly that they were getting soaked. Amazing any of the three kids made it to adulthood without death or serious problems. Sounds like the kids are surviving much better in society than their parents ever did. I'd totally recommend the book. It was fairly clean, sprinkled with some colorful language from her drunkard father.







11. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I listened to this on mp3 and loved every minute of it. I am always amazed when I can get through 5 hours of a book on tape in less than two weeks. I forget how much time I spend riding to work or driving to the church in the car.

This is a fun Sherlock Holmes murder mystery and is right in line with the other Arthur Conan Doyle books I've read. It is always fun to hear his descriptions of the mystery and the clues that Holmes puts together to solve the case. He is witty and abuses his dear friend, Dr. Watson, by explaining how he misses all the clues, but at the same time still utilizes him in teasing the clues out of the case. They are quite a pair. I enjoyed that the books is not particularly deep and certainly appropriate for all ages, but it is not foolish or pop literature either. A fun read that I'd recommend to all. Not too deep of a thinker, but a fun, quick read if you're in the mood for an easy "classic".

No distasteful content or even particularly colorful language.






10. Winners Never Cheat: Everyday Values We Learned as Children by Jon M. Huntsman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It's hard to rate this book as it was full of great ideas that I fully subscribe to, but didn't contain anything new or particularly surprising. I would not likely read it again, but it was refreshing to hear a smashingly successful business man say that he cared more for his employees and their families than he did about business success - and then put his money where his mouth is. Jon Huntsman was a man who has done much good and hopes to die penniless. I'd say that should be a goal many of us should have.

Note: I was reading this on the plane and a woman coming out of Las Vegas said to me, "You reading one of those self-help books?" I had to smile as I told her it was a book on business ethics. Funny the perceptions people get!





9. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I listened to two chapters and decided I wasn't going to finish the book. It seemed reasonably well written, but it said the "F" word too much to make it worth my time. I would not recommend it for that reason.






8. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn by Nathaniel Philbrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm always surprised when I read non-fiction that I actually enjoy the books so much. Nathaniel Philbrick is an author whose background is almost exclusively in sailing and naval history. I read another book of his about the Whaleship Essex, a vessel that was sunk by a real live Moby Dick and one from which Melville derived some of his ideas. He really branched out for this one to recreate the events leading up to and including the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I was surprised to learn so much about Custer's pompous attitude and rash decision making style. It's a wonder anyone made it very long on the plains with that kind of leadership skill.

If you like cowboys and Indians, you'll probably enjoy this book. It was a little confusing the way the names and places were presented (too many characters for the little description provided), but that Philbrick didn't have many options with the existing records of the events. No one really even knows where/when Custer was shot because his entire company was slaughtered. There were many interesting side notes and some weird things that people did at the battle that Philbrick went to great lengths to describe and explain possibly their actions.

The book was well written and very informative. Made me want to visit the Little Bighorn.

Caution: There is a fair amount of violence, as might be expected. He goes on to describe how some of the bodies were mutilated postmortem. Nothing more than you'd expect, but a little gruesome nonetheless.





7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When Autumn read half of this book in about two days, my interest was piqued. After she explained that it was about black housekeepers in the 1960's, a little of that enthusiasm waned, but I was not at all disappointed that I decided to read the book. Stockett, for whom this is her first book, does a great job of writing from the perspective of two black housemaids who work for white bosses helping keep their homes and raise their families. Probably my favorite aspect of the book was hearing these women's voices come through in the text. They spoke just like you would imagine and you could really get into their characters. There was enough tension in the book to keep it interesting and keep you turning the pages.

A few adult topics were addressed (a crazy naked man attacks one of the maids and a woman has a miscarriage which is discussed a little bit), but nothing more than PG or PG-13 and the language was reasonably clean.







6. Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When I was a kid I saw this book on my parents shelf and was kind of turned off by the cover art, so I haven't been that interested in it. Then I tried to ready 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and was certain I wasn't going to read more Jules Verne. Well, I saw it on tape and decided I had nothing better to do while riding back and forth to work. I was really quite surprised how much I enjoyed it. The hero of the book even goes through Utah on his was around the world and there's a chapter devoted to some polygamist Mormons in there! :-) It's a pretty good read and a nice "Classic" that isn't heavy or laborious to read. I think you'd enjoy it.




5. Sea Wolf by Jack London


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
About halfway through this book I realized that I had read it sometime in the past. It is a classic sea tale of a ship captained by an outrageous tyrant, Wolf Larsen. They pick up a shipwrecked gentlemen, Humphrey Van Weyden, at the beginning of the book, and the story is told from his perspective. There is a bit of romance in there too, but it plays a fairly small role.

I don't have a ton to say about the book, but it was fun to read. It was in line with other Jack London literature, so if you liked White Fang or Call of the Wild I'd recommend this one to you as well.




4. Coyote Waits by Tony Hillerman


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Light. Easy. Fast. Mystery. Heavy dose of Southwestern American Indian culture. I hadn't read a good mystery for a while, so it was pretty fun, though maybe nothing to write home about. All of Hillerman's novels are about Jim Chee, a Navajo Tribal Police officer and his adventures solving cases in Arizona and New Mexico. It was fun because I can picture better the places he writes of having spent some time in the area.




3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I listened to half of this book and read the other half because somehow in my organized way I managed to mess up the audiobook tracks and labels such that when I was listening to the book the story was not in chronological order. This makes it very difficult to understand what is going on and tends to spoil the story a bit later on! Oh well, my own fault.

Love this sequel. I stayed up late last night finishing the book. Can't beat a good late night read, huh? More adventures and fun with the cast from the Hunger Games. I won't spoil anything, but if you like Hunger Games you should certainly read this one too. I don't think the 3rd book comes out until this summer, and Catching Fire ends in the middle of a bunch of new developments, so the author had better hurry up! Great book! No concerns about content or language.




2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Hunger Games was one of the most compelling books I've read in a long time. It was good enough that I'm reading the sequel right now and still getting sucked in. It's a lot like Ender's Game, but a different author with some different twists.The book is about a young girl who lives in an oppressive society where the subverted communities have to send their children each year to fight to the death for the entertainment of the capital. This young girl gets chosen from her community and has to figure out how to stay alive in the arena. If you like fiction, you'll get into this. It is written on a teenage level, so it's a pretty fast read.




1. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Honestly, I loved this book. I would have given it 5 stars, except it lacked that drawing power of a good fiction novel that makes it so you can't put it down. It was the perfect combination of historical detail, politics, humanities, and engineering and how they all came together to complete one of the greatest man-made feats of all time. The Panama canal made Suez look like some kids digging in the sandbox. It was over 250,000,000 cubic yards of dirt removed. I can't imagine how much that is, but it was no trivial feat. I didn't know the French were so involved in the canal either or that there were many differing political opinions about how and where it should be put or that Teddy Roosevelt did not finish the canal. Never even saw it finished.

The book it full of interesting facts and human interest stories and I'd eagerly recommend it to anyone who likes historical books or biographies. Another David McCullough masterpiece.