Dan's 2012 Books

11. Night by Elie Wiesel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I think many of you probably read this in high school. For whatever reason, it was not part of my curriculum, so I picked it up now.

Overall, the book was enlightening and well written. It was easy to hear the voice of Elie Wiesel in the writing and to see the world he lived in. This is certainly a "typical" Holocaust story with all of the horrific tragedies one would expect. It is not uplifting, but certainly shows you the will of man to survive against all odds. It made me appreciate eating dinner a little more too.

I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the Holocaust.

10. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tried and true negotiations book. Not that fun to read, but could potentially be really useful. It certainly gave me many good tips for making negotiations beneficial for both parties.




9. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stupendous. I almost cried at the end when (SPOILER ALERT) they made it back to the whaling station on South Georgia Island. This amazing story of human drive to live was almost beyond belief. In a planned Transantarctic Adventure gone South, Shackleton and his crew find their ship stuck in the pack ice. Eventually the ship is crushed and they survive on the ice and navigating in three small lifeboats for a very long time. When they finally reach land at the uninhabitable Elephant Island, Shackleton leaves most of his crew there and sails for help in the most seaworthy lifeboat. They cross 800 miles of the most treacherous ocean on the planet and miraculously make land on South Georgia Island. Then Shackleton makes a daring overland attempt to cross the island to the whaling station for rescue. Not a single crewman was lost in the year and a half they were gone.

They sat on the ice for so long that it was hard to imagine. The way the picture was painted, they were bored to tears 92% of the time, and fighting for their lives the other 8%, while nearly freezing to death 100% of the time. I don't think I can describe in words what they went through, but this was a great book and I'd consider reading it again, which is a big deal for me.


8. The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna--the World's Deadliest Peak by Ed Viesturs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book, but different than what I expected. For a nearly 300 page book, Viesturs only used about 40 pages to describe his ascent of Annapurna. The rest of the book recounted the myriad of ascents of that mountain. I certainly enjoyed hearing about all the people who had gone up. It was particularly cool to get some insight into the small community of 8000 meter peak summiters. Annapurna was actually climbed before Everest was, but it is a considerably harder mountain to climb and has a much higher death toll (measured by percentage). Along those lines, I'm not sure that any of his good climbing buddies are still alive. He must have mentioned 20 close climbing friends that are now dead from climbing accidents. It made skydiving look like a whimpy sport.
The writing style was not all that polished, but perhaps neither is the author. He runs a professional climbing business on Mt. Rainier in Washington state. He was the 12th person (first American) to summit all 14 8000 meter peaks, and he did it all without supplemental oxygen. He attempted to summit Annapurna three times before successfully reaching her summit.
The book kept my interest, but I would recommend Into Thin Air or some other climbing books if you just want to read a book about climbing or climbing accidents.


This one doesn't count since I didn't finish it, but I wanted to keep track so I don't try to read it again in the future.
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I got through three CD's of this book and had to turn it off. I'm sure the story was good, but I couldn't get past the excessive use of profanity and taking the name of the Lord in vain. It made me uncomfortable to listen to. I cannot recommend the book to anyone because of this.


7. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My friend Danny has been talking about this book for the past decade. For the longest time, I thought it was written by Andrew Carnegie and didn't realize that it is MUCH more contemporary than that. It is still from the 70's or so, but the principles taught by Dale Carnegie are useful and practical. He gives plenty of examples from his life and the life of those who've taken his courses of how these ideas will make you more effective in your communications with others. I wouldn't say anything in the book was an amazing revelation, but it was good to hear so many of the ideas reinforced. We often see these principles in others that we admire, but somehow have a hard time changing our personality to be that person. I would recommend the book to anyone looking to improve their communication or leadership skills and certainly think some of the mean people in the world could gain a lot by reading this book and applying its principles!


6. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though I have learned to enjoy this movie the more I've seen it, the book really was enjoyable to read (listen to). The book does not follow the movie all that closely, but it was still a wonderful adventure nonetheless. I won't go over the story as most of you probably know it more or less, but this is traditional 1900's British English with all its quirks. The story is enjoyable, however, because instead of being the boring luncheon parties and manor houses I've come to expect from this period of literature, this is an adventure of escapes and outwitting of the French proletariat who is killing of the aristocracy as quickly as possible.
The book was not disappointing and it made me want to watch the movie again. I have no reservations in recommending it to anyone.

5. Failure is not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I probably have a somewhat biased opinion working in the space industry, but the book was historically captivating and Kranz's writing style appealed to me. He was not flowery, just as he is not in person. Not that he's a hick either, but he just says what he's thinking and I could hear his voice in the words he captured in this book.

The thing that stuck out to me the most was how often and how quickly they launched manned spacecraft. They seemed to come off the pad one after another. It seems today that years lapse between liftoffs, and now that the shuttle program has been canned, it will be much more than that.

Kranz really loved his job and poured his whole soul into his work. He came and spoke to us at work and it was captivating to hear his stories of life at Mission Control. He was there in the trenches from the first American in space to the last man home from the Moon. Not many people can say they were that involved for that long.

I'd recommend reading this book if you enjoy history, science, or any combination of the two. It probably is not for everyone though as this plays out a bit like a documentary told in first person.

4. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the amazing story of Louis Zamperini, an American Airman who crash landed in the Pacific, survived for record time on a life raft, and was captured as a POW. He was brutally tortured in the Japanese POW camp, but even more so they tried to break his spirit and de-humanize him every day. Louis' spirit was unbreakable (hence the title) and he lived through it all.
The book was well written and spellbinding. I had a hard time putting it down and often spent evenings listening to it on the couch. It really made me think of my grandfather and what he must have gone through during and after the War that I may not have appreciated or respected. I would give it 4.5 stars if the rating system would allow.


3. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was thoroughly pleased with Robinson Crusoe. I was a little nervous because I could only checkout the unabridged ebook version of it, but I didn't think it dragged much and I really enjoyed every minute of the book.
I was surprised to learn that this book was the beginning of the English novel, being the first story written in English that did not take parts from other works. Defoe wrote it in 1719!
As you know, this is the story of a young Englishman who sets to the seas and is shipwrecked on an desolate island for 28 years. He first learns how to survive, and recounts in great detail how he was able to make life pleasant for himself and transition from mere survival to pleasant living. He does encounter people on several occasions, including some local cannibals and some mutineers.
Overall it was a great adventure and one I'd recommend to anyone. It did not have any questionable material in any way as far as I am concerned.
Re-read the book in April 2012 on audio mp3. Enjoyed it just as much the second time.


2. The Undaunted by Gerald N. Lund
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Any of you who have been to Southern Utah, particularly Lake Powell, Escalante Grand Staircase NM, Capital Reef, Arches, etc. know that the Mormon pioneers accomplished an amazing feat by building a wagon road from Escalante to Bluff, UT. We have all heard of the Hole in the Rock Expedition and how they cut through a 60' sandstone cliff to get wagons down to the Colorado River. But that was just one of the many difficult obstacles they overcame, all of which were harrowing with endless work and creativity to make them possible. Reading this book really brought that to life for me. Even more, it made me want to follow their route and see the marks they left on the land and how they did what they did.
This is a typicall Gerald Lund style historical fiction book. If you enjoyed the Work and the Glory, this will be fun for you. I thought he spent a little too much time setting up the story part of the book, which made this an 800 page read, but it goes pretty fast and you will enjoy reading it. Glad I did.

1. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Call me nerdy, but I found this book to be quite interesting. I learned a lot about how the brain works and was reminded or taught some common memory techniques. I might give this 3.5 stars if Goodreads let you do that, but the book was interesting and insightful.
The book chronicles a journalist who covers the US Memory Championship in 2005, gets sucked into the sport, is mentored by a European Grand Master of Memory, and goes on to compete in the 2006 USA championship. Along the way he addressed savants, people with horrible memory disorders, how the brain's memories work (to the best of our knowledge), how memory directly tied to intelligence, and many other interesting topics.
Overall, I was inspired to want to memorize more and exercise that faculty of my brain that I don't use on a daily basis. Admittedly, most of the techniques used to compete in the US Memory Champion are not practical for everyday life (memorize a deck of cards as fast as you can, memorize random digits or binary code, etc.), but some of the things are useful and could help. Memorize your license plate, spouse's Social Security Number, credit card numbers, etc. These cool tricks seemed on part with solving the Rubic's Cube. Nerdy, but cool at the same time.
As my brother mentioned in his review of the book, Foer is a little disjointed and jumpy in his writing, but it kept my attention and I enjoyed the book.