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Reading Log — 2010-02 – February

You would think that I would get more read this month. I was on a week long cruise down the Mexican coast with lots of ‘dead’ time. 4 books went in to my suitcase, didn’t even finish one of them.

Still, was able to read through 4 books and listen to an audiobook for a total of 5 books this month. Since February only has 4 weeks, this will be a successful month for my book a week challenge.

I only was able to post one review. I believe that puts me about 8 books behind on writting up what I have read Hopefully in March I will set aside some more time to read and write.

So, what did I read in Febrary?

  1. The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
    Summary: Great book on the power of hope and improbability
    Reason: Borders Books Most Popular Children’s Book
    Started: 01/24/2010 — Finished: 02/02/2010 — Source: Library
  2. Kindred by Octavia Butler
    Summary: Slavery and prejudice leave scars.
    Reason: Recommended as better than Time Traveler’s Wife
    Started: 02/02/2010 — Finished: 02/04/2010 — Source: Library
  3. Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War by Edwin Bearss
    Summary: All Civil War battles were fought in National Parks — wish I could visit them with Bearss to narrate as he does in this book.
    Reason: LibraryThing Early Review copy and I am fascinated but can’t get my mind around all the civil war details.
    Started: 01/24/2010 — Finished: 02/08/2010 — Source: LibraryThing Early Review
  4. The Children of Men by P.D. James
    Summary: Even with the end of Humanity people seek security over freedom.
    Reason: Liked the movie and book was recommended by others.
    Started: 02/05/2010 — Finished: 02/15/2010 — Source: Library
  5. The Calligrapher’s Daughter (audiobook) by Eugenia Kim
    Summary: Korea comes of age with the fall of the Japanese Empire which dominated it Reason: Borders Book for Original Voices Award
    Started: 01/29/2010 — Finished: 02/17/2010 — Source: Library

My 30 minutes of audio Bible reading each morning:

  • Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, & Habakkuk
  • 1&2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
  • Leviticus
  • Hebrews
  • Numbers
  • Mark
  • Dueteronomy

My Book Queue is set for March. Since I will not be on vacation I will hopefully find a little bit more time to read.


March 4, 2010 | GaryPaulson
Tags: Audiobooks, Book a Week, Book Reviews, books, Calligraphers Daughter, Children of Men, currently reading, Edwin Bearss, fiction, Fields of Honor, Kate DiCamillo, kindred, Magicians Elephant, non fiction, Octavia Butler, P.D. James, Reading Log, TBR, To Be Read
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Review: “Kindred” by Octavia Butler


Title: Kindred
Author: Octavia Butler
Started: 02/02/2010
Finished: 02/04/2010
Source: Library

When Dana, the young protagonist, finds herself transported to the Antebellum South her modern sensibilities are challenged and unable to protect her. She will travel back to plantation life 6 times to ‘save’ a young boy as he grows up. She soon realizes that he is (or is going to be) her great-great-grandfather. Her great-great-grandmother will be one of his slaves. Dana finds herself stuck between two worlds, how things ought to be (1976) and reality (1800s).

Using the ‘trick’ of time travel, the author does not let us distance ourselves from the ugliness of slavery. Dana is not allowed to be just an observer but finds herself dealing with the realities of slavery and that she must compromise her principles to survive. We are not able to stay detached, as you could in some documentary or fictional story that is appreciated and then forgotten but instead we, with our modern sensibilities, are forced to travel with her.

Dana does not return unscathed by her experience with slavery. Each time she goes back to the past she brings back more scars with her, both physical and psychological. Why does she lose her arm on her last trip? Possibly to show us that Dana will be permanently scarred by her experience, much the same way that America has been scarred by our experience with slavery.

Reading To End All Wars, I was shocked and horrified by the callousness of the Japanese. Yet America’s treatment of black slaves was no less inhumane. The Japanese and the plantation owners both abused and terrorized their captives in much the same way. Looked at this way, it is much harder to condemn the Japanese for something that is not so far removed from our own history.

I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read a great story. I guess the fact that I read the 260 pages in 3 days attests to how much the story intrigued me.

First Sentence

  • I lost an arm on my last trip home.
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February 9, 2010 | GaryPaulson
Tags: antebellum-south, book, Book Reviews, kindred, Octavia Butler, slavery, time travel, To End All Wars
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Review: “To End All Wars” by Ernest Gordon


Title: To End All Wars
Author: Ernest Gordon
Pub: Zondervan
ISBN: 978-0007118489
Started: 01/02/2010
Finished: 01/06/2010
Source: Library

Review

Starved and abused to the point of death by his Japanese captors, Captain Ernest Gordon recounts in To End All Wars how he and his fellow prisoners of war found not only a reason to live but a new way to live in the midst of hell on earth. In gruesome detail, the author brings us with him into the jungles of Thailand and shows how, in a hopeless situation, the soldiers were able to “find a way of life that proved to be vital, meaningful, and beautifully sane.”

The book was originally published in 1963 as “Through the Valley of the River Kwai” and was one of the sources for the movie “Bridge Over the River Kwai” as well as the more recent movie “To End All Wars” for which this book was renamed. It was the movie that made me want to read the book and must say that the although the movie took a lot of license, they both tell the same story. Having read the book, I now want to go back and watch the movie again.

This book will shock your sensibilities. It should make you sick. But it will keep you reading. Can we really be so cruel? Would you survive in the same situation? How would you respond? The book tells us how the Allied prisoners found faith, dignity, and the will to survive in a veritable hell.

First Sentence

  • I was dreaming, and I was happy with my dreams.

Final Sentence

  • He comes into our Death House to lead us through it.
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January 9, 2010 | GaryPaulson
Tags: book, Book Reviews, bridge, Japanese, kwai, pow, railway, To End All Wars, World War II, WWII
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