Catching up with the IBC

You might have noticed that there have not been many meeting summaries posted as of late - that's not because we haven't had meetings for those of you who weren't there - it's more because I've fallen behind. My intent is to catch up on the summaries (because there were a lot of good books and a lot of good reviews discussed in our meetings), but for those of you who keep up with Facebook (my profile - http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=507681930&ref=profile), you know I'm swamped in a report on Food Safety (and for those of you that don't keep up with Facebook, try it - it's a great way to reconnect with people... just ignore all of the application requests - I've downed so many virtual drinks and been hit by so many virtual snowballs, and been kidnapped all over the world - virtually - but it seems kind of pointless). I've been procrastinating, so one of the deals I made with myself is that I wouldn't write anything until I was done writing this report. Obviously, I've broken that deal.

I have been reviewing the books I've read, though, over on Visual Bookshelf (the one application on Facebook that I wholly recommend) - so if you're interested, login to Facebook, go to my profile and click on 'Visual Bookshelf'. In the meantime, I now have a deadline for the report I'm procrastinating - once that finishes, I'll get cranking on the summaries - and hopefully start 2009 off with lots of IBC vigor. Happy Holidays to all!

Entertainment Weekly

Once in a while, one comes across a published list of books that are "must reads" and they usually have a nice long list of classics. That is fine and all, but please, can we see a little creativity and risk taking? Recently, the magazine Entertainment Weekly (EW) put out a list of 100 influential books in the past 25 years and to my surprise, I was impressed. I based my opinion upon the fact that I enjoyed most the of the books listed that I had read already. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20207076_20207387_20207349,00.html

I've read several more books on the EW list by now and liked all but one. A standout so far is "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri. It is a collection of short stories; as a whole the work is a poignant look at life as an immigrant or someone displaced from their familiar surroundings. The first story is somewhat depressing but push on through! Touching and subtle.
http://www.amazon.com/Interpreter-Maladies-Jhumpa-Lahiri/dp/0618101365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225382716&sr=1-1

The Ultimate Pairing!

I've seen lots of guidelines on the best pairings for food and beer or food and wine, but I've always wondered about the best pairings for literature and wine. What kind of book goes best with Guiness??? The Washington Examiner has the answer:

The Ultimate Guide to Pairing Literature with Alcohol: Read, Drink and Be Merry.

BTW, I found this through the Bookslut blog, one of my daily stops -
Blog of a Bookslut

Please RSVP to the eVite for the IBC Meeting - looking like maybe Nov. 8th is the best, but still haven't heard from a few folks - and I'm working on finishing some of those overdue updates!

Temeraire Rides Again!

Naomi Novik release Book 5 of the chronicles of Temeraire... Victory of Eagles - unfortunately, in hard cover. Haven't yet picked it up... I'm thinking about getting it from the library. But I have to finish
Don Quixote first.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

For the fans of Firefly and other creations by Joss Whedon, here's his latest: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It was available as a free webcast a few weeks ago, then moved to iTunes, and will eventually be out on DVD. http://www.drhorrible.com/

This is an Internet musical about a self-proclaimed supervillain, Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris -- Doogie Howser), who wants to join the Evil League of Evil. His archnemesis is Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion -- Capt'n Tightpants on Firefly). There's a girl of course (Felicia Day). The story is told in three short (about 15 minutes each) installments.

Movies from IBC Books

High-powered movie studio executives apparently have been reading our book club blog, and have decided to make movies out of City of Ember and Blindness :

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/cityofember/

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/blindness/

Keep your fingers crossed...

Graduate Gifts

It's been a long while since I've graduated from anything, and I don't have any graduations to go to this year, but it being the season, I thought I'd mention a couple of books that might be the appropriate gift for a grad...

Dr. Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go" was first suggested to me as a gift for my sister's graduation from high school. I thought the suggestion was nuts. A Dr. Seuss book for an 18 year old? Needless to say, I didn't follow through (sorry, Sara)... My initial prejudices aside, this is a great book to give a grad, or anyone embarking on a new journey in life. Yes, it has that trademark Dr. Seuss psychadelic footprint, and yes it's simplistic, but if Robert Fulghum could make several million dollars off of 'Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten', who am I to say Dr. Seuss isn't relevant?

However, if you share the same thoughts I did initially, and would prefer a more adult read, Ann Patchett just published a book based on her commencement speech at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College called "What Now?". Ann Patchett wrote a couple of books that are reviewed (or may be reviewed, depending on how far behind I am) in this blog - "Run" and "Bel Canto" , as well as a book on her relationship with Lucy Greeley (see Author Connections. Her address was touching, funny, revealing, and most of all, relevant. I was so engrossed I read it in one sitting.

Of course you could always get them one of these.

The Classics are Still In

An annual survey of schoolkids' reading preferences shows that Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, and Judy Bloom have staying power. Read all the details in this brief article in the Washington Post.

Quickie review: God and Cosmos, by John Byl

This treatise, subtitled "A Christian View of Time, Space, and the Universe", was given to me by Virginia's cousin's husband, a Baptist minister. It appears to be, at least in part, a rebuttal to Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", and to be blunt, "God and Cosmos" is much better written and a provides a substantially clearer description of modern cosmological theory than Hawking does. Byl's ultimate aim in explaining the Big Bang theory is to knock it down in favor of a literal interpretation of Genesis, but he sets up his target in a very thorough, comprehensive, and fair fashion. If you're a Christian who is looking for some synthesis or reconciliation between the scientific and religious viewpoints, you'll be disappointed, as Byl's argument is essentially: "Here's what astronomers think about the universe, but they're wrong, because the Bible is right. QED." But if you're just interested in a solid summary of our current understanding of the universe, including a historical review of how this worldview has evolved (oops, loaded word!) over time, this is a good book to read.

Quickie review: Green Clean, by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin

Up on my environmental soapbox again! At the February meeting, I reviewed "Cradle to Cradle", an ambitious (even grandiose) proposal for redesigning the entire technological infrastructure of modern society. For this mini-review, I aim slightly lower: how to be environmentally responsible while scrubbing your toilet. "Green Clean" details the wide variety of alternative cleaning products and strategies that you can make at home, out of cheap and safe ingredients.

In nine words, the message of this book is "Chlorine bad. Vinegar good. Petrochemicals bad. Baking soda good." To be a little more specific, the authors explain how most cleaning tasks can be handled by strategically matching the cleanser to the dirt:

• acidic stains like proteins and grease will be neutralized by an alkaline substance like baking soda
  
• alkaline crud (coffee stains, rust, soap scum) can be handled by distilled white vinegar, a weak acid
  
• natural oil-based soaps get most everything else
  

Given that baking soda and vinegar can be eaten, it's pretty clear that they're non-toxic. Most "modern" cleaning products, in contrast, have all sorts of nasty extra chemicals which can really mess with your health, not to mention the larger environment.

As an added bonus, the book is printed on the same super-durable, waterproof, recycleable synthetic paper as "Cradle to Cradle", so if you accidentally drop it in a bucket of water, no sweat!

Caveat: I've only actually tried one of the "recipes" so far, an ant poison made out of sugar water and borax. Seems to work okay. I'll provide updates as I manufacture and test more of the cleansers.

Quickie review: iWoz, by Steve Wozniak

Any of you who follow the computer industry are probably well aware of Steve Jobs, founder and current CEO of Apple Computers, and renowned marketing visionary and temper-tantrum-thrower. But Apple Computers would not have come into existence without "the other Steve" -- Stephen P. Wozniak, the engineering genius who designed and built the first Apple computers, and co-founded the company with Jobs. As described in this autobiography, "Woz" became enamored of digital logic at an early age, and in his 20's, while working for Hewlett-Packard, conceived of a so-called "personal computer" which could be used by anyone. HP was uninterested in building and marketing such a device, but Woz's friend Jobs saw the potential, offered his parents' garage as a production factory, and the Apple I went on sale in 1976. The rest, as they say, is history.

As a card-carrying Apple fanatic, I enjoyed the insider view of the founding of Apple Computer, but of even greater interest was the description of Woz's formative years, when he developed his ethos of technology as an enabler of human potential, rather than technology for its own sake. He gets into a bit of technical detail, but the book is primarily about people, not computers, so if you don't know a NAND gate from a EEPROM chip, you will probably still find it an illuminating tale.

Idiots Books

Brad's cousin (artist) and cousin-in-law (writer) publish their own books. Intelligent, weird, and funny! www.idiotsbooks.com . The titles alone are fun!

We'll present a couple of them at next book club. Va.

Not Quite What I Was Planning

So - still no updates from the last two meetings, and I apologize. I've started the list (you see the fragment on the left), and got one in before life interrupted. But in the meantime, I saw this on the NPR mailing I get weekly, and thought it was interesting... six word autobiographies from famous and not-so-famous people, compiled in a book with the above title (which could be my biography - but I think most of us could say that)...

NPR Most Emailed Stories - February 2008

So I've been trying to think of what I would write, and I'm sure this would change over time... in fact, if I sat here all day and thought about it, I would probably come up with several others - but here's my attempt at a six word autobiography.

Stumbled through strife, fell into blessings.

Any takers? Give it a shot!

Author Connections

I've just started reading Ann Patchett's Run (only on Chapter 4, but very much enjoying it). Ann Patchett, for those of you who attended the last meeting, is the author of Bel Canto, reviewed by my sister (for those of you who didn't attend, I promise, cross my heart and hope to die... well, maybe just cross my heart, that I'll get the update posted). I checked out her website, and saw a link to non-fiction book she wrote - Truth and Beauty. It's about her friendship with Lucy Grealy, the author of a Virginia-reviewed (IBC 5) book, Autobiography of a Face, written after Lucy passed away from cancer. I haven't read it yet, but there's an interesting article and interview here about the flap raised when Truth and Beauty was assigned for a course at Clemson, and Ann's subsequent speech there (including a clip from the speech).

Books that make you dumb

It's been a while since I've posted and I've still not started the update from the November meeting (although I have the copious notes in some indiscernible form). I came across this on the bookslut.com blog, and thought I'd post it here. When I read the title, a lot of books immediately came to mind - but not in the way they're presented here. I don't know about the rest of you, but the more sleep-deprived I am, the more stupid I get... there have been a number of books I've read recently that kept me up late into the night/early into the morning - Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Kim Edwards' The Memory Keeper's Daughter, and the Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters. But that's not the purpose of this study...

This study correlates the most popular books at different universities with the average SAT scores at said universities. Relevant? probably not. Useful? not likely. Entertaining? I thought so... Books that make you dumb.

See you at the next meeting, coming up on February 10!