books #27-35

27. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. I loved the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but it has made all of Michael Chabon's other books something of a disappointment, which is a pity since they're still good. Actually, I did like Summerland quite a bit, too, but it's a kids book, so I was probably less critical to begin with. The other problem was this book was that it was so short. I don't really like short stories and this felt like one, even if it was novella length.

28. My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan. This was pretty interesting. I ended up feeling guilty for not doing enough work/preparation in my classes, though. It was also somewhat comforting to see that most people weren't making big groups of close friends and having long, meaningful conversations all through undergrad either.

29. Juniper Tree Burning by Goldberry Long. This was a wonderful book! Thanks to shrinkykitten for suggesting it! The main character wasn't always likeable, but I didn't really notice that since I could identify with her so much. I kind of wished I could use running as a coping mechanism like she did; it might not be psychologically healthy to literally run away from everything that bothers you, but at least it's physically better than my method of staying in bed eating ice cream.

30. Like Being Killed by Ellen Miller. I'm not sure about this one. The book alternated chapters in the present, dealing with the main character's incredibly disturbing and destructive behaviour, and chapters set months (?) earlier showing how her life became out of control. I could identify with the past chapters and I liked the end mostly, but the present ones were disturbing enough to keep me distanced from the character.

31. Not Buying It: My year without shopping by Judith Levine. A labmate got sent a free copy of this book to review on his personal finance blog (hey publishers, look! I do book reviews (kind of) - send me free books! please!). It was pretty interesting to read about what kind of difference not buying anything other than necessities could make in someone's life. It discussed consuming in terms of environmental impact as well as its role in social and community life. The author and her husband ended up with a lot of spare time, since not shopping also meant no going out to eat or to see movies/plays/concerts etc. I seem to have a lot of spare time, too and I usually waste it online or reading, but I assumed there were lots of cool things other people are out doing that I'm missing out on. Now I'm not so sure.

32. What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson. I got a couple of books on procrastination out of the library last time, so I ended up in the self-help section. I'm not counting the procrastination books as real books, but this was just stories about 50 people who changed their lives (usually dramatically) to do what they really wanted to do. I've been wondering if I really want to be doing science, since I'm so apathetic lately. I can't think of anything else I'd want to do, though. This sentence made me think: "Carrying this negative energy around is like carrying a twenty-pound watermelon – you can’t give a good hug when you’ve got a watermelon in your arms." However, the very best part of this book was this sentence: "Not until they finally choose, and sink their bicuspids into the gooey center, do they discover “Oh, shit, I got the one with the sick people inside!”"

33. Intuition by Allegra Goodman. This book also had a particularly great sentence I thought some of the academic bloggers might enjoy: "Patiently, during office hours, he tried to explain his course material, even while privately he wondered if some of his students had been mistakenly admitted to college, because they seemed to him mildly retarded." I liked this book a lot. I've never read a book about medical/molecular biology researchers before, and she captured the whole research experience pretty well (I liked the mentions of pipettes and the mouse facilities, too - I'm a dork). It's about allegations of scientific fraud and I thought it covered the many different angles well, and the characters were all interesting.

34. How the Light Gets in by M.J. Hyland. Another excellent Shrinky suggestion. This book was also another heartbreaking one. The main character, Lou, comes to the US on exchange, but ends up getting in trouble. I couldn't identify so much with the character's behaviour, but I could so identify with her thoughts, especially the longing to have a whole new start in a new place and basically be a new person ("Maybe I can learn to be confident. Maybe I will change ... if I can do this one thing right - I'll change who I am forever"). Also, the trying to figure out what other people want her to say in a particular situation, or just knowing she ought to say something and not knowing what, not feeling particularly attached to anyone, not being interested in what most other people wanted to talk about... When I was in high school, I was jealous of people who got to go on exchange for a year, even people who hated it (because of course, it would be different for me -I'd magically become an interesting, confident and bilingual person (I wanted to go to France)). Reading about Lou meeting the host family and trying to act the right way and fit in was so horrifying though. There's no way I could live with a strange family for a year.
Oh, the other thing I identified with was Lou's fantasy: "I don't want to just wake up and find I can instantly play the piano or speak several languages, but to find myself with the will and drive and capacity to learn them." I wish I had some of that drive, too.

#35 Sensing the Self by Sheila M. Reindl. The wonderful Phantom sent me this book to borrow (accompanied by an original LG artwork, signed by the artist! I am the luckiest pixie in the world!). Let me just show you what the book looks like now that I've finished reading it:
I think I could write a whole post about each of those little blue scraps of post-it. I'm not going to do that much, but I do have more to say than will fit here. Um, Phantom, you weren't wanting it back immediately, were you?