Moon Over Manifest

Posted on 19 April 2012 by Giggles
Genres & Categories: 10, 2012, Children, Fiction, History, Newbery Award

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
2011 Newbery Award Winner

342 pages

Started: 11 April 2012
Finished: 19 April 2012

Abilene Tucker comes into the town of Manifest on the rails during the Depression. She arrives the day before the last day of school and is assigned to write a story of the summer for homework, a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. As her own story unfolds over the summer the story of the town twenty years ago opens itself to her.

In 1918 the town was a mining town, the citizens were immigrants from many different countries, the US was entering WWI, and the Spanish flu was knocking on the door. Jinx, a teenage young man, arrives in town on the rail with a history of his own, a story he’d rather escape, befriends a local youth named Ned, and the two have many fine adventures that year before Ned lies about his age and joins the army.

As Miss Sadie, the town diviner, tells Abilene the story of Jinx and Ned, the past starts to weave its way back into the present. And Abilene, who has only ever known the middle of her own story, finally learns about her beginnings, and the beginnings of her father.

I really appreciated that this book, without every saying it, says that each of us has our own story. And we each have a need to share it. Find a way to tell your story.

Rating: 10

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Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

Posted on 10 April 2012 by Giggles
Genres & Categories: 07, 2012, History, Non-fiction, Older People, Science

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

215 Pages

Started: 2 April 2012
Finished: 10 April 2012

This is the second book about a math concept that I have read where the author had a clear beef with something. The previous author did not like certain governments. This author is clearly upset with religion. And while at times it is laughable and dismissable, at other times it is distracting. Another distracting aspect of the author’s writing is he seems to lose the plot at times. Is he telling the history of zero or the history of scientific discovery? I had to remind myself at times that I was reading a book about zero.

The first chapter of the book is Chapter 0 and the last chapter is Chapter ∞, which is perfect for a book about the combined history and discovery of 0 and ∞. The book traces the first instances of nothing, the rejection of nothing, the acceptance of nothing, and finally the implications of nothing. Which actually results in a whole lot of somethings.

It’s a quick read and rather interesting. But I feel like he focused too much on the west and merely glossed over the initial actual discovery and acceptance of zero in India (zero as a place holder started in Arabia but had no actual value there). I would’ve liked more of that story. That’s what I was really interested in.

Rating: 7

Alphabet of Books – Z

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Born to Kvetch

Posted on 30 March 2012 by Giggles
Genres & Categories: 09, 2012, Contemporary, Fable/Parable/Folklore, History, Non-fiction, Older People

Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex

285 pages

Started: 23 January 2012
Finished: 30 March 2012

If I had wanted to learn Yiddish I would have read a dictionary. This was much more fun than reading a dictionary (although I do usually enjoy that). This book introduces you to a language and uses that language to introduce you to the culture that created it. There are many ways to start to understand a culture. Language, the words we use and why we use them, is an excellent vehicle to that understanding.

Yiddish grew in exile. And the idioms and words reflect that. It was a way to preserve a nation that had no home. Each chapter of this book looks at a different part of life: religion, money, nature, food, birth, love, death, and all the other parts that make up this journey here on earth, and explores the Yiddish words and phrases that help Jews in exile express their thoughts. It’s a language of double meanings and hidden meanings.

This was a fascinating and quick read (I just got stuck writing research in the middle and had to put it down, in other circumstances I could’ve easily finished this book in a week). It was a lot of fun to read and get a glimpse into a different culture.

Rating: 9

Alphabet of Books – Y

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Obsessive Genius

Posted on 20 January 2012 by Giggles
Genres & Categories: 09, 2012, Biography, History, Non-fiction, Older People, Science

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith

233 pages

Started: 13 January 2012
Finished: 20 January 2012

I think I’ve decided that the part about science that most interests me is not so much the discoveries themselves, although there are several of those that really do fascinate me. But it’s more the stories behind the discoveries. Who are these people? What was their drive? What kind of life did they live? These people were truly fascinating.

And Marie Curie is no exception. A female scientist in a brutally exclusive man’s world. A woman driven by nationalism, obsession, and even love. She discovered that radiation is an atomic property while discovering two new elements. She is responsible for the first mobile x-ray units used on the fronts of war. Her oldest daughter and a granddaughter became outstanding scientists in their time. There is a myth surrounding her life, and while much of it was created to help raise money for their laboratory, a task she dreaded, there is reason behind a lot of it.

I knew how the story would end. I know what happens to someone exposed to that much radiation. And I knew it would not be pleasant. As I read the book and read of her husbands horrid health before his accidental death, which probably spared him for a more painful death, of her ever deteriorating health, I felt pained for them. These brand new substances with powers they were only beginning to understand were killing them, and they did not know. However at the close of the book the author points out that they did. They warned the world. They made those that worked in their lab take extra precautions, but they never took them for themselves. Their passion for their work blinded them to the effect on themselves. More than a hundred years later their possessions are still radioactive.

Her struggle for education, for recognition, for even just the chance to do the work she love, that was inspiring. She was a fascinating woman.

Rating: 9

Alphabet of Books: X

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A Practical Wedding

Posted on 11 January 2012 by Giggles
Genres & Categories: 10, 2012, Help, Home & Family, Non-fiction, Older People, Relationships & Romance

A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration by Meg Keene

231 pages

Started: 6 January 2012
Finished: 11 January 2012

First off, of course I’m going to like this book, I’m in it! I’m quoted on page 16 (“A wedding is not a surprise party for the groom”) and 37 (“To keep my sanity, it was worth it to us to pay the price to have our reception at a place that would cover all the food, the setup, and the cleanup. Worrying about that could’ve killed me”). And there’s a whole section (pg 23) about the anti to-do list. That was something we did for our wedding and I mentioned when I shared our wedding on the site associated with the book. And then there’s the small bio at the end of the book that reads thus:

Lisa M. G. Dennis (www.missgiggles.com) has taught elementary school and college, gotten through graduate school once and is doing it again, run marathons, lived abroad, and tried belly dancing. However, family and marriage have been her greatest adventures. She looks forward to the rest of her exciting life, now to be shared with her best friend.

But I like the book for more reasons then my own self-centered one. And that’s why over two years after our wedding I still read the blog, A Practical Wedding, daily. And it was the only wedding blog I was reading by the time we got married as well. In fact, in large measure it felt like I’d already read the book because it was just like reading the blog. The book is the blog in easily transportable underline-able form. Plus, it’s easier to give a book as a gift than a blog.

The best part of the book, and blog, is that it really hammers home that if you are happily married to the person you love, then your wedding was a success, because it’s the feelings and not the physical details, it’s the marriage and not the wedding, that matter. And anyone who’s planned a wedding recently with the whole “Buy All the Things” that they’re being told, it’s nice to have some sanity every once in a while.

There was one part that really made me laugh though. There’s a part about choosing your officiant and how awkward it is when it seems like the officiant has never met the couple before and that this is a rather important choice to make. And it made me laugh because we met our officiant only minutes before we got married and he only said my name right once. Luckily it was during the ceremony. And it wasn’t awkward at all.

Rating: 10

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