Born to Run by Christopher McDougall is one of those books that is known very well by a certain group of people - in this case runners. I was told it would change the way I run and I believe it has.
Born to Run centers on the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico who are infamous for their ability to run for multiple days in leather sandals. McDougall sets out to understand what makes the Tarahumara capable of such feats as well as their ability to stay healthy and serene while he hurts from just running a few miles.
McDougall does a wonderful job in pulling the reader along between history, biology and anthropology, tying all of it together in the world's greatest footrace through the Copper Mountains.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Friday, July 09, 2010
A Short History of Women
A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert was named one of the top 10 best books of 2009 by the New York Times Book Review, so I had high hopes.
Sadly, I think the book should be retitled to A Short History of Miserable Women. The novel chronicles five generations of women beginning in 1914 with Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette who is dying of starvation for her cause. She leaves behind two children who are now orphans - Thomas and Evelyn (Evie).
The novel jumps to Thomas' daughter Dorothy Townsend Barrett in Delaware who is in her 70s and is creating a revolution of her own by photographing the coffins of dead soldiers returning from what we assume is the war in Iraq illegally and being arrested.
We also meet Dorothy's daughter's Caroline and Liz toward the end of the novel who are struggling with the definition of motherhood in the early 21st century.
In the end, that is what the novel is really about. Women as mothers. Women as figures in history - or not. And the desire to have something more. The unfortunate part is that in the five generations of Townsend women, you never find a woman who is even partially satisfied with her life. It is depressing to think that as women being unhappy and dissatisfied is our lot in life.
Sadly, I think the book should be retitled to A Short History of Miserable Women. The novel chronicles five generations of women beginning in 1914 with Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette who is dying of starvation for her cause. She leaves behind two children who are now orphans - Thomas and Evelyn (Evie).
The novel jumps to Thomas' daughter Dorothy Townsend Barrett in Delaware who is in her 70s and is creating a revolution of her own by photographing the coffins of dead soldiers returning from what we assume is the war in Iraq illegally and being arrested.
We also meet Dorothy's daughter's Caroline and Liz toward the end of the novel who are struggling with the definition of motherhood in the early 21st century.
In the end, that is what the novel is really about. Women as mothers. Women as figures in history - or not. And the desire to have something more. The unfortunate part is that in the five generations of Townsend women, you never find a woman who is even partially satisfied with her life. It is depressing to think that as women being unhappy and dissatisfied is our lot in life.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Her Fearful Symmetry
I don't think I realized when I picked it up that Her Fearful Symmetry was written by Audrey Niffenegger author of The Time Traveler's Wife. I have not read The Time Traveler's Wife but knew that there was an element of surrealism to it.
Her Fearful Symmetry was touted as "mesmerizing", "chilling" and "addictive."
The story is set primarily in London when an aunt they have never met (their mother's twin sister, Elspeth) leaves her flat to Julia and Valentina, sisters, twins and somewhat lost 20 year olds. The inheritance comes with two conditions - they must live in the flat for a year and their parents are not to enter the flat.
The girl's embark on a year long adventure just after their 21st birthday. Julia is the more dominate twin, Valentina she calls "the Mouse" and as Valentina yearns to enroll in design school, it is Julia who convinces her she cannot do anything alone. But in Elspeth's apartment they begin to go separate ways - Julia spends time in the upstairs apartment of Martin an agoraphobic who suffers from severe OCD while Valentina begins to spend time with Robert, downstairs neighbor and Elspeth's former lover.
When they are in the apartment, they are not alone. Elspeth's ghost has taken up residence and eventually learns to communicate with her nieces and Robert. One secret she will not answer, even in death, is why she and the girl's mother never spoke and why the girl's never met her.
The story has a level of implausibility that I was able to overlook through the strong characters and the building plot, but then when the secrets are revealed and the climax of the story reached, I was annoyed that I had let myself be sucked into this fantastical story.
I assume that this is Niffenegger's style and it has made her successful, but there were such good characters that I wish she could have come up with a less absurd ending.
Her Fearful Symmetry was touted as "mesmerizing", "chilling" and "addictive."
The story is set primarily in London when an aunt they have never met (their mother's twin sister, Elspeth) leaves her flat to Julia and Valentina, sisters, twins and somewhat lost 20 year olds. The inheritance comes with two conditions - they must live in the flat for a year and their parents are not to enter the flat.
The girl's embark on a year long adventure just after their 21st birthday. Julia is the more dominate twin, Valentina she calls "the Mouse" and as Valentina yearns to enroll in design school, it is Julia who convinces her she cannot do anything alone. But in Elspeth's apartment they begin to go separate ways - Julia spends time in the upstairs apartment of Martin an agoraphobic who suffers from severe OCD while Valentina begins to spend time with Robert, downstairs neighbor and Elspeth's former lover.
When they are in the apartment, they are not alone. Elspeth's ghost has taken up residence and eventually learns to communicate with her nieces and Robert. One secret she will not answer, even in death, is why she and the girl's mother never spoke and why the girl's never met her.
The story has a level of implausibility that I was able to overlook through the strong characters and the building plot, but then when the secrets are revealed and the climax of the story reached, I was annoyed that I had let myself be sucked into this fantastical story.
I assume that this is Niffenegger's style and it has made her successful, but there were such good characters that I wish she could have come up with a less absurd ending.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
The Great Fire
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard has been on my book shelf for quite a while and I was suddenly motivated to pare down my unread books, so I figured a good place to start was with this National Book Award winner.
The novel is set in Asia in the late 1940s, a culture and period I didn't know much about. One could assume that there was great devastation in Japan after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but Hazzard assumes too much prior knowledge of the time and place she sets her story in.
Aldred Leith, an English man in Japan to survey the damage, is the main character who falls in love with a young teenage girl, Helen. The romance between Aldred and Helen is sweet and the loss of Helen's sickly brother Ben bittersweet. But it takes too long to get there and then when you do the resolution of the affair is anti-climatic
The novel is set in Asia in the late 1940s, a culture and period I didn't know much about. One could assume that there was great devastation in Japan after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but Hazzard assumes too much prior knowledge of the time and place she sets her story in.
Aldred Leith, an English man in Japan to survey the damage, is the main character who falls in love with a young teenage girl, Helen. The romance between Aldred and Helen is sweet and the loss of Helen's sickly brother Ben bittersweet. But it takes too long to get there and then when you do the resolution of the affair is anti-climatic
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