The Book Blawg

The Mommy Club, by Sarah Bird. Although I liked the author's earlier books, Alamo House and The Boyfriend School when I read them many years ago, The Mommy Club just didn't click with me.

Mommywood, by Tori Spelling. Though I found her first book, sTORI Telling, rather interesting, she just lost me with this one. I got tired of hearing her complain about how she had to work to support her family; then, for example, throwing a memorial service for her dog, or and over-the-top first birthday party for her son. Her observations about "Mommywood" would be fascinating on their own; but as a story teller, she can't quite decide whether she wants to be a part of it or not.

Finished this week:

The Associate, by John Grisham.

Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy.

Debt of Honor, by Tom Clancy

Executive Orders, by Tom Clancy


On September 11, 2001, after the initial shock had worn off, a few people (myself included) who were familiar with Clancy's Debt of Honor recalled the incident which occurs at the end of the book: A Japanese airline pilot, distraught and angry over relatives killed in a short-lived conflict between his country and the United States, crashes an empty Boeing 747 into the Capitol building during a Presidential address, killing the President and virtually all of the members of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clancy's hero, Jack Ryan, who had just been confirmed as Vice President, narrowly escapes death and is immediately sworn in as President. Executive Orders picks up right where Debt of Honor leaves off, as a reluctant President Ryan handles both domestic and international crises while rebuilding the government as he and his family adjust to their new roles.

Prior to September 11, it had not occurred to most people that a passenger jet could be used as a weapon of mass murder. But to Tom Clancy it had.

While not exactly prophetic, many of the themes and plotlines of Debt of Honor (1994) and Executive Orders (1996) seem familiar to us. In Debt of Honor, we see in detail the unraveling of the U.S. economy (through an engineered attack on the markets, rather than as a result of sub-prime mortgages and toxic assets). Executive Orders contains a bioterrorism attack on the US, the assassination of the Iraqi dictator, the merger of Iraq and Iran into the United Islamic Republic, and a second Persian Gulf war - complete with embedded journalists. Although some of Clancy's cold war novels now seem a bit stale, these two still seem fresh, even nearly ten years after publication.

I've been reading through all the Jack Ryan novels, in plotline order, but at this point I plan to take a break and read Without Remorse and Rainbow Six, set in the same universe but staring John Clark as the main character. And get some non-fiction reading done.

Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, by Kaylene Johnson

As a biography, it's not great. It's a history of Sarah Palin's life, without the critical analysis that one would expect from a professional biographer. But I notice that the book is penned by a magazine writer and two-time book author, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska; and as such, it is an adequate biography. It only covers Sarah's life up to her swearing-in as Alaska governor.

Paul of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

If you remember, I read through all fourteen then-existing Dune novels last year, plus Dreamer of Dune and The Road to Dune. Let me just say, Herbert & Anderson have come a long way since writing the mind-numbingly boring Legends of Dune trilogy. Paul of Dune is shorter, more concise, with a plot that moves along as it should. There also seemed to be some effort to address the factual inconsistencies (too numerous to mention) between the Frank Herbert Dune novels and the Herbert/Anderson Dune novels. (Basically, it's all Irulan's fault.) Looking forward to the rest of the Heroes of Dune novels.

The Longing, by Beverly Lewis.

This is the third of three books in the "Courtship of Nellie Fisher" series, one of my favorite Beverly Lewis series. It did not have the element of mystery that was present in some of her previous novels, and I thought the ending was a bit abrupt. But it had a clear spiritual message and compelling characters.

Molly Remer of Citizens for Midwifery reviews Fathers at Birth by Rose St. John in: Fathers at Birth and More About Fathers at Birth. Some good links in those posts, too.

The Sum of All Fears, by Tom Clancy.

I'm going to take a break in my quest to read through all the Jack Ryan novels. It's becoming tedious; I need some variety. Plus, I want to go back and read the John Clark novels, which often feature Jack Ryan in a cameo roll, and are set in the same "universe".

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer.

I took a break in the middle of re-reading Meyer's Twilight saga to read her "other" novel, The Host. I liked it a lot better than I though I would. If you just really love teenage vampires, you might not enjoy this one so much. Likewise, if you are a hard-core sci-fi buff, it might just not be science fiction-y enough for you. But if you like Meyer's writing, there are plenty of similarities between The Host and Twilight; a young, vulnerable heroine with an old soul who is selfless to the point of self-sacrifice; a bizarre love triangle; and two groups of people - humans and aliens - who, though natural enemies, find a way to get past their prejudices, understand each other, and work together.

The May, 2008 edition of Veritas Press' Epistula contained a fascinating article, "A Brief History of Children’s Literature".

This looks interesting - The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir by Patricia Harman.

Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.

No, it's not great literature and yes, it is that good.

Sheri Menelli is offering downloadable copies of her book Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth for free. Get your copy here.

Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters, by Bill Tancer.

Bill Tancer loves data, and in his job he gets to work with a lot of it. He works for Hitwise, a company that analyzes online information, particularly search terms and online traffic. One of the examples that he gives in the book is that searches for prom dresses spikes in early January. He could come up with no explanation for this data, so he spoke with insiders in the prom dress industry, who were equally as clueless - they target their marketing for April and May, since most proms take place in late May. Finally, after sharing his data at a conference, a magazine publisher clued him in to the fact that teen magazines publish prom fashion issues in late December - a fact that, I'm sure, the prom dress industry needs to know.

While this book is in the same category as The Tipping Point or Freakonomics, it's not quite as good. Perhaps Mr. Tancer, being a data guy, is a bit more uncomfortable with "the big picture". But there is still a lot of great information here. I found the discussions of Web 2.0 and social networking particularly interesting.

Joe Hodnicki of the Law Librarian Blog writes a review here.

Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?: An Easy Plan for Losing Weight and Living More, by Peter Walsh.

I listened to the audiobook of Walsh's It's All Too Much and loved it, so I was anxious to read his new book. It's really just the it's all too much philosophy applied to weight loss and food, with lots of Walsh's insights into human nature, as he has observed the connection between body clutter and "too much stuff" clutter.

The Tatum Family blogger reviews several great books on pregnancy and childbirth.

Molly Reads reviews three books I own and have read (though not necessarily blogged about):

Childbirth Education: Practice, Research and Theory, by Francine H. Nichols and Sharron Smith Humenick. (review)

Milk, Money, and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding, by Naomi Baumslag, MD and Dia L. Michels. (review)

Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, by Jennifer Block. (review)

Audition: A Memoir, by Barbara Walters.

This book is really interesting, not so much because Barbara Walters is that fascinating - in fact, her constant low self-esteem and indecisiveness gets to be a bit wearing on the reader - but because she knew so many important, famous, and infamous people. In fact, I would suggest this book to someone older than me, as her career spans decades which I know little about, having been too young to experience them firsthand, and too old for them to get much coverage in history class.

Via Birth Pangs, a "laborious work of non-fiction" titled Great Expectations: Twenty-Four True Stories about Childbirth.