June Book Reviews

I mentioned in a previous post that one of my goals this summer is to read a book a week.  I may not stay that course completely, but here are the books that I read in June.

  1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus - This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.  It is about the America's before Columbus, and if you liked Jerod Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel", you will love this book.  The author has three basic premises.  1) That the America's population was significantly larger than has typically been thought 2) that Native Americans manipulated their environment significantly and 3) People have been in the Americas for much longer than is typically thought.  He takes archaeological research, disputes among scientists and historical records (particularly from the first Europeans who arrived - and have some of the only written records about the American societies) and weaves it together in a very readable book.

 Did the Chinese discover America?  This author thinks so.  He's not an academic historian, and it certainly reflects in the work. Most of the evidence is circumstantial, and a lot of is along the lines of "there's this map that Columbus had that seems to be America, so the Chinese MUST have drawn it!" Regardless, it reads quickly and has a story narrative and was generally interesting.  I would recommend it if you don't have a whole lot better to read or if you like left-field history theories.

This is a short, interesting book.  The author's premise is to alert readers to how statistics and charts can be manipulated.  It's a field guide in a real sense.  For instance - a bird field guide will list various kinds of birds and have a page description of the bird.  Similarly, the author lists around 30 ways that statistics can be distorted and gives a one or two page description of the distortion and an example from the news of the media, politicians, scientists, activists (or whoever) used that particular distortion.  One thing I liked is that he does not pick on conservatives or liberals in particular.  In fact, I'm not sure which side of the spectrum he comes from, at least from this book.  We bought a hard copy of this book, and I may be able to use it in a class, but I'm not sure I'd recommend buying it unless you would use it often.  Borrow it from the library.

 Blink:  Malcolm Gladwell has become one of my favorite authors.  I have heard him described as the master of the anecdote.  He is able to take complex social or psychological theories and boil them down into digestible ideas.  The experiments and studies that he finds are always absolutely fascinating.  In this particular book, he addresses the brains ability to "thin slice", or to take in a vast amount of data, process it, and come out with a decision or evaluation - all in our subconscious.  He talks about how it works, how it can be misunderstood, misused and what happens when that ability breaks down.

 The Minister's Wooing:  Alison's all time favorite author is Harriet Beecher Stowe (sometime I'll write about how my knowledge of Stowe helped win Alison's heart).  As a result I sometimes am forced privileged to read one of Stowe's books (I'll be honest, I started this one well before June).  She's known for Uncle Tom's Cabin, but has written many others - and Alison has them all.  In this particular book, the heroine - a strong believer - is in love with a boy who is not a Christian, and she dutifully rejects his offers of marriage.  The boy goes out to make his way in life as a sailor and apparently dies.  In the mean time, the heroine becomes engaged to a Minister, only to have the boy return a strong Christian!  Oh no!

Though these types of books aren't my first choice, Stowe does always have a witty writing style.  I'm also impressed with the way she is able to dissect feelings, emotions and motives.  She is also a preacher at heart, and so the truths of scripture shine forth brightly.  Lastly, her characters are always a hoot.  I may not be full on interested in Stowe, but I would be more than happy if Eva were to get hooked on Stowe like her mother.

 At the Back of the North Wind: My favorite author is CS Lewis, and CS Lewis' favorite author is George MacDonald.  So I decided to read one of his children's books from our school library.   The story is of , a boy, and his various adventures with the North Wind and other friends.  To be honest, I was a little disappointed, mainly because the story was somewhat disjointed (this one was also started well before June).  I think I was hoping I would like it as much as Chronicles of Narnia.  But to be fair, it is a children's book, and part of my love of Narnia may be because I liked it so much as a kid.  MacDonald does have some great themes, and a lot of great individual quotes.  Here was one of my favorites:

I never knew of any interference on the part of a wicked fairy that did not turn out to be a good thing in the end. What a good thing, for instance, it was that one princess should sleep for a hundred years! Was she not saved from all the plague of young men who were not worthy of her? And did she not come awake exactly the right moment when the right prince kissed her? For my part, i cannot help wishing a good many girls would sleep till just the same fate overtook them. It would be happier for them, and more agreeable to their friends.