The Red Pyramid

Rick Riordan is an incredible author that does a wonderful job introducing a host of people to ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods, goddesses and history. I first learned of him when I read the Percy Jackson (the Lightning Thief for those of you who only watch movies - although what are you even reading this for if you only watch movies?!). Percy Jackson and his friends were the main characters in an awesome series dealing with the old Greek gods, goddesses and heroes. It was interesting reading about them. (In fact, I went out and bought a reference book telling the old stories of those gods and goddesses after finishing the Percy Jackson series.)

A second Greek/Roman series was introduced through the Heroes of Olympus series (only the first book has been published so far - the second one comes out next month). That series has already proven to be just as interesting as the first Percy Jackson series.

Now, though, Riordan has also tackled the old Egyptian gods/goddesses/magicians. I'll admit, for a bit I wasn't interested in getting into this series as well. I had my Greeks and Romans, and was perfectly happy learning about them, and seeing the new adventures of their human heroes. The Egyptians were just too much. However, last weekend they had Book 1, the Red Pyramid, sitting on the shelf at the library, and I figured I'd try it. (It helped that my oldest daughter also really wanted to read it, so we were going to be getting it anyway.) I was pleasantly surprised. I figured it'd be alot of the same sort of Percy Jackson adventures. However, this one is different enough that it's a whole different series. While you can tell it's the same author (his humor comes out often, and is hilarious), the approach to this series seems different - and the "players" in these books have different personalities and powers. So far, I've liked them, so we'll continue with this series (although, I probably won't post about every book in the series...sorry...)

The Disappearing Spoon

This one was a very fun and interesting read. It's a non-fiction book written by a scientist about the periodic table of the elements. Basically, the author takes all of the elements, and tells the interesting stories about how they were discovered, what's made them famous, how they all fit together, etc. The only chemistry class I remember taking during my education years was a class in seventh grade taught by the biology teacher. I don't think I've had anything more than that. (Although, the periodic table is on the wall in almost every classroom I teach in at BSU!)

I'll have to admit, reading this book sometimes made my brain hurt. It'd be much easier to understand the stories if I had a litle more knowledge of the elements themselves, and how the table is organized, etc. But, the author "dumbs" it down enough for someone like me (educated, fairly smart, extremely humble) to understand. (Although, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's not at least a little interested in science.)

The stories were usually pretty funny. I actually came out of this one thinking that I needed to find a used chemistry textbook to learn a little more about the elements that make up our world. I guess that's a sign that the author did his job!

Ender's Game

I first read this book a long time ago, when I was in high school (and it first came out). It's an interesting Science Fiction novel about future wars with earth's enemies - the Buggers. Ender is a 6 y.o. boy who gets recruited (in fact, his parents were allowed to have him specifically for this purpose) to go to Battle School, and train to be a leader in the war with the Buggers. Along the way, he makes several friends.

At one point, way back when, I believe this book was on the US Marine Corps required reading list - I tried to look around and verify this, but it doesn't appear to be on the list now. In any case, there's plenty of "battle" scenes in the book - all through games that the kids play at the Battle School. This was the first in a series of books that come later, about the development of the Universe after the last battle. It was a good book. One of my favorite moments comes after Ender leaves battle school and all of his friends. You'll have to read it to know what I'm talking about...:)

The Dirty Life

For a non-fiction book, this one was incredibly interesting. It's sort of a biography - Ms. Kimball is a writer from New York who interviews a farmer who is trying to do a CSA model farm. CSA = community supported agriculture - basically a farm that provides everything necessary for the surrounding community. While doing the interview, Kimball falls in love with the farmer ("Mark"), and they decide to start a new farm. However, for this new farm, their dream is to provide an entire subsistence for the community (not just vegetables, but meat, dairy, grains, everything.

They begin a new 500 acre farm. The book largely chronicles their decision to do so, and the first year on the farm. The author takes you through delivering a calf from a mother cow, to how to properly plow a field. The couple decided to do the farm with the least amount of machinery possible. They had a tractor, but it was for backup. They mostly operated using a pair of draft horses (think "Budweiser ads" and you'll know what sort of horses those are).

The author, being a writer, used a plethora of books to learn different parts of farming. She references several of these books, which makes it even more interesting. I finished the book, and almost immediately put most of the books she mentioned on my wishlist.

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Farming, I discovered, is a great and ongoing war. The farmers are
continually fighting to keep nature behind the hedgerow, and nature is
continually fighting to overtake the field. Inside the ramparts are the
sativas, the cultivated plants, soft and vulnerable, too highbred and civilized
for fighting. Aligned with nature, there are the weeds, tough foot
soldiers, evolved for battle. As we approached the solstice, both sides
were at full tilt, stoked by rain and abundance of sun. Every morning,
Mark and I would look out over the fields at first light and see a fresh haze of
green. For every one of ours, there were a hundred, a thousand, ten
thousand of theirs, wave after wave, unending."

A fun book to read.

So Cold the River

This was a new thriller off of the Amazon 2010 list. I'd never heard of this author before, but the book sounded interesting, so I started with it. The main character, Eric Shaw, is a film-maker who specializes in wedding and funeral videos. He gets hired to do a life sketch for a dying man in Chicago, by returning to the man's childhood home, and investigating his background. Along the way, Shaw meets and discovers all kinds of interesting and spooky things about the town, the history, and a certain bit of evil that he unwittingly brings with him to the valley.

What I like best in thrillers (I may have said this before - if so, sorry!), is an interesting story, and writing that keeps you engaged. I have trouble with authors who continually use the same genre and story over and over again, just tweaking the characters and the stories. If you're writing a thriller, I like it to be something unique and creative. This book is definitely that - the main instigator of the evil is a 100-year old bottle of water, and the water around the village.

Further, the book keep you going. The characters are interesting - you learn just enough about most of them to care about what happens (or enough to hope the bad guys get what's coming to them). I read this over a weekend, and recommend both it and any of the other books by this same author.

Secrets in the Fire - Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell is a Swedish author, who divides his time between Sweden and Mozambique. While on one of his trips to Africa, he met a woman named Sofia Alface, who forms the basis for this book. While this book is fiction, it is largely based on Sofia's life. Sofia was driven from her childhood home after "bandits" came and killed her father and sibling. Sofia's mother, Sofia, and her older sister and younger brother all travelled across the country, and eventually settled in a new village. After living in the new village for a few weeks (or maybe months), Sofia accidentally left the worn path between work and home, and stepped on a landmine. Sofia's older sister later died from her injuries from the blast, and Sofia lost both of her legs from the mine.

This book is about how Sofia recovered, and her enduring spirit in showing others how to treat adversity. She ultimately got two new legs, and returned to her village.

The book is written for teen audiences, so it reads exceptionally fast (I think I finished it in a day). The story, however, is compelling. There's also a post-script from a land-mine NGO, offering several facts and figures about the threat of landmines today. There is a subsequent book about Sofia, also by Mankell, that chronicles her life after her return to the village. I strongly urge anyone to read the book - if nothing more than to learn about the threat of landmines.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

A slow start ends with a bang. This is the story of a staid English Major who's wife recently died, and how he adapts to living in the English countryside. He befriends a Pakistani shop-keeper whose husband also recently died. Of course, in the old-school English village in which they live, this creates quite a scandal. Other scandal follows the Pakistani woman. A couple of hilarious scenes ensue, including a local dance-party, set to a theme of British domination of the Indian subcontinent. Needless-to-say, this theme doesn't sit well with the Indian and Pakistani folk who are helping to cater and decorate the event, and a melee ensues.

Add to the mix the local "Lord" and his yearly duck-hunt behind the local schoolyard (and the fact that the children ran onto the shooting ground to save "their" ducks), and the Major's son who is more interested in his own career advancement than familial relations, and the book have some very hilarious moments. It takes a little while to get into it, and really start caring for the Major (as opposed to being off-put by his English traditionalism), but once you do, you really get into the story.

The love story element here between the Major and Mrs. Ali gives the book something for just about everyone. Anyone would be good to give it a try.