My Review of "Vinegar Girl"

Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl attempts to re-tell the story of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew for a modern audience.  So many, of course, think Shakespeare's story is irredemably sexist (it isn't -- Shakespeare is always more nuanced than modern ears can appreciate), but Tyler's version is faithful to the Bard's own nuanced story in fresh ways.

In Tyler's version, a sharp-tongued preschool assistant, Kate Battista, whose scientist father is convinced his dead-end research will soon break through -- if only he can hang onto his lab assistant, Pyotr Shcherbakov, whose O-1 visa is about to expire.  That's right, Dr. Battista wants Kate to marry Pytor to keep him in the country:  After all, he points out, she doesn't exactly have men flocking after her like her airhead sister Bunny, and she's still in high school.  Kate is hurt by her father's thoughtless cruelty, and already these characters have more depth than Shakespeare allows his broadly drawn protagonists.  The real drama, though, is between Kate and her widowed father, who depends on her without really valuing her; even self-absorbed Bunny turns out to have more appreciation for her sister than the selfish Dr. Battista.  The rest is a masterful re-telling that avoids all the counter-tale traps one might expect.

Vinegar Girl is a wonderful summer read.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Naturalist"

Darrin Lunde's Naturalist:  Theodore Roosevelt, a Lifetime of Exploration and the Triumph of American Natural History explores in historical detail Teddy Roosevelt's interests in the natural world and his contributions to the environmental movement. 

Part biography and part historical examination of the field of natural history preservation, Lunde's Naturalist begins with Roosevelt's childhood as the foundations for his natural interests.  As a boy growing up in New York City, he collected "as many specimens as possible", encouraging his parents to do the same when they traveled without him.  By the time Roosevelt was a teenager, he had become a "full-bore birder".  At Harvard he took classes on anatomy, vertebrate physiology, and botany, hoping to emulate heroes John James Audubon and Spencer Fullerton Baird.  As an adult, Roosevelt studied animals "by shooting them, stuffing them, and preserving them in natural-history museums".

Even Roosevelt's attraction to big-game hunting in Africa satisfied both his yearning for outdoor adventure and his intellectual curiosity.

Lunde explores Roosevelt's environmental activism and his accomplishments in political office, most notably his lobbying for the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, and impressively narrates how Roosevelt was able to pursue his passions during a contentious political career.

Naturalist is a real historical treat and a joy for environmentalists, too.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Bat Dad"

Blake Wilson's Bat Dad:  A Parody is not the book that parents deserve, but it's certainly the book that parents need.  Wilson, famous for his videos in which he he dons a Batman mask and asks his children to do things, provides us a collection of images of Bat Dad doing what Bad Dad does best -- interacting with his children.

Bat Dad has images accompanied with a hilarious quip or Bat Dad child rearing reference.  Parenting as Bat Dad is not for the faint of heart, it seems.  Some of my personal favorites have to do with Wilson's interactions with his daughters, including one hilarious image where one has covered his mask with bright pink stickers.  But this is a warm-hearted book in which a families' love for one another shines on every glossy page.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Book Review of "Old Age"

Michael Kinsley's Old Age:  A Beginner's Guide explores some weighty topics -- aging, illness and dying.  Now that Baby Boomers are entering "life's last chapter, there is going to be a tsunami of books about health issues by every boomer journalist who has any, which ultimately will be all of them".  And so Old Age is meant to be a witty, short "beginner's guide" for those writing the last chapters of their life's story.

What readers will find here is a realistic personal narrative about illness and learning to face death, a story of how "what's next?" will have you asking lots of other questions too. 

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Simply Calligraphy"

Simply Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Elegant Lettering by Judy Detrick is a beautiful guide for those who want to learn to write with art, that is, to write with calligraphy.  Simply calligraphy teaches you the basics so you can add beautiful handwriting to your day to day notes along with wedding invitations, and hand-label envelopes.  The instructions that are included in this book make it easy to create calligraphy with just a pencil.  After learning the basic letters, this book presents an open invitation -- and a bit of inspiration -- to make calligraphy one's own with just a pen or pencil.  There's even a page for helping to write with the appropriate line sizes that can be reproduced.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Spiritual Sobriety"

Elizabeth Ester's Spiritual Sobriety:  Stumbling Back to Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad is a second memoir, in the tradition of her Girl at the End of the World.  In it, Ester probes one important question:  "Can a person have a persistent, compulsive dependence on religion?"

And the answer is "Yes".

Drawing from personal experience, as well as the stories of others, Esther writes extensively about the characteristics of religious addiction and its impact on faith communities, specifically Christianity.  Her own childhood taught her all the ways to prove her devout faith to others and receive approval, everything from singing hymns with her eyes closed instead of open to preaching on street corners with her family.  "I was consuming God.  I didn't have access to chemical substances -- we were intensely devout, conservative Christians -- so I used what was available:  religious beliefs.  I habitually 'used' God and all things church to numb pain and feel good" (page 3).  By the time she left the cult at the age of twenty-five, Esther was chronically depressed and suffering from PTSD.  Addiction recovery programs became part of her healing process and eventually led her to the pursuit of spiritual sobriety.

This is an important book for all those who've experienced God in unhealthy ways through unhealthy, obsessive religious practices.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "The Sleep Revolution"

Arianna Huffington's The Sleep Revolution is an account of Huffington's journey as a "sleep amateur" to become "a sleep pro".  In it, she looks at our society's widespread sleep deprivation and argues that our various social ills -- from weight gain to Alzheimer's -- are partially due to that deprivation.

There's plenty of wisdom here about practical matters, including chapters on how to fall asleep (and how not to fall asleep).  But the book is also, more broadly, a survey of how we became a culture that treats sleep as optional and valorizes those who can do without, and a prescription for how we can course correct.  The Sleep Revolution probes history, and discovers that "our collective delusion that overwork and burnout are the price we must pay in order to succeed" derives from the first Industrial Revolution.

But Huffington is ultimately optimistic about a turn toward better sleep hygiene.  Technology, while it is one of the culprits for keeping us constantly wired (and awake), can also become a tool for valuing human creativity and fostering rest in order to make that creativity possible.

I expect that anyone who reads this book will find themselves convicted and convinced that our sleep habits can use a thorough critique -- a loving critique -- like The Sleep Revolution.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.