I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

I am about 1/3 of the way through John Lanchester's I Owe You: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay and am enjoying it. This is an account of the recent meltdown of the world's financial system written in terms that are understandable by those among us who are not derivatives traders. We've all heard and read about credit default swaps and hedge funds and derivatives. But if you are like me, much of this goes in one ear and out the other. I get the gist, but the details escape me. I Owe You is the perfect tool to put the whole financial crises in perspective and explain, in some detail, how we got into the mess we are in. While the book is written for the average reader, it requires some concentration and re-reading to get all the facts straight, so it might not be the thing to bring to the beach.

Given the complexity of modern finance, it is not surprising that many of the financial products described here ended up being so Byzantine that the people who cooked them up could not keep them straight. No wonder the rest of us are confused.

-Paul

The Wave: in Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean

If you are not afraid of the ocean, you should be. And if you read The Wave: in Pursuit of Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, you definitely will be. At the very least, you will stay out of choppy seas.

Casey spends time with extreme surfers who cruise the world looking for enormous waves to surf, waves so large that they need to be towed onto them with jet skis. She describes huge ocean-going ships and their encounters with towering rogue waves, freak monsters that dwarf the waves around them. Some ships return to tell their tales; others only offer clues through their wreckage. Casey talks with scientists who study waves, and she relates what we know about them and what remains to be learned. This is a very good treatment of something most of us take for granted.

This book should appeal to anyone interested in science, sailing, and especially to fans of surfing. In fact, to me the biggest negative of this book is the excessive time the author spends on surfers and surfing.

If you like this book, try anything by Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger.


-Paul

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations -- One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson has been on my to- read list for years now. I finally made the time to read it and am glad that I did: what an incredible story!

Three Cups of Tea is the true story of a mountaineer's failed attempt to climb K-2 and how this failure turned into a lifelong calling to build schools for the incredibly poor isolated villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson's insight into the people and cultures of these countries and his willingness to learn from them is truly exceptional. His respect for these villagers and their respect for him is palpable. It is a remarkable story of people brought together by a common purpose.

I don't what to give too much away. Read it and enjoy the journey!!!

-Natalie

The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy

The Fall: Book Two of the Strain Trilogy is the middle book of a vampire trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.The third book has not yet been published.


Like everyone else who takes on the vampire genre, del Toro and Hogan have added their stamp to this archetypal monster, so much so that Bram Stoker would probably not even recognize the monsters in The Fall as vampires. I won't go into details about what make The Fall's vampires tick, but if you are hoping for pretty teen vampires in designer jeans or castle-dwelling Eastern European counts, this book will disappoint you.

The Fall opens with New York (and the world) in flames. Vampires are preying on people and spreading the curse of their blood lust at such an alarming rate that there are few humans left to tend to critical matters like, say, maintaining nuclear reactors. A team of unlikely allies under the leadership of a vampire expert must rid the world of this substantial menace while there is still time. Their biggest challenge is defeating the Master, the vampire overlord who telepathically unites all the monsters under him into a pretty feisty fighting force.

I found this book enjoyable for the most part. It was just what I was in the mood for: quick-reading, fast-paced entertainment. The narrative should hold the interest of most readers and I never found myself rooting for the vampires, which is a good sign. However, the writing is a bit wooden and the plot is completely unbelievable. Yes, I know that one must suspend disbelief when reading a monster book, but it is possible to write in this genre without resorting to scenarios that are so absurd as to be unlikely even in a highly fictionalized setting. Stephen King, for example, pulls this feat off well.

Other quibbles: the characters are a bit thin on personality and the focus is on action, not terror, so I never found myself scared. Negatives aside, I am sure I will read the third book when it comes out.

Oh, and surprise, surprise -- they are making a movie based on it.

-Paul


If you like The Fall you may also appreciate:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A very suspensful and well-written story about the hunt for an elusive vampire.
The Vampire Chronicles, a series by Anne Rice.
Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Very creepy!

Seaworthy: a Swordfish Captain Returns to the Sea

I just finished Linda Greenlaw's Seaworthy: a Swordfish Captain Returns to the Sea. I was surprised to see she had written a new book related to her commercial fishing career: I thought she had retired from fishing.

Seaworthy recounts Greenlaw's 52-day sword-fishing trip to the Grand Banks, her first after a ten year hiatus. Just about everything that could go wrong does go wrong, from mechanical failures, crew electrocution (he lived) to being arrested by the Canadian Coast Guard. Despite this, Greenlaw writes as if the experience were a humorous and fun adventure.

Her writing style is engaging and informative and she assesses herself with humor and honesty. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing in her adventure.

I've read her other books about adventures at life at sea and enjoyed them as well.  I haven't had a chance to read her mysteries yet, but they're on my ever growing list of books I'll get to.

If you enjoy her writing, you may be interested to know that the Discovery channel has a show about her and other swordfishing captains called "Swords - Life on the Line."  The show is modeled after the "Deadliest Catch."


-Natalie


If you enjoy Seaworthy, you might also like:

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
The Hungry Ocean: a Swordfish Captain's Journey by Linda Greenlaw

In the Woods

In Tana French's debut novel In the Woods a team of Dublin murder detectives works to solve the murder of a young girl, a crime that may have connections with the 20-year old disappearance of two children. The strain of the investigation takes a huge toll on both detectives and on their friendship, and shatters the family of the murdered girl -- a family that includes more than one possible suspect. 

This is a supremely well crafted psychological thriller, with imperfect, believable characters who do imperfect, believable things. French's prose is effortless and evocative. Her modern Ireland -- torn between its prosperous present and its downtrodden past -- is a character as fascinating as her protagonists.

I found In the Woods hard to put down and would have read it in one sitting if I had had the time. I do not read many books in this genre, but this is almost certainly the best of its sort I have read in a long while and the best book I have read recently.

Fortunately for me, Tana French has written two more novels with some of the same characters, and they are next on my list. These are The Likeness and Faithful Place.

You may wish to avoid this if you are bothered by graphic crime scene descriptions or explicit language.

-Paul


If you like Tana French, give the following authors a try:

Benjamin Black (beginning with Christine Falls)
Elizabeth George (try Traitor to Memory)

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is considered a classic. It's one of those books that you think you should have read. So I tried to read it. I really did. I got through the first 100 pages and stopped because I hated the premise. I gave it a break for a few days and decided to read the last 20 pages. I figured if I liked the ending, I'd go back and finish the book. I didn’t like the ending. The book describes a depressing, alternate future in which no one is allowed to own books, and "firemen" burn books and the houses that books are found in. I did not want to contemplate such a bleak future in which no one is allowed to discover new ideas or think original thoughts.

I guess it is considered a classic precisely because it makes you ponder what you take for granted -- an open society with no censorship. Not all books are warm and fuzzy. Some make you think. This one certainly did. My negative emotional response might be a testament to how well written it is: I was drawn into a world that I didn’t like and that felt all felt all too possible.

But try it. You might have a better experience than I did.

-Natalie


If you like Fahrenheit 451 or Ray Bradbury in general, you may also like these authors:

David Almond (for teens)
Peter Crowther (author and editor)
Theodore Sturgeon