swingbeat: 19/26: Outside and Inside Dinosaurs by Sandra Markle

In the past couple of years, my father gotten himself interested in dinosaurs and their fossils. As a result, on my recent trip back home, he gave me this children's book on dinosaurs :).

I thought it would be a simplistic view on dinosaurs - "this is a T.Rex, this is a triceratops". There was some of that, but it actually talks about how we know certain things about dinosaurs. For example, we could tell that certain dinosaurs were warm-blooded because their bones had vessels running through them for blood. I didn't know that and I bet most people don't either.

So this books is geared at the sharp-thinking elementary school student. It was an interesting enough read for me. I recommend it.

Apparently so does my father. He asked me to place an order for a couple of copies so he can give to other people (I have my own copy now :) ).

Recommended, especially for those with inquisitive minds.

From the editor:
I've *finally* made the header "Weeks Remaining" count auto-update.
Took me long enough...
- K

Kayan : Book 5/26 : A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

Oh la la! If only all of us can have animated, feisty, and overreacting neighbors like Peter Mayle's in Provence! Mayle reveals the warm charm of rural France in this book. It's the people, and then it's the food. Reading this on the bus to work everyday, I envied Mayle and his wife. "I want to go live in France for a year and do nothing but take dips in the swimming pool, take long sunny lunches, and listen to old French country folk talk smack about who makes the best fill in the blank in town!"

I absolutely love the way Mayle brought his French compatriots to life in this book. And my mouth waters at imagining all the authentic French food and wine they get to experience like no accidental (or intentional, for that matter) tourist can.

First book repeat in this challenge! Woohoo!

Highly Recommended
Beverage Pairing: A solid Cote-du-Rhone, where the bottle label has a painting of a French countryside

KAYAN : Book 4/26 : The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

First I need to define Christian discipleship in my own words: To follow the personal call of Jesus Christ. It is not a system of rules or merely following the commandments by the Book; besides, "following rules" doesn't get us into heaven - grace does. Instead, discipleship involves a personal relationship with God that allows us to hear His call and to follow it.

Over the past 2 years I have learned that to follow Christ means to suffer. But it's a suffering that brings joy, thankfulness, and freedom - freedom from fear, freedom from judgement, and freedom from guilt. When things in the world don't matter anymore, you are free to follow what I used to think was "my heart", but turns out it's really God. When you allow those two to align, they are one and the same.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's eloquent writing and truthfulness about the reality of being a Christian in the world convicts and challenges me to live without hiding God's presence in my life in the midst of nonbelief and sometimes even hatred towards God. I loved it when Bonhoeffer reveals that being a Christian doesn't mean holing oneself up in a monastery; instead, it means fully participating in the world while being a full follower of Christ. That is where the struggle lies.

Phew! Bonhoeffer is a gifted writer. Read about his martyrdom in your next Google search. He's one of my favorite authors.

Recommended: Christians and Non
Beverage pairing: Plain water while fasting

yong : book 9/25 : The Brass Ring by Bill Mauldin

Bill Mauldin? Who the hell is Bill Mauldin? No, you may have never heard the name before. But you've probably seen it. Just like in this picture, hand-printed in all caps, in the bottom corner of a political cartoon. The man passed away in 2003, but not before winning two Pulitzer Prizes, the first while he was just a floppy-eared kid serving his country in World War II, speaking up for the grunts in the trenches with his scruffy characters Willy and Joe, and pissing off the likes of General George S. Patton himself. I've been on a memoir kick lately, and this is Mauldin's memoir of his experience in the war. I'd been looking for this book for several years now, and finally ended up buying it through Amazon, in the process discovering a whole underground trade in discarded library books.

This particular worn copy once belonged to the public library of Coin, Iowa. It's still got the pocket for the checkout card inside the front cover. You can find a whole slew of books like this being sold on Amazon for the nominal price of $0.01, plus $3.49 in shipping and handling. After $2.07 for postage, maybe sixty cents for the bubble wrap mailer...they can't be making more than seventy cents per book. But thanks to the internet and economies of quantity, some people are managing to make a buck this way.

It's not the most horrific, up-close account of war. Mauldin managed to weasel himself a relative safe job as reporter for his division's newspaper, and this mostly kept him out of direct combat. He did receive a Purple Heart, but it was for a ridiculous little scratch that he felt compelled to lampoon in his own cartoon. But he's a laid-back, straight-shootin', dirt-poor country kid with a pretty unwavering idea of right and wrong, and it shows in his cartoons, and it shows in his writing. This one is probably his most famous cartoon, published the day after John F. Kennedy was shot.

Back when I took AP US History in high school, we skipped all the wars. I think they weren't going to be on the test or something. We covered everything leading up to them, and their aftermaths, but nothing about the wars themselves. As a result, I've always felt a little lacking, always wanted to know about the Battle of the Bulge, or the 442nd Japanese-American regiment, or the Russian-German epic devouring/hurling at each other/wanton waste of human lives. Having seen the war through Mauldin's eyes, I feel a little less clueless, a little more personally connected. And that Patton fellow sure was a right wanker.

Rich (8/26): All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

Damn. It turns out that I'm not so original or clever as I thought. This man has managed to copy my style and publish a book of his short ramblings in the late eighties. It's exactly what I'd write, plus the twenty more years of experience he has over me. It's a better blog, and consistently good. Well-suited for returning to civilization after a long absence in front of the computer at work all week.

Rich (7/26): The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

I had no choice. It was time for me to read this book. There was no way that I could go through 26 and ignore this demure, elegant lady in the corner. I was well acquainted with her family of cousins and sisters -- the Red Pony, the Pearl, Of Mice and Men, Travels with Charley, the Winter of Our Discontent. But, I was always reluctant to introuduce myself to her. I was afraid; I wasn't ready; I didn't have the courage; I didn't have the time. What if we didn't hit it off? What if she didn't live up to my expectations? What if I wasn't worthy of her? I had cherry-picked my way through the field, and she remained. I was finally ready.

******
The land is alive. The shingles rattle, the corn whistles, and the cotton sleeps in the fields. And then, the dust -- it consumes everything, a tidal wave sparing nothing and refusing to melt. The land is dying. And in so doing, thrusts those that depend upon her into the wild. Urging them, pushing them, abandoning them onto the highway, bound for dreams that will not be realized, hopes that can never be. These migrants are also dying.

They struggle. They transform a car into their home. Everything they own is on that car, and everything else has been sold or left behind. But, the car is dying, too. It leaks oil and thumps and shudders like an old, bony man. But the people move on, fleeing one life, only to tighten the noose in the next.

How can they go on? How can they continue? They search for work, but I cannot bear their struggles. They move from one camp to the next, hoping that they will find the means to stay alive, but I have lost hope for them; the only unanswered question about their future is how they will meet their end. But, continue they do, and continue I do.

The right arm is lost, so that the left can live. How long can this go on before the body is no longer a man, no longer human? I wait for the moment these parents go from begging to stealing, from serving to rebelling. Their grievances are justified, and their anger boiling. If they are to die, then they should die taking down their oppressors. But, they do not die, and they do not kill. They adapt, survive, and remain altogether human despite their treatment to the contrary. I vow to learn how to be so strong, but can I without the hunger in my belly?

swingbeat: 18/26: The Year of Yes by Maria Dahvana Headley

This is a true story about a 20 year old female writing student at NYU, who got sick of dating other writing students/professors/etc. She decided to take her own judgement out of the picture. Thus began the Year of Yes. She decides
to go on one date with anyone who asks (but no drunkards, druggies, or violent people).

She tells about various people she meets and goes on dates with (the Mexican handyman, the homeless guy, the Spanish old guy at the laundromat) and some of the stories are pretty good. Halfway through the book, though, it gets kinda old. It's not like her dates are all THAT exciting, and to tell the truth, aside from the brief introspective moment, it's just about her sexual escapades. I naively thought it would be a bunch of sweet little stories until she finds the man of her dreams.

Ah yes, the ending. She does end up marrying a guy, but it just comes out of nowhere. No love story background or anything, just an abrupt thing. The book publishers seem to imply that it's The Year of Yes that enabled her to date the guy, but he seemed like a guy she would have dated even if the Year of Yes wasn't around. So... it's an interesting premise of a book, but I don't think it was executed pretty well. Your Mileage May Vary :)