Quick Review - Book #7 - The Story of Earth - by Robert Hazen

     Book #7 was actually a re-read for me.

    I read The Story of Earth when it was published, after listening to a long format interview with the author.

    Reading about "The Big Thwack," or theories on how the moon was formed, was a pretty "stellar" experience.

    But he goes back further than that. Starting just after the formation of the universe itself, he takes us on a journey as the solar system is seeded with materiel; how stars are formed, live, decay, and die; How an entire solar system can then form inside the galaxy that we call home.

    He obviously covers a great deal of ground in the telling. Mr Hazen is a minerologist and astro-biologist. He has spent years studying how life is linked to minerals. That alone is worth reading the book. 

    His tour of the Earth and the universe is breathtaking in the expanse, although the continued beating of the climate change drum gets just a little bit tiring.

    Great stuff!

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    On to book #8!

    Originally, book #8 was going to be Stephen King's Insomnia, but the library system has only so many 'copies' of the eBook, that I am still #4 on the waiting list.

    So in the interest of moving right along, I am calling yet another 'audible.' In honor of my recent trip to Key West, and stopping at his home there, I am reading Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable

Feast;"  his memoir of his time in Paris as a young writer in the 1920s, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, is stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

    Hemingway never said that; it is attributed in the book to Mary Hemingway's husband. This version of the manuscript has been compiled by his grandson, Sean Hemingway. EH never finished the book; it stayed in manuscript form through multiple  re-writes, and this version includes a chapter written 3 months before he took his own life.

    If you have ever been to Paris, you know that it is indeed a Moveable Feast.

Quick Review - Book #6 - Inkheart - by Cornelia Funke

     Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

    **Spoiler alert!**

    The basic premise of this book is truly original to me. When the father of the lead character reads a book out loud, he is able to transport characters or objects unto our reality. When his daughter was young, he read a book called "Inkheart," and transported an evil ruler and a number of his minions unto our world, and transported her mother out of it!

    This is a well written book, and I can understand why it is on so many YA reading lists. The premise is interesting, and she fleshes out her characters well.

    This is also a tribute for book lovers. This book is about books, the characters written in the books, and people who love books. The father of the main character is a bookbinder, and he has passed his love for books to his daughter, Meggie. He is hiding his dark secret, that he is able to read books out loud, and make the characters not just come to life, but actually appear in our world. There are a number of evil characters that he brought in, and this is years later and they have gained power. 

    This seems just a shade too violent for the bottom end of YA. I'd go with 12-13 for the lowest end of this book. There are no real adult situations, it just feels a little heavy with how the some of the characters prefer to deal in violence. 

    Also... a slight down note. The author doesn't completely develop the idea of bringing characters into our world [side note-- he also transports characters into the books... and he has no control over who comes in or out!]

    The book feels a bit wordy. I think some diligent editing would have accomplished wonders to make the book move along. I also think she could have developed the idea further, or at least explored the ramifications of crossing into another existence. 

    I did enjoy the book, though... I guess that is the book lover in me. The quibbles that I have with the book are basically minor, and except for getting a little bogged down towards the end (they get captured... again?) it was an enjoyable read. 

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    Now... on to book #7! - The Story of Earth - by Robert Hazen. 

    The story of the basic building atoms... molecules... from the start of the Earth to growth and change over 4+ billion years. Hazen is a researcher into how molecules form life. 

Quick Review - Book #5 - The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami

    This is a difficult book to put into words. Totally honest.

    It took me a good third of the book to get into his writing style. I guess it probably didn't help that the 2 books I had read before this one were young Adult, so I was geared for something that I could just blast through.

    This book takes a liiiiitle bit more work than that!

    

    For the protagonist, bad times come in threes. Every single main character has weird quirks and tics, that really drive home the unusual feel of the book. There is a psychic pair of sisters enlisted by the lead to find his and his wife's cat, but that devolves into many unusual side stories. An almost spirit-like teenage neighbor... that honestly, I was sure for a good 75% of the book was in fact a ghost. So many of the situations seem completely unbelievable, especially for a bit of an anti-hero like Toru Okada. 

    Having said all of that....

    This was still a good read. It was more of a challenge than I expected, with historical accounts of Japanese occupied China in WWII popping up regularly through some older characters.

    I did have an interesting mental comparison. Much like the Title-names protagonist in Dr. Zhivago, Toru Okada seems to almost be a spectator in his own life. He knows that mostly he is really just going through the motions in his life. His wife is great, but the marriage is damaged; he has no real friends outside of the unusual relationships that he seems to attract to himself, and they only get more strange. Although, as the characters worm their way into your mind and get mentally classified (yup.. another kook,) you begin to see their sympathetic draw to Toru; he is literally the only normal character in the book!

    If you are interested in reading it, bring your A-game and some patience. It took me a good while to get into the writing style. 

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Next - Book #6 - Inkheart - by Cornelia Funke