Memento Mori

41. Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks, Juliet Eilperin. 270pp
This had a slow start for me, and then it picked up. It bogged down again at one point about halfway through (political stuff) and if I hadn't been determined to finish it THIS WEEK (because I've been reading it since JUNE) I probably would have set it aside again.

There was a lot that was really interesting about sharks in this book that I did not know previously, and I feel I learned a lot. I didn't care so much for the overwhelming amount of text devoted to the political and activism sides of Saving Sharks. Not because I don't appreciate their efforts, but because that's just not interesting reading for me.

For more concision, I would have given it 4 stars.

42. Testimonies for the Church Volume 5, Ellen White. 894pp
What a very, very long book. NINETY-ONE CHAPTERS. I really enjoyed it, though. I have Volumes 6-9 left to finish now, but I'll take those up later: I have time to get The Great Controversy in this year and it's really important to me to make sure I read that every year.

43. The Connected Family, Paul and Carolyn Rayne. 159pp
This is the book that accompanies the video series that we're watching on our Wednesday night parenting class at church. I decided to go ahead and finish the book now to get my pathetic book count up by one. Very, very down-to-earth, practical information and methods of becoming close with your children so that you can effectively lead them to God. I recommend it highly for anyone who has children or is thinking of having them.

Year-to-date totals:
Page count for September: 1323
Total page count for 2011: 10,774
Nonfiction: 27
Fiction: 3
Juvenile fiction: 11
Juvenile nonfiction: 2
Rereads: 2

I wonder if I can pass 10,000 pages this year. I did over 11,000 last year... would be nice to at least maintain that. I don't anticipate passing up the well-over 16,000 pages I read in 2009.

That being said, here are the whopping two books I completed in August.

34. Testimonies for the Church Vol. 4, Ellen White. 657pp
The series started to pick up for me again in this volume: back to more practical pointers that apply to all, not just select groups (e.g., ministers and other church leaders). I enjoyed. Going to hold off on volume 5 temporarily, to give me a chance to get caught up on the other 4 books I'm embroiled in currently.

35. The Call of the Wild, Jack London. 208pp
This did not have a sad ending, although there were sad moments in it. I enjoyed it quite a lot, although there were times when I felt like there was some Deep Socially Relevant Message for that time that I couldn't quite grasp - my mind is too tired to try to process any Deep Socially Relevant Messages at this time.

Also, I read this as a free download on GoodReads, so it's harder for me to grasp deep and elusive concepts in what I'm reading when it's not on the printed paper page.

Year-to-date totals:
Page count for August: 865
Total page count for 2011: 8074
Nonfiction: 22
Fiction: 3
Juvenile fiction: 9
Juvenile nonfiction: 1
Rereads: 1

25. Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible, David Teems. 261pp.
This was an pretty easy read and a look into history to a man I previously knew nothing about. The author's style is a little stilted, in my opinion: incomplete sentences abound, and he has a casual and almost flippant way of relating history at times. That being said, I found it very educational and interesting to learn more about the world that gave us the KJV.

26. Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey, Patricia Harman. 286pp
I enjoyed this book a lot. I resonated with the author's longing for getting back to basics and being good stewards of our planet, and, of course, her desire to restore natural childbirth as an option for today's women. It was written in an almost conversational style, a series of snapshots from the author's life that string together into a beautiful whole. I liked this style - the shortness of each section made it easy to read the book in fits and starts and not lose track of anything. (I have a very busy toddler and am interrupted constantly...) The writing was concise, elegant, eloquent. It brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh too. I would read this again and plan to read more from this author.

27. At Home, Bill Bryson. 452pp
I learned what a mudlark is. I learned that 1/10 of a six-year-old pillow's weight is "sloughed skin, living and dead mites, and mite dung" (and consequently have decided, at the soonest possible opportunity, to replace one of my own pillows which is, oh, 25 years old or more). I learned so much, in fact, that my brain couldn't take it all in and I'll have to read this one again.

28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson. 288pp
This was grand. There were a few slow spots for me, but almost every chapter got a smile or a laugh, and the income tax chapter had me laughing so hard I had to keep putting the book down to collect myself. The Highway Diversions chapter also had me going. The billboards he describes... Wall Drug, anyone?

"These [attractions] were always disappointing, but that wasn't the point. You weren't paying seventy-five cents for the experience. You were paying seventy-five cents as a kind of tribute, a thanks to the imaginative person who had helped you to pass 127 miles of uneventful highway in a state of genuine excitement."

29. Testimonies for the Church Vol. 3, Ellen White. 575pp
I fiiiiiiiiiinally finished this one. It just seemed more tedious than the previous two, though there was still a lot of really soul-searching stuff in it that I benefitted from. I've set myself a goal to finish Vol. 4 in June, because I still would really like to read all 9 this year.

Year-to-date totals:
Page count for May: 1862
Total page count: 6471
Nonfiction: 19
Fiction: 1
Juvenile fiction: 8
Juvenile nonfiction: 1
Rereads: 1

***

Because I'm ahead so far, I decided to up my goal to 52.

6. The Pacific Crest Trail, William R Gray. 196pp
Typical National Geographic book: lots of pictures (which I loved), text fairly well-written but still a bit tedious to read all at once. After reading "A Walk in the Woods" I was interested in learning more about our own trail. We passed one of the access points thereto in our recent snow hunt, and both of us thought it would be fun later this year if possible to walk part of the trail.

7. Time of Wonder, Robert McCloskey. 62pp
I've never read this book despite having grown up with "Blueberries for Sal" and "One Morning in Maine" and a plethora of McCloskey's other books. I really enjoyed the different art in this one as well as seeing the familiar (albeit unidentified in the text) family of Mom and Dad and an older Sal and Jane.

8. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, Randy O Frost and Gail Steketee. 279pp
( Cut because I wax wordy )

9. The Full-Plate Diet, Stuart A Seale et al. 143pp.
This book is beautifully, cleanly laid out with eye-popping photography and quite good information about food and practical, accessible ideas of how to incorporate a plant-based diet into daily life.

Considering that it's supposed to be based on the Adventist health message, however, I was a little perturbed at the overall casual "meat and dairy is okay" attitude. They didn't promote the use of meat and dairy but neither did they really talk about good reasons to avoid it except for a very brief blurb at the end of the book. The basic premise is "eat more fibre" (which, in a plant-based diet, you will get a lot of), but it seemed a bit too simplistic. Or maybe I'm just sceptical.

10. Maine, Deborah Kent. 143pp
From the children's section. Not the most interesting book I've ever read. Had nice pictures.

11. Labour of Love, Cara Muhlhahn. 256pp
Ih. This was okay. The first half was really not much to do with midwifery at all. When she finally did get to talking about her work it was more interesting. Her attitude comes off as being really rather arrogant and proud of how wonderful she is, which was annoying, but she did have interesting things to say about her work and the current condition of industrialised maternity care. I thought it was ridiculous that she promoted the use of castor oil, though, and subscribed to the notion that if you have little to no morning sickness you're having a boy. Sure. Neither I nor my one friend had much nausea at all with our girls and Frances was much worse than me with Josiah.

There was a lot that rubbed me the wrong way, I guess.

12. Meet Josefina, Valerie Tripp. 85pp
I've never read the Josefina books and decided it was time. I just love the artwork and enjoyed the story as well. It's not hard to predict what's going to happen, of course, in future books. Hehe.

13. The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!, Otto L Bettman. 197pp
This was an excellent peek into some of the realities of the Gilded Age: the dirt, the grime, pollution, crime, terrible education systems, blah blah blah. For me it provided a lot of context into why Ellen White was so adamant that the people of God move out of the cities, and why she stressed cleanliness and so forth. Very insightful and written with a humourous style that keeps it from being totally depressing. I also really enjoyed the period illustrations that he used that were caricatures of what the people were dealing with in those days.

14. Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer. 203pp
I've read "Into Thin Air" before, probably 10 or more years ago now, and it impressed me very deeply, so I thought I'd pick up another book by the same author and see how I liked it. Not at all what I was expecting, but interesting. I have a hard time sympathising with the man it's about in many ways. Although I can see a little why he didn't like his dad, I strongly believe nothing is able to be accomplished by hatred/anger in relationships and to just up and disappear seems like a cruel thing to do. It was a sad story for sure.

Year-to-date totals:
Page count for February: 1564
Total page count: 3437
Nonfiction: 11
Juvenile fiction: 2
Juvenile nonfiction: 1
Rereads: 1