34: Bossypants

Bossypants, by Tina Fey, is the absolutely hilarious autobiography by one of my favorite comediennes ever. I absolutely love Tina Fey, and we watch 30 Rock religiously, and were big SNL fans when she was on.

It’s hard to review this book. It’s hilarious, it’s so entertaining and it’s just so HER. It’s hectic, funny and awesome wrapped up and presented neatly. You can hear her sarcasm and funny sayings coming through the book and I really enjoyed some of the “behind the scenes” stuff that she talks about with SNL and Lorne Michaels.

I give this book an 8/10. I really enjoyed it. I finished it in 2 nights, which is quick (especially lately…). I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good and funny book.

30: My Fair Lazy

My Fair Lazy, One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover if Not Being A Dumb Ass is the New Black; Or, A Culture-Up Manifesto, by Jen Lancaster, is about her desire to make herself a better person through wine tastings, operas and other “cultural” activities.

Full Disclosure: I like Jen Lancaster. I think she’s funny, I read her blog and I follow her on twitter. I loved her first book and have laughed at each of her subsequent ones. However, I feel like her books are forgettable. I like them, but they don’t stay with me. And I’m okay with that. They entertain me, make me laugh and then? I put them away and dive into something else.

Anyway, I liked this one. It was cute, and made me think about things that I make fun of, mainly because I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT. Heh. Maybe I should try once in a while!

In the spirit of Jen, I ordered a wine tasting date night for Jeff and I… I’ll keep you all posted as we try wine that costs more than $4.99 a bottle J

I give this one a 7/10. Not her best, but enjoyable nonetheless.

22: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Relin is the story of an American man who wanted to give back to the Pakistan community who helped him heal after an unsuccessful summit of K2, and, in thanks to them for their kindness, he offered to come back and build a school. The book focuses on his work now, not as much on the mountain climbing part, and focuses a lot on the operations in his business now.

The book’s title comes from the Baltinese saying, "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a strange, the second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." The traditions of the Balti were amazing and the snippet about the old man reading the Koran, but turned out he could not read had me thinking for days about how comforting our religions can be to us. 

However, I found this book hard to read. It was confusing and not well-written, in my opinion (a quick look at Amazon’s almost perfect reviews of this book tells me I am in the minority here). I wanted to know more about the schools, the students, the curriculum, and not as much on the operations part. I didn’t like how the book ended, I feel like he was being hateful to people who initially kind of backed away from financing his project. 

I’ll admit. I had pangs of thoughts while reading this book where I thought, “he should be helping AMERICANS. Not foreigners set against us.” But. There is truth when he talks about how terror comes from not being educated, and how in helping educate these rural children, whose only options for education often come from the Taliban, I supported his project more.

I don’t know if I see this business (CIA) being operational once Mortenson steps down. He tends to run it all alone, and while its working right now, when he’s unable or unwilling to run it, I wonder if anyone will step in. I also have to wonder how his wife can stand this. He’s gone for 4-5 months at a time, and yet htye have two small children and live in Montana. She must be more understanding than I would be!

I give this book a solid 6/10, but I just didn’t love it. I found it hard to read, very detailed focused and way too over-written. It’s good, but I think it could have been a lot better.

14: Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, by Piper Kerman, is the story of a girl who gets put in jail for a year on a ten-year old drug related charge that she performed in college. At the time she’s put on trial, she’s a professional woman and not the same twenty-year-old who ran a suitcase of drugs for a “friend” across international borders. The book showcases Piper’s days in jail, and the relationships (not that kind!) that form when women band together.

I liked this book. It reads like a blog, and I like those, so this was just good reading. It wasn’t super engaging. Good, but forgettable. I think I expected more at the end… it just kind of ends. No wrap up of whether she keeps in touch with friends, no discussion on how she’s doing now, no talk on how her year behind bars affected her relationships with her parents, her fiancé and her friends (who all came to visit her weekly). I think her experienced was probably different than many people’s experiences in jail. Piper came from a wealthy family, she had as much money as she wanted to spend in jail, she was already a healthy person, so she did her yoga and ran her 10 miles (allegedly a day, but I find that hard to believe!) and she tried to eat healthy. She knew she was only in there for a short period of time and not ten years like some of the women she met.

Those criticisms aside, it is a good book. It’s fast-paced. It doesn’t drag. It’s easy to pick up and easy to put down. I give it a 7/10.

7: Columbine

Columbine, by Dave Cullen, is a nonfiction book about its title. It is not funny. It is not uplifting. It is not meant to make you feel better. It is meant to make you think. And I loved it. 

This book challenged every single stereotype that I thought about Columbine. That the boys were bullied, that they were in the Trench Coat Mafia, that they purposely shot jocks. None of that is true. What is true is that these two boys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, had the makings of what was a true criminal dyad together. Both of their mental illnesses, combined with high school angst, equaled a terrible combination.

I didn’t realize how deadly Columbine COULD have been. Yes, it was terrible and awful, but if the bombs that were planted had exploded? It would have been a 9/11 level of terror. It would have taken out the entire school and most of the rescue workers. Thank GOD they did not explode. Thank God. THANK GOD.

Every time there is a school shooting, a mass tragedy, anything involving a child, I think about the parents. How devastated they must be, but how they cannot voice their sadness, because other people’s sadness trumps theirs, in some awful, “Who Has It Worse” game.

This book made my heart race remembering those awful moments, where we watched, as a world, people fighting for life, people already gone and kids traumatized forever. I think this should be required reading for anyone who works with kids. It’s enlightening in that sometimes? You just don’t know. Eric Harris was a mastermind of mind control and had convinced everyone he was sane. However, his journals, his tapes, his behaviors, all point to classic psychopath. And Cullen presents everything with a perfect voice. Nothing is left out (except for pictures, which I appreciated) and nothing is sensationalized. It’s the truth – all the ugly truth – laid out for everyone to read.

2: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is written by Rebecca Skloot. 

Full Disclosure: I read very little nonfiction. However, this was recommended to me by that handy algorithm at Amazon and I snapped it up and WHOA. I am so glad I did.

This story talks about the life of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cells were harvested without her consent or knowledge and grown around the world in petri dishes. The family never knew, she died shortly after the cells were harvested, and the story deals with a reporter talking with the family about the cells and trying to find out more about their mother.

I really enjoyed the book. I don’t completely understand the author’s purpose – was the family wanting money? Is the author giving money to the family from the proceeds of her book? Were they just wanting answers? The part that interested me the most dealt with the oldest daughter, who died in a mental institution (you understand it to be at the hands of someone) and was actually, not mentally insane, but just deaf. But, you never get the whole story – it leaves you hanging in that area. 

However, I really enjoyed this book. It flowed well, I liked the science parts and I enjoyed reading about the family today. I highly recommend this book. I give it an 8/10.