Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change, by Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert's nonfiction book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe provides an honest, factual and comprehensive look at climate change in today's world. From Alaskan villages to South American jungles, Kolbert details the devastating effects of pollution on today's world - in places where it's already happening. While the book is quite dry for anyone not interested in climate change, it is a crucial and encompassing work that will leave any reader better informed. Kolbert cites a lot of facts and figures in her book, but don't be alarmed if they aren't true - it is five or six years old, so I wouldn't take any of her numbers as fact before checking them yourself. Kolbert interviews many experts on the subject of climate change. She is also very factual when addressing the causes and solutions to many problems, but doesn't shy away from politics either. While many would say that climate change is a "leftist" issue, purported only by fear-mongering Democrats (and yes, Kolbert was a writer for the New York Times), she gives fair recognition to politicians of all stripes. She expresses disappointment at the Bush administration's handle on climate issues, but also praises Senator John McCain for supporting and introducing strong climate legislation in the Senate. She also addresses the arguments of global warming disbelievers, and explains the faults in a respectful but comprehensive way. Among all Kolbert's warnings of future devastation, hope is present. She spends an entire chapter detailing the efforts of Burlington, Vermont to make their town more eco-friendly. This rather large town has worked hard to reduce their carbon emissions by over 175,000 tons in 16 years. Their electricity use has dropped by 1%, while the rest of Vermont has risen by 15% (so a total 16% savings). Her book provides a clear, focused and wide-sweeping look at the effects of climate change (from melting ice sheets to extinct Costa Rican toads), to our future losses, to solutions to the problems facing the next generation. While not quite as passionate as other climate-related books, Field Notes from a Catastrophe is a hard look at our energy future, and the changes that need to be made for our planet, our children and future.

Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet

Born on a Blue Day is the extraordinary true story of a young man who experiences many setbacks in life - besides having Asperger's syndrome, as a young child Daniel suffered from epilepsy. Some scientists have suggested his seizures caused his savant syndrome (think Rain Man), a condition linked to his synethesia (a condition in which numbers, letters and words are perceived as shapes, emotions and colors). Tammet relied heavily on his parents growing up. He was sensitive to loud noises, certain textures, and had a difficult time learning. They helped him in whatever way they could to make his life more comfortable. He had a difficult time brushing his teeth, hating the sound and sensation. As a teenager and adult, shaving was incredibly difficult. Daniel socialized mainly with his many brothers and sisters. They aided in his care, and he learned how to work in groups, compromise, and problem-solve. However, he still could not make friends at school. He sat by himself at recess time, and played with his imaginary friend, an older woman named Anne. When he did make friends, he lost them quickly with annoying behaviors, such as standing very close to them, not making conversation or even feigning interest in their hobbies. He was different from the other children in many ways, and knew their experience of life was vastly different from his own. Interestingly, he suggests this helped him as a young adolescent, discovering he was gay. It did not bother him as much as other children - he already knew he was different, and had come to terms with it. After graduating high school, Daniel really didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. Instead of going to college, he travelled abroad to Lithuania as a volunteer English teacher. There, he discovered his speed language-learning abilities, and got in touch with other gay couples to learn more about himself as a person. Upon returning to the U.S., Daniel met his current partner online, which taught him more about himself and depending upon another person. After meeting and eventually moving in with Neil, he had a difficult time finding a job - something apparently not unique among individuals with autism. Using Neil's skills as a software developer, Daniel developed a language-learning software online. Today, he still operates the software, but has written several books and been involved with the production of a documentary. He describes how he learns and views language, and includes information on different studies and scientific discoveries regarding how people learn language. He also talks about his own language, the one he invented. Daniel describes the process he went through learning the digits of pi - to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation, he learned and recited over 22,500 numbers. After this amazing feat, a documentary crew contacted him, looking to make a documentary (Brainman) about savant syndrome. Daniel travelled all over the world, met scientists and researchers, and Kim Peek - the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's character Rain Man. This led to his book and an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He also describes briefly his journey to Christianity, before ending the autobiography with, "Everyone is said to have a perfect moment once in a while.... I imagine these moments as fragments or splinters scattered across a lifetime. If a person could somehow collect them all up and stick them together he would have a perfect hour or even a perfect day....he would be closer to the mystery of what it is to be human. It would be like having a glimpse of heaven."

Tammet's memoir is profound, touching, moving and thought-provoking. It provides a glimpse into one of today's most extraordinary minds and a unique perspective on a life most of us take for granted.

Details and resources:

http://www.optimnem.co.uk/

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Free Press (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416549013
ISBN-13: 978-1416549017

I'm a Stranger Here Myself, by Bill Bryson

I found myself lacking things to read this past week, so I picked up this book that I bought a few months ago. I read Bryson's A Walk in the Woods about two years ago and loved it. This story is a collection of the column Bryson got suckered into writing by a friend of his about moving back to America from a different country (namely, Britain). However, the America he knew as a child was gone. In its place was an America that held frozen breakfast pizza and 24/7 floss hotlines. While he sings the praises of certain parts of American culture (antique diners, baseball, etc), he sheds his own personal brand of hilarious light on others. His columns are mostly funny - I remember a specific one making fun of the vast and complex U.S. tax form - but he does tackle serious issues. For example, he writes a column about parting with his first child as his son goes to college, and others regarding political issues. His simple observations about life are hilarious and all-too-true. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good laugh or an outsiders look in at our own country.

Overall: 9 out of 10.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Broadway (June 6, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 076790382X
ISBN-13: 978-0767903820

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith

Betty Smith's classic novel tells the story of a young girl growing up in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. Her heroine, Francie Nolan, survives a childhood of extreme poverty and successfully transitions from adolescence to a working, collegebound adult. This coming-of-age story is replete with symbolism - from Francie's loss of innocence to her growing up and maturing into an individual. Smith uses beautiful language to describe the neighborhood Francie grows up in, and paints a beautiful picture of what it was like to grow up in troubled times - as the big cities exploded with progress and moved from the steam engine age to the industrial age, as WWI erupted, as Francie's poor Brooklyn neighborhood filled with immigrants, intertwined with classic growing-up themes - puberty, first heartbreak, rebellion and a little girl too young to absorb the grown-up world around her. Although Smith's book was long, there were no unnecessary scenes, and she insinuates plenty to ensure you are aware of the adult world Francie Nolan is forced to grow up in - from her Aunt Sissy, a "bad girl", to the stoning of a neighborhood woman who "got in trouble". Francie's life is also filled with strong female role models like her aunt Sissy - her mother, grandmother and two aunts are described as being made of "invisible steel" and often overshadow the men in their lives. Francie grows into one of these woman as she gradually gains her mother's respect and equality as a woman, and revisits her childhood as an adult. Great novel, I wasn't bored for a minute.

Overall: 10 out of 10.

Details:

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (May 30, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061120073
ISBN-13: 978-0061120077

Cirque du Freak, by Darren Shan

Let me make clear before I begin that I do not just review adult or nonfiction books, I also do fiction and young adult books. This is a reread of a book I read probably two or three years ago, and I'm going to review the series (although I only have a few books, so I will not be reviewing all of them).

Summary: Cirque du Freak is a fiction book about a boy who wins a ticket to an illegal freak show.

What I liked (spoilers forthcoming): The voice is real, and Shan's writing style stays true throughout the book. When Darren "died", I liked that he made clear how hard it was to leave his home and family. I liked that he reacted like a real person.

What I did not like: It was very short. I did not like his selfless attitude throughout parts of the book (although he was plenty selfish at some points). I also didn't like that he didn't react enough like a real person when he found out about vampires and such. The dialogue was also nothing to write home about.

Overall: I would give it a 4 out of 10.

Alternative reivew:

Publishers Weekly:

With strong sales overseas and a movie deal in the works, book one in The Saga of Darren Shan series is poised to capture a wide audience of series horror readers. After a rather slow buildup, a boy with the same name as the author sneaks out with best friend Steve to an illicit freak show, and his life becomes entangled with a vampire spider-wrangler, Mr. Crepsley. "This is a true story," writes Shan. "In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins." The scenario is compelling, and the author mines the exploitative history of early 20th-century sideshows to create an artfully macabre "Cirque du Freak." But Darren's actions are often undermotivated: "I can't explain why Madam Octa [the spider] meant so much to me, or why I was placing my life in such danger to have her. Looking back, I'm no longer sure what drove me on." Also his intermittent attraction to and repulsion by the vampire is never fully explored. His behavior may be explained in the sequel, The Vampire's Assistant (due in Sept.), but the open ending leaves so many loose ends that readers may leave more frustrated than intrigued, especially since the characters' wooden dialogue drains them of personality ("I'm upset," says Steve. "It hurt, what Mr. Crepsley said, and you ignoring me at school... If you break up our friendship, I don't know what I'll do"). Readers interested in boys becoming vampires would be better served by M.T. Anderson's Thirsty and those fascinated with freaks by Iain Lawrence's Ghost Boy. Ages 10-up.


Book details:

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 254 KB
Print Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (August 1, 2008)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B000SESJ0Q

The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold, by Gretel Ehrlich

Being a rainy day, and having finished my schoolwork for the year, I had plenty of time to sit down and read.

Summary: The Future of Ice was not a climate change education book, like I thought. Rather, it was a record of Ehrlich's travels, from Tierra del Fuego to the frozen Rockies to a Nordic island near the North Pole.

What I liked: Ehrlich is also a poet, and that really comes through in her words. She has a beautiful vocabulary and each sentence flows, like poetry. Her descriptiveness painted a beautiful picture of these places, making them come alive even for those of us not fortunate enough to be able to go there.

What I did not like: Ehrlich's poetic background is quite apparent, including in the bad ways. She uses her metaphorical speaking even when talking about scientific facts, which somewhat bothered me and made it a little difficult to read. She droned a bit as well, and I often found myself checking the page numbers to determine how much more I had to read before I could be done.

Overall: I would give it a 6 out of 10.

Alternative reivew:

Publishers Weekly

In this lyrical meditation on deep cold and its potential demise through global warming, Ehrlich (The Solace of Open Spaces; This Cold Heaven) backpacks among the glaciers of the southern Andes, winters in a Wyoming cabin and sails with the research ship Noorderlicht to the Greenland ice pack. Her prose is as sharply observed as poetry and nearly as compressed, and her narrative favors short scenes as fragmented as the breaking ice sheets she encounters. Though it occasionally dips into underpowered assertion ("We're spoiled because we've been living in an interglacial paradise for twenty thousand years"), it often soars to the sublime ("We are made of weather and our thoughts stream from the braid work of stillness and storms"). Ehrlich includes plenty of facts (the area covered by glaciers has diminished by 75% since 1850; increased meltwater from Greenland may actually make Europe colder), but her book is less about science than about sensation: loneliness and the relentless circling of the snowed-in mind; the rumbling of a glacier as its azure ice crumbles away; the whistling, ululating calls of the bearded seal. It does not lay out the workings of global warming nor attempt to provide blueprints for how to rescue what we are losing. It stands, instead, as a passionate elegy to what is melting away.

Book details:

Paperback: 224 pages
Hardcover: 201 pages
Publisher: Vintage (November 8, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400034353
ISBN-13: 978-1400034352