Monthly Archives: January 2010

While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family by Kathryn Harrison

On the night of April 27, 1984, an 18-year-old named Billy Gilley Jr. beat both his sleeping parents to death with a baseball bat.  When his 11-year-old sister came to investigate, he beat her so that she later died.  He then went to his 16-year-old sister, Jody, told her they were free and demanded that she leave their small Oregon town with him.  They didn’t get far…

Disturbing to say the least.  Interesting story.  But again, here’s a book where the author has inserted a personal story that I think has absolutely no relevance to the story being told.   The psychology of survival and recovery of the two surviving children was fascinating.

The Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Disaster of 1917 by Laura M. MacDonald

Unimaginable.  A serious of events, all of which could have probably been avoided, but added up to one of the most horrific and destructive accidents labeled as what legend holds to be the most powerful manmade detonation before the testing of the atomic bomb in 1945.  The author of this history book has done her due diligence and this book is beautifully executed.  The most amazing part of this story is not the accident itself, but what happens in the aftermath.   If you have any interest at all in history, naval operations, crowd psychology, munitions, human nature, World War I, chemistry, the history of the Red Cross or… hell, this is a good book, you should just read it.

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

SNOOZE.  BORING. 

I’m seeing a trend.  Write a book  (subject is irrelevant) and insert a personal story that you reference throughout the book that has nothing to do with the actual book you are writing but you JUST CAN’T HELP YOURSELF because you are the author and everyone must want to know ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE.  Ugh. 

Others absolutely love this book (Hi C!) so if it seems interesting to you, by all means, read it.  You might love it.  It just irritated the hell out of me.

(Though I do want to read A.J. Jacobs’ new book about being a guninea pig…)

Godless by Dan Barker

This book gets very high ratings, and shocker! I don’t agree at all with the popular opinion.  Once a preacher, always a preacher – it’s like an addiction for him.   He doesn’t know how to stop.  I don’t care what your message is, if you are talking down to people like everyone is an idiot then I get tired of it pretty quickly.  Half of the book was an advertisement for his Freedom from Religion Foundation, which he found a way to mention in literally every other sentence (he needs converts!) and the other half of the book was spent disproving the bible.    I don’t care what your personal views on religion are, don’t bother with this book.