Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

5/10

I just finished this book on Sunday and thought that it was ok. It wasn't as funny as I was hoping for. I was hoping for a "Catch-22" or "The Catcher in the Rye" type of funny. It had its moments, but nothing too spectacular for me.

I think my favorite part of the book was the first chapter and the very last page. The first chapter is this interesting little intro type deal where he is explaining how he wants to write this book about Dresden and this discussion he had with an army buddy and the army buddy's wife and it pretty much reveals what the book is going to cover and gives away the end. I thought it was a funny and creative little opener.

The book is bizarre to say the least, but that is what I was expecting and what I signed up for when I selected this book off the shelf. It is about this guy named Billy Pilgrim who is entirely unfit for army duty and is this quiet, unique type that doesn't say much. Oh, and he is a time traveler who re-lives moments of his life past and present, and often travels back to this planet Tralfamadore where he was abducted by aliens. The title of the book comes from the number of the slaughterhouse where Billy and other POW's are kept in Dresden near the end of the war. The funniest part of the book is at the very end (obvious spoiler alert) where the entire city of Dresden is destroyed. This guy named Edgar Derby is one of the few survivors and one of the POW's in Dresden and he gets arrested for taking this teapot that was among the rubble and he is executed by firing squad. Ha ha. The whole underlying theme throughout the book was an anti-war one and how illogical it all is.

Kick Me by Paul Feig

9/10

Paul Feig is the creator of the T.V. show "Freaks and Geeks" which is one of the greatest shows of all time. The character Sam in the show is based largely on Paul Feig.

This book is hilarious. Laugh out loud type hilarity. I read it during my trip to Virginia as we helped Mike drive his cars out there about five years ago. I remember reading one chapter out loud to Mike during the final home stretch and I was laughing so hard while I was trying to read it. Good times. The book is just a collection of different experiences that he had as a geeky youngster. Most of the stories are extremely embarrassing for him, so much so that you wonder why he would want to publish them for the world to see.

My favorite stories were: (1) The one where he was at home alone and decided for some reason to get dressed up in his Mom's clothes. While in such garb, he hears a car crash on his street and sees that it's his parents car, so he runs down the street to the scene of the incident, high heels and all. (2) The one where, for gym class, they have to practice giving CPR to this dummy and he is terrified because of the germs of all these kids mouths all over the dummy. He fakes fainting and the mentally disabled boy in the class then proceeds to attempt CPR on him. (3) The one where he becomes a statistician for the high school football team even though he knows nothing about sports. This is the one I read out loud to Mike. It was just funny hearing his description of the guy in the booth explaining how to keep the stats and how foreign all of it was to him.

If you want to read a book for some good laughs, I recommend this one.

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

8/10

I read this book a handful of years ago in an English class at University. Most of the books we read that semester were quite lame, but I liked this one way more than the others despite the title (yes, I was very embarrassed to ask the cashier at a used book store if she happened to know if they had a copy of a book called "Maps for Lost Lovers").

The author, Nadeem Aslam, who I have never heard of was very good. I really liked his writing style. He was the master of the simile in this book (almost everything he describes is likened to something, and it's awesome).

The book begins with the disappearance of this middle-aged brother and his younger girlfriend. It is presumed that the brothers of the girlfriend did something criminal because the middle-aged brother and the girlfriend were living together romantically without being married and the brothers felt that this was a shame to their family and they must avenge this wrong in the name of honor to their family (that seemed like an incoherent sentence and probably hard to follow, but oh well). Also, I should mention that the families are Muslim and are immigrants living in a largely Muslim community in England, if I remember correctly. The book centers on traditional Muslim beliefs and how damaging it can be to continue to live life in such a way, i.e. honor killings in the name of God, child abuse for those "possessed by devils", etc. The book explores complex relationships between those who are devoutly faithful to the Muslim religion and those that are not but are kind enough to allow such belief and those who are against it entirely. These dynamics are displayed within the main family in the book: the Mom is hardcore Muslim, the Dad is not but lets the Mom do her thing, and most of the kids are quite against it to varying degrees of vocal opposition.

The book was very well done, I thought. The writing was near flawless and there is sympathy to be had for all characters: the immigrant Pakistani Muslims who are often discriminated against by local Brits and for those whose lives are harmed by others who are acting in the name of religion (I think Aslam had an ax to grind in this area and it seemed to be the main theme of the book, at least to me). Plus, it was written in 2003 and qualifies as one of the few books written in this century that I have enjoyed (or probably even read for that matter).

Quotes: (I should have found a sweet example of his simile style in action, but I didn't)

"A lie does not become truth just because ten people are telling it."

"The neighbourhood is a place of...intrigue and emotional espionage, where when two people stop to talk on the street their tongues are like the two halves of a scissor coming together, cutting reputations and good names to shreds." I guess this quote is an example of his simile display.

"She tells herself that she must bear up patiently, that a person is like a tealeaf: drop it into boiling water if you want to see its true colour." Oh, simile again.

"There is nothing that torments Satan more than the sight of a faithful in prayer."

1776 by David McCullough

10/10

I just finished this yesterday. It was a doosy, a humdinger, a ripping good yarn (I'm trying to think of 1776 era expressions).

History was my favorite subject in Middle School. During class, I would look at pictures of maps in my text book that indicated where battles took place and movements of the different armies. I was fascinated with both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. So you could say that this book was right up my alley. I knew that I would like it and it did not disappoint. While I did enjoy my history classes, the teachers really didn't have a chance to go into the kind of depth that I would have enjoyed, and of which I did enjoy with this book. Needless to say, I probably (perhaps sadly) learned more about the Revolutionary War from this book than I did in all my educational history classes. Well, I should say I learned about the mid-1775 to the very beginning of 1777 period (the period that the book covers). I pretty much knew nothing about any of the battles that took place in New York.

McCullough was able to paint some pretty vivid and descriptive pictures. He takes personal letters and journal/diary entries from the men most heavily involved and it brings you right into the heart of the matter, into the very core of this emotional conflict. It was also cool to see such an in depth portrayal of the British army's point of view.

I always knew that the United States were huge underdogs, but, oh boy were they ever. Most of the book shows how undermanned the Americans were. 1776 was a good year for Americans in that it brought about the Declaration of Independence. But it was a terrible year in that the British were pretty much mopping the floor with them during battles. The Americans were pretty much on a constant retreat. They got dominated until the end of the year when the battles of Trenton and Princeton turned the tide of the war.

I was kind of in disbelief as I read about how much courage these men mustered in the face of extreme disappointments and hardships. It was amazing that some of them continued in the cause rather than giving in. I enjoyed how many of these men expressed their feelings of how God is behind them and their fight for liberty. There were many instances where many American lives were saved based on random weather occurrences (fortuitous wind/fog) and they readily attributed such instances to the hand of divine Providence. It was refreshing to read. This country was certainly born and founded by spiritual men who had faith in God. I also learned about some huge American heroes that don't get as much "pub" as they deserve. Nathanael Greene was as much of a hero as anybody in U.S. history, as was Henry Knox. It was nice learning more of George Washington and all that he did and went through. I liked how McCullough didn't paint some rosy picture where all these men were shown to be perfect and flawless. Instead, he talked in great detail of their weaknesses (particularly Washington's indecisiveness), but also showed their remarkable strengths. It was nice to learn of these men and the sacrifices they made for our country.

There is a quote on the back of the book from a guy writing for The Denver Post that I agree with: "Should be required reading in living rooms from coast to coast."

Quotes:

From Washington: "I heard the bullets whistle; and believe me there is something charming in the sound."

Some random clergyman's description of Gen. Lee: "One...which I should have taken for a bear had I seen him in the woods." Ha ha.

Washington: "We must bear up against them, and make the best of mankind as they are, since we cannot have them as we wish."

"That these men found the time, and energy, to write all that they did, given the circumstances, is a wonder, and ought to be acknowledged as another of their great services to their country. Washington, in the time covered by this narrative, from July of 1775 to the first week of 1777, wrote no fewer than 947 letters!"