A Terrible Glory (and some others)

Quite a while ago, my Aunt Nancy suggested that I write about the books I read on my blog. I love to read, and my taste in books is a eclectic (though it tends to run toward non-fiction, historical stuff), so maybe you'll find something interesting in here. I read almost everything on my Kindle, too, so I'll probably add some Kindle-specific stuff in these kinds of posts.

The last book I read on my Kindle was A Terrible Glory, by James Donovan (mentioned in a previous post). I very much enjoyed it, although it does run long so if you're not interested in this kind of history then you might look for something more condensed. The treatment of Custer's demise is pretty cursory, but when you think about it there isn't much to be done about that; nobody in his regiment lived to tell the tale, so we're all a bit light on the details. The book was filled up with all kinds of interesting insight into the life and times of Custer, Sitting Bull, Inkpaduta, and Crazy Horse. Thumbs up.

Here's a quick summary of the other books I've read on my Kindle since I bought it, and what I thought of them:

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold: Excellent novel; thumbs way up.

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, by Naomi Wolf: Scary, but a must-read. Thumbs up.

The Ruins, by Scott Smith: A page-turner, as horror novels often are, by an author with a good track record, but... strange. Thumbs up, but maybe in a read-this-on-a-rainy-day-just-for-something-light kind of way.

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely: Very cool book about the irrational behaviors we all display when we make various decisions. Lots of "oh yeah, I do that" throughout. Thanks for the recommendation, Enoch. Thumbs up.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson. Excellent book, just the kind of thing I really like, and I couldn't recommend it more highly. Two thumbs way up.

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust. I really thought I was going to like this one, but I just can't say that I did. While it was interesting in spots, I thought it was repetitive, and I thought there was something of an attempt to inject profundity into something that just wasn't that profound. Thumbs sort-of-down.

Dangerous Laughter: 13 Stories, by Steven Millhauser: Delightful book, start to finish. Highly recommend it. Two thumbs up.

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam. Very enjoyable book, but here's one where the Kindle falls down a bit. Most of the illustrations (which are kind of important in this book) were a little hard to see, although the author did a much better job of getting the artwork into the Kindle than some others have been able to do. And, when I emailed Dan to suggest making a laminated copy of his codex available on his website, I got no reply. So, with the caveat about the illustrations, thumbs up.

Undertow, by Elizabeth Bear: The rare sci-fi/fantasy entry, and I kind of liked it. Thumbs up.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, and Others Die, by Chip and Dan Heath. Great all the way through. Thumbs up.

The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan: I learned so much from this book about the Great American Dustbowl that I was able to look past some of the oddities in the narrative (like simultaneously asserting that there was no food to be had and that there was a huge surplus of crops). Fascinating stuff about a huge, man-made disaster right in our own backyards. Thumbs up.

Duma Key: A Novel, by Stephen King: Well, you can tell it's a Stephen King novel, because it was a page-turner (told you about those horror novels); I remember staying up awfully late one night to finish this one. Beware of the usual Stephen King swerve-into-goofiness. Thumbs up.

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote: So? I never read it before! Liked it. Thumbs up.

Pontoon, by Garrison Keilor: The guy is just a genius. Thumbs up.

Got Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens: Excellent work by a very bright author. I would think this book would be more approachable than Sam Harris's phenomenal End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason for most people, so if you're ready to be a little less dogmatic this is a great place to start. Two thumbs way up.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls. Very enjoyable. Thumbs up.

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't, by Stephen Prothero. And it tells you why we don't, which is interesting all by itself. I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it; eye-opening, really. Dr. Prothero answers his email very politely and thoughtfully, too. Two thumbs up.

Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Fun! Thumbs up.

No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy. Didn't turn out at all like I thought it would (which is good!), but extremely well written and engrossing. Thumbs up.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer. It's telling that I bet you can't tell from the title alone which faith this book is about. A head-shaker. I learned a lot from this book. Thumbs up.

I Am America (And So Can You!), by Stephen Colbert: Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end. The illustrations were just about useless on the Kindle, though, which was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, two thumbs way up for this first book I ever read on my Kindle.

Quarantine, by Jim Crace: A Booker prize finalist, and a really great novel. Thumbs up.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds: Spectacular. Don't get the Kindle edition (I don't even think you can), as the book is just too beautifully done. Everybody who does presentations should read this, and we should work out a system of fines for those presenters who don't. Two thumbs way up.

Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL, by Dean Allemang and Jim Hendler. A much-needed practical book by two talented authors which should help us get Semantic Web technologies and techniques put to use a bit faster. (Not a Kindle book just yet). Thumbs up.

OK, that's pretty much it. There will be more.