Shampoo Planet - Douglas Coupland

Despite the story not really having a beginning, middle or end, Shampoo Planet carried itself as Coupland has proven his stories can. Basically popping into the life of an ambitious young small-city American guy with a hard bent for everything hot and modern it had ample opportunity to reflect on life and growing up (and even some love and relationships). Not relying on any gimmicks that Coupland has employed otherwise, besides the long lists of modern conveniences and fascination with human-made items, it was a fairly straightforward novel.

It did include this marvelous quote:
She is like a cheetah in the zoo, which has lived a comfortable life but has never run fast like nature intended her to. Okay, the cheetah is alive, but, so what?

September/October 2012
6

Kill Your Friends - John Niven

A vulgar orgy of drugs, obscenities, racism, alcohol abuse, and well, orgies all in the context of the late '90s music industry scene. The insight into the industry was intriguing while the first-person narrative's seemingly unending litany of offensive comments was disgusting and offensive (yet well-written). Something compelled me to push through - there must be something worthwhile here - yet the legal drama did not take any bigger importance in the latter half of the book and the storyline continued to be carried almost solely on an ongoing list of abuses to himself and other. The desired comeuppance never came and no lessons were learned. The interview with the author indicate that this was a fairly accurate glimpse into big music which is rather disgusting if true.

September 2012
5

Haiku - Andrew Vachss

An interesting perspective being told from the point of view of a homeless man. Not only that but a recovering narcissist to boot. Plenty of in-his-mind revelations that were intriguing in addition to the mini heist that the story revolved around. Enough to keep me entertained though perhaps not enthralled.

August 2012
6

Beatrice & Virgil - Yann Martel

An odd premise for a book that seemed to rush the introduction only to meander through the remainder. Saying something through a different medium to allow for it to be more easily digestible is a tricky one that I rarely enjoy and this didn't really turn the tables on this stance. Here the criticisms that the narrator levels at the playwright within the novel can obviously be turned on this book itself; the whole thing is somewhat meta. Based on the worthwhile twist rendered in Life of Pi I saw this one through to the end but it didn't quite redeem it. There was some resolution yet I didn't feel it was worth the build up. The Games for Gustav that appended the story were rather effective however - kudos for tackling the subject matter at least.

July/August 2012
4

Border Run - Simon Lewis

Brokedown Palace (movie) mashed with The Beach and A Simple Plan told from a main character narrative that could have been me.  Not groundbreaking but super entertaining and thrilling - I finished the book within two days. It didn't really end happily or to a full conclusion yet it still felt satisfactory. Love that plausible situation that just spirals out of control despite relatively sound decisions at most junctures.

July 2012

8.5

Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer

A well-written and thoughtful account of the state of the modern animal-for-consumption system. The book does not beat you over the head with arguments but allows the truth to speak for itself. A broad spectrum of related topics are covered to reveal a disgusting picture of factory farming. Opinions from all sides of the system are represented fairly and in many cases directly in their own words. Yet even with these defenses represented the conclusions that stem from the chapters are so obvious that it impressed upon me that the only way people can continue to support this industry is through ignorance. The question of whether this ignorance is due to the industry keeping the public in the dark or the public not wanting to know is touched upon but is really another debate altogether.

My biggest criticism of Eating Animals is that it is not called Eating-Animals-and-their-By-products. Jonathan reveals all of the injustice the animals endure, the environmental atrocities that factory farms commit, the high risk for breeding human diseases under factory farming conditions and all of the other terrible side effects of factory farming yet still inherently supports them by choosing to be vegetarian instead of vegan. The eggs, dairy and all other animal by-products that are excluded from a vegan's diet are usually produced via the exact same methods that Foer rails against throughout the book. In fact, his own facts and numbers say just that. For him to make such a stand yet come short of adopting, and in effect advocating, a vegan diet is inexplicable. As in literally inexplicable - since this shortfall is not discussed or explained even when he speaks of maintaining a purely vegetarian diet even if non-factory farmed meat sources are available. The same could, and in my opinion, should be said about choosing vegan options especially when the alternatives are factory-farmed (and even when they are not, for similar reasons). The parallel between the omnivore vs. vegetarian debate and the vegetarian vs. vegan debate is completely obvious and now that I am firmly aware of the realities (having read this book) I can not in good conscience ignore it.

Eating Animals is a vegetarian's dream in that it is well-researched and presents the facts and figures in an easy-to-translate way. If you ever needed an aid to defending your diet to ignorant omnivores, this is it.

This book should be a mandatory read for every single person who will have to make the choice of whether to raise an animal in horrendous, disease-breeding conditions, slaughter them in unsupervised and often ineffective and painful ways and then ingest them simply for taste. That means everyone should read this book.

9
May 2012

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt

The story was engaging and had me flipping through it as I was quite intrigued. What will become of the brothers? What is the major conflict going to be? Will the curse come to fruition? What is with this magic that keeps being hinted at?
However the payoff in the end was somewhat of a letdown, not simply because of the turnout but even the unveiling was fairly lackluster.

6.5
May 2012