Born Weird - Andrew Kaufman

An intriguing premise with a false promise on the cover; a review said that the unbelievable was wrapped up satisfactorily in the end, so I persevered. Well it wasn't exactly the ending that was promised but the ride was decent enough. Toronto references were also fun to envision. By no means extraordinary it was an easy-drinking read.

4
Nov 2014

A Nation Worth Ranting About - Rick Mercer

The beauty of these books is that after years of 22 Minutes and RMR I can now read the rants in my head and hear Rick's voice. He really gets to the crux of matters in these concise, poignant pieces on all matters of things - politics, culture, human-nature. A good book can give you an escape, while a great read inspires. In the introduction everyone is encouraged to rant and the subsequent pages made me want to do just that (in a positive way!)

8
August-September 2014

Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates - Tom Robbins

Not only is the title a mouthful but the entire text is rather verbose. Although it is wordy some strings of those words are enlightening, some amusing for their outrageousness while others are simply hilarious. I savoured this book in that it had the battiness of Vonnegut while commonly dropping nuggets of real wisdom. Over the course of the book it was easy to "get to know" the protagonist through his outspoken rants - a man I can't help but think is an extension of the author himself. I'd only read B is For Beer (a children's book for grown-ups/a grown-up book for children) and it really didn't do Mr. Robbins justice. The beauty is that there is so much more back-catalog to dig into. Going to curl up in a blanket..

9
Nov-Dec 2014

Luminous Airplanes - Paul La Farge

Despite the name it never really took off. I could identify to a degree as the main character, an IT tech, was sorting through some conflicted feelings with work, living situation and life. His brooding was an interesting peek into his thoughts, though the sorting through the past didn't always go anywhere worthwhile. One of those journeys that doesn't really have a particular conflict or resolution - the only interesting event that occurred during the book then got dropped and not really further explained. Well-written but a little disappointing after the initial promise.

5
September 2014

It's All About the Bike - Robert Penn

I wasn't so sure what this would be about (the bike! the bike!) but found it was a quick read that give some interesting background info about the creation and evolution of biking. Each component got a chapter to share the history and often a human-aspect of meeting someone who had devoted their life to that part. The only unfortunate part was that it made me want to actually have a really good bike; the one he built during the book ran him $5500 which doesn't seem so bad..

August 2014

7

The White King - Gyorgy Dragoman

This book is graphic without getting gruesome. Life under a horrid dictatorship is relayed through the eyes (and Hungarian to English translated, run-on sentences) of a young boy which allows for a genuine and naive look at terrible things that can easily be deciphered by the educated. Each disparate chapter encapsulated an important situation fraught with tension but when pieced together as a whole revealed the offensive truth. It still has me reeling.

September 2014
8.5

Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat - Hal Herzog

This book nicely walks through a lot of the contentious issues regarding human thinking about animals. It presents an open-minded view, sometimes a little more open than I would like from the omnivorous author, and backs most things up with scientific research in an easily digested form. Beyond that he also gets into the philosophical and compares a few of the leading views, pointing out inconsistencies in each and essentially reiterating the point that there are inconsistencies that are nearly impossible to practically avoid. The section about cockfighting was eye-opening as was the long reflection about scientific research on animals. Even the personal accounts made for interesting scenarios and hypotheticals to reflect upon.

September 2014
6