Belated Vacation Book Reviews

A couple of weeks ago I went on vacation and took 4 books to read.  Normally, 4 books in 5 days wouldn't be a big deal, but this vacation also involved lots of drifting off for a nap while lounging beachside, so...two weeks later, I've still only finished 2 1/2, but I'm going to go ahead and review the two I've finished.

1. The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost.  Yes, it does have an unfortunate title.  And as I think back on the book, I don't think that was even addressed much, maybe like for a page.  A better title might have been "Bathroom Habits on an Atoll."  This book takes place on an itty bitty teensy tiny bit of land smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I work at a missions agency, so there are maps all over the place.  I was looking for Kiribati and Tarawa on the map when a coworker walked up and asked "why are just staring at the Pacific Ocean?"  There's nothing there but these tiny dots of land.  It's really kind of freaky to think about.  And to read about.  Troost does a great job of explaining living on a tropical island, existing in a 3rd world country, going native as well as coming back to the US after that.  And seriously, he also spends a fair amount of time addressing what you do with all the crap (literally) generated by one of the most densely populated specks of land in the word which lacks any type of plumbing.  I'd just read a friend's Masters project on clean water and so I was actually particularly interested in how this book addressed issues with waste, clean water, and foreign aid.  I'm just beginning to understand some of the ways that foreign aid has done a huge disservice to developing nations and this book was very informative in that regard.  While I still prefer his book Lost On Planet China, I do think that anyone who's lived or traveled through a third world country is going to find much to identify with here.  Future missionaries, be warned, you'll get glimpses of what is to come.  All in all, an interesting read, though.

P.S.  It also does address WWII and the toll it took on the islands.  After reading Unbroken (see review here) and having my eyes opened to so much more of what the war was like for Americans in the Pacific theater and particularly in Japan, it was another eye opening experience to be confronted with the immense toll these wars took on the tiny Pacific islands who had no stake in this war at all.

2. Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins.  This was my "airplane" or "beach" book.  Totally light and fluffy (and of course, the first book I read).  It seemed particularly apropos on my vacation with high school friends as it was about the girl who was kind of an outsider in high school and how she finally confronts that as an adult (and "that" means mostly the boy who broke her heart).  It was an entertaining read that actually dealt with some big issues - adoption, anxiety attacks, widowhood, single parenting, consequences of sexual promiscuity in high school.  Ok, that makes it sound super serious or totally melodramatic which it wasn't, just a relatively light book that dealt with big topics in a fairly real way.  I will have to say that it was a bit, well, lusty.  Not that it was graphic or explicit, just that the characters seemed more motivated by "lust" than "like" at times which was a little off-putting.  Not bad for a beach read (I've definitely read worse), but not my new favorite, either.  

First Thing I Pack

As I previously mentioned how much I enjoy reading, it should come as no surprise that the first thing I think about when packing for a trip is which books I'll bring.  Last year I was able to go on several "reading" vacations.  These are vacations where the point is relaxation and the destination usually involves a body of water and lounge chairs.  Last year I was so blessed with this type of vacation that I was able to read the Hunger Games trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, gigantic Pillars of the Earth, The Help,  and probably a handful of other books I can't recollect at the moment.  This year, I've read World Without End on vacation.  That's it.  One lonely (1,000 page) book.  I've had amazing vacations this year, but they've been city vacations.  The point of going to Baltimore, DC, and New York is not so much to relax as it is to do everything you possibly can.  Super fun, but less than restful.

So you can imagine that I am beyond excited that my last 3 precious, hoarded vacation days are going to a beach vacation (apologies to my family who will be seeing me for four days instead of seven at Christmas - this is so needed, though!).  I have had my stack of books set aside on my bedside table for close to a week now.  There are four books, roughly one for each day.  And here they are...

1. Until There Was You.  Sigh.  I'm a little embarrassed that this one is in top.  This is my book version of a romantic comedy.  Light, funny, you know how it will end, not terribly edifying in anyway.  This type of book is what I call my "airplane book".  A page turner that still keeps things light and isn't (hopefully) going to get dry or boring.  When traveling, I generally like a book that helps me lose track of all time.  I think this stems from all of those horrendous 24 hours trips to and from Asia.  This book is about a guy and a girl who had some kind of heartbreak saga thing in high school (imagine that?) and are reunited years later surround by pretty New England, quirky family, and a dog.  We'll see how it goes.

2.  Olive Kitteridge is a book that a friend has been recommending to me for years and I'm finally getting around to reading.  It's a Pulitzer Prize winner; however, after watching Newsies again last weekend, I'm not sure how much a fan of that Mr. Pulitzer I am.  From what I can gather it's a collection of stories about one woman (Olive) who lives in Maine with her family.  The stories are told from the perspective of people around her so we get to see her through many different lenses.  That could be totally off base.  I'll let you know how it goes.

3.  The Sex Lives of Cannibals has a really ridiculous name, I'll admit.  Earlier this year my boss gave me a book on CD by the same author (J. Maarten Troost).  The book was called Lost on Planet China and after two weeks of forgetting it on my desk at work, I finally put it in the CD player.  And from that point on I wanted to drive everywhere and never ever car pool so that I could keep listening to this book.  It was dead on about China, such a pitch perfect take on how a foreigner feels and what a foreigner experiences in China (at least this foreigner).  So he's written a couple of other books, and I thought I'd like to get his take on other places since I know he speaks with a voice I appreciate.  He spent two years living on South Pacific islands and this book is about that time.  Very much looking forward to diving into this one.

4. Matched is a YA book (that's young adult, ya'll, look how good I am with the library slang).  It's planned to be a trilogy and it wants to be Hunger Games so bad you can practically taste it.  We'll see how it measures up. I'm increasingly becoming a fan of YA lit as it lacks many of the qualities I dislike in contemporary adult literature: moral ambiguity, relativism, and no happy ending.  YA lit still seems to have some of these basic ingredients.  For instance, there are generally values, some concept of right and wrong, and if not a gloriously happy resolution, then something that begins to at least look in the same direction.  Please note: I realize these are gross generalizations.  I'm just saying that on the whole I find myself more drawn to these types of stories than a lot of the contemporary adult lit out there today.  I do realize that I've told you exactly nothing that's actually informative about the book, but I can't quite exactly remember (and it's upstairs and I'm sick, enough said).  Basically, some kind of future society where the government arranges your marriage.  I imagine the teenagers aren't going to take that for too long.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Reading Recommendation: Unbroken

I LOVE reading!  When I was a kid I would curl up on this big wingback chair by the front window and read for hours.  My younger sister used to make me repeat whatever she said to me because she'd tell me she was going to a friend's house and I'd have no idea where she was when Mom came home and asked after her.  Anyway...

Unbroken by Laren Hillenbrand (the chick who wrote Seabiscuit) is one of the very best books I've read, ...like maybe ever.  If you like the Olympics, history, cocky guys who get saved, airplanes, Hollywood, love stories, survival stories, war stories, buddy stories, incredibly well written books or if you have grandparents who were alive or fought in WWII, then this book has something for you.  I'd seen reviews when it was released around Christmas of last year so I immediately added my name to the request list at my local public library which means that I actually got to read Unbroken 6 months.  There was one brief moment where I thought I might win a copy in a raffle at work, but no.

I'd heard it was an interesting read and I have a grandfather who flew planes over the Pacific in WWII so I was excited to get a little glimpse into what his world might have been like (he passed away in 2007 and I so wish I could have asked him the questions I had after reading this book, but Grandma's been great).  I was immediately swept away by Hillenbrand's writing style.  She's so. stinking. good.  As previously mentioned, I've read a lot of books.  Some have had great writing and some have been... well, the Twilight series (I read all 4.  Seriously.  This writing is NOTHING like that writing).  This is really some of the best written literature I've read.  Hillenbrand is amazing at presenting an intimate and engaging portrait of the subject while at the same time letting you make your own judgments about what's going on.  This is very different from the book I picked up after Unbroken which had already beaten me over the head with it's thesis about Cleopatra: not a crazysex pot a la Elizabeth Taylor's portrayal, in case you were wondering.  I was so spoiled by Hillenbrand's biographical style that I sent Cleopatra back to the library to save until I had a little more distance from Hillenbrand.

Well, what's the book about?  Unbroken follows the path of American hero Louis Zamperini from hooligan to Olympic track star to B-24 bomber to "adrift on the Pacific for a crazy long time" survivor to "held in Japanese POW camps for a crazy long time" survivor to other stuff (that I'll leave a bit of mystery around so as not to blow the ending).  The book is gripping and exciting and was especially interesting to me because of the aforementioned pilot grandfather.  I learned that my Grandpa actually flew the B-29s that appear later in the book.  (I think is was B-29, I remember at least that is a B-not24).

For me, the hardest part of reading this book was my reaction to the Japanese and the prison camps.  Admittedly, almost no culture is going to shine when you're looking at how they treat prisoners, especially in a war, and Hillenbrand showed an admirable amount of restraint in never blatantly pegging the jailers as a bunch of sadistic meany-pants en masse, but still...there were some seriously bad dudes there and it made me very, very angry.  Angry enough that for a little while (I'll shamefully admit) I wanted to manufacture a reason to call back all the missionaries I assist who work in Japan (that's my job, helping people do missions in Asia, particularly in Japan).  But then God reminded me 1) my culture has it's own nasty history (and...um... present) with POWs, 2) Duh! That's exactly why they need the Gospel (and me, too, because honestly I'm no better than them), and 3) of this guy and his message (you should really, really listen to this if you're not familiar with Michael Oh - 12 minutes of your time).  So all of that was just a wee bit convicting.

I will say that Hillenbrand also made a point of mentioning the Japanese in the camps who risked their own lives to aid the POWs which is very powerful stuff.  Anyway, the whole story is fascinating - as is Hillenbrand herself who writes these books while frequently confined to her bed with chronic fatigue (or something like that).  I definitely recommend the author and the book!