Chasing Harry Winston = 28 down, 72 to go

Recommendation

Chasing Harry Winston

Lauren Weisberger

278 pages

So I never jumped on the very popular chick lit bandwagon, but this book was recommended to me as a good route of escapism for my day-to-day life.

I'll be honest right up front. I wasn't a big fan of this book. It was a fairly difficult read for me. It was a little too superficial and choppy for me. But there were a couple of saving graces - for me, this was primarily the friendship between three main characters.

No matter how many years passed or how much responsibility each assumed, they still managed to bicker like bitchy teenagers on a regular basis. In some way, though, each found it comforting; it reminded them how close they really were: Acquaintances were always on their best behavior, but sisters loved each other enough to say anything.

Every woman wants those close confidantes to whom she can share anything, say anything without filtering or worrying about bruising a fragile ego. While reality can put a slightly different skew on this, it's easy to desire this type of relationship. Luckily, I am blessed with a sister and a couple of very dear friends with whom I can have this type of relationship...and all without the "bitchy teenager bickering." That makes it even better.

And as I started my college career as an English major, I often fantasized about being a book editor. What better profession is there for someone who loves reading, dreams about being an author but figures she doesn’t have the discipline for it. Being a book editor seems the next best option.

So I enjoyed portions of Leigh’s character. She’s a rising star at a leading publisher. She is very forthright with a bad-boy author, who though he’s won a Pulitzer, she tells him his last book was horrible. Her boss is appalled at Leigh speaking her mind, but the author is taken with her glaringly honest response and demands that she edit his current literary project. When her boss shares the news with her, he quotes the author with this line:

"That girl has zero bullshit tolerance and so do I. I want to work with her."

Who can’t appreciate the term “zero bullshit tolerance?”

The Johnstown Flood = 27 down, 73 to go

Other nonfiction

The Johnstown Flood

David McCullough

267 pages

On May 31, 1889, a dam located 14 miles above Johnstown, Pa., disintegrated during a horrible storm, sending nearly 20 million tons of water roaring down the valley and wiping many towns completely off the map in just a matter of minutes.

For Johnstown, the largest of the towns in the valley and the focus of the majority of recovery efforts following the disaster, it took just 10 minutes for the city of 30,000 to be virtually eliminated.

The book is a sobering look at this tragedy that killed more than 2,000. It depicts out the personalities involved, takes a microscopic look at the details of the flood, starting at the dam and moving down the valley. It showcases the preview of actions, or lack thereof, that led up to the failure of the dam, through the recovery efforts, which included a defining moment for the American Red Cross and money coming from around the globe. (It reminded me very much of an earlier example of the world rallying to the needs of those affected - such as in modern day times occurred after the tsunami in Asia and in the earthquakes in Haiti.)

Though much of the newspaper coverage was exaggerated, distorted and based on rumor and conjecture, the pile of debris and wreckage at the stone bridge remained days after the flood and likely consumed up to 45 acres of area. (See this photo from the Johnstown Flood Museum.)

A Sun reporter wrote of a very stirring observation of the catastrophe that remained at the bridge:

"At one place the blackened body of a babe was seen; in another 14 skulls could be counted...At this time the smoke was still rising to the height of 50 feet."

In an earlier chapter, when the pile of debris at the stone bridge caught fire, McCullough shares this sober sentence:

...by six o'clock the whole monstrous pile had become a funeral pyre for perhaps as many as eighty people trapped inside.

It was also observed that people trapped in the debris who had survived the trip down river could be heard screaming as the fire burned, and the survivors on the shore having no way to reach them.

While the complete absence of engineering oversight crashed against the forces of nature to create this flooded tragedy, it would be interesting if this event occurred within the last five to 10 years. As our society is litigious at the drop of a hat, the members of South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club would not have been likely to walk away unscathed with the fortunes left intact.

This is my eighth David McCullough book. I never tire, even for a moment, of his distinct and extremely thorough storytelling style, which makes you feel that you are riding right alongside characters that we often only remember only fleetingly from grade school history. You never feel that you are forcibly reading a history text while consuming a McCullough book.

It is thrilling to see these historical figures in such detail during the defining moments of their lives and careers. If you dislike historical biographies, I recommend McCullough to you. Though I enjoy historical biographies, it is easy for me to equate his books to reading a delightful novel.

The Man Who Would Be King = 26 down, 74 to go

Classic
The Man Who Would Be King
Rudyard Kipling
88 pages

First, I read this book more because it was a free download on my Kindle app. I read in one of the reviews that it was short, but didn't realize until I checked the page count on Amazon, that it was only 88 pages. And that brings us to second...I almost feel like that's not long enough to count as a full book. But hey I finished it, so I'm going to darn well count it.

The only other Rudyard Kipling book I have ever read was The Jungle Book (though which I have to admit here for full disclosure that I didn't know was written by him until about 30 minutes ago).

The story is modeled after some of the time that Kipling himself spent in India and is a literary version of two men he actually met who were bound and determined to build their own Afghan empire. I read in a couple of different reviews that pointed out that a "practical understanding of British imperialist history" would be particularly helpful. Though I really enjoy history, apparently I skipped British imperialism from an impact on overall history during my journeys back in time.

So while I hate to admit it, it took every ounce of my concentration to try and follow the storyline. I think that I failed miserably. Let's just say that I'm thankful that this was a short book. Maybe I was just having an off reading day.

Pride & Prejudice = 25 down, 75 to go

Classic

Pride & Prejudice
Jane Austen
480 pages

The literary titles Emma, Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice have been on the edge of my peripheral vision since early high school well through the beginning of college when I declared English as my major. And at least two of them continued to take up real estate on my bookshelf through the intervening years.

It's just taken until year 34 of my life for me to pick up one of Jane Austen's literary ventures and read it - though in my defense, I have seen it in theatrical form. I enjoyed the book's formal dialogue and found the proper interaction between social classes and the sexes more than slightly amusing.

When I read books taking place in the 1800s, I always try to imagine myself in the place of a woman of that time and wonder what type of patience I would have had with all of the rules and social expectations. I hope that I might have been somewhat similar in disposition to the second oldest of the five Bennet sisters, Elizabeth - strong in herself and her principles, not willing to back down from a challenge (including her garden conversation with Lady Catherine de Bourgh), but at the same time is willing to admit a change in opinion or beliefs when shown the full truth.

Mr. Decimal, I presume

I'm a huge fan of libraries. Until the day I left for college, I was on a first-name basis with all the librarians at Lepper Library in Lisbon, Ohio. I spent copious hours in the college libraries first at Bowling Green and then at Kent State. As I moved into my mid and late 20s and found myself with some disposable income, I decided that I would build my personal library instead of patronizing a public library.

Now, I'm not talking about about rare and collectible books, instead just my favorite authors (which have changed vastly over the years) sitting on my bookshelf and available at my beck and call. It took me until hitting about 30, going through some major life changes and downsizing my possessions during a couple of moves in a short period of time - to come back to the public library.

When I started living in Lakewood, I made a visit to the Lakewood Public Library.I made my initial visit, checked out some books, read them and then returned them late. It took me another about another two years to make my way back in and pay my fine, which I did tonight when I was there for a Society for Professional Journalists Cleveland meeting. Much to my joy, they took my $2, told me I was back in good standing and happily helped me find a couple of books I was looking to check out.

Now, for years, my book-finding experiences have been focused on bookstores, which are neatly organized by type of book - History, Psychology, Mystery, Fantasy, etc., etc. Wasn't I shocked when much to my chagrin, I was reminded this evening that public libraries are organized according to the infamous Dewey Decimal System.

It only took a matter of seconds for me to determine that Mr. Decimal and I are definitely not on a first-name basis. On a superficial level, it makes zero sense to me. But when I sit and actually think about it, with the hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of books that exist on library shelves around the country, I see more clearly the need for an organized, methodical organizational system. My gracious thanks to the librarians who are the dedicated keepers and protectors of books...while I'm able to just walk in, ask for your assistance and immediately find the book after which I was lusting.

Mr. Decimal, I tip my hat to you. Oh, and dear Lakewood Public Library, I plan to return these books on time, and you'll be seeing a lot more of me - 'cause, hey, buying 100 new books in a year for this challenge is just plain cost prohibitive. I'm happy to be back in the public library fold.

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman = 24 down, 76 to go

Other nonfiction
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
Jon Krakauer
416 pages

This is my fourth Jon Krakauer book, and once again, he has done an outstanding job of juxtaposing history against a compelling current story. I haven't read any books surrounding 9/11, and though this doesn't directly talk about it, 9/11 was the catalyst that for Pat Tillman to abandon his NFL career and sign up for the U.S. Army, along with his brother Kevin.

This book navigates the land mines of the Army's lies, betrayal and conspiracy after Tillman is killed by friendly fire during his deployment in Afghanistan. From the beginning, the Army, and soon the Bush administration, go to extraordinary lengths to cover up how Tillman was killed. This book - which also details the history of Afghanistan and how its landscape was impacted by the United States, Soviet Union and other parties - uses interviews with Tillman's wife, Marie, mother and other family members and Tillman's own journals and letters, as well as interviews with his Army buddies and extensive research to tell his story.

Tillman was a rare person who was unbelievably dedicated and loyal to his family, his friends and his principles. One example of this was that when the Rams offered Pat a five-year, $9.6 million contract, which he turned down to continue to play for the Cardinals with a one-year contract worth $512,000. He declined the offer because of his loyalty to Arizona and the Cardinals. Tillman's agent, Frank Bauer, said in the book, "In twenty-seven years, I've never had a player turn down that big of a package in the National Football League...You just don't see loyalty like that in sports today. Pat Tillman was special. He was a man of principle. He was a once-in-a-lifetime kid."

And after his first tour in Iraq, Pat could have left the Army on a technicality that would have allowed him to rejoin the NFL. But without hesitation, he decided to stay and fulfill his three-year commitment. Krakauer capsulizes Pat's philosophy:

He was one of those rare individuals who simply can't be bought at any price. Although he had no qualms about making a boatload of money if it happened to mesh with his master plan, Pat was impervious to greed. His belief that other things in life took priority over amassing wealth never faltered. But if Tillman was uncommonly resistant to the temptations of the baser human appetites, and was thereby well defended against attempts by others to manipulate him into doing their bidding with such enticements, he found it nearly impossible to resist appeals to his sense of decency and justice. Paradoxically, this latter trait would ultimately prove to be his downfall.

The level of tragedy that the Tillman family had to deal with seems insurmountable to me. It wasn't just that they lost a beloved member of their family, it's that the U.S. Army and Bush administration increased the family's pain exponentially with its conscientious decisions to lie to the family and the American people.

This was a powerful book, one that I highly recommend. Here is a quote from one of Tillman's journal entries that I found powerful:

Passion is what makes life interesting, what ignites our soul, drives our curiosity, fuels our love and carries our friendships, stimulates our intellect, and pushes our limits...A passion for life is contagious and uplifting. Passion cuts both ways...Those that make you feel on top of the world are equally able to turn it upside down...In my life I want to create passion in my own life and with those I care for. I want to feel, experience, and live every emotion. I will suffer through the bad for the heights of the good.