Tibetan Peach Pie

I think if you've read any of Tom Robbins' work, you'll probably really love this book.  I have to admit, I haven't read any of his work and I still enjoyed it. Maybe not to the extent that a die-hard fan would, but it still had some funny moments and hidden life lessons that are applicable to everyone. Someone, whose thought process I really respect, recommended it to me so I gave it a go. The book is a mix of memoir and autobiography. He swears all the tales he tells are true and I believe it.  The bulk of his formative years as a writer were in the 1960s and 1970s and those decades are known for all kinds of craziness. If nothing else, the book provides you with a zany description of a not-so-ordinary life. Towards the end I was ready for it to be over, though.  Again, I think I felt this way because I have never read a lick of his work. Did the book make me want to read any of his work? Not particularly, but that could change. Overall, I think if you are not familiar with his work, you will either press on through the book because the tales are interesting or you will give it up after a few pages because you're not invested in knowing more about the author.  I will leave it up to you.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

I don't often read humor books by comedians. Although, I probably should because they are usually a breath of fresh air from heavier reading. I read Aisha Tyler's first book Swerve many years ago when I was probably in my early 20s (??) and I don't remember much about it. This book, however, will probably stick in my memory because I'm older now and the life lessons she discusses are more relevant to me. I didn't know much about life's struggles when I was just starting out in the world, but now I can relate. Initially, based on the book jacket description, I was just expecting a funny book about crazy things that happened to her, but I was surprised to find some inspiration as well.

The breakdown of the book is essentially 32 mini-chapters about instances where Tyler humiliated herself or something crazy happened because of her own actions. At the end of most of the stories, though, she discusses what she learned. I really admire her for always striving ahead in life with no fear. I think if you are struggling with moving forward with your dreams, you will enjoy this book. It's a light, easy way for you to kind of get that kick in the rear that might motivate you to also strive without fear.  You get a few good laughs to boot! It's not laugh out loud funny all the way through, but it has its moments. I truly appreciated her candor and motivational analogies for life. This would be a good quick summer read for anyone interested in getting a little jolt of optimism through vicarious embarrassment.

Gulp

This was one of the non-fiction books on my "want to read" list this year. I'll admit you have to have a general interest in the GI tract or medical topics. It's so well-written that even the layman can understand it. That's why I enjoyed it so much. Even though I could understand a book full of medical terms, I enjoy it when an author can write about complex topics at a more palatable level (bad pun intended). The book follows the amazing GI system from top to bottom. From the first bite of food to that final trip to the bathroom. So, yes, this book is not for people easily grossed out by things like spit, vomit, and bowel movements. Since I work at a hospital with patients who have some of the ailments discussed here, I was completely into it! This was probably one of the more enjoyable medical reads for me in a long time.

Since it does cover topics that might make some people gag, I won't go into detail about it. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you have a curious mind that is not turned off by bodily functions, I think it's a great read!

Paris Letters

The minute I started reading this book I had the thought that it may change my life. I know that seems dramatic, but I related to everything the author was saying and I was familiar with many of the emotions she felt. It's a true story about one woman who is unsatisfied with her job and decides to start writing in her journal on a daily basis in order to discover what she wants out of life. Turns out she wants to quit her job and live in Paris. She does this and her life greatly improves because it's the life she wants to live on her own terms. It almost sounds cliché but she finds love, happiness and peace. 

Since I am the first to admit that most of us are leading lives of quiet desperation (myself included!) this story resonated with me.  Who doesn't dream of quitting it all and living the life you want to live instead of the life dictated by bill due dates and dogma? Or I could just be delusional and maybe it really is just me who feels this way. Either way, I was deeply inspired to really discover what it is I want out of life and how to go about getting it. It doesn't hurt that Paris is where this author chose to travel. Since it's one of my favorite cities, I was already a bit biased towards this story. 

I really loved this book. I loved what it represented as an idea. It made me really want to make a concerted effort to be happy and live the life I'm meant to live and not a life society says I should live. This was a very enjoyable, light, quick read and I think it's a perfect outdoor book.  Now that the spring weather has arrived, pick it up and enjoy at your local park or outdoor space. 

Five Days at Memorial

I visited New Orleans only one time in my life and that happened to be about two months prior to Hurricane Katrina. I lived in NYC at the time and went down there for a music festival. When I got back to NYC, I couldn't stop talking about the pralines and beignets. Then Hurricane Katrina happened and as I watched the news coverage, I kept thinking about how I was just down there and how lovely it had all been. Like most of the United States, I saw the horrible conditions, rooftop rescues, extreme flooding, and deep despair. I wasn't a nurse at that time. I wouldn't start nursing school until about a year later. I was still working in the photography industry. So I didn't really give much thought to what the hospitals endured. Only after being a nurse now for a little over five years do my thoughts immediately go to hospitals and medical staffing in times of crises.

So when I heard the author of this book on NPR, I was all in. I had been so focused on the atrocity that was the Superdome, that I had completely missed this story about euthanasia in hospitals and nursing homes. This particular book hones in on Memorial Hospital in particular where there were an inordinate amount of dead patients found after the storm. Investigators dug further and the story that surfaced was one that is so tangled and speculative that you really hope it's not true. The author does, in my opinion, an excellent job of being objective leaving you to come to your own conclusion. For five days after the storm hit, patients and medical staff were essentially stranded in the hospital with no clear communication regarding rescue. When the generators failed and there was still limited to no rescue in sight, choices became desperate. Some patients were found with toxic amounts of morphine and midazolam in their system.  The question is whether or not those drugs were purposefully used to hasten death or were they used to provide comfort and death was a side effect?

There are so many layers to medical decisions that it's hard to pass judgment if you were not physically there yourself or if you were not the person in charge of the decision. After reading this book, I continue to think heavily about medical ethics, living wills and quality of life issues. The best part of the story was the first section where the five days are described in detail. The second part of the book is more about the legal and ethical challenges faced when attempting to prosecute physicians and nurses for suspected euthanasia. I found the book fascinating and really enjoyed it. If you are not a medical professional, you may find yourself bored or uninterested in the complexities, but I think it's a good read for anyone.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Recently with all the press that India has been receiving because of vicious assaults on women, I've been interested in learning more about the country. I recently saw a documentary on Netflix about the dichotomy between a forward-moving India and the India that still holds on to the beliefs of the past, as it relates to women.  If you're interested seeing it, it's called The World Before Her. But this is a blog about books. I put this book on my list of non-fiction for this year, because I've heard really good things about it and I have a genuine interest in reading more about India. 

 

I may take this for granted, but I think most people know there is a substantial amount of poverty in India, even as it rises as a global power. Regarding Mumbai, the city on which the author focuses, the statistics are there to back that up. I've also heard this from multiple friends who have family there or who have traveled there. Even as it Mumbai advances, there are still millions living in poverty there.

In this book, the author follows a handful of people in one slum in Mumbai. Her main focus is this underlying question: Is it even possible to break the cycle of poverty under these conditions?  She goes deep into how corruption is the name of the game. At the heart of the story is one family who falls apart at the seams because a neighbor blames them for her self-inflicted misfortune. The justice system is a joke. The education system is tragically broken. The living conditions are not even fit for wild animals.

I enjoyed the book because it actually reads like a novel and the writing style is light for such a multi-layered topic. It's the first non-fiction book I've read this year that felt easy even though it was tackling some very difficult themes.

In the end we are left with more questions than solutions, but I think a good book is supposed to challenge you to think differently about the world in which you live. There is no happy ending, and not everyone makes it to the end of the book alive. It was disheartening to read about these broken lives, and even more disheartening to realize that the solutions are not forthcoming. It is worth a read for a candid look at the underbelly of one of worlds fastest growing cities. 

Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us

Okay you may have to settle in because I get the feeling that this post may be long.

I really enjoyed this book. Although it still takes me longer to read a non-fiction book than fiction (and I fully recognize that it should) this one was more engaging than the two previous food books I read.

First let me say that if you read this book and then go to the grocery store you will be disgusted.  If you already try to pay close attention to what you eat, you probably already know that food additives can be harmful to your health.  I still offer that if you read this book and then go to the grocery store you will shop with contempt towards the food industry. This book tackles one of those topics everyone has a vague idea about, but nobody really addresses. We all know (or at least the majority of us probably know) that junk food is full of crap that's not real food. It's chemicals mixed up to imitate food. We have all heard that too much salt can lead to high blood pressure. Too much fat can lead to obesity and heart disease. Too much sugar can lead to obesity and all the complications that arise from obesity.

This book starts out assuming you know all that.  So what it's really about is how the big food companies like Nestle, PespiCo, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Frito-Lay, Oscar Mayer, General Mills, Kellogg, etc... try to walk this fine line of appeasing shareholders and the government.  Their true purpose in life is to make money for the shareholders.  Every once in a while, though, we pesky consumers speak up and say that this "food" is crap and needs to be fixed. Well then they try to fix it, or at least make a half-hearted attempt to look like they are going to fix it.  What they are really doing is trying to buy time for the storm to clear up so they can continue on, business as usual.

The author talks to food scientists who, over the years, have created, developed, or 'improved' upon products such as Tang, Instant Jell-O, Lunchables, Oreos, Lays, Campbell's Soup....the list goes on and on. After reading about it all, you really see how much the specialty of Food Science is really mostly science and not a lot of food. What I really appreciated about the book was how the history of companies was explored and how he really dug deep (even using the FOI Act several times) to obtain government records of meetings between the food industry and the government to address the problems of crap food that is making the population sick. Another aspect that I appreciated was how he raised the question: How can the government - USDA and FDA - simultaneously get money and favors from food industry lobbyists yet also supposedly be an advocate for the United States population? The answer, of course, is that they can't. You can't serve two masters. It's clear by this book, that the consumer is the loser in this deal.

There are so many salient points made in this book. I really could just go on and on about how the food companies target minorities and young children for certain products. How there are laws in place that make it easy for unaccountability to be the status quo when things go south. How they try to manipulate the USDA daily recommendations for nutrients. How they continue to add salt, sugar, and fat to foods creating a pseudo-addiction. What's most alarming is there is data out there now about what specifically needs to change if we are ever to consider processed food edible, but the big players are unwilling to budge. Incidentally, while reading this book I went to the grocery store on two occasions and never before was I so hyper vigilant of the horrible options on the shelves. I highly recommend this book if you want to further open your eyes to the travesty that is the United States food industry.

Their bottom line is money. My bottom line is to take good care of myself. So I guess we will be at odds with one another for quite some time.

This quote sums up the book quite nicely:  

"It's simply not in the nature of these companies to care about the consumer in an empathetic way." 

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I can already tell I am going to have a tough time reading all the non-fiction I plan on reading if it's going to take me 25 days to finish one book.  The book was really interesting, but I just have a hard time reading facts for prolonged periods of time so I did fall asleep a few times while reading it. When I'm reading fiction, hours can go by and I won't even notice. I guess that's why it's my challenge to read more non-fiction this year. I will press on!

Anyway, since the last book I read was by Michael Pollen, I decided to continue with him and read this book. It was full of disturbing facts about the food chain in the United States. My head was spinning every time I trudged through a section of the book. In the first section he describes how corn became a staple crop in all processed foods in the U.S. as well as in the majority of meat in the U.S. since it has become the grain of choice to feed to animals even when they are not hard-wired to eat it (cows are supposed to eat grass in case you didn't know). In the second section he describes the meat industry in all its horror.  I think anyone who has any interest in what kind of food they put in their body is already well aware of how these mass production slaughterhouses work.  What he also does, though, is go to a farm that is getting it right by allowing Nature to do the complex work it would normally do if we humans didn't come along and mess it up on occasion by trying to over-simplify. He also turns the term 'organic' over on its head and will make you think twice about what that really means. In the final section, he discusses the ethics of eating animals and the ethics of eating vegetables (apparently animals like mice and woodchucks still die when grains are harvested so no diet is completely cruelty-free). 

In each section he prepares or eats a meal that is related to the information he shared in that section. In the first section he eats a completely processed meal from McDonalds, with a nice dose of high fructose corn syrup. In the second section, he buys local, 'organic' ingredients and makes a meal to share with others. In the final section, he actually hunts and gathers for his meal with the help of a local man. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. Some parts did run a bit long for me and there are some repetitive points that I felt I had already heard so many times from other sources. Some of the more informative sections for me were the ones about corn, organic foods, and the ethics of eating.  I like that at the end of each section he brought it back to the common denominator of eating a meal - something we do on a daily basis.  If you are not already hyper-aware of what you eat, you may be after reading this. Even though I am finding it challenging to keep up momentum when reading non-fiction, I'm glad I stuck with it for this book.

In Defense of Food

Well, there's nothing quite like stuffing your face during the holiday season while reading a book about how horrible our food system is here in the United States.  I read Food Rules by this same author and really enjoyed it's brevity and bluntness. I still apply those rules when I shop (for the most part).  I try to be very cognizant about what I'm buying and eating.

This book breaks it down a little further and discusses how the various branches of Food Science have detracted from common sense eating.  The author discusses how, by focusing only on one ingredient, the scientists essentially have made dozens of diet recommendations that could actually be pretty faulty.  For instance, by focusing on fat allegedly being bad for you, they have missed the nutritional value of the whole food that may contain the fat. He also discusses, briefly, how lobbyists in the industrial food markets (i.e. dairy farmers, meat processing plants) do their best to make sure certain research doesn't reach you.

His research seems sound and there are enough references and resources in this book to make your head spin. You could easily end up reading about food for years if you dig into all the different books and articles out there.  If you have an interest in healthy eating (not dieting) I think this is a good book to read. It's not preachy and you can come to your own conclusions.  If you never read Food Rules, you're in luck because the third and final section of the book is basically Food Rules.  So, in a way, you're reading two books.   I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to make a decision to just eat good food for better health and not follow fad diets and crazes.

The Sweet Life in Paris

Of course I had to read one more book about Paris before the end of the year. This one was another true story about someone in the culinary field moving to Paris to live out some dreams. The author is a pastry chef who moves from San Francisco. In each chapter he talks about the differences between living in the United States and Paris and discusses his experiences with food in the City of Lights. He also includes a recipe or two at the end of each chapter.  If you are a budding chef or a foodie, you can definitely get some good ideas from here. A lot of the recipes sound pretty mouth-watering.

I think I'm getting used to the American-in-Paris books because I'm starting to notice the pattern in them. The book is a quick read and although it wasn't my favorite book about living in Paris, it was fairly enjoyable.

Finding Your Element

I am constantly trying to figure out what I'm really supposed to be doing on this Earth.  I really enjoy my current career in the health field, but I think there is something more I'm supposed to be doing. What is that 'more'?  Well I picked up Ken Robinson's book to see how I could go about finding out the answer to that question.  I first saw Ken Robinson during this TED talk.  I really enjoyed the talk and felt he had a lot of valid points.  So, naturally, I was interested to see what he recommends in this book about finding out what gives you life.

As far as self-help books go, this one was pretty inspirational and helpful.  It doesn't give you too much psychological mumbo-jumbo.  What it does provide in the way of psychology and research is mostly already known and established so it's not overwhelming.  There are some step-by-step measures and recommendations given.  There are even some exercises to complete if you're interested.  I think the best thing the book does is ask the questions you need to answer in order to move forward on your quest to find your passion.  Taking personal time to just sit down with yourself and ask some of these questions might be the only jump-start you need.  I found that just reflecting on the questions and jotting down a few notes for some of the exercises got my mind flowing.

The individual stories that are interspersed throughout are good and will leave you thinking: "If they could do it, why shouldn't I be able to as well?"

If you decide to pick it up, I wish you luck on your journey.

Inside-Out Simplicity

Yes, I'm on a bit of a "peace and love" reading frenzy.  It comes in peaks and valleys.  It's a process to simplify your life.  I've been working at it for about three years now and still have far to go. This book touches on almost every aspect of life and how you can make small changes to start simplifying. There are a lot of common sense ideas, but also some unique ideas that may be useful.

As with any book that promotes change, this is a book you have to be ready to read. If you are not in a place in your life where you are ready to implement some kind of change, you probably won't enjoy it.  However, if you are thinking about simplifying your life or you've looked around you lately and thought to yourself "I'm tired of this clutter and turmoil" then you might glean some tips from this book.  The author divides the book into sections dealing with our relationships to our world. There are segments regarding our relationship with ourselves, others, possessions, money, and so on.  He discusses how, by simplifying our lives, our lives become more meaningful.

It's only about $3 for the e-book.  I think that's a good deal.  Even if you end up hating it or certain sections don't apply to you (i.e. the section about your relationship with kids or spouses isn't applicable to all), you will be happy you didn't have to break the bank for it.

The Four Agreements

This book has been recommended to me multiple times.  I finally read it and I'm glad I did. I am a big believer in the power of the mind.  I think you can influence your life either positively or negatively by what you believe. This book lists and discusses four agreements you should make with yourself in order to live a life of happy freedom from the status quo.  The four agreements are:

1) Be impeccable with your word
2) Don't make assumptions
3) Don't take things personally
4) Always do your best

The author explains how, by implementing these agreements into your life, you can open your heart and mind to more compassion and love. I love reading positive writing like this.  I know it's not for everyone, but if you gravitate towards writing about inner peace or Zen-like topics, this is a good selection. It's also a quick read, but be sure to have a highlighter handy.  There are some good points made that you won't want to forget.

Walden on Wheels

I count myself as one of those who is frugal.  Some of my co-workers will tell you that I can't go a few days without mentioning how getting out of debt is my top priority in life.  I hate how owing someone money makes me feel.  So when I came across this book and read the brief description I put it on hold at the library immediately. While I was waiting for it to arrive at the library I downloaded the free sample to my Kindle.  Initially, based on the sample, I thought it would be a decent read, but I wasn't running to the library to pick it up once notified about its arrival.  So much for me judging a book based on a free sample, because I should have gone and picked this book up the minute it arrived.  I realized I was hooked this past Wednesday when I spent the majority of my day off voraciously reading the first 200 pages of the approximately 300-page book.

The book is a true account of the author, Ken, who initially has $32,000 of student debt after earning his undergraduate degree. This staggering amount makes him very uncomfortable and he proceeds to aggressively pay it off over the next few years.  In the process of paying everything off, he goes to Alaska and works a variety of grunt jobs that teach him a lot about life, nature, consumerism and capitalism (all of which he discusses very well). He vows to never go into debt again. The story takes an interesting turn when he decides to return to graduate school.  Keeping to his vow about zero debt, he buys a van and lives in the van during his entire graduate school experience. The book covers it all perfectly. A parallel story also develops about his best friend who owes $62,000 in student loans but follows a different, more arduous path in order to pay it off. His friend's story is, in some ways, the typical story that most of us are living but afraid to admit.

I loved this book, because of the inspirational tone.  At this point in my life, it was a message I was ready to hear and open to receiving.  I am motivated to continue to aggressively pay my own debt down as well.  I'm not quite at the point where I would live in a van, but I respect the author for sticking to his newfound values. The book was also pretty funny!  I wasn't expecting that and found myself laughing unexpectedly on several occasions.  I enjoyed the book so much more than I expected. Actually, this is one of the best books I've read this year. Also, if you want to read a book about finances, but don't want a book that feels too much like economics, this is it.

The Good Nurse

I am a nurse by trade so I was sickened by this story and I have a lot to say about it.  It's the true story of a nurse named Charles Cullen who, over the course of his sixteen-year career, murdered and injured hundreds of patients. This man was very disturbed and also had multiple known suicide attempts.  He would attempt suicide just enough to get some medical attention and maybe go to a psych facility, but never enough to actually get the job done.  It was always a cry for help, because if he were serious he would have just shot himself in a strategic location.  Being a nurse, he would have known what to do. This man clearly needed a LOT of psych help that he did not receive.

I was uncomfortable reading this story because I just cannot fathom doing harm to a patient.  There were multiple times in the story when I would pause and just think "How can he be okay doing this to people?" and "What the hell is wrong with this dude?" Honestly, when I have to give a medication at work, I'm breaking out the calculator and making sure that the dose is right several times before I even give it.  We even have rules in place where certain medications have to be checked by more than one nurse so multiple people check the dose several times before it reaches the patient.  This guy was BLATANTLY putting insulin in normal saline bags, loading syringes with overdoses of digoxin and injecting the heart medication right into the patient without a second thought, overdosing patients on medications that paralyze the body.  It was crazy!  I have always had a difficult time understanding mental illness.  I understand that the body and brain can experience such severe stress that one can 'just snap', but this guy was cold and calculating.

What really made me angry was that hospitals were not held accountable for their hiring practices.  All this was going on from the late 1980s until around 2003 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so it's fairly recent history.  He was able to continue to get jobs!  He worked at at least NINE DIFFERENT HOSPITALS. I started nursing in 2008. At that time we had to get fingerprints, a background check, a drug test and more.  At the time, I thought all that testing was standard for nursing. Come to find out, it was all implemented after this guy was caught and convicted!  Maybe if these protocols were in place back then he would have been either caught earlier or not allowed to enter the field of nursing in the first place.  However, with his mental illness, he may have still found a way to harm people.

As a side note, there is currently no 'national' nursing license. Nursing is regulated state by state.  This is a problem. I am a huge proponent of a national nursing license.  Charles Cullen was able to go from New Jersey to Pennsylvania because each state requires a different license so he could easily hold a license in both states and they may or may not communicate with each other about his questionable history. A lot of nurses have multiple licenses, especially if you live in a 'tri-city' area that covers multiple states like NY-CT-NJ or DE-MD-VA or NJ-DE-PA.  Even I hold a license in two states because I live in a 'tri-city' area.

The book is very well written with accurate sources and footnotes that cite those sources. The author does an excellent job of making the reader think about several hot button topics like mental illness, hospital transparency, patient rights, patient safety, hospital safety, and hiring practices.  I thought more about my career while reading this book than I have since being a nurse.  I've never been exposed to the underbelly of it and I think that's why it made me uncomfortable and incredulous.  That's why it stuck with me. I love my job and can't imagine anyone being in this field and behaving the way this guy did. This book will stick with me for a while.  If you're in the health field, I highly recommend it.  Even if you're not in the health field, I think it would still be an interesting read.  Not good for the beach or vacation, because you may be sad or enraged afterwards.  Save this one for Fall/Winter.

Paris was Ours

I'm starting to think I'm just a little biased when it comes to books about Paris. I'm starting to wonder if I only like them because I loved my trip there so much.  I think moving forward all my reviews about books regarding Paris should be taken with a grain of salt. It's kind similar to when parents think their kids can do no wrong, but everyone else thinks they are brats.  I wonder if I love Paris and books about it, but everyone else thinks it's all crap.  Hmmm....well anyway, I loved this book!

This is a collection of thirty-two essays written by writers who have each had their own varied experiences in Paris.  Each writer makes their essay their own individualized account of Paris as they know or knew it.  What I enjoyed about it was that it wasn't always a love fest. Some writers were not as smitten with Paris as others.  Some longed for home and were only in Paris because of wars ravaging their homeland or politics that had pushed them out. Others were very much in love with Paris.  Nobody was ambivalent about it.  It was interesting to see how a Parisian experience can change someone's view of the world and of himself or herself.  I took my time with this book.  It could have easily been a quick read. The essays are short enough to breeze through, however I suggest you sit down on a quiet weekend with some coffee and maybe a soft flaky croissant and take the time to slowly absorb the stories.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

This is supposedly a memoir about a young Hasidic Jewish woman who leaves the Hasidic community and becomes 'secular', if you will.  There is some controversy about the book and its veracity.  I didn't realize that until after I finished it today.  I have been trying to just read books without gathering any external information that may mar my reading experience. I try not to read any reviews or press about the book until I've finished.

With that being said, frankly this book bored me.  I wanted to like it.  I wanted to cheer for the woman who felt trapped by tradition and was barred from getting a 'real' education.  I thought based on the title that maybe something crazy happened that caused her to make the break and obtain her freedom, but nothing really happens.  She is married off at age seventeen and the marriage has problems and she leaves.  I'm oversimplifying it, but that's because prior to age seventeen absolutely nothing of interest happens in this book. She goes to school, but sneaks secular books like Pride & Prejudice and Little Women home to read.  Honestly, even after she gets married, not much happens. She and her husband argue a lot and have some sexual problems, but nothing glaring that hasn't happened in other bad marriages. If the author wasn't Jewish the book would just be about a woman who vaguely divorces her husband.  She doesn't offer many details about how exactly she escaped this Hasidic world.

After finishing the book, I started to read the reviews and found out that there was controversy about the book.  There were some reports that parts of the book were fabricated and she only wrote the book so she could fund her escape from the Hasidic community.  I read these claims and since I didn't like the book, I simply didn't care if the story was true or not.  I feel like the book is so boring it has to be true because if you're going to make something up, wouldn't you make it interesting?  You can definitely skip this one.

The Devil in Pew Number Seven

I have mixed feeling about this book. The message is a good one. It is about the power of forgiveness.  Throughout the book, I would vacillate between thinking the family was crazy for staying put in that Podunk town and thinking all the townspeople were just plain crazy.

This is a true story about a family of four who is terrorized by the man who lives across the street from them. The father in the family is the pastor at the local church and the man who lives across the street from them is a mentally disturbed power hungry man of influence.  Basically when the townsfolk really start to appreciate the pastor and care less about this other crazy man, he tries to assert his authority by setting off explosives in the family's backyard and riddling their car and house with bullets on occasion.  This madness goes on for about five years before finally someone dies. In the midst of all this destruction and chaos, the pastor stays put because he believes the Lord has led him to preach in this town and he does not want to abandon his flock.  Meanwhile, the psychological damage to his wife, son and daughter is outlined in great detail by the author (who happens to be the daughter all grown up now).

I understand the power of forgiveness, however the willingness of the father to keep his family in harm's way ultimately leads to death, loss and grief.  I kept wondering if he knew that it is possible to forgive an individual from a distant location.  You can pray for your enemies while residing in another state.  I felt like so much of the sorrow in the story could have been prevented if he packed his family up and left.  I'm reminded of the parable about a farmer who was caught in a flood. He prayed to God for help or a miracle. The waters were not too high yet and a friend rode by in a boat. He offered a ride to man. The man replied that he had prayed to God and was waiting for a miracle. The friend rode on.  The waters continued to rise until finally the man was on his roof. He continued to pray to God for a miracle.  A helicopter flew by to survey the area and noticed the man on his roof. The occupants of the helicopter threw a ladder down and told the man to climb up.  The man refused, saying that God was going to save him.  The helicopter flew away.  Eventually the man was swept away by the floodwaters and drowned. When he reached Heaven, he was angry with God.  He told him he prayed and prayed but God never saved him.  He was accusatory and asked God why didn't he help him or save him. God simply said, "I sent you a boat and a helicopter".

That's what I thought about when I read this book. The signs were there.  The opportunities to leave were there.  I guess one could say that God was trying to tell them to get the hell out of that town. The pastor believed God was telling him that there was more work to be done in that community.  This was the mid-1970s and I wasn't there so who know what God put on that man's heart.  I do believe though, that I would not have allowed my young children to be terrorized with explosions and gunshots if I could help it. I would have packed my family up, thanked the Lord that we all got out alive and prayed for that crazy man to be healed. I would have been praying in a safe non-bullet riddled location though!

Overall, the book was interesting but it went on little too long.  I don't highly recommend it, but if you are interested in stories about forgiveness and mercy pick it up.

Murder in the Yoga Store

This book was so disturbing. I had not heard about this real-life case, but the book popped up on my "Best Books (so far) in 2013" list on Amazon.  It was only $2 for Kindle so I downloaded it and read it.  It is a short book, probably better listed as long-form journalism, coming in at close to ninety pages.  Since I was not familiar with the crime, the entire story and all the details were new to me. I was disgusted by the brutality of the crime. I was saddened by the motive, which was completely and utterly  asinine!  I already hold a very fragile faith in humanity and this just made me shake my head.  Stories like this make you want to give up on people and live off the grid.

The story outlines the murder of a young woman in a Lululemon store in Bethesda, Maryland in 2011. Bethesda is a pretty affluent part of Maryland so it was a crime that shocked that community and had people living in fear.  After the initial shock of the crime, the investigation and its results just add salt to the wound.  If you delve deeper, there is also something to be said about how humans do not connect with one another anymore. This particular crime was overheard by employees at an Apple store next door and they did not even bother to call 911.  I was disgusted all over again when I read that part of the story.  If you have a strong stomach and an interest in the law and forensics this is a quick read, but it may haunt you for a while.

Heads in Beds

I love staying in a good hotel. I like the anonymity of it and, frankly, I like the fact that I don't have to clean the bathroom for a few days. The author of this book was on NPR a little while ago discussing the book and the secrets of the hospitality industry.  More specifically, the secrets of hotels.  I will definitely have a new outlook when I take my next trip and stay overnight at a hotel.  I'll also have a few new tricks to try in order to get upgraded.

I liked the book for two reasons.  First, the author is very candid and doesn't try to make the industry seem fabulous.  It's like he wants you to know that even though you are entering what appears to be the lap of luxury, the people behind the scenes are everyday folks trying to make ends meet. Second, it's funny.  After hearing his interview on NPR, I didn't expect it to be as funny as it was.  The cast of characters and co-workers lends itself to some funny anecdotes. Some stories were so outrageous you just know they have to be true.

If you've ever worked in a service industry where you get to see the underbelly of humanity on a daily basis, you'll enjoy this book. It's also a quick read so I'd recommend it for the summer.  Read it before you go on vacation so you can employ some of the suggested tricks to improve your hotel stay.