First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

From Goodreads:

Chronicles the brutality of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, from the author's forced ''evacuation'' of Phnom Penh in 1975 to her family's subsequent movements from town to town and eventual separation.

I dated a guy in college who served his LDS mission in Cambodia. His occasional comments and recollections constituted 90% of my knowledge of Cambodia. The other 10% came from watching Tomb Raider (which had a few scenes filmed there).

I'm always a little embarrassed that I know so little about other countries and world events so when this title popped up as recommended in my Overdrive app I requested it. 

The book is narrated from a child's point of view but I couldn't help but read it as a mother. These kinds of books devastate me since having children. I can't stop putting myself in the shoes of Loung's mother, desperately trying to keep her children alive while slowly watching them waste away from hunger and overwork. When the father was killed I bawled great big tears onto my nursing baby's head. I can't imagine being in that situation and losing Aaron. The women who survived the Khmer Rouge were made of stronger stuff than I am.

This book is absolutely phenomenal, even if it led to me squeezing Emmy until she squirmed while I promised her she would never know that kind of pain or hunger. Reading the cold facts of the Cambodian genocide doesn't do justice to the horror and privations experienced by the people. I think books like this should be required reading in high school- when you learn about the events you should also learn about the people.

I Don't Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer

From Goodreads:

You know Judy Greer, right? Maybe from The Wedding Planner, 13 Going on 30, Carrie, Arrested Development, or The Descendants. Yes, you totally recognize her. And, odds are, you already feel like she’s your friend. 

In her first book of essays, I Don’t Know What You Know Me From, Greer writes about everything you would hope to hear from your best friend: how a midnight shopping trip to Walgreens can cure all; what it’s like to wake up one day with stepchildren; and how she really feels about fans telling her that she’s prettier in person. Yes, it’s all here—from the hilarious moments to the
intimate confessions.

But Judy Greer isn’t just a regular friend—she’s a celebrity friend. Want to know which celebs she’s peed next to? Or what the Academy Awards are actually like? Or which hot actor gave her father a Harley-Davidson? Don’t worry; Greer reveals all of that, too. You’ll love her because, besides being laugh-out-loud funny, she makes us genuinely feel like she’s one of us. Because even though she sometimes has a stylist and a makeup artist, she still wears (and hates!) Spanx. Because even after almost twenty years in Hollywood, she still hasn’t figured everything out—except that you should always wash your face before bed. Always.

This was an emergency download. I am incapable of cleaning my house without an audiobook and my house was in dire need of cleaning. This book was immediately available from my library's digital collection and I generally really like Judy Greer so I nabbed it and got scrubbing.

When it comes to this kind of book, audio is really the way to go (especially when it's narrated by the author). Judy has such a distinctive voice and, like the blurb mentions above, she already feels like a friend. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it nearly so much in print form, but as an audio book? It was lovely. And now my house is clean.

Coroner's Journal: Stalking Death in Louisiana by Louis Cataldie

From Goodreads:

The frank and unvarnished memoir of a life spent stalking death in the Deep South.

Baton Rouge is a little town with big-city problems. Rich with Creole history, colorful locals, and a strong sense of community, it's also the home of Napoleonic codes, stubborn cops, and a sometimes-troubled leadership. Baton Rouge-which literally means "Red Stick"-lives up to its bloody namesake.

And after more than ten years as a deputy coroner and then as its chief coroner, Louis Cataldie has seen his fair share of unusual and disturbing cases. They range from the bizarre to the heartbreaking: an LSU professor killed by a barn door; the bones of a young woman found scattered in a churchyard; and as many as three serial killers loose at one time under Cataldie's watch. He has worked the scene of one of the Malvo/ Muhammad Beltway Sniper shootings and had a hand in bringing to justice serial killer Derrick Todd Lee in a controversial investigation that was featured in an ABC Prime Time special with Diane Sawyer and Patricia Cornwell.

Coroner's Journal is an unflinching look at a world that television dramas such as CSI can only begin to show us.

The stories in this book were fascinating and sometimes heart-wrenching (I bawled any time children were involved). I kept getting hung up on the writing though! Cataldie is a coroner, not an english major and it shows. Where was his editor?? Sometimes when I write a blog post I'll go through and rewrite a sentence here and there- the key, though, is to delete the original version so you don't have two sentences next to each other saying basically the same thing. This is like Editing 101, yes? It was weird coming across those kinds of mistakes in a published work.

Also, Cataldie was needlessly melodramatic and occasionally included details that were clearly for shock factor. His book is chock full of bodies but he declined to detail the process of slicing someone open for autopsy until halfway through, when he described it on a four-year-old boy who had been killed in a fire. I mean, really? That's an emotional sucker punch and totally unnecessary.

All that being said, I came out really liking Cataldie. He seems like a good guy who genuinely cares for the victims that come to him. He played a big part in the post-Katrina cleanup and spent months IDing bodies and returning them to families. Good guy, good stories, should probably change editors (call me!) if he decides to write another book.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

From Goodreads:

Brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty insist they were commanded to kill by God. Krakauer's investigation is a meticulously researched, bone-chilling narrative of polygamy, savage violence and unyielding faith: an incisive, gripping work of non-fiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behaviour.

I've been wanting to read this book for AGES but I'm glad I didn't read it until now. It's mostly about polygamy but also includes some Mormon history that isn't particularly flattering. I don't know that I would have believed some of the history in this book until this year. Some people I'd been taught all my life to revere did some pretty sketchy stuff back in the day (I'm a lot more aware of that now, though).

I hesitate to say that I enjoyed this book- the subject matter is pretty awful- but...I enjoyed it. It was fascinating, especially as someone who comes from Mormon roots and has lived in Utah. I've read a few books about fundamentalism as well, so there were some familiar characters. Overall I thought Krakauer does a great job tying events together in such a way that helped explain people's actions and reactions. He weaves disparate tales about people and events together to create a cohesive narrative on polygamy and the history of violence among the saints (and their offshoot brethren).

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

From Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird comes a chronicle of faith and spirituality that is at once tough, personal, affectionate, wise and very funny. With an exuberant mix of passion, insight, and humor, Anne Lamott takes us on a journey through her often troubled past to illuminate her devout but quirky walk of faith. In a narrative spiced with stories and scripture, with diatribes, laughter, and tears, Lamott tells how, against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. She shows us the myriad ways in which this sustains and guides her, shining the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life and exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope. Whether writing about her family or her dreadlocks, sick children or old friends, the most religious women of her church or the men she's dated, Lamott reveals the hard-won wisdom gathered along her path to connectedness and liberation.

My friend RA recommended this one to me after a long series of emails between us about faith and the struggles I've had over the past four years. I hadn't heard of Anne Lamott but apparently she's actually kind of well known, which just goes to show you how much of a bubble I live in.

I found her memoir incredibly eye-opening. She has a deep Christian faith but she approaches it from the complete opposite direction of most of the uber-conservative religious types I know. She's a sort of hippie liberal with dreadlocks who is all about seeing Christ in the brokenness. I wonder if she ended up there because of how hard she had to work to get where she is. She was a drug addict who ended up a single mother in deep poverty. She accepts the brokenness in others because she sees it in herself and knows where it can take you.

Lots of good thinking came from this one.

Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some Things About Women and Notes on Media by Nora Ephron

From Goodreads:

Two classic collections of Nora Ephron’s uproarious essays—tackling everything from feminism to the media, from politics to beauty products, with her inimitable charm and distinctive wit—now available in one book for the first time.

This edition brings together some of Ephron’s most famous writing on a generation of women (and men) who helped shape the way we live now, and on events ranging from the Watergate scandal to the Pillsbury Bake-Off. In these sharp, hilariously entertaining, and vividly observed pieces, Ephron illuminates an era with wicked honesty and insight. From the famous “A Few Words About Breasts” to important pieces on her time working for the New York Post and Gourmet Magazine, these essays show Ephron at her very best.

I feel like I need to admit here and now that I apparently knew nothing about Nora Ephron. I mean, I knew she's the brains behind a bunch of truly fantastic chick flicks but that's about it. As it turns out, Nora Ephron has done a ton of writing in her career (especially for newspapers and magazines) and a lot of it was extremely feminist. She rubbed shoulders with Gloria Steinem in the 70s. She was hardcore, my friends. And a lot of her writing reflects that.

And so, this collection of essays was NOT at all what I was expecting. It was, however, deeply interesting. Most of the stuff here was written in the 70s but it's still incredibly relevant today. I listened to the audio book while doing some sewing and it was fantastic. I'm now even more of a fan.

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

From Goodreads:

This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

As a longtime fan of Allie's blog I was REALLY excited to discover that this book was available for immediate download as I sat in the terminal before boarding our flight to Virginia. I had sort of mixed feelings about it though, which made me sad. The very best stuff from the book can already be found on her blog (my favs are her bits about moving with dogs and going to a birthday party after having dental work done). The newer stuff was a little darker, which I'm sure reflects her recent bout with depression. I didn't LOVE it quite like I hoped I would, but it was still a perfectly pleasant way to pass the time on a very long day of flying.

FDR by Jean Edward Smith

Very shortened summary from Goodreads:

One of today’s premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In this superlative volume, Jean Edward Smith combines contemporary scholarship and a broad range of primary source material to provide an engrossing narrative of one of America’s greatest presidents.

This audiobook was about an hour shorter than the Oppenheimer beast I tackled in January but I loved it just as much (if not more?). I mentioned in my post about The Fault in Our Stars that history doesn't tend to elicit much emotion buuut this one kind of made me cry periodically. FDR was an amazing person. He did and said some incredibly inspiring things. The book described the book on Pearl Harbor then went on to talk about FDR's speech, which famously began, 
 

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried. It's such an amazing moment in history. SO MUCH of this book was comprised of amazing moments in history. The preface states that the 3 most important presidents in US history were Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. Now, having read (heard) about his life, I have to agree. FDR shaped the US as we know it now. He saved it from collapse during the depression. He was BFFs with Winston Churchill (need to add him to my bio list) and was the first US president to fly in an airplane. He rose above a serious physical handicap and inspired a nation. Pretty sure he's my new hero.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling

From Goodreads:

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?” 

If you're going to read a comedian's book and they have an audio version in which they narrate their own book- do that version. Listening to Mindy Kaling prattle on about her life for 4ish hours was the most pleasant possible way to get through my Saturday cleaning. She has that hilarious neo-valley girl way of speaking that sounds like she's just having a casual conversation with you over lunch. I feel like we're BFFs now.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine by Sue Monk Kidd

From Goodreads:


The acclaimed spiritual memoir from the author of The Secret Life of Bees
 
"I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised and, in fact, a little terrified when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening."
 
Sue Monk was a "conventionally religious, churchgoing woman, a traditional wife and mother" with a thriving career as a Christian writer until she began to question her role as a woman in her culture, her family, and her church. From a jarring encounter with sexism in a suburban drugstore to monastery retreats and rituals in the caves of Crete, Kidd takes readers through the fear, anger, healing, and transformation of her awakening. Retaining a meaningful connection "with the deep song of Christianity," she opens the door for traditional Christian women to discover a spirituality that speaks directly to them and provides inspiring wisdom for all who struggle to embrace their full humanity.

This book came as a recommendation from a woman I deeply admire (Aaron calls her my girl crush). She's been where I am and came out the other side full of peace and light. So when she recommended it and then I discovered that my library didn't carry it, I actually BOUGHT myself a copy. Something I do approximately...never.

I wish I could write separate reviews for each section of this book because they held varying values for me. The first section is called Awakening and I devoured it thinking, HOW DOES THIS WOMAN KNOW MY LIFE. She had words for things I experienced but couldn't articulate. She understood my difficulties, my discomfort, and my fears. It was a powerful feeling, knowing that I'm not even remotely alone. I highlighted this section all over the place, finding the words and inspiration I needed to make some hard decisions.

The second section, Initiation, took me a couple weeks to get through. There was so little about this part of her journey that I related to. I highlighted one single quote. I think that, perhaps, she had issues to work through that I didn't and that's why I didn't find the same kinship with the Initiation section. I also don't feel quite the same pull toward Goddess that she does. Especially not to the exclusion of my generally Christian understanding of deity. There has to be a happy medium.

I warily started into the third section, called Grounding. She continued to discuss things that held no resonance with me (I don't need to create my own ceremonies. I am not hippie enough for that, apparently) but I loved her discussions of the Divine Feminine. She talks about how She has manifested herself through the ages in varying religious traditions and even within the Bible (though She has been mostly scrubbed out in modern translations). There was a lot in the third section that felt eye-opening and important. I have a lot of processing to do with this section but I ultimately came out of it feeling deeply empowered. That there is power in being a woman and I have every right and responsibility to stand up for myself and my gender against that which denigrates or wounds.

The final section, Empowerment, felt a bit fluffy. I skimmed. It was sort of a rehash. I already FELT empowered, no need to beat the horse. Again, different women have different issues. She worked through her issues whereas I feel like I was already good to go.

I also couldn't help but feel her dreams were awfully convenient. How nice for her to dream in strong, clear, feminist symbols. I dream about showing up places in my underwear but I'm sure my white buffalo will show up any time.

While there was a lot that I couldn't relate to or that made me raise an eyebrow, overall this book had a hugely positive effect on me. There were specific lines or words in there that hit me like a shock to the brain. I felt strong and empowered as I read and greatly comforted that there are women who have walked this same path before.

I really wish, though, that she talked about balancing strong feminist sensibilities with Christianity. Instead, she sort of went the total opposite direction into ignoring God the Father in order to embrace the Goddess. I said this a few paragraphs up, but there has to be a happy medium. She helped me understand a LOT about myself and my experiences but she didn't lay a path I can follow. Guess I have to forge my own.

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

From Goodreads:

The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time.

Another book I'm reading included a fantastic quote from this book about women in the primitive church that really struck me so I hopped onto Overdrive and picked up the entire book. I'm so glad I did! I knew little to nothing about the gnostic gospels and even less about the gnostic branch of Christianity that didn't make it much past 200 AD. This is a great introductory type book if you're totally clueless- Pagels gives plenty of background and none of her analyses are too esoteric for the casual reader. 

I especially loved her discussion on the divine feminine, a subject of particular interest to me lately. She expounds a few different theories that were popular during early Christian times but have since been mostly quashed: a divine mother, a feminine holy spirit as the 3rd member of the Trinity, a dyadic god, and a few more pagan ideas that were adopted by some followers of gnosticism. All utterly fascinating. It was a LOT of new information- I kind of want to listen again!

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

From Goodreads:

American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, "father of the atomic bomb," the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation - one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say this is the longest non-fiction book I've ever read for fun. It is exhaustively detailed and impeccably researched. It clocks in at 725 pages in book form and TWENTY-SEVEN HOURS in audio form. Fortunately, due to double speed listening on the Overdrive app, I spent about half that working my way through.

I stopped in the middle of listening to this book in order to listen to Bomb, which ended up being kind of a funny coincidence of timing. They cover a lot of the same ground, though American Prometheus covers it much much MUCH more minutely while focusing exclusively on Oppenheimer rather than the Manhattan Project (and its people) as a whole. 

I also stopped toward the end to listen to Unbroken which was, again, a funny coincidence of timing. I've never been particularly interested in the WWII era but now I'm feeling like a bit of an expert.

Despite this book's exhaustive length I can honestly say I only felt bored briefly and infrequently. Bird and Sherwin move Oppenheimer's story along at a fairly fast clip and greatly humanize this god of science. They aptly illustrate his genius as well as the travesty that was his hearing in the 50s. This is a book I never would have looked twice at if not for the mention in Outliers but I'm really glad I picked it up.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

From Goodreads:

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.
...
In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

I've been hearing about this book for ages from just about everyone. For some reason I've been putting it off (as I often do when it comes to things everyone else raves about) but since I'm really making an effort to work through my "to read" list, I finally put it on hold. My hold happened to become available during a month when I've been reading all kinds of books about the WWII era so I felt like I was in a better position to wrap my mind around the story.  

I've read some really amazing books so far this year but this is a contender for one of the best. It's amazing what people can (and have) survived and also what some human beings are willing to do to others. Also, if I thought I was terrified of sharks before...

Anyway, Louis's story is one of courage, survival and redemption but also so much heartbreak. I feel like books like Unbroken are so important for helping people understand the true cost of war. It's not just uniforms and glory. There's a real human toll and it can be very steep. Even after he survived his ordeal on the raft and then years of abuse in Japanese camps, he went on fighting the war in his mind for years, slumping into depression and alcoholism before he finally found redemption and a measure of peace through God and forgiveness. A lovely ending to a rather terrifying tale.  

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor by Jana Riess

From Goodreads:

This wry memoir tackles twelve different spiritual practices in a quest to become more saintly, including fasting, fixed-hour prayer, the Jesus Prayer, gratitude, Sabbath-keeping, and generosity. Although Riess begins with great plans for success (“Really, how hard could that be?” she asks blithely at the start of her saint-making year), she finds to her growing humiliation that she is failing—not just at some of the practices, but at every single one. What emerges is a funny yet vulnerable story of the quest for spiritual perfection and the reality of spiritual failure, which turns out to be a valuable practice in and of itself. 

(I can't get the cover image to upload for some reason.)

I remember hearing about Flunking Sainthood when it came out a couple years ago. I kind of avoided it because the author is Mormon and...I dunno. I'm prejudiced against my own kind? As it turns out, though, Riess takes an almost non-denominational Christian approach to her year of attempting sainthood. She never mentions specifically that she's Mormon (although clues are there) but tries to embrace a wide variety of spiritual practices, teaching and writings. The end result is a comfortable hodge-podge of faiths that feels homey, familiar and inclusive. This is likely because she's a convert married to a non-member and has spent time in Benedictine monasteries after attending a religious seminary. If there's anyone who could write such a cross-denominational approach to faith, it's her.

I came away from Flunking Sainthood interested in trying religious practices outside my faith tradition. I'm all about finding different pathways to Christ and it sounds like she found some good ones. I'd also like to try being more grateful and less judgmental (especially since I often accuse people of being judgey. Oh the irony). Despite Riess's insistence that she "flunked" her project, I found the whole thing inspiring and uplifting.

Love Does by Bob Goff

From Goodreads:

Bob Goff has become something of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world's most delightfully engaging and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it's not the kind of love that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob's love takes action. Bob believes "Love Does."

When "Love Does," life gets interesting. Each day turns into a hilarious, whimsical, meaningful chance that makes faith simple and real. Each chapter is a story that forms a book, a life. And this is one life you don't want to miss.

Light and fun, unique and profound, the lessons drawn from Bob's life and attitude just might inspire you to be secretly incredible, too.
I picked this up because RA recommended it. I found a few parts a little slow but, for the most part, I felt really inspired. Goff is a great storyteller with some really fascinating life experiences behind him. He ties these experiences to how we can better do the work of God by being more kind, more loving, more willing to DO stuff.

The timing of reading this book was really interesting as I'm going through a bit of a faith journey myself, trying to work harder at just doing good things in Jesus' name rather than focusing so much on the the "fluff" and performances of organized religion. Goff validated my approach and made me feel good about the path I'm taking.

Two quotes that I wrote down early on (before I forgot about writing stuff down and just focused on reading)-

[Talking about his friend Randy] "He was committed to me and he believed in me. I wasn't a project; I was his friend. I wondered if maybe all Christians operated this way. I didn't think so, because most of them I had met up until that time were kind of wimpy and seemed to have more opinions about what or who they were against than who they were for."

"To me, Jesus sounded like an ordinary guy who was utterly amazing. He helped people. He figured out what they really needed and tried to point them toward that. He healed people who were hurting. He spent time with the kinds of people most of us spend our lives avoiding. It didn't seem to matter to Jesus who these people were because He was all about engagement." 

I just saw that RA recommended reading a section a day rather than reading all 31 sections straight. Now that I've finished the book I really wish I had taken that approach. It allows a little more space for pondering and implementation.

Naked by David Sedaris

From Goodreads:

Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview-a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion; a family gathers for a wedding in the face of imminent death. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without doubt one of the freshest in American writing.

I always enjoy David Sedaris's writing. This one is a little darker than his normal fare, dealing with his compulsive tendencies as a child and his mother's lung cancer (at one point I was like, "I'm not sure this is supposed to be funny?") but his trademark wit is still there. I listened to the audio book version, which he always narrates his books himself. It helps a lot to have him reading his own writing, especially when dealing with the darker humor. He injects lightness into the writing that I'm not sure I would have picked up on if I was reading it on the page. 

Not my favorite of his but still worth the time. 

Bomb: The Race to Build- and Steal- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

From Goodreads:

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

The timing of this book becoming available was kind of funny since I'm also in the middle of American Prometheus, a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

This book is so fantastically well researched and written. It makes the subject matter a bit more palatable but I still found myself fairly emotional when Sheinkin got to the bombing of Hiroshima. It's a horrifying period in our national history and the epilogue, which discusses the consequences of using today's significantly more powerful atomic weapons, was quite sobering. 

That being said, it's one of the best nonfiction books I've read in a long time.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

From Goodreads:

Strong-willed and independent, Rachel Held Evans couldn't sew a button on a blouse before she embarked on a radical life experiment--a year of biblical womanhood. Intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.

Someone mentioned on Facebook that the Kindle edition of this book was $2.99. I was in the middle of waiting for any one of my many holds to become available so I went and snapped it up.

Rachel (we're on a first name basis) alternates between silly and serious with ease. She talks about doing penance on her rooftop with a bit of a smirk then a few pages later talks seriously about the darker tales of women in the bible and now we must not forget them. She strikes a fine balance between reverence for the Bible and all that it represents for millions of people while also poking fun at some of it's outdated culturally based proclamations. This project could have gone very wrong (too religious, not religious enough) but she handled it so well. 

I particularly loved the story of her visit to Bolivia. I just finished Half the Sky myself so I knew exactly what she was feeling as she talked about wanting to DO something for our sisters around the world who are hurting, oppressed, and struggling. 

It also made me realize how crappy my knowledge of the Bible is. She referenced women and stories I am only vaguely familiar with, if at all. I should really make an effort this year to read the Bible, especially now that Rachel has given the stories such an interesting perspective!

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

From Goodreads:

The most successful may not be the smartest or hardest working. Shift rather to where they are from. What is their culture, family, generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing? Where and when were they born? From Asian maths students to the British Beatles, stereotypes can be addressed through different eyes.

I'm very much a fiction fan and it's rare that I find a nonfiction book riveting but I couldn't put Outliers down. I ended up telling Aaron about it almost every chance I got because it was so darn fascinating and I was sure he would think so too. It was interesting to find applications to people I know as well. I know more than one person who, by all accounts, SHOULD be doing ridiculously well. They've got the education and work ethic and everything else that should add up to serious success story but, due to factors outside their control, they can't seem to catch a break. Whereas there are others in my life who are incredibly successful due to a lot of the factors that Gladwell talks about. So so interesting.

End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James Swanson

From Goodreads:

In End of Days, James L. Swanson, the New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, brings to life the minute-by-minute details of the JFK assassination—from the Kennedys' arrival in Texas through the shooting in Dealey Plaza and the shocking aftermath that continues to reverberate in our national consciousness fifty years later.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has been the subject of enduring debate, speculation, and numerous conspiracy theories, but Swanson's absorbing and complete account follows the event hour-by-hour, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald conceived of the crime three days before its execution, to his own murder two days later at a Dallas Police precinct at the hands of Jack Ruby, a two-bit nightclub owner.

Based on sweeping research never before collected so powerfully in a single volume, and illustrated with photographs, End of Days distills Kennedy's assassination into a pulse-pounding thriller that is sure to become the definitive popular account of this historic crime for years to come.

I have been a fan of James Swanson since seeing him speak a few years ago at the National Book Festival in Washington DC. I devoured his book about the assassination of Lincoln and was really stoked to read this one about JFK, a story I don't know all that much about.

However, I found most of this book rather disappointing. It was overly long, needlessly dramatic for the first half (the story itself has plenty of drama on its own without practically adding an implied "dun dun DUN!" after every paragraph). Things got much better about halfway through, though. His coverage of the actual shooting and immediate aftermath was heartrending (I bawled as he described Jackie's refusal to let go of her husband's body). His writing of the scene where Lyndon Johnson took the oath of the president aboard Air Force One was poignant and befitting the solemn occasion. 

The thing I came away with at the end was that Jackie is the real hero of this story. Her strength and poise through an extremely difficult time was incredibly inspiring. 

This book definitely had its difficulties (he devoted an entire page to "what ifs." Really?) but it redeemed itself in the end and I'm glad I persevered.