Stuff I’ve Read During The Peace Corps Book List:
(And yeah, I go in increments of .25, my blog, my rules)
1.
Kitchen Confidential 4.5/5 stars
a.
Stupid honest and will either make you want to
run far the hell away, or straight towards, the restaurant business. Very, very
honest, and pretty dirty.
2.
Born on a Blue Day 4.25/5 stars
a.
Ausbergers savant who holds the European record
for reciting digits of pie; stories from his life. Really beautiful insight and
very accessible in its text.
3.
Someone Knows My Name 3.5/5 stars
a.
Great
story about a girl who is stolen from her home in Africa and shipped in a
slaver to America prior to Revolutionary War. The book is wonderfully written
and follows her story across oceans and back. Lags a bit about ¾ of the way in,
but it picks up real quick.
4.
The Help 4.75/5 stars
a.
AWESOME BOOK! AWESOME MOVIE! You got it.
5.
The Marriage Pact 3/5 stars
a.
Easy read, vaguely entertaining, nice when you
don’t want to think.
6.
Game of Thrones 3.25/5 stars
a.
I don’t know whether or not I ruined this book
for myself because I watched the TV show first. Good, but hard to get through
so many words when you know what it coming.
7.
The Whole Pregnancy Handbook -/5
a.
Not going to give this one a rating since I am
reading material like this for work. This is about 500 pages on everything you
could want to know about having a baby. It’s focused mostly on PNC, and also
has some informative chapters on midwifery, and “alternative” birthing plans.
Not a bad read but I wouldn’t suggest a cover to cover go through unless you
are trying to educate yourself.
8.
Kiss Me Like a Stranger 3.75/5 stars
a.
Gene Wilder is freaking nuts, and though there
are some slower parts in this book, mostly it is just going to make you laugh
and want to watch his movies.
9.
Clash of Kings 3/5 stars
a.
I think the biggest problem with this series
(aside from its wordiness) is that you grow really attached to certain
characters and not as much to others. The issue comes up with the fact that
there are a ton of characters so you have to wait a really long time in order
to get back to the ones you actually want to read about.
10.
No Horizon So Far 4.25/5
a.
Awesome account of the first successful crossing
on Antarctica by women. Great book, if not a little slow at points. Very
inspirational and resonated with me a lot as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
11.
1984 3.5/5
a.
So I thought I would have a soft spot for this
one since I love “dystopia” novels/ stories so much, and for the most part this
book delivered, but I guess there were parts that were just a bit harder to get
through. Super happy I didn’t read this in high school.
12.
Absolutely Faking It 3/5
a.
She is a little self conscious and a little
whinny but I admire her traveling abilities and also how she describes the
places that she is going. Makes me want to go to lots of the destinations she
writes about.
13.
A Killer Life 4/5
a.
Autobio of Christine Vechon, and how she started
and runs Killer Films. Makes you want to get into the movie business and even though
the technical explanations are a bit sticky to get through to an outsider, it
was totally worth the two day marathon read.
14.
50 Shades of Grey 1.5/5
a.
WARNING EXPLICIT REVIEW: Yeah...so this is
literature erotica, and that isn’t exactly a bad thing but the writer uses the
same damn word choices in every single sexual encounter, and there are a lot of
sexual encounters in this book. It seemed to me like it was almost exactly like
Twilight, but with a ton of screwing
and even less plot. Wasn’t a big fan, not sure if I am even going to spend the
time downloading the second book.
15.
The Wisdom of Whores 4.25/5
a.
Peeps, if you want to go into development work
or HIV/AIDS relief of ANY KIND, you need to read this book and you need to have
picked it up yesterday. I skimmed and quoted bits of this for a senior thesis
paper but only read it cover to cover after my good friend Mignon lent me her
copy. It focuses on AIDS relief efforts in Asia and is just astounding.
16.
Storm of Swords 3.75/5
a.
Don’t know why but I liked this book more than I
liked the first two in the series. Things really start heating up and you kinda
feel like you are getting to the meat of things.
17.
Into Thin Air 4.5/5
a.
This is an amazing book that chronicles the 1996
Everest disaster by a man who was there. Not only does the author throw in
really interesting side stories about the mountain but he takes into account
the other expeditions on the mountain at the time. It is heart breaking, and
also wonderfully inspiring. I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!
18.
In Buddha’s Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked,
and Other Adventures in a Meditation Center By: Kimberley Snow 4.5/5
a.
Great book, autobio type dealio, and just
wonderfully written all around. Not too long of a book, but I loved every
second of it and it really got me thinking about different ways to approach
life. I have a few quotes I plan on sticking to my wall from this, and I would
recommend everyone read it.
19.
Boy 3.5/5
a.
This is Roald Dahl’s account of particular
instances during his childhood. It was pretty good, very laid back read, and it
was wonderfully interesting seeing how events when he was younger directly
rafted some of the stories he wrote when he was older.
No comments:
Post a Comment