The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

Reading Level: Adult Fiction
Submitted by Gerti

I started to read this book because I had heard it was sort of Indian "Pride and Prejudice," which is a book by one of my favorite authors.  And I can see how such a comparison can be drawn-as Aruna, the clerk at the eponymous Marriage bureau, is poor, but of noble (Brahmin) birth, and she falls in love with a rich Brahmin boy, but the two books only intersect in their focus occasionally, and are not that similar.

In this book, the focus is really on Mr. Hyder Ali, a retired civil servant who desires not to annoy his wife during his free time, so he starts a match-making business in South India.  He is a Muslim, but in the new India portrayed in this novel, that is of less interest than it would have been a half century ago.  He has clients who are Muslim, Christian, and Hindus, and in one of the final scenes of the book, one of his neighbors comments exactly on the change that country has undergone, where Muslims and Christians can attend a wedding of a Brahmin couple and nothing seems amiss.  It is an amazing transformation!

The novel lays out the conflict between old India and new, where old India is represented by the parents who seek to match their children with others of their caste.  But it also shows how the younger generation has changed: various clients are divorced and seek a match, and others do not care about the caste of their future spouses.  What seems to be the top priority in the matches Ali makes is money, and perhaps in that, the novel pairs up well with Jane Austen's British classic.  The novel, however, is larger in scope, spending more time dealing with the issues between Indian citizens and their government, than Austen even did.

The charm of this novel comes from the dialogue, as the irrepressible Mr. ali interacts so well with his equally likeable spouse, his many clients and neighbors.  Like Austen, it describes a specific place in time, as Mr. Ali carries on a normal life rarely seen by us in the West, going to ethnic weddings or buying mangos from street vendors.  And although this book is modern, it still has the Austenian virtue of taking the reader to another world, this one many thousand miles rather than centuries away.  And it is a fascinating world, as the final "essays" which describe the cast system, the scenery, religions and languages in depth clearly show.  I only wish those chapters had come earlier, as I didn't even realize that the word for "father" or "mother" was different in Urdu and Teluga, the 2 languages of the main characters here.

In short, I was thoroughly charmed by the characters, especially Mr. Ali and his wife.  However, I think for an American audience, reading Mrs. Ali's essays (written as she is trying to perfect her English) at the end of the book would be a better introduction to the world the author shows so beautifully.  The book is like a good first date-you wish it would go on forever!

Reading Level: Adult
Submitted by Gerti

Place a hold for the book Here

I bought this book by Michael Crichton from the library book room, mainly on the power of Crichton's name, but also because I didn't realize it was fiction.  The cover screams a number of interesting questions-"Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blonde's becoming extinct?" And it seemed like a non-fiction study of these issues, and others.  (I think the cover we have from the catalog is different than the cover she purchased)

Instead, this book is a hodge-podge of ideas like those that Crichton attempts to knit into a cohesive story.  And from the first, I wondered if he were not perhaps just jotting down interesting ideas, and waiting for some screenwriter to knit them into a cohesive story, because although Crichton brings some of the characters and disparate story lines together by the end, it seems more like a patch job than something he intended from the beginning.

Some of the characters include: talking parrots, monkey children, lawyers, bounty hunters, scientists, CEO's, security guards, pet shop boys and the head of the NIH.  If it sounds scattershot, it is, and each scene contains new characters and issues, until I felt like I needed a score card to tell the people and plot lines apart.  Now I know I'm getting older and was never good at puzzles to start with, but this seemed like a hot mess and not in a good way.  I've read Crichton before and not had the problem of keeping characters straight, especially when I read the whole book in just a few days.  Some of the issues he touches on-including the morality of owning genes, and the small number of different genes between humans and other animals (like parrots), are fascinating ones.  But the whole thing could have used an editor to put the central theme into focus.

Big Data by Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger and Kenneth Cukier

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Submitted by Gerti

If you want to know what this book is about, you have to read the reviews on the back cover, as they are brilliant summaries of what the notion of "Big Data" encompasses.  They include blurbs from Marc Benioff, the chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, a major American computer company, and Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor.  The quote I like the best, though, is from a person named Clay Shirky, who says, "Just as water is wet in a way that individual water molecules aren't, big data can reveal information in a way  that individual bits of data can't."  that clarifies things for my non-scientific mind.

It was not an easy book to read, as I'm not a computer science major, or even someone who's read a computer textbook before.  But it is fascinating, as it brings into focus how computers and the information they crunch are effecting personal privacy and our understanding of life in general.  The first example of Big Data the two authors use is how Google knew about what areas of the US were being hit by a flu outbreak, based on what their users were searching for.  I'm not bothered by Google holding on to that information if the result is potentially a way the government and its health organizations can keep track of the spread of a disease.  However, the authors here highlight the darker side of that information-that knowing who looks up flu might someday lead Google to telling the government which people should be quarantined, especially if we ever ran across a "black plague" type situation.  This happens in horror movies about zombies, where sometimes healthy people are held back with the infected ones, and while that is obviously scary, it is clearly fictional.  This book implies that a similar situation, involving a very real disease outbreak, could well occur, especially if someone is watching what you search for on your computer or listening to what you say on your cell phone.

I like how the pair of authors point to examples where government information gathering has been used in negative ways even in the past, for example, how Census data helped the US government put Japanese citizens into internment camps during World War II.  But the two men also show the upside of gathering Big Data-how companies like Amazon show you what books you might be interested in buying today based on your past purchases.  I was just pleased today at how E-Bay was doing the same think for me when I logged in this morning.

Is it worth reading?  Yes-I will even purchase it for my home library.  I also hope to buy a few extra copies for friends of mine who work in the computer industry, as the book points out some lucrative "Big Data" job opportunities in the near future.  But like the authors, I also worry about how the vast collections of personal information may someday effect our lives in a negative way.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Reading Level: Young Adult

Submitted by Gerti

I’m not sure if this book is supposed to be for adults or young adults, but John Green’s “An Abundance of Katherines” has a charming pre-college narrator who has a bright, contemporary voice. His tortured tales of teen romance took me back to my own glory days. Colin Singleton is a child prodigy who is working hard on becoming a genius, and in his spare time, he romances 18 different women with the same first name. That is just one of the quirks about Colin that makes him such a delightful narrator, even though he is busy trying to survive his breakup with Katherine 19. It’s that breakup that precipitates a road trip of self discovery, as he and his best (only) friend Hassan head down I-65 from Chicago to take Colin’s mind off his heart.

Colin spends his time (while trying not to focus on his latest breakup) by coming up with a mathematical formula that will predict the course of any relationship, based on such factors as a person’s sex, and whether the person asking is more likely to be the dumper or the dumpee when it all falls apart. In the tiny roadside berg of Gutshot,Tennessee, Colin and Hassan meet an equally charming and quirky girl named Lindsey who shows them the grave of Franz Ferdinand, the famous Hapsburg whose assassination in 1914 lead to the start of World War I. When her mother offers them a summer job interviewing the locals to help her write a history of the town, the boys decide to stay.

Of course, Colin falls in love with the girl who by virtue of being a Lindsey breaks him out of his Katherine rut. He also comes out of his geeky, fame-driven shell and does things he could never imagine doing before during his sheltered and dysfunctional upbringing, like wild hog hunting with a 12-gage shotgun. Hassan, who is a Muslim, also does a number of things that are not haram, including kissing a girl and drinking beer. So at its heart, this is a coming of age novel involving both of the boys, which is certainly a classic form when writing about teens. But as opposed to reading something by a dead author like Thomas Mann, this bildungsroman is as light and fluffy as meringue and as contemporary as a gluten allergy. In fact, so many of Green’s characters grow and change during this novel that it is as refreshing as a hit of wasabi as we watch these characters to whom we’ve formed an attachment become more alive and real every minute. You almost expect them to step off the page and show up outside your door, ready to eat cheeseburgers and watch Judge Judy.

I don’t know what the Printz medal is, but after having read this book, I fully believe that John Green deserved to win it with this charming, easy-to-read novel that will take all its readers to the heart of what it means to be young, smart and in love. I can’t wait to read more by Green, and imagine that this book is destined to become a movie.

Just so you know the Printz medal: The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit, each year.  To read more about it click Here

Eva by Peter Dickinson

Reading Level: Young Adult
Submitted by Gerti

I read this book because it is assigned reading for my kids’ school. Though eco-science fiction is not a genre I would usually read, it fits in with their goal of teaching middle schoolers about ecology and overpopulation in today’s world. Author Peter Dickinson has set his narrative in a different world (perhaps a future earth?) in which man has destroyed the planet, so that there are only small areas of the globe where the surviving species can live. Not all species have survived to this time, but among those still in existence (mainly due to their use as experimental animals) are chimps, and this story revolves around a chimp research scientist, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter.

The scientist and his family (along with a few chimps) are involved in a terrible accident before the book starts, and the tragic result is that his daughter’s body has been destroyed. To save her “life”, her brain is transplanted into the body of a young female chimp, “Kelly”. So the first few chapters of the book involve the daughter – Eva Adamson – and her brain’s merger and acceptance of her new simian body. We meet various characters, all of whom have different motivations for making this first-of-its-kind experiment successful, including other doctors and researchers, as well as television producers and a juice company who adopts Eva as their living logo. Dickinson also makes up some new vocabulary for this “other world,” and that’s one of the places where the book falls flat for me.

So Eva becomes a “shaper” celebrity, and although she tries to go back to her earlier lifestyle of school, friends and family, it is the chimp society that really draws her interest. Over her mother’s objections, Eva begins to spend more and more time with the animals, and finally begins to adopt a leadership position in their society. A friendly producer named Grog helps a small group of chimps migrate to an island to shot natural footage for a planned “shaper” show. But when a storm rolls in, Eva and her group use the bad weather to escape to another part of the island, away from cameras and people. The book ends with Eva’s daughter and granddaughter chimps coming to see her before she dies, having lived many years in the wild.

The back cover calls this book “Daring! Mesmerizing! Riveting!” and that language is a little strong. While the plot is interesting, and the writing is sometimes clever, it is an imperfect book whose message is more important than its medium. Dickinson would have been just as well served leaving out words like “shaper” and just using our current TV technology to make his point. There is no great technological leap in his world, as people are still using cars, boats and helicopters to get around, children are still going to schools, and adults still have jobs, so the world is not that different. However, “Eva” does inspire questions about the nature of research and using animals for experiments, and for that reason, it would be appropriate to teach a middle school audience.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith

Reading Level: Adult

Submitted by Gerti

I’ve read Steve Hockensmith’s “Dawn of the Dreadfuls” twice now, but it has enough witty language and raunchy humor in it to make for an entertaining trip even the second time through. While there are some parts I find annoying (mostly the training with the Master and his dand-baithaks), the characters remain so true to the Jane Austen original (“Pride and Prejudice”) that it is a delight to revisit them even under these unfortunate, near-apocalyptic circumstances.

The protagonist in this book, like in the classic English novel “Pride and Prejudice”, is Elizabeth Bennet, the 2^nd oldest daughter of a man who, we learn here, is skilled in the art of killing zombies. Only a polite person does not use the “zed word” in at this time period, so they are called dreadfuls or unmentionables. Except they need to be mentioned frequently, as even the quiet countryside of Meryton is being overrun by the undead. Because of Mr. Bennet’s connection to the previous war against zombies, he is able to send to the war office for help for his small community after a man cut is half by a carriage refuses to remain dead, shocking the mourners during his funeral. Mr. Bennet is also forced to begin training his 5 daughters in some Oriental arts in order to defend their home and neighbors against the zombie hordes to come, even if it does get them uninvited to parties.

Like in Austen’s original, the eldest daughter Jane is beautiful and sensitive. Her younger sisters, Mary, Lydia and Kitty, retain their quiet and boy-crazy personalities, respectively. It is delightful to see how each girl reacts to the zombies… and though nothing in Austen’s time could have prepared that author for such a situation, Hockensmith handles the girls antics and dialogue how Austen would have. Master Hawksworth comes from the east to help training the Bennet girls, but when he develops a crush on Elizabeth, his true cowardly nature comes to the fore. She finds a second suitor when crazed scientist Dr. Keckilpenny seeks to end the zombie scourge through research, with her help.

Even Mrs. Bennet, remembered for her match-making blather which caused so much embarrassment in “Pride and Prejudice,” has a romance here in “Dawn of the Dreadfuls” when her old beau Captain Cannon comes to town. He has lost all his arms and legs in the previous zombie war, but is wheeled around by 2 fellows he calls his limbs. Yes, much of this book is wildly funny and crazy, but it retains some of the wit of the original, and in that, it is miles above many of the Austen retakes I’ve read. “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is brilliant because it uses mostly Austen’s text, with the word “zombie” added to each page. Hockensmith’s sendup is a devilishly clever prequel to that book, and well worth you reading it too!

Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Submitted by Gerti

With a title like that, how could I refuse this book?  I did not know that Lincoln's mother had been killed by a weed found on their Indiana farm!  But I also didn't know that one of the boys in my daughters school could get his hands ruined (and miss a school trip!) because he had been squeezing limes, and then went out in the sun.  It's in here, too!  And I thought I had it bad when I had to cut onions!

I won't call this a good book, but "Wicked Plants" is a book full of strange and unusual facts that if you are anything like me, you won't know about plants either.  I like that the plants are arranged alphabetically, and that there is a tab on the upper right corner of the page that indicates whether a plant fits categories, like "deadly" or "illegal."  My only quibble is that there are no actual full color pictures of plants, but instead drawings of the plants, which make it hard to distinguish scale and color.  I wouldn't want to try to identify poison ivy based on one of these drawings!

I am also but off by the collection of really bizarre pictures in the book that I can't even quantify. Perhaps they only occur in the chapters on illegal and psychedelic plants, but they are disturbing to say the least.  People with leaves growing out of their head are the mildest form.  Others have limbs growing out of other places, and it's just plain weird.  Despite their obvious artistic merit, I would have preferred a nice glossy photo of what the plant and its variations really look like than either the botanical illustrations or trippy etchings.

Is it worth reading? Yes, it's probably even worth purchasing for the home library, since it talks about how dangerous your carrots, limes, and potatoes can be, as well as those lovey things that grow out in the garden called flowers.  I think it's good information to have if you have kids or pets who could be hurt by eating things you didn't even know were dangerous, and therefore planted in your yard or flower box for their pretty color or smell.  Frankly, I was astonished by how many plants are "wicked," as author Amy Stewart call them.  As she says in her intro, I naively thought the natural world was benign, but it is downright scary out there!  This book makes me glad that I spend most of my time indoors!