The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks

Some book titles just beg you to read them, even if you have no idea what they're about. This was one of those books for me - but it turned out to be about a very timely topic for me. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is filled with clinical tales about patients with neurological and neuropsychological impairments. Sacks presents his case studies, along with varying degrees of information about what was "wrong" with these individuals. Often times, however, it appears that there are no solutions to the maladies, and Sacks's patients are left to try and cope in their turned upside-down world. As I was reading this book, I found myself wishing that I had more of a basic background on the biology of the brain and what functions different parts of the brain are responsible for. While Sacks will explain that his patient suffers from frontal lobe damage, he does not explain why or how this would lead to the symptoms he has observed. The back of the book also describe Sacks as telling these stories with compasion and an understanding of the suffering of his patients, but I didn't really find this to be true. His approach to his patients often seemed overly blunt, or almost mocking (sometimes he acknowledges this) - and while it is obvious from the descriptions of his patients how horrible many of their symptoms are, I didn't feel as if there was a placing of the patients into the larger context of their lives. Sacks might comment that a given individual had learned to deal with the condition, or become depressed because of it, or simply remained in the constant care of a hospital, but I often found myself wanting to know more. Without this additional information, I began to feel as if the book were no more than a salacious detailing of freaks in our society -and I do not think this is the result anyone, including Sacks, wanted his reader to have. Luckily for me, the day after I finished reading this book, I had an all day training at work - by a psychiatrist who gave a lecture on the basic biology of the brain, neurological disorders, and testing that can be done to determine whether neurological damage exists. After the lecture, I went back and re-read a couple chapters of the book - and having a better background did help. This book is an interesting introduction into neuropsychology, the complexity of the brain, and how many strange things can happen for inexplicable reasons. Given how complex and delicate the brain is, it certainly made me wonder why more of us don't have neurological problems. Or, maybe we all do, and we've just found good ways to mask them.

Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore

I've been having a frustrating week of reading. I've started about five different books, read 20-50 pages of each, and not been able to get into anything. When this happens, I try to go back to a trusted author - just so I can read something I know I'll finish - even if it might not be a masterpiece. So, I decided to check out another Christopher Moore vampire novel to get my reading back on track. I have a hard time paying attention to when books were published and in what order, but Bloodsucking Fiends appears to be the prequel to You Suck and A Dirty Job - both of which I really enjoyed. Bloodsucking Fiends takes place in San Francisco and tells the story of Jody, who has just been turned into a vampire and is trying to come to terms with who she is and what exactly all her powers are. She links up with C. Thomas Flood, a recent transplant to the Bay Area who is looking for a place to live and is ripe for falling in love with a gorgeous creature of the night. As a background to the subsequent novels, this wasn't bad, but on its own, I don't think it would have encouraged me to read much more of Moore's novels had it been the first one I'd picked up. Given my experience with this one, and his first novel Practical Magickeeping, I think I'm going to stick to Moore's more recent work.

Inheritance - Natalie Danford

Many years ago I read Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. I absolutely loved it. What I found particularly clever at the time was that Kingsolver wrote the chapters from the different perspectives of the members of the missionary family. The idea of the same story or parts of a story being told by different people at different times was novel to me. I later learned in college that Virginia Woolf was a pioneer of this "literary cubism." But, lately, this idea of breaking up books - telling one part of the story in the odd chapters and the other part in the even chapters - or whatever the case, has really been getting on my nerves. I feel like I'll just get into one time period or character and all of a sudden the author jumps me to a generation later or earlier. Inheritance begins as the story of an Italian immigrant who has lived in the United States for years and who finally gets married and has a daughter. The story then jumps to years later when the man passes away and his daughter travels to a small town in Italy to follow-up a deed she found among her father's possessions. The small town is aflutter with gossip about the deed, and the woman slowly learns (or believes she is learning) truths about her father's life and the reasons he came to America in the first place. The story itself is intriguing, though the character of the daughter is quite self-centered. But, the shifting back and forth between the father's past and the daughter in the present time was too much for me. I felt like I was reading two different books, and I wasn't sure I liked either one. The idea that the stories rumbling around the Italian small town aren't quite right was also a little too predictable. I think this book caught me at a bad time and I just wanted in the mood for the style. It is, however, well written and a nice story about the immigrant experience in America - and that even though they say you can never go home again, sometimes it's better that way.

The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly

My friend Rob is getting his PhD in history at UVA - but when he's taking a break from his dissertation, he is a good source of information about the current presidential campaign, blockbuster movies, and books about lawyers. He recommended this one to me - the story of Mickey Haller, a jaded criminal defense attorney who takes on the case of a wealthy real estate agent accused of a brutal assault and attempted murder. The prosecution's case is almost too much of a slam dunk and Haller suspects a set-up. While investigating the case, he finds strange parallels to a former client, currently locked-up for life in San Quentin. With a little help from his DA ex-wife and a little shifty lawyering, Haller sets out to discover the truth about his not-so-innocent client. Just like with Law & Order, there were definitely a lot of, "that would never happen in real life" moments in this book - but that being said, I never miss an episode of Law & Order (or SVU or Criminal Intent). The mystery in this one also wrapped up a little too quickly in the end, but there were some great courtroom cross-examinations, and excellent twists. I would have liked to learn a little bit more about the background and motivations of Haller's real estate client, but those issues aside - as far as pychological legal thrillers go, this one was top-notch.

Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King

In 1419, there was a competition to see who could design a dome for the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence. The top two contenders were Filippo Brunelleschi and his rival Lorenzo Ghiberti (famous for his "Gates of Paradise") Brunelleschi, supported by the Medicis, won the commission and this book tells the story of Brunelleschi's rise to the top, and his sturggle to carry out his designs over the following 30 years. The architectual details were a bit overwhelming for me - but for a reader with a bit more knowledge than I (and anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting Florence) - I am sure it all is all just astounding to discover how Brunelleshi came up with such innovative and ingenious ideas - and how he managed to move so many tons of bricks without moden day machinery. I, however, was more interested in the backstory between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. I find the Renaissance artists so fascinating - they are all supreme divas, but so much under the control of their wealthy sponsors. If they lived now, I am sure they would trump Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears for the cover of US Weekly. I loved this book, simply because it was about something so different. But, I would have preferred a little more gossip and a little less trigonometry.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Moshin Hamid

Changez, a Pakistani man, notices an American at a cafe (in Pakistan) and under the guise (or reality?) of hoping to assist the man with his order or other enjoyment of what this strange country has to offer, sits down along-side him and begins a one-sided conversation. The cues and questions from Changez reveal that his companion is not entirely comfortable with the situation, but sits through the ordeal nonetheless. Changez relates his experiences in America - at the top of his class at Princeton and onto a prestigious financial services job. He falls desperately in love with the unattainable and almost ghostly Erica. Then September 11th hits, and Changez finds himself even more the outsider than he's always felt. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like the style of this novel - Changez as a character is very awkward - and it reminded me of traveling in Turkey when people were forever coming up to us with stories, trying to prove to us that they were American enough to then sell us a rug or other amazing tale of deception. For this reason, I immediately didn't trust Changez - a reaction that perhaps reveals the streotype Hamid is playing on with prejudices and differences. Changez's relationship with Erica is also one-sided. He bends over backwards for a woman who will never be emotionally available to him and will only continue to take from the relationship. In this way, I felt the relationship was a powerful metaphor for Changez's immigrant status in the United States. Ultimately, I found the one-sided conversation very clever, you could feel the impatience and reluctance of the American listener, and I found myself reading faster and faster to overcome the discomfort and figure out where it was all leading. The ending is disturbingly ambiguous - which I usually don't like - but felt Hamid developed masterfully. Hamid truly captures the distrust of many after 9/11 for those who look different (and aren't necessarily even Middle Eastern), while at the same time demonstrating what this treatment does to the people who are being distrusted - and the vicious circle this behavior creates. Very rarely do I find a book where I enjoy both the actual story being told, and an innovative narrative technique. Hamid gave me both - and left me with a lot of things to think about after it was all done. I've had his previous novel Moth Smoke on my shelves for years - and now have great incentive to get to it.

Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk will be the death of me. Every time I hear he has a new book out, I rush right out to buy it - or in this case - straight to the library. He has a unique writing style - all his characters speak the same way - yet, they're very real and always a little inappropriate. This time, Palahniuk takes the inappropriateness to the next level. In Snuff, porn-star Cassie Wright seeks to break the on-screen record for serial fornication. Six hundred men volunteer to be her partners, each with his assigned number written in marker on his arm - and visible for the camera. The chapters of the book are told from the perspective of several of the men, as well as Sheila, the producer behind the camera. Each man has his own reason for wanting to be part of history, and as one would expect, their stories by the end come together. Given the title of the book, I suspected that Cassie would die during the filming of the movie, but of course, not without classic Palahniuk confusions, twists, and turns. While this book had all of the trademark Palahniuk story-telling conventions that I love and that make him one of the best modern story-tellers, the subject matter was a bit too much, and ultimately, this one just didn't do it for me.