Book Reviews

If it seems like there's suddenly a lot of book reviews on this blog, it's because I've hit one of those book gluts. As author Marybeth Whalen says, "[authors/readers] go through spells with [their] reading-- dry spells where [they] have nothing to read... and [they] get quite sulky about it too... or deluge seasons where [they] don't have time to read everything [they] want to read."

When you're in a dry spell, you ask everyone you can find what they're reading - or what they've finished reading and can lend you! In a deluge, you share what you're reading because it speaks to you and you can't help but want to tell everyone else about it!

So I'll try to keep it brief. The Go-Giver is the prequel to the previous mentioned Go-Givers Sell More. I am pleased to announce it is every bit as wonderful as it's sequel and I highly recommend it. It may change how you look at life.

Also up for review today was Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. This one I honestly didn't finish, but started reading and then enjoyed an excellent discussion on at Barnes & Noble's Moving Beyond Racism Book Group last night. It was a complex book; stylisticly it could be described as an elitist version of Kabul Beauty School. I appreciated that the author purposely made her characters composites of several people rather than identifiable references to the individuals involved; I believe in such situations that basic courtesy cannot be over- applauded. Although there were some excellent themes and threads throughout the work that I would like to explore further (e.g. how human beings respond to/cope with extreme repression), I didn't feel that this was necessarily the best avenue for pursuing them. I much preferred Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, as it observed a much broader spectrum of the width and depth of human interaction in circumstances similar to those in RLIT rather than focusing in detail on one form of response as did the latter. Still, it was a well written book and certainly a good option for anyone looking for a change of pace, a unique perspective or a window into other world views.