The Tiger

A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

by John Vaillant

Quickie Recap: A literal man-eating tiger is stalking a village and they've called in the big guns to get rid of it before it can make another meal of human meat. This tiger is not just any man-eating tiger - it has a beef with these people, and it seems pretty intent on making good on its grudge.

Quickie Review: Interesting fact about tigers? Once they eat human flesh, they can't get enough of it. Oh yeah, you'll learn stuff while reading this book. Actual stuff. This book conveys a real sense of hunting and being hunted; the hair on the back of your neck will not get a rest for days.

Quickie Recommendation: Depends on what your gore factor is. If you have the stomach for it, go for it.

The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy

by Yves Engler.

Quickie Recap: While at a Propaghandi show in Toronto, the band promoted Engler's book and my mates took it upon themselves to order me a copy for my birthday (thanks, boys!). Engler writes to expose the foreign policy myths engineered by the government and believed by the citizens - namely that we are peacekeepers well-respected throughout the world.

Quickie Review: It is important to remember that such subversive material is probably being printed by a small, brave press and so tolerance toward typos and other mistakes needs to be exercised. Engler obviously goes out of his way to do an enormous amount of research and for that reason alone I feel that this is an important book for Canadians to have read. There is a bias in our media and certainly in what our government is telling us, and if Engler sometimes goes too far the other way, at least it helps balance out the perspective we are normally presented with. He takes a look at our dealings in all the various regions and tackles our favourite lies about ourselves as a find, upstanding country. Maybe we are, but not always, and there's a lot that's kept under the radar. Engler is not even afraid to take on Lester B. Pearson, whom you may remember was awarded (perhaps erroneously, according to Engler) the Nobel peace prize. Personally, I especially respected the piece on our Israel\Palestine stance and the tracking of where exactly and how exactly our so-called "foreign aid" is being spent. Yes, it is disappointing to read about so many of our failures, but it also highlights the areas where we can improve as a nation who takes pride in what we do for others.

Quickie Recommendation: For anyone who suspects that there is more to this than what Harper tells us.

Possible Side Effects

by Augusten Burroughs.

Quickie Recap: Burroughs shows us yet more sides him with awesome stories, my favourite possibly being the one about how he fell in love with an unlovable puppy.

Quickie Review: Not a one-trick pony! Yeah, he wrote that crazy-popular Running With Scissors, but he's not just one of the dozens capitalizing on a crazy childhood. He's a legitimate writer with things to say beyond the "hey, look at me and my eccentric ways" that are dominating the best-seller lists these days. Actually, I thought Dry was even better than Running, and this collection of little essays is yet more proof that he's an author, not just a victim.

Quickie Recommendation: Keep buying Burroughs.

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

The play-at-home companion book to the hit TV show! by Michael Benson.

Quickie Recap: 75 quizzes, two questions per grades 1-5 with a follow up $1 000 000 question (all answers are of course provided in the back) and plenty of "Did you know?" factoids to keep things interesting.

Quickie Review: I bought this because I was going to be spending over 2000km in various cars with various people and I thought it would be a good way to pass the time. It was. I never knew how competitive my coworkers were until we were a little bit lost coming home from a punk show in Toronto at 4 in the morning and solving 4th grade algebra suddenly became more important than finding gas when the tank was empty.

Quickie Recommendation: Only if your ego can take it.

Would You Rather...?

Love & Sex: Over 300 amorously absurd dilemmas to ponder, by Justin Heimberg & David Gomberg.

Quickie Recap: Authors ask if you'd rather fuck the tin man, or the scarecrow, or if you'd rather breast implants made of Nerf, or Play-doh. The catch of the game is: you must choose.

Quickie Review: It's exactly what you think it is. Some questions you'll skip over, others will leave you giggling for a long, long time. I played it with my mother on a road trip (true story! I now know her preferred blowjob soundtrack), and around a campfire with 20 acquaintances. Both times were good times.

Quickie Recommendation: Oh, it serves its purpose all right.

Six Months in Sundan

A young doctor in a war-torn village, by James Maskalyk.

Quickie Recap: Dr. James Maskalyk spends 6 months in an isolated hospital working for MSF and the people of the small town Abyei in southern Sudan, practicing the medicine of poverty.

Quickie Review: Delicious, and I'm not just saying that because I probably fell just a tiny bit in love with Dr. James while reading his book. This book is surprisingly introspective and personal. It's not preachy, it's not bloated with a sense of purpose, and both of those things are almost forgivable when a doctor returns from a Doctors Without Borders mission. Instead, what he does is opens an intimate window on what it's really like to be an aid worker in a foreign country, trying to do what's best, and struggling to define what that even means. It's sad at times, as it must be, and the sense of struggle is often so strong that I wish I could climb through the pages and give the poor guy a hug.

Quickie Recommendation: Of course the work of Medecins sans frontieres is commendable, but this book seems to me to be first and foremost a tribute to the Sudanese people. It is not without heartbreak, and I admit that my copy is somewhat tear-stained, but that's because it's a beautifully written treasure. My favourite non-fiction of the year so far.

The Devil's Tickets

A night of bridge, a fatal hand, and a new American age, by Gary M. Pomerantz.

Quickie Recap: Two couples - first, Ely and Jo, who become celebrities through their thrilling bridge playing and their pioneering of the system, and then Jack and Myrtle, whose marriage is as troubled as their bridge game, until a passionate game has fatal results.

Quickie Review: Is it weird that I really liked this? Yes, it's about bridge. But it's also about the time, the politics, the depression, the emancipation of women, and it's oddly titillating. Both couples followed in the story and worthy of our attention, and the author does a very good job of showing how their lives intertwined even if they never met. It's hard for me to imagine a card game meaning so much that I might fire bullets into my spouse's chest, but Pomerantz does an awesome job of painting a picture of a period when this was unreasonable, yes, but not unimagineable.

Quickie recommendation: Fascinating.

Why Socrates Died

Dispelling the myths, by Robin Waterfield

Quickie Recap: Socrates was put on trial and sentenced to death by his peers - this book gives the real reason behind the death sentence, and puts an uncomfortable spotlight on Athens.

Quickie Review: Evidently I thought this book might be good because I did choose to pick it up. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got involved in it. Waterfield has exactly the right scope for this book - it puts Socrates in context. It's also about Athens vs Sparta, the Pelopennesian war, the political and religious and judicious climate of the times, and the people who stood on either side of the issue. It doesn't just list the charges against Socrates (mainly, impiety and the teaching\corruption of young boys) but explains why these would suddenly be brought to attention when they'd been largely ignored for years (not just in terms of Socrates, either).

Quickie Recommendation: Very interesting stuff.

Lost in Cyburbia

How Life on the Net Has Created a Life of Its Own, by James Harkin.

Quickie Recap: The internet's powerful social networking webs have been 70 years in the making - Harkin traces the path from WW2 until now, and delves into all the www's nooks and crannies along the way.

Quickie Review: Confession time. When you pick up a non-fiction book that's going to be on a certain topic, it is usually written by an expert in that field - maybe a physicist, or a paleontologist. These people are knowledgeable, and sometimes they convey the material in really engaging ways. But they aren't usually english majors, and that usually shows. This book, however, seems to have been written by a writer. Call me a cynic, but to find this book so thoroughly well-written was a surprise, and a good one. And yes it was interesting, and topical, and I loved the way Harkin explores the commonalities between what's happening now in cybernetics and the counterculture of the 1970s. Norbert Wiener and Marshall McLuhan are also compared, and it's fascinating to watch the internet and its offshoots spring up around these men who predicted the things to come more accurately than even they could have guessed. Harkin does a wonderful job weaving all of these things cohesively, and then presenting them with a wink.

Quickie Recommendation: I have to give this one a yes.

Our Days Are Numbered

How Mathematics Orders Our Lives, by Jason I. Brown

Quickie Recap: Brown explains the hidden maths behind everyday things, from simple games like rock, paper, scissors, to redecorating, to Beatles' songs.

Quickie Review: Yes, I read this willingly. It was better than I feared, and not quite as good as I'd hoped. I have a hard time explaining what exactly I anticipated from this title, but I was craving one of those aha moments that other great books have given me. This book didn't give me the tingles. I think it's failing that it was trying to cover too much too simply. The things that I understood - like how to calculate a tip and how to interpret a political poll in the papers - are things that I already knew and didn't need a book to tell me. Topics that I was less (or not) familiar with, like logarithms, I still have no grasp on whatsoever. But there were some clever moments, and Brown's cornball sense of humour helped me keep going.

Quickie Recommendation: Not entirely.

You Are Here

A Portable History of the Universe, by Christopher Potter.

Quickie Recap: How to recap what is basically a recap of all the highlights of the universe, from its conception to its hypothetical death? Well, I can't. It just is.

Quickie Review: This book is so brilliant even Jesus uses it to refresh his memory. Every day I'd read a little on the bus ride to work and come in challenging my poor coworkers to give me their ideas on the craziness I'd just read - everything from the bizarre standards of measurement we use, to what the world will look like when it's ending, whether we're all alone here, and if anything is significant when we're all so clearly insignificant. There are some really good ideas in here, and it's everything a good book should be: informative, entertaining, stimulating.

Quickie Recommendation: Absolutely.

A Short History of Nearly Everything!

by le fabuleux Bill Bryson.

Quickie Recap: First, let me confess that the exclamation mark up there is my own addition. I think Bryson should consider adding it for his next edition. To recap this book would be ridiculous, as it is indeed a history of nearly everything - the origins of the universe, human ancestry, and everything before, since, and in between.

Quickie Review that's maybe not so quick: When I first read this book, I was blown away. Sorry if I've ever used that expression here before: if I have, I take it back, I take them all back and reserve it solely for this one. This was nearly life-changing, I kid you not. It was brilliant. I felt exhilarated - this guy was not mistaking me for an idiot, just a curious person who would like to be reminded of the things I probably learned in grade school. And then he expands. He digs around. He presents the awesome, interesting facts, and I just ate it right up. I couldn't believe my luck - here was this great, entertaining book that I kept putting down to share tidbits with others, that also had me learning new things and remembering old things and making me thirsty to know more. What a combination! It's the very thing that authors strive for all the time and yet hardly ever achieve. Is there anything this guy can't do (except return my phone calls?)



Now, the Short History of Nearly Everything is short in terms of how much history there is, but in terms of books, it's still pretty long. However, a most marvellous thing has come along - A Really Short History of Nearly Everything! (again, italics and excitement are my own.) This is the condensed (and illustrated!) version, and it appealed to me immediately. Only once I was in the middle of it did I think that perhaps its intended audience was children. But I refuse to feel childish reading this wonderful thing. It's just way too awesome! I learned how to become a fossil (it's harder than you think!) and that it's fun to cough on things just to make gross science.

Quickie Review: This book is in my top ever reads without a doubt. This is a book for other books to look up to. Once again, Bill Bryson has gotten it exactly right.

A Shadow On The Household

One Enslaved Family's Incredible Struggle for Freedom, by Bryan Prince.

Quickie Recap: John Weems, a former slave himself, watches helplessly as his enslaved wife and 7 children are sold away from him and from each other when their owner suddenly dies and his heirs decide on sale and separation. The Weemses seek liberation by any means possible.

Quickie Review: This book is incredibly well-researched and so nuanced that at times I had to remind myself that it was fact, not fiction. The family is brought to life by the tragedy of their situation, which is highlighted by the presence of both heroes and villains in the truest sense of words.

Quickie Recommendation: Enlightening.

We Bought A Zoo

The amazing true story of a young family, a broken down zoo, and the 200 wild animals that change their lives forever, by Benjamin Mee.

Quickie Recap: His father dies and his wife is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and for Benjamin Mee, the obvious response is to sell his dream home and relocate the family to a failing zoo with absolutely no experience and no real idea of what he's getting himself into.

Quickie Review: Well. This book quietly exceeded my expectations. Going in, it was easy to anticipate some syrupy sentiment, an overwhelming feeling of inspiration, an uplifting theme, etc, etc, and so when Mee describes his young wife's death in the fancy chair he'd bought her just the week before in the middle of the zoo she never lived to see opened to the public, the tragedy hits you even more because of how low-key he is. Low-key is probably the wrong word. In fact, I know it is. It was obviously a devastating blow, but he's not asking for sympathy. He's simply saying: this is what I did, what my family did. And although you should never trust a book cover, it really is an amazing story, but not necessarily because he bought a zoo. Really it's how he lives his life, believing and persevering, and being sometimes quite selfless without acknowledging it. Mee tells a good story, and has a good story to tell. I'm so glad he shared it with me , and I hope you'll let him share it with you too.

Quickie recommendation: Have kleenex on stand-by.

Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors

by (? are dictionaries "by" someone?) Bill Bryson.

Quickie Recap: Well, this is how a dictionary works: words are listed, usually alphabetically for easy references, and you can look them up to check their spelling or their meaning. Neat eh?

Quickie Review: Yes, I read a dictionary. Back off. It's Bryson. And it's not every word, just the ones I'm most likely to fuck up, you know, the icky plurals, tricky hyphens, kooky foreign stuff, that kind of thing.

Quickie Recommendation: At the risk of forever brandishing myself an incorrigible nerd, yes.

Shakespeare Wrote For Money

Two years of reading begat by more reading, presented in easily digestible, utterly hysterical monthly installments, by Nick Hornby.

Quickie Recap: Nick Hornby wrote a column for Believer called Stuff I'm Reading where he discussed - you guessed it! - the stuff he was reading, or not reading, whichever was the case.

Quickie Review: Nick Hornby is a funny guy, even when he's lazy and he eschews books in favour of World Cup action. As I'm always yammering on about my own 'reading begat by more reading' it is both refreshing to find that I am not the only poor soul who reads extensively and yet never seems to make headway on The List, and also maddening, because Hornby's recommendations just contribute to even more additions to The List.

Quickie Recommendation: Oh. Yes. Was it even a question?

The Well-Dressed Ape

A Natural History of Myself, by Hannah Holmes.

Quickie Recap: Holmes attempts to describe homo sapiens the way an encyclopedia describes any other animal - where it lives, what it eats, how it reproduces, what it senses. Humans generally hold themselves above such scrutiny but Holmes is putting is back where we belong.

Quickie Review: This is a unique way at looking at ourselves and just the change in perspective alone, putting us in the context of other animals, really lets you think about how and why we are. Holmes juxtaposes human description with comparisons to other animals, so we are constantly checked and put in our evolutionary place. She is funny and thoughtful and unafraid to remind us that she too is an example of the homo sapiens, and not always a prime one at that. Her microscope allows us to more dispassionately look at our own selves and evaluate what we truly see - the fur, the tools, the adaptations.

Quickie Recommendation: Cool book, I'd say.

God's Mercies

Rivalry, Betrayal, and the Dream of Discovery by Douglas Hunter.

Quickie Recap: Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson were a couple of 17th century rock star explorers who raced to be the first and best explorer of a lot of my favourite haunts.

Quickie Review: Confession time. After months of trying to get through this, I have decided that if God is indeed merciful, he will forgive me for abandoning a book partway through on occasion. I haven't abandoned a book that I've started since 2004, when I gave up on I, Claudius after just a couple of pages. In this case, I made it to page 130 and that should count for something, right? Wrong, I know. I'm pathetic. And just like I, Claudius, I know the problem was me, and not the book. Sometimes something just doesn't gel and you can't find sufficient motivation to prod yourself on. And to be honest, I just have too many books that I am excited about sitting unread on my night stand to keep plodding through something that doesn't hold my interest. So I apologize to de Champlain, and to Hudson, and mostly to Hunter. Many minds brighter than mine found this to be "first rate adventure" and worthy of accolades. I admit defeat.

Quickie Recommendation: I'm sadly unable to say, but I invite anyone who has read this book to let me know what a numb skull I am and how quickly I need to pick this back up and give it a second go.

The Demonic Comedy

Some Detours in the Baghdad of Saddam Hussein, by Paul William Roberts.

Quickie Recap: Is there humour to be found in the situation in Iraq? Yes. Well, no, not really. Not really at all. But if there is, I'd trust Roberts to find it. He goes there before the war, during, and after, and finds a lot of things that he's not actually supposed to find. His "interpreters" and "guides" show him the glossy, wonderful world that he's supposed to be writing about but aching sadness is never far off.

Quickie Review: Roberts magically is able to write with perspective and humour that I suspect were not only a struggle to achieve, but also a bit of a defense mechanism for coping with what must have been some very difficult realities. There are bits that had me laughing out loud, and there are bits that had me reaching for the kleenex, and I think that ability to show the complexity without beating us over the head with it is the definition of this book's genius. I really enjoyed it, as much as anyone can "enjoy" reading about atrocities and the attempt to cover them up, deny them, or exploit them. Frustration and impotence are palpable undercurrents in this book and if you can find the stomach for them, then I suggest that this is one of the most tempered books on the subject available. Roberts finds equal scorn for all politicians and the only side he takes is that of the ordinary, suffering, every day Iraqi.

Quickie Recommendation: Yes. But you might want to arm yourself with a little guilty pleasure on the side. Don't say I didn't warn you. But yes, yes.

Life On The Line

One Woman's Tale of Work, Sweat, and Survival, by Solange De Santis.

Quickie Recap: A journalist and all around white-collar woman decides it will be interesting to live the life of a labourer to see what it's "really like" so she goes to work at a GM auto plant and describes not only the physical work involved, but the people she befriends, the management she doesn't, and the union that baffles everyone.

Quickie Review: I'm a little wary of anyone who wants to see what life is "really like" for others because they so often do an insulting half-assed exploration that leaves me frustrated as a reader and embarrassed as a human being, but I grudgingly admit that De Santis does some justice here. She manages to tell her story without being condescending to her fellow workers. She writes more compellingly about snobbery without realizing it than most authors who set out with that purpose. Of course there's a smidge of self-righteousness within the pages, but maybe that's inevitable when you put a soft person into hard circumstances. There's a certain grit and grime to this that's unmistakable, but to her credit, it is overshadowed by the dignity with which she writes, perhaps not closing the gab between white and blue collar worlds, but at least shedding some light on it.

Quickie Recommendation: Certainly one of the better of its kind.