Reading May to July

While July hasn't officially ended just yet, I don't think I'm going to be finishing anything more. Possibly Naked Statistics (stats outside of the classroom? I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I put it on my list, but I'm enjoying it so far!), but unfortunately not much more than that. I'm trying to make my way through my seemingly never-ending pile of borrowed material from the library, which never seems to diminish by even one book despite my efforts - I'm sure my continuing to borrow books doesn't help - so that I can finally focus a bit more on my own bookshelf. Meanwhile my own collection continues to grow.

May

1. The Name You Carry - watched on the plane
2. Tic Tak(?) - a short animation on the plane
3. Blood: The Stuff of Life by Lawrence Hill
4. Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke
• See my previous review of it.

June

1. Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
2. SPQR: An History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
3. The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James Pennebaker
4. Bad Blood (Coisa Ruim) (2006)
5. Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
6. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
7. A Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way through Love, Loss, and Laughter by Rachael Herron

July

1. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2. City of Men (Cidade dos Homens) (2007)
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
• It took me a good 3 times trying to watch this film to actually get through it, and the third time I jumped to where I had left off the second time around. Not that it was a bad film, but for some reason or another, I couldn't stay still enough and have this story told to me. Sorry love, but this recommendation I'd say was a miss.
4. Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit by Joseph Epstein
• As with Snobbery, a delightful read. Slightly more self-conscious than in Snobbery, I found, perhaps because of the distasteful notion of gossip, even in this context of trying to discern gossip from the non-gossip.
5. Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis
• I couldn't wait to be done this novel. And I don't say that kindly. I didn't really care about any of the dogs, and the style of writing made it distanced in a way that prevented me from getting into the plot. It was obvious where it was going, and I hate to use this description once more, but the style seems very self-conscious, restrained, and as though trying too hard to be loftier than is within the limits of the author. That could have been done on purpose, as the narrator is hierarchically speaking in terms of the novel above even the gods themselves, but still. I couldn't get into it.
6. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• Yup. All the while I felt as though I was reading a somewhat more acceptable version of what I assume are Harlequin paperbacks (though I have yet to read one of those) except with a slightly more empowered heroine (who nonetheless has to be saved by her hero many many times, and whose tantrum that once I could not for the life of me understand the inclusion of - oh, and, her prince charming appears at first glance a poor boy, except, surprise! he still has money & land, if only he were to be able to get back possession of it, and now that he's married, if he's gone, it all goes to her! Thank goodness that's settled.). All that as an aside though, since I honestly did enjoy the novel - Gabaldon has a wonderful style of writing - and devoured it within a couple of days.
7. Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
8. Work Clean by Dan Charnas
• Well done, but nothing I don't already know and/or try to implement. Unfortunately, for me, pretty use.
9. Moon (2009)
• WHOA. Wait what? The description at the back of the DVD case did not prepare me for this at all, in the best of ways. The ending, though, I'm still undecided about.
10. The Thing with Feathers by Noah Strycker
• I didn't realize there were pigeon races. I was also surprised - somewhat disappointed - there wasn't more about corvids in this. I'm biased, of course, being a bit of a fan of that particular subset of birds. Otherwise, a pleasant and sometimes surprising read.
11. The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson
• 100% agree that a career goal has been reached when you get to buy candy bars & coffee and call them work expenses.
12. Animal Farm by George Orwell

I've been trying to re-read The Art of War (Machiavelli), in addition to finish The Fruit, the Tree and the Serprent, not to mention If This is a Woman: Inside Ravensbruck, all of which have been in my possession since before I left in April, to no avail. The newer books have me in thrall whereas the half-finished, half-started ones seem to become less approachable with every passing day, so it's gotten to the point where I'm not sure whether I can even stir myself to finish them up before passing them along.