Ancestor by Scott Sigler

Hm.  Ancestor by Scott Sigler definitely falls into the airport fiction category for me.  That is what I call anything that I could see sitting in the front at an airport bookstore -- high action & suspense, simple, page-turning fluff.  Which is fine with me -- though I have a friend or two who might disagree, I think everyone needs the occasional fluff.  If there was one aspect of the book that might slightly rescue it from the airport fiction genre, it would be the theme of science gone wrong/where should scientists draw the line with their research and experiments.

So my basic first reaction to Ancestor was, as I told my husband, "It's like Jurassic Park with way more human to human violence and some pretty misogynistic attitudes and abhorrent behaviors towards women".  Though I haven't actually read Jurassic Park, only seen the movie, so I'm not sure how accurate that comparison is.

My more positive thoughts?  Sigler did a great job of creating a diverse set of characters -- each character was unique and it was easy to remember who was who -- not always the case with a page-turning thriller full of many characters.  I also enjoyed the running commentary from one of the older characters about all the famous people he knew "back in the day" (ie, "Charlie" Heston, Jack Kerouac, and Marilyn Monroe) and the portrayals of Michiganders in general.

I will also admit to being amused by the same character's response after being asked the whereabouts of another person on the island, ""Did you look up your asshole?  Oh wait, your head is already there, so you'd have seen her by now."

The book opens with Paul Fischer, a colonel in the Army working with infectious disease.  I expected him to reappear at the end and he never did -- which felt like a loose end left untied.

So in general, it was an interesting airport fiction storyline that I enjoyed in some ways, but the numerous men with hideous attitudes toward women was a pretty big distraction that, for me, took away from my enjoyment of the story.

A trip to the zoo with Amber and Owen -- July 8, 2010

Book Beginnings Friday -- Victim Foreshadowing?

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Becky at Page Turners. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include the title and author so others know what you're reading. If you like, share with everyone why you do, or do not, like the sentence.

I am reading Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George

Product Description: (from the back cover)
The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen inch dirk through her neck.  Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer.  Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain's foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves.  He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corner of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.
The Opener:

Gowan Kilbride, aged sixteen, had never been much for early rising.

 Not the most intriguing opener I've ever heard, but certainly some fore-shadowing here...

Counter-cultural advice from Peggy O'Mara

I really appreciated Peggy O'Mara's essay in this month's issue of Mothering Magazine.  Click on the link for the online version, but here is just an excerpt:

Due to her ability to know so clearly what she wanted and my ability to trust her feelings, even though they were not in my plans, my entire life fell into place in a different way. If it really is true that someone can be trusted to understand her own experiences, make her own choices, and take responsibility for her own decisions, then it must be possible to fashion very unique lives for ourselves—lives that are truly handmade, rather than imitations of society’s shifting standards of behavior.

My daughter made all of the times I had toughed it out the sadnesses they really were, rather than the necessities I had believed them to be. Her decision made my whole body relax, as I no longer had to be ever alert to the “right” way. Her clarity demonstrated that it is possible to raise children who know and trust their inner experience, who have not been lied to, who are not neurotic.

How to go about all of it

Just finished The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor and wanted to share some words that struck me.  Don Staples, the main character's mentor, is speaking to Loyal Ledford about life:

"I wish I could tell you how to go about all of it . . . I know it's got something to do with holding on to the ones you've got, and if you can, on top of that, make a little music and have a little fellowship . . . You got to do what you know is right . . . And I mean right by your family, not by you alone.  And your family, in the end, is everybody."

Teaser Tuesdays -- AKA Dan Ariely rocks

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading and asks you to :


1. Grab your current read

2. Open to a random page

3 . Share 2 "teaser" sentences also citing the title of the book and the author and in that way people can have great recommendations if they like the "teaser".

4. Please avoid spoilers!

 "Could all this mean that sometimes we might actually behave less rationally when we try harder?  If that's so, what is the correct way to pay people without overstressing them? "
p. 51, The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely


The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely

First off, you should all know that I adore Dan Ariely. His first book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, totally rocked my world.  Ariely is a behavioral economist who teaches at Duke. One should be able to read a book on behavioral economics in bed without laughing and/or snorting aloud while needing to say to your family members every five minutes,"Okay, I know the light is out, I'm reading with a flashlight, and your eyes are closed, but just listen to this part."  Do not expect to be able to do this with any book written by Dan Ariely.  After reading Predictably Irrational I decided that if I ever went back to school I'd get a degree in behavioral economics this time. I don't know if I could really hack it or not, but Dan Ariely makes the entire field absolutely fascinating!


I knew very little about behavioral economics before encountering Ariely's work. In his words, behavioral economists "don't assume that people are perfectly sensible, calculating machines. Instead, we observe how people actually behave, and quite often our observations lead us to the conclusion that human beings are irrational" (page 6). Ariely adds that the goal of behavioral economics is "to try to understand the way we really operate so we can more readily observe our biases, be more aware of their influences on us, and hopefully make better decisions" (page 9).

Ariely includes an interesting side-bar about what motivates people to blog that would interest my fellow bloggers.  I certainly agree that I love to read comments on my own blog and I've heard many of you say the same.

I could clearly gush about this book forever.  I'll let you all admire my restraint as I simply say that if you are in the market for a new non-fiction read, this is it!

It's Monday, July 12, 2010! What are you reading?

What Are You Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey where bloggers gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  
I gave up on:

• The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell

  

I finished:

• The Red Thread: A Novel by Ann Hood
• The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and Home by Dan Ariely (see tomorrow's post for my gushing)
• The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor (short quote coming later this week)

I am currently reading: 

•  Kindred by Octavia Butler (book club book for August and I'm already quite sucked in)
• Ancestor by Scott Sigler

Next up:

• Payment in Blood  by Elizabeth George
• The Accidental Billionaires:  The Founding of Facebook -- A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich

Won't You?