Completed: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

What a tour de force, and an appropriate round-number 30th book to add to the blog.

It has been some time since I was unable to put down a book. I must confess that I read a bit beyond my lunch break today in order to wrap up this book, as I couldn't tear myself away.

I find it hard to write about this story. I really want to pour it all out, but I also REALLY want you to read this book - and I can't say much about it if I want you to read it properly. The book is perfectly built. It creates its universe and slowly, tantalizingly grows. It is addictive.

I will write about Ruth instead. Ruth is the narrator's best friend. However, she reminds me tremendously of someone who I used to consider a best friend, and that person's flaws ended up driving me away. They crept under my skin and made me resentful, suspicious and frustrated, and I chose to walk away from it. Therefore, I am shocked that Ishiguro managed to write a character so similar to this person so as to bring up all of these unpleasant memories, and yet I STILL became strongly attached to this book. Normally, if I find a character unappealing, it shades the book as a whole and I find it more difficult to read. Perhaps if Ruth had been the narrator it would have turned me off of the book altogether. But somehow, this book still held me, despite this (to me) unsavoury character.

Breathtaking, thought-provoking, and challenging. Read this book.

Title: Never Let Me Go
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Published: 2005
Pages: 288

Total Books Blogged: 30
Total Pages: 8432

Completed: Louisbourg Portraits by Christopher Moore

As a fan of both history and human stories, I thought I would absolutely love this book. In truth, I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I thought I would.

I think it is difficult to write something like what Moore has tried to do. He wanted to write an accurate historical portrayal of true histories of these people, but also tried to write them to be as fun as a fictional tale of adventure. He succeeded in some respects, but a true 'story' doesn't have as many maybes and perhapses as Moore's writing does. I think that's where I lost interest a bit. I recognize that he was, indeed, telling a history rather than a historically-inspired story. I just can't help but feel that I would have become more submerged in the stories if they had used a bit of 'inspired by' instead of 'historically, it went down in one of these ways to the best of our knowledge'.

For the history itself, I was entirely unfamiliar with Louisbourg, and the fact that Ile Royale was important enough to compete with New England on an international stage. This is a piece of Canadian history that I did not know. (I have had several conversations with fellow Canadians about this book, and so I don't think I'm ENTIRELY alone in not knowing, but I still feel a bit doofish). This is one of many reasons why I am excited to be going back to school for history in the fall - the history that I don't yet even know the basics of, in many ways. I randomly selected this book from the bargain book bin at the university bookstore and learned something new. I'm so stoked for what is yet to come from my upcoming history courses!

Title: Louisbourg Portraits - Five Dramatic, True Tales of People Who Lived in an Eighteenth-Century Garrison Town

Author: Christopher Moore

Published: 2000 (originally 1982)

Pages: 270

Total Books Blogged: 29
Total Pages: 8184

Completed: Hungry Planet - What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio

After enjoying What I Eat so much, I checked at the library if Menzel and D'Aluisio had written any other books on food. I'm not sure why, but Hungry Planet was shelved with the kids books, even though it is essentially the same concept - families' food-for-a-week, rather than individuals' food-for-a-day.

It was enlightening in a different way than What I Eat. What I eat had more recipes, Hungry Planet has more country facts, and it really lays a family bare to make them put up everything they eat in a week. The hypocrisy of the American families, touting healthy eating when their foods include corn dogs, Nutri-Grain bars, tons of pop, chips, instant freezer-foods. It made me take a harsh look at my kitchen, and I truly believe I eat at least half as much junk as any of them, and that I am much more selective of my processed foods. But it certainly made me want to look one more time at how much processed food I eat, and what I can cut out.

I think the biggest one is that the kids always eat boxed breakfast cereal or hot cereal for breakfast. We pick the relatively healthy ones (Cheerios, Mini-Wheats, Corn Flakes, and Special K top the list, along with Quaker Oatmeal with plain oats added), but it's still always boxed cereals. After all the recent evidence around egg cholesterol not being so bad, I wonder if I should start making them eggs and toast for breakfast (we get our bread from an awesome local bakery that uses excellent ingredients). Hmmm.

In other news, I have been following through on my desire to expand my culinary repertoire around especially south/southeast Asian foods at home. I made the best dal of my LIFE (At Home with Madhur Jaffrey - check it out), and have gone on Pinterest and pinned a ton of foods to try: Sambar curry, ful, tah-chin, pho, bhorta. So excited for my culinary adventures!

I'm too lazy to post a picture of Hungry Planet - it's after 11pm and this book is due back at the library tomorrow. It was a good read, but if I was going to pick one, What I Eat was more inspiring to me than Hungry Planet. Either way, they are both an excellent photo atlas of how diverse the food of the world is, and I love eating around the planet!

Title: Hungry Planet - What the World Eats
Authors: Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
Published: I have no idea - the book really doesn't seem to say
Pages: 277

Total Books Blogged: 28
Total Pages: 7874