Welcome to the July 2014 edition of my monthly book reviews! It’s been a busy reading month for me; what about for you? I started July on a bit of a non-fiction tear and then finished up the month with a pair of really excellent works of contemporary fiction. I’m really excited to share this month’s list, and I’d love to hear what you’re reading in the comments below!
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Also, because I can never resist a surplus of metrics: this month’s page count is 2,022.
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[/one_half][one_half_last]My first reading endeavor this month was Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath. The authors are academics and the book takes an in-depth look at what makes some ideas effortlessly memorable, while others remain impossible. On the whole it was an interesting read, but I found the last half of the book to be something of a slog. If you’d like to learn more, check out my in-depth post on how to make a story memorable.
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[/one_half][one_half_last] In my copious spare time, I happen to be a bit of a closet nutrition/food policy wonk and Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by T. Colin Campbell presents an interesting indictment of the establishment. When reading a book like this one it’s important to keep in mind the biases of the author and as a controversial proponent of a “whole foods plant based diet” to cure the so-called Western diseases, Campbell is undoubtedly biased. However, the man-against-the-institution atmosphere turns this book into an excellent underdog story and I think the book manages to achieve a reasonably fair assessment of how agriculture, big pharma, media, academic publishing, and research funding conspire to move our healthcare system (in America) in a direction that is great for company purses, but which doesn’t do much to promote the wellness of patients.
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[/one_half][one_half_last]This month’s first foray into fiction was Half of a Yellow Sun by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I picked this up after having read Adichie’s more recent book, Americanah
, and I have to say in my opinion Half of a Yellow Sun was by far the more enjoyable book. I really liked this one! Set in the ’60s and ’70s before and during the Nigerian civil war, Half of a Yellow Sun tells the story of the war and of life in the secessionist state of Biafra from a number of interwoven perspectives. The stories of twin sisters, their lovers (a British expat and an Igbo revolutionary), and a young servant boy twine together into a highly compelling narrative chronicling the rise and fall of the Biafran state. Warnings for graphic depictions of human cruelty and suffering and some unusually frank sexual content.
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[/one_half][one_half_last]As much as I enjoyed Half of a Yellow Sun, I think that All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr ranks as my favorite read for this month. All the Light We Cannot See is set before, during, and after WWII and is the joint narrative of a blind girl (Marie-Laure) living in France and a brilliant German boy (Werner), an orphan who becomes a student at the Nazi Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten. Their disparate paths collide during the bombing of the German-occupied city of Saint-Malo, in August 1944. Vividly imagined and utterly compelling, this book swept me up and carried me away. I’m not much of one for re-reading books, but this is one I may have to come back to someday. I highly recommend it!
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That’s it for me for July. Are you off to pick up a copy of any of these? Have a book you read last month that you’re dying to talk about? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
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