So Interesting!

Bill Bryson could write about garbage and I would read about it. Not that this is remotely like garbage. But one assumes that, having lived in a body for, well, all of one's life, we'd know a little more about it. That's where Bill comes in and debunks your assumption. This book is jam-packed with fascinating facts about the shells that carry us around in spectacular fashion and all written in typical Bryson-esque . You'll have lots more respect for the sophistication of all your body does for you after reading this!

Maybe I Don't Have the Right Mitt

This book started out quirky and endearing, and ended up annoying me. Ellie is the only child of a marriage that didn't last due to her father's repeated dalliances. With such a messy wake behind him, his tradition is to celebrate all holidays with his varied children in the off-months so they can be together as a patched-together family, these children of a few different women. Therefore, the childrens' relationships with each other are thin and situational, and it seems that they're all somewhat jockeying for the attention of the most charismatic member of the family, dear old dad. When he dies unexpectedly, it throws Ellie into a turmoil that she can't reconcile. The tchotchke that he leaves her in his will not only makes her feel like he didn't love her as much as she thought, but was almost an insult. The author can write, and weaves the story together pretty well, but I just didn't like the main character at all. I found her frustratingly self-centered and of dubious integrity. The mystery of the bequest threaded through the story gets explained at the end--but by that time I didn't much care.

Mini-Mob

In this book the author, Russell Shorto, reluctantly investigates the story of his family's immigration from Sicily to Pennsylvania and their subsequent involvement in organized crime. He says he avoided that topic for years but finally relented as his father's health was failing. The back cover of the book talks about the connection of small-time crime that spanned the nation, "from Yonkers to Fresno". Having grown up near Fresno, I was hoping there would be some mention of that part of the country, but Shorto specifically focuses on his family and their immediate environs. You delve into the author's family history, and there are definitely some intriguing parts. In the process of writing, he discovers some of his longstanding "memories" may have been fallible, and I'm glad he had that experience.