Oh, Brother

This book is written in three parts. Part I begins the tale of three adopted brothers, all very different, living with their single dad, an Imam. You learn that the dad is distant but caring, and that somehow, our narrator, Youssef, is the non-favored son. He also has a secret--a brother that seems so real to him as to be an actual person. As the boys navigate childhood, they find out that their dad has a secret (or secrets) of his own.

Part II was much less linear, and I had a harder time tracking the story, but was still hanging in there. I won't give any spoilers here.

By the time Part III came around, I just hated it. I did finish it, but won't be looking for any other books by this author.

Punctuation Police

Lynne Truss is in despair over the fading away of proper punctuation, and I don't blame her. Being a bit of a stodge myself, I often critique signs for their over- (or under-) use of those mysterious symbols on the keyboard. She's a great writer, and humorously educates the reader, or tries to, anyway. A fun and quick read for proud nerds.

Get to the Moral, Please

I was eager to hear the "science behind the fables", as blurbed on the cover, but there was a lot of slogging to get to the point. The book is exhaustively researched, (and it exhausted me) but I guess I was looking for something a little lighter. I felt like I was walking through the studies with the scientists, and I think I'm more of a "bullet point" kinda person.