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 Libraries are the place to go for both books and the latest technologies Hey everyone! Today’s post is actually a guest post by Julie-Ann Amos, a freelance writer who covers topics such as online university ratings and reviews, elearning tools, and more. I figured since my day job is at a library, this was the perfect guest post.  Enjoy!
Social media sites have become one of the hottest new forms of sharing specific types of information. Like most social networking systems, users all contribute, rate or evaluate information to help build a community base of high quality, relevant information. Librarians looking for the latest in news, book reviews, journal articles and general information can easily access social media sites from any computer with internet access.
In addition to just supplying information social media can allow off-campus students, teachers and community members with relevant, up-to-the-minute information. Some of essential social media sites that librarians should consider include:
1. Facebook – Facebook offers a very user friendly way to share information about the library and what is going on in the community. Special books, areas, programs or even multi-media presentations can be described, uploaded to the site or linked to the Facebook page to develop a greater understanding of the services the library can provide.
2. Twitter – Perhaps the most popular social media or social networking site, Twitter offers many opportunities for librarians. Short messages of 140 characters can be delivered to all subscribers to inform them of new additions, programs, events and services provided through the library itself.
3. Blogger – A free blogging tool developed by Google, this service provides a lot of flexibility for the author in creating the blog. Blogs can be about anything of interest and allow multi-media options within the blog.
4. Wordpress – A free web-based publishing platform that supports blogging and research. This site can be used to inform readers about the library, services offered and even make recommendations for specific projects or reading options.
5. Delicious – Social bookmarking allows multiple users to contribute to customized bookmarks or tagged categories. Through this option lists of relevant sites, chosen by real people that are researching, interested in or involved in the actual topic are available to anyone, greatly cutting down research time on search engines.
6. Squidoo – This site allows you to create your own web articles that can be categorized based on content. Book reviews, general information, tips on using the library, researching online or any other relevant information can be provided for students and faculty alike.
7. Flickr – A social media site dedicated to the sharing of pictures and videos. This site offers a wide range of visual representations that can be searched according to topics or tags.
8. Plaxo – A professional social media and networking site, Plaxo offers links or possible connections to other professionals that are also members. This is an excellent way to share resources and information through a web based format with other librarians around the world. The site is free to join and you can accept or decline offers to connect with other members.
9. Wikipedia – A reference tool that is generated by users, for users. It often provides simple, concise information about very detailed and complex topics and provides information on further references. It is also multilingual, making it more accessible than many online references.
10. YouTube – Video presentations developed by users on virtually any topic imaginable. Often virtual tours, news articles and even highlights of important commentaries can be found in easy-to-access format.
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I’ll be back again tomorrow with another review. Have a great evening, all!
 The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space by Jim Lebans Full Title: The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space: 42 Questions (and Answers) About Life, The Universe, and Everything
Author: Jim Lebans
Publication Date: February, 2008
Length: 240 pages
Available from: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / AbeBooks
It is books like The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space by Jim Lebans that make it so much fun to write nonfiction book reviews. I was sitting downstairs at the library other day, taking a break and reading (of course) when a coworker came into the break room. “Hey, whatcha reading?” he asked.
“The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space,” I answered.
“I’m sorry I asked,” he grumbled.
Really? I had to think for a minute (I was a bit slow on the uptake that morning, what can I say?) before I realized that the title of the book was probably intimidating to him. Which made me laugh, since this is one of the most readable (and enjoyable!) books on space that I’ve ever read.
If you’ve ever read Douglas Adams’ book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you’ll know that the answer “to everything” is 42. Which is why, when I’m feeling particularly drop-dead hilarious, my answer to someone’s statement of, “Hey, Havilah, I have a question,” is my instantaneous reply of “42.” I have yet to have anyone realize why it is that I pick that number. Apparently, even librarians aren’t as smart as you might think they are. (Don’t tell my coworkers I said that).
Well, Quirks and Quarks takes 42 questions about space and answers them in an easy, funny, and understandable way. At the beginning of each chapter, the title of the chapter is the question it’s asking, and the chapter itself of course is the answer. The questions and answers build on each other, so I wouldn’t advise skipping around in the book. The 15th question is “What Will Happen When an Asteroid Hits?” and I think the answer is a pretty good sample of the writing style of Lebans:
The chance that you’ll die as the result of an asteroid striking Earth isn’t huge, but it’s higher than you might think. Scientists have put the number at around 1 in 20,000, about the same odds of dying in a passenger jet crash, and maybe a little higher than the chances of dying in a mobile home when a tornado hits. In fact, your chance of dying in an asteroid impact is far greater than the odds that the lottery ticket in your pocket will win you the multi-million-dollar jackpot this week…
When comparing asteroid impacts to plane crashes or tornadoes, however, the stats aren’t helpful. They’re comparing apples to oranges, or rather tragedies and catastrophes. In a tornado or a plane crash, anywhere between a few and a few hundred people might lose their lives. In a large asteroid impact, the numbers could be in the millions, possibly the billions. That’s the real statistic to be worried about. There’s a small chance that a large asteroid will hit the Earth in your lifetime, but if it does, you will most likely be in a very large line-up at the gateway to paradise.
~Page 73 – 74 of Quirks and Quarks
Perhaps I’m just a space junkie (all right, all right, I’ll admit it: I’m obsessed!) but I thought this book was fantastic. Some of the other books that I have read about space (like Death from the Skies or Physics of the Impossible) try to take very complicated subjects and break them down by using analogies. Quirks and Quarks doesn’t even attempt the complicated subjects, but instead simply skips over them entirely. I’m not exactly an expert on astronomy, and even I realized that there were gaps in what Lebans was presenting to his readers.
I think the difference here is the fact that both Death and Physics were written by astronomers/scientists, whereas Quirks was written by producer for a science radio show. That’s quite a difference. Now, everything in Quirks was vetted by astronomers and scientists so there isn’t anything of a questionable scientific nature in here (in other words, this is solid science, not some amateur’s idea of what’s happening out there) but in the end, what you end up with is a great book for beginners who are wanting a very broad overview of astronomy and space without much scientific mumbo-jumbo in there.
For those who are better versed in astronomy, however, you won’t find anything new in here although you may be entertained while you look.
My only real critique is that some of the answers overlapped a bit, so that the two (or three) answers ended up with some of the same information in them. It’s almost as if the author was stretching, trying to come up with “just a few more” questions in order to meet the 42 mark. That was a small drawback to me, although I’m good at skimming *ahem* speed-reading, so that wasn’t huge to me.
Overall, I give The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space by Jim Lebans 4.5 out of 5 stars. If you enjoy nicely written, entertaining, and informational books on astronomy, then be sure to pick this one up.
Apparently (and I know this is going to sound crazy, but bear with me) getting a divorce and trying to sell my house is very time consuming. (By the way, the divorce is final, but the house sits unsold. Anyone interested in a nice one-bedroom house? Come one, come all! I’m thinking of wearing a sandwich sign and standing out on the street corner, shaking my booty. Desperation is starting to tinge my every waking hour, but other than that, life is going good. Really – if you want a one-bedroom house, I know just the house for ya! Come on down!)
So my sincere apologies for abandoning this blog for a month. It was certainly not my intention to do so, but I got a little busy there. I do believe that I’m back for good though. I have a stack of books I have read and need to write book reviews on, including quite a few more space and astronomy books (I know, I know, but I LOVE astronomy. I think I was an astronomer in another life. The one where I was a heck of a lot better at math. I refuse to believe that I was always this stupid at math). I’ll plow through those books, and then I’m on to some other fun topics.
In the meanwhile, I’m going to be trying out a (kind of) new format, where I put the book information (title, author, length of book, publication date, and links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and AbeBooks) right up at the top of the book review post. This way, you can get all of the pertinent information up front. I would love any and all feedback on this. Love it? Hate it? Think it should go at the end of the post? Think I would better spend my time watching grass grow? Tell me all about it in the comment section. I’d love your input.
My first review will be posted in just a couple of minutes, so watch for that. And as always, thanks for your patience!
 "Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe" by Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod and Carole Stott is the ultimate coffee table book about space. The front cover is eye-catching and beautiful, and even better, the photos inside are too. This is the kind of book that makes me love writing nonfiction book reviews.
Before we launched telescopes into space, the sky we saw was twinkling stars against a black background. Through the haze of our atmosphere, it was difficult to see much more detail than that. But with the Hubble telescope in the sky, taking pictures and allowing us to see the intricate universe that lays beyond, our knowledge of the universe has expanded exponentially. Hubble showcases the best of those photos.
What I loved about Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe, however, is that the authors didn’t content themselves with merely printing the high quality, beautiful photos coming from Hubble and calling it good. Instead, Kerrod and Stott use a lot of text to explain what is happening in the photos and why, and after reading the book, I felt as if I had just worked my way through a college class on astronomy.
Unlike The Planets, I don’t think that this book would be wholly appropriate for younger grades because there is too much text in it for most kids. But if you are homeschooling or teaching children in, say, fifth grade or higher, I think that they would really enjoy the book. They may not understand everything, but they’d understand enough.
What really makes this book stand out in my mind is that Hubble: Mirror on the Universe is a flat-out gorgeous book! Check out this two-page spread:
 Two page spread from the inside of "Hubble: Mirror on the Universe" Is that not amazing? It makes my little geeky heart go pitter-patter with delight.
I fell in love with this book from page one. I honestly cannot think of a single thing to critique about it. If you collect books about space and astronomy, then this is a must have for your collection.
A rare 5 out of 5 stars for Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe.
PS Speaking of learning about astronomy, I just found a fantastic website on the Hubble telescope. There is a section on the photos from Hubble, answering the question, “Is that what the cosmos really look like if we were to fly out there in a spaceship, or have the photos been enhanced?” The answer may surprise you – be sure to check it out. I certainly learned a lot that I didn’t know before.
 "Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku is the first book that I’m reviewing here that I had previously reviewed on my old site. I am hoping to eventually rewrite and repost all of my book reviews, which considering how many I had over there, will be quite the feat.
In a nutshell, Physics of the Impossible attempts to look at the world of science fiction and fantasy (a la Star Wars, Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, and even some Harry Potter) and assess how close we are to making the technology in those movies a reality.
Sometimes, I think we as a nation have watched one too many episodes of Stargate, and we get impatient waiting for our own gates to other worlds, or wondering why we don’t start beaming people around. Hollywood has made these ideas so commonplace in the movies and TV shows that we tend to mix up reality with fiction and begin to wonder why it’s taking so long to get these technological advances into our daily lives.
In Physics, Michio Kaku takes these futuristic concepts and tackles them one by one. He explains very clearly how far along we are in producing (for example) invisibility cloaks, what the problems are facing the scientists trying to produce these cloaks, and what the possible strategies are for overcoming these obstacles.
The real beauty of the book lies in how Kaku divides the ideas into three groups: Class I, Class II, and Class III Impossibilities. Those classifications break down as follows:
Class I Impossibilities are technologies that are currently impossible for us to achieve, but that we are tackling and trying to bring to fruition. None of these ideas violate the known laws of physics and could possibly be achieved either in this century or the next. The majority of the book is dedicated to exploring these ideas, and it was also my favorite part of the book.
Class II Impossibilities are technologies are so advanced, either they’re completely impossible, or if they are achievable, it won’t happen for a millennia, or even a million years.
Class III Impossibilities are technologies that violate the known laws of physics, and are therefore impossible. There are surprisingly only two ideas in this category: Perpetual motion machines (basically, getting something for nothing) and precognition (being able to predict the future).
Kaku is a quantum physicist who co-wrote the string field theory, one of the leading candidates for the Theory of Everything. In other words, he isn’t a Star Trek fanboy who decided that he was qualified to write a book about technological advances and so sat down and typed this out. No, Kaku is a world famous scientist who really knows what he’s talking about, which makes this book all the more fascinating and worthwhile to me to read.
He tackles a wide variety of ideas, from phasers and force fields to teleportation and death stars. This is a dream come true for any science geek, which I suppose would include me considering how much I enjoyed the book (although I was never really into either Star Wars or Star Trek. Apparently, I’ve got to get my geek on.)
My only critique was in the Class II Impossibilities section, where Kaku went over my head more than a couple of times. I am not a quantum physicist, nor do I play one on TV, so for me, that section was a bit difficult to get through. However, the fact that he only lost me a few times says a lot about his writing style, because if I can understand (most of) what he’s saying, anyone can. The last time I took a science class was my sophomore year in high school. I’m not exactly a science whiz. (Although I would like to play one of those on TV.)
In the Class I impossibility section, though, the book flowed from one idea to the next, and I felt that by the end, I’d learned more about where science is at right now than I would have if I sat through two years of college classes. It was one of those books that I found myself wanting to talk about with anyone who was unfortunate enough to stand next to me for more than, say, 2.7 seconds. (“Did you know that they are working on an invisibility cloak and have already been able to make minuscule items invisible in the red light spectrum?” Yes, I’m one of those people.)
I enjoyed Physics of the Impossible because I love hearing about the latest and greatest that humanity has come up with, and I simply love to learn. I felt like I had really learned something when I finished this book, instead of just wasting the last 5 hours of my life.
I give Physics of the Impossible 4.5 out of 5 stars. There was a bit too much over-my-head information to rate it higher than that, but it was still one of the most interesting books I’ve read about science.
Now that I’ve revisited Physics, this is a good reminder to me to check out some of Kaku’s other books, like Parallel Worlds and Hyperspace. Watch for those reviews in the next couple of months.
 The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System by Giles Sparrow After reviewing Death from the Skies on Thursday, I decided to go on a space kick and focus on writing reviews of astronomy-related books for the next week or so. Since I happen to be a little on the obsessive side when it comes to astronomy (okay, more than a little obsessive, but that’s all I’ll admit to!) I think I’ll have several many astronomy books to choose from when writing these upcoming reviews.
Today’s book is The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System by Giles Sparrow. I found it in the bargain bin section of the local bookstore when browsing one day and I bought it, making this one of the few books that I have reviewed that I have actually owned (since most books I review come from the library).
First, about the book itself: Sparrow focuses only on the objects in our solar system in The Planets – namely, the planets, the Sun, the moons, the asteroids and even a few comets thrown in for good measure. This is the first book I’ve read that focused on just our solar system, so that was cool to me.
But originally, I was fairly disappointed by the lack of in-depth information about each object. The layout was basically one page dedicated to talking about the planet, and then a whole slew of pages with pictures of different aspects of the planet and its moons. I was expecting more text than that, so that was off-putting for me originally. But then as I got more into the book and read all of the captions for all of those pictures, I realized how much was really there, and how much fun it was to actually see all of the planets and moons instead of just reading about them.
If you are looking for a treatise on each planet – lots of text, etc – then you will not want this book. But if you’re looking for minimal text and lots and lots of gorgeous pictures, then this book is going to be perfect for you. I really loved learning things like the fact that Neptune has a Great Dark Spot (similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter) that is as big as Earth. Just one ongoing storm on the face of Neptune is as big as our entire planet. Does that blow anyone’s mind? I love learning things like that. (Warning, warning – a true geek is writing this post!!)
When I first noticed the lack of text and was consequently disgruntled about it, I had thought I’d sell this book in my upcoming garage sale. But instead, I am going to keep it and bring it with me into the classroom when I teach. This would be a fantastic book for pretty much any grade from second on up. The pictures are large and detailed enough that even young readers without strong reading skills could spend hours looking at the pictures, while the older kids would be enthralled by all of the accompanying info. Although this is an adult book, I think it would intrigue a wide swath of ages.
I give The Planets: A Journey Through the Solar System 4.5 out of 5 stars. I still wish it had more text, but other than this drawback, I loved it.
Anyone have any suggestions for space/astronomy books that they think I’d enjoy? I could honestly read about astronomy all day long. It is fascinating to me. So leave any and all suggestions below!
 Death from the Skies by Philip Plait I just finished Death From the Skies: These are the Ways the World will End by Philip Plait, and I have to say – I loved it. I was originally turned on to Plait when I watched a B movie in the local planetarium based off his first book, Bad Astronomy. Intrigued, I checked out Bad Astronomy and ended up giving it 4.5 stars on my old blog. It was good and full of interesting info, but I have to say: Plait definitely hit his stride with Death From the Skies.
First, an overview: Plait is a well-known astronomer who has been running a website called BadAstronomy.com for years, a website that gets millions of visitors every year. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s interested in astronomy. Who knew?
In Death From the Skies, Plait looks at the multitude of ways that life on Earth (and more specifically, us humans) could die, from comets to gamma rays, and more. He also looks at how the Sun is going to eventually die out, how the Milky Way Galaxy is going to merge with another galaxy, and how in trillions upon trillions of years from now, the Universe is eventually going to die out.
You would think that all of this death and destruction would make for a depressing book, but I have to give tribute to Plait’s fantastic writing style. This book (death and destruction aside) can be laugh out loud funny at times. Seriously.
At one point, Plait is talking about how the Sun is going to expand and contract and expand and contract, and how this is going to kill all life on Earth – not exactly all flowers and sunshine, right? Well, through the use of footnotes, he injects some humor into the situation. Here’s the quotation:
It’s entirely likely that in a few billion years, Earth will look very much as Venus does today: tremendously hot, and blanketed in a dense atmosphere composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide.
However, even that thick air will be lost to space over millions and billions of years. By the time the Sun’s evolution brings it to the next chapter in its life, kicking it into overdrive, the Earth will be barren rock, devoid of any trace of atmosphere. It will be utterly lifeless.
For those of you clinging to hope‡, there is some life that might survive this state of Earth’s distant future.
‡ My suggestion: let go.
Plait is doing this sort of thing constantly in the book. Some other fun footnotes:
- “Like I said, black holes are weird.”
- “Get used to that. Your common sense it going to take a beating here.”
- “That distance is about 700 million miles from the Earth, so you’ll be thrusting a long time: well over a thousand years. Better pack a lunch.”
- “If you live in the northern hemisphere, that is. For Australians, New Zealanders, and other upside-down people, reverse those directions.”
Starting to get the idea yet that this is not your typical dry astronomy book? In case you missed it: this is not your typical dry astronomy book. Plait writes in an extremely readable way, so that even a science dunce like me can understand what the heck he’s talking about. He’s uses plenty of analogies that make sense (nothing’s worse than an author trying to explain a complicated subject by using a complicated analogy) and the humor gives the book a great punch.
You know the absolute best part of this book? How much I learned without feeling like I was learning at all. Some books are good for learning from, but you struggle throughout the book, pushing yourself to really focus and try to understand theories and topics that are quite frankly over your head. It’s a struggle to finish that kind of book.
On the other hand, Death from the Skies was a gripping read. I had a hard time putting it down (and in fact, I should have been packing and cleaning instead of reading, but when I weighed the two options, Death from the Skies won every time. That never would have happened with The Forgotten Man, a book I’ve started four different times but have never managed to finish. Now that is a dry book!)
Now comes the point in my review where I point out the things that you should watch for when reading Death – things that might bother you or that I feel detracted from the book. The only thing I can think of is that anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution or the Big Bang Theory is probably not going to like this book. Plait does not approach the discussion of the Universe from any sort of religious perspective whatsoever. Everything is based on what science has discovered.
I happen to really like that, but I know that it would bother other people, so I wanted to put that caveat in there.
Other than that, I literally cannot think of a single drawback to this book. It was full of incredibly complex information broken down into bite sized chunks; it had plenty of humor and analogies (and humorous analogies!), and it was interesting to read. I am giving Death from the Skies a rare 5 out of 5 stars.
Havs
Who is waiting impatiently for Plait to write another book so she can spend another two days glued to her couch, nose stuck in the book…
I know that this rather like closing the barn door after the cow got out, but I thought that I ought to post anyway. I haven’t posted since last Tuesday, and this is a much bigger blogging break than I had ever planned on having. Unfortunately, it is going to continue for at least another week, perhaps two, before I can get back on track. I have a plethora of things happening in my life right now (actually, I just like the word plethora. Please excuse me while I say it 10 times fast.) Alrighty, and I’m back. Here’s the short list of what has to happen in the next two weeks:
- It is the end of the semester at college (finals are next week!) and I have an overwhelming amount of homework that I need to do between now and then.
- We are selling our house; we get a sign on our front lawn and a lock box on our front door tomorrow. This means a deep cleaning of the house from top to bottom. Anyone bored this week?
- We are having a giant garage sale where we are basically trying to sell most of what we own, which of course takes tons of time to put together.
- Last but definitely the most important is the fact that my husband and I are getting a divorce. Some things need to be done, and this is one of those things.
So you add all of this together, and you end up with a very stressed out and overworked Hava. I went to bed at 3:30 am this morning but was up by 7:00. The bizarre thing is, I haven’t crashed yet. I’m waiting to just stop in my tracks, give one giant yawn, and fall over dead asleep. Hasn’t happened. Yet. Of course, it is only 10:30 in the morning. We’ll see what happens by 2:00 this afternoon.
Throughout all of this, I am still working at the library as normal, and I am hoping to be able to substitute teach this Wednesday. So yeah…If you don’t hear back from me in emails, just give me some time. I am probably packing with one hand and doing homework with the other.
After the next two weeks, things will calm down considerably. I won’t have school anymore; I won’t substitute teach anymore; and my garage sale will be done. Once that happens, I’ll be back on here in full force. I have quite a few books that are waiting for me to write reviews on, so don’t worry – I’ll have plenty to say when I get back.
If you want to make sure to hear about it when I do come back, please check out my subscription page and sign up for one of the options.
Don’t miss me too much!
Hava
Well, we’re finally back to Tuesday Talks, and I thought I’d kick off this series on my new site with someone very special. My nephew, Torsten, is a book review blogger at the ripe old age of 13. Apparently I am very good (or very bad?) influence on him. He reviews only fiction books (obviously I’m not that strong of an influence on him!) and has been doing it for several months now. I was very pleased to be able to interview him and let all of my amazing readers get to know this very cool person in my life.
So let’s get this party started, shall we?
To start us off, please tell us about your blog: What kinds of books do you like to review?
My blog name is ‘My Favorite Books: Strictly Fiction Book Reviews‘. I have a load of good fiction books at home that I love to read, and have already read. There’s also more books that I haven’t. I just have a big mix of fiction types, from historical (Number the Stars) to animal (The Tale of Despereaux) to fantasy (Eragon).
I’d love to hear about a favorite book or author that you’ve read recently and why it was your favorite.
 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo My most recent review, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, is my very favorite book of hers. I loved it because the main character, Edward, is a china rabbit, who thinks very highly of himself. He goes on a very special adventure, from owner to owner, learning the meaning of love and humility. I loved it because her writing skills are amazing; you just have to turn the page.
Tell me a little about yourself.
My name is Torsten Pearson, age thirteen, and I’m the author of blog ‘preteen memories’, ‘My Favorite Books’ and the private blog ‘Homeschoolerz Teenz’. I’m also the nephew to Hava of Nonfiction Book Review.
How long have you been reviewing books and why did you start – what was your motivation?
My friend, djyavin, has a blog, Games for Teens, where he reviews video games (be sure to check it out). That got me thinking, “Heck, I’d like to do something like that.” But pretty much the only game platforms I have are my GameBoy, my PC, and the laptop.
“But I also love books – fiction books,” I thought. So that’s how it got started. I wrote my first post on January 30th of 2009, saying I was going to review Eragon. My review on Eragon was posted on February 22nd, and I’ve just kept going. Although it keeps me majorly distracted from ‘preteen memories’.
Do you try to review the same kinds of books consistently, or are you eclectic in your choices?
Right now, I’m just mostly reviewing books I’ve already read and liked. I don’t have have any special genre going, although I am doing authors, and series in order. I suppose in the future I’ll figure out a way to organize them in some special order.
I have seen a lot of different styles when it comes to rating a book. Do you rate your book reviews, and if so, what is the point system and how do you determine what you give?
I rate my books according to my view on them, on a scale of one to ten. It shows, from my point of view, how good the book is.
In your eyes, what is the most important part of a book – the pacing, having well-developed characters, a plot with lots of twists and turns, a writing style that you enjoy, or something else?
To me, the most important part of a story is to either have a good writing style, something that people love with very thrilling twists and turns. Or well-developed characters, who don’t leave anyone going, “Now why did he do that?” You’d know the character and his life, and the reason he did it.
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Thank you, Torsten, for your interview with me.  For any moms out there reading this, it might be kinda cool to send your kids over to check out Torsten’s review site. If your kids love reading, then I think they’d find plenty of great books through Torsten’s site.
I will be starting up the children’s book reviews again this Friday (my Fun Friday series that I had on my old site) so be sure to watch for that. And next Tuesday, we’ll be back again, this time with Kristen of Book ‘N Around.
 Sex Lives of Cannibals by J Maarten Troost The first time I saw The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J Maarten Troost at the library, I was pretty shocked. That is *ahem* a very memorable title, and I remember wondering who would ever read that book.
Turns out, I would.
After the second or third time that I saw it while doing check-in, I flipped the book over and read the back to see what it was really about – surely this was not some sort of study done on the native tribes of the Pacific and their sex lives, right? As I read the description (which seemed to be decidedly bereft of any cannibals or sex acts) I became intrigued. I decided to give it a try.
I can now officially state that I have found a new favorite author. This was, quite possibly, the funniest book I have ever read. I laughed until my sides ached. There ought to be some sort of liquids warning attached to this book – I choked more than once while trying to drink and read. A dangerous thing to do if you’ve checked the book out of the library. Librarians are less than enthused when you return their book with grape juice sprayed across the pages (I ought to know).
So here’s the book in a nutshell: Troost has been going through the motions of life for a while – he had an advanced degree from an expensive university, and lots of student loans, but no desire to actually use what he got his degree in (international relations). He worked as a temp doing office work for a while and some other random jobs, but he couldn’t find anything that he really wanted to do.
Both he and his girlfriend, Sylvia wanted to go abroad, so they both started applying for international jobs. Sylvia got a job offer first, and so off they moved to the South Pacific to a country called Kiribati (pronounced kir-ee-bas). For the next two years, they lived literally in the middle of nowhere, on top of a tiny island with less square footage than most metropolitan cities here in the US. The government was corrupt, inept, and stupid; and the people knew little about sanitation and even less about modern inventions like air conditioning or computers.
There were serious moments to this book, but the majority of the book I spent laughing uproariously. Think of a version of Dave Barry that sticks to the facts (most of the time), and that pretty much describes Troost’s writing style. A Dave Barry who lived in the middle of nowhere for two years, and living to tell the tale about it afterwards. That about sums up this book.
As for the title of the book, I have to say that it was the only part of the book that I was disgruntled about. The publishers (or author?) purposefully picked a title that would be eye-catching (and eyebrow raising) just to increase sales. There is very, very little to do with either cannibals or sex acts in this book, in case anyone was wondering.
Here’s a small snatch of the book – if you don’t think this is funny, there is a good chance you may be dead. Just thought I’d warn you. They are flying from one island to another, and this is his thoughts on that flight:
After bowel movements, the state of Air Kiribati was the favorite topic of conversation on Tarawa. Did you hear about when the plane ran out of fuel midair and had to glide in for a landing, someone will say. Or…About when the engine died, or About when the pilot passed out mid-flight or About when they forgot to turn the beacon on at the airport, or, my favorite, The pilot let me fly the plane. Distressingly, these were not mere rumors. I had never been so uneasy about boarding a flight…
I nearly lost a few pounds when I contemplated the plane we were about to fly. This was an old Spanish prop plane that predated Franco. It tilted ominously, exuding an air of exhaustion. As the airport official clucked and fretted over our small, featherlight backpacks, I watched the pilot stand on a stepladder and tug at a wing until it aligned with the other wing. Then I smoked eighteen cigarettes. Even Sylvia asked a cigarette. Sylvia doesn’t smoke.
I did not want to cause a scene, but walking across the tarmac I did feel it was my duty to highlight to the members of Td Iitibwerere that the two engines were connected to the wings with masking tape. Really. They regarded this as very funny, and I knew then that the I-Kiribati would remain forever unfathomable to me. It was explained to us that the masking tape wasn’t actually connecting the engines to the wings, but merely covering up the parts of the plane that were corroded through with rust, and strangely, as I regarded the swaths of masking tape elsewhere on the fuselage, I didn’t really feel that much better.
~Page 209 – 210 of Sex Lives of Cannibals
I’m sorry for the length, but I just had to include the whole story. If that at all seemed funny to you, then a) Good news – you’re alive, and b) You need to read this book. If I were to compile a must-read nonfiction book list, this would be number one on the list for sheer entertainment value (although you also learn a lot about that corner of the world, and more specifically, how very, very much you do not want to live at that corner of the world.)
Troost has since written two other books, Getting Stoned with Savages and Lost on Planet China. I will definitely pick these up and read them. Based on the reviews on Amazon, it looks like they are both along the same lines as Sex Lives of Cannibals, which is a definite plus for me!
I give Sex Lives of Cannibals 4.75 out of 5 stars. I docked the quarter star because I’m still miffed about the title. Otherwise, it was a terrific read.
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