Author: Kenneth Sutton

Brandon Sanderson’s first published novel, Elantris, is an engaging, stylish fantasy novel. The cover blurbs make much of the fact that it’s a “complete and thoroughly satisfying story in a single volume.” And it is that, although at the very end there are a couple of hints that the author might have other books in mind. I certainly hopes he returns to this world and these characters. I’d heartily recommend this book.

I loved Julie Czerneda’s first “species imperative” book, and I loved Migration: Species Imperative #2. I was delighted to find on Czerneda’s website that there’s a third due out in a year. This volume actually does an ok job of ending at a point where you’re not desperate for the next one, but it’s also clear what the third one will be about. The cover art, by the way, has nearly no connection to the contents. You can always put a plain brown wrapper on the book or remove the jacket!

The Bean Trees is the first book I read by Barbara Kingsolver, and I was pleased to reread it recently for my book group. There were things I missed the first time (or had forgotten), and the conversation we had was very rich.

I had always thought of Taylor as the ultimate no-nonsense, competent person who can cope with anything. But as we discussed the book, I realized she isn’t really much good at coping until she’s had time to retreat from the crisis and then return to it. Discovering a new angle on a character is one of the joys both of rereading and of discussing books.

Julie E. Czerneda’s Survival: Species Imperative #1 is a real page-turner of a sci-fi book. Without reading like a heavy, self-important book, it raises deep questions about friendship, survival, and science. Czerneda was trained as a biologist, and it shows in her writing. There’s a sequel out, and I’m eager to get it.

Steve Leveen’s The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life sort of belongs in the goofy, slight, self-help category of books. But because he did actually talk to a wide range of avid readers, his summary of reading advice includes a few helpful ideas that are new to me (as well as some already familiar ones).

The first (and biggest) new idea is creating a list of candidates for reading, grouped under headings, with notes about when and why they were added. Leveen suggests there are too many books to read and that you should pay attention to what your interests are and seek to find the best books that reflect your interests. (He’s also an advocate for abandoning books that just aren’t doing it for you.) He links this suggestion to keeping a list of the books you’ve read (obviously not a new idea for me).

The obvious categories for my list of candidates included Time Travel, Speculative Fiction, Biography, Natural History, Horticulture, Botany, and Taxonomy.

Leveen suggests buying books and shelving them by the same categories so they are ready to hand when you’re looking for something to read. After he’s read books, he puts them on an intermediate shelf where he can easily pick them up to review what he learned or noted from each book before moving them into what he calls his “Living Library.”

In order to get more from reading, he suggests surveying the book before beginning to read, writing in the margins (especially questions to yourself), and reviewing the book at increasing intervals after you finish.

He includes chapters on audio books and book groups.

All in all, a worthwhile read.

Discovering Your Personality Type by Don Richard Russo and Russ Hudson was my capitulation to finding out about the Enneagram. Several friends rave about it, and my housemate has been to several training institutes. So I caved. Interesting book, a bit rah-rah and “buy our books” for my taste, but having taken their instrument and looking at my office through the Enneagram lens, it looks useful.

Here’s their website: Enneagram Institute: Enneagram Testing & Training.

And if you’re curious: active five with a four wing.

I was concerned that The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs, by Lyall Watson, might potentially put me off my pork products, but it didn’t quite manage that. It did, however, come close. Watson describes several personal relationships with pigs–none of which happen to be your garden-variety meat hog, which is why I suspect I got away with my dietary sensibilities relatively intact. (I do, however, struggle with weaning myself from animal products produced by industrial agriculture.)