Two Challenges Finished

When I finished reading Brainiac I completed the TBR Challenge and the Non-fiction Five Challenge.

It was a long, long time ago that I picked out my books for the TBR Challenge - I couldn't even find the post with my original list of books. I wanted to see if I read all the originals or if I made any changes along the way. Oh well. Here's the list I did read:

1. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. I Am the Messenger by Mark Zusak
4. Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
5. At Some Disputed Barricade by Anne Perry
6. Brainiac by Ken Jennings
7. Flowers for Algernonn by Daniel Keyes
8. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
9. Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
10. House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
11. Booked to Die by John Dunning
12. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The only one I didn't care for was House of Spirits. Numbers 4 and 5 I read to further my progress in two different series I was into. (Still am.) Book 11 started me on another series. All in all, some really good books.

I was able to find my original list of books to be read for the Non-Fiction Five challenge. I posted this list on March 7, 2007. At the top is the original list and after that are the books I actually read.

1. And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance by Jacques Lusseyran
2. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary Chapman
3. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life by Richard Carlson
4. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings
5. Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

I didn't read the original numbers 1, 2, and 3. In addition to numbers 4 and 5 I read

1. My Grandfather's Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen
   
2. My Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
3. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Any that I disliked? No, I liked them all.

I can't believe how rewarding it is to finish a challenge and take a few minute to review the fruits I've reaped in the process. Worlds of information and hours of entertainment have been mine as a result of stretching beyond my cozies and suspense novels. Thank-you, Mizbooks and Joy for hosting this challenges. I have loved doing them and look forward to another go around.

I have learned that Mizbooks will be hosting the TBR Challenge again in 2008. Hurray! I have sooooo many books piled on my shelves and a bazillion more on my TBR wishlist at LibraryThing. I'm trying real hard to read mostly from my shelves this year, so this challenge is going to help me do that.And Joy will be hosting a new challenge starting in January 2008 called The First in a Series Challenge. So fun! I own the first book in 11 series, so this challenge is going to be just the thing to get those read. I have my mind set on 3 other series that I'd like to read. Here's hoping the library has those.

Brainiac

by Ken Jennings

Why? I bought this book at the Salt Lake Book Festival last fall after listening to Ken Jennings talk. He was so personable and funny. I was entirely captivated so I bought his book and asked him to sign it. Very cleverly, he signed it "Who is Ken Jennings?"

What? The book talks about Jennings' experiences trying out for and being on Jeopardy for 6 months. It was interesting to read about the regulations and the contracts that contestants must sign. They can't tell anyone about their experience until after the show airs, which is usually 3 months after taping. So here's a guy with a family and a job who has to fly to L.A every Tuesday and, in Jennings' case, stay until Thursday and he can't tell anyone! I can't imagine how difficult that must have been. And then after the first show airs, how do you not let it slip that you're still making new shows and that you've won big sums of money?

What did I like? I liked that Jennings doesn't just linearly tell his Jeopardy story. Instead, he weaves it over, under and through interesting history and trends in trivia. Did you know that in the mid-1800's a a man named Timp published trivia books. Wilkie Collins wrote an essay in which he describes using some of Timp's trivia at dinner parties.

Each chapter title is a question: What is Ambition? What is Cognition? What is Tradition? and so on. And each chapter has several questions to test the reader's trivia prowess. That was fun, even though I could only answer about half the questions.

I enjoyed reading about the bumpy emergence of Trivial Pursuit, bar trivia games, and the city of Stevens Point, Wisconsin the trivia capital of the world. Stevens Point has an annual 54-hour trivia game. Wow!

Anything else? Let me leave you with one philosophy of two guys talked about in the book. (How's that for specific?) These guys contend that good trivia questions are based on nostalgia. People like to be reminded of their common cultural heritage. This type of nostalgia trivia worked well in an era when the three TV choices on Sunday evening were Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen or Maverick. When Jennings asked if they thought this type of trivia would ever ebb to another high in America they said the didn't think so. There reason, "What makes us Americans, in a certain way, is the centrality of popular culture. It ties us together. The explosion of TV channels and fragmentation of popular music genres have changed all that. There's so much more out there, that there's less that people share. As a result, we have less of a strong, unifying cultural force in society in general. Things that used to be very, very deep cultural reference points don't mean anything at all nowadays."

The Devil in the White City

by Erik Larson

I thought this to be a very impressive book. I'm in awe that Chicago was able to pull this tremendous project off in as short a time as they had and with so many disasters along the way. Just over 20 years since the great fire started by Miss O'Leary's cow leveled most the city, Chicago was rebuilt and ready to take on the task of building a world's fair. Remarkable. The descriptions of the conditions in Chicago during the 1890's made me shudder and thank the powers that be that I'm living in a more refined era.

I especially liked reading about the famous architects at the time who were involved with building the great Columbian Exposition of 1893. I developed a bit of hero worship for Danial Burnham and added a bit more to Fredrick Olmstead. I found myself wishing while in Chicago and back home that there would have been more buildings saved from a later fire. I wish we had taken more time to go in some of the buildings that survived. I wish I would have known that the rookery was still standing and that we had gone inside it.

Of course, I gluttoned myself with notes on the new inventions and first time appearances of certian items, such as Shredded Wheat, Cracker Jacks, , Aunt Jemima's pancake mix in a box, Juicy Fruit gum, the first motion pictures, a dishwasher, electric lights, the Kodak camera that took what became known as snapshots and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The Pledge of Alligiance came about as a nation-wide way of honoring the fair. Let's don't forget the first ferris wheel.

Intertwined with this interesting, compelling story of the Exposition was the story of a man who used the situation of a bustling town that was focused on a big, important goal that required so much of the cities resources with a time in history when young woman were feeling freer about moving around unchaperoned. Enter the devil! Dr. Holmes was an enigmatic, plotting and sick socio-pathe who could charm women out of their lifes. His is a story of easy opportunity to feed his sickness and to go undetected for a long period of time.

I started reading this book in June the week before our vacation with hopes of finishing before we left. That's not how it happened. That last week was hectic and there was little time for reading. So I renewed the book for the library with every intention of calling in and renewing it every 2 weeks from wherever we were. I found our days filled to the brim so that I was reading 4-5 pages a day. The book was too heavy to carry around in my tote, so I traded for a smaller paperback 'Shadow on the Rocks' to carry around with me and put Devil in the White City on temp duty in the back of the car. When we arrived home, the basement was being torn apart, we had to find places for the furniture being stored in our living room and dining room. We had to dig up the sewer and repair it. In case you hadn't heard, our basement sewer backed up while we were on vacation. Family moved all the furniture and boxes of stuff to the carport and upstairs rooms. We were ready to start fixing up (Candleman wants to do it himself, I want to hire it done so it is over sooner). My knight in shining armor, Candleman, has been sick with a flu bug for 5 days and nothing is happening. I did paint the back door and door frame and rehang the door. With all that and school starting and trying to keep the kitchen workable, I'd about decided not to finish Devil in the White City.

Enter the RIP Challenge and the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. I switched on of my choices for the NFF and added Devil AND I added Devil to the RIP. Double impetus to finish the last 300 pages. It worked. I finished it tonight! (6 renewals at the library and the book is still several days over due - but it goes back tomorrow.)

Anyone living in or near Chicago should definitely read this book. Those planning to visit should read and take notes so you can be sure to visit buildings that were in Chicago in 1893. All the rest of the country, at least, should read it. I am already planning a trip back to see a bit more of what I missed the first time. It will probably take many to satisfy that tickle I feel to know Chicago better. I was so surprised at the love I feel for Chicago in such a short visit. I attribute much of that to the trends set by Burnham and other builders - the magnificent mile and the public beachfront. Chicago has become one of my favorite big cities. The other is Quebec City.

Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death

by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen
I added this book to my TBR list after reading Lotus Read's review. I was particularly intrigued with the "Biodegradable You" chapter that discusses 'green' burials. Maybe it's because I've been a biology teacher that the idea of the nutrients in my body cycling back into use in the environment appeals to me. Now I just convince my local cemetery and county officials to allow green burials.

Another chapter in the book discusses choices in caskets, such as 'Afterlife Vehicles'. You would expect cars, but what about lobsters or a wood plane?

Cullen discusses having your cremated ashes (or those of a loved one) scattered over the sea, placed in creative urns, or even turned into diamonds that can be set in jewelry. Speaking of being buried at sea, that is possible. There's even a company who makes beehive shaped monuments from cement and cremains. Loved ones can leave hand prints before the cement sets up.

The two most bizarre stories take place close to my part of the world. In Nederlands, Colorado there is a frozen dead man being stored in a Tuff Shed (a new one has been donated by the company). Every year Nederlands celebrates this oddity with the Frozen Dead Guys festival. There are parades, tours to the Tuff Shed, frozen head rolls (turkeys), coffin races and a costumed Polar-Bear Plunge (people jump into frozen ponds).

Number 2 bizarre story is from Salt Lake City, Utah where can actually have your body mummified inside a pyramid-shaped building. The process sounds quite disgusting to me and the man who runs things sounds even crazier.

If the green burial, ashes turned into diamonds or cement beehives is not your thing, you may consider having your body plasticized.

There are chapters that deal with traditional U.S. funerals and also the changes that need to be implemented for all the foreign-born U.S. citizens that want to follow their cultural traditions in death. There are some interesting ideas that need to be considered that aren't allowed for with laws as they currently stand.

Remember Me was an insightful read. I'm glad I read it.

My Grandfather's Blessings

by Rachel Naomi Remen
I started this book many months ago, but didn't get far. My husband lent the book to his sister, who read it and then her husband read it. I finally got it back and finished reading it. It's a great book to pass around and share with friends and family.

This is the perfect 'bathroom' book. Short sections of 2 or more pages provide meaty kernels of wisdom. It's the type of book you'll want to own because you'll want to highlight many passages. My husband read this book first and highlighted in yellow. I loved pausing and considering the parts he marked. I used a soft lavender crayon-type marking tool to differentiate mine from his. Of course, there was lots of overlapping. I could fill pages with the quotes, but I will choose just a few for this review.

A blessing is not something that one person gives another. A blessing is a moment of meeting, a certain kind of relationship in which both people involved remember and acknowledge their true nature and worth, and stengthen what is whole in one another.

Many times when we help we do not really serve. When we help we become aware of our strenght because we are using it. Others become aware of our strength as well and may feel diminished by it. Service is a relationship between equals. A helping relationship may incur a sense of debt, but service is mutual. Serving is also different from fixing. When we fix others, we may not see their hidden wholeness or trust the integrity of the life in them. Fixers trust their own expertise. When we serve we see the unborn wholenss in others; we collaborate with it and strengthen it. (italics are my own)

Whenever someone has found the courage to live more deeply, more courageously than before, no matterhow short a time it may be, theyhold open that door for anyone who tries to follow.

Life wastes nothing. Over and over again every molecule that has ever been is gathered up by the hand of life to be reshaped into yet another form. The molecules in you and me and indeed in everyone are secondhand, borrowed for the occasion and returned when outgrown. How strange to think that great pain may be impermanent. Something in us all seems to want to carve it in granite, as if only this would do full honor to its terrible significance. But even pain is blessed with impermanence; slowly, drop by drop, it may be worn away until even the most devoted searchers cannot find it unless they look for compassion or some other form of wisdom.

Meaning is dynamic. Over time, new meanings may evolve that are far less universal and more our own. It is important to revisit our woulds to see what new meanings may have grown there. If we become frozen in anger and pain, it may be many years before we recognize what these are.

Spiritual awakening does not change life; it changes suffering.

The Buddhists say that one of the signs of true enlightenment is the experience of a vast, immutable joy that underlies the personal joys and sorrows of this life. The Cosmic Giggle suggest that for those in the know, the essential nature of life is such goodness that the only possible response is joy.

Four Agreements

by Don Miguel Riuz
My first Non-fiction read chalked off. I read this book years ago and enjoyed it less this time, but it was still worth refreshing my memory. The four agreements are:

Be impeccable with your word
Don't take anything personally
Don't make assumptions
Always do your best

Riuz spends the first part of the book explaining the Toltec wisdom and practices that rest on these four agreements. Then he explains each agreement in further detail, helping the reader understand what each means. The last part of the book he explains how to be a warrior when it comes to fighting against the misconceptions that fuel the fears we've let ourselves believe all our lives. Finally he ends with some simple prayers.

I think I should reread the four agreements on a regular basis. They make sense to me and I can see how they would bring increased happiness.

More Terrific Challenges

I've had my nonfiction books picked and posted in my sidebar for some time now, but I've been a bit slow writing a post and declaring my intentions to participate.

The Non-Fiction Five Challenge is being hosted by Joy over at "Thoughts of Joy". Between the months of May and September participants read five nonfiction books of their choice. I'm finding that choosing the books is the hardest part of any challenge. After much thought and deliberation I have chosen my five. I tried to pick some from my bookshelves in a small attempt to reduce the number of books I own that I have not read.

1. And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance

This astonishing autobiography tells the gripping, heroic story of the early life of Jacques Lusseyran, an inspiring individual who overcame the limitations of physical blindness by attending--literally--to the light within his own mind. Through faith in the connection between vivid inner sight and outer events, he became a leader in the French Resistance and survived the horrors at Buchenwald.

2. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary Chapman

My niece and then my sister read this book, so I decided to read it. At this point in my life, I really don't like reading self-help books, so don't be surprised if I change this selection when it actually comes to reading it. On the other hand, I do own it - bookmooched it just for this challenge.


3. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life by Richard Carlson & Joseph Bailey

Carlson, author of don't sweat the small stuff, and co-author bailey offer a slightly different approach to slowing down and simplifying one's life. While other books urge us to reduce activities or drastically alter our lifestyles, this one teaches us that feeling harried starts in the mind. The authors offer simple, effective ways to reorganize our thinking and reshape our experience of living without sacrificing productivity. Oh no, another self-help book and also, one I own!

4. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings

I heard Ken Jennings, of Jeopardy fame, speak at the Salt Lake City Book Festival in Sep. He was quite delightful, personable and funny. He's the type of person you'd like for a neighbor. I'm looking forward to reading his book - and, it's not a self-help book. YAY!

5. Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen.

Lotus Reads' review of this book really intrigued me. Lotus mentioned that there was a chapter dealing with 'green funerals' and I'm hoping it will provide suitable alternatives to the high costs and stupidity of traditional funerals.