Pocket Guide: Birds of Southern Africa

#835
Title: Pocket Guide: Birds of Southern Africa
Author: Ian Sinclair
Publisher: Struik Publishers
Year: 2011
144 pages

Not read straight through, but first skimmed, then relentlessly consulted to the point where everything has been read several times. Te best of the pocket birding guides (though, like Pocket Guide to Birds of Southern Africa, it lacks taxonomic names). Includes clear photos, distribution maps, descriptions, habitat, status, voice, migration, breeding, and behavior notes.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

#834
Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green & David Levithan
Publisher: Dutton
Year: 2010
310 pages

Cute and at times moving YA fiction (not science fiction). I thought the ending wasn't quite as believable or as emotionally significant as it should have been.

Zeitoun

#833
Title: Zeitoun
Author: Dave Eggers
Publisher: McSweeney's
Year: 2009
342 pages

Another--what?--ethnographic novel? assistive memoir? by Eggers. I appreciated the journalistic neutrality, but at times felt that this distance made Kathy seem more histrionic and Zeitoun more arrogant. If I were Eggers, I'd have ended with a quote from the Qur'an, since they were interspersed.

I read a World Book Night copy that I gave to someone who hadn't read it, who then asked me to read it so we could discuss it. I then handed it to another American in Africa.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (updated edition)

#832
Title: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (updated edition)
Author: Anthony Bourdain
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2007
312 pages

Classic Bourdain, or ur-Bourdain. My preference is for his experiences of the foods of many lands, but his kitchen notes are entertaining and hold my attention. I will say only that I'm glad my mother is such a good cook; of course I have shallots in the house.

I think that I'll try one of his novels next.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

#831
Title: The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Author: Steven Johnson
Publisher: Riverhead
Year: 2006
299 pages

I know I took notes on this, but I can't locate them. Johnson methodically describes the discovery of cholera, picking apart the truth and reality of Whitehead and Snow's contributions, as well as describing the context (sometimes at the broad historical level, sometimes house by house). Johnson unbalances the book's focus and proportions in his attention to bigger themes, some not as closely associated with cholera as one might wish. Johnson ought to have saved these musings for a separate book.

Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard

#830
Title: Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy's Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard
Author: Mawi Asgedom
Publisher: Little, Brown
Year: 2002
176 pages

A straightforward narrative, not very well written, with a moralizing tone I found tedious. I enjoyed learning about his life, but wasn't sure that, as told, it warranted a publication.

There's No Toilet Paper . . . on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure

#829
Title: There's No Toilet Paper . . . on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure
Author: Doug Lansky (Ed.)
Publisher:  Travelers' Tales
Year: 2005
216 pages

I just didn't find most of this very funny. It's hard to say why, but most of the anecdotes seemed dull.