Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru

#853
Title: Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru
Author: Tahir Shah
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Year: 2003
288 pages

Shah turns a pretty phrase, even when it's about shrunken heads or disgusting food. Here he pursues the legend of the birdmen, a quest that includes colorful and sometimes alarming fellow travelers, grave robbing, hallucinogenic vines, crumbling textiles, matter-of-fact mystics, and the Nazca lines. Shah is neither a curmudgeonly character like Theroux nor a macho creep like some travel writers whom out of delicacy I shall not name. Instead, he lets the reader in on his hopes, his discomforts, and his apparently genial willingness to subject himself to traditional treatments for a variety of discomforts, including parasites in his pants, as he seeks answers to many, sometimes related, questions. Readable and quick-paced, it will cause the reader to be actively delighted that she isn't eating rat stew or picking wolf spiders out of her hair.

Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)

#852
Title: Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)
Author: E. L. James
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2011
514 pages

It’s neither as good nor as bad as more extreme reviews might suggest. Much time is spent on contractual disputes, lending it a legalistic air similar to the first segment of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Less is spent on sexual expression, which is more vanilla than the narrative’s titillation would have you think and written in a classic medium-core pornographic style. The characters make no sense to me; as others have noted, the avowedly clumsy virgin sex goddess and the formal yet crude no-good-for-you unfathomable rich guy aren’t compelling. What’s interesting here are the aspects of the story that amplify or warp Twilight. Here, the female protagonist more readily asserts her power and the male is more clearly rigid and in need of lightening up. Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qZLrC7Ot4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqmofb_saturday-night-live-fifty-shades-of-grey_shortfilms

Old Man's War

#851
Title: Old Man's War
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2006
314 pages

Not Haldeman, not Heinlein, but a fun space opera with light shades of both. Straightforward science fiction, often humorous, not deep, though it raises entertaining and interesting questions.

A Confusion of Princes

#850
Title: A Confusion of Princes
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Year: 2012
337 pages

I enjoyed this freestanding novel, a coming-of-age story with nods to other juvenile science fiction and not a little of the end of Robert Charles Wilson's Darwinia. However, Nix is somewhat out of his element in science fiction, and his lack of facility sometimes shows. Though this story isn't picaresque, it feels like it is in that elements don't always seem to have adequate explanations and aren't all well-integrated into the ploy. This looseness of weave contributes to the feeling that it's a video game script (and indeed, there's an associated video game). It sprawls a bit, but I can live with that, and it's fun to see Nix stretch.

Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

#849
Title: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
Author: Tom Mueller
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Year: 2011
238 pages

A very enjoyable natural and political history of olive oil. It has inspired me to spring for a can of Merula and begin to sample oils at a local specialty store.

On the down side, the audiobook reader is not up to par. He mispronounces words like "cuneiform" and engages in sporadic yet really annoying voice characterizations. The last hour or so of the audio is the glossary and website list being read aloud. Attach it as a PDF and be done. Please.

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President

#848
Title: This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
Author: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2009
315 pages

Memoir and history intertwine here, usually engagingly and sometimes with a degree of detail that's a little boring to those not conversant with recent Liberian politics. Still, Sirleaf has had an amazing life with surprisingly good outcomes, considering how chutzpahdik she's been when confronted by threats of imminent torture, rape, or death. It's quite an astonishing story.

Read with Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones to see how the Charles Taylor years affected nearby countries, and with The House at Sugar Beach for another, and different, story of a "Congo" woman surviving the Liberian conflicts.

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

#847
Title: Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
Author: Ken Jennings
Publisher: Scribner
Year: 2011
276 pages

It's about, well, maps. And a little about the history of cartography. And the geography bee. And Jennings's childhood. If you thought one of the best aspects of Dungeons & Dragons was creating the terrain on hex paper, you'll enjoy this.

I was shocked to discover one day that my recently-purchased world map was missing Bahrain. Over time, I determined that 6 countries had been omitted. I'm not talking Palestine or the then-not-yet segmented Sudan, but countries like Cape Verde. I tore it down and bought a new world map. If you'd have done so, too, you'll enjoy this book.