This Week in Literature - November 23, 2011

I've been meaning to write something for the past few days but I've been burdened with school and things of a scholastic nature so I haven't gotten around to it. My mindset this week has also led to a classic case of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all..." Just seems like all the news I've come across has been at least a little depressing. Not that depressing news isn't worth sharing. In fact, it is often the most important news to share; but, if I were to write something about the lack of government aid being sent to James Bay or the number of sharks that are being killed brutally for their fins, I might go off the deep end.

With that in mind, I think today's posting calls for another book review. Reading makes us all feel better about the world, right?

To conclude my review of "Adrift", I will just say that the book managed to hold my interest in spite of taking place almost entirely in a rubber life raft. You would think that 200 pages of drifting would get boring, but Steven Callahan does a great job with gripping prose. It doesn't hurt that a plethora of increasingly complex survival problems arose during his 76 days in at the mercy of North Atlantic currents. Failing solar stills, crafty fish, deteriorating equipment, spearing his own raft. Adrift delivers what it promises and had me looking forward to reading a bit more each night. I'll give it 4 out of 5 ridiculously inadequate life rafts. The only thing it really lacked was suspense, but that is par for the course when you're reading a true story of a life or death situation written by the guy who's life is at risk.

I also have a few books that I've just started so I'll give a rough outline without offering too much in the way of opinions until I've finished them. First up, "The Guinea Pig Diaries: My life as an experiment" has kept me up past my bedtime for the past few nights reading about the hilarious misadventures of Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs. Each chapter tells a tale in participatory journalism as Jacobs poses as a beautiful woman, outsources his life, or tries to overcome unconscious biases and live in a Vulcan-esque bubble of rationality. There have been more than a few laugh out loud moments and I look forward to reading about his further experiments.

Finally, this week on the iPod, I'm listening to "The Emperor of all Maladies: A biography of cancer" by Siddhartha Mukherjee. This one made its way into the rotation for no real reason other than that it keeps popping up in my recommended reading list on Amazon and its frequently on the Science Non-Fiction shelf at the book stores that I frequent. It also didn't hurt that the reviews have been amazing, though. So far, the audiobook is a gripping account of the author's encounters with cancer patients in his role as oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The stories grab your attention and tear your heart out. In all honesty, it's been tough to listen too so far but you are left with an irresistible urge to listen more. The introduction promises to get into the scientific specifics of cancers, the history of the disease, and the possibility of finding an overarching cure within our lifetime, but I'm sure it won't  be any less heart-wrenching. Don't read this one if you're a hypochondriac. 

Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Happy reading!

-Steve