BOOK REVIEW: "Winterdance"

"Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod"

By Gary Paulsen

Copyright 1994

Harvest Books

Autobiography

2 Bookmarks

I have a secret.  Truth be told, I'm kind of embarrassed to share it.  Frankly, some people will find it shocking, especially considering the fact that I live in what seems to be the dog ownership capital of the nation, but......I don't like dogs.  There.  I said it.  Let the hate mail begin. 

There are a myriad reasons for my discomfort around Fido.  Number one is the memory of when a cousin was severely mauled by a dog.  I was not there, but heard about it in horrifying detail from a third party (grateful that after much medical intervention she was okay). 

Number two would have to be the dog at the house by the Little Butte.  As a kid, I would sometimes ride by this house on the way to my friend's place and the dog would rush at me, barking like a crazed lunatic and nip at my heels as I would peddle and peddle as fast as I could to get away (growing up in the country has its drawbacks.  The fact that no one keeps their dog behind a fence is one of them).  My heart still starts racing as an adult when I go by that house.  In a car.  With the windows rolled up.

Number three is probably the time a client allowed his dog to bite me (it was obvious the dog was extremely agitated and the owner didn't make any effort to restrain it).  Very difficult position to be in, trying to be professional while screaming inside because of the gash ripped in my foot.

Other than that, it's just the normal stuff.  Don't like dogs pooping in my yard.  Don't like dog hair on my clothes.  Don't like dogs jumping all over me.  Don't like dogs drooling and schnozing all over me.  Yes, I am a coldhearted bee-otch for not liking dogs. 

That being said, someone who obviously doesn't know me well enough to know this little "secret" of mine, recommended a book to me: Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. 

This story of a man who likes to "run dogs" so decides to run the Iditarod in Alaska was definitely not in my normal genre of book, but it came so highly recommended I thought I'd give it a try.  And in fact, the entire concept of the story was so foreign to me it was difficult to grasp that it was autobiographical (yes, this ACTUALLY happened!) 

The author puts together a team of dogs that are constantly attacking him, biting him, and attacking each other all the while training to run the race.  They are not nice dogs.  The situations this guy finds himself in are utterly miserable.  And yet, he is somehow thrilled to be with the dogs and waxes eloquent for page after page about how wonderful an experience this is. 

So this guy is dragged by the dogs, skunked because of the dogs, sleep-deprived, starved, poverty-stricken......and the race hasn't even started.  And yet, none of it matters because of his obsession with the dogs.  It was a bizarre concept that I truly believe only a dog-lover can understand.  The guy gets enough donations together to get up to the race.  Once the author gets to the part describing the race, I was sort of numb to the graphic descriptions of dog bites, dog crap and the other unpleasantries he was faced with on a daily basis.  The race itself was a little more interesting, but the poor guy just keeps getting hit with one catastrophe after another (frostbite, hallucinations, chunks of ice floating away with people on them).  It's enough to make me wonder why anyone in the world would ever have any desire to run such a race.  But it takes all kinds, I suppose.

That being said, the story was somewhat well-written, straight-forward and detailed.  It kept my interest, but most of the time while reading it I felt a deep-seated horror that someone would actually put themselves through this experience on purpose.

POEM: Even After Everything

Even After Everything
By Yours Truly

As I fall asleep each night

My mind flies away

To another place,

Another time.

I dream, awake.

I wrap my arms

Tight

Around my teddy bear.

And close my eyes.

I dream, awake.

I know I cannot have the world.

But want so much

Just that small piece

Of what I know is real.

I dream, awake.

Do you?

BOOK REVIEW: House & Home

House & Home

By Kathleen McCleary

Copyright 2008

Hyperion Books

Adult Fiction

2 Bookmarks

Many of you know that in my "other" life, I'm a Realtor.  The reason I'm a Realtor is because I kinda love houses.  Big houses, little houses, old houses, new houses, doesn't matter.  Every house is a little different and little unique and they're all fun to walk through!  But I digress.  The reason for my diatribe on houses is because that explains why I picked up this book in the first place.  House & Home, such a cozy title. 

Sadly though, I was disappointed to learn that this book is actually about a woman who is so obsessed with her house that when she has to sell it (due to divorce), she decides to burn it down.  As you can imagine, this does not end well.

The story itself isn't terribly written.  There are moments that are somewhat interesting and keep you turning the page.  But there are just a few things in here that are so bizarre as to be completely unbelievable...like the main character going on a long car ride with the husband of "the enemy" (the woman who is buying the house) just because they're both going the same direction and they want to save the gas or something. 

There's a slight edge of infidelity in a few spots in the book, and a few weird characters that just aren't that believable.  Plus, there weren't very many characters in the book that you get to know enough to actually care about. 

Overall, this was a "meh."

BOOK REVIEW: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Fifty Shades of Grey

by E L James

Copyright 2011

Vintage Books

Adult Fiction

4 Bookmarks

After the week I've had, I really need to get back into life and be able to focus on something good.  And I'm happy to say, I read a book recently that I can definitely call GOOD (although there are probably some out there who would disagree.....)

I don't usually read the trendy books (Harry Potter? Nope.  Twilight? Naw.  Hunger Games?  NEVER!)  But I finally broke down and read Fifty Shades of Grey.  I read a review of it somewhere that called it "mommy porn", but I didn't really realize the exact level of the sexual content of the book until I was somewhere in the middle of chapter six.  And maybe it's because I don't usually read romance novels that I was somewhat shocked, but YOWZA!  

Okay, so let me go back to the beginning.  Fifty Shades is about a young soon-to-be college graduate, Anastasia Steele, who meets an up-and-coming business mogul, Christian Grey.  The chemisty between them is instantaneous.  After running into each other on a few occasions, he asks her out.  But the date is anything but typical.  Christian, it turns out, has certain, ummmm......shall I say, proclivities? that soon come to light.    So while Anastasia is overcome by her desire for this man, she is hesitant because of the things he is particularly fond of in the bedroom.  Things related to leather.  And blindfolds.  And paddles.  And chains.

As Anastasia and Christian become closer, the differences between them become more apparent.  The story pulls them closer together and pushes them apart.  The author does a great job of drawing the reader into the relationship of the two main characters, while at the same time throwing in some pretty detailed sex scenes. 

I realize this is going to sound unbelievably cliche' (given the "I-just-read-it-for-the-articles" excuse that guys give when they're caught with a Playboy), but I really enjoyed the story of the emotional drama and tension between the main characters more than the sex stuff.  Anastasia struggles with the idea that in order to have a relationship with Christian, she has to accept things she previously would have deemed unacceptable and she just isn't sure she can do it.  And Christian struggles with the idea of having a relationship that isn't JUST about the sex with someone. 

For my friends who don't watch R-rated movies: Sorry. I just cannot recommend this book to you.  I would definitely rate this book far above an R rating.  There is talk about making it into a movie but, frankly, I'm just not sure how they will do that without having at least an NC-17 rating (maybe lots of dark rooms with the impression of things happening without actually showing it?) 

For everyone else: As long as you are comfortable with sexuality, I can definitely give this one a recommend.  I enjoyed most of it.  My biggest complaints were related more to the believability of the book.  For instance, the story is set in Seattle with the characters supposedly native Washingtonians, but the dialogue occasionally includes words like "bloody", "crikey", and other phrases that no red-blooded American would ever be caught dead saying.  They also at one point eat "biscuits" (crackers).  And the main female character has a strong fascination with tea (Tea?  In Seattle, of all places!)  Do you think the author "might" be British?

It was definitely an enjoyable read, though, and I now have the second two books of this trilogy in my queue at the library.  Four bookmarks from me.

COMMENTARY: Waldo Canyon Fire



Saturday on my way home from work.

This has been an unbelievably traumatic week for me. And since writing has always been good therapy, I thought I would write about my experience.



I spotted the first plume of smoke around noon while showing houses on Saturday, June 23rd. I remember thinking, “Ugh, a wildfire. Someone probably threw a cigarette butt down on the Waldo Canyon Trail. Idiot!” (I do not tolerate the inconsiderate morons who litter and put the rest of us in danger by throwing out their butts anywhere they want, let alone in a forest as dry as ours!)

As I drove up I-25 back to my office after showing the last home, I started to worry about the fire. It was very apparent that the smoke plume had grown significantly larger.



Monday afternoon with the smoke column rising.

That night I watched the news with my family. Yes, it was a wildfire. Yes, it was in Waldo Canyon. And yes, it was dangerous. We watched that evening and much of the day Sunday and into Monday as they evacuated neighborhood after neighborhood coming closer and closer to us. 

The Incident Response Team was amazing as they immediately started holding press briefings twice daily to update the community about the fire. The fire moved in different directions every day, which was making things difficult.  The Fire Manager explained some of the boundaries the firefighters were trying to set up to keep the fire from coming into the city. One of the main containment lines was Queen’s Canyon, just outside the Garden of the Gods area near Glen Eyrie. Two mountain ridges from housing communities, and just about five miles from our house. 


On Tuesday I dropped my daughter off at her grandparents’ house so I could go to work for awhile. The wind was starting to blow. It was quiet at the office, but after a few hours people started going over to the western windows and looking out periodically and I started to do the same. The fire seemed to move faster than imaginable.  The wind had gotten ahold of it and fanned it into a ball of flame.  Before we knew it, the fire had visibly crested the second ridge from town, which meant it had passed the containment line the firefighters had established at the boundary of Queen’s Canyon.



Photo taken from my office Tuesday. My cell camera is terrible,
but you can see the flames sweeping down the mountainside.


Not good. I checked the fire about every 10 minutes. Each time I looked, more of the mountain was encompassed in flames and soon, it crested the first ridge of the mountain range near “the scar” (the old Queen’s Canyon Quarry), and raced down the slope toward the neighborhood of Mountain Shadows. At 4:30, I was finally finished with my work and rushed out of the office and across town to pick up my daughter. By this time, the western sky was black with smoke. The wind was gusting at about 25-30 mph. And there were so many flames.



This is what the flames looked like from the north as they
came down the mountainside into town.
Photo by Cassidy DeJong

Once I picked up my daughter on the eastern side of town and headed back west it really hit me that we were in trouble. As we drove toward the mountains, we could no longer see the flames racing down the ridge. Instead, we drove into a wall of black smoke pouring through the streets from west to east. We could hardly see the cars in front of us in some spots. Everyone was racing to get home and traffic was terrible.



We finally pulled into the house, where my husband was already packing up bins with our most valuable possessions. The wind was now gusting at about 40-45 mph and we could hardly see the homes across the street from us. I think the mandatory evacuation order was issued about 10 minutes after I walked in the door. We grabbed our cats, our lizard, some clothes, our important papers, medications, and a few irreplaceable items, jumped in the cars and left.



This photo taken closer to the fire.  Where we evacuated from,
the smoke was surrounding the cars and blocking the viw.
 But every once in awhile, the smoke would swirl up and we
could see the flames in our rearview mirrors.
(Photo courtesy unknown)

The traffic on our street was stand-still with everyone trying to get away from the wall of smoke and heat that was now bearing down on us. We were trying to get out of the neighborhood going south because of the neighborhoods north of us being evacuated at the same time. My husband and I were both listening to the same radio station when they announced they were closing all westbound lanes to incoming traffic and opening them up to evacuees going east. We immediately turned around, headed north and got out going east in a westbound lane. I tried to keep my daughter calm as she cried in fear the entire drive away from the flames.  When we finally pulled into my in-laws driveway, I finally broke down and cried too, so thankful that we had gotten out and were okay.



The flames barreled down the mountain toward the houses
backed by 65-70 mph winds.  Photo from the AP.

We knew there would be much loss. We hoped and prayed there would be no death. When the news finally came out, the loss was devastating. 346 homes lost. Two dead—an elderly couple that didn’t make it out of their home. The press briefing Wednesday morning was somber.

We spent three nights at my in-laws praying for the wind and the heat to stop. We had record high temps for several days in a row, including one day we hit 101 degrees, a historic high temperature for Colorado Springs.



As aerial photos of the burn area started appearing on social media and eventually even on the news, most people knew, even before the Incident Command Team released the list, of who’s homes had been lost.

Of the 7-8 families I know who live in that neighborhood, I was saddened to discover that one of my client’s had lost their home and all their possessions. Truly, that was the worst moment for me—to have it hit so close to home. But I was amazed at this family’s cheerful spirits and the smiles on their faces when they came to see me at my office a few days later. Truly an inspiration.

The fire destroyed 346 homes in a neighborhood of about 1800. The firefighters made heroic efforts to save most of the homes, facing down the flames that came barreling down the mountain backed by a 65 to 70 mph wind. They said later that the fire moved three miles in one hour that day. When it finally stopped, it was just one and a half miles from my home. I think about how fortunate we are for everything that we have. We are safe. Our neighborhood and home were spared. And, although this is not over yet, the fire is finally moving away from the city. We are hopeful that the pre-evacuation notice we are under will lift soon.

It sure makes you look at what is important in life and remember those that you love. My gratitude is overflowing for the 1200+ firefighters, police officers, forest service officials, and soldiers that are still out there trying to keep us safe.

If you'd like to see an amazing time lapse of the the first five days of this fire, watch this dramatic video by local photographer Steve Moraco:

BOOK REVIEW: "Aftershock"

Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown, 2nd Edition

By David Wiedemer, Robert Wiedemer and Cindy Spitzer

Copyright 2011

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Economic Non-Fiction

3 Bookmarks

Well if this won't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.  Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown is an economic theory book focusing on the state of the U.S. economy with predictions for the next several years. 

The authors of this somewhat doomsday piece believe that there are several interlinking market bubbles (including real estate, stocks, dollar and government debt) that are in the process of popping.  The first of these, real estate, has obviously already begun.  The authors believe that a chain of events, including the current government policies of printing gobs of new dollars and taking on gobs of new debt (currently nearing $16 trillion), are going to lead to a major financial meltdown in the U.S., and even worse abroad, within the next few years. 

Boy, I hope they are wrong.  And as I was reading the book, I found it funny that the authors even talk about people like me hoping they are wrong.  The title of the book comes from the "aftershock" the authors expect after the popping of all these economic bubbles.  In a blatant oversimplification on my part, let me summarize.  The authors believe that at some point in the very near future, we will stop being able to take on new debt because other countries will stop loaning money to us. At the same time, the dollar is going to become so hyperinflated that it will be nearly worthless.  Do you remember the photos of post WWII Germany with the wheelbarrows of cash taken to the store to buy a loaf of bread?  Yeah.  And jobs will become even more scarce.  Discretionary spending will come to a grinding halt.  Real estate will suffer a dismal fate.  And Wall Street will lose most of its value. 

It's a fairly well-written book with logical arguments and plenty of detail.  There were a few places where they lost me, possibly due to my inexperience with the whole investment side of things.  Plus, the blatant plugs throughout the book for their financial services and investment opportunities were extremely self-serving and lessened the credibility of the book as a whole, in my opinion.  But it was an entertaining and educational read with a little bit of an unconventional theory behind it that really got me started thinking more in depth about the economy and what is going on with government fiscal policies.

BOOK REVIEW: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
By Betty Smith
Copyright 1943, 1947
HarmperCollins Publishing
Adult Fiction
5 Bookmarks

There is so much to say about this incredible book that I hardly know where to begin.  First, I think I'm fairly certain this was only partially fiction. It seems most likely that much of the book is based on the childhood experiences of the author.

The major theme of the book is the cycle of poverty and how one goes about pulling themselves out of it.  The story, however, is an interwoven tale about a young girl, Francie Nolan, and the ups and downs she experiences growing up in a Brooklyn slum in 1912. 

I just loved the character of Francie!  She is spunky, smart, thoughtful and eccentric.  Francie's mother Katie has done the best she can for Francie and her brother, Neeley.  Following some advice, Katie has read a page of the Bible and a page of Shakespeare to the children nearly every day of their lives.  Katie seems aware that education is the key to breaking the poverty cycle.

Francie takes that education and runs with it, developing early a keen sense of understanding and insight to the realities of her world.  Her character knows that "Poor people have a great passion for huge quantities of things," simply due to the lack they usually experience. 

As Francie grows up, she is changed by various experiences and people in her life (as are we all).  One teacher tells her to "tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened."  This helps Francie develop her writing skills, as well as learning a valuable lesson about honesty. 

I really enjoyed reading this beautiful story about a young girl coming of age during a very difficult time in the world.  There were a few part of the book that made me a little bit uncomfortable as I recalled the times in my own childhood when my family stared poverty in the face.  But these are the realities of our world, and this story is a great example of how a person growing up in difficult circumstances overcomes them and makes their world a better place.  Just like the tree of the title, a tree that grows up out of the Brooklyn concrete in a place where one would never expect anything to grow, Francie Nolan thrives in the slum and becomes so much more than anyone would have ever expected. 

I highly recommend this important book for ALL readers. 

SONG OF THE DAY: "Headlights"

"Headlights"
By Morning Parade
5 Bookmarks (can I give bookmarks to a song?)

I LOVE this song.  This band has potential to rival Snow Patrol for my affections...... 

COMMENTARY: "Pretending"

So this past week I had the opportunity to spend a few days in a city I don’t get to visit nearly often enough. That's right! 

                         VEGAS, BABY!

While there, I was able to dress a little differently than I normally do:

I ate at fancy restaurants, saw fun shows, and enjoyed unbelievable art:

Oh yeah, and I even got to “relax”.

In short, I was playing "make-believe"; pretending to be someone I am not.

Pretending to be a party girl. Pretending to have a lot of spare cash floating around. Pretending to not have a care in the world.  Pretending to be MUCH younger than I actually am.  Pretending to be the center of attention.  Pretending to be a whole lot of things (I can't share the photo of me with the Thunder From Down Under but believe me, it was epic!)

It’s not that I don’t like that person I was pretending to be (in fact, I kind of love her!), it’s just that that person doesn’t really fit in with my normal day-to-day existence. In my “real” life, I can’t go dancing every night and I can’t eat at five-star restaurants. I can’t spend entire days lazing away by a pool after sleeping in until Noon (frankly, in Colorado there are only a handful of days even warm enough to go to a pool….). And relaxing?  Hahaha!  In real life, I don’t know the meaning of the word.  

Instead, in the “real” world, I wake every morning and do all the things a normal person does (including sitting down at the end of the day to play my Scrabble and Words with Friends games), drop off to sleep, then do it all over again.

My daughter missed me while I was gone. 

And I missed her. 

I love my life. I love my family. I love my work. But it’s sometimes just a little too "real". And I kinda like playing make believe. I like being that “other” girl. 

Wait a minute.......

Actually,

Now that I think about it......




Maybe I’m just pretending to be a civilized businesswoman..... wife.....  mother...... and productive member of society.

When actually,







I really am a party girl........




(Even if only for just a few days a year.)

BOOK REVIEW: "There but for the"

There but for the
By Ali Smith
Copyright 2011
Pantheon Books
Adult Fiction
1 Bookmark

So there I was, reading a list of MUST READ BOOKS OF 2011 and I came across this title.  Intriguing.  There but for the what?, I thought.  So I queued up the book on my library account and waited for a copy to become available so I could find out.

When I picked up the book, I was kind of disappointed at the cover.  I mean, really.  No picture.  No art.  No anything but a typewriter font of the title (they even had to declare it was "a novel" on the cover because otherwise no one would have known).  I'm a big fan of clever book covers, so this was strike number one.

Strike number two came pretty quickly after that when I got about halfway through the first page of the introduction and realized the story was to be told with the dialect of a 10-year-old.  I have a 10-year-old.  I really don't have much interest reading a book written in the style of what I hear on a daily basis.  But I kept reading.  Because, after all, this was on a MUST READ list. 

Chapter one started out a little better; no longer in the childish vernacular, but with a more traditional story-teller tone.  However, a few short paragraphs later, I once again ran into trouble when the story slipped into some pretty hefty word association and strayed into some unbelievably ridiculous tangents.  Strike number three.  Frankly, it just went downhill from there. 

To summarize what there is of a plot, you have a dinner party where one of the guests has brought a guest of his own.  Sometime between dinner and dessert, the guest's guest (named Miles) goes upstairs and just doesn't come back down.  In fact, he has locked himself into a bedroom/bath suite and refuses to come out.  He refuses to talk to anyone.  He merely sends out a note with what he requests to be fed while he is holed up in the room.  And he stays there.  For months.  The homeowners are furious, but don't want to break down their antique door.  The media finds out and reports on the story. The crazies of the world come out of hiding and set up camp around the house to worship the guy holed up in the room.

The book is basically four long chapters about four characters who vaguely know Miles and how they know him.  And that's it.  Yep, that's right.  That's the whole story.  I got to the end, turned the page and was like "huh?"  I just read 236 pages to find out.....nothing?  What a waste of my valuable reading time! 

There were a few saving graces in the book (thus the 1 bookmark rating instead of a big, fat ZERO).  The author threw in a few great little one-liners like "Google is so strange.  It promises everything, but everything isn't there."  Also, one of the characters in the book, Brooke (the 10-year-old of the introduction) is a little miss smarty pants, uses lots of big words, refers to herself as a "cleverist" and has some giggle-worthy monologues.  In one, she is complaining about a play that put her to sleep.  She calls it an "Alps of boredom" (I could totally picture my own 10-year-old saying something like this). 

So I know this was on the MUST READ list for 2011.  But really, it just rambles and goes off on all these tangents that don't take you anywhere. Not worth the read, even for the one-liners.  And I still don't know the answer to the question There but for the what?

 

SONG OF THE DAY: M83 "Midnight City"

BOOK REVIEW: "The Ultimate Gift"

The Ultimate Gift

By Jim Stovall

Copyright 1999

Executive Books

Adult Fiction

5 Bookmarks

This novella with a parable-like theme should definitely be on your Must Read list.  The Ultimate Gift starts out with attorney Theodore J. Hamilton reading the will of billionaire rancher, "Red" Stevens.  Each family member receives their inheritance in turn, until Hamilton reaches the youngest heir, Red's nephew, Jason Stevens.  Jason finds out he must earn his interitance through 12 months of assignments from his deceased uncle.

Jason makes the decision to play along to do what he needs to get his inheritance and is given his first assignment which is given to him in the form of a gift, the Gift of Work.  Jason spends that first month working as a ranch hand for an old friend of his Uncle Red.  Having thus far lived a life of complete luxury, he grudgingly carries out the job that is put in front of him. 

The second month, Jason is given the Gift of Money, where he learns that money is a tool and can be put to very good use.  As each month progresses and Jason collects the gifts that his Uncle Red has given him (the Gift of Friends, the Gift of Laughter and the Gift of a Day, to name a few), Jason starts to see the world through different eyes until he finally earns the Ultimate Gift, which is even more valuable than he could ever have imagined.   

This was a very quick read and really brought to light the things we should all look for in order to have a meaningful life.  I especially liked the chapter on the Gift of Dreams.  What an absolutely wonderful story!  It would be great for a book club or just a nice afternoon read.  Highly recommend.

BOOK REVIEW: "The Huckleberry Murders"

The Huckleberry Murders
By Patrick F. McManus
Copyright 2010
Simon & Schuster
Adult Fiction
4 Bookmarks

As you well know if you follow this blog at all, I am not a huge fan of mysteries, murders or anything involving too much death or intrique. However, I saw this little gem on the shelf in my library and was reminded of a time, many MANY years ago when I spent hours and hours poring over humorous essays in order to choose one to deliver at a state forensics competition (Humorous Speech was not my normal category, so it was a little daunting!)

Although I finally settled on "Getting Sex Out of Schools and Back in the Gutter Where it Belongs" by Erma Bombeck (mostly for the shock value), I do recall several McManus essays being good options.  Not only that, but my father makes THE BEST huckleberry pie ever made, so there was all sorts of nostalgia written on this book.  And it did not disappoint. 

The story revolves around playboy sheriff Bo Tully as he monitors the activities of his constituents in Blight County, Idaho.  Well, that is, when he's not trying to woo the ladies.  Sheriff Tully has a certain reputation around Blight County and doesn't do much to change his image.  When a Mrs. Poulson complains that her ex-husband is missing and that she thinks the tenant killed him, Tully gets to work.  Tully's mom tells him to talk to a psychic to find out where the body is, but Tully doesn't hold much stock in that.  Then Tully decides to take a break from his detectiving to go pick some huckleberries for his mom, where he makes a gruesome discovery of three bodies with bullets in the back of their heads.  And the mystery deepens. 

With funny little one-liners and prose worthy of any Sherlock Holmes tale, this one is a fun read.  The story is so silly that at times you will laugh out loud, but the next moment you just want to know who dunnit, which keeps you turning that page.  I enjoyed this one very much! 

(And don't mock me too much for admitting being a debate geek. It is a rare day when I lose an argument....just ask my husband.)

BOOK REVIEW: "Atlas Shrugged"

Atlas Shrugged

By Ayn Rand

Original copyright 1957 by Ayn Rand

Copyright renewed 1985 by Winick, Gitlin & Peikoff

Adult Fiction/Philosophy

4.5 Bookmarks

I first read this book about 15 years ago.  I remembered the profound affect it had on me then, but when word came out that it was being made into a movie I was surprised (and, frankly, a little unsure exactly how they would go about transforming such a complicated story into a movie).  I decided that I'd refresh my memory of the book before renting the movie to see whether or not the movie-makers tanked.

Of course, I had forgotten that the book contains 1100 extremely verbose pages.  Yes, 1100.  It took me nearly five weeks, but I finally finished it.  The book seemed even more profound the second time around.  I'm a little daunted by the task of summarizing such a long and complicated story, but I'll give it my best shot. 

Dagny Taggart is the brains behind Taggart Transcontinental, one of the nation's most important railroads.  Her brother Jim, who is the actual president of the company, mostly spends his time being buddies with the guys in Washington.  Hank Reardon is another industrialist who has discovered a new way to make a stronger, better metal than steel.  Both Dagny and Hank work hard to be successful and productive members of society, but their paths are blocked at every turn by those in Washington, including Dagny's brother. 

As the government piles on loads of rules and regulations for all industries, including railroads and metal, in order to make things "fair" for everyone, the economy in the country begins to turn sour.  Taggart Transcontinental is forced to limit their amount of traffic (in order to make it fair to the smaller railroads), Rearden Metal is forced to limit their output (to make it fair to the smaller steel companies), and other industries are clamped down by the government, all in the name of making things fair.  But these new regulations have unintended consequences.  Slowing down the metal output means that not everyone who needs metal will get it.  Which means the railroad won't get the metal to repair their damaged tracks. Which means some of their lines will be shut down. Which means parts of the country will not be able to have food delivered to them.  Etc., etc.

Dagny and Hank continue to fight against the obstacles, but soon other industrialists begin to give up and disappear.  As the industrialists (the "do-ers" of society) disappear, the economy grows worse and worse and the state of the country grows darker and darker.  Dagny can't find any competent people to work for her, and neither can Hank. 

The people who are left in the doomed land don't ever seem to question why the economy keeps getting worse.  Instead, they ask a meaningless question, "Who is John Galt?", as if simply shrugging their shoulders and accepting their fate.  The real question they should be asking is "Who will save us?" 

Atlas Shrugged is part mystery, part philosophy.  It is an adventure, but it also makes you really look at the government and the role it plays in the economy.  Even though the main theme of the novel is philosophical, it really is an enjoyable read and is hard to put down once you've started.  The story itself is mostly fast-paced, although a few monologues run into several pages and become tedious.  I really enjoyed the story of the main characters and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the industrialists.  The book was very easy to relate to because so many of the characters are like people I have known over the course of my life and many of the concerns of the main characters are concerns I have known. 

My one complaint about the book (other than the long monologues) is that the philosophical black and white of the story was very blunt....there really isn't a single main character who is on the fence about the issues.  I'm not sure how easy it is to apply the philosophy in real life when the two factions were at such extreme opposite ends of the spectrum (so unlike the real world where, I believe, people are mostly somewhere in that gray area in the middle). 

All in all, though, I would definitely recommend the book to anyone who is a reader.  If you're not much of a reader, this one could be a long haul to get through, though.  Maybe you should rent the movie...I'll let you know if it's any good. 

COMMENTARY: Delays, delays, delays......

I know you haven't heard from me in awhile.  No, I didn't drop off the planet.  I don't even have the excuse that life is busier than usual.  The reality is that I am reading a SUPER LONG book (1108 pages, to be exact).  I am hoping to finish the book next week (review will be forthcoming, of course).  I may have been referred to as a "bookworm" a time or two in my life but this is ridiculous! 

In the meantime, and in the interest of absolutely shameless self-promotion, if you need something to keep your reading mind busy and want to take a peak into my "other" life, check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BookOfHouses.

And I PROMISE!  I will be back here before you know it with a review worth waiting for.