59. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

I wanted to read this book to figure out where the term "catch 22" came from. Though it took a very long 400+ pages to get there ... I think I've finally got it :)
The main character of this book is Joseph Yossarian, an American army pilot who is serving off the coast of Italy during World War II. Everyone thinks that Yossarian is crazy because he believes that millions of people are trying to kill him; though I don't think he was really crazy. It seemed more to be his way of avoiding the war - he's angry that his life is always in danger through no fault of his own. Therefore, he keeps trying to rotate out of active flight duty ... but his commander keeps raising the number of missions the men in the squadron have to fly before he will allow them to rotate out. That's where the infamous law, Catch-22, comes in:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to."

Because Heller appears to be making a social commentary about the absurdity of war and the ineffectiveness of bureaucracies, I thought that the premise behind Catch-22 had more to do with laws and/or government; but circular logic seems to be a theme throughout the book. There is one part (that almost made me go cross-eyed) where Yossarian is with a woman named Luciana; after he sleeps with her, he decides that he wants to marry her. When he tells her that, she tells him that no man will marry her because she is not a virgin; and when Yossarian tells her that he still wants to marry her, she starts acting crazy and starts telling him that he is crazy for wanting to marry a non-virgin like herself ... and that she can't marry a crazy man!
Heller is a very clever and witty writer. One part I found really funny:

"... Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was."

Although this book took me forever to finish! ... I would say it's definitely a classic worth reading.

58. What the Dog Saw, And Other Adventures - Malcolm Gladwell

From my post after reading Outliers ... "I'll be first in line whenever [Gladwell's] next book comes out." So how thrilled was I when I walked into Borders for my Sunday afternoon reading ... and I saw a brand new Malcolm Gladwell book on display?! (It just came out four days ago, on October 20).

Maybe a little too excited ... because I was a little disappointed.
What the Dog Saw is basically the equivalent of "The Best of [fill in your favorite music artist here]" - it's Gladwell's favorite articles that he's written for the New Yorker since he joined the staff in 1996. They're pretty much mini-versions of his first three books: the world according to Gladwell, written in an engaging, witty, and persuasive way.

The book is divided into three categories. Part 1 is about people Gladwell calls "minor geniuses": "people like Ron Popeil, the pitchman who by himself conceived, created, and sold the Showtime rotisserie oven to millions on TV, breaking every rule of the modern economy."

Part 2 is about theories, or ways of organizing experience. My favorite article in this section is "Something Borrowed: Whether a Charge of Plagiarism Should Ruin Your Life." In this article, Gladwell discusses plagiarism and whether the punishment for it has gone too far. What makes this article most interesting is that he discusses a personal story in which he was not given credit for something he wrote. I thought Gladwell did a good job of summarizing copyright law, and distinguishing plagiarism (a lot of people confuse the two). In part, he says, "... plagiarism is different, and that's what's so strange about it. The ethical rules that govern when it's acceptable for one writer to copy another are even more extreme than the most extreme position of the intellectual-property crowd: when it comes to literature, we have somehow decided that copying is never acceptable." I think this article epitomizes Gladwell's strengths: he presents information about an important topic in a way that's easy to understand, and he makes it engaging by weaving in anecdotes (in this case, from a personal story ... though I have a feeling that more are personal than it may seem, he just may not always let us know that!).

In Part 3, Gladwell examines the predictions we make about people, like how we think we know whether someone is smart, bad, good at their profession, etc. Some articles in this section discuss how educators evaluate young teachers; how the FBI profiles criminals, and how job interviewers form snap judgments of job candidates (all of which are quite reminiscent of the idea behind Blink). One of my favorite articles in this section was "The Art of Failure," about why some people "choke" and others "panic." According to Gladwell, "[c]hoking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may look the same, but they are worlds apart .... there are clearly cases when how failure happens is central to understanding why failure happens."

It was great to read these articles since I love Gladwell's writing and I'm unfortunately not a regular New Yorker reader. But one thing that a lot of his critics say is that he never writes about anything new - he just presents it in a different way. In my opinion, that's genius enough ... especially given the millions of books that he's sold. But I think Gladwell got a lot of the ideas from his first three books from these articles that he's written over the past decade: so for me, having read all of his books, I'd have to agree with his critics ... not so much because the ideas aren't new within the whole realm of ideas in the world, but because they're not new within the realm of Gladwell's world.

So here's my theory: he wanted to rake in a little extra Christmas shopping money and decided to bundle some articles together and sell them. Hey - not a bad idea. But it'll be interesting to see how well this book does - especially since you can download all of his articles for free on his website.

57. Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown - Stephen Jay Gould

In this book, published in 1997, author Stephen Jay Gould asks and answers three main questions about the then-looming millennium ... (1) What exactly is the millennium, and how has its meaning shifted over time?; (2) When exactly will the millennium begin?; and (3) Why are our calendars so complex, leading to a search for arbitrary regularity?
The gist of the answers is that most of what's behind the interest in the millennium is the human interest in the idea of an apocalypse; and also a compulsion to measure and organize time.

Much of this book was sort of convoluted, though it did have its interesting parts ... do you know why Jehovah's Witnesses don't salute the flag or undertake military service? Their founder, Charles Taze Russell, was strongly influenced by millenarian doctrines; and Witnesses believe that Satan is currently in control and that secular powers are "unwittingly under his domination."

Another interesting part talks about the "real" birth of Jesus - Gould cites a lot of information leading to his conclusion that the calculation of the millennium is off because Jesus was born around 4 B.C., if not earlier.

Gould is a great, witty writer - but not as witty as my favorite author (Malcolm Gladwell). This was an interesting read, though I wouldn't recommend anyone push it to the top of their "must read" list.

56. Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream - Lerone Bennett, Jr.

With such a fascinating and "charged" title, this must be a great book ... right? Not entirely ...
Bennett makes the argument that Lincoln is not "the great emancipator" as many have made him out to be. Rather, "history - the movement and orchestration of the dominant forces of the age - freed the slaves." Many of the premises of this book, I'd heard before: the Emancipation Proclamation didn't really free the slaves because the act "did not itself free a single negro," and it "carefully, deliberately, studiously excluded all Negroes within 'our military reach'" ... and of course, the Confederate States were not within the Union's "military reach" during the Civil War.
Although the book is very well-researched, and Bennett cites a lot of seemingly reputable sources, his own commentary gets a bit distracting. For example, he continuously argues that Lincoln was a racist, in part because of his use of the word "n----r." Although that is of course a horrible and hateful word, I think it's important to note the context. It's a lot worse now than it was back in the mid-1800's. If, according to the United States Constitution, a black person was only considered 3/5 of a person ... are they really going to have ground to argue against the use of the n-word? (who knew that the three-fifths compromise was still in the Constitution, even though it's been superseded - Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3. What a reminder.) Anyway, if Bennett made that point once, or even twice over the course of the 600-page book, that'd be fine - but he seemed to bring it up at least five times in each chapter.
Additionally, Bennett makes a compelling argument that Lincoln wanted blacks to return to Africa rather than staying in America. This would be a fine point to make in support of his argument ... though I do think that a president saying that in the 21st or even the 20th century would be a lot different than a president saying that in the 19th century. But then Bennett distracts from his point with phrases like this: "If Lincoln had had his way, there would be no Blacks in America. None. Harlem would be a white way, the South Sides would be pale sides and there would be a deafening silence and holes the size of the Grand Canyon where Bojangles and Louis and Duke and Martin Luther King and Michael Jordan and Toni Morrison would be."
An interesting premise behind this book, but 1) the author's rants were distracting, and 2) it was waaaay too long! If you're going to read it, check out the table of contents and just pick the chapters that you think will interest you the most :)

55. Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea - Gary Kinder

This book, like In the Heart of the Sea, is another great example of a way to learn a lot about a historical event ... with the excitement of a fiction novel and not the boring tone of a historian. Ship of Gold is about the sinking of the SS Central America, a ship that was bringing passengers and a whole lot of gold from California to New York just after the gold rush in 1857. When it encountered a storm off the coast of North Carolina, the ship sank - along with its 400 passengers and 21 tons of gold.
I enjoyed how the author told this story: he weaves together the plot from the 1850's - the time of the sinking of the ship in 1857 - with the plot from the 1980's, when a discovery group began its attempt at recovering the ship, more than 8,000 feet under water.
Some scenes really make you feel the story. From one passage, as the ship is sinking:

"Others shot upward through black water, bursting to the surface with a desperate gasp, struggling to breathe, coughing salt water, the night dark and the wind still fierce, the waves rolling over them, choking them, and suddenly rocketing upward from deep in the sea came the missiles from a battered ship, the spars, the hatch covers, the stateroom doors, the planking, the heavy timbers propelled up from the water and into the air before falling back with a heavy crash, to stun them, crush them, knock them unconscious, to kill many of those who had survived ..."

I found it fascinating to learn about how scientist/entrepreneur Tommy Thompson was able to get investors to fund the project; the technological challenges he faced; as well as the competitors and legal battles he had to deal with. Eventually, several insurance companies filed suit against the discovery group, claiming that because they paid damages for the lost gold, they had the right to it. Thompson's team argued that the gold had been abandoned.

I learned a lot from this book ... did you know that it was the largest salvage award in the history of admiralty? The total value of the gold recovered was $150 million, and one piece of gold weighed 80 pounds and sold for $8 million! Kinder clearly did his research to be able to write this book ... though I must say, I do feel it could have been done in a lot fewer than 500 pages.

54. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

My first Hemingway book ... A Farewell to Arms is written from the point of view of Frederic Henry, an American serving as an ambulance driver for the Italian army during World War I. Henry begins a relationship with Catherine Barkley, a nurse for the British army. Although he initially keeps telling himself that he does not love Catherine, but that their relationship is "a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards" ... he does ultimately seem to fall in love with her.
In the course of the war, there was supposedly an act of treachery that led to the Italian defeat. So when Henry realizes that Italian officers are being interrogated and executed because of the defeat, he escapes by jumping into a river. By that point, Catherine is three months pregnant, and she and Henry escape Italy by rowing to Switzerland in a rowboat.
The gender dynamics between Catherine and Henry are interesting ... old-fashioned and slightly melodramatic, but interesting. One passage:

[Catherine]: "How many people have you ever loved?"
[Henry]: "Nobody."
"Not even me?"
"Yes, you."
"How many others really?"
"None."
"How many have you—how do you say it?—stayed with?"
"None."
"You’re lying to me."
"Yes."
"It’s all right. Keep right on lying to me. That’s what I want you to do."

I was rooting for them after Henry seemed to accept his feelings for Catherine, and was sad at the ending! (which I won't spoil).
This is the second war story I've read (the first was Miracle at St. Anna) - and to be honest, both have left me a bit confused. I feel like I might have missed some themes ... and I'm realizing that I prefer nonfiction (over fiction). Nonetheless, an enjoyable book.

53. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex - Nathaniel Philbrick

In the Heart of the Sea is the story about the whaleship Essex - the story that was Melville's inspiration behind Moby Dick. The Essex left Nantucket in 1819 to hunt whales in the Pacific. Back then, whale oil was expensive and used a lot for lamps and candle wax. Here's a passage that describes very vividly the process of "whaling":

"...finding 'the life' of a giant swimming mammal encased in a thick layer of blubber was not easy. Sometimes the mate would be forced to stab it as many as fifteen times, probing for a group of coiled arteries in the vicinity of the lungs with a violent churning motion that soon surrounded the whaleboat in a rushing river of bright red blood."

While in the Pacific Ocean, a huge whale rammed the ship twice and sank it. The sailors managed to escape in three small boats before the Essex sank, but the boats had no where near enough food or water. Much of the book tells the sad stories of the sickness that the sailors endured, and the death of some of the sailors and the cannibalism that ensued. Interestingly, none of the black sailors survived - because they started the voyage in poorer health than the white sailors and also got poorer quality food during the trip, they died first and thus were eaten first.
This part, describing how an 18th century British ship resorted to cannibalism, really messed me up: "... they began by removing the most obvious signs of the corpse's humanity - the head, hands, feet, and skin - and consigned them to the sea."

This is an extremely well-written book. The first two or three chapters moved a bit slowly for me, but it picked up. I also liked this book because it's non-fiction (and very well-researched - check out the endnotes!) but is written like a very readable fiction novel.

52. The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships - Hill Harper

I was a bit apprehensive before reading this book. "Hill Harper is single - so what gives him the authority to write this?" But he in no way comes off as a know-it-all about relationships. Really, he comes off as part of "the conversation," too - learning along with his readers.

The premise behind this book is that the lack of communication between black men and women is threatening the relationships that are necessary to sustain the black family. Harper discusses a wide range of issues - finances, sex, what men want, what women want, interracial relationships, etc. - in his analysis of why only 30% of black children are being raised in two-parent households and why not enough black couples are able to hold a marriage together.

This books has elements of advice (some parts reminded me of Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, but ... well, more Hill Harper and less Steve Harvey) and stories about Harper's own life ... but it's unique in the way Harper intertwines lessons that he's learned from conversations with people in his life (married/single/divorced).

Here's one part that I found particularly interesting in a passage about how finances often cause the most arguments in relationships:

"As a group, Blacks are the largest debtors in the world. Living with debt hanging over out heads causes stress. That stress affects our moods, our quality of life, and our ability to connect with others ... We as a people have indebtgestion even though we are earning more money than we ever have before. Part of the problem is that we are running through our credit at alarming rates, and the resulting debt is affecting our relationships. This indebtgestion may be the true cause of why the Black family is ill."

This was a wonderful book; to my knowledge, his first that is geared towards adults.

51. Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny - Hill Harper

This is a great book by the beautiful Hill Harper (CSI: NY; Get on the Bus ... Brown University; Harvard Law with Obama; etc.). Written in the style of letters to a teenage girl going through all sorts of typical teenage issues, Harper offers advice on topics such as relationships, family, men, racism, sexism, self-empowerment, career choices, faith, and service. At the end of each chapter are questions posed via email, answered by famous women including Michelle Obama, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Nikki Giovanni, Ruby Dee, and Ciara.

One thing Harper said that I really like was about the "high-tech/low-touch society" we are living in.

"Because so many of us are using technology ... to communicate rather than being face-to-face, it allows us men to lie much more easily. Attempting to have a serious, real conversation with someone using technology is not the way to do it. You can't look them in the eye, see their expression or their body language, or all those other things that allow your intuition to get a feel for whether what you're hearing is the truth or a lie."

I do feel that this book is more suited for a younger audience, i.e. adolescents, maybe college students. For example, an email asks, "Hill, a lot of my friends and people on TV say that boys are liars, boys are jerks ... What do you think I should look for in a boy?" Nonetheless, grown women can definitely benefit from and be reminded of these lessons, too. And reading this book made it an easy choice for what I'll get my cousin who just started high school, and her slightly older brother, for Christmas! (Harper also wrote Letters to a Young Brother).

The next book I plan on reading is Harper's newest book, The Conversation: How Black Men and Black Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships. I'm sure that one is geared a little more towards my age group, and am looking forward to it!

(Oh - and how many people knew that his full name is Francis Hill Harper? That's okay. I'd still marry him.)

50. The Real Coke, The Real Story - Thomas Oliver

[My 50th book ... I'm halfway there, ahead of schedule!]
I had no idea there was such a fascinating story behind the Coca-Cola Company! In the first couple of chapters, Oliver (a staff writer for what's now the Atlanta Journal Constitution) tells some history about the company. Yes, it's true that the original Coca-Cola (called "French Wine Cola") had cocaine in it ... as well as wine, and a few other ingredients. Oliver also talks about the early members of the company's board of directors (which completely explains why every other building at Emory University is named either "Woodruff" or "Goizueta"!).

But by far the most interesting part of the book is the story of what happened when Coke introduced "new Coke." Pepsi started its "Pepsi Challenge" back in the '70s, and Coke executives started getting concerned because Americans were saying that they liked the taste of Pepsi better than that of Coke. So in an attempt to maintain its market share, Coke pulled its original formula and introduced new Coke - a sweeter cola, more similar to Pepsi. The uproar was ridiculous! Coke got 8,000 calls a day and thousands of letters and petitions from people who were simply outraged. It wasn't so much that they hated the new Coke - they were just mad that the company took something away that was so quintessentially American.

So, despite the millions that had been spent on introducing new Coke ... the old Coke (now, "Coca-Cola Classic") was brought back. The day the company made the announcement, it received 18,000 phone calls from people saying thank you! "One woman called and said she had just found out she was pregnant and didn't know which her husband would be happier about - their first child or old Coke's return." Ha!

A funny tidbit:

"Coke had turned down Michael Jackson as a candidate for its advertising because he was considered too flashy and his androgynous appearance didn't jibe with the company's image of the all-American boy." Pepsi got him instead ... and we all know what happened after that (the incident during the filming of the commercial).

A random thought I had while reading this: some of Coke's most significant board members in the 20th century were incredibly diverse for the time ... a first-generation Mexican was in charge of bottling operations; an Argentinean in charge of Coca Cola USA; an Egyptian chief financial officer ... the vice-president of the Americas group often joked that he was the "token American" on the board. In fact, there is some speculation that because these key folks were not American, they didn't understand the patriotism behind the old Coke - and why Americans were so upset when new Coke was rolled out. But ... my thought is that it's interesting how the fact that Coke is sold around the globe is often cited as showing how "globalization = Americanization." Of course I understand the basis for saying that ... but still, quite interesting for a good ol' southern company that was led by quite the diverse group of immigrants.

Clearly, due to the length of this post and the excitement with which I'm writing it ... this was a fabulous book. I didn't want to put it down - the way Oliver wrote about the whole diet Coke and new Coke fiascos made this work of non-fiction incredibly fascinating and suspenseful. Highly recommended!

*Ahh, but one note ... something my mom heard on the radio: "A non-fiction book that doesn't have an index is not a serious book." Maybe that says something about the quality of this book (since there was no index) ... oh well, it was still a great read.

49. Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness - Suzanne Somers

This was my first Suzanne Somers book (who knew she's written 17?!) ... and since all I really knew of her was from Three's Company and Step by Step, I was relatively impressed.

Somers is a huge proponent of finding ways "to live a long, healthy, energetic life without drugs." This book is a collection of information that Somers has researched based on her experience with breast cancer, as well as interviews with doctors about the "eight steps to wellness": (1) bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT); (2) avoid chemicals and detoxify your body; (3) take nutrition seriously; (4) create a healthy GI tract; (5) avoid pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary; (6) supplement your diet; (7) exercise regularly; and (8) get proper sleep.

There are a lot of useful bits of information woven into this book - i.e. about melatonin (an over-the-counter hormone that helps you sleep, which is a much better option than prescription drugs; it also helps fight free radicals); natural ways to cure bladder infections; and why alcohol and caffeine can make it really hard for you to lose weight. But the bulk of it really would be more useful to me in about 10 years. At 25, I don't need to worry about anti-aging stuff like BHRT - and from what I hear, it's also very expensive! Lastly, I felt that the interview style of the book made it about 100 pages longer than it needed to be - there are interviews with different doctors under each heading, and sometimes the things that the doctors say overlap.

The main reason I'd hesitate to recommend this book is because I feel that there's another one out there that says many of the same things but in an easier-to-read style and in fewer pages.

48. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word - Randall Kennedy

I know - what a loaded title! I refuse to use that word, so it's hard for me to talk about this book ... as much as I want to, because it was a fantastic one.

Written by Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, this book is about so much more than just the history of the word. Kennedy discusses the use of the word in its many contexts in this country. One example: after Paul Robeson got his degree from Columbia Law School, he quit his job at a firm because the stenographer said that she "refused to take dictation from a nigger." Kennedy also discusses the use of the word in literature (i.e. the passage I quoted in my review of The Autobiography of Malcolm X); rap music; the O.J. Simpson trial; and, most interesting to me, in the legal context. Kennedy gives an overview of how the "n-word" has played a role in sometimes mitigating homicides from murder to manslaughter; and also, though rarely, as a basis for an IIED claim (intentional infliction of emotional distress).

I was impressed at Kennedy's obvious intelligence and at his ability to write in a way that was very readable (even while dealing with the legal stuff). I also didn't feel that he was writing with a goal to either persuade black people to stop using the word or to encourage its reclamation - just a well-researched and interesting work.

47. Confessions of a Video Vixen - Karrine Steffans

I know. I'm embarrassed that I read this. I was especially embarassed reading it in Borders - and it didn't help that there's a big color photo spread in the middle of the book!
Confessions is the biography/memoir/"cautionary tale" of Karrine Steffans, the infamous music video vixen (and now housewife). Originally from St. Thomas, she moved to Florida with her mom when she was little. In the first part of the book, Steffans tells some really sad stories about how her mom abused her; how she lost her virginity by rape; how her ex-husband and father of her son would force her to perform oral sex on him ... once for two hours until her nose bled.
After Steffans left her husband, she moved to L.A. and eventually got a lucky break and started performing in music videos. She appeared in videos of artists like Jay-Z, LL Cool J, and R. Kelly; she also was in a movie with Larenz Tate and Vin Diesel. While telling her life story, Steffans of course weaves in all the stuff that the book has become famous for - her tell-all tales of sexual escapades with Vin Diesel; Shaquille O'Neal; Usher; Bobby Brown; Ray J; Fred Durst; Method Man (oh, sorry - code name: "Papa"); Irv Gotti; P Diddy; Dr. Dre ... the list goes on. And on. And on.
After reading the first couple of chapters, my heart really went out to her ... by the end, I was wondering how long you can claim "I did it because I had no father in my life and my mother abused me" ... you have to realize what you're doing isn't right at some point ... no? I was also wondering if I could catch something from her just by reading the book. Interesting: no tell-all about the health risks of everything she was doing? She had to have caught something at some point.
The writing was so-so - she (or the woman who actually wrote it) skipped around chronologically, which confused me. I wonder if the New York Times was embarrassed that this ended up as a best-seller. Don't waste your money on this book.

46. Bridges of Madison County - Robert James Waller

A beautiful "new romance classic." The story is about Francesca, a farmer's wife in Iowa, and Robert, a photographer for National Geographic. The two meet when Robert visits Iowa to take pictures of several covered bridges and happens to stop and ask Francesca for directions while her husband and two children are out of town. The two have an incredible attraction to each other and end up spending several days together and falling deeply in love. Robert wants Francesca to leave with him, but she ultimately does not because she can't bear the thought of abandoning her family. The story is told from Francesca's point of view 22 years later as she's reminiscing on her time with Robert.

It's interesting to compare this to The Awakening by Kate Chopin - both are books written from the point of view of married women with children; in both books, the women cheat on their husbands; neither can deny the attraction they have toward these men, but they both have feelings of remorse and confusion. But The Awakening was written in 1890's, Bridges in the 1990's; in The Awakening, Edna leaves her husband and then kills herself; in Bridges, Francesca stays with her husband although she never stops loving Robert; The Awakening was written by a woman; Bridges written by a man.

I'm still not sure why this book sold 50 million copies! ... but it was a wonderful story. I'd love to check out the movie.

45. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 - Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves

Overall ... this was a good book. The authors first talk about emotional intelligence ("EQ"): the ability to identify and manage one's own emotions and to be aware of others' emotions. An interesting piece of information about the "science side" of EQ is that our brains are hard-wired to give emotions the upper hand (over logic):

"[E]verything you see, smell, hear, taste and touch travels through your body in the form of electric signals. The signals pass from cell to cell until they reach their ultimate destination, your brain. They enter your brain at the base near the spinal cord, but must travel to your frontal lobe ... before reaching the place where rational, logical thinking takes place. The trouble is, they pass through your limbic system along the way - the place where emotions are produced. This journey ensures you experience things emotionally before your reason can kick into gear."

Also, according to the authors, IQ (intelligence quotient) is fixed at birth, absent a traumatic event like a brain injury. "Intelligence is your ability to learn, and is the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. EQ, on the other hand, is a flexible skill that can be learned."

The bulk of this book sets forth strategies on increasing your EQ based on four key EQ skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Like so many other books, this one was very cutesy-story-heavy (if you've been keeping up with my blog, I'm clearly not a fan of that!). And maybe I've been reading too much, but I really didn't think it said anything new. [Also - how does the Dalai Lama manage to write the forward for every book that deals with emotional intelligence?!]

If you want to read something about emotional intelligence I'd recommend Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart by Tara Bennett-Goleman.

44. The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition - Gary Chapman

I'd heard a lot about this book a few years ago - and I'm glad I finally read it. The premise behind it is that people are best able to speak and understand emotional love when it is expressed through one of five "languages": quality time; words of affirmation; receiving gifts; acts of service; or physical touch. Chapman argues that many of us may be able to speak and understand several of these, but that everyone has a primary or "native" language in which we are most comfortable expressing and receiving love. Chapman writes from a Christian perspective and I like his use of passages from the Bible in support of his arguments.

The original book is supposedly more geared towards married couples; this one (the "singles edition") explains how understanding these love languages can be helpful while dating, and also in relationships within your family, among your friends, and at work.

This book was incredibly anecdote-heavy, but the core message was great. Although Chapman doesn't talk much about gender differences, I believe that they play a huge role as well ...that's why Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus remains one of my all-time favorite books! This book has my recommendation - but skim through the anecdotes, they get mushy and all sound the same after a while.

43. Rich Woman: A Book on Investing for Women - Because I Hate Being Told What to Do! - Kim Kiyosaki

Kim Kiyosaki applies the same principles as her husband, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, in this book that is geared towards women. She gives financial advice to women who want to be financially independent - "without depending on a man, family, company, or government to take care of them."

Although her strategies are pretty duplicative of her husband's (see previous blog post) I appreciated reading this book because it spoke directly to concerns that I and (I'm sure) a lot of women may have about investing: that we're not "smart enough"; don't have the financial know-how; are risk-averse (which can actually be a good thing), etc. She also presents a lot of great ideas about what to invest in, but most of her advice centers around real estate, where she supposedly made her millions.

The plot of this book centers around Kiyosaki sharing financial advice with her group of girlfriends. Sometimes the girl talk gets a bit distracting, but the overall message was great and it was certainly much more interesting than a generic "how-to" book.

42. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money--That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not! - Robert Kiyosaki

I understand why everyone kept telling me to read this book! This seems to be a great lesson on - as the author says - how to make your money work for you rather than you always working for your money. The title comes from Kiyosaki's two dads - one was his incredibly intelligent biological dad who was a superintendent of education and died broke; the other was his best friend's dad who dropped out of school when he was 13 and ultimately became one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii. Kiyosaki uses the stories of these two men and their differing financial strategies to show how to achieve financial success.

One thing that really stood out to me was the way Kiyosaki defined assets and liabilities. So many people say that "your home is your greatest asset" - but per Kiyosaki, nothing is an asset unless it is putting money into your pocket.

According to the author, wealth is measured as the number of days the income from your assets will sustain you, and financial independence is achieved when your monthly income from assets exceeds your monthly expenses.

I'm hesitant to use this book as my financial roadmap, however, because it definitely does have its critics (one real estate investor says that Kiyosaki is more of a salesman than a real estate investor - which, even if true, is alright with me. I don't think he claims to be solely a real estate investor - he seems pretty diversified!). But this book has its good pieces of information that I definitely plan to put to use.

*Note: every investor I've talked to swears this guy is a fraud! How disappointing - after I read it, I was all inspired to go out and buy some investment properties. Check out John T. Reed's critique of Kiyosaki here.

41. Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News - Bernard Goldberg

Bernard Goldberg presents an ... interesting ... argument for the mainstream media's liberal bias. Goldberg had some pretty good support for this argument - i.e. 50% of journalists identify with being Democrats, while only 4% identify with being Republicans. But my question is ... why are there more Democratic journalists? Are Republicans ... discriminated against in the journalism industry?

Even if he does present a good amount of support for this argument - some "support" left me a bit confused. For example, he has a whole chapter on "the network color bar" - explaining why so many "victims" on network news are blond-haired and blue-eyed. Goldberg says, "We know who our viewers are. We know what they look like. And we know that they would be drawn more to stories about homeless people who looked just like their mothers and fathers and sons and daughters than homeless people who looked like, well, homeless people." He says that if journalists win sympathy for "them" ("people who look like our next door neighbors"), then they had a chance of winning sympathy for the less sympathetic homeless - which might translate into a new homeless shelter. But if this is true - why is something that is classified as a "liberal bias"?? Are liberals the only people who would want to do something to garner support for something like a new homeless shelter?

In my opinion, Goldberg tries to appeal to conservative emotion more than present hardcore facts. An interesting book - but I'm not convinced. Don't waste your time.

40. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete - William C. Rhoden

Rhoden presents a very persuasive argument that although integration was a major step forward in the history of the black athlete, it brought with it a lot of problems: "a destructive power dynamic between black talent and white ownership; a chronic psychological burden for black athletes who constantly had to prove their worth; disconnection of the athlete from his or her community; and the emergence of the apolitical black athlete, who had to be careful about what he or she said or stood for, so as not to offend white paymasters."
Rhoden clearly knows his stuff, and gives a lot of really interesting background and anecdotes. A lot of things I knew (i.e. the disproportionate number of black athletes and white coaches/owners); but some things I maybe should have known and hadn't realized (i.e. how Michael Jordan was incredibly apolitical and almost refused to talk about any race issues in public).
To be honest, I thought that first half of this book, the historical context, was a bit dry - some was important to know, but still a bit dry. It was interesting, though, to learn that three of the greatest landmarks of African American sports history took place outside of the U.S. - Tom Molineaux fought for the boxing championship in England; Jack Johnson won the championship in Australia; and Jackie Robinson integrated baseball in Canada. I also really liked learning more about Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays - according to Rhoden, Robinson had to be apolitical, non-controversial, and had to hold down his temper since he was the first (hmmm .. Obama?); but Willie Mays had much more of a swagger and a style that became typical of a lot of black athletes.
Also, I thought this was cute - a young girl at an elementary school in NY asked Rhoden, "Who was the first white player to integrate the NBA?" Ha!
This is a great book for anyone to read - I especially think all black athletes should read it.

39. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi

This is a book by Azar Nafisi, an Iranian professor, about her experiences teaching in Iran during and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Much of the book centers around the class on "forbidden Western classics" (The Great Gatsby; Lolita; etc.) that Nafisi teaches to a small group of female Iranian students. The author very eloquently weaves in themes from the books that her class reads with the changing Iranian culture and also with what is going on in their personal lives. The book is divided into four sections - each section dealing with a different time period and having a different theme. My favorite section, Gatsby, is set right as the revolution is starting. Nafisi compares the "American dream" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby with the dream of the Iranian Revolution, and how this Iranian "dream" changed the lives of women in Iran. When one of her students gets really upset about the book because he says it condones adultery, they decide to hold a "trial" in their class - and they prosecute the book! I like Nafisi's conclusion ...

"What we in Iran had in common with Fitzgerald was this dream that became our obsession and took over our reality, this terrible, beautiful dream, impossible in its actualization, for which any amount of violence might be justified or forgiven."

When Nafisi returns to Iran years later after the revolution, she asks, "Who will pay for the snapshots of the murdered and the executed that we hid in our shoes and closets as we moved on to other things? ... Tell me, Mr. Bahri - or, to use that odd expression of Gatsby's, Tell me, old sport - what shall we do with all these corpses on our hands?"

This was a great book - but a bit slow for my taste. There were some parts that seemed to go on for longer than they needed to. But overall, it shared a lot that I didn't know about Iranian culture (despite all the Persian friends I have - shame on me!) and was a beautifully written story.