august: 20, 21, & 22

this month i read:

salt: a world history, by mark kurlansky (this is a book i bought last fall when i was teaching world history and wanted to do some professional development reading.  the book goes chronologically through world history and talks about the significance of salt to different civilizations.  parts of this book are fascinating, and i learned a great deal.  but i discovered that i only care about 150 pages worth of information about salt, and this book is 450 pages long.  so.  i actually wouldn't recommend this unless you have a passion for salt and/or for random-ish world history.  i definitely did some skimming as i got to the end...)

moonwalking with einstein, by joshua foer (i loved this book!  it was recommend to me by my grad school friend dominique, and it is a super quick read.  the author explains how normal human memory works and also how to expand your working memory, all while recounting how he trained for and competed in the US memory championships.  but the book isn't so much a step-by-step summary of what he does while training - it's much better than that.  and, i mean, this book has a pretty awesome title, so that's just one more reason why you should read it.)

cavedweller, by dorothy allison (thank god this book is over.  okay, i don't really mean that.  but i had fond memories of reading bastard out of carolina, by the same author, and i had this on my bookshelf so i picked it up.  there's nothing wrong with this book, but the pace is slow and this isn't a book that was on my hundreds-of-books-long "to read" list - it's just a book i owned, so i felt some obligation to read it.  does this happen to you guys?  inner monologue: "i should read cavedweller - which i own - instead of buying the book i really want to read (winter of the world, the second book in a ken follett series)."  well, people, the moment i finished cavedweller i bought winter of the world and it is so good and totally worth the money.  so: this was not a review of cavedweller, but that is okay.  this is instead permission to read the books you really want to read.  practicality be damned.)