Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Life of Pi

This is one of those books that will stay in my memory for ever. I listened to it on CD and it was very well read.  The story is that of a man in a lifeboat with a tiger, which doesn't sound too interesting, but it was. Somehow, despite the picture of the tiger on the front of the book, I didn't realize what it was about when I started to read it, so the part where Pi (yes that's his name) realized there was a tiger on board was a complete surprise to me. From there the book just got better and better. 

The book recently came out as a movie and, while I don't usually go to the movies very often, I did go and see this one as many people were saying it was a really good movie. Everything about the movie was excellent: the acting, the animals, the story line and the whole production. I heard the criticism that the movie was too long, but I didn't find it so.

I did read Yann Martel's second book, Beatrice and Virgil, and very much disliked it. The reason being that it was the story of an author who had had a very successful book who was struggling to write a second book. I felt it was autobiographical, and not very good in itself. Usually if I like one book from an author, I like all of them, but not in this case. It just didn't have the feel of quality of the Life of Pi. People suggested that the book was an allegory and had a double meaning, but I didn't see it.

Life of Pi

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs

The book was somewhat long, but never boring. I learned many facts about Steve Jobs that I didn't know before.  Although he was the CEO of Apple, he wasn't the only one with ideas, the book often appears to claim that he was the only one who came up with the design ideas. 

Steve Jobs gave Walter Isaacson free range to write whatever he wanted in his book, and it seemed factually accurate. My only criticism was that there was a little too much detail. Frequently there were transcripts of whole conversations that maybe didn't need to be there. 

I listened to this on CD and I'll just say that I've heard better readers of audiobooks. 

As members of a book club in Silicon Valley, many people knew people who knew Steve Jobs. And one of our group used to work for Apple. That is why we decided to read a biography when we didn't usually do so. That, and the fact that Steve Jobs had just died when we were choosing the books. 

It was definitely a good book to read, but needed more time than average because of its length. 

I would like in the future to read another Walter Isaacson book, he has also written the following:

Einstein: His Life and Universe
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Book Club Questions for The Infinite Tides

I reviewed The Infinite Tides here

The book is fairly new and I couldn't find any book club questions for it, so here are some I have written that may help your discussion.

1.  What was the main theme of the book? Was there a meaning to the story?

2.   Did you like the character of Keith or not?

3.    Did Keith’s marriage fail just because he was out of space and not available at the time of his daughter’s death, or would it have failed anyway?

4.    What do you think of what his wife did? Should she have spoken to him face to face instead of through electronic media?

5.    How did Keith deal with his loss? What should he have done?

6.    Were you surprised that Keith was a local celebrity? How does he handle his new fame?

7.    Did you see a parallel between Jennifer and Nicole and Keith’s own wife and daughter?

8.    Is Keith’s reaction to his loss typical of men in general? Do women react to grief differently than men?

9.    How did his friendship with Peter and Luda help his return to normal life?

10. What do you see in the future for Keith?

The Infinite Tides by Christian Kiefer

The Infinite Tides: A Novel

The premise of this book is a great one. Keith Corcoran spent all his life working for his ambition of becoming astronaut and just as he makes it, he loses his family. Keith is an astronaut and is physically in space when he hears his teenage daughter has died in a car accident. Before he can get home he learns his wife has decided to leave him. The story is that of Keith arriving home to an empty house, no wife or child and very little furniture.

The book is one of grief, and uncertainty. When he heard about his daughter’s death he started getting really bad headaches, which continued when he came back to earth. So through the book he is uncertain if he can return to his job or not.

Keith becomes friends with two of his neighbors and the plot involves his relationships with these people as well as memories from his past. 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice

Alice is 50 and is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. 

The book was written by Lisa Genova, who has worked with Alzheimer's patients, and there is a lot of information throughout the book. In fact, if you or a loved one were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, this would be a good informative book to read, and I'm sure that was the author's plan when writing the book. There is a lot of information in fiction form without it being a textbook.

I related to Alice, a Harvard lecturer and mother of grown children. I felt I knew her from page one. Her life was full and the diagnosis was sudden, and then while reading the book we are treated to an increase in the symptoms of the disease. 

I felt so sorry for her when she went out for her usual jog and got lost on her way home, or when she couldn't find her blackberry and another family member found it in the freezer. We are invited in to the life of the family, which isn't a picture perfect family as in other books, but real with its own family tensions outside of Alice's diagnosis. 

I loved the character of Alice and her stubbornness to fight the illness, and although it was a sad book, enjoyed the book too.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Gargoyle

I read many books and once in a while one book stands out above the rest to be quality literature well written. This is one such book. I was so amazed at the wonderful descriptive passage on the first few pages, that I give the book to my children to read as an example of incredibly well written prose. 

Having said that, the opening of the book is of a horrendous car accident where the hero is horribly badly burned. I enjoyed the description, but not the image of such the author painted in my imagination. The hero (whose name we never learn) was a porn star until his body was wrecked in the fire of a car accident. For most of the book he is in hospital, unable to move, remembering his former life and not wanting a future life. 

Then Marianne Engel appears one day. She tells stories of them together in a former life. Are the stories real, or imagined? That is left to you to decide.

The thing I will say about this book is that is is graphic. One member of our book club gave up reading it because she didn't want to read the details of his life in the porn industry, and the incredible descriptions of his pain while in hospital. But for me, they are the things I remember most. I felt I was inside the head of our hero and thus that is what made the book memorable for me. Marianne adds mystery to the book as to who she is and where she came from. 

Truly an amazing read, if you like that kind of thing. 

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander

Time travel is the subject of this book. Claire, while on vacation in Scotland, travels from 1945 to 1743 to a much rougher country and people. Treated with suspicion as an outlander, she realizes she must marry James Fraser to survive. I don't want to say much more about the book except that it was published over 20 years ago and people are still reading it. It is the first in a series and most people who read the first book carry on to read the others. 

Me, I didn't care for it. I found the characters to be a little too unrealistic and the premise of time travel to be just an excuse to tell a story in 1743. But most of the people I have spoken to who have read this book, loved it.