Fact and Fiction - Reading Roundup

A quick review of books I've read since the last update.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - I had no idea how far off the movies and by extension the cultural image of Frankenstein was from the original source. It is much more of a God / Man allegory than a "monster" story. And the creature is the book is certainly not dumb (in multiple senses of the word). And Frankenstein is less a mad scientist and more a bad parent.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - Weird ass book. Has Oedipa Maas discovered a centuries old conspiracy theory? Is she the victim of an elaborate practical joke? Is she finding meaning where there is none? Is she just not looking hard enough? Should she even bother looking at all?

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie - This was really good. I always like Hercule Poirot, he is the kind of detective I envision myself being if I was actually good at figuring murders out. And unlike a few other Christie novels it doesn't rely on the sudden reveal that Person X is actually the brother/sister/mother/father of Person Y and therefore the culprit. Nor is some other hidden past transgression is dredged up - out of thin air. No, this is a straight forward love triangle where Linnet steals Simon from Jackie and Jackie stalks them. Linnet is murdered, Jackie would be blamed except for her alibi - being "in custody" after shooting and wounding Simon. So, whodunit?

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - Good ghost story, well-written.

The Joy of Simple Living by Jeff Davidson - I was hoping for more out of this book then a simple collection of tips most of which are repeated verbatim on the personal finance and productivity blogs which recommend this book.

Making It All Work by David Allen - Much better than Ready for Anything which I reviewed previously. Whereas Getting Things Done was an in the trenches book for dealing with the day to day realities of productivity, Making It All Work is focused on the higher levels - "the vision thing" so to speak. Though his underlying "captain and commander" metaphor is rather lame, the ideas Allen presents on getting both control and perspective are instructive. Having semi-successfully implemented GTD in my personal life, I still occasionally feel that I am efficiently doing ineffective tasks - sure I check off a lot of tasks but do those tasks really matter? Do they get me to my goals? Do I have goals? I have this list - but how is this list progressing? Updates on that to come. Hint: I may have to read this book again.

Misery by Stephen King - Prior to watching the Academy Award winning movie, read the book.

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich - Subtitled On (Not) Getting By in America, Ehrenreich takes three different minimum wage jobs in three different cities to illustrate the vast gulf between minimum wage and living wage. The book also demonstrates how just having a job won't automagically lift someone from poverty - there remain problems of transportation, childcare, health care, etc. On the whole I thought it was fair and balanced.

Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - Second-Tier Vonnegut but it has its moments.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert - Though interesting in explaining why people are unhappy (mostly because they cannot accurately describe what will make them happy in the future), I thought the book fell down because it didn't give many suggestions for how to overcome this lack of imagination. I felt that Gilbert thought this was an intractable problem.

The Summons by John Grisham - Not quite The Firm or The Client but entertaining.