The Books List, Part 12

 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

The days are starting to get longer, and there's nothing like sitting in a sunny window to read. Time for another Books List post!

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

1. Brother Odd – Dean Koontz

2. The Yo-Yo Diet Syndrome – Doreen Virtue

3. Speed – Mark Harris

4. MAD about the Sixties – MAD Magazine

5. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer

6. FU, Penguin – Matthew Gasteier

7. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer

8. Wonder Woman: Love and Murder – Jodi Picoult

9. Wonder Woman: Who Is Wonder Woman? - Allan Heinberg/Terry and Rachel Dodson

10. Justice Society, vol. 2 - asstd

11. Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story – Peter Bagge

12. Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits – Laila Lalami

13. Eva Luna – Isabel Allende

14. Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race – Debby Irving

15. Hunger – Roxane Gay

16. DC Comics Backstories: Wonder Woman, Amazon Warrior – Steve Korté

17. Locke and Key, vol. 6: Alpha & Omega – Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez

18. The Pushcart Prize, IX: Best of the Small Presses – ed. By Bill Henderson

19. The Innocent Man – John Grisham

20. The Numbers Game – Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

1. Boston Darkens – Michael Kravitz – I reviewed it https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-review-of-boston-darkens-by-michael.html

2. The Nose – Nikolai Gogol

3. They Who Do Not Grieve – Sia Figiel

4. Tales from a Traveling Couch – Robert Akeret

5. The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two: The Hidden Lives and Strange Origins of Common and Not-So-Common Words – Anu Garg

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K. Dick

2. Doctor Faustus – Thomas Mann

3. Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak

4. Dog Soldiers – Robert Stone

5. Don't Move – Margaret Mazzantini

6. Downriver – Iain Sinclair

7. Dracula – Bram Stoker

8. Drop City – T. Coraghessan Boyle

9. Drunkard – Émile Zola

10. Dusklands – J. M. Coetzee

11. Effi Briest – Theodor Fontane

12. Elective Affinities – Johann von Göethe

13. Elementary Particles – Michel Houellebecq

14. Elizabeth Costello – J. M. Coetzee

15. Embers – Sandor Marai

16. Émile, or On Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

17. Empire of the Sun – J. G. Ballard

18. Enduring Love – Ian McEwan

19. England Made Me – Graham Greene

20. Enigma of Arrival – V. S. Naipal

21. Erewhon – Samuel Butler

22. Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton

23. Eugénie Grandet – Honoré de Balzac

24. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit – John Lyly

25. Eva Trout – Elizabeth Bowen

26. Evelina – Fanny Burney

27. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Foer

28. Everything You Need – A. L. Kennedy

29. Exercises in Style – Raymond Queneau

30. Extinction – Thomas Bernhard

31. Eyeless in Gaza – Aldous Huxley

32. Faces in the Water – Janet Frame

33. Falconer – John Cheever

34. Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry

35. Fanny Hill – John Cleland

36. Fantômas – Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre

37. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

38. Farewell My Lovely – Raymond Chandler

39. Fat: The Anthropology of an Obsession – Kulick, Meneley

40. Fateless – Imre Kertesz

41. Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev

42. Fear – L. Ron Hubbard

43. Fear and Trembling – Amelie Nothomb

44. Fear of Flying – Erica Jong

45. Felicia's Journey – William Trevor

46. Ficciones – Jose Luis Borges

47. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters

48. Flaubert's Parrot – Julian Barnes

49. Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives – Helen O'Neill

50. Foe – J. M. Coetzee

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-books-list-part-11-20-books-i-would.html

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-reading-a-book-on-a-couch-5490056/

The Books List, Part 11: 20 Books I Would Recommend Reading, 5 Books I Wouldn't, and 50 from my Reading List

 

Time for another Books List post! Curl up by the fire (or the fan, depending on the season) and enjoy (or avoid) these titles:

My likes/loves: These are books that entertained me, moved me, taught me things, made me think, inspired me, and that I would heartily recommend. They are not ranked – they are merely in the order in which I read them.

1. Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison

2. The Engish Patient – Michael Ondaatje

3. Making Money – Terry Pratchett

4. The Secrets of Harry Bright – Joseph Wambaugh

5. Bloody Mary – J.A. Konrath – read my review! https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2025/12/book-review-ja-konraths-murder-mystery.html

6. Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? - Peter Walsh

7. Whiskey Sour – J.A. Konrath

8. Not Buying It – Judith Levine

9. It's All Too Much – Peter Walsh

10. Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver

11. A Son of the Circus – John Irving

12. Nightmares and Dreamscapes – Stephen King

13. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas – Tom Robbins – I wrote about how good the writing is, here https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-best-in-writing-half-asleep-in-frog.html

14. The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb

15. Obsession – Jonathan Kellerman

16. Post Mortem – Patricia Cornwell

17. The Target – Catherine Coulter

18. True Detectives – Jonathan Kellerman

19. Hemlock Bay – Catherine Coulter

20. Forever Odd – Dean Koontz

My meh/yuck list: Did not find these appealing for any number of reasons – some were boring; some had an interesting subject but did not do it justice; some were flat-out terrible. All simply left me cold in some way. Although I am likely to read multiple books by authors I like (you will see a lot of Dean Koontz, Jonathan Kellerman, Margaret Atwood, Charles deLint and Toni Morrison), I do not excuse those authors when they write a book I didn't like, so they might just show up here, as well.

1. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer

2. Life After Death – Elizabeth Hanley

3. The Almost Moon – Alice Sebold

4. The Great and Secret Show – Clive Barker

5. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis

My Reading List: these are books I haven't read yet, so I don't have a reaction for you. However, I could semi-recommend them, based on the reasons they made it onto my list:

1. They were on one of those “100 Greatest Books” lists;

2. They are other books written by authors I really enjoy; or

3. I read a review, and it sounded like something I'd like.

#1 can be a bit hit-or-miss; #2 is almost (but not always) foolproof for me (but maybe not for you), and #3 usually works out pretty well, as it's a combination of the first two. As always, your results may vary, but consider them suggestions. These may tend to come in chunks of stuff by author (apologies).

1. Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee

2. Cigarettes – Harry Mathews

3. City of God – E.L. Doctorow

4. City Primeval – Elmore Leonard

5. City Sister Silver – Jachym Topol

6. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

7. Cloudsplitter – Russell Banks

8. Cocaine Nights – J.G. Ballard

9. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

10. Come Back, Dr. Caligari – Donald Barthelme

11. Coming Up for Air – George Orwell

12. Complicity – Iain Banks

13. Concrete – Thomas Bernhard

14. Concrete Island – J.G. Ballard

15. Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

16. Confessions – Jean-Jaques Rousseau

17. Contact – Carl Sagan

18. Correction – Thomas Bernhard

19. Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell

20. Crash – J.G. Ballard

21. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

22. Critique of Pure Reason – Immanuel Kant

23. Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley

24. Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton

25. Cryptonomicon – Neal Stephenson

26. Cutter and Bone – Newton Thornburg

27. DSM-IV Made Easy – James Morrison

28. Dangerous Liaisons – Pierre de Laclos

29. Dangling Man – Saul Bellow

30. Daniel Deronda – George Eliot

31. Dark as the Grave wherein My Friend Is Laid – Malcolm Lowry

32. Darkness at Noon – Arthur Koestler

33. Das Kapital – Karl Marx

34. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

35. Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

36. Dead Air – Iain Banks

37. Dead Babies – Martin Amis

38. Death in Venice – Thomas Mann

39. Death Sentence – Maurice Blanchot

40. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh

41. Deliverance – James Dickey

42. Delta of Venus – Anais Nin

43. Diary of a Nobody – George and Weedon Grossmith

44. Dictionary of the Khazars – Milorad Pavic

45. Dining on Stones – Iain Sinclair

46. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams

47. Disappearance – David Dabydeen

48. Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee

49. Disobedience – Alberto Moravia

50. Dispatches – Michael Herr

That's all for now; hope you find these lists useful as you think about things you might like to read. If you want more, more, more, you can find the previous lists at these links: 

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-books-list-part-one.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-books-list-part-two.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-three.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-books-list-part-four.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-books-list-part-five.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-books-list-part-six.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-books-list-part-seven.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-books-list-part-eight.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-books-list-part-nine.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-books-list-part-10.html

Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/a-book-book-gift-heart-gift-read-1760998/

Review of Duma Key by Stephen King

 

Stephen King is one of the most prolific and successful writers in history. He has penned classics like The Stand and has had some not-so-great moments, as well (more on that later), but Duma Key is a great standalone book. This scary tale of suspense is narrated by its protagonist, Edgar Freemantle, a man who became successful and wealthy in the building trade, but whose career was cut short by a terrible jobsite accident that took one of his arms, severely damaged a leg and his vision, and, perhaps worst of all, rattled his brain enough to cause lapses in his memory and language skills and left him dealing with sudden bursts of rage.

Steeped in an agonizing stew of anger, frustration and despair, suffering constant torment from his physical wounds, and dealing with the impending divorce from his wife of 25 years, Edgar embraces a plan of suicide. Fortunately, this idea is headed off by Kamen, his therapist, who suggests a change of scenery. This results in Edgar's trading the impending winter cold of Minnesota for the tropical sunsets of Duma Key, Florida, where he ends up in a large pink house that hangs out over the water and seems to extend a special welcome to him.

From the very first day in "Big Pink", Edgar starts to make noticeable progress toward recovery. He finds his pain and stiffness diminishing, and he begins to practice walking on the beach without his cane, going farther every day. His also previously-undeveloped artistic talent emerges in a big way, so much so that in a few months, he has a studio full of drawings and paintings that leave people awestruck, as well as a little spooked. He develops close friendships with his young assistant, Jack Cantori, and with the only year-round residents of the Key, a man named Wireman and his employer, the gracious yet mysterious Elizabeth Eastlake, who also know a thing or two about trauma, both physical and mental. Buoyed by these relationships and by supportive emails from his adoring daughter, Ilse, and riding a powerful creative high as his artistic talent "unbottles", Edgar is happier on Duma than he thought he ever could be, but then things start to get creepy...

Don't they always? What's the point of a Stephen King book if they don't, right?

King had had several missteps, in my opinion, in the period of time prior to this work -- the abysmal Lisey's Story and the last two books in the Gunslinger series come immediately to mind -- but Duma Key is a good return to form; it kept me turning pages (and there are 609 of them) with a minimum of exasperated snorts--and even some actual eek! moments.

He still sticks somewhat to his formula: Domestic animals, for example, are not safe around Stephen King; he murders yet another beloved pet in this story. It happens early on and is dispensed with fairly quickly, but it is not really necessary to drive the plot forward, and I'm thinking Mr. King could do us all a favor and keep his animal issues to himself. It was understandable in Pet Sematary, but not since. (Eh-hem. Sorry, soapboxing a bit, there.) The other thing the author does with consistency is kill off main characters of whom you've grown fond, and, as if to add insult to injury, usually tells you about it in advance. Unlike the animal cruelty, however, I can live with this as a trademark of his style that I might miss, even though it has made me swear aloud more than once.

Also true to King's style, though, are fully-developed characters, with individual personalities and interesting histories, who do completely understandable things and make completely plausible observations. It is this firm grounding in reality that allows you to hang on when the creepy winds start a-blowin', and to suspend your disbelief when they get to gale-force. I'm especially impressed by King's ability to pace the reader through a very long book by keeping it interesting the whole time. As with any particularly engaging yarn, the length of the book is a treat, not a burden, because the journey's as much fun as the destination -- maybe more so.

I don't know if "fun" is the right word for the delicious terror of a well-written Stephen King book, but Duma Key is "shivery good"!

Another scary page-turner you might like: 
https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-historian-by-elizabeth-kostova.html

Review of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

 

I just finished reading Elizabeth Kostova's supernatural thriller, The Historian, and I'm like, whoa. Okay, that is possibly the most un-erudite thing you've ever read in a book review, but it's my immediate and visceral reaction. I will try to be more precise forthwith:

The Historian is the tale of our narrator, who when she is sixteen years old finds a curious book and a packet of letters in her father's study. When she questions him about it, he is extremely reluctant to discuss it. However, as she accompanies him on his travels around Europe as a cold-war-era diplomat, she slowly begins to draw a tale from him that seems unbelievable, at first, yet it is supported by the letters, written by his former doctoral advisor, Professor Bartholomew Rossi. Professor Rossi disappeared under mysterious and terrifying circumstances immediately after passing the letters to his advisee, the narrator's father.

As she gets more pieces of the puzzle over the course of a couple of years, our intrepid narrator begins to do her own research into the supernatural historical mystery that caused her father the loss of his cherished friend, Rossi, and possibly the loss as well of her own mother, who died when the narrator was an infant--also under mysterious circumstances that her father will not discuss. She continues to chase clues until her father also disappears abruptly, leaving her in a race against time to find him and to find out what happened to her mother before all is lost to a predator who seems to be stalking them as readily as they stalk him.

This book succeeds in the unlikely task of making historical research, cold war politics and European history fascinating by interweaving it with a scary, thrilling chase that is paced so well, the reader is lead almost breathlessly through the entire six hundred-plus pages to the amazing denouement and skin-crawling epilogue. We follow three successive generations of historians (Professor Rossi, the narrator's parents, and the narrator herself) as they each contribute piece after piece of the mysterious puzzle, following a trail that leads from Amsterdam and France to Romania and Istanbul and through Soviet-controlled Hungary and Bulgaria. In every new location, we learn more about the history of the area, from medieval times through the '30s, '50s and '70s of the 20th century. Everything from the Ottoman Empire to the library systems of various universities and monasteries is explored in the most fascinating way.

One of the minor mysteries of the book is the question of to whom the title refers. Is the Historian Rossi, a highly celebrated and much-published professor in the History department at Oxford, and the originator of the supernatural investigation? Or is it Paul, the narrator's father, who was a doctoral student in that same department until ending up as a diplomat, after the loss of his wife cut short his own search? Is the Historian the narrator, who joins the search, and is, after all, the main character? Or could it be one of the many professors, archivists and librarians who help our investigators along the way, sometimes to their own fatal outcomes? Near the end of the book, the identity of the Historian is revealed, and I guarantee it will make you shiver to your very bones. I highly recommend Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian , an excellent, scary read that will take you along for the white-knuckle ride!

Here are reviews for some more creepy/mysterious books you might enjoy:

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-unless-novel-by-carol-shields.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-duma-key-by-stephen-king.html

Review of Unless: A Novel by Carol Shields

Unless: A Novel (HarperCollins, 2002) is the story of Reta Winters, a 44-year-old writer living in Orangetown, Canada, a suburb of Toronto. Reta has all the trappings of an idyllic life: a respectable career; Tom, her partner of 26 years; their three smart, kind teenaged daughters; and a rambling old farmhouse that Reta loves.

However, Reta is struggling with the unexpected loss of her eldest daughter, Norah, not to death, but to an existence completely separate from her family and from the life she so happily lived before: Norah has suddenly and inexplicably dropped out of school and seemingly from life in general, choosing to sit on a street corner in Toronto with a handmade sign hanging around her neck that says one word: goodness. She subsists on handouts from passersby, and any attempts by Reta or her family and friends to talk to Norah or to persuade her to come home are met with silence. They can only leave things for her, knowing that she will give away most of what is given her to other street people.

We are shown a slice of Reta's life as she copes with this heartbreaking situation, surprisingly with a lot of humor. We are introduced to Reta's family and friends, her fellow female writers, her relationships with them and to the world of writing, from passive-aggressive interviewers to sycophantic-yet-overbearing editors, and there is an ongoing theme of a woman's place in the world of writing, as well as the world in general. Reta writes scathingly funny, yet poignant, letters to assorted individuals as a kind of exercise to try to figure out why her daughter "dropped out" of life. Did she withdraw out of a sense of powerlessness, putting herself in such a position of vulnerability and passivity as a way to "claim" that absence of power? Everyone seems to have a theory, but nobody can get Norah to explain her decisions.

Reta spends her days working on a novel of light-hearted, romantic fluff, which serves to distract her, although she begins to see her characters more deeply than, perhaps, she should, as she views them through the focusing lens of the balance of power in male-female relationships. She is drawn sympathetically to the female lead, while the male character becomes ever more bothersome to her. This coincides rather hilariously with her brand new editor's desire to make an artistic statement out of the book, which is intended to be a sequel to a prior light comedy, and to make the annoying, selfish male character practically the sole focus. Those of us who have had editors say they absolutely adore our manuscript before requesting that we change, oh, everything, can sympathize.

I found this book a very absorbing read. Shields has a great way with language, especially dialogue, and she knows when to lighten things up in a realistic way when the subject matter threatens to get ponderous. Reta's letters are interspersed throughout as a kind of food-for-thought snack break, and they are highly entertaining. Shields offers Norah's situation as a storyline to fascinate us with its abnormality, yet folds it into the larger text of relationships and anxiety about one's place in society, to which we can all relate. I would recommend this novel, and I am looking forward to reading other work by Shields, as well.

Here are some reviews for other books you might like: 

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-prodigal-summer-by-barbara.html

https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2022/02/review-of-james-pattersons-quickie.html

My Review of the Beyond Thickburger from Hardee's / Carl's Jr.

Allrighty, some of you have perhaps read my review of the Impossible Whopper from Burger King (and if you haven't, here's a link https://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2019/11/my-review-of-impossible-whopper-from.html), wherein you learned that, as a, um, "concerned carnivore", I am making an effort to eat farther down the food chain, for purposes of not being sad about animals dying and also because of environmental and dietary concerns. Regardless of your feelings about eating critters, vegetables are just better for you, and they are grown much more sustainably than animal products. I'm pleased that another fast-food chain, Hardee's (or Carl's Jr, if you are from western parts), has introduced a plant-based burger, the Beyond Thickburger.

Impossible and Beyond are two different and competing brands of meat substitute. Whereas Impossible is soy-based, Beyond uses pea protein as a base. As a matter of fact, here is the complete ingredient list: water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate fruit powder, and beet juice extract. So yeah, that 18-ingredient list has, oh, 17 more ingredients than beef, and with a similar amount of calories and fat, it's not necessarily a whole lot healthier than beef, just less murdery. It does have zero cholesterol, though. 

So what about the most important bit--the taste?? How does it compare to the Impossible Whopper?Well, with regard to that, let me just say, damn, it's so much better! It has the juiciness I was missing, and is also much more flame- broil-y, as well, and considering that's BK's thing, it's a bit embarrassing. As for how it compares to actual beef, I think you could give this burger to someone without telling them it wasn't meat and they would never know. We have a winner!

However, even though Beyond completely kicked Impossible's butt in this head-to-head taste-test, Impossible is still fine and dandy with me. If there were a Hardee's across from a Burger King, the choice is obvious, but if there were just a Burger King, I absolutely would still choose the Impossible Whopper over a beef burger. A category in which Impossible does completely win is calorie count, which is pretty important. The Beyond Thickburger has 840 calories. The Impossible Whopper with cheese has only 630 (a regular Whopper with cheese has about 800). 840 calories is one-third the typical caloric intake required for an average adult man and almost half that of an average woman. And this is one sandwich, so caveat emptor. 

Ah, yes...one other thing...the Beyond Thickburger made me burp, rather a lot. Like from about an hour after I ate it, up until about five or six hours later. And those burps did not taste real fabulous (and just FYI, I ordered the burger without onions--the mind reels at the thought of what would have transpired if I hadn't). So, uh, maybe not the thing to eat if you need to be in close proximity to anyone for the next while? I did have a soda with it, but carbonation usually gets burped forthwith, so I doubt that was a factor. Also, I don't remember this happening with the Impossible Whopper. Your digestive system, and therefore your results, may vary. 

All in all, I am very happy to see meat substitutes coming to the fast-food market. It's a step in the right direction, burps aside. KFC is currently testing Beyond Fried Chicken in some markets (Atlanta is one, I have heard), and I will be very interested to try that, as well. So just remember: If you want to save the planet, Mom was right--eat your veggies!

My Review of the Impossible Whopper from Burger King

First off, I'll state that I'm not a vegetarian. I do eat meat, but I'm not altogether comfortable with that, and I think there are a lot of positives involved in eating lower on the food chain. Better for your health, better for the environment, and certainly better for the livestock. If there are things out there that do a good job of behaving like meat, give me my protein, and are affordable and convenient, what's not to like? So it was with great anticipation that I sat down to try an Impossible Whopper, Burger King's new offering, a soy-based meat substitute.

The Impossible Whopper is available with all the typical fixings you can get on a regular Whopper (and yes, you can get bacon on it, if you feel a bit more callous toward pigs than cows). I ordered mine with cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup. People have been mentioning the price as being higher than that of a typical Whopper, but the sandwich and a side of mozzarella sticks cost $8.20 all together, and I didn't find that particularly exorbitant (this is in North Carolina; your results elsewhere may vary). By the way, I'm happy that Burger King offers mozzarella sticks, but sad because they never seem to be freshly made. If you want good drive-thru mozzarella sticks, go to Arby's. Their sticks game is on point.

As for the Impossible Whopper, I liked it. It was tasty and satisfying. It did not, I repeat, not, taste like beef. However, it still tasted good, and it tasted like "a burger", if that makes sense. Part of that was the toppings and the bun, I'm sure, but it also had the right texture, or "mouth feel", as they say. One thing that I will note is that it was not juicy, although frankly, a lot of juiciness can make a burger excessively sloppy, and I do not have much interest in wearing a plastic bib everywhere I go to eat. It didn't taste dry, either--it wasn't crumbly or mealy. It was firm and meaty, and of course the mayo and ketchup added a decent amount of sloppiness to the burger experience.

The verdict: I'm in. It's a win-win: I get my burger, and nobody has to die. From now on, I'm getting my mozzarella sticks from Arby's, but when I'm at Burger King, I will happily order the Impossible Whopper from now on!

Review of Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet by James Glave

Yesterday was Earth Day, and in keeping with the green spirit, I am offering another environmentally-minded post, a review of Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet, a very funny book written by James Glave, a man who really, really tried to save the planet, or at least himself.

In this book, the author relates the story of his and his wife's attempts to make their lives more eco-friendly, culminating in the building of the "Eco-Shed", his carbon-neutral writing studio. All the usual hijinks ensue when attempting to build from scratch--flaky architect, bureaucratic mazes, budget nightmares--along with plenty of new problems brought in by the scarcity of green materials and building methods on the author's small Canadian island community outside of Vancouver.

Despite the challenges marching steadily against him, Glave meets every one with moxie, even if he has to dredge it up from the depths of his weary, green soul. The book's cover illustration does an effectively cute job of conveying the cartoonish façade of cheerfulness and go-get-'em attitude Glave had to perfect to preserve his sanity throughout the mayhem, and the book itself is written with much wit and charm. I enjoyed it greatly, chuckling almost constantly and occasionally howling with laughter. Not only that, I learned loads of stuff about green construction and conservation methods without ever feeling like that's what I was there to do.


What makes this book particularly appealing is how well the typical reader can relate to Glave. He's not a green god; he's just like us, torn between wanting to do good for the planet and wanting a comfortable life, and worrying if those two things are perhaps mutually exclusive. After all, wouldn't everyone live the green life if we could just remember to recycle, had the time to hand-water the lawn, knew how to compost, could afford to shop organic and were in good enough shape to ride our bikes to work? Read this book, and besides getting a good laugh, you may even get some ideas about how to green up your little corner of the world!

Liked this review? Here's another: http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-kaiser-chiefs-cd-yours-truly.html

Image from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/val-di-fassa-mountain-dolomites-1331004/

Review of the Kaiser Chiefs' CD Yours Truly, Angry Mob

The Kaiser Chiefs first came to my attention some years ago when I saw their video for "Ruby", the lead single from their CD, Yours Truly, Angry Mob (Universal/Motown, 2007), on VH1. The video was delightfully clever and the song was one of the rare few that I loved on the very first hearing. I'd felt the same affinity for the Killers' first single, "Somebody Told Me", and I waited for the Kaiser Chiefs to blow up in a similar way.

I'm still waiting.

"Ruby" and the album it came from both went to 1 in the U.K. but caused barely a ripple stateside; Yours Truly, Angry Mob peaked at 45 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart. So here I am, trying to start a rekindling of interest in the band with my itty bitty review. Who knows, it might start a whole grass-roots thing.

Since the band hasn't gotten the exposure they deserve, it's likely you haven't heard any of their stuff. Obviously, the internet can clear that problem up; I'm sure the clever video for "Ruby" is on YouTube, and you should be able to add this CD to your playlist on websites like Jango.com, Pandora, and YahooMusic.com, which is what I did to get more of a taste while I contemplated buying the CD (quite happy I did, thanks). Before you do any of that, though, you might just finish reading this review, so I'll try to do what a large number of music reviews fail to do: use the written word to effectively convey what the music sounds like.

Okay, first I'd categorize the style as British Alternative Rock. That tells you it's like Alt-Rock but the guys sing with an accent and use cool limey terms like "rubbish". The music ranges from the sheer exuberance of "Ruby" to the more contemplative "Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning)", and dips into a raucous, working-class sensibility on "Highroyds" and the title track. Besides the insanely catchy music (try listening to "Ruby" even once without singing along, possibly at the top of your lungs, to the anthemic and quickly-learned chorus), the lyrics are quite clever, as well. Here's a little social commentary on the crowd mentality from "Yours Truly, Angry Mob":

We are the angry mob
We read the papers every day
We like who we like, we hate who we hate
But we're also easily swayed


Okay, now back to the sound: Remember the music of the 80s that was not either Prince, the Dead Kennedys or composed almost entirely of synthesizer tracks? I'll give you a clue: The Alarm, The Church, Big Country. It was still rock music, with loud, happy guitars and singable, if not danceable, melodies. This is like that. As a matter of fact, the 'outer space' vibe underlying "Love's Not a Competition" owes much to the Church's "Under the Milky Way".

Those of you who are a bit young to have the 80s as a cultural touchstone can use as a comparison modern bands like The Bravery and, yes, the Killers, or possibly Maroon 5 in their less poppy moments. If you like any of these bands, you'll like The Kaiser Chiefs. So, don't let the UK keep this band all to themselves; Yours Truly, Angry Mob might become one of your favorite CDs. Now, don't you feel smart and European?

Image from Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Chiefs#/media/File:Kaiser_Chiefs.jpg