June Books

It's Summer Read time at the library, and I'm once again participating in the Adult Reading Club. The goal is to read 10 books or 50 hours. Since I hate keeping track of minutes, mostly because it involves finding a clock, I'm keeping track of books.

Here's what I have for June:

1. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. Along the same lines as Matthew Syed'sBounce, which I mentioned last month. As a matter of fact, Bounce repeats much of the info found in The Talent Code (because of which I now know more about Brazilian soccer training than I ever thought I would). Talent Code extensively discusses myelin's role in developing abilities; we tend to talk a lot about myelin around here, so I thought that was pretty cool. Overall, I ended up liking this book better than Bounce -- it was stronger in the areas I was interested in.

2.The Good That Men Do (Star Trek: Enterprise) by Andy Mangels. You know how crappy that final episode of Enterprise was? This book re-writes it so it isn't quite so bad. It takes the exact same scenes (I think -- really, I didn't memorize the episode and have no desire to re-watch it) and puts a different spin on them. Totally nerdy.

By the way, while reading this I revealed to my kids that I had figured out that Captain Archer played water polo! Their reaction? "Um, Mom, they mentioned that about every 4th episode of the series." Oh. I guess I was thinking of something else when it came up so I wasn't paying attention, or maybe I'd left the room, or maybe ... I dunno, maybe I'm not the Trekkie I thought I was. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Overall, this was my least favorite book of June; its appeal seems to rest solely on the Star Trek connection.

3. Shakespeare Undead by Lori Handeland. There was this scene in Saturday night's performance of Twelfth Night where Cesario and Orsino looked like they were swaying like zombies while the clowns circled around them chanting (I'm pretty sure that's not the effect they were after). So when I saw a book about ZOMBIES and SHAKESPEARE on the new book shelf at the library, it seemed like fate had dropped it into my hands.

What a fun read! Shakespeare quotes mashed up with the undead -- can't go wrong with that. Great poolside reading.

4. The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Pope. Melissa Wiley mentioned this in her blog, so, of course, I had to read it since I'm a Melissa Wiley groupie AND we had enjoyed The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Pope. Perilous Gard is as good as Melissa Wiley said. Also set in Elizabethan England -- we seem to be having a rash of connections to that era. And another great poolside read, if that's what you're looking for.