The Good Earth by Pearl Buck

I found this story to be overwhelmingly sad and depressing. That's not to say that it wasn't exquisite to read. I can't wait to read the next two in the trilogy. It did make my heart ache but that's the mark of a great writer. It also made me feel gratitude for what I have in my life and for being born when and where I was. It was intriguing to read about the different culture, so alien, so opposite to what we know in the U.S. today. It also made me want to squeeze my baby again and again, and snack. Aside from the story, the actual prose was beautiful in and of itself.

Let's Get Lost: Adventures in the great wide open by Craig Nelson

Oh my goodness what a joyride! We went to Egypt, China, Africa, the South Pacific, the Amazon, India and more. I had amazing time seeing all the sites and meeting so many amazing people and learning so much about the world, all without getting out of my chair. I learned history, anthropology, astronomy and more. He made it deliriously fun and funny. I wish he would write more volumes like this one, I'd read them all. Unfortunately it's given me the travel bug pretty bad and there is no hope in my lifetime of ever being able to afford to go anywhere ever again.

The Post-Corporate World: Life after capitalism by David C. Korten

Eh, a lot of good points I guess. The book made some pretty big promises by bringing up quantum mechanics. But it never really goes anywhere and the suggestions are old, tired, impractical, unhelpful, and rhetorical. He compares capitalism to a cancer and given the clinical definition it certainly adds up. "The cell begins to seek its own growth without regard to the consequences for the whole, and ultimately destroys the body that feeds it." Sound like anything? Anyway, it should have been a feel good book but I just got angrier and angrier as I read it knowing he was right about how fatal capitalism as we know it is. But people are becoming more and more enslaved to it and giving up all their power. We're beyond grassroots movements and shopping at farmers' markets. Nothing will change until the dollar bottoms out and we're slaves to the Chinese or the poles shift and our infrastructure crumbles to the ground leaving Wal-mart's shelves empty.