52 Book Challenge

Book 2 of 52: “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” by Elizabeth Kolbert

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Click above to see the book on Amazon.

Well, now I’m depressed.  
Elizabeth Kolbert, a journalist for the New Yorker, has chosen a handful of creatures, settings, and species – some of them extinct, some of them still barely hanging on – to show how, right now, humans are in the midst of causing the sixth mass extinction event.
The book starts by briefly discussing the history of extinctions, starting with the very idea that animals could go extinct, and that every animal alive today might have come from a different ancestor.  We learn how there were five different events that signaled the “end of an era” – that is, a mass extinction that wiped out the majority of life on Earth.  The most recent of these, of course, was the asteroid strike that took out the dinosaurs.
However, interspersed with this history are accounts of some of the many species that are currently vanishing from our planet, or have gone extinct within the last thousand years or less.  Some of these species include the American bat, frogs and amphibians around the globe, rhinos and elephants, the auk (an extinct relative of the penguin), and corals, linked to vanishing barrier reefs.
Kolbert is definitely a gifted writer, and she expertly weaves together stories of history, accounts of her own personal travels and experiences as she sought out those who worked to protect these species (or at least chronicle their passing), and sobering facts about the changing world around us and the reality that is a result of humankind’s rapid spread and alteration of the environment.
However, while many books on topics such as this end with an uplifting note, that is largely absent from this book.  The conclusion, we are told, is that this is happening, and it is likely too late to stop the sixth mass extinction event.  This won’t be undone by recycling, by donating an extra $10 to Greenpeace or eating dolphin free tuna.
We are losing more and more of our biodiversity each day, Kolbert tells us, and there’s nothing we can do – except wait to see what the fallout will be.

Time to read: 3 hours 15 minutes.  I’m a bit slower on non-fiction.

Book 1 of 52: “Takedown Twenty” by Janet Evanovich

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To anyone who missed my 2015 resolutions, one of those is to read a book a week for the whole year, the 52-book challenge!  And to hold myself accountable, Monday’s post each week will be a brief review/my thoughts on said book.

Click above to get to the book on Amazon.
I really could have started off my “52 books in 2015” goal with a solid story, with something that has true literary merit.  I could have picked an informative and engaging book that would teach me new things, or an award-winning new author who presents a fresh take on a genre.
But I’m still on vacation, so I didn’t.
Instead, I picked up “Takedown Twenty,” a Stephanie Plum mystery by Janet Evanovich.  As you might be able to guess from the title, this is the twentieth book in Evanovich’s mystery series, and by this point, the plot is almost nostalgically cookie-cutter.
Every Plum mystery includes the following:
  • A high-profile “skip” comes in for Plum to capture (she works as a bounty hunter).
  • Plum and her partner, Lula, go off to capture this skip.  They find him, and then fail and he gets away.
  • Consumption of unhealthy foods (donuts, cake, chicken, pizza).
  • Plum’s car is destroyed.
  • Plum gets a loaner car.  This is also destroyed.
  • Plum has a run-in with sexy man of mystery Ranger, who flirts with her but gets nowhere.
  • Lula is called fat by someone and takes offense.
  • Lula’s wild neon outfit is described in detail.
  • Plum captures a low-value skip, generally by luck.
  • Plum’s boyfriend Morelli gives her some familial bliss.
  • Plum feeds her pet hamster.
  • Plum’s grandma says shocking things about how she wants to get laid.
  • We hear how Plum’s grandma wears inappropriately skin-tight clothes.
  • Plum + grandma go to a viewing at the funeral home.
  • Somebody gets tazed.
  • Plum captures the high-profile skip, generally by luck.
In this regard, Takedown Twenty did not disappoint.  Janet Evanovich has clearly found the winning formula, and she doesn’t leave it behind.  She puts out 3-5 of these books a year, and they probably all make a lot of money for her.  Still, the reason for picking one up is not because I’m expecting something new, something interesting.  
Rather, Plum’s books are comforting, like that sitcom you’ve seen a million times.  Jerry breaks up with a girl for no reason, George is a schlub, Elaine puts her foot in her mouth, and Kramer is krazy.  There’s nothing new, no innovation; it’s the same old formula.  Order a Big Mac, get a Big Mac.
But sometimes, when all we want is a Big Mac, it can be comforting.
Time to read: 1 hour, 30 minutes.  A new record, even for these Evanovich fluff novels.