Review: K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Another "idiots on Everest"-type audiobook to listen to while I run. It took me a long time to finish this, because I kept getting sidetracked halfway through the 1939 expedition and having to go back to the beginning of that chapter when I came back to it. That got a bit tedious, but it's not the book's fault. Overall, quite an enjoyable read.

This is the first K2 book I've read, so I have no idea how Viesturs' ideas stack up against other theories (many of which he mentions and supports or refutes) about what happened on some of the more poorly understood K2 missions. He seems to be quite clear about the line between fact and fill-in (a lot of fill-in is necessary in some cases where there were no survivors or the survivors' stories are mutually incompatible), and his theories make sense as he tells them.



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Review: Scored

Scored by Lauren McLaughlin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Not sure exactly when I finished this, but it was some time mid-April, and before I picked up [b:Matched|7735333|Matched (Matched, #1)|Ally Condie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311704885s/7735333.jpg|9631645] (which allowed me to return to the library, simultaneously, TWO dystopian YA's with single-word past-tense verbs as titles).

The premise seemed a bit silly to me at first, but it's woven into the near-future-America setting in an unusually convincing way. The story is set just far enough forward that the teenagers were born about when I expect my own kids to be born; I found it less forced than usual, trying to believe that we'd accept so much change in so little time. And quite a lot of the details that seemed implausible to me can be explained by "high-pressure high school makes you a bit weird" better than by "the author missed a plot hole there."

I liked the world and the characters much better than I liked the plot, but I'm not sure how to explain why without spoilers.

Another solid, worthwhile read, if you're into dystopian YA.



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Review: Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A good solid dystopian love story. Owes a lot to The Giver, and it's got the same plausibility holes as some of the dystopias I've made up -- no good explanation for the war, for example, or for how on earth things got to this point without a rebellion. Like many others, it's not the best dystopian YA I've read, but it's very good fodder for the dystopian-YA appetite, and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.



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Review: Bill Rodgers' Lifetime Running Plan: Definitive Programs for Runners of All Ages and Levels

Bill Rodgers' Lifetime Running Plan: Definitive Programs for Runners of All Ages and Levels by Bill Rodgers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The clothes and hairstyles in the pictures have gotten pretty dated, but the advice is evergreen. Great next step after a Couch to 5K.



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Tacos and applesauce

Tacos!
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There isn't really a recipe for tacos, is there? Husband cooked up ground beef with green bell peppers and spices. Then we ate it on little flour tortillas with fresh tomatos and lettuce. I think he had salsa on his. It was awesome. So was the homemade queso dip that went with it. (And the episodes of Community we watched with dinner!)



Applesauce!
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. While we were shopping for car snacks for a recent cross-country drive, I found bags of Jonathan apples and demanded them -- they were my Most Favorite Apple when I was a kid, and I don't see them very often now. I do still enjoy them, but their Most Favorite-ness has been eclipsed by the Honeycrisp. So Husband made the extras into applesauce. Apples and cinnamon and sugar -- what's not to like? Also, all that stirring in cinnamony steam made his hair smell like pastry.

Review: The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow by Cory Doctorow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Weird and completely Doctorovian -- so, tons of fun. Highlights Doctorow's weird obsession with Disney even more than Makers did. Feels, in some ways, like an alternate-universe version of who some of the characters from Makers might have been if things went differently in the future.



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Review: Makers

Makers by Cory Doctorow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Re-read (previously finished February 2010).

Makers is as excellent as I remembered. Awfully depressing, but hopeful as well, and a wildly entertaining journey through the world of inventors, publicity, and business.



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