Anastasia by Carolyn Meyer

Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914 by Carolyn Meyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this simplified look at Russian history through the eyes of a young child.

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The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Total weirdness. Made very little sense in the beginning. The issue of the daemons was pretty straightforward, but "dust" still basically makes very little sense. Eventually, the other characters explained to Lyra (and to me) what was going on but I wasn't that impressed by then.

I like that this takes place in an alternate universe that acknowledges the possible existence of ours. The story seems like it would be especially fun if you first read it as a child. I also like that this is the anti-Narnia series (though I did love Narnia).

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Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hsieh sounds like a lot of fun. I appreciate that he considered his career in terms of greater life satisfaction, and did some reading on the topic. I appreciate that he also applied these principals to his employees and clients. He's done a great service to business in this country, and I hope the trends he's created continue to grow.

The book could definitely have used a ghostwriter though. Some parts just seemed extraneous or annoying... the sections on raves or his apartment, for example.

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Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I actually took an edX course about this topic and read the book as part of the course, but most of the lectures are covered in this book. Although this book is primarily about solving problems in developing countries, and all of the examples deal with India specifically, the way of analyzing problems and testing solutions really changed the way I think about social and political problems in this country. We need to stop philosophizing, guessing, and bickering and just do case studies of possible solutions.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3) by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(#3) This one is much better than the second one. It has a lot of moving parts and interesting and developed new characters. I recently reread this and seeing Snape's intentions in the correct light is really interesting.

Favorite parts: discussions about Hogsmeade, Lupin, Scabbers, Sirius Black, Hermoine's school schedule, the introduction of Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang, the Hippogryph, and of course the map!

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Virtual Book Club- May 2013

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

In case you want to follow along with us, our May book club selection is Water for Elephants. We talk about it on Google+ Hangouts at the end of the month. Let me know if you want to join us.

Since I started this blog, this is the first book I'm reading (finally!) that my dad actually read. He read it shortly after I asked him to join Goodreads, and his review of it was, "Needs more elephants." I love you, dad.

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