The Case Against Sugar - Gary Traubes

Hooo-boy! If this isn't enough to get you to cut back on sugar in your diet, nothing is! 

That being said, there are some major flaws in the logic of this book. It has a few excellent points, but the author extrapolates well beyond what rational thinking allows. An example of one of his arguments from the beginning of the book is:  Alzheimer's is nearly unheard of in human populations with traditional (read: ancient) diets, so therefore it must be something we are eating because there are environmental contaminants everywhere. Places with high Alzheimer's disease also eat a lot of sugar, therefore sugar must somehow cause Alzheimer's. Superficially, that seems like a logical train of thought, but he's left out the the point about how the traditional population doesn't live as long, also has a diet low in sodium, isn't cooking on teflon, and has to hunt down and process their own food. This book is riddled with this kind of step-by-step misguidance, but I think only the minds of people who are trained to look for this will notice, scientists and nutritionists. 

There was one study cited in this book that seemed important.  Japanese women have a very low rate of breast cancer, but after moving to the US their rate of breast cancer matches any other group of people in 2 generations (length of time to fully acclimate to the local culture). Japan is also a highly industrialized country that's not big into exercise where people habitually overwork themselves. So there are lots of similarities between it and the US. The major difference between the 2 countries is diet, very obviously that can be blamed. But Japanese food culture is so healthy from pretty much every angle that it would be impossible to immediately peg down.  So this study is important, but doesn't necessarily support the author's argument. This was the other problem with this book.

Even knowing this, there was a strong urge planted in me to reduce my sugar intake, just in case. haha!

A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up, but the synopsis piqued my interest.  This is a fun book. A little heavy, a little not, good balance. I thought the author did a particularly good job of creating characters that were realistic, but likable.  The four main characters are 16-year-old girls, which are particularly disagreeable to most people, however, Bray, while keeping them 16-year-old girls, did a great job of exposing the cattiness but still gave plausible actions to keep the girls together.  She made the characters both sweet and vindictive in honest amounts. 
I would recommend this book to people who like occult, Victorian-era stuff, but not much beyond that. The story wasn't especially enchanting.

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

I first read this book when I was in 5th grade. I remember at the time being thoroughly unimpressed and slightly confused. As with other books that I've gone back and re-read, I find my much-younger-self was pretty spot-on in her assessment.  Today, I would still describe this book in the same way.  As a child, I never liked children's stories.  This book is so weird and random, I can only attribute its success to children who are just along for the ride and aren't worried about the how or why (obviously, this was never me). 
The book has an annoying main character, they run around without reason, the descriptions are poor, the reasoning isn't well plotted, and the end is completely unsatisfactory.  I didn't like this book then, I don't now, and I don't imagine I'll watch it get ruined into a movie.

White Night - Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files, Bk. 9)

Another Dresden novel. Good, but not my favorite so far. I liked reading it.

Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly

I haven't seen the movie for this book, but I am so glad they did if only to draw more attention to this incredible story. 
I know who Grace Hopper and Ada Lovelace are and what they did. But despite this, the modern narrative that computers and math are, and always have been, for (white) men is hard to break. I love how hopeful this book is. Instead of focusing on all the negative things, it captures the forward-looking excitement of the time as so many barriers, both personal, national, and world-wide, were broken.  This book covers such a revolutionary period of history, from pencil and paper to computers, from the rarity of dark faces in math and science to having a whole wing of them at Langley, from believing women can't be engineers to men fighting over which women will be on their teams. 
I highly recommend this book for everyone. It is a powerful reminder that all those societal rule that you can't achieve your dreams because of what's tucked between your legs or how much melanin you produce is total bullshit.

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich - Norman Ohler

"The Nazis had their own recipe for healing the people. They promised ideological salvation. For them, there could be only one legitimate for of inebriation, the swastika. National socialism strove for a transcendental state of being as well. The Nazi world of illusions into which the Germans were to be enticed often used techniques of intoxication. World historical decisions, according to Hitler's inflammatory text, Mein Kampf,  had to be brought about in states of euphoric enthusiasm or hysteria. So, the Nazi party, NSDAP, distinguished itself on one hand with populist arguments, and on the other with torch parades, flag consecrations, rapturous announcements, and public speeches aimed at achieving a collective state of ecstasy. These were supplemented with the violent frenzies of the Brown Shirts..."

This is a fascinating book, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys WWII history.
Prior to reading this, I'd heard the standard rumors that Hitler was on drugs and that Nazis created meth, but this book goes into so much detail. It's amazing. And we've had all this information available all along, just no one wanted to dig around for all of it.
After WWI, Germany was cut of from the rest of the world and had a hard time getting imports, so they had no tea, coffee, chocolate, Coke, etc. The Germans decided that if they couldn't import anything, then they would just synthetically make it at home. This is the beginning of the rise of German dominance in the pharmaceutical industry that we still see today.  During the Weimar Republic (the 20's), all of Germany was pretty much high out of its mind.  Enter the Nazis on the scene, and they go about as the quote above indicate. Saying that all these drugs are made by the Jews and benefit the Jews and are the Jews' way of keeping the Aryan race down, bla bla bla. They demonize recreational drug use and even alcohol by associating it with the Jews. (I'm not sure how many Jewish people were running the pharmaceutical companies, but I would guess at least several.) THEN, as soon as the fighting of WWII breaks out, the Nazis do a 180 on their drug demonizing and give all their soldiers meth and cocaine and anything else they can cook up.
In fact, meth was the reason Germany was able to take over France so fast. All the Nazis were on meth and it was the first time they had lead with the tanks. The foot soldiers were even pissed that the tanks were taking lead and got in their way for a while. But once the tanks started rolling, they didn't stop. Typically, after conquering a town, an army would make sure it was clear and set up protections, and make sure the provision train was running sufficiently before moving on. The Nazis did not do that and the French had no idea how to respond. It was totally new. It also helped that the general in the lead tank so so hopped up on meth that a courier would take a report to Hitler about the successful take-over of a French town and by the time the courier got back with the new orders, the lead general would be miles away, meaning Hitler had nothing to do with the invasion of France, thus its success. Next time someone makes fun of France for being a push-over in WWII, inform that person that the French were going up against an ENTIRE ARMY OF NAZI METH HEADS!!
Hitler himself was on an insane and untested cocktail of drugs including (but not limited to) vitamins, steroids, hormones, meth, ecstasy, cocaine, and "extracts" all thrown together by his personal physician.   But don't let that change your thinking on his motivations.  Hitler didn't do insane things because he was on drugs.  The drugs helped him do the insane things his sober mind thought up.

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee

This was clearly a first draft, and as such, should never have been published. But the author was dead and the manuscript couldn't be sent back for edits. Someone wanted some money, so they published it anyway.
I really liked To Kill a Mockingbird and had hopes for this book despite some negative reviews.  However, I found this book awkward, stilted, convoluted, hard to follow, and overall lacking.  The best parts were the trips down Memory Lane, stuff that could have been cut out of To Kill a Mockingbird, but for the fact that it happened a little later than that book takes place.  All the "current" parts of this book drag, the characters lack depth and Scout had thought patterns that are near impossible to follow.  The big blow-up fight scene at the end is near impossible to follow and Dr. Finch's ramblings prior to the big fight scene, even more so.
Don't read this book.
HOWEVER, the one thing that was interesting, is that having just finished White Trash, a lot of the information from that book was directly used in this. I think I understood more of Go Set a Watchman for that reason. I still wouldn't recommend this book, though.

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America - Nancy Isenberg

This was a fascinating book. I think it would be particularly fascinating for people who are reasonably well versed in US history because it's all the same rebellions, the same presidents, the same scandals, but you're looking at them from a new angle with a specific goal in mind.  This book addresses the same topics as other history books, but comes from a completely different angle.  When the "west" opened, people didn't go there looking for riches, they went there because they had NOTHING and were essentially pushed out of their old, eastern states.  Poor southerners didn't give up their lives to protect the rich mans' slave interests. All those poor white men fought because being above blacks was all they had going for them.  The institution of slavery was the only thing keeping them from the very bottom and being equal to their dark-skinned brothers. They were so desperate to cling to that one rung of the ladder they were given. This mentality still continues today.
The whole idea of the book, when it comes down to it, is that by denying that class is extremely difficult to break out of, Americans deny the true societal mobility we claim to hold so dear.  Everyone would argue "but there's nothing holding any one person back" and list a handful of extremely talents/lucky or genius people as proof.  There are ALWAYS exceptions to any made-up rule, like those imposed by society and someone, somewhere who can always break social constructs, but again, those are exceptional people. By saying, "Anyone can climb as high as he pleases." Americans are expecting everyone to be a genius and blame the individual if they are not.  If everyone were a genius, then no one would be.  Expecting this to be the norm is not only unrealistic, but bizarre.
I would recommend this book to every American with a good background in American history (I think without that you'd be sitting around going, "What's Bacon's rebellion?")  It is an eye-opening take on American society.

The Langoliers - Stephen King

Technically, a "short story" for Stephen King, but I'm considering it a whole book for the purposes of this blog because it's longer than whole books I've read and posted about on here.  This isn't a great story, compelling but the ending is kinda..... expected?  Maybe I've been reading too much Stephen King lately because it all seemed very obvious.  I think I need to put King on the shelf for a while and read some other stuff.  I wouldn't recommend this story because I was unimpressed.

Ghost Cadet - Elaine Marie Alphin

This is a children's book. I was home and wondered how astute my taste for literature was when I was a child. This is one of the books I remembered reading when I was.... 10? 11 max.  I read Ender's Game when I was 12 and have clear memories of what I thought about it. When I re-read that book at 23, I understood more of the motivation and actually liked it more, but many of the emotions and logical analysis of the story were still spot-on. So, I thought I'd try that with this book. It is a small, child-sized book so I was ok with the idea that it would likely suck and be childish.  (I did not remember the story at all beyond kid meets civil war ghost and they do something, along with the vague memory that the boy was whiny.)
Well, the book didn't suck! And the end is the best part because you read this whole fictional story only for the author to tell you that the entire story set-up is true. I did, and still do, love stories started with a grain of truth. It's why I like historical fiction and Clive Cussler's books.
It does spend a lot of time on the lead character's issues with self-worth and confidence (where my memories of the character being whiny came from) but it is very appropriate for the target audience.  I didn't like that when I was younger (the age it should have had an impact on) but now as an adult, I would leave it in because I think most kids would benefit from watching the growth of the character. I did not need that as a kid, thus my dislike of it. Today, I'm still less interested about the "personal journey" than the action but I did enjoy watching a kid mature.
Now that the internet exists, I was looking up the author's name for this and saw that this book has very high reviews across the board, so I'm not alone.
In conclusion, I would highly, highly recommend this book to anyone in the age range plus a few year. As for adults, if you're a fast reader it's a one-night read and therefore worth it.

The Stand - Stephen King

It took me a LONG time to get through this book, granted it's huge, but it still took much longer than I thought it would have!
That being said, I REALLY enjoyed this book. It was a little awkward at the beginning because there were so many story lines and they were all over the place.  But once it really got rolling, and by that I mean everyone on the planet dying, it was real good.
I liked how this was a book I could recommend to someone in my family. Instead of some unknown/unexplained evil, there's a very plainly stated God v. Satan explanation for the evil in this book. I know King was on a boatload of drugs when he wrote this, but I liked having an actual explanation for why/where something comes from, even if it is as old as time.
OH, and my favorite character is the dog! King doesn't often have animals in his books (unless they are coming back to life or killing people) but when he writes good pets, he does it very well, endearingly so.

Beware the Babysitter - Francine Pascal (Sweet Valley High, Bk 99)

I'm going back and re-reading a lot of books from when I was younger. This is one I remember kind of enjoying, but not getting into hard, it never made my heart beat faster. Seems the same is still true today. There's a lot of fluff, and pointless banter in this book while the actual story is being set up. It's like the first book with all the boring crap has continued for 4 books by this point. Pascal was never my favorite author, but I can certainly see the appeal for early teen girls (and pre-teens) based on the subject matter.  As an aspiring author, however, I cannot fathom taking the time to WRITE this drivel!

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

This was not a book I picked out, it was recommended by two friends who had already passed the book between themselves.  They both said it was ok, but nothing special.  I completely agree with their assessment.
The book jumps back and forth between two opposing characters, a blind French girl and a radio genius German boy, both in their mid-teens.  The French story line is exceedingly slow to take off. The German story line begins strong and then looses a little momentum. But together they make a pretty good balance, as one goes down, the other goes up.
The day after finishing this book, I saw that it was #6 on the Top Sellers List. I can't really think of anyone I would recommend this book to.

Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles, Bk 3)

I liked the resolution of this book, and the ancient story was very interesting.  I wish there was more real history from this time that I could find easily.
I love the idea put forward in this book: If all the men in the world were gone, would there still be mass violence?  I think there would not be, and I must agree with both sides put forward in the book.  If most men were removed from the population, humanity would instantly have less violence, but we are slowly working our way there already.
It did take an unnecessarily long time to get to these points though. As much as I love a good, long book, I think there could have been a solid 50 pages cut out of this and it wouldn't have lost any of its power.

Rework - Jason Fried

A short book, good for motivating, but sparse on details because it's written as a generic text.  If you need motivation or a good kick in the ass to get started or are feeling pressured to do things a certain way because that's how "everybody" does them, it's great. But that's about all it's good for.

Running Blind - Lee Child (Jack Reacher Series, Bk 4)

Yep, still like these books, though of the three I've read since starting this blog, this is my least favorite. There's a lot of running around and nice detail, but not enough killing compared to previous books. I'll continue with the series for sure, but I'm hoping the next one is better.

Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay (Dexter Series, Bk 2)

I love the show Dexter, and these books are also good for all the same reasons.
Read them. Delightful.
I appreciate 2 things Jeff Lindsay does:  1). Uses words in a way that make them rich and velvety like the best damn chocolate cake in the world.  2). Creates trains of thought that really, honestly do sound like things that non-neurotypical people think.

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (MaddAddam Trilogy, Bk 1)

This was not the first book by Margaret Atwood I've read. The first was actually #2 from this trilogy pulled off the shelf at random. That book was ok, but having the background and a vague idea of the styling, I liked this more, considering, than the Year of the Flood.  However, I read that book years ago, and having actually read #1, I will now go back and finish the trilogy.
I LOVE the world she has created. The names of companies are fantastic.  The thought put into who did what and why is so very believable.  It's a bit weird at first, but after some thought on the subject, this world is completely plausible. It's great.

Next - Michael Crichton

I like Michael Crichton, obviously. My only complaint about this book was the volume of characters it follows around. I listened to this on audiobook while doing lab work, and I believe that was the only reason this mattered. I can keep large cast books straight. I think it was the fact that I was only half-paying attention that caused the, "Wait, who is this dude again?"
A fun idea, but his genetic advancements were a little out of sync with all the other tech advancements.  Character design were ok.  Flow was very good.  As I have noticed with his books, incredibly satisfying at the end when all the right people get theirs.
Overall, I would say it's a good read, but not life-altering.

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

This book sucks. Don't read it. Pointless, vapid, meandering.... bluhh.... This is my first Virginia Woolf book. Let's just say she went WAY down on my "To Read" list after this. Boring as hell with the entirety of the subject matter being people remembering useless things about other people.
I'll repeat: Don't read this!

The Vampire Lestat - Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles, Bk 2)

I am impressed with Rice's ability to write something that feels modern, but perfectly captures the feeling of the gothic horror era (which I think of as about 1890-1940 ish, for no reason cause I"m not a literary historian). That fine line between horror and awe. I enjoyed this book, however the pace did slow too much in a few spots, but it was completely worth it to continue.  I like her ideas, and she presents them in a well-designed manner. I am certainly going to continue onto the next book!

The Shining - Stephen King

This book is SOOOO much better than the movie.  That is my general rule, but this is, perhaps, the best example. This is the only Stephen King movie I've seen before reading the book.  The book makes so much more sense! And I absolutely agree with Stephen King that the end of the movie was stupid! Very stupid! Compared to what he wrote? Stupid. WHY would you change something to make it worse?
Remember this is one of his earlier books and written when he was on a lot of drugs. Good, not my favorite by him, but ideal as a middle-ground book for him if you'd like to test out your preference (or not) for King's work.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

A great book if you have a hard time getting through normal non-fiction/how-to manuals.  King mushes it all together, story, plot, actual writing recommendations... It's easy to get through.
However, the actual information of it is light. If you're hardcore about wanting to know the precise formula, you will be disappointed.  I, on the other hand, who learn by observing others, thought it was perfect because that's essentially what King does; runs through his own thought process in how he comes up with his ideas and brings them to life.
I plan to re-read this if I ever get a fully-fleshed out first draft of my book (or 2 or 3).