Literary Life and L.A. Noir

Larry McMurtry's second installment in his planned trilogy of memoirs, "Literary Life", was about as disappointing as I expected it to be, especially after last year's "Books". It was incredibly short and didn't discuss his writing career at all, really. It was mostly disjointed ramblings about people he knew whose names I don't recognize. The one thing I took away from it was that he thinks "Duane's Depressed" is a better novel than "Lonesome Dove". Really, Larry? Really? That's the strangest thing I've ever heard in my life. It's really a shame because he has been around so long and has led such a fascinating life that his memoirs would be sure to be a hoot and a half, if done properly.
"L.A. Noir" by John Buntin was amazing--history brought to life. I was really looking forward to this one after reading "A Bright and Guilty Place", and it didn't disappoint. He boiled down the sprawling urban center that is Los Angeles by telling the more intimate story of two of its most interesting and polar opposite residents: former police chief Bill Parker and notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. The story of how Parker took what was arguably the most corrupt police department in America and turned it into his own vision of military precision and elitism is fantastic, and the anecdotes about the colorful Cohen are charming. Great read.

30 Days of Night

The graphic novel the movie is based on, "30 Days of Night" by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, was kind of sparse compared to the movie (which is really awesome, by the way), but I liked it. It was gritty and angry and moved at a quick pace and the artwork was very grotesque.

Another Faust

I read a review of David and Dina Nayeri's "Another Faust" and it seemed like a really interesting idea: a group of five very talented teenagers move to New York with their beautiful governess and quickly take over an exclusive private school. Each one of them is uniquely "gifted" and talented beyond belief. Now, I don't criticize books very often, I really don't. Even if I don't like them a whole lot, I can usually find some redeeming quality to mention. There were none with this book. It was awful. The writing was over the top unbelievable (and this from the girl who loved "Twilight", mind you). The storyline was full of holes and loose ends that never got tied up. At one point one of the characters asks another one "What's going on?" and that pretty much summed up the whole book for me. I had no idea what was going on and I didn't really care. Why I stuck with it for four days and finished it, I don't know. It was a complete and utter waste of time.

Billy the Kid; Touch of Dead

"Billy the Kid" by Michael Wallis presented the facts, scarce as they are, about the man who came to be known as Billy the Kid, Henry McCarty, later Henry Antrim. Over the years there has been so much speculation and so many mangled facts about the Kid that Wallis set forth to debunk, and he did a good job, not only of explaining about the Kid but really painting a vivid picture of what life was like during that time. I will never, ever believe that Pat Garrett shot and killed him at Pete Maxwell's ranch, though. I'm much happier believing he lived a long life, hidden in plain sight :-)
"Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris had a bunch of short stories featuring Sookie Stackhouse, her telepathic waitress. I enjoyed them, and I'm not normally a big short story person. It was just a fun, light, quick read that filled in some backstory to some of the books.

Fordlandia; The Road Out of Hell

Two very different nonfiction titles, but both were very good in their own ways. First up, "Fordlandia" by Greg Grandin. Interesting how ahead of his time Henry Ford was in a lot of ways, such as paying above average wages (this was before unions) and providing free health care to his employees and their families. With the price of rubber so high, he embarked on a grand adventure to build a sort of automotive manufacturing utopia in the Amazon named Fordlandia to grow rubber trees to produce latex. While an excellent idea in theory, it wasn't put into practice very well and he ended up hiring people who had no idea how to go about setting up a plant in the Amazon, let alone anything about growing rubber trees.
"The Road Out of Hell" by Anthony Flacco was a disturbing true crime book about a true sicko--Stewart Northcott, who held his nephew, Sanford Clark, hostage on his chicken ranch in Wineville, California (now Mira Loma) in the late 1920s. He abused the boy, put him through some real horrors, and made him help clean up after his murders. Uncle Stewart liked to kidnap young boys and kill them, including young Walter Collins (the recent Angelina Jolie movie "The Changeling" was about Walter's kidnapping). Poor Sanford felt so responsible for his part in his uncle's awful crimes, even though he was truly a victim as well, that even though he spent the rest of his life doing good in the world, he never was able to forgive himself. It broke my heart when his son described how, on his deathbed, he told his dad he loved him and his dad's last words to him were "Why?". Oh! Poor man. There's a special place in Hell for people like Northcott.

IT

Despite the fact that I have stacks and stacks of books that I haven't read yet, and I'm sure some of them are really wonderful, I had to reread Stephen King's "IT". I've wanted to reread it for awhile now, ever since before Halloween, when I was trying to convince a coworker how much better the book is than that travesty of a movie they made based so very, very loosely on SK's brilliance. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed rereading it. I love his storytelling technique: he's not telling, he's showing. Reading "IT" makes me feel like I'm right there, in the middle of the action with the seven kids and six adults that make up the Loser's Club in the Barrens. And the book's evil monster is so much scarier than just a clown: that was only one of ITs many faces. Every little detail adds so much to the story and I think that's why SK is so popular. No one else tells a story quite as well as he does.

Walking Dead Vol. 2

Continuing the series by Robert Kirkman, book 2 finds the survivors in a prison, which seems an ideal place to start their new life: there is a stockpile of canned foods, there are gates to keep the zombies out, and plenty of other things, like a few surviving inmates. This book dealt less with how to deal with surviving the zombies and more on how to survive each other as trust becomes an issue and people start to turn on one other. This seems to be a common theme in a lot of the fiction I've read lately, and as such this cannot compare with such brilliance as "Under the Dome" by Stephen King, but then again, it would be unfair to compare it to SK. It's not that I didn't like it, I did, but it did have some elements I didn't care for. There's a lot of sex, which seems unnecessary until I remembered the target audience is adolescent boys. I'm sure I'll get around to finishing the series, since I never stop in the middle, but all these zombie apocalypse books are starting to feel very similar.

I'm No Monster

Stefanie Marsh's look at the horrifying case that gripped the world last year when it was discovered that Josef Fritzl had kept his daughter, Elisabeth, locked up in an underground dungeon for twenty-four years and fathered 7 children off of her. While Marsh wasn't able to actually interview any of the principles in the case (Fritzl is writing his own memoirs--that should be interesting to say the least) she was still able to write an interesting and understandable account of the events. I read a lot of nasty stuff and usually it doesn't get to me, but this one did. The crimes that he committed were so atrocious, the average normal human mind can't even begin to fathom what could drive an individual to such evil. My dad was pretty horrified by the accusations in Mackenzie Phillip's book, "High on Arrival", and I'll be curious to hear what he has to say about this one. Fritzl makes John Phillips look like a saint.

Under the Dome

We all know I love Stephen King. Even when his writing isn't all that awesome (Can anyone else remember "From a Buick 8", 'cause I can't, and I know I read it). When he is awesome, however, my god, he is mind blowingly awesome. That is how I felt last night after finishing his 1,000 page latest, "Under the Dome" (and yes, I shelled out for a signed limited edition copy, and it was one of the best things I ever did for myself). Not since 1996's "Green Mile" have I enjoyed one of SK's books this much. The characters were brilliant, reminding me very much of my all time SK favorite "IT". The story is typical SK: the small town of Chester's Mill, Maine, is suddenly thrust into the national spotlight when an invisible dome clamps down over it, leaving the town at the mercy of its crooked town selectmen and the renegade police force of power loving recruits. The horrific part isn't the origin of the dome (which was kind of nonsensical, but that's SK for you). No, that wasn't the scary part: the scary part is how quickly the good people of this small town turn on each other, and all the nasty secrets that come out. Like most small towns, Chester's Mill has a lot of skeletons in the closet (literally as well as figuratively). And perhaps most shocking of all: there is a happy ending! Well, as happy as SK gets :-)
All in all, I really loved it and those 1,000 pages just flew by. It's totally put me in the mood to reread some of my old faves, like "IT", "Christine" and "The Stand".

Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

It's heartbreaking, the end of an era. This is Louise Rennison's tenth and final Georgia Nicolson book. Why, Louise, why? I'm very, very sad about this. I love Georgia and her lighthearted antics. I laugh myself silly with each book, and have looked forward to each installment yearly. And now, no more. Well, at least she ended the series in a wonderful if not completely predictable way--while agonizing over whether to continue dating Masimo or go for Dave the Laugh (DAVE! As I've said a million times before!), the decision is made for her when Masimo moves to London and Dave dumps his girlfriend Emma to go with Georgia. Hurray! I wish she would have written a little about the two of them together. That would have been tops. Well, ciao Georgia. You will be missed.

The Butcher; Living Dead in Dallas; High Society

Philip Carlo's "The Butcher" took a look at mafia hitman Tommy Pitero, who was a real bad man. Like all of Carlo's true crime books, it was light on details but long on gruesome adjectives. Not that I didn't enjoy it, of course, although I was disappointed by the photos, which warranted a disclaimer. I did not find them at all disturbing.
"Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris catches me up with Sookie (I think). She and Bill travel to Dallas to help out a nest of vampires who are missing one of their own and Sookie unearths a traitor in their midst. It was pretty good, light hearted fun after the mafia butcher.
"High Society" by Donald Spoto is his latest bio, about the luminous Grace Kelly. I love Spoto's bios and have read quite a few of them. Combine his writing style, which is easy and pleasant, with the life of one of my all time favorite actresses and it's a winner. I love Grace Kelly. I think she was one of the most beautiful women in all of Hollywood, and the epitome of charm, class, and style. Her tragic early death really robbed the world of a wonderful person, but Spoto's treatment of her did her memory justice.

Sisters Who Would Be Queen

Leanda DeLisle tells the story of the three doomed Grey sisters: Jane, Katherine, and Mary, who, under both Henry VIII and his son Edward's wills, were next in line to inherit the Tudor crown, since Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth were both considered illegitimate. It's hard to find anything about Jane Grey, and even harder to find anything about her two sisters, which is unfortunate, because their stories are really interesting. It was a great book that cleared up a lot of misconceptions about Jane's doomed nine day reign as Queen as well as the sad fates of her two sisters.

Dracula the Un-Dead

It's that time of year again--oh, wait, I read horror all year long! Anyway, a sequel to Bram Stoker's brilliant vampire masterpiece, "Dracula", written by his great-grand nephew, Dacre Stoker, and Ian Holt, a Dracula enthusiast. All in all it was a worthy sequel and stayed true to the original characters. They wove in some real life horror by having Dracula originally going after the real Jack the Ripper, another vampire named Elizabeth Bathory. The only thing I sort of had a problem with was the romanticizing of Dracula in keeping trend with the current vampire books that are popular, like "Twilight". Stoker and Holt try to take the teeth out of the bad guy, but other than that, it was good.

How to Be a Movie Star

"How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood" by William J. Mann had a narrow focus, since Liz's life could easily fill volumes. He concentrated on just the 1940s-1960s, when she was at the height of her fame. It was a good move on his part, because he was able to delve into great detail about the most interesting portions of her life, like her marriage to Richard Burton, which has always fascinated me. He does however say that she and James Dean weren't really that close during the filming of "Giant", which makes me sad if it's true. At any rate, I enjoy reading about Elizabeth Taylor and this was a nice addition to the others.

Knife of Never Letting Go; You are Here

First up, a YA science fiction novel by Patrick Ness called "The Knife of Never Letting Go". It's the first in a series that I have no interest in finishing after reading this dismal first entry. The premise sounded interesting enough: a young boy named Todd lives in a new world where all the women have died of a mysterious virus and all the men can hear each other's thoughts. That in and of itself is creepy beyond belief. Todd finds a girl in the swamp one day, and his whole world starts to unravel and come crashing down. He learns everything he's been told is pretty much a lie, and he quickly has to go on the run for his life. I know, I know: it sounds pretty cool. That's what I thought, too, but it quickly became unbelievable (even for sci-fi) and really bitterly depressing. I don't mind *some* depression in my books, but jeez, even I have my limits. I reached a point where I was like if I were the main characters I would just throw in the towel and slit my own wrists.
"You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost in the Mall" by Colin Ellard was one I was really looking forward to. I am quite possibly the most directionally challenged person on the planet (case in point: even though I know I need to go south on PCH in order to get home, I always go north and instantly realize I've screwed up. I get in the car and say "south, south" and when I get to the southbound onramp my brain says no! That's wrong! and I go by it and go north and realize I've screwed up once again. I've done this at least five times in the last six months. And this is with a GPS in the car and I usually have Google Map directions printed out as well. Sigh). I was hoping he would explain why my brain does what it does to get me lost all the time and maybe offer some helpful tips as to what I could do to improve my sense of direction. Sadly, no, this wasn't even really about direction--it was his diatribe against global warming and all sorts of other nonsense. I was extremely disappointed.

Club Dead

I think I'm almost done with Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. "Club Dead" was an early one--Sookie is still dating Bill. This is the one where she finds out he's cheating on her with Lorena. Bill is kidnapped because of his work on the vampire database for the queen of Louisiana, and Sookie travels to Mississippi to try to find him, which she does, and rescues him. It wasn't bad, there were some good Eric scenes I enjoyed.

Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots

Carolly Erickson's "Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots" was actually a bit disappointing. I've liked her nonfiction books in the past, and her fiction title "The Last Wife of Henry VIII", about Catherine Parr, was very good. This one was just--I don't know, flat, I guess. Mary's life was so interesting and tumultuous that I felt Erickson left most of that out. She hardly touched on the interesting dynamic of Mary and her cousin, rival Queen Elizabeth I of England. I think I'm in a bit of a reading rut right now: I have many great books at home, waiting for me, but I pick them up and none of them look appealing. I'll have to find something to break this trend.

Walking Dead; Long Past Stopping

"Walking Dead Vol. 1" by Robert Kirkman is a black and white graphic novel about--what else?--the zombie apocalypse and how a group of survivors are dealing with it. It was pretty good, nothing to make it really stand out from the all the rest, other than the fact that it had more sex and sentimentality in it.
"Long Past Stopping" by Oran Canfield is a memoir about his strange, unorthodox childhood and how it shaped his strange, unorthodox adulthood. I wanted to read this one because Oran is the son of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books, Jack Canfield, and I'd heard that Oran talked about how his father had abandoned him and pretty much been an absentee father. This surprised me, since Jack is such a well known self-help guru. In reality, Oran doesn't make his father out to be that bad--sure, he was pretty absent from his life while he was growing up, but he seemed to always be there financially when Oran needed it as an adult and really did try to help him through his many trips to rehab. Oran didn't seem to hate his father nearly as much as the reviews made it seem like he did. It was an interesting and well written bio and I enjoyed it. He alternated the chapters between his childhood (he was in a circus as a professional juggler!) and his adulthood rehab stints, which was a format that worked well. It reminded me a bit of Nic Sheff's "Tweak", only Canfield comes across as much more likeable.

Dexter by Design; From Dead to Worse

Newest Dexter book by Jeff Lindsay, "Dexter by Design" was great. While I absolutely love the Showtime series (Michael C. Hall is *amazing*) the show just doesn't capture the perfect black humor snarkiness that is Lindsay's creation. In this one, Dexter and Rita have returned from their honeymoon in Paris to discover someone is trying to bring down the tourist industry in Miami. Deborah is stabbed and unfortunately sits out most of this book, but Doakes is there with his computerized voice, which is always entertaining. Plus Dexter has his two little protegees, Cody and Astor, eager to learn the dark ways.
"From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris is yet another Sookie Stackhouse book. Sookie finds out about some relatives she didn't know she had: a great-grandfather who's a fairy, and her dead cousin Hadley's little boy who is a telepath like her. In between the family reunions there's another were battle and Sookie breaks up with Quinn and gets yet another roommate: Octavia, a witch who was displaced by Katrina and is mentor to her current houseguest, Amelia. While there was a lot going on in this book, it wasn't overwhelming.

You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Kills You

The fourth Rat Pack mystery by Robert J. Randisi finds Sands' pit boss Eddie G. and his faithful sidekick, Jerry Epstein, in Los Angeles to help out Marilyn Monroe, who fears she is being followed. Turns out she was right--and the bodies start piling up. Before it's all over the FBI and RFK are involved. It was great: I really enjoy his mysteries, he really brings the historical characters to life without overdoing it.

Dead as a Doornail

Another Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris. "Dead as a Doornail" finds Sookie trying to help catch a sniper who is attacking shifters while she is forced to participate more than she would like to in the Shreveport Werewolves's competition for a new pack leader. She's plagued by awful things: her house is torched, she's shot, etc. I liked this one better than "All Together Dead". Maybe I was just having an off day when I read that one.

High on Arrival

Of course Mackenzie Phillips' new autobiography "High on Arrival" has been getting a ridiculous amount of buzz since the startling revelations on Oprah. I must say, this is one of the most enjoyable bios I've read in a long time. Her tone was friendly and warm and personable, like sitting down to chat over coffee with a girlfriend. And of course her life is completely fascinating. What I really loved about it was how matter of fact she was: to her, it just seemed normal and she doesn't whine or regret how she was raised. My own childhood was somewhat similar (to a much, much milder degree, of course) so I could relate to it. I hope she's able to stay sober and enjoy the rest of the life she has left. She seems to really want to.

All Together Dead: Blood Promise

"All Together Dead", another Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris, has Sookie at a vampire conference with the Queen of Louisiana. A lot was going on in this book, and I must admit I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been, because I did get a bit lost towards the end. I think I need a vampire break.
So what do I turn to? "Blood Promise" by Richelle Mead. I know, I know, another vampire book, but a different kind of vampire book. Part of her Vampire Academy series, Rose is off in Siberia searching for Dimitri, who was turned into a Strigoi, or bad vampire, at the end of the last book, "Shadow Kiss". I am really enjoying this series, it seems to get better with each book. Her ideas and concepts have jelled and I like Rose and Lissa and the rest of the characters. The ending paved the way for the next one quite nicely.

More than a Game; Definitely Dead

Former Raven's head coach, Brian Billick, writes about his concerns for the future of the NFL in "More than a Game". I love the Ravens, after reading John Feinstein's "Next Man Up". After reading that I kind of felt like I got to know the Ravens team pretty well, and I liked Coach Billick. I was disappointed when he was fired, but anyway. This book was highly readable and made the somewhat technical subject of salary caps and contract negotiations in the NFL seem understandable and interesting. (Unrelated note: Ray Lewis--amazing!)
Moving on from football (ah, I love this time of year!). Another Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris "Definitely Dead". Sookie goes to New Orleans to pack up her dead cousin Hadley's belongings. She finds out the Hadley had told the Queen of Louisiana all about Sookie's ability to read minds, and the Queen is intrigued and wants Sookie to attend an upcoming conference as her telepath. Of course, it being Sookie, she's in danger even away from Bon Temps, from a were family who suspects (rightly so) that she knows more about the death of their daughter/sister than she's letting on. I really like Sookie. She's pretty down to earth, all things considered.
On a totally unrelated note--happy birthday to Stephen King. I am looking forward to "Under the Dome". It looks like it's going to be amazing.

The White Queen; Rhino Ranch

Two new fiction titles from two of my favorite authors. First up, "The White Queen" by Philippa Gregory. This is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV and mother of Elizabeth of York, who became King Henry VIII's mother. Elizabeth Woodville was also the mother of the infamous Princes in the Tower, so called because after her husband's untimely death his brother, Richard, took the boys under his protection into the Tower of London where they were never seen nor heard from again. Richard went on to declare them both bastards and himself as King Richard III. Over the centuries Richard has been much maligned as a murderer, which I don't believe, but that's for another book. This one focused on Elizabeth and Edward's loving marriage, their large brood of happy children, and the end of the Wars of the Roses. It was very good, even if Gregory does take historical facts lightly in some spots. It's the beginning of a new series, so I'm excited for the next one. I really liked the way she wove magic into historical events, and at the end when Elizabeth puts a curse on whoever was responsible for the death of her boys so that his male line would die out--does that sound like someone we know? A king who was so eager for a living male heir that he divorced and killed numerous wives? Hmmm :-)
"Rhino Ranch" by Larry McMurtry was disappointing, but I kind of expected it to be, so I wasn't too upset. This is the fifth and final (thank god!) book in the series that started with two of my favorites by McMurtry "The Last Picture Show" and "Texasville". The last three have just been too sad for my taste. After all the fun characters died off in "Duane's Depressed" there really didn't seem to be much use in writing this series anymore. They're semi-autobiographical, I know, and I'm sure it's hard for McMurtry to give up this character. Anyway, in this one Duane has divorced his young new wife Annie and moved back to Thalia, Texas, where a billionairess named K.K. is starting a wildlife reserve to save the black rhinos. There were very little laughs and even fewer memorable characters.

Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe; Zero at the Bone; Big Little Life

"The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" by J. Randy Taraborrelli promised all kinds of new revelations, but there really wasn't anything new. That being said, it was still very well written and meticulously researched--he was quite adamant about clearing up old rumors and innuendo that couldn't be verified.
"Zero at the Bone" by John Heidenry told the story of the kidnapping of six year old Bobby Greenlease in 1953, by two dimwitted, drunken fools who seemed to pull the crime off by sheer luck. They shot and killed poor little Bobby almost immediately after kidnapping him and then proceeded to torture his poor parents for over a week with ransom calls promising to return the boy safe and sound so long as they got their $600,000. Amazingly enough the ransom was paid and it was only because of their extreme stupidity and greed that they were caught. People like this is the reason I believe in capital punishment. Being 1953, they were executed quickly and no one was sad about it.
"Big Little Life" by Dean Koontz tells the story of his special beloved golden retriever, Trixie, who died in 2007. Like "Marley and Me", this book is one that dog lovers will cry over, but unlike "Marley" it has Koontz's own special brand of humor and dry wit that made it that much more enjoyable. I wish he'd write more nonfiction someday, especially about himself and his views on life. It was very, very interesting and a great quick read.

The Big Rewind; Dead to the World

"The Big Rewind" by Nathan Rabin reminded me of Augusten Burroughs's books--he has to try to make us laugh to keep from crying. Abandoned by his mom, shipped off to a group home by his crippled father once he can no longer care for him, Nathan eventually finds his way in the world but not without a lot of bitterness, sarcasm, and references to pop culture. It was fun and I enjoyed it, it made me laugh, but in a guilty way.
"Dead to the World" by Charlaine Harris is her fourth Sookie Stackhouse book (yes, I know, I missed two and three. I'm on hold for them because I'm too cheap to go buy the series right now, although I'm sure I will at some point). Sookie and Bill are no longer together in this one. Her brother, Jason, is missing after spending New Year's Eve with a dangerous shape shifter girl, and Sookie comes across an amnesiac Eric while driving home from work. He's been cursed by a coven of witches who have a bounty out for him, so Sookie keeps him safe at her house until the spell can be reversed. She finds herself drawn to him when he's not himself, since he is gorgeous and no longer remembers that he's obnoxious. The scenes between the two of them were great fun.

206 Bones

New Kathy Reichs! Yay! "206 Bones" doesn't fail to disappoint: it's suspenseful and high tension. Tempe is being sabotaged in her own lab. At first it's just annoying and embarrassing, but then it becomes deadly when she is kidnapped and buried alive. Now if Reichs would just have Tempe and Ryan reconcile, all would be well in the world.

That Old Cape Magic

Richard Russo of "Empire Falls" fame (great, great book and miniseries, btw) is back with "That Old Cape Magic". I really liked this one. It was unpredictable and realistic and didn't have a pat, happy ending. Life is too complicated for that and Russo is able to capture all the bittersweet goodness of the world: love and not love, friendships ending, watching children grow up and live lives of their own. I'll definitely be picking this one up again someday.

Free; The Forest of Hands and Teeth

"Free: the Future of a Radical Price" by Chris Anderson was highly readable and quite interesting. He explores how companies have used "free" over the years in order to make money, and explains how the current global economy depends on free. Unlike some nonfiction it was never dry or boring.
"The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan was a YA mixture of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" and a bad zombie movie. I didn't care for it at all. The premise is ridiculous: a group of villagers have fenced themselves in from the forest where the unconsecrated (zombies) live, and are ruled over by a group of nuns known as the Sisters. Mary dreams of a world her mother told her about, before the unconsecrated, where there were oceans and beaches, and she yearns to escape and see these places for herself. From there the story takes some strange turns and never really gels: a lot goes unexplained and makes no sense, and I'm used to suspending belief in my fiction! The main character, Mary, is completely annoying and has no redeeming or endearing qualities whatsoever--two different brothers are both in love with her, willing to risk their lives for her, and she really doesn't seem to care either way. Cold. There are better zombie themed books out there.

Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture

"Cheap" by Ellen Ruppel Shell examines why our obsession with getting goods cheaper and cheaper has ruined our society as a whole. In a lot of ways, I agree with her and always have. I've always been willing to pay more for something manufactured here in America rather than in China. I don't like supporting another nation's economy. There are costs we don't usually even think about as we grab $20 shirts off the rack at Target, like the environmental factors of what's going to happen to all this stuff that we treat as disposable but not biodegradable. There's also the human factor--people working for pennies in sweat shops and whatnot. It was a very sobering look at how much we're truly paying when we go in quest of that great deal.

Peep Diaries; After Etan

"The Peep Diaries" by Hal Niedzviecki (whew, what a last name!) has been getting some buzz in the community lately due to the timeliness of the topic: how social networking has changing our perceptions of privacy and how we interact with others online. I thought it was quite interesting and I enjoyed it, and Hal's style was easy to read. He made a lot of good points on why he thinks we are so eager to post online all sorts of private information that would have been unthinkable in the past. It doesn't really change how I use social networking, but it did give me a better understanding of how others see it.
"After Etan" by Lisa R. Cohen looked at the kidnapping of six year old Etan Patz on May 25, 1979, from his New York neighborhood. Before Adam Walsh, there was Etan, and the two kidnappings together kind of became the catalyst for changes made in the system as to how kidnappings were handled nationally. There is no tidy resolution to Etan's case, unfortunately, a body has never been found and the main suspect, while behind bars for an unrelated crime, has never confessed, although in 2004 he was found responsible for Etan's death in a civil case. Tragic, sad stuff that makes me want to go back and reread such books as "I Know My First Name is Steven" by Mike Echols. I hope whoever was responsible for Etan's death burns in the deepest levels of Hell along with Otis Toole and Kenneth Parnell. Crimes against children are unforgivable.

Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder

One of my all time favorite authors, Rebecca Wells, is back after a much too long hiatus. I absolutely love "Little Altars Everywhere", her first book, so much so that I named my little dachshund Siddalee after the main character in her books. I was really looking forward to this book, and while it was good, it wasn't as great as I'd hoped. The last fifty pages or so seemed rushed and not very well thought out, and the ending was entirely too pat. I did really like Calla Lily Ponder, the main character, more than I thought I would. I envy Wells' ability to write about convincing female relationships. I wonder if she has a lot of really good female friends, since all of her books are focused on relationships between women. Either way, I hope her Lyme disease isn't going to keep her from writing more. It's good to have her back.

Battle Royale Vols. 2 & 3; Fell Vol. 1: Feral City; Dead Until Dark

The next two manga volumes of "Battle Royale" were excellent. Vol. 3 documents the fall of bad girl Mitsuko Souma in very graphic detail, but it was an interesting backstory. They're such quick reads I'm trying to take my time and draw them out a bit.
"Fell Vol. 1: Feral City" by Warren Ellis is a graphic novel featuring amazing artwork by Ben Templesmith, who did "Wormwood". I really liked the story of Detective Fell coming to the hole that is Snowtown and trying to clean it up. It was interesting and fun, and I'm really enamored with Templesmith's artwork.
After totally falling in love with HBO's "True Blood" last week, I decided to start reading the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris that the series is based on. The first one, "Dead Until Dark", was really good, a quick and fun read. It introduces us to barmaid Sookie and what she calls her disability: she can read minds. She's delighted when she meets a vampire named Bill, who is trying to mainstream and live as normal a life as possible. She can't read Bill's mind, so she is able to relax and let her guard down around him. While it would have been nice to drag their courtship out a bit (damn "Twilight" for reintroducing me to the concept of delayed gratification!) their relationship seemed sweet and natural. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Beat the Reaper; Battle Royale Vol. 1

Josh Bazell’s first novel is the epitome of dark humor done correctly, from the first lines about being mugged while watching a pigeon and rat fight. Peter Brown is a doctor in a Manhattan hospital, in the witness protection program because he used to be a hit man for the mob. Fast paced, energetic, and absolutely hilarious, with funny footnotes, it strikes the perfect balance and never seems overdone.
Filling in the back story of the novel “Battle Royale”, also by Koushun Takami, the manga explores the characters involved in the Program in greater detail, probing their individual motivations for choosing either to play and kill or not. While the story is familiar, the stark black and white artwork adds a whole new dimension. It's brilliantly gory even without being in color. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Eclipse and Breaking Dawn

I thought I was in the mood to reread some Stephenie Meyer vampire goodness, and since "Eclipse" is my favorite I started there (well, that and the fact that my sister has "Twilight"). For some reason this time around it really bugged me, and I was able to understand why so many people hate it. The writing really is godawful, and Bella's constant martyrdom is annoying to the extreme. Maybe I was just too hard on it, I don't know. "Breaking Dawn" was better although I can't say I really enjoyed rereading it. Maybe because I already know how it ends the tension was just gone for me. Maybe Bella and Edward's ridiculously high level of happiness is just on my nerves right now. I'm sure in a few months, or a year, when I go back to reread again I'll enjoy it.

Methland

Methland by Nick Reding traces the spread of methamphetamine in America, especially in regards to one small town in Iowa, Oelwein. Reding explores how meth got to be the drug of choice in rural America and how its damage got to be so far reaching and widespread. It was a painfully hard book to read, especially for me, who has first hand experience with tweakers, and ends with a strong sense of how hopeless the government and local area law enforcement are when it comes to eradicating this blight. Still, it's a powerful book that anyone who is at all interested in how awful meth really is should read.

A Bright and Guilty Place

"A Bright and Guilty Place" is Richard Raynor's biography on Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, the unique people and events that came together at one time in one place to create the experience that was L.A. While it was very interesting, it was also really short and kind of skimpy on details. I would have liked more. Here's hoping the upcoming "L.A. Noir" by John Buntin is a little more fleshed out.

Generation Dead; Neverwhere

"Generation Dead" by Dan Waters is a YA book about a strange new phenomenon going on in the American culture: recently deceased teenagers are returning from the dead as zombies. A small town in Connecticut has become a haven for these undead teens, who are trying to fit in with their living counterparts by going to school and trying to participate in activities like sports. Like "Breathers", this book puts forth the idea that zombies aren't monsters, just misunderstood. I think I prefer my zombies as bad guys to be brought down with clean headshots, but this book wasn't too bad, and the ending left it wide open for the inevitable sequel.
"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman was really brilliant. I read the graphic novel a few months ago and decided I ought to read the actual book. Richard Mayhew is living a normal life in London when his whole world changes one day when he decides to help out a wounded stranger. Richard's journey takes him to a strange world under the streets of London, filled with dangers and scary people. I loved how the story ends, and Gaiman's portrayal of the people that inhabit this otherworld is very compelling.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In honor of movie #6 being out in theaters, all the movie channels have been replaying the older Harry Potter movies. After watching "Order of the Phoenix" for the sixth time (and I own them all on DVD but for some reason I only watch them when they're on TV), I felt the need to reread this one. Sad parts still make me cry, the ending still makes me smile, and I still hate Snape. Now I just need to get to the theater to see "Half-Blood Prince".

Prairie Tale

Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on TV "Little House on the Prairie" wrote this dishy tell all about her life. I didn't realize both she and her younger brother Jonathan, who played Willie Olsen, were adopted. It was harmless mind fluff. Celebrity bios are my guilty pleasure. While I didn't really care for her tone and I'm not sure why, just something about it bugged me, I must give her credit for not pulling any punches or trying to duck out of responsibility for the bad stuff. She aired it all, and it was quite interesting and a quick read.

Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand)

Robert J. Randisi's third Rat Pack mystery "Hey There" featured Sammy Davis Jr. this time. Someone has stolen a roll of film from his house and is blackmailing him. President Kennedy is also being blackmailed for the same roll of film. Sand's pit boss, Eddie G., once again comes to the aid of the Rat Pack and discovers who the culprits are along with a few dead bodies along the way. Good harmless fluff.

Day By Day Armageddon

"Day by Day Armageddon" by J. L. Bourne was everything "World War Z" should have been--fraught with tension, emotionally charged, gripping, and realistic. The unnamed hero of the book is keeping a journal of what he is doing to survive the zombie apocalypse. Along the way he meets other survivors and they team up and keep on the move to escape the ever swarming hordes of the ghoulish undead. Good stuff, and there's a sequel promised. Can't wait!

World War Z; Wormood Gentleman Corpse Vol. 1: Birds, Bees, Blood & Beer

"World War Z" by Max Brooks was disappointing. By telling the story of the Zombie apocalypse after all the action has happened, Brooks robbed the story of all the tension and action it should have had in order to make it gripping. Told in oral interview form, the book tells the stories of the survivors of the war against the zombies. These interviews are so short that the reader doesn’t have a chance to invest anything emotionally in these people, and as a result we don’t really care about what they went through. Great idea just badly executed.
"Wormwood Gentleman Corpse: Vol 1" by Ben Templesmith was a quick, fun read. Beautiful artwork and a dry sense of humor along with British slang made for a quirky little graphic novel. Wormwood and his sidekicks are called upon to get rid of a demon that Medusa has allowed to come through the porthole at her bar that she was supposed to be guarding. The demon is using humans to spawn, to create a little army, by spiking their Viagra. The ending is laugh out loud cheeky.

Helter Skelter

The first true crime book I ever read, at the age of 12, and still my all time favorite, "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi. I was in the mood to reread it, and it's amazing how much detail he manages to pack into this book without losing any of the narrative. It never gets dry, like some nonfiction. Frightening, disturbing, and wholly engrossing, it is right up there in my all-time must reads.

Causing a Scene

Charlie Todd's Improv Everywhere group has "agents" who go on "missions", to create a scene. In "Causing a Scene", he shares how the ideas for missions come about, how they are planned and executed, and the inevitable aftermath when the cops get involved. Sometimes they are called pranks, but I don't see them as pranks. To me a prank is something that tries to make someone look foolish or silly. Improv Everywhere's mission is more to create a memorable experience for the onlookers, give them a good story to talk about later on. One of my favorites was the time they staged an author event at a local Barnes & Noble, featuring Anton Chekhov, the long dead Russian playwright. They had one of their actors dress up like him and deliver a talk to an unsuspecting crowd gathered at the store. Another good one was the time 80 of their agents dressed up in blue polos and khakis and wandered into a local Best Buy. It was hilarious and sounds like they have a lot of fun.

Whole Death Catalog

Harold Schechter's "Whole Death Catalog" was entertaining and informative fun. If you're just dying to know how to embalm a corpse or what the most stylish hearse of all time is, this is the book for you. I must confess, although I am not the squeamish type, his very graphic description of just exactly what happens to a decaying corpse made for difficult reading while eating. Just be warned :-)

Relentless; Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Dean Koontz's latest, "Relentless", was one of his better newer offerings. I liked it. Cubby, a novelist, gets a bad review from Shearman Waxx, and of course it bugs him. Then strange things start happening to Cubby and his family, and he finds out there are other novelists who also got bad reviews from Waxx and had their whole families wiped out. Cubby and his family go on the run in pursuit of evidence against Waxx. The characters in this one were pretty memorable and believable, unlike some of his more recent books.
"Finger Lickin' Fifteen" is Janet Evanovich's latest, and seriously I haven't really enjoyed the Stephanie Plum series since number 11. This one was kind of blah. A famous television chef is murdered and Lula witnesses the whole thing, so now the killers are after her. Morelli wasn't really in this one, and while she's staying at Ranger's apartment nothing happens between them. Boring! The fire bombs and cars blowing up is also getting to be a little repetitive and tedious. So why do I keep reading them? I don't know.

King of the Screw Ups

"King of the Screw Ups" by K. L. Going was a really fun YA novel about a 17 year old named Liam, who gets kicked out of the house by his fed-up dad and moves in with his gay, cross dressing, glam band member uncle Pete. While living with Pete, Liam tries to become studious and academic rather than popular. Good fun.

The Prosecution Rests

"The Prosecution Rests" is a collection of courtroom related short stories edited by Linda Fairstein. I love her Alex Cooper novels, but like most collections of short stories, this one had a few good ones, a few bad ones, but most were utterly forgettable. None really even stick out in my mind as brilliant. Why I keep reading short story collections is beyond me, other than maybe I'm a glutton for punishment :-) Even Fairstein's contribution was pretty lame. It also put me in the mood for some more Perry Mason, which could end up being very dangerous if I start rereading all of those again.

Paul Newman: A Life

"Paul Newman: a Life" by Shawn Levy was one of the best biographies I've read in a long time. I read another book by Levy a few years ago called "Rat Pack Confidential" about another one of my favorite guys, Frank Sinatra. I love how Levy doesn't make excuses: he mixes the good with the bad and tells it like it is, making his subjects seem less perfect and more real. And although the books are very well researched, they aren't dry--they read like really good fiction.

Battle Royale

One of the librarians I work with recommended this one to me. I saw the movie based on the book by Koushun Takami and loved it, so I had to read the book. "Battle Royale" takes place in an alternate world where Japan is under a restrictive government that has a program in which teenagers are forced to participate. A class is basically kidnapped and shipped off to a deserted island where they are issued weapons and given a certain amount of time to kill each other off. There is seemingly no way to escape, and all the kids are outfitted with collars that monitor them so if no one dies in a certain amount of time the collars blow up. It was wonderful how quickly the kids turned on each other and how some of them threw themselves enthusiastically into the idea of killing off their friends.

Hunting with Barracudas

Chris Snyder was Iris Burton's assistant for twenty years at the Iris Burton Talent Agency, which represented some of the brightest young stars in Hollywood: River and Joaquin Phoenix, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, and many others. In "Hunting with Barracudas", Snyder basically complains about how awful life was with Burton all those years while never fully explaining why he kept working for her. He said a few times that she was "delightful" and had lots of great Hollywood stories, but all he relates is the bad stuff. I was left wondering why he didn't kill her in her sleep. I would have.

The Stupidest Angel

"The Stupidest Angel" by Christopher Moore is a Christmas tale featuring zombies. A rather stupid angel comes down to earth to perform a Christmas miracle: he must grant the wish of a child that could only come true with divine intervention. He finds a young boy who just witnessed the murder of a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit and tells the angel he wants Santa brought back to life. The angel accidentally sets loose a whole graveyard of the undead, zombies with a taste for brains, on the town's Christmas Eve party. There are some rather hilarious moments, but for the most part the characters are entirely too ridiculous for ever me to suspend disbelief, and I read Larry McMurtry! In the end it was funny but not something I'd add to my favorites list.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" by Danzy Senna was a very short (less than 200 pages) work about her very racially diverse family. Her father was black and Mexican (maybe, there remains doubts as to who his biological father was) and her mother was Boston royalty and could trace her ancestors all the way back to the Mayflower. I'm not 100% sure what this book was supposed to be about: if I knew any of these people, I suppose it would have been interesting, but since I don't it was kind of boring. She didn't go in depth at all into racial tensions in America in the 1960s, when her parents married, she didn't really explore what it was like for her, growing up biracial. I guess I was kind of hoping for something more like Bliss Broyard's "One Drop". At least it was a quick read.

Boy Alone

I was excited to read Karl Greenfeld's book on his autistic brother Noah, "Boy Alone". In my quest to read everything about autism, I still haven't found much on kids who were diagnosed before the current raging epidemic. Noah was diagnosed back in the early 1970s. It was well told, interesting, and full of the frustration Karl and his parents felt with the inadequate treatments, funding, and schooling that were available for Noah back then. I was really enjoying it, until about fifty pages to the end. Karl told how Noah started progressing: learning to finally speak, getting a real job, meeting a woman and falling in love, traveling on his own. It was so touching...and then Karl admits he made it all up. Noah never did really learn to speak, nor could he really live on his own. He never got a job, never fell in love. I was so angry, I felt cheated. Either write nonfiction or write fiction, whatever, I don't care, but don't toy with your readers like that. It was just wrong. I understood his point: that he and his family and his brother have all been cheated, gotten their hopes up only to have them dashed, etc. I still didn't like it, and had a really hard time finishing the book. I wanted to throw it out the window, but it belongs to the library :-)

Handle With Care

I've always wanted to read a book by Jodi Picoult, since I've heard such good things about her. I bought "My Sister's Keeper" years ago and still haven't gotten around to reading it. I'd like to try to before I see the movie. Anyway, I did read "Handle with Care", her latest, involving a young girl born with brittle bone disease, or osteogenisis imperfecta. Her parents decide to sue her mother's obstetrician (who also happens to be her best friend) for medical malpractice since she didn't diagnose the disease earlier while Willow was in utero so Charlotte could have terminated the pregnancy. This book had a lot going on in it, and it was very good, but the ending left me feeling cold, I don't know. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book, which I guess is a hallmark of good writing, if it makes you ponder it after you've finished it.

A Daughter's Love

"A Daughter's Love" by John Guy was a touching account of King Henry VIII's most beloved and trusted adviser, Sir Thomas More, and his daughter, Margaret, known as Meg. More was in Henry's inner circle and led a charmed life until he refused to acknowledge Anne Boleyn as Queen over Katharine of Aragon. Poor Thomas was sent to the Tower and executed. Meg spent the rest of her life committed to preserving her father's memory and succeeded well. It's largely because of her efforts that Henry wasn't able to wipe away all memory of More (well, that and his great work "Utopia"). It gave a very accurate and interesting portrayal of what life was like in the 1500s in England under the reign of Henry.

Driving Like Crazy

Humorist P.J. O'Rourke compiles a list of articles he's written over the years on driving and his love of cars in "Driving Like Crazy". It was funny and timely, and I enjoyed it. Real men who jury-rig cars and race in Baja, drive beaters that are held together with duct tape...ah! I wish there were more men like him in the world.

Bad Cop

"Bad Cop" by Paul Bacon was pretty funny, if not a bit scary to think that there are other cops out there with the same attitude as him toward police work. A Manhattan resident, after 9/11 the liberal Bacon feels a need to help serve his fellow New Yorkers and with no other viable job prospects, joins the NYPD. He served for three years as a patrol cop, learning ways around the quota system (which technically doesn't exist), writing tickets and making arrests he didn't feel were warranted. He finally quit when he realized the female officer he lusted after had no interest in ever going out with him, and now teaches scuba diving in Hawaii. A much safer place for him to be than trying control crime on the streets of New York.

Breathers

"Breathers" by S.G. Browne is a sci-fi book about the plight of zombies who struggle for basic human rights. In this world, no one is sure why some of the dead reanimate, but they live among normal people, or "breathers", and one of the recent undead, Andy, is fighting for zombie civil rights. It had a bit of a quirky love story thread when Andy falls for another zombie, Rita, and they discover that eating people helps them heal, so they are less undead and more like the living (their hearts start beating again, their wounds heal, etc). While funny, as a dedicated zombie killer I take exception to the idea that zombies have feelings and human emotions. Everyone knows better :-) I like my monsters to know their place in society. Benevolent vampires and werewolves are okay in my book, but not zombies. Don't ask me why.

The Last Divine Office; Curiosities of Literature

"The Last Divine Office" by Geoffrey Moorhouse took a look at how the monasteries were dissolved under the rule of my favorite love-to-hate monarch, King Henry VIII. Because I've read so much information about Henry over the years, this book really didn't present me with anything new that I cared about (lists of how much the wine cost the monasteries each year aren't really my cup of tea). While it was an interesting book, I could easily sum it up: "King Henry broke with Rome when the Pope refused to grant him a divorce from Katherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn, so he dissolved the Catholic Church in England and as an added bonus he got ridiculously wealthy in the process by stealing all the church's money". There. Saved you the trouble of reading it. He didn't really go into too much detail as to what happened to the priests and nuns after the monasteries were dissolved, unfortunately.
"Curiosities of Literature" by John Sutherland was right up my alley: very darkly humorous with interesting tidbits about authors and their books. While it was mostly British authors, it was still interesting and very fun, full of insider jokes. I enjoyed it.

I Love it When You Talk Retro; Macy's: the Store, the Star, the Story

Language fascinates me, and I've read a few books on the history of word and phrase origins. It's always interesting. "I Love it When You Talk Retro" by Ralph Keyes examined the origins of slang in our culture, both current and past. It was pretty good, mostly interesting. A little too political for my taste in some parts, and he kind of injected his own opinions into the mix by calling "Pulp Fiction" an overrated movie and "The Truman Show" underrated. It didn't really add to the book; instead I just wondered what the hell? Unless you're a movie critic (or I ask), I don't really care about your taste in film.
"Macy's: the Store, the Star, the Story" by Robert M. Grippo was very entertaining: it read more like fiction than nonfiction. The only gripe I have is the size of the book. The copy I checked out was huge, like 9 X 13, which made it very difficult to hold and read. But it was full of interesting historical tidbits that put what was going on at Macy's into context. The pictures were a nice added bonus.

2666

I finally finished reading Roberto Bolano's "2666". It took forever. And, typically, I was left wondering why it's gotten such great reviews. Before Bolano died, he wanted the book published as five separate novels, and I can understand why. First off, it was long, almost 900 pages (although I've read other, longer novels that were just fine that way). Secondly, it really was like reading 5 different books. In the end they all tied together (which was nice) but by then I had given up caring and just wanted the book to end. One whole section, I think it was part 4, was just a catalog of murdered women: he described how their bodies were found and if they were ever identified. It was 200 pages of this. Absolutely useless information that didn't move the plot forward at all. Very disappointing.

Columbine

I finished reading "Columbine" by David Cullen Friday night. Now, I read a lot of true crime. I love true crime, horror...anything that is disturbing. This was truly one of the most unsettling books I've ever read. First of all, Cullen did an amazing job with the source material. Not only did he have really disconcerting events to work with, but he arranged it in such a way that the overall effect of the book was quite jarring. Anyone interested in dispelling myths about the Columbine tragedy will find this book very compelling. The videos of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on YouTube are equally fascinating and disturbing.

Healing and Preventing Autism

"Healing and Preventing Autism" by Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Jerry Kartzinel was amazing. I wish I could afford to buy copies of this book to give them to every new mom/woman who's thinking of ever having a baby that I know. I've even made some lifestyle changes after reading this book. Jenny McCarthy is just amazing, and this book was easy to read and understand. I've now even got my father interested in learning more about autism: he was glancing through the book when I took it over to his house this weekend and he couldn't put it down (and he's not a big reader).

Fatally Flaky

"Fatally Flaky" by Diana Mott Davidson is her latest Goldy the Caterer mystery. Really, I just read these for the recipes, which are awesome. The plots are never very good or easy to understand, and she has a tendency to introduce a ton of new characters in the beginning of the book and it gets very confusing if you're not paying close enough attention (which I admittedly am not). This one was actually pretty good, I liked it better than the last few I've read. Goldy is catering a wedding for a real Bridezilla, and her godfather's best friend turns up dead. Some great food in this one, too. Definitely have to make the Black and White cake...yummy. The only thing that really bugged me was her constant repetition of Goldy's caffeine addiction. I just wanted to scream "I get it already! Girl likes her espresso! Now move on, dammit!". Oh, well, minor annoyances.

Cleopatra and Antony; Multiple Blessings; Stealing MySpace

"Cleopatra and Antony" by Diana Preston was a great book about the original power couple, Queen of Egypt Cleopatra and Mark Antony. While there was very little new information in here for me (I do read a lot about them, though) for someone less obsessive this would be a great introduction to why Cleopatra and Antony continue to fascinate us, even after two thousand years.
"Multiple Blessings" by Kate Gosselin is the story of TV's "Jon and Kate Plus 8". It's the early years, before the TV show. On TV Gosselin doesn't come across nearly as preachy as she did in the book. It was just a little too much for me to really enjoy it. I would have really liked to hear from poor henpecked Jon. That man deserves a medal.
"Stealing MySpace" by Julia Angwin is the story of how a bunch of guys built up the most successful social networking site in the world (at least until Facebook came along). It was interesting and reminded me of the books I read when I was a kid about Microsoft and Bill Gates.

Pieces of My Heart

Robert Wagner's "Pieces of My Heart" was quite a bit better than I was expecting. I'm not a huge RJ Wagner fan--in fact, I think the only thing I've seen him in is "Hart to Hart". I seem to recall my sister *loving* that show, although she was really young when it aired. Anyway, Wagner's obvious adoration of first and third wife Natalie Wood and his heartbreak at her tragic death were perfectly written: it came across as sincere and believable without being overdone. There was just enough Hollywood dish to keep it interesting.

Revolutionary Road; Not Quite what I was Planning; Life Sucks

"Revolutionary Road" by Richard Yates was *amazing*. I absolutely cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed this book. It's the best thing I've read since Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Just a really beautifully written and utterly believable slice of 1950s suburbia.
"Not Quite What I Was Planning", edited by Smith Magazine, is a collection of six word memoirs. Smith challenged people to write their life story in six words or less--I don't think I could do it! But some of the ones people came up with were fantastic. Funny, sad, poignant...all across the emotional spectrum.
"Life Sucks" by Jessica Abel is a graphic novel that was like a cross between "Clerks" and "Twilight". Dave is forced into convenience store slavery by his vampire master when he falls for a beautiful wanna be vampire goth chick named Rosa. It was a fun story and the illustrations were nicely done as well.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere; Evidence of Harm; Dewey Decimal System of Love

"Neil Gaiman's Everywhere" by Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry is the graphic novel version of Neil's book, because I'm too lazy to read anything without pictures. No, I just felt like reading a comic book--excuse me, graphic novel. It was actually very well written and the illustrations were very vibrant.
"Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby chronicled the shockingly overwhelming evidence that mercury in vaccines are responsible for the climbing autism rates in this country. Even though the vaccines are supposed to be mercury free now, it's a damn crying shame that government and medical officials ignored the evidence for so long. Even if they didn't believe the vaccines were responsible for autism, they should have at least realized something had to be causing the rising rates of diagnosis, and I don't buy the better diagnosis techniques. If that were the case, then where are all the adults who were never diagnosed properly today? I don't see a lot of obviously autistic adults wandering around.
"Dewey Decimal System of Love" by Josephine Carr was a fun, quick little read recommended to me by Christine, one of the librarians I work with. Ally, a 40 year old spinster librarian suddenly develops a crazy mad crush on the conductor of a local orchestra who turns out to be a thief who specializes in stealing rare musical scores and shipping them back to his native Finland. Some of the things in the book reminded me of the Annoyed Librarian, whose blog I read religiously, like the whole martini thing. I wonder which came first?

Little Bee; Texasville; A Child's Journey Out of Autism

"Little Bee" by Chris Cleave was not nearly as good as all the blogs led me to believe. I'm seriously going to stop taking my fellow librarian's advice when it comes to reading materials. I thought it was boring and uninspired.
So for laughs I reread "Texasville" by Larry McMurtry for the umpteenth time. It never fails to cheer me up.
"A Child's Journey Out of Autism" by Leeann Whiffen was absolutely amazing. It reminded my of Jenny McCarthy's "Mother Warriors" and "Louder Than Words", which were so inspiring. My pet cause is autism, and I would love to see this epidemic come to end, to see all the children affected rescued as successfully as Whiffen's son Clay and Jenny's son Evan. Very inspiring and touching.

Here's the Story; The $trip

"Here's the Story" by Maureen McCormick chronicled her life on the "Brady Bunch" (my all-time favorite TV show as a kid--I used to go around telling people I played Cindy when I was six or so), her drug addiction, her marriage, and the death of her mom. I was really hoping for more Brady dish, like Barry Williams' book "Growing Up Brady", which I read years ago. It was good, just not what I wanted.
"The $trip" by E. Duke Vincent wasn't very good. Fiction set in Las Vegas in 1980, the characters were stereotypical and one dimensional and the plot was thin at best. I found myself struggling to get through it, and it was a very short book. Once again, just because it's set in Vegas doesn't mean it's awesome, unfortunately.

Shadow Kiss

Book three of the Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead was by far the best one yet. Rose and Lissa's school is attacked, and Rose has to battle more Strigoi. The scenes between Rose and Dimitri were great, and even though I saw the ending coming a mile away (which is unusual for me, I'm so clueless) it was still great. Can't wait for book four.

Lethal Legacy; Havana Nocturne

Linda Fairstein's latest, "Lethal Legacy", was a fantastic mystery involving libraries and rare books. She even dedicated it to librarians (thanks, Linda!). I really love her books. Alex Cooper, one of her main characters, is so cool. This one involved a wealthy family, the Hunts, who are chasing all over for pieces of a one of a kind map that's been hidden in various rare books. People are getting killed over this map. Alex manages to catch the killer and find the pieces of the map with the help of some wise librarians. Just like in real life :-)
"Havana Nocturne" by T.J. English chronicled the story of how the Mob controlled Havana because the corrupt government that Batista was in charge of let them. It was interesting, just not as interesting as I'd hoped. I guess I really wanted to know more about Fidel Castro and the rebels and how they ran Batista out of Cuba. This was all pretty much stuff I already knew or could have guessed.

Madness Under the Royal Palms

"Madness Under the Royal Palms" by Laurence Leamer looked at the noxious underbelly of the Palm Beach scene, where no one can ever be too rich, young, or thin. It was basically three hundred pages of dishy gossip by a wanna be insider who, while condemning the hypocrisy of the system, can't help but project the image of wanting to be part of it. You can tell that as much as he's repulsed by it, he is equally fascinated, and he made me interested in it as well. Not quite as good as "The Big Rich", but then the Texas big rich don't take themselves as seriously as their Florida counterparts.

Plum Spooky

Normally I'm not a big fan of Janet Evanovich's between the numbers Stephanie Plum books (and lately not such a big fan of the numbers one, either. I think Eleven was the last one I really liked, but I digress), but this one was fairly decent. For starters, it was longer than most of the other ones and while Joe and Ranger weren't major players, they did show up more than they usually do. Diesel also didn't seem as supernaturally weird as he usually is, so that was a refreshing change of pace. Stephanie is stuck babysitting a monkey named Carl who likes to play handheld video games while she and Diesel are chasing down his cousin, Wulf, who happens to be in cahoots with one of Steph's FTAs. They are planning on taking over the world by controlling the weather or some such nonsense, who even knows? I just read them to laugh over Steph's predicaments, including squirrels taking over her Jeep, transporting stolen rockets in Uncle Sandor's Buick, and getting in several food fights with an FTA. Not one of the best, but not too bad, either.

Big Rich; My Horizontal Life

"The Big Rich" by Bryan Burrough looked at the four men who epitomized the idea of Texas rich--the extravagances and excesses that led to such books as Edna Ferber's "Giant" (which I highly recommend). This is the Texas I fell in love with all those years ago. This is also the story of a Texas that unfortunately no longer exists (otherwise I'd be there right now instead of here). It was a lot of fun reading about how over the top these guys were (at one point, one of the Hunts owned something like 25% of the world's silver!).
"My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler is her first book, and like "Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea", was absolutely hilarious. She reminds me of a female Tucker Max. It's hard for me to even pick which one of her stories was my favorite, they were all so good.

The Direputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Shelly recommended this one to me, and it was really great! E. Lockhart creates an interesting prep school world where Frankie, a very bright girl, feels left out of her boyfriend's secret all male society and masterminds a brilliant takeover. This is the girl I wanted to be when I was her age! It was clever and fun, and while I probably won't ever read it again, if I were 17 I would.

Frostbite; Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; How Football Explains America

"Frostbite" by Richelle Mead is her second Vampire Academy book, and Rose gets her first kill. It was pretty good, I enjoyed the fluff. I'll probably read it again some day.
"Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford has been getting some really good buzz on the blogs I read, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Like other books that everyone else has raved about, I didn't like it. It was banal, just completely predictable and even the characters were hollow and two dimensional. It ticked me off right from page two, which takes place in 1986, and there's discussion of online support groups. I was like, wait, hold the phone...1986? What editor didn't catch that? Seriously, my intelligence felt insulted. I know it's a silly little thing, but stuff like that often kills a book for me. I won't ever read it again.
"How Football Explains America" by Sal Paolantonio was an interesting mix of philosophy and history. He tried to explain how certain events in history correspond with how football was evolving, and why football is America's sport. While some of his arguments were a bit of a stretch, it was still a fun book on the history of the game with some American history thrown in. He pulled together some clever strands of football DNA to show how practically everyone in the sport is related to someone else in the sport somehow. I enjoyed it, but I probably won't ever read it again.

Sing Them Home; Vampire Academy

"Sing them Home" by Stephanie Kallos was really good. I read her first book, "Broken For You", back in November of 2006 and was very impressed by it, so I was excited to hear she had another book coming out and it did not disappoint. Her descriptions are so beautifully written it's almost like reading poetry, and normally I'm not a big fan of long, descriptive paragraphs (unless it's Faulkner, then I can handle it, I don't know why!). Anyway, this book takes place in a small town in Nebraska that has held onto its Welsh roots. Three siblings whose mother disappeared during a hurricane twenty some odd years earlier are brought together again after the sudden death of their father, and this serves as a catalyst for some amazing life changes for all three. I'll definitely read this one again someday.
"Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead was a recommendation from my friend Christina, who is quite possibly a bigger fan of "Twilight" than I am (if such a creature exists)! I was actually pretty pleased with this book: it was funny and the characters seemed real and likable. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next two to be turned in so I can read them next. I would definitely read this again someday.

Las Vegas Noir; Eleanor Rigby

"Las Vegas Noir" was a collection of short stories edited by Janet Keene and Todd James Pierce. Normally I don't like short stories, but I couldn't resist a collection set in my favorite city. However, I should have gone with my first instinct: most of these stories were mediocre at best, some were downright awful, just contrived and unbelievable and silly. Only one really stood out as being good, and that was "Crip" by Preston L. Allen, about a guy who dies protecting a little girl from an outraged casino boss. Lesson to self: just because it's set in Vegas doesn't make it cool. I definitely won't ever read this one again.
"Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland was very good. I really enjoyed it. It seemed like it was going to be sad and depressing, and if Stephen King were writing it, it would have ended differently, but Coupland gave it an upbeat, hopeful ending that made me feel good. It's about a lonely 36 year old woman who has no life. She has no friends, doesn't date, her own family doesn't really care about her. She does have one big secret: on a school trip to Italy when she was sixteen, she got pregnant (although she was drunk and blacked out and didn't remember the conception--how sad!) and after her son was born she put him up for adoption. Twenty years later he finds her, but she only gets to spend four months with him before he dies from complications due to his MS. Seven years after his death, she is reunited with his father and they connect. Even though her life seemed utterly depressing, Liz remained pretty content, not upbeat, but content, which was interesting. I'll probably read this one again.

Tweak; Petals on the Wind

I've wanted to read Nic Sheff's "Tweak" ever since I read his dad's version of events back in August. It wasn't actually as whiny as I'd expected, but it was very hard for me to read. I wanted to strangle him. You could see when he was about to make a horrible mistake in his life, and he would even say he knew he was making a mistake, but that didn't stop him. Damn drug addicts. Still, I wanted to understand why someone would ever want to be a drug addict. I still don't understand, but I don't think I ever will. I probably won't ever read this one again, but it was pretty decent the first time.
"Petals on the Wind" by V.C. Andrews is another reread and the sequel to "Flowers in the Attic". It wasn't as good: there were some glaringly obvious errors that bothered me, like describing a woman in the 1940s as being on birth control pills (um, hello? 30 years too early, maybe?). I still cried when Carrie killed herself. Very sad. Of course I'll reread it again someday. I've been rereading V.C. Andrews for 20 years now.

Eli Manning: the Making of a Quarterback; I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell; Zombie; Leaving Las Vegas

"Eli Manning" by Ralph Vacchiano wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. I love my football books, and I love Eli and brother Peyton, but it was obvious this author had no love for Brett Favre and that just ticked me off. The book wasn't very coherently put together. The only thing I really liked was the very nicely written account of last year's Super Bowl. I do, however, believe that Eli will someday be greater than Peyton. I definitely won't ever read it again, and it really almost wasn't worth it the first time around. At least it was a quick read, so I didn't waste too much time.
"I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max was hilarious. Tucker has made himself famous for being morally reprehensible, and it's amazing how little shame this man has. All told, though, it's a laugh riot, if you're not too disgusted by it. I'll probably read it again someday. I think his friend SlingBlade sounds even funnier than Tucker is.
"Zombie" by Joyce Carol Oates was her take on getting into the mind of a serial killer. It was totally disturbing and very good. This is only the second book of hers that I have read, but I'm eager to read more. She's a really amazing writer. The other book I read by her was "Blonde", a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe, and it's astounding to me that they were both written by the same woman, they're so completely different. I'll probably read it again someday.
Finally, "Leaving Las Vegas" by John O'Brien was hauntingly sad. O'Brien committed suicide after learning his novel was going to be made into a movie, and it's too bad, because I thought the movie was pretty good. Knowing that he killed himself after writing it made it that much harder to read, but in a good way. I'll probably read it again someday.

The Case of the Fenced in Woman; Flowers in the Attic; Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die

A new Perry Mason I hadn't read yet: "The Case of the Fenced In Woman" by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was pretty good. It had an amazingly interesting premise: a man named Carson sells a plot of land to a man named Eden and starts to build him a house on it. Then Eden finds out that part of the land belongs to Carson's wife, who is divorcing him, and wants Eden to stop building on her land. Carson assures Eden that he's got so much dirt on his wife that it won't be a problem, so Eden keeps building. After the house is finished, it turns out Carson's dirt was on the wrong woman, and his wife brings a contractor over and builds a barbed wire fence right down the middle of the house and pool out back, on the property line, and moves into her half of the house! She wants to provoke Eden and make his life hell, so he will in turn make her ex-husband's life hell. When Carson turns up dead next to the pool, the list of suspects gets long very quickly, with Eden and Carson's ex-wife right at the top. The best part of the story (and this is why I love Perry Mason: it's so damned improbable) was how many naked or nearly naked women ended up in that pool on the day Carson died. I imagine it must have looked like the Playboy Mansion over there! I'll definitely reread it again some day.
"Flowers in the Attic" by V.C. Andrews was a reread, one I've read a hundred times before. I always thought of it as lighthearted trash, but it was actually a lot better than I remembered it to be. I actually cried at some parts. I can't imagine anyone not knowing the plot, but here goes: Chris, Cathy, Carrie, and Cory are four adorable little children with loving parents when their father is killed in a car accident. Their pretty, helpless mother, Corrine, decides to take them back to their ancestral home, Foxworth Hall, where she can beg forgiveness of her father, who disowned her when she eloped with her half-uncle fifteen years earlier (and later, in the prequel "Garden of Shadows", we find out that he wasn't her half-uncle, but actually her half-brother, but they never knew that). Until she has won back her father's love, she and her mother hide the children in a little room at one end of the great house, and let them have the run of the attic. Corrine tells them it will only be for a few days, until she can bring them down to meet their grandfather. Those few days stretch into three and half years, until Chris and Cathy finally take matters into their own hands and escape. A lot of stuff is going on in this book, and I really enjoyed rereading it. It was one that Andrews herself actually wrote, before she died and a ghostwriter took over her name and started churning out lesser quality stuff. Not like this is great literature or anything, but it's fun. I'll definitely reread it again someday.
"Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die" is the second Rat Pack mystery by Robert J. Randisi. It's Vegas, 1960, and Frank, Dean, and the rest of the boys are back at the Sands for the premiere of their movie "Ocean's Eleven". Pit Boss Eddie G. steps in to help Frank find a girlfriend who's missing, Mary Clarke. Turns out Mary is also Mob Boss Sam Giancana's girlfriend. Mary and her sister, Lily, stole some money from Lily's boss, Vito, who stole it from MoMo. Stupid people. You don't steal from MoMo! Everyone finds out the hard way as bodies start piling up. It was pretty fun. I'll probably reread it again some day.

Eleven on Top; Green Bay Replay; Hail to the Chief

I haven't been reading as much as usual lately because I moved, and I'm still unpacking. Most of my books are now in boxes, which is very sad, but on the bright side I'm in a new library with a fabulous collection that might take me, oh, six months or so to exhaust :-)
"Eleven on Top" was of course another Stephanie Plum reread by Janet Evanovich, where Steph decides to quit the bounty hunter profession in a misguided attempt to normalize her life. It backfires miserably, of course, which is what makes the book so much fun. I'll definitely reread this one again, although I did leave all my Evanovich books with my mom, since she and I bought them together.
"Green Bay Replay" by Dick Schaap was a fascinating look at the parallels between the 1967 Green Bay Packers and the 1997 Pack. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and brought back fame and glory to Green Bay. It was wonderful to read about Brett Favre at his peak form, playing with Reggie White, Desmond Howard, Gilbert Brown, and all my old favorites I miss seeing. It reminded me of why I became a Packers fan to begin with, why I loved watching the green and gold on Sunday. I miss that, a lot. I probably won't ever read it again, but it was worth it the first go round.
"Hail to the Chief" by Ed McBain is an 87th precinct novel I hadn't read yet. It was pretty good, if a little too ironic for my taste. The 87th is dealing with a gang war, and the president of one gang is going around killing everyone in sight to try to make peace happen (the book was written in 1973, during the Vietnam War, do you see the irony?). The ending has the detectives pondering that there are much more evil influences to corrupt kids and make them violent besides the television (there is a rather forced, tacked on bit about a reporter who is writing about the effects of violent television on children). They are of course talking about the people in charge, the "president". It was pretty good, not one of his best, since we know right from the start who the killer was, it was just McBain's chance for social commentary loosely disguised as fiction. I'll probably read it again, just because I always reread the 87th novels whenever the mood strikes.