Sunday, November 24, 2013

The Tudors; Tudor Conspiracy; Piercing; House of Leaves; Poppet; Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald; Driven; Mrs. Poe

Boy am I behind! Let's get crackin'...

 A lot of Tudor books lately. "The Tudors" by Peter Ackroyd was pretty good. It was mostly about Henry VIII, but that's to be expected. He hit the high points of all of their reigns.

"Tudor Conspiracy" by C. W. Gortner was interesting fiction about the plot to take down Queen Mary and replace her with Elizabeth. Brendan Prescott serves both the queen and Elizabeth, helping Mary discover others who are out to get her without implicating Elizabeth. A daunting task, to be sure.

"Piercing" by Ryu Murakami was disturbing and twisted, so I thoroughly enjoyed it :) New father Kawashima Masayuki (I hope I spelled that right, I can't read my own handwriting) has fantasies about stabbing his baby daughter with an ice  pick. Rather than give in to such sick ideas, he hired a prostitute to stab instead. But he gets more than he bargained for when Chiaki shows up. Chiaki is severely damaged in her own way and their showdown was gruesome and tense.

I read a great interview a few months ago with Stephen King and his family, and they mentioned how much they all liked Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves", so I had to read it. It was complex and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. It's one of those books that has to sink in, I think. It was several stories all intertwined in one: Johnny Truant finds a manuscript in an apartment of dead man about a house that had a never ending hallway. There were many books and papers written about the Navidson family's strange house, and the old blind man, Zampano, was collecting and writing about. Reading the manuscript and all the other research he has compiled makes Johnny go insane. At least, it seems that way. The structure of the book was really interesting: there were footnotes and parts printed upside down, sideways, backwards. It was definitely one of those books that you have to work for and can't read with one eye while doing something else, which is what I tend to do a lot.

"Poppet" by Mo Hayder was another excellent chilling suspense. Man can this woman write! Residents in an mental home are all suffering from the same delusion: that there is a ghost called The Maud who is hurting them, killing them off one by one. Is it a delusion, though, or is someone really torturing these poor confused people? AJ is trying to find out if there's a connection between The Maud and a recently released patient who murdered his parents when he was a kid named Isaac who has a taste for making little dolls, or poppets, using pieces of people. Fun stuff!

I liked Therese Anne Fowler's "Z: a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald" more than I thought I would. Full disclaimer: I don't like F. Scott Fitzgerald. To be fair, I've only read "The Great Gatsby", but I had to read it three times as an undergrad and I *hated* it. When the movie came out earlier this year my sister wanted to read the book and asked me about it and I told her I would rather light myself on fire than read that drivel again. I really would. That being said, I find his wife fascinating, and I thought Fowler did a good job of bringing Zelda to life. Everything they did was on such an over the top scale, I'm sure it was exhausting. No wonder her mind broke down.

Donald Driver is one of Green Bay's all time best receivers. In "Driven",  he talks about how he got to the top through hard work and the love of his family, and how wonderful it was to play with Brett. He has respect for certain people that I can't abide because of the way they treated the great number 4, but hey, he doesn't want to make enemies. I have no such qualms :)

"Mrs. Poe" by Lynn Cullen was a fictionalized account of how Edgar Allan Poe and poet Frances Osgood's affair may have gone, if indeed they did have an affair (it's debatable). I enjoyed it, it was kind of dark and spooky, like Poe himself. 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

William Shakespeare's Star Wars

I finished Ian Doescher's clever mash up "William Shakespeare's Star Wars", a few weeks after seeing the first Star Wars movie for the first time. I really enjoyed this one, he very ingeniously incorporated many elements from Shakespeare into the Star Wars story. I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I enjoy most of the mash ups I read. "Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies" remains a favorite, but this one is right up there. Nicely done!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Boleyn Deceit; Allegiant; Homicide: a Year on the Killing Streets

A few weeks ago I read an advanced reader copy of Laura Andersen's second book in her trilogy "The Boleyn Deceit". I didn't care too much for the first one, "Boleyn King", but I liked this one more. William is determined to marry Minuette, just as Minuette is determined to follow her heart and marry Dominic. Wildly speculating here, but it seems like she's going to kill William off and have Elizabeth step in to reign, just like how it happened in real life. I was hoping for a little bit more reimagining, but all in all it wasn't bad.

"Allegiant" by Veronica Roth is the last of the Divergent trilogy. I enjoyed it, although it did get a bit complex for me at times. I might not have been paying the *best* attention to it. I tend to multitask a lot while reading, which I probably shouldn't do. But anyway, I thought the ending was great, a total gut punch I wasn't expecting but I liked because it seemed realistic and it surprised me.

David Simon's "Homicide: a Year on the Killing Streets" was hands down one of the best true crime books I have ever read. Simon spent the year of 1988 with the detectives of the Baltimore Homicide unit, and he chronicles their trials and tribulations with trying to solve seemingly unsolvable murders. Oh man it was a tough read but very brilliant. I'm dying to read his next book "Corner".

Monday, November 4, 2013

The Kennedy Chronicles; Book of Hollywood Extravagance; The Bride Wore Size 12; Coreyography; Johnny Cash: the Life

If I could ever live someone else's life for a day, it would be former MTV VJ Kennedy. In her book "The Kennedy Chronicles", she talks about how she had the most awesome job in the world. I loved watching "Alternative Nation", and I'm jealous as hell that she made out with Dave Navarro and Trent Reznor. My 16 year old self is super pissed :) Her book was funny and nostalgic. I miss good music.

"Book of Hollywood Extravagance" by James Robert Parish was a fun collection of short tales about Hollywood excess, from multiple marriages to fortunes squandered. It was interesting.

"The Bride Wore Size 12" by Meg Cabot is her latest Heather Wells mystery. Heather and Cooper are getting married in a month, her long estranged mother shows up on her doorstep wanting to make amends, her boss is pregnant, there's a prince living in Fischer Hall so security's been tightened, and a RA dies after attending a wild party thrown by the prince. Heather is a bit overwhelmed by everything, to say the least, but she is determined to solve the crime and concentrate on her wedding.

"Coreyography" by Corey Feldman was just heartbreaking. What he and Corey Haim went through in Hollywood...so sad. The drugs, the pedophiles. He has nice things to say about Michael Jackson, which makes me happy. I just feel so bad for him and Corey. It was heartbreaking in one other way, too: St. Martin's Press obviously decided not to waste money on a proofreader. The whole book was littered with spelling and grammar errors, the most egregious was misspelling Stephen King's name on p. 215. Good grief. I tried not to let that detract from his heart felt storytelling but man, it was tough.

And finally, I read an advanced reader copy of Robert Hilburn's "Johnny Cash: the Life" and wept like a baby. What an amazing, powerful story. Hilburn does an excellent job of telling it like it is. It's a must read for any Johnny Cash fan. I hope someday to find love like Johnny and June had. What an amazing life.