Bekki's Book Blog

Knowland Retribution; Roots of Desire; Ruthless

2012-02-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

Forgot a few last night when I was updating. "The Knowland Retribution" by Richard Greener is the first "Locator" book. Fox recently started airing a show called "The Finder", which is based on characters in the Locator books. It's a fun show, and as soon as I saw that there was a book I knew I had to read it. It was very good, very engrossing. Walter Sherman is a Vietnam vet who is known as someone who can find people and keep his mouth shut about it. When a sniper starts taking out wealthy New York businessmen, they come to Sherman to find the sniper before he kills them all. Turns out the sniper is a man named Leonard Martin. Several years earlier, Leonard's wife, only daughter, and two grandsons died of e coli poisoning, and so did several hundred other people. The culprit was tainted beef coming out of a meat processing plant. The awful thing? The New York businessmen knew the beef was tainted and could kill, but because of the risk of losing millions of dollars they decided not to recall the beef or shut the plant down. When Martin finds this out he is understandably upset and takes his revenge. It was a hard book to read for me because many years ago I developed an unnatural fear of food poisoning and basically stopped eating. While I'm better now (and even eat steak rare, oooh...) it reminded me of why I became so terrified to begin with. There are unfortunately only two books in the Locator series, and I hope Greener writes some more because they are very engaging.
"Roots of Desire" by Marion Roach examined the cultural history and significance of red hair. While I love my (natural) blonde hair, I always secretly wanted red hair. There's just something about it. A lot of people feel that way, but it hasn't always been so. For a long time and in many cultures, red hair was looked at with suspicion. It was interesting and a quick read.
"Ruthless" by Sara Shephard is the tenth book in the Pretty Little Liars series. Spencer is sure that Kelsey is New A who is sending them threatening messages about what happened with Tabitha in Jamaica. Emily is sure that Kelsey is innocent and that New A is really Ali, who she believes survived the fire in the Poconos. In the end it turns out Kelsey wasn't New A when she tries to commit suicide and is locked up in a rehab facility. The girls are still being taunted by New A. I personally still think Spencer isn't all she appears to be, the girl has some serious mental issues sometimes. I think there are only going to be two more books in the series, so soon the truth will all be revealed! Yay :)

Woman in the Mirror; In the Garden of Beasts; Crazy for You

2012-02-01T18:35:00.000-08:00

"Woman in the Mirror" by Cynthia Bulik was a wonderful self help guide on how not to confuse how you look with who you are. She gives practical advice on how to work through negative thoughts and feelings about yourself to move towards a more positive and healthy way of thinking about yourself. I found her straightforward advice very useful.
"In the Garden of Beasts" by Erik Larson was one I started reading a few months ago and didn't get to finish before it was due, so I had to borrow it again and read the last 60 pages. William Dodd was an intellectual and historian when President Roosevelt asked him to be the ambassador to Germany in 1933, a role no one else wanted. Dodd took the job, thinking it wouldn't be that taxing and would give him time to finish his multi-volume work on the history of the Old South. Unfortunately, once Dodd and his family arrive in Germany he realizes the job is going to be much more work than he thought. Dodd becomes increasingly alarmed by what he sees going on around him as Hitler rises to power, and tries to warn Roosevelt and others back home, but no one listens to him. It was chilling to think that he tried so hard to be taken seriously and wasn't with such devastating consequences. As usual, Larson's work was well written and highly readable.
I read Jennifer Crusie's "Crazy for You" after reading on the Fiction_L listserv about how funny and light it was. I was in the mood for something that would make me laugh out loud. Well, it definitely wasn't funny at all. There were some lighthearted, funny moments, but the overall tone was so dark and scary that I didn't enjoy the funny parts. It was about a dangerous stalker named Bill, who is so deranged after his girlfriend, Quinn, leaves him that he refuses to even believe they aren't still together. Despite Quinn buying her own home, Bill persists in his dangerous thoughts. He stalks her, breaks into her house, has a copy of her key made so he can walk in whenever she isn't home. He locks her dog outside of the gate and calls Animal Control to pick it up. He tries to have the dog put down several times, and Quinn is able to rescue her at the last minute. She starts dating a new man named Nick, and Bill threatens him. The climax comes when he packs up his clothes and brings them to her house and unpacks his things while she is in the shower. When she gets out and demands that he leave, he attacks. Luckily the neighbor saw what was going on and called Nick, who comes to the rescue. Um...obviously the ladies on the Fiction_L listserv have a *very* different idea of "funny" than I do! Good lord, I was wincing throughout the whole book, praying that Quinn and her dog Katie weren't going to be permanently harmed by Bill. It's not that it wasn't an interesting book, I just would have enjoyed it much more if I hadn't been expecting fun and lighthearted.

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

2012-01-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

"Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan was their second collaboration, after "Nick and Norah" but before "Lily and Dash". I enjoyed it, but not as much as the other two. Naomi and Ely have grown up together in NYC, best friends since childhood, always a pair. Naomi loves fantasizing about their future wedding and lives together. Too bad Ely is gay. Naomi *knows* this, she just prefers fantasy to reality. But when she and Ely have a big falling out, it seems like their friendship is doomed to come to an end. I think the thing that kept me from liking this book more was Naomi. She's described as being absolutely gorgeous and thin, men falling all over her, etc., so when it comes to feeling sorry for her I find myself hard-pressed to have much sympathy. I know, I know: even beautiful, lucky, rich, thin people have problems. I just find it hard to care :)

The Paris Wife

2012-01-25T09:35:00.000-08:00

"The Paris Wife" by Paula McLain follows the story of Hadley, who was Ernest Hemingway's first wife. I don't like Hemingway, I've always found his work rather boring and he seemed like kind of an ass. Even though this book is fiction, he doesn't come across looking any better here. I'm sure he was just an ass. Like Woody Allen's brilliant film "Midnight in Paris", McLain captures the time and place that was Paris in the 1920s, when artists and writers from America converged and made it their own. It's fun to imagine what it must have been like to live there during that time. It was an enjoyable read, and went surprisingly quickly, because it's not a light, fluffy type of book at all.

77 Shadow Street; Cleopatra's Moon; Every Little Crook and Nanny

2012-01-23T12:16:00.000-08:00

Dean Koontz's latest, "77 Shadow Street", was a strange tale about a building that travels forward in time, its inhabitants are murdered, and then the building returns to its rightful place in history. This happens every 38 years. Yeah...I didn't really understand it. Very strange.
"Cleopatra's Moon" by Vicky Shecter was a very good YA novel about Cleopatra's daughter and what happens to her in Rome after Caesar's nephew Octavius takes her and her brothers prisoner after defeating Egypt in war. Shecter did a lovely job capturing the time period.
"Every Little Crook and Nanny" by Evan Hunter was a zany little romp about a dumb kidnapper who takes a mobster's son. Luckily the mobster, Carmine, is in Italy, so the Nanny figures she can get the kid back with the help of some of Carmine's mob buddies before Carmine comes home and finds out what happened. Hilarity ensues when everything that can go wrong does, the mobsters are a bunch of bumbling idiots, but it made me laugh and the ending was fun. I could easily see this as being a Woody Allen type of comedy on film.

Servants of Twilight; Then Again; The List

2012-01-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood for a good Dean Koontz reread, so I chose "Servants of Twilight". One day while leaving the mall (South Coast Plaza shout out, whoo hoo!) Christine and her six year old son, Joey, are accosted by a crazy old woman who fixates on Joey and declares that he's the Antichrist and must die. Christine goes to the police when it looks like an intruder is stalking about their property later that night, but they don't take her seriously until her dog shows up decapitated the next morning. It's amazing how quickly the old woman, Grace, and her followers, the Church of Twilight, are able to make life hell for Christine, who has to hire a private detective and go on the run to escape the escalating threat. It was fast paced and thrilling, one of my favorite old Koontz stories.
"Then Again" by Diane Keaton was an enjoyable read. I'm jealous of Diane--she dated Woody Allen back when he was funny and cool, and became friends with Larry McMurtry and spent time cruising in his Cadillac, discussing the meaning of life while searching for used books. If only I'd been born thirty years earlier, I could have been her. Oh, well, probably not :) I just found it amazing that she doesn't think she's pretty because I definitely think she is. I loved her in "Annie Hall", still one of my all time favorite movies. I loved her style and her flair, she just seemed like such a fun person.
"The List" by Martin Fletcher had me in tears the entire time I was reading it. It was very good but very, very tough to read, emotionally exhausting. Set in London immediately after WW2, Jewish refugees are finding it difficult to find a place to call "home". No one wants them around, they have no money and no prospects of finding work, and every day seems to bring more bad news as the complete horrors of the concentration camps and everyone who died are brought to light. Georg and Edith are expecting a baby, in a precarious existence in England, threatened by the townspeople of being evicted to make room for the homecoming British soldiers. They are frantically searching for their family members and just trying to survive. So heartbreaking.

Blood Relatives; the Marriage Plot

2012-01-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

Another 87th Precinct reread, "Blood Relatives" by Ed McBain takes place in the mid-1970s. Patricia stumbles into the precinct one rainy night, cut up and covered in blood. She has just witnessed her cousin, Muriel, being brutally stabbed and barely escaped with her life. The police go on a manhunt, trying to find the man Patricia described. Days pass with no leads, until Patricia shows up calmly at the police station and announces that her brother, Andrew, killed Muriel and she was lying to protect him. When Carella finds Muriel's diary, he discovers she and Andrew were secretly having an affair, but she wanted to end things and he didn't and got violent. Andrew is looking guiltier by the minute, but there's a neat twist to the end. At least, I think it's neat.
"The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides was very good (even if I have no idea how to pronounce his last name!). It takes place in the early 1980s. Madeline and Mitchell are graduating from college and have very different perspectives on what their adult lives will be like. Mitchell, sad over Madeline's rejection, takes off on an extended trip to Europe and India, hoping to find meaning in life. Madeline gets back together with her mentally ill boyfriend, Leonard, and tries desperately to save him from himself. It sort of reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis, only not nearly as bleak and depressing. Maybe it was just the time period, or the whole "coming of age" subject matter. Either way, Eugenides made it quite interesting and enjoyable.

Hark!; Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

So of course after reading Evan Hunter's (a.k.a. Ed McBain) memoir "Let's Talk", I knew I was going to start rereading some great classic 87th Precinct series books, and I started off with "Hark!", number 54, next to the last, and a great Deaf Man story. I think if McBain had lived and gotten to write more in the series we would have seen more of the Deaf Man.
"Dash and Lily's Book of Dares" by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan was fantastic. I wish I was 16 again just so I could recreate this book, although of course it wouldn't turn out the same for me. Lily leaves a red notebook with a literary scavenger hunt in a bookstore. Dash finds it, completes the hunt, and leaves a clue for Lily to lead her on a hunt of his devising. It was clever and charming, seeing how they get to know each other through a notebook passed back and forth through friends and relatives. Meeting in real life for the first time doesn't go so well, but luckily they get a second chance. Ah, sweet without being ridiculous. It's a fine line to walk.

Let's Talk; You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl

2012-01-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, Evan Hunter. Or, Ed McBain. He died in 2005 of cancer, after having his larynx removed. "Let's Talk" was his memoir of finding out he had cancer and his operation, and learning to live without a voice. It was published just two months before he died, and was so bittersweet, since he's so hopeful in the book. He said he wanted to live another 15 years, until he was 93. I wish he would have made it. I still miss the 87th precinct novels something fierce. Rest in peace, sir.
Celia Rivenbark is a humorist. I've always wanted to read one of her books because they have very funny titles, like "You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl". It was funny enough, and I enjoyed it, but I don't like political humor. I'm not amused being made to feel as if I'm sitting in the DNC.

Explosive Eighteen; Crank; Sybil Exposed; Outlander; Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind; Three Maids for a Crown; Jeffrey Dahmer's Dirty Secret

2012-01-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

Janet Evanovich's latest "Explosive Eighteen", was pretty good, but not as good as 17. She starts out with Stephanie returning from her vacation in Hawaii, where everyone thinks she got married. Stephanie won't talk about what happened out there, but on the impromptu plane ride home she met a man who slipped a mysterious photo in her bag and then didn't make it back on the plane after their layover in L.A. Once she returns to Jersey, she finds out the man was killed in L.A., for the photo, which she threw out when she got home. All of a sudden everyone wants the picture and she's bombarded with people trying to get it from her one way or another.
"Crank" by Ellen Hopkins was about a young girl named Kristina who gets hooked on meth after spending a few weeks with her dad, who was not the best influence he could have been. Kristina keeps getting high once she gets back home to her mom and stepdad, and hooks up with a new crowd. She falls deeper and deeper into the monster that is crank until it threatens to consume her. Very believable, well written, and moving.
"Sybil Exposed" by Debbie Nathan told the true story behind the Sybil scam. I read "Sybil" by Flora Rheta Schreiber years ago as a young adult, about a woman with 16 different personalities, and I had a bit of trouble believing it. Turns out I was right to be skeptical: the whole thing was a lie. Sybil didn't really suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder, although the doctor treating her really believed she did and pushed her to accept the diagnosis. When Schreiber came in to write the book she discovered none of the "facts" were really verifiable and ended up making a lot of the book up out of whole cloth. It's sad that people who need mental help end up being manipulated by others, and vice versa.
Diana Gabaldon's first book in her massive Outlander series, "The Outlander" was very long but I enjoyed it. I wanted to read it because of the historical fiction plotline: the book is set in 1700s Scotland. Claire and her husband, Frank, are visiting Scotland after World War 2, researching Frank's family tree, when Claire falls down a wormhole in time and ends up 200 years in the past. It's dangerous times in Scotland, at war with the English, and for her own safety Claire marries a Highlander laird, James Fraser. They are in constant danger, nearly killed numerous times, captured and kidnapped and god knows what all else. There was a bit too much graphic sex for my taste, but I enjoyed the historical aspects and learning more about Scotland.
"Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind" by Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley, Jr. was a fascinating biography about how the bestselling novel became a cultural icon. They briefly told about Mitchell's decade long struggle to bring the novel to life, then how once it was published it exploded, far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Mitchell and her husband, John Marsh, ended up having to devote quite a bit of time to protecting her interests, both here in the U.S. and abroad due to silly copyright laws back in the 30s. They both end up looking kind of foolish about the foreign rights, especially during and after World War 2, when Europe was in utter turmoil and they're pestering publishers for her royalties. Don't get me wrong: it was her money and she earned it, but damn, a little compassion for what these people were going through would have been nice. The last part of the book examined the dismal sequel by Alexandra Ripley, "Scarlett", and the much better "Rhett Butler's People" by Donald McCaig. 75 years after its initial publication, "Gone With the Wind" is still going strong.
And that concluded books for 2011, with my total at 180. I hoped to break 200, but alas, life got in the way.
2012 is off to a good start, though. I finished "Three Maids for a Crown" by Ella March Chase yesterday morning. It was incredibly moving, it made me cry, even though I know it's only fiction. Chase tells the story of the ill fated Grey sisters in turn: Jane, queen for only 9 days before being executed by Queen Mary, Katherine, imprisoned for marrying and having a child because of Queen Elizabeth's paranoia and scorn, and Mary, dwarfed and deformed, she manages to find true love only to have Elizabeth yank her apart from her husband and imprison them both, too, until Thomas's death, when she lets Mary free. Of course by that time all of poor Mary's family is dead so she has no where to go. So needlessly tragic.
And I read a book my sister got me for Christmas that I've been dying to read since I found out about it "Jeffrey Dahmer's Dirty Secret" by Arthur Jay Harris. Harris is convinced the Hollywood Police in Florida had it wrong when they announced in 2008 that Ottis Toole kidnapped and killed Adam Walsh. There is documented evidence that Jeffrey Dahmer, noted Wisconsin cannibal, lived in Florida not far from where Walsh was abducted during the time period he was murdered. Dahmer did like to cut off heads, something Toole wasn't noted for. Many witnesses to Adam's abduction noticed a blue van at the Sears around the time Adam was taken, a blue van like the one Dahmer had access to through his job at a sub shop. It's hard to know, so long afterwards, what to believe. The simple fact remains that a little boy was brutally and senselessly murdered and that someone didn't suffer for it like they should have. Since both Dahmer and Toole are dead we will probably never know the truth. I thought Lee Standiford did an excellent job making the case for Toole's guilt in his book "Bringing Adam Home", but Harris does a good job of showing how Dahmer could have done it, too.

They Found Him Dead; Where There's Smoke; Greater Journey; Dead Over Heels; The Lying Game; Never Have I Ever

2011-12-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

So I'm on a bit of a Georgette Heyer kick. There are worst things to read, that's for sure :) "They Found Him Dead" is one of her mysteries. First, Silas Kane turns up dead, and it looks like a simple accident. But after his heir is murdered and threats against the next heir are coming fast and furious, the police must conclude that someone is after the money. I actually had this one figured out before the ending, so yay me!!
"Where There's Smoke" by William B. Davis was a bit of a disappointment. Davis played the Cigarette Smoking Man on my all time favorite show "The X-Files". I liked the CSM character, too (of course, I really watched just for David Duchovney, yummy! But I digress). First off, he spent the first 2/3 of the book discussing Canadian and British theater in the 50s and 60s, which he was an important part of. He kept dropping all these names, talking about how awesome they are, and I have no clue who any of them are. So, that was boring. Then, once he *finally* gets to the "X-Files", all he does is trash everyone! He didn't like David or Gillian, thought they were unprofessional, and thought Chris Carter was a twit. He was embarrassed to be on a show that seemingly promoted paranormal beliefs over cold, hard science. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Oh well, it did put me in the mood to rewatch some of my favorite episodes!
"The Greater Journey" by David McCullough was an interesting look at how many Americans traveled to Paris in the 1800s to study art, medicine, music, and more, and how living and working abroad changed their ways of thinking. I was hoping he would get up to the point where Faulkner was living there, but alas he didn't. It was still interesting.
"Dead Over Heels" by Charlaine Harris is the fourth book in her Aurora Teagarden series. It wasn't quite as bad as the third one. Aurora is married now, and has a bodyguard because her husband is a bit shady. Her old nemesis, detective Jack Burns, is killed and his dead body is dropped out of a plane onto her backyard, setting off a chain of events that were highly improbable but didn't make me vomit in disgust.
And finally, a new series by Sara Shepard, author of the fabulous "Pretty Little Liars" series. I really do enjoy her books, they're much better than you'd think. I like the Lying Game series better than PLL already, because the girls, while still well off and spoiled, don't seem quite as obsessed as the girls in PLL. They don't brand name drop quite as much. In the first book we meet Emma Paxton through the eyes of a ghost, Sutton. Poor Sutton has no idea who she is or why she's suddenly attached to Emma, but we're all about to find out (Emma cannot see her, by the way). Emma is a foster care kid, about to turn 18, living in Nevada. Her foster brother, a real sleazeball, gets her in trouble with his mom, who asks her to leave after her birthday. Emma discovers a girl online in a weird snuff video that looks exactly like her, and wonders if they're related. She emails, and the girl responds that she was adopted, so she and Emma are probably sisters. She invites Emma to come out to Arizona, so, with nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to, Emma goes out to Arizona where she quickly discovers that the girl in the film is her twin sister, Sutton, who was murdered the day before Emma contacted her. Whoever responded must have had something to do with Sutton's murder and is using Emma to keep the crime covered up. With no other choice, Emma assumes Sutton's identity, and tries to fit in with her over the top friends, Charlotte and Madeline, and her sister, Laurel, who are all part of an exclusive club known as the Lying Game. They play pranks on each other that sometimes go way too far. Emma wonders if one of them might be responsible for Sutton's murder. With misdirection and suspicion coming right and left, it's impossible to know who might be guilty and who might be innocent, but it definitely looks like Emma is in danger.
In the second book "Never Have I Ever", Emma determines that none of the girls in the Lying Game were responsible for Sutton's murder, much to her (and ghost Sutton's) relief. However, two hangers on to the Lying Game, the Twitter Twins, Lili and Gaby, seem to be likely suspects after Emma finds out about the horrible pranks Sutton had pulled on them. By the end of the book, however, it looks like the twins are cleared and it might be someone else. Perhaps the return of the mysterious Thayer? All I know is, I can't wait until February for the third installment!!

Envious Casca; Three Bedrooms, One Corpse; Double Dexter

2011-12-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Another Georgette Heyer book, this one a locked room mystery "Envious Casca". It was very entertaining, and I actually had the murderer figured out but then decided no, it couldn't be and changed my mind. Uncle Joe has invited all the family out to his older brother Nathaniel's estate, Lexham Manor, for the Christmas holiday. Nathaniel is a crochetedy old fellow who doesn't really care for any of his family, including his brother Joe. When he turns up dead, stabbed in the back, in his room that was locked on the inside, the question isn't really so much who did it, since everyone had a motive, but rather how they accomplished the feat. The only other locked room mystery I remember reading is a Sherlock Holmes story, "The Speckled Band". I'm sure there have been others, I just don't remember. It was very neatly done, I enjoyed it.
The third book in Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden mysteries "Three Bedrooms, One Corpse" was sadly disappointing to me. I thought Harris had a great heroine going with Aurora: she was a spunky single librarian who loved to read about true crime. In the last book, Harris had Aurora inherit a large fortune, so Aurora quit her job and decided to see if she liked working in real estate, like her mother. Lame. Everyone knows librarians are much more fun than Realtors :) Anyway, while showing a house to a wealthy man, they find a corpse in one of the bedrooms and the hunt is on. And, much to my chagrin, Aurora falls for the older wealthy gentleman and they begin a passionate affair that ends with him proposing at the end of the book with an enormous diamond. Well, that's realistic.
Jeff Lindsay's latest Dexter story "Double Dexter", was great fun. It's just hard sometimes to separate the books from the show, and they're very different, so it was a bit jarring to read about Rita still being alive. But I'm glad she is, I like the Rita in the books better than the Rita on the show. So Dexter is out taking care of business one night when someone spies him at work. Dexter is determined to find out who saw him and take care of him before problems arise, but unfortunately his nemesis always seems to be one step ahead of him and is threatening to expose him, and he has the proof to do so. Dexter enlists his brother Brian's help, but Brian FUBARs the whole thing up and in the end Dexter takes care of it himself with some help from Astor.

Gallery of Regrettable Food; Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor; Bone to Pick

2011-11-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

I discovered James Lileks' blog and to my delight we had his book at work: "The Gallery of Regrettable Food". The name says it all, and it had me rolling with laughter. Lileks has collected old cookbooks from the 50s and 60s, when everything was made in a mold or creamed, and culled some of the worst pictures out, adding hilarious captions. It was great fun.
"Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor" by Robert Kirkman is in novel form, about how Brian Blake became the Governor in the graphic novels. Apparently it's the first in a planned trilogy, so we'll see exactly how he became so evil.
"A Bone to Pick" by Charlaine Harris is her second Aurora Teagarden mystery. It was very short, but a light read. Aurora inherits a house and discovers a skull hidden. She doesn't believe the old owner of the house killed anyone, so she starts investigating to find out who it could have been and what might have happened to him.

11/22/63

2011-11-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

Wow, the King is back and in a big, big way! Stephen King's latest brick of a book, "11/22/63" was magnificent (spoilers ahead!). Jake Epping is a recently divorced teacher in a small town in Maine. He's a nice guy, so when a local diner owner named Al asks him for a favor, Jake obliges. Turns out there is a hole, a bubble, in the pantry of Al's diner that allows him to travel back in time to September of 1958. Al has been doing this for years, going back to the same day in September, hanging around 1958 for a bit, buying ground beef at cut rate prices and returning to the present day only minutes after he left, no matter how long he stays in 1958. It seems as if the past resets every time he goes back through the hole. Al had the idea of going back and sticking around until 1963, and stopping Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. Unfortunately, Al gets very sick and is forced to return to 2011 before he gets the chance to take Oswald out, or even determine to his satisfaction that Oswald was working alone. He asks Jake to do it, and Jake agrees. Well, the past doesn't like to be messed with, and for very good reasons, and fights back against change, which Jake learns the hard way. Saving Kennedy really wasn't the focus of the book, although it was an interesting plot line. For some reason a lot of people in King's generation idolize Kennedy and seem to think if only he had lived, the world wouldn't be as messed up as it is. I highly doubt that. I'm far removed from the myth of Camelot, so it doesn't enchant me the same way it does the older folks. The very best part - Jake goes to Derry, Maine in September of 1958, right after the summer of "IT" and sees Richie and Bev!! That had to be the best part, I love those kids. "11/22/63" is right up there with "IT", "The Stand", and "Christine", in my book.

Artemis Fowl: the Atlantis Complex; Lizzie

2011-11-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

Book seven of the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer, "The Atlantis Complex", was good fun. Turnball Root is planning a prison break, and the fairies need Artemis to help save the world, only Artemis is suffering from Atlantis Complex, which causes OCD and multiple personality disorder. General hilarity ensues with poor Captain Holly trying to hold things together while Artemis's sweeter side, Orion, makes an appearance, professing his undying love for her.
Frank Spiering's "Lizzie", about (what else?) the Lizzie Borden case, was...fanciful. It was an interesting theory, that Emma committed the murders, but really very thin on facts or reality.

Lizzie Didn't Do It!; Artemis Fowl: the Time Paradox; Real Murders

2011-11-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

So, I got to tour the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts a few weeks ago when I was in New England. I've always been fascinated by that crime, and read everything I can get my hands on about it. I'll have a few more to write about in the upcoming weeks, but for now "Lizzie Didn't Do It!" by William Masterton was very interesting. He pointed out that even modern day forensics cannot pinpoint time of death any closer than three hours, based on temperature of the body and the stomach contents, yet for 100 years everyone has assumed that Abby Borden was murdered 1 1/2 to 2 hours before her husband, simply because that's what they decided at the time. What if, Masterton posits, Abby and Andrew were killed within a few minutes of each other, by an intruder? Andrew's body was discovered just a few minutes after he was killed by Lizzie, returning from the barn. She raises the cry of murder and no one thinks to look for Abigail for almost an hour, and when they do discover her in the guest bedroom she is colder, her blood is more congealed, than Andrew's because it took longer for them to discover her. It's not all that strange a theory, when you consider all the other possibilities that have been put forth in this fascinating unsolved murder case.
"Artemis Fowl: the Time Paradox" by Eoin Colfer is book 6 in the series, and Angelina Fowl is dying rapidly of a mysterious disease. Artemis calls in Holly and Demon No 1 to help, and they determine she has a deadly fairly disease that one gets from having magic used on them. The only known cure is brain fluid from a now extinct lemur. Artemis and Holly must travel back in time 8 years, to a time when a ten year old Artemis was capturing the last lemur to sell to raise funds to search for his missing father. The whole time travel thing was confusing, but it was fun to see older Artemis trying to outwit younger Artemis.
"Real Murders" by Charlaine Harris was a quick, fluffy read, one of those books you don't really need to devote your full attention to. Aurora Teagarden is a librarian in a small town and a member of the real murders club, a group that gets together to discuss true crime and historical murders. Then murders start happening in their own town, mimicking historical crimes, and members of the group are implicated when evidence is planted against them. Everyone is acting suspicious and no one knows who can be trusted any longer.

Perfect; Emily Climbs; Artemis Fowl: the Lost Colony; The Clique; Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Bag of Bones

2011-11-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know I'm way behind but I have a very, very good excuse.
I WENT TO SEE STEPHEN KING'S HOUSE IN MAINE.

Yes, I know. Yes, I was that ridiculously excited. Anyway, it was an amazing trip but now I'm back and ready to get caught up.
"Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins was a companion to "Impulse". Connor's twin Cara is struggling with her sexuality, her boyfriend, Sean, doing steroids to earn a baseball scholarship, Kendra starving herself to become a model, all in the name of perfection. Hopkins point is that no one is perfect so you should love who you are. It was very powerful and I enjoyed it.
"Emily Climbs" by L. M. Montgomery is the sequel to "Emily of New Moon". Emily is off for three years of high school in Shrewsbery where she does quite well despite the restraint of her overbearing Aunt Ruth. It reminds me of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", where Delores Umbridge is so annoyingly unfair and frustrating. Emily handles it all much better than I would have, that's for sure! Now unfortunately none of my libraries have the third book, so I might have to buy it.
"Artemis Fowl: the Lost Colony" by Eoin Colfer is the fifth book in the series. Artemis is chasing time traveling demons and facing a nemesis like no other: a twelve year old girl who is just as intelligent and devious as he was at that age, plus she's pretty and Artemis is going into puberty. Oopsies.
"The Clique" by Lisi Harrison is the first book in her series of a group of spoiled junior high school girls. It really wasn't that good, to be honest. But it did while away a few hours on the plane out to New England.
"Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith was a reread. I suddenly felt the need to reread it. It was one of my favorite books as a young teenager, and it's still good. Francie Nolan is a poor girl growing up in turn of the 20th century Brooklyn. Her father is a drunk, her mother works herself nearly to death to keep the family fed and sheltered, and Francie escapes into a world of books. Boy, doesn't all that sound familiar!
And finally, "Bag of Bones" by Stephen King. I bought it back in 2002 and never read it. I'm sure I meant to, but I was going to school and working full time and never got around to it. I saw the ads for the upcoming miniseries and wanted to watch it, but I wanted to read the book first. I'm glad I did, I really enjoyed it. Mike Noonan is a writer who hasn't written anything since his wife, Jo, died suddenly four years earlier. He moves to their summer house, Sara Laughs, hoping for inspiration. He finds himself in the middle of a custody battle between a young woman struggling to keep her child against the baby's wealthy, powerful grandfather. Mike decides to help Mattie out, and becomes a target of the old man's wrath. Oh, and his house is most decidedly haunted. Very, very good, classic heart wrenching SK ending and all.

Twisted; Artemis Fowl: Opal Deception; Night Circus; Maine; Favored Queen

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think this should catch me up. I missed "Twisted" by Sara Shepherd a few weeks ago. The 9th PLL book finds the girls friends again after Ali tried to kill them, and they take a spring break trip to Jamaica. While there, they meet a girl who reminds them of Ali, and a horrible thing happens that separates them again for fear of spilling their dark secret. A year later, things are going along seemingly perfectly for all four girls, until they start getting texts from A, who knows what they did in Jamaica. Whoops. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy these books, but they really are addicting.
"Artemis Fowl: Opal Deception" by Eoin Colfer is the fourth book in the series and finds the inhabitants of Underworld needing Artemis's help with the dangerous Opal, who has escaped and started a goblin rebellion.
"Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern was very beautifully written and utterly charming. I was actually enchanted by the world she spun, a world of mystery and magic that cannot be easily explained. Celia and Marco are pawns in a game much bigger than themselves, fated to duel their unique brand of magic at a circus created just to showcase their talents. Celia and Marco reach the point where they refuse to play the game as it was intended to be played any longer and they find a way to pass the delicate balancing act onto someone else so they can be together. It was an all around lovely book, and I think I'm going to buy the hardcover, something I so rarely do anymore once I've read a book. But this is one I want to own.
"Maine" by J. Courtney Sullivan told the story of a family with issues like any other, who have a summer home in Maine they visit every year but no longer together. The three children: Patrick, Kathleen, and Clare, divvy it up so they don't have to put up with each other. The story is told from four points of view: their mother, Alice, the owner of the house, Kathleen, Patrick's wife Ann Marie, and Kathleen's daughter Maggie. What Sullivan did beautifully was paint the story from each perspective: when you're in Alice's mind, you like her, you feel sorry for this seemingly sweet, sad little old lady who has nothing in the world except her faith in the Catholic Church to keep her going since her children and grandchildren rarely pay her any mind. Then when you read from Kathleen's perspective, you realize Alice isn't really all that benign but you can't help but think she's not quite as bad as Kathleen thinks she is, either. You feel like you'd hate Ann Marie's goody two shoe-edness, but when you read from Ann Marie's section you find you like her, she's trying so hard to please everyone and is not perfect, not really. Sullivan did a nice job showing how people are more than one dimensional, which really isn't as easy to do as it seems.
And finally, Carolly Erickson's "The Favored Queen". She paints a highly fictionalized but fun account of Jane Seymour. Jane is usually portrayed as very pious and plain and perhaps a big dull, but Erickson re-imagines her as having had a broken engagement, an affair with a married man, and having a part in Anne Boleyn's downfall, which made Jane much more interesting. It was quick read.

American Gods; Like Judgement Day; Still Missing; Size 12 is Not Fat

2011-10-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think I'm missing a whole bunch of books because, instead of writing them down immediately after finishing them, I think "oh, I'll remember", and then I never do. Luckily I have a paper back up, I just have to consult it and get caught up. Anyways...
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman was very good, hard to describe but I really enjoyed it. Shadow is released from prison and takes a job with a sketchy guy called Mr. Wednesday after his wife is killed in a car accident and he realizes he has nothing to go back home to. He kind of wove in ancient mythology and gods with the idea of people bringing their old gods over from the old country but then there also being new gods created or already here? Not sure, I was a little fuzzy on the details. But it held my attention better than most sci fi/fantasy books do, so yay for that!
Moving on. I saw the film "Rosewood" a few weeks ago and wanted to know more about what took place in the small Florida town in 1923. "Like Judgement Day" by Michael D'Orso didn't really tell so much about Rosewood and its residents as it explained the nuances of Florida legislation (fascinating stuff). I guess it's nearly impossible to know what happened nearly a century before for sure, of course eye witness accounts are spotty at best, but what it boiled down to was that an angry mob burned down the town, killing many black residents and displacing the entire remaining citizens. Seventy three years later, the survivors and their descendants were awarded compensation for their loss from the state of Florida. The movie was actually very good, if not sad.
"Still Missing" by Beth Gutcheon took place in 1980, so it felt a bit dated but it was interesting. It was inspired by the Ethan Patz disappearance and there was a movie which I've never seen called "Without a Trace" that was based on the book. Boy, that sounds way more convoluted then it needs to be. At any rate, Susan Selky kisses her six year old son, Alex, goodbye one morning and watches him walk off to school. He doesn't return home that afternoon and she discovers he never made it to school, he simply vanished. At first the police and neighbors and friends are eager and gung ho to help her find him, but after the weeks go by and there's still no trace of him their eagerness starts to wane and Susan finds herself fighting to keep attention focused on finding Alex. When a man who used to clean their house is arrested for homosexual activities, the police try to pin Alex's disappearance on him and wash their hands of the whole deal, but Susan isn't convinced he is guilty.
"Size 12 is Not Fat" by Meg Cabot was light and fluffy fun. I've read a few of her YA novels and found them entertaining. I really liked "Avalon High", I thought it was very clever the way she wove in Arthurian mythology. But anyway, "Size 12" deals with a former pop star who is dropped by her record label and her ex-fiance and forced to take work in a college residence hall (an uppity name for a dorm) after her mother runs off with all her money. Heather is surprising optimistic about the whole thing, at least until girls start turning up dead. Their deaths are ruled accidental, caused by a dangerous hobby known as elevator surfing. Heather doesn't buy it, and it turns out she's right: someone is murdering the girls and now the killer is out to silence her, too. While the mystery bit was pretty predictable (I figured it out way in advance, which almost never happens) it was still a cute read and I couldn't help but like Heather. She was so nice but not in a "gag me, she's too good to be true" kind of a way.

Flash and Bones; Ready Player One

2011-10-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Kathy Reich's latest Temperance Brennan novel "Flash and Bones", has Tempe investigating a murder at the Charlotte speedway during race week. Well, actually, the original murder took place long before, the story starts with a body encased in asphalt trapped in a barrel that has probably been there for over a decade. It was pretty good, shorter than most of her previous stories and without as much convolution so I was able to follow along. Yay me! Unfortunately no detective Andrew Ryan, though, I have high hopes for a reappearance soon.
"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline was really a lot of fun, one of the best books I've read in awhile. It takes place about 30 years in the future, in a world where most people live out their lives in a virtual world called the OASIS. OASIS's founder, James Halliday, dies, and in his will stipulates that his vast fortune and control of OASIS will go to the first person who is able to solve his puzzles, find three keys, and open three different gates and win the challenges within. For five long years egg hunters (or "gunters") have been searching for the clues and keys with no luck. A dedicated young man named Wade manages to find the first key and the race is on. A group called the sixers are hot on his trail, using all the power of their corporation, IOI, to cheat their way into winning the game. It was a great story with lots of fun action and wonderful characters to root for. I was literally cheering at the end.

Henry VIII, Wolfman; and Impulse

2011-09-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

A. E. Moorat wrote a funny spoof about Henry VIII called "Henry VIII, Wolfman" in which he imagines werewolves overrunning England during the time of Henry's reign. Henry is bitten during an attack which kills Queen Katherine and their newborn son, George, and Henry vows revenge. But he turns into a werewolf during every full moon despite his attempts to fight it. He ends up biting Anne Boleyn and turning her as well, and marries her out of guilt. Meanwhile, Malchek, head of the wolfen, is going around building an army of werewolves. It was pretty amusing, and he did a good job of characterizing the people who surrounded Henry during that time period.
"Impulse" by Ellen Hopkins was very dark and very powerful. Taking place in Aspen Springs, a mental hospital for teens, we meet Connor, Vanessa, and Tony, who have all tried to commit suicide. They bond and become friends and help each other out during their dark times, and Tony and Vanessa's parents become more engaged and willing to help their troubled kids out, while Connor's family continues to be cold, so Connor tries again to kill himself and this time he succeeds. I see why teens like Hopkins books so much: her voice is very authentic and never condescending, plus it's interesting and goes very quick.

Wanted; American Heiress

2011-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

So book 8 of PLL was...interesting. I actually really enjoyed it, as improbable as the whole "Ali and her identical insane twin Courtney switching places" storyline was. I mean, it all fit together nicely enough. I wonder if Sara Shepherd had the ending in mind when she started. If she didn't then just, wow. I'm guessing she did, though.
"American Heiress" by Daisy Goodwin wasn't as good as I hoped. The ending kind of killed it for me. Cora Cash is a wealthy socialite living in New York at the end of the 19th century. She has everything: good looks, lots of money. Her overly ambitious mother wants her to have a title as well, so Cora goes off to England and meets an impoverished Duke. They actually do fall in love and get married, and Cora uses her wealth to restore the Duke's home and lands. But she finds navigating the tricky waters of high class British society quite difficult and everyone seems to be out to laugh at her mistakes. Cora handles it well, though, until she discovers her husband had an affair with one of the ladies she thought was a good friend to her. In the end she ends up staying with her husband, choosing to believe him when he says the affair ended after they wed. I frankly didn't see why Cora was so enamored with the Duke, he seemed like a tool, and I didn't like Cora, either. I really don't feel sympathy for wealthy, thin, gorgeous people. Shocking, I know :)

Artemis Fowl: the Eternity Code; Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident; Wicked; Killer; Heartless; Untold Story

2011-09-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

I accidentally read books 3 and 2 of the Artemis Fowl series out of order, but that's okay. Eoin Colfer's series finds Artemis on the hunt to rescue his father in "The Arctic Incident", which he does, while helping the underworld people quell a goblin rebellion staged by the evil Opal Koboi, who is going to reappear in book 4. Using fairy technology he pilfered, Artemis creates a magical box that is light years ahead of any technology on earth. He shows it to wealthy technology mogul Spiro with the thought that Spiro will pay him to keep his invention under wraps in "The Eternity Code". Instead Spiro steals the box and tries to kill Artemis and Butler. Holly has to help him get out of the mess he's gotten himself into, after he swears this is his last shady enterprise. We'll see.
A bunch more of the PLL series by Sara Shepherd. "Wicked", book 5, finds the girls still receiving emails and texts from A, even though Mona is dead. Who is new A? Ian has been arrested and is awaiting trial for Ali's murder, even though he is vehemently protesting his innocence. The books ends with the girls finding Ian's dead body in the wood. Book 6, "Killer", picks up with the girls having to struggle for credibility when Ian's body disappears and all of Rosewood thinks they are making everything up for attention. The books ends with Spencer's barn being lit on fire with everyone but Aria in it. They manage to escape from the flames and find someone--is it Ali?--in the woods. In "Heartless", book 7, more secrets are revealed when we find out Spencer was Ali's half sister. Hanna ends up in a mental hospital after her evil soon to be stepsister convinces her dad she's on the verge of a breakdown. Emily hides out with an Amish family, looking for answers on a seemingly wild goose chase A sends her on. A new suspect, Billy Ford, is arrested for Ali's murder after Jenna is also murdered and it turns out Billy was a construction worker at both girl's homes during the time of their deaths. This series is fun and kind of trashy, but it really is amazing how well she's making these secrets and revelations fit together. I'm impressed, anyway :)
And in a little break from PLL, Monica Ali's "Untold Story" imagines what might have happened if Princess Diana didn't really die back in that car crash in Paris in 1997. Ali has Diana living in a quiet American mid-west town under the name of Lydia, after faking her death to escape the paparazzi that she felt was ruining her life and the lives of her boys. Lydia has a hard time making friends and letting people into her life because of her devastating secret, and she's always looking over her shoulder, paranoid someone might find her out. Then the past catches up with her in the form of a photographer who used to chase her, and she worries her carefully crafted life will blow up in her face. It was an interesting idea about how desperate she might have been to escape the life she was leading and how she could have made it happen.

Travels with Zenobia; Emily of New Moon; Withering Tights; Powder and Patch

2011-09-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

In 1926 Rose Wilder Lane and her friend Helen Dore Boylston traveled from Paris to Albania in a car they named Zenobia, and kept a humorous journal of their experience. I enjoyed the quick read, and it was fascinating how, while things have changed so very much, they have also stayed the same. Like the government red tape just for them to buy Zenobia in Paris reminded me of the hoops the DMV made my dad jump through to register a truck he bought salvaged out of state. Every time he gathered up the permits, certificates, signatures, and paperwork they requested and went in, they found ten more things for him to go and get. It was like a scavenger hunt with no end. But I digress.
"Emily of New Moon" by L. M. Montgomery is one I hadn't read as a child, but wanted to now after rereading all the Anne of Green Gables books for the millionth time. Emily, much like Anne, is orphaned and goes to live with maiden aunts on a farm called New Moon. Emily doesn't have as much spunk and fire as Anne, but she is whimsical and charming and it was a sweet book.
Louise Rennison is back! Not with Georgia, sadly, but with her younger cousin Tallulah in "Withering Tights". Tallulah is spending the summer at a college acting workshop in Yorkshire. She's not like Georgia: she's more serious and shy and not as prone to doing zany things just for the sake of it, but she still manages to get herself into some amusing situations. I enjoyed it, but damn, it made me miss Georgia so much.
And finally, a Georgette Heyer novel called "Powder and Patch". It was short, quick read. Philip is in love with Cleone, but she won't have him because he's coarse and countrified, so he goes to London to learn how to be a fop, and succeeds beyond anyone's expectations. Six months later when Cleone sees him again she's angry at him for being a gadabout and frivolous with his affections. Luckily for Philip, Cleone gets herself into a nasty entanglement and when he is able to free her of it they both realize how silly they've been and that they are meant to be together. Ah, happy ending.

Stolen Life

2011-08-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

Continuing my quest for not "happy happy" books (I think I'm going to try to incorporate this into my daily vocabulary), I finished Jaycee Dugard's "Stolen Life" today. You knew I would be all over this book, given my proclivity towards true crime. It was really, really sad and I could completely relate to a lot of the things she complained about, not like having control over her own life for so many years and feeling so alone all the time, although, obviously, not to the same degree that she suffered. She tells her story in her own words: straightforward and honest. It was a great read and I hope Phillip and Nancy Girrado enjoy their special place in Hell with Kenneth Parnell someday.

Lady Blue Eyes; The Kid

2011-08-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

So reading Barbara Sinatra's biography about her life with Frank, "Lady Blue Eyes" made me a bit jealous, especially when she talked about how lucky she was and how great Frank was to her. They had some tumultuous times, but in the end it sounded wonderful. So yeah. Enough of the happy happy.
"The Kid" by Sapphire killed the "happy happy". A sequel to "Push", "The Kid" finds Precious's son Abdul orphaned at 9 when Precious dies of AIDS. Abdul is sent to a foster home and then a Catholic home for boys where of course the priests molest him. He runs away at 13 to live with his great grandmother, but that doesn't work out and he ends up being taken in by Roman, who uses him as a sex slave pet until he escapes from there at age 17 to try to be straight and live on his own as a dancer. I didn't like this book as well as "Push". It was hard to read because of all the abuse and general awfulness going on around Abdul, but Abdul makes a lot of dumb decisions that lands him where he ends up in his life, so I couldn't feel as sorry for him as I did for his mother, who just seemed to catch it no matter what she did and honestly tried to make a valiant effort to better herself. I think it would have broken her heart to see the boy she struggled for and loved so much turn out the way he did. Plus, Sapphire mentions Abdul using Google in 1997. Um...no, try again. While it was certainly around back then, it wasn't the powerhouse it is today. Plus, 9 year old Abdul had his own computer even though Precious was on welfare and trying to take classes at City College and whatnot. Somehow I think a computer would have been way, way down on her list of things to purchase.

Diverging Roads

2011-08-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

I finished Rose Wilder Lane's semi-autobiographical novel "Diverging Roads" this morning. The first half felt very familiar because it was basically Roger Lea MacBride's "Bachelor Girl", just with some of the names changed. Helen (Rose) leaves her poor country farm girl life behind and travels out West to become a telegraph operator. Her sweetheart from back home, Paul, doesn't like the new crowd she's hanging out with, and in an act of defiance she marries the dashing Gilbert Kennedy (Gillette Lane). The second half of the book was new to me and quite interesting, about how Helen, after being deserted by Gilbert, went on to become a real estate salesperson and later a journalist. I need to actually read a biography about Rose (I read "Ghost in the Little House" about 20 years ago and don't remember much) to see how much of it was actually based on her own life. She really did lead an interesting and unconventional life for a woman at the time.

Let the Hurricane Roar; Sing You Home; Before Green Gables; Anne of Windy Poplars; Anne's House of Dreams; Anne of Ingleside; Rainbow Valley; Rilla of Ingleside; Artemis Fowl; Beauty Queens

2011-08-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Rose Wilder Lane's "Let the Hurricane Roar" was a fictionalized account of her grandparent's struggle that she wrote before Laura put pen to paper and told her version of the events. It was an interesting, adult perspective of some of the events of "On the Banks of Plum Creek".
Jodi Picoult does it again in "Sing You Home", setting out to prove that there is never a situation that is completely black and white, there are always shades of grey. Max and Zoe Baxter have been married for ten years and are desperate to have a baby. Zoe is nearly forty and when she becomes pregnant she knows it may be her last chance. Unfortunately, the baby is stillborn. Zoe is determined to try again, but Max is tired and scared Zoe might die. They end up separating and eventually divorcing. Max turns to alcohol to relieve the pain and ends up heading down a bad path, but thanks to the love of his brother he is saved and becomes a born again Christian. Zoe, meanwhile, becomes friends with Vanessa, and they realize that they have more than just a friendship--it's love. They marry, and Vanessa puts forth the idea of her carrying one of the three embryos that Zoe and Max still had frozen. Zoe loves the idea but Max does not. He would rather give the frozen embryos to his brother and sister in law, who are also having fertility issues. Since technically Zoe and Max each contributed 50% of the DNA to the embryos, who gets them? She definitely makes you think about both sides of an issue, that's for sure.
Budge Wilson wrote a prequel to "Anne of Green Gables" with the blessing of L. M. Montgomery's heirs. I didn't really care for "Before Green Gables". She ignored most of the history of the books that Montgomery so lovingly crafted and tried to give Anne a much nicer childhood than I think Montgomery intended. Sure, Anne suffered before going to Green Gables, but not that much, if you believe Wilson's claims. It just rubbed me the wrong way, like she couldn't bear to make Anne go through horrible things.
I finished rereading Montgomery's series: "Anne of Windy Poplars", which is mostly Anne's correspondence to Gilbert during the three years they were separated while he was studying medicine. She was a principal at a high school and boarded with two lovely widows and their maid, Rebecca Dew. I remember not liking this one much when I was a kid, because of course I was just anxious for Anne and Gilbert to get married, but I enjoyed the wonderful cast of characters in it this time around. "Anne's House of Dreams" follows Gilbert and Anne during their first years of marriage when they move to Four Winds Harbor. "Anne of Ingleside" paints a lovely picture of a house full of children and a happy Anne. My bitterness knew no bounds during this one. I remember the last time I reread "Rainbow Valley" being very depressed by it, but this time around I saw the humor and it made me laugh again like it used to when I was a kid. And finally, "Rilla of Ingleside", the saddest one of all. Poor Walter. And Dog Monday. All I have to do is think about Dog Monday and I burst into tears.
I've been wanting to read Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" series for quite a while now, and I finally got around to reading the first one. Artemis is a twelve year old genius, out to get a piece of fairy fortune to fortify his family's dwindling riches. It was funny and clever and I rather like young Artemis. I think I'm going to enjoy the rest.
And finally (finally!) "Beauty Queens" by Libby Bray. It was a hilarious farce about a group of beauty pageant contestants who end up stranding on a seemingly deserted island after their plane crashes. The girls learn to become self sufficient even as evil forces behind the scenes are plotting their demise. Throw in a pirate ship full of hot reality star pirates and an evil Corporation straight out of "The Hunger Games", and you had some funny, irreverent romps.

The Borrower

2011-08-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

"The Borrower" by Rebecca Makkai was disappointing. It was just kind of dumb. It had a good premise: a children's librarian named Lucy Hull comes into work one morning and finds ten year old Ian Drake, one of her favorite little readers, camped out in the library after having run away from home. Even though he is only 10, Ian's parents think he might be gay so they have been sending him to an extremist preacher to "fix" him, and it's making Ian unhappy. Rather than take him back to his parents or calling the police, Lucy packs Ian in the car and takes off, letting Ian lead the way by giving her directions. They spend 10 days on the road, not doing much of anything. She lost me after she decided to take off with Ian. Look, I understand if you don't agree with the way someone is raising their kids but really, it's not your call. Call social services to investigate if you think the kid is being injured or abused, but don't kidnap them. Lucy's character just made all librarians look like illogical morons. Moral of the story: much like how not all fiction set in Las Vegas is awesome, I must remember that not all books featuring librarians will be awesome, either.

The Convenient Marriage; Kiss Her Goodbye; Red

2011-08-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

Oh Georgette Heyer, how I love your sparkling wittiness. It was really out and on display in "The Convenient Marriage". I liked this one almost as much as "Cotillion". Elizabeth Winwood's mother arranges for her to marry the wealthy Earl of Rule, much to Elizabeth's dismay, as she is in love with another man. Her brother has racked up enormous gambling debts, and they need the Earl's money to pay off creditors. Her younger sister, Horatia, commonly known as "Horry", goes to the Earl and proposes that they marry instead so her sister can be happy. The Earl agrees, and he and Horry marry (that's pretty much the last we see of Elizabeth, too). The Earl's cousin is not pleased with the match because he stands to inherit everything if the Earl doesn't have an heir, now a possibility since he is married. So he sets out to destroy Horry's reputation, and a serious of hilarious misunderstandings ensue, with the requisite happy ending.
Mickey Spillane was the man. Before he died in 2006, he wrote a bunch of great Mike Hammer novels. I guess I should say Mike Hammer is the man. Before he died, Mickey bequeathed his unfinished manuscripts to Max Allan Collins, and he finished "Kiss Her Goodbye". As is typical with Hammer novels, there's a lot of drinking, fighting, beautiful women, and murder. The body count piles up in this book, and I loved all the gun fighting action. Oh, and Velda!! Who doesn't love Velda? It made me want to go back and reread "I, the Jury" (which I will have to borrow from the library since I lent my copy to a friend years ago and never got it back).
And finally, Sammy Hagar's autobiography "Red". I'm not a Van Halen fan (I have family members that will literally kill me for saying that), but it's true. It's not that I don't like Van Halen, I'm just completely indifferent. I wanted to read Sammy's book because he grew up in Fontana, just fifteen minutes away from where I grew up in Alta Loma (hello Inland Empire!!). It was a quick read, and good. Sammy realizes how incredibly lucky he is to have the fame and fortune from doing something he loves and he lives life to the absolute fullest, so good for him.

Fall to Pieces; Nerd Do Well; My Wilder Life

2011-08-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago I was complaining about Scott Weiland's pseudo-autobiography, and decided to read his ex-wife's to see how it compared. Mary Forsberg Weiland's "Fall to Pieces" was very good, honest and illuminating. While I don't agree with the whole "addiction is a disease" theory I can totally understand that people with mental imbalances like bipolar disorder, which both Mary and Scott suffer from, are more susceptible to addictions. She and Scott went down a crazy path together, but in the end I still found myself envying her because she met a man, fell in love, and *knew* they were going to end up together, and lo and behold they did. It never quite works out the same way for me and I don't think it's fair. But enough whining down that road.
Simon Pegg is a funny guy, and his book "Nerd Do Well" was pretty amusing but I thought he spent way too much time talking about his childhood as opposed to his adult years. Plus, he's way into "Star Wars", and I've never seen any of them, so I was a bit lost at times. Still, it was quirky and original, exactly what I expected from Pegg.
I think if Wendy McClure and I ever met in real life we could be great friends. Reading her book was like reading about my own mind. "My Wilder Life" chronicles her love of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series and how she wanted to go and visit all the places where Laura lived. I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THAT TOO!!! And she talked about how as a kid she always imagined Laura as a real friend that through the miracle of time travel she would show around the modern world. I DID THAT TOO!!! I found myself gasping a lot while reading it, going "oh, wow, I'm not the *only* one who thinks that way?! Awesome!". It was a great read, highly enjoyable, plus I learned about this awesome blog which is going to keep me entertained for quite a while. Win!

Anne of the Island; Before I Go to Sleep

2011-08-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

As a kid I was very frustrated with "Anne of the Island" by L. M. Montgomery. I, like everyone else in Avonlea, thought it was totally *obvious* that Anne belonged with Gilbert Blythe and didn't understand why she was wasting her time with that Roy Gardner guy and running the risk of losing Gilbert. As an adult, rereading it this time around, I sort of wondered why she didn't stick with Roy, he seemed pretty awesome. And hey, how is it the girl racks up marriage proposals every freaking day? I'm honking jealous, I've never even had one. Jeez, way to make a girl feel inadequate over here, Anne :) Anyway, it's actually a pretty good book and I enjoyed the camaraderie between Anne and her friends while living together at Patty's Place.
"Before I Go to Sleep" by S. J. Watson was very good, quite fast paced and hard to put down. Christine Lucas has a severe form of amnesia: every morning when she wakes up she has no idea who she is or where she is at. Every morning her devoted husband, Ben, patiently explains that she had a bad accident nearly 20 years earlier and lost her memory. She has no memories at all of the days before and only sketchy memories of her childhood. After Ben leaves for work every day her doctor, Dr. Nash, calls to tell her to get her journal out of its hiding place and read it so she'll remember the days before. Every day she can't believe Dr. Nash until she finds the journal where he tells her to look and reads it. She gives it to Dr. Nash to read and when he returns it, she goes to read it the next day after he calls to remind her where she's hiding it and sees she has written in the front "Don't trust Ben". Oooh...why not, why not? Of course there is nothing in the journal that explains this. Watson did a great job of capturing how disorientating it must be to wake up every day and not know who you are.

Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose.

2011-07-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for indulging a bit. This has nothing to do with books I'm reading :)

I fell in love with Texas long before “Friday Night Lights”. I remember, vaguely, watching “Dallas” with my mom as a kid. Later, when I was about 18 or so, a country music cable channel started showing “Dallas” every morning at 10 a.m. I saw the whole series from beginning to end over a year or so. I loved the opening credits: everything really was bigger in Texas. I loved the idea of oil rigs and cattle and big glass buildings. I saw “Giant” with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor and was enchanted. When I discovered Larry McMurtry (to this day, one of my favorite authors and “Lonesome Dove” remains my favorite book of all time) I thought I had found my place in life. When I grew up, I was going to move to Texas. Simple as that.
In January of 2005 I got to take a two day trip to Dallas, and it was literally a dream come true. I went with my boyfriend at the time, and he too liked the idea of moving to Texas once we had finished college. Everyone was so friendly and cheerful and it was wide open and flat--you could see forever. The cost of living was so ridiculously high in California, and everything was so cramped. We would have room to sprawl out in Texas, own a big home for a fraction of the cost that a similar home would set us back in California. We saw adorable little condos for sale for $60,000 with financing available. Financing? We laughed. We could buy one right now with what we had saved for a down payment. We even considered doing it, and using it as a rental property to generate some income to speed up our move to Texas. In the end we didn’t do it, but while there I bought a “Texan by Choice” bumper sticker, a Texas flag, and a “Don’t mess with Texas” tee shirt. I saw a license plate frame that said “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as quick as I could” and knew that I would buy one once we moved. It summed up how I felt exactly. I started collecting Texas quarters in jar and still do, to this day. I have over $50 worth. All Texas. Who cares about the other states anyway?
By the end of 2006 the boyfriend was gone, but I was more determined than ever to move to the great state. I was getting my master’s degree and decided once I did I could move. After all, I really didn’t have too many ties to California. Sure, my parents and sister were there, but not *my* family. I wanted to get married, have kids. I saw Texas as the perfect place to raise a family. I dreamed about a small, dusty town, where everyone knew everyone else and it was safe. I would be the town librarian in charge of a little bitty library, and I would close early on Friday nights to go to the football game.
Of course the town would have a high school football team, and a good one. I looked forward to those games, and I would meet a wonderful man there who loved the game and Texas as much as I did, and we would get married and have babies and once our sons were old enough they would play football too. It would all be so, so perfect.
Once I graduated in 2008 I actually did look at jobs in Texas. The logistics of moving didn’t seem too daunting. I didn’t have any major furniture, just books. I would fly out for a job interview, find a little house to rent, move.
In the meantime, I fell in love with “Friday Night Lights”. I saw the movie first because Billy Bob Thornton is in it. Oh it was wonderful. If I could go back in time to be a teenager in Texas I would have done it in a heartbeat. They had the life I’d always wanted, where the football players ruled the halls with cheerleaders on their arms. I wanted it so bad I could taste it.
I knew I couldn’t go back in time, so the next best thing would be to give my kids that perfect life. I watched “Friday Night Lights” when it first premiered on NBC, and I loved that Kyle Chandler was playing Coach Taylor. I had adored him in the short lived but wonderful show “Homefront”, which only lasted for two seasons but was one of my favorites while it was on. The TV show was absolutely perfect and then some. The fictional town of Dillon, Texas was exactly what I wanted. If I’d woken up in the morning and been in the middle of Dillon I would have known exactly where to go. I knew that town. I knew where every thing would be. I would walk down the main street and people would smile and wave and ask me if the new James Patterson had come in yet. And I would follow the lights on Friday night to the game.
Every time I hear the theme song to the show my heart aches with a longing I can’t quite name, a longing of something that should have been but never was and now never might be. I followed the show all around the different times it was aired, but I never did make it to my dusty little town in Texas. But watching the show, and rewatching the show, and watching it again and again, fills me with an odd mixture of profound peace and bitter sorrow. Everything I’ve ever wanted and will never have.
It kills me that vapid, brainless reality television can garner higher ratings and stay on the air longer than an intelligent, moving, beautifully written and acted show like “Friday Night Lights”. I wonder what kind of society I live in that doesn’t value something as amazing as “Friday Night Lights”. It’s more than just television, it’s magic. It takes me to a time and a place that doesn’t really exist except in my head, where I live in that dusty little town with my husband and babies, going to the games on Friday nights. All while I live here by the beach in California, still single, still childless, still hoping someday I can follow the lights and make it home.

My Korean Deli; License to Pawn; Peter and Max

2011-07-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

In 2002 Ben Ryder Howe opened up a small convenience store and deli with his wife and mother in law. Howe, an editor for the "Paris Review", is vastly out of his comfort level in "My Korean Deli". He has a nice, easygoing writing style that was funny and charming, but the best parts of the book were when he talked about his iconic boss George Plimpton at the Review, who sadly passed away in 2003. I would actually have enjoyed a book just talking about his experiences with the magazine. The deli storyline seemed to get in the way.
"Pawn Stars" on the History channel is one of the few reality shows I actually watch. I don't even lump it in with reality TV because to me it's not about a group of talentless idiots acting stupid just to be on TV and be famous. "Pawn Stars" is about three generations of the Harrison family, running a pawn shop on the Vegas strip. I like the Harrisons--they're real characters, and come across on the show as being very down to earth, what you see is what you get, kind of guys. That's how they came across in Rick's book "License to Pawn". It was a quick read, like dropping by and having a chat with a friend. He has a million interesting stories about the people and things he's seen in his store over the last twenty some years, and it's incredibly interesting. Like he says on the show, every piece in the store has a story behind it, which is why I enjoy watching the TV show so much.
And finally, a Fables novel in actual novel not graphic form "Peter and Max" by Bill Willingham. It was a great story, although I'm not sure why he chose to tell it in the more traditional prose format rather than comic. Peter and Max Piper are brothers and flute players, and when their father bequeaths his magical flute to younger brother Peter rather than Max, Max becomes insane with jealousy and vows revenge. I love, love, love how Willingham weaves the old fairy tales we're all familiar with into these stories. So brilliant. It was an excellent read.

Anne of Avonlea; Unbelievable; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

2011-07-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my Anne of Green Gables rereads, I took a lovely stroll through the second book in L.M. Montgomery's series "Anne of Avonlea". Anne is all grown up, sixteen, and teaching school in Avonlea so she can stay home and take care of Marilla, who is having eyesight troubles. She also takes in the orphaned children of a distant relative who have no where else to go; six year old twins named Dora and Davy, who provide much comic relief, along with tales of Anne's little pupils. Of course Anne herself gets into plenty of trouble, like falling through the rotting roof of a shed on a neighbor's property while trying to peer in their pantry window to see if they have a particular type of platter she needs to replace. Oh Anne, how I love your simple and happy little town and the people in it. Someday I'd like to go to Prince Edward Island. I hope it's still as pretty as Montgomery makes it out to be.
Pretty Little Liars book 4, "Unbelievable" by Sara Shepard finally reveals who "A" is. I guessed fairly early on in the book, so I felt vindicated that I was right. Before her death, Mona points the finger at Ian as Ali's killer, which I am a bit skeptical of. For some reason something about Spencer bothers me, the way she's always the last to see people before they die, and her mysterious blackouts. Hmmm...unfortunately there's a bit of a waiting list at the library for book 5, so I might have to go purchase it. Or see if my sister has a copy I can borrow. I'm not very good at waiting!
Steig Larsson's last book in the Millennium trilogy, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", easily could have been 200 pages shorter. He had a lot of information about Swedish politics that bored me to tears. It took me 11 days to slog through this one, nearly unheard of for me. But there were very good parts leading up to Salander's trial, which was great. Trials in Sweden are a bit more informal than trials here, but there was still a wonderful "Perry Mason moment" that I enjoyed. I liked the ending, too. He left it open, since he was planning more books before he died, but it was still a good ending. I had been hoping to learn more about Lisbeth's twin Camille, but maybe he was planning that for a later book.

Flawless; Perfect

2011-07-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

So my sister's gotten me hooked on these damn Pretty Little Liars series. I finished the second and third. "Flawless" explained the "Jenna Thing", which was that Ali caught Jenna's stepbrother Toby sexually abusing her and accidentally aimed the firework that blinded Jenna. Toby took the blame for the firework in exchange for Ali not telling what he was doing to Jenna. Toby is now back and the girls think he might be the mysterious "A" who is sending them threatening texts and emails. Toby commits suicide near the end, so nope, he wasn't A. "Perfect" kind of throws Spencer's older sister, Melissa, in as a suspect for A, but in a fit of rage Spencer blacks out and nearly kills Melissa, putting her in the hospital, so she's out as a suspect. Hanna seems to have figured it out at the end and calls the other girls and asks them to please meet her at the park so she can tell them what she's found out. The girls gather but before Hanna can reveal who A is a car runs her over, and we are left to assume she has been killed.

Lamb; Anne of Green Gables; The Girl Who Played with Fire

2011-07-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

I read Christopher Moore's funny and irrelevant "Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal". That subtitle pretty much sums it up. Biff grew up with Joshua (Jesus is the Greek translation of the word) and they spent their formative years together. Joshua knows he is the Messiah but doesn't know how to behave like one, so he and Biff set out on a 17 year adventure traveling to Asia, India, and elsewhere, tracking down the three wise men who were present at his birth in hopes that they can teach Joshua how to be the Messiah. They learn from the older native religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. It was pretty clever and I enjoyed it.
I reread L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables", which is like visiting with an old friend and sharing a cup of tea on the wraparound front porch. It made me feel safe and comforted and warm. Usually when I reread the Anne books I just read the ones from when she was an adult, so it was nice to go back and visit her when she was still a charming and vivacious girl.
Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy continues in "The Girl Who Played with Fire". He talks a lot about advanced math in this book, which was completely and utterly over my head. I liked that we learned more about Lisbeth in this one, sort of why she is the way she is and how unfairly she's been treated. The ending was a literal cliffhanger--I was so glad I had the third book already loaded and ready to go on my Nook so I could find out right away what happened. I still think these books are way over-hyped, but they're not bad. I can't see myself ever reading them again though.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2011-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

So I tried to read Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" a couple of months ago, got 100 pages in, was bored stiff, and gave up. My sister and several coworkers have been encouraging me to try it again ever since, and I finally relented and did. I powered past the beginning (which was still really boring, he spends a good deal of time giving the backstory of the characters, and since we haven't really met them yet I didn't care enough about them to find it interesting) and once I did the book got good and fast paced and I ended up enjoying it. There was a lot going on, and most people who want to read it already have by now (plus nobody reads this anyway, so hey, I can spoil all I want). Mikael Blomkist is a disgraced writer/editor/publisher who is offered an opportunity to redeem himself by a wealthy former CEO of a corporation, Henrik Vanger. Vanger wants Blomkist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriett, back in 1966. Blomkist takes the assignment, knowing he probably won't be able to come up with any new evidence, but he does, and with the help of a slightly mentally unbalanced researcher/hacker named Lisbeth Salander, he solves the mystery and is able to clear his good name. There are of course two sequels, so I'm curious as to what those will be about, since he seemed to have tied up the loose ends in this one.
Ransom Rigg's built his fiction title "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" around a real collection of odd vintage photographs discovered over the years by various scouts who collect that sort of thing. The photographs in and of themselves were absolutely fascinating. Basic trick photography in the early 1900s is vastly different than PhotoShop now, plus some of them weren't trying to be tricky they were just...odd. What a great concept for a book, too! Rigg's brings the strange people in the photographs to life by building them a refuge, a home in a "loop" protected by time and from the Hollows, who like to eat peculiar children. Jacob's grandfather lived at Miss Peregrine's home, and he had the ability to see the evil monsters that were hunting them. Jacob has inherited this talent, and on his deathbed his grandfather asks him to find the home and warn Miss Peregrine about the danger coming after her and her wards. The story was great and the characters so fresh and lively. The ending leaves the way paved for a sequel, so I'm hoping there is more, if for no other reason than wanting to see more neat old time photos!

The Pact; Warm Bodies; Smokin' Seventeen; The Long Journey Home; Not Dead and Not For Sale; Here We Go Again; Keeping Faith; Honey, Baby, Sweetheart; Black Sheep; Pretty Little Liars

2011-07-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been on vacation the last ten days so I've been reading a lot but not posting. So let me try to get caught up here!
"The Pact" by Jodi Picoult was not very good. At least, not as good as some of her others have been. Two high school sweethearts, Chris and Emily, who have literally grown up together as best friends, are found one night with a gun and Emily dead. Chris claims it was a suicide pact, but after Emily shot herself he couldn't go through with it and fainted and the cops showed up before he could kill himself. The detective on the scene convinces the D.A. that Chris actually murdered Emily and they arrest him and charge him and there is a big, emotional trial, very typical of Picoult's books. I didn't like the outcome I think mostly because I didn't like the Emily character. She just didn't seem believable, so I felt no sympathy for her and didn't understand why Chris cared about her so much.
"Warm Bodies" by Isaac Marion was a zombie book with a twist. It wasn't bad, actually. "R" (that's all he remembers of his former name) wants something more out of life than just wandering around eating brains and grunting. During a raid he ends up killing and eating Julie's boyfriend Perry, and his memories of her make R decide to rescue Julie from his zombie friends. R slowly becomes more and more human throughout the course of the book, as do some of his friends. It was an interesting take on the genre.
Janet Evanovich brings Stephanie Plum back in "Smokin' Seventeen" and boy it was hot! Lots of awesome Ranger action yummy yummy! Stephanie's mother tries to get her to date an old high school classmate who is recently divorced and back in town. Dave is nice and good looking and loves to cook, and since things obviously aren't going anywhere with Morelli or Ranger what could it hurt to date Dave? Stephanie resists, and it turns out for good reason. Meanwhile, dead bodies keep turning up in the lot where Vincent Plum's bail bonds office used to be and where they are trying to rebuild. Apparently number 18 is coming out in November, which means we don't have to wait until next June! Awesome, I'll take that.
Margaret Robison was introduced to the world in a most unflattering way in her two son's memoirs, Augusten Burrough's "Running with Scissors" and John Elder Robison's "Look Me In the Eye", so she sets out to tell her side of the story in "The Long Journey Home". I didn't care for it, mostly because I think I have so little patience with the mentally ill. I know it's a terrible thing to say, and working with the general public in a library the way I do I come across a lot of people who have problems and need help. I don't know, she just didn't come across as truthful and I didn't get the pain and sadness she claims she feels about her son's childhoods. It was just "woe is me" tripe.
"Not Dead and Not for Sale" by Scott Weiland was worse, though, a total waste of time. Like Betty White's book from a few weeks ago, it left me feeling cheated, like he didn't even try to tell a story and it only took me an hour and a half to read. It was just basic, dull generalities without details. I've got his ex-wife's book on hold, so we'll see how her's holds up.
"Here We Go Again" by Betty White was the bio I was looking for. This one was great. Betty was charming and classy and very funny in this story about how she and television have grown up together. At one point she was on TV for over 25 hours a week! Can you even imagine? The book was also full of lovely photos which really added to her story. Much better!
"Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult was better than "The Pact". Mariah comes home one day and finds her husband in bed with another woman. After their divorce is finalized their seven year old daughter, Faith, starts talking to her imaginary friend. No big deal, until Faith starts referring to Bible verses she's never heard before (her parents aren't religious) and Mariah discovers her imaginary friend's name is God. Faith then starts performing miracles, like bringing her dead grandmother back to life and healing a baby with AIDS. The media and the Catholic and Jewish churches are all out to discredit Faith, and all Mariah wants is for her little girl to be left alone when her ex, Colin, decides to sue her for custody. There was a lot going on in this book, but it wasn't nearly as torturous as some of her others. I enjoyed it.
Deb Caletti's "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart" was another good one. I really do love her books, how authentic and believable her characters are. In this one Ruby falls for bad boy Travis who turns out to be much too bad, a thief, and Ruby realizes she needs to get away from him for good but it's hard when you care about someone. Her mother Ann is going through a similar situation. Ann takes her to a book club that she moderates (Ann is a librarian whoo hoo!) full of seniors who call themselves the Casserole Queens. Both Ruby and Ann start to heal with the help of these fun loving older folks, and although it sounds hokey it really wasn't.
"Black Sheep" by Georgette Heyer was short but very sharp. I so love her witty repartee between the two main characters in this one. Abby's niece and ward, Fanny, who is 17, has fallen in love with a fortune hunter named Stacy Caverleigh. Abby is trying to convince her niece that he is only after the money she will inherit in 8 years without turning Fanny against her. Meanwhile, Stacy's black sheep of the family uncle, Miles, returns from a 20 year exile in India and he and Abby fall for each other. Wonderful dialogue and a happy ending. More please! :)
And finally, finally (whew!) Sara Shepard's first in the series "Pretty Little Liars". At first the book annoyed me because these 16 year old kids were buying and consuming alcohol in public with no problems, and that struck me as utterly false. After awhile though it didn't seem to matter as much and I got into it and must admit, now I'm hooked and want to know what happens next. In junior high five wealthy, stuck up girls who are friends share a terrible secret which is only hinted at in this book. When one of the girls, Alison, mysteriously disappears never to be found the other four girls drift apart. Three years later they're all receiving strange text messages and emails from someone signing off as "A", who knows secrets they only shared with Alison. The book ends when Alison's body is dug up in her old backyard, but the four girls are still getting the cryptic, vaguely threatening messages.

Gone with a Handsomer Man; American Lightening; Fables V. 15: Rose Red; Girl's Guide to Homelessness; A Love that Multiplies; If You Were Here

2011-06-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh boy I've been reading a lot lately. That's all just one week! Good grief. Okay, here we go...
"Gone with a Handsomer Man" by Michael Lee West was a decent and amusing murder mystery set in Charleston. Teeny catches her fiance playing naked badminton with two women and calls off their engagement. When the ex, Bing, turns up dead a few days later, Teeny is the obvious suspect. With the help of her first boyfriend who is now a lawyer, Coop, his P.I., Red Butler (no kidding), and Bing's stepmother Dora they turn Charleston upside down trying to figure out who really did Bing in and keep Teeny safe before the killer can come after her. It was fun but not hysterically so. There is obviously going to be a sequel (if not then the ending was WTF times 10) so I'll read it but I'm not chomping at the bit.
So I finally broke down and bought a Nook. I love the idea of having a whole bunch of books available on a light, portable device, and the new Nook is perfect for me. I really do love it, but I haven't bought any e-books for it, I've just borrowed from my library. Love it! I downloaded Harold Blum's "American Lightening", and it is officially the first book I've read on my Nook. It was a fairly interesting true crime story about the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. It focused mainly on the detective's hunt for the bombers, since they pled guilty there was no long drawn out trial. It was interesting but he threw a little too much in there all at once for my taste, trying to draw in the water crisis that the movie "Chinatown" made immortal, as well as D.W. Griffith and some other extraneous stuff which I felt bogged down the story.
"Fables V. 15: Rose Red"--Bill Willingham and company return with another marvelous entry into the Fables canon. Rose Red is finally persuaded to get up out of bed and stop her self destructive mourning for Boy Blue, and we get her and Snow's backstory, which was really interesting. Frau Totenkinder has transformed into the young and lovely Bellflower, and it looks like she has found a successful way to trap Mister Dark, until he escapes. The Fables flee the Farm for the Frog Prince's safe Haven and Ozma girds up to be the one to fight Mister Dark as Bellflower retires. Can't wait to see what happens next! I have to wait until December, though, for the next volume. Bah!
Brianna Karp always worked hard, and in 2009 she was another casualty of the Great Recession. She lost her job and her rental house, and her crazy whack job mother threw her out onto the streets. Determined not to lose all hope, Brianna ended up in a trailer in a Walmart parking lot in Brea and started a blog called "The Girl's Guide to Homelessness" detailing her struggles, fears, and optimism in the face of crushing challenges. Her book was well written and charming. I hope she continues to write, because she has a real talent for it, I think. Her bravery and determination is awe inspiring to say the least. I am reminded every day of how precarious my own life is, especially a few months ago when it looked like I might be laid off. Thankfully I have normal (okay, *somewhat* normal) loving parents who would take me back in in a heartbeat, were it ever god forbid necessary. It's just scary to think that you can do everything right: go to school, work hard, earn a degree, get a good job, pay all your bills on time and live within your means and STILL be completely wiped out by having just one bad thing happen to you. Scary stuff.
I love the Duggars. I've been watching them on TV since their first Discovery Channel specials. Jim Bob and Michelle are quite possibly the most awesome people in the world. In their new book "A Love that Multiplies" they talk about their strong faith and love for each other and the challenges with raising such a large family. I literally cried my way through this entire book, because I'm so jealous of them. I know, it's terrible, but all you have to do is watch their TLC show for five minutes and you can see how truly blessed they are. Jim Bob thinks Michelle is the most amazing woman in the world and he's a great husband and father, and dammit, I want a Jim Bob of my own! I want babies. Not 19, of course, but one or two would be nice. Oh, well, I'll try to be content with the life god gave me. Of course, maybe if I actually started capitalizing his name he might be more inclined to look upon me with a bit more favor...oh well :) I think the whole "me being on good speaking terms with god" ship sailed a long time ago.
And finally Jen Lancaster's first foray into fiction "If You Were Here". Like her nonfiction, it was witty and charming and I loved it. Mac and Mia buy a money pit in the suburbs of Chicago (three words: Jake Ryan's house. Yep, I would have bought it, too) and proceed to renovate it to the point of livability without much luck. What a treasure Jen Lancaster is, and for that matter, John Hughes. Rest in peace, good sir. I feel like watching "Sixteen Candles" for the umpteenth time now.

If You Ask Me; Stay; Reading Promise

2011-06-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

I was glad I borrowed Betty White's new book "If You Ask Me..." because it felt like a total ripoff. If I'd actually paid for it I probably would have taken it back and gotten a refund. The margins were around two inches on all sides, and the font was huge. It seriously took me an hour to read, and it was all just filler nonsense, nothing really interesting or revealing about her life at all. Just churned out to capitalize on the recent resurgence in her career, which is just sad. Betty's better than that. I have one of her older books on hold, so I hope it's a little more interesting.
"Stay" by Deb Caletti was amazing. It's a YA book about a girl named Clara who is hiding out in a sleepy beach town, avoiding her crazy, jealous ex-boyfriend, Christian. She can't even tell her friends back home where she's at for fear Christian will find out. Clara and her dad (her mother died when she was little) find themselves enjoying their new home away from home, and they both meet potential romantic interests. Caletti alternates between the present and what happened with Christian, so about 2/3 of the way into the book the reader, like Clara, is jumping at every noise and expecting Christian to pop out from every corner. It was really tense, and I just kept waiting for the payoff. I'd like to read more books by her, it was just so nicely written.
Alice Ozma and her dad decided to read for 1,000 nights straight, and in her memoir "The Reading Promise", she details in loving memory their "Streak" as well as her special relationship with her dad, who was a single man trying to raise two daughters. He did an excellent job, in my opinion: Alice is funny and articulate and very charming. Reading her book is like sitting down and chatting with her over lunch: she just comes across as so real and so friendly and pleasant to be around. And her dad is awesome! An elementary school librarian in an impoverished neighborhood, he is a champion of books and readers everywhere. Alice and her dad read together every single night for over 9 years, until she left home to go to college. It was a beautiful book, so sweet, I really loved it. Back when I was a kid I wanted to be part of the Ingalls family because I loved Laura's books so much, and I knew Pa would always look out for me. Now I want to be part of Alice's family :)

Desert Gift

2011-06-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

"Desert Gift" by Sally John was a bit of a departure for me. It's Christian fiction, which I usually don't read, but the ones I have read I've liked. I used to read Bodie and Brock Thoene's books when I was a teen and I really enjoyed them. Sometimes it's nice to read something without all the sex and foul language. Not always, mind you, but occasionally. I liked the plot of this book: on the brink of their much anticipated vacation, Jill's husband, Jack, announces that not only is he not going with her, but he wants a divorce. Jill is a radio host with a program on marriage counseling, and the trip was a working vacation where she was going to promote her new book on how to make a marriage last. Whoops. Jill was totally blindsided by Jack's announcement, and is of course a distraught wreck. While in California she visits with her parents and her sister, and wonders about what went wrong.
There were a lot of little side issues in this book that never really panned out, like meeting up with her old boyfriend, Ty, and her relationship with her mother, while other parts of the book were stretched thin. Jack's revelation near the end of the book about his ex girlfriend aborting their baby seemed superfluous to me: it served no real purpose and they didn't even really discuss it. It felt like the author just tossed a whole bunch of things in to see what would stick. The characters were likeable enough and the dialogue felt real, but I couldn't get over the nonsensical plot elements to really say I enjoyed it.

Sound and the Fury; Intruder in the Dust; Sanctuary; Edison's Concrete Piano; The Black Moth; Untied

2011-06-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

So I decided to have a bit of a William Faulkner retrospective this weekend and reread "The Sound and the Fury", "Intruder in the Dust", and "Sanctuary". I've reread "The Sound and the Fury" quite a few times now, and every time I find something new to love about it. I hadn't read the other two in quite a while now, so it was almost like reading them brand new. I remembered the basic generalities of the stories but not the specifics. "Intruder in the Dust" is a darkly humorous murder mystery. A black man, Lucas Beauchamp, is accused of shooting a white man in the back. Lawyer Gavin Stevens' nephew Chick is racing against the lynch mob clock to prove Lucas is innocent. The ending is brilliant and dry, and I loved how the murdered man's grave was robbed three separate times in the same night.
"Sanctuary" is grimmer, darker. It's the book that had all of polite society in Oxford asking William's mother why Bill had to go and write such a book. Temple Drake, a pretty young coed, is stranded at a gang's hideaway by her loutish, drunk boyfriend. The leader of the gang, Popeye, kills one of his cohorts in order to kidnap and rape Temple. It's graphic and ugly but so well written. I can imagine how shocking it was, especially for 1931 Mississippi, especially the courtroom scene at the end. I'd love to reread some more of Faulkner. I have a vacation coming up in a few weeks, so I just might do that.
On to new books! "Edison's Concrete Piano" by Judy Wearing was a fun look at inventions patented by famous inventors that never went anywhere. Sometimes it got a bit too technical for me to fully grasp everything she said, but it was interesting.
"The Black Moth" by Georgette Heyer was of course light and fluffy, and a much needed break after the heaviness of Faulkner. Jack has given up his rightful place in society as Earl after taking the fall for his brother's cheating at cards. He becomes an outlaw, a highwayman. But then he falls in love with Diana, and he knows he cannot marry her because of his shameful situation. Diana doesn't care, but Jack won't let her throw away her life on a scoundrel like him. Of course everything works out in the end and Jack gets to play the hero and rescue Diana from peril and the whole truth comes out about how he sacrificed for his brother. She's so much fun.
And finally, Meredith Baxter's memoir "Untied". Like most people my age, I grew up loving "Family Ties" and idolizing Meredith's character, Elyse. I thought she was beautiful and smart and talented and so lucky to have such a wonderful family, and my god was she thin! After having so many kids, too! I figured Meredith, in her own life, was just as perfect. Actually, no, her ex-husbands come out looking especially bad but she also relates her own shortcomings, so instead of sour grapes it seems fair. Like everyone else I was shocked when she came out a few years ago, but she finally seems happy now, so I'm glad for her and her real life family.

Stories I Only Tell My Friends; The Hollywood Sign

2011-06-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of quick reads for today. Rob Lowe's autobiography "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" was interesting but he did not dish any dirt, which was lame. We all know he has really good dirt, too. And he kept talking about how certain people did him wrong without making specific accusations. So, if you're at all curious about how he got his lucky breaks in show business (mostly knowing the right people and being incredibly lucky) then this is the book for you. If you want to know about his infamous sex tape scandal, it's all of one vague paragraph.
"The Hollywood Sign" by Leo Braudy looked at the history of the now iconic sign, how it got its start as a billboard advertisement for "Hollywoodland", a community of new homes, and how it aged and was rescued and refurbished over the years. It was nicely done without excessive padding.

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me

2011-05-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Supposedly written by family and friends (wink wink) "Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me" was actually pretty funny. I certainly enjoyed it more than her last book "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang". This was a collection of recollections of those closet to her, of pranks she had pulled on them and the fun times they've had. Much nicer than picking on Ted! It's the perfect sort of light summer fun at the beach type of book that I check out that never quite makes it to the ocean :)

Nineteen Minutes; The Onion Field; Every Day by the Sun; Bloody Valentines

2011-05-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

I read Jodi Picoult's "Nineteen Minutes", which was great. Her books are so hard to read, though, physically exhausting. There were plenty of twists and turns I didn't see coming a mile away, which is typical of me. It reminded me of Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk About Kevin", and I loved that one. Peter and Josie were friends when they were little, but as they enter high school Josie has made her way into the popular crowd while Peter is picked on and bullied on a daily basis. Josie does nothing to stop her new friends from hurting her old one. Peter shows up to school one day with a backpack full of guns and starts shooting, and their small town is rocked to the core. I really loved the way she painted Peter's parents, because of course our inclination is to blame the parents of these kids, but Peter's parents are wonderful and caring and seem to do everything nearly right, whereas Josie's mom really screws things up but Josie still turns out okay. Or sort of okay, at any rate.
I've been meaning to read Joseph Wambaugh's classic true crime "The Onion Field" forever and finally did. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. His style was like Capote's in "In Cold Blood", where he blended fiction and nonfiction into a hybrid type of style. I prefer my true crime straight forward and factual, I don't need to know what the author "thought" the criminal was thinking when he committed his crimes. At any rate, it was a very sad story of how two police officers were kidnapped and one was murdered by a couple of petty thieving scumbags back in 1963. I'd like to see the movie now.
In "Every Day by the Sun" Dean Faulkner Wells reminisced about her uncle, William, who helped raise her after her father, Dean, was killed in an unfortunate plane crash four months before she was born. It was a lovely, moving story of William Faulkner as "Pappy", a man, a breadwinner, the family patriarch, as opposed to just William Faulkner the writer. I'm totally in the mood for some Faulkner now! I missed rereading "The Sound and the Fury" this Easter, so I may have to do that soon.
And Melissa de la Cruz's Blue Bloods series takes an intermission in "Bloody Valentines", which is a short collection of short stories featuring the characters from her series. To be honest, her books are just too complicated for me, I can't keep track of what's going on and all the mythology behind the vampires, but this one wasn't too bad, since it was short bits.

Adrian Mole: the Cappaccino Years; Malled

2011-05-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

Sue Townsend continues Adrian Mole's hilarious antics in "Cappuccino Years". The books are published differently here in the U.S. than they are in her native U.K., so I have no idea if I'm reading them in the right order (or if my library even has them all), but I think I'm okay since this one picks up a few years after the last one. Adrian is now 30, and separated from his wife. His parents are raising his three year old son, William, and he basically doesn't have a real, paying job or a home. His stint as a celebrity chef is comical, and then he discovers he has a son from a short lived affair with Sharon Bott as a teenager. Glenn is now twelve and wants to know his dad, so he comes to live with him in the house Adrian inherited from an older man he briefly befriended (taking care of the older man's cat was part of the deal). The book takes place in 1997, and boy did the pop culture references take me back!
I also finished Caitlyn Kelly's "Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail". I was sadly disappointed by this one. After working full time in retail myself for over 5 years, I was looking forward to hearing battle stories from the front lines and commiserating with a fellow retail warrior over ridiculously rude customers and a corporate office that couldn't care less about its employees. Kelly only worked for two years one day a week for five hours at her job, so it was never a "career". She whined throughout the whole book about how she was way too experienced for the job, based on her years of work as a journalist, the many languages she spoke, the exotic locales she had traveled to. She bragged about what a good employee she was, only calling out sick a few times and only being late five times. What the hell? I was late ONCE in five years due to car trouble. I think I called out sick a total of five times in five years. She talked about how badly her feet would hurt after her shift: I was on my feet five days a week, 8 hours a day, for years, and I couldn't wear sneakers like she could, I had to wear dress shoes. I could go on and on about how I suffered, but I won't :) This is such a great topic for a book, and done correctly it could be hilarious, like "Free for All" by Don Borchet. I was hoping for more personal stories and less critiquing of the system in general.

Idea Man

2011-05-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

From an early age I had an unnatural obsession with Bill Gates and Microsoft. I don't know why--I didn't have a computer until I was well into my twenties. But as a teen I would read everything I could get my hands on about him, and thought he was a genius (opinion hasn't changed in twenty years :) I was so mad during the anti-trust suit, I couldn't believe the government was going after *my* beloved Microsoft over something as dumb as IE). Anyway, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, wrote "Idea Man", which was really great and I enjoyed it. If you're looking for dirt on my main man Bill, it's not here. Paul barely discussed Microsoft, after all, he left the company in 1983, before Windows. Having all that stock, however, allowed him to become fantastically wealthy at an early age and indulge his hobbies, like music and sports, as well become very philanthropic, giving away over $1 billion. Wowza. He seemed like a very laid back, nice guy and his book was very low key.

Crunch Time; Elizabeth I; Most Evil; Sweet Valley Saga: Patmans of Sweet Valley; Dead Reckoning

2011-05-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

Diane Mott Davidson's caterer Goldy Schultz is back in "Crunch Time". I admit: I really couldn't get into this one. There was just too much going on, too many new characters I couldn't care about. That's a pattern with her, but I can't seem to stop reading them. I enjoy the recipes, I think. Even those disappointed me this time because throughout the whole book they kept talking about Navajo Tacos, but there wasn't a recipe for them in the back. Lame.
"Elizabeth I" by Margaret George was an excellent fictionalized account of Queen Elizabeth's later years, starting with the first Armada in 1588 and focused mainly on her complicated relationship with Robert Essex. I liked how she switched over to Elizabeth's cousin and Robert's mother, Lettice Knollys', point of view for perspective. It was very nicely done.
"Most Evil" by Steve Hodel had the retired LAPD detective pinning the 1940's Chicago Lipstick murders and the 1970's Zodiac killings on his father, Dr. George Hodel, who he believes killed the Black Dahlia. It was fascinating and compelling, if a bit of a stretch. I was willing to believe the Black Dahlia allegations in his first book, "Black Dahlia Avenger", but for his father to have been that much of a monster is really mind boggling. Anything's possible, I suppose. Creepy stuff.
"Sweet Valley Sage: The Patmans of Sweet Valley" by Francine Pascal was about the history of the Patman family, going back to the 1800s, and it was so awfully dumb but I read it anyway :)
And finally, Charlaine Harris's latest Sookie Stackhouse book "Dead Reckoning". It was a lot of fun if a bit challenging for poor Sookie. She was in danger every which way she turned, I felt sorry for her. It's got me in the mood for the next season of "True Blood", that's for sure!

Gates of Paradise; Web of Dreams; Mad Men Unbuttoned; Ship Breaker; Sweet Valley Confidential

2011-04-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

I felt slightly dirty and utterly wasteful spending all that time rereading the rest of those trashy V.C. Andrews Casteel series books, "Gates of Paradise" and "Web of Dreams". "Gates of Paradise" was especially bad. Annie and Luke being in love with each other when they thought they were half brother and sister the whole time was just gross beyond belief. I mean, even though they turned out not to be, still, who falls in love with someone when you're raised as cousins and half-siblings? Besides Christopher Foxworth, I mean, really, who does that? "Web of Dreams" tells how Jillian basically pimped her daughter out to Tony Tatterton so he'd leave her alone to get her beauty rest. That woman was sick. Anyway, it's all over and done with now and I can move on to some new stuff that is hopefully less damaging to the mind. But I really do love it, in a twisted way :)
"Mad Men Unbuttoned" by Natasha Vargas-Cooper was an interesting but all too brief look at what was going on culturally in the United States during the early 1960s, when Mad Men takes place. There were some interesting tidbits about inside jokes on the show and some lovely glossy pictures, but other than that it was a touch over analytical, I thought, and didn't delve deeply enough into the more interesting topics of the day, like fashion. It was quick and fun, though.
"Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi is a YA novel about a dystopian future in which the climate has changed dramatically and all the oil is gone. Nailer works as a ship breaker, climbing through wrecks of all ships to scavenge whatever is left of any value. He dreams of the day when he can escape the life of misery and poverty and go out on the ocean in one of the beautiful clippers he sees off in the distance. It looks like he gets his lucky break when he and his friend Pima discover a wrecked clipper after a hurricane, but when they find one of the passengers on board is still alive their big break becomes more dangerous than they thought. It was a wonderful book, well told and fascinating, full of tension and adventure and action and the characters were engaging.
And some more trash, although in my defense it is new trash, Francine Pascal revisits the world of Sweet Valley ten years later in "Sweet Valley Confidential". I was amazed at how bad it was, and it seemed like she went out of her way to piss off loyal readers by having characters do complete 180s from their former selves. Plus there was NO Lila whatsoever. What the hell?? I miss the scheming, manipulative bad girl Jessica, gossiping with Lila, tearing everyone apart behind their backs. I miss predictable goody two shoes Elizabeth, meddling in everyone else's business, with trusty loyal boring Todd by her side. I miss sneering Bruce Patman, lording his wealth over everyone and acting like he's too good to mix with these low lifes. I understand people change as they grow up and grow older, but listen: I still see some of the people I hung out with fifteen years ago when we were teenagers and they haven't changed *that* much. Yes, they've matured, but their basic personalities are still the same. You can always count on them to behave a certain way, given the situation. Pascal just tossed that out the window. Oh, well, at least I didn't waste too much time on it :)

Adrian Mole: the Lost Years; Heaven; Dark Angel; Fallen Hearts

2011-04-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

I eagerly gobbled up Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole: the Lost Years", which covers 1984 through 1991, roughly, and enjoyed the heck out of it. Funny, charming stuff. Then I moved on to garbage :)
Years and years and years ago, my little sister and I both devoured V.C. Andrews' Casteel family series. Over the weekend, with piles of brand new books waiting, I instead choose to reread the first three in the series. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Heaven" introduces us to the Casteel family, the lowest of the hillbilly scum in the mountains of West Virginia known as the Willies. Heaven lives with her father's parents, her father and stepmother, and her four half-siblings in a tiny two room shack. She learns at the age of ten that she's not fully related to her brothers and sisters, that she is instead a product of her father's first marriage to a young Bostonian runaway named Leigh (the fact that her younger brother is only 6 months younger than her might have tipped me off, but hey, she *was* only ten when she found out. Of course the really horrifying part is that Luke was fooling around on his wife who was six months pregnant. That gives you a good idea as to how awesome he is). The Casteel family have it pretty rough in their mountain shack, and when Luke, her dad, gets sick and starts spending less time with the family, his wife and Heaven's stepmom Sarah gets pretty irritated and eventually she takes off, leaving the kids to fend for themselves and look after Grandpa after Granny dies. Dad decides to sell his kids rather than, hmmm, I don't know, take care of them. I actually thought this was a good idea on his part, and the kids should have been grateful. I know I would have been, to escape that awful miserable poverty. And luckily the two little kids go to a great home and live happily ever after (although their relationship seemed like it might go incestuous, but hey, it's V.C. Andrews, and that's par for the course) but Tom, Fanny, and Heaven aren't so lucky. Heaven ends up in the home of one of Luke's ex-girlfriends, Kitty, whom he knocked up before Leigh (good grief, dude). Kitty gave herself an abortion and ended up barren, so she was excited to be able to buy one of Luke's kids. She basically treats Heaven like a live in slave, making her cook, clean, do the laundry, for hours on end before and after school. And her husband seduces her and takes advantage of her. Still, all in all, I think it was a better ending than staying in the shack in the Willies. At least she didn't starve to death.
"Dark Angel" has Heaven going off in search of her mother's Bostonian relatives and finding out they're fabulously rich (there is always a pattern like this in Andrews' books, god love her) but very twisted. Turns out her step-grandfather was the one who got her 13 year old mother pregnant, and that's why Leigh ran away from her wealthy Boston home and ended up with Luke Casteel. Awesome. Of course she found out after she had fallen in love and decided to marry Tony's younger brother Troy, who is her uncle. Whoops. When we were kids my sister and I *adored* Troy. We swooned every time he was mentioned, and rereading it I'm not sure why. He's kind of annoying, all doom and gloom and "oh my god I just know I'm going to die before I'm thirty" blah, blah, blah. Dude! You're fantastically wealthy, a talented artist who gets to spend his whole day doing whatever he wants, and gorgeous. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE DEPRESSED ABOUT?? Seriously? Anyway, Heaven graduates from college and returns to Winnerrow, the little town in the valley of the Willies, to teach school there to the poor hill children like she always planned.
In "Fallen Hearts" Heaven marries her high school sweetheart, Logan, and they go to Farthinggale Manor, Tony Tatterton's home, for a reception. Tony offers Logan a substantial part in his company, which Logan eagerly accepts. Heaven has dark reservations about how Tony is trying to control their lives, but Logan is so excited about being a rich businessman that she goes along with the plan. Logan is building a toy factory in Winnerrow and makes frequent trips back there, so frequent he manages to knock up Heaven's sister Fanny. Whoops! Meanwhile, Heaven discovers that Troy faked his own death, and after a night of forbidden passion she too is pregnant. Jesus, doesn't anyone use condoms around here? It's not difficult, people. So Luke and his new wife are killed in an accident and Heaven takes over custody of their little boy, Drake. What really got to me in this book was how she was so eager to return to the Willies and kept waxing poetic about how wonderful it was. Um...no, I read about your childhood and it sucked pretty bad. Give me the big Boston mansion and the servants and the Rolls-Royce any day. But maybe I'm just shallow like that.
Anyway, when Fanny steals Drake with the intention of keeping him just because she's petty and jealous and wants whatever Heaven has, there's an ugly court battle where are their dirty laundry is aired in public and in the end Heaven ends up paying her a ton of money to turn Drake over to her. I don't know why she wanted him so bad, anyway, since she had her own kid on the way plus she wasn't even related to Drake since Tony Tatterton was her biological father, not Luke Casteel. Well, whatever. In the end Fanny and Heaven give birth on the same night, Fanny to Logan's little boy whom she names Luke, and Heaven to Troy's little girl (although Logan doesn't know it) whom she names Annie. At least Heaven wasn't all high and mighty over Logan after he knocked up Fanny, since she'd slept with Troy, after all. Out of all of V.C. Andrews books I think I like this series the best because there is no predictable evil grandmother and the characters are less annoying and more likable than some of the other series. I stopped reading halfway through "Ruby", so the only other series I have to compare it to is the "Flowers in the Attic" (EPICALLY bad, love it) and the Cutler series, which I honestly don't remember that well. There are no excuses ever made for Tony Tatterton, the real villain of the whole story. I think I will be rereading for a bit. Which is not good, because I have a ton of brand new library books. But I've found in the past that when I try to force myself NOT to reread, it just doesn't work out. I need to go with it until it's done.

Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions; Unprotected Texts; Clara and Mr. Tiffany; Silent Mercy; Dorothea Wilson Sheely; Delirium; Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole 13 3/4; and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

2011-04-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm so far behind. What can I say, I prefer reading to writing about it :)
"Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions" by G. W. Bernard was an interesting attempt to make Anne out as not quite as innocent as she is usually portrayed. Bernard argued (unsuccessfully, in my estimation, by the way) that she probably did have affairs with a few of the men she was accused of having relationships with. His arguments were a bit of a stretch to be believable, but I admired his research and attempts to humanize King Henry. It amused me.
"Unprotected Texts" by Jennifer Wright Knust was an interesting examination of what exactly the Bible says in regards to sex, marriage, and other hotly debated topics. She makes sound and reasonable arguments that we can't use the Bible out of context to justify our own personal beliefs and opinions, and noted how it had been used in years past to justify things abhorrent to the general public now, like slavery. Very provocative.
"Clara and Mr. Tiffany" by Susan Vreeland was just beautifully written and her characters were so realistic and lifelike. Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Charles Tiffany, of Tiffany & Co. Jewelry stores, started his glass factory with hopes of eventually upstaging his father. One of his workers, Clara Driscoll, comes up with the idea of stained glass lamps and they run with it. (Side note: I had no idea Tiffany Glass and Tiffany Jewelry were in any way related, or that the jewelry store came first, so I learned a lot from this book). It was a very lovely book, telling of Clara's hard decisions based on Tiffany's practice of never employing married women. Which does she love more: her work, making beautiful art, or the wonderful man in her life?
Linda Fairstein's latest Alex Cooper novel "Silent Mercy" did not disappoint, although the ending was a bit unrealistic. She made it work, though. Women, outcasts in their own religions, are being found murdered, left at significant places of worship in New York. Alex, Mercer, and Mike figure it out, along the way running into circus performers, Hansen's disease, and female priests.
Curious about my library's past, I read an oral biography about Dorothea Wilson Sheely, who was city Librarian for thirty years. She was interviewed by Shirley Stevenson, who put the project together and edited the book of interviews. It was fascinating to me, of course, to read about how the system went from one tiny 2,200 square foot library on the Balboa Peninsula to the multi-branch system we have now, and that was all under Dorothea's leadership. It also amused me that NB used to be thought of as a not too desirable place to live :)
I loved Lauren Oliver's "Before I Fall", and I was a bit disappointed with "Delirium", her dystopian novel set in the near future in Maine. Lena lives in a world were "love" is a disease that must be cured with an operation at age 18, and then she would be paired with an ideal mate and married. Lena is actually looking forward to the cure because she thinks it will bring her peace and she can stop fretting about her mother who committed suicide when she was little because she was infected and multiple attempts at the cure failed to wash the memory of love from her mind. Then Lena meets Alex, who comes from the wilderness where there is no cure and falls in love. Predictability ensued, with no real resolution to any of the questions raised at the end. Meh...not my thing.
Sue Townsend's first two Adrian Mole books, "The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole, 13 3/4" and the "Growing Pains of Adrian Mole", were hilarious. Full of British slang and dry wit, Adrian lives with his parents, who he disapproves of highly, and his pretentious adolescent snottiness reminded me so much of my own teen years. Ugh, what a twit I was too! I can't wait to read more.

The Man Who Sold America; Lone Star Noir; True Grit; Tudors for Dummies; I, Monster; Bringing Adam Home

2011-03-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

"The Man Who Sold America" by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank and Arthur W. Schultz was a great look at Albert Lasker, the father behind modern day advertising, and how advertising has changed in general over the last 100 years. Things that seem very common and ordinary to us today were first put into practice by Lasker, like free samples and coupons. It was well written and entertaining.
I read a book of short stories based in Texas called "Lone Star Noir", edited by Bobby and Johnny Byrd. I don't know why I persist in reading short story compilations, I almost never enjoy them. This one wasn't actually all that bad, there were a few good ones, like "Phelan's First Case" by Lisa Sandlin and "Montgomery Clift" by Sarah Cortez, but most of them were either boring and unforgettable or just plain bad.
Ever since I saw the Coen brother's fabulous remake of "True Grit" a few months ago I've been eager to read the book it was based on by Charles Portis. It was fantastic! I love Portis's writing style, it's very straightforward and no nonsense but very authentic. I really can't wait to read more of his work, although it looks like I'll have to buy them because my library only has one other. Oh well. We all know how much I *hate* buying books ;-)
"Tudors for Dummies" by David Loades and Mei Trow was a travesty of a book. It was riddled with outright exaggerations posing as facts, typos and continuity errors, and just plain terrible. I was outraged when they accused Queen Catherine of Aragon of contracting syphilis from a monk and called Katherine Howard "shrewd" and "clever". Just...wow. To say nothing of the fact that at one point they identified Elizabeth as Catherine's daughter instead of Anne's, and other such ridiculous mistakes. That's not hard to fact check, for heaven's sake. I was just disgusted that such errors made it into print, and in fact I was so angry I emailed Wiley, the publisher, to tell them exactly what I thought of their "editing". They told me the mistakes would be corrected in later editions. Um, sure. In the meantime now I'm loath to recommend other books in the Dummies series to library customers. Who knows how full of misinformation they are?
Tom Philbin's "I, Monster: Serial Killers in their own Chilling Words" was kind of a waste of time. He pulled interviews and letters from serial killers like Ted Bundy and Sam Berkowitz from other sources, like online (at one point he cited Wikipedia, although he spelled it wrong) or books. So there was no new information here and some of it I'd read before, of course, from stand alone books about each killer. It was just poorly put together and meant to generate a buck. Sad, really.
And finally, the haunting "Bringing Adam Home" by Lee Standiford with help from Joe Matthews. When Adam Walsh was kidnapped in 1981, Matthews was called in from Miami P.D. to help the Hollywood (FL) P.D. with the investigation, but was thwarted from doing any good by shoddy police work and egotistical cops. It's a damn shame what John and Reve Walsh went through, trying to find the maniac who murdered their little boy. This case has always stayed with me because I was six when the TV movie based on his kidnapping aired, and my mother made me watch it so I wouldn't be tempted to ever wander off from her while we were out shopping. The movie absolutely terrified me. I remember watching the America's Most Wanted episode that they did on Adam's kidnapping back in 1996, when the show was briefly canceled, and couldn't believe they still didn't know who killed little Adam, although it sounded like they had a pretty likely suspect, Ottis Toole. And indeed, that's who Matthews has finally determined was responsible, and after carefully combing through the case file and finally having the pictures of Toole's Cadillac developed that no one bothered with for nearly 30 years, he came up with enough evidence to name Toole. Too bad the worthless s.o.b. died back in 1996. At least we can take comfort in the fact that he's no doubt burning in the deepest pits of Hell, saved for child killers. Scum. But the poor Walshes. It's also a damn pity that cops can't get their stupid egos out of the way and try to do what's best for the victims. That's the really sad part of this book, I think.

Cleopatra; Antony and Cleopatra; Mockingjay; Mindfulness; Death and the Virgin Queen; Amaryllis in Blueberry

2011-03-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Stacy Schiff's biography about Cleopatra has been getting really great reviews and impressing everyone right and left. Everyone except for me, of course. Was there any doubt? :) I don't know why I didn't like it, other than to say I don't care for her writing style, it was just very dull and dry. I admire the research and work that went into the book: she was out to disprove rumors and present facts, and she did an admirable job. It was just boring. How do you make Cleopatra boring?
Adrian Goldsworthy's "Antony and Cleopatra" was better. I enjoyed hearing about Mark Antony's early life, which I don't think I've really read much about until now. I'd recommend this one over the Schiff book.
Finished the "Hunger Games" trilogy with Suzanne Collin's "Mockingjay". I'm still not sure how I feel about it, a week after finishing it. I just felt like Katniss must have felt--used. Used by everyone, whether for good or for evil, is still being used. I enjoyed the journey to get to the end, I just didn't like the end. If that makes sense. I fear it doesn't. Oh well, moving on.
"Mindfulness" by Ellen Langer was about how we walk through life on autopilot and don't really notice much, which is very true. How interesting it is when we actually open our eyes and notice things! It was very intriguing.
"Death and the Virgin Queen" was an excellent account of Amy Dudley's death by historian Chris Skidmore. He found the original coroner's report (which had been misfiled) and discovered that in addition to the broken neck she had two large gashes in her head, which would certainly be consistent with a nasty fall down a set of stone steps. But he also found a contemporary journal that confirms the conspiracy written in the anonymous "Dudley's Commonwealth", accusing the Queen's favorite of having his wife murdered so he would be free to marry Elizabeth. So did Robert Dudley arrange his wife's accident or was it really just an accident? I'm still divided, and like a good historian Skidmore merely repeats the facts without interjecting his own opinions. I really enjoyed this one. Four hundred years later and we still wonder about the truth. Fascinating stuff.
And finally, "Amaryllis in Blueberry" by Christina Meldrum. It's been compared to "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver, which I read many years ago and loved. This book, not so much. I found it pretentious and overly dramatic and just silly. It wasn't even an interesting story badly told, it was a rip off of an interesting story poorly told.

Elizabeth's Women; Last Sacrifice; Fables Vol. 14; Catching Fire; Katherine the Queen; Among Others; Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer

2011-02-26T12:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, I need to seriously get caught up here!
First off, an interesting book about the women who influenced Elizabeth Tudor, "Elizabeth's Women" by Tracey Bowman. She had a lot of complex relationships with women, no doubt caused by her mother's death when she was just a toddler as well as having to be a woman trying to justify her ability to rule in a man's world. It was a good read and I enjoyed it.
"Last Sacrifice" by Richelle Mead is the final Vampire Academy book. That's sad, I've really grown to love and enjoy this series. I liked the way it ended, and there was a lot of suspense and action along the way.
"Fables Vol. 14" by Bill Willingham focused on the fables new enemy, the Dark One, who destroyed their Manhattan hideout. Frau Totenkinder goes in search of a way to defeat him while Ozma tried to take her place in her absence among the witches. Bufkin the winged monkey successfully defeats Baba Yaga (good for him!) and King Ambrose deals with a murder in his new peaceful kingdom.
"Catching Fire" is book two of Suzanne Collin's "Hunger Games" series, and it was great. Katniss is struggling to be convincingly in love with Peeta in the hopes of saving them from the wrath of the Capital in light of the recent uprisings. As a way of punishing them for their defiance, they get sent back to the Hunger Games. There was a shocking surprise at the ending, and I can't wait to find out what happens.
"Katherine the Queen" by Linda Porter was a well done biography about Queen Katherine Parr and highlighted her influence on Queen Elizabeth. Obviously no real new info here for me, but it was nicely laid out and very well written.
"Among Others" by Jo Walton is a new sci fi book that's been getting good buzz on a lot of the blogs I read. Maybe if I was more into sci fi and fantasy books I would have enjoyed it more, but I'm not, so while I could tell it was good I wasn't as enthralled with it as everyone else is. It's good, but not my cup of tea. I can relate to the lead character's deep love of books and her quick reading abilities, but not her choice of reading material.
And finally, a bit of fictional whimsy "The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer" by Lucy Weston. On the eve of her coronation Elizabeth learns she is a descendant of Morgaine on her mother's side. Morgaine was the original vampire slayer and died trying to defeat King Arthur's son, Mordred. Mordred is now battling Elizabeth for her kingdom. It was quite clever and original and fairly accurate, historically, for being fiction.

The Autobiography of Mark Twain Vol. 1; Hunger Games; Annotated Brothers Grimm; Room

2011-02-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

I have read some real gems over the last two weeks. First up, "The Autobiography of Mark Twain Vol. 1", edited by Harriet Elinor Smith. I know I've said before that I don't like Twain's work, but really, I don't know what I was thinking. "The Prince and the Pauper" was one of my all time favorite books when I was growing up, my sister's too, so much so that when I moved she told me I could take all of our shared classic books except for that one because she wanted to keep it. I of course let her because honestly do I really need any more books to try to find room for? No, of course not. But anyway, back to Twain. The autobiography was a loose collection of letters, notes, and musings at first and then segued into his failed attempts to write a chronological account of his extraordinary life. It was witty and wry and very funny and I think now I'm ready (if I were to have the time to go back and reread "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn") to finally truly appreciate them.
"Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins is the first in a trilogy. This was quite brilliant, it had a "Battle Royale" feel to it. Katniss Everdeen goes to represent her district in the 74th annual Hunger Games put on by the Capitol in the ruins of what used to be the U.S. The game pits 24 players against each other, and the last one standing gets to return home a wealthy hero. It was clever and well written and I hear they're making a movie about it to be released next year. With any luck I'll have read the second and third by then :)
"The Annotated Brothers Grimm", edited by Maria Tatar, collected some of the brothers more popular fairy tales together but she did leave out some, like the little mermaid and the little match girl. After discussing "Fables" I was eager to read some of the not Disney sanitized versions of the stories that Willingham used for his inspiration.
And finally, a book I literally stayed up all night to read because I could not bear to put it down, was "Room" by Emma Donoghue. Narrated by five year old Jack, it tells the story of a young woman and all she's done to make living in their tiny 11X11 foot room bearable for her young son. It's their prison, and she knows what's on the outside, if they could just escape their captor. To Jack, however, it's all he's ever known and it's home. It was a gripping and powerful story of motherly love and human survival instinct and I would highly recommend it.

His Father's Son; The Queen's Lover

2011-02-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

I met Bentley Little years ago, when I was an undergrad at Cal State Fullerton, his own alma mater. He's a good gross out writer, and I liked a lot of his earlier stuff, but some of the things I bought eight or nine years ago didn't impress me much. Every year I would keep buying his latest book and put it on the shelf, swearing to get around to it but never would. I went to Chicago and knew I would need something to read on the plane that would hold my interest and yet not be too demanding of my brain, so I grabbed one of my Bentley backstock "His Father's Son". I was quite impressed with how good it was. It was less crude than some of his previous works and the plot had a really neat twist to it. Plus it was set in this part of Orange County, so he mentions familiar landmarks, which always makes a book more interesting to me, since I can easily see in my mind what he's talking about. In this story a normal editor from Irvine thinks his dad, who has been hospitalized with sudden onset dementia, is confessing a murder to him when he visits. He starts investigating and convinces himself his dad is a closet serial killer when his dad starts describing more murders to him. He ends up becoming the worst kind of monster in his pursuit to learn the truth about his dad. Fun, gruesome stuff.
I was sadly unimpressed with Vanora Bennett's "The Queen's Lover". Catherine, Princess of France, marries King Henry V of England, who dies not long after their little son Henry is born, leaving an infant as King of England and thus a power struggle for control of the throne ensues. It was just dull and the characters, even though they are drawn from some interesting people in British history, were lifeless.

Four to Score; A Little House Primer; Dracula, My Love; Murders of Richard III; Eye of the Crow; Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Catherine of Aragon; What the Night Knows

2011-01-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

A couple of rereads rounded out the year of 2010, "Four to Score" by Janet Evanovich and "A Little House Primer" by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane. Both were good in different ways. Evanovich is of course fun, that's one of my favorite Stephanie Plum books, with the introduction of Sally Sweet and Stephanie and Joe finally getting together. The Little House book is a collection of short articles and stories written by Laura and Rose.
"Dracula, My Love" by Syrie James was a nicely done retelling of Bram Stoker's classic from Mina Harker's point of view. I really enjoyed how well she stayed true to the original story while fleshing out the characters in a way Stoker would never have imagined.
And the last book of 2010, bringing my yearly count to 165, was "The Murders of Richard III" by Elizabeth Peters. I've never read any of her mysteries, but I've wanted to. This one was good, and sort of reminded me of an Agatha Christie type of plot: a group dedicated to restoring Richard III's good name meets for a weekend long house party full of discussions and authentic costumes. One by one the guests start being attacked, not killed but just attacked, in the same order as King Richard's supposed victims. And best of all--a librarian figures the whole thing out! Yay librarians!!
"Eye of the Crow" is a children's mystery by Shane Peacock about the young Sherlock Holmes that my friend Shelly wrote about and I thought it sounded really interesting. I thought Peacock did an excellent job of keeping the character of the famous sleuth and the story was very complex, I really can't imagine a child younger than 12 understanding or enjoying it very much. It put me in the mood for some more Holmes, so I turned to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and reread "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which contains some of my favorite Holmes stories, like the Speckled Band and the Red Headed League.
Giles Tremlett's new biography on Catherine of Aragon was brilliant and shining and showed just how courageous and brave Queen Catherine was. He sort of made me feel sorry for King Henry for being such a dunce as to just throw away such an amazing woman, proving that men were just as stupid 500 years ago as they are now :)
And finally, "What the Night Knows", Dean Koontz's latest. I really enjoyed this one, it seemed to recall Koontz of his old, golden days, when he wrote books like "Watchers" and "The Bad Place". It was a ghost story featuring a lovely, perfect family who is haunted by the specter brought by their father's guilt for his family's murder when he was 14. The ending was sort of a letdown, and if it had been a Stephen King book at least one of the three perfect kids would have died, but it's Dean Koontz so everyone lived happily ever after, but the ending didn't spoil the rest of the story.

Virgin Queen's Daughter; Little House on the Prairie rereads; Kings of the Earth

2010-12-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

"The Virgin Queen's Daughter" by Ella March Chase was a very good fictionalized account of Queen Elizabeth's daughter, Elinor de Lacy. Elinor's nurse, Eppie, was called to the young Princess's bedside and delivered her of a daughter she then whisked away and gave to her mistress to raise as her own. Elinor grows up having no idea who she really is, until she defiantly goes against her mother's wishes and joins Elizabeth's court. Once she gets there she realizes how dangerous court is, and when Eppie seeks her out to tell her the truth of her birth it's more dangerous still. It was good but not amazing and it was historically accurate enough to suit me.
Over the last two weeks I've been rereading some old favorites. I usually want to reread in December and January, and while sometimes I can stop myself this year I just went with it. I reread two of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books, "Little Town on the Prairie" and "These Happy Golden Years". Then I reread Roger Lea MacBride's Rose years: "Little House on Rocky Ridge", "Little Farm in the Ozarks", "In the Land of the Big Red Apple", "On the Other Side of the Hill", "Little Town in the Ozarks", "New Dawn on Rocky Ridge", "On the Banks of the Bayou", and "Bachelor Girl". I wish the publishers would have continued with the Martha and Charlotte years. I enjoyed Rose and Caroline so much. Oh well.
And finally, a fantastic, highly recommended novel by Jon Clinch, author of "Finn", called "Kings of the Earth". It was like a mix of my favorite episode of the "X-Files", "Home", and one of my favorite Faulkner novels, "As I Lay Dying". It told the story of the Proctor brothers, growing up poor and backward and seemingly out of touch with modern era on their dairy farm. When the oldest dies in his sleep the youngest is accused of murdering him, and a whole host of ugly secrets comes out. It was beautifully written and very good. Now I feel like watching "Home" again :)

Secret of Chanel No. 5; Thirsty; Fat Vampire; The Help; True Meaning of Smekday; Before I Fall; American Vampire Vol. 1

2010-12-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

I have read a lot of great nonfiction and fiction titles over the last week.
First up was "The Secret of Chanel. No. 5" by Tilar J. Mazzio. This was an interesting biography not really about Coco Chanel but the perfume she created, the number one bestselling perfume for the last 90 years. It was a bit redundant at times, but it was short and a quick read.
"Thirsty" by M.T. Anderson was a witty, dry humor filled YA book about a boy named Chris who is turning into a vampire. He is approached by an odd stranger named Chet, who says he can help change Chris back to human if Chris will help him destroy the vampire god. Chris agrees, but it turns out Chet was just using him. The story was well written and while I normally don't like open endings (I think the authors are being lazy--just tell me what happened, for crying out loud!) in this case it fit.
"Fat Vampire" by Adam Rex was a bit of a disappointment. My two coworkers who also read it had the same complaints I did. It started off great: it was funny and cute, about a teen named Doug who has recently been made a vampire and he's trying to figure out how to cope with it and not kill anybody. He and his buddy Jay are accidentally captured sneaking into the San Diego Zoo while at the Comic Con convention, and a cheesy cable TV show called "Vampire Hunters" is soon on their trail, trying to capture them. Somewhere along the way it stopped being funny and just drug to a sad, predictable ending.
"The Help" by Kahtyrn Stockett was one of those books I could not put down, and spent the whole day reading. It was worth it. Told in three different distinct voices, the story is set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. A recent college graduate nicknamed Skeeter is determined to interview a group of maids and write their story, in their words, about what it's like to be African American (only they didn't call it that back then, it was "colored") in that part of the South and wait on white people. It was moving and beautiful without being sticky sweet and sentimental. It reminded me of Michael Cunningham's "The Hours".
"The True Meaning of Smekday" by Adam Rex was much better than "Fat Vampire". In the not so distant future, a young girl named Gratuity Tucci watches her mother get abducted by aliens. The next day the aliens, named Boov, take over Earth and start moving all humans to Florida. Gratuity starts out, driving her mom's car, with her cat Pig, and along the way meets a Boov named J. Lo who helps her out. When an evil race of aliens named Gorg land on Earth, determined to take it away from the Boov, it is up to Gratuity and J. Lo (and Pig, who plays a pivotal role) to save Earth, or Smekland, as it's been renamed. It was really cute and kind of clever.
"Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver was absolutely shiningly brilliant. It was powerful and moving and touching and makes me catch my breath just to talk about it. Samantha Kingston is an ordinary high school senior: she's popular, and has great friends, and a gorgeous boyfriend. After she dies, she wakes up the next morning and lives her last day over again. At first she doesn't understand what's going on, but gradually it becomes clear: she is being given the chance to right the wrongs, the little mistakes she made that she didn't realize would have such powerful consequences. It was amazing. Too bad it's classified as YA because I think a lot of adults should read it, too.
And finally, a fun graphic novel to round out the bunch (thanks to Allen for lending me his copy!). Scott Snyder and Stephen King teamed up for "American Vampire, Vol. 1". It tells the intertwining stories of Pearl Jones, an aspiring actress in the 1920s, and Skinner Sweet, a no good outlaw in the 1880s, along the likes of Billy the Kid. What do they have in common? They're both vampires, and they're not the kind of vampires to follow the ancient European rules. The artwork was stunning, the storyline was fantastic, the characters are great (Skinner Sweet's grin is so twisted and evil--I love it) and I can't wait for Volume 2.

War for Late Night; Born to Run; Stolen Away; The Phone Book; Don't Vote it Just Encourages the Bastards

2010-11-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Back in the early 90s Bill Carter wrote a book about how NBC screwed up by giving the "Tonight Show" to Jay Leno rather than the obvious heir apparent, David Letterman, called "The Late Shift". I read that book many years ago and loved it, being a big Letterman fan, I felt he got screwed. So did Conan O'Brien, and Carter's back with "The War for Late Night", about how NBC screwed up AGAIN.
A little backstory here: the first late night program I watched was Johnny Carson's final episode of the "Tonight Show" when I was 14. My dad was a big Carson fan, and told me I should stay up and watch history being made, so I did. I remember asking my dad why he was retiring. I liked Carson, he seemed witty and funny and a genuinely nice guy, the kind of guy I wouldn't mind staying up until 11:35 to watch. Dad said he'd been doing it for 30 years and was tired. I could understand that.
My sister and I were probably the only two people in the world who refused to miss "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" when it debuted. We *loved* Conan. We recorded every show (I'm sure my sis still has those VHS tapes somewhere...). I thought everyone loved Conan, and it kind of surprised me when I was discussing this book with my dad last week and he said how glad he was Leno was back because he never found Conan funny. That surprised me, since I always thought my dad had a fairly decent sense of humor. Oh, well, I guess Leno really is a generational thing. I never liked him and when NBC gave Letterman the shaft I followed him to CBS. I haven't watched late night in a dozen years, since I got a real job and was expected to show up early in the mornings :)
The point of all this rambling? Well, Carter does a beautiful job showing how the evil villain in this whole late night mess (and it *is* a mess) is NBC and their greed. They snatched the "Tonight Show" away from Leno before he was ready to give it up just because they thought they were going to lose Conan to a rival network and they realized just how brilliant and funny Conan was and didn't want to lose him. Boy they made a mess out of the whole deal. I feel bad for Conan, but if I'm ever up until 11 o' clock at night (which I very, very rarely am) I'll tune into Letterman.
Climbing off my soapbox now..."Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall was a fascinating look into long distance runners and what motivates them as well as if it's better for you to run barefoot. I like running, although I'm not terribly good at it (my aforementioned sister has convinced me to run in the OC half-marathon this next May. We'll see how that turns out!). These people who run 100 miles in one stretch have such an enviable passion for it. It was a great read.
"Stolen Away" by Max Allan Collins is a fictionalized account of the Lindbergh kidnapping, one of my true crime favorites, up there with Lizzie Borden. I try to read everything I can get my hands on about both subjects. Collins puts forth a very plausible account of how the kidnapping could have gone down, with Al Capone masterminding the whole thing from behind bars in an attempt to get out of prison. I never thought Hauptmann, who was electrocuted for the crime, was guilty, so I liked Collin's premise. It makes me want to reread Scaduto's brilliant "Scapegoat", which is sitting on my bookshelf, beckoning me :)
Ammon Shea wrote the dry and witty history of the phone book in "The Phone Book: the book everyone uses but no one reads". It was one of those books that, when you're done reading it, you go "I could have written that!". I liked it, though, it was short and quick but reminded me that I'm not the only weirdo out there who looks at things like phone books as a trip down memory lane.
And finally, humorist P.J. O'Rourke's look at what's wrong with American politics "Don't Vote it Just Encourages the Bastards". It was funny, but not as funny as I was expecting, based on his previous works I'd read. I enjoyed it, though, and he makes a lot of great points.

Frank the Voice; Walking Dead Vols. 5 and 6; Love, Lust, and Faking It; Full Dark, No Stars

2010-11-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

So after the lovely pictorial on Frank's movies, I read the awesome new bio by James Kaplan "Frank the Voice". It was very in depth and detailed and beautifully written, and I enjoyed it, but he chose to end, after 700 pages, after he won his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity". It just seemed like an odd stopping place.
Robert Kirkman's graphic novel continues, and I burned through the "Walking Dead Vols. 5 and 6" in an afternoon. It felt a little like we were going in circles and repeating previous storylines, especially how they ended up in their new supposedly safe community, but I did like the introduction in the beginning of Vol 6 of a religious nut. Just what an apocalyptic series needs!
I was looking forward to "Love, Lust, and Faking It" by Jenny McCarthy because I've enjoyed all of her books on autism but I've never read any of her more humorous books. I was disappointed. I didn't think it was funny and she contradicted her stories a lot, which is a sticking point with me.
And finally, Stephen King's latest collection of four novellas in the vein of "Different Seasons" and "Four Past Midnight", "Full Dark, No Stars". Aw, what can I say? This is SK of yore: gross and graphic and perfect in every way. I enjoyed all four of the stories immensely, although the third and shortest, "Fair Extension", had a bit of a "Thinner" vibe to it that I wasn't digging too much. But "Good Marriage", about a woman with a seemingly normal and unexceptional life, finds out her husband is hiding a terrible secret, was brilliant. "Big Driver", about a woman who is raped after being stranded on the side of the road, had of course the expected revenge angle but it also had an interesting identity twist I wasn't expecting. "1922", about a Nebraska farmer desperate to keep his wife from selling her 100 acre inheritance, had some graphically disturbing scenes that literally turned my stomach. I loved it :)

Secret Eleanor; Why Shoot a Butler; Sinatra: Hollywood His Way; Hellboy: Seed of Destruction; Hellboy: Wake the Devil

2010-11-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

"Secret Eleanor" by Cecelia Holland was a lukewarm fiction title based very, very loosely on Eleanor of Aquataine. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the woman was so incredibly fascinating, why make stuff up about her out of wholecloth? Honestly. In this book Holland imagines that Eleanor gets pregnant by Henry II before their marriage (and before he's Henry II tee hee) and her sister has to step in and pretend to be her in public so that her divorce from the French King Louie won't be threatened. It was pretty dull.
"Why Shoot a Butler?" is a mystery by Georgette Heyer, set in the 1920s England. It reminded me a lot of Agatha Christie, only with Heyer's fun twist on words and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A butler is murdered on the side of the road with a young female in the car with him, protesting her innocence. The ending was somewhat predictable, but it was happy, and it made me happy.
"Sinatra: Hollywood His Way" by Timothy Knight was a beautiful pictorial work on the movie career of the great man himself. While Sinatra is rightly remembered as a fantastic musician, he was also an amazing actor. Yes, I am biased :)
Two volumes of "Hellboy" for our upcoming Graphic Novel Book Club meeting: "Seed of Destruction" and "Wake the Devil", by Mike Mignola. One of my coworkers in the club absolutely loves these books and can't stop raving about them, but I'm not 100% sure I'm getting them. They're interesting, just not like how he raves. Maybe I'm missing something he's seeing. At any rate the drawings are pretty good and Hellboy is quite scary looking but he's a good guy, so that's always a fun twist. I have one more volume to read before our meeting so maybe I'll figure out some of the appeal.

Pretty Plus; Walking Dead book 4; Tattoos and Tequila; Shit My Dad Says; Pretty in Plaid; Lady of Quality; The Passage

2010-10-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

Lots to update, but I have a wicked good excuse: I just got back from Wisconsin where I went to a GB Packers/Minnesota Vikings game. I GOT TO SEE BRETT FAVRE PLAY AT LAMBEAU FIELD. True, he was in the wrong colors, but still, it was amazing. Incredible. Unbelievable. Anyway, moving on to books!
"Pretty Plus" by Babe Hope was really helpful guide on how to look good and choose clothes that flatter you even if you don't wear a size 1, which I certainly don't. While she specifically wrote it for plus size gals, which I'm also not, I thought her tips and hints were helpful for all shapes and sizes, and the next time I do some serious clothes shopping I hope I remember how to pick out items that flatter. It was a great guide, and her tone was wonderful, not the least bit "go, big girl!" or anything lame like that.
Robert Kirkman continues "The Walking Dead" series in book 4. The prison's safety is compromised after the Governor and his crew arrive to exact revenge for what Michonne did to him (shouldn't have left him alive, girl). Lori gives birth to a little girl they name Judy, and when the governor's crew comes Lori and Judy are both killed while trying to escape, leaving Carl and Rick alone with no where to go. Just when you think things couldn't get any sadder, they do. I'm really looking forward to the AMC's premiere of the show next Sunday. It looks great!
"Tattoos and Tequila" by Vince Neil chronicles his life as part of the hard parting heavy metal band Motely Crue. It was a quick and forgettable read, actually, kind of boring. He doesn't have Tucker Max's storytelling gift, that's for sure!
"Shit My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern is a hilarious collection of wise gems that come effortlessly out of his dad's mouth. Halpern started a Twitter feed to collect his dad's advice, and it went viral because it's freaking hilarious. A lot of it was actually quite sage and spot on. I hope there's a sequel. Justin's dad--keep on talking, please!!
More laughs with Jen Lancaster's "Pretty in Plaid", in which she talks about her early years, high school and college, and what she wore and what it all meant to her. As usual, Jen is witty, charming, and irrepressible. Great read.
I have a few guilty pleasures in life, and Georgette Heyer is one of them. She's like a silly, trashy version of Jane Austen (who I just cannot read. So boring). Heyer is funny and her books have wonderful dialogue full of historical slang and charming roguish characters. "Lady of Quality" was no different. I loved the happy ending.
And finally, Justin Cronin's "The Passage" has had great word of mouth buzz and is huge right now. I liked it but there were parts I didn't like. The plot had a lot of holes and I found it hard to suspend disbelief in some areas. The ending was bleak and miserable, not at all what I wanted after slugging through 700 pages. But the characters were great, very realistic and memorable, and it was a page turner. I guess I was just disappointed there wasn't a happier ending. Or at least more closure. Perhaps I'll read some more Georgette Heyer :)

Spider Bones, Angelina, Badasses, Assholes Finish First, Spirit Bound

2010-10-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

New Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs! "Spider Bones" finds Tempe traveling to Hawaii to help determine why a man who supposedly died a hero in Vietnam has just turned up dead in Montreal. As usual, lots of great twisty plots going on and in the end they all tied together. Being in Hawaii means shark attacks and gang fights and of course her on again/off again partner Andrew Ryan pays a visit. Nice. I was proud of myself for being able to keep track of everything that was going on (no easy feat) and actually guessed part of the ending correctly! Yay me!
Andrew Morton's unauthorized biography of Angelina Jolie, "Angelina", was quite good. Very well researched and very dishy, as is typical of Morton's books. I doubt Angelina would enjoy it as much, since Morton portrays her as a victim of her mother's scheming and petty revenge against her dad, Jon Voight, and claims that she broke up with second husband Billy Bob Thornton for really no good reason (as far as I'm concerned, death is the only reason to leave BBT. And even then it would be with kicking and screaming reluctance on my part).
More football! "Badasses" by Peter Richmond was his story of the Oakland Raiders of the 1970s, those cheating little scamps that everyone loved to hate but boy did they know how to play football the old fashioned beat-the-hell-out-of-everyone way. His enthusiasm for his beloved Raiders was infecting and I enjoyed the book, although I would have enjoyed it more with a little less liberal use of the word "badass". Everything was "badass" this and "badass" that. Okay, I get it, I get it. Move on :)
Tucker Max is a jerk. And he admits it. And that's why I love to read his stuff. "Assholes Finish First" is his brilliant followup to "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell". I honestly didn't think he could top that, but he sure did. The Tucker Max Fest story, in which he and several other guys, are driving a rented RV drunk through the streets of Harlem--priceless. He's apparently writing another book which will detail the year he lived in Cancun while attending Duke Law School. I can't wait!
And finally, book five of the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead "Spirit Bound". This series was slow to start but has picked up considerably since book three and I'm enjoying them very much. Rose has graduated to become a full fledged guardian, and she and Lissa discover a way to turn the Strigoi (the bad vampires) back from the undead using Lissa's special spirit. They are able to do so with Rose's formal lover, Dimitri, much to the amazement of the Moroi community. While the court is still in an uproar about that as well as a controversial age lowering requirement ruling for the dhampir, Queen Tatiana is found dead with Rose's stake through her heart. Oh my goodness I can't wait for the next one!

Push; Bigger than the Game

2010-09-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't yet seen "Precious", the movie based on Sapphire's novel "Push", but I want to after reading the book. It was a tough, tough read: even though I know it's fiction the sad fact is that it is reality for a lot of people and Sapphire tells it so straightforwardly and so well, without any pity, that it rings true. Sixteen year old Precious is pregnant for the second time by her own father, and is kicked out of school. A guidance counselor arranges for her to go to an alternative school, and we find out Precious is very nearly illiterate. Her mother abuses her as well and doesn't want her to waste her time trying to get an education, it's much better to just go on welfare. Precious is determined to learn to read and write, though. Where she finds the strength to go on is beyond me, but damn, does it ever put my own life into perspective. I am reminded of Dave Pelzer, who I often think of whenever I think my own life sucks.
"Bigger than the Game" is Michael Weinreb's look at how the decade of excess, the 1980s, helped shaped today's modern athlete, starting with high school kids being recruited by colleges and given money and promises of more. What affect does all that sudden wealth have on a young athlete? It's usually not good, and he wove in the war on drugs that started up around the same time. It was an interesting read and really highlights how greed ruins otherwise smart, good people.

On a totally unrelated note: happy birthday to Stephen King!

Hilliker Curse; Fables: the Great Fables Crossover; Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall; Ones Who Hit the Hardest; Dexter is Delicious; Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen

2010-09-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

First up: James Ellroy's "Hilliker Curse", his autobiography of why and how his relationships with women are so screwed up. We all know Ellroy is one very messed up individual (have I mentioned how much I loved his "My Dark Places"?) and this really confirms it. He blames himself for his mother's murder when he was just 10 years old, he's never gotten over it, and it's permanently messed up any interactions he has with the opposite sex. Fascinating but very, very sad.
"Fables: the Great Fables Crossover" by Bill Willingham was very funny. Jack of Fables (different series I haven't gotten to yet--but I will) and our well known Fable friends are out to stop Peter Thorn from rewriting history and wiping their universe out of existence.
"Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall" by Bill Willingham is a take on "Arabian Nights". Snow White is being held captive by an Arab sultan who plans to execute her in the morning. She entertains him with stories of many of the Fables's beginnings, and he delays her execution to hear her tales. It was great to get the back story on some of my favorite Fables characters!
The return of football means the return of football books! "The Ones Who Hit the Hardest" by Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne tells the story of the pride the town of Pittsburgh had (and continues to have) for their Steelers. The 1970s were a terrible time to be a blue collar worker in America, even moreso in Pittsburgh. It was a great story but the pace kept getting slowed down by the insertion of tidbits about the steelworkers union. It would have been better to leave that out.
"Dexter is Delicious" is Jeffrey Lindsay's latest Dexter (can't wait for the premier of the show next Sunday!!). I love the dark, snarky humor in Lindsay's books. Dex is now a daddy, to little Lily Anne, and his brother Brian makes a surprise return (obviously the books and TV show don't match up). Since Dexter has now sworn off the dark ways Brian steps in to instruct Cody and Astor, which doesn't please Dex one bit. He and Deb are after a tribe of cannibals and he is kidnapped by them and nearly eaten not once but twice. In the end, of course, Dexter returns to his deliciously wicked ways. For sister Deb, of course.
A wonderful biography of Queen Mary, Anna Whitelock's "Mary: Princess, Bastard, Queen" sets out to set the record straight and clear up some of the awful misconceptions about Mary's reign. She is of course overshadowed in history by her brilliant younger half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I, and rightly so, but Mary was brave and courageous in her own right and her own contributions should not be overlooked. Whitelock does conveniently try to gloss over the worst of Mary's actions, like the terrible burning deaths of people who dared question the Catholic faith, but all in all she does a beautiful job of showing how Mary Tudor really was her mother's daughter.

Batman: Haunted Knight; Batman: Long Halloween; Fables Vol. 10; Twilight at the World of Tomorrow

2010-09-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

A couple of Batman graphic novels by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. "The Haunted Knight" showed me a very tortured side of Batman that I didn't know existed, and "The Long Halloween" continued that. While they were both good and I liked them, I still liked "The Killing Joke" better.
I missed Vol. 10 of Bill Willingham's "Fables" series when I was finishing them up a few months ago, so I went back and got it. I love Valiant Prince Ambrose (otherwise known as Flycatcher) and his story. So good.
"Twilight at the World of Tomorrow" by James Mauro was about the 1939 New York World's Fair, which took place on the eve of World War II breaking out. It was a bit uneven and inconsistent, and parts of it felt dragged out and padded while other parts felt rushed. Too bad, because it's certainly an interesting subject.

Murder Room; My Fair Lazy; Holidays on Ice; Batman: the Killing Joke

2010-08-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

"The Murder Room" by Michael Capuzzo was so slow to start I almost gave up on it after about 70 pages of slogging through it, but I'm glad I finished it because it got much better. Once a month in Philadelphia a group of men, the best in their fields of forensic sciences and crime fighting, meet to discuss cold cases, and end up solving quite a few of them. True crime gold.
"My Fair Lazy" by Jen Lancaster details her decision to stop being such a lazy ass who sits around watching crappy reality television and get some more culture in her life. In typical Jen Lancaster fashion she goes way overboard with it but at least she chronicles her adventure in a humorous way. I have to applaud her point that life is short and we waste so many opportunities to do more with our lives. I feel guilty now for my own laziness :)
David Sedaris' "Holidays on Ice" was very disappointing. It's a collection of short essays about Christmas that are supposed to be funny. None of them were very amusing and I found one to be borderline offensive, about child slavery, sex abuse, and murder. And you know it takes a lot to offend me, if I can read Tucker Max without blinking!
"Batman: the Killing Joke" by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland was a beautifully illustrated graphic novel accounting how the Joker became insane. It was short but it was good, I liked it a lot.

Captive Queen; Red Queen; Hollywood; Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake; I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell; Dead and Gone

2010-08-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, a few new ones that didn't suck! "Captive Queen" by the amazing Alison Weir was a fictionalized account of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Weir does her usual brilliant job of making the story come to life and she really couldn't have picked a more fascinating woman than Eleanor.
"The Red Queen" by Philippa Gregory was the sequel to "The White Queen" and told the story of Elizabeth Woodville's counterpart, Margaret Beaufort, mother to King Henry VII and grandmother to Henry VIII. I always imagined Margaret was a bitch on wheels, and Gregory does nothing to disprove this notion. *Everyone* thought Margaret was a bitch. She really was the woman everyone loved to hate, so convinced in her righteousness of purpose of putting her son, with his incredibly weak ties, on the throne over people with better claims (like Henry's future wife and Elizabeth Woodville's daughter, Elizabeth).
"Hollywood" by Larry McMurtry was his third in the trilogy of memoirs, the other two being "Books" and "Literary Life". I didn't care for the first two, finding them too short and I had no idea who any of the people he was talking about where. "Hollywood" was better. It was still awfully short, but it was funny and at least I know who everyone was.
"Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" by Aimee Bender was better than I expected, since it's been getting such great word of mouth buzz I figured it would disappoint, but I liked it. It had an intangible quality that I can't quite explain and a bit of a sci-fi sort of feel to it that I wasn't expecting. It reminded me of "The Time Traveler's Wife" in that sense. Rose discovers on her ninth birthday that she can taste people's emotions in the food they cook, and her brother Joseph disappears without warning. She ends up learning how to cope with her strangeness and function in normal society, Joseph does not.
"I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max was a reread. I caught part of the movie on TV the other night (it was atrocious, don't bother) and wanted to revel in his debauchery again, since I lead such a tame and quiet life. Hilarious.
And finally, "Dead and Gone" by Charlaine Harris, the Sookie Stackhouse book before "Dead in the Family" that I somehow missed when I was getting caught up on Sookie. It was pretty good and I enjoyed the way Sookie was able to realize she might actually need some help fighting off all the bad stuff that comes into her life. Just quit your beer slinging job and move in with your gorgeous husband, Eric, girl! Yeah, I know, I know--if she did that there wouldn't be a story anymore. FINE :)

Jigsaw

2010-08-06T12:07:00.001-07:00

Another reread from Ed McBain. I sort of remembered the ending to this one but not really, so it worked out well. I'm reading a couple of brand new books right now, so no more rereads for awhile.

Lady, Lady, I Did It!

2010-08-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

A reread from the fabulous 87th Precinct series by the late, great, dearly missed Ed McBain. I was trying to read a couple of new books I checked out, including the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series that's so popular right now, but damned if I just couldn't get into it at all. It bored me straight to tears about 100 pages in and I gave up. Life's too short to try to read things that aren't appealing to me. So I turned to the old standbys and pulled this one off the shelf. I actually remembered the ending, which is so rare for me, with rereads like this one, but it was a great story and I enjoyed it again. I just hope my next round of checkouts is better than the previous ones, otherwise I may just have to keep rereading McBain. Not that I would mind that one bit!

In which I apologize and catch up

2010-07-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, we're going to gloss over the fact that I've been remiss and just catch up. In the last month I've read:
"Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova, of "The Historian" fame. I liked "The Historian" a lot, but this one I didn't care for. I didn't *not* like it, I just feel indifferent about it.
"Frankenstein: Lost Souls" by Dean Koontz I enjoyed a lot. It seems to be the beginning of a new series, and I'm excited about that.
"Fables, Vols. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12" by Bill Willingham. I missed Vol. 10 somehow, but the story has gotten really great. The Fables have gone to war and in Vol. 11 defeated the evil Emperor. There have been some casualties, like Prince Charming and Boy Blue, but I'm eager to find out what happens next. My only complaint is some of the artists have truly sucked.
"Sizzling Sixteen" by Janet Evanovich. Lately the Stephanie Plum series have been kind of mediocre, but this one I really liked, despite the lack of Morelli and Ranger hotness. This one had a lot of Vinnie (he's been kidnapped by the mob and Stephanie and Lulu and Connie have to devise a plan to rescue him) and I like Vinnie.
So then I reread "Seven Up" and "Two for the Dough", which were both fun. I hadn't read the second one in quite a while. I'd like to reread them all, but I have a huge stack of books I need to get to. Someday I'm going to take all that vacation time I have hoarded up and just overindulge on books :)
"Confessions of a Prairie Bitch" by Alison Arngrim, who played the evil Nellie Olsen on TV's "Little House on the Prairie", which was probably one of my all time favorite shows when I was growing up. I loved this memoir. Alison was hilarious and her look at the show and the actors she worked with was great. I'd love if she wrote fiction, I think it would be as quirky and fun as Christopher Moore.
I reread Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind", my all time favorite comfort read. That was the first grown up book I ever read, when I was nine years old. Every time I reread it (and it's been, sadly, many years) it's like visiting an old friend and spending a lazy Sunday afternoon on the veranda, sipping sweet tea and reminiscing. I needed that.
"Aqua Net Diaries" by Jennifer Niven was her look back at her very ordinary teenage years in a small Indiana high school. There wasn't anything crazy or wild about her and her friends, and that's what I liked about it: it's normalcy. Since I didn't go to high school I have none of these fond memories and I enjoyed hers.
"Dead in the Family" by Charlaine Harris is her latest Sookie Stackhouse book. I missed the one right before this, unfortunately, so I was a bit confused in the beginning, but I caught up quickly enough and enjoyed all the Eric hotness :)
And lastly, "Beastly" by Alex Finn, a YA updated version of "Beauty and the Beast". Since I've never seen the Disney film or really any other version of the story I can't attest to its faithfulness, but I enjoyed this version a lot. Even though the ending was predictable, the characters were so likable I was rooting for them and it made me glad when it all worked out.
Whew. Okay, I won't let that happen again, I promise.

Fables Volumes 1-3; The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner; Mouse Guard Winter 1152; Blockade Billy; Van Alen Legacy; Stones Into Schools; Furious Love

2010-06-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

I know it looks like a lot, but with the exception of the last three, they were all pretty short.
"Fables Vols. 1-3" by Bill Willingham was great fun, probably the best graphic novels I've read yet. Snarky and full of black humor as the classic characters from childhood stories are thrust into the modern world to live among us regular folk and try to pass themselves off as normal.
Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" novella "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner" was, quite honestly, a waste of time. Without Bella and Edward and Jacob, Meyer's writing isn't really that interesting. It's the characters I care about more than her prose or plot, and the characters in this one just didn't hold my interest. At least it was super short, so I didn't waste too much time on it.
"Mouse Guard Winter 1152" by David Petersen was better than the first one I read a last month. There's more meat to the plot and I found myself actually caring about the little woodland critters and what happened to them. "Fables" is still better, though :)
Stephen King's novella, "Blockade Billy", was actually pretty good because it was about baseball but it wasn't so long that it bored me, and it had an interesting twist in the end that, although I saw it coming, King executed masterfully.
"The Van Alen Legacy" by Melissa de la Cruz was the latest in her Blue Bloods series. More action and intrigue kept my interest better than the previous volumes, but of course I'm so lost with the convoluted storyline from having not really paid attention previously that I did find myself going "huh?" a couple of times. It really didn't matter, though, it was still enjoyable.
Greg Mortenson, author of the brilliant "Three Cups of Tea", returns with "Stones Into Schools", about how his nonprofit, The Central Asia Institute, has helped build schools for girls in Afghanistan. Brilliant and inspiring, I sincerely wish there were more people in the world like Mortenson. We should clone him and fill the world with his amazing selflessness and compassion. Now here's a man that should win a Nobel Peace Prize. He deserves it.
And finally, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger's absolutely brilliant and amazing look at Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's marriage in "Furious Love". Wow, what a powerful love story. Taylor gave them access to her private letters from Burton, which they quoted from liberally in the book. Beautiful and heartbreaking how their love was so passionate, so all consuming, that it literally destroyed them both. Now I'm in the mood to rewatch "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

Bitter is the New Black; Such a Pretty Fat; Destination Morgue: L.A. Tales; The Sound and the Fury: William Faulkner and the Lost Cause; Anything Goes; Roses

2010-06-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Oh lordy am I behind. I've sort of been losing a lot of myself lately, I feel like life is coming apart at the seams and I'm scrambling to hold onto the strings. I actually contemplated giving up on this, but I think I might regret it someday if I do, so along I'll plod. Here goes.
Two by Jen Lancaster, which were really funny and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of her books. First was "Bitter is the New Black", about how she and her fiance both lost their high-paying, high-powered jobs and in their poverty discovered the important things in life. It sounds sentimental and sappy, but it really wasn't. "Such a Pretty Fat" was her account of how she set about losing weight and getting into shape. It wasn't quite as funny, because it's a topic that hits entirely close to home for me, but I have to give her major credit for talking so openly about such an intensely painful subject.
"Destination Morgue: L.A. Tales" by James Ellroy was sheer masterpiece. I saw him a few months ago at the L.A. Times of Festival of Books and he is such a dynamic speaker. I've read a few of his books (highly recommend "My Dark Places") and I've wanted to read more. "Destination Morgue" was an intriguing mix of nonfiction and fiction, starting off with a few short stories of unsolved L.A. murders and how they've affected him, and the last half of the book was a collection of short fiction staring an L.A. detective and his lady love. He skillfully wove real life characters into the fiction and his abrasive style and hardcore slang make Ellroy second to none.
"The Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost Cause" by John T. Matthews was a short little critical interpretation of Faulkner's masterpiece. If I'm not reading Faulkner then I want to read more about him and his brilliance, and this one was very good, highly readable and he had some interesting insights as to the Compson household. Nothing I haven't read before, obviously, since I've read so much about "The Sound and the Fury", but interesting nonetheless.
"Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties" by Lucy Moore was a fun little read about the decade that defined excess and opulence before it all came crashing down. History seems to always repeat itself, even if we do our best to remember it. Her stories about what was going on in the '20s, everything from Jack Dempsey to Charles Lindbergh, drew parallels to what was going on over the last decade before we lost it all.
And finally, "Roses" by Leila Meacham. I've heard really great things about this book: a sweeping, grand epic about love and revenge set in the lush background of my favorite locale: Texas. It was good, but it fell short of my expectations. I was thinking more like "Giant" by Edna Ferber (I should have known better) but it was pale and weak in comparison.

The King's Rose; Bite Me; The Way I See It; The Bedwetter; Paul and Me

2010-05-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, first up "The King's Rose" by Alisa M. Libby, a tepid YA novel about the life of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good or interesting. Sort of forgettable, like little Catherine herself.
"Bite Me" by Christopher Moore was pretty funny: vampires in San Francisco. The characters were funny and well written, and I enjoyed the way he switched voices and perspectives throughout the novel. I was very glad he didn't voice the whole thing in Abby's voice, because that would have made me quit reading the book early on. A little of her slang goes a long way.
Melissa Anderson, otherwise known as Melissa Sue Anderson, who played too-good-to-be-true older sister Mary on TV's "Little House on the Prairie", penned a memoir of her life on the show in "The Way I See It". It wasn't a bad book, just kind of dull and very, very vanilla. The worst trouble Melissa and her teenage friends got into was not pulling over for a cop after running a stop sign. Well, I guess it's good that not every child actor in Hollywood did drugs and slept around, but it sure doesn't make for an interesting story when they didn't!
"The Bedwetter" is Sarah Silverman's autobiography. I've never seen her show, a coworker recommended it to me. It was fairly funny and she seemed very real and self-aware and able to laugh at herself, which are all nice qualities in people. It was entertaining enough to hold my interest.
And lastly, A. E. Hotchner chronicles his lifelong friendship with Paul Newman in "Paul and Me". It was a worthy tribute to a great man, very touching. I teared up more than once, but Hotchner was never sappy or sentimental. He obviously cared very much about Paul and valued their friendship and business collaboration on "Newman's Own", and that came through in a beautiful way.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Graphic Novel

2010-05-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Graphic adaptation by Tony Lee and Cliff Richards. I thought Lee did a good job of paring the story down while still keeping the fun tongue in cheek elements, but Richards' artwork seemed fuzzy and slapdash. I would have preferred something a bit sharper and of course, color would have been excellent.

Spoken from the Heart; Darkness; Mouse Guard Fall 1152; the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2010-05-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm falling behind again. What can I say? Things happen.
Moving on. "Spoken from the Heart" by former first lady Laura Bush was a very enjoyable autobiography, although I did find her mother bear defending her cubs type of tone when talking about her husband a bit tiresome. I totally understand why she feels the need to defend him, and I think their love for each other is amazing and special, but I also think that most people open minded enough to read her book are not going to be that insanely critical of former president Bush. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but at any rate, I found her to be a warm and personable author and I enjoyed hearing about her perspective on her years in the White House. The time after 9/11 was especially terrifying. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to have been living through that kind of high alert.
"Darkness" was a collection of not very good short stories edited by Ellen Datlow. I'm just not a big short stories person, and none of them were really all that memorable, except for the one by Stephen King, which I of course had read before.
"Mouse Guard Fall 1152" is a graphic novel by David Peterson. I wasn't terribly impressed by this one. The artwork was nice, but the story was so thin and juvenile compared to the other graphic novels I've been reading lately. It only took me 20 minutes to get through it. I know I read fast, but c'mon. I gotta have a little more substance than that. And the little mice as the heroes just didn't cut it with me. Although it was funny to see them battle a snake and some lobsters.
Rebecca Skloot's "Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was amazing. Henrietta died in 1951 from cervical cancer. Before she died, doctors biopsied and saved a piece of the tumor growing in her, and it began to grow and divided, and her cells haven't stopped growing and dividing since, the first cells scientists were ever able to keep alive for so long. Her cells have been used all over the world to find cures for diseases and study how cells form, grow, change, react to certain toxins and outside influences, etc. It's impossible to calculate just how much advancement has been made in the field of medicine based on Henrietta's cells. Absolutely, utterly fascinating, and not the least bit over my head with the medical jargon, which is usually hard to comprehend.

Dawn of the Dreadfuls; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The Sandman Vols. 1 and 2; The Sound and the Fury

2010-05-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm two weeks behind because I suck, what can I say.
"Dawn of the Dreadfuls" by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith (which I promptly reread after reading Dreadfuls). Hockensmith told how the Bennet sisters became zombie hunters. He didn't follow what Grahame-Smith had set up in PP&Z, like the girls going to the Orient to get their training, but it was still entertaining. And then I reread PP&Z and caught a lot of the jokes I had missed the first time around.
Then I read volumes one and two of the "Sandman" graphic novels by Neil Gaimen. I didn't care too much for the first one, "Prelude and Nocturnes". It was kind of slow and seemed disjointed. The second one, "The Doll's House", was a bit better. The story seems to be picking up a bit. We'll see how the rest of the series goes. The artwork was nice, it reminded me of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comics I used to read as a kid.
And then I reread William Faulkner's brilliant, shining "The Sound and the Fury". Every time I reread it I love it more. I was tempted to try to go the Faulkner conference in Mississippi this July, but unfortunately I have a work obligation that I can't get out of. Disappointing. I'd love to see Faulkner's typewriter :)

Wake; The Baby-Sitters Club: the Summer Before

2010-04-21T09:53:00.001-07:00

"Wake" by Lisa McMann was a rather thin YA novel about a girl who gets sucked into other people's dreams. There wasn't a whole lot of explanation going on as to how this actually happened or why, but I found myself not really caring all that much. It's a good concept, I think, just not written well.
And I have a guilty confession to make: I grew up reading the "Baby-Sitters Club" books. And "Sweet Valley High". At any rate, I gave away all my BSC books a decade ago (donated them to my local library! Yay me!), and I felt nostalgic for them after reading this new prequel by Ann M. Martin. She tells the story of the summer before Kristy came up with her great idea. Sometimes when you reread books you loved as a kid you wonder why in the hell you read that crap and liked it, but not the BSC. It was still a good story with good characters. I think I'm really just longing for simpler times in my life right now, before I became an adult and everything got all complicated :)

The Lexicographer's Dilemma; Superfreakonomics; 703

2010-04-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Whole bunch of good nonfiction lately--I've really enjoyed all of them. First up is Jack Lynch's study of the English language and how it came to be the language we know today, "The Lexicographer's Dilemma". It was interesting to see how "proper" English evolved over the years and how our dictionaries were compiled.
"Superfreakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is their follow up to their wildly popular (and amazingly good) "Freakonomics". It challenges the way we think about things, like why it's actually safer to drive drunk than to walk drunk, and how safety studies show that regular old seatbelts are safer and better at protecting children than car seats. Great reads, both of them.
And "703" by Nancy Makin. At her heaviest, Nancy weighed 703 pounds. How she got that way, and how she lost over 500 pounds, is a great story in her words. I really liked her--she seems like a great person, and I'm so happy she's gotten her life back after being so miserable for so many years. As someone who has battled with my weight my entire life (thank god never to the extremes as poor Nancy) I can certainly empathize. I think she's dead on by saying that people who struggle with weight issues are failing to fix what's really the problem: on the inside, their own lingering doubts regarding their self-worth. Obese people are severely damaged inside, and that needs to be corrected before we can expect any diet and exercise regime to work. Listen to her! She knows what she's talking about.

Hellraisers

2010-04-11T21:13:00.001-07:00

The life and times of four fine actors: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed, by Robert Sellers. Great fun, these guys really enjoyed life and lived it to the fullest. Some of the stories were so incredibly outrageous, but good fun. Richard Harris found a picture of himself with a Rolls Royce, and having no recollection of ever owning such a car, called his two ex-wives, neither of which could remember him owning such a vehicle, either. He called his accountant, who confirmed he'd purchased the car 20 years previously and had been storing it in a garage to the tune of some $92,000. Can you even imagine? They went on legendary benders, lasting days. I'm ridiculously jealous.

This Book is Overdue

2010-04-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

Marilyn Johnson is a journalist who loves libraries and librarians, and she wrote a wonderful book in praise of the great men and women who make up my profession called "This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All". It would be a perfect introduction to the lay reader as to what exactly it is that librarians do all day (and no, we don't read, we're not volunteers, and yes, I have a master's degree). I would have thoroughly enjoyed it even if it wasn't all about other people just like me :)

Undead Much?

2010-04-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Stacy Jay's very disappointing YA zombie novel was an absolute mess. It seemed like she really didn't have a clear idea of the plot, she was just making it up as she went along. Her characters were unconvincing and silly, even for a light hearted YA read. And the thing that absolutely *killed* it for me--when she describes a character as throwing something into the backseat of his Corvette. Oh my god. CORVETTES DO NOT HAVE BACKSEATS. Seriously, who doesn't know this? Even if Jay didn't, shouldn't her editor have fact checked this?

Eclipse; Breaking Dawn; The Kids Are All Right; Hell Gate

2010-03-29T20:04:00.001-07:00

I reread two of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series over the weekend because I was sick in bed, "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn". I enjoyed both more than I did last time I reread them, so that was something.
"The Kids Are All Right" by the Welch siblings: Diana, Liz, Amanda, and Dan. They took turns telling their story of what happened to the four of them after their parents died and they were split up among friends to be raised. This is going to sound mean, but it wasn't nearly as sad as I thought it would be. I've read much worse, like Dave Eggers "Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius". Not that it wasn't awful for them to lose their parents within a few years of each other, but their mother set up a trust fund that paid for their private schools, and they all pretty much survived all right.
"Hell Gate" by Linda Fairstein is her latest Alex Cooper mystery. Alex and her partners, Mike and Mercer, are hunting down human traffickers, people who bring in women from other countries to be sold into the sex trade. At one point it looked like the entire City Hall was in on it: the mayor, the D.A., half the city council. It was okay. Alex and Mike's bantering got on my nerves, and Alex's blase treatment of her boyfriend just rubbed me the wrong way.

The Tudors

2010-03-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

G. J. Meyer's all-encompassing biography of the most notorious rulers of Britain was utterly brilliant. Witty and sharp and interesting, I truly enjoyed it. Unlike most historians, who are pretty good about not interpreting or casting judgment on their subjects, Meyer was quick to call out King Henry's hypocrisies. I thought he was a bit harsh on Queen Elizabeth, but his cutting remarks about Henry were so great I forgave him. Here's my favorite, from pg. 301: "The king meanwhile soldiered on with the thankless and unending task of showing his people the way to salvation, to all appearances unaware that he could have spent his time more productively by trying to herd cats." When was the last time I laughed out loud while reading nonfiction? I hope he writes more in the future!

The Walking Dead Book 3

2010-03-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Continuing the story of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, Robert Kirkman's third installment finds the group safely ensconced in a prison. When they witness a helicopter crash, a group of them go to see if there are any survivors they can help. Turns out there's another group nearby, led by a sadistic man, who kidnaps the rescue party and tortures and maims them before they are able to escape. Back at the prison, they determine they must fortify their position so they can be ready for the inevitable attack coming from the other group. Well, surviving an apocalypse tends to either bring out the best or the worst in people, and it was nice to see this dichotomy. It was also a nice change from the second book in the series, which seemed to focus more on the relationships forming between the last remaining members of society. It was good to get back on track and realize what's important--surviving and taking out as many zombies as you can.

Asleep

2010-03-16T13:01:00.001-07:00

After reading Oliver Sack's "Awakenings" a few weeks ago, I was curious about other books on the sleeping sickness epidemic, and discovered this new one by Molly Caldwell Crosby. It wasn't quite as depressing as Sack's book, mostly because she wrote less about individual patients and more about the phenomenon as a whole. She also told of people who survived the sickness relatively unscathed. It just seems so sad that so many had to suffer, and that scientists and doctors still really don't have a clue as to what causes it or how to treat it if it comes back.

Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

2010-03-10T13:10:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Handler's previous two books, "My Horizontal Life" and "Are You There, Vodka, it's Me, Chelsea", were both pretty hilarious. This one not so much. First off, it was way too short, barely over two hundred pages, and there were pictures and lots of white space and the font was really big. As I was reading one story I could have sworn she told of something similar in a previous book. I guess she's running out of funny things to entertain us about, which is unfortunate. Like the old Janet Evanovich books, I count on Chelsea to make me laugh. Also, she spent a good portion of the book making fun of her boyfriend (they recently split up, after the book went to press). It just didn't sit right with me, her making him out to be a fool. Making fun of her dad is one thing, but I didn't like it in regards to Ted.

V for Vendetta; Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right

2010-03-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

Alan Moore and David Lloyd team up for the graphic novel "V for Vendetta", which was pretty good. I liked "Watchmen" better, and I think it was because of the artwork. I wasn't crazy about the way Lloyd illustrated it. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't as nice as other graphic novels I've read, and I think, obviously, half the point of reading a graphic novel is for the illustrations. The plot was pretty decent, if somewhat unbelievable and paranoid, but Moore did a good job of making us understand the main characters motivation.
"Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right" by Jennifer Burns was a well done biography of Rand that examined not only her personal life but her long term affects on American culture and politics. It's obvious that even though Rand has been dead for nearly 30 years, she still inspires, fascinates, and infuriates. Reading all these biographies of Rand make me wish I had more time right now to reread "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead". It's been years! Much too long.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2010-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

So Seth Grahame-Smith, author of the hilarious mash-up "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is back with a fictionalized account of the life of one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. I really enjoyed this book up until the last three pages: I thought it was clever and funny and that if Abe Lincoln were around today to read it he might get a kick out of it (although I did catch an error--he killed off a character who was then back twenty pages later. Hello, editor? WTH?). The ending totally killed it for me. Just like that, dead. I read the last bit and wanted to toss the book across the room, preferably through something, like my sliding glass doors. I restrained myself, because it's a library book. It's unfortunate, because it really was a very interesting spin on Lincoln's life and what motivated him to get so deeply involved in the abolitionist movement. It even seemed remotely plausible, unlike Jane Austen's heroines killing zombies.

To Hell on a Fast Horse; The Man Who Loved Books Too Much; Horns

2010-02-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

"To Hell on a Fast Horse" by Mark L. Gardner examined the strangely intertwined lives of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. It was interesting to find out what happened to Garrett after he supposedly murdered the Kid (I still don't want to believe it, although I must admit it does seem to be more and more likely). No real new information on Billy the Kid, but I think I've probably read everything there is out there about him.
"The Man Who Loved Books too Much" by Allison Hoover Bartlett was a great, quick read. I enjoyed this nonfiction title more than I've enjoyed any others I can think of in recent memories. She looked at the life of notorious rare book thief, John Gilkey, as well as the world of rare books. Very interesting, and I can certainly relate to the whole "loving books too much" bit.
"Horns" by Joe Hill honestly blew me away. I read his first book, "Heart Shaped Box", and wasn't terribly impressed by it. It was good, but not great, and I didn't get why all the critics were falling all over themselves, praising it (other than the fact that he's Stephen King's son). This one, though, this one was wow. Great story about the worst human tendencies that makes us question whether or not we can ever really trust what we know about another human being. I literally could not put it down yesterday, and when I finished it last night, even though I had another new book I was eager to dive into, I just couldn't bring myself to read any more. It spoiled me for another book (at least for the evening).

Watchmen

2010-02-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

Alan Moore's graphic novel that is often hailed as the one that started it all. It was quite good and really changed my mind about what exactly a graphic novel could be. I'm used to bloody gory violent quick little stories that while admittedly are very fun to read don't have any sort of real message to them. "Watchmen" was different. There was a lot of plot to keep track of and a lot of really well written and interesting characters.

Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession

2010-02-19T10:08:00.000-08:00

I've read a lot of books--about true crime, and about Jack the Ripper. This book is hands down the worst piece of trash I have ever read. I don't know why I bothered to finish it, except that I think I was hoping it would improve, that the authors, David Monaghan and Nigel Cawthorne, would eventually provide some sort of substantial proof that the man who penned the anonymous "My Secret Life" was also Jack the Ripper. There is no such proof, because the author, Walter, wasn't Jack the Ripper. He was a sick, twisted man who raped and mistreated women, but he never bragged about being violent and murdering anyone, and in an autobiography as lengthy as this one (eleven volumes, I think) why wouldn't he? He certainly has no shame about telling us about the other horrible things he's done. I really am stunned the authors even got a publisher to accept this garbage. For instance, one of their "proofs" that Walter was Jack was that he mentions grapes in his autobiography, and one of the Ripper's victims was last seen with a man who was eating grapes. Oh my god, this is called a *coincidence*, not evidence. Good grief. Flimsy would be an exaggeration.

Awakenings; Confidential: Shocking True Story; Three to Get Deadly; Four to Score

2010-02-16T09:23:00.001-08:00

I was very eager to read Oliver Sack's "Awakenings", about a mysterious sleeping sickness that became an epidemic after the first world war. He supposedly had great success with a drug called L-Dopa that, I thought, cured these people. Sadly, this was not the case. Not only does he have no idea what causes this illness, but in many of his patient's cases, the L-Dopa was even worse than being in a perpetual vegetative state (at least in my opinion). It was horribly depressing without even the hope of a cure or at least an understanding of how to prevent it in the future.
"Confidential: Shocking True Story" by Henry E. Scott was mindless fluff of the worst kind, and I enjoyed it. He looked at the pre-runner to magazines such as "Star" and "People" and TV shows like "TMZ", "Confidential" magazine, which in the 1950s, ended the big studios hold over the media, at least for a few years. Confidential printed all the scandals that Hollywood tried to cover up, until they were eventually successfully sued and had to change format and lost readership.
I reread two Janet Evanovich books over the weekend because I needed the laughs. Normally around this time of year she puts out a between the numbers Stephanie Plum book, but this year she didn't. Oh, well, I'd rather reread my old favorites.

Your Flying Car Awaits

2010-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

As a kid, Paul Milo was fascinated with predictions experts made regarding the future. He collected them in this book and the result is rather amusing. I honestly think I enjoyed reading more about the people in the past who actually got their predictions right. It's always interesting to see how differently things turned out then everyone thought they would. In some ways we're better off and in others we're not, and experts still keep making wild and crazy guesses at what the future holds.

The Queen's Governess

2010-02-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

Karen Harper has written a couple of books on the Tudors. I read "The Last Boleyn" and it was pretty good. "The Queen's Governess" looked at Kat Ashley, who was in charge of Queen Elizabeth from the time she was a small child, like a second mother to her, really. I liked Harper's portrayal of Kat as something other than a besotted ninny. After all, she practically single handedly raised one of the most intelligent women in the world and was a close companion to her as well as a guardian. She survived and stayed in favor with King Henry VIII through five wives (not something too many others can claim), so she must have had some wicked sharp diplomacy skills. All in all it was a good read.

Her Fearful Symmetry

2010-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

I really liked the "Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, and I was looking forward to her follow up. I didn't really care that much for it, though. There was a lot of build up in the book itself that didn't really pan out, in regards to a big secret that was actually kind of predictable and not that big a deal (at least in my mind). The plot was definitely unique and the writing was lovely, but I didn't really like the characters and after I was done I just kind of went meh. It was okay, nothing more.

Solace of the Road

2010-02-01T10:11:00.000-08:00

Siobhan Dowd's YA novel about a girl abandoned by her mother, Holly is taken in by some nice foster parents. Holly has a lot of deep seated issues, however, and she is convinced her mother is waiting for her in Ireland. She steals her foster mother's blonde wig and hits the highway, becoming "Solace". It was a sad book, but had a good ending and I enjoyed it.

Cleopatra's Daughter

2010-01-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

If there's one subject I love reading about almost as much as the Tudors, it's Queen Cleopatra. Michelle Moran writes of what happened to her daughter, Cleopatra Selene, after Cleopatra and Marc Antony kill themselves in Egypt and Octavian takes their children to Rome as prisoners. It was very well told and entertaining, and seemed fairly accurate, historically (alas, I do not know enough about the time period to say for sure). I feel a Cleopatra kick coming on!