"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.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Captive Queen; Red Queen; Hollywood; Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake; I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell; Dead and Gone
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 :)
"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 :)
Friday, August 6, 2010
Jigsaw
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.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Lady, Lady, I Did It!
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!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
In which I apologize and catch up
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.
"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.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
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
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?".
"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?".
Sunday, June 6, 2010
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
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.
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.
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