PamBooks

3. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

2012-01-24T17:56:00.001-08:00

By Alan Bradley (370 pp).

I really hate the title of this book, but that's the only part I don't like. My cousin Jennifer recommended the book and I loved it. The protagonist is 11-year-old Flavia de Luce and she's a total smart ass and hilarious. She finds a man dying in the garden and gets involved in solving the mystery. I wish I was in Mr. Bradley's crit group because I would have had suggestions about the ending because it didn't completely work for me. But fun book. Recommend.

2. The Last of the Live Nude Girls

2012-01-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

By Sheila McClear (243 pp)

During the holiday break I started at least 5 different books and every time I sat down to read I'd pile them all around me and take turns reading from each one. In regular life I rarely read more than one thing at a time because my concentration is crap plus I don't have huge amounts of time to read so can't remember what's going on if I have too many books going. Now holiday break is long over and I have these books half read. The other night when I couldn't sleep I went into the living room to read and this was the book I grabbed. It's grim reading at 2am. It's a memoir about a woman who moves to NYC and ends up working peep shows to earn money. She comes unraveled before she gets it together. Interesting look peep show business.

1. It's So Easy and Other Lies

2012-01-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

By Duff McKagan (361 pp.)

I LOVED this book. I loved it as much as you can love a book where the hero's pancreas explodes because he drinks so much. Ten bottles of wine a day — that was when he was trying to stay away from the hard stuff. Try to wrap your head around that. Ten bottles a day. Yikes. It's amazing what the human body can survive. Duff started out in bands when he was a teenager and was in Guns 'N Roses. He came back from total disaster. Recommend.

Book List for 2012 Starts Here

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

Only 30 books this year. Not great. I'd like to do better.

But I read 149 short stories/novellas/novelettes. And that's not everything. I don't always keep track of the shorter stuff.

I had some busy times where not much reading happened.

I'm not making any reading goals for 2012 except to read more than 30 books. Especially since I bought or was given at least 40 books in the last 6 weeks. Must keep ahead.

My favorites were The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro by Joe McGinniss, A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and Bob Mould, See a Little Light.

30. The Necessary Beggar

2011-12-20T09:45:00.001-08:00

By Susan Palwick (316 pp.)

Another book I was looking forward to reading that I wish I liked more. The set-up is great. A family from another world is exiled and they end up in Reno, NV. The main protagonist is a young girl who grows into a teenager during the course of the story. The characters are likable and the contrast between cultures is detailed and interesting. The first problem I had was it was too long. Every scene seemed to go on longer than it needed to. We watched the exiled family try to understand crime, Christianity, Halloween, Christmas, casinos, homeless people. It went on and on. The second half of the book turned into an implausible teen romance and family melodrama. I didn't hate it but have trouble recommending.

29. The Queen of Attolia

2011-12-10T11:08:00.001-08:00

By Megan Whalen Turner (404 pp)

Well, I disagree with the person who reviewed this book online and wrote, "Best Book Ever." I liked it a great deal but didn't love it mostly because of an unexpected plot event I found implausible and not particularly desirable. The story is about the Thief from the previous book, who gets into serious trouble and a terrible thing happens. Then he needs to get his groove back. The backdrop is political maneuverings of three countries plus an empire from over yonder that would also like to get its grubby hands in the mix. I thought the book got a little too bogged down in that stuff and the end was about 50 pages too long. I'm still going to read the third one but not for a bit. First, I'm back to working on the nightstand odds and ends.

28. The Thief

2011-12-04T17:11:00.001-08:00

By Megan Whalen Turner (219 pp)

I still haven't cleared out the odds and ends on my nightstand but I made a big dent in them. I read this book when it came out but I never continued in the series so I wanted to read this again before I moved on. I barely remembered the story so it was just as big a surprise this time around. It's about a thief who is taken out of prison so he can steal something for the king. Really good. I recommend.

27. The Blind Assassin

2011-11-19T12:03:00.000-08:00

By Margaret Atwood (521 pp.)

I can't believe how long it's been since I finished a book. Not for lack of trying. I have been juggling too many things lately. It took me a month to read the first 150pp. This is actually my second time reading this book. I haven't re-read a book, other than a Laura Ingalls or a Narnia book, in ages. My to-read shelf is always piled so high I never take the time to re-read anything. But I've wanted to re-read The Blind Assassin since I finished it the first time which was probably 10 years ago. I remember reading it very quickly and feeling like there was stuff I missed that I wanted to understand better. I enjoyed the re-read as much as I enjoyed the book the first time but now that I'm finished, I'm not sure what I thought I missed. Highly recommended.

I'm going to see if I can clear up all the odds and ends on my nightstand and read the books Carol gave me and then tackle the Rothfuss books during the holidays. No doubt this will end up being over ambitious.

26. Dreamsnake

2011-10-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

By Vonda McIntyre (312 pp.)

Wow, I haven't finished a book in over a month. I have read a ton of short stories. And also September was super busy.

I've had this book forever. I decided to read it now because I was going to Canada for the day with only a little backpack and this book would fit in there perfectly. It's set in a future post apocalyptic earth in some ways more advanced and in some ways more primitive and with different social customs. The protagonist is a healer who needs to find a dreamsnake. It got a little crazy at the end but I enjoyed it a great deal. I like stories set in future ruins.

I'd like to read another novel and it seems like my bookshelf is mostly stories. I hate to buy more books when there are so many sitting here. I'm sure I'll find something.

25. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

2011-09-05T12:54:00.001-07:00

by John Vaillant

At the beginning of the summer Powell's had a big summer book sale. I had already read and liked several of them so I took a chance on this one because it sounded good. It's about a tiger in far east Russia who stalks and eats people. It's really scary. It's non-fiction, in case you were wondering. Because that part of the story wouldn't make a whole book, there is a ton of interesting stuff in here about the area: ecosystem, politics, economy, culture, what happened to that area after Perestroika; plus a ton of interesting stuff about tigers, humans and predatory behavior. I thought it went on a little bit too long but it's a definite recommend.

24. The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting

2011-08-28T14:46:00.001-07:00

by Jim Walsh (267 pp.)

I grabbed this as soon as I finshed the Bob Mould book (#23). I liked the places where the books overlapped but overall I wasn't in love with this one. It's subtitled An Oral History and the entire book is snippets of stuff people said about the band including the band members. So instead of being a straight narrative it jumps and starts, sometimes repeating, sometimes random bits that just went on too long. Now I'm going to have to get my Replacements catalog out and listen to that. Here's a favorite quote from the book by Tommy Stinson: Boy, if "Aqualung" is a classic, then "I'll Be You" is history.

23. Bob Mould: See A Little Light

2011-08-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

by Bob Mould (385 pp.)

I have been a fan of Bob Mould since New Day Rising which I still own on vinyl. I don't own his complete catalog but pretty close. Reading this inspires me to pull out everything that I have and listen to it in order. Needless to say, as a fan, I loved this book. It's the story of his life and career. I particularly loved the early years stuff with Hüsker Dü and the Minneapolis scene and rivalry with The Replacements. (which is another of my all time favorite bands). What I admire about him is the same thing I admire about Patti Smith. They are true to their own artistic vision - they never try to be anything but themselves. I've had a Replacements bio on my shelf and I'm reading that now.

22. A Dance With Dragons

2011-07-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

by George RR Martin (1 million pp)

It seems like every brick book series has moments in it that are just typing. This book is way too long for what happens in it. It felt like every chapter ended with a twist and by the time you met up with those characters again, a bunch of stuff had happened to solve the problem and a few characters stood around and talked about it. Then there would be a bit of action and another plot twist. Too much stuff happened off screen that would have been nice to see and too much standing around talking that could have been shaved down. I'm invested enough that I want to find out what happens next and there were good parts, too. And lots of people died.

21. Fathom

2011-07-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

By Cherie Priest (380 pp.)

I almost didn't finish this book. I got it at a book exchange and it's not that I thought it was a bad book, it just didn't seem like my type of book. But then some unexpected things happened and I was sucked in and had to finish. This book is about an old god (goddess?) of water and her schemes. She's bad and she finds other bad people to help her out. Meanwhile other gods have their own plans. A fun story. I found myself wanted to go back and read just a few more chapters. I have a small complaint in that it felt like every other scene went on about a page and a half longer than it needed to. And then end felt like it went on about 20 pages longer than it needed to.

20. The Year of the Flood

2011-06-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

By Margaret Atwood (432 pp.)

It's not that I didn't like this book but it's not my favorite Margaret Atwood. I loved Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin. TBA is sitting on my "to read" shelf for a re-read. I hardly ever re-read books anymore. I think I got a little mucked up with the structure going back and forth in time with different narrators. But the closer the book got to the end, the more I got into it. This is a companion book to Oryx and Crake that I like when I read it. It takes place in the near future when the world is falling apart and then there's a pandemic and it really does fall apart. It made me want to skim Oryx and Crake again except I think my copy must be at Mom's because I can't find it. Recommend for MA fans.

19. The Golem's Eye: The Bartimaeus Trilogy #2

2011-06-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Stroud (562 pp.)

This is second in a series (See Book #16.) I had a much harder time getting into this book and I don't think it was any major thing, it just could have been trimmed by 50+ pages so we got into it quicker. Bartimaeus, my favorite character barely appears in the first 100 pages. But once we headed to the conclusion, it went quick. It's about a djinni, a boy magician (who is a bit of a putz), a common girl who are fighting the magician establishment, and some big bad stuff.

18. So You Want to Be A Rock & Roll Star

2011-06-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

By Jacob Slichter (286 pp.)

When I graduated from college I really wanted to work for a record company or do something in the music business. For numerous reasons it didn't work out, but I'm still interested in how it works.

The book is written by the drummer for Semisonic the band that did the song "Closing Time" which is a great song but was everywhere in 1998. I remember getting to the point where I'd want to jump out the window when that song came on.

This is about them getting started, getting a record deal and trying to get their music on the air. Then getting a monster hit and how it all worked out. Slichter was in his 30's when this happened so he's got a grown-up's perspective. Lots of great inside scoop. The music business is scarily crooked. I'm lucky I didn't end up in it. Good book.

17. The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro

2011-06-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

By Joe McGinniss (404 pp.)

My love for this book grew exponentially as I read it. Very highly recommended for people who love books about soccer. I don't think anyone else will be so thrilled. It's about a soccer team from a tiny town in Italy that makes its way into Serie B. Non-fiction just in case it isn't clear. The author is an American and he lived in the town for the 1996 soccer season to write this story. My biggest beef, and I understand this is how this type of journalism works, is that the author make himself such a big part of the story. But he's such a big personality, I think this is also what makes the story work. It ends on a sour note which almost ruins the whole experience but I think the author and the team would agree on that.

16. The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Book 1)

2011-05-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

By Jonathan Stroud (462 pp.)

My sister gave me this book and I LOVED it. I'm going to buy the other 2 ASAP. It's a YA book about an ancient djinni (Bartimaeus) and a kid named Nathanial who is studying to be a magician. It's got action, danger, great humor and characters who keep doing the wrong thing and then getting into more trouble when they try to fix it. Recommend!

15. Chasing the Game: American and the Quest for the World Cup

2011-05-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

By Filip Bondy (293 pp)

This is the story of the US Men's National Soccer team at the World Cup. It tells the story leading up to the 2010 World Cup and also the history of the US and the World Cup. There is a ton of great information in here and I learned a lot of new stuff. However, I found the structure sort-of confusing because the lead up to 2010 is intercut with the historical stuff and as you get closer to the present there are overlapping characters and I sometimes had to take a minute to sort out where I was in time. Plus the backstory of some of the players -- which are fantastic -- are thrown in seemingly at random. I also think the choice to put Tim Howard (click here for a special treat ladies) on the cover is weird. It seems like having a bunch of US players would have made more sense.

14. As Always, Julia: Food, Friendship and the Making of a Masterpiece

2011-05-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ed. by Joan Reardon (402 pp)

This is a book of correspondence between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto. They met when Julia wrote a letter to Bernard DeVoto after reading an article he wrote about kitchen knives. It's hard not to love people who are passionate about cutlery. That letter started a correspondence that developed into an amazing friendship. Avis ended up playing a key role in getting Mastering the Art of French Cooking published.

I loved it. It gets a tad long in spots but is easy to skim. One of the things I loved is that they both write about being frustrated with trying to balance all the things they want to do. I feel like my personal challenges are so unique and here are two ambitious women 50 years ago, struggling with the same thing.

13. A Visit from the Goon Squad

2011-04-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

by Jennifer Egan (274 pp.)

Another book of inter-connected short stories that would be tough to sum up in a sentence. People in different places at different times. It's really good. I recommend.

I wanted to check something about the book online and found the author website here which I highly recommend *after* you read the book. She talks about the stories in the book and real life connections to them.

In course of doing that I found a bunch of reviews and blurbs. Man, I'd like to start a project making fun of book reviews. Like, every week on FB I'd review a fake book: "A shocking tour de force that rewards the yearnings of modernity and pits us against the sweeping land mines of the human heart."

This book inspired quite a bit inanity in the review department.

12. A Wind in the Door

2011-04-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

by Madeleine L'Engle (211 pp.)

I read this book when I was a teenager and I remember loving it. I did not like it even a tiny bit this time. Tedious. It's a YA book about smart teenager with a science-y family. Her brother is sick and some random beings show up with stuff to teach and there are tests and evil.

11. A Feast for Crows

2011-04-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

by George R.R. Martin (684 pp)

I've been sitting on this for awhile. It's book #4 in one of those sweeping epic swords and kings series. The series is still in progress and this is last one that's been written. (book #1, book #2, book #3). The TV series starts on HBO this weekend and supposedly number #5 is coming out this summer so I went ahead and plowed through it.

I didn't hate it but this is my least favorite of the series so far. Too many characters. And characters have more than one name and sometimes more than one identity. At one point I could swear the writer was doing this just to be mean. And it felt like the last book knocked all the pieces off the board and this book was about setting them back up again. But only some of them. There were still lots of good bits and I did manage to read it in two weeks and even dragged it on the bus with me (I read the hardcover). I will for sure continue with the series even though at this point my takeaway is that no matter if you're good, honest, bad or crazy: you will die, probably horribly.

Still, looking forward to the TV series.

10. The Native Star

2011-03-30T20:55:00.000-07:00

by M.K. Hobson (387 pp.)

I'm on track to read 40 books this year. That's not terrible but I still wish I finished more. I'm trying.

I love the set-up for this book. It's magic and witches/warlocks in 1876 California. There are horses and trains and lumbermen. The protagonist is an everyday witch from a small settlement. Magic goes wrong and pretty soon there are all sorts of unsavory characters trying to find her. Very fun book.

9. Unlucky

2011-03-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

by Dave Ungrady (207 pp.)

This book is about a soccer team's first year in D3 of the USISL. I'm copying that off the back of the book because I'm not even sure what that means. My big takeaway was: Wow, some guys really want to play soccer. For some of the guys, they hope this will be a jump-off point to bigger things. Some guys seem to be happy just to play for the team. Some guys have issues of one kind or another and just end up here. There was no pay, poor organization and a lot of uncertainty. And they lost a lot. This was in 1998. Looks like the club has done great. That would have been tough to predict from their first season. It's tough to resist the urge to put all those names into a search engine and see where they ended up.

8. I Capture the Castle

2011-03-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

by Dodie Smith (343 pp.)

I wish I'd read this book when I was 17. Then, I bet I would have found it flawless. Sadly, I bring my aged wisdom and experience so I found our charming narrator a bit of a doofus. A doofus in the way that we all are when we're 17.

This book was originally published in 1948. It's about a 17 year old girl named Cassandra who has a wacky and extremely dysfunctional family and lives in poverty in England until some rich guys move into the manor next door. Then it becomes about boys and bagging a husband for the pretty older sister.

The narrator is wonderful. The characterization fantastic. Great setting. It's definitely worth reading.

7. How Soccer Explains The World

2011-03-04T12:55:00.001-08:00

By Franklin Foer (252 pp).

First of all, this book has the widest margins I've ever seen in a trade paperback. Every time I opened it I remembered writing book reports in grade school where they had to be at least 4 pages long. My writing (we used handwriting in those days) and the margins would get bigger and bigger as the report went on so I could make sure I filled the space.

Second, I don't know if I'd be as annoyed if the book had a different title. I don't think this book shows how soccer explains the world. Well, now that I look at the cover there is a subtitle that calls this an {unlikely} theory of globalization. Joke's on me!

The book isn't terrible. I enjoyed most of it. I thought the author tried too hard to convince the reader that he's badass hanging out with gangsters, hooligans and thugs. But there are interesting inside bits about how Brazilian and Italian soccer works within those countries, violence associated with the sport and fan culture. Worth a look for soccer fans.

6. The Imperfectionists

2011-02-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

By Tom Rachman (269 pp)

Hannah was reading this when she visited and she liked it so I grabbed a copy when we went to the bookstore. It's another one of those linked stories novels and is set at an international newspaper located in Rome. I mostly liked it. The writing and characterization are fantastic. I thought some of the stories unraveled a bit and a couple of the characters were unforgivably pitiful. Overall, I recommend.

A favorite line: Nobody throws anything away here; nobody knows whose job that is.

There was also a good rant about misuse of the world "literally."

5. Soccernomics

2011-02-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

By Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (306 pp)

This book came out in 2009 and it uses statistics to talk about soccer. Most of it is super interesting but since the point of the the book is use of statistics, they sometimes talk so much about statistics my face melted. It's easy to skim over those parts. I wish I'd taken better notes as I went along so I could point out some of my favorite bits. They talk about soccer all over the world. They talk about the business side of soccer but also the game like penalty kick data. They talk about the US and soccer v. the NFL. They talk about why so many of the world's top players grew up in extreme poverty. I guess a better way of phrasing it would be to explain why such poor kids were able to grow up into great soccer players. Because they had nothing else to do so by the time they were teenagers they'd already logged in the hours and hours of practice to develop their skills. Recommended for soccer nerds.

4. Soccer Made Simple: A Spectator's Guide

2011-02-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

By Ominsky, Dave and Harari, P.J. (127 pp)

This book was put together for the 1994 World Cup. I didn't realize that until I got it home. It's kind of funny. The guide says that as a condition of awarding the 1994 World Cup to the U.S., FIFA made them promise to start a professional soccer league. Major League Soccer didn't even exist yet. This is just a really basic book about how soccer works. The rules of the game, how the World Cup works and soccer personalities. I'm probably the first person to check it out in eons.

3. The Thinking Fan's Guide to The World Cup

2011-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

Edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (397 pp.)

This collection with the unfortunately elitist sounding title, was put together prior to the 2006 World Cup. It's made up of 32 essays by different writers, one essay for each country in the final. Plus there's a recap of the 02 WC and a preview of the 06 WC and a bunch of statistics about the countries and the World Cup. There was no format for the essays. Some of them read like school reports about the country with a sentence or two about soccer thrown in. Others are like school reports about soccer in the country. The best ones are personal anecdotes where the writer has a personal connection with the country and with soccer. My favorite was the Iran essay by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. It's both sad and hilarious and unfortunately that link is only an excerpt. I don't think you can really appreciate it without reading the whole thing. I also loved Portugal, Italy and Togo but lots of the essays are great. I recommend for soccer fans but the Iran essay I recommend to everyone.

2. What It Is

2011-01-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

By Lynda Barry (209 pp)

I've had this book on my nightstand forever and I pick it up and page through it now and then. I finally actually read it cover-to-cover last week. It's a book based on the writing class that she does and it's a must for all Lynda Barry fans. Bob got me her new book for my bday and now that has been moved to the nightstand.

1. On Writing

2011-01-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

by Stephen King (288 pp)

I picked this up during the holidays while I was organizing my bookshelves. I intended to just flip through it and ended up reading the whole thing. Really good as a writing book and as a memoir.

Book List for 2011 Starts Here

2011-01-01T18:21:00.001-08:00

I just want to point out, again, that I read a lot of big books last year. Thirteen books had 400 or more pages. Five had 700 or more. In case there is a regulatory body reviewing my stats I just want to make sure they have all the data they need. It added up to 15,968 pages. If I'd known how close I was to 16K I would have hurry-upped and read another book.

I also kept track of reading 133 short stories. That isn't completely accurate because I don't write down every short story I read. Sometimes it's too much trouble.

I don't have any specific reading goals for 2011. I'm not going to keep track of a page count again. I just did that because I kept finding myself mowing through giant books and I haven't read giant books in a long time. Giant books can be really good. I still have a couple on my bookshelf.

37. The Sopranos: Selected Scripts

2010-12-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

By David Chase (323 pp)

I didn't expect to finish any other books this year, however insomnia had other ideas. I woke up at midnight last night and read most of this. I think I fell asleep at 4am. Nothing like waking up the day after your birthday and feeling like you've aged a million years.

I was a HUGE Sopranos fan and these were really fun to read. The collection includes the pilot episode, the episode where Tony takes Meadow to apply for college which was one of my favorite. It also has the episode called Pine Barrons where Paulie and Christopher chase that guy around in the forest. Really great writing.

36. Heart-Shaped Box

2010-12-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

by Joe Hill (351 pp)

When I was a teenager I read lots of horror books. I rarely do anymore although I really liked Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol. This is a horror story about an aging rock star who gets haunted by a ghost. The first 75 pages are crazy and you can hardly believe there are still 250pp to go. But it dragged for me in the middle and went on too long.

35. Quest for a Maid

2010-12-25T14:45:00.000-08:00

by Frances Mary Hendry (270pp)

This is one of cousin Lisa's favorite books. It's a YA book set in the 1200's and is inspired by the story of Margaret, Maid of Norway who was shipped off to Scotland as a child as part of some treaty and was killed en route. This story is about a young girl whose father builds ships and she becomes involved with the Maid of Norway. I loved the time period specific details and I also loved the protagonist who kept doing stuff she wasn't supposed to be doing and making things worse. Recommend.

34. The Forever War

2010-12-18T12:05:00.001-08:00

by Joe Haldeman (278 pp)

This book was published in 1974 and I'm always hearing how great it is or seeing it on some top Sci Fi book list so when I saw it at Camille's book exchange, I grabbed it.

I guess I don't like hard SF as much as I think I do. I don't get why this book is considered so great. Yeah, I get it's about the stupidity of war and it was entertaining enough. But there were long mathy explanations about how the fighting suits could withstand .006 gees with a tachyon conversion process as long as the temperature wasn't more than 7.6039 absolute while the vibrating factor of the liquid could be reduced by 7³. And I'd be reading along thinking, "Why are you telling me this?"

33. Rat Girl: A Memoir

2010-12-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

by Kristin Hersh (319 pp.)

I am amazed by how much I liked this book. Kristin Hersh started a band called The Throwing Muses when she was a teenager. I wasn't what you'd call a huge fan but I followed the band and was always fascinated by such young people having a successful band and Kristin being a Mom. This memoir is based on her journal when she was 18 and when she was pregnant. It's a little odd, and probably not for everyone but I loved it. I especially love how they were like the anti-attention-whores. They just wanted to do their thing.

32. Some Girls: My Life in a Harem

2010-12-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

by Jillian Lauren (339 pp.)

The premise is great: an American woman ends up in the harem of the brother of the Sultan of Brunei. The actual harem part is riveting. The way they recruit the girls, the culture of the harem, the mind games, the way the women treat each other. But wow, it's amazing how this woman managed to write her own memoir and make herself into a completely unsympathetic protagonist. Let's go through a checklist of memoir drama points: Sex industry worker? Check. Daddy issues? Check. Depression? Check. Disordered Eating? Check. Unplanned pregnancy? Check. Abusive parents? Check. Search for birth mother? Check. Plus a couple I've never seen before: a life changing ginormous tattoo and trauma over feeding live mice to large snake she purchased. Unrepentant money grubbing followed by aw shucks, I just needed to find myself.

I recommend if the harem stuff sounds intriguing. The rest of it is easy to skim through.

31. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2010-11-26T12:26:00.001-08:00

by Stieg Larsson (644 pp.)

This is my 7th book this year with 600 or more pages. I'm on fire. I'm going through my "to read" pile and pulling out all the fatties.

When we were in Europe in March I saw stacks of these Stieg Larsson books everywhere. I'd never heard of them and thought about buying all three. They were so popular. They must be good. But I didn't have room to carry three more books with me.

I bought this one when I got home and I have to say I'm mystified by the rabid popularity. It's a nice enough page-turning thriller. But nothing exceptional. I thought the pace was sludgy and there was some structural weirdness including a mindbendingly dull email exchange section near the end that ground the book to a halt. I'm not going to run out and read the other two, but if someone leaves them in a beach cabin where I happen to be staying (should I be so lucky) I'd read them then.

30. The Passage

2010-11-14T18:16:00.000-08:00

by Justin Cronin (766 pp.)

This is my 5th book this year over 700 pages. Remember the library gave out bookmarks and stuff as prizes when you read books during the summer as a kid? I feel like I should get something for reading so many giant books.

I 95% LOVED this book. It's a post-apocalyptic super-scary vampires take over the world story. Really, there isn't an original idea in here. It's all in the execution. Great characters. Fun to read. If I have a complaint, it's that I wish he'd dropped some of the ideas and developed other ideas more. By the time you get to the end there's a major development and resolution every couple of pages. I also thought there were some loose ends that I would have liked to see tied up a bit more. But overall: recommend.

29. All Clear

2010-10-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

by Connie Willis (641 pp)

I've read a lot of giant books this year. I feel like I should make a list with page counts. This is the conclusion to Blackout that I read in February. It's about time travelers from 2060 who go back to WWII London and everything goes wrong. It's a tad long but I really liked it. I kind-of want to reread both together now to fill in some of the bits I missed but I've got other stuff to read now so I'll save it for another time.

28. Epitaph Road

2010-10-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

by David Patneaude (266 pp)

This book did not work for me. It's YA and the premise is interesting: what if 97% of the male population was wiped out by a virus? However the story that came out is completely implausible on a number of counts the biggest one being that all the women in the entire world sign off on the idea of carefully controlling any future male population growth. Yeah, sure it's YA, but seriously, a huge majority of women on the entire planet don't care about getting laid? I also found the characterization weak and the story relied to much on info dumps at the beginning.

27. The Windup Girl

2010-10-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

by Paolo Bacigalupi (300pp)

I read this book while I was in Orleans last week. It's a future story set in Thailand and there isn't much energy and the food supply is all farked up and everything is unstable. There are bad guys and super bad guys and a lot of stuff going on. Overall I recommend although I did have a problem with it which has nothing to do with the writing and everything to do with me as a reader. This book is set in an altered universe and has its own vocabulary plus a bunch of character threads and political/social background. I have a hard time holding it all in my head. If I can read quickly (meaning not on the bus or a little bit before I go to bed each night) I can usually keep up and that was the case with this one.

26. Super Sad True Love Story

2010-10-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

by Gary Shteyngart (331pp)

I don't even know where to begin with this book. It's set in a near-future New York City and it's simultaneously funny and disturbing. It's about a 39 year old man who works for an anti-aging firm and he gets involved with a much younger and superficial woman. It felt a tad long at times but I enjoyed it. Recommend.

25. The Magicians

2010-10-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

by Lev Grossman (402 pp)

So I still haven't finished Super Sad True Love Story. That's no reflection on the book. I'm enjoying it. It's just timing. I had to spend a bunch of time on planes and in airports this week and I wanted something that was easier to carry and not half finished.

This is going to sound like an iffy recommendation but it's not. I really liked this book. However, the entire time I was reading it I felt like I was on the verge of falling wildly in love with it. It was going to be another book that I buy more copies of and shove in people's faces and demand that they read right away. It kept falling short of that. It's about a mopey guy from every day reality that gets chosen to go Magician school. All sorts of things happen, many of them grim. Can't say more or risk spoilers. Recommend.

24. Mockingjay (Hunger Games Book #3)

2010-09-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

by Suzanne Collins (390 pp)

Well, of course I had to drop everything and finish the series. (Sorry Gary) I think this is my least favorite of the three although I still enjoyed it. It felt a tad long and sometimes cartoony over-the-top and I can't be too specific because of spoilers. Overall I recommend the series.

23. Catching Fire (Hunger Games Book #2)

2010-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

by Suzanne Collins (391 pp)

I finished Book #1 last week and since I didn't have book #2 in my hands yet, I started a different book (Super Sad True Love Story). Then I went and bought #2 and #3. I intended to finish SSTLS and then break open this. But there was a particular plot issue that I really needed to know about that I figured would at least be hinted at in the first chapter and I could satisfy my curiosity and then go back and finish SSTLS since I already started it.

Next thing I knew I was on page 260 and missed lunch. So be warned. I'm not going to say much to avoid possible spoilers but I liked this book a great deal, too.

22. The Hunger Games

2010-09-10T12:01:00.001-07:00

by Suzanne Collins (374 pp.)

This book is fantastic. It's a YA book set in the future where the US is reduced to a bright shiny all-powerful capitol ruling twelve districts. The Hunger Games are an annual event where each district sends two kids to violent survival game where the last kid alive wins. The story is dark and disturbing and really good. The entire series is written. Number 3 came out last week. I only have to wait until Monday when I'll pick up that and book #2. Super highly recommended.

21. A Storm of Swords

2010-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

by George R. R. Martin (1128 pp.)

Damn you Denise! My sister-in-law started me on this series. She did warn me that it wasn't finished when she gave me the first one. She didn't warn me that everyone dies. Even the good people. Often in gruesome ways. The first was book #9 and the second book #19. I have book #4, which is the last one written out of seven planned supposedly, at the office but I'm going to hold off for a little while. I've just done over 2000 pages of grim, gore and treachery in a month. I need to read a few lighter things.

20. Financial Lives of the Poets

2010-08-19T18:35:00.001-07:00

by Jess Walter (290 pp)

I read three books in the month of August! I might pick another short one so I can finish four in one month and get my star on the book reading walk of fame.

This is about a guy my age who gets into trouble in the financial crisis plus his family is unraveling. Every time things look up something goes wrong. But it's funny. Recommend.

19. A Clash of Kings

2010-08-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

by George R.R. Martin (969 pp.)

No, that's not a typo. I read a 969 page book in a little over a week. This is second in the series started with book #9. We took the train to Seattle last weekend and I knew I'd have big chunks of uninterrupted time to get into a book so I picked the brick book. Then I had to find out what happened next so I've been reading it every chance. Then I had insomnia last night so now it's done. It's about everybody wanting to be king and everybody dies or has to do terrible things to avoid dying. Now I have to run out and buy the third book.

18. My Life in France

2010-08-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

by Julia Child (333 pp.)

"One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed."

Another thing Julia says is the cook should never apologize for the meal, even if it's clearly dreadful. I need to practice that one. I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book. I didn't see the movie Julie & Julia so I didn't know that they used this for the Julia story. I love Julia's passion for France and food and sharing it with America. I think just reading about all the butter and cream made me go up a pants size. But I need to get my hands on her recipe for French bread.

17. The Etched City

2010-07-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

by K.J. Bishop (382 pp)

I have no idea where this book came from. Someone passed it on to me. I picked it up with no expectations and ended up loving it. It's a weird dark fantasy/westerny/Sopranosy dreamworld. I don't know how to describe what it's about. There's a guy who has a long history of doing bad stuff who gets involved with violent crime. There's a woman doctor who works in the bad part of town. It's good.

16. Out Stealing Horses

2010-07-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

by Per Petterson (238 pp)

This is a literary book translated from Norwegian about an older guy who retires to a remote cabin and has adventures and reflects about certain events in his life. It's one of those quiet books that sneaks up on you. Recommend.

15. Scar Night

2010-07-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

by Alan Campbell (549pp)

This poor book. I started it before our trip in March thinking it would be something I could whip through before we left. But I only got through about 200 pp and didn't want to take a partly read book on a trip. So I waited until we got home except then I had to finish book #9 and when I finished that I had short stories piled up. By then the book had been shoved back in the reading stack and we know what that means.

By the time I got it back out I had to skim the first 200 pages to remember where I was.

I liked this book a lot but I wanted to love it. It's a dark fantasy set in this crazy city that's suspended over a giant pit with a huge network of chains. I can't believe anyone survives childhood. There are angels, crooked religious leaders, a poisoner, assassins and other weird stuff that would be spoilery to elaborate on. It took me a while to get into which may be due to the way I read it. I would recommend to fantasy fans.

14. Bellwether

2010-05-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

by Connie Willis 247 pp

This is my least favorite of the Connie books I've read so far. It's about a woman who's a research scientest studying how fads start and after a series of setbacks ends up working with this other scientist doing something with chaos theory. It was perfect for reading on a long day of travel. It's hilarious and but feels a bit researched at times.

13. Liar

2010-05-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

by Justine Larbalestier 384pp

This is a YA book about a teenaged girl who tells you on the first page that she's a liar. Her boyfriend is found murdered and she tells her side of the story. Tina said she liked it as a writer and as a reader and I agree. I don't want to say too much for fear of being spoilery. Recommend.

12. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

2010-05-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

by Wells Tower 238 pp.

I can't remember where I heard about this writer. It must have been a review. I was intrigued and found a story online and liked it enough that I bought the book.

I'm in love. Every story had a moment that made me laugh outloud or made me cringe or both at the same time. The characters are all deeply flawed, some of the protagonists are outright shitbags, but I liked them anyway.

11. The Quiet War

2010-05-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

by Paul McAuley 403pp.

I read a bunch of good stuff about this book and got it for a gift. I really wanted to like it more than I did and I probably wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been a gift. It's set in the future and there are people on earth and people who live out around Jupiter and Saturn and the two groups have strained relations. The story is told from several points of view of people on both sides of the conflict. The characters, the world and the set-up are all interesting but I had a tough time getting into it and a tough time keeping everything straight.

10. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

2010-04-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

by Max Brooks (342pp.)

Co-worker liked this book so I asked if I could read it. It's like a non-fiction book except about a fictional event. The narrator interviews a wide variety of people to discuss their role in the world zombie war. For the most part I enjoyed it. It was the perfect mix of smart and disturbing. It haunted my dreams more than once. Overall, I think I admired it more as a piece of writing than as entertainment. There were definitely sections that were so scary I could hardly read but other parts were more political and war mentality and while realistic and brilliant -- dry for me. Definite recommend for zombie book fans.

9. Game of Thrones

2010-03-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

By George RR Martin (807pp). For the first 100 pp. of this book all I could think is how this is not my usual kind of book. Medieval kings and battles where everyone tries to kill each other. Also the characters are always doing what you don't want them to do. I mean that in a good way. For the next 300 pp. I thought even though I was enjoying the book, I probably wouldn't continue with the series. Mostly because I already have so much stuff to read. It was nice to have this on vacation because I was able to read giant chunks in one sitting. Now that I've finished this one, if nothing else, I'm at least going to have to read the next book,

There are about a million characters and I had a tough time keep it all straight even with the 25 page appendix at the end. Luckily a lot of people die although there are plenty new people to take their places. I'm going to read the wiki-page later and see what I missed.

I need to wait a bit on Book 2 because I have so many magazines and digests piled up we might need to add another room to the house to hold it all

8. A Man In Full

2010-03-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

By Tom Wolfe (787 pp). Bob read this book on vacation a few years ago and I was going to read it but never got to it and it's sat on my shelf ever since.

This is quite a book. It's set in Atlanta and concerns a number of story threads with people who've either made it big and are on their way down or trying to work their way up out of their current situation. Politics, race, society, business. Lots of great characters and hard-to-forget scenes. The scene with the horse breeding was particularly eyeball searing. This book is a great lesson for writers on characterization and how to do terrible things to your characters.

7. Diary of A Wimpy Kid

2010-03-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

By Jeff Kinney (217 pp). The Neuner kids recommended this book while we were at their house. The second morning of the trip I woke up early and went downstairs to read. Luis heard me laughing and knew right away what I was reading. The title character is deeply flawed and completely hilarious. Cute drawings. It's labeled for middle readers but I'd recommend to anyone who needed something fun to read.

6. Blackout

2010-02-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

By Connie Willis (491 pp). I already knew that this is one book split into two. It doesn't end. It stops. Right in the middle of everything. But even with warning it's hard not to be a little annoyed. The story has several threads following different historians in the Oxford time travel program who go back to World War II. Everyone runs into problems. For the most part I enjoyed it but at times it suffered from Passage (#26) syndrome in that we're watching the characters try to solve their problems in tedious detail. Overall recommend. Book #2 is coming out in October.

5. The Keep

2010-02-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

By Jennifer Egan (242 pp.) I'm not sure how I heard about this book. I think I'd heard of the author before and then read a review and put it on my list. I inhaled this book in less than 48 hours. I loved it. I'm going to keep my comments brief and vague because the way the story unfolds is a nice surprise. At least I thought so. It's about a guy from New York who has an attitude and is a mess. He goes to Europe to help his cousin turn a crumbling castle into a fancy hotel. Things get weird and creepy fast.

My Mom is always trying to find books for book club and I thought this might be a possibility. Out of curiosity I went to giant online book retailer to read some reviews and see what other people thought. Book reviews on that site are hilarious. People give five stars and write things like, "A sweeping epic tale of romance and danger in prose that alternately sparkles then burns, the author takes you on a journey that you will never forget."

Who talks like that?

This book had an even spread from 1 star to 5 stars with a slight advantage to 5 stars. The people who hated it complained that all the loose ends weren't tied up. And that's a valid complaint but I think the book's structure makes up for that.

I recommend.

4. Just Kids

2010-01-31T14:02:00.000-08:00

By Patti Smith (279 pp). I really loved this book but I'm also a Patti fan. Here's the link to Bob's review of when we saw her on this book tour. This memoir focuses on Patti's relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. They lived together in New York City starting in 1969 and focused on becoming artists and hung out with all kinds of musicians and artists. I love the photos. My only beef is that the ending felt rushed but I suspect that was intentional. She wasn't interested in talking about her life once it diverged from Robert's.

3. Heat Wave

2010-01-24T17:44:00.001-08:00

By Richard Castle (196 pp.). The only reason I watch Castle is because of Nathan Fillion. Turns out there's a book to go with the series and my mother-in-law, who also watches the show, got it for Christmas. I asked if I could borrow it. It's about as good as you'd expect a tie-in to be. It's a mildly entertaining detective mystery and a fun in-joke if you watch the show. It would have been better if Nathan Fillion came over and read it to me.

2. The Mysterious Benedict Society

2010-01-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

By Trenton Lee Stewart (485 pp.). My first boyfriend had a word for in between love and like which was either "loft" or "luft." We're going to go with "luft" because "loft" sounds like a trendy over-priced and spatially stupid apartment/condo where your bed, television, frying pan and living partner are in the same echo-y hard to heat/cool room with you at all times. Huh. "Luft" is in urbandictionary which says it means in between lust and love. Interesting. Maybe I misunderstood the whole thing with the boyfriend.

Now I don't want to use the word to apply to this book. I liked this book a lot but didn't quite love it. I did not lust it whatsoever but I can't think of any moment in time where I lusted after a book. I should just remove the anecdote while I have the chance.

This book is about a group of kids who are recruited for a dangerous mission by a mysterious man: Mr. Benedict. I loved the characters. I loved the drawings. There were puzzles. I laughed out loud a bunch of times. This is exactly the kind of book I would have loved as a kid. I would totally recommend it.

However, I just think it was a bit long, especially for its intended audience. It's not like there wasn't always something happening, I just think it could have been pulled a little tighter. Also the very ending was egregiously cheezy.

According to the back of the book there are two more. Are there any stand-alone books anymore? Every time I see a shelf with a million books with similar covers and words like "Book IX of the [insert grand-sounding name here] Series" I want to lie down and take a nap.

1. The Mortal Instruments Book One: City of Bones

2010-01-15T16:56:00.000-08:00

By Cassandra Clare (485 pp.). This book has been in "almost finished" status all week. I had so few pages I didn't want to take it on the bus because I might finish it and I didn't want to carry two books. But then by the time I got in bed at night to read it, I'd be so tired I could only finish a couple of pages. I finally finished this morning. I wish I liked it more than I did. It's about a teenager in NYC who learns of her connection to the Shadowhunters who are people who hunt and kill demons. There's tons of great action and unexpected developments but I grew weary of the angsty teen soap opera stuff.

2010 Posting Will Begin Here

2010-01-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

I think I have this thing working good enough for me.

I've always intended to figure out the deal with titling the posts but just got to it this morning.

So now when you look in your feeds there should be titles.

I'm sure this issue was troubling many of you. For this I apologize.

2009-12-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

25. Help! A Bear is Eating Me! (129 pp.) by Mykle Hansen. (Dec 10). This book is hilarious. It's about this total jerk-off materialistic guy who takes a group of work people to Alaska for some team-building bear hunting. But ends up pinned under his Range Rover with a bear eating him. That's not a spoiler, that's what's happening on the first page. The voice of the protagonist is brilliant because he's such a self-absorbed weenie and there are several people I'd love to give the book to and say: the protagonist totally reminds me of you. It started losing me a bit at the end but overall fun book.

2009-12-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

24. The Faggiest Vampire (99 pp.) by Carlton Mellick III. (Dec 9) This is such a cute story. It's about a well-known vampire named Dargoth Van Gloomfang whose entire self-worth is tied up in his amazing imperial mustache. Then Baron Van Ravengraves comes to town with his pencil mustache and things around the Land of Broodsarrow are turned upside down. Recommended.

2009-12-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

23. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (304 pp.) by Christopher Moore (Dec 1). I won this book during Clarion West and I finally got around to reading it. I read Practical Demonkeeping way back when it was a brand new book and loved it. I still have it which is saying a lot because I like to pass most of my books on. Too much stuff. I've only read one other one of his books and while I always enjoy them, they're sort of like curry for me. Once I've had some I don't need it again right away.

This is a silly book that made me laugh out-loud even on the bus. It's about this giant horny creature from the sea who causes a lot of problems for a little seaside community. The story includes a stoner police guy, a former B-movie warrior queen, a mean sheriff and a really cool dog named Skinner. Recommended for light fun reading.

2009-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

22. A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body (237 pp.) by Lauren Weedman (Nov 22). Wow. I haven't finished a book in two months. I did read a million stories and write a lot of words since then. Not like I've been a total slacker.

Lauren Weedman was at Wordstock, oh, two years ago. This has been sitting on my bookshelf for two years. We liked her on the Daily Show and she was hilarious in person. And the book is funny. It's a memoir that talks about her time on the Daily Show, her divorce and her family.

She comes across as one of those high-strung crazy women that I seemed be friends with in my younger years but not so much any more. Bob has a big crush on her and as I was reading I kept saying, "She's nuts" and he would say, "she's awesome." So use that as a guideline when deciding whether to read it.

2009-09-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

21. Doomsday Book (578 pp.) by Connie Willis (Sep 20). I recommend you not start this book unless you know you have a lot of reading time to finish it. Connie Willis was one of my Clarion West instructors and I bought this during her week so she could sign it for me. I put off starting it because it was so fat and I was afraid it would take me forever to read. I picked it up last week thinking I would just peek at the beginning and shortly thereafter reading it was the only thing I would do if I wasn't sleeping or entertaining my parents. And it's not like it's an uplifting story.

It's the same scenario as To Say Nothing of the Dog which I read last year. It's about a group of academics who use a time machine for research. A young historian wants to go back to the Middle Ages which isn't a great idea but she manages to talk the people in charge into sending her only Oops, she ends up right in the middle of the black death. Meanwhile, in present time there's another sort of pandemic going on. This is an awesome book to pick up if you have H1N1 paranoia. Every time I coughed or had the vaguest sense of headache I felt a twinge of panic.

Really good. I recommend.

2009-09-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

20. She's Come Undone (465 pp) by Wally Lamb. (Sep 14). I haven't read a book like this in a long time. A book like what? I don't know ... a big, fat gnarly mass-market book. As I recall, this was one of the first Oprah books. It's a tough one. For about 464 the protagonist does terrible things, says terrible things, acts like a terrible jerk. And terrible things happen to her. Yet, I kept rooting for her and I kept thinking: this book did pretty well. It can't possibly end without something good happening. The writing is wonderful. The characterization is fantastic.

It's about a woman who becomes completely unraveled due, mostly, to the choices she makes but (mild spoiler) she manages to pull herself together. It's not an easy journey. Recommended.

2009-09-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

19. The Gum Thief (275 pp.) by Douglas Coupland (Sep 8). Meredith loaned me this book when I was in Orleans last month. I used to be all caught up on Douglas books but looks like I fell behind around 2004. I think if you like Douglas you'll enjoy reading any of his books (except Girlfriend in a Coma which was dreadful) but if you don't like him, don't bother. I'm not sure I can articulate it other than to say: I like the spot-on observations. It's hard to summarize the book in a sentence but it's mostly about a correspondence between a 20-something woman and a 40-something man that has nothing to do with romance. They're both melting down for different reasons and they help each other out.

There's a moment in the book when Roger says to Bethany, "I'm showing my age, but send me a postcard when you're in your forties and see if you don't agree." p. 241. This cracked me up because I have a variation of this expression: "Call me when you're my age and we'll see how you're doing."

I'm not making any progress on the reading pile (updated photo someday) but I'm making progress on the annex pile that popped up at the end of the summer. Now I have to read a Wally Lamb for our first Arts & Lectures on September 24.

2009-09-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

18. Zadayi Red (350 pp.) by Caleb Fox (Sep 2). Well, this is another book that I was disappointed I didn't like more than I did. The cover art is gorgeous. It's a mythical-fantasy type story -- the bookjacket says it's a retelling of a Cherokee legend. I had a tough time getting into it although once the story got started there were parts in there where I couldn't put it down. Overall I had a tough time connecting with the protagonist and it felt more like a sequence of events rather than an epic tale. I also felt that there were parts that got bogged down in research details and left the story adrift. I would recommend for those into historical Indian stories.

2009-08-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

17. More Culinary Kudzu (152 pp.) by Keetha DePriest Reed (Aug 25).

Keetha is one of my blogging friends. We connected through NaBloPoMo a couple of years ago.

She has a blog, Write Kudzu and a cooking blog Kudzu Kitchen. I've been meaning to buy one of her books for a long time and I finally did it and I read it on vacation.

It's really fun. Keetha is born and raised in Mississippi and the book has recipes and memories of her life (so far). It reminds me of my family and made me appreciate all the unique family recipes that we have and look forward to every time we have a get together.

She talks about family and holidays and great meals. I'm probably not making it sound as good as it is but highly recommended for people who are interested in cooking and family.

2009-08-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

16. Downtown Owl (273 pp.) by Chuck Klosterman (Aug 23). Meredith and I talked about books when I was in Orleans. She handed me this book but said I should finish it before I left. No problem.

I like Klosterman but I don't love him and I wasn't sure about a book of fiction. The story didn't work for me but the characterization and setting are awesome.

2009-08-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

15. That Old Cape Magic (261 pp) by Richard Russo (Aug 20). Kim asked me if I saw the review of the new Russo book in the NY Times Book Review. I had not. I read the book review on the bus and decided to go ahead and buy it even though it was in hardcover because the review made me laugh and because I wanted to have something fun that I knew I would like for vacation.

For Russo fans, it's a fun read but overall I was a bit disappointed. It's shorter than a lot of his stuff (see e.g. Bridge of Sighs, my first book this year) so it might be an easier sell for people who don't want to dig into a giant tome. And there are great characters and both humerous and sad moments in the book. But I don't think the whole story held together and I think some bits were glossed over that would have benefited by more development.

Recommended with reservations.

2009-08-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

Even though no one ever looks at this, it's been bothering me how screwed up it is. So I'm in stage 1 of trying to fix it. It's still screwed up but no more time right now. More later. I hope.

14. Strange Piece of Paradise

2009-07-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

by Terri Jentz (542 pp.). I bought this book for my mom a couple of years ago. She already had it so I exchanged it for something else and she loaned me her copy. It's been sitting on my shelf forever and I've put off starting it because it's such a hefty tome. I began coveting that space on my bookshelf and I'm going to see my Mom next month so I thought I'd give it a shot and dump it if it wasn't working for me.

It is a fantastic and hard to put down book but it is still 200 pages too long. It's about two college friends who set out on a bike trip across the U.S. in 1977. They started in Astoria, Oregon and about a week in they were attacked while camping in rural Oregon. The attacker drove his truck over their tent and then hacked them with an ax. Both survived. The attacker was never caught. Did I mention this is a true story?

About 15 years after the attack one of the victims goes back to Oregon and begins to investigate what happened. The story is horrible and fascinating and I was surprised how quickly I got involved in it. I understand why the writer went into such detail and it is easy to skim but I think it would have been stronger had it been whittled down a bit. Recommend.

13. The Ladies of Grace Adieu

2009-07-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

by Susanna Clarke. (235 pp.). I bought this book over a year ago after loving Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (book #2). I had a hard time getting into the stories and read about half of it and then let it sit on nightstand forever. On numerous occasions I thought I'd get rid of it but I always figured I get back to it eventually. And I did. And I loved the stories in the second half. I'm half-tempted to go back and re-read the beginning but I've got lots of books here waiting for me. Recommended for Clarke fans.

12. The Left Hand of Darkness

2009-07-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

by Ursula LeGuin (283 pp.)

In the process of writing up the previous book I found out that the New Yorker book club is reading The Left Hand Of Darkness this month in honor of its 40th year since publication. I only read this book once and I think it was about twenty years ago. It's fantastic. I've been having a lot of trouble getting into books lately and this is a brainy read but I could hardly put it down. It's about an envoy from a group of planets who travels to this technologically undeveloped world to try to bring them into their group. Things don't go easily for him. The planet is cold such that the cold is like another character in the story. Plus there are themes of gender, power, friendship. Highly recommended.

11. Gifts

2009-07-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

by Ursula Le Guin (274 pp.)

Ursula Le Guin has a new YA trilogy and the third one, Powers, won a Nebula award. I thought I'd check the series out. This is the first one and it is a really good book, but tough. No rainbows and unicorns in this story. It took me a little bit to get into it because there's some complicated culture/world-building. The story is about a boy who is voluntarily blinded because he believes he can't control his gift, the gift of unmaking, and might harm someone. That probably doesn't make it sound very good but it's worth it. I've got to track down the next two books.

2009-07-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

10. The Yiddish Policemen's Union (411 pp) by Michael Chabon (July 4)

Yeah! I finished a book. I'm on track for 20 books in the year 2009. Pitiful. I'm going to kinda anti-ditto myself in this brief review but here goes:

I thought this was a really cool book, fantastic idea, great characters, interesting setting. But I had a tough time getting through it. I read the first 50 pp. over several bus commutes and as I have said before, I don't have very good concentration. So for something to work on the bus it has to grab my attention and/or be easy to follow. This book introduced a dozen characters and I got bogged down in a blur. Then the book sat on the nightstand while I avoided it and read the back up on my digests (photo below). I finally got it back out, re-read the first 50 pages and started a notecard with a brief reminder who the characters were. Then I got into it and flew through the book up until the last 50 pages or so, that seemed to stretch on forever. When I finished I read the plot summary on wikipedia and to be honest, I'm still not 100% sure what happened.

It's an alternate history where there is a Jewish settlement in Sitka Alaska. The protagonist is Meyer Landsman who's a detective investigating a murder. Even though I had a tough time, I recommend.

What Have I Been Reading?

2009-06-18T08:27:00.001-07:00

Since I still haven't managed to finish a book I thought I'd post a partial pile of some of the stuff I've read since January. That pile isn't counting all my classmate's stories and the stories I read online.

I'm going away this weekend and optimistically taking two books. (ha!)

0. Un Lun Dun

2009-04-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

by China Miéville

I'm always complaining about how much I have to read and I have repeatedly vowed to myself that I would not finish things I don't like. But that hardly ever happens. I feel like I owe it to the writer/publisher to give the story/book a chance and I slog along unhappily. I bought this book during CW last summer and I was really looking forward to it. I had a major public transportation day yesterday and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to dig into this book. Another disappointment. It's a YA. I got to page 90 (out of 471) and I can't tell you one thing about the protagonist(s). The world they went into was amazing and there were pages and pages of details about it. But I have the same complaint a I had about The Lightening Thief: instead of a story, it felt like someone was thinking of a bunch of stuff that could happen. Near as I could tell the girls fell into Neverwhere and needed to find the wizard.

9. Little Brother

2009-04-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

by Cory Doctorow (365 pp.)

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. In its defense, I'm not the target audience. It's about a computer-techie kid who lives in San Francisco. After a terrorist attack on the city he takes action against the government because of the loss of civil liberties in the name of keeping the city safe. The book is aimed at a YA audience and it makes a lot of great points that I think young people should be thinking about. However, Cory has talked about how quickly he wrote this book and it felt like it was written quickly. Some of the story developments were awfully convenient. Recommended with reservations.

7. and 8. Maus I: My Father Bleeds Hisotry and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began

2009-04-13T20:39:00.001-07:00

by Art Spiegelman

I knew these were going to be really good. They've been on the nightstand forever. I've been waiting until I was ready and honestly, the real reason I chose them was because they are short and I knew I'd read them fast. I feel like I've been getting bogged down in every book I've picked up this year.

There is no way to convey how fabulous these books are. They are graphic novels about the comic's father's experience in the holocaust. The first one is easier than the second one but they are both really grim. There was a part that was so sad I had to pause. Bob came in the room right then and I said, "This book is really sad."

"Yeah," he said, "But it's great."

I won't say anything else except the narrative structure is genius. My highest recommendation.

6. Watchmen

2009-04-11T09:33:00.001-07:00

by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

I don't know what to tell you. It was interesting. I'm not a big comic book person to begin with. I can understand the acclaim but wasn't for me.

Black Powder War: Temeraire Book 3

2009-03-18T21:42:00.001-07:00

by Naomi Novik (365 pp)

Ug, my book reading is SO pitiful. And my huge stack of magazines and digests that I managed to go through over xmas is completely built up again. I wish I could take a day off just for reading. But if I take a day off it's going to be for writing.

I read book 1 (#1) and book 2 (#12). I loved the first one. I thought the second one was okay. This one was also okay. I'm not sure I'd read another one. The series is an alternate history of the Napoleonic wars only with dragons. What I loved about the first one is that there was a lot going on. Temeraire hatches out of an egg and is brand new in this world. The protagonist, Will Laurence, has his entire life set on a wildly different course due to his contact with this dragon. That was fun and interesting. Now Temeraire is stuck on equal rights for dragons, not just beasts of burden, and it's not so cute after awhile. The battle was more interesting. Recommended for fans of the series.

4. Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog.

2009-02-28T23:11:00.001-08:00

by Ysabeau S. Wilce (431 pp.) I am endlessly frustrated with my inability to read more than 5 pages a day. This is the kind of book that should be gobbled up in a weekend. Yesterday afternoon I got cozy and vowed not to move until it was done. But then it was dinner time so I didn't finish it until I went to bed.

I'd heard this book was fabulous a bunch of times and finally got my hands on it and it is just as advertised. It's about thirteen-year old Flora Fyrdraaca who is born into a military family that's on the decline. There's magic and creatures and weirdness and humor. Flora gets herself into all kinds of trouble. Here's a quote: "That's the problem with guns: they pretend to be the solution to every problem." Recommended.

2009-02-15T17:22:00.000-08:00

3. The Daily Coyote (287 pp) by Shreve Stockton (Feb 15 09). I used to share the Daily Coyote with a friend at the old office. She got the book and told me she would loan it to me. "It will only take you an afternoon," she said. She was close. I actually read about 75 pages while I was still working on Wuthering Heights. I finished it this morning. You have to give the author credit, she managed to wring something resembling a story out of almost nothing. I'd be surprised to hear that someone wasn't trying to develop this into a feature for some plucky young actress. Women love stories about women who run away to some exotic other life. Other examples: Eat Pray Love, that one where Diane Lane buys the house in Italy and fixes it up. This one is about a woman who impulsively moves to Wyoming after driving through on a cross-country trip. She gets a coyote puppy after its parents and siblings are killed and the story is about Wyoming and dealing with the coyote. It's not an earth-shattering piece of literature but perfect entertainment for a few hours.

2009-02-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

2. Wuthering Heights (334 pp.) by Emily Brontë (Feb 13 09). Alert the media. I FINALLY finished another book. This is pitiful. Also, I am just now noticing that the formating on this page is bunged up especially if you click on the comments. Doodoo. Oh well. If I don't have time to read then I certainly don't have time to fix my CSS.

I have been on the verge of finishing this book for two weekends. I decided I would not go to bed or read one more thing until I finished this damn thing and I gamely slogged through until the end.

My first question, is where is volume III? The title page says this novel has three volumes. I count only I and II. I guess I shouldn't complain since it took me forever to read what I had. I'm just curious. I guess volume III would be the tales of the next generation and poor Nelly in her crone years. This story is like the Flowers in the Attic of the 1800's. Or I guess the bulk of the story is set in the 1700's so take your pick.

I didn't hate the book. I found Heathcliff an intriguing character and I loved the setting. After the first 20 pages I was on Flickr looking for moors photos. But every character in the book has a scene of unrepentant cruelty. What a bunch of meanies. The second part went on way too long which is probably why it took me a month to read it. I kept starting other books and then setting them aside and trying to woo myself back to the moors of the meanies. Recommended with reservations.

2009-01-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

1. Bridge of Sighs (642 pp.) by Richard Russo (January 2, 2009). It's been a long time since I've been so engrossed in a book. I could hardly put it down and I would make rules so that I could accomplish other things before I picked it up again and then all I could think about was the book. There's no way to sum it up in a sentence without doing it a disservice but this isn't a book report. It's about this family and how the decisions they make affect their entire lives. And the lives of others. It's really good. Highly recommended.