PamBooks 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:10:00 +0000

This is your last warning. This blog is being deleted very soon although since I plan to do it later I might forget.

Please find the books blog at: http://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/bks/pambooks.html

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:26:00 +0000

Book Blog Moved (More or Less)

I moved all the posts from here over to what used to be called PamBooks 2008 and renamed it PamBooks. The 2010 books, assuming I ever finish another book, will be found there also.

Here's the URL:

http://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/bks/books08.html

I think this will work if you want to put it in your feeds:

http://www.pamrentz.com/pampage/bks/atom.xml

I'm approaching this whole project a little more half-assed than I'd like so if it's all messed up, it's because I didn't allow enough time for troubleshooting.

This 2009 blog will probably be deleted eventually.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:20:00 +0000

Book Page(s) Update:

I wanted to make sure all the book page subscribers (and according to my information and belief, that's no one) know about my future plans for this page.

I had insomnia the other night and it occurred to me that starting a new blog for each year was really stupid and there should just be one book blog.

I think I'm going to move all these posts to the 08 page and turn it into the every year page. And then delete this.

I'll keep you up to date since as per usual I will probably put it off and then end up not having any time to do it.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:18:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:45:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:10:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:20:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:08:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:32:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:09:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:16:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:16:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:51:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:13:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:33:00 +0000

14. Strange Piece of Paradise (542 pp) by Terri Jentz (Jul 28). 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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:26:00 +0000

13. The Ladies of Grace Adieu (235pp) by Susanna Clarke. (Jul 17). 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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:19:00 +0000

12. The Left Hand of Darkness (283pp) by Ursula LeGuin (Jul 13).

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:04:00 +0000

11. Gifts (274pp) by Ursula Le Guin (Jul 9)

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:06:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:27:00 +0000

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!)

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:25:00 +0000

0. Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (Apr 22).

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:24:00 +0000

9. Little Brother (365 pp.) by Cory Doctorow (Apr 22).

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:39:00 +0000

7. and 8. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman. (Apr 12 and 13).

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Pamela) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:33:00 +0000

6. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Apr 11).

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.