PamBooks

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.

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!)

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.

2008-12-26T15:13:00.001-08:00

36. 37. 38. The Long Winter (335 pp) , Little Town on the Prairie (307 pp) and These Happy Golden Years (289 pp) by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Dec 25-26). I decided to pull out The Long Winter to be ironic. Maybe if I read about people who had to crack the ice off their bed before they got out of it in the morning would make me stop feeling sorry for myself. I don't really feel sorry for myself. The weather is a bit tedious but I'm not unhappy.

Once I read that one I wanted to read the part where Laura and Almanzo fall in love. I'm such a sucker for romance. Why is that?

I used to pick and read these books on a fairly regular basis but now it's been years and years. It was fun to re-read and also to get wrapped in a story that didn't need a lot of concentration. Man, those people worked hard. A fun day was doing all the laundry and ironing without any machines. I laughed every time Ma complained about how she hated those savage Indians. But she sure like settling the land that was stolen from them.