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This series just keeps getting better and better. Now they are in the eighties so he talks about Walkmans and whatnot. Lucky for me, Maupin is a Southern author so I could read one of these and count it in the "Southern Writers" category for ASRP.
In this novel, one of the characters gets involved in the Jonestown Massacre, which made for a really good story. I found this one to be pretty suspenseful in addition to being hilarious like the other two so far.
I finished this very readable and informative book on modern European history a few days ago and rather liked it. Covering the last 100 years or so, it traces Europe's evolution from a militaristic culture to today's more pacifist one.
Feel free to check out my book blog if you wanna read more.
My 5th book, and this one set a record for the year, was sTORI Telling by Tori Spelling.
I bought it and finished it yesterday.
I have been watching "Tori and Dean: Inn Love" on Oxygen. I don't do reality TV but there is something about them that catches my attention. I believe they are adorable together and look really in love. Their son Liam is a cutie pie. I had watched first episode of season 3 where she talks a little bit about her book. Earlier in the year, she was in San Francisco on a book tour. Being bored yesterday, I stopped by Borders, armed with my 25% coupon and bought it.
Like I said, I finished it in one day! She's is so funny and she has a way with words. She wrote so much in there, especially about her home life. Her relationship with her mother, or I should say, lack of, how she really was a daddy's girl, those ugly dolls she would get for her birthday every year and not allowed to play with them, the rumors about "Brenda" were true and the rest of the cast of 90210 were really great friends to each other.
She wrote about some of her relationships, like the abusive boyfriend. He was more verbal then physical but I can relate to that. She wrote about her first husband and why she married him for all the wrong reasons. He was a good guy and she'd never dated good guys. I love the part of how she met her current husband ex wife.
She's a really hard worker as well. She tried so hard not to let her last name or who is was related to her get in her way but it was more of a curse then a blessing. I didn't realize she had a huge part in Scary Movie 2 but they cut her out.
She seems so down to earth and truthful in this book. Her humor that I see on her TV show came out in her words. I was reading snippets out loud to Jaime. He enjoyed them too. If you have ever been curious about her, I do suggest getting the book. It's a good read.
Book Count: 11
Title: Eventide
Author: Kent Haruf
Back cover synopsis: When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux,
the single mother they’d taken in, move from their ranch to begin
college, an emptiness opens before them—and for many other townspeople
it also promises to be a long, hard winter. A young boy living alone
with his grandfather helps out a neighbor whose husband, off in Alaska,
suddenly isn’t coming home, leaving her to raise their two daughters.
At school the children of a disabled couple suffer indignities that
their parents know all too well in their own lives, with only a social
worker to look after them and a violent relative to endanger them
further. But in a small town a great many people encounter one another
frequently, often surprisingly, and destinies soon become entwined—for
good and for ill—as they confront events that sorely test the limits of
their resilience and means, with no refuge available except what their
own character and that of others afford them.
Page Count: 322
General Impression: Eventide is a sequel to Kent Haruf's Plainsong which explored small town life in Holt, Colorado. For the life of me, I can't remember what drew me to the first book. Especially since I was deep into transgressive fiction at the time but Plainsong had an understated charm and unflappable belief in common decency that managed to draw me in. For some reason, I had more a problem settling into Eventide. It was nice revisiting character like the McPheron brothers-- for the most part. Like everyone else in Holt and the real world, they aren't exempt from the random brutality of life.) However I hung in there and read on. I got a little weepy towards the end. There were some heartbreaking moments, but it was the heart lifting moments that got me choked up. Some things came together, and a lot like some things were left unresolved.
Girl Interrupted
I have seen the movie dozens of times, and being one of my favourites for a long time, I was curious and eager to read the book that started it all. I absolutely loved it, and the movie will never measure up (but do they ever exceed the book?)
The movie has been so Hollywoodized making Susanna into a trouble maker when in fact she is so relatable even to to someone who hasn't been through what she has. You can find a piece of yourself in all the women in the novel and feel a real sadness for them. I found myself wishing them the best of luck. I also prefer the real ending to the Hollywood ending as well.
For anyone who has seen the movie, the book is a must. It doesn't drag on in depressing content, but is actually honest and lighthearted. Her writing is witty and captivating and she gives you just enough details with out complicating you with stuff you can never truly understand. It's actually quite an entertaining book. It's also a short read, it took me less than 2 days to read it, so that's a bonus too.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
Non-Fiction, History, Nutrition, Anthropology
464 pages
Published 2007
Michael Pollan acts as detective, tracking down the exact origins of four different meals. He takes us through industrial, organic, ethical, and personal approaches to food. Along the way, he compares the size of the carbon footprint and ethical implications of each approach. This book was a bestselling title in 2007.
To me this book was okay. I appreciated the in-depth view of the current standard American diet. The poor grammar was a little distracting. The first part seemed to go on a bit too long about corn. I was tempted to scrap the whole thing but instead I skipped some corn sections and found most of the rest of the book interesting. I especially enjoyed the section on Polyface Farm where Joe Salatin is a profoundly successful farmer producing delicious food by letting each form of life on the farm fully express itself.
It is possible that this book will be the "Diet For a Small Planet" of the new millennium.
#16 was a non-memorable vampire book I read on the beach, and I do not wish to remember or preserve it.
#17 was "Black and Blue" by Anna Quindlen about a woman from Brooklyn who is married to an Irish cop, who beats her. She gets away. She is relocated and given a new identity, along with her ten year old son. I have had DV affect members of my family, and it is powerful to hear about how power can be used to terrorize someone.
She uses this very vivid example (all the more compelling because of that monster just unveiled in Austria) of a man who kept a woman chained in his basement, and how her husband is essentially doing the same to her because he keeps her firmly under his thumb with the violence and threats.
An artist friend has suggested to me that I try to write something from the other viewpoint, i.e. that of the abuser, and that this might make an even more powerful artistic statement -- but I don't know if I can stomach it.
Anyway, excellent read.
Cell is Stephen King's homage to zombie flicks. He dedicated the book to George Romero. This was very fast-paced and grabbed my interest from the first page. As any King fan will tell you, he has a very readable writing style and kept me interested until the end. I was a little disappointed with one thing he leaves up for interpretation at the end.
Basically, there is a pulse, and then everyone who answers their cell phone turns into a zombie. The book is mainly focused on Clay, Tom, and Alice, strangers who meet each other and decide to stick together for survival. There are plenty of twists to keep you interested to the end.
This was our book club selectin for July, which I thought was funny. I've never read a horror book for a book club, but I think this one does present a lot of material for discussion, especially since he leaves some big storylines unresolved.
Dalia Sofer tells the story of an Iranian Jew in 1981, as the revolutionary guard has seized power of Iran, and people are being thrown into prison for "crimes" they may or may not be guilty of. Isaac Amin is accused of spying for Israel, taken from his family without any warning.
The Septembers of Shiraz alternates between family members, revealing to us Isaac's fate, his wife Farnaz's quest to find him and cope with his disappearance, his daughter Shirin's own rebellion, and his son Parviz's separation from the family during the ordeal, as a student in New York.
Though the topics included within our heavy, Sofer's decision to focus chapter by chapter on differening family members keeps the story moving, and so I think the book reads easier than if it only focused on Isaac.
Faith, meaning, beauty, family, love, fear, death, governments, revolutions... all are discussed, but not all are preached. It is a beautiful novel and I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it.
A more detailed post might emerge after my book club discussion.
