You’d think this would be another post extolling the virtues of Motley Crue. But it’s not.
My son got the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie for his birthday. In one scene, a chipmunk is playing I Love Rock and Roll on Guitar Hero. My boy decided he really likes this song.
Right now, he is hooked up on the Gamecube version of Karaoke singing “Just put another dime in the juicebox baby.”
Yup. Juice box. I love that kid.
8 years ago today I became a mother. My baby is now a back-talking, burping, farting, video-game-playing, super-duper, lovable boy.
This picks up where Letters From Pemberley left off. Jane and Elizabeth are married with a child each and live fairly close to each other. In this one, there are more marriages, a broken engagement, a death, and a near death. Not necessarily in that order.
The letters are all written from Elizabeth to Jane, her Aunt, Mr. Darcy, and a few others.
I like these books because they keep very well to Jane Austen’s voice and to period events and possibilities.
I think Mr. Dunn wrote this book on a dare. That’s what it seems like. How few letters can you use and still get your point across?
There is an island off the coast of South Carolina called Nollop. It is it’s own country named for the man who wrote the sentence “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” which uses all the letters of the alphabet. When the letters of this sentence begin falling off the statue of Mr. Nollop, the powers that be decide this means Mr. Nollop wants them to stop using those letters. If you break the law 3 times, you’re deported or executed. The story is told in the form of letters between citizens of this country, and as more and more letters jump off the statue, they have to be more and more creative in how they express themselves.
It was a fun read. Especially trying to catch them out in mistakes.
The major Greek gods are alive and living in London. Unfortunately, no one even knows who they are anymore, and they are losing their power. That doesn’t stop them from being power mad and fighting amongst themselves. Which gets them into a big fix.
So it appears that when you have a concussion and a virus, you can do nothing but sleep and read, as evidenced by the following.
Number of books read in April: 17
Number of pages read: 5769 (I know, right?)
Library books: 11
Books I own: 5
Borrowed from Debbie: 1
Fiction: 14
Non fiction: 3
Favorites: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Gods Behaving Badly, Year of Wonders, Gentlemen and Players
See, normally, I try to mix it up by putting some of the pictures of the books I review on the other side of the page. However, no matter whether I select left or right, it always puts the pictures on the left. So, sorry about the boringness. But at least I’m posting?
Right now, you’re thinking to yourself, “Julia Cameron. Julia Cameron. That name sounds vaguely familiar.” And you’re right. She wrote The Artist’s Way that was pretty popular a few years ago.
Me being the unabashed cover slut that I am, I decided to read this one based on the pretty picture and the word “Mozart” in the title. Well, it was OK. The main character was incredibly whiny and spineless. I hate heroines like that. It reminds me of chick lit. What is it with chick lit anyway? All the heroines have to inept, whiny, incompetent, self-absorbed, and/or morally bankrupt? I hate that.
This heroine wasn’t that bad, she was only whiny and spineless. But she’s a medium. That was kind of interesting. The guy who moves in downstairs is a pianist practicing for a huge competition that could launch his career. His constant practicing drives her nuts, and she finds herself being annoyed by an old fashioned ghost with a sense of entitlement. He seems to think he’s all that and a Dr. Pepper. This is, of course, Mozart; and he wants her to tell the pianist what he (Mozart) thinks he should do with his playing to win the competition.
The premise was pretty good. The jacked up relationship with her mother and the equally annoying twin brother thing kind of detracted from the story. And did I mention the annoying main character? Yeah. It was just OK.
I laughed out loud (and made other embarrassing noises of glee) several time while reading this book. The main character was a bit unlikeable, so you could see how the other characters wouldn’t take to him. But they weren’t so easy to get along with either.
Israel Armstrong takes a job as librarian in a tiny town in Northern Ireland. When he gets there, the library has been closed. He is told he will be driving the bookmobile. Then he finds out all the books have gone missing. All 15,000 books. He also has to live in a chicken coop and deal with all the locals who know his entire history from the articles that have been in the paper.
It was very much fun. I can’t wait to get to the others in the series.
This is the first book by Michael Chabon I’ve read. It was lots of fun. The premise is an alternate universe in which Sitka, Alaska is a Jewish city-state which revert back to US rule in a few months. A young heroin junkie is shot in the head and Meyer Landsman is strangely drawn to the case, even after he was told to back off.
The tone is 40’s noir and everyone is a tough-talking Jew. There is even a Jewish mafia.
I did need a Yiddish dictionary.
I have tons of book reviews to post, but we were in a hit and run accident last weekend, and I’m trying to get over a concussion. Not to mention the virus I also managed to pick up.
Needless to say, looking at a computer is a little difficult right now. I’ll have to owe you those reviews. Since I can’t do anything else, I’ve been reading lots of great books!
Now you get to hear it.
The new Motley Crue song is so awesome. I would link to it, but I can’t figure out how.
Anyway, it’s called Saints of Los Angeles and it is amazing.
Just so you know.
This slim novel jumps around in the life of Mata Hari from her childhood to her imprisonment and death in France for espionage. It posits that she didn’t actually do any spying. She was set up by the Germans to make it look like she had leaked secret information to them.
I think it took some pretty big liberties with the facts, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
This is the 900 page book I mentioned in a previous post. It took 10 days to read it. Now, I know you’re asking yourself, what would possess me to pick up a big old doorstop of a book like this. Well, I read a good review of it in Bookmarks Magazine, and I was between books, so I grabbed it from the library.
Now, obviously, I wouldn’t have kept on reading a 900 page book if it wasn’t any good, no matter how big a feather I could put in my hat for reading it. I will also say I am not about to go around telling everyone they need to read it. If you happen to be fascinated with Indian culture, and/or need to build up some muscled in your arms, this may be the book for you.
Sartaj Singh is a police inspector in Bombay. At the beginning of the book, he gets an anonymous tip leading him to the hideout of the elusive gang leader Ganesh Gaitonde. When he finally gets in the building, Gaitonde has killed himself and the woman who was with him.
The rest of the book is actually two stories. One is the story of Sartaj’s investigation into why Gaitonde was even in Bombay and why he killed himself and this woman. The other is the story of Ganesh Gaitonde’s life up to his suicide. There are also a few subplots. Like a couple of other investigations that Sartaj works on. Also, there are about 300 pages worth of “Insets”. These are the stories of some of the really, really, really minor characters in the book. In fact, one of the insets is about a guy whose name was mentioned toward the beginning, but who didn’t ever actually appear in the story. These are interesting, but add more bulk to the book than weight to the story.
Warning: If you like Indian food, be sure you have a supplier close before you read this. You will be hungry.
Yes, I know it’s April 8, but I’ve just remembered I haven’t done this.
Number of Books read: 11
Fiction: 5
Non-fiction: 5
Juvenile: 1
Library Books: 6
Books from my shelf: 5
Best books of the month: W.A.R. The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose and Then We Came to the End.
Total pages read: 3327
I promise. I’m just reading a 900 page book, and it’s taking me a while to get through it.
Carry on.
Our 6-year-old will do anything to avoid going to bed at night. Michael gave her a book on addition and subtraction yesterday, so she was working on that instead of sleeping tonight.
We heard a lot of racket for someone just doing math, so we went to check it out. The instructions had a frog sitting on a number line. He had a word balloon that said “Jump 3 times.” So she would stand up and jump up and down while she counted the numbers on the line.
Well, at least she’s getting some exercise?
The most unusual thing about this book is that it’s written in the first person plural. “We gathered at Jim’s desk.” That sort of thing. It made you wonder all the time, which one of the people mentioned in the book is the narrator? Well the ending is really neat.
My favorite character in the book reminded me of our across-the-street neighbor. You’d have to know him to know what I mean. He was my favorite character because he was such a nice, honest, hard-working guy.
I also like the chick that was me. Seriously. This sentence occurred in the book: She listened to Motley Crue. I kid you not.
This short book is about the last day of business of a Red Lobster Restaurant. It’s told from the point of view of the manager who will be moved to an Olive Garden next week. He as to deal with the various employees who don’t show up on the last day and rude patrons and personal problems between the kitchen employees. He also has to decide what to get his pregnant girlfriend for Christmas in 4 days, and he has to deal with his feelings for his former girlfriend who is also a waitress at the Lobster.
I love these little slice of life type books. I raged through this one in about 3 hours.