Susan's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 22 Mar 2024 08:51:04 -0700 60 Susan's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Truck 75848 Geek Love, Katherine Dunn, takes us on a journey into the mind of a feisty, adventurous adolescent named Jean "Dutch" Gillis. Dutch goes "trucking" from Portland, Oregon, to Los Angeles on a quest in search of herself, which, like the river trek of Deliverance, is filled with discoveries and sudden violence.

With boyish-looking Dutch is her friend Heydorf, a shadowy character who has his own secrets to hide. With her, too, is the confusion and volatile feelings of youth, when sex is a mystery waiting to be understood...and death seems remote until it brushes close with a breath-stopping suddenness. Truck, perhaps better than any other fictional account about a runaway, is a brilliantly convincing portrait of the archetypal teen rebel, and both the excitement and the terrible betrayals in the world she explores.]]> 214 Katherine Dunn 0446391530 Susan 4 3.34 1971 Truck
author: Katherine Dunn
name: Susan
average rating: 3.34
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:
I read this book in one sitting. It's my "On The Road". Just a long disjointed narrative, constantly propelling me forward. But I'm betting there would have been no way I would have found it enjoyable if I hadn't jumped on the ride and not slept until it was over.
]]> <![CDATA[The Generous Years: Remembrances of a Frontier Boyhood]]> 5587025 Autobiography 160 Chet Huntley 4449013670 Susan 3 Mr. Huntley had a fascinating life and some of the stories in this book could have absolutely been expanded into a full-length, captivating book. As-is, it's a somewhat surficial memoir that obviously didn't want to get too deep.]]> 3.62 1968 The Generous Years: Remembrances of a Frontier Boyhood
author: Chet Huntley
name: Susan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1968
rating: 3
read at: 2015/09/07
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves:
review:
I have absolutely no idea how this book came to be in my possession. That mystery is what made it pick it off my shelves to read during my annual beach week (which is just an excuse to read a lot in a place that is not my house).
Mr. Huntley had a fascinating life and some of the stories in this book could have absolutely been expanded into a full-length, captivating book. As-is, it's a somewhat surficial memoir that obviously didn't want to get too deep.
]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Susan 3 4.35 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Susan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/08/24
date added: 2021/08/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Inherent Vice 5933841 Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon - private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog

It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is another of those words going around at the moment, like "trip" or "groovy," except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dodgy dentists.

In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . . if you were there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .hang on. . .what]]> 369 Thomas Pynchon 1594202249 Susan 3
Update, Sept. 2019, almost 10 years later: I swear I don't remember finishing this book before. And how did I give it five stars? Sounds like a mystery only Doc can solve... If I did indeed read it before, guess it only goes to show how taste changes. Sorry, Doc, you only get 3 stars this time.]]> 3.79 2009 Inherent Vice
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: Susan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2009/09/08
date added: 2019/09/18
shelves:
review:
I know everyone else hates this, they say it's definitely way below the usual Pynchon standard, but frankly I don't care. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, it had his usual off-beat characters, good pacing, a just-convoluted-enough story, and damn, just fun.

Update, Sept. 2019, almost 10 years later: I swear I don't remember finishing this book before. And how did I give it five stars? Sounds like a mystery only Doc can solve... If I did indeed read it before, guess it only goes to show how taste changes. Sorry, Doc, you only get 3 stars this time.
]]> The Origins of Creativity 34082138
Reflecting on the deepest origins of language, storytelling, and art, Wilson demonstrates how creativity began not ten thousand years ago, as we have long assumed, but over one hundred thousand years ago in the Paleolithic age. Chronicling this evolution of creativity from primate ancestors to humans, The Origins of Creativity shows how the humanities, spurred on by the invention of language, have played a largely unexamined role in defining our species. And in doing so, Wilson explores what we can learn about human nature from a surprising range of creative endeavors—the instinct to create gardens, the use of metaphors and irony in speech, and the power of music and song.

Our achievements in science and the humanities, Wilson notes, make us uniquely advanced as a species, but also give us the potential to be supremely dangerous, most worryingly in our abuse of the planet. The humanities in particular suffer from a kind of anthropomorphism, encumbered by a belief that we are the only species among millions that seem to matter, yet Wilson optimistically reveals how researchers will have to address this parlous situation by pushing further into the realm of science, especially fields such as evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and anthropology.

With eloquence and humanity, Wilson calls for a transformational "Third Enlightenment," in which the blending of these endeavors will give us a deeper understanding of the human condition and our crucial relationship with the natural world.]]> 256 Edward O. Wilson 1631493183 Susan 2 3.72 2017 The Origins of Creativity
author: Edward O. Wilson
name: Susan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2019/09/16
date added: 2019/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longmire, #6)]]> 7315145 Read Craig Johnson's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.

A missing thumb and dead developers are only the beginning for Sheriff Walt Longmire

It's a volatile new economy in Durant, Wyoming, where the owners of a multi-million dollar development of ranchettes want to get rid of the adjacent junk-yard. When a severed thumb is discovered in the yard, conflicts erupt, and Walt Longmire, his trusty companion Dog, life-long friend Henry Standing Bear, and deputies Santiago Saizarbitoria and Victoria Moretti find themselves in a small town that feels more and more like a high plains pressure cooker.

Craig Johnson's award-winning Walt Longmire mysteries continue to find new fans, and Junkyard Dogs is sure to create many more devotees. The sixth book in the series is filled with Johnson's signature blend of wisecracks, Western justice, and page-turning plot twists, as the beloved sheriff finds himself star-deep in the darker aspects of human nature, in a story of love, laughs, death, and derelict automobiles.

]]> 306 Craig Johnson 0670021822 Susan 3 4.18 2010 Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longmire, #6)
author: Craig Johnson
name: Susan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/16
date added: 2019/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Susan 4 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Susan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/07
date added: 2019/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052 374 Suzanne Collins Susan 4 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Susan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/04
date added: 2019/08/08
shelves:
review:

]]> A Visit from the Goon Squad 7331435
We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist’s couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city’s demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own while staring at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life—divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house—and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco’s punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang—who thrived and who faltered—and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie’s catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou’s far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.]]> 274 Jennifer Egan 0307592839 Susan 5 3.70 2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Susan
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2019/05/18
date added: 2019/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Word Kill (Impossible Times, #1)]]> 39792427
Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.

He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.

Challenge accepted.]]> 201 Mark Lawrence 1503958264 Susan 4 3.77 2019 One Word Kill (Impossible Times, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Susan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/02
date added: 2019/05/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Weird Sisters 36684399
The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.]]> 371 Eleanor Brown Susan 2 3.76 2011 The Weird Sisters
author: Eleanor Brown
name: Susan
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2019/04/27
date added: 2019/04/27
shelves:
review:
Not sure where I got the idea that I might like this book. Serviceable treacle. And I finished it, that says something, right? I feel like I need to read some more Faulkner now, for some reason.
]]> <![CDATA[The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1)]]> 34497 228 Terry Pratchett 0060855924 Susan 2 4.04 1983 The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Susan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1983
rating: 2
read at: 2019/04/15
date added: 2019/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Susan 4 Now I guess I have to watch the movie.]]> 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Susan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2019/04/08
date added: 2019/04/08
shelves:
review:
Intriguing slightly-unsettling-beach-read kinda thing, reminiscent of Fay Weldon.
Now I guess I have to watch the movie.
]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry]]> 23604559 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115065 Susan 4 4.04 2013 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Susan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/24
date added: 2019/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6)]]> 2054 379 Raymond Chandler 0394757688 Susan 3 4.19 1953 The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6)
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Susan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/09
date added: 2019/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Sometimes a Great Notion 529626 The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...

Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family's rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.]]> 628 Ken Kesey 0140045295 Susan 3 4.26 1964 Sometimes a Great Notion
author: Ken Kesey
name: Susan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1964
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/28
date added: 2018/12/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3)]]> 431 The remarkable, acclaimed series of interconnected detective novels � from the author of 4 3 2 1: A Novel

The New York Review of Books has called Paul Auster’s work “one of the most distinctive niches in contemporary literature.� Moving at the breathless pace of a thriller, this uniquely stylized triology of detective novels begins with City of Glass, in which Quinn, a mystery writer, receives an ominous phone call in the middle of the night. He’s drawn into the streets of New York, onto an elusive case that’s more puzzling and more deeply-layered than anything he might have written himself. In Ghosts, Blue, a mentee of Brown, is hired by White to spy on Black from a window on Orange Street. Once Blue starts stalking Black, he finds his subject on a similar mission, as well. In The Locked Room, Fanshawe has disappeared, leaving behind his wife and baby and nothing but a cache of novels, plays, and poems.

This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition includes an introduction from author and professor Luc Sante, as well as a pulp novel-inspired cover from Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic artist of Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers.]]> 308 Paul Auster 0143039830 Susan 0 to-read 3.93 1987 The New York Trilogy (New York Trilogy, #1-3)
author: Paul Auster
name: Susan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World]]> 11564538 244 Richard Rhodes Susan 0 to-read 3.17 2011 Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
author: Richard Rhodes
name: Susan
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kindness Goes Unpunished (Walt Longmire, #3)]]> 236857
With Henry, Deputy Victoria Moretti, the entire Moretti clan of Philadelphia police officers, and Dog as backup, Sheriff Longmire intends to introduce a little western justice from his saddlebag of tricks to the City of Brotherly Love, where no act of kindness goes unpunished.]]> 288 Craig Johnson 0670031577 Susan 3 4.15 2007 Kindness Goes Unpunished (Walt Longmire, #3)
author: Craig Johnson
name: Susan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2018/09/10
date added: 2018/09/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Voyageur's Highway 697360
The Voyageur's Highway serves as a dependable source of historical information on the fur trade era, the opening of the Iron Range, and the loggers' way of life.]]> 129 Grace Lee Nute 0873510062 Susan 2 3.42 1941 The Voyageur's Highway
author: Grace Lee Nute
name: Susan
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1941
rating: 2
read at: 2018/09/05
date added: 2018/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Root Beer Lady: The Story of Dorothy Molter]]> 1540833 177 Bob Cary 0938586688 Susan 4 4.00 1992 Root Beer Lady: The Story of Dorothy Molter
author: Bob Cary
name: Susan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2018/08/28
date added: 2018/08/28
shelves:
review:
The book is about an interesting, inspiring, and tough ass woman that worked hard to live in the place she loved. The writing style is straightforward (I believe the author started his career as a reporter?) and each chapter is really a standalone vignette.
]]> <![CDATA[Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened]]> 17571564
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!]]> 371 Allie Brosh 1451666179 Susan 5 4.16 2013 Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
author: Allie Brosh
name: Susan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2018/06/01
date added: 2018/06/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Bad Feminist 18813642 Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.

Feel me, see me, hear me, reach me --
Peculiar benefits --
Typical first year professor --
To scratch, claw or grope clumsily or frantically --
How to be friends with another woman --
Girls, girls, girls --
I once was Miss America --
Garish, glorious spectacles --
Not here to make friends --
How we all lose --
Reaching for catharsis : getting fat right (or wrong) and Diana Spechler's Skinny --
The smooth surfaces of idyll --
The careless language of sexual violence --
What we hunger for --
The illusion of safety/the safety of illusion --
The spectacle of broken men --
A tale of three coming out stories --
Beyond the measure of men --
Some jokes are funnier than others --
Dear young ladies who love Chris Brown --
So much they would let him beat them --
Blurred lines, indeed --
The trouble with Prince Charming, or, He who trespassed against us --
The solace of preparing fried foods and other quaint remembrances from 1960s Mississippi : thoughts on The help --
Surviving Django --
Beyond the struggle narrative --
The morality of Tyler Perry --
The last day of a young black man --
When less is more --
The politics of respectability --
When Twitter does what journalism cannot --
The alienable rights of women --
Holding out for a hero --
A tale of two profiles --
The racism we all carry --
Tragedy, call, compassion, response --
Bad feminist : take one --
Bad feminist : take two]]> 320 Roxane Gay 0062282719 Susan 0 to-read 3.93 2014 Bad Feminist
author: Roxane Gay
name: Susan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Design for Dying (Lillian Frost & Edith Head, #1)]]> 25659422
Los Angeles, 1937. Lillian Frost has traded dreams of stardom for security as a department store salesgirl . . . until she discovers she’s a suspect in the murder of her former roommate, Ruby Carroll. Party girl Ruby died wearing a gown she stole from the wardrobe department at Paramount Pictures, domain of Edith Head.

Edith has yet to win the first of her eight Academy Awards; right now she’s barely hanging on to her job, and a scandal is the last thing she needs. To clear Lillian’s name and save Edith’s career, the two women join forces.

Unraveling the mystery pits them against a Hungarian princess on the lam, a hotshot director on the make, and a private investigator who’s not on the level. All they have going for them are dogged determination, assists from the likes of Bob Hope and Barbara Stanwyck, and a killer sense of style. In show business, that just might be enough.]]> 317 Renee Patrick 0765381842 Susan 4 3.58 2016 Design for Dying (Lillian Frost & Edith Head, #1)
author: Renee Patrick
name: Susan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/28
date added: 2018/05/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hall of Small Mammals: Stories]]> 23608737 A wild, inventive ride of a short story collection from a distinctive new American storyteller.

The stories in Thomas Pierce’s Hall of Small Mammals take place at the confluence of the commonplace and the cosmic, the intimate and the infinite.ĚýA fossil-hunter, a comedian, a hot- air balloon pilot, parents and children, believers and nonbelievers, the people in these stories are struggling to understand the absurdity and the magnitude of what it means to exist in a family, to exist in the world.

In “Shirley Temple Three,â€� a mother must shoulder her son’s burden—a cloned and resurrected wooly mammoth who wreaks havoc on her house, sanity, and faith. In “The Real Alan Gass,â€� a physicist in search of a mysterious particle called the “daisyâ€� spends her days with her boyfriend, Walker, and her nights with the husband who only exists in the world of her dreams, Alan Gass.Ěý Like the daisy particle itself—“forever locked in a curious state of existence and nonexistence, sliding back and forth between the two”—the stories in Thomas Pierce’s Hall of Small Mammals are exquisite, mysterious, and inextricably connected.

From this enchanting primordial soup, Pierce’s voice emerges—a distinct and charming testament of the New South, melding contemporary concerns with their prehistoric roots to create a hilarious, deeply moving symphony of stories.]]> 295 Thomas Pierce 0698144929 Susan 4 3.86 2015 Hall of Small Mammals: Stories
author: Thomas Pierce
name: Susan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/13
date added: 2018/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Grapes of Wrath 18114322
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 496 John Steinbeck 067001690X Susan 3 4.06 1939 The Grapes of Wrath
author: John Steinbeck
name: Susan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2017/12/31
date added: 2018/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons � well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel � would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]> 491 Terry Pratchett Susan 4 4.27 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Susan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/21
date added: 2017/11/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime]]> 108762 404 Miles Harvey 0767908260 Susan 2
Crap, that was a long sentence. Sorry 'bout that.

The book could probably have been redeemed if they had cut about 75 pages out if it. I did not even bother to read the epilogue. I just didn't give a shit.

Not recommended.]]> 3.62 2000 The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime
author: Miles Harvey
name: Susan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2017/09/14
date added: 2017/09/14
shelves:
review:
The author didn't have a clear idea of what he wanted this book to be about, I am guessing due to an uncooperative subject (The Map Thief). My guess at what happened: he just said fuck it, I need to get something to my editor and I am just not that interested in this after all these years of research/writing (the use of bulleted passages screamed last minute hack-job-of-desperation to me); he did not have the creativity or flexibility to change the focus of the book once it became clear that The Map Thief was not going to cooperate (and he wasn't all that interesting anyway); or the people that gave him the advance were adamant about keeping the focus on The Map Thief (which could certainly lead to the other two hypotheses I presented above).

Crap, that was a long sentence. Sorry 'bout that.

The book could probably have been redeemed if they had cut about 75 pages out if it. I did not even bother to read the epilogue. I just didn't give a shit.

Not recommended.
]]> Lab Girl 25733983
Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands�; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.]]> 290 Hope Jahren 1101874937 Susan 3 3.95 2016 Lab Girl
author: Hope Jahren
name: Susan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/11
date added: 2017/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Museum of Extraordinary Things]]> 18144053 368 Alice Hoffman 1451693567 Susan 4 3.73 2014 The Museum of Extraordinary Things
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Susan
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/06
date added: 2017/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death Without Company (Walt Longmire, #2)]]> 236862
Craig Johnson's new novel , Land of Wolves, Ěýis forthcoming from Viking

Fans of Ace Atkins, Nevada Barr and Robert B. Parker will love Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Hell Is Empty and As the Crow Flies , who garnered both praise and an enthusiastic readership with his acclaimed debut novel featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire, The Cold Dish, the first in the Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE , now on Netflix. Now Johnson takes us back to the rugged landscape of Absaroka County, Wyoming, for Death Without Company . When Mari Baroja is found poisoned at the Durant Home for Assisted Living, Sheriff Longmire is drawn into an investigation that reaches fifty years into the mysterious woman’s dramatic Basque past. Aided by his friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and newcomer Santiago Saizarbitoria, Sheriff Longmire must connect the specter of the past to the present to find the killer among them.]]> 271 Craig Johnson 0143038389 Susan 3 4.17 2006 Death Without Company (Walt Longmire, #2)
author: Craig Johnson
name: Susan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/12
date added: 2017/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)]]> 6640534 354 Craig Johnson Susan 3 4.29 2004 The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1)
author: Craig Johnson
name: Susan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2017/08/13
date added: 2017/08/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mort(e) (War with No Name, #1)]]> 22181034 After the “war with no name� a cat assassin searches for his lost love in Repino’s strange, moving sci-fi epic that channels both Homeward Bound and A Canticle for Leibowitz.

The “war with no name� has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that would forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony's watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans' penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. As a final step in the war effort, the Colony uses its strange technology to transform the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.

Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend—a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth's creatures.]]> 358 Robert Repino 1616954272 Susan 2 ummm-gonna-come-back-to-it 3.59 2014 Mort(e) (War with No Name, #1)
author: Robert Repino
name: Susan
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/07/27
shelves: ummm-gonna-come-back-to-it
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)]]> 18131
It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.]]> 211 Madeleine L'Engle 0440498058 Susan 4 The first half of the book is what I remembered best. That part still holds up. IDK, the second half is ok, but the God theme and the (literal) universal battle against Evil was kind if irritating and a little boring. But, you know, it's a simple story for kids, with some super neat ideas thrown into the mix. Maybe it doesn't blow my 48 year old mind but it was like nothing else I'd ever read when I first discovered it 40 years ago. :)]]> 4.04 1962 A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Susan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/27
date added: 2017/07/27
shelves:
review:
This was absolutely one of my favorite books when I was a kid! Definitely one of the ones I stayed up too late to read. You know, when you are sooo tired that you can only read with one eye open? And you know school is gonna suck tomorrow because you are sooo tired. It was probably one of the first sci-fi-ish books I read and it was just fantastic. Every morning when I start my 30 mile commute on I-40 I wish I could just tesser there. Or, better yet, tesser somewhere else altogether.
The first half of the book is what I remembered best. That part still holds up. IDK, the second half is ok, but the God theme and the (literal) universal battle against Evil was kind if irritating and a little boring. But, you know, it's a simple story for kids, with some super neat ideas thrown into the mix. Maybe it doesn't blow my 48 year old mind but it was like nothing else I'd ever read when I first discovered it 40 years ago. :)
]]> <![CDATA[The New and Improved Romie Futch]]> 25346877
Part surreal satire, part Southern Gothic tall tale, The New and Improved Romie Futch is a disturbing yet hilarious romp through a strange New South where technology can change the structure of the human brain and genetically modified feral animals ravage the blighted landscape. In Romie Futch, Julia Elliott has created an unwitting and ill-equipped protagonist who nevertheless will win your heart.]]> 416 Julia Elliott 1941040152 Susan 4 3.81 2015 The New and Improved Romie Futch
author: Julia Elliott
name: Susan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/09
date added: 2017/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film]]> 17571109
Set in the nascent days of LA’s alternative comedy scene, Silver Screen Fiend chronicles Oswalt’s journey from fledgling stand-up comedian to self-assured sitcom actor, with the colorful New Beverly collective and a cast of now-notable young comedians supporting him all along the way.]]> 240 Patton Oswalt 145167323X Susan 3 3.61 2015 Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film
author: Patton Oswalt
name: Susan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2017/05/27
date added: 2017/05/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Susan 5 4.10 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Susan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at: 2017/02/23
date added: 2017/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Flowers for Algernon 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
Ěý
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence � a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X Susan 3 4.19 1966 Flowers for Algernon
author: Daniel Keyes
name: Susan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2017/02/17
date added: 2017/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Any Old Iron 336225 373 Anthony Burgess 0671727087 Susan 0 to-read 3.62 1989 Any Old Iron
author: Anthony Burgess
name: Susan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1)]]> 16181775
Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful� husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

The Rosie Project is a moving and hilarious novel for anyone who has ever tenaciously gone after life or love in the face of overwhelming challenges.]]> 292 Graeme Simsion 1476729085 Susan 4
So, initially I was a little embarrassed to be reading this in public. Is that horrible?

I guess I'm more than a little full of myself, aren't I? I will take your stare as your silent, judgmental "yes".

I have been accused of reading "literature" by more than one seat mate on my daily bus rides to/from work. Maybe reading some chick lit on the DRX between Raleigh and Durham has helped me gain some respect with the GoTriangle crowd. Kind of like the lead character (Don) in The Rosie Project, sometimes you have to fake it till you make it.

Anyhoo, this is a cute book, and funny. And I did absolutely sympathize with the successful but autistic Don. It was good brain candy after reading Faulkner.]]> 4.00 2013 The Rosie Project (Don Tillman, #1)
author: Graeme Simsion
name: Susan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/01/29
date added: 2017/01/29
shelves:
review:
This is definitely not the type of book I would pick up on my own but some friends have started a "book club" as an excuse to get together and drink beer. (Personally, I am well beyond the need to come up with an excuse to drink beer, but that's beside the point.) This was the "club's" first selection. Foolish me, I actually figured I should read the book before our first "meeting".

So, initially I was a little embarrassed to be reading this in public. Is that horrible?

I guess I'm more than a little full of myself, aren't I? I will take your stare as your silent, judgmental "yes".

I have been accused of reading "literature" by more than one seat mate on my daily bus rides to/from work. Maybe reading some chick lit on the DRX between Raleigh and Durham has helped me gain some respect with the GoTriangle crowd. Kind of like the lead character (Don) in The Rosie Project, sometimes you have to fake it till you make it.

Anyhoo, this is a cute book, and funny. And I did absolutely sympathize with the successful but autistic Don. It was good brain candy after reading Faulkner.
]]> The Reivers 210825 305 William Faulkner 0679741925 Susan 4 3.78 1962 The Reivers
author: William Faulkner
name: Susan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2017/01/20
date added: 2017/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage]]> 19288239 A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and 1Q84

Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning â€red pineâ€�, and Oumi, â€blue seaâ€�, while the girlsâ€� names were Shirane, â€white rootâ€�, and Kurono, â€black fieldâ€�. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it.

One day Tsukuru Tazaki’s friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again.

Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.]]> 386 Haruki Murakami 0385352107 Susan 2 This is a fairly simplistic, straightforward story about a guy trying to figure out why his buddies dumped him 16 years previous. With such a bare plot, I needed something else to keep me interested: compelling writing; emotional investment in the characters; or some interesting symbology to keep the analytical side of my brain busy. This didn't really have any of these, and I was left following the banal soul-searching of a truly colorless protagonist. Murakami's style always keeps me at a distance (which works in some cases) so it's like his characters are always floating in a tank of water or in museum display or something. It just wasn't enough for me on this one. At least it was short...
Next time I want to experience some of the Murakami magic I'm going to just re-read Wind Up Bird Chronicles or Kafka on the Shore.]]> 3.82 2013 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2016/11/23
date added: 2016/12/04
shelves:
review:
I am just not going to bother with any new Murakami anymore. After my disappointment with 1Q84, I had hopes that this would return me to the HM fold. Nope. It just seems like he's phoning stuff in these days.
This is a fairly simplistic, straightforward story about a guy trying to figure out why his buddies dumped him 16 years previous. With such a bare plot, I needed something else to keep me interested: compelling writing; emotional investment in the characters; or some interesting symbology to keep the analytical side of my brain busy. This didn't really have any of these, and I was left following the banal soul-searching of a truly colorless protagonist. Murakami's style always keeps me at a distance (which works in some cases) so it's like his characters are always floating in a tank of water or in museum display or something. It just wasn't enough for me on this one. At least it was short...
Next time I want to experience some of the Murakami magic I'm going to just re-read Wind Up Bird Chronicles or Kafka on the Shore.
]]> The Maltese Falcon 29999 213 Dashiell Hammett Susan 4 3.89 1930 The Maltese Falcon
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Susan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/04
date added: 2016/12/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Pines (Wayward Pines, #1) 15034320
2013 International Thriller Award Nominee

The international runaway bestseller is now a Major Television Event from executive producer M. Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon and premiering May 14th on FOX.]]> 11 Blake Crouch 1469216000 Susan 2 3.85 2012 Pines (Wayward Pines, #1)
author: Blake Crouch
name: Susan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2016/11/10
date added: 2016/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blue Jean Baby: One Girl's Trip Through the 1960's L.A. Music Scene]]> 6435125
The author doesn’t, however, let down those fond of reading about 1960s rock stars. Sally, a singer/songwriter from a dysfunctional suburban family, lost her virginity to one of the Rolling Stones, and admittedly still has “questionable� feelings about midnight trysts with people like Jim Morrison. She was a groupie all the way, whether it was by boldly walking backstage at shows where people mistook her for Cher, because she was given a address to meet a band member after a gig, or through wandering the midnight streets of Laurel Canyon alone, looking for something or somebody to make everything all right.

Readers won’t find yellow journalism, scandal, or graphically-sexual exploits in Blue Jean Baby. Nor is the author famous, or related to anyone famous. Sally gave up her early celebrity to live a “life that wouldn’t kill (her) soul.� Those looking for lists of sexual conquests won’t find them here. A 2013 L.A. university-based survey showed that Blue Jean Baby appealed to serious readers looking for a true story about surviving the 1960s, as well as those fond of coming-of-age autobiographies. It is currently being used in high school and college classes across the United States as representative of the life of a flower child and groupie who survived the 1960s.

.]]> 192 Sally Parmer Susan 2 This one started off a little better than most: the writing was actually ok, and the author didn't seem to have that need to talk about all the famous guys she had slept with in order to bolster up her story. So, thankfully, most of the book was spent on growing up in a messed up family, leaving home to live as a sort-of hippie, making a lot of bad choices and ending up trapped in a pretty crappy life, then finally getting things straightened out to the point where she was probably happy.


I would have given this three stars if it weren't for the final chapter. I found it to be pretty ironic (that's my nice way of saying "condescending" or "hypocritical") that someone that made the choices she did should be so judgmental about "kids today" and "parents today" and "music today".

]]> 2.95 2009 Blue Jean Baby: One Girl's Trip Through the 1960's L.A. Music Scene
author: Sally Parmer
name: Susan
average rating: 2.95
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2010/09/06
date added: 2016/11/04
shelves:
review:
For whatever reason, I like to read these groupie books. I always end up hating them, due to their crappy writing and (mainly) due to how freaking sad their authors are: inevitably, they justify their groupie-ness by saying that they just wanted to be near the music and be near these people that created this music. This is all crap. They mostly (as far as I can tell) came from really shitty upbringings where they had no chance of developing any sort of self esteem and were just trying to find a way to make themselves feel special, mainly by hanging around famous people.
This one started off a little better than most: the writing was actually ok, and the author didn't seem to have that need to talk about all the famous guys she had slept with in order to bolster up her story. So, thankfully, most of the book was spent on growing up in a messed up family, leaving home to live as a sort-of hippie, making a lot of bad choices and ending up trapped in a pretty crappy life, then finally getting things straightened out to the point where she was probably happy.


I would have given this three stars if it weren't for the final chapter. I found it to be pretty ironic (that's my nice way of saying "condescending" or "hypocritical") that someone that made the choices she did should be so judgmental about "kids today" and "parents today" and "music today".


]]> Age of Blight: Stories 25779031 Age of Blight, a young scientist's harsh and unnecessary experiments on monkeys are recorded for posterity; children are replaced by their doppelgangers, which emerge like flowers in their backyards; and two men standing on opposing cliff faces bear witness to each other's terrifying ends.

Age of Blight explores a kind of post-future, in which the human race is finally abandoned to the end of its history. Muslim's poetic vignettes explore the nature of dystopia itself, often to darkly humorous effect, as when the spirit of Laika (the Russian space dog that perished on Sputnik 2) tries to befriend a satellite, or when Beth, the narrator's older sister, returns from the dead. The collection is illustrated throughout by the charcoal drawings of RISD artist Alessandra Hogan.

In haunting and precise prose, Kristine Ong Muslim posits that humanity's downfall will be both easily preventable and terrifyingly inevitable, for it depends on only one thing: human nature.]]> 105 Kristine Ong Muslim 1939419565 Susan 0 to-read 4.02 2016 Age of Blight: Stories
author: Kristine Ong Muslim
name: Susan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir]]> 12868761 318 Jenny Lawson 0399159010 Susan 3 3.89 2012 Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
author: Jenny Lawson
name: Susan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2016/10/26
date added: 2016/10/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories]]> 13531832 Swamplandia! � a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize � comes a magical and uniquely daring collection of stories that showcases the author’s gifts at their inimitable best.

Within these pages, a community of girls held captive in a Japanese silk factory slowly transmute into human silkworms and plot revolution; a group of boys stumble upon a mutilated scarecrow that bears an uncanny resemblance to a missing classmate that they used to torment; a family’s disastrous quest for land in the American West has grave consequences; and in the marvelous title story, two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try to slake their thirst for blood and come to terms with their immortal relationship.

Vampires in the lemon grove --
Reeling for the Empire --
Seagull army descends on Strong Beach, 1979 --
Proving up --
Barn at the end of our term --
Dougbert Shackleton's rules for Antarctic tailgating --
New veterans --
Graveless doll of Eric Mutis]]> 243 Karen Russell 0307957233 Susan 4 3.68 2013 Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
author: Karen Russell
name: Susan
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2016/10/08
date added: 2016/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> Cloud Atlas 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 Susan 5 4.02 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Susan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2016/09/10
date added: 2016/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales]]> 7945295 The fairy tale lives again in this book of forty new stories by some of the biggest names in contemporary fiction.

Neil Gaiman, “Orange�
Ěý
Aimee Bender, “The Color Master�
Ěý
Joyce Carol Oates, “Blue-bearded Lover�
Ěý
Michael Cunningham, “The Wild Swans�
Ěý
These and more than thirty other stories by Francine Prose, Kelly Link, Jim Shepard, Lydia Millet, and many other extraordinary writers make up this thrilling celebration of fairy tales—the ultimate literary costume party.
Ěý
Spinning houses and talking birds. Whispered secrets and borrowed hope. Here are new stories sewn from old skins, gathered by visionary editor Kate Bernheimer and inspired by everything from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen� and “The Little Match Girl� to Charles Perrault’s “Bluebeard� and “Cinderella� to the Brothers Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel� and “Rumpelstiltskin� to fairy tales by Goethe and Calvino and from China, Japan, Vietnam, Russia, Norway, and Mexico.
Ěý
Fairy tales are our oldest literary tradition, and yet they chart the imaginative frontiers of the twenty-first century as powerfully as they evoke our earliest encounters with literature. This exhilarating collection restores their place in the literary canon.]]> 576 Kate Bernheimer 014311784X Susan 4 3.60 2010 My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
author: Kate Bernheimer
name: Susan
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/07
date added: 2016/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination]]> 118651 144 Barbara Hurd 0618215123 Susan 2 4.05 2001 Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination
author: Barbara Hurd
name: Susan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2016/09/05
date added: 2016/09/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Color Master: Stories 17262213
Truly beloved by readers and critics alike, Aimee Bender has become known as something of an enchantress whose lush prose is “moving, fanciful, and gorgeously strange� ( People ), “richly imagined and bittersweet� ( Vanity Fair ), and “full of provocative ideas� ( The Boston Globe ). In her deft hands, “relationships and mundane activities take on mythic qualities� ( The Wall Street Journal ).

In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.

In these deeply resonant stories—evocative, funny, beautiful, and sad—we see ourselves reflected as if in a funhouse mirror. Aimee Bender has once again proven herself to be among the most imaginative, exciting, and intelligent writers of our time.]]> 222 Aimee Bender 0385534892 Susan 3 3.84 2013 The Color Master: Stories
author: Aimee Bender
name: Susan
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2016/09/04
date added: 2016/09/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac]]> 22320471 A dark, fantastical, multi-generational tale about a family whose patriarch is consumed by the hunt for the mythical, elusive sasquatch he encountered in his youth

Eli Roebuck was nine years old when his mother walked off into the woods with "Mr. Krantz," a large, strange, hairy man who may or may not be a sasquatch. What Eli knows for certain is that his mother went willingly, leaving her only son behind. For the rest of his life, Eli is obsessed with the hunt for the bizarre creature his mother chose over him, and we watch it affect every relationship he has in his long life--with his father, with both of his wives, his children, grandchildren, and colleagues. We follow all of the Roebuck family members, witnessing through each of them the painful, isolating effects of Eli's maniacal hunt, and find that each Roebuck is battling a monster of his or her own, sometimes literally. The magical world Shields has created is one of unicorns and lake monsters, ghosts and reincarnations, tricksters and hexes. At times charming, as when young Eli meets the eccentric, extraordinary Mr. Krantz, and downright horrifying at others, The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac is boldly imaginative throughout, and proves to be a devastatingly real portrait of the demons that we as human beings all face.]]> 400 Sharma Shields 162779199X Susan 4 3.62 2015 The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac
author: Sharma Shields
name: Susan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/31
date added: 2016/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Road 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Susan 3 3.99 2006 The Road
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Susan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2016/08/14
date added: 2016/08/30
shelves:
review:
I read this in two sittings, so obviously it was somewhat compelling. I read it on a backpacking trip and certainly latched on to the drive to go forward (though of course my motivations weren't life-or-death). However, about 2/3 of the way through, the repetition of "I'm cold...I'm scared...I'm tired..." from the son just got very, very old. Very old. Very, very, very old. Tiresome. I now recall it as a post-apocalyptic Groundhog Day.
]]> Wolf in White Van 23637507
Lance and Carrie are high school students from Florida, and are explorers of the Trace. But when they take their play into the real world, disaster strikes, and Sean is called on to account for it. In the process, he is pulled back through time, tracing back toward the moment of his own self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live.]]> 207 John Darnielle 1250074711 Susan 0 to-read 3.72 2014 Wolf in White Van
author: John Darnielle
name: Susan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Travels with Charley: In Search of America]]> 368822 A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to California’s Monterey Peninsula

To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.

With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.]]> 277 John Steinbeck 0140053204 Susan 5 4.13 1961 Travels with Charley: In Search of America
author: John Steinbeck
name: Susan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/10
date added: 2015/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World]]> 7717307 288 Anders Halverson 0300140878 Susan 0 to-read 4.20 2010 An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World
author: Anders Halverson
name: Susan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> As I Lay Dying 77013 As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members -- including Addie herself -- as well as others; the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic.

This edition reproduces the corrected text of As I Lay Dying as established in 1985 by Noel Polk.]]> 288 William Faulkner Susan 4 I can see re-reading this every year or so. The first reading was just a little overwhelming-- everyone in this family is just _so_ stupid and backwards with few/no redeeming qualities. But, I think the ridiculousness of the family was intentional, and on repeated readings I can see them turning into a high-brow/literary Laurel & Hardy or Three Stooges. ;)]]> 3.71 1930 As I Lay Dying
author: William Faulkner
name: Susan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1930
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/08
date added: 2015/09/08
shelves:
review:
This was my first foray into any stream-of-consciousness authors. Faulkner's use of language forced me to slow down my reading severely-- which is a good thing.
I can see re-reading this every year or so. The first reading was just a little overwhelming-- everyone in this family is just _so_ stupid and backwards with few/no redeeming qualities. But, I think the ridiculousness of the family was intentional, and on repeated readings I can see them turning into a high-brow/literary Laurel & Hardy or Three Stooges. ;)
]]> Go Set a Watchman 24817626 To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch�"Scout"—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.]]> 278 Harper Lee 0062409859 Susan 3
So, it is very interesting to see how things changed (almost 180, both thematically and quality) from Harper's first attempt to the final result (Mockingbird). These are two absolutely different books. It doesn't make me like Mockingbird any less and I think has given me some great insight into the importance of the editor/author relationship in developing a novel.
]]> 3.28 2015 Go Set a Watchman
author: Harper Lee
name: Susan
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2015/09/08
date added: 2015/09/08
shelves:
review:
I did approach this as an opportunity to compare the starting and ending points of the creation of a novel. I spent most of the summer avoiding much of mass media to avoid hearing any spoilers before I had a chance to read it. For the most part those efforts were successful, though somehow I heard that Atticus is a racist in this one, so I guess I wasn't shocked when I got midway through the book. I am fascinated by the reaction that many readers are having to this different version of Atticus. It's just like Scout's reaction to Atticus' views on segregation, race relations, etc. in the book-- that sense of betrayal and being "lied to" for all those years.

So, it is very interesting to see how things changed (almost 180, both thematically and quality) from Harper's first attempt to the final result (Mockingbird). These are two absolutely different books. It doesn't make me like Mockingbird any less and I think has given me some great insight into the importance of the editor/author relationship in developing a novel.

]]> Attempting Normal 15798363 People make a mess.

Marc Maron was a parent-scarred, angst-filled, drug-dabbling, love-starved comedian who dreamed of a simple life: a wife, a home, a sitcom to call his own. But instead he woke up one day to find himself fired from his radio job, surrounded by feral cats, and emotionally and financially annihilated by a divorce from a woman he thought he loved. He tried to heal his broken heart through whatever means he could find—minor-league hoarding, Viagra addiction, accidental racial profiling, cat fancying, flying airplanes with his mind—but nothing seemed to work. It was only when he was stripped down to nothing that he found his way back.

Attempting Normal is Marc Maron’s journey through the wilderness of his own mind, a collection of explosively, painfully, addictively funny stories that add up to a moving tale of hope and hopelessness, of failing, flailing, and finding a way. From standup to television to his outrageously popular podcast, WTF with Marc Maron, Marc has always been a genuine original, a disarmingly honest, intensely smart, brutally open comic who finds wisdom in the strangest places. This is his story of the winding, potholed road from madness and obsession and failure to something like normal, the thrillingly comic journey of a sympathetic f***up who’s trying really hard to do better without making a bigger mess. Most of us will relate.]]> 240 Marc Maron 0812992873 Susan 2 Sadly, I just didn't find this funny. Maybe if I listened to the audiobook instead of reading it?]]> 3.77 2013 Attempting Normal
author: Marc Maron
name: Susan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2015/09/07
date added: 2015/09/07
shelves:
review:
I like Maron's stand up. And his tv show. This just made me, well, sad. He admits he's a douche and carefully illustrates why he is a douche, yet still continues to be a douche... It just makes me sad he can't overcome his douche-dom even if though he (kinda?) wants to.
Sadly, I just didn't find this funny. Maybe if I listened to the audiobook instead of reading it?
]]> <![CDATA[The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones]]> 40136
The good, the bad, and the ugly, served up Bourdain-style.

Bestselling chef and No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain has never been one to pull punches. In The Nasty Bits , he serves up a well-seasoned hellbroth of candid, often outrageous stories from his worldwide misadventures. Whether scrounging for eel in the backstreets of Hanoi, revealing what you didn't want to know about the more unglamorous aspects of making television, calling for the head of raw food activist Woody Harrelson, or confessing to lobster-killing guilt, Bourdain is as entertaining as ever. Bringing together the best of his previously uncollected nonfiction--and including new, never-before-published material-- The Nasty Bits is a rude, funny, brutal and passionate stew for fans and the uninitiated alike. Anthony Bourdain is the author of seven books including the bestselling Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour . A thirty-year veteran of professional kitchens, he is the host of No Reservations on the Discovery Channel, and the executive chef at Les Halles in Manhattan. He lives in New York City.

Praise for Anthony Bourdain: "Bourdain's enthusiasm is so intense that it practically explodes off the page . . . Bourdain shows himself to be one of the country's best food writers. His opinions are as strong as his language, and his tastes as infectious as his joy."-- New York Times Book Review

"[Writes] the kind of book you read in one sitting, then rush about annoying your coworkers by declaiming whole passages."-- USA Today

"Bourdain's prose is utterly riveting, swaggering with stylish machismo and a precise ear for kitchen patois."-- New York magazine]]> 288 Anthony Bourdain 1582344515 Susan 4 3.85 2005 The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: Susan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/02
date added: 2015/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly]]> 33313 A deluxe, annotated edition of Kitchen Confidential to celebrate the life of Anthony Bourdain, featuring new photo inserts

Over two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,� by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now iconic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation and megabestseller. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.

Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade, laying out Bourdain’s more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine. Including a handwritten introduction and annotations done by Bourdain about a decade after the book was originally published, this edition also features previously unpublished photos to accompany the now-classic text.]]> 312 Anthony Bourdain 0060899220 Susan 2
Also, not sure what the point of this book was-- memoir? Expose? How to properly equip your home kitchen? Just kind of all over the place. Plus, his voice is much better suited to narrating his travel shows. It doesn't work well for me as a book.

One last thing-- I read the Kindle version. The constant punctuation, spelling, and just bad editing errors were REALLY annoying. Yikes. ]]> 4.17 2000 Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
author: Anthony Bourdain
name: Susan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2015/07/18
date added: 2015/07/18
shelves:
review:
I first became aware of Bourdain about 10 years ago. He sounded awesome. Several years later I started binge-watching his various shows on Netflix, and he was awesome.This book, though, was such a huge disappointment. I get the appeal of the hedonistic life, but I hope to god that kitchens are not the same as they were back in Bourdain's beloved heyday-- you know, from the friggin '70's. Seriously, I do not wat to eat in a restaurant where the staff are fucking on the sacks of flour. Hopefully times have changed and the frat boy crap that he describes isn`t as ubiquitous as it was in his "heyday".

Also, not sure what the point of this book was-- memoir? Expose? How to properly equip your home kitchen? Just kind of all over the place. Plus, his voice is much better suited to narrating his travel shows. It doesn't work well for me as a book.

One last thing-- I read the Kindle version. The constant punctuation, spelling, and just bad editing errors were REALLY annoying. Yikes.
]]> <![CDATA[Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.]]> 15790837
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.

With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called "hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving" (Washington Post).

Machine generated contents note: Dentists Without Borders
Attaboy
Think Differenter
Memory Laps
A Friend in the Ghetto
Loggerheads
If I Ruled the World
Easy, Tiger
Laugh, Kookaburra
Standing Still
Just a Quick E-mail
A Guy Walks into a Bar Car
Author, Author
Obama!!!!!
Standing By
I Break for Traditional Marriage
Understanding Understanding Owls
#2 to Go
Health-Care Freedoms and Why I Want My Country Back
Now Hiring Friendly People
Rubbish
Day In, Day Out
Mind the Gap
A Cold Case
The Happy Place]]> 275 David Sedaris 0316154695 Susan 4 3.84 2013 Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.
author: David Sedaris
name: Susan
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/02
date added: 2015/07/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored� ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia � a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo � to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality� until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family � past and present � is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]> 370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Susan 3 4.12 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: Susan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2015/06/28
date added: 2015/06/28
shelves:
review:

]]> MY DATE WITH SATAN: Stories 235717
The beauty treatment --
An island of boyfriends --
Goal --
Sally's story --
The first men --
The ocean --
Rats eat cats --
Rules for being human --
Prom night --
My date with Satan --
A groupie, a rock star --
Goodnight --
A prodigy of longing]]> 224 Stacey Richter 0684857022 Susan 3 3.83 1999 MY DATE WITH SATAN: Stories
author: Stacey Richter
name: Susan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2015/06/27
date added: 2015/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation]]> 15798109 A Civil Action, The Emperor of all Maladies and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Toms River melds hard-hitting investigative reporting, a ripping scientific detective story, deep historical research and an unforgettable cast of characters into a riveting narrative that will leave readers asking, could it happen in my town, too?

On a cool September day in 1971, an independent trucker with a history of legal scrapes flung open the double doors of his eighteen-wheeler and began tossing leaky drums of industrial waste onto the sandy soil of a rundown chicken farm in Toms River, New Jersey. Eight years later, a schoolteacher who lived four miles away gave birth to a boy whose cherubic smile belied the fast growing tumors that soon riddled his face and chest. The doctors predicted he would not reach his first birthday. They were wrong, but that was only one of many surprises that would eventually come to light in Toms River, culminating in 2001 with a record legal settlement believed to top $35 million and an unprecedented government study confirming the existence of a long-suspected cluster of childhood cancer linked to polluted water and air.

A detective story rooted in a scientific quest thousands of years old, Toms River is a tale of dumpers at midnight and deceptions in broad daylight, of corporate avarice and government neglect, and of a few brave individuals who would not keep silent.]]> 560 Dan Fagin 055380653X Susan 0 to-read 4.08 2013 Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
author: Dan Fagin
name: Susan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for â€question mark.â€� A world that bears a question.â€� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Susan 2 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2014/01/11
shelves:
review:
I love me some Murakami, but this novel is just hugely bloated. It is not sprawling or expansive, which would imply some sort of glorious, barely-contained pandemonium, which I'm all about. It's just bloated, in an unpleasant, pre-menstrual sort of way. Honestly, I didn't finish it. I made it to page 1022 and even my mule-headed stubbornness couldn't get me through those last 130 pages. It was just too painful. To those that have finished it: well, you deserve the utmost respect. This just did not work for me at all.
]]> The People in the Trees 16126596 369 Hanya Yanagihara 0385536771 Susan 0 to-read 3.72 2013 The People in the Trees
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Susan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bleeding Edge 17208457
It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Silicon Alley is a ghost town, Web 1.0 is having adolescent angst, Google has yet to IPO, Microsoft is still considered the Evil Empire. There may not be quite as much money around as there was at the height of the tech bubble, but there’s no shortage of swindlers looking to grab a piece of what’s left.

Maxine Tarnow is running a nice little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side, chasing down different kinds of small-scale con artists. She used to be legally certified but her license got pulled a while back, which has actually turned out to be a blessing because now she can follow her own code of ethics—carry a Beretta, do business with sleazebags, hack into people’s bank accounts—without having too much guilt about any of it. Otherwise, just your average working mom—two boys in elementary school, an off-and-on situation with her sort of semi-ex-husband Horst, life as normal as it ever gets in the neighborhood—till Maxine starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO, whereupon things begin rapidly to jam onto the subway and head downtown. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler’s aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, plus elements of the Russian mob and various bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course.

With occasional excursions into the DeepWeb and out to Long Island, Thomas Pynchon, channeling his inner Jewish mother, brings us a historical romance of New York in the early days of the internet, not that distant in calendar time but galactically remote from where we’ve journeyed to since.

Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will she and Horst get back together? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance?

Hey. Who wants to know?]]> 477 Thomas Pynchon 1594204233 Susan 0 to-read 3.61 2013 Bleeding Edge
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: Susan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories]]> 836957
Brief, intense, painfully funny, and shockingly honest, Keret's stories are snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit the hidden truths of life. As with the best comic authors, hilarity and anguish are the twin pillars of his work. Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain-from a father's first lesson to his boy to a standoff between soldiers caught in the Middle East conflict to a slice of life where nothing much happens.

Bus Driver includes stories from Keret's bestselling collections in Israel, Pipelines and Missing Kissinger, as well as Keret's major new novella, "Kneller's Happy Campers," a bitingly satirical yet wistful road trip set in the afterlife for suicides.]]> 130 Etgar Keret 1592641059 Susan 5 4.07 2001 The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories
author: Etgar Keret
name: Susan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/19
date added: 2013/08/24
shelves:
review:
Perfect. Ultra-short stories that still hit home. Now that's something to be proud of.
]]> <![CDATA[The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession]]> 14546 The Emperor of Scent tells of the scientific maverick Luca Turin, a connoisseur and something of an aesthete who wrote a bestselling perfume guide and bandied about an outrageous new theory on the human sense of smell. Drawing on cutting-edge work in biology, chemistry, and physics, Turin used his obsession with perfume and his eerie gift for smell to turn the cloistered worlds of the smell business and science upside down, leading to a solution to the last great mystery of the senses: how the nose works.]]> 352 Chandler Burr 0375759816 Susan 0 to-read 4.16 The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession
author: Chandler Burr
name: Susan
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake]]> 7048800
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents� attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.

The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender’s place as “a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language� (San Francisco Chronicle).]]> 292 Aimee Bender 0385501129 Susan 5 3.24 2010 The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
author: Aimee Bender
name: Susan
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/04/26
date added: 2013/04/26
shelves:
review:
I read this in one sitting-- don't get to do that too often these days. It's not really about a girl that has a special gift for tasting food, its origins, and the people that made it. It's really about the secrets of families, what we (try to) keep hidden from the people that are supposed to know us best. And how our families can sense some of these things, whether we specifically voice them or not. I thought it was wonderful.
]]> <![CDATA[Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time]]> 11917678 256 Georgia Pellegrini 0738214663 Susan 2 3.29 2011 Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time
author: Georgia Pellegrini
name: Susan
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2012/05/06
date added: 2012/05/06
shelves:
review:
Meh. That's all I can say. Thought it would be a great summation/inspiration of the whole "if you're gonna eat it, you should have the balls to kill it" ethos that I seem to feel is the honest way to be a meat eater. But it wasn't. It was ok. Her writing was ok.
]]> <![CDATA[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)]]> 9460487 9781594744761

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.]]> 352 Ransom Riggs 1594744769 Susan 2 3.92 2011 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)
author: Ransom Riggs
name: Susan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2012/04/17
date added: 2012/04/22
shelves:
review:
I liked the idea of building a book around a collection of creepy old photographs. The book started out well enough, but as other reviewers have noted, it went downhill pretty quickly. It really is a YA book, and not a very good one at that. The writing was fine, just the plot and characters were not that interesting. Actually, they bordered on annoying.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hero of the Herd: More Tales from a Country Veterinarian]]> 1876792
Of course, our coveralls were wet and covered with mud, and, as expected, there was a problem with one hard-core resister. That particular hog had apparently decided he wanted no part of the surgical procedure and had somehow evaded capture by scaling the short fence and retreating back down the hill into the swamp.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý
Suddenly a grim-faced Buck beelined toward the escapee, who was taking a breather in the deepest, gummiest part of the lot. When he came to within about ten feet of the porker, Buck made a flying tackle and landed atop the surprised pig. The resulting chaos was worthy of national television coverage. In spite of their giggling, Everett and John piled on the wallowing duo. In the process of trying to jump and run through the mud, I lost both of my knee-high rubber boots. When it was all over, we stood staring at the scene for several minutes. Never had I seen such a sight. All we needed were several fires burning, smoke spiraling upward, and the scene would have been reminiscent of a Civil War movie not long after the Yankees had marched through the farmsteads outside Atlanta.]]> 272 John McCormack 0609603736 Susan 3 3.92 1999 The Hero of the Herd: More Tales from a Country Veterinarian
author: John McCormack
name: Susan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2012/01/05
date added: 2012/01/12
shelves:
review:
My niece gave this to me for Xmas-- she liked it and thought I'd like it too. Aaaw... that's just kind of awesome. It was an easy, enjoyable read, and just like the book flap says, McCormack is the Southern US version of Herriot though without the gruesome detail of assisted cow births that All Creatures Great and Small offered. He's a little more bitter/pessimistic than most Southerners will admit to, but funny. It was a good, light, possibly suitable for a vacation/beach read.
]]> Neverwhere (London Below, #1) 14497
"Neverwhere" is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Strange destinies lie in wait in London below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.

Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of "Neverwhere." Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...]]> 370 Neil Gaiman 0060557818 Susan 0 to-read 4.17 1996 Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Susan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]> 10374 Lord Jim.

Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.]]> 400 Haruki Murakami Susan 4 4.14 1985 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2011/12/08
date added: 2011/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]> CivilWarLand in Bad Decline 28747 179 George Saunders 0099595818 Susan 0 to-read 4.25 1996 CivilWarLand in Bad Decline
author: George Saunders
name: Susan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Among the Thugs 33460 320 Bill Buford 0679745351 Susan 4 4.13 1990 Among the Thugs
author: Bill Buford
name: Susan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/16
date added: 2011/10/17
shelves:
review:
Anyone that knows me, myself included, would say "why the hell is she reading THAT?!" I don't like sports. I don't get the fandom thing. I certainly don't get random violence in the name of allegiance to some sports team. But this ended up in my hands so I read it. Given my decided non-interest in the subject, I was really surprised to find myself wrapped up in this pretty quickly. Buford's writing style is engaging and intelligent. He treated the people he profiled with respect. The only part that lagged for me was the overly-didactic section about group psychology. He'd been more subtly working a lot of that in throughout the book anyway, so I found the beat-me-over-the-head nature of this section a little insulting. And kind of boring. Overall, it was a good read though.
]]> <![CDATA[Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls]]> 8603232 188 Alissa Nutting 0984213325 Susan 0 to-read 3.83 2010 Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls
author: Alissa Nutting
name: Susan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Susan 4 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/02
date added: 2011/07/17
shelves:
review:
This was much more straight-ahead than the other Murakamis I've read so far. Consequently, I didn't like it quite as much. Once again his characters headed out into the wilderness, removing themselves from society to get a better understanding of themselves, but it wasn't to the same fantastic extent I was expecting. Maybe the symbolism was a little more subtle or muted in this one too, so I didn't catch it: I really like the OCD-level of symbolism found in Murakami's other books. Still definitely Above Average, but I had hoped for another rapturous adventure and didn't quite get it.
]]> Willful Creatures 46205 The New York Times Book Review
Aimee Bender s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms. This is a place where a boy with keys for fingers is a hero, a woman's children are potatoes, and a little boy with an iron for a head is born to a family of pumpkin heads. With her singular mix of surrealism, musical prose, and keenly felt emotion, Bender once again proves herself to be a masterful chronicler of the human condition.]]> 224 Aimee Bender 0385720971 Susan 5 4.02 2005 Willful Creatures
author: Aimee Bender
name: Susan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/30
date added: 2011/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Kafka on the Shore 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami 1400079276 Susan 5 Enough with the superlatives.

The great majority of the books I read are mediocre, banal, or down right BAD. It almost makes that crap worthwhile when I read something like Murakami-- I wonder if all that crap makes me appreciate a writer with talent and depth all the more. There's a lot of magical-realism-type stuff in there that might be hard to digest if you're not into that sort of thing. BUT there's also a lot of interesting symbolism, layers of references to other literary touchstones, great characters, and damn it's just a pleasure to read.]]> 4.14 2002 Kafka on the Shore
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/17
date added: 2011/04/19
shelves:
review:
Astounding. Terrific. Entertaining. So very very much to digest (in a very good way).
Enough with the superlatives.

The great majority of the books I read are mediocre, banal, or down right BAD. It almost makes that crap worthwhile when I read something like Murakami-- I wonder if all that crap makes me appreciate a writer with talent and depth all the more. There's a lot of magical-realism-type stuff in there that might be hard to digest if you're not into that sort of thing. BUT there's also a lot of interesting symbolism, layers of references to other literary touchstones, great characters, and damn it's just a pleasure to read.
]]> <![CDATA[Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story]]> 89780 320 Laurie Lindeen 0743292324 Susan 2
The Cinderella's Daydream single is still one of the very best singles to come out of that 90's indie rock orgy thing though. ]]> 3.55 2007 Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story
author: Laurie Lindeen
name: Susan
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 2011/04/06
date added: 2011/04/06
shelves:
review:
The writing was really solid and I thought the interspersed flashbacks was really nuanced- really effective. However, by about halfway through the book I was sooooo sick of Ms. Lindeen; she just came off as a whiny-ass baby to me.

The Cinderella's Daydream single is still one of the very best singles to come out of that 90's indie rock orgy thing though.
]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Susan 3 3.70 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Susan
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at: 2011/03/27
date added: 2011/03/27
shelves:
review:
Well, since this book was subsumed into the collective unconscious of American pop culture sometime in the latter half of the 20th century, I pretty much knew what to expect. You know, the battle between civilized society and the natural tendency to give in to our more basic instincts, lots of symbolism, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not sure how I got away with not reading this in school growing up, but now this one particular shortfall in my literary education has been addressed. Not sure what to say about the book itself-- guess if I had read it when I was 12 or 13 (like I should have) I would have been pretty blown away.
]]> The Princess Bride 21787
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.]]> 429 William Goldman 0345418263 Susan 4 was working at a record store, after all), I thought it all very quaint. It was years before I was able to give up enough jaded-ness to be bothered with watching the movie. And, yeah, I loved it, and it remains one of my not-so-guilty pleasures.
So, I figured reading the book would be pointless-- I would hate it because it differed so drastically, i would hate it because it was just the same, or I would be so biased that I couldn't properly judge it on its own merits and therefore should just watch the movie again and read something else. Well, true, the two are pretty damn similar, I was horribly biased (the actors' voices narrating the tale in my head the whole time), but I didn't hate it. I wish I had read it before seeing the movie, though. There were enough differences - the whole Morgenstern thing, some nice scenes between Fizzig and Inigo that weren't in the movie - that it was worth my while. Fun.]]> 4.27 1973 The Princess Bride
author: William Goldman
name: Susan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/19
date added: 2011/03/19
shelves:
review:
I generally shy away from reading a book if I've seen the movie it was based on (and vice versa). Long long long ago an acquaintance of mine just gushed about how awesome this book was-- she was meeting her boyfriend at the record store I was working at (he was one of the owners) and they were going to go see the movie version of Princess Bride that night. Being Too Cool at the time (I was working at a record store, after all), I thought it all very quaint. It was years before I was able to give up enough jaded-ness to be bothered with watching the movie. And, yeah, I loved it, and it remains one of my not-so-guilty pleasures.
So, I figured reading the book would be pointless-- I would hate it because it differed so drastically, i would hate it because it was just the same, or I would be so biased that I couldn't properly judge it on its own merits and therefore should just watch the movie again and read something else. Well, true, the two are pretty damn similar, I was horribly biased (the actors' voices narrating the tale in my head the whole time), but I didn't hate it. I wish I had read it before seeing the movie, though. There were enough differences - the whole Morgenstern thing, some nice scenes between Fizzig and Inigo that weren't in the movie - that it was worth my while. Fun.
]]> Room 7937843
Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.]]> 321 Emma Donoghue Susan 4 The first few pages were tough-- I thought there was NO WAY I could survive an entire book written in this not-quite-right and initially annoying child's vernacular. It did manage to suck me in pretty quickly, and I didn't find it to be the oh-feel-so-sorry-for-me type of book I was afraid it would be. Even the precious writing style didn't annoy me. It moved along nicely, and I found the transformation of Jack, the narrator, from his complete understanding of his tiny little world in Room to trying to adjust to all of the unknowns of the Outside was actually really interesting. I was seriously surprised at how much I enjoyed it. ]]> 4.04 2010 Room
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Susan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/16
date added: 2011/03/16
shelves:
review:
When I first read the first reviews and blurbs about this book, it sounded interesting. Once I saw it was told from the child's POV, though, I immediately crossed it off my to-read list. I promptly forgot about it, until it popped up on all of the year-end lists, which, frankly, I generally ignore anyway. For whatever reason, I decided to go ahead and give it a try.
The first few pages were tough-- I thought there was NO WAY I could survive an entire book written in this not-quite-right and initially annoying child's vernacular. It did manage to suck me in pretty quickly, and I didn't find it to be the oh-feel-so-sorry-for-me type of book I was afraid it would be. Even the precious writing style didn't annoy me. It moved along nicely, and I found the transformation of Jack, the narrator, from his complete understanding of his tiny little world in Room to trying to adjust to all of the unknowns of the Outside was actually really interesting. I was seriously surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
]]> <![CDATA[Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West]]> 1132808
Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. The Donner Party, Rarick writes, is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity.

A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.]]> 288 Ethan Rarick 0195305027 Susan 4 Anyhoo, this is a nice overview of the Donner-Reed Party tragedy but I would still recommend Stewart's book over this one.]]> 4.09 2008 Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
author: Ethan Rarick
name: Susan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/14
date added: 2011/03/15
shelves:
review:
Good, quick, easy read about the tragedy of the Donner Party and I guess more accurate than previous books on the topic, though it seems less detailed (and much shorter) than other books on the topic. I still prefer Stewart's Ordeal By Hunger-- it really did a better job of giving the reader a full understanding of the severe trials the emigrants faced not only at their winter at the lake, but almost from Day 1 of the trip (the horrific crossing of the Great Salt Lake desert, for instance). Desperate Passage also gives the whole topic of cannibalism much more face time than Stewart did (which isn't really saying all that much, he mentioned it almost in passing), and expends a lot more (unneeded) effort justifying the fact that some seriously starving people ate some already-dead people.
Anyhoo, this is a nice overview of the Donner-Reed Party tragedy but I would still recommend Stewart's book over this one.
]]> <![CDATA[You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger]]> 382377 220 Roger Hall 1591143535 Susan 4 4.14 1957 You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger
author: Roger Hall
name: Susan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/14
date added: 2011/03/15
shelves:
review:
Fun book! Hall's memoir recounts his time (and the killing of it) in the OSS near the end of WWII. He didn't get to see any real action, so most of the exploits here revolve around training, dealing with bureaucracy, after hours hijinks, and waiting. Lots of waiting. There is a definite patriotic tone to it that you would never hear in a war book these days, and he gives the guys that did work behind the lines their props. I don't know how to describe his writing style, which I liked a lot-- it's very vintage (but in a really good way), very lively, funny and (probably like Hall himself) always on the move.
]]> <![CDATA[St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves]]> 47085 St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves introduces a radiant new writer.]]> 246 Karen Russell 0307263983 Susan 3 3.80 2005 St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
author: Karen Russell
name: Susan
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2011/03/11
date added: 2011/03/14
shelves:
review:
I like how Russell uses her tools but found most of the stories somewhat unsatisfying for some nebulous reason. Some of the stories (Children's Reminiscences of a Western Migration, I'm looking at you!) just seemed forced and not really fully developed. (Maybe this particular story seemed so because it was an "excerpt"?) Once I hit City of Shells, though, I was finally wrapped up in it. I particularly enjoyed the title story. I don't know that I'll recommend this to my friends, but it certainly wasn't a waste of time.
]]> The Story of Edgar Sawtelle 6979909 608 David Wroblewski 0061662968 Susan 2 3.50 2008 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
author: David Wroblewski
name: Susan
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2010/12/30
date added: 2010/12/30
shelves:
review:
Finally I finished this damn book. It started off ok, but the middle third was just brutal to slog through. Boring boring boring. I've no problem with books where a lot of stuff doesn't happen, but damn, there were 200 pages of nothing going on-- little with the plot, little with the characters, no building of suspense, no self-indulgent literary devices, pretty much next to nothing. The section between the father's death and well into Edgar's life on the road needed some serious, serious editing. There was no reason for this book to be nearly 600 pages long. The ending was kind of predictable, and since you knew from early about the Cain/Able thing it was just a matter of seeing how Claude would get his comeuppance in the end. I did not care a whit about any of the characters. Not even the dogs. Not a satisfying read at all.
]]> Life of Pi 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 Susan 3 3.94 2001 Life of Pi
author: Yann Martel
name: Susan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2010/12/29
date added: 2010/12/29
shelves:
review:
Not sure I see what The Big Whoop is, but I liked it. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but in a good way.
]]> <![CDATA[Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)]]> 68494 710 China Miéville 0345459407 Susan 0 to-read 3.98 2000 Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)
author: China Miéville
name: Susan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys]]> 5832289 —Paul R. Ehrlich, author of The Dominant Animal Ěý Biologist Rob Dunn’s Every Little Thing is the story of man’s obsessive quest to catalog life, from nanobacteria to new monkeys. In the tradition of E.O. Wilson, this engaging and fascinating work of popular science follows humanity’s unending quest to discover every living thing in our natural world—from the unimaginably small in the most inhospitable of places on earth to the unimaginably far away in the unexplored canals on Mars.]]> 272 Rob Dunn 0061430307 Susan 4 4.04 2008 Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalog Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys
author: Rob Dunn
name: Susan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/04/15
date added: 2010/11/14
shelves:
review:
For the most part I really enjoyed this. Dunn's focus was: the more you look at the life that surrounds us, the more you'll find. My background is in biology, but I never really thought about the whole spectrum of life as a whole this way before, as my focus in school and professionally has necessarily always been a relatively narrow range of life. It was kind of mind boggling. My only real issue was that I found his excessive footnotes pretty annoying: either the information should have been important enough to include in the main text, or the editor should have just red-inked them. I honestly just started ignoring them. I found the section on exobiology a little tiresome, just because that's outside of my realm of interest, though it was obviously an area that needed to be addressed given the book's thesis. Overall, Dunn's writing style was very readable and certainly not overly technical, so I'd recommend this to anyone even casually interested in natural history or biology.
]]> <![CDATA[The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay]]> 8700678 A tale of two sisters over seventy years that recovers the vibrant and unforgettable voice of Beverly Jensen In 1916, Idella and Avis Hillock live on the edge of a chilly bluff in New Brunswick-a hardscrabble world of potato farms and lobster traps, rough men, hard work, and baffling beauty. From "Gone," the heartbreaking story of their mother's medical crisis in childbirth, to the darkly comic "Wake," which follows the grown siblings' catastrophic efforts to escort their father, "Wild Bill" Hillock's body to his funeral, the stories of Idella and Avis offer a compelling and wry vision of two remarkable women. The vivid cast includes Idella's philandering husband Edward, her bewilderingly difficult mother-in-law- and Avis, whose serial romantic disasters never quell her irrepressible spirit. Jensen's work evokes a time gone by and reads like an instant American classic. Beverly Jensen died of cancer at the age of forty-nine without publishing her work. Since her death, her fiction has been championed by a dedicated group of supporters, including Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates.]]> 321 Beverly Jensen 1101190248 Susan 3 3.62 2010 The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay
author: Beverly Jensen
name: Susan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2010/09/08
date added: 2010/09/11
shelves:
review:
I thought this was a nice little character-driven book and an enjoyable read. The last quarter to third of the book was a little "clunky" for me, especially with the introduction out of nowhere of a possible deep family "secret" that is, of course, quickly and appropriately resolved. There was a really lovely section involving an attempted robbery at the store of one of the main characters, which I will likely remember for quite a while.
]]> <![CDATA[Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)]]> 7108001 Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.]]> 336 Seth Grahame-Smith 0446563080 Susan 4 It should be noted that I used this to cleanse my palate after reading one of the most godawful books I've read in a while, so perhaps I'm a little overenthusiastic.]]> 3.72 2010 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)
author: Seth Grahame-Smith
name: Susan
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2010/09/07
date added: 2010/09/11
shelves:
review:
A quick read and just fun. Everything about this is fun. The mere existence of the footnotes-- used in great moderation, which made them all the more ridiculous when used-- cracked me up. The concept is kind of clever, but I suppose now there's a glut of this type of thing out there thanks to this and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
It should be noted that I used this to cleanse my palate after reading one of the most godawful books I've read in a while, so perhaps I'm a little overenthusiastic.
]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Susan 5 The whole 50th anniversary thing has been pretty incessant this year, but I put off re-reading it all summer until I had the time to savor and enjoy it. ]]> 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Susan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/08
date added: 2010/09/11
shelves:
review:
This is one of my favorites since I was "forced" to read it in high school. I usually found the required reading for English class pretty burdensome, even though I have always loved reading. I think a lot of people had that experience. This, along with Wuthering Heights, were two books that surprised me, in that I really really just loved them and discovered that "literature" could be enjoyable and beautiful. In fact, the copy I have is one that was, ahem, lost when it came time to turn in our book at the end of the semester.
The whole 50th anniversary thing has been pretty incessant this year, but I put off re-reading it all summer until I had the time to savor and enjoy it.
]]> The Eight (The Eight, #1) 113310 598 Katherine Neville 0345366239 Susan 1 A friend recommended this-- a friend that rarely steers me wrong-- as a good beach read. However, the torture of reading this book produced at one little black cloud (i.e., the one over my head) for a day or two at the Outer Banks this week.
In short, I guess you could say that I did not care for this and would not recommend it.]]> 3.94 1988 The Eight (The Eight, #1)
author: Katherine Neville
name: Susan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1988
rating: 1
read at: 2010/09/06
date added: 2010/09/11
shelves:
review:
The only book I can remember hating as much or more than this is that goddamn piece of trash, waste of paper, and rape of the English language that is Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. Man, that was a really bad book. This one isn't quite that god-awful-- the writing is slightly better-- but for me, I was an insanely angry and irritated reader when I FINALLY finished plowing through it. It has been compared to Umberto Eco (whose Name of the Rose IS a great beach read), but damn, that's a pretty big insult to Eco. Maybe it's just because I don't get the chess themes of it? But, themes or no, it's a hugely bloated novel, and that alone pisses me off. Where was their editor??
A friend recommended this-- a friend that rarely steers me wrong-- as a good beach read. However, the torture of reading this book produced at one little black cloud (i.e., the one over my head) for a day or two at the Outer Banks this week.
In short, I guess you could say that I did not care for this and would not recommend it.
]]> The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 11273 609 Haruki Murakami 1860465811 Susan 5 Unfortunately, for me, that magical ecstasy wasn't quite sustained through to the end of the book, but I'm going to blame that on having my marathon reading session interrupted by coming down with a stupid cold. Damn those little viruses.]]> 4.17 1994 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Susan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2010/09/11
date added: 2010/09/11
shelves:
review:
Amazing. It's been a long time since I've felt myself drawn into the reader's ecstasy that I keep seeking. Once into the third section, I found myself in that particular state of mind (or perhaps it's a lack of a state of mind) where all the disparate, wonderful things in the book were finally coming together into one cohesive whole, but without force and as just, well, a very organic experience. How the hell do writers do that? This will not be the last that I read of Murakami, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, for me, that magical ecstasy wasn't quite sustained through to the end of the book, but I'm going to blame that on having my marathon reading session interrupted by coming down with a stupid cold. Damn those little viruses.
]]> Elective Affinities 128837 Elective Affinities was written when Goethe was sixty and long established as Germany's literary giant. This is a new edition of his penetrating study of marriage and passion, bringing together four people in an inexorable manner. The novel asks whether we have free will or not and confronts its characters with the monstrous consequences of repressing what little "real life" they have in themselves, a life so far removed from their natural states that it appears to them as something terrible and destructive.]]> 272 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 0192837761 Susan 0 to-read 3.81 1809 Elective Affinities
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Susan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1809
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>