Friday, January 30, 2009

Sing Them Home; Vampire Academy

"Sing them Home" by Stephanie Kallos was really good. I read her first book, "Broken For You", back in November of 2006 and was very impressed by it, so I was excited to hear she had another book coming out and it did not disappoint. Her descriptions are so beautifully written it's almost like reading poetry, and normally I'm not a big fan of long, descriptive paragraphs (unless it's Faulkner, then I can handle it, I don't know why!). Anyway, this book takes place in a small town in Nebraska that has held onto its Welsh roots. Three siblings whose mother disappeared during a hurricane twenty some odd years earlier are brought together again after the sudden death of their father, and this serves as a catalyst for some amazing life changes for all three. I'll definitely read this one again someday.
"Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead was a recommendation from my friend Christina, who is quite possibly a bigger fan of "Twilight" than I am (if such a creature exists)! I was actually pretty pleased with this book: it was funny and the characters seemed real and likable. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next two to be turned in so I can read them next. I would definitely read this again someday.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Las Vegas Noir; Eleanor Rigby

"Las Vegas Noir" was a collection of short stories edited by Janet Keene and Todd James Pierce. Normally I don't like short stories, but I couldn't resist a collection set in my favorite city. However, I should have gone with my first instinct: most of these stories were mediocre at best, some were downright awful, just contrived and unbelievable and silly. Only one really stood out as being good, and that was "Crip" by Preston L. Allen, about a guy who dies protecting a little girl from an outraged casino boss. Lesson to self: just because it's set in Vegas doesn't make it cool. I definitely won't ever read this one again.
"Eleanor Rigby" by Douglas Coupland was very good. I really enjoyed it. It seemed like it was going to be sad and depressing, and if Stephen King were writing it, it would have ended differently, but Coupland gave it an upbeat, hopeful ending that made me feel good. It's about a lonely 36 year old woman who has no life. She has no friends, doesn't date, her own family doesn't really care about her. She does have one big secret: on a school trip to Italy when she was sixteen, she got pregnant (although she was drunk and blacked out and didn't remember the conception--how sad!) and after her son was born she put him up for adoption. Twenty years later he finds her, but she only gets to spend four months with him before he dies from complications due to his MS. Seven years after his death, she is reunited with his father and they connect. Even though her life seemed utterly depressing, Liz remained pretty content, not upbeat, but content, which was interesting. I'll probably read this one again.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Tweak; Petals on the Wind

I've wanted to read Nic Sheff's "Tweak" ever since I read his dad's version of events back in August. It wasn't actually as whiny as I'd expected, but it was very hard for me to read. I wanted to strangle him. You could see when he was about to make a horrible mistake in his life, and he would even say he knew he was making a mistake, but that didn't stop him. Damn drug addicts. Still, I wanted to understand why someone would ever want to be a drug addict. I still don't understand, but I don't think I ever will. I probably won't ever read this one again, but it was pretty decent the first time.
"Petals on the Wind" by V.C. Andrews is another reread and the sequel to "Flowers in the Attic". It wasn't as good: there were some glaringly obvious errors that bothered me, like describing a woman in the 1940s as being on birth control pills (um, hello? 30 years too early, maybe?). I still cried when Carrie killed herself. Very sad. Of course I'll reread it again someday. I've been rereading V.C. Andrews for 20 years now.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Eli Manning: the Making of a Quarterback; I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell; Zombie; Leaving Las Vegas

"Eli Manning" by Ralph Vacchiano wasn't nearly as good as I'd hoped. I love my football books, and I love Eli and brother Peyton, but it was obvious this author had no love for Brett Favre and that just ticked me off. The book wasn't very coherently put together. The only thing I really liked was the very nicely written account of last year's Super Bowl. I do, however, believe that Eli will someday be greater than Peyton. I definitely won't ever read it again, and it really almost wasn't worth it the first time around. At least it was a quick read, so I didn't waste too much time.
"I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max was hilarious. Tucker has made himself famous for being morally reprehensible, and it's amazing how little shame this man has. All told, though, it's a laugh riot, if you're not too disgusted by it. I'll probably read it again someday. I think his friend SlingBlade sounds even funnier than Tucker is.
"Zombie" by Joyce Carol Oates was her take on getting into the mind of a serial killer. It was totally disturbing and very good. This is only the second book of hers that I have read, but I'm eager to read more. She's a really amazing writer. The other book I read by her was "Blonde", a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe, and it's astounding to me that they were both written by the same woman, they're so completely different. I'll probably read it again someday.
Finally, "Leaving Las Vegas" by John O'Brien was hauntingly sad. O'Brien committed suicide after learning his novel was going to be made into a movie, and it's too bad, because I thought the movie was pretty good. Knowing that he killed himself after writing it made it that much harder to read, but in a good way. I'll probably read it again someday.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Case of the Fenced in Woman; Flowers in the Attic; Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die

A new Perry Mason I hadn't read yet: "The Case of the Fenced In Woman" by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was pretty good. It had an amazingly interesting premise: a man named Carson sells a plot of land to a man named Eden and starts to build him a house on it. Then Eden finds out that part of the land belongs to Carson's wife, who is divorcing him, and wants Eden to stop building on her land. Carson assures Eden that he's got so much dirt on his wife that it won't be a problem, so Eden keeps building. After the house is finished, it turns out Carson's dirt was on the wrong woman, and his wife brings a contractor over and builds a barbed wire fence right down the middle of the house and pool out back, on the property line, and moves into her half of the house! She wants to provoke Eden and make his life hell, so he will in turn make her ex-husband's life hell. When Carson turns up dead next to the pool, the list of suspects gets long very quickly, with Eden and Carson's ex-wife right at the top. The best part of the story (and this is why I love Perry Mason: it's so damned improbable) was how many naked or nearly naked women ended up in that pool on the day Carson died. I imagine it must have looked like the Playboy Mansion over there! I'll definitely reread it again some day.
"Flowers in the Attic" by V.C. Andrews was a reread, one I've read a hundred times before. I always thought of it as lighthearted trash, but it was actually a lot better than I remembered it to be. I actually cried at some parts. I can't imagine anyone not knowing the plot, but here goes: Chris, Cathy, Carrie, and Cory are four adorable little children with loving parents when their father is killed in a car accident. Their pretty, helpless mother, Corrine, decides to take them back to their ancestral home, Foxworth Hall, where she can beg forgiveness of her father, who disowned her when she eloped with her half-uncle fifteen years earlier (and later, in the prequel "Garden of Shadows", we find out that he wasn't her half-uncle, but actually her half-brother, but they never knew that). Until she has won back her father's love, she and her mother hide the children in a little room at one end of the great house, and let them have the run of the attic. Corrine tells them it will only be for a few days, until she can bring them down to meet their grandfather. Those few days stretch into three and half years, until Chris and Cathy finally take matters into their own hands and escape. A lot of stuff is going on in this book, and I really enjoyed rereading it. It was one that Andrews herself actually wrote, before she died and a ghostwriter took over her name and started churning out lesser quality stuff. Not like this is great literature or anything, but it's fun. I'll definitely reread it again someday.
"Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die" is the second Rat Pack mystery by Robert J. Randisi. It's Vegas, 1960, and Frank, Dean, and the rest of the boys are back at the Sands for the premiere of their movie "Ocean's Eleven". Pit Boss Eddie G. steps in to help Frank find a girlfriend who's missing, Mary Clarke. Turns out Mary is also Mob Boss Sam Giancana's girlfriend. Mary and her sister, Lily, stole some money from Lily's boss, Vito, who stole it from MoMo. Stupid people. You don't steal from MoMo! Everyone finds out the hard way as bodies start piling up. It was pretty fun. I'll probably reread it again some day.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Eleven on Top; Green Bay Replay; Hail to the Chief

I haven't been reading as much as usual lately because I moved, and I'm still unpacking. Most of my books are now in boxes, which is very sad, but on the bright side I'm in a new library with a fabulous collection that might take me, oh, six months or so to exhaust :-)
"Eleven on Top" was of course another Stephanie Plum reread by Janet Evanovich, where Steph decides to quit the bounty hunter profession in a misguided attempt to normalize her life. It backfires miserably, of course, which is what makes the book so much fun. I'll definitely reread this one again, although I did leave all my Evanovich books with my mom, since she and I bought them together.
"Green Bay Replay" by Dick Schaap was a fascinating look at the parallels between the 1967 Green Bay Packers and the 1997 Pack. Both teams went to the Super Bowl and brought back fame and glory to Green Bay. It was wonderful to read about Brett Favre at his peak form, playing with Reggie White, Desmond Howard, Gilbert Brown, and all my old favorites I miss seeing. It reminded me of why I became a Packers fan to begin with, why I loved watching the green and gold on Sunday. I miss that, a lot. I probably won't ever read it again, but it was worth it the first go round.
"Hail to the Chief" by Ed McBain is an 87th precinct novel I hadn't read yet. It was pretty good, if a little too ironic for my taste. The 87th is dealing with a gang war, and the president of one gang is going around killing everyone in sight to try to make peace happen (the book was written in 1973, during the Vietnam War, do you see the irony?). The ending has the detectives pondering that there are much more evil influences to corrupt kids and make them violent besides the television (there is a rather forced, tacked on bit about a reporter who is writing about the effects of violent television on children). They are of course talking about the people in charge, the "president". It was pretty good, not one of his best, since we know right from the start who the killer was, it was just McBain's chance for social commentary loosely disguised as fiction. I'll probably read it again, just because I always reread the 87th novels whenever the mood strikes.