Friday, May 21, 2010

The King's Rose; Bite Me; The Way I See It; The Bedwetter; Paul and Me

Okay, first up "The King's Rose" by Alisa M. Libby, a tepid YA novel about the life of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good or interesting. Sort of forgettable, like little Catherine herself.
"Bite Me" by Christopher Moore was pretty funny: vampires in San Francisco. The characters were funny and well written, and I enjoyed the way he switched voices and perspectives throughout the novel. I was very glad he didn't voice the whole thing in Abby's voice, because that would have made me quit reading the book early on. A little of her slang goes a long way.
Melissa Anderson, otherwise known as Melissa Sue Anderson, who played too-good-to-be-true older sister Mary on TV's "Little House on the Prairie", penned a memoir of her life on the show in "The Way I See It". It wasn't a bad book, just kind of dull and very, very vanilla. The worst trouble Melissa and her teenage friends got into was not pulling over for a cop after running a stop sign. Well, I guess it's good that not every child actor in Hollywood did drugs and slept around, but it sure doesn't make for an interesting story when they didn't!
"The Bedwetter" is Sarah Silverman's autobiography. I've never seen her show, a coworker recommended it to me. It was fairly funny and she seemed very real and self-aware and able to laugh at herself, which are all nice qualities in people. It was entertaining enough to hold my interest.
And lastly, A. E. Hotchner chronicles his lifelong friendship with Paul Newman in "Paul and Me". It was a worthy tribute to a great man, very touching. I teared up more than once, but Hotchner was never sappy or sentimental. He obviously cared very much about Paul and valued their friendship and business collaboration on "Newman's Own", and that came through in a beautiful way.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: the Graphic Novel

Graphic adaptation by Tony Lee and Cliff Richards. I thought Lee did a good job of paring the story down while still keeping the fun tongue in cheek elements, but Richards' artwork seemed fuzzy and slapdash. I would have preferred something a bit sharper and of course, color would have been excellent.

Spoken from the Heart; Darkness; Mouse Guard Fall 1152; the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

I'm falling behind again. What can I say? Things happen.
Moving on. "Spoken from the Heart" by former first lady Laura Bush was a very enjoyable autobiography, although I did find her mother bear defending her cubs type of tone when talking about her husband a bit tiresome. I totally understand why she feels the need to defend him, and I think their love for each other is amazing and special, but I also think that most people open minded enough to read her book are not going to be that insanely critical of former president Bush. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but at any rate, I found her to be a warm and personable author and I enjoyed hearing about her perspective on her years in the White House. The time after 9/11 was especially terrifying. I can't imagine how awful it must have been to have been living through that kind of high alert.
"Darkness" was a collection of not very good short stories edited by Ellen Datlow. I'm just not a big short stories person, and none of them were really all that memorable, except for the one by Stephen King, which I of course had read before.
"Mouse Guard Fall 1152" is a graphic novel by David Peterson. I wasn't terribly impressed by this one. The artwork was nice, but the story was so thin and juvenile compared to the other graphic novels I've been reading lately. It only took me 20 minutes to get through it. I know I read fast, but c'mon. I gotta have a little more substance than that. And the little mice as the heroes just didn't cut it with me. Although it was funny to see them battle a snake and some lobsters.
Rebecca Skloot's "Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" was amazing. Henrietta died in 1951 from cervical cancer. Before she died, doctors biopsied and saved a piece of the tumor growing in her, and it began to grow and divided, and her cells haven't stopped growing and dividing since, the first cells scientists were ever able to keep alive for so long. Her cells have been used all over the world to find cures for diseases and study how cells form, grow, change, react to certain toxins and outside influences, etc. It's impossible to calculate just how much advancement has been made in the field of medicine based on Henrietta's cells. Absolutely, utterly fascinating, and not the least bit over my head with the medical jargon, which is usually hard to comprehend.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Dawn of the Dreadfuls; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The Sandman Vols. 1 and 2; The Sound and the Fury

Okay, I'm two weeks behind because I suck, what can I say.
"Dawn of the Dreadfuls" by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahame-Smith (which I promptly reread after reading Dreadfuls). Hockensmith told how the Bennet sisters became zombie hunters. He didn't follow what Grahame-Smith had set up in PP&Z, like the girls going to the Orient to get their training, but it was still entertaining. And then I reread PP&Z and caught a lot of the jokes I had missed the first time around.
Then I read volumes one and two of the "Sandman" graphic novels by Neil Gaimen. I didn't care too much for the first one, "Prelude and Nocturnes". It was kind of slow and seemed disjointed. The second one, "The Doll's House", was a bit better. The story seems to be picking up a bit. We'll see how the rest of the series goes. The artwork was nice, it reminded me of the old "Tales from the Crypt" comics I used to read as a kid.
And then I reread William Faulkner's brilliant, shining "The Sound and the Fury". Every time I reread it I love it more. I was tempted to try to go the Faulkner conference in Mississippi this July, but unfortunately I have a work obligation that I can't get out of. Disappointing. I'd love to see Faulkner's typewriter :)