I enjoy books that start out sad and improve over time. I like to see characters progress. This book shows change with the main character, Violet. Violet definitely progresses from her unfortunate childhood to her fairly normal adulthood. You see a lot of growth with several of the characters. I will be looking for more by Lorna Landvik because her writing style is poetic--but not to the point of being impractical. Oh My Stars makes you think without messing with your brain.

How to Murder a Millionaire

This is yet another very light, requires no actual thinking book. Quite enjoyable if that is what you are looking for. This is very fun and has really good characters. They are not as predictable as characters in this kind of book usually are and they are very funny. Also, there are great clothes in them. If I can't actually afford to wear fabulous clothes the next best thing is reading about wearing them. I read through all of the books that have been written so far in this series and there are several issues that remain throughout and so far have not been solved. I won't tell you what the main unsolved problem is, but I like that it is still there. It makes for a little suspense in the series. Of course they are murder mysteries and have suspense because of the murderer in each book, but they aren't really about that.

My Life in France

So you can shelve this book under the topic of books which make you want to move to France. As if you need more books in this section of your library!

I also got this for xmas and it is a book you can disappear into. Grandma recommended it to me.

Very, Very good!

d

MarJane Satrapi

Alright, so the holidays are over, but I'm enjoying a quiet three day weekend and considering the books I read over the break. AJ gave me this one for xmas and if you haven't read any Marjane Satrapi, you should rush out and get "Persepolis"!

They are all graphic novels and the stories and the pictures work very well together. Satrapi tells a great story mostly from her or her family's point of view in Iran. I haven't read "Embroideries", about her life in France, but it's on my list.

I recommend Chicken with Plums (a story about her uncle), but you shouldn't start with it. Start with "Persepolis".

d

I Need More to Read!: Zorro

I Need More to Read!: Zorro

Zorro

This is the first time I have posted! I thought that I should pick up the slack since everyone else seems to be working or something. I start school next week so then my fun reading time will go away, but in the meantime I finished a book (a rarity these days). This book was a recommendation from Cali and it was a fun and easy read. I enjoy adventure books and so if you do as well I think you will enjoy this one. It's got sword fighting, pirates, gypsies, catholics, and of course a love story (but not what I expected). There is also some historical background presented and it was interesting to read this author's tale of how Zorro came to be. Hope you all are doing well.

Jeremy

Peter and the Starcatchers

For those of you who don't know, just walking into a bookstore allows you one guilt-free book purchase. Just one. All the rest you buy are very bad, but one is completely acceptable. Anyway, Mom visited and can I help it if she needed to go to Borders? I finally was able to get Peter and the Starcatchers, which I have been looking at for a while. It was co-authored by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, so it sounded awesome. Well, it lived up to the hype. It is a good read.

Actually, I think that a prequel to Peter Pan was a long time coming. There are a lot of holes in the Peter story that I have always been curious about. How did Peter end up the way he is? Why can he talk to mermaids? What really did happen with Hook's hand? Where did tinkerbell come from? Somebody else must have been curious also. The style is also pretty funny, very similar to Dave Barry's "Big Trouble".

Here's an excerpt from the chapter when you meet Black Stache--or you know him better as Captain Hook:

"The crew of the Sea Devil understood: If Black Stache laughed, you laughed. If he snarled, you snarled. If he breathed in your direction, you ran for cover. "Ratbreath," his sailors called him behind his back. It was said that he liked to eat his vermin raw with a touch of sea salt."

The Sex Lives of Cannibals

I tore through this book. I really like the author and I will try to get his next book, "Getting Stoned with Savages." If you ever had an inclination to chuck it all and move to a very small island in the South Pacific, this is the book for you!

He also has ingenious titles to his chapters, such as:
"Chapter 2: In which the Author reveals the Fruit of his Research into the Strange Island Nation he has declared his new Home (which leaves much unknown), compensates for his Ignorance with his Lively Imagination (which is inadequate, very much so), and Packs (inappropriately)."

Therein lies:

"To picture Kiribati, imagine that the continental U.S. were to conveniently disappear leaving only Baltimore and a vast swath of very blue ocean in its place. Now chop up Baltimore into thirty-three pieces, place a neighborhood where Maine used to be, another where California once was, and so un until you have thirty-three pieces of Baltimore dispersed in such a way so as
to ensure that 32/33 of Baltimorians will never attend an Orioles game again. Now take away electricity, running water, toilets, television, restaurants, buildings, and airplanes (except for two very old prop planes, tended by people who have no word for "maintenance"). Replace with
thatch. Flatten all land into a uniform two fee above sea level. Toy with islands by melting polar ice caps. Add palm trees. Sprinkle with hepatitis A, B, and C. Stir in dengue fever and intestinal
parasites. Take away doctors. Isolate and bake at a constant temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The result is the Republic of Kiribati."

Enjoy!

d

Julie & Julia

How appropriate of me to write a blog entry about a book, based on a blog.

From http://www.twbookmark.com/: "Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year."

So some parts of this are really good, some parts are really funny, some parts made my stomach hurt (September 11 in NYC). It is, like a blog, kind of spotty and not always consistent in tone. Also, sometimes she is a little too forthcoming in her personal life. Sometimes a reader would like a little censorship. That, too, is like a blog - it's the first draft of the first thought in your head.

Over all, this is a book I have been circling for a while and I finally pulled it of the shelf at the library. I enjoyed it and recommend it for a quick and easy read.

d

Oliver Sacks

Ok, I think everyone already read this book. But, I just finished "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and it's really good. It can get a little 'sciency', but they are clinical tales, so you should know what you are getting yourself into.

Oliver Sacks also wrote the "Oaxaca Journal"

In the mean time, I also read some terribly boring books on food that I won't burden you with at this time. Tonight I'm going to the lib to get a book on cd of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."

Enjoy your weekend!

d