Larocque and Roll

My decorating scheme needs work June 11, 2008

I finally managed to unearth my book notebook, and was pleased to discover it wasn’t as far behind as I’d feared. It was under a stack of books in my office, and now it’s sitting on one of the many stacks of books on my dining room table. There’s something comforting about having stacks of books randomly scattered around the house, especially if they haven’t been read yet because it gives me something to look forward to reading.

~ Kwitney, Alyssa, On the Couch (4)
The reviews on the back of the book go on about how it was “kinky” and “erotic.” Really? That’s what passes for “kinky” and “erotic” these days? It was just kind of vanilla, and a mild version at that. It also had an abrupt ending and a series of frustrating, unanswered questions. And boring sex, which was the greatest crime of all.

~ Hiem, Scott, Mysterious Skin (6.5)
I seem to have read a lot of books where chapters alternate between different characters and different voices. In this book, I didn’t find it very effective because there wasn’t a lot of difference in the voices - they all sounded alike. That said, I still liked the book, what with the heartbreaking “alien abduction” and the tender finale.

~ Sloan, Brian, A Fine Prom Mess (7)
For days after I read this book, something about it nagged me until I finally figured it out. The crazy prom plot and all the wild and wacky things that occurred reminded me of an early Gordon Korman novel, except there was just one protagonist who embodied both the anarchist and the uptight characters of the Korman buddy novels. Even though it was pretty implausible, it was still fun.

~ Dessen, Sarah, Lock and Key (7)
I still don’t know how I feel about this one. On one hand, it broke out of the happily-ever-after endings I’m used to, and the male protagonist was just as flawed as the female protagonist. On the other hand, the overall story was much darker than normal - child abandonment, abusive parents, alcoholism and casual drug use.

~ Peters, Julie Anne, Luna (5)
God, this book was stressful to read. There were many times where I’d put the book down and walk away because I didn’t want to know what happened next. And then I’d pick it up, read a few pages, and put it down again. The narrator, the sister of the titular “Luna,” was the most stressed-out person in literature, which is understandable considering her brother is transgender and hiding it from their parents, who are complete assholes.

All I ever think about are books books books May 14, 2008

So true.

Today when I got to work, a book I’d had on reserve for three weeks (or so) was waiting for me at my desk. I all but threw aside the book I started reading this morning to fill the gaping void left by my want… nay, need to read this other book. I’m not too proud to admit that I spent a goodly portion of my day and all of my lunch hour devouring this book, snatching greedy moments to read a few more pages. When I got home, I dropped my purse and bag and sat down in the first chair I passed to finish reading it [1].

The whole time I was doing this, I felt like a glutton, gobbling up chunks of the story; I realized that I can be a very selfish reader and woe unto s/he who comes between me and a book I’m reading that I really like - my enjoyment of a book comes first and everything else comes a distant second. I will ignore you, along with many other things, to reread clever passages, humourous moments or all the times the protagonist and their One True Love exchange meaningful dialogue. Deep, deep down, I’m a hopeless romantic in a tiny corner of the shriveled appendage that passes for my heart.

Moving on… here’s what I read in April. When I looked back to see what I read before my 9-book marathon, I was surprised that I’d read a few. But not at all surprised that I’d forgotten most of them.

Leslie Marshall, A Girl Could Stand Up (6)
What this book really boiled down to was that families come in all shapes and sizes. No matter how weird your relatives are, it doesn’t stop them from sometimes having a profound effect on our lives, especially if they really care about you, and you care about them. It’s also about how families aren’t always about what we’re born into, they’re sometimes what we make.

Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus! (8)
Colour me surprised - I really, really liked this book about a school shooting and its aftermath. It was funny in a sorrowful way, and also about all the ways hope and faith can save us. I think the part I loved the most were Jason and Heather’s little characters that acted as a creative outlet for them, as well as an emotional outlet for Jason.

Terry Pratchett, Pyramids (6)
Colour me surprised again - I didn’t really enjoy this book. It’s one of his earlier ones, and is focused more on the hocus-pocus than it is on the metaphor.

Christopher Buckley, Florence of Arabia (3)
Oh, I wanted to like this book. It seemed sort of silly and had the potential to be a lightweight sort of read, but then it started taking itself seriously, and then the shooting started and nothing made sense anymore. Also, I wasn’t sure what political lesson I was supposed to take away from it, because there was a Political Lesson You Must Learn About The Middle East and it wasn’t all that clear. [2]

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (2)
When I told my friend Lise what I was reading for book club, she confessed that she’d read this one back-to-back with Angela’s Ashes last year [3]. Fortunately, I only had to read half of that double-header - I KNOW it’s representative of a Certain Place and a Certain Time. I KNOW that various characters were just being realistic and not really cruel. I KNOW that the prejudices were a product of the time and oh, isn’t it dandy that we live in such enlightened times? But it doesn’t change the fact I thought it was unrelentingly depressing and negative - it’s not enough that this girl grows up in poverty and that her mother is a misogynist, it’s also that any time anyone thinks about doing something kind for them they immediately start second-guessing themselves and change their minds (”kindness will make them weak!”) This is my mother’s favourite book, and my reaction is the same as when we had to read Wuthering Heights for a book club many years ago [3.5] - really? No, REALLY?

Suzanne Brockmann, The Troubleshooters Inc. series (9)
‘Way back in December, one day while I was covering the circ desk in my department, someone came up and dropped a couple of talking books on MP3 at the counter and said she’d be right back. I picked up the case for the one on top, and thought, “Oh, it’s part of a series about Navy SEALs and other ass-kicking types, and this is the ‘Christmas’ story [4]. How twee.” Flipping it over, I started reading the back, which starts out with your usual “Jules and Robin are getting married, and then Jules has to go kick someone’s ass overseas, blah blah blah…” and as I was about to put it back I caught the phrase “their mutual ex-boyfriend.”

WAIT, WHAT? Let me see if I understand this correctly: someone has written a series about a group of people who regularly kick terrorist ass, break up spy rings and rescue hostages, and one of them is gay? And not the heroine’s best friend who simpers and stereotypes his way through the book? And can regularly out-think and out-kick the hetro guys? AND is getting married to another guy? Wow. Where do I start reading? [5]

It took me a while to get around to it because, to be honest, not only did I forget the author’s name, I also forgot the name of the book. DUH. Then about a month ago, it passed over the counter again, and it triggered an “oh yeah!” and I found out that my library has all but one of the books in the series. In what can only be described as something akin to what alcoholics experience when they binge drink and lose chunks of time to blackouts, I read nine of the books in the series in two weeks, two more in the following week, and the last one I finished tonight (the 12th book in the series).

I can’t even begin to figure out how I got hooked on them in the first place. Normally, my Rational Self starts reading something like this, and starts huffing about how it’s so unrealistic and implausible, and how she can’t suspend my disbelief long enough to finish the book, let alone the first ten pages. Sometimes, though, my Irrational Self - the hopeless romantic who believes that maybe somewhere out there things like this really could happen - starts reading over Rational Self’s shoulder and sees something she likes. In this case, it appears as if my Irrational Self not only took over to finish reading all the books in the series, it actually beat up my Rational Self and locked her in the bathroom while doing so.

Sometimes, there is no other way to explain why or how, other than to say I just dug it.

[1] To be fair, it’s not a long book. Under 300 pages and hardcover, which = less than 3 hours to read for me.
[2] The note I made for myself reads “eye-rollingly annoying.”
[3] I can’t be certain, but I think this qualifies her for a free pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a bottle of tequila because there isn’t a more depressing combo out there.
[3.5] Being far younger than everyone else (like, by 30 years), all the other people in the group had read it as a great romantic novel. I read it as some creepy, abusive stalker who was obsessed with some flaky twit, and failed to see the romance. What can I say - sometimes I’m a little cynical.
[4] I also made a vague note to check and see if we had the rest of the series on any audio-book format, and it turns out we don’t. Still don’t, for that matter, because I haven’t had a lot of time to look.
[5] The first person to suggest “at the beginning” wins nothing.

Excuses are for the weak May 4, 2008

I sat down to write about my April reads, and then realized it’s going to take longer than I thought, given that it’s almost 11pm, and I need to hit the hay half an hour ago. See, this week is all about travelling hither and yon [1] and while the vast majority of the packing got done this morning (yay me for being on top of that for once!) I had a few things in the laundry which need to be ironed. And guess what I haven’t done yet? Yeah. Maybe I’ll just shove it the suitcase and use the iron in the hotel room. That works for me.

I will give you a teaser though: in the first two weeks, I read four books. In the second two weeks, I read nine books (…really!) [2]. In the last week, I read one more and finished my book club book, which was a total drag.

Also of interest - I broke down and bought the Flight of the Conchords CD today, and it was totally worth it. And I met with some friends for coffee this afternoon, and three of us had knitting with us. The elderly couple at the table next to us were gobsmacked that us youngin’s was knittin’. Erin and I were working on socks, and Rosemary was working on a sweater.

Okay, must go locate blouse. And iron. And board.

[1] And I don’t know what the weather is like in either place, which made packing a bitch.
[2] Part of the reason I can’t do this tonight is that I have much to say about them, and it’s going to have to wait.

March Madness (con’t) April 10, 2008

Today at lunch, I was walking to the coffee shop trying to come up with a way to start off the second round of book reviews from March. I thought about telling you humorous library user tales (like the one about having a stapler thrown at me earlier this week [1]) but it wasn’t really enough to sustain a good introduction.

I get to the coffee shop, and the first thing I notice is all the people dressed in really sharp suits. Like, pinstripe-tailored-expensive looking suits. I’ve never seen that many people dressed that well in North Bay, let alone in one place, so I guessed there must be some kind of meeting going on. Turning to go to the counter, there’s a guy sitting at the table who looks awfully familiar, and he’s talking to four or five other people who are also sharply dressed. I glance away, thinking, “Naaaaaaaw.” I glance back. Yup, it’s Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario [3]. Sitting in my coffee shop. He was in town to make a funding announcement at the university, and he must have been meeting with some other supporters. Cool.

~ Lisa Lutz. The Spellman Files (7.5) and Curse of the Spellmans (7)
Two books about a family of private investigators - ostensibly they’re about solving a central mystery, but it’s really secondary to seeing how awesomely dysfunctional the family really is. (The mysteries never turn out to be very big or important or dangerous - they exist to demonstrate how the family operates - they reminded me of the Royal Tenenbaums.) I enjoyed how the story was broken down into reports and side-notes, but I can be anal and organized and found it helpful to keeping the various threads of the story straight. Warning: it’s not a linear story, so avoid if this might bug you.

~ Dave Bidini. The Five Hole Stories (6)
If I told you this was a book of hockey erotica, would you believe me? Would you read it? Eh. One point for each story, and an extra one for the thinly-veiled #99 fantasy.

~ Karen McCullah Lutz. The Bachelorette Party (8)
Basically I picked this one up because it was on the shelf beside the Lisa Lutz books, and I wasn’t expecting much at all. Much to my shock, I ended up loving it because it was funnier and smarter than I’d hoped. It’s not your typical chick lit, in that the heroine hooks up with the hot guy at the end - she *does* hook up with him, fully cognisant of the fact he’s unsuitable for her, and they part on good terms [4].

~ Max Brooks. World War Z (8)
Loved this book - the premise (zombies) and the execution (written as a series of survivor interviews in the aftermath) were well done. I gave it to my boss, and he loved it too. Except. When I finished reading it, I had trouble falling asleep for a few days, and still do if I’m tired - it sort of creeped me out. The one thing that stuck with me (and still keeps me awake) was the “moan chain” - if a zombie saw an uninfected person, they would moan, and all the zombies within hearing range would moan and then come to the first zombie, and then all the zombies that heard the second group would also moan and then go see what was up. And so on. Like I said, great book, but keeping it in the house was not a good idea - I would get the willies every time I looked at it (hence my giving it to my boss, who’s a big fan of horror.)

~ Gil Adamson. The Outlander (6)
Last night I was reading a review of this book, and it mentioned that the mother of the protagonist died of lupus. Try as I might, I can’t remember if it was ever mentioned how she died or what she died of, or even what her symptoms were, so I don’t know where they got that from. But that’s just a minor detail in the overall scheme of things. Reading it was like being back in high school, where you have to read stuff because it’s timeless and it’s good for you, gosh darn it, kind of like cod liver oil and confessing your sins to the priest before high holy days [5]. Given its locations, time, events, and cast of “characters,” it’s the quintessential Canadian novel, and reads like mental cheese-flavoured rice cakes - they’re kind of bland but with a hint of something and filling if you eat a whole bag of them, but ultimately don’t do much to satisfy your cravings for a good story.

~ Rachel Cohn. Cupcake (7)
Much better than the second book in the series, Shrimp. Cyd is slightly less obnoxious, definitely more mature, and certainly unchanged in the narcissist department. In the end, she FINALLY figured out she needs to go with what’s best for her, not what her libido wants.

That’s it for my March books. April is shaping up to be similar, although I’m stalled out on my (Sudbury) book club book. Gah.

[1] Well, tossed with prejudice across the counter at me.[2]
[2] Don’t let anyone tell you that working in a library is boring!
[3] Back in my politically annoying student days, I was a member of the Young Liberals, the youth wing of the party. As a member, I actually attended the leadership convention where he was elected head of the party. One of the best pictures I took that weekend was shortly after the announcement that he’d won, around 2am Sunday morning - he’s sitting on stage by himself looking slightly stunned and absurdly pleased.
[4] Which doesn’t normally happen in these types of books, so it was a refreshing change of pace.
[5] That had nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my emotionally scarred psyche.

March Madness April 9, 2008

My parents are coming up for a visit tomorrow. I was on the phone with my mother tonight, telling her that I’d almost finished cleaning the house. The last thing I had left to do was the sweeping, which takes less than 15 minutes but that I always leave until the last minute. “Oh, don’t worry about it,” says my mom. “It doesn’t really matter.”

No, I think I’m actually going to worry about it. There are dust bunnies under my dresser that have gone feral and are threatening Bing. There is enough human and cat hair to create some kind of hybrid were-feline. So I think that sweeping is pretty important, and that I should do it.

(And have done. It took 10 minutes. Bah!)

March was truly a mad month. I don’t know who put what in my coffee, but I read something like 13 books last month. I’d plow through one and immediately pick up the next one. Some were good, some were sublime, some were hard slogs that felt more like work than pleasure. The books in that last category made all the others worth it.

~ David Gunderson. Snow Falling on Cedars (6)
The pacing of this book is positively glacial - the cedars grew faster than the characters in this one. It felt like a homework assignment to read it, and reminded me of the Oates book in that respect. However, it was a beautiful story, and the locations sounded wild and lovely, the back story was both mythical and sorrowful, and the resolution was satisfying. I think this is going to be my first library book club book.[1]

~ Ellen Cook. Unpredictable (5)
The heroine of this book works in a book shop which can also special-order books for you, as well as providing research services, both for reasonable fees. Wow, that sounds an awful lot like… a library, where they do those things FOR FREE. I couldn’t get past this fact, so I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I could have (except for the adorable Scottish geek, who became the love interest. Le sigh.)

~ Rachel Cohn and David Levitan. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (9)
Oh, how I love this book. It’s the second time I’ve read it in two years [2]. It’s about two teenagers who meet randomly in a bar when one (Nick) asks the other (Norah) to pretend to be his girlfriend, and it alternates back and forth between the two. I was hooked from the line on the first page: “I am punctuating and I am punctured and I am punching the air with my body as my fingers press hard into the chords.” I seem to remember having gone to a concert around the same time I read this, and it having impacted on how I read that line, how it wasn’t just about listening to the music but also about feeling the music and being moved by the music.

~ Cohn and Levitan. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List (9)
There was a moment in this book - almost an aside - where they name-dropped the band or a club or something from the previous book, and it made me happy. I like continuity, and I like books that take place in the same fictional world as other books I’ve enjoyed. Like Nick and Norah, it’s written from different viewpoints, but because the characters and the story were more complicated, there were more viewpoints. It wasn’t as lyrical or seamless as N&N, but I really liked it, even though I sometimes wanted to smack Naomi (while somewhat sympathizing with her.) [3]

~ David Levitan. Boy Meets Boy (7)
It’s a very short book that feels like a Grateful Dead/Phish acid trip gone wholesome. Lots of weirdness, but weirdness you’d let your mother read (Hi Mom!). Its idealism is kind of cute - can you imagine going to a high school where the star quarterback is a drag queen? - but I’d still like to visit there.

~ Levitan. How They Met (8)
So… yeah. I went on a bit of a Levitan/Cohn binge this month (there was another Cohn towards the end of the month). This was a book of short stories about fly fishing in Argentina and cheese-making in Cape Verde, and there was absolutely nothing about chance encounters in airports, dance classes, hallways and coffee shops that lead to romance. Nothing at all.

Okay, this is running long, and it’s late and I want to be able to get up in the morning. I’ll continue this later.

[1] OH YES. I’m starting a monthly book club at the library in September. There’s going to be two sessions a month, both doing different books and then switching the following month. Because being the lead on several technology projects, on a conference planning committee, on an advisory panel, keeping various displays in the library up-to-date and participating in a virtual reference service in addition to the regular day-to-day stuff ISN’T ENOUGH TO KEEP ME FROM BEING BORED.

[2] According to my records.

[3] See, Naomi is in love with Ely, but despite the fact she knows he’s gay, keeps hoping that he’ll fall in love with her. In high school, about 2/3rds of the guys I developed crushes out turned out to have the same taste in men as I did, so I kind of know from where she’s coming. Although I never for one second ever believed that I could convert the objects of my misguided affections - my response was usually, “Oh… huh. I hadn’t noticed… anyways…” Yeah, I was kind of clueless.

Bookish in January and February March 2, 2008

I was surprised to discover that I forgot to post my January reads. Well, maybe not surprised - February was an insane month, and if I missed stuff it was because other stuff jumped up in my face and made me forget the other stuff. Or something like that… the metaphor is kind of tortured.

Anyhoodle - on with the reads for the past two months!

~ Willig, Lauren. The Emerald Deception (6.5)
More serious, less frivolousness than the other books. However, there was a couple of Monty Python references that cracked me up.

~Cruise, Jennifer and Bob Mayer. Agnes and the Hitman (3)
Highly implausible, too many plots to keep straight. Didn’t really like any of the characters.

~ Moore, Alan. Lost Girls (7)
For all the controversy about this book, it was not as bad as I was expecting. The art was not excessively detailed, yet very colourful.

~ Gabaldon, Diana. Lord John and the Hands of Devils (7)
Basically, it was three novellas featuring Lord John. It was well-written although not as compelling at Brotherhood of the Blade (probably because it was three stories, not one. Wait, I already said that…)

~ Rice, Christopher. Blind Fall (8)
This one was an ARC left on the staffroom table [1], and which I snapped up. Pretty good overall - it explored a number of overlapping issues which got confusing at times, and there was a little too much dialogue, but otherwise a good read.

~ Vizzini, Ned. It’s Kind of A Funny Story (8)
An unusual story about a teenager who institutionalizes himself when he seriously begins to contemplate suicide. What was usual about is was that the parents and family were incredibly supportive of his decisions, and that he knew he needed help and wanted to get better. It’s one of the better Young Adult novels I’ve read in a while.

~ Juby, Susan. Another Kind of Cowboy (6.5)
My horse-obsessive days are long behind me, so it was kind of hard to work up any kind of enthusiasm for this horse-themed YA novel. However, while I found the plot somewhat predictable, it was still a far cry better than a lot of the horsey books I read in my youth because the characters were more realistic, the situations were appropriate to teenagers, and the ending was slightly bittersweet.

~ Dessen, Sarah. This Lullaby, Just Listen and The Truth About Forever (8)
All comfort rereads, which I should do more of when I’m stressed out.

~ Bourdain, Anthony. Gone Bamboo (7)
Surprisingly good fiction from someone who’s known for their non-fiction. Well-paced, lots of action, and of course, lots of food described.

~ Oats, Joyce Carol. Middle Age: A Romance (6)
This one took me at least three weeks to read, and if I hadn’t felt like I needed to finish this book I probably would have abandoned it after the first few days. I slogged through long, melodramatic passages about self-absorbed, upper-class white people moping about the death of a man they really didn’t know very well. Then about halfway through the book, I asked the person who gave it to me if I was supposed to read this as a genuinely sad story, or if it was a parody. Once we decided that she was probably making fun of these people and their self-absorption, it went a lot faster. My final assessment is that it would make a great book club book, but not for mine [2].

~ Krum, Sharon. The Thing About Jane Spring (4)
The whole time I read this, I wasn’t sure if it was a thinly veiled dig at feminism. At any rate, it was a nice palate-cleanser after the heaviness of the Oats book.

Right now, I’m stuck in the middle of Snow Falling on Cedars. I should’ve held off reading this until I’d read a few more fluffy books because it feels like a reading assignment as opposed to a recreational read. However, since I’m auditioning it for book club I should at least get through it before moving on.

[1] Just one of the many bonuses of working at the library - advanced reader’s copies of upcoming books!
[2] I’m starting a book club at my library, which will commence in the fall, or whenever stuff stops breaking down that needs to be fixed ASAP and I can get the materials together.

The year in books, Part 2 January 4, 2008

Last year, I read 74 books, only three of which were non-fiction. That surprises me - I thought I’d read more than that. The year before, I’m almost certain I did. Anyways, here’s my list of the most notable books for one reason or another.

Best Food Book
It’s a tie between Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma (May), Rudolph Chelminski’s The Perfectionist (October), and Timothy Taylor’s Stanley Park (September)

Best Canadian Book
A tough call, but it’s a tie between Taylor and Jeffery Moore’s The Memory Artist (May)

Best Young Adult Book
I want to say Rachel Cohen and David Levitan’s Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, but that was last year’s book. So, for this year, I’d have to say John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines (March).

Biggest Surprises (in terms of better than I was expecting)
Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. Stephen Fry’s The Liar (September). Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (May). Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother (June).

Book Which Made Me Feel Stupider For Having Read It
Sophie Kinsella, Can You Keep a Secret? (February)

Most Improved Author
Christopher Rice - I was pleasantly surprised by Light Before Day (February) because the last book of his I read was terrible.

Most Likely to be Reread This Year
Anything by Christopher Moore or Tanya Huff.

Author Who I Keep Forgetting to Write Down
For some reason, whenever I read Meg Cabot, I forget to write it down and then months later I can’t remember the title of whatever it was I read. This happened twice this year - Queen of Babel and Size 14 Is Not Fat Either - and a couple of times the year before.

Best Book Overall
I honestly don’t know.

The year in books, Part 1 January 2, 2008

…And December reads! Actually, I’ll do that first. It was a pretty good month, what with the holidays and reading on the train home and back.

~ Cruisie, Jennifer and Bob Myer. Don’t Look Down (2)
I think I finished this one out of boredom. Not much to recommend about it.

~ Findley, Timothy. Not Wanted on the Voyage (6.5) (Canada Reads Book #1)
When I started reading this one, I would complain loud and long to anyone who stood still long enough about how much I hated some of the characters. They were pushovers! They were megalomaniacs! They were passive aggressive! And Yahweh chose them to repopulate the earth after the flood? The thing is, it’s been almost four weeks since I finished it, and yet it’s still in the forefront of my mind. That said, I liked the writing, and the overall story was gripping, keeping me guessing until the end. It’s a good example of the difference between not liking the characters and/or the plot, and not liking the writing - when it’s the latter, you don’t feel bad about putting the book down and finding something else to do or read.

~ Hopkinson, Nalo. Brown Girl in the Ring (3) (Canada Reads Book #2)
Boring - I felt nothing for the characters, and the plot was not very engaging. The colloquialisms didn’t do much for me, either. I can see this one being the first book eliminated from the competition in February.

~ Wharton, Thomas. Icefields (6.5) (Canada Reads Book #3)
A slow-moving book, much like the glaciers it describes. This isn’t meant in a bad way, as I enjoyed the spare prose [1] and gentle pace of the book very much. Having also been to the glacier and surrounding area described in the book (Jasper and the Columbia Ice Fields), it was kind of cool to learn a little bit about the history of the area. Plus, the whole angel-in-the-ice was intriguing, as was Sarah’s story at the beginning.

~ Haley, Susan Charlotte. How to Start a Charter Airline (6.5)
If it weren’t for the fact that this was my mother’s book club book and I’d picked it up at the library for her, I’d never have heard of this book. It’s a very typically Canadian love story, in that it takes place in a very Canadian local (in a remote community in northern Canada) and dealing with a very Canadian subject (how to provide service to rural and remote communities). And none of the characters were beautiful, perfect people leading perfect lives - they had pasts they were avoiding, tough ones.

~ Quarrington, Paul. King Leary (7) (Canada Reads Book #4)
Although this book was out of print until recently, my library still had an old copy (woo!) King Leary was overwhelmingly sad, about an elderly former pro-hockey player who spends much of the story reminiscing about his career. You expect the grandstanding and the embellishments. What you don’t expect are those quiet moments where he remembers the monks who taught him everything about hockey, and talks about them in a tone of awe. And you always know he’s holding something back even when the people around him aren’t asking him what he’s not saying, but it’s largely because it’s too painful for him to dwell on. [2]

~ Moore, Christopher. Fluke (8)
This is a weird book, even for him. I’d try and explain it, but it would only ruin it for you.

~ Moore, Christopher. Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (8) [3]
Again with the weirdness! But in a good way!

~ Willig, Lauren. Masque of the Black Tulip (6.5)
Silly, yet fun chicklit/bodice-ripper. Some fun contemporary pop-cult references pop up from time to time.

Okay, so now that I’ve totally bored you with what I read last month, I’m going to hold off on the highs and lows of last year until tomorrow.

[1] Ooooh, look at me, being all scholarly!
[2] I’d like to see this one win Canada reads, but I suspect it’s going to be Not Wanted on the Voyage.
[3] What happened was this - months ago, I loaned Lamb to my mother, who loaned it to my sister, who loaned it to her husband. Many hints were dropped to me that I should bring the rest of my Moore books home for everyone to read.

Overdue books December 8, 2007

Man, did I not post the list of books I read in October? I don’t think I did. In fact, I didn’t read many in November either - I started quite a few which I ended up chucking out the window before I finished them. Plus, what with being busy not doing NaNoWriMo and all, it takes a lot out of a girl!

~ Carey, Jacquelin. Kushiel’s Justice (7.5)
I’d been waiting for this one for quite a while, and not patiently either. It was good, and I look forward to the sequel.

~ Chelminski, Rudolph. The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine (8)
Very good biography of the French chef Bernard Loiseau. Also good insight into the high-stress world of haute cuisine, especially in France, and an explanation of where the Micheline Guide came from. Excellent!

~ Lukyanenko, Sergi. Night Watch (6)
It was good at first, and then it started to repeat itself over and over again. The second book isn’t a whole lot better - I’ve been stuck on it for over a month for the same reason.

We’re to the end of October here. I recall that there were a few other books started and discarded around this point, including a few I started and put down and ignored.

~ Gabaldon, Diana. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (8)
The first thing I want to say is that there was a plot…twist? [1] that left me gobsmacked for the better part of a day. That said, I’m glad she’s writing books from the perspective of one of the darker characters from the Outlander series and making him so very human and sympathetic. There’s also a book of short stories about Lord John which I just got this week. I might save it for the trip home at Christmas.

~ Strohmeyer, Sarah. The Sleeping Beauty Proposal. (5)
Why oh why did I finish this book? It frustrated me at the time, so I must have been bored.

~ Cabot, Meg. Size 14 is Not Fat Either (6.5)
Also heavy on fluff, but soothing, brain-numbing fluff. And it’s not just that - I like Meg Cabot, and I wish she would write faster!

~ Barker, Clive. Mister B. Gone (3)
It was like a grown-up version of There’s a Monster At The End of This Book, starring Grover. It can be summed up thusly: “Oooooh, I’m a scary demon - boo! - and I really live in this book, and I want you to burn it! Why aren’t you burning it? I know where you live and I’ll come and get you! Oh, not really - just kidding!”

And I think there was another abandoned book in here, and I can’t remember it. Wait - got it…

~Moore, Christopher. The Stupidest Angel. (9)
It’s a Christmas book, featuring a dead Santa and zombies! What’s not to love about that!?!? (And it’s Moore, so you know it’s going to be funny.)

So I suppose at some point I’m going to have to go through and pick which ones I liked the best. Okay… check back next week and I’ll see what I’ve come up with.

[1] It wasn’t a twist, really, but a surprise.

Bookish musings October 25, 2007

Earlier this week I finished a book I’d been pecking at for the past week or two. It was a good book, and I really enjoyed it; the reason it was taking so long was because I didn’t have a lot of reading time, what with playing on the Wii and catching up on the show I’d missed while away [1]. Oh, and knitting up a storm. So I finished that book, put it back on my shelf and went to get the next book, which was…

Don’t you hate it when that happens? You’re reading a book, and you have a pretty good idea of what you want to read next, or you have a stack of books waiting to to be read. When you finish that book, you can move on immediately to the next one on the shelf/stack. [2] However, this time I was caught between reading lists/stacks, so I didn’t know what to read. Honestly, I wandered around for a day in a fog because I needed to read something, but I didn’t know what.[3]

Fortunately, I remembered that I’d been saving The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, and I’ve been happily engaged with it since Tuesday. It’s very good, and so far it only bears a passing resemblance to the movie. [4]

Incidentally, I know I haven’t posted my list of books I read last night, and there’s a good reason for that: I can’t find the notebook I record them in. It’s also problematic because I have a couple of other books to write down in it (I’m paranoid that I’ll loose the post-it notes I’m using to keep track of them.) All I can tell you is that the Stephen Fry book I put in the August read list was actually read in September. It was a terrible error, I accept responsibility for my actions, and I promise to not let it happen again.

(Insert non-threatening musical interlude)

I just went upstairs to fetch the power cord for my laptop (I’m sitting at the dining room table, and the battery was running low) and - lo and behold! - found my notebook under a stack of papers that had fallen over.

~ Lee Gowan, The Last Cowboy (7)
I was expecting slapstick and goofiness; instead, I got sad, beautiful poignancy (is that a word? Spell check says “yes”!) Genius.

~ Meghan McCaffery, Sloppy Firsts (7.5)
Very teen-agnsty. Marcus, the male “interest”, reminded me a lot of all of Sarah Dessen’s male “interest” characters.

~ Penn Jillett, Sock (6)
I can’t think of any other way of describing this book except to say it was a very muscular read. The narrator is a sock monkey, which might normally have you rolling your eyes, but it was very well done. The narration itself was very choppy, with a lot of pop culture references. Although it had a strong beginning, I thought it started dragging some by the end.

~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Natural Born Charmer (7)
Despite the fact that the plot elements were almost identical to every other book she’s written, I still love her books. Is this how people who love Danielle Steele and John Grisham feel?

~ Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park (8.5)
While I don’t think I completely understood the significance of the case of the murdered children, or the Professor’s research, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I know John of The Book Mine Set didn’t like this one when he read it for Canada Reads last year, but having read a plethora of books about chefs and restaurants and the challenges of working in a professional kitchen, I have a completely different perspective on his actions at the end of the story.

And that was it for the month. Based on my “finished” date for the last one, it was around the time things started heating up at work, and I didn’t have a lot of time for reading.

[1] I have a PVR for my dish. It was an extravagance, but worth it.
[2] Anyone? Anyone? Or am I the only one who goes through books that fast?
[3] Again, this may be a problem unique to me and a very few other book nerds.
[4] Which was AWESOME. Seriously - it made the special effects in The Matrix look cheap and poorly executed.