Cannonball Read - Book 36

I think that Abigail Thomas had just finished Where The Heart Is and Diary of a Mad Housewife when she started writing An Actual Life. It just didn't have that spark of originality, that newness that makes me think "wow, I've never read anything like this before." An Actual Life tells the story of Virginia, a young married woman completely unprepared for marriage and motherhood. Her husband is still in love with his high school girlfriend and her parents are soulless and uncaring. So no, not a feel-good tale, but that would be forgivable if it were a compelling read. It's not.

An Actual Life - C-

Cannonball Read - Book 35

Oh. My. God. What was I waiting for? My zombie-loving husband read World War Z by Max Brooks at least two years ago, and I've pooh-poohed reading it, even though he said it was OFF THE HOOK. But really, I was just saving it for this big read-a-thon. Ahem.
Well, it was so worth the wait. This book is incredible. Brooks has written a collection of first-person accounts of people who survived the decade-long war against zombies. And before you start laughing, saying, "That's preposterous!," let me tell you that this shit is real. No, I don't mean a zombie attack. I mean the telling of this story. This book makes you feel like it actually happened. There's a super-creepy section about feral children, kids who survived the attack but whose PTSD is so severe, they have to live in institutions - and by contrast, there's a section about the K-9 soldiers who went into battle on behalf of humans. Since I brought my own little pichu home, I've become quite tender-hearted toward dogs, and this section broke my heart a little. But it was followed by images of cracked skulls and frozen zombies re-animating after a long winter. Truly terrifying.

I could heap a bunch of words on it (awesome! amazing! unbelievable! not-to-be surpassed!) and it still couldn't do this book justice. By page THIRTY, I was saying "This book is really good." And ZLH only said "I told you so" once.

World War Z - A+

Cannonball Read - Book 34

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt was not what I was expecting. Originally, I thought it was some sort of fiction mystery/horror novel. Not so - turns out it's a combination travelogue/true crime story. Yep, that's a weird combo, but this book is really pretty amazing. This writer goes to Savannah, Georgia, and meets some wacky people, but then there's a murder (I can't say more, because that would be too revealing) and then things get REALLY weird.
I'm very behind in my blogging, and have read several books since I finished MITGOGAE, so it's not as fresh in my memory as I'd like as I write about it. But it's stuck with me, and I think it'd stick with you, too. Definitely one to check out.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - A-

Cannonball Read - Book 33

I think that "beach read" is a negative term. The books I take to the beach (or my equivalent of the beach, since the sun and I don't really go well together) are not deep, complicated pieces of literature that stick with me for weeks and analyze or discuss with friends. No, my beach reads are light, simple, silly, and usually very girly.

And that's where The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodrgiuez comes in. It is the quintessential beach read. Even though I read most of this book on my couch, I felt like I was lying on the sand, sipping a marg. DGSC had lots of overlapping stories but very little substance, a couple sex scenes, some fashion, and lots of drinks with friends. If that's not a beach read, I don't know what is. Fun, easy, frothy.

The Dirty Girls Social Club - C+

Cannonball Read - Book 32

I picked up The Reformed Vampire Support Group at my local used bookstore because I like the premise: "a hilarious antidote to slick vampire novels, this murder mystery/comedy of errors will appeal to kids on the fringe." Take that, Bella and Edward! It's very obvious that Ms. Jenks wanted to write the anti-Twilight. These vampires are not healthy. They do not have super-human powers. They wake up every evening and have to eat guinea pigs, and it takes all their fortitude to not vomit on the way to their weekly support group meeting. Oh yeah, and their eyes bleed if they look at bright lights. None of this sparkling in the sun bullshit. These are REAL vampires. And while the story line was somewhat silly - let's find a vampire killer, but oh wait, he's actually a pretty good guy, it's the guys who are running the werewolf fight vlub that are the bad guys - it was a nice change from those other vampires we've been hearing so much about. If Twilight is for teeny boppers, RVSG is for the weirdos who write 'zines at 2 AM and wear legwarmers on their arms. You know the kind.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group - B

Cannonball Read - Book 31

Liked Girl with a Pearl Earring? Then you'll love I Am Madame X! Gioia Diliberto's novel is the historically accurate but fictionalized account of the life of Virginie Gautreau, the subject of John Singer Sargent's famous portrait. The book is really lovely, and super quick, and I think I've established that I like historical fiction, so this is a no-brainer. Loved it! I also like books that have a Louisiana element to them (what can I say? VC Andrews did me right), and this one is set in Louisiana and Paris. Again, loved it! And it talks about fashion... loved it!

I Am Madame X - A-

Cannonball Read - Book 30

About once every two months, the Cannonball Read leader throws up a 5K challenge - five books in two weeks, and they all have to fit certain parameters. For the first 5K, all the books had to be over 400 pages (thankfully, I missed that one). For the next 5K, we readers had to select one book from each of the following genres: fiction, non-fiction, biography, sci-fi or fantasy, and romance. And I plowed through the first four, no sweat.

But then came the romance. I've only read two other romance novels. One had something to do with Ireland, and the other was called VIKING! There was definite longing and moistness and throbbing manhood in each of these fine tales - you might say they were trashy romance novels. So I decided to go with a solid novel-y romance novel, by one of the great romance writers of our time, Iris Johansen. You can tell that she's a big deal because her name is the biggest think on the book cover - no heaving bosoms thrown back in ecstasy for Miss Iris! She's written a gazillion books! She's a New York Time #1 bestseller! I thought this might be a safe bet.

Too safe, it turns out. I didn't see my first nipple until about sixty pages in, and the first sex scene between the protagonists takes place on page 204! Outrageous! I was thinking that the sex would have started much earlier. Well, to be fair, the longing started earlier, but it took over 200 pages to get the the actual sex. And there was a lot of book that was not about sex. Lots of battles, and wounds, and fires and stuff, and some silk and magic, too. And I don't think I need to read another romance for a while.

Lion's Bride - C

Ear Plugs

As far as I can tell, there are two kinds of ear plugs: Here's the one I like. Ear plugs have helped me out a number of times: on planes, at concerts, sleeping next to a snorer. Ear plugs, you are so unfashionable, and I love you so much. Keep up the good work.




Here's the kind I hate. My biggest problem with gauged earrings is the "down the road" factor. Do people that get their earlobes stretched think about life after 40? Forget the tattoos - given enough money and a high pain threshold, those can be removed. But can you do reconstructive surgery on your earlobes to shrink those holes?

Kids these days.

earplugs - A-; plug ears - D-

Pichus in the Springtime - A Pictoral Essay

Cannonball Read - Book 29

OK, this book was whack. I had to read a sci-fi story for a competition-within-the-competition, and this one was short, and on hand, so it seemed a good choice. And it was fine, really. But WHACK. It had a bunch of pot-smoking, and all kinds of love-making, and then there were ghosts (but not really), and dead guys (but not really), and noses smelling at 100 times the power of wolf's due to a diabolical experiment (really). And a leopard.

I like most of Spider Robinson's stuff a whole lot more than I liked this. Stick to hard-drinking aliens, Spider, and less of the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it business.

Telempath - C

Cannonball Read - Book 28

Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky wasn't my first choice for a non-fiction book - my favorite non-fiction subdivisions are memoir or historical crime. But my friend Teenie said it was awesome, and she's generally right about that sort of thing. And wouldn't you know it? This was no exception. Lipsky, a writer for Rolling Stone, was given unprecedented access to West Point, and stayed for four years, which allowed him to follow a whole class from plebes to firsties (that's me, using the lingo). Absolutely American is less a book about the military and more a book about personality - the reader comes to know the cadets and what makes them tick. Along the way, sure, there's military stuff, and some of the instances of infraction and punishment are extreme, but what's more compelling is why these kids went to West Point in the first place, and what's keeping them there. I really, really liked this book.

Absolutely American - A-

Overrated.

There's a restaurant in the town where I live that a lot of people love. It's located very close to my place of employment, and many fancy dinners have been held there before events in my building. I've only been there twice: once for cocktails and apps, once for lunch - today.
And I'm here to tell you: this place is overrated. Everything is WAY too fancy. I didn't want a braised duck sandwich or a pizza with peas, so I ordered the plainest thing on the menu - a grilled three-cheese sandwich with tomatoes, and a side salad.
OK, my sandwich was awful. Way too much flavor in the cheese. No, I wasn't expecting Velveeta, but they used what I like to call "garnish cheeses," or "salad cheeses." I LOVE gorgonzola on a salad, but as a main component on a sandwich? Too much. And the tomatoes were drenched in balsamic vinegar - so much wang that my I'm sure my face puckered. Then there's the salad, also awful, but to the extreme opposite. It was a pile of greens. Listen up, restauranteurs: if you're serving a pile of greens, call it "a pile of greens." Lettuce on its own is NOT a salad. At a minimum, dressing is required; throw in some shredded carrot, a banana, a walnut - or some gorgonzola - and now you're talking.

Next time I'm invited along, I'm going to have to make an excuse to not go.

bad apps, bad cocktails, bad lunch - D- (points for free)

Cannonball Read - Book 27

Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, and I totally understand why. Blindness was like no book I've ever read before - except for, maybe, The Road, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. None of the characters had names. The punctuation was scant, and sentences ran to half-a-page or longer. Sometimes, that made my eyes hurt. Maybe that was the point.
Blindness is the story of a population suddenly gone blind. People are interred in an abandoned asylum, left to fend for themselves with minimal government intervention, and it's pretty horrifying what happens to these people. Both the good guys and the bad guys suffer awful things, and it can be hard to root for the good guys at times. But then, just when you think it can't get any worse - it doesn't. It's over. The ending was kind of a letdown.
Fancy writer people say the Blindness is an allegory on spiritual blindness. Well, duh.

Blindness - B

Cannonball Read - Book 26

I won't be giving anything away if I write the back cover description of My Lobotomy by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, since the title pretty much says it all:

My name is Howard Dully. In 1960, when I was twelve years old, I was given a lobotomy. My stepmother arranged it. My father agreed to it. Dr. Walter Freeman, the man who invented the "ice pick" lobotomy, performed it. My family paid the hospital $200. And I never understood why. I wasn't a violent kid. I had never hurt anyone. I wasn't failing out of school. Was there something I had done that was so horrible I deserved a lobotomy? I asked myself that question for more than forty years. Then, when I turned fifty-four, I went looking for the answer.

And there you have it. Dully was twelve years old when he got a transorbital lobotomy - which means that Dr. Freeman stuck some sharp pointy objects through Dully's eye sockets, squigged 'em around a little, and called it good. And he's spent the rest of his life dealing with the effects. This book was horrifying. Not graphic - not really. There were a few descriptions I could have done without, and a real effed-up picture. No, it was horrifying because there really wasn't any reason for Dully to have a lobotomy. My guess is, he was bright but bored, sensitive, and probably had ADHD. His stepmother found it hard to control him, and so she found a way for him to be out of the house: the lobotomy. 'Cause after that, he pretty much never lived in her house again - he was in asylums, halfway houses, or jail. The reader is left to wonder if the stepmother wanted him out so bad that she was willing to see him die, which happened with a lot of lobotomy patients. And then poor Howard never really got off the ground in life. Things were rough for him - asylums, jail time, bad relationships, and an overall inability to take care of himself.

As Howard got older and life got a little easier (with a wife and kids and a steady job he liked), he started to wonder more about the lobotomy, and why it happened; one thing led to another, and he was contacted by the fine folks at NPR for the Sound Portraits series. He was able to look at records from before his lobotomy, including notes on all the conversations his stepmother had with Dr. Freeman. And he finally spoke with his father about his role in the whole thing. This section was probably the most devastating in the entire book. His father accepted no blame, and I just wanted to reach through the pages and strangle him.

So: the writing was up and down. There were some passages that were really well written and compelling. But then there were some parts that were, well, choppy (no lobotomy pun intended). They just didn't jive with the rest of the book. But it was a quick read, and I had a hard time putting it down. Good for a short trip, or a solid day off.

My Lobotomy - B

Cannonball Read - Book 25

Let me start by saying that if you want to read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and have the major plot points unrevealed, don't read the book jacket. The hubs made the mistake of reading the inside of the book jacket, where it pretty much spells out a significant event that otherwise he wouldn't have seen coming. He was very disappointed. So no book jacket - and no big description from me.
I will tell you this: this is one of the saddest books I've read in a long time. David Wroblewski has written a heartbreaking tale of a boy, his family, their dogs, and their tragedies. And I hope I'm not giving too much away to tell you that the segments written from the dogs' points-of-view are gut-wrenchingly beautiful. I don't know if I can ever look at my dog the same way again, knowing what might be going on in his little fuzzy head. I was sad when it ended, on so many levels - the book was over, and these poor people's lives were just shattered.

Wonderful.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - A-

All Grown Up

From this:











































To this:




Happy Birthday, buddy.

Wash - A+

Cannonball Read - Book 24

It's becoming a burden, this challenge. I haven't really enjoyed the last two or three books I've read, including this one, A Cook's Tour by Anthony Bourdain. Perhaps it's because I loved Kitchen Confidential so hard, or because reading this book was sort of like reading eight episodes of No Reservations (although he set out a disclaimer that he was followed around by a camera crew for Food Network while writing the book). More likely, it's because I'm reading to get through it, not to savor anything. I love to read. It's probably my most favorite thing to do. But there should be some fallow time, you know? A time when I'm not currently reading anything might allow me to more fully enjoy the things I do read. But I don't have that luxury. Onwards and upwards.

Also, and this is important: I'm now officially part of the nationwide Cannonball Read network. I'm holding my own against some combatants who entered the race long before I did, and pretty soon I'll be listed as class Honky Tonk Badonkadonk (after that: Rusty Trombone, First Chair). But here's the deal: we're about to have a 5K. Five books in two weeks (April 15-29), and I have to pick one from each of the following five genres: fiction, non-fiction, biography, sci-fi or fantasy, and romance. I have fiction and sci-fi all wrapped up, but I need some solid suggestions on the other three catergories. Remember, over 200 pages - leave your suggestions in the comments!

Back to Bourdain - I'm sorry I couldn't give this one a fair chance. You came at a bad time, buddy, and I'm also a little over your gonzo-ness.

A Cook's Tour - C

Cannonball Read - Book 23

I purchased So You Want To Be a Wizard at my neighborhood used book store, straight out of the Young Adult section, 'cause hey, I like wizards. And I was looking for an easy read. But I didn't love it. I needed more time for Nita, the protagonist, to not be a wizard. And I definitely needed more time for her to be bad at being a wizard. It was like, OK, I'm a wizard now, and I'm not making many mistakes. I also needed the main characters to not be a boy, a girl, a ball of light and a Lotus Esprit. Elves and centaurs I can handle, but a dog-like Lotus Esprit? Far-fetched, even for a book about wizards.

This was written in 1983, so I can't blame Diane Duane for writing a super-lame version of Harry Potter.

So You Want To Be a Wizard - C

Cannonball Read - Book 22

I am officially behind. I should have read 25 books by the end of March in order to be on track for 100 by the end of the year. I'm only a little concerned. I plan to do lots of read on my next mini-vacay, coming up in two weeks.

To the matter at hand: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. Chabon is the author of one of the books on my top-ten-of-all-time list (which, by the way, I intend on writing about one of these days), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. And as every good pageant queen knows, you shouldn't judge one contestant in comparison to another - each should be judged solely on the criteria set forth and how she rates, not on how she rates next to someone else. But as every good pageant queen also knows, this is next to impossible. Try as they might, judges inevitably compare one girl to another; it might be subconscious, but it happens.

So. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. It was quite good. Chabon is a hell of a writer. There was a moment that made me stop reading, say "Wow," then re-read the phrase two more times, because it was that beautiful. Taken independently, this could easily get an A. But I couldn't help comparing it to Kavalier and Clay. It didn't grab me as hard; at times I found the characters unbelievable in their hipness - it was sort of like Juno in that way. Actually, now that I stop and think about it, I never really rooted for most of the characters. And while there were some beautifully written moments, there weren't as many as in Kavalier and Clay. I shouldn't compare the two, but I did, and M of P came up short... but only a little.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - A-

Cannonball Read - Book 21

Chang and Eng was a nice change from What a Girl Wants... because it was good.
Historical fiction - showing itself once again to be a favorite of mine. I like that the conversations are made up, that certain occurences in the novel are created by the author, but there is an undercurrent of fact throughout. And who doesn't love sideshow freaks? Of course, there was more to Chang and Eng than just the five-inch band that tied them together - Eng was the smart, silent one, Chang the ham who played to the crowd. Definitely a quick read, it held my interest, left me wanting more... all the good stuff.

Chang and Eng - A-

Cannonball Read - Book 20

I like books, OK? I like to read. I think all books are wonderful, simply because they're books. I started this challenge knowing that a book would be hard-pressed to get an F. And if you look back at the rest of the books I've read so far, you'll see that the lowest grade I've given so far was a C- (read more about that less-than-average book here. It just pains me to think of giving a book, probably what has given me more pleasure in my life than any other thing, a failing grade.

With that...

THIS BOOK WAS TERRIBLE. Once I got about 40 pages in, I thought, OK. I can quit reading it now and not be much more behind in the challenge than I already am. But then I thought, And deny myself the opportunity to give a bad grade? Never! When I bought WAGW at the used bookstore downtown, I knew it wasn't going to be amazing. Four very different friends, meeting once a week for breakfast, one always in crisis... sound familiar? But a cheap knock-off, for sure, and I was OK with that going into it. Like I said, I wasn't viewing this as the next great literary masterpiece. But OH MY GOD, was it bad. For one thing, the characters never seemed to come together. You never had a "Carrie's the glue, but Samantha and Charlotte really love each other independently of Carrie, too" moment. It seemed like two of the four characters were always at odds and didn't really like each other all that much. Another thing was, Hayley, the "Carrie" of the group, didn't have too many redeeming qualities. She was vapid, totally self-absorbed, stupid with men, and pretty boring, actually. I never cared about her. Or the other girls, for that matter. I would say this book was a total waste of time, except for this:

What A Girl Wants - F

Cannonball Read - Book 19

Finally. This one was a doozy. It doesn't help that I'm incredibly busy and only have about 20-30 minutes a day to read, but Suite Francaise was more intricate and meaty than most of the books I've read lately. It's two novellas about the German occupation of France in World War II, beginning with "Storm in June" and Parisians fleeing the city, and "Dolce" with German troops occuping a small village and the surrounding farms.
But the best part of the book is the story behind the story: Irene Nemirovsky wrote it in 1942, which is just about the same time that the novel is set. All signs point to that being pretty remarkable - to write, as one New York Times critic penned, such "exquisitely shaped and balanced fiction" while the events were taking place around her was no mean feat. It's not a diary - far from it. It's a gorgeous, lush, completely fictional story, and I really liked it.
And then there's the other story: Nemirovsky was killed at Auschwitz later in 1942, and the book wasn't published until 2004 - Nemirovsky's daughter had the manuscript, but thought it was a personal diary and didn't read it, "fearing it would simply renew old pains" (thanks NY Times critic). So it's pretty incredible that it got published at all.
So - glowing review? Not quite. I got bogged down a few times, and after "Storm in June" ended, I sort of just wanted it to be over. I think it was really good, but I didn't love it. I just liked it.

Suite Francaise - B+

My Favorite Words

I got to use one of my favorite words yesterday, and I was so excited about it that I had to share it with you:

PELETON!

I love the word "peleton." I love the way it sounds, I love that there's a word for this thing that could just be described by so many other words (pack and field come to mind), and I love that knowing this word makes me feel smart and cool. I love that it always makes me think of my brother, who is notorious for using a 25-cent word when a 5-cent word would do (he was quoted in the newspaper as saying "You see these bums and vagabonds in the street and it's appalling." When he was 10). And I love that it's a word that doesn't come up very often, so that when it does, I feel EXTRA smart and cool. Thanks, peleton.

What are your favorite words?

peleton - A

ER

I am so happy.

George's (and Julianna's and Eriq's) return - A+

Let The Countdown Begin

Tonight is the first night of the top 13 on American Idol... which means that, in less than four months, So You Think You Can Dance will be back on! YAY!!! I LOVE this show. It rules my life in the summer. I tolerate other reality shows (not you, Project Runway, you're in a class by yourself... come back to us!) but I adore SYTYCD. Have you watched it? If you have, we can stay friends. If you haven't... well, you really should, because otherwise we'll have nothing to talk about from June to September.

Here are a few videos to get you started:

Katee and Will's pas de deux. I can't abide David Archuleta, but this a beautiful piece by two of last season's best dancers.


Sabra and Neil's jazz piece from season 3. Out of control. Their paso doble that night was ridiculously good, but there's no good video of it. If you find one, let me know.


Sara and Jesus, also from season 3. So good. So very very good.


Hok's hands. Jaimie's feet. Sigh.

There's more where that came from - I can't wait for season five!

So You Think You Can Dance - A+

Cannonball Read - Book 18

Nate claims to have read Ender's Game when he was five. I think he's exaggerating - he probably read it when he was seven. But don't go thinking that this is a children's book. It's about children, yes, and was probably written with children in mind, but it totally transcends age groups and acts more as a commentary on war and education than on "kids."
Here's a little synopsis, courtesy of the back of the book:

Once again, Earth is under attack. Alien 'buggers' are poised for a final assault. The survival of the human species depends on a military genius who can defeat the buggers.
But who?
Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child.
Recruited for military training by the world goverment, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battle School. Among the elite recruits Ender proves himself to be a genius among geniuses. In simulated war games he excels. But is the pressure and loneliness taking its toll on Ender? Simulations are one thing. How will Ender perform in real combat conditions? After all, Battle School is just a game.
Right?

And there you have it. To be honest, I didn't like how predictable Ender's Game was. I totally saw the ending coming. But, it was a long road to get there, and I enjoyed every step along the way.

Ender's Game - A-

Interlude.

In honor of the upcoming arrival of NaiveNiece-or-Nephew, and to commemorate a little incident that took place yesterday, I'd like to share with you an anecdote from my tween years. When my buddies and I first began shaving our legs, around 6th grade or so, we use to share "war stories" on awful nicks and cuts. And I've never forgotten what my friend Katie told me: her mom said that the only pain in the world worse than a shaving mistake was...?

CHILDBIRTH.

Really? Um, I think maybe you don't know how to shave your legs, lady.

shaving mistakes - C+

Cannonball Read, Book 17

I just finished Lucy by Ellen Feldman, and it cements something I've thought for years: presidents are NAUGHTY! We have this image of a fine, upstanding citizen, smart, serious, not funny... or else you think that Bill Clinton had the market cornered on being cool. Not so. Franklin Roosevelt was a cad. He wore a straw boater, drove a convertible (of course, they might all have been convertibles in the teens) AND he had an affair. Not sure if he played the saxophone, though.
This book also confirms that I like woman-driven historical fiction. Two of my most faves are The Eight and The Red Tent, and while I don't think that Lucy will complete the triumverate, it was a solid read that made me want to do research on the real story. And, it left out some things that might be obvious, historically speaking, which I thought was kind of cool - it made me feel like I was in the know.

Lucy - B+

Cannonball Read - Book 16

I thought I hadn't read Heat before, but I had, about two years ago, and just once, so it counts. Heat is the story of a writer-guy who spends a year cooking in Mario Batali's kitchen, followed by a long stint in Italy learning how to make pasta, then how to be a butcher (both pig and cow). It's a book about food, for people who like food - and I like food, so I liked the book... but not as much as I liked Kitchen Confidential. I would say this was the thinking man's Kitchen Confidential, but I don't want to be the thinking man. Food shouldn't be so cerebral - or wordy. I would have liked more swear words.

Heat - B

Cannonball Read - TRIPLE Shot!

It's hard to find time to write when I spend every waking free-time moment reading. And watching the Oscars. And American Idol. And going to Chicago. But yes, I'm still reading, and the time on the train to and from CHI really helped me along (remember when I read a whole bunch on my way to and from California? I need to go on a trip every month). First up: The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman. Some of you may know Pullman for his His Dark Materials trilogy - and some of you may not know him at all. Nate gave me this book for Valentine's Day, and since it was short and written for teenagers, I thought I'd give it a whirl and bump it up to the top of my list. There's mystery and intrigue, drugs and beatings, dead fathers and stolen diaries... so basically, it was kind of lame. It just didn't hold my interest. I finished it, but just because the protagonist is female and it's a book for teens, that doesn't mean I have to love it. Sorry, Nate.
Next up was Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, about his excursion through Europe. I read Bryson's A Walk in the Woods last year, and then something else he wrote, and again, these funny writers just aren't that funny to me. Also, I've never been to Europe, so reading about the roads in Italy or the nasty food in Austria didn't really mean much to me. I think I'm done with Bryson for a while.

Finally, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This book won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Stephen King (and Nate) loved it, and even though I tried to read it last year and didn't get very far, I decided to give it another whirl. And - WOW. This book is out-of-control awesome. I ANNIHILATED it on the train - started somewhere around Valparaiso and finished outside of Jackson. McCarthy has created a terrifying world and two wholly compelling characters, both of which you as a reader know so little about (where are they? what happened?), and I found it hanuting and sad and horrifying - which I thought maybe I would like, but didn't know I would love. And it made me think that maybe we need to have a can opener in our apocalypse survival kit.
The Ruby in the Smoke - C
Neither Here nor There - C-
The Road - A

Oscar Picks

UPDATE: I got 18 out of 24. AGAIN. That's the best I've ever done - I just can't break that 75% accurcay barrier. Maybe next year.

For those of you who are interested, here you go, my Oscar picks:




Oscar Predictions

BEST PICTURE "Slumdog Millionaire"

BEST DIRECTOR Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire")

BEST ACTRESS Kate Winslet ("The Reader")

BEST ACTOR Sean Penn ("Milk")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Viola Davis ("Doubt")

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Heath Ledger "(The Dark Knight")

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM "Waltz With Bashir" (Israel)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY “Milk” (Focus Features), Written by Dustin Lance Black

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle

BEST EDITING “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens

BEST SCORE “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A.R. Rahman

BEST ART DIRECTION "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Jacqueline West

BEST ORIGINAL SONG “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar

BEST ANIMATED FILM "Wall-E"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE “Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT "The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306,"A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

BEST MAKEUP “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Greg Cannom

BEST ANIMATED SHORT “Presto” (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank

BEST SOUND MIXING “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Richard King

BEST SOUND EDITING “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

WACKIEST OUTFIT man: Sean Penn; woman: Freida Pinto (bless her, she just doesn't know any better) or Meryl Streep

Cannonball Read - Book 12

This one wasn't so easy. Ian McEwan is lauded as one of the world's most brilliant contemporary writers, and this book was exceptional, but it was a bit of a tough read. Here's a quick synopsis: this guy Henry has a day off, and does all kinds of shit and all kinds of shit happens. Makes you want to read it, right? But it's so intricate, and while reading it, I really felt like I was along for the ride on Henry's Saturday. The details are rich and layered, and not overwhelming, but it's not the kind of book you can just read at night before going to bed. You need to dedicate some waking hours to reading. Shelve it until you can hunker down with it, that's my advice. I was definitely drawn in to Henry, the main character - he's so well-developed that at times I felt I was reading a true account of one man's day, instead of a fictional tale.
The weirdest part of this experience? Saturday is set on Saturday, February 15, 2003. I started the book on February 13th, and finished it on the 16th. Completely unintentional.

Saturday - B+

Cannonball Read - Book 11

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld is book 11 for the year. You may know Sittenfeld from her novel Prep, set in a boarding school (loved it!). American Wife is the fictional story of Alice Blackwell, a librarian who falls in love with a rapscallion with a storied family, a not-so-smart goof who drinks too much and ultimately ends up buying a baseball team - and who then becomes President of the United States. Sound familiar? Sittenfeld obviously based her protagonist on Laura Bush - but it's all fiction. But not. There are many aspects of Alice Blackwell that are ripped from Laura Bush's life, but she remains a fictional heroine, and certainly there are things that Alice says and does that we'll never know if Laura said or did...
This book is OUTSTANDING. I loved it and can't wait to a) loan it to all my friends and b) re-read it when this year-long project is over. There were lots of twists and turns, but encompassed in an incredibly familiar story - familiar because it's based in truth, in a woman that was part of our lives for over eight years. Now that George Bush is out of office, I wonder if Laura will come forward and speak about her life - now that I've read this book, I'd like to hear more about the real Alice Blackwell.

American Wife - A+

Cannonball Read Double-Shot

I'm still reading, but at a slower pace than in Janaury. Fewer holidays, busier weekends, that sort of thing. I am concerned that I will not meet my February goal, but I've also determined that I need to read 25 books every three months. Sounds doable, right?
Book 9 is Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen. I've only read one of Hiaasen's books before, and they're a nice diversion for me, as I don't usually go in for ecological mystery/thrillers about sport fishing, turtles or rednecks. Lucky You was a good read, kept me entertained, but I didn't LOVE it. It hasn't catapulted to the top of my all-time favorite books list, nor will I ever read it again. But that doesn't mean that it was bad. I guess I'm ambivalent.

Book 10 is Sweet and Low by Rich Cohen. I got this book for Nate for Christmas, because the cover was TOTALLY AWESOME. And the story sounded great, too: Brooklyn after the war, family rivalry, the diet craze, the Mafia, disinheritance... but ultimately, it was too much. The story was great, and certain sections were totally captivating and engrossing, but then there would be a whole separate section on a totally different topic and I couldn't quite stay plugged in.
Overall, I'd say two minor missteps in the year in books so far.

Lucky You - C+
Sweet and Low - C+