April Book List

[eleneariel]

1. Pretties, Scott Westerfield 

Probably the best of the trilogy (quadilogy?); what I said about the first book mostly applies to this one too.

 

2. Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain

If you believe Bourdain, most of the people involved in preparing your four star dinner are loud, crude, unreliable, and strung out on drugs and/or drink. But oh, can they cook some divine dishes. Bourdain was probably the loudest, crudest, and most strung-out of them all (at least until he got sober), but he provides a rolicking look into the kitchens of some of the most famous restaurants.

 

I loved it - rather like Heat only with more drugs, sex, and rock-and-roll - but I won't be letting my mom read it. ;)

 

3. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
My first ever James Bond book! I liked it quite a bit. The literary Bond is different from his movie incarnations; darker, colder, more brutal, and with a definite misogynistic streak. He's more fallible, too, and ultimately I think more human. I look forward to reading more of Fleming's books.

 

4. Book Crush, Nancy Pearl
Nancy Pearl recommends books for children and young adults.

 

5. Specials, Scott Westerfield
Not quite as exciting as the first two, but a mostly satisfactory ending.

 

6. Time and Again, Jack Finney

Enthralling! It's equal parts conspiracy theory, mystery, time travel, romance, and historical novel, and it's one of the best novels from the 1970s that I've found. (Excluding the Godfather, which now that I think of it, came out in the late 60s and therefore doesn't count.)

It was good. Even though the ending is impossible because if D. had never lived, S. couldn't have gone back in time to cause D.'s parents not to meet and therefore not get married and not have baby D. *cough* But that's okay. It's just the sort of mind-boggling time travel conundrum that I like to think about.

 

7. Talent, Zoey Dean

This was an Advance Reader's Copy that I picked up at PLA.

A trio of status-obsessed preteen Hollywood girls encounter a visiting midwestern girl with dreams of fame; hijinks, lies, drama, and hurt feelings ensue.

There is so much wrong with this, it's hard to know where to start.

It's unrealistic. What 12 year old, daughter of the rich&famous or not, looks like the girls on this cover? What 12 year old has an iphone, credit card with (seemingly) no limit and no parental restrictions, frequents nightly "par-tays" full of other rich&famous GROWN UPS, and has a car and driver at their beck and call?

And even if there are a few such preteens, which there may be, why choose to fill the heads of average children with thoughts of an unrealistic and unhealthy lifestyle?

Second, the whole thing is like one giant product placement add. From page 219:

Mac and Emily hopped out of the Prius and into the driveway of the Regent Beverly Wilshire for Kimmie Tachman's party, just as Coco pulled up in her CK-emblazoned Bentley. Mac and Emily had changed in the car, en route from the studio. As planned, Emily wore her gold-and-silver Cavalli disco dress, and Mac wore the micropleated aquamarine Tracy Reese from Fred Segal. Coco had on a plum-colored D&G one-strap minidress, and Mac knew Becks would be wearing the low-backed Versace as instructed.

Anyone who knows me knows I abhor censorship, so if you want to read this, by all means go ahead. I'm only disturbed that the author, editors, publicists, and anyone else active in promoting this book would consider it worthy literature to give to the most impressionable section of our society: preteen and teenage girls

 

8. Living the Simple Life, Elaine St. James

I'm all for the simplifing of necessary tasks to leave more time for the unnecessiary things that add so much joy to my life. At this point, I don't feel the need to go to the drastic measure that this author has taken, so I found the book good for inspiration, not so much practical tips.

9. The Pillars of Earth, Ken Follett
I didn't expect to like this one - it's an Oprah bookclub pick, and a best seller, and extra, extra long. But you know what? I liked it. Rather a lot, actually. It felt powerful.

 

10. The Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing

During the depression the Nearings decided to become as close to self-sufficient as possible, and to that end moved to an isolated Vermont farm where they grew their own food, built their own stone buildings, and generally worked really hard. Interesting, although not my kind of lifestyle - however,they are intellectual self-sufficients, and all their preaching about how there should be little differences in wealth or class and that  wage labor is enslavement (they're strict vegetarians, too - you should hear them harp on how owning pets, much less raising animals for food, is enslavement!) really got on my nerves. I read quite a number of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and I couldn't believe that nobody picked up on their blatant socialism.

 

11. The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner
This one's been recommended to me for ages. (ruthette, have you read it?) I loved the mix of cultures and time periods, fantasy and fact. Gen was a believable and scrappy little hero, and the ending properly astounding.

 

12. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortensen and David Relin

The opinion I held at the half-way point of this book still holds true now that I've finished it:  I still think it's self-absorbed (hello, it's co-written by Greg Mortenson, the man that it's about, yet it's in the third person and constantly talking about how amazing he, Greg, is.) I still think it's designed to be a feel-good book. I still think that the subtitle, "One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... one School At A Time" is sappy. Parts of it were neat. It reminded me a little of Charlie Wilson's War, which I did like.

 

13. Handmaid of Desire, John L'Heureux

An odd book about an odd author who arrives at a university seemingly out of nowhere, possessing multiple accents, and proceeds to wreck havoc on the lives of the faculty, largely involving various love triangles and other sexual encounters. The whole novel is kind of like a train wreck; I don't really want to see it, but I can't look away. It's never made clear whether Olga is causing said havoc in order to get material for her novel, or if her writing the events causes them to come true. Or maybe she's an angel, or a devil, or a figment of the imagination. Yeah. It's one of those books. 

Comments

[ransomedsea.livejournal.com]

Now I'm super curious about The Thief. Do you think I'd like it? Scrappy hero is kind of a selling point with me....

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

You know, I think you would. It's YA (maybe even properly juvenile lit?), and would probably take you a few hours at the most, but as long as you don't mind it being set in a time and place that is astoundingly like our world would be if ancient Greece and Rome were mixed with medieval England (crazy sounding, but it works) with a heavy dose of the gods thrown in ... well then, I think you'd like it. Gen is just the sort of character I can see you enjoying. And sketching. A lot.

Hey, I'll even loan you my copy if you're interested. I can send it with the soon-to-be-mailed art. :)

[ransomedsea.livejournal.com]

Yessss send ittttt. Marie is awesoooooooome. :D

Ooohoohoo, book fanart. I'm so there.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

In the package it goes!

[ransomedsea.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, I'm covering shipping if you'll let me know how much it ends up costing you.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Naw, all you have to do it ship it back to me when you're done. :) Books are cheap to mail!

[ruthette.livejournal.com]

I did indeed read it, but a long time ago -- before we were friends. Maybe even before I recorded all of my reading on LJ. I read the entire series, in fact, but found that each book was less enthralling that the first. I'm just saying.

I really want to read that time travel book now.

You'd like Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. Should I put it into the next box?

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

It's a series? Huh.

I think you'd like, or at least find interesting, Time and Again. I'll make a note to fit it in a box sometime. :) Bonus: it has great illustrations, too.

I have A Cook's Tour waiting for me on my bedside Stack of Books! (I haven't got a bedside table. It's a stack of books. With a basket on top.)

(Okay, in the interest of honesty, it's about five stacks of books. On both sides of the beds, and full of Books To Be Read As Soon As Possible.)

(ACK!)

[ruthette.livejournal.com]

If we're talking about the same book, here, then it's a series. Another in the series is called King of Attolia (or is it Queen of Attolia?)...

Now I'm boggled.

I have a stack on my bedside table, but it's small. Yours sounds insane.

[elvishcalarilme.livejournal.com]

Queen of Attolia is the second one. I was so bored out of my mind with it that I didn't read King of Attolia. :-)

(*whispers* I honestly wasn't too fond of The Thief...the ending wasn't worth all of that wading. :-P)

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

I kind of liked the ending, but I had to read it twice to make sure I understood what had happened, lol. :)

[elvishcalarilme.livejournal.com]

Oh, I liked the ending. Being Miss Gullible, I was totally and entirely taken by surprise, but I was wishing that the rest of the book was worthy of the ending. :-)

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Probably because I am insane. But I can explain, really. My bookshelves are full. If I put a book I really want to read "soon" on my bookshelves, I may never see it again, much less remember to read it "soon". And large parts of the stacks are made up of books I probably will only read once and then give away, so I really don't want to put those on the shelves, which don't have any room for them anyway. And some are library books. Or loans from other people, so they REALLY can't go on the shelves.

I just need to take a couple month's vacation and read, that's all.

Also, I should take pictures.

[ruthette.livejournal.com]

DOOOOO IIIIIIT!

[equuschick.livejournal.com]

It is a series (The Thief, Queen of Attolia and King of Attolia)and I am rather fond of the whole series. But I would most certainly have to agree that The Thief is far and above the best. The other two are more dispensable, with the last being practically not of much interest whatsoever unless you're bored or are one of those obsessive people who have to finish a series once you've begun.



QoA actually fascinated me on a couple different levels, not least of all because there is one aspect that I found to be disturbing and rather bizarre. You just have to remember that she's stealing liberally from mythology both Greek and British, therefore anything Just Plain Weird can fly, and even occasionally pretend to be profound.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, now you've said just enough to make me want to read QoA after all. I don't suppose you have a copy I could borrow? ;)

[equuschick.livejournal.com]

*thinks* You know what, I can't remember if I do or if I checked it out from the library. I'll look and let you know.

[wandering-flame.livejournal.com]

How much time would you say you spend on average in a day, and when do you normally do it?

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

On what? Brushing my teeth? Oh, about six minutes. Yeah, I know it should be more.

*laugh*

Okay, okay, you probably meant reading. The answer is: it varies. I often read in little bits and pieces - five minutes before I leave for work, ten minutes on a lunch break if I'm finished with the other things I needed to do, a couple minutes in line at the post office. So it's hard to tell. I always read at least half an hour, and often an hour, before I go to bed. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday I go to the gym, so that might be another 30-40 minutes of reading on the elliptical, if there's nothing interesting on tv. Those nights I also have time to actually eat supper when I get home, so there's another 30-40 minutes of time to read.

I guess maybe a rough average would be no less than an hour a day, but usually no more than three?

On the weekends I find I actually read less because I'm working on getting projects at home done. When I was a kid I used to read, gosh, four, five hours a day a lot of times. No wonder my dad worried about me being a couch potato. :D

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Yes!! Another person whose reading lists I can get inspired by every month. In case you hadn't discovered, I LOVED reading and writing about books and book posts are some of my all-time favourites :-)

I quite agree with you on the Uglies trilogy. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, because even though it was still open, it was a lot more satisfactory than I'd feared. It was the kind of open ending that doesn't seem like the author just thought "Oops, I can't think of a way to resolve this, so I'll just end the book here and then hope I get an idea for a sequel". It seemed more like "Well, this is a good way to end this book, and it's open enough that if I want to write a sequel, I'll still be able to."

Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
I really, really want to read this one. It's been on my reading list ever since I read So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson as she spends almost an entire chapter talking about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it's made it to Denmark yet, so I'll just have to stay patient.

[ruthette.livejournal.com]

Bourdain's A Cook's Tour is also good, because it combines the awesomeness of his food expertise with foreign travel.

So good!

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I'll add it to my to-read list. Thanks :)

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Me too! I think all my friends booklist posts are my favorite of the month. :)

I forgot that Sara Nelson talked about Kitchen Confidential! I hope it makes it over to you soon. Have you read some of the other good foodie books - Julie and Julia, or Heat? There are others but I'm blanking on the titles right now ...

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

I haven't, unfortunately. It was only recently I even discovered there was such a genre. I've read Under the Tuscan Sun which has quite a bit about Italian cuisine, and the two novels Scarlet Feather and Seeing Me Naked - both of which are about chefs, but I think that's about it.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Man, I love Under the Tuscan Sun! Bella Tuscany, the sequel, is good too. I think I saw that she's now written a third one, but I haven't read it yet.