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

[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!