This was my Big Damn Classic of 2018 and it was a very good pick! Thanks, voters!
This is a semi-autobiographical novel from Vonnegut (a native Hoosier) and it is rooted in the bombing of Dresden. I forget which novel introduced me to Dresden but, prior to that novel, I had not heard of the bombing. Why is this? This had more casualties than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So why is it lost in history? Dresden was one of the few cities that escaped damages from the war until the very end, when the entire city was firebombed, killing nearly every person there.
Vonnegut was a POW in Dresden at the time of the bombing, living in a slaughterhouse. This novel isn't a retelling, strictly, of his time there. Vonnegut tells us, in the beginning, how hard this was to write, how many stops and starts he went through, just to get this on paper. Then we head into Billy Pilgrim's world.
It's a strange world of joining the Army, trying to become an Optometrist, time travel, and being abducted by aliens. Billy's world is a confusing mess of a life that he is at peace with. He has the ability to become unstuck in time, and travel up and down his own life. He cannot change anything, but he learns to appreciate everything that happens. Once he starts speaking publicly on being abducted by aliens and being put in their zoo with a porn star....this is about when people start thinking he's crazy.
Billy doesn't seem like someone who ever should have been in the Army, let alone fighting in the war. He wants to give up many times, but another soldier, Weary, won't let him. They end up captured and eventually forced to Dresden as labor.
Vonnegut packs in a lot to this small book. Each word, each sentence has weight. I'm very glad I read this (finally!)
If you have a subscription to Audible, you know they now offer smaller, free books for subscribers. Feeding the Dragon was one of them and I will 100% admit I downloaded it solely because it was a little girl who lived in a library.
My dream!
Sharon Washington herself read the one-woman play and it was magnificent. The sound effects were a nice touch but Washington's voice and her impressions of her parents and everyone else were just.... She's a storyteller. A born storyteller.
At one hour and 17 minutes, I ended up getting through this in one sitting, with a side trip to the park to sip chai and just listen.
I finished the audiobook yesterday and have been thinking about it since. I was also trying to decide if this would be the shortest review ever or the longest. I decided to go for a happy medium.
WOW.
I just picture J.K. Rowling as either 1) meticulous with a whiteboard and many colored markers, plotting out the twists and turns and character developments of Cormoran and Robin or 2) Writing furiously in a haze of magic smoke and delivering a unicorn of a mystery.
The audiobook was over 22 hours long and, because it was an audiobook, I couldn't go back and pinpoint the areas I knew I needed to go back over. Once I got to the end and all was revealed, I wanted to run back and re-read. But really, I didn't need to go back. I just sat there with a mug of tea and let my mind trace back. The 22+ hours seemed like it zipped by and didn't seem like it had a plan. But once I looked back at the path Rowling led me on, it was damn well laid out. I was just rushing along, asking "And then what happened???" without seeing where I was going.
And that, my friends, is why I love this series so much.
I'm going to be somewhat vague because I want others to race along the path and be surprised as well. I would feel terrible if I gave anything away.
Parts of this book made me heartsick. The women in the abusive relationships, our dear Robin and Flick, were all too real. Emotional and manipulative abuse is still abuse. I wanted nothing more than for Robin to kick Matthew in the balls and walk out. I also wanted nothing more than for Cormoran to quit being in his head and reach out to Robin as a friend. His brain made excuses and Robin's brain made excuses and, OH MY GOD YOU TWO, talk to each other!
There was one phrase that, at first, made me indignant. We all see how capable Robin is, how quick and clever, how physically able she is to take care of herself. Besides Matthew's horrid comments about her, we already know Robin. So when Cormoran said that (paraphrasing) because Robin was a woman, she was the most vulnerable of the two of them. I was starting to get all righteous that Cormoran thought this.....
then I realized he's right. We are still in the age where, no matter the woman's capabilities, we are thought of as weaker and more vulnerable. And it's proven in the end. The villain of the book didn't go after Strike. The villain went after Robin. Dammit.
I'm very curious where we go from here. We've brought Charlotte back into the mix. Robin and Strike have shown they are willing to break the law and lean a bit towards the unethical side to get the information they need. Matthew surely can't be going into the night quietly because he's a full-of-pride-asshole who needs the last word.
I have no idea! With only 24 votes, this could swing either way (although I think North and South is out of the game.) Vote below for the Big Damn Classic that I will read in 2019!
Getting Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut queued up on my Kindle - my 2018 Big Damn Classic (hey, it's still technically 2018!)
I'm surprised I got this book from the library when I did. I was 186th in line for the audiobook! Thankfully, the hardback line was much shorter. I enjoyed this one and whipped through it pretty quick, but it felt different to me and it took me a moment to realize why.
For one, Grandma Mazur is barely in here. When she appeared, she was funny, but I'm hoping her lack of antics in 25 isn't an indicator of things to come. Grandma is pretty damn funny.
The second, it didn't feel as chaotic as a regular Plum book. I realized it was because Stephanie was always...ALWAYS...with Ranger, Morelli, or one of Ranger's men. ALWAYS. The crack team of Plum and Lula didn't have much opportunity to get into their normal trouble. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the dudes and the sexual tension. But they stepped in and helped too much.
Vinnie has to take over a deli, that was used as collateral for a bond. Harry the Hammer, Vinnie's father-in-law, makes Stephanie the manager and Lula associate. The big problem? Neither has ever managed anything before. Gamely, they arrive to open the store only to hear that managers end up kidnapped, leaving only one shoe behind, by the dumpster. Rangeman services step in with round the clock bodyguarding until Hal, one squeamish at the sight of blood bodyguard, ends up kidnapped himself.
Trenton's finest (Morelli) and Ranger protect Stephanie while using her as bait. We have a lot of bizarre things in this book, and many literal LOL moments, but most of the heavy lifting is from the dudes surrounding Stephanie.
I hope Twenty-six finds a happy medium between twenty-four and twenty-five.
We've landed in the 30's and 40's, in Canada, in Chinatown. Not exactly a place I thought I would be! This was a timely book about immigration and it allowed us to hear how it was to be a Chinese immigrant in Canada from the perspective of 3 children.
Gender and birth order play a huge role in Chinese culture. It's unfortunate because the first POV we experience is Jook-Liang, only sister. Being female and not being the oldest in the family puts her in a position of, well, I'd like to say invisibility but she's visible and constantly being told by her grandma that girls are worthless. No one wants girls. Jook-Liang is nothing if not persistent, even becoming best friends with an old Chinese man, Wong Bak. You notice that in this POV Chinese culture is very prevalent.
Our next voice is Jung-Sum, Second Brother. Still not a place of austerity but certainly better than being a girl. Jung is adopted and he's taken with boxing, getting lessons and learning how to shadow box. As you're reading, you notice he has a need to be "manly", with boxing, fighting, and how he dresses. As you walk through Jung's POV with him, you discover his secret.
Our last POV is the youngest brother Sek-Lung, a sickly little kid that was constantly kept out of school and was a favorite of the grandma. His POV is distinctly void of Chinese culture and he's very clearly a spoiled kid. Probably the least favorite of the sections because it didn't feel like it had a point (you'll notice the other two did). Sek-Lung takes in all the disinformation about the Japanese, including with Pearl Harbor that forced America into the war, and he joins in bullying Japanese children, even while admitting that he was mistaken for being Japanese and had to be protected. Well, perhaps that is the point?
This was a good book with great perspective on, essentially, being a stranger in a strange land....illegally.
Short little novella that has some of the patented King weirdness along with the should-be-patented King humanity. If you follow King's Twitter, it's not a secret that he is very much against Trump and this novella shows his liberal side, but in a good way.
Scott Carey is a large man with a big front porch (I have never heard a beer belly called that before). But he's rapidly losing weight. Not just losing weight, he's losing gravity. Gravity is loosening it's hold on Scott, more every day. So while he looks like the big man he always has, he's very much not.
His new neighbors are lesbians who have opened a new restaurant in Castle Rock. Despite having fantastic food, customers are very few. Castle Rock doesn't cotton to lesbeans who are married.
How the little town quits being a dick to the lesbian couple, how Scott, Missy, Deidre and Doctor Bob end up together and how Scott loses his battle with gravity....ALL very well written. Humans are great (except when they are not).
I know I started on book 2, because that was the only one available from the library. Normally, books in a series recap the book before so, even if it's not a stand-alone book, it can still be read like one.
Not here.
I was lost.
We just JUMPED right into Jane Hawk's adventures. Her terrifying, horrifying adventures. I learned enough to understand that people, rich people and the government, want to mind control everyone and shape how the direction the world moves. That's terrifying and just a smidge to on the nose lately. Jane's husband (apparently from the first book), killed himself but only because the nanobots in his brain told him to. The puppet masters didn't want him around.
Cora, a schoolteacher for special needs kids, is another one of the victims of the puppet masters. How in the world she could destroy the future is beyond me, but they decided she needed to go. She killed herself in a fiery explosion that took out many other innocent lives.
Jane's goal is to get to the puppet master himself and make him confess his crimes so she will be believed and not on the FBI's most wanted list. As a fugitive, former FBI, she does a great job stealthily going across the US in search of her answers. She's more prepared for anything than I would ever be!
Luther Tillman, the sheriff in the small town were Cora lived and died, believes something is very wrong. His own sleuthing leads him to Iron Furnace, Kentucky. Jane's already on her way there as well. They end up allies and continue on, saving children and running to safety.
In the end, this book didn't wrap up. It left a lot of questions for us and for Jane. Nothing ended like she had hoped.
For the most part, I enjoyed this, especially Jane. She is going to be a great new lead to get on board with. I did end up skimming quite a bit because the writing was very, very descriptive. I loved the Odd Thomas books but skimmed the descriptions there as well. The inside of a building really doesn't need 4 pages of descriptions.
I just randomly pull Reacher's out when I can get them. I'm not these need to be read in order, so if the library has one, I get it. I still cannot get over the description of Reacher (Bigfoot, Incredible Hulk) and correlate that to Tom Cruise (Reacher in the movies). How did that even happen?
The Midnight Line had a weird premise. Reacher finds a West Point class ring in a pawn shop. He wants to find it's owner. That's how the story starts and that's what prompts Reacher on this crazy-ass trip across the Midwest. The pawn shop owner is the first stop for intel, obviously, which leads to Jimmy Rat and his hoodlums which leads to Scorpio and his "laundromat" that is clearly a front for something else.
Which leads to the middle of Wyoming, Mule Crossing, to be exact.
Reacher teams up with a PI, hunting for the sister of his client, and the sister herself. It turns out that the missing sister belongs to the West Point ring.
What we end up in the middle of is a drug ring. It's interesting and a bit terrifying, if this is our future in the opiod epidemic, but a good ride, nonetheless.
I don't feel that Reacher's heart was in this one as much as the other novels I've read. The ring seemed like a weak premise to start this adventure and it seemed to be the only thing Reacher thought of. People died? Ok, gotta return the ring. Hot woman next to you? Ok, gotta return the ring. Someone ate by a bear? Ok, gotta return the ring.
This is 13th in the Temperance Brennan series (Bones TV show was based on this series). I say this with every Brennan book and I'll say it again: this series is 1000 times better than the show. I liked the show at first but then, I didn't.
You might know that Brennan is a forensic anthropologist and spends her time between Montreal and North Carolina, doing whatever work is needed for any case that needs her. She's called to a body that was found wrapped in plastic and weighted down with a rock tied around the ankle, sunk in a pond. At first, it seems like murder. Until, the body is unwrapped and it's discovered that it was autoerotic activity. The fact that the male victim was dressed like a naughty nurse was a good first clue.
The victim was ID'd by fingerprints as John 'Spider' Lowery....
who died in Vietnam in 1968.
So who is buried in Lowery's grave in America? Brennan exhumes the body and, at the insistence of Lowery's father, accompanies the body to Hawaii for identification.
Things get very screwy with at least 4 bodies appearing without ID and bodies showing up and getting incorrectly ID'd. Detective Ryan comes to Hawaii (and continues hitting on Brennan) to help investigate when the plastic-wrapped body's DNA did not match Lowery's mother's DNA. Something is seriously a miss.
I figured it out half a page before Brennan realized the whole picture and that was near the end of the book. It was one curvy, weird ride and I liked it!
Listed as the best book you've never heard of and it's true! Published in the 1859, this is a classic that isn't as known (but should be). I've been talking this up to all my bookish friends and I've not come across one who has heard of it. This, my friends, is the basis of detective fiction novels. Doyle based his character and stories on this novel. It was initially published as a serial so essentially each chapter ends as a cliffhanger and just keeps forcing you to read and curse anything that tries to distract you.
I listened to this through Craftlit, because Heather does a great job with explanations (she's a teacher). But you can also grab it for free from Librivox.
Walter Hartright is a young artist who gets a job at Limmeridge House to teach and mentor two young ladies in drawing, Laura Fairlie, a beautiful wealthy blonde, and Marian Halcombe, Laura's half-sister, most noted to be not as attractive but turns out to be one of the best written female characters.
On the way to Limmeridge, Walter encounters the woman in white. She's lost and needs assistance to get to where she needs to go. After assisting her, Walter finds out that she's escaped from a mental asylum. He uses the experience as a tale to tell the young ladies and finds out that the woman in white is actually Anne Catherick, who knew Laura's mother.
As expected, Walter falls for Laura but Laura is promised to Sir Percival Glyde in marriage. Glyde's best bud, Count Fosco, married to Laura's aunt, completes the crew that we end up watching throughout the book.
The book is told in narratives, each voiced by a different character. We start off with Walter's POV and then jump into others. This allows us to get a full picture of the mystery and how it started and where it went. But.....it's hard to tell, when the story is laid out, which narrator can be trusted. (Walter is a bit boring at first, but stick with him.)
Every time I was able to turn this book on, I was engrossed. If you are unsure about "the classics", start here!
As in years past, I have a list of classics that I want to read but am hard pressed to pick the ONE. The Big Damn Classic of the year. Hold up, Miss Thang, you might be saying. The people picked SlaughterHouse-Five for your classic of 2018 and I don't see that review anywhere!
You are right. *hanging head*
This year hasn't been my most prolific in reading (I'm not even going to bring up my Goodreads reading challenge - wait...I just did). However, I did just this second queue up Slaughterhouse-Five on my Kindle and it's ready to go. I'm finishing To The Lighthouse for a book club, then it's on. I'm still listening to Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and damn, if this shouldn't have been a Big Damn Classic. Review coming soon!
The contenders for 2019 do contain some possibles from previous years and some new ones!
Here ...we....go
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Pub: 1884 The book opens with a description of Huck’s new life as he undergoes a process of “civilization” while living with the Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson. Although he dislikes the strict regime of education, manners, church and rigid clothing, which are a necessity to fit into society, Huck prefers anything to his previous life with his drunkard father Pap. However, just as things begin to stabilize, Pap returns to the picture and demands Huck give him the money that he had previously attained during an adventure with his best friend Tom Sawyer. Huck’s refusal to do so only infuriates Pap. Just when things are improving for Huck, he is kidnapped and mistreated by his no-good father. After faking his own death and on the run, he meets Jim who is a runaway slave with a bounty to his name. Huck must decide whether to trust his gut feeling and help an innocent flee slavery, or view the poor man simply as property. Caught up between ethics and legality, Huck must make a decision. The two set out together on a raft, both in search of freedom and experience many challenges on the way whilst at the same time an emotional bond is developed.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Pub: 1849 David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.
Roots by Alex Haley Pub: 1976 Haley has done more than recapture the history of his own family. As the first black American writer to trace his origins back to their roots, he has told the story of 25,000,000 Americans of African descent. He has rediscovered for an entire people a rich cultural heritage that slavery took away from them, along with their names and their identities. But Roots speaks, finally, not just to blacks, or to whites, but to all people and all races everywhere, for the story it tells is one of the most eloquent testimonials ever written to the indomitability of the human spirit.
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Pub: 1898 The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells first serialised in 1897 by Pearson's Magazine in the UK and by Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The novel's first appearance in hardcover was in 1898 from publisher William Heinemann of London. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race.The novel is the first-person narrative of both an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and of his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon.
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Pub: 1605 Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years.
With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote generally has been recognized as the first modern novel. The book has had enormous influence on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible."
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell Pub: 1855 When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.
In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.
All descriptions from Goodreads
Now it's time to vote! Vote as much as you like up until 1/1/2019
I had expectations going in solely from the title and cover (isn't there wisdom about not judging a book by...something?). The NYC art scene in the '80s sounded intriguing and interesting to me. Prentiss' writing was unexpected but not unliked. I got into that groove fairly quickly. I dove in with her, into Franca's life in Argentina, and was a bit unhappy to be pulled out so quick. Ah, it's ok, I'll find out more later.
Here's my issue with the book.
We touch on some very interesting characters, but only three are actually examined, and, in my mind, the three that we delve into are not the interesting ones. We lost the ones that held my interest and barely touched into another one that was filled with promise.
We lost Franca but gained her brother Raul. There wasn't anything redeeming in his character that made me care for him, nor made me sorry when he had an accident. We have Lucy, who, initially, I was excited to follow. A small town girl from the Midwest heads to NYC for a new, exciting life. Typical but I was hoping her path was atypical. Wrong again! She went the route of sexed-up, secondary character pretty quickly. Then there's James, who has synaesthesia and is an art critic. How he saw life and art was new and exciting and made him the top of the heap in the art world. Alas, his dear wife Marge was relegated to a bit player. I couldn't like James simply for the fact that, as Marge worked full time in an office and not doing her art, James spent every penny he got....not on rent, or food, or anything useful, but on art. And he saw nothing wrong with forcing his wife to work a dull job to keep a roof over their head while he puttered around the art scene.
I'm used to books where every character is nonredeemable (The Great Gatsby, anyone?) but the writing itself usually makes it all worthwhile. The writing here is good, don't get me wrong, but I wanted something else from the characters.
This one is a bit spotty for me. I listened to the audio from Audible (and the narrator is amazingly good) for a IRL book club. But I missed the book club with 5 hours left to go and then didn't get back to it until later.
Zorba is both endearing and damn annoying. An older man, he fancies himself a ladies man, who declares that if you just go up to a woman and squeeze her breast, she will be yours. *eyeroll* In the author's world, and Zorba's, this is apparently true. Madame Hortense falls head over heels for Zorba but, it seems to be more of a case of the old lady's loneliness than anything to do with Zorba himself. Zorba shows interest and beds her and she wants marriage and stability. Their back-and-forth is heartbreaking.
Zorba pairs up with the unnamed narrator, I'll call him George, and they head off to re-open an old lignite mine. George is the boss and Zorba supervises the works and works himself to the bone. George is more of an intellectual who wants to finish his manuscript on Buddha while Zorba and the men do the backbreaking work.
I'll say the two end up on several adventures, including setting a monastery on fire (or at least heavily encouraging a crazy monk to do it) but adventures isn't the right word for these two. Joined at the hip, it's their combined lives becoming one.
In the end, I can see why this has been called one of the great friendships ever written.
I started on book #2 of this Chili Palmer series, series = two books. I'm honestly not sure how I liked this book. I was interested but I couldn't just get into it.
Chili is a former wiseguy who got relatively big with the movie Get Leo and bombed with the follow up Get Lost. He starts out meeting with his friend Tommy Athens, a record producer, who ends up with a bullet in the head as Chili is the witness.
Enter Linda Moon, a woman from a dating site whom Chili decides needs to be the star of his next film. Moon is really a musician and, through a series of events, Chili ends up as her manager. All the while, there's Raji (Moon's former manager and a stereotypical pimp) and Elliott (Raji's Samoan gay bodyguard who wants to make it in Hollywood) who want pretty much everyone dead and can't seem to decide who to kill.
Chili cleans up the record company of Tommy's, gets music made, gets people shot, tries to manipulate real-life events so he can have scenes in his movie and starts having sex with HIS manager. And WTF.
I honestly didn't like any character in this book except for Elaine. But I felt I needed to see where it ended. And it ended Meh.
The 11th book in the Fuckin' Flowers series. Virgil is right up there with Lucas on my favorite character list. And Sandford is one of my favorite, will-never-miss-a-book authors.
It could be the sinus infection, but even near the end, I couldn't figure out what Flowers knew. Jenkins and Shrake popped in for a bit and even they were at a loss until they got the whole crazy scheme from Flowers. When we finally were told, I was...skeptical. I think I wanted to end this on a grander scale, for all the legwork and dead ends that had happened.
We first have some schemers, including the mayor, who wanted to bring more money back into Wheatfield. So they scared up a Virgin Mary sighting in their church. Lo and behold, all the religious goobers came flocking to Wheatfield to see the Virgin. Coincidentally, the Mayor (Holland) and his genius sidekick (Skinner), bought up some storefront to sell Eats and Souvenirs of the Virgin. They are making a bankload of money when a sniper shows up.
Holland calls in Flowers to find the sniper before he kills someone. So far, sniper has had bad aim and is just wounding people, but he gets lucky soon enough. Weirdly enough, we never got perspective from the sniper's point of view, which we normally get. This was a strict POV of Flowers trying to catch the sniper.
So many dead ends, so much confusion. Even when Flowers figured it out, without telling us, I was still confused. His explanation and the motive seemed a bit weak, but I'll admit I still loved the book. Flowers doesn't need to be in mortal danger every book and this was a definite whodunit.
I was so prepared to be disappointed. I mean, King did write himself into the Dark Tower series. (not a spoiler, it's been out for YEARS). But I was very pleasantly surprised and even, dare I say, excited about this jacked up trip King took me on.
This starts out depressing and grisly when a little boy's mutilated corpse is found. It seems like a slam-dunk case, with eye witnesses stepping forward and letting Ralph Anderson, Flint City PD, know that Coach T, Terry Maitland, was with the victim right before the victim disappeared. It seems like everyone in town saw Terry, either with the kid or covered in blood. At this point, I already start saying to myself that this is TOO slam dunk. How could the guy be this dumb?
Ralph and co arrest Terry in the most spectacular way, causing the whole town to come down on Coach T (what happened to innocent until proven guilty??). Things turn mobbishly ugly and lives are lost. Problem? There's proof Terry was in Cap City with other teachers. Actual proof of Terry both on the corpse and in an entirely other city.
How can someone be in two places at the same time?
The answer to that is: Sister, you are in King's world now. The answer is horribly disturbing and crazy. There is an appearance by someone I know and love and, since I was so surprised by it, I won't tell you :) But truly, the appearance made this book for me.
The ending was strangely satisfying. I'm very happy to say this is a great King book that is really worth reading.
For some reason I had Matthew "Alright-alright-alright" McConaughey in mind while I read this book. Turns out, I somehow knew this was a movie with the man himself. How did I know that?
Regardless of the movie that I have never seen, this was a fantastic book! I carried the book everywhere and read as often as I could, and it's been a bit since I've done that with a book. I knew all the pieces to the story and the twist - I think we all did - but I was still unprepared for how Mick Haller played the game. And equally unprepared for how the game ended.
Louis Roulet calls in defense attorney Haller when he's arrested for assault and attempted rape of a prostitute. Roulet is from big, big money and could afford to have any lawyer he could buy, but he chooses Haller. All Haller sees are dollar signs from a possible franchise client. Defense attorneys are usually dealing with the worst and Haller is no exception. His entire job is to get his client off with as little punishment as possible, and Haller states outright that he doesn't want to know if they are innocent or not.
Things start turning in a bad way with the Roulet case, which makes Haller bring up Jesus Menendez's case and the fact that man went away for 40 years while proclaiming his innocence. Are these 2 cases tied together somehow?
This ended up as a fast-paced read and I loved every turn in the road. And it's a series! And the first in the series!
I love the Brennan series so much more in book form than in TV form. Book Brennan is human and intelligent. TV Brennan just always seemed so robotic.
Book Brennan finds herself called into a plane crash site where she uses her expertise to sort body parts and help ID victims. Montreal Detective Andrew Ryan also appears in the US to help at the crash site, which seems odd, but his former partner was on board, escorting a criminal.
You'd think this would be the actual plot of the book.
You'd be wrong.
Brennan comes across a dismembered foot being chewed on by coyotes. Thinking it's part of the crash and thinking the coyotes might run off with it if she doesn't take it, she grabs the foot and takes it to the makeshift morgue. From there, everything just goes to hell. Because of a foot.
The crash ends up very secondary to every thing else that rains down on Brennan's head.
An interesting read that I don't think I would have picked up on my own. I'm going to get my pet peeve about this one out of the way immediately and I shall not dwell on it anymore: no contractions. When I see entire soliloquies without contractions, my brain dies a little. It feels entirely too formal. Of course there were some, but the monologues were overwhelmingly formal. Also, "Good morning, how did you sleep?" is not a question that invites monologues, but in this book, that's what you get.
Away from the peeves!
Emma and Maria are two sisters who have lost contact with each other. Maria lives outside Barcelona and, on impulse even she can't understand, invites Emma to stay with her for a visit while they are cleaning up at their mother's funeral. Emma seemingly ignores the request until two years later when she emails Maria that she is coming for that visit. Maria is instantly upset and angry at Emma (and, rightfully, at herself) but prepares for the visit anyways. Clearly, these two sisters have, not just issues, but subscriptions worth of problems.
The book unfolds with many monologues and pouring forth of sisterly tears as they finally, actually, talk to one another. We have one sister, Emma, who stayed near home and became the caregiver to a Mother that the other sister could not stand. Maria, after the death of her twin Amanda, went off and never came back. Neither of those situations are ideal and they naturally created a rift between the two. The rift started when Emma was born and "invaded" the twins space and just grew larger and larger.
Ignoring my peeves, the way this story unfolded was interesting. Little bits and bops of things kept popping up and disappearing and made me (the reader) anxious. "We need to talk about Amanda" was said enough times that I yelled at the book "TALK ABOUT AMANDA". The book ignored me and continued on until it was damn well ready to talk about Amanda. And what a talk it was.
Interesting little book. Definitely worth a read. I'm sure I'm a rare reader when it comes to the contractions and formal language deal, so I'm sure you will do just fine.
Travel for work helped me knock out several books. Dogsitting an old dog helped me justify time on my couch finishing Simic's essay collection. I even read choice bits to the dog. I think she enjoyed it.
I didn't pick this book up by chance. My friend who actively reads poetry lent me 3 Simic books, I think to try and entice me into his world. I honestly am not a poetry person, with the exception of Charles Bukowski, but my friend keeps trying.
I started with the essays and memoirs to ease myself into Simic. What I found was truly excellent writing about a ton of things I know nothing about. He mentions so many artists, poets, and authors and I'm making notes because my knowledge base is zilch.
But going outside of me not knowing the references, this little book is truly packed with good writing. With bullshit (fully acknowledge by the author) and truth. Food and Happiness and Don't Squeeze the Tomatoes! are my two favorites (I might be hungry...). Someone who can wax poetic about the perfect tomato and make me so mad that I currently do not have any tomatoes is a great writer.
The Minotaur Loves His Labyrinth is so full of tidbits to store away and chew on later. Really, I didn't skip through any of the essays and that's saying something.
I'll be attempting the poetry next. If the writing is the same, I will probably be a convert.
Her storytelling is hilarious! The Roscoe story was still playing out when I went to Audible and downloaded her book. I made the assumption that since she was reading it, it would be more than outstanding.
I was right. Geesh, this lady is funny. Even about things in her life that shouldn't be funny. Her storytelling of her mom's accident, being shuffled through the foster system, her horribly abusive ex-husband and all those terrible boyfriends made you laugh but I felt bad about laughing, but then I laughed more. And BAM..girl crush. This woman took the shit from her life and made it into entertainment. She made a career out of it and launched herself out of her bad situations and into, I hope, super stardom. She deserves it.
The Roscoe story was even better here and her story about taking Will Smith and Jada on a swamp tour purchased on Groupon.....dear Lord. I sincerely hope someone punches her ex-husband for her....repeatedly.
Listen to the audiobook and listen all the way to the end for her Unicorn song. *girl crush*
I picked this up on Netgalley but just FINALLY got time to read it while traveling for work. I was completely engrossed in it and it was my main diversion on 4 flights this past week. Lucky for you, I procrastinated so long this book is already out for you to buy!
I do love historical fiction and this didn't disappoint. We're focused on King James VI and his reign. He was obsessed with witch hunts and that is one of the primary focuses of this book. Frances Gorges (whom I'm not sure is real) is the center of this book and is the witch in question. I didn't give anything away there, you'll notice immediately why she is targeted as a witch.
Frances is from a notable family, in service to the previous Queen. But once King James comes swirling in, the Gorges are relegated to the outskirts of the Court. King James hates witches and Catholics and uses his authority to hunt down both. I would hate living in this time. Not only is a death sentence a gruesome affair but it's a spectator sport as well. So weird.
Frances is forced to Court to be the Lady of the Bedchamber to the little princess Elizabeth. Frances' uncle wants the family in good standing and pulled strings to get Frances there and in a good position. Unfortunately for him, Frances uses her healing skills to help aid Queen Anne and falls under the suspicion of Lord Privy Seal Cecil, who is in charge of the witch hunts.
Things started tumbling down for Frances and for everyone under King James' rule. This is a seriously screwed up reign and even the Queen is looking for a way out.
Totally engrossing book. I do have to say that everyone "inclines" their head all the time. All. The. Time. I get that may be how royalty acknowledges people, with an incline of the head, but goodness.
Regardless of the inclines, I'll be reading more of this author.
So far, Bookbub hasn't really steered me wrong with free books. And, this is big, I'm actually starting series at the beginning!
This is the first Jason Wade book. I'll admit to being surprised it's a series based on Wade. He was pretty decent but he didn't feel like the hero of a series. I'll read the next few and see how he grows up. Either way, this is a decent standalone thriller. Extremely creepy and weird, with such an odd climax.
Wade is an intern at a Seattle paper. All of the interns are competing for a coveted job, and Jason really doesn't stand much of a chance. He doesn't have the background or pull that the other interns have. He has a history of a broken home and no where to go except for a brewery factory with his dad. Wade is initially on the crime beat and gets a tip about an abandoned car with a possible missing woman, Karen Harding. It's a good story and gets a good reaction from the editor.
We follow Harding along her car trip to get to her sister's but she ends up with a broken down car. A reverend in an RV (all signs point to NO!!!) comes to her rescue, but ends up abducting her.
We get really gruesome, really fast from here on out. The author brings in medieval torture techniques that really prove how horrible people were back in the day. We have crazy religious guys and Wade, out there still trying to get that permanent job.
The odd part, I thought, was how Wade stepped in and the ultimate climax of the mystery. I guess every day Joes can do what he did but it seemed pretty convenient. Still a really good mystery.
This was a IRL book club pick, something I had heard of but was pretty sure I had no interest in reading. Oh dear, there are problems with high society people in Savannah? Let me rush right into that.
Well, now I want to visit Savannah. (Damn you, well written and delightful book!)
This really is non-fiction that you can't quite believe really happened. Are people really like this? I know there are eccentrics in the good ol' USA but to have that many living in Savannah is really quite astounding.
We're told of the saga of Jim Williams, rich, gay, eccentric, and simultaneously beloved and loathed by society. Oh, they will come to his mansion and to his parties but they will talk about him behind his back because he didn't rise up through the proper family ranks. In a nutshell, a very small nutshell, he kills the 21 year old who works for him in self-defense. Except no one really believes it and he ends up having FOUR trials to determine if he's guilty.
Add in a lawyer/conman, a transgender drag queen named Chablis, a voodoo queen and a bug guy willing to poison the water of Savannah and I'm not sure what exactly you get. You definitely get a great book to lose yourself in and I'm sure you'll get a road trip to Savannah because you want to see if people are really like this.
Shirley Jackson is a gem. The Lottery was my first introduction to her and that fully creeped me out so I decided to try We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And we're creeped out again!
I listened to the audiobook from Audible and it was really well done and about 5+ hours long. Mary Kathering (or Merricat) is 18 and lives with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian in the Blackwood house. There used to be 7 members of the Blackwood family but only 3 remain. The other 4 were poisoned when someone put arsenic in the sugar bowl.
The townspeople hate the Blackwoods and only Merricat goes out for groceries in town and to get the items they need. Constance hasn't left the house since she was acquitted of the murders. In the beginning of the book, I was so angry with the villagers who taunted Merricat to her face as she went about her business. Then, I began to wonder about Merricat. She's 18 but talks like a child. She practices a form of magic to protect their estate and themselves. She seems to be her sister's protector but....is she?
Merricat is the first to detect that a change was coming, and the change would spell trouble for the little family. His name is Charles, and he is their cousin. Charles comes to stay with them for a bit and Constance seems taken with him. We find out rather quickly that he's a pretty terrible person and truly does bring trouble.
This was a strange little book, and Jackson's last, that is very worth reading. Standing out, apart from the norm, brings the bullies down upon people. I think you'll find the sisters have figured out how to handle the world and still be happy. You'll also find out what really happened to the Blackwood family.
(It looks like this is being made into a movie with Sebastian Stan (IMDB link))
Seriously, we're already at 28 Lucas Davenport books? Seems like only yesterday.....
After 28 damn books, I've come to a realization. Davenport is sly. I mean, I knew this. You can watch him work people to his advantage (really, to the case and victim's advantage - he's not a total asshole) and you know he's sly. He thinks things through and he works people in a way that most people wouldn't. I didn't really think about how sly he is without us knowing, until the end of this book. Sneaky, sneaky Davenport.
That might be one of the things I really love about Sandford's writing. He lays a lot out for you to absorb and process but holds certain things back. When the reveal happens, you flip back to the passage and realize, "Damn. He did do that.' Or maybe I'm just slow and I don't catch things anymore. Po-TAY-to. Po-TAH-to.
A rich psychopath is in the Senate and aiming for the White House (*cough cough*). We've met Taryn Grant before, and she just escaped Davenport's grip back in MN. Now, another Senator is nearly assassinated, and his companion (not his wife), is killed. He's pissed and pointing at Grant as the one pulling the trigger. Porter Smalls gets Davenport, now a U.S. Marshal, into DC to start investigating.
Things get hairy. Military gets involved. Arms deals, murders, etc. Everything that DC can throw at Davenport is being thrown. He doesn't so much solve the case as follow the trail of bodies piling up, but in the end, he finished what he came to DC to finish. God love this man.
I've only ever read one other Zadie Smith book, On Beauty, and I loved it. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details because I read it while my dad was in the end stages of Parkinson's but I know I would recommend On Beauty to anyone starting out with Zadie.
Swing Time took me a bit more by surprise. I got the book from Audible.com and LOVED the narrator. LOVED HER. Pippa Bennett-Warner was so damn stellar at the accents and nationalities in this book that I could hug her. She got me completely lost in the story. (I see she narrates White Teeth - sold! Downloading White Teeth now)
Once again, I think Smith did a fantastic job weaving together a story that shifts through time, bringing together Tracey and the unnamed narrator, and tearing them apart. We never find out the narrator's name, which leaves her as a bystander in all events, including in her own life. She's only ever an attachment to someone else, who is named, but never stands out on her own. And she seems acutely aware of this fact.
I did have a bit of trouble in the beginning because I just wasn't sure where we were going. We ended up traveling to London, NYC and West Africa, all the while watching No-Name lose herself and destroy friendships and relationships. She deliberately does terrible things, without thinking of consequences, takes the wrong path on so many occasions and still doesn't quite seem to understand how she got to where she is. She's terribly young and her immaturity shines through most of her interactions.
I hope, by the ending, she is free to be herself and figure out who she is. Her attachments are whittled down to nothing, which means, she needs to stand on her own.
Good book and I highly recommend the audio version (about 13+ hours).
I normally really like short stories, when I'm ready for short stories. Usually after an epic novel that weighs more than my car. At that time, carrying around a slim volume of short stories, and reading in chunks, is a delight (and my arms get a rest!).
I dove into into volume and immediately was unsure if I wanted to continue. The writing was good, the perspective was great, the voice changed with each story and it was interesting. So, what's your problem, Amanda?? I couldn't relate. Every story was wife/mother/husband/kids. As a never-married, no-children woman, I had no one to side with or to understand. I was left thinking, "Do women really get that resentful in their marriage? With their children?"
THEN I got it. Some of it. Being a woman is a complicated way to live. I somewhat feel for men trying to understand us when, frankly, we can confuse and perplex ourselves. I am the woman in the dentist chair running a billion worries through her mind, all in the span of one visit. My worries may not include husbands or kids, but they are worries. Going alone into this world is just as difficult sometimes.
I get resentful of people in my life, for reasons I've actually never understood. The feeling goes away pretty quick but it happens. Relationships are complicated, friendships are hard, testing the waters to try something completely new to you is just terrifying at times.
I do think a woman who is/was a wife/mother would get a bit more from this than I did but I appreciated the writing and am curious to check out more of Rechner's work.
This was a pretty good IRL book club book. It brought a lot of people to the club and caused A LOT of good discussion.
Junger outlines essentially why we need our tribes. You can't go through this world alone, no matter what you think, and the way America is set up now, we no longer have community. I'll be the first to admit that after 18 years of living in my neighborhood, I only have talked to 3 neighbors. That's insanity when you think about it.
We delve into the past, where white people ran away to the Indian tribes (but never vice versa) and we move into soldiers returning from war who say that war time is their best time. They have brotherhood, mission, and their tribe. Peace time, home time, doesn't give them that. They get a "Thank you for your service" and people move on. Let's not even talk about how few people even realize there's still a war going on and soldiers are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan.
One of the most interesting facts regarded school shootings. There are no incidences of mass shootings in schools in urban ghetto areas. Only in white, affluent, "safe" areas. This is proof that tribes mean something. The suburban sprawl has caused kids to be more alone than ever and they lash out. Poverty, however terrible it is (and it is), creates the tribe feeling for urban kids.
Tribe is defined basically as would you lay down your life for your community? I don't mean your neighbors...I mean, your tribe. Your people. After reading this book, I thought hard about who is in my tribe, who I would die for (hopefully it won't come to that). Who is my tribe?
Guess what, folks? I started on book #2 for this series. Do I have a knack for this or what?? Thankfully, it's pretty much a standalone so I don't think I missed anything but now I really need to hunt down book #1 (Lock In).
This introduces us (me) to Haden, a disease caused by a virus that permanently shuts down a person's body but leaves their mind intact. This sounds absolutely horrifying but Haden's made it work. They have neural networks implanted in their brains that allow them to visit a digital world, where they create their own personal homes. They also walk around in threeps, robotic suits they can use just like regular bodies, while their physical body remains elsewhere.
We meet Chris Shane, a Haden who is also an FBI Agent and his partner, Agent Leslie Vann, a non-Haden. They get immediately thrown into a case of a Haden who dies while playing Hilketa. Threeps are on the playing field while the Haden controls their movements. One threep is the Goat in each play and the goal is to rip the head of the goat and get it across the line. Sounds....violent. It's unheard of for a Haden to die during a game since it's really the threep out there being pummeled, but die Duane Chapman does. Even more fishy? His vital data is pulled the instant he dies and scrubbed from the data feed.
I'm somewhat new to sci-fi and Scalzi is just pulling me in, kicking and not-screaming. While the premise sounds a little out there, this still had the makings of a big-body-count-buildings-destroyed-with-a-cat-named-Donut action book. I was personally rooting for Donut.
You, too, can read these books out of order like I did. It won't dampen your enjoyment of the story at all!
This book blew my mind, melted my brain, made me crazy. All in the best possible way.
I've never encountered a book that was this twisted in on itself. I actually felt like I needed a whiteboard to work out what was happening and by whom.
We start off in the woods, in the mind of someone who only knows the name Anna. This is Dr. Sebastian Bell, a guest at Blackheath, a guest of the Hardcastles. He has no idea who he is but he sees Anna getting murdered in the woods. Racing away, for we learn that he's really a coward, he comes across Blackheath manor and, inside, the other guests know him and take him in.
Our protagonist is not really Dr. Bell. Our protagonist is the person inside Dr. Bell, who is the person inside the butler, inside Davies, inside Derby. He is jumping bodies every time he falls asleep or is knocked out. But why? To stop Evelyn Hardcastle from being murdered. He lives 8 lives in 8 days and must solve the murder before it happens each day. If he doesn't, he starts back over with day one in Dr. Bell. This sounds easy enough, yes? Except he's being pursued by a killer footman and has other rivals in the house who need to solve the murder before him. The person who solves the murder goes free.
But it's really not what you think and it's STILL not that simple. Mind. Blown.
I refuse to hand out spoilers for this book because it was such a crazy "Are you KIDDING me?" ride to the end. The author does a fantastic job at revealing what is happening to us and the protagonist. He's learning who he is and where he is right along with us and, truly, I think we all get equally confused at points.
I'm a casual fan of music. I'm glad music exists and I have bad/good/odd taste in it. Music isn't something I'm passionate about but reading about music, well, I can get on board with that. Ezra Furman wrote a 33 1/3 book about Lou Reed's Transformer and since I really love Ezra's music and Lou Reed confuses me, I gave the book a try.
I still love Ezra but I question the hero worship of a guy who is racist/abusive but...I get Ezra's point about paying attention to the other pieces. Still, I have trouble overlooking the negative pieces. And Lou Reed still confuses me a bit but it seems like I'm not alone in that.
33 1/3 books by Bloomsbury are small little books that go in-depth into albums, track by track, taking apart the artist behind the music. There are over 100 books ranging from Dusty Springfield and Johnny Cash to...New Kids on the Block? Hmm... ok.
Ezra starts out trying to piece together the personas of Reed: Lou the Queer, Lou the Failure, Lou and Bowie. The he dives in, one track at a time, and gives his ideas on what it all means. I had no idea that Transformer was so out there. On first listen, without knowing much else, it doesn't sound unusual. After understanding some backstory, the next several listens strike me as odd.
This little book is well worth reading, even if you aren't a huge Lou Reed fan. It took me some time to read because, after each track dissection, I listened to the track a few times. I might just learn to appreciate music as something other than sound in the background.
Full Transformer Playlist
Ezra Furman's new album. I put this here because it's amazing and so is Ezra
This has been on my TBR list for a bit and I was a little surprised that it felt difficult to get through. I wasn't sure why, I just knew I wasn't picking it up as often to get it finished.
The writing is great, I had no issues with that. I felt every piece of Africa with the author through her words. There were really no slow parts, no bad characters, or whatnot. I think my main problem was....this felt like a rough life and a rough childhood and THAT made it hard to read.
Alexandra Fuller's family moved to Africa when she was just a wee baby. She had an older sister, Vanessa, a mom and a dad. They went on a work permit and were tending farms for a living. Often poor, often hungry, they seemed to always have the bad luck to land in the middle of war-torn, landmine-encrusted areas. Nicola, the mom, gave birth to 5 children but only 2 lived. The life they chose was a harsh one.
Fuller doesn't shy away from the brutalities, the day to day normalcy to them (carrying an Uzi wherever you go) seem horrible to others. The racial bias and descriptions on how whites (like the Fullers) are treated vs their black neighbors is pretty terrible as well. And Fuller recognizes that.
All in all, a very good book that is worth the read. I realize that I really don't know much about Africa, it's history or it's culture. Thankfully, Fuller recommends books at the end to help bridge that gap of knowledge.
And honestly, this has to be my favorite cover of all time
I grabbed this off of Audible, hoping for something to make me laugh. It did, some, but not what I was hoping for. On the flip side, it was still a good memoir about Lancaster's quest to not lose her feet to diabetes.
Lancaster is a narcissist. It's right there in the subtitle, so don't take that the wrong way. I think every woman SHOULD look into the mirror and think "Damn gurl! You fine!" regardless of their size. And that's exactly how Lancaster viewed herself up until her doctor gave her the death speech. Lancaster was about to turn 40 and was more overweight than even she thought.
As a pitch for a new book, Lancaster decides to lose 50 lbs and write about it. The book is picked up, therefore she must lose the weight. For as narcissistic as she makes herself out to be, I have to admire what she did to lose the weight safely. Extra time at the gym with a trainer, weight watchers and lap swimming at the local pool. Although, I rolled my eyes a bit because she is a writer. That's her job. So taking the time to lose weight in that fashion, well, it was probably a bit easier than for folks who work outside the home.
Not a bad book. I will probably pick up some of her others to read because I enjoyed the writing.
I forget who recommended Bookbub to me but I ended up signing up and grabbing free Kindle books if they sounded remotely interesting. I snagged this copy based on the premise and didn't really delve much deeper. Now, I see that it's part of a series and was originally published in 2008 (despite my regular reading-series-out-of-order luck, this happened to be the first book!).
Goodreads tells me there are 10 books in the Jeff Resnick series and, based on this book, I think this will be a series I enjoy.
Resnick is a former insurance investigator who has been unemployed for a good long while. When we meet him, he's about to start a new job and get his life back. Unfortunately, a couple of crackhead kids changes his plans. He's mugged and beaten over the head with a baseball bat. While in a coma as a John Doe, the kids ransack his apartment and steal everything of value and deface the rest. Assholes. Resnick's half brother, Richard, comes to the rescue to take Jeff back to Buffalo to recover. Their relationship is tumultuous at best. Richard was left millions in inheritance while Jeff has nothing. Richard is a doctor while Jeff struggled to stay employed as an investigator. Yin Meet Yang.
Richard's girlfriend, Brenda, is a nurse and welcomes Jeff with open arms. Jeff starts having visions, where he sees a murder happen and feels the horror and emotion of the crime. Could this be a symptom of the brain injury? Maybe, but it turns out, the visions are real. A prominent banker in town is found gutted like a deer, strung up in his garage, exactly like Jeff's vision.
Compelled to investigate, we pretty much dive in to a crime of passion and greed that would have gone unsolved if not for Resnick. Since this is the first book, we learn what he is learning about his new gift at the same time. I'm pretty curious to see where he goes from here and what he can do without a broken arm and brain injury.
Good murder mystery. Definitely drew me in to read the series. And .... yay free books!
I'll start off saying that I love this woman. I read Smoke Gets In Your Eyes back in 2015 and fell in love with her idea of the Good Death. Why is death so terrifying for Americans? Why are we, as the living, so far removed from it? When my dad passed in 2009, I remember being upset that we were ushered out of his room and sent to the waiting room while the funeral home took over. I remember being upset they shaved his mustache (he was never without it) and that we only saw him again when it was time for visitation. He was my DAD. And I wasn't allowed to be there.
Caitlin put into words what I was feeling. Americans sanitize death too much. We're not allowed to grieve with the bodies of our loved ones. Everything is swept up and away and you need to slap a smile on your face because everyone else has moved on, why can't you?
In From Here To Eternity, Caitlin visits several cultures, here and abroad, to learn about death customs. This was just fascinating to me. Ever since dad died and we went through the whole thousands of dollars funeral experience, I knew that I wouldn't be taking the same route. Caitlin's work, including her Ask A Mortician YouTube channel, led me to natural burials. And now I know where my body will end up.
Some of the places Caitlin visits are Colorado. A small town called Crestone built their own pyre to send their dead off in a respectful manner. Indonesia: where corpses are mummified in Death Houses and brought out every so often to be cleaned and cared for by their families. This culture has a very hands on idea of taking care of their families. Mexico is an obvious place to go for Dias de los Muertos. In North Carolina, on a body farm, they are working on recomposition of bodies, essentially composting a corpse and giving the compost back to the family. (Fun fact: ashes from cremation are completely devoid of any nutrients so even if you scatter the ashes in a garden, they do no good).
Spain placed the corpses behind glass to give the sense of close up but not. I think my favorite was Japan and the Buddhist Temple of Koukokuji. Japan has the highest cremation rate (99.9%) and some of those ashes are kept at Ruriden. It's high tech mixed with Buddhism.
https://youtu.be/y9m1jlYl1qs
Essentially, mourners call up their person via key card. The Buddha associated with their loved one lights up to show them where to go.
In Boliva, I will admit that the concept of natitas might have been a little much for me. (more info at the link). I always find it difficult when faith crosses into "magic" but these people have a culture and I do appreciate that they found a way to deal with death.
Lastly, a natural burial in California at the Joshua Tree cemetery.
Natural vs. Traditional burials
Caitlin's TED talk
Caitlin is not only intelligent and awesome, she's a natural writer who writes about the terrifying side of life with wit and humor. You get information you should have (no body HAS to be embalmed....did you know that?) in easy doses. HIGHLY recommend her books, blog, and YouTube channel. Death not terrifying. It's a part of life.
I've heard of Brene Brown and wanted to give her a try. I didn't choose this book for any particular reason except I liked the subtitle: The Quest for True Belonging and The Courage to Stand Alone. I've found, when the situation arises, I'm usually the one out there alone and speaking up. Alone and doing.
I listened to the audiobook read by Brene. There were so many points where I just kept nodding my head. It's clear she does a lot of research for her books and has a lot of facts and points to back up her advice.
One of the pieces of advice that I really appreciated was: It's easy to hate from far away. Get in close. She frames a lot of her advice in the context of where America is politically. This piece is very true. I have friends, great friends, whose political views are polar opposites of my views. But I don't hate them. I know them so well they might as well be family. But I shrug off our differences. So why is it so easy to get angry at strangers or the masses when they disagree? Because you haven't moved in close to them. Someone at a protest makes you angry? Move in and talk to them. It's such a novel concept except it's not. It should be common sense.
Her section on how we dehumanize people in order to make it easier to tear them down was difficult to read because of the truth. In big ways (Holocaust) and little ways we dehumanize others so we don't feel bad about how they are treated. Again, I'm shocked and not surprised we do this. And yes, the we includes myself. Some of the examples Brown gives hit a little too close to home.
I also appreciated the advice of Hold Hands With Strangers. Get in there and feel all the pain and all the joy. It connects humans better than social media. Being there, showing up, and listening is so important but rarely done.
I've been trying to take her advice to heart and make some improvements. Some days are much better than others, obviously, but imagine how things would work if everyone tried to just show up and be with their fellow man.
I started this monster in September 2016 and just finished it the other day. Once again, no, it really didn't take me that long to read. But I got caught up in the show and I really didn't want to know what happened, or what could happen. At the mid-season finale, when {spoiler} got bit, I knew I needed to finish this compendium.
Let me just say that the show has deviated quite a bit. What upset me on the show didn't happen in the comics except I ended up getting completely upset by the ending of the compendium and just have to say DO NOT KILL {SPOILER}, DAMMIT.
So the beginning of this compendium, Negan is still a thing, Abraham is alive and they are not yet broken. The ending is way beyond the show and we get an all new villain for the survivors to deal with because Negan is no longer a threat......or is he??
This is a good one. I'm eager to see The Whisperers played out on the show but DO NOT KILL {SPOILER}.......DAMMIT.
Another Fuckin' Flowers book, number 10 to be exact. Although it does seem like his nickname of That Fuckin' Flowers is being phased out and he's just Virgil now. I'm ok with that.
Virgil is called to Trippton, MN, which you may remember from Deadline, book number 8. This time the body of one of the richest women in Trippton has been "caught" by a fisherman. Except, we already know who killed Gina Hemming, because the first chapter introduced us to Bug Boy, David Birkmann and showed us the murder. But wait, David didn't throw Gina's body in the frozen river. He staged an accident. So.....how did she get there?
Naturally, we have to have another case thrown in to make Virgil's life more complicated. Margaret Griffin shows up in Trippton, an ex-L.A. cop, paid by Mattel, to come put a stop to counterfeit Barbies. Not JUST Barbies. These Barbie's have a special...."feature". As do the Ken dolls. Whew. Who thinks this stuff up?
I really enjoyed how Virgil handled this one. I had to re-read his solving of the murder and was damn impressive at how his brain works.
Fully recommend this one, no need to even start at the beginning of the series.
I was searching out podcasts of other folk's opinions on Moby Dick. This was one of my favorites and is now on my list of podcasts to listen to on a regular basis.
My 2017 Big Damn Classic as voted by YOU, the readers, (thanks a lot)! I started listening to this in September 2017 and finished last night.
Librivox says this was only 24 hours long but, lordy, it felt longer sometimes. Stewart Wills is a fantastic reader so if you do dive into this book, find his version on Librivox.org.
So let's get into this, hmm? I'll admit that it took so long to listen to that the beginning of the book is a bit foggy but overall we are met with action and long descriptions. We are met with deep views into people called Savages and into savage people. At the heart of this, Melville delves into the people. I laughed that this was a book with 133 chapters learning about the characters and 2 chapters watching them die. It was actually a terribly sad ending.
Call me Ishmael.
One of the most famous opening lines leads us into Ishmael's narrative about trying to get a job on a whaling ship in Nantucket. He arrives at the Spouter's Inn and is forced to share a bed since they were full. He ends up with Queequeg (or Hedgehog as people kept calling him, which made me laugh harder than it should), a heavily tattooed pagan cannibal who is also an excellent harpooner. Ishmael and Queequeg quickly become friends and soon head to the Pequod to try and get work. Queequeg is a given based on his ability with a harpoon. Ishmael gets in reluctantly.
Ahab is the ship's captain and isn't seen for a long while after the ship has sailed. Chief Mate Starbuck handles everything in the Captain's absence. Second Mate, Stubb and Third Mate, Flask make up the main crew. After the ship is on it's way, Ahab gathers the crew to tell them their goal is to find the white whale, Moby Dick. He offers up a reward for anyone who helps capture and kill the whale. Here we know that, technically, this ship is set for whaling in general. Ahab has now made this voyage his personal vendetta against the whale that took his leg.
Not everyone is pleased with this. The longer the voyage, the less pleased they are with Ahab's direction. At one point, Ahab's death was on the mind of his Chief Mate but, alas, nothing came of it.
In the end, Moby Dick is spotted and, for 3 days, Ahab orders his men out to try and kill the whale. Moby is an angry whale. He wreaks havoc on Ahabs crew: destroying the whale boats, sinking the Pequod and killing everyone on board and finally killing Ahab and everyone in the whale boats.
Except for Ishmael. Who is found days later, clinging to a buoy in the middle of the ocean.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that vengeance is bad. Ahab was cold and heartless towards everyone around him. He was laser-focused on his revenge against the white whale that nothing else, and no one else, mattered. Even when the men of his crew begged him to stop this chase so they would live to see their families, he turned a deaf ear.
There is so much more to this story that my summation doesn't do it justice. Is it worth reading? Yes, I think so. Some chapters nearly killed me but now I know the skeletal anatomy of a whale so there's extra trivia knowledge. I did enjoy meeting the characters and was truly saddened at their demise at the hands of Ahab's fury.
Firstly, there are movies, of which I have seen none:
In The Heart Of The Sea (with Chris Hemsworth, no less) Based on the true story of the Essex being rammed by a sperm whale
I had heard about this book from the Down Cellar Studio podcast. The host was embarking on her own Happiness Project and I was curious. We're already into February so I won't be starting my own project but I did pick up several tips I want to try.
Rubin researched what happiness is and how to achieve it then spent a year trying to live it. Each month focused on a different aspect and then December was a culmination of everything she learned. In the end, she was happier, although there were no means of measurement. It was interesting to read what her happiness definitions were (fighting right with her spouse, for one) and to see where she failed or where the advice failed her.
She tried a Pollyanna week, where she spoke no negativity, no snide remarks, no criticisms. She failed before she got out of bed. But she kept trying, over and over.
Happiness appears to be a trait you need to continually practice. There are people out there who do not want you to be happy. Situations can tax your spirit. But, like Buddhism, it's all about practice.
Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability, it turns out, because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice.
Some advice is curious, such as starting a collection. Rubin tried and then stopped. It just wasn't her. One of her main truths she followed in this project was "Be Gretchen". Being yourself, 100%, when the world is telling you what you should be doing is difficult, but Rubin recognized when the happiness advice was counter to her inner truth. I marked a few passages and quotes to help me 'think happy':
One reason that challenge brings happiness is that it allows you to expand your self-definition. You become larger. Suddenly you can do yoga or make homemade beer or speak a decent amount of Spanish. Research shows that the more elements make up your identity, the less threatening it is when any one element is threatened.
Studies show that consistently grateful people are happier and more satisfied with their lives; they even feel more physically healthy and spend more time exercising.
Gratitude brings freedom from envy, because when you’re grateful for what you have, you’re not consumed with wanting something different or something more.
One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
What I really took from this is compassion and gratitude are key. Again, much like Buddhism. Rubin delved into Buddhism a bit and worked on her mindfulness. That is also key to being grateful and paying attention to now.
It takes work to be happy, but in the end, it not only benefits you, it benefits those around you.
