King started this book way back in 1976, when I was only 1! It's a behemoth of a book, at 1100+ pages, that is apparently the pared down version of his first draft. That's a little scary to think about.
UTD is a sincerely good King book. I was getting worried about him, having not been enthused about his newest work.
The story begins on October 21st, when an invisible barrier comes crashing down around the town of Chester's Mill, a small sock shaped town in Maine ( I think it's Maine). Dale Barbara is trying to head out of town after a 4 on 1 fight with some of the local thugs. He almost gets a ride but the young girl changes her mind and drives on, leaving Dale aka Barbie to walk on. He doesn't make it out of town before he's trapped by the Dome. Interestingly there wouldn't be a book if Dale had hitched that ride out....
Thankfully King provides a cast of characters list because the town holds a couple of thousand people and I believe we're introduced to almost all of them. Some of the most repugnant is Big Jim and Junior, a father-son duo that is dead set on turning the Dome to their advantage. The only word I have to describe them both is: Repugnant. Kudos to King for writing such vile and nasty people that actually makes you want to punch through the book and into their throats.
It's batted around that the dome is a terrorist act, a karmic intervention, aliens, and some maniacal person in town. I would be a terrible person to give away the end of the book since it's such a task to wade through, so I won't.
Even with it's size, UTD is surprisingly easy to speed through because King has his foot jammed on the gas pedal the whole way through.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow is not necessarily a good man, but he's not nearly as bad as some of the other characters in this book. Shadow is serving time when we meet him for a robbery gone awry. He's deeply in love with his wife, Laura, and is nearing the end of his sentence.
The end comes faster than anticipated when Laura is killed in a car accident. Shadow is released and things just go downhill from there.
In this book, gods walk the earth. Anansi, from the book Anansi boys, is alive and well and very much still the spider god. Each god is kept alive and viable because people believe in them. Once people move on and quit telling the god stories, the gods become nothing.
Shadow is confronted by Wednesday and enticed to work with him. Wednesday is a god, turns out he's THE god. And Wednesday wants to start a war with the new gods, gods of tv, media, computers, you know the things people all worship now.
Along the way to war, Shadow meets up with Laura, who is dead but not really, and several other gods in disguise. Lucy Ricardo tries to entice him with her breasts and gods fall into crumpled heaps. The war is not what it appeared to be and Shadow does what he can to save both sides.
Probably should have read this before Anansi Boys but it didn't matter too much. American Gods is ripe with imagination and vision. A scary vision, but a vision nonetheless.
The end comes faster than anticipated when Laura is killed in a car accident. Shadow is released and things just go downhill from there.
In this book, gods walk the earth. Anansi, from the book Anansi boys, is alive and well and very much still the spider god. Each god is kept alive and viable because people believe in them. Once people move on and quit telling the god stories, the gods become nothing.
Shadow is confronted by Wednesday and enticed to work with him. Wednesday is a god, turns out he's THE god. And Wednesday wants to start a war with the new gods, gods of tv, media, computers, you know the things people all worship now.
Along the way to war, Shadow meets up with Laura, who is dead but not really, and several other gods in disguise. Lucy Ricardo tries to entice him with her breasts and gods fall into crumpled heaps. The war is not what it appeared to be and Shadow does what he can to save both sides.
Probably should have read this before Anansi Boys but it didn't matter too much. American Gods is ripe with imagination and vision. A scary vision, but a vision nonetheless.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
As an audio book, I wasn't a fan of Janeane Garofalo's style. A lot of her character voices were just speaking louder.
As a book, I loved this one! First Buckley book I've read and I really like his style of writing. Boomsday is political satire based on the baby boomers retirement and the inevitable depletion of Social Security.
Cassandra Devine, labeled as a morally superior PR chick, leads the way in renouncing baby boomers squandering of Social Security. It starts innocently enough with protests on golf courses and leads to Devine and Senator Jepperson trying to pass a bill of Voluntary Transitioning. VT is basically advocating suicide once a person reaches 70.
Devine and Jepperson have a sketchy past, throw in Devine's "prick" of a father, the current president who swears like a sailor with Tourette's Syndrome, a reverend who heads SPERM and desperately wants to have sex, and the Pope, then you have a wild ride of a novel that is pretty damn fun to read.
As a book, I loved this one! First Buckley book I've read and I really like his style of writing. Boomsday is political satire based on the baby boomers retirement and the inevitable depletion of Social Security.
Cassandra Devine, labeled as a morally superior PR chick, leads the way in renouncing baby boomers squandering of Social Security. It starts innocently enough with protests on golf courses and leads to Devine and Senator Jepperson trying to pass a bill of Voluntary Transitioning. VT is basically advocating suicide once a person reaches 70.
Devine and Jepperson have a sketchy past, throw in Devine's "prick" of a father, the current president who swears like a sailor with Tourette's Syndrome, a reverend who heads SPERM and desperately wants to have sex, and the Pope, then you have a wild ride of a novel that is pretty damn fun to read.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Thankfully this book is not a sequel to American Gods because I haven't read that yet. But it's apparently along the same lines. Mr. Nancy is an old man who loves to sing and names things; and those names stick. He has a son who he named Fat Charlie and humiliated on a fairly regular basis. Fat Charlie goes to London, gets engaged and is persuaded to invite his father to the wedding. Finding his father had passed, things start to get a little surreal. Even by British standards.
Mr. Nancy is really Anansi, a spider god. Fat Charlie is told he has a brother, Spider. They eventually meet up for a reunion of sorts and havoc is wreaked.
Identities are stolen, money is laundered, people are murdered and other gods long forgotten emerged to get revenge on the hated Anansi.
Incredibly interesting and entertaining book. First one of the year that has really held my interest.
Mr. Nancy is really Anansi, a spider god. Fat Charlie is told he has a brother, Spider. They eventually meet up for a reunion of sorts and havoc is wreaked.
Identities are stolen, money is laundered, people are murdered and other gods long forgotten emerged to get revenge on the hated Anansi.
Incredibly interesting and entertaining book. First one of the year that has really held my interest.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Continual Condition by Charles Bukowski
For a man who died in 1994 at the age of 73, Bukowski is still a prolific writer. Released in 2009, The Continual Condition is the newest book containing never before published poems.
Not being a poet, my gauge of how well I like a poetry book is based on how many pages I dogear to go back to and re-read. While I did really like the majority of poems here, I didn't dogear to many. Although it might just be my mood because I seemingly just picked the darkest poems as my favorites.
This Kind of Fire was one of my favorites, along with Perfect Silence, Dear Editor and Moving Towards Age 73.
Not being a poet, my gauge of how well I like a poetry book is based on how many pages I dogear to go back to and re-read. While I did really like the majority of poems here, I didn't dogear to many. Although it might just be my mood because I seemingly just picked the darkest poems as my favorites.
This Kind of Fire was one of my favorites, along with Perfect Silence, Dear Editor and Moving Towards Age 73.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Food Rules by Michael Pollan
A quick little book that gives exactly what it says. Food rules.
The basic, overall rule that Pollan gives is: Eat food. But less. Mostly plants.
That right there is enough to give you a headstart on the majority of Americans. According to Pollan's research, the Western diet is one of the all time worst diets in the world. And one of the ones almost guaranteed to kill you. To try and help save people from themselves, Pollan lists out little chapters of rules to follow when deciding what food to eat. Lest you think this is a put-down type of book, he does conclude with "Everything in moderation. Including moderation." This isn't a lecture. This is a "Hey, did you know this? Now that you do, you might want to avoid it"
Some of the rules include: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Would she know what Splenda was? How about Gogurt? Ravoli in a can?? Don't eat it. Avoid high fructose corn syrup, which is apparently in more food then we realize. Don't eat anything with ingredients a third grader can't pronounce. Don't eat anything with ingredients that you wouldn't stock in your pantry. Eat only foods that will rot.
Along with those, he advises to eat slowly. Don't eat until you are stuffed. And, for goodness sake, COOK. The last one, I'm happy to say, I do on a regular basis. I rarely, if ever, go out to dinner. I usually enjoy cooking a nice meal for myself. I know, for the most part, where everything comes from and how it was prepared. Cooking for family and friends and eating with them apparently is also another good thing I already do.
Good little book with some smart, common sense rules on how to eat healthy, even when it encourages you to splurge.
The basic, overall rule that Pollan gives is: Eat food. But less. Mostly plants.
That right there is enough to give you a headstart on the majority of Americans. According to Pollan's research, the Western diet is one of the all time worst diets in the world. And one of the ones almost guaranteed to kill you. To try and help save people from themselves, Pollan lists out little chapters of rules to follow when deciding what food to eat. Lest you think this is a put-down type of book, he does conclude with "Everything in moderation. Including moderation." This isn't a lecture. This is a "Hey, did you know this? Now that you do, you might want to avoid it"
Some of the rules include: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Would she know what Splenda was? How about Gogurt? Ravoli in a can?? Don't eat it. Avoid high fructose corn syrup, which is apparently in more food then we realize. Don't eat anything with ingredients a third grader can't pronounce. Don't eat anything with ingredients that you wouldn't stock in your pantry. Eat only foods that will rot.
Along with those, he advises to eat slowly. Don't eat until you are stuffed. And, for goodness sake, COOK. The last one, I'm happy to say, I do on a regular basis. I rarely, if ever, go out to dinner. I usually enjoy cooking a nice meal for myself. I know, for the most part, where everything comes from and how it was prepared. Cooking for family and friends and eating with them apparently is also another good thing I already do.
Good little book with some smart, common sense rules on how to eat healthy, even when it encourages you to splurge.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison
Third book in the Rachel Morgan series. This one turned out to be very exciting and character-driven, rather than driven by plot. More is gleaned about each of the characters and that helps fill them out a little bit.
Rachel is faced with 2 major problems: owing the demon, Al, a favor - namely becoming his familiar. There's also a new player in the city, Lee, who is trying to take over the business of "supply and demand". Rachel, as a character, is probably at her best. She deals with the human side of misery, being dumped by Nick, and falling for another, the vampire Kisten. Between that and nearly getting killed....however many times, she manages to pull it all together and save the day. As per usual.
The action sequences are pretty explosive and each character gets a chance to open up just a little bit more. Enough to make you give a darn about whether they live or die.
Rachel is faced with 2 major problems: owing the demon, Al, a favor - namely becoming his familiar. There's also a new player in the city, Lee, who is trying to take over the business of "supply and demand". Rachel, as a character, is probably at her best. She deals with the human side of misery, being dumped by Nick, and falling for another, the vampire Kisten. Between that and nearly getting killed....however many times, she manages to pull it all together and save the day. As per usual.
The action sequences are pretty explosive and each character gets a chance to open up just a little bit more. Enough to make you give a darn about whether they live or die.
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