The Pluto Files by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Tyson is always a favorite guest on The Daily Show and this book was discussed on his last interview with Jon Stewart. Library to the rescue!

There are 9 chapters to this fairly short book, all done with wit and an obvious love of science. Tyson goes over Pluto's history, how Pluto was received in our culture, and the descent of how Pluto lost his status as our 9th planet.

Apparently Americans really love Pluto, not only because of it's association with Disney's dog, but because an American discovered Pluto back in 1930 by New Mexican Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old farmboy. Tombaugh lived to his 90s to see how Pluto was about to be reclassified and fought it tooth and nail. Ergo, America discovered a planet and it shouldn't be taken away.

The trouble with planets is...a definition for planets was never ever set in stone. In the '00s, the International Astronomical Union began devising a concrete definition for a planet. In 2006, it was determined that Pluto did not meet the new definition - mostly because it didn't clear its own orbit of debris.

This is an excellent book that makes science a lot easier to understand and offsets the jargon with comical letters from outraged children. Tyson has an opinion at the end that suggests a new way of teaching kids about the solar system so that its not only planets that get their day in the sun...so to speak.

A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke

This is a fictional story about an Englishman brought to Paris by the VD company to open up some English tea rooms. This is pretty much a typical fish out of water story, with the English guy, Paul, trying to figure out how to get along with Parisians and learn the language and get laid. The latter being his main goal.

There were some laugh out loud moments and this was a pretty quick read. The plot was okay, somewhat disappearing with Paul's quest for French woman.

new additions!

Through the library book fair I've added to my library! And only for $9
930 books total now. I just need time to read them all.

New additions:

The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel by Paul Auster

Mandala: A Novel of India by Pearl S. Buck

Resurrection Men: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman

A Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffrey Archer

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis by Sinclair Lewis

From Rags to Bitches: An Autobiography by Mr. Blackwell

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

Stephen has been on my shitlist recently. Finally though, a book of short stories, exactly what I was craving from him. Luckily, this didn't disappoint.

King has a distinct knack for short stories, drawing you in and scaring the bejeebus out of you that he just didn't do in his later novels. In short stories, you have such a limited space to tell your story so you have to be a bit more adept with words. My favorite stories are the ones that plop you right in the middle of a situation and then pulls you right back out again. Haruki Murakami is excellent at this.

King manages to creep the reader (ME!) out by merely suggesting a situation. For example, the story N. gave me creepies that disturbed my sleep simply by telling a story of a guy going to a shrink. The story was told by the shrink's notes and depicted a patient who had severe OCD and firmly believed that a field he had went to was possessed. That's the story, big deal, right? No, the suggestion of what the character believed was happening was enough to put the thought into the readers head. If you look at the story, it's just what a patient tells his shrink - with some dire outcomes. But still, NOTHING really happens. But I was still creeped out.

I really liked Willa although King admitted in his notes it wasn't the best (it wasn't) and The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates was on par with Willa. What happens after death is a special playground for writers with vivid imaginations.

The Cat From Hell reinforced my sincere dislike of the feline variety.

The Things They Left Behind would have pushed me over the edge, had it actually happened to me.

And lastly, of my favorites, The Gingerbread Girl actually made me hold my breath.

Good show, old man. This was a really good collection of what you do best.

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

Spoilers be here.....You've been warned.


I didn't forget what it was like to be 18 and I honestly don't remember anyone that age acting like Bella does. Maybe I'm only remembering the good stuff.

Bella and Edward, back again. Bella turns 18 and is just simply devastated that she is now "older" than Edward, even though technically he's 110 years old (right?). She still wants to become a vampire, human life and family be damned.

Things get ugly at a Cullens sponsored birthday party when Bella cuts herself and the blood sets off a fury of vampiric lust. Fast forward to Edward and the Cullens' leaving town to protect Bella. Fast forward to months and months and months of mourning and lifelessness from Bella.

That out of the way, the most interesting part of the book was Jacob Black. Bella ends up spending more time with him during Edwards absence and they turn out to be a good pair. Until Jacob starts acting all funny. I didn't even need binoculars to see what happened. Jacob's a werewolf!

I think I watched too much Buffy to be surprised by this series.

Scuffles ensue, old vamps are back to kill Bella, Bella's an idiot and gets reckless, Edward needs to be saved from dying and Jacob and Edward can't be around each other, putting Bella in a pretty crappy position. Ah, centuries old blood feuds. Really puts a damper on friendships.

I finished this one in a few days. Mostly because I've had surgery and have tons of time on my hands but once I got past Bella's teenage meladrama, the plot got pretty interesting.

The next one has been requested from the library. Although someone already spoiled me on the whole series (thanks bunches) I'll go ahead and finish it.

I'm still at a loss for the rabid fangirl thing.....

Watchmen by Alan Moore

I finished this just after surgery so I probably didn't retain everything.

Watchmen starts off with the murder of a superhero. That right there is absurd and flies in the face of what we know and love about superheroes! This hero looked pretty sketchy so we'll move on. We're in an alternate reality where Nixon is president and the Russians are about to declare war...nuclear war, no less. Superheroes have been outlawed, unless they work for the government and most are in retirement.

Watchmen follows the superheros who are left as they try to figure out who is killing them. We also have a nice subtext pirate story in here.

All in all, great comic, soon to be movie. I can see why the movie will be R as this is pretty violent, bloody and corpse-ridden.

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas by Chuck Klosterman

Fargo Rock City was my first intro to Klosterman. It was pretty well written and funny. For the most part, the rest of his work is the same.

This particular book is broken up into 3 sections. The first section is a series of his interviews with famous folks that he wrote for Spin, Esquire, etc. He interviewed Britney, Bono, Jeff Tweedy from Wilco, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, etc. All of the interviews were entertaining. Mostly because, as in the Billy Joel interview, even if he really likes the person he's interviewing, he'll still be honest in the article.

The 2nd part of the book articles that are just his opinions about certain subjects. As in, which bands are rated right (not overrated or underrated), his very odd stance on stem-cell research (there needs to be more Super People), the upcoming war against robots, and so on. All pretty funny stuff.

The last part is fiction and frankly, I just skimmed it. His non-fiction work was more entertaining.