thirty-two/fifty-two

I was sitting there trying to figure out how to get to the next book in the Otori series without losing my momentum, when a huge Duh Lightning Bolt hit me and I checked out the library's catalog. They have both of the other books in the trilogy, although book two is categorized as YA and book three is not, which I find kind of weird.

So I've now finished Grass for His Pillow, also by Lian Hearn, and while it dragged a little in some spots, I still liked it a lot. I've seen a few complaints over the switch in voice -- from first person for Takeo's parts to third person for Kaede's parts -- but it doesn't really bother me.

Okay, in this one Takeo is trying to figure out how to fulfill all his obligations -- to the Tribe and as an Otori -- and he's also mooning over Kaede, of course. And Kaede has returned to her father's home to find everything completely effed up. The parts that drag are mostly the parts where Takeo is travelling somewhere; unfortunately, that's, like, half of his part of the book. Or it seemed that way, anyway. I just ended up skimming those parts, I'm such a lazy reader.

Hearn still kind of glossed the surface of Takeo's motivations and abilities, etc., but it kind of fits his (Takeo's) voice, so I'm not minding that so much, either.

I got about halfway through the book before anyone glanced over ironically. Then it was like Hearn had to make up for not using the word until then. Ach, I just find it funny now instead of being annoyed by it. Everyone needs a tic, right?

thirty-one/fifty-two

See? Told you I was still reading. But you didn't believe me, did you? I can't say I blame you.

Treinta uno: Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, Book One) by Lian Hearn (that's a pseudonym, by the way). All I have to say about this one is niiiiice.

The story is a historical fiction/fantasy/adventure mix set in an alternate-universe feudal Japan. The main character, Takeo, is pretty interesting, but he could be fleshed out more. The plot is pretty basic (for a fantasy novel, ha): Takeo is out to seek revenge from an evil warlord-type both for himself and on behalf of his new adoptive father. He has some special magical skills that aren't explained too well, but I'm hoping everything that was kind of glanced over in the first book will be drawn more deeply in the next two.

I liked the writing, too. The only thing that bothered me -- you know there has to be something -- was the overuse of the word "irony." I understand that it went well with the tone of the writing but by the end I was rolling my eyes everytime someone glanced over "ironically" or used an "ironic" tone of voice. But hey, I use certain words to the point that they keel over half-dead every time I post, so who am I to talk?

Before I was finished with this book, I was already trying to figure out the best way to acquire the next two in the trilogy. So yes, niiiice.

thirty/fifty-two

Still reading. Just ignore my snail-ishness.

Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patriot is a collection of her essays; most of them have a political or historical bent. They were enjoyable; I didn't LOVE the book, but it was good.

I don't really have a lot to say about it, which is so evil of me, I know. I mostly read this because it was sitting on my TBR shelf and I was hearing so much about Assassination Vacation that I wanted to find out what Vowell's voice was like. I like her (writing) voice a lot, actually, she's very accessible without dumbing it down, and she's geeky without trying to hide it. Plus, sarcasm. Nothing bad there.

My own geek moment came when she mentioned that one of her friends was named Doug and worked on "Buffy" and I immediately knew who she was talking about. NERD!

Anyway, a good book, if not a life-changing book. I'm going to try out another of her collections, I think.

twenty-nine/fifty-two

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi. Do you sense a theme here? I was afraid that the edition the library had (hardback -- the first one I read was paperback, set like a traditional comic book) would be hard to read, but it wasn't. I finished it in a few hours. I want more more more!

Otherwise, I've been reading lots of zines and trying to write one. It's ending up being a very wordy perzine; I'd like to add images or something but I feel inadequate. And I'm having problems making the tone informal because I can't get my head into non-report-writing mode for some reason. I mean, my writing's always a little formal because of my weird way of phrasing (not using contractions a lot of the time, for example), but this is really bad. I may just have to let it go the way it is, though, because my deadline is four days away.

I've also been reading too many magazines and spending too much time online. I hope to be over my online addiction by the end of the week, once the novelty of having a connection at home again wears off. For one, it takes up too much of the precious time-while-Rabbit's-napping that I have, and for two, the pockets of drama you find everywhere get old after a while.

So many things taking up reading time!

twenty-eight/fifty-two

(This one was actually read in April.)

I've been reading very very slowly, mostly light stuff or comics, as I've explained elsewhere (I feel like I've even explained it here, but I don't think I have), I've been crafting and doing springlike things and I probly won't be doing a lot of good reading until vacation or even fall. It just gets too hot in here to concentrate except at night, and my nights are filled with cookouts and crafting and (right now) season finales. Not that I'm forsaking books for tv -- this summer I'm not planning on spending much time camped out in front of the tube at all. We have a yard now, and damn it all, I will use it for good and not evil.

ANYWAY. Number twenty-eight was Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by the talented Mr. Spiegelman. If I hadn't already bought it (my library didn't have it), I would be buying it right now. It's that good.

I really think everyone should read the Maus books. I don't feel that way about many books, but I think it's true here. Although most people have probly already read them.

Good books. That is all.

twenty-seven/fifty-two

Most recently, I read Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman. This, coincidentally, is the book that Marjane Satrapi said let her know it was possible to tell her story through a graphic novel. And I think everyone on Earth knows the details of this one, but just in case: Maus is the story of Spiegelman's father, a Holocaust survivor. There are tons of essays about this book and the issues it raises available online, if you're interested.

It completely blew me away. If you haven't read it, you should. That's all I can say without employing several overblown adjectives.

twenty-six/fifty-two

The next one was Lynda Barry's The! Greatest! Of! Marlys! I think I am in love with Lynda Barry, or at least her work. I liked One Hundred Demons a little tiny bit better, but I think that's just because I loved all the extra collage elements in that, as well as the autobiographical stuff.

This book is a collection of Marlys comic strips, loosely grouped according to subject. Marlys (the character) alternates between being intensely annoying and so kind it makes you want to cry. She and her world are interesting, and I definitely want to read more about them.

twenty-five/fifty-two

It's been way too hot in my house (spring weather + stolen AC unit = summer inside when it's spring outside), so I've been reading graphic novels, since they're easier to handle in the heat than dense prose.

First was Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It's the story of her life in Iran, after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. She was a teenager living with revolutionary parents, and the story is very well done. It's sweet and sad and I learned a few things about Iranian history that I didn't know.

I'm looking forward to reading Persepolis 2, so I guess it's safe to say I liked this one.

miscellany

I'm not going to count these in my book count, because I didn't read them straight through, I've just paged through them a lot.

You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail, the creator of YouGrowGirl.com. If you are into gardening at all, you must read this book. It made me feel like I can actually tackle this gardening thing without destroying the earth and all its inhabitants. (Yes, I find that happens often.)

Eat More Dirt: Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing and Tending an Organic Garden by Ellen Sandbeck. The title says it all. Sandbeck has good tips and ideas, and explains them well, plus it's a very pretty book.

Leading The Artful Life: Interiors Designed With Artistic Intuition by Mary Engelbreit. Apparently Engelbreit has a magazine called Home Companion, and a lot of people were tetchy because this book reprints a lot of info from the magazine. I've never heard of the magazine, though, so that didn't bother me. Beautiful interiors, very inspiring. Some of the styles I didn't like so much, but the good ones made up for it. I'm looking for some other books like this, but can't find any that have the right mix, only stodgy ones that are not my style at all. I also checked out a little book of spring crafts that was done by Engelbreit, and now I know why I haven't seen much of her stuff before. It's just not something I'm into. I really liked Artful Life, though.

And I've been going through other gardening books, but none of them are especially interesting. Fitzgerald kind of stalled me out on fic for a while. I might try to pick something up tonight, but it's going to have to be GOOD.

twenty-four/fifty-two

Finished This Side of Paradise last week. It's another Fitzgerald, recommended on GetCrafty. I figured I'd give him a second chance while I was still in the early-20th-century mindset.

I am noncommital. I liked it, but I wasn't roaring to finish it. This one was about a guy named Amory (I thought he was named Anthony, like the protagonist in Damned, on first page-through, and I was so confused. Then I remembered how to read.) and was basically a coming-of-age story. Amory was nowhere near as annoying as Anthony, and I kind of liked him for the most part. The story was okay -- I was really interested in it at times, and at times I wanted to skim.

I think part of my problem with Fitzgerald's stories is that so much of them happens inside the characters' heads. I'm not one of those readers who has to have an Exciting! Adventure-Filled! Thrilling! plot in order to enjoy a book, but his characters just don't think in any way I can respond to except in an "uh-huh. And? . . ." manner.

He also seems to have a fascination with women curled up on sofa corners with pillows. How Roaring '20s of him.

All in all, more enjoyable than The Beautiful and Damned, but I think I'll put off reading any more Fitzgerald for a little while.

twenty-three/fifty-two

Ready for a long title? Here goes: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents: America (the Book). And as a special treat, here's a negative review of the book. I feel like I keep unfairly linking to good reviews of books I like, so there's a little change of pace for you.

But I liked it. It was like an extended Daily Show in book form, and that's exactly what I expected and wanted it to be. I laughed out loud a lot, which is something that almost never happens. And unlike Señor Reviewer, I think it stood up pretty well to a read-through, although I will admit to having an unhealthy fondness for satire. It was pretty smart, too; it was like reading a fun high school Government refresher course.

craving

I really, really, really wish my copy of Savage Beauty could be sitting on my bookshelf when I get home instead of in storage. Do you think if I wished hard enough a blue fairy would come along and make it happen?

(The title reminds me of the time I bought one of my best friends a Savage Garden cd and had to apologize to her mother after she found out, because it was evil Satan music. According to my dad, the music was not so bad, but the NAME? Baaaaad. I wonder if that makes this book evil as well. I suppose since it doesn't refer to vampires, no.)

twenty-two/fifty-two

Okay, so now that I've bitched and moaned all over creation about this book, it's not that hard to see which way this reviewlet's going to go.

Boo to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. Actually, now that I'm a few days removed from it, I have to say it wasn't that bad. Fitzgerald's writing took a while to get into -- it was really dense most of the time and he had a put in a lot of (dated, obviously) popcult references.

The characters, though, holy crap, I wouldn't be able to stay in the same room with them for more than two minutes, if that. Snobbish, lazy, disagreeable, with a giant hit of feeling the world owes them a living. The main characters (Anthony and Gloria), anyway. The secondaries seemed to be okay, if still a bit snobby at times.

I think Anthony and Gloria ruined the whole thing for me. I actually liked the story, though, and by the end of the book, I kind of enjoyed Fitzgerald's writing style; I think I'm going to try another of his just to give him a fair shake.

that easy procrastinating feeling

So while I'm avoiding Gloria and Anthony and their infuriating senses of entitlement, I'll name my current top three cookbooks:

3. It's All American Food: The Food We Really Eat, the Dishes We Will Always Love by David Rosengarten. This is not the best cookbook ever, but the diversity of dishes is lovely, and this weekend it's the only place I could find a good creamy sausage gravy recipe. Even the old Southern Hospitality cookbook didn't have one. It's All American Food is good for ideas if nothing else.

2. Jack Bishop's A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. My favorite vegetarian cookbook. This is actually the only one I have that I've cooked anything from yet. I like to look through Anna Thomas's The Vegetarian Epicure, but I LOVE to cook from Bishop's book. The recipes are accessible and so effing delicious.

1. Appetite by Nigel Slater. Oh, I wanted this book for so long, and it's one of those rare things that was worth the wait. I just looked through it Thursday and I've already made two dinners from it. And both of them were good.

I think Nigel Slater has replaced Nigella Lawson as my favorite British cookbook author. That might also have something to do with the story I heard on GetCrafty about Lawson acting snobbish when presented with a gift from a craftista. But I think I also am kind of tired of seeing photos of her swanning around looking sexy. It's like the food takes a back burner to her hotness. I mean, I think she's sexy, but that's not going to make the food taste better. And her recipes usually have one ingredient that I don't have and can't get, and it drives me batty.

Slater has a very down-to-earth writing voice, not cutesy, but not technical. I love it. And I love the way he puts food together. I liked Real Fast Food, too; it introduced me to the wonders of baked fruits last summer.

stalling

I'm reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned. It's not beautiful, and it's damned irritating. I want to make paper dolls of most of the characters so I can tear them up into little bitty pieces.

I hope that was what Fitzgerald was going for.

twenty-one/fifty-two

Back to the short stories . . .

Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You, by Laurie Lynn Drummond, is a collection of stories all told by female cops. (excerpt) I really like the way Drummond writes, and these stories were very compelling -- I couldn't put the book down. A few spots got a little too gruesome for me (the end results of torture, for example), but it wasn't like the whole book was nothing but cruelties. The stories are each narrated by one woman, and it was interesting seeing how Drummond wove all their stories together a little bit; for example, one narrator trains a rookie (whose name is mentioned in passing) who has a couple of stories later on in the book.

I've had a run of good reading luck lately. I have to finish a few more library/just-bought books, then it's on to my backlog of waiting books. I already have them sorted and ready to go (in my head, but that still counts, right?).

twenty/fifty-two

It may seem like I have tons of free time with all the reading that's been going on lately, but it's mostly due to the fact that Rabbit is taking an hour or more to get to sleep during her naptimes because of her meds, and after I read her a book a few times, I lay down next to her and read while she looks at one of her books until she falls asleep. So I've had some extra time to read this month.

I don't think I can say enough good things about Lynda Barry's One Hundred Demons. It was great. It's a graphic novel, or close enough to one to call it that, that addresses several of her "demons": dancing, dogs, hate, lost worlds, etc. I loved the stories; they seemed very honest and charming in a bittersweet way. My favorite part, though, was all the collage work throughout the book. Each chapter started with a collage that referenced that chapter's demon, collages that were made from paper, rick-rack, drawings, glitter, photos, fabric. They were beautiful.

This was a library book; it's one I want to eventually add to my collection, though.

nineteen/fifty-two

I very much enjoyed FOUND, from the folks at FOUND Magazine (namely
Davy Rothbart). It's (and by "it" I could mean the book or the magazine) a compilation of the stuff people find on the street, in restrooms, in abandoned buildings, hotel rooms, wherever. Found items. Some of it is the craziest crap.

Not really a lot to say about this one; it's either your kind of thing or not. I loved it.

the end of times

Sweet lord, they gave the Everyday Italian urchin her own book.

Where's my Apocalype emergency kit?

eighteen/fifty-two

The Bone Lady: Life As a Forensic Anthropologist (by Mary Manhein) is a quick little read; it was recommended to me after I said good things about Stiff, and I expected it to be along the same lines.

It wasn't. I liked it a little better, actually. This is closer to a memoir than an investigative piece of work -- it's like a memoir combined with a book of short stories. Manhein's cases are mixed in with the history of forensic anthropology and her own personal history, and the results are quite nice. You can tell that Manhein really digs (hehehe) her job.

I kind of wish the book had been longer, that's my only complaint. It seemed like an abridged version of a longer book. But really, if that's the worst I can come up with, how bad can it be?