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what
I read in: 2005 2004 |
Wednesday,
July 25, 2001 Am only on page 43 of Fast food nation by Eric Schlosser. I've wanted to read it for some time, but it's been constantly in motion at the libraries I have access to. More about it once I've...sigh...devoured it. Here's an interview with Eric published in the Atlantic. McSpotlight, whatever that is, has links to what newspapers in the US have to say about FFN. Looks like I missed his interview on Fresh Air on 5 June 2001, drat! And, there's still more... read about Eric's book tour and the response he's received from readers @ Booksense. Still need something more? try marijuana offenders in prison @ PBS, Eric's previous research project. Tuesday,
July 24, 2001 I don't know how I managed to forget a book I read a few weeks back. Must add it to the list. I like an occasional historic mystery, and I've read 2 books in a series, unfortunately out of order. The Doublet Affair by Fiona Buckley takes place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Somewhat interesting, but not my favorite historical mystery series. I like variety, and that's what it provided. I'm not sure why I read One, two buckle my shoe by Jessie Hunter. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad, I just cannot recall why I chose to read it. It's an older book, so I'm not sure how it entered my consciousness. Still, I've read worse books, but it really wasn't terribly thrilling, although the characters were well-rounded. About a serial killer who abducts children. He's called the chocolate man since he offered chocolate to his victims to get them to come with him. Then I read Whitley Streiber's Hunger. Interesting, but I think I enjoyed Interview with the vampire best of all. I read it in 1989 and gave a book report on it to my english class. On to even worse books, I gave Florida Roadkill by Tim Dorsey a try. I love Carl Hiaasen's books, and this guy was compared to him. In fact the reviews on the dust jacket say that he's better than Hiaasen. Right. This was just a bad...uh...ripoff, yeah that's it. The characters lacked the depth that Hiaasen's do. The plot was minimal. I may read some of his later works to see if he improves. He has some good imagery and wit, but I was really appalled at his treatment of women characters. First he creates a totally vapid shallow woman and then gets her involved with these losers who abuse and kill her. There's much violence directed at....Sharon, was her name. Hiaasen doesn't do that. Friday,
July 13, 2001 Finished Blue nowhere last night. Oh how I enjoy Jeffrey Deaver's books. It's about a computer hacker who invades his victims hard drives to learn info about them and then he goes out and murders them. Deaver explains some of the computer terms (like BBS, listserv, etc.) for the non-pc crowd, which I already knew, so through those parts I was like, "yeah yeah yeah I know that already." Regardless, a fun, fast read that was actually pretty informative as far as the history of computers. Started Kamikaze lust the other night, which was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, but decided to zip through the Deaver book first since it's overdue at the library. Also read A passion for more. Saw the author on Oxygen and thought it sounded interesting; a nice quick pop psychology-type book. Wednesday,
July 11, 2001 I stayed up until 4am this morning finishing Jennifer Crusie's new book Fast Women. Probably the best book I've read all year...or at least in recent months. Humor, tight writing, great characters that you really feel something for, almond cookies, mystery, hot sex, all I can say is Wow. I read her previous book Welcome to Temptation and enjoyed it pretty well... so I jumped at the change to read more. And geez, this one is just really outstanding. So I'm finding all these reviews of her books at these romance reader sites, and that's kind of alarming because this ain't your grandma's Harlequin/Silhouette romance...these are so well-written. Higher caliber than Danielle Steele/Jackie Collins formula-plot-drivel. And, now I've got all her older books to add to my ever-growing list of books to read.....so many books, so little time. What's a woman to do? Tuesday,
July 25, 2001 They had it waiting for me at the library, Seven up, Janet Evanovich's latest in the Stephanie Plum series. Quirky, comic mysteries filled with NJ characters like Lula, the Mooner and DeChooch. Maybe I'm tired of the series, but this seventh book just wasn't as witty as the others. I suppose the characters have lost their charm (I'm real tired of reading about her hamster, Rex). But I'd highly recommend them to YOU as a fun beach/pool or airplane book! And, I'll probably be waiting in line to read her eighth book as well. Loyalty, that's what it is, author loyalty. Thursday,
July 05, 2001 Finished the Arthur Alexander story, Country music annual 2000, Mendoza in Hollywood: a novel of the Company, Book 3 (Kage Baker writes these fascinating stories about a time-traveling group of folks who run around the world saving artwork, plants, endangered species, etc.), Connie Willis' Doomsday book (another one about time travel back to the 15th century...are you seeing a pattern here?), Sherri Tepper's Family tree (fantasy/sci-fi about trees, preservation, and endangered species), Never change (simple yet sweet love story) by Elizabeth Berg, and both books (Big Stone Gap & Big Cherry Holler) by Adriana Trigiani.
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