1. SLASH - by Slash 12/14 to 2/15
I LOVE this book and I think because of it, I've become even more of a Slash fan. All his stories are so vivid despite the fact he was seeing green aliens and was high on drugs for most of his Guns n Roses years. I do love the way he talks about his first guitar and how much freedom he had when he was a kid. I read the book in about 4 days. You go through it fast and it's been passes around the office and to us Slash is still the best ever.
2. Checkmate - by Malorie Blackman 2/15 - 2/20
The third installment of Blackman's supposed trilogy because I don't really count Double Cross. This book reads more on Sephy and Callum's daughter, Callie Rose's life and her actions and opinions about herself, her parents and the lies and hidden secrets happening all around her. I love how it delved into the lives of both her grandmothers Jasmine and Meggie and of course, her uncle Jude who is portrayed really, as the prodigal son, the black sheep, the lost soul, the one who was so keen on hate and revenge for what has been done to him and his family he becomes blind to everything else in the world including love. Jude and his crew's actions are probably borrowed from the actions of the IRA and maybe the Black Panthers. Instead of acting non-violently against an unjust society, they want revenge. They want action. They want everyone else to suffer as they have suffered. Jasmine and Jude's confrontation was amazing and the revelation of "the letter" and the conversation between Sephy and Callie make you want to invest in a tissue company because it was just plain heartbreaking especially when Sephy read Callum's real letter. I read this book in no time. It's for young adults and sandly enough Checkmate has not been published here in America. I recommend Blackman's Noughts and Crosses trilogy to everyone. It really opens your eyes and breaks your heart and you can't get the interwoven stories out of your head.
3. My Sister's Keeper - by Jodi Picoult 2/21 - 3/16
The beginning was great but unfortunately as the book went along I began to lose interest. The concept of the book is, I guess, original. I did like the Anna character in that, even though she is a child, she's the only one I actually really cared for because she has a lot of depth. She just wants her parents to appreciate her. She wants to be important too. After all, she knows from the start that she was only conceived in order for her other sister to live. And because of this knowledge, she does not want to be responsible for her sister. She's too young to be responsible. She wants to be a regular kid who does not have to get needles piercing her skin. She wants to be herself and in order for her to be herself, she can't help her sister any longer and she does this by hiring a lawyer and emancipating herself from her parents. Her parents, espcially her mother, gives her the old guilt trip. Does she not want to save her sister? Does she not want her sister to live? The family becomes closer as the book runs its course and with an ironic ending (but I did see it coming) it comes to a somewhat melancholic happy ending. Is that an oxymoron? I don't really like chick lit and though I don't really recommend this book, it was worth reading.
4. Eeeee Eee Eeee - by Tao Lin 3/17 -3/19
This was like the shortest book I've ever read and it was just full of rambling nonsense. It reminded me of Donnie Darko with less meaning. While Donnie Darko had a rabbit symbolizing some kind of dilemma of life this had a dolphin, a bear, a hamster, people who work at Domino's Pizza and Elijah Wood. Yes, THE Elijah Wood. I wonder if Elijah Wood knows about this book. Anyways... this book really isn't about anything. It's about a dolphin and it's about a bear who is lonely and I don't know exactly... I guess, it's about loneliness and about life and all that. It's a very "college dude in a frat" kind of book. If you're a dude belonging to a fraternity you'd probably like this book or if you don't really like to read much, you'd like it too. I suppose a lot of people might think of it as "cool" but I thought it was rather boring and I thought I would never really say that considering the book does include a dolphin and Elijah Wood. But... it isn't exactly original though it is written as if Lin wants us to think it is.
5. My Best Friend's Girl - by Dorothy Koomson 3/19 - 3/25
All I can say is that this story is reminiscent of that movie Beaches were an eccentric girl Kamryn and a somewhat reserved rich girl Adele come to be BFFs during their Uni years in Leeds. Even though they are the complete opposite of each other, they find solace in each others quirks. Adele brings out a "softer" Kam why Kamryn brings out a more "adventurous" Del. Of course these BFFs aren't all sunny and good. Del sleeps with Kamryn's boyfriend Nate during a somewhat lonesome night and from that encounter comes a kid named Tegan which Nate does not know about. Eventually, as all stories go, Del and Kamryn break up and don't come together again until Kamryn learns about Del's cancer and her eagerness to have Kamryn adopt Tegan after her death, instead of giving the girl to Del's parents who appearantly abuse her in emotional and physical ways. As most chick lits go, there's a bunch of cliche's clinging to Kamryn. She of course is not the "family" type of girl. She of course has a pretty nice job with a gorgeous boss who she does not get along with but of course eventually does because said pratty boss has an attachment to Tegan and said boss eventually falls in love with Kamryn much to her dismay because her ex boyfriend Nate comes into the picture again and eventually learns about Tegan just when Kamryn finally admits her feelings towards her boss. All I can really see is Beaches. In a somewhat alternative universe. The only twist is that Kamryn is Black while Tegan is White and as Kamryn goes around with Tegan people around them think a) Tegan was kidnapped by Kamryn or b) Kamryn is Tegan's nanny. Which of course does not make Kamryn happy. The book wasn't that bad though. Although Koomson had a knack for elementary descriptions of people which make me roll my eyes. How many times to I have to be reminded of the steel blues of Adele or the sky blue eyes of Tegan or that Luke her boss, has some kind of amber yellow eyes or whatever color he has. Once is enough. It should not be written in every other sentence. There's a love triangle for awhile but eventually one wins out and though two come out as lovers, all three adults connect to the one little girl who thought she'd lost everything but eventually gains three loving parents.
6. A Long Way Gone - by Ishmael Beah 3/25 - 4/1
There's alot of talk about this book not really being "true" to life as it should be. Dates are inaccurate and circumstances read like dues ex machina, as so some sources claim. It's quite a startling book and Beah describes it well. His change from being a good son living in Sierra Leone, to a boy soldier with murder in his blood to eventually being rehabilitated with the help of UNICEF. It takes awhile. When violence is instilled in you at such a young age you can't take it all a way so easily; especially when that violence is mixed in with plenty of drug use. It's an interesting story... semi true or not, the images are rather vivid but there was something about it I just couldn't hold on to. I usually like autobiographies. I loved Frank McCourt's account of his life growing up in Limerick, Ireland and Rian Malan's story about apartheid South Africa and there's also James McBride's tribute to his white mother who had always kept her strong faith even when raising her black child proved to be difficult. This book however... just seemed like it didn't flow right and for that, I just did not like it as much as I thought I would.
7. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - by Roddy Doyle 4/1 - 4/29
I love Roddy Doyle. I think he's really starting to be one of my favorite writers. This is one of the best books I've read in 2009. This book is about Paddy's life and the situations going on around him. Paddy is 10 and it is written in a way a ten year old would write and think. It's written in a very clever innocent sort of rambling way. And though Paddy doesn't exactly KNOW what's going on, he is very perceptive. When he senses that something is going on with his parents and they try to hide it from him, like most children they can feel it and they can understand it. When Paddy hears his mum crying, he is hurt. When Paddy notices his father staying away from the house he knows something is wrong. We feel his heartache and we feel his need for understanding. Although, Doyle does not explain it directly, the subject matter of the book is divorce and it is seen and understood through childlike eyes and it is written in such a heartfelt way. I've never read a book about divorce through a child's eyes before. I love how it's written and I love how it flowed. I definitely recommend it!
8. The Boy In Striped Pyjamas - by John Boyne 4/30 - 5/5
You know, this is one of the rare times where I loved both the book and the film version of anything. The Boy In Striped Pyjamas is about the Holocaust seen through the eyes of two different 9yr olds. Bruno is from Berlin. His father is an SS officer assigned to overlook the Auschwitz prison camp. Shmuel, who is also nine is from Poland and is a prisoner in Auschwitz. One day, when Bruno decided to take an adventure to the woods his father had forbade him to wander through, he meets Shmuel from the other side of the wire fence. Bruno, in his innocence thinks Shmuel is working as a farmer wearing a uniform which look like pyjamas, while Shmuel, who is less naive has more of a realistic mind set on his situation. The two become fast friends not knowing that they are supposed to be enemies because after all, one is Aryan and the other is a Jew. Although Bruno is written to be too naive and oblivious (considering he is a son of a Nazi officer and as a 9yr old should be a participant of Hitler's Youth) and that many critisize that the historical context is written too loosely, one has to know that it is a children's book. It is written in such a way for young children to understand the evils of the Holocaust and what can and might have happened when situations such as the end occur. One things is for sure, it is always the children who don't see hate until it is forced unto them. Though Bruno's father is a mass murderer, he does not see this and is kept out of his father's business. He still has yet to see hate and as most kids just want to find friendship with anyone they can get along with and because of his innocence and the ironies of war, the ending is not a happy one. The ending stuck in my mind for days because all I can think about were all the "what ifs" and "if only's"
9. Thousand Cranes - by Yasunari Kawabata 5/5 - 5/7
If you are not familiar with Kawabata's works, he is known for his minimalism and simplicity. He has the power to give you so many different levels of emotion through very little words. A Thousand Cranes sets up a tea ceremony attended by the protagonist of the novel, Kikuji and his dead father's past mistresses. Though Kikuji is attracted to both women from his father's past, in one form or another, he begins to feel an emotional attachment for the one woman his father really felt for. This attachment forms into guilt when Kikuji sleeps with her and when he starts falling for the woman's daughter even when in the beginning he can't really decipher the difference between the dauther and her mother. In a novel with less that 200 pages, it is so rich with feeling and love. It's no wonder Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. If you're looking for a fairytale love story, you're not really going to get it here but this is a love story nonetheless. A love story full of angst and guilt of the past and a kind of healing for a brighter future. It's very beautifully written.
10. Starter for 10 - by David Nicholls 5/7 -6/16
Starter for 10 along with Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha makes my BEST OF 2009 list. It's hilarious. And so true. Even though it's written through the point view of a young college guy still trying/pretending to find himself, it's so very universal. The main character Brian is just so normal and is faced with problems we all suffer from. I can so relate. It's embarrassingly honest. In one scene, Brian thinks he can try to hide the pimple growing on his chin by covering it with his hand and by positioning himself in a way which makes him look intellectual, like that statue of The Thinker. He is front of a girl whom he is trying to impress by trying to be cool. He thinks she doesn't notice his pimple only to be disappointed when she recommends that he try using some kind of soap so his acne would go away. Oh Brian. I feel for you and every situation you got yourself into. I truly LOVE this book. I didn't want it to end. It's so damn TRUE. Every embarassing, painful, emotional bit of it.
11. Lucky - by Alice Sebold 6/16 - 6/23
Here is an example of an autobiography which got me so involved with every word, I couldn't put the book down. Alice Sebold of course is the author of The Lovely Bones and this story is about her life after she was assaulted and raped and her eventual healing process by going back to college and by trying to survive the trial and her emotional problems relating to the rape which not only affected her but the people around her. Sebold is a strong woman. Everything that's happened to her has happened and can happen to anyone and for anyone to survive and get through such a harrowing experience deserves every bit of awe and respect from me because you have to be strong and determined to survive no matter what obstacle gets in the way of that survival.
12. God's Behaving Badly - by Marie Phillips 6/28 - 7/6
Another book which I could not put down. It was so damn good, I was reading this while waiting for the red traffic lights to turn green. Imagine if you will, Greek Gods like Aphrodite, Apollo, Hermes, and Artemis living in London town. Because of technology and the ways of the world, the Gods live in decrepit condition because of lack of funds. These lack of funds make them succumb to do odd jobs they are technically sort of destined to do. Aphrodite of course becomes a phone sex operator, Artemis wears track suits and walk dogs, dazzling Apollo becomes a talk show host. Hermes becomes a messenger for the living and the dead, delivering the dead to the underworld and eventually to his cousin Hades. The Gods still have their powers but they are weak because 99.99% of the population do not believe in them anymore and in order for their powers to heal the rest of the world needed to believe in them. This belief towards the Gods is proven in the end when Artemis tries to set right with what went wrong when Apollo, in a fit of jealousy 'accidentally' blocks out the sun and the world almost ends. The plot started because of Aphrodite who manipulated her son Eros to shot an arrow towards an unsuspecting soul but of course, the arrow landed on someone else instead and ere goes an awesome story full of just raunchy and funny deeds and misdeeds. So it's not the best book in the world but I thought it was quiet a good read.
13. Holiday's On Ice - by David Sedaris 7/6 - 7-11
David Sedaris is hilarious as always. These six short stories revolves the theme of Christmas. I think two of the best stories was the time Sedaris worked as a Christmas elf in Macy's thinking it as a stepping stone for an acting career or something. It's so brutally honest, especially about the parents wanting to have the perfect picture of their kid, that they forget about their kid's feelings about being made to sit down with a man wearing a big red costume. The other story was about a whore who spent Christmas with the Sedaris' when David was young but that one I won't spoil because everyone should just read it.
14. No One Belongs Here More Than You - by Miranda July 7/11 - 7/26
Ever since July's movie Me and You and Everyone We Know I've become to like her quirkiness. And the short stories in this book are full of quirks all of them really if you think about are all about loneliness and being alone and trying to find something to erase that loneliness. Which makes me come to the conclusion that I've read a lot of books about loneliness in 2009. Sometimes the situations the characters get into are over the top or so personal you want to put the book down and look away. The story that stuck out the most in this book in my opinion, is called "The Swim Team" about a girl trying to teach a bunch of seniors how to swim without a swimming pool. I don't think anyone can beat Me and You and Everyone We Know though. That movie was pure perfection and it was written perfectly. I wished July's other stories were more memorable.
15. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 7/26 - 8/10
Most everyone I know has read this award winner already, so I'm not really going to write about it. Like most everyone I know though, I loved every single bit of this book. Christopher has asperger syndrome and is rather innocent and naive. He is brilliant in mathematical problems and is a fan of the great Sherlock Holmes, and because of this decides to do some detective work on who killed his neighbor's dog. I do love Christopher's father because of his complexity. Maybe it's also because I love reading about fathers who are there for the child and not really invisible like most fathers are in most books. It's brilliantly written and if you had not read it already I would definitely recommend it.
16. Q&A (aka Slumdog Millionaire) by Vikas Swarup 12/11 - 12/23
I was encouraged to read this because of the film and though the film differs completely from the book, I love both equally. Ram Mohammad Thomas was an orphan who was brought up by a Catholic priest, who after his death, would live with several different characters both good and bad who shape his life and the way he thinks about himself and his situation. In his young life Thomas has exprienced plenty of heartache and devious circumstances but because of these circumstances, he gains knowledge about the ways of the world and as if by chance the knowledge he learns comes in handy when he enters the gameshow "Who Will Win a Billion?" There are several different characters in this book who you can hate and love but what I liked the most was when Ram moved to Agra and met a boy who was discarded by his mother and in turn was so heart broken he stopped speaking coherently. That chapter was very emotional for me. I don't know why. I loved this book though. I'm glad I got to read something wonderful at the very end of the year.
-So I did not make my goal of 50 this year again but that was because I had classes to take and a bit of traveling to do. I hope 2010 would get me closer to my goal though :)
Subject: LOve
Title: Cheesetastic Love
Notes: Everyone LOVES Cheese. The Cheesier the better. Here are some awesomely cheesey love songs for you to have with some red wine, crackers and maybe some pate.
( Songs and Descriptions )
Fandom: Merlin
Character: Arthur/Guinevere
Summary: A small little mix for A/G
( Songs and Descriptions )
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Gwen/Lancelot
Warnings: none
Summary: Lancelot reflects.
Spoilers: S1.5, S2.4
Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin of course.
Author's note: Lancelot was the main reason I started being addicted to Merlin in the first place... so this is for him. And for lovely Gwen of course.
( Do you think her beautiful )
1) Ladyhawke - Back of the Van http://www.sendspace.com/file/9yvl5f
2) Duffy - Mercy http://www.sendspace.com/file/xw9wz8
3) September - Cry for You http://www.sendspace.com/file/g346dm
4) Rihanna - Umbrella http://www.sendspace.com/file/k5g8zw
5) Asobi Seksu - Thursday http://www.sendspace.com/file/xdg036
6) Irene Cara - What a Feeling http://www.sendspace.com/file/jcr9hi
7) Carly Simon - Nobody Does it Better http://www.sendspace.com/file/j6qf2c
8) Beyonce - Irreplaceable http://www.sendspace.com/file/rgzjyo
9) Celine Dion - I'm Alive http://www.sendspace.com/file/mpzkng
10) No Doubt - I'm just a Girl http://www.sendspace.com/file/fq37lp
11) Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man http://www.sendspace.com/file/xmfwum
12) Dido - Thank You http://www.sendspace.com/file/3ttdct
13) Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten http://www.sendspace.com/file/odqu94
14) The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control http://www.sendspace.com/file/ieouma
15) Pat Benatar - Shadows of the Night http://www.sendspace.com/file/qqdlsc
16) Madonna - Who's that Girl? http://www.sendspace.com/file/cnvih1
17) Rilo Kiley - Give a Little Love http://www.sendspace.com/file/nc5o98
18) Garbage - When I Grow Up http://www.sendspace.com/file/8fwg86
19) Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining http://www.sendspace.com/file/zs1kik
I decided to add one more "uplifting" song
20) The Corrs - Breathless http://www.sendspace.com/file/kvb6eh
#1. The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards 12/15/07 - 1/03/08
I didn't like this book. I usually HATE female writers because they write WAAAY too emotional and if I want to be emotional I'll rather be watching Oprah, you know what I mean? This book is about this doctor who of course marries a "beautiful" girl who gives birth to a baby who is mentally disabled. As soon as the baby arrives the doctor takes it away and tries to put it in a hospital while telling his young wife the baby died. Of course his lie gets him in the end because his wife eventually finds out years later that the nurse who was in love with said doctor was the one who took care of the daughter all along.
It's a good concept for a book but because it was written with too many flowery words and too "girly" and takes about two pages just to describe the house and the snow and shit like that I just couldn't take it anymore. At least I read til the end which I usually don't do in books that are way too girly and over descriptive and trying too hard to be an "Oprah's Book Club."
I know I'm describing this work in a very simple manner but what's the use for elaborating on a book which made me roll my eyes too many times to care. UGH! No character name is even worth mentioning is this book. Talk about Chick Lit. This takes the cake and that's pretty sad considering I'm a chick.
#2. Book of Unforgettable Travels from the files of Conde Nast Traveler 1/2/08 - 2/28
I was given this book by my friend Dana on my birthday because I love to travel and I'm old enough to know that I need to travel as much as I can before it's too late. I love all the destinations in this book. The one about Iceland interested me so much I want to go there one day. The descriptions about Savannah were wonderful and would love to go there too. One of the things I love about the book was how the travel writers were detailed enough to tell us where to go and what to do in less "touristy" places. Someday it would be so much fun to just go backpacking all over the place with just me, my camera, and some water (but of course I wouldn't mind a nice male traveler that might pass me by and walk along with me).
#3. The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans 2/28/08 - 3/23/08
Another book about some high maintenance chick who hates getting dirty and the guy who changes her. All right - so the beginning started out well (the beginning meaning the first two pages) and after that it all went down hill because of it's sugary sweet oh so cliche happy ending story. My friend thought I might like this story because I love stories about philanthropy. This is about an orphanage in Peru where a doctor (the guy who changes the high maintenance chic) provides for children who were abandoned by their parents because they just couldn't take care of them anymore. High maintenance chick (who was scorned by a runaway groom) arrives in Peru with a little coaxing from her friend. At first she does not like anything. The poor hotel that isn't exactly the Ritz, the food which isn't exactly a five star restaurant, the weather which isn't exactly Hawaii, but then of course everything changes when high maintenance chick meets doctor, falls in love with doctor, fall in love with kids doctor provides for and la di da. This book had so much potential but I found it too cliche (How many stories like these are in circulation anyway?). It sucks. I love the kids but none of these characters seemed real to me at all and I couldn't stand one more story of high maintenance chick looking at herself and wonders where she's gone wrong and in the end of course, she doesn't think about the Ritz or fixing her hair, she's thinking about doctor and kids. UGH... it's one cliche after another. Good for you high maintenance chick!! You are finally not selfish anymore. How wonderful for you.
#4. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory 3/23/08 - 4/21/08
Sure it's historically inaccurate and the movie sucked big time but I couldn't put this book down. Now this is one (albeit trashy) chick lit that I truly enjoyed. I loved bitchy Anne who was so manipulative and greedy and smart and jealous. I loved fat Henry and oh so innocent and naive Mary. I love George with his incestuous and homosexual affairs and Anne's last days inside the Tower of London before she got beheaded. It's not my favorite book in the world but I loved it none the less. After reading two books which erased some of my brain cells this one actually gave some of it back.
#5. On Beauty by Zadie Smith 4/21/08 - 5/6/08
This story was OK. Zadie Smith is well known because of her other book White Teeth. A big family saga about two families, one liberal, one conservative, one mixed raced with a black American mother (from the South! with a horrid Southern dialog only someone who is NOT American would think is correct) and a white British father, and the other a British African family. It's mostly set in the East coast in a fictional Ivy league university setting. There are a lot of issues explored. Culture, race, sex, sickness, death but there were also the cliche characters who populate this story. There's the younger son who tries to hide his well to do upbringing (and his half white self) by pretending to act like he's some kid from the ghetto, then there's the daughter who is way too smart for her own good and the ultra conservative professor with a slutty daughter who sleeps with both the liberal father and his religion seeking son, etc... I really like Smith's writing, no part of the book was ever boring. But a British writer who only spent a couple of months (a year?) in America cannot write a whole book about America and its culture. American kids were talking in British slang (being American, the difference in speech was very noticeable). One great example as an Amazon reviewer pointed out, is this, "Who you on the phone to?" (which is completely British) when normal American kids would say "Who you talking to?" Or "Who are you on the phone with?" She also writes about Thanksgiving, our national holiday, which happens on the fourth Thursday of November but of course Smith hardly stayed in the U.S. long enough to know this, because in her book, Thanksgiving as set on a Friday! haha. Smith's version of America is a stereotype. And there were too many British terms for it to be a novel set in "America." When I was reading it, I was pretending it was set in London. It's America set in Smith's London. It's America written by a tourist.
#6. Choke by Chuck Palaniuk 5/6/08 - 5/22/08
Like all Palaniuk novels this one was interesting from the get go. When I read this all I can think about is Edward Norton because main character and sex addict Victor Mancini of Choke sounds eerily like The Narrator/Tyler Durden of Fight Club. Victor likes to make people heroes in various restaurants he goes to. He lets people save his life so therefore they can feel better about themselves and in turn they'll remember him forever and send him checks which he uses to pay for the hospital his mother is in. Palaniuk's writing is as always attention grabbing. It grips you and won't let you go until the very end. You find your self breathing a sigh of relief because you realize that you are better than the people he writes about. They are all the bottom of the barrel yet all of them have some sort of heart where you feel sorry for them and realize that what they're doing makes sense. It's because of this Palaniuk is one of my favorite writers. He is officially cool. If you know someone who don't like books to begin with let them read Palaniuk's works because I can guarantee that they would not stop reading. No matter how crazy his stories are it makes sense somehow. For example, here is Victor's explanation on why he needs people to save him.
Somebody saves your life and they'll love you forever... It's as if you're their child. For the rest of their lives these people would write me. Send me cards in the anniversary... They call you on the phone. To find out if you're feeling okay... or if you maybe need cheering up or cash. You gain power by pretending to be weak. By contrast, you make people feel so strong. You save people by letting them save you. All you have to do is stay fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog. People really need somebody they feel superior to. So stay downtrodden. People need somebody they can send a check at Christmas. So stay poor...
#7. The Gathering Anne Enright 5/22/08 - 6/5/08
Irish lit at its best or worst? I like reading European literature. I've been interested in Irish literature recently because I'm planning to take a trip to Ireland next March, however the story of the Gathering about a large Irish family getting together after the death of the wayward older brother did not really give me anything to hold on to. I loved reading about the time the grandmother and the grandfather eventually met, even when the initial man Veronica (the narrator) imagined her grandmother with wasn't the one she ended up with. I wanted to learn more about Liam (the brother who committed suicide) I wanted to learn more about everyone to make it more memorable. In the end, it just felt like I was done with the book and that was that and nothing left an impression in my brain.
#8. After Dark by Haruki Murakami 6/5/08 - 6/15/08
Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors and I always like reading every one of his books, including this one even though nothing much happens. So this is about an ordinary girl Mari who has a beautiful sister who everyone admires. Mari's sister sleeps like Princess Aurora - sleeping all day and all night but no one knows the reason why. Mari on the other hand doesn't sleep much at all and during her late night insomnia she encounters interesting characters from a Chinese "sex slave" to a young musician who had a crush on her model sister. Nothing was really solved. It felt like "a day in a life" of a young Japanese girl with some kind of "supernatural" element thrown in. Murakami is a story teller. No matter how ordinary the story he always makes it extraordinary.
#9 White Horses by Alice Hoffman 6/15/08 - 6/21/08
Even since I've read Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman, she's always been a very reliable author for me. She knows how to make me turn the page even when some of her mystical writing gets in the way. Plus, she really has a way of writing about tall, dark and handsome men, even when these men aren't exactly Prince Charming but rather more "Heathcliff" type characters. This is about a dysfunctional family, about a girl named Teresa who has always believed in a fairytale about a dark handsome stranger who would save her and take her away one day. As she grows up, she starts to believe this "stranger" is her brother Silver who is mean, arrogant, selfish... but Teresa for reasons unknown has always been intrigued by him. There is incest and rape and physical abuse in this story and Alice Hoffman does well with weaving all of these elements together because in the end not all dreams come true and not all fairytales end in happily every afters.
#10 The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 6/21/08 - 7/14/08
I HATE this book. I was actually surprised I hated it so much because there was a lot of praise about it and I mean Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize for goodness sakes! This book had no heart. I did not like Gogol or Nikhil as he prefered to be called. I too share something in common with Gogol because my parents are immigrants and as I was growing up they try to instill in me the cultural traditions as well but this book didn't really explore any of that except in the first few chapters. I don't feel anything for the characters and Lahiri does not write how they feel, does not write about who they really are, does not even really write about the most important thing and that is the struggle of Gogol to find himself (and when he did "find" himself it was too little too late). I had to skip through paragraph after paragraph of stereotypical descriptions of a WASP family who live in the east coast and Gogol wondering why his parents couldn't be like the parents of his WASP girlfriend and why they don't eat cheese or drink wine. It's so fucking trite and by the middle of the book I just wanted to throw it away. It is written in present tense and nothing captured me. I asked my co-worker who is Indian and who has read the book and seen the movie about her opinion of Lahiri's tale and she just laughed and started her opinion with two words: It's stupid (she went on for more detail but in short, it is Stupid because she could have done SO MUCH MORE!) How can you write about an important matter of immigration, of culture, of trying to find yourself and in the end, nothing was solved and nothing was learned? I was so disappointed.
#11 - East of Eden by John Steinbeck 7/14/08 - 7/27/08
After reading a lemon, I'm glad I've got to discover East of Eden again. A lot of people are put off by this masterpiece because of the book's thickness. It also takes awhile to get used to the family sagas. This is my favorite book of all time. The last time I read this was almost 4 years ago and I'm happy to have read it again. Caleb and Lee are my favorite characters. They represent so much of us and so much of who we want to be. We all try to be good people but we all have faults. God made us that way. We are selfish and mean and jealous but we strive to be better people. I remember a particular scene where Caleb felt guilty for being so jealous of his good and golden younger brother Aron and wonders why anyone could love him but Abra (Aron's first love)tells him why...
Abra: I think I love you Cal
Cal: I'm not good.
Abra: It's because you're not good.
Steinbeck's writing is beautiful. Now, unlike Lahiri's work where emotion was hard to find, East of Eden has every emotion you could want and nothing of it is trite or weak. Caleb Trask has got to be one of my favorite characters in Literature. He's the very symbol of the everyday man, he is not good but because he realizes he isn't perfect and tries to be better, he is almost too good.
#12. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore 7/27/08 - 8/5/08
Helen Dunmore is a good writer but I just couldn't get my heart and soul in this novel because nothing whatsoever was explained!! The heroine is named Cathy and she and her brother has been kept in a house somewhere in England to fend for themselves with the help of a maid and a rather disturbing nanny. Their mother ran away and their father went to a nut house - why their parents abandoned them and why they were kept in the dark was never explained. Cathy and Rob become close because they only have each other and eventually they begin a secret affair and is found out by her obsessive nanny. Things go on from there but when Cathy eventually leaves the dreary house behind and eventually marry, nothing seemed right at all because again, nothing was solved. I was like, "what? that's it?" The description on the back of the book glorified it as some kind of Gothic horror story but horror story it was not.
#13. We were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates 8/5/08 - 9/1/08
I thought The Namesake takes the prize for Worst Book I read so far this year but surprisingly it is this book that takes the cake. The story started out okay. Oates introduces us to a very PERFECT happy family who live in a PERFECT large farm... with PERFECT kids who have CUTE nicknames such as "Button, Baby, Ranger and Pretty Boy" (doesn't it just want to make you eat sugar?) and PERFECT farm animals who have also have oh so SWEET and CUTE names too. OH goody goody gosh!!!! I had to skip parts of this book because you find yourself reading TWO WHOLE PAGES of useless descriptions of farm animals and directions and even the mother's red hair! Seriously, how many times does Oates have to tell us that Corrinne the mother, has red hair and wears glasses? and that Marianne the daughter is so beautiful and popular? well, it seems every other page she has to do this because apparently we're too stupid to figure anything out.
To put it simply this story is about a PERFECT SWEET family whose lives fall apart on Valentine's Day because Marianne, the oh so perfect beautiful daughter nicknamed "Button" (believe me, Oates had to remind me on every third page or so that Marianne's nickname is Button and that she is a cheerleader and very popular because she is so NICE!!) got raped. Michael the Dad, couldn't deal with what happened and eventually Marianne is sent away and eventually because of the rape, the oh so perfect and handsome father becomes a fat alcoholic, Corrinne the mother who has to save everything shuns her daughter away and so on and so forth.
I hated this book. Not one of the characters are worthy of being remembered. In the end, I was just pissed off because the characters were unrealistic, after being shunned for 20 years the daughter was not even a tiny bit ANGRY??, most of the characters were caricatures, and I did not feel sorry for any of them not even Marianne who seems like such a doormat. By the end of the book she was around 30 years old and Oates still writes her as a "virginal" 16 year old who is nice and forgives every one which makes her more pathetic and idiotic.
Anyway to summarize this book even more, I shall put a review here from an Amazon.com reader because I completely agree with the comment and will urge more people to NOT READ THE BOOK even when it is free or you have nothing better to do or if you're stuck with this book because someone super glued it to your hand:
A family of unappealing characters with pitiable interpersonal skills live in a junk-cluttered, animal-fur covered (I couldn't stop thinking how smelly) purple house out in the boonies. Some pathetically stupid high school students make the predictable dumb mistakes, and launch this family into several decades of evil deeds towards each other that display their deplorable morals and illustrate how dysfunctional they were from the very start. (What do you expect from parents that address their children through their pets??)
I didn't believe once in their "gift for happiness": those people were not likeable and certainly not enviable as narrator Judd claims. Oates over-worked that point, and then drags readers through one pathetic turn after another until, in the last 15 pages, everything suddenly, implausibly, becomes sunny and rosy, forgiven and healed. Too late: the reader is so beyond nauseated to as be incapable of sharing in the apparent relief and re-birth the characters ostensibly enjoy at an overdue family reunion.
I hated it. Oates uses silly techniques which makes things worse. For example, the narrator begins his self-righteous and bitter story by taking the reader on a driving tour of his hometown. So trite -- it goes so far as to include the directions! Then it gets worse: I was repeatedly frustrated and infuriated by the excessive use of foreshadowing, fragmented memory and flashback to build up events. Ultimately, the events were never fully brought to light as they end up being obscured by useless tangents that are cluttered with digressions and idiotic descriptions of irrelevant details. Moreover, it was supremely irritating to have to skim 25% of the text to skip over pointless character-developments of pets and the mother's antiques/junk.
I don't recommend this book to anyone. Rather, I DISrecommend it as the worst book I have ever forced myself to read (I had to for a book club). It digs up that gray, bitter, ugly feeling of remembering something or someone bad that you have worked long and hard to forget about or grow out of. Painful, pathetic, useless, just pray it'll fade away.
#14. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman 9/2/08 - 9/5/08
NOW THIS IS A WONDERFUL BOOK! Finally, after reading the god awful We Were the Mulvaneys, I got to read a book where everything is a page turner and every character made you react to them, even when they are supposed to be the bad guy. This is a very popular and well known book in the U.K. (it's titled Black and White here in the U.S.) The characters live in a world where Crosses (Blacks and other people of color) are the ruling class and the naughts (whites) are the minority. Much of the racism in this book is very reminiscent of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., the Apartheid history of South Africa, and the IRA rebellions in the UK. The story is about Sephy (a Cross) and Callum (a nought) two best friends who grew up together and eventually fall in love with each other despite belonging to different classes/races. There is so much in this YA book to make you read every single page and never stop until the end because it really pulls you in, it makes you think about everything and some scenes stay with you for a very long time even after you have read the book. There are beautiful and innocent Romeo and Juliet moments, there is action, and there is terrorism. It's a great book. This is the first YA book I've read in a VERY long time and I'm so glad I was able to read such a great work!
#15. Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman 9/5/08 - 9/11/08
It took awhile to get really involved with this book. It's told through many different perspectives but the one I liked reading best was 6th grader Kat's point of you and is told in first person. It's basically about a rape and a murder done by a tall dark and handsome man (whom everyone respects), 15 years before when he was some crazy guy who didn't care about anyone but himself. He changes when he meets and marries Jorie and is glad his awful past is buried but the past comes back to him when his picture is shown on the news and is reported to have murdered a 15 year old girl. I liked this book actually. Hoffman sometimes gets a little descriptive and whimsical with her writing but I can get past that because it's a good story and it's done in a way to make it a page turner as well. It's not the best book I've read so far this year but it's good enough for reading by the pool, the beach, or in your backyard.
#16. Peony in Love by Lisa See 9/12/08 - 9/16/08
When I read a couple pages of this book, my heart sank because it reminded me of "Memoirs of a Geisha" and I absolutely HATED that book because it was inaccurate, it was superficial, and it was idiotic. In the beginning of "Peony in Love" all Peony did was talk about her beauty and how she was going to be married and how she was going to be the perfect wife.. I rolled my eyes... BUT I'm so glad I kept reading because this is a GREAT book and it kept me reading and wanting to know more about Chinese history and culture especially what happens after death. I love the mother best I think. She is made to be the stereotypical Chinese mother in the beginning... cold, regal, proper... but when See delved more into her character I admired her so much. It was very sweet and the ending was beautiful.
#17. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner 9/16/08 - 9/25/08
It's funny. The reason I read this book started because of my co-workers brother of all people. He said though he's a guy, the movie In Her Shoes was very good. A straight guy recommending a chick flick? How rare is that? So I watched it and liked it and even shed some tears! ah! And I am the kind of girl who rolls her eyes on hackneyed and cliche chick flicks and literature. I really liked the movie so I had to read the book and I'm happy to say the book was even better. The book delved more into the Maggie character - a character we are supposed to hate because she's a thief, she's a slut, she's a mess... Maggie is the beautiful and skinny sister who gets anything she wants just by strutting her beautiful body around town, while Rose the chunkier, smarter sister is the less attractive one, the one with low self esteem but owns a number of expensive and AMAZING shoes and has the money. Maggie is thrown out from Rose's apartment (after she does the unthinkable deed of sleeping with her sister's boyfriend and gets caught!) and after ten months of being apart, both Rose and Maggie grow up, change for the better and realize they need each other. Many things happen in between of course - Rose gets engaged, Maggie "goes" to Princeton, and they realize they have a Grandmother! The book was funny, enjoyable, I still love the EE Cummings poem in the end. It's beautiful!
Subject: Summer
Title: Old School Summer in the Suburbs
Notes: Love the summers in the 'burbs. Some long lasting songs to last throughout the summer days. Most of these songs have a little irony to them especially from the innocence of the covers BUT it is what the suburbs are all about. The innocence on the outside but the dark and funny secrets inside that facade of innocence.
( Songs and Descriptions )
Subject: Summer
Title: Old School Summer in Da Hood
Notes: Some of these songs are more than 10 years old and still great to listen to especially just driving around in the summer time. You don't even have to be in Cali or in NYC to appreciate it. It's rare to have some hip-hop here so I figured here's one for the summertime and if you aren't a hip-hop fan, give it a try. More than anything, it'll make you want to dance.
( Songs and Descriptions )
( I think I was born to be the sidekick )
Cathy still has yet to put her interesting stories into words and though my life is pretty normal compared to hers we all have interesting stories to tell don't we?
So here is one about SPORTS dedicated to all you obsessive SPORTS FANS out there like me.
( I tell myself if maybe I didn’t watch, Favre would throw another of his touchdowns )
Characters/Pairings: Chris/Jal and Chris's Dad
Warnings: Some swearing
Summary: A lot of things happen in hospitals especially the most unbelievable. - Part 2 of "Circumstances"
Spoilers: Series 2 eps. 5,8, and 10
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins of course.
Author's note: I wrote the ending to this story way before I even wrote the first half but the rest of the second half took awhile to write. If you find some mistakes, forgive me. I don't have a beta reader.
( After all, love conquers all doesn’t it, Jal? )
Characters/Pairings: Chris's Dad /Chris/Jal
Warnings: Some swearing
Summary: A lot of things happen in hospitals especially the most unbelievable.
Spoilers: Series 1 ep.4, Series 2 eps. 8,9,10
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins of course.
Author's note: I didn't have a beta reader so this is just the raw of it. It's a "What if" so to speak.
( Did you know the longest time someone was pronounced dead only to revive again was 45 minutes? )
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
til_tomorrow. -I haven't written any fanfiction in over 3 years until last week when I wrote This SKINS story just cause I wanted it to happen that way and because Graham Miles never really "looked" closely did he? haha. I just think Jal/Chris are cute and since that scene where she chased him all the way to the cemetary in Series#1 - I knew it was meant to be. Oh well, I'm a sucker for all things cute and angsty - though when I was taking Creative Writing classes in college my Professor told me to stop being so morbid because I kept writing stories with a main character dying in the end. He said, "Listen Cindy, not all people die in the end ok? Think about it." So yeah - I'm taking his advice to good use.
One of my favorite stories I've written long ago though was this Syaoran's story from Cardcaptor Sakura written so long ago I wonder how I found the words to the story because if I do it now I don't think I can. I liked his character because he's so cute and angry but at the same time so innocently sweet.
Another was This which is an ensemble little thing but I didn't like the first chapter. It was way too fluff - it's almost embarassing. I do love the other chapters in between especially Eriol's because it took me so damn long to write that and it was two times as long as all the others and I like his characters because he's demented. I like demented.
And finally by one shot of Remus and Snape. My two favorite HP characters. Ha! They were so made to be BFF's and they didn't even know it.
-So many fanmixes so little Anwar. This one is for the Legend that is Anwar whom we didn't really get to see much in Series #2. I really liked his family scenes in Series #1 especially with his parents and thought he and his mum had a great scene together in ep.#10, series #2. She's very understanding and funny. Those scenes with Sketch on their dinner date and in the last episode were nice as well. She may be crazy but I think she and Anwar can work out well if he goes back to Bristol and all.
Intergalactic Soundtrack for a Horny Muslim
Brussel Sprouts --- Bad, Bad, Bad
Doritos --- Blah, Good But Blah
Chocolate --- YUMMY
Cotton Candy --- DELICIOUS
1. Shot In The Heart by Mikal Gilmore
--Cotton Candy--
I remembered Mikal Gilmore giving interviews about his brother a long time ago and read a lot of his articles in Rolling Stone. Shot in the Heart is about his childhood and also about his infamous brother named Gary. Gary Gilmore, who had a bad childhood full of abuses and bad boy doings grew up to be a murder and was the first person to be executed (he wanted, almost pleaded to die) after the government decided to bring back the death penalty. It's a very engaging book. Gilmore's memories were very vivid. This is why I enjoy bios and autobios because the author's life becomes your life for awhile and it becomes your world. This book was great. I couldn't stop reading it.
2. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
--Chocolate--
The "prequel" of the Choronicles of Narnia series is about Polly and Digory two children who first discover the world of Narnia with all its magic. I don't really need to explain much. It's a great and wonderful story and it has all the imagination a kid could possibly want. It doesn't even compare to Harry Potter.
3. Daughter of Fortune by Isabele Allende
--Chocolate with a hint of cotton candy--
I love this book. It was full of romance of course and I don't really like much mushy stuff because mushy stuff can lead to corny lines and doings and all things corny but man, I was caught up in all of Eliza's tale from Joaquin to Tao-Chen... it was great. I didn't really want it to end. Isn't it nice to just read a good nice book where you aren't bored of reading it all? I recommend it to everyone. A story of a girl who as a baby was left in a basket outside the door of a rich English family living in Chile. She grows up to become a civilized young lady, smart and educated but falls in love with a poor boy who fleds to California and where she too fleds to follow the man she fell in love with only to find another man who becomes the real love of her life. Oh lala. I became a sucker for the romance.
4. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
--Doritos with some chocolate--
I loved Wicked because of it originality and its freshness and its imagination. But this second book of Maguire's which is the Cinderella tale told through the ugly stepsister who isn't really that mean at all didn't really interest me as much as Wicked. I shouldn't be comparing but this book was a bit boring. It still has the humor and the imagination yet it just didn't grab me. I did like the relationship between Iris and Caspar.
5. Hotel New Hamshire by John Irving
--Chocolate--
As I mention many times over I'm a fan of John Irving and being a fan of John Irving you get to know his writing style and themes. So of course there's always the free thinking guy with strong women and there are the usual themes of circus animals, love, prostitutes, incest, families, and weird sexual desires. Hotel New Hampshire isn't the best Irving book but he sure knows how to tell a story to make you laugh and interested and totally be into the story. The movie with Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe couldn't compare for some reason even though it was oddly accurate and true to the book. I think it's because the book was just vivid and I loved the story of John and Suzie the bear. I mean there are bears, the opera, and blind men with bears and a brother and sister falling in love and midgets and writers and homosexuality and love and death and a dog named Sorrow which eventually became a stuffed dog which eventually would always follow them. The theme overall is one line... "Keep passing the open windows"... A perfect line to always say whenever there's sorrow following you.
- Location:home
- Mood:
touched - Music:Oops I did it again
