I Read It!

Last night at about 11:30 I finished all 644 pages of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Probably one of the most talked about books since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  And probably one of the best first chapters ever.  I picked it up the first time because of that first chapter and put it back down because the next chapter was amazingly narrative heavy and plodding.

But then every time I opened a magazine, web page, there it was.  Then the movie was coming out and an American version was going to be made.  I resisted as long as I could, but I hate that left out feeling.  Then Barnes and Noble offered an extra 15% off anything I ordered online and I folded.  Thanks, Barnes and Noble.  I ended up really getting into the book.  The mystery of Harriet’s disappearance and then all the various Vangers and their foibles were addictive.  And, after a while, the plodding didn’t seem so, well, plodding.  And Blomkvist is a pretty cool male lead.

Unfortunately, the one character I never really warmed up to was Lisbeth Salander, the aforementioned tattooed girl.  And that’s probably the point.  She is not really an appealing person, even a little frightening.  I wouldn’t mind having her computer skills, though.  But why is she the title character?  She is peripheral until about 2/3 of the way into the book, and even after that she is no more prominent than Blomkvist.  I guess it would have been as big a seller if it had been title The Guy with No Snow Shoes.  We’ll never know.

Have a little faith

Every time I read Mitch Albom, I go in knowing there is a hook, and each time I swallow it, hook, line and sinker.  There is something about Albom’s style that is immensely readable and engaging.  This book is no exception.  It begins with his rabbi from his old temple coming up to him after a speech and asking a favor.  “Will you do my eulogy?”  Having been away from his hometown and the temple (except for the high holy days once a year), Albom is amazed at the request.  Even more amazing is that he has drifted from his religion and married a gentile.  He thinks about it and decides that if he is going to do it he needs to get to know the rabbi, Albert Lewis, better.  Thus begins 8 years of visits, conversations, phone calls, and friendship.

At the same time, in Detroit, where Albom lives, an African-American minister, Henry Covington,  is making waves in an abandoned church.  He is preaching about his recovering from every kind of addiction and lawlessness, feeding and clothing the homeless, all with a huge hole in his roof and no heat.  As Albom becomes more involved with both men, he comes to understand why they do what they do.

This book is less about faith in God or religion, although there are lots of stories and talk about that, and more about faith in people.  Faith in the possibility for good that exists in the world and faith that with a little help the world really can change.  And it’s a true story.

Hitchcock Lite

I just finished a book called Dial H For Hitchcock by Susan Kandel.  It’s part of my “Gosh that’s an intriguing title!” system of choosing books.  It worked well with Honestly Dearest, You’re Dead by Jack Fredrickson and pretty well with Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman.  Anyway, I am a huge Hitchcock fan, so I thought what’s to loose.  Not much.  This was a very light, very frothy little book about a woman writing a biography of Hitch and having her identity stolen.  She is confused with another person (North by Northwest), taunted by a cell phone (Dial M for Murder), stranded on a deserted highway (NBN again) and dies her hair to look more like another woman (Vertigo).  And the reason for all this is not at all what she or anyone else thinks.  Not great, but not bad, either.  And it’s a series!

What I found really fascinating were the bits of Hitchcock trivia thrown in.  The blue parties, Carole Lombard bringing cows and a cowpen on set after Hitch’s comment about all actors are cattle, and the famous Tallulah Bankhead comment.  (Censored) He hated Kim Novak because she wouldn’t fall for his stuff.  And he played horrendous practical jokes on his daughter Pat.

All in all, it was a good entry in the interesting title category.  I may stick with this plan.

Seven Things

A friend tagged me with this meme.  So, I decided to play along.  I am supposed to disclose 7 things about myself that people might not know.  Here goes.

1.  I was born on a Monday while the Memorial Day parade was going by.

2. I have never ridden on a roller coaster (and never will, willingly that is).

3. When I was 7 years old I almost lost a kidney to a serious infection.  All better now.

4. My first free lance writing job, was to write the biography of a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in anticipation of his bid for the Governor’s office.  Larry Sabato was to write his political history.  Since the man had only won one election and was not much of a Delegate, it never really went anywhere.  However, Larry did.

5. In my job in public relations for a recycling company, I spent some time with some garbage tycoons in Garfield, New Jersey.  When the day was over, my boss informed me that all of them had major mafia connections, especially the guy who kept calling me sweetheart.  The one I glared at.

6. I have seen a ghost.  Actually seen one, in broad daylight in a grave yard.  I know it sounds like a cliche, but it’s true.

7. I have a serious phobia about statues.  Not all statues, just most of them, especially female statues.  I can’t even imagine going to Rome! The Statue of Liberty—OMG!

So there, some random pointless facts about me.  How embarrassing.

“Bite Me”

I know that sounds a bit harsh, but it is actually the title of a new book by Christopher Moore.  If you are not familiar with Moore, you should be.  He is the one of the best writers out there today.   I was going to say funniest, but that is only part of his talent.   In Lamb: the gospel according to Biff, Christ’s childhood pal, he basically has fun with the gospels but manages to remain reverent and thought provoking.  I mean, what did happen between 12 and 30?  Fluke: or I know why the winged whale sings, may be one of the best environmental novels around.  Even his titles are great: The stupidest angel, a heartwarming tale of Christmas terror; The lust lizard of Melancholy Cove; Island of the sequined love nun; and Practical demonkeeping.

But I digress, Bite Me is a sequel to You Suck, which is a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends. Yes, they are about vampires. Hey, EVERYBODY’s doing it.  Moore just sticks to the mythology a little better–no sparkling.  In the first book, Jody is turned into a vampire by an elder vamp.  She has to figure out how to survive on her own.  One of the ways she does is to get a “minion.”  Hers is 19-year-old Tommy Flood, a wannabe writer who moved to San Francisco for the atmosphere.  In You Suck, Jody turns Tommy into a vampire.  They in turn choose a minion, Abby Normal (yes, he likes Young Frankenstein, too) aka Allison Green, goth girl to the max.  We first met her in A Dirty Job which featured one of my favorite Moore characters Minty Fresh, a tall, skinny black man who dresses only in green.  Moore reuses characters a lot.  The Emperor of San Francisco, a homeless man who thinks the city is his to protect and The Men, his two dogs, figure prominently here and in other books.  See I just can’t stop gushing!

So, Bite Me, begins where You Suck ended.  Jody and Tommy have been bronzed by Abby and her boyfriend, Stephen Wong–aka Foo Dog, to protect them from evil forces.  Chet, the huge homeless cat, has become a vampire with human qualities, and he goes about turning all the cats in the city.  Now hordes of vampire cats are taking out the homeless and the prostitutes and anyone else they can get.  And the ancient vampire is back with his minions to clean things up.  Maybe three books on the same subject was too much.  Maybe Moore was worn out from his retelling of King Lear from the point of view of the fool, in Fool. Or maybe  it was the fact that there was a lot of Abby in this one.  Her “I was all, and then he was all…”  and “I know!”  became very tired after a while.  When Jody and Tommy are finally free of the bronze and the Animals from the Safeway show up, the story becomes more exciting and more humorous.  All in all, a good book, but it didn’t quite “rock my stripey socks” like Coyote Blue or Lamb. Sorry.

Characters

I just finished two books: Deception by Jonathan Kellerman and Split Image by Robert B. Parker.  I follow both authors mainly because of the characters they write.  Kellerman’s Alex Delaware is fairly monochromatic but the characters that surround him are spectroscopic.  Milo Sturgis is a police detective with all the physical grace of a grizzly and the heart of a poet.  And I love that Kellerman writes his gayness as just another attribute and not something that must be evaluated endlessly.  The mysteries really take a back seat to the interaction between these two characters and the myriad odd balls they meet while investigating.

As to Parker, I have only read his Jesse Stone books.  Some day I’ll go back and find the first Spenser novel and start those.  But for now I like the dialogue driven, angst laden stories in Paradise, Massachusetts.  It may be a small town but they are just as messed up as any big city.  A corrupt board of selectmen, organized crime, and careless rich people.  And talk about characters.  Jesse is my favorite, of course, hard bitten, no nonsense, but not quite able to let his first wife go or the bottle of scotch.  Tom Selleck plays him in the TV movies.  You get the idea.  And then there is Suit Simpson, Molly Crane, Detective Healy, all amazing individuals that you could pick out of a line up.  And again, the mystery is there and well thought out, but for me secondary to the minimalist dialogue and brilliant characters.

With both story lines it helps to start at the beginning, but not absolutely necessary.  So, for good writing and amazing characters, give them a look.

You’re an animal, Viskovitz!

You’re an animal, Viskovitz by Alessandro Boffa (translated from the Italian by John Casey, with Maria Sanminiatelli). Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

I read about this book on another blog, Books on the Nightstand, or actually listened to a podcast about it.  They were highlighting “little” books with great stories.  The title grabbed me but the premise was what made me check it out.  In each of the 20 stories in Alessandro Boffa’s book, Viskovitz is portrayed as a different animal.  In the first story, How’s Life Treating You, Viskovitz?, he is a dormouse having trouble waking up from hibernation. In another, he is a snail who falls in love with his own reflection.

Visko also becomes a spider, a lion, a dog with a Sam Spade patter, the fastest scorpion is the West,  a tapeworm who can’t understand why his host doesn’t love him, and so on.  In each story his one true love is Ljuba, his friends/siblings/enemies are Zucotic, Petrovic, and Lopez.  Boffa, a biologist, has Viskovitz use scientific descriptions such as, “Her exoskeleton was red as the dawn, her corslet a whirlwind of golden reflections…Every part of her body, emimeron or episternum, prothorax, mesothorax or metathorax, ureters, stigma or scutellum was for my ocelli both joy and torment.”

Okay, maybe that isn’t a big selling point if you are not a zoologist, but the humor in the book is marvelous.  “Viskovitz turned and said, ‘I’d like you to get our conversation down in black and white.’  ‘It’s not possible I answered. ‘I’m not a typist, I’m not a writer. I’m a penquin.  As far as I’m concerned , “getting it down in black and white” means making more penguins.’”  Most of the humor comes from the situations.  Viskovitz the dung beetle sets about amassing huge quantities of, well, dung, creating an empire to attract Ljuba, the love of his life.  When he invites her to dive in to his mega pool of poo, he finds out that she is a may beetle and only eats pollen.  Viskovitz the lion falls in love with a gazelle and when meeting her family can’t keep from eating her parents.

I found myself looking forward to each story to see first what he would become and then how he would make out.  This is a great little book with a big punch.

The trouble with antlers

My husband traded away his gift at the office Christmas party for a set of reindeer antlers and big red nose to put on my car.  I had remarked that I thought they were funny and so, he passed on the other silly presents to get them for me.  And, of course, I happily put them on my green Saturn Vue and thought myself pretty cool.

Well, they did look cute.  The red velvet stuffed nose fit on the grill and the antlers (brown velour with bells!) clipped onto the top of the car windows, which roll up to hold them on.  That’s where the trouble began.  The next day I went to the post office and without thinking rolled down the window to put the mail in the box.  Down fell the antler.  I couldn’t open the door to get it or back up because another car was waiting.  My daughter had to get out, go around the car and rescue the poor antler.  That’s one.

The next time, I was leaving the driveway and wanted to say something to my husband, who was raking leaves.  Down went the window and, you guessed it, off came the antler.  That’s two.

Those were relatively easy, right?  Well, the next time, my son and I were coming from Target on Forest Hill Avenue.  We got on Chippenham Parkway at 45 miles an hour, my mouth going about 48.  “Whew, it’s really warm,” I said, and without giving it a single thought, rolled the window down about four inches.  Not 10 feet later, the poor antler flew off the window landing almost dead center on the parkway.  That’s three.

You might think that was the end of the antler, but no.  My intrepid son, swifter than an eagle, waited for the traffic to pass–traffic that miraculously missed crushing the poor antler–and darted out into the road and retrieved it in a move that would make an Olympic relay racer proud. 

Yes, I am a slow learner as my husband remarked.  But, I did learn.  I finally put the antlers on the backseat windows.  Ahhh.  And there they stayed until New Year’s Day.  Hope I remember that next year.

Defend Your Rights!

Defend Your Rights!

Originally uploaded by dickiepics

Well, Banned Books Week is almost over and I’m just getting around to writing about it here. I was lucky enough this year to work with someone here in the library on a display. We created signs and put them on stakes along the entrance of the library naming challenged books, what they were challenged for, and adding a “Judge for yourself” tagline. My partner even added the call number for easy access. We also had a sign with the First Amendment written out, and one encouraging everyone to defend your rights and register to vote.

Inside the library, we put out copies of the books in displays festooned with black crepe paper. So far, 5 of the books have been checked out. Not bad mid semester! My partner came up with book dummies with the title of the checked out books saying, someone is exercising their rights. We’ve had many comments and even been interviewed by the campus newspaper. It feels good.

In this time of crisis on many fronts in our country, it is good to be reminded that ALL of our rights need to be defended. The right to read may seem a small thing, but ask people in Cuba how they feel about it.

Read and Release!

Today, I set free my first Book Crossing book.  Actually I released three books.  If you don’t know about Book Crossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/) it’s worth looking into.  The idea is that you choose a book you want to let go, register it online, record the number in the book and put it somewhere you think someone will see it and pick it up.  If all works well, that person will read the book, go back online and record where they found it and where they are going to re-release it.  What a wonderful way to spread good books around!  And how cool to be sitting in a Starbucks or wherever and find a free book.  You can start it while you’re drinking your overpriced latte and then take it with you. 

And I get the thrill of checking the BC site everyday to see if someone found the books and is going to play along.  I should be happy just to know that a book I enjoyed is being enjoyed by someone else, whether they go to the site and record it or not.  I should be, but I’m not.  So whoever finds my books, read fast and get online!!  Please.