Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Regulators by Stephen King


The Regulators by Stephen King

512 pages
Finished 1/29/08













In case you can't tell, I am on a bit of a Stephen King tear. I'm trying to build up my collection - I've always been a King fan, but haven't read much of it lately. Thanks to Half Price Books, I'm now all over it.

Anyway, at one of my last trips I picked up Desperation, and I liked it quite a bit. I had seen on the book that there was another book (The Regulators) that I thought was a sequel of sorts. Turns out the books are more "companions" of each other. You can read them completely separately, and really aren't missing anything. I got David to take me to HPB again this past weekend, and decided to check out the Stephen King section again for funsies (even though I had picked up a couple of King's books already from the dollar section). I saw The Regulators and snatched it up right away, even though I honestly had forgotten about the book.

The coolest thing about these two books are the characters - simply because the characters names, and a number of their main traits, are recycled between the two books. I didn't realize this when I first started reading Regulators, and I actually had David go grab Desperation for me out of the office so I could compare names (and yep, they matched). It was a little confusing at first, and then I realized that I had to separate the two stories - just because someone was a bad guy in one book, didn't necessarily mean he/she was a bad guy in the other.

I really liked Regulators - more than I liked Desperation, even. I was reading some other reviews, and it sounds like most people think Desperation is the better of the two, but I'd have to beg to differ on this one.

Four stars.

Baby Proof by Emily Giffin



Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
340 pages
Finished 1/26/08












This book is your typical chick lit - career woman falls madly in love with the man of her dreams, only to find that things aren't as peachy as she thought it'd be. In the case of this book, the main character, Claudia, has always maintained that she didn't want children - ever. She eventually meets a man that feels the exact same way about that (and, apparently, everything else under the sun). They get married, and after a few years of marriage, one of them eventually decides that hey, maybe they do want kids.

This book is exactly what I envision most chick lit to be - simple, predictable, and an easy read (I read in a day, no problem). It wasn't a great book, but I didn't despise it. I'd probably read other books by the author (as long as I found them in the dollar area at HPB).

Three stars.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Innocent Man by John Grisham


The Innocent Man by John Grisham
435 pages
Finished 1/26/08













I've always been a big John Grisham fan - I've read all of his fiction books, and I was eagerly waiting for this book to come out in paperback ever since I first heard about it. Of course, I could only get it in paperback since all of my other Grisham books are in paperback (consistency people!). I happed to see it the other day while wandering around in Target - David must have been in a good mood, because he let me buy it. :)

The book centers around the true story of a man wrongly convicted of murder in the late '80s. It's a pretty compelling story in itself - ex small town hero turned bad guy turned not so bad guy. It was a little weird reading the book though, because there were a few times that I forgot that I was reading nonfiction, and would think I was reading one of Grisham's thrillers - maybe that's a good thing? Overall, I liked the book. Reading Grisham is a bit like comfort food - very familiar.

Three stars.

The Alibi by Sandra Brown

I'm not going to say much about The Alibi by Sandra Brown - I pulled it off of the dollar shelf at HPB because it looked kinda interesting. I realized about five pages into it that 1) I had read this book before, and 2) that it is a horribly written book. I was not a fan.

Two stars.

Desperation by Stephen King


Desperation by Stephen King
547 pages
Finished 1/21/08













A week or so ago, David and I were going to run into town and do some errands. Since we are had to go to Home Depot, the common compromise is to go to Half Price Books (yay!). I decided to take a look at my Stephen King collection, and pick up another book of his that I haven't read. I ended up writing about 6-8 books down before we left.

Turns out Desperation wasn't even on that list, but I knew right away I hadn't read the book. I really liked it - in typical Stephen King fashion, the story revolves around a ton of characters that all end up being pulled over and abducted by a crazy weird cop in Desperation, NV. The coolest thing about the book is that it looks like there is a bit of a sequel called The Regulators that was written by King's alter-ego, Richard Bachman. I can't wait to read that one, too.

Three stars.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy


Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
236 pages
Finished 1/16/08













I had a really hard time getting into and then through this book. It is an autobiography (really?!) of a woman who had cancer when she was a child. As a result of that cancer, she had to have part of her jaw removed, leaving her disfigured.

The first thing that bothered me is that I wasn't a huge fan of the author's writing style. I know what she was going for with the visualizations, etc, but it just seemed like she was trying too hard. That wasn't the biggest thing that bothered me, though. The whole time I was reading it, I was annoyed by the lack of family relationships that were mentioned. She talked some about her father and her mother, but her twin sister was barely mentioned. It just felt there was this huge aspect of her life that was missing while reading the book.

I did find the afterword written by author Ann Patchett really interesting - it really shed some light on Grealy and her thoughts behind the writing of this memoir.

Two and a half stars.

Also, is it bad that every time I see the book, I kept thinking "So's your face!" (an insult from Scrubs) and then will usually start singing Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face"?

Amazing Race Genius

Can I just say how proud of myself I am for picking the winners of the Amazing Race 12 after watching the first episode? Granted, I didn't do much better in picking any of the other positions (um...Jason and Lorena in second? Not so much), but I am happy that for once my favorite team was able to win it. The last roadblock was awesome, although a little confusing.

On a sad note...of course the Packers lost last night. David and I ended up watching the second half of the game in bed (he's pretty sick right now), and I turned the TV off with two minutes in regulation and the game still tied. I was way too nervous to keep watching. Of course, about 15 minutes later I went online to check the final score, and saw that it was in OT. I ended up turning on the TV again just in time to see the Giants kick a field goal and win it. Ouch. Brutal. I so hope Tom Brady kicks Eli Manning's ass in the Superbowl.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen


Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

331 pages
Finished 1/13/07













I'll admit, I had pretty high expectations for this book. Everything that I have read has given this book RAVE reviews. To be quite honest, I probably would have liked it more if 1) I hadn't heard everyone gush about how great it was and 2) I hadn't read Geek Love a couple of months ago (which is seriously one of the best books ever). In the end, while I thought it was a decent book, I really don't think it lives up to the hype.

The book's narrator is a man in his 90s who lives in a nursing home. The story alternates between present time, and the time he joined up with a circus in his early twenties.

Don't get me wrong - I don't think this was a bad book by any means. And for a couple of paragraphs near the end of the book, I was really into it. But for the rest of the book (the whole beginning, and then again at the end), I was just kind of going through the motions while reading it. It held my interest, yes, but I don't think that the book challenged me in any way. It was also a very quick read - I read it easily in a day.

Three stars.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield



Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
219 pages
Finished 1/11/08












Ah, the mix tape. I was a big fan of the mix tape when I was younger - my choice tape was what the author called "The Radio Tape." I always had a tape handy, ready to record my favorite songs when they were played on the radio. And the funny thing is, when I hear certain songs, I still hear the DJ's comments on the song, from the tapes that I played over and over. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I only made 1 mix tape specifically for a person - my friend Minta when we were in 8th or 9th grade. It was a damn good tape, too, with plenty of Boyz II Men and other sap songs (we were getting over boys at the time, of course).

This book actually hit me pretty hard - I was teary through most of it, and full on crying at the end. The author writes about his relationship with his wife, and how she died in his arms after only 5 years of marriage. I was reading it and thinking through out the whole thing - I cannot imagine losing David. Hate the thought of it. It doesn't help that he is gone for the weekend, either.

Anyway, the coolest thing about this book are the playlists that he gives at the beginning of each chapter. I admit, I'm not familiar with 80% of the music - it's a lot of underground, alternative 90's rock that really wasn't my thing. Still, it was cool to read about music and how it influenced their relationship. And I was a little giddy when I got to the chapter titled "The Comfort Zone" because that playlist had my type of music - Kris Kross, Paula Abdul, TLC, Hi-Five, and tons of other early 90s Top 40 goodness that I enjoyed.

Funny thing about the book - I never looked at the back cover to see the picture of the author. I knew his name, of course, and that he was an editor for Rolling Stone, but I didn't realize until I finished reading the book that this was also one of the guys that is always on those VH1 shows - I Love the 80s, I Love the 90s, etc.

Four stars.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett



The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
983 pages
Finished 1/8/07












Wow. This book is absolutely amazing! Definitely the best book I've read in 2008. :) I had never heard of it before (until a few weeks ago), and I'm still trying to figure out how I was able to make it this long without reading it.

I actually picked up the book solely based on recommendations - I literally had no idea what it was about when I started reading it. When I saw that the Prologue took place in the year 1123 (the book spans 1123-1174), I was a little nervous, simply because I don't always dig historical fiction. Luckily, I was engrossed in the book from the first page. To be honest, I think I liked it more because, while it's set in the 1100's, the dialog in the book is fairly modern - I typically go crazy trying to read old fashioned writing.

Anyway, it is seriously an awesome book. I can't wait to read the sequel (I didn't even know there was one)! I will have to wait awhile, though - since I didn't know there was a sequel currently out in hardcover, I bought the mass market paperback version of this book. Since my series books have to match, I'll have to wait until the mm paperback is released of the sequel (or upgrade my current book to hardcover...hmmm).

One other thing - I have no idea what rock I've been living under, but I had no clue that this book was chosen as one of Oprah's book club picks. This is particularly disturbing since I get automatic emails regarding her choices. I admit, I've just been deleting them for months now without paying much attention to them...I guess from now on I'll research the book a little before deleting her emails.

Five million stars. Ok, just five stars.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane


Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane
412 pages
Finished 1/4/08













I was about 5 pages into the book before I realized that the two main characters in the book (Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro) are the main characters in a series of other books - and I was, essentially, reading the fourth in the series. I almost put the book down then (because I really hate reading books out of sequence), but decided to go on anyway.

Overall, I thought the book was pretty good. Great mystery with a lot of twists and turns, and there were a few that I didn't see coming. I didn't love the characters of Patrick and Angie, though - I was actually annoyed with how "soft" they were in a few places. I guess I like my detectives gritty. :)

I liked the book and the characters enough that I would consider reading more books that feature them, although I most likely won't read the first few books in the series, since the outcomes are referred to a number of times.

Three stars.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer


Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
629 pages
Finished 1/2/08













This book is the third in the Twilight series. The good news is that it was (slightly) better than the second book. The bad news is that it was no where near as good as the first.

This book dealt with more of the same - we are supposed to believe that Bella is such a strong character, when she is constantly standing in shock, feeling nauseous, or nearly passing out from being soooo tired.

The best part of the book was again the ending, although there were a few things that made me roll my eyes. I like the addition of the love triangle to the book, even if I don't like the person it is centered around (Bella). It actually a bit of a bummer that I've found myself disliking the main character so much.

Regardless, I'm sure I will pick up the sequel when it comes out later this year.

Three stars.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Christmas Picture

Thought I'd post my favorite Christmas picture of David and me. We spent the weekend before Christmas drinking a lot of Boones Farm (I think I mentioned that already). It was a blast!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer


New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
563 pages
Finished 12/31/07












What a disappointment! I was a little worried this would happen - it seems like teen authors are trying so hard to become the next JK Rowling, and it's just not happening. New Moon is the second book in the Twilight series, and to be quite honest, I thought it was pretty bad. I'm trying to put into words my distaste for the book without giving much of the plot away, and it's hard. (I don't want to give up the plot because I know how annoying it is to read information about a second novel in a series when you haven't read the first - too spoilerish).

My biggest issues stem from the main character - she absolutely drove me nuts. She's so melodramatic about everything! I don't think she has a ton of redeeming qualities, and yet somehow every guy she meets is drawn to her and in love with her. It was forced a little too much in this book.

The last quarter of the book was by far the best part, and that really wasn't good enough.

Two and a half stars.