The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
447 pages
Finished 8/19/08














The Devil in the White City is a true story about the World's Fair that happened in 1893, and tells two stories - the bringing of the World's Fair to Chicago and the building of it, along with the story of a serial killer operating in Chicago at the time.

Unfortunately, I found that the story revolving around the main architect and the building of the fair so incredibly boring. I had to fight my way through it, and only kept reading to get to the parts that mentioned the serial killer. Until the fair was actually built and running, the story was so dense and uninteresting. The story of the serial killer, on the other hand, was extremely interesting. I would have preferred to read a book about the killer than the combined book that I read - it felt like two completely different stories that didn't totally intertwine as well as it should have.

Two stars.

Dirty Rotten Blogger

Yes, that's me. I've been horrible about keeping up lately, I know. The good news is that things should be slowing down now (I'm back from FL and my brother's wedding, which was awesome - will post some pictures).

I'm not going to do a full review of the books I've read, but I do want to say that I have read some really good books lately. They include:
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle
Five Fortunes by Beth Gutcheon

Unfortunately, with the good, there is always some bad (or, some not-so-great). Luckily I only had a couple of those:
Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan (and can I just say - what a disappointment! I thought this one would be so good)
The Vision by Dean Koontz (a typical comfort read that didn't turn out so well)

I've also temporarily set aside a book that I know is extremely popular and has gotten rave reviews - I just haven't been able to get into it. That book is Peony in Love by Lisa See. I'll pick it up again eventually.

Meanwhile, yesterday I went to Half Price Books and got five books that I can't wait to read (all for about $20 - and this includes 2 hardcovers, including the new Jennifer Weiner - Certain Girls). Yay!

In my life, things are going great. Baby seems to be doing fine. I have my 16 week appointment this Thursday (when I'll actually be 17 weeks - oh well), and then coming up on July 15th, we find out the sex! So exciting! Hopefully soon I will be able to update more on Baby Hipolito. I haven't been updating because there hasn't been much to say - I still feel fabulous, I'm starting to show a snitch (ie, I look fat, especially at night), and we are seriously slacking in the buying for baby department. On my list of things to do today is to search online for some potential cribs, all while checking with Baby Bargains to see how they rate (Simplicity got an F? Those cribs are everywhere!).

I promise I'll try to update a little more regularily now. Hopefully I can keep up on that - since I seem to have been promising that a lot lately. :)

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
finished 5/11/08
400 pages












I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Jen Lancaster is definitely a girl you want to go have drinks with. In her newest memoir, she tackles her weight, and then publishes for the world to see. I found with this book, that while I love Jen and the person that she is (or should I say "character"?), this book definitely wasn't as good as the first two. I'm not sure why - in some parts it just felt a little forced, like she was trying too hard to be witty (which really wasn't necessary, since she's pretty darn funny in her own right).

There were a few parts that I had to read out loud to David - a part where she talks about how she can't be held responsible for her actions when she is tired or hungry, a part where she discusses The Real World/Road Rules Challenges, and a sentence where she mentions looking at a website for hours that has pictures of cats with funny sayings (!!). David immediately asked if I was sure I didn't write the book.

Still a good book (light-hearted and amusing) and she definitely makes some good points about losing weight (basically all that I tend to agree with). Definitely a funny read, but I would recommend checking out her other two books first.

Still, three and a half stars.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi
689 pages
Finished 3/30/08





I've always wanted to read about this book - I've heard so much about it. I discovered it at Goodwill one day a month or two ago and bought it. Of course, I didn't take a look at the book until I picked it up late last month to read it...and discovered that my book starts on page 11. So annoying. Why don't I check these things out ahead of time? Luckily, that was all that was missing, and it was pretty easy to pick up on the book there.

Helter Skelter is the story of Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate murder. The book is authored by the prosecutor in the book. I think he does a really good job of telling to story - the book is long, and it took awhile to get through, but there is so much detail needed that I couldn't imagine the story being any shorter. It was very interesting, in-depth, and chilling.

Four stars.

Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden

Beautiful Child by Torey Hayden
400 pages
Finished 3/8/08













This book is a touching true story about a teacher working to get through to a seven year-old girl named Venus. Torey is teaching a special needs class, and Venus stumps her - the little girl is completely unresponsive to others - whether it's elective mutism or something deeper, they are not sure.

This was a quick, very touching read. It was so hard to read about the little girl, and all of the issues she had with her home life. I'm interested in reading more of the author's works. It sounds like she has written a number about some of the more remarkable special needs students she's worked with.

Three stars.

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.

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"?

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.

Come Back by Claire and Mia Fontaine

Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine
306 pages
Finished 12/9/07











This book is a memoir written by a mother and daughter. The book tells of their struggle with Mia's (the daughter) addiction and the steps her mother and step father took to get her to rehab.

Overall, I thought it was a great book. Both Claire and Mia's stories are inter-mixed throughout the chapters, so you get to see/hear both sides of the story while it's happening. They are very frank and honest about a lot of things - their shortcomings and the huge circumstance in their life that was the catalyst in Mia's addiction.

My only complaint is that it seems like some important information is either left out or suddenly sprung on you. It made it feel a bit like a novel when I was reading those books - the story is compelling enough without throwing these "surprises" in.

Still, it was a great book, and I was happy to see that this book had a happy ending. And no, I'm not ruining the book by saying that. I mean, come on - it's written on the back of the book, nevermind that Mia's telling the story herself. Like a junkie could/would do that.

Four stars.

The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger

The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger
299 pages
Finished 10/3/07












I thought this would be a pretty interesting book - I had vaguely heard the story when the movie came out, although I don't remember ever watching the movie.

The Perfect Storm is a great name for the book, as the book revolved around the storm that took out the Andrea Gail. It gave a lot of good information about fishing, but overall I wasn't impressed by the book, especially where it concerns the Andrea Gail. The synopsis on the back of the book annoyed me, because I thought the book was going to be entirely about the Andrea Gail, but it instead seemed to be about the storm itself, past storms, and other accidents that happened during the storm.

My biggest issue is that no one actually knows what happened on the boat/to the boat - it was never found. The author did make it clear that what he was writing was just a guess based on other boaters and their experiences, but it was pretty annoying to constantly read "Presumably" and "Probably." The Andrea Gail story was basically assumptions about what the Captain and crew decided and did while the ship was going down. I don't consider that nonfiction.
I give it one and a half stars.

Breakdown by Eileen McNamara

Breakdown by Eileen McNamara
344 pages
Finished 9/30/07






This is a true crime novel that I picked up at Half Priced Books for $1. I figured it would be a pretty interesting read - it is about a Harvard Medical School student that began going to a Harvard psychiatrist for treatment for depression. Five years later, he commits suicide, and his family blames the psychiatrist, who was extremely unorthodox in her treatment.

The summary of the book made it out to be more interesting than it really was. It was really drawn out with stories repeated throughout, possibly to make it a full length book. It seemed to end abruptly, too, much like my review will.
I give it two stars.

Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster

This book is a bit of a follow up to the author's first memoir, Bitter is the New Black.


Bright Lights, Big Ass by Jen Lancaster
382 pages
Finished 9/29/07











I don't really like to use the 5 star rating that often, because there aren't many books that I find "amazing." I was a little reluctant to use it for this book, because I don't want to imply that it's literary genius or anything - I just thought it was a really funny book that I was able to lose myself in for a few hours. I think this is the only book that I can actually say I laughed out loud reading...and I did it while I was reading in bed, and I had to stifle the laugh so David wouldn't hear me and think I am crazy (or, crazier).

The book is basically a collection of essays about her life. She adds in her two cents to everything and includes witty footnotes. This will never be called great literature, but it's amusing and really light-hearted. Jen Lancaster is someone that I could see being friends with - she's funny, smart, and likes to drink. :) The only downside is that she's a Republican. Can't win 'em all, huh?
I give it five stars.