Category: Books

Have You Read This Book? – Take 10

July 12, 2010
BooksMy Life

I recently finished reading ‘Mercy” by Jodi Picoult. It’s the third book I’ve read by her, after Nineteen Minutes and My Sister’s Keeper. Click those links to read my thoughts about those books.

This one covers ground that is a bit close (or could have been), a woman dying from cancer and in terrible pain, so she asks her husband to help end her life. And in this case, he does it for her. So, how far is too far if the act is out of love? And then there’s the police chief, in a comfortable marriage. That is, until a newcomer threatens to change everything. It’s a good story and a compelling read. As with the other two of her books, I enjoyed it.

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Have You Read This Book? – Take 9

May 11, 2010
BooksComedyMy Life

This book is clever, funny, fast-paced, outrageous, ingeniuous, and just plain fun. Moore has written a slew of books but this is the first one I’ve read. It won’t be the last.

In the book, our beta-male hero Charlie Asher all of a sudden finds himself to be, well, Death. Or at least a “merchant of death”. Hey it’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it. There’s a wild cast of characters and the story takes you on a  ride. I can’t really do the book justice, so I’ll post this mini-review from Publisher’s Weekly:

“Cult-hero Moore (The Stupidest Angel) tackles death—make that Death—in his latest wonderful, whacked-out yarn. For beta male Charlie Asher, proprietor of a shop in San Francisco, life and death meet in a maternity ward recovery room where his wife, Rachel, dies shortly after giving birth. Though security cameras catch nothing, Charlie swears he saw an impossibly tall black man in a mint green suit standing beside Rachel as she died. When objects in his store begin glowing, strangers drop dead before him and man-sized ravens start attacking him, Charlie figures something’s up. Along comes Minty Fresh—the man in green—to enlighten him: turns out Charlie and Minty are Death Merchants, whose job (outlined in the Great Big Book of Death) is to gather up souls before the Forces of Darkness get to them. While Charlie’s employees, Lily the Goth girl and Ray the ex-cop, mind the shop, and two enormous hellhounds babysit, Charlie attends to his dangerous soul-collecting duties, building toward a showdown with Death in a Gold Rush–era ship buried beneath San Francisco’s financial district. If it sounds over the top, that’s because it is—but Moore’s enthusiasm and skill make it convincing, and his affection for the cast of weirdos gives the book an unexpected poignancy. “

So yeah, what’s not to like? The book is Christopher Moore’s “A Dirty Job”. It was a very enjoyable read and now I need to pick up another book by Moore. If anyone has any suggestions let me know…

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Have You Read This Book – Take 8

April 16, 2010
BooksComedyMy Life

The book is “Hello, I Must Be Going” by Charlotte Chandler, and it is subtitled “Groucho and his Friends”. It’s a biography of the legendary comedian Groucho Marx (learn more about him). This lengthy book contains a world of insight into his life and a very generous helping of memories, quotes, and comments from the funniest Marx Brother.

There are lots interviews with his friends, usually with him present to wisecrack and look back fondly. The book presents Groucho in his later years and he knows he is old and doesn’t have a lot of time. He gets a little down here and there, as would be expected. So he looks back on his long, celebrated life, and tells us all about it. There are also guest interviewers, who have great discussions with Groucho. These include Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, George Burns, and many more.

It was a little sad in that Groucho was near the end of his life. But his mind was sharp and he was clever and smart. In short, I liked the book and it just reinforced what I already knew, that Groucho was one of the funniest people ever.

Have you read it? Do you have an opinion?

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Have You Read This Book? – Take 7

November 4, 2009
BooksComedy

woody_anarchyIf you have not read any of Woody’s books, you might be surprised. He’s very smart and very literate, especially so within this latest effort. Yes, you have to pay attention and he uses big words. But don’t panic! He uses them for good. Actually, he uses them for humor, which is pretty much the same as good.

This book compiles eighteen or so short pieces, many of which published in various places but gathered together for the first time. From “Tandoori Ransom” to “Sam You Made The Pants Too Fragrant” to “On A Bad Day You Can See Forever” to “Above The Law, Below The Box Springs” to, well, maybe you get the idea. His stories are off-beat and unusual and not (as you might expect) full of easy jokes. Oh, but they are funny. Clever and funny, which is even better. 

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Have You Read This Book? – Take 6

October 15, 2009
BooksMusicMy Life

warrenzevonThe book is “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon”. Written by his wife Crystal with quotes and insight from a wide variety of friends, family, colleagues, and more. For those who already know that Warren was a master songwriter and artist, this book provides insight into his tormented life and his struggles with alcoholism and other self-destructive behaviors. And it’s also a great guide to the songs and the albums that are still too often overlooked. (learn more)

If you don’t know Warren’s work, or only know “Werewolves Of London”, then you will see there was a lot more to this man.

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Mad Props For A Week In Portland!

July 3, 2009
AlcoholArtBooksFoodFriendsMoviesMusicMy LifeTravelVegetarian
1 Comment

We took a vacation up north in the Portland, Orgeon area. You shoulda been there. Maybe you were. Whatever, we had a great time! Here’s the  play-by-play.

Thursday June 25

And we hit the road running. Well, driving actually. Portland is a ten or eleven hour drive from our NorCal home base. On our way, we stopped in Yreka, right up near the top of California on the I-5, at a small place in a mall, called Linda’s Soup Café.  We had stumbled on this place a few years back when we drove to Seattle and somehow remembered it. Linda’s is not your usual mall food. They even have a vegetarian menu with a whole bunch of items that looked good. Imagine us vegetarians having too many things to choose from!  Anyway, fully refreshed, we headed north again. We stopped in Southern Oregon for gas and remembered the unusual law in Oregon that says you can’t pump your own gas. So we let the man service us and headed north once again. Round about dinnertime we pulled into Portland. Or I should say the suburb of Lake Oswego, where our hotel was. We checked in and unpacked. We got on the internet with our laptops and although the Ethernet connection worked the WiFi didn’t, meaning only one of us could be online at once. That wouldn’t suffice for the whole week, so we had someone from the hotel check it out and they got it working within minutes. Yay! We’ve had Internet problems at hotels a few times, and this was the fastest it ever got fixed. The room was nice too, and the rate was very cheap for a Hilton Garden Inn. In fact, the Hotel situation was great for the whole week. But I’m jumping ahead.

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Have You Read This Book?

May 20, 2009
BooksMy Life
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The latest book I finished was “Velocity” by Dean Koontz. It’s a fast-paced suspense thriller and it was hard to put down. Good thing I’m so busy or I might have read it in one sitting! The tag line is “fear never slows down….”

It was the first book I had read by this author, though he is quite prolific. Velocity isn’t especially deep or philospohical, it’s just a good read that will keep you wanting to read more. The characters were described well, particularly the main character (Billy). Now, I’m no book reviewer, so here’s what Publisher’s Weekly had to say:

[after the jump]

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Have You Read This Book?

March 20, 2009
BooksComedyMy Life

The book is Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up“. I’ve always been a big fan of his, from way back in the days of the “wild and crazy guy”, happy feet, “let’s get small”, and the arrow through the head. Remember? Well, I guess that depends on how old you are. And of course since then he has made many worthy films too.

This book follows his life from childhood into his beginnings with magic and comedy. Then into his becoming famous and how it affected him. Finally he covers why he decided to never do stand-up comedy again. The book ends there, hopefully he will write another one someday that will deal with his life after stand-up. This book is written in an easy-to-read style with some subtle humor, although you do get the down side too. It was a quick read and an enjoyable one.

Here’s what Elvis Presley said about Steve Martin in 1971:

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Have You Read This Book?

February 5, 2009
BooksMy Life

The book is My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult and I recently finished it. It was a very enjoyable read. Thanks to my friend Robin who loaned it to me. A while back I read a different book by this same author, which I blogged about here. I liked that one so I was anxious to try another. And I liked this one too, how about that?! Once again the author tackles a deep subject and creates characters that are very interesting and really drew me in. I got to know the whole family and the side characters as well and could see both sides of the moral uncertainty that the author likes to write about.

Ms. Picoult likes to tackle ethical questions and make you wonder who is really right and wrong, but at the same time she tells a story and gives insight into each character, whether likable or not. I would certainly recommend this book. I have already bought another one by her and will get to it one of these days. You know how that goes, though!

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Have You Read This Book?

November 13, 2008
BooksMy Life

The book is Clown Girl by Monica Drake. I saw Monica do a reading of a chapter a few years back at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle and was immediately taken by her clever and quirky prose. And after finally reading the whole book, I will say it was a very pleasant experience. This is a fast-paced, wild ride through the world of Baloneytown, with a suprising insightful clown as the main character.

Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, says “Clown Girl is more than a great book, Clown Girl is its own reality”. Would I go that far? Maybe so. I know this much: I liked the book. And it was indeed an outrageous world with unique characters in unique situations. But through it all you wanted to know what was going to happen next the Sniffles, the female protagonist.

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The Excellent Seattle Trip: Days 6 – 8

September 9, 2008
AlcoholArtBooksBumbershootComedyFoodFriendsMusicMy LifeSeattleTravelVegetarian
2 Comments

Note: Be sure to check out some of the links too!!

Monday 9/1

The last day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Yikes! So let’s enjoy it!! After a quick monorail ride to the festival grounds, we strategized in the hospitality area. And we ate. Hey, you gotta eat or you’ll die, right? We started the days entertainment with an hour containing two short independent fims grouped loosely under the title of Portrait Of The Artist. The films were a bit weird but harmless and not bad really. Then on to the main stage for recently popular modern rockers Paramore. They are a young and energetic band with a charismatic female singer, and we were up pretty close to the stage. I had ony heard a song or two by them but ended up liking their entire set. I’ll have to watch for their CD. Oh, and as a general side note, there will be pictures of them and the rest of the trip up on this site soon. Check back often! Then, when the pictures are not here yet, you can grumble “Why is Steven so slow?” Ha! It’s fun, try it! Anyway,

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A Mountain Of Rolling Stones!

July 12, 2008
BooksMiscellaneousMusic
1 Comment

Prince on the Rolling Stone coverHelp! We’re up to our #$%!@ in Rolling Stone magazines! As you can see from the picture, even Prince can’t believe it! 

Actually we have put an ad on Craigslist. We have over 600 issues for sale (as a lot, no single issues). And we’re throwing in 20 or so Spin magazines too. The catch? You gotta pic ’em up! But hopefully by the time you read this we’ll be well on our way to a sale. Those suckers can take up lot of room and we’ve got other, more important, junk to store.

Now as for that picture of Prince, what do you think he is doing? The headline says he is “on fire” but he doesn’t look like he is burning up. Hmm, maybe he is thinking about Petra … 😉

Have You Read This Book?

July 6, 2008
BooksMy Life
4 Comments

Nineteen MinutesIt’s Nineteen Minutes by best-selling author Jodi Picoult. Apparently this is her 14th novel, but it’s the first one I have read by her. It won’t be the last. This was a really interesting look at a tragic event (a school mass-shooting), but more importantly about how it affected the lives of the people involved, from the shooter, his friends (if any), his parents, the parents of the deceased, and all the other peripheral players.

We see these events on the news all too often nowadays, but this novel explores the human side and also delves into the horrifying effects of bullying. Every character is a person with feelings, the shooter and the rest of the town. I would highly recommend this book.

Here’s a blurb from amazon.com (after the jump):

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