Time to discuss books 6-10. I have more stuff to post about, including the spoils of San Diego, but that will have to wait until the weekend. For now, I am on book #33 of the year and hope to finish it this weekend. I’d say tonight, but Tivo has lovingly recorded several episodes from the previous “cycle” of America’s Next Top Model, and I must indulge. Or Tivo will be mad at me.
On to the reviews!
6. A Death in Belmont, Sebastian Junger
You ever have a book that you overall enjoy reading, then finish and say, “I have no desire to ever read that again”? That was this book for me. The author’s real life account of growing up in a Boston suburb during the height of the Boston Strangler murders. Turns out that one of the men who worked on his mom’s art studio was Alberto DeSalvo, who was later arrested and convicted of the crimes. Junger explores a horrific murder that happened in his neighborhood which had all the markings of the Boston Strangler – but another man was tried and convicted for them, while DeSalvo was LITERALLY down the street from the attack. Was the other man convicted because he was black and out of place in an affluent white suburb? Or was he really guilty? Not much closure can be provided on this, so finishing the book doesn’t give a sense of completion. Like I said, I read it in about 6-8 hours, then said “next”.
7. Small Sacrifices, Ann Rule
When I was little and there were still “true crime” TV movies on every week, I would stay up late with my mom and watch them. Now, these TV movies all seem to be on Lifetime. Small Sacrifices was my favorite – starring Farrah Fawcett and John Shea. This true crime book is what that movie was based on, and it rocked. In the 80s, Diane Downs fell in love with a married man named Lew who was overwhelmed by her affection and broke up with her. One of the reasons he gave in the breakup was that he didn’t want to take care of kids, and Diane had 3 small children. In Diane’s twisted mind, she thought that getting rid of the kids would mean that she and Lew would be together. So she shot her kids at point blank range (killing one of them and permanently disabling the other two) and blamed it on a mystery shooter. If you’re into true crime, this book totally rocks and so does Ann Rule.
8. Tales of the City, by Armistead Maupin
This is one of those books I got at the used book store a few years ago because it seems like one of those books everyone has read. I enjoyed it enough, but it seemed incredibly dated to me. I know that it was written in the 70’s and many of the characters were completely into the trends and scenes during that time in San Francisco. But all of the references which now seem so hokey and dated (especially to those who did not live through those trends and scenes) kept taking me out of the book.
9. Red Azalea, by Anchee Min
A book club choice. I didn’t HATE this book like so many other book club members did, but I certainly didn’t LOVE it or even like it enough to recommend to anyone. This book is an autobiographical account of the author’s experiences growing up in communist China. Sometimes, really down material can be incredibly moving if it is told well (see: book #23). But this didn’t even make me very sad. Just made me think “sucks for you” because it wasn’t compelling enough. Plus the ending SUCKED, and I will spoil it for you here. After all her hardship, the book basically ends with “and then I moved to America and everything is great! LA LA LA!”
10. Club Dumas, by Arturo Perez-Reverte and Sonia Soto
I HATED this book. It took FOREVER to read because it was such crap, but I wanted to read it all so I could moan about it at book club. Turns out, everyone else in book club was smarter than me and stopped reading after 50 pages or less. This book is stupid, predictable, poorly written, wannabe-Davinci Code crap. Don’t read this book unless you want to torture yourself. Life’s too short to spend it on this crap.
Next book post – when I start reading Harry Potter to get ready for HP 7! Follow me as I read all the books that I used to tease Pizza about and vow to never read! Does that make me a liar, or a hypocrite? You be the judge!
I tease Dana about the HP books, and have never read them myself, but I’m not sure I ever vowed to not read them.
Anyway, keep up the posting! Yay! Posting fever!
HP was awesome. Great brain candy.
For more on candy, go to our blog.
