Always Wear Sunscreen - A Book Review

Last week I read a status on my Facebook page. The writer of that status stated she hated a book called The Humans by Matt Haig. I decided to look up the book and see what it was all about. Sounded right up my alley; a book about someone trying to figure out an unfamiliar situation. There's math and science in it, but not so much I don't understand the concepts. There's romance, teen angst, and a bit of humor. I went online, placed a hold on it at the library and waited for it to show up at my local branch. I picked it up on Saturday and finished it last night.

The Humans is about this guy from a hyper-intelligent species from outer space.  This spaceman comes from a species who never die, know no pain, love, joy, heartache, etc. They have no relationships with each other. There is no sort of bonding with anyone. Logic rules their world and dictates how they live.

In the book the spaceman has to go to Earth and kill a mathematician who solved some math problem involving prime numbers. After killing him, he takes his form and sets to complete his mission by killing all those who might know about the mathematician's discovery.
While discovering who knows what, he gets to know the mathematician's wife, son, best frenemy and best friend. He kills the frenemy, but as he's trying to suss out what the wife, son and bestie know, he gets to know them and like them and their dog. He falls in love with the wife and builds a relationship with the son and starts walking the dog.  He doesn't want to kill them. The spaceman's bosses get angry. In the end he decides he wants to stay human and live painfully ever after.

Like I said, the book seemed right up my alley. I was a little bit wrong. The story itself is pretty entertaining. but it was lacking and I felt like it wasn't all that original. It was sort of like a cross between the writing of a lazy man's Douglas Adams and that poem / speech that was popular in the early '90's about not forgetting to wear sunscreen, with a little bit of Desiderata thrown in for good measure.

I betcha Hollywood will eat it up, and I'm such a sucker that I'll see the movie when it's made, but not so much of a sucker that I'll pay for it; I'll watch it when it winds up on Starz.

.... And Then She Called It "San Fran" -- book review

There's something about "San Fran" that drives me nuts; like fingernails scratching a chalkboard, like teeth scraping against a fork I tell you. It's lazy. It's annoying. It reminds me of  yuppies and affluent baby boomers who have to abreviate all their words to sound cool and efficient, but they really don't. It also bugs me because it sounds disrespectful. I made this city my home more than 20 years ago. I don't have the bragging rights of a native San Franciscan, but I still claim this place as my home.
"Frisco" on the other hand doesn't bug me as much, if it's used in the right context. Hubby once said Frisco represents The City That Dare Not Speak It's Nickname. It conjures up images of The Gold Rush, Emperor Norton (even though he was credited with writing a decree which proposed fining people $25 for calling it by this name), being Shanghied and The Barbary Coast. There's  romance and lore behind "Frisco." "San Fran" is just lazy.

Anyways, I just finished reading Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisburger. I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada. I figured I would enjoy reading its sequel. Honestly I found it a chore to get through. I think I liked The Devil Wears Prada because I spent a long time being an Executive Assistant. Although the people I worked for were not as evil as Miranda Priestly (in fact, some were quite nice), I understood Andy, the main character's pain. I loved that in the book (not the movie) that Andy gave Miranda the big "F - You" on the streets in Paris. I've worked for a few people who may have needed such treatment a time or two.



Revenge Wears Prada takes place about 10 years after the first book ends. Andy gets married to some rich guy, has a baby, is besties with Emily and she and Em run a magazine together. The publishing company that owns Runway magazine makes a bid for Andy and Emily's magazine. Andy doesn't want to sell. Emily does. They end up selling. Andy gets mad and quits, then divorces her husband and hooks up with her boyfriend from 10 years ago. Nobody took revenge on anybody. Miranda was hardly even in the book. All Andy did was whine throughout the whole book about how much she hated her perfect life. I was really really disappointed in the whole book. I wanted Miranda to get really evil and then have Andy and Emily outsmart her and come out on top. That didn't happen. In the end, nobody was friends anymore, Andy got divorced and the magazine was swallowed up by a publishing giant. I was about 30 pages from the end and I just wanted to quit reading it. I decided to finish it anyhow, and just in the last few pages of the book, Lauren Weisberger referred to San Francisco as "San Fran."

I hate the phrase "San Fran" so much that my review of the book went from "meh" to "F-you and your stupid book on the streets of Paris, Lauren Weisberger."

Can't Get Me Enough of That Robert Langdon - Book Review

I just finished reading Dan Brown's newest book Inferno. Like all Dan Brown books, I had a great time reading it.

I've read all the Dan Brown books I know of, which is I think all of them. All of them pretty much have the same review from me; super fun to read, cartoon action with just the right amount of violence with a "Scooby Doo" ending woven specifically for adults. *antagonist shaking fist* ".... and I would have gotten away with it too were it not for that meddling symbologist."

I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a crush on Robert Langdon. I don't like the Tom Hanks version of him, but I don't quite have a clear picture in my head of what he looks like. I know he's olive skinned. He's kind of like Indiana Jones except he wasn't Han Solo in his past life.

In all the Robert Langdon-themed books Robert Langdon is thrown into some kind of mystery involving 14th Century art and culture where if he doesn't solve the mystery and determine who is the good guy and who is the bad guy before all the sand falls through the hourglass, or bag of plague breaks into the water supply or mason jar of anti-matter explodes, the whole world will be changed forever. There's always some good looking smart woman who teams up with him and (surprise) has all the right language, science or social skills to help him with his mystery. There's always some guy that seems good, but turns out bad. There's always some bad guy who is really, in fact, good, just a little misunderstood.

This formula works for me. I enjoy it. If Dan Brown were to write another book, I would read it. I'd like to suggest, however, he takes a break from Italy. Three Dan Brown books in Italy. That's enough. Take Robert Langdon out of his comfort zone. Make him go on some adventure in Greece. I betcha the Odyssey is rife with mystery and symbols that would make Robert Langdon all excited. Make him go search out something Mayan. Send him somewhere where he can't wear tweed and loafers. Send him to Disneyland and have a whole chapter about how his Mickey Mouse watch gets thrown into a bin of like Mickey Mouse watches and he has to find his lest something apocalyptic happens during the Main Street Electrical Parade. OK, that last one was silly, but sheesh, Dan Brown, let Robert Langdon go somewhere else for a change.

I can't wait for the next Dan Brown book, be it about Robert Langdon, the bored government gister or the wound too tight computer programmer, or some entirely new character.

The Descendants - Book Review



Just about every Mother's Day I do the same thing.  I rent a chick flick / weepy movie that I know Hubby won't want to see and I sit in bed, drink coffee, eat french toast and watch the movie. I've rented movies ranging from The Blind Side to The Wedding Planner to The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain to Raising Helen to a whole host of other movies I've long since forgotten about. Last Mother's Day I watched The Descendants. Last Mother's Day I didn't watch it from bed, though. I was 5 months pregnant and it hurt my back to lie in bed for that long. I watched it from the couch.

I just finished reading The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I liked it. It was a pretty quick read. I think I finished it in just under 2 days.

It's about this Guy and his family. They Guy's wife was in an accident and was in a coma. It was part of her living will to not live by artificial means, so they take The Wife off life support. The Guy finds out that The Wife was having an affair. He's upset but feels it's necessary to give The Wife's lover a chance to say goodbye. While this is going on, The Guy also has to learn how to be a dad, not just a father to his two daughters, plus he has to figure out what to do with a bunch of land he inherited.

Like all books, the movie based on the book was a tiny bit different. There were a few tiny differences in how we learn bits and pieces about the characters. Those didn't bother me so much. You can't put every single detail into the movie and expect people to sit through it. For example, meh, I can't even think of a good example. Changing those tiny bits didn't really matter much.

There were two big things that weren't in both the movie and the book.

In the book, but not the movie - the friend of the oldest daughter is this big Stoner Dude. In the movie his dad is killed by a drunk driver, just like in the book, but in the book he's also a major perv hitting on Stoner Dude's girlfriend. Because of this, Stoner Dude hates the fact that they are looking for The Guy's wife's lover. When they do find him, The Stoner Dude secretly calls The Wife's lover's wife and tells her all about the affair. I think that is an important plot twist that shouldn't have been left out of the movie. The Wife's lover was just going to go on like nothing happened? Was The Wife's Lover's Wife going to stay married to this guy. She needed to know. He's just going to cheat on her again probably.

In the movie, but not the book - The Guy has to sit down and decide whether to sign the rights to his inherited ancestral land away or keep it for his children. In the book he just decides not to sign. There isn't a big deal made about it. In the movie he takes off his shoes, stands on the 'aina and talks about his responsibility to malama it. He realizes that selling his land to the highest bidder will make him even more financially stable than he already is, but it will not make him richer. He has a duty, a kuleana to his Hawaiian ancestry to let the land take care of him. I was waiting for that chapter in the book and I didn't get it. I felt cheated.

I give it a . . . . . . .

Dear Readers - I have written quite a few book reviews. I need to come up with a rating system. I've been thinking about what to use. I'd like to be able to say "I give this book 3 plumerias out of 5" or something like that. I'll have to give it some thought. Thanks, a

 

 

So for now my conclusion is  - the book was good. it kept me entertained but if I lended it to someone I wouldn't be too put off if I never got it back.

Adminning - Book Review

Last week or so I was having a conversation with someone about the profession of Administrative Assistant. I started walking out of the room when she said that she knew all about how to be someone's assistant because she spent a summer answering phones, then wished I were walking faster when she ended with stating that career admins have no ambition to be or do anything else. Clearly I was speaking to someone who didn't know what she was talking about.

I'm an Executive Assistant. I know it's hard work. I know it takes the ability to be resourceful, adaptable, helpful, crafty, diplomatic, secretive and efficient. I also know that sometimes it's a thankless job. An Assistant's job is to make the Executive look good. Think of a duck. A duck looks peaceful and at ease above the water, but under the water its legs are moving furiously to get from  point A to point B. The Executive is the duck on top of the water. The Assistant is the duck under the water.

The person I was talking to was only seeing the top part of the duck and had no interest in learning about what was under the water.

Continuing with my theme of reading books that were turned into popular movies, I just finished reading The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. I enjoyed it. Unlike the last book I read (Forrest Gump), I liked the book a lot better than the movie.

The book is about a young woman named Andrea who recently graduated from college. She wants to be a writer. She takes an admin job at a fashion magazine in the hopes that working as an EA for the editor in chief of the magazine will be the most excellent resume fodder in the world and will be her ticket to her getting any writing job she wants.

The job is a soul-sucking job that she hates. Her boss asks her to do all sorts of crazy things like finding a recipe for that one dessert at a restaurant she really liked last week or researching how many ears of corn grow on a stalk intended for commercial sales, or locating a lost laptop left behind with the TSA at airport security, or get a table for 7 at French Laundry for the day after tomorrow (wait, those last 3 things are things I've done in my current job, the answer for the corn is "one" by the way). The difference between her and me is that I work for pretty nice people, the woman in the book worked for a mean mean person.

In the end she quit her job by telling off her boss, and yes, working for this woman made for fantastic resume fodder and it opened tons of doors.

I can't imagine working for someone as mean as the boss in the book but I did sympathize with the character Andrea. I totally rooted for her and I cheered her on the whole way through.

I didn't like her friends in the book. I thought the movie characters were better.

Overall, I liked it.

Fifty Shades of . . . I'm such a sucker. - Book Review

I'm such a sucker. I know I said I wasn't going to do it, but I did. I read the second and third books in the "Fifty Shades" trilogy. So frikkin' stupid. 

I wasn't looking for good literature. I wasn't looking for good sex scenes. I was looking for a fun, mindless story. I didn't get any of that. All I got was pissed off. Not that I'm the big expert on the Pacific Northwest or on kink, but I think the author got her information about the area and the subject matter from a combination of Wikipedia and Craigslist.

In my review of the first book I wrote that I wasn't going to read the second and third books because I knew what they'd be about. Turns out I was mostly wrong and the second book did have more of a story than the first, but it was still stupid and it irritated me. Where the second book irritated me, the third book downright pissed me off.

Here's this guy who can't let go of his past so he beats every woman who looks like his crack-whore mom, then he marries this young woman and controls every aspect of her life. She walks around in total fear that she's going to piss him off because he's got a fragile soul.

I think what pissed me off the most is that the lead female character lets the lead male character control her and boss her around and she doesn't have the balls to make decisions for herself. Sure, there are a few times where she shows some independent thought but it's always with the price tag of  "I wonder if  I'll get in trouble for this." I'm not addressing the sex stuff in the book. Whatever makes them happy in that area, well, who am I to argue? I'm not going to judge them there. I'm addressing the regular life stuff.

The girl totally lived her life in fear of pissing off her boyfriend-turned-husband. Sometimes, I'll admit, she lived her life in the hopes of pissing the guy off, but it still made me mad. What kind of life is that? That's no fun. Doesn't say a whole lot about the girl. 

Overall, all the characters in the book were people I didn't like and I'm glad they are not real people.

I Just Couldn't Embrace the Ape - A Book Review

 

Congratulate me. I finally made the switch. I got rid of my Blackberry and joined the real world and got myself an Android phone. I feel much smarter. Now what with my new smartness and all, I have two things. One is a budding addiction to Temple Run and the other is access to The Girl's Nook on my phone. Yes, I know I have Nook access on my computer, but I don't like reading books on my computer. And yes, I know that I could have had Nook access on my Blackberry but I didn't like how the program worked on that phone.

I've read two books so far. One is Princess Bride, but we all know that I read it before and disgraced myself at Powell's Bookstore in Portland. You can refresh your memory on the incident here.

The other book I read was Forrest Gump. I can't decide if I liked it. I know that books and movies often differ. Sometimes characters are combined and scenes, descriptions and back stories or omitted adapt a story for the big screen, but most of the time, the spirit of the book is still in tact.

The book Forrest Gump and the movie Forrest Gump were almost exactly, but not quite, entirely unlike each other.
In the book, Jenny marries someone else, Forrest's mama never sleeps with the school principal to get her son into school and she doesn't die. Forrest doesn't wear leg braces as a kid or run across country multiple times as an adult. He does get shot in the buttocks, though, and he does meet a few different Presidents. He also plays football starts a shrimping business.
Also, in the book, but not in the movie, Forrest becomes a professional wrestler, plays chess for money, lives with cannibals and goes into outer space with a male orangutan named Sue, who becomes his closest friend and confidant, which is probably why he has to drop out of the race for the Senate.

While the movie was a heart warming story with cute little catch phrases, the book has none of that. I found it hard to finish the book because it just kept getting more and more hard to believe, and not in a fun way.  Plus it was written first person in the voice of Forrest. That took a little bit of getting used to.

I didn't like it very much.

50 Shades of Lame - Book Review

 

On a recent trip to Target last week I made an impulse buy. I bought the first book of the trilogy 50 Shades of Grey. I should control my impulses a bit better. What a crapsterpiece this book was. 

50 Shades of Grey is about this whiny college graduate who meets this rich guy who has certain . . . um . . . . tastes. She decides she likes him and she decides to um . . . taste back.

The guy is super rich and buys her lots of expensive things. She whines about how expensive everything is, but accepts all the gifts anyways. She's got some daddy issues and lets him boss her around. 

The guy is supposed to be from Seattle and drinks lots of wine, but there's no mention of him drinking Washington wines. Stupid oversight or conceit by the English author of the book, I think.

In the end of Book 1 she decides that this guy isn't for her, so his chauffeur drives her home.

Overall, I think the book was pretty stupid and I had to push through it to finish it. I don't plan on reading Books 2 or 3 in the series, but I'm sure they're just as lame. I imagine that in Book 2 they get back together, but take the whole book to do so, then in Book 3, some old flame shows up and threatens their relationship, but in the end, it all works out.

So, y'know, kudos to the author for making a ton of dough by finding an audience for her housewife porn. For me though, her storytelling is boring.

 

I'm Full Now - a book review

I read The Hunger Games a few weeks ago, all three books.

I think I took a bit longer to read it than most people. Most people I've heard about reading these books tore through them. The Girl tore through them pretty quickly. I tore through it, kinda, but it wasn't because the story was so gripping I just had to read more. I read through it quickly because it wasn't too difficult a read. I mean, it wasn't like trying to get through Moby Dick or War and Peace or anything.

I thought the premise was interesting and I hadn't read anything quite like it in a while. Overall, it was a fun book to read and a nice diversion to get me through my commute to and from work.

It's about this girl who lives in a North American type area, except it isn't the USA. The government has totally taken over and all the districts, sort of like states, and they exist to keep the capitol happy, entertained and well stocked. To keep the districts down, they make the teenagers kill each other and everyone has to watch. This festival of dying teenagers is called "The Hunger Games."

This girl takes care of her mom and sister, kills animals for food and hangs out with this guy who pretty much does the same thing. She's good with weapons, he's good with traps. He digs her, but she's wishy-washy and doesn't know if she likes him back. Her sister is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games and she takes the sister's place. There's another person from her district that is chosen to compete. Over the course of the game they become friends with benefits but surprise surprise, she can't decide if she really likes him or the other guy. This theme is played out throughout the series and it gets tiring. Choose already. Cut one or both of them loose. In the end one of the guys chooses for her, says adios and gets work in another district. My guess is that he finds someone less whiny. She chooses the other guy because he's a sad sack who stays behind and by her side.

Oh and in the course of this girl whining about her boy troubles, she manages to kill a few people, befriend an alcoholic, stay alive, start a revolution and topple a government.

Book Review - Set Phasers on Par-Tay!

The other day The Boy totally needed to get out of the house. He needed a good run. I asked him where he wanted to go. He promptly said "the playground with the train." At first I was a bit annoyed because we have to drive to 'the playground with the train,' and I wanted to walk him down to Ocean Beach and run him there. After grumbling a little bit I said I'd take him there but being that 'the playground with the train' has a library pretty close to it, we had to take a short detour and got me a few books to read. He was amenable to that plan of action. I got two books.

I shouldn't be reading for fun. I should be studying as I have a test next Wednesday that I need to pass. I took it last June and failed miserably. I'm being given a great opportunity to be able to take this test again. I compromised  rationalized that I could read just one of the books and then start the other one on the train ride home from taking my test. By only reading one book I still had time to study for my test, especially since I had been to all the classes, taken the test before AND there are a few full-day review sessions next week before the test on Wednesday.

OK so it was probably a bad idea and bad rationalization on my part but I talked myself out of studying and in to reading my newly borrowed book. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE!!!

The book I chose to read first was Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson. You can find the author's blog here.

 I frikkin' loved this book.

I started it Monday morning on the train on the way to work. By the time the train got to my stop I was hooked. When I got to work I looked it up online to see what was out there about the book. I was super excited to find the book had a movie-like trailer for it. Of course I watched it. When it was over I was even more hooked.

I finished the book yesterday on my way home. I kept waiting for someone to comment on the book and ask me how I was enjoying it so I could tell them the book was really freakin' enjoyable in a loud voice. Sadly, it never happened.

Night of the Living Trekkies is about this guy named Jim who after doing a few tours in Afghanistan decides to get a go-nowhere job in Houston, Texas. There's a Star Trek convention going on. At the start of the convention people who work at the hotel start calling in sick and hotel guests are acting weird and sick. Jim's spidey senses start tingling like something is wrong but he dismisses it. His sister shows up with her douche-bag boyfriend and a few of their friends. After the big Klingon feast funky things start happening. Jim goes into the security office to grab some tasers and a gun. He gets a sense of what's happening, all the people are shuffling around and taking bites out of each other. He finds a woman dressed like Princess Leia chained to a beg, frees her and then the two of them go out and try to figure out what's happening. They meet up with some kid on an abandoned floor, then find Jim's sister and her friends. The douche-bag has gotten way douchier and they abandon him. They find that the zombies had attacked one of their friends. She fights off her inner-zombie and tells Jim what the fuss is all about, then he shoots her. Turns out they aren't really zombies. They are parasites from some alien race trying to take over the world. At the end of the book they kill the alpha-zombie, kind of, and then Houston gets blown up. Lots of other stuff happens, but you get the gist of it. It's a pretty simple story, but super duper fun to read. I was on the edge of my fully-paid for seat on more than one occasion. I would recommend this book to any Star Trek fan, or any Zombie genre fan for that matter, but mostly I think the Star Trek fan would enjoy it more. I said it before but I'll say it again --

I FREAKIN' LOVED IT!

When I finished the book something dawned on me. None of my favorite lines from the book were in the trailer. That's not so weird I guess. I mean I don't think the line "It's raining. Quick, take off your clothes!" was uttered in the trailer for The Perils of Gwendolyn in the Land of the Yik Yak. Then it dawned on me that none of the crucial elements from the book, like how the zombies manifested themselves weren't in the trailer. Not even the main characters from the trailer match the main characters from the book. There was no girl dressed like Princess Leia in the trailer. There's a scene in the trailer when the guy dressed like the Klingon runs around the corner to save the day then comes back screaming like a girl. The Klingon in the book was a big 'ole wuss. There's no big fight scene next to an RV that's tricked out to look like a Federation Starship.
The trailer was really entertaining, and did get me to want to read the book even more, but it pissed me off that it didn't follow the plot of the movie.
Here's the trailer. Again, super entertaining, but different from the book.

Book Review - Shiver, and Reminising About "Page 148"

I'm just about finished reading Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. It's one of The Girl's books. She was so wrapped up in it when she was reading it I decided I would give it a whirl. The book's got just about everything a tween / almost teen could love. There's forbidden teenage love, best friends, absent parents.

Perfect fantasy for a kid her age. Or so I thought . . . .

Spoilers abound - I don't censor.

Shiver is about a girl who was attacked by wolves when she was 11 years old, only to be saved by a special wolf who took a shine to her. Flash forward to present day, we learn the wolf becomes human when its warm out. The wolf boy and the girl fall in love and she has to try to figure out a way to stop him from morphing back into a wolf before it gets too cold for her to stop it. In the meantime the she sneaks the wolf boy into her house at night to sleep and stay warm, while he snuggles her close and recites Rilke poems to her, all the while her parents are oblivious to the whole thing. There's a pack of other wolves who weave in and out of the story. Some are nice, some aren't, most are just non player characters in the book. Reading level is about 6th grade, but the story is just entertaining enough to keep me engrossed throughout my entire commute on the train to and from work. All in all, I can see why a 13 to 16 year old girl would like this book.

There are a few moments in the book where was questioning whether or not some of the subject matter might be a little more than PG13, and perhaps will steer The Girl away from reading the next 2 books for a while by making her read what's on her school reading list. That should buy me a least until summer.

To me, though, it was not much different than stealing away with a copy of Forever or Tiger Eyes when I was her age. And what girl born in the 70's hasn't read and re-read page 148 of Petals on the Wind?

Seeing the world through the eyes of a 41 year old mother of a (almost) teenager is different from seeing the world through an innocent young woman, though. I think I'll stall and hold off on her reading the next two books in the series.

Fierce Heart - Book Review

I just finished reading Fierce Heart by Stuart Holmes Coleman. I enjoyed it immensly. 
I got the book at a garage sale. The sale was held to raise funds for Surf for Life. You can read about Surf for Life here.
I had heard about the book when it came out in April 2009, but never got around to reading it.
When I first started reading the book I thought that I should have read it before I went on huaka'i last May, but as I got towards the end of the book I'm happy my procrastination paid off and I read it now. Having read it after my trip, I was able to think back at the places we visited, and through reading this book, gained even more understanding, and developed a deeper level of admiration and respect for the people of that area.
Fierce Heart chronicles the lives of modern day heroes and role models in Makaha, HI. A town located on the west side of O'ahu, Makaha has the reputation for being local-centric; a town known for holding as tightly as they can to a culture and a way of life that doesn't exist the way it used to on the Islands anymore. I don't think the people Mr. Coleman introduces us to started out thinking they were role models, and probably for a long time didn't want to be considered as such. They were just normal people living the way they thought life should be lead. But because of the lives they lead, people took notice. They noticed their genuine spirit, their generosity, their honesty. I'm not saying these people were perfect. There are plenty stories in the book where Mr. Coleman writes of fights breaking out, people drinking too much, taking too many drugs, etc. The people he writes about certainly weren't angels. They did, however, have a certain quality about them that made you take notice, and made you want to be around them.
The book itself isn't the best piece of literature I've ever read. Sometimes the sentence structure was hard to follow. It didn't seem to have a very good flow. It was more of a stream of consciousness. I don't think it had to be perfect, though. What I enjoyed about the book was the story. I wanted to learn more about the people in the book. By the end of the book I wanted to be next door neighbors to all of them.

One of the people written about was Rell Sunn. I first learned of Rell Sunn though this documentary I saw on PBS. I first saw it at a time when one of my sisters was going through a similar experience as Ms. Sunn. I was so touched by her story.

The Girl did a report on Rell Sunn in the 2nd grade.

After I finished Fierce Heart, I watched the documentary again. There was some overlap of the people in the book and the people in the documentary. It was nice to put a face to the name.

One of the things that made the book and the people in it more real to me was the fact that when we were on huaka'i last May I met two of the people mentioned in the book and visited Makaha Farms, Ka'ala Cultural Center, two places that, although not mentioned in the book, hold a connection to the land and the people the book is about. 

The book, the place, and my experience all have a deeper meaning to me because of each other.

It was good, but I hated that little girl.

I like action packed blockbusters. I quite enjoy watching Will Smith fight aliens, whether it be along side Tommy Lee Jones or Jeff Goldblum. Watching Gary Oldman fight President Harrison Ford, or Kurt Russel and Halle Berry fight a group of terrorists from some unnamed middle eastern country, is just as enjoyable. I want to be Franke Portente running from the law with Jason Bourne. I like watching Casper Van Dien fight aliens while Neil Pactrick Harris reads their minds and Dina Myers takes off her shirt. I will be a happy Andrea when Cowboys and Aliens comes out on DVD.

So here's my question - why did it take so long for me to accept that I like reading books just as blockbustery?

I just finished reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. It was super fun. I loved the extra story lines and details the book had. It made the story more exciting. I like the ending better, with one exception that will reveal itself in just a few paragraphs.
Usually when I read a book that a movie is based on I don't like the changes the movie makes. I get all hung up with the integrity of the story, character development. In this one, the differences between the book and the movie I didn't mind so much. The book was just as enjoyable as the movie. For instance, in the movie, Dr. Grant and Laura Dern were a couple. In the book they weren't. I don't think it really added or took away from the story line. In the book, Dr. Grant liked kids. I like that aspect better. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) was a more fun character in the movie and he could have died better in the book. It was sort of a "meh, he's dead" moment. He should have been fed to the raptors. That would have been good.
What I truly hated in the book was the little girl. In the movie the grandkids of John Hammond are a smart 10-ish year old boy and his 12-ish year old sister Lex. In the book, the boy was the same age but the girl was 5-ish. I like movie Lex better than book Lex. Book Lex was whiny, annoying little pest. Movie Lex complained a little but she pulled herself together and saved the day with her mad computer hacking skills. Book Lex foiled every plan to get away from the dinosaurs by whining about ice cream. There were plenty of opportunities where she could have been fed to a dinosaur and the rest of them could have gotten away. Someone should have fed her to the compys or given her to the baby t-rex as a chew toy. She should have met a some kind of dinosaur-inspired end at the end of the book. Yeah, that's harsh, but I really hated her.

Overall, I liked the book. I liked it enough to grab another MC book. I picked up Disclosure the other day at the library. We'll see how that goes. I'll let you know.

Because Embarrassment is Fun.

A bunch of years ago I worked for The Food Whole. One week during my time spent with them was spent in Portland, OR setting up their new store.
When I got off work for the day I went for a walk and discovered Powell's Bookstore. What a great bookstore. At the time I had just finished reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
I'm sure all y'all have seen the movie The Princess Bride and can recite tons and tons of lines. Go ahead, recite some. I'll wait.

.....

So the book is interesting. Much of it is written in first person.
There's this guy who, as a child, had this amazing amazing book read him called, you guessed it, The Princess Bride. It was his most favorite story ever. When he was an adult he decided he wanted to give a copy of the book to his son. He searched high and low for the book. At the time the book was written, there was no amazon.com, ebay.com or other easy outlets to find books. He finally found one and gave it to his son. His son humored his dad and attempted to read the book. He tried to like it, but he really really hated it. The dad was so surprised. This was his favorite story growing up. Why did his son hate it so much? The man decided to figure out why. He borrowed his son's copy of the book and started to read. He hated the book. He was so bummed, and perplexed. The book was nothing like he remembered. As he read through the book he slowly realized that his dad, who had read him the book so long ago skipped a lot of it. His dad only read him the good parts. Wanting his son to love the story as much as he did, he set out to edit the book. The result was The Princess Bride; S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure - The 'Good Parts' Version. What we see in Rob Reiner's version of The Princess Bride is pretty true to The 'Good Parts' version.

Reading The 'Good Parts' version made me want to read the long boring version. It sounded so interesting. I just had to read it. I went into Powell's Books and searched and searched for the book written by S. Morgenstern, upon which William Goldman's version was based. I looked in Fiction. I looked in Young Adult. I looked in Scifi. I looked in Fantasy. I looked in every section of the bargain books and used sections. I could not, for the life of me, find the book. I went to the information desk and asked for the book. The lady behind the counter had both the physique and the sensitivity of Comic Book Store Guy told me the book didn't exist. I was so embarrassed I ran out of the store. The next day, Hubby flew up to Portland to spend a few days with me. He wanted to go to Powell's. I wouldn't go in there with him and I wouldn't tell him why. He got all cross that I wouldn't go in the store, and didn't say it but probably thought I was being a jerk.

Two years later I was hanging out with Hubby and our friend Cliff. I told that story. Hubby said that he had never heard that story before. I said 'I know, it's the first time I ever told anyone. I've been too embarrassed about it.' Hubby kissed me. Told me he was sorry I was so embarrassed, then laughed at me, lovingly, of course.

Last night I told The Girl my story. Hubby was surprised I told the story. The Girl laughed had the same reaction as Hubby. I got a sympathetic "aw," followed by uncontrollable laughter.

I love my family.

#65 - Read 50 books

I have to admit I've been neglecting my list. What seemed like a good idea at first, kinda isn't anymore. Some items on my list I just never started. Some, after reading them, I've decided they are bad or uninteresting ideas. Some of them I modified.


A few weeks ago my parents were visiting. I told my mom about my list. She said "oh, it's something like a bucket list." I told her that I suppose it kind of was, except it was filled with seemingly short term goals and attainable things. It wasn't filled with lofty things like "shake the President's hand" or "go to outer-space." At that moment my dad's ears perked up and we argued for a good 10 minutes about how I couldn't possibly have a bucket list because #1 - I wasn't as old as Morgan Freeman or Jack Nicholson and #2 because I didn't have any terminal ailments or any tangible indication that I had an accelerated expiration date. My mom told him to leave me alone, because I could have a list if I wanted. The matter is still in debate.

I think from now on I'm just going to keep a running list of things I want to accomplish and modify as necessary, and to please my dad, I'll never call it a bucket list. Should be easy. I never called it a bucket list before. Why should I start now?


One item on my list I will keep, however, is #65 - Read 50 books, except since now that my list has no deadlines, unless I specifically add one, I think I will remove the "50." From now on my list will say "#65 - Read books."

Here are the books I've read since starting my list.

Book # (-)1 - The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks Started August 2010

I go through bouts of reading and then periods of not reading. I was at the library with my kids, couldn't find anything that really struck me so I just picked up a random book by the self-check and told myself I was going to read it. Read it I did, and loved it, I did. I can tell when I really love a book because I read at night instead of watching TV. It's about a woman who restores books. She had to restore an ancient Jewish text and learn about its history. In one chapter she'd do some researching and find a moth's wing, then the next chapter would take place a few hundred years before and it would tell the story of how the moth got stuck in the book. Then in another chapter she would discover that some weird bindings in the book were inconsistent with the rest of the binding of the book. The next chapter would be about the binding of the book. My favorite chapter was the one that followed the chapter where she found a cat hair. It was about, you guessed it, how the cat hair got into the book. I enjoyed the book more than I though I would and think that most people I know, young and old, would enjoy the book, too. I think my sister Dawn would like it.

Book #0 - The Stone of Kannon by OA Bushnell. Started 11/1/10

I tried getting in to this book. I had to put it down. I was getting annoyed by it. The sentences were too long for my short attention span. I'll pick it up again soon. I enjoyed Ka'a'awa and Moloka'i by the same author. I don't know why I couldn't get in to this one.








Book #1 - Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Started 11/13/10

I have a guilty pleasure in Dan Brown books. I tear through them quite quickly. I will definately finish this one by the end of the week. This book is about some chica who breaks code for the government. Some code is written that can't be broken and she has to figure it out. The story is pretty easy to predict, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's sort of like watching your favorite action movie, knowing exactly what's going to happen, yet still being excited.



Book #2 - Deception Point by Dan Brown. Started 11/29/10

It took me a little bit longer to finish this book than Digital Fortress. I had fun with it though. It was filled with phrases like "We have to call the president!!!" and "It's a matter of national security." I decided it was like a long and complicated cartoon with a Scooby-Doo ending "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling scientists and your off-shore diagnostic machines." That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. I totally did. I love over-the-top cheese. I mean, I have seen Independence Day at least 50 times.


Book #3 - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Started 12/10/10

When this book was still in hardcover I checked it out from my local library. I read about half of it and then had to return it. I don't know why I didn't check it out again. As I read the first few chapters the second time around, I was reminded of what the book was about. It was a fun finish, and true to Dan Brown, another Scooby-doo ending "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling symbologists." I think I have a crush on Robert Langdon, not Tom Hanks, though.




Book #4 - Puttering About in a Small Land by Philip K. Dick

This book was set in the late 1940's, early 1950's. Lots of people were working, supporting the war effort, making bank because they worked overtime and they had to make lots and lots of bombs. Then when the war ended, a lot of the people found themselves out of work and had to reinvent themselves. The main guy in this book has his own TV shop. His kid goes to boarding school, and his wife is mean all the time, but I don't think it's because she's a mean person. I think she's sad and stressed out. I think everyone in the book is sad, mean and stressed out and although I enjoyed the book, I hated every single character, and wouldn't have minded if any of them met their fate in the book. In the book nobody dies, but I'm sure they all continuted to live miserable lives until the end of their days.

I started a new book the other day. Stay tuned for my review.