Game Change: Obama and the Clinton's, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann

After reading this, I've learned something about myself...I love reading about other people's problems, especially famous, super rich people. I lap it up like a dog attached to a soup bone. I don't want to know what that says about me..

Some suspicions that were confirmed by this book:

- Bill Clinton is just as gross as I assumed he was. Smart, but ew. Ew. Eeewwww!

- Hillary swears like a f%$#^&king sailor. You rock,#^^$&#@*&, Hillary! And surprise, surprise, she may actually love her husband! Go figure!

- McCain had an affair in the 90's with someone my age.. oh.my. gosh. Can you imagine? Probably you shouldn't. That gag reflex is a hard one to control.

- Biden didn't get along too well during the campaign. Really?? By the way, where is Joe Biden? Sounds like a book name doesn't it. Has anyone seen Joe Biden on the news lately? What, he fall of the face of the Earth?

- My biggest surprise of the book?? I actually came off feeling slightly bad for Sarah Palin.. Yes, I know, I'm currently clutching my chest and breathing heavily at the thought of it.

Ah, you poor, poor multi-millionaires. Life would be rough without you for entertainment. As for me, I'd rather have my feet scraped than run for office...(And I'll mail you a pretend dollar if you know from what movie that last line is from...except you Suzette..)

A must read for any political junkie..

4 stars.

I never win anything...until NOW!

Woo-hoo! My unlucky streak must be over...yeah right, but several hundred people entered this contest and I was one of the lucky three to win a brand spanking new copy of this book.

I believe we lost a great man this year and I'm really looking forward to reading more about this political icon, this "lion" of the Senate. Unlike some who've recently published memoirs..., ahem, Ted Kennedy had a captivating and full life. I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

Special thanks to Bookin' with Bingo for hosting this giveaway.

"To America" and Guantanamo Bay - A Book Review

Due to the events of the past week, I've been feeling very patriotic, and I wanted to read something distinctly... American. I found historian Stephen Ambrose's last publication "To America - Personal Reflections of an Historian" to be just such a book. Written right before he died in 2002, this short synopsis is a look back over event's and guiding principles he thinks have been key to the success of our country. A history teacher's final lecture on everything from Jefferson, Grant, and Nixon to racism and women's rights.

But, Stephen Ambrose was mainly attracted to military history. According to him, "the key events in American history were military. Winning the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, or World War II were the turning points in our history." Surprisingly, I found his thoughts on the subject very interesting. For me, a person who has a hard time coming to grips with the war in Iraq, his brief synopsis of how and why America became a military and moral leader became more clear. This country has been forged with the sweat and blood of it's military, its citizens and its leaders.

He talks of our sense of "moral superiority". How in the Second World War, "if you were conquered and occupied by a foreign army, the last thing you wanted was for it to be the German, Japanese, or the Red army. The first thing, around the world, was to hope it would be the American army. This was because you'd be better fed, receive better medical care, treated like a human being".

With the news of the eventual closure of Guantanamo Bay and CIA "black list" prisons around the world, where men have been held indefinitely without a trial, where men have been tortured for "the good of the country", I find, finally, a return to a fight on terror that reflects the values our country was built upon. These sort of practices do not make us "morally superior". They turn us into the enemy. John Kerry recently wrote an article I believe describes it best: "that America's struggle against terrorism will once against honor some of the most cherished ideals of our republic: respect for the rule of law, individual rights, and America's moral leadership".

What would Stephen Ambrose have thought of all this, I wonder. Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq war, electing a black president of the United States. We will never know. A true teacher, an exceptional guide to the past has been lost. What a shame.

(A shorter, more unbiased version of this review is also posted on strictlyletters and 5-squared.)

A Worthy Goal for the New Year...

Bored?
Read a book, and learn and escape.

Did you know only 1 in 6 people read more than twelve books a year?

Fewer than 50 percent of today's adults are literary readers.

- 55 percent of women read for leisure compared to 37 percent of men.

-43 percent of all literary readers perform volunteer and charity work compared to 17 percent of nonliterary readers.

-

Of course women read more! It makes perfect sense to me. Women need to escape. We need breaks from the moaning and groaning of the cogs of our lives. A moment of relief from the constant churning of motion, of movement, of tension.
-

Reading is the exercise of our minds. The four-wheel drive vehicle that explores the deep recesses of our brains best saved for creativity and imagination.

Take a moment ladies, for yourselves, with a book.

Try one you've never read before. Join a book club. Or a book review blog...:o)

I just posted my reading list for 2009 here.

I look forward to a year of inspiration and simple treasures hidden in just paper and ink.

Just paper and ink. Separately they are insignificant. But together, power.

Feel it. Do it.

Now, after you finish your first book, head for the tv guide because for those of you interested in watching great literature brought to life, Masterpiece Theatre on PBS is starting its classics run again this Sunday.

This year they are including:

Tess of the d'Ubervilles - Thomas Hardy (This is one of my favorite books.)

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (This IS my favorite book!!)

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens

The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens

For a copy of the schedule, check here.

I'm looking forward to another fantastic year of their productions. Last year was excellent.

Happy Reading!

Just an unrelated side note -

If anybody's interested - some friends and I have started a book review, reading/writing blog called Strictly Letters. We're looking to add people who would be willing to participate. If you or someone you know is interested, check out the What's up for 2009 post, leave a comment with your blog name, email and url and we'll make you an author so you can post reviews of what you've read in 2009.

This is a fun way to increase your reading volume, find out what people like or don't like, and if you're interested in writing, a way to practice and get some feedback.

Hope to see you there ladies!!

Books I read in 2008

Whew, I'm tired. I had a busy year reading -
My favorite was Katherine. Excellent, super romantic, historical fiction.
Least favorite - Wicked. Green hermaphrodite. Yeech..
About half of these I read for my neighborhood book club.
How about a little contest for 2009?? Who can read the most? Post a review here and we'll keep track on the side.
I'm trying for 50. (Impossible you say? I laugh at impossibility)
Anybody interested?

1. Jane Eyre - by Charlotte Bronte
2. Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
3. New Moon - Stephanie Meyer
4. Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer
5. The Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
6. The Pretties -Scott Westerfeld
7. The Specials - Scott Westerfeld
8. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter -Kim Edwards
9. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
10. Standing in the Rainbow - Fannie Flagg
11. Katherine - Anya Seton
12. The Green Darkness - Anya Seton
13. To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
14. Austenland - Shannon Hale
15. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
16. Fearless Fourteen -Janet Evanovich
17. The Woods - Harlen Cobin
18. Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale
19. The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
20. Where Memories Lie - Deborah Crombie
21. Live to Tell- Surviving the Rwanda Holocaust - Immaculee Ilibagiza
22. The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
23. Mudbound - Hillary Jordan
24. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
25. The Duchess - Amanda Foreman

The Time Traveler's Wife - A Book Review

By Audrey Niffenegger

But don't you think...that it's better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?

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A truly original and moving story, The Time Traveler's Wife is a tale about love, life, and loss; the story of Henry and Clare, and their unconventional passionate relationship. His life, one of inconsistency, change and regret. Her's the harbor he anchors himself in, the tether to normal. I felt a myriad of emotions while reading this book. It gripped me, sucked me in, and held me fast to the end, until I was released not lost, but found again.

-

Isn't that what a good story does? It tastes your skin, chews you up and if done well, spits you out again whole, with a new perspective.

An excellent read.

(Disclaimer: There are a few..descriptive words)

Where Memories Lie - A Book Review

Where Memories Lie

by Deborah Crombie

"First they came for the Jews."

- Attributed to German anti-Nazi activist and former U-boat captain Pastor Martin Neimoller

This is the twelfth book in the great Scotland Yard mystery series with detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. A priceless diamond brooch and a long ago hidden murder involving an elderly Jewish neighbor who survived World War II, wraps around the two detectives as they try to deal with their own lives together and a ruthless killer bound to keep the past hidden at all costs. I was generally pleased with the book. Crombie can deftly intertwine decades, sucking you into the layered stories as effortlessly as any historian.

If you like a good mystery series with complex stories and a good sexual dynamic between it's main characters, then I highly recommend this one. If you can get past the first two, A Share in Death, and All Shall Be Well, the series takes off like a racehorse and you won't be able to quit until you're taking in the last sentence.

Wrap yourself in a blanket during a rainstorm (or sit on the heat vent like I do), sip some hot cocoa, and dive in.

Perfect.

Top Fifty Most Popular Mysteries of our Time

How many have you read?


1 The Complete Sherlock Holmes -Arthur Conon Doyle

2 The Maltese falcon - Dashiell Hammett

3 Tales of mystery and imagination - Edgar Allan Poe

4 The daughter of time -Josephine Tey

5 Presumed innocent - Scott Turow

6 The spy who came in from the cold - John le Carre

7 The moonstone - Wilkie Collins

8 The big sleep - Raymond Chandler

9 Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

10 And then there were none - Agatha Christie

11 Anatomy of a murder - Robert Traver

12 The murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

13 The long goodbye - Raymond Chandler

14 The postman always rings twice - James M. Cain

15 The godfather - Mario Puzo

16 The silence of the lambs - Thomas Harris

17 A coffin for Dimitrios - Eric Ambler

18 Gaudy night - Dorothy L. Sayers

19 Witness for the prosecution - Agatha Christie

20 The day of the jackal - Frederick Forsyth

21 Farewell, my lovely - Raymond Chandler

22 The thirty-nine steps - John Buchan

23 The name of the rose - Umberto Eco

24 Crime and punishment - Fyodor Dostoevski

25 Eye of the needle - Ken Follett

26 Rumpole of the Bailey - John Mortimer

27 Red dragon - Thomas Harris

28 The nine tailors - Dorothy L. Sayers

29 Fletch - Gregory Mcdonald

30 Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy - John le Carre

31 The thin man - Dashiell Hammett

32 The woman in white - Wilkie Collins

33 Trent's last case - E. C. Bentley

34 Double indemnity - James M. Cain

35 Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith

36 Strong poison - Dorothy L. Sayers

37 Dance hall of the dead - Tony Hillerman

38 The hot rock - Donald E. Westlake

39 Red harvest - Dashiell Hammett

40 The circular staircase - Mary Roberts Rinehart

41 Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

42 The firm - John Grisham

43 The Ipcress file - Len Deighton

44 Laura - Vera Caspary

45 I, the jury - Mickey Spillane

46 The laughing policeman - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

47 Bank shot - Donald E. Westlake

48 The third man - Graham Greene

49 The killer inside me - Jim Thompson

50 Where are the children? - Mary Higgins Clark

Austenland - Book Review

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

"Jane thought: I wouldn't throw him out of bed for eating crackers."

For those of you self-professed Austenites out there, this is the book for you.

I'm a fan of Shannon Hale's young adult books and quite liked this transition into the adult book world. The story is clever, about a young unmarried woman who is obsessed with Colin Firth and the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice - A mini series I have watched at least 200 times. Her deceased aunt sends her on an adventure to try and cure her of it. Is she finally able to fill the Mr. Darcy void in her life? Does she find love? Is their a cad involved? Those of you who faithfully read Austen every year should already know the answer, but who cares?

A genuinely delightful read.

Up Next: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Book Review - The Enchanted April

The Enchanted April

by Elizabeth von Arnim

"It was cloudy in Italy, which surprised them. They expected brilliant sunshine. But never mind; it was Italy, and the very clouds looked fat."

Seriously one of the best books ever written for women. This is my third or fourth time reading it and each time I draw something new from its pages. I would say a woman's adult life could be divided into four stages: single, married, married with children, and widowhood. All of these are represented in this book through the lives of four women, strangers, who are drawn from 1920's England, and all that weighs them down there, to San Salvatore, a small medieval castle off the shores of Italy. They lose themselves within the showering, fragrant wisteria, the intoxicating heat, and the sun-kissed landscape, and in turn come to true understandings about what's really important in their lives.

I can still smell the flowers my imagination drummed up from the pages. Beautifully written.

I highly recommend it.

The Woods by Harlan Coben - Book Review

The Woods
by Harlen Coben


Although I found his large name on the cover of this book distracting, it was even larger than the title, my first foray into the world of Harlan Coben was more satisfying than I expected. Not exactly a big slice of chocolate cake, but semi-close, more like a plate of garlic mashed potatoes with lots of brown gravy. I definitely felt full at the end. Maybe a little bloated from the unbelievable finish, but full just the same.

The plot centers around Newark NJ County Prosecutor Paul Copeland as he tries to mesh his hidden, painful past with incidences in the present that are beyond his control. It was a fast paced mystery that kept my interest most of the time and flowed without too many jaggedy, unexpected turns. His characters were people-next-door likable, and the lawyerish jargon was kept to a minimum. Not too John Grisham, thank goodness. I never got lost in the words, like I sometimes do in lawyer novels.

The language was moderate, no f bombs dropped here, thankfully.
I would rate this one a 5 out of 10.
Would I read Harlan Coben again? Probably. A good mystery read for October? Absolutely.
Anybody else read any of his other books??

Book Review - Fearless Fourteen (A Stephanie Plum Novel)

Fearless Fourteen (A Stephanie Plum Novel)
by Janet Evanovich

Oh, I remember the good old days, when these Plum novels (Numbers 1-10) were wildly funny, super sexy and mildly entertaining. Now I'm wondering....what happened? Here we are with number fourteen and I was bored out of my mind after the first chapter. The last 5-6 of these novels have been the same story rehashed with the only changes being which animal will be highlighted (this one was a monkey)and what year and make of car will blow up. Yawn....nothing but bland bean burrito without cheese. Where's the hot sauce, where's the lettuce and tomato??

To say Ms. Evanovich is not stuck in a rut the size of her home state of New Jersey is like saying they don't sell more Aquanet hairspray there than in any other state. Some suggestions to spice it up and make me ever want to read another one....

1. Kill off Rex the hamster. What is he, 50 years old now? She needs a new pet, like a snake that accidentally eats Rex.
2. Enough with the Ranger-Morelli stand off. Everybody is sick of it. Stephanie needs to pick one and move forward. Isn't she in her forties by now? Is she still going to be a bounty hunter when she's Grandma Mazur's age?
3. Get her married or pregnant or something. You'd be surprised how funny commitment can be.

Fearless Fourteen, didn't seem so fearless to me. It seemed like, it lined my pockets with money so I don't care, safe. How about reckless abandon next time Janet. Be like Lewis and Clark, forge a new trail of Plum thinking through your brain. Maybe you'll find a prune instead.

I rate 3 out of 10. Yuck.

Book Review - To Kill a Mockingbird

Book Review -
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl. -Scout

I just finished this book for my wonderful book club, and not having read it in years I must say I was happy to return to Maycomb Alabama and dust off and relearn the lessons that were taught in between the inky lines of this great read.

I know this is a popular selection for students to read in high school English classes, and having reread it again, it's so easy to see why. As an aging adult I appreciate its message even more, especially now that I'm a parent and can appreciate Atticus Finch's parenting style, even though mine at times seems to be the opposite reflection of it.

Even with the seriousness of its material, its portrayal of conflict between children and adults, references to sex, and the truth about how African Americans were once treated, although somewhat lightened because it's chronicled through the eyes of a child, I would have no problem allowing a young teen to read it. As was brought up in my book club, we can't sugarcoat the past. We must either learn from it, or repeat it.

I rate it 8 out of 10.
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. -Atticus

Book Review - Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Wicked
by Gregory Maguire

"Very close to being an instant classic.....Maguire has hit a home run his first time at bat." Memphis Commercial Appeal

I guess when I read that review I should have considered the source. Memphis Commercial Appeal?? Sounds like a legal firm for Elvis's TV.

All I can say about it is this: it was a strange odd trip reading this book and having heard the musical of Wicked is wonderful, the music fantastic, I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that the book is so bizarre. Whoever wrote the screen play must of left out most of the original contents.

Some good points -

The plot and story lines started out interesting enough. I thought it original and fun, wondering how did that old bat begin and how did she get so bad. Unfortunately, you don't find out until the end and she's really not so bad after all. What??

The description and background of the main characters, the landscape they arise from and why they do what they do, and did in the original story was detail rich and overflowed with imagination. Maguire gave it serious thought. He's very good at description, making you feel part of the story, sucking you in so to speak, whether I wanted to or not.

Elphaba (the witch) is very well written. She has all the best lines and scenes. The book covers her life from its inception to its watery end, trying to explain everything in between. I thought it a great concept, at first.....

The problems:

From the very beginning you can tell this book's not for kids or even teens, which is a shame, they could have benefited from its 'moral' lessons. He makes it very adult from the start, dwelling too much on the sexual side of things. I thought it unnecessary and in some scenes, just too plain weird. It pulled me out of the story, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

From the second half on, I was bored out of my mind. It became more of a monkey on my back than an enjoyable read. By the end, I just didn't care, which is a problem since its lessons are taught in its very conclusion. And it does conclude, sort of.

Did anyone really love this book that's not from Memphis? And by love I mean, would you ever read it again? That's my litmus test when it comes to books I've read. They take up so much of my precious time, they'd better be worth the effort. On a scale of 1-10, I give this one a 4. Anything below a 5 will probably never be under my long green nose again.