Monday, February 27, 2006
Sunday, February 26, 2006
and another thing...
my head just exploded.
how did i not know that jennifer egan, whose most recent book, look at me, pretty much rocked my face off when sarah made me read it back in 2002, is coming out with a new novel? i should really read the NYT book page more often.
how did i not know that jennifer egan, whose most recent book, look at me, pretty much rocked my face off when sarah made me read it back in 2002, is coming out with a new novel? i should really read the NYT book page more often.
my newest reading project.
maybe you thought i was joking about reading romances, but you were DEAD WRONG. in fact, i purchased my first romance today. it's interesting that the bookstore on campus doesn't seem to have a romance section, though there are sections for other genre fiction categories, like mystery and sci fi. and by interesting i mean DISCRIMINATORY.
i actually located my desired romance in the "literature" section.
anyway, i bought diana gabaldon's outlander, because 1) it costs $3.99 2) it's very popular 3) there is time travel in it 4) i saw at least five women reading these gabaldon books on the flight to switzerland last summer, so i'm sure they are worldly and sophisticated novels and 5) i've heard there's lots of sex in it. i tried to buy it unapologetically, though i was secretly ready to explain to the cashier that it's part of a personal investigation of why romance novels are so massively popular (i.e., the "it's a cultural studies thing" excuse). sure, i could read all the scholarly studies that have already been done and draw some conclusions that way. but there's almost never any time travel in scholarly literature. or sex.
(side note: buying this book was actually significantly less embarrassing than checking confessions of a video vixen out from the library. it was on the recently returned bookshelf and the title sounds so unseemly to me that i actually whispered it to the kid working the circulation desk. actually, first i whispered "i'm looking for the video vixen book," which, in retrospect, sounds like some sort of terrible code phrase.)
i probably won't actually read this until the semester's over. i'm currently breaking my own rule of reading, and i'm in the middle of three different books. so this whole romance thing is really on the back burner. i think i'll make it a summer project, and call it "reading outside of my range."
don't worry; i'll keep you posted.
i actually located my desired romance in the "literature" section.
anyway, i bought diana gabaldon's outlander, because 1) it costs $3.99 2) it's very popular 3) there is time travel in it 4) i saw at least five women reading these gabaldon books on the flight to switzerland last summer, so i'm sure they are worldly and sophisticated novels and 5) i've heard there's lots of sex in it. i tried to buy it unapologetically, though i was secretly ready to explain to the cashier that it's part of a personal investigation of why romance novels are so massively popular (i.e., the "it's a cultural studies thing" excuse). sure, i could read all the scholarly studies that have already been done and draw some conclusions that way. but there's almost never any time travel in scholarly literature. or sex.
(side note: buying this book was actually significantly less embarrassing than checking confessions of a video vixen out from the library. it was on the recently returned bookshelf and the title sounds so unseemly to me that i actually whispered it to the kid working the circulation desk. actually, first i whispered "i'm looking for the video vixen book," which, in retrospect, sounds like some sort of terrible code phrase.)
i probably won't actually read this until the semester's over. i'm currently breaking my own rule of reading, and i'm in the middle of three different books. so this whole romance thing is really on the back burner. i think i'll make it a summer project, and call it "reading outside of my range."
don't worry; i'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
book 12
bet me, jennifer crusie
rating:
i'm getting really bad at this whole book blogging thing. i finished this book like four days ago. anyway. we have to read romance novels for popular materials this week and i chose this one b/c my textbook said that jennifer crusie is also accessible for non-romance readers. this book was fun and fast, if totally improbable. it's all about a guy who is bet 10,000 dollars that he can't get this chubby chick in bed within a month. to make a long story short, they fall in love! crusie is a pretty funny writer, and the characters were quirky enough for me to avoid totally barfing all over the place. also, romance novels are really good at getting you involved. i kept thinking "of course they're going to get together. they have to get together. oh my god, what if they don't get together???" and so on.
did you know that romance novels account for approximately 50% of all book sales in the united states? that astounds me. (edit: it turns out it's really 50% of paperback book sales. still, i'm astounded.)i think i'm going to read some more. maybe a good boddice-ripper next time.
rating:
i'm getting really bad at this whole book blogging thing. i finished this book like four days ago. anyway. we have to read romance novels for popular materials this week and i chose this one b/c my textbook said that jennifer crusie is also accessible for non-romance readers. this book was fun and fast, if totally improbable. it's all about a guy who is bet 10,000 dollars that he can't get this chubby chick in bed within a month. to make a long story short, they fall in love! crusie is a pretty funny writer, and the characters were quirky enough for me to avoid totally barfing all over the place. also, romance novels are really good at getting you involved. i kept thinking "of course they're going to get together. they have to get together. oh my god, what if they don't get together???" and so on.
did you know that romance novels account for approximately 50% of all book sales in the united states? that astounds me. (edit: it turns out it's really 50% of paperback book sales. still, i'm astounded.)i think i'm going to read some more. maybe a good boddice-ripper next time.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
You're To Kill a Mockingbird!
by Harper Lee
Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have
changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've
also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to
persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you,
but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you
whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
i've never been so happy as i was when i read that people perceive me as revolutionary and groundbreaking! i'm also flattered about the weird guy. show your face!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
book 11
a bad boy can be good for a girl, tanya lee stone
rating:
this cute little book is part of an emerging trend in the young adult book market: novels written in verse. sarah loaned me this back in september, but i didn't get around to reading it until monday, when i was having trouble concentrating on anything because i was laid up with a back injury sustained from an afro-latino dance workout. it's written from the perspective of three different teen-aged girls, josie, nicolette, and aviva, all of whom fall for this love 'em and leave 'em jock guy. i don't know if it's just because i have a galley copy, but it has all these neat little notes and things tucked into it, so it's really cute. and it only took me about an hour to read.
rating:
this cute little book is part of an emerging trend in the young adult book market: novels written in verse. sarah loaned me this back in september, but i didn't get around to reading it until monday, when i was having trouble concentrating on anything because i was laid up with a back injury sustained from an afro-latino dance workout. it's written from the perspective of three different teen-aged girls, josie, nicolette, and aviva, all of whom fall for this love 'em and leave 'em jock guy. i don't know if it's just because i have a galley copy, but it has all these neat little notes and things tucked into it, so it's really cute. and it only took me about an hour to read.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
book 10
foreign babes in beijing, rachel dewoskin
rating:
there's no reason that it should have taken me almost a week to read this book. sadly, i spend too much time getting stressed out about things that don't really matter, and not enough time reading. it's sort of my plight. i think.
anyway, this book was really good. matt and i saw it somewhere a few months ago, and we were both intrigued by the title/subject matter. it's about a woman who graduates from college and goes to work for an american pr firm in beijing. she ends up acting in a new chinese soap opera called foreign babes in beijing, which is essentially about the clash between china and the west, and portrays american girls as vixens and homewreckers. this memoir is about more than the show, though. it's about the author's whole experience as a foreigner in china, and it's really well done. dewoskin does a really good job of incorporating cultural and historical context without slowing things down or sounding too teachy. my favorite part in the whole book is when she talks about the success of who moved my cheese? in china, and explains that it spawned a bunch of spin-off books, with names like whose cheese should i move? and i don't bother to move your cheese.
rating:
there's no reason that it should have taken me almost a week to read this book. sadly, i spend too much time getting stressed out about things that don't really matter, and not enough time reading. it's sort of my plight. i think.
anyway, this book was really good. matt and i saw it somewhere a few months ago, and we were both intrigued by the title/subject matter. it's about a woman who graduates from college and goes to work for an american pr firm in beijing. she ends up acting in a new chinese soap opera called foreign babes in beijing, which is essentially about the clash between china and the west, and portrays american girls as vixens and homewreckers. this memoir is about more than the show, though. it's about the author's whole experience as a foreigner in china, and it's really well done. dewoskin does a really good job of incorporating cultural and historical context without slowing things down or sounding too teachy. my favorite part in the whole book is when she talks about the success of who moved my cheese? in china, and explains that it spawned a bunch of spin-off books, with names like whose cheese should i move? and i don't bother to move your cheese.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
book 9
TWO IN ONE DAY I AM A BEAST!
the ritual bath, faye kellerman
rating:
next week is mystery/detective fiction in popular materials, and i've never read faye kellerman, so i decided to try this out. it's the first in a series (according to my sister, the rest aren't very good), and it's all about this detective, peter decker, who has to investigate this rape that occurs in "jewtown" in l.a. ("jewtown"? isn't that kind of offensive? i mean this book is from the late 1980s.) anyway, it won a macavity award for best first mystery and i liked it pretty well. the story was pretty compelling and i liked the main characters, decker and rina lazarus, this widowed jewish woman. there's this weird love thing going on between them that's completely ridiculous, though. and the "mystery" was totally weak and i had it figured out as soon as the guy who turns out to be the perpetrator was introduced as a character. hence only three point five robots. still, it's a lot better than most of the mysteries i checked out from the concord public library when i was fourteen.
the ritual bath, faye kellerman
rating:
next week is mystery/detective fiction in popular materials, and i've never read faye kellerman, so i decided to try this out. it's the first in a series (according to my sister, the rest aren't very good), and it's all about this detective, peter decker, who has to investigate this rape that occurs in "jewtown" in l.a. ("jewtown"? isn't that kind of offensive? i mean this book is from the late 1980s.) anyway, it won a macavity award for best first mystery and i liked it pretty well. the story was pretty compelling and i liked the main characters, decker and rina lazarus, this widowed jewish woman. there's this weird love thing going on between them that's completely ridiculous, though. and the "mystery" was totally weak and i had it figured out as soon as the guy who turns out to be the perpetrator was introduced as a character. hence only three point five robots. still, it's a lot better than most of the mysteries i checked out from the concord public library when i was fourteen.
book 8; other orders of business
give me (songs for lovers), irina denezhkina
rating:
this book was supposed to be my reward for finishing the da vinci code but it turned out to be really blah. it got all kinds of ridiculously good reviews but i guess it was just too cool for me. i'm not that into suburban russian punk rockers i guess. there was one story that i really liked, about russian kids going to summer camp. but that was really cancelled out by this other story where death comes into this woman's house and sits at her computer, talking to people in a chat room. and this other story where little green men rape and murder little old ladies. sweet! also, there were a lot of characters who had the exact same names but seemed to be different people.
onto the other orders of business:
it's really just an order of business, singular. i need a new digital camera because mine is broken, and if i don't get a new one soon i can't take pictures of my new stuffed miffy doll. would anyone like to recommend a camera that is nice, dependable, sturdy, compact, and also inexpensive? that'd be great. thanks!
rating:
this book was supposed to be my reward for finishing the da vinci code but it turned out to be really blah. it got all kinds of ridiculously good reviews but i guess it was just too cool for me. i'm not that into suburban russian punk rockers i guess. there was one story that i really liked, about russian kids going to summer camp. but that was really cancelled out by this other story where death comes into this woman's house and sits at her computer, talking to people in a chat room. and this other story where little green men rape and murder little old ladies. sweet! also, there were a lot of characters who had the exact same names but seemed to be different people.
onto the other orders of business:
it's really just an order of business, singular. i need a new digital camera because mine is broken, and if i don't get a new one soon i can't take pictures of my new stuffed miffy doll. would anyone like to recommend a camera that is nice, dependable, sturdy, compact, and also inexpensive? that'd be great. thanks!
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