2006

Bullshit

When I was a kid, I didn’t hear much profanity at home. I had to learn my profanity at school like a good 70’s child. I was always fascinated when I’d come across adults who used “those words” and felt I had been born to the wrong family – I needed cool parents who cursed a blue streak, not my geeky, boring parents. Oh sure, my mom let a ‘damn’ slip every now and then, (and as TW says, she’s grown up to be a woman who can, and does, say FUCK – much to the horror of me and my siblings), and she always seemed shocked at her behavior when that happened. There was one tiny exception to this profanity-free household.

Bullshit.

My father said this. He said it a lot and I believe he learned it from his father since my family often tells about how I said “bullshit pappaw” to my grandfather when I was two – and that I learned the word from him…. In fact he said it so often and not really in the way I was used to hearing profanity used. He said it laughingly, mostly at himself, or if he was teasing someone about something. He still says it at least once everytime I talk to him on the phone.

Bullshit.

I don’t know how or why this tiny little book, On Bullshit, appeared on my library list. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing TW would pick up on a whim. I don’t remember reserving it but I guess I must have. It is here and I read half yesterday because I was too exhausted to read a “real book” and finished it today while recovering from an annoying phone call – a bullshit phone call, actually.

What IS bullshit? You probably know it when you hear it – but maybe not. Some people are good at spewing bullshit and making you believe it’s the honest to goodness truth. On Bullshit was a little dry, a little boring, but also just a wee bit interesting.

On Bullshit … my father’s Christmas gift this year. I hope he likes it.

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Psycho Bums er Butts

In May, I saw this list of books recommended for kids, by kids. The list comes to us from Australia which made it extra interesting to me. I like all book lists but book lists from interesting places are the best. I scrolled the list and “The Day My Bum Went Psycho” caught my eye. Okkkkk, never heard of it but I decided I really needed to check it out.

I went to Amazon and discovered “The Day My Butt Went Psycho“. Of course it got a name change for the US market. Bum is not politically correct. Americans must say BUTT. I clicked my little library search tool, never expecting our library to have it, and they did have it. I reserved it and found myself number THREE on the list. Sheesh. Two people ahead of me for this book. Interesting!

Ten days later, I picked it up from the library and presented it to RJ, our 10 year old bookaholic. She started reading it on Memorial Day Saturday as we drove to the Corn Festival. She pretty much didn’t stop reading ’til she was done (except to eat fair food and ride fair rides). She read one page and announced, “Yep, his butt went psycho”! There was all sorts of interesting discussion about psycho butts as we drove toward the corn. When she finished, RJ said it was good – weird but in a good way.

TW read it next and said it was funny in that 10 year old butt humor sort of way. I didn’t think I wanted to read it. I have enough butt humor in my life already, thank you very much. But, I changed my mind after making it through The Moonstone (yea me!). I needed some butt humor after all.

And butt humor was what I got. We know butt humor but the author has gone above and beyond the call of butts err duty. If you have a kid who likes butt humor, this is your book. If you know people who find phrases like “cluster butt” and “butt-catcher” funny, then this is your book. If you know some folks who walk around with their butts where their heads should be (like bosses or idiot ex husbands or something like that) then this is your kind of book.

Butt humor. Sheesh.

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Traditionally Built Women ROCK!

I love the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books. I really like listening to them on audio more than reading them. I think they’re the perfect audio book. (If you haven’t tried it, check one out from your library on cd or cassette. I bet you’ll like it.)

Blue Shoes and Happiness is my favorite in the series. Feminism! Shoes! Cobras! Ostriches! Diets! Lots and lots of feminism. Heh.

When is the next installment coming out? I don’t want to wait a year (or more? gasp!) for the next one. Get to work Dr McCall Smith!

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The Moonstone

Well ladies, and gentlemen (surely there are some men lurking), I did it. Finally. It took me 10 years and many, MANY false starts but I did it. I. Finished. The. Moonstone.

I didn’t ever think I’d be able to say that. But now that I have said it, I’m quite pleased with myself. I’m not really pleased with my mother who purchased the book for my daughter 10 years ago. I’m not really pleased with my mother who rambled about how much she loved the book when she was a teenager. I’m also not pleased with my mother who has generally recommended really fantastic books in the past. I’m also not pleased with my mother who on one other occasion recommended a book in a similar way, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and that recommendation was so RIGHT that it led me to believe that any such recommendation would also be RIGHT.

The Moonstone. Not right.

I like Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White is a very good book. I’ve actually read it two or three times and enjoyed it everytime. I would happily recommend that book to you. The Moonstone. Not so much. In fact, except for 3 pages very near the end, I wouldn’t really recommend it at all. Except of course, there’s my mom. She loved it when she was a teen (or so she said, 10 years ago – she’s waivered a bit on that over the years – that’s the dementia though, so we expect that from her now).

Anyway, I’ve finished it. I’m proud of myself for having finished it. I’m proud of myself for being able to cross book #1 off of my summer reading challenge.

Now onto bigger and better things…. The Day My Butt Went Psycho… gotta be bigger and better than The Moonstone, right?

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Are We There Yet?

I misplaced Dinner with Anna Karenina so I just grabbed the first book from the pile… Are We There Yet? It’s a young adult book about two brothers (a high schooler and his older brother) who get “tricked” into taking a trip to Italy together. The brothers were close when they were young but as often happens, they aren’t close now at all. There’s lots of brother angst, usually not vocalized but internalized. And, there’s a happy ending, which was sort of nice.

Quick read, easy read. I liked it. Now, back to dinner with Anna

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More Triggers From Picoult

I have been a Jodi Picoult fan for many, many years (thanks Ky, wherever you are – certainly not in the 10th Circle…). The Pact was the first book I read and The Tenth Circle, the most recent. I haven’t loved all of her books but I haven’t truly hated any of them either. Tenth Circle, right up there with The Pact.

I think the comics between chapters was a nice touch. (I didn’t search for the secret message, did you??) I like the tie in to Dante. I always like the lack of totally happy endings in her books and this one was no different. There are a ton of triggers in this, for people with their own experience with rape so beware if you trigger easily. The only thing I’d change would be the date rape drug stuff. I don’t think it was necessary at all and particularly not the almost ridiculous buyer/seller twist. The book didn’t need that in order to keep you twisting along with the characters.

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Oops – To Hell With All That

I only made it halfway through “To Hell With All That” and accidentally returned it to the library on Sunday. Oops. It wasn’t a bad book, interesting in many ways but a little slow. Some of the funny anecdotes weren’t all that funny. I’m sorry I returned it before I finished it. Maybe someday I’ll check it out again and finish, though probably not. There are too many books to read and not enough time.

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Carolina Isle

Problem #1 – Why is this book called Carolina Isle? Yes, it’s about an island off of NC (fictional island, real state) but the island is called Kings Isle. Why not name the book Kings Isle? Dumb name.

Problem #2 – The two cousins are suppose to look alike enough to be able to “swap lives”. So when RJ spotted Ariel across the room at a party, why didn’t he mention this look-alike to Sara? Weird and dumb.

Problem #3 – What the …. ? An island where the inhabitants set up tourists to fleece money out of them, ok I get that. But in such an extreme, dreamlike, unimaginable way? Give me a break.

What’s weird is I got past all three of those problems and found myself enjoying this ridiculous book – it was almost like science fiction or an episode of the Twilight Zone. Just as I’m enjoying it, and looking forward to the “mystery” resolved and the couples falling in love and stuff – BAM – cruddy ending.

I liked that the rich and spoiled and sheltered girl saved the day. Terrific. Good job. But to wrap it all up in a “1 year later” sort of way was just ridiculous. And have everything tied up, the way it was. Ack, it went from Twilight Zone (which was likeable) to Harlequin (which was ridiculous).

At some point last night I was looking forward to reading the other Jude Deveraux book that is on the shelf. Now I think I’ll just skip it. Mindless adventury/mystery/love stories I can enjoy, but when you screw up an ending that way – there are better ways to spend my time.
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