Alli's CBR-III Review #38 - Girlfriend in a Coma

I remember hearing buzz about “Girlfriend in a Coma” by Douglas Coupland back around the time it was released back in 1998. I also fairly enjoyed reading “Player One” so when I saw Coma in the library I was excited to pick it up. I had to be at the airport for my flight at 5am and I ended up getting through security quite fast so I had a fair amount of time to read before my flight left. Once I started reading Coma I didn’t want to stop. I was awfully tired, and I tried to take a nap towards the end of my flight, but the pull to keep reading was just too strong.

RIP Murphy :(

I got back from Toronto on Sunday but I didn't get much reading done. I read a whole book on the flight over (Girlfriend in a Coma, excellent book, review to come) then I was pretty busy the next couple of days spending time with my friend and doing lots of drinking. On Wednesday however, I got some terrible news that one of my kitty cats was dragging his back legs which as a former veterinary assistant I knew was usually fatal. It's called and Arterial Thromboemoblism.

It was very hard to take as Griffin aka "Murphy" (he made a murphing noise instead of a meow) was the first cat I ever had on my own. He was such a great cat, he was personable to everyone he met and was so easy going that he even let me give him showers to keep him clean. I am very sad that I didn't get to say goodbye, it is very hard when he was totally fine when I left town.

So I was not in the right state of mind to do any reading for the rest of my trip, although I bought a Nick Hornby book right before this all went down so I am sure that will be next in line.

But before I go back to reviews, here is a tribute to Murphy. In the words of my son "There will never be another cat like Murphy".

Alli's CBR-III Review #37 - Games to Play After Dark

I don't have a lot of time to devote to this review, I am headed off to Toronto bright and early tomorrow morning and I wanted to check this off my to do list before I left. I just finished reading "Games to Play After Dark" and it was a race to even finish reading it.

This is a run of the mill troubled relationship story, I seem to read a lot of them. It was well written and speaking as a divorced woman with a child, it is quite true to life. We have Kate and her husband Colin who have two daughters. The relationship trouble seems to stem from boredom and a stay at home mother who feels that her husband feels that simply because he "works" he does not have to do much else when he is at home, including parenting.

It was a passable read, nothing too exciting but enjoyable enough. Gotta run and finish packing! I will be back in a week and a half. I packed lots of books so hopefully I will have lots to review when I return.

Alli's CBR-III Review #36 - Rose Madder

Whenever I read a Stephen King book I always remember how much I love them and I seek out another one. Pretty soon I am going to run out of books of his to read, but I guess then I can just reread my favorites.

Rose Madder is a tale about an abused woman who one day has just had enough and decides just to walk out and never go back. Rose starts out afraid of her own shadow, and rightfully so as she has suffered numerous horrors at the hand of her police detective husband Norman.