Book 19 - The Running Man

After reading "The Long Walk", it was recommended that I read some of the other Bachman books. I happened upon "The Running Man" at the library and decided to check it out. I have heard of the movie version but have never seen it, I am not a Schwarzenegger fan. From reading about the movie version, it seems quite different from the book, and I am glad that it was so.

The Running Man is the tale of Ben Richards, a man struggling to keep his family afloat in a dystopian world. Pollution, poverty and crime run rampant. Desperate people can approach the Games Network in the hopes of getting cast on one of their programs. These include "Treadmill to Bucks" in which heart and lung patients answer trivia questions while running on an escalating speed treadmill, "Swimming with Crocodiles" and of course the titular "Running Man".

Book 18 - The Thrive Diet

I have been a long time user of Vega products, and so I have been meaning to read "The Thrive Diet" by the creator of those products, Brendan Brazier for some time. I have fallen off the health and fitness wagon a bit lately and so I decided that this would be a good way to refocus on that and learn more about nutrition along the way.

I have read a few books on the subject, In Defense of Food and Eating Animals among them. I read half of Twinkie Deconstructed before I had to stop lest I never be able to eat anything ever again. So The Thrive Diet was right up my alley. The gist of it is to eat foods that are the most efficient for your body to process for ultimate performance and health. It is a vegan plan, mostly encouraging leafy vegetables. It is not something that a person can jump into with both feet, but as someone who is aiming to "eat clean" it is a great goal to aspire to.

Book 17 - Last Night at the Lobster

I really enjoyed reading "Last Night at the Lobster" by Stewart O'Nan. I am a pretty big fan of stories that take place over the course of one day, I think it encourages the author to make the content more meaningful since there is less time passing so every little detail counts.

This tale takes us into a Red Lobster franchise on its final day before being shut down. We meet general manager Manny as he starts his day with a pipe full of weed out in the parking lot, then follow him as he meticulously ticks off every item on his daily to do list, even though it is the last day. He has been able to secure jobs for a few staff at another restaurant but most have been let go. Manny himself will be an assistant manager at the new restaurant, yet he still takes a great pride in his job (getting high before work notwithstanding).

Book 16 - A Touch of Dead

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I am a pretty big fan of True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I was looking for a good audio book to listen to and happened upon “A Touch of Dead” which is a collection of five short stories that go along with the SS novels.

There is not really much to say about these, they were amusing but didn’t really add much to the story line of the books with the exception of “One Word Answer” which actually contains important information to the plot of Definitely Dead and in my opinion should be included at the start of that novel as I found it very confusing when I initially read that book.

Book 15 - Chocolat

A few weeks ago I watched the movie version of "Chocolat" on TV, I have seen it several times and it is
"Just Delightful". I never realized before that it was based on a book so I decided to give it a read and I am very glad that I did. I was pleased to find that the basic plot and theme was the same as the movie but it was also quite different so it was a brand new experience as well.

Book 14 - Microserfs

 While I am not raving about this book as much as Generation A, Microserfs was a good enough book I suppose. I don't really have a whole lot to say about it, and so I guess really I wasn't all that impressed. On the surface this book is about a group of young people who work at Microsoft in the early 90s, narrated to us in journal form by Daniel. We meet his closest coworkers as they are rushing to be able to ship out a product, coding and debugging all day and night long.

Book 13 - Bright Shiny Morning

Is it possible to love and hate a book at the same time? Although that is a bit harsh, there were many aspects of "Bright Shiny Morning" by James Frey that I really loved, and almost as many that I didn't care for. I do recall hearing about Frey as most of us likely did, with that whole Oprah scandal. I don't really care too much about all of that, what really counts is the quality of the book itself. I would say that Frey is an excellent writer, but he would benefit from some restraint, the scope of this tale was just far too large.

"Bright Shiny Morning" is a tale of Los Angeles. It intermixes the history of the city, "fun facts" and tales of many different characters. Although there are many (too many) stories that this book follows, the main ones are homeless "Old Man Joe", celebrity couple Amberton Parker and his "beard" wife Casey, Mexican-American Esperanza a maid with ambitions for a better life and young couple Maddie and Dylan who have come to California to escape Maddie's abusive mother and to seek a better life by the sea.