Book Twenty Four - Clown Girl

I decided to read Clowngirl by Monica Drake since I read that it was being made into a movie and the concept seemed interesting so I thought I would check it out. Overall I was underwhelmed. I think that it was built up too high, there is an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk that hypes the book up to the point where it may have been difficult for anything to deserve such praise. The book was a decent read, but I spent most of the book waiting for something interesting to happen.

Book Twenty Three - Worst Laid Plans

I am on a roll! Worst Laid Plans is a compilation of stories of sexual misadventures. Most of them are written by people in the entertainment industry as it is based on a comedy show performance. I found it quite entertaining and I enjoyed the fact that all of the stories were concise and to the point. I was very much glad that most of these scenarios did not happen to me, and I was laughing out loud at many points and reading sections aloud to my boyfriend.

All of the tales are separated into sections such as: virginity nightmares, rebound tales and trying to play for the wrong team, just to name a few. There is also a cute little glossary at the end, complete with a crossword to test your knowledge of new words.

I have a feeling that Worst Laid Plans will be a book I recommend to a lot of friends, I may even lend out my copy to a few of them myself. It was a fun quick read and if you want a smile and some cautionary tales, check it out.

Book Twenty Two - I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone

Since I haven't finished a book in over a month (BAD!) I decided to read another book by Stephanie Kuehnert. I really loved her second novel, "Ballads of Suburbia" and so I ordered hew debut outing, "I Wanna be Your Joey Ramone" a while back from Chapters.

I dove right into this book, it is a tale about a small town girl haunted by the memory of the mother who left her as an infant. Emily Black was raised on music, and was even told that her mother left to follow the music around the country. Eventually Emily forms a band and achieves success, all the while hoping to attract the attention of her long lost mother.

Along the way we learn a lot about these characters, as well as about the father that was the only family that Emily had left. Through the descriptive voice we are transported to rock shows in an abandoned warehouse in the Midwest. As Emily uses performing to cope with her difficult life, we can imagine what it would feel like to be up there with her.

I very much enjoyed reading this book, and I will now be watching Kuehnert's website for news of a third novel that I will probably read as fast as I did the first two.

Now let's hope that I can finish a few more books off my shelf before too much time passes. I am starting to lose hope that I will finish all 52, but I will do my best dangit!

I Suck

Well I have fallen off the reading wagon. I went to the library and took out "Under the Dome" on a 7 day superloan. Sometimes when I take on an ambitious task I feel defeated too fast and give up entirely. Anyhow, I failed at reading that book in 7 days (I only got a couple hundred pages in) but I will try to read it again when it is available on a 3 week loan.

Right now I am reading a book called "Twinkie, Deconstructed" which is about food additives. It is a humorous take on it and I am looking forward to getting more into it. I am working hard on my health so it should be enlightening to read more about additives and give me the strength to continue to avoid them.

I am also almost halfway through a book called "His Illegal Self" which is also quite good. I was reading it before I picked up "Under the Dome" and I got sucked into the Twinkie book so I want to try and read that one first. I should have some quality reading time tomorrow.

Book Twenty One - Snuff

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk is about an attempt to set a world gang bang record. It is told from the point of view of 3 of the dicks and the wrangler. As we get to know these characters, secrets are revealed and it was an entertaining read, if only for the references to fake (I assume) porn flicks. Palahniuk had a fun time coming up with porn titles and stories.

Palahniuk is an excellent descriptor, although some of the things described in this book may turn the stomach. I felt like I was right there in that green room with 600 dudes, smells and all. I wasn't fooled by the plot twists in the book, but I was amused just the same to see how they unfolded.

All in all Snuff was a pleasurable read (no pun intended). There are a lot of interesting facts presented in the book, some of which I am very curious about their authenticity. One is that babies are not kicking in the womb but are actually masturbating. True or not, that is some funny shit!

Book Twenty - Delores Claiborne

Stephen King just has a written voice that I can sink into like my favorite pair of jammy pants. I have been reading his books since I was a teenager. So while at the library recently I thought I would treat myself to one of the older books that I hadn't gotten around to reading yet. I picked Delores Claiborne. I am not sure why I hadn't read it before, but I may have seen part of the movie, but I am notorious for falling asleep during movies, so I was able to read the book mainly unaware of what I would find within, although I had no choice but to picture Kathy Bates as Delores.

In this book, the entire narrative is being read by the titular Delores while giving a report to the police. She is accused of murdering her longtime employer and companion, Vera Donovan, and further to that, she has long been the subject of gossip on the small island she inhabits, for the murder of her husband that she passed off as an accident.

She narrates the entire story in this manner, under the guise of telling the police "everything", but it did work for me as a storytelling device. Although she does talk to the people in the room, we are required to understand their replies by what Delores says, which makes things interesting. The confession that she gives covers many aspects of both her life and her family as well as how that tied into her relationship with the wealthy Vera who is a notorious bitch and difficult to work for. It tells how their relationship changed over the years as Vera became more elderly and dependent, but always she remained the bitch. It is understandable why she is being accused of her murder.

This was by far my favorite King book, but it was an enjoyable fast read and I will keep on ticking those last missing King books off of my "to read" list.

Book Nineteen - Tongue, a Novel

Kyung Ran Jo's novel Tongue is a poetic tale about a woman moving on with her life after her long term boyfriend leaves her for another woman. It is different from other similar stories that I have read. The protagonist is not outwardly angry at her former partner for the betrayal. It is almost as if she has something like Asperger's as she cannot seem to understand some social cues and seems only to be able to relate everything to food and doesn't understand that other people do not necessarily feel the same way as she.

After the relationship ends, Ji-won closes down the cooking school that she was running and goes back to work at the Italian restaurant in Korea that she left to open the school. It is understandable that by going back to work she could continue to live her life in a situation that has her feeling lost.

The descriptions of the food and the cooking practices in the restaurant transported me into the world of gourmet cooking in Korea. I felt something a bit magical in Ran Jo's writing and I wonder who did the translation and how they manage to translate books at all without losing the author's original voice. In this case I feel it was accomplished well, although I guess I can't say what it would have been like to read it in Korean.

The character of Ji-won is an unusual one and in the end everything all ties together in a very satisfying manner. There are some odd choices in the book as far as punctuations and random capitalization, but perhaps this is something to do with translation. Overall I would recommend reading this book, although it did make me hungry.