Jeffrey Rotter goes a step beyond Christopher Moore‘s Beta Male and gives us… I don’t know what? A Beta-er Male? I hesitate to use any other greek letters as it suggests a fraternity/sorority affiliation which certainly isn’t there.
There are parts, well, lines really that are brilliant and most of the “real world” narrative is great. However, the Nautika narrative is crap, just skip over that. At 250 pages (maybe 180 after you skim/skip the Nautika storyline), I strongly recommend it.
Read on to see what others have to say about it. (more…)
I found Beautiful Children by Charles Bock at the bookstore and the cover caught my eye. The description looked OK so I popped it on my request list at the library.
The copy I got has a much less interesting cover. I can’t say one way or another, but I think it may subconsciously be convincing me it’s a less interesting book than I had anticipated. So far (half way in) it’s about a kid who goes missing and his time prior to his disappearance. Right now, I have to admit I’m not too broken up knowing the kid goes missing and I’m kinda hoping for the worst.
Keep reading for what others have to say about the book. (more…)
I finished Chuck Klosterman IV over the weekend (incidentally, it’s probably tied with Downtown Owl as my favorite from him), and started in on Catherine Jinks‘ Evil Genius. While I believe it’s technically targeting young adults (teen-speak for “teens”), it only does so by virtue of the age of the lead character. As a result, non-young adults (old adults?) can enjoy it just as much.
I’ll admit, upon picking the book up, I was a little worried. It’s 550+ pages long which is great if it’s good, not so much if it isn’t. Too often with long books, the length comes from excruciating detail that contributes little meaningful to the plot or even the reader’s understanding of the characters. Jinks isn’t padding with details. So far, at about 1/4 of the way in to Evil Genius I give it a strong recommendation.
See the plot synopsis and what others have to say about it: (more…)
Although not last chronologically, this is the last Chuck Klosterman book I have left to read, and so far, it’s alright. It’s a collection of articles he’s written for various publications over the years with forwards to each to explain the context. So far I’ve been enjoying the forewords more than the actual articles, but the articles themselves are not unentertaining (ok, not a word, but you know what I mean).
Ok, I guess I knew not to expect Thank You for Smoking or Boomsday, but this is still a bit of a surprise. Losing Mum and Pup is Buckley’s response to losing both of his parents in about a year’s time. It’s very personal, which isn’t surprising, but what is surprising is that he’s seemed to have used an extraordinarily stiff style. I suppose that’s to be expected from a presidential speech writer, but it’s still a bit distracting from the sentiment.
Combine the style with the name dropping, and it’s hard to get more than the emotional reaction one would have to a mediocre newspaper obituary for a stranger. As a result, I can really only recommend this to the Buckley super-fans (who probably already read it anyway).
Follow the jump to see what others have to say about the book.
This shirt over at threadless is great for a number of reasons:
I enjoyed the Choose Your Adventure books as a kid
My adventures always ended the same way as they do on the shirt
Bears are great, even when completely unrelated to the topic at hand
Why am I surprised this shirt is nearly completely sold out in men’s sizes, but in stock across all sizes for women? I certainly shouldn’t be surprised.
Take for instance, my favorite line from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto proposing potentially more different differences than “apples and oranges”:
“That’s like comparing apples and uranium,” or “That’s like comparing apples and baby wolverines.”
It’s really only funny if you assume he’s talking about the actual animal, not the comic book character when he says “baby wolverines.”
Ah, one other thing, he really, REALLY seems to hate Coldplay. Can’t say I blame him, in fact, I pretty much agree, but once I again, I prove I’m only here to amuse myself by embedding Clocks from Coldplay above.
While I’m not a metal-head myself, I do like some of it. As for the book, his reflection on his youth and how heavy metal fit into it was very entertaining. His in depth analysis of particular bands could get a little dry, particularly with bands I wasn’t particularly fond of.
If you’re a huge fan of 80′s metal, this really is a must read. If not, start with Klosterman’s Downtown Owl first and circle back to this if you like his style.
About Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota
From Publishers Weekly
Klosterman’s highly touted debut has as much to do with Fargo, N.D., as the Coen brothers‘ slice of Americabre, Fargo. That is, nothing at all, really. Misleadingly titled to cash in on Fargo’s cinematic mystique, Klosterman’s memoir about growing up a sexually repressed metalhead, with a humiliating (mom-dictated) Richie Cunningham haircut is actually set in Wyndmere, N.D. Klosterman starts up with a bang (“You know, I’ve never had long hair”), shifts gears often (from memoir to music criticism, somewhat jarringly at times), and rarely idles. Ultimately, though, Klosterman, ironic throughout the book, does not write with enough sincerity to prove his thesis “that all that poofy, sexist, shallow glam rock was important.” Granted, it’s a daunting task to write a hymn of praise to the genre that spawned David Lee Roth so the author wisely stretches his pop-culture references like taffy. In the final chapter Klosterman, now an arts critic for Ohio’s Akron Beacon Journal, quotes a friend’s definition of a “guilty pleasure” “something I pretend to like ironically, but in truth is something I really just like” to explain how he really feels about glam metal. His closing summation of what metal means to isolated kids in the heartland will strike a power chord for many readers. (May)Forecast: Klosterman has tapped a gold mine. Fans of 1980s M”tley Cr?e, Poison and Ratt are pushing 30 and 40 and seeking a nostalgia trip. Also, Gear magazine will run an excerpt of the book along with a conversation between Klosterman and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Let it be known that Fargo Rock City does not detail a burgeoning music scene in North Dakota’s largest city (population: 70,000). Nor is it a yarn about a heavy metal band gigging across the frozen tundra of the Red River Valley. Rather, it’s one Middle American’s memoir of growing up with and loving 1980s heavy metal (e.g., Ratt, Poison, and Guns ‘n’ Roses). In other words, this book is for the myriad metal-heads from Fargo to Phoenix who inked “M?tley Cr?e” on their notebooks during high school study halls. The music, film, and culture critic at Ohio’s Akron Beacon Journal, Klosterman uses refreshingly candid language: reading his debut is like overhearing a drunken discussion between two music fans. He nicely blends metal music theory with compelling tales of self-realization. Perhaps more than a memoir, this is a seriocomedic defense of a culture that was only cool to those who participated in it. Recommended for all public libraries, especially those in the heartland.
- Robert Morast, “Argus Leader Daily,” Sioux Falls, SD
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
“The Shangri-La Diet: The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan” by Seth Roberts sounds crazy, but crazy like a fox, or crazy like a cat-lady? Ok… so supposedly by consuming 100-400 calories daily in either sugar water or no-taste oil (extra-light olive oil, canola oil, or safflower oil) you can adjust your body’s weight “set point.” The more you consume (not to exceed 400 calories) the better it works.
Here are the caveats:
The oil or sugar water has to be consumed at least an hour before or after eating anything or consuming beverages with flavor.
It’s an appetite suppressant technique so if you’re a recreational eater, it may well not help you. It’s supposed to make you hungry less often and fuller faster so you may wind up eating smaller portions though.
Because it works through appetite suppression, you still ultimately have to eat responsibly, the program just makes it easier to eat less and think about food less.
As I said, I’m skeptical, but it’s so crazy, I just have to try it. I’m reasonably easily maintaining my current weight, but i could probably lose another 10lbs to get rid if a little extra doughiness. We’ll see, I’ll let you know if it works.
Reviews:
Absurd, ridiculous, and remarkable. It is quite simply one of the most unusual weight loss books ever written. . . . — Diet-Blog.com
Everything on the cover is literally true. You make one, almost subtle, change, and you lose weight. . . . — CalorieLab.com
The Shangri-La Diet is unlike any diet you ever have come across; it is, in the truest sense, a hack. — Health-Hack.com
The diet to end all diets….You actively feel like not eating. . . . — Joyce Cohen, HuntGrunt blogger and New York Times columnist ["The Hunt"]
The great thing about Roberts’s methods is that you will know whether they work within a day or two. — MarginalRevolution.com –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
No, it’s not about an Owl that lives downtown, but rather primarily about three individuals that live in a North Dakota town named Owl. Now, you city-folk, don’t let the setting scare you off, it’s not a hick-town in-joke. It is funny though. I really can’t recommend “Downtown Owl” strongly enough if you’re 20 to 30-something (although one of the plot lines follows an elderly male widower, so the appeal may well extend past ones 30s).
Apparently, Chuck Klosterman has been around for a while and he’s a funny guy. I’ve already queued up the rest of his stuff at my local library and am seriously considering picking up a copy of “Downtown Owl” to keep.
*Starred Review* Klosterman, who has made a name for himself as an idiosyncratic pop-cultural commentator on rock music and sports, proves just as entertaining in his first novel. In or on the edge of nondescript Owl, North Dakota, live laid-back high-school football player Mitch Hrlicka, who stands out from his peers by being exceedingly normal; teacher Julia Rabia, who has fallen in love with buffalo farmer and Rolling Stones–exclusivist Vance Druid; and old Horace Jones, who mourns his wife and has a few painful secrets. Klosterman doesn’t follow them in a conventional narrative manner. Gifted with a superb ear for dialogue, a kind of perfect pitch for the way ordinary people talk, Klosterman is also capable of fine word-portraits of the three principals and the folks orbiting them in a town whose residents have nicknames like Vanna White, Bull Calf, Grendel, and Little Stevie Horse ’n’ Phone, and time exists on its own odd terms rather than those of the novel’s setting, the 1980s. Despite their eccentricities, or maybe because of them, one believes in these people and their often improbable yet always credible stories. Think of this as a literary relative of the movies Fargo and American Graffiti, sans the latter’s cruising Main Street and warm weather, with a poignant and tragic edge to it, conferred by a paralyzing and deadly blizzard in February 1984. –June Sawyers –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From The Boston Globe
“An astonishingly moving book, a minor masterpiece in the genre we might call small-town quirkiana.”
From The Washington Post
“It’s tempting to compare this novel with Sherwood Anderson’s classic portrait of small-town American life, Winesburg, Ohio. But no one in Winesburg listened to Ozzy Osbourne. And Klosterman is much funnier than Anderson.”
Billed as “A children’s book for adults,” and “An adult’s book for children,” Tom Robbins‘ B is for Beer admirably shoots for a goofy, fantastic (as in “fantasy”) look into where beer comes from along with a strange tale about a girl with a crappy dad and a mom who does the best she can. Rest assured though, there is a happy ending involving a monkey.
This is the first thing I’ve read from Tom Robbins, so I don’t know what his usual style feels like. This did feel very much like a kid’s book and at 125 pages which a few full page illustrations thrown in, it was a very quick read. Problem is, the content really isn’t appropriate for kids and the style can be a bit… childish for adults.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I haven’t been all that enthusiastic about J. B. Stanley’s other “Supper Club Mysteries” so why do I keep reading them? I guess I’m somewhat invested in the characters now, and I do still appreciate the weight struggle sub-plot.
Battered Body is the latest tale in the series. It’s comfortable, like catching up with old friends. Friends you may not want to talk to everyday, but ones you genuinely care enough to check in with from time to time.
About Battered Body:
From Booklist
The flab five are back in what is one of the most satisfying books in the series. The dieters include librarian James, policewoman Lucy, mailman Bennett, artist and schoolteacher Lindy, and vegetarian and pet activist Gillian. James’ widowed father, Jackson, is planning to marry on Christmas Eve. The trouble starts with the arrival of the bride’s family, including her sister, Paulette, a celebrity chef and television personality. The Diva of Dough plans to make a wedding cake to die for. But the woman seems to make more enemies than cakes. While no one is truly unhappy at her demise (her body covered in cake batter), the flab five feel they must discover who did it. As always, the story offers a delightful depiction of the village of Quincy’s Gap, Virginia. Stanley excels at gradually revealing more and more details about her appealing cast of characters, which, in turn, paves the way for plenty of engaging story lines to pursue in future volumes. The recipes included won’t do much for your diet, but maybe the introduction of a new character, dietician Dr. Ruth Wilkins, will help. –Judy Coon
Review
“Heavy on fun, light on gore, this savory mystery comes complete with yummy recipes.” — PW “Publishers Weekly”
Due to a library queue scheduling issue (which has not been unwelcome), I’m taking a break from “The Mirrored Heavens” to read Chuck Palahniuk‘s Pygmy. So far, so good. Aside from the broken English style in which the novel is written which takes a bit to get adjusted to, it’s a good read.
Word of warning, one of the early reactions common when folks here the plot is “‘Simpsons’ did it,” but I assure you, much like Woody Harrelson broke from his “Cheers” role with “Natural Born Killers,” this is a substantially different, bloodier tale.
*Starred Review* In a time of justifiable concern about terrorism, Palahniuk has written a hilarious novel about an unlikely terrorist cell: foreign-exchange students who arrive at a midwestern city, bent on unleashing “Operation Havoc.” The story unfolds in a series of dispatches from an unnamed 13-year-old agent, dubbed “Pygmy” by the locals. (That his reports are in broken English makes no sense, but the prose provides terrific opportunities for humor even if, at book length, it requires some effort.) Despite Pygmy’s command of the deadly arts, he is still a 13-year-old, prone to unwanted erections, and he is not the coolest kid in the cadre, either. The frisson around his internal, target-acquiring narrative, the locals’ unwitting perception of him, and his outsider’s view of the routine humiliations inflicted upon high-school youth is so spot-on it produces a sense of déjà vu: surely someone would have thought of this before. (“Dispatch Sixth,” treating Junior Swing Choir, is laugh-out-loud funny.) This isn’t for everyone: as ever, Palahniuk is interested in pushing the limits of what readers will tolerate in terms of clinically described sex and gore. However, in contrasting the mindless sloganeering of totalitarianism with the anything-goes nature of Americanism, his own message is anything but subversive. By now, the author’s fans know who they are. Those left cold by last year’s Snuff (2008) will welcome his return to the fine form of Fight Club (1996). Palahniuk leaps over the line of good taste—and lands squarely on his feet.
Ugh, I finally finished Kelly Armstrong’s Bitten. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t catch me so it took me forever to finish it. Unfortunately, my next pick isn’t doing much better at capturing my attention.
David J. Williams’ Mirrored Heavens is a futuristic, sci-fi, spy thriller sorta deal. It’s pretty good for the genre, but the genre isn’t one of my favorites. If it’s a favorite genre of yours I would recommend it though. Also, it seems to be part of a series so you’ve got someplace to go next if you like what you read.
Back to random selections from my local library, I stumbled upon Kelly Armstrong’s Bitten. It’s another tale of werewolves (or a least a werewolf) living in human society.
So far it’s not as enthralling as Toby Barlow’s Sharp Teeth, but it’s not written in distracting free-verse either. As an added bonus, it is part of a series, so if you like it, you know you’re guaranteed a couple follow-ups.
From Publishers Weekly
It’s not easy to find a fresh angle for the werewolf theme, but this debut novel from a Canadian writer proves that solid storytelling and confident craftsmanship can rejuvenate one of the hoariest of all horror clich‚s. Elena Michaels is a self-described “mutt,” a werewolf who left her secretive pack in upstate New York for a life among humans. In the year since she relocated to Toronto, she’s embarked on a career as a journalist and begun a pleasingly mundane relationship with a decent man. All this is jeopardized when she agrees to help her old packmates hunt some troublesome mutts who are converting common criminals to werewolves and leaving a trail of conspicuous carnage. Reunited with her former lycanthrope lover and forced into brutally predatory confrontations, Elena finds the call of the wild subtly reasserting itself. Armstrong prepares readers for her tale’s twists with several key revisions of werewolf lore the werewolf taint is mostly hereditary, and werewolves can be killed as easily as any human or wolf. Her true achievement, though, is her depiction of werewolf nature in believably human context. Elena’s feral sensibility, like her psychological vulnerabilities, seems a natural outgrowth of her abusive childhood, and her relationship with the pack is that of any prodigal child to a close-knit family. The sensuality of Elena’s transformations and the viciousness of her kills mesh perfectly with her tough personality. Filled with romance and supernatural intrigue, this book will surely remind readers of Anne Rice’s sophisticated refurbishings of the vampire story. Agent, Helen Heller. (Oct. 1)Forecast: The sensual, non-genre jacket design will help to signal that this novel will also appeal to mainstream tastes.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Elena is a werewolf the only female werewolf in the world. Betrayed by Clay, her former lover, who bit her while in his werewolf form, she is now resigned to a life of secret changes while attempting to remain in human society. Meanwhile, the power of the Pack and her deep-seated ties to Clay continually press on her, preventing a true commitment to her human lover. When the Pack Alpha calls her to help rout a band of murderous “mutts” (werewolves not affiliated with the Pack), Elena reluctantly becomes the animal she has fought so long to suppress. First novelist Armstrong presents true werewolves as those who follow Pack law and don’t kill for pleasure. Changing into a werewolf becomes an act of nature, as does ripping mutts to shreds for threatening the Pack. Elena’s struggle with her wolf nature and her love for two men is caught up in the werewolves’ fight for dominance and territory. While the plot is as predictable as gang warfare, readers will cheer for Elena as she beats up the big boys and has the courage to choose her own path. Recommended for larger public libraries. Jen Baker, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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