July 11, 2006
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynne Truss
This is an awesome book. I really enjoyed it. Loads of fascinating punctuation info, and an author I can relate to. I'm a punctuation and grammar stickler myself, and boy howdy, she makes me look laid back about it. She talks about protesting outside a movie theater showing the film Two Weeks Notice with an apostrophe on a stick (it should be Two Weeks' Notice) and going about armed with a small kit to correct misused or absent apostrophes. Awesome.
Admittedly, the book is British and therefore has some stuff in it that made me blink (their rules for punctuation differ from ours in a few places and she defends those differences passionately), but overall I adored it. Good stuff.
Sticklers, Unite!
December 31, 2005
Embroideries
By Marjane Satrapi
This is a totally awesome comic. It's about women in Iran - mostly about their sex lives and married lives. I was fascinated by it. So much was familiar (nosy relatives) and yet unfamiliar (Iranian culture).
I am deeply irked to say that because I let myself get tangled in a bunch of books at once that this is my last 2005 book, so I only made it to 33 books in 2005. GRR!
I am determined to read more in 2006.
August 23, 2005
Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way
by Bruce Campbell
Sadly, this is nowhere near as awesome as his first book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor, which was awesome. But his tale of an A-list movie taken over by a B-movie virus is pretty darn funny anyway.
It reads kind of like a series of skits strung together, but the ending is pure over-the-top action-adventure lunacy and I bet BC had a fantastic time reading this. I don't know if it's worth buying in hardback, but it's worth borrowing from someone who owns it or buying in paper if you're a fan.
(book 25 in 2005)
March 30, 2005
Ken's Guide to the Bible
Man. This book is hilarious. Not terribly well researched and no doubt highly offensive to devout Christians, but a ton of fun. Basically, Ken got curious about the Bible, a book which makes the people who read it and believe it do and say some really weird things. So he read it himself, in several different versions. This book is made up of his observations along the way. He discusses the things he found that don't match up (for example, one contradiction he found suggests that Satan and God are the same person!), the oodles of sex/violence he found, and all that. It is a good handbook for someone out to find things to quote at annoying fundies, but not an academic book by any means.
(Book 13 in 2005)
February 11, 2005
Wake Up, Sir!
By Jonathan Ames
I am borrowing this from the friend I gave it to for Christmas.
It is so far utterly surreal but a real blast for me - I'm a Wodehouse fan, fond of wine, and a writer, and therefore have a great deal in common with the slightly insane hero.
Having finished the book, I have to say that I found the end kind of... displeasing. I mean, what exactly happened? Did he wake up in time? Grr!
That said, I did enjoy the ludicrous comedy and the Woodhousian nature of much of the narrative. Awesome.
October 07, 2004
The Science of Discworld II: The Globe
by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen.
Am taking anothe rstab at this after getting distracted halfway through last time and misplacing the book before I could finish it. One good thing about moving: I found it again. Hooray!
May 12, 2004
The Devil Wears Prada
by Lauren Weisberger
Holy cow, this is a great book. Hate your job? Pick this up and see just how bad a job can be. Andrea gets the job a million girls would die for: junior assistant to the all-powerful fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly. But Miranda is insane and the most horrific boss imaginable. This job may be great for Andrea's career but it just might kill her first.
I read this in a single day while I was subbing, and it was so well-written that I couldn't pull myself away. Good thing the kids were well behaved because I was absorbed in the book.
This is the kind of story that makes you appreciate how good you've got it.