WendyDeCora.com » 50 books

The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 21:54:45 +0000

I finally got over my “Reader’s Block” today and conquered book #33 in my 50 book quest. I started The Great Deluge in July on unabridged audio book and was driving so much to Bonerama shows that I got through nearly three quarters of the book via CD. It was a twenty four disc set! A lot of driving. I eventually turned to my hardcover copy to finish the old-fashioned way. Douglas Brinkley writes a masterful work that will outrage and shock you, no matter how much you think you know about the impact and lack of response to Hurricane Katrina. He also made me cry with the before unheralded moments of compassion and kindness that strangers showed to each other.

It is criminal that it is two years later and so much government bureaucracy and incompetence continues to hamper the restoration of New Orleans and much of the gulf coast.

I highly recommend this book. While at my local bookstore yesterday, I noticed that it is now available in paperback. Even better.

The weekend that was

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:46:30 +0000

I hope everyone was able to enjoy as much of a relaxing, yet productive weekend as I was.

Right after work on Friday, I went to see The Simpsons Movie. The theater was pretty full and the crowd was entertaining. Though one of the biggest laughs for me came before the movie even started. Sitting behind me was a group of seemingly college-type guys who were trying to be amusing to each other. One of the trailers before the movie was for Bee Movie, the Jerry Seinfeld animated movie. At the end of the trailer, the voice over announces that the female lead voice in the movie is done by RenÃ©e Zellweger, who is known to have certain amount of squintyness or sourpuss about her face in real life, but the character doesn’t resemble her. One of the guys then says,

Thank god we won’t have to look at her.

For some reason that struck both me and the woman sitting to my right as absolutely hysterical and we both just busted out laughing and couldn’t stop for awhile. Between my guffaws I heard the guy say kind of embarrassed, “oh I didn’t think I said it that loud.” As for the movie, I thought it delivered for all the Simpsons fans. It was an actual movie and not just four episodes smashed together that stayed true to the show and the characters. I thought the opening was really clever and enjoyed the ‘to be continued’ part. SPOILER: Is Dr. Nick really dead forever now? There were so many good lines, but having 90 minutes to keep trying to remember something that was funny while hearing dozens of other funny lines made it so hard for me to come out with lines to quote. I did find this one on the IMDB that I loved, though a lot of the funny was in the delivery: “You ever try going mad without power? No one listens to you.”

After I got home from the early movie (thank you 4:40pm matinÃ©e), I went nuts cleaning my apartment. I did three loads of laundry, dusted, vacuumed, cleaned my bathroom, scrubbed the kitchen, and I even scrubbed my kitchen floors. I also finished watching season one of Entourage on DVD, which is a fun guilty pleasure. TracyA described it to me as ‘Sex and the City for guys’ and she was right. Instead of four girlfriends in NYC, its four buddies in LA and I think the way its all shot on location in LA really makes it interesting. After all the cleaning and all the watching, it was nearly 2am and I was still wide awake. Since I knew I didn’t have anything in particular to get up for on Saturday, I took an Ambien and finally knocked out around 2:30am.

Saturday I rolled out of bed around 10am, it was lovely. I went out and ran a few errands, including recycling, which I love to do. I decided since this was the big moving weekend in town, one that I wouldn’t have to particpate in until next year, it was time I finished moving into my place by hanging the rest of my posters. I started hanging a few posters in my office and then I got distracted and decided to watch a movie, so I tossed in the Infamous DVD that I had gotten from the library. It was yet another film based on Truman Capote and his writing of In Cold Blood. I thought it was a good character study with many great actors and actresses in supporting roles. Special bonus points because Daniel Craig played the murderer Perry Smith. He even went brunette for the role, which I’m glad he didn’t do for Bond because his natural blond suits him much better.

I’d been hungry for something to snack on, so I made a batch of puppy chow/muddy buddies for snacking. I’m still working on my goal of reading 50 books this year and on Saturday I finished reading #32 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. It was good and creepy, but not too much for my tastes. I did a little more cleaning and then I watched an episode of MST3K which was a really funny one that I hadn’t seen before.

Mac woke me up a bit earlier than I wanted to rise this morning, so I begrudingly got up and fed her and myself, then laid on the couch and watched the new FX show ‘Damages’ with Glenn Close. Its very ‘Alias meets John Grisham’ and I’m interested enough to watch a few more episodes and see where it goes. This morning was Antalya’s dedication at Jerry & Sara’s church. Here are a few photos:

After church and a tasty lunch at the church, I ran into Walgreens to buy some conditioner. I ran into my mom’s old boss who is now a pastor in Iowa City and bought my conditioner. I paid cash, which I rarely do, and on the way out, I threw away my receipt at the garbage can outside the store. I then got in my car and went to Office Depot and bought some magnets. Riveting stuff. I get back to my apartment and go to get out of my car and I cannot find my conditioner. I tear the basically clean cart apart thinking I’ve lost my mind. This was a big bottle of conditioner (it was on sale), where could it be? Then I thought, “someone stole my conditioner when I was in Office Depot!” But that made no sense to me since why would they only take the conditioner? Then I thought back to when I left Walgreens and thought maybe I had actually left it on the garbage can outside the store. But would it still be there? I headed back and it wasn’t outside. I went in and, of course, the girl who had checked me out wasn’t working the registers anymore. There were two guys working now. I went to the one who was the assistant manager and started with “I was here just a bit ago and has anyone brought in a bottle of conditioner that might have been left outside?” This guy is looking at me like I’m nuts. But then, from the other register, that guy says, “is this what you’re looking for?” and hands me my bag and my conditioner! Woo! Conditioner is very important to my life.

The rest of today I spent hanging posters, they’re pretty much all up now. Though I always have things that need to be framed and matted. I hadn’t done any matting in awhile, but I did this this afternoon:

[What? You didn't think I could go an entire post and not mention Bonerama in some way, did you?]

After all the hanging, I watched 3 Days of the Condor with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. It was decent, but spies have come a long way in the last 32 years. I think I could’ve taken him out three or four times along the way.

Now I’m watching tonight’s episode of ‘The 4400‘ and then I’m heading to bed having enjoyed a good weekend. I have a lot to do at work tomorrow, but I’m glad I didn’t go in this weekend. I needed some non-work time. Have a good week!

Still reading? Really?

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:59:23 +0000

From the Colbert Report last night:

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and I saw a chick carrying the book in the waiting room and she looked like she was only 1/4 of the way through. Seriously? Didn’t everyone finish it this weekend? I was done at 1:30pm on Sunday and that was only because my Bonerama boys delayed my getting started on Friday and Saturday.

Please read this post with as much sarcasm as you need to not be put out at me.

Off the shelf

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:05:12 +0000

Although I haven’t been writing about the books I’ve been reading, I am still attempting to complete the goal of reading fifty books in a year. I finished #17 last night, so I am on pace to make it. I was looking at my “on the shelf” list at AllConsuming last week and I realized that all but one of the books on that list were sitting on my nightstand next to my bed when I still lived in Coralville a year and a half ago. I’ve decided that those nine or ten books are the ones that I’m going to be reading next, allowing for re-reading the Harry Potter books plus any new books that I have on hold at the library. A girl can’t wait for her Harlan Coben or James Patterson fix!

If you want some well-written book reviews, I suggest Joe’s blog: Adventures in Reading. Since I haven’t actually met him in person, I’m not entirely convinced he’s not a book-reading robot.

Book 3 : Academy Award Winners' Movie Posters

admin — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:35:17 +0000

Academy Award Winners’ Movie Posters (The Illustrated History of Movies Through Posters Series; Vol. 3))

by Bruce Hershenson

This was obviously a quick read, but in the spirit of my goal to watch all the Academy Award Best Picture winners, this illustrated history was interesting. I’m also an amateur movie poster collector so this appealed to me on that level as well. About half way through the history, they switched to showing more foreign posters for the films because all the US posters had become very cookie-cutter and similar, mostly featuring the disembodied heads of the stars with the title of the movie.
And as the book was short, so are my comments.

Book 2 : Natural Selection

admin — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:49:54 +0000

Natural Selection: A Novel

by Dave Freedman

I had Natural Selection written down in the back of my Moleskin on my list of “might be good, look for it sometime” books that I collect from people and around the web. It was checked out for a long time at my library but I eventually snagged it and enjoyed the read.

It reminded me a bit of a Michael Crichton book in that it read in away that I imagined it as a movie a lot of the time. Also, it was spewing out enough science speak to make the basis of the plot seem not completely ridiculous.

I’d best describe it as Jaws meets Jurassic Park meets Deep Blue Sea in book form. The characters were pretty transparent, the plot was relatively obvious on the grand scheme, and the end was wrapped up way too fast, but on the whole I enjoyed the book.

Book #41: The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:24:50 +0000

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

by John Grisham

This non-fiction work by John Grisham tells the story of Ron Williamson, who was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. It is the story of this man’s life long struggle with serious mental illness and how the justice system failed him in every way imaginable.

Its the type of story that you couldn’t dream up if it weren’t true.

I must admit, that about a third of the way into the book itself, I got bogged down and bored with the details of everything and set the book aside while I read other things, but after I picked it back up, I couldn’t put it down. Even though I knew he was eventually released, I had no idea it would take so long or take the toll on so many people that it did. The idea of ever being in the court system is a very frightening one to me indeed.

Book #40 : Lisey's Story

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:11:35 +0000

Lisey’s Story

by Stephen King

I’m a bit behind my reading pace from last year, but this year has been my first foray into Stephen King and some of his books are a bit longer than my other fave authors. (As I type this, I can picture my copy of The Stand sitting on my bookshelf taunting me.) I ended up reading the first 250 pages of this book and then consuming the rest of it in the unabridged audiobook format during and after Thanksgiving travels. What I most enjoy about King’s novels, the way he paints the characters and their surroundings with words in a way that reads/sounds simple, yet is so detailed, is probably the reason that his tales translate to audiobook so well.

This story was a fascinating look at a person suffering through the grief of the death of her husband, while coming to terms with the sad, yet fantastic world that her husband had lived with and taken her to. The story has a few creepy moments, but it isn’t really a scary tale… haunting is probably more appropriate because the main character, Lisey, is haunted by her husband’s past.

I don’t know if I can properly put into words how the book is structured, but for me at least, the first 1/3 or so seemed confusing and a bit scattered. Upon finishing the story, I am led to believe that this was intentional as Lisey spends the book trying to remember things from the past that are so part of her in the present, such as words and phrases that her husband used, but she can’t remember the reason behind them. They are all remembered and acknowledged by the end of the story and everything makes sense.

I recommend this book.

Book #35 : The Last Cato: A Novel

admin — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 13:24:57 +0000

The Last Cato: A Novel

by Matilde Asensi

I’m not sure how I ended up checking The Last Cato out from the library. I had a note in the back of the little notebook I carry around with a book-reading possibilities list about it from somewhere. It was listed as similar to The Da Vinci Code which is only true on a very high level. There was a search to find a religious relic and a lot about the Catholic church, but that is where the similarities end.

The main character is a nun who works in the Vatican archives as a researcher/restorer of artifacts and relics. From that background she gets swept up with a captain of the Swiss Guard and another researcher from Egypt in pursuit of a relic of the cross that Christ was crucified on (supposedly… who can say where these relics really came from?). In order to find what they need they find themselves playing the role of Dante from The Divine Comedy and facing the seven trials of purgatory. (Side note: this is the second book in the last year that I’ve read that used Dante as the basis for the plot, maybe its time I read the original.)

The book is by Matilde Asensi, a Spanish author, and this is her first book translated into English. The one aspect of the book that I found might have been lost in translation is the fact that Spain is a Catholic country and I am not Catholic. I’m fairly familiar with the Catholic church since many of my friends and family are, but while many things were explained in the book, there seemed to be an assumption on the part of the reader that they would understand certain things. Such as the titles of people in the church hierarchy, different festivals, or things about saints and relics. It didn’t really detract from my reading, but it just felt like I might be missing out on some additional level of understanding.

Not that this was a terribly deep book. The obligatory there-are-two-guys-and-one-girl-there-will-be-some-romantic-entanglement plot line was pretty obvious even when the author tried to throw you off for a bit. The very end of the book was a bit predictable, however the end of the search was not what I was expecting at all. It was very fantastic in the “fantastic voyages” sense.

I found it to be an entertaining read.

Book #34 : Cell

admin — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:38:41 +0000

Cell: A Novel

by Stephen King

Its the end of the world as we know it and I don’t feel real good about using my cell phone anymore.

I’ve only begun to get into the Stephen King catalog, but I had heard many good things about this new book, Cell so I originally picked it up as an unabridged audiobook when I was doing a lot of driving last weekend. I was hooked instantly. I only got halfway through the audiobook by the time I got home, so I didn’t hesitate to go directly to B&N and pick it up in hardback to finish that night and add it to my bookshelf to keep. I love the way King describes his characters and the world he creates for them. There is nothing about it that seems remarkable from an English lit point of view, yet some how it seeps into the reader’s brain and its as if you’re there (even though its not usually a good place to be). I’ve also realized in the few King books that I’ve read that I shouldn’t get too attached to any one character, because their untimely death is possibly just around the next page turn.

Obviously from the title, one can tell that cell phones are going to be a key point in the plot. I really don’t want to give any of the story away because its just so compelling and engrossing, but I’ll just say that it definitely made me paranoid about my cell phone and cell phones around me for a few days, not to mention it made me making mental lists of how I should get some disaster/survival gear together, because you just never know what could happen.

In the end, I found Cell to be a perfect mix of the frighteningly fantastic with the realities of our modern world.

I have been reading towards my 50 books/year goal, I just haven’t been posting about them. I’m trying to get back into that habit now that I can post directly from AllConsuming where I keep track of my reading.