"Hither come and suck a pipe, Turn thy brain to cheese and tripe!" Whoops, wrong book. I borrowed the book from someone who had purchased it for a particular reason, but it turned out they did not need it for that reason, but I wanted to read it. It was no Bored Of The Rings, but it was OK.
OMG, I bought this for my little niece, who was perfectly normal, and now she is scared of the dark, and what's under the bed, and books. It's all YOUR fault, Mr. Gidwitz!!
Not really. I enjoyed this very much!
A Canterbury Tale's sort of thing, I think, not that I've read that. It kept my interest, with an especially good ending. A couple of the characters don't seem to act like their Wikipedia articles, but a good story none the less. And very attractively packaged, too.
Discussions of how successful people (and businesses) may happen. Or not happen. I was particularly taken with the Christopher Langan chapter. Some writers have issues with the author's methods, but It makes one think about things one may have not thought about before. Whew!
A shipload of colonists are captured by some enemy aliens, I guess they are. Some are sent off to be slaves, about half get dumped on an Earth-like planet, which isn't so much. Several centuries later their descendants get their revenge, and then some.
Good story, I enjoyed reading it very much. Not familiar with this author, I shall have to see what else they have written.
Quote:
“Well——" Schroeder shrugged his shoulders. "It was my idea.”
Suckered in the title, and then the jacket, with its threatening hairy 'Nam vet grasping a bottle of brew. Interesting story, lots of cursing, laugh out loud funny in parts, but over all a sad story, with a downer ending. But a nice sendup of Burning Man.
Words I Had To Look Up:
studies in American Toughguy manqu (pg. 158) -- Unfulfilled or frustrated in realizing an ambition. Snopes Cow (pg. 180) -- Some sort of weird Faulkner reference. See, this is why this book is good, now I gotta read Faulkner!
Smoke Quote:
He carried a BIC lighter in his sweaty palm, like s sick man with his hand on the call nurse's button. (pg. 16)
Bike Quote:
The law requires you to ride right there on the blacktop... This I refuse to do... Still,when I saw screeching near-misses between cars and people stupid enough to pedal their $3,000, space-alloy machines in the 'bike lane' -- I call it the suicide lane -- I rooted instinctively for the car. (pg. 52)
Odd story of Evie, whose father moves them to a farm after her mother dies. A farm that seems to have a curse on the apple tree orchard. Having a cemetery next door can't help. And there's that boy, the one that claims to be dead.
A very good book about a magician named Carter. Story involves Philo Farnsworth and President Harding. Not the perfect book, but a very satisfying read. Reviewed in Booklist July 2001 pg. 1948.
An old sci fi show (not unlike Star Trek) is revived, but some fervent fans don't care for the new cast.
Is "light-year" misused on purpose? It's not funny!
A pretty good book, but the movie! You can't read the book without seeing the actors speak the lines! A wonerful movie. The "s" word and the "b" word each appear once in the book.
Quote:
The old man nodded. "Now, I can die."
She glanced at him. "Don't." Her tone was surprisingly tender, and probably she sensed how important he really was to her, because when he did die, two years further on, she went right after, and most of the people who knew her well agreed it was the sudden lack of opposition that undid her. (pg. 40)
The Notorious Reign Of Joanna I. Good historical non-fiction. Very small print in paperback edition. I liked it, but it was a long read. I could only handle a few pages each night. Especially with the small print. I'm not a big fan of historical non-fiction, but I feel smarter for having read this. Even though I can't remember very many of the points raised in the Discussion Questions. The whole German Army destroying the historical records of the period, now THAT was especially interesting!