Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From They Just Appear

Year 4, Book 50

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:03:43 GMT

50. Dead Until Dark (Sooke Stackhouse #1) by Charlaine Harris
Paul and I started watching the show True Blood on HBO when it started last year. I really enjoyed it, but had never read the series of books that the show is based on. I went back and forth on whether or not I should read them because I didn't necessarily want to spoil the show for myself by knowing everything that was going to happen by reading the books. I finally read enough stuff about the books saying how good they were and how they were not exactly like the show that I decided to pick up the first two books in the series. I read the first one on my trip to RI this past weekend. I must say that I am so glad that I never read the books first because I probably never would have watched the show. Perhaps I am just a book snob, but I have never read a book aimed at adults that was so poorly written. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but luckily I've never read any of them. The book (at least the first one, the later ones may differ more) was very similar to the TV show in my opinion. Aside from a few minor characters that appear in the book that aren't in the TV show everything that happens in the book happens in the show. Although on the other hand the show creates a much richer tapestry in my opinion and there are several main characters that are not in the book and some minor characters that are much more fleshed out in the show leading to some additional plot lines as well as more details or slight changes in the ones that are the same. Obviously the basic plot has merit since it is the back bone of the show, which I do like. However I couldn't really focus on that since having already watched the show I knew basically what was going to happen plotwise. Instead I remained very focused on the pitiful writing style. It totally reminded me of reading a children's book like The Babysitter's Club or the Sweet Valley High books I used to read. Not the plot points obviously, but the writing style of the book. I've think I've read kids books with more depth and a larger vocabulary. Having never read another vampire book other than Twilight, which despite all the horrible things I've seen said about its writing I think is ten times better, I don't know if other books in this genre are comparable or if this is just particularly bad. Or perhaps I just care more about good writing than most people since I've seen nothing but raves about this series of books. I'll just stick to the TV show and for once say that the adaptation is way better than the book. 2 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 49

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:46:01 GMT

49. American Rust by Philipp Meyer
I saw several good reviews of this book, plus the author is a local Baltimorean, so I decided to check it out. I thought the story might take place around Baltimore, but instead it is set in a small steel town outside of Pittsburgh. The story is told from the alternating perspective of several characters Isaac, his friend Poe, Isaac's sister Lee, Poe's mom Grace, Isaac's dad, and the town police chief/Poe's mom's on and off boyfriend Harris. The story basically revolves around an incident involving Isaac and Poe that results in an accidental murder and how this affects all the aforementioned characters. There are also lots of undercurrents about the state all their lives have ended up in as a result of living in a dead-end former steel town that reminded me a lot of some of Richard Russo's writings. I did enjoy reading the book, but the ending fell flat for me. I can't explain why without telling you what the ending is, so I won't. It's still worth a read though if you enjoy character driven novels or novels based on the decline of manufacturing in small-town America like Russo's. I give it a 6 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 48

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:22:57 GMT

48. Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States by Kristin Celello
This book is definitely not for anyone who is not a big sociology dork like I am (or unless they have to read it for a class or use it for research). The book is based on the author's dissertation and basically follows the institution of marriage and the roles expected to be held by each partner in the marriage through the 20th century. I enjoyed it, but as I said it is not for the average reader. I give it a 6 out of 10.

As an aside while reading the acknowledgments I discovered that the author is a fellow Wake Forest alumni. I didn't know her, but apparently she graduated 2 years earlier than I did, so we were there at the same time for a few years. Just a fun little piece of trivia there for you.

Year 4, Book 47

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:17:14 GMT

47. Squint: My Journey with Leprosy by Jose P. Ramirez
This book was sort of interesting, sort of informative, and sort of frustrating all at the same time. I had two big issues with the book. First, I don't think it was written very well. The narrative is rather dry even when the author is describing very emotional things. It was a lot of this happened, then this happened kind of writing. That may partially be as a result of English not being the author's first language (or at least I assume it isn't based on the story). My second criticism can only partially be blamed on the book. Like most Americans my knowledge of leprosy is pretty much limited to stuff from the Bible and the movie Ben Hur. Obviously not the most factual, or up-to-date information. The author continuously points out how wrong people are about leprosy and how hurtful it is to be stigmatized and called a leper, but I never really felt like he gave much information to combat it in the book. There is a FAQ section about leprosy at the back of the book, but it was kind of annoying to have to wait to get to that section to have some of my questions answered. Although some of them still remain unanswered because they just are. For instance no one really knows for sure how people catch leprosy.

I learned a lot about the effects of the disease reading the book, but despite the author's best efforts he did not eradicate my fears about leprosy (not that I really think about leprosy all that much), but if I ran into someone who had it I would be afraid. He says that only 3% of people are even capable of catching the bacillus responsible, but if you don't know if you are one of that 3% it's kind of scary because trust me after reading about what he went through I would never want to take the chance.

I rate the book 5 out of 10.

Woodberry Kitchen

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:02:49 GMT

Paul took me to Woodberry Kitchen for my birthday a couple weeks ago. I have been wanting to go there since it opened, but every time I would suggest going he would veto it. So since it was my birthday I finally got to win out. Although now I'm kind of sad that we went there instead of Ixia, which was my other choice, since they wound up closing last week.

The restaurant features food grown from local farms in the Chesapeake region, which is nice. We had an enjoyable meal there, but after hearing so much hype I don't think the restaurant quite lived up to my expectations. That being said I would still go back there, just with a better idea of what to expect.

There was nothing bad about our meal at all, so don't get me wrong on that count. It just wasn't quite what I was expecting. The space is mainly I think where I was thrown off. It didn't quite resemble the pictures and descriptions of it. It was much smaller than I thought it would be. There is a balcony that runs around the downstairs, which is where we wound up eating. I'm glad I think because the downstairs looked a little cramped to me. Although I would love to go back while the weather is still nice and eat in their outdoor area, which I found quite inviting as we walked through it.

As for the food, the menu is rather eclectic in my opinion. The many times I looked at the menu before I actually ate there I never could quite figure out how someone might order some of the stuff and have it go with anything else. I guess that is because it is based on local food, but it kind of seems like a jumble to have all these categories like small plates, snacks, salads, a separate oyster menu, etc. I was always intrigued by the fact that they have popcorn on the menu. I love popcorn, but it just always seemed odd to me. So of course I had to order some while I was there. It was the smallest popcorn I have ever eaten. I mean I've eaten small pieces of popcorn when the kernals have gotten all busted up into little pieces, but these were whole kernals, just very tiny. It was tasty though topped with real butter and sea salt.

For dinner I had the Roseda Farm Tavern Steak. It came out cooked to my liking, and although I generally am not a fan of sauces I really enjoyed the sauce that came on the meat. It was just enough to give it a nice flavor. The meat also came out cooked to my specification, which is always good. I didn't enjoy the accompaniment of smoked sweet potato fries, which were really more like wedges, but that is because in general I don't like smoked foods. So I can't really fault them for that. I was just hoping that the smoke flavor wouldn't be that apparent. I was wrong.

Paul had the Organic Va. Tofu with shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, green garlic fried rice, and soy glaze. He said the thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm just amused at the idea of local tofu.

None of their desserts really appealed to me. I could care less if I never see another flourless chocolate cake or flavored creme brulee in my life. These are not choices I would ever make, yet apparently they are the in desserts since they overtake just about every dessert menu everywhere at this point.

One more thing to say about Woodberry Kitchen is that I ordered iced tea for my drink and they brought me simple syrup to sweeten it with if I chose, which is far superior than trying to sweeten iced tea with granulated sugar or some sugar substitute. It never dissolves that way. So kudos to them on that.

So all in all it was a good meal. Now to get back to Dogwood sometime soon, which I've been wanting to do for awhile now too.

Year 4, Book 46

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:39:34 GMT

46. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Pollan wrote this book in response to all the questions he received about what people should eat after writing The Omnivore's Dilemma. His basic tenet is "Eat food. Not too much. And mostly plants.", and by food he does not mean the processed crap that lines most of the shelves of our grocery stores these days. He basically discusses the history of nutritionism and how the Western Diet is bad for us. He uses all this information to conclude that a healthy diet is about eating whole foods and whole cuisines not picking and choosing nutrients or particular food groups as the villain or the savior of healthy eating because as is evidenced by the fact that Americans have been doing this for decades we are now fatter than ever. None of it was rocket science to me, but obviously a lot of Americans could stand to read this book. I give it an 8 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 45

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:28:54 GMT

45. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
It seems like for the past several months no matter what books I put on my wish list at Amazon it told me I should be reading this book, so I finally broke down and read it. The story takes place right after the end of WWII, and is told completely in the form of letters written back and forth between the characters. A writer/journalist named Juliet is contacted by a man named Dawsey living in Guernsey to help him find more books by and about Charles Lamb to read for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which sets off a correspondence between Juliet and the other members of society. I found the book to be a good, quick read for the most part. I have to say that I didn't so much buy the love story between the Juliet and Dawsey I think partly because I didn't actually realize Dawsey was a man until a decent ways in to the book and second because he is painted a character with such a quiet manner that he's barely present. Thus although I could see that was where the story was headed I never really bought it. Also I felt the end was kind of hokey compared to the rest of the story. After reading the Acknowledgments at the end of the book I realize the change in tone of the story is most likely due to the fact that the book was finished by the niece of the main author after she became to ill to finish it on her own. It is a quick, fun read though and I'm sure one day it will be made into a movie because it just felt like it was a perfect fit for a romantic comedy. I give it 7 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 44

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:16:24 GMT

44. Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl by Susan Campbell
I picked this book up from the new book section at work to read while I was waiting on some books I had requested from another library to arrive. The author describes her upbringing in a church of Christ while elaborating on her eventual rejection of the church because of her feminist leanings. I enjoyed some parts of the book, but not the book as a whole for the most part. It didn't feel very cohesive to me as she jumped back and forth in time somewhat and inserted stuff about feminism and feminist history in-between stories from her life. I was amused by some of the stuff from her childhood because having attended churches of Christ from between the ages of 12 to 18 I could relate to a lot of the stuff she was talking about. Although none of the churches I attended were as fundamentalist as the one she attended. I got bored by her feminist rants though. I give the book 4 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 43

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:13:14 GMT

43. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The premise of this book is rather horrible. It takes place in France partially during WWII and partially during the early 2000's. On July 16, 1942 during an incident referred to as Vel d'Hiv the French police rounded up almost 13,000 Jews many of whom were women and children. Most were eventually sent on to extermination camps. The part that takes place during WWII involves a Jewish family who is taken away. Trying to keep her little brother safe and not realizing that they would not be able to return to their apartment, Sarah locks her brother in a hidden cabinet and takes the key with her when the police round up her family. The part that occurs during the more present times involves an American journalist (Julia) living in Paris with her French husband and daughter. She is reporting on the 60th anniversary of the Vel d'Hiv incident and during her research finds out that the apartment her husband is renovating that belonged to his grandmother was previously lived in by a Jewish family, who obviously turns out to be the family whose story is being told in the other half of the book. She is determined to find out what happened to that family and to unearth whatever secret she feels surrounds them and their relation to her husband's family. The first half to 2/3 of the book has the two stories being told in alternating chapters. After that Sarah's story at least from her perspective just ends, and the rest of the book is told purely from the perspective of Julia. I thought the story lost something at this point. I was expecting Sarah's story to continue following her life as she had to live with the knowledge that she effectively killed her brother. I also thought the ending of the book was rather cheesy and it was very obvious what was going to happen so I don't know why the author insisted on trying to make it suspenseful through the last 3 or 4 chapters with some big reveal at the end. It was a good book, and I would recommend it, but I think the last 1/3 of the book had greater potential than how it was ultimately written. I give it 7 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 42

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:58:27 GMT

42. Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox
Since I enjoyed his more recent book Looking Up, I decided I would go back and read Fox's first book. This one has a bit more of a memoirish feeling to it than Looking Up. Lucky Man very much follows Fox through his life from childhood up to the point the book is written. He talks about his childhood, how he wound up as an actor, his experiences as an actor, his diagnosis of Parkinson's, his issues with alcohol, his family, etc. It eventually ends with him coming to terms with his Parkinson's and viewing it in a positive light, hence the fact that he is a "Lucky Man". It was an enjoyable read. I give it 6 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 41

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:14:09 GMT

41. Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
I picked up this book because it was showing up on all kinds of the best books of the year lists at the end of last year. Apparently all these critics and I do not share the same taste in books. This it seems is the year for me to wind up reading books that drive me insane with an incomprehensible plot that doesn't even bother to tie up in the end. I feel like I should have been reading this for one of my book clubs because it seems like we've had a knack for picking those, however in this case it was own bad choice.

The plot of this book was just plain weird. The main character, a psychiatrist, comes home to find a woman who looks and acts like his wife but for some reason he has determined she is an impostor pretending to be his wife. We never really get a good explanation for why this is other than the fact that she is ambivalent towards dogs, yet she has brought a dog home. He also has a patient who believes he can control the weather and is disappears to go on assignments given to him by some meteorological society. The psychiatrist and his wife (before she gets replaced by the supposed doppelganger) cook up some scheme whereby he pretends to be involved in the society and she phones him during his sessions with the patient and pretends to be some higher-up instructing him to tell his patient to stay put and deal with local weather issues. After the disappearance of his wife, the psychiatrist decides that it is somehow related to the society and his patient, who has also disappeared again. He then winds up in contact somehow with the person his wife was pretending to be, only you later find out that the guy actually died a long time ago, but there is never any explanation of who he was in contact with then or if he imagined the whole thing. It was completely bizarre and as I said it never wraps anything up. I just don't get the point of writing things like that. It is not satisfying to read at all. I give this book 3 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 40

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:03:59 GMT

40. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang
This book was not really what I expected. The author of the book spent several years interviewing and creating relationships (or at least trying to as it was hard to keep in contact with many of the girls as they were constantly moving and changing jobs) with girls working in factories in the Dongguan area of China. I expected the book to concentrate on the horrid working and living conditions of the girls, but it didn't. It did mention those things to a degree, but they were really ancillary to the story. She really used the stories of the girls she met to construct a cultural story about how things have changed in China from the older, rural generations to this new, independent younger generation. She also interweaves the history of her family in the story, which fell rather flat for me. I found most of the chapters that concentrated on her family's experience in China to be boring. I did enjoy the rest of the book though, and found it gave me a completely different perspective on the factory workers in China. At just over 400 pages it looks like a lengthy book, but the print is large and I got through it much quicker than I was anticipating. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Friend Kitchen

Tue, 26 May 2009 19:02:33 GMT

Friend Kitchen is a fairly new Chinese/Thai restaurant on the Avenue in Hampden. It replaced the really scary Chinese restaurant that was there for years prior. It literally just had a piece of plywood painted with black paint tacked up as a sign. Needless to say I never ate there.

But after a long day of painting and not wanting to cook anything, Paul and I decided to order something in on Saturday. He suggested Chinese food. Our go-to Chinese place is normally No. 1 Chinese Kitchen. I wasn't really in the mood for Chinese because I was hot and it just sounded really heavy to me with all the kind of starchyish sauces that coat Chinese food. So he asked if there was anything on the Thai part of the Friend Kitchen menu that I wanted to try.

Let me first say that the Thai selections are meager compared to the Chinese choices and that aside from Pad Thai I don't think I've seen any of the things they had listed actually present on a Thai menu. I decided to order some mango chicken thing that had mangoes and chicken obviously plus there was also jicama and some jalapenos in there. The mango sauce unfortunately had that same kind of starchyish feel that I was trying to avoid, so really it felt like eating some more tropical form of Chinese food. I can't say that it was very good. Aside from the fact that it wasn't what I was in the mood for, I didn't really care for the flavor, and the sauce just seemed kind of goopy. I would never order it again.

Paul ordered General Tso's Tofu, which is our go-to order at No. 1. It was ok, but we both agreed that we liked No. 1's better.

We also had a coupon for a free order of fried crab creamcheese wontons. They were rather tasty, but I think it's kind of hard to go wrong with something like that. I will say that they did not skimp on the order for a free with purchase coupon. I was shocked at how many wontons there were. After eating them at 3 meals, there's still probably half an order left that is just going to go in the trash at this point. Unfortunately they have crab in them so Paul wouldn't help me out.

Paul said if he would eat there again if he wanted to walk and get something right away, as we usually wait for No. 1 to deliver because it's just far enough away that we don't want to walk, but otherwise we'll stick with No. 1 for now.

Year 4, Book 39

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:52:51 GMT

39. At Wakes and Weddings by Alice McDermott
I really enjoyed Charming Billy, so I quickly picked up another book by Alice McDermott. Unfortunately At Wakes and Weddings was not nearly as good. I had a really hard time following what was going on in this book. McDermott apparently has issues with using way too many prepositions, which I am surprised her editor hasn't pointed out to her. I thought the same thing when reading Charming Billy, but had less of a problem following it. This time there were way too many hes and shes for me to figure out who was even being talked about half the time. The story is sort of about 3 generations of an Irish family living in New York. The oldest generation is really just the stepmother/aunt of the second generation. Their real mother and father who both died early in their childhood aren't really part of the story. The original mother and father had 4 daughters and then the father had one son with his wife's sister how he marries after his first wife's death. Three of the 4 daughters live with their stepmother "Momma" even though they are well into adulthood. It never really made sense to me why. There were veiled allusions to something being wrong with the youngest, but I could never figure out what. One of the others was a nun, but then got kicked out, again it was not really clear why. And the one who actually doesn't live there anymore is the mother of the third generation her son and 2 daughters. She drags them to the house where her stepmother and sisters live several times a week to complain about her marriage. I didn't really follow this story much if there even was one. I couldn't figure out the point of anything and the way it kept jumping back and forth in time coupled with all the pronouns made it even harder to figure out if there was something really going on. If you're going to read something by Alice McDermott I wouldn't recommend this book. I give it a 4 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 38

Tue, 26 May 2009 18:43:52 GMT

38. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist by Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox's newest memoir. It basically recounts his life since he opened up publicly about his Parkinson's disease, specifically focusing on how he became involved in actively looking for a cure and the fight for the use of stem cell therapies. It found it to be a good read and a good reminder about looking on the bright side of life. I give it a 6 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 37

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:12:20 GMT

37. Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
For the first time in awhile this book wasn't for one of my book clubs. It's too bad because as soon as I finished it, I really wanted to talk about it with someone. Alice McDermott did a reading at the library where I work about a month ago. She read a short story that is soon to be published. I really liked it and since I normally am not a fan of short stories, I decided it was high time I checked out some of her novels. I started with Charming Billy because it is probably her most well-known. The story starts at Billy's funeral and then weaves back and forth through time with telling of Billy's life from the time he returned from WWII until his death from alcoholism. Part of the story are told by people attending the funeral who reminisce about Billy and others are narrated by the daughter of Billy's cousin Dennis. The parts narrated by the daughter threw me sometimes because it wasn't always obvious that she was narrating and then it was hard to figure out who some of the pronouns were referring to. Although that was a bit awkward at times, it didn't detract much from the narrative for me. After hearing McDermott read some of her work in person I could really hear her voice in this book. I found it to be beautifully written and very lyrical. And some of the descriptions of mundane things enriched it for me, instead of seeming superfluous as things like that can do at the hands of lesser writer. Ultimately I viewed the book as asking the question whether we are destined to be what we become or if things might have been different if circumstances had been different. That was what I really wanted to discuss when I was done with the book. I highly recommend this for anyone who likes character based literary fiction. I give it a 9 out of 10.

Kitchen Remodel

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:04:45 GMT

Paul and I have decided to put most of our tax refund towards remodeling the kitchen. We've done some work since Paul bought the house. And by we I mean mostly Paul. Really what has been done is upgrading all the appliances. All the appliances were old, cheap, and kind of crappy when he moved in. The dishwasher actually failed, which is why it got replaced. Then closer to when I was to move in we upgraded the refrigerator and the stove to make me happy. The old fridge was really small, so we got the biggest one we could that would fit in the space we have. It's still not that big compared to what's out there, but it's bigger than what we had and big enough for the two of us. We also replaced the old electric stove with a gas stove. There were both gas and electric hookups for the stove in kitchen, so since I much prefer to cook on gas I requested that we get a gas range. I know some people say that baking in a gas oven is not as good as an electric one because the temperature can vary, but I bake a decent amount and haven't noticed a problem with this oven. The gas oven in my apartment was definitely not calibrated right. So I can see what people mean. Paul also replaced the floor in the kitchen. When he moved in it had some nasty old vinyl tile on it. It was scuffed, scratched and peeling and generally just looked dirty all the time. He spent one Saturday when I was out of town replacing the old vinyl tile with new vinyl tile. Not ideal, but definitely way better than what was there and a cheap and easy temporary fix.

Now we're moving on to getting most of the rest of the kitchen redone. We are putting in a new counter, sink, and faucet, putting real tile on the floor, adding a tile back splash, and repainting the rest of the walls. I desperately want to move the microwave above the range to get more counter space, but Paul is concerned that with the wall there being just brick with plaster over it we won't be able to get enough support. We need to investigate this more.

You can tell the amount of counter space is tiny by two things. One we were having a hard time even getting someone to do the new counters for us. Paul took a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot last weekend to find out about ordering a new counter. Based on the original countertop that we had picked out and the size counter we needed, we didn't meet their minimum price. All their counters include installation in the pricing, so apparently there is a minimum they feel is worth their time to do. Rather annoying in my opinion. If that's the case say there is a minimum price for free installation and then make other people pay for the installation. Don't tell them you just can't do it. Way to lose business. I can't help it if I have a tiny kitchen. Anyway, I'm actually kind of glad this happened because in the meantime I kind of rethought my decision on the countertop. I had originally picked out a corian countertop, but have since changed my mind and we're now going with silestone. The color I picked out was more expensive than the corian I had picked out, so we now meet the minimum order. The second way I can tell we have no counter space is that when we were at Home Depot placing the order the guy asked if it was for an island. I said now unfortunately that is the sum total of counter space I have in my entire kitchen. A picture of the color we ordered is here if you want to see it.

The counter guy was out today to measure and they should be back to install in a few weeks. We've already purchased the new sink and faucet that are going to go in it. I have picked out the tile for my back splash which is going to be mostly white 4" tiles with 2 rows of alternating white and cobalt blue 1" tiles towards the top. We still need to actually buy the tiles though.

I know we're doing tile for the floor as well, but we haven't picked anything out yet. We went looking the other day and didn't really see anything. This was when we still thought we were getting the corian counter though. So now we need to go looking with the color of the silestone we ordered in mind. I think that will be easier to match based on all the tile we've seen.

The only thing we aren't doing at this point really is replacing the cabinets. That does not fit into our budget right now, and even though they are cheap I don't really mind them. At some point though I know we're at least going to replace the doors with something nicer and get some hardware added on. That will update them enough I think.

Pretty much we're planning on doing all this work ourselves, except for the counter installation. So this should be a fun adventure since neither of us has ever tiled before. I'll post some before, during, and after pictures once things start happening.

Year 4, Book 36

Tue, 12 May 2009 15:41:02 GMT

36. Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own by Doreen Orion
As with the last two books I read, this book is also for one of my book clubs. It was a nice change of pace from the last two books, one of which I hated and the other which although I liked was very heavy subject matter. This book was nice and light and fun. The story chronicles the year long bus trip the author and her husband Tim took driving around the country. It's half memoir, half travelogue. It was an enjoyable, amusing read. I give it 8 out of 10.

Amusement for the Day

Tue, 12 May 2009 15:31:19 GMT

I'm digitizing some old VHS tapes containing lectures that happened at Loyola in the past. Most of these are from the late 90's early 2000's. I'm guessing at one point some of these tapes must have been put on reserve for students who missed the lecture to watch, as someone wrote "Dear Lord! This was the most depressing thing I have ever seen. Save yourself: If you know what's good for you you'll watch something else." on the label of one of the tapes. Hee!

Year 4, Book 35

Fri, 08 May 2009 19:23:58 GMT

35. Song Yet Sung by James McBride
This book is the May selection for my other book club. Thankfully it was much better than Servant of the Bones. It incidentally is also this years One Maryland, One Book selection. The book takes place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during the times of slavery, although I don't believe we ever get any exact dates. Harriet Tubman is referred to, so it would be at the same time she is freeing slaves. The story revolves around Liz, a slave who everyone refers to as the Dreamer as she has dreams that foretell the distant future (i.e. she dreams about life in modern times). There are a whole lot of other characters including other slaves, slave owners, and slave catchers who all interact throughout the story. I thought it was a good book with some interesting ideas about what constitutes freedom. I'm looking forward to discussing it. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 34

Tue, 05 May 2009 20:09:00 GMT

34. Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice
I have never been so happy to finish a book in my life. Ok that's probably not true. In fact I think The School on Heart's Content Road was probably worse. I only read this book because it is for one of my book clubs. For this book club whoever is hosting gets to choose the book. The person hosting May's book club is a sci-fi/fantasy fan, which is so not my genre at all. She offered us 3 choices of books and this seemed the most mainstream, so it got the most votes. I sincerely wish I had voted for something else. It's not just that this book wasn't my cup of tea, it was that it was extremely boring and very long at almost 400 pages. I don't even have the heart to recap the plot of this book. I'm sure you can find a summary of it somewhere if you want. We'll see if anyone else in my book club found it more engaging than I did. I give it a 1 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 33

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:26:47 GMT

33. Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss
Seriously this a book all about punctuation. If you've never heard of it, it was wildly popular for some reason right after it came out, which was when I was working at Barnes and Noble. I always meant to read it to find out what all the fuss was about because who knew a book about punctuation would be so popular. I for some reason never read it, but finally decided to pick it up while I was waiting for the books for my 2 book clubs to come into the public library. Since it's a short book I figured I could finish it in a few days and be ready to start on my other books when they arrived.

I did enjoy the book, but because I'm a dork like that. It's something that might appeal to me even if it hadn't been such a bestseller. It is a witty little book with some humor and a writing style that doesn't make punctuation a dry subject matter. However, I have to wonder how many of the copies of this book that were sold were actually read. First of all it turns out it's written by a British author and isn't even about American punctuation, but British punctuation, which is mostly the same but not completely. I didn't know that before I read it. And secondly, I'm betting a lot of people picked up the book because it was being talked about so much and then sat down to read it only to discover that "oh man" this really is about punctuation, and then never finished it. If you're into that kind of thing I'd recommend it. If you don't care, and don't find humor in punctuation mishaps then skip it. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 32

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:18:42 GMT

32. Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters by Debra Gwartney
I started reading this book and thought man this story sounds awfully familiar. Turns out I had actually heard it on a segment of This American Life. Of course the book goes into much more detail than they could cover in a 20 minute radio segment, so it wasn't as if reading it was a complete waste of time.

I actually really enjoyed the book, although it made me sad. The story is basically about a family with 4 daughters, the older 2 of whom run away from home. The book is written by the mother basically about her life with her daughters after her divorce from their father, specifically concentrating on the fact that her two oldest daughters eventually run away from home.

The story is really interesting, if not heartbreaking. You really get a sense of how the girls got to be so rebellious, but you can also relate to the mother who is trying to hold onto her children even though she should probably just let them go because she is barely keeping it together, and she still has two other daughters who need her. The mother seems to finally come to some realization about the things she did to get her family where it winds up, at least she writes as if she has some insight. Although I never really get the sense that her actions truly change.

It's actually kind of amazing that with everything this family went through that all 4 of the daughters seem to have eventually turned out well. I'm actually shocked that the younger 2 daughters didn't wind up mental cases like their older sisters with living in the situation caught between their mother and sisters as they did.

It's an engaging book and the mother really does a good job of not just presenting her side of the story. Although I really do wonder what makes sleeping on the streets a better alternative for some kids than a home that may not be perfect, but certainly isn't abusive. I give it an 8 out of 10.

Year 4, Book 31

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:50:40 GMT

31. Self-Made Man:One Woman's Journey into Manhood and Back Again by Norah Vincent
I heard a lot about this book when it first came out, but never really felt compelled to pick it up until I read Vincent's more recent book Voluntary Madness. I enjoyed that book, and she referred to Self-Made Man in it and how her experiences writing that book lead her into the depression she was experiencing during her writing of Voluntary Madness. So I decided to check it out.

Basically Vincent spends 18 months impersonating a man and inserting herself into situations that she deemed extremely male in nature to in order to see how she could fit in as a man and to learn about what it's like to be male. She spent time on a bowling league, working in an extremely brash male dominated sales job, living in a monastery, patronizing strip clubs, and joining a men's group based on John Bly's Iron Man. She also entered the dating scene. She eventually revealed herself to many of the people she interacted with including her bowling team, some of the monks, some of the people she interacted with at the strip club, and a few of the women she dated.

I had a hard time with this book mostly because I couldn't get past all the people I felt like she was betraying. Pretty much all of the people she eventually told about her experiment (all the name of writing a book I might add) seemed to be okay with it. Although that's coming from her mouth and may or may not accurately portray their true feelings. Three of the women she dated even slept with her after she told them the truth even though they were self-professed heterosexuals (Vincent is actually a lesbian). I took issue with that only because the book is dedicated to her beloved wife and I have to assume she was at least in some sort of committed relationship during the time that all this was going on.

She attempts to absolve herself at the beginning of the book saying that all that she suffered spiraling back into a depression, which she claims is a result of the cognitive dissonance she experienced while being a woman living as man, is far more horrible than any deception of the people she was interacting with.

Also I'm not sure that she found out anything all that relavatory in the process. I don't think she told me one thing about being a guy that I didn't already know, so I'm not sure that this book was worth all the pain she caused herself or others even if she doesn't want to own up to that.

That being said it wasn't a bad book. Vincent is a good writer. If you decide to read it just don't expect any great revelations and be prepared to feel a bit icky about her betrayal of the people she is interacting with. Particularly in the dating section. I give it a 6 out of 10.

Elevation Burger

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:31 GMT

I can totally not think of this restaurant without getting the song Elevation by U2 stuck in my head. Anyway, a bunch of us grabbed dinner there pre-roller derby on Saturday for Alison's birthday. She is on a quest to find a good burger in Baltimore and wanted to give this place a try. It's kind of a fast food type place, although more along the lines of Fuddruckers than McDonald's regarding the service in that you order at the counter and your food is then brought out to you at your table. Unfortunately I found the food to be more on par with McDonald's than Fuddruckers. Now if you're familiar with Elevation Burger hear me out before you crucify me for that statement. If you're unfamiliar with Elevation Burger then you should know that they pride themselves on being eco-friendly only serving grass-fed beef that is ground in store that day plus they recycle, etc. etc. None of this is McDonald's like I know. What is McDonald's like though is the ratio of meat to everything else on the burger. The patty on the burger was pretty much the same size and shape as those you see on a McDonald's burger, very skimpy. You do have the option to add up to 10 patties or something like that to your burger for more meat if you want. If you go I'd suggest at least 2. With one patty I couldn't really taste the meat. I pretty much tasted the bun and the toppings like when eating a McDonald's burger. See what I'm saying.

For those of you from the south or mid-west who are familiar with Steak and Shake the height of the burger patty is about the same, yet at Steak and Shake I still feel like I can taste the meat and am getting something cooked fresh off the grill (which it is). At Elevation Burger even though again it's cooked fresh-to-order I didn't have the same experience. The burger looked far to round and even to me to be something that was handmade in the store. I'm not saying they're lying about that, but in some respects it's all about presentation and perception.

I also was not in love with their fries. They were shoestring fries, which I normally love but only when they are still soft. These came out pretty crunchy. I'm not sure if it was because they were just overcooked period or if it is because they cook the fries in olive oil.

As you can see I was not in love with Elevation Burger. Yes if you offered me a choice between McDonald's or Elevation Burger I would go with Elevation Burger every time, but like with McDonald's unless I'm forced to eat I'll probably just skip it.

For anyone who still feels compelled to try it your options are pretty much a plain burger or a cheeseburger (only cheddar cheese not melted onto the burger), 2 types of veggie burgers or a grilled cheese. So it is veggie friendly for those of you vegetarians out there.