The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Enzo is a highly evolved dog who dearly loves his owner Denny. On the eve of his death, Enzo recalls his life with Denny which started when Denny was single. Enzo saw Denny through getting married, the birth of his daughter Zoe and great tragedy and adversity throughout their time together.
The Art of Racing In the Rain was my book club, Conversati-om's, January pick. I was a bit apprehensive about it because 1)I am ambivalent toward dogs 2)I do not like car racing. I think it's a true testament to the power of this book's story that I loved it anyway. The racing parts were brief and mostly used as metaphors so I was not bothered by them. And I kept forgetting Enzo was a dog, he was so insightful as a narrator. On the brief occasions that he did do something dog-like, it caught me off guard. I thought the author did a great job of explaining the rational behind Enzo's actions when he did do something that I wouldn't think a highly evolved dog would do - like tearing up Zoe's stuffed animals.
I was totally caught up in Denny's journey throughout this book. I don't want to give to much away but my stomach was in knots for him at times. This the first book by Garth Stein that I've read - I'm looking forward to reading more.
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My Weight Loss Blog
February 04, 2011
February 03, 2011
Book Review: Hungry for Happiness
Hungry for Happiness by James Villas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Hungry for Happiness is the story of Loretta Crawford, a 36-year old woman who's husband leaves her for another, thinner woman. Loretta decides to change her life and starts by having lap band surgery. Before her surgery she weighed 280 pounds (and was only 5'4"). Even though Loretta is losing weight, she still loves to cook and word gets around that she's one of the best cooks around. Soon she has her own catering business. Also, as she loses more and more weight, she catches the eye of more and more men.
I noticed some reviewers didn't like Loretta's Texas dialect and thought it was over the top. I'm not Texan so I can't say for sure if it was realistic but even if it wasn't I thought it was charming and funny.
I think the overall message of this book was that there are no simple solutions to life's problems. Loretta thinks that weight loss surgery and losing weight will automatically make her happy but she doesn't realize that she has underlying issues that caused her to gain the weight in the first place. However, I don't feel like Loretta ever really understood that and I would have expected her to eventually have some sort of revelation. This book started out with a bang and ended with kind of a whimper.
Some of Loretta's recipes are in the back of the book. A couple I probably won't try because they are just too over the top fattening. For instance, the bread crumbs in her meatloaf are soaked in heavy cream! Her chili recipe looks really good but I'll have to wait until Snowpocalypse is over before I can get to the store to buy the ingredients. I'll be sure and post about it after I make it.
Thank you to the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for providing me with a copy of this book.
January 28, 2011
January 27, 2011
January 26, 2011
Book Review: Size 12 Is Not Fat
Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Size 12 Is Not Fat is the first book in the Heather Wells mystery series. Heather Wells is a former teen popstar. Her record label fired her when she decided she wanted to write her own songs and her mother ran off with her manager and her money. She's started a new job as the assistant director of a residence hall at New York College and plans to go back to school as well. When two girls who live in the residence hall are killed, the police chalk it up to elevator surfing accidents. Heather suspects foul play and since no one will listen, she takes it upon herself to investigate.
Luckily, I've already read the third book in this series so I know it gets better than this first book. Heather is a sweet, charming character but the mystery storyline in this book is pretty ridiculous. There's no way that police would not do more of an investigation on why/how these girls died. Even Heather's private investigator landlord refuses to acknowledge that foul play may have been involved - I don't think so.
I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator did a good job and it was fun to listen to. However, every time Heather thinks or says "dorm" she corrects herself and says, "I mean, residence hall." That got REALLY grating after a while. That's not the narrator's fault of course but I wonder if it would have been as annoying in print. And who cares whether you call it a dorm or residence hall?
If you read this book and are not impressed, I recommend sticking with the series anyway - it'll get better!
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January 24, 2011
Book Review: The Bake Sale Murder
Bake Sale Murder by Leslie Meier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Bake Sale Murder is a cozy mystery that is the 13th book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. I didn't have any trouble jumping right in without having read any of the previous books in the series.
Lucy Stone is a reporter for the Pennysaver in her small town, Tinker's Cove, Maine. One morning she discovers her neighbor Mimi stabbed to death in her kitchen. At the same time, Lucy is investigating allegations of hazing against the high school football coach that are being made in anonymous letters sent to the Pennysaver office.
This book was mildly entertaining but did not have the "can't put down til I find out who did it" factor that I feel mysteries should have. The characters were superficial and the writing perfunctory. Everything came together too quickly at the end with a lot of dragging through the middle.
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January 21, 2011
Book Review: The Stupidest Angel
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Stupidest Angel is the story of young Joshua Barker, a seven-year old boy who thinks he saw Santa Claus getting murdered. A hapless but well-meaning angel attempts to grant Joshua his Christmas miracle with disastrous results that send the whole town into chaos.
I think you either get Christopher Moore and love him or you don’t and hate him. Oh, how I love Christopher Moore. I love, love, love dark absurd humor that doesn’t make any sense and his books are packed full of it. This book has the best line EVER in it:
“No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable prefab furniture.”
I thought about this book for days after I finished it and laughed every time. It’s not a traditional Christmas classic and that’s why it’s wonderful.
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January 20, 2011
January 16, 2011
January 07, 2011
Book Review: The Beach House
The Beach House by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nan is an eccentric old woman who lives in Nantucket in huge rambling home. When her investments tank and she is in need of money, she decides to rent out rooms in her home over the summer. Between her two boarders and her son Michael who moves back home she brings together a motley group of people – all of whom are facing major transitions of one kind or another in their lives.
Although this was overall a good story, I had a few issues with it. First of all, Jane Green’s editor still doesn’t think it’s important to check that the American dialogue is authentic. Just like in Swapping Lives, the characters talked using British phrasing and slang. It was worse this time and very distracting. A thirteen year old girl, after getting a babysitting gig exclaims, “I’ve never had a proper job before!” The characters all said proper all the time actually. And one character who was arguing with another said they were having a “row”. It took me out of the story almost every time.
Another problem I had was that when one of the characters ends up being gay, everyone comments that they were not surprised; they always knew that character was gay. But no one ever says why or how they knew that character was gay. The character doesn’t act stereotypically gay so I felt like Green should have delved more into why no one was surprised.
I listened to The Beach House in the car. The book is structured so that it switches among the different characters perspectives every few paragraphs. The narrator wouldn’t pause at all between paragraphs where the character changed and that could get confusing. Other than that I thought the narration was good.
There was a lot of serendipity in the way that everything that happened throughout the book ended up intertwining and it all came together and wrapped up in a neat package at the end. I actually like that sometimes so I was okay with it – especially for a car book, I don’t want to get too upset while I’m driving over a sad ending!
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