All the roads we have to walk are winding.
Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosternan
3/5 stars--liked it bookshelves: essays, funny, own
Chuck Klosterman has chronicled rock music, film, and sports for almost fifteen years. He's covered extreme metal, extreme nostalgia, disposable art, disposable heroes, life on the road, life through the television, urban uncertainty and small-town weirdness. Through a variety of mediums and with a multitude of motives, he's written about everything he can think of (and a lot that he's forgotten). The world keeps accelerating, but the pop ideas keep coming.
In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny
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Okay...let me begin by recognizing you - the reader of this book - might not know much about football. In fact, you might hate football, and you might be annoyed that it's even included in this collection. I'm guess that at least fifty potential buyers flipped through the pages of this book inside a store, noticed that there was a diagram of a football play on page 125, and decided not to but it. This is a problem I have always had to manage: Roughly 60 percent of the people who read my books have a near-expert understanding of sports, but the remaining 40 percent have no interest whatsoever. As such, I will understand if you skip to the next essay, which is about ABBA.
---And so I did skip to the next chapter/
Before Fox plays "Johnny B. Goode" at a high school dance, he tells the audience, "This is an oldie...well it's an oldie where I come from."
Chuck Berry recorded "Johnny B. Goode" in 1985. Back to the Future was made in 1985, so the gap is twenty-seven years.
I'm writing this essay in 2009, which means the gap between 1985 and today is twenty-four years. That's almost the same amount of time. Yet nobody would ever refer to Back to the Future as and "oldie," even if he or she were born in the 1990s.
What seems to be happening is a dramatic increase in cultural memory: As culture accelerates, the distance between historical events feels smaller. The gap between 2010 and 2000 will seem far smaller than the gap between 1980 and 1970, which already seemed far smaller than 1950 and 1940. This, I suppose, is society's own version of time travel ( assuming the trend continues for eternity).
--- The funny thing is, this was just a footnote, but it resonated. Actually it's something that is regularly discussed in my house. Time periods seem to be shorter the older you get. To me 2000 was a long time ago and it was; eleven years is a long time. But if you ask my brother 2000 was like yesterday.
The thing I love about Chuck Klosterman is that he can make you see real and true meaning in the most ordinary, ridiculous things.
The end chapter was about Ted Kaczynski and why he lived out in the woods away from every thing and everyone and why he sent bombs to people in the mail. It was about his manifesto. It said that basically people don't ever think for themselves. Ever. That all media and technology is essential destroying humanity, and that in a way, he's right. Obviously, Ted Kaczynsky thought this to be true to a horrible extreme, but it doesn't mean he was absolutely 100% wrong. If you really think about it, how do you know all the things you know. Picture a basketball game. Are you picturing a televised game? He did, and I did. That's what media is doing to us. We've all attended a basketball game, even if were just a middle school team game. We've all played basketball, even if were just shooting hoops in the front yard when you were twelve.
Kiss of Death (Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
2/5 stars,,,,it was okay bookshelves: vamps, own
Vampire musician Michael Glass has attracted the attention of a big- time producer who wants to cut a demo and play some gigs-which means Michael will have to enter the human world. For this, he's been assigned escorts that include both a dangerous immortal as well as Michael's all-too-human friends. And with that mix of personalities, this is going to be a road trip from hell.
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After eight books I think I'm done with this series.
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
4/5 stars,,,,really like it! bookshelves: multiple reads, own, love story, social issues
It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce-or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.
A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
3/5 stars....liked it bookshelves: historical fiction, alternate views, social issues, mature, movie
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
2/5 stars...it was okay bookshelves: fantasy, mystery, love story, mature, movie
The blacksmith would marry her.
The woodcutter would run away with her.
The werewolf would turn her into one of its own.
Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind, and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.
After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them--it could be anyone in town.
It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die.
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Too much. Metaphor, simile, and adjective overload. And the run-on sentences seemed to go on forever.
Peter and Valerie's relationship was just impossible. It was love at first sight taken much too literally.
Pretty Dead by Francesca Lia Block
3/5 stars...like it bookshelves: vamps, mature, paranormal, love story
Something is happening to Charlotte Emerson. Like the fires that are ravaging the hills of Los Angeles, it consumes her from the inside out. But whether it is her eternal loneliness, the memory of her brother, the return of her first love, or the brooding, magnetic Jared-she cannot say. What if it's something more . . .
Something to do with the sudden tear in her perfect nails. The heat she feels when she's with Jared. The blood rushing once again to her cheeks and throughout her veins.
For Charlotte is a vampire, witness to almost a century's worth of death and destruction. But not since she was a human girl has mortality touched her.
Nightight by The Harvard Lampoon
1/5 stars,,,,didn't like it bookshelves: own, funny
About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe. Second, there was a vampire part of him-which I assumed was wildly out of his control-that wanted me dead. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me.
And thus Belle Goose falls in love with the mysterious and sparkly Edwart Mullen in the Harvard Lampoon’s hilarious send-up of Twilight.
Pale and klutzy, Belle arrives in Switchblade, Oregon looking for adventure, or at least an undead classmate. She soon discovers Edwart, a super-hot computer nerd with zero interest in girls. After witnessing a number of strange events-Edwart leaves his tater tots untouched at lunch! Edwart saves her from a flying snowball!-Belle has a dramatic revelation: Edwart is a vampire. But how can she convince Edwart to bite her and transform her into his eternal bride, especially when he seems to find girls so repulsive
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I never considered myself a serious business fangirl, but I guess I just don't like parodies.
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments 1) by Cassandra Clare
5/5 stars...AMAZING bookshelves: fantasy, mystery, paranormal, love story
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing - not even a smear of blood - to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....
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I loved reading this! I was brought into a world unlike any I've ever been. It was magical and beautiful and I can't wait to go back! And never have I been so tempted to read spoilers!! The end of this story left me crazy! Thanks, Nicole, for making me read this.lol
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
2/5 stars...it was okay bookshelves: fantasy, historical fiction
Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control.
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I thought this book was only okay because I just can't get into magic. I like paranormal stuff and fantasy so I don't know what it us about magic. It's a good story and it's well written so if you do like magic give it a go. It just wasn't for me. It does start out pretty slow though, so hang in there.
Crescendo (HushHush 2) by Becca Fitzpatrick
4/5 stars...really liked it bookshelves: mystery, paranormal, love story
Nora Grey's life is still far from perfect. Surviving an attempt on her life wasn't pleasant, but atleast she got a guardian angel out of it: a mysterious, magnetic, gorgeous guardian angel. But, despite his role in her life, Patch has been acting anything but angelic. He's more elusive than ever and even worse, he's started spending time with Nora's arch-enemy, Marcie Millar.
Nora would have hardly noticed Scott Parnell, an old family friend who has moved back to town, if Patch hadn't been acting so distant. Even with Scott's totally infuriating attitude Nora finds herself drawn to him - despite her lingering feeling that he's hiding something.
Haunted by images of her murdered father, and questioning whether her nephilim bloodline has anything to do with his death, Nora puts herself increasingly in dangerous situations as she desperately searches for answers. But maybe some things are better left buried, because the truth could destroy everything - and everyone - she trusts
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Chapter one and already with the insecure, "he doesn't want me as much as I want him," garbage. I need to stop reading sequels.
I take back what I said about sequels.
I liked this one better than Hush Hush.
The Twilight Saga The Host The Mortal Instruments The Hunger Games
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