2.30 Love Medicine by Louise Erdich

It's been well over a month since I've read this and unfortunately, I don't remember much. I didn't like it as much as Master Butcher's, nor do I think that it was written as well. That's all I got today folks, sorry.

2.29 Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

Good book but a bad choice for a vaction read. By the end, I wanted to sob myself to sleep. Patchett traces the story of herself and her best friend and the trials and tribulations of that relationship.

Here's some personal stuff: I have a hard time making and keeping friends. Most of the time, I'm perfectly happy curling up into myself and living the life of a hermit crab. So when I do make friends and then somehow miraculously keep them, I have a hard time letting go. About a year ago, a dear friend of mine, with whom I thought I was very close, up and disappeared. Over a period of a few months, she stopped calling me back, e-mailing me, and cancelled our outings at the last minute. And then she moved away. We went from seeing each other or talking together almost every day to no contact whatsoever. I was crushed. I still am. I have no idea what happened. I am worried about her. I don't know if I'll ever hear from her again. Reading this brought all of that back. While I was staying up late one night in Cesky Krumlov finishing this, I was not just crying for Ann and Lucy, I was crying for me too.

This book is intense. It's well written and intimate. Patchett doesn't hold back, nor does she try to make excuses for what happened. She also gives good insight into the life of authorship and the struggle for success and for oneself.

2.28 All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki

Another vacation book. I read this on the plane over to Europe. I remember liking it. Unfortunately, I don't remember much else.

The narrative follows a group of environmental activist hippies in a VW traveling around and trying to stop genetically engineered plants and animals from entering the food supply by staging somewhat ridiculous guerilla theatre and a distant family that farms potatoes in Idaho(?). Some of the parts were darkly, ironically (real irony too, not the Alanis Morissette kind) funny while others were just dark. It ended pretty much as I supposed it would, despite all of its presumed pessimism.

All in all, pretty entertaining. I found it perhaps more interesting than others might though because it touches upon environmental issues pertaining to food, one of my favorite topics.

2.27 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

Oh, poor, sad neglected blog. I read a ton on vacation and then I waited so long to post I forgot what I read. I'll tell you what I do know. This was a collection of very intense short stories about all different sorts of relationships, not really a light, fluffy vacation read. It was, however, fantastic. I definitely want to read more of Munro. I don't know why I haven't picked her up before. She's one of those fantastic Canadian authors that we almost never hear of in the States because she's from somewhere not here.

Tangentally About Books

Go here! Endless minutes of entertainment! Pretty danged accurate! A good way to learn about authors that you may not have heard of but may possibly all ready enjoy! (Except for the part about Toni Morrison being similar to Charles Dickens. I loathe him with every fiber of my being, nor do I think they have very much in common.)

You Say It's Your Birthday....

It's been a while since I wrote a compare and contrast essay, please bear with me:

The Contenders:









Compare:
Share the same birthday of August 1, 1981

Have similar affinities for one hit wonders

Both are known to get their groove on


Contrast:
One is lame and desperately trying to hold on to its coolness factor, the other is as cool as cool could be.

One is still a fresh and young summer chicken, whereas the other is outdated, worn out and tired.

People said that this one would never last while it is no great surprise that other one made it to the ripe old age of 25.

Can you guess which is which?

(Please don't hurt my feelings, it is my birthday afterall. And everyone knows that MTV is souless anyway)

P.S. Guess who else has the same birthday? Ashley Angel (Careful, site might give you seizures)! And if you don't know who that is, you obviously have not watched enough MTV.