Just finished The Hillary Trap, by Laura Ingraham. Although it uses Hillary Clinton as an influential example, Laura is really taking liberals in general to task for inhibiting and "victimizing" women instead of liberating them, with their (liberals')insistence on dependence on big government as solution to every problem. She makes some very good points that I've realized myself. In general, the book is balm to those of us right-leaning women.
The other book I just finished is The Deep End, by Joy Fielding. Good suspense novel with a protagonist whom you want to slap at times and peripheral characters who aren't totally sympathetic either. A few years ago this was made into a film; I'd like to check it out to compare characterizations. Regardless of the format of the story, I do actually enjoy characters that get under one's skin.
You ask, when do I have time to read for pleasure? Well, I do have a lot of time on the Metro, waiting for Metro, on school shuttles, waiting for school shuttles, and of course, before bed-time to relax with a book I choose! :)
Anyhoo, speaking of time, I must get back to doing a lovely research paper for a criminology class and studying for yet another Chemistry test. The semester is thankfully almost over! Yippee!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Another Book Review....
This one's of A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey. Recommended to me by my former boss at the book store. Yeh, I know, it's an Oprah Book Club selection, but it's actually pretty good. And it didn't take me several months to read it either. Normally I would NOT be drawn to a book about a drug addict, but this guy said it was a good read, so...yeh it was.
Part of the readability is that 1) the story of addiction is SO extreme you wonder if anyone could actually do that much damage to him/herself (so, it's part train-wreck effect), 2) reading it makes you feel SOOOO normal and well-adjusted (yeh, even if you're an obsessive-compulsive like me who worries about everything). Part of it is the (true-to-life) story-teller becomes a sympathetic character, believe it or not. You actually want him to succeed. You may even become teary-eyed at parts - beware!
Ok, enough said, it's a quick read and not in any way academic. Yes, I would recommend this book.
Part of the readability is that 1) the story of addiction is SO extreme you wonder if anyone could actually do that much damage to him/herself (so, it's part train-wreck effect), 2) reading it makes you feel SOOOO normal and well-adjusted (yeh, even if you're an obsessive-compulsive like me who worries about everything). Part of it is the (true-to-life) story-teller becomes a sympathetic character, believe it or not. You actually want him to succeed. You may even become teary-eyed at parts - beware!
Ok, enough said, it's a quick read and not in any way academic. Yes, I would recommend this book.
I voted, did you?
I mean, if you had elections going on, of course. I went over at 6:30am, expecting at least a short wait as there has been a hubbub about the gubernatorial race in Virginia. I was 2nd in line. Ok, I hope that means that the rest of eligible voters in my area are voting later today. Cast your vote, darlings! You know I voted Republican (Kilgore, et al) unless there wasn't a choice, then I voted for whomever was listed. The main ones were Republican, though.
Just FYI: we in the Park Lane district of Arlington have very nice touch screen polling machines - easy to use, easy to revise your choices before you touch that HUGE button that says VOTE. I challenge anyone to screw up their vote on this system. Tax money well spent. Although, the last machines were just fine and dandy too - again - not hard to use. Thank goodness we never (ok - in all my voting time in Arlington this has never been the case) had those stupid chads or anything like it.
My only beef is that the signs outside the polling place were in English and Spanish. I mean, if you are eligible to vote, ie, a citizen, shouldn't you be able to read the sign in English? Of course, I have my doubts that that rule is strictly enforced, knowing what I know about Virginia and its lax enforcement toward illegals and such - who knows??? Hopefully if Kilgore gets to be Gov, he'll be more accountable about such things. One can hope.
Just FYI: we in the Park Lane district of Arlington have very nice touch screen polling machines - easy to use, easy to revise your choices before you touch that HUGE button that says VOTE. I challenge anyone to screw up their vote on this system. Tax money well spent. Although, the last machines were just fine and dandy too - again - not hard to use. Thank goodness we never (ok - in all my voting time in Arlington this has never been the case) had those stupid chads or anything like it.
My only beef is that the signs outside the polling place were in English and Spanish. I mean, if you are eligible to vote, ie, a citizen, shouldn't you be able to read the sign in English? Of course, I have my doubts that that rule is strictly enforced, knowing what I know about Virginia and its lax enforcement toward illegals and such - who knows??? Hopefully if Kilgore gets to be Gov, he'll be more accountable about such things. One can hope.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Book Review: On With The Story, by John Barth
I can't remember when I've enjoyed a book less than On With The Story, by John Barth. You know it's not a good sign when you start a review that way. For a short book (257pp), it has taken me months to complete. Now to be fair, I'm not a big fan of short stories, but I'm willing to give them a chance.
The premise of this collection of short stories is that a married couple is on vacation or something, and is telling each other (or one is telling the other) a bunch of stories to pass the time during a thunderstorm. I think that's the premise. It seemed as though were written by an academic: pretentious and with many a GRE word, vacuous "stories" strung together with content-free banter segments. If that weren't irritating enough, none of the characters were sympathetic; that is, none of them were drawn (more like "sketched" like a stick figure) interestingly enough for the reader to care about them at all. This is a book of banality - overwhelming banality - with the possible exception of a certain criminal described towards the end of the book.
I'm so glad to have finished this book - for no other reason than to trash it to my readers. Now, the reason I picked it up i nthe first place was that I'd read something of his in a literature class several years ago which I recalled enjoying at that time. Word to the wise, if you enjoy all those aspects of which I've described above as not enjoying; that is, if you are a dyed-in-the-wool academic sort, who happens to be teaching a literature class on short stories, you might indeed get something out of this book.
The premise of this collection of short stories is that a married couple is on vacation or something, and is telling each other (or one is telling the other) a bunch of stories to pass the time during a thunderstorm. I think that's the premise. It seemed as though were written by an academic: pretentious and with many a GRE word, vacuous "stories" strung together with content-free banter segments. If that weren't irritating enough, none of the characters were sympathetic; that is, none of them were drawn (more like "sketched" like a stick figure) interestingly enough for the reader to care about them at all. This is a book of banality - overwhelming banality - with the possible exception of a certain criminal described towards the end of the book.
I'm so glad to have finished this book - for no other reason than to trash it to my readers. Now, the reason I picked it up i nthe first place was that I'd read something of his in a literature class several years ago which I recalled enjoying at that time. Word to the wise, if you enjoy all those aspects of which I've described above as not enjoying; that is, if you are a dyed-in-the-wool academic sort, who happens to be teaching a literature class on short stories, you might indeed get something out of this book.
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