Notes from a bibliophile

I have this tendency, usually at the beginning of the year, to go through a period where I just am not in the  reading mood. It's usually with a book that I'm not entirely jazzed to be reading, and unfortunately this was the book that waylaid me this time. It's not that it's not interesting, although I can't imagine it being on too many people's to-be-read lists. This book is about the circumstances Geoffrey Chaucer found himself in leading up to his writing The Canterbury Tales. You learn quite a lot about medieval London - the political machinations of not just those in the royal court, but those with pretensions to power; the ins and outs of everyday life, etc. - and it is very interesting. One thing that I didn't realize was that in this time, reading silently to oneself was considered a bit odd. I know I've seen movies where people sit around the fireside reading to the family, but I never would have imagined that to be the standard. Chaucer was w...

There are several storylines going through this novel. The main plot line is a serial killer case where the perpetrator is called The Watchmaker. He leaves very particular clocks behind - they have one of those windows for the phases of the moon - as well as a poem referencing the moon. Plot line 2 is a police corruption story, where two men were possibly killed because of their dealings with these dirty cops. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are the detectives on the case. This is the seventh novel with Rhyme and Sachs, although it's the first one I've read. I did see the movie of The Bone Collector, which is the first in the series, so I'm at least familiar with the characters. Rhyme is paralyzed and Sachs serves as his eyes at the crime scenes. I can't speak for all these novels. Maybe this one is unusual to the series, but I found it very dull throughout most of the novel. About two-thirds of the way through it picks up as things begin to come together. I just fel...

From all I'm reading, it looks like this is going to be on everyone's most-buzzed-about books list. Goodreads is comparing it to Gone Girl , The Silent Wife , or Before I Go to Sleep , the latter of which I really enjoyed.  The story revolves around three women. We first meet Rachel on the train. Her London train stops next to the row of houses where she sees a couple she imagines to be perfect, naming them Jess and Jason. She creates whole lives for them, so different from her own. Her own life is on a downward spiral. She's an alcoholic, recently divorced, and even more recently fired from her job, due to her alcoholism. She's a highly unreliable narrator, obviously. Her actions are embarrassingly erratic. It's a fascinating character study. I'm not an alcoholic, nor do I know one (as far as I know), so this is like getting a glimpse into the life of an addict.  There is one particular drunken fugue state that is proving problematic. Rachel can't recal...

In Anna Karenina Tolstoy says, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Let me explain why he's wrong. This Is Where I Leave You is a really funny novel about a profoundly unhappy family. We first meet Judd as he finds out his father has died. It's really just the cherry on the cake his life has recently become: he's recently jobless, homeless, and wifeless, all after walking in on his wife having sex with his boss in his bed. Now he has to go sit shiva with his family, who he doesn't get along with. His mom is a child psychiatrist guru who mined their childhoods for fodder for her "What To Expect When You're Expecting" style parenting books. His older brother Paul resents him for ruining his college career when a Rottweiler attacked them. Paul's been running the family sporting goods store since their dad's been sick and trying to conceive with his wife. His older sister Wendy has three kids who ...

I love reading, but sometimes it's just such a hard slog. This was one of those. It shouldn't have been. It's essentially the story of Chicago at the time of the World's Fair (or the World's Columbian exposition). If you've ever read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, you have an idea of the reeking atmosphere of Chicago at the time. It seems incredulous that people would consider building a world's fair in such a place. But Chicagoans are apparently a stubborn, head-strong lot, and were intent on showing the world what they could do. And, oh my, did they ever show the world. So many things found their origin at or in relation to the World's Fair - the first Ferris wheel, Juicy Fruit gum, Shredded Wheat, Cracker Jack, Aunt Jemima, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the first time the pledge of allegiance was said, the beginnings of the minimum wage, time and a half for holidays, the five day work week, and of course the first time Columbus Day was celebrated. They ...

First off, let me state I got this free from Audible for Christmas. I do love me some free stuff. The story begins with an enchanted mirror created by demons which basically makes good things appear bad. the demons want to show it to the angels for a laugh but they drop it on the way to heaven and it shatters into billions of teensy-tiny pieces. If they get in people's eyes, they make them see the negative side of things. If they get in people's hearts, it turns them to ice. The intro states that this is the inspiration for the movie Frozen. Maybe that heart-into-ice thing, but that's about it. It almost has more to do with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe than Frozen. Kai and Gerda are best friends. One day a piece of the aforementioned mirror gets in Kai's eye and heart. He immediately turns on his little friend and runs off to play with the older boys, who played the ancient Nordic equivalent of Marty McFly grabbing the fender of a passing car while on his s...

It's Mr. Bond take a holiday. M sends Bond to a resort in Brighton to wean him off the red meat, martinis, and 60 cigarettes a day (seriously, how does he have time to save the world from terrorists? How can he even see them through the smoke?). But trouble follows Bond, of course, because who wants to read about 007 eating yogurt and vegetable broth? This novel introduces the world to SPECTRE and Blofeld. They have stolen a plane with two nuclear bombs and are threatening to blow up cities if they aren't given (and you can't help hearing Dr. Evil) ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Bond goes to the Bahamas to investigate. It's pretty good, as long as you're willing to overlook the female stereotyping and raw machismo seeping from the pages. The interesting thing is how this novel sort of anticipates the terrorist society we live in today. When the plane is first reported missing, M and Bond speculate on how any person any where could sneak a bomb into any where in a golf bag...