A Dirty Job

At the Semi-Annual Used Book Sale at the Main Library Downtown, I picked up this title for .50 cents. I'd read Christopher Moore's "You Suck" and while it was entertaining I wasn't expecting a whole lot from "A Dirty Job." Holy twisted cheese doodle, was I wrong!!

Charlie Asher is an average "Beta-Male" who has the unlucky fortune of receiving the calling of "Death Merchant." He's basically a soul-reclaiming Repo Man. As people die their souls are stored into one of their treasured possessions and it's Charlie's job to reclaim these soul items from the family of the deceased .

This book was memorable because I laughed out loud the whole way through. Whether it was the Gothic employee Lily, with her charitable sexing; the squirrel people creatures in complete time-period costumes; or Sophie and her set of 400 lb. Hell Hounds; there were laughs to be had through all 384 pages.

There was a fair amount of sex, a lot of swearing and copious amounts of violence. Like I said, fun for the whole family!!

Ella Minnow Pea

There's a small island off the coast of North Carolina where the written word is worshipped with a reverence saved for Deity and movie stars. The town is named for the man who created a sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet in 35 letters.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

When letters on a statue erected to this man begin to fall, the town elders decide that it is fate. As the letters fall, they are removed from the language and writings of the town under penalty of banishment.

As you read Ella Minnow Pea, which is a collection of letters between townspeople, letters will disappear from the book. What was once . . .

We wish you well with everything you try to achieve in these trying final days

becomes

We wish ewe well with ephereething ewe trie to asheeph in these trieing phinal taes.

You will never appreciate the written word more than you will as you read this book. It brings such a vigor to exercising your vocabulary, that you will wish your volume of words met those of Shakespeare just for the ability to use them all!

Messenger

I've started two books in as many days and neither of them grabbed my attention. Messenger is one of the companion books to The Giver, but you don't have to read The Giver to love Messenger. I finished it fairly quickly, and I loved every minute of it. I love Lois Lowry's style of writing and the worlds she creates are so creative and entrancing.

A small boy is a messenger in his community, who accept outcasts from other towns. When the town decides to close its borders to outsiders, he starts a journey to retrieve his caretaker's daughter.

This is an incredibly easy read, and it a great short book. These are a couple gross parts as far as illness and injury are concerned but I think it would be great for anyone, especially your 8-11 year olds.

Outlander

It's been awhile since I've posted a book review because of my busy-ness and because I've yet to find a book worth taking the time to review. Outlander came to my rescue, literally and metaphorically . . .

It's 800+ pages make even the most avid reader quake in their boots, it's sheer mass made me think twice about starting the Outlander journey. In reading this massive book I received tears, out loud laughs, feelings of revulsion and a 3:00 am feeling of contentment when I finally closed the back cover.

Claire is a war-nurse in the 1940's and married to Frank. She encounters a place which takes her back to the 1700's in barbaric Scotland. She immediately puts her nursing skills to use extracting a bullet from a young Scot named Jamie. The remaining pages follow Claire and Jamie on their journeys through a Scottish castle, encounters with English dragoons, witches, monsters and more importantly one of the best books I've read in awhile.

This is only the first book in a series of 5 or 6 books, and I'll be reading them all. Outlander is definitely not for the faint of heart. It contains copious amounts of violence, sex, swearing, blood and pretty much anything that would make a book worth reading.

If you decide to accept the challenge of this book, you will be surprised how quickly it draws you in and wraps you in the history and love of a Scotland long past.

Outlander

It's been awhile since I've posted a book review because of my busy-ness and because I've yet to find a book worth taking the time to review. Outlander came to my rescue, literally and metaphorically . . .

It's 800+ pages make even the most avid reader quake in their boots, it's sheer mass made me think twice about starting the Outlander journey. In reading this massive book I received tears, out loud laughs, feelings of revulsion and a 3:00 am feeling of contentment when I finally closed the back cover.

Claire is a war-nurse in the 1940's and married to Frank. She encounters a place which takes her back to the 1700's in barbaric Scotland. She immediately puts her nursing skills to use extracting a bullet from a young Scot named Jamie. The remaining pages follow Claire and Jamie on their journeys through a Scottish castle, encounters with English dragoons, witches, monsters and more importantly one of the best books I've read in awhile.

This is only the first book in a series of 5 or 6 books, and I'll be reading them all. Outlander is definitely not for the faint of heart. It contains copious amounts of violence, sex, swearing, blood and pretty much anything that would make a book worth reading.

If you decide to accept the challenge of this book, you will be surprised how quickly it draws you in and wraps you in the history and love of a Scotland long past.

Woman's World

I came across "Woman's World: A Novel" while I was browsing at Sam Weller's Bookstore. The cover caught my attention. As I read the back, I immediately knew that this was a book that I wanted to read. The author took over 40,000 excerpts from women's magazines in the 60's and created a readable book all about a woman's life. Below is a sample from one of the pages . . .

The creativity of this author alone was enough to commit me to reading it cover to cover, but as I read I came to discover that the text that was put in, actually made the story more interesting. You may assume that eventually I didn't even notice that I was reading a collaged novel, but that never happened. It wasn't like subtitles, where eventually you forget about them, but I actually liked that they never faded into the background. It just made the story more interesting and creative. I absolutely loved this novel and would recommend it for anyone looking for a completely "novel" experience.

The Giver

I don't have a problem reading Young Adult books. I read "The Book Thief" last year and it is now one of my favorite books. "The Giver" has more than 3,000 positive reviews on Amazon, so I thought I would give it a go.

Even though it's over 170 pages, the pages are small so it's not a very long read.

The concept is about a community where everyone doesn't feel, they have strict rules, and everything is decided for you from the clothes you wear to the occupation you have. Her writing style reminds me of Stephen King, but it's a completely clean book. No swearing, sex, or violence.

One of my favorite parts of the book was reading about a character named Asher, who was always happy and who everyone loved. He was such an easygoing kid and he's the main character's best friend. I'd never heard of this book, so it gave me goosebumps.

There are two other books in the series, Gathering Blue and Messenger although I heard that they can be read independently and all three are equally great.

If you're a movie buff, this was a cross between The Island, Equilibrium and Pleasantville.

Recommended to:
Those who like a good, short read OR
Those who like fantasy/science fiction books OR
Those who are looking for a book to read with their teenagers.