Sweetness in the Belly

This is the best book I have read in a long time. I really enjoyed it and it flowed wonderfully. It was such a great story line. I loved how unique it was. I didn't know much about Ethiopia's history, so this was a great introduction. I liked how the history didn't overbear the story. The characters were fantastic! I loved Lilly. She was just beautiful. I loved her relationships with the other characters. This book was so well written that I wanted it to so badly to be a true story! I can still hope. I also really liked the ending. Nothing is perfect and I was happy that it wasn't a perfect ending. It made the story more real. Just wonderful.....

Take the Cannoli

I desperately want to like Sarah Vowell. This is the second book I have attempted to read by her and it's just not working. I have never been a big short story fan and this book didn't help. She tries too hard to be funny and in the end it's just annoying. I keep hoping that I am going to find something amusing, but I don't. I don't care about her family or her weird quirks. Somehow her writing just doesn’t help me to care. I don't know why. Usually I dig stuff like this. I made it about 3/4 of the way through this book and was done. I didn't even finish. I was bored and I felt like I was just wasting time.....

Wonderful Tonight

This book was just alright. The way she jumped around so much really made it hard to follow. It seemed like one minute we were in 1965 talking about George and then 3 paragraphs later we were in 1970 talking about Eric... it was kind of annoying. I was hoping for some new information about the Beatles that I hadn't already read somewhere else, but was disappointed. The relationship with Eric I found more interesting, I guess maybe because I didn't really know much about it to begin with. Sometimes I felt like she was overly wining wa-wa... poor me. I glad the book didn't end like that, but come on, you know? Don't get me wrong, there were a few interesting tid-bits here and there, but I found myself bored through a lot of it. I didn't care for all the name dropping that this book was full of. I got bored with all the talk of modeling in the beginning (I had no idea, and don't really care who all those people were). It was just so-so for me. She has, indeed lived an interesting life, though.

Darfur Diaries

The concept of this book was interesting enough; three people go on a mission to Darfur to make a documentary about the lives of the people who live there. I have to say, I didn't even finish this book. I had such high hopes! But I found the book very biased and honestly a bit boring. I think I would find the actual documentary much more interesting. These three had a lot of guts to sneak into the area, but I found they were a bit arrogant about the whole thing. Like, what they were doing was so great and wonderful. They could have died. There is a reason that people don't go there, and people are being forced to leave. Don't get me wrong, the stories of the people they met were indeed fascinating. I think actually seeing these people on camera might be a lot more powerful than their stories told through than these authors. But, I just didn't like the writing style of the book. That being said, I did enjoy the history aspect of the book. I admit, I hardly knew where Darfur was when I started reading this, so I found all of the historical, political and geographical information very useful.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

This book took me ages to read! I couldn't believe it.. but I dug it. Yes, I found it overly wordy. (As I would assume almost everyone who reads this would). I found myself skipping whole pages trying to get to the actual storyline or plot. I did like all the references to the many different books, but at times it did get a bit old.

Throughout the book I found Blue's relationship with her father very strange. I I couldn't really figure out where it was going, of course until the end. Even then, I could have done without some of it. I realized in the end that it was all basically a long drawn out mystery, that honestly, I didn't see coming. All the references throughout the book I thought were strange, but assumed it was all part of her writing style. I realized it was more than that. Almost a set up. I don't read mysterys much and I am not even sure if I would consider this a mystery, but I really liked it.

The House of Paper

What an odd, strange, yet wonderful little book. I finished this book in less than a day (it's only 103 pages). I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was actually quite fascinating. It's almost like a book-lovers min mystery. I didn't quite get all the Latin American literature references, but that's okay. I can't stop thinking about how someone would turn all of their books in to bricks with cement and then build a house out of them. I think it's going to be one of those images that it is going to stick with me. That is what I love about magical realism, I think. Anyhow, a perfect little book for any book lover.

So Many Books, So Little Time

This book was mildly entertaining. There were some good antidotes on some interesting books. I felt for one that this book was a bit dated. She referred to some books as bestsellers at the time and how people were going crazy over them, when obviously it was 5 years ago. She picked some interesting choices, but honestly I wish she had talked more about the books than she did about her family. I do understand that this is supposed to actually be a memoir type book, but she yapped a lot about her husband and kid, which I could have done without most of the time. She also did a lot of name dropping --certain authors who she knew and such, which at times I thought tacky. That being said, it was an interesting concept and I did find myself laughing or relating to things through out the book could feel her pain about reading books that someone had recommended to her for sure! I know I have gone through that… So no, it wasn't at all boring, but nothing to jump for joy about, in my opinion.