The Slippery Slope

Book the 10th presents surprise characters, new and old, maturing Baudelaires and more VFDs than you can shake a stick at. Only 3 more books to go!

Book of Lies

Meh. This type of book is not my go to genre, namely the allegedly fast-paced, lawyer or cop based thriller. But I do enjoy a good one like The Da Vinci Code. Even though I didn't buy the premise that was a page turner. Meltzer's book on the other hand did not make me want to keep turning. In fact the last 100 pages took me days to finish. Maybe I should have read it on a beach.

Pushing Daisies

The new season won't start for 9 more days, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to post this adorable picture of The Piemaker.

Pushing Daisies was my favorite new show last year. Visually stunning. HD is an absolute must. But the best thing about it is it just makes me feel good when I watch this show. I love the banter between Chuck and Emerson. I love Chuck's outfits. I love how Olive takes care of Digby.

I hope the creators will find a way to continue this story because it seems like it would be easy to run out of steam on both of the main plot points, the weekly murders and the no-touching between Ned and Chuck. I trust them to find a way, and I can't wait for my weekly feel-good to return.

Thunderstruck

I was so excited when I'd heard that the author of Devil In The White City had written a new book. Unfortunately the execution of Thunderstruck that new book left me much less than excited.

This book trying to tie Marconi's invention of wireless communication, what would eventually become radio, to a murder committed by a Dr. Crippen was based on a connection as tenuous as Sarah Palin's grasp on foreign policy by virtue of Alaska's proximity to Russia. I would have much preferred to read only a book about Crippen. The Marconi parts were deadly dull to me, a reader who is not inclined to be excited about engineering and competing patent claims.

I would strongly recommend Devil in the White City, but not Thunderstruck. It was a great disappointment that I often considered putting down, but my Type A need for completion forbade it. Nevertheless I would not truly be the poorer for it had I put it down. More's the pity.

The Guild

A 10-part Webshow about a group of people who only know each other as their online role-playing selves who must band together to solve real life (well, sort of real life) problems. Features Dr. Horrible's love interest Felicia Day. If you're one of those WOW people it might hit a little close to home, but hopefully you're well enough adjusted you can enjoy the comedy.

A second season is in pre-production now. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Fresh Air

Terry Gross is the one person in America I want to hear interview Sarah Palin.  Fresh Air is indeed that, a breath of fresh air on a wide variety of topics from politics to pop culture. Terry always asks such interesting questions (and she's a much stronger interviewer than her subs Dave Davies and David Biancouli). I feel like I'm a much more informed citizen because I listen to Fresh Air. And I'm so glad it's available in podcast form so I can listen to it on the move and on my schedule.

What I'm Going To Watch

Well per Fox and The CW the new television season is underway though for the rest of the networks we still haven't gotten to the main event.  Nevertheless I'm starting to program up the DVRs (yes, that's plural)  and here's my plans.

Sunday

Amazing Race (which will be annoyingly delayed 1/2 the time because of football)

The Unit (for Hubby and with the same football problem)

Mad Men 

Monday

Chuck

How I Met Your Mother (this is the conflict which led to 2 DVRs)

Worst Week

Tuesday

Fringe

Wednesday

Pushing Daisies

Project Runway

Top Design

Thursday

Ugly Betty

My Name Is Earl

Kath & Kim

The Office

30 Rock

Friday

Life

What I'm Not Going To Watch

Heroes

Dirty Sexy Money

Friday Night Lights

CSI:Miami (Hubby's finally given it up, though I may still watch the Horatio line)

Insomnia

A 70-year-old hero and a 68-year-old heroine. Man that Stephen King will try anything. Another stop in Derry. Another step toward the Dark Tower. Yet this novel certainly stands alone. But for the Dark Tower connection I probably would not have read this, but all in all despite the dread I felt about halfway through when I knew there was nothing but gloom and doom ahead, it was a good book. And I don't regret the waking hours spent on it.

The Road

I don't know who or how they award the Pulitzer Prize, but I'm convinced it's mostly men who do it. This is the 16th Pulitzer Prize winner I've read since it became the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948 and most of those I've read, and I'll lump The Road into that bunch I've wondered "why the heck did this win a prize?" There are notable exceptions, Empire Falls by Richard Russo, Independence Day by Richard Ford, The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, The Shipping News by Annie Prolux, and best of all The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. And in that list of books, all but The Stone Diaries is much more a man's book rather than a woman's book.

And so is The Road. I have not read Cormac McCarthy before. In large part I haven't because I don't enjoy reading bleak, cruel portrayals of human nature. The Road is even sparser than that. The only name given in the book is a false one and it's not used for either main character. Ambiguity, thy name is The Road. What happened? How did they get here? Where are they going? You won't find out by reading The Road. It is the most present insistent novel I've ever read, brief remembrances which may or may not be true notwithstanding.

I don't regret reading The Road. It wasn't hard or long or anything. But it certainly didn't leave me feeling better about the state of the world, literary or real. It's just not my kind of book, and I don't feel any need to spend any more time with Mr. McCarthy and his works.