Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bad days make for good rantings and readings


Well seeing as I have tried to start writing again I figured I would post my most currant readings:
Whiteout, by Ken Follet

Whiteout is the story of an ex-cop turned security director for a laboratory investigating new anti-viral vaccines. The basic gist of the plot is that Toni Gallo, the security director must face dealing with both her job responsibilities when crisis breaks out at the lab, and the emotional consequences of falling in love with her boss.
The story switches narratives and points of view from the protagonist to the antagonist to the innocent bystanders all of which interact in a high stacks and deadly game of cat and mouse as the story goes on.
I am in love with this book. It is a bit thrilling to read with simple language and a smart tone. You feel the cold of a Scotland winter and tremble with terror knowing what the enemy holds.
It is a very easy book to read and follow, which is nice.

It is also the first book I have actually *read* this year i.e. not spark noted for a test or quiz.
Oh, the joys of modern technology: literally the class before I had to take a huge quiz on 1984 I pull up sparknotes on my phone, tune out of geometry and briefly read a summary of thought crime and the trials faced by Winston as he tries fight the Party! It was marvelously evil. I knew the answer to every question on that filthy quiz.
Unfortuantly, I have lost my phone, but actually have interest in the book we are reading now:
Brave New World...
I have waited all year to read this book and finally at long last I am flipping through the pages and the words interest me instead of putting me to sleep.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Happy New Year!! belated is better than nothing


What happened to all those avid readers out there?
So, I'm a little guilty of not having been the best little bookworm out there these past months (got pneumonia, could not move) but my English teacher has decided with the new year how better to break in than astonishing poverty!? We have started "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. Granted I have only skimmed the first few chapters. Neglected children and horrible living conditions really are not my cup of tea, say if someone where to be murdered and an intricate story plot arose from such a miserable and sorry town as the one in this Irish memoir, I might take a bit more fancy to it. Above is the movie poster for the cinema rendering of the tale.

To be fair I am not far enough into the book to hate it wholeheartedly.


I also have begun to delve into the John Grogan books, after my younger sister read "Marley and Me" then dragged my family to the movies to see it. She is one of those really really passionate dog lovers. "Bad dogs have more fun" is a collection of Grogan's columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer. So far the ones I've read where very well written and a pleasure to read.
Also Marley and Me was a really cute movie