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

Hey everybody!

So I just got back from the beach with my youth group and while I was there I started reading Catcher in the Rye, the famous coming age story where the kid falls for the older woman...I like it so far but it's not exactly my cup of tea. But of course my cup of tea has evolved over time from a book who's flavoring is more chai or black, to now a more mellowed out chamomile or green :)
also on the reading agenda: The Narrows, by Micheal Connelly
Adam, By Ted Deckker ( I have to read this one but parents don't think I will be able to handle the demon possession, but I've read all his other work so I really would like to read this one)
and The Jungle, Upton Sinclair--most boring repetative book I''ve ever read. I didn't even finish it. No one else in my english group read it either, they spark-notes-ed it and I skimmed the last chapter. Basically all you need to know is that Sinclair wrote tis fantastically depressing story about a small immigrant family who's hopes and dreams of the great American way of life are crushed by the bleak and hard life they strugle through in Packingtown, Chicago. Jurgis the main character is the father of the family who marries Ona (spoiler warning) who gives him children, both who die, then she dies and a bunch of other really unfortyunate events occur which leads to Jurgis's turn to Socialism, end of story, and somewhere in there, chapter 19/20 or something it talks about the gross conditions in which meats where packed.
yeah, that one definatly was not my cup of tea.

If you like

blood, horror, and freaky Viking assassins with monster wolf-dog hybrids, then I highly recommend Comes a Horseman, by Robert Liparulo. His other freaky book that I have not read but plan to Germ, looks just as thrilling. Alright so back to Horseman the hook, line and sinker, on the back of the book and inside plan reveals to us that the main characters are on a mission to investigate and pursue death itself to reveal societies and horrible cover-ups thru-out history, no this isn't a time travel murder investigation, no this book is so much more then a sci-fi sketch deal or your regular mystery (if there is such a thing) it takes you deep into the darker side of life and death challenging your beliefs and stirring emotions for those lost and gone forever. "What really comes next?" isn't the plot line and isn't even a main idea, but it does have those teasers that will really make you feel hollow inside if you live with out salvation. And the plot itself! Wow, simply amazing, Mr. Liparulo takes you on such a journey and expedition for the truth, it's just amazing when you get to see all the little pieces fall into place! You will love this book, and I have three other family members and a couple acquaintances who will swear by it. You just have to read it for yourself.

Does anyone have any good suggestions on biographies of Cleopatra? I'm doing a project (we have a LOT of those apparently at this new school, and this ones for English, in History we're writing an essay on comedy and using the Simpson's as a research tool *gag*)

Other books I read this week (or I guess last) that I meant to read in OctOber (my spelling's getting better) but totally was swamped with end of the quarter exams and other random assignments all the teachers were dumping on us:

Thank You For Smoking, by Christopher Buckley (YES IT WAS A BOOK BEFORE not a dumb book..." IT WAS A MOVIE !!!! I can't tell you how many times I was asked if the book itself was based after the movie, I had to restrain from smacking some of them, "Hey Thank You for Smoking is a moovie, not some dumb book..." grrr, our culture is a sad sad representation of all our higher learning here in America--there is seriously a reason why Korea and Japan and practically every other world power has higher test scores in English and Mathematics then us...sorry for rambling I'm sick and haven't had enough coffee)

Little Green Men, also by Christopher Buckley (sooo funny! it was really good and the setting was my hometown so I was all smiles every time he'd put someone in a certain location or had then drive across a bridge that routinely see or cross or whatever-yes and Mr. Buckley has an knack for coming up with awkward romances, and given it's an adult comedy some scenes are down right hysterical)

and I'm still trying to finish The Man in The Brown Suit, by Agatha Christie who I am totally in love with, and have a dozen other books by her on my bookshelf. So yeah I've given you alot today and before I depart I am going to give my bedside (and by "Bedside" I mean not coming with me anywhere beyond the limits of my house) reader for the month: The Art of Seduction, by Robert Greene. Yes it is exactly as it's title suggests and I stole it off my dads shelf (he read it a couple months ago I think, but most of his reading along with my mom's have been reverted to presidential biographies and a bunch of great political reading for the up coming election, which of course when they are done with I'll steal as well) but yeah the book is actually very interesting, all about deception and pshycologly behind the great seductors-resses of our time and from history, giving you insight on various aspects of seduction as an art in it's self.

yes that was definatly longer then I intended, but still.
Adieu.