The Monster of Florence: A True Story

by Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi

(4 Scoops)

I was tempted to give this book a five, but like many true stories it doesn't have the sort of neat resolution that I wish it had. Of course, it seems the purpose of this book is not to let us all sigh a satisfied sigh that the monster has been caught and that all is right in the world, instead, it seems intent on showing how the Italian legal system is deeply flawed and itself a monster.

The Monster of Florence is a work of non-fiction that presents information about a serial killer on the loose in Florence. The first part describes these atrocities in I-can't-read-this-while-eating-or-when-it-is-time-to-go-to-sleep detail; the second tells of the ways in which the two authors find themselves ensnared in the criminal investigation. I picked this book up because my neighbors were having noisy sex and I needed a distraction. This was the wrong book for that! I stayed up until sunrise, too terrified to sleep. I thought for sure the Monster was going murder my neighbors and then I'd be stuck as a witness in a long drawn out court case!

Ultimately, the read was well worth the loss of sleep because what we have here is a deeply engaging set of facts and an excellent piece of writing.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, But Could Not Hold My Attention

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind:

Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

(2 scoops)

This is a classic example of a great story, but a bad book.

If I hadn't agreed to read it in order to help a lovely young lady with her summer assignment I would have never made it through the first few chapters. The writing is clunky, cliche-filled, and just drags on and on and on. And on.

Sure, there is a quality pay off at the end, but if I'm going to read a book instead of watching a feel good segment on YouTube, then the book-reading-experience should be a pleasurable one. Yes,

I understand that the authors want their readers to understand the cultural context in which Kamkwamba exists, but a few well constructed and well placed anecdotes could have done that a lot better than page after page of rambling. In fact, there is a great bit about boiling goat poop and an exacerbated mother that does just that!

Kamkwamba is truly an inspirational young man and I am glad that I now know a bit more about his homeland and his story. I just wish that the book, which I'm sure will be used in Middle School and High School Science and Humanities courses for years to come, was as inspiringly well written.

Not So Bright

"This Side of Brightness weaves historical fact with fictional truth, creating a remarkable tale of death, racism, homelessness--and yes, love--spanning four generations. Two characters dominate Colum McCann's narrative: Treefrog, a homeless man with a dark and shameful secret, and Nathan Walker, a black man who came north in the early years of the century to work as a "sandhog," digging the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. Walker's tale is told in alternating chapters with Treefrog's, who, before his slide into homelessness, chose a hazardous profession- a construction worker building skyscrapers." -- from Amazon.com Review

This Side of Brightness

by Colum McCann

(3 Scoops)

While I loved Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, I had a hard time engaging with one of his older novels, This Side of Brightness. I read this book over the course of a week or so, one or two chapters before bed. Now, I know this is how most folks read, but it is atypical of my reading habits which border on obsessive. I usually consume a book in an evening, sacrificing sleep until I've finished. If I really love a book and I want the experience of reading it to last I will spread my reading out to three or four days, but that can start to drive an (impatient) girl crazy.

So, it was strange to find myself content with just a chapter or two. At first it was because the chapters were rich with characterization and lovely prose and seemed to stand alone, like well written short stories. Soon though I realized that it was because I was sort of bored.

By the time I got to the ending I realized that I didn't particularly care about one of the protagonists and the lyrical prose was more confusing than illuminating. I don't think I understood the ending- either from a practical this-is-what-happened point-of-view, or a more thematic understanding of the take away message McCann was aiming at. The beginning of the book was reallyinteresting though, when the story centered around the "sandhogs" and their work digging the tunnels underneath Manhattan and its surrounding waterways. I felt transported to another time and was fascinated by the historical fiction that helped produce this place where I work and live. When it switches to the modern tale of Treefrog's experience with homelessness and mental illness I was less intrigued.

As the two stories began to weave together, a McCann structural staple, I was annoyed by the heavy-handedness of the tunnel metaphor and the "meaning" implied by the contrast between the generations. Maybe all of that is there in Let the Great World Spin too, but it is way better written, with sentences so gorgeous they just filled me up with joy and possibility.

Where Have all the Great Books Gone?

I'm having some focusing issues.

This seems to happen whenever I read an amazing book or, God forbid, multiple amazing books in a row! After reading something brilliant it is so hard to read something that is merely good. And if the book is boring or bad in any way, ugh, that's just the pits.

I've started maybe three books in the last few weeks and, it's not that I want to disparage them, I'm sure they are perfectly fine works, but they aren't amazing. Sans amazingness, I'm finding that I'd rather play Bomboozle on Facebook or stare into space on the subway then take out a book and start reading.

Usually when I read a book I devour it in as few sittings as possible. The characters invade my mind and set up camp, demanding that I think of them and discover all that there is to discover about them in a timely fashion. I'm the girl who walks off the train and up the stairs with eyes still glued to the page and leans against a wall by the exit until I come to the end of the chapter- yesterday I rode the train to the end of the line and back to my stop so I could finish writing the piece I had started (well, it didn't hurt that the train has AC and my apartment does not, but that is not the point right now). The point is, that if I am invested in something I am all in. So it pains me now that I have three quarter-read books littering my home and, despite stacks and stacks of books to be read, no real desire to commit to a new text for fear that it too will suffer from a lack of amazingness. I'm not in the mood to be disappointed again.*

*This is obviously a metaphor for my love life. Analyze as you see fit.

I'm a Winner at the Game of Life!

A while back I entered a contest at the fantastic website GREEN House of Fashion and, guess what, I WON!!!!!!!!! Nothing like the thrill of victory to get you through the long, hot days of summer.

Today, when I left my dreary apartment to go get the mail, there was a little package with my name on it (and we all know that [except for men] good things come in small packages). I tell ya, it was better than Ed McMahon (RIP, good sir.) himself ringing my doorbell and handing me a giant cardboard check. I mean, you don't get to unwrap a check.

I cut open the bubble wrap and inside was a chartreuse (one of my favorite colors and, for that matter, words) bag and a beautiful, handmade, red, pulpy-paper card with a bit of gold-painted greenery affixed.

(Hmmm, perhaps I should have ironed my sheets before I used them as the backdrop for this photo shoot....)

I opened the chartreuse bag and voila, green gorgeousness. Green because the folks at "Moonlight Glistening Jewelry" made this necklace and earring set with recycled sterling silver, amazonite, and lead-free crystals, and gorgeousness becuase, well, duh! Look at it!

I put it on and felt instantly glamourous. Well, as glamourous as any one in an Old Navy tank top, flip-flops, and frumpy shorts two sizes too big can feel.

(Hmmm, perhaps I should have done my hair or make-up or, you know, bathed before I took pictures of myself destined for the web...)

I am really grateful to Bree and Zanna over at GREEN House of Fashion and the folks at Bel Esprit and Bitch Boss for organizing this contest and for picking lil ole me as the WINNER!

All in all, winning rocks. This jewelry rocks.

And I am going to rock whilst rockin'

these rocks that I got.

Bel Esprit: The online showroom for international designers of ethical fashion from BEL ESPRIT SHOWROOM on Vimeo.

"Play is a Good Thing"

Fun in the Sun

My dear friend and colleague gave me a very generous gift card (that I tried to graciously refuse on the grounds that it was far to generous and I had done nothing to deserve such generosity, but she was extremely insistent that I take it, so I acquiesced!) and so, of course, I did what anybody would do: I bought a shit-ton of books. But, because I shopped on Better World Books (an awesome used book site that never charges shipping and donates part of the proceeds to literacy charities) when they were having a sale, I managed to get all 15 of these beauties for a grand total of$45.99. That is $3.06 a book. Woot-woot! I now have reading material for at least a month! And, since I used the remaining value of the gift card to buy some vitamins and organic food on VitaCost, I'll have plenty of energy to write you plenty of new reviews! Woot-woot-woot!