BAMF'S: June 2007

6/29/2007

I finished Vanishing Acts and I totally new the "shocker" before it was introduced! I am so proud of myself that I have finally picked up on Jodi's cues and foreshadowing. The first Picoult book I read was The Tenth Circle and I was totally taken by the surprise. I have picked up on her slippery methods of writing in subtly plot cues and can't wait to challenge myself in the next book I read. I was going to post about the shocker yesterday, but then I doubted myself and thought, well...maybe I am just pulling that out my ass since I am almost finished and it hasn't come up yet. But then I remember how in most of her books the shocker comes way at the end. I am a proud panda! This was a wonderful book! Highly recommend!

The BAMF's did a phone chat with Lorna Landvik and I would love to do the same with Jodi...I may bring that up tonight at book club. Tonight we are discussing Eat, Pray, Love and I am eager to share my opinions with the group. I feel a slight bit guilty because I seem to always hate the books that Judy picks and hosts.

6/26/2007

I am 200 pages into Vanishing Acts and I am loving it...not all that shocking since I love Jodi. This book has gone by very fast. Each chapter is written from a different characters perspective and it also has a different font for each character, which I think is very fun. Again, I find myself siding with the father which I have a tendency to do. I find it strange that I can't remember one book that I genuinely liked the mother figure. Is it mandatory that all novels contain a mother that is either a schizo or an alcoholic?

6/22/2007

I finished the book yesterday and loved it...in fact I told the whole story to Don last night in the shower, and he thinks it was a great story too! I want this to be made into a movie because it would rock! But only, if I could direct it, cast it and market it! Ashley, it's all yours!

I started reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult this morning and so far I am enjoying it. There isn't a Jodi book that I haven't liked yet so I am not expecting this to be the first.

6/21/2007

I literally cannot put The Virgin of Small Plains down! I just got to this really really amazing part in the book, where things start being explained, secrets are unleashed, mysterious happenings explained....and then...lunch hour's over!!! FUCK! I think I will be able to finish on my way home from work today!

6/20/2007

I gave up on Inheritance of Loss. I was eighty pages in and didn't care about any of the characters. I feel like such a quitter. I picked a romance novel instead. A much better read!

6/18/2007

I finished on Friday. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised about Indonesia...it was actually good (well, maybe not good, but much much better than Italy and India). I am glad to be finished with this book and probably wouldn't recommend this book at all.

I started reading The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. I received it in the mail from this online book club that I belong too because it is an editors copy so it isn't ready for widespread publication yet. I am really digging it so far...only about 40 pages in and I can't stop! It is a bit of a mystery/suspense book and I haven't read one like this in a long time. I am excited to step outside of the popular novel books and into something a tad different. So far I would recommend this book over Eat, Pray, Love anyday!

6/13/2007

I am almost finished with India and I am finding myself bamboozled by the convenience of her spiritual awakenings. It's like, right on cue, God shows himself to her at just that perfect moment! I suppose it can happen, but spiritual awakening doesn't always happen so conveniently, unless of course your trip is paid for by the publishing company. What would have happened if her trip to India left her without any meditation breakthroughs and there was not spiritual awakening? Would the book still have been published, would Liz have to pay for her year long travels on her own dime...that's a lot of pressure to be spiritually enlightened! I am pretty sure that I would have come up with some wild stories!

The tag line for this book should be: One woman's desperate search for semi-believable stories of self-enlightenment across Italy, India and Indonesia so that I don't have to pay money back to the publisher!

6/08/2007

I am finished with Italy and I am moving on to India! Yeah, 1/3 finished with the book! It is getting better, but I think that has to do with me lowering my expectations!

6/06/2007

I am about 60 pages into Eat Pray Love and I can't stand it. This is the tale about one woman's search for everything across Italy, Indonesia and India. She is basically having a struggle with her life and decides that traveling is going to be the answer to her prayers! The way it is written makes me a little crazy, she skips around and hasn't actually said much about her travels so far. It seems as if this book was written for the reader to feel sorry for her pain and it is almost a bit attention seeking. I don't enjoy reading about one woman's sob story life and then how she is trying to find herself by being PAID to travel to these countries and then write a book about her adventures. It is a bit whiny, pity me the rich spoiled white girl, but then respect and be inspired by me kind of tone...and I just don't dig it. No pity parties will be thrown in her honor. I had high hopes for this book because I envisioned beautifully written descriptions of these countries and so far...nothing! I can't even seem to read the book on the train, I prefer to just stare out the window!

6/05/2007

I cannot say it enough...I LOVED THIS BOOK! I had received this book in the past from a friend who loved it. She told me I needed to read it, but I never got around to it. Recently, Jenny gave me the book and told me I should read it. Well, I did. I really could not get enough of this book. It was truly one of the most beautiful books I have read in some time. The plot and characters are quite engaging. I also was enamored with these two people and how their lives' were so entangled for all eternity. I would recommend this book to everyone. I also enjoyed that this book took place in Chicago-I think Niffenegger is a U of C professor-as I knew so many of the locales in the story.

When I did a quick search of this book to find the picture, I saw the movie of this is in preproduction. It is slated to star Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. I love Eric Bana (he is great in Munich), but I think he is far too attractive to play Henry. McAdams will be a good Clare. It will be interesting to see how they adapt this novel because of the time-traveling. It is also a thick book (~500 pages) and it will be hard to adapt the entire novel into a screenplay. I wonder if I will even want to see it since I liked the book so much.

This is my first addition to the BAMFs blog and I am so excited. Wanting to post on this site is what got me started. I am currently reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I decided to read this book some time ago after I saw the author on Charlie Rose (PBS). I cannot say that I am loving the book, but it is definitely a new experience. And, I have had to write down a few words that I didn't know. I also like a book that expands my mind a little bit. I will have to read much more before I can say if I would recommend it or not. I hope this book doesn't turn out to be a big "thumbs down." It won the Man Booker prize in Britain last year. This wouldn't be the first time an award winning book has let me down, though.

6/01/2007

I finished A Spot Of Bother and really rather enjoyed it. I had my doubts! But it ended up being a wonderful tale of this incredibly dysfunctional crazy family and how they each learn to cope and adjust and come together for each other. The story centers around an upcoming wedding and the stresses, psycho outbreaks, accidents and incidentals that stem from each family member. I enjoyed this so much more than The Curious Incident and would read more of his books if they were like this. It was a bit long and based in England, so I am now kind of talking rather English!