The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

No, I never read this high school, although I'm sure I was supposed to. This book is referenced a few times in The Tender Bar so I decided it must be necessary for me to read it now.

I loved it, but I've been into the classic stuff these days anyway. There's something about how uncomplicated and simple that period of time seemed to me, at least in the context of this story. People did what they wanted without much forethought of the consequences. Carefree. Seemingly jobless yet with an endless supply of money. Nothing to do but socialize and play tennis.

Perhaps I'm just envious.

Fox cubs

So we have a fox birthing den in our backyard. I caught the cubs playing this morning just outside of the den. Enjoy

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Author: Stieg Larsson

Where the first book seemed to take about a week and a half to wrap up, the last page of this one snuck right up and slapped me in the face. Shockingly abrupt. So abrupt that when I had about two pages left I actually thought I must be physically missing some pages. I was cursing the airport in Amsterdam for selling me a bunk copy.

Wrong. Cliffhanger.

And also opposite of its predecessor, this story took off from the first page without all the getting to know you pleasantries. It's a great story with lots of new details about the main character and very well executed on the plot front. It's still hard for me to keep track of all the Swedish names and decide up front who's important to remember and who's not and I definitely don't care about the routes through Sweden which each character takes. But those are minor complaints for a pretty good payoff.

The last book in the series comes out in May so I suspect it will make my summer reading list. I'm quite sad Mr. Larsson is dead - it would have been great to see more stories about Lisbeth Salander and I think it would have been nice for him to know how popular his books have become - he never had a chance to enjoy his international success.

Real Easter Eggs

Today after months of waiting and thinking that our two new chickens were egg laying duds, we got two eggs from them. The new chickens are a breed called Araucanas and they lay blue-green eggs, or real Easter eggs. Also our other ladies were very productive as well. This is 1 1/2 days worth of eggs.

The Last Town on Earth

Author: Thomas Mullen

This is one of the best selections we've read for book club. Maybe even better than The Help. Our brave new member, Sarah, made this suggestion after reading an article in Atlanta Magazine about the author, who apparently now resides here.

A small northwestern logging town decides to quarantine itself at the onset of the 1918 flu epidemic. Despite a vigilant effort to contain itself and keep insiders out, the flu gets in, among other things.

The characters were so well developed and the crippling descriptions of the flu were truly terrific. Despite being used to tie a pretty bow around the ending, I felt like the focus on the unions and labor issues were a tired attempt to impart an historical and social significance that the story didn't really need to be successful.

In the end, though, it was a good book with some good moral considerations and well written.

The Forge of God

Author: Greg Bear

At the beach this summer I passed on to my Dad The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I tried and tried and tried to convince him it was worth reading. He ignored me every time. But when someone else told him he had to read it he did. Hmm. Nonetheless, he loved it, like I said he would.

The Forge of God was his payback to me. I'm sure he gave me this book some time last year and I just stacked it away with all the rest of the science fiction I didn't have time for. Last weekend he made me promise to read it before anything else since he had finally fulfilled his end of the bargain (what bargain?). In a drunken stupor I agreed (huh?).

One week later I'm glad I read it. Not as good as his Darwin's Radio but still totally worth reading. I loved that there's no super human to come save the day when the Earth is about to be exploded by alien invaders. I love how the world ends each time for each character (or not). I love to see how they react, where they go, who they think about it. To me, the feelings and reactions were as realistic as you could expect them to be.

The Tender Bar

Author: JR Moehringer

Passed on to me by my Dad, this was a great read. Because I'm too lazy to write my own review you can read his here.

the strain

Author: Guillermo del Toro and someone else

I like reading about vampires. I'll admit it. Anne Rice created the vampire world for me (and probably most of the vampire-reading population) so in my head she represents the truest of the vampire lore. Everything else I read is compared to the world of Louis and Lestat.

Other vampire worlds that have only minor modifications to hers don't bother me as long as the core set of values remains the same and most of the same rules apply.

The Strain is like the vampire alternate universe and I don't buy it. As far as vampires go this book stinks. Being a vampire is the result of a "worm" that multiplies and circulates in the body (i.e the strain), vampires can't cross bodies of water unless assisted by a human, and they don't even bite you with teeth! They have a stinger that shoots 6 feet out of their mouth to suck your blood. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Guillermo, I love your warped brain but this is absurd. You've messed with a genre that has been messed with too much already. If you called them zombies it would have been more appropriate. You can call them what you want, but if I'm going to read the next two books in the trilogy they're not going to be vampires to me.

That being said, this book was way more entertaining than the two bombs we tried to read for book club: Tropic of Cancer (beyond torture) and the Diary of Anais Nin (beyond boring).