America, You Sexy Bitch. Finished 8-14-12, rating 2.75/5, political travelogue, 309 pages, pub. 2012

Michael Ian Black, 40-something happily married father of two, liberal atheist, former Power Ranger

Meghan McCain, 27-year-old MSBNC contributor who likes her guns and alcohol, Christian Republican, current daughter of Senator John McCain

How’d they meet? Twitter!  Late one night over a few tweets they decided to take a cross country trip to talk to real Americans.

Where’d they go? California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Washington DC, Connecticut

Who did they talk to? Strippers, Mormons, Katrina survivors, military, congressmen, Muslims, random folks

What did they talk about? Guns, religion, health care, government, war, military, drugs, gay marriage

Who drank the most? Meghan

Who did I agree with more (but not always)?  Michael.  His opinions actually came with explanation and nuance.  It may have been Meghan’s age, but her opinions came with attitude and there were many inconsistencies.

What were the good parts? I don’t know.  I learned a little about the Mormons and some of the drug testing the government is working on.

Coolest parts?  Because of the McCain name they had access to Fort Campbell and it’s training programs and access to Congressmen.

Bad parts?  They had a hard time explaining the book to people and that’s no surprise.  I read it and am still unsure about the point.

Their conclusion?  Stereotypes are bad and opposites in the voting booth can still be friends.

My conclusion? Although I enjoyed the idea and Michael’s take on their travels I can’t really see much reason for recommending it.  I didn’t like the first half but the second half was better.  The less drinking, the better the writing.

I received this book from Mandy at The Well-Read Wife for her first ever book club.  I posted two earlier discussion posts (1 & 2) and if you want to find out what the rest of the 49 people in the book club are saying about it click here.

Thank you so much Mandy for inviting me to be a part of it!

Finished 8-6-12, rating 4/5, mystery/thriller, 448 pages, pub. 2012

Book 3 of the Dave Gurney series. (Book 1 – Think of a Number) (Book 2- Shut Your Eyes Tight)

Dave Gurney, highly decorated retired NYPD detective, is in a funk after his last encounter with a killer left him with both physical and mental scars.  When the reporter who helped catapult Gurney to detective stardom asks him to help her daughter with a project he said yes and that’s how he got involved in a 10 year old serial killer case gone cold.  The Good Shepherd killed 6 Mercedes drivers, all the same way, and then sent a manifesto to the police railing against greedy, moneyed folks.  When Gurney challenges the FBI’s handling of the case he immediately butts heads with Agent Trout, an FBI guy who could do some damage to Gurney’s life.

I love all three of the Dave Gurney books.  He is a complicated man who knows his strengths and weaknesses.  He is a great detective, an average husband, and a not-so-wonderful dad.  In the past two books Gurney’s relationship with his wife Madeleine added dimension to the man and in this one we get to see the dynamic between he and his son first-hand.  I loved it.  I hope we see more of his son in future books.

I was a lukewarm to the mystery at first, but it grew on me (much better than the cringe-inducing details of the second book).  There was a large cast of characters and lots of overlapping storylines, but they all revolved around the Good Shepherd case and Kim’s interviewing the families for RAM-TV, kind of a cross between Fox News and TMZ.  There was so much going on and I loved the fast pace of the book.  I will say that I did figure it out somewhere past the halfway mark, well, I had two theories and one was correct 🙂  I wish there had been a little more wrapping up of some of the storylines at the end, but that in no way took away from my enjoyment.  I love this series and highly recommend it.

I received this as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thanks for the book!  Check out what everyone else had to say…

John Verdon’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Let me start by saying that when I received this for the blog tour I couldn’t make myself pick it up even though I thought it would be a book I’d love.  Why?

This cover is seriously creepy and I had such a negative reaction every time I walked by it.  So, last week I took the jacket off and put it away.  Deep Sigh.  I was finally ready to read!

This psychological thriller has it all.  Jack Cole, FBI agent who investigates the worst of the worst killers in the country, doesn’t look or act the part.  He is covered in one big Dante’s Inferno tatoo from his neck to his ankles with an attitude to match.  Jake is one of the more interesting characters I’ve encountered in awhile.

In simple terms he solved riddles – it was as mundane as that.

The element of the otherworldly that his coworkers subscribed to was simply confusion in the face of a mental acuity they could not understand.  Like a musical or mathematical savant, Jake was able to tap into something that those around him could not and the result was that they were uncomfortable around him.  Some were even afraid.

Chapter 19

When Jake heads home to take care of his sick father, famous artist Jacob Coleridge, he is called in to help the local police solve a grisly murder.  The two victims had been skinned alive, not a sliver of skin left on the two bodies, just like his mother 30 years before.  There is also the biggest hurricane ever recorded headed straight for them, so time was in short supply.  More bodies pile up and disturbing works are found in his father’s studio.

Those are the only details you need. I stayed up until 1 am racing through this book.  I really could not put it down.  (I regretted this 5 and a half hours later when Gage decided to get up early) I went to bed disturbed, woke up disturbed and have mentioned parts of the book to Jason all day.  The end was a mixed bag.  The reveal was great, but the end was a little unsatisfying.

I recommend this book for grisly murder and horror lovers who don’t mind liberal use of the f-word.  I think you’ll race through this debut novel and look forward to the next one by Pobi.  I am.  And so is Oprah! “O, The Oprah Magazine’s August issue, on stands now, named Bloodman one of their “Titles to pick up now” and called it a “Very suspenseful novel”!

I received this book from Wunderkind PR as part of a blog tour.  Thanks so much – loved it.

Bloodman  Finished 7-24-12, rating 4/5, horror, 345 pages, pub. 2012

Finished 7-18-12, rating 5/5, literature, 324 pages, pub. 1987

In Ohio seasons are theatrical.  Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it. (p.136)

This is my fifth stop on my summer Ohio tour.  Toni Morrison was born in Ohio and this Pulitzer Prize winning novel takes place in Cincinnati.    I chose to read this because it was on my shelf, it was an Ohio book, and I could participate in Molly’s The Classic Bribe 2012.  Molly over at Quirky Girls Read is hosting this challenge to read a classic this summer.  If you do you can enter to win a $35 Amazon gift card.  Since I loved this book this challenge was a win-win for me.

This is the story of Sethe and the many people in her life.  Raised as a slave, she escaped with her children to Cincinnati where her mother-in-law was waiting and they all waited for Halle, Sethe’s husband and Baby Suggs son.  One day, Paul D from Sweet Home, came knocking at the door and brought with him unwelcome news. The story actually takes place in the years after the Civil War, but the flashbacks cover the years of slavery in the south.

I didn’t know anything before I started and I think the less you know the better.  This story about the black experience is told so perfectly as the many layers and years are slowly revealed.  All of the characters have their own story and their own contribution to the overall narrative.  A narrative that I loved.  Some was told in stream of consciousness that only enhanced the otherworldly quality of the book, a much-needed offset to the ugly subjects of slavery, bestiality, rape, torture and worse.

Sethe was my least favorite character and while that would normally doom a book for me in this case it didn’t.  The story revolved around Sethe, but it was the story of everyone around her too.  Baby Suggs, Denver, Paul D and others all contributed their experiences to the captivating tapestry.

I loved the prose and found it so rich and vivid that I only wanted to take my time reading it.  This is not one to rush through.  The story got off to a bit of a slow start, but the writing was so poetic that I didn’t care.  For me, it was a beautifully told story of heartbreak and triumph and I am so glad that I read it.  My words cannot do this book justice, so I’ll have to rely on Morrison herself.

Paul D had only begun, what he was telling her was only the beginning when her fingers on his knee, soft and reassuring, stopped him.  Just as well.  Just as well.  Saying more might push them both to a place they couldn’t get back from.  He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be.  Its lid rusted shut.  He would not pry it loose now in front of this sweet sturdy woman, for if she got a whiff of the contents it would shame him.  (p. 86)

Whitepeople believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle.  Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood.  In a way, he thought, they were right.  The more coloredpeople spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade white of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside.  (p.234)

“A man ain’t nothing but a man,” said Baby Suggs.  “But a son?  Well now, that’s somebody.”  (p.27)  In honor of my Gage 🙂