This was such a great book! If you enjoyed the book Memoirs of a Geisha or Birth of Venus, you will love this book too! The three books have their differences in setting and time, but are each about the struggles that women go through simply because they are women. I really liked this book! I was able to read this as an “Advanced Copy” because I work at at bookstore, so the book won’t be out until January 2006. So, get on a waiting list now, and beat the rush! I am expecting this will be big very fast.

This book is set in India, and, in addition to being about all the troubles that only women experience, (a world of difference from what men’s lives are like), it focuses on the lives of three particular women. Sera is a wealthy woman. Bhima is her servant. Maya is the granddaughter of Bhima. The book defines the “space between” the lives of women who have servants, and the women who are servants. It explores the views held in India about the seperation of different classes. Bhima cleans Sera’s house, cooks her food, helps take care of her daughter. At the same time, Sera has seperate cups for Bhima to use, and has her sit on the floor instead of using the furniture. I had heard about these kinds of beliefs, but didn’t understand much about them before reading this book. Some of the women in the book have mixed feelings about these obvious seperations, but, feel compelled to follow them anyway.
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In Al Franken’s new book, The Truth (with jokes), the comedian/author/radio host carries on his fight against the conservatives. Franken takes on everything from the Iraq War to the Social Security “crisis.” The aim of the book is to present the actual, factual truth about all of the events covered in the book. And what Franken gives us should be enough to raise the blood pressure of any thinking, caring human being. If everything Franken says in the book is true (and he provides a litany of references to back up his research), then the Republicans have been privy to a lot of bad things. And I mean bad things. And if you think that Dick Cheney is the world’s most evil man, your mind may change after reading The Truth. Any number of right-wing collaborators could easily beat Cheney in the pure evil game. Just look up Karl Rove or Tom DeLay sometime. You’ll see what I mean.
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Inspired by how much I liked the previous Coupland book I just finished reading, I decided to try this one. I am equally impressed. In both books, Coupland has created these oddball situations that happen to characters that seem very real. Both books make you think about things other than the events currently unfolding on the pages in front of you. Why haven’t I heard of this author before?

This book is, on the surface, about a massacre at a high school. Three teens go into the school cafeteria one day, and proceed to blow away several of their classmates. This was something I had actual nightmares about after hearing about Columbine, and during the years I used to be a Substitute Teacher. It’s what made me initially interested in reading this book. It’s not at all a book “for the holidays”, however. Its a horrible mess, graphically described through the book from the viewpoint of more than one character.

The first chapter is from inside the head of a girl that died in that massacre. The second one if from her young husband, who is also a student in the school. (How that happened is not how you might expect), but about 10 years later. The third chapter is from a woman who meets him years later, and the last if from his father, who is basically a jerk.

Throughout it the book, each character is trying to come to terms with God and the Afterlife. It starts with the teens, who were involved in Christian youth groups, (with kids that acted something other than Christian), but all the characters are asking questions. Why does God let bad things happen? Is it some sort of test, or is it not even under His control? What sort of God would let something like a school shooting happen? Is there a God at all? Is there an Afterlife, and if so, what is it like? What does God think about people who abuse others claiming that God wanted things that way, or that their religion is the reason the abuse was necessary? The best part of the book is that Coupland does not answer any of these questions for you, or point you in a specific direction. It’s a book that makes you think.

The title alone makes this book just scream to be read right before the holidays. The holiday season is stressful enough on its own, what with all the shopping to be done, and the malls packed with people. Add in spending more time with your family than you really would like, especially if your family is dysfunctional, (like mine), and you end up being able to relate to this book’s title very much.

This book is about a dysfunctional family, (but not around the holidays). Janet is a 60 something housewife, who recently got divorced from Ted, her husband of several years. Ted has remairried a younger “trophy wife”, named Nikkie. Ted and Janet have three children, all of whom are adults now, and all of whom have problems. Wade is the one always in trouble. Sarah is the perfect daughter who is now an astronaut about to take off on the next shuttle. It is this event that the family has gotten together for. Bryan is the youngest kid, now in his 40s, and he is the one who is always trying to kill himself.

The book goes back and forth between the present and the past, putting together little memories like puzzle pieces that make up the picture of this family. Its one of those books where it seems like every other page reveals an amazingly bad event. An event that the reader never sees coming, which makes it even more exciting. I couldn’t put this book down. And, along the way, are little insights about life, peppering the pages. The title is an example of that. One character in the book says something like “all families are psychotic”, and points out that the problems in other people’s families are something you can always overlook, its the problems in your own that are unforgivable.

In many ways, this book is about falling apart as much as it is about starting over. This one’s a keeper.
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If you love your Big Mac, you might want to skip this book. Or, maybe that’s the very reason that you should read it.

The subtitle of this book is “The Dark Side of the All-American Meal”, and it is fitting. This book takes a very close look at the Fast Food giants. It goes into the history of how they started, how they got big, and how their massive power is affecting so many aspects of American society, and now, many places around the world as well. It especially focuses on McDonalds, but does go into many other well known fast food resturants too.

It seemed fitting to me to read this book right after reading Fat Land. Together, the two paint a very terrifying picture of how things are. Fast Food Nation alone tells some really scary stuff. If you have ever read the book The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, you will have a good idea about about what you will find in parts of Fast Food Nation . Only Sinclair was talking about Chicago Meatpacking plants in the early 1900′s, and this book is talking about the state of the Meatpacking plants now. Made me once again seriously decide to give vegetarianism another try.

I also found it scary to hear about just how much power these few companies have, and how decisions made by just a few people have such detrimential effects on the quality of life for so many people around the world. It makes me angry that these people could be using their power for good, and instead, are using it to feed their greed. Human rights go right out the window, never mind what happens to the animals.

The version of this book that I picked up also includes some new information relating to Mad Cow Disease, which wasn’t really known about when the book was first written. Its a very eye-opening read. Everyone should read this book, if only to just be informed about what they are eating. Im glad I know details now, even though those details are disgusting. Makes me want to never eat from a Fast Food Place ever again, if not for health reasons, than as a response to how much I don’t like the way they treat their workers. This book was a best seller for a long time, and it will be interesting to see if any changes are made as a result of more people having access to this kind of information. We can hope.

Ever wonder why more and more Americans are getting really fat? Ever wonder just how that happened? This book sets out to reveal the answers to these and more questions about America and obesity. This is a frightening read! Critser details just how the extra calories got into the food, and why no one stopped that from happening. He gives details about just what happens to the body of someone who becomes obese, and clearly defines a link between obesity and poverty. He also describes the connection between how Americans think, and how they eat. This book is very eye-opening. I recommend it to anyone who is wondering about the same questions I was wondering about when I decided to read this book.
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If you have birds as pets, or, if you just love birds, you will love this story! It is a true story, subtitled “A Love Story With Feathers”. Mark Bittner was homeless, and directionless when the story starts. It seems like he is looking for a religion, as well as some work that is meaningful, and also wants someone to love. He ends up in San Francisco, in the Telegraph Hill area. He is there because he is watching a house for someone, on a tempory basis. Right away, he notices that there seem to be wild parrots flying around in flocks. This interests him, and he sets out to learn more. After meeting these birds, he thinks it would be cool to have a wild bird as a friend, who knows him and comes to visit, but can also go be with the flock whenever it wants to.

The book is filled with information about the birds. Bittner did lots of research about parrots. He lists scientific information about what kinds of parrots they are, as well as factual information about just how parrots get from the jungles in Africa to here in America (most of which is a really terrible experience for the birds), and also historical information about where the parrots live in San Francisco, and how that all came about.

The book is loaded with stories about the flock, which he starts feeding and gets to know well. He names individual birds, and keeps track of which birds are pairs, and which birds are siblings. He sees all sorts of examples of intelligence in these parrots. Many have a sense of humor. All seem to be different personalities. The stories are sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and always captivating.

It seems there is also a documentary of the birds and Bittner out there. In fact, part of the book is about getting that documentary filmed. I am interested in seeing it, if I can find it somewhere. I think it will be similar to, but not exactly the same as the book. I also want to go check out the Telegraph Hill area if I am ever in San Francisco, and see if I can spot any of the wild parrots.

By the end, Bittner has found everything he started out looking for, and I am glad to hear that. He seems like a good guy, and he had all sorts of struggles to get through on his way. This book is a quick read, and hard to put down. I recommend it to anyone who loves birds, especially those who have parrots or cockatiels at home with them, because they will see something of their birds in the birds Bittner describes.

This was also a fun book to be reading right before and on Halloween. It has fourteen little short stories, all written by Stephen King, and all very much in his style. I happen to be a Stephen King fan, so I really enjoyed this book. Some of these stories link up with his other work,(some of the books in the Dark Tower Series), which is always interesting.

Even the cover is great! Its this pencil drawing of a table at a resturant. The water glass has a red drop of liquid falling down to the bottom of it, which just must be blood. The back cover of the book has the rest of the resturant, and has blood spattered all over it. This artwork is on the hard cover version of the book. Im not sure what’s on the paperback. This drawing is directly related to one of the stories in the book, “Lunch at the Gotham Cafe”, a really gorey story about a guy going crazy at a resturant.

Not all the stories in the book were wonderful, but most were good. My favorite is “Little Sisters of Eluria”. It is almost like part of the Dark Tower series, which I love, but takes place before the first book. Roland goes into this abandoned town, called Eluria, and things happen from there. Its just as captivating as the rest of the Dark Tower series. Also interesting is that this story seems to link up with something in the book “The Talisman”, (which King wrote with Peter Straub). Fans of King will enjoy this story.

The story that the book takes its title from, “Everything’s Eventual”, is a story that reminds me of part of the Dark Tower series as well. But, even if you have not read the series, you can enjoy this one. A teenager, whose life is going nowhere, finds he has a strange power, and gets offered an even stranger job. A good read on its own.

Overall, there were more stories I liked in this book than ones I didn’t like so much. This is a good book when you want to read a Stephen King story, but don’t have that kind of time. Bite sized horror, to be enjoyed like the little “fun size” candy bars one gets while trick-or-treating.