Bookstores. They are an issue

I went in to buy one book today, I came out with four. I know I will read them all but can't decide which first!

Ahhh, so many books, the best problem to have

"Spin" - Robert Charles Wilson

Published in 2006 by Tom Doherty Books

Spin is the first of a trilogy of books about the distant future where biotechnology has come to play an incredibly important role.  While earthlings are going about their daily lives, one night the stars go out.  Over time, it is discovered that there is a protective bubble around the planet but outside of it time is speeding by.  Inside the bubble a minute passes, while the rest of the universe ages 100 years.

Unlike the last book I read, I loved the characters in this novel.  They were all thoughtfully constructed so that they were likable but human.  The way Wilson writes intertwines the present (4 x 10⁹ AD) and the past (the childhood and adolescence of the three protagonists) is done beautifully and never feels confusing or broken.

At 450 pages, this book is neither short nor terribly long, but it flew by. I found myself reading it while walking or in the 6 minutes it takes to make vegetables for dinner.  I just couldn't put it down.

Rating: ****

Quotes:
"An absurd position, I know, but if critics insist that he showed us how to live and think and love, then surely he taught us how to run an efficient terror-based revolution and how to commit genocide, too."

"busy hands don't tremble, busy minds don't panic"

"Don't be upset. The world is full of surprises. We're all born strangers to ourselves and each other, and we're seldom formally introduced."

"next" - Michael Crichton

Published in 2006 by Michael Crichton and Harper Collins

I read my first Michael Crichton book in one night while I was dog sitting for Chelsea back in high school. It wasn't really an option to sleep as her puppy Chevy wanted to go in and out every 5 minutes and I was afraid she would have an accident (which still happened) so I stayed up through the night and read.

Sadly, Next was not quite as engrossing as Prey and I felt that his characters were too many and too underdeveloped. It was hard to keep track of who was doing what and what was happening where.

Still, it was a very interesting look at the relationship between the law and genetic material. Especially how we can patent things that aren't really understood and in so doing, mess up real beneficial science that could help people.

Rating: **

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" - Garth Stein

Published in 2008 by Bright White Light LLC

Movies have never been able to make me reach an emotional level where I need to cry for he characters.  But books, books get me bad sometimes.  Especially when they are about animals.  This is a book narrated by a dog who loves Formula One racing and driving in the rain.  He loves Aynton Senna, and He loves Denny (his owner).

This novel is about Enzo, a wonderful dog who helps his family through hard times and good and his final choice to help them by letting him go.  I read it in 2 days (well one day and then night time until 2am) and although it may not have been the best literature written ever, it was a moving story.  Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, Garth Stein took a dog and gave him a human soul.

Quotes:
"Monkeys have thumbs.  Practically the dumbest species on the planet, next to the duck-billed-platypus, who make their dens underwater even though they breathe the air.  The platypus is horribly stupid, but it is only slightly dumber than a monkey.  Yet monkeys have thumbs.  Those monkey-thumbs were meant for dogs.  Give me my thumbs, you fucking monkeys! (I love the Al Pacino remake of Scarface, very much, though it doesn't compare to the Godfather movies, which are excellent.)"

"To live everyday as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live."

Rating: ***

"Motherless Brooklyn" - Jonathan Lethem

Published in 1999 by Vintage

Where to start, where to start? This novel compels you to read in candlelight with some jazz playing in the background; this book is part film noir, part slick detective, and just one small dash of crazy tourettic outbursts that jar you into the present and get stuck in your head.  Lionel Essrog is a brooklyn orphan and minion of Frank Minna.  Over the years he and the other Minna Men grow from gangly teenagers into half-adults who still view Frank as their light and savior while still trying to shark his position out from under him.  So when Frank is murdered, it falls to Lionel, his most loyal underling to solve the crime.

This all happens with Lionels Tourettes playing second fiddle.  The quiet calm of a Zen Retreat, split in two with his rambling yells.  Sneaking up on a possible suspect, he must make sure to touch all the surfaces in the car 5 times.

Lethem calls to mind other stories that indirectly allow the audience to experience a disability without it taking over the story.  His Lionel is at once charming and annoying, just like any human, and I would have been happy if the story had gone on a while longer.

Quotes:
"(Tourette Dreams)

(in Tourette dreams you shed your tics)

(or your tics shed you)

(and you go with them, astonished to leave yourself behind)"

"Guilt I knew something about.  Vengeance was another story entirely.  I'd have to think about vengeance."

"To both of them and to you I say: Put and egg in your shoe, and beat it.  Make like a tree, and leave.  Tell your story walking."

Rating: ****

"Angela's Ashes" - Frank McCourt

Published in 1996 by Scribner

When I was 11 or 12 I read this book and thought it was the best thing ever, so rereading it and actually still enjoying it was a true treat!  Admittedly, the parts I remember most vividly aren't really huge story points and probably just stuck in my young mind most because they were my first introduction to some grown up themes.

"Angela's Ashes" is the story of Frankie McCourt and his life from age 1-20, growing up first in New York, then in Ireland, and his final journey back to America.  Like many memoirs, there is a drunk father and a sick mother, but it is his writing style that makes it interesting and colorful instead of sad and melodramatic.  I was swept up with his sentences, reading in an accent in my head, and incapable of putting the book down even at 2 am before I had a morning shift.

While at times sad (the gains and losses of his siblings) it is also a funny, compelling and heartwarming (at times) tale of growing up and being forced to take responsibility for himself and his family at a young age.

Still one of my favorites.

Rating: ****

"The Tragedy of Arthur" - Arthur Phillips

The tragedy of Ebooks is that you can't flip through them before committing and buying your $12 file.  Had I been able to do that, I probably wouldn't have gone with this book as half of it is a "Shakespearean tale" and I don't really like reading Shakespeare.

The novels first half centers around the character of Arthur Phillips, a man who has never been able to forgive his con-artist father for being in prison his whole life.  It also incorporates his twin sister and to a minimal extent his family in a foreign country.  But in all honesty, I didn't really care for the book and felt that the emotional connections were too far reaching and less than plausible.  Phillips has a tendency to introduce characters and let them slip away.

boohoo, whatever, I shall read something else. Like this super interesting article describing an event that happened a long while ago that is basically the same idea as the book!

Rating: **