Love in the Time of Cholera

I am not yet prepared to blog about this book. It was just too much. I think I'm still taking it all in. The ending did suck, as I was warned it would, but I think I was really just upset it was all over. Definitely my new favorite book and one I'm going to have to read again some day. I wish I could find the quote that ends, "[it was] an innocent substitute for infidelity." I can't, for the life of me, remember what "it" was. It seems like an important substitution to be aware of.

Slaughterhouse-Five

I can't say anything negative about this book. I mean, the dude just died. I will instead insert my favorite quotes, leaving the few criticism behind in the margins of my freshly read copy.

"They were moving like water, downhill all the time, and they flowed at last to a main highway on a valley's floor. Through the valley flowed a Mississippi of humiliated Americans."

"She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies."

Julie and Julia

So, it's not incredibly well written, but Julie and Julia did get me excited about living in a shitty little apartment in Champaign, IL. Moving across the country, cooking for my special friend, bitching about our cat, and blogging about the unrealistic goal I’ve set for myself this year seemed at first to be very boring, bland things to read/write about. In actuality, they are, but fuck it; 365 days of the same distractions got Ms. Powell a book deal. Let's just wait and see what I can get out of it. I think I’ll hold out for a new bookshelf, or maybe a carton of cigarettes.

A Cook's Tour

Oh, Anthony Bourdain... I wish I could have two husbands in the future. Maybe I'll just make my Mateo pierce his ear and wear a thumb ring.

A good read, but I have a feeling Kitchen Confidential will be better. Being totally ignorant about geography, politics, and history, I had to do some wikipedia-ing as I read. Those stereotypically boy topics have always eluded me. Wrapped in the concept of cuisine though, I finally kind of got it. Also, I now feel learned enough to use the term “cuisine”.

My Friend Leonard

The suicide scene at the beginning of this is just amazing, although, you kinda knew it was coming. I mean really, in my mind she was dead already. While reading A Million Little Pieces I started to really dig Frey's writing style. I picked up MFL, happy to see that same style having that same effect on me. I was happily reading along, content with the world, awaiting another gory scene at the dentist or a tragic relapse, but instead sat through four fucking chapters about his fucking dog. I may be exaggerating, but not by much. These scenes with the pup left me yearning for that "oh-my-god-this-is-so-crazy-I-have-to-find-someone-to-read-it-to" feeling I encountered so many time in AMLP. Overall, not a very memorable read, but it still counts as book number two.

Running with Scissors

I read this before officially beginning the "competition" or the blog, but I thought it deserved a post; a place holder of sorts. The best line in the entire book, and yes there were many, had to be, "It turned out I had always been a smoker. I just hadn't had any cigarettes." I want stickers and t-shirts plastered with this quote. It was one of the first scenes my Mateo and I laughed about after I finished reading his copy. Ahh, romance.

One down, 49 to go...