All The Pretty Horses

Well, it was no Lonesome Dove, but it does count as #14. I did appreciate all the Spanish thrown in there, but other than that…eh. Maybe, after a few years away from NM, I'll get homesick and want to read another western, but even then, I'll probably stick with Larry McMurtry or just make Matt watch the LD movie with me again and again.

Mother Tongue

So very, very good, so good that I don't even think I have the right to talk about how fucking good it is. I kept wondering while I read why I hadn't heard of her before. The copy I checked out from the library is signed by the author. I want to steal it.

Best quote...

“When I came up from Mexico I gathered words like dung to fertilize life in this alien land. And over time I fell in love with English. Men? They came and went. But the language is mine forever and ever.” (pg. 25)

www.demetriamartinez.com

It's Too Late to Say I'm Sorry

Buy it. Read it. Cherish it. Send it to your fiancé for his birthday. Miss it when it is gone.

Sellevision

It was better than I expected, although I didn't expect much. Mostly, I was entertained for an evening and now have a new found appreciation for QVC. If anyone's lookin' to buy me a present... J17613. Sapphire, please.

Catcher in the Rye

So, I've decided that books I should have read in high school are not the kinds of books I enjoy finally reading as an adult. It may be a horrible, unforgivable thing for an ex-language arts "teacher" to say, but it's the fucking truth. I had built this one up in my mind to be something much more spectacular than it turned out to be. It is kind of interesting to read Mark David Chapman's statement to the police in the 80's. It sounds much like that--colloquial, is it?--style Salinger uses.

The House on Mango Street

I should have gotten the chance to read this book around this time last year, when I had lesson plans for it GIVEN to me by teachers who KNEW what the FUCK they were talking about. I should have been able to order the 20 copies I needed for my 8th grade class. I should have been given the opportunity to use it to help them finally read a book with characters they could relate to. I SHOULD have bought one copy and xeroxed it 20 times…

It was a good one. Probably too easy of a read to count, but whatever.

Kitchen Confidential

So, in this post I was so very excited to read Kitchen Confidential. Sadly, I was let down. I think it was all the traveling in A Cooks Tour that kept my attention. The lack of a plot in KC and the overabundance of restaurant terminology that I, surprisingly, was already aware of made it a difficult read. That is, it was difficult for me to work up the desire to pick it up and read. I’m reluctant to say that I’m interested in reading some of his fiction, being afraid I’ll jinks it, but I think something like Bone in Throat may be a future pick.

Don't worry, I still love you Tony.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim

So, I finished this one like, a month ago. Number seven in the list. I was hoping for something a little more memorable. The fact that I didn't want to run right over to my desk and share each little detail that I loved with the world is an indicator that, this wasn't my favorite Sedaris read. I do however, remember enjoying the chapter "The Girl Next Door". It reminded me much too much of the place described in this blog; a place where daily I screamed, "My God, the things you don't know. My God" (pg 121). Compared to Barrel Fever, I'd give it a 5.

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...