First Cool Day of the Season Book Finds

Considering that I went to bed at four-in-the-morning the night before, I was quite chipper when I awoke to the sound Ruby Gloom. "It's a nice day," Jyg exclaimed. "We're taking Shaun out. Are you awake?" Even though my mind was rested, this still didn't make sense. So I managed a 'hu' and she filled me on how autumn finally arrived. That explained why my a/c wasn't working.

We headed out to IHOP, but so did the rest of the city. We settled for DQ instead. Hey, if we couldn't have pancakes, the least we could do was get Blizzards. Shaun fell asleep before we got to the park, so we detoured to the Dollar Tree. That's where I found Point Omega by Don DeLillo and Michael Caine's The Elephant to Hollywood. Both were just a dollar each. However, we did walk out the store with $57 dollars worth of Halloween decorations.

Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Tied Up & Twisted by Alison Tyler

Dear Alison Tyler: 

Several times I have riddled this blog with declarations of love, and the fear of being redundant is settling in. Your latest piece published under Harlequin Spice banner(?) has set my infatuation with you in stone.

As you stated in your blog, you poured a lot of your own fantasies into this work. That alone was all the motivation I needed to click purchase on Amazon.

There's no need to rehash the book – you wrote it; it's not as if I'm writing a review in the form of a letter to you. Oh wait. Never mind.

The book is swelling (is that a good word?) with emotion (you'll have to read it to see what sort of emotion I'm talking about here). Hadley is someone to fall in love with immediately. A former domme turned sub who still carries a few traits of her old life seeks out an older gentlemen (used loosely), while her former sub still pines after her. Everything is wrapped neatly, but I don't expect anything less from you.

Your writing is captivating. I have to set aside some time, otherwise there'll be trouble. I get lost in your words that I find it easy to ignore "bottom" which irked me in another erotic piece. Yet, I loved Frost's use of it. How can you make such an innocent, elementary word sound so enticing? Your writing always reminds me of the words of famous film critic, Roger Ebert – "No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough." Rest assured, Ms. Tyler (can I call you Ms. Tyler?), your writing always leaves me wanting more.

SINcerely,

E.P.

P.S. You (other reader, not Alison Tyler) can purchase Tied up & Twisted for your Kindle or Nook. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Three More Children's Books

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm going to do so now. Part of my job at the library is to find books for the children's librarian so she could read during story hour. This Friday's story hour is a dog theme, so my mission today was finding dog-themed books. I had the pleasure of reading some of these. Keep in mind, however, that I am a cat person. I did my best in removing that bias from my mind as I read the books.

Amazon//BN

"Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate by Bob Graham

I never read anything by Bob Graham before. Fact is, half the children's books we carry are by authors of which I've never heard. So when I selected "Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate, my first thought was, "Is that a lesbian couple and their daughter? How progressive." I was wrong about that assumption, I think.

Still, the book is cute and the illustrations are adorable. And once again, I'm put in the place where I know I should give you some sort of feedback as to why I like this book, but I don't want to give too much away. I swear to you, I'll get better at reviewing children's books. I promise.

Amazon//BN

Chick 'n' Pug by Jennifer Sattler

I'm sure we've all been there at one point. Where we're the younger sibling and we adore the older sibling, and believe there is nothing our big brother/sister cannot do. The situation might be different for some of you - only children may have an older cousin, or we imagined our parents this way; same goes for the oldest sibling - but the message is clear. Those we hold up to hero standards can do no wrong. So it is when Chick gets to meet his hero, Pug. Only this pug is nothing like the one he idolizes. Instead, this pug would rather nap.

Once again, a cute story presented to you with minimum review. I'll tell you this, however, Jennifer Sattler has a knack for children's books. Which is probably why she writes them. I started reading Pig Kahuna afterwards, but didn't finish. I'll pick it up tomorrow when I have more free time (which I won't, but one can imagine, right?).

Amazon//BN

What Pete Ate from A-Z by Maira Kalman

I worry about this dog's bowel movements. Especially when that accordion slinkys out. Spoiler alert much? No, it's at the very beginning, so no surprise endings here.

However, Pete is the hypothetical dog that gives me reason not to own one. The dog's a walking garbage disposal. Your kids will probably love him. Hopefully, more than Walter.

These books are all available on Amazon and Barnes an Noble. Their respective links are featured in the caption. Until next time, keep on huntin'!

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

"Time after time, Christopher has the last word," writes Carol Blue, Christopher Hitchens' widow, in her afterword for his book. 104 pages of powerful words from Hitchens and two people who knew him best, that's my description of Mortality – a book composed of, what I'm assuming is, his final essays, written while enduring treatment for esophageal cancer. 

Maybe it's my fascination with death that kept me turning the pages. I knew the end of the story – sorta. Or most likely, it's the way Hitchens wrote. Like so many people can state, Hitchens wrote in a way that makes you feel "as though he was writing to you and to you alone." His writing stays strong, he never falters. A non-believer until the end, amused by his detractors.

Each essay reads like a lecture. I was never "blessed" to hear the man in person, and now the only way to hear his voice is via the Internet. But these words are powerful. They're beautiful. Intelligent. Even cancer could not snuff him completely. Because even though his life has ended, his influence still grows. And if he hasn't won you over yet, this book will.

Mortality is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For Kindle and Nook. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Prometheus (2012)

Purchase Prometheus on
BluRay, BluRay 3D and DVD

First of all, you have to walk into this film with a blank slate. If you walk in with Alien running through your mind, you're probably going to hate it. Because, after all, we were promised a prequel to the 1979 Ridley Scott film. And that's the second caveat – Prometheus is in no way a prequel to Alien. It's a film that takes place in the Alien universe, but acts as a stand alone (though, if you must really dissect this, you can say it's a prequel to a prequel).

The film – I expect a lot of hate for this (as if anyone reads this blog, am I right, my two followers?) – is reminiscent of another science fiction flick. Well, two. The first, of course is Alien, which this movie alludes to. There are creatures present and there is the whole waking up process that made me miss Sigourney Weaver. There is the android – robot? – crew member. The list can go on, but I'll stop there. The second film is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not following? I'll explain why. In 2001, HAL becomes a little self-aware that leads to a whole bunch of betrayal. While David is no HAL, I get the same vibe from him. Had HAL been given some limbs to work with and alien DNA, I'm sure similar experiments on the crew members aboard his ship would have taken place. Hell, HAL might have played dirtier tricks. But whatever, that's not the point.

The point is that Prometheus, while disappointing in the lines of not being a prequel to Alien, is still a decent film. And if you're one of those people who are looking for twists and turns and – umm – a film riddled with violence from bad ass aliens, you should probably sit this one out. Though, I'm telling you, the ending is worth the whole sit.

Prometheus is available on October 11. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Flanimals Pop-Up by Ricky Gervais

Atheist parents rejoice? Maybe, but it's only a small jab at believers in this book. The rest of the time it's just all around fun book. And what else did you expect from Ricky Gervais? So what if his dry humor (humour?) is lost upon Americans? As an American who finds this man hilarious, you all should just sit everything out. Quote me on that, if you'd like.

So what is a Flanimal? The grotesque creatures that are part of the unknown world. And perhaps it's better that way because these creatures are ugly. Written as a field guy for the unknown, this pop-up edition is nothing but page-after-page of fun. So much so, you might want to keep this one for yourself. Read it while the kids go to bed. Go ahead, have fun.

I discovered this book today because we have it as a professional book in our department. Most of our pop-up books are professional because kids have the habit of destroying our beautiful toys, which is okay. Sometimes. It was the first thing I read this morning and I'm glad that I did, because tomorrow I plan to order it for my Shaun. Hopefully, he'll love it as much as I did.

You can purchase Flanimal Pop-Up at Amazon (only $6.89!!!) or Barnes and Noble (used starting at $.01). Until next time, keep on huntin'.

And while you're at it, check out these other goodies by Ricky Gervais:

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen

Sometime ago, I was introduced to Tess Gerritsen's novels. Jane Rizzoli piqued my interest. Later, Maura Isles left me head over heels with the Queen of the Dead. It wasn't an easy journey. Tess Gerritsen's history of writing romance novels featured heavily in the first few novels, and, at times, it overshadowed the main plot.

The tenth novel in the Rizzoli & Isles series hit shelves last Tuesday, and I received my copy in the mail Thursday. I drove right into it, using my Labor Day weekend to devour all 338 pages of it. I entered the book still feeling the buzz from the previous novel, but I left feeling hungry still. Is it just me or has Gerritsen lost her "edge?"

Some will argue that she never had an edge, but I don't let the naysayers deter me from enjoying a book - unless, like Fifty Shades of Grey, it's godawful. I'm not ashamed that I like the series. Not even ashamed that I own all the novels in it. But the books felt too quick. And the ongoing insult of her very intelligent characters still stabs at me. How is that Jane Rizzoli is well respected, yet she always finds herself on the wrong side of the suspects blade in the end? Sure, one or two books might not have her falling victim, but Maura does. It gets knackering, you know?

"Last to Die", Two Children's Books, and More Buys

So, I might an addict. I can't just say no to books, you know? Especially when they're free. But more on that later.

I received the latest Tess Gerritsen novel in the mail yesterday – I pre-ordered it back in March while I was testing out Amazon Prime. I cracked it open and start right away. However, I'm run ragged these days. So I haven't gotten too far into it. I had to read some passages twice because I kept dozing off. Not a commentary on Gerritsen's writing, by the way.

As I have mentioned in the past, my work now involves me reading books in the department. Most of the time I select my reads from the 3rd through 5th grade shelves because their lengthier. However, because I do have an infant son, I'm drawn more and more toward the easy shelf.

In Maxine Trottier’s Migrant, we learn what’s like to be a migrant worker through the eyes of a young girl named Anna. Trottier relates migrant families to a flock of birds, comforts them with a kitten’s warmth, and compares their temporary housing to a jack rabbit’s burrow. The illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault bring Anna’s imagination to life – her transformation to a jack rabbit to comparing the voices of her fellow migrants to crickets before she is whisked away by one upon its back. As a child whose mother traveled across the state and country for work while she was growing up, this book echoes her memories. It’s beautifully written and wonderfully illustrated that all readers will fall in love with it immediately.

Exposure to art is equally important to a child’s development as reading. In his book, Magritte’s Marvelous Hat, D.B. Johnson infuses the joys of art and reading. Not only does Johnson name his character after René Magritte, his illustrations are riddled with references to the Belgian painter’s work. Interaction is also a must, so Johnson added in a few “clear” pages containing images that create new illustrations when they are turned. Johnson created a so much more than just a story about a dog painter and his marvelous hat, one that both parent and child can enjoy.

Of the two books, it's difficult to say which exactly is my favorite. They're both equally beautiful in their own right. So before I attempt some sort of compare and contrast of apples and oranges, I'll continue on to the next and former topic.

My addiction of book has reached an all new high. We have a new librarian – who is amazingly awesome – and she seems a bit miffed with the mess of donations we have in the back. It was a get rid of everything sale. Tons of things were placed in the back to recycling – all textbooks I have little to no interest in. Here's what I've made out with this time:

• Little Women by Lousia May Alcott
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
• Literary Journalism: A Reader edited by Jean Chance and William McKeen
• The Aeneid by Virgil (translation by Patric Dickinson)
• Social Anthropology in Perspective: The Relevance of Social Anthropology, 2nd edition by I.M. Lewis
• Man and His Measure edited by Francis Connolly
• Technical Writing Style by Dan Jones
• A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th edition by Kate L. Turabian
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 8th edition by Joseph M. Williams
• Cognitive Psychology, 3rd edition by Robert J. Sternberg

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble; for Kindle and Nook. You can pick up Magritte's Marvelous Hat on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You can pick up a copy of Migrant at Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Snapshot #6

From The Writers Handbook edited by A.S. Burack

Dustin M. Sekula Memorial Library - my place of employment - has done something terrible to me. And by terrible, I mean f**king wonderful! And by wonderful, I mean a 25-cent book sale. No. That's not some cosmic typo. All books are actually 25 cents a piece. That's four for a dollar. Doesn't matter if it's a hardback, a trade paperback, or a mass market paperback. And all the trashy romance novels were at 10 cents yesterday.

Now you're probably wondering how a guy like me got to be so lucky. Well, it started Saturday when the Friends of the Library had their book sale. It was fairly inexpensive. Because I'm such an awesome fella - mostly because I work there - I got my books for $10, despite the fact that I had more than in books. Because not all books were sold - and we have a huge surplus of donated books we have no use for - it was decided Monday to start dropping the price. Lucky, hu? 

Here's what I have as of today:

1. The Hot Kid
2. 52 Pick Up
3. Mr. Paradise
4. Unknown Man #89 by Elmore Leonard
5. Airframe
6. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
7. The Hobbit
8. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
9. Dead Until Dark
10. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
11. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
12. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
13. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
14. The Humanoids by Jack Williamson
15. The Inquisition by Edward Burman
16. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology 2nd Edition edited by Samuel Cohen
17. Summerland by Michael Chabon
18. Nobody Move by Denis Johnson
19. Dianetics: The Original Thesis by L. Ron Hubbard
20. 9/11 Report by Thomas H. Kean, Chair and Lee H. Hamilton, Vice Chair w/reporting and anaylsis by The New York Times
21. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverley Cleary
22. Nightingale's Lament by Simon R. Green
23. Animal Farm by George Orwell
24. American Gangster by Max Allan Collins
25. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
26. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
27. Grendel by John Gardner
28. A Short Guide to Writing about Literature 10th edition edited by Sylvan Barnet and William E. Cain
29. The Alienist by Caleb Carr
30. The Giver by Lois Lowry
31. Oxford by Paul Streitz
32. Deathbell by Guy Smith
33. Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith
34. The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth
35. The MacMillan Reader 3rd Edition edited by Judith Nadell, John Langan, and Linda McMeniman
36. Futurelove: Science Fiction Triad edited by Roger Elwood(?)
37. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
38. The Writer's Handbook edited by A.S. Burack
39. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense 5th edition edited by Laurence Perrine

As you can see, I have a lust for books. I'm a book slut, and I take that without shame. While my loved ones might not understand my need for books, I know in my heart there are more like me out there. I have a love for knowledge. There are books excluded from here, of course. Books I purchased for others or books I've loaned to others shortly after I bought them. They'll find their way to this page soon enough.

Well, I'm off to read something from an anthology. Which one? I don't know. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

Snapshot #5

I Hate Everyone...Starting with Me by Joan Rivers

American Gangbang: A Love Story by Sam Benjamin

Sam Benjamin's memoir, American Gangbang: A Love Story, reads like a tour de force of braggery. It's a laugh in the face that he got to live the life several men can only fantasize about. Not only did he get to work with big-breasted porn stars, he got to sleep with them, too. Sort of. Maybe not always in the ways he imagined, but that's more than most men can say, am I right? Still, this confession - can I even call it that? - depicts the darker moments and corners of the adult industry.

The story starts off from Sam packing up and heading west, finding himself in Santa Cruz with an art degree and not a single idea what to do with his life. So one day he buys porn, and decides that he's out to revolutionize the sex world as we know it. His meager beginnings include recording masturbation videos of himself while he gets off with a banana peel to recording a piss video with a man who cannot get an erection without drinking the urine of some makeshift dominatrix. Later, he's on the receiving end of a dildo in a bisexual porn flick. Then he's working for an interracial website dedicated to gangbangs. And that's where his career sets off.

He introduces us to an array of colorful characters and porn stars - names we may recognize, and others we'll wind up Google searching. There's Willie Timberlake, a bipolar ginger from Oakland whose inability to hold down a job destines him to become Sam's porn sidekick. White Liz, Sam's doomed love interest, who works within the porn industry without ever taking off her clothing. And those are the only people worth talking about, sorta.

There are several things that I find annoying(?) with this memoir. Small things that probably don't mean anything, and shouldn't deter a curious reader from reading it. For instance, there are times in the book when Sam Benjamin is adamant that he's done with pornography, but continues to pick up the camera. It's almost feels as if the reader's supposed to pat him on the back and whisper, "There, there. You deeply troubled pornographer. It's not your fault that porn's so degrading to the women you hire. You're only doing what you're told."

The dialogue also comes into question. Most of it feels scripted. Granted that Sam is working on memory, and I'm sure most things are paraphrased, it still robs from the story. In some instances, he'll drop a random one-liner as if he was working on a sitcom script in the process.

However, the book - despite it's bragging - does give the reader a glimpse of the so-called glamour of the porn industry. From the horrendous Honey back story to the poor broke Czech woman who is, figuratively and possibly literally, ripped in half during a sex scene. The way he handles his story - with the exception of the unnecessary epilogue - acts more a cautionary tale than the clueless Jenna Jameson's memoir.

So if you're looking for a pornographic memoir on the subject, pick up the book. It's worth the time taken to read it. You can pick up a copy at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and it's available for Kindle and Nook, respectively. Until next time, keep on huntin'.

More Porn Memoirs @ Amazon

The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman

As much as I love Chuck Klosterman's writing, I have to say his nonfiction is my preference. Killing Yourself to Live is on my top ten nonfiction books, but it's a short list. Still Downtown Owl was worth the sit through. But what about his latest novel, The Visible Man? What sort of world does he take us to? Something worth reading, or something worth waiting for.

Unlike former two books mentioned, I didn't learn about The Visible Man until I saw it at Barnes & Noble's new-in-paperback table. After much debate - there wasn't any - I opted to purchase the copy because I love Klosterman - I'm sure it's the bearded face.

Victoria Vick, a therapist from Austin, is contacted by a memorable man, one who would change her life forever. Convinced that the outlandish stories he conveys over the telephone are delusions created by a lonely man, she asks to meet him in person. When he proves that his delusions are anything, but she's thrust into a world of adventure. But even though she knows what he's capable of doing, how much is truth and how much fiction? And how far is she willing to take their relationship?

I need to be honest, I'm on the fence about this novel. At times, the flow is great. Other times, I'm forced to re-read paragraphs because they just put me into the motions. Nothing was absorbed. Klosterman creates an unlikable character with Y___, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to dislike our narrator, Victoria. Much like Downtown Owl, I'm disappointed with the ending.

Oh well, you can pick up your copy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and is available for Kindle and Nook. Until next time, keep on huntin'.