Practical Demon Keeping - Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore is a fairly new favourite of mine. One of the girls at work turned me on to him with A Dirty Job and I'm always happy when she lends me another one of his. Gotta love a friend with books! Mr. Moore is funny in the wackiest way possible. You have a problem with penis jokes, swearing or the occult? Don't read his books. You like the quirky, the weird, the completely ubsurd? Don't walk, RUN to your nearest book store.
Essentially, the unwitting keeper of an ancient demon ends up in a quiet California tourist town, looking for the only way to get the nasty thing off his back. Hilarity ensues.
Okay, maybe not hilarity. This one did not make me laugh out loud all that much, but it was still amusing and well worth the read.
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore
What a lucky lass I am, getting to read two Moore books in a row. I unfortunately read them in the wrong order, and didn't realize that TLLoMC came after Demon Keeping. Set in the same sleepy coastal town, but about 10 years after the whole demon debacle. Only a couple of characters carry through and not in any major way, so reading them in the wrong order didn't really ruin anything for me.
TLLoMC is pretty hilarious. A prehistoric shape shifting lizard makes sweet love to a gas truck. Need I say more? Probably not. Go read Christopher Moore.
The Washingtonienne - Jessica Cutler
Ok so, if you don't read this book, you wont be missing anything. If you do read it, you wont feel like you wasted many hours of your life. I read The Washintonienne in one afternoon at the cottage. It was a light, fast read, and certainly the perfect thing if you're a chick who a) likes chick lit and b) are in the mood for something nasty. The short of it is, slutty beast runs around Washington boning everyone and blogs about it to keep her friends in the loop. She's found out, and her non-existent career is destroyed. I guess that's what happens when you're a slutbeast (and one on drugs to boot).
Serve with cheap flavoured wine and a lawn chair. And feel better that you left your slutbeast ways behind you like I did in high school.
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
Get ready for a long read with this one... over 800 pages in the paper back version that was lent to me. And let me say, I DID enjoy it, even if my little review doesn't seem that way.
This book is long, not just in pages but in terms of readability. The timeline in the book really hops around. Start in the 70's, move to the 50's, then to the 30's and back and forth and up and down and... you get the idea. Half the story is back story, and there's a lot of flowery and overly descriptive prose. Sometimes I had to put the book down just to absorb what I'd read.
You also bop around the world, Europe in particular. This is one area where the book is truly enjoyable, as you are immersed in the country where the characters are. The architecture, the food, the landscape is all wonderfully described, although often it's a little too much. I found myself comfortably skimming many longer paragraphs and I didn't feel like I missed anything in the process.
It took 300 pages for the story to really GO anywhere. It was easy to forget that this was supposed to be a book about vampires.
In short, I'm glad I'm the sort of person who insists on finishing the books they start, as there was much to enjoy in The Historian. But, you really do have to be dedicated to it.
****
Book count: 4/50
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