Of book updates and real estate shenanigans...

I actually have many great excuses for not updating. Most of it has to do with dealing with real estate agents (now I realise why they are one step up from rag-time pool hall hobo hustlers. If there ever was such a thing. Which I hope there was.)

I'm picturing that Wimpy burger guy all about paying you tomorrow for goods today and then running off with a rag on a stick, donning a pool hall visor and hustling the locals out of their depression era dosh before disappearing into the night on the back of a freight train.

But in the words of our dear departed blogging compadre, Dora - 'whatevs'.

Yes, whatevs indeed. Pool hall hobos. Meh.

So. Books I guess. Here's an update. I'm not numbering the books until later because peeps, lazy is how I roll. I've just done some completely unnecessary planning for work tomorrow so I'm a little bit peeved with research and writing right now.

The Librarian by Larry Beinhart
You know, you could just click on the link and read some pretty insightful reviews. But would they be in haiku form, gentle readers? 'Nay', I hear you say as you don a visor and run off into the steam haze at the rail yard with a fistful of my dollars.

The Librarian
Victim/hero... wrong place/time
Soldier of knowledge.

I have a thing for bespectacled verbose men. No, Beast does not adhere to that type - thank goodness. This house can only sustain the ego of one bespectacled verbose partner. (Beast is very zen. Did you know he doesn't have arches on his feet either? He says my high arches are gross. Pot vs kettle there, people. I secretly think he's jealous of my arches.)

Now, there's a lot more to the story than that. Of course. It was funny. I'll read it again. That's pretty glowing for someone who doesn't suffer stupid stories twice. This is a great piss take of the Bush/Kerry debacle. I think. Beast agrees, so I can't be too off.

The Girl Who Played with Fire: Stieg Larsson

Girl interrupted.
Wanted by interpol and
very evil men.

Good book, good read. Entertaining. Had me rooting for Dragon Tattoo girl and Kalle Blomkvist. Strangely I am craving a heavy rye bread with some smoked fish and sour cream now. Larsson's books always make me crave that for some reason. Perhaps I associate those things with the name Stieg. My Dad had a friend called Stieg. He was a cool giant with an awesome accent.

Seriously. He was almost seven feet tall. And liked rye. I like smoke salmon and horseradish creme fraiche. Not sure if big Stieg would approve.

The Stone Key: The Obernewtyn Chronicles 6: Isobelle Carmody

Met author when I
was in high school... followed this
series ever since

Carmody takes her time with these books - the series has got to be well over a decade old. I think I was about 15 when she did an author visit to our local library. I went with my favourite English teacher, because I was a good kid who liked reading and writing. She even did a workshop with us. She wore hippy clothes and bangles that jingled.

I guess I loved her anecdotes of being an over imaginative child, which lead to her getting published at a fairly young age. This series is aimed at young adults, but quite frankly even though I'm not one of those anymore, I like the rich post nuclear world she's imagined.

Plus the main character has a psychic cat and has developed some sort of empathy toward animals which allows her and other like her to talk to them. Who doesn't want to know what their pet is thinking? *

Hope you are all well - will catch up with your postings soon!

*"Where's mah freakin' dins, beyotch." That's what that intense stare Fluffy is sending you means.

Have a great 2010!

I've very much enjoyed your 2009 catch up posts. It's almost ludicrous that yet another year has passed by. At least this year I feel like I caught the train, rather than being stuck at the 2009 station, waiting for the next one.

I'm definitely going to do the 50 book challenge this year. I'm tempted to cheat a little and include a book I was reading last week, but I'm taking the high road.

Instead over the last 2 days I read Nelson DeMille's 'Nightfall'

It's not the sort of book I'd normally pick up, but I am slowly making my way through Beast Master's collection. He is the owner of a stunning array of war books, spy books and non fiction coffee table books that have nothing but things like 'Carriers of the Crimea' plastered all over the front.

It's sort of endearing - such a boy obsession. Suffice to say I've been avoiding 'Super Chargers: The True Story of Depth Mines' and the like. I'm more enjoying his spy and police collection, which is where DeMille's book comes in.

A short review... TW 800 was a flight that actually did explode about 12 minutes after take off from New York. 230 passengers died on their way to Paris. Horrible stuff. This book posits that it may have been a terrorist attack. At the end of the day, it's a great detective story and I sort of love then main character, troubled smart aleck cop with an axe to grind, John Corey. So much I have raided the Spare Oom to get the next book in the series. If anything, it'll give me awesome things to annoy Beast Master with - my favourite interchange was Corey simply beating on his nemesis and calling him an asshole. And then telling him he stepped on his, erm, member.

Pretty engrossing, and I even didn't get too bothered by this author having his work endorsed by Dan Brown. Demille is several orders of magnitude above Brown, in my humble opinion. At least I give a crap about his characters.

The only good thing I've got the say about the Da Vinci code was the interview with Paul Bettany about how he made Tom Hanks fart during filming of the movie.