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lisacindrich

lisacindrich

Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown

Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown - David Wiedemer, Robert Wiedemer, Cindy Spitzer Hmmm. Well, I wasn't real thrilled about the 'you can call our investment firm for help on how to handle your money during the upcoming hellish times' advertising aspect, but...

It's a sad comment on just how pessimistic I feel about the financial state of this country that Aftershock actually seemed LESS gloomy than I'd expected. Granted, they are forecasting the bursting of the dollar and government debt bubbles, the destruction of the dollar as the world's reserve currency, double digit inflation and interest rates, a potential 90% drop in the value of the stock market, etc. But the fact that they specifically do NOT predict hyper (cash-in-a-wheelbarrow) inflation or, you know, blood running in the streets gave my spirits rather a lift.

The 'bubble' charts they include are pretty damning. Amazing to see things like the real estate price index laid out on a chart covering a century and to see the incredible (seriously--incredible) spike stabbing upward as you approach the '00s. Too bad that the charts showing our federal debt and our money supply demonstrate the exact same spike. And then there's that chart showing that the stock market for the past few years follows the bouts of quantitative easing up and down like the most obedient lap dog in the world. Disturbing.

The Orphan Master's Son

The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson This was well on its way to five-star status. Then, of course, I had to return it, half-read, to the library because someone had a hold on it. But I WILL return to this one!

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go - Dale E. Basye Listening to the audio. The reader is fantastic.

Freedom

Freedom - Jonathan Franzen Well, I made it onto the second disc of the audiobook so that should constitute a fair try.

The Help

The Help - Kathryn Stockett Excellent audio production. Whoever produced the recording found some amazing readers/actors to portray each voice. The audio aspect deserves a full five stars.

As I listened to the story unfold, I felt like I was listening to a bunch of juicy gossip. Definitely wanted to know what happened next...enough so that I took discs from the car CD player into my house so I could listen to a little more after the commute home.

Deep Water

Deep Water - Patricia Highsmith As usual, Highsmith makes me want the criminal to get away with his evil doings.
Also...I wonder why her obsession with snails? Good to know you should not feed them for a couple of days before you eat them. In case I'm ever in a Robinson Crusoe situation.

Mockingjay

Mockingjay  - Carolyn McCormick, Suzanne  Collins Listening to the audio version of this one.

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon - Kaye Gibbons The problem I'm having is that the father is such a riveting (if loathesome) character, that whenever he disappears from the story for a bit, I'm just waiting for him to return. Not that the rest of characters are poorly drawn...but the father is the one I really want to watch, more than his daughter who is narrating the story. So whenever the action shifts away from dear old Dad, I tend to set the book down and leave it down.

The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story

The Sallie House Haunting: A True Story - Debra Lyn Pickman Naturally, when I got to go inside the infamous house, nothing happened. I swear I am the anti-psychic. Ghosts flee from my presence.

Update:
I really have no idea how to rate this since I was reading it purely for "insider" information. I enjoyed having an actual Sallie House resident's detailing of events. The only problem was that, after giving us lots of detail based on her journals, towards the end of the book the telling got very rushed and vague. The Pickmans moved out and then more episodes occurred, but we don't really learn much of anything about them. The main focus in the final pages seems to be on the strong love between Debra and her husband and how that is what allowed them to make it through all paranormal difficulties. I don't really understand why the book went from loads of detail to none at all.

What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae: A Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Kids)

What to Expect When You're Expecting Larvae: A Guide for Insect Parents (and Curious Kids) - Bridget Heos, Stéphane Jorisch My 4 year-old loves this and has even requested that I read it multiple times in one evening. (This is very unusual for her. Usually when she loves a book, she just has me read it one time per evening, night after night after night after etc. But with Larvae, she wanted immediate re-readings.) The text is probably geared toward a slightly older child, but I just drop a sentence here or there to shorten it to a preschooler's attention span and she adores it. Great humor and very amusing illustrations.

Ms. Hempel Chronicles

Ms. Hempel Chronicles - Sarah Shun-lien Bynum A collection of short stories about a young middle school teacher. The early stories, which focus on the students and on Ms. Hempel in the classroom, are hilarious. These fictional kids are as unique, funny, and vulnerable as any real-life adolescents. And Ms. Hempel's struggle to find her feet as a teacher--"not a very good teacher"-- is wonderful. Hard to decide which kid I adored most. Maybe "Edward Ashe, former piano prodigy, who by eighth grade had settled into a catatonic state interrupted only by moments of silent, unrelieved terror whenever she approached his desk?" Also player of the didgeridoo, composer of ragtime waltzes, and author of hilarious Jenny the Tarantula stories. Or Harriet Reznik "precious artifact of another age! Her thick, swingy helmet of hair, the bangs that looked as if they had been cut with the help of a ruler. Her clanging lunch box. Her indifference to television." Or Adelaide Burr, "avid appreciator of dance. Her first book report had celebrated in a collage (dismembered limbs; blue glitter) the life and contributions of Martha Graham, and her second, a dramatic monologue, was based on a bestseller written by a ballerina who had suffered through several disastrous affairs and then developed a serious cocaine habit." (I suspect I read this same bestseller years ago after hearing my mom talk it.) I had an odd desire to adopt every one of Ms. Hempel's students (though no desire to be a teacher myself). The later stories are really quite good as well, but are more concerned with Ms. Hempel's childhood and her personal life. In all fairness, the quality of these stories is just as high, but I would have preferred to stick with classroom exploits. 'Cause they were just too wonderful.

Larklight

Larklight - Philip Reeve, David Wyatt You know what I hate? Being nearly finished with an entertaining book and then stupidly toting my copy to the playground (with the truly insane belief that perhaps THIS TIME I will be able to read a paragraph or two while my child self-sufficiently and independently plays)...and then losing the book! If anyone finds a copy of Larklight among the mud puddles and goose droppings at Wyandotte County Lake Park, please shoot me a message.

Madame Doubtfire

Madame Doubtfire - Anne Fine I've really enjoyed the Anne Fine books I've read in the past. Doubtfire is an absolute charmer. The first pages are a tutorial in how to introduce several characters rapidly AND quickly establish their personalities AND how to make sympathetic a character who maybe shouldn't be sympathetic. (Really, a father who, in front of his children, pretends to make a noose to hang his ex-wife or who tells the children "Sometimes I think I could cheerfully slit her throat!" by all rights should not be so delightful and charming. Reminds me of how Hornby pulled off a similar trick with the character Will in About a Boy.) The dialogue is quirky, humorous and contains those wonderful turns-of-phrase that the English seem to do so well. Never saw the movie, but I think it shifts everything to America. Pity.

Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda - George Eliot, Edmund White Dear God, but this is good.

Update: Overall, four stars, but it really breaks down into two different ratings for the two major plotlines. The Grandcourt marriage? Oh, that is five stars of brutal marital misery. Daniel and the Jewish people? More like three. Interesting, overall, but Mirah and Mordecai/Ezra never seemed quite so alive and 3-dimensional as the Gwendolyn group. And sadly, I did start to zone out occasionally when Mordecai would really get fired up in his theological/philosophical rhapsodies.
There was one especially poignant passage where a (Jewish) character is talking about how the Jews fit into German cultural life. And then you realize this was published a mere 6 decades before Hitler came to power.

Empress Orchid

Empress Orchid - Anchee Min Dear God, but it's a joy to have bookstore gift cards to spend and new books flurrying onto my shelves!

I Am the Messenger

I Am the Messenger - Markus Zusak This is really good so far. Very different from Book Thief, but you can tell by some of the inventive use of language and imagery that it's written by the same person. The opening scene in the bank is hilarious.
A joy to read someone who makes his language work in such a fresh way.