Age is Just a Number--#13 finished

This is Dara Torres autobiography, she is the American Olympic swimmer that was age 41 at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. That was her 5th Olympic games. It is really an amazing feat and her story is a good one. Her dedication and commitment was amazing. She doesn't really mention it but her financial commitment to this had to be great as well, from the sounds of it in the book, she came from a very well to do family. The Olympics and most Olympic sports just don't pay well enough for someone to commitment the money to it like she must have. That being said all the money in the world wouldn't help without her again, amazing dedication and commitment.

It is a really good story. There are some goofy parts like her consulting a fortune-teller and actually believing the advice but that adds a degree of creditability to the story. Putting something like that out there had to expose her to some ridicule but I will give her credit for being honest in her book. She has had an interesting career(?) as a swimmer and I will have to google her to see what she is doing currently. I am not sure she will be able to leave the sport but I also don't think coaching is up her alley either.

I will be posting it on PBS at some point, there are 12 WL for it. I am no hurry though to run to the post office to mail just one book, so might wait until something else gets requested. I started reading Rules of Betrayal, the 3rd in the series--I have liked the other 2 and this one has started off good in the first 30 pages or so. I am also starting Kings of Cocaine about the whole drug trade from '70s on. Still reading Eat This Book also.

Age is Just a Number was my 5th book of February, a little slower than January, where I knocked out 8. I don't think I will finish another one, although Eat could get close. I have read 2 700+ page books already this year, last year I only read 3 books over 600 pages. That was one of my kind of goals this year--to read some of the larger books that I have sitting around finally. Of course some of the other 11 I have read have been a little shorter but that is just the way it goes too.

Breaking Dawn-#12 finished

This is the final book of the Twilight series, the uber-popular vampire series by Stephanie Meyer. Our oldest daughter has read the first 3 books in the series but not this one because we haven't let her. This one the main characters get married and have a child and the whole bedroom scenes are things we are not sure she is ready for at this point. After reading the book, I think it handle this pretty well and will be letting her read the book, but might make her wait until summer--will have to talk to wife & see.

As far as the book goes, it is not too bad. Not really what I enjoy reading but it did eventually get entertaining. I didn't read the first 3 (and don't expect I will either) so maybe some of the whole love story was missed by me, but once it got past that in the beginning it wasn't too bad. I still like my vampires more traditional but these "new" vampires have sold a lot of books so can't really fault the author there. Overall a good story with some decent secondary stuff going on as well. Characters were just okay but again maybe I missed some on their back stories in the earlier books.

This was a library book so I will be returning it, no moving it along to PBS. I figure we will be getting a copy for daughter at some point though. Right now reading Dara Torres book, the Olympic swimmer and Eat This Book, about competitive eating. Will be grabbing another book at some point today as well.

Perfectly Criminal--#11 finished

I haven't been reading as much this month so things have slowed down. My interest in the books could be part of the reason as well. This one, Perfectly Criminal is just okay. I liked the author's first book, Defenseless more. This one continued with the same main characters from the RI Attorney General's office but the focus was on a different lawyer in the office, the tough, rough talking, etc lawyer. She had to come to grips with some of her past and also some relationship stuff in the book. I really didn't like the beginning and it took a lot to overcome that. I had almost given up the book before page 100 but did push on to finish. It finished up much better but still just a okay or maybe a little below that.

I have posted it on PBS and there are 2 WL for it so hopefully I will be mailing it out this week for a credit.

Quick update, I am mailing the book off to a PBS member but that member also ordered 2 other books. I also sent along a couple other books because I figure if you are ordering 3 I could kick some in also.

The Gin Closet--#10 finished

I am mixed on how I feel about the book. I think the author did an excellent job of taking chances with the book and exposing the readers to some real emotions and tough situations. I am not sure really how I feel about the characters in the book. Everyone in the book was really struggling with their demons, some much worse than others. In the end though it was hard to find much to like about any of the characters, their flaws seemed to be what controlled their lives.

A screwed up family that kept secrets for years, throw in a lot of drinking, some incest, a cold hearted mom/sister and well there is the book. Obviously much more but those were some of the main themes. By the end of the book it was tough to say that I enjoyed it. I do have to give the author credit because it was very well written and the emotion came off the page without the author having to spice it up--if that makes sense.

I will be posting it to PBS, there are like 6 WL for it so it should be mailed off next week. I will probably also post The Hour I First Believed as well and maybe a 3rd book too, who knows.

The Hour I First Believed--#9 finished

It took a while but I finally finished this book. I started it right at the end of Dec so it was a little more than a month. Early on it was a tough book for me to stay interested in, didn't care for either of the two main characters Caelum or Maureen-Mo. Overall though it all came around and is a very good book. A very good story about Caelum and his ancestors and the struggle him & Mo had after Columbine. There is a lot of info and storylines going on in the novel that the 2nd half or at least the last 3rd, it was fun to see the pieced together or explained at least. I am glad that I took the time to read the book. It was the longer book that I wanted to start the year off with and while it came in at 9, I still see it as starting the year with it since it took that month to read.

I will be posting it on PBS, not sure when but sometime in the next week or so I would guess. I am still reading Breaking Dawn and have also started Perfectly Criminal. Might grab a third book tomorrow as well but should probably spend more time on the other two first also-who knows.

The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair and Other Excursions & Observations--#8 finished

This is a collection of George Plimpton articles from throughout his career. Some very good and funny stuff. I knew of George Plimpton as the sports writer that actually got out there and attempted the sports to write about them. The Paper Lion probably his most famous where he went to the Detroit Lions training camp as a quarterback and even got a few plays in during a preseason game. I knew he was a writer but thought his main focus was sports. Well I was wrong and this book was a nice intro into some of what his career spanned. I liked the book, it was a short quick read with interesting chapters.

I have posted it on PBS, there was one WL for it so hopefully it will be getting mailed off soon. I am still working on The Hour I First Believed and also working on Breaking Dawn--the Twilight book. Not sure if I will be starting a 3rd one tonight but will probably look to add a 3rd sometime this weekend.

By the way, not a bad start to the year 8 books read in the first month. Now 3 of them are under 200 pages but still considering I have been slowly working on The Hour...8 read is not bad at all.

The True Sources of the Nile--#7 finished

I was pleasantly surprised at how I enjoyed this book, especially the 2nd half of it. The first half was slow and spent much time developing the characters to where the reader would feel some connection with them. The 2nd half started with the uprising and massacre in Burundi and how Anne reacts to that along with her feelings toward her boyfriend and lover Jean Pierre and his role in this and previous uprisings. I also enjoyed how Anne's life in the US still continued onward and once she was pulled back into that orbit how that life contrasted with her African life. The relationships at home with her sisters and her mother were complex but it seemed she was always looking for a way out from there and in the end leaves the US again for an overseas job in Malaysia.

If you can get through the beginnings of the novel, the 2nd half is really worth it for the read. Like I said I did enjoy reading it. I have posted it on PBS but there are 4 or 5 copies ahead of it so it probably won't move for a while.

I am still working on The Hour I First Believed, man it is going slow but hope to get more than a few pages read today on my day off. Also just starting the final Twilight book as a favor for my oldest--she really wants to read it but because of adult themes we haven't let her. I have agreed to read it and then decide so she is really really hoping I will let her--we will just have to see. I have not read any of the Twilight books but did see the first movie and wasn't very impressed, oh well.