Stuff White People Like--#53 finished

This is one of those books that started as a blog and got enough attention that it became a book.  A great story but does read basically like a blog entry.  Funny stuff here, lots of observations about weird habits of white people.  The author is British or partially or something, he does really explain in the book but maybe on the blog--I didn't check that far into it.  It seems to be about a generation behind me, so I can laugh at it but I also realize that if someone did this 10 to 15 years ago, I would probably be nailed.  Still some stuff here that I fit but the test at the end my white person % was pretty low.

A friend at work had picked up this book and liked it and passed it along.  I will be returning it to him.  This one does have like 50 WL for it on PBS but this one won't be going there.  I snuck it in in time to be done for Sept too on the last day.

In My Time--#52 finished

This is Dick Cheney's memoir.  It seems that sometimes I am one of the few Dick Cheney fans out there.  I really enjoyed him at the 2 VP debates he did and his politics while conservative were also tough and steady.  As the VP has was very much tied down to what President wanted and to me it seems he would have made quite a few different decisions that President Bush made.  Of course Cheney's loyalty to those around him would not let him express that in this book.  He did take shots at Condi Rice & Colin Powell but that was after explaining he truly respected them but disagreed with some of their decisions.  Well maybe a little harsher than that.  I do want to read now President Bush's book that I have that goes over some his major decisions as President but that might have to wait a month or so--that would probably be too much politics right away.

From reading this memoir I respect Cheney even more.  It really shows how his experience came to bear in the Bush Presidency and how Cheney was an important piece of the President.  I really liked this book.  For the most part he did not take many shots at President Obama but did point out the differences as well as how President Obama has had to backtrack on issues that he campaigned on.

All in all liked the book and not sure at this point if it will be a keeper or not.  Right now leaning toward keeper.

Swag--#51 finished

Well, it certainly took long enough for me to finish my next book.  This is a 1970s, book about a couple guys who decide to become robbers.  I mean the book is in the 1970s but also it was written in the '70s.  A good read, a different time different mindsets, kind of interesting.  Really not much here other than a Elmore Leonard book, only 2nd one I have read and both were pretty good.  I will have to keep looking for his books.

I am still working on the Dick Cheney book, In My Time, I am just around 100 pages to go.  I hope to have it finished by the end of the month.  I am also still reading The End of Mr. Y, it is taking longer and slower than I had hoped.  I am past 100 pages but still under 150 I think.  Reading in Sept has been very sporadic and it shows with only having 3 finished and all smaller books too.

The Color of Night--#50 finished

This a very dark book about a woman that seems to be part of a hippie scene like the Mansons that she somehow after killings gets away and sort of disappears.  She has a female lover that she then recognizes in a 9/11 scene on TV and contacts her.  Eventually she travels to meet her in NY city where her lover has become part of the establishment but is dying of cancer.  Throw in screwed up childhood with sex scenes with her older brother as well as knife play and killing animals, well this is a really screwed up life.  It is dark, it is ugly, this person and her actions have not really changed or developed, she is screwed up and scary as she was as a teenager.  Her brother went to Vietnam and came back even more screwed up and eventually killed his family and died in a police standoff before he had a chance to burn down the house he was in.  There is really not a redeeming person in this book.

I have a very hard time likely this book.  I don't like the writer's style of jumbling back and forth and never really getting to a point.  The characters are tough and you are not supposed to like them but for those reasons I can't really like this book either.

Well, I will post it at some point on PBS & mail it off, there are 6 WL for it.  Still reading the Dick Cheney book and The End of Mr Y.  I also started a 1970s action book Swag.  Not sure if I will get into a 4th book yet or not.

People Who Live at the End of Dirt Roads--#49 finished

A short story book.  It is all old time sappy stuff about how life was so much better in small towns & in farms.  While some of it is sort of true it is surrounded by all the sappy stuff that it is just sort of mindless drivel.  I had higher hopes for this book but oh well.

I will be posting it on PBS at some point, but not tonight--it is too late & I am going to bed.

Cardboard Gods--#48 finished

I received this book through PBS a couple years ago and finally took the time to read it.  I had sort of followed the writers blog for a while & when I heard he wrote a book off his blog idea, I put it on my WL.  His blog is now the same name as his book--although I haven't checked it out for a couple years.  In it he would pull out one of his old baseball cards and examine the player, his uniform and background and wrap all that with something that went on in his life.  He has lead an interesting life, at least by my standards but I don't think I would call it exciting.  The book was more about his life and his struggles to fit in and become something.  There was less focus on the cards and more focus on his life, which makes sense.  I did miss some of his crazy insights about the baseball cards though that he threw out there in the blog.  I will have to check on his blog & see if it is still running and how it has changed.

The book itself kind of reads like a John Irving novel, I just read his Twisted River--back in January I believe and it seems similar at least to the Irving character's mid 30s age.  This writer Josh Wilker hasn't gotten to the level of success yet that Irving gave his character.  Now that I rethink it, maybe not that similar but the book had kind of that feel to it with baseball cards instead of wrestling--Irving likes wrestling.  Overall I liked this book and really hope the writer becomes successful.  I didn't get a good feeling either way on Josh's life--good or bad.  Lots of issues and hope for the best.  Wonder if in 10-15 years another book will be coming out?

I am not sure if I will be posting it or not.  Right now I think it is a keeper for me.  His blog is one of the reasons I have this blog and still think about writing something.  I don't think I can mail this book off.  It will go by the Adventures in Mainstreaming that also gets partial credit.

I am reading The End of Mr Y and also started The Color of Night.  I hope to add a 3rd book later today.

Consider This, Señora--#47 finished

I really enjoyed this book about Americans that start a housing development in the 1960s on a hill overlooking a lake close to a poor Mexican city in the interior of the country.  A good story about the people that moved there and their lives.  The book was colorful and insightful for both the foreigners that moved in and the locals that have lived there for generations.  It is a very good and interesting read,  I really enjoyed it.  I wasn't sure what the book would be like when I started, I feared more romance and there was very little of that.  This book really surprised me in a very good way.

I will not be posting it on PBS, the spine is cracking in one spot.  Now I must decide if this book is a keeper or if I will pass it along elsewhere--right now leaning toward keeper.