Review: Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

First of all, I would like to say that both Amy Poehler and Tina Fey absolutely amaze m. First of all, they can act, which I cannot. Not only do they act, but they improvise. I certainly can't do that. I tried acting in school plays and basically wonder the stage repeating my 2 lines over and over in my head so when the cue came I could deliver them. I must look like a socially awkward robot. I tried improv as a musician several times and again, I sound like a robot, though this time a broken one making it's final dying squealing. Think I'm exaggerating? I'm really not.

So, when I began reading this book, I already knew  I would love it. I chose to listen to this as an audiobook because I try to real all memoirs in audio form if they are read by their author. This book didn't let me down. Amy is so confident and strong while being funny and oh so human. These are all things I want to be, and this book was incredibly invigorating.

I laughed in each chapter, and wrote down quotes to remember.
"Stop whining about getting old. It's a privilege. A lot of people who are dead wish they were still alive."

"Nobody looks stupid when they are having fun."

"That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. 'Good for her! Not for me.'"

"If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. I decided early on it was not going to be my looks."

 I took from it that woman-on-woman crime is incredibly real and even more harmful. I learned that so many problems can be solved by the phrase "don't think." Over-thinking and being too in your head is a big problem for many people, me included.  I connected to Poehler when she says for years she was a terrible sleeper who went to bed at 3a.m. and woke up at 10. That is precisely where I am right now. And most of all, for a few hours I got to explore someone else's story.

Review: Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Not your typical murder mystery.
The novel begins with Ayane and her husband Yoshitaka discussing their relationship. We learn right away that Yoshitaka's lie plan means everything to him, and on that plan is a baby. After one year of marriage, he has decided to end their relationship so he can  move on to someone who will give him children. Ayane mentally confesses her intention to murder him. It's a classic "if I can't have him, no one can."

We then meet the other woman who happens to be Ayane's student, muddying the plot just a bit more.

It is no surprise when Yoshitaka dies suddenly of poisoning, but what is surprising is that his wife is out of town visiting family and therefore could not have logically been the one to poison her husband. But we know the truth, and one of the detectives on the case has a hunch. Rather than trying to solve who killed him, we spend the novel trying to figure out how she managed to kill him from so far away.

This novel had the wit and science of Fringe without the element of the supernatural. It has been translated from Japanese to English, which can seem awkward at times, but overall the translation was seamless. The only problem I had with the novel is that in chapter one an the end of the novel have a slight discrepancy about where the poison was the day he asked for the divorce.

That minor detail aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Review: The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is a perfect example of a series that gets better a few books in. I actually really enjoyed this novel.

Book 2 is about a zombie, or zombie creature, who has been raised from the dead and now is committing murder or entire families. Enter Anita Blake to solve the case and stop the zombie.

Maybe it is the detective aspect that I really enjoyed. From the beginning of this novel there is a crime to solve and Anita is the one to do it. This is also a book that doesn't deal very heavily in vampires. Jean Claude makes an appearance several times and here I can for sure see that he will be a lover to Anita later on. A lover who is challenged by her, that is. He has made her his human servant, and she is not a willing candidate. Major points there. So many vampire authors would have written a girl who falls right into the arms of a vampire lover making her his human servant. No thank you. I am thrilled that Anita's strong independence is holding strong.

Though the repetitive writing is still an issue (the word car twice in one sentence!) I am deciding to move past it and try to truly enjoy this series.

Review: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My sister loves this series, and since I have begged her to read the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, I figured I aught to read her favorite...right?

Book one....vampire executioner takes a job working for a vampire...interesting.

My first reaction was not to like it too much. My complaints? Mainly Hamilton's over-use of words. (There is a sentence in book 2 where she used the word car twice in one sentence!) That and other things made me a little nutty. My complain about the character was that she reuses her own jokes. It might also be that I am used to reading vampire novels written from the vampire's perspective. All of Anne Rice's vampires tell their own stories or have them told though the Vampire Lestat's point of view. This one is told from a human perspective.

Now for the positives. Anita is a bad ass. I absolutely loved that the hero of these novels is a female, and one who doesn't need a man. While I see a budding romance between her and Jean Claude, I am so happy to see that it is not helpless girl falls head-over-heals for a sexy, somewhat abusive, vampire. She is independent and not looking for love.

I decided to stick with this series because I think I will learn to love the characters, despite the somewhat repetitive writing.

Review: Blackwood Farm

I have not read all of Rice's novels yet--not even close--but I have to say so far this one is my favorite. The only others in the Vampire Chronicles I have read are Interview, Lestat, and Queen of the Damned. And to be honest, Vampire novels are not really my thing. But there is something about the way Anne Rice writes--I would read anything if she wrote it. 

Blackwood Farm is a story about a Vampire who, in his mortal life, was joined to his spirit doppelganger, haunted by spirits only he could see, struggled with his sexuality, and was abandoned more times that even imaginable. He seeks the vampire Lestat to intervene and rid the world of his, now evil, doppelganger which is threatening his mortal family, as well as to seek answers about his new immortal life. 

This book stuck out to me for several reasons.  First of all, and probably most importantly, I felt as if this book belonged along side the novels I read in college when I studied literature. Rice, as usual, has woven in so many different topics, and made so many strong statements, all within one story. The main theme I drew from this is the outcast, or isolation. 

Within every one of Rice's novels you see the theme of the outcast. That theme doesn't take much thought to notice. But this story in particular touches on that theme in more ways than just the vampire motif we have come to love. Yes, when the characters become vampires, they become outcasts. They no longer can interact among humans and have to give up family and friends. That is what happens when Tarquin Blackwood becomes a vampire. However, he doesn't become a vampire until very near to the end of the book and he is an outcast since birth. 

First, he is an outcast due to the fact that he is haunted by a spirit that only he can see. His doppelganger, Goblin, follows him everywhere and copies him, becoming more and more intelligent as Tarquin ages. He is Tarquins first, and often only, friend. But he is also often a jealous friend. A jealous friend who will ultimately cause destruction and death to those Tarquin hold dear. 

Secondly, Tarquin sees other spirits besides just Goblin. He sees the ghost of Rebecca, a family member who was murdered, as well as others. This is isolating as, more than once, his sanity is questioned. Occasional characters come into his life that can either see Goblin, or pretend to, but they are all taken away from him just as quickly as they come. Tarquin longs for companionship from someone who completely understands his gift. This point is solidified when we meet Mona Mayfair (a character from the Mayfair family of which Rice wrote the Mayfair Witch Chronicles) Tarquin falls instantly in love with her due to the fact that she could see the spirits like he could.

Tarquin has several quick love affairs and sexual encounters with both men and women, Once, he even has an encounter with Goblin, which can be seen as an extension of himself. Good old fashion Catholic guilt is for sure the third type of isolation in this story. This is confirmed when we meet Petronia, a vampire who is physically both male and female, but has chosen, most often, to live as a woman (a female gladiator in her mortal life.) She alone would be easy to write an entire post about. The fact that she is the vampire to create Tarquin is immense knowing her story of isolation and her struggles with gender. The theme of sexuality is found in all of Rice's novels, but is handled more directly in Blackwood Farm, in my opinion.

Then there is the issue of Tarquin's mother, who he didn't grow up knowing as his mother, but as his aunt. He learns early on that she gave him up to be raised by his grandfather, but it isn't until the end of the novel that we understand why the hatred for him exists. We learn early on that Tarquin was not only unwanted, but that his mother was paid to keep him.Again, an entire post could be written about this relationship alone.

 We learned in the beginning of the novel that Tarquin sought out Lestat to help him be rid of Goblin who is suspected of becoming strong (and a vampire) by feeding on Tarquin's blood after a hunt. So it is not a surprise when we find ourselves in the last chapter battling to the death with Goblin. What we don't know in the beginning is if Lestat will be killing Tarquin as well. In the beginning of the novel, Tarquin is delivering a letter telling his story to Lestat's home, only to be walked in on. The bulk of the novel is back story leading up to Tarquin being turned into a vampire, and all the while we have no idea whether Lestat will respond negatively or positively to the intrusion (but it is Lestat, after all. Didn't we all expect him to welcome this outsider in?)

As usual, we examine spirituality, specifically Catholicism,  heavily in this book. One scene in particular that stood out to me was when the vampires attend a memorial and take communion, What follows is a gentle statement about whether they are still worthy of this sacrament which is the single symbol the Catholic faith revolves around. Hmmm I am not one bit surprised to see Rice bluntly commenting on the religious "outsider" being actually within the love of their God. 

Phew! So much is packed into one novel, and I could have kept going! So much history straight from her previous novels and so much to be looked at through the lens of the outsider. Beautiful! I simply cannot wait to dive into more in this series, and of course, Prince Lestat when it comes out in the fall!

Review: Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

"If you want to live within your own truth, you have to choose to go through the initially painful and ultimately comforting process of finding it."

"A" has no body, and instead wakes up every morning in a different one. There is no predicting which body A will be in except that they are always the age A would have been and always geographically near where the last one was. A has complete control over that body for the day and even has access to all the persons memories allowing for as "normal" of a day as possible. But then, A wakes up as Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon.


The ultimate question remains...Can love conquer all?

Like all of Levithan's novels, Every Day is rich with wisdom and beautifully written prose. It is the type of novel to savor. The language is rich yet completely embraceable to the modern reader. 

Besides just the story of love, this story examines people and their connection to life and to one another. Have you ever tried to talk about someone without using their gender, it's harder than you might imagine. That is how it has been discussing A. You cannot use him or her, he or she. It really changes how gender is viewed. Watching Rhiannon interact with A in different genders, sizes and shapes further examines the different ways we treat people based on what we know about them visually. Also, A examines different lives and how different people see the world. A describes this once to Rhiannon explaining that the color blue looks different through different eyes. Isn't that a wild concept to imagine? But it is true, tastes, smells and sights would be different to everyone.

So much of what we think about a person, how we react to them, how we interact with them is based on the way they present themselves visually. We treat men different than women, the old different than the young, someone professional differently than someone who is sloppy, the fat different than the thin, the ugly different than the beautiful. A even notices the different ways Riannon reacts depending who she is standing next to. She is more affectionate with males she finds attractive than she is with females. She acts intimidated when next to the overly beautiful woman. She is disgusted by the incredibly obese young man.

Over all, this is my favorite book to date and certainly my favorite book for 2013. I highly recommend it for teens and adults alike.

Review: Done Deal

Done Deal by Rene Shultz


If you were to die tomorrow, what would you be remembered for?

For Cissy, she was remembered as a nurturing mother, a compassionate friend, and the woman who saved thousands of lives from her death bed.

What Schultz has done here is created a novel that doesn't only chronicle a woman’s journey through cancer, but shows the value of living a life that makes a difference for others. Cissy, a woman just shy of her fiftieth birthday, finds out she has cancer and the prognosis does not look good. From the first page of the novel we learn that she did not survive. Knowing she is gone altered the way this story is perceived. Because we know this, we see everything she does as her mark she will leave on the world. Based on the background story we learn through other vivid characters, we know Cissy to have touched lives and been cherished throughout her life. Then we watch as she does the unimaginable to leave a better place for all cancer victims who will come after her. She is selfless in her final acts on this earth. This is a quick read with a past paced plot that will leave you regretting that it has to end.

For me, some parts of this novel were especially sad because I have lost family members to cancer. I feel very strongly about any novel that commemorates the lives of people who have struggled whether it is cancer or something else. I would recommend this novel for sure and look forward to more by Ms. Schultz in the future.