I have been slacking. I thought the holidays were gonna give me more time to read read read and then throw in a review or two......NOPE!! Too busy with holiday drama...financial crap...screaming kids...house cleaning...screaming kids...being sick with a cough for the second time in a month..gift shopping and then wrapping....oh and did I mention screaming kids??!! I pop open a book only to have to stop and close it again 2 pages in. I am ready for the holidays to be over with so I can go back to being the lazy reading bum that I am while the kids are in school. But I'm here because I have a review...not a vent. Moving on to the review...I managed to breeze through this read that took about a day to get through.

so that's the book....but what do you think of my random house penguin my daughter made me??!!

A couple of months ago I read the book Life Into Mist by Haidji and I loved it. Beautiful and poetic..unlike anything I had ever read. Then I had the opportunity to read another book by the very artistic and unique Haidji..Harables: Short Stories 1. I am glad that I did. True to Haidji form this book is odd and beautiful and poetic...I think I kinda enjoy reading her work even though at the moment I am not the biggest fan of poetry (I totally use to be when I was younger...lately nothing seems to stick). Again this is unlike anything I typically read and I think that is what intrigues me so much about Haidji and the beautiful stories that she puts out for the world.

A collection of short stories each one so poetically written..each one odd in such a beautiful way. I won't even begin to get into any synopsis or summaries of them because it's difficult to really describe her stories in a way that would do them justice. I will say this..it's refreshing to read something from someone that is not afraid to be different. There is no drag to her work..no overly descriptive unnecessary paragraphs...she does not get deep into character description. Sometimes that is what is needed in other books but not in Haidji's. She makes each collection of stories into a piece of poetry...sentences flowing gracefully...and the reading time in them is quick but perfectly so. It feels like you just read lyrics to a song and not a book.

Again, just like in Life into Mist, Harables delivers in that same way. If you love poetry...if you love abstract...heck, even if you don't but are not afraid to try something different then I recommend this book. I don't typically buy poetry books although I do enjoy some poetry from time to time...so I am never sure what to attempt to read...Haidji's books are the perfect fit because I am reading fiction.. great stories, but I also feel like I am getting my poetry fix. Get the book...and HAPPY READINGS!!(at least you should be happy when you are reading..if you're not then I don't know what the hell is wrong with you and your reading skills)

Oh yeah...I received my free copy of this book thanks to Haidji and giveaway in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly and voluntarily gave!!

The Happy Life of Preston Katt by J.J Zerr

I'll say it now...it's the anything but happy life of Preston Katt if I'm being honest..

Yes...it's kinda a tear jerker...I shed some tears...

The thing that bothered me...the beautiful young looking nun on the cover...what was the point really???

 

I signed up to receive this copy via giveaway...why?? I am not even sure. The cover kinda appealed to me. I saw a hot looking nun on the cover. I thought, "Def something about forbidden love". And yes hot nun..cause she is pretty..then my brain starts going in the direction of equally hot body hidden behind them nun robes...steamy scenes between a woman of faith and a young also hot military guy. Yeah.....uh....anything but. Turns out I was nowhere near that...but could I have possibly been the only one thinking that when they saw the cover??!!

The story starts off with Katt...Preston Katt but known as Katt...and his shipmate Moriarty...two Seaman Second Classes that crept off their war ship the USS Callahan to have a drunken dirty rendezvous with two Japanese whores...they struggle with trying to get back on the ship without being noticed because they will obviously be in some major trouble if caught. Moriarty already is notorious for trouble making and Katt is just a skinny rookie that has not had much experience with life on his own. Moriarty is the bad boy...Katt has the conscience and is very driven by religion. He knows he needs to stop hanging out with Moriarty if he is to focus on his life goals in the military and life in general. But something always seems to steer him towards the temptations of Moriarty and all the rebelliousness he gets into.
Backtrack...this is December 7, 1941...in Pearl Harbor right in the middle of World War II....the day after their night of boozing and women they are attacked by the Japanese. In Zerr's writing we capture a feel of the devastation of war while on a war ship...battle ship..in the military. Intricate with technical details...sometimes I found myself bored...but maybe that's just me..obviously this book needed all the technical ship stuff...I mean we are talking about a war!! Throughout the story Katt looks back to the times growing up...living with his abusive alcoholic mother and her bad choices in partners...Sister Ralph (Ding Ding Ding...the nun on the cover) and Mrs. Grossman always sympathizing with him and his struggles. And because of his struggles as a kid with his mother he vowed never to go down the same path...however, it was harder to do than he thought...especially with a friend like Moriarty. Although to be fair to the character Moriarity is no bad guy..never intentionally trying to be a bad friend...he's just a rebellious guy that does not like to be limited by rules and he loves having a wingman. Military Banter...and fun in between all the struggle and trauma of a war. So...as the story moves along Moriarty gets injured and is set up to stay in the hospital for the military. Katt goes to pay him a visit...maybe not trying to make us think that he is excited about seeing his friend..come to find out Moriarty gets discharged out to battleship Yorktown and although it fills Katt with a sense of relief (relief because it helps him to see it as a way to keep him from fun trouble) he feels bad as a friend..having not done more for him as Moriarty did for Katt to get discharged back to the Callahan when he was sent to the hospital for a concussion and could not be quickly released. Moriarty was that friend that got a doc to release Katt sooner than later so the two could stay together on the Callahan. So on Katt's way back to the Callahan he discovers that the ship is setting off port...dramatically finding his way back to the ship he realizes that they are on a mission to save Yorktown's occupants (they got bombed by the Japs). All Katt could think about is his friend Moriarty. Disaster strikes...and well, With the most amazing eagle eyes to see enemy subs, periscopes, etc it has helped him to move up in the ranks...He is very hard on you'll have to read the book to find out what..with whom...why..whatever. 

So at first I wanted to not like this book. I started reading it and I thought with all the military war details it was too technical for me. I wanted more. More backstory....more feelings. Things were nothing like it stated..Katt was not happy. If anything most of the time he always had the conscience to stop himself from doing anything on a whim for fun. He always felt like he and those around him were being punished by God for something he did..always concerned with letting everyone he knew down. And then the cover of the Nun..there was not enough in the story about her for her to deserve to have her face on the cover. If anything there was a few lines about her...nothing that special. His friendship with Moriarty was good but not great...not enough adventures for me to accept that Katt went out of his way to save the guy. But I will say as I continued reading I realized that it was a decent read. I was sad a lot for the life of Preston Katt. I was so sad for how the book ended. It was bittersweet. I still wish there was more...more details...more backstory...more about his  troubled family life and this amazing compassionate Nun and Mrs. Grossman but I was pleased that it was just enough for the ending to have the effect that it had on me. The entire story...worth it for that ending.

I received my copy free via giveaway in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly voluntarily gave!!

Who Killed Randy Ratphink? by Jerry Flu Book Review....

Who the hell killed Randy Ratphink and why?? Get ready for a crazy strange adventure coming from what must be one of the craziest authors that ever existed!!

craziness of a book...even crazier a read

I just finished my copy of the book Who Killed Randy Ratphink?: The Postmortem Adventures of a Fried-Brain Hippie! by Jerry Flu. First off let me give props to the fact that Jerry Flu sent me a signed copy of his crazy looking book a long with a book mark....Kudos in my book (no pun intended...or intended...whatever). Excited to jump right in I think I did the fastest speed read I ever did with the book I was currently on just to get to this one.

Jerry Flu..courteous enough to personalize my copy..and send a fab bookmark!!

So, this crazy whirlwind of a book...starts with Randy Ratphink. We meet him as a celestial being floating around somewhere in some astral world between the real living world and heaven (I think)...no body...no face...nada!! He is trying to get to the heart of his matter (only he has no heart) and that is trying to figure out who the hell killed him. Yes, we already meet a dead dude..and he wants to know who he pissed off in life to the point that they would murder him?? Then we read on and we realize that he is not the easiest guy to like...we can clearly see how and why he can gain some pretty nasty people wanting him dead. Randy takes us back...a guy always on the go...homeless...penniless...basically a hustler..con artist..a druggie...a drinker...a swindler always getting into some sort of trouble...but also a total idiot with the worst luck because his hustles get him nowhere and more times than not he is being hustled. He is on a cruise ship....he did not pay OBVIOUSLY...he somehow smuggled his way in...and being in the bar of this cruise ship trying to find a way to get his tab paid. He meets Daisy...basically another hustler..a bubble yum gum smacking and blowing hustler...but we don't figure that out yet until Randy gets himself in trouble using a card that Daisy gave to him "from her first husband that died and left her his credit"...turns out that story was so not true...and now Randy finds himself stranded on an Island with no way to get back home (not like he really has a home though...oh and Daisy don't know that yet either)..Daisy get's kicked off herself...together they are on an Island trying to get back "home"...they find a way onto some cheesy cheap low class plane with a amateur pilot (amateur as in never flew ever before)..they get hijacked..taken to Cuba (??)...become part of another attempted hijacking...and then the feds come in and rescue them....

Another crazy adventure from Florida to New York...meeting Elvis!! Not an impersonator...the real deal (or so the guy says)...they get to New York (not very easily) they get swindled by someone selling a "Bob Dylan" guitar...Daisy figures out Randy is a homeless bum...but she sticks with him (when she is not getting busted by the cops). Together they try to make it work...hustling...getting by. And then.....BOOOOM!! It's all over for Randy Ratphink.

Then the real adventure begins...Mr. Celestial meets some Buddha like being that speaks an awful lot like Yoda from Star Wars...all that "do or do not, there is no try" lingo. I gotta say after reading line after line it got a little annoying. So this Buddha wants Randy to succumb to his new reality, rid himself of his egomaniac ways and let go of everything. Randy can't seem to..for whatever reason he wants and needs to know who killed him (as if it really matters). That's the part I was having trouble with...why does he need to know if he is already gone. There is nothing he can do about it. So because he refuses to allow Yoda..I mean Buddha to do his work Randy is led on an adventure of his own sub conscience. Crazy one that it is...he meets of bus load of dead weirdos..a skeleton bus driver..they listen to Hippie music and and...and..I'm not even sure..I don't remember, there was so much going on. He meets some nut of a Blue Bimbo is trying to kill him. He became the head of the Church of the Divine Mushroom...and ran into Mr. Timothy Bleary. There were other crazy nutiness in-between. Oh and Daisy was able to summon and speak to him via conjuring thanks to Madam Salaami. And so here is where my problem with the book lies...who killed Randy??...why do we care??..why does he care?? From the start it was evident that it did not really matter..we all know he had it coming to him the way he was living. And through the whole book we are not given enough clues to consider it a mystery...to know that at the end there was going to be a conclusion. There was just too much going on...too too much going on. The dead and sub-conscience world of Randy Ratphink was far crazier than his supposed crazy life alive. But we need to have a reason for all this so there's the reason....later we understand why...and later we learn yet another point in all this. It's an interesting kinda ending.

This is certainly a joyride of a story...I love certain aspects of this book. I loved the writing most times...it's a mind fuck of strangeness and fun and humor. I love the details (but at times the details drove me nuts and I wanted to get to the point)..the way Flu describes things is insane...most times a good kind of insane.
....after all that crazy mix match whirlwind of what seems like a drug induced psychedelic adventure that Randy is describing to us I am very indifferent about it all. I think about it and I loved it...I loved the concept...I loved a lot of the lines (of words)...I loved the adventure..I have not read anything quite like it...but then at times I'm like exhausted thinking about it and remembered how exhausted I became trying to get through it..it was too much at times. Some of the journey was just going off in directions that I saw no reason why it had to be that way or why it had to go for so long.

Still, I say read the book....it's worth the trip (and I don't mean drugs kinda trip....ahaha). The book is that weird I want people to read it...I gotta share this craziness with others...it's just too weird to describe perfectly so you gotta find out for yourself that's for sure.

 I received my free copy of this book via giveaway in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly gave. Thanks to you Jerry Flu for making my win/request possible!!

Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris

....And here's what I was reading on the weekend....

Funny....funny stuff!!

Choose Your Own Autobiography Neil Patrick Harris by the sarcastic and witty Neil Patrick Harris...I have been anticipating reading. I love Neil Patrick Harris as an actor so obviously I am gonna be looking forward to falling in love with him as a writer of his own life. Yes...it has lived up to my expectations. He has turned an autobiography into something fun to read. Not that autobiographies are not fun but sometimes they get a little bland...far from the case with this one.

I love that I am reading a book about Neil Patrick Harris by Neil Patrick Harris and I love that as I am reading it I can hear his voice narrating. He writes like I see him in movies...in the media..etc. It's wonderful and refreshing and fun to read!! Then of course there's the whole "choose your own..next chapter...ending" concept....BRILLIANT!! I am not typically a fast reader but I think I was going a hundred miles a minute because I wanted to get through all the twists and turns and then go back and do it all over again...and let me be honest, I did just that. I read this entire book over and over and over because I did not want to leave anything out and because I really enjoyed this book that much. I found myself purposely choosing the endings that I knew were not possibly true just for the laughs (to which there is plenty). He has an amazing childhood and he is proud of it..amazing parents..equally as proud and he does not skimp on the details of his doogie years..his first thoughts on his sexual identity..the women he engaged with..the friends in and out of his life...the people in the business. I especially loved photos..the other celebrity excerpts...the "choice" that was actually wrong and the illustrations for that ending...every bit of it in true Neil Patrick Harris form..sarcastic..theatrical..snooty..HILARIOUS!! Can I recommend the "made for tv movie" details on page 89...the memories section to each..AHAHA. Or better yet the drink recipe for How I Wet Your Mother on page 45 (there are a few cocktail recipes throughout)...another AHAHAHA!!...a word from Whoopie Goldberg on page 37...heeheehee. Oh and if you read the book and read it right then come back and give me a little "Kungaloosh" nod please.

This is a great book to own..an even better book to gift to someone. If you love all things Neil Patrick Harris then this book needs to be in your life.  You are going to read this and have Neil narrating inside your head and you are gonna chuckle...no, scratch that you are gonna laugh your ass off!! And I almost forgot to mention that my copy of this book is the freakin' bees knee's...I love the cover color....the pics chosen...love Neil in all his theatrical glory.

Thanks to the peeps at Blogging For Books for my opportunity to receive this free copy in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly gave...after I stopped laughing of course!!

Thirteen Ways Of Looking by Colum McCann

Poetry in the form of a Novella and 3 short stories 

Random House always puts out great stuff

A wonderful book...poetic and haunting..the kind of book that stays with you well past reading it...days..months...years..unforgettable. [book:Thirteen Ways of Looking|25229229] by Colum McCann is going right on my 'Most Faves" list...a beautiful and disturbing read.

Dysfunctional lives told in the most poetic way. I found myself so engrossed in a story...haunted by the tragedy...mouth agape...then it ends and I move right into another set of lives..more tragedy..more dysfunction. It got better and better each story...more gripping the feeling. In the first story, a novella, we are introduced to a lonely old retired judge that battles with the struggles, aches, pains and illnesses of a very long life. I love how we tap into one narrative describing a crime scene (or rather leading up to it and after) and all the logistics of that and then tap right back into the Judge's life and his perspective on the people around him mainly his care taker Sally and his pompous son Elliot that appears always too busy with career and affairs to deal with his father. A beautiful and tragic story...I am quite disturbed by it (and I mean that in the best of ways). The next story, we are placed right into the mind of a writer and his story idea of a female Marine in Afghanistan..the struggle..guarding a post and the phone call that is to be made to her loved ones back home. I've never read anything like it. It's simple, quick but quite good. In yet another read we are haunted with the tale of a woman...adopted a son at the age of six from the impoverished seedy world of Vladivostok. Now thirteen and as McCann so poetically puts it "and there was already a whole history written in him." Born deaf with rumor that he was exposed to mercury, radiation sickness and beatings...Tomas came with his struggles but nothing deterred Rebecca from loving him. A challenge to deal with, add that to her being divorced from Tomas's adopted father..she is a woman on her own and getting through it...then while on a Christmas holiday with her son off the coast of Ireland, Tomas goes missing. A gripping read..McCann captures everything a parent feels or would feel. And lastly, the story of a Nun who many years ago endured a disturbingly perverted and violent crime committed on her by a young man that now as an older woman (he an older man) has discovered he is alive and portraying himself to the world as being a good man of society having accomplished much. What she thinks..what she feels...and how she wants to handle the turmoil and scars of her ordeal...haunts me to say the least. McCann has a way of writing that is so poetic..so beautiful and disturbing at the same time...how is that possible??!!. I am in love with the way he writes!!

I don't know how it is that I have lived my life having not read anything by Colum McCann until this book. Time is a-wasting and I am on a mission to read more from him. If any of McCann's other works are anywhere close to the beauty that is Thirteen Ways of Looking then consider me sold now. (and if they are not I am still eager to read his other stuff) I am on a mission to read more by him and I would recommend to anyone that if you take the chance to read Thirteen Ways of Looking then you will certainly want to read more great writing by him. 

A special thanks to the people at Random House and Colum McCann for making my opportunity of receiving this free book in exchange for an honest review possible...And honest review I have done happily. I will treasure this book and recommend it to anyone that is looking for a beautiful and genius read.

Instructions For The End Of The World by Jamie Kain

A YA book review...

Advance Readers Copy...not the same look when you purchase it yourself

Instructions for the End of the World by Jamie Kain was not like anything I was expecting. Of course when you read a title like Instructions For The End of The World you think of some killer virus or zombies even..it's only natural in these times because it is such a popular topic but this book was anything but. So now once I have read and have been mistaken I feel pretty good about what I just read and what Instructions For The End Of The World really stands for.

The story breaks up into chapters, and then subheading in-between, each one with the name of the character that is going to be doing the narrative...and it switches quite often between the characters. These main people that we fumble back and forth into the lives of are Nicole Reed, Isabel (Izzy..Nicole's younger sister who is so much different from Nicole), and Wolf (a hunky nature loving and Nicole lusting teenager). So Nicole's father, James Reed..a retired Lieutenant Colonel and the author of a self published book called The End Of The World As We Know It, has decided to spontaneously swoop up his family (2 teen daughters and wife) and relocate them miles and miles away from the life that they knew and were accustomed to and move them into the family inherited dilapidated but very large Victorian home complete with 20 acres of forested land in the Sierra foothills. Mr. Reed is not your typical father...he is a nutcase (at least according to his daughter Izzy and his wife he is), a Survivalist that is always trying to prepare his family for the end of the world. The only one that takes him to heart is Nicole but even she at times questions his sanity or why all the moving and learning is so important. Still, she is loyal to her dad and has picked up many of his traits and abilities...such as being able to shoot a gun for the use of obtaining food out in the wild. Which brings us to Wolf and the first chance encounter he has with Nicole. Sitting up high on a Madrone tree Wolf comes into sight of Nicole and he finds her intriguing from the start...until she decides to aim her rifle at a rabbit, to which case he becomes perplexed and annoyed with her...still intrigued but now not sure of what he thinks of this act of cruelty(or so he views it as). Let me go back...Wolf is from the Sadhana Village and Spiritual Retreat Center, a commune of nature loving and respecting people that do Yoga on the daily (and mediation I'm sure). He has a love of building tree houses, forts, little huts of solitude around the village and one in particular that he is currently building is right inside the property line of Nicole's family home. Nicole comes across the place and that is where Wolf and her meet face to face...she is intrigued and weary of him (and knows right off that her father would not like what he refers to as "Hippies"). From the start there is something budding between the two but the book must be read to to know just how far that goes if it goes. There are far greater issues throughout. Nicole and Izzy's mother, fed up with her mentally unstable Survivalist husband has run off...abandoned the family. Their father has run off in search of his wife...leaving the girls to fend for themselves in a world they do not know, miles and miles away from civilization, no running water, and no form of communication to the outside world. Their only source of relief and help has come from Wolf (who is battling his own obstacles with his mother, a former addict, Founder of the Sadhana Village and runaway of sorts) and several other teens their age from the commune nearby. There is so much family dysfunction it's a wonder the girls have survived with their parents as long as they did....and now they are left to survive without them.

I have to say at my age (to which I will not share) I somewhat enjoyed this YA read. It's something that I can see my teens enjoying and as a matter of fact I intend on sharing this book with them. I don't have any serious complaints for the book only that I wish there was more intensity from the start...getting to know Nicole, Izzy and Wolf was a great part of the read but by the time that was all said and done the book was coming to an end and I would have liked to have read more interaction with Wolf...a little more drama with the day to day stuff as the girls were left alone to their own devices. It kinda all started happening in the end, but still it was a fairly good read, a quick read with about 214 pages you can get through this in one sitting or over about 2 days. I recommend this book to anyone just getting into the YA scene...it's a lovely transition that covers just enough YA issues but not to the point where it is overwhelming.

Thankful, I received my free ARC of the book via request in exchange for an honest review to which I gladly gave!!

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