52 Book Challenge - Week Three - Book Four: When You Were Mine

This book is one of those stories that could have been told better in two hundred pages than the three hundred and thirty it was stretched out to. I would have felt much more interested in the characters were there to be less delay in the telling of the story with some meaningless details. I wanted so badly to feel for the characters in this book and I came close at times but I never really cared enough. To me, that makes it miss the mark a bit. Toward the end of the book it began to move a bit faster but by then it was too little, too late. I say Nicholas Sparks should steal the story premise and make the characters people I care about.

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The story is about a woman named Susie who is in a loveless relationship where her partner does not want to commit and his kids don't care about her. At her brother's wedding as she is revealing her dissatisfaction with her life, she runs into Rob, her high school sweetheart. They say hi and then leave one another. Susie still thinks about Rob while they are seperated and the tale of their past relationship and how she cheated on him is recapped.

Meanwhile, Susie's best friend since childhood, Amelia, gets a cancer diagnosis. Susie now must be supportive for Amelia while struggling with her own relationships. Admist this, Rob contacts Susie and they begin to see one another for coffee. One thing leads to another and they end up hooking up. Problem is, Rob just got married to a woman named Helena and Susie is in a relationship. But they claim it is true love.

Susie keeps the whole relationship a secret even from Amelia. But Amelia knows something is up and they get in an argument over Susie's behavior and stop speaking for a bit. Meanwhile, Rob and Susie keep their affair going on and end up sleeping together. Susie finally gains enough courage to leave her boyfriend and expects Rob will do the same with his wife. The thing is, Rob's wife is in the service and she gets injured. After she comes home with no leg, Rob realizes how much he has to be there for her and cannot be with Susie.

Susie is devestated but in the end it turns out Amelia is there for her. Amelia's cancer has gone into remission and both happy and healthy she reassures Susie that she has much to offer the world. The End.

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Like I said, the story could be so emotional and touching if you connect with the characters but I just couldn't connect. When I did connect slightly it was usually to think that Susie was a moron and she deserved what she got for being a homewrecker. I didn't see it from the touching, romantic viewpoint it was supposed to be coming from. In that regard, it just fell short.

Just another reason I hate modern society ...

Here is something that really gets me going.

I was listening to the radio on my way home from my parents the other night. Basically five minutes of radio, possibly ten because I was trying to navigate through Mother Nature’s newest gift of snow. In that short span of time, the span of time it takes me to drive maybe a mile, I heard the following:

A song about hooking up and getting drunk and all sorts of sleaze punctuated by the deejay coming on the air and poking fun at Tim Tebow for going to Las Vegas and just seeing Cirque Du Soleil rather than being a promiscuous moron.

Now I am no pure white daisy. I have had my days of good times. I have acted a fool quite publicly. Yet I am sorry, so very sorry, I may sound old and prude here but this is fucking ridiculous.

No other way to put it, no way to sugar coat it: fucking ridiculous.

First and foremost, being a drunk slut is not a good look. No matter how many songs on the radio promote you being a hussy, it isn’t cute, no one likes it, and you will probably end up not liking yourself too much either. If you are a man, being a drunk asshole is no better of a look. It may get you laid when you are twenty but by the time you are thirty five you are just a tool.

Second, it is quite alright for someone to go to an exciting city full of things to do and not get wasted drunk because OMGZ WE’RE IN VEGASSS. Grow up. Clearly twenty four year old Tim Tebow understands the concept of maturity and doesn’t feel like impregnating strangers constitutes a “fun” vacation. Oh and he is making more in a year than you nasty skanks can even imagine so basically he can live in a Cirque Du Soleil theater if he feels so inclined. Sorry that morals are so socially unacceptable because idiocy is so prevalent.
Third, I don’t feel like hearing every time I turn on the radio LEZZ DANZE AND HOOK UPPPP to a beat. Honestly. There is one night a week I watch Jersey Shore and I do enjoy that ONE NIGHT A WEEK. But I prefer to limit my intake. Please stop pushing it on me. I feel violated.

People get all bent out of shape when we talk about God yet they think its OMGZ WEIRD when a guy goes to Vegas and doesn’t get drunk. Something doesn’t make sense here.  Why is it wrong for a guy not to sleep around and to go with his brother to see a show in Vegas? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT?

Listen, I like rocking out to mindless music and killing my brain cells with shallow tv shows as much as the next girl, but there comes a point where enough is enough. There is a place and time for everything. After nine pm on Bravo = place and time. Six o'clock on my local radio station, not so much.

Not only does it come down to place and time but it comes down to respecting people who choose to take what they feel is a moral high road, not make fun of them. So I hope Tebow enjoyed his trip to Vegas. I would like to go to Vegas too someday.

And you know what I plan on doing there?
Seeing a fucking Cirque Du Soleil show.
What now?

52 Book Challenge - Week Two - Book Three: The Weight of Dreams

If you are a Cormac McCarthy fan, a horse fan or a description fan (preferably a combination of all) this book is absolutely perfect for you. It has the intense twisted characters brought to you only by writers like McCarthy but touched with a different type of descriptive writing. The Weight of Dreams explores complicated relationships between people who have lived rough lives. The characters are very realistic and relateable. Their lives are far from perfect, they have no idea what the future holds, they have anxieties and pasts. I think that feature of the book is what made it such an enjoyable read for me. I could really dive in and get inside their worries and forget about my own (which is why I read, duh).

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The book focuses on Ty Bonte who is originally a rancher from the Sandhills of Nebraska. He is currently living in Kansas and working as a horse trader coming into contact with all sorts of questionable characters. But, we soon find out, he is a questionable character himself. Ty has fled Nebraska with an outstanding warrant on his head for an assault he committed years ago as a teenager with one of his friends. Small facts are revealed throughout the book about the entireitly of the assault.

When Ty goes to pick up a set of horses from an especially sketchy fellow, he meets Dakota who is basically a freeloader who goes from ranch to ranch helping with tasks in order to earn her stay. Dakota convinces Ty that she is just going to hitch a ride with him. What Ty doesn't know is that Dakota has put among his horses her own favorite horse which she does not own. Ty, Dakota and the stolen horse travel to Ty's ranch in Kansas.

Once in Kansas, the two are taking care of the horses, completely platonic but slowly developing a relationship. Eventually (not instantly which was nice because it was more realistic) the two end up becoming intimate. As they are growing closer, both Ty and Dakota are struggling with telling one another their own personal secrets and both are dancing around the inevitable. Ty is keeping his past to himself and Dakota is not mentioning there is a stolen horse in the barn.

Shortly thereafter, the sketchy horse trader, Eddie, and his customer come out to Ty's ranch to see some of his horses and see if they want to buy any. The customer is someone who Ty recognizes - his friend Harney from childhood who he committed the assault with. Ty can tell that Eddie and Harney are not really there to buy a horse because of the way they are acting and Ty knows it is coming close to him having to face his past.

While Dakota is out, Ty comes home from the fields the next day and is assaulted by Harney and his crew because it is their horse that Dakota has stolen and Harney holds additional resentment from the past. Harney kills the horse, stabs Ty with a pitchfork, steals the rest of the animals and runs off. Dakota finds Ty, brings him to the hospital where he holds on by a thread and waits for him to recover.

Once he recovers, Ty faces the facts that he has to go home to Nebraska and make peace with his past. He and Dakota travel back to Nebraska where he stays with his father. His father and he also have a past history of resentment and abuse between them. His father blamed him for his younger brother's death and vice versa. His father is now dying of emphazyema and Dakota helps take care of  him.

With Ty being back in town and Harney being head of the bank in town, the two face off again. Harney is a sick and twisted character and we learn that he is just plain demented and violent. However, to the rest of the town he looks like an upstanding citizen and Ty is the one who looks like the son of a drunk rancher and a vagrant.

Through a series of events, Ty and Harney end up back in court for the assault charge that Harney put all on Ty years before. Ty ends up being forced to tell Dakota about the senseless violence he committed against two Native American boys with Harney that night. But we come to see he was just a dumb kid (which he does not excuse himself for) and Harney is the true sick mastermind behind the whole thing.

When they face justice again, they are both found guilty but the court sees that Harney holds more of the responsibility and he is forced to make stiffer reperations and lose his good reputation in town. The book ends with Ty and Dakota finding Harney trying to harm Ty's horses in his barn but being kicked to death by the horse before he could.
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Sometimes the relationships in the book get a confusing and you have to backpedal a bit to see who is who, but that is what makes it endearing as well. Life is confusing and real relationships are complicated. The relationships in the book could be an actual slice of life. You see raw emotions from the characters. When they feel panic, you feel panic; when they feel anger, you feel anger.

The slice of life reality in The Weight of Dreams coupled with an interesting story and characters you care about make it an enjoyable read. Despite its four hundred plus pages, it can be read in a week because it holds your interest.

52 Book Challenge - Week One - Book Two: Sam's Letters to Jennifer

Everyone loves a formula romance every so often. They call them "beach reads" but since we only get to see the beach around here about one month out of the year, I will call them "rainy day reads". Of course it wasn't raining yesterday (for once) but I did successfully read practically this entire book. Now THAT is what I call a relaxing weekend (no sarcasm).

I personally love a formula romance at least once a month so be prepared. Some people find them predictable, boring, corny etc but I find them sweet. This is rare since usually I find the negative about everything. When it comes to a love story, I'm a sucker. As Steph has told me, I am "in love with love". True story.

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Enter my latest read, Sam's Letters to Jennifer

The book starts out with a tragedy and a past tragedy as all the good ones go. Jennifer has lost her husband in a surfing accident and shortly thereafter has a miscarriage (past tragedy). Now her grandmother, Samantha, is in a coma in the hospital (current tragedy). We find out bits and peices about each tragedy one chapter by one and it gets addicting; you just need to know more!

Jennifer goes to the lake which Samantha lives on to visit her and take care of her and the home (note: idyllic setting, classic). She is currently a columnist for a newspaper and is juggling her personal stress with her career stress (note: successful job, doubly classic). We see her run the gamut of emotions upon seeing her grandmother comatose and being back in her grandmother's home, a vacation spot from childhood.

Alas, when we think all hope is lost for poor widowed, almost grandmotherless Jennifer - she sights a naked man! True story (at least in the book) she sees the guy a few doors down skinny dipping. In real life, this may result in a call to the police - in formula romance life, this leads to curiousity and attraction.

Naked man turns out to own some clothes and have a name, Brendan. Brendan somehow stalks Jennifer out to "get to know her" (yes, he swims naked and stalks, may seem sketchy, but not to our girl Jen). Of course in the classic "I just went through a tragedy and can't bear to get close to anyone" way, she tries to deny his ongoing advances until she gives in - as predicted.

When she finally gives in, the relationship kicks it into high gear and goes from swimming together (clothed) to fantasy dates that can only be written in romance to true love. Just like that. It has not even been a month but no matter, they are soul mates. And then ... just as Jennifer begins to trust again ... the bomb is dropped ... Brendan has a brain tumor! Gasp!

Now please pause here because meanwhile, there is another substory going on during the Jen / Brendan whirlwind romance. Please keep in mind grandma Sam is still in a coma but just because she isn't awake doesn't mean she ain't talking. She has left letters for Jennifer (hence the title) about her own secret romantic life.

Interspersed between the current day quandries are letters that Jennifer is reading about the man her grandmother has an affair with because she never truly loved her husband and he was abusive. Of couse, this is the perfect affair as well since everything is perfect in forumla romance. Instead of a motel six they go to an inn to rendevous. Not kidding.

We readers also find out that her lover, who Sam just calls Doc in her letters, is actually still alive but she won't tell us the name - we need a reason besides Brendans potential chance at death to keep reading.

Fast forward - if you cannot guess on your own. Grandma Sam wakes up from the coma and she is perfectly fine. Brendan decides to have an experimental surgery to save himself after quitting his job as a doctor and having the influence on Jennifer to quit hers so they can live every day to the fullest together (and somehow still have the funds to do so). Brendan goes to surgery secretly but Jen finds out in the last minute and rushes there to tell him how much she loves him before he goes under the knife.

Guess the outcome? HE LIVES! And with no complications! Oh were life so easy.

So Grandma Sam, Brendan and Jen head back to the lake house where Grandma Sam finally introduces us to Doc (the lover) who turns out to be the minister who was visiting her in the hospital. Gotta admit, I did not see it coming (it was probably obvious but I was just too distracted by the terrible display of basketball Uconn was putting on at that point). They all obviously instantly love one another and sit in the sunlight spreading joy.

Then BOOM! Last tragedy, Grandma Sam dies. But she leaves Jennifer with one last note, the lakehouse, and the sentiment that love never dies. Oh and Jen is pregs with Brendan's baby, who she names Sam. Duh.

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I guess I enjoy stories like these so much because they are so hopeful. They are always victorious over adversity. It is just so heart warming. Books like these are just fake enough to make them good reads and just real enough to convince you that maybe ... just MAYBE ... this could actually happen.

I also enjoy reading about people falling in love. I find that when I read about other people falling in love, it reminds me of myself falling in love and then I feel all good inside being reminded of being in love and it is just a damn love fest all up in my brain.

So long live the formula romance! This won't be the last one I read this year, you can bet on it.

52 Book Challenge - Week One - Book One: Running With Scissors

Allow me to begin by saying that the book reviewers who wrote on the back cover have some sick senses of humor. This is coming from someone with a pretty demented sense of humor. My favorite comment made by one of these illustrious readers is "Wickedly, ridiculously funny."

Now when I read this on the back (there is no plot synopsis) my thought was that I was in for a belly laugh at every page.

Think again.

Sorry for all you sickos out there but I did not find this book "funny" at all. I found it entertaining at some points, wacky, maybe a little crack of a smile during a humorous and unbelievable anecdote, but not "funny".

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Basic synopsis:

The narrator is a child born to an alcoholic father and a psychotic mother (literally). The father leaves the family. The mother meets  an equally crazy therapist / psychiatrist who claims he is "treating her". She is convinced that her son (the narrator) should go live with the therapist and his family part time. So the kid does. Mind you, I think this story takes place in the seventies where flop houses and free love were more socially acceptable.

The therapists' "family" is a mish mosh of biological relations and other patients who have come to live in the house. There is no control, the house is filthy, the kids are uneducated and crass. They actually all sound like a bunch of hoarders. In fact, the last hoarders episode I saw with all of the roaches reminded me of this family. So the kid is stuck going back and forth between living with a bunch of crazy hoarders to his insane mother who takes baths in glass.

In the midst of ALL of this he is also learning about his  budding homosexuality. How does he first discover he is really, definitely gay? By becoming engaged in a sexual relationship with one of the therapist's sons who just so happens to be over thirty. Our narrator is thirteen. Are you laughing yet?

So from here the story just follows all of the dysfunction this kid has to live through with his whack job mother and her lesbian affairs, his nutso siblings who aren't really his siblings, and his affair with a grown man. Eventually, in the end, the kid (who has grown to nearly college age) realizes that living in a house with no control makes it near impossible to get anywhere. He takes control of his own life and we are left with the knowledge he is going to go to New York and try to make something of himself.

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This is all supposedly a true story although some of the scenarios in it are truly unbelievable to me. Someone needs to verify these events because if that James Frey guy got in all sorts of trouble for saying he didn't take Novocaine during some dental work, then Mr. Burroughs and his unreal characters / situations need to be investigated.

All that being said, the book WAS entertaining and I WOULD read Dry which is the next book talking about the next phase of his messed up life.

I'd recommend Running With Scissors, I just wouldn't call it "funny".

52 Photo Challenge - A New Year

Along with doing my 52 book challenge (which by the way I am probably going to demolish based on my obsession with reading) I have decided to do the 52 photo challenge. Basically the same idea, 52 photos in 52 weeks. These are photos I take. Of course, these photos have topics made up by some person I don't know that I found online. BUT it is cool because I don't have to know him, I just have to stalk him so I can use his ideas.

Week One: A New Year

My online stranger buddy made this one very ambigous. Basically what a new year means to you. So me, being who I am, decided to choose the below photo:

Hm. Now what does this mean? I am going to allow you to interpret it as you will. Please keep in mind if you cannot tell by the small size and poor JPeg quality that this was taken at an abandoned resort. And I am looking backwards ... and you can't see what's ahead of me ... take it as you wish.