Lovely Little Shelf

Review: Ballad of the Whiskey Robber

July 12, 2010 – 3:55 pm

The Book: Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein

The Story: This is the story of Attila Ambrus a guy who snuck into Hungary in the 1990’s and kind of stumbled into a job as a professional ice hockey player.  Because he was not great at hockey, he ended up just being the janitor at times and not having enough money to get by.  He decided, on a whim, to take up another profession:  robbing banks and post offices.  At first he is just kinda running in, demanding money and hoping for the best.  Eventually he gets pretty good and becomes kind of this icon of prosperity and people love him.  Somewhere in there, he also manages to have some girlfriends and smuggle pelts from Transylvania.  I’m not even kidding.

Did I mention that this is non-fiction?

What I Thought: The first hundred or so pages of this were really hard for me.  It even made me get whiney because I really did want it to be good.  I couldn’t really get a good feel for the characters and I was kind of bored with the plot.

Or maybe I was just in a cranky mood, because once this picked up for me, I fell totally in love.  I got into Attila’s antics and even though he was robbing banks, I really really wanted him to keep doing well.  I cracked up as he got totally hammered and went in to rob banks and I was rooting for him with these crazy women that he kept dating.  That connection to Attila was, for me, the highlight of the book.  I’m not sure if the author got to do a lot of interviews with Attila or what, but he really managed to capture a real person and it made this book so enjoyable.

I had to remind myself half a million times that this is a true story.  I don’t want to give anything away, but some of the things that happen seriously made my jaw drop.   The level of police corruption and incompetence that allowed Attila to continue his robbing as long as he could became hilarious at a point and was almost more unbelievable than the stunts that Attila was pulling.

Conclusion: A fun non-fiction book that reads more like a novel.  Kind of a “man book” in how it is written, but really does keep your attention. A fun read that you can pass off to your husband knowing that he’ll like it too.

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Bookish Thoughts: Bookmarks

July 11, 2010 – 10:51 am

I used to be the kind of person who would use a folded receipt, a piece of scrap paper, just whatever was nearby as a bookmark.  In the last few years, I’ve begun getting really great bookmarks as gifts and lucking upon them in used books all of the time.  Now I am a devoted fan of the bookmark.  Right now, I’m using one that Shaun found for me that is a cross-stitch of the word “book” in Russian.  I’m sort of obsessed with it.

I also have a habit of looking for cute ones on Etsy to give away and use myself.  Here are some that I currently have bookmarked:

You Are Here… on a bookmark… with a map. Clever and cute.

by seller annieWHERE.

This seller makes  a ton of fabric bookmarks.  For some reason, they just seem so sweet to me.  I love this one, but if you look in her store, I know you’ll find a ton that you can’t live without.

by seller StefanieKayDesign.

And.. my favorite. This is hilarious.  A knitted, squashed rat?  Morbid little me is pretty  much obsessed.

The seller is only selling the pattern, so you have to be on your knitting game to get this one.  If you do make one, just go ahead and make two and send me one. Thanks!

by seller kooklacreations.

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Review: One Thousand White Women

July 10, 2010 – 7:56 am

The Book: One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus

The Story: I guess that when the government was trying to “figure it all out” with the Native Americans, they had a big get together where they were discussing what could be done to foster peace between the two groups.  One of the Cherokee Indian groups said that in their culture, whatever tribe the mother is a part of is the tribe that the children belongs to.  They suggested that, in exchange for a thousand horses, that the government get together one thousand women to be the Indians’ wives and their children would be this generation that would make peace between the groups possible.  In reality, the government was totally appalled and ended the peace talks.  Jim Fergus took this little piece of info and played a little game of “what if?”… what if the government would have rounded up one thousand women and handed them over to the Indian tribe?  That is the basis of this book.

The book centers around the life of May Dodd, a woman who was in a mental institute for “promiscuity” because she lived with and had children with a man that she was not married to.  Instead of living the rest of her life in this horrible institute, she decided to take this get-out-of-the-mental-institute-free card and become an Indian’s wife.  Eek.  This is written like her journal of that time period, also including letter that she wrote back home.

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By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (4)

Flashback Friday: Oh, the Places You’ll Go

July 9, 2010 – 6:43 am

Oh, The Places You’ll Go, by Dr. Seuss

I kind of have a thing for Dr. Seuss.  I love his whimsical character and fun rhymes and all the stuff that everyone in America loves about him.  This was never really one of my favorite books- I just thought it was kind of cheesy.

Let me tell you a story:  for my high school graduation, our “guest speaker” was listed as a girl who had graduated from our high school maybe 7 or 8 years earlier, something like that.  We all thought it seemed kind of strange, but figured that maybe she had done something really cool and really had something of importance to say. I am not kidding when I say that during the ceremony, when it was her turn to speak, she got up and said, “Hi, I’m so and so.  I graduated from this same high school and thought it was great.  I’ve brought some words of wisdom from someone much wiser than myself today, so I’ll just let him speak,”  and proceeded to literally read this entire book cover to cover.  She even held up the pictures for the audience like she was reading to a small first grade class instead of a whole auditorium full of people.

I wish that someone had been filming the reactions of my graduating class.  We were all just looking at each other like, “Is this for real?”  Oh, and it was.  She finished the book, closed it, and said “Thank you very much! Good luck to the graduating class.  May you go many places,” or something cheesy like that.

It was hilarious. When I get together with people that I graduated with, it is still something that we laugh about, just because it was so bizarre.  So this book that was always pretty cheesy to me became even cheesier, to the point of being delightful.  It makes me laugh to this day.

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Flashback Friday | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Bookish Thoughts: Reading Chairs

July 8, 2010 – 9:06 am

Now that I have my dream shelves sitting in my living room, I feel like I need the perfect reading chair too.  I’ve been doing some Googling and found some that make me want to sink in, pull up my feet and read all day.

This would be pretty  much perfect, although white furniture in our house would be a little risky.

This is really cute and really matches our “style,” but is stupid expensive:

And I’m pretty sure that this is from a hotel room, but it’s a little bit perfect:

While Googling, I also came across this, which made me laugh out loud. It has a light, room for like 80 books, and a wheel so you don’t even have to be stationary to read.  Hilarious.

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged | Comments (2)

Review: The Running Man

July 7, 2010 – 9:19 am

The Book: The Running Man, by Richard Bachman/Stephen King

The Story: The year is 2025 and everything is kind of in shambles.  Ben Richards’ young daughter has come down with the flu and because they can’t afford to take her to the doctor, it is just getting worse and worse.  America is pretty much obsessed with reality TV that is taken up a notch- people can get severely hurt or die, but also have the chance to win money for their families at a time when jobs and money are scarce.  Ben decides that this is the way to go for his family so he goes and applies to be part of the Games.

The Game he is chosen for is called Running Man.  It is the most popular show and has the highest payout, however no one has ever survived.  The object is this:  the player is let loose in America. He gets a 12 hour head start, then he is fair game.  There are a group of men looking for him and Americans are encouraged to call in any spotting of the player.  Any confirmed spotting wins 100 dollars and any spotting that leads to a kill is worth 1,000.  The player wins 100 dollars an hour that he stays alive and if he makes it 30 days, he gets a billion dollars.  He can go anywhere in the world but has to send in two tapes every day that the Network can show on TV and can potentially give out clues to where the player is.

Ben is just this cocky, kinda smart guy and he goes into this with his goal being to get enough money for his wife and daughter to be comfortable and for his daughter to be able to go to the hospital.  He is given advice early on not to just hole up, but to run, run, run.  This is advice that he takes to heart and makes the suspense and adventure happening here totally crazy.

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Bookish Thoughts: Book Blogs Part Two

July 6, 2010 – 11:11 am

I know that I told you a good month ago that I’d get part two up in the next week or so, but you know how that goes, right? Right.

Here is a link to my original list of book blogs that I love, and I’m just going to pick up right where I left off.

DeRaps Reads- This is a blog that I’m newly following and loving!  She mostly reviews YA, but she also does a lot of challenges and posts little news and other fun stuff.  Her reviews are well thought-out and I really enjoy reading them.

That’s Life…- I love this blog. I love Ashley.  I cannot get enough.  This is one of the blogs that gets me all excited when I see that there’s a new entry.  She posts mainly about books, but also updates on her family and vacations, and really just whatever is getting her wound up that day.  So good.

The Nerd’s Wife- I totally understand being a nerd’s wife.  One day you are at least slightly cool, then you end up with this nerdy guy and soon you are, say, getting excited about a binary clock or playing video games, and going to see Back to the Future at the theater for your anniversary (this is not even a joke) and generally just becoming too nerdy to function.  I’m totally there.  For that very reason, I love this blog.  Arena and her husband are pretty much adorable.  The link I gave you is to the “reading” part of her blog, but there is a ton there. I get stuck there for an hour sometime just clicking and clicking.  Seriously a great blog!

Tea Time with Marce- Giveaways, thoughts on books, memes, challenges, and tons of reviews… this blog pretty much covers the gambit of what’s happening in the blogging world.  There is a ton going on here and I love it.

Reader’s Corner- This blog really doesn’t get updated too frequently and doesn’t really review a ton of books, but for whatever reason I love it anyway.  The blogger is a librarian and she just has a real passion for libraries and books and news related to books. I love that and I get excited when she posts something new.

My brain’s comfort food- Jen’s taste in books really could not be any more opposite of mine.  We’ve even joked before about how the only thing we really have in common is that we loved Harry Potter, but even that she had to really, really talk me into even trying.  That being said, I love her blog.  She is passionate about books and it comes out in her reviews and other posts.

CasuALLY Musing- Ally only hits on books every once in awhile, but I don’t care, I’m including her in this list anyway.  She is doing a Project 365- taking a picture every day for a year and posting it- and a 101 in 1001- accomplishing 101 goals in 1001 days- and I’m obsessed with both of her ventures.  Also, her most recent post is just about the cutest baby I’ve ever seen, so that helps too!

That’s enough for now! Check these out and add them to your reader, your bookmarks, however you organize your stuff.  I have a handful more on my reader but it’s getting late and this list is everything that I’ve accomplished today, so I maybe need to, you know, get dressed or something.

By Jacki | Posted in default | Tagged | Comments (6)

Review: The Namesake

July 5, 2010 – 10:39 am

The Book: The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Story: The story begins with young newlyweds Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli who have just immigrated from India starting a new life in America.  They set up house in a suburb of Boston and go to school and just begin to get acclimated to American culture.  They are not married long when they have their first son, Gogol.  They name him after a Russian author that Ashoke admires while waiting for his “real” name to be sent from family in India.  The name never arrives and the boy is Gogol from then on.

The story follows Gogol through his childhood and adolescence, just trying to strike a balance between the very Indian life that his family leads at home and the life that he sees all around him in his friends homes.  As he grows older and starts going out on his own, he has to make some real decisions about who he is and how he will allow his culture to define him.  For Gogol, a lot of this comes back to the fact that he has a name that no one has ever heard from a country that is not even his own.  He never really feels “at home” in his name, and that is a large focus of the book at times.

The last half of the book is taken by Gogol’s relationships with women.  His family want him, obviously, to find an Indian girl that is part of their circle and marry in the traditional Indian way.  While he’s at school, however, Gogol dates several women who are far, far from that mold.  When his father passes away unexpectedly, he is once again immersed in the culture he grew up in and finds that he has to make a decision about how he is going to live the rest of his life.

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Sunday Morning Comics

July 4, 2010 – 6:07 am

Nothing like a little Ayn Rand humor for your Sunday Morning!

www.marriedtothesea.com

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged | Comments (0)

Review: The Eyes of the Dragon

July 3, 2010 – 10:32 am

The Book: The Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King

The Story: Let me start off by saying that this book has nothing to do with dragons.  I’ve had this in my pile of books to read for over a year and just haven’t touched it because I can’t get into dragon-y stuff.  It was written by Stephen King when his daughter was 13 because she was scared to read his other books, so he wrote her a book that reads almost like a bedtime story that you’d read to a kid, only a little bit more “grown up.”

In the story,  Roland is the king and he has two sons, Peter is the eldest and is mild mannered and good at everything. Thomas is younger and kind of quieter and takes the background a lot.  The Queen died while giving birth to Thomas, so it is just them.  Roland’s magician and advisor is a crooked, mysterious man named Flagg. I know you Dark Tower fans are squealing your little brains out.

Anyway,  Flagg is crazy and manipulative and he manages to kill Roland and get Peter blamed for it so t hat easy-to-sway Thomas becomes the king.  Peter is locked at the top of a tall tower and Flagg pretty  much takes over control of the country through Thomas.  Stuff gets bleak.  Peter is hatching a plan and has friends in the country that are still rooting for him.

Like almost all Stephen King books, this turns into a good vs. evil deal and sways back and forth until you really can’t tell who is going to prevail in the end.

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