Thursday, February 03, 2011

Recently Read

As usual, skip it if you wanna.

1. Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell - This was made into a movie which is now up for best picture. The book is about a young woman living in rural poverty and searching for her father, who has skipped bail. Good. I watched the movie this past weekend, and while I enjoyed it, I think it would've been a little hard to follow if you hadn't read the book first.

2. Bloodroot by Amy Greene - Novel about several generations of an Apalachian family. It was well-written and interesting, although I had a hard time keeping all of the characters straight.

3. When All The Men Were Gone by Ronald Capalaces - A local man's memories of growing up during World War II. Good!

4. The Angels of Morgan Hill by Donna VanLiere - I picked this up at the dollar store, and I really enjoyed it. It's about prejudice and coming of age in the post-WWII South. I will try very hard not to hold it against the author that she also penned the book that inspired that god-awful song, "The Christmas Shoes."

5. Lottery by Patricia Wood. When Better World Books was holding a sale last month, I ordered around twenty pounds of books for Christmas (for myself, natch), and this was the first one I read. It's about a mentally disabled man who wins the lottery, which was a really good premise. The book was funny, and sad, and a good read.

6. Portrait of a (boring-ass) Lady by Henry James. Jeezus CHRIST, I made it to page 266 and they were still. talking. So I went on line, grabbed a plot synopsis to find out what happens in the end (NOTHING), and tossed the book. Life's too short. Oh! And this one was supposed to be a "classic" book, which, let me tell you what, I have just about HAD it with the flippin' "classic" books. They're either boring as SHIT (Henry James, I am talking to YOU), or, in the case of books by Russian novelists, everybody has, like five different names, so you never know who anybody IS. Screw it.

7. Little Green by Loretta Stinson - Novel, set in the seventies, about a teenager in an abusive relationship. Very good.


So! That's it for now! Anybody read anything good lately?

Oh! And in other news, the sore throat I've had for the past few days has now morphed into a rotten nasty stinking headcold. Send tissues. And booze.

7 comments:

Badass Nature Girl said...

Try some Zwack! it burns so good goin' down.

rockygrace said...

What on earth is Zwack?

Badass Nature Girl said...

"Zwack is an 80 proof (40% alcohol) liqueur made in Hungary with a secret blend of more than 40 different herbs and spices." Do it only by the shot. It seems to be most popular with men when it's consumed outside of the U.S. Interesting.

LL Cool Joe said...

Thank you for the birthday wishes. :)

I'm not good at sharing my booze, but I hope you get well soon without it!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Henry James isn't doing it for you. I know I mentioned Turn of the Screw a while back, but it might be kinda dry too. It's more of a suspense/horror story, but there's no reason to force yourself to read Henry James :)

K A B L O O E Y said...

I didn't read Winter's Bone but did see the movie. Thumbs way up from me; no confusion either. Have you read "Room"? it's dark but/and? interesting. And someone will make a movie, I betcha.

rockygrace said...

BNG, Zwack sounds like it packs a kick! One of those "kill or cure" things. :)

LL Cool Joe, thanks for the get-well wishes. I hope you had a happy birthday!

Kate, I put Turn of the Screw on my "to read" list. I'll give anything a shot, even more Henry James. I can always just chuck it across the room if it sucks.

And KABLOOEY, "Room" sounds really, really interesting, if disturbing - definitely on the "to read" list. Oh, and thanks for stopping by!