The Los Angeles Diaries: A Memoir
First and foremost this is a beautifully written book. The story is about the life of James Brown, a writer struggling with addiction and dysfunctional relationships. Each chapter is a certain point in his life, going back and forth between his childhood and his adult life. I finished this in two days, although I think I would have read it straight through if I hadn't started it in the evening. James Brown's story is tragic, but there are glimmers of hope in it as well. This was just a wonderful read.
Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces
Grow Great Grub delivers as promised. The pages are filled with colorful pictures, and gardening how-tos. The reason that I didn't rate it higher was because it was all stuff I've read before. If you are looking for an easy to use reference to sit on your bookshelf, this might do it for you. If you are looking for something more than what the internet already offers, keep looking.
Fatal Distraction: Or How I Conquered My Addiction to Celebrities and Got a Life
Eliza is obsessed with celebrities, she realizes that she has no life, and decides to give up celebrities in order to get her happily ever after. Some other things happen, but none of it is really that important, or interesting. This is a fast read, there is nothing complicated here. It wasn't the best book ever, but I didn't expect it to be.
The Complete Maus
My husband recommended this to me after seeing it on a list of the greatest graphic novels. I shrugged and said that I would add it to my long to-read list. Eventually I got a copy from the library, and sat down to read it. Wow, that is all I can really say. Art Spiegelman made a comic of his father's experience during World War Two. From the rise of the Nazis to his time in Auschwitz, I was hooked. Part of me wanted to put the book down, because the story was too intimate. The other part of me wanted to read on, fascinated by the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life. After I finished reading it, I just sat for a while taking it all in. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time. I highly recommend it.
Stories from a Theme Park Insider
I purchased this book for the Kindle. It was $2.99, and I found the insider aspect interesting. I really enjoyed this book, the stories held my interest and were very entertaining. My only regret is that it wasn't longer.
666 Park Avenue
I picked this book up because I enjoyed the television series. It was obvious that the book was nothing like the series, but I tried to give it a chance. I found the plot uninteresting, and the main character boring. I gave the book two stars instead of one though, because somehow it kept me reading to the end.
Frost Arch
I had a hard time decided on how many stars to give this book. I had some issues with the plot, and some of the characters. The main character felt more like an idea than a fully fleshed out character. A male character that I found interesting at the start, was mishandled and then dropped. I felt that this was a wasted opportunity. I ended up giving this book three stars because while I had issues with, I still found it somewhat entertaining.
The Island of Ted
The Island of Ted is a story about a man who became fed up with life, and decided to live on a private island. As I made my way through the book I found the characters enjoyable and the story interesting. Then the author changed point of view halfway through the book. He went from first person point of view to third person, then back to first person. It was jarring and took me right out of the story. I feel like I should give this book a lower score because of that, but seeing as I did enjoy the story and the characters three stars will suffice.
Seriously... I'm Kidding
I find Ellen DeGeneres to be a funny and endearing woman. I enjoyed this book, and I think that anyone that enjoys Ellen's style of humor would find it enjoyable as well. The one downfall, and the reason I gave it three stars, is that I found reading her jokes made me wish that I had gotten the audio version instead.
Vegan Lunch Box: 130 Amazing, Animal-Free Lunches Kids and Grown-Ups Will Love!
The first part of this book is menu plans, with page numbers for easily finding the recipes, the back half of the book is the actual recipes. Of the recipes I tried the instructions were easy to follow and the ingredients easy to find. Everything tasted fine, although I did omit the extra salt in many of the recipes. I found it strange to add extra salt to recipes that already had soy sauce. Like many of the other reviewers have said I too don't like the amount of processed fake meat and cheese. While I have no problem with Tofurkey lunch meat or the like, they are more an occasional thing than a daily staple. I can understand why they were in there, I just wish there weren't so many recipes that relied on them. Over all I enjoyed this cookbook, found it useful, and very much enjoyed the stories that were throughout the book.
Life of Pi
I tried to like this book. A story of a boy and a tiger trapped together in the ocean on a lifeboat. Sign me up! I think part of the problem, for me, was the amount of scenes where nothing of importance happened. Like the scene talking about eating the tiger's feces. There might have been buckets full of symbolism in that, but I didn't find it interesting or insightful. The other problem was that I found a large amount of the symbolism clunky, like the two Mr. Kumars. Science vs faith didn't work for me there. It was just too obvious.There were scenes that I did like, the scene where Pi was calling to Richard Parker to swim to the boat after the cargo ship sank. After finishing the story that scene worked beautifully for me. I also enjoyed the algae island scenes, especially the interactions between Richard Parker and Pi. The symbolism of that, on that island, would be something I would like to delve deeper into.
In the end there was a bit too much hit or miss for me to really enjoy this book.
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is, hands down, one of my favorite cookbooks. The book itself is large, stuffed full of delicious and easy to follow recipes. It did not, however, achieve its size by being packed full of glossy pictures. There are drawn illustrations, but they never feel thrown in. Every time an illustration pops up it is useful and informative. With recipes ranging from fruits, to breads, to pastas, to condiments, this is a cookbook everyone could find useful.