The Devil in the White City

This book left me frustrated. The cover promises: murder, magic and mayhem and it did NOT deliver. I'm a little magics magpie and when magics are promised then I WANT THE MAGIC. This book didn't have it...like at all...wtf?

The other thing I couldn't support with this book is that there's really two independent stories going on. The first story thread is about the Chicago World's Fair and all of the struggles in making the fair a success. The second storyline is all about a mass murderer who set up shop in Chicago during the fair. The only time the stories really intersect is when the murdering maniac brings some unsuspecting lady friend to the fair and then a few days later kills her.

Anyhow, this book would have been great as two books. The story of the murderer is interesting and so is the story about building the fair. Together it's a whole lotta too much going on. Plus, Larson commits a cardinal sin of crime novels, he never really gets into the psychology of the killer. Why does he do it? Obviously he's bat shit crazy, but the best crime stories give a psychological profile of the killer and you won't find one in this story.

Plus, there's the whole absence of magic thing. It would be like if the hit television show Charmed decided to bill themselves as a story about three witches, but the witches didn't have any powers and all the show focused on was their real life careers. Boring!

So, 2/5 or 4/10 stars.

Me On...Twitter

So, I've been on Twitter for awhile now, I don't really use it, I just thought I would check it out and see what the hype is about. Guys, it's amazing (and confusing). But seriously, more amazing than anything else. It's basically the world's best gossip network, except it's almost unfair gossip. I feel like there's really two types of gossip. There's the gossip that's so easy to get because the subject of the gossip is such an attention whore that they basically spread the news themselves and then there's the good gossip, the kind you just sort of stumble upon (like two co-workers making out in a usually unoccupied stairwell). I prefer the second type of gossip because I feel like it's fate giving me a reward for good behavior.

Anyhow, Twitter puts on full display for the world to see the 1st type of gossip. It's shameless and tacky, but it's such a guilty pleasure of mine.

For instance, did you know that you can find out what Miley Cyrus is doing RIGHT NOW. For realz, she tweets every 20 minutes about what she's doing. An hour ago she wrote that she woke up with a sore throat and laments that she is always sick. Boo effing hoo, go cry into your million dollar bills Miley.

Then there's the celebrity twitter catfight. I'm not even kidding. Celebrities wage wars of words over twitter and they are priceless. They are about things that so don't matter, but the celebs think that they're saving the world by getting into the fight. My fav was between Demi Moore and Perez Hilton and it had something to do with a photo of Demi's 13 year old daughter looking like a skank, so Perez called her a skank which brought down Demi's "mother wrath." Phenomenal. And again, you witness it real time.

But, the best twitter to watch is Lindsay Lohan. If you haven't seen it, you must. It's twitter.com/lindsaylohan. This girl is a trainwreck, which is obvious enough, but she keeps making it more obvious by posting what other internet peeps have referred to as "cracktweets". And they are. To make the situation even more comical is the fact that she often will tweet things to other celebs and NO ONE EVER RESPONDS! But this bitch doesn't care, she just keeps tweeting, like people are writing to her every other minute. But they're not! HA! Nothing makes you feel better than knowing that a once upon a time Hollywood megastar now can't even get a famewhore like Miley Cyrus to tweet her back.

My point is that Twitter is like a gift of gossipy goodness that keeps on giving. Loves. It.

READATHON

Last week I hosted my first charity event...a 12-hour readathon. It was a SUCCESS! Although, I realized how slow of a reader I actually am. Boo! Oh well.

After completing 5 books (2 by me, 1 by my mom and 2 by Ro), $100 will be donated to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, which is currently asking for donations to build and run schools in Sudan. Here is their website http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/. Valentino Achak Deng is the hero of my favorite book of the year What is the What.

A special thanks to Anne, Molly, Jess, Nolan, Grace, Rosanna and mom for coming to the event and helping raise the funds!! As you can see by the photo above, Nolan was the most avid reader of the group.

Listen With Me...

Is anyone else listening to the new Mika album that came out on Tuesday? Love. Love. Love.

My current favorite is Good Gone Girl, which I'm listening to right now and wishing I was dancing, but I'm not because I'm at work. Although I'm alone in my office, so maybe a few shimmies wouldn't hurt.

My CT is Scanned

I had a CT scan this morning. Calm down, there's nothing wrong. It's just a standard procedure for a follow-up from another appointment. I actually don't know why they ordered it, but my insurance is happy to pay for it, so what the hell.

At first the nurses were all, you're going to have to drink barium. I cried. Then when I got there this morning, they were all, we're going to put an IV in and shoot you up with iodine instead. Sweetness!

And it was sweet, except the iodine tastes like metal. And you would think you can't taste something that's intravenously being gushed into your body, but you can. About 10 minutes later, one thing became perfectly clear: I'm allergic to iodine.

Ha! Laugh's on the nurses because they didn't know beforehand. I didn't know either. So, a doctor had to come and check on me, but he wouldn't come into my little waiting room. Instead he stood in the hall and announced "You had a slight allergic reaction. You appear to be fine now." Um, dude...Hippa? Now the entire hall knows of a new way to kill me. Bastard.

The Glass Castle

After reading this book, the first word that came to mind was "Wow", second was "Damn". Except the second word I said in ghetto vernacular, so it came out as dizzamn!

This is a book about parents who don't really want to have any responsibility and drag their kids from city to city keeping them in squalor and poverty the whole time. What's worse is that these people don't have to be poor. Not only are both parents exceptionally bright, but the mom is sitting on land worth millions of dollars that she doesn't do anything with because she can't bear to part with it.

It's a sad little tale where the parents look like the worst parents of all time. But, it appears throughout the whole book that the kidlets have an undying devotion to their parents and will continue to support and help them even though they have done terrible things to them throughout their lives. Which maybe is how it should be, but I don't know if I'd be that strong of a person.

The author has stated that she loved the way she grew up and it made her the person she is today (i.e. rich and motivated to succeed). However, I feel like my parents did the same for me by being strict, placing boundaries on my freedom as a child and giving me good morals. They did all of this while still providing me with food on a daily basis. The parents in this story couldn't even manage to do that even though at many points there was definitely enough money for bread and a jar of peanut butter. Which is basically all I needed from the age of 5 to 20.

What annoyed me about this book is in the end 3 out of the 4 kids succeed and have wonderful, healthy lives. Which isn't realistic. There are thousands of kids in the U.S. that grow up just like the Walls' who don't succeed or don't even make it out of childhood and I don't think that is reflected in this book.

So, 3/5 or 7/10 stars.

It's September, Yo.

So, this weekend it decided to turn fall. I have mixed feelings. I love the fall, but also love the summer and we didn't really have much of a summer. But, oh well. Let the apple picking begin!

BTW, how much do you bitches need to thank me. I think August on the whole was much warmer than the rest of the summer and I'm sure that my NME resolution has the world to do with it. I resolved and it happened. Just call me Gandalf (the Grey, not the white...as I told you when reviewing The Return of the King, once he turned white he lost all of his mojo).

September is going to be one helluva fun month. I have a couple of friends going back to school, Jess & Tony's 5 year anniversary, hs reunion (which I'm actually not that excited about) and most importantly the READATHON!

If you haven't heard, I'm hosting a charity readathon. 12 hours, $10 per book read.

So, my September goal is to read 7 books. I'm actually hoping to surpass this, but you know how I feel with NME resolutions...baby steps!