January, 2007
January 1st, 2007, 11:55 a.m. - 2007 is the year of the man boobs!
I hung out with some weeeeeeeeird people last night.
January 4th, 2006, 5:34 p.m. - Wouldn't it be funny if Michael won the whole thing? Okay, not funny "ha ha"
9:38 p.m. - Stop saying mean things about Veronica Mars and we'll be cool
1. Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn)
Up next: Forever Odd (Dean Koontz)
January 11th, 2007, 12:08 a.m. - Hurry back, Heroes!
"Save the Car Wash, Save the World"
6:07 p.m. - See, if you get people drunk, they don't realize how bad the food is
"A Bottle of Red, a Bottle of White"
January 17th, 2007, 8:50 a.m. - Yeah, Drew and Kevin!
"Reunited and It Feels so Good"
January 18th, 2007, 8:54 p.m. - What did YOU do last night?
11:27 p.m. - No, I'm serious
2. Forever Odd (Dean Koontz)
Up next: Brother Odd (Dean Koontz)
January 20th, 2007, 6:40 p.m. - Ewwwww
January 21st, 2007, 8:35 p.m. - Well, that's odd...
3. Brother Odd (Dean Koontz)
Up next: Prisoner of Trebekistan (Bob Harris)
January 24th, 2007, 11:06 p.m. - I know the title is stupid. You come up with a better one
January 25th, 2007, 11:17 p.m. - Too many Hawaiian food names! No wonder this took me so long
January 29th, 2007, 11:25 p.m. - Bob Harris is funnier than Ken Jennings
4. Prisoner of Trebekistan (Bob Harris)
Up next: Another Day in the Frontal Lobe (Katrina Firlik)
For the most part, I really liked this book, the first by Flynn, who writes for Entertainment Weekly. The plot moves quickly and the characters are pretty distinct. But then...it started getting worse. The characters became more like caricatures, the plot became more contrived and less believable, and certain "twists" were predictable. Sharp Objects is about a reporter who returns to her hometown on a (very contrived) assignment to investigate two murders. She gets swept up in her insane family's life (no, seriously - insane) and, of course, falls for the cop heading up the investigation. There's also a subplot about how she used to cut herself (hence the title), but it's pointless and doesn't add anything to her character. And then there's the ending, which was just...dumb. Everything falls apart and doesn't make sense. Since Flynn writes for a magazine that gives letter grades to everything, I'll stick with what she's familiar with and give her a B minus, with a "needs improvement."
If you like books where the deus ex machina is a mountain lion, you'll love Forever Odd!
I love Koontz's books for many reasons, but mainly because they're so comfortable to me. I'm so familiar with his writing, his turns of phrase and his little quirks, that I like almost everything he writes. Brother Odd is the third in Koontz's Odd Thomas series, focused on a character who can see dead people and uses his abilities to help solve mysteries and save lives. He's suffered a lot in his life (his parents were distant and at times abusive, and he lost the love of his life), but he's funny, charming, and truly cares about the people he tries to help. In Brother Odd, Odd, now a resident of a monastery, learns that something is lurking around, possibly attempting to harm the children in the adjacent school. As he investigates, he discovers that the people he thought were his friends may be his enemies, and the people he thought would harm people are actually his allies. There are a number of characters, but Koontz is the master of quirks, so they're easy to tell apart. (My favorite is a monk nicknamed Brother Knuckles who used to be a mob goon.) You never know what you're going to get from a Koontz story, but in a way, you do know what to expect from Koontz himself.
Before Ken Jennings, ever set foot on the Jeopardy! set, Harris became a five-time champion and kept coming back. Every time he thought he was done with the game, they invited him back for another tournament. Every time he thought he could stop studying his notebooks full of trivia, he had to pull them out again. Harris was never the champ of all champs, but he was well-liked (partly because of his humor - he's a stand-up comedian after all) and the producers always wanted him back. In Prisoner of Trebekistan, he outlines his years as a slave to knowledge, as well as some stories about his real life. (He dates Jane Espenson, a Buffy writer, which automatically makes him awesome.) Harris also details the surprisingly psychology of Jeopardy!, simultanously intriguing me and making me feel dumb. Harris is a terrific writer, both entertaining and making you think. I tried to read Jennings' book, Brainiac, and couldn't get into it. Harris is much more accessible and never makes you feel like you're a lesser person because, you know, you've never won five games of Jeopardy! before. He also notes that everything is connected...and once you get to the end, where he writes about the last clue he ever faced on Jeopardy!, you'll believe him.