A Murmuration of Starlings by Jake Adam York

Category: 50 Books

16. A Murmuration of Starlings by Jake Adam York

This is a fantastic book of poetry! His other book of poems, Murder Ballads was very good, but this one was great. The poems all centered around the civil rights movement. I loved how Mr. York used music in his poetry. These poems were beautiful and chilling at the same time. They were just perfect. Okay, enough gushing.

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Second Sight by Amanda Quick

Category: 50 Books

15. Second Sight by Amanda Quick

This is the first book in the Arcane Society series. If you’ll recall, the second book (which I’ve already read) was White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz. Why she wrote the first one under the name Amanda Quick and then wrote the next two books in the SAME SERIES under a DIFFERENT NAME is beyond me. What kind of sense does this make?

None.

Exactly, thank you.

This book was awful. It took place in Victorian England (hate), and the characters have sex by page 20 (porn), and it, like White Lies, didn’t explain (enough for me) the whole “hunter” class of psychic blah-blah. Honestly? This book is crap. There’s Xena fanfic out there that’s WAY better than this.

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Innocence by David Hosp

Category: 50 Books

14. Innocence by David Hosp

This novel is more of a legal thriller than a courtroom drama. I enjoyed the book immensely up until the very end. I liked all the characters. All of them. I especially liked Lissa, the assistant, because she cussed so much. It was funny. The story is about a lawyer, Finn, who ends up representing a guy who’s been in jail for 15 years for a crime he did not commit. There’s a gang involved as well as dirty cops. So there you go.

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The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin

Category: 50 Books

13. The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin

Ah, back to the sweet nonfiction. This is a true crime book, also it’s about the mafia. What’s not to like? In this book Mr. Breslin tells the story of Burt Kaplan and how he ratted out two killer cops who worked for the mob.

I liked the book and I also liked the way it was written. I will say that it was a bit hard to follow in some parts. The chronology was confusing. Maybe it’s just me though. Apparently Mr. Breslin was a newspaper reporter back in the day and he (from what i can tell) had the mafia beat. (heh). I’m not sure how that works really, a reporter who writes about mob guys? in the paper? and he doesn’t get “whacked”? I… who knows. Anyway, that’s how he knows all his stuff I guess, cos he used to hang where the gangsters would hang. He acts like he’s the scribe for the mob. hee.

I liked how it was written (despite the confusing timeline) because the author sometimes refers to himself in a stream-of-conciousness kind of way is the best I can describe it. A bit like Capote in In Cold Blood not that i’m actually comparing the two. Um, so yeah, good book.

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White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz

Category: 50 Books

12. White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz

Okay, this was a little “decomp” book for me between Lincoln bios. Heh.

Jayne Ann Krentz has written approximately 900 romance books under the names, Jayne Bentley, Jayne Castle, Jayne Taylor, Stephanie James, Amanda Glass, and Amanda Quick.

Jan! Did you know she was Amanda Quick?! i didn’t. although, it’s not like she hides it. Apparently I’ve just not paid attention.

Anyway, I picked this book out because it sounded a lot like Kay Hooper’s Bishop/SCU series of psychic detectives. But, you know how I am about those, right? I think I’ve become a little too hypercritical of them… as though I think that they should be good. When in fact, they’ve been going downhill since the second series. Anyway, this book compared to those books, sucks. It’s more of a… not romanctic love story… more like a hott sexxx story. These people and their sexxxing after knowing each other for two days. Who does this? Plus, the main girl character, Clare, is a “human lie-detector”, that’s her psychic ability. And the book tells of how she’s learned that while everyone lies, that doesn’t mean everyone is bad, but still with the heinous trust issues, yeah? But then she meets this other guy and while both of them (of course) have been burned by previous relationships (of course) they hop in the sack by day two. Oy, this fiction stuff will rot your brain.

That said, this is part of a series, and I’m going to give another one of her books in this series a try. And I promise, if it sucks just as much as this one, I’ll not keep doing this to myself again. Hee.

There aren’t enough Cansecos in the world for this one.

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Stealing Lincoln’s Body by Thomas J. Craughwell

Category: 50 Books

11. Stealing Lincoln’s Body by Thomas J. Craughwell

How do you pronounce that last name? crafwell? crah-well? I dunno.

In continuing with my Lincoln fetish. Heh. fetish. This was a great book. It was short, which is so rare in Lincoln books. It’s not really so much about Lincoln though, it’s about a heist to steal the dead president’s body back in the 1870s. The fellows who were going to steal the body were doing so to hold it for ransom. What did they want? One of their buddies released from jail and $200,000. I know, the plan itself is even more, “really? they thought that would work?”

This book gives a short history on counterfeiting, which apparently was a HUGE DEAL back then. The author tells how half the currency at that time was fake. So the book is mostly about that and there’s a lot about the criminal history of Chicago and Irish immigrants. It was very interesting. I had no idea that counterfeiting had been that big of a deal.

Like I say, the book was short (maybe 250 pages or so, the last 30 or so pages were bibliography and index) but it was riveting and as with any Lincoln book, there were a ton of names. But I love the specificity (is that a word?) of this book, and the author sticks with it. It’s JUST about the heist (what led up to it, the heist itself, the aftermath), it doesn’t wander all over the place. A great read.

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3.05.08

Category: dribblings

is anyone tired of me talking about my Abraham Lincoln addction? you are?

well tough tea bags. my nerdness knows no bounds. do you KNOW what i FOUND the other DAY on iTunes?! capital O, capital M, capital G.

iTunes U. eeeeeeee! i found it by accident. i was actually searching for audiobooks about Lincoln, and i ran across these college lectures. oh sweet treasure of nerd! so today while i painted i listened to some pretty good lectures, two on Lincoln (one was Doris Kearns Goodwin talking about her book Team of Rivals, which was a serendipitous find because i’m reading that book right now. did she write this one? hee, that’s bad.) (i’m not actually a fan of Mrs. Goodwin, and her voice was borderline annoying, but she’s a huge baseball nerd… and i suppose that gets points.) and one was on John Brown. and? best part of all? THEY WERE FREE. DO YOU HEAR THAT, AMERICAN HISTORY NERDS? FREE.

my incredibly small ipod shuffle was all, “no, please! let’s listen to something fun! i’ll play the pixies! i promise! we’ll have fun! i can play all your favorite songs!”

speaking of the tiny of tinies: mr. fleegan gave me an ipod shuffle for Christmas. it’s small and green. i had a regular ipod (it was an old one, no color or video… just songs.) but it bit the dust over a year ago and i never replaced it. i wasn’t sure if i’d like the shuffle cos you can’t see a list of the songs… so you can’t choose what song to play next. but i have found that (after making a playlist of songs that do not piss me off) i can totally live without a screen. i love how small it is, and it’s clip is awesome.

the only thing that pisses me off about it is i look at it and it’s so small and so light that i can hardly believe that it even does anything at all. and then? it works. it plays songs or audiobooks etc. and i marvel. and then i’m pissed because if we can make a tiny machine that weighs NOTHING and actually does SOMETHING… then how come we can’t cure diabetes or crohn’s disease, or end war?
i have a machine that is slightly bigger than a quarter; it currently holds one book (five hours long), and six lectures (about 40 minutes each) and probably some songs i haven’t run across yet. we have this amazing technology and for SOME DAMN REASON milk is $3 a gallon. don’t get me started on the price of eggs and gas.

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3.04.08

Category: dribblings

mr. fleegan was making muffins for breakfast when i left this morning to go to mom’s coffee klatch. when i got home he was already gone, but there were some fresh muffins waiting for me. i was excited (i don’t think we’ve ever made muffins. not since LBC and i were roommates. it’s not cos we don’t like muffins, it’s more cos i never bought any muffin tins when i moved. LAZY. lazy for being so lazy.) so i get home and there’s the muffins and i’m all, “yes!” with the fist pumping. and i can’t remember if he made blueberry muffins or cranberry muffins. so i unwrap a muffin…clearly anticipating a tangy berry of some kind…and i bite into it… and it’s chocolate. my response was an audible, “no!”

i was, in a word, disappointed. chocolate? in a muffin? what are we, 12? but i shouldn’ve known, right? after all i did marry him. he would eat chocolate for three meals a day if he could figure out how to get away with it. so here i was all, “i had my mouth ready fo’ some hash, and they ain’t no hash.” chocolate damn muffins.

as i was making some coffee i was thinking about how sweet it was that he got up early to make muffins (he even went out to the store to get milk. at like, 6am. in the rain)(oh, but don’t go thinking he was making the muffins for me. he’s the one who wanted muffins.) and i thought about how i’m the only person on the planet who would complain about fresh, free muffins. but then i thought, no! i’m not the only one. you know that you know someone who’s like that. someone other than me. you probably work with someone like that. someone who ALWAYS complains about things that bear no complaining. like, for instance, muffins.

well i don’t want to be like that person. i don’t want to be like Roberta in HR or Larry in accounting. i don’t want to be the bonehead muffin complainer. i won’t! who the hell complains about free muffins? NOT ME. I LOVE THEM. THEY’RE MY FAVORITE.

******

yesterday was monday. and the first thing that happened to me at work yesterday was some lady, some mentally ill piece of sewer-ridden garbage of a women calls me an idiot. okay, the word idiot didn’t come out of her mouth, but this is what happened. she comes up to the desk as i’m walking out to the library all fresh and ready for a new week of library-ing. she says, “i can’t get the copy machine to work. nothing comes out.” so i volunteer to help her cos my co-workers were going to take their morning break. so i go back there and the problem is that the copier doesn’t recognize that there’s anything on the screen because the paper was smaller than a regular piece of paper. it’s easy to fix and i fix it and it copies her tiny page. she says, “that’s not really how i wanted it.”
“oh, do you want it on the page long ways?” i know, “long ways”, right? but if i say “landscape” it will only be more confusing.
“i don’t want it like this.”
“okay.” so i copy it again, this time “long ways.”
“i don’t like it like this either.”

let me take time to tell you it’s a small handwritten note that we’re copying. it’s not any kind of project or something to be graded, m’kay?
“well, there’s only long ways or short ways, and we’ve done both. you’re pretty much out of choices.”
“i guess this will do.”
“okay then, glad i could help-”
“i need this letter copied.”
“oh, okay, put it on the screen.” this time it’s paper-sized paper. you know what i mean. it copies. she snatches up the copy and says, “what’s this line doing here?”
“what?”
“there’s a line on here. my original doesn’t have a line on it.” it’s almost like she knew there would be a line there because i swear she hadn’t even finished picking up the paper before she freaked out about the line. i look at the paper and sure enough there’s a faint line on it. it’s just copier machine bullshit, right? you know how copiers are.
“um, i guess it’s just some kind of interference with the machine. do you want to try it again?” and i swear to God this is what she says,
“i don’t think you know how to work this machine.”

ok. i’m out.
“you’re welcome to try another copy if you want. i can’t do anything about the line.”
“this is terrible. i can’t use this. i know that they put the bad copy machine out here for the public to use.”
“actually, this is the new copy machine. it’s only a year old.”
“i know they sell the bad ones to the public and the good ones to offices.”
“…”
“i can’t use this. i’m going to talk to someone about this.”
“okay then.”

and she walks up to the desk. and she starts in on the two ladies at the desk (one of which is my boss.) i can hear her bitching, but i can’t tell what she’s saying. meanwhile there’s a guy who’s been standing around to use the copier. he gives me a look like, “what the hell is her damage?” and i look at him like, “dude, is it monday or what?”

so tina makes the lady a copy of her letter on the copy machine in the back office, which, is the shittiest copy machine ever. it always leaves specks of black on the copies. ALWAYS. and of course this time is no different. the lady comes back to the new machine where i’m still waiting because the stupid whinebag left her purse and keys at that machine and i didn’t want her to come back and say that the man had touched her things or stole anything. (she seemed the type). and so she comes up to me in a TIZZ and is all, “well, look, that one put black spots on it.”
“yeah. because that’s the old machine. it’s not as good as this one.”
she huffs and puffs and FINALLY stomps away. i straighten up a shelf or two and go back to the desk and ask, “did Freakshow leave?” and they tell me that she’d said that i obviously had no idea what i was doing with that machine. (ooh, that corksoaking witch.) then mary says that the lady insisted that her copies should be BETTER than her original, and that she knew all about copy machines because she was an office manager for 12 years.

what planet is this crazy from? how could it be BETTER than the ORIGINAL?

i can only be relieved that i never had to work in that lady’s office.

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3.02.08

Category: dribblings

today is mom and dad’s 34th wedding anniversary. how about that?

******

here’s something i thought was odd, i told dan and florrie today that i’ve been obsessed with abraham lincoln. florrie said that her mom was obsessed with lincoln a few months ago. isn’t that strange? i mean, just a little bit? what? it isn’t? are you sure? because florrie’s mom and i don’t have a lot in common. and for us to be obsessed with the same thing… what could it mean?

that i’m getting old. yeah, hilarious.

New Business:

i never talk about it cos it’s lame, but i’ve a myspace page. and yesterday i got a friend request from Kay Hooper. i’ve never gotten a friend request from a famous person before. on the one hand i feel special because somehow she found me. (pro’ly cos her name is in the list of authors on the page?) but on the other hand, i feel that if she had read the last three reviews i’ve written about her books she wouldn’t really want to be my friend. and of course, on the third hand, which is some kind of sci-fi-robot-lizard hand, i wonder if it’s actually kay hooper or more likely some kind of hired tech-minion.

*****

cookie magoo is the funniest person on the planet, and i’m so glad i know her. on her site she mentions that when she’s having trouble falling asleep she tries to come up with long country song titles about scenes from Gone With the Wind. this is probably one of the most fantastic things i’ve ever heard. the two examples she gives are, “Stop Tryin’ to Crush My Skull With Your Bare Hands and Take Me to Bed Already” and “My Baby Done Fell Off Her Horse and Died Just Like My Daddy Did”.
if you do not see the genius in those two examples then the Genius Recognition Sector of your brain is not working properly.

i keep trying to come up with titles of my own, but it’s a lot harder than you think. the ONLY thing i’ve come up with is “i’ll never get the vote cos i’m black and a lady, and i don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ babies.” how sad of an attempt is that? i keep trying to come up with one about having to wear drapes to visit your man in jail. but… no.

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2.29.08

Category: dribblings

ooh, Leap Year!

i’ve read 10 books so far. i thought i was doing good, but i looked back and by this time last year i had 12 books read, and this year i had an extra day, so… there you go. oh hell, this being a leap year… does that mean we’ll have to endure an Olympics this summer or winter?

*sigh* yes. yes it does.
stoopid, dumbhead olympics. my hatred for the olympics is only surpassed by my hatred of birds (all kinds), HBC, bees/wasps/flying-stinging insects, and the ineffectual USDA. i include my distrust of milk in with the USDA thing.

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