Frankie reads 2016

[Peacefield]

I go through periods of not being in the mood for anything, Frankie, or being in such a specific mood for a specific type of book and when I can't find it I give up.  I have a shelf-full of TBR books as well as a couple bins under my bed but have I read them yet?  Nope.  I look, I ponder, and them I'm like "screw it, time to go find something at the used book store."

 

That's good you got excited about the Amy Tan-like books, though!  I've never watched that TV series you mentioned but I've heard good things.

[Athena]

I hope you'll feel more like reading soon . I'm glad you had fun browsing BD for Amy Tan books.

[bobblybear]

I take my hat off to you! I should get fit, too... I like the idea of a pedometer. It seems to have worked for you very well? I like it that you are using the library as an 'excuse' to do your walk It's as good a destination as any, and better than most

I do enjoy the walk down there. I get to have some alone time as well.....just pop my headphones in and off I go. I wouldn't say it's helped me lose weight or anything though, but I still enjoy it.   

 

The downside, of course, is that you have way too many library loans now... You should ask them to set a limit to the amount of books you can loan per week

Sacrilege!!!

 

So McEwan isn't pure gold then is he? I can't remember which books were suggested to me in the past. Probably Atonement at least. At least his books are short?

Sweet Tooth was the first of his I didn't enjoy....I loved Atonement. I don't think his books are particularly short.....probably average, like 300-400 pages? That can seem forever when it's a bad book though.  

 

 

Another one of my problems is that I have a lot of books that seem amazing borrowed from the library and I just don't feel like reading them, even though I really want to read them! This really sucks! I want to read but I am not in the mood.

Yeah, that's the problem with library books.....they can't be kept on your TBR pile forever. I think I can renew mine once or twice (unless someone reserves it), so I too feel under pressure to read them. But once I get started on them, it's usually ok.

[Inver]

I find it so frustrating when I desperately want to read a 'good book' and then get in to it and can't finish it quick enough to get on to another.

[frankie]

I go through periods of not being in the mood for anything, Frankie, or being in such a specific mood for a specific type of book and when I can't find it I give up.  I have a shelf-full of TBR books as well as a couple bins under my bed but have I read them yet?  Nope.  I look, I ponder, and them I'm like "screw it, time to go find something at the used book store."

 

I like your 'screw it!' attitude I should've gone for it sooner... One can't force these things! 

 

That's good you got excited about the Amy Tan-like books, though!  I've never watched that TV series you mentioned but I've heard good things.

 

I'd definitely recommend it I'm loving all the cultural references and the time warp back into the precious 90s I was blown away when they played Ashanti in this one particularly great scene...  

 

I hope you'll feel more like reading soon. I'm glad you had fun browsing BD for Amy Tan books.

 

 Thanks Athena! I think I'm getting better... There was this one thing that was occupying my mind and it was seriously in my mojo's way, and when I decided to just forget about the thing and not think of it, I was more able to concentrate on books... Once I finished my then current read, I opted for a romance novel and decided to try and read it during my commute, too, instead of listening to music. I would read it in the tram and the subway, and even while I was walking from the subway station to work It worked wonders and I've already finished the chick lit book and started another book since then I hope it continues!

 

I do enjoy the walk down there. I get to have some alone time as well.....just pop my headphones in and off I go. I wouldn't say it's helped me lose weight or anything though, but I still enjoy it.  

 Heck, as long as you enjoy it, it's all good! Is Reuben allowed with you, though, as you probably can't take him to the library? How is the fella doing these days?  

 

Sacrilege!!! 

Sacrilege, and totally against all that the libraries represent  

 

Sweet Tooth was the first of his I didn't enjoy....I loved Atonement. I don't think his books are particularly short.....probably average, like 300-400 pages? That can seem forever when it's a bad book though.

 Atonement must be an exception then, because it looks like a 200 pager... That's pretty short even for a bad book  

 

Yeah, that's the problem with library books.....they can't be kept on your TBR pile forever. I think I can renew mine once or twice (unless someone reserves it), so I too feel under pressure to read them. But once I get started on them, it's usually ok. 

 

 Yep, there's the pressure, but being able to renew one's loans is really great. Over here we can renew our books 5 times (unless there are reservations). I love it!  

 

I find it so frustrating when I desperately want to read a 'good book' and then get in to it and can't finish it quick enough to get on to another.

 

You are dealing with a very opposite problem of mine... I'm glad you can get sucked into books and feel the urge to get sucked into others while you're still reading that one I've had the same problem before... Nowadays not so much... 

[frankie]

19. The Last of the Bowmans by J. Paul Henderson

 

Blurb: After an absence of seven years, Greg Bowman returns home from America to find his father lying in a bamboo coffin, his estranged brother Billy stalking a woman with no feet, and his 79 year-old Uncle Frank planning to rob a bank. While renovating the family house, he is unexpectedly visited by the presence of his dead father and charged with the task of 'fixing' the family. In the course of his reluctant investigations, Greg discovers an unsettling secret of his father's, and one that brings him face to face with the consequences of his own past.

 

 

Thoughts: The title caught my attention when I was once again browsing the list of the new acquired books on the library's website. I thought this might make a quirky read if it was well executed... Having never heard of the author I was a bit hesitant but thought I'd give it a go nonetheless. My extremely fickle mojo could've totally ruined this book for me, and I do think that I would've enjoyed it even more if I could've read it in a shorter period of time than two weeks (!!), but it's pretty great, all things considered, how much I liked this book. I liked the characters and the plotline and the story telling. I wouldn't say my world was rocked and I wouldn't know to whom I would or could or should recommend this book, but I really much enjoyed it nonetheless. And I think I will look out for the author's other novel.

 

 

4/5

[frankie]

20. Here's Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane 

 

 

Amazon: Anna Alessi – history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth – seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Mills & Boon moments.

 

Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren’t always this way, and her years spent as the ‘Italian Galleon’ of an East London comprehensive are ones she’d rather forget.

 

So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him?

 

Thoughts: I think this one was also a new book at the library and I felt like reading a bit of chick lit. My mojo was still being fickle, as well, and I thought a light read might do the trick... I read the book in a day, so in that respect it was a success! I took it with me to work, and read it while in the tram, in the subway, and on my way from the subway station to work... And back home. It was easy enough to read it while walking, and I think spending that much time on a book made me instinctively remember what it's like to just keep on reading, and not watching TV and being online doing nothing particular instead. It was a welcome experience!

 

The writing was bad. I don't know if it was a very poor translation (I read it in Finnish) or if I just don't like McFarlane... Or whether it's a combination of the two. It tried to be witty but either I failed to catch any of it or the author overdid it. However, as I was suffering from a major mojo loss, going on for weeks and weeks, I was just happy to be able to read and read and not forget what had happened a few pages ago... The story flowed okay and I did enjoy it, overall. It really helped with my mojo. 

 

I wouldn't probably go for any other of the author's books and I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone in particular, but I'm still thankful for what it did for me

 

 

3/5

Edited May 11, 2016 by frankie

[frankie]

Boss has told me on a few different occasions how I've inspired her to use the library more and how I've inspired her to read more. She wanted to watch the movie Room and I told her to read the book first, and she absolutely loved it. She then wanted to read the Natascha Kampusch book, when I mentioned to her I'd read it, too. As they are about the same subject matter... I also told her about this Finnish novel which had gotten a Man Booker Prize nomination (not the shortlist, unfortunately... It was in the 'top 12' or something), and she wanted to read it and I got it for her from the library and she loved that one, too. The Natascha Kampusch book, however, wasn't a big hit... She told me that after having read the two masterpieces, Room and Nälkävuosi, Kampusch's writing felt so amateur-like, which is of course fair as she isn't a professional writer... But she was bored nonetheless, hoping that 'the Kampusch woman would already get kidnapped in the book', having read 50 pages of it and nothing happening so far. She was also reading a few other books but wasn't feeling them, either, and she was getting frustrated, and I felt her pain... 

 

One day she wondered if the Gilbert Grape book was as good as the movie. I told her I loved the movie and that coincidentally, I'd found a copy of the book just recently and got it. This is happening with Boss always: we are freakishly similar and have similar taste and these coincidences just follow one after the other... I told her I'd lend her my copy. I then realized, now's the time to recommend Augusten Burroughs to her, and I wondered how I hadn't thought of it before :O She loves true stories and stuff about people with different mental disorders and stuff. So I told her about Running with Scissors, and she was sold. She's currently reading both RwS and GG at the same time When I brought her the copy of RwS, I thought of the story very fondly, and when I was leafing through the pages, I felt that I wanted to re-read the book very, very much... I haven't been doing any re-reading a lot in the past few years, but now it felt like it was time. I just checked and it was about 9 years ago that I first read RwS!! Where has the time gone... I myself started reading the book yesterday and I'm already on page 190. 

 

I feel like my mojo's back  

[Athena]

It's great you and your boss have such similar tastes . I love it when I recommend a book to someone and they love it. It sounds like you've having a great time talking with her .

 

It's so nice your mojo is back !

[frankie]

It's great you and your boss have such similar tastes . I love it when I recommend a book to someone and they love it. It sounds like you've having a great time talking with her .

Yep, it's awesome to hear one's recommendations have been read and appreciated One of the greatest feelings in the world! It's also just generally nice to have someone to talk to about books!

 

It's so nice your mojo is back !

Isn't it?! I'm ecstatic! I hope it continues. I just need to exist in the moment and set aside all worries and wonderments and focus on reading...

[frankie]

* Spoiler alert! *

 

If you have not read Augusten Burroughs's Running with Scissors yet, and wish to read it in the future, do not read this post as it contains a smallish spoiler.

 

 

I recommended Running with Scissors to my boss last week. She likes memoirs and biographies and she has a similar taste in books, and she likes 'oddballs', and so of course I had to recommend the book to her. Today when I went to work, she started talking about how she'd read many, many pages of the book during the weekend and she was really enjoying it! I said I wanted to know if she's read this one bit already, but that actually, I couldn't ask her, because I didn't want to spoil anything. Then she started talking about how Finch the psychiatrist took a dump one day and the glorious turd was standing upright in the toilet bowl and he took it as a sign from God, and he and his family started predicting the future based on his turds. I said, okay, that's exactly the thing I was wondering if you've come to it yet Boss and I had a laugh about starting to go through our poops and putting them out to dry on the table in the balcony...

 

What made the situation all the more thrilling for me... I'm so glad that my boss had already got to that part of the book, because... This morning when I closed the door to my apartment to leave for work, there was a nasty smell coming from the corridor. It smelled like nasty farts! I went downstairs and when I got to the first floor to leave through the front door, lo and behold: someone had taken a dump against the wall!!!! There was humans excrement against the freaking wall and a puddle of it on the floor!!! In my apartment building!!! 

 

That was nasty... And it started rather high up, too. It must've been a basketball player or a Jedi or something! And s/he/it hadn't wiped... At least there was no wipe material on top of it. Oh my god.... Boss was thrilled to hear about it, as it was in accordance to the poopy theme  

[poppyshake]

Lord!!! Who would do that?!? The mind boggles! I mean, I've heard of people getting caught short but that's ridiculous. Gracious! Do you think they were aiming purposefully .. halfway up the wall :lol:

Hope some good Samaritan has cleared it up by now.

Good to hear that your boss is enjoying the book. That was one of my fave bits Far more exciting than reading tea leaves  

Glad your mojo is back lovely  

[frankie]

Lord!!! Who would do that?!? The mind boggles! I mean, I've heard of people getting caught short but that's ridiculous. Gracious! Do you think they were aiming purposefully .. halfway up the wall

 

I have no idea... I mean the doors are locked 24/7, and you have to have a key to get inside. There's even no buzzer. There is a number code lock at the back door but you'd have to go around the block to get to that door and then you'd have to know the number. 

 

The more I've thought about it (and I swear I've thought about it a lot, ewww!! ), the more I think that it was deliberate. I mean, there's always a chance the poop was an accident and it couldn't have been avoided. However... The stuff on the wall was high up! I would say it was 1,5 meters up from the floor. And nobody can poop that high!! And nobody can even poop against the wall... Can they? You poop downwards, not sidewards. I mean, at least we do so in the Eastern Finland... Maybe Helsinki is different! I think that someone pooped on the floor and then took a handful off the stuff (or went in with both hands...) and smeared the stuff on the wall. It honestly looked like it!! It was a big pile of poop, a solid big poop. Not a possibly accidental diarrhea!  I wish I'd taken a picture. Or do I. Hm. 

 

 

 

I've a theory: someone managed to make an impression on someone who lives in the building, and was invited to spend the night. In the morning, they needed to make a number two but as it was a new affair, they were too embarrassed to use the loo. And so they said their goodbyes very early, and then the person got out and did their thing downstairs. 

 

Hope some good Samaritan has cleared it up by now.

I was wondering who would have to clean it up and I talked about it with boss and she said someone would call the cleaning crew and they'd take care of it. She told me it would be gone by the time I got home at the end of my shift, but I wasn't as sure... But it was gone!!  

 

This morning, when I got out, I sniffed the corridor air and there were no farty smells hanging around When I went to work, boss came to the kitchen and was smiling and I was like, 'what's up with you, smiling like that?' and she started laughing and said, 'I only have to look at you to start laughing' And I said, it's a good morning, innit. No crap on the walls, either! Small blessings are the best...  

 

Good to hear that your boss is enjoying the book. That was one of my fave bits Far more exciting than reading tea leaves

 

Exactly!! She really really liked it. If she's not enjoying a book, it'll take her ages to read and she might give up in the middle. But when I got in today, she'd finished! She kept mentioning bits and pieces of the book and laughing I've already reserved a copy of  Dry for her  

 

Glad your mojo is back lovely  

 

Thanks darling!   Although we'll have to see how it goes tonight... I wasn't able to get into any book last night, but I suspect they were the wrong books for me at the moment. I have plenty of alternatives to try out. 

[chaliepud]

Ewww, what a story, there are some strange people around and probably not good to give it too much thought!!

 

Did you find a good book to get your teeth into?

[Athena]

Wow Frankie.. that sounds so gross!! I'm glad it's cleaned up now. Ewww.

[frankie]

Ewww, what a story, there are some strange people around and probably not good to give it too much thought!!

:lol: Whenever I come home, my eyes go to the spot on the wall.... Sigh!!

 

 

Did you find a good book to get your teeth into?

Fortunately I did! I turned to my trusted Linwood Barclay He's so reliable!

 

 

Wow Frankie.. that sounds so gross!! I'm glad it's cleaned up now. Ewww.

It was totally gross I don't want to think about someone having to clean it up... I'm sure the cleaning people don't get paid enough!!

 

As Boss finished Running with Scissors, I reserved a copy of Dry for her like I said in a previous post. The book arrived yesterday and I was able to take it to Boss. She was thrilled   We were in the kitchen, I was prepping food and she was reading the first few pages of the book and she laughed at times and I was very happy It felt really good being able to recommend a good book to her, one which she really enjoyed. She's an Augusten Burroughs convert! Well, not that I had to convert her or anything, because she'd never heard of him before I told her about him... I'm contemplating re-reading Dry so I can keep up with her as she's bound to comment on the book in the coming days next week

 

Edit: I also recommended the Elling book for her, as I know she's watched the movie and loved it. This is Beyond the Great Indoors by Ingvar Ambjørnsen, of course. 

Edited May 20, 2016 by frankie

[Nollaig]

That is gross but also utterly bizzare, why would anyone do that?!

[frankie]

I have no idea... It must be someone who's suffering mentally or someone who's somewhat disturbed... Can't be anything else  

[Anna Begins]

I couldn't read the review because, coincidentally, I downloaded the sample of Running With Scissors today! Is it totally traumatizing though? I dropped Room for the same reason, it seemed too depressing!

 

I'm so happy you captured a reader he he.

[frankie]

I couldn't read the review because, coincidentally, I downloaded the sample of Running With Scissors today! Is it totally traumatizing though? I dropped Room for the same reason, it seemed too depressing!

What a coincident! That's so cool! I don't think it's traumatizing at all. Yes, awful things happen, and some people would get traumatized, but Augusten writes about it all so wittily. I think at times one can't believe it's all really happening and one's just flabbergasted and might laugh out loud out of disbelief. He writes in such a matter-of-fact way that it makes me kinda feel like it's not really a big deal, whatever happens, even though it's actually pretty huge.

 

I'm so happy you captured a reader he he.

I'm having such a blonde moment, forgive me: I can't tell what you mean by me having captured a reader?

 

 

Boss has by now read 3/4 of Dry and is loving it. She keeps talking about Augusten She's become a big fan and she's even recommended the author to a friend of hers, who's now reading Running with Scissors and loving it I love word-of-mouth book and author hyping   We are totally bummed that A Wolf at the Table hasn't been yet translated into Finnish We have, however, reserved copies of Magical Thinking and Possible Side Effects for her. 

 

The other day I told her we should go and find some great flea markets and recycling centers so we could look for books. She said she's decided that she is never ever going to buy a book again. I was shocked I asked her why. She said books take up too much space, and anyways, the library has such a great selection and I'm forever bringing her books, so she doesn't have to go out and buy any new ones. Oh my, I've done a disservice to authors as she won't be bringing any money to them  

Edited May 27, 2016 by frankie

[Anna Begins]

Lol I meant your Boss It's cool you can share that with her.

 

Great to know about Running With Scissors... I think I might get to it soon then Heck, you might even convert me to Augustine

[frankie]

I forgot to say, I got a book for myself the other day. I found a copy of The Art of War by Sun Tzu! It's at least on the Rory Gilmore book list, I think. I don't know if it'll be a very readable book... It might go totally over my head. Well, it was for free at the library. I can always take it back if I can't get into it. 

[frankie]

Lol I meant your Boss It's cool you can share that with her.

Ah, I did wonder if that might be what you meant Sorry, I was off my game

 

 

Great to know about Running With Scissors... I think I might get to it soon then Heck, you might even convert me to Augustine

Not everyone likes the book... So consider yourself warned! I won't take responsibility... I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it when you get to it!!

[Anna Begins]

Ha ha, you'll be the first to hear once I read it

 

And I'm always off my game lol

 

Speaking of disturbing, have you ever read any JT LeRoy? He is a persona of a woman writer, but there is quite the controversy... Wiki can tell you the bizarre story of the author. It's almost like this woman was so traumatized, she created LeRoy. Sarah was the first of his/her books I read. The other on is The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.

 

Not for the squeamish for sure... but so is Poppy Z Brite

[frankie]

Ha ha, you'll be the first to hear once I read it

Yay, I'm very happy about that!!

 

 

Speaking of disturbing, have you ever read any JT LeRoy? He is a persona of a woman writer, but there is quite the controversy... Wiki can tell you the bizarre story of the author. It's almost like this woman was so traumatized, she created LeRoy. Sarah was the first of his/her books I read. The other on is The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.

No, I've never heard of him/her. I'm totally going to google the name now. I like all sorts of disturbing.

 

Not for the squeamish for sure... but so is Poppy Z Brite

Poppy Z. Brite, now she can write some disturbing stuff for sure I've only read one book of hers, but that was proof enough... I totally want to re-read the book, and read other stuff by her.