For anyone who loved
Ready Player One as much as I did probably understands how damn exciting the release of this book was. I'm sad to say I didn't love this one. I might have hyped myself up too much for it, but, I found this book just OK. Zac Lightman lives in Beverton, OR (shout out to my old home!) obsessing over video games and all the nerd memorabilia his dead father left behind. His life changes when he sees the same flying sauces from his favorite video game, Armada, in real life. Turns out, a secret branch of the government is using the video games to train people to fight in an alien war! (sound familiar?) The pop culture vomit all over each page was too much. I had this problem in Ready Player One but it seems like Cline was
really trying to impress someone with his nerd brain this time. If anything it was a distraction from the anti-climatic story line. Zac was a cocky teenager with an anger problem and the rest of the characters just fell flat. Now, it sounds like I really hated this book but I didn't. It was mildly entertaining and I don't regret reading it. Do I recommend it? No. Would I read another book by Cline? Yes.
This book talks about the darker side of how we eat, how the farm-to-table movement might not be enough. James Beard Award winning Chef, Dan Barber travels throughout Europe and the U.S. educating himself on soil, land, sea and seed. Barbers has a way of being truly honest, but not overbearing when talking about how the way we eat now is harming the future of food. While reading, I got a real sense of the effects our eating habits have on the earth but was left feeling quite optimistic. I absolutely recommend this to anyone and everyone. The writing is great, humorous, and extremely educational.
"In
The First Bad Man, Miranda July tells the story of Cheryl, a
vulnerable, uptight woman in her early forties who lives alone, with a
perpetual lump in her throat, unable to cry. Cheryl is haunted by a baby
boy she met when she was six; she also believes she has a profound
connection with Phillip, a philandering board member at Open Palm, the
women’s self-defense studio where she has worked for twenty years.
When
Cheryl’s bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter Clee can move
into her house for a little while, Cheryl’s eccentrically ordered world
explodes. And yet it is Clee—the selfish, cruel blond bombshell—who
teaches Cheryl what it means to love and be loved and, inadvertently,
provides the solace of a lifetime."
Summary from Amazon
This book was handed to me by a friend at work. I was in the middle of reading some other things and I wasn't quite sure if I even wanted to start this. When I got home that day, I opened the book and couldn't stop. The relationship between the main character, Cheryl and Clee made me somewhat uncomfortable yet I was looking forward to their next encounter. It's a super quick read that left me wanting more.
