Shit my Dad Says, Justin Halpern

OMG. I loved this compilation! I giggled and laughed out loud throughout the novel. His father seems like such a typical blue collar, North eastern guy (like many I know about here on the East coast), but not! They are on the West coast & his father is some crazy neurophysicist spewing the worst language in front of his children that you can imagine!

I also love the concept of someone with a blog making it work & making a life of it, wouldn't it be grand?

The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle

Yes! The next Sherlock Holmes story! This was more interesting than the first, to me. More exotic, more intrigue, more characters.

It's interesting to read about Sherlock's drug problem especially with all the tear jerking and intervention stories that are out now-a-days. This introduces his drug problem without all that. It's introduced as commonplace or as a part of his personality without Watson, in first person, judging or stressing on the implications of this problem. Not that the problem isn't a problem but more that it isn't the story nor the sub story, just a part of Sherlock's personality.

Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle

After reading all the Laurie R. King / Mary Russell novels I am finally getting around to reading the actual Sherlock Holmes novels. And I love them!

These are wonderfully written, keeping one guessing from the start. I like how details are completely eliminated or minimized but come back later as a slam dunk in Sherlock's synopsis.

I can't help but see Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock since the movie came out a year or so ago but I think he fits! I don't think he fits for the Mary Russell Sherlock somehow but I can see Robert Downey, Jr's Sherlock all over this novel. Either he really nailed the character or he really is the character.

I will go on to read the other Conan Doyle Sherlock stories, I can download them free from www.epub.com onto my Nook Color, I am really looking forward to it!

The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown was a coming of age story of three adult sisters and their relationship with their parents. Their father was a Shakespeare scholar, hence the name of the story and how it was reflected in the story. I expect if I knew Shakespeare I would have had a better appreciation of this novel.

Not that I didn't appreciate the story, because I did. I just wonder what was there that I didn't see because I don't know Shakespeare.

I came from a family with three daughters, I was the youngest. I can relate to Cornelia, the youngest in this story, even though my travels away from home did not take me in quite the same direction.

The middle sister in my family has very little in common with Bianca except for the desire to get away from the family, be successful and eventually to come back into the fold. My sister never strayed as far away as Bianca.

My oldest sister has some similar characteristics as Rose, the doer, the centered, grounded one. Thought not necessarily the flaws.

Their mother's cancer is what brings them back home, my mothers cancer brought me back home and I believe it brought my sisters and I closer as well. The conflicts with their relationship with their father never really goes away, like in my family, but these young women question themselves and find themselves to be more similar to themselves and with a different understanding of what home means.

Sandman, Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman

The Sandman was one of my first graphic novels and reading this a second time around does not fail me. There's a little horror, maybe a little sci fi and definitely a little fantasy. Neil Gaiman knows and enjoys his craft and introduced me to a new genre like I'd never been interested in before.

As well as the writing, I enjoyed the graphics and enjoy the mixture of artists involved, I believe some of these are introduced in other volumes. I love Gaimen's definitions of the character Dream and the introduction of Dream's sister, Death.

Please read this, especially if you aren't into graphic novels or this fanstasy/ sci fi/ horror genre. You may find yourself a changed person.

Underboss, Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of life in the Mafia, Peter Maas

This was JUST LIKE any mafia or mob story I have ever read or see on the screen. I suspect all the best have read this as research material.

I have wanted to read this since it first came out but it wasn't high on my lists, just one of those that I was always drawn to. It didn't disappoint me at all, but it really was just like a lot that I have seen.

There's also this element of braggadocio, Sammy is the best at everything he did & was the most loyal and honest, more than anyone else ever could be. It gets a bit thick if you've already heard about his double foot jump back into crime. It's hard to believe his wife divorced him & didn't know anything about his work life when you know she was arrested with him after being in the witness protection program, leaving it & getting back into crime.

At any rate, it was a good, fun read. Probably polished up a bit as well as exaggerated a little bit. It's obvious that The Sopranos writer had read this at some point since stories from the Sopranos seemed to come directly from stories in this novel.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

Woooo, dude really must have been on drugs and thank goodness for it! I love love love the 1971 Gene Wilder movie version of this, the 2005 Johnny Depp version was pretty good, too. I'm just very partial to the 1971 version with all it's scary creepiness. The book was just like the first novel with a little of the second thrown in.

Just like with James & the Giant Peach I have refound my love for this author. I don't think I ever completed this when I was a child. I am glad I've read this even after multiple times of watching the movies.