quote of the year: "Bang and banish"
919364
Lightning Field is as nuanced and sublime a portrait of life and lifers in contemporary LA as can be found. It is alternately grim and hilarious, as the three protagonists, almost artifacts themselves, stray through the land of artificial. Throughout, old hollywood ghosts and archaic american slang (Eureka, for example) punctuate what is really a document of today. Other old things invested with new life or cast in bright new light: 60's hippie/drug culture-- the "new age," and the library of black and white and technicolor tombs that innundate Mina, our central charater, and her brain.
The characters are not innoculated against the late capitalist infrastructure that surrounds them, and either are we. The evidence for this is in the author's immense talents at rendering comedy from the blight of shopping and the ugliness of a cool chain of concept restaurants that seem dreadful and unreal. Wool stockings and make-up never sounded so fascinating.
The novel assails our current dilema with brilliant turns of wit--the author manages to nail the protagonists and the reader with the sharpest of bullets.
The title refers, tragically and with echoes of the Catcher in the Rye, to the unattainable-- in fact it refers to the unnameable even.
3779030
Great writing, direction, and heart.  First analogy:  "Wargames"  Second Analogy: "Kick Ass"  Best Quote: "This will all be over, soonish".
We report, you decide.
4450597
Year Zero is the silliest and probably the funniest book I have ever read. Many books bring a chuckle, but this one had me laughing aloud. But, like the best stories, it also makes a statement; in this case it's the absurdity of the copyright laws of the music industry and the lawyers who gain from it. You'll also find an interesting take on the Windows operating system. If this book isn't sponsored by Macintosh, it should be.

If this doesn't intrigue you enough to read it, then consider the possibilities if the universe could fold back on itself. At a wrinkle beings from a planet light years away if you took the long route could cross in a matter of minutes or hours. This is what allows our hero Nick Carter to meet a wealth of aliens. One race looks like a tennis ball with ten legs, another looks like a vacuum cleaner, and the plurrhs are so boring and insignificant that you have to concentrate very hard when you're talking to one or you'll forget why you're there or even fall asleep with boredom.
The plot is tight and delightfully unpredictable, the physics and special effects fascinating, and the ease with which humanity can be encouraged to destroy itself is a little horrifying. The characters are vibrant and expertly drawn, especially the women.

I recommend anyone who likes absurdity and a good laugh. Think The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and you get the idea.

Here's the blurb.
Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it's a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.
The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity's music ever since "Year Zero" (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything-and the aliens are not amused.
Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he's an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He's scared of heights. He's also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he's packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.
Soon he's on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.
2504789
Quotatious and clever. The illustrations, alone, are worth the cost of the book. Laugh-out-loud "truth bombs" provide groan-worthy examples of why it is important to be more hands-on involved in our Democracy (but only if you want it to succeed). Your vote DOES matter. I vote "YES" for Dotard (the book, not the politician).
4940157
"When will I be home? I don't know. In the mountains, in the rainy night, the Autumn lake is flooded. Someday we will be back together again. We will sit in the candlelight by the West window. And I will tell you how I remembered you tonight on the stormy mountain." - When Will I Be Home? By Li Shang-Yin (813?-858)

Tomorrow, 99.7% of the world will die from a super-flu. Nine years later, we find pilot, and narrator, Hig, his dog Jasper, and his partner Bangley making the most of the new world at a small airport turned fortress fighting off marauders and would-be invaders living in a world where his morals no longer seem compatible. At least if he wants to live. Which is in doubt.

Higs survived the death of everything he knew and everyone he loved including the haunting death of his pregnant wife. Alone as he considers himself, Bangley is a dangerous psychotic who he can't trust, he thinks, with only his dog Jasper he flies an old Cesna around the perimeter of the airport and makes supply runs to a group on Mennonites affected by the blood flu.

A couple years ago he heard a transmission on the radio from Grand Junction. It was garbled and he lost most of what was said, but he heard it. Could there be people out there? Society? Restlessness and the fact that he is far away from his peace-loving element drive him to consider the unthinkable: leaving the airfield. And so he goes. And nothing will be the same. Again.

Heller's debut novel will haunt you as it did me. It is at once lyrical, poetic, revolting and wistful. The author's affinity for nature is evident by the detailed and loving way that he describes scenes. The author tells the story through the perspective of Hig and uses language to build back-story in ways that are nearly always missing in a post-apocalyptic story. There is a difference between an action packed, post-apocalyptic popcorn novel and literature. This is literature. Just so happens the world has gone to rot. Consider this quote as an example of how the author uses Hig's musings to build a world far superior to most of his contemporaries: "Slide by slide. Picture by picture. He was aggregating memory like a wall against extinction. And the little boxes of slides were his bricks." That was about a family member completely incidental to the story.

Every part of the story is filled with these off the cuff comments building something truly beautiful. An amazing debut novel. One that I highly recommend.

A note about the audio version: Deakins doesn't just read the book, but produces a story. His deliberately slow, punctuated reading fits perfectly with the author's text and forces the reader to pause and enjoy the lyric, the vista, the beauty. At first frustration built; I wanted to go faster. But then I realized that the author was right. This story takes time and you can't force your way through it. You have to take the time to take in the view.

This audio book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.
339065
For those familiar, primarily, with Kafka's fictions, these aphorisms come as a pleasant surprise.  Everything is here in a compressed way.  One of my favorites: "The crows like to insist a single crow is enough to destroy heaven. This is incontestably true, but it says nothing about heaven, because heaven is just another way of saying: the impossibility of crows."
3455936
I guess reading quotes and thinking about these ideas is a helpful thing. And here is my favorite: "The best revenge is a massive success."
4355075
This is one of my favourite episodes.  This episode contains, as Homer's brian calls it, the smartest thing he is ever going to say "I guess you could say, he's barkin up the wrong bush."  This episode contains  former President George Bush.  With an excellent singing scene with Homer  at the beginning and a cool fight scene with george bush at the end, it  makes for a hilarious episode.
4763397
I was enjoying It Takes a Village Idiot up until page 183 when suddenly, outta no where,  Jim & Sue turn into cruel vicious killers.

"Patrolling the perimeter (of their garden) one day" Sue spotted a woodchuck down by the barn and yelled for me to come help. I grabbed the first thing I could find--my five-iron-and ran down there.

We had him cornered and I started clubbing it. It was like something out of Goodfellas. Each smack made a sickening thump, but the thing wouldn't stop twitching. I didn't want it to suffer (yeah right. can you believe that?), but I couldn't seem to finish it off.

Finally I came down with a mighty stroke right on its head. Woodchuck blood splattered all over me, my shirt, my pants, my face. But it stopped moving."

I don't know about you but that makes me ill. How cold blooded can you be? To physically beat something to death.  Woodchucks = Marmots = Groundhogs

All they had to do was lower that fence they put up around the garden (to keep deer out),  a foot or two below ground. Where's their brains. That's what I did. It was plain common sense. When you see something digging under your fence--lower it!

Heck! with the money they had they could of poured a two foot concrete wall below their fencing. I used rocks and junked bricks.

Then on page 206 there's this

"On the way to the store, we passed a fly-covered deer carcass on the shoulder of the road. Sue looks at it unsympathetically and says, One down, three hundred thousand to go." "  Ouuwee where'd she get all this hate from? What an ugly person she turned out to be.

Then they turned into arrogant rich country snobs, belittling everyone who does not live/think as they now do. What an about face. In the beginning Jim and Sue Mullen seemed like OK people but in the end you see that they really aren't.
1363792
Rock and Fire is THEE book of urban poetry for this year by far! It's comedy, tragedy and everything that was ever on your mind about a mate  at a very long stop light!  From page 20 to page 221, you as a reader will be turning in deep thought, related to Lacy's elegant, swift and gasoline potential, inflamed! My personal favorite is WHEN YOU LEFT ME, YOUR FRIENDS LEFT ME TOO. I found that one to be sooo true, because it's messed up when you find great friends, but you have to eventually break up with them, because they are dedicated to your ex and don't want to cheat on them by being a traitor to the enemy. Nothing like the heartbreak of drinking that last breakup beer at the bar with the great friend, because the old ex said to cut you off. Ever been there? Well Lacy takes U there!  Marc Lacy is a poet ahead of his time, and Men and Women need to take notice of this gifted spirit. Truth be told, Universities need to pick this one up. I can see this book being apart of couple's counseling. Chapter one - The Rock, or the passion of new love- yall know... that hot, butterfly feeling? Chapter Two- The Aggregate- Well this is after the excitement calms down and you get to wonder if the other is feeling you as much as you feel them, or is this just lust? It's the confusing, uncertain part about digging someone- the break-up to make up stage. Chapter Three- The Concrete- That crazy stage when you tried other people and they just don't fit. Sowing your oates to find that you might have blew it with that one. The race to get that old thing back. The get back and realize, "OK, now I remember why I left U! BYE! GOODLUCK WITH THAT," moment. Chapter Four- The Spark- When you find that one who has everything that you liked about anyone. As close as perfect as you will ever get, and you know it on sight. The chance to be grateful for love this time. Chapter Five- The Fire- the conversation, the spirituality and beliefs, the finance, the accomplishments, the future goals in life, the body, the SEX...The way I feel about my man right now and Well... This is just straight up GROWN FOLKS BIDNESS once you know what to do with that! Feel me? Reflection (Rock and Fire) Everything you need to know about love but were too afraid to live. God is sooo Good! Love is life and life is love and Marc Lacy is poetry. Thank's for giving us this STUNNING POETIC FOUNDATION OF ROCK AND FIRE Marc Lacy! - Famous Milwaukee author, Teresa Rae Butler
4499416
Darth Vader says this after Luke evades his TIE's lasers during the run on the first Death Star's trench... Not Yoda, who does by the way have some quotes that are appropriate for over a crib. More powerful as a Vader quote if you ask me ;)
2107054
OMG. Thank God this man would not shut up while he was alive. He was brilliant and hilarious, and so is this collection of his quotes, lines from his plays, and assorted zingers, often aimed at the upper crust snobs and self-righteous hypocrites of his time. This is one delightful popsicle of a book so treat yourself to one of the sharpest wits that ever lived. His very attendance at a dinner party or gathering must've made people gaseous with veiled anxiety; even the tea cups probably trembled when he sat down to hold court in his inimitable way, which he loved doing. Nowadays some might refer to him as an "attention ho"; television producers would be lining up at his door to get him to agree to star in a reality series. Too bad he got involved with such a screwed up young man, but what a life he had before he fell into the trap that led to his heartbreaking demise. He lives on through his plays, his classic and singular novel, and his assorted writing (don't miss his short stories and fairy tales; they are wonderful).
43481
Title: Dear Life by Alice Munro

Alice Munro is of course a first rate writer. What I miss is both a little more drama, and above all, a little more humor. Life is both drama and humor, at both ends of it!

 I sometimes get the feeling that life in Canada around the Great Lakes is mostly awfully drab.
484498
This book starts and ends with two of the most famous quotes in the english language. I must admit I had some trepidation when I first began this book. My qualms were put to rest after the first three chapters. Yes, there are some words we don't use anymore, don't let that discourage you. I looked up a few in the dictionary, so what! This book is one of the best I have ever read. Dickens weaves an intricate tale, giving us seemingly unrelated tidbits which all come together at the end with one pull of his master storyteller thread. Skip the afterward in the Bantam classics version, as it is complete gibberish.
  I had thought Dickens would be too verbose to get through. On the contrary, I found this book readable and enjoyed his prose. Do yourself a favor and check out this one. I am going to read more of Dickens in the near future!
1131280
"I want you on your feet and slugging, sweetheart, because Im going to knock you around, and I want you up for it," says George to his wife Martha in front of their house guests, Nick and Honey. To me, this line best encapsulates Edward Albees horrific portrayal of a marriage in "Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Of all the plays Ive read so far, this one has shaken me to my core. Albee gives form to every cynical fear I have about marriage, which is basically that the institution serves as a vessel for individuals to offload their frustrations and shortcomings onto someone else, until death.
4770308
This is one of my favorites!  This story has well defined characters, the dead man a womanizer; his nephew who is indolent and witty; the dead man's batty sister; the next door neighbors - a crime writer; her sister who is estranged from her husband; the usual police figures but the prize is P. C. Glass, the constable who discovered the dead body.  He is a bible spouting religious figure and his comments and the responses from and to others around him are hysterically funny.  Don't miss it.  "This is perhaps Miss Heyer's most admired detective novel, renowned equally for its entertaining dialogue, amusing characters and superb plot. First published in the later 1930's." New York Times.  KT
1795686
Yes, this novel coined the famous phrase. In this classic novel, the protagonist Yossarian is subjected to the horrors of war . . . and war is made to look as absurd as it really is. Of course, "catch-22" refers to when a person is allowed to get out of flying bombing missions: You can't fly if you're crazy, but if you admit you're crazy because you want to get out of flying them, then you must be sane, because nobody sane wants to go on these missions. But if you want to get out of flying them, you're sane and you have to. Which is crazy. Ahem.