weary as water

every time i blink i have a tiny dream

Tag Archives: 2/5

Book 40: The Demon in the Freezer by by Richard Preston

I picked up this book because I’ve been interested in microbiology & infectious diseases for a long time – even before I went to grad school – and I thought it would be interesting. It was interesting, but also terribly disjointed. When I started the book, I thought it was going to be about the anthrax attacks that happened shortly after 9/11. It started out that way, but then started bouncing around through the history & eradication of smallpox before finally ending up talking about the resolution of the anthrax cases. Or, in a case of rather sloppy journalism, the book incorrectly pinpointed Steven Hatfill as the culprit. Hatfill was designated as a “person of interest” by John Ashcroft in August 2002, but charges were never brought against him and the government eventually blamed another scientist, Bruce Ivins for the attacks. (Bruce Ivins killed himself before charges could be filed against him). I’m not sure if there are newer versions of the book that correct this information, but I thought it was pretty weak sauce.

256 pages
2/5

Book 48: The Truth Teller’s Lie by Sophie Hannah

To say I wasn’t impressed with this book would be an understatement. After reading the entire “girl with a dragon tattoo” series I am a bit tired of reading about serial rapists. So, I wasn’t very impressed with this predictable story of a woman whose lover has gone missing. It eventually progresses into a story of a serial rapist, a dim witted police department, and a victim who manages to figure out the details. I found the plot rather predictable – especially since there were so few developed characters.

2/5
400 pages

Book 45: Around the World in 80 Dinners by Bill Jamison and Cheryl Alters Jamison

This book is about the culinary adventures of the authors while they travel around the world (on a OneWorld round-the-world ticket, which I think sounds like a fantastic idea). Overall, the book was a bit boring – the food in each country was different and the recipes were fun to read, but the travel stories were much the same.

272 pages
2/5

Book 26: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Yeah, whatever. I guess I’m in this for the long haul now. (Although I thought it was certainly more effort to get through than the last one.) I guess if I’m going to be all twilight-twinkie about this I am completely Team Jacob. Emily is certain I am enjoying these books; I really am just trying to get them over with. Plus, vacations are for light reading only, right? I have quite enjoyed reading the absolutely ridiculous scenes outloud; the voices I give Edward (robotic) and Bella (overDrAmAtIc tEeNAgEr) make me giggle.

Why does Team Jacob always have to lose? Because Eclipse is a movie about rejecting adulthood, not just as a person but also as a culture. It’s about rejecting adult relationships between men and women, but also between people of different races and between people from the city (like Victoria’s army) and people from Forks. It’s about never crossing boundaries, never leaving home.

640 pages
2/5

Book 8: Under the Dome by Stephen King


I’ve never been a huge fan of Stephen King – he’s always been a bit too perverted for my tastes. But somewhere in my little brain I thought it would be a good idea to read his new book, “Under The Dome”. This thing is a monster – over a thousand pages long – and for the most part the story is pretty good (if you exclude the gang-raping and multiple instances of just plain old raping). That is, for 1059 pages the story is pretty good. After that, I was severely disappointed.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT (but you’d be better off reading it, and not wasting your time with the book)
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