They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus

: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship.

I don't read a lot of non fiction. This is something that I am trying to change. So I read this. It was good. It got a little boring when it started going into the physics of how the spaceship worked but overall I liked it. I think it was most interesting because in the end they just simply ran out of money. The whole book they struggle with money and they have to find more and they end up getting enough to build the ship but then just run out of money to actually fly it. It was sad especially to think that this probably happens all the time. Great things are invented and figured out and the people behind them simply can't get enough public support and money. Anyway, it was good and I am going to try to keep reading more non fiction. (in small doses)

The Crying of Lot 49

Okay, this was not a very good book. It was not cohesive and I felt like it was trying to hard to be deep or intellectual. And at the end of the book, I didn't even really know what it was about. I guess it loosely is about a woman who becomes obsessed with finding an underground postal system. Hmmm. Part of my problem with the book might have also been the fact that there was a 10 page synopsis of a play in the middle which I skimmed at best. Maybe there was something in there that would have explained everything.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime

This was a really quick, but great read. Basically it is the story of what we assume is an autistic boy who finds a dead dog and decides he needs to figure out how the dog was killed. It's really quirky and interesting and sad. It reminded me of The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin, which was also really great. Anyway, this book was really ironically funny and the world of an autistic boy is so well realized that you instantly believe it and are drawn in.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Allright, I have a feeling that I am going to be reading a lot over the next couple of weeks (unemployment hits again!). So I'm going to try to post about them and maybe it'll inspire us to start up the reading again.

I just finished the Time Traveler's Wife. I didn't really know a lot about this book before I started reading it except that a couple of my favorite readers mentioned it as a book they really enjoyed. And it was great. Not at all what I was expecting and a really interesting take on time traveling. To be fair, it was definitely a love story and I'm usually not big on the love stories. But this love story was so interesting and hidden within such an interesting situation that you can't help but get wrapped up in it. It also has one of my favorite literary devices where you know the futures of the characters before they get there. Anyway, it was really great and I would recommend it to all of you guys.

PS. My grandma just gave me a Danielle Steel novel that she's "sure I'm going to love". I don't know about that. But I might read it just so I can tell you all about it.

November?

Okay, I'm going to keep blogging on this site in a courageous attempt to keep this book club going. I think this month I am suppose to be reading the 5 people you meet in heaven. I have already read this (and actually own it) but promise to take a stab at rereading it. From what I remember it is much like Tera described. Sappy, tear jerking and remaining mostly trite but with enough truth in it to keep you interested. I also thought roughly the same thing about Tuesdays' with Morrie.

So instead of reading Heaven right now, I am reading Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. I had read the Solitaire Mystery by Gaarder a few years ago and really really enjoyed it so I thought I would give Sophie's World a stab. The cover boasts that it is "A novel about the history of philosophy". I would say that is only sort of true. Thus far it is a history of philosophy poorly disguised as a novel. But I think it is about to get more interesting. And it is good to learn a little more about how philosophy came about and a basic outline of important philosophers ideas, but it is a lot of information to absorb and I don't feel I am doing a very good job of absorbing it.

Anyway, that is it for now, I apologize if this blog is a bit rambly or incoherent. But it's late and I'm a little tipsy. Yes, I know it's a Tuesday, but I don't work tomorrow and $3 mojitos cannot be turned down.

It is Good.

The Good Earth. I started it only a few days ago but am already about half way thru and I am really really enjoying it. This may sound weird, but even though it is a story of such struggle and hardship, I feel very soothed as I read it. I think it is because the language is so simple and elegant. I also really like that it is so Grapes of Wrathesque. A really good story about the people and the earth they depend on to survive.

ummm???

are we still blogging on this site??? and anna do i need to send my book to you ????

are you back in the u.s. of A??

love tera