So time is definitely not on my side.  I am quickly trying to get everything packed for my move to North Carolina, but I have still found time to squeeze in some necessary reading.  I finished Bangkok 8, loved it, and I am also part of the way through Bangkok Tattoo.  The odd mix of the sex industry, corruption, murder, and ultimately, Buddhism is strangely compelling and teaching me a lot about Thai culture.  I am also pushing through The Historian.  This book, about Dracula, no less is not as compelling as the other books I have read recently, but is teaching me a lot about the Balkans and the tumultuous history between the region and their Ottoman oppressors, but it is definitely not for those who like short novels.  Finally, thanks to an awesome gift, I am also reading my way through the history and culture of North Carolina.

So with TV waning, I have started back to reading. Though a lot of my reading lately has been of the scientific nature, not exactly pleasurable. Anyway, I just finished: Killer Heat, Linda Fairstein; Echelon Vendetta, David Stone; and Love the One Your With, Emily Giffin. Killer Heat was a predictable Fairstein book with little change in the status quo of the characters, just an education on secret commitments for rapist. Stone’s book was interesting with Native American rituals and psychedelic drugs. Love the one your wife was a very good Emily Giffin, but definitely not my favorite. I love her descriptive narrative of the secrets we all keep and the consequences of leaving things unsaid. Baby Proof and Something Borrowed will always be my favorite though. I am moving on to Bangkok 8.

So I have fallen off the reading wagon with all the season finales on the TV.  What I am going to do without new TV?  Sniff.  So I am currently reading three books: Contest, Matt Reilly, Bleeding Kansas (below), and Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer.  Contest is the first, and probably worst, Matt Reilly book.  It is very aliens in america, and apparently they are trying to make it into a film, which is why I decided to check it out.  I will finish it, but definitely not my favorite, though there should be another Scarecrow book in a couple of months, I hope.  I need to just give up on Bleeding Kansas, but I hate not finishing books no matter how awful they are (I am looking at you Raising Atlantis).  Finally, I just started Bloody Jack, and I love it.

So it is summer and I am obsessed with BBQs and drinking outdoors. Why it is illegal to walk around with liquor, I will never understand, but I guess that’s what makes places like New Orleans and Las Vegas great.  Anyway, if you need a crafty way to dispense 2 gallons of mixed liquor, this is the thing for you.  In fact, why would you ever mess with pitchers again after seeing this is beyond me.   Plus, did I mention that is “unbreakable” (within reason I am sure).  So, if you are anything like me, 2 gallons later, and thing might get broken, but not this thing, baby!  You know you want one.  Drink Strong!

Mellow indie loveliness.  This Chicago staple has now made it on iTunes.

Damn you, Apple, why must you be cool occasionally.

Apparently, I have too much time on my hands.  So Venetian Betrayal, alright.  The cost of reading all of these historical thrillers though is wondering what is true and what is false.  Alexander the Great, interesting and heroic gay icon, good to know.  Also, maybe I need to read the Iliad more closely, but I think I was sleeping through the whole mixing of Achilles and Patroclus ashes. Why does reading Homer sound so much better when someone else is summarizing for you?  On an semi-unrelated side note, it reminds me of when I read the Clive Cussler’s Trojan Odyssey and discovered there is this whole regenade theory that the Iliad and the siege of Troy actually took place in England.  It is all laid out in this book, Where Troy Once Stood, by Iman Jacob Wilkens.  The book was out of print for a while, but I need to track it down and read it.

Moving on.  The list of books I am plowing through now.  7th Heaven, James Patterson, delicious Women’s Murder Club goodness.  Though I really don’t see the appeal of the TV show.  Bleeding Kansas, a non-VI Warshawski Sara Paretsky novel, and this weird book I saw people reading at the airport by Thomas Greanias, Raising Atlantis.   That is all.

It is going to be a busy summer of beach reading, but here are some of the books I am dying to read:

Emily Giffin, Love the one you’re with    May 13th, 2008

Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules  July 22nd, 2008

Janet Evanovich, Fearless Fourteen  June 17th, 2008

Eoin Colfer, The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl) July 15th, 2008 (You know you love a 12 year-old Irish criminal mastermind.  I don’t care how old you are.  Plus,  you probably imagine him a young Colin Farrell, less dirty, more innocent. Or it could just be me.)

The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz.

One of the funniest books I have read in a long time. It reminds me of what I used to love about the Janet Evanovich series, crazy with a dash of oh-shit-I-have-totally-done-that-before. Reading books like this makes me wonder why those correspondence courses in private investigations aren’t more popular. Though I have to say from my years of reading PI books I have learned a couple of things: a) you need cop sources ( been one, dated one, or sleeping with one), b) you need to have lawyer friends (probably the last two scenarios plus one to bail you out from your breaking and entering past times), and c) no one is going to like you. So I better get busy.

Up next is The Venetian Betrayal, Steve Berry.

Not one of the best authors in the crazy and exploding historical thriller genre, but he’s not unreadable. I have to say though I miss the cold war thriller. More Ludlum and Littell, please.

How awesome does Pineapple Express look?  James Franco is an awesome stoner, and I have to say after seeing dirty James Franco all over the UCLA campus, I don’t think this role is much of a stretch.

And the M.I.A. song is perfect!!

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/pineappleexpress/

The Miracle at Speed Motors, Alexander McCall Smith.

I love these books. Life seems so idyllic and interesting in Botswana. Plus, how funny is the phrase “traditionally built woman”.  I would totally move there if it didn’t require a plane ride and wasn’t you know in the desert.