books #1-6 (2007)

1. Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno ***. Sadly, this was no Boy Detective Fails. It reminded me a lot of King Dork, actually, with the fake band names and song lists, and the somewhat unsympathetic male, teenage protagonist. It was a good high school alienation book, at least.

2. So I Am Glad by A.L. Kennedy ****1/2. I love A.L. Kennedy. This one had an odd fantastic aspect, but it was a moving portrait of love.

3. Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley ***. I'm afraid Andrea will be disgusted at my taste in books now that I've only given this three stars, on top of not loving Carol Shields... This was her number one pick for literary speed dating, almost a year ago, but it took me this long to get around to reading it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. It was one where I felt like I might have been missing something, because I could see how it could be lovable (and this wasn't just me trying to agree with other people's opinions, because I only remembered that Andrea had mentioned it, not how much she loved it). I did like the ending, though, and Lucy.

4. All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland ****. I love this book far more than I ought, given the general escalating ridiculousness of the plot towards the end and the truly heinous crimes against biology involved in the deus ex machina resolution to the HIV subplot. This was a book I couldn't resist buying here, despite owning a copy at home, but in my defence, it is a fancy hardcover with a ribbon bookmark I got for only $6. I reread it because I found myself somehow lacking anything new to read on a Saturday morning on the way to the gym. I was worried I wouldn't like it as much after becoming increasingly disillusioned with his recent books, but I still found myself sucked into the family dynamics and caring about the characters.

5. Getting Things Done by David Allen. I didn't rate this because the stars are based on how much I enjoy the books, I think, and this isn't really a book you read for enjoyment. I think it's an excellent system for organising and keeping track of things to do, though. I'm still hoping to make it further with implementing it than I have the last couple of times I've read it. You can see the progress I've made so far here.

5 1/2. Home Land by Sam Lipsyte **. I really should have known better than to pick this book up, given that its most fervent admirers compared it to A Confederacy of Dunces, which I hated. I think I've lost my ability to browse for books, though. The reason I found myself with nothing to read was that I was down to only one book request at the library. When I went to get some new things to read I ended up wandering the stacks, wondering how I ever found good books to read by myself. In desperation, I picked up anything I remembered hearing about, although I think in the case of one of the other books I got, I'd heard bad things. I'm fairly ashamed of this, so I definitely need more practice at browsing the stacks. Anyway, this doesn't get a whole number because I only read long enough to get through a session at the gym, since I didn't hate it more than I hate exercising without distraction. If you liked A Confederacy of Dunces, I could probably recommend it to you, still.

6. Waiting by Ha Jin ***. Another book picked up because I'd heard of it. Maybe I shouldn't be rating it when I'm only halfway through, but I want to clear out my book post backlog. If it gets any better towards the end, I'll revise the number of stars. It's interesting enough, but I'm not sure why it won a National Book Award.