lauralh: (Default)
the bitch in the house
edward bunker, dog eat dog
douglas rushkoff, Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace
lauralh: (hi there)
I just finished Cash. I'll be the first to admit that I can't take his music, but it's a deep-seated prejudice that comes from being raised in the south. I am aurally incapable of distinguishing "good" country from "bad" country, the things that make it country just kill it for me. I know I'm not alone. [This is also why I cannot take Civil War books/movies.] But I can respect someone who has been doing it for so long, and he's a hell of a character.

So I have heard like 3 of his songs (and one is the NIN cover) but I read the wikipedia article when the movie came out, and then we saw High Fidelity when Steve was here - Rob says it's his favorite book - so I put it on reserve. It also goes well with my "drug memoir" theme this year. Although to be frank there's not a ton of drug stuff, which is understandable as it wasn't that much of a time chunk of his 50-year career. Still, as he put it, he was the first music star to be an asshole on drugs and trash hotel rooms and shit, although it's not exactly a legacy he's proud of.

The "assistant writer" really helped flesh things out, I thought. It's told in a manner more episodic than chronologic, and Cash the man's voice comes through. Even the Christian shit didn't piss me off too much, although him being friends with Billy Graham was a little yook. Anyway it's an imminently readable biography, once I got started. Kind of tempted to read his previous one now. And maybe interviews from the last few years.
lauralh: (Default)
Love and Economics: Why the Laissez-Faire Family Doesn't Work: Books: Jennifer Roback Morse
lauralh: (the cheat is not dead)
Last night i finished The Demolished Man and started Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel. I don't know why Reg got that rather than Everything Is Illuminated, but anyway. It's about a kid whose dad dies in the WTC and how he finds a single key in a small envelope, and tries to find out what it's for. But it's kind of disturbing and I had really weird dreams about being manhunted in England. (There's also a nicely explicit section about the Dresden Bombing.)

give it up

Aug. 2nd, 2006 10:03 am
lauralh: (something wicked this way comes)
I poached some chicken breasts, made Annie's mac&cheese, and then settled in to finish Enchantress From the Stars. Newberry winner from 1970 and hasn't aged badly at all.

By the time I finished it, Reg had showered and dressed, so I changed and we headed to Baltic. Invited Ang to join us. We hadn't seen her in a while so that was cool. Sol and [livejournal.com profile] skiplogic joined us for a bit, and EVAC was pretty cool. Everyone started talking about their brushes with the law, except me, because I was a goodie-goodie. Except for that car theft but that was my roommate and she didn't press charges.

I seem to be developing a tolerance for alcohol or something, though. How annoying. Took me a while to sleep and then I dreamed about CAMPING by a LAKE. It was pretty.
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
I started reading The Gift of Fear last night and was so engrossed I read 3/4ths of it. I thought it was just going to be a self-help sort of book, but it's more of a bunch of case studies of stalkers, rapists, pedophiles, postal workers, wife beaters and assassins. The author carefully deconstructs these cases to show warning signs, all the while pointing out that you have the ability to detect these things yourself. He goes into details on the OJ case, and shows that restraining orders on violent husbands tend to lead almost directly to murder. The other bit is that he himself had a pretty troubled childhood and suspects the only reason he didn't become a criminal was due to a 5th grade teacher who believed in him.

I had a little trouble falling asleep though.
lauralh: (hi there)
I finished The Introvert Advantage today, which is one of those self-help books that tells you that you are cool just the way you are. And here's how to cope with the big bad world. Well, anyway, a lot of it was clearly for people who have more problems with their introversion than I do. The most interesting part was the basic brain differences they'd observed, and those are probably more accurate for more serious introverts. But I definitely do tend to shut off stressful situations. The book compared it to coming across a coyote vs. coming across a rattlesnake. For the first situation, charging at the coyote would drive him away, but for the second, standing stark still would be optimal.

However the book did give several good strategies for keeping your friends/dates happy even when you have no desire for human contact, so I would recommend it if you have problems in that arena. Or in any arena that requires you to interact with people, there are several tips on how to "keep the batteries charged." Also a great chapter on the introvert child. I am far more extroverted now than I was as a youth, and so much of that chapter was like reading my biography.

great book

Jul. 28th, 2006 11:25 am
lauralh: (Default)
rats saw god, rob thomas
lauralh: (Default)
Reg forced me to read this book

mmmmmmmmmm

Jul. 15th, 2006 12:32 pm
lauralh: (pirate queen)
I woke up early, anxious about money, and cancelled a pending payment. Finished Another Day in Paradise by Eddie Little then headed to the grocery store. Bought fruits and meats and coffee, came home and made coffee, bacon, and smoothies. (Mix juice, banana, peach and raspberries in the blender.) Shook Reg awake, poured coffee down his throat, and he seemed to perk up a bit.

The Eddie Little book is pretty hardcore. Anyone who liked A Million Little Pieces should check it out. It takes place in the early 70s and is clearly pretty autobiographical. Junkie teenage boy and his girlfriend become thieves and learn to crack safes.
lauralh: (the cheat is not dead)
Finished The Game while sitting at the Keytarded "victory." (And by victory, I mean those fuckers cheated. You canna trust old people.) It was fascinating. First of all, I like reading about pathetic guys becoming cool, and that's a big part of the pick-up artists. Second of all, I like reading about celebrities doing stupid shit, and by celebrities I mean Courtney Love. So it was pretty engrossing. I am one of those people who can ignore the bad nasty parts of theories and scenes and focus on just the positives (although I also often do the versa), and so I focused less on the misogyny of it all and more on the narrator, who just became less pathetic and even fell in lurve.

Although the girl he ends up with for two years then dumped him for Robbie Williams.

In other news, this Intelligentsia coffee really is good shit. I was about to add another sugar when I was like "Wait, this is nice."

2 meh

Jul. 2nd, 2006 08:32 pm
lauralh: (Default)
the web that has no weaver chinese medicine book
on wings of song thomas disch

finished

Jun. 25th, 2006 08:59 pm
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
Native Tongue, Susan Eldrin

Veronica Mars, Season One
lauralh: (Default)
thirty-nothing

whaaaaaat.

Jun. 20th, 2006 09:55 pm
lauralh: (pirate queen)
ok that's it. I am not reading any more GRRM. I can't take the bastard anymore.
lauralh: (sunglasses)
Last night I was starving and I wasn't sure why. I had cheese on toast and then roasted a 4lb free-range chicken with olive oil and lemon juice and lots of various spices. Also, spinach salad. I became so amazingly full.

86% humidity. Fuck this.

I'm almost done with Paradise, an amazingly funny novel about an alcoholic Scotswoman and her alcoholic boyfriend. I wonder how much of it was based on her own life. I actually forgot it was a novel till someone in the book said her name.
lauralh: (pirate queen)
I just finished Marriage: a History. Basically what it says, takes the views of marriage in Greek and Roman times, to Middle Ages, to Enlightenment, to Victorian, to the 20s, 30s, 50s etc. Mostly America but the trends for Western Europe are virtually identical, and most of the rest of the literate world is at worst a few decades behind. It clears up a few misconceptions and points out that the idea of a nuclear family is incredibly new, at least in the "man and woman meet, fall in love, marry and have babies and a wonderful life" sense. It doesn't really say where marriage is going now, just points out that things are in a serious state of flux since women were allowed to have their own checking accounts. The author concludes by saying what marriage means to her, personally, after years of being afraid of repeating her parents' mistakes.

But anyway it kind of helped me see where the anti-gay-marriage folks are coming from, while at the same time seeing how incredibly misguided they are. Even Nixon said "gay marriage - that's for the year 2000." Even the most "traditional" American marriage in 2006 has almost nothing in common with any American marriage in 1906, let alone 1806.

2

May. 30th, 2006 12:21 pm
lauralh: (Default)
Garlic and Sapphires, Ruch Riechel
Making Work Work for the Sensitive Person
lauralh: (hi there)
I just finished The Economy of Cities, which is totally awesome if just a bit dated. Even the dated parts are awesome because you see what could have been done 30 years ago and still could be. Anyway the basic premise is that agriculture arose from cities, not the other way around, which actually makes so much sense that you wonder if you ever even knew how the other way round worked. And from there she lays out wonderful paths from which the gathering of people in a central place led to trade, manufacturing, and banking. And mass production and government. And why those last two things are bad in excess (Detroit anyone?). John, this one's for you.

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