She’s Come A Long Way

I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing “Juno” yet but as soon as it’s available on DVD it will be in my hot big hands.  I loved the screenwriter, Diablo Cody’s acceptance speach at the Oscars last month and I have read a few of her articles for Entertainment Weekly and really enjoyed her writing.  So when I came across her memoir, “Candy Girl ~ A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper” at the PX, I couldn’t help myself and placed it in my shopping basket.  The PX doesn’t usually have a very interesting book selection so when I do see something that catches my eye and it means I won’t have to wait on the USPS and Military mail system then I buy the book.

 

So after finishing “St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves” yesterday morning, I decided to go in a totally new direction and took “Candy Girl” off my shelf and dug in.  So far it’s entertaining and Cody’s voice is familiar and relatable.  Nothing too exciting has happened yet but I’m only on page 38.  I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done.  I feel good about all the reading I’ve gotten in lately.  I’ve really tried to read more than just at bed time and it’s great. 

Book Review ~ The Abstinence Teacher

This week, I read “The Abstinence Teacher” by Tom Perrotta.  It was one of the many books I received from my family for Christmas as well as one of the books on my TBR shelf that I had in mind for my “33 of 33” self-challenge.  I was glad to have a moment to read it, though that meant I had fallen off the wagon that is “The Pillars of the Earth”.  (That book is sooooooo long, good, but long.)

I had read Perrotta’s “Little Children” a few years ago and really enjoyed it.  Well “The Abstinence Teacher” has a similar formula but on a completely different topic.  The story is about a health/sex ed high school teacher who ends up in a morality and belief battle with her school district as well as the local soccer coach who is a recovering drug and alcohol addict and wishes he could find easier success with being a born-again Christian.  The story is very suspenseful and the character development is wonderful but there were some things missing that would have cleared up some questions.  Why did the teacher, Ruth, not believe in God and have such a huge problem with prayer after the Soccor game when it was led by Coach Tim?  I also understand the the author likes to give us a glimpse into the character’s lives and we are to think that their lives are just continuing past the last page but I like things tied up in a nice bow when I have enjoyed a book and it’s characters so much.  All in all I would recommend this book because of the thoughts it provokes about issues that are real in America’s society.

My War…

I have been scouring the web for any type of reading guide for the Jan/Feb reading selection, “My War ~ Killing Time In Iraq” by Colby Buzzell and have had little luck.  I did come across a review by Matthew Hill at the University of Maryland  as well as a great article from The New York Times called The Hemmingway Effect which discusses the troops turned writers due to their experiences in war.  Colby Buzzell himself is now a columnist for Esquire Magazine .  He’s got one article titled “The Best Years of Our Lives” which was an interesting read about life after deployment and the Army and looking at life now. 

I enjoyed this book and feel that it gave me a little more insight on the experiences going on in Iraq.  I liked reading about the day to day stuff that the troops do and the dangers that their lives entail while carrying out the “War on Terror”.  I know that it’s been a while since you finished this book but please reiterate your opinion on this book and what you took from it. 

I will be posting the new voting poll this weekend for the March/April title so be sure to check back here soon. 

Book Review ~ My War… Killing Time In Iraq

First of all I would like to say….. Congrats to the GIANTS!!  My mantra of the weekend was “Anybody But The Pats….. Go Giants!”. 

I finished “My War… Killing Time In Iraq” by Colby Buzzell over the weekend.  I really liked it though I was ready to move on to a new book about 3/4 of the way through just because it felt like I had been reading it forever.  I was impressed with the writing style and ability of a dead beat guy who joined the Army because he needed to do something substantial with his life at the time.  You can’t judge a person by their cover though.  I found the stories of an Iraq deployment very interesting and sometimes horrifying but reading this book gave me an even stronger sense of pride and admiration for our Troops over seas and on deployments who voluntarily place themselves in harms way for our great country. 

I was enthralled with the twelve page telling of the battle in Mosul where some of Buzzell’s fellow soldiers sustained extreme injuries.  To know that the family members where able to get so much more information out of Buzzell’s blog than the Army and press were telling and that that outlet has been squelched by the Military (though for reasons of OPSEC I do understand) so families today don’t get as much info on the brave things that their sons and daughters have done is eye opening.

I was a bit disheartened that during the 2004 election Buzzell reported that most of his fellow Soldiers were not voting because either way they felt that either way they were screwed.  To feel like a pawn in a world wide game of Chess and to know that these pawns are dying and being injured in such grave ways is unimaginable to me.  I hope for an end to this war comes sooner than later and I also hope that the new surge of Troops on deployments feel a bit better about this election than those of the 2004 election deployments. 

I will post some questions and anything else I can find regarding this book in the last week of February as well as a new voting poll for our March/April book. 

An update on my choice for my next read… I had mentioned last week that I was watching Showtime’s “The Tudor’s” on DVD and that I was really excited to read “The Other Boleyn Girl” by Philippa Gregory.  Well I started reading it but found my mind’s eye distracting myself from the story on the page with visions from the DVD.  I decided to revisit this book at a later date and pick “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett back up after putting it down before Christmas.  I started reading it again last night and stayed up a lot longer than planned because of the excitement of a fire.  I will be having lunch with two ladies this week who have been reading this book and that will be a great way to stick with this title.  I’ll let you know how our lunch and conversation goes.