7 of 30- Coronado by Dennis Lehane

Over the past few years Dennis Lehane has become one of my favorite popular authors. He's written books turned into movies Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River & Shutter Island. My friend recommended A Drink Before The War that was the first in a series about a pair of detectives in Dorchester Mass that grabbed my attention quick and was one of those books I couldn't put down. If my memory serves me correctly I believe I stayed up to about 3 am one night to finish it. What I've liked and continue to like about Lahane's writing are his characters, story & pace. Stephen King wrote once that it's rare for an author to have both an excellent story and great prose. That he enjoys a book as long as it has an excellent story and I tend to agree. Not that I'm saying Lahane's work isn't well written because it is but he writes in a simple every man kind of style that I really enjoy especially after reading a lot of literature. This book includes 5 short stories and a play.

Running Out of Dog
Great start to the book. Set in the south this story revolved around two friends. The more charismatic friend had a good job, a girlfriend and an affair with a married woman. His friend was short, ugly, just got an unsavory off the books job & was obsessed with the same married woman his friend was having the affair with. Great story & pace to this one.

ICU
ICU took me until the very end to really understand what was going on. It was about a guy on the run hiding out in ICU waiting rooms at different hospitals for about a month.

Gone Down to Corpus
Fantastic story about a Texas high school football player right after school ended dealing with the prospects of a shitty future as life appears to have peaked young. Him and his friends destroy the home of a teammate who cost them the win in a big game and their opportunity to be recruited to play in college.

Mushrooms
Story of revenge from a girl and her boyfriend over something that happened to her sister.

Until Gwen
This story was turned into the play Coronado. The story is about a boy Bobby who is just getting out of jail after being caught steeling a diamond with his girlfriend Gwen. Bobby's father is a very bad man. After thinking about it I would have liked this story after Coronado as the play added to the story but ultimately the story with Bobby & his dad was almost exactly the same.

Coronado: A Play in Two Acts
The note before the play described that this play was written so that Dennis' actor brother Gerry could play a villain on stage as he was being typecast in all nice guy roles. Bobby's dad is a bastard with very little redeeming qualities and must have been a fun role to play. This story gives background to Bobby's dad and mom as it flashes back and forth between their early relationship, the time of the robbery and current day.

6 of 30- Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Sarah being creepy. I found it on a news blog in Ohio about how she caused a ruckus at a book reading when 700 people showed up.



This book is about Sarah's vacationing at spots revolving around the people or places associated with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield & McKinley. It's been a while since I've read a book of non fiction. The internet has been by go to for more educational reading because I've been bored by historical books no matter how fascinating because of a lack of strong cohesive narrative. My two favorite historical books to date are Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo as they've used had particularly strong narratives to tell their stories. Dispite my prejeduce towards fiction, I liked the book as Sarah is hilariously, paints an extremely vivid picture, is charmingly dark & I learned a lot that I didn't know or had forgoten. Honestly, my issues with narrative popped up in this book too as there was no build up or no climax, just small stories, cool connections & lots and lots and lots of tangents.


Abraham Lincoln

My favorite section of the book by far. The most interesting due to Lincoln being such a beloved historical figure, the most dramatic assassination with the theater, a narrow escape & a manhunt to catch Booth. Maybe I should have figured how many museums have relecs from the assassination but I had no idea. I also never really pondered how personal some of these relecs are. For examble, one museum that Sarah visited included fragments of Lincoln's skull & later in the book she said that Teddy Roosevelt was given a ring that included some of Lincoln's hair when he took office.



There were multiple references to James Wilkes Booth being a pretty boy assassin so I figured I'd throw in a pic. The most interesting aspects of Booth to me was that he was genuinely pissed when he found out that he wasn't going to be revered like John Brown a man he looked up to despite being a radical abolitionist. I also like how his brother Edwin, a Shakespearean actor world renowned in his day as the best Hamlet saved Lincolns son Robert Todd Lincoln from being run over by a train.




James Garfield



Garfield was killed by Charles Guiteau an indirect supporter of a group of republicans loyal to Ulysses S Grant, was a nut job and apparently a bit of a social outcast. I say social outcast because Sarah spends a good deal of time discussing that when Guiteau joined a free love sex cult in Western New York, he was so bad at attracting ladies that his nickname was Getout. Guiteau defended himself in court and gave a real show though his crazy behavior. Unfortunately for him the insanity plea was viewed as a cop out and he lost. One of the most interesting things about the assassination to me was that Garfield would have probably been fine if the doctor who first assisted him didn't put his dirty fingers in the bullet holes trying to dig out the bullet. Guiteau was later quoted as saying that he didn't kill him but only shot him.

William McKinley



Pretty boring assassination as far as assassinations go. McKinley was shot in a receiving line at the Pan-American Expo held in Buffalo NY. The assassin Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist influenced by Emma Goldman who ironically shunned him when he introduced himself on their only meeting. Czolgosz wrapped his hand holding a gun in a bandage and when the president went to shake his hand he shot him. Not the strongest way to end the book but overall I liked it a lot and would consider reading another one of her books if the subject interested me.

5 of 30- Armageddon In Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut

This Vonnegut book is a collection of short stories and one speech dealing with war and peace. The introduction was by Kurt's son Mark Vonnegut which provided some funny insights about the author. He touched briefly on the process that his father went through when writing, about how hard he worked to make ever line perfect which I find interesting as his stories always seem somewhat off the cuff in the best possible way. Mark tells an antic dote of his farther when he was briefly employed by Sports Illustrated in the 50's. He was told to write a story about a racehorse that had tried to run away after jumping over a fence. Mark writes that "Kurt stared at the blank piece of paper all morning and then typed, "The horse jumped over the fucking fence," and walked out." Brilliant!

The first story in the book was in the form of a letter Kurt wrote to his dad in 1945 as a private in the army. Kurt's world renowned dark humor is in full effect in this one making me laugh out loud several times over the short letter. I'm pretty sure this is a work of fiction but Kurt was in Dresden in the war so I'm not exactly certain. Either way it's fantastic but if it's real it would take it to a whole level.

My favorite stories are Wailing Shall Be In All Streets about the bombing of Dresden, Great Day set in the future about a unit going back to 1918 to fight in the war, Brighten Up where one pow was in good with the guards and swindled the rest of the prisoners, The Unicorn Trap about a serf family whose father gets chosen to become the towns tax collector and wants to rebel, Spoils about a soldier who has issues about spoils of war, Just You And Me, Sammy about a couple of German speaking American pow's, The Commandant's Desk about a poor Czech cabinet builder who is taken prisoner by American soldiers who had just defeated the Russians in war & Armageddon in Retrospect a story about a group of scientists out to literally capture the devil in an electric trap.

One of my favorite things about the book were Vonnegut's sketches & drawing between each story. One of the best is the one below;

I'm an idiot - the swollen face

So apparently I'm an idiot. I had a strong suspicion but it was confirmed when I went to the doctors today to find out why my right eye is almost swollen shut. It all started Sunday night when I decided to try to pop this bump on my face near where my glasses rest that I thought was a pimple. Stupidly so because instead of being a harmless pimple the bump was in fact a harmless cyst filled with a "waxy, cheesy" like substance. The quotes are from my doctor but I'm getting ahead of myself. With some healthy pressure I managed to pop it somewhat getting about half of the stuff out. At this point I felt pretty good about myself and was only mildly concerned Monday when the bump and surrounding area was a little swollen. By Tuesday I though things were progressing nicely as the bump looked more like a pimple than ever with a white spot that was just begging to be popped. So I did what any dumb American male with good medical insurance would do, I lanced it myself with an exacto knife. This is where things started to go horribly wrong as almost instantaneously my face decided to do it's best Rocky impression and today I woke up to an eye that was almost swollen shut.

My eye was swollen but my head was clear and my vision was fine so I decided to go to work and see if I could make a doctors appointment something during the day. My co workers were extremely excited to see me. I think I make a girl pass out and my friend Booth decided to show me about 29 Yahoo Answers sites where people equally as dumb as me posted their non medical opinions about my affliction. Despite the wealth of online diagnosis I managed to book a doctors appointment at 11:45. My doctor took one look at my face, recoiled in horror then composed herself enough to get the story out of me. After a stern lecture about how she thought everyone knew not to pop cysts on their face I was further comforted when she had to bring in another doctor as none of her other patients had ever been dumb enough to try it. Shock, a lecture & ignorance is not something I'm really looking for in my doctor. I do however appreciate someone who recognizes their own limitations so she recovered a bit by realizing she was out of her league and sent me off to the plastic surgeon for a good old fashioned blood letting.

I had to call my insurance to make sure it was ok and they luckily said yes. I kind of downplayed my involvement in the situation and am hoping that won't come up later.

The plastic surgeon was a nice older gentleman who obviously had been doing this for quite some time. Like most doctors his bedside manner sucked ass. I was somehow oddly comforted by this but it might have been his business as usual attitude. Either way it was both comforting and annoying. He took a quick look at my face and decided to perform immediate surgery to alleviate the pressure. This is all fine and good but I was hoping he's be a little more communicative about what to expect. For example, I'm on the table waiting to get the ordeal over with when he muttered something under his breath, left the room, came back in and without a word lifted my lip and stuck something on my gums. I'm not sure about other people but a heads up like hey I'm going to use a topical mouth numbing thing and then jamb this huge needle up into your cheek would have been a nice warning. He unethusicastically agreed with my assessment. The injection is done and he peaces out for what felt like 12 hours but was probably only 20 minutes or so.

I had this view and was wondering how much it would suck to have that as my last vision on earth.



A ceiling hung flat screen would be a nice touch so that patients could watch ESPN or Oprah or whatever floats their boat instead of staring up at nothing contemplating their own mortality. Anyways, luckily for me when he came back the numb area wasn't big enough so I got a couple more shots and another 20 minute break to stare at the ceiling. When he finally took care of it it wasn't all that bad except for the blood/whatever running down my face into my eye and the sensation that he was scraping pretty hard in there. You can see the before here;



and after here;



Who's a pretty boy? My first thought looking at my gauzed face was that I looked like Jack Nicholson in China Town but way less cool. The doc gave me a script for antibiotics, no pain meds and the instructions to wash my face then change the dressing but that it's open so that it will drain. They called in my prescription to Wal-Mart and sent me on my way.

Wal-Mart ended up being an interesting experience. The Novocaine was wearing off as I lurched through the front doors with my busted face. I tried to ignore the stares from all of the classy Wal-Mart daytime shoppers but wasn't all that successful which caused me to be annoyed as well as hurt. I was told by the pharmacist that my prescription hadn't been called in yet so I bought some Tylonol, band aides & chocolate milk and went outside to call the doctors office. While I was in the car I noticed that my gauze was saturated with blood and needed to be changed. This is when I realized that the band aides were way too small. I doubled them up and lurched back into the store with confirmation that the script had been called in. While I was checking I bought some gauze, tape & bigger band aides. Good thing too as blood began dripping down by face while in line and I had to make an emergency change in the bathroom. If you've never changed the dressing on a bloody wound in a Wal-Mart bathroom you just haven't lived. The silver lining is that the pharmacist filled my script first to get my bleeding face out of his store, so that was nice.

Moral of the story, don't pick at shit on your face unless you know what it is.

4 of 30- The Ice Storm by Rick Moody

I found Rick Moody through his short stories published in McSweeney's and picked up a copy of his book at Trident Book Store in Boston last month. The story was about two families, the Hoods and the Williams, living in an affluent Connecticut neighborhood in 1973 during a bad ice storm. Both families are unhappy as Ben Hood and Elena Williams are having a miserable affair and there is a developing love triangle between Wendy Hood & the Williams brothers Mike & Sandy. As the story unfolds the adults go to a neighborhood party during the storm that ends up being a key party where whoever wants to participate will swap partners at the end of the night based on who draws what set of keys. The love triangle heats up with Wendy’s affection switching interest to the other brother who she really wanted all along and Paul Hood is in NYC trying to romance a girl from his prep school who is home on holiday. The stories all collide after the storm has done quite a bit of damage and there is a major tragedy late. One of the largest themes is sex where literally every major character is partaking from the parents affair then all the members of the key party and the kids coming of age exploration. I thought it was extremely well done as most of it wasn't sexy and was used to show us something about the characters. I imagine it's hard to write about underage sexuality as a man without it being creepy and Moody has done it well capturing that innocence & confusion we all felt in those first experiences.

This books a hard one for me to figure out how I feel about it. It was good and I enjoyed it but it wasn’t mind blowing. I’ve never really been a fan of depressing books so that might have something to do with it. While the book definitely had its funny moments, by and large the story revolved around unhappiness & loneliness. That being said Moody did what a great artist does and challenges the reader to think and reflect.

Portland Pirates

Heather, Sky and I went to a Portland Pirates game on Saturday night. It was Sky's first game, she got a cool skull and crossbow face paint job and was literally on the edge of her seat for most of the first & second period. Adorable! So despite some pretty nasty winter weather, no fights and a loss it was a really fun night.

Despite the fun time, I have to be honest and admit that I'm not a huge fan of the Pirates as a team for 2 reasons. Being a devout Bruins fan it's tough to root for Buffalo's farm team and the players are by and large aholes. A few years ago I had a few friends dating Pirate players who have since moved on to the NHL. One called her and asked that she sleep with his teammate who couldn't speak English, another immaculately dressed player would only have anal sex and the third cancelled a date when his girlfriend came into town unexpectedly. It kills me a bit being such a fan of the game but I deal with it by actively avoiding the players off the ice. My experience around town is that as a group they're complete dinks who treat people like shit, hit on every remotely non disgusting girl in the bar and give off a huge sense of entitlement. In the instances where it's inappropriate to avoid conversation I'll say hi but try to keep the conversation brief. The only exception to this was Tim Brent who now plays for Toronto and couldn't be a nicer guy. This is in direct contrast to the next fellow.



The picture above is of NHL prospect Mark Mancari who through 47 games this year has 28 goals & 26 assists. I've been wondering how someone who's putting up such great numbers is still in the AHL after 6 seasons of professional hockey? I believe the answer is that he's lazy. I can't tell you how many times he gave up on plays and slowly skated back to the bench for a line change when things hadn't gone exactly his way. I was also told, by a gorgeous brunette who used to work in a local restaurant that he was a grade A dink off the ice. Kind of makes me glad he keeps getting passed over by his teammates when the Sabers call this year.

3 of 30- McSweeney's 27

This issue of McSweeney's consists of 3 books, a book of 6 short stories, a sketchbook by Art Spiegelman and a book of art from a show called Lots of Things Like This.

Lots of Things Like This was an art show that included at that included text and was funny. It was also published by McSweeney's press as a separate book, Heather has it and I didn't like it that much. This much shorter insert just included the best of the art while the book had more artists with discussions & interviews. The following pictures were all taken from the book and I liked them a lot. I also loved that it included a drawing from Vonnegut.







The sketch book by Art Spiegelman was all done in ink that was similar to Crumb. It was interesting to see the subject of each sketch as it was perfectly random.



Lastly the book of short stories were all fantastic.

Larry Smith - Tight Like That
Great start to the book. About a not too bright gangster in approximately the 20's who falls in love with a librarian. Had me laughing quite a bit.

Jim Shepard - Classic Scenes of Farewell
Written from the point of view of a page in the 15th century the story is about a serial killer of children. Powerful and fascinating.

Ashlee Adams - Bird Feed
Excellent story about a woman who was raised by her grandmother dealing with her grief in a loveless marriage with a kid she doesn't want.

Liz Mandrell - Sod Turned Spring
Quick fun little story about a young pregnant couple in the home town of Earnest of the vein Earnest Goes to Camp.

Mikel Jollett - The Crack
The Crack is about a group of terminally ill friends who find a cave under the streets of LA. Loved the story as the characters were all extremely interesting and overshadowed the excitement from their adventures.

Steven King - A Very Tight Place
This story is also published in Just After Sunset and I remembered it from listening to the CD in the car. King tells the tale of a dispute by two desperate wealthy men from very different backgrounds feuding over a piece of land near their homes in FL. Like many, I've read almost every book King has put out and enjoyed everything except for 2 exceptions, The Cell & Eyes Of The Dragon. Where the majority of his stories involve the supernatural I especially like his stories that are purely human and this was a great one.