So Many Precious Books, So Little Time

This is the memoir of the actor, Emmett James. As a young boy, growing up in a lower class London neighbourhood he recalled his earliest experiences with the cinema. He use to go with his mother and older brother. He usually fell asleep but mange to wake up for the best parts. He enjoyed these family outings, in fact, they are his fondest memories from his childhood. He really liked to observe how his mother and brother watched movies.

The chapters each start with a film that James had seen but the writing within each chapter had very little to do with the mentioned film. This memoir is much more the memoir of Emmett James, actor, rather than his connection to film. He talked about his rough childhood and how he got into acting.

From the description of the book, I expected this to be about how he related to the films he saw and what impact they had on him. This was not the case and I was therefore disappointed. James writing was okay and there were a few laugh out loud moments but there were some boring parts as well. In a book of only 192 pages I really didn't expect to be bored at all.

At this point in his life, James is not a big star. His biggest part was one of the crew members in James Cameron’s “Titanic”. So far, that seems like the high point of his career. My point is that I don't quite get why James chose to write a memoir this point in his life. Perhaps he would have had more to tell with more life experience. 

As I said above, there were some funny moments . I especially enjoyed the 'Star Wars' chapter. James shared the impact the movie and marketing of the movie had on him. He wanted a Star Wars toy for Christmas and asked Santa for it.

2.5/5

Thanks to Lisa Roe Online Publicist for the signed copy of this book.

Also reviewed by:

This week I read a children's book for Short Story Monday.  I received this book quite sometime ago from the author and decided I was over due in reading and reviewing it.

Marcelo was celebrating his fifth birthday and his parents gave him a box with holes to open.  The box shook and there was a yelp inside.  He opened it up and out jumped a golden retriever puppy.  His parents told him that it was his puppy so he should name him.  He wanted to choose a name that reflected the puppy's personality so he waited to get to know him better.  

Marcelo and the puppy did everything together and Marcelo did a good job taking care of him.  They became best friends fast.  It took quite some time for Marcelo to think of a name for his new friend but finally the puppy did something that gave Marcelo an idea for the name.

Week 7 (6 for me) February 13-18.

Friday-2 Biking

Saturday-4 walking

Sunday-0

Monday-2 biking

Tuesday-1 walking

Wednesday-0

Thursday-0

Total this week:9

Total for challenge: 45

Saturday my husband and I took the skytrain to downtown to see some of the Olympic pavilions.  Boy did we walk!  Just to get to them and back was a walk.  Unfortunately,  we didn't see much.  A lot of the pavilions were closed to the public.  The one's that we open and didn't have huge ,and I mean huge, line-ups were pretty much just selling liquor.  The walking was great though and taking in the atmosphere was good too.  We ended the day with dinner and the free concert with WILCO.  We love WILCO and didn't even have to stand in line.  Our friend lives in a hi-rise building facing the concert stage.  We sat in her cozy living room, sipping tea.  How lucky is that?

Isaac and Poe are best friends and recent high school graduates. Isaac wants to go on to college but is worried about leaving is disabled father alone to fend for himself. Poe doesn't really have any aspirations. Isaac finally decides to go to school after all and steals $4000 from his father to help him get there. He tells Poe of his plan. To save money he will walk, hop trains, and hitch-hike to Berkley, California. 

Isaac talks Poe into walking with him to the abandoned steel mill and hang out with him one more time before he leaves the town for good. They start a fire inside but all of a sudden some men show up. Isaac is scarred and wants to leave, but as usual, Poe need to show how tough he is. Isaac makes an excuse to leave and hopes for Poe to follow but he doesn't. While outside Isaac hears Poe and goes back inside to see the men beating Poe and threatening him with a knife. Isaac throws something at the head of one of the men and the man goes down. It leaves Poe enough time to make his escape.   

This one act changed the lives of Isaac,Poe, and the town forever. 

I want to thank Lisa Munley of TLC Book Tours for getting me to read this book. I was sent a copy of this it before it originally came out. Because I had not requested it, I put it at the back of my advance reader copy pile. I read some great reviews and wanted to read it but just didn't get to it. Then Lisa contacted me and said that she noticed it was on my TBR and that she was organizing a book tour for it. She gave me the little push I needed to finally read it. Now that I have, I can't believe I waited for so long!

This book has been compared to the great John Steinbeck. In my opinion a very hard standard for any other writers to achieve. I am a huge Steinbeck fan. That said, I must say that I agree that there are many elements that live up to the Steinbeck standard. There's a well written and developed story of gut wrenching consequences, a great character studies that are oh, so well drawn out. Meyer is no Steinbeck but he does come close. I give my highest praise to Philipp Meyer and his debut novel, American Rust. 

Yes, a debut author that we can compare to Steinbeck. I look forward to reading more by Philipp Meyer, can he continue to live up to the Steinbeck standard? Time will tell.

5/5

Be sure to look for my giveaway of this book tomorrow!

Philipp Meyer’s Other TLC Book Tours Tour Stops:

Tuesday, January 12th: The Blue Stocking Society
Monday, January 18th: Literary Feline
Tuesday, January 19th: Book Club Classics!
Wednesday, January 20th: A Circle of Books
Thursday, January 21st: One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books
Tuesday, January 26th: Luxury Reading
Thursday, January 28th: Ready When You Are, CB
Tuesday, February 2nd: Rough Edges
Thursday, February 4th: Bibliophile by the Sea
Tuesday, February 9th: Becky’s Book Reviews
Thursday, February 11th: The 3 R’s Blog
Friday, February 12th: Beth Fish Reads
Monday, February 15th: Bibliofreak
Tuesday, February 16th: Books on the Brain
Monday, February 22nd: Lit and Life
Thursday, February 25th: Steph and Tony Investigate

Thanks to Anna of Hachette Books for making this giveaway possible!

Jo-Jo (already won it)
JustPeachy

I still can't seem to get enough T.C. Boyle, so for this week I read two more short stories from his collection, 'After the Plague.'

The first story I read was 'Termination Dust'. The travel agency Ned and his partner, Peter own in Alaska organized a fund raiser. 107 women "of all ages, shapes, and sizes," came from Los Angeles to be auctioned off as dates to the highest bidder. It is said that in Alaska, there are two men for every one woman.

Ned fell instantly for Jordy and enjoyed conversing with her, until Bud came and interrupted. The three of them sat down and ate together with Ned trying to be civil to Bud for Jordy's sake. After dinner the bidding begun and soon Jordy was being auctioned off. There was a bidding war between Ned and Bud but Bud won. Ned just couldn't go any higher and he couldn't figure out where Bud got that kind of money from.

The next morning Ned went to find Jordy but she had left the hotel. A friend of hers told Ned that Jordy went with Bud to his cabin and that she would be back in time to catch the plane the next day. Ned knew that there was no way that Bud would get her back in time, if at all. Ned drove all day with urgency to rescue Jordy from the lying and manipulative Bud.

This is another demonstration of T.C. Boyle's fertile imagination and excellent writing skill. I recommend this story.

The next story I read was 'Killing Babies'. When Rick gets out of rehab in California he goes to live and work with his brother, Phillip in Detroit. He must keep out of trouble for the next 6 months or face jail time. Phillip is a doctor who lives with his wife and children in a really nice house.

Rick and Phillip have never been close but Rick decides he will make the best of the situation. He is to work at Phillip's clinic as an entry level lab technician. Mostly menial tasks such as cleaning test tubes and taking out garbage, etc. 

When Rick and Phillip drive up to the clinic the first day there are a bunch of protectors outside. It turns out that abortions are performed at the clinic. None of the workers inside the clinic, including Phillip want to talk about the protesters with Rick. On another day, the protesters are outside Phillips house. 

I won't say anymore for risk of giving out spoilers. This story has the far reaching consequences that I have come to expect from the expert writing of Boyle. I highly recommend it no matter what side of the abortion issue you are on.