Adriana Readshttp://booklikes.com/photo/crop/50/50/upload/avatar/6/c/6cfc0efd6d31b49b198803ebb52e1c81.jpgAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com2019-05-25T17:38:23+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/rsstext: Free Books in the Kitchen2016-08-23T00:28:00+01:002016-08-23T00:28:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1454979/free-books-in-the-kitchenAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
So I'm at work, and our receptionist sends out an email saying "Free books in the kitchen!"  and I was up and on my way to the kitchen faster than if she had said "free cake!"  And mind you, I'm pretty quick when cake and cookies are being offered. 

It was mostly young adult and kids books, but I nabbed a paperback of Rob Roy, which I've been meaning to read for ages, and The Cricket in Times Square, which I will set aside for when I eventually have grandkids, having been utterly neglectful and not reading it to my own children while they were young enough to enjoy it. 

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text: Are you kidding me!?2016-08-18T05:17:00+01:002016-08-18T05:17:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1452873/are-you-kidding-meAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
THREE new Harry Potter stories!  How awesome is that! 
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quote2016-08-16T18:58:00+01:002016-08-16T18:58:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1452170/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comSong In The Wrong Key - Simon Lipson
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review2016-08-15T18:22:00+01:002016-08-15T18:22:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1451736/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
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quote2016-08-12T16:47:00+01:002016-08-12T16:47:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1450711/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comThe History Boys - Alan Bennett
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review2016-08-11T21:35:00+01:002016-08-11T21:35:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1450229/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comA Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
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review2016-08-11T21:26:00+01:002016-08-11T21:26:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1450225/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comOne Day - David Nicholls
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quote2016-08-11T20:51:00+01:002016-08-11T20:51:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1450212/postAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
Epictetus
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review: For Music Fans Everywhere2016-08-11T00:13:00+01:002016-08-11T00:13:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1449318/for-music-fans-everywhereAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
A very enlightening history of the early days of the LA punk scene, told by the people who lived through it - John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X, Jane Weidlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's, Henry Rollins of Black Flag, members of other local bands and others who acted as journalists and photographers who captured that brief moment in time before punk became infamous. 

I was just becoming socially aware as the events described in the book came to an end, so the punk scene which had evolved by then was vastly different (thanks O.C.!)  from it's humble origins.  Punk wasn't a type of music, it was a form of artistic expression.  It didn't seem to matter if you knew how to play or could carry a tune, as long as you had a message.  There was one memorable passage where someone described how each performance was unique because they were literally lacked the skill to play their songs the same way each time.  It was a very welcoming, inclusive, fun and expressive movement.  Some of the writers recounted sadly how things changed when their tight-knit Hollywood community started being infiltrated by the violent intruders from Orange County.  Others didn't seem to mind the change as much. 

In any event, by the time I came of age, the interlopers from Orange County had turned the LA punk scene into what everyone imagines when they hear punk - loud, fast, angry music, venues that were prone to violence, and a fan base that was looking to start trouble.  If only I'd been five years older, it sounds like just the sort of thing I would have loved!  But then again, given how much of a dork I was, I probably would have gotten into disco scene instead! 

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review: Madame Bovary2016-07-19T00:00:00+01:002016-07-19T00:00:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1447998/madame-bovaryAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comShe thought she wanted to be married based on what society dictated a gently bred girl should do.  The reality of her married life made me think of a line from Thomas Hardy's [b:Far from the Madding Crowd|31463|Far from the Madding Crowd |Thomas Hardy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388279695s/31463.jpg|914540], when Gabriel Oak initially tries to convince Bathsheba Everdene to marry him.  He described what their married life would be like thusly: "And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be—and whenever I look up there will be you."  I remember reading that line and being horrified by the prospect.  Sadly that was likely what the reality of married life was for the majority of women.  Yes, Charles was a good, decent, hardworking, honorable man who adored Emma.  But unless a woman is head over heels in love with her husband (and I imagine it helps if she's a little short on intelligence and imagination), such a life would be unbearable!  Thank God society has changed. 

And really, it all boils down to the fact that Emma just didn't want to be married.  She wanted romance and passion.  While her husband was very much in love with her, he was quite incapable of the sort of passion she craved.  When someone else offered it, she was all too willing to allow herself to be seduced.  Obviously, such behavior was totally unacceptable at the time.  Even by today's standards, there are a myriad of unflattering appellations which would be used on a woman like that.  Easy, slut and loose are just a few of the less offensive ones.  Oops!  Did I say society had changed?  Obviously, not as much as we would think.  Women are still judged more harshly than men. 
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review: 19842016-03-06T00:00:00+00:002016-03-06T00:00:00+00:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1447999/1984AdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comSo what do I think now?  Well, at least I was able to finish it this time around.  As social commentary, I suppose it's an important book, but I didn't find it particularly compelling as fiction.  The prose was sparse, the characterizations poor, and the story was a little too over the top to be believable. 
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review: Out of Sorts2015-12-05T00:00:00+00:002015-12-05T00:00:00+00:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1448133/out-of-sortsAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comAnd while he does come around in the end, it didn't leave me all warm and fuzzy.  We are meant to feel that the positive influences of Juliette and Beatrice caused him to soften, I can't help feeling that he was still being vindictive, trying to reclaim what he feels the mailman stole from him (which he - the mailman - totally didn't.  He just filled in a void left wide open by Ferdinand himself). 

In the end, it was "the mailman" I felt sorry for.  He was the one who truly loved those who were cast aside by Ferdinand, and he was the one who lost a beloved wife and companion, and a family when his late wife's daughter and grandson chose to move in with Ferdinand. 
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review: The Good Dream2015-10-13T00:00:00+01:002015-10-13T00:00:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1448019/the-good-dreamAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comreview: Comeback Love2015-10-09T00:00:00+01:002015-10-09T00:00:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1448009/comeback-loveAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.com
I love the idea of second chances later in life, especially when it involves the one that got away.  So I should have loved this book.  Except that I didn't. 

There was one thing that kept me from loving this book: I just didn't get Glenna.  She claimed to love Gordon, but sent him packing for no apparent reason.  She hated the work she did at her friend's clinic, but passed on Woodstock so she could stay in town and do more work.  Every time she baited Gordon, every fight she had with him had me asking, "Why would she do that to him?  If she loves him as madly as she claims, why would she act like that?" 

And because I didn't get Glenna, by default I didn't get Gordon, who was so blindly in love with her that 30 some odd years after having his heart torn out by her, as he was going through the greatest emotional trauma he had ever suffered since said heartbreak (personally I would rank the second one much worse), he decides to look her up.  He seemed to have moved on and, in my opinion, had a more emotionally satisfying life than Glenna.  I understand that she had been the one great love of his life, but why anyone want to reconnect with someone so irrational, especially after finding out about the nature of Glenna's "rebound" relationship?  That should have been devastating enough to the ego to never EVER want to look back. 

Not to mention that I would have been suicidal if I'd ended up like Glenna: a widow, alone because I'd rejected the one man I'd ever been passionately in love with, and later knowing that I'd passed up my only chance at motherhood when I threw away his unborn child - this was just too depressing to dwell on. 
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review: Life and Other Near-Death Experiences2015-10-05T00:00:00+01:002015-10-05T00:00:00+01:00http://AdrianaA.booklikes.com/post/1448000/life-and-other-near-death-experiencesAdrianaAhttp://AdrianaA.booklikes.comLibby takes a while to warm up to.  She's described as being bubbly and looking at the world through rose colored glasses, but I initially found her incredibly selfish.  However, it's just a matter of perspective when measured against her husband, Tom's selfishness. 

Ms. Pagan does a good job of taking a very serious subject (a very rare and especially aggressive form of cancer) and infusing it with humor to give us an enjoyable and highly readable story.  In fact, that's probably what kept me from liking it more: it was too light for the subject matter. 

But the thing that bothered me most about this book is that I wanted Tom to suffer more.  Oh, how I wanted him to suffer.  Because in the end, the Libby I had initially though so selfish let him off easy.  I wanted him to be incapacitated by guilt. 
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