The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova

This is a POP-CORN book, just like Big summer movies, an exciting fast read, but not much else. Its Big book at 645 pages. It’s a modern book about trying to find Dracula. With out giving anything away they’re a lot of people doing research in this book. Going to libraries, lectures and reading letters. In fact half of the book is all letters. The first 250 pages were great, then is slows down, and gets a little repeatavie for me.. Then last 100 are action packed. A lot of things bothered me about the ending and what pointes she decided to wrap up. She would spend a lot of time on characters that wouldn’t really do anything, and she tended to get kinda wordy at time. At the same time I did read the whole book in 2 weeks… so I musta been into it.. It’s gothic vampire stuff… you know a book where something exciting happens at the end of each chapter, so you read the next one to know what happened.. Ect……..But it does have a new take on Dracula that’s a great idea and a very natural fit.

The publishers are really pushing this book, but I’d say wait for the movie.

Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories
by Daniel Pinkwater

I was reading the bono book but packing for a trip. The bono book is a think hardcover, so I went on the hunt for small book. I found this hand size book in the bargain section of b&n. I’ve been a long time Pinkwater fan, when I was kid “fat men from space” was my favorite book. Over the years I’ve read a lot of pinkwaters catalog of books.

It ends up this is an autobiography, only told in context of all the dogs he’s ever owned. It starts off with his first bird as a kid and progress to his adult life with several dogs. Dogs come and go, but all have funny stories full of great personality.  It’s not about dog sledding as the cover suggested. Most it takes place In NYC. It’s a fun quick read, it’d be GREAT if you are into dogs, or want to learn how Pinkwater got this start in publishing.

Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
by Michka Assayas

First off, I’ve been a U2 fan since I was a teen, so this is automatically interesting to me.

This book is a 320-page interview. It covers the beginning of u2, how he got the name bono. Getting married, his family, recording music, Africa, and his religion. It’s all in depth also. I’d say this is must read for any u2 fan. It answered a lot of questions I’ve had over the year. Why they went all “pop” to name one. I thought this an insight-full book, full of good advice from some one who has lived a big life, but really thinks about each move he makes.

 I enjoyed it, and learned a lot about u2, Africa and it gave me motivation to do something with great with my life.

(This was read before I even knew about g8.) 

Reinventing the wheel. By Steve Kemper

This is a first hand look at the development of the SEGWAY! The creator of the segway was so sure he was changing the world he hired a writer to come in and work with the crew as the built the machine. This is a story of ego and business. It’s not about what happened after the segway came out (the author had been fired by then). This book is about he segway, but it’s really about it’s creator Dean Kamen and how he ran his company DEKA It’s also a honest look at a start up business and the difficulties in creating a something total new and different. They have a lot of tech talk, about gyros and hand bar design. What I enjoyed was seeing how the hype got so outta control. I’ve actually ridden a segway and it was cool as hell, so this book was VERy interesting to me. If you like technology and business or are just curious about the segway this is the book for you. I was so into it I read this book in a week.

The Lay and the monk by pico iyer

This is a book about a writer who moves to Kyoto Japan to learn more about a Zen and to try out being a monk. Then he meets a japans woman who isn’t stratified with her life. They become good friend and what we the reader get is a great inside look at japans culture. There is a fair amount of Zen discussion in this book, but it’s mostly about the relationship that developed between the author and Sachiko. She wants to see the world but it trapped with kids and a husband. This sounds like a bad romance novel but it’s not. She uses iyer to try to understand the outside world, and he used her to understand Japan. It a “travel” book, even though its just good non-fiction.

Enslaved by Ducks by Bob tarte

This is not a sci-fi but a real life account of leaving the city and slowly acquiring a lot of pet animals. It all starts with a bunny, but slowly becomes parrots, ducks, turkeys, and more birds than I can remember. The book is a fun light read. Each chapter is mostly about one new animal, its personality and how it interacts with them (the humans) and all the other pets. I saw saddened when I was done with this book, because it was warm and feather place to go for funny life stories. I am ready for the sequel!  The tag line for this book is also great. “How one man went from head of the household to the bottom of the pecking order.”:)

I give it 9 / 10 

The Whole (a novel) by john Reed.

This is a weird story about a ditsy Vj, who is looking for the middle, and due to a series or seaming random Coincidences, she ends up on a bizarre journey to the whole.

I really liked this book, but it’s very weird, it reads like generation X , but with a lot of “Alice in wonder land” thrown in. It’s VERY sarcastic, and amazing it gets even MORE weird at the end. I’d say if you’re a fan of harukia Murakami, Douglas Coupland, or are up for a Modern Surreal pink martini book, then this book is for you.

I give it 8 / 10 

Blood Music

Signal to Noise
by Eric S. Nylund

Subwayland
by Randy Kennedy

Holy Cow : An Indian Adventure SARAH MACDONALD

Lost in Mongolia
by Colin Angus

Fisherspponers– odessey

Fisherspponers new album odessey is a blend of many things. It got the “feel” of Postal service, but is more electroclash. Some of the songs have a Duran Duran thing, but most of them have a “Logan’s run” sci-fi feel. I’ve been surprised I haven’t heard people copying the postal service more, but here is someone who’s listened and said “ we need to do some of that”.
It’s fun pop /electronic space album.

here are some music samples

Mix master mike – Bangzilla
So Mix master mike was the dj for the beastie boys on the last few albums. I’m normally not a fan of “Skratch” records, but this one has something special… Godzilla and other monster movie samples! So kicking beats and monster sounds! This is all I’m listening to right now. You can hear samples here.

9/10

Bloc party – Silent Alarm

This is a hipster band, but still a good alterna rock album. It sounds familiar to me in a good 80-‘s way. I keep saying it’s like the police if the police were now. It’s NoT 80’s revival, it just feels like the 80s with modern effect and an up to date hipster mix.

7/10

Momus : Otto Spooky
First off I have been a Momus fan for a long time, second this is unlike any other Momus record. In fact it’s so different I didn’t like it at first. It’s full of strange sounds and different song structure than Momus usually uses. After a few listens it’s grown on me, and I now think it’s one of his best in a while, but I say that about most new Momus albums. What sets this one apart is how different it is. Much more moody and forgin sounding. Also he creates so many new sounds, and weaves them together in pop formation, Great Stuff! If you’ve heard Momus before you haven’t heard this album.

This is what an experimental “pop” album is supposed to be. If you’re a fan of the residents, or the more experimental radiohead. This would fit in around there in your music collection.

9/10

Nicoletta

U2

Bossacucanove
uma batida diferente

Bjork
medulla

Bjork
medulla