CBR IV # 6 - Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I can't stop reading Malcolm Gladwell (I always mistakenly type Malcolm Macdowell.huh.)! But like in the past few books that I read by him, I wasn't so much interested in the big picture, or the theory he is trying to present. I can't quit reading because the anecdotes are so interesting. The experiments and all those interesting people. Its interesting. Maybe it's because of my background in psychology (well, bachelor of arts) that I find it all so interesting.

So this book is about the snap judgements and the power of thinking without thinking. Says so right there on the cover. It talks about how our initial impressions can be very helpful and how we subconsciously perceive things can result to good decisions. There is of course a downside in which we judge instantaneously based on faulty preconceptions. Therefore, we should train ourselves to be able to distinguish which impressions are useful and which are not.

I think that's what it was about. Like I said, I didn't really pay that much attention to the main thesis, just on the individual anecdotes. What struck with me though, was that to be able to get reliable first impressions, or to be able to think without thinking, you need, like all other things, to practice.

CBR IV # 5 - Fugitives and Refugees bu Chuck Palahiuk

I don't really know why I read this, being from a 3rd world country halfway across the globe, I will probable never get to see Portland, Oregon in the flesh. Then I remembered that I read all Palahniuks I can get my hands on.

Fugitives and Refugees is a guidebook to the weird and interesting in Portland Oregon. Not just places but people and events. I guess Palahniuk really calls Portland home and it shines through in the book. It shows how he loves his weir quirky city.

The book is not comprehensive in the sense that we get a whole picture of Portland. It is Portland as Chuck sees it. There are the descriptions of the interesting places, people and events but there are also snapshots of different times in Chuck's life. Lots of weird stuff like eating a lady's fur coat and and the Santa thingie. There are also recipes, which I totally didn't read.

It a slim book, a fast read. It wasn't mindblowing but it was ok. A photo album of a place I will probably never see.

CBR IV # 3 - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

This is one of two books that I finished on the last week of 2011. I must admit that I only knew of this book because of the movie (which I haven't seen yet). In fact, I thought that it was a new book, and it was only after I had finished the book and searched online did I know that it was actually published in the 60s.

The Wheelers are a young, beautiful suburban couple who seemingly have all. Nice house, cute kids, enough money. Living the American dream. But things aren't going that well in the Wheeler household. The couple were formerly artistic bohemian types, who somehow settled into suburban life. April was an aspiring actress while Frank was a "thinker" or rather a talker. They feel discontented and trapped and fancy themselves different and a cut above all their other mundane neighbors.

But living in suburbia has gotten to them and they feel that they're missing out on life. And worse, that they are turning into the suburbanites they look down on so much. In a desperate attempt to recapture the carefree feel of their relationship before marriage, April suggests they move to Paris. Frank initially scoffs at the idea but is soon sucked in to the plan. However, april gets pregnant and Frank gets a possible promotion, prompting second thoughts on his part. April, increasingly desperate, performs an abortion on herself with disastrous results (can there really be any other result other than disastrous?).

I don't know if it's just me, but the book felt very modern to me, even it it was set in the 50s. Maybe because the emptiness of suburbia is still a very common theme in art even up to now. Now the characters, they certainly weren't likable. And April is so obviously disturbed like needs professional help level. But I could relate. I'm not artsy by any stretch of the imagination but I used to hang out with that crowd, the musicians and artists. So now that I have a family and have fuckin responsibilities and a job, I sometimes feel like I've been left behind. Like I could be doing so much more. Obviously, not as extreme but I'm sure you guys get what I mean.

So yeah, even if they weren't that likable, I get them. I get what they're feeling. And it's tragic. Thank Dog I'm not.

# 52 Looking For Alaska by John Green

Now that is a manic pixie dream girl. Miles Halter is leaving his suburban Florida high school to go to boarding school in Alabama. Why? He says it is to seek "the Great Perhaps", Francois Rabelais' last words (whom I do NOT know). Miles is a little odd. He loves reading biographies and memorizes famous people's last words. He was friendless in his old school, and that might be the reason he was so eager to seek the Great Perhaps.

Going to Culver Creek seems to have been a great idea, since ha actually gained some friends there. His roommate, and the aforementioned manic pixie dream girl, Alaska. They have fun and play pranks, fall in love and do boarding school stuff, but tragedy is just around the corner. After the tragedy, the story shifts showing how the kids, especially Miles handles it. Things are learned about themselves, they grow up a little.

This is usually described as YA but the themes and details are very adult. Perhaps it is YA because it is a coming of age story. It's not an unusual concept really. Weird, or socially maladjusted, loner kid meets friends, or a girl, who helps them grow up. But John Green tells the story in a charming way. The first part is mostly light hearted but the second part is painful and real. I liked it, I really did. It wasn't life changing, but I definitely liked it.

I liked it.

# 51 Jubilee City by Joe Andoe

actual review date: January 5, 2011

Joe Andoe is an artist. I learned that only after reading his memoir. Joe Andoe grew up in Tulsa Oklahoma and his early years were full of sex drugs and rock and roll. I gathered from the book that this was fairly normal in their area. So yeah. In his early years, he was aimless, with nary an art book or ambition is sight. It is not until after he has worked a few manual jobs that he decided to study art in college. He moves to New York, gets married, has kids, becomes a successful artist, and divorces. All with a lot of drinking, drugs and fighting.

His life is not told in a linear manner like most memoirs but in short vignettes that gives more of a feel than actual facts. From what I read, I mostly liked him despite his recklessness and irresponsibility. He is sort of an anomaly I guess in that he is not the typical art student, artsy type. He was just a regular joe who found out that he could do good art and the he kinda liked it. Twas ok.

# 50 Cherry by Mary Karr

actual review date: January 5, 2o11

I have not read the Liar's Club, nor was I even aware that there was a prequel to this book. The said prequel, I gathered, tells the story of Karr's girlhood. In this book, the author talks about her early girlhood and teens. Her sexual blossoming and foray into drugs and aimlessness.

The first part of the story is told in standard memoir forma, in past tense and in the first person. As Karr grows older and gets more into drugs, the narrative shifts, and Karr becomes an observer of her former self. But it also gets hazier and more fragmented. I mean, that's how I felt when I was reading it, as if I was also doing the whole drugs thing.

Though her story has some tragedies and her life was a bit complicated, it wasn't really scandalous and all that. I thought it was a good portrait of a not so typical girl growing up in the 70's. The storytelling was hazy and surreal. Perhaps, because of this, I cannot really remember the details that well, but I do remember the feeling.

#49 In the Woods by Tana French

One day, near the end of summer, Adam Ryan is found in the woods with scratches on his back and blood pooled in his sneakers. His two best friend whom he had been spending the whole summer hanging out with in the woods are gone, never to be found. Not even their bodies. Adam is near catatonic and remembers nothing of the events that happened that day.

Twelve years later, Adam has reinvented himself as Rob Ryan, a detective assigned to the murder squad. He has managed to transform himself into a polished gentleman with a "BBC accent" (don't have BBC, don't know the accent, but I think I get what she's trying to say). His life is pretty good, owing to a great partner, the awesome Cassie Maddox. Things are going pretty great until a case of a murdered 1 year old girl emerges, killed at the very same woods Ryan once lost his friends. The case, with its many complications, slowly rocks Ryan's carefully constructed world and friendship.

The main mystery itself, the murder of the little girl, is not really that clever or complicated. If one looks really hard, lots of clues are dropped about what really happened. But the mystery itself is not what makes the book. The depth of characterization of Rob and Cassie is really good. The book is told in the first person by Ryan and of course, you have to decide if he is a reliable narrator or not. His friendship with Cassie is really interesting and you root for their friendship. But Ryan is a damaged soul, and things do NOT turn out all ok.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The writing is quite beautiful, especially for a mystery. The characters really stuck with me and I liked them and rooted for them despite their obvious faults.