Plane Food: Round 4

I was actually kind of excited to write about this book for the simple novelty of giving something a bad review. It really isn't tough to entertain me, and I don't think that Deliver Us From Normal even tried. Perhaps Klise was attempting to portray events in the truly naive view of her eleven-year-old narrator, and, in a way, it worked. The book was ambitious, but totally shortsighted - a remarkable feat to say the least. Charlie is a hyper-sensitive kid, but he doesn't really realize that he has anxiety attacks, and no one bothers to talk to him about them. He just goes around thinking that he has 'special powers' to understand everything that is going on around him, when really he's misinterpreting most all of it. Because of his issues, after a mildly bad incident at school, the parents pull everyone out of school, without telling Charlie why. He's left to believe what he always assumes, that his family isn't 'normal' enough to stay in a town called conveniently, Normal, IL. This flee from the hometown is supposed to allow Charles to grow, see his family without embarrassment and realize what's important in life through a series of ridiculous (and irresponsible, for the parents) events. Some sort of epiphany was reached, but not realistically. This book wasn't worth my time. It was boring from start to finish, and I only finished it to confirm that it was bad (and I can't write something disparaging without all the facts, right?). Despite its 'teen' classification in the library, it should probably be in 'J,' if its even worth having around. Oh, and I was horribly disappointed to realize that those were, in fact, bunnies, not kangaroos on the cover as I gotten into my head.

Plane Food: Round 3

I'm not a big non-fiction reader, nor am I much of a reader of adult titles. It is, therefore, quite surprising (well, to me) that I have read two adult non-fiction books within a month. Within the month in which I started a blog. So that's odd. Anyway, I love to cook, but I've always been scared of those old cookbooks that called for lard or unmentionable bits in everything, cookbooks that considered food served in loaf shape the height of couture. I have my grandmother's 1927 edition of Joy of Cooking. I had, therefore, an idea of just what Julie Powell was into when she set forth on a quest to cook all of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. From there it is marrow, maggots and melodrama, hoofs and humor. And a lot of swearing. I genuinely enjoyed it. The Julie/Julia Project started out as a blog, became wildly successful and then became the book that I just read. I have to be honest, with the exception of a few desserts and the potato and leek soup, I'll never have any desire to undertake such an endeavor. Oh, and I'm still scared of old cookbooks...

Plane Food: Round 2

I was MESMERIZED by this book. A first book by Laura Whitcomb, the spine (of all things) caught my attention in a book store, the cover did me in, and I went right to work and put it on hold. I saved it for the plane home, because it hadn't received any votes, unlike Grace, but was a smaller, lighter book, suitable for travel. Frankly, I didn't even realize that we were flying. It has now put me in the position where I can't decide what my favorite book of 2005 was, A Certain Slant of Light or Twilight. Argh. The later was so clearly winning before I read this one. There is some sex in it, so ages 15+, I think. Unless you know the kid, of course. Wait, I haven't even told you what it's about. Isn't the recommendation enough?