I know "Big Girls Don't Cry," but this one took her Big Body and sat underneath the desk to make herself feel Better.

I think I need a vacation. This is sad, because I've only been at my new job for about five months now, but seriously. The last two days at work have been so busy that I have felt violated. Most of the other people I work with hate being on desk with a passion. I actually kind of like it, but the last two days have made me realize why they all hate it so much. It's just been a constant stream of cranky retirees with too much of their pension to spend on their vacation.

Today, some pervert skeeved on my tattoo when I bent over and another guy told me that I've "got a big body." I am not lying. He asked me what my major had been in college and I said, "music" and he asked whether I sang opera and I said yes. He said, "well, you've got a big body" and went on to say that that's what opera singers need. Now, I realize that he probably just had "foot in mouth" disease, but still. What's with the stereotype that all opera singers are fat? And what's with him seeing me, a big girl, and automatically assuming I must be an opera singer? You know what I said to him? I told him that Kiri Te Kanawa was skinny and she played Susannah, and that they must just be growing them differently down in New Zealand, where Kiri is from. He had no idea what I was talking about, by the way. I don't think he'd ever heard of Kiri Te Kanawa. Anyway, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about the comment, especially in light of the fact that that perverted guy had just been so gross about my tattoo (asking to see it again, asking probing questions about what it meant in a weird tone of voice, and generally just letting me know he'd seen my bare skin and was happy about it.) I was kind of scarred by both interactions, so I sat underneath the desk for a while. It's closed on one side and it makes a nice little cave down there. I've found that it calms me down to sit under there and collect my thoughts for a second. It's kind of like how, in college, I would wear a tiara while I did my homework. There was just something about it that made everything better.

My friend, Mitch tried to make me feel better. ("You look good!" he said earnestly. I believed him, just because he's so earnest.) Also, being my supervisor, he let me go on break. I subsequently had the worst break on record because while I was eating my TV dinner in Josh's office, Colton came in and accidentally spilled my lemonade all over me. He was acting like a Spartan at the time and swinging this long stick around. (it's a boy thing, I guess.) He didn't mean to and I wasn't mad at him, but it made me all wet and it made him feel bad. So I spent the rest of my break wet and hungry because I didn't have anything else to eat. Pity, pity me.

In other news, I have discovered the wide world of watching TV online. It's feeding my growing Gilmore Girls addiction, I'm telling you that much. Besides that, I looked up Milo Ventimiglia on imdb.com and found that he'd been in the video for "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie. (Subsequently, I wish I was cool enough to just go by one name. I wonder: is Fergie really even her first name? I digress.) Anyway, I don't particularly care for Fergie, but I watched the video, anyway, because I loves me some Milo. My first reaction was, "dang, he's hot," and my second was "but sleazy-looking." I never knew he had such a talent for looking like a heel. Not to mention the fact that the costumer glued fake tattoos all over his (well-muscled) body. I swear, every time he was on screen, there was a new one. I was torn between wanting to see more of his impressive chest and arms and wanting him to put on a shirt to cover up the fakeness of the tattoos. Now, I love tattoos more than the next girl, but this was a little excessive. It was like, "look, this boy's got tattoos, he must be bad!" Also, there was a nagging in the back of my mind that said, "My Peter Petrelli would never buy drugs!" (which Milo did in the video) and "Peter would never wear his hair in a stupid little ponytail like that!" To borrow a phrase from Adam Shankman when he was a guest judge on So You think You Can Dance?: It looked like he'd been punk'd by the hair and makeup designer. All that aside, who knew that he had such a beautiful body? They hide it on Heroes, he just looks like a single chopstick there.

Well, those are my adventures for today. Tomorrow is karaoke night, so my next entry might consist of my notes from that. If Carrie Underwood got a nickel for every time someone sang "Jesus take the Wheel" or "Before he Cheats" at our karaoke night, she'd have at least enough to by a nice American-made car, if not a Kia or even a Honda. Normally, karaoke is pretty predictable, (lots of Elvis, Patsy, and Faith Hill) but sometimes they'll surprise you- we listened in horror as a fifteen-year-old girl sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" in it's entirety last week. It always proves to be interesting. Till then,

Brianne <><

My Hero Bought Me a New Computer, but all I did on it was Listen to my New CD's and get stuck in Traffic.

I recently got a new computer. It was a gift from my dad, who recently came into some money and wanted to bless his daughters with things they needed. (My dad took care of some of my sister's medical bills. He bought me a new computer. Which sister is the shallow one? Hmm.) Anyway, it's a good thing and I love it, but I'm finding that it's completely taking over my life. I've spent my free time in the last few days writing (a good thing; I'd been dry for far too long,) watching episodes of Heroes that I'd missed when they were on TV (obsessive, I know) and playing Tetris and Alchemy online (two miserably pathetic wastes of time. Make your comments now.) So, while I love the compy, I'm going to have to learn how to do other things. I don't want to be one of those Pasty-Faced Geeks (heretofore known as PFG's) who do nothing but play online all day. (I hope my PFG friends will forgive me for that remark.)

In other news, the job is still going well. We're getting to the end of the summer, so things are sort of slowing down. We've been putting on our "Pirate Luau Party" every Friday night this summer, and last night was our smallest crowd yet. We still had a good show, but it's always kind of draining when we have 50 people show up with food for 100 and seats for 200. I've been doing the hula all summer, which looks exactly as awkward as it sounds. It's not supposed to be perfect or ever serious, but casting me as a beautiful woman "wearing nothing but... pearly shells" (that's sarcasm; I wear a tank top and a hula skirt with shorts underneath) is kind ironic. It's been fun, but I kind feel gawky and weird prancing around in a lot less clothing than I'm used to wearing. This fall we'll be starting the "murder mystery," and I'm much more looking forward to being in that. Apparently I'll be playing some sort of Stepford wife- I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I hope I get to be a psychotic Stepford wife and bake fake pieces of glass and fake razor blades into cakes and cookies and serve them to guests. 'Cause that would be hilarious. I really like working nights because that means I get to help with all the events, and most of the people I work with are a lot of fun.

This weekend was the big car show here in Branson, so that means that traffic will be horrid until they roll out of town tomorrow. Tonight is the big "midnight cruise" up and down the strip. It's kind of a big thing here in Branson, which, for all it's posing, is still kind of a small town at heart. All these vintage car owners come to town for two days at the end of the summer to show off their cars, and it all culminates with the "midnight cruise" tonight. They'll be riding up and down the strip in their fancy cars, which is awesome if you're a vintage car enthusiast, but horrible if you're a lowly activities worker trying to get home after a long day of catering to rich, entitiled guests. (I am a little bitter tonight. This morning I got chewed out by someone from another department for accurately telling a guest that I didn't have enough money in my register to change his twenty, and then a woman yelled at me over the phone for telling her that she had to pay for one of our events. Everyone has to pay. My parents have to pay if they come. And for the other matter, what am I, a bank? What made that retard think that I had unlimited funds? And what gives some bleachy-haired ho from another department the right to tell me how to do my job? Sorry. I digress.)

So, I'm kind of enjoying my night at home alone. Usually when I have a night off, I try to plan something with my friends, but tonight it didn't work out. Normally, that would kind of upset me because most other nights I work and don't always get to spend a lot of time with them, but tonight it's been kind of nice. My friend, Bud, called from Pittsburgh, and I haven't talked to him in a long time. We talked about what we usually talk about: the sad state of the Mainline Christian denomenations in the US. (Bud's a conservative Anglican, and I'm a Presbyterian refugee currently attending a United Methodist church.) And honestly, it's been nice to be able sit around and listen to my music and watch my movies and eat leftovers in my pajamas, something I couldn't do if there were a bunch of people over at my house. Besides, I wouldn't be caught dead in town tonight. I was stuck in traffic for an hour last night. There were twenty minutes that I spent with my windows rolled down and my car turned off, completely stopped in traffic. It was horrible.

And now for what I know you've all been waiting for:

Brianne's recent CD acquisitions!

1. The Reminder, by Feist. I swear, I got cooler just listening to this CD. It's definitely one of my top purchases of all time, and the best by far this year. Feist's music is so diverse and original, there's almost nothing else I can say about it. She moves from folksy ballads to country-flavored mid-tempos to rock drums and guitars from song to song and she does it all well. There's nothing manufactured here; everything is as real and authentic as they come. My favorites: "The Park," "I Feel it All," and "The Mountain."
2. Mighty to Save, by Hillsongs United. I know I don't usually talk much about "Christian" releases on here, mostly because there was a long period when I wasn't buying any "Christian" CD's. ("Christian" is in "quotation marks" because I don't really think that there should be a Christian genre. Rock music is rock music whether you sing about Jesus or not. I think that David Crowder Band is a great rock band. Also, they write some songs that lead me to Jesus.) I'm mentioning Mighty to Save on here 1) because it's a great example of how well-written music can be a conduit to Christ, 2) I didn't always like Hillsongs because I thought that their music was stupid and hokey. I don't hate them anymore because of this CD. 3) Travis Sappington introduced me to this CD via the concert version of it he has on DVD and it really touched me. I can see Emma dancing around to "Take it All" and it brings joy to my heart. My favorites: "Take it All," "At the Cross," "From the Inside Out," and of course, "Mighty to Save." Also, if anyone has seen my copy of this CD, could you please get it back to me? Cody Boggs, this means you.
3. Children Running Through, by Patty Griffin. Oh, Patty. I thought I liked you before. I thought you couldn't impress me any more than you already had by giving me "Rain" and allowing me to put it on the soundtrack of my life. I was so, so wrong. Patty Griffin's newest CD is absolutely breathtaking. 1000 Kisses, the other album I have that's by her, is good. It's not quite as strong as "Rain," (the first track and the reason I bought the CD) but it's good. I enjoy listening it it when I need comfort or to calm down. But Chldren Running Through is an entirely different animal. It's diverse (like I just mentioned with Feist) and she really utilizes her unique voice. She branches out from the country-ish songs that mostly populated 1000 Kisses, getting into some blues and some rock-type stuff. She's still thoroughly entrenched in the folk genre, which I love, but she really blew me away with this CD. My favorites: "You'll Remember," "Trapeze," and the truly wonderful "Heavenly Day."

Well. I think that's about all for tonight. I don't know if this blogging thing is going to be permanent, but I'm glad that I had something to talk about tonight. Now I don't have to feel the guilt radiating off of Jess, Erin, and Bud for not writing. Till sometime,

Brianne <><

Mike

I mentioned my friend, Mike in my post yesterday. I didn’t really know what to say about him then, other than he was too young when he died, but now, after reading what Erin wrote about him on her blog and Trey’s eulogy of him, I thought I’d offer my words.

Mike was strong. I want to say that right off the bat. Even though he wasn’t a body builder-type guy, he looked like he could lift a cow if you needed him to. (Actually, if that occasion arose, he would probably go look at the cow, analyze the situation, assess whether he could really lift the cow, and then offer several ways that we could lift the cow, together.) Mike was so strong, that’s one reason why his death hit me like a brick. I mean, he dropped dead in his sleep. Out of all the people who you might think something like that would happen to, he was the absolute last person.

Besides being physically strong, though, Mike was strong in a spiritual sense. This was a man who ministered with every breath he took. He loved and served teenagers every day, especially the boys out at the workshop. Even when he wasn’t allowed to serve next to me in the youth group anymore, he was always there, walking alongside the kids he’s been torn away from. The last time I saw Mike is imprinted on my mind. I’d been running late to Wednesday night activities at church because of a work commitment and I was afraid that I was going to be late for youth. I thought, “If I’m not at dinner, the kids will all leave before youth.” So I was speeding, and worrying, and when I burst into the fellowship hall, a full 20 minutes late for dinner… Mike was there, sitting at the table with the few youth who still go to that church. I should have known. No one could keep Mike from serving those kids. That’s how strong he was. He continued to come to that church even after they slandered his name, after they had told lies about him all over town and ripped him out of youth ministry. He and Bev stand in my hall of saints, of the bravest people I know. They walked into that church with heads held high week after week, even though it was a pit of vipers.

Mike was generous. I mean, he was always giving to those in need. When my old car was breaking down all the time, he didn’t stop until I had the title to a new one in my hand. I am not joking about this. He (along with my dear friend, Barb, who deserves her own blog entry) found me an affordable new car, found me a way to pay for it, and when that didn’t work out, he found people to pay for it. (I’m pretty sure he chipped in a few of his own dollars as well.) It feels so tiny and trivial to talk about now that he’s gone, but every time I look at that car, I think of him. It was hard getting into it that first day he was gone, but now it’s a good thing. I don’t ever want to get rid of it, because it always makes me think of Mike.

Mike was a do-er. If he saw something that needed to be done, he did it. When he saw a young man in need of a father, he became that boy’s father. When he saw me in need of a car, he got it for me. When he saw a problem in our church… he was there. There was no stopping Mike when he was on course. Some people thought of that as impulsiveness, or rebellion, or pigheadedness, but I didn’t. I thought of it as him standing up for the little guy, of him not taking injustice sitting down. That was something else about Mike- he would always stand up for what was right, good, and Scriptural. He was all about the truth.

I could go on and on about what a good man Mike was, but I think you get the point. I don’t want it to seem like I’m only saying nice things about him because he’s dead, because that’s not what it’s like at all. Mike was all these things and more. What’s most important about Mike was the way he lived his life. He lived by the Word. He followed Christ with every step and with every breath. He showed God’s love to everyone, not just the people who made it easy for him or who “deserved it.” He was my father, my brother, and my friend, and I miss him horribly. I know I’ll see him again someday, and I can’t wait. So I guess there is a bright side, because as Barb said, “at least we don’t have to be worried about where he is.” I know that I’ll see Mike again, and that’s my good thought.

I haven’t blogged in so long, I almost forgot how to do it, but here goes.

So much has happened since November or whenever it was that I last updated this page. I started a new job, I started watching Heroes, (thanks, Jess!) and Veronica Mars was cancelled. I made a passel of new friends, but I royally pissed off some other friends, and I lost one forever. I’m quitting my church next Sunday. So much has changed for me since November, but I can’t say I’m entirely worse off for it.

My new job is exciting. I’m an “activities associate” at a resort here in town, which basically means that I’m a year-round camp counselor for old people. And you’d think with all the horror stories I have to tell about rude customers and rich, entitled retirees, I would hate this job. I don’t. I really like it. It helps that I work with some incredibly talented people who also like their job, that I get to use some of my gifts as a performer, and that the pay and benefits rock my face off. Mainly, it’s just nice to have a change of pace. I was getting so burned out in retail, I needed to get out before I went all emo and slit my wrists or something. (Things were not that drastic. You all know how melodramatic I am.)

New on the TV front: Jess helped me discover Heroes in January and it changed my life. I am obsessed with this little show about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities. I love character-driven stories, so this is like the epitome of shows for me: Each person’s abilities seem to be a logical manifestation of their personalities. For instance: my favorite character, Peter, is a hospice nurse at the beginning of the series. He’s got this huge heart, he’s kind and caring. He’s the type of person who you know gets dumped on all the time. His ability is that he can take on the abilities of the other heroes just by being around them. So basically, he’s taking on the burdens of the other characters, and the way he accesses them is that he thinks about how the person made him feel when he was with him. So this kind man with a caring heart accesses the powers he’s acquired by using his heart, not his head. I could analyze every character ad nauseum, but I won’t. Just watch the show, okay? The DVD comes out in August or something. It will change your life.

The way I made these new friends is really kind of mind-blowing. I was involved in The Sound of Music back in the winter, and while not everything about that experience was wonderful, it did introduce me to these people who have changed my life. They were all involved in the show as well, and we just really clicked. I don’t know when or how it happened, it just did. I remembered Danielle saying back in December or January that we probably wouldn’t see any of them again after the show was through and I thought, “No!” so I scheduled all these parties over at my house for the next month and… the rest is history. I see my new friends something like every day and they have become my new surrogate family. A couple of years ago, I had a little family like that, other people my age who didn’t have a mom and a dad right here they could lean on, so we leaned on each other. They’re all scattered all over the Midwest and the South now, but I never forgot what it was like to have that little postmodern family. Now I have it again and it looks different, but sometimes it feels similar. We can be brutally honest with each other, we fight and make up, we laugh a lot and cry some and watch movies and have sleepovers and it’s so nice to have those day-to-day friends again. I could write a whole blog about just them, but maybe that’s for another day.

The rest of my changes have been harder. I don’t really want to get into it all, but this has been a very trying time for me spiritually. The church I’ve been going to for five years is dying. It’s being destroyed from the inside out. One of the few people with the balls to fight, my dear friend Mike Stowe, died a month ago last week and I miss him horribly. I’ve lost friends before. They’ve moved away, or stopped talking to me, or graduated from college. I’d never lost someone like this before: he just died, just like that, with no warning. He was only 49 years old and he just dropped dead. I don’t understand it. I hope I will someday, but I don’t right now.

Not to be a downer. My life doesn’t really suck, it just feels that way sometimes. But you know, when I’m sitting around my house feeling sorry for myself about the hard changes in my life, I remember the good stuff that’s happened, too, and I can still say “I serve a good God.” And then I go watch Heroes. So, there, my newest blog since the winter. Maybe this will be a regular thing. Hmmm.

Three-Month Roundup

Okay, so I know it’s been forever and a day since my last blog, but would you believe that this is literally the first time in months that I’ve had time to sit down at the old compy and write a post? The only reason I’m here today is because there’s an ice storm and I got sent home from work early. Here’s why I’ve been so busy, in a nutshell.  We’ll call it the “Brianne’s Mundane Life Three-Month Roundup.”

• I got a promotion at work.  As many of you know, I’ve had two jobs for a long time now.  I work part time at a bookstore, and also part time at a women’s clothing store.  Until this fall, the clothing store was extremely part time, only a couple of hours a week.  Then I learned that my job at the bookstore would be ending soon because the chain is going out of business, and around the same time I learned the bookstore was going out of business, a promotion opened up for me at the clothing store.  So, instead of waiting until January when the bookstore closed, I took the job at the clothing store and decided to just stick it out until it was my only job.  So basically, I’ve been working 60-70 hours a week.  Which sucks, but I’m getting rich!


• TLC Theatre started.  The show this year is The Sound of Music, which in all honesty used to annoy the crap out of me before I got involved in it.  However, my friend Hannah is directing and she asked me to be her assistant director.  Also, I accepted the role of Mother Abbess for one weekend.  If you don’t know anything about The Sound of Music, the Mother Abbess is the head nun person.  She’s in charge of all the other nuns.  Also, she’s got a couple of nice solos and way more lines than I realized (I’m not a great memorizer of lines, let me tell you.)  She gets to sing that song “Climb Every Mountain,” which is a huge song- it ends act 1 and I’ll pretty much be wailing at the end of it.  I’m splitting the role with an incredibly talented woman named Angela, she’s a college student and is just an incredible singer.  We originally cast her in the role of Mother Abbess, but she couldn’t do it both weekends, so I agreed to do it one weekend so she could still play the part.  It works out well for us- we can split up the rehearsal schedule, and we both still get to play this great part.  Everybody wins!


• I was in a car accident.  This doesn’t really have anything to do with why I haven’t blogged, but it’s part of what’s been going on my life.  In my last post I talked about how I ran up on the curb in my new car (“Pearly”) and messed up my passenger’s side wheel.  Well, I got that all fixed ($600, thank you very much, I almost had a seizure) and not a month later, some [expletive] 800-year-old tourist from Texas pulled out in front of me on Gretna road, running a stop sign and causing me to clip his back passenger’s side with my front passenger’s side.  It cracked my front bumper, dented and pushed back the passenger’s side quarter panel, and decimated my headlight.  What.  A.  Moron.  His excuse:  “I guess I didn’t see her.”  Oh, my good Lord.  I drive a white car, the headlights were still on when the cops came, I was going 30 miles an hour when he pulled out in front of me.  A half-blind retarded monkey would have seen me.  Anyway, to make a long story even longer, the Moron’s insurance company gave me a bunch of money as a settlement on my car (they declared it totaled) and a kid at my church who does body work is fixing it with money to spare.  Everyone wins again!


• The television season started.  Even though Alias and Everwood are gone and I vowed not to pick up any new TV shows, I’m still obsessed with the same old ones:


• Lost has been great this year- I’m really loving the “Kate, Jack and Sawyer in captivity” storyline.  I also like the new character, Juliet, even though I don’t trust her.  Also, I was so happy to Nathan Fillion in that Kate flashback episode that I’m hoping that his character is married to someone else on the show, too, just so I can see him again.  Even if it’s Hurley.


• House just gets better and better.  It started out a little humdrum, but quickly picked up the pace a few episodes in- House is currently being pursued by a cop who knows he’s an addict and wants him in jail for it.  I’ll say it one more time: Hugh Laurie is a god of the television.  I will watch anything he ever does.


• Even though Veronica Mars is a little weird this season with Veronica being at college and all, I’m into the serial rapist storyline.  Also I’m starting a betting pool on when she and Logan are breaking up.  I’m kind of leaning towards the episode from the other night that I haven’t watched yet.  Meaning, it’s already happened.  Any opinions, Jess?


• Okay, so I lied.  I did pick up a new show.  I’m kind of obsessed with Bones right now, mostly because of my imaginary husband, David Boreanaz.  I mean, seriously.  (for those of you who I haven’t talked to ad nauseum about this subject, Mr. Boreanaz used to play “Angel” on Buffy and Angel, which I love (thank God for DVD’s.)  Other than there being extreme hotness to be had on that show, it’s also well-written with two really interesting characters.  The relationship between Bones and Booth makes the show.  I love it!

Anyway, so that’s about it.  I’m not promising that I’ll blog more regularly now, but I’ll try.  Happy, Erin?  Everyone stay safe in the winter weather!

Brianne <><  

The curb. Oh, sweet Lord, the curb.

So today was our big lake day at the church, which was fun.  Can you believe that I live twenty minutes from scenic Table Rock Lake and I haven’t been all summer?  When I was in college, we went every chance we got.  Now that I’m an old woman, I never go.  But seriously, it was so much fun.  A couple at our church has a big houseboat and invited all the kids out on it, and some other families brought their speedboats to take the kids tubing.  So basically, I’ve been on a boat all day.  In fact, I still kind of feel like I’m on a boat.  I mean, my equilibrium still hasn’t quite recovered from the bobbing.

In other news, my car is in the shop.  Again.  Remember last month when I had my little accident with the curb?  Oh, maybe I didn’t blog about that.  Anyway, I had an accident last month, where I hit the curb going about forty miles per hour on Gretna road.  At the time I thought that all that was wrong with it was that it needed a new tire, but I was mistaken.  Monday I was at Country Mart when something just “popped” and I couldn’t maneuver my car.  I kind of freaked out for a moment, and then I called my wonderful friend Daniel.  It was so funny- I called him and was like, “Hey,” and he immediately said, “What’s wrong?  Are you all right?”  Shows how well he knows me.  Anyway, Daniel took me to the bookstore-I made him listen to Sean Watkins on the way there- and I got my car towed out of the Country Mart parking lot.  I can tell you this- I’m never using that towing company again, because they recommended this auto shop that tried to cheat me.   I got my car towed again to a place that I knew and trusted, but it’s still going to cost me about six hundred dollars total.  I feel violated.  The worst part is that I had been saving my money to go on a trip to Pittsburgh this winter to spend a week or so with Jess and then go to Bud’s wedding the first week of December.  I had to spend my Pittsburgh Money and borrow money from my sister to get my car fixed.

Anyway, that’s my life.  Not very interesting.  (Uh, ahem, read the title of my blog as a whole.)  The most interesting things that I read are on Erin’s blog, where she tells cute baby stories about Emma, my favoritest baby in the world.  I’m adding a link to her blog in my sidebar, so you can read all about Emma’s antics.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day- stay off those curbs!  Till later,

Brianne <><

Share the Book-Love

I realized that for a big and eclectic reader like myself, I don’t write nearly enough about the good books I read on here.  I read about three or four books a week, so it’s about time I caught everyone up on the spectacular books I’ve read lately.  

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.  I love Neil Gaiman.  He wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Neverwhere, and ever since I read that, I’ve been in love with his works.  Anansi Boys is set in the same “universe” as his previous book, American Gods, which I didn’t like as much.  The whole premise is that the different “gods” aren’t just a myth, and that when people immigrated to America, they brought all their “gods” with them.  Anansi Boys is primarily the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, whose dad just died in perhaps the most ignominious way possible (he died of a heart attack in a karaoke bar and pulled off a woman’s shirt while he was falling off the stage.)  After the funeral, Fat Charlie finds out that his dad was the spider god, Anansi, and that he also has a brother named Spider.  That’s where everything gets really funny.  I swear, this is that absolutely funniest book I have read in a long time.  I laughed so hard at several parts that I had to stop reading just to laugh.

Suspect and Lost by Michael Robotham.  These books share characters, but I wouldn’t say that Lost is a sequel to Suspect.  There’s not any information in Suspect that you have to know to understand the action in Lost.  I had never heard of Michael Robotham before reading these books, but I just loved both books and wish he would write more about these characters.  His style kind of reminds me of Dennis Lehane, if Dennis Lehane were British.  (I love Dennis Lehane, so that’s a huge compliment.)  Suspect is a tense psychological thriller about a doctor who is set up for murder by one of his mental patients.  Lost is more of a crime drama (still with the psychological components thrown in) focusing on an investigator looking for a kidnapped child.  These books aren’t just the run-of-the-mill thriller that clutters the bookstore shelves; instead, they’re smart, literary dramas that delve into the human psyche as they tell tense stories of murder and revenge.  

She got Up off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel.  I wish I could tell mundane stores of my childhood the way Haven Kimmel does.  She takes the smallest details of her life growing up in a small town and makes them something that you want to read about.  This is the follow-up to her breakout book A Girl Named Zippy (what is up with me and sequels?  Gosh.)  I think that what I like best about these books is that she writes from her childhood point of view without ever making it seem childish.  Plus, these books are so funny that I nearly stopped breathing.  While A Girl Named Zippy more focused on Zippy and her take on life (my favorite part of that book is when she’s talking about her cat, PeeDink, who was the runt of the litter and one of his brothers “didn’t even have a butthole.”) She Got Up Off the Couch was about her mother’s decision to go to college and start a career in the middle of her life.  Even when Zippy’s mom isn’t in the foreground of the action, she’s still there, tempering the storytelling.  

Looking for Alaska by John Green.    This is John Green’s first novel, and I read somewhere that it won the Prinz Award this year (an award for outstanding YA literature.)  This is one of those books that is considered YA because it’s about teenagers, but even adults who are not obsessed with YA like I am can enjoy it.   It’s all about Miles “Pudge” Halter, who goes to boarding school in Alabama his junior year of high school.  While there, Pudge meets his roommate (who everyone calls “The Colonel”) and Alaska, a beautiful a beautiful and mysterious girl from down the hall.  I’m not going to lay out the entire plot of the book here because that would take away from the action for anyone who plans on reading it.  The reveal in this is the center point of the book, so I can’t give it away.  It wouldn’t be fair.  Disclaimer:  I would not recommend this to younger teens or anyone who is sensitive to profanity or graphic sexual images.  Those things notwithstanding, Looking for Alaska is one of the best books I’ve read all year.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Those aren’t the only books I’ve read, and they’re not even the only good books I’ve read.  I read a whole bunch of books by Scott Westerfeld that totally rocked my world.  They’re so good that I can’t pick a “best” one.  I also read Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks, which impressed me.  Not to mention the incredible fun that the Princess Diaries books by Meg Cabot are.  I just don’t have time to talk about them all right now.  I love books!  If you can’t tell.  Till next time,

Brianne <><