BOOKS: Recent reading

Billie Letts, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon: Total chick flick of a book. Which makes sense, since the author also wrote the book that the Ashley Judd/Natalie Portman chick flick Where the Heart Is was based on. The women are so dramatically, emotionally overwrought. My sister killed herself, I had an abortion, I just can't trust myself to be happy anymore!! The men are damaged, evil, or irrelevant. And everybody in this tiny Oklahoma town is so goddam quirky. I picked up this book (for free, by the way) because I thought the title was interesting. I should've stopped at the cover.

It's one of those books that, by the time you realize it's not very good, and it ain't getting better, you're already far enough into it that you might as well finish. I only got that far because it was the only book I had to read on Thanksgiving vacation. You can see by how long it took me to finish, it wasn't a high priority.

Mickey Spillane, Survival... Zero!: I've never read a Mike Hammer book before, never even seen the movie for I, the Jury (either version). All I knew of Mike Hammer was what I saw in the Stacy Keach TV show. And it's about what I expected. Sex, violence, macho bullshit. It's kind of funny to sample what was once considered so shocking and racy. Pretty mild, even for thirty years ago. (It was published in 1970, a late entry in the series; presumably the earlier books, from the '40s and '50s, were more ahead of their times.) The book's somewhat entertaining just for the hard-boiled dialogue and narration, but I get the feeling even for this brand of pulp fiction, this is a lesser entry.

Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope: I love these books. (Too bad the movie is getting mixed reviews.) A few fortunate things happen for our orphans in this book -- the long presumed dead third Quagmire triplet turns up, and Violet discovers romantic feelings for him; two of Count Olaf's henchwomen abandon him and his wicked ways; a few more clues to the VFD mystery are gathered -- but of course it all ends in despair. Good fun! I've got The Grim Grotto ready to go next.