Books: 2009 in review

January 18, 2010 | 2009,Books,Stephen King,Stieg Larsson

Here’s what I read in 2009.

• Involuntary Joy: A Story of Unexpected Rebirth by Joy M. Newcom [I applied for a job at the local college. When I saw that the person doing the hiring was a published author, I read her book. This one. I didn’t even get an interview. Too bad. It would have been interesting to talk to her about the book.]
• Duma Key by Stephen King
• In Cod We Trust by Eric Dregni
• Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
• Growing up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl by Carol Bodensteiner (her blog is Just Walking This Earth
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• Bellbina, Queen of Weed Park by Laura Juszczyk
• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
• The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
• The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
• The Night Listener: A Novel by Armistead Maupin
• Zillah’s Gift by Lois West Duffy
• Lights on a Ground of Darkness by Ted Kooser
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
• She taught me to eat Artichokes by Mary Kay Shanley
• The Memory Box by Mary Kay Shanley
• The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

I made a list of Iowa books and authors.
I also participated in a SHE WRITES call to action.

Books I haven’t read yet but should.

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (recommended by Zilpha Underwood)
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Any other suggestions?

Books: Duma Key

February 19, 2009 | Books,Florida,Stephen King

I just finished reading Duma Key by Stephen King. Anyone else read it? (Besides my brother. I read his copy.)

Yeah, probably not the best thing to read in the middle of your first brutal Iowa winter when you’re missing the comfort of Tampa. Either that or the perfect thing to read. Maybe si maybe no.

In any case, it made me miss Tampa, The Bone and trying to run into Stephen King at Skipper’s. Sigh. Thanks, Steve.

Stop looking at me like that, Steve

February 25, 2008 | Books,Stephen King

What’s it like to have a famous novelist as your neighbor? Do you hang out and drink coffee together? Do you sit there chatting and it suddenly becomes quiet, you look up and find him staring at you?

And then you say, “What are you looking at?”

And you don’t believe him when he says, “Oh, nothing.”

And then you say, “C’mon, Steve. Quit looking at me like that. Don’t be conjuring me up as some character in your next book. Especially if it has fangs and ghoul eyes.”

And then he grins.

And you get up to leave.

“Dangit. Why can’t you just have coffee like a normal person?”

OK. So maybe the folks on Casey Key don’t have coffee with Stephen King. Maybe they just wave when they see him strolling down the road reading a book. But they’re all excited about his latest book because its setting was inspired by Casey Key and … maybe … them.

Word of the day: Celebritards

September 17, 2007 | Stephen King,Words

I found a new word, courtesy of Stephen King, who used it in his The Pop of King column on the back page of the Sept. 21, 2007, issue of Entertainment Weekly. He talks about liking the silence of Australia, where he spent a month riding a motorcycle and sleeping under the stars, sans celebritards on the television. He didn’t coin the word (it’s listed in the Urban Dictionary), but his column is the first place I’ve seen it used.