I bought an ant farm today, found a mound, caught a queen and about 30 workers, then wasted the next hour watching them dig their first tunnels. Ants rock!
We decided to have a nice, quiet weekend.
Um... I made Key Lime pie.
And... we grilled cheese burgers.
You can stop reading now.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)1)
Slab Rat by Ted Heller [
sample chapter]
From the jacket:
In Slab Rat, Ted Heller uses the magazine industry as a laboratory in which to dissect human nature [...] amid New York's skycrapers--or "slabs"--survive and triumph, and the price they must pay to win. Full of dark comedy and a ruthless satire of office life (and death), Slab Rat is a novel rich with the wicked pleasure of the heart.
This book is, on a good day, crap.
The first 14 chapters were great; even the most minor characters were realistic and the story seemed to flow much like real life would in such situations. But Heller must have been near his deadline and just BSd the last 56 pages. Not worth the $5 I paid.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)2)
Mall by Eric Bogosian [
sample chapter]
From the jacket:
Satirical and provocative, Mall is an eye-opening look at suburban life and the idea of "normalcy." In this, his first novel, Eric Bogosian delivers a dark, hilarious and biting commentary on an American culture fraught with sex, drugs, violence and congested thinking.
More crap. I (stupidly) judged this one by it's cover.
The impossible story follows several disconnected characters over the course of a night in and outside of the local mall. During the hour or two covered by the book, these characters meet under very strange circumstances (for example, one guy gets busted for wanking in front of the women's dressing room only to be sexually assaulted by a teenage girl while cuffed in the back seat of a squad car. The kid who likes said girl ends up banging the woman who was in the dressing room). It reads like a bad play: zero character development, cheesy dialog, unlikely happenings, etc. Quick read, fortunately.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)3)
Was It Something I Said? by Valerie Block [
sample chapter]
From the jacket:
How do two people find love in New York City? Barry and Justine meet on an airplane over LaGuardia airport just before the Christmas holidays. Barry is a food product manager who hasn't had a date in a year. He lives in his parents' old Upper West Side apartment and has taken in a spoiled, rich roommate who has three simultaneous girlfriends but never has the rent. Barry's colleagues at work are all married, so are his friends--and most of them are having children. He really wants to find 'the one.'
I read the first 82 pages of this and put it down. The main male character is a pathetically desperate and very "hate-worthy" stalker. The female lead reminds me of someone who'd volunteer otherwise unseen belongings during a mugging.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)4)
Exile by Denise Mina [no sample chapter available]
I scoffed my way through most of this book Friday, but in hindsight, it's probably among the better books I've picked up this year. The story flows well... no "STFU and get on with it!!!" dialog... the characters are great... I'd give it an A- overall.
SPOILERS! (Click to view)5)
American Fuji by Sara Backer [
useless excerpt]
From the jacket:
"Expect the unexpected. This is Japan." That's Gaby Stanton speaking, trying to explain to Alex Thorn why his question about the mysterious death of his son, an exchange student [...], are likely to go unanswered. [...] American Fuji is many novels in one: a teasing mystery, a quest that is alternately tender and slapstick, an irreverent tale of cross-cultural misadventure, and a sophisticated romantic comedy. [...]
Yeah, I'd say that summed it up quite well.
I wasn't really expecting much from this book; It was $0.50. I'm only on the twelfth chapter, but I'm enjoying this one so far. The means by which the main characters meet is iffy, but other than that, it's Kosher.
People who've never travelled (to Asia especially) won't get the "you're not from around here, don't bother trying to understand how it works" theme pounded into poor ol' Alex's head and might get hung up on it before Ms. Stanton shows up to lead us all by the hand. Aside from that, it's great. ...so far.
I'll probably be done with this one Sunday afternoon, so if it pulls a Slab Rat and turns for the worse, I'll be editing this.
Over the summer, I'll be busy, but I'll try reading as much of the following as I can: The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter, Night Music by Harrison Gradwell Slater, Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays of Arthur Miller edited by Steven R. Centola, My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle, Against Gravity by Lucy Ferriss, Dark Debts by Karen Hall, The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor, The Museum Guard by Howard Norman, Rescue by Elizabeth Richards, Green Girls by Michael Kimball, Another World by Pat Barker, A Tangled Web by Judith Michael, Coldwater by Mardi McConnochie and finally, the monsterous A Book of Memories by Peter Nadas.
I got all of these for $0.50-$5 at BN, btw... I'm cheap... 
