Everything Hits At Once

...can not be found here.

I know the two people who might actually see this post are probably less than thrilled any time this turns into the Big Dennis Book Blog, but I have nothing more interesting to share on a Sunday night, other than the fact that I have came up with a way of making carnitas at home which is quite fabulous, though I am using a bit too much cumin--I shall adjust this the next time and see how things work out.

As for the other, I've read 5 books or so over the last month and a half. And they are:

Little Children by Tom Perrotta
Sex, Drugs and Cocoapuffs by Chuck Klosterman
Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry
The Palace Thief by Ethan Canin
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon.

I like Horseman. It was different than the movie based on the book ("Hud," which stars Paul Newman). The movie might actually be better, but it's a good first novel for McMurtry--just not as good as his masterpiece, Last Picture Show.

After reading Sex, Drugs... I learned a valuable lesson--that a little Klosterman is more than enough. It's not that some of his essays weren't entertaining. Many were. But after a while you kind of wonder why you should care about the random opinions of someone who is more or less a nobody. Can't I get that from reading a stoner's blog? It's pretty self-indulgent. Still, it's okay for a while, and half of the essays (at least) are good.

Mysteries is the best book I've read in a very, very long time. I really enjoyed it. I can't imagine anyone not liking it...well, unless you're offended by the Gays. Or references to drugs or sex. Or youth. Then you might not like it. Also, if you like happy endings you may not enjoy it.

Little Children was enthralling and I couldn't put it down, but the ending left me a bit disappointed. There was certainly a feeling of "what's the point?" Best I can guess, the authors point is to tell you that life doesn't work out like in story books. Yet he's doing so in a story book. So that's kind of silly. But it was a good book. Now I want to see Kate Winslet in the movie.

The Palace Thief is 4 not-so-short stories (about 50 pages a piece). I got the book because the author had been compared to Chabon--I didn't see it though. For one, I didn't give a fuck about any of his characters. They were all kind of idiots. Canin is a doctor who went to Harvard, so I started wondering if this is the way he looks down his nose at other people in some self-righteous stance. Or maybe that's not it all--maybe he sees these idiot qualities in himself. In any case, there were 4 stories, and 1 was pretty great (the title one), and the others weren't bad, but they aren't anything special, either.

And now I'm currently slogging my way through Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm about half through and it leaves me feeling the same way as my earlier attempts at his novels. I think he's overrated at a writer and not much of a story teller at all. Not that he's bad. It's just that he's not any better than say, Stephen King. He's by no means a master of contemporary literature who will be studied in college courses for years to come. But I could change my mind--I'm only half through.