<![CDATA[Amanda added 'B Is for Beer']]>

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333 true 5627482 read 0 true 1303675 currently-reading 222 true 1303674 to-read 74 false 2523131 fantasy-and-some-sci-fi 70 false 2100904 plays 65 false 2100882 fer-teenagers-kids-and-younguns 56 false 2576142 recommended-by-others 54 false 2662171 in-my-possession-to-reads 47 false 4084587 2008 41 false 2465469 favorites-from-other-goodreaders 23 false 3875503 funny-stuffs-funny 22 false 2155029 dirty-dirty-dirty-dirty-dirty 21 false 4084590 2009 21 false 2523150 chick-lit 16 false 2465323 written-by-goodreaders 14 false 2100667 couldn-t-finish-it 9 false 2653945 theatre-as-scholarship 8 false 2515399 books-i-highly-recommend 8 false 3217537 books-i-will-never-read-so-fuck-off 7 false 2515427 business-and-entrepreneuership 4 false 3688431 perhaps-i-shall-read-it-again 4 false 3964350 trilogy-of-whales-challenge 3 false 4685172 lolita 2 false 4060658 the-two-book-echolalia-challenge 1 false 4533277 in-its-own-class <![CDATA[Amanda added 'B Is for Beer']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65977216 to: B Is for Beer (Hardcover) by Tom Robbins
bookshelves: 2009, fer-teenagers-kids-and-younguns, funny-stuffs-funny
I see you. Yes, you. The Tom Robbins fan. Quit making that face. Yank out the wedgie. Relax, man! This two-star rating bears no reflection on YOU. I’m not giving YOU two stars. I’m not even giving Tom Robbins two stars. It’s just that B is for Beer is terribly disappointing. I mean, you see the cover, right? Look at it! Look how totally awesome and retro it looks, right? You see the Simpson-esque largesse of the stein, with a hoard of dance-happy (overly long-armed) adults surrounding? They’re living the good life, gazing up at the cup which runneth over, celebrating the rush of good energy that races through any crowd of joyful imbibers.

Such promise! Such hope! Can such pure, overwhelming joy really emanate from these 125 pages? When I finish reading this book, will I feel as gleeful as the people on the cover?

Meh.

The fact of the matter is, B is for Beer is sort of a textbook. And a boring one. It’s hard to make beer production interesting, because, let’s face facts, science and agriculture are fascinating, but not as fascinating as, say, sex. Or murders. Or time travel. (Wait, unless it’s sex with a time-traveling scientist, dragging you with him across space and time as he attempts to outrun the contract on his head!) I digress...

So, yeah, B is for Beer is sorta textbooky. Even the arrival of a Beer Fairy doesn’t do much to make the adventure wilder or more brewski-like. And it doesn’t help that the protagonist is a 6-year-old girl. We’re meant to believe that this 6-year-old girl is quite cute, quite smart, and quite curious, but frankly, I don’t even buy into the fact that she’s a 6-year-old girl, let alone a cute, smart, and curious 6-year-old girl.

I’m bored.

Let us then quell my boredom and discuss two points which I found to be lovely, uplifting, scenic points. 1. Costa Rica. 6-year-old Gracie’s uncle moves to Costa Rica. Did you know that Costa Rica has free health care, has a zillion national parks, and has no military? Sign me up! I wanna move to Costa Rica!!! 2. Sappy quotes. As Gracie and the Beer Fairy part ways after rescuing a young ingenue from impending doom, the fairy says to Gracie, “I want you to promise me that you’ll always be this brave, that when exploiters disguised as public servants offer you protection from puffed-up dangers, you’ll turn your back and skip away. Promise me you won’t be afraid of travel, of people different than yourself, of spiders, bats, bullies, dentists, attorneys, peer pressure, bad taste, social disapproval, insecurity, Sugar Elves... That you won’t quake before old men with titles, and most especially, that you’ll never be afraid to love, not even when there’s a chance you aren’t being loved in return.” Oh. My. God. You tugged my heart strings and jerked my tears, Tom Robbins! I don’t care if it’s cliche. I shall hold my hand over my heart, cry one round, salty tear, and toast life with a cold one.

Adieu.

]]> <![CDATA[Amanda responded to an event]]> http://www.goodreads.com/event/show/47878-the-lost-episodes-of-beatie-scareli

Amanda said "yes" to attending the event: The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli.
date: July 15, 2009 10:50AM
location: beaties journal , The United States
description: Tomorrow, I'm going to start posting the episodes from my depressing novella the Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli at beatie's journal. I hope you will join myself and be excited to watch them with me. Link: http://lambchop2.wordpress.com/
]]> <![CDATA[Amanda voted on a review]]> http://www.goodreads.com/

Amanda read and liked tadpole's review of The Catcher in the Rye:

"I was worried as hell about reading this book again. The last time I read it was about a thousand years ago when I was just a kid. I was lousy with angst just like good old Holden back then. I really was. Now that I’m a crummy old guy I figured tha...more I was worried as hell about reading this book again. The last time I read it was about a thousand years ago when I was just a kid. I was lousy with angst just like good old Holden back then. I really was. Now that I’m a crummy old guy I figured that I wouldn’t like it anymore. That’s the one thing about crummy old guys, they always hate books that kids like. Every time I reread a corny book that I really liked when I was a kid it makes me want to give the writer a buzz and ask what the hell is going on. It’s like they are trying to give you the time in the back of a cab when you don’t feel like getting the time at all. It’s damn depressing, I swear to God it is. If you want to know the truth, you probably couldn’t even talk to a phony writer on the phone. You would just end up talking to his butler or some snobbish person like that and asking if they would give the writer your message. He probably wouldn’t even do it. The thing with guys like that is that they will never give writers your messages. That’s something that annoys the hell out of me.

Turns out this is still a damn good book. Salinger kid is a great writer. He really is. Maybe I’m still just an angst-ridden sonuvabitch, but this part kills me:

“All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”p.211

I’ll bet everyone is going to think that I’m just horsin’ around or trying to be all sexy talking like this. The reason for this corny review is because a thousand other people have already written reviews for this book and I’ll bet that they have already said everything that I want to say. It’s pretty depressing. It really is. That’s about all that I’m going to talk about. Now I just hope that no one writes “fuck you” on this review. That’s the thing with some people, they are always sneaking up and writing “fuck you” on your book reviews when you are not looking. They really are.

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20 comments

]]> <![CDATA[Amanda added 'Barefoot in the Park']]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58985071 Barefoot in the Park (Paperback) by Neil Simon
5 stars for the great mood I'm in right now. This play is just plain silliness, which normally doesn't float my boat. But man, oh, man, today it just hit the spot. We meet this young newlywed couple. She's happy-go-lucky and he's... Well, he's a lawyer. And a real stuffed- shirt. And in the face of a tiny Manhattan apartment with a hole in the skylight and reversed plumbing, their 2 week old marriage falls apart! But not to worry--they get back together. (Don't bitch about spoilers, people. First off, you weren't gonna read this anyway, and second, it's Neil Simon so you have to expect a happy ending.) Ok, anyway, they get back together, but not before lots of whackiness ensues. Their upstirs neighbor (who lives in the attic) is really my kinda guy--eating funky foods, saying funky stuff--I'd fix him up with my grandmother if her existed in real life. And thanks to the funky neighbor, they all sorta get a whole new lease on life and re-learn to love each other and live happily after (and hopefully, have fantastic sex 3-5 times per week for all eternity).

Hey, Jini and Christina, let's do this play in February. It's a technician's nightmare and we can't afford to build a set, but it sure is a cute love story!!! ]]>