Sookie's story is dying out

I read Charlaine Harris' most recent "Sookie Stackhouse" novel and felt extremely disappointed. It's a good thing True Blood (a show I thoroughly enjoy watching) is WAY behind when it comes to the written Sookie tales. Harris should seriously stop now.

This book was so scattered. Characters were introduced (or re-introduced) that honestly had no bearing on the plot at hand. Actually, I should clarify that by saying that there was no clear plot at hand - another major problem with this book.

It was a rather short read (less than 400 pages) so I suffered through, but I am comfortable in saying that if Harris writes more Sookie books I will NOT be someone hanging on her next written word.

Having said that, I highly recommend the show True Blood (HBO) to everyone. Great show! Much better than Harris' books. Perhaps she should be credited with the idea, but it's clear that Alan Ball has perpetuated it with far more success.

Magic Time

This book was a Christmas gift from my dad several years ago, and having heard nothing about it, it was shelved for future perusal. I tried to pawn it off on a friend whom I'm not sure tried to read the book at all, but she labeled it "unreadable." The book then landed on the "read only if nothing else is available list" until I sent it to my father.

Dad read it and really liked it. He said he struggled through the first 60 pages or so - but when he passed it on to my mom she said she was hooked from the beginning - as was I. (After my mom and I both voiced our inability to understand how someone could not be drawn into this book, my Dad said he thinks his reluctance was born by my warnings of an "unreadable" story).

I hesitate to compare the plot of this book to film, as it really isn't the same story, but I definitely kept thinking about "A Time to Kill" while I read this book.

The story takes place in more than one time-frame, and the root of the problem easily crosses over decades.

Class. Race. Religion. Belief. Integrity. Family.

Read more about Magic Time here. I LOVED this book.

Favorite beach read 2010

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

This book was very hard to put down. Krakauer's accounting of the disaster on Mt Everest in 1996 was heartbreaking, frustrating, exhilirating and terrifying all at the same time. I nearly came to tears at least a half-dozen times.

The quote by People magazine on the back of my copy is pretty perfect, "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism."

The book is so well-written that I felt like I was there. I could almost feel the hurricane-force winds, the windchill of one hundred degrees below zero, the climbers' exhaustion as well as their fear and determination. I didn't realize there were photos in the book until I reached them over half-way through, and I was surprised to find that I had already pictured each of the climbers in my mind almost exactly as they appear in their photographs.

What I could not understand was how anyone would willfully expose themselves to such a grueling experience, much less pay someone $65,000 to guide them to the summit of Mt. Everest. (Bear in mind that many people who pay for such guidance do not successfully reach the summit. Among Krakauer's five teammates who made it to the top of the world, four of them never made it back down).

My inability to conceive of any rational person attempting to summit Mt. Everest was strengthened by the photos of the actual climb.




The introduction and the postscript provide further details surrounding the disaster. The postscript especially reveals Krakauer's survivor's guilt. The candor with which he describes his own lack of judgment and responsibility for the anguish caused by the losses on that fateful day in May of 1996 is indeed selfless and refreshing. I sincerely applaud his bravery and honesty in exposing himself to ridicule, although I feel any ridicule he has faced or may still face is misplaced.

The photos above were copied from this site. I believe the photos were taken from the illustrated edition of the book. The section on Into Thin Air also provides further details about the book and the 1996 disaster.

A Million Little Pieces

I finished this book last night with mixed emotions. It is widely known that Mr. Frey was accused of embellishing and/or fabricating many of the core details of his “memoir,” and I was aware of the controversy before I read the first page. Many other readers were not – they read every page believing it to be part of the actual harrowing truth of a drug-ravaged addict fighting for his life.

I still read the book with great interest and took it for what it has now been reported to be – a realistic depiction of what a near-death alcoholic and drug addict might go through in rehab.

I must not be alone, because after all the controversy regarding the truth of Frey’s account, the publisher offered to reimburse anyone who felt defrauded by the book’s categorization as a memoir. Although Random House set aside $2.35 million for lawsuits, only 1,729 readers came forward to receive a refund for the book. The refund offer was extended to anyone who had purchased the book prior to Frey disclosing the falsehoods therein. The total amount paid in refunds was $27,348.

My mixed emotions were the following:

1. Did I enjoy the book because I believed it to be a work of partial-fiction?

2. Would I have enjoyed the book more had I believed it to be non-fiction? (having no knowledge of the memoir controversy).


Fresh off of reading the book I’d say that I never would’ve believed it to be truly non-fiction in the first place. First off, and one of the issues openly admitted by Frey, is the issue of his hard-core toughness. Thankfully he acknowledged that he unrealistically built himself up to be “Mr. Badass,” because if he hadn’t I would be sincerely embarrassed for him.

Second, there were way to many holes in his recollections and WAY too many scenarios that only a complete idiot would accept as fact.

I’m having a hard time coming up with examples of his ridiculous tales, only because most of them are far too vulgar to post here. However, while I’m not male and haven’t been in many physical fights, I must say that if I were male, a 5’10” 150+ pound 23-year-old wouldn’t send me into panic mode. In fact, I don’t know if the aforementioned would send my 5’6” 122 pound female self into panic mode. It probably should, but I’m thinking nah.

Anyway, I enjoyed AMLP, but with a few aversions:

1. The writing style is TERRIBLE. Frey randomly capitalizes words inappropriately; the rules of punctuation are completely ignored; and run-on sentences are his bread and butter. Seriously, if you remotely lose your place you'd never know because most of his inner dialogue is repetitive gibberish.

2. The chapters are phenomenally long, and there are no "stopping places" to alleviate that fact. I don't have as much of a problem with that as some, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

3. The back cover reads, "At the age of 23, James Frey woke up on a plane to find his four front teeth knocked out, his nose broken, and a hole through his cheek. He had no idea where the plane was headed or any recollection of the past two weeks..." Yet the cause of those injuries are never explained. They are vaguely alluded to after a conversation he has with a friend while in the treatment facility, but never explained. I realize that Frey may still have no memory of that incident, but I would've appreciated a more detailed acknowledgement of such lack of memory and/or further explanation of how he ended up in rehab. (Obviously he belonged in rehab, so I don't mean the no-brainer explanation. If he was truly as hard-core as he depicts himself, I would assume there was some kind of "defining" moment that lead him to rehab. The book doesn't explain that).

4. Several passages made me truly sick to my stomach, examples follow:

a. I'd like to believe that the root canal procedure with no anesthesia was fabricated (I can't imagine either my father or brother - both dentists - ever doing anything so barbaric no matter the circumstances).

b. One of Frey's repetitive self-punishments involved him ripping off one of his toenails. I skipped more than three pages due to their gory description of his self-mutilation. I was gagging on the elliptical machine. There is absolutely no convincing argument I can imagine for including such a painstakingly detailed account of one's removal of a completely intact toenail by an obviously sick individual.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. I enjoyed it. As I said earlier, I don't know how I would feel had I believed it to be complete non-fiction. Nonetheless, the story is truly sad and surprisingly uplifting. I particularly respect Frey's adamant refusal to adopt "the 12 steps." He rebelled against the norm and found his own path to healing.

James Frey has reportedly never relapsed.

ghostgirl: sincerely light reading

My dear friend Jen loaned both of these books to me: ghostgirl and ghostgirl: homecoming. While both are a bit over-the-top dramatic, I enjoyed reading them. When I first started ghostgirl, I thought, "Wow, Abby would really like this cute book." But after the initial "cute" death of the heroine - she chokes to death on a gummy bear in physics class - the plot turns down a few too many inappropriate corners for an eight-year-old.

My best description of the first book is Beetle Juice meets Heathers. Quirky outcast Charlotte Usher longs to be part of the in-crowd - Petula and the Wendys - and to be with her dream-man, Damen, who happens to be Petula's boyfriend. When Charlotte is matched up with Damen as a physics lab partner (book published in 2008, anyone smell a Twilight rip-off?!) she thinks her dreams have come true. Too bad their first class ends with her meeting the reaper via gelatinous candy.

Charlotte attends "Dead Ed," and learns a bit about the afterlife and her former life a little too late. Chock full of references to popular culture and a killer graduation much like the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3, ghostgirl made me laugh, reminisce and thank my lucky stars that I'm done with high school.

ghostgirl: homecoming read like a soap opera on overdrive. The cultural references were dripping with an effort at humor; and the plot, which never came around to making any sense, was all over the place. Therefore, I'm sure I'd be no good at trying to describe the story because I'm not even sure what it was.

What's more disturbing is that the second book ended the same as the first - with a strong suggestion that a third book will follow. It shouldn't. I realize I said I enjoyed reading it, but I read it on an elliptical machine for the most part - a place where reading advanced physics is more enjoyable than concentrating on the minutes left in my workout.

I started A Thousand Splendid Suns on Sunday and it is thus far a phenomenally huge step up - at least intellectually - from ghostgirl. Happy reading!

The Weight of Silence

A brief portion from the description on the back of the book:

“It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Callie Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Petra Gregory is Callie’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Callie has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.”

The book was a good read, but given my friend’s enthusiastic proclamation of her absolute love for it, I found it rather anti-climactic. While not necessarily predictable, the story of exactly what happened to the girls just seemed sort of thrown together amidst the many, many other details that wove all of the characters together. I also felt like Petra seemed more like an empty shell of a character, in desperate need of more careful development.

The story is told, chapter-by-chapter, in turns by six of the characters in the book in no particular order. The voices include: Calli (the only voice read in the 3rd person), Petra, Antonia (Callie’s mother), Ben (Callie’s brother), Martin (Petra’s father) and Deputy Sheriff Louis (Antonia’s childhood best friend and obviously, the Sheriff).

I did not mind this method of storytelling in one of my favorite books – Sight Hound by Pam Houston – but in TWofS there was a touch too much repetition across characters, especially during parts meant to build suspense. I almost felt as if the writer was intentionally (and irritatingly) drawing everything out for just a few more pages by repeating the same scenarios from varying points of view. Had any of those points of view really differed or offered some additional insight into the situation it might have been okay, but that was absolutely not the case.

I found myself most drawn to Ben’s chapters. Although his character was only twelve-years-old, he seemed to be wise beyond his chronological years. He loved his sister fiercely and – despite his boyhood pride – would easily have done anything for her. His descriptions of their relationship and past interactions were so vivid and touching that I felt he was real. He was the only character that lifted right off the page – the only character I truly liked and/or cared about in the end.

For me, the epilogue saved the book. Actually the last couple of paragraphs are what saved the book for me. In other words, the ending is pretty great.

As an endnote I must say that one of the things that bothered me the most was that the alternative of Callie communicating via writing was never addressed. Since my niece has been very capable of writing since she was about 5-years-old, I find the ignorance of writing as a mode of communication for a 7-year-old a bit unbelievable. Oh well, it is fiction after all, right?

Bottom line: easy read, decent plot, poor character development, minor profanity, very minimal description of graphic violence.

The Girl Who Played With Fire

Stieg Larsson's follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a good read. However, unlike many reviewers of both books, I preferred the first book.

The Girl who Played with Fire was, for me, quite a bit different. In "Fire" there were far more characters, spread across/between numerous factions/organizations. Dozens of Swedish/German/Russian names made for a slightly difficult plot to follow.

Confusion tended to prevail, so "Fire" became very convoluted.

Read more about The Girl who Played with Fire here.

Readers of "Tattoo" will be enlightened a bit by "Fire" in that they will discover Lisbeth Salander's history and why she's become the person she is.

"The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", the third book in the trilogy, should be available in the U.S. in the next year or so and I'm looking forward to it.

It's certainly a tragedy that Mr. Larsson died just after completing the manuscripts for this trilogy. I truly believe Lisbeth Salander could've become a prominent heroine in popular fiction had Larsson not left this world so prematurely. He died in 2004 at the age of 50.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Has anyone read this?

I'm barely into it, and while the first 15-20 pages made me want to run for my migraine pills the following 20 pages began to rope me in, but I'm still harboring a bit of resistance.

Amongst the many magazines I sifted through in early August, there was a review of "Dragon Tattoo's" follow-up, "The Girl Who Played with FIre". The review of that book was amazing, but failed to offer promise for the nearly 500-page book that I'm going to have to suffer through in order to get to it.

Basically, according to many reviewers, "Dragon Tattoo" is an easily forgettable yarn while the follow up is a sincere prize.

With a library deadline over my head - apparently there are many many others out there who are dying to suffer through "Dragon Tattoo," I am going to have to make the completion of the novel a priority. T-minus 13 days and counting.

Currently not even to page 40 - we'll see...

Best Friends Forever

Despite the cheesy title, I can confidently give this book an enthusiastic two thumbs up. I laughed out loud often and found the story engaging and heartbreakingly honest.

The plot of the story can be summarized as that of two best friends who find, sadly, that their lives beyond the age of 14 are completely irreconcilable.

Most of the novel, told in the first-person narrative by the central character, Addie Downs, takes place in the present day (likely around 2005 for these characters).

But the history began with nine-year-old Addie, who thought she'd never find a true friend, yet was blessed when Val and her mom moved into the house across the street. The two girls became inseparable - meaning that Val became a surrogate fixture at the Downs' dining room table; Val became a stow-away guest at the neighborhood pool; and to Addie's sheer delight, Addie became a guest in the seemingly carefree existence of Val and her mother.

The present-day story involves a crime scene at the girls' high school reunion, which strangely brings the girls together, rocketing back to days they'd rather forget with loads of secretive history to boot. The "crime" isn't one to be easily solved, nor is the damage done to Addie and Val's long-since broken friendship.

I loved Good in Bed by the same author. Great stuff. For info on Best Friends Forever at Amazon, see here.

This book reminded me how lucky I am to have one of the most genuine souls in the world as my dearest friend - Kerry. You are so loved and appreciated! XOXO

Shared (Great) reads

Have you ever read a book and loved it so much that you wanted to pass it on to your friends in the hopes that they would love it just as much as you did?

During last week's vacation I watched my family open their hearts to some amazing characters:

• Enzo, the faithful and elderly lab mix from The Art of Racing in the Rain

• Augusten Burroughs, the quick-witted alcoholic from Dry

• Randy Pausch, father of three young children who fought and lost the battle against pancreatic cancer. He left a remarkable legacy via The Last Lecture.

I don't think of myself as one who needs positive reinforcement for the books I choose to read, but I admit feeling very pleased that Lisa, my friend's wife, loved The Art of Racing in the Rain.

Then at the beach, my brother held up the same book and asked me if I'd read it. I said, "YES!" and I was so excited for him to read it.

He loved it and passed it on to my mother who couldn't put it down. She adored Enzo - as we all should! Maria will follow shortly.

My mother, my brother and my sister all read The Last Lecture.

There are so many quotes from the The Last Lecture that touched my heart, but one of my favorites follows:

When you're frustrated with people, when they've made you angry, it just may be because you haven't given them enough time. But in the end, people will show you their good side. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will come out."

I had a hard time taking this to heart last night when on my way home - through a sea of non-functioning traffic lights - I had to cut in front of a car on 751 (mind you, I used my turn signal and ample room was available for my merge). The driver behind me made an extravagant display of her middle finger for at least a full 3 minutes. I'm not afraid to say that I stared her down in my rearview mirror (left door mirror) and waved my heart out. I gave the driver just ahead of me a hearty giggle, but all I could think was, Really?! Seriously life is too short for that kind of white trash, redneck immature gesturing. All I could do was shake my head and hope said driver finds herself in a somewhat similar situation someday soon so that her idiocy is blatantly and brightly pointed out to her. Gee-freakin-whiz.

One of my brother's favorite quotes from Dry:

"Ad people don't care where you came from, who your parents were. It doesn't matter. You could have a crawl space under your kitchen floor filled with little girls' bones and as long as you can dream up a better Chuck Wagon commercial, you're in."

When I asked Maria about Todd's impression of Dry, she said, "He thought the beginning of the book was much funnier."

Of course it was - Augusten was still a belligerently drunk idiot. But I truly believe that the perseverance, subsequent failing, and rebound are what truly make Mr. Burroughs a hero to be admired.

Oh. And he's DAMN funny.

While my family was enjoying my earlier reads, I struggled through Angela's Ashes.

It wasn't that I didn't like the book, but the Irish dialect required a bit more concentration than what I hoped for in a beach read. Depressing? YES. But I still recommend the book.

Seriously, The Last Lecture and The Art of Racing in the Rain should not be missed.

From Sookie Stackhouse to Harper Connelly

I finished the last Sookie Stackhouse tale, Dead and Gone last weekend, so I'm forced to wait until October for Charlaine Harris' next installment, A Touch of Dead.

I realize the following just proves how unexciting my life is, but I've since finished two more books, one of them being Harris' first in the Harper Connelly series, Grave Sight.

I enjoyed Grave Sight - I finished it in one sitting - and I've already gotten the second book, Grave Surprise from the local library. The third is on its way for me to pick up at the library this week.

The first Harper Connelly book was far more PG than the Sookie series, which doesn't really matter to me other than the fact that most of the sex in novels doesn't really add to the plot in a meaningful way. Therefore, the lack of it means there's less fluff to the pages and more pertinent information to keep me interested.

Grave Sight was a bit shorter than most of the Sookie books - under 300 pages - but there was a lot less meaningless text in GS than in some of the Sookie series. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Sookie books, but towards the end of some of them I wanted to scream because a great deal of the last 20-30 pages were completely unnecessary. I'd find myself skimming out of impatience and if I went back to thoroughly read the pages I'd skimmed, I found that they were in fact pages that could easily be skipped all together.

While Sookie's tales revolve around vampires and other various "were-animals," the Harper Connelly series has humans at the heart of its stories.

Harper was struck by lightning when she was a teenager and as a result she can locate dead people - she describes her "sense" as a buzzing she feels when she's close to a dead body. She can't see who killed the victim (in the case of murder) but she can see how each victim died. In fact, when in proximity to the site of the victim's death, she psychologically lives out their last few moments.

Harper's step-brother, Tolliver, is more like a business manager and body guard than anything else.

I find Harper and Tolliver's relationship a little weird - I know they are only "step" brother and sister, but their affection for each other seems almost inappropriate, but hasn't subtracted from my enjoyment of the story. I'm hoping there is some explanation coming in the following books for Harper's strange "need" for her brother.

There is a fourth Harper Connelly book due out in October. Charlaine Harris sure is some kind of writing machine!

A vampire's love story

Far beyond HBO's True Blood, I am deeply embedded in Sookie Stackhouse's life via Charlaine Harris' novels. Lately, I've been feeling bad for Miss Stackhouse. After all, she's a mind-reading, self-proclaimed undateable waitress who recently found love and then lost it - and NOT gently.

I encourage all True Blood fans to read Charlaine Harris' novels. I am very nearly finished with the 5th book and will be reading ahead as soon as possible. Fans won't be disappointed. Sookie is a "take 'em as they come" heroine, and one who always comes out gracefully on top. Her character reminds me a great deal of Brenda Lee Johnson on TNT's The Closer. Just in case it's not clear, I consider the aforementioned comparison a sincere compliment.

Charlaine Harris' books are great reads - at least up til now. I have yet to be disappointed, but an Amazon reviewer indicated that before reading book six "Definitely Dead," I would need to read "One Word Answer," which was published as a short story in "Bite."

I managed to obtain a copy of the aforementioned book from my local library, so I fully intend to comment on whether or not the outside reading is really necessary. Until then...

More vampire tales

I started reading Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries last Friday and I’m almost half-way through book two. (Dead Until Dark, pictured left, is the first book in the series; Living Dead in Dallas is book two).

Also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels - the books are the basis of one of my favorite TV shows, True Blood. The Sookie series is award-winning and has graced the New York Times Bestseller list. Thus far, I have no problems strongly recommending the books - very entertaining. Dare I say, "Fangtastic!"

While there are some rather large differences between the books and the show, there are no real plot holes. Alan Ball certainly added in some characters and plot twists in order to make True Blood a must-see show - which he very successfully managed!

In comparison to the Twilight series I recently finished, I would say the major differences are as follows:

• The context/plot of Harris’ books are far more adult in nature;

• Harris’ books are much shorter (approximately 300 pgs each) but there are more books in the Sookie series than the Twilight series;

• Harris’ vampires follow more of the traditional rules as put forth by historical references;

• In my opinion, the actors who play Bill and Sookie are far more true to the characters in the books than those of Bella and Edward in the Twilight series films.

I suppose I should reiterate here that the "commentary" version of Twilight saved the film for me. Without it, I'd give it a grade of D at best.

I have one warning for True Blood viewers: if you want the show to completely surprise you, don't start reading the Sookie books anytime soon. As I said, I'm only half-way through the second book and I'm already passed HBO's True Blood story line.

Looking for a few good books

After the Twilight page-turning frenzy, I had no patience for the overly clinical, monotonously descriptive Déjà Dead and have since abandoned the books that inspired my beloved Bones. I’m willing to bet that the absence of David Boreanaz’s quick wit and undeniable adorableness played a large part in my inability to lose myself in the first book. Even more so, on the television show there’s more explanation of the technical terms, usually with quite a bit of humor similar to Scully’s over-the-head explanations to Mulder on the X-Files.

Maybe I'm a bit dim, but I think that anyone lacking an above-average aptitude for interpreting forensics would quickly grow tired and give up as I did. I decided to throw in the towel at page 75, especially since it took me over a week to get there.

I then turned my attention to a book highly recommended by my best friend: Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. I started reading it Friday night and well before the 50th page I was hooked.

I haven’t seen the movie but I think I’ll want to. Most films nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography are worth seeing, even if only for the scenery. From what I’ve read so far, I assume the movie is visually breathtaking.

It’s so hard to come off of a series of books that you can’t stop reading but you don’t want to end. When they do, it’s such a letdown to have to try to find something else just as entertaining. So far, Snow Falling on Cedars piques my interest. But what next? Any suggestions?

The following is a list of books that I’ve accumulated either from friends or family. If you’ve read any of them and have an opinion, please share! Of course, all suggestions are welcome. For reference, my favorite book is probably White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

---

• Second Glance by Jodi Picoult: Picoult’s books get such mixed reviews, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to try one yet.

• Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire: Maguire’s Wicked is one of my favorite books, but I struggled with some of his others, like LOST for instance.

• Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Kerry and my dad loved this one, but I just haven’t been able to delve back into the politics of the Middle East after reading My Life as a Traitor. I know I’ll read this one some day, I just don’t know how soon that day will come.

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

• Merle's Door by Ted Kerasote

• Magic Time by Doug Marlette

A new “novel” endeavor

So I finished the Twilight series – all four books in less than three weeks – despite the fact that the saga in total spans almost 2500 pages. Gah! I don’t know how I sped through so efficiently as I am a slow reader.

I managed to read Columbine by David Cullen immediately after finishing Breaking Dawn. While significantly shorter than my recent accomplishments, Columbine had me seriously enrapt. I had to concentrate to absorb all of the information. I both loved and hated the book. Actually, I didn’t really hate it at all, I just hated that April 20, 1999 destroyed the lives of so many people.

Moving on – I already wrote a brief review of Columbine so I won’t dwell here. Instead, I focused my sights on the books that inspired one of my favorite television shows: Bones, which stars David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel.

I found via Bones credits that the show is based on the novels written by Kathy Reichs, a forensic anthropologist from North Carolina. I fell in love with the show within the last year, so I was anxious to delve into the novels.

I picked up Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, last night at the local library and I look forward to getting into it. There are eleven novels following Dr. Brennan that I know of, and I hope to read all of them in the near future!

Columbine

April 20, 1999. I don't think I'm acquainted with many people who don't recognize the significance of that date. Two boys - yes boys - carefully planned and executed the maiming and murder of dozens of their peers within the supposed safe confines of Columbine High School.

The media monster ran uncensored and unchecked for weeks. Vastly differing accounts by survivors, largely tainted by the media's power of suggestion, created a burgeoning lie which left the tragedy of Columbine shrouded in supposition, misinterpretation and grief-stricken denial.

Columbine by Dave Cullen is a thoughtful and earnest account of the incident, the boys-turned-murderers; and lots of background information on the school, staff, community, the investigation, aftermath, etc. It is very thorough.

The reviews on Amazon.com are conflicting, but I can't be sure that there aren't motives behind them. For example, the top-rated negative review was written by the father of Brooks Brown - the ex-friend of Eric and Dylan - whose parents reported that Eric Harris had threatened their son's life on numerous occasions. While likely the fault of the local police department (many accusations were made against the department and law suits followed) there were no official police reports filed detailing any threat made by Eric Harris.

In a nutshell, the aforementioned failure to record instances of Eric's increasingly violent behavior seems to be among the biggest disappointments in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing accounts of the massacre was that of Dave Sanders, a twenty-five-year veteran teacher and coach at Columbine High. He undoubtedly saved hundreds of students' lives that day - literally sacrificing himself for their safety.

Sanders was shot through the back - the bullet tore through his rib cage and exited through his chest. The second bullet entered through his neck and exited through his mouth, shattering several teeth on the way out. The wounds sliced a carotid artery and his subclavian vein - both major blood carriers.

Sanders' life should not have been lost. Despite continuous promises that "help is on the way - no more than 10 minutes," Sanders was left with two dedicated Eagle Scouts, who despite their best efforts could not prevent Sanders from bleeding to death. It took more than three hours for him to bleed out.

I feel the utmost grief and profound respect for those two boys who did all they could to save Sanders' life. Aaron Hancey and Kevin Starkey are true heroes. While they may not have saved Sanders' life, they never faltered in their resolve to keep him alive. Their courage was phenomenal. We should all hope that more sixteen-year-olds turn out just as brave and selfless as those two young men.

I can't say that I did not read the book with a healthy curiosity for why Eric and Dylan decided to carry out mass murder, but I found myself quite moved by the stories of the survivors. How Patrick Ireland found forgiveness before he could even think about walking again; the heart-breaking recollection of Dylan's private funeral and his parents' fears of how to lay their son to rest; how Brian Rohrbough proclaimed, with dignity, that the accounts of his son's supposed heroic efforts before his death were false.

My heart ached the entire time I read the book. Every news report I watched in 1999 played back in my head. I cannot imagine the pain of those close to the incident.

I wish them peace.

Addictive saga

So all you crazed Twilighters finally got to me. I am frighteningly inseparable from this book. I can only assume the dark circles under my eyes will grow worse before the story is over.

Honestly the last book I read was one I had to force myself to complete, so I couldn't resist a reported page-turner like "Twilight."

I am not disappointed. In fact, I almost bought the second book last night, but resisted. If anyone out there owns a copy of "New Moon" and would be willing to let me borrow it once I've finished "Twilight," I'd be forever grateful.

On the other hand, I'm more than willing to lend my copy of "Twilight" to anyone who wants to read it. Happy Reading!