March, 2007
March 1st, 2007, 7:53 a.m. - Get out of here, four of you
March 4th, 2007, 5:56 p.m. - I keep forgetting how much I like this show
"Why Kathleen is Not a Top Model" - And as yesterday's cycle 6 marathon reminded me, I keep forgetting how great Danielle is
10:51 p.m. - Insert your own Hooked on Phonics joke here
March 6th, 2007, 10:17 p.m. - Carolyn, you are the last to arrive. I'm sorry to tell you you've been eliminated from the race
7. Lost and Found (Carolyn Parkhurst)
Anyway, Lost and Found is like The Amazing Race in book form, except with more twists (some implausable) and an ending that was both ridiculous and somewhat predictable. (The couple thrown together falls in love! Shocker!) I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, but it just wasn't anything special. I did like the way the characters were drawn (except Justin - his arc didn't work for me), and they were distinct without being quirky. But after reading The Dogs of Babel, I expected a lot more from Parkhurst. I'd recommend that one instead.
Up next: Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)
March 7th, 2007, 9:55 p.m. - Please, please, please don't vote for Antonella
March 8th, 2007, 5:26 p.m. - That'll be a weird wedding
I am in love with Nineteen Minutes. I want to have, like, 10,000 of its babies.
10:58 p.m. - Yay for America! Well, except for the Sabrina thing
March 11th, 2007, 4:47 p.m. - The honeymoon's over
8. Nineteen Minutes (Jodi Picoult)
Anyway, the book is about a school shooting, and like all of Picoult's books, there are too many voices being heard from. (Lewis is the most boring character in the history of boring characters. I almost fell asleep reading his completely pointless chapters.) While Picoult works hard to make us sympathetic towards Peter, who plows down ten classmates and teachers, it's hard to forget that...well, he killed ten people. And didn't care. Yeah. Also, how about a motive other than bullying? I mean, creativity would be nice every once in a while.
Josie is a good character, and Lacy, Peter's mother, brings out some wonderful questions - how does the parent of a murderer handle things? But Picoult overloads the book with metaphors, as usual; I said the same thing about The Tenth Circle last year. Picoult is a great writer, though, and really makes you think. I just wish she didn't throw so many themes into the book (parent/child relationships, sibling relationships, friend relationships, popularity, us vs. them, etc., etc. ad nauseam). She writes a book a year - can't she spread the themes out? Also, don't get me started on the ending revelation about Josie.
Up next: Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)
10:29 p.m. - Shut your word hole, Mirna
March 12th, 2007, 10:13 p.m. - Interestingly, this season they cut the girl with no personality early on
"Why Samantha is Not a Top Model"
March 13th, 2007, 10:48 p.m. - Dear America: sometimes you make bad decisions
March 15, 2007, 5:46 p.m. - Not funny!
"When Will I Come Home to You?"
March 18th, 2007, 10:53 p.m. - Aww, that rat is cute, actually (cuter than Cassandra)
"Why Cassandra is Not a Top Model"
March 21st, 2007, 10:02 p.m. - Can we, like, eliminate the voters or something?
March 25th, 2007, 11:17 p.m. - Seriously, what DID happen to Andrae?
"Why Felicia is Not a Top Model"
March 28th, 2007, 11:33 p.m. - Maybe the ANTM judges should have the final say on American Idol
First, the title? No. Parkhurst, you wrote The Dogs of Babel, which is an awesome book with an awesome title. Lost and Found is an okay book with a really lame title. Get it together.
Remember when I said I was in love with Nineteen Minutes? Yeah, I wish I'd read farther before declaring my love. The book is pretty good, one of Picoult's best, but I still had major problems with it. (First of all, the editor? Should be fired. In the span of one chapter, Josie and Peter are in 9th grade, then 11th, then 9th, then 10th. And if Joey was a year older than Peter and died just before he graduated from high school, then Peter would have been a junior, not a sophomore. Also, ANGELA, NOT NATALIE. Jeez.)