Happy Hour is for Amateurs

In this novel, the Philadelphia Lawyer pulls back the curtain of the courtroom and shows the reader the darker side of the legal profession. As the attorneys move up the legal ladder, each begins to descend the ladder of morality. The lawyer holds nothing back as he details substance abuse, womanizing, and a life excess all the while notating billable hours,

This is another work that first grabbed me at the book store. A cursory glance was enough to let me know that not only did I want to read this book but that it would be the first eBook on my nook. I did find that it was a little difficult to access the few notes (indicated in the text with an asterisk) However, it was a noteworthy first exeperince with my handy eReader.

A good novel that made me take a second look at the attorneys I work with every day and think twice about possibly entering the legal profession.

I give this book 4.25 out of 5 Coca Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!!

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Dead(ish)

What do you do when you're boyfriend kills you, hides your body and forces you to eke out an existence as a wandering spirit? You hire a private investigator to find your body. AND do all kinds of crazy things to the idiot who killed you.

This is the mo of Linda Stevens, a deceased woman trying to end her unfinished business that is keeping her from crossing over in Naomi Kramer's Dead(ish). From the very beginning of the story, the reader is told of Linda's condition (for lack of a better word) and Mike's confession. What the reader must wait to find is the location of the body. In getting to this truth, the reader is treated to a comical yarn with gay neighbors and even prison time.

Kramer makes very good use of point of view to tell this story of murder and revenge. Although there is not much time to delve into in-depth character development, what we do learn about each player through their thoughts and perceptions help pull this story together and carries the reader to the end.

I give this story 4 out of 5 Coca Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!!

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Waiter Rant

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Originally uploaded by waiterrant

Some books are so well written that once you skim through them, you're bound to read them. Sometimes that may be right away, other times one may "forget" about the book until a hint reminds the consciousness.

Back in October of 2009, I skimmed through a few books and continued shopping at Barnes & Noble. However, this little memoir entitled Waiter Rant stuck with me. Months later (after the rise of eBooks and the introduction of the nook) I searched through the B&N online store and found the electronic version of this book.

As soon as I began reading this novel, I realized why I remembered it all these months. The Waiter describes what led to his landing a job in the food services industry. After leaving various positions in corporate health care, the Waiter lands a job to continue paying rent. Throughout the novel, the Waiter regales stories of wait staff, management, and customers. Each anecdote leads to the Waiter's decision with regards to his future career endeavors.

This book was very entertaining and gives the reader a more realistic view of food service. After reading, I found my self calculating tips a little higher when eating out at various restaurants.

I give this book 4.5 out of 5 Coca Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!!

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Autobiography of An Fat Bride By: Laurie Notaro

Sometimes I still cannot believe I am almost 30. It seems like when I was in school, teachers promised that as long as you studied hard, life would be easy as we would all have wonderful careers, good paying jobs and what successful career woman would have a problem finding a potential husband.

Teachers lied.

Exhibit 77301: Autobiography of a Fat Bride

Laurie Novato begins this memoir with the age old story of a runaway boyfriend, the twist being that he has literally runoff in a van with his ex.

Ok, maybe that's not much of a twist.

The twist may be the head of cornrows this white boy sports.

From there the reader is privy to an assortment of failed romances that result in marriage.

From there the novel changes. Although, there are several stories that follow Novato's marriage, these no longer follow a chronological order and have no common thread except that they are Novato's experiences. That aside, each story on it's own is pretty entertaining. From Novato's plans of a husbandly servant upon discovering "proof" of her husband's affair to the bi-polar relationship between the author and her mother, Novato continues to keep the stories coming reminding the reader that turning 30 something may not be as great as we hope but it does not have to be as bad,

I give this novel 4 out of 5 Coca Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!!

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Chick Norris vs. Mr. T

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Originally uploaded by pravin.premkumar

I had always heard those jokes about the greatness of Chuck Norris. However, I had no idea that there was a book that started it all. Ian Spector wrote that book and in this second book, Spector comes up with more outrageous Chuck Norris claims all the while including "facts" he gathered regarding the mohawk sporting, gold chain wearing, fool pitying, action star, known to the world as Mr. T.

Overall, the book is not bad, Granted, I would not expect this work to be recognized as the next greatest novel, but that was never the author's intention. His point was something fun and light hearted and in that respect, he has succeeded. Some of the "facts" are not that funny if you are not appreciative of humor involving God/Jesus (that describes me so I did not particularly care for these nuggets) However, there is more punch to these punch lines then jokes surrounding religious leaders.

The length of this book was my only other complaint. When reading on my nook, I noticed that the progress bar at the bottom was moving pretty quickly. It was then that I discovered that there were only 88 pages. that included the intro and table of contents. Maybe Chuck Norris and Mr. T got to together and the last 200 pages or so were destroyed by the quantity of greatness..

I give this book 3 out of 5 Coca Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!

I Am Ozzy

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Originally uploaded by ittoku.lee

It has been quiet around this site, as my reading has been sporadic. However, thanks to a lovely Valentine's Day gift (a Barnes & Noble nook) I have been able to bring books with me on the go and read just about anywhere. This was the second book I read on my eReader.

First off I should say that I am not a huge Black Sabbath fan. I read this book, purely for it's storytelling value. I love memoirs, and any autobiography about a musician earns a spot on my reading list regardless of the genre. I should also add that I do not know any of the music by Black Sabbath with the exception of Iron Man and that is only because of the comic book character of the same name.

I have, however, watched the reality show The Osbournes and found it to be pretty interesting. Until I no longer had cable.

I Am Ozzy starts off with a quote by Ozzy's father about him either becoming something special or going to prison. His father was right on both accounts. From there the reader is brought through a tale that begins with the life of a young boy growing up in the town of Aston to the early days of a fledgling band that later became known as Black Sabbath to the solo career of Ozzy. Ozzy holds nothing back as he notates not only his accomplishments, but his failures. From his battle with alcohol and drug abuse to the beginning of Ozzfest. Almost nothing is off limits here, and it is all told through that same Ozzy voice heard in interviews and the MTV show The Osbournes Albeit a more sober voice.

While reading this book there were moments of disbelief and moments where I wanted to cry. Reading his take on his wife's cancer diagnosis was heart-wrenching even though I knew she would win the battle for her life. More than anything there were moment's where I wanted to laugh as Ozzy's take on even serious matters had a humorous spin.

All in all, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I still will not be rushing out to buy an Ozzy album or tickets to Ozzfest anytime soon. However, my preference in music in no way hampered my ability to see that Ozzy lived an interesting and inspiring life in that he overcame many trials (including forced societal roles and economic restraints that usually keeps many people in lower classes down) to succeed in fulfilling his dream of being able to eke out a living as a musician...and then some.

Oh, and he bit the head off a bat.

Sometimes I wonder if author's would ever read my book reviews. I need not wonder in this case as Ozzy re-iterates many times that he does not read reviews.

I would give this book 4.5 out of 5 Coca-Cola bottles.

Happy Reading!
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Origin By: J.A Konrath

Once I decided to seriously pursue my writing aspirations, I purchased several books on writing by various writers. One book contained an anecdote as told by J.A(Joe) Konrath, an author known for his Lt. Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels mystery thrillers. In his short piece Joe writes about his first novel. He gives details of how he worked on his creation, got an agent who shopped around his novel, and never got a sale.

I did not know how others looked at the piece, but I personally thought the synopsis of the book sounded very interesting. So much so that I thought "surely this novel must be published by now."

However, I was wrong.

Various google searches brought me to the author's very own website (http://www.jakonrath.com/ebooks.html). There he gave away a pdf version of this novel (along with a couple of other freebies!) So after printing the pdf I began reading the novel that I had in mind for the last several months.

The story opens with President Roosevelt visiting a site near the Panama Canal. A discovery had been made that warranted his immediate attention. Upon viewing the find, President Roosevelt makes the decision to bring the comatose creature to the States so that it can be further studied.

Fast forward to modern time, when a linguist is recruited to study the afore mentioned life form. One glance at the creature draws to mind the immediate response of several others who viewed the creature before him:

......the government has the devil

......and he's now awake!

Point of View

In several English composition classes across the country, teachers are referring to point of view (pov) as a story telling tool. If that is the case then Konrath wields that took like John Henry's mighty hammer. He switches pov on a regular basis going from President Roosevelt to Andy the linguist and even venturing to show the reader the story through the eyes of the unknown creature. Each glimpse a revelation of motivations, it is through the characters' pov that the reader is able the understand the characters and the impact the proceeding events have on each one of their psyches.

Characters, Characters, Characters

In every story there are characters one loves, characters one understands, and characters that one hates. While reading Origin I may not have loved every character, but I understood them. Well, most of them. Although, each one comes from a different background, there is a commonality that keeps them in the subterranean facility. It is through these characters that an other wise science-fiction-like tale weaves in a theme of penance and second chances.

Trailing Me

It has been quite some time since I have read a book that I literally did not want to put down. As this was a printout of the pdf, every moment that I had found me pouring through the 200+ pages. A trail of pages showed my every resting place all day.

All in all I LOVED this book. It's actually a little daunting to find something so engaging, still not have the support of a publishing house. Almost makes me want to destroy my net book and burn my legal pads (almost.)

In any case, pick up this novel for free at J.A Konrath's website here. Maybe if word gets around of how much readers enjoy this novel, Mr. Konrath can finally get this thing sold.

I am pleased to post that this book gets 5 out of 5 Coca Cola Bottles. The very first book to do so on this blog!!!!

Happy Reading!!

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