Book Review: Crossbearer

Title: Crossbearer
Author: Joe Eszterhas
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 2008)
Category: Memoir

My rating: ***
Crossbearer is another Macmillan book, and it was just published last month. It is a memoir by Joe Eszterhas, a Hollywood screenwriter, whose films include Jagged Edge, Showgirls and Basic Instinct. After a lifetime of smoking and drinking, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. His doctors told him if he smoked one more cigarette or had one more drink, he would die. A month after surgery, he was walking through his small Ohio neighborhood in an attempt to deal with the intense cravings, and when he thought he couldn't take it anymore he sat down on the curb and cried out to God to help him. This memoir of faith describes his transformation from Hollywood bad boy to crossbearing follower of Jesus.

I really enjoyed Eszterhas candidness about life in Hollywood and how his former colleagues viewed his new faith. It was impressive to read about how many times God saved his life even though Eszterhas didn't see it that way at the time. It's hard to understand how people don't believe in the power of God when they hear stories like this. I hope the book does well and that his story inspires others.

There's an interview on NPR with the author, if you're interested.

BTW: This whole book review addition to my blog has come about because of a challenge. I really enjoy competition, and my friend Dustin told me about a book blogger who read 8 books from 8 genres in '08. I thought it would be fun to do a similar challenge: 9 books from 9 genres before the end of '09. I'm getting a head start because that's 17 more books than the '08 challenge. To keep track of what I read, I'm including it in my blog. I'm a bit behind on the blogging part, but I'll catch up.

Book Review: I Am Legend

Title: I Am Legend
Author: Richard Matheson
Publisher: Tor Books (October 2007, copyright 1995)
Category: Fiction, Short Story, Horror

My rating: ***
I’m a sucker for books that become movies. Even though I heard that I Am Legend the movie wasn’t that great, I had heard that the book was pretty good. Well, this was another one I found for free at work, so I though why not?

The story is actually pretty good. I watched the movie afterwards, and it’s a good thing I was prepared because the two are almost completely different. The similarity is that a disease has wiped out all of mankind except for a man named Robert Neville. Everything else about the character and how he deals with being the last man on earth (Southern CA in the book, NYC in the movie) is different. I liked the character development in the book and the twist to the end. The movie wasn’t bad though, and I can’t say it would have made an interesting film if they had stuck more to the original because so much goes on beneath the surface, in Neville’s mind, that just doesn’t translate well to the big screen.

Also, the book is more of a lengthy short story than a full novel. If you’re interested, go for it. If not, don’t bother.

Book Review: Meet the Austins

Title: Meet the Austins
Author: Madeleine L’Engle
Publisher: Square Fish (September 2008, copyright 1960)
Category: Fiction, Young Adult

My rating: *****
My favorite book when I was young was Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’ Engle. That and A Wrinkle in Time remain in my top all time favorite books, so when I started working at Macmillan and saw that we publish the Meet the Austins series in which Ring of Endless Light is the 4^th, I got really excited and picked up all the free copies I could find. I’m still searching for The Young Unicorns.

In Meet the Austins, the reader is introduced to a wonderful family with four kids, two dogs and numerous cats. Vicky Austin, the narrator, is the second oldest, and her innocent, child-like yet reflective and introspective voice give the book a sense of something deeper, beyond the simple happy family picture that is painted. The family love and dynamic is wonderful though, and personally, I wouldn’t mind if my family turns out just like them.

I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t read the other books in many years, but this one seems well-suited for even younger readers than Wrinkle or Ring. I loved it though :-)

Human Race

I finished my first 10K. On Sunday, I took part in the Nike+ Human Race. According to them, I finished the race in 1 hour 14 minutes. Unfortunately, whoever planned the route had us go over a bridge about halfway through the race that was too small for the large crowd of people to cross. They tried to make room for the finishers to get through first while they gave those of us on our first lap a tiny path to file through. It brought the runners to a stand still and then a slow crawl as we made our way across the bridge. My guess is that it added 3-5 extra minutes to most people's times, which threw off New York's average finishing time compared to the rest of the world. I finished 170,909 in the world, out of 500,000+, and my roommate Mark who ran with me finished 1,415! A fun fact: Matthew Mcconaughey finished 6,826 with a time of 43'41.

New York City? - Outdoor Adventures

Since I started my new job, I've been able to really enjoy weekends. Last Saturday, two of my housemates and I went to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. We had a quick stop first to drop off an old cable box and found a birdwatching nature trail nearby.

Dustin and I try to find some birds from this great vantage point.

Also on our way to the nature refuge we saw this amazing Starbucks. It has two floors with outdoor patios on both, a fireplace inside, and it overlooks a Venice-like canal. Amazing!

Once we got to the nature refuge, we were in awe of the beauty. We were still in the New York City limits, yet everywhere we looked we saw all kinds of plant life, birds and water.

Oh wait, there's Manhattan in the distance....

It was a great day trip. We even had dinner at an Olive Garden and didn't have to wait two hours (since it wasn't in Times Square). Yay for weekends!!!

Random Fun Fact #5

In my home state of Arizona, first cousins can get married if they are both over 65 years of age, or if they provide the state with proof that one of them is unable to reproduce.

*http://phoenix.about.com/cs/weddings/ht/marriagelicense.htm

Pink eye

I haven't had pink eye since elementary school, so isn't it fitting that I would get it on my 5th day at my new job. I woke up Wednesday morning with a swollen and goopey eye. I figured it was pink eye because it felt like what I remembered and one of my roommates had it last week. Indeed my eye did look pink in the mirror. I used some of my roommate's eye drops and went to work anyway. I didn't want to look bad by calling out sick so soon, especially since I felt fine. One of my co-workers, however, asked about my glasses since I usually wear contacts. I admitted that I thought I had pink eye, and she backed away like I had the plague and said, "That's highly contagious. I could get it just looking at you!" So she told my boss who told me to go to the doctors and not come back :-) What a way to start your first week!

The doctor gave me a prescription and said I could go to work the next day, which I did and stayed busy with everything that piled up while I was away. I'm looking forward to finishing with the drops so I can start wearing my contacts again. I feel ridiculous in these glasses because I bought them just for before bed and picked out the cheapest pair. The experience has inspired me to really get a move on buying new ones. I've been meaning too for a long time anyway.