2011? Check.

Resolution 2011: Read an average of one book (150+) pages) each week without being ashamed that some -- possibly most -- of them will be edifying in only the "hey, I'm reading and that's better than watching TV, right?" way.

So, I fudged a little in December and read three Kindle quickies that had far fewer than 150 pages...but I forgave myself since most of the books I read had way over that number.

Packing for Mars (Mary Roach)

Audiobook/Hardcover

So many interesting historical anecdotes about the space program and lots of great stories about the science that goes into space readiness...so why did this feel like such a slog to read?

My best guess is that the author is the type of person who can't simply let a good story stand on its own.  Like Jay Leno, she has to hammer home a point with with "jokes" -- here it's usually in the form of footnotes and there must be 150+ of them, sometimes comprising more space than the non-footnote text on a page.  These humorous asides are generally either too obvious to bother saying or too tame to be shockingly raunchy -- so they're more like the jokes speakers and preachers make that get smiles and light chuckles because that's what's expected.

Good information marred by the author's love affair with her own voice.  I don't remember being annoyed with her while reading Stiff though...I wonder if her writing style's changed as her fame is grown or if I was simply so interested in the subject of cadaver science that nothing could get in the way of my interest.

B

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief (Ann Hood)

Hardcover

I've got a friend who lost her 18-year-old son suddenly just over a year ago.  One minute he was there, the next minute he'd simply left his body on the floor.  For the three left behind (mother, father, sister) this last year has been a haze of tears and sleep and anger and depression and aches and confusion and always more tears.

This book helped me understand that they are not wrong.  It helped me understand that grief is forever.  It helped me "get" it...and, hopefully, having read this book I'll be a better friend.  A more helpful friend.  Less of a "you should get out/write your feelings/get back to a routine/listen to my platitudes" friend and more of a listening and crying-with and praying friend.

How can the absence of one person break so many others?  Why are we built to hurt so much over a loss when loss is a constant?  This is beautifully-written and a true help -- possibly more to those trying to understand grievers than to grievers themselves.

A-

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Bryan Lee O'Malley)

Paperback

Probably my favorite installment since the first.  Wrapped things up nicely and had a lot of fun getting there.

I'll miss Scott and his precious little life.

B+

If Only in My Dreams (Andrea Ratzlaff)

Kindle Edition

A young wife and mother is suffering from post-partum depression while her husband reminisces about how much more awesome she was before she got sick.

Then she leaves.  And that's it.

D

Christmas Stories for the Nerd (Yancey Lane)

Kindle Edition

This is a collection of short stories about Christmas.  And my goodness -- this proves that ANYONE can get what they've written "out there."

I used to volunteer at the school when my boys were young.  One of the things I did every year was to help the second graders during their write-a-book section.  They'd come up with five or six paragraphs of a story and I'd help them decide how to break it into a dozen pages, illustrate it, and bind it.  This reads like one of those second-grader's first drafts.  There are sentence fragments, misspellings galore, and storytelling like this (verbatim from the masterpiece Santa is an Alien!):

"Now I shared this secret what do you think."
I said "well it is hard to take, and this does seem a little far fetch."
He said "well get up and follow me."

F

Ero-Philosophic Sonnets (Espoir Chick)

Kindle Edition

Because I'm a little behind in my resolution and 2012 is almost here, I went searching for no-cost quick reads for my Kindle.  This is one of those books.

It's poetry, yes, but unlike most poetry I've read, it's not even attempting to be beautiful.  Internet porn features in more than one of the sonnets and some of the other subjects touched on are either ugly or pedestrian.

After a few, they seemed to kind of blend together rather than to make me either smile or be shocked (which I'm assuming was the purpose here).  Felt like the attempts of a high school "fringe artist."

D

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Bryan Lee O'Malley)

Paperback

Seems like the series is picking up again.  I think this entry is a marked improvement over the last couple -- maybe because I can see the end in sight?

Friction between Scott and Ramona leads them each to question the other's trustworthiness and Ramona vanishes (literally) from Scott's life.  There's a really nice bit near the end where Scott attempts to find Ramona's cat, which he inadvertently let out the front door when he was searching for Ramona.  He's desperate to make sure it's OK and to lure it back to him.  Sweet and sad.

I'm looking forward to the last book!

B

Not That It Matters (A.A. Milne)

Kindle edition

Delightful collection of essays on everything from the outdoor thermometer to the waxing and waning of a chess passion to what type of walking stick is best-suited for formal events.  It doesn't matter what the subject is, Milne is marvelous at holding forth.

I wish that he was a contemporary (and lived in America and wasn't, you know, famous) so that I could have him over for dinner and just listen to him for hours and see if perhaps I could get him to laugh just once at something I had to say -- after all, I owe him thousands of chuckles and smiles since he's responsible for so many of mine.

I like Eeyore and Piglet, sure, but I had no idea that their creator deserved attention for so much more.

A-

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Bryan Lee O'Malley)

Paperback

Things are starting to wear thin... but I'm almost to the end of the year and I'm behind on my book-a-week resolution, so I've no choice to keep bolting down these quickies.

Still fun, but it feels pretty same ol' same ol' and I'm missing some of the film's version of events.

B-