Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Andrew Heath and Joseph Potter

I felt like I'd read this before- maybe I had? kind of overly academic writing for what was blurbed as a general appeal book.

How many books with people/barcodes barcode tattoos/etc covers will I read in a year? Only the blog knows, man. Only the blog knows.

House Lust, by Daniel McGinn

Fantastic book about the insanity that has made shows like "House Hunters" block busters and about how competitive consumption crossed with a twisted interpretation of the "American Dream" has led to people buying and obsessively remodeling and furnishing larger and larger houses.

This book was fun to read, gave pause for thought, and included one of my all time favorite bits of trivia, about Robert Toll of the infamous Toll Brothers building group, known for their monstrous and fugly McMansions.

"Despite a net worth that's measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, company founder Robert Toll lives in a 1750 farmhuose with bedrooms that are smaller than the master bathrooms of the homes his company builds." (p. 34)

Hah! Delightful.

20 all

Some more books

Children's Books

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, by Jeff Kinney

Sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, still funny and very childish and mean, but funny stuff.



Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion, by Loree Griffin Burnes

Sad, and breezes over how we and the kids who read this are all doomed, but seriously, how do you write about this stuff for kids? good try.



Youg Adult Books

Alice Macleod, Realist at Last, Susan Juby

Sequel to Alice, I Think, and a great teen girl book. I like Alice so much that I wish she were real.



Adult Fiction

24 Karat Kids, by Judy Goldstein and Sebastien Stuard
Pretty awful NYC working chick lit- Dr. Shelly Green starts at a fancy Manhattan pediatrician clinic, and suddenly feels she has to change her image, meets a new guy, yadda yadda. Tired and blah. Also, I HATED the end.

Adrian Mole, The Lost Years, by Sue Townsend
Another Adrian Mole book- I think I've read them all now. I hadn't missed much with this one, though. Your standard Adrian Mole book. Pretty good, though- a bad Sue Townsend book is still a million times better than most books.

February 9, 2008

Adult Fiction
'Salem's Lot, by Stephen King, 20 adult
Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen, 18 adult

February 1, 2008

Children's books
The Moffats, Eleanor Estes (re-read)


Adult NonFiction
The Art of Polymer Clay, Donna Kato
Bead on a Wire, Sharilyn Miller