Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

I waited until after I finished reading Under the Dome (almost 1,100 pages in less than a week!) to read anything about it. This review from Aol.com pretty much falls into line with my opinion: By now with Stephen King, it's easy to think this is all kind of ridiculous. An invisible dome descending upon a small town in Maine? People trapped inside, trying to figure out what on Earth is going on and — as always in a Stephen King story — dying in droves? Good Lord. Is the King of Really Heavy Books — the author who is a one-man argument for the hernia-preventing benefits of e-books — running out of viable plot devices? This is, after all, the guy who wrote entire volumes about cell phones turning fellow citizens into ravenous zombies, about possessed and murderous 1958 Plymouths and about evil, immortal clowns who live in the sewers and prey upon children. Really, now. How much gimmickry can one writer expect us to stomach? Those statements are all completely fair and true. Trouble ...

Though not as clever as his usual fare, Burroughs shares several amusing vignettes about his experiences with Christmas and the holiday season. Some are pretty funny - like how he confuses Jesus and Santa Claus as a child and some are rather bleak - like his crappy relationship with a boyfriend with AIDS who refuses to acknowledge their relationship to his family. My personal favorite was the last chapter, which is an actually quite touching piece about understanding the true spirit of Christmas and love. Overall, a speedy read, but if you're aiming for some seasonal laughs, stick to David Sedaris' Holidays on Ice instead.

When this classic novel starts, Wang Lung is a poor farmer in Pre-Revolutionary China trying to get by on his meager harvests. The one thing he knows and depends on time and time again is the importance of owning his own land. Gradually, Wang Lung's lot in life starts to improve - he takes a wife, the faithful O-Lan who gives him several sons, and slowly starts to acquire more land and status in his world. Obviously things can't go right 100% of the time and Wang Lung is frequently threatened by starvation, poor harvest weather, and potential robberies. I know this is classic, but the major problem I had with this book was the absolutely awful depictions of women. Coming from a female writer, I was surprised that not one female character was portrayed in a positive light - then again, I bet the men of that era were probably not as open minded.