Thursday, June 21, 2012

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel (CBR-IV #23)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #23/52
Published: 1980
Pages: 516
Genre: Historical Fiction


Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series was apparently pretty popular back in the 80's and even spawned a notoriously bad movie in 1986. Having been written five years before I was born, I never heard of the series until a few years ago. I've had the first book on my to-read list for a quite a while, but just recently got around to it. I guess it took me a while to pick it up because it's not really the sort of novel I would normally read, but something in the premise must have struck my interest to buy it in the first place. 


The book follows a little girl named Ayla as she gets lost from her mother during an earthquake some 35,000 years ago. Auel shines in making the Ice Age world come to life, even though sometimes I felt that the literal pages and pages of plant descriptions might have been overkill. Ayla (who is five years old when she loses her mother), wanders around in the woods delirious from hunger and is almost killed by a cave lion before she is stumbled upon by a Neanderthal clan of people who call themselves The Clan of the Cave Bear. The Clan reluctantly decide to "adopt" her after their medicine woman develops an attachment to Ayla.


The book follows Ayla's struggle to fit in with the Clan's laws and customs as she grows up. She looks nothing like anyone in the Clan. She is tall, blonde, and regarded as ugly to the other Clan members.  Most of the Clan eventually accepts her, but there are a few who oppose her being part of the Clan since she is an "other". 


I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It's not a subject I would normally read, but Auel is a gifted author who can tell a great story. I'm actually looking forward to picking up the next book in the series.

Jigsaw Man by Gord Rollo (CBR-IV #22)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #22/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 288
Genre: Horror


Jigsaw Man is a kind of campy horror novel about a guy named Michael Fox. I know. I really wish novels would research their character names better so I don't have to picture Michael J. Fox getting his appendages chopped off. Anyways, Michael Fox is a homeless guy who is contemplating suicide when he gets an offer from a rich guy who wants to pay him two million dollars for his right arm. Well, he's left handed and was going to kill himself anyways, so why not? However, when someone wants to pay a ton of money for one of your body parts, RUN AWAY. It's probably too good (not to mention bizarre) to be true. 


The story is fast moving and fairly interesting if you like pulpy horror. It's not going to wow you in a literary sense, but it a nice throw-away novel to read by the pool. 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Sloppy Seconds: The Tucker Max Leftovers by Tucker Max (CBR-IV #21)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #21/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 288
Genre: Nonfiction/Humor


I read the first two Tucker Max books back in college. For some reason, they were definitely more funny back then. Anyways, his stories are still pretty entertaining, but the older I get the more irritated I get by his immature antics that occasionally go beyond the realm of funny and venture into just plain cruel. 


This book was released as a free ebook, sort of as a companion book to his third release, Hilarity Ensues (which I will probably end up reading as much as I may resist...). The first few stories are just repeats straight from each of his three books. At first this kind of irritated me because I thought the entire book was just sections from his other books not "leftovers" like the title suggests. But after that there are some leftover stories as well as some stories that Max says he is always asked about. 


If you aren't easily offended, then this free book is a pretty good way to see if Tucker Max stories are for you. He is pretty funny and if nothing else he's pretty honest about how much of a douche he is/was. 

World War Z by Max Brooks (CBR-IV #20)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #20/52
Published: 2006
Pages: 352
Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Zombie


I really had high hopes for this book. I loved Robopocalypse, which has a similar concept, and I read so many good reviews of World War Z that I was really let down when it didn't meet my expectations.

World War Z is a compilation of stories from survivors of the zombie war. I was intrigued by the premise, but most of the stories failed to keep my attention. In fact, most of them I could barely get through they were so dry and boring. There were a couple of interesting ones littered throughout that kept the book from being a total bore - one of my favorites was the pilot who crashed in the middle of a zombie occupied zone. However, a lot of the stories were more political and/or military centered. I would have liked to see more personal stories from regular citizens. 

Overall, I was let down. I really struggled to get through this book and it wasn't even that long. Try Robopocalypse instead.