Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand

I wasn't expecting to actually finish another book by the end of the year, but I guess I did. Jeff Strand's Wolf Hunt is, you've guessed it, a horror book. Or at least it tries to be. In a time where you have Team Jacob (you teenage girls and middle aged gay men know what I am talking about *wink*) and Underworld, werewolf stories don't manage to scary anyone anymore.

Leaving the fact that the title gives you a big clue what the book is about, the rest of the book was fun. You have two paid thugs - George and Lou- who are acting like an old married couple, their contact man - Ricky - who is just a contact man, an innocent woman caught in the mix - Michele - who apparently nobody mentions her boobs but I guess the author is "an ass-man", and a precious cargo in a cage - the psychopathic killer werewolf - Ivan. The entire action of this book is fast, dialogues are also witty and fast, the werewolf is fast but the cars are kind of slow in this one. Ironic, huh?!

OK, so we have a book about werewolves, that wants to be part of the horror genre. Theoretically, it is; but the scare factor is no more. The blood and the gore is there, but is anybody fazed by that anymore? Have you seen any of the SAW movies? Nothing is more scary after that experience. Though the book is highly entertaining, I believe that the scare factor is missing completely. 

Read this book for entertainment, the dialogues are insanely funny and sometimes completely out of the context, but what would you expect from a psychopathic werewolf? This one kept me up 2 nights in a row, not because it was scary, but because I wanted to find out how it ends. Usually a book that does that to someone, cannot be anything but good, right? 

Thank you for reading my posts and my New Year's Resolution is to come back in 2013 with more books and rants for my readers. Happy holidays!

Mistakes and Ladders by Pip McCormac

Oh man, where should I begin... Mistakes and Ladders was spot on what gay life is all about for most men: promiscuity, drugs, drinking until wasted, clubs, innumerable dates, discounted designer clothes, insecurity and lots of drama. Hell... Been there done that, apart from the drugs bit - it has never been my style. 

This book retells all the failed relationships and dates of the author. He even brings to the table his drug addiction and how his friends staged an intervention for his sorry ass. Always looking for "the one" he kept dating guys and making himself believing that each one is the one he'll marry and be his husband. He played the game and, in the gay world, very few people manage to actually find what they are looking for (reasoning that they know what they are looking for). It's a jungle out there and it's every man for himself.

This quote reminded me how shallow this world is and at some level I still am part of it: "In the morning he made me a cup of tea and we watched a bit of TV in bed. In gay terms, it felt like getting engaged." Yeah, we live fast and outside of the society's norms but deep down, everyone at least has thought about finding that special someone. To contradict myself here is another quote: "Anyone you take home will have slept with your old one at some point. There are only so many of us to go around - this is a fact of gay math." Sadly it is so, due to the fact that once you get into a scene and you're still looking to find a man, you probably end up shagging someone who shagged your ex or your ex's ex before you. Just imagine the complications and the drama.

This book is a gay version of Sex and the city, where the main character embodies all of those bitches' traits. Realizing that I had actually seen the series and the movie makes me cringe. Anyway, this is a book about gay life in UK and it's somewhat funny and thought provoking at times. I wouldn't call it "a must read", but it is OK enough to give a bit of insight of how gay men are besides Queer as Folk and Modern family.

Birthday Pie: A Novel by Arthur Wooten

Birthday Pie: A Novel is about family. This book reflects pretty well how most families are: dysfunctional. Yes, there is no such thing as a normal family but in the end blood is usually thicker than water. They might drive you crazy, you might want to run away screaming and break away as far as you can, but in the end they are yours and you belong to that odd group.

Families are crazy. We all have strange members who do crazy things and we sometimes hate their guts but deep down cannot help but love them. We think we know our family members, but there are different levels of knowledge and somehow we just scrape the surface and the core, leaving a whole lot of middle to be kept secret and personal. Sometimes that surfaces when everything starts to go terribly wrong in this life. This is what this book is about, finding out that middle by scraping the surface and it is always unexpected and quite surprising.

Lex is a children's books writer who comes back to visit his family for his birthday and see his dieing father. We get introduced to all of his messed up relatives and the past surfaces from time to time. Each of them has their own personal story that made them who they are today. Everybody had a personal drama and that reflected on their own personality and life; be it the death of a parent, love lost or just crazy a christian wife who doesn't like sex. 

This book just shows how complicated families really are. Each individual bringing his or her own thing in the mix and finally ending with a connection that is either strong or weak depending on affinities and how each member has influenced the other's life. I consider this a must read because it made me ponder on my relationship with my own blood. Maybe it's the holidays, maybe the book hit a nerve by itself, but I really enjoyed it. This book really has heart.

We survived, again

At first it was Y2K and Microsoft managed to patch the system. We were saved. Now the world went crazy because of the whole Mayan Calendar thing. Nothing happened. What could be next?! Let me guess... 11.12.13 ? What's with people's fascination with old calendars and dates? We all die eventually, most probably hit by a someone who is texting and driving, old age, cancer or something along those lines.

In a way I hoped for the world to end. Imagine all those morons in flames running and screaming. You know who they are. Don't deny it. I would have died happy. But I guess it was only hopeful wishing. People were stupid for expecting a major cataclysm just because some guy, more than 2000 years ago, made a calendar. Imagine, what would happen if 2000 years in the future someone finds a computer with Windows Vista. That might just be the end of the civilization after all.

This whole craze made some people very rich by exploiting the superstition: survival packs with vodka in Russia, 1000 bucks entry fee in a nuclear bunker and even themed parties in Romania. Since we are about 100 years in the past, we party like it's 1912. This is the longest night of the year so might as well party all night long. 

As an exercise of imagination I was expecting: meteorites, zombies, electricity being gone, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, aliens invading, magnetic poles reversing, penguins attacking, politicians recognizing that they are crooked, Michael Jackson releasing another album and computers becoming conscious and showing grandma your entire porn collection.  I guess we're lucky that none of that happened. Tomorrow is a brand new day. Rejoice. We survived, again!

The secret race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

About a week ago I got a comment from a visitor that I should read The secret race by Tyler Hamilton, I am sorry that I hadn't reply to him/her comment but I was reading just that. Please excuse me for not replying so this review goes to you, my Anonymous commenter. I am glad that someone mentioned this book because after Lance Armstrong's, I was considering him a hero with or without the doping charges. Now I tend to veer my opinion towards a neutral stance. 

What's the deal with this book, you may ask. Yes, it is controversial. ...And yes, it gives you insight on the world of bike racers and doping. This is another cyclist's biography on the Tour de France events and how everybody did what they did. I believe that there are some major lessons to be learned from this book, especially if you like bikes and cycling. One of them is that winning a bike race means lots of work, determination, lots of pain and extremely low body fat. I am screwed on the last one though, I guess I don't have what it takes to be a pro racer. (Now pass me another beer). 

I have noticed a pattern here about the racing world: each sportsman was running from something: Armstrong started his career because he had a difficult family life, Hamilton was battling depression and he needed an outlet etc. etc. But then they went to professional races and their objectives changed. In a way I think that all that doping was a way to gain leverage in a world where it was common practice. This is what Hamilton is trying to say in his book: you gained a few seconds (maybe even minutes) through doping, but there is no denying the fact that behind their results was a lot of hard work.

I really liked this one. In a way, I liked it more than Armstrong's because it gave me another point of view of the guy. He was determined to win, at all costs. That made him a bully and an asshole, but I don't consider him a cheater. He did things better than the rest and beat them at their own game.  What, I think, sucked was how he defended his title and his attitude towards his friends and colleagues. Read the book if you want to know more about the whole scandal. It might not be objective, but no autobiography ever is.