Dark Places
Dark Places: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a fabulous, suspenseful summer read! It may be a bit on the dark side for some people's summer reading lists, but it was just perfect for me to read on the plane ride up to Michigan this weekend. This is exactly the kind of thrilling mystery I like to read. The clues are there for the reader to pick up, and every little exchange ends up looming large in the terrific conclusion. You may wonder why certain aspects of the "Kill Club" are pointed out, or why the gossipy little sister's diaries are relevant, but in the end, they all matter, and they all fit perfectly together. I really do love it when authors think about how they want their book to end, and pull the needed pieces together to complete their puzzle.
Fantastic, seriously, go read this.
Next up is Fragment by Warren Fahy.
On The Beach
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
On the one hand, I can see how "On The Beach" would be considered a classic. It deals with the horrible threat of nuclear war and the consequences for those who survive and are left to await their inevitable doom as the radioactive poison is carried on the wind to every corner of the earth. In 1957, I'm sure it was extremely powerful and scary to many who read it.
On the other hand, I was practically bored to tears. The characters aren't all that interesting and they are all in denial to some extent about their impending doom. But seriously, nothing happens. They do a few things, ultimately pointless, and then they all lie down and take some pills to kill themselves when the radiation comes, and they die. It was almost an interesting character study to see how humans deal with the fact that they know they are going to be some of the last people on earth to perish, but it ultimately just came up short for me.
Next up is Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.
New Holland Full Circle
Fairly impressive head retention here (I let it sit for longer than intended), though a little on the small side. Clear pale lemon color, good looking one.
Very light aroma, a bit of malt and some grassiness.
The flavor struck me as somewhat soapy at one time, not as much this tasting. The hops are somewhat on the assertive side, nice bitter bite to it. The tiniest bit of malt tries to break through and lend something else - grapefruit? - but maybe comes up just short. A nice dry finish though, crisp and clean to the end.
Overall rating: 3.45
New Holland Sundog Amber Ale
Copper color, with a finger's head leaving average lacing on the glass. Fairly malty aroma, a fair amount of resinous hops as well.
The flavor is pretty much sweet from the malt, not as much hop flavor as I would have thought. The hops try to come through in the finish, but fall a bit short of being able to balance the malt quite enough.
Still, a decent finish and manages to be just good enough to enjoy.
Overall rating: 3.5
Chuck Brown, DC Institution
I can now check off another unique DC institution from my list: I have now seen Chuck Brown, the Godfather of go-go, perform live in concert. Chuck Brown has been performing for decades around the DC music scene, doing his unique blend of funk and jazz and continuous drum beats. Yesterday, he was performing for free at the Reston Festival, and the wife and kids were out of town, so I decided to ride my bike up to go see him play. What a show! The wall of sound hits you from the first note and never lets up (I felt bad for the conga and drum players, who never got a break in the late afternoon heat). The crowd was predominately African-American, but everyone was into the groove and chanting along, "Wind me up, Chuck!" It really was a great show, and I admire the guy for performing at such a high level into his 70s. I can't describe how glad I am that I was finally able to catch his show. Awesome.
Short Long Weekend
I don't feel quite as drained as I usually do after a long weekend. We definitely packed a lot into the weekend, but somehow I must have gotten just enough sleep to get by.
On Friday morning, we headed up to Wolf Trap to watch some flamenco dancers, which was pretty cool. We also went shopping to get me some sandals. Who knew it would be so hard to find a freaking pair of comfortable sandals? I tried on literally a dozen pairs and found none that I liked. More on that later.
Saturday we got up early and went to the farmers market for breakfast and shopping. Then we headed up to Fairfax to watch their parade. Parking was easier than I expected, but finding a spot to sit even 30 minutes before the parade was trickier. We eventually found a spot which turned out to be a great spot to watch. Later on, we went to the pool, had some root beer floats, went back to the pool, and had BBQ beef for dinner. The town fireworks this year were right down the street from our house, but we had a friend who lives right across the river from where the big DC fireworks go off, so we decided to try that for a change. And now we can say we've done it and never do it again. I should mention that the view of the fireworks was freaking spectacular (you can see my blurry cell phone pic here, the Washington Monument is that whitish blur just below and to the left of the fireworks), and we were far enough away that the noise didn't freak the kids out. But getting out of Rosslyn was another story. Our first mistake was trying to wait out the crowds getting back to the Metro. When we got to the station, they were holding people outside the station because the platform was too crowded. Our second mistake was not taking the bus to East Falls Church that was pulling out as we arrived. If we had done that, we would have gotten to the relatively empty East Falls Church station and gotten on easily. Instead, we ended up walking up to Court House, which was further and more uphill than we had expected. We got into the station without problem, but the trains were all still full! We got lucky and a few people got off one of the trains, and we squeezed on and finally got home around 11:30.
We slept in on Sunday, which ended up being a very cool gray day, totally unlike what you would expect for July 5th. We went miniature golfing, which with a 5 and 2 year old is really quite entertaining. Afterward, we stopped by Hudson Trail Outfitters to look for sandals again. This time, I found some Keen Newport H2 sandals that I liked and bought. I was torn between those and the open toed ones, but went with the versatility of the closed toe, thinking I might take short hikes with them. They felt really comfortable at the store too. But when I got home, they weren't as comfy. My toes felt pinched, so I might have gotten a size too small. Regardless, they're going back to the store for a bigger size, or maybe the open toed ones.
Finally, the coup de grace. Evan woke up from his nap acting very cranky, so we had to drag him to his buddy's birthday party. Five minutes in, we found out why he was cranky as he threw up all over the floor. Ugh. I took him back home and we snuggled and watched Tiger win his tournament, and he seemed to be feeling better by the time Lisa and Ellie got back home. Still, not exactly a great way to end the day, but at least he managed to miss the brand new sandals!
There's only a few more days to help me win a Madsen, so click on the link and help me out!
The Strain
The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro
My review
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Knowing in advance that this was the first book in a trilogy, I prepared to be disappointed by the ending. But this was a rare case where I ended the book wanting more. Finally, a vampire novel that doesn't suck, where the vampires aren't emo goths dealing with their stupid angst issues. These vamps are appropriately ancient and out to drink your blood. Even the heroes are flawed, which makes the book that much better. Sure, there are things that seem familiar (an airplane lands and goes dark, seen on Fringe, vampirism as virus, like in I Am Legend, etc), but there seem fresh in this presentation, and the pace is frenetic, pushing and pushing forward. There is also plenty of material that was just barely touched upon (the mysterious three other ancient vampires for example) that makes me really look forward to the next two books. Highly recommended read.
Next up is On The Beach by Nevil Shute.
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