'Me: Stories from my Life' by Katharine Hepburn

I know so very little about Ms. Hepburn. I know very little about roles she played and accomplishments she made in her life. I do know that what I have seen in Aviator. I do know that she was apparently quite a character. This is very clear in her autobiography. She prefaced it by stating 'this is just somethings I remember thrown together. There's alot I don't remember too.'

I feel that her age shows in her writings. Through the first 400 pages I see the scatterbrained, back and forth, tangential orgy that is either an 80 something woman or just plain Katharine Hepburn. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is just how she is and even in her 80's she is as she always has been.

It was a nice peek into an era and a personality I was curious about. The last two chapters are less about her life and more about a deeper, human concept. She delves into the unconditional love she had for Spencer Tracy. I really liked the way she wholeheartedly gave herself to him. It was truly a beautiful relationship, at least from her perspective. I am thrilled to have a similar experience. Fully in love and giving without censure.

This 420 page hardback took me around 6 hours to devour. That's a quick read. The pictures were all appreciated.

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

I was excited to read this novel. I had heard great things about it. It spend time as the #1 New York Times Bestseller. It was OK

Things I didn't enjoy:
A. The writing style seemed juvenile. Not uneducated but aimed towards teens.
B. I felt the plot unfolding ahead of me. I like to be surprised.
C. I never yearned to pick the book up again. I read it because it was a quick read and I was semi-interested but I was not enthralled. Felt very 'Dan Brown'
D. The central Character. Eliana's mother pointed this out as the singular reason she was unable to continue reading the book and it rang true for me as well.

Things I did like:
A. The author sprinkled vocabulary in the book in such a way that made it easy to follow and easy to remember that most dialogue was in a different language than my own.
B. The way relationships changed through revelations throughout the book.
C. The descriptive way the author described many beautiful things about the country, culture and traditions of Afghanistan. I feel as though I have a deeper understanding of what the country was like and what it yearns to be once more.

I may read his other book 'A thousand splendid suns' (something like that) but I will not seek it out.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

A Pulitzer prize winner, this novel was fantastic. The different characters and there different dialects were so well planted that everyone had their own, distinct point of view. Mr Toole was obviously a very brilliant man.
Ignatius had a some hare-brained plans but a great deal of his philosophy was quite insightful, albeit frequently off the mark. You hate the lead character but you simply cannot help but appreciate and root for him at the same time. Some of the plot points got a bit sticky but, altogether, this was a treasure.

Chapterhouse: Dune by, yet again, Frank Herbert

The climax of the Dune series didn't hold my attention as strongly as the previous installments but it was an interested read, nonetheless. We followed Narwi Ordade (Dar) as she was the new Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit. Duncan and Murbella, his Honored Matre companion, are locked in a NO-ship and have had lots of children as she has been preparing to become a Bene Gesserit. Miles Teg has a ghola except it was born as a child. The Bene Gesserit are seeing their world quickly coming to an end and when the book leaves us we still have no certainty if their fates. Murbella assumes the titles of both Mother Superior and High Honored Matre. Duncan, Sheana, and Teg have fled in the no-ship. Who knows what will come of them.

Not unlike almost every Stephen King novel, this series was worth it for the journey, if not for the end.

Frank Herbert put a dedication in the back of this novel to his late wife. It was beautiful and made both my girlfriend and I well up with tears. He really has a way of pointing out the details that make the whole resonate.