"The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman

First, what I didn't like:
1) I'm getting pretty tired of the plot device of "the chosen one". From "Star Wars" to "Harry Potter" to "The Matrix", it's a bit formulaic by now (and by "by now" I mean "since the New Testament became a hit").
2) It must be a boy thing to envision your spirit solidifying at puberty. ("Men were quite clear that they had read their formative fiction around the age of 15," quotes one study on the reading habits of adults) If I were remotely the same person that I was when I was 13, I would cry. Daily. Just like I did then.
3) It's a kid's book. Yeah, so is Harry Potter, but I'd been reading some more grown-up stuff recently, so it seemed like a confusing step back.
4) It was explained how the story takes place in a world similar to ours, but not ours, in small print in a random credits page, so I didn't know until after I read th book, which totally confused me, trying to figure out when it was supposed to be and stuff...
5) How could they so purposefully insult the church? Heresy! The pope should issue a fatwa on the author!

Still, it was fun for a kid's book, with some heady stuff, and I'll gladly continue reading the series. Rated 3-.

"The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson

This book vacillated between the incredibly profound and the somewhat trivial. I adored the sections when it made history come alive, in the same way that Connections made science and warfare relevant, by describing the ways in which conquests or trends influenced language (the Norman invasion, e.g.). Occasionally, however, the text delved too deeply into trivialities, such as the fifty ways a certain word might be pronounced. Some paragraphs were only of skimmable interest... but not so many, so the book still gets a 2/3.

"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

I should love this book -- It's about time travel (indeed, I can see an influence on "The Time Traveler's Wife")... and Germany -- ...but I didn't. I mean, it wasn't bad. It was OK. There were even a few profound moments. (A good foil to "The Matrix" in its presentation of acceptance of fate vs. free-will.) But, in the end, it totally reminded me of those old sci-fi books (which I associate w/ the 50s, but - as I'm learning from the astronaut series - 1969 was not that far ahead, in the mainstream)... Written from the pov of a privileged-and-intelligent-but-somehow-"off" white male, surrounded only by white men, except for those disposable, peripheral token ladies that they begrudgingly allow into their lives... the wives and daughters, who they don't really respect... well, suffice it to say that kind of literature alienates me. But that's just me. I'm sure the book is well above average, but I can only give it a 4.

"Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison

I feel so often bombarded by mediocrity that I find myself astounded when I encounter a work so beautiful as this... The characters, the language, the story... great literature. Rated 1.

Big City Junk

Why would I buy a book by the same author as a piece of (true) junk that I rated with a 9? A delusion brought about by a temporary intoxication when something looks like it's populated with garage-sale design stylin' is my only excuse. Turns out that at least the author has some friends with interesting taste, so this book has some merit in featuring their hauls and creations. Displays of regional emphases available to junkers is also somewhat entertaining.) In the segments that feature the author's own junk collections, however, it's deja-vu of junk really equaling junk. (The habit has been passed on to her son, but his collections are not quite as crappy.) A significant improvement on the last read. Rated 6.

Interior Desecrations, James Lileks

Oh, the joy to find a book that had been on my wish list (you know I'll never buy anything on it when I still have a bookshelf of stuff yet to be read) new for $3. I haven't checked out his hilarious website in many moons, but it is always a laugh. With wisdom teeth being removed, I needed some levity. Taking about thirty minutes to read, this fit the ticket. I dig modern design, and I love to laugh with someone else at the horrific ways in which it can go.
And yet I found myself saying... "that room is absurd, but that lamp? nice."
(...and I swear my uncle still owns that bedspread featured with the matching wall...)
Rated 4.

Lost, Gregory Maguire

His books keep falling in my lap. And while none has lived up to the brilliance of "Wicked", they entertain. I am not an afficionado of ghost stories, but this wasn't very ghosty.
On the down side, it takes many chapters of trodding through alternate-type text interspersed with the real story until you understand what's going on, and the resolution is pretty weak.
On the upside, much of it is a fun romp, and it's full of lovely wordage. And it is obviously quite diligently researched. I like some smarts in my books. Rated 4.

Maria Montessori - The Absorbent Mind

It makes so much sense to me: have your child treat every day as an opportunity to explore, and give them the structured freedom to explore, and they will be too busy to try to get into trouble. Kids *want* to learn. They have to be taught to be lazy. (Watching my daughter, I would say that this is so.) I am so lucky to have been allowed to study at a Montessori school for two of the prime formative years (thank you, Harriet!!!). Especially after reading this book, I see how - while I went on to learn some bad habits from later influences - a lot of what I learned there at the very least instilled in me a love of learning. Rated 2+.

Year of the Goat

Living the dream, man. Living the dream.
Spending a year on the road (kind of), visiting goat farm after goat farm, sampling all manner of tasty chevre. I'm not too keen on reading about goat slaughter and its meat byproducts, but let the omnivores have their fun. At least they talk about responsible slaughter. The talk of the cheese kept my mouth watering long enough so that I didn't care so much about the market for halal goat.
In theory, I wouldn't see myself caring too much to read a travel narrative by two upper-class(ish) Manhattanites and their search for a simpler life. (Isn't that what [*shudder*] New Jersey is all about?) But the prose was fun and accessible without being trite, and the tales were varied and well-organized. They also have done all of the research for what would be a few lovely vacations, in my book. (If I had read this last year, my trip to Texas' hill country would have been quite different.) Rated 3+.

Les Miserables

According to my records, I started this 900-page-behemoth on 10/15. Finishing on Christmas Eve is pretty respectable, considering all of the other media consumed and hours worked in the interim.
My interest in the story ebbed and flowed throughout the pages. The first few hundred pages were delightful in their romanticism. I found Fantine's sacrifices touching and Jean ValJean's moral development quite lovely. Then a few hundred pages on somewhat tedious political struggles would slow me down. Then a sappy love story took the reins, more antiquated political intrigue, tempered by a more interesting plea for street children, and capped off with more lame ladies and melodrama involving folks not knowing who sacrificed what for whom, and worrying about fitting into high society. But through this all, Jean ValJean remained a captivating character. Long story short, 900 (abridged!) pages is quite a feat of writing, and you have to expect some down time. Not every page can please, and it seemed to be somewhat of a crowd pleaser (like the musical, but less severely so). More or less, however, this novel meets its mark. Rated 3+.

Garden Junk

I have several books about garage sales, "creative" interior decoration, functional "recycling", etc. But this book lives up to its name. When she says "junk", this lady means rusty old chairs, old wooden crap with peeling paint, natty painting reproductions, and the like. All of the shabby, none of the chic. Shabby chic is not my style, but I could at least find some redeeming qualities in this book if it detailed some creative uses for ugly crap. This book, however, consists mostly of pictures of crappy crap piled on crappy tables in various areas of this lady's junk-filled yard (affectionately dubbed "The Garden Hutte", but with no whimsy to follow). The sparse text goes something like this: "Can you believe I paid $50 for this rusty old wheelbarrow? I have thirty of them, but I can always use another! I can't believe I passed one by in 1982 at my favorite salvage store!" No, I can't believe that you *took* that rustbucket into your yard, and that you have no more creative ideas for it than to collect some rusty watering cans in it. And this book has others in its series? Oyyy, this lady knows somebody important to be so well-published.... Very rare to see this: Rated 9.

Je commence - Les Miserables

It was a lazy weekend chez Goat, ripe for plentiful media consumption, not least of which being my beginning to read "Les Miserables" (Victor Hugo). I have to make a note so that I can gauge how long it takes me to plod through. At 900 pages (not including the lengthy preface and educational section), this baby is *still* abridged! It looks promising, though, that I will get through it eventually. The first book of the first book (there are five) was quite readable. I'm reading this in English because the thought of 900 pages in another language is just too much for me right now.
Interesting tidbit: I hadn't really noticed that Napoleon really only served as "Emperor" for 11 years. That's a whole lot of carnage/ effort for such a short reign. Jeez.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

I very much appreciate Gregory Maguire's genre, fleshing out two-dimensional fairy tales into their pre-distilled real-life incarnations.
During most of the book, though, I was thinking "eh, it's not as good as 'Wicked'." (The book, haven't seen the musical.) Confessions was ok, but I felt more affinity with a story about political activism, physical stereotype, and government corruption than I could about reformation-era Netherland society. Moving away from history into the realm of artistry and Art History, however, the prose blossomed in the final 25%, and I felt quite fulfilled by the final pages. Rated 3+.

Art Cars

When in Houston this summer, we visited the Art Car Museum, which had some very interesting exhibits. (I particularly liked the Abu Ghraib shadowboxes.) I also bought this book, and it proved inspirational. Worth every penny. (It's rare for me to purchase a book new.) Photos, tips, instructions, stories and histories, web sites listed neatly to consult... Of course, it makes me want to make an art car. (After the house mosaic.) This book is not high literature, but it's everything that it should be. Rated 2.

Garage Sale America

As a proud "Second Hand Rose" and garage sale fanatic, I simply had to have this book. It was OK, but not as exciting as I thought it might be. The description describes what it is. It doesn't hold many surprises beyond. More pages should have been devoted to describing his journeys, encounters, and finds than to listing major garage sale extravaganzas that may be out of date by next season. (It'd be nice to take one of those trips, though. *sigh*) I did enjoy the section on his interior decorating. (A single male middle-age designer in the Catskills who is proud to have a toy chest labeled "Butch" in the bedroom for the child he never had? How much more obvious about the author could we be?) Rated 4/5.