"do travel writers go to hell?: a swashbuckling tale of high adventure, questionable ethics and professional hedonism" by thomas kohnstamm

like many lovers of travel, i always thought writing for the lonely planet would be a dream job. if i got anything from thomas kohnstamm's book is that the reality of being a lonely planet writer is far from the fantasy in my head. the money you're paid and the time you are given are not enough to cover the extensive research that's expected to put together a guidebook.

the book follows kohnstamm on his first lonely planet project as he attempts to cover the entire north-east corner of brazil in an impossibly short time frame. during his travels, he drinks to excess, parties until all hours, sleeps with random women and even resorts to selling ectasy to tourists to help his funds.

a quick and entertaining read, "do travel writers go to hell?" squashed my lonely planet writer dream, but perhaps that's for the best. one less option to consider.

"lamb: the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal" by christopher moore

you can figure out the jist of this novel from the title. the story of jesus' first thirty years told from the perspective of his best friend, levi who is called biff. joshua (aka jesus) knows he's the son of god from an early age when he can resurrect the lizards his brother kills. in an effort to find out how to be the messiah, josh and biff embark on a journey to visit the three wise men present at joshua's birth who will hopefully be able to shed some light on the quandry. it is from the wise men that joshua and levi learn about confucianism and hinduism and other 'be nice to your neighbour, don't attach yourself to material things" sentiments and return to israel 15 years later to spread the word.

i think if i new more about jesus' life and the new testament, i would have liked this book more. i have a feeling there's a lot of nudge-nudge wink-wink's that i didn't get just by not being familiar with the quirks of the apostles, the teachings of jesus and the stories behind christianity's celebrations. the book is funny, having some killer one-liners and hilarious dialogue, but these get less and less frequent as the story progresses and joshua heads towards his demise.

a strong novel, but not my cup of tea. perhaps i'm wrong, but it often felt like christopher moore forced situations in order to put in some tidbit of jesus' life in the story. the story dragged on in parts and i would frequently get the characters mixed up and not understand what was going on. maybe i should have paid more attention.

"the beautiful miscellaneous" by dominic smith

sometimes i like to read mediocre books because it makes me believe that i, too, can write a novel one day.

nathan nelson is the son of a physicist genius father.  the father, believing that nathan is also a genius, spends the better part of nathan's adolescence trying to coax out his inner whiz-kid, eventually realizing that nathan is just a boy with slightly above average intelligence.  then nathan is involved in a car accident, develops synesthesia and the ability to memorize entire phone books, and goes to spend time in an institute with other savants.

this is your classic coming-of-age-with-a-twist tale, and while i found it sub-par, there were sentences of incredible beauty, mr.smith having a knack for descriptions of scenery.  the story itself is a great idea, but the execution of it falls flat.  meh.

"gods behaving badly" by marie phillips

this book was a riot to read, keeping me up past my bedtime many-a-nights to just read one more chapter.

set in the modern day, "gods behaving badly" finds all the greek mythology gods living in a run down house in london where morale is fading fast as no one believes in them any more. aphrodite is a phone-sex worker, artemis walks dogs, apollo is a tv psychic, eros has become a christian. a couple of overly nice mortals come into the picture providing a narrative and hilarity ensues. fun fun fun.