I, Mona Lisa

I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis was simply a wonderful read. The story tells the tale of the woman behind the famous painting. And it does so in a rich and captivating way. If I could go back in time I would want to go to Florence in the time of DaVinci, Michelangelo, and the Medici. So when I saw this book on the store shelf I had to get it. It was a chance to live, if even for 500 pages, in the world I so admire.

Now, I know this is fiction based on historical fact. So I realize that what takes place in the story is far from an accurate historical count but if there is a story behind the Mona Lisa it might as well be this one.

I passed this story on to my father to read. It's the kind of tale that you don't want to keep to yourself. It paints too beautiful a story to keep to oneself.

Haunted

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is hands down the strangest and most disturbing book I have ever read. This man makes Stephen King look like a romance writer.

I don't know if there are even words to adequetly discribe how freak'n weird this book is.

The plot is basically this: a group of rag tag authors all sign up to go away on a three month writers retreat. All their needs are to be provided for. The only thing they have to do is write.

Made up of short stories, poems, and chapters about what is happening at the writer's retreat this book reads more like an episode of "Survivor" on crack, meth, LCD, and pcp all at once. This is one seriously demented book. And of course no matter how queezy I got, no matter how badly I wanted to shake off the images it put in my head I coudn't stop reading. This book is a train wreck in print.

This is the stuff that nightmares are made of. And I can't wait to pick up another book by this author. He's seriously a demented man.