Category Archives: bookstore management

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore

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angelSo here’s my problem…..

I started reading this book, thinking it would be funny, I could review it for Christmas and be timely and relevant and it was short and I’d finish it quickly….

…and I didn’t like it enough to finish it. I didn’t even get to the brain-eating zombies the Angel raised when he got confused by the wishes of the wrong child to have Santa raised from the dead after he’d been whacked in the face with a shovel by a Christmas-tree-stealing do-gooder whose friend wields a broadsword.

That enough about plot summary? The plot could best be described as “smoke pot while watching HBO all night, then write.” Yeah, hilarious. Not.

What’s funny about a bunch of stereotypes slouching toward Bethlehem in an overwritten “ain’t my word use clever” streams of unmerciful-undead never ceasing?

I never read any of Moore’s other books. Tom Robbins kills me, so funny, so kooky, so Lewis Carroll on  a good day. Moore, apparently, is meant to be like him.

Still waiting to see that parallel line meet itself….

So I’m sorry to tell you that I have no Monday book because I backed the wrong horse, and didn’t have time to start over.

All I can tell you is, save yourself. If you like character driven plots, well, his characters are as thin as the paper they’re written on. His plot is driven by wild horses running away, and I’m not going to be looking for any more Moores.

Go watch Alias Grace. It’s way better and you can crochet at the same time.

The Vagaries of Age – –

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Jack slips in under the wire – –

I’m an idiot!

I have an inherited condition called ‘Nail Patella Syndrome’ (NPS), passed through the male line and mainly affecting bones, joints, finger and toe nails, and teeth. So, whenever I have any problem that might be attributed to that I’m quick to jump to that conclusion!

Back when we heard that ‘The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap’ would be published, we were on vacation in Chicago (we’d discovered that we could get a cheap flight from our local airport). But shortly before that I began to suffer severe pain in my left hip, Thigh, knee and foot. So much that I needed to use a cane, which eased me through check in very quickly!

Chiropractics aren’t a big thing in Scotland, so I wasn’t too sure Terri would be able to do much for me when we got back. But – miracle of miracles – after a couple of sessions I was back to normal, and she was very interested to learn about NPS.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I begin to experience the very same thing on my right side.

I’m four years older and people are talking about sciatica and arthritis, but I’m still focused on NTS as the culprit.

Until – –

The sainted Terri has again been X-raying and adjusting me without too much effect. The ‘Full Scottish Breakfast Club’ (of which I am a member) spent Thanksgiving weekend in Asheville, with me hirpling like an auld man. One of the other members (who shall be nameless) passed me heavy duty painkillers to let me sleep at night.

But, as I lay on Terri’s couch yesterday morning and she battered me around, she asked me how long I had kept my very thick wallet in my right hip pocket. “For years” I said.

Up until we spent that vacation in Chicago I had always kept it in my left hip pocket – until the pocket wore out. The I shifted it to my right hip pocket. I had been keeping a half inch wedge under – first my left hip, then my right hip – until yesterday morning.

I shifted it to a front pocket before I left the chiro office and almost immediately felt better!