A RANDOM TRAVELER BY LEO GETZ

As you can probably assume from the title this book is about a guy traveling to random places all over the world, and as the author points out in the preface the book is not written entirely in the same manor. The first half of the book is in a dairy style cataloging his daily events and thoughts, then it changes and you get a quick 30 say summation, and it then changes again the author goes into describing this time at different locations.

Now for what I though of the book, well 110 percent complete honesty, the first half of this book I hated, there is no other way to say than that, I almost did not finish it because of the beginning.
Why? Well first half was like a sponsorship advertisement for contik tours, like something you would read to find out all the things you get to do and see if you buy one of their tour packages, which to me is not a novel I want to spend money on. Then it got worse in the fact that the author was very immature, he made crude jokes about the people on the tour with him and the natives of the places he visited. For example, there was a girl who had a great body but not so great in the face so of course he made the "butterface" joke, then there was the man who smelled and he had to write about that a ton, and the worse was when described the natives as reminding him of people you would see in the home depot parking lot in the mornings looking for work. I just hated the fact that the author was visiting some of the most beautiful places fill of such great history and culture, and instead of giving the reader an inside look at these places, something that you wouldn't get from a advertisement, you get childish jokes and just harsh judgemental stories.

BUT.... I will say it gets better....

THANK GOD lol.....

Once the author switches formatt you do get that inside look and you learn about these places finally, I loved his description of Qatar and the boat ride to Daydream Island. To me the changes in writing style shows a progression in maturity for the author, that this trip in its entirety is him growing up and because of this I really learned to love the book. In the story the author mentions how being away from what most call "civilization" and going to these countries that do not have what we have really makes a person grateful and that to me is again him showing how traveling changed him, matured him, and gave him a deeper connection with life. While he is on Daydream Island he states "So I guess sometimes you have to go out in the middle of nowhere, even to a remote farm where there's nothing to do, the most boring place you can think of, to find excitement" and to me this sums up the book. So in conclusion, the book is of average length and the first half is pretty crappy, but if you just stick with it, it is completely worth it!

The Lady Who Loved Bones By: Jack Hazen

With any review I always like to start by letting the reader know how it was to read the book, so this book is very long and it is not a light easy read. You most likely will not pick up this novel and automatically get wrapped up and engrossed in the plot or imagery and i feel the main reason for this is the fact that it is a story made up of a lot of other stories, to the point it almost reminds you of a textbook. So the basic premise of the book is a woman named Hannah going on an expedition through the west to find dinosaur bones. It is set in the early 1900s so it deals with the issues of the time, like the trials and wars with the native Americans. Hannah is highly educated, so while on the journey she is constantly telling stories about pretty much everything, which is where the textbook factor comes in. At first these tales she tales are neat since they are very informative, but once you get over halfway done with the novel they are still good and informative, but you wish the writer would just get to the freakin' point and let the story itself progress. The author also features full song lyrics in the novel, which I feel it was his way of adding more meaning and depth to the story, since this would be something in a classic novel that in school you would look at the symbolism and write lengthy research papers on, BUT that does not work here since this is not a classic novel written by a world renowned author, so it just adds more length to a story that is already way too long. Also this novel is not for younger audiences for sure since there is lots of sex jokes, racism, and gory torture and when i say gory i mean gory the author goes to great detail of bodily mutilations like scalping and castration. The book also is very repeative, it seem like in the story every night around the camp fire the same conversations happen, you have a preacher who is racist and sexist, so he is constantly telling everyone they are going to Hell and that blacks and women should not be given the right to vote, but then he stays drunk most of the time. Then you have Hex who plays Hannah's somewhat love interest who is constantly making jokes at Hannah about sex, which she tells him she will not do with him unless they are married. Then one member is transgendered, meaning it is a man that dresses, acts, and lives as a woman and the men in the travel party are constantly bringing up and making fun off. So if you were to strip away the "stories" or for me lectures, the repeative crude jokes, the songs, and torture you have a pretty good story that does have enough action to keep the reader interested.