City of the Dead

I'm home today because I just don't feel well at all. We've had a short work week because of Memorial Day but it's actually seemed like the longest week in a very long time.

The Brief History of the Dead: Kevin Brockmeier. I just finished this odd little book and completely enjoyed it until the end. I don't know what I was expecting from the ending, but it let me down somehow. In this book, people exist in three different stages: alive, living dead (not vampires but people who have died but there are still people living who remember them) and dead (those people with no living people who actually remember being with them). The city of the living dead sounds oddly very much like Manhattan. Things proceed there just like they would in a city of the living. People work, they love, they go out to eat -- they just don't age from the time they died. One day the entire city empties out except for a few people, so the ones left behind know something terrible must have happened in the land of the living. A pandemic has killed most of the people left on earth except one woman -- Laura Byrd. The story shifts between the city of the dead and Laura's life. I liked it but it's not a book for everyone.

Friday Shuffle

1. Under the Bridge: Red Hot Chili Peppers from Greatest Hits
2. Come Pick Me Up: Ryan Adams from Heartbreaker
3. He's Mine: The Platters from Enchanted
4. Anthony: Nickel Creek from Why Should the Fire Die?
5. Ukulele Lady: Arlo Guthrie from Hobo's Lullaby
6. Afrika: Angelique Kidjo from Black Ivory Soul
7. Do: The White Stripes from The White Stripes
8. Pissing in the Wind: Badly Drawn Boy from The Hour of Bewilderbeast
9. Jacqueline: Franz Ferdinand from Franz Ferdinand
10. (Da Le) Yaleo: Santana from Supernatural

Funny how those mp3 players get in moods. I haven't had The White Stripes shuffle up in a long time but they did last week and have been all week. Apparently my iPod is waiting in breathless anticipation for the release of Icky Thump!