Book 10

Title: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot Diaz
Pages: 335
Settings: New Jersey/Dominican Republic
Would I recommend this book? Yes, especially to anyone involved in the nerd subculture or Latin American subculture.

Synopsis: The story of a very nerdy kid and the curse that is on his family.

Favorite References: The Simpsons, The Watchmen, Fat Cats, Lord of the Rings, Hit Points, Magic the Gathering

Favorite Quotes: "Dude wore his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light saber or a Lensman her lens. Couldn't have passed for normal if he'd wanted to."
"Before he even realized what had happened he had buried himself in what amounted to the college version of what he'd majored in all throughout high school: getting no ass."
"The dictatingest dictator who ever dictated."
"It was the Gotterdammerung of beatdowns, a beatdown so cruel and relentless that even Camden, the City of the Ultimate Beatdown, would have been proud."

The Part that Freaked me Out: One of the characters in the book commits suicide by standing in front of a truck and being run over and dragged. A couple hours before I read this part I saw a story on the news about someone in New York City being hit by a car and dragged to death. It was a weird coincidence.

Misc: I enjoyed the use of footnotes in this book. There were a lot of nerd references, a lot of which I understood, but there were also a lot of Spanish words and phrases, too many to look up, so I feel like I missed a little bit.