Friday, December 6, 2013

You need to be better than the best.

It's time of year for everyone to post their "Best of" lists. And I'm no exception. So today, I reviewed the books I read this year (73 for a new personal record!) and compiled for you my list of the best books I read this year.

For 2012's list, click here.
For 2011's list, click here.

I'm going to let you in on the process a little bit here. First of all, I went through all my "Book Review" posts and put everything into three lists (which you can see below): Fiction, Nonfiction, and Classic Fiction/Practical Classics. Then I started with the Practical Classics list, because it was the shortest.

When I got to the Fiction category, I got scared. Starting at the top of the list, I thought to myself. Seriously? What did I spend a year reading? Did I read anything worthwhile or memorable at all?! Fortunately, I got a little farther down the list and discovered that yes, in fact I did read many worthwhile and wonderful things. Which made it really hard to pick one "best book" for this section.

So I decided to narrow the category down. And I crossed out everything that wasn't even a contender for "best book." Here is the list I was left with:
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan


So I thought, well, let me split up the fiction category a little more, and that will make it easier. And then I did get down to one choice. But please, if you are looking for a recommendation, I loved all the books on the short list above. I think you would be happy with any of those.

Without further ado, here are my winners for Best Book of 2013.

Category One: Fiction
Product Details
World War Z by Max Brooks

Are you surprised by that? I am a little. I picked World War Z because I thought it was such an interesting and clever way to tell the story. It was an enjoyable read but also very thought-provoking and played a bit with the boundaries of fiction and our ideas on how a story is told.

Subcategory: Young Adult
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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This is a beautiful book about the power of friendship and hope and the ways that books unite us. It had to be on the list, so I made it a separate category. This is young adult fiction done right.

Subcategory: Short Stories
Product Details
How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers

I wanted this on the list, but it's different from a novel, so it deserves its own category.





Category Two: Nonfiction
Two "Best Books" from the nonfiction category. 
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The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

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Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer





Category Three: Classic Fiction/Practical Classics
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The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien




The full list of all 73 books I read this year, broken down by category.
Fiction
Ransomed Dreams by Sally John
Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill
Friday Night Bites by Chloe Neill
Twice Bitten by Chloe Neill
Hard Bitten by Chloe Neill
Drink Deep by Chloe Neill
Falling for Mr. Darcy by KaraLynne Mackrory
The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey
Room by Emma Donoghue
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
Firespell by Chloe Neill
Hexbound by Chloe Neill
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning
Turned by Morgan Rice
Touched by Corrine Jackson
Breathe by Sarah Crossan
Faefever by Karen Marie Moning
The Yard by Alex Grecian
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington
The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Need by Carrie Jones
Front Page Fatality by LynDee Walker
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates
How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
Pride's Prejudice by Misty Dawn Pulsipher
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
Changeless by Gail Carriger
Defending Jacob by William Landay


Nonfiction
Radical Forgiveness by Colin Tipping
Data, a Love Story by Amy Webb
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Beauty Experiment by Phoebe Baker Hyde
Gifted Hands by Ben Carson
The Magic by Rhonda Byrne
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
Eighty Days by Mathew Goodman
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Only in New York by Sam Roberts
Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander

Classic Fiction/Practical Classics
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Candide by Voltaire
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Friday, November 22, 2013

Hello, I want my book. Bonjour, je veux mon livre.

November Books
I'm jumping the gun a little bit with my book reviews as the month isn't entire over yet. But I'm going to post this a little early. November was a much more diverse and generally happier month of books than October was. Thanks especially to my friend Diane who picked books for me and reserved them at the library. It was like getting gifts every week.



Product Details
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

The Story:
In 1962 an American actress goes to a tiny Italian fishing village. She has been working on "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, but is sent to this tiny village where she stays in the hotel Pasquale has just inherited from his father. The story flashes to the present day and multiple points in between.

The Review:
I really liked this novel. I loved the descriptions of Italy, I thought the Hollywood types were appropriately creepy, and the story was thoughtful and moving.

The formatting of the story was unique. There are so many characters that the story tries to follow, and so many different times that the story tries to check in with each of them, that it gets a little unwieldy at times. I found myself frustrated at a few moments because sometimes the chapter ended before I was ready for it to, and then instead of the next chapter picking up that same storyline, it flashed to something new. Or rather than moving when I wasn't ready for it to move, it at times took an extra interlude, so if it started with storyline A, then moved to storyline B, I wanted and expected it to go back to storyline A, but instead it introduced storyline C. So there was something extra between me and the storyline I was more interested in. Despite all of that, it actually did work. The characters and storylines wound up connecting and overlapping, so extraneous characters weren't being introduced. And I wound up caring about most of the characters, so I wanted to know about their stories.

I loved the ending. *** Insert quote ***

I highly recommend this one.




Product Details
Soulless by Gail Carriger

The Story:
Victoria is the queen of an England that has integrated vampires and werewolves into the common society. Our heroine Alexia Tarrabotti is the opposite of a supernatural, a preternatural, who can return vampires and werewolves to their human form. Adventure follows.

The Review:
Thoroughly enjoyed it. This was one of Diane's first suggestions because it is light. It certainly fit all the criteria. In addition to just being light, it was clever and funny. The characters were good and fairly well-developed, the adventure was interesting (how is supernaturalness caused so how can we get rid of it) and the side romance was funny and cute.

If you are looking for light and cleverly fluffy, I certainly recommend this. I liked it enough to check out the second book in the series.




Product Details
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

The Story:
I'm making up a category name for this "true war fiction," so it's like a true crime novel, where the events did occur, but it's got some details added or rearranged. As Huck Finn would say, "some stretchers." O'Brien tells about his service in the Vietnam War through a series of stories and vignettes.

The Review:
This book comes from my list of Practical Classics. In my defense, I had read portions of it before, particularly the title story, but I hadn't read the entire thing.

The first review comment is probably a little obvious, the war stuff is brutal and harsh. What I mean by that is that O'Brien does not pull any punches, he doesn't try to soften anything for the reader, and when you hit a moment where any normal person would look away, O'Brien keeps repeating the image. For example, he describes a man that he killed and that one eye was "a star-shaped hole." It sounds like a rather beautiful description here, but O'Brien continues to repeat the phrase, and the image falls apart, leaving it as something gruesome rather than the kind of beautiful one.

I was fascinated with the way O'Brien tells stories and the way he talks about telling stories. He has several stories where he revised and reframes the story even as he is in the middle of telling it. The example above applies, but for a larger sense, he tells a story about Norman Bowkler, then the next story is the Tim O'Brien commentary on that story and how it came to be, then he actually goes back to the events of the Bowkler story and retells them in a new story.

I highly recommend this, with the usual caveat about violence.




Product Details
Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Story:
Finding himself in need of a job, Clay becomes a clerk at Mr. Penumbra's, and within a few weeks discovers there is a mystery to the bookstore. He enlists the help of his friends to solve the unsolvable.

The Review:
I loved this book. I keep recommending it to everyone.

In the first couple of pages, Clay, the narrator, talks about his job loss and looking for a new job. I was completely caught and enchanted by his voice when he said, "I'd search for Help Wanted signs in windows--which is not something you really do, right? I should probably be more suspicious of those. Legitimate employers use Craig's List." So I was laughing and thoroughly enjoying the book because of the funny, wry humor that runs throughout the novel.

As the mystery progresses, Clay forms a group of his friends who help him with solving the mystery. He actually calls his group "the fellowship" ala Lord of the Rings. As the novel progresses there are constant references to the nerdy world which I thought were funny and made it charming. At one point in the mystery, the group is going down into a secret library, "Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passageway built into a bookshelf." And I thought, me too!

This was a great, super clever, entertaining read. And if you get the hardback, the cover glows in the dark.




Product Details
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

The Story:
This is an essay that Wallace wrote in 1995 (I think) about taking a seven day Luxury Caribbean Cruise.

The Review:
Um... First World Problems.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up this entire novella-length essay. Basically what happened was Wallace was paid by an employer to go on a luxury cruise and then write about it. This is what he wrote. As you can tell from the title, he hated it, and spends basically the entire time ranting about how cruises are forced relaxation and forced fun and not only do they force you to relax and have fun, but they then tell you that you are relaxed and having fun.

Wallace is extremely pessimistic, and while I can understand and appreciate pessimism, it was not interesting at all. I was extremely bored while I was reading this and wound up just feeling like he was being really whiny. And so I classify this as First World Problems.

And I basically have no desire to go on a cruise. Even though people recommend them to me all the time.

Don't waste your time!




Product Details
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Story:
Death narrates a story about a young girl named Liesel who is growing up in Nazi Germany during World War II. Her mother gives her to a foster family and during her time there she begins stealing books.

The Review:
This was the second time I read this book (for book club this time) and I was really surprised by my very different reactions. The first time I read it, I thought it was really good. I thought it was well-written and clever. I liked the story of Liesel and was very invested in the her story and in the story of Max. I cried at the end.

This time, I was much less caught up in the story, I was less engaged, and I found the narrator to be more annoying. Death makes the comment, "It kills me sometimes how people die." The opening phrase there, "It kills me" is one of Holden Caulfield's catch phrases. I read that and it made me think of Holden and I just cringed, because Death became this sarcastic, bitter, and angsty narrator, and I really didn't like him very much at all.

Despite that, I would still recommend this book if you haven't read it. It is an interesting and poignant story about regular Germans caught in a world they don't necessarily agree with.




Product Details
The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster

The Story:
This is one of those Year-of-X experiment books. So Jen Lancaster decides in 2012 to embark on a year of living like Martha Stewart. Her primary reason for doing this is that 2011 was a very hard year and she wants to do whatever she can to make 2012 a better year. So she wants to follow Martha's guiding principles (her Tao) to come to an understanding of how she can run her life and be a happier, calmer person, more able to face the difficulties that come.

The Review:
I laughed and laughed and laughed at this.

Ok, so at first, I have to admit, she started talking about cleaning out junk drawers and cabinets and organizing closets, and I started to feel kind of panicked. And pressured. And like, wait, let me stop reading and go clean out a closet. But then I pushed past that chapter and the rest of the book was just hilarious, and because most of Martha's crafting projects and entertainment tips are not something I want to incorporate into my life, I didn't feel any pressure.

In explaining why she chose Martha, Lancaster compares Martha and Oprah and says that basically in the world there are Martha people and there are Oprah people. I have been trying to do Oprah's guided meditations, and I have to say, even though I don't want to get all crafty with tablescapes, I feel like more of a Martha person, because as I kept sitting down to do the meditation, I kept thinking, maybe I would feel better at the end of this 20 minutes if I just used it to clean my bathroom. "Related note. Were Martha and Oprah to cage-fight, smart money is on M. Diddy, because you KNOW she's a scrapper."

Besides the Martha/Oprah debate, I liked the focus on figuring out how to do things that make you happy and eliminating the things that don't. And she develops a Tao of Maisy (her dog): Be awesome, give awesome, get awesome. Which is a pretty good Tao.

And then there's the glitter: "I've never in my life been interested in glitter before, but suddenly all the sparkly things in the universe make sense, like drag queens and participating in Toddlers and Tiaras."

I recommend this one for a good laugh.




Product Details
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Story:
A true crime novel about the building of the Chicago World's Fair (or as it was more properly known "Columbian Exposition) in 1893 and a story of a serial killer who killed women during the fair.

The Review:
This was fascinating. It alternates between the two storylines, sometimes bringing in a third.

Let's deal with the first storyline, which is the building of the fair. This was an incredibly detailed look at the process of getting the fair to be held in Chicago, and then the pressure, the desire, the pride, and the problems of bringing the fair to fruition. It was an amazing process and also amazing how many people were brought together to work on it and who frequently shared the same vision. It really is an amazing feat and amazing that they were able to actually accomplish it. When I read this type of story, I am always so interested in the important/famous/historical people who actually cross paths or are involved in the same endeavors. People that I usually think of in entirely separate realms and times, but it really was all happening at once. Larson does a really good job of setting that up and pointing out who was involved in planning and building the fair, and then also those people who attended the fair.

Storyline #2 is the story of Dr. H. H. Holmes (which is his most-used alias) the serial killer. This was deeply disturbing, but Larson does an extremely good job of writing the storyline so that it is an examination of the mind and reasons of a psychopath, rather than a gratuitously violent and vicious account of murders. I found that aspect of the telling very interesting. Because there aren't actually a lot details remaining or exposed about the murders or things that Holmes did, Larson focuses instead on how Holmes lures people in, how he set up his "Castle," and why he is the way he is. He actually explains in the notes that he wanted to compare the pride of the men building the fair with the pride of Holmes who wants to own women. I felt like he really accomplished that through his focus.

I recommend this one.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Mrs Hughes, I need to steal you for a minute. I have to check the linen books.

Product Details

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The Story:
The third part of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo saga. Resumes after the events in Played With Fire and concludes that story.

The Review:
I really liked it. As I read I was constantly feeling like What just happened? Seriously? Where did that come from? and Ooh, smart!

From all of that, you should understand that it kept me on my toes and guessing about how everything was going to work out. I really didn't know, and didn't even have many good guesses. It was clever and engaging and I very much enjoyed it.

Again, I recommend it with the caveat that you have to be ok with violence, language, and sex.



Product Details

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Story:
A true-crime novel about a multiple murders that occurred in Western Kansas in 1959. Four members of the Clutter family were murdered in their home by two men who had been paroled from the Kansas Penitentiary. The story begins with the family and the murder and then follows the work of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to find the men, their capture, trial, and sentencing.

The Review:
It's a fascinating story. It is so brutal and the murders are so cold about it that there is just something that draws you in to the tale, even though it is terrible.

Capote has an interesting way of keeping himself out of the story, but there are a few moments when I realized how often he must have interviewed these guys and how much time he actually spent with them. It's kind of amazing. And I found myself almost more interested in that than in the actual story -- why did Capote get so interested in this story that he didn't have any real ties to, and how did the researching go, how much time did he really spend with these guys? And none of that is in the book at all.

 It's a fascinating story. Through some of the middle, I got a little bored because I didn't have any sympathy at all for the murderers. In fact, I really didn't like them at all, so I didn't want to read about them anymore. But I really liked the ending. I think it was a nice way to end and have kind of a tribute.



Product Details

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Story:
A distopian world in which the premises are based mostly on Biblical readings of the roles of women. For some, not fully determined, reason, the birthrate has plummeted. There are suggestions of nuclear fallout being the cause, but also women are blamed. So the government is taken over, the society is restructured, and roles for women are redefined. Our narrator, who we only know as Offred, is a Handmaid like in the Biblical stories of Sarah who gives Hagar and Leah and Rachel who give their handmaids to have children when they can't.

The Review:
A fascinating and horrifying look at a distopian future. It's an interesting commentary on how women are valued/devalued by society, both today and in this possible future. It's got a striking commentary about the current situation for women, and also a striking commentary about how women are treated and used in the distopia (Gilead).

The structure and telling of the story is also interesting and I particularly like how Atwood/the narrator embeds a discussion of how stories are told, how we discuss them, and how our memories are actually recreations.

I'm glad I finally read this one, it will keep me thinking for a while. I definitely recommend it (of course with the usual caveats about violence, sex, and language).



Product Details

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Story:
In this autobiography, Angelou begins with her memory of being sent to live in Arkansas with her grandmother when her parents get divorced. She then tells the story of her life until she is sixteen years old.

The Review:
Things seem to all come together and happen at the same time for me. So when my Lit class was reading The Catcher in the Rye, I had just finished reading Out of Africa, which Holden mentions reading. Then the last two weeks we have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and Harper Lee worked as a researcher on In Cold Blood, which I read for book club and one of my students presented on. So at the same time I was reading this, one of my students presented on Angelou's poem by the same name. All interesting intersections.

On to the book itself. It dragged a bit in the middle, enough that I actually thought about not continuing with the book. But I ended up liking it. Angelou is forthright and it's an important perspective. She has moments within the narrative where she ponders life and blackness and why things are the way they are that are poignant and touching, but also thought-provoking.

I recently heard a student comment about Latino writing that it is not his experience so he doesn't like it and just isn't interested, and I was disturbed because I think the beauty of reading and literature is that we get to experience other people's experiences/lives/point of view. And this book allowed me to do that.

I recommend it (always with the usual caveat).



Product Details

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

The Story:
A journalist returns home to her small Missouri town to investigate the murders of two little girls.

The Review:
I wanted to read something less heavy and serious, so I picked up this because I'd been thinking about Gone Girl while I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.

Warning! This is super dark and quite disturbing! Super, super dark.

I'm not completely sure what I think of it. It was riveting. I read it in three days and it moved super fast, because those three days were days I didn't have a lot of time to read. The violence against female characters was horrible and disturbing. But one of the things that bothered me was that I didn't feel as horrified as maybe I should have, and I decided that was because the characters didn't really fit their actual age, so it made the horror harder to see.

I was irritated by the main character's poor decisions. I understand why the events happened and why those decisions were made, but that didn't keep me from thinking she's an idiot. And it didn't keep me from not liking her very much.

And there weren't as many turns as I thought there would be, or as I expected from the writer of Gone Girl. I knew fairly early who the killer was.

Final thoughts: If you are looking for something super dark and disturbing to read, go for it!



Product Details

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Story:
Gregor wakes up one morning to find he has turned into a giant bug.

The Review:
Kim read this in her short story class and it is on my list of books to read, so I got it.

What a weird little story. Gregor ruins his life and his family's life by becoming a giant bug. I get the commentary and why this is important, but really? It's weird. I managed to feel a little bad for the characters, but not a lot bad. There were a lot of interesting things to think about, but mostly this made me think of the children's book Imogene's Antlers.

Product Details Which is a hilarious take on sort of the same problem.

If you are trying to feel well-read and this is on your list, go for it. It's short and easy to read.





Product Details

Candide by Voltaire

The Story:
A young man Candide is cast out of the home he has been taken into and where he has been raised and goes on many adventures.

The Review:
Another weird little story.

The point is optimism versus pessimism versus you create your own destiny. So Candide has been trained by a philosopher who believes that everything happens for the best. But in his adventures many trials and bad things happen to Candide, so he questions the philosophy and almost begins to agree with a friend who is a pessimist. But the conclusion is that we have to create our own happiness.

It's a lovely message, but the way to get there was totally bizarre. And yes, I am going to judge Voltaire out of his time period, but it is a totally weird idea to have characters go to El Dorado and find an ancient Incan land untouched by foreigners where they serve European food and live in European style houses and wear European style clothes.

Again, if you are trying to feel well-read and this is on your list, go for it. It's short and easy to read.



*****
A closing thought that is slightly separate from the reviews. I don't know if you noticed, but almost everything on this list is about, or contains a lot of violence toward women. What is up with that? Why is that what I am continually reading? I'm trying to choose a happier book for my next one. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them. 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Did you say it? Make a plan. Set a goal. Work toward it. But every now and then look around.

Sometimes I feel like there are so many books that I haven't read. And sometimes I feel like all the books that I haven't read are big books -- not big as in size but big as in big deal. Sometimes this really embarrasses me, because I feel like as an English professor, I should definitely at some point have read all of the big deal books.

Combine that feeling with the feeling that I get sometimes that I don't read fantastic books. -- Don't get me wrong! I read some fantastic and amazing books that I have certainly loved. -- But sometimes I read 2 or 3 or even 4 sort of duds in a row, and I start to feel like wow, I just want some good books in my life.

And so, not fully knowing where to turn, I start seeking out lists. Lists of the top 100 books, lists of the books you should read, should have read, everyone has read, etc.

On Smart People Podcast, I heard an interview with Kevin Smokler who wrote a book called Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books You Haven't Touched Since High School.

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I checked out the book from the library and decided it would be a good place to start, because it has all kinds of big deal books that are commonly taught, but he's also chosen ones that still have some kind of resonance or value for adults. So I went through the book and made a list of all the books he highlights that I have never read. This book list is now my goal for a while.

I'm including the list below. Obviously I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing as I post my reviews. If you see something on the list that is absolutely not worth my time, please please please let me know.


The List:
1. Candide -- Voltaire (Click here for my review)
2. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter -- McCuller
3. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings -- Angelou (Click here for my review)
4. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven -- Alexie (Click here for my review)
5. Autobiography of Malcolm X
6. The Age of Innocence -- Wharton
7. Surfacing -- Atwood
8. The Handmaid's Tale -- Atwood (Click here for my review)
9. Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Dick
10. Labyrinths -- Borges
11. The Bell Jar -- Plath
12. Portnoy's Complaint -- Roth
13. Cannery Row -- Steinbeck
14. And the Band Played On -- Shilts
15. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again -- Wallace (Click here for my review)
16. Master Harold... and the Boys -- Fugard
17. Fahrenheit 451 -- Bradbury (Click here for my review)
18. The Metamorphosis -- Kafka (Click here for my review)
19. The Phantom Tollbooth -- Juster
20. Camp -- Sontag
21. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction -- Benjamin
22. Understanding Media -- McLuhan
23. The Stranger -- Camus
24. The Lottery -- Jackson (Click here for my review)
25. Bastard Out of Carolina -- Allison
26. Leaves of Grass -- Whitman
27. Emily Dickinson (Yeah, Smokler doesn't give something specific here, so I'll probably just go with a "Collected Works" or something. Needs more research).
28. The Day of the Locust -- West
29. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek -- Dillard
30. The Things They Carried -- O'Brien (Click here for my review)
31. Animal Farm -- Orwell (Click here for my review)
32. The Crying of Lot 49 -- Pynchon
33. The Remains of the Day -- Ishiguro


These are in no particular order, and I'll read them in any order. For the moment, I've started just by looking at the beginning of the list and searching to see what I can check out as an ebook from the library. So I'm starting with The Handmaid's Tale and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Friday, October 4, 2013

If the history books are full of them, I'd say they already are.

A new month started this week. How did that happen? Where did September go?

In honor of the new month (which I'm going to be able to catch up on and believe at some point), I thought I would let you in on all the things I've been reading over the past month.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Book 1 of the Millennium Trilogy (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Story:
A journalist is approached and asked to investigate a family mystery. As he gets farther and farther in, he discovers that this is not merely a family mystery important only to those who hired him, but that it is a huge mystery with far-reaching effects. He calls in help in the form of Lisbeth Salander a "researcher."

The Review:
Ok, I know I'm late to this party. I just wasn't sure that this was really going to be my thing. I'd heard that it was super dark and super violent, and a lot of the time I don't seek that out in my pleasure-reading.

I liked it. It's a good mystery and really engaging. At first I wasn't sure about Lisbeth Salander, she's a really odd character, but I wound up really liking her. The book reminded me of Gone Girl with the dark subject matter and twists, but it was less crazy. When I got to the end, I really enjoyed it, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to read the other books in the trilogy. I wanted to know what happened to Lisbeth, but I'm satisfied with the book.

I recommend this only if you can handle extreme violence described graphically and a lot of profanity.



Product Details

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

The Story:
Set a few years after the Titanic sank, Grace is sailing with her new husband back to New York when their ship sinks. She is thrown onto a lifeboat with 39 others and this is the story of their time at sea.

The Review:
I enjoyed the style. Grace writes a diary/journal of events and her style is very simple and straightforward. The parts on the lifeboat were a little "Life of Pi"-ish. For example, in order to survive they catch fish and birds to eat, so it's the same event/experience as "Life of Pi," but without the beauty of the writing of "Life of Pi."

Grace is writing the journal after the fact while she sits in prison waiting for her trial. The parts about the trial were interesting, but made Grace seem a little mercenary and manipulative. So as a reader, I'm not sure she was really likable and I found myself frustrated with her.

At the end, it was a good book that had me asking many questions, but it isn't one I would read again.



Product Details

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

The Story:
A retelling of Jane Eyre.

The Review:
I don't fully understand the need for a retelling like this. It was the same story with a change in time (set in the 1950's) that wasn't obvious or big. She still doesn't deal with modern conveniences like phones and her life remains pretty much the same as it was. I don't mind retellings or reimaginings, but there needs to be some substantial difference -- like telling the story from a completely new perspective. Instead of working through Jane's eyes, go the route of "The Wide Sargasso Sea" and tell it from Bertha's view.

The other major issue with this retelling was the biggest change was to get rid of the wife/madwoman in the attic. While I can understand a young reader's frustration with that plotline (like being frustrated with the Lydia/Wickham plotline in Pride and Prejudice), it's vitally important! Without that, Jane (Gemma Hardy in this version) has no reason to run away from Mr. Rochester! (Ok, I don't usually use the exclamation points in these reviews, you should know there's something seriously wrong). It was a stupid change.

Final word: Did not like it. Do not recommend it.




Product Details

The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser

The Story:
A non-fiction account of the theft of paintings and other art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

The Review:
Remember a couple months ago when I read The Art Forger?  After I thought about that book for a while, I decided that as interesting as that fictional account was, and as much as I enjoyed the stories about the forgeries, what was even more fascinating there was the completely true story of the heist itself -- which remains unsolved to this day. It's amazing!

So I came across the title for this book, and immediately wanted to read it. And I was right. The true story is more fascinating than The Art Forger. So much is known and the author writes a great, entertaining account of the various characters who are suspects and those who just get sucked in.

It's honestly an hommage to the power of art, a look at the seedy underworld, and a journey through obsession. I highly recommend it.




Product Details

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Story:
A lighthouse keeper and his wife live on a tiny island off of the coast of Australia where two oceans meet. One day a boat washes up that has a dead man and a live baby in it. The wife takes the baby and chooses to keep her without letting her husband tell anyone what they have found.

The Review:
Just reading-wise, this was hard to get into. It is pretty stilted in its descriptions and has a lot of jumps. The paragraphs often are very short and bounce from one subject to a new one immediately.

I had a very difficult time feeling connected to the characters. I wanted to feel bad for them because they went through so much difficulty and I wanted to want them to be able to find a bit of happiness, but mostly I felt disconnected and didn't care. I think this was partly because of the style, and partly because the book is often told from Tom's perspective and he is completely disconnected, and partly because they were making really wonky choices.

I don't really recommend this.




Product Details

Eighty Days by Mathew Goodman

The Story:
The true story of two female journalists, Nelllie Bly and Elisabeth Bisland, who set out to circumnavigate the globe in less than 80 days. Bly begins first and sets her goal at 75 days and Bisland follows her (going west to Bly's east) and wants to beat her.

The Review:
Fascinating story. It's amazing that these two very young women set out alone to travel around the world at that time period and did so in trains and ships and boats.

Unfortunately, it was a very boring telling of a fascinating tale. Goodman inserted so much information into this story that it was constantly completely off topic and really bogged down with unnecessary details. Also unfortunately, I got so annoyed with the women because they were such typical American travelers who expect everything around the world to be like American and to conform to them. They were in amazing places, but didn't take the opportunity to sightsee and appreciate the new cultures and the differences. I got really frustrated.

I don't recommend this.





Product Details

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Story:
Book 2 of the Millenium Series about Lisbeth Salander. A mystery is revealed when Salander is accused of a double murder.

The Review:
I went to book club, and my friends have talked about reading this series, so I asked them if it was worth continuing. Joanna said that she liked the second and third books much better than the first. The first was good, but it was mostly set up and an introduction to the character of Lisbeth Salander and in the second and third books, she really gets to shine.

So I picked up the second book. And couldn't put it down. I was completely shocked by one development after another. Just when I thought I had a handle on things, something else happened that caused a major twist. Again, I will compare it to Gone Girl. It was a great book and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I recommend it, again, only with the warning that you need to be able to deal with extreme and gruesome violence and profanity.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

You're something of an open book.

Book Reviews

It was a busy, exciting, totally awesome summer. And because of that I didn't read as much as I normally do. But I still have some books to share with you.


Product Details
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

The Story:
Set in Princeton at the turn of the last century, the tranquil college town is beset by mysterious happenings. A strange death, a ghost, etc.

The Review:
It all sounded really good and intriguing. But I only made it halfway through the book, because it was crazy long (700 pages) and really really slow. I can't recommend it, but I also can't say definitely don't even try it, because I didn't get through enough of it.


*****

Product Details
How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers

The Story:
This is a collection of short stories by Eggers. They cover a variety of topics and styles. Eggers is post-modern, so they are all very post-modern, meaning he breaks down writing and comes at it in new ways.

The Review:
Loved it! I have two favorite stories from this collection, "Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone" and "On Things He Should Keep to Himself." I don't want to give too much away, but for an idea, the "Notes for a Story" is literally that. Eggers begins the story as an outline or brainstorming of what he will write in this tale. As he goes through the basic plot, he writes the things that he will flesh out later, but we don't get to see that, all we see is the beginning of the process. So for example, he talks about the Man's son -- David, Derek, Dennis -- and then later calls him Derek. I thought it was a great look at the process of writing a story. Because they are short stories and the collection itself is slim, this is a quick read. I highly recommend it. And more Eggers' books are on my "to-read" list. 




*****
Product Details
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Work:
This is a non-fiction look at Eating Animals. Foer begins with the question of should we eat animals and then spends three years researching whether or not we should. As he does the research, he is approaching the question from a lot of different angles and perspectives. The book works to present his research and findings and ultimate conclusion. 

The Review:
I have had this book on my list for a while and was really glad that I took the time to read it. I was fascinated. Full confession here: I'm vegan. I began it for my own personal health reasons. Because of my eating habits and my perpetual interest in food, I have read several books and watched several documentaries about vegetarianism, veganism, and food in general (such as Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet). 

In contrast to those, I thought that Foer's work was a more complete look at eating as a whole. He didn't focus only on how food and food processing has changed over the years and he didn't focus only on the impact animals have on our health or on the environment. He incorporated all of that. 

What struck me more was his honest discussion of his own feelings and the quandary he felt caught in that led him to begin researching. He described how he felt personally about eating animals and then how that was constantly tested by trying to eat with his family, friends, coworkers and in society in general. I really appreciated that he acknowledged that society is based around food and any variance makes things much more difficult. 

I highly recommend this book. Although I will add the caution that Foer describes (he's a beautiful writer) in detail the atrocities that occur in factory farms and slaughterhouses. And part of me wants to say, if you can't stand to read it, maybe you shouldn't be eating it. 


*****
Product Details
Pride's Prejudice by Misty Dawn Pulsipher

The Story:
A retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. 

The Review:
I read it during the two hours I was riding the train to the Bronx. It was fluffy and easy to not be too caught up in so I could watch for my stop, but also interesting enough that the crowded parts of the ride didn't distract me. 

That said, it was not good. It was a boring rewrite by which I mean not creative in any way. It was also deeply flawed on the logical side. In trying to update the story, she made changes that just logically did not make any sense, and would never be how something was approached. 

Don't read this. Just read the original.


*****
Product Details
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Story:
A 16 year old girl, Hazel, has been battling lung cancer her whole life. She had a radical treatment that has bought her a few years, and as her parents encourage her to get out, she meets Augustus a 17 year old boy at the cancer support group. 

The Review:
I really enjoyed this. As most young adult fiction is, it was a fast read and had me sucked in to the characters and their story from the beginning. Both Hazel and Augustus are kind of quirky, but not in a completely unbelievable way. 

Honestly, I sobbed through the ending. Heather came home one day, and I wiped the tears off my face long enough to open the door, but then she said, "How are you?" And I just started bawling all over again. It was awful and hilarious at the same time. 

That being said, I recommend this book, but only read it at a time when you can cry. Unless of course, you are so cold-hearted that you don't cry at books. 


*****
Product Details
Seriously... I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

The Work:
Ellen writes a book. She talks about all kinds of random things and is generally hilarious. 

The Review:
Again, I read this while riding the subway. And quickly became the weirdo who laughs out loud on the subway under seemingly no provocation. ... Fortunately that still didn't make me the weirdest person on the subway in New York City. 

I chose this book because I love Ellen and I really enjoyed Tina Fey's Bossypants. The book was great and light and entertaining. She writes a lot about writing the book and about being a CoverGirl. And is always funny. 


*****
Product Details
The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

The Story:
It's 1968/1969 and Frankie moves with her husband and children to Palo Alto, California. She quickly meets four other women at the park and they form a group of friends as they meet almost daily to take their kids to the park. One day their talk turns to the things that they would have done if it had been acceptable for women, and they discover that several of them wanted to be writers. So they form a writing group and meet every Wednesday to discuss their writing. 

The Review:
This was a great story about friendship between women. They move through their lives and trials together and are always encouraging each other. But they are also critical enough to make each other better, in their writing and in their lives. I was most interested in how their lives are shaped and changed by what is happening in the world around them. They see the Apollo landing, etc, and their world changes because of the changes in history. 

I recommend it. 


*****
Product Details
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

The Story:
Yes, the PBS show is based on a book. It is a memoir that tells the tale of a group of midwives working in England's East End at the end of World War II. They are dealing with people in abject poverty, and Worth tells the tales of things that she saw. 

The Review:
I was only able to finish half of this before I had to return Carla's Kindle to her. But I want to go back and finish the rest (or maybe I'll just watch the show) because the stories are fascinating. The writing is quick and engaging and draws beautiful pictures of the people and the surroundings without being so detailed about the births that I couldn't keep reading. 


*****
Product Details
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

The Story:
Isak Dinesen is a pen name for Karen Blixen who writes this memoir about her time running a coffee plantation in Kenya. She tells about the land, her plantation, her experiences with the Africans who work for her and live near her. 

The Review:
The book starts out really really slow. Dinesen writes lush and detailed descriptions of everything and it is easy to get bored and bogged down with that. The descriptions are beautiful, but sacrifice the action. In addition to the lengthy descriptions, Dinesen doesn't write in a linear style. So she'll start into one story and then veer off to tell you all about one character and then veer off to another and then finally, eventually circle back around. While it's an interesting way to tell the story, and truly reflects how our minds and memories work, it added to the slowness of the story. 

The book is divided into four parts. I felt like the first two parts were so slow and I really didn't think I would ever be able to get through the book. But then I hit the third part, and she shifted into short (and super short) vignettes. Each vignette would focus on a different character or scene and then would quickly shift into something else. I was able to just fly through part three. 

In part four, Dinesen returned to her previous style and told about having to leave Africa. I was shocked to find that suddenly, I was completely engaged in the novel and was truly sad that she was having to leave. 

Despite the initial slowness, I think this is a worthwhile read because she so poignantly conveys her love for Africa.   

Sunday, May 19, 2013

It's a common theme in self-help books. I read twenty-two today.

Book Review!

My youngest sister (isn't that awkward phrasing. I usually say "my little sister" but I've been told that that can hardly be accurate. Which is actually true. I'm shortest in the family. But still, what am I supposed to say?) asked if I had read anything good lately, naturally I went on and on. To which she said, wow, sounds like time for a book review. So let me get started.



Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

The Story:
There is an "above ground" London and an "underground" London, and Richard has an unexpected encounter that shifts his life from the normal, ordinary, even mundane London Above to a new and different life in London Below. In London Below, he embarks on a quest and because of the various tasks, learns new things about himself.

The Review:
I really enjoyed this. I like fantasy as a genre, but sometimes the worlds that authors are trying to create are really difficult to actually get in to. That was not the case with this book. It was easy and understandable. Richard joins a group of people and goes on a very typical-seeming fantasy quest. But I thought the novel was clever and had it's normal twists and turns that made it interesting. The characters were good and engaging.

Totally recommend it. And I would read more Neil Gaiman.






Gifted Hands by Ben Carson

The Story:
This is the true story of Ben Carson's life beginning with his childhood and then the start of his career to become a world-famous neurosurgeon. He is know for separating twins who were conjoined at the head.

The Review:
I thought this was a fantastic story. Ben Carson is very gifted and has amazing stories about his surgeries and his patients. What has stuck with me more though was what he told about his mom. She had a 3rd grade education, but made sure that both her sons worked their hardest and did their best. I was so impressed by her rules that she imposed when her kids were young and how they rose to meet her extremely high expectations. Seriously an amazing story.

The one detraction that I do have to say about this is that it is not well-written. And I found that so disappointing, because his life is so interesting and the writing was just so flat and didn't convey any of that. He actually had a ghost writer for this (although the ghost writer is acknowledged on the cover so maybe not totally ghost-y), and I just found myself thinking, wow, why pay a ghost writer? Or better, why not pay me? I can do better!

Despite that, I totally recommend this book.






Need by Carrie Jones

The Story:
So some teenage chick has to go live with her grandmother. Once she's there she discovers weird things happening and gold glitter. And the kids who have immediately befriended her are all a little weird and then she finds out they can shape shift. So can her grandma. And there's a bad pixie king who's out to get her, but really wants her mom.

The Review:
Why are all YA books rewrites of Twilight?

Ok, I'm starting the review that way a little sarcastically so that you can get the idea that I wasn't a fan of this. But I also mean it as a serious question. Why can't someone write a YA book that is something different?

I hated this. I don't recommend it.





Front Page Fatality by LynDee Walker

The Story:
The crime reporter for the Richmond Times goes to get the story on a case. As she interviews and works on the story, she begins to see more connections and finds she has a much bigger story.

The Review:
I enjoyed this. I thought it was cute. ... Ok, most mystery writers probably don't want their work described as "cute." But what I mean was it was light and entertaining. Although the case did get pretty big, it was not a dark mystery. It was still pretty light and you knew it would all work out. I liked the main character. She was fun. Think more along the lines of Castle.

Recommend it.





Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

The Story:
Swamplandia! is a family-run theme park in the Florida everglades. The theme and main attraction is alligators. The mother swims with gators, the father and kids wrestle gators, etc. The story begins with the mother dying from cancer, and what follows her death is a fight to keep Swamplandia! open for tourists and to keep the family together.

The Review:
This was billed as quirky and fun. It's definitely quirky. But because it starts with the mother's death, it's not fun. It basically tells the disintegration of a family. I compared it to The Glass Castle (a must-read), because the parents have chosen a weird/quirky alternative lifestyle and dragged the kids into it with them without seeming to realize the impact. The difference is The Glass Castle tells the story of the kids banding together to get out, but Swamplandia! just tells the story of everything falling apart. It was very sad and made me anxious as I read it.

Besides the topic, it is beautifully written and I was really sucked in and caught.

That said, it's an iffy recommendation. I didn't enjoy it necessarily, but it was definitely worth the time.





World War Z by Max Brooks

The Story:
It is ten years after the zombie apocalypse and the living humans' fight against the zombies. Our narrator interviews people all over the world in order to understand what happened to prepare a report for the UN. This though tells the human factor. He compiles all the interviews to tell us how the people reacted and responded and the impact of the zombies and the war against them.

The Review:
Lesson 1: Emily should not read zombie books right before bedtime.
Corollary 1: Emily should not start watching "The Walking Dead" no matter how many people recommend it.

And the funny part is I loved this book. I thought it was a great premise and set up for this type of story. I thought that it was creative with the types of people that were interviewed and how they told their stories. I bought into the entire thing, and was so sucked in that when I finished and left my house (or just put the book down and looked around me) I was like What's wrong with you people!! How can you just go on with a normal life after the zombie apocalypse!!

That being said, this was really rough. The language was rough, the subject matter was rough, it was a rough book.

And totally worth it.





The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

The Story:
There was a robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum of art in Boston. Millions of dollars worth of paintings were stolen, and it remains the largest unsolved art heist in history (Truth). Then (and this part is fiction) a painting is delivered to Claire Roth and artist who pays the bills by painting reproductions of famous masterpieces and specializes in Degas. She is asked to reproduce the painting, and when she opens it, she discovers that it is the stolen Degas.

The Review:
I totally loved this book. Aren't we all just fascinating by a huge heist? And money is cool, but art... stealing art is pretty impressive. So the theft angle was intriguing. And then as Claire works to create a master forgery of Degas' art, we get all kinds of stories of other famous forgers and how they accomplished their work and how they were caught. It was really fascinating.

Claire's story is also an interesting one. So I really enjoyed all the aspects of the book, and thought they were really woven together very well. It was a good, intriguing read. I recommend it!





The Magic by Rhonda Byrne

The not-a-story:
So this, as you can see, is one of the parts to "The Secret."

It is all about gratitude. It is basically a 28-day challenge to increase your gratitude and recognize the good in your life no matter what else is going on.

The Review:
I'm finally writing a review of this, because I finally made it through all 28 days straight. I worked on it for quite a while, but had to keep starting over.

I like the premise of gratitude. I know that I can definitely be more grateful, and I liked having particular tasks assigned that helped me to recognize the good that I have in a bunch of different areas.

If you feel like you could use more gratitude, I'd suggest checking it out.

Monday, March 25, 2013

I'm sorry, I'm looking for a barber, and I'm running out of time. My hair is growing at the rate of four point six yoctometers per femtosecond. And if you're quiet, you can hear it.

My absolute favorite part of the online dating post was the comments. I love my family. 

And then, I completely rejected Cary's final advice. 

1. -Bald
-gotta fit in with the brother in laws (might also help if your parents like him)
-generous, mildly good looking (i don't like to feel uncomfortable at family gatherings)
-intelligent (there's nothing worse than talking to a stupid person)

2. sophisticated, calming, friendly

3. guys generally like longer hair, so keeping your hair shoulder length or longer is good.

The Before:



Yes, that is my super crazy long hair. 

The After:

And the hair left on my head: