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Book Reviews

*****

Blameless by Gail Carriger

The Story:
Number 3 of the Parasol Protectorate.

The Review:
So a werewolf has to drink formaldehyde to get drunk and the Knights' Templar showed up. I still laughed out loud at parts. I still recommend the series for that, but I'm stopping with this one. I don't feel any need to read further.

*****

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Story:
Animals stage a rebellion against their human owners and proceed to run the farm themselves.

The Review:
First note, this is one of my "Books I should have read at some point, but never did" list. (For the rest of that list, click here).

Saying that I hated this book implies too much caring. And I just simply don't care. I know why this is an important book. I understand the stance it is taking and the message. But I think there are better ways to tell the story and share/spread the message. I didn't care, and in fact, couldn't remember any of the characters. The writing throughout was so flat that it was not engaging and as a whole left a lot to be desired.

*****

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

The Story:
A short story of a lottery drawing in a small town.

The Review:
(Another "Books I should have read at some point, but never did")
This is a great story and I enjoyed it. I can't say much without giving away the entire story. But Jackson did a masterful job of setting the scene.

*****

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

The Story:
A short story in which the narrator reflects on life.

The Review:
(Another "Books I should have read at some point, but never did")
I really liked this. Once again, because of the nature of a short story, I can't say much without giving away the whole story. But I found the narrator's voice really engaging and liked how introspective and reflective he was. It is a very clever story.

*****

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth

The Story:
The president has a special top secret agent named Cade who is a vampire. He is sent on special missions to protect the president and the United States aided by his new handler, Zach.

The Review:
As silly as the premise is, the book was actually pretty clever. It's a little James Bond as vampire, which makes it way better than vampire romance novels. Cade refers to himself as a monster and that's far more truthful than most of the other portrayals of vampires. It was entertaining and fun, but also a little gruesome.

*****

Imprints by Rachel Ann Nunes

The Story:
There is a girl with magic powers.

The Review:
Ugh!!! Full disclosure: I stopped after 100 pages.
It was awful! Why do they always have to make the girl so horribly awkward and annoying?

*****

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

The Story:
This is Father Time's life story. A man started counting time and then was cursed to hear the cries of those who count time forever.

The Review:
This was so seriously condescending. It was very pedantic and preachy. It was not engaging and interesting. It was not a lovely story. It was just annoying.

*****

The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell

The Story:
This part is true -- an explosion at a dance hall in Missouri in the late 1920s kills 28 people and remains an unsolved mystery. The novel uses that event and creates a story about a maid who suspects the truth of what happened. Her grandson visits her for the summer, and she tells him the story.

The Review:
I really liked the way this story was told. The maid, now a very old woman, tells her story to her grandson. He is actually the narrator of the novel and tells us about his grandmother and the way she shares this story. It is very pieced together and jumpy, just as a reminiscence would be. The story is obviously tragic, but very interesting and engaging. The novel also does a great job of showing what life was like in a small town in Missouri for the variety of classes that lived there. The writing is great and this is a quick read.

I highly recommend it.

*****

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The Story:
This is a non-fiction account of life in the slums of Annawadi by the airport in Mumbai, India.

The Review:
Wow. This is seriously so conflicting because the life that is lived by the people in the slum is horrible. Beyond horrible. And it's just amazing what they have to go through to squeak by. And it's also not that they don't know how bad life is. They are aware of the disease and have dreams about other opportunities and a better life.

On the other side, I want to say that this book is gorgeous. Boo's way of telling the story captured so much and was able to convey it in absolutely stunning language. But I still can't say that I loved it because the subject matter is so difficult.

Boo says that her interest is not only showing life, but in understanding and showing what the opportunities are for breaking out of poverty and what forces hold people in poverty. I thought she did a masterful job of showing the nuance of the situation and the opportunities and opposition.

I very much recommend this book.

*****

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

The Story:
A multi-threaded narrative about lives that intersect in war-torn Chechnya. It moves in time through the first and second wars in Chechnya and follows the lives that intersect with the life of a girl named Havaa.

The Review:
I feel like I read this with a lot of stops and starts. Not because it was bad, but just because it was heavy. Despite that disjointed feeling reading experience, I actually wound up really liking the book. It was beautifully written. Really very beautiful. I liked how Marra worked the timeline with the flashes back and forth and to different characters. And I was very connected to the characters, and felt along with them as the story unfolded.

I feel like I know absolutely nothing about the history of Chechnya, but Marra did a great job of working in information about the wars and government and history without being too heavy handed about it. It is a fine line to walk, but I felt like he did it very well.

Again, this is not a happy book, but it is a beautiful book. I recommend it.

*****

The Story and Its Writer by Ann Charters

The Story:
An anthology of short stories.

The Review:
So this is the new textbook that I am using in my Introduction to Fiction class. I generally don't count short stories (except those that are featured on my list of books I haven't read), but I've read this entire book now (in the past two weeks) and I want credit for that!

To the actual review part, this is a great anthology. There is an amazingly wide variety of stories pulled together here and great choices were made about which to include. My one disappointment is that Charters has focused so much on recent short stories that some of the older classics were just ignored. But sometimes that is how it has to be.

In addition to the stories themselves, the information about the authors, additional critical essays, and other information is all really well done and well chosen.

This isn't the type of book that you take on a trip when you want to read short stories on a plane, but it's a good anthology and wouldn't be a bad choice to have around the house to pick up at random free moments.