tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68432449004997113632024-03-08T04:40:20.589-05:00BOOKS read by KATUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger430125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-10302283688256267222019-10-25T12:38:00.005-04:002019-10-25T12:38:56.801-04:00Atkinson, Kate (Big Sky)An excellent continuation of the Jackson Brodie series, in that it puts Brodie in perilous and strange situations, and also at least one prior character shows up (now all grown up).<br />
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There is a different flavor to this novel, though, since Atkinson is attacking a supremely difficult subject - human trafficking. I have a feeling that using this as a subject matter has limited Atkinson in some ways, in that she spends so much time making sure she's doing justice to the seriousness of the crimes that she loses sight of what makes the Brodie novels so fun to read - that air of mystery that places Brodie and his companions in the oddest of situations. Not that the situations here are not odd, but you can see where the road will end, which you never could in the previous 4 novels.<br />
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At least in this one you get to meet Brodie's son as a nigh-adult, and that is both fun and funny - it's Atkinson riffing as a parent, obviously. Our previous character (from a previous novel) is also delightful - in her essentially grownup ways - but a little too sketchily drawn. Why has she broken up with her boyfriend? How did she get to be a police detective, and why? And I certainly don't remember her being blond & petite, so that's a confusing image.<br />
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I deeply desire that this is not the last Brodie novel, but then again, I never thought this one would exist. Crossed fingers!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-48613319590776914472019-10-24T20:10:00.001-04:002019-10-24T20:10:11.384-04:00Herron, Mick (Slow Horses)I was super skeptical starting this book, as I often am with British spy novels. I've seen enough British TV spy dramas to assume the storylines that the UK can throw at me.<br />
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I wasn't completely wrong here, as the situation described is a common enough one in the terrorism theme, with its intricate twists and kinds. But this isn't why I continued reading. I kept reading because the characters as written were fresh, detailed and super strange. The strangest is the head of the "Slow Horses" unit of MI5 - this was not someone I'd like to meet in real life. He is slovenly, acerbic & seemingly flaky (the worst of all worlds). It was only Herron's morphing of the character that drew me into the story further.<br />
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You can tell what each plot twist will contain before it arrives - there's no true surprise, as it's written like a true pageturner. You expect a certain something to occur, and something entirely different (or opposite) does instead.<br />
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There seem to be other books in the series, which I ended up putting on my list in the hopes that the next books will also be fun and character-driven.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-63244563293169185002019-10-22T21:00:00.003-04:002019-10-22T21:00:31.768-04:00Orlean, Susan (The Library Book)Orlean is an outstanding writer - she manages this by inserting herself into the story, in the tradition of the best non-fiction writers (such as Mary Roach or Rebecca Skloot). First, she tells you why she didn't want to write the book (or any book), and then she tells you why she had to write this one. Along the way, she tells you the story of libraries, writ large.<br />
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It's no surprise that there are a billion reasons for the need and service that libraries perform, from the kind and quantity of questions that are asked of LA Public librarians on a daily basis to the preservation efforts of all libraries, even when there isn't a natural disaster to contend with. (Yes, I'm a librarian, but that's still all true.)<br />
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The LA Public Library fire was and remains one of the worst in history. A heartbreaking number of unique and irreplaceable items were lost, and as with many fires, there's no doubt that the age of the building and its construction played a part in the difficulty of extinguishing the fire. Orlean tells the tale from the vantage point of being new to town and giving her son an introduction to the town's services. She also tells the tale with a sense of disbelief at how invisible the story of the fire has become over the years.<br />
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She interlaces fact and storytelling as only she can do. There's nothing dry about this book, and nothing poorly described. You will learn a ton about the value of libraries and their services, but you will learn more about one of the more absorbing "hidden in plain sight" tales out there.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-72135850351133863962019-10-20T15:45:00.002-04:002019-10-20T15:45:51.694-04:00Obama, Michelle (Becoming)It might be true that Michelle Obama wrote this with a speechwriter from the White House. It's difficult to tell from the acknowledgements, and it's one of the few times that this book feels even a little bit disingenuous.<br />
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And that's the best thing about this memoir. She describes her life, she tells you what made her afraid, what made her happy, what circumstances of her life made it possible to become what she is. And I don't mean just marrying Barack Obama, although that is obviously a huge part of it. She describes some of the actions taken by first her parents, then herself, to lift her away from environments and settings that were only proving barriers to her obvious intelligence and skills. Because she was smart. She doesn't toot her own horn, but she tells you why those choices worked - and why she cares so much about giving children in the same circumstances as her childhood a fighting chance.<br />
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Of course, another marvelous thing she does is not let Barack Obama get away with anything. It is humorous, it is real, it is what you expect from a long-standing marriage of equals. And it has the added bonus of showcasing the human side - and the humanity - of his presidency.<br />
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She spends a lot of time also describing her concerns over raising her daughters in the White House, and that follows naturally into describing what programs were her causes during her time there. But we can't roll our eyes or take umbrage at her chance to do this, because the entire memoir has led up to it. It feels as real as the rest of the book.<br />
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There's a reason this book is a bestseller. She sells her tale and she sells us on her.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-70307732178634229672019-10-19T17:56:00.002-04:002019-10-19T17:57:11.922-04:00Block, Lawrence (In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper)Mr. Block, you have collected a stellar set of writers to showcase Hopper's paintings. Not all of them have written you a stellar story, but all of them have done what you asked - written a story that tells a tale of the painting in question.<br />
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Which ones are my favorite? Here are the ones I liked the most, from least favorite to most favorite:<br />
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1. Autumn at the Automat (Lawrence Block)<br />
Not the Hopper painting you're thinking of - the other famous one. Block writes an adequately mysterious story, very Block-like, but not particularly memorable.<br />
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2. The Music Room (Stephen King)<br />
No question that this is a King creation, with the creepy twist you've come to expect!<br />
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3. Office at Night (Warren Moore)<br />
Much, much more subtle than the previous two. I haven't read anything by Moore before, but I should start. He weaves an astonishingly sweet and sad story from Hopper's painting of an office inhabited by a man and a woman, and not much else.<br />
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4. Rooms by the Sea (Nicholas Christopher)<br />
This one would have taken top prize if the next one hadn't made me laugh out loud. Rooms by the Sea is the epitome of an intricate tale told lovingly and with a definite purpose. In addition, the mystery surrounding these rooms & the house itself keeps you guessing the entire way.<br />
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5. Taking Care of Business (Craig Ferguson)<br />
There's a reason Ferguson is known as a go-to screenwriter. Short, sweet, kooky, simplistic, and with two - not one - bang-on endings. Also, really freakin' funny.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-66564553808439568342019-09-17T10:36:00.002-04:002019-09-17T10:37:32.557-04:00Milford, Nancy (Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay)I expect my book club is going to hate this book.<br />
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There are several reasons for this, but chief among them is its length. I understand that it's difficult to write a biography of a celebrity without including everything about their life - and especially if it's an author so you want to include samples of their writing - but this book just drags on forever. It's a fascinating life at a fascinating time in US history, but Milford makes odd choices at times on what she includes and what she doesn't include.<br />
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She doesn't explain a lot about Millay's life. Meaning, she details and describes it, but doesn't provide context and milieu except when absolutely necessary. At times, that leaves us adrift (such as when Millay struggles with an illness, we're expected to understand the context with very few clues as to what it was).<br />
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However, it is fair to say that what Milford is trying to do here is to write a biography that Millay herself would appreciate - in her style and with her panache. Millay was an outstandingly excellent writer and this shows in every poem and every letter showcased in this book. She was also damn snarky, pushed the feminist and anti-war agendas hard, and lived a pretty wild life. I understand why Milford is trying to match that, but it doesn't always work - it leaves us adrift again.<br />
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I admit that I was a bit depressed to read about her struggles in the 1920s-1940s to get her work appreciated as a poet, not as a woman poetess. She struggles with some of the same things we still struggle with today, and it's utterly frustrating that the needle is still moving imperceptibly.<br />
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On a happier note, I will definitely be using Scramoodle and Skiddlepins in my conversations with my hubby from now on!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-91766448812730434642019-07-31T11:06:00.000-04:002019-07-31T11:06:13.442-04:00Franck, Liana (Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir)Well, this'll be short.<br />
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Not because it's a graphic memoir (which often takes less time because there's less to actually read versus a lot more to view). But because I only have one lingering impression: whining.<br />
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OK, actually a few lingering impressions: whining, overly navel-gazing, art-for-art's-sake (to me, being obtuse is not art). What was my overall impression? Just grow up already. This memoir felt like I did when I was 25. Why would you write a memoir at that age? Also, the art isn't stellar, and while the pacing and design of the pages is intriguing, overall it didn't engage me whatsoever.<br />
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At least it was over quickly.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-12730343171047575582019-06-11T09:03:00.000-04:002019-06-11T09:04:34.125-04:00Chambers, Becky (Record of a Spaceborn Few)What...? That was my overwhelming thought process as I read this book. (Granted, not a deep one, but I was deeply confused, at least.)<br />
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I could not figure out where I was or whether I had been here before or whether the people I knew from her previous two novels were here or not. Chambers does give you an overview of the world at the beginning, but at least for me it it was insufficient. Being told what was happening in real time versus the prelude to real time didn't help because I didn't remember the prelude from before! (Was I supposed to remember it? I'm still unsure.) So, I read this as a standalone novel, as a result. I'm not sure it bears up on its own.<br />
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The strength of the previous two novels was in explaining how humans fit into an alien system. Yes, there is an undercurrent of that in this novel (in fact, it is an important part of the final analysis) but the story itself is about humans fitting into their human system. It was certainly fun to learn more about how humans developed a society on ships, instead of a planet. But it always felt... scattered. I wanted to focus on the team that I remembered from the beginning.<br />
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Will I read the next novel? Probably? It won't be high priority, but I do enjoy her writing style.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-41580635126843601082019-05-30T11:25:00.002-04:002019-05-30T11:25:20.222-04:00Powers, Richard (The Overstory)I have taken as long as humanly possible to write this review. Because this is one of the most intense novels I've ever read, and deserved rumination.<br />
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At its core, this novel is The Great American Tree Novel. What the author tries to do here is write the <i>definitive</i> novel about trees. And I mean that quite literally. The characters he's created, what he has them do over the course of the novel, and how they interact to tell a complete story, describe everything you will ever need to know about trees.<br />
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That sounds flippant. And as if it's unnecessary. It isn't. Everyone should know all these things about trees. What it means to plant a new forest. What makes a tree activist. What trees look, smell, feel and taste like. What their history with humans has meant and foretells. And, last but certainly not least, how trees talk to each other over the aeons.<br />
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Regarding the structure of the novel, I don't want to give too much away. But be forewarned - he starts the entire tale by setting the scene for each character, almost like a set of short stories. About 1/3 of the way through, he shifts the focus to describe their interactions, and that carries for the rest of the book. Try not to be distracted or upset by that shift in focus. It's deliberate and justifiable.<br />
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I will also say that I may have disagreed with the path he took for a couple of the characters - and his reveal on one that was vastly more understated than it should have been - but I still fully understand why he took all those paths. This is a tour de force. My tiny quibbles are barely worth noting.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-15653626339225812662019-05-29T10:28:00.001-04:002019-05-29T10:28:02.365-04:00Smith, Dodie (I Capture the Castle)I feel deficient because I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Like, I've been kicked out of the Jane Austen Fan Club because of it.<br />
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It was a slog for me. If I try to pin that down, I think it's because I wasn't expecting a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice - which it isn't in many ways but this is obviously the tale that inspires it - especially one set after World War I with vastly different mores and social settings, and an odd interplay between the British and the Americans in the tale.<br />
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I kept struggling to pick it up and read more. The castle in question is very romantic - dark and spooky and dank and lacking in furniture... On second thought, I think the castle never seemed romantic, it seemed horrible. Was it supposed to be both?? I remain confused on this subject, and think it's an important point because Americans are likely to think - "Ooh, abandoned castle, sounds like a fun adventure!" - way more than the British will. Americans will be conflicted, as a result, while the British can squarely place this novel in its rightful place - as a discussion of the changing role of women, how family dynamics changed over the decades, and what a successful life looked like in the 1930s vs. in the 1800s.<br />
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Also, I didn't like anyone in the book. Except maybe the poor stepmother, but even she exhibits some behaviors that were... unsettling. And I don't just mean the naked meanderings on the castle grounds.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-56025614064414348572019-05-20T10:16:00.003-04:002019-05-20T10:16:55.597-04:00Hill, Nathan (The Nix)I think I renewed this book 3 times. It's just so damn... long.<br />
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And I don't think it really needed to be. It seemed sort of a slice-of-life tale, but also seemed pretty much ALL the slices of the author's life. He took all the bizarre stuff that's ever happened to him, ramped it up a bit to increase the drama, and then stuffed it all in a novel-shaped package.<br />
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It contained at least 4 tales in one. His life having been abandoned by his mother at an early age, his life as a teacher, his life as a failed writer, and his life as a video game addict (oh, yea, I think that was him, not a "friend"). Unfortunately, none of these gel with each other unless you create quite a number of crazy plot devices. Crazy enough that you notice it. A lot.<br />
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The writing is pretty damn good, in and of itself. Hill keeps the momentum going and doesn't devolve into a ton of miscellaneous description (which you all know I hate). He does this a bit in the video game sections, but that's some pretty fascinating detail, so I'll give him that one.<br />
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Therefore, this novel should have been 4 novels. And I'll put that problem squarely on his publisher.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-65335384733217591462019-04-16T15:18:00.002-04:002019-04-16T15:18:52.739-04:00Leon, Donna (The Golden Egg)I'll say that this book in the series (goodness, how did Leon get to #22 without me noticing?) is less structured than some of her others.<br />
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The usual kerfuffle with Patta is there. The repartee with Signorina <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview2471526704">Elletra</span></span> is as delightful as ever. His relationship with his clever, fun, foodie family is there, as amusing as ever. So that structure is certainly there. But the rest seemed more all over the place - probably because of how the murder landed in Brunetti's lap.<br />
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The only twists you see are related to Signorina <span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview2471526704">Elletra</span></span> and an unexpected plot twist regarding the victim and his family. This is actually more horrifying than usual. But not the level of horrifying from the last book, which was stomach-churning. This one is the "ineffable sadness" level of horror.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-54372766395417712682019-04-08T10:38:00.000-04:002019-04-08T10:38:43.097-04:00Harper, Jane (The Lost Man)I prefer Harper's Aaron Falk series, and likely that's because Falk has continuity (for lack of a better phrase). He is an investigator to begin with and he sits outside the conflict (thereby bringing an external voice). Our protagonist in this story is too embedded in the tale. That can have its benefits, but it makes the reveal strangely disappointing (because it requires his input, and without it there is no ending).<br />
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Regardless, you learn vastly more about living in the outback than you did in Harper's previous novels. She absolutely has a penchant and a talent for this (I never expect her to write a novel based in one of Australia's cities). In particular, you learn some of the basic tenets of literally surviving in the Australian wilderness, which are bound to scare the pants off you. (Golly am I pleased we didn't decide to do a road trip to the outback when we were in Australia because it would have been 'Oh, a road trip, what fun, tra la!' Yipes.)<br />
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As a personal preference, I didn't enjoy the level of misdirection employed in the novel or the bow-tie ending. Or the reveal, which I sadly saw coming from miles away (not well misdirected, unfortunately). The novel's topic is an important one to keep in the public view, but the novel itself didn't do it the service it deserves.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-83868473662804052212019-04-06T19:38:00.001-04:002019-04-06T19:38:48.992-04:00Lipman, Eleanor (Good Riddance)As with all Eleanor Lipman novels, this one takes a particular path. It's a romance, but not a rubbish-y kind of romance, which is usually characterized by poor writing. It has twists and turns that are ridiculous but fun, and with no intention other than to be fun. It usually has likeable characters, although they may often have personality traits that aren't endearing (creating the possibility for growth, of course).<br />
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This novel, though, had what felt like an abrupt shift towards the end, in terms of one of the relationships, that didn't gel as well for me as previous novels' relationships. I think that's due to the fact that I was specifically not enamored with the personality traits of one of the people in the relationship. That character seemed strangely greedy or obtuse or a combination of both, and it left me cold. It's not often that Lipman crafts her characters without a safety net of likeable traits, so take that into account when heading into this book.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-69692740141721759692019-04-05T10:14:00.002-04:002019-04-05T10:14:31.041-04:00French, Tana (The Witch Elm)Oof. What is this?<br />
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On the one hand, the book is about a person musing on their own personality and how their interactions with other people are shaped by their personality. On the other hand, it's a deep dive into what it's like to be handicapped or otherwise severely disabled, physically. And on the other other hand, it's a bent-out-of-shape mystery with so many reveals I couldn't keep count.<br />
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This novel was utterly exhausting. It was engaging because of the multiple intentions of the author, stated above, but it drags you down with it, and in the end you feel like you're drowning. Also, and I'm not sure if this is a minor point or more important than that, the core bit of information - which is one large reveal in and of itself - is vital, but obscured. I wouldn't say that it's hidden away, as you learn precisely what it was and why it was important. But it is nestled in with so many other reveals that it loses its potency. I actually wonder if French did this on purpose. She's so used to crafting multi-layered mysteries that perhaps she felt it would be useful to the novel to bury this concept.<br />
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In addition to that, accompanying that theme are a couple of characters who aren't necessarily bad people but who are so deeply flawed that it's difficult to care about them, especially in their relationship to the protagonist. Unfortunately, I think that what French has set out to achieve in this novel ends up downplaying that vastly important, let's-call-it-central theme.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-31012693607754744692019-04-04T11:31:00.000-04:002019-04-04T11:31:35.419-04:00Hannah, Kristin (The Great Alone)I have so, so, so many thoughts about this novel.<br />
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I adored Hannah's first offering, The Nightingale. It was pitch perfect in terms of the setting, the context, the historical flavor, and the ending. And it was daring! In more ways than one - because it's tough to write something new about World War II any longer, and because it focused on sisters as the main characters (more about Hannah's ability to write strong female-focused narratives below).<br />
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I certainly think this novel is daring, but I don't think it is genius writing. There's something to be said for historical accuracy creating a solid base for a novel. You can always return to the "known" if your plot starts to devolve. In this novel, almost everything written seemed unpinned and untethered. As if they were complete flights of fancy, even though Hannah built this on the very real understanding of what it is like to live in Alaska, through all of its seasons (her own childhood background). So although she understood the setting - it was "known" - I think because she didn't precisely know the plot device - as I understand it, none of her childhood was destroyed by physical violence - this does not feel believable.<br />
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Of course, Hannah is working hard to craft very strong female characters. The problem isn't that the tragic story of an abused woman often showcases how difficult it is to be strong - that's a necessary part of the story, and I don't fault her for that. It's that the plot machinations of each of the women in the story do not seem realistic. It's hard for me to precisely pin down why, but I felt this throughout the novel.<br />
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If you want to learn more about what it's like to live in Alaska, absolutely this is the book for you. But be prepared for a bit of a wild ride, as a result.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-47129136382363883442019-04-03T16:57:00.000-04:002019-04-03T16:57:20.899-04:00Corey, James S.A. (Tiamat's Wrath)As some other reviewers have already noted, I downright hated the first sentence of this book. The Coreys are up to no good, once again.<br />
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Other reviewers are saying that this book in the series is as good if not better than "Nemesis Games". It does push the agenda along and make things all ready for that last book, on that I do agree. Maybe I don't agree with reviewers' hyperbolic critiques because I read it when I was sick (I thought it was a good idea! Read a series you cherish while you have so much time on your hands! Hmm.). However, I found the middle bits of the novel to be a whole lot of noodling around for page count purposes when it was always possible to cut to the chase more efficiently.<br />
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Not that I don't love reading The Coreys' writing - I always do! But I wondered if incorporating the viewpoints of a few more characters might be worthwhile (the number of perspectives offered outside the preface and the epilogue seemed surprisingly minimal), and that would have obviated the need for all the back-n-forth or just plain nothing that happened in many chapters.<br />
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Or maybe I'm just grumpy because, once again, they've killed off a number of fabulous characters. Who are they going to kill off in the last book? I think it's worth being extremely worried about their intentions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-17761091606112207302019-02-18T12:05:00.000-05:002019-02-18T12:05:50.897-05:00Le Guin, Ursula K. (Lathe of Heaven)I read this book long ago, probably before I graduated college. I find it amazing that it has the same power to provoke thought and offer hope now, as it did the first time I read it.<br />
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At its core, it's a tale about our human need to change something for the better, and our inexperience with facing problems that ensue when we try to do that. The milieu Le Guin creates is horrific - and prescient - in its description of war, poverty, race, the hunger for power and the need to achieve. (I very much wish it was not as prescient as it was...) The focal point is a man who dreams, and when he dreams he can change reality. So yea, it's smack in sci-fi territory, so if that is off-putting to you, you'll want to think twice about reading this.<br />
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But I think you should. Le Guin is nothing if not one of the smartest sci-fi authors ever (she would say she wrote speculative fiction, as Atwood would also say). While some of her writing feels a bit academic (most definitely give The Left Hand of Darkness a miss if you do not like that style!) it is all in service to her greater agenda - showcasing the hardest aspects of being human, and not leaving you in the lurch at the end.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-23640569725398035782019-01-31T11:23:00.000-05:002019-01-31T11:23:02.031-05:00Novik, Naomi (Empire of Ivory)In this episode, we go to Africa! While it was a thrilling adventure, as Novik normally crafts, and especially it was thrilling to view the Cape of Good Hope in an alternate reality, it really felt like Novik was crafting her Politically Correct Novel, in and among the rest of the novels in this series.<br />
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That's being unfair to Novik's writing, and especially to her description of the homebase (and intricate workings) of the African dragonlords and their civilization. But she pushed a bit too hard on the slavery vs. anti-slavery theme (again, fairly, a real conflict within the British empire at this time), and the evils of colonialism. We got it, really we did. Again, the African homebase description was brilliantly and inventively described, but the novel came with a lot of extra killing and death (yes, even the dragons are among those) in service to this novel's plot.<br />
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At least she ends it on a high note. (Joke. It's downright upsetting and I would like to find out what happens sooner than later, except I have 20 other books in my "to-read" list in front of this one.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-5865249647086604042019-01-31T11:08:00.002-05:002019-01-31T11:08:05.595-05:00Graham, Lauren (Someday, Someday, Maybe)Ms. Graham! You are not a bad writer! Hey, look, it's better than saying "don't give up your day job", right?<br />
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Because she's way better than that. I love her (downright adore) her as an actress, which is why I read her autobiography, and then re-watched all of Gilmore Girls, added Parenthood to the list of "must watch someday", and then put this book on my to-read shelf. I wouldn't have done all that if I didn't think she was a decent writer as well as actress.<br />
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But she's a newbie to novel writing. It wasn't that the story didn't have delightful plot mechanisms or strong characterizations. It's that her characters weren't consistent. For example, how Franny acts in front of casting agents vs. how she acts on the red carpet seemed inconsistent. She was alternately very sure and completely unsure of herself - and both are actually the act of acting! Perhaps that is what it is like before you land your first solid gig, but it felt very odd to me (Penelope made way more sense). Also, when she does the extended acting scene with James Franklin (as one of my favorite Goodreads reviewers put it, that "douchnozzle"), the progress of that scene didn't mesh at ALL with his personality.<br />
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Also it felt a little like she was providing newbie actors some tips. Here's what it's going to be like doing a commercial. They may binder clip your shirt in the back! They'll act like you're a star which you won't be used to! They may ask you to be naked (ok, not in commercials)! Figure out whether you want to be or not! Franny is always musing on giving master classes when she's famous, and it feels sometimes like this novel was Graham's master class.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-81016100395972955412019-01-30T14:30:00.001-05:002019-01-30T16:04:34.091-05:00Greenwood, Kerry (The Green Mill Murder)This is my favorite one so far! I think Greenwood hit her stride here (hopefully not her peak) by giving Phryne a lengthy, complex and dangerous trip that was somewhat tangential to the main story.<br />
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I like that Greenwood always has more than one story going on in a novel, and in this case I was never distracted from the main story because the adjacent story involved this crazy trip. I know nothing about flying small prop planes (and certainly not those from the 1920s) so I appreciated the amount of detail Greenwood provided (and the research she did) to make this come to life. I also now wish I had visited the Australian Alps while we were there a few years back. It sounds stunning - remote, impressive and refreshing.<br />
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I will keep going. Only 15 more to go!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-88881873566438306132019-01-30T10:52:00.001-05:002019-01-30T10:52:34.009-05:00Ng, Celeste (Little Fires Everywhere)Now this is perfect story structure. Starting off by detailing how the title came to be, then telling the entire story that details that reason, and then finishing off with an explicit reference to the reasons for that title. In between, making every person connect to every other person intentionally and deliberately.<br />
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Case in point, our main character - Mia, although you could argue strongly that it's Pearl - is pulled into at least 3 separate situations that reflect upon her as a mother. None of those situations are specifically about <i>herself</i> as a mother, but they all have a deep connection to it. It is true that almost <i>all</i> the situations in the book have some connection to motherhood, but that's selling each of them short. Ng is crafting something massively complex here in terms of plotting, while at the same time touching on a few phenomenally important aspects of what it means to be human - how accidental so much of life is, how important love is to all of it, and how it's an ever-changing, ever-shaping path that is very hard to hold onto firmly.<br />
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The one thing I didn't love so much was the undercurrent of "life is tragedy" that ran through it all. The ending isn't specifically tragic - or to be more fair, not comprehensively tragic - but about 3/4 of the way through the book I found myself exhausted by the realization that so much of life tears you down - and builds you back up again, yes, thankfully. That aspect of constant destruction and renewal, though, is both difficult to accept and a strong component of what makes this book so special.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-50283800808381940762019-01-26T12:46:00.003-05:002019-01-26T12:46:35.909-05:00Jackson, Shirley (The Haunting of Hill House)I love it when I get to read a classic that wasn't on my radar and was written in a style that I could appreciate and engage with. Did I say engage? Oh, sorry, I meant was completely creeped out by.<div>
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I spent the entire evening after finishing this short novel walking around the house shaking my hands and going "ew, ew, ew". Now, you'll think that's because - as a novel set squarely in the horror genre - there's a ton of gore and sudden scary moments that make you jump out of your skin. Not in the slightest. It's creepy without having to resort to any of that.</div>
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Yes, there are plenty of spine-tingling chills and odd sudden unveilings. But the strength of the novel is in the depiction of its characters and their psychologies. You spend the entire novel specifically in the head of one of the characters - learning her thoughts, worries, and revelations. So, frankly, you learn her psychology and what she thinks and feels about the others' psychologies. It's a brilliant depiction of someone not completely... put together. And both her effect on the others around her, as well as the effect of the setting on her.</div>
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I strongly recommend this to anyone, especially in advance of the Netflix series coming out. It's worth reading Jackson's story beforehand. (I have some high hopes for this as a series because there is a lot they can delve into here, not just one particular character from the novel.)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-83356320840138412612018-12-31T10:24:00.001-05:002018-12-31T10:24:15.299-05:00Harrington, Karen (Sure Signs of Crazy)Surely, there are less blatantly obvious set-ups in YA fiction?<br />
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You know right away (so there's no spoiler here) that Sarah's mother is in a mental institution because she tried to drown her and her twin brother when they were small. Everything leads from there, as you would expect it to - obvious confusion about not having her mother in her life, wondering who her mother really is, angry at her father for essentially being the only one left, etc. etc.<br />
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But the confusing part about this novel is that Sarah is just super-duper more intelligent than anyone. She asks mind-bendingly advanced questions and has an emotional presence of someone in their thirties. At twelve. It's too unbelievable. I can understand crafting a character that has some smarts, but all of them?<br />
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The tale didn't resonate with me, then, and the obvious ending - where Sarah is less than emotionally resilient in order to effect the plot - was also not believable. A pity, since I think Harrington has the chops to create something far more plausible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6843244900499711363.post-30783063490426863242018-12-20T13:24:00.001-05:002018-12-20T13:24:11.337-05:00Li, Lillian (Number One Chinese Restaurant)Quite simply, this is not the kind of writing I can appreciate. I wasn't ever able to understand the shape of a relationship or conversation or event because the protagonists seemed to change their mind or mode of interaction at the drop of a hat (or the next sentence Li wrote).<br />
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That's not to say that Li didn't create a story with a beginning, middle bits that describe the difficulties faced by each main character, and an ending that does, in fact, wrap things up for the reader. She did that! But along the way I couldn't pinpoint the important elements of each character. Case in point: Nan's boy, Pat, is alternately a typical teenager and then not at all a typical teenager. When he's not, it doesn't fit his profile whatsoever. Another case in point: Nan and Jack's platonic relationship makes oodles of sense, but their foray into something other than that is befuddling because of how Jack has been described throughout the book. At heart, I think the problem is that I couldn't match physical descriptions - of the people and the places - with actions and events. And that left me utterly confused.<br />
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I also deeply wished that the description of the Chinese restaurants had been more evocative. You get some flavor of what it feels like to work in a Chinese restaurant, but it's veneer. Nothing is actually illustrative, at least from an outsider's perspective.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0