#NonFicNov: Week 3.

After my massive rally last week in breaking my reading slump, I slowed the pace down a bit this week. Depression and anxiety can be a bit of a roller coaster ride. Also, my taste in books ran a little…um…shall we say macabre? Still seemed better than real life. But before I get into just how sprinkled my life is with inspiration sayings and true crime books, let’s take a moment to give thanks for our sponsors.

#NonFicNov – which I plan for and look forward to year-round – is made possible by our wonderful reading community. This year Doing Dewey is hosting, along with Sarah at Sarah’s Bookshelves, Rachel at Hibernator’s Library, Lory at Emerald City Book Review, and Julz at Julz Reads. They have some lovely giveaways and book reviews going on, so go say hello! I’d also like to give a special shout-out to Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness. Kim is Non-fic November, for those who don’t know, and she’s still recovering from a huge, no-good, very bad Something right now. If you could all go love on Kim a little and send her the happiest thoughts, it would mean a lot to me. We’ve all been laid flat by grief at one point or another and I wish I didn’t know, but I do. I know I’ll be keeping Kim tucked into the back of my reading brain this month, raining some love down on her.

(Maybe I should try a little more indulgent self-care this week, because this past week self-care looked like basking in the glow of things even more horrible than our current affairs – true crime and lots of it!)

Crash Detectives: Investigating the World’s Most Mysterious Air Disasters, by Christine Negroni (2016, Penguin, 288 pages, paperback). I am a terrible flier. I work in aviation and it’s a bit like watching how sausage gets made – you lose your appetite for it just a little bit. I know all of the things that can go wrong, and in every sense imaginable. (I also see how rarely that happens, but why aren’t those the facts that run through my mind when I’m taking off on an adventure?) Negroni does a fantastic job of walking the layperson through the ins and outs of aviation without losing the narrative to tedium. While she focuses on how, exactly, we could fail to find Malaysian Airlines flight 370, she also looks at other missing aircraft and crashes. It was very compelling reading, both for the looky-loos and aviation nuts. The fact that the book was written by a kickass female investigative reporter in a male-dominated field? Bonus points. 4 of 5 stars.

Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars, by Juan Martinez and Lisa Pulitzer (2016, William Morrow, 384 pages, library ebook). I needed a book so engrossing I could forget about the real world, and hoo boy did Conviction deliver! I didn’t follow the Jodi Arias trial much while it was unfolding. I remember it happening, but I wasn’t particularly shook. When I saw the double episode of Snapped! that featured the crime, I was reeled in. So of course I checked out this new true crime account written by the prosecutor and one of the better known collaborators, Lisa Pulitzer. I raced through every page with my mouth agape, marveling over Arias’s misplaced confidence in herself. She truly thought she could get away with her appalling crime. Tales like this one are why men and women are scared of the proverbial crazy boyfriend/girlfriend. Truly, truly insane. And wickedly fun reading. (Although “fun” doesn’t quite feel right, ya know?) 5 of 5 stars. Because for a few days, I forgot we even had an election.

The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium, by Michele Elam (2011, Stanford University Press, 308 pages, paperback). I was a bit amazed that Elam dared to play so boldly on W.E.B. DuBois’s title The Souls of Black Folk – I mean, that’s about as anthemic as you can go. And yeah, it’s clever, but those are shoes to fill! It put me off reading the anthology of essays for nearly a year. But you guys – Elam’s got game. Her writing was evocative as the artwork she chose for the cover, and tied to pop culture and history throughout in ways we are both constantly aware of and completely ignorant of at the same time. Racism just won this dang election, and I needed to completely immerse myself in writing about how far we’ve come and what we can do to keep moving conversations and awareness in the right direction. 4 of 5 stars.

The Killer Book of Serial Killers, by Thomas and Michael Philbin (2009, Sourcebooks, 345 pages, library ebook). I told you my reading selection was a bit shocking this week. This true crime book wasn’t a deep analysis or portrayal of any one crime, but more of small glimpses into a wide array of crimes and the people who committed them. It was fluff designed to carry me away from the drama in real life, and it worked. Though I think I might have burned through my ability to wade through any more for quite awhile. 2 1/2 of 5 stars.

We’ll see what this next week brings. I’m looking for something a bit more inspirational after a week spent pillaging and burning. I have a book about the founding mothers of the country (screw you, patriarchy), and we’ll see what else catches my eye. Just so long as it’s bright and shiny!

Top Ten Tuesday.

Because I seem to be in a big of a blogging fog – where either everything going on is fantastically mundane or completely unbloggable – I thought it was time to post a Top Ten list.

Today, it’s the top ten books I’ve read this year. In no particular order:

1. The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson. Because Nelson can draw grief like no one else. And the families she creates remind me an awful lot of mine.
2. My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, by Fredrik Backman. Because this is magical storytelling of the highest order. Like Ya-Ya type magic. I’m sad that these characters don’t really exist type of magic.
3. The Book of Aron, by Jim Shepard. Because Shepard absolutely nails the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto. It’s a testament to Shepard’s mastery of character development that he has two books on my list.
4. The Royal We, by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan. Because sometimes you need a silly doorstop-sized romance that makes you cancel plans to find out what happens to the fictionalized William and Kate couple.
5. Girl at War, by Sara Novic. Because the cover art is effing gorgeous. And because war orphans from Croatia and identity crises are my jam.
6. H Is for Hawk, by Helen MacDonald. Because no one has written about grief and obsession and lyrical madness quite like this.
7. We Are the Ants, by Shaun David Hutchinson. Because I shouldn’t have liked a book about aliens abducting a teenage boy and asking him whether to push a button and save the human race or let it die. I refused to like it. But then I loved and devoured it.
8. Project X, by Jim Shepard. Because only Shepard could make me understand and sympathize with why two brutally bullied middle school boys would want to shoot up their school.
9. You, by Caroline Kepnes. Because it said it was the next Gone Girl and actually pulled it off.
10. Becoming Nicole, by Amy Ellis Nutt. Because everyone should understand the ins and outs of transgenderism, and because everyone should have an ally, like Jonas, and people willing to change their minds for you, like Wayne.

What are some of the best books you’ve read this year? Send them my way!

Mini book reviews: the one with all the paranoia.

Morning, all! It’s a stormy, rainy Thursday here, which means it’s the perfect weather to curl up with a book. If you can’t do that, the next best thing is to talk about books, so let’s see what books I’ve finished reading this week…

A Fierce and Subtle Poison, by Samantha Mabry (Algonquin, 2016, 288 pgs, ebook). I found a deal and splurged on the ebook last week for Bout of Books because I still needed a horror story by a person of color for my Read Harder challenge. It might also be technically considered Young Adult, but I found it crossed over very nicely, mostly because of the way it played with local myths and legends in PR, turning the tale into an environmental scifi ghost story. One that’s quite readable, too. The ending wasn’t quite as satisfying as the set-up – the book definitely started out at 4 stars. Still worth curling up with it for an afternoon. 3 1/2 of 5 stars.

Putting Make-up on the Fat Boy, by Bil Wright (Simon & Schuster, 2011, 219 pgs, ebook). I started reading this hilarious YA selection at the tail end of Bout of Books and thought it was extremely promising. Unfortunately, as soon as I wished out loud that it didn’t devolve into a puddle of classist and racist stereotypes, that’s exactly what happened. There was enough of the story strength left to get me through, but I wish we could have had a story about a high school gay man of color who plays with gender roles while storming a job at Macy’s make-up counter without reinforcing all the negative crap that’s already out there. I’ve read those stories and those characters. I was hoping Carlos Duarte would be as refreshingly different as first promised. 2 1/2 of 5 stars.

Project X, by Jim Shepard (Knopf, 2004, 176 pgs, paperback). I sought out a copy of this and found a good deal on a used book in great shape (my favorite kind of book rescue), and also talked about it at length during Bout of Books. But there’s still the ending to discuss. What happens to Edwin and Flask’s plot to shoot up their school? Can they avoid bullies and trouble enough days in a row to pull it off? Will they go through with it? As I mentioned last week, Shepard accomplished the impossible and made me actually empathize with these poor beat-upon kids who chose the path of monsters. Who does that?! The ending fit perfectly, though it caught me a bit by surprise. I kept waiting for Shepard to stumble somewhere. He doesn’t. The psychological assessment of these kids and their supporting characters was as pitch perfect through the ending as it was during the setting of the story. Remarkably so. One last word of caution: even knowing the content of the story didn’t keep me from becoming mired in a funk while I was reading. 5 of 5 stars.

Don’t Look Behind You!, by Peter Allison (Nicholas Braeley, 2009, 240 pgs, ebook). Okay, yes – not my typical read. But I needed a light-hearted palate-cleanser after so many heavy books. This collection of stories from the bush by safari guide Peter Allison was just the thing. It wasn’t as quality as his other collection, Whatever You Do, Don’t Run! – in fact, I’d bet most of these tales were culled from the first collection’s drafts – but it still kept me entertained. There are more stories about camp life (mechanical issues, political issues, staffing issues), but still enough stories about being stalked by lions and chased by elephants to keep you flipping pages. 3 of 5 stars.

You, by Caroline Kepnes (Atria Books, 2014, 422 pgs, paperback). A bunch of my readerly friends from home tore through this a few months ago, and I remembered them raving about it. I read the first few pages and marked it down as To Buy Later. Right before our last 24-hour Readathon, I bought it in case I ran out of material. As in, I paid full price for the trade paperback. I (almost) never do that. You guys – you need to do whatever it takes to get your hands on a copy. Everyone calls this book and that book and 80 other books “the next Gone Girl“. I’ve grown tired of hearing it. But this book, this book actually has come closest to achieving the honor. It’s a mindtrip! I couldn’t devour the book quickly enough! The story kept getting turned on its head and it’s just…twisted! Twisted in a good, smart, deliciously written kind of way. There is one small plot twist near the end that felt a bit off, and the ending itself was so far off the mark from what I thought would happen, but it still fit the story. I finished the book completely emptied and satisfied. Even if I had shelled out full price for a hardcover, I still would have felt satisfied. It’s easily one of the three best books I’ve read this year. The only thing working against it is that now I’m paranoid that everyone is stalking me, knows my private emails, is plotting to kill me, and, you know, everyday things that won’t drive me bat-house bananas before long. 5 of 5 stars.

So there you have it! I’m looking forward to plenty of new books to tell you about next week, too. I’m half way through the excellently written and researched Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt, and I have new releases from Robin Wasserman and Joe Hill to dive into. Should be a good reading week!

Bout of Books: Day 4 recap.

It’s FRIDAY!!!! Thank god. And I don’t want to hear any bologna about it being Friday the 13th and bad luck and blah blah blah. You make your own luck in this world, and I choose to believe mine is good. Also: books! Books are awesome!

I usually do Five for Fridays to close out the week, but #boutofbooks is still going on, so let’s do that instead.

One thing that’s happened this week is that I’ve busted out of my reading slump. This slump, it isn’t so much that I haven’t been reading  – I read five books last week, which is pretty much my standard pace. What’s been so slumpy for me is that I haven’t read very many books that make me want shout about them from the rooftops and then buy copies for friends, family, and perfect strangers. Usually I average one or two favorite books a month. Recently I had Snowblind back during Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, and before that, I had to go all the way to the beginning of March when I read We Are the Ants and H Is for Hawk. I’ve been hitting a lot of “okay” books, average books, ones that make me turn the last page and sort of shrug my shoulders. This week, there have been great stories again, and I’m so thankful, I could weep!

One of those great stories needs a little explaining. I almost finished Project X last night. I could have gulped down the last bit of it, but it’s a book with (yet another) Columbine-style school tragedy and I really didn’t want that to be the last thing I thought about before going to sleep. The book has really been one I’ve thought a lot about as I read along. I’ve moved away from these type of tragic stories – I don’t want to glorify them or be a tragedy tourist. But what I really appreciate about Project X is the uncanny ability Shepard has to remind us of how awful it is to be bullied, to be a teenager at the bottom of the social ladder, to feel hopeless. I’ve gone back and forth between empathizing with the victims/perpetrators to wanting to shake them until their eyeballs fell out. Could even thinking of such a crime ever be understandable? This book comes closer than any other I’ve read to making me understand. It’s been an philosophical exercise that I’ve…enjoyed? God, that seems like it should be the wrong word. I’ll finish the book tonight, and barring anything that completely derails my experience, it’s earned all five stars.

I also started reading Bil Wright’s Putting Make-up on the Fat Boy, about a (yep) fat, poor Hispanic boy who has a phenomenal talent for applying make-up. He dreams of attending to celebrities, but will settle for working the make-up counter at Macy’s til he finishes high school. I’ve barely started it, but Wright’s voice is hilarious and engaging enough that I can overlook the occasional stereotype. I hope the book continues strong and madcap adventures ensue. I’m definitely keeping an eye on this one for my Beyond Harry Potter: A Reading List for T(w)eenaged Boys thing that I’ve been updating.

I haven’t had any time for Kepnes’s You, but I hope to later today. I reached that critical point when all I want to do is immerse myself in the story. And for all the books out there proclaiming themselves the next Gone Girl, this one might really be it.

What about you guys – any good books in your sights?

Bout of Books: Day 3 recap.

Good morning, all! I fake singsonged that because I? Did. not. sleep. I did, however, fare better with the reading of the books yesterday.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The girls were at their dad’s house, so I didn’t get to read our Traveling Pants book out loud. That was missed much more than I would have thought, given that we’ve been so spotty with reading after dinner.

You. I got through another chunk of Kepnes’s You, and I don’t want to spoil too much, so how can I describe where I’m at? It’s still relatively early. Ah! I know. I can talk about the two punches of pop culture. The first came as a chapter cold-opened with something along the lines of I hope the world understands by now that the world’s best poet is actually Prince, or something to that effect. The exactly words aren’t important (HA! did everyone laugh at my little joke? Of course words are important! I just don’t have them in front of me.); what is important is that the sting of Prince’s death is still every where for me. Even, it appears, in my creepy!scary thriller, where it sucker punched me in the doctor’s waiting room.

The second pop culture shout out, and perhaps a more accurate bookmark, is Stephen King day. Our protagonist goes on and on, lambasting the reading masses who only buy ebooks…unless it’s a book by their precious Mr. King. It’s really a clever riff, watching Kepnes parade loathing and disgust for the sheeple via a diatribe against Stephen King’s writing, while at the same time lauding Uncle Stevie’s with and against attitudes for his fan base. It’s nuanced and complicated and lovely. And in any case: I’m at the part of the story just after Stephen King day.

I also finished off A Fierce and Subtle Poison. I very much enjoyed the modern fairy tale, and can’t quite decide whether I should call it YA or not. You experience the book through the adventures of a 17-year-old privileged white boy, as he attempts to best his father, a detective, and the cursed girl’s father. So…yes? But the bigger picture of the book, the fairy tale feel, and the weight of the thing kinda tip me towards…not necessarily. Whichever category the story “properly” belong to, it’s a crossover book, so what does it really matter. I wish more time had been spent on character development, particularly with the missing girls, and the Greek chorus of the senoras of the village. I found them fascinating. Still – a solid 4 of 5 stars from me.

Project X. I was able to sneak in some reading before bed last night, just long enough for Flake and Hanratty to get into a fight with the entire soccer team. I felt bad for them – I mean, they were brutally beaten! – but I have to admit, in a tiny, tiny voice, I thought to myself, But they went out of their way to antagonize the soccer team. They practically dared them to start whaling on them! So…why? Was it a measure of maintaining control over their situations rather than admit they have absolutely no control over anything? Nothing excuses the violence…but how much ownership of it must the two antagonists claim?

Not easy questions. I did pick excellent books for my #bout this week! Now I just have to go out there and find another one to take Fierce and Subtle‘s place.

Mini-Reviews: Unlikely heroes, goosebumps, and low men of all varieties..

Morning, all! It’s been a good reading week, thanks to Dewey’s 24-hour readathon! Let’s unpack the monster list of books I burned through, shall we?

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, by Teresa Toten (2015, Delacorte Books, 291 pages, library hardcover). I’m a sucker for YA fiction about mental health, and wow did this one really ring a lot of my bells. The story is about Adam, a teenage OCD boy, who has his hands full with his weekly support group, falling in love for the first time, a mom who may need help herself, a remarried (and somewhat absent) dad, a little half-brother who adores him but may be more like Adam than he would wish, and finding friendship in the oddest of places. I liked the cultural and socio-economic diversity; characters flirted with stereotypes, but didn’t always fit them. The same with plot twists: what you thought was being broadcast didn’t always happen. The whodunit aspect wasn’t too overplayed, but kept the second half of the novel moving. And not everyone gets better. 4 of 5 stars.

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (2016, Tor Books, 316 pages, library hardcover). Mix the apocalypse with a secret school of magic and rabbit holes filled with kids who can talk to animals… it sounded so promising, but I couldn’t get wrapped up in any of it. The writing was almost formal and a bit stilted – think British kids’ lit, a la Secret Garden – and I had a hard time connecting without any warmth to leech onto. 1 of 5 stars.

Snowblind, by Christopher Golden (2014, St. Martin’s Press, 320 pages, paperback). I tried a few times to get into the story before it caught for me…and then I fell so deeply into it that I froze my behind off, even though it was 80+° outside! Seriously – I almost screamed several times and when Jeff asked how it was going, I “joked” (no really ha ha) about putting it in the freezer. Stephen King blurbed the book and it’s likened to King’s early works – for good reason. A classic horror story of a snowstorm that mysteriously killed more than a dozen people…only those killed somehow return during an eerily similar blizzard fifteen years later. The author did a good job balancing a townful of characters without sacrificing their individuality. The New Englandisms felt genuine. And I don’t care how big an area it covers – a blizzard creates a locked-room mystery, no matter what. Once I got 30 or so pages in, I couldn’t put it down and I couldn’t read it fast enough. You guys HAVE to read it! 5 of 5 stars.

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly, by Matt McCarthy (2015, Crown, 336 pages, paperback). I maybe broke down and bought this the night before the readathon because I worried that I didn’t have enough “lighthearted” reading to cleanse my palette. Yes, I’m the weirdo who finds reading about ER visits and death-defying surgeries “relaxing”. If you like tell-alls and behind-the-scenes glimpses and medical dramas, this book won’t disappoint. But don’t be squeamish about your protag making a mistake, because ours? Makes plenty. 3 of 5 stars.

The Beach, by Alex Garland (1996, Riverhead Books, 448 pages, paperback). This book has been on my To Be Read list for a long time, and on my shelf since Christmas. Backpacking in Thailand isn’t normally my thing, but crazy islands are. I thought I’d be way more into this, and maybe I would have if I had’ve attacked it any other time than at the end of my readathon. It’s not that it’s all dark and twisty – that doesn’t happen until the very end – but the very idyllism and over-the-top Daffy just…nope. Nope nope nope. Couldn’t work for me. Couldn’t buy it, no matter how I tried. 1 of 5 stars.

Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere, by Andre Aciman (2011, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 208 pages, paperback). This was one of the books included in my last Quarterly Box, and I was delighted because personal essays are my jam. Aciman didn’t quite get to Anne Fadiman level, but his lyricism was really a wonder to behold. His essays covered nearly all of Europe, it seemed, and were as varied as my mind on a particularly ADHD afternoon. Different wheres, different whens, and all with that soft, nostalgic gauziness of memory overlapping everything. Looking for a collection of essays for your Read Harder challenge? Look no further! 3 of 5 stars.

Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King (1999, Scribner, 523 pages, paperback). This was the next book up on my Great Stephen King Re-Read Project, but I wasn’t too happy about it. I didn’t remember Hearts with any fondness, for all that the main novella had to do with the Dark Tower. The Low Men creep me out. Like, bad bad. …Maybe because I believe they really exist, but that’s neither here nor there. I ended up enjoying the re-read more than I thought, due in large part to how comforting King’s writing is. It’s like slipping on a favorite sweatshirt that still smells like home, or wrapping up in your favorite afghan and finally feeling warm. 4 of 5 stars.

Burn, Baby, Burn, by Meg Medina (2016, Candlewick, 356 pages, hardcover). This was one of the books included in my last Young Adult Quarterly Box, and I was super excited to find it! It was a starred addition to my TBR – a story about two teens in Queens during the summer of Son of Sam and all those arsons? Yes, please! Our Latina protag, Nora, is worried her abusive brother and his hella-creepy best friend/dealer might be behind the arsons, she’s worried she and the new hottie at her deli job might be targeted as they make out in cars, she’s worried for her mama who just lost her job, and for her friend’s mom and her cohorts who are very active in the women’s rights movement. But for all that going on, I can’t say a single memorable thing happened. I loved the diversity of characters and class, and the family dynamics were incredibly interesting in their tiny little details that made them in ways the rest of the book didn’t. Otherwise…meh. I’m disappointed to say it was a take it or leave it story for me. 3 of 5 stars.

 

Mini-reviews: Romance that won’t make you cringe and YA apocalyptic fic that will make you read til the end.

Morning all! It’s time for my Thursday round up and there are few books I read this week that you need to get into your hands, so let’s get cracking!

The Bollywood Bride, by Sonali Dev (Kensington, 2015, 352 pages, ebook). This was the BookRiot deal of the day not too long ago (and guess who tipped them off), so I grabbed it for just $2.99 because how could you not at that price?! Also because I had already read the first chapter and it was high on my list. Bride tells the story of Ria Parkar, Bollywood’s favorite daughter, who has earned the reputation as being an Ice Princess. No attachments, no scandals, nothing. What no one knows is that it’s come at a price: her mama went mad when Ria was young, and traumatic events happened at 17, forcing her to sell herself to a producer in order to earn money for her family. She left behind her childhood friend who had grown into her true love in order to due it, devastating his heart. And guess who she’s run into at her cousin’s wedding? It’s a romance, so no, there aren’t any plot surprises here. Basically you’re around because you want a nice steamy book with a happy ending, not a Booker Prize winner. I was caught from the first page, and love that I found good romance writing featuring characters of color. Be warned: there were still a few places I cringed, but not so many that I couldn’t get past them. If you like romances, GO READ THIS. If you’re trying to find one you’d like to try, THIS IS YOUR BOOK. 3 of 5 stars.

Crazy, by Benjamin Lebert (Vintage, 2001, 199 pages, paperback). My sister gave this to me for Christmas? Or let me borrow it right after? I need to check to see if I’m supposed to send it back now. In any case, Crazy is the story of a young, half-paralyzed boy’s coming of age while in his umpteenth boarding school. It’s in translation, and you can see that in a few places, but overall I was pleased by the unfolding and thought it had a bit of a Separate Peace meets Looking for Alaska feel to it. If boarding school, coming-of-age stories are your jam, add this to your list. 3 of 5 stars.

When I Was a Child, I Read Books, by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012, 224 pages, library ebook). I was so disappointed by this book. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood, but I don’t think that was the case. I adore books about books and reading and language. I love memoirs steeped in nostalgia. And that’s what I thought I was dipping into. I wasn’t expecting a grown-up discourse on philosophy from obscure books I haven’t the pleasure of reading yet. I muddled through, but in poor spirits. I can’t say I recommend. 2 of 5 stars.

Lessons in French, by Hilary Reyl (Simon & Schuster, 2013, 352 pages, library ebook). This is a coming of age tale of a different kind. Our protagonist has just graduated Yale with an art degree, it’s 1989, and she’s off to France with a prestigious job assisting a famous photographer just in time to see the Berlin wall come down. You can see why I added it to my TBR even though art-themed stories aren’t usually my thing. I liked a lot of the coming of age pieces, and much of story, as it was moving. The problem is that the story kept getting snagged on rotten characters and dizzying romantic intrigue. Our protag, who is rather unfortunately named Kate, is a dizzy, breathy thing whom I rather despised after awhile, character growth or not, and the rest of the characters weren’t much better. I was so glad to step out of this one, come the end. Still, there’s a solid story there, for those who are better paired with it. 3 of 5 stars.

After Birth, by Elisa Albert (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015m 198 pages, ebook). Another deal of the day this week, and I’m glad I paid so little. It’s a story about postpartum blues and anxiety, triggers for me, and I can’t say I recommend because the writing was so stiff. Either the author wanted the writing to sound disjointed and stiff, or a better editor could have helped soften the writing and the edges just a bit. I couldn’t feel any empathy for the main character, and I’ve been her! Nope, can’t recommend. 1 of 5 stars.

The Listener, by Rachel Basch (Pegasus, 2015, 336 pages, library ebook). Another story that came into my life at an appropriate time, with North Carolina and Mississippi and too many other places in the news. The Listener tells the tale of Noah/Leah, our protag exploring gender identity. Leah reveals herself to his college therapist, someone he’s visited before, as Noah. They both – who are locals, though they attend and work at the university – explore what this means to them, this previous failure to identify and successfully process issues, and how they plan to move forward, in spite of that. It’s a solid read, though it has its wobbly bits, though I might recommend borrowing over buying. 3 of 5 stars.

Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi (Harper, 2011, 338 pages, library ebook). I wasn’t sure about this story when I started. It’s the story of a teenager/young woman trapped in a cell in an insane asylum, though the world has gone nuts and it’s clear we’re dealing with an apocalyptic tale, so for all intents and purposes, our girl – Juliette – is in a cell. Her deal? Her touch is lethal, hurting (like a taser, perhaps?) anyone who touches her. And The Reestablishment that is keeping her safehostage says it’s trying to restore order and keep the public safe, but are they? And why is their leader so singularly focused on keeping Juliette his prisoner? I was a bit wary going in. The writing wasn’t knocking it out of the park, but it was good enough, and the voice was a bit compulsive. The feel of it reminded me of The Fifth Wave. I got a bit curious and had to find out what happened, and then things did happen and I was devouring it before I knew what was happening. The ending was a bit convenient and didn’t really tie up any loose ends or, say, end the story so much as it set up the next book in the series. That bugged. Oh, and one other thing to mention – as I turned the page and was surprised to find only the About the Author section, I read a bit of it and was intrigued by the first sentence: “Tahereh Mafi is a girl.” That’s it. The very first thing they want us to know. Why? Because Tahereh isn’t a name most are familiar with? Because she’s run into confusion so often? But you guys – why does it matter? It shouldn’t. It might to her, but what message does that send? That there’s no room for confusion. It says we should all know and the answers should be definite, if not readily apparent. That everyone should know. And with everything going on right now in this country, I don’t like that message. Gender can be fluid. Gender identity isn’t always concrete. It’s Tahereh’s business if she wants us to know her gender expression, but I wish there was a bit more explanation to it than “I’m a girl and that’s the most important thing I want you to know about me.” Okay. Off soapbox. 3 of 5 stars.

So there you go, Fellow Readers. Go grab Bollywood Bride, The Listener, and Shatter Me and let me know what you think!

Mini-reviews: Dealing with grief, Jack Sparrow’s voice whispering in your ear, and trying to find the right voice.

It will surprise no one to learn that I did a fair bit of reading over Spring Break. Hey – there’s only so much bonding I can do with Netflix, dealing with bronchitis or nah. And the topics were flung far and wide…

Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books, 2015, 400 pages, ebook). I am not a Lauren Groff fan. Yes, I know I’m going to dodge tomatoes for saying that. The woman’s got writing chops, they’re just not for me. And while I appreciated the premise of the book – the story of a marriage told from one perspective, and then surprise! the other spouse’s very different perspective – there’s just something about Groff’s voice that won’t let me connect. Fates was shortlisted for the Tournament of Books, though, so I had to give it a whirl. It was better than Arcadia and Monsters of Templeton, so I’ll at least peruse the next one. Maybe it’s just a matter of finding the right time to pair up. 2 of 5 stars.

In Other Words, by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf, 2016, 233 pages, library hardcover). Lahiri is an author I really enjoy, one I will constantly pair with Khaled Hosseini in my mind because I’ve read their books in pairs since I discovered them. I read Interpreter of Maladies (my favorite) around the time I read Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Namesake right after I read The Kite Runner. I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried! I knew In Other Words was a love story of a different variety – still about family and the transcendental nature of generations, passion, and cultural pockets, but this time one rooted in words and writing. Lahiri fell deeply in love with the Italian language and moved her family to Italy to chase after her dreams and live fully immersed. In Other Words was her experimental mapping of her adventures and discoveries, one as intimate as any memoir though the doors into her feelings and musings looked a little less conventional. I enjoyed every page and envied the apparent ease with which she so easily shared how such a project unfolded. Definitely read if you enjoy Lahiri’s fiction or stories about the art of writing. 4 of 5 stars.

Savvy, by Ingrid Law (Dial, 2008, 342 pages, borrowed). Corrie literally shoved this book into my hands and told me to read it because her reluctant reader had devoured this and the next in the series. It’s the story of a family who have all come into a secret special power when they turn 13. Just before Mibs turns 13 and is about to discover her “savvy”, her father has an accident and all seems lost. Okay, first – how do you read this book (disappointingly not about pirates) and not hear Jack Sparrow say the word “savvy” every time you read it? You can’t. Which is why you’re disappointed the book isn’t about pirates. The premise was cute enough, although I don’t think it’s the type that will capture my kiddos’ attention, and it wasn’t special enough for me to shout about from the rooftops. A decent read, just not anything that stands out. But if Captain Jack wants to rethink an appearance… 3 of 5 stars.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King. (Scribner, 1999, 224 pages, paperback). This was next up on my Stephen King Re-Read Project and I was glad for it. I don’t think I’ve read it since it came out, which isn’t to say I didn’t like it. I like it just fine. It’s a good survivalist type book, a particular weakness of mine. The suspense and heartbreak and psychological wobbling of leaving a 9-year-old girl alone in the woods for days is a mighty fine pitch for King, and I applauded all over again how was able to keep it as straight-laced as he did. For a reader still afraid of the dark, it didn’t take special effects to make this story any scarier than it already was. It doesn’t hurt that the Red Sox are my happy place, too. 3 of 5 books.

H Is for Hawk, by Helen MacDonald (Jonathan Cape, 2014, 320 pages, ebook). I’m going to buy multiple copies of this book. I wish I had my own copy the first time through so I could highlight and dog-ear and jot notes in the margins. A friend from my bookish community recommended the book to me after we gushed about lyrical passages in another book and Care was right – MacDonald’s writing is lush and gorgeous and the kind you want to roll around in. What I found even more meaningful was MacDonald’s unflinching examination of her grief after unexpectedly losing her father. I’m still reeling from the loss of my uncle and I found MacDonald’s use of falconry as a tool to process her grief something I could latch onto. I’m not a falconer and I don’t even have a lot of interest in the subject, but MacDonald created a window that helped shine a light on things I didn’t know I needed in just this particular way. I’ll recommend this book to anyone processing deep, unmoveable grief, but I’ll also recommend it to anyone who appreciates powerful storytelling of being called to a particular journey at a particular time in your life. 5 of 5 stars. 

We Are the Ants, by Shaun David Hutchinson. (Simon Pulse, 2016, 455 pages, hardcover). This book has been on my bookshelf for awhile. Not terribly long, not like since-two-Christmases-ago type of long, but enough. It was part of the BookRiot YA box and my problem was that I didn’t think I would like it. I don’t do fantasy. I don’t do science fiction. A teenage boy who is being abducted by aliens and told he has to choose whether to let the world end on January 29 or press a button to save it? So not my thing. But everyone was saying how good it was and then they were comparing the book to something by A.S. King, and King is my type of thing. And I already had the book whether I wanted it or not. So I read the first few pages. And couldn’t stop. You guys – this book. This book is POWERFUL. This book is heartbreaking. Aside from the three chapters I gulped down when I cracked it open – because right before bed – I read this book in one day as the girls Netflixed and painted and did any number of things I didn’t notice because I was reading. I don’t remember a book that captures the particular hell of high school bullying as well as this, or one that handles depression and suicide in a way that didn’t sound trite or cliched or so, so carefully showed (rather than told) how to get through this hour. And this one. And this one. That there were good things that looked crappy and crappy things that stayed (but some that got a sliver better) and how sometimes things just were. That those can be the toughest things of all. And you guys – this book. This book’s ending didn’t suck! I mean, kind of because I wanted something tidy, but the ending fit perfectly for the story it was attached to. READ IT, you guys. It’s compulsive writing and deep, meaningful thoughts and themes every person navigates at some point in their life. It is amazing. 5 of 5 stars.

The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt (Knopf, 2002, 555 pages, hardcover). This is one of the books I’ve had for two Christmases and one of the ones that inspired my participation in the #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks challenge. I had been holding off because Tartt makes me nervous – I loved the stuffing out of Goldfinch, but hated Secret History and I wasn’t sure which storyteller would show up. It was Goldfinch, mixed with Harper Lee, and okay, no it wasn’t warm, but it worked for me. Little Friend tells the story of a young boy who is found hanging from a tree on Mother’s Day and the secrets that are kept as years go by, only to be dug up by the boy’s sister years later when she decides to figure out who killed him. A southern-fried mystery that reads a lot faster than the heft suggests. 3 of 5 stars.

So there you go! If you’re not heading for your library or local bookstore to grab We Are the Ants, seriously – go. Do it. Report back. Because I needs to discuss it.

 

January Reads: Mini-reviews

It’s been a glorious book month already – 2016 is treating me well, story-wise. After a fast start, I picked up Hamilton to re-read (as I blazed through the cast recording) and got bogged down a bit. It is 832 pages, after all.

So what would I recommend?

1. Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon. (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2015, 320 pages.) I got Yoon’s debut novel for Christmas, in hardcover no less, and dove in New Year’s Day as we were all recovering. I figured a light YA drama complete with medical drama (our 17-year-old protag is a “bubble baby”) and romance (she becomes obsessed with the boy in black next door, and all his family’s -ahem- issues). Maddie (our protag) sees only her mom and her nurse and seems to have adjusted well to the fact that she has never, not once, been outside. She takes online homeschool courses and hangs out in the family solarium to feel more as if she’s outside. And then the boy complicates everything, as they do. I liked the premise, as long as I was able to suspend belief. I liked the characters enough that I crushed the book in two days. The writing was a bit cliche – but hey, it’s YA drama/romance. I was expecting it to be all Fault in our Stars. So it was fine right up until the ending. If it’s possible for a book to take a left-turn that is both unexpected and completely obvious, this was it. The ending ruined, a bit, the rest of the story for me. Yes, I’m still giving the book a good review because I did tear through it, needing to see what happened. But it could have been close to a 4-star review and the ending did disappoint. Like, I liked that Maddie was casually mentioned to be Asian-African instead of being all Hey! I’m a person-of-color! from the start. I liked the subtle ways that complicated her identity. I just wish that sort of ambiguity and shading had transferred itself onto the end of the story arc. 3 of 5 stars.

2. The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson. (Dial, 2010, 288 pages.) My cousin recommended Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun last year and I devoured it. I immediately placed her debut novel high on my most wanted list and patiently waited for Christmas. When that didn’t work, I used a gift card to buy it the day after. It arrived as I was reading Everything, Everything, and so I picked it up as soon as I was finished. I tore through the first half in a single morning. And then I meant to just read a page or two that night…and ended up staying up all hours to finish. I just had to see how it ended! Nelson’s portrayal of grief is  transcendent as it makes you feel as if you aren’t the only one drowning, at the same it wrecks you with fresh grief-wounds because she keeps ripping open old wounds because yes, yes, yes, you remember exactly how that feels. Sky destroyed me and I loved it. Lennie is the younger half of the Walker sisters and was closer-than-anything with her sister Bailey, who has just died suddenly and unexpectedly, just as she was about to start an exciting and promising life. Bailey is left to unravel what it means to be sisterless, to puzzle anew why their mother abandoned them as toddlers, and to figure out whether she’s meant to be with Toby, Bailey’s old boyfriend who understands her grief, or Joe, the hott new guy who understand’s Lennie’s passion for music and makes her forget her grief. 5 of 5 stars.

3. Lumberjanes Vol. 1, by Noelle Stevenson. (Boom! Studios, 2014, 24 pages.) I couldn’t turn around last year without hearing someone talk about the hottest new graphic novel/comic series out there – Lumberjanes. Featuring a group of girls away at badass Girl Scout-esque summer camp who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and keep tripping over mysterious other-worldly beings and goings-on, I knew I had to give the series a try. Especially given that it would check off one of my Read Harder Challenges: “Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years.” So Santa maybe picked up the comic for Bee for Christmas. And then I maybe read it. I’m sad to say it just wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t get into it. I found the characters a bit hard to keep straight, but that’s something I could have worked with if I could get into the storyline a bit more. I can’t even pinpoint why. But! I am still superglad that books like Lumberjanes exist because just because it’s not my cuppa tea doesn’t mean it isn’t someone else’s. Like Bee’s – that girl is sucking it down! We need diverse stories. Period. 2 of 5 stars.

4. Find Me, by Laura Van Den Berg. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, 280 pages.) I previewed the first chapter online and fell hard. A superbug ruins memories and kills patients? Nearly no one is left? And a few immune patients are holed up in a deserted hospital? Yes, please! The writing was catchy and structured well. So I splurged with a gift card during my post-Christmas mega-haul and dove right in. I kept ticking merrily along, digesting turns and twists, following our 20-something-year-old protag as she revealed her sad past – abandoned as an infant, raised in terrible foster homes, abused – wait, wait! horrible and lazy tropes! That was my first warning. And then the plot just kind of…fizzled. After building all of this momentum and setting up the world, Van Den Berg failed to give us a reason to root for anyone. Why were we supposed to care, exactly? What was the end goal? No one knew. For sure I didn’t. How disappointing. 2 of 5 stars.

So there you have it, folks. My first four reads of the year. What have you been reading? Anything you’d recommend? Or warn us against?

In which it is revealed that I read too much and review too little.

I’ve done a spot of reading this week.

Another Little Piece, by Kate Quinn.
HarperTeen, 2013, 419 pgs.
I grabbed this one from the library (actually, not so literally – it was an eread) because I liked the premise: girl goes missing, girl gets found stumbling out of woods thousands of miles from home, girl swears she’s not the girl…but isn’t sure how she knows or who that means she is. Unfortunately, the feel of the book was Contrived. The voices of the small-towners that found Annaliese, the family that picks her up, everything surrounding our protag. And that would have been cool if the point (a la Girl with All the Gifts) was to first break it all and then build it up again. I just never felt like we got to authentic world-building. I didn’t care. Maybe this is just a teen-audience story that couldn’t make the crossover, but I found it lacking. Teens that like the survivalist/strong fem lead thing going on could really enjoy it, though. 2 of 5 stars.

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimear McBride.
Galley Beggar Press, 2013, 227 pgs.
This has been on my to-read list forever, so I was rather excited to snatch it from the shelves at our local library. It must get good numbers because a) I haven’t seen it there before and b) it was still with the New Releases section. Then I started reading it and I was even more amazed; I hadn’t realized the prose was stream-of-consciousness – like, heavy stream-of-consciousness, William Faulkner stream-of-consciousness. And people are still reading the shit out of that? Good for them! Once I found the rhythm of our protag’s narrative (not an easy thing), I found myself really digging it. Yeah, it could have been easier and it’s not going to be everyone’s thing. I wasn’t even sure as I was reading it that it was my thing. But the story of her broken childhood and how she attempts to bandage it together in her mind (she didn’t; she just let the glass rattle around in the drawer scraping up whatever it would) was kind of mesmerizing in a “Hunh. Holy shit.” kind of way. Glad I borrowed instead of bought, but a solid 3 1/2 of 5 stars.

1222, by Anne Holt.
Scribner (but it was translated, so…?), 2011 (first pubbed in 2007), 336 pgs.
This was not the Agatha Christie I wanted it to be. Which was disappointing because it said right there on the jacket blurbs that it was much the same. Group of travelers get into a bit of a train wreck, a blizzard descends, they’re all marooned in a chalet. There’s even a curmudgeonly detective to play Marple/Poirot. Alas. The cast of characters was too odd, and maybe it was the translation, but everyone felt off. Like the audio and video weren’t synced. The plot and pace and ideas behind the mystery were fine, it was mostly a disconnect on the execution for this reader. 2 of 5 stars.

Where Women Are Kings, by Christie Watson.
Quercus Books, 2013, 432 pgs.
This was my favorite book of the week. A woman and her husband, fresh off the pain of the stillbirth of their child, decide to adopt Elijah, a Nigerian boy whose mother abandoned him after her own devastating loss…but not until after she convinced Elijah that he was bad juju because of a terrible wizard who possessed him. The book bothered me in its single-stance portrayal of adoption – that issue is large and complex and could have been drawn as such here. I liked that Watson paid a bit of attention to the fact that Elijah’s adoptive parents were mixed-race, but, again, more time and shadowing should have been given to it. I felt incredibly connected to the characters and I liked getting Elijah’s birth mom’s story from her own voice, and I loved letting Elijah tell part of his own story. It wasn’t for lack of heft that the story felt plottier and less in everyone’s heads than it could have. I loved Obi’s Nigerian father and the way he cared for his grandson. Nikki’s sister, however, felt like a caricature and I could have done without her and her daughter. A flawed execution of a good story, but I liked puzzling and stewing over the constructs of this one much better than those other half-baked books I read this week. 3 of 5 stars.

So there you have it! A small peek into a few of the books that have been flying off my shelves. I have another half dozen or so I could have added – there was no napping for me this week, and so a lot got read – but let’s not try to get too caught up, shall we?